America's Biggest Foreign Policy Blunder?

Peter van Buren, a former state department official who worked in Iraq, paints a vivid portrait of the failures of the United States' invasion of Iraq and its aftermath, arguing that it constitutes the nation's worst foreign policy failure ever.

D.I.Y.

Make your own glass cleaner: Mix 1/4 cup white vinegar with 3 cups of water in a spray bottle. Spray and wipe down with newspaper.

Never buy commercially produced glass cleaner again!

China's Generation Gap

Chinese parents who came of age during the Cultural Revolution are separated from their children, the balinghou, by an immense cultural gulf. 

David F***ing Lynch

"Eraserhead is my most spiritual movie. No one understands when I say that, but it is.

"Eraserhead was growing in a certain way, and I didn't know what it meant. I was looking for a key to unlock what these sequences were saying. Of course, I understood some of it; but I didn't know the thing that just pulled it all together. And it was a struggle. So I got out my Bible and started reading. And one day, I read a sentence. And I closed the Bible, because that was it; that was it. And then I saw the thing as a whole. And it fulfilled this vision for me, 100 percent.

"I don't think I'll ever say what that sentence was."

(David Lynch, Catching the Big Fish, p. 33.)

Daniel K. Gardner (translator), The Four Books, and Edward Slingerland (translator), The Analects

Daniel K. Gardner's The Four Books is a translation of selected portions of the four great Confucian classics: Great Learning (Daxue), Analects (Lunyu), Mencius (Mengzi), and Doctrine of the Mean (Zhongyong; translated by Gardner as "Maintaining Perfect Balance"). These four books became the basis of the Chinese imperial examination system during the Song Dynasty, due to the influence of the "Neo-Confucian" (Daoxue) scholar Zhu Xi (1130-1200); previously, the Five Classics (Wujing) had been the basis for the imperial exams, but Zhu Xi argued that the Four Books served as a better introduction to the study of Confucian thought.

Gardner's aim in this slender volume is to introduce the student of philosophy not only to the Four Books themselves, but also to Zhu Xi's influential Neo-Confucian commentaries, through which Chinese students have traditionally approached and interpreted these classic texts. While Gardner does not translate Zhu Xi's commentary directly, his own commentary is peppered with quotations from Zhu Xi, and Gardner explicitly adopts a Neo-Confucian stance when explaining how the passages from the Four Books have traditionally been read. This choice does provide an effective introduction to the Neo-Confucian commentarial tradition, and to Neo-Confucianism generally, but at the expense of occasionally obscuring the original meaning of the texts.

By contrast, Edward Slingerland, in his translation of Confucius' Analects, makes use of a range of traditional commentaries, together with modern textual scholarship, in his own attempt to make sense of the Analects (in terms of their likely original meaning, to the extent to which this can be reconstructed). There are certainly advantages and disadvantages to both of these interpretive strategies, and there is likely room for both in preparing contemporary translations and editions of classic Chinese texts.

While Gardner's The Four Books largely accomplishes what it sets out to do, I would have preferred an edition which contains the complete versions of Great Learning, Analects, Mencius, and Doctrine of the Mean, even if this meant expanding the work to multiple volumes. Also, since Gardner in many cases merely paraphrases Zhu Xi's commentary, it would have been preferable to simply include a translation of Zhu Xi's commentary alongside the original text, supplemented where needed by Gardner's own notes or additions (perhaps noting those cases in which other commentators have disagreed greatly with Zhu Xi). Nevertheless, Gardner has produced an excellent introduction both to the Four Books themselves, and to the Neo-Confucian commentary tradition of Zhu Xi, which colored the reception of these texts in China for hundreds of years (and which still does). 

Confucius

"The Master said, 'A clever tongue and fine appearance are rarely signs of Goodness [ren].'" (Confucius, Analects 1.3. Translated by Edward Slingerland.)

Links

Hat tips to TheBrowser and Marginal Revolution.

1. The London Underground as a state of mind.
2. Are we living in the early 19th century? Income inequality and standard of living.
3. The current state of Africa. (The headline could be: The Economist calls for a Pan-African Union. Read to the end.)

Donald Ritchie, A Tractate on Japanese Aesthetics

Donald Ritchie's A Tractate on Japanese Aesthetics is a learned introduction to traditional Japanese aesthetic concepts, such as wabi, sabi, and mono no aware. Ritchie lived in Tokyo and wrote about Japanese culture for decades. In his Tractate, Ritchie deftly handles traditional Japanese sources, telling famous tales such as tea master Sen no Rikyu's development of the refined yet rough and simple aesthetic later associated with the tea ceremony; he also appropriately clarifies and juxtaposes Japanese aesthetic concepts using Western aesthetic thinkers and artists such as Hume, Kant, and Oscar Wilde. The "tractate" form averred to in the title is that of an extended essay, which aptly serves Ritchie's goal of creating an introduction to his topic suitable for the literate novice. Recommended. I will be using portions of this tractate as a required reading for my aesthetics class this semester.

Teaching the Bible in Texas Public Schools

I think the Bible should be taught in public schools, since its influence on world civilization (history, politics, religion, art, literature) has been profound. However, according to a recent article in the New York Times, the teaching of the Bible in Texas public schools involves possible violations of the principle of the separation of church and state. For example, some religion classes are taught by evangelical pastors, whose teaching is colored by their particular theology, and some public school students take their religion classes (which are part of the public school curriculum) in nearby churches.

The Year Thus Far in Links

1. What's wrong with ebooks.
2. Buddhist hell-realms depicted at Thailand's Wat Phong Rai Wua.
3. Christmas book flood in Iceland.
4. An environmentalist's reasons for supporting GMO and factory farming.
5. The wisdom of psychopaths? 
6. "The Deep End." Hand-drawn animation, white-out, and coffee. By Jake Fried.
7. China's new 'it girl' is a grandfather.
8. Music tastes and delinquency.
9. Prehistoric oral bacteria.
10. Head trauma sometimes unlocks creative talents.
11. The decline of Jewish delis.
12. "World's worst tattoo" inked in Bowling Green, Ohio.
13. The science of WEIRD people. 
14. Addictive junk food?
15. Out of control health care costs.
16. Five psychiatric disorders share genetic risk factors related to neural calcium channels.

Confucius

"The Master said, 'One who is Good sees as his first priority the hardship of self-cultivation, and only after thinks about results or rewards.'"

(Confucius, Analects 6.22. Translated by Edward Slingerland.)

D.I.Y.

Toothpaste: mix one part sea salt to one part baking soda. Make a 50/50 mix of water and hydrogen peroxide, and then add enough of this to the salt and baking soda to form a paste like consistency. Add a few drops of pure peppermint oil.

Stop buying mass-produced toothpaste! The homemade stuff is cheaper and (in my experience) works better.

Jerry's Map

World building as open-ended semi-random fine art project. Jerry Gretzinger also has a blog about his project.

Update (2014.10.26): Wired now has a piece about Jerry's map with extensive pictures.

Links

1. A plan to build a real-life Starship Enterprise.

2. Neuroscience and stage magic. (Hat tip to the Browser.)

3. A flowchart for changing habits.

The Future of TV = Broadcast + Broadband?

According to Tech Crunch, "Cord cutters"--households without cable TV--represent only 5% of TV households, but their number has grown over 22.8% the past year. I am a cord cutter myself; a big part of the reason is that cable companies do not allow consumers to purchase individual shows, but instead require that they purchase a large bundle of channels, even if consumers aren't interested in most of the programs that are in the bundle. At the Atlantic, UCLA sociologist Gabriel Rossman explains the economics behind cable companies' resistance to a la carte programming. He also links to an amusing cartoon from the Oatmeal which portrays internet piracy of cable TV shows as a response to cable companies' lack of flexibility in delivering content.

Robot Wars

Who would win: a 5-axis milling robot or a 3D printer that works in metal? According to this article, the future lies with 3D printers, but for the time being the safe money is on the milling robot.

The Nine Hells

1. Slavery in Mauritania.

2. Born and raised in a North Korean prison camp.

3. With U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan.

4. The madness of Philip K. Dick.

5. Mississippi hate crime.

6. Staff Sergeant Robert Bales.

7. Inside America's Ivy League fraternities.

8. The harassment of women in modern India.

9. Seeking justice for Haiti's rape victims.

Links

1. New York Times review of "Marley", the new Bob Marley bio-pic.
2. Wired profile of Joss Whedon.
3. Jennifer Tilly, poker player.
4. Chairs are dangerous.

The Quants Rule, OK

Atlanta, Montreal, Oslo, Paris. What do these cities have in common?

Recent social network research reveals the answer: Montreal leads North Americans' raido listening habits when it comes to indie music, while Atlanta leads for North American hip-hop. In Europe, Oslo is the leader for general music listening habits, and Paris leads for indie music. This means that what people are listening to on the radio now in Montreal (for example) will soon be what people are listening to across North America.

A related story: a school for quants doing research in network science at University College London. These are the job skills of the future. Adapt now, or forever hold your peace. Amen.

Links

1. Modern slave owner in Mauritania becomes an abolitionist.

2. China's 30 million cave dwellers.

3. E-books may make it harder to remember what you read. (Hat-tip to Marginal Revolution.)