sternschnuppen

The Christmas season is a bit on the advance but is generally, neatly bookmarked by Advent. I notice that some stores slowly introduce seasonal items—chocolates and such, earlier and earlier but refrain from decking out the rest of the festoonery until some else, usually sponsored by the community, dares and then all the shops go really all-out, pharmacies, kiosks, hotel and restaurants very house-proud of their show-window displays.

I'm a little bit embarrassed by my little string of coloured lights laid along the window sill that I don't think are even visible from the outside, whereas I can see little twinkling displays across the street. My apartment building, however, is completely blacked-out—to the last flat and I think I'd be insensitive to do otherwise. I had the chance to visit the “Shooting Star” market of the city in the early afternoon. It had a nice atmosphere, but I found I was missing the crowd and bustle and not knowing what ornaments and crafts that one is missing before being compelled to move along—plus the illumination, which was meek under the overcast skies. I was having fun but decided to visit another Schaufenster, show-window, in the city museum's new exhibition, Germany for Anfänger—Deutschland for Beginners. A few galleries illustrated German identities and cultures, I sort of a tongue-in-cheek, self-critical manner, in twenty-six letters, no umlauts.
It addressed stereotypes and what's true about German mannerisms, D for Dialects—which are a source of pride through also of ridicule, or B for Brauchtum—customs, which can be tacky, tawdry traditions as well, and so on with a lot of deference to the Grundgesetz (the Basic, Constitutional Law) interspersed. Importantly, there was also Y (Upsilon) for Yabancı işçi (guest-workers in English and Ausländische Arbeitskräfte auf Deutsch) for integration, change and the Multikulti. Significantly, the etiquette for each letter was rendered in German, English and Turkish. My favourite display was O für Ordnung—order, with a collection of officious-looking stamps and traffic-signs and a lengthy narrative about rules for patches of gardens, children at play to include taxation of the rain-water that runs off ones roof, met both with disdain and comfort.

auslese

Der Spiegel's international desk has a interesting feature on attempts in the Rheingau and surrounding regions to preserve traditional viniculture with robotic aid. Engineers at the University of Geisenheim have developed a rover-prototype that can scale the steep hills at times approaching a right-angle.

For decades, many vintners have chosen to retire their harvest to flat land as the geometry of steeper slopes has proven unprofitable and presents a risk to life and limb. Hillsides are preferable because the grapes here tend to be exposed to more sun and enjoy better drainage, thus preventing rot on the vine. Along the Rhein, however, I know that there are growers who perennially open up grape picking to volunteers of the public and feast them after a hard day's work. With some modification to the rows of vines yet minimal supervision, the robots can accomplish routine tasks like watering and pruning and have even produced their own vintage, taste-tested by vineyards in doubt. Reception is positive and apparently the units are on pre-order, but there's no word if they will be assigned additional duties.

paying peter to rob paul

Just scant weeks after the European Union floated the proposal to set negative interest rates for its institutions, there are reports that some American banks threatening to impose the same for depositor accounts should the US Federal Reserve step back on its programme of buying assets—that massive lienholder effort on the part of the US government that has been keeping up appearances for months.

Unlike the thinking-out-loud on the part of the EU, which hoped that making hoarding money less attractive by degrees and encourage people to park otherwise idle money in other vehicles, or what the central bank of Japan has already implemented, US policy is rather being ransomed by banks poor-mouthing about the costs that they'll have to pass along to the small-holders to offset losses elsewhere. Encouraging savers to sacrifice to the markets, toss their money into the ring, however, is not a good plan either—since that system is too propped up by the same shaky scaffolding. What dictates that certain balance-sheets can only trend upwards at the expense of everyone else? There are administrative costs of course with keeping open a de minimis account, but this seems to me like a bluff, since any holdings a bank can claim grows exponentially with the amount it is allowed to lend at a premium, but I guess also that's the point of this concurrent stimulus, urging people—though in a back-handed way, to put their money to good use rather than keeping it in their coffers.

tv tray

I really do enjoy cooking and trying new things—as well as tried-and-true recipes that require more effort than the old stand-bys of frozen pizza, boil-in-bag Indian dinners and fry-ups (though all carefully selected), despite that sometimes my offers to help are deferred to setting the table. I insist that it's not laziness that overcomes continuing overtures to prepare something more elaborate than processed foods and ready meals but I question what's in season and has a shelf-life—since I always am a bit put-off by the idea of tidying up afterwards and making such a fuss just for myself.

We barely use the embodiment kitchen-witchery, the microwave oven: plenty of compatible items, which is what processed meals really are, still go with this appliance, but the strange redoubts of speed, faster than boiling water or pre-heating did not seem to delivery something revolutionary. In fact, despite the promulgation of fast- and convenience-foods, however presented with a conscious, there is something quite counter-revolutionary to the notion that all meals in the future will be in re-constituted pill-form. I am a bit skeptical, however, that the claims of food brands are anything more than marketing, pandering to a guilty public who believe that one can undo laziness with a healthier choice—like dry cake-batter calling for a egg to make one believe that one is actually baking something or including nebulous urban-legends concerning burnt or ill-prepared foods, not followed to the letter causing cancer. I load my pizzas with all sorts of unsanctioned and incompatible fresh toppings and spices and probably satisfy myself with the same mechanism.

totenwinkel

Via the Presurfer comes a rather frightening look at the gaping size of the blind-spot (Totenwinkel, deadly corner)--especially for lorries and bigger vehicles on roadways in the UK, which take on a very dangerous through the looking-glass aspect when one is needing to change driving orientation. This phenomenon presents a very serious risk, particularly for cyclists sharing the road, and the article also presents some very simple and life-saving design- and behavioural-fixes.

zwölf zu eins

This Sunday, the citizens of Switzerland are set to vote for an unprecedented measure that would limit the exorbitant pay of company executives to a maximum of twelve times what the lowest paid employee of the same company earns. Opinion is split and early polls show that there is no clear winning margin with some economists championing the idea in hopes that such a cap at the high end will cause low end wages to rise and importantly calls attention to gross wage disparity and golden-parachutes often handed out for bad behaviour and poor performance in a society that values egalitarian qualities.
On the other hand, an equal amount argue that enforcing such a rule would handicap the ability of Swiss businesses to attract or retain talented leadership. It's comforting to believe that a clerk in the company mail room or a janitor might bring home a salary that's a direct and not too immodest ratio, not earning less in a year than what the highest compensated bring home in a month of the CEOs pay, but I suppose such functions are already contracted out to the lowest-bidder. What do you think about Switzerland's opportunity to make a statement? Whatever the outcome, I don't think the debate will stop when the ballots are counted.

whether and neither

Since the decision in Germany and several other countries to allow records of birth a third option for sexual identity as indefinite, as opposed to male or female, there has been much discussion among linguists on how to frame this new category—with tact and sensitivity. There have been quite a few proposals put forward, which mostly support removing gender distinction from language, culling nuance in other ways too, or reforming the word neuter and its equivalents so as to make it have no negative connotations.

Speech reflects realities, however, and not the other way around. Going back to Latin roots, neutral from neutralis simply means neither and the unrelated word neuter comes from ne-uter—not whether, not either (unweder auf Deutsch) and suggests impartiality, which probably captures the meaning conveyed the best. It is a distinct challenge, however, to introduce or re-introduce a new designation without controversy or stigma. Despite past social aversion, this is a condition that exists for not just a clinical minority, and depending on the jurisdiction, it is a matter for self-determination or a decision left to fretful parents with physician-recommendation. What do you think? Whether or not a particular language assigns gender along conventional and sometimes arbitrary lines or has any grammar of emasculation or misogyny, there is a lot of unspoken vocabulary having to do conventional roles and ready assignment.