eeyore or thanks for noticing me

In the parking lot of the supermarket, I saw this unusual trailer, which I thought I had mis- understood: Eselnothilfe or rather Donkey Rescue, though, to my mind, these sort of compound words can be manipulated to mean other things, like Emergency Donkey or Donkeys to the Rescue.  One can make donations to sponsor a service animal for villages in Africa or India, which I am sure is at least as appreciated as a WiFi router or some of the other charity forced on those communities in the past.  It was rather a service for retiring mules and the like that takes beasts of burden to farms where they are not expected to labour and can life out their days in peace.  It made me think of the dear, sweet animals we met in Ireland. 

The international organization advertised on the trailer canvas does not seem to be found under that website any longer, but searching I learned about similiar charities, which is a nice thought.  After we finished shopping, the caravan was ahead of us on the road and started on the same route as we would take home.  For a moment, I was excited that they might bring us an old donkey to care for.

weebles wobble but they don't fall down

 To commemorate the reunification of East and West Germany, Berlin will install this kinetic monument in an open square on the Spreeinsel, just to the south of Museum Island, near the Berliner Dom and the razed Palace of the Republic: a teeter-totter, a giant see-saw.

This massive design was picked as the winner in the competition for a national testament to peace and unity. "We are the people; we are one people--" I think it would be fun to shift the whole installation with the weight of the crowd, and it delivers a clear, symbolic message, public interaction required, that it is the people that move the country--though sometimes events move more like a carnival ride rather than participatory art.

23 skiddoo

We are avid fans of antiques, and thanks to H's discerning eye and shrewd bargaining skills, we have together amassed a houseful of fine things from the art deco era, though we have not discriminated overly against the inclusion of other styles. We have quite a good beginning collection of clocks. The tintinnabulation of the sychronized chimes is really something quite grand, along with the artistry and craftsmanship of it all, lamps, vases, sliver and statuary. H has entertained the idea authoring a blog about our finds, which I am strongly encouraging.

I do wonder, however, how 3D printing, a technology just over the horizon will affect collectors, revival in style, cottage industry and the post-industrial world as a whole. Is what you wish on, spun out of ticky-tacky, like the backdrop of a stage set, or will it have the heft and detail of the genuine article? If one can design it himself, even if the concept is sort of a let-down compared to Star Trek style replicators--though I never would have believed clones of pets were commercially available as well as any image ever created with the right amount of ink, and given the input of time and material, one should certainly be able to recreate any masterpiece of form and function on any level, from decoy to living replacement.

screed or the bad shepherd

The blog TruthDig has an important, if not too disheartening, article on the disturbing trend and designs on institutionalized education that are compelling teachers and professors to produce faithful cogs fit for the larger corporate state. Inculcated with the means and attitude essential for the modern measure of scrapping by (not even success, since that's still taught to those privileged enough to afford it), the resulting classes would be perfect, receptive consumers, industrious and effective workers and obedient voters, without the bothersome wherewithal and character to question authority, orders or profit motive. That's a rather grim and depressing result of standardized testing, and such uneasy questions about substance and breadth of edification have always inspired debate and discussion as well as students and teacher since before the time of Socrates.

The dull and conformist rhetoric, however, was formerly reserved to despotic chieftains, religious dogmatists, megalomaniacal ideologues, evil headmasters, crooked principals or grumpy deans, and producing unquestioning drones was never before touted as something that could generate revenue, big business found in for-profit schooling, academic management organizations (accreditation boards and quiz-writers) or union-busting for competent teachers. That is a dangerous development and will surely lead to lack of innovation and imagination, if not totally taming and dispiriting learners and instructors. The situation is certainly not uniformly dreadful and there are certainly places where education is celebrated and valued and teachers inspire, but one can hope that this gamboling form of American Exceptionalism does not take root elsewhere.