生態平衡如走鋼線

剛剛看完一段關於夏威夷生態的紀錄片，原來到當地的飛機輪船貨品，通通都要經受過訓練的狗隻檢查，確保沒有帶來蛇，因為蛇會吃掉鳥卵破壞鳥巢，鄰近關島的鳥類就因此遭殃。而幾種漏網的外來動物，包括綠蜥蝪和迷你青蛙，都是食蟲高手，耗掉不少當地的鳥類的食糧，對後者構成極大威脅。此外，迷你青蛙身體小小，聲量卻極大，旅客往往不明所以被吵醒，正一麻煩友。

Word of the day: propitiate

[Verb]  Win or regain the favor of (a god, spirit, or person) by doing something that pleases them.

Alternative history: spammers became documenters

We're all so annoyed by tons of spam/scam e-mails arrived everyday and won't think twice to put them in trash can. Here is the irony: they actually serve a different purpose than hoping to get some of your money. Their content -- from pleas for sympathy and money to promises of easy fortune -- give an alternative history of the world over the past decade, according to artists Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige, both from Lebanon. A video installation, called "A Letter Can Always Reach Its Destination," featuring people reading from scam emails, is one of the five winning pieces of the Abraaj Capital Art Prize unveiled at Art Dubai in March. Hadjithomas said they chose 45 emails to read out for "A Letter Can Always Reach its Destination" from some 4,000 received over the years. "In our work we are very interested in the way you write history," said Hadjithomas. "The scammers chose places where corruption is possible, such as Africa, the Middle East or Russia, and base their stories around real events and conflicts in these countries. "Sometimes they claim to be close to the protagonists of the events, such as the son of an African dictator. "You can read a kind of history of the world over the last 10 years in a different way through these emails. "You can understand a lot about African conflicts, Iraq, Libya, Russia or what was happening in other parts of the world." The video features ordinary people reading emails originating from their own countries. The stories sounds convincing until they mention the $35 million they have, said Hadjithomas. "They are melodramatic stories about people dying, cancer and disease. We chose ones that were well written, even if their English was poor. "Sometimes the stories are not very far from their lives of the people reading them and some were very touching to film. You can be fooled by them for a while."

The inaugural NASCAR truck race at Rockingham NC

Watched the last 20 laps. Not much drama except polesitter Piquet Jr (son of Nelson Piquet) battling Ty Dillon (grandson of Richard Childress) for the 6th place during the last few laps (and eventually passed the latter) Kasey Kahne from the Sprint Cup series won the race. The commentator mentioned Kahne raced last night in Texas and had to rush to NC for the truck race today. Well, it's a bit rush but it's ~1100 mile away and the flight was probably just a few hours. Anyway, the effort is well worth it. He hasn't have much luck since joining his new team this year and replaced the popular Mark Martin. This victory could be a big boost for his season.

Akio Toyoda: Toyota president and racer

Just saw that commercial with Mr. Toyoda driving a NASCAR, his Toyota Camry. That's really impressive. I found from this ESPN article that he's a certified test driver! Such a hands-on president certainly enhanced the image of his company. He gotta know a few things about high-performance cars.