Cantique de Noel

Adolphe Adam

During Christmas time, we heard & listened to many songs & carols year after year. Some of them are light-hearted, some of them are joyful, some of them are solemn. The most popular one among them perhaps is the "Silent Night". But none of them is so noble & holy as Cantique de Noel (O Holy Night) by Adolphe Adam.

Adophe Adam was a prolific composer but is chiefly remembered nowadays for the ballet Giselle (吉賽兒) & Le Corsaire (海盗). Giselle is considered one of the five greatest ballets. The ballet tells the story of a peasant girl named Giselle whose ghost, after her premature death, protects her lover from the vengeance of a group of evil female spirits called the Wilis. Le Corsaire is a ballet loosely based on the poem "The Corsair" by Lord Byron (拜倫). Some dances in Giselle & Le Corsaire are used often in ballet competitions for male & female dancers.

O Holy Night has achieved well-deserved popularity. However, most people don’t know the author is Adophe Adam, who was also the composer of Giselle. I have listened to this song many times before in Taiwan & the US. But none like the experience I got in San Francisco, an evening of 1965. I walked around the Union Square & suddenly heard this tune from a nearby cathedral. I just froze & watched the steeple of the church and its background sky with stars. I stood there & finished listening to the music. I don’t know the lyrics at that time but somehow the music touched the bottom of my heart. Music is truly a universal language, a precious part of our civilization. Since then, year after year, I went for my personal business. But as Christmas time comes every year, this tune always reminds me of that moment in San Francisco, my heart is still there.

Here Placido sang the French version & Luciano did the same for English translation in the following weblink:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7uiqRCW6I8&feature=related

Placide Cappeau's Cantique de Noël

Minuit, chrétiens, c'est l'heure solennelle,

Où l'Homme-Dieu descendit jusqu'à nous

Pour effacer la tache originelle

Et de Son Père arrêter le courroux.

Le monde entier tressaille d'espérance

En cette nuit qui lui donne un Sauveur.

Peuple à genoux, attends ta délivrance.

Noël, Noël, voici le Rédempteur,

Noël, Noël, voici le Rédempteur !

John Sullivan Dwight's English Version

O holy night! The stars are brightly shining,

It is the night of our dear Saviour's birth.

Long lay the world in sin and error pining,

'Til He appear'd and the soul felt its worth.

A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices,

For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.

Fall on your knees! O hear the angels' voices!

O night divine, O night when Christ was born;

O night divine, O night, O night Divine.

PS:

"O Holy Night" ("Cantique de Noël") is a well-known Christmas carol composed by Adolphe Adam in 1847 to the French poem "Minuit, chrétiens" (Midnight, Christians) by Placide Cappeau (1808–1877), a poet, who had been asked by a parish priest to write a Christmas poem. Unitarian minister John Sullivan Dwight, editor of Dwight's Journal of Music, created a singing edition based on Cappeau's French text in 1855. In both the French original and in the familiar English version of the carol, the text reflects on the birth of Jesus and of mankind's redemption. This song is said to have been the first music broadcast on radio.

Beethoven's 5th

Chinese Adage: “人生無常, 死生有命, 富貴在天”. It is the Fate that something human being can not control. The whole world is a subject of probability. How do we exist? Why are we here? These are some questions most people ask sometime in their lifetime. If we think logically, it all boils down to a matter of probability. Here is one scenario most people agree. If for some reason on the day of our conception, our parents had a bad day & deviated or diverted from their routines, we would have vanished into a thin air & the history after that will be quite different. Let’s imagine what history would have been if there were no Muhammad, Genghis Kahn, Napoleon or Hitler. Since the existence of every human being is a random event, the history is also a result of a sequence of random events. Of course, the world will keep going on without Napoleon or Hitler. It is like Brownian movement. Microscopically, it is a different moving pattern for each individual molecule. However, macroscopically it is the same old liquid exhibits the same properties to the outside universe. Because of the random nature, people very often feel powerless. People pray when they encounter something unpredictable or face something unknown to them. To whom do people pray? It has to be something supreme and so the creation of god and religion.

Even we are powerless facing so many unknowns such as when we will die, we still manage to live a decent life, work, play, make fun & achieve something we call milestone or breakthrough. It is in this context, we will listen to Beethoven’s 5th & offer some consolation & interpretation.

Beethoven is considered immortal mainly due to his three major compositions: Symphony #3, #5 & #9. The 5th may not be the best, however, it is the most well-known & famous symphony. It is the emblem of the classical music. If you don’t know anything about a particular symphony, you can safely assume it has four movements although there are some exceptions. The 5th is no exception. Sometime people think it has three movements. This is mainly due to the confusion caused by the missing of a pause between 3rd & 4th movement. In other words, there is just a long note between the end of the 3rd movement & the beginning of the 4th movement. Here I pick the version performed by Herbert von Karajan, a famous German conductor. The link is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P08rkJ5Ugf0

Note: It is better to open another window (window explorer) to play music, so you can cross reference between the text and music time line.

The 1st movement

To our remote ancient ancestors, the Mother Nature imposed on them a lot of unknowns. They were under a tremendous pressure to survive. The imposition is called Fate. Here Beethoven’s motif: . . . -, Fate knocks the door. It is everywhere throughout the movement. The second theme is the response of our ancestors to the Fate. It is soft, fragile, timid and subservient.
0:00-0.45: 開門見山,命運之神以排山倒海之勢,充塞四方. It came down to knock people’s door.
0.46-1.07: It was a soft response of human being, timid and subservient.
1.08-1.24: There was no negotiation between the Fate & our ancestors.
1.25-1.50: Fate prevailed and come to knock the door again.
2.08: 人類在命運之神的肆威下, 委曲求全.
2.49: 人們喘一口氣, reposed and stood up again.
3.54: 人與命運之對話及 negotiatioon.
4.26: Led by oboe, 人與命運維持短暫的和平.
4.40: Fate imposed again and people responded meekly.
5.00: 人與命運之對話 again.
5.25: Fate walked away arrogantly and people followed sheepishly.
6.40: Fate had a last say.
6.53-7.07: Fate had a last word indeed.

The 2nd movement

Our ancestors found the solace from the religion. They found the God & interpret it in different ways. They found the way to live harmoniously with the universe. They created, invented things and produced offspring.
7:10: People escaped and found god.
8:03: They praised the god, sang hymns and prayed.
8:20: They seemed to get the response from god. They elated and thanked graciously.
8:40: People meditated and maintained faith.
9:54: Repeat the experience of 8:03. People enforced their faith.
10:32: People led decent lives with new faith.
10:58: They built temple, cathedral, mosque, and synagogue.
12:00: People searched for the true meaning of god.
12:51: Reformation, rejuvenate the belief and faith.
13:15: God had different meaning to different people. People tried to find their own god.
14:13: People found their own god.
15:03: Revelation and thankful to god
15:53-16:37: Resurrection

The 3rd movement

Our ancestors found themselves. They entered Renaissance, discovered new lands and the New World. They created the age of reason and enlightenment. However, they were groping to find a way to harness the nature to relieve the human labor and his relative position in the universe.

16:45: The theme represents the grope and probe by people.
17:02: French horns reiterate the Fate theme, but with a softer tone, more manageable fashion.
18:24: People found time to enjoy life and do something fun. They entered Renaissance and found classical music.
19:04: They found true human spirit and the meaning of Reason, liberty, equality, fraternity and all men are created equal.
19:45: People were groping and probing for something new.
20:01: Fate reasserted itself but with its mellow tone.
20:49: The end of the 3rd movement and enter the 4th movement, a new age for human being.

The 4th movement
Our ancestors eventually found way to harness the power of nature and the origin of species.

21:00: Something was being developed. People groped & probed in the dark. Went right, left, up, down and gradually found a way out of the pit.
21:23: Finally, human being found a new way to harness energy, a steam engine. A triumph of a new technology led to the Industrial Revolution. Here Beethoven gave us the Ode To Triumph.
22:00: Human being also discovered the evolution, the origin of species.
22:26: All other applications followed, locomotive, train, steamship, social Darwinism etc.
22:48: This was the joyful dance of human beings.
23:04: People found the impressionism in art.
23:30: People found the romanticism in music.
24:57: Something was being developed again.
25:10: People were groping again in the bottom of the pit, Oersted, Ampere, Henry, Gauss, Lenz.
25:29: Finally, Faraday, Maxwell, Hertz and Marconi came out of the pit. It was the age of electricity and radio, another Ode To Triumph.
25:54: This was another breakthrough for human being.
26:06: All sorts of applications followed.
26:35: People dance joyfully.
26:57: People kept charging ahead and forward.
27:56: Here came the six loud chords. They represented the six milestones of the civilization: Relativity/Quanta, bulb/phonograph/movie, car/airplane, double helix/DNA, moon landing, computer/Internet.
28:03: People found a new birth of freedom. Ahead was a grand, wide-open field extended to the horizon.
28:22: Music had to reach an end. The emotion and crescendo dealing with the Fate were built so high.
28:50: Here Beethoven put the brake to the music.
29:18: The start of the ending.
29:28: It requires about 30 loud chords to defuse the emotion. No other symphonies dare to exceed this number.
29:58: The true ending of the human drama.


The Beethoven’s 5th, 史詩般的交響曲, is the epitome in the world of symphony, a jewel of classical music. This symphony was etched on a gold record stored inside the Voyager spacecraft sailing outside the solar system since 1978. We don’t know when & where it will be picked up by some intelligent beings, perhaps some million years later in a remote corner of some other galaxy. At the moment of the Voyager leaving the solar system, it took a final photo of our solar system. The photo shows a tiny Pale Blue Dot in a completely void background. It is the Earth, a planet covered with water & the lands are just some little mountains & hills. It looks so tiny & lonely in the sea of universe. It is our home, a home sweet home.

人類雖然創造了燦爛的文明, 但仰望星空, 無垠無边. 時間空間, 沒有起始, 沒有終場. 我們深覺人類的 渺小和無助, 感恩節前夕, 這种感觸 特別深刻. 在浩翰的宇宙中,這一小藍點的存在似乎是一個奇蹟, 也是一种恩典. 在此讓我們 以最誠摯的心, 感謝上蒼, 這命運之神.

In Memory of Mark Yang

In October of 2010, we lost Joan Sutherland, Paul, the Oracle (Octopus) and our classmate Mark Yang. Indeed, it was a sad month. The world keeps going on & the best we can do is to remember how they changed & influenced us in one way or another. Remember how much joy & happy hours they gave us that sometime we took them as granted. Instead of dwelling in a mourning state, we take pride to have a classmate like Mark Yang & try to memorize him as a scholar, intellect & our classmate. Here I browsed through my photo albums & collected some photos in sequence & presented on YouTubes with a song of farewell. I consider this my way of remembering him & knowing that our email communication & NTUEE64 blog will never be the same without our Mark Yang.

We can access the video via the following link:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3Kwp81ksqfMMHRsLXVHUUNNblk/edit?usp=sharing

PS0: Some photos are the snapshots of some video created in 2007 by 洪 敏 弘 & 孫 芳 德. Their contributions are greatly appreciated.

PS1: The tune was taken from “Ashokan Farewell “ by Jay Ungar. It was used extensively in the TV series, Civil War. I watched it in 1990 & was deeply moved by the tune. I think it is proper & fitting to use it here. Music is truly a universal language.

２００７班友歡聚遊娜威

少時上課同堂，晚來滄海同舟。

酬勞作母親的辛勞

沿途青山翠谷。一片世外桃園。

梵谷美術館

我們乘坐的遊輪

Smile! 請注意孫芳德身上掛的攝影機。

李純儀夫人葉公範坐輪椅與我們同遊。

Ｔｖｉｎｄｅ大瀑布。不時還有女鬼從墳墓裡爬出來唱歌助興。(In the very center of this picture. Pleace click the image to see her in the enlarged picture.)

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我與小慈的這次２００７ＥＥ６４班團聚應該從在Ａｍｓｔｅｒｄａｍ見到林勝彥夫婦開始。這非常難得，因為沒有任何一家比他們家跟我們班更親的了。林勝彥夫人林衍秀是林幸峰的妹妹。當年我們班上有妹妹的不少，想牽線的也一定有人。萬三就有意幫他妹子在班上找一個成龍快婿。可惜沒成功。我們兩家約好早兩天到，在Ａｍｓｔｅｒｄａｍ機場見面。我提早到是怕如果選在當天到，萬一飛機脫班，趕不上上船，就成了進退兩難。張葳春，吳振和，林幸峰敢選在當天到達，真是勇氣可嘉。其餘的八家早在三天前已先參加陸上旅遊團。「一不作，二不休。」周遊列國。

既然飛機準時到了，我們正好利用這兩天在荷蘭走走。我建議坐火車到Ｒｏｔｔｅｒｄａｍ，我想看看歐洲最大的港口。而林家說Ａｍｓｔｅｒｄａｍ梵谷美術館是他們的第一優先。兩家文化高下，不言而喻。我們先到梵谷美術館，這個館真的是很漂亮，氣派。進得屋來，二林贊不絕口，看了還要買。梵谷一生貧困坎坷，他怎能料道死後有這麼多的崇拜者？我們從Ａｍｓｔｅｒｄａｍ乘火車到鹿特丹，來回都很舒適，沿途的景色也十分宜人。可惜現在是秋天，看不到荷蘭有名的花海。鹿特丹真不愧為歐洲第一大港。我們乘小船遊港，一片寧靜，看不到繁忙。這港像一條長河，兩岸陳列倉庫，貨櫃，儲油筒。許多貨櫃都有中文字。也覺得是一種驕傲。

上遊輪是八月二十六號下午。這是小慈與我第一次ｃｒｕｉｓｅ，想不到船艙麻雀雖小，設備齊全，有自己的衛浴。艙分三等，我家訂的是二等艙，有個可以看海的圓窗。安艙後的第一件大事就是赴船長的晚宴。正要找班友，就發現「哪裡有聲音，哪裡就有阿牟」。一下子十三家都聚齊了。張葳春，孫芳德還是畢業後第一次相見。依稀可以看出當年的容貌。孫芳德這次旅遊好像只有一個目的，就是用他最新款的攝影機為大伙兒拍影。他並不是拍拍就算了。事後把它整理成一片磁牒，配上古典音樂，寄給每家一份。大有當年讓我們抄他電機機械作業的慷慨。

要不是我最近常回台灣，大多數在台灣的班友也都三十几年沒有見到了。雖然大家都可以說是不負當年之志，但多數事業巔峰已過，「好漢不提當年勇」，「且道天涼好個秋。」但也有例外，洪敏弘始終不忘提醒長年在美的班友，要多報效台灣。而張葳春也一直希望大家能投資他的電腦硬體專利，一齊打拼。女士們倒是能一見如故，有說不完的家常鎖事。沒多久，各家的現況都已交換完畢。在坐的個個都家庭美滿。說也奇怪，班上超過兩個子女的家庭幾乎都參加了這次的團聚。為的是酬勞作母親的辛勞？不過下一代唸電機的不多。可憐天下父母心，還是依聯考分數排志願，讀醫科的佔多數。倒是班上的天字第一號，４９５３０１，李純儀的女兒拿到ＵＣＢｅｋｅｌｅｙ電機的ＰｈＤ。其女能在其父身上看到電機的魅力，是本班的光榮。

這次挪威八天之行，要看的是沿海的城市。到了每個城市，我們都有下船「自由行」的時間，或港口，或街道，或公園，或廣場。大家談天說地，陳正一的笑容，何瑜笙的無憂無慮，大家互相學習。子曰︰三人行，必有我師焉。看到的都是白色的洋房，一片安詳。完全不像這是我高中心目中英雄，傑克倫敦筆下「海狼」生長的地方。倒是在Ｏｌｓｏ船隻陳列館裡可以體會出古代航海的艱辛。我坐在最豪華的郵輪中看大海，仍然感到海洋的無邊，無際，無情。這還是天氣好的日子。古人出海，沒有氣象預測，遇到狂風巨浪的機會一定不少。他們的一葉偏舟如何渡過？小時候唱兒歌，「天這麼黑，風那麼大，爸爸捕魚去，為什麼還不回家？」有多少時候爸爸就再也回不來了。
在地圖上可以看出來，挪威沿海呈鋸齒狀。到處都是天然的深水港。我們下船最久，大伙兒在一起走路最長的是Ｆｌａｍ，這個小城雖然靠海，但在挪威的中部。由一條一百多公里的狹長海灣與北海相連。我們一直都坐在船頭欣賞船在海灣裡穿過一山又是一山的峽景。挪威的山都是火成岩，也就是大片的硬石頭，已有二億五千年的歷史。台灣的山只有二百五十萬年的歷史。是歐亞板塊與菲律賓板塊所擠壓而隆起的，有大面積的水成岩。比較容易鬆動。挪威人在這石頭山上開了一條鐵路，號稱是世界上最難的鐵路工程之一。引以為傲。我們也都買票上車。看到了有名的Ｔｖｉｎｄｅ 大瀑布。不時還有女鬼從墳墓裡爬出來唱歌助興。沿途青山翠谷。一片世外桃園。導遊說這原有兒有一百多戶人家，不過現在只剩下二十几戶。住這麼好的地方還要搬走？有人問，他們到哪裡去了？導遊說︰美國。哎，真笨。我們的陳英亮，一住進青山綠水的台東縱谷，就再也不出來了。

船上希望乘客玩得盡興。有賭場，戲院，健身房，游泳池，圖書館，遊戲室。尤其是吃的方面。有三個餐廳，飲食豐盛得不得了。隨你吃飽，不另收費。我們都會約定一個時間餐廳吃飯，大家一起看風景聊天。我們也會約在遊戲室見面，不知誰家帶來一副麻將牌，主要是女士們喜歡打。想不到吳振和也是此道高手，打得有板有眼，不苟言笑。打橋牌要數何瑜笙功力最深，有打指導牌的味道。我也借機變了几手魔術，一變再變，找不出破錠。有人問訣竅在那？我說︰「魔術當場解開，久失去了魔術的意義，不過有人私下要學，我一定教。」結果陳呈祿，林幸峰夜訪求教。不知他們後來有沒有在人前露過一手？

我們也預約過船上的會議廳，關起門來就是我們自己人。說話聲音大也不會打擾倒別人。林幸峰特別帶來我們班上當年的照片。一片歡呼，多少回憶。辦一次聚會也相當不容易。陳哲俊，李純儀，花功夫受氣，我們都感謝他們。尤其的李純儀夫人葉公範因腳受傷，坐著輪椅與我們同遊。大家開始想到下次的畢業五十年的團聚。規模可以擴大，但有甚麼方法可以讓參加的人數更多一些？這是人際關係，比自然科學要難多了。

林幸峰事前對這次旅遊下了深功，對我們要去的城市都作了研究。我們在Ｂｅｒｇｅｎ聽了一個音樂會，林幸峰早就知道這裡出了甚麼音樂家，寫過甚麼曲子。他竟然能聽出那個鋼琴家十几分鐘的演奏中彈錯了兩個音。正在懷疑是彈錯還是聽錯，牟在勤夫人劉家寶也說演奏錯了兩個音。昏倒﹗

最後一天是在海上，林勝彥還特別為大家示範了一套太極拳。談了一些養生之道。希望下次再見都能「別來無恙」。看他打拳，我一直在羨慕，如果我能像林勝彥站得那麼直，該有多好。這也是這次旅遊最後得相聚。我們都感嘆時間之快，包括畢業四十多年，也包括這次聚會。下次再見，又是何時，何地，何種心態？詞云︰

少時上課同堂，晚來滄海同舟，老身相聚何所有？有說，有笑，有酒。
晝看片片浮雲，夜數點點繁星，船中賭場論人生，是贏，是輸，是平？

Axioms of Evolution

We have heard many observations and interpretations on the evolution. It is the time to synthesize them to some ultimate laws or axioms that govern the evolution.

Observation of Evolution
The evolution is caused by Random Events and there is No Purpose involved. Events with long lasting qualities remain. Long lasting qualities depend on the environment. Long lasting qualities tend to accumulate when time goes by. This gives a kind of impression of Direction. If this can be called Direction, it has nothing to do with good or bad, superior or inferior, forward or backward, 進 步 or 退 化 etc. Events with very short-lived qualities extinguish and species disappear from the earth. Here are the Axioms of Evolution.

Axiom 1: Regeneration
In order to last a long time in an environment, a species has to grow and maintain its health. It has to absorb energy to grow, renew or restore. This can be called Short Term Existence.

Axiom 2: Reproduction
A necessary condition for a species to grow in number is reproduction. An organ in the nature will eventually wear out due to constant usage. An individual of a species will die out when time goes by. The only way a species can last long is by reproduction. This can be called Long Term Existence.

Axiom 3: Interest
In order to maintain its long lasting qualities, a species must have a drive or desire to improve or enhance the well being of Regeneration and Reproduction. This Drive or Desire is called Interest. Since the state of well being is affected by the environment, the Interest also changes when time goes by. Without Interest, a species will die out eventually.

Axiom 4: Inheritance
The long lasting qualities tend to accumulate when time goes by. Some of these qualities may carry on to the next generation through Reproduction.

From the above axioms, we can try to explain or interpret the following:

(a) Regeneration and Reproduction lead to "Struggle for Existence (物競)"
(b) Interest and Inheritance lead to Natural Selection (天擇)
(a)+(b) lead to Survival of the Fittest (適著生存)

Regeneration + Reproduction: Matter (物,唯物論)
Interest + Inheritance: Mind (心,唯心論)
Regeneration + Reproduction + Inheritance + Interest: Matter + Mind (心物合一論)

Regeneration + Reproduction: 子曰 "食 色 性 也", "飽 暖 思 淫 慾". To an individual, Regeneration (short term existence) has a higher priority than the Reproduction (long term existence).

Interest: Between countries and business circles, there is no permanent friends and there is no permanent enemies, only Interest matters.

沒 有 永 久 的 朋 友, 没 有 永 久 的 敵 人. 祇 有 利 害 關 係.

Interest: How you stand depends on where you sit. (Your opinion and action depend on your position/status in the environment [society])

"An Inquiry into the Nature & Causes of the Wealth of Nations" by Adam Smith
Interest governs the economic activities. It becomes an Invisible Hand (冥冥中有一隻不可目見之手) in our society.

World History and human activities are part of Natural Evolution, governed by the Four Axioms of Evolution. Almost all human activities can be explained by the conflicts and interactions among people with different Interests. In order to do Axiom 1 and 2 effectively and efficiently, the people form Interest that generates Political Policy. The execution of the policies forms the History.

On the Writing of Mandarin

The writing of a language is one of the most important part of civilization. Without it, there will be no knowledge or experience to be handed down permanently generation by generation. The unique writing of Mandarin is from top to bottom & from right to left. We don’t know why our ancestors chose to write it that way. With the advance of technology, we find that the Mandarin is forced to make change, some minor & some major. It is a part of evolution, struggle for existence otherwise it will fade away.

Most of us had experienced the changes while we went from primary school to the college. The first is the textbook of mathematics. Suddenly, the writing was from left to right horizontally. The purpose is obvious as the formula & equations are all horizontal & from left to right. The number is written from left to right, not from top to bottom or from right to left. It seems Chinese civilization was isolated for so long that it was out of tune in the world. The event of civilization tends to have chain effect. Since most of the natural sciences are based on mathematics, it is natural all textbooks of chemistry, physics etc are written in the same way. It is inconceivable to write chemical formula & chemical equations in any other ways.

Hieroglyphics might serve the purpose of communication for ancient people. But when the civilization advances, a higher & more abstract form of representation became more important. Phoenician alphabet was created & it was much more flexible & practical in commerce. With suffix & prefix, it is much easier to make new & composite words. But the most important consequence of this is the limited number of alphabet (26 in English). It makes the movable type feasible. In fact, since Gutenberg (around 1450 AD) invented a streamline process of movable type press, the old knowledge was made available to the mass & the new knowledge was spread much faster than that before. In China, 畢 昇 invented 活 字 版 around 1040 AD. But it was a block press, not a movable type press. It was not until last century that Chinese learned to use the movable type in printing. I think the main reason of the difference here is that the hieroglyphics hinders the use of movable type as the number of words is much larger.

The general order of writing (stroke) an individual Mandarin character is from top left to bottom right. For example, “三”, we write it from left to right for each bar and from top to bottom for three bars. With this, we’d think it must be natural to move to the right to write the next character, ie left to right as it is more efficient. Your hand will travel more distance to move to the left to write a new character. The right-to-left direction certainly slows down the writing. Other disadvantage is ink not dry fast enough that hinders the speed of writing as most people are right-handed.

The order of writing from top to bottom may not be that bad as from right to left. But it decreases the reading efficiency. Physiologically, the eyes are designed to move or scan horizontally, not vertically. It is easier to read a book written horizontally than vertically.

The most fundamental problem of the Mandarin writing is the input method to the computers. This problem actually existed when the typewriter was introduced long time ago. The problem gets worse when the technology advances. There is no consistent or unified way of the Mandarin input. The most popular way nowadays is pingying. People use English alphabet to input Mandarin characters. The long term effect of this is that people forget how to write actual characters. Although they still know how to read, they will lose the ability of writing when time goes by. When a language requires English as its writing method, it loses its orthogonality & independency. With simplified characters, pingying input & host other problems, the Mandarin, as a language, is in a state of chaos.

In this age of Internet & hi-tech, the Mandarin is struggling & limping. Will technology make a language obsolete? This is a good question. But we know human civilization is part of natural evolution. It will follow the rule of evolution: Struggle for Existence, Natural Selection & Survival of the Fittest.

I recently visited Taipei & Beijing. I found something interesting & amusing. I’d like to share them with you.

This is a panel written from right to left (中正紀念堂)



This is the panel written from left to right (中正紀念堂, same spot, different time)


This is a panel in the Forbidden City, no idea whether it is from right to left or left to write. The seal is in the middle of the panel aggravates the problem. It seems the original designer purposely tried to make a point here with humor.


This reminds me of one chemistry teacher in my junior high school (建中). He came the first day & wrote three big characters on the blackboard: 會乘車 . We didn't have any idea what he meant as we all knew how to ride a bus or bicycle. It turned out that his name is 車乘會. It was an eye opener, 車 can be a last name.

Reunion-2010

Here are some photos of the reunion, 2010 in Hawaii. Hope you recognize everyone of us & try to match the ladies to the gentlemen. Time flies & these photos of the reunion will become more precious when time goes by.

Soccer and Life

The curtain of the World cup soccer event was finally closed. Here are some of my observations.

Spain deserves the win & championship this time. The way it plays is concise & precise with mix of good defense & effective offense. Their goals mostly look pretty & satisfying. The way they pass & control balls are marvelous. You always see some moving triangles (formation) rolling around the field. Some players even perform some ballet style kicking. It is just amazing to watch the mix of moving triangle & occasional long passing to penetrate defense & create opportunities for goals. 

Asians are underdogs historically in the world cup soccer. This year only Japan (Asian teams) got into the round of 16. South Koreans are tough but without style. North Koreans got zapped 7:0 by Portugal. It was just too brutal to watch. Japanese seem to copy German playing style & do very well this time. It was lost to Paraguay by sudden-death 12-yard kicks. Ironically, Paraguay lost to Spain similarly by missing a 12-yard kick. The fate treats all countries equally after all.

Conspicuously, the Chinese team is completely missing. They didn’t even make to the qualifying matches. It is a shame that the world factory with 1.3 billion people can’t come up with some decent soccer team. I said it sometime ago that one way to boost the morale in China & reduce the grudging emotion toward Japanese is to beat Japanese in soccer games. After that, the next best thing is to beat them also in baseball matches. Chinese government is good in playing pingpong politics. But it is really 小兒科, good for American only. I envision a breakthrough of Chinese-Japanese relation if the Chinese beat Japanese in both Soccer & Baseball. Many Chinese people have inferiority complex in dealing with Japanese due to the frustrations & failure in getting an upper hand in many human endeavors. In near future, it seems not very positive on the soccer front. We heard all bunches of scandals related to soccer in China, 打假球, gambling, embezzlement etc. These soccer players make a lot of money & we haven’t found any star player worth mentioning. It looks pretty misery right now. As to Taiwan, it is also a shame. Holland has 16 million people & produces a good soccer team. Taiwan has 23 million people & a dud in the world stage soccer. The only consolation I can think of is that India looks even worse with its 1.2 billion people & a mute in the sporting world.

France & Italy, two good old European teams failed miserably this time. They lacked of team work & organization are in shamble. Great countries seem produce mediocre teams, perhaps too much freedom or lack of discipline is the cause.

Brazil & Argentine, two good old Latin teams also failed miserably in the field. They were vociferous, loud mouth & lack of respect to other people. They were outplayed by their European opponents handsomely & sure they deserved it.

Netherlands almost pulled out a miracle but failed in some subtle ‘kick’ or ‘臨門一脚’. Their striker Robben failed several times in doing it. It seemed he just delayed a second in his fatal strikes. Opposite to this, the Spanish final strike by Andres Iniesta was timely & accurately done at the right place & right moment. The following link is the reference: (18:00-end)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=587aK8t6noM

Due to copyright issue, the above link on YouTube is not available.

I understand the Dutch’s agony as they got so close. Dutch couch removed the medal (hung around the neck) immediately after the ceremony in front of the TV camera. It was a vivid drama. He was protesting the unfair officiating as most Dutch felt that way. Statistically, there are more arguments or bickering in soccer matches than football or other sports.

Flopping is rampant in the games. Many players seemed to use this to eat up time when they are ahead. You saw some guy held his leg in pain & needed stretcher to carry him out. But as soon as he was outside the field, he sprung up like a tiger, amazing. This kind of tactics is shameful but most players seem don’t feel that way. This gives people a sense of ‘雖勝不武’.

12-yard kick to determine the outcome is never a satisfactory solution, nobody likes it. Soccer has too many obscure rules that restrict scoring. This makes low scoring a norm & very often leads to boredom. I think this is one reason that American don’t like the game. Soccer rules favor the defense & discourages the offense. But the excitement of the game rests on the scoring. The only makeup of this is the last resort, a show case of 12-yard kicks. But this kind of kicks favors the kicker & put goal keeper in a misery situation. Nine out of ten, the ball is indefensible. It takes enormous skill of goal keeper to beat the kickers. Nobody likes this kind of solution. If you win, you feels god is on your side or lucky. If you lose, you just think it is not fair because the outcome can be either way.

The game between Germany & England is interesting. When the score was 2:1, English striker kicked a ball hitting the upper beam of the goal & bounced back to the ground inside the goal. But the referee didn’t or couldn’t see the ball from the low angle. The event happened so fast, it was hard to see the dropping point of the ball. However, the replay by TV camera showed clearly since it was mounted from the above. It is so obvious & you can understand the frustration of the English team. I do think high tech can help referee in this respect. FIFA is behind the time as most tennis tournament already use electronic eyes in helping umpires in the calls.

German team played very well most of games but the one with Spain, they looked so much different. It seemed they played too cautiously & Spain took advantages of it. I found that the match between German & Argentine was a classic one. It shows their skill & play style vividly in the following link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVym58Szeug

Due to copyright issue, the above link on YouTube is not available.

During the game between Uraguay & Ghana, a Uraguay player used hand purposely to block the ball out of goal. The penalty was stiff, he got red card & couldn’t play the next game & also a 12-yard penalty kick was awarded to Ghana. Unfortunately Ghana’s star player, Asamoah Gyan, missed the goal by hitting the upper beam. Otherwise, Ghana got in the round of 8 since it occurred at the final moment of the match. Subsequently, Ghana was beaten during a battery of 12-yard kicks. Gyan did the 12-yard kick flawlessly but it didn’t matter. In life, you have to do the right thing at the right time & this is just the example. I really feel sorry for Asamoah Gyan since he is going to feel bad for the rest of his life. As to African people, that is the frustration, 失 落 感 & 無 力 感, since Ghana team is the only hope for African people. Ironically, Uraguay subsequently beaten by Spain in a similar manner by missing a free kick in hitting the ball on the upper beam of the goal. Fate intervenes, spooky? Karma? Or just God treats everybody equally.

Diego Forlan of Uraguey is a fantastic player. His chest-high kick with ball hitting ground & get into the goal is marvelous. His ‘飛 燕 轉 身’ kick has a quality of ballet dance. When Forlan was on the ball, Uruguay seemed like a team with a chance. When he wasn't involved, its prospects were far more bleak. He has been awarded the Golden Ball as the World Cup's best player. He was also voted the most outstanding player of the tournament by accredited media after leading his team to the semifinals.

Vuvuzelas, a stadium horn was allowed to use during games. It was noisy & really served no purpose. I found it rather annoyed. I try to picture what will happen if they are allowed in tennis matches. One consolation, Maria Sharapova's shriek will be completely drown out.

Octopus prediction

Octopus, Paul the Oracle, made a big news as it successfully predicted all games of German team & the final of the event. From the theory of probability, it is a remarkable record, one out of 256 chances to be specific for 8 correct tries out of 8 games. How can you explain this? Although the octopus is the only invertebrate that has been conclusively shown to use tools. But it only has one brain & 8 arms. The only plausible explanation is that there must be some one or a team behind the whole show. It is highly possible that a team of soccer experts did the prediction based on the existing gathered data. With some aid of computer, it did a best job in prediction. Then using some high tech device to control the behavior of this Octopus (Paul, the Oracle) to pick the winner of the game. It is not uncommon for those sea world arena or aquarium to train animals to perform some tricks. Using remote devices, they can control or change the behavior of an octopus by some training or conditioning. Of course we don’t know the details of the trick, however, it is not hard to figure out a way to change the smell of the cage or mussels that attracts the octopus. Anyway, it was pretty clever & fun to pull out the stunt like this & made a big headline in the world. Paul, the Oracle (章大仙) was more famous than Obama at least in two weeks time span during the soccer matches. At this time, good & heartwarming news is hard to come by. The octopus prediction is sure one of the most memorable event in the year of 2010. Here was how it picked up the Spanish tank

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9lZ2IJocqo

Chopin & Schumann

Both Chopin & Schumann were born in 1810 & so this year, 2010, is their two hundredth anniversary of birth, a bicentennial celebration. It is proper & fitting to say something about them.

Chopin is popular in his piano music. Sometime he is called 鋼琴詩人. In fact he composed no symphonies, operas & very little orchestral work. His virtuoso is in the piano works. He is considered the most non-German of all great composers. Chopin had an interesting encounter with George Sand. 桑女士 , a woman frequently wore man’s clothes & indeed intended to act like a man. She wrote many novels quite popular at her time. Chopin was under her spell until he died. The fortunate things coming out of this perhaps was some of his brilliant piano works dedicated to her. Chopin’s famous music form, etude, is unique. The etude (練習曲) is a piano work written for students. However some of them are very good & romantic. Chopin Etude op.10 no.3, Tristesse (Sadness, 離別曲) is one of them. The title’ Tristesse’ was added later by publisher because of Chopin’s nostalgic mood to his homeland. His another romantic piano piece is Andante Spianato in G, Opus 22. I never heard this one in Taiwan. I heard it the first time on radio several years ago. This is one of his most romantic piano works. There are several movies from Hollywood for Chopin. “A Song to Remember” (中文 title: 一曲難忘, 1945) is one of them. I have seen VHS video released for this movie, but can’t find it on DVD, not in Netflix either. I did find some video clips from YouTube.

Chopin Met Liszt in Paris, a clip from ‘A Song to Remember’
www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aDnNJ6aEWc&feature=related

A clip from ‘A Song to Remember’, a performance staged by George Sand & Franz Liszt. It was supposed to be played by Liszt. Instead Chopin played in the dark, a surprise to the audiences.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BM-KQc2lJdM

Chopin: Etude op.10 no.3, Tristesse (Sadness, 離別曲), played by Kempf
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TR-i4r1BtM

Chopin: Andante Spianato played by Rubinstein
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l39ZIkyvOJ0

Schumann is considered to be the most romantic of the Romantics. We often heard some of his tunes in the school, for example, the happy peasant 快樂的農夫, tramarel(夢幻曲) etc. He is unique among most composers that he also wrote music critic, encouraged & supported the late comers. His writings about music (in high quality) appeared mostly in the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik ("The New Journal for Music"), a publication that he jointly founded. His romantic encounter with Clara Wick was well known. His most popular works include Symphony #1(Spring), #3(Rhenish), Carnaval, many songs, piano work Traumerei, Fantasy in C, concerto in A minor etc.

As a person, Schumann is much more controlled & dedicated to what he wants & what he think is right. He pursued Clara with zeal & dedication is far more respected than the weak & meek behavior of Chopin’s dealing with George Sand. Schumann was also quick in recognition of a genius & gave the approval. Instead Chopin seemed in failure to recognize the merit of Schumann’s work ‘Carnaval’. Hollywood likes romantic story. The movie ‘Sound of Love’ (1947) is for Robert & Clara Schumann. Same as ‘A Song to Remember’, I couldn’t find it in Netflix. However, I did find it in YouTube. Some of the music mentioned above can be found in the following links:

Happy Peasant (快樂的農夫), a tune we heard in the elementary school
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKmpQjjQOBA&feature=related

The beginning of the movie 'Song of Love'
Ironically, the opening theme is the piano concerto #1 of Franz Liszt, not Schumann.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OP_iU-lcZ5Y&feature=related

Widmung (Dedication) from ‘Song of Love’
Here we listen to two versions of Widmung, the original one from Schumann & arranged version by Liszt. It seemed Clara didn’t like the Liszt version at all.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3eOggcKLqk

Waltz by Brahms (for the introduction to the next link ‘Brahms & Clara’)
This waltz is one of the most romantic works by Brahms.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJcoaIeH3GI&feature=related

Brahms & Clara from ‘Song of Love’
The melody of Brahms’s waltz showed up at 1:54 & Brahms proposed to marry Clara. However, the fate intervened at 4:18. Widmung, the song Schumann dedicated to Clara showed up. Brahms realized that was the end of the affair, an affair to remember. This is the most romantic & poetic moment of the movie. (By the way, from 6:35 to 9:06 is the famous Piano Concerto in A Minor by Schumann. 6:35-7:27 is 1st movement, 7:28-9:06 is 3rd movement.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vm-Zh0R6nMY&feature=related

Traumerei & the end of the movie 'Song of Love'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V35e5MNjLJI&feature=related

The above links of 'Song of Love' are not available due to the copyright issue on YouTube.

Horowitz plays Schumann Traumerei (夢幻曲) in Moscow
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qq7ncjhSqtk&feature=related

Widmung (Dedication, Liszt’s version) played by Lang Lang
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBdffJHZ2LM

PS: Year from 1809 to 1813 was a fantastic period of Romantic Music. Here is the chronicle (the magnificent six were all born within this period):
1809: Felix Mendelssohn (date: 2/3), 抒情聖手
1810: Frederic Chopin (3/1), 鋼琴詩人
1810: Robert Schumann (6/8), music composer & critic, 嚴肅而又浪漫的作曲家
1811: Franz Liszt (10/22), 鋼琴鬼才
1813: Richard Wagner (5/22), 樂劇之王
1813: Giuseppe Verdi (10/9), 歌劇之王

For some reason, it skipped 1812. Perhaps the year was reserved for Napoleon Bonaparte. He was not born in that year, however, he invaded Russia, an important historical event.

1949

“1949 by 龍應台” is a book for the unknown people get crossfire between wars. It is the most neglected part of the human history. If you read books about the modern history, you always have a kind of feeling that something must be or must have been missing. So a prudent reader searches more information from different sources in order to verify the facts. If you try to find more information about the common people in the history book, you will be very disappointed. Most of the story about the common people instead can be found in novels or magazines. But the stories in novels or magazines are not rigorous in verifying facts. To most Chinese, the modern history (1945-2010) is a giant jigsaw puzzle. You don’t trust the history books written by both sides of the regime. Here I think 龍’s book is valuable in documenting many stories of the common people before they pass away or fade away from the history. When you finish reading this book, you inevitably will have this feeling that wars are hell, terrible, disastrous & better to avoid them at all cost.

PS: 龍 應 台 is a woman. Her ‘野火集’ had a lot of influences to the society in Taiwan. If we rate the most influential women from Taiwan in the pass 60 years, we may come up with the list like this: (note: we are talking about INFLUENTIAL only, not GREAT, not PRETTY, not INTELLIGENT, not ...)

王錦雲 (釋證嚴) (Most influential in the time span: 1966-2010). Religion & Philanthropy
瓊 瑤 (1960-1980) Novel
鄧 麗 君 (1970-1990) Music
龍 應 台 (1990-2010) History & current affairs

Of course, this is subjective. I think everyone should have his/her list.

現 代 桃 花 源 & Choice of Life Style

If you have a chance to visit Philadelphia and Gettysburg, you will follow state highway 340 & go west. Don’t miss one little town called Intercourse. It is an Amish town. In case you haven’t heard of Amish people, Amish is a branch of Anabaptist. Because of their religious belief, they don’t serve in government & arm forces. They were persecuted & kicked out from Europe. They came to America & settled in Pennsylvania & eventually spread among mid-west states. I passed Intercourse twenty-five years ago. I visited the town for the whole day & very impressed what I have seen. It is a unique community and it is so much difference from the outside world. You wonder why & how it can exist in a modern society & keep its life style. Amish people don’t use AC electricity, radio, telephone, car, no bicycle either. But kids use scooter (toy type). They use horse & buggy for transportation. It is almost but not a complete independent society. For example, it depends on outside hospital for emergency & it has to buy gasoline from outside for its tractors. They can use gasoline but not ac electricity. Ironically, dc battery is ok. I can understand their logic. If they allow ac electricity in their house, the authority can’t control the use of radio, TV & a lot of communication gadgets. But if battery is ok, sure they can use transistor radio. In fact, if battery is ok, you can hook up a dc-ac converter to get 120v ac. There are a lot of contradictory & idiosyncrasies in this kind of society. It is like the society in China. The coexistence of communism & capitalism creates a lot of jokes. In fact, there is some similarity between these two societies. It boils down to the choice of life style. In both cases, they are state imposed. We, in this modern time, do select our life style individually (not by state). For example, some people choose not to use FaceBook, iPhone, cellular phone, tv etc. Some choose not to eat meat, beef, pork etc. This leads to the next question: Is religion also a choice of life style?

The Amish society can not survive without the protection of the modern government. The reason they got kicked out from Europe is that they couldn’t defend themselves. They don’t fight for other people & don’t fight for themselves either. We heard a lot of jokes about Quakers & some people resent the double standard they use. For example, in autobiography of Ben Franklin, he described a group of Quakers was on board of a war ship. When the ship encountered a British ship, they all got scared & moved to the lower deck. After the fighting was over, they came out and criticized the whole thing should be resolved in a peaceful manner without firing cannons. The religious belief can be so strong that you forget the obvious logic. Another example is that Jewish people don’t fight on certain days of the year. So the Roman picked the day & conquered them. This might be the reason why Jewish people don’t have their own country for so long. I doubt they still follow that good old habit. Otherwise the Moslem can easily wipe them out.

The western Europeans seem very open & tolerant these days. Perhaps Amish people can move back to where they came from. But they are content here in the US. If you wander around in Pennsylvania next time & somehow you enter some place looks like a 現 代 桃 花 源, it must be an Amish town. Don’t panic, you just look around & enjoy yourself. I guarantee you will get out safely & will not get lost next time either.

Law of Nature (自然律)

When we study the science, we encounter all kinds of Law. Sometime they surface with terms like Hypothesis, Postulate, Theory, Principle, Rule etc. In math we learn Axiom, Theorem, Lemma, Corollary and many others. In general, the definition of the terms is more rigorous in math. But in our daily life, the definition of Law has been abused often especially in the last 40 years. Have you heard about Murphy’s Law, Moore’s Law & Pareto’s Principle? Or Peter Principle, Parkinson’s Law, Count to Three Principle? If we examine these laws or principles closely, we find that they are far from laws. They are qualified at best as Adages, Rule or Guidelines. They can’t be proved rigorously & you can always find exceptions to the laws. They can’t even be qualified as hypotheses or postulates. They are just Rule of Thumbs. Let’s examine some of them. But before we dig in, let’s examine the definition of the terms & do some translations.

Theory: the principle on which a particular subject is based, 學說 (理論)
Theorem: a rule, especially in mathematics, that can be proved to be true, 定理
Corollary: an idea, or fact that results directly from a theory, 結論 (必然的結果)
Lemma: a proven statement used as a stepping-stone toward the proof of another statement, 引理 (輔助定理)
Law: a scientific rule that somebody has stated to explain a natural process, 定律
Principle: a law or a theory that something is based on, 原理 (法則,原則)
Hypothesis: an idea or explanation of something that is based on a few known facts but that has not yet been proved to be true or correct, 假說
Postulate: a statement that is accepted as true, that forms the basis of a theory, 假定 (假設)
Rule: a statement of what is possible according to a particular system, 規則
Rule of Thumb: 經驗法則
Guideline: rules or instructions that are given on how to do something, especially something difficult, 準則 (指導方針)
Adage: a well-known phrase expressing a general truth about people or the world, 格言 (諺語)

Murphy’s Law
"Anything that can go wrong will go wrong." Is this really true? No is the answer. It is almost true that given enough time & enough tries, it will happen. It is like saying, “I buy lotto & I will hit it eventually” or “I walk outside very often & eventually I will be killed by a thunder." So Murphy is not a law, it is just a Rule or Adage.

Moore’s Law
"The number of transistors that can be placed inexpensively on an integrated circuit has doubled approximately every two years." This one has been modified to 18 months instead of 2 years. Actually, the original one was one year, not two years. Now we know how accurate this one predicts. It is not a law, it can best be qualified as empirical formula.

Parkinson's law
"Work will always take as long as the time available for it." This one tries to explain or describes some human behavior. In many cases, it is true. But alas, it is not always true. Some difficult task can not be finished if there is not enough time allocated. This one can be used as a guideline for any project. This is especially true for annual tax return. Why? There are so many procrastinators that try to meet the deadline. You give them the deadline, so they just try to meet it. But it is also true that thousands of people sent their return well before 4/15 every year. Why? They just try to get the refund as soon as possible.

Pareto’s Principle
"The Pareto principle also known as the 80-20 rule, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes." It is equivalent to state, 20% of the effects come from 80% of the causes. Here the cause & effect are independent, they don’t need to add up to 100%. For example, 15% of people pay 90% of the tax in California. The interesting part of this so-called principle is the number 80 & 20, why not 30 & 70? Anyway, this is another way to explain some human behavior. You can hardly find any natural phenomena fit in this scheme. This one is best qualified as a rule applied to the area of human activities, but it is far from a Principle. The corollary of this rule is that 64 % of the effects come from 4% of the causes. Is it true or is it a fantasy?

Peter Principle
"In a hierarchy, members are promoted so long as they work competently." Sooner or later they are promoted to a position at which they are no longer competent, and there they remain, being unable to earn further promotions. The corollary: "In time, every post tends to be occupied by an employee who is incompetent to carry out his duties" or "Work is accomplished by those employees who are not competent." No wonder our world is a mess since the world is functioned in an incompetent way. This is another rule to explain the structure of our society or our economic system. Is it a principle? I don't think so. At best it is qualified as a low end of Principle. But it is not in the same league as Uncertainly Principle.

Most of these laws are from the management circle of business world. They are not thinking rigorously, rather very loosely. Like “Invisible hand (冥冥中有一隻不可目見之手)” & "Greed, for lack of a better word, is good", they lead to the chaos in the world of finance, economy, wall street & business world. It destroys so many lives & creates some monster banks too big to fail. The taxpayers end up holding the bag.

PS0: Count-to-Three Principle: If you don't know at least three ways to abuse a tool, you don't know how to use it.

PS1: 說, 論 & 經: 這三個字,堂而皇之. But they have been abused badly too. We have many examples (some of them are not qualified as called):
粒子說,波動說,波粒說,原子說,孔子說,聽說,細說,好說,胡說,佛說,併吞說,媽媽說,總統說,道聽途說
群論,民約論,人口論,國富論,资本論,重商論,相對論,量子論,君王論,進化論,演化論,唯心論,唯物論,海杈論,不服從論,边際效用論,天体運行論, 血液循環論
人論,典論,違心論,股市崩盤論,小金投資論,大乘起信論,命理預言論,興趣無用論,正統無視論,高談闊論
佛經,聖經,拜撲經,可蘭經,道德經,詩經,樂經,易經,水經,山海經,三字經,媽媽經,罗織經,月經,日經,神經

春神

春天是欣欣向榮的季節,大家都歌頌它的來临. 記得我們小學常唱的一首歌,”春神來了”. 多年以後,我們仍記得這個曲子. 其歌詞清新可喜,又富進取情調. 歌詞如下:

春神來了怎知道？
梅花黃鶯報告。
梅花開頭先含笑，
黃鶯接著唱新調，
歡迎春神試身手，
快把世界來改造。

多年来,一直以為是中國的曲子. 後來長大慢慢才知道這是一首德國名謠. 雖然原歌詞主要以歌頌鳥為主,但仍然充 滿春天的氣息. 原歌詞如下:

Alle Vögel sind schon da,
alle Vögel, alle!
Welch ein Singen, Musiziern,
Pfeifen, Zwitschern, Tireliern!
Frühling will nun einmarschiern,
kommt mit Sang und Schalle.

Wie sie alle lustig sind,
flink und froh sich regen!
Amsel, Drossel, Fink und Star
und die ganze Vogelschar
wünschen dir ein frohes Jahr,
lauter Heil und Segen.

Was sie uns verkünden nun,
nehmen wir zu Herzen:
Wir auch wollen lustig sein,
lustig wie die Vögelein,
hier und dort, feldaus, feldein,
singen, springen, scherzen.

其英譯文如下:

All the birds are already here,
All the birds, all!
What singing, music playing,
Whistling, chirping, trills!
Spring wants to arrive now,
It comes with song and sounds.

How cheerful they all are,
They move, nimble and gay!
Blackbird, thrush, chaffinch and starling,
And a whole cloud of birds
Wish you a happy new year,
Higher holiness and blessing.

What they announce to us now
Go straight to our hearts:
We want to be cheerful too,
Cheerful like the little birds,
Here and there, out and in the fields,
We want to sing, to jump, to joke.

You can listen to the song in the following youtube link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHC-Io6q3zg

Top 10 Classical Music

In good old days, you always found some radio stations played classical music all day long. Some of them had special programs at specific time of the day. Also you found a lot of cities had their symphony orchestras. When time goes by, the number of them dwindled & a lot them simply disappeared in the thin air. It seems the market of the classical music get smaller each year. Does this mean the interest of people change? Yes & no, here are some of my observations:
1. There is not much innovation in the format of concert. People get bored when nothing is new or exciting. This is especially true for the young generation. I think the conductor should say something about the uniqueness of the concert instead of saying nothing & play.
2. The package of the classical music is not good enough to attract young people. For example, when people see Un Bel Di on CD, they don’t have any clue if there is no explanation on the cover. This is true for most of the arias of opera.
3. Radio stations lack of creative programs & enthusiasm.
4. CD is not cheap enough. Especially you have to buy the whole disc, not just one piece of music.
5. Only things bucking the trend are Three Tenors, Andre Rieu, Vienna New Year Special Program, PBS special music program, competitions, auditions etc. They are all something new in the musical package.
6. Internet & electronics suddenly change the market. Now you can buy a single piece of music at $1 & load it to iPod or something similar.
7. Only high profile orchestras survive. They record series music for Grammy awards or others.

Radio station KDFC is the only survived station that broadcasts 24 hours classical music in San Francisco. It gets the poll from the audiences for Top 100 Classical Music. It also creates a package this year that loads all 100 pieces of music in iPod & sells it at $299. If this is not revolutionary, it must be a quantum leap in music distribution. If you try to buy CDs to complete this top 100, you will have to spend more than one thousand dollars.

Here is the list of KDFC’s Top 10 of 2010 (the parenthesis is the rank of 2009)
1. Beethoven Symphony #9 (1)
2. Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto #2 (10)
3. Vivaldi Four Seasons (2)
4. Dvorak Symphony #9 (7)
5. Bach Brandenburg Concerto 1-6 (3)
6. Beethoven Symphony #6 (4)
7. Pachelbel Canon in D (11)
8. Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue (5)
9. Beethoven Symphony #5 (8)
10. Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto #1 (20)

This represents the taste & interest of the people in San Francisco bay area. In the past several years, the # listed in the top 10 change often. The only one consistent is the #1, Beethoven Symphony #9, Choral Symphony. It really shows the #9 of Beethoven is one & only one in its own class in most people’s mind. It is also the longest piece that takes almost one hour to play it from the beginning to the end. From #2 to #10, their ranks change every year. It says the taste of people changes every year. For example, Rachmaninoff’s piano concerto #2 jumps from 10 last year to 2 this year, a quantum jump. My list is different from the KDFC’s. I don’t mean my taste is better. It just means my taste is different from a lot of people. Here is my top 10 list:

0. Beethoven Symphony #9 (Choral)
1. Dvorak Symphony #9 (From the New World)
2. Beethoven Symphony #5 (命運)
3. Beethoven Piano Concerto #5 (Emperor)
4. Brahms Violin Concerto
5. Rachmaninov Piano Concerto #2
6. Beethoven Symphony #6 (Pastoral)
7. Schubert Symphony #8 (Unfinished)
8. Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto #1
9. Mozart Symphony #41 (Jupiter)

I do like to make some comments about KDFC’s list. Four Seasons & Canon in D are nice to the ear. But you just can’t listen to them often. Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto 1-6 is not uniform in quality. You just can’t lump them in one & try to compare to other classical music. It is more reasonable to pick #5 or #6. As to Rhapsody in Blue, it is just not exciting. Perhaps a lot people like jazz & pick this piece for the mood. I found that all pieces in my list are either symphony or concerto. I think it is fairly obvious as these two forms of music use extensively & intensively almost all instruments that we can find in an orchestra. The depth & power of expression & interpretation of human emotion are just too great to describe. Everyone should have his/her own top 10 list as everyone is different & special.

0 & 1

Natural number is for counting. Long time ago, people didn't count nothing. So there is no concept of zero. George Gamow wrote a famous book “1, 2, 3…Infinity”. He said our ancestors used to count 1, 2 & 3. If it was more than 3, it was many and definitely no concept of 0. But when we have 4 birds and sold 2, we have 2 left. How many are left when we sell the final 2? We will say I don’t have any, I don’t count. But that is just awkward. We can say we own nothing & call nothing 0(ZERO). So finally we have 0 left. Natural number can have 0 or not depending on whom you talk to. But it seems the natural number is not so natural after all. The counting of year in the human civilization has been a mess. The lack of concept 0 & its notation led to confusion. People think it is natural to count from 1. After all, why is there a need to count nothing? This creates no problem when we count things that are not divisible like men. For example, if every man own 10 beads, ten men will have 10x10=100 beads. But when we count thing that is divisible like year (divisible to days), we encounter something awkward. In second year (year 2), we try to count how many days passed from the beginning of year 1 when the day is February 1. We have to calculate with (2-1) x 365 + 31. But what happen if it is the first year we try to calculate? We get (1-1) x 365 + 31. Here (1-1) is a concept of zero but we just don’t have the notation 0 to represent it. Without the concept of 0 also led to the absence of AD 0 in Christian Calendar. So the years between 1 BC & AD 1 is not 1-(-1) = 2, but only 1. If Chinese people count the year starting from 黃帝, 2697 BC, the conversion of 2010 is 2010-(-2697)=4707. But 2010 BC will be -2010-(-2697) + 1= 687+1= 688, assuming the first Chinese year is year 1. The reason of this discrepancy is the gap between 1 BC & 1 AD, Zero. This kind of awkwardness happens often. For example, we count day 1 of the week, 星期一…六 and on Sunday, we call it 日. Subconsciously, it means 0 and we call the starting day of the week 星期日 (Sunday). So 星期一 of the week is actually not the first day of the week. Subconsciously people treat 星期日 as 星期零 (not 星期七). The way we count the age went through the same confusion. Chinese count the infant age 1 when it is born. Eventually they found the problem & called it 虛歲. The notation of the counting without 0 is 1, 2,…,10. The last number 10 is unnatural since it uses digit 0 after 1 & it contains 2 digits. What is the definition of Decade, Century & Millennium? Since there is no zero, you have to define a decade from 1 to 10, a century 1 to 100 & millennium from 1 to 1000. But what happened to the world when Millennium came several years ago? To aggravate the situation, the so-called Y2K problem played havoc to the computer world. What was the reason behind all these problems? Just look at the number from 1999 to 2000. There are four digits that flip. But from 2000 to 2001, there is only one digit flips. It is the counting without 0! There were two camps of people in celebrating Millennium, one for 2000 & one for 2001. Since there is no 0 AD, the new millennium must be 2001. Guess what? Most people went ahead to celebrate on 1/1/2000, the last year of the old millennium, not the beginning of the new millennium. Why caused the shift? People already get used to the concept of zero in counting. Also it is just awkward to count 1001 to 2000 as a millennium. So now we have an embarrassing situation, the first millennium is from 1 to 999, only 999 years. The third millennium is from 2000 to 2999, a perfect 1000 years. This year is 2010, it is the beginning of a new decade, not the last year of the old decade.

The dawning of the computer age creates the necessity of programming languages. In digital world we use 2, 8 or 16 base system ie binary, octal & hex base system. We all order the digits starting from 0. Here we skip the 4 base system since we think it is trivial. As a matter of fact, this is what our ancestors used, 1,2,3…Infinity. 0,1,2,3 are the 4 digits for the 4-based system. All computers count from 0 to the last digit of the base & wrap around to 10. Zero is the lowest unsigned integer value, one of the most fundamental types in programming and hardware design. In computer science, zero is thus often used as the base case for many kinds of numerical recursions. Proofs and other sorts of mathematical reasoning in computer science often begin with zero. For these reasons, in computer science it is not unusual to number from zero rather than one. There have been so many kinds of languages like car companies in the early 20th century. Eventually it settles down to just a few and C language becomes the most popular one used in the software industry. The most powerful feature in C is the Pointer. It is basically a kind of Array Indexing. All indexing in C starts from 0. You define Array[40], but can only use Array[0..39]. If you get out of bound, the compiler will flag it as an error. It becomes very natural for most programmers to think things starting from 0 instead of 1. It is ironical that most hardware engineers don’t like C language. They rather like to use BASIC in their work. I know some principal engineers hate C language just because they never really feel comfortable or grasp the zero-based indexing, especially the concept of Pointers.

The indivisibility of 0 is another subject warrants separate discussion. It is interesting to note that 0 & infinity form two ends of the counting scale, one left, one right. It is not surprising that indivisibility of 0 relates to the infinity. Without the concept of zero & infinity, there will be no concept of Limit & so there will be no Calculus. Zero & Infinity are two pillars that lead to the Limit & Calculus which make our world a much better place to live.

PS0: One of the most natural number is e. When e is expressed in infinite series, it starts from index 0:
Summation of 1/n!(n=0…infinity). It is the same in sin(x) & cos(x) & Taylor series.

PS1: Some time ago (1971) when a group of philosophers tried to celebrate the 2,400th birthday of Plato (428 BC-348 BC). They got the problem as they couldn't get the consensus as to pick 1971 or 1972 for celebration. Logically, it should be 1972, not 1971 since there is no AD 0.

PS2: We have 元年, 元旦 or 正月. It sounds as if people vaguely have the concept of 0 & try to distinguish it from 1.

PS3: Have you ever heard of "雙簧管效應"? It is called "OBOE", ie Offset By One Error. This happens very often in our life, for example 植樹問題, year counting (19xx as 20th century), column count in a building & Loop index error that crashes computers.