Friday, November 02, 2007

Mouse trap story

Mr. Marc, English instructor in my company has sent this story out to all employees via email yesterday. This is really interesting fable. After going thru this story, you might say "hmm..." and head up, eyes stick on the ceiling...You are thinking.. and say "hmm..." again, after look back to your life to see how true it is.
Here is story:
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A mouse looked through the crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife open a package.

What food might this contain?" The mouse wondered - he was devastated to discover it was a mousetrap. Retreating to the farmyard, the mouse proclaimed the warning. There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!"

The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and said, "Mr. Mouse, I can tell this is a grave concern to you, but it is of no consequence to me. I cannot be bothered by it."

The mouse turned to the pig and told him, "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!" The pig sympathized, but said, "I am so very sorry, Mr. Mouse, but there is nothing I can do about it but pray. Be assured you are in my prayers."

The mouse turned to the cow and said "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!" The cow said, "Wow, Mr. Mouse. I'm sorry for you, but it's no skin off my nose."

So, the mouse returned to the house, head down and dejected, to face the farmer's mousetrap alone.

That very night a sound was heard throughout the house -- like the sound of a mousetrap catching its prey. The farmer's wife rushed to see what was caught. In the darkness, she did not see it was a venomous snake whose tail the trap had caught. The snake bit the farmer's wife. The farmer rushed her to the hospital, and she returned home with a fever.

Everyone knows you treat a fever with fresh chicken soup, so the farmer took his hatchet to the farmyard for the soup's main ingredient.

But his wife's sickness continued, so friends and neighbors came to sit with her around the clock. To feed them, the farmer butchered the pig.

The farmer's wife did not get well; she died. So many people came for her funeral; the farmer had the cow slaughtered to provide enough meat for all of them.

The mouse looked upon it all from his crack in the wall with great sadness.
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The next time you hear someone is facing a problem and think it doesn't concern you, remember -- when one of us is threatened, we are all at risk. We are all involved in this journey called life. We must keep an eye out for one another and make an extra effort to encourage and help one another.
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Thursday, November 01, 2007

Idioms about Face

The first is face the music. It means to accept the results of what you have done.

Here is an example from a Reuters news report: Britain’s highest court had ruled that former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet was legally arrested. Opponents of General Pinochet welcomed the news. One of them said, “We have waited for years for this man to face the music.”

No one is sure how the expression began. One story is that it came from a military ceremony held when a soldier was forced out of an army.

The buttons were cut from the soldier’s clothing. He was put on a horse, facing the back of the horse and led away. As he left, he faced the music of a military band and the soldiers he had served with.

Another story says the expression began in the theater. New actors, shaking with fright, were told that the only cure was to go out and face the music. The music was played by the orchestra seated in front of the stage.

A similar expression is face up to. It means to accept something that is difficult or painful. For example, a man must face up to the fact that he lied about a business deal and will lose his job. Or, a child must learn to face up to her responsibilities and complete her schoolwork.

Meeting someone face-to-face can be exciting, especially if the other person is famous. It is an expression one might use after visiting the White House and meeting the president face-to-face. Or a teacher might ask for a face-to-face meeting with the parents of a student in trouble. It means to talk to someone in person, not by telephone.

Another expression is as plain as the nose on your face. It means that something is as clear as it can possibly be.

Shakespeare used the words almost five hundred years ago for a joke in his play Two Gentlemen of Verona. Valentine secretly loves Lady Sylvia. His servant jokes that Valentine’s love for her is as hard to see as the nose on a man’s face. Of course, a man’s nose cannot be hidden.

A more recent use of the expression appeared in a report in Newsday magazine. It was about a dispute between the United States and Europe over agriculture. The United States had criticized Europeans for protecting their soybean farmers. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in return criticized the United States for its huge budget deficits. The report said the OECD seemed to be saying, “For God’s sake, it is plain as the nose on your face that you must raise taxes.”

(Source: VOA)

Download MP3 file here
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1000 chạy đi đâu

Có 4 thằng đi uống cafe, tính tiền 25,000. 3 thằng bỏ tiền ra, mỗi thằng bỏ 10.000 (vậy là tổng cộng 30.000). Ông chủ thối lại 5000. Thằng thứ 4 lấy 2000, đưa cho 3 thằng kia mỗi thằng 1000.

Vậy tính ra 3 thằng kia mỗi thằng bỏ ra 9000. (9000 x 3 = 27000), cộng với 2000 thằng thứ 4 giữ là 29000.

Vậy còn 1000 đi đâu ta ???
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Với Maka-Maka liệu Google có thắng Facebook

Sau thất bại trong cuộc chạy đua giành quyền đầu tư vào Facebook, hiện Google đang tích cực chuẩn bị cho một “cuộc đột kích lớn” vào thị trường mạng xã hội toàn cầu. Theo đó, Google sẽ tung ra một dịch vụ mạng xã hội có tên “Maka-Maka”.

Maka-Maka là trọng tâm của kế hoạch xây dựng một lớp mạng xã hội liên kết mọi dịch vụ ứng dụng hiện có đầy tham vọng của Google.

Theo thông tin về một số đặc tính kỹ thuật của Maka-Maka được tiết lộ gần đây, Google dự định ứng dụng công nghệ lấy luồng tin Google Reader để tạo ra “luồng hoạt động” (activity streams) cho một loạt ứng dụng khác nhau. Giải pháp công nghệ luồng này tương tự giải pháp luồng mini của Facebook. Song công nghệ của Maka-Maka được đánh giá là tốt hơn của Facebook.

Google cho biết tiến trình ra mắt Maka-Maka sẽ được chia ra thành nhiều giai đoạn khác nhau. Dự kiến giai đoạn đầu tiên sẽ chính thức được khởi động ngày 5-11 tới đây. Trong giai đoạn này, Google sẽ ra mắt một loạt các hàm ứng dụng API nhằm cho phép cộng đồng phát triển ứng dụng có thể xây dựng các ứng dụng tích hợp cho iGoogle, mạng xã hội ảo Orkut của Google cũng như nhiều ứng dụng khác.

Song theo thông tin mới nhất, Google đã trì hoãn kế hoạch khởi động tiến trình công bố hàm ứng dụng API. Theo đó, thời điểm khởi động được lùi xuống khoảng ngày 8 hoặc 9-11. Và các ứng dụng được phát triển trong giai đoạn này sẽ chỉ còn được chấp nhận trên Orkut.

Giới phân tích nhận định sẽ có khá nhiều ứng dụng được phát triển trên nền tảng Google API sắp được công bố sẽ tương tự như những gì đã có trên Facebook. Nhưng đây cũng chỉ mới là bước đi đầu tiên và Google sẽ nỗ lực hết sức để bắt kịp đối thủ cạnh tranh này.

Thách thức lớn nhất đối với Google chính là việc đưa mạng xã hội ảo Orkut xâm nhập thị trường Mỹ. Trung bình mỗi tháng có khoảng 24,6 triệu lượt truy cập vào mạng xã hội ảo này song trong đó chỉ có 500.000 lượt là từ người dùng Mỹ. Chiếm lĩnh thị trường Mỹ hiện là MySpace và Facebook.

“Chèo lái” kế hoạch đầy tham vọng nói trên của Google chính là vị phó chủ tịch phụ trách kỹ thuật Jeff Huber. Theo ông, Google sẽ cạnh tranh bằng cách ứng dụng web như là một nền tảng công nghệ chứ không phải bằng cách kìm hãm nhà phát triển trong nền tảng công nghệ riêng của Google.

Theo đó, Google sẽ tạo ra nền tảng “API hai đường”. Điều này đồng nghĩa với việc các ứng dụng sẽ không chỉ được tạo riêng cho Google. Các website hoàn toàn có thể sử dụng những ứng dụng đó cho phép dữ liệu được cập nhật qua lại giữa Google và các website khác. Và mục tiêu cuối cùng của Google trong kế hoạch này là kết hợp mọi ứng dụng và dịch vụ vào một đầu mối duy nhất Maka-Maka.
T.DŨNG (TechCrunch)
(Nguồn: TuoiTre Online)
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Xem phiên bản gốc Tiếng Anh tại đây


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Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Siesta: power napping

Topic: Do you dreaming in siesta? The benefit of sneaking nap... (after reading an article on "IELTS Ontrack" book about siesta)
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In modern time, siesta is actually mentioned as “power napping” expression. It really increases the productivity indirectly. The tendency which associate to afternoon nap with laziness and non-productivity, is now old-school trend. People nowadays take a different point of view.

There are some serious talk in academic circles about the merit of “power napping”. And they send out the simple message, if you can take 15 to 30-minute nap while at work in the afternoon, you will be more alert, more energetic, happier doing something, and of course it leads to increase the product. Another words, it will be more productive if working people sneaking nap.

I myself has experienced of this thing. I always have at least 30-minute nap in the afternoon. I am so powerful after wake up form this short-sleep. But you have to remember that the night-sleeping still the main *meal* of your mind. Just making sure that you sleep enough at least 7 hours a day.

Sometimes if you work in high pressure for days, then you will have dreaming while sneaking nap. In that case, my colleague usually swing me up. You know, I slept over myself and totally forgot that just a nap at work. I dream and dream … but in most of the time I do not have any idea what the dream is about, since you are called to wake suddenly.

In conclusion, sneaking nap is very helpful for our health. That process will help our mind refreshed in an very active way. So that you will feel better, ready for making your work run smoothly and your life become wonderful. It is not only for yourself but also for the company, the society too. Now, what are you waiting for? Let’s go napping...

Another small article said that, sneaking snap is very good for your heart too
…those who reported napping for at least 30 minutes on at least three days of the week were about one-third less likely to have died of a heart attack or other cardiac cause...
(According to the study over 23,000 people in Greece where napping is quite common.)
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