Home Is Where The Heart Dwells

纽约时报文章The Long Run–Teaching Law, Testing Ideas, Obama Stood Apart介绍了奥巴马的法学院生涯：他在芝加哥法学院教书十二载和在哈佛法学院三年学习。文章强调奥巴马深知左右派分歧，并很早就致力于探索解决途径。

Chinese Vocabulary: Internet Commentators Or Wu Mao (网络评论员 或 五毛党, in English 50-cent, 5-cent, 5 cent party, 50 cent party, “Wumao Dang”, etc. )

In 2004, the Ministry of Education (MOA) and Communist Youth League jointly issued a guideline on internet censorship. The guideline, addressing all Chinese universities, required them to “recruit more than enough number of internet commentators with trustworthy political backgrounds, abundant knowledge on the internet.” The purpose was to have them “write and publish posts on hot issues to attract student internet users’ viewing or responding, so that the internet discussion would be well guided.”

Very soon the guideline was implemented. Henan Province, for instance, issued a notice to all its local universities, further requiring the universities to train the recruited internet commentators for their job and—in order to have them do a good job—to reward them according to their performance. When the notice reached the local universities, the university authorities added more creative ways to keep the quality of such work. Henan Shangzhuan (a local college in Henan) added that the Party secretaries of its various departments, branches and divisions had to hear reports from them regularly, and these Party secretaries would be evaluated based on their work of guiding internet discusssion.

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盛超: 政府公信力与公民的不服从权

“我们分析原因主要是对政府部门和公安不满，对社会不满，想要发泄仇恨和气愤……公安的威信自此扫地，这是我们的 责任。但作为公安，这两年我们的非警务活动比较多，这不是我们的问题。比如，遇到群体事件就出动警察，这种“得罪”老百姓的事，都得我们去做。”当《中国 新闻周刊》提出“他们为什么对公安充满仇恨”这样的问题时，刚被免职的瓮安公安局长申贵荣这样解释。 (more…)

哈佛毕业典礼上，J.K.罗琳以自己的人生经历讲述失败的好处以及想象力的重要性

6月5日是哈佛大学毕业典礼周的最后一天，正式毕业典礼在Tercentenary Theatre举行。
这一天的主讲人，是“哈利·波特”的作者罗琳（J.K. Rowling）。42岁的罗琳身穿白底粉花齐膝连衣裙、乳白色毛衣披肩，与周围身穿黑色博士服或深色西装革履的学者绅士迥然不同。她的神态也有些像小姑娘见大场面似的局促不安，这与旁边的女校长形成鲜明对比。 (more…)