New words today from LA Times and NY Times; and Hustle-bustle across the campus

pha·lanx (fā'lăngks', făl'ăngks')
n., pl. pha·lanx·es or pha·lan·ges (fə-lăn'jēz, fā-).

1. A compact or close-knit body of people: “formed a solid phalanx in defense of the Constitution and Protestant religion” (G.M. Trevelyan).
2. A formation of infantry carrying overlapping shields and long spears, developed by Philip II of Macedon and used by Alexander the Great.
3. pl. phalanges. Anatomy. A bone of a finger or toe. Also called phalange.
4. See phalanstery (sense 1).

[Latin phalanx, phalang- , from Greek.]

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My job as a research assistant is to read all the headline articles of LA Times and NY Times and summarize them into my excel files. Years and years, one thing noticeable is the increasing frustration and hatred of the public toward the wars, healthcare system and Obama's overhaul and banking system. I will delve into this more latter. Overall, the opportunistic mindset and selfishness of the banking industry is so common that seriously annoys me, and so do all the politics that frustrates the process of a good overhaul of the health care system . Also, lobbyists are not really lovely people from my perspective as a coverage summarizer because their involvement makes the same topics be brought up repeatedly days after days. Regarding to that, if you are interested, go watching "Thank You for Smoking." The famous quote from that movie is "If you can sell cigarettes, you can sell anything." Right, there's no right and wrong (sorry, Aristotle) in the contemporary capitalist world. If I find your argument is wrong, then I am right.

Let's talk about it later.

And I have been rushing from places to places for a whole day long. Monday. Wheew, Monday.
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Gadget

gadg·et (găj'ĭt)
n.

A small specialized mechanical or electronic device; a contrivance.

[Origin unknown.]

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In fact, something fun is going on in my life today. No kidding, on Monday of Ann Arbor, rainy Michigan. I met this Singaporean-Canadian girl Sha in a newly open tea house Mo Mo Tea on South University, and I found out that she was on the team before, dancing in newcomer and bronze levels. I told her to come back, embracing the humidity and warmth (swelteringly hotness) of the DTS. "I should," said she. And from her I heard of some stories of the unknown graduated team people from Michigan and UIUC.

Again, resume back to work, I am reading an article about the legacy of Apartheid in South Africa frustrates the education resources for the African-heritage students. To me that doing this work makes me realize a few things:

1) if you want to be an optimistic person (or on purpose you want to look on the bright side of the life through the dusty urban skies), don't work in the journalist industry;

2) journalists are not all pessimistic; they are just more realistic, and effectively keeping their sarcasm as the last connection to humour/warmth of world/anything positive in life that you come up with a phrase. This lukewarm joking attitude toward things help them win a recognition of urban-Yappy-styled wittiness in any social occasions, especially when drinking martini in a bar;

3) justice should be done, and we can all dedicate something to this goal, but fuckers are always here and there around us;

4) things makes sense when they don't make sense. It doesn't sound logical? I think you got it.

And 5) what really makes life brighter are the small delight of life, and of course the people close to you; so waste your time on the good things and people as much as possible.

So I say, dude, let's go to Cafe Jappon and have a pear tart.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/21/us/politics/21watch.html

The photos are somehow amusing.

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churn (chûrn)
n.

A vessel or device in which cream or milk is agitated to separate the oily globules from the caseous and serous parts, used to make butter.

v., churned, churn·ing, churns. v.tr.

1. 1. To agitate or stir (milk or cream) in order to make butter.
   2. To make by the agitation of milk or cream: churn butter.
2. To shake or agitate vigorously: wind churning up the piles of leaves. See synonyms at agitate.
3. To buy and sell (a client's securities) frequently, especially in order to generate commissions.

v.intr.

1. To make butter by operating a device that agitates cream or milk.
2. To move with or produce great agitation: waves churning in the storm; so angry it made my stomach churn.

phrasal verb:

churn out

1. To produce in an abundant and automatic manner: churns out four novels a year.

[Middle English chirne, from Old English cyrn, cyrin.]

churner

churn'er n.