Diplomacy is not duplicitous and is nothing if not transparent and truthful--thought not espousing or pretending that all the details are baldly set forth for debate. Personally, I am not sorry at all for America's spillage of information and opinions that was never meant to be cast out in the open, since America readily and gleefully reserves the right to monitor any and all habits, activities and communication of any one, and with no cause.
Tuesday 30 November 2010
who carried on his shoulder a siamese cat
catagories: America, foreign policy, networking and blogging
Monday 29 November 2010
tranched or enhanced pat-down
The initial leak of high-level gossip of the diplomatic corps is may or may not of been in the best taste on the more sensational items: saying one leader lacks creativity or competency or is risk-adverse is just mean-spirited and makes for poor-working relations now that all these cables are out in the open, Ombudsman 2.0, where they cannot be denied or taken back. Some of these truths are manifestly apparent, even without careless documentation, however, there is no accounting for transparency.
catagories: ๐ฅธ, foreign policy
Sunday 28 November 2010
circuit breaker or move along, nothing to see here
CH O2 or my name is hunt hunter
catagories: antiques, lifestyle, transportation, travel
Friday 26 November 2010
theory and practice
catagories: ๐ฉ๐ช, ๐, antiques, holidays and observances
another brick in the wall or please don't feed the tigers
Columnist Laurie Penny of the New Statesman sends a dispatch from the latest round of student protests in England against tuition rate hikes. This anger follows demonstrations in Germany and many other European countries where budgetary shortfalls, real or imagined, and austerity measures, imposed or voluntary, have undermined the ideal and priority of the equitable promotion of a literate society. This is something worth fighting for and the students' efforts from Dublin to London to Paris to Bamberg and all points beyond and in between are valiant and should not go unnoticed or unheeded.
catagories: ๐, ๐, revolution
Wednesday 24 November 2010
cornucopia
catagories: ๐งถ, holidays and observances, language, networking and blogging
Sunday 21 November 2010
allons-y, alonso
catagories: ๐ฌ, ๐, networking and blogging
Saturday 20 November 2010
beyond thunderdome
Der Spiegel, via thelocal, reports on a tip from a would-be defector that warns of a Mumbai-style terror attack on the German Reichstag to be carried out in the Spring. Since when is kicking it Bombay style a way to talk about stratagems, as if it were comparable to ร la russe or Stockholm Syndrome, because as dreadfully effective and tragic as it was for the city of Mumbai, storming Parliament and running amok is on a different level. It is just tacky shorthand.
catagories: ๐ฉ๐ช, ๐ฌ, foreign policy
Friday 19 November 2010
flying dutchman or space ghost coast-to-coast
catagories: ๐, ๐ก, ๐ญ, Mars, transportation
Thursday 18 November 2010
red herring
#blurmany or good fences
catagories: ๐ฉ๐ช, ๐ฅธ, lifestyle, networking and blogging
Wednesday 17 November 2010
abwesenheit von lรคrm
To call it a tempered and reasonable response sounds like the political talk that signifies nothing, but it is refreshing and affirming that not only are scare-tactics not unleashed wontingly, though the statement was brief, the news is also constantly repeated, including all the admonishments, with analysis and the public parsing every word. It is a lot different than in the US where measures, arguably morale crushing and furthering submissiveness, are only escalating. Statistics record that with the past decade tragically about three thousand people perished as a result of terrorist related air travel, albeit mostly on one day. When draconian response is not at all commiserate, then the boogeymen need do nothing else.
catagories: ๐ฅธ, America, Europe, psychology, transportation
Tuesday 16 November 2010
obarmate
rock lobster or divide and conquer
catagories: ๐ฅธ, foreign policy, transportation
Sunday 14 November 2010
stitch-witchery or hobby lobby
Of course, malleability and ruggedness will only improve over time and perhaps the potential for domestic manufacturing will explode, already with talk of fabricating architectural elements, sculpture, ginger-bread houses, integrated circuits, clothing and even human organs. Boing Boing, MAKE and many other websites host creative conversions about 3D printing innovations regularly. Just see what you can find. Design will be customized and revolutionized, with no restraints or anything extraneous. There will be, no doubt, a Gutenberg moment of singularity when the means are available to all, and surely there will be some businesses that want to ensure that their designs are protected and maybe computer companies will someday soon turn to peddling patterns, like the Simplicity paper cut-out guides in fabric stores and turn spiteful like those who belittle homemade Christmas presents over the store-bought variety. Clay might be the business of the future. Perhaps contemporary designs will retain some proprietary protections, but I am sure that any home would be happily and comfortably outfitted with Art Nouveau and Classical motifs—brilliant and timeless and in the public domain.
Friday 12 November 2010
blackletter fraktur
Wednesday 10 November 2010
atom-mill
catagories: ⚛️, ๐ฉ๐ช, Bavaria, environment
QEII is not just a luxury liner or deconstructing dorothy
catagories: ๐ฌ, economic policy, foreign policy
Monday 8 November 2010
ornithopter or kid icarus
catagories: America, economic policy, psychology
Saturday 6 November 2010
pharmacokinetics or better living through chemistry
Before repairing to bashing the industrial standards of Asian maunfacturers for toothpaste with high lead-content, and eliding over our own thiftiness for going with the lowest bidder in the first place, the Western world makes and has made for decades quite enough poisonous products all on its own. One piece that rather made my skin crawl and left me shuddering for the checkout girl where H and I went shopping just a little bit earlier concerned studies showing that Bisphenol A leeches from thermal-receipt paper through the skin and into the body just from casual handling. It's nearly as devastating as the formaldehyde that leaks out of new furniture and carpeting.
catagories: ๐งช, environment, health and medicine
Friday 5 November 2010
trojan horse
Wednesday 3 November 2010
and now for something completely different
Skeletor
COBRA
The Vatican
Mephistopheles
Dr. No
Madonna
The Ferengi
The Templars
The Illumnati
This is just too strange, and I am sure that this was not, even after twenty weeks of development with the representative, the sort of deus ex machina that Britain expected to revive her economy. I am certain Britain would not be without competition also interested in entertaining such an unbelieveable bargain.
catagories: ๐ฌ๐ง, ๐ฌ, ๐บ, ๐ง , economic policy, networking and blogging
no theatre
catagories: America, psychology
symbols of state or no we canntibus
catagories: America, health and medicine, language, lifestyle
Monday 1 November 2010
prisoner of zenda or don’t let it rest on the president’s desk
It is rather difficult to keep composure over the tenor of the elections in the US and not being impatient with the results, although tutored in civility and reminded of our own catastrophic lunges towards insanity and overbearing. I truly wish some of the theater could be dispensed with, the ugliness and the cries of anguish and the cries of victory, however much that is not the political game, just like effecting change in government never should have been piecemeal and possibly too weak to resist the revisionists and spin-doctors or aimed so finely.
The German public, while enjoying in measurable terms--and I am sure some intangibles as well--historically low unemployment and an industrial juggernaut, have avoided austerity to a large extent, and while not boastful are neither ascribing the recovery to some preternatural government influence—maybe only helping bootstraps and not roadblocks, restrictions, or appeals to unfettered greed.