Recently I have seen many of @pfunk ‘s amazing photos on … well,…. insects… obviously we are no experts on this and seriously there are all kinds of bugs out there that I only know very very limited species. But we have sensitive eyes to appreciate the beauty nourished by mother nature. His works reminds me of my earlier shots in spring this year. Of course, mine photos were taken by my not-so-smartphone but it is enough to show you those incredible bugs! 最近看到 @pfunk 有許多拍攝昆蟲的照片，非常精彩。讓我想起半年前的春天之際，曾在市郊小山上拍攝的各種蟲子，所以把他們找了出來。蟲子世界其實非常複雜，通常我們就是欣賞，而且還不能用一般的美感，得去想像大自然神奇的生物雕工，創造出這麼多奇幻怪形的生物！這些照片是用我的笨手機拍的，自然不能與專業相機比擬，但只是要分享蟲子之怪與美的話，那也是夠了…

First, the caterpillars. Here they are having meals… The fruits look really yummy, don’t they? 第一張是蟲蟲用餐，看那什麼果的，是不是也讓你覺得很好吃的感覺？

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Take a closer look. All hairy and crawly…. 近看一點，這種毛毛蟲最多，山上步道欄杆滿滿都是。

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Looks like three of them (yeah, notice the little red one) are discussing something down there… the middle one is so spectacular! 這張是三蟲聚首，中間的非常怪而華麗，旁邊還有個小個頭的紅蟲子。

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If you want to see the caterpillar crawling… you can view it from this link. 如果你想看看毛蟲爬，可以點這個連結

https://goo.gl/photos/m8VoyPG3zo9yJ5ps8

Ok. then we have blue bugs… They are also abundant. Mostly on leafs (seem to be their food). They look like blue gems. 接下來是都一樣但非常美的藍色蟲子，大概水滴般大小，在葉子上特別多，估計是吃樹葉的。

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These photos were taken on a hill in southern Taipei. You can have a good view from above looking down at the crowded houses and apartments. A little bit messy indeed. Urban renewal is currently an urgent public issue for Taipei.  這些都是在台北南邊的仙跡岩小山上拍的。仙跡岩的仙指的是呂洞賓，跡是足跡，山上有的岩石痕跡據說是他留下的腳印… 往下看就是台北文山區，房子並不美，台北房子平均都已經40幾歲了，未來都市更新是重要公共議題… 不過，蟲子可不管呢…

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Hope you enjoy it. 

This page is synchronized from the post: ‘Butterfly kids and blue bugs … amazing insect world 微觀的春蟲世界’

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Nowadays people go to cafes to have some snacks, enjoy the coffee, or take a short break. Yes to all that. But an important function of cafes is to provide a space where people can talk without interference. Of course, people talks about all sorts of things… gossips, complaints about jobs and family, sharing one’s recent experience… anything is possible. But in a fast changing society, cafes are very important to the exchange of ideas between people. Therefore, by providing a physical venue, cafes have become a platform or a marketplace for people from diverse professional backgrounds to engage in valuable exchange of information. No wonder cafes are an important part of life to many entrepreneurs… 

Well, I am not an entrepreneur and nor is my friend Stanley. Stanley came to Taipei yesterday for a meeting and after that we went to a cafe nearby so we can catch up. The photos here was the cafe latte I had and it was pretty nice. We talked about lots of things and mostly was about how technology nowadays has flourished and evolved so quickly that makes us so excited but at the same time dizzy as well…

He told me about his meeting, during which Nvidia, a top fabless IC design company based in Santa Clara, California who specialized in graphics IC (GPU), has now transformed into one that focuses on AI/Machine learning/Deep learning IC. They are now going to apply their products to implement self-driving cars. Yes, the chip will learn from real drivers and not for long, it can drive the car as well as you do, or even better in most cases. Somehow, as he told me, that Nvidia’s advantages in graphics works well in this new AI, learning technology… (if you are interested, see here). 

And, what can I share with him? Of course it must be blockchain and cryptocurrencies. I won’t elaborate on that as you are mostly familiar with that subject. I did mention about Steemit, or just the conceptual framework behind it. He didn’t seem to buy it. Or, to be more precise, he didn’t seem to believe that one day those digital currencies will be our daily life. It is always a pleasure to talk to someone who thinks otherwise - it is so precious to know how others will challenge what you believe in a candid way. Again, I am not gonna elaborate on our discussions. But he kept mentioning one issue which can be generalized to be: how can we exchange something virtual, or something created from digital space, with something concrete and real like the coffee we were drinking? This might hold for a while, but definitely cannot be sustainable in the long run. I, of course, offered my explanations on this point like values are and forever will be the product of human perception, which is as virtual as it can get… but again I will skip it for now… 

What I learn from this cup of coffee is… If we are to embrace the coming virtual economy, we need to first take off the glasses through which we have been observing the world and how it works. One hallucination for another. Neither is more real than the other and neither is less illusive. If only we know it all comes from our very minds, it is all good and we can just enjoy the ride.

Back to the subject. A cup of coffee and the exchange of ideas… which is more real? and which is less? Somtimes, it is really hard to tell.

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This page is synchronized from the post: ‘Coffee and Exchange of Ideas … which is more real?’

This is not an extraordinary photo nor one with intriguing stories… Rather, this is just for my own record. It is just a moment for me to remember. Yeah. I am the father and that’s my son. Taken on 5th of Dec 2015 in Taipei Expo Park. 

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說是要記錄我自己的父子照片，也對。但主要是分享給cn區朋友，或許你覺得眼熟… 我自己今天整理照片，無意間看到，突然意識到似乎很像… well, you know who… :D … 去年底在台北花博公園拍的，那時還不識各位好友們啊…. 

p.s. 順道update一下, 原本說本周要推出點東西, 但可能會暫緩一下(諸多原因), 還好有 @lalala 出來要推動些事情，需要資源幫忙的話請隨時召喚我啊… 

Note. After submission, I found that this is my 500th post! Although as I said before that this number refers to both posts and replies/comments and the later usually is several times the former… Well, what the heck, 500 looks good! So I post this historical moment here as well to share with you … :P

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This page is synchronized from the post: ‘Father and Son’

It is a shot I took yesterday. The view was quite intriguing to me - I’ve always loved to see the ongoing big construction. Maybe it represents the power of destruction and creation at the same time? Just to share with you… Oh, the construction is for a underground subway system in New Taipei City.

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This page is synchronized from the post: ‘UNDER-Construction’

Last Week on Sunday Giveaway… 回顧一下上週週日猜謎

A Sunday $5 SBD Giveaway if you recognize this cafe #2 週日咖啡廳猜謎又來了！

Interesting enough, this time the winner @borishaifa also blogged about how he had managed to recognize this cafe by some techniques of Googling and the spirit of NEVER GIVE UP! See below. 上週結果也是頗有趣。雖然難度不高，但是贏家 @borishaifa 並不是因為去過而認出的，是靠著他敏銳的觀察力與Google一起找出的，他也一樣發了帖談這個過程，請看以下。

How I Have Won A Prize 5SBD Today!

Two winners so far, @adamt and @borishaifa both won the prize by their shrewd observation. Congratulations to them again! This time I am hoping again that someone from the cn community can win this prize but of course EVERYONE is welcome to join! 恭喜之前的得獎者，但這次真的希望cn區的人可以猜中了！

This one should be a harder one but if you have been there then it is highly likely that you remember it. Needless to say, it is a Starbucks as you can see from the photos. 這次或許難一點，但是只要你去過這間星巴克（照片就可以看到），你一定會記得的！

So, the First CLUE is that it is in Southern China. Same rules apply (exactly where it is and the first one gets it right wins the prize). $5 SBD up for grabs. Don’t miss out!第一個提示是：這是在中國南方。先猜中這是哪一間星巴克者可得$5 SBD！別再錯過啦！

Please note that I won’t update in at least 8 hours as I need to sleep now (actually I wasn’t going to do it this week as I have a flu recently but coughing made me sleepless so here it is again). 得去睡覺了，起床上網後沒人猜到才有第二波提示。

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Update! 

We have a WINNER!! Congrats to @kiryck !! Well done! Make it right at no time but I went to sleep already… Shamian is a small island at the mouth of the famous pearl river in Guangzhou (capital of Guangdong). It used to be international settlements of the British and the French for more than 80 years… that explains the European style buildings around. Here is a blog by a Taiwan tourist with many good photos there.

This page is synchronized from the post: ‘A Sunday $5 SBD Giveaway if you recognize this cafe #3 週日咖啡廳猜謎來了！’

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謝謝大家對我小小memo的回應與加油，不過，最需要加油鼓勵的，應該不是我。memo還兩位數，這怎麼行？好好寫一篇想法，順便預告一下…

語言文字構成的天然障礙

steemit目前都還沒有有效處理語言文字的問題，儘管有許多嘗試沒錯，包括雙語，或是翻譯等等，也有一定的成績(畫圖等跨越語言文字之類的也能成功但其成功不能解決這問題)。問題是，基本上，這些嘗試都是基於汲取English circle的想法來養大非英語區，這在本質上是不可行的，永遠只能養出西方(英語圈)眼中的異語言文化圈，而不是自我成長出來的。那怎樣可行？唯一長久之道是必須要有有能力培養中文區(以此為例)的多元力量來選擇中文區能夠獲得高報酬的帖，翻譯成目前狀況就是，中文區的大鯨魚必須要更多隻且能夠自己或是授權有鑑別力的代理者來執行多元甄別任務。現在連steemit自己English主圈的問題都還在頭痛，當然沒法如此理想化地改造中文或其他語言區了….

目前能作什麼？

一是協助steemit主體早日穩定成功，才有暇顧及其他語言問題。大西瓜 @myfirst 兄最近就在嘗試，我也不知道會不會有效果，也沒有專業能力，只能祝福與期待這些有專業與眼光與資源的cn區頭頭們可以改變些什麼。其次，我認為，就是盡量留住目前還在這裡游泳的小魚兒們。靠著 @abit 的照護也是一個方法，但眼下似乎應該作更多一點，其實我認為許多曾來過的小魚兒們很多早就走了… 過去兩週我就在想這件事，我們早來的幾個有幸能得到王的關愛，發在cn區多半也能得到大神支持，通常上到20刀左右是不難的。給定每天可以發4帖，我就想沒發到頂有點浪費，但自己頻發帖對於名聲不好也沒多大意義，轉念一下，如果是以別人或公眾名義就比較沒問題。君不見英語區常常有XXXXX (featuring @xxxx as the author)這種帖？這就是平台概念，其實平台也獲利(如果SBD都給作者，平台也有對應的SP)，這是一種雙贏，目前遊戲規則下的雙贏(不見得是有道理的)…. 所以很常見。

下週請期待

可惜的是目前payout都下降了，就連王的點讚也有策略調整了，光景已不如前。原本我想就作罷吧！但是看到大家熱情回應我的memo帖，感到實在得作些事，加上我帳戶長期累積有些要作公益用途的一點點錢，乾脆就來做吧，否則說不定….. 我就先自己嘗試，力量不大，不能跟curie或是RHW羅賓鯨等相比擬，但是總可以讓有些有一點點才華與有緣游到這裡的一些魚苗們能夠得到一點點機會與一點點鼓勵，而且說實話，我自己也會有好處的…. 等我構思完成，下週就會推出，讓cn區能夠稍微回暖一點，到時再請多多支持囉！小魚眾們，先別走喔，記得下週來看看，有什麼新鮮事!!

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