Saturday 30 January 2010
somnambulism
Looking through the archives of the fantastic psychology blog Mind Hacks, I came across this brief on a UK author's book about couples' sleeping positions and what that nighttime arrangement says about their relationship.Different sleeping arrangements had lovely descriptive names, named like yoga positions, but it all smacks of pseudo-science, like phrenology, dowsing or hollow-earth theory. I doubt whether someone should judge their relationship too harshly if they perfer the one-footed king pidgeon over the downward facing-dog at night. Besides I am sure no one is frozen in place while they sleep and bed size should be considered too.
padding
Contemplating how casual computer use might shift with the iPad, moving away from something you cannot keep in your pocket or clip to your belt or let it rest on the president's desk, I have images of people lugging big boom boxes on their shoulders in the mid-eighties, even though we had the Walkman. I also think about those novelty over-sized sunglasses and maybe some of the accoutrements, like 4 foot long giant pencils, that they sold at Spensers Gifts or on the New Facts of Life.
Friday 29 January 2010
time takes a cigarette
German AP reports that the European Union is extending the push for 100% compliance for a smoke-free workplace and has issued an edict that calls for the dismantling and removal of all ashtrays mounted on building exteriors and in public parks. One already cannot purchase a new car with an ashtray or an electric cigarette lighter, and the smokers have been banished from restaurants and have been reduced to shivering, loitering in entryways. Now cigarette butts will just be strewn all over parking lots and stuffing rain gutters. I like how that's done, rather than just tossing a cigarette on the street--pushing it down the sewer grates, I am sure, keeps the CHUDS appeased and lets them get their fix without attacking humans. I hate to think of the EU dispatching bulldozers to eliminate the smokers' outposts. Ashtrays can sometimes be works of art and I think would be nice to keep around, if for nothing but the nostaglia and anachronism, like those antique metal posts sometimes by exterior doors to scrape horse poo from your boots.
Thursday 28 January 2010
reportage
Bad Karma, our fair city, made a unenviable appearance on the national news as part of Siemens' announcement to cut some 2000 production jobs in Germany. About 850 of those will come from our local plant and sent to a facility in the Czech Republic. Siemens is not the only comparable, industrial, technical employer here but it will have a huge impact. American Woman, stay away from me--just let me be. I have fortuneately not heard of this happening much yet--only when redundant government positions are eliminated (through atrition) when the country unites or when US military bases are mothballed. A colleague, however, predicted we would be seeing this kind of job flight in response to the bad economy about a year after it began in the States. My former village, Wicked-Awesome-Heim, was also in the following traffic report--a truck had jack-knifed in the driven snow on the stretch of road running parallel to the village walls. Fortuneately, no one was hurt.
Wednesday 27 January 2010
Tuesday 26 January 2010
copyfight or Rhaetorian Guard
On the eve of the Davos summit, the APF reports this mystery:
Of course, I am invited to re-tweet this news item, which seems much perferred to a sloppily cited cut-and-paste and is sometimes blocked by some unknown process. I do not agree that sharing should be restricted to such conduits. Jinkies--this does sound like a case. When thinking of the Swiss and security, I can only fathom up them guarding the Pope, which seems to be working well for all involved.
deep breath
Last summer, I ordered a terrific, hopeful T-shirt adapted from a vintage British World War II poster, advocating a stiff upper-lip and moreover to not panic. "Keep Calm and Carry On." I think that this Etsy entrepeneur is espousing equally good advice. Etsy, which is a wonderful outlet for creativity and handicraft and represents those handmade gifts that are great to give and receive, is especially smart considering the sorry state of the economy and jobs market and the prospects for revival of such a monstrosity. We should all hone up on our knitting skills.
Sunday 24 January 2010
gerrymandering
H and I just took a short trip this weekend to get out of the house and shed some of the winter detrius. Had we been traveling during 1789 in the Holy Roman Empire, however, it's boggling to think of how many international boundries we would have crossed with city-states and peculiars of the Church and Crown. How did so many separate jurisdictions cohabitate? Surely it wasn't peaceable.