Geoffrey Zheng\’s Bloh Bloh Bloh

(Another ancient draft, and I don’t remember much of anything from the book.)

Wang-3-Watch mentioned his book American Vertigo (the blog was deleted for whatever reason), and after almost 3 months I finally finished it. Not that it’s dull–just the opposite. It’s just that I only have a few commute minutes on weekdays to read, if I’m awake at all.

Before I say anything, you’d better take a look at this piece.

Then if you still have any interest, how about another one, which says “Noël Godin has hit him a record five times”.

Still with me? Are you nuts?! Or is it because my hair is perfect?

If I had read those, I wouldn’t in a million years have borrowed the book from library. The book is a good read, almost like a road trip reality show, and if anything, I learned about Tocqueville’s Democracy in America, which I promise to never read.

方舟子 strikes again:

《后汉书·张衡传》认为它是管用的，记载了这么一个著名的故事：有一次地动仪的机关发动，但是人们并不觉得地在动，京师（洛阳）的学者都怪它乱报，几天后信使来了，果然在陇西发生了地震，于是大家都佩服它的巧妙，从那以后皇帝就让史官记载地动发生的方位。

但是这个记载很成问题。按《后汉书·张衡传》所说，地动仪建成于阳嘉元年（公元132年），张衡卒于永和四年（公元139年）。在此期间，《后汉书》只记载发生过一次陇西地震，那就是永和三年（公元138年）的地震。一般认为地动仪检测的就是这次地震。但是《后汉书·五行志》说得很清楚，这次的陇西地震在京师是有感的，破坏很严重，“裂城廓，室屋坏，压杀人”，京师学者不会对地动仪的机关发动感到奇怪，与《张衡传》的故事矛盾。可见地动仪检测的不可能是这次地震。