Teaching is not filling a vase, but lighting a fire.
-– Michel de Montaigne
Teaching is not filling a vase, but lightning a fire.
— Me@2005, 2010.01.05
If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.
— Antoine de Saint Exupery
2011.01.18 Tuesday ACHK
潛行凶間 4.1 | 如何拯救眾生 5.1 | 無限複製 5.1
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What’s the most resilient parasite? A bacteria? A virus? An intestinal worm?
An idea.
Resilient, highly contagious. Once an idea’s taken hold in the brain it’s almost impossible to eradicate. A person can cover it up, ignore it – but it stays there.
Information, yes. But an idea? Fully formed, understood? That sticks… (taps forehead) In there, somewhere.
— Inception (film)
— Me@2011.01.18
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2011.01.18 Tuesday ACHK
比喻說，「損人利己」的人，就是社會中的癌細胞。
雖然暫時還未有足夠的科學根據，我估計，人的思考心態，會不會反映在身體細胞的運作上呢？就算不是百分百反映，但會有會這個傾向呢？
既然未有足夠的科學根據，為什麼我要這樣估計呢？
那是因為我閱讀過一些案例，如果這樣解釋的話，可以得到圓滿的理解。由於我所知的案例只有一兩宗，所以它們不足夠成為充份的科學證據。但是，它們本身很有趣，值得討論。
第一宗是我由報章閱得的。有一位中年男士，患上大病，預計一年內會死亡。他用餘下的時間去做義工，無意中令到自己開心了很多，大大提升了精神狀態。他的病痛彷彿不治而癒。
第二宗是我由紀錄片閱得的。那個紀錄片講述癌症病人如何與病痛搏鬥。有一位中年女士，生命的餘下時間只有大概一年，她把時間表編得密麻麻的，要見盡所有她想見的親人朋友，因為不見的話，就可能以後沒有機會見。因此，她忙到連「見醫生」、「做化療」都錯失了。但是，她的病情反而大大減低，餘下的生命時間，遠遠超過一年。
所以，雖然「排除『損人利己』的心態的話，患癌症的風險會大大減低」這個猜想，暫時還未有足夠的科學根據，但至少，它是一個極度值得研究的科學題目。
— Me@2011.01.18
2011.01.18 Tuesday (c) All rights reserved by ACHK
In physics, a heterotic string is a peculiar mixture (or hybrid) of the bosonic string and the superstring (the adjective heterotic comes from the Greek word heterosis, hybrid vigour). In string theory, the left-moving and the right-moving excitations almost do not talk to each other, and it is possible to construct a string theory whose left-moving (counter-clockwise) excitations “think” that they live on a bosonic string propagating in D = 26 dimensions, while the right-moving (clock-wise) excitations “think” that they belong to a superstring in D = 10 dimensions.
Every heterotic string must be a closed string, not an open string; it is not possible to define any boundary conditions that would relate the left-moving and the right-moving excitations because they have a different character.
— Wikipedia on Heterotic string
2011.01.18 Tuesday ACHK
Physics Town 