A Collection of Random Thoughts of the Day
3 or 4 thoughts as I cruise the web...
Did Chinese cyber-militias knock out the US power grid? Everyone and their brother is posting about it today, but I remember reading about it in Dragon Strike, a fictional "what if?" account back in 99' and they can not have been the first to think about such issues. It seems everywhere people are thinking first strike = win. Unfortunately, as anyone who has ever tried to invade Russia knows, you can first strike till the cows come home, but that doesn't mean you're going to emerge the victor. I'm seeing this attitude, and similar parallels, being drawn with the olympics as well - though this does herald back to a question I asked many months ago - namely what do you do once you've won? I've picked up on the inability to answer that question from interviews with soldiers back in the 30's.
Zhongnanhai is talking about learning Chinese and wonders if it is a prerequisite for understanding Chinese culture. To some extent yes - you can't laugh at a joke unless you understand the word play going on. However I think it is noteworthy that Chinese (the written language) was specifically developed to facilitate those wanting to be Chinese but not able to learn the spoken language (due to geography primarily). Up until the notion of the nation-state was imported around the turn of the century, being Chinese was not based on ethnicity or the language you spoke - and all that a common language entails - but on your cultural practices. Do you respect your ancestors? Do you have proper relationships between your family members? Are your morals up to snuff? If you could answer yes to these questions then it didn't matter if you were a viking paddling about Finland chatting in ancient Norse, you were Chinese. I remember being particularly struck by this when reading Is Taiwan Chinese?, which deals with this notion quite thoroughly (though I somewhat suspect we would not have read the book if the author hadn't been teaching the class...).
Over at 东南西北 there is a touching human-interest story about a little girl who was uncovered from the wreckage of the earthquake with her legs smashed, never cried, and even encouraged the workers around as they worked to get her free. What struck me, however, was that she is the spitting image of someone who I was close to back in Mianyang. Came as somewhat of a shock when I was scrolling down the page to suddenly find someone I thought I knew staring out at me. And, of course, it always helps soft-news journalists when your subject is cute as a button. No one knows who she is or if she's still alive, though:
Up close: Further back once she was rescued:
And finally, even though it was a joke, it is always nice to hear that you'd make the perfect boyfriend or husband based on your socio-political views on China :)
Did Chinese cyber-militias knock out the US power grid? Everyone and their brother is posting about it today, but I remember reading about it in Dragon Strike, a fictional "what if?" account back in 99' and they can not have been the first to think about such issues. It seems everywhere people are thinking first strike = win. Unfortunately, as anyone who has ever tried to invade Russia knows, you can first strike till the cows come home, but that doesn't mean you're going to emerge the victor. I'm seeing this attitude, and similar parallels, being drawn with the olympics as well - though this does herald back to a question I asked many months ago - namely what do you do once you've won? I've picked up on the inability to answer that question from interviews with soldiers back in the 30's.
Zhongnanhai is talking about learning Chinese and wonders if it is a prerequisite for understanding Chinese culture. To some extent yes - you can't laugh at a joke unless you understand the word play going on. However I think it is noteworthy that Chinese (the written language) was specifically developed to facilitate those wanting to be Chinese but not able to learn the spoken language (due to geography primarily). Up until the notion of the nation-state was imported around the turn of the century, being Chinese was not based on ethnicity or the language you spoke - and all that a common language entails - but on your cultural practices. Do you respect your ancestors? Do you have proper relationships between your family members? Are your morals up to snuff? If you could answer yes to these questions then it didn't matter if you were a viking paddling about Finland chatting in ancient Norse, you were Chinese. I remember being particularly struck by this when reading Is Taiwan Chinese?, which deals with this notion quite thoroughly (though I somewhat suspect we would not have read the book if the author hadn't been teaching the class...).
Over at 东南西北 there is a touching human-interest story about a little girl who was uncovered from the wreckage of the earthquake with her legs smashed, never cried, and even encouraged the workers around as they worked to get her free. What struck me, however, was that she is the spitting image of someone who I was close to back in Mianyang. Came as somewhat of a shock when I was scrolling down the page to suddenly find someone I thought I knew staring out at me. And, of course, it always helps soft-news journalists when your subject is cute as a button. No one knows who she is or if she's still alive, though:
Up close: Further back once she was rescued:
And finally, even though it was a joke, it is always nice to hear that you'd make the perfect boyfriend or husband based on your socio-political views on China :)