#10 Please comment on one of the sites--either MIT Open Courseware or Academic Earth.

I took a course about visual arts of architecure department in MIT. Actaully, this course is not related to my major. I have a little interested in architecure, becuase all the bulidings around the world are very different and special. I am curious how they did it. This course did not provide a text of the lecture, so I'm a little hard to really understand the teacher says. From their reading part, I found an art is called puppet that is a specific and important arts for them. Let me think of a fairy tale book is called "The adventure of Pinocchio"(木偶奇遇記).

MIT has a volunteer-based organization that has translated OCW(OpenCourseWare) courses into Traditional Chinese is called Opensource Opencourseware Prototype System (OOPS). This is a very nice organization for me that you can learn the course more clearly. Although translated courses are more former courses, they are enough for me to learn english.

I also surf the Academic Earth website and its interface seems more friendly and comfortable to me, and the video is clear than MIT's. I took a course is called Operation System of computer science in Berkeley that I am studying in this semester. I feel the PPT's contents are more rich than my professor's, and the lectures are much beautiful than my professor's too! The most important is the professor teachs better than my professor. But it didn't have a text of the lecture, I 'll miss some information.

I observe that oversea professors must introduce theirself at first class, and our professors almost just introduce the course's rule. Our professors feel not freindly. However, through open course ware you can learn any courses that interested you. Learning from open courses might be a trend in the future. Just like it says "Unlocking Knowledge Empowering Minds", but your english ability must be very well. It's hard for me to really understand what the open course taught without translated courses.

#9 Pick a radio program from the website RadioTime.

Station: Engadget Podcast (Science-Technology)
Host: Joshua Topolsky, Paul Miller, Nilay Patel
Genres: Science-Technology, Computers
Producer: Trent Wolbe
Song: Take On Me
Location: United States

Engadget Podcast 145 - 05.08.2009
Sure, you love the Engadget Podcast... but how much do you love it? Allow the power of your undying devotion to the sounds of Engadget chatter be tested this week as Josh, Paul, and Nilay take a journey through space and time. This week, you'll hear the guys dissect Amazon's Kindle DX launch, wax excited about Android v1.5 (that's Cupcake for us pros), talk openly about Google's netbook designs, and generally rap about a whole bunch of really cool junk. Don't miss it. Seriously.
00:01:04 - Amazon Kindle DX announced: $489, ships this summer
00:37:44 - Android 1.5 coming to T-Mobile UK now, USA next week
00:52:00 - Is Dell cooking up an Android-powered netbook?
01:00:20 - HTC working on an Android netbook for T-Mobile?
01:02:50 - Xbox 360 to get motion-sensing add-on with full body game control?
01:13:37 - DJ Hero announced at last, along with Band Hero for the family and Guitar Hero 5 for the face melters


Engadget is a very popular website about many technology informations. I've known it for two years, but I didn't know that it has a radio service. Engadget Podcast provides a review of latest trends in digital technology every weeks. It has an organization discuss and clear references. You can understand what it says more easier.

#8 Find an English song that interests you and post its lyrics, audio file & video (if any) file in your blog.

Yael Naim - New soul

About "New soul":

"New Soul" is a song by the French-Israeli R&B/soul/electropop singer Yael Naïm from her eponymous album. The song has gained popularity in the U.S. following its use by Apple in an advertisement for their MacBook Air laptop. In the song Naïm sings of being a new soul who has come into the world to learn "a bit 'bout how to give and take." However she finds that things are harder than they seem. The song features a prominent "la la la la" section as its hook.

The music video story:

The video shows Naïm moving into an empty apartment. She covers the walls in wallpaper depicting a lake surrounded by forest. She then begins unpacking several other things, including furniture, a piano, a goldfish in a bowl and a number of photographs of people, which she hangs on the wall. As she hangs the photographs, the people in the pictures are shown in real life, in the setting depicted in the pictures. Naïm then begins painting on the photographs, and whatever she paints appears with the people in real life. She removes one of the pictures to discover a hole in the wall, revealing the actual forest setting shown in the wallpaper. She pushes on the wall, and it falls away into the lake. The remaining walls fall onto the water leaving the floor of the apartment like a raft floating on the lake, together with her furniture. The people from her pictures reach her by boat. They climb onto the makeshift raft with her, as they all celebrate, dancing and playing instruments, whilst she empties the goldfish bowl into the lake.

Lyrics to New Soul :

I'm a new soul
I came to this strange world
Hoping I could learn a bit bout how to give and take.
But since I came here,Felt the joy and the fear
Finding myself making every possible mistake

-la-la-la-la-la-la...

I'm a young soulIn this very strange world
Hoping I could learn a bit bout what is true and fake
But why all this hate?Try to communicate
Finding trust and love is not always easy to make

la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la...

This is a happy end
'Cause you don't understand
Everything you have done
Why's everything so wrong?
This is a happy endCome and give me your hand
I'll take you far awayI'm a new soulI came to this strange worldHoping
I could learn a bit bout how to give and take.
But since I came here,Felt the joy and the fear
Finding myself making every possible mistake
I'm a new soul...
(la, la, la, la,...)
In this very strange world...
Every possible mistake
Possible mistake
Every possible mistakeMistakes, mistakes, mistakes...
Take take take take take...
take a mistakeTake,
take a mistakeTake,
take a mistake
(oh oh oh oh...)
[fade out]
(oh oh oh oh...)

This is one of my favorite songs. I love both of the melody and lyric.
The melody is soft. I love the sound of trombone in this song. Its register is lower than that of the trumpet and makes you feel comfortable.
The lyric touched my heart. When you're growing up, you think what's the value of you. You want to catch something, but you don't know what it is or if that is you search for. You must take a lot of mistakes. That's ok! You just a new soul!