Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Good News Writing

Here is a few tips/rules for good news writing:
less sophistication, more accuracy
not being profound, but being streightfoward
no fancy words, but clear, plain expression

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Key Terms of American Culture

I can come up with a few at this moment.

No.1 Having fun. No matter what you do, what matters is whether or not you can have fun.

No.2 Moving on. No matter how bad things have become, the best way to cope is to move on, either from a tragedy, or from a sour marriage.

No.3 Believing in yourself and chasing your dreams. No matter how crazy,
weird or odd you appear to be, you can always achieve glory if you believe in yourself and pursue your dreams. Better if you actually do have some talent, of course.

I'm sure there is more to be added to this list. Key terms are not equal to truth. Quite the opposite, key terms of a culture could well represent myths a lot of times.

Monday, February 8, 2010

Arts vs. Science

Arts and science really represent two modes human thinking, but they are equally human, possessing two sides of humanity.

One side of humanity is being emotional, intuitive senses, vague and passionate feelings. That's what art is about. ambiguity is an important part that constitutes art.

Science, on the other hand, does not tolerate ambiguity. The concepts, operational definitions, and measurement have to be as precise as possible. Scientists have to be very clear about what they mean by a concept, and how their research actually tests or applies the concept. Great pain is taken to make sure that what the scientist states and does are not ambiguous.

So art stands at the side of emotion of humanity, while science, the side of reason. These two don't necessarily go against each other, but show that human beings are neither purely emotional, nor purely reasonable. We are both. And that's what makes world wonderful.