The “small deeds liberalism” of the provincial zemstvos was not a challenge to the central state. Indeed, in so far as the crucial weakness of the tsarist system was the under-government of the localities, they were a vital supplement to it.…
The Emancipation Decree was proclaimed on 19 February 1861. It was not read to the peasants until 7 March, the first day of Lent, when, it was assumed, they could be counted on to listen to their priests, charged with its communication, in a sober and submissive mood.…
Poland too was a battleground, particularly after the Polish uprising of 1863, when Alexander II intensified the Russification of the empire’s western provinces, areas where the Polish landowners remained strongly nationalist. Russian was made compulsory in schools and public offices. Polish students at Warsaw University had to suffer the indignity of studying their national literature in Russian translation.…
Govinda said: “Still, oh Siddhartha, you love a bit to mock people, as it seems to me. I believe in you and know that you haven’t followed a teacher. But haven’t you found something by yourself, though you’ve found no teachings, you still found certain thoughts, certain insights, which are your own and which help you to live?…
Together with other monks, Govinda used to spend the time of rest between pilgrimages in the pleasure-grove, which the courtesan Kamala had given to the followers of Gotama for a gift. He heard talk of an old ferryman, who lived one day’s journey away by the river, and who was regarded as a wise man by many.…
On a visit to Tesla’s Berlin factory, he got so wrapped up in Polytopia that he delayed meetings with the local
managers. His mother, who was on the trip, scolded him. “Yeah, I was wrong,” he conceded. “But it’s the best game ever.”…
At any given production meeting, whether at Tesla or SpaceX, there is a nontrivial chance that Musk will intone, like a mantra, what he calls “the algorithm.” It was shaped by the lessons he learned during the production hell surges at the Nevada and Fremont factories.…
That didn’t work well on Levchin, who was shielded from irony flamethrowers by his earnestness. He had a good radar for detecting Musk’s exaggerations. During the merger, Musk kept insisting that X.com had close to twice as many users, and Levchin would check with its engineers and get the real number.…