dust

This thread is, I suppose, for talking about hair habits and maintaining "healthy hair". I'll start with a recent observation: I have not had hair longer than ~ 1 inch / 3cm since I was about 6. Am planning on growing it out, or at least seeing how far it can get before I can't stand it any more (having short hair is so easy). One thing I have noticed since I made this decision is how many people seem to lose hair on a day-to-day basis. Browsing a number of "How to" articles on growing hair long, every single one mentions some combination of oils or conditioners or supplements to "maintain healthy hair", etc. This, for example: http://uk.askmen.com/fashion/sachin_fashion/how-to-grow-your-hair-out.html "A pillow covered in hairs" ??! What makes this so shocking to me is that, as far as I can remember, I've never lost/found more than a hair every few months. It strikes me that this could be for a number of reasons: 1. I've never had hair so long (and therefore 'old') that it has the opportunity to fall out 2. I've never used shampoo or conditioner, only washing my hair with water, 2-3 times a week 3. I've never combed or brushed, only used fingers, so hair is not pulled much (Certainly, it's not because I've been taking biotin or other supplements.. because I haven't.) So..what are your thoughts on that? & it would be nice to hear any advice people have for growing hair long. My experience is certainly limited...

Well.. again, I can't really disagree, especially as I have no such direct experience of current education, either here or in the USA. To an extent, at least, I fear you're right that learning actual solid useful things is becoming less important.

Indeed, I can't disagree that most of the knowledge you mention is likely to be of some use, at some point, to most Americans. And it seems entirely possible, having seen the video, that many genuinely don't know a lot of that stuff. I'd like to point this out though (edited for clarity, since we're talking about bad spelling/grammar..)

Not sarcasm in the comment I first quoted. If he was being sarcastic, he'd be saying the opposite of what he thought (sarcasm being irony used in a mocking fashion), but I'm fairly sure he was saying what he thought, even if he wasn't being entirely serious. Your comment was sarcastic, and in agreement with Brian's sentiment, which again was: "Don't think I'd call "who won the Civil War?" or "who did America win its independence from?" trivial details a student at a major US university shouldn't be expected to know" I got the sense of it, I think, and amid the non-sarcasm and the sarcasm I also got the sense that you both think university students should be expected to know these things. And I neither agree nor disagree. I do think that it's worth questioning.

I know your comment is regarding "trivia" and perhaps directed at zerostao more than me. But I think he was joking...? Anyway like I said before, I'd really expect someone to know these details simply from having been alive in the USA for the last 15-20 years, and it perhaps reflects somewhat poorly on their memory and how much attention they paid in school that they don't know. But I might also ask: At what point would you suggest that people should not be expected to know these things? In another 100 years? 500? 1000? When does a long-dead war stop being relevant? Do you know all the wars? Honest questions. I would suggest... specific knowledge needn't extend beyond the lives of those in (one's own) living memory. Does it really seem to you that the continued study of history has led humankind to any great realizations about not repeating the mistakes of the past? All I see is people making the same mistakes that history warns us about time and again...

I don't care either way. Like I said, I don't care either way. But I do care something for honesty. What Karl wrote was speculation, not fact.

I think you know what I was referring to. Spoken by 'Confucius' in the story, but not 'attributed' to Confucius. Mr Zhuang uses these ideas to make another point, not specifically about filial piety or duty to ruler, but about his usual shtick: don't fight too much. Or, as you say, be "content with ming". I think you know this, too. Whatever one's desired definition of ming, ZZ's point again remains the same: be content with ming. Whatever the meaning of an, the meaning of that sentence remains fundamentally the same. And no, there is (in this case) no difference/contradiction between the 'Confucian' and Daoist De. ... you're welcome? My comment was not about understanding the words but a note on your use of them. And, again, I think you know this. I would hardly, amid such use of such terminology, be surprised to find terms like 'coefficient' or 'quantization'. "The ten thousand things are quantized aspects of Dao each performing actions with a vector leading to or from Dao.." Perhaps we shall just agree that we're talking of very different definitions of right and wrong. 'Morality' and your 'vector of actions leading into or out of Dao' are quite different.

I can't help it 知其不可奈何而安之若命，德之至也 To understand what you can do nothing about and to be content with it as with fate - this is the perfection of virtue. (ZZ) Not sure about your pseudo-mathematical terminology (function, vector). 'Right' and 'wrong' are the result of human perception. Without human perception, there is no right or wrong. To a cloud, there is no right or wrong. Just like how God can't be 'evil'? All the bad things are the work of the devil? The anti-Dao?

That is pretty impressive. I would expect a little more knowledge than that purely from exposure to pop culture, if nothing else. As a non-American with little interest in such details, I knew all the answers.. and could probably have learnt most of them from South Park. And it does strike me that someone with the power and will to vote should be able to name the current VP, among other things. Having said that... it almost leads to an interesting discussion in another area. I'm a proponent of the Sherlock Holmes school of thought. That is, importance placed on imagination, breadth of knowledge, and subject-specific knowledge, but not on knowledge irrelevant to one's life or position, or particulars that one will never make use of, simply because it is generally and erroneously believed that such knowledge is 'important'. It is not, for example, of any use for me to know who or when the monarchs of England have been, or to give dates of civil war or revolution. I could name a few kings and military types, give the year of a few famous events (1066, 1215), but honestly wouldn't think less of myself if I had even less knowledge of such things than I do now. And I think no less of anyone else for not knowing the wives of Henry VIII, or who the Roundheads and Cavaliers were... None of this makes any difference to my ability to be alive now, to make responsible and intelligent decisions, or to understand current events. A general understanding of political systems, war, revolution, etc throughout the centuries is of far more value in this respect. Not knowledge, but understanding. Like I said, I'd expect the people in the video to know more about the events and people mentioned from exposure to mainstream media alone, and I kinda doubt that any of them do have even a basic understanding of political systems, war, revolution etc. But on a general level, I don't think much importance need be placed on naming details of distant historical events unless one's life or profession particularly depends upon knowing.

Damascus: Homs: Aleppo: Latakia: Just thought that, for some of us, it might be worth looking at. The four biggest cities in Syria, destruction fairly evident. Rather than make some kind of statement with this, for now I'll just wait and see what anyone might have to say.

If I'm interpreting correctly... that's not only disgusting, it also makes absolutely no sense. If you believe in this moronic notion of karma, surely you believe the woman deserved to be raped? So what's the problem? No, don't bother. I'm going to remove myself before I start typing bad words.

Tehe... https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.888014821220011.1073741904.126207740734060&type=3

Am slightly curious what on Earth you think a Gambian rapist has to do with the Syrian war.

Well, another discussion is just what's needed then...

In response to the OP.. you could ask all sorts of things. What have you eaten today? What's your favourite thing to do? Have you ever been on an aeroplane? To where? Are you happy with the current system of government? Yeah..though I would say simply "Having something to do is just as important as making a living." (You explain why later in your comment.) I just don't think the word 'job' is necessary. If one doesn't need to work for someone else to make a living, one should feel no pressure to. Though I agree that one should, in any event, attempt to direct one's energy towards productive/creative ends. Ditto.

Interesting. Not seen a Picasso timeline before. http://mesosyn.com/pp-early.html He was painting with incredible skill, understanding of form, light, colour, etc, when he was only 14-15 years old. This is me the art snob talking, so take with a pinch of salt: At this early stage, with this level of talent, he had every right to experiment and go anywhere he chose with his art. The same cannot be said of many 'modern' artists. Some people should actually learn how to draw/paint before they come out with some visual gibberish and people start exalting them as the next Picasso.

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Your original interpretation involving 'worthlessness', as I see it, perhaps says something about your tendency to need to attach value to things more than the chapter itself. I certainly agree much more with your latest interpretation. The DDJ is rarely about 'worth' or 'worthlessness', or 'morality' vs 'immorality', or any other dualistic human concepts. Even if we (just for a moment) say that your latest revelation about the straw dogs is wrong, we still have no need to think of the chapter in terms of words like 'value', 'worthless', 'moral' etc. It is not saying we have no worth, nor that we have worth. To say that the ten thousand things are as straw dogs to Heaven and Earth can simply be to say that Heaven and Earth have no 'feeling' one way or the other. The Infinite River creates all, contains all, is all, and is beyond all, especially all abstract human notions like 'value'. Going back to your original thought, about resenting the possible implication that nothing has any inherent value... Well, what is inherent value? 'Value' and 'worth' and 'usefulness' are meaningless to anything but a human. They are concepts, and only exist in relation to us as sentient beings capable of conceiving such concepts. Nothing but something used or designed by a human can possibly have intrinsic value because nothing was created, nothing serves a purpose, except that which the designer/user intends. Some claim that 'life has value'. For whom? If a human life has value, so a pig's life does, so a worm's, and so a blade of grass has value, and a rock, and a carbon atom, and a proton, and a quark... so, everything has value. And value becomes meaningless.

Oh. I forgot to come back to justice. Can't remember what I was going to say about that. Probably nothing very interesting

First off, we need to agree that liberty, law, and justice are needed. I agree with liberty, and I agree basically with justice, though I'll come back to that. So let's say we agree that we need a few laws. We're agreeing on this because we know of our species' own propensity for selfishness and violence, and we want to outline the things we shouldn't do and punishments for when we do them anyway. So someone has to come up with these laws that need to be enforced. Then we can get to finding someone to enforce them. Who decides the laws? This small group of people with everything to gain from it? And if The Law needs to include prevention of physical violence, and punishment for it -- because some people are unable to take care of themselves physically -- I'd say that The Law should also involve prevention of mental violence, protection from economic violence, etc -- because there are also many people who are unable to take care of themselves mentally and economically. There will always be someone taking advantage, and someone else susceptible to being tricked or coerced or simply someone not clever enough to survive. And if what I have said above stands, and our government needs to provide more than just prevention of physical violence, then it needs to take responsibility not only for Police and Courts for law enforcement, but also for Teachers and Schools, Customs and Border Control, etc, and we'll need bodies that oversee Religious Institutions and other brainwashing societies and prevent them from committing mental violence against the people, and protection from corporations that aim to trick us into buying things we don't need, gradually transforming us into moronic sloths... Well...to take an example I was reading about the other day, Newton and Leibniz developed modern calculus around the same time. That's only 2 people. Foundations had been laid, other cultures had come up with similar ideas, there were a number of mathematicians doing mathematical things, and other creative clever people, but at that time, in the whole world, most people were not developing new mathematical systems or outlining the 'laws' of nature or laying new foundations for computer technology. Most people, in Newton's lifetime, were engaged in war, executing 'witches', throwing rubbish in the streets, getting rich from the slave trade, etc etc. Not much has changed. Society has gradually changed, for sure, and is better now, but that is again down to a few great people. Abolition, suffrage, forward steps in healthcare, etc... all due to a minority. The majority of people are not concerned with genuine thought. I'm not, you realize, talking of laziness in the general or physical sense, though the same applies. People are hard-working when they need to be. When they need to do physical work, they do. When they genuinely need to think, and have learnt how to, they can. And people these days still need to work to survive, but they don't need to think much, and so they don't. It is so obvious to me that I'm genuinely surprised there's any disagreement. Again, look around the world. Most people are incapable of or unwilling to put their mind to some really honest and creative thought. Me included, probably.

OK...I don't know about democratised society, but I know that any government in which fewer than the majority hold power (monarchy, oligarchy, aristocracy, theocracy...) requires the majority to conform to the minority's will, which is surely worse than the minority having to conform to the majority's? What are the other options? Ooh, good. I enjoy a violent disagreement 1. How far is "this far"? What does this mean? As far as 'time on Earth'... we've been around a while. Not as long as many species, though. As far as 'complexity of technology', again agreed. But our technology, and our understanding of stuff, is down to relatively few particularly creative and clever thinkers throughout history, not the average human. And a lot of the technology we have is generally invented in an attempt to allow people not to have to work as hard, and often utilised without thought for the long-term consequences. In any other category, we as a species have not come very far at all. We like to think we're very special, superior to all the other animals etc, but if you look around the world, at human history and our current situation, all we've done is procreate and spread, using all that clever technology to help us. Generally, we don't ask "Why?" or "Is this a good idea?" 2. That we so often "accept the conditions" is evidence to me of mental laziness. People talk, complain, lamenting days gone by (or days yet to come), but most are absolutely complicit in a large amount of the waste, pain, war, etc that continues day by day. People moan about global warming and fracking and species extinction and poverty, etc, all while they drive their cars around, eating McDonald's and the cheapest meats and imported foods, buying 3 iPhones every year, voting for duplicitous cronies in poorly organised democratic systems... 3. "many realise that thinking is the only thing left which they can do, many cant see a way in which thinking can change anything and the rest are struggling to know how to think" You give people too much credit. Certainly there are people in every culture, society, family, who question and think and see that there's a better way to do things, a preferable belief system, etc. But the vast majority of people don't genuinely do that.

Whatever you think about the state of any 'democracy', the majority -- almost all voting-age citizens -- can still decide what to buy, which is as big a vote as anything. One's green paper has more influence than their ballot paper. Generally, I try to first blame education, but then must also lay blame on human-ness. Everyone lacks education in something, at least, or has been indoctrinated or miseducated in some way. That's always an issue. And it leads to our monetary vote being corrupted as much as anything else. But the greater issue will always be that humans, if they have the opportunity to be so, are selfish and lazy. Intellectually lazy. As soon as the means are there, as soon as we feel somewhat comfortable in our beliefs and have a plush chair to sink into every night, we stop thinking. This leaves even the most perfectly designed society, your ideal or mine, beyond any real redemption. Yeah. I'm intellectually lazy.

Yeah. I've tried a couple of shampoos recently and did not like the effect. Plain old water does the trick. Might look into henna. What about a grip? Seems like that might be effective but not too tight..? I'm not quite at that point yet, but another month or 2. No problem with either... I'm no stud.... And have been working on full-body awareness recently. Interesting to note, thanks.

Interesting. I do have 4 vertical furrows between my eyebrows, from drawing brow down & inwards, e.g. when it's really sunny or I'm thinking really hard (which is most of the time..I have to think pretty hard to figure daily life out...) On the other hand, my hair seems healthy..

Yeah I love naun too, and Indian veg dishes, though I don't know if I've ever had a really authentic one... need to go to India some day. Actually, again in Beijing, I discovered Xinjiang food, and they have their own kind of naan, 馕. Different to the Indian version. Not as good because it's quite dry, but soaked in sauce it's really good.