The Singularity is Near....

為迎接電腦比人腦聰明的時代，網路業巨擘Google公司和美國太空總署（NASA）決定合作，支持在矽谷辦一所培養未來學家的學校。
英國金融時報3日報導，這間奇點大學（Singularity University）由發明家兼未來學家柯茲威爾（Ray Kurzweil）領導，他曾預測電腦科技將超越人腦，因而成為爭議性人物。
而Google和NASA合作辦校，等於支持柯茲威爾認為在本世紀中葉前人工智慧將超越人類的看法。
校址位在NASA的艾姆士研究中心，距Google總部僅一箭之遙。
奇點大學將會提供生物科技、奈米科技、人工智慧方面的課程。
奇點（Singularity）是指未來科技快速進展到一個理論上的時刻，此詞彙因柯茲威爾2005年出版「奇點迫近」（The Singularity is Near）一書而知名。到奇點時，機器可經由人工智慧自我進化，而比人腦聰明的電腦也可解決包括能源短缺、氣候變遷、飢餓等問題。有些人則擔心懷有惡意的人工智慧會把人類給消滅。
柯茲威爾表示，選在此時際創校，是因現在已很接近他所謂的奇點。

Tarot Card: an intuitive soul searching...

From the following 22 cards, you can close your eyes, ask a question, and then pick one yourself ..., from which will bring you to the most inner secrete of your subconsciousness, that associates the high power in the universe.


The Major Arcana (greater secrets), or trump cards:

ठेFool, The Magician, The High Priestess, The Empress, The Emperor, The Hierophant, The Lovers, The Chariot, Strength, The Hermit, Wheel of Fortune, Justice, The Hanged Man, Death, Temperance, The Devil, The Tower, The Star, The Moon, The Sun, Judgement, and The World.

Man at the water front

Woman like any man, if she has an ideal idol, yet remove, she would not need to shop around for a better choice.

Lust and Revelation 1-1

Like a leopard, elegant, inviolable, yet so licentious and unrestrained, as she entered the room, the scent from sandalwood permeates in the air, worshiping her presence. She lights up 200 candles with her breath, for a second, like a summer breeze blowing on his face, wearing a ceramic golden mask. Sheer chiffon with fiery red that touches her body so gentle, shapes her snowy bosom breast, he desires to unravel her, to kiss her, to bite her, but he could not, because he is apprehended and shackled by two naked men.

"Hungry? my love." She says with a alluring glare.
"Unshackled me please..." He thinks that instead of resistance, if he can challenge her with his masculine power.
"Loosen you lips, my love."
She ignores his inquiries, put a cherry in her mouth passing it, with her shivering and warming tong, into his mouth and she snaps his hip bone.

"My Queen, Cleopatra ..." while his muscle flooded with boiling stream, they cuddle and hypnotize themselves into endless fantasized lusting illusions. (1-1, Mindancer)

Lust and Revelation 1-2

Every person has two faces of consciousness, one with his ideal, one with himself, the reality. When the two faces merges, he transcends to the other self, and above all contradictory he might encounter.

In the theater, as she watched those bewildered scene, she did not close her eyes, or tried to escape the moment of intrusion or instant humiliation, but instead, she stared at the screen feeling indifferent.

Ghost flying in from the window, group sexual interbreed, physical bodies with amputated legs, raping acts with distorted and bloody faces....

She sat motionlessly there, not frightened, but sensing a mile of detachment from the world, a span of chill crawling from her feet to her heart, not from fear but from her own coldness.

When she was a child, even a year ago, she could not watch any horrid movies, could not bear any thing emotionally astounding, for she could not walk in the dark alleys, sleeping without lights on, for these monsters would chase after her in her nightmares...

How did this apathetic feeling has become of her ? When did these protecting deities encompass her ? Should she feel pleased of such "improvement" ? Or she must have suffered from a life and death trauma. Is this good or bad? These thoughts awoke her while in conscious, she was determined having experienced a revelation that never occurred in the past 20 years.
She did not tell anyone that from this point on, she felt 3000 years old, like an vampire living forever in the universe, watching human being developed into such a lovely and ugly species that she was not proud to admit to be one. Yet, she tells stories. (1-2, Mindancer)

Lover Words

...she said to him that her bed is a boat and that his voice is the wind that sends her sailing over the dark star sprinkled night sky towards pleasure

....they move together, called silently by love and desire and needs un-fullfilled. They move with the same rhythm, sinuous and sensual, heartbeats become drumbeats and their breathing becomes music

....she told him that the poetry would always be remembered, she would tattoo it on her soul and sing it at sunrise to remind herself each day that she was loved.

*by sweetmango*

Lantin Dance Performance

Breathtaking Rumba:
1http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpKGY-AZO5M&feature=related
2http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5hAPViU3pk&feature=related

Argentine Tango:

1http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HG0Q530daGI&feature=related
2http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXhQNRsH3uc&feature=related

結論是，在技巧還沒熟練之前，十足的熱情與魅力，即使情感是渾然天成，也沒那麼容易呢.....

Portrait Session

Reveiws on "Der Vorleser: The Reader" 2 :

In the working class of Hanna's generation in Germany of 60's, much of this, has its roots in Pan Germanism and the terrible conditions that existed in Germany after WWI (see "Cabaret" for a stunning visual of this time period). Any sensitive person must do a lot of soul-searching after reading such a book. What would you do in such a society, having been brought up to believe in the racial and ethnic superiority of your race? Would you do anything to protect your family, your life? Is it not the ultimate responsibility of every human being to survive, to the best of their ability? Or must one sacrifice oneself for what one believes is right, no matter what the price?

Yes, Hanna is a murderer, however, also a pitiful victim of life and of her generation, who has struggled to live, who would conceal her illiteracy for her pride, to escape from the matter of morality rather than reasoning.

Reveiws on "Der Vorleser: The Reader" 1

The topic of the Holocaust is raised almost every day in some manner. Many books have been written about the topic. Whether in studies, documentaries or fictional accounts, finger-pointing at the perpetrators of the crimes against millions has been part of the process of coming to terms with the Nazi atrocities. For Imre Kertesz, renowned author and Nobel laureate of 2002, there is no other topic. Yet, when he reflects on the traumatic impact of Auschwitz, "he dwells on the vitality and creativity of those living today" and "thus, paradoxically, not on the past but the future." Bernhard Schlink, professor of law and practicing judge in Germany, born in 1944, has attempted to capture the struggles of his generation in confronting the past and the future in "The Reader". "Pointing at the guilty party did not free us from shame", his narrator and protagonist contemplates, "but at least it overcame the suffering we went through on account of it". The usually unambiguous distinction between villain and victim has facilitated the identification with those who lost their lives or suffered under the Nazi atrocities while all scorn, abhorrence and hate was piled on the perpetrators.

Until recently, few books have focused on the after-war generation. While growing up, the children had to come to terms with the, often sudden, exposure of their parents' active or passive participation in the crimes of the Nazi regime. "The Reader", set in post-war Germany and against the backdrop of the Frankfurt Auschwitz trials of the mid-sixties, takes this new and, for our generations, important angle: in the form of the fictional memoir of Michael Berg. Michael, while not refuting guilt, shame, and atonement, is led to examine and dissect the complexity of inter-generational conflicts in the context of his personal experiences. Like Schlink himself, he grapples with the fundamental problem of the relationships between these two generations. Michael recounts the most important stages in his life, starting with experiences long passed in his youth. While his account follows the chronology of events, he progressively interleaves retrospective reflections on his past conduct, questioning his conflicting emotions - his behaviour.

The story starts with Michael's first, secret, love affair at age 15 with a woman more than twice his age. The blossoming erotic relationship strengthens his self-worth and confidence yet, at the same time, increasingly isolating him from his family and peers. Hanna Schmitz, of whose circumstances and background Michael knew very little, was affectionate and standoffish at the same time, prone to abrupt mood swings. The young lover is completely captivated and eager to please. He is the "Reader", in German "Vorleser" is a person who reads aloud to an audience. At her insistence he reads his books to her and it becomes an important element of their shared intimacy. When she disappears one day without any warning, her loss leaves him devastated and scarred for life. He can only seek the reasons in his own actions.

Seeing Hanna again years later and in unanticipated surroundings, triggers a flood of questions about the person he loved and thought he knew. Her behaviour raises many questions and Michael discovers a long secret that puts in doubt the facts as they are exposed. He also wrestles with himself over his own inaction when confronted with choices. "What would you have done?" Although addressed to the judge by the defendant, this question hangs over Michael, as it does over his whole generation. It encapsulates the primary dilemma of the child-parent generations relationships. Finally, writing the story of his life, drafting and redrafting it in his head until it is in a publishable form, is seen as a chance for his own recovery and for living his own life.

The Reader, while a work of fiction, is deeply anchored in the personal experiences of the author and symbolic for his generation. His spare and unemotional language underlines the impression of a biographical investigation and is used quite deliberately. The English translation captures the tone and style amazingly well. Reading this book should not be an "easy pleasure" as some reviewers have suggested. The Reader covers difficult and complex terrain in a way that it forces the reader to reflect and question their own position long afterwards. Although written directly for a German audience of Schlink's and my generation, the novel, surprisingly, has attracted world-wide attention. While reviews and reactions among readers are highly diverse and even contradictory, it should be read by as many people as possible and with the care the subject matter deserves. [Friederike Knabe]

十七歲時的夢

有一陣子，忘了什麼是無憂無慮，什麼是清純的愛戀....

一直以來，真的好想，單單純純的聽一首夜曲，凝視著，沒有思考的，單純的漂泊在夕陽下...

有點像威尼斯的悠閒:

那是十七歲時的夢...

Auction 1: Asian Art