教皇说，要善待猫

Cat Lovers Appreciate Soul Mate in Vatican

Their names are Shadow, Butch, Misty, Rusty, Sparky, Sunshine, Esther, Marty and Spunky. They are cats, some former strays, some tiger-striped. But to Jan Fredericks of Wayne, N.J., they are family, they are God’s creatures and deserving of compassion.

And in Pope Benedict XVI, Ms. Fredericks, the chairwoman of the fledgling American branch of Catholic Concern for Animals, believes that she has found a kindred spirit: Along with an enormous entourage and a message of peace, the Pope brought with him to the United States a lifelong love of cats.
Benedict’s kindness toward the strays of Rome is already the stuff of Vatican legend. His house in Germany, its garden guarded by a cat statue, was filled with cats when Benedict lived there full time before he was posted to the Vatican in 1982.

And Benedict is, without a doubt, the first pope to have had an authorized biography of him written by a cat — Chico, a ginger tabby who lives across the road from Benedict’s old house in Germany.
“I think it shows a sensitive side, and I believe it shows that God lives in a person,” Ms. Fredericks said Friday. “I think all leaders should have compassion for animals.”
When the pope arrived at Yankee Stadium on Sunday, Ms. Fredericks and some members of the group were there, handing out about 300 copies of a pamphlet called “Are We Good Stewards of God’s Creation?” (Also represented outside the stadium was People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, which wants Benedict to follow up on some scathing criticisms of factory farming he made when he was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.)
The pope’s fondness for felines has been often remarked upon since his elevation in 2005. One prominent Catholic blogger based in California, who writes under the pen name Gerald Augustinus, claims to have a 2-year-old Siamese named Benedictus, or Benny for short.
And the recently published “Joseph and Chico: The Life of Pope Benedict XVI as Told by a Cat” (Ignatius Press, 2008) is a children’s book written by Chico with the “aid” of an Italian journalist, Jeanne Perego.
The book, which has been translated into 10 languages and has sold 12,000 copies in the United States, tells of young Joseph Ratzinger’s childhood love for all furry animals and of the adult cardinal’s deep bond with the narrator, who lives in the Bavarian village of Pentling.
“When I’d see that the shades were up next door, I knew he was home,” Chico writes. “Then I’d race over and rub up against his legs. What wonderful times we’ve spent together!”
Chico’s owner, Rupert Hofbauer, confirmed the substance of the book and said that Chico, now 10, misses his old friend, who has not been back to visit since becoming pope.
“Sometimes Chico goes over there on his own,” Mr. Hofbauer said in a telephone interview on Friday, “and he sits on the door sill or walks through the garden.”
Ms. Perego said by phone Friday that the pope’s brother, who lives near Pentling, continues to hang the current year’s cat calendar on the wall of the pope’s house and turn its pages every month in a sort of homage to his absent brother.
Though Benedict is the first pope to be written about by a cat, he falls squarely within a long Vatican tradition. According to “The Papacy: An Encyclopedia,” by Philippe Levillain, Pope Paul II, in the 15th century, had his cats treated by his personal physician. Leo XII, in the 1820s, raised his grayish-red cat, Micetto, in the pleat of his cassock. And according to The Times of London, Paul VI, pope from 1963 to 1978, is said to have once dressed his cat in cardinal’s robes.
When Cardinal Ratzinger was the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the German newspaper Bild wrote, he tended to the cats that frequented the garden of the congregation’s building in the Vatican and bandaged their wounds.
Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone told an Italian newspaper in 2005 that the cats sometimes walked him to his office.
“One time the Swiss Guards had to intervene,” Cardinal Bertone joked. “ ‘Look, your eminence, the cats are laying siege to the Holy See.’ ”
Italian media reported that when the pope moved into his papal quarters, he could not bring two beloved cats — notwithstanding the protests of Rome’s animal rights commissioner, who urged the Vatican to “give the two papal cats access to the Apostolic Palace.”
Ms. Fredericks said she thought that the pope would benefit from continued contact with animals. “I think every church should have a cat colony,” she said. “But I don’t think that will happen.”
Victor Homola contributed reporting from Berlin.

简单猫用饮水设备

大白猫很挑剔，旧的水不喝，水位低了也不喝。自从家里来了能吃能喝的小毛之后，水下的更快。

于是就有了这个补水机。但是水还是要每天更换2次的。


原料：

2跟吸管。
1个矿泉水瓶。


在一个矿泉水瓶子上开2个洞。开第二个洞的原因是负压补水的时候易于吸入空气。
















两根管子的长度和开口高度要不一致。所以使用这种可以调节的吸管就比较省事了。








让后设法把瓶子固定在一个较高的位置上。两根管子中较短的那一根决定了水平面高度。













PS: 由于军团菌的存在，即便是使用自循环带有过滤装置的懒人宠物饮水机并也需要频繁换水，特别是那种带有加热的。

Garmin Mobile XT(City Guide vs R66 China)

这次跑去米国用了一路的Garmin XT，在美国使用City Guide 2007精准度高，体验效果非常好。结合在国内使用R66的经验，对比一下两个软件在不同领域的表现。需要说明的是，在中国是100%的开车导航，在美国只有部分城市是行车导航，其他时间是行人模式导航，在纽约那种楼高路窄的地方人行道根本没足够信号完成初始定位，往往需要跑到开阔地--诸如公园里去完成初始定位。

菜单
Garmin的菜单井井有条，经典的傻瓜式人机界面。基本分为2个：“要去哪里？” “地图导航” 外加几个设置按钮全部搞定，简单清晰远不会点错。R66的主菜单入口有十三个之多，虽然部分支持热键，但是组织性差，相信普通用户会经常找不到东西，反正我是找不到。举个例子- TOP1和TOP2功能几乎是一致的。- “增值服务”这种设置性菜单居然在主菜单TOP4的位置上。

搜索
Garmin的搜索条例清晰功能齐全，分为就近搜索、名称搜索和门牌号搜索三大类。所有的搜索都是用Step by Step的傻瓜提问方式展开，非常适合普通用户，其中门牌号搜索非常适合有精准门牌号的西方社会。
R66的搜索分类类似，但是R66使用了一次性输入的方法来搜素，由于智能不太高的缘故，输入内容的方式方法可能会影响输出结果。有点像今天的搜索引擎。有鉴于中国地图没有门牌号，所以没法比较。。。

转弯提醒
Garmin：有一些功能能体现出Garmin在曾经的独霸风范，但是实用性不太强，转弯提醒就是一个。Garmin会预测下一个转弯时间的功能，有点用，但是用处不大，开车转弯的时候一般人不会顶着屏幕看。不过说道提醒，Garmin实在是太TMD烦了，快到转弯的时候他会不停地跟你说Turn Right in xxx meters，说道车上的乘客都烦了，直嚷嚷关掉关掉……
R66：R66的转弯提醒少数量不多，但是及时到位，个人非常欣赏。
当然，这两个要比起我在Hertz租车时的那个车载垃圾麦哲伦要好100倍，用那个我一路上错过无数路口。

转弯图标提示 - 如果你盯着屏幕看的话
Garmin，在转弯前会有一个大箭头把路面霸占，表面你该转弯了。
R66则完全走了另外一条路，R66只在显示区提示转弯方向，最妙的是，R66会显示有路口道路分支交通标志图，在乡下没什么用，但是在首都动不动就是4车道6车道的路口来说，这个图对你提前并线还是很有帮助的。

地图浏览

手机屏幕很小，所以这个功能的设计十分关键。

Garmin采用了非常传统的鼠标方式，Well,应该说这个东西原来应用在Garmin硬件GPS上还将就的话，这次的手机版沿用该设计则完全是个灾难。人生地不熟的时候，你需要大量的浏览地图，而Garmin XT在这个时候决定能让你发疯。另外明明是矢量地图却弄得跟Google Map一样，分级很少，按一下ZOOM步进很大。

R66是瞄准具设计和良好的加速设计，所以手感良好。其ZOOM功能更是流畅，感觉像无级缩放一样。