Reuters columnist Edward Hadas has written a piece titled Why "suzhi" should go global. Suzhi (素質) is a value that appears to be getting a lot of buzz in China these days. If I've got the characters right, a literal translation would be something along the lines of "simple quality." Su might be rendered "simple, innocent, pure," zhi as "quality…

In The Chrysanthemum and the Sword, Ruth Benedict describes the Japanese life course as a great arc. Children and grandparents are as free as they will ever be to react spontaneously and express their feelings. It is in the long center of the arc that the burdens and repressions of adulthood are heaviest. Yesterday, I posted an album to my Facebook Page with the title …

If you aren't familiar with the work of Swedish statistician and data guru Hans Rosling you are totally missing something huge. For a taste, take a look at this TED presentation on using data to visualize change in basic demographic and economic conditions.