砅 - Li4 - Cross a Stream by Stepping on Stones

I was searching for something else entirely and bumped into this word. I like it! I used to 砅 all the time. The last time I tried I think I slipped and fell in and got all wet.

氦 - Hai4 - Helium

As threatened promised, welcome to NOBLE GAS DAY!

In Chinese, noble gases aren’t very noble.

惰性氣體 - Duo4 Xing4 Qi4 Ti3 - Lazy Nature Gas — Noble Gas

Don’t worry, there won’t be Actinides day or Rare Earth day. Here’s the whole table.

Want Atom support in FoF? Scott Hanson’s got the patch! I haven’t tried it, but it works for him.

馬 - Ma3 - Horse

There’s a neat expression: 馬上 - Ma3 Shang4 - Horse On - Immediately

For example, 我馬上來 - Wo3 Ma3 Shang4 Lai2 - I Immediately Come — I’m coming immediately, I’ll be right there.

Maybe I’ll start using this one in English. “Steve, can you write this new program?” “Sure, I’ll code it on a horse!”

JAG mentioned that P=NP, if your processor speed is increasing exponentially. Like the one you’re using right now! Don’t you buy a new computer, with an exponentially faster processor every few years? QED. Cool. I don’t see how P=NP implies that AI is possible, though.

He mentioned that this idea was originally from a guy named Ed Fredkin who writes papers about this kind of thing all the time. Here’s another site about these kind of ideas. This Fredkin guy seems like a “real deal” version of Wolfram: He thinks a lot (and writes actual papers, not just long, vague books) about what it would mean if the Universe is actually, at the lowest levels, discrete and algorithmic.

霓 - Ni2 - Rainbow

霓虹燈 - Ni2 Hong2 Deng1 - Neon Light

Jenny randomly started singing this song (lyrics) today. It includes this line:

台北不是我的家 - 我的家鄉沒有霓虹燈

Tai2 Bei3 Bu4 Shi4 Wo3 De5 jia1 - Wo3 De5 jia1 Xiang1 Mei2 You3 Ni2 Hong2 Deng1

Tapiei is not my home - My home town doesn’t have neon lights!

Later this week: We’ll complete the rest of the noble gases! Yay! Let’s see if Jenny can find a song that mentions Xenon.

時 - Shi2 - Time, Hour, Season

時代 - Shi2 Dai4 - Time Period — Era, Epoch, Times

廣場 - Guang3 Chang3 - Wide Courtyard — (public) Square

時代廣場 - Shi2 Dai4 Guang3 Chang3 - Times Square

We got home and played our messages:

NINE FOURTY SIX P.M. “….(noisy)… HI JENNY! IT’S ME YVONNE! ….(garbled)…. AT TIMES SQUARE NOW! SO COLD HERE! ….(hard to understand)… SO MANY PEOPLE! CALL YOU LATER WHEN IT DROPS!”