Sunday morning roundup

Pakistan's rail clusterf* is a microcosm of its broader challenges. [That article is long, but please read it not only because it is interesting, but also in support of journalistic freedom; the writer, Declan Walsh, was expelled from Pakistan by its Interior Ministry.] On that note, Hong Kong offers a treasure trove of books and magazines considered illicit in mainland China.

Bill Gates on global health care challenges.

I'm hoping the Post has a more comprehensive obituary of Kenneth Waltz. I'll keep you posted.

Britain's alleged manliness crisis.

American food is making immigrants sick.

Kiera Wilmot is free to do science.

Paying students for performance has no measurable effect on grades.

I love the invention of mushroom-based plastics. As for eradicating the scourge of plastic bags, I appreciate DC's bag tax if only because the cashiers don't automatically plastic-bag your stuff. The other day, when I said--in a shop in Virginia--that I didn't need a bag, the cashier said "the bag is free" and proceeded to put my one, very portable item into a disposable bag. It was annoying.

I went to a meditation led by Tara Brach many years ago, when she guest-led at the Unitarian Church in Columbia Heights. It was truly amazing. That article touches on the appeal of 'spiritual but not religious':

Her teaching awakened “much more compassion and understanding and openness . . . which to me, that’s what God is about,” he said.

“So much of religion is about following some creed or dogma, and by and large, people aren’t looking for that,” he said after Brach’s recent class. “They’re looking for something much deeper.”

And yet:

For some, meditation’s spread raises questions. More conservative religious groups reject the idea that healing comes from within and not from God. Even some new spirituality sites — whose readers are likely familiar with meditation — have run articles in the past couple of years with such headlines as “Is meditation narcissistic?”

I may read that at some point and I hesitate to pass judgment on the article until I do, but I can address the question itself: aren't we more attuned to others when we're at peace with ourselves? Is exercise narcissistic? Why does an act of taking care of oneself have to smack of narcissism?