China Diary -- Part 39 The Humble Administrator's Garden

Suzhou is world-famed for its gardens, and our next stop was perhaps the best of these, certainly the largest. Many consider it the finest garden in South China. It is called the "Humble Administrator's Garden" (Zhuozheng Yuan) and it is a UNESCO world heritage site. It was built by a retired imperial inspector in the early sixteenth century and the name reflects his turning away from the exercise of power to devote himself to the "humble" pursuit of gardening. There is nothing humble about this place. It is spectacular.


Everywhere you turn there are beautiful things to see, ranging from intricately carved windows,


to lovely expansive vistas.


It's a great place for young couples in love, and we saw several of those strolling hand in hand.




Doors and windows often function as frames for picturesque settings and the many pathways winding through the landscape have been specifically designed to create striking visual effects.


And numerous water features produce nice reflective images.


Not everyone was taken by all the beauty surrounding them.



But I certainly was.

"She Who Must Not Be Named" reminds me that famed architect, I. M. Pei lived as a boy in Suzhou. His family owned the "Garden of the Lion Forest" which adjoins the Humble Administrator garden.

Fetuses have Memories

On an intellectual and ethical level, this could be a real game-changer. Don't expect it to have any political effect, though. Abortion on demand has always been more about promiscuity, gratification and convenience, than a matter of principle.

From the Washington Times:

They weigh less than 3 pounds, usually, and are perhaps 15 inches long. But they can remember.

The unborn have memories, according to medical researchers who used sound and vibration stimulation, combined with sonography, to reveal that the human fetus displays short-term memory from at least 30 weeks gestation - or about two months before they are born.

"In addition, results indicated that 34-week-old fetuses are able to store information and retrieve it four weeks later," said the research, which was released Wednesday.

Read the whole thing here.

Boxer Boxed

The stupidest senator is called out on her "racialist" assumptions that all Blacks should think alike.



Why can't we just say that Barbara Boxer is indeed a "racist" -- because she is!

China Diary -- Part 38 Suzhou

After a long bus ride we arrived in Suzhou in the Yangtze delta, a center of China's silk industry and one of the most prosperous regions in the country. Our first stop was at Pan Men, the old city gate, constructed in the sixth century BC. From the top it gave us a nice view of the city's rooftops, but more impressive to me were the lovely surroundings in which it was situated.




Then after lunch we headed off through the streets of the city to visit the Museum of Chinese Opera and Theater. Suzhou is the home of the "Kunqu" (Songs of Kun), a style that was the dominant form of Chinese opera during the Seventeenth and early Eighteenth centuries. Here we are in the central courtyard of the school. As I took this shot I could hear a spirited discussion going on behind me. The guide told me that several of the old opera performers were meeting to discuss an upcoming production. I couldn't understand what they were saying, but from the tone of their voices I gathered that there was considerable disagreement.



This, I believe, is a statue of Gu Jian, a local musician who adapted the dramatic forms of South China with the musical conventions of Central China. He is considered to be the father of the Kun school of opera


Then it was back out into the streets heading for our next stop -- one of the famous gardens of Suzhou.

Climate Change Models "Fundamentally Wrong"

From Science Daily:

No one knows exactly how much Earth's climate will warm due to carbon emissions, but a new study suggests scientists' best predictions about global warming might be incorrect.

The study, which appears in Nature Geoscience, found that climate models explain only about half of the heating that occurred during a well-documented period of rapid global warming in Earth's ancient past. The study, which was published online July 13, contains an analysis of published records from a period of rapid climatic warming about 55 million years ago known as the Palaeocene-Eocene thermal maximum, or PETM.

"In a nutshell, theoretical models cannot explain what we observe in the geological record," said oceanographer Gerald Dickens, a co-author of the study and professor of Earth science at Rice University. "There appears to be something fundamentally wrong with the way temperature and carbon are linked in climate models."

Read it here. [emphasis mine]

But those models are precisely what the supposed scientific "consensus" on climate change is based on. And if they are fundamentally wrong..., then....

Sarah Steps Out

Sarah Palin has an editorial on energy policy in today's Washington Post. Looks like this will be her signature issue.

Read it here.

Harry and Pepper Split

The San Francisco Zoo's famous gay penguin couple has broken up. All it took was introducing a sexy female into their enclosure. Gay activists had trumpeted the boys as evidence of the biological immutability of homosexual attraction, so Harry's decision to go straight is something of an embarrassment.

Read about it here.

China Diary -- Part 37 Nanjing Street Scenes

Like all Chinese cities Nanjing displays a fascinating mix of extremely modern and traditional architectural styles.



And every day, everywhere, is laundry day.



And like all major cities except for Beijing and Chongqing automobiles have to share the roads with bicycles and mopeds.


And a lot of outrageously bulky or heavy loads are still moved by pedal power or on foot.

Inspired by Sarah

This is interesting,

Last year's Miss Malawi Perth Msiska abandoned her crown to pursue politics. She cited Sarah Palin as her influence. Palin who was herself a beauty pageant in Alaska went on to be the state's governor who was later selected to be John McCain's running mate in the 2008 US Presidential Elections. Though the Republican ticket failed, Palin's political aspirations encouraged many women around the world to reach out for political office. It is believed that the current Malawian President, Bingu wa Mutharika was also inspired by John McCain when he picked Joyce Banda as his running mate. Banda who is the first female Vice-President in the history of Malawi is hoping to represent her political party in the 2013 Malawi Presidential Elections.

Read it here.

Hey, if Bambi can claim that an insipid speech in Cairo sparked the Iran revolution, anything goes.

China Diary -- Part 36 Xuanwu Lake

In the late afternoon we traveled to Xuanwu Lake for a relaxing stroll along the shore. It is one of the most beautiful locations in Nanjing. Here is a bit of what we saw there.


It's a good place for meditating.



Or for exercising. These women are doing a popular Chinese form of juggling using a device called a diabolo. The diabolos are a bit hard to see, so click on the picture to enlarge it. The women were quite accomplished and made very difficult stunts seem quite easy. We watched them for a while, then continued our stroll along the lakeshore.


Here's a nice contrast between the ancient and modern. The old city wall and the city's newest building, the brand new Greenland Zifeng tower, 89 stories tall.

China Diary -- Part 35 Walls and Thrones

After lunch we drove to the Zhonghua Gate, constructed by the first Ming emperor back in the 14th century. Our route took us through some of the worst parts of the city.


Our guide explained the squalor through which we were passing by saying "this is where the farmers live." By "farmers" she meant "peasants" and her disdain for them was very much typical of the city-dwellers I spoke to during our journeys. Such sentiments are a bit off-putting, but not really different from the way urban dwellers of all cultures have traditionally thought of economically disadvantaged newcomers in their midst.

Eventually we arrived at the city wall and entered its fortifications.




And at the top we ran into yet another wedding party.


Then it was back on the buses and off to our next destination -- The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom History Museum, which houses exhibits commemorating the mid-nineteenth century Taiping rebellion. A fascinating episode in Chinese history the rebellion was in part peasant revolt, in part an ethnic uprising against the Manchu ruling class, and in part a religious crusade lead by a man who claimed to be the younger brother of Jesus Christ. In the end suppression of the revolt cost somewhere between 20 and 30 million lives. The rebels made Nanjing their capital and the museum holds a sizeable collection of artifacts commemorating their rule. Here is the imperial throne.


Then we traveled to Chaing Kai Chek's presidential palace nearby. Here is a picture of the reception room to Chaing's offices. Very western and very much a contrast to the throne rooms of earlier rulers.


We lingered there a while, then it was back onto the buses and off to our next destination, the lovely Xuanwu Lake.

Calvin in America

Five hundred years ago today John Calvin was born. Damon Linker has an interesting article in the New Republic on the ways in which Calvin's ideas influenced American culture. I don't completely agree with his take, but there is no denying that an understanding of Calvinist thought is essential to an understanding of American history and culture. Read the article here. There's a lot in it to think about.

China Diary -- Part 34 The Master and the Bridge

The next morning I skipped breakfast and took my camera for a walk in the gardens outside our hotel. It was a very pleasant place, but nothing compared to the gardens we soon would see. Our first journey, however, was a trip to another shopping opportunity.

We climbed into our buses and headed out. Our destination was the Yangtze River Bridge, an important symbol of Chinese independence.




The bridge was built in the 1960s during a time of increasing tension [well, actually a border war!] between China and the Soviet Union. The project had been started with Soviet assistance, but when the Soviet engineers were pulled out, the Chinese finished construction on their own. It was the first major modern construction project done without foreign assistance and was celebrated as proof that Chinese engineers and technicians were the equal of any in the world. And in case there was any doubt as to who was responsible for this wonder there is this...


But what about the shopping opportunity? Well, in the structure under the bridge there was a "crystal factory" with extensive showrooms attached. It was staffed, as usual, by large numbers of young women. And in the center was the workplace of "the Master", an artist who specialized in painting on the inside, rather than the outside of vessels. Here he is at work.


And here is a sample of his work.


Eventually the shoppers among us were sated, we boarded our buses and headed out for lunch.

Wren Updates

The bird wars continue. The wren has stuffed a lot of grass and twigs into the birdhouse and sits on a nearby branch singing his little heart out. It's late in the season though, and there appear to be no takers. His calls, though, really tee off the flycatcher that lives over the garage. Periodically it flies over and dive bombs the wren. The latest attack took place just a few minutes ago. The flycatcher got so worked up that it was disoriented and attacked its own reflection in a window. No serious damage, though. After a few seconds sitting on the ground it flew back to its nest. The wren has been singing non-stop ever since.

UPDATE: There's a reason he's singing so boldly and strongly. He now has a ladyfriend. This afternoon "She Who Must Not Be Named" commented on how loud the wren was and walked out onto the porch to check him out. There he was sitting on his favorite branch singing away when suddenly a second head peeked out of the birdhouse. This was the first we had seen of her. This looks like the start of a family saga.

UPDATE: The wren seems to really like Rimsky-Korsakov. I have "Russian Easter Overture" playing and he is singing along full-throated. I had never realized before just how much the violins twitter in that piece, although he seems to be responding to the brass as much as to the strings. I wonder what he'll think of "The Firebird" -- it's coming up next.

And Again

Iowahawk attends California's memorial service.

LOS ANGELES - Millions of fans from around the globe gathered along Sunset Boulevard to pay final respects to California today, as a slow moving funeral procession transported the eccentric superstar state's remains to its final resting place in a Winchell's Donuts dumpster in Van Nuys. The self-proclaimed 'King of Pop Culture' died last week at 160, in what coroners ruled an accidental case of financial autoerotic asphyxiation. The death sent shock waves across the world and sparked an outpouring of grief by rabid fans.

Read the whole thing here.

Iowahawk Strikes Again

Please Do Not Touch the Bureaucrats. Iowahawk's take on the WaPo Salon scandal.

Read it here.

China Diary -- Part 33 Nanjing at Night

While we were eating night fell over Nanjing. As we headed out into the dark we passed part of the old city wall.


After a short bus trip we reentered the Confucius Temple district to find it completely transformed.


We then boarded boats and set out on an excursion along the river.






Then back to the landing for a short walkaround the area, and finally back to our hotel, tired and happy.

Insulting Obama

Here you go Barry, have a seat. That's right, sit there and never mind those cameras.