Thanks to Dave the Snake (it does have a ring to it), I make my blog debut here. And in answer to the paraphrase of Berkeley's question, I guess
when millions of voices are babbling in the middle of cyberspace, it's no longer the issue whether the "babbling" exist. By the same token, if a million tree branches falling in the forest, we no longer care whether it's really happening, but become concerned with deforestation.

So whether our puny voices are heard at all, we must be content with thought of belonging to a massive social phenomenon which as a whole can't be ignored.

Nothing special to report. Except I am terribly engrossed in a history book: A People's Tragedy by Orlando Figes. It's a history of Russian Revolution. The historical figures really come alive and I was very moved by their fates. The utterly, utterly clueless Tsar Nicholas, who wrote only about dinner-parties in his diary as revolution raged around him, the ruthless and single-minded Lenin who were ready to sacrifice everything except himself to serve his vision, the patriotic yet disillusioned General Brusilov who despite being a ex-Tzsarist officer joined the Red Army only to be decieved of his good intentions, the compassionate Maxim Gorky, a writer of conscience who strived to improve the lives of common people but in the end find his efforts to be in vain. The author succeeds in illustrating how those moments in time are such volatile mixs of potentialities, and what emerge as history is the results of accidents, absurdities, and individual will, as much as economy and the movement of armies.

Dave the Snake, hmm, it makes him sound like some seedy mob lowlife. I like it.