The Useless Tree

Taoism

  • Way at 37,000 feet

         One of the key ideas transmitted by the Taoist notion of "Way" (Tao) is that it is bigger than us.  The totality of all things unfolding in a moment of time is beyond our comprehension, certainly beyond our… Continue reading

  • Taoist Cosmology

        I have written about string theory before.     But I am drawn back to it today after having read Jim Holt’s review of two books on the subject in this weeks New Yorker.  (I have gotten into… Continue reading

  • So…Is he a Taoist?

     Seems like he is to me: Wandering artist finds his own way to liveBy Xu Jitao (China Daily) Updated: 2006-09-20 09:00    For 11 days beginning September 3, Ye Fu stayed in a cage in a community in Shanghai’s Pudong.… Continue reading

  • The Tao of Global Information Flows

          The Christian Science Monitor argues that the PRC’s attempt to resist or redirect global information flows is bound to fail: Beijing leaders are looking more like King Canute, the English monarch who ordered the tide to retreat. Their… Continue reading

  • E Gao and Chuang Tzu

      A couple of posts yesterday, at Bingfang and at The Shanghaiist, raise the question of why there is so much satire (or "spoofing" – e gao in Mandarin, which I believe is a neologism; it’s not in my dictionary!… Continue reading

  • Technology does not Solve our Ethical Dilemmas

         It is widely reported that a new type of brain scan has detected mental awareness in a women who had been diagnosed as being in a "persistent vegetative state:"  According to all the tests, the young woman was… Continue reading

  • Fewer Sticks for North Korea

        I have been suggesting for some time now that to get out from under the obvious failure of US foreign policy toward North Korea, we should drop the overly punitive approach of the Bush Jr. administration and start… Continue reading

  • There’s Only This

        I went to see the musical "Rent" today with my twelve year-old daughter.  I know it has been around for a long time, and I have heard a lot about it, but I never had the chance to… Continue reading

  • Ernest Gellner and Chuang Tzu

        Just back from a two-day jaunt to New York City.  We saw a Yankee game, a win for Wang Chien-ming!  But more on that later.       On the train I was re-reading a book I have assigned… Continue reading

  • Advice to A-Rod: Give up the Analysis

         For those of you who, like me, are Yankee fans, the tribulations of Alex Rodriguez are well known.   Here is a description from today’s NYT:  This season, he is batting .279 with 26 homers and 93 runs batted… Continue reading