Comments on "Tide Players" - The Movers and Shakers of a Rising China by Jianying Zha
In the "Epilogue" to her book Jianying Zha, who was born in 1960, quotes from an earlier book that she wrote in 1995, "Tiananmen may represent the tragic last gasp of the radical, revolutionary approach to changing China. The currant path requires its own human toll and a good deal of compromise and deferment. Yet many believe that, in the long run, this way of change will bring more substantial gains at a lower cost of human sacrifice."
She also writes about books by other authors with titles such as, "Farewell, Revolution" and "Farewell, Mao Zedong". In this book Jianying Zha also writes, "Gradual, incremental adjustment rather than drastic change is the wiser and probably fairer way to go". {Actually, she was refering to the world wide financial crises in 2008.}
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Experimental Blog #65
Comments on "The Story of Britain" - From the Romans to the Present: A Narrative History by Rebecca Fraser
Rebecca Fraser begins her almost 800 page book on over 2000 years of the history of Britain with the Romans, and Julius Caesar, in particular. However, she goes on to say, not quite clearly or consistently, that Neolithic people had already arrived in Britain around 3000 BC, and that Bronze Age people arrived around 1900 BC; and either one or the other built "Stonehenge." Around 1000 BC came the Iron Age Celtic people. After the extensive Roman settlement, which lasted in excess of 400 years, came the Anglo-Saxon invasions; and then the Viking raids and invasions.
The Norman invasion was the last invasion of Britain and after the victory at the "Battle of Hastings" in 1066 AD William I became the first Norman and Angevin king of Britain. The last of these 7 kings was King John, who, in 1215, was forced by his nobles to accept the "Magna Carta", that somewhat limited the absolute rule of the King. However, the "Magna Carta" was frequently ignored by at least several subsequent monarchs. The 5 Plantagenet kings reigned from 1216 to 1399. Geoffrey Chaucer lived during this dynasty.
The Plantagenet dynasty, or House, was replaced by the Houses of Lancaster and York whose 6 kings reigned until 1485. The "Wars of the Roses" occurred between these 2 "Houses" in the last 30 years of this period. Then came the "House of Tudor" with 3 kings, including the Protestant Reformation king Henry VIII and his mostly tragic 6 wives, and 2 queens, ending with one of Britain's most famous monarchs, Queen Elizabeth I. William Shakespeare lived 10 years beyond the "House of Tudor" into the "House of Stuart".
The "House of Stuart" lasted from 1603 to 1714 with an 18 year interruption of the Civil War and Puritan Commonwealth and Protectorate, whose most remembered, but not only, historical figure was Oliver Cromwell. Samuel Pepys lived during this time and described the Great Plague, the London Fire, and the Restoration of Charles II in his diaries. The period of the "House of Stuart" also produced large numbers of people moving across the Atlantic Ocean to establish colonies in America. There were 5 kings and 2 queens in the "House of Stuart."
The "House of Hanover" had 5 kings, including 4 Georges, and 1 queen, and lasted from 1714 to 1901. This was a very revolutionary epoch in British and European history. Parliament became more and more powerful, and the dominating political party with its Prime Minister and other ministers took over more and more control of the government. At the end of the 19th century there seemed to be an almost overwhelming belief in social progress.
In the 20th century a great many things happened, of course, including, it seems, the apparent influence of sympathizers, imitators, and outright spies for fascists and Nazis on one side, and communists on the other side. Britain established the "welfare state", or "English Socialism," with its "cradle to grave security." However, in the 1980s along came Margaret Thatcher, who was a radically conservative Tory, but very popular nonetheless. As Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher embarked on a furious campaign to root out from Britain all of this "English Socialism", Marxism, Leninism, Trotskyism. And she was remarkably successful, in spite of herself. For instance, she was known to say something like, "there is no society." Perhaps society sounded too much like socialism to her. However, Margaret Thatcher has since been replaced, and life continues to go on in its usual way, more or less, in Britain.
Rebecca Fraser begins her almost 800 page book on over 2000 years of the history of Britain with the Romans, and Julius Caesar, in particular. However, she goes on to say, not quite clearly or consistently, that Neolithic people had already arrived in Britain around 3000 BC, and that Bronze Age people arrived around 1900 BC; and either one or the other built "Stonehenge." Around 1000 BC came the Iron Age Celtic people. After the extensive Roman settlement, which lasted in excess of 400 years, came the Anglo-Saxon invasions; and then the Viking raids and invasions.
The Norman invasion was the last invasion of Britain and after the victory at the "Battle of Hastings" in 1066 AD William I became the first Norman and Angevin king of Britain. The last of these 7 kings was King John, who, in 1215, was forced by his nobles to accept the "Magna Carta", that somewhat limited the absolute rule of the King. However, the "Magna Carta" was frequently ignored by at least several subsequent monarchs. The 5 Plantagenet kings reigned from 1216 to 1399. Geoffrey Chaucer lived during this dynasty.
The Plantagenet dynasty, or House, was replaced by the Houses of Lancaster and York whose 6 kings reigned until 1485. The "Wars of the Roses" occurred between these 2 "Houses" in the last 30 years of this period. Then came the "House of Tudor" with 3 kings, including the Protestant Reformation king Henry VIII and his mostly tragic 6 wives, and 2 queens, ending with one of Britain's most famous monarchs, Queen Elizabeth I. William Shakespeare lived 10 years beyond the "House of Tudor" into the "House of Stuart".
The "House of Stuart" lasted from 1603 to 1714 with an 18 year interruption of the Civil War and Puritan Commonwealth and Protectorate, whose most remembered, but not only, historical figure was Oliver Cromwell. Samuel Pepys lived during this time and described the Great Plague, the London Fire, and the Restoration of Charles II in his diaries. The period of the "House of Stuart" also produced large numbers of people moving across the Atlantic Ocean to establish colonies in America. There were 5 kings and 2 queens in the "House of Stuart."
The "House of Hanover" had 5 kings, including 4 Georges, and 1 queen, and lasted from 1714 to 1901. This was a very revolutionary epoch in British and European history. Parliament became more and more powerful, and the dominating political party with its Prime Minister and other ministers took over more and more control of the government. At the end of the 19th century there seemed to be an almost overwhelming belief in social progress.
In the 20th century a great many things happened, of course, including, it seems, the apparent influence of sympathizers, imitators, and outright spies for fascists and Nazis on one side, and communists on the other side. Britain established the "welfare state", or "English Socialism," with its "cradle to grave security." However, in the 1980s along came Margaret Thatcher, who was a radically conservative Tory, but very popular nonetheless. As Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher embarked on a furious campaign to root out from Britain all of this "English Socialism", Marxism, Leninism, Trotskyism. And she was remarkably successful, in spite of herself. For instance, she was known to say something like, "there is no society." Perhaps society sounded too much like socialism to her. However, Margaret Thatcher has since been replaced, and life continues to go on in its usual way, more or less, in Britain.
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Experimental Blog #64
Comments on the books "Liberty's Exiles" - American Loyalists in the Revolutionary World and
"Edge of Empire" - Lives, Culture, and Conquest in the East by Maya Jasanoff
Benedict Arnold returned to North America, Saint John, New Brunswick, to pursue "what he hoped would be a profitable commercial career." Apparently, before he did that he remarried, and he and his wife, Margaret Shippen, had 3 children, named Edward, Sophia, and George. All three of their children eventually went to India, and a Benedict Arnold's "half-Indian granddaughter", named Louisa Harriet Arnold, some years later went to Ireland and eventually "married a British architect in 1845."
This book, "Liberty's Exiles," also describes the ambiguous and early turbulent history of the founding and early developement of Freetown in Sierra Leone in 1792 by British sponsors for, and by, former American slaves, mostly from Birchtown and other places in Nova Scotia.
The scope of what is actually Maya Jasanoff's first book, "Edge of Empire", is quite vast and covers many very interesting histories of English and French imperial expansion, competition, and conflict in India, Egypt, and other places, mostly in the "East." Many of these many people and events, in spite of their great impact on the world, might be little, or even completely unknown to most Americans.
"Edge of Empire" - Lives, Culture, and Conquest in the East by Maya Jasanoff
Benedict Arnold returned to North America, Saint John, New Brunswick, to pursue "what he hoped would be a profitable commercial career." Apparently, before he did that he remarried, and he and his wife, Margaret Shippen, had 3 children, named Edward, Sophia, and George. All three of their children eventually went to India, and a Benedict Arnold's "half-Indian granddaughter", named Louisa Harriet Arnold, some years later went to Ireland and eventually "married a British architect in 1845."
This book, "Liberty's Exiles," also describes the ambiguous and early turbulent history of the founding and early developement of Freetown in Sierra Leone in 1792 by British sponsors for, and by, former American slaves, mostly from Birchtown and other places in Nova Scotia.
The scope of what is actually Maya Jasanoff's first book, "Edge of Empire", is quite vast and covers many very interesting histories of English and French imperial expansion, competition, and conflict in India, Egypt, and other places, mostly in the "East." Many of these many people and events, in spite of their great impact on the world, might be little, or even completely unknown to most Americans.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Experimental Blog #63
Comments on "The Tell-Tale Brain - A Neuroscientist's Quest for What Makes Us Human"
by V S Ramachandran
This author, and others, say that our human brains are "made up" of about 100 billion nerve cells, and he goes on to say that the "number of permutations" of the connections, or synapes, between the nerve cells leads to a "possible number of brain states" that "easily exceeds the number of elementary particles in the known universe." So, doesn't it seem that no matter how much we learn about our brains, we will not very likely understand them?
However, a large part of V S Ramachandran's book is based on many elaborations of the significance of what are called "mirror neurons."
The author also writes some of his most interesting paragraphs in his book explaining the roughly 1000 year old Hindoo sculptures that he says have been unjustly criticized and underappreciated by "Westerners."
In contrast perhaps, more than once Ramachandran mentions "sightings" of Elvis Presley and Richard Nixon's nose and bushy eyebrows. Some scientifically questionable remarks, this is supposed to be a scientific book, include; "folie a deux, in which two people, such as Bush and Cheney, share each other's madness," and "An autistic child may be...still..capable of other abstract distinctions {such as "What's the difference between a Democrat and a Republican, other than IQ?"}.
The only respect or appreciation for religion, or religious ideas, that the author expresses seem to be for Hinduism, although he never uses the words Hindoo or Hinduism.
V S Ramachandran only once refers to Temple Grandin, as "the famous high-functioning autist and writer.." He does not say what she is famous for, but besides designing better and very widely used slaughterhouses, Temple Grandin is well known for her very exceptional writing about animals and some aspects of psychiatry, such as the long term consequences of chemotherapy.
It was a little bit alarming to read that V S Ramachandran hopes that "someday" he will meet a patient with a certain kind of brain damage that is caused by a stroke in a certain part of their brain, so that he can test one of his hypotheses.
by V S Ramachandran
This author, and others, say that our human brains are "made up" of about 100 billion nerve cells, and he goes on to say that the "number of permutations" of the connections, or synapes, between the nerve cells leads to a "possible number of brain states" that "easily exceeds the number of elementary particles in the known universe." So, doesn't it seem that no matter how much we learn about our brains, we will not very likely understand them?
However, a large part of V S Ramachandran's book is based on many elaborations of the significance of what are called "mirror neurons."
The author also writes some of his most interesting paragraphs in his book explaining the roughly 1000 year old Hindoo sculptures that he says have been unjustly criticized and underappreciated by "Westerners."
In contrast perhaps, more than once Ramachandran mentions "sightings" of Elvis Presley and Richard Nixon's nose and bushy eyebrows. Some scientifically questionable remarks, this is supposed to be a scientific book, include; "folie a deux, in which two people, such as Bush and Cheney, share each other's madness," and "An autistic child may be...still..capable of other abstract distinctions {such as "What's the difference between a Democrat and a Republican, other than IQ?"}.
The only respect or appreciation for religion, or religious ideas, that the author expresses seem to be for Hinduism, although he never uses the words Hindoo or Hinduism.
V S Ramachandran only once refers to Temple Grandin, as "the famous high-functioning autist and writer.." He does not say what she is famous for, but besides designing better and very widely used slaughterhouses, Temple Grandin is well known for her very exceptional writing about animals and some aspects of psychiatry, such as the long term consequences of chemotherapy.
It was a little bit alarming to read that V S Ramachandran hopes that "someday" he will meet a patient with a certain kind of brain damage that is caused by a stroke in a certain part of their brain, so that he can test one of his hypotheses.
Friday, March 4, 2011
Experimental Blog #62
Comments on "The Philosophical Breakfast Club" - Four Remarkable Friends Who Transformed Science and Changed the World by Laura J Snyder
The author of this book, Laura J Snyder, a professor of philosophy, seems to have a complete understanding of all the scientific developements that occurred during the very scientifically revolutionary 19th century.
In her book Laura Snyder concentrates on the four principal English natural philosophers, later called scientists, William Whewell, John Herschel, Charles Babbage, and Richard Jones. However, the author is very familiar with all the other previous principal natural philosophers; most importantly, Isaac Newton and Francis Bacon, who is credited with redefining scientific study from its ancient Aristotelian origins into modern empirical forms.
Laura Snyder also gives very thorough, synthesizing, and instructive accounts of the works and influences of Charles Darwin, Michael Faraday, Charles Lyell, Thomas Robert Malthus, David Ricardo, and James Clerk Maxwell; to name only a few of the many others.
The author of this book, Laura J Snyder, a professor of philosophy, seems to have a complete understanding of all the scientific developements that occurred during the very scientifically revolutionary 19th century.
In her book Laura Snyder concentrates on the four principal English natural philosophers, later called scientists, William Whewell, John Herschel, Charles Babbage, and Richard Jones. However, the author is very familiar with all the other previous principal natural philosophers; most importantly, Isaac Newton and Francis Bacon, who is credited with redefining scientific study from its ancient Aristotelian origins into modern empirical forms.
Laura Snyder also gives very thorough, synthesizing, and instructive accounts of the works and influences of Charles Darwin, Michael Faraday, Charles Lyell, Thomas Robert Malthus, David Ricardo, and James Clerk Maxwell; to name only a few of the many others.
Friday, February 25, 2011
Experimental Blog #61
Comments on "Odessa - Genius and Death in a City of Dreams" by Charles King
They say that history should not be forgotten; so, the city of Odessa in today's Ukraine was founded during the reign of Catherine the Great in 1794, about 3 years after Washington, D.C. However, there was already a Tartar village at that site, which was named Khadjibey, whose origins are obscure, but the village of Khadjibey first appears in written sources in the early 1400s. The Tartar and Cossack inhabitants of Khadjibey became Ottoman subjects in the early 1500s.
By the beginning of the First World War the population of Odessa was around 650 thousand people, who were classified as about 39% Russian, 36% Jewish, and 17% Ukrainian, in spite of viscious pogroms and considerable emmigration of Jews in the earlier years of the century.
During the Second World War the "Responsibility for the Holocaust in Odessa and Transnistria rested squarely with Romania, the only country ... besides Nazi Germany to administer a major Soviet city. By the end of the war the Romanians had largely emptied Odessa of what remained of its Jewish population. One of Europe's greatest centers of Jewish life and culture had become, in the language of the Nazis, almost wholly judenrein."
In writing about the high numbers of collaborators the author further says that, "An urban population practised in unmasking class traitors, exposing the wreckers of socialism, and rooting out enemies of the people easily transferred those techniques to uncovering secret Jews."
Nonetheless, "Odessa was one of the first four Soviet cities ... to be awarded the title Gorod-Geroi, or "hero city."
They say that history should not be forgotten; so, the city of Odessa in today's Ukraine was founded during the reign of Catherine the Great in 1794, about 3 years after Washington, D.C. However, there was already a Tartar village at that site, which was named Khadjibey, whose origins are obscure, but the village of Khadjibey first appears in written sources in the early 1400s. The Tartar and Cossack inhabitants of Khadjibey became Ottoman subjects in the early 1500s.
By the beginning of the First World War the population of Odessa was around 650 thousand people, who were classified as about 39% Russian, 36% Jewish, and 17% Ukrainian, in spite of viscious pogroms and considerable emmigration of Jews in the earlier years of the century.
During the Second World War the "Responsibility for the Holocaust in Odessa and Transnistria rested squarely with Romania, the only country ... besides Nazi Germany to administer a major Soviet city. By the end of the war the Romanians had largely emptied Odessa of what remained of its Jewish population. One of Europe's greatest centers of Jewish life and culture had become, in the language of the Nazis, almost wholly judenrein."
In writing about the high numbers of collaborators the author further says that, "An urban population practised in unmasking class traitors, exposing the wreckers of socialism, and rooting out enemies of the people easily transferred those techniques to uncovering secret Jews."
Nonetheless, "Odessa was one of the first four Soviet cities ... to be awarded the title Gorod-Geroi, or "hero city."
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Experimental Blog #60
Comments on 2 books
"The Last Speakers" - The Quest to Save the World's Most Endangered Languages by K. David Harrison
In spite of the author's tendency to harangue, especially in the last chapters of this National Geographic book, "The Last Speakers" is very interesting and informative.
The author says that there are about 7000 languages being used in the world today, but isn't it true that over 90% of all the people in the world speak less than 100 languages?
Many people sooner or later realize that it is very worthwhile for various reasons to know more than one language, maybe even 3 or 4, and even knowing 3 or 4 languages is not extremely rare. How many "literary languages" are there in the world? Two dozen? Two hundred? Five hundred? People will always study those languages.
For the remaining 6500 languages, the best way to preserve many of them, probably, is for someone to write an interesting book in that language, such as "The History and/or Culture of These People" or, perhaps an autobiography.
Why be so gloomy and talk about a language, or even 1000s of languages being "doomed" to extinction? Won't people continue to do what they have always done? That is, won't they continue to make of their human speech, or their language, whatever they need or want to do?
"Andrew Johnson" by Annette Gordon-Reed
Although this author, Annette Gordon-Reed, takes a very standard liberal political view, her book on Andrew Johnson is certainly one of the more interesting books in this somewhat controversial series of political histories of American presidents.
Political history is almost by definition abstract. All the actually living people become "players", as if on the "stage of history." They lose their "human sides" and tend to become "black and white" "stick" or "cardboard figures."
None the less, maybe something like the still popular "Civil War" reenactments for some people, reading about and seeming to observe or witness these political "players" can be both enjoyable and thought provoking.
Andrew Johnson himself may have been a very "spellbinding" extemporaneous speaker; which is not always such a good thing, but he left very little original writing, and the author, and other historians say, nothing of high quality. That seems to be the main reason why he is rated so low by most historians and almost overlooked altogether. He also seems to have inconsistently "talked out of both sides of his mouth", the author says, or changed sides too many times. Or is this a "too unkind evaluation"?
"The Last Speakers" - The Quest to Save the World's Most Endangered Languages by K. David Harrison
In spite of the author's tendency to harangue, especially in the last chapters of this National Geographic book, "The Last Speakers" is very interesting and informative.
The author says that there are about 7000 languages being used in the world today, but isn't it true that over 90% of all the people in the world speak less than 100 languages?
Many people sooner or later realize that it is very worthwhile for various reasons to know more than one language, maybe even 3 or 4, and even knowing 3 or 4 languages is not extremely rare. How many "literary languages" are there in the world? Two dozen? Two hundred? Five hundred? People will always study those languages.
For the remaining 6500 languages, the best way to preserve many of them, probably, is for someone to write an interesting book in that language, such as "The History and/or Culture of These People" or, perhaps an autobiography.
Why be so gloomy and talk about a language, or even 1000s of languages being "doomed" to extinction? Won't people continue to do what they have always done? That is, won't they continue to make of their human speech, or their language, whatever they need or want to do?
"Andrew Johnson" by Annette Gordon-Reed
Although this author, Annette Gordon-Reed, takes a very standard liberal political view, her book on Andrew Johnson is certainly one of the more interesting books in this somewhat controversial series of political histories of American presidents.
Political history is almost by definition abstract. All the actually living people become "players", as if on the "stage of history." They lose their "human sides" and tend to become "black and white" "stick" or "cardboard figures."
None the less, maybe something like the still popular "Civil War" reenactments for some people, reading about and seeming to observe or witness these political "players" can be both enjoyable and thought provoking.
Andrew Johnson himself may have been a very "spellbinding" extemporaneous speaker; which is not always such a good thing, but he left very little original writing, and the author, and other historians say, nothing of high quality. That seems to be the main reason why he is rated so low by most historians and almost overlooked altogether. He also seems to have inconsistently "talked out of both sides of his mouth", the author says, or changed sides too many times. Or is this a "too unkind evaluation"?
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