2013/5/16

Three Word Phrase - House

As a child, I always thought it remarkable that no matter how fast we drove home at night, the moon kept pace with our mini-van. Little did I realize there is a shadow yet more stealthy: the shadow of the self. You travel to the Sun thinking, “Oh, here I’ll really be happy. Every day will be sunny!” But like Jonah in Tarshish, there’s no escaping the natural imperative at the heart of things. You drink a soda; you look out the window; but all the while, you are always you.

Three Word Phrase - House

As a child, I always thought it remarkable that no matter how fast we drove home at night, the moon kept pace with our mini-van. Little did I realize there is a shadow yet more stealthy: the shadow of the self. You travel to the Sun thinking, “Oh, here I’ll really be happy. Every day will be sunny!” But like Jonah in Tarshish, there’s no escaping the natural imperative at the heart of things. You drink a soda; you look out the window; but all the while, you are always you.

2013/5/15

Takako Minekawa & Dustin Wong - Party on a Floating Cake

From Takako’s new album, Toropical Circle. Crank this jam, and it’s officially outer space.

Anamanaguchi - Planet

From their new hot album, Endless Fantasy. Crank this jam, and it’s officially summer.

2013/5/13

A Softer World - and get a haircut. a rebellious one.

Shorter Heidegger.

2013/5/12

Why? I can’t help asking. Why did a happy, peaceful occasion like the marathon have to be trampled on in such an awful, bloody way? Although the perpetrators have been identified, the answer to that question is still unclear. But their hatred and depravity have mangled our hearts and our minds. Even if we were to get an answer, it likely wouldn’t help.

To overcome this kind of trauma takes time, time during which we need to look ahead positively. Hiding the wounds, or searching for a dramatic cure, won’t lead to any real solution. Seeking revenge won’t bring relief, either. We need to remember the wounds, never turn our gaze away from the pain, and—honestly, conscientiously, quietly—accumulate our own histories. It may take time, but time is our ally.

Haruki Murakami - Boston, from One Citizen of the World Who Calls Himself a Runner

Laugh-Out-Loud Cats #2217

虛空無背面、
鳥道絕東西。

In the vast inane there is no back or front ;
the path of the bird annihilates East and West.

— Zenrinkushū 禅林句集 tr. R.H. Blyth
Laugh-Out-Loud Cats #2217

虛空無背面、
鳥道絕東西。

In the vast inane there is no back or front ;
the path of the bird annihilates East and West.

Zenrinkushū 禅林句集 tr. R.H. Blyth

2013/4/30

Laugh-Out-Loud Cats #2254

In theory, it’s simple.

Identify problem.
Identify tools available to fix problem.
Apply tools to problem, fixing it (sometimes, if lucky).
In practice, however, I have a persistent habit of following this procedure:

Become aware of a cool new tool.
Apply tool to nothing, noodling around.
Identify problem solved by tool (sometimes, if lucky).
I’m not the only one with this problem, of course. Indeed, the difference between human intelligence and machine intelligence is that humans have the ability to not just solve a problem but create new problems to solve. One can hardly imagine a history of music that doesn’t start with kids noodling on guitars and only occasionally becoming fortunate enough to turn into the Ramones or whatever. Still, in philosophy it can be particularly dangerous: “Here’s a wonderfully elegant theory. Let’s mutilate reality until it fits the theory!”

Laugh-Out-Loud Cats #2254

In theory, it’s simple.

  1. Identify problem.
  2. Identify tools available to fix problem.
  3. Apply tools to problem, fixing it (sometimes, if lucky).

In practice, however, I have a persistent habit of following this procedure:

  1. Become aware of a cool new tool.
  2. Apply tool to nothing, noodling around.
  3. Identify problem solved by tool (sometimes, if lucky).

I’m not the only one with this problem, of course. Indeed, the difference between human intelligence and machine intelligence is that humans have the ability to not just solve a problem but create new problems to solve. One can hardly imagine a history of music that doesn’t start with kids noodling on guitars and only occasionally becoming fortunate enough to turn into the Ramones or whatever. Still, in philosophy it can be particularly dangerous: “Here’s a wonderfully elegant theory. Let’s mutilate reality until it fits the theory!

2013/4/26

2013/4/23

The important security issue isn’t convicting Dzhokhar but finding out what he knows that might prevent a future attack or break up a terror network. This is where naming him an enemy combatant would be useful. Such a designation allows for extensive, long-term interrogation without a lawyer. Especially because President Obama has barred enhanced-interrogation techniques, such long-term psychological pressure can be crucial to learning if the brothers worked with anyone else, if they received terrorist training, and more.

Wall Street Journal - Enemy Combatants in Boston

I have difficulty expressing how much disgust and loathing I feel towards the views expressed in this article. A major America newspaper and several sitting Senators are calling for the torture of a 19-year old boy because they are too scared of terrorists, but these same spineless cowards tell us that requiring gun licenses (which is plainly consistent with the “well ordered militia” clause of the Second Amendment) would be an impermissible infringement of liberty. Sickening. If anyone listens to these snakes, democracy is as good as dead. (Via AmeCon)

2013/4/10

The report explains in one of its most interesting sections that Bowdoin made a fateful decision in 1970 to replace the old core curriculum with loose distribution requirements. Since then, what Bowdoin teaches has been determined by institutional happenstance and student choice rather than any substantive vision of the knowledge and skills worthy of a human being.

The consequences of this self-inflicted wound are not limited to the loss of intellectual coherence. Although its cultured despisers often miss this point, the old-fashioned curriculum was also egalitarian in a way the cafeteria model of course selection is not. With the assistance of responsible advisors (which is not a given, but by no means uncommon), students who graduate from private schools and top public high schools with strong basic skills and cultural literacy can usually design a fine course of study for themselves.

It is much more difficult for students who never received a true college- preparatory education. Since professors trained in specialized research are often reluctant to teach introductory classes or cultivate the rudiments of reading, writing, and quantitative reasoning, these students can easily get lost intellectually and socially. In effect, if not in intention, the cafeteria curriculum is a concealed mechanism for the reproduction of privilege. Under the cover of freedom, it offers the greatest advantage to students who already understand the system.

Samuel Goldman - How Not to Defend the Liberal Arts (Here in Hawaii, the teaching of grammar in public schools is irregular because many students speak pidgin at home. Of course, this doesn’t mean that pidgin is any more accepted outside of the schools. It just means that students who speak it at home will never be given a chance to escape the stigma.)

Nedroid Picture Diary - Spring Clean

The past is a foreign country where they have pizza parties.

Nedroid Picture Diary - Spring Clean

The past is a foreign country where they have pizza parties.

2013/3/13

American Conservative - Philosopher of Love

Here’s a quote that will drive Mike up the wall with its vagueness:

Schindler is a relentlessly metaphysical philosopher. Over the last four
decades he has developed a distinctive view of being, and it is in these
metaphysical reflections that his theology of culture is based.

To live well, Schindler argues, is to live in a way that is proper to our
being. Conversely, when a misapprehension of being structures our thinking and
actions, we experience unhappiness, brokenness, and poverty in its deepest
sense—the absence of meaning. He believes that the modern liberal project from
Descartes to Rawls is based on a radical misunderstanding of the nature of
reality.

Specifically, liberalism fails to apprehend that “love is the basic act and
order of things.” Love brings all there is into existence, it is through love
that all there is continues in existence, and it is for love that all things
exist. Reality is in this sense triadic: all things are in, through, and
for love. Being might therefore be said to be an order or “logic” of love.

This is an article about David L. Schindler, but it reminds me that his son, David C. Schindler, wrote one of the best books I’ve ever read: Plato’s Critique of Impure Reason: On Goodness and Truth in the Republic. I don’t know if Schindler père as good a philosopher as Schindler fils, but if the apple fell in the general vicinity of the tree, he cannot be that bad.

American Conservative - Philosopher of Love

Here’s a quote that will drive Mike up the wall with its vagueness:

Schindler is a relentlessly metaphysical philosopher. Over the last four decades he has developed a distinctive view of being, and it is in these metaphysical reflections that his theology of culture is based.

To live well, Schindler argues, is to live in a way that is proper to our being. Conversely, when a misapprehension of being structures our thinking and actions, we experience unhappiness, brokenness, and poverty in its deepest sense—the absence of meaning. He believes that the modern liberal project from Descartes to Rawls is based on a radical misunderstanding of the nature of reality.

Specifically, liberalism fails to apprehend that “love is the basic act and order of things.” Love brings all there is into existence, it is through love that all there is continues in existence, and it is for love that all things exist. Reality is in this sense triadic: all things are in, through, and for love. Being might therefore be said to be an order or “logic” of love.

This is an article about David L. Schindler, but it reminds me that his son, David C. Schindler, wrote one of the best books I’ve ever read: Plato’s Critique of Impure Reason: On Goodness and Truth in the Republic. I don’t know if Schindler père as good a philosopher as Schindler fils, but if the apple fell in the general vicinity of the tree, he cannot be that bad.

Laugh-Out-Loud Cats #2214

As usual, Laugh-Out-Loud Cats is the most Daoist comic imaginable.

Laugh-Out-Loud Cats #2214

As usual, Laugh-Out-Loud Cats is the most Daoist comic imaginable.