Jordan Lake, NC

One Year Marriage Aniversery

小时候，学习成语，“时光如梭”“光阴似箭”不能完全理解其中的深刻含义。现在终于明白了。不知不觉中，已在美国呆了十五个月多了。今天，十月二十四号，我人生最重要的一天，也在美国度过.

特发几张照片， 以次纪念。




Katy Says Today Is the Best Day of My Whole Entire Life
Christine Lavin

This song always reminds me of Pound's Study in Aesthetics.

Katy says "Today is the best day
Of my whole entire life!"
Katy is three years old.
We've been dancin' in the living room
To her new Tom Paxton record.
Katy's got a lot of rhythm
When she wiggles for a little kid;
She's got soul.
That night, when her mom and dad come home,
I tell them what she said to me.
I bet they'll think I'm some kind of
Baby-sitting genius
To make this little girl so darned happy.
But they smile, and they say,
"Don't take this the wrong way,
But Katy said the same thing yesterday.
Lately, she's been saying that every day."

I think back to what I know
As the best day of my life.
It was wintertime ten years ago.
We were stayin' at a farmhouse
In the middle of Vermont.
The hills were covered in Christmas trees
And freshly fallen snow.
Instantly I picture
The vivid details of that day
When you told me that you loved me more
Than you could ever say.
The air was a bracing cold,
The sky a startled blue.
Never before, or since,
Have I felt that close to you.

What does that say about you and me
And the past ten years?
I've learned to live with your silence.
You've learned to overlook my tears.
Now this dancing three year old
In her simple, perfect way
Has me questioning the basis for
The life we live today.

Katy's probably sleeping now.
I wonder if she dreams
About flying with the angels
Dancing with moonbeams.
You are here beside me,
You are snoring right out loud.
I long to kiss you on the forehead
And soothe your worried brow.
Although we have not given up,
It's been ages since we tried
To reveal the aching passion
That for years we pushed aside.
I whisper that I love you,
Because I know you cannot hear.
I turn off the light, and in the dark,
You gently pull me near.

Katy says "Today is the best day
Of my whole entire life."


(From http://stuff.mit.edu/people/dpolicar/writing/poetry/poems/katy.html)

Somewhere Out There

I though it was about time to make a love song. SO I found Somewhere Out There by Linda Ronstadt and make another POTO video. Here are the lyrics.
Somewhere out there,
Beneath the pale moon night,
Someone's thinking of me,
And loving me tonight.
Somewhere out there,
Someone's saying a prayer,
Then we'll find one another,
In that big somewhere out there.

(Chorus 1)
And even though I know how very far apart we are,
It helps to think we might be wishing
On the same bright star,
And when the night will start to sing
A lonesome lullaby,
It helps to think we're sleeping underneath the
Same big sky.

(Chorus 2)
Somewhere out there,
If love can see us through,
Then, we'll be together,
Somewhere out there, out where dreams, come true.

(Repeat Chorus 1)

(Repeat Chorus 2)

隐形的翅膀，孤独中的坚强！

今天偶然之间在文学城的博客听到这首歌，觉得歌声好熟悉， 一查，原来自ANGELA, 仔细聆听，歌词好美，“每一次， 都在徘徊孤独中坚强” ， 这四年来，生活何尝不是这样，好希望， 有一天终于能看到所以梦想都开花。

特收集到这里行赏。

Surface chemistry wins Nobel Prize

The 2007 Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded to German scientist Gerhard Ertl, on his 71st birthday. Ertl's groundbreaking research showed chemists it was possible to understand the fine details of what gas molecules do at the solid surfaces of metals. He worked out the role of metal catalysts in industrial reactions such as the making of artificial fertilizer. But he also pioneered the study of surfaces in many chemical processes: from ozone destruction in the atmosphere and cars' exhaust-cleaning catalytic converters, to the manufacture of pharmaceuticals, and materials for the electronics industry.

'Ertl's lifelong work has lifted the subject of molecular chemistry at surfaces from alchemy to cutting edge 21st century science,' said Ortwin Hess of the University of Surrey, UK.

Well before Ertl was born, chemists knew solid surfaces were key to catalysing reactions: as far back as 1912, Paul Sabatier shared the Nobel Prize for using nickel to help hydrogenate organic compounds. But the precise details of how molecules and atoms interacted with a surface evaded scientists: they didn't have the technology to look closely enough.


"Ertl's lifelong work has lifted the subject of molecular chemistry at surfaces from alchemy to cutting edge 21st century science"
- Ortwin Hess
In the 1960s, the right tools fell within reach, thanks to methods developed by the semiconductor industry, such as the ability to handle clean surfaces under almost perfect vacuum. An array of sophisticated techniques were developed by chemists, Ertl among them: injecting gas molecules onto surfaces and firing electrons, UV, infrared and x-rays at them in order to probe their structures using microscopy, spectroscopy and diffraction.

Ertl began by looking at how hydrogen atoms were organised on the surface of metals such as palladium, platinum and nickel. In the 1980s he studied the Haber-Bosch process, where ammonia is made by nitrogen and hydrogen gas molecules reacting on an iron surface. Ertl explained that nitrogen molecules split apart into atoms on the surface; where the atoms were adsorbed; why potassium promoted the reaction, and the step-by-step mechanism of ammonia production. In doing so he laid down a model of how to unravel any solid-gas catalytic mechanism.

In the 1980s and 90s Ertl tackled another classic reaction: how carbon monoxide is oxidised on a platinum surface to form carbon dioxide - one of the key reactions in the catalytic converter. This one was more complicated, since the kinetics of reaction were not dominated by one slow step. Again, he picked his way through a formidable series of methods to a comprehensive understanding; showing how molecules moved around on the platinum in complicated rhythms and patterns during the reaction.

Ertl, now emeritus professor at Berlin's Fritz Haber Institute, part of the Max Planck Society, was delighted with his award. 'This is the best birthday present you can give to somebody,' he told the Swedish Academy of Sciences.

Surface scientists were pleased with the recognition of their field, but at the same time surprised that other surface science pioneers, including David King, of Cambridge University, UK and Gabor Somorjai, of the University of California, Berkeley, had missed out.

'No doubt there will be disappointment in some quarters that the prize was not more widely shared,' said Andrea Sella, of University College London. But many surface scientists agreed with American Chemical Society President Katie Hunt: 'I am delighted that the prize recognizes a field of chemistry that often receives little public attention, and yet has transformed lives in so many ways.'

(From http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/News/2007/October/10100703.asp)

And a time to every purpose under heaven

When I heard this song today, which made me move, and like tell me something. Exactly, there is a time for everything around you. So whatever happened to you everytime, positive? negative? Face it and Enjoy it with a common sence.





Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is a Season)
The Byrds


To everything - turn, turn, turn
There is a season - turn, turn, turn
And a time to every purpose under heaven

对于任何事物(-转变，转变，转变)
都有对应的季节(-转变，转变，转变)
天下的任何事情，都有对应的时间。

A time to be born, a time to die
A time to plant, a time to reap
A time to kill, a time to heal
A time to laugh, a time to weep

有出生时，有死亡时
有种植时，有收割时
有杀戮时，有治愈时
有欢笑时，有流泪时

To everything - turn, turn, turn
There is a season - turn, turn, turn
And a time to every purpose under heaven

对于任何事物(-转变，转变，转变)
都有对应的季节(-转变，转变，转变)
天下的任何事情，都有对应的时间。

A time to build up, a time to break down
A time to dance, a time to mourn
A time to cast away stones
A time to gather stones together

有建立时，有摧毁时
有跳舞时，有忧伤时
有抛弃石头时
有收聚石头时

To everything - turn, turn, turn
There is a season - turn, turn, turn
And a time to every purpose under heaven

对于任何事物(-转变，转变，转变)
都有对应的季节(-转变，转变，转变)
天下的任何事情，都有对应的时间。

A time of love, a time of hate
A time of war, a time of peace
A time you may embrace
A time to refrain from embracing

有热爱时，有痛恨时
有战争时，有和平时
有可能拥抱时
有避免拥抱时

To everything - turn, turn, turn
There is a season - turn, turn, turn
And a time to every purpose under heaven

对于任何事物(-转变，转变，转变)
都有对应的季节(-转变，转变，转变)
天下的任何事情，都有对应的时间。

A time to gain, a time to lose
A time to rend, a time to sew
A time for love, a time for hate
A time for peace, I swear it's not too late!

有收获时，有损失时
有撕碎时，有缝合时
有热爱时，有痛恨时
有和平时，我敢说不会太迟了。

The Byrds乐队的一首经典之作，曾经作为插曲出现在电影《阿甘正传》当中，歌名Turn! Turn! Turn!（To Everything There Is A Season）。To everything there is a season是宾，而turn turn turn是主，正如"诸行无常"中，"无常"为主一般。这首歌，说的也正是"诸行无常"的道理，非常切合电影的主题，无论是阿甘的一生，还是大背景的美国的那几十年，不都是在turn turn turn吗?
(From http://web.wenxuecity.com/BBSView.php?SubID=mysj&MsgID=12091)

Giant magnetoresistance wins Nobel prize for physicists

(From http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/News/2007/October/09100703.asp)

The 2007 Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to Frenchman Albert Fert and German Peter Grünberg, for their discovery of giant magnetoresistance (GMR). The effect makes it possible to read densely-packed data storage devices, paving the way for today's tiny, high-capacity computer hard drives.

In 1988, Grünberg and Fert independently announced that thin multilayers of iron and chromium showed a huge change in electrical resistance when placed in magnetic fields. As both researchers quickly realised, the surprising effect meant that small magnetic changes in the materials greatly affected electron flow. The tool was perfect for reading data from hard disks, where information stored magnetically has to be converted to electric current. Grünberg quickly patented the discovery, and by 1997 the first read-out head based on GMR was launched by IBM.

'It's probably the most rapidly-developed scientific discovery ever, in terms of technology - within 5 or 6 years of the initial discovery, researchers were looking at commercial production,' Mark Blamire, who works on magnetic devices at the University of Cambridge, UK, told Chemistry World.



Hard drive
The hard drive: less than a decade from pure science to global impact

© Nobel Foundation


In Fert and Grünberg's original systems, a layer of non-magnetic chromium was sandwiched by layers of ferromagnetic iron. If the atomic spins in successive iron layers were oriented in the same direction, making the overall magnetisation of both layers parallel, electrons could also align their spins and pass through the material with little resistance.

But electrical resistance shot up when the second iron layer had its magnetisation aligned antiparallel to the first. That's because the electrons which had oriented their spins with one set of iron atoms were then scattered on encountering the next layer. Fert's team used a series of iron layers with alternating magnetisation, which strengthened the effect on electron flow.

This phenomenon - which Fert called giant magnetoresistance - provided a way to detect the magnetic field alignment of tiny segments of a magnetic disk, used to store bits of computer data. The giant magnetoresistive material in a read 'head', hovering over the spinning hard disk, has its magnetisation changed by the bits of data flying beneath it. This in turn alters the flow of electrical current through the read head, creating a relatively strong signal from a tiny magnetic field - and using smaller magnetic domains allows much denser data storage.



Chemical origins

In GMR's wake has come a more sensitive effect called tunnelling magnetoresistance (TMR), where an insulating material acts as the sandwich, which electrons can move through by quantum tunnelling. GMR also paved the way for a new field of electronics called spintronics, where an electron's spin - manipulated with magnetic fields - is used as the basic component of binary data.

Fert and Grünberg's success rested on chemical techniques that allowed them to make thin layers of different materials. 'The discovery depended on the ability to grow and deposit metallic films at nanometre length scales with high precision,' said Blamire. In the laboratory, the scientists built up the layers by depositing atoms from low-pressure gases of iron and chromium; but the technology really took off commercially when IBM's Stuart Parkin achieved the same effect with industrial-scale sputtering techniques.

'It serves as a timely reminder that important fundamental breakthroughs in physics can have long-lasting significance and that the results of research being undertaken now, in a wide range of areas, will no doubt be primary drivers in how we live and work in another thirty years' time,' said Peter Main, director of education and science at the Institute of Physics.