David Chart's Blog

Author: David Chart

  • Rain

    Today, it rained all day. Quite heavily. None of this “rain before seven, fine by eleven” rubbish. Now, it is true that we are currently in the middle of rainy season, but that’s not the reason. The reason is typhoon number 4. This is the first major typhoon of this season (which, I think, is…

  • The Analects

    I finally got around to reading the Analects of Confucius, in Arthur Waley’s translation. The introduction claims that this is actually a good, fairly literal, translation, which would make it different from his translation of, say, the Tale of Genji, which gets called a paraphrase. I imagine that’s an exaggeration born of scholarly outrage, but…

  • Camera-Shy Foetuses

    We went to the clinic again yesterday, for the regular checkup on Yudetamago’s progress. There don’t seem to be any problems; she’s getting bigger at an appropriate speed, and Yuriko seems to be doing well. The longest discussion was over the sorts of exercise that Yuriko should do, which boiled down to “it’s difficult”. She…

  • Truth and the Absence of Fact

    I bought this book about four years ago, because it was cheap in Galloway and Porter in Cambridge. It then sat in my pile of “things I will get around to reading” for quite a long time, partly because it got left in England when I came out to Japan. Anyway, I finally got around…

  • Diary Entry

    I’ve put a new diary entry online.

  • English as Decoration

    Japanese companies often use English words and phrases as decorative motifs on products. They do not worry too much about what they mean, or whether they are actually English, because they are simply decoration. This can lead to a certain degree of incongruity for English speakers; anyone who has visited Japan will have encountered at…

  • Promethean: the Created

    This is the latest in White Wolf’s new World of Darkness series. Each game covers a monster type, and this time, it’s the turn of Frankenstein’s monster. I have to confess that I wasn’t particularly enthused by the concept, and basically bought the book because, as I’m writing for the new WoD, I feel that…

  • Baby News

    I’ve got a bit behind on the absolutely fascinating news concerning our incipient child. People with no interest in the entirely normal process of pregnancy can ignore this article. So, we went to the clinic on Monday, and there’s almost no news. Which is good, because it means that Yudetamago is developing normally. She’s now…

  • Fury of Shadow

    Fury of Shadow is a sourcebook for Midnight, by Fantasy Flight Games. It covers the forest of Erethor, the home of the elves and the last large area free from the control of the Shadow, and against which Izrador has turned all of his fury, hence the product’s title. It is not a bad product.…

  • Foundations of Ethics

    There’s an interesting article in this week’s Nature (well, strictly last week’s now, but still the most recent one I have here), on research into the neural basis of disgust, and its links to ethical judgements. (Nature 447 (2007), 768-771) It would seem that, when people judge things to be ethically disgusting, they are using…