不知从几时开始，西方的dragon竟然被看成中国的龙（龍），这显然是一件非常荒谬的事情。且不论二者的功能完全不同甚至完全相反（中国龙呼风唤雨润泽大地乃吉祥瑞兽，dragon则喜爱喷火调皮捣蛋甚至有一点邪恶），即使在外形上二者也大相径庭。成熟期的中国龙“生鹿角、头似牛、须似鱼、项似蛇、鳞似鳄、爪似鹰、掌似虎”，明显是多种吉祥兽的混合，充分反映了历史时期中国各民族融合的迹象，与长着几个头和长着飞翼的dragon相去甚远。当然不可否认，二者都带有一些爬行动物的痕迹，但是仅仅凭这一点相似性就把二者归为一类，是不是就像和把海豚鲸鱼归为鱼类一样的荒谬啊？

     作为信奉龙文化的民族，我们至少应该知道：1、龙起源于鳄鱼和大蟒（龍的甲骨文即可看出痕迹）；2、不同成长期的称谓不同。进化前的雏形称为虺（大蟒），经过5百年进化变成蛟（其实就是湾鳄），但是还不是龙（称为蛟龙则是错误的），仍然是害虫。再经过一千年的蜕变升华长出鹿角才真正成为龙，可以上天入地呼风唤雨，成为农业民族的保护神。后来，随着佛教传入中国，到了明朝中国开始有了“龙生九子”的说法，但是这不代表‘九子’都是真正的龙，就好像一个肯尼亚人和一个美国妇女生下的奥巴马，已经不能视为真正的肯尼亚人一个道理。

     因此，龙年是year of long，绝不是year of dragon。希望从今天起，中国人不要人云亦云闹出文化大笑话。

Arfa Karim Randhawa, who became the world's youngest Microsoft Certified Professional at the age of nine, passed away at the weekend after a heart attack following an epileptic fit.

when Bill Gates was impressed by her genius, he invited her to the company's US headquarters, he offered medical help and was in touch with her family.

<em>"Oh! Dan, don't kill me and I will be yours." It was a woman imploring for mercy. Over her stood a man with a cocked revolver. "D_ you, I will kill you," and with that he fired, but fortunately the ball struck the woman's corset steel and fell to the ground. Twice more the villain fired, but the bullets went wide of their mark.</em>

Dramatic it may seem, but this is the true tale of an engineer named William Schipp, and the much younger Dora Bowman set in 1890 Omaha, Nebraska. Dora apparently lived with William in adultery for almost 2 years after he solicited her away from "May Morgan's sporting house," before she tired of his attentions and tried to break off their arrangement. According to this and other articles appearing in local Omaha newspapers, William Schipp didn't take kindly to being "thrown over" by the young Miss Bowman after he had spent quite a bit of money on her, and took his revenge by firing at her several times right out in the street outside of her sister's house. According to a ”newspaper report of the court proceedings against William Schipp“ she was indeed saved by her steel corset -- the "center steel in front was found indented and the cloth was torn from the steel for nearly three inches." Talk about a bulletproof vest! Apparently the court was also "much impressed with the knowledge of feminine apparel displayed by Sergeant Graves." William Schipp was found guilty in District Court of assault with intent to kill and sentenced to the penitentiary.>>http://genealogy.about.com/b/2012/01/10/dora-bowman-saved-by-her-corset.htm?nl=1

张欣 Zhang Xin is the CEO of SOHO China, the largest real estate developer in Beijing. her story had been rather a legend. Her parents returned to China from Burma in the fifties and worked as translators in beijing. born in Beijing in 1965, Zhang moved to HongKong at 14 with her mother and lived in a room just big enough for two bunk beds. She worked for 5 years in small factories only to save for education abroad.

By 19, she had saved enough for airfare to London. after finishing her english study at secretarial school, she studied economics at the US. In 1992, she graduated with a Master’s Degree in Development Economics from Cambridge. , after working for Barings Plc in Hong Kong for a short time, she soon moved to Goldman Sachs as an investment consultant. later she returned to her hometown beijing and co-founded Hongshi fund with her husband 潘石屹Pan Shiyi in 1995, which became SOHO China. The couple was described by The Times of London as 'China’s most visible and flamboyant property tycoons'.

天底下真的有免费的午餐吗？可以有，或者是没有，到底有还是没有呢？<img title="[偷笑]" src="http://img.t.sinajs.cn/t35/style/images/common/face/ext/normal/19/heia_org.gif" alt="[偷笑]" />

<img src="http://w.qhimg.com/images/v2/hao/hao360/lz/xh2012/2012010501.jpg" alt="" />

新年好！新年快乐！

happy new year！с новым годом! سال نو مبارک 

mutlu bir yeni yıl!   สวัสดีปีใหม่ค่ะ！

謹賀新年！本年もどうぞよろしくお願いいたします！

斝jiǎ was a type of ritual vessel originated from prehistoric China about 4500 years ago. it was first made of figuline and then of bronze. it was often used to hold libations of wine at the tombs of ancestors. while being similar in design to another vessel 爵Jue, it's actually larger and lacks the distinctive double lip in favor of a circular rim. It was usually made in the form of a tripod and included two protrusions on the rim that were probably used to suspend the vessel over fire. <img style="width: 393px; height: 526px; top: -2px; left: 259px;" src="http://zl.pgm.org.cn/images/object/full/1/all/C04514.jpg?1276235848" alt="" width="766" height="1024" />