By Allie Lin
It was love at first sight. One glance and my breath was taken away. I have never been one to fall in love so quickly, but this time I’d fallen fast and hard. Mesmerized by a pair of hypnotizing gray-green eyes and a majestic air, it took a long while before I was able to compose and gather myself together again. However, it was not a man that I’d fallen for, it was an animal. (Not that there’s much of a difference between the two!) Looking long and hard at the life-size poster of the snow leopard before me, I wanted to imprint the beauteous form of this extraordinary creature to memory. The size of the snow leopard seems somewhat smaller than the common leopard. The base color of its fur is a creamy, smoky gray, shading to white on the belly, looking soft to the touch and rather thick, to keep the leopard warm in extreme temperatures. Its head, neck, and lower limbs are covered with solid spots, while the rest of the body is covered with large rings that often enclose smaller spots, which I later found out are referred to as “rosettes.” The head is small with a high forehead, and the ears are short and rounded. Characteristically, the tail is extremely long in comparison to other cats, measuring almost as long as the body; and its large, cute, furry paws look like warm snow shoes and good padding for rough ground. Taking one last wistful glance before leaving the poster of the snow leopard, I was determined to find out all I could about this exotic looking creature. A visit to the library provided me with the all the answers I desired to know. Also known as the ounce or irbis, the snow leopard is a mysterious member of the cat family. Elusive and solitary, they inhabit above the tree line in the mountains in remote pockets of central Asia from the Altai Mountains to the Himalayas. They are very rare and patchily distributed among this large area, which include the mountain ranges between the borders of Afghanistan, Bhutan, China, Tibet, India, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, and Russia. Much like the tiger, snow leopards are essentially solitary, but not totally unsociable. They pair only during the mating season, when couples may inhabit a range together. However, unlike the tiger or any other member of the cat family, snow leopards do not roar. Only slight moans can be distinguished when they are trying to attract a mate. They are primarily nocturnal animals but are most active very early in the morning and late in the afternoons. Cute and furry as they seem, snow leopards are well known for their muscularity and agility with a surprising ability to leap up to 15 meters in length and 6 meters in height! Snow leopards are listed as an endangered species. There are only perhaps 6,000 snow leopards left in the wild. It is quite difficult to come to a very accurate estimate, since snow leopard terrain is very rugged. Researchers must rely on indications of the animal rather than direct sightings. Destruction of their natural habitat by humans is a cause for the extinction of the poor animals, but the main threat is hunting for their fur by poachers. It broke my heart that anybody could do harm to these beautiful, adorable animals. Once again, the selfishness of human beings has brought savage destruction among the poor defenseless creatures of the wild. Luckily , a non-profit corporation was founded in 1981 working on the conservation of the snow leopard and its mountain habitat. Many zoos world-wide are also involved in a snow leopard species survival project. It is a coordinated breeding program, the goal is to maintain a genetically stable population in zoos with hopes that these animals may someday be released into the wild. Other methods of conservation include habitat protection, stiff penalties for poaching, and most importantly, public education. For more information on these rare beauties, please refer to: http://www.snow-leopard.org.uk/index.html. #Volume 8 Issue 2#travel
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By Kay-Christian Karstadt
Did you know that one of the European Union’s historically most important dates passed just a few weeks ago? After more than ten years of negotiations, ten new member states sealed a historic accord in Copenhagen to join the EU on May 1, 2004. But what is so important about it? First, the EU will be enlarged by 75 million people, joining a common market of now 370 million. Second and more noticeable, eight of the new members are former east bloc countries, namely Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia. The remaining two countries that will also become members by next year are the Mediterranean islands of Cyprus and Malta. Bulgaria and Romania are expected to join in 2007. For almost fifty years these countries have been isolated from Western Europe and by next year their people will share the same citizenship with their former “enemies.” Big changes are going to take place. Soon we will be able to travel through a borderless Europe that stretches from the Atlantic all the way to Russia, and we will be able to use the Euro wherever we are. As for non-European travelers, just one visa will be needed as soon as the new member states meet certain security standards. However this timing will differ from country to country and might take quite a few more years to accomplish. This will also be the case for enlargement of the Euro-zone. Already mature industries in Western Europe are pushing to exploit new markets. And in return the EU is going to channel around US $40 million in initial aid to the new members, with the vast majority of this amount going straight into agricultural subsidies. But is all this going to work out? People are very skeptical that what took the Europe of fifteen nations fifty years to accomplish can be achieved within only five to ten years with the new candidate countries, as the EU has proposed. Furthermore, the already complicated democratic decision making process, which requires a unilateral agreement between all members for important issues, will be even more of a nightmare with ten more opinions to be considered. So let’s wait and see if last December’s summit in Copenhagen was actually the birth of a new Europe, or just the doom of the desire to form a united continent. #politics By Jessie Chen
Are you tired of carrying lots of heavy textbooks every day to school? Do you hate to waste time retyping all of your notes into your computer? Or do you feel frustrated and annoyed when you try to draw a picture on your computer but hardly succeed? Stop being upset! Your savior is here – tablet PC. In the launch event on November 7, 2002 in New York, tablet PC was officially showcased to the public by Bill Gates, chairman of the Microsoft Corporation. At the same time, this event marked a revolution in today’s notebook PCs. “The launch of the tablet PC marks an exciting new era of mobile computing that is limited only by the imagination of its users,” Gates said. But what exactly is a tablet PC? As its name suggests, tablet PC does look like a tablet, but its functions are definitely more than that. One of its biggest features is the way its screen works; the two main designs are called “convertible” and “slate” tablet PC. A convertible tablet PC has an attached keyboard, which looks much like today’s notebook PC; however, you can rotate its screen 180 degrees whenever you need a flat writing pad to take notes, with its unique tablet pen and ink. And a slate tablet PC looks exactly like a piece of thin flat board – “ultra-slim and lightweight,” as Microsoft declares. Though without any integrated keyboard or mouse, you can just put it in its docking station and have access to a large-screen monitor, full-sized keyboard, and mouse if your hands begin to ache from writing too much. For those who type slowly, the tablet PC is for you. With its advanced handwriting recognition system, you can actually “write” your papers on a tablet PC, and the computer can convert them into typed text for use in other Windows XP-compatible applications. You can also mark up documents with handwritten comments or take notes in the margins of an online article and then forward it to your friends directly. If you’re still slow in writing, there is one more possibility – speak out! In addition to its handwriting recognition system, tablet PCs also have speech recognition capabilities, which allow users to use their own voices to take notes and control the operation of the computer; your voice information can also be converted into text for later use. However, your pronunciation might have to be really good to make it work effectively. Moreover, tablet PCs are more mobile that common notebook PCs because of their lightweight and “Grab and Go” design. Most of today’s notebook PCs weigh five pounds or more; a tablet PC weighs in at only three pounds. Such a lightweight design makes it easier and more comfortable to carry everywhere. “Grab and Go” design allows users to take a tablet PC from its docking station and dock it to another station without having to switch it to standby or the sleep mode first; this is called “hot docking and undocking” on Microsoft’s website. Tablet PC sounds perfect, doesn’t it? However, some people, especially those who work in computer industry and in business, still hold a doubtful attitude toward its claimed capabilities. For example, to what extent does the handwriting recognition system accurately identify what its users write, no matter how bad their handwriting may be? How many people would like to pay the extra cost if the differences don’t seem so great to them? What damage might be done to the computer if its users “hotly dock and undock” it too many times? Though Microsoft and its hardware manufacturers optimistically predict that in several years tablet PCs can take over most of the notebook PC market share, it seems that the road to success might not be so smooth. For more information have a look at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/tabletpc/evaluation/default.asp. Two products currently available can be accessed at http://www.acer.com.tw/products/notebook/tm_C100.htm or http://www.hp.com.tw/ahp/featureStory/featureb/200211112.htm #Volume 8 Issue 2#culture Beryl Tsai
How many of us still remember the friends we made when we were little? Some might nod at that question, but I expect only a handful would add that these “young” friends still hold a special place in their mind. An even rarer answer might be “I met my kindred spirit when I was small!” At age 9, I met Jimmy, who transformed my rash and selfish disposition into a mellower temper and taught my impressionable heart great truths about life. But don’t assume this was a benevolent parent or teacher figure; my kindred spirit was but a scrawny black dog. It all started with my very first victory over my parents—getting them to agree to keep a dog at home. That unforgettable night, my mother came back carrying a plastic bag, with a mysterious smile on her face. She unveiled the mystery and let out the little thing toddling out of the bag—there he was, a three-week-old puppy, more toy-like than toys. Ever since I was granted this little puppy, I led a life rife with responsibility—to take care of him. I was back then the unreasonable, spacey, and whimsical type of child and I didn’t worry myself with anything beyond school and TV. The advent of Jimmy, however, taught me what it meant and took to be a responsible and patient person. After school, I juggled with a milk bottle, comb, and pet shampoo, and elaborately made a little comfy bed for Jimmy. When Jimmy was a bit bigger, I had to cook for, feed, walk, and shower him. My parents said it was as easy as pie to take care of a dog, and they rarely intervened to help. Loaded with work, I felt exhausted but never fed up. As we all know pets don’t always behave the way we want them to. Jimmy grew up bearing an unfortunate resemblance to my hot temper, rashness, and stubbornness. He would fidget and snarl when I tied him up to shower his dirty fur. He would dash, pee, flirt with or growl at other dogs, leaving me unceremoniously dragged by the leash on him. When Jimmy was in a mood for chewing up one of my mother’s favorite shoes, he absolutely ignored my anger and attempt to save it, biting it hard and playing tug-of-war with me. Worst of all, Jimmy liked to bark, provoking both humans and dogs. I often needed to beg my parents not to whip him or to fight against those angry stray dogs that were ready to attack him. But somehow, I forgave all his wrongdoing. After spending time with Jimmy, I stopped building unreasonable expectations of other people and tended to forgive their mistakes rather than working myself up. Some time later, I realized I more or less learned to forgive from Jimmy, who still came scampering to hug my calves after I slapped him once in a fury. As Jimmy got more mature and mellower, he became my most loyal listener. Not having a really good friend at school at the time, I was somewhat distressed and terribly lonely. I would wake him up from his “dognap,” telling him everything I possibly could, things I either encountered in reality or dreamt up out of the blue. Jimmy would always look at me with his glistening bluish eyes, half-drowsy and half-confused. But that made me all the more audacious to tell him all my nonsense, since he was not likely to reveal my secrets anyway. It was through this odd and childish telling and listening that I became a wild thinker, weaving dreams instead of burying them alive, even though in my childhood imagination wasn’t encouraged. In the world where Jimmy and I belonged, there were forever monsters lurking underneath the toilet, clouds for us to sleep in aloft, imaginary castles to explore. Jimmy and I made good knights in my daydreams and I always found it cathartic to imagine myself wandering freely with him. My friend Jimmy lived to an old age but during the last few years of his life, I was away from him attending college, where I got hooked on studying. I forgot then Jimmy’s face and his bluish eyes until he was leaving me. At the animal hospital, I looked at him panting in pain because of his terminal heart disease, and all the old memories flashed back. I felt like crying but tears couldn’t do justice to what was churning in mind. I was thinking right there, that death was such a harsh and pricey lesson to learn and my best friend paid for the lesson with his life—my neglect of him was unforgivable. I set my mind to love those that were still around. When I contemplate how I have come to be the one I am, I can’t help but think of Jimmy, that taught me the truth about life and myself, made me able to think and dream freely and helped me to get through my boring childhood. And I imagine that he is still here, listening to me. 1 热度 #Volume 8 Issue 2#creativewriting |
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The Taida Student Journal has been active since 1995 with an ever-changing roster of student journalists at NTU. Click the above link to read about the authors Archives
May 2024
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