heurism or green fairy/blue tooth

9 November marks Inventors' Day (Tag der Erfinder) in the German Sprachraum. Perhaps coincidentally--perhaps not, the local's Swiss edition featured an article earlier in the week of Swiss inventions, which in addition to milk chocolate, the Helvetica font, and the Swiss army knife, include Velcro, LSD and absinthe. The occasion, purposed to encourage people to pursue their own ideas and remind people about the forgotten and unsung innovators, is observed on 9 November because of the birthday of Austrian actress and Erfinderin Hedy Lamarr, in recognition of her 1942 discovery of frequency hopping spread spectrum technique that eventually enabled the development of cellular telephony and Bluetooth technologies.

flik und flak or endless summer

Trying to triangulate times among Germany, the States and Russia has become a bit more complicated. In Germany and most of western Europe, day-light savings time ended early Sunday morning--a change that occurs a week prior to when America falls back. Russia, however, opted out of observing the time-change altogether this year, stating primarily seasonal-affective disorder and, I think, inviting debate on a custom of dwindling utility. The apparent motion of the Sun around the Earth throughout the year does a good job of shortening and lengthening the days without legislative intervention, and the fact that Daylight Savings Time (and Standard Time) was first proposed and championed in the Southern Hemisphere where the seasons are opposite ought not to be taken as strong testimony. So the time's off in the United States and Russia, from a German perspective, although that may not matter much, since its likely a public holiday--a chaotic collusion either today or tomorrow: the predominately Protestant Länder (Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Saxon, Saxon-Anhalt, and Thuringia) celebrate Reformation Day (Reformationstag) when Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the Schlosskirche in Wittenberg on Halloween, and the Catholic Länder (Baden Württemberg, Bavaria, North Rhine Westphalia, Rhineland-Pfalz and Saarland) observe the following day All Saints (Allerheiligen). Hours and days certainly count and the few seconds devoted to ensure synchronization are certainly well-spent as well, not so much for the early, bleary sunrise but in the custom and reflecting on what others do.

viennese waltz or ballroom blitz

 

The negative attention plied and mounting on the European Union and imminent crisis talks, replete with rumour and grandstanding and loggerheads, is striking me as a very sort of Zen/Non-Zen exercise. There is an imponderable quality to the debate, that the raining down of economic doom, has levied undue focus on these otherwise normal and healthy proceedings. The European clubhouse, founded primarily on hope, understanding and cooperation but also maybe cynically on the guilt of Germany and the opportunism of others (and the constituent parts were never, it seems, painted with so much contrast when there were borders), is holding deliberations among its treasurer, secretary and president. If this was happening with a less scrutinous watch, would there be so much noise? Of course what happens matters, especially when it could affect the timbre of politics, social support, peace and self-determination, yoked or not to an indenturing debt, but other major economies have also collapsed under the weight of their own greed and surfaced (not recovered) none the wiser, unlike Europe who has already made regulations more transparent and more robust in order to reemerge again, stronger and more secure.

There is no easy or obvious answer to these challenges, but nor is there a wrong decision that cannot be overcome. The most-watched designations are overgenerous and meaningless, and Triple A-Alpha-Ailm-Aleph-Double-Plus-Super-Thanks, I'm sure will settle to a new baseline.  There is something horrible and vicious about an academic exercise, a zero-sum-game--something that claws its way back to equilibrium--that seems very Non-Zen but also a little bit reassuring that affairs will adjust and right themselves, and that the core of a place, buildings, streets and communities can be much older and essentially more durable than their latest ascribing armour--city, nation, state.

transparez

No place has a monopoly on greed, corruption and bribery, and Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) has been doing important work to expose the lobbyists in Brussels and how business motives translate to political agendas within the European Union. The organization has compiled an extensive list of the ties that bind, available for downloading on their site, in addition to all the other reporting they do on influence-peddling. Such work is vital, I think, because there is a gentrification and formalization in the culture of corruption and the EU, which further shields those courtiers from the press and public backlash.

appellation d'origine controlee and prussian blue

 Unlike Roquefort cheese, Champagne from Champagne, Dijon mustard, and dozens of other regional delicacies and specialties, Bavarian Obazda (also known as Obatzter, Angebatzter, Gerupfter in Franconia or as Gmanschter in Switzerland) was not awarded the proprietary protections of a geographical viticulture designation by the German courts. This spicy cheese spread is certainly unique and a signature Brotzeit dish--however, I like the fact that it was also ruled that it cannot be copyrighted. Too many things are overly-litigious as it is, without affording food and drink a court-appointed attorney and though imitators will be opportunists, distinction and quality are usually self-regulating.

Tradition, like the Reinheitsgebot (legally enforceable) and secrecy, as with the German chemists and dye-makers or Venetian mirror-makers or authentic charter house Chartreuse, whose blend of herbs is only known to two monks, forms a process with checks and balances, rather than monopolization--renown is not exclusivity, and a better model than relying on trolling and cartels. Family recipes, handed down, though there is a shift to jealously guard collections once shared under a gettization scheme, creation and experimentation should not be hindered by the letter of the law when it usual fails to keep the plaintiff undiluted in the first place.

significant digits

With all the talk and nerves, one would reasonably conclude that Europe and the euro are being assaulted on all fronts not by a debt-burden or over-wrought speculation but rather by a crisis in the currency and partnership itself. European manufacturing and innovation has not been overtaken, and there is no talk of war-mongering--there has been quite a bit of thinking out loud and gloomy scenarios that have been other than helpful and have stoked panic, so I think every possibility on one's mind has already been voiced, inflation is not galloping in the marketplace (other than through shortages caused by environmental changes, like the wildfires in Russia, etc), and the euro, relative to other currencies) has only lost fractional value and is certainly one of the more stable ones.  A tenth of a cent in the exchange rate does make a difference to traders and those with dollar denominated loans--or try to out-smart the next moves, like me--being paid in US dollars. The bailout, relief programs of the States are echoed in the plans for a euro rescue fund, having wealthy member countries contribute to a pool credit that will be made available to poorer members on contingency.

What this rescue fund is, however, is not a rainy day account but rather an instrument to facilitate some countries to make more loans to others in distress without violating the founding principles of economic health for joining the EU in the first place. And it is no solution to throw more money at a problem that was precipitated in the first place in part by being overextended on easy-credit. There might be a less damaging and indentured way beyond this slump and worry--interestingly, it is the banks and investors that revealed the sovereign debt problem by refusing to extend more credit, though it took them decades to admit to themselves that this too was unsustainable, but those same financiers do not want to entertain the following alternative either: allowing some economies the option of bankruptcy (not messy and predatory and sudden) in a controlled environment, with support on hand and at the ready, provides economies with the hope of a definite end and a scheduled rebuilding.

cogitative bias

The waves of panic in European banking stocks and in the overall American market over EU fiscal discipline and future of the currency-bloc seems to me a bit disingenuous. Battering the creditworthiness of certain big banks or the ability of some member states to adhere to their imposed self-improvement plans. After all, it is in America's interest to promote this particular sort of torment and agony, since it masks its own regulatory and supply-side shortcomings and, moreover, it is in the better interest of the USA to keep the euro over-valued and the dollar weak. Should the euro wane, the American export market would suffer from cheaper European competition, and resources, priced in dollars, would become more dear. Defaults and the perception of defaults might hurt business profit in the short-term but not people, productivity and the marketplace in the long-term, and the policies and mechanisms that will be developed to redress bankruptcy will ultimately translate to a strong and stable European economy.

cosmic architektonik

This Spiegel (bedauerlich nur auf deutsch) gallery and review of by-gone communist architecture, alien like the shipwrecks of a failed space-invasion curated by photographer Roman Bezjak during a five year odyssey through East Europe, behind the former Iron Curtain, is fantastic grand tour of old out-of-this-world Soviet relics and structural design through the former East Germany, Tirana, Pristina, Bratislava, Tiflis and Prague.

These expressive images certainly convey more than the imposing, gray monstrosities that are usually conjured up when one thinks of such buildings. We have seen a bit of both: the industrial, utilitarian and the inspired and elevated, and I certainly would like to visit these places. One can peruse the complete journey in Bezjak's book "Socialist Modernism - Period Archeology," and would be perfect destinations for the intrepid trekkers from Atlas Obscura.

In a related collection, Spiegel also features evocative images of post-modern monuments to war and revolution mostly from the former Yugoslavia and Balkans that are surpassingly bizarre and theatrical. One can find out more about the artists' visions in Jan Kempenaers' collection, "Spomenik."

kraken or there be dragons here

The Big Think, a surpassingly excellent curator for unusual examples of cartography, has a thoughtful piece on political satire, not such subtle ones, and portrayal of maps with anthropomorphism and zoomorphism. Going by national symbols alone, one would have a whole motley herd of eagles, lions, bears, dragons and griffons, but we also have these geo-political works of art that betray sentiment and fears. One of the more utilitarian propaganda monsters has been the land octopus, the kraken, an unappeasable force of nature that is a bigger threat than caricatures of kaisers and ministers. A lot of different countries, not just Russia and its successors, have assumed these writhing tentacles and it is interesting to reflect on these allegorical portrayals and meaning behind them--like in this map from the collections of Bibliodyssey. United, more or less under shifting regencies, Europe was often depicted as the Queen of the World, Europa Regina. I am sure that along with all available map-making precision at the time, a lot of thought, slights and glories, went into every feature. I cannot fathom the symbolism and deferring nature of this language but I hope we retain the ability to interpret the subtle and the dense and multi-layered.

Karte oft ungewöhn-licher Kartographen und Satirikern finden in The Big Think blog, und in der jungsten Ausgabe befinden sich ein nach-denklich Artikel über vermenschlichter und zoomorphischen Figuren der Karten. Anstatt nur nationalen Symbolen--die Löwen, Adler, Bären, Drachen, Griffins--gibt auch die festlandlich Krake, auf Gefühl und Angst hindeuten. Die pur Naturgewalt--der Kraken--ist Propagandamittel und mehr bedrohlicher als politischen Karikaturen. Nicht nur Russland sondern auch vielen anderen Ländern dargestellt mit Ausläufern war. In der Vergangenheit gezeigt Europa so wie eine Königin. Das ist sehr komplex und vielschichtig. Hoffentlich können wir weiter solche Sinnbilder und Symbolismus schätzen und verstehen.

englischer garten or alpengeist

The revelation that Chinese designers and architects were covertly taking measurements of the exemplary Austrian village of Hallstatt to recreate it as a pure tourist attraction in Guangdong province, to the much to the chagrin of many surprised residents, has been circulating for a while. I thought it was just amusing at first, thinking of the earlier, imperfect Chinese copies of a German town, a typical English village from the Cotswolds and even a Disney-esque fun park that came out a bit scruffy looking--or all the sometimes tacky and bordering on cultural stereotype installations put up in Western theme parks, casinos and in restaurants. A whole village, faithfully reproduced or like Bizarro World, however, is a bit unsettling--especially the shells of churches. Maybe imitation is a finer form of flattery and this attention will be good for tourism on both sides of the world, but I think having one's homeland cloned is karmic retribution for entertaining the sale of its mountain peaks. Though such a locale would have been prime real estate for a mad scientist's secret lair or a diabolical organization's headquarters, I don't think the buyer of such vanity property would have had that.

Es ist eine erstaunliche Enthüllung, dass chinesischer Ingenieure haben die vollkommen österreichischen Hallstatt gemessen und analysiert zwecks das Dorf in Guangdong Provinz als Tourismusbetrieb wieder herzustellen. Das ist ältere News aber viele Bewohner sind erschüttert. Das kommt mir komisch vor--gegenüber die dort (früheren) chinesische Nachbauten von anderen europäischen Städten und sogar von Disney Land oder die Abendlands Version von Kulturbegriffe wie im Spielbanken, Erlebnisparks und Restaurants. Das Kopieren eines kompletten Dorfes--originalgetreu oder unvollkommen) ist jedoch mehr störend. Was bedeutet es nun, wenn gibt eine Nachgebildung von eine Kirche? Vielleicht wird diese Nachahmung für den Tourismus an beiden Seiten der Welt gut sein--aber denke ich, dass die Klonierung von Heimat ist Karmagesetz gegen den versuchte Verkauf des ihre Berggipfel ausgeben. Allerdings wäre an einem solchen Ort es optimal, bei geheime Hauptquartier für verrückter Wissenschaftler aufzubauen. Ich denke nicht, dass der schließliche Käufer--oder Österreich--zustimmen würde.

althing

As the controversial and generally opposed Stuttgart 21 train station project and nuclear waste transportation resumes in Germany, polls reveal that Germans want more direct democracy--plebiscites and referenda, and a say in government not mitigated by party professionals. No one is proposing anarchy and mob-rule, and, I think, it is political egos everywhere that makes representative government, with or without majority rule and minority protection, the standard. An Icelandic experiment is basically crowd-sourcing its draft constitution, inviting the electorate to propose regulations governing many aspects of civil law and policy. In contrast, though there are examples of direct voting like anti-smoking rules and very local issues, Germany does not really have a constitution (some say)--except the one dating from the Weimar Republic debatably--and instead have courts and a civil codex, an impressively succinct little citizens' law book. Back in Iceland, submissions are via the standard forms of internet participatory democracy, but this experiment is exciting and innovative and maybe will open up the possibility for more civic involvement and literacy, plus better tools for dialogue and ascent.

Gleichzeitig mit den Kontroverse um Stuttgart 21 Bahnstations-projekt und um den Zuführungen zu Rückstellungen für Entsorgung im Kernenergie-bereich, aus den letzten Meinungsumfragen geht hervor, dass viele Deutsche wollen direkten Demokratie: mehr Volksabstimmungen, ungemilderte Teilnahme in der Regierung. Niemand denkt daran, der Pöbelherrschaft sollte geschehen, und ich glaube, dass machen die Politikeregos vertretende Regierung die anerkannte Norm, unabhängig davon, ob es Tyrannei der Mehrheit ist oder die Minderheit geschützt wird. Ein isländisches Experiment ist Crowdsourcing seine Verfassungsentwurf: die Wähler werden gebeten, Ideen über das Zivilrecht und Politik vorzuschlagen. Im Gegensatz dazu hat Deutschland kein echt Bundesverfassung sagen die Einen (die umstrittend Weimarer Verfassung ausgenommen), und sondern hat stattdessen Gerichte und das bürgerliche Gesetzbuch, was sehr eindrucksvoll und bündigen ist. Darüber hinaus empfiehlt in der Island die Ideen von Wähler geleitete über gängigen Sozialisierungsarten, aber vielleicht dieser innovat Erprobung wird mehr bürgerlichen Beteiligung und Bildung erreichen und geben helfen uns Design bessere Werkzeuge - so gut wie der Wahlzettel.

they

The Bilderberg Group is convening for their annual conference in Switzerland over the weekend.  Conspiracy and speculation can be entertaining, and I feel that either the power-brokers from Europe and the Americas getting together for a informal brain-storming session without the ideas they throw out being beholden to their politicians, press or investors to promote trans-Atlantic cooperation and sustainability or reptillian overlords plotting the enslavement of all of humanity are both equally plausible--behind closed doors.  I do not think, however, that this body is deciding on the news and developments for the coming year or acts as the shadow, world government.  If that were the case, I think they would be better hidden, less tolerant of the unexpected, and their agendas maybe would have been betrayed by puppets' string long ago.

eschatology or a peck of pickled peppers

Being somewhat inured to out breaks of food poisoning, being much more common occurrences in the States, the wrath and general indignation to this episode that’s apparently originated with a harvest of Spanish cucumbers is laudable. Such risk coming from the normally innocuous is rightly intolerable. I have a lot of sympathy for the people that have gotten sick, as well as for the farmers and truck-farming industry that has garnered a bad reputation. It is difficult to attribute this out break to simply a quality control issue—although the draconian austerity measures being imposed on the Spanish people may lead to more cutting corners in the future and possibly more farmers entering the marketplace without proper training and experience with organic agriculture, the preferred cultivation method for German consumers—there is moreover the dangers of a monoculture emerging here, I believe. Culling one uniform type of cucumber, instead of a variety, makes the whole crop more susceptible to pests of opportunity—maybe this one robust strain of E. coli (DE) too. Monocultures, uniformity, in the form of designer seeds, I think, has also fuelled the frequency of out breaks in the US, but such cultivars arise even without genetic meddling.  Tastes adapt and call for this standard, and it doesn’t stay a Spanish problem. The flora and fauna in human digestive systems make up a delicate and complicated ecology too, and the bacteria attacks this wildlife preserve rather than going after the host, the game warden, directly. Variety allows for immunity and the strength to overcome the daily onslaught and poaching of our bodies.

senatus

An interesting German jobs market report came out of Leipzig, which mirrors one aspect of the anemic employment recovery in the US.

The analysis of career prospects for younger people entering the workforce shows that wages and chances of meaningful advancement are relatively low compared to historical levels. Even though the fluctuating US unemployment numbers sometimes suggest improvement, deeper scrutiny, however, reveals that there is disproportionate joblessness for younger people and those jobs that are returning are not nearly of the caliber of those that were lost and are not coming back. Despite Germany's Wirtschaftswunder, poor prospects and disenfranchisement for the young led all countries towards gerontocracy, rule by the council of elders that can turn into feelings of oppression. Wise, experienced counsel ensures good governance and continuity but also tends to want to maintain its own standard of living, and there are simply not enough resources, conventionally, on the poor old planet to keep billions, young and old, professional engaged. Incumbents of course should not be edged out and I think that would be a nightmare form of labour revolt, persecuting the past generation for the sake of up-and-comers--and a strange reversal of the retirement-contribution paradox. People everywhere need to become innovative in creating markets sustainably, and not jobs tethered to old profligate ways. Business is about scarcity but need for service and fulfillment is virtually inexhaustible.

Ein Leipziger deutscher Job-Marktbericht ist interresant, und dieser Bericht ist einem Aspekt des schwachen amerikanischen Wirtschaftsaufschwungs ähnlich. Berufsaussichten für jüngere Leute, die in die Belegschaft eingehen, haben niedrigere Löhne und weniger Chancen der bedeutungsvollen Förderung. Gegen oberflächliche Indikatoren der Verbesserung gibt es noch hohe Arbeitslosigkeit für junge Leute, und die Qualität von Jobs sind nicht dasselbe wie zuvor. Trotz Deutschlands Wirtschaftswunder führten schlechte Aussichten und Entmündigung für den Jungen Leuten alle Länder zu Gerontokratie. Weisheit und Erfahrung machen gute Regierung und Kontinuität aber es bewahrt auch selbst. Es gibt nicht genug Mittel (im klassischen Sinn) auf diesem Planeten, um Jobs allen zu geben. Die ältere Generation sollte nicht entlassen werden, um der jüngeren Generation zu helfen. Das würde ein Albtraum sein, und es macht Finanzierungsruhestand paradox. Kreativität muss Jobs unabhängig von alten Denkarten, beschränkten Mitteln und Marktluftblasen. Geschäft ist Knappheit, aber das Bedürfnis nach dem Dienst und Erfüllung wird nie erschöpft. Geschäft ist Knappheit, aber das Bedürfnis nach dem Dienst und Erfüllung wird nie erschöpft.

just deserts

Karma and irony are sometimes the only concepts able to connect and make sense of the disparate events of history. The same ideas, however, seem to also be taking on a commanding role in determining foreign policy and outreach in present statecraft, and seemingly in many cases, the only framing factors in diplomacy and decision-making.

On some levels, it is only fitting that the Western powers are struggle to contain the Frankenstein’s monsters, non-pejoratively, that they have created or stuff the genie back inside the bottle: many powers turned a blind eye to the injustices of those who were the bulwarks of stability politically and economically—however tyrannical or at least unchecked, Italy is facing an onslaught of immigrants from its former imperial aspirations, France is policing its former colonial holdings as well, Germany is being compelled to paid the dues of NATO membership, and the US is facing down hostile jets from the Libyan airbase it held until Qaddafi came to power.

I venture in the current atmosphere, intervention has been needful and protected many innocent people and perhaps gives them to opportunity to succeed, not burdened by governments serving in the omission of their clients and with those resulting price controls somewhat excused. It could be a slippery-slope, however. Why didn’t the French cavalry charge in to kidnap George W. Bush and deliver him to the disenfranchised electorate back in 2001? What if Russia championed a Bavarian independence movement or Hawaiian liberation? Iceland is refusing reparations to foreign investors over its failed banks, but who is to say that international condemnation on America’s fiscal policy is not too risky already and should be subject to the global good? Sovereignty is a delicate thing, which tends to wither before adventures en masse.

bucket brigade and bail-in

Collusion, conspiracy seems to play a big part in commercial affairs, especially when deferment, demurring on the inevitable, is playing an event larger role. Adventures in the Middle East, under U.N. sponsorship, are proving costly but sorties were inspired by the misapplication, transference of one uprising to another.

The pressure to act or react, according to a naïve paradigm, has anchored military and statecraft to a civil war or a tribal war, an internal affair, that even the rebel forces are finding awkward and unwieldy. Meanwhile, the same precedence that's potentially prejudiced with misjudgment hangs over the Ivorians, Syrians and the Iranians. Procrastination and bickering over nuance and semantics has been another form of deferment for the US government, interested in defanging, surgically certain programs. Kettled though undeterred, there is another uprising being organized, different though inspired by protests in the UK and witnessing what can be accomplished elsewhere, that aims to garner maximum attention, and make the beneficiaries of all this strife and delay take notice. There is a huge disconnection between economic health and the health of a people, of a nation--no matter what's selling, which is only proportional to the disconnection between the classes.

Solidarity and education are certainly powerful, but when fundamental problems are not addressed and too much profit is skimmed off of that dawdling, conspiring forces are invited in: with sovereign default and shutdowns looming, the spectre of meddlesome quagmire and people financially alienated, these major banks and their familiars only need the bad press of sunshine.

a working-class hero is something to be

A Washington, D.C. journal featured an important and intensely personal account of the how being out of work changes a person and a family, affecting one's dignity, attitude and outlook. It is absolutely crushing, gathering small blessing nonetheless, how the writer realizes that America has become a plutocracy, a kleptocracy and the only relatively safe careers are those that appeal to the vanities of the wealthy.

For the writer's intended audience, such transformations should be obvious and prevented, dealt with sympathetically, but just as hard as her revelations are about the state of affairs, understanding the consequences of unemployment or underemployment can be very difficult, for those spared the brutality and the insult.

The struggle is different for any individual anywhere, but it is nearly impossible to fathom for many Europeans, where the chance to live the American dream is still possible for immigrants and natives alike, who are rarely confronted with threats of eviction or a constant plague of bounty-hunter debt collectors or shudder in the absence of any sort of meaningful social safety-net, recourse or cushion. Sincerely, I hope that no one ever need to go through this, especially with the lowered expectations that globalization brings, disgust and futility with the ability and impetus to organize and protest against injustice even taken away.  One hopes, as well, that the message of this story shared is received and that awareness and empathy increases.

the calypso caper

It is difficult to discern what the involuntary consortium of Western powers, be they the UN, the US, NATO or some mandate or protectorate, are trying to accomplish in the Levant. They act against the vocal and tacit advice of many, including regional powers’ limited approval. To estimate the situation in Libya the same as other recent revolutions, with names spicy and colourful, may be over-simplifying and unflattering to call it imitation. America, feigning reluctance, is pushing forward and, I believe, clearing following a tragically predictable playbook. I wonder where is this war’s Curveball, the Iraq informant and agitator who fed the intelligence agencies and hawkish minds exactly what they wanted to hear. Or is there no such figure this time around, only the irresistible siren song of battle and Balkanization by dividing the region?

abwesenheit von lärm

“Meine Damen und Herren,” German Interior minister de Maizière began in a press-conference, “there is cause for concern but no cause hysteria,” citing foreign intelligence that gave more substantial leads on a possible terrorist plot to carry out attacks in Germany at the end of November. Such news could also transform into nebulous and scary, but necessarily de Maizière cautioned that response and vigilance should not negatively affect the hallmarks of a free society. Some critics claim the minister and whole security apparatschik for not sharing the urgency that the US unloaded a few weeks past about an even vaguer threat fear the blowback when something might materialize: at the time, it was offered that there was not need to change routine; now however, de Maizière excused this press conference precisely because people might see their daily routines disrupted—there might be a more noticeable police presence, and he just though “the public to know why.”

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.

idée fixe

EU legislation has condemned the old fashioned, inefficient and heat-generating light bulb (German--Glühbirn, glowing-pear) in favor of the lower wattage, longer-lived variety. This is a good move which will reduce waste since light-bulbs are reputedly resistant to recycling--which is something I do not quite buy--and save consumers money on their utility bills, figured rather unexcitedly over the life-time of the light-bulb. This restriction, beyond promotion of a cost-saving measure and a sensible idea, could create a underground culture of after-market old fashioned light-bulbs to fit vintage and antique lamps. There must be surplus stock for decades-worth of lighting that are now barred from retail outlets but could span a grey-market. I do not want to buck the ecologically smart trend, but I like the idea of sneaking around to bypass newly-mandated contraband. It makes me think about those eternal, early incandescent bulbs that are still burning from Thomas Edison's time, the heydays of tinkering and experimentation. The designed obsolescence supposedly came later, once manufacturers realized that there was no money to be made in something that did not need to be replaced.