When Mr. Liu Ao (51 to 7 BC) was the King of the Western Han Empire, the ex-prime minister, Marquis of Anchang Zhang Yu (? to 5 BC) was a well-respected and heavy-weight figure in the court. After his retirement, he was even made the emeritus senior minister on the ground that he was the tutor to Mr. Liu when he was a young boy.
A certain Mr. Zhu Yun was not very happy about this, and he wrote to the King and asked for a meeting. In the meeting, in front of the imperial leadership team, Mr. Zhu said:
At the top of the managerial pyramid, the King does not get enough guidance from the current court leadership. And at the bottom of the pyramid, the ordinary people does not benefit from their leadership. They are enjoying the fat emolument associated with their position without having to actually do anything.
尚方和尚方斬馬劍
According to Confucius, one shall not work with these despicable characters in the imperial office, for they are constantly afraid of losing their jobs, and they are willing to do anything in order to protect their positions. May I request your Majesty to bestow me the Sword of of the State. A certain treacherous one must be killed so that others may use him as an example.
Most flowers are very proper about reproduction. They use infrared tattoo on their bodies to flirt with bees, butterflies, or other third parties, and then wait politely for fertilization. The process is very theatrical: pollen exchanges, sweet scents, delicate dances. Basically a Victorian ball with petals. The groundnut flower, or Arachis hypogaea , 落花生, however, is different. It does not outsource romance. It handles everything internally. No contract workers. No operating technicians. No HR department. Just the genitalia of a photosynthetic lifeform doing their business. And then . . . the truly scandalous part: After lovemaking, instead of basking in the glow like a sunflower on holiday, Hypogaea does something extraordinary: it bows its head, elongates a little stalk called a peg, and politely drills itself into the soil. Other plants s...
從吉打 Lembah Bujang 布央谷開車回家，經過怡保的時候剛好是晚餐時間。 在麥當勞用過晚餐後，發現開車的我好像也有點睏了，於是決定在怡保睡一覺。我們把車開到 Bandar Meru Raya ，然後跟 Casuarina 要了一間房間。 隔天早我見小兒子辛円睡到很遲還不願意起床，就拿起手機給他照了一張相 1 。 原想給照片標上：阿円睡到日上三竿 2 ，大太陽曬屁股還不起身。但，住在我頭腦裡面的另外一個人問我： 三竿 到底是 : 點？ The timestamp of the photograph was 9:12:09 morning (28 May 2017). The explanation given by National Academy for Educational Research of Taiwan 台灣國家教育研究院 is：太陽已上升到 三根 竹竿相接的 高度 。表示時候不早了。This explanation suggests that ‘三' (three) is to be interpreted vertically and absolutely, instead of umbrally and relative to the physical pole. Given the fact in the phrase 三竿 (three poles) was recorded by an observatory officer, it is unlikely that the former intepretation is correct. 大太陽曬屁股還不起身嗎？ 於是我便上網查了一下該成語的出處：「日上三竿」應該是出自《 南齊書・天文誌上・日光色 》的一段話。《南齊書・天文誌》是南齊政府天文局官員根據每日的觀測日記整...
1957/0118652W In the Court of the Senior Magistrate at Kuala Lumpur Civil Suit No. 138 of 1898. In the matter of the Estate of Yap Ah Loy, deceased, between Yap Hon Chin (28) Yap Loong Shin (23) Yap Leong Soon (18) Yap Kim Neo Yap Leong Sem by his next friend Ong Chi Siew Yap Leong Fong Plaintiffs and Kok Kang Keow (48), otherwise called Kok Ngeo Nga who is sued as Administratrix of the Estate and Effects of Yap Ah Loy, deceased. On the tombstone of Yap Ah Loy, we were given the following list: 1 隆興 (b. 29 December 1869, d. 5 January 1933), 2 隆盛 (Loong Shin, b. 4 April 1875, d. <1925?), 3 隆顺 (Leong Soon, b. 6 March 1880, d. 8 December 1907, died when he was only 27.8), 4 隆發 (b. 10 August 1882, d. 21 September 1900, died when he was only 18...
As explained in Part I of the article, instead of building their house with the easy method of hexagonal top + hexagonal bottom , honeybees are building their cells with hexagonal top + rhombic bottom . In this article, I will try to give a calculus-based demonstration on how the honeybees achieve the economization of their wax resources with a rhombic angle of 70°32'. Suppose we start with a hexagonal prism with flat bottom like the one shown in the figure above. Let \( AB = a\), \(A''A = b\). Then it can be shown that the surface area \(S_0\) and the volume \(V\) of this prism are: $$S_0= 6ab + \frac{3\sqrt{3}}{2}a^2, \quad V = \frac{3\sqrt{3}}{2}a^2b$$ respectively. Mark a point \(B'\) on the prism so that \(B'B'' = x\) and slice a tetrahedron from the prism along the line \(A''C''\) through point \(B'\). Then, flip and rearrange the sliced tetrahedron on top of the prism, as shown below. If you repeat this proc...
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