The Start of the Chain of Events

Determinism is a proposition that every event, including human cognition, decision and action are determined by an unbroken chain of prior occurrences. 1) What is the initial event that set out the chain? If it is too simple, then it's no longer qualify a determining event, but eligible to be derived varies of following ups; if it's not simple enough, then it requests another prior occurrence. 2) What are the differences between determinism and fatalism?

Chinese Gene Not Good Enough for Science

The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) recently launched the program offering visiting scholarships to attract top overseas research talents. However, the guideline (in Article 3, Chapter 5, Item 2) goes one step further than relying on the boarder of citizenship, to specifically excluded Chinese descendants even if they were foreign citizens from the project. In other words, bearing a single strip of Chinese gene automatically disqualifies an applicant, regardless his achievements in science. The 1997 sci-fi movie Gattaca comes alive while the defective gene is called Chinese.

The committee overseeing this project is headed by the president of the CAS Lu Yongxiang, co-chaired by deputy president Bai Chunli, deputy president Jiang Mianheng, deputy president Chen Zhu, deputy president Shi Erwei, deputy president Li Jiaxiang, deputy president Li Jinghai, deputy president Cao Jianlin, among eight others. Jiang Mianheng is the son of former Chinese president Jiang Zemin. To apply, contact the CAS at +86 10 6859-7416, FAX +86 10 6851-2364, EMail, hjhuang@cashq.ac.cn.

South Korean Deployed Robots After Soldiers Sodomized by US Soldiers

A U.S. military court sentenced Sgt. Leng Sok to 30 years in jail for sodomizing a South Korean soldier, the U.S. military said. Sgt. Sok served in the 21st Infantry Regiment of the 2nd Infantry Division based in Fort Lewis in Washington. Two other American soldiers suspected of involvement in the assault are under investigation. The victim is a South Korean soldier who served as an Augmentation to the US Army (KATUSA). A 37,000 strong United States Forces Korea (USFK) stationed in the South Korean. Thanks to a treaty between the US and the South Korean government, they will not be punished for crimes they committed in South Korea by the South Korean law.

Although people sodomized by soldiers are all over the news, etc., but the Defence Ministry of the South Korean took no rick by expediting deploying more robots to guard along the non-military zone between South and North Korea. Maybe robots could not be sodomized, maybe.

The robot, code named XAD, is said to be weight 17 Kg. It will request anyone within 10 meters to ID themselves, or be shot. One such robot can monitor a perimeter of 4 km. Samsung expects to complete all testing before the end of 2008. One XAD will be placed at every two km along the border.

A Woman We Couldn't Forget

Two years after Iris Chang's untimely death, a bust of her was unveiled in a reading room at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. Her New York Time bestselling book "Rape of Nanking" was the first major work on the Nanking Massacre in English, which revived people's memory of the darkest days in human history. Even decades later, the two weeks of bloody, unstopped and indiscriminated slaughtering of civilian residents in Nanking has been concealed by both Chinese and Japanese governments for political reasons. A movie "Nanking" made its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival last month. More movies and TV programs are being made at the dawn of the 70 anniversary when 300,000 Chinese of then capital city Nanking were killed when the city fell to the Japanese invasion in 1937.

Iris Chang died while she was preparing for her fourth book. The topic of the book will be Bataan Death March, while ten thousands of allied POWs, mostly American, were tortured and died on a 100 kilometers prisoner transfer in 1994 after the fell of Philippine to Japanese invasion.

Thousands Appalled by Unsportsman-like Action

Five South Korea Women's short track skaters could not hold up any more their frustration on their domestic mates' length. The team raised a sign on the official ceremony after winning the second place in the ongoing Sixth Asian Winter Games held in Changchun, a northeastern city of China. The sign reads: "Korean Male's Manhood is Too Short!"

Many audiences sitting in the stadium at the time couldn't read the signs due to its small size, but Chinese officials protested the action. In a letter to Kim Jung-kil, head of the Korea Olympic Committee (KOC), the organizing committee of the Changchun Asian Games accused the South Korean athletes of engaging in sexual activity during the games, which is banned under the charter of the International Olympic Committee and the Olympic Council of Asia, South Korean sports officials said.

The letter was delivered directly to Kim by Chinese organizing committee officials at the Changchun International Airport, just before Kim took a flight to return home, the officials said.

The Chinese officials expressed regret and asked that similar incidents be prevented during the Asian Games, they said.

The Ethics of Belief & The Will to Believe

It is understood in the philosophy field that natural scientists follow Clifford's idea on the requirement of first hand evidents before making conclusions. However, with the progress of science, the evidents that are taking as evidents have also evolved.

The Ethics of Belief was published in 1842, right before the era of the explosion of knowledge, largely thanks how scientists share their knowledge, and reply on the collaborations with others to build the technology we are enjoying today.

Philosophers help people figure out reasons between life and death. So just curious, what is the ratio of suicidal philosophers?

Courts Adopted New Sentencing Guideline

Courts of Dongguan in Guangdong province adopted a new sentencing guideline which takes monetary compensation to victims into criminal case. Chen Si of the Dongguan Medium Court explained the new guideline in a recent interview. Chen used a case to illustrate the benefit of the new guideline. In a fatal robber case, the murder Wang paid $6,000 to the victim Cai's family. The money helped the victim's family out of financial desperation. The victim's family was quite satisfied, so the sentence was subsequently reduced to life in jail.

$6,000 means a lot for a poor family.

Dongguan was a little know county of Guangzhou not long ago. However, it grows into one of the most prosperous area as a mega industrial park. It's GDP would ranked top 5 among major cities in China.

Army Bio Lab Illegal and Criminal

Professor Francis Boyle of University of Illinois, who drafted the 1989 federal law that criminalized violations of the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention, which was signed into law by President non-W Bush in 1990, commented on the Army's proposed new U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) in Fort Detrick, reported Frederick News-Post.

Professor Boyle further commented that, if federal law is followed to the letter, biodefense labs at Ft. Detrick would be shut down and their decision-makers would spend life in prison.