Thursday anti-soc syndrome

谈什么 CSSA，谈什么手机 plan，谈什么折扣机票，谈什么零时区，谈什么同乡联谊，谈什么 body shop，谈什么春节假期，谈什么华人学生，谈什么 DHPA，谈什么工作许可，我憎恨你们，对，我憎恨你们。

去他的火锅店，去他的 QQ，去他的猫扑，去他的申根签证，去他的开阔眼界，去他的摇滚，去他的古典，去他的登喜路，去他的 Land Rover，去他的音乐剧，去他的临湖别墅，去他的商学硕士，去他的风雅，去他的成功人士，去他的社交，去他的中产阶级，去他的北京小户型，去他的 Master Card，I don't give a sh*t, no, never give a sh*t.

忘记薯片，记住带泥的土豆；忘记怎么写套磁信，记住跟收银员说再见；忘记柏林爱乐乐团，记住命运的咽喉；忘记威士忌，记住关紧水龙头；忘记空调，记住穿长袖T恤；忘记中国餐馆，记住放辣椒；忘记学校排名，记住-37；忘记体面，记住尊严；忘记套考试题，记住复习；忘记高声谈笑，记住口齿清晰；忘记 Big Ben，记住带手表；忘记学位，记住阿伏加德罗常数；忘记我的母语，记住我是中国人。

不要欧陆风情，不要一帆风顺，不要少年得志，不要左右逢源；不要十八洞果岭，不要金装龙虎斗，不要领导人接见，不要健身房年卡；不要教授职称，不要影响因子，不要文章数，不要第一作者。不要告诉我什么是成功，不要告诉我什么是地位，不要告诉我一定要留北京，不要告诉我没有钱会怎样怎样，不要定义我的生活，不要以为我和你们一样。

为 Tyler Durden，高更和本雅明三欢呼！

SCI-BYTES: Science in China, 2001-05

SCI-BYTES: Science in China, 2001-05

当我们陶醉于世界第六的 GDP 时，再看看这组数据头脑就会清醒不少。中国未来的发展一个严重的问题就是缺乏占领先地位的基础研究，无论理科工科还是社会科学都是如此。数控机床、分析仪器、电子元器件等等都是国内的弱项，而其他战略意义不太明显的学科也都在世界平均水平以下。这意味着中国在很长一段时间内只能依靠来料加工和劳动密集型出口来实现资本的积累，而几乎没有什么产品的核心技术是属于中国的。这样的积累过程极其缓慢而脆弱，谁会等我们？

革命尚未成功，以此自勉。

大问题……

刚把选修课的作业写完，溜到 snowytee 的个人文集上看了看，原来我和她居然也是有一样的着急的事。很快这一年就要过去，我也是将要到法定婚龄的人了。过了近1/4世纪，现在还是不知道自己的位置在哪里，在三十岁以前要如何如何。
工作对于学环境的人来说是个不小的问题，而对于我这样学到读博士突然发现这是一门社会科学的人来说就更是个大问题。目前看最有可能的就是继续在象牙塔里呆下去，但是不知道我这个博士论文的题目能不能帮我在理想的大学谋一个职位。至于其他的工作，目前信息都太少，但又不能不考虑。
不管怎么说，博士学位意味着在行业中的专家地位和相当的学术能力。也许这个学位不能让我得到大量的财富，甚至不能得到一份在旁人看来舒适优越的工作，但是我相信它最终一定可以给我相应的收获。抛开个人的得失不谈，我所要做的也必须有人去做。

Week 9: Stop and get myself together

After handing in my review to my supervisor, I suddenly feel very tired.  So tired that I virtually did nothing on this Friday, nor today.  I think it is time now to look back and see what I have done in the past weeks.

The first review is good in that it covers many essential aspects, though not necessarily deep.  Based on that, the second review on environment tries to find more about ecosystem components and their interactions.  However, I find literature I read all focusing on certain topics: Holocene climate, alpine steppe, etc.  Apparently a comprehensive review of Tibetan nature is still absent.

The Second review thus cannot be considered as good enough, though I myself cannot easily tell what is wrong.  Perhaps I should return to it from time to time and write down what is relevant to my research area.  The next review would be on Tibetan history, especially pastoral history.  It would not be as easy as writing a chronology because there will be contrast of ideas, even ideologies.

During my searching I find that many people in academic world criticise transforming nomadism to sedentary pastoralism.  Then what is the originality of my research?  Perhaps a different geographical setting?  Or perhaps I can reach a conclusion rather different?  Maybe it will be original in a way that I do not expect.

Bourdieu's symbolic capital in the context of mass media

At today's seminar we had a discussion on Pierre Bourdieu's work exploring classification, taste, and disgust.  Bourdieu claimed that aside from economic capital -- capital in the traditional expression -- there are also social capital, cultural capital, and symbolic capital, which is the symbolic appearance of the three capitals above.  I think symbolic capital is especially interesting because it is somewhat different from other capitals as it is purely externally determined, while others are accumulated by agencies (people) in the society and assessed by certain social structure.

Symbolic capital, in my opinion, is how people evaluate one's economic, social and cultural status, or capital, in the society.  It is the means by which social class is determined and agreed, and the source of people's emotion towards classes, such as admiration, jealousy, and disgust.  It has been noticed by some authors that symbolic capital does not necessarily have a material basis, nor its evaluation follow any fixed rule.  It can be the product of merely impression, even imagination.

Therefore I wondered, whether recognition of classes in the 19th Century and earlier centuries is different from that in the 20th Century, which is an era characterised by mass media.  From observation it is apparent that mass media defines the taste of certain people and products -- e.g. Häagen-Dazs ice creams for middle class young couples in China. I think surely it has something to do with people's imagination of classes -- and their attitude towards those classes.

While in 19th Century the symbol of one's capitals are formed through gossips in saloons, today's symbolic capital maybe more and more determined by how mass media, especially TV, portrait the characteristics of certain classes.  An interest twist added to this, is that mass media themselves are symbols of taste and class.  We often consider one who pays attention to CNN and Financial Times as a successful professional and those who watch sports channel and read tabloids lower class people.  In this sense, mass media not only provided definition of class and taste, but also become part of the social structure that form classes and tastes.

I do not know if Bourdieu mentioned this in his masterpiece "Distinction", but I am really fascinated by this interaction between mass media and social classification.

BBC NEWS | World | Americas | Six imams ejected from US flight

BBC NEWS | World | Americas | Six imams ejected from US flight

发生在美国的又一起可笑的航班拒载事件。受害者仍然是穆斯林。布什的反恐政策制造了国家监视系统，全国性的恐慌和种族偏见，却没有抓到一个真正的恐怖分子。真正的极端分子可以偷笑了，他们不费一枪一弹就在5年里打垮了美国标榜在星条旗上的正义勇气和纯净。

在美国的大多数机场穆斯林或看来像穆斯林的人现在都是不受欢迎的人，任何“可疑”的行动都可能招致无端的怀疑和禁飞的不公正待遇。如果这种种族偏见继续扩张到社会的其他部分，那么信回教的人在这个国家的生活将不会比上世纪30年代德国的犹太人更好。随之而来的将是仇恨和冲突。西方社会对伊斯兰社会和人民长期的妖魔化必然带来难以下咽的苦果。而现在，西方后殖民主义社会标榜的多元化和文化宽容的信条已经受到了来自传统社会本身的威胁。

西方社会也许需要一个能够反省其对外政策并承认伊斯兰社会价值观的美国，而伊斯兰社会也需要让世界更了解自身，但不强求他人接受其宗教诉求。这样文明的冲突才有可能避免。但目前的现实是无论西方还是伊斯兰社会都无法在态度上急转弯，或者是长期的路径依赖使它们不愿改变现有的姿态。

室内锻炼计划再启动……

很久没有练上肢力量了。今天到 Argos 买了这个杠子以后才发现安装是需要在门上钻孔的。学校大概不会允许我这样大兴土木。不过好在这套东西里还有用来做俯卧撑的器具，加上以前买的两个绳套后就组合成了这个简易单杠。实验了一下，还是比较结实的。这样就可以在室内练习引体向上了，而且腿因为窗台的缘故不能晃，估计锻炼效果会不错。

Week 8: Cross roads

The review on Tibetan environment is close to finish.  The climate section is the most detailed.  The other are less so.  Given the availability of today's literatures on Tibet biomes and geology, I believe to write a more detailed version for the other parts will cost much more time than the current one.  Another problem is that considerable amount of data are only accessible from China.

I surely have more literature reviews to do in next weeks.  However, I also realised that it may be the time I began preparation for the fieldwork.  Some work may take longer than I expect, so an early start would be better.  I have not talked about this with my supervisors, but I think they will agree with me on this.

During the study of Tibetan ecology I find the system more complicated than I previously estimated.  The dynamics of pikas is complicated enough.  This may add some difficulties to future research, considering it is basically blank in ecological research in Tibet.

BBC NEWS | UK | World Cup site threat to swallows

BBC NEWS | UK | World Cup site threat to swallows

This is an interesting environmental management case.  It is special in that it involves international affairs.  Bird migration may be the link of friendship between countries -- as well as of disputes.  In my memory there is no international law regulating bird conservation.  Swallows are not rare or endangered species (yet).  The question now is, should South African pay the bill for the conservation of a bird which is liked by Britons?

In South Africa Environmental Impact Assessment is mandatory for almost every construction project^[1].  Why EIA did not address such a threat to over 3 million swallows currently nested in the future site of World Cup matches?  My guess is that the public did not consider the swallows important; the local authority would not pay for "British swallows" either.  Apparently there is no pressure group claiming the interest of swallows.  When choosing site for such project, it is the competition of interest groups determining the final choice.

Now there is RSPB standing out for the interest of swallows (perhaps Briton's as well).  How much weight can they put on the South African official's decision?  I noticed that South Africa is one of the 53 Commonwealth countries.  Does this organisation play its role on environmental issues?  Maybe time can tell.

(Strange, RSPB has not put out this issue on their website when I write this post.)

---

[1] Environmental Impact Assessment in Thailand, South Africa, Malaysia and Denmark: working report. http://www.ruc.dk/upload/application/pdf/9c4d310e/workingpaper1.pdf

More fieldwork?

This noon when I was having my lunch on the bench outside the school building, I tried to go through my research plan again, then I realised that I need data on two seasons for two types of pastoralists.  Thus I may need to go to the field as early as in summer 2007, then I will have time and experience to do a fieldwork in winter 2007.  If there is not one in summer 2007, I will have to wait until summer 2008 considering the winter climate and lack of experience, and surely will have to spend some time in Tibet in 2009 when I should be writing up my thesis.

On one side this is a good opportunity for me to reunite Amy, on the other side it could mean a lot of preparation and hassle of learning sociology methods, contacting central and local officials/academics, and maybe studying/borrowing devices.  All seems still too sudden so I will need to talk to my supervisors about this idea.  However, I think it is time to do some networking at this moment.  It is never too early.

If I can make this trip, I cannot tell what the outcome is at present.  I will make a more detailed plan if my supervisors give me a green.

Week 7: Exploring new territory

This week I basically finished the review on climate, and move on to review geology, soil and other aspects of Tibetan environment.  These are really new to me.  And I find it really hard to be critical for such a new field I know so little about.

Another problem is that very few articles discuss the current environment in Tibet, which is more important to me.  Most focus on Holocene uplift and climate.  Next week I will turn my attention to biodiversity and ecosystems in Tibet.  Hopefully there will be more current issues.

A better method to value ecological services?

This is a lecture given by James Boyd, a economist from Washington D.C.  He argues that present means in which the value of ecosystem services are measured is too complicated(, partly by ecologists who want to address many issues at one time).  His idea is to only calculate the "final" goods provided by ecosystem, the inputs, or intermediate goods to produce the final goods are ignored in the calculation.  Then we can determine the quantity of the goods.  The qualities of the goods are measured by a weighting system, depending on how people concerned evaluate such qualities.  The product of goods quantity and quality (weight) is the value of the given ecological service.

I find the weighting system particularly interesting.  On the one hand, it is reductionist approach, and may bring some environmental justice problem, but James said this tool is not concerning environmental justice -- there should be other people/tool to deal with them;  on the other hand, I think the sum of weight is pre-determined by some total amount, such as the size of population, thus weighting means dealing with tradeoff and exclusive choices.  Now imagine ecosystem services A and B.  They have different weights but in one system they enhance each other and are inputs of each other.  What if a group of people want A sacrificing B and another think the other way round?  How do we measure the relative importance of A and B here?  James' explanation is that ecologists should let the decision makers know there is such implication and tradeoff exist, and such tradeoff can be considered by the policy makers.  In my opinion, I think the mutual enhancement of A and B can be represented using some kind of matrix algebra, though this will surely increase the complexity and compromise the merit of James' approach.

Using Carrying Capacity to manage rangelands -- Right or wrong?

Carrying capacity was completely a Western concept in rangeland management based on economic measurement of grass productivity and consumption of livestock.  As the Western management system was introduced to China, this concept is also prevailing in China's decision-makers' mind.  However, some argue it is not the appropriate approach to determine rangeland management policy in Tibet, because the natural disasters there require pastoralists to maintain mobility and increase the size of the herd whenever possible.  A settled range and given carrying capacity will leave the pastoralists vulnerable to natural disasters.

Even so, carrying capacity approach is employed in many places over Northern China.  Past records also show that Tibetan nomads use a similar system to regulate the number of sheep and yak.  But I am against using Carrying Capacity simply on Tibet's pastures.  In the past pastures are allocated every a few years, and the number of livestock is dynamically determined.  Western Carrying Capacity is based on industrialised management of rangeland, so presumably the rangeland will keep the productivity in a longer term.  Today's pastures in Tibet do not have either of these conditions.  Natural disasters or mismanagement may change the conditions of the pasture so they cannot maintain their productivity.  Thus it may not prevent degradation from overstocking.

Castaway

大概是因为疲劳。今天在办公室干活的时候，突然觉得很孤独。不知道可以跟谁说话，不知道想跟谁说话，好像没有人会关心我存在或不存在，我就这样一个人在一个陌生的没有人会跟自己说话的国度，活着。

这是一种很痛苦的体验。另一方面，我又似乎在劝说自己接受甚至享受这种孤独。一切似乎都是自己的选择。在朋友当中，只能跟少数人亲密无间，跟其他的人都保持着一些距离，没有什么事的话，平时是绝对不愿多说一句话的，大家都忙吧，不好意思让他们听我唧唧歪歪。而到了小岛上，结交新朋友的能力退化为0——实际上，我不知道自己可曾具有过这种能力。

就连上网逛个论坛吧，里面的人也只能让我有两种反应，要不敬而远之，要不就是懒得打字骂他们。我不由得怀疑自己的 taste 和 style，为什么就这么高不成低不就？

（因为心情不佳，对文盲的态度不好，这里深刻检讨，人家跟了我一点也不容易啊。）

大概我对朋友的要求也很完美主义，而且又不肯放下自己的那套所谓原则，更不愿冒着暴露自己性格爱好和浪费时间交不了活的风险跟人多说两句话，结果现在果然事实上流落荒岛了，连个排球也没有，活该。

以上不是反省，只是发泄。那些平常跟我只谈正事，在 MSN 上挂了几个月连句话也没有的，也别看见这个就来安慰我，我自己去看心理医生就好。

哼。

BBC NEWS | UK | Britain is 'surveillance society'

BBC NEWS | UK | Britain is 'surveillance society'

Thanks to /. which reminds me of this cruel fact: that I may have about 300 appearances on CCTV cameras per day.  UK is among the countries with most surveillance and privacy worst protected.  What is worse is that my keystrokes during working may well be recorded.  I would not blame my university without evidence but the fact that I am using pre-installed Windoze system on that machine is somewhat worrying.

This does not mean the US becomes a more lovely country.  It is not and never has been.  As the surveillance in the US is implemented by multiple agencies it can be more complicated and more powerful.  What is sure is that people are being terrorised so they accept total control anyway.

Remember, remember, the 5th of November

The Gunpowder Treason and plot;

I know of no reason why Gunpowder Treason

Should ever be forgot.

Ok, see who's the evil axis now...

27B Stroke 6: What's your terror score?

美国可能过去是个民主国家，将来也可能还是个民主国家，但是至少目前，在小布什和共和党右翼的统治下它不是。

这条新法案最可怕之处还不在于一个管理公民信息的庞大数据库，毕竟信用公司也有类似的东西，只是规模和覆盖面不同。它真正过分的地方在于，其一，你不知道它储存了什么样的数据；其二，你不知道哪些数据可能对你不利；其三，你无法起诉它不正当地使用了你的数据。现在这条法案可以绕过 Privacy Act，很显然今后的大规模国家监视系统也可以利用类似的方法绕过去——只要系统的数据采集、分析和提取使用在系统建成后没有人工干预即可。

从移民入境按指纹，到所谓的爱国者法案，再到这个恐怖分子评分系统，安全部门的触角已经太深地探入普通人的生活。美国的立法部门制定了一系列的法律确保这些以国家安全的名义进行的监视和歧视行为的合法性，却没有相应地制定新的能够保证权力不被滥用于损害公民基本权利的法律。与恐怖分子的行为比较，政府行为对普通人生活的损害实际上更大。每个人都生活在 FUD 中，其实也许这才是恐怖主义的目的。

信用公司的数据库充其量只能督促你尽快偿还信用卡上的债务，而许多人可以没有信用卡；而这个数据库的存在要求每个美国公民都要以白人基督教徒／天主教徒的方式生活，你不知道跟你的穆斯林邻居谈话会不会给你的“恐怖分子指数”加分，也不知道如果连续一个月在超市只买牛肉会不会引起 FBI 的怀疑。因为每个人都不知道到底什么样的行为是“类似恐怖分子”的，为了不自找麻烦，每个人就只有自我审查自己的一言一行。EngSoc 即将在美国实现了。

现在总算还可以庆幸自己当初懒得考 G，没去美国。不然我这样不吃猪肉，不信圣经，来自祖国大陆还在硬盘上存着巴勒斯坦人权组织拍的纪录片的人分数肯定低不了。但是，英国跟美国的亲密关系和它在 7.7 之后的态度也够让人失望了。从这个意义上说，V for Vendetta 也许不仅仅是漫画，也是1984式的政治寓言，遗憾的是改编的电影在我看来还是太软弱和肤浅，不足以体现 EngSoc 和 Bushism 的邪恶。

Week 6: Slow, yes, but progressing

This week's work mainly focus on environment of Tibetan pastures, more specifically, on climatic issues on the Plateau.

Though climate on a given area looks like a simple issue, it is not once you begin to ask questions.  My self-pointed objective on this sub-project is to understand a) what the climate(s) are like in Tibet; b) what the climates have been during the Holocene; and c) what are the implications of the historical and current climate on the pastoralism in the area?  Short-term climate events are also worth studying, which I have been doing since Thursday.

A main problem encountered during the literature review is very few materials on Tibet environment topic, and sadly a large unaccessible proportion in them.  Curse the Chinese database providers such as VIP and Wanfang Data!  There are many articles on climate change and Holocene climate histories out there, but I think their effects on pastoralism is what I need to independently and critically analyse.

The discussion with my supervisors are constructive, which I mentioned in another entry of the log.  One thing I strangely forgot to do is to draw a map of Tibet and my research area so that my audiences will understand the context better.  In the following 2 or 3 weeks I will finish this sub-project and a simple map as well.

An environmental picture in Tibet

Just now I had a talk with my supervisors.  Just like what Gandolf told Frodo, my first project is praised.  The following work will be a much larger project because there are many topics to explore.  However, it was pointed out that environmental issues, especially climatic ones, are very necessary for understanding of the historical and present problems in Tibet.

The work in next phase will be to write a detailed review of climate issues in Tibet.  What need to be included, I think, are as following:

• Holocene climate and geology/topography changes


• Environmental history, including important climatic events


• The impact of human initiatives on the environment


• How environmental factors form and impact pastoralism

Other issues raised during the meeting include making maps for the research area, finding interest groups working there, globalisation's effects on local economy, seeking oral history from grassroots and gov/expert points of view.  One interesting thing is that African countries such as Botswana has undergone similar "modernisation" process in 1970s, and the consequences are being revealed, which may be an interesting case study and comparison for my thesis.

Settle down

看文盲的 blog 上连载的川滇藏游记，别人看得有趣，羡慕，我却总看得胆战心惊。以前知道文盲既然决定要去，自己是拉不住的，但是知道她在川藏线上落水，发烧，淋雨，冒着塌方落石的危险奔进西藏，便很冲动地觉得即使拉不住也要阻止。看到她这样的遭遇，想到那时自己什么忙也帮不上，是件非常难受的事情。现在，如果她说要去什么地方，我的第一反应可能还是反对吧。

但是，这样做也太自私了一点……总不能为了自己心里安稳就这么限制她的自由，何况还不是短时间的事，是三年。

但是对我自己来说，东奔西跑也不再是生活的目的而只是一种手段了，以后我还是会很乐意为了学术的目的满世界跑，但除此以外，无论崇山峻岭还是大漠长河，对我都不再有吸引力了。既然有了一个家，那么除非为了让这个家更好，我是不愿远离它的。

也许这跟很多人对我的印象，甚至一段时间里我对自己的期望都非常不符合。可是如果回忆得再远一点，在我很小的时候，也是宁愿安守家中自己的一方天地的。后来开始喜欢出门，大概也只是为了能见到朋友，或者寻觅一段经历和感情。现在的我并不缺乏这些，也就不愿再仅仅为了经历而旅行。

也许是懒了吧，或者是最近坐班太习惯了。但我想，那个对读书和各种 hobby 乐此不疲的 nerd, 才是真正的自己。皓首穷经，也是我向往已久的生活。