一個夢想：臺灣所有高爾夫球場變成生態區、所有高爾夫練球場變成射箭場。
高爾夫球是世界上創傷生態最嚴重的運動，尤其在臺灣地少人多的小島上，應該全面禁止。
高爾夫球場要復元，成為健康的生態區，我們看不到，因為蒼天恐怕要幾百年才能彌補無知人類造成的傷害。早一天開始就是早一天好。
沒有了高爾夫球場，就沒有人打高爾夫球，當然就不需要高爾夫球練場，就可以變成射箭場。嘻！
Wouldn't it be nice if all the golf courses in the world were turned into ecological preserves? Of course it would take generations for the land to recover from the depredations inflicted on it, as golf is the most ecologically destructive sport in the world. But the sooner the land is allowed to begin to recover, the sooner it will recover. We need a healthy ecosystem a lot more than we need golf!
Then what to do with all those driving ranges? Turn them into archery ranges. What a wonderful dream!

六道輪迴中各有六道。這必定是人間的地獄道。哭。
Count your blessings. No matter how hard your luck is, you were not born in Camp 14.

camp 14

the book comes out today::

士林王家都鬧的很大。臉書上看到有人說，只有臺灣這個政權才會這樣拆民房。
很不幸的是，我想不出任何時代、任何國家不會常常發生這種事。
在歐美，拆民房之事，司空見慣(美國版，武裝警察先衝進去，跟民眾分享警棍、胡椒，若有違抗者，還送子彈。)
唐玄宗稱至道大聖，而公主擴建宅第，拆民房幾百戶。陳水扁當臺北市長，拆南京東路、林森北路的眷村；時久，細節忘了，但記得里長是賣水餃的小市民，因為強制拆除，被弄得頭破血流(當然也有政治因素：拆眷村的同時，陽明山平等里民在國家公園濫墾、起土雞城，不取締，因為深綠)。
但：臺灣新聞界，唯恐天下不亂；政客隨時挑撥離間、爭權奪利。事情總有兩面。我一位好友剛好在士林那一帶住了幾十年，大街小巷的居民他都認識，所以我問他。他是這樣講的：「那邊三十六戶已經答應要拆了，沒問題了，就是這兩戶不肯。建商要賠他們好幾棟新房子，他們可能認為還可以再撈。那三十六戶被他們搞的烏煙瘴氣。那兩戶拉布條，很多外面的人來湊熱鬧。可是我們這一帶的人都支持警察，我們認為一定要拆，不拆不行。」
可供參攷。

「這是我開車的英姿」
The flashy (ugly) blue-purple car ahead of us pulled over by a cement embankment, and a hand reached out of the driver's window: a hand with a cell phone:: the driver was commemorating his trip to Wulai by taking a selfie.

….. shaking my head….

Yesterday's post about the parachuting priests brought to mind a story told me by my friend Jerry L. Jerry had been in the Airborne in the late 1960s, at a time when everybody knew that
Airborne = nuts
Jerry said that if two Airborne guys had a grievance with other, they would each bite onto one corner of a handkerchief, and slug it out until one or the other man dropped.
The late 60s was a time when a lot of people were unhappy with the military industrial complex. To placate the taxpayers, the army decided to put on a show to prove that their tax money was being put to good use. Jerry's unit was assigned to work on the parachuting exhibition at a time when the men were at odds with their officers. I forget just why, but they were not happy.
At the show, the taxpayers examined a variety of trucks and tanks. Then the taxpayers were settled in grandstands by a field as two large trucks and a tank were loaded onto a plane, which took off, circled the field, and came in to demonstrate how the first truck would be wafted onto the ground with parachutes. Which would have been a lovely show had not the disgruntled soldiers tied all the parachute cords together. The taxpayers were certainly impressed when the truck nosedived and burst into a million parts, all paid for by the taxpaying public. They were even more impressed when the second truck did the same nosedive.
The announcer was building up patriotic sentiment by telling the taxpayers that this just went to show how dangerous parachuting was, so they should be grateful to the valiant soldiers who fight our wars, and provide them with enough money to buy only the best equipment.
Meanwhile in the control tower, Jerry's officer was screaming into his radio, telling his men that they had better not tie the cords together on the tank, which was the grand finale of the show. The men assured him, No sir, we did not tie the cords together. They simply pushed the tank out of the plane without a parachute at all.
Jerry was quite impressed. "You know, a tank is really tough. It didn't burst into a million pieces when it hit the ground. Instead, it went straight into the ground, in one piece." For their contribution to the show, Jerry and his unit were given the privilege of digging out the tank, with shovels, by hand. They found it about fifteen feet straight down into the earth.

Times have changed! The Soviet Army, the guardian of materialism and the implacable enemy of religion, has become the Russian army, with flying churches:: I quote from Russia Today::here::
Airborne priests and flying churches are set to fortify Russian soldiers’ spirits. Now priests who serve in the Russian Army will have to learn basics of military training to deal with an extraordinary device.
A unique hi-tech air-dropped church will be introduced in the army. The airborne church is reportedly needed because there are special sacraments in the Orthodox Church that demand a substantial number of utensils. However, some suggest the church could be used in order to bump up soldiers’ spirits. Others have a bold assumption that the project’s aim is to totally demoralize enemy with an unbelievable scene: a plethora of priests raining down from the skyline.
In order to match their new flying service, chaplains from the Russian Airborne Force will have to take part in military games in mid-March with their fellow-servicemen. They will not only practice parachute jumping, but also study the construction of a platform carrying the brand new airborne church.

If I personally were on the battlefield and saw Russian Orthodox priests raining down from the heavens with an onion-dome church festooned with icons, I would immediately put down my weapon and seek out a psychiatrist.

這張照片錯扗哪裏？
((先穿毛衣再看答案~~~))

那是「車前草」，怎扗輪胎邊？應該扗車子前面。
果然冷。

Yeah.

凌純聲、芮逸夫民國二十五年左右于雲南、貴州拍攝的無聲影片。這段似乎是景頗舞蹈。可以確定的是，四十九秒的女性確實是景頗，應是臨滄一帶的。
A silent movie shot in about 1936. Judging from the clothes and the dance, I suspect the dancers are Jingpo (Kachin). The women who appear at 0:49 are definitely Jingpo.

臺灣博物館「人類學的足跡特展」三、四個月，結果我們趕扗最後一個下午去看。除文物之外，還播放凌純聲、芮逸夫民國二十六年前後于雲南、貴州拍的影片，我們倆站扗那看了一個小時。
很想錄幾段，當然此時相機快沒電。但這兩段似乎是苗族蘆笙舞：

The Taiwan Museum had an exhibit about anthropologists. In addition to a small but superb collection of artifacts dating as far back as the Shang dynasty (2nd m BC), there was a film shot around 1937 in southwestern China. We stood there for an hour watching it, and, of course, since I wanted to film parts of it, my camera battery was almost dead. I did get several clips, including these two, of Hmong dances with the khaene, or qeej. Experts assure me that khaene and qeej are different spellings of the same word, and pronounced alike, something like 'kling' which is why it is spelled that way. Beyond me!

I really wonder about the last part, rolling about. Is that part of the traditional dance? Or did he just want to show the cameras that he could do it? Or maybe he was kind of mooning the camera. Anybody know?

Everybody knows that Rush Limbaugh is a low-class hypocrite. However, he does have his devoted followers who leap to his defense in this carefully reasoned website. It is well worth looking into.
http://defendrush.org/

今年雨水多、陽光少、不怎冷，所以櫻花開得不怎樣。但有開。
Not much in the way of cherry blossoms this year, but some.

Who said birds of a feather flock together?

Egrets swimming in formation with ducks, taken from the Wulai bridge.

We are so inured to advertising that we never stop to think, What gives advertisers the right to impose on us?
Here:::

An interesting look at developments in Burma: They Don't Want Democracy, They Want Freedom: worth reading:: here::

Happy Leap Day, everybody… now LEAP!
農曆二月十二日，古人叫做「花朝節」，是百花的生日。今年﹝壬辰百一年﹞花朝節是陽曆三月四日，請大家保密！！>>click<<

我們今晚到國家音樂廳聽Bobby McFerrin的演唱會~~我很想聽他潄口！
This evening we went to here Bobby McFerrin live at the National Concert Hall. I would love to hear him gargle!!
and I bet two thirds of the audience are making all sorts of strange sounds after they got home. We are.

今二月二日卯時春雷驟雨。

早上開前門，Tlahuy、Byajing躺在玄關，一步外有一條紅竹蛇(紫灰錦蛇)。你們兩個都沒看到嗎？
好了，遇上蛇第一步當然是把相機拿出來，「鼠牛虎兔龍~~~！」乖！拍好了，拿棍子推牠走。Yumin也來了，對蛇很好奇，用棍子擋住Yumin，蛇很快遁走。
好了，沒事了，可是我想，大概八、九年沒看到紅竹蛇，而且，以前看過的沒這麼大。很好，有蛇就表示生態健全。

到後門叫小朋友來吃飯，Byajing跑來，她奔跑真美~~~她踏過一條紅竹蛇！我叫阿超來看，是不是同一條？怎麼可能一下子看到兩條？肯定不是前門的那一條，但差不多大。牠們是不是剛約會完？相機！我靠近看；紅竹蛇被Byajing踩一腳沒反應，但我才拍了一張，牠倒退到石堆裏面去了。這是我第一次看到蛇倒退，動作與前進一樣快。真是奇妙！

This morning when I opened the front door, Tlahuy and Byajing were lying there waiting for us, and a step away there was a red bamboo rat snake. The dogs were totally oblivious to it. The first thing to do, of course, was to whip out the cameras and photograph it, say snaaaake! That done, I got a stick to nudge it away. Yumin came over to investigate, but didn't bark, apparently aware that it is non-poisonous. It left quickly.
It had been about eight or nine years since I had seen one of these, and none so large. Snakes mean the environment is healthy.
I walked to the back door to feed the dogs. Byajing came running. She's beautiful to watch running… and she ran right over another red bamboo rat snake! About the same size. Possible? I called Sabiy to come look. Could it be the same one? No, it was another snake. Two in one morning. Cameras! Maybe they were on a date? The snake didn't mind Byajing treading on it, but when I came close to get a photograph, it did something I had never seen a snake do: it reversed into a pile of rocks. Its movement in reverse gear was as smooth and swift as in forward. Nature never ceases to amaze me!

The scientific name of this snake is Elaphe porphyracea nigrofasciata
(Cantor, 1839)；我不知道泰雅語怎麼說，以前也問不出來，所以提議取名mqu ptasan，文面蛇。不覺得額上那條很像文面嗎？I have not been able to find the Tayal name for this snake, so I propose mqu ptasan: the snake with the tattooed face. It has the same stripe on its forehead that Tayal warriors had.

人生嘛，發奮圖強，拼命向上，最後跳進灰熊嘴裏。
that's life. Struggle against the current, fight for all you're worth, and just as you're about to reach your goal, you get eaten by a grizzly bear.

This is weird. This morning, parts of the sky have turned blue, and there's this bright, shining ball up in the sky. It's been so long since I've seen it that I forget what you call it… the stun… the soon… oh yeah, the sun, that's what it is.
This has been an unusually rainy fall, winter, and spring, even for northern Taiwan. Taipei had the rainiest December on record, with about thirty hours of sunlight throughout the whole month (at this latitude, about eleven hours of daylight on solstice day.) Wulai probably got less than a quarter of that amount of sunshine.
Don't you wish you lived in a rainforest?