Igniter

最近在看Douglas Adams的Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (即電影「星際快閃黨」的原著)，幽默有趣，不乏哲理。這裡引其中一段來分享一下:

“…a sperm whale had suddenly been called into existence several miles above the surface of an alien planet.

And since this is not a naturally tenable position for a whale, this poor innocent creature had very little time to come to terms with its identity as a whale before it then had to come to terms with NOT being a whale any more.

This is a complete record of its thought from the moment it began its life till the moment it ended it.

Ah…! What’s happening? It thought.

Er, excuse me, who am I?

Hello?

Why am I here? What’s my purpose in life?

What do I mean by who am I?

Calm down, get a grip now…oh! This is an interesting sensation, what is it? It’s a sort of…yawning, tingling sensation in my…my…well, I suppose I’d better start finding names for things if I want to make any headway in what for the sake of what I shall call an argument I shall call the world, so let’s call it my stomach.

Good. Oooh, it’s getting quite strong. And hey, what about this whistling roaring sound going past what I’m suddenly going to call my head? Perhaps I can call that…wind! Is that a good name? It’ll do…perhaps I can find a better name for it later when I’ve found out what it’s for. It must be something very important because there certainly seems to be a hell of a lot of it. Hey! What is this thing? This…let’s call it a tail --- yeah, tail. Hey! I can really thrash it about pretty good, can’t I? Wow! Wow! That feels great! Doesn’t seem to achieve very much but I’ll probably find out what it’s for later on. Now, have I built up any coherent picture of things yet?

No.

Never mind, hey, this is really exciting, so much to find out about, so much to look forward to, I’m quite dizzy with anticipation…

Or is it the wind?

There really is a lot of that now, isn’t there?

And wow! Hey! What’s this thing suddenly coming toward me very fast? Very, very fast. So big and flat and round, it needs a big wide-sounding name like…ow…ound…round…ground! That is it! That’s a good name---ground!

I wonder if it will be friends with me?

And the rest, after a sudden wet thud, was silence.”

好一個人生寫照。相對於宇宙的浩瀚，人的生命就仿如鯨魚從天空掉到地上的一瞬間，而現有的知識也只是這一瞬間的所思所想而已。

以為很偉大，其實渺小得笑爆咀!

香港理工大學工商管理研究院最近推出了一個海報，張貼於部份地鐡車廂內。

海報以黑白為主色, 背景是一貨運站，有兩位工程師模樣的專業人仕正指着遠處討論着。黑白的海報上，只有女學生是彩色的，她坐在一旁，用心地聆聽，拿着筆記簿做筆記。海報的標題是 “Why learn ABOUT it, while you can learn IN it?” 當中的意思是指理大的工商管理研究院能提供實際學習環境，不是紙上談兵。

越看越覺得矛盾，甚至有點反諷。

海報上的女學生是彩色的，工程師和他們所在的環境是黑白的，彩色和黑白的強烈對比給我的訊息是「這是兩個不同的世界」。這個沒問題，學校跟現實社會向來都是兩個世界。只是，女學生只坐在一旁觀察，也就是從自己的世界向外看而已，並沒有參予對方的世界。這個怎能算是 “learn IN it”? 最多也只能說是“physically IN”而已。

另外，我不明白的是女學生的形象。海報中的女學生被塑造成一典型乖乖女，齊肩的頭髮，穿著踏實，微笑側頭用心聆聽，手中拿着紙筆準備記下重點。這個被動的學習態度又有點脫節了。主角也不什存在於現實，那如何走進現實世界去學習呢?

很想把這個廣告改改:

首先，彩色跟黑白的對比其實沒必要，學生跟環境有着同一色調才顯示出學生真的走進這世界裡去。而且，學生應跟環境內的人物作交流嘛。 現代教學不是強調學生參予、體驗和發問的嗎? 幹嗎悄悄坐在一旁像在偷窺似的? 還有那形象，不是要求女學生頂尖時髦，但她的學習態度可以積極點嗎? 如托頭作思考狀，又或作欲發言狀也可嘛? 再者，作為商學院的廣告，請放下手上的紙筆，走前一點，換一部電子手賬或手提電腦成嗎?

於我來看，海報的標題應是 “Why learn about it, if you are faking to learn IN it?”

畢竟，廣告也是藝術的一種，不同觀者有不同詮釋，但總覺得一個高明的廣告應可照顧到這一點，能銳化所要帶出的訊息，牽引觀者作有關聯想，而非引發無限的詮釋和想像空間。

或許這廣告的創作人其實是借機來個控訴吧? 香港的教育問題多多，縱有許多教學理想，但也只做得了表面，骨子裡到底還是舊東西。

朋友都說我記憶力差，有時我想，也不盡是吧?

單是日常生活必須要記的數字、英文字、符號等等，當中許多無關聯、無意思的， 也記得滿腦子都是，這不是記憶力的表現是什麼?

什麼MP3、 PDA、 GPS、 DVD、 VCD、 ISP、 EPS、 KFC、 USB、 UBS、 SMS、 MSM、 BMW、 BMX、 MBA、 NBA、 TVB、 ETV、 BBC、 UBC、 DHL、 DHA、 CNN、 VPN、 RSS、 UST、 DKNY、 HSBC、 2388、 0005、 0906、 0330、 0941；還有電郵信箱密碼、 屋苑大閘密碼、 留言信箱密碼、 銀行戶口密碼、 電腦登入密碼、 身份証號碼、 手提電話號碼、 學生証號碼、 會員証號碼、 員工號碼、 車牌號碼、 確認號碼、 雜誌訂閱號碼、誰和誰的生辰死忌、什麼時間是最後限期．．．Buuuuuppps．．．.腦袋開始出現排斥, 數字字母符號不禁從五孔溢出，掉得一地都是。

「咇….對不起，請輸入內含數字、大小寫英文字及符號的18個位密碼. 如: AJerkW/>100PSWD!!?」

「咇….對不起， 請輸入你HOTMAIL的賬戶密碼， 不是YAHOO MAIL、 GMAIL、SINA MAIL、 HELLO KITTY MAIL 或COMPANY EMAIL 的賬戶密碼。」

不知不覺記了這麼多無謂東西，弄得腦袋一但要反芻什麼出來時, 便閉塞了。下次要是你看見我呆呆的坐着一動也不動，請你過來狠狠的拍一下我的背，好讓我把那些多餘的數字呀什麼的痛快地吐一回，要不，我怕腦袋受不了，要自尋短見，害得我變植物人．　

(跟你玩個三字經遊戲，1秒鐘內，把上面的英文簡稱的長寫唸出，看能唸出多少個, 嘿!)

今日從BBC上看到www.worldcommunitygrid.com 網頁的介紹, 是一個叫「世界共同體網格」的計劃。

這計劃的目的是利用商用或家用的閒置電腦去作科學運算, 「務求破解引致疾病的遺傳基因問題、提升人類預測天災的能力，以及支援各種保護地球糧食與水源的研究」。參予者只需於網上登記並下載有關程式, 該程式便可在閣下的電腦啟用時進行運算, 並在再連線時才把運算結果傳回去。

港大已獲邀為香港首批參予的夥伴機構, 今天正好舉行記者簡介會。

http://www.hku.hk/press/c_news_detail_5176.html

World Community Grid 現正進行一項蛋白質摺合模式的研究, 大家有興趣參予的話, 可到上述網址去看看啊。

'The tsunami disaster was triggered by a machine, and so did Hurricane Katrina…'

Yes, weird may it sound, but it does exist in the mind of some people.

Chatting with an interesting Australian lady yesterday on ‘Terrorism’, and after a beer or so, I got struck by some eye-budging ideas from the other hemisphere of the globe.

She said, ‘You know, I do believe that the tsunami in South East Asia was made by a machine.’

‘What?!’ I thought loudly.

‘Yes, that’s true. I think the Australian government does own a machine that can create natural catastrophe. And there’re actually quite a lot of people having the same thought as me.’ (see reference below)

The conversation continued with why Aceh was the most devastated region, the oil concerns, etc. It then led to the deduction that Hurricane Katrina is also a man-made event. On top of that, 9-11 was actually a drama directed by Bush.

‘I’m going to look into what’s the motivation behind this hurricane,’ she said.

Plane plunging into the Twin Towers should exist only in fiction. Yet, it happened before our eyes. Such a fictitious world as this is, I no longer have the ground to deny any insane possibility. Today, we have baby rejected from boarding the plane because his/ her parents unfortunately pick the same name as one on the terrorist list. And we have young man shot dead at the will of the police, who ‘thought’ he was a terrorist.

And now, the coming of Katrina is also thought to be a result of a political conspiracy. um...interesting indeed.

If this is a fiction that I'm existing in, can I choose to be a Martian?

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Link for reference:

http://www.independent-media.tv/item.cfm?fmedia_id=10211&...