倫理道德與因果

Putin leans here on a strange theory advanced by the 20th-century historian and ethnographer Lev Gumilev. The son of two of Russia's most famous poets, Nikolai Gumilev and Anna Akhmatova, Gumilev maintains that every people' possesses a distinct life force: a "bio-cosmic" inner energy or passionate substance that he calls passionarnost. Putin may have known Gumilev in St Petersburg at the start of the 1990s. At any rate, he has embraced his ideas and never misses an opportunity to refer to them. In February last year, he said: " I believe in passionarnost. In nature as in society, there is development, climax and decline. Russia has not yet attained its highest point. We are on the way". According to him, Russia carries the power and potential of a young people. "We possess an infinite genetic code", he has said.   In addition to Gumilev, Putin relies on another thinker - a minor figure in the history of Russian thought. Last October, he spoke of...

      Good health and a healthy appetite go hand in hand in Austen's novels. Her heroines when flourishing eat in moderation and without worrying too much about what they are eating and what they are not. Catherine Morland, the youthful, zestful heroine of Northanger Abbey, is blessed with "a good appetite and eats just what she wants to, when she is hungry.       The heroines' good constitutions and well-regulated appetites are also conjoined with a taste for fresh air and exercise. Often, they are determined walkers, visiting friends and neighbors on foot, enjoying scenic strolls (Catherine) or traipsing, like the best of the Romantics, through the natural world (Marianne Dashwood). Elizabeth Bennet thinks nothing of walking three miles "in [] dirty weather" to see her cold-ridden sister marooned at Netherfield, "crossing field after field at a quick pace, jumping over stiles and springing over puddles with impatient activity, and finding herself at...

     Global coffee prices have soared to their highest in nearly 50 years due to poor weather in Brazil and Vietnam, forcing roasters such as Nestle to raise prices and consumers to hunt for cheaper brews amid the cost of living crisis. Production problems linked to bad weather in Brazil and Vietnam have seen global supplies lagging demand for three years. That has left stocks depleted and driven benchmark ICE exchange prices to a peak of US$3.36 per lb.       Last time coffee traded that high was in 1977 when snow destroyed swathes of Brazil's plantations. However, the shock to consumers was much bigger back then. If adjusted for inflation, US$3.36 per lb in 1977 would be equivalent to US$17.68 today.       Brazil, which produces nearly half the world's arabica , high-end beans used primarily in roast and ground blends, experienced one of its worst droughts on record this year. Although rains finally arrived in October, soil moistu...

  甲、〈明妃曲〉王安石 明妃初出漢宮時，淚濕春風鬢腳垂。低徊顧影無顏色，尚得君王不自持。歸來卻怪丹青手，入眼平生幾曾有；意態由來畫不成，當時枉殺毛延壽。一去心知更不歸，可憐著盡漢宮衣；寄聲欲問塞南事，只有年年鴻雁飛。家人萬里傳訊息，好在氈城莫相憶；君不見咫尺長門閉阿嬌，人生失意無南北。 乙、〈再和明妃曲〉歐陽脩 漢官有佳人，天子初未識。一朝隨漢使，遠嫁單于國。絕色天下無，一失難再得。 雖能殺畫工， 於事竟何益！耳目所及尚如此，萬里安能制夷敵？漢計誠已拙，女色難自誇。明妃去時淚，灑向枝上花。狂風日幕起，飄泊落誰家？紅顏勝人多薄命，莫怨春風當自嗟。 審視明妃觀點的差異： 王安石 毛延壽 對於毛延壽被誤殺，感到惋惜，認為畫作是有主觀意識，藝術的侷限性，也批判漢元帝識人不明。 明妃命運 對明妃的命運看法不同，將明妃與阿嬌相類比，表示人生失意是普遍性，不分南遠北近。也對明妃的際遇表示同情與無奈，著重於人生無常的感慨，附有哲學性思考。 政策 詩中未直接點名漢朝政策失敗，而透過明妃的個人經歷，反應宮廷的腐敗和君王的昏庸。像是君王歸來責怪曾為昭君畫像的畫師毛延壽，暗諷皇帝識人不明，但整體重心在人生哲理和個人情感。 帶有哲理性和個人命運的普遍性 歐陽脩 毛延壽 文中提到雖能殺畫工， 於事竟何益。雖然殺畫工於事無補，但主要強調漢朝政策的失誤，而非為畫工開脫。而在葛洪‧畫工棄市提到 「 匈奴入朝，求美人爲閼氏。於是上案圖，以昭君行。及去，召見，貌爲後宮第一，善應付，舉止優雅。帝悔之，而名籍已定。 帝重信於外國，故不復更人。 」 歐陽修更強調殺畫工也改變不了明妃遠征，反應政治決策的批判。 明妃命運 前面提到王昭君出塞時流淚，眼淚如同春花灑落，而黃昏時刻狂風吹起，將落花吹得四處飄零，如同王昭君的命運，漂泊無依。最後一句點出明妃紅顏薄命的宿命，強調著不應怨天尤人，應自嘆命運。 政策 說漢元帝眼前的美醜尚不能辨，萬里之遙夷狄的情況如何判斷。也引出漢朝的和親政策來維持和平，實際上計謀拙劣，靠女色也無法為政策自辯。而最後的勸誡，帶有強烈的反諷，表現上歸結於明妃自身的紅顏，實際上是政治的失敗中，女性成為最終犧牲品的殘酷事實，這是一種責任轉嫁與社會不公的無聲控訴。 帶有較多的批判性，政治與社會批判 心得： 歷史上較有名的安史之亂，造成唐朝很大的災難，唐玄宗遇上楊貴妃，有人認為是 楊貴妃的錯。但...

       Joseph Lister, a British surgeon, revolutionized the field of surgery by introducing antisepsis, a method of using chemicals to destroy germs that cause infections. Before his groundbreaking efforts, surgical procedures were perilous, with infection rates alarmingly high. The prevailing theory at the time attributed wound infections to gases entering the wounds, rather than to microorganisms, showing a lack of understanding of the role that microorganisms played in disease transmission. Lister was convinced that invisible creatures were responsible for the high mortality rates in his patients, so he experimented with carbolic acid, a chemical known to kill parasites and treat sewage, applying it methodically to sterilize surgical instruments and disinfect wounds. Lister's antiseptic techniques were met with resistance from his contemporaries, who found it difficult to believe that invisible germs could be the cause of infections. However, his meticulous docu...

  Consider the two most widely prevalent, quite modern official documents of personal identity: the birth certificate and the passport. Both were born in the nationalist nineteenth century and later became interlinked. It is true that in the Christianized regions of the world the registration of births long preceded the rise of capitalism. But these births were recorded locally and ecclesiastically in parish churches; their registration, foreshadowing imminent baptisms, signified the appearance of Christian souls in new corporeal forms. In the nineteenth century, however, registration was taken over by states that were increasingly assuming a national colouring. In industrially pre-eminent England, for example, the Registrar General's office was created only in 1837. Compulsory registration of all births, whether to be followed by baptisms or not, did not come until 1876. Identifying each baby's father and place of birth, the state's certificates created the founding docu...

  Students in a Florida school district will be reading only excerpts from William Shakespeare's plays for class rather than the full texts under redesigned curriculum guides developed , in part, to take into consideration the state's " Don't Say Gay" Laws . The changes to the Hillsborough County Public Schools' curriculum guides were made with Florida's new laws prohibiting classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity in mind. Other reasons included revised state standards and an effort to get students to read a wide variety of books for new state exams, the school district said in an emailed statement on Tuesday. Several Shakespeare plays use suggestive puns and innuendo , and it is implied that the protagonists have had premarital sex in "Romeo and Juliet." Shakespeare's books will be available for checkout at media centers at schools, said the district, which covers the Tampa area. "First and foremost, we have no...

原文： In 1969, Stanford social psychologist Philip Zimbardo conducted a simple and daring experiment. He parked cars in two different locations: one in a sketchy neighborhood in New York's Bronx and the other in Palo Alto , California, near his home university. The license plates were removed from the cars and the hoods were raised to suggest that the cars had been left following an episode of mechanical trouble. Zimbardo's research assistants waited nearby but out of sight to watch and film the result. In the Bronx, the abandoned car was stripped quickly. The acts of vandalism began almost before the assistants had a chance to move out of sight and to set up their camera. In Palo Alto, the car was left intact for many days. Indeed, one passerby lowered the hood of the car during a rainstorm to protect the interior. Zimbardo interpreted this straightforward result as having been a result of differences in feelings of community and reciprocity in the two neighborhoods. Just as the...

  讀方孝孺的文章《深慮論》有感（轉貼） 作者：恥畏勇      主題：戒色 　　原文： 　　慮天下者，常圖其所難，而忽其所易；備其所可畏，而遺其所不疑。然而禍常發於所忽之中，而亂常起於不足疑之事。豈其慮之未周與？蓋慮之所能及者，人事之宜然；而出於智力之所不及者，天道也。當秦之世，而滅六諸侯，一天下；而其心以為周之亡，在乎諸侯之強耳。變封建而為郡縣，方以為兵革可不復用，天子之位可以世守；而不知漢帝起隴畝之匹夫，而卒亡秦之社稷。漢懲秦之孤立，於是大建庶孽而為諸侯，以為同姓之親，可以相繼而無變；而七國萌篡弒之謀。武宣以後，稍剖析之而分其勢，以為無事矣；而王莽卒移漢祚。光武之懲哀平，魏之懲漢，晉之懲魏，各懲其所由亡而為之備；而其亡也，皆出其所備之外。唐太宗聞武氏之殺其子孫，求人於疑似之際而除之；而武氏日侍其左右而不悟。宋太祖見五代方鎮之足以制其君，盡釋其兵權，使力弱而易制；而不知子孫卒因於夷狄。此其人皆有出人之智，負蓋世之才，其於治亂存亡之幾，思之詳而備之審矣；慮切於此，而禍興於彼，終至於亂亡者，何哉？蓋智可以謀人，而不可以謀天。良醫之子，多死於病；良巫之子，多死於鬼；彼豈工於活人而拙於活己之子哉？乃工於謀人而拙於謀天也。古之聖人，知天下後世之變，非智慮之所能周，非法術之所能制；不敢肆其私謀詭計，而惟積至誠、用大德，以結乎天心；使天眷其德，若慈母之保赤子而不忍釋。故其子孫，雖有至愚不肖者足以亡國，而天卒不忍遽亡之，此慮之遠者也。夫苟不能自結於天，而欲以區區之智，籠絡當世之務，而必後世之無危亡，此理之所必無者也，而豈天道哉？ 　　感想： 　　這是古文觀止的一篇文章。末學不才，冒昧談一下讀後感。文章一開始就說人們預防不幸的事情總是從困難的地方下手，而忽略了竅門。而禍害經常源於不令人懷疑而被人忽視的地方。從這篇文章我們可以看出歷代皇帝都防備他們的江山有一天滅亡，可是每一次滅亡的原因都是他們忽視的地方。智者千慮，必有一失。末學以前邪淫習氣很重。俗話說：不做虧心事，不怕鬼叫門。自己以前總是想法防備別人。好像總是有人要害末學。其實自己害了自己，邪淫一方面削弱了身體健康，另一方面損害了自己的事業和學業。高中考大學只差一分望一類大學而興歎。因為用單位的電腦上淫穢網站而被老闆發現而看不起最終導致以過折功無緣無故被降級。儘管末學掩飾自己的醜行越來越深但是...