Chinahand's Random Stuff

[Chinahand]

I think what

Teenager is saying has a lot of merit:

 

 

She expresses herself well for one so young.

 

I pretty much agree with her about the negative impact of "slutshaming" ... but at the same time I'm quite conservative and hence worry about promiscuity. I suspect having sex with lots of people can sometimes not end well and people, especially young people, should understand safe sex is a lot more than just condoms - and should include knowing when to say no.

 

Thoughts?

Edited January 12, 2012 by Chinahand

[Freya Q]

Any thoughts ? How about what is it you typed into a search engine to find that ? Lets face it, it isnt easy to come across accidentally.

[Chinahand]

Hee hee, other people have wondered about where I find some of my more unusual posts.

 

I'm not sure which would be harder to uncover using google - Fruit Bat Porn or Slut Shaming - nor what the other search results would be!

 

But sadly I just nicked them from here and here!

[Freya Q]

OMG !!

Well at least you werent sat at your computer wearing a dirty mac

To be fair to you I did think the subject was unusual for you.

 

Edit: I must see if I can find an old uni essay on "The Double Standard" & "A Womans Work is Never Done" I kept most of my hard work (!) but some of it was interesting.

Edited January 13, 2012 by Freya Q

[Chinahand]

I find Philosophical Daoism a fascinating subject. Philosophical Daoism developed during the great flowering of Chinese thought during the terrible wars of the Warring States Period. Confucianism, Daoism, Moismand the writings of the Chinese Philosophers of these schools such as Mencius, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Sunzi(The Art of War) attempted to understand how morality and government should work - at a time when morality and government were deeply affected by the brutal real politic of war, deciet and conquest.

 

I find the ideas these philosophers came up with contrast very interestingly with Western philosophy, which was also having its first flowering at a similar time in Ancient Greece.

 

One book I've mentioned quite a few times is A Daoist Theory of Chinese Thought by Chad Hansen.

 

Prof Hansen has recently translated the Dao De Jing, the short text seen as one of the foundational documents of Daoism. The entire introduction for the book is available online on Amazon and is a good introduction to Prof Hansen's thoughts. He also made a series of videos which are worth watching.

 

I will admit that you can't take too much out of all of this - in part it is simply humanity's tendency to build theories and seek justification from the words of the ancients. But, that said, the idea that people have multiple Daos for dealing with their lives, and that the ever changing mix between them is what life is about is quite a powerful one which is totally seperate from the New Age dross about the Mystic Way of the Universe.

 

Perspectivism, the problems of empirical knowledge, a view of humanity as a part of nature with no supernatural guidance are the essences of Philosophical Daoism and these issues are just as current today as they were nearly 2500 years ago. Many of these issues didn't become a part of Western Thought until the 19th Century. In China, they were part and parcel of Philosophical debate in the Warring States period, but overlaid by a culture which is hard for us to imagine separated by thousands of years and a language and culture totally different from ours.

 

Exploring the debate, the culture and the language is something Prof Hansen has done in a most thought provoking manner. It's not to everyone's taste, but if your interested watch the videos and read the introduction.

[Chinahand]

5000 feet down in the inky darkness of the ocean depths, suddenly it comes into view ...

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-E-8_wDgN7c

 

But what is it ... a jelly fish, a net covered in bacterial slime, a whale's placenta, a creature of the deep?

 

Who knows - we know far more about the surface of the moon than what goes on in our deep oceans ... we may not know yet what it is, but my goodness it must be fascinating being involved in finding out!

Edited May 9, 2012 by Chinahand

[Overdose]

 

 

But what is it ... a jelly fish, a net covered in bacterial slime, a whale's placenta, a creature of the deep?

 

 

Deepstaria Enigmatica, according to a few of the replies....

[Chinahand]

 

 

Link to the website of the researcher who discovered it!

[Chinahand]

I have to say this photo has so many different levels that I find it just fascinating.

 

 

The storks, towering over the woman, looking disgusting with their bald vulture necks and huge spear-like bills.

 

But, in fact, they are endangered, driven from their own shrinking environment, where as carrion birds they fulfill a vital role in nature's cycle, into a man-made waste where they scavenge on what we have thrown away.

 

And the woman, similarly driven into the filth of our waste, in this case by poverty and desparation to earn enough to survive.

 

In garbage and waste there is still bounty enough for people and nature to scanvenge, but in doing so it seems obvious much is lost, which with better sheparding would provide a better environment for both people, birds and life.

 

We are a needlessly wasteful species. We can but hope to better control our waste, to give space for nature, and to give people a better opportunity to make their living. But when?

Edited June 7, 2012 by Chinahand

[Lonan3]

We've always been needlessly wasteful. It is, for example, a strongly supported theory that it was the waste we left lying near our living places that enabled humankind to tame and domesticate several other species - wolves/dogs in particular.

Unfortunately, the system that best supports our society - capitalism - actually thrives on waste and encourages it; and as long as we remain in thrall to big business and multinational corporations this is unlikely to change.

One of the frequently mentioned aspects of this is 'packaging' - an all-too-often adjunct of our advanced civilisation - as well as the amount of perfectly good and useful food items that we discard.

There was a time - within living memory - when bones from all kinds of meat were used to produce stock for soups, broths etc. Now they're all too often simply thrown away.

I'm not one of the doomsayers. I believe that the resources of our planet are more than sufficient to support, not only the present levels of human population, but much greater ones - if they are properly used. However, if the pursuit of 'profit' and 'growth' are given the prominence thar they currently receive, then there will either have to be a voluntary change in the way we conduct ourselves or the issue will ulltimately be forced on us.

[ScotsAlan]

Chinahand. It's good that you have studied Chinese culture and beliefs so well. But don't you think you are sometimes looking at it through rose tinted specs?

 

Your knowledge of the Chinese culture surpasses that of any Chinese people I know. Seriously, you are probably in the top 5% of people worldwide in terms of your academic ability to understand what is to most, an unfathomable culture and belief system

 

What I see of Chinese culture, is millions of people blindly following ancient customs and beliefs without knowing why. I asked a Chinese colleage today about some beliefs the Chinese hold. She tried to explain, but in the end she said she believed in it because it was thousands of years old. So it must be true!!!

 

I know we can say the same about any culture. But instead of us just looking at Chinese Culture as something mysterious and exotic, maybe we should be asking how the culture and belief system has contributed to the lack of political freedom.

 

I know this is a ramble... But I have come across many beliefs in China that are detrimental to health, that put the most risk at risk, and others that are just plain cruel.

 

Ramble over :-)

 

 

[Chinahand]

I saw

and was ... well what? ... I suppose I was fascinated by the abusive exploitation of the human religious sentiment.

This is a blatantly political speech, and one that totally puts "God on our side" in a most partisan and disturbing way.

It starts with Biblical marriage which is a dog whistle that this is about Gay Rights, and says it is an issue between democracy and socialism, with socialism being a murderous, religion persecuting ideology.

It then goes on to vilify socialism as ungodly while personal choice, private property and the pursuit of happiness are from God and not from humans.

It then says that socialism is against Biblical Truth, Natural Law and is not compatible with democracy and religious liberty; and that it is a foreign threat to American Democracy which this speaker is tired of and will not put up with.

Wow - who knew hey! And all that from Gay Rights, sorry, Biblical Marriage.

And of course who is the unmentioned, covert Socialist pushing America in this non-American direction - President Obama of course.

I've always been fascinated by the Catholic Church's political influence.

I'm reasonably used to hearing right-wing Protestant preachers saying such things, but by its nature Protestantism is atomistic and a bottom-up philosophy driven by its charismatic preachers. Catholicism, on the other hand, is top-down, with its hierarchy demanding discipline and a centre of power which is based in Rome and asserts its authority on a worldwide flock.

In this video we are seeing a most blatant expression of this power - quoting Revelations and denying those who disagree with them any status - either religious or national. Talk about demonizing. Sends shivers up my spine ... and it is very difficult to define my beliefs as socialistic!

Authoritarianism can come from Socialism, no doubt, but it can also come from Conservatism and this video is an exceptionally clear example of religious conservatism flexing its muscles.

For me it isn't pleasant and I wondered what other people think.

[Lonan3]

As someone who gained part of his 'education' in a catholic school, I have always been aware of the conservatism of that obscenely rich, unhealthily powerful, and thoroughly vile organisation.

This is a church that spent many centuries trying to deny anyone the right to think for themselves; trying to insist that the only truth was the one that they declared valid.

I have no time for any of the miriad branches that make up the repugnant entity that is the christian church, but catholocism is the one for which I reserve a particular contempt. Although I have no idea who that fat-faced cretin is, I'm sure he will become a familiar face because that was, as you said, a 'political' speech which seems to indicate that running for political office is probably on his personal horizon.

Unlike yourself, Chinahand, I am happy to declare that I have a socialist heart. Like christianity, that has many interpretations and mine is a belief that political system ought to be geared towards providing equal opportunity for every citizen and that money paid in taxes should be primarily used to care for those who are unable to care for themselves. And yes, unpopular though it may be to say so, I do believe that those who are fortunate enough to be successful, or to have inherited wealth, should be required to contribute more than those who haven't had such good fortune.

When, as in this case, the self-righteous preach about righteousness, it turns my stomach. The catholic church has been the enemy of progress, the withholder of knowledge, the coveter of riches and the abuser of its followers for millenia.

Not all socialists regard it as an enemy - many will even praise the work it does among the poor and underprivileged - but they, I'm afraid, are able to too easily disregard the contribution that the RC church has made, and still makes, to the very misery that they cry their crocodile tears over.

Sorry for long rant - but the simple fact is that I despise everything about this vile parody of a religion that is supposed to be based on love, and I despise any attempt to place it on any kind of moral high ground. Its only appropriate place is to be washed away in the sewer of its own history.

[Donald Trumps]

Dear oh dear oh dear

[Chinahand]

Saw this and went "hello, hello - the Catholics really are moving into politics in the US":

 

 

The most senior US Catholic cardinal is to give a benediction at the Republican National Convention next week in Florida when Mitt Romney accepts the party's presidential nomination.

 

Cardinal Timothy Dolan will give prayers at the televised event, Mr Romney said in an interview.

 

The cardinal is suing President Barack Obama over his health care plans.

 

And then heard

- its certainly quite an contrast. It was before he became President of Ireland, but even so what a breath of fresh air to have such a forthright man in politics!

 

Edited August 23, 2012 by Chinahand