The origin of species

Embark on reading The origin of the species.

Another recent explosive news is about the synthesis of the bacterial genome. This really blurs the meaning of life. Darwin is so smart in the way he avoided mentioning the origin of species in the book, albeit titled so, but focused on how species evolved after the existence of the origin occurred.

头痛

近两天头痛欲裂，无心于事，八成又感冒了。希望在新的一年，我的身体可以健康一些。

胡椒餅

想起高中时常吃的胡椒饼就流口水。

高中时，星期六只上半天课，中午放学，剩下的半天我可以自由运用， 不用急着赶路回家，于是星期六对我便有宗教般的意义，而我也有一套完整的“仪式”对应： 从建中校门出来后，穿过南海路，进入植物园，到荷花池边散步，看花看乌龟，慢慢往万华方向踱去，脚步尽量放慢 ，享受园中风光。出了植物园侧门，我加快步伐，开始计时，目的在最短时间内穿过高架桥下从古亭区进入万华区，到万华戏院门口等公车回板桥。若是能在十五分钟内到达，我就奖励自己一个“福州胡椒饼”。胡椒饼一个五元，正好是我走路而省下的公车费。

万华戏院旁的胡椒饼可真好吃，外皮干酥，内馅汁多兼喷胡椒及葱香。一口一个满足；一口一个幸福。毕竟我脑中荷花池畔浪漫风光尚且未褪，腿脚因赶路劳动正酸胀，此时再满足口腹之欲，天下幸福莫此为甚！


The content below is from ETTV 食全食美。

胡椒餅

播出日期　2004.10.05
料理系統　台菜
食材分類　13
烹調大師　蔡季芳
料理時間　


材 料：
後腿肉丁1斤 肥絞肉3兩
高筋麵粉3杯 青蔥6兩 蒜泥1/2小匙
生白芝麻1/2大匙 乾酵母1又1/2小匙
糖蜜2大匙 沙拉油1小匙
手粉適量

調味料：
醬油8大匙 五香粉1/2小匙
黑胡椒粒1小匙 糖3大匙

做 法：
1.將蜜糖與水以1:1的比例稀釋備用。
2.取一個攪拌缸，將高筋麵粉、酵母、糖、水攪拌成麵團，並加入適量的油使之光滑。
3.將麵團裝入袋中，並放置冰箱中發酵一夜備用。
4.攪拌缸中加入後腿肉丁及肥絞肉，並以醬油、蒜泥、黑胡椒粒、糖調味後一同攪拌至黏稠有彈性，再放入冰箱冷藏1小時。
5.將麵糰取出略整後分成了15等份，再滾上麵粉、往中心收圓成糰並整型，再沾上麵粉桿成了厚圓片之後，包入2大匙量的肉餡且收至半合。
6.塞入大量的蔥花後，在底部的收口處沾取糖蜜水以及白芝麻。
7.將餅的收口處朝下擺在鋪好烤盤紙的烤盤上。
8.將餅放入預熱好的烤箱，以210～230℃的溫度烘烤約25分鐘，即可完成。

( 10/05 15:01 )

列印食譜

胡椒餅

The content below is from http://www.euphocafe.com/recipe.asp?rid=119

胡椒餅

材料：　（15個）
油皮材料：高筋麵粉 75g，低筋麵粉 75g，酥油 50g，糖粉 30g，水 70 ml。
油酥材料：低筋麵粉 220g，酥油 85g。
餡料：（每個約55g）豬絞肉 600g，蔥末 100g，白芝麻 50g，砂糖 20g，鹽 10g，醬油 30g，黑胡椒粉 10g，五香粉少許。
其他材料：白芝麻適量。* 芝麻泡水十分鐘，瀝乾水份備用。

做法：　
1. 準備餡料：將所有餡料材料混合攪拌均勻備用。
2. 製作油皮：將所有油皮材料混合，搓揉均勻至表面光滑且麵團有彈性，覆蓋保鮮膜，靜置10~15分鐘。
3. 此時可以製作油酥：混合低筋麵粉與酥油，耐心捏揉至成團狀（約2~3分鐘左右）。揉均勻的油酥應該是沒有彈性的粉團，用力按壓會碎裂，但是仍能整成團狀或條狀。將油皮與油酥都分割成15等份備用。
4. 每個油皮包裹一個油酥，捏緊開口，用掌心按壓一下，用桿麵杖從中間向前後兩側桿開，從一端捲起，如此包完全部的油酥。將每個捲好的油酥皮換方向再輕壓、桿開、包捲（詳細圖示與說明請參考台式蛋塔的做法圖示）
5. 最後桿開油酥皮成約手掌掌心大小，取一份肉餡放在中央，慢慢收緊油酥皮並向內收攏使成圓球狀，最後把收口處捏緊（一定要捏緊，否則烤的時候容易爆開）。把餅略壓扁平，在表面拍上泡過水的白芝麻並排放在烤盤上。參考附圖A。
6. 將烤箱預熱至200 C / 400 F，放入烘烤約20分鐘即可。參考附圖B。

參考來源：　精緻點心DIY, 游純雄著。

愛廚注：　
1. 糖粉=powdered sugar，不可用一般砂糖代替。
2. 我用黑胡椒粒炒過之後再磨碎成粉狀，顆粒比現成的黑胡椒粉略粗，也比較香。可以買顆粒較粗的黑胡椒粉來代用，但還是現磨的比較香喔。

備註：　
1杯 = 240cc = 240 ml
1大匙 = 1 Tablespoon = 15 cc = 15 ml
1小匙 = 1 Teaspoon = 5 cc = 5 ml

附圖A：　

附圖B：　

Pictures for the walls behind the dry-wall.

Before the dry-walls are up, it is a good idea to take pictures for all walls in the house, so we can know the details behind each wall. The problem is how to manage these pictures since they all look the same.

When I took pictures, I followed the following rules:

1. From top to down in levels.
   
2. Start with the room located at the left-front corner of the house, and navigate all rooms on the same floor in the counter-clock order.
   
3. In a room, start with the wall facing toward the facade of the house, and take pictures for the walls in the room in the counter-clock order.

To manage and search through these pictures, I need an easy and quick way to locate the corresponding picture of any wall in the house. Making notes to each picture is not good enough. Ideally, I shall be able to point to any wall on the blueprint of the house, and the corresponding picture of the wall will pop-up. This sounds a good software project for the family.

台湾新闻

这些天，和儿子一起看台湾新闻（我向老婆美其名是“练中文“），看到政府官员--上至泼妇骂街的总统，下至当红的小主秘，间杂以毒舌发言人，立委等。。--的言行，我突然发现老祖宗观察事物敏锐之极：
1。物以类聚。
2。獐头鼠目。
3。小头锐面。

看了他们电视上的尊容，尤其是一字排开时，这三个成语总是浮现心头。难道真有面相这回事？

My favorite book

Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is my favorite book. I am reading it the third time this year. The book somehow is always on my mind, and I just keep coming back to it. The book is not about motorcycles at all, it is about the philosophical muse on Art, Science, Quality, and the relationships among them. A very 'inward' book, a perfect match to me.

The freestyle stroke

My attitude toward those fairy tales, by now, is clear, and I do not intend to keep telling those stories. Instead, I want to share something useful, thoughtful and interesting with my sons.

Since Anbo is really interested in swimming, so I borrowed a few books about it. What we read tonight is "DK Superguides Swimming", by Rick Cross. While Anbo enjoyed the pictures in the book, I read aloud to him. Occasionally, he stopped me and asked a few questions. I answered them one by one, and then resumed reading to him. He liked this way of reading. Me, too.

This way of reading not only broadens his view, but also helps me knowing more. Tonight, I finally solved a puzzle which has been haunting me for couple of decades. The puzzle is about swimming strokes. In Chinese, we call one particular stroke, in which the swimmer uses his arms alternatively to propel him through water, as 自由式, meaning the freestyle stroke。In English, the stroke is called 'the crawl'. I was always puzzled by that Chinese name since I was 8. To me, the free style literately means any style I like. If a style is fixed in such a way that the swimming has to use his arms alternatively, it should not be called 'free style'. Then, why is that kind of particular stroke called as 'freestyle' stroke in Chinese? The freestyle stroke is not free at all, isn't it?

The following sentence in the book comes to rescue: "In competition, there is no actual event called the crawl, but it is the most common choice of stroke in the freestyle event." It is clear that 自由式 was a translation mistake. It should be called "爬式“。 自由式 is a competition event name, not a stroke name. As the name suggests, in the freestyle event, you are free to pick your favorite stroke to compete. It just happens that most people choose 'the crawl' stroke since it is the fastest one. Now, everything makes sense to me.

笋豆

沿袭近来对于生活态度及品味的思考，我们开始自制笋豆了。浸透豆和笋干，红烧以酱油和糖，收干汁，风干豆，即成。

余忆童稚时，独珍笋豆一味。为笋豆，在家则思念终日，在校则霸凌同学。桂君豪，为余小学一年级同桌。一日桂带豆至校，余得始尝，有“人间得尝此味，不枉作人一回“之感。遂令其日日献豆一包，不从，则“骑马打仗”时，著意痛击，此后，吾日日尝豆。桂转校，豆遂断。此事，不独父母不知，老师亦不知。余幼时，实乃一竖子。 及长，立意收痞气，无奈痞气天成，至今仍隐约浮现。

海苔煎饼

物价高涨，形同减薪; 日头赤焱焱，随人顾性命！（台语）
穷则变，变则通，想吃没钱就得想办法，以为后代留榜样。
从成本低，售价高，味道好的东西入手，试做海苔煎饼，尚在调试阶段，所以颜色不一。
味道倒挺好。

吃或不吃

在送安白上学的路上，我俩玩“吃或不吃”的游戏--我问安白吃不吃某样东西，他回答吃或不吃。
本是无聊，纯为打发，他却玩的起劲的很。以下是清单：

• 不吃：凡冠了“可爱”，“小”，“可怕”，他都不吃，如：老鼠，猫，猪，鸟，老虎，乌龟，兔，火鸡，金鱼，蛇，毛毛虫，蜘蛛。唯一的例外是“可怕的小矮人”。他吃“可怕的小矮人”；不吃“可爱的小矮人”。也不吃虎头，猪头。
• 吃： 把完整的东西拆解成零部件，他吃某些“部位”：老虎尾巴， 狐狸尾巴，猪肠，猪脚，鸡脚。唯一愿意吃的完整东西是“可怕的小矮人”。

酸白菜

製作酸白菜相當簡單，只要把任何一種大白菜2顆，掰開、洗淨、切
絲，直接放入桃太郎玻璃罐一半的高度，然後放3撮鹽、1撮小茴香、1粒八角。打開熱
水龍頭，灌入剛剛有點燙手的熱自來水(??)，鬆鬆地蓋上蓋子，等3天就有一缸充滿自然發
酵酸香鮮美的酸白菜。

她說，為了方便取時而不浪費，不妨把它連湯汁分成8等份，放入塑膠袋，擠出空
氣打結，丟到冰箱冷藏。她說，如果想做酸白菜火鍋，就再加1公升熱水，接著放入1塊
豆腐、1把粉絲、1包肉片或魚片，煮滾了就好了；如果是想吃酸白菜炒肉絲，一樣剪開
1包酸白菜，倒入鍋中，中間用筷子讓出空間，放下1包肉絲，肉絲上淋一點油，等肉熟
了，把肉絲和酸菜絲攪一攪，就可以了。

Ruthless, bloody and foolish fairy tales

This may surprise you, but it is true--most fairy tales are ruthless and bloody; they convey wrong values. The purpose of the stories is to scare a kid to a death rather than to soothe him on bed.

Recently, Anbo and I listened to several fairy tales together. Unfortunately, some of them are very bloody; some foolish; some very wrong:

In the story of the "little red hat", the belly of the wolf was cut open and filled with stones. Finally, the wolf was drown in the river. Surely, it is bloody.

In the story of "glass mountain", the little girl set off to a journey to look for her seven brothers, who were cursed into ravens by their father. The girl found her brother in a glass mountain. The girl has to cut off one of her finger as a key to open the gate. Yes, it is bloody. Inside the mountain, the servant told the girl that her brothers were out and not back yet. The girl then ate the seven dishes on the table. The story is not only bloody but strange: apparently, her brothers live very well; they even have a servant.

Here is a very dumb one: a kind girl met different kinds of beggars in a journey. She gave out what she owns. Eventually, she owned nothing and became even naked herself. The stars in the sky fall down and became her clothing and her fortune. This girl surely is a fool and the story conveys a very wrong idea--believing in a miracle.

You can disagree with me about the previous story; but I am sure that you will agree with me with this one--Frog Prince. In the story, a princess had a frog. The princess treated it very bad for its ugliness. Somehow, the frog transformed into a human form and became a handsome princess. Immediately, the princess and the prince fall into love and had good lives afterwards. What lesson can you learn from this story? Judge a thing by its surface?

However, my comment toward these tales madded Anbo. He disked me calling these stories foolish.

Many Koreans I know are Christians. Why?

This fact has been puzzling me for many years--many Koreans I know are Christians--but why?

Christian, surpassing other religions, is now the dominating religion in Korea; more than 70% Koreans are Christians and the number is rapidly increasing. Considering Korea is a Asia country and Christian was never one of traditional Asia religions, this fact becomes a surprise.

One has to look into history for answers. In geology, Korea is a small country between China and Japan. In history, invadesions from Japan and from China have never been stopped. Along with invades, both Chinese and Japanese cultures influenced Korea heavily. After World War II, Korea wanted to be independent from China and from Japan especially in culture. Having a 'national religion' that is different from Chinese's Buddhism and from Japanese's Shintoism became urgent. Christian is the result of that decision.

Normally, people tend to regard personal religion choices as private matters. In fact, it is not true. From the example above, we see that how a national policy could drive a personal decision. To be a truly independent person is not easy. One has to be both brave and wise to cope with peer pressures.

To read or to travel

I like to read; I like to travel. Reading leads my imagination to the places where, by nature, are not suitable for an ordinary visitor; traveling sharpens my feeling about the places where I only read about.

I would like to read about the stories of a Congo expedition, but would not like to be part of the expedition team; I would like to travel to Paris and to enjoy authentic French cuisines there rather than to stay at home and to mouthwateringly look at French cuisine photos in the book! This is my attitude toward reading and traveling.

好像好多苍蝇在飞

安白的学校昨天举办家长会，放假一天。我请了半天假带小孩。天朗气清，安白与我都想出去走走。安白提议去山上打老虎， 于是安白带上他的打虎棍，我俩驱车到附近的Seneca Creek State Park.

安白一心找老虎，我则是藉湖光山色舒展郁闷的心情。落叶纷纷，飘扬在湖心上空，衬着远方彩虹般的秋林，风光的确秀丽。突然念动，随口问安白，这缤纷落叶盘旋扶摇湖上，像什麽？这满头大汗忙着找老虎的小子心不在湖光山色上，他回答，“好像好多苍蝇在飞！”

这小子才能显然不在文学上。我记得世说新语上一则谢安问白雪纷纷何所似的故事。一侄答曰“空中洒盐差可拟“；另一侄女答曰“未若柳絮因风起“。文采上，侄女胜于侄儿。沈复幼时也把夏天的蚊子比作群鹤舞空。 彼等皆于年幼时已展现化现实为浪漫的文才，我家的小子倒是化浪漫为实际，而且太实际了吧。

A short trip to see dinosaurs' old bones

Last Saturday, we took Anbo and Anmo to see dinosaur fossils in the Museum of Natural History. This trip was special since Anbo himself planed this weekend activity. Wenlei and I were just drivers and guardians. Anbo was very interested in seeing those old bones. He had lots of questions. (Well, I have to admit that I can't answer most of the questions because they are either too silly or too difficult.) I plan to borrow few books about Dinosaurs from the local library. It also might be a good time now to tell the story of Jurassic Park to Anbo.

After visiting the museum, we wandered on the national mall. There was an annual Solar Decathlon. Many small but stylish solar-powered houses were built on the mall for the competition. The goal is to use just solar power to support a typical family in a single house. I really hope that one day these solar technologies would become cheap enough to use in our daily lives. I was very interested in this kind of things, unfortunately, we were too late. The public demonstration was close after 5:00 pm.

Anmo also had a happy time, but in a different way. He did not enjoy too much about old bones, but was very interested in playing pebbles on the national mall.

I made a wrong decision about our dinner. I took them to Bob's 88 for dinner. Since kids were very tired, they became cranky. We eventually had to leave the restaurant in the middle of eating. On the way back home, both of them fell into sleep.

啤酒烧鸭

将炒锅洗净擦干，放几片姜片在锅里干炒 了一下，以免粘锅。拿出姜片，倒油炼熟；倒入洗净切好的鸭块，反复炒动，盖上锅盖让它焖上一会，直到生鸭块褪去血色，可得把握好别把鸭快炒黑了哦。然后倒 啤酒锅中，可别小气你的啤酒，倒多少好呢？我一般是把一瓶啤酒全倒进去。把火调小；好了，现在 可以慢慢放入如下调料：盐、糖、桂皮、八角、陈醋、老抽、干辣椒、姜丝，量之多少以适量为准。用锅铲把它们翻动一下，盖上锅盖，让 啤酒慢慢燃烧吧。一般在这种小火的情况下，您必须得耐心地等上30-40分钟的光阴，毕竟鸭子这东西要熟烂点才好吃；其实这个等待的过程是很惬意的，想想 看，啤酒在炒锅中的香味和那些作料的香味复合在一起该有多么的香啊。待啤酒快烧干的时候放蒜、炒几下，然后再放些红辣椒油和水淀粉，最后放上味精翻炒，别 忘了倒点水.

--摘自http://www.beerch.com

J. M. W. Turner

The National Museum of Art is showing J. M. W Turner's masterpieces. This article on economist provides some background information.

论说文写作之三：对事不对人

·廖　康·

要想说服人，最重要的方法是运用逻辑。人是理性的动物，再蠢笨的人，只要神经正常，也会讲理。你要是心平气和地讲理，人们通常都会听，都可能被你说服。可 你一旦进行人身攻击，哪怕是间接的，哪怕仅仅露出一点讥讽或蔑视，闻者感情的体液就可能涌起，淹没理智的通路，拒绝接受你的观点了。就算你即将口吐莲花， 人家也不愿意听了。书写的文字更容易产生误解；由于没有语音语调、表情手势来帮助你表达，玩笑可能读不懂，调侃可能被当真，善意可能被当成恶意。善意尚且 如此，恶意就更不用说了。所以，论说文一定要对事不对人。这个原则在西方传统悠久，概念普及，他们至今仍沿用拉丁语Ａｄ　Ｈｏｍｉｎｅｍ来表明这种谬误。 如果老师在您孩子的作业本上写下这字样，您可不要紧张，那不是说您的孩子可能有同性恋倾向，而是指其论点“对人”了，要改过。攻击人的形式除了直接和间接 指责别人以外，还有一种也较常见，那就是翻老账，说别人以前曾经说过与现在的观点相反的话，拉丁文是Ａｄ　Ｈｏｍｉｎｅｍ　Ｔｕ　Ｑｕｏｑｕｅ（你也 曾）。下面我就一一举例，详细说明这些谬误。

不用说，骂人话绝对不应出现在论说文里。辱骂根本不是战斗，也不是论说。有些话，像洋奴啊，数典忘祖啊，什么什么党的走狗啊，言者可能认 为并不是辱骂，而是陈述事实。这种词语用在征讨檄文里可以，用在论说文里就不恰当了。毕竟，你不是要图一时笔头痛快，你是要想说服人家，也就是把读者看作 你可以争取的潜在同盟，当然要尊重对方了。如果对方真是洋奴、走狗之流，你就根本不应该跟他们浪费笔墨。

更常见的对人不恭是间接显现于字里行间的，比如：“这也值得大惊小怪吗？在……书中，古人早已说过……”或者：“你怎么连这个都不知 道……”这种话的言外之意就是说别人孤陋寡闻、学问欠缺。世界上的事情如恒河沙数，知识更是无穷无尽。近百年来，知识爆炸，任何人若想一直走在本行业前 沿，都必须终生不断努力学习，文艺复兴时期达芬奇那类百科全书式的人物已经不可能再出现了。谁都可能有未查不晓之事，即便是普通常识，也有遗忘疏漏之时。 你看到了，指出来就是了。千万不要加上那句多余的话。别人大度还好，越是碰到见识少，学问小的人，也许就是你希望通过自己的文章说服的人，越是可能因为你 那句不尊重人的话离你而去。

有一种逻辑谬误是把人化入事中，把人等同于事。在谈到堕胎问题时，常听到有人这样说：“他当然反对堕胎了，他是牧师嘛！”而对他提出的反 堕胎理由，无论多么有科学依据，也不置一词。这种不屑一顾的态度就等于说，神职人员的看法都是出于信仰，与科学无关，不值得辩论。宗教的确不在论说的范围 之内，这一点我在下一篇里会详细探讨，但是你不应该因为人家是牧师，就不看他的具体论点了，就想当然地以为人家不讲逻辑，不讲科学。同理，也不应该这样说 一个妓女、小偷、犯过罪的人，或什么党员。根本就不应该提人家是干什么的，有理就说理好了。

最后一种“对人”的辩论法比较有欺骗性，也是我们在教学中要花力气讲述的，那往往是以“你也曾”开头的。有一种记忆力特别不应提倡，那就 是专门记忆别人的过错或别人以前某种观点的能力，用在翻老账中。两口子吵架，经常会说这种话：“你以前还……你不是说……你也曾……”记忆是有选择性的， 往往是对自己有利的就记住了，引用时也不顾当时的背景。很可能他们早已忘记当时是怎么回事了，却只管当下痛快淋漓。写论说文可不能沦落到夫妻吵架的地步， 辨理就是辨现在谈论的道理。不要提以前的事。以前有以前的情况，时空交错的那个点不可能再回去了，提它做甚？再改编一句名言：“我以前的看法只代表我当时 的观点……”也就是说，我现在完全可以有不同的看法。你翻我一年前的老账和提我小时候撒尿和泥那会儿说的傻话并没有本质差别。你说我的观点前后不一致，可 世界上有几个人的看法是终生一致的？

当然，这里讨论的都是关于正式论说文的一般情况。在网上一来一往的短帖子不在此内；讨伐檄文，匕首投枪一类的杂文也不在此类。那些文体的 目的在于表明一种观点，或指责一种观点，只求赞同者读了痛快，反对者读了恼火，并不期待读者看完文章后就接受作者的观点。他们尽可以痛快淋漓地宣讲、嘲 笑、反讽、指责。其效果往往可以为论说文做反证。而且，如果受到你反驳的一方是变色龙，总是彼一时，此一时地为自己的利益改变原则，那你当然要指出这种行 为模式。这并不同于一时一事地翻老账。

总之，论说文的目的是说明事物和道理，希望读者能够接受作者的意见，所以一定要对事不对人。哪怕是间接的不恭之词，也必须尽量避免。其实，你只要真正在内心深处尊重读者和辩论对象，就不大可能出言不逊。言为心声，读者通常也能够在字里行间看出你的真诚或虚伪、谦逊或傲慢。

２００７年７月１５日

□　寄自美国