I made another topology dataset for spatial discretion of MODFLOW. This set is following Reeve et al. (2000) though I cannot tell why he used 11 layers to present the acrotelm, catotelm and mineral soil, the book they cited cannot be located anywhere on the web. This model in fact assumes that vertical flow are important in blanket bog hydrology. But there is another school of thought who claims that catotelm is relatively impermeable thus separating acrotelm from underlying mineral soil and the hydrology is completely determined by precipitation.
I found some books on aerial photograph interpretation, such as Jones (1968), Warner et al. (1996), and Lueder (1959). Some of their references seems to be really interesting. But, they are really way too old. I wonder whether I can find those documents cited in them.
A problem rises when I want to do field observation to verify the reliability of Sphagnum spectral signature identified from aerial photographs. How do I sample the verification points so I can tell how many patches are corresponding to the image? The sampling will be a random sampling for each 1kmx1km grid, I will have a list of all pixels with that signature and choose points from the list randomly. But for allocation of points between grid cells, I will use probability-proportional-to-size (pps) approach. Because each cell has different proportion of possible patches, if I select the same number of points in each of the cell, cells with less areas of patches will in fact have weights more than they deserve.
2006年5月25日星期四
2006年5月23日星期二
Chapter 3 From the Enlightenment to the Second International
This is my progress so far reading T. Eagleton's ``Ideology: An introduction''. I must say the concept ideology is one of those that you use from time to time but never really understand what they mean. It is complicated, and especially confusing in this chapter.
Marx's work The German Ideology provided a good source of concepts and discourses about ideology. However, it also proved to be a source of confusion in Eagleton's book. In a modern language context (so it is not anymore a discipline studying human thinking activity), an ideology may be false perception of reality, or it may be a reality of falsification itself, or reflection of commodity relationships; it may be endemic paradigm of capitalist, or weapon of socialist.... The last point was not explicitly mentioned in The German Ideology, but according to Eagleton has been hinted.
Thus this chapter becomes a confusion over the existence and ``materialiness'' of ideology. My slow reading at a speed of 3 pp per day only increased such confusion. However I think the author is only trying to illustrate the complexity of the ideology concept and drawing his readers to deeper discussions.
Marx's work The German Ideology provided a good source of concepts and discourses about ideology. However, it also proved to be a source of confusion in Eagleton's book. In a modern language context (so it is not anymore a discipline studying human thinking activity), an ideology may be false perception of reality, or it may be a reality of falsification itself, or reflection of commodity relationships; it may be endemic paradigm of capitalist, or weapon of socialist.... The last point was not explicitly mentioned in The German Ideology, but according to Eagleton has been hinted.
Thus this chapter becomes a confusion over the existence and ``materialiness'' of ideology. My slow reading at a speed of 3 pp per day only increased such confusion. However I think the author is only trying to illustrate the complexity of the ideology concept and drawing his readers to deeper discussions.
2006年5月20日星期六
2006年5月17日星期三
塞翁失马
早上收邮件，爱丁堡大学地理系的秘书姐姐发信说我的 DHPA 申请没成功，再加上教授自己也没钱，估计未来四年里的南美之行要泡汤。
不过对这结果算是早有准备吧，毕竟这申请的项目不太对口，也没做太多准备工作，如果真让我骗到了 DHPA ，倒真有些不地道。所以立马填了另外一张申请表，转而申请 SAGES 提供的半奖项目。这几个课题我都比较感兴趣，所以如果申请上了，这次丢掉 DHPA 也不是坏事。
另外也申请了港大的保护生物学研究课题，在线申请很快，不过又要麻烦我的两位老师写推荐信了。
打电话回家报告战况，我妈比我紧张多了，生怕我郁闷，说了一大通让我不许想不开，我差点 faint，本不是什么重大的损失，只是说明我的 rp 还在正常范围以内而已。
另外看见 Tesco 招中国留学生毕业后到上海工作，有些动心，不过想了想，放弃大好读书光阴去挣钱，还是有些不值。而且，这年头的零售业也不好做。
突然有点想看李小龙的电影了。申请搞定后让家里寄来。
不过对这结果算是早有准备吧，毕竟这申请的项目不太对口，也没做太多准备工作，如果真让我骗到了 DHPA ，倒真有些不地道。所以立马填了另外一张申请表，转而申请 SAGES 提供的半奖项目。这几个课题我都比较感兴趣，所以如果申请上了，这次丢掉 DHPA 也不是坏事。
另外也申请了港大的保护生物学研究课题，在线申请很快，不过又要麻烦我的两位老师写推荐信了。
打电话回家报告战况，我妈比我紧张多了，生怕我郁闷，说了一大通让我不许想不开，我差点 faint，本不是什么重大的损失，只是说明我的 rp 还在正常范围以内而已。
另外看见 Tesco 招中国留学生毕业后到上海工作，有些动心，不过想了想，放弃大好读书光阴去挣钱，还是有些不值。而且，这年头的零售业也不好做。
突然有点想看李小龙的电影了。申请搞定后让家里寄来。
Some trivial work during preparation for Exams
Nothing quite exciting today. Dr. Rieley recommended one PhD dissertation about vegetation in Derwent Valley. But I think the map provided by this dissertation is a bit too coarse for my purpose. At this stage I cannot use the map to identify Sphagnum patches from aerial photos because almost all 1km^2 grids on the map have certain kinds of Sphagnum.
I will need to contact Joe Holden in Leeds University for information on gully blocking.
I will need to contact Joe Holden in Leeds University for information on gully blocking.
2006年5月16日星期二
New York Times 定义的“民科”
今天看关于 Cellular Automata model 的文献，自然地就看到了 Wolfram 的名字，也看到了他写的那本一千多页的 A New Kind of Science 的书名，查了一下图书馆目录，诺大的图书馆没有这本书，T大的外文书阅览室倒是有一本。
Google Scholar 上排第一的是 Applied Mechanics Reviews 上的一篇书评，看了一下，书评作者先表扬 Wolfram 少年早慧，事业有成，然后说他在这本书里自称推翻了牛顿体系的科学，又拿不出同行评议过的证据，不太地道，最后引用了 New York Times 的一段话，实在是辛辣之至：
这句话若能早十年提出并引进到中国，许多“水变油”之类的荒谬现象也就不会发生了吧。这里说的“民科”与民间科技爱好者之不同，也就是 crank 与 hobbist 的区别── crank 是要通过自己所谓的研究成果求名求利的。而 hobbist 最大的苦恼往往是找不到专家做同行评议。
当然，Wolfram 的 Mathematica 是货真价实的，从这个意义上说他不是 crank，不过他既然自己出书宣称推翻了整个经典科学体系又不让人检验他的理论，给这种行为泼泼冷水也无妨。
Google Scholar 上排第一的是 Applied Mechanics Reviews 上的一篇书评，看了一下，书评作者先表扬 Wolfram 少年早慧，事业有成，然后说他在这本书里自称推翻了牛顿体系的科学，又拿不出同行评议过的证据，不太地道，最后引用了 New York Times 的一段话，实在是辛辣之至：
"Cranks are an occupational hazard that every scientist eventually faces. Fortunately, these characters are usually easy to spot. If someone claims to have a grand theory that overturns centuries of scientific knowledge—especially when the theory spans unrelated fields like physics and biology and economics—the odds are good that he or she is a crank. If the author publishes not in standard scientific journals but in a book for general readers, watch out. And if the book is issued by the author rather than a conventional publisher, the case is pretty much airtight." (New York Times, May 20 2002. in M. Gad-el-hak. A New Kind of Science (book review). Applied Mechanics Reviews, Vol. 56, No. 2, pp. B18–B19, March 2003)
这句话若能早十年提出并引进到中国，许多“水变油”之类的荒谬现象也就不会发生了吧。这里说的“民科”与民间科技爱好者之不同，也就是 crank 与 hobbist 的区别── crank 是要通过自己所谓的研究成果求名求利的。而 hobbist 最大的苦恼往往是找不到专家做同行评议。
当然，Wolfram 的 Mathematica 是货真价实的，从这个意义上说他不是 crank，不过他既然自己出书宣称推翻了整个经典科学体系又不让人检验他的理论，给这种行为泼泼冷水也无妨。
凯奇主演的主旋律影片
World Trade Center，今年第二部纪念 9.11 事件的影片。
不过，从预告片上看这片子除了卖弄悲情，并没有什么出彩之处。而且，在看了 Loose Change 2nd Edition 之后，我对这一切纪念的意义，都产生了怀疑。
我也阴谋论一把，9.11 五年后，美国在伊拉克还是泥足深陷，随着伤亡人数的增加，国内的反战情绪也必然高涨，像 Ramsfield 之流早就有人催他下台，所以，现在有必要拍电影提醒人们“记住阿拉莫”。这样的电影，亲历过 9.11 的人们是不会看的，但美国国内大多数人从此大概又可以同仇“敌”忾，支持 Bush 的主张了。
但美国观众在看电影并为 Cage 和 Clemenson (United 93) 的表演唏嘘时，可曾想过在伊拉克每天担惊受怕的大兵和正在上演的真正悲剧呢？
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