Here is another new study on blogs. Tommy Xie, a Ph.D. student at Southern Illinois University, aims to “focus on different uses of weblogs in mainland China and the United States and is a first step to investigating the increasing political influences of the weblogs in Chinese civic lives.” Some interesting findings are expected.
Two versions of the survey: English and Chinese.

If I just throw it into bookmarks, I might never finish reading it. You know I haven’t finished Free Culture yet…
About the book “Digital History” by Daniel J. Cohen and Roy Rosenzweig
This book provides a plainspoken and thorough introduction to the web for historians—teachers and students, archivists and museum curators, professors as well as amateur enthusiasts—who wish to produce online historical work, or to build upon and improve the projects they have already started in this important new medium. It begins with an overview of the different genres of history websites, surveying a range of digital history work that has been created since the beginning of the web. The book then takes the reader step-by-step through planning a project, understanding the technologies involved and how to choose the appropriate ones, designing a site that is both easy-to-use and scholarly, digitizing materials in a way that makes them web-friendly while preserving their historical integrity, and how to reach and respond to an intended audience effectively. It also explores the repercussions of copyright law and fair use for scholars in a digital age, and examines more cutting-edge web techniques involving interactivity, such as sites that use the medium to solicit and collect historical artifacts. Finally, the book provides basic guidance on insuring that the digital history the reader creates will not disappear in a few years.
The Center for History and New Media at George Mason University offers some free tools and resources for historians, too.

She refused to stand up on the bus, so the whole nation stood up.
Everyone can make a history.
Read Rosa Parks’s story here, here and here.

Via Born on June 6
Things other people accomplished when they were my age. No time to procrastinate.
The future mythologist Joseph Campbell decided to move to Woodstock to read the classics for five years, nine hours a day. Living on very little, he would make himself readily available as a dinner guest.
Orson Welles coscripted, directed, and starred in Citizen Kane.
By this age, Charles Chaplin had appeared in 35 films.
P. T. Barnum bought a “160-year-old” slave woman and began a career in show business.
Janis Joplin made her first recording, “Cheap Thrills,” which grossed over a million dollars within a few months.
Chris Burden created “Painting Shoot,” which involved the artist being shot in the left arm by a friend.
Charles Lindbergh became the first person to fly alone across the Atlantic, thus winning a $25,000 prize.
Fayette, N.Y. farmhand Joseph Smith founded the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He claimed he translated the Book of Mormon from some golden tablets revealed to him by the angel Moroni.
Bavarian painter Aloys Senefelder invented the lithograph.
French engineer Benoit Fourneyron invented the first waterwheel turbine.
Sarah Bernhardt scored her first triumph, being asked to repeat her theatrical performance before Napoleon III.
Activist Mollie Steimer became the first person to be deported from both the United States and the Soviet Union.
Physician Roger Bannister broke the four minute mile. As he collapsed unconscious into the arms of his trainer, the loudspeaker announced, “The time was three…” The uproar of the fans drowned out the rest of the announcement.

Just a quick post. Still 300 pages of reading to go and haven’t started on my lit review assignment yet.
Stanford University just launched Stanford on Itunes, which offers free access to faculty lectures, interviews, music and sports news. So far over 200 audio clips are online and the library is still expanding. You need Itunes installed to open it but it’s worth doing.
An earlier similar project by Purdue University is BoilerCast. Courses I’m interested in [ and I can understand ] include COMM435, SOC100, SOC200.

In my master’s thesis I explored the motivations for blogging. The findings include self-documentation and self-expression, partially confirming the long-held notion of blogs as a venue for narcissist. Yet, Howard W. French’s story for The Washington Post suggests a brighter side than being narcissist: blogs as the Internet confessional.
Bloggers have good reasons to be frank in their own online space:

“With my blog, I’ve learned how to share things with people that are close to me,” including her sister and her 14-year-old daughter and 20-year-old son, she said. But of the 6,271 comments she has received over the years, most are from complete strangers who found her online. “Sometimes it’s easier to write about it to 1,000 strangers than to sit face to face with someone you know well.”

But experts give warning words too,

“I certainly don’t advise anyone to do it. They’re taking a big risk,” said Patricia Wallace, a psychologist and researcher at Johns Hopkins University and author of “The Psychology of the Internet.” People open themselves up to cruel comments, and worse: identity theft, for instance, or even losing a job for kvetching about a boss.

It is hard for some people to be open to others; sometimes it is far more challenging not to be that open. Especially on the Internet.

Hopefully I’m not making a fuss. Just now I noticed the following lines on my bloglines homepage:
You can now navigate through Bloglines with hotkeys! You will find this legend at the bottom of each feed display page.
Hotkeys: j - next article k - previous article s - next sub f - next folder A - read all r - refresh left pane
It works fine with Firefox. Good news and seems I’ll stick to Bloglines for long. For those who don’t use Bloglines, have you thought of switching?

Something to bring up:
1. My class was dismissed one hour earlier than usual for those who observe Yom Kippur.
2. My newly ordered Lee Oskar 10 Hole Diatonic Harmonicas arrived today. One for myself and one for Oscar [ you should have known my roomie Oscar right? ]. We chose this brand mainly because of its name: Lee [ Li ] Oskar [ Oscar ]. We could name our band [ TBD ] after this. Oh, did I say I know nothing about playing Harmonica? My only memory with harmonica is about the one I used to have as a kid–I blew it like a whistle. I have no idea whether I will succeed learning to play it. But in consideration of the 25 bucks invested on the palm-size gear, I should take it seriously.
3. For so long I haven’t been dreaming of something so badly like this one. To make a short story long, let me tell you a Chinese parable “getting the casket and returning the pearl” first:
A man from the state of Chu wanted to sell a precious pearl in the state of Zheng. He made a casket for the pearl out of the wood from a magnolia tree, which he fumigated with spices. He studded the casket with pearls and jade, ornamented it with red gems and decorated it with kingfisher feathers. A man of the state of Zheng bought the casket and gave him back the pearl.
Too luxuriant decoration usually supersedes what really counts. This man from Chu certainly knew how to sell a casket but he was no good at selling his pearl. And the man of Zheng didn’t know which is really valuable.
From Hanfeizi [ source ]
I don’t want the Nano but just gimme the iWood!!!!!!
4. RemembertheMilk rocks!!! Do I really need a PDA?
5. Apple’s one more thing is out. Have you heard/read about it?

China’s second manned space mission.
Timeline of China’s space history [ source: The Associated Press ]
September 1955:
Chinese-born Tsien Hsue-sen, an American-trained rocketry expert and co-founder of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, leaves the United States for China. His departure comes after five years of virtual house arrest following accusations of communist sympathies. He becomes the leader of China’s rocketry program.
1956-58:
Soviet Union provides intermediate-range ballistic missile to China for study.
1960:
China launches its first rocket despite a cutoff of Soviet aid amid a political falling-out.
1968:
Research center established to prepare for manned space flight, with 1973 target date for launch. Program later canceled because of lack of money and political support.
1970:
China becomes the fifth country to launch a satellite into space, sending up the Dongfanghong-1 — the name means “The East is Red” — aboard a Long March rocket.
1991:
Tsien retires.
1992:
Human spaceflight program launched under code-name Project 921, with target launch date of October 1999. Qi Faren, trained in Russia, named chief spacecraft designer.
1995:
Russia agrees to assist China with human spaceflight technology and training of Chinese astronauts in cosmonaut academy near Moscow.
Nov. 20, 1999:
Successful test flight of the unmanned capsule Shenzhou 1, or “Divine Vessel.” Three further unmanned test flights follow.
Oct. 15, 2003:
Shenzhou 5 launches with one astronaut aboard, making China the third nation capable of putting a human in space on its own, after the former Soviet Union and the United States.

Eat to lose weight? The statement sounds self-contradictory but it is true. At least in some cases. Celery is one of the vegetables I hate most, along with carrot, pumpkin, broccoli, chive, caraway, bell pepper… But celery is the so-called negative-calorie food which burns more calories than those are absorbed during the digestion. The same logic can be applied to cold diet soft drink because the body has to give off more energy to warm the liquid to body temperature.
This list of negative-calorie food doesn’t suggest a proper way to cook those food. I think to boil might be an appropriate way. That’s how I cook spinach all the time and it is yummy with a little bit salt. You can also add some seasonings to spice or salad dressings if you like. But be sure it is fat free.