gold doubloons and pieces-of-eight

The other day the bank gave me a large denomination, virtually unspendable euro bill. I couldn't do much with this banknote, except carry it around like a mortgaged Monopoly property or a certificate of stock, since stores shun accepting it. It's strange that one of the most valuable pieces of currency is a bit reviled--gas stations and small shops with signs in their windows announcing their refusal before one even asks, and has garnered a bad reputation, along with the €500, as a facilitator of underworld, under-the-table and off-the-books transactions. Apparently, the largest concentration of these bills is in areas where the financial crisis has been perpetuated because, in part, inability to collect on tariffs and taxes and blackmarket trades.  I wonder what the career is like for money out of circulation: is it like that of the monolithic stone wheels of the Island of Yap?  I felt a little like a gangster myself, when in the end I had to take the Euro-Schein back to the bank in exchange for less ostentatious amounts.

statecraft or goodwill ambassador

A faction of the US congress is revisiting the idea of ransoming the UN and guide its outreach and peace-keeping initiatives through leveraging, withholding its contribution to the UN operating budget. Although not a very original idea and all parties have not gone without disputes and disagreements, the language of the threat is desperate and uncouth--and highly selective. The UN is not a world-government but rather a mechanism to ensure that no one's sovereignty infringes on the sovereignty of another, and by begrudging its dues and citing certain activities, paints the organization with some monstrous authority it is not laying claim to. Such a proposal, if it goes any further, could only court retribution and could not end well. It is humiliating enough when there is no spirit of cooperation and compromise and budgets are slashed for the arts, science, social services and stabilization in one's own backyard, and the US embassy should not be exporting that sort of ill-will and discouragement. America's balance of influence is waning, especially when exhausted over something as petty as a pre-election competency-hearing and slander, and may very well need some day the support of such institutions to protect it from itself and narrow-interests.

denkmale, denmäler

Wikipedia for the next month is hosting a photography competition and open call for submissions for pictures of monuments and memorials in Germany and across Europe. The project has garnered a lot of interest and I am sure will add more depth to the catalogue of wonders that Wikipedia has. We have collected a lot of snapshots over the years and I am going through albums to see what I can find to contribute. Oddly enough, there’s one glaring omission in who can take part, since Italy has recognizes no provisions for freedom of panorama (Panoramafreiheit) that allows for taking pictures of works of art on public display and publishing them with no risk of infringement.

I had heard of tourists being bullied for taking pictures in London--for reasons of national security, and of the veiling of Michaelangelo’s and da Vinci’s statues along the promenade of Florenz from casual photography. Such gaps in documentation, should they spread into copy-fight, I’m sure, encourage in a round-about way more people to see such sites in person and patch these holes.

ball and chain or pigs in space

Politicians, justice officials and security experts across several German Länder are meeting to explore the possibility of establishing a base of operations in Hessen that will be able to track newly released prisoners from satellites in space, using ankle bracelets (elektronische Fußfessel) and Global Positioning technology. Many places are already doing this, with varying success, and I suppose that many of us, jailbirds or upstanding citizens, are already doing this too--submitting to tracking--voluntarily with our mobile phones, updates and announcements.

These developments reminded me of a story I saw on the superb site Neat-o-Rama (originally via Gizmodo) about an individual in Britain who eluded the authorities by tricking the wardens to attach the tracking device to his prosthetic leg. The proposal does not aim to release dangerous criminals into the population or commute sentences to house-arrest but to monitor individuals that pose a risk as repeat-offenders, recidivists (Rückfälligkeit). This sort of probation does not replace half-way houses or true interaction, since whereabouts are not always telling of what's a-foot. Once they catch and try the culprit, I think the robber who recently held-up a casino in Bad Karma, our fair city, would make a good candidate for this pilot-programme. There has been such a flurry of casino (Spielhalle), depressing and chintzy with slot- and plinko-machines and not glamourous like Monte Carlo, building here lately, it's almost as if one could rob a gambling hall by accident without even realizing it.

reagent and chemical kinetics

Just as regulatory decisions, with moaning and feet-dragging, possibly apt, and once set for a far, distant future which phase out production of the familiar incandescent light bulb for more, debatably, efficient models, come into effect in Germany, a production facility for organic light-emitting diodes (LEDs) (DE) has been inaugurated in Regensburg (Ratisbon) on the Danube. The process is still being perfected since the discovery of this property in the 1950s, but in application, these electroluminescent membranes can be stretched and spindled across larger surfaces and maintain contrast and visual integrity without a back-light. Manufacture is also less energy intensive, since unlike with current display screens that require a housing be prepared, organic LEDs can be printed onto any suitable surface, flexible or rigid. LEDs bulbs are also among the alternatives touted to old-fashioned light bulbs, whose longevity and durability (and lack of toxic gas wafting off the circuitry when in use) could not previously overcome their high cost, but now, with factory expansion, maybe that price will come down. Technology always outpaces good governmental intent, perhaps making the proclaimed next generation of lighting already obsolete, and the future a less friendly territory for green-washing and impostors.

ready, steady, go or goodnight, irene

In collusion with the media, it seems the US government has learnt to harness not only the power of nightmares but the power of suggestion as well. There's been quite a bit of gentle teasing over the hyperbolic storm and some stewing distrust at being put off by the whole weekend's meteorological terrorizing, but just as it is very difficult to dismiss the tremor of an earthquake for a twitch or bump when all around people are apparently convinced by the science and gossip-stream, it was difficult to ignore the potential frenzy. No one ought to be faulted for erring on the side of caution, provided that that was an honest mistake--something upbuilding and in honour of those victims of past disasters to ensure that no one else need endure preventable catastrophes, but the stern warnings and lurking prognostications did not seem so well-intended. Even if residents of the Atlantic seaboard megapolis are not judged to be weathered veterans of hurricanes, flooding and tornados, preparation--not tempered with fear and unwavering authority--can make for a better exercise than this drill and panic, now more likely to be scoffed in the future and which was costly in terms of resources diverted and lost revenue. It is possible to recover, in terms of image and credibility, from an anti-climax and move forward, but I do have to wonder about this language and enchantment being slathered about. Are there some elements, as others have said, that are yoking insinuations, like with the usual bogeymen, to argue for or against economic policies or security priorities? What sort of arrows does this hurricane season put in the quiver of government factions? Where those hundreds of thousands of residents of Manhattan compelled to evacuate to higher-ground, under threat of legal reprisal, so bugging devices could be installed in their homes? Faced with past incompetency and then over-excited anticipation, people are searching, maybe, for something more sinister rather than accept relief, however manufactured.

geotagging or if you see something, spray something

Der Spiegel (auf englisch) has a enlivening dispatch on a project to encourage dexterity, physical activity and creative expression in a class of senior citizens through street art. Though this particular initiative has run its course, graffiti, both therapeutic and for its own sake, has proven engaging and enduring and sparked similar art projects in other retirement communities.

märchenhaft or funk to funky

The splendid directory of keen stuff Super Punch brings us the latest project by artist and illustrator Andrew Kolb. Inspired by the mental images that each line evokes, Kolb created a children’s story from the lyrics of David Bowie’s Space Oddity. He shares the whole thing on his website, along with other pretty imaginative works. Modern ballads, it seems, after Bowie, the Beatles and the Stones, do not consistently tell a story, but there are exceptions. Maybe it's too difficult to separate the music video from the music, sometimes.  What songs fill your head with images and a happy end?