19 June 2015

• Ethos: The fundamental character or spirit of a culture; the underlying sentiment that informs the beliefs, customs, or practices of a group or society; dominant assumptions of a people or period; the character or disposition of a community, group, person, etc.
• Now 81, he explains his ethos in a memoir out this month: " I feel a great obligation to be helpful to a society from which I've received so much."  (Alison Beard-HBR)
• Trappings: Conventional adornments; characteristic signs; the accessories and adornments that characterize or symbolize a condition, office, etc.   
• He writes, " Hybrid cars, LED light bulbs, wind farms, and green buildings, these are all just the trappings that convince us that we are doing something when in fact we are fooling ourselves and making things worse." (John R. Ehrenfeld & Andrew J. Hoffman) 
• Vantage: A position, condition, or place affording some advantage or a commanding view
• From this vantage point, Portes and Vickstrom's critique can be read as directed at the traditionalistic, Gemeinschaft form of social capital, which indeed is often assumed to be the defining quality of community itself. (Seok-Woo Kwon & Paul S. Adler-AMR)
• Wok: A large bowl-shaped pan used in cooking Chinese food
• An herbal doctor in Niushikou, near the city of Chengdu, recommended that my parents hold me over a wok filled with boiling herbal water every morning and every evening. (Liao Yiwu)