In the tradition of On the Beach, Reds and other poignant but socially ambitious and uncomfortable cinematic works, my mother referred us to a long buried film made for television to which much talent was again given freely under the scripting of Rod Serling, of Twilight Zone fame, called A Carol for Another Christmas.
Friday 29 March 2013
just u.n. me or who is john galt?
catagories: ๐ช️, ๐ฌ, ๐บ, foreign policy, holidays and observances, Wikipedia
Wednesday 27 March 2013
mixed metaphor
catagories: ๐ช๐บ, ๐บ, economic policy, foreign policy
geselle, gestalt
Walking around the gorgeous neighbourhoods, I notice certain placards and think Notar, a notary-public, might be a good career-path for me since they always live in really posh places, it seems.
Monday 25 March 2013
hypnos
While I fully believe that there are many abiding mysteries, I don’t often heed my own dreams. Forgettable brilliance is just that—I reason, and probably indicative of the dose of self-therapy, the stepping back that one needs or doesn’t need at the time and conducted in a nebulous way, behind the scenes. I indulged a strange succession of dreams, however, recently, relaxed and running some onerous administrative tasks on my computer, including defragmenting the hard-drive.
Sunday 24 March 2013
charter
Although influence-peddling and lobbying is no stranger to modern-day political syndicates, it is interesting how this sometimes shadowy and sometimes blatant phenomenon has not had a direct line of succession and has historically enjoyed many different levels of tolerance.
While the company’s most famous exploits concerned the spice-trade, they were also responsible for introducing tulips from Turkey to Europe, which lead to the creation of the world’s first stock-market and first economic bubble and subsequent crash. Many battles ensued among these competing companies, whom all European powers were eager to proxy, and the exploits of colonialism propagated much suffering for the colonialized. Business further diversified to coffee, textiles and china, and late in its career, the Dutch East India Company took on the role of creating and regulating a network among Asian countries, which did not exist beforehand. Businesses are not given such de facto powers any longer, but I wonder if the environment is not so different, and whether sanctioned or permitted, encouraged, if industry has the largess to proceed unchallenged. Do you think it’s better to suffer liberal but defined powers or face a technocracy that respects none?
catagories: ๐, ๐, ๐, ๐ฑ, foreign policy
fascinating rhythm or third eye blind
I regret that I don’t always make more time to explore the missives that I subscribed to from the AlterNet media group. There’s grey area that forms when one is more pressed for time that blurs spam with an interest that’s been backlogged. These headlines are anything but, and when I do take the time to really read beyond them, I always find something interesting, presented in a way that’s not preachy or esoteric—not that there is anything wrong with preachy or esoteric and I am sure that both adherents and detractors would take exception with those terms.
catagories: ⚕️, ๐, networking and blogging, philosophy
Saturday 23 March 2013
life in the biq house or cold water flat
The BIQ experiment represents only one of several innovative designs set to debut in the Hamburg neighbourhood Wilhelmsburg along the wharves. It’s pretty neat that this new concept of reducing one’s ecological footprint premieres together with a calendar of holidays celebrating sustainability and the environment, and reminding us how each of us can help, in big and in modest ways.
catagories: ๐ฉ๐ช, ๐ฑ, ๐ก, environment, Wikipedia
recall-roster
Der Spiegel’s International Desk reports that back in late 2012, an anonymous researcher set out to take a roll-call, a secret census of the public internet worldwide.
After establishing dialogues with some 450, 000 server farms, the hacker’s creation, named Carna Botnet (after the Roman goddess of health, internal organs, hinges and stoops) was able to propagate itself further and shake hands with some 2.3 billion active internet protocol addresses. This ease of access was quite surprising and the census project turned unexpectedly into an industry warning about the robustness of security and systemic vulnerabilities. There probably will not be another such screen-capture, snapshot of the internet’s denizens but it was nonetheless exhilarating to be included in something benign that showed how fast the on-line world is growing.
catagories: ๐ฅธ, networking and blogging
Friday 22 March 2013
brinksmanship or no quarter
On the surface of things, the evolving situation in Cyprus’ finances does not seem to make complete sense. There was originally a strange sort stoical solidarity as the idea of levying a deposit tax as collateral against the Euro-Group’s line of credit from the island’s government but public outrage and fears of precipitating such seizures ultimately led to the collapse in negotiations. Presently, the Cypriots look poised to renege on the terms of this rescue package, and the EU looks willing to cut its losses, recognizing the grave realities of a marshal-economy. The transformation was quick, from darling of people seeking out a safe berth for the money to anathema, over-exposed—though fundamentally, the shenanigans were no different than what when on in other crisis lands, or for that matter, what is still tolerable, attractive about other safe harbours, like Luxembourg or the Channel Islands.
catagories: ๐จ๐พ, ๐ฉ๐ช, ๐ฌ๐ง, ๐ฌ๐ท, ๐ฎ๐ธ, ๐ท๐บ, ๐น๐ท, ๐, ๐ง , economic policy, environment, foreign policy, labour
Thursday 21 March 2013
an embarrassment of riches
catagories: lifestyle, technology and innovation
Wednesday 20 March 2013
jail-break, jail-bait
While most conversations about the architecture of Digital Rights Management (DRM, sometimes referred to as Digital Restriction Management) tend to focus the on fact that such platforms are an unwieldy punishment, which does not deter piracy, yields a bunch of play-devices that become quickly incompatible and even stifles creativity.
Tuesday 19 March 2013
telomere
Biologists are at the verge of an important decision with technical hurdles toppled when it comes to the matter of de-extinction. National Geographic covers this point of departure in a quite thoughtful manner, not dismissing the question of playing God, but positing that there is an ethical imperative to restore the individual species, and by extension the ecological diversity, that humans drove to extinction.
The dodo, passenger pigeon and even the woolly mammoth are poster-children representing many more creatures no longer around because of our activities, and scientists are quickly gaining the means to bring them back. What do you think? Are we obligated to make Nature whole again, or does our capacity to raise the dead cheapen our overall sense of stewardship and respect? Does Nature coldly absorb its losses quickly and move on, leaving no place for failed experiments? Our fault or not, since we are unable to operate outside of that broader context, should we be working to re-introduce some species? Ignoring individual ingenuity is something done at great peril and surely there is something to glean from every success and cul-de-sac. It was an unpopular argument when some ecologists advocated for a giant squid over a giant panda as a symbol for conservation efforts, since no one wants to lose the latter, but it was a judgement on our priorities.
catagories: environment, technology and innovation
the rites of spring or where the wild things are
Monday 18 March 2013
and that’s a pretty nice hair cut—charge it like a puzzle, hit men wearing muzzles
Oh dear—this is a potentially disturbing development that is making international markets anxious as well as any and every John Q. Public, Max Mustermann, or ฮคฮฌฮดฮต ฮคฮฑฮดฯฯฮฟฯ
ฮปฮฟฯ who’ve brooded any nest-egg. In exchange for a ten-billion euro lifeline to save the country from insolvency, banking and finance accounting for a large proportion of the island nation’s economy, European Union finance ministers are demanding a percentage of the savings deposits of Cypriot citizens.
Sunday 17 March 2013
fantastic voyage or doctor inchworm, i presume?
The ever excellent BLDGBLOG reports on an RD project from the laboratories of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, experimenting with probes called mesh-worms whose motors are driven by a simple yet effective principle of expansion and contraction.
catagories: ๐ฅธ, networking and blogging, technology and innovation
parabolic or sky-tree
H and I were in the Taunus recently and afforded a rather close-up view of one of the other-worldly structures, a television tower, that one generally just sees from a great distance and in passing, are usually perched on high, remote promontories like a bucket-brigade of relays.
I was puzzled with the recently finished superlative in Japan, the landmark Tokyo Sky-Tree, a broadcasting tower, and second tallest manmade structure in the world. Being number-one is a very transitive and sometimes subjective thing to achieve, for however long one can hold the title—and it was not a cathedral, after all, one of the more tenacious title-holders. I learned, however, more than just feeding signals to car radios, these towers are still quite functional, thanks in part to an evolving middle-manship when it comes to the airwaves. Transponders originally rose above the landscape to surmount natural obstacles, but high-rises and the interference from climbing electronic smog create new reasons to take a commanding position. I am sure such a view of the city below is worth the effort as well.
radiant baby
I always think about Haring’s artwork on my way out the door, my apartment located above a cash- and-carry (Selbst- abholung) bedding chain. At first, I went a little negative, thinking that the company adopted this distinctive symbol without appreciation but realized that I could be wrong. I wonder if their choice of logos had anything to do with making a stand or a statement.
catagories: ๐จ, ๐ถ, ๐ณ️๐, ๐
snow patrol
This strange ribbon effect traced along the metal flag poles looks like the icing of thaw and a place where the snowflakes can stick. It was not the hoisting strings, like I first thought but I guess the trail of a drip. I was braving the uncertain weather in search of a flea-market, just on the edge between what’s comfortably reached on foot (though not in this slush) and what might justify the bother of driving (in this slush).
Quite a few others agreed that it was worth dragging out their belongings for this social-hour, under a covered parking-lot. I found a few treasures, including this heavy and solid copper watering can with a narrow spout for the delicate jobs, and this teak glasses rest fashioned like a nose and mouth. I think it’s Danish.
catagories: ๐ฉ๐ช, antiques, environment, lifestyle
Thursday 14 March 2013
cracker-jack
I’ve always thought that candies, like colas (and more adult beverages too), attain this strange sort of nostalgic immortality and despite insolvency, changing tastes, and increasing competition seem to remain on-offer, even if in a subdued, bottom-shelf sort of way.
Disa- ppointingly, the product, which side-steps the arcane proscription by designing the eggs to be split apart and isolating the prize inside with a protective membrane so no one could choke on it by accident, is not from the same makers and surely won’t have that Dyson’s Shell made with the same quality. The fact that the American producers include “Choco” as part of their name makes me fear that the quotation marks are deserved. I do wonder what nutritive content might be encased in chocolate, but nonetheless, the carapace is important. The other story concerned the reanimation of the Twinkie planned by Hostess’ successor company. While it is surely hard to keep an incorruptible, indestructible snack off the shelves, I wonder if for even the most avid fans whether this is a positive development, since some experiments in should maybe be allowed to expire gracefully.
catagories: ๐ฉ๐ช, ๐บ๐ธ, ๐ซ, food and drink, holidays and observances
castings
There is an entire pool at Flickr dedicated to artistic and interesting manhole covers. Neat-o-rama curated a little preview. Japan seems to have some of the more unique and elaborate examples and there is a lot to discover from all over the world, but I am ever excited to go on an urban safari through a new German community and collect more local symbols and crests.
Wednesday 13 March 2013
schuldenbremse
catagories: ๐จ๐ญ, ๐ฉ๐ช, ๐บ๐ธ, ๐, economic policy
Tuesday 12 March 2013
qwertz or lรถlly, lรถlly, lรถlly get your umlauts here
I recall being quite red-faced in college when a professor, exasperated, asked why on earth I would spell Goethe’s name with an รถ. “I bet it’s just because you figured how to do that with your word-processor.”
ร = 0196 รค=0228
ร = 0203 รซ=0235
ร = 0207 รฏ=0239
ร = 0214 รถ=0246
ร=0220 รผ=0252
ลธ=0178 รฟ=0255
On an Apple platform, it’s a bit more intuitive, just taking the Option key—or on a touch pad, just depressing the letter for a bit longer. For script, it’s the letter (Capitalized or lower-case) and uml(aut) preceded by an ampersand.
There is, however, the potential for minor irritation with spacing and kerning, even in the Sprachraรผme, including Turkish, that use such accent marks. One particular Autobahn sign, which I pass on my way home, employees this funny, glaring non-standard g in order to accommodate Umlauten above and below. One would think that Germans could improve on this layout. Sometimes one finds stylized typefaces that minimize these effects without detracting from the sound or meaning imparted with vertical or embedded dots. If there’s ever celebrities or world-leaders with a lot of umlauts to their names, some clever person should make such a standard alphabet for newsprint and make it freely available. If I am able to figure it out, I will surely share.
curb-side service or scavenger-hunt
Some enterprising professionals, I thought, might be able to harvest the components and scrap a significant profit, I thought, but then wondered if such expansive and Turing-complete progenitors, less pressured by a drive for miniaturization were themselves rife for prospecting and reclamation. I’m not sure if this is the case, or whether industry is truly prepared for its onion-skin of obsolescence and yet could suffer any takers. Not everyone could safely harvest the metallurgic legacy that appears in the trash, nor should they try. Vertical living affords an important level of anonymity, as well, and maybe more ought to be done to incentivize an unpopular breed of backwardness.
catagories: environment
Monday 11 March 2013
the life of pi
At some elusive yet definitive point on Thursday afternoon, for some blurred fraction of a second, just before school is dismissed, time will be aligned with ฮ , the fixed ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter.
catagories: ๐ฌ๐ท, ๐, ๐งฎ, holidays and observances
Sunday 10 March 2013
surf and turf or pyroplastic treats
Our neighbours most always holiday in the Canary Islands and bring us little souvenirs (Mitbringseln). Knowing not very much about Tenerife, one of the main islands, I was sort of guilty of dismissing it as a destination that did not require an excess of creativity, especially in succession, and maybe a sort of rugged and isolated place—those sort of resorts duplicated inland and within easy reach with the peaks and lakes that one can see just outside of the window at home but won’t venture out to see even in the best weather but will brave reliably wechselhaft oceanic conditions and go out to see the grey just because one is on vacation. We’ll do that as well, so I am not judging my neighbours’ sense of adventure or taste.
The latest gift, however, of Los Piedras del Teide (Teide Stones) encouraged me to investigate. Despite the volcanic peak on the cover, it took me some research to realize that that the chocolate covered almonds were supposed to represent the pyroplastic blasts of this still active volcanic peak. It turns out that this projection is the third highest volcano on earth and dominates a land rich in outstanding natural beauty and a unique aboriginal culture, the Guanches, who revered this landmark like the Greeks their Mt. Olympus. Pico Teide was considered the pillar that held up the heavens, after its people saw the loss of one of their patron gods of light and magic was captured by their devil, Guayota, represented, in the main, by a black dog, from which the archipelago gets its name, and held captive here. They appealed to the ruler of the gods for intervention, Achamรกn, who obliged by fixing their cosmos to this rock, trapping the devil underneath. In modern times, the molten and other-worldly landscape has been used extensively as proving-grounds for scientists preparing for Martian exploration. It is pretty keen when one can learn something from a souvenir and bring a place into the foreground.
pope trope
The special chimney has been hoisted above the terra-cotta roof of the Sistine Chapel, the deliberation floor for some 115 cardinals, to proclaim to a watching-world their consensus or failure.
catagories: ๐ฉ๐ช, ๐ฎ๐น, ✝️, foreign policy
Saturday 9 March 2013
paved with good intentions
From potemkin humanitarian gestures that were detached from reality and insult to the basic needs of a war-torn population, stark disregard or ignorance of the counter-balances of power being sloppily removed, to squandered opportunities for promoting real concord—not to mention all the death and destruction in vain and demonizing a culture and religion to the whole of the Western civilization, van Buren tries to illustrate how the best intentions rang hollow, if not naรฏvely so.
One can argue that simple swagger and hectoring cannot account for all the misadventures and when things stop making sense, one ought to follow the money. That is an important consideration and I am sure there’s more than a kernel of greed behind a lot of the US overtures for freedom and democracy, but I do not believe it was ever the objective (well-meaning or not, which I tend to think on the levels that made the decisions) to fold the punished and enfeebled hand of the US out of the round of chaos they created. The entanglement—probably with roots reaching back several decades, is too big to bow out of gracefully and I am afraid that the withdrawal will be painfully stubborn for all involved.
catagories: ๐ฌ๐ง, ๐บ๐ธ, ๐, foreign policy, Middle East, religion, revolution
liartown, USA and codename: SPENCH
The happy seekers at Boing Boing share a wonderful Tumblr cascade (not necessarily safe or appropriate for work or people without a sense of humour that ranges from crass to subtle) from Sean Tejaratchi whose eclectic genius for mashups and original juxtaposition creates some very funny reinterpretations.
I especially like some of his re-imagined signage, animal memes and, further back in the archives, movie-teasers and television series, like Marple after Dark and Gypsy Cop. It’s been said that the Tumblr platform is a backlash against the social, over-exposed blog, and while niche audiences entice further exploration, some things are definitely for sharing.
catagories: ๐ฌ, ๐, ๐บ, networking and blogging
sampo
catagories: ๐ฎ๐ธ, ๐ณ๐ด, transportation, travel, Wikipedia
Thursday 7 March 2013
stella! or fiat means of payment
The EU monetary union and its currency, the euro, has deeper roots, reaching back to the nineteenth century with attendant problems and complications, and was directly inspired by a earlier coalition by the name of the Latin Monetary Union. Founding members Switzerland, Italy, France and Belgium decided in 1865 to tether their respective national coinage to a certain ratio of silver redeemable in gold, which was legal tender among all members.
catagories: ๐ช๐บ, economic policy, Wikipedia
Wednesday 6 March 2013
street smarts
Not to disparage conventional wisdom since there is much to be culled from a rare quality called common-sense and knowing better, but folk-neuroscience has practically invaded all aspects of public dialogue and holds up a very inaccurate but tantalizing fun-house mirror to ourselves.
Tuesday 5 March 2013
heart on your sleeve or windowpane
catagories: ๐ฅธ, ๐ง , networking and blogging
Monday 4 March 2013
unmarked white van or deppenapostroph
Usually I am not one to rise above mild amusement and not call unnecessary use of quotation marks when I see them used liberally on signage (although there appears to be a certain fondness for this practice in Germany). When I see this superfluous punctuation I want to stoop and gesture and make those air apostrophes. I am not addressing that other practice that’s a terribly prevalent butchering of the genitive case—Gertie’s Pilsstube is more often seen than the correct Gerties.
I do believe that there is room for license, according to the Army book of style, there are actual rules, which cascade out like poetry or that Monty Python skit about woody words. One should omit the hyphen when words appear in regular order and the omission causes no confusion in sound or meaning: banking hours, blood pressure, book value, census taker, life cycle, living costs, mountain laurel, palm oil, patent right, real estate, time frame, violin teacher. Well, I want to connect all of these with a dash. Next, one should compound two or more words to express an idea that would not be as clearly expressed in separate words, as in: bookkeeping, follow-on, forget-me-not, indepth, in-house, gentlemen, man-hour, man-year, newsprint, offload, railcar, right-of-way, yearend. Restraint should be exercised in forming unnecessary combinations of words used in normal sequence: atomic energy power, child welfare plan, civil service examination, income tax form, parcel post delivery, per capita expenditure, real estate tax, social security pension, soil conservation measures, special delivery mail. I don’t know about all of that. It seems to me like something that someone saw on a sign once and took to heart.
Sunday 3 March 2013
mcdoof
The latest cover and theme of Der Spiegel magazine (which I think though available on-line a perhaps regaled with more premium advertizing space will never be something out-of-print or solely archived in waiting-rooms) really poses a message to consider, especially taking into account how convenience foods are engineered for endurance.
global hawk or pretty bird
There’s a very blurry line between hobby helicopters and aerial surveillance drones, and I fear that government agencies, wanting to protect their assets and bailiwick will probably begin severely restricting what hobbyists can and can’t do. Just as much as there is an already growing public resistance to and fear of sky-spying, home-made drones could be easily deployed as Rock ‘Em, Sock ‘Em Robots to jam the airspace. Technology can be a kill-joy and make things quickly accelerate.
catagories: ๐, ๐ก, ๐ญ, ๐ฅธ, foreign policy, revolution, transportation, Wikipedia