Dreaming of my departed wife: Su Shi – Jiang Cheng Zi (苏轼 – 江城子)

su-shi-jiang-cheng-ziHope everyone is enjoying their Thanksgiving pause :)

On my mind: Song poet-scholar Su Shi [Wikipedia] composed this poem following a dream of his deceased young wife, ten years after her passing. It’s one os his best known. This is Burton Watson’s translation [Amazon].

十年生死两茫茫，
Ten years, dead and living dim and draw apart.

不思量，
I don’t try to remember,

自难忘。
But forgetting is hard.

千里孤坟，
Lonely grave a thousand miles off,

无处话凄凉。
Cold thoughts, where can I talk them out?

纵使相逢应不识，
Even if we met, you wouldn’t know me,

尘满面，
Dust on my face,

鬓如霜。
Hair like frost.

夜来幽梦忽还乡，
In a dream last night suddenly I was home.

小轩窗，
By the window of the little room,

正梳妆。
You were combing your hair and making up.

相顾无言，
You turned and looked, not speaking,

唯有泪千行。
Only lines of tears coursing down.

料得年年断肠处，
Year after year will it break my heart?

明月夜，
The moonlit grave,

短松冈。
The stubby pines.

TED talk notes: Allan Pease on why you should speak with palms up, and Chris McDougall on humans as born runners

I love listening to TED talks, and take notes on most of them. Every week, I share notes from some of my favorites! Here’s the complete list (pardon the load time, it’s just a continuous, single page).

Allan Pease, Body language: the power is in the palm of your hands

  • in handshakes, whose hand is on top is usually dominating; to maximize appeal, go in at complete vertical and match pressure of other person
  • in a study where a speaker gave the same instructions to 3 different audiences:
    • palms up — highest retention and cooperation
    • palms down — medium
    • finger pointing — lowest
  • forming a bridge (touch your fingertips together) gives you confidence and poise

* * * * *

Christopher McDougall: Are we born to run?

  • Tarahumara — famous running tribe
  • unchanged for last 400 years
    • when the Spanish came, they hid in canyons (instead of being decimated like Aztecs and Incans)
    • they’re completely free of modern illness
  • arguably humans are DESIGNED for long-distance running, evidence:
    • women sprinters are much slower than male counterparts; gap MUCH smaller in long-distance, in ultra marathons top women are almost equal
    • also rare in long-distance running: 60-yos as fast as, if not faster than, 18-yos
    • humans are “hunting pack animal” – need women, elders to run long-distances too (so they’re not left behind)
    • we sweat really well, can run far on a hot day
    • our bodies are perfect for long distance running (long torso, short bipedal legs, head that can rotate side to side while running to watch for predators, obstacles)

* * * * *

Here’s the complete list of TED notes

9 great short stories, with links: Nabokov, Marques, Chekhov and more

Samsa in LoveLet me know if you like them!

Symbols and Signs by Vladimir Nabokov
The Dinner Party by Joshua Ferris
Samsa in Love by Haruki Murakami
The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World by Gabriel Garcia Marques
What We Talk About When We Talk About Love by Raymond Carver
A Clean, Well-Lighted Place by Ernest Hemingway
The American Male at Age Ten by Susan Orlean
The Grasshopper by Anton Chekhov
How to Talk to Girls at Parties by Neil Gaiman

TED notes: how sleep removes waste, and “a republic, if you can keep it”

Jeff Iliff: One more reason to get a good night’s sleep

  • why is sleep so restorative?
  • sleep is an elegant design for the brain’s waste removal
    • the circulatory system provides nutrients to every body cell
    • every cell creates waste; the lymphatic system removes this but there are no lymphatic cells in the brain
    • how does the brain clear its waste?
    • brain has cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) which removes waste
    • CSF moves along brain blood vessels
    • this only happens when sleeping
    • when the brain sleeps, brain cells shrink, which makes room for CSF to rush through brain and remove waste!
    • when awake, brain is busy, puts off waste removal process until sleep
  • what kinds of waste?
    • amyloid beta (AB) — Alzheimer’s is the accumulation of AB, but this doesn’t prove a lack of sleep is the cause
  • sleep literally “refreshes” the mind!

* * * * *

Lawrence Lessig: We the People, and the Republic we must reclaim

  • USA is an imaginary Lesterland — there’s a general election and a money (the Lester) election
    • in Lesterland only the funders get to vote
  • 0.26% gave $200 or more, 0.05% gave maximum <— the tiniest slice of 1%
  • 132 Americans gave 60% of all Super PAC $$$
  • Congress spends 30-70% of time raising money
    • they develop a “sixth sense” of what those funders want
    • not popular issues 1-10, but 11 to 1000
  • funders don’t do it for public but for PRIVATE interest
  • Republicans might want small government, but for example if they de-regulated Telecoms, response was (after Al Gore proposal): “if we de-regulate them, how in the hell are we going to raise money from them?”
  • an “economy of influence”, feeds on polarization
  • Henry David Thoreau: “there are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one striking at the root”
  • solution: single statute, for a citizen-funded election
    • more funders, smaller amounts, less time spent on fundraising
    • this would shrink K Street
    • political staffers, bureaucrats are a “farm league” for K Street
  • Ben Franklin: “A Republic, if you can keep it”

Here’s a growing list of TED notes (the page can take a few seconds to load).

Books I recently read: The True Believer, Darwin’s Cathedral, Battle Hymn, and more

here-is-new-york-eb-whiteHere’s an ongoing list of finished books.

The below are my favorites since the March update, sorted into the order of “if I only had one month to live where would I start”. I hope you like them, too!

  • Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marques (excerpts)
  • Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl (for the 2nd time; excerpt)
  • Here is New York by EB White
  • The True Believer by Eric Hoffer (summary)
  • Technology Matters by David Nye (for the 2nd time; here is my summary)
  • Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua (didn’t expect to like it, but I did!)
  • On Writing Well by William Zinsser (review)
  • Darwin’s Cathedral by David Sloan Wilson (summary)

“It can destroy an individual, or it can fulfill him, depending a good deal on luck. No one should come to New York to live unless he is willing to be lucky.” – EB White, Here is New York