Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Bruce Lee

I am learning to understand rather than immediately judge or to be judged. I cannot blindly follow the crowd and accept their approach. I will not allow myself to indulge in the usual manipulating game of role creation. Fortunately for me, my self-knowledge has transcended that and I have come to understand that life is best to be lived and not to be conceptualized. I am happy because I am growing daily and I am honestly not knowing where the limit lies. To be certain, everyday there can be a revelation or a new discovery. I treasure the memory of the past misfortunes. It has added more to my bank of fortitude.

Barbara De Angelis

No one is in control of your happiness but you; therefore, you have the power to change anything about yourself or your life that you want to change.

北原白秋

この道はいつか来た道
ああ、さうだよ
あかしやの花が咲いてる

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Leonardo da Vinci

As a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so a life well spent brings happy death.

西郷隆盛

命も要らず名も要らず、官位も金も要らぬ人は、始末に困るものなり。

Lorcan Dempsey

Think, for example, of a distinction between outside-in resources, where the library is buying or licensing materials from external providers and making them accessible to a local audience (e.g. books and journals), and 'inside-out' resources which may be unique to an institution (e.g. digitized images, research materials) where the audience is both local and external. Thinking about an external non-institutional audience, and how to reach it, poses some new questions for the library.
Or think about the relationship between the 'locally available' collection and the 'universal' collection in each case.
  • For bought materials (books, CDs, ...) the library provides access to the locally available collection - the materials acquired for local use - and then may provide access to a broader 'universal' collection through Worldcat or another resource.
  • For licensed materials, access is first through the broader 'universal' level (in various databases) before checking for the subsect of locally available materials.
  • For institutional digital materials, access is provided to local repositories but this will not typically be backed up by access to a 'universal' source for such materials.

カレログ

カレログは、家族やパートナーが現在どこにいるかを把握するスマートフォンのGPS機能を用いた位置情報通知サービスです。あらかじめ彼氏や家族の持つAndroid携帯電話に、カレログアプリをインストールしておけば、彼氏の現在のGPS位置情報を常にあなたはチェックすることが可能です。

カレログに必要なもの
  1. 位置を知りたい人の携帯電話がGPS 機能を搭載していること。
  2. 位置を把握したい人がインターネットに接続できること。
カレログ サービス概要
  • 彼氏や家族の携帯の位置をGPSで特定できます。
  • 端末のバッテリー残量もわかるから、「電源が切れちゃった」なんて言い訳は通用させません!
  • サービス利用はバックグランド操作で行うから、どのタイミングで情報取得しているかは彼氏の端末で一切わかりません。
  • 彼氏の携帯電話通話記録まで、リアルタイムに入手可能!もう浮気や電話代の無駄使いは絶対にさせません。
  • 彼氏の携帯電話にインストールしたアプリも丸わかり!出会い系アプリやHなアプリを入れてもすぐにチェックできてしまいます!

Ai Weiwei

This city is not about other people or buildings or streets but about your mental structure. If we remember what Kafka writes about his Castle, we get a sense of it. Cities really are mental conditions. Beijing is a nightmare. A constant nightmare.

Jean Baudrillard

Que nous ayons rêvé de cet événement, que tout le monde sans exception en ait rêvé, parce que nul ne peut ne pas rêver de la destruction de n'importe quelle puissance devenue à ce point hégémonique, cela est inacceptable pour la conscience morale occidentale, mais c'est pourtant un fait, et qui se mesure justement à la violence pathétique de tous les discours qui veulent l'effacer.
A la limite, c'est eux qui l'ont fait, mais c'est nous qui l'avons voulu. Si l'on ne tient pas compte de cela, l'événement perd toute dimension symbolique, c'est un accident pur, un acte purement arbitraire, la fantasmagorie meurtrière de quelques fanatiques, qu'il suffirait alors de supprimer. Or nous savons bien qu'il n'en est pas ainsi. De là tout le délire contre-phobique d'exorcisme du mal : c'est qu'il est là, partout, tel un obscur objet de désir. Sans cette complicité profonde, l'événement n'aurait pas le retentissement qu'il a eu, et dans leur stratégie symbolique, les terroristes savent sans doute qu'ils peuvent compter sur cette complicité inavouable.
Cela dépasse de loin la haine de la puissance mondiale dominante chez les déshérités et les exploités, chez ceux qui sont tombés du mauvais côté de l'ordre mondial. Ce malin désir est au cœur même de ceux qui en partagent les bénéfices. L'allergie à tout ordre définitif, à toute puissance définitive est heureusement universelle, et les deux tours du World Trade Center incarnaient parfaitement, dans leur gémellité justement, cet ordre définitif.

William Shakespeare

A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool.

Monday, August 29, 2011

L’Ecclésiaste

Le simulacre n’est jamais ce qui cache la vérité – c’est la vérité qui cache qu’il n’y en a pas.
Le simulacre est vrai.

Aaron Helton

All of this was a long-winded introduction to something I’ve been thinking about in specific terms for a while. I have been unable to find a name for it, so I will have to coin one and hope it makes sense: speculative nonfiction (alternatively, fictional nonfiction; alternatively to that, history jamming). I think of it as the world of nonfictional items that exist within fictional spaces, things that were created to support a fictional narrative. These items can be as fundamental as world-building elements or as obscure as references to nonexistent books. Often they can be objects, people, and places as well. For people who write fiction, most of these are throw-away elements, things that are used once or a limited number of times and discarded. Even narrative works can fall under this guise. Fictional biographies, for instance.
The idea opens up a great deal of possibility, and I think there are plenty of people like myself who would love to explore it. Presently practitioners of anything similar are pigeon-holed in genre-type alternate history (at best) or (at worst) fanfic, their works forming gray-market derivatives from their canonical sources. Given a broad enough timeline view (scale is key here), it is entirely possible that these derivative works and alternate histories could be functionally indistinguishable from the canonical sources or factual histories. And it is conceivable that future reconciliation efforts might reduce these variants and non-canonical narratives into a new canonical form, much like the collection of works we call The Bible. ...

Walt Whitman

The past and present wilt--I have fill'd them, emptied them.
And proceed to fill my next fold of the future.

Listener up there! what have you to confide to me?
Look in my face while I snuff the sidle of evening,
(Talk honestly, no one else hears you, and I stay only a minute longer.)

Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)

I concentrate toward them that are nigh, I wait on the door-slab.

Who has done his day's work? who will soonest be through with his supper?
Who wishes to walk with me?

Will you speak before I am gone? will you prove already too late?

Sunday, August 28, 2011

寒川旭

 日本の歴史は地震の歴史と言っても過言ではない。時代の大きな変わり目は地震が後押しした側面がある。100年余りの間隔で繰り返す南海トラフの地震でいえば、宝永地震(1707年)は江戸幕府の衰退、安政東海、安政南海地震(1854年)は幕府の崩壊、昭和の東南海地震(1944年)は敗戦直前の日本を消沈させた。このほか、関東大震災(1923年)で日本経済は大打撃を受け、「大陸進出やむなし」との風潮をつくったといえる。
 古代まで振り返ると、東日本大震災をもたらした巨大地震と最も似ているのが869年の貞観地震だ。菅原道真らが編さんした歴史書「日本三代実録」には、仙台平野北部の多賀城下に津波が押し寄せたことが記されていた。
古い史料はあてにならないと思っていないだろうか。「日本三代実録」を含む奈良・平安時代に編さんされた六つの官撰(かんせん)の歴史書(六国史)は、当時の最高の頭脳が集まってつくられた。地震の記録は非常に正確だ。貞観地震以外にも9世紀の日本では各地で地震が続いた。現在の日本列島の地震活動と共通点が多く、この時期をよく知ることは次に起きる地震で多くの命を救うことにつながるだろう。
 たまたま地震が少ない時代に高度成長期を迎え、自然を征服してしまうような発想で国づくりが進められた。埋め立て地が増え、丘陵を改変して、地盤の悪い場所に移り住んだ。
 もう一度謙虚に自然を理解し、共存する方法を考えるべきではないだろうか。日本はいつの時代も地震に悩まされ、その度に残された教訓がある。歴史からそれらを学び、今後の備えを充実させなければいけない。

Ryan Lizza

Barack Obama came to Washington just six years ago, having spent his professional life as a part-time lawyer, part-time law professor, and part-time state legislator in Illinois. As an undergraduate, he took courses in history and international relations, but neither his academic life nor his work in Springfield gave him an especially profound grasp of foreign affairs. As he coasted toward winning a seat in the U.S. Senate, in 2004, he began to reach out to a broad range of foreign-policy experts––politicians, diplomats, academics, and journalists
---
... Nonetheless, Obama may be moving toward something resembling a doctrine. One of his advisers described the President’s actions in Libya as “leading from behind.” That’s not a slogan designed for signs at the 2012 Democratic Convention, but it does accurately describe the balance that Obama now seems to be finding. It’s a different definition of leadership than America is known for, and it comes from two unspoken beliefs: that the relative power of the U.S. is declining, as rivals like China rise, and that the U.S. is reviled in many parts of the world. Pursuing our interests and spreading our ideals thus requires stealth and modesty as well as military strength. “It’s so at odds with the John Wayne expectation for what America is in the world,” the adviser said. “But it’s necessary for shepherding us through this phase.”

Agent/Clicker/Delf

This multifaceted threat is clearly of Chinese origin with a starting MD5: 39CDF84761FF16D6532484327FCF4112
It downloads five components making a startup entry in the local Registry for;
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\International] ->W2KLpk

This threat is a tracking tool that can be started with a single click from any of the following 22 Internet addresses;
113.108.239.107 [Agent/Clicker/Delf.from-m.weather.com.cn;Beijing]
119.42.148.252 [Agent/Clicker/Delf.from-www.wa300.com;San_Po_Kong]
121.10.132.235 [Agent/Clicker/Delf.from-s84.cnzz.com;Zhanjiang]
123.125.114.140 [Agent/Clicker/Delf.from-search.hao123.com;Beijing]
183.60.136.65 [Agent/Clicker/Delf.from-s14.cnzz.com;Guangzhou]
183.61.3.25 [Agent/Clicker/Delf.from-www.xx-ie.com;Guangzhou]
219.232.241.248 [Agent/Clicker/Delf.from-zs17.cnzz.com;Beijing]
61.4.185.35 [Agent/Clicker/Delf.from-www.weather.com.cn;Beijing]
61.4.185.48 [Agent/Clicker/Delf.from-cnnic.cn;Beijing]
m.weather.com.cn [Agent/Clicker/Delf.from-113.108.239.107;Beijing]
s14.cnzz.com [Agent/Clicker/Delf.from-183.60.136.65;Guangzhou]
s17.cnzz.com [Agent/Clicker/Delf.from-183.60.136.65;Guangzhou]
...

Patrick Lamb

Let’s be completely honest about this. Knowledge management is a fad. And like most things faddish and fashionable, it’s going to make you look good, it’s going to make you feel good, and it’s going to cost you a lot of money. The only thing is, in a couple of year’s time you are going to throw it aside and run after something else.

V Mary Abraham

If there are days when you doubt the value of knowledge management, take a closer look at Project ECHO: it saves lives by sharing specialist knowledge from teaching hospitals with a wide network of primary care physicians in far-flung areas. As a a result, the patients in those areas get the benefit of cutting edge medical treatment without having to travel hundreds of miles to academic centers.
Founded by Dr. Sanjeev Arora and his colleagues at the University of New Mexico, Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes (Project ECHO) has become a shining model for innovative medical practices and for Knowledge Management.

Gene Bellinger

In an organizational context, data represents facts or values of results, and relations between data and other relations have the capacity to represent information. Patterns of relations of data and information and other patterns have the capacity to represent knowledge. For the representation to be of any utility it must be understood, and when understood the representation is information or knowledge to the one that understands.
...what needs to be managed to create value is the data that defines past results, the data and information associated with the organization, it's market, it's customers, and it's competition, and the patterns which relate all these items to enable a reliable level of predictability of the future.What I would refer to as knowledge management would be the capture, retention, and reuse of the foundation for imparting an understanding of how all these pieces fit together and how to convey them meaningfully to some other person.
The value of Knowledge Management relates directly to the effectiveness with which the managed knowledge enables the members of the organization to deal with today's situations and effectively envision and create their future. Without on-demand access to managed knowledge, every situation is addressed based on what the individual or group brings to the situation with them. With on-demand access to managed knowledge, every situation is addressed with the sum total of everything anyone in the organization has ever learned about a situation of a similar nature.

Paula J. Dobriansky, Thomas Carothers

In pursuit of our goals, our first imperative is to clarify what we stand for: the United States must defend liberty and justice because these principles are right and true for all people everywhere.... America must stand firmly for the nonnegotiable demands of human dignity: the rule of law; limits on the absolute power of the state; free speech; freedom of worship; equal justice; respect for women; religious and ethnic tolerance; and respect for private property.
It is also a matter of record that this administration, whenever it encounters evidence of serious human rights violations or antidemocratic practices in specific countries, has raised a voice of opposition to such violations and sought to address these problems. This is certainly the case with such countries as Pakistan, Indonesia, and Malaysia, as well as Russia, Uzbekistan, and China. In general, we do this irrespective of the identity of the offender and, when circumstances merit it, criticize even some of our close allies. We manifest our concerns through a variety of channels, including diplomatic dialogue, both public and private, and the State Department's reports on human rights, international religious freedom, and trafficking in persons.
Bilateral efforts aside, a great deal of our multilateral diplomacy, including American engagement at the UN and the Organization of American States, is shaped by the imperatives of human rights and democracy promotion.

Curt Tarnoff

Although many disparate elements of Marshall Plan assistance speak to the present, it is questionable whether the program in the main could be replicated in a meaningful way. The problems faced now by most other parts of the world are so vastly different and more complex than those encountered by Western Europe in the period 1948-1952 that the solution posed for one is not entirely applicable to the other.
Some aspects of the Marshall Plan are more replicable than others. The Plan was chiefly characterized by its offering of dollar assistance targeted at productivity, financial stability, and increased trade. This, however, is the aim today of only a portion of U.S. economic assistance to the developing countries, much of which goes for humanitarian relief or political security purposes. Surely developing and former communist countries would benefit by receiving large scale aid if it eliminated the necessity of going even deeper into debt to private or public sources. Such grant aid could make radical policy reforms politically easier to adopt. However, many developing countries may not possess the human, industrial, or democratic base to make effective use of such aid and may need long term development-oriented aid, not a short term infusion of capital. Some suggest that, in many cases, a rapid infusion of large scale assistance would lead only to corruption and abuse of aid funds.

Susan B. Epstein, Nina M. Serafino, and Francis T. Miko

Experts and policy makers are still wrestling with the challenges of whether and how to promote democracy in authoritarian states that are key allies and of strategic importance to the United States. In these cases, applying a principled approach consistent with our rhetoric by pressuring governments to ease repression and instituting real democratic reform could unleash forces far worse than what now exists in these countries, some believe. Often, authoritarian governments that the United States needs and that need the United States, especially in the fight against terrorism, are unwilling to liberalize and warn that to do so would risk bringing extremist forces to the fore. On the other hand, some argue, the failure to oppose regimes viewed as corrupt and ruthless by their own people has been pointed to as one of the major factors impeding U.S. success in the larger battle for “hearts and minds,” especially in the Islamic World from which terrorists seek to draw recruits and support.

Why Democracy?

Democracy is arguably the greatest political buzzword of our time and is invoked by everyone - but what does it mean? Can it be defined, measured, safeguarded? Can it be sold, bought, and transplanted? Can it grow? Can it die? What does it mean to people who can't even talk about it? What does it mean to people who don't believe in it? What does it mean to you?

Noam Chomsky

The leading studies of—scholarly studies of what’s called "democracy promotion" happen to be by a good, careful scholar, Thomas Carruthers, who’s a neo-Reaganite. He was in Reagan’s State Department working on programs of democracy promotion, and he thinks it’s a wonderful thing. But he concludes from his studies, ruefully, that the U.S. supports democracy, if and only if it accords with strategic and economic objectives. Now, he regards this as a paradox. And it is a paradox if you believe the rhetoric of leaders. He even says that all American leaders are somehow schizophrenic. But there’s a much simpler analysis: people with power want to retain and maximize their power. So, democracy is fine if it accords with that, and it’s unacceptable if it doesn’t.

蒲原有明

... 僕には働くといふことが苦手である。ましてや他人の意志の下に働くといふことは、どうあつても出來ない相談である。それなら自分の意志の鞭を背に受けて、嚴肅な人生の途に上らねばならぬといふことは、それが假令考へられるにしても、その考を直ちに實行に移すことを難んずる状態である。今までに一つとして纏つた仕事を成して來なかつたのが何よりの證據である。
 空と雲と大地とは終日ながめくらしても飽くことを知らないが、半日の讀書は僕を倦ましめることが多い。新しい家に移つてからは、空地に好める樹木を植ゑたり、ほんの慰みに畑をいぢつたりするだけの仕事しか爲さないのである。そして僅に發芽する蔬菜のたぐひは、これを順次に、いかにも生に忠實な蟲に供養するまでゝある。勿論厨房の助にならう筈はない。こんな有樣なのであるから、田園生活なんどは毫頭想ひも寄らぬことがらである。僕の生活は都會ともつかず田園ともつかず、その中間にあつて、相變らず空漠なその日暮らしで始終してゐる。そして當然僕の生涯の絃の上には、倦怠と懶惰が執ねくもその灰色の手をおいて、無韻の韻を奏でてゐるのである。
 考へて見れば、これが「生の充實」を稱ふる現代の金口に何等の信仰を持たぬ人間の必定墮ちてゆく羽目であらう。その上、僕には本能的な生の衝動が極めて微弱であるから、悔恨の情さへ起り得ない。とどのつまり永遠に墮ちてゆく先は無爲の陷穽である。

青木繁

今日の大家になるには資格を要す。法螺達者にして技術拙劣なるべし。蓄財せねば大家になれず、画を書けてはならない。困ったものだ。大家は退化なり。

Mona Simpson

All those times on the highway, it was doing something. I lost time there in the ditches, waiting. Minutes out of my life. It was as if I had millions of clocks ticking inside me and each time one stopped. I left one clock, dead and busted, on the gravel by the side of the road, each time.
I didn't say anything. The highway was clean and straight. I rested back in my seat.

Saturday, August 27, 2011

フジテレビ


田村秀男

 ユーロ加盟南欧諸国の政府債務問題がギリシャからスペイン、イタリアへと広がり、これら諸国の国債を保有する欧州の金融機関を揺さぶっている。そこでユーロを発行する欧州中央銀行はスペインとイタリアの国債を買い上げることにした。すると、ユーロ札発行は増えに増えるので、対ユーロ安によるドル全面安の恐れはない。FRBはドルをもっと刷れるだろう。
 米国債最大の保有国、中国はどう出るか。「米国債大量売却」となれば、ドル暴落の引き金を引くが、200兆円相当近くのドル資産の多くが失われ、胡錦濤指導部の責任問題になる。ドルに合わせて人民元相場を切り下げると損失は避けられるが、インフレが高進し、出稼ぎ農民や都市の中間層以下の不満を爆発させる。中国は米国債を売るわけにいかないのだ。
 以上、ドル凋落のシナリオはありそうで、そうならない。米欧に比べ、円を刷らない日本だけが、円の独歩高を止められず、デフレをさらにこじらせ、大震災からの復興をどこまでも遅らせる。
 40年前に世界通貨は紙切れの時代になってしまったのに、日本だけが発想転換できないで、おカネを刷らない。その結果、消費者も企業も財政も貧しくなるばかりだ。

Eleanor Roosevelt

Great minds discuss ideas; Average minds discuss events; Small minds discuss people.
---
The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.

위키백과

민주주의는 의사 결정시 시민권을 가진 모두 또는 대다수에게 열려 있는 선거 또는 국민 정책투표 등의 방법을 통하여 전체적인 구성원의 의사를 반영, 실현시키는 사상 및 정치 사회체제이다. 일반적으로 국민 개개인이 나라의 주인된 힘, 즉 주권을 행사하는 이념과 체제’라고도 표현된다. '민주주의'는 근대사회에서 서구의 자유민주주의나 사회민주주의와 동의어처럼 사용되었으나 "반자유주의적 민주주의" 국가도 분명 존재하고 있다. 이런 맥락 속에서 '자유주의적'이라는 수식어는 엄밀히 말하면 입헌주의적 자유주의와 각인의 평등한 인권의 보장을 지칭한다. 그러나 민주주의는 다른 견해를 기술하는 데에도 널리 사용된다. 어느 경우에든, 민주주의의 이념이 민주사회에서 사회와 정치 문화에 대한 합리적 견해들을 포괄하는 것으로 의미가 무한정 확장될 수 있다.한편,민주주의에 대한 가장 간결한 정의로 링컨의 "인민의,인민에 의한,인민을 위한 정치"가 통용되고 있다.이는 민주주의의 핵심요소로 국민주권과 시민자치,복지주의를 담고 있다.

Mark Stivers



Томас Джефферсон

Демократия — это не что иное, как правление толпы, где пятьдесят один процент людей может лишить всех прав оставшиеся сорок девять…

infousa.ru

deДанный сайт более не поддерживается.

Вы будете перенаправлены на портал Государственного департамента США на русском языке America.gov/ru, где сможете ознакомиться с самой разнообразной информацией
о Соединенных Штатах.

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刘瑜

... 所以,即使是在信息自由、充分的社会,人们对信息的关注和吸收也往往是选择性的。我曾经写过一些观察美国政治的文章。有读者曾问:你写这些是不是很容易,把在美国看到的事情给描述一下就行了?我答,可能不像你想象得那么容易。很多留学生出国之后关注国内“超女”选拔,远胜于关注美国国会辩论,还有很多干脆顺着我们从小被灌输的意识形态框架,看见的永远只是“美帝”如何横行霸道,而不是这个国家的政治运作机制。一个人“看到”一个事物并不等于他能“看见”它,人们往往需要穿过重重意识形态才能看见自己所看到的东西。中文里有个更简洁的词,叫做“视而不见”。
理性的无知,中国人当然不陌生。最极端的例子是大跃进。农民自己就是种地的,岂能不知“亩产万斤”的荒谬?科学家有基本常识,又怎会不知土法炼钢炼出来的都是什么东西?各层干部炮制假数据,又怎能不知“大好形势”后面的巨大灾难?至于毛主席,总有人用“他被下面的人给蒙蔽了”来为之辩护,要我看,与其说他不知道,不如说他不想知道。这个情境里,对于一些人,无知可以带来利益;对于另一些人,无知可以带来安全;对于还有一些人,无知则可以满足其意识形态的偏执。在这里,无知就像一块大肥肉,各路苍蝇、蚂蚁、豺狼可以蜂拥而至各取所需。
... 万一降落伞打不开呢?他们可能担心。于是他们继续待在温暖的机舱,对大地上的声音充耳不闻。于是“群众”当中,出现了一群越来越“不明真相”的领导。现在,令人担忧的是,那些坐在机舱里的人,和那些大地上的人,他们携带着各自眼中完全不同的世界,正在高速接近。有一些事实,那么多事实,我们知道,但他们不知道我们知道,而我们不知道他们不知道我们知道——这样两个疾驰的世界互相追尾时,该是怎样的场景?

王晓明

心理上的劳动强度意味着你下班了,看起来你是在家里休息,但是,你没有从容的心情去读一本需要动脑筋的书,或者去看一部需要思考同时也让你轻松的电影或话剧,或很好地和家人交流,因为这些都需要主动投入心力,但你需要的只是放松,只是恢复劳动力。在既有的经济结构上,一个人“劳动力再生产”的需要阻止了他在精神上提升自己。

中国社会碰到的是这样的问题,就是经济发展确实可以让人变得不那么充满紧张的时候,财富的分配却极不合理。这就抵消了经济发展对于改善人的伦理和精神状况的正面作用。
对于绝大多数人来说,经济的发展只是增强了他们对经济压力的感受。如果大家都很穷,我也焦虑,但焦虑不会严重。而现在经济压力很强大,社会贫富悬殊,它的结果就是对低收入者的刺激放大了。虽然他们的收入也在提高,但他们收入的提高赶不上贫富差距拉大对精神刺激的强度。因此,总体来说,他从经济发展当中受到的影响是焦虑的增强,是心理更加失衡。

Macklin Fleming

In these limited areas the corporate law firm could still plausibly assert that through specialization and subdivision of labor it could outpace the general practitioner and give the client a superior product at a lower net cost, even while charging premium prices for its services.
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The basic cause of legal concentration and centralization is the explosion of knowledge that has occurred in the modern world and the resulting fragmentation of specific skills needed to deal effectively with each segment of that knowledge.

Ascender

In Soviet Russia a man worked in a baby carriage factory. When his wife got pregnant he began to sneak parts out to make a carriage at home. Every day for three months he pilfered parts. One Saturday morning his wife heard him screaming in the garage and went out to see what was wrong. He told her, "I have built and rebuilt it five times and always it is a machine gun."

Reuven Tsur

There was an old joke in Soviet Russia about a guard at the factory gate who at the end of every day saw a worker walking out with a wheelbarrow full of straw. Every day he thoroughly searched the contents of the wheelbarrow, but never found anything but straw. One day he asked the worker: "What do you gain by taking home all that straw?" "The wheelbarrows". This paper is about the straw and the wheelbarrow, about shifting attention from figure to ground or, rather, about turning into figure what is usually perceived as ground. We are used to think of the load as "figure"; the wheelbarrow is only "ground", merely an instrument. Our default interest is in the act, not in the instrument.

Robert Brault

The human species is made up of seven billion subspecies each consisting of one specimen.


Thursday, August 25, 2011

asahi.com

山形県酒田市は24日、夏のイベントの人出を発表した。酒田港まつりの酒田花火ショーは今回から調査方法を見直したところ19万8千人で、昨年の41万人の半分以下になった。同まつりの甚句流しも1万2800人と、昨年の4万2千人を大きく下回る結果となった。
市商工観光部によると、人出調査は酒田観光物産協会が毎年しているが、「主催者発表とはいえ、多すぎるのではないか」との疑問が出され、今年から調査方法を変えた。
従来は、関係者が前年の人出と比べて2割増、1割減などと大まかに算出していた。今回からは花火大会の場合、打ち上げ場所の最上川河川敷の会場周辺をエリア分けし、1平方メートルに2人が入れると想定して密度と面積をかけて数値を出した。甚句流しは会場の主要地点で実際に人出をカウントし、通りの面積を掛けたという。
協会側は「これまでは慣例で前年との増減で数字を出していた。今回から実数にできるだけ近づけるようにした」と話している。

刘梦溪

所谓亚洲价值,我的看法,应该指涉三方面的内容:第一,亚洲许多国家都是“文明体国家”,她们有自己独特的民族文化传统,在发展中形成了自己的特殊社会结构和适合本国情况的发展道路;第二,亚洲的一些国家,由于地缘、人种和历史诸方面的原因,文化与信仰存在一定程度的相似、相近、相融、相合之处,因而衍生出文化符号、文化伦理、文化哲学和文化行为的某些共通性和共识性的成分。例如作为交往工具的文化符号的汉字的运用,日常生活中饮食方式的一些习惯和筷子的使用,以及儒学伦理带动的行为规范的特征及其对公私生活发生的影响,还有佛教在民间的广泛传播等等。这些都反映出,亚洲的一些国家确实存在着一定程度的共通性文化基因,使得亚洲价值的意涵在文化上渊源有自。当然不应忘记,亚洲地区本身也由文化与信仰的多元形态所构成。第三,亚洲价值的提出,绝不单纯是对一个特定地区已往历史与文化的共同特征的概括,更重要的,是它所具有的前瞻性的内涵,即包括共通性和共识性成分在内的这些国家的文化传统与现代性是否相关,他们的固有传统能不能转化为现代文明建构的有用资源。这最后一点,是亚洲价值的重心所在,是现时性因素,是它的生命力量之源泉。否则所谓亚洲价值,不过是历史的遗存物,充其量只有个体眷顾的价值和审美的价值,对文化与社会的发展模式而言,谓之无价值亦可。
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21世纪的路程,我想随着亚洲国家走向现代化的目标的实现,亚洲价值必然得到进一步的彰显,而彰显的程度,则取决于亚洲国家对自己文化资源整合的状况,以及对自身局限克服的程度,同时也取决于亚洲国家和人类共同文明融解的程度。

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

楮山ヒロ子

あの痛々しい産業奨励館だけが、いつまでも、おそるべき原爆のことを後世に訴えかけてくれるだろう。

Ole Christian Madsen, Lars K. Andersen


temple

ポル・ポトは共産主義者というより、毛沢東主義者だった。彼ほど毛沢東の教えを忠実に実行した人物はいなかったとさえいわれる。
... ポル・ポトがカンボジアで行ったことは、文化大革命のカンボジア版だった。ポル・ポトの大虐殺と毛沢東の文化大革命は思想・出発点・目指す方向が全く同じだった。唯一の違いは、ポルポトの殺戮数が、毛沢東に遠く及ばないことだけだ。ポル・ポト200万人に対し、毛沢東は7000万人だ。

20世紀、中国人は戦争ではなく、共産主義によってより多くの人々が殺された。また日本人との戦争で戦死した人数より中国人同士が殺しあった数のほうが圧倒的に多かった。

具体的には南京事件や日中戦争の死者など、国共内戦、大躍進、チベット虐殺、文化大革命等によって殺された数に遠く及ばない。

吉田康彦

私は拉致疑惑事件は韓国公安機関の安全企画部による謀略ないしデッチあげと信じる。

北朝鮮の核開発は人畜無害である。誰もその実害をこうむってはおらず、国連が制裁するのは筋違いだ。

北朝鮮が日本に宣戦布告をしてきたらどうなるか読者諸氏はご存じだろうか。憲法九条は国の交戦権を否定しており、憲法に忠実に従うかぎり、日本国民は北朝鮮軍のなすがままに身を任せ、座して死を待つほかないのである。

被害者家族らの反発はもっともだが、やはり生きていたといった新事実は出てこないだろう。もしそうだとしても解明には相当の困難が伴うし、すぐには無理。日本政府もこれ以上もめずに、正常化交渉を進めていくのが国益にかなう。

和田俊

アジア的優しさ持つ カンボジア解放勢力のプノンペン制圧は、武力解放のわりには、流血の跡がほとんど見られなかった。入城する解放軍兵士とロンノル政府軍兵士は手を取り合って抱擁。政府権力の委譲も平穏のうちに行われたようだ。しかも、解放勢力の指導者がプノンペンの裏切り者たちに対し、「身の安全のために、早く逃げろ」と繰り返し忠告した。
「君たちが残っていると、われわれは逮捕、ひいては処刑も考慮しなければならない。それよりも目の前から消えたくれた方がいい」という意味であり的を遇する上で、きわめてアジア的な優しさにあふれているようにみえる。
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カンボジア人の融通自在の行動様式から見て、革命の後につきものの陰険な粛清は起こらないのではあるまいか。

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Vincent Ferraro

The greatest danger to globalization comes not from its opponents, but from its erstwhile supporters.
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The weaknesses of poor states could destabilize the entire international system.

Jorge Nef

... the wealthiest 20% of humanity receives 82.7% of the world's income. The historical trend is even more revealing.
The same global elite also controls 80% of world trade, 95% of all loans, 80% of all domestic savings, 80.5% of world investments. They consume 70% of world energy, 75% of all metals, 85% of timbers and 60% of food supplies. In this context the global middle sectors are shrinking considerably, since the 20% of what could be called the world's middle class only receives 11.7% of the world's wealth. Between one-half and two-thirds of the African population lives in a state of permanent destitution. It has been estimated that "in this decade average per capita incomes fell by about 3% per year in sub-Saharan Africa and by about 1.3% in the highly indebted countries". The cumulative figures of economic decline for the decade are 25% for Africans and 10% for Latin Americans.

Richard Madsen

To understand what is at stake, let me articulate briefly the principles of Western liberalism and show how these contrast with East Asian principles of political and economic organization and social philosophy.
The first principle is that of individualism. The individual is prior to society. Each individual is morally autonomous, free to choose his or her own life goals, and to pursue these in any way the individual wants, so long as he or she does not interfere with another's pursuit of goals. Societies come into existence only because of voluntary contracts of individuals trying to pursue more effectively their individual goals.
A second assumption is rationalism. The individuals who constitute societies are rational agents. The rationality they possess is primarily instrumental-the capacity to calculate the most effective means to achieve their ends. The way to establish public order is to increase, through a secular scientific education, the capacity of each individual for this kind of rational action. That way, each individual will see that he or she needs to follow similar procedures.
The rational individual will recognize the need to organize the pursuit of his or her goals through entering into contracts. Thus contractualism is the third principal assumption of liberalism. Stable social relations are formed because individual parties enter into agreements to provide mutual benefits. Aggregated, all of these micro-level contracts constitute the social contract that is the basis of society itself.

Amartya Sen

Cultural differences and value differences between Asia and the West were stressed by several official delegations at the World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna in 1993. The foreign minister of Singapore warned that "universal recognition of the ideal of human rights can be harmful if universalism is used to deny or mask the reality of diversity." The Chinese delegation played a leading role in emphasizing the regional differences, and in making sure that the prescriptive framework adopted in the declarations made room for regional diversity. The Chinese foreign minister even put on record the proposition, apparently applicable in China and elsewhere, that "Individuals must put the states' rights before their own."

I want to examine the thesis that Asian values are less supportive of freedom and more concerned with order and discipline, and that the claims of human rights in the areas of political and civil liberties, therefore, are less relevant and less appropriate in Asia than in the West.

南方日报

最近,四川绵阳一车主在高速公路上一手开车,另一只手伸进副驾驶座上一女子的衣服里摸胸,他因超速驾驶被电子眼抓拍。这张照片随后在网络上疯传,一些网友人肉搜索这个被戏称为“摸胸哥”的车主,此人名叫邓嘉林,他自称照片是PS的。“开车摸奶门”引爆舆论,争议纷纷,不少人认为照片是从交警部门流出的,侵犯车主个人隐私。绵阳交警部门表示将调查图片来源,处理责任人。

Monday, August 22, 2011

Zarin Machanda, Chris Organ

... the rise of cooking likely occurred more than 1.9 million years ago and bestowed on human ancestors a gift of time in the form of hours each day not spent eating. ... however ... the rewards from the advent of cooking weren’t shared equally. While men were likely freed up to hunt and pursue other activities, an increased burden of food gathering and preparation was placed on women that equaled the time they saved ingesting and chewing the cooked food.

Frank La Loggia

Una rondine non fa primavera.

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Graham Flint

The Gigapxl™ Project

Shanghai

Sevilla

Vancouver

James Fitzjames Stephen

Parliamentary government is simply a mild and disguised form of compulsion. We agree to try strength by counting heads instead of breaking heads, but the principle is exactly the same... The minority gives way not because it is convinced that it is wrong, but because it is convinced that it is a minority.

---

The criminal law stands to the passion of revenge in much the same relation as marriage to the sexual appetite.

Gene Sharp

In recent years various dictatorships—of both internal and external origin—have collapsed or stumbled when confronted by defiant, mobilized people. Often seen as firmly entrenched and impregnable, some of these dictatorships proved unable to withstand the concerted political, economic, and social defiance of the people.

The collapse of dictatorships ... has not erased all other problems in those societies: poverty, crime, bureaucratic inefficiency, and environmental destruction are often the legacy of brutal regimes. However, the downfall of these dictatorships has minimally lifted much of the suffering of the victims of oppression, and has opened the way for the rebuilding of these societies with greater political democracy, personal liberties, and social justice.

吉野家の担当者

どうしても心配で食べたくないという人は食べなければいいのではないか。

tobiasrevellworkalong

류경호텔

丸山健二

一度動物園で飼育された動物を自然に返すことは、殺処分も同様の仕打ちであることは自明の理であり、だから、そんな非道な真似をする関係者はほとんどいない。しかし、勤め人の場合は違う。長い余生を送るにはあまりにも僅かな餌を持たされ、あとは自力でどうにかしろということで野に放たれる。

属している国家や雇ってくれた企業にそれほどまでに恩義を感じなくてはならない根拠など、ひとつもありはしないのだ。国は税金を搾り取り、企業は搾取しただけのことであって、恩を感じてもらわなければならないのは、むしろあなたの側である。それにもかかわらず、何故にそこまで卑屈になるのか。

あなたという存在をどこまでも蔑ろにし、とことんこけにしているのは、ひょっとするとあなた自身なのかもしれない。あなたの自由を封じてしまっているのは、いかなる場合においても追従の生き方を優先させ、ともあれ周囲と調子を合わせたがるあなたであって、ほかの誰かではないのかもしれない。

Saturday, August 20, 2011

Channel NewsAsia

Join us this week as we take a nostalgic trip down memory land to places which inspired various classic Japanese hit songs. First up is a tour around Tokyo, a treasure trove of hit songs. The city has inspired many songs such as Student Street, Bath House and The Slope. Our first destination is Kanda River, connected with the famous folk song Kanda River (Kandagawa) by Minami Kosetsu and Kaguya-Hime. The lyrics of the song - which was released in 1973 - can be found at a park here. Since the lyrics of the song mention a bath house, go to Waseda and visit the Tsukinoyu Bath House. Built in 1928, this popular place still offers an old bath house experience. For example, it has retained its original high ceiling – a common feature of old bath houses. It is customary to drink some milk before leaving a bath house, so do buy the classic coffee milk for 100 yen (S$1.50), which comes in a glass bottle.

The Economist


Karl Popper

The future is always present, as a promise, a lure and a temptation.

Paul Raskin, Tariq Banuri, Gilberto Gallopin, Pablo Gutman, Al Hammond, RObert Kates, Rob Swart

Characteristics of Historical Eras

Stone AgeEarly CivilizationModern EraPlanetary Phase
OrganizationTribe/villageCity-state, kingdomNation-stateGlobal governance
EconomyHunting and gatheringSettled agricultureIndustrial systemGlobalization
CommunicationsLanguageWritingPrintingInternet

Pim Martens, Jan Rotmans

James Gustave Speth

Consider a world in which environmentalists continue to lose on big issues such as climate change. Many observers see current trends leading to catastrophe, with environmental crises as major ingredients in a devil’s brew that includes such stresses as population pressure and energy supply problems; global income disparities and economic and political instabilities; terrorism, failed states, and nuclear proliferation. A world where environmentalists fail is one of food and water shortages; sea level rise; increasing heat waves, fires, floods, storms, droughts; deforestation, desertification, and biotic impoverishment; pollution and toxification; energy shortages; plus unpleasant surprises. The poor and powerless, even the average citizen, are unlikely to fare well in such a world.
In scenarios of the future, a continuation of “business as usual” can lead to a “fortress world” response to crisis, where the affluent live in protected enclaves in rich nations and in strongholds in poor nations. In the police state outside the fortress, the majority is mired in poverty and denied basic freedoms. Military and intelligence experts also have warned that climate disruption could lead to humanitarian emergencies, refugees, and rampant conflict. At a minimum one can conclude that unfolding trends threaten the liberal program. Historically, times of great stress, loss and instability lead societies to illiberal responses. Liberals must appreciate how serious environmental threats are, and that they threaten political and social systems, not just ecological ones. We all need to recognize that environmental threats are too serious to leave to environmentalists.

Valérie Fournier

In becoming mainstream, sustainability has been washed out of its more radical questioning of economic models, and especially economic growth … If there is to be any hope of a sustainable future, it is precisely economic growth that needs to be called into question. Sustainable development and ecological modernization only serve to ‘sustain the unsustainable’; they not only absolve major corporations and a capitalist economy of endless growth of environmental responsibilities, but also cast them as the new heroes of sustainability.

Hwy-Chang Moon

Competitiveness is often confused with productivity. While productivity refers to the internal capability of an organization, competitiveness refers to the relative position of an organization against its competitors.
... a firm may enhance its competitiveness by simply changing its strategies (eg, new marketing strategy), while maintaining the same the same level of productivity. Likewise, a nation can enhance its competitiveness by changing national policies (e.g., currency devaluation, protectionism), without increasing its domestic productivity. Therefore, we need to distinguish competitiveness from productivity and highlight the relevant strategy at various levels of analyses.

Michael Schwirtz

When a young man lost both his arms this week in the waters off Russia’s east coast, officials and residents initially had trouble believing what had happened. But a day later, when a teenager’s legs were ripped up in the same waters, all doubt vanished.

In a region more accustomed to threats from bears, the culprit appears to be a man-eating shark — possibly more than one.

“If a shark tries to attack you, fight it off; try to hit it in the eyes and gills,” read one advisory. “Remember,” read another, “panic could lead to tragic results.”

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Doug Gross

Making computers behave like humans has taken another step forward.
IBM on Thursday announced it has created a chip designed to imitate the human brain's ability to understand its surroundings, act on things that happen around it and make sense of complex data.
Instead of requiring the type of programming that computers have needed for the past half-century, the experimental chip will let a new generation of computers, called "cognitive computers," learn through their experiences and form their own theories about what those experiences mean.
The chips revealed Thursday are a step in a project called SyNAPSE (Systems of Neuromorphic Adaptive Plastic Scalable Electronics). The two chip prototypes are a step toward letting computers "reason" instead of reacting solely based on data that has been pre-programmed, IBM says.

斎藤美奈子

「シェイクスピアって、だれだっけ」
「さあ。名前は聞いたことあるけどな」
 シェ、シェイクスピアを知らんのか・・・。
 ひと言でいうと、ここで起こっているのは、「教養主義の解体」という事態である。読んでなくてもいいからさ、名前くらいは知ってろよ。と大人は考える。教養とは早い話が固有名詞の集積である。デカルト、カント、ショーペンハウエルでも、漱石、鴎外、谷崎、三島でもいいが、哲学者なり、文学者なり、歴史上の人物なりの名前を知っているのが基礎教養の証だとしたら、ここ10年くらいで、かつて教養と呼ばれていたものは完全に解体したのだ。
 とまあ、思っていたのである。が、事態はそう単純でもないらしい。「空想科学読本」を読んで認識を改めた。教養は解体したんじゃない。別の体系にとってかわられたのである。

Frank J. Myers

Just you and I
Sharing our love together
And I know in time
We'll build the dreams we treasure
We'll be all right
just you and I

And I remember our first embrace
That smile that was on your face
The promises that we made
And now your love is my reward
And I love you even more
Than I ever did before

李连杰

我会尽我所能,服务全世界,因为我是世界公民,因为我是中国制造。
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我将把我的知识,我的心,我的爱,尽我所能,奉献给我的家庭,全球的家庭,奉献给全世界,因为我是世界公民,因为我是中国制造。

Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, Frank Vincent

There's three ways to do things, the right way, the wrong way and the way that I do it.

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Rhonda Byrne

Our natural state of being is joy, and it takes so much energy to think negative thoughts, to speak negative words, and to feel miserable. The easy path is good thoughts, good words, and good deeds. Take the easy path.

May the joy be with you.

Ivan Watson

"Mia mia." It is an extremely popular phrase, widely used in Libya, that translates roughly to "100 percent."
Nine times out of 10, that is what Libyans said when I asked how they were coping with nightly bombardments by NATO warplanes, electricity blackouts that lasted days and rebel forces who were pressing forward on three fronts.
"Mia mia," they said with a smile. In other words, everything's great! No problem!
Was this the cheerful coping method of a society living amid olive groves and palm trees next to the Mediterranean Sea? Or was "mia mia" a survival tactic for people who had grown up within the authoritarian system of Moammar Gadhafi's perpetual revolution?
The whispers of dissent my colleagues and I often heard in Tripoli suggested the latter.

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Samir Amin

While theory would suggest that stronger groups, in asymmetric relationships, will seek to perpetuate their dominance with autocentric constructs, this was not always the case. The ancient Greeks adopted an attitude of superiority towards the Asiatics only briefly, during the fourth century BCE, when the Persians threatened them. In fact, Hellenic civilization moved east after Alexander's conquest, and it was there, in partnership with the Asiatics, that it continued to flour-ish for several more centuries. Similarly, the power of Islamic socie-ties was rarely founded, in theory or practice, on a racial stratification. The Islamic elites claimed cultural superiority not for particular races, but for peoples living in central climatic zones, which included peoples other than themselves. While the Chinese empires claimed centrality, this too was based on cultural distinctions, not race. It was always their official policy to assimilate the barbarians, not to exclude them.
It would appear that the Europeans are the exceptions to this. The evidence suggests that stronger groups in Europe, as early as the twelfth century, rather quickly moved towards autocentric constructs with a racial content. This may be observed in their relations with subjugated populations that were ethnically or racially different, both inside and outside Europe. Moreover, the autocentric myths were also translated into discriminatory policies--sometimes, genocidal policies--against the weaker groups.

Ilene Proctor

Albarelli gives his readers so much juicy information, a veritable tsunami of exposed secrets and incrementing evidence. He details a myriad of CIA drug experiments and exposes a large number of previously anonymous physicians and business officials who contracted with the agency. The experiments resulted in the deaths of a number of people, permanently destroying the minds of others and sending many more seeking medical help.

The human faces of evil come alive. We become acquainted with some of the Agency’s creepiest characters including: Dr. Sidney Gottlieb, head of the notorious MKULTRA program, whose mind control techniques included extensive use of LSD; the evil psychiatrist Dr. Harold Abramson; various Corsican mafia kingpins; and the ultimate spy, Pierre Lafitte who was not only ignominiously descended from the famous pirate captain, Jean Lafitte, he was also a paid CIA assassin, who just happened to be working as a bellman at the Statler Hotel the night Olson plunged to his death on a November night in 1953.

The Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs

JINSA's Mandate:
  • Provide leadership and affect policy on crucial issues of national security and foreign policy;
  • Promote American security cooperation with like-minded democratic countries including, but not limited to, Israel;
  • Engage the American defense community about the role Israel can and does play in securing Western, democratic interests in the Middle East and Mediterranean regions; and
  • Improve awareness in the general public, as well as in the Jewish community of the importance of a strong American defense capability.
The Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, non-partisan and non-sectarian educational organization committed to explaining the need for a prudent national security policy for the United States, addressing the security requirements of both the United States and the State of Israel, and strengthening the strategic cooperation relationship between these two great democracies.

Dan Balz, Bob Woodward

9:32 a.m.
The Vice President in Washington: Underground, in Touch With Bush
Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta, summoned by the White House to the bunker, was on an open line to the Federal Aviation Administration operations center, monitoring Flight 77 as it hurtled toward Washington, with radar tracks coming every seven seconds. Reports came that the plane was 50 miles out, 30 miles out, 10 miles out-until word reached the bunker that there had been an explosion at the Pentagon.
Mineta shouted into the phone to Monte Belger at the FAA: "Monte, bring all the planes down." It was an unprecedented order-there were 4,546 airplanes in the air at the time. Belger, the FAA's acting deputy administrator, amended Mineta's directive to take into account the authority vested in airline pilots. "We're bringing them down per pilot discretion," Belger told the secretary.
"[Expletive] pilot discretion," Mineta yelled back. "Get those [expletive] planes down."
Sitting at the other end of the table, Cheney snapped his head up, looked squarely at Mineta and nodded in agreement.

Norman Mineta

There was a young man who had come in and said to the vice president, "The plane is 50 miles out. The plane is 30 miles out." And when it got down to, "The plane is 10 miles out," the young man also said to the vice president, "Do the orders still stand?" And the vice president turned and whipped his neck around and said, "Of course the orders still stand. Have you heard anything to the contrary?" Well, at the time I didn't know what all that meant.

Rich Lowry

... But adopting something along the lines of the Israeli system would require a tough-mindedness, and instead of tough-mindedness, we have Norm Mineta. On the issue of profiling, Mineta's ignorance appears to be nearly invincible.
Mineta's Japanese-American family was interned during World War II. He implies at every opportunity that by standing in the way of ethnic profiling, he is preventing a similar enormity today. "A very basic foundation to all of our work," he says, "is to make sure that racial profiling is not part of it."
Asked on 60 Minutes if a 70-year-old white woman from Vero Beach should receive the same level of scrutiny as a Muslim from Jersey City, Mineta said, "Basically, I would hope so." Asked if he could imagine any set of circumstances that would justify ethnic and racial profiling, Mineta said "absolutely not."
... it is Mineta who takes the anti-profiling position all the way to its most absurd conclusion. "Surrendering to actions of hate and discrimination," he maintains, "makes us no different than the despicable terrorists who rained such hatred on our people."
Since Mineta thinks "discrimination" includes ethnic profiling, this must be one of the laziest statements of post-Sept. 11 moral equivalence this side of Susan Sontag.
... In other words, if we take steps to frustrate the terrorists — the terrorists will win!

Monday, August 15, 2011

ハートマウンテン文芸

ころころと豆に育って 世に出たものの
水責め火責め 石に擦られてその上に
絞りあげられ 豆腐となって
四角にされても 角たたず
暑さ 寒さの 季節に感じ

食味豊かで 人には好かれ
軒の小桶に 時たま浸り
辛苦忘れた 月観と洒落る
言ふに優しい 風雅あり
如是々々 豆腐礼賛

Henry McLemore

I am for the immediate removal of every Japanese on the West Coast to a point deep in the interior . . . Sure, this would work an unjustified hardship on 80 or 90 percent of the California Japanese. But the remaining 10 or 20 percent have it in their power to do damage - great damage - to the American people. They are a serious menace, and you can't tell me that an individual's rights have any business being placed above a nation's safety.

"If making 1 million Japanese uncomfortable would prevent one scheming Japanese from costing the life of an American boy, then let the 1 million innocents suffer . . . Personally, I hate the Japanese. And that goes for all of them. Let's quit worrying about the enemy's feelings and start doing it.

森瀧市郎

核兵器を絶対否定してきた私たちは、平和利用をも否定せざるをえない核時代に突入しているのであります。『核兵器絶対否定』を叫んできた私たちは、いまやきっぱりと『核絶対否定』の立場に立たざるをえないのであります。『平和利用』という言葉にまどわされて『核絶対否定』をためらっていたら、やがて核に否定されるでありましょう。
先日の国際会議で私があえて提起したテーゼは、『核分裂エネルギーを利用する限り、人類は未来を失うであろう』ということでありました。くりかえして申し上げます。『核分裂エネルギーを利用する限り、人類は未来を失うであろう』と。

巨大エネルギー、巨大開発、巨大生産、そして巨大消費という形態をとる核時代の産業文明は、いまこそその価値観を一大転換しなければなりません。価値観の転機とは何か。一言でいえば、すべて巨大なるものは悪であり、のろわれたるものである、いと小さきもの、いとつつましきものこそ美しいものであり、よいものであるということであります。シューマッハー博士の言葉を借りると”ビッグ・イズ・イービル(悪)、スモール・イズ・ビューティフル”ということであります。
私たちは巨大なる核エネルギー産業文明によって子孫のものまで使いはたし、プルトニウムのようなやっかいきわまる遺産を子孫に残すべきではありません。

Sam Leith

There are two main schools of thought. One is that modern culture is making us cleverer. In Everything Bad Is Good for You, Steven Johnson observes that IQ scores in the west are rising, and argues that pop culture – from soaps to video games to the web – is responsible. In the other corner is Nicholas Carr, author of The Shallows: How the Internet Is Changing the Way We Think, Read and Remember. He thinks the web is making us more stupid. We surf the shallows in a state of permanent distraction, and concentrate on no single thing for long enough to engage properly with it. Since much of our mental energy is spent processing the medium, little is left for the message. Carr, then, is a descendent of Plato, who mistrusted writing because he thought people would stop bothering to know anything if it was all there in books.
What both seem to agree on, however, is that a defining characteristic of digital culture is that it divides the attention. That has become a fact about the texture of our lives. We experience anxiety, fragmentation, semiotic overload.

Sunday, August 14, 2011

World Bank

The global financial system would no longer be dominated by the dollar or any single currency by 2025 and six major emerging economies— Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, South Korea, and Russia—will account for more than half of all global growth.

Mansoor Dailami

Over the next decade or so, China’s size and the rapid globalisation of its corporations and banks will likely mean a more important role for the renminbi.

The most likely global currency scenario in 2025 will be a multi-currency one centred around the dollar, the euro, and the renminbi.

Justin Yifu Lin

The fast rise of emerging economies has driven a shift whereby the centres of economic growth are distributed across developed and developing economies— it’s a truly multipolar world.

Emerging market multinationals are becoming a force in reshaping global industry, with rapidly expanding South-South investment and FDI inflows. International financial institutions need to adapt fast to keep up.

Ken Sweet

The computers have taken over Wall Street, and they're taking investors on a wild ride.
This week, the Dow swung back and forth more than 400 points on four straight days. Trading volume is at or near record levels.
It's not fast-talking traders on the New York Stock Exchange behind the action. The majority of trading is done on large server farms based in New Jersey and elsewhere.
High-frequency trading, also known as algorithmic or programmed trading, relies on software to determine when to buy and sell shares, usually based on a particular pattern or technical level in the market. These trades can happen several times a minute.

Experts don't blame high-frequency trading entirely for the market's nauseating moves, but they say it certainly exacerbates them.
The Securities and Exchange Commission in a report blamed high-frequency trading in part for the May 6, 2010 "flash crash," when the Dow fell nearly 1,000 points in minutes.

The Telegraph


中国人民抗日战争纪念馆

1874年以来,日本不断发动对中国的侵略战争,给中华民族带来了无比深重的灾难。尤其全面侵华战争期间,日本军国主义者完全突破了人类任何道德良知的底线,彻底践踏了国际公理与正义,泯灭人性地对中国人民犯下了惨绝人寰、令人发指的罪恶暴行,在中国广大的土地上进行了最野蛮、最残暴、最惨绝人寰的大破坏、大屠杀。侵华日军铁蹄所至,神州大地山河变色,中国的主权独立、领土完整、经济发展、人民的生命财产遭到严重的破坏,给中国人民造成了3500万人伤亡、6000亿美元的巨大损失。侵华日军的暴行是对人类正义与文明的残暴践踏!

日本法西斯使用了各种罪恶手段残暴地对付中国人民,每一种方法,都无所不用其极:血腥屠杀;摧残妇女儿童;制造无人区、实行烧、杀、抢三光政策;无差别狂轰滥炸;役使并虐杀劳工;大肆抢掠,洗劫一空;对占领区人民进行奴化教育;毒化……使用对象,涵盖了所有范围:既有抗战军人,也有和平百姓;既有老人,又有儿童;既有青年妇女,也有孱孱老妇……

Александр Габуев

... участники саммита вчера наметили и направления первоочередных мероприятий для превращения ОДКБ в широкий антиреволюционный фронт. Некоторые из них публично обозначил Александр Лукашенко. "Мы договорились, что будем совместными усилиями вырабатывать у себя противодействия угрозам, прежде всего в информационном и киберпространстве",— заявил он.
Учитывая ту роль, которую сыграли интернет-сервисы вроде Twitter и Facebook в ближневосточных революциях, желание членов ОДКБ совместно бороться с киберугрозами вполне объяснимо. Например, Нурсултан Назарбаев поднимал эту тему еще на июньском саммите ШОС, предлагая возводить стены "национальных киберграниц" на пути "сетевого деструктива". Впрочем, некоторые участники ОДКБ уже накопили существенный опыт блокирования деструктивных ресурсов вроде сайтов оппозиции и отключения соцсетей и наверняка будут рады поделиться этим опытом с партнерами.
Киберпространством действия ОДКБ не ограничатся. Александр Лукашенко объявил вчера, что в связи со сложной обстановкой в мире участники объединения "полны решимости закончить процесс комплектования и вооружения коллективных сил ОДКБ". ...

Alison Baile

Philosophical methods are well suited for unpacking the political, ontological, and epistemological conditions that foster racism and hold white supremacy in place. However, on the whole, philosophy as a discipline has remained relatively untouched by interdisciplinary work on race and whiteness. In its quest for certainty, Western philosophy continues to generate what it imagines to be colorless and genderless accounts of knowledge, reality, morality, and human nature.

Epimenides

The Cretans are always liars.

William Shakespeare

A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool.

Giovanni Segantini


Saturday, August 13, 2011

NHK

国力をはるかに超えた70年前の日本の戦争。日中戦争からの8年間その戦費は、7559億円。現在の貨幣価値に換算すると300兆円にも。

天文学的戦費は、どのように調達されたのだろうか?

例えば、陸軍の大陸での行動を経済的に支えたとされる「朝鮮銀行」と、世界三大為替銀行と言われ世界中にネットワークを築いていた「横浜正金銀行」の極秘資料からは、

日本が世界に類を見ない特殊な戦費調達のシステムを作り上げていた事が明らかになってきた。

一方、中国の統一通貨「元」と、その勢力地図を塗り替えようとした日本の「圓」との激しい「通貨戦」、そのことが日本を世界から孤立させる大きな要因になったと考えられる。

Matt Phillips, Justin Lahart

This time, maybe the U.S. is Japan
It is a comparison that underlines the current plight of the U.S. economy: as bond investors grapple with their new reality—a downgraded U.S. credit rating and two more years of zero-interest rates—they are increasingly looking to Japan for guidance.

荘子

  • 行不知所之、居不知所為、与物委蛇而同其波。是衛生之経已。
  • 狗不以善吠為良。人不以善言為賢。
  • 人生天地之間、若白駒之過郤、忽然而已。
  • 与其誉堯而非桀也、不知両忘而化其道。
  • 至人乃能遊於世面不僻、順人面不失己。
  • 古之得道者、窮亦楽、通亦楽。所楽非窮通也。
  • 人所取畏者、衽席之上、飲食之間。而不知為之戒者、過也。
  • 人皆知有用之用、而英知無用之用也。
  • 至人之用心若鏡。不将不迎、応而不蔵。故能勝物而不傷。
  • 水行莫如用舟、面陸行莫如用車。
  • 自伐者無功、功成者堕、名成者虧。
  • 君子之交淡若水、小人之交甘若醴。

CTV News.ca

The group of laid-off Ottawa workers who won a Lotto 6/49 jackpot this week could barely contain their excitement as they picked up their $7 million cheque on Friday.

The 18 winners, 10 of whom just received pink slips from their employer, Smart Technologies, whooped in glee as they claimed their prize at the Ontario Lottery headquarters in Toronto.

"It's surreal," one winner told CTV News on Friday. "This has been nothing but a roller coaster ride."

Just days after learning that their Calgary-based software manufacturer decided to close its Ottawa plant the group found out they won.

Karl Marx

  • I am not a Marxist.
  • Democracy is the road to socialism.
  • For the bureaucrat, the world is a mere object to be manipulated by him.
  • From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.
  • Greek philosophy seems to have met with something with which a good tragedy is not supposed to meet, namely, a dull ending.
  • Religion is the opium of the people.
  • History does nothing; it does not possess immense riches, it does not fight battles. It is men, real, living, who do all this.
  • History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.
  • Atheism is a negation of God, and by this denial, it posits the existence of man.
  • Necessity is blind until it becomes conscious. Freedom is the consciousness of necessity.
  • Religion is the impotence of the human mind to deal with occurrences it cannot understand.
  • Nothing can have value without being an object of utility.

Development Assistance Committee

The OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) comprises a wide range of actors and partners who build on mutually agreed principles and good practices to improve the effectiveness of development. Some of the words that characterise the DAC are: trust, strategic capacity, networking, problem solving, co-operation and engagement. Yet at the same time, the far-reaching and dynamic nature of its evolving relationships and activities make it difficult to get a complete picture of the DAC’s work.

Today, the DAC comprises 24 members with significant aid programmes: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States and the European Commission (EC). The World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) participate as permanent observers.

The Economist

India’s switch from the world’s biggest recipient to donor is part of a wider change shaking up foreign aid. Ten years ago the vast majority of official development assistance came from about 15 rich industrialised countries that are members of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC), a 50-year-old club of the aid establishment. Even today, America remains the largest single donor, dishing out $31 billion in 2010.

ReprintsBut second on the list, if reports monitored by New York University’s Wagner School are to be believed, would be China, which gave away $25 billion in 2007. (Statistics on aid from new donors are dodgy and the line between aid and trade is blurred; by another count China’s officially reported aid was only $1.9 billion in 2009.) Brazil, which is also thinking about setting up its own aid agency, gives up to $4 billion a year of assistance, broadly defined. That would put it on a par with Sweden, Italy—or Saudi Arabia, another big donor outside the establishment club. If India gives around $2 billion a year, it would rank with Australia or Belgium.

According to a new report by a non-governmental organisation called Global Humanitarian Assistance, aid (conservatively defined) from non-DAC countries rose by 143% in 2005-08, to $11.2 billion, before falling during the financial crisis. Aid from the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India and China) more than doubled. The establishment donors’ aid monopoly is finished.

Robert T. Kiyosaki, Sharon L. Lechter

There are rules of money that the rich play by, and there are the rules that the other 95 percent of the population plays by. And the 95 percent learns those rules at home and in school. That is why it's risky today to simply say to a child, `Study hard and look for a job.' A child today needs a more sophisticated education, and the current system is not delivering the goods.
---
Most people, working for a paycheck, are making the owner, or the shareholders richer. Your efforts and success will help provide for the owner's success and retirement.
---
There was a long silence between us. It was dawning on me that I was giving my son the same advice my parents had given me. The world around us has changed, but the advice hasn't.
Getting a good education and making good grades no longer ensures success, and nobody seems to have noticed, except our children.
"Mom," he continued, "I don't want to work as hard as you and dad do. You make a lot of money, and we live in a huge house with lots of toys. If I follow your advice, I'll wind up like you, working harder and harder only to pay more taxes and wind up in debt. There is no job security anymore; I know all about downsizing and rightsizing. I also know that college graduates today earn less than you did when you graduated. Look at doctors. They don't make nearly as much money as they used to. I know I can't rely on Social Security or company pensions for retirement. I need new answers."

Friday, August 12, 2011

Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis

Venkman: Einstein did his best stuff when he was working as a patent clerk!
Stantz: You know how much a patent clerk earns? Personally, I liked the University; they gave us money and facilities, we didn’t have to produce anything. You’ve never been out of college. You don’t know what it’s like out there. I’ve worked in the private sector — they expect results.

Melnitz: Do you believe in UFOs, astral projections, mental telepathy, ESP, clairvoyance, spirit photography, telekinetic movement, full-trance mediums, the Loch Ness monster, and the theory of Atlantis?
Zeddemore: If there’s a steady paycheck in it, I’ll believe anything you say.

Kathleen Mitchell

There is a belief entrenched in American culture that career planning Is a logical and linear activity...

...But it’s not.

We are expected to choose a career from among thousands of possibilities, often before having a chance to explore one option. Even experts cannot always anticipate the economic, social, and political events that will impact employment. How can anyone be expected to prepare for a career in a world that is constantly emerging?

We do not always need a plan to create a career. Instead, we need a plan to act on happenstance — to transform unplanned events into career opportunity.

松永真理

基本的に自分のやりたいと思ったことを自由に行っています。自由というのが私にとって一番重要なキーワードなんです。
---
働き始めてからちょうど30年たちましたが、30年前から今の自分を予想していたかというと、まったく予想がつきませんでした。働いていること自体考えてなかったですね。昨今言われている、キャリアプランニング、「10年後何をしているか考えろ」、というような考え方はかなりのプレッシャーですよね。私も推奨している、「Planned Happenstance(=計画的偶然性)」理論というものがあるのですが、それは「個人のキャリアは、計画的ではない偶然性によって形成される」という考え方なんです。この理論では、この計画的偶然性を具現化するには5つの行動特性、「好奇心」、「リスクテイク」、「こだわり」、「楽観主義」、「柔軟性」があると言われてます。そういう行動特性が、確かに私にもあるみたいですね。そのような特性があって、リクルートに入り、NTTドコモに行き、今の自分が形成されたのだと思います。だから決してフラットに、計画通りにきたわけではないのですよ。岐路に立ちかかった時は、理屈じゃなくて、直感で、心に無理がないことを選んできました。

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Bret Fisk

In his Summa Theologica, Thomas Aquinas sets forth three steps for determining whether a given conflict can be considered a “just war.” Aquinas’ first assertion is that war must only be instituted by the proper authority. Second, war must always be waged in the name of a worthy cause—to avenge or punish a wrong or to restore what an enemy has unjustly seized. Finally, war must be prosecuted while maintaining “rightful intention,” namely, “the advancement of good” or “the avoidance of evil.” Several questions come immediately to mind. Who is to say what constitutes the proper authority for declaring war? Don’t all nations consider their various causes to be just—no matter how conflicting they might be? Couldn’t such a vague formulation be used to validate almost any conceivable military adventure? However, because the main thrust of Aquinas’ argument is contained in that third point regarding “rightful intention,” I would maintain that even after more than seven centuries Aquinas’ simple formula has yet to be surpassed either in terms of simplicity or profundity. After acknowledging that “a war may be declared by the legitimate authority, and for a just cause, and yet be rendered illicit through a vile intention,” Aquinas quotes Augustine to further illustrate what such vile intention might consist of: “The passion for inflicting harm, the cruel thirst for vengeance, an implacable and relentless spirit, the fever of revolt, the lust of power, and such like things, all these are rightly condemned in war.”

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Gregory Colbert


Roman Gomez


David K. Randall

Support levels. Moving averages. Breakouts.

That strange language is being spoken more forcefully on Wall Street these daysIt is the language of technical trading, which is helping to drive recent wild gyrations in stock prices.

Within hours, stock prices have been leaping and falling in 300 and 400 point bursts.

Technical traders all but ignore fundamentals, such as corporate profits or expected growth rates. Instead they rely on stock-chart analyses that signal when to buy or sell the entire U.S. stock market.

In the absence of clear signs about the economy's direction, more of Wall Street is turning to technical trading. When the charts say "sell," a herd of sellers emerges, magnifying declines. If prices fall far enough, another wave of technical selling is triggered and the decline is intensified. At some point, a threshold is reached where the charts say "buy," and stock prices get whipped higher.

Kacper Pempel


Alan Posener

Er hat eine Begründung für den Abzug geliefert, die das offizielle Ende einer expansiven Epoche amerikanischer Außenpolitik darstellt, „eines Jahrzehnts des Krieges“, wie Obama in seiner Ansprache an die Nation sagte, in dem Amerika Gefahr lief, „sich zu überdehnen“ bei dem Versuch, „jedem Übel zu begegnen, das sich in Übersee finden ließ“.
Es sei Zeit, sich „auf Nation Building bei uns zu Hause zu konzentrieren“. Erst mit dieser Rede ist die neokonservative Ära endgültig vorbei. Wer darüber jubelt, könnte sich bald eines Besseren besinnen. Denn gefährlicher als der amerikanische Expansionismus ist der regelmäßig auf solche euphorischen Epochen folgende Kater des amerikanischen Isolationismus.
Was den Abzug aus Afghanistan betrifft, so geht er den Militärs zu schnell vor, dem kriegsmüden Volk zu langsam. Der Streit darüber ist aber müßig, weil der Zeitplan von etwas Wichtigerem diktiert wird als dem Schicksal Afghanistans – nämlich vom Schicksal des Präsidenten.
Bis zum Wahltermin im November 2012 wird Obama genügend Soldaten nach Hause geholt haben, um seinen Anhängern die Ernsthaftigkeit seiner Absichten zu demonstrieren, aber nicht so viele, dass Afghanistan kollabiert.

Omar Ashour

Getting “stuck in transition” is a third possible scenario, with Libya remaining in a “gray zone” – neither a fully-fledged democracy nor a dictatorship, but “semi-free.” This means regular elections, a democratic constitution, and civil society, coupled with electoral fraud, skewed representation, human rights violations, and restrictions on civil liberties. Getting stuck in transition usually kills the momentum for democratic change, and widespread corruption, weak state institutions, and lack of security serve to reinforce a myth of the “just autocrat.” Vladimir Putin’s rule in Russia illustrates this outcome.

Unfortunately, a study published in the Journal of Democracy showed that out of the 100 countries that were designated “in transition” between 1970 and 2000, only 20 became fully democratic (for example, Chile, Argentina, Poland, and Taiwan). Five relapsed into brutal dictatorships (including Uzbekistan, Algeria, Turkmenistan, and Belarus), while the rest were stuck somewhere in transition.

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Sunday, August 7, 2011

AskMen.com, Cosmopolitan.com

  • Nearly half of men questioned in the poll of 70,000 people said they would ditch a partner who gained weight, compared to only 20 percent of women.
  • Two-third of men said they had fantasized about their partner's friends, while only one-third of women had done so.
  • While only 18 percent of women said they would want their mate to be better endowed, more than 51 percent of men said they wished they themselves were.
  • 39 percent of men chose family as their top choice of the ultimate status symbol. By contrast, 43 percent of women selected a beautiful home, compared to only 6.5 percent of men. One-quarter of women named a successful partner as a top status symbol.
  • Men were more likely to lie about the number of sex partners they had had (50 percent) than women (35 percent).
  • More women, 38 percent, think each should pay their own way, versus 33 percent who think men should foot the bill. But 59 percent of men think they should cover the tab, at least until a relationship is established.
  • Nearly 80 percent of men said they feel cheated by the divorce courts. But more women feel the sexes receive equal treatment than those who agree the men get a raw deal.

Nicholson Baker

“He said, ‘We’re professionals. I know it may seem a little strange to you that we don’t have pants on.”
“I said, ‘Well, it’s not a bad thing, really.’ Then he said, ‘Uh, we’re going to have to perform a secondary. Would you like it in private or in public?’
“I said, ‘Well, what are you going to do?”
“He said, ‘Well, we have to check your tits and your nipples, make sure you’re not concealing anything in your undertit area, and we’re going to have to inspect your mouth with our dicks to be sure you’re not concealing anything in your mouth area.’ ”
“I know, and I said, ‘What the hell?’ And he said, ‘Of course we’ll perform the search very politely, with full consideration of your privacy, blah blah. But we’ll probably have to ask you to ease open your tight crotch hole so we can check what you’ve got down there, too.’ ”
“And as he said this I looked down, and his cock, which had been uninterested up till then, seemed to be doing a strange loopthe-loopy thing. It had come alive. I said, ‘Give me a break, Mr. Airport Bag Check Man.’
“And he said, ‘You know how important national security is.’ And then he called out to one of the other security guys, and the two of them took hold of my elbows and steered me into a room that said ‘Official Business Only.’ I knew I was in trouble then.”

旅チャンネル

国土は日本とほぼ同じ広さでありながら、人口は450万人しかいないノルウェー。さらに調べると、首都オスロの人口は50万人、第2都市ベルゲンが22万人と、人口が全国に分散していることがわかります。これは、地方自治体の権限や責任が大きく、大都市に集中することがないからです。地方自治体の責任で運営される学校や、環境問題に関心のある子供たちによる全国組織“環境探偵団”を取材し、ノルウェー国民の生活や取り組みを紹介します。また、氷河が溶けてできた深い谷に海水が入り込んでできたというフィヨルドへ。入り江から高い山をめがけて登るフロム鉄道に乗車し、地球が作り出した雄大な景観をたっぷりお見せします。

せきしろ, 又吉直樹

  • カキフライが無いなら来なかった
  • まさかジープで来るとは
  • 耳を澄ませて後悔する
  • 空想の中でも妥協する
  • 「ねぎし」って手もある
  • 隣に旅人が住んでいて今は居る
  • 急行が徐行している
  • 何かを成し遂げた顔で始発を待っている
  • 行けたら行くで来た例しがない
  • 拝啓の次が書けず朝
  • バイト先で二番目に面白いらしい
  • 蚊に刺されるために生きたような日だ
  • 醤油差しを倒すまでは幸せだった
  • このままでは可決されてしまう
  • ACミラン対ローソンみたいな草サッカー
  • 弱火にしたいのに消えた

戸井十月

北米、オーストラリア、アフリカ、南米と、四つの大陸を繋いできた道は、いよいよ最後の、そして最大の大陸、ユーラシアへと延びてゆきます。悪戦苦闘の挙げ句にささやかな、しかし確かな真実と希望とに出会う体験こそが旅と信じて、走り続けてきました。
旅の伴侶ホンダ・アフリカツインで、西の端から東の我が町までの4万キロの旅。ポルトガルを出発し、スペイン、フランス、イタリアを通りクロアチアへ。途中、マケドニア、イラン、トルクメニスタン、ウズベキスタン、カザフスタンを通過し、中国国境近くからモンゴル、そしてロシアへ。ロシア・ウラジオストックからは、航路で富山に戻り、東京でゴール。
言語も人種も文化も異なる20カ国、4万キロ、延べ140日を越える大紀行。

Jonathan Safran Foer

Is it anthropomorphism to try to imagine yourself into a farmed animal's cage? Is it anthropodenial not to?
The typical cage for egg-laying hens allows each sixty-seven square inches of floor space — somewhere between the size of this page and a sheet of printer paper. Such cages are stacked between three and nine tiers high — Japan has the world's highest battery cage unit, with cages stacked eighteen tiers high — in windowless sheds.
Step your mind into a crowded elevator, an elevator so crowded you cannot turn around without bumping into (and aggravating) your neighbor. The elevator is so crowded you are often held aloft.
This is a kind of blessing, as the slanted floor is made of wire, which cuts into your feet.
After some time, those in the elevator will lose their ability to work in the interest of the group. Some will become violent; others will go mad. A few, deprived of food and hope, will become cannibalistic.
There is no respite, no relief. No elevator repairman is coming. The doors will open once, at the end of your life, for your journey to the only place worse.

Tim Ingold

The proper subject of anthropology is humanity. That much is easily stated, but it is more difficult to envision how such a science of humanity should be constructed. ... To study humanity, you would say, is not just to probe the idiosyncrasies of a particular species, of one minute segment of the world of nature. It is rather to lay open for investigation that world interminably multiplied in the exuberantly creative minds and activities of people everywhere.

... The best way to demonstrate this difference is by looking at the ways in which ideas about humanity and human beings have shaped, and been shaped by, ideas about animals. For those of us reared in the tradition of Western thought, ‘human’ and ‘animal’ are terms rich in association, fraught with ambiguity, and heavily laden with both intellectual and emotional bias. From classical times to the present day, animals have figured centrally in the Western construction of ‘man’—and we might add, of Western man’s image of woman. Every generation has recreated its own view of animality as a deficiency in everything that we humans are uniquely supposed to have, including language, reason, intellect and moral conscience. And in every generation we have been reminded, as though it were some startling new discovery, that human beings are animals too, and that it is by comparison with other animals that we can best reach an understanding of ourselves.

Stephen R. L. Clark

The idea that humanity is a natural kind is implicit in a good deal of modern moral and political practice, and in anthropological and archaeological inquiry. I argue in the first section that biological species are not natural kinds, and in the second section that we therefore cannot rely upon the claim that 'humankind is all one species' to validate our political or anthropological assumptions. The third section suggests that two possibilities are open to us. Either we must acknowledge that we are individual organisms having largely unpredictable similarities with or differences from other creatures, that we cannot take it for granted that all tool- makers or all artists will also have other familiar 'human' or 'personal' characteristics, and that there is no essential or puzzling difference between (say) 'domestication' and 'slavery'. Alternatively, we must insist that the natural kind of 'persons' is a Platonic. Form, and not to be identified with the biological taxon of 'human beings'.

大杉栄

... コロメルの宛名の、フランス無政府主義同盟機関『ル・リベルテエル』社のあるところは、パリの、しかもブウルヴァル・ド・ベルヴィル(強いて翻訳すれば「美しい町の通り」)というのだ。
... もっとも両側の家だけは五階六階七階の高い家だが、そのすすけた汚なさは、ちょっとお話にならない。自動車で走るんだからよくは分らないが、店だって何だか汚ならしいものばかり売っている。そして通りの真中の広い歩道が、道一ぱいに汚ならしいテントの小舎がけがあって、そこをまた日本ではとても見られないような汚ならしい風の野蛮人見たいな顔をした人間がうじゃうじゃと通っている。市場なのだ。そとからは店の様子はちょっと見えないが、みな朝の買物らしく、大きな袋にキャベツだのジャガ芋だの大きなパンの棒だのを入れて歩いている。
... その本屋の店にはいると、やはりおもてにいるのと同じような風や顔の人間が七、八人、何かガヤガヤと怒鳴るような口調でしゃべっていた。
... ふり返って見ると、まだ若い、しかし日本人にしてもせいの低い、色の大して白くない、唇の大きくて厚い、ただ目だけがぱっちりと大きく開いているほかにあんまり西洋人らしくない女だ。風もその辺で見る野蛮人と別に変りはない。
... 毛唐と野蛮人とのあいの子のようなけったいな女がはいって来て、 ...
... 黒ん坊の野蛮人が戦争している看板があげてあって、 ...
... そこへうじょうじょと、日本人よりも顔も風もきたないような人間が、ちょっと歩けないほどに寄って来る。実際僕はヨーロッパへ来たと言うよりもむしろ、どこかの野蛮国へ行ったような気がした。

Friday, August 5, 2011

Ben Miller, Phuong Ly

On the surface, a peaceful university campus can seem like a vital asset to the community. But a university with an 87 percent dropout rate is a service to no one. And chronically dysfunctional organizations can be very difficult to change. There is no reason that states can’t quickly build newer, better, more cost-effective public universities to educate people who are currently stuck in college dropout factories. No university, regardless of historical legacies or sunk cost, is worth the price being exacted from thousands of students who leave in despair. The sooner we acknowledge that, the better off those students—and the rest of us—will be.

John DeVore

America's institutions of higher learning are the envy of the world. These highly-competitive smart people factories attract the best minds from other countries, not to mention the brightest our country has to offer.

This shouldn't come as a surprise, of course. The right degree from the right school can create enormous opportunities for those who crack the books. Plus, in this economy, it's increasingly difficult to find any kind of work without a degree, even from smaller and more humble schools.

To be fair though, American universities also produce their fair share of total dumba#@'s, from moronic school administrators, to thoughtless professors and the stupid students they attempt to teach. It seems only right that an environment dedicated to improving the human mind would also, partly, help tear that mind down.

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Congress Hotel Central

г. Нижний Новгород
Конгресс отель Центральный

Arturas Zuokas

It seems a tank is the best solution.

The mayor of Vilnius, capital of Lithuania, photographed the car before returning grinning atop an armored personnel carrier, which he used to drive over the Mercedes, crushing it. After the car had been destroyed, its "owner," clad in a white shirt and gold chain, emerged from a shop across the street with a look of utter shock on his face. The Mayor then proceeded to shake his hand, chastised him for poor parking, and swept up broken glass as the demolished car was towed away.

Michael Riley

Hackers based in China spent five years ransacking the computer networks of the United Nations, multinational corporations, the Olympic committees of several countries and the U.S. and Canadian governments, two security companies said.

In one of the largest cyberattacks discovered, more than 72 organizations were hacked by spies beginning in 2006, according to computer server logs and other evidence obtained by Santa Clara's McAfee Inc.

The attack has been traced to servers in at least two of China's major cities, Beijing and Shanghai, according to Dell SecureWorks, which separately traced the same series of attacks.

RIA Novosti

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Siobhan

A good friend of mine sent this to me this morning, and I thought I would pass it along. I completely agree, and it’s well worth remembering for those of you that feel guilty when indulging in time with your girlfriends. Which, by the way, I never do! Thanks to all my girlfriends, all over the world, for all the laughs and good times we’ve shared.
“I just finished taking an evening class at Stanford. The last lecture was on the mind-body connection – the relationship between stress and disease. The speaker (head of psychiatry at Stanford) said, among other things, that one of the best things that a man could do for his health is to be married to a woman whereas for a woman, one of the best things she could do for her health was to nurture her relationships with her girlfriends. At first everyone laughed, but he was serious.
Women connect with each other differently and provide support systems that help each other to deal with stress and difficult life experiences. Physically this quality “girlfriend time” helps us to create more serotonin – a neurotransmitter that helps combat depression and can create a general feeling of well being. Women share feelings whereas men often form relationships around activities. They rarely sit down with a buddy and talk about how they feel about certain things or how their personal lives are going. Jobs? Yes. Sports? Yes. Cars? Yes. Fishing, hunting, golf? Yes. But their feelings? Rarely.
Women do it all of the time. ...”

Monday, August 1, 2011

薛克智

从现代性的观点看,人性是有缺陷的,技术是有缺陷的,制度也是有缺陷的。但无论如何,生命的尊严不可亵渎,幸福的追寻还要继续。如何有效消解民众对技术理性的心理崇拜,注重对高科技的预警和控制,如何防范权力与资本的联姻作祟,如何坚持以人为本,创新和加强社会管理,于今不仅极为重要,且甚为必要。

Людмила Клот

От трехсот рабочих мест откажется в ближайшие годы Всемирная организация здравоохранения. Международный комитет Красного Креста – от более тридцати. Из-за роста курса швейцарской валюты большинство международных организаций в Швейцарии, чьи бюджеты спланированы в евро или в долларах, переживают сложные времена.

L'Organisation Mondiale de la Santé va supprimer prochainement près de 300 emplois, le Comité international de la Croix-Rouge se privera d'une trentaine de collaborateurs. La force du franc suisse détruit les budgets de nombreuses organisations internationales en Suisse, rédigés traditionnellement en dollars et en euros.

Lois P. Frankel, Carol Frohlinger

If you often feel invisible, taken advantage of, treated less than respectfully, or at a loss for how to get the things you most want in life — join the club. The nice girls club, that is. Nice girls are women who hold themselves back in life by conforming to the stereotypical behaviors they’ve been socialized to believe are necessary for survival.
These are women who unwittingly sabotage relationships — in their romantic lives, with family members, at work, or with just about anyone else — and, as a result, fail to get the things they want most out of life. As women, we’re bombarded throughout our lives with messages that try to convince us that being "nice" is more important than getting the things we want. Even if no one has ever said this to you explicitly, we’re guessing you’ve most likely absorbed the message that putting your needs first will land you on the "bitch list."

Jon Berkeley

United States Office of Strategic Services

His (Hitler's) primary rules were: never allow the public to cool off; never admit a fault or wrong; never concede that there may be some good in your enemy; never leave room for alternatives; never accept blame; concentrate on one enemy at a time and blame him for everything that goes wrong; people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; and if you repeat it frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it.

Adolf Hitler

All this was inspired by the principle--which is quite true within itself--that in the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility; because the broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily; and thus in the primitive simplicity of their minds they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie, since they themselves often tell small lies in little matters but would be ashamed to resort to large-scale falsehoods. It would never come into their heads to fabricate colossal untruths, and they would not believe that others could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously. Even though the facts which prove this to be so may be brought clearly to their minds, they will still doubt and waver and will continue to think that there may be some other explanation. For the grossly impudent lie always leaves traces behind it, even after it has been nailed down, a fact which is known to all expert liars in this world and to all who conspire together in the art of lying.