One new startup will give you a free big-screen TV… for free — Because they don’t want your money, they want your data. Lego’s newest toy is for people ages 18 and up, because Lego’s new favorite customer is adults. And Home Depot’s stock just dragged down the stock market, but that’s actually a good thing.
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There are a great many chemicals that are dangerous to work with. Things that you wouldn’t want to get on your skin or somehow ingest.
However, there is a category beyond that of substances that are so dangerous that many chemists wouldn’t want to work with them under any circumstances.
Things are so dangerous that even the smallest error could result in a disaster in the laboratory.
Learn more about the most dangerous substances in the world on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
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I am not now nor at any time have ever been a member of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Yet I serve as dean of a large faculty of political science in a Chinese university that trains students and provincial cadres to serve the country as Communist Party officials: It’s typically a post reserved for members of the CCP, given the political sensitivity of the work. That’s part of the surprise. The other part is that I’m a Canadian citizen, born and bred in Montreal, without any Chinese ancestry.
– Daniel A. Bell, The Dean of Shandong: Confessions of a Minor Bureaucrat in China (2023)
On January 1, 2017, Daniel Bell was appointed dean of the School of Political Science and Public Administration at Shandong University―the first foreign dean of a political science faculty in mainland China’s history. In The Dean of Shandong, Bell chronicles his experiences as what he calls “a minor bureaucrat,” offering an inside account of the workings of Chinese academia and what they reveal about China’s political system. It wasn’t all smooth sailing―Bell wryly recounts sporadic bungles and misunderstandings―but Bell’s post as dean provides a unique vantage point on China today.
Bell, neither a Chinese citizen nor a member of the Chinese Communist Party, was appointed as dean because of his scholarly work on Confucianism―but soon found himself coping with a variety of issues having little to do with scholarship or Confucius. These include the importance of hair color and the prevalence of hair-dyeing among university administrators, both male and female; Shandong’s drinking culture, with endless toasts at every shared meal; and some unintended consequences of an intensely competitive academic meritocracy. As dean, he also confronts weightier matters: the role at the university of the Party secretary, the national anticorruption campaign and its effect on academia (Bell asks provocatively, “What’s wrong with corruption?”), and formal and informal modes of censorship. Considering both the revival of Confucianism in China over the last three decades and what he calls “the Communist comeback” since 2008, Bell predicts that China’s political future is likely to be determined by both Confucianism and Communism.
Professor Bell’s other writings mentioned in this episode include:
In this interview two book reviews were discussed: 1) "Confessions of a Sinophile" by James Crabtree in the Financial Times, and 2) "Confessions of a China Apologist" by Gordon G. Chang in The New Criterion. Professor Bell graciously responded to a question about them and adds this post-interview thought for The New Criterion reviewer: ‘since my book is banned in China I wish Mr. Chang would inform the relevant authorities that I'm an apologist for China – it might help to unban the book!’
Professor Daniel A. Bell is a Canadian political theorist and currently Chair of Political Theory at the University of Hong Kong Faculty of Law. He was previously Dean of the School of Political Science and Public Administration at Shandong University and professor at Tsinghua University (Schwarzman College and Department of Philosophy). He has authored eight books and edited and/or coedited as many while serving as a series editor for Princeton University Press.
Indigenous thinker and leader, Ailton Krenak, exposes the destructive tendencies of our ‘civilization’ in Life is not Useful (Polity, 2023), which is translated by Jamille Pinheiro Dias & Alex Brostoff. The problematic symptoms of our modernity include rampant consumerism, environmental devastation, and a narrow and restricted understanding of humanity’s place on this Earth. For many centuries, Brazil’s Indigenous peoples have bravely faced threats of total annihilation and, in extremely adverse conditions, have reinvented their lives and communities.
At a time when the COVID-19 pandemic has forced the rest of the world to reconsider its lifestyle, Ailton Krenak’s clear and urgent thinking emerges with newfound impact and offers a vital perspective on the enormous challenges we face today: the ravages of the pandemic and the devastation caused by global warming, to name just two. Krenak questions the value of going back to normal when ‘normal’ is a vision of humanity divorced from nature, actively destroying the planet and digging deep trenches of inequality between peoples and societies. The ‘civilized’ world insists on giving life a purpose but life is not ‘useful’ and ‘civilization’ is not destiny. We must learn to embrace the joy of living life to its fullest, and inhabit the stillness that comes with not always being useful. In the wake of the pandemic, we have an opportunity to create deep and meaningful change in the way we live: this, more than ever, is a time to listen to voices that are one with the body of the Earth.
Takeshi Morisato is philosopher and sometimes academic. He is the editor of the European Journal of Japanese Philosophy. He specializes in comparative and Japanese philosophy but he is also interested in making Japan and philosophy accessible to a wider audience.
Why didn’t the long-expected surge of migrants at the US-Mexico border materialize following the end of the Title 42 policy? That’s why Andy wanted to find out this week. So he called up Michael D. Shear, White House Reporter for the New York Times. Andy and Michael discuss the end of Title 42, what the Biden Administration’s new border policy looks like, why neither the right nor left are happy and what it will mean for the 2024 election cycle.
Keep up with Andy on Post and Twitter and Post @ASlavitt.
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We're telling you what President Biden will be doing in Japan this week and why he's decided to come home early.
Also, one of the top executives in artificial intelligence has some warnings about his own industry, and he's asking lawmakers to get involved.
Plus, where scientists are now able to find human DNA, which NBA team is most likely to get the most-hyped draft pick since LeBron James, and what tops the list of most popular baby names.
A former aide to Rudy Giuliani has sued him for alleged sexual assault, harassment, wage theft, and other misconduct. In a 70 page lawsuit filed Monday, Noelle Dunphy says she has recordings of the former Donald Trump attorney making sexist, racist and anti-semitic remarks, and claims he tried to sell off presidential pardons for $2 million a piece.
Sam Altman, the CEO of ChatGPT creator OpenAI, made his debut on Capitol Hill on Tuesday. During his testimony before a Senate Judiciary subcommittee, he acknowledged the many ways that AI could cause “significant harm to the world,” and agreed with other witnesses that government regulation is necessary for the emerging technology.
And in headlines: North Carolina’s Republican-led General Assembly narrowly voted to override Governor Roy Cooper’s veto of a 12-week abortion ban, the Secret Service is investigating how an intruder got into the home of a top national security aide, and the first stripper’s union in a decade is expected to form this week.
Crooked Coffee is officially here. Our first blend, What A Morning, is available in medium and dark roasts. Wake up with your own bag at crooked.com/coffee
