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The Passionate Skeptic |
Photos A photo essay from students in Zhengzhou index
Blogs Thor's New China Diary - The Cigarette The small shop next to the bank was in the humble business of selling hot flat bread, shao bing, freshly baked in a coal oven, irresistible to those raised on its crisp crusts. It opened very early, and shut very late. The shao bing came piping hot, and sold for a song at five jiao apiece... more... Unwise Ideas 47. The contest for Competence If some people don't break the rules sometimes, then a normal society will cease to function. Breaking the wrong rules for the wrong reasons is like breaking legs though. And if everyone breaks the rules, then a society will disintegrate. A paradox? Yes. See how this cake is baked... more. 46. The End of Capitalism is Announced So the crookedest brains in Moscow, Beijing and Washington didn’t want to make a system that worked for you or me. Has anyone managed to do it? Well, yes, more or less, for brief moments in history. Virtue, like vice, is a temporary affair with unpredictable outcomes.... ... more Research [Applied Linguistics] [Formal Linguistics] Basic Tips for Language Teachers Abstract : This is an outline from one of a monthly series of seminars by Thor May on teaching skills. The seminars are given as a teacher inservice for Chinese English teachers in Zhengzhou, Henan, China. This seminar was conducted on 10 June 2008 The notes [2300+ words] consist of three parts : 1. Some short backround notes on the profession of teaching languages;2. A few useful links for teaching tips and content; 3. A collection of ten activities which the seminar presenter has invented or borrowed, and found to be popular with students. Feature Life, Content Mangagement Systems, and the Answer to Everything From time to time I have picked at CMS/blog machines, and wondered how to migrate the now denigrated "static" html of my sprawling site to the tidy content of databases. The main attraction has been the incorporation of some way to give readers a voice, assuming there are any readers left out there. A few years ago, they used to send a steady stream of e-mails, but now expect something more instant and public. The voices have fallen silent.... more
Poetry [ also see Thor's Poems at http://thormay.net/literature/poems.html ]
SHORT CUTS 220. Evolutionary Decorations Men want to be admired vegetables and women want to be desired vegetables. For a brief time as young plants they grow legs and arms and brains. The evolutionary purpose of these appendages is to find a good garden plot. Once safely located, all mechanisms for movement and and thinking are shed. more short cuts .... WRITING Managing Downward Spirals - Getting from Here to There Hey, will you be here tomorrow? Seg back twenty years and all the news was of a planet overrun by recklessly breeding humans. Today in the media of rich nations, the slightly hysterical whisper is that liberated women are on a baby strike and we’ll all be doomed to robot care in our old age. This downward spiral of fertility is an almost sedate affair in the grand scheme of things. Compare it to the supposed disappearance of dinosaurs after the nuclear winter from earth's traffic accident with a giant meteor. People though, count for more than dinosaurs, don't they... (continued ...)
<> Bus to Heaven (a story for learning English) Every morning Helen put her left shoe on before her right shoe. She combed her hair before she put on any mascara. And she made her bed before she ironed her dress. There wasn't any special reason for doing things in that order. It was just a habit, and she never thought about it... (continued ...) <> Mr Dog Looks for Breakfast Mr. Dog woke up one Spring morning and yawned.He stretched his legs and wrinkled his nose.Then he sniffed the breeze. There were many interesting smells in the air.He could smell the jaoze steaming in Mrs. Li's kitchen. That made his to tongue hang out, and he panted a little with pleasure.Presently he caught another scent. It was that damned Tabby cat. He frowned, and growled deep in his throat.The silly thing was watching him for sure, hiding behind a fence or something. He looked around suspiciously, but Tabby was not to be seen... (... continued)
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