Umstead Keeps Visitors Unsteady

      What a week. I have turned in two problem sets on Tuesday, completed one midterm and one referee report on Thursday and gone to a meeting on Friday. I decided to give myself one day off on Saturday. I had heard Umstead State Park so much so it was a good time to enjoy hiking in the forest.

      The large park located in the suburb worthy the name of the oasis of tranquility. But that’s it. Hiking in the monotonous woods bored me in minutes; boating on the lake is not allowed until April; Exhibit Hall closed on the weekend. Quite disappointed. While hiking, I though why do I bother going so far to here similar to Lake Johnson Park in my neighborhood.
     

      Finish the hiking and drive to leave. No far away lies Crabtree Valley Shopping Mall. Different from the park with only few visitors, the mall was too crowed. Cars and people jammed into the entrance of the mall. They must have known which one is more interesting.

William B. Umstead State Park

The woods is really like a maze

 

......



Visitor Center, the only spot looks nice here

Serenity Ruined

       In these days every news channel air the disasters in Japan. The videos show the wave of destruction engulfed Sendei are ones of the most striking I had ever seen. Now the Northeast Japan was ruined and won't recover in a short period of time. It seems it is impossible for tourists to enter the remote land to see compelling attractions.

      Almost every year I transferred flight in Tokyo. I could easily enter the Japanese boarder and stay two or three days, but I chose not to do that. I'd like to visit culture-rich and low profile locations. Tokyo is obviously not on my list. Most of these cities are located in Northeast and Kansai areas. The journey to Kansai five years ago was so impressive that I can still remember the seren filling in the air in Kyoto and Nara. It is fortunate both old cities remain intact.

Wakayama Castle keep (和歌山城)

Japanese Cuisine

Gion (祇園)

Arashiyama Togetsukyo Bridge (嵐山渡月橋)

Tenryu-ji (天龍寺)

Otowa-san Kiyomizu-dera (音羽山清水寺)

Todai-ji (東大寺)

Osaka Castle(大阪城)

I don't remember exactly where the street is. Maybe it's the road to Kiyomizu-dera.



Downtown Osaka

自由，民主與資本主義(一)

        自由與民主兩者經常以併稱的方式出現，甚至可能被視為一個名詞。原因即在於現存政治體制，兩者可說是同存的。故此處試圖論證兩者之位階，並演繹出兩個原則。

原則一. 自由為民主之基礎，即前者位階高於後者。即便在寬鬆的條件之下，此立論仍然成立。

推論:
        首先將民主定義為多數統治。試想有個虛擬社會，其中有n個公民。所有人都服從多數統治，但沒有自由權利。第一次投票選項有兩個，選項獲得過半數者獲採納。兩項選項內容為，只要本選項獲半數以上支持，支持本選項者即有在第二次投票日外出的權利。所以第一次投票結果，最多有n/2-1的人無法參與第二次投票。由於必須所有人都需遵守多數決，故第二次投票的人數必然減少。複製同樣的投票內容，最快在第二次投票，最慢在n/2+1(當n為偶數)或者n/2進位到下個整數時(當n為奇數時)，就有超過半數者無法參與下一次的投票。只有少於半數者能進行投票的狀態，恰與多數統治牴觸。如果更一般化，將兩個選項擴張到m個選項(m<n)，則少數統治出現的速度將更快。據此，扣除以下所述例外情況下的嚴格條件，可知未以自由為基礎的民主，將演變為非民主。

例外:
1.當n=2，不論是兩人選擇相同或不同，都不會對雙方有所影響。
2.或是當n為偶數，n/2的人分別對不同選項有特別偏好，則兩個選項永遠處與平手的狀態，則民主得以延續。
3.m>n，則體系不穩定，有可能發生多數統治的崩壞，也有可能不會發生。如為前者，則不可預測何時會發生。


原則二. 自由可獨自存在

     在前一段推論中，已經隱含這個原則。此處將自由定義為多數民主國家之憲法所保障的項(但不包含工作權，這在日後可能談到)，且不可分割。在有自由而無民主的社會，任何群體接無法用多數決壓迫少數或個人。(當然，前題是自由可被保障。日後再談此兩定理的實際應用，此處只談理論)即使在這個社會，由多數決選出一位領導者，其將無所做為。因為沒有任何政策或多數決是無損自由的。因此，領導者的決定是隨機抽出或投票選出並無差別。這種情況，猶如數戶人家散佈在一座深山上，彼此不相往來。

Orient

      Again I saw it, the black cat. I slowly got closer and observed it. This time it didn’t run but just walked away. Its blind left eye and blight short fur reminded me the one-eyed swordsman in novels. Maybe next time it will let me touch it.

The visually disabled black cat never loses its elegance

      Few minutes later it started raining. Bad luck! I was about to shoot the cheery blossoms in the brickyard. Cheery trees bloom only once every year but flowers are gone in a sudden. 5 years ago I failed to catch the blossom season in Kyoto because of cold weather. In previous two spring breaks I cancelled the short trips to Washington DC for some reasons. This year I saw flower pedals falling on the ground with rains. What will happen next year?

      Due to the spring break, the library and dining halls closed earlier. So I had to home earlier to cook. I made a pair of onigiri. Just brush some soy sauce on triangle rice balls and toast them. Finally wrap them up with roasted dried seaweed. Nothing is easier than this.

Life today is too oriental oriented, have a scoop of ice cream to rebalance myself.

Toasted onigiri

Snack -Starbucks' coffee ice cream