赤壁II決戰天下The War of the Red Cliff Part II

The first one is definitely the scene where Zhuge Liang諸葛亮 trick Cao Cao曹操 into practically giving them 100,000 arrows with a fleet of about 20 small boats covered with hay and straw, as well as mounted with scarecrows. Cao Cao’s navy, led by Cai Mao and Zhang Yun, noticed the incoming enemy fleet and decided to engage the enemy but they did not dare to venture further into the battleground for fear of falling into an ambush, as there was a thick fog over the river. Cao Cao’s army fired arrows at Zhuge Liang’s fleet but the arrows were stuck in the hay and straw so Cao Cao’s navy lost more than a hundred thousand arrows to the enemy in that single “battle”. So clever.

The other one is the “bomb-making” scene, where Zhou Yu’s “assistant” Gan Xing inspected the bomb making session and was unsastified with the impact the bomb produced. He repeated requested for a bigger flame until it reaches: kaBOOM!

A thought provoking story

Lessons on Life 




There was a man who had four sons. He wanted his sons to learn not to 
judge things too quickly. So he sent them each on a quest, in turn, to 
go and look at a pear tree that was a great distance away. 

The first son went in the winter, the second in the spring, the third in summer, and the youngest son in the fall. When they had all gone and 
come back, he called them together to describe what they had seen. 




The first son said that the tree was ugly, bent, and twisted. 
The second son said no it was covered with green buds and full of 
promise. 
The third son disagreed; he said it was laden with blossoms that smelled 
so sweet and looked so beautiful, it was the most graceful thing he had 
ever seen.  The last son disagreed with all of them; he said it was ripe 
and drooping with fruit, full of life and fulfillment.

The man then explained to his sons that they were all right, because 
they had each seen but only one season in the tree’s life. 

He told them that you cannot judge a tree, or a person, by only one 
season, and that the essence of who they are and the pleasure, joy, and 
love that come from that life can only be measured at the end, when all 
the seasons  are up. 

If you give up when it’s winter, you will miss the promise of your 
spring, the beauty of your summer, fulfillment of your fall. 



Moral: 
Don’t let the pain of one season destroy the joy of all the rest. Don’t 
judge life by one difficult season. Persevere through the difficult 
patches and better times are sure to come some time or later…. 


Xam’d: Lost Memories

VACANCY (Ending theme to Bones studio original animation Xam’d: Lost Memories) 

Born in 1994, Kylee is one of the brightest up-and-coming pop stars.

Showcasing her talent in singing from an early age, Kylee won an audition and performed the national anthem for the opening of NBA game to a sanding ovation at the age of 11.  The performance caught the attention of music industry insiders and she was soon signed to DefStar Records/Sony Music Japan.

In 2008 an exceptional opportunity came when VACANCY was chosen as the ending theme to “Xam’d: Lost Memories”,an original animation from Bones studio.  “Xam’d…” is the first original program available on the Playstation Network’s video delivery service for Playstation 3 and PlayStation Portable (PSP) and is now available in the U.S.

Since the release of the animation, the ending theme footage posted on You Tube has received many thousands of hits from people trying to get the first glimpse of this talented singer.  As fans all over the world are hungry for more, Kylee is preparing for her much-anticipated album debut slated for early 2009.

 

The ED theme song “Vacancy” by Kylee 

The song is kind of sad but it has this great energy. I really enjoy it. I also love the spoken words at the end, “bear with me”. It feels so intense! XDD

Lyrics:
No one wants to wake up to an empty home
No one ever wants to be alone
It’s not so easy to let them go
The ones that you love

Now that you’re gone, who will make me smile?
Who will pick me up when I fall down?
Who will be there to tell me right from wrong?
I regret letting you go

I have this vacancy in my heart
There’s just something that’s always tearing me apart
I don’t know why I ever let you go
Now, there is no one to bear with me

Everyday I wake up thinking it’ll be okay
‘Cause you promised me that, you’d come back some day
My heart is throbbing but I will wait
And I’ll try… to stay strong

And I will always miss you
But I can’t take it anymore
What if your that on they said
that passed away, oh no

I have this vacancy in my heart
There’s just something that’s always tearing me apart
I don’t know why I ever let you go
Now, there’s no one to bear with me

And I miss you and love you and I will hold on
And I know there’s a chance that you will come back, oh ooh
And I dream of the day that you’d come back home
And I hope that you know

I have this vacancy in my heart
There’s just something that’s always tearing me apart
I don’t know why I ever let you go
Now, there’s no one to bear with me

I have this vacancy in my heart
There’s just something that’s always tearing me apart
I don’t know why I ever let you go
Now, there’s no one to bear with me

Bear with me

First Movers

Barack Obama and his family will move into the White House on January 20, 2009

A moving van is parked outside the White House XDD

Does It Matter?

Interest Compounded Daily vs. Interest Compounded Monthly:
My Money Blog.

Short answer: No, not really, unless you are talking amounts over six figures.

I’ve seen so many people get hung up on this, I think it deserves a post. The easiest way to explain it is with an example. Let’s say ‘DaBank’ compounds interest daily on their accounts, and ‘MoBank’ compounds interest monthly. Let’s say you have a $10,000, 1-Year CD with both of them at the same 5% APR interest rate, and compare how much interest you have at the end of the year. Both credit interest monthly.

MoBank:
Since MoBank compounds monthly, you are getting 5%/12 = .4166% every month. So, at the end of the first month, you will have 10,000 x 1.004166 = $10041.67. During the second month, you will be earning .4166% on $10041.67, not just $10,000. So at the end of the 2nd month you’ll have $10083.51, not $10083.34. This goes on for twelve months:

$10,000 x (1 + .05/12)12 = $10511.62.

DaBank:
Since DaBank compounds daily, you are getting 5%/365 = .0137% every day. So, at the end of the first day, you will have 10,000 x 1.000137 = $10001.37. Using the same basic formula as above for 365 days:

$10,000 x (1 + .05/365)365 = $10,512.67.

So over the course of a year you’ve only earned $1.05 more by compounding daily versus compounding monthly!

The easy way to not even worry about this is to just compare APY instead of APR.

If you compare APYs, or annual percentage yield, the compounding effect is already taken into account, whether it be daily, monthly, or every 6.374 seconds.

In our example above, MoBank would advertise a 5.12% APY and DaBank could advertise a 5.13% APY, with the same 5% APR. I hope that clears things up for some!

Winning the Battle Against Women and Remembering Things

Written by Sungball

Fact of life: Women correlate remembering things to caring about them.

If you happen to be a guy, you know that at any given moment in time, any slip up when it comes to answering a girl’s questions on what their favorite color is… what their favorite flower is… or what color panties they were wearing that one random day you had sex (because she was wearing a special color that day and expects you to remember, you forgetful jerk!) is going to result in the girl thinking you don’t care.

For example, I was at dinner the other night with my older sister, and whenever she brought up a family story about a time when we had done this or that, I had trouble remembering the details of the event. With each passing story, my sister grew ever more frustrated and finally blurted out, “Ugh! You never remember anything! You don’t care about this family!”

If I was smart, I could have avoided a headache’s worth of trouble by diverting the situation in an intelligent way, but no… I fully engaged her, and we got into a fight in a public restaurant.

If you’re a guy, chances are you’re going to be put on the spot by a girl sometime in your life, and if you don’t remember, she’s going to get annoyed. So, to help you, I thought of some ways to win the battle against women and remembering things in some classic situations:

Girl: What is my favorite color?
Say angrily: I don’t know. Do you even know my favorite color?!
Girl: Your favorite color is [whatever it is; trust me, she'll remember that shit.].
Say angrily: No, it’s not!
Girl: What? (She’ll be really confused, but now she can’t get mad at you for not remembering.) What’s your favorite color then?
Answer calmly: It’s brown.
(Your favorite color is now brown for the rest of your life. Just deal with it.)

Girl: When did we first start talking?
Say: It was exactly (make up some arbitrary high figure) fifty one billion, six hundred seventy-eight thousand, one hundred twenty-two, point one three six six eight seven zero three two five nanoseconds ago.
Girl: …….
Girl: I mean like what day?
Say: Sorry, it’s not my fault you can’t do the conversion.

Girl: When is my birthday?
(Create a distraction while you get on your computer and log onto Facebook)
Say: Oh, I know. You think I’m one of those guys who doesn’t remember important dates, right? You think just because I have a penis, I’m biologically destined to be a forgetful jerk – the prototypical bumbling buffoon who scrambles around the day of someone’s birthday to get them a last minute gift. Let me tell you something, missy! I know your birthday. I know exactly when your birthday is. That’s right. That is sooooo right. And I’m going to tell it to you right now (You should be done getting to her profile page by now). It is May 27th, 1983. Ha!

Girl: How long did we talk the first time we talked on the phone?
Say: Do you even know how long we talked for the first time we talked on the phone?
Girl: Yeah!
Say firmly: I’ll bet dinner tomorrow night that you don’t know how long we talked for the first time we talked on the phone.
Girl: Okay! We talked for five hours!
(Now that you got her to tell you the answer)
Say: Wrong!
Girl: What?
Say: It was more like four hours and fifty-nine minutes.
(If she insists that she was closer to the actual time, check the phone records. You have a 50/50 chance now. Good luck!)

Girl: What was I wearing that day?
Say: All I remember is your nipples were really perky that day. I really can’t remember. Your nipples were jutting out there pretty good, like little love nodes. It was really distracting.
(A very believable answer. Perky nipples + guys = memory flies out the window)

Girl: What did I order for lunch that day?
Say: What did I order for lunch the week after that?
Girl: I asked you first.
Say: I asked you first.
Girl: No, I did.
Say: No, I did.
Girl: Are you copying me?
Say: Are you copying me?
Girl: Stop copying me.
Say: Stop copying me.
Girl: Ugh, I give up.
Say: I win!

Okay, that’s all I got. And if a girl asks you something really important that you really should remember (like when you first had sex), say your mom beat you with a frying pan when you were a little kid, and your dad threw you down the stairs, giving you a concussion, and you have serious memory issues. If you’re Asian like me, it’ll be totally believable.

USD725,000,000 Bipedal Joyride

Ever wondered how much it would cost to build a working, life-sized Gundam robot? At least $725 million for the parts and materials, according to an estimate published on the SciencePortal website run by the Japan Science and Technology Agency. The price tag for this giant humanoid, which would stand 18 meters (60 feet) tall and weigh 43.4 metric tons (nearly 100,000 lbs), does not include the cost of labor (this is where an extensive pool of robot slave labor comes in handy), nor does it include the cost of the infrastructure needed to support the machine once you are ready to climb aboard and take it for a walk. 

Estimated cost of Gundam parts:

 

Note that unlike in the anime, the Gundam described here would merely be able to walk — it would not have the ability to fly or have any fancy weaponry. Also, instead of Gundanium, the robot would be covered in aluminum alloy plating. 

 

An IBM Blue Gene supercomputer would serve as the Gundam’s computer system ($1.5 million sounds like a steal), and its movements would be driven by 30 giant 400KW motors — 12 in the legs, 2 in the torso, 14 in the arms, and 2 in the neck. A 400KW motor is quite powerful — by comparison, the Shinkansen bullet train uses a 300KW motor. The motors alone would cost $7.8 million, but to power them would require the equivalent of 7 Apache helicopter engines (the helicopters cost an estimated $52 million each). 

While $700 million is a lot of money (more than the GDP of Liberia, Grenada and a dozen or so other nations), it does not seem like so much when you compare it to the cost of other large-scale machinery. Military tanks costs around $4 to $7 million each, commercial passenger planes cost around $200 to $300 million, rockets can cost around $100 million to launch, expensive fighter jets can cost billions, and aircraft carriers cost about $5 billion.

A robot of this size and stature would face a number of physical challenges, such as the inability to walk without completely destroying the ground surface beneath its feet. When humans walk, we exert about 1.5 times our body weight of pressure on the ground (and on our feet) with each step. This poses a huge problem for a 43-ton humanoid, which would probably need to have very wide feet (to distribute the pressure over a larger area) and walk very very slowly. Dinosaurs found a way to get around, though, so giant robots probably can, too.

 

But perhaps the greatest challenge of all would be to find the funding for an enormous walking machine with no apparent practical or military application. With no money, this Gundam will forever remain just a dream. 

SOURCE (TRANSLATED): Pink Tentacle
ORIGINAL SOURCE (JAPANESE): SciencePortal
SPECIAL THANKS: Danny Choo

George Bush Shoe Attack

 

Former President Bush may have implied that the war was over, but that’s just not the case last Sunday Dec. 14, 2008, when he had a news conference with Iraq Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in Baghdad.

If you look at the photo, you can see former President Bush on a podium dodging, not bullets, but a size 10 shoe from one of his fans may be. The man actually threw two shoes at Bush, and but I guess George W. Bush  still got his reflexes going.

The shoes was said to be owned by Muntadar al-Zeidi, a correspondent for Al-Baghdadia television (Islamic Journalist), an “Iraqi-owned” station based in Cairo, Egypt. And he by the way shouted: “This is a farewell kiss, you dog!” … in Arabic. 

Well is the war really over?

“The war is not over…. it is decisively on it’s way to being won.” Bush said.

Although reports of his punishment are as follows, “Al-Zaidi is in a difficult conditions, with broken ribs and signs of torture on his thighs. Also he can not move his right arm.”

Smallville Bride: Doomsday Crashes Chloe’s Party

On videotape, Clark and Lois are offering their congratulations to the wedding couple. Lois is later waiting with Jimmy at the altar at the Kent barn as Clark brings Chloe in. They’re pronounced husband and wife and kiss. They’re introduced to the audience, and start cutting the cake. There’s a rumbling noise and something bursts into the barn. Everyone panics and Jimmy is seen lying on the ground as the attacker approaches her. He picks her up and takes her away.

Eight hours earlier

Lois is organizing everyone into preparing the barn for the wedding. Jimmy isn’t nervous, saying he’s picked the right person so he has no reason to be nervous. He suggests she go to the wedding with Clark, but Lois doesn’t believe Clark is interested. Jimmy insists he is and heads back to the Talon where he walks in on Chloe as she’s changing. He’s worried that it’s bad luck but Chloe assures him everything will be fine. As he goes to get his bow tie, Chloe gets a voice mail from Davis, saying he needs her to call him back. She deletes the message.

Oliver arrives at the farm to tell Clark that he’s determined that Lex is alive but he’s unable to track the e-mail trail to Tess without getting hold of the router. He needs Clark to grab the router and figure there’s an e-mail coming today. Clark insists that he can’t do it on Chloe’s wedding. Oliver wonders if that’s the real reason and Clark explains that he had Jor-El leave out Chloe’s memories of Clark’s powers. Oliver warns that Lex will make his move and he’s more dangerous than ever since he knows Clark’s secret.

Back at his plane, Oliver looks at a photo of his parents when Clark arrives with the router. Clark notices the photo and wonders if Oliver is out for revenge. Oliver insists he isn’t taking it out on Lex and Clark refuses to let Oliver kill. Oliver says he’s trying to help Clark but Clark doesn’t believe it. Oliver asks for the router but Clark keeps it, saying Oliver can wait until he’s back from the wedding. Once Clark goes, a man emerges from the best and says he downloaded the information via wifi while Clark and Oliver were talking.

Chloe is in Clark’s loft when Lois comes up. She thanks Lois for her efforts and then her cellphone rings. Lois wonders what’s wrong and Chloe explains that Davis has been calling her all day and that he warned that he wasn’t going to let Chloe marry Jimmy. Lois wonders how Chloe can be so sure she has the right one and Chloe assures her she’ll find the right man sometime. Chloe looks for something borrowed for her wedding and finds a lead box with kryptonite. She opens it as Clark comes up and he starts to collapse. He suggests she put it away and she closes the lid, and he offers her the corsage from their freshman homecoming dance. She and Lois are impressed he’s kept it all these years.

In Alquizar, Cuba, Green Arrow breaks into a seemingly-abandoned factory and finds a man at the window. He shoots the figure in the head with an arrow and approaches, only to find it’s a mannequin. There’s a note on it saying “Sorry I missed you.” Someone attacks him and then recognizes him as Oliver Queen. The figure steps out of the light: it’s Lana Lang. She knows that computer info was running through the factory two hours ago. Oliver wonders who the note was left for and Lana admits she doesn’t believe Lex is still alive. Oliver tells her that Lex knows Clark’s secret and she wonders if he needs to be more like Clark. She asks how Clark is doing and he suggests she come with him to the wedding to find out. Lana says it’s too complicated but he notes Chloe is her best friend. When she balks, Oliver asks what Clark would do.

Lois finds Clark in his tux and is momentary taken aback. She helps him with cuff links and they’re both briefly uncomfortable with their proximity. She gives him what he needs for the wedding and he reads the vows. She momentarily thinks he’s talking about her but quickly covers. The photographer arrives to capture their best wishes for the couple. 

Davis is in his ambulance trying to call Chloe, saying he’s done something horrible. He’s covered in blood and disposes of several garbage bags in a nearby dumpster. He turns around to find a policeman seeing if anything’s wrong. The officer notices the blood and Davis tries to leave. The policeman looks in the dumpster and draws back in horror, then draws his gun. Davis says he blacked out and looks at his hand, then tells the policeman he needs to go. Davis falls back and bone spurs grow out of his hand as his eyes glow red. The policeman fires several shots and then Davis attacks him.

The wedding is proceeding as planned and Clark dances with Chloe. Clark talks about her being his best friend but she realizes he’s talking as if something has changed. He covers and she admits that she’s recently felt as if a great weight has been removed from her recently and she can move on. Jimmy cuts in and Clark notices Lois off to the side. As a slow song strikes up, Clark offers to dance with her and she gives in. Things are awkward at first but slowly they move in to kiss… and Lana arrives. Clark draws back and he and Lois both look at her.

Lois goes to the farmhouse with a bottle of champagne and Oliver comes over and offers her someone to talk to. She talks about how she doesn’t know what all her feelings mean feel and he wonders who the lucky guy is. She’s uncomfortable talking with her ex and he offers to just be a really good friend. Lois admits that her feelings snuck up on her and the guy she’s interested in doesn’t need her. Oliver easily figures it’s Clark and says that he does need her.

Lana gets a text message asking if the archer believed her. Clark comes over to say that Chloe’s glad Lana came but he could have used some warning. Lana admits she wasn’t considering coming back but read about Clark’s activities in Metropolis and is glad he’s become what he’s destined to be. She admits leaving was the hardest decision she ever made but she’s glad she did it. Lana talks about how she used to imagine having a wedding there and he explains that he had Jor-El erase Chloe’s memories of the real him. He wonders if that would have made a difference with he and Lana. She says she never would have forgiven him for taking he memories of him and she’s happy with where she is now. Lana admits that maybe the two of them were never intended to be together, and they look down as Chloe and Jimmy cut their wedding cake.

As Clark goes downstairs, a huge figure covers in bone spurs bursts in. Lana is injured and the crowd panics. Clark throws a punch at it but it casually catches his fist and throws him into the loft, knocking over the kryptonite from its lead box. The figure advances on Chloe and Jimmy, and Jimmy tries to stop it. The attacker rips open his chest with one blow and Chloe begs Jimmy to hold on. The figure bends over her and says her name and Chloe screams.

Lana gets upstairs and puts away the kryptonite just as Oliver comes in to tell them the intruder took Chloe and escaped.

Clark goes to the hospital where the wedding party is being tended to. He finds Lana and explains that Oliver is trying to track the creature down. Lois sees them together and walks away before they notice her. Lana tells Clark that he doesn’t need to stay and Clark goes to find Chloe. As he goes, Clark sees Lois outside and asks how she’s doing. She informs him that Jimmy is in critical condition and he’s being taken to Star City to a top surgeon. Lois is going with him and she wonders why terrible things keep happening to them. Clark hugs her and promises that they’ll get Chloe back. Lois wonders what happens if they can’t. Clark doesn’t have an answer and Lois leaves.

The creature takes Chloe to the Fortress in the Arctic, a Fortress now possessed by Brainiac’s essence. It sets her down and Chloe look sup at it… and smiles as she remembers her wedding.

 

In a darkened room, Lex Luthor, attached to tubes and wires, watches the video of the wedding.

***************************************************************

Tom Welling (Clark Kent/Kal-El of Krypton)

Allison Mack (Chloe Sullivan)

Erica Durance (Lois Lane)

Aaron Ashmore (Jimmy Olsen)

Sam Witwer (Davis Bloome/Doomsday)

Justin Hartley (Oliver Queen/Green Arrow)