Taiwan for Taiwanese, China for Chinese. We are Taiwanese, not Chinese.

Here is the beginning of my post. And here is the rest of it.
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The taste of freedom

生命誠可貴，愛情價更高，若為自由故，兩者皆可拋

嚐過自由滋味的人，是不可能輕言放棄的。

US speaker makes late-night landing (Aug. 3, 2022)

Taiwan: Nancy Pelosi meets President Tsai to Beijing's fury (Aug. 3, 2022)

Taiwan: Pelosi leaves Taipei to sound of Chinese fury (Aug. 3, 2022)

Chinese drills over Pelosi visit 'unnecessary': Taiwan president (Aug. 3, 2022)

China and Taiwan: A really simple guide (8/2/2022)

Transcript of Pelosi Remarks at Press Event Following Bilateral Meeting with President Tsai Ing-wen of Taiwan (8/3/2022)

---------
Freedom love!
I need these two.
I will sacrifice for my love

The life,

I sacrifice for freedom

My love.

--------------

Petőfi Sándor -

SZABADSÁG, SZERELEM!

Szabadság, szerelem!
E kettő kell nekem.
Szerelmemért föláldozom
Az életet,
Szabadságért föláldozom
Szerelmemet.

(Pest, 1847. január 1.)
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Smelly highrise building

昨天回到家，習慣性地開窗，陽台的窗會加上抽風扇將熱氣快一點抽出去，房間的窗戶是讓室外空氣流入。

開了不到半小時，從房間窗戶飄進來討厭的濃厚油煙味，只好關掉房間的窗戶。這時候油煙味還是會從廚房的抽油煙機飄進來，想說要將陽台的抽風機反向將室外空氣抽入，結果又聞到煙味。

被迫將兩邊的窗戶都關上，只好打開冷氣，不然就會很熱。這種情況幾乎是每天都發生，不是只有昨天晚上才會這樣。我們想要省電及過著對環境友善的生活，但實際上卻無法做到啊。

When I came back to my home on the top floor of the highrise building after work last night, I open the window as usual. The balcony window will be equipped with an exhaust fan to draw out the hot air faster, and the room window will let the outdoor air flow in.

After opening for less than half an hour, the nasty smell of oily smoke came in from the window of the room, so I had to close the window of the room. At this time, the smell of cooking fumes will still float in from the cooker hood in the kitchen. I want to say that the exhaust fan on the balcony should be reversed to draw the outdoor air in, but the smell of smoke will be smelled again.

We are forced to close the windows on both sides, I had to turn on the air conditioner, otherwise, it would be very hot.  It has happened almost everyday, not just last night.  I want to save energy and live environmentally friendly, but the reality makes me unable to do so.

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How humans adapted to digest lactose

從 ancient pottery fat residue 中知道其來源，所以可以知道人類從什麼時候開始食用乳製品。從族群量知道當時是否面臨生存危機，發現其實人類開始食用乳製品和健康並沒有太大的關係，反而可能是在 famine and/or increased pathogen exposure 所造成的 Nature selection 而開始讓 LP genotype 流傳下來。

How humans adapted to digest lactose — after thousands of years of milk drinking (Nature Podcast 00:45-8:56)

The description from Nature podcast: Humans have been drinking milk for thousands of years, but it seems that they were doing so long before the ability to digest it became prevalent. Then, around 2,000 years ago, this ability became common in Europe, presenting a mystery to researchers — why then? Now, by analysing health data, ancient DNA and fats residues from thousands of ancient pots, scientists have worked out what caused this trait to suddenly spread throughout Europe.

The mystery of early milk consumption in Europe (Shevan Wilkin, Nature News & Views, 27 July 2022) (https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-02041-y)

Dairying, diseases and the evolution of lactase persistence in Europe. (Evershed, R.P., Davey Smith, G., Roffet-Salque, M. et al., Nature, 27 July 2022) (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-05010-7)

Abstract from Nature: In European and many African, Middle Eastern and southern Asian populations, lactase persistence (LP) is the most strongly selected monogenic trait to have evolved over the past 10,000 years1. Although the selection of LP and the consumption of prehistoric milk must be linked, considerable uncertainty remains concerning their spatiotemporal configuration and specific interactions2,3. Here we provide detailed distributions of milk exploitation across Europe over the past 9,000 years using around 7,000 pottery fat residues from more than 550 archaeological sites. European milk use was widespread from the Neolithic period onwards but varied spatially and temporally in intensity. Notably, LP selection varying with levels of prehistoric milk exploitation is no better at explaining LP allele frequency trajectories than uniform selection since the Neolithic period. In the UK Biobank4,5 cohort of 500,000 contemporary Europeans, LP genotype was only weakly associated with milk consumption and did not show consistent associations with improved fitness or health indicators. This suggests that other reasons for the beneficial effects of LP should be considered for its rapid frequency increase. We propose that lactase non-persistent individuals consumed milk when it became available but, under conditions of famine and/or increased pathogen exposure, this was disadvantageous, driving LP selection in prehistoric Europe. Comparison of model likelihoods indicates that population fluctuations, settlement density and wild animal exploitation—proxies for these drivers—provide better explanations of LP selection than the extent of milk exploitation. These findings offer new perspectives on prehistoric milk exploitation and LP evolution.

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Pollinators of the sea: A discovery of animal-mediated fertilization in seaweed

海洋中的 pollinator

Like bees of the sea, crustaceans ‘pollinate’ seaweed  (Jake Buehler, Science News, JULY 28, 2022 AT 2:09 PM)

Animal-driven fertilization may have emerged in the ocean long before it did on land

Pollinators of the sea: A discovery of animal-mediated fertilization in seaweed. Science. (E. Lavaut et al. Science 377 (6605):528, July 29, 2022)

This is the COVER of Science.  All the following description is from Science: An isopod (Idotea balthica), a type of crustacean, covers itself with male gametes while feeding on the epiphytes of the red alga Gracilaria gracilis. Isopods facilitate algal fertilization by carrying spermatia on their bodies. Such animal-mediated fertilization is akin to pollination in flowering plants. See pages 471 and 528. (Photo: Wilfried Thomas, Station Biologique de Roscoff)
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The solution of the Agriculture and Water Administration to the problem of water shortage in Taiwan's agriculture

This is the solution of the Agriculture and Water Administration to the problem of water shortage in Taiwan's agriculture.

Taiwan is the 18th water-scarce country in the world. According to statistics, the annual rainfall exceeds 9 million tons, and the amount of water that can be stored is less than 20%. Taiwan's Farmland and Water Conservancy Administration was inaugurated on October 1, 2020. Last year, Taiwan suffered the worst drought in 56 years. How did the Agriculture and Water Administration exhaust all methods to combat drought, protect the food security needs of the Taiwanese, and help farmers overcome the water shortage? Hope the smart irrigation system will reverse the plight of farmers and make agriculture and the environment sustainable in the future.

可以聽聽看農水署面對臺灣農業缺水問題的解決方案。

【創新突圍】農水署與農民肩並肩 共同守護台灣農業！ (這是聽天下的podcast及其文字說明)

台灣是全球排名第十八的缺水國家，依據統計每年降雨量逾900萬噸，能夠蓄留下來的水量不到20％。2020年10月1日，我國農田水利署揭牌成立，去年台灣遭逢56年來最嚴重乾旱，農水署是如何窮盡所有方法多元抗旱，守護國人糧食安全需求、協助農民度過缺水難關？展望未來，智慧灌溉系統又將如何翻轉農民的困境、讓農業與環境永續共好？

主持人：資深媒體人 林佳慧
來賓：農委會農田水利署署長 蔡昇甫
本集節目合作推薦：行政院農業委員會（本集節目為行政院農業委員會廣告）

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Plants change their clocks to flower at the right time

This is a paper that I am interested in. I hope I have time to read it.  I miss doing research and experiment.  I guess I won't have the chance to go back when I walked out the door of the institute on that day.  That's the point of no return.

Plants change their clocks to flower at the right time

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The Unbearable Lightness of Being

This melody of the movie soundtrack "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" sounds on my way to work.  It reminds me of the innocent age that ideally could feed me up as a meal.
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Hot summer

It is hot now.  

Our ceiling without insulation: 40.2 Celsius.

Our ceiling with one layer of Al spacer insulation: 36.8 Celsius.

Our ceiling with one layer of Al insulation spacer blanket (鋁隔毯) and Phenolic insulation board (酚醛板): 33.6 Celsius.

Current room temperature: 32.4 Celsius.

I did the measurement at 20:14 on 7/22/2022.  I used TES 1326S Infrared Thermometer to measure the temperature.  It is TAF certified and made in Taiwan.

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Raspberry Pi Cameras

Very detailed and in-depth introduction to Raspberry Pi Cameras. Wa!

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