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Monday, May 3, 2010
Monday, January 25, 2010
Lists
List of remedies I've tried for my sinusitis (persistent coughing), and their effects:
1. Amoxicillin, gave me stomach cramps
2. Nasal irrigation, clears up stuffiness
3. Apple cider vinegar, ineffective
4. Hot steam, relieves sinus pain
5. Chamomile, ineffective
6. Elderberry, ineffective
7. 富生堂系列前進牌 珍珠金銀花, ineffective
8. 富生堂系列前進牌 寓應甘和茶 ("Kam Wo Tea"), unclear
9. Vaporizer, stops coughing overnight
10. Guaifenesin, unclear (has strange effects initially)
11. Eucalyptus, works like cough drops
12. Luo Han Guo, cough suppressant
List of reasons to stay in Northfield during spring term:
1. All my friends are there
2. Druid ceremonies
3. Less to worry about
4. Can sit in on some classes
5. Comps presentations
1. Amoxicillin, gave me stomach cramps
2. Nasal irrigation, clears up stuffiness
3. Apple cider vinegar, ineffective
4. Hot steam, relieves sinus pain
5. Chamomile, ineffective
6. Elderberry, ineffective
7. 富生堂系列前進牌 珍珠金銀花, ineffective
8. 富生堂系列前進牌 寓應甘和茶 ("Kam Wo Tea"), unclear
9. Vaporizer, stops coughing overnight
10. Guaifenesin, unclear (has strange effects initially)
11. Eucalyptus, works like cough drops
12. Luo Han Guo, cough suppressant
List of reasons to stay in Northfield during spring term:
1. All my friends are there
2. Druid ceremonies
3. Less to worry about
4. Can sit in on some classes
5. Comps presentations
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Social Networks for Peace: A Comparison
Do any of these networks do anything? Let's find out.
Other networks I found: GandhiTopia, mepeace.org
| Peace Networks on Ning | DoPeace | PeaceNext | iPeace | MyPeace.tv |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Logo |  |  |  |  |
| Sponsor | The Peace Alliance, the Student Peace Alliance and the Campaign for a U.S. Department of Peace | Council for a Parliament of the World's Religions | None | |
| Focus | Establishing a U.S. Department of Peace | Interfaith dialogue | Spreading awareness of peace events | Making videos |
| Members as of January 2010 | 998 | 1,327 | 21,342 | 3,720 |
| Blog posts made January 5 | 0 | 2 | 14 | 1 |
| Twitter? | sort of | No | Yes | Yes |
| Facebook or MySpace? | Facebook Well-designed but has trouble attracting members without a strong interest. | MySpace Horrible designs, auto-playing music and video, difficult to navigate, but seems to attract many people with a wide variety of interests. | ||
| Potentially alienating aspects | Seems to be geared towards U.S. political policy | No room for atheists. (Who cares about them anyway?) | Administrator has a weird survey on signup. For example, you're asked whether "our shrinking freedoms" pose a threat to peace, or whether "religion" is the biggest threat. | Difficult to find content |
Other networks I found: GandhiTopia, mepeace.org
Monday, December 28, 2009
On the cutting room floor
This is the kind of stuff that I have to cut out of my thesis, because it's entirely tangential. I'll just leave it here instead.
-
Many parallels were drawn between patriotism and religion by Westerners in Japan. It is not always clear what “religion” means when it is used in this way. For example, one missionary wrote that “the war with China, 1894-1895, quickened the national consciousness and led to the exaltation of patriotism almost to a religion, under the name of 'Nihon Shugi,' whose most ardent advocates were Kimura Takatarō and Professors Motora and Inouye.” (Fisher 1908:55) Kimura indeed proposed to implement nihon shugi as a “national teaching” (国敎 kokkyō),[1] paralleling the suggestions of others to use Buddhism,[2] Confucianism,[3] or a Zen-Shinto-Confucian syncretism[4], but his philosophy had more in common with Byronic heroism than anyone else,[5] and this archetype was never called a “religion” in the West. Today, we would say that, using the contemporary wasei-eigo, there was a “Nihon Shugi boom” in Japan. If it had been a “religion”, even in the rhetorical sense, it would have had some staying power, but in fact Kimura's suggestions faded as quickly as they came.
Several years later, Basil Hall Chamberlain singled out “Japan-worship” and bushido as “the invention of a new religion”, but what he apparently meant by this is that the state was being run by intelligent citizens (“it not only governs, but aspires to lead in intellectual matters”), that the people were obedient to their head of state (“implicit obedience to [the emperor] as head of the army”), and that Japan had developed a national exceptionalism of the sort which rightfully belonged in the hearts of Europeans and Americans alone (“a corresponding belief that Japan is ... far superior to the common ruck of nations”). He compares this Japanese “religion” to the “pseudo-history” and “gospel” of the “fanatic” Rosseau. What Chamberlain really appears to be complaining about here is the lie of the state. He is watching a state being built, and feels “outraged” that the Japanese are being uncritically instructed in allegiance to their nation, using the same caliber of myths that have always been employed for such purposes. The word “religion” does not seem to have any meaning here other than a rhetorical device, and the point does not seem to have been pursued further by others.[6]
Although both were rhetorically compared to religion, neither nihon shugi nor bushido were ever actually subjected to interrogation by “objective religious scholars”. Perhaps it was recognized that to take these recently invented terms and single them out as Japan's “state religion” would stretch plausibility. Instead, the term “State Shinto”, although infrequently used in Japan, was given new life in the West in order to analyze the “religiousness” of the country's patriotic practices.
[1] Kimura Takatarō. 日本主義国敎論 Nihon shugi kokkyōron. 1899.
[2] Unshō 雲照. Dainihon kokkyōron 大日本国敎論. 1882
[3] Motoda Eifu 元田永孚. 国敎論 Kokkyōron. 1884
[4] Kawai Kiyomaru 川合清丸. 日本国教大道社設立主意. 1891
[5] Kikuchi Yuuki. “Byronism transformed into Japanism (Nihon-shugi): Kimura Takataro's interpretation of Byron”. 和洋女子大学英文学会誌 43.3 (2009). pp. 121-137.
[6] B.H. Chamerlain. "The Invention of a New Religion". 1918.
-
Many parallels were drawn between patriotism and religion by Westerners in Japan. It is not always clear what “religion” means when it is used in this way. For example, one missionary wrote that “the war with China, 1894-1895, quickened the national consciousness and led to the exaltation of patriotism almost to a religion, under the name of 'Nihon Shugi,' whose most ardent advocates were Kimura Takatarō and Professors Motora and Inouye.” (Fisher 1908:55) Kimura indeed proposed to implement nihon shugi as a “national teaching” (国敎 kokkyō),[1] paralleling the suggestions of others to use Buddhism,[2] Confucianism,[3] or a Zen-Shinto-Confucian syncretism[4], but his philosophy had more in common with Byronic heroism than anyone else,[5] and this archetype was never called a “religion” in the West. Today, we would say that, using the contemporary wasei-eigo, there was a “Nihon Shugi boom” in Japan. If it had been a “religion”, even in the rhetorical sense, it would have had some staying power, but in fact Kimura's suggestions faded as quickly as they came.
Several years later, Basil Hall Chamberlain singled out “Japan-worship” and bushido as “the invention of a new religion”, but what he apparently meant by this is that the state was being run by intelligent citizens (“it not only governs, but aspires to lead in intellectual matters”), that the people were obedient to their head of state (“implicit obedience to [the emperor] as head of the army”), and that Japan had developed a national exceptionalism of the sort which rightfully belonged in the hearts of Europeans and Americans alone (“a corresponding belief that Japan is ... far superior to the common ruck of nations”). He compares this Japanese “religion” to the “pseudo-history” and “gospel” of the “fanatic” Rosseau. What Chamberlain really appears to be complaining about here is the lie of the state. He is watching a state being built, and feels “outraged” that the Japanese are being uncritically instructed in allegiance to their nation, using the same caliber of myths that have always been employed for such purposes. The word “religion” does not seem to have any meaning here other than a rhetorical device, and the point does not seem to have been pursued further by others.[6]
Although both were rhetorically compared to religion, neither nihon shugi nor bushido were ever actually subjected to interrogation by “objective religious scholars”. Perhaps it was recognized that to take these recently invented terms and single them out as Japan's “state religion” would stretch plausibility. Instead, the term “State Shinto”, although infrequently used in Japan, was given new life in the West in order to analyze the “religiousness” of the country's patriotic practices.
[1] Kimura Takatarō. 日本主義国敎論 Nihon shugi kokkyōron. 1899.
[2] Unshō 雲照. Dainihon kokkyōron 大日本国敎論. 1882
[3] Motoda Eifu 元田永孚. 国敎論 Kokkyōron. 1884
[4] Kawai Kiyomaru 川合清丸. 日本国教大道社設立主意. 1891
[5] Kikuchi Yuuki. “Byronism transformed into Japanism (Nihon-shugi): Kimura Takataro's interpretation of Byron”. 和洋女子大学英文学会誌 43.3 (2009). pp. 121-137.
[6] B.H. Chamerlain. "The Invention of a New Religion". 1918.
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Chabad Chanukah
When I get overwhelmed in a place, my brain shuts down and I start to feel dizzy. That's what happened to me today when I went to the Chanukah party at my local Chabad House. Chabad-Lubavitch is an Orthodox Jewish movement that aims to bring secular Jews back to their traditions. I have no familiarity with Jewish tradition at all, and my local Chabad (as I learned) is mainly a meetinghouse for observant Jews, so for me this was an overwhelming experience.
Rather than reserving space beforehand I decided to just drop by. Of course, the Chabad rabbi is prepared for any and all unexpected visitors. He picked me out as I walked through the door, gave me a yarmulke, and had me put on tefillin, a cube with Torah inside, and recite a prayer. I had never even seen tefillin before, but I enjoyed the experience and it felt spiritual. The rabbi got my name and sent his son to go chat with me, but I was unable to make conversation because I had got dizzy at that point and had to sit down.
Two Jewish mothers sat down in the seats directly left and right of me, with their kids behind. This isn't normal Boston practice (usually you sit on the opposite side of the table) but I was glad for the company. On the right was a Russian immigrant who seemed to appreciate the support network of Chabad. On the left was a mystery--a visitor from Sherborn who was continuously talking about the problems immigrants face. When I brought up the tefillin she told me that I had no idea what a big mitzvah I had performed by saying that prayer, and that I was causing some mighty big changes "up there", as she pointed with her finger, and I realized that she that she was Lubavitch! She looked totally normal... well, my stereotypes were shaken. I told her that I had learned about Chabad House from a book on Lubavitch women, and she told me that her husband volunteered setting up kosher kitchens for Jews.
Lubavitch men walked by wearing top hats and looking down at their prayer books. There was a huge ice sculpture menorah, Chinese food, and latkes. The hours rushed by as the rabbi did a rap about Chanukah and a band struck up corny Jewish folk songs (including, yes, the dreidel song), giving the meeting the homely atmosphere of a bar mitzvah. The rabbi was having his son's hair cut and announced it was a big mitzvah for everyone to come up and join in, so I did so. The Lubavitch lady gave me a pile of latkes I was too stuffed to touch. I feel more glad than ever to be at home now. It was a fun experience but totally unfamiliar-- like a whole new universe.
Rather than reserving space beforehand I decided to just drop by. Of course, the Chabad rabbi is prepared for any and all unexpected visitors. He picked me out as I walked through the door, gave me a yarmulke, and had me put on tefillin, a cube with Torah inside, and recite a prayer. I had never even seen tefillin before, but I enjoyed the experience and it felt spiritual. The rabbi got my name and sent his son to go chat with me, but I was unable to make conversation because I had got dizzy at that point and had to sit down.
Two Jewish mothers sat down in the seats directly left and right of me, with their kids behind. This isn't normal Boston practice (usually you sit on the opposite side of the table) but I was glad for the company. On the right was a Russian immigrant who seemed to appreciate the support network of Chabad. On the left was a mystery--a visitor from Sherborn who was continuously talking about the problems immigrants face. When I brought up the tefillin she told me that I had no idea what a big mitzvah I had performed by saying that prayer, and that I was causing some mighty big changes "up there", as she pointed with her finger, and I realized that she that she was Lubavitch! She looked totally normal... well, my stereotypes were shaken. I told her that I had learned about Chabad House from a book on Lubavitch women, and she told me that her husband volunteered setting up kosher kitchens for Jews.
Lubavitch men walked by wearing top hats and looking down at their prayer books. There was a huge ice sculpture menorah, Chinese food, and latkes. The hours rushed by as the rabbi did a rap about Chanukah and a band struck up corny Jewish folk songs (including, yes, the dreidel song), giving the meeting the homely atmosphere of a bar mitzvah. The rabbi was having his son's hair cut and announced it was a big mitzvah for everyone to come up and join in, so I did so. The Lubavitch lady gave me a pile of latkes I was too stuffed to touch. I feel more glad than ever to be at home now. It was a fun experience but totally unfamiliar-- like a whole new universe.
Friday, November 20, 2009
Eleanor Zelliot
I wasted Thursday in a daze. I hadn't gotten drunk or anything but for some reason I woke up around noon, and felt dizzy and tired until about 1:30AM. Needless to say, I really needed any available time to work on my final papers, so I stayed up until 3:30 writing and woke up at noon again today.
In that context there was nothing to shake me awake like a one-on-one talk with Eleanor Zelliot, the dean of international Ambedkar studies. (Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar is the guy who was born an impoverished Untouchable in rural India, secured an American education, authored the Indian Constitution, reformed the Hindu Code, and converted over three million Untouchables to Buddhism. Yet he plays second fiddle to Gandhiji.) I had scheduled this meeting with Prof. Zelliot because I wanted to know more about the current state of Ambedkar Buddhism for long term graduate study. But she was rather confused, because she thought I had called her over for something related to my thesis-- which is on State Shinto, a subject she knows nothing about. Nonetheless I had a great conversation. I learned about Mayawati, the TBMSG's successful Pali program, that Babasaheb did not burn the full Manusmriti but only the anti-shudra sections, and that there is no such thing as Hindu studies in India, a fact which astounds me. Apparently they are worried that academic study of Hinduism will lead to more right wing stuff than currently exists. But in fact academic study in America has created such comprehensive refutations of Hindutva as Was Hinduism Invented? and The Hindus: An Alternative History, while banning the practice in India must have been the direct cause of all the false professors of the sort parodied here.
Anyway, I've got to go before I get seriously distracted from finals again.
In that context there was nothing to shake me awake like a one-on-one talk with Eleanor Zelliot, the dean of international Ambedkar studies. (Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar is the guy who was born an impoverished Untouchable in rural India, secured an American education, authored the Indian Constitution, reformed the Hindu Code, and converted over three million Untouchables to Buddhism. Yet he plays second fiddle to Gandhiji.) I had scheduled this meeting with Prof. Zelliot because I wanted to know more about the current state of Ambedkar Buddhism for long term graduate study. But she was rather confused, because she thought I had called her over for something related to my thesis-- which is on State Shinto, a subject she knows nothing about. Nonetheless I had a great conversation. I learned about Mayawati, the TBMSG's successful Pali program, that Babasaheb did not burn the full Manusmriti but only the anti-shudra sections, and that there is no such thing as Hindu studies in India, a fact which astounds me. Apparently they are worried that academic study of Hinduism will lead to more right wing stuff than currently exists. But in fact academic study in America has created such comprehensive refutations of Hindutva as Was Hinduism Invented? and The Hindus: An Alternative History, while banning the practice in India must have been the direct cause of all the false professors of the sort parodied here.
Anyway, I've got to go before I get seriously distracted from finals again.
Friday, November 6, 2009
How I was hacked
In November 2008 I was living in a hostel in Tokyo which had set up some computers for my use in their lounge. These computers were all infected with keyloggers. Some Russian guy hacked me and added some spam links to shii.org. I removed them, changed my password, and didn't think about it for a year.
On 5 November 2009 I woke up to a dozen e-mails from people worried about my website being blocked by Google's malware detector. Indeed, I discovered, there were malicious iframes on every page of my website. I cleaned them out, but I still had no clue how it had happened.
Only with the help of DreamHost tech support did I discover that I had been rather lazy when my website got hacked. They didn't do too much to tell me why it had happened though, so I pieced this together by looking through logs this morning (and I'm rather proud of myself).
What I should have done
When I was hacked I should have scanned every page that was modified in the past X days and fixed all the hacks.
What happened because I didn't do this
I had forgotten about the shii.org/tech/ directory entirely. The hacker put a php file in this directory and executed it a year later. Thankfully all it did was add iframes to every page pointing to malware Google already knew about and blocked. Google was also right to block my website, because a file had been uploaded to /temp/index.php which served malware to a single unsuspecting user on the afternoon of Nov. 5th.
Why DreamHost is awesome
They discovered and deleted the back door when I asked them to determine the source of the hack. Of course, this should have happened automatically, but it required them to notice this error log, which probably happens far too often:
For people who can't read Apache logs: DreamHost is aware of this kind of exploit and put in a rule to prevent their box from getting rooted. The only fool affected by this hack was me.
On 5 November 2009 I woke up to a dozen e-mails from people worried about my website being blocked by Google's malware detector. Indeed, I discovered, there were malicious iframes on every page of my website. I cleaned them out, but I still had no clue how it had happened.
Only with the help of DreamHost tech support did I discover that I had been rather lazy when my website got hacked. They didn't do too much to tell me why it had happened though, so I pieced this together by looking through logs this morning (and I'm rather proud of myself).
What I should have done
When I was hacked I should have scanned every page that was modified in the past X days and fixed all the hacks.
What happened because I didn't do this
I had forgotten about the shii.org/tech/ directory entirely. The hacker put a php file in this directory and executed it a year later. Thankfully all it did was add iframes to every page pointing to malware Google already knew about and blocked. Google was also right to block my website, because a file had been uploaded to /temp/index.php which served malware to a single unsuspecting user on the afternoon of Nov. 5th.
Why DreamHost is awesome
They discovered and deleted the back door when I asked them to determine the source of the hack. Of course, this should have happened automatically, but it required them to notice this error log, which probably happens far too often:
[Wed Nov 04 23:21:37 2009] [error] [client 213.163.xx.xx] ModSecurity: Access denied with code 404 (phase 4). Pattern match at RESPONSE_BODY. [file "/dh/apache2/template/etc/mod_sec2/99_dreamhost_rules.conf"] [line "9"] [id "10000001"] [msg "Backdoor access"] [severity "CRITICAL"] [tag "MALICIOUS_SOFTWARE/TROJAN"] [hostname "shii.org"] [uri "/tech/eula.php"] [unique_id "SvJ87EWjqwYAAB0XDO0AAAAX"]
For people who can't read Apache logs: DreamHost is aware of this kind of exploit and put in a rule to prevent their box from getting rooted. The only fool affected by this hack was me.
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