agee, agog or proprioception, exteroception, interoception

In I am sure a well-intentioned and intellectually-honest attempt to improve public education, the charitable foundation of a software tycoon is sponsoring research into magnetic bracelets that gauge students’ level of engagement and interest by detecting changes in galvanic responses. This strikes me as funny, like the next generation of mood rings, except that this release is obviously better since it’s in bracelet form, like a cause-bracelet (for boredness awareness), and I assume would be able gossip and pass notes to one another during class. Maybe better methods of holding students’ attention could be developed and perhaps back away from some of the more gimmicky and emotional techniques that has infused the classroom in recent years, but I do fear that instruction, competing for a slice of interest in swelling seas of distraction, might then become more like a focus-group for a marketing campaign than schooling for a liberal and open-ended education. If untutored and afforded no more than a glance, of course, the fights historical and beings animalculous would never stand a chance against celebrity news and the latest gadgets. Learning is a challenge and effective ways of reaching students are being tested and crafted but how theories, subjects and disciplines (no, nor teachers neither) ought to be put to a vote, and one of involuntary reflexes at that.

spargel-spargel

This year, more than in years past, we have been taking full advantage of the Spargel (asparagus) season—now transitioning from the more familiar white Spargel, which is starting to become woody this long after the harvest, to the green variety. I am not sure why but the green seems a little more versatile, though taking well to the classic way of serving it as well, and we tried it as a pasta dish that was fun and easy to make. For two people, one needs:

• 500 grams of green asparagus—about 16 spears
• One medium onion, finely chopped
• 250 grams of cherry tomatoes
• Freshly grated Parmesan cheese for topping
• About 300 grams of egg noodles
• Olive oil, muscat, salt to taste, dried or finely chopped basil and thyme

Rinse and then chop the asparagus into bite-sized pieces; dice the onion and set aside. Measure out the pasta and cook the noodles according to instructions. Next in a large sauce pan with a liberal amount of olive oil, letting the oil get hot, sauté the asparagus and onion. The vegetables will take about ten minutes, and if one times it right, that will take about as long as the noodles and a good rule-of-thumb with the pasta is to fill one serving bowl to the brim with noodles to determine how many it will take for two. Half the tomatoes and add to the vegetables in the pan just long enough to warm them up a bit. When the noodles are cooked, drain and season with muscat and fold into the vegetable mixture, stirring in the spices and seasoning. Service with a dash of grated Parmesan and enjoy with a refreshing beverage.

xenobiosis

Nearly three decades after the tragic industrial disaster in Bhopal, India that took some fifteen thousand lives nearly instantly and whose awful legacy is still causing grave harm, a German developmental and aid organization (GIZ, Gesellschaft für Zusammenarbeit) that executes projects on behalf of the federal government has been awarded the contract to remove three hundred fifty tons of toxic solid waste, five jumbo plane loads, stored in warehouses on site to northern Germany for safe incineration. The toxic waste being removed is not directly related to the gas leak from pesticide production that poisoned people living in nearby slums but rather the cumulative impact of years of manufacturing under atrocious, predatory conditions with no party or successor accepting responsibility for the environmental disaster and toll on human lives. The race to the bottom certainly did not end with this catastrophe nor limit it to developing countries with laxer oversight and stewardship and superfund sites punctuate the map of the United States and there are many other shipwrecks of industry all over the world, but Bhopal is far from the silent memorial that the hushing reproval and blamelessness of chemical concerns portray, and has become, though still a center for factories, a model city for its ecological practices and research.

 For some, Germany’s logistical plan does raise some questions—like why they will fly dangerous materials around the world instead of carrying out the disposal and neutralization in India—and while I believe there are compelling and honest reasons for doing so, one should not be dissuaded from dissecting controversy and mismanagement, and perhaps not only uncover some more dirty little secrets but also challenge the not-in-my-backyard mentality (,,bei-mir-aber-nicht!” Reaktion) that estranges consumers from the consequences of such products.

onomatopoeia

Although I fear not enough serious preservation work is being done to stop the erosion of cultural treasures, languages supplanted, traditions encroached upon and withering, worthy songs only existing as a resampled thread, one individual is working to prevent endangered and dated sounds from electronics and gadgets from slipping likewise into obscurity.

Indeed, how many people have no memory of the squelch of a modem, the ker-chunk of a video cassette player, the recoil of a rotary phone, the clacking of a typewriter keyboard, the purr and hum of any number of solid-state appliances, or the triumphal start-up reveries and fanfares of retiring and obsolete computer platforms or classic and bitty ring-tone melodies? Such noises can be quite evocative and are prone to being quickly replaced with something more elite and polished, with no whirring of gears. The collection is a small one and by its nature, based on personal experience, but is soliciting ideas for its archive. Wunderkammern like this, though, I think ought to have a physical address too, in order to anchor them from the whoosh and over-abundance of the curator called the internet. What threatened sounds and jingles would you nominate for conservation?