This is a test for your brain, some say, to indicate early forms of Alzheimer, not sure about that, seriously.

The test seems to be more applicable to Chinese people, due to the different structure of the brain functions (e.g. conflict between reading Chinese characters, color perception, listening to music …). We tested it with some Chinese friends, their first reaction was “it’s easy” till they started… What I did is to mimic the test into English. Have a try!

In an IHT, some time ago, I found the explanation for the origin of “OK”.
It all started with was is called a “misspelling-based abbreviation”. In the Boston Morning Post of 23 March 1839 it started as a joke: “o.k. – all correct”. Those misspellings were a fad, some did not catch on, like “o.w.” for “oll wright”. But OK survived as we all know.
Now you know, OK?

On 24 January 2013, China Daily published an article “US faces the gun and tax cliffs” by Stephan Richter (publisher of The Globalist and president of The Globalist Research Center). The fact they publish it shows they basically agree with that view. Now, some strong words here about the gun mania in the USA:
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/2013-01/24/content_16167781.htm
“Somehow, the US seems stuck in the concepts of the Old Testament. The perverse self-justification of all those gun buyers who now sheepishly argue “why should my freedom be restricted just because some kids got shot?” attests not just to a level of naiveté, but inhumanness that begs disbelief.
…
The crux of the issue is that Americans must abandon their childish ideas of how a society works. No person is an island unto himself or herself. We all live as part of a much, much larger group. The people must understand that using assault weapons for hunting or shooting is not an expression of freedom, but an expression of human sickness or perversion.
…
What the NRA is peddling is an incredible hoax. Americans can no longer go on accumulating limitless debt but they can still buy weapons at every Walmart and plenty of other stores. The offer on hand to deal with one’s frustrations is not to consume, but to shoot.
The blindness of American society, which is generally a very fearful one, is staggering. Putting that many weapons out there – almost 1 for every American man, woman and child – is not just bewildering. It is plain dumb.
…
The only grammatically correct way to read the Second Amendment (“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”) is not to see it as two independent clauses. Rather, the first half clearly qualifies (in fact, conditions) the second.
…
As a matter of fact, after the Newtown school massacre, there cannot be any doubt that a revised Second Amendment to the US constitution is urgently required. And it should read: “A well regulated society, being necessary to the security of a free people, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall be abridged.” The very notion of civilization demands no less.”
Not that I disagree!

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The IHT on 7 February 2011 published an article “E-book devices draw in a younger generation”. It also showed a picture of a young reader, shot by Joyce Dopkeen.

While the article was interesting in itself (thinking about my books that do not progress) I was touched by the black & white picture. It has something soft, sensual, retro and poetic that is hard to describe. Would merit a special prize. I went to see the picture online, only to find a reduced quality color pic. Was disappointing, the appeal was not there anymore.
The pic you see here is a scanned version of the hard copy.
Sometimes I feel nostalgic about the old B&W picture we took with our film rolls.