Author Archives: Robert

Original German text of Darkness at Noon found

Posted on September 26, 2015 by Robert

Arthur Koestler’s novel Darkness at Noon, inspired by the Moscow show-trials of 1936-38, is one of the most important novels of the twentieth-century. Koestler originally wrote Darkness in German while he was living in Paris, supposedly between 1938 and 1939. … Continue reading →

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A new semester’s greetings

Posted on September 25, 2015 by Robert

A little late, but welcome to my students this semester! Looking forward to seeing you in class.

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Fixing textwidth in vim

Posted on August 1, 2015 by Robert

I have had several problems with my program editor Vim recently.  Here is how I fixed one of them. There are two directories that I had to mess with: c:\program files\vim [vim directory] c:\users\rabbit [user directory] the vim directory is … Continue reading →

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A Historical Relic?

Posted on July 23, 2015 by Robert

I recently ran across the Qing Research Portal, a website which unfortunately has stopped updating. It offers the “ECCP Reader”, an electronic version of Hummel’s Eminent Chinese of the Ch’ing Period, but the Windows version is not available, so I … Continue reading →

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Words to live by

Posted on July 9, 2015 by Robert

Language is the most massive and inclusive art we know, a mountainous and anonymous work of unconscious generations. Edward Sapir,Language, 1921.

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Jacinto Chiclana

Posted on July 4, 2015 by Robert

Recently listening to songs from the 1960s Borges-Piazzolla collaboration, especially the great ‘Jacinto Chiclana’. There is an amazing guitar version on Youtube played by Cesar Amaro; if you’ve never heard it sung, there is a lively version by Cuarteto Zupay … Continue reading →

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The Green Gang and the Blue Villa

Posted on February 21, 2015 by Robert

Over the last four or five years, I’ve put in many hours looking at the details of Sterling Seagrave’s 1985 book, The Soong Dynasty. The book describes the rise and fall of China’s influential Soong family, and its connections with … Continue reading →

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Another semester goes by …

Posted on February 14, 2015 by Robert

The grades for the fall semester are now all in. My apologies to my students for the delay! It was a silent semester at rabbit’s warren. Next semester I will be on leave for research so it will also be … Continue reading →

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End of the semester report

Posted on July 21, 2014 by Robert

All courses and students now accounted for, 2013-4 is now over. My congratulations to all those who passed and my support to those who did not. One more push next semester and you’ll be over the top. To the graduates: … Continue reading →

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Congratulations to David and Eric

Posted on July 21, 2014 by Robert

Belated congratulations to my students Eric Chan and David Chen, who both successfully passed their MA defenses at the end of June and have now completed all revisions to their theses. Great job! I wish you both equal success in … Continue reading →

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