記憶的腳註﹝日記選﹞：
Footnotes to Memory (selected diaries):
- 2006

一月 Jan: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
二月 Feb: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28
三月 Mar: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
四月Apr: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
五月 May: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
六月 Jun: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
七月 Jul: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
十一月 Nov: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
十二月 Dec: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

一月 January
15/1/2006 - 星期日 Sunday
	| 時事 Current affairs | 　　哀哉殺豬。好好的，搞牠做什麼？
二月 February
19/2/2006 - 星期日 Sunday
	| 電影 Movie | 　　到又一城 AMC 看《平頭日記》﹝Jerhead﹞。六個 good。故事不錯，剪接音效都不佳。imdb.com 分類為 Drama 或 War。Drama 嗎？太俗。War 嗎？不太像戰爭片。兩面不討好。 　　想到去年年尾用 Windows Movie Maker 替家人製作旅行相片投影片。年長一輩看呢，忒花，白底黑字才好；年輕一輩看呢，I'm too dull！雅俗共賞、老少咸宜實難。 　　片中有句「Every war is different. Every war is the same.」想到 Charles Dickens 的小說《A Tale of Two Cities》開宗明義曰：「It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way--in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.」未知有沒有人批判這些話有病。
20/2/2006 - 星期一 Monday
	| 哲學 Philosophy | 宗教 Religion | 　　在 newsgroup.com.hk / newsgroup.la 「新聞組.討論.哲學」討論李天命談「無我」。抄錄如下： 阿Nick：李天命《哲道行者》有言：「無我論者說：『我不存在，沒有我。』徹底自打咀巴。」﹝p.131﹞無我論者是誰，李先生沒有指名道姓。按中文字解，李先生對。李先生又說：「佛家認為『我念』是煩惱的根源，要追求『無我』的境界。問題是：誰在追求無我？還不就是你的自我在追求無我？」又說：「當無我論者聲稱『我不存在』時，他就犯了自我推翻的謬誤，」﹝p.269﹞ 何謂無我？教育部國語辭典：「佛教用語。沒有私見的意思。謂所有的存在現象，都沒有一個恆常不變､自我主宰的實體。」據南懷瑾先生說，要無我，則先放下身見，即身體的感覺和觀念。「身見忘掉不是無我啊，只是無身見，要真正內在身心皆亡，達到無我才對，才可以得定。」這是人無我，屬小乘果位。進而再談法無 我。﹝《金剛經說甚麼》p.298-299﹞According to the online Encyclopadia Britannica, Anatta (無我) is "the doctrine that there is in humans no permanent, underlying substance that can be called the soul. Instead, the individual is compounded of five factors (Pali khandha; Sanskrit skandha) that are constantly changing." (accessed 20/12/2006) Detailed English explanation can be found in: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatta. 佛教「無我」有別於「我不存在」。余初學佛，若有誤請指正。 餓了要吃飯：雖然李天命是錯的，但根據你的回答，我們還是可以站在他的立場追問：那麼，追求無我者是誰？／正在吃飯者是誰？／發問者是誰？．．．等等 你會如何答？ 又例如 我之所以被不變地稱為我，你之所以被不變地稱為你，一定因為各人有某種獨立 的不變的特質，怎能說無我？ 你又會如何回應~ 阿Nick： I shall use psychological approach to the problem of personal identity. That is, we have some memory of ourselves which allow us to figure out who are we. I admit that this approach is not perfect. John Locke suggests that I-today is the same person as I-yesterday only if I-today have a sense of myself that includes a memory of I-yesterday. This is a bit strict. As David Hume states, "for how few of our past actions are there, of which we have any memory?" Also, it is generally believed, in psychology, that most people lost childhood memory (Childhood amnesia). Moreover, if one get 老人痴呆, he would hardly recall his memory. Apart from this, memory works quite well as a criterion of personal identity. 又，釐清「無我」有別於「我不存在」。則我在追求「無我」。追求「無我」不是說「我不存在」。 餓了要吃飯：若有personal identity 那麼，你認為「無我」其實是無了什麼？ 阿Nick：I mean personal identity is sort of「各人有某種獨立的不變的特質」i.e.「我之所以被不變地稱為我，你之所以被不變地稱為你」partly because of memory. 餓了要吃飯：你認為這個personal identity可否被稱為我？ 阿Nick：not same as 佛教「無我」's one 餓了要吃飯：明白~   :p
21/2/2006 - 星期二 Tuesday
	| 生活 Life | 　　炒公仔麵，馬來西亞早有，香港不獨步。 | 哲學 Philosophy | 　　餓了要吃飯、竹葉青、SCU、Clotho 等人續談李天命談「無我」。亂。
22/2/2006 - 星期三 Wednesday
	| 文學 Literature | 　　施螫存說楊絳《洗澡》「感覺就像半部《紅樓夢》加上半部《儒林外史》。」我只嫌《洗澡》短。明清小說略嫌長；五四時期的，文筆不夠好；現代呢，嫌短。挑嘴。
24/2/2006 - 星期五 Friday
	| 生活 Life |    Cleaning, get some texts, download, print, hydrate, dehydrate, absorb, release, sleep, awake.
25/2/2006 - 星期六 Saturday
	| 評論 Comment |    A bookstore will be opened in Shenzhen (深圳). 500,000 square foot, 3,000,000 books. Being the so-called biggest bookstore in the world, the diversity of books will not be wide...... given that it is located in China. | 生活 Life |    Woke up at nine something today. Got a text. Two pieces of pizza for lunch. Shopping with Christopher in a supermarket. Set up a router. At night, we played (yes, it's the proper word) with the penne (a type of pasta) and destroyed it with our mouth and stomach. Visited Henry and Kevin's place. Read a few pages of Peter Singer's Animal Liberation with a cup of espresso before I went to bed.    Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Singer http://www.princeton.edu/~psinger/ http://www.utilitarian.net/singer/
26/2/2006 - 星期日 Sunday
	| 電影 Movie |    Watched Munich without subtitle. I didn't quite get what's going on. | 生活 Life |    Tonight we played with XO fried spaghetti, served with chicken and mixed vegetables.
27/2/2006 - 星期一 Monday
	| 生活 Life |    Went to HSBC this afternoon. Filled in the form in order to get a bank cheque, as usual. Miss T (she sounded and looked like a typical Kong girl (港女), dressed up as a normal OL.) asked politely whether I was sure for my signature. Well, I have two signatures only. Either in Chinese or English. It must be the English one. Then miss T sought help from the manager. The manager accepted my signature within one second. I repeat, within a second. I showed my student ID to confirm. Even so, I guess I should practice my signing.    Met Pierre Fung on campus and chatted with him. Tonight Christopher and I gave up playing with the food. We went out to dinner with Henry, Kevin and Jackson. I had Pad Thai with pork.
28/2/2006 - 星期二 Tuesday
	| 生活 Life |    We had roti prata with chicken curry in a Singaporean restaurant tonight. Wanna finish Peter Singer's book, but I don't have time. Going to be busy.
三月 March
1/3/2006 - 星期三 Wednesday
	| 生活 Life |    Tonight, we had Shan Dong chicken (山東雞) and fried green bean with spicy shrimp paste (馬拉盞炒四季豆) at the New Dong Dong Noodles.
2/3/2006 - 星期四 Thursday
	| 網際網路 Internet | 　　「網誌寫作既接續了漢語筆記文學的優秀傳統，更充分鼓勵了個人表達。」﹝維基百科﹞但，「由於 blog 是由個人發表在各個 BSP 上面的文章，每天成千上萬篇，內容雜亂，3g-blog.com認為只有 30% 的網誌是真正具有可讀性的」。贊同。Harry G. Frankfurt 早說過「one of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much bullshit」。你看港男港女的網誌，大多旨在跟朋友閒聊，左 copy 右 tag，內容亦有別於舊時的筆記體。優秀傳統？如是我聞？姑妄聽之？哼……哼什麼？I'm also bullshitting. | 生活 Life |    Got a symbolic logic text on an uncategorised bookshelf in a secondhand bookstore, fantastic!
3/3/2006 - 星期五 Friday
	| 心理學 Psychology |    A question for psychologists: male students dominate an engineering class. All right, I understand. But, how come female students dominate a psychology class? | 哲學 Philosophy |    A question for philosophers: can you persuade one to study philosophy? What's the importance of studying philosophy? | 生活 Life |    Tonight I had chicken laksa in the Singaporean restaurant.
4/3/2006 - 星期六 Saturday
	| 生活 Life |    Philosophers and literary writers often crush on each other (I want to say 曖昧, what's the proper translation? If you use those online translator, it simply translate 曖昧 as ambiguous, which is not quite well), like Yumiko and Deep (鄭希怡與吳浩康). Socrates (蘇格拉底) doesn't allow poet to enter his Republic. Some writers (for example, 余秋雨) concern less with truths. They comment that creative writing is more important than historical truths. On the other hand, Nietzsche studies Dostoyevsky, Eco studies Kant.    Tutoring in my school: AU$29.54 per hour (~HK$177.24)!    Christopher said they have democracy government in Malaysia, but they don't have freedom of press. Nevertheless, most Malaysian satisfy with their life, they don't bother to protest. In Hong Kong, we have free press, but not democracy government.    Tonight we played with teriyaki swordfish, mixed vegetables with rice. We didn't quite mess it up. As you may see, I'm still alive.
5/3/2006 - 星期日 Sunday
	| 電腦 Computer |    What can computers do these days?    For language, let's try a free online translator (WorldLingo): Original (Chinese Traditional): 死生，命也；其有夜旦之常，天也。人之有所不得與，皆物之情也。彼特以天為父，而身猶愛之，而況其卓乎！人特以有君為愈乎己，而身猶死之，而況其真乎！《莊子．內篇．大宗師第六》 Translation (English): Dies lives, life; It has a night of day often, day. The human has must and, all sentiment. Pitt take the day as the father, but the body still loves it, much less its is outstanding! The person especially take has Mr. as the oneself, but the body still dies it, much less it really! Original (English): "Why can't you people take things at their face value?" "What people are you referring to?" "Highbrows. Intellectuals. You're always trying to find hidden meanings in things. Why? A cigarette is a cigarette. A piece of silk is a piece of silk. Why not leave it at that?" (David Lodge) Translation (Chinese Traditional): '"為什麼不能您人們採取事在他們的面值?" " 什麼人民您提到?" '"Highbrows。知識分子。您總設法發現暗藏的意思在事。為什麼?香煙是香煙。絲織品是絲織品。為什麼不是留下它在那?"    That's the so-called translation. Would you accept that? (Though translating old Chinese is a bit harsh for computer.)    For A.I., there's an article entitled "Whatever happened to machines that think?" in the New Scientist, 23, April 2005. Let's quote a conversation (Intellibuddy is the machine): JM: Errr... are you intelligent? Intellibuddy: Ummm I am highly intelligent. I have many intellectual functions. JM: What are your intellectual functions? Intellibuddy: Thought, reason, intelligence, logic and deduction. JM: What is your IQ? Intellibuddy: My IQ is about 250 in human terms. JM: Wow, you're clever than my editor. Intellibuddy: I'm glad your [sic] impressed, User. You think I am cleverer than my editor. JM: No, cleverer than my editor. Intellibuddy: I'm glad your impressed, User. You think I am cleverer than my editor. JM: No, cleverer than my editor. Intellibuddy: I'm glad your impressed, User. You think I am cleverer than my editor...     I guess they have upgraded the intellibuddy now. The thing is, machines know certain grammar and expression, but it is limited. They just follow some rules. If you ask them the same question, they will probably answer you exactly the same thing. Try this: >You: Hi there.  >Intellibuddy: Hello undefined >You: Hi there  >Intellibuddy: Hello undefined >You: Hi there.  >Intellibuddy: Hello undefined >You: Hello!  >Intellibuddy: Hi there! >You: Hello.  >Intellibuddy: Hi there! >You: Hello.  >Intellibuddy: Hi there!    For mathematics, I admit that software, like Maple, MATLAB, Mathematica, etc, performs calculation much faster than me. They sketch nice graphs. They can handle large among of data. But they can't do proofs.    Overall, using computer is a matter of convenient. Let computers do tedious stuff. | 生活 Life |    "Nick, your room is tidy!" people make this comment after visiting my room. And then they add, "given that you're male." What?! What if I'm a girl? Does it make any difference? If I am a boy, my room is relatively tidy; if I am a girl, my room is not so tidy. Like this?    I also notice a thing today. When people ring me, I huh them, they are most likely to ask, "are you sleeping?" | 足球 Soccer |    Sydney FC won their first ever A-League.
6/3/2006 - 星期一 Monday
	| 足球 Soccer |    "HOW much is Dwight Yorke worth? He's worth a championship for Sydney FC, and how do you put a value on that?" Michael Cockerill raised these questions in the Sydney Morning Herald, then he moved on to praise Yorke. Look, what did Michael Jordan do for the Washington Wizards? Jordan is the God of basketball. Yorke is a top striker, but not the best, not even in the top ten. Do you really think that a person makes a team success? | 生活 Life |    We played with curry tonight. Let c be the concentration of the curry. Without doing any experiment, we estimated c approximately equals to zero. 　　零咖喱。零辛辣。
7/3/2006 - 星期二 Tuesday
	| 生活 Life |    I saw a Korean girl with a Pucca pencil case. A Korean girl with Pucca! It's like an Aussie kid with vegemite. | 評論 Comment |    William Hung (if that's him) made the following claim (March 02, 2005): "There are two types of people in this world: Those who can't stand Koreans.... and Koreans themselves. Fuck Koreans."    Hasty generalization. Ad hominem. Such claim can be easily disproved by a rational or logical human being.    Link: http://www.vooz.co.kr - The animation company of Pucca. http://www.puccaclub.com - Puccablub. http://www.xanga.com/William_Hung - William Hung's xanga.
8/3/2006 - 星期三 Wednesday
	| 生活 Life |    I just notice Sin Chew Daily is a Malaysian newspaper and it is located in Penang (檳城). Penang is the city where my flat mate, Christopher, lives.
9/3/2006 - 星期四 Thursday
	| 生活 Life |    I mentioned Kong girl (港女) twice with different meanings. The former simply refers to a Hong Kong female which was born and lived in Hong Kong for a long period of time. You know, I can tell miss T is not an ABC (Australian born Chinese) within 10 millisecond. Newspapers usually refer Kong girl in this sense. The later refers to a particular group of Hong Kong born girl. In contemporary Hong Kong language, especially in internet newsgroups or forums, Kong girl is a noun with particular features. It's difficult to give a definition. I shall type a few features which allow you to grasp what a Kong girl is: LV, Gucci, agnès b, I.T, izzue, iPod, clubbing, blogging, ICQ, MSN, SMS, trendy, 「士多啤梨啤梨蘋果橙」、修身、《壹本便利》、《忽然一周》、《飲食男女》, etc. | 電影 Movie |    I like Special Broadcasting Service (SBS). Not only because it's multicultural and multilingual bases, but also because of their selection of movies, especially when you're sick of Hollywood and American made movies. | 網際網路 Internet |    People are gossiping about the yet to be published Google service: GDrive. It is believed that they are going to provide unlimited web space. There was such provider, xoom, in 1999 (?) which eventually terminated their service. Of course, hard disks are much cheaper now. But the number of internet users is really huge. Simply imagine every user put a movie on the net...... Will it be free of charge? What about abuses? Will GDrive survive? Indeed I'm not excited about this. The simple reason is that putting things in internet is not safe.
10/3/2006 - 星期五 Friday
	| 生活 Life |    c is slightly greater than zero tonight.    2nd week is over. Time to study. Switch to nerd mode.
17/3/2006 - 星期五 Friday
	| 生活 Life | 　　Real Madrid 不譯作真馬德里，宛如 real number 不譯作真數。
18/3/2006 - 星期六 Saturday
	| 生活 Life |    Niccolò Machiavelli's the Prince: AU$2.10 (~HK$12.6), James Joyce's Dubliners: AU$2.80 (~HK$16.8), Rousseau's Discourse on the Origin of Inequality: AU$2.84 (~HK$17.04). All published by Dover.
19/3/2006 - 星期日 Sunday
	| 閱讀採摭 Reading |    Is there still anything to live for? Is anything worth pursuing, apart from money, love, and caring for one's own family? If so, what could it be? Talk of "something to live for" has a faintly religious flavour, but many people who are not at all religious have an uneasy feeling that they may be missing out on something basic that would give their lives a significance it now lacks. Nor do these people have a deep commitment to any political creed. Over the past century political struggle has often filled the place that religion once held in other times and cultures. No one who reflects on recent history can now believe that politics alone will suffice to solve all our problems. But what else can we live for? In this book I give one answer. It is as ancient as the dawn of philosophy, but as much needed in our circumstances today as it ever was before. The answer is that we can live an ethical life. By doing so we make ourselves part of a great, cross-cultural tradition. Moreover, we will find that to live an ethical life is not self-sacrifice, but self-fulfillment. - How Are We to Live? by Peter Singer | 校園生活 Campus life | 　　陳省身說：「我第一次上化學實驗，被指定一個櫃子。內有些化學儀器。同時接到一個單子，上有這些儀器的英文名字。我們第一件事是對照所得儀器是否完全。我的實驗經驗，差不多是沒有的，根本不知道單上名詞與欄中儀器的對應關係。當天指定的工作是吹玻璃管，我自然弄不好。幸虧化學系有一位職員在試驗室，在將結束實驗前代我吹成了一些。我拿著玻璃管覺得還很熱，就用冷水一沖，於是前功盡棄。回來想了幾天，覺得無論如何化學是讀不下去了。結果退選化學。」    This simply refresh my memory of my chemistry experiments. I messed up most of them.
20/3/2006 - 星期一 Monday
	| 科學 Science | 　　楊振寧說：「考大學前，我從沒看過物理，直到一九三八年，因為要考西南聯大了，我才向朋友借了一本物理書，只看了一個月，就愛上了物理。」 　　一九五七年，楊和李政道合作推翻愛因斯坦的「宇稱守恆定律」，獲諾貝爾獎金時致辭道：「我深深察覺到一樁事實，這是：在廣義上說，我是中華文化和西方文化的產物，既是雙方和諧的產物，又是雙方衝突的產物，我願意說我既以我的中國傳統為驕傲，同樣的，我又專心致於現代科學。」
22/3/2006 - 星期三 Wednesday
	| 心理學 Psychology |    Do you know what's wrong with your mind and eyes?    What do you see? Seven dolphins or something else? Show it to a five years old kid and ask what they see.    "The squares marked A and B are the same shade of gray." See Adelson's web.
23/3/2006 - 星期四 Thursday
	| 哲學 Philosophy | Transplanting Body Parts (移植器官).    In her essay "the Market for Bodily Parts: Kant and duties to oneself" (Journal of Applied Philosophy, Vol.6, No.2, 1981, p.129-139) Chadwick, R. starts with Kant's view that we have duties to the our bodies. First, morality is about "how people treat each other." Problem arises when interests of individuals conflict. Kant thinks that a person is a unity, and our body is crucial to our life. Thus, it is assumed that Kant would reject certain trends in modern medicine. Kant says that "a human being is not entitled to sell his limbs for money, even if he were offered ten thousand thalers for a single finger." Chadwick rephrases it as "if he were so entitled, he could sell all his limbs," and comments this is sort of slippery slope. Is selling our bodies always wrong? What if that's not about money? What if giving one part of my body allows other to survive? Chadwick then rephrases the second part as "we can dispose of things which have no freedom but not of a being which has free will," and comments that losing a finger not necessary lead to lose of free will. Chadwick moves on to criticise Rom Harré's revised version of Kant's argument. And what about donation? Chadwick thinks that Kant's premise implies his objection to donation. Kant rejects any removal of our bodies. I can't stand with Kant again. Come on, if we could save a life by donating a kidney, and I can survive with one kidney, what's wrong with doing so?    A problem is, Kant lives in the 18th century. He certainly knows nothing about the recent medical technology.
24/3/2006 - 星期五 Friday
	| 哲學 Philosophy | Transplanting Body Parts (移植器官).    Gill, M.B. and Sade, R.M. argue in their essay "Paying for Kidneys: the case against prohibition" (Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal, Vol.12, No.1, 2002, 17-45) that receiving payment for a kidney should be legalised, while buying a kidney is prohibited. They emphasis that kidney should not be traded in an open market.    A trivial difference between donating and selling is motive. Why do people donate or sell their bodily parts? They claim that it is morally OK to accept selling. They are very clever to separate selling and purchasing kidneys. By legalising kidney sales, the number of kidneys that are transplanted will probably be increased. On the other hand, acceptance of purchasing will reduce the number of donation and hence harm the poor. Thus, an agent is required. As you may guess, they move on to analyse Kantian view. Kidneys are not property. All right. But, selling a kidney is different from selling the entire body.    Hmmm, tired. Just a question for Gill and Sade, how many kidneys do they have now? 4? 3? 2?
28/3/2006 - 星期二 Tuesday
	| 校園生活 Campus life |    Woke up, read newspaper, prepared cornflakes...... then dropped a bottle of coffee, did the cleanup, ate the...... cornflakes, yuck! Received the test from last week, failed. This is my low point of the year. I will make it the lowest.     Psychology test yesterday, philosophy tutorial facilitation today. Two more tests next week. An essay is due in the week after. Exhausted. | 哲學 Philosophy | Transplanting Body Parts (移植器官).    John Harris started "the Survival Lottery" with following situation:  Y and Z are dying patients. "Y needs a new heart and Z new lungs." There are no spare organs available. They could be saved by killing one healthy person H and transplant his organ. Who would do that? An utilitarian? A computer?     Here comes the problem of killing and letting die. If we kill H, we're killing (bullshit?). If we don't, we're letting Y and Z die. What if H is an old guy and Y and Z are young? What if H is a bad guy and Y and Z are good? What is good and what is bad? Does a young guy has more right to live? Do two people have more right than one person?    To donate your organ after death, for Hong Kong people: http://www.ha.org.hk/odhk/c_od_card_yes.htm for Australian: http://www.medicareaustralia.gov.au/yourhealth/our_services/aaodr.htm
四月 April
3/4/2006 - 星期一 Monday
	| 哲學 Philosophy | Genetics and Reproduction (基因及再生).    James Rachels argues in "the Principle of Agency" (Bioethics, Vol.12, No.2, 1998, p.150-16) that if a state of affairs occur naturally good, then it is acceptable for us to make it happen. By reasons of analogy, he analyzes with the case of euthanasia, in vitro fertilization, preventive genetic selection and cloning. For example, if it is OK to have twins naturally, why can't we use cloning techniques to make it happen? One crucial argument is about intentions. A challenge is: even if the existence of a state of affairs is a good thing, our intention possibly make it wrong to do so. The indirect effect view ("actions done with different intentions are different actions...... what the act is depends on the intention, the morality depends on the intention.") are less debatable. Assuming the direct effect view ("the same act may be done with different intentions, and an act that is right when done with one intention may be wrong when done with a different intention.") is true, Rachels claims that the argument is just a modification of the Principle of Agency.    In his "Liberal Eugenics" (Public Affairs Quarterly, Vol.12, No.12, April, 1998, p.137-155) Nicholas Agar draw a distinction between "improving people by modifying their environments and improving them by modifying their genes." For liberals, there is no moral difference. "Traits of individuals result from the complex interaction of genes and environment." A clone of P would not be copy of P.
7/4/2006 - 星期五 Friday
	| 科學 Science |    The Solvay Conference, held in Belgium, 1927.    Einstein was struggled with Heisenberg's uncertainty principle that "the more precisely the position is determined, the less precisely the momentum is known in this instant, and vice versa."    "God does not play dice," Einstein said.    "Einstein, stop telling God what to do," replied Bohr.
8/4/2006 - 星期六 Saturday
	| 生活 Life | 　　兩類人不會懷疑自己是同性戀：一，已確定自己是異性戀者；二，已確定自己是同性戀者。 | 時事 Current affairs | 　　今日《明報》：「《達文西密碼》是歷來最成功的小說。」Well，怎麼定義成功？銷量？Don't be silly！ | 電影 Movie | 　　石琪：「他﹝鄭中基﹞確有阿Q型喜劇感，奇在正當觀眾口味走向精裝之際，他經常邋遢麻甩傻懵，卻能爆冷走紅，似乎顯出「港燦」模式比求新求精吃。在陳嘉上、林超賢合導的新片《至尊無賴》，鄭中基扮得特別邋遢傻懵，反智胡鬧，雖然有時引起觀眾笑聲，整體卻無聊幼稚。」 　　港片 bad jokes 多，humour 少。
9/4/2006 - 星期日 Sunday
	| 生活 Life | 　　我沒有懷疑自己是同性戀者。真的。
13/4/2006 - 星期四 Thursday
	| 生活 Life |    I bought five bottles of pasta sauce, HK$10.74 each! It's the cheapest price I have ever seen! Two bottles of spicy peepers, two bottles of roasted tomato and one bottle of cheesy tomato. Yummy! | 閱讀採摭 Reading | 今生今世 我最忘情的哭聲有兩次 一次，在我生命的開始 一次，在你生命的告終 第一次，我不會記得，是聽你說的 第二次，你不會曉得，我說也沒用 但兩次哭聲的中間啊 有無窮無盡的笑聲 一遍一遍又一遍 迴盪了整整三十年 你都曉得，我都記得 - 余光中〈今生今世〉母難日三題之一
14/4/2006 - 星期五 Friday
	| 哲學 Philosophy | Abortion (墮胎).    Let me start with the case of rape. If a human come into existence because of rape, does it imply that he has less right to live? I don't think so. I tend to agree that every human being has same right. Thomas Jefferson says in his "Letter to Henry Gregoire" (February 25, 1809) that "...but whatever be their degree of talent it is no measure of their rights. Because Sir Issac Newton was superior to others in understanding, he was not therefore lord of the property or persons of others." Also, as Peter Singer states, "the principle of the equality of human beings is not a description of an alleged actual equality among humans: it is a prescription of how we should treat human beings" ("All Animals are Equal").    This enforces me to suggest that the child and the mother have same right to live. The next question will be, if only one of them can survive, how to chose? and who can make the decision? And, do we consider the fetus as a person? What about responsibility and autonomy?    Here are some summaries or comments on the essays I have read. - Pope John Paul II, "the Unspeakable Crime of Abortion" (March 25, 1995): He considers abortion as direct killing, or murder, of an innocent. It sounds indecent to disagree. No deep discussion about how to define a person, maybe he thinks it is pointless to distinguish the fetus from a person. Also, no consideration has been taken to mother's sufferings. - Don Marquis, "Why Abortion is Immoral" (Journal of Philosophy, Vol.86, 1989): His objection is based on the deprived life of the fetus, which I find unconvincing. - Mary Anne Warren, "On the Moral and Legal Status of Abortion": She argues that the fetus is not human in the moral sense. She also claims that a potential may not has right to live. - Judith Jarvis Thomson, "a Defense of Abortion" (Philosophy and Public Affairs, Vol.1 No.1, Autumn, 1971, p.47-66): The violinist example given is not a good analogy, because it omitted the relationship between mother and child. - Catriona Mackenzie, "Abortion and Embodiment" (Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 70 (2), June, 1992, p.136-155): She defends abortion with feminist perspective. Fair enough. - Daniel Callahan, "Abortion Decisions: Personal Morality" (1970): He puts it clear that woman inclines to against abortion. Taking her duties to herself, family and society factors into consideration, abortion may be acceptable.
15/4/2006 - 星期六 Saturday
	| 哲學 Philosophy |    In his recent article "Can Fetuses Feel Pain?" (British Medical Journal, Apr 2006; 332: 909 - 912), Stuart W G Derbyshire argues that fetuses cannot experience pain. It takes 26 weeks' gestation for a neuroanatomical system for pain to be completed. Such system is necessary but not sufficient for pain experience. Pain experience requires development of both brain and mind. Fetuses inside the womb have no development of mind. Thus, fetuses cannot experience pain.
16/4/2006 - 星期日 Sunday
	| 哲學 Philosophy | James Franklin: Peter Singer...... started an enormous number of ethical courses all over the world, is I guess most famous for his view what killing new-born babies is perfectly all right if they're for example not wanted, and he doesn't mean disabled ones either, he says that there is no right to life or anything like that of a new-born baby. Stephen Crittenden: But animals on the other hand. James Franklin: Animals, well they can have as much right. He doesn't like using the word "right" exactly, but their suffering counts as much as a baby's suffering if they've got so to speak, more of it.    Singer's argument is based on the capacity to feel pain. He thinks that it is OK to kill the new-born babies if (1) the baby isn't capable of pain, and (2) the baby is unwanted for some other reasons. I guess the opponent is often misled. "Singer's opponents sometimes describe his ethics as Nazi-like—a label he regards as both inaccurate and ironic" (Singer - a Dangerous Mind - Study Guide pdf). | 生活 Life |    Watched Ice Age: The Meltdown.
24/4/2006 - 星期一 Monday
	| 生活 Life |    I had dinner in a Japanese-like Korean restaurant. There was a marquee showing xxx mid-term exam questions. History, blah blah. Economic, balabala. Can you believe it?! Then Christopher made fun with it. He said maybe people can advertise the company by sponsoring the exam paper someday. So, the front page of exam paper writes: this exam paper is proudly brought you by......     The Soon tofu soup was great. | 足球 Soccer |    Andriy Shevchenko and Harry Kewell will go to Germany this summer. Poor Giggs: http://jumbo.no-ip.org/jumbo33/jumbotak/reebok.wmv
25/4/2006 - 星期二 Tuesday
	| 哲學 Philosophy | Euthanasia (安樂死).    Summaries or comments: - James Rachels, "Active and Passive Euthanasia" (The New England Journal of Medicine 292 (1975): 78-80): People generally accept to withhold a treatment (letting die) but not taking action to "kill" the patient. Rachels argues that, if the patient is going to die, withholding the treatment indeed makes him suffers longer, hence active euthanasia is preferable to the passive one. Killing is not worse than letting die. - Philippa Foot, "Euthanasia" (Philosophy and Public Affairs, Vol.6, No.2 (Winter, 1977), 85-112): She addresses the question that "most people's lives contain evils such as grief or pain, but we do not therefore think that death would be a blessing to them. On the contrary life is generally supposed to be a good even for someone who is unusually unhappy or frustrated. How is it that one can ever wish for death for the sake of the one who is to die?" Also, "when life is said to be a benefit or a good, on what grounds is the assertion made?"    To be continued.
30/4/2006 - 星期日 Sunday
	| 哲學 Philosophy | Euthanasia (安樂死).    Rachels feels like it is "more humane" to kill rather than letting die. Foot claims that it's not the matter of what is "more humane." She thinks that if the patient doesn't want to die, no one should practice active euthanasia on him. In the sense, passive euthanasia may also be ruled out. "But as things are we cannot make assumption; we simply do not know what most people would want, or would have wanted, us to do unless they tell us." We may not presume one wish to be killed. She concludes that 1. nonvoluntary active euthanasia is never justified, 2. "nonvoluntary passive euthanasia, voluntary active euthanasia, and voluntary passive euthanasia are sometimes compatible with both justice and charity." | 科學 Science |    David Shiga reports in "the Long Arms of the Law" (New Scientist, 29 April 2006) that if the modified Newtonian dynamics (MOND) is correct, the established view of gravity and dark matter will be ruled out. In 1933, Fritz Zwicky introduced the term "dark matter," which describe unseen mass in galaxy clusters. Astronomers later showed that "galaxies are spinning too quickly to hold themselves together unless they are full of dark matter." Mordehai Milgrom published the MOND (in 1983) but it doesn't fit with Einstein's relativity. Jacob Bekenstein's version of MOND (2004) is consistent with relativity and "able to make surprising predictions about the evolution of the universe." As David Shiga states, "the only thing that could rule out MOND in the near future would be direct detection of dark matter."
五月 May
1/5/2006 - 星期一 Monday
	| 教育 Education |    Studying education makes you realise many teachers can't teach. Only a few teachers apply those theoretical stuff while they're teaching.
5/5/2006 - 星期五 Friday
	| 心理學 Psychology |    I used to think that most human beings are not doing their best. K. Anders Ericsson (Professor of Psychology at Florida State University) confirms my idea. He argues that any of us are able to attain a prodigy-level performance in our domain. So, if a physicist tried really really hard, he should be able to make breakthrough in quantum mechanics. This seems unconvincing.
8/5/2006 - 星期一 Monday
	| 心理學 Psychology |    Let me put it clear, I think most of us can achieve better if we try hard. But I'm not saying everyone is capable to achieve what Gauss or Einstein had done, even if they try their best. I guess this is the difference between my view and Ericsson's. And, of course, I don't have evidence to support my view. | 生活 Life |    It's really bad to receive a recall email from the library when you are using that book and finalising your essay.
13/5/2006 - 星期六 Saturday
	| 生活 Life |    I can sleep right after a cup of short black. Twice, last night and this afternoon. There is something wrong.
17/5/2006 - 星期三 Wednesday
	| 評論 Comment |    By saying N is black or fat, am I insulting him? Not necessary. It depends on my motive. If I simply pick one of N's characters to mention N, I don't think I am insulting him. Saying N is black is like saying someone is cute, sweet, tall or whatever. If you find these insulting, it's you who believe being black (or others) does matter.
19/5/2006 - 星期五 Friday
	| 校園生活 Campus life |    I won't make stupid mistakes again. I won't make stupid mistakes again. I won't make stupid mistakes again. I won't make stupid mistakes again. I won't make stupid mistakes again. I won't make stupid mistakes again. I won't make stupid mistakes again. I won't make stupid mistakes again. I won't make stupid mistakes again. I won't make stupid mistakes again. I won't make stupid mistakes again.
31/5/2006 - 星期三 Wednesday
	| 生活 Life |    "We all agree that your theory is crazy, but is it crazy enough?" said Niels Bohr.    You may think that I'm nerdy, but am I nerdy enough?    I like thinking.    "No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical," Bohr said.    Wait, what is thinking? Thinking about thinking. Metathinking?    "Never express yourself more clearly than you are able to think," Bohr.    You don't know what I am talking about, do you?
六月 June
30/6/2006 - 星期五 Friday
	| 校園生活 Campus life |    Two exams on one day, what an experience. 　　溫到喊。 | 生活 Life |    The silliest thing is, I didn't realise I'm stupid. 　　想吃通粉、腸粉、蘿蔔糕、馬拉糕、砵仔糕、雞蛋仔。
七月 July
9/7/2006 - 星期日 Sunday
	| 評論 Comment | 　　對那些「潮」人來說，我在「回帶」。 一．新聞 　　越來越看不順香港報紙。可能是我對新聞價值有錯誤的理解。不談了。 二．霍金訪港 　　不值。 　　Andrew Wiles 和霍金要算是當今最知名的數學家和物理學家。兩人先後於一年內訪港。最知名、著名，即不懂數學和物理學的門外漢也知道他們的名字。他們是否當代最偉大，現在下定論還早。 　　Andrew Wiles 那場演講，可在中文大學數學系網站觀看。想不到他在乎甚麼 Shaw Prize。那條費馬最後定理，中學生都看懂；Wiles 那個證明，中學生都看不懂；那場演講，我不知道是為哪些人而設的。 　　霍金之行呢，花費多少？為一場談不上學術交流的演講，值得嗎？大家都忘了當初互聯網的發明為啥。有 fans 說見霍金一面「死而無憾」。唸科學的竟然流於偶像崇拜，建議讀培根的四種 idols。 三．陶傑 　　陶傑談科技和足球，如那個乳臭未乾的小子的話，可不理。 四．俗 　　香港空氣濁，人俗。還是我忿世嫉俗。 | 哲學 Philosophy |    Spinoza defines finite, in his Ethics, as follows: "That things is said to be finite in its own kind that can be limited by another of the same nature." (translated by Edwin Curley) We compare things in its own kind. For example, computers are finite machines. The speed and capacity of any computer are limited. You can get the fastest computer today, but a faster one will be made tomorrow. But what about the whole set of computers, is there any limit? Take natural number as another example. You pick any natural number n, I can find a larger one, say n+1. Thus, there is no maximum natural number. The set of natural number is infinite.    Spinoza then defines God as an absolutely infinite being, or "a substance consisting of an infinity of attributes, of which each one expresses an eternal and infinite essence." This is imprecise. What is an absolutely infinite being exactly? He explains that "if something is absolutely infinite, whatever expresses essence and involves no negation pertains to its essence." The concept of infinite is vague.    If we don't accept what Spinoza defines, his proposition simply doesn't follow. For instance, if we adopt John Dalton's atomic theory instead of Spinoza's definition of substances, proposition like "one substance cannot be produced by another substance" is flawed.    Ethics is written as the style of Euclid's Elements. Although they both face criticisms, Elements are so solid, at least scientifically sufficient; while the arguments in the Ethics, if anyone likes, are not undeniable.    Though I don't feel like, I've to admit that most ethical arguments are not unbeatable. Take utilitarian theories as an example. If one reject the concept of good and bad, utilitarian theories, no matter how sound, can be overthrown. I'm saying that ethical theory can be sound, and providing such argument is the best you can do. These days, people just don't care about ethic and moral. Persuade them? Argue with them? They don't bother to.
23/7/2006 - 星期日 Sunday
	| 校園生活 Campus life | 　　學期伊始……不，尚未開始，已有 assignment。D'oh!
十一月 November
27/11/2006 - 星期一 Monday
	| 校園生活 Campus life | 　　檢討。上半場開局不好，後段憤起直追；下半場開局不壞，後段無以為繼。如何在整場比賽每一分鐘保持狀態是一問題。 　　下筆不到一句鐘，讀李天命《殺悶思維》：「『人生每一刻都要奮發，每一刻都要全力以赴。』神經乎？自虐乎？」
30/11/2006 - 星期四 Thursday
	| 歴史 History | 　　讀徐中約《中國近代史》﹝The Risk of Modern China，計秋楓、朱慶葆譯，香港：中文大學出版社，2003﹞。很扎實的學術教科書。清朝立國到一九八九年六四事件、一九九六臺灣總統大選和一九九七香港回歸等等，徐將我國近四百年歷史之演變清楚明白地記下。 　　拿金春明《中華人民共和國簡史》﹝增訂版，香港：開明，2001﹞隨手翻閱﹝我當然不會買這本書，是如哥棄置於我家的﹞，相形見拙，高下立判。非學術著作，選材偏畸。
十二月 December
1/12/2006 - 星期五 Friday
	| 生活 Life | 　　上幾次長假都花了不少時間老人院。沒了。寧願去乎？寧不去耶？
3/12/2006 - 星期日 Sunday
	| 哲學 Philosophy | 科學 Science | 　　哲學界有決定論﹝determinism﹞的命題：凡事多少受先前的事影響。對於這命題，其中一種批判如下：假設決定論成立，凡任意的某事，姑且名之曰事件 n。事件 n 由事件 n-1 而起，事件 n-1 由事件 n-2 而起，以此類推，有沒有第一個起因﹝first cause﹞？若沒有第一起因，起因系列是否無限？ 　　物理學有能量守恆定理﹝conservation of energy﹞：能量不被創生不被消滅，總量不變。那麼，追本窮源，萬物伊始那刻，那刻以前又如何？
4/12/2006 - 星期一 Monday
	| 文學 Literature | 　　讀夏丐尊《平屋雜文》。前兩篇悶悶的，〈長閒〉一文卻有所感，皆因我懶。
5/12/2006 - 星期二 Tuesday
	| 文學 Literature | 　　我們現在除無線電話以外還有電影可以利用，歷史上的事件，科學上的製造，如果用電影來演出，功效等於讀歷史書和科學書。假定有這麼一天，無線電話和電影發達得很進步普遍，效送的材料有人好好編製，適用於各種人的需要，那末書的用處會逐漸消滅，因為這些利器已可代替書了。我們因了想像知道太古時代沒有書，將來也可不必有書，書的需要，可以說是一種過渡時代的現象。 ——夏丏尊〈閱讀什麼〉 　　晚生不以為然。較之夏先生的年代，現在算是「無線電話和電影發達得很進步普遍」，電腦作教材也不是什麼新事物，然這類媒體不能取締書本和文字。文字暫時仍是保存人類思維的最佳工具。電影一則不及書本方便，二則觀看太久易傷神。再者，夏先生這番議論集中於工具書，忽略了文學作品﹝這番議論忽略文藝，以非整篇文章或夏先生個人﹞，而且夏先生旨在顯明書本只是求知工具之一。 | 生活 Life | 　　放假真好，晚上可讀閒書。
6/12/2006 - 星期三 Wednesday
	| 科學 Science | 　　凌晨觀亞運桌球雙人賽，中國丁俊暉伙拍田鵬飛決戰中國香港傅家俊伙拍陳偉麒。初學物理力學動量﹝momentum﹞，常以桌球作例子。同學前些時做實驗測試一定律：兩球相撞後，兩者的速度﹝velocity﹞垂直﹝成九十度﹞。實驗結果與預期相去甚遠。原因：那定律假設沒有外力﹝external force﹞，現實中能量不守恆，球與桌有摩擦力；球除了滑動，還有轉動﹝rotation﹞。
9/12/2006 - 星期六 Saturday
	| 文學 Literature | 　　周作人〈人的文學〉的價值實不亞於胡適〈文學改良芻議〉。不過，試看周氏「單從純文學上舉例」有礙人性生長破壞人類和平而該排斥所列的例子，再看他寫〈神話的辯護〉，怪。 　　此外，周氏作〈山中雜信〉有言：「托爾斯泰的無我愛與尼采的超人，共產主義與善種學，耶佛孔老的教訓與科學的例證，我都一樣的喜歡尊重，卻又不能調和統一起來，造成一條可以行的大路。」﹝臺灣洪範書店出版，楊牧編《周作人文選 I 》，一九八三年七月初印，二零零二年十月五印，沒有「共產主義與善種學」這句。﹞劉半農曾贈周氏兄長魯迅一副聯語「托尼學說，魏晉文章」。托尼者，托爾斯泰與尼采也。魯迅是否融合托尼，也未可知。
11/12/2006 - 星期一 Monday
	| 文學 Literature | 　　略談金聖嘆批水滸。先看現行的一個版本： 《水滸傳》 三民書局印行 施耐庵撰；羅貫中纂修；金聖嘆批；繆天華校訂 重印二版三刷 2003 年 1 月 ISBN 957-14-0770-4 　　這個版本所收的屬眉批，如「奇句」、「駭人之筆」、「忽然掉筆一轉。轉出一部大書來」諸如此類。用繆天華的話，這版本將批語「存英去蕪」。 　　馬蹄疾編《水滸資料彙編》﹝北京：中華書局，2003﹞收金人瑞撰貫華堂刻《第五才子書水滸》七十回總評，屬寫於每回之後的評語。
14/12/2006 - 星期四 Thursday
	| 歴史 History | 　　黑格爾相信「經驗與歷史教導我們——國家與政府永不從歷史學習，或吸收教訓。」﹝What experience and history teach is this - that nations and governments have never learned anything from history, or acted upon any lessons they might have drawn from it. Lectures on the Philosophy of History. trans. H. B. Nisbet) 　　周作人主張讀史不讀經，又說：「蓋據我多年雜覽的經驗，從書裡看出來的結論只是這兩句話，好思想寫在書本上，一點兒都未實現過，壞事情在人世間全已做了，書本上記著一小部分。」﹝見〈燈下讀書論〉﹞唉。
16/12/2006 - 星期六 Saturday
	| 哲學 Philosophy | 　　哲學家教人別偽託權威﹝appear / misuse of authority﹞。這並不表示權威一定對。例如，「愛因斯坦是物理學權威，他不相信量子力學，所以量子力學錯」這種議論不一定成立。
21/12/2006 - 星期四 Thursday
	| 文學 Literature | 　　讀余華小說集《世事如煙》，再思索《活著》。五月有人在譚以諾的 Guestbook 批評譚兄對余華的評論。本來議題不錯，然批評最後流於謾罵，可惜。 | 足球 Soccer | 　　有關簡拿華路奪世界足球先生的爭議。 　　有云 FIFA 是小圈子選舉。然選舉服眾時，如先前朗拿度、施丹、朗拿甸奴等，哪有人走出來批評選舉是小圈子？ 世界足球先生與世界盃皆是 FIFA 主辦，世界盃年又冠軍隊成員世界足球先生，到目前為止是定律。 　　有云近幾場比賽失色，有云只在世界盃有好表現。一年一度的世界足球先生取決於幾場比賽嗎？支持朗拿甸奴的只提西甲和歐聯雙料冠軍，支持亨利的只提歐聯和世界盃雙料亞軍。欠全面。 　　有關魯爾的選票，據皇馬官方網的 interview 所述是：Cannavaro, Eto'o, Henry；據 FIFA 官方網所述是：Cannavaro, Eto'o, Kaká。據聞不只魯爾的選票有問題， FIFA 應該解釋吧。
25/12/2006 - 星期一 Monday
	| 文學 Literature | 　　讀林海音《城南舊事》。關乎內容，不喜勿續。文章雖好，然掩蔽不夠，不難猜到妞兒就是小桂子、「他」就是偷兒。或許這就是小孩子看世界。
28/12/2006 - 星期四 Thursday
	| 足球 Soccer | 　　薛高 VS 羅馬里奧﹝Zico VS Romário﹞、馬甸尼 VS 簡拿華路﹝Paolo Maldini VS Fabio Cannavaro﹞，see？球技與所謂的成就成正比嗎？
29/12/2006 - 星期五 Friday
	| 文學 Literature | 　　讀林太乙《林家次女》，是另一個童年故事。她小時侯認為兒童﹝她﹞不用購票看戲不公平。董橋說：「讀她的《林語堂傳》，我讀到的是林太乙的一生；讀她的《林家次女》我算是真正讀了林語堂的傳記。」﹝見〈送別林家次女〉﹞這話不錯。 　　又，我以為魯迅和林語堂，好比謝拉特和林柏特，或 Kuromi 和 My Melody，水火不容。林太乙卻說：「其實，兩人雖然思想不同，個人之間卻沒有什麼仇怨。語堂心目中無惡人，他認為魯迅易怒多疑，是因為他身體不好的緣故。」﹝見《林語堂傳》﹞
31/12/2006 - 星期日 Sunday
	| 文學 Literature | 　　許地山的小品和短篇小說短小精悍，很深刻。 　　「生本不樂，能夠使人覺得稍微安適的只有躺在牀上那幾小時，但要在那短促的時間中希冀極樂，也是不可能的事。」落華生﹝許地山﹞《空山靈雨．弁言》。生本樂、生本不樂，如性本惡、性本不惡，不成問題。要麼生本樂，生後卻自尋煩惱庸人自擾，生本樂又如何；縱然生本不樂，生後亦可自尋愉悅，生本不樂又何妨？一冊陶詩在手，一杯咖啡相伴，能不樂乎？還嫌金聖歎只得不亦快哉三十三則不夠呢。

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