Monday 10 June 2013

books - check 'em out (at your library)

I enjoy noticing the reinterpretation of logographs in different countries and the ways that the intuitive comes across to the eyes of outsiders, like the subtle differences in traffic signs, the way pedestrians and children scampering across the streets are rendered or the symbols for cars—in Switzerland there were quite compact models with prominent mufflers (for quiet) and smiling faces when coming from the opposite direction and in Italy, the cars look a bit like mobster roadships, especially on the slippery-when-wet warning—it looks like someone's been rubbed out.  Maybe there is some meaning in that I am glad that there is not over-standardization in the name of conformity.
I really like the Italian sign for a public library, too. I suppose the columns are upright books on a shelf but the way they're arranged made me think of Karate Kid and breaking boards of wood with one's fists.  That is one way to keep readership engaged and excited about learning.

tune-on, turn-in

Last week, the local security apparatchik—well, echo-chamber, redoubled with the various turfs that are the realms of this petty kingdom, the Consulate and the hulking bureau called the Department of Homeland Security did its best to fend off the curious under its protection from the Blockupy rallies being held.
The warning, the issuance read, however, like an open-invitation listing venues and times with a high degree of specificity, even tipping almost towards sympathy for the movement—but still, stay away, move along, nothing to see here. I suppose I was one of those curious ones that the stern warning was intended for—and could rationalize that seeing the spectacle up close was probably another instance of seeking out trouble, since it was not exactly condemned and made Verboten out of hand. The Polizei and the European Central Bank in Frankfurt am Main also in being competently prepared and indulgent of the action that managed to defuse it a bit.

The organizers wanted no violence and the protests were carried out peacefully, without sensationalism that made the public and governments confront some very uncomfortable, impolite truths about the policies of poverty, austerity programmes and corporate welfare, staunch resistance to a clearing-house tax scheme on financial transactions, the spinning of straw into gold that skims money but no wealth out of trade and speculation. The message was delivered and the case pled but whether reforms come out of these rallies is yet to be seen. A little tolerance (which is always a dangerous thing) and some reverse-psychology, I think, coupled with inattentiveness by the press and the show is over make for some deviously powerful opponents.

Sunday 9 June 2013

perry como or back from vacation

Reluctantly, we returned from holiday in in northern Italy with a pleasant transfer of much of what lay between, though the weather and mood, somewhat, were degraded bit by bit as we crossed the Alps but there is a lot to be grateful for, the chance for an escape and to be spared some of the ravages of Nature. It is good to be home, in any case, however, and there yet again memories and impressions to last a lifetime.

Thursday 30 May 2013

ab in den urlaub

 
PfRC will be on hiatus shortly for an over-due vacation through Switzerland on to the borderlands of Italy and Lake Como, plus where ever the road takes us. Please stay tuned for on-going adventures.

alchemie oder mayence

An international team of alchemists have proven their metal and have explained in a repeatable and applicable way how liquid cement (Beton) can be magicked into a liquid glass-like conductive material.

The substance, refined at laboratories in Japan, is being called mayenite, after the English exonym for the city of Mainz where the potential was accidentally first discovered. It's in the cooling and compression that determines how the cement congeals and compounds crystallize that makes a spot of pavement a hot-wire. This is pretty interesting news in material engineering, making ideas like electrifying roads to charge hybrid vehicles or harness kinetic energy or turning passive surfaces into dynamic ones seem not so far-fetched or ambitious.

cock-eyed optimist or oil can

Though I had given up hope, more or less dismissing stories of friends of friends' computers spontaneously reviving themselves after an accidental spill as the stuff of urban legend, I tried again earlier today, absently and without expectation. But lo and behold, after the sixth day, which seemed to be a common experience and I had tried repeatedly in the interim, it came on.

It was like the Tin Man muttering “oil can” from seized up jaws. I know that this probably a rather spacey thing to believe and not very subjective, but I think that these are the moments when inanimate objects earn their souls. I'm inclined to think that animate objects earn their keep too—by virtue that is, and at much excelerated rate. I am not posting this update on that laptop, of course, since the keyboard and mousepad was done for (and the cooling-fan which always seemed to run in overdrive never came on and I was afraid that it might overheat), reacting in weird ways, but that was nonetheless a relief as I was able to copy some files locally onto the new computer and mirror some tried and tested settings. As for the old laptop, maybe I can turn it into art or find some fitting honour—not that I haven't used a handicapped set-up before and wouldn't object to the right crutches again.

Wednesday 29 May 2013

seaquest 2013

More statutory notifications of intent to furlough (beurlaubt) US federal works are being distributed within hard and fast guidelines, though some agencies have chosen to be proactive instead of reactive in meeting this mandate.

I wonder if those exempt from this act are a bit stare-offishly curious about what those unpaid holidays might entail. In order to gird my personal budget in preparation, I had designated quite a few small luxuries as noble martyrs—like furlough cashews, etc. I wonder what those forced to stay away from work have planned for the meantime—be it numbing worry or an excuse for adventure. Especially for fence-sitters, the grass is always greener. Sequestration in itself, the codex that triggers all these savings-measures, sounds pretty enticing at first consideration, like that global-warming feel-good television series from the early 1990s. This option atrophied, however from years of crying wolf, has very real and immediate repercussions, markedly for those realizing less income in the face of something other than Snow Day high-jinx or those with waning patience to navigate the rivets of bureaucracy.