nothing but bluebirds all day long

The day Saturday seemed amazingly reflective and still, notwithstanding a wedding ceremony and reception at noon, and the murmurings of travel chaos and the local chaos of a fire at the clinic that culminated in the safe and orderly evacuation of a couple hundred patients.  It was gloriously and fully spring time, and the day began with disco shower: the LEDs are powered by the water-pressure and the color indicates the water temperature.
After the service, I sauntered around our fair city and found some hidden gardens that I did not realize were there before, and remarked on the cloudless sky--which was also conspicuously absent any aircraft. 

Not on a major jetway and with only a hobby airport, contrails are not constantly streaking and criss-crossing the sky, but the skies above usually have some traffic.  I imagined that it would be very strange for H returning from a seminar and passing Frankfurt airport with all activity on hold.  A German airline, realizing longer delays would become untenable, have dispatched a few test-flights between Munich and Frankfurt, and pointed to the lack of catastrophic engine failure as a sign that the invisible volcanic ash is a myth.  I only am hoping that the dust settles before next week and mounting delays do not disrupt our travel plans.

fire and ice

Prior to the sensational photographs and breaking developments that are disrupting air-travel worldwide from the volcanic eruption in Iceland, the people of the small country were already in the mood for exodus and evacuation but for far different reasons: families no longer felt that the nation's economy was viable or could afford them a decent standard of living after the IceSave scandal and currency devaluation that is collateral damage of the Global Economic Downturn.  Billions divided out by small population puts a undue burden on each citizens, that many are betting that Iceland will never be able to recover from.  Hundreds are making arrangements to emigrate to more prosperous Nordic neighbors before they become tethered to unsellable homesteads.  The former government's poor stewardship of the treasury led to a big shake-up, which included the popular election of the first lesbian prime minister and massive reforms.  Decisions, however, like to repay the UK for its speculation in Icelandic markets, have been costly.  As an expatriate, I can understand compulsion and Wanderlust, but I hope they don't abandon their homeland over entries on a ledger.  I am sure the volcanic ash spewing into the skies does not make the situation look any less grim, nor the blame and headlines tossed about that's currying more negative attention.  However, I found this really boss van art/movie poster/torch-song version of the Icelandic saga while working on this post.

mining and data-dressing

There are two suspectly parallel news items--one that attempts to paint as a human-interest story the Library of Congress' plan to archive Twitter for posterity--I could only imagine how confusing and without context a stream of bursts and tweets would be to future generations, and a second article that warns of data-mining and how that valuable information defines any individual more circumspectly than any other trail of leavings.  I think it is naive to think that one is ever private or anonymous on the internet--though I disagree that one is unreasonable in hoping that were the case.  One is protected and made faceless by the herd and the sheer amount of traffic out there.  Maybe one realized that one had precious little privacy, but one also thought that the services, the wires would not so willingly offer it up to the spy agencies, foreign and domestic.

i'm a boy that's all the candy

The Onion posted a wonderful satyrical piece on the US flag, parodying the manufacturer recall of hundreds of thousands of a Japanese branded automobile due to gross safety concerns, citing design-flaws that have perpetrated the deaths of untold millions.  Perhaps the United and Popular Republic of America needs a simpler layout. Yankee Doodle came to London, just to ride the ponies.

ampelmännchen

During a not-unheard-of seizure of common-sense, Germany's traffic ministry yesterday rescinded a proposal that called for municipalities to replace out-dated traffic signage with new, modern versions, identical in regulation but with some subtle differences in ideograms.  For instance, a crosswalk should no longer bear the likeness of a man scurrying across the street, hand on hat to keep it in place, but rather the more modern, gender neutral stick figure.  Directional arrows indicating no parking should be displayed on the top and not the bottom of the circular sign, as they were prior to 1992. 

On coming cars, apparently, should not have smiley faces.  By not enforcing the change, German municipalities have saved hundreds of millions of euro, and kept the Ampelmaennchen safe for years to come.

open-apple F

In the midst of all the hype and anticipation surrounding the release (and gray-market re-selling apparently inspired by buyers' remorse) of the iPad, a Germany company is coming out with a rival tablet personal computer.  The so gennant "WePad" comes with more memory, a more flexible operating system, more ports and a camera, including G-3 capabilities.  Both are new, sleek models and I am sure that this will be the new trend and fashion accessory and look of computers for the future--but what I really want (besides the flying cars that I was promised by such luminaries as Faith Popcorn) is something as versatile and technologically mysterious as a tricorder, not to mention rugged enough to repell those first awful smudges and scratches.