Monthly Archives: November 2010

QOTD 2010-11-30

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Quote of the day:

(According to Steven Levy’s famous book “Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution“:

When Richard Greenblatt was a MIT student in 1960s, he was absorbed in programming, and skipped every class.

Then he was placed on academic probation.

His mother came to MIT to try to persuade the dean. She still want him to get his degree.

But to Greenblatt, it wasn’t really important to be ousted from the Campus. Because he is doing something no one did before, he saw great things to be done, it was very difficult to get excited about classes.)

The reason he loves programming is –

“It was what he did best and what made him happiest.”

Before long, he slept past a final exam, which hastened his exit form MIT.

THE END

Lottery Sales Roar!

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Last week, China “Dual-colored Ball”(双色球) lottery created a new sales record — 319 million RMB a week.

Experts estimate the sum of total China lottery sales in 2010 would be 164 billion RMB, which means every single Chinese buy 100RMB lottery in 2010.

I remember, another statistic figure is every single Chinese buy less than 10 RMB of books one year (except school textbooks).

The conclusion is the size of publishing industry is one tenth of lottery industry in China….

via (Chinese)

THE END

A Story of “Illegal” Flower-Sellers

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The following story is so incredible and ludicrous.

After 58 people killed in the deadly inferno last monday, many citizens went to the spot to mourn the victims.

When you arrived there, some people in black, with bunches of white chrysanthemums in their hands, approached and whispered:

“Want a bunch of cheap flowers? Only 5 yuan (75 US cents) a bunch.”

These people are “illegal” flower sellers, according to the local offical news media’s report.

They bought the flowers at nearby flower stalls, in a price of 2 yuan/bunch, then reselled in 5~10 yuan/bunch. If you buy in volume, they can even give you a 10% discount. Since most mourners are in no mood for bargaining with them, it seemed to be a easy way to make a fast buck.

But some citizens cannot bear to watch, and complained to the authority. So Urban Management Officials(UMO, 城管) appeared at the scene.

The UMO caught several sellers at the site, and asked them to distribute their flowers among mourners for free.

However, other sellers evaded detection by assuming sorrowful expressions and pretending to be mourners when they saw officials approach. And when the officials passed, they continued their business.

via

THE END

Marriage is becoming obsolete?

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It seems 4 in 10 American couples think so, according to a new survey.

The survey gives us some interesting figures:

  • Now, only 52% American adults (18 years old and over) are in marriage, an all-time low.

  • Nearly one third of American children are now living with a parent who is divorced, separated or never married, a five-fold increase from 1960.

  • About 15% American children have parents who are divorced or separated, and 14% who were never married, 6% who opted to raise kids together without getting hitched

  • 39% of Americans now think marriage is on the way out. (28% in 1978.)

    • .

THE END