Wednesday 11 August 2010

naukograd

The unquelled wildfires are still raging in Russia and neighboring lands and it is a terrible and unprecedented tragedy, deadly smog settling over cities and villages wiped away.  Now the greatest urgency seems focused on minimizing potentially catastrophic and lingering damage if the fires reach nuclear research and processing facilities at Mayak--Russian for "lighthouse."  In the midst of all these tragedies that are pinned to failures of something called crisis management, which I guess is a new discipline like managed health care, it is amazing to me how what was buried and forgotten is unearthed and strewn about.  A nearby closed-town, a restricted area for plant workers that is not accessible to the public and probably did not appear on any map, suffered major environmental damage in the past and emblazoned it on its city coat-of-arms as a radio-active, glowing salamander.  The fires are out-of-control all over, but authorities especially want to ensure that latent radiation is not reawakened and spread, like that godzilla salamander or Springfield's three-eyed fish.  I wonder how often these unnamed towns are on the public radar without the spotlight of imminent disaster.  Buried in the distant past, I wonder how much awareness there is even for enviromentalists, residents and the people who keep tabs on the nuclear posturing.  I hope Russia can cope and recover, and maybe take a leading role with such crisis management in the future.

Tuesday 10 August 2010

tarpaulin

Given the almost jubilant anticipation that the US financial sector held yesterday for yet another turn of the screw that opens up the flood gates for more stimulus, I feel doubly vexed that the economic assessment was winnowed away into a non-story. Of course, it was too much of a tell that banks and associates rejoiced and rallied over the TARP package. That should have made everyone a bit queasy. More dismal news would cue world governments to inject some fresh money into the economy, and like I once heard a reporter fumble the idiom, paying Peter to rob Paul, instead of robbing Peter to pay Paul.  The mixed up message is about the same but there's a subtle difference I cannot quite unravel.  Business kept its poker face, held its composure, so they can escape some measure of the scrutiny that goes with the duplicity of companies who complain venomously over government interference and call economic policies defeatist and yet gladly accept a piece of bail-out pie or unbuild to order to fulfill a government contract or niche.  A cleverly executed hybrid automobile, I am sure, would do well on the market on its own merit, but instead of innovation, cost-overruns and short-comings are buffed down with tax credits and funding earmarks for pet-projects.  I wonder what was decided behind closed doors that yanked this story from the next day’s news cycle.

Monday 9 August 2010

vini, vidi

Having resided in the European Union for quite some time, on official business, though without accompanying citizenship, I have gotten use to borderless pacts and relative freedom of movement. I have run up against a few logistical riddles lately, however, when it comes to travel. Though I had every assurance in addition to my own research on entry requirements for Turkey, I was still nervous and nearly flipped out when the guy behind the ticket counter informed me that my vegetarian meal, as requested, would be available on the flight. I misheard it. A visa is the short-form of the Latin phrase “charta visa,” the paper that has been seen. It think, however, a more apt expression might be quid pro quo, as everything escalated or otherwise sustained behind bureaucratic and diplomatic reciprocity and blow-back to the US for making travel in general such an unpleasant experience. H and I, projecting longingly to the next vacation, are hoping to spend New Year’s in Russia and I am already a bit overwhelmed by the process and who I belong to under these circumstances and travel arrangements. In an unrelated move, the airport at Hamburg is poised to start a pilot program to test full-body scanners, the city-state’s foreign minister announced. After the revelations, which should not have come as a big surprise, the US Department of Homeland Security is actively warehousing these images for more than just training purposes, I wonder why Hamburg would have committed to this exercise—which is apparently on a voluntary-basis, and risk being entangled in the same mistrust and suspicions that the US is courting. That makes about as much sense as a city-state having a full-fledged ministry of foreign affairs.

Friday 6 August 2010

hen party or turkey in the straw

In response to the fires that have ravaged the country side and to record droughts, which in part some claim were perpetuated by laxer fire services than in Soviet times, Russia has stopped all exporting of grain. This I imagine will send shudders through the markets, raising the price of beef, beer, and sundry. Such gossip, like the price of tea in China, makes me always wonder what the common currency that it is financial people barter with. Meanwhile, criticism may have been fairly leveled over the response, but temperature extremes are unprecedented, even in Soviet times, though neither record-keeping nor the Soviet Union are not so long-lived as the weather. The preternatural may become the mundane controlling factor for money, as if previously disasters like flooding and famine were only marginally counted in terms of relief and rebuilding and charity portfolios.
Environmental soundness, above and beyond keeping the alive and sustainable for future spending, will be the biggest thing going and will soon outpace the military-industrial complex and defence spending.  Big Green, however, I hope would be incorporated on more sound and friendlier principles and not exploited as a means to influence and orchestrate sovereignty and choice. It took businesses eons to froth up the clout to dicate policy to people and governments, and I hope that genuine ecological stewardship won't be abused in the same way. Some augeries that world economies are verging towards a period of deflation.  The scholarly embellishments that go with a seemingly simple direction are very ornate, like a wind-rose.  Among other things, like making money worth more, deflation also, because it dampens the collective risks and rumours of risks that dissuade people from saving and expend their nervous energies on chancy schemes, could put an end to the gossip and back-biting.

Wednesday 4 August 2010

mass-transit

Almost as refreshing as honest-to-goodness flying cars and loads better than a superfluous monorail, a couple of months back at the Beijing High-Technology Expo, a new concept for public transportation, a sort of straddle bus, had its premiere.  As China Hush reports, this high clearance chassis speeds passengers over the top of regular traffic without the need for a dedicated lane, displacing property alread curb-side, and at a fraction of the cost of digging subway lines.  This alternative means of getting around, besides being generally non-intrusive, passive unlike underground tunnels or ever-expanding ride share lane schemes, the busses further could realistically be made to run off solar-power.  Still, I think it is an impressive feat of civil engineering for German trolleys to share the road with cars.  I think that this is pretty keen and may help cut down on urban congestion, especially in the suburbs that have become launching pads, flyaway zones into the snarl.

Tuesday 3 August 2010

pen-pals

After reading about how the US Federal Bureau of Investigations issued a take-down notice to Wikipedia--possibly confusing the web site with Wikileaks--to stop using its departmental logo in its article on the FBI, to which Wikipedia politely but firmly refuted by disabusing the FBI of its wrong interpretation of copyright law and public domain, I thought again about how stretched thin resources and bloated ambitions must be in the intelligence services.  Now the EU has been pressured to adopt a less-fortified version of the treaty to exchange banking data with the US, and analysts may be monitoring and archiving the length and breadth of all transactions soon, all in the name of fighting terror.  This dragnet will maybe nab some tax-dodgers, saving Germany from paying for another ill-gotten CD-ROM from a Swiss bank.  In conjunction with repeated volleys at the slouching towards Bethesda administration and reduplication of the US intelligence services overall, I wonder how useful this new mission could possibly be or is it just buring more shortcomings under other heaps of raw data.  Curious, I examined, through Wikipedia's article, the FBI's charges as compared to its successes:

Currently, the FBI's top investigative priorities are:

1.Protect the United States from terrorist attack
2.Protect the United States against foreign intelligence operations and espionage
3.Protect the United States against cyber-based attacks and high-technology crimes
4.Combat public corruption at all levels
5.Protect civil rights
6.Combat transnational/national criminal organizations and enterprises
7.Combat major white-collar crime
8.Combat significant violent crime
9.Support federal, state, local and international partners
10.Upgrade technology for successful performance of the FBI's mission.

In August 2007, the top categories of lead criminal charges resulting from FBI investigations were:

1.Bank robbery and incidental crimes (107 charges)
2.Drugs (104 charges)
3.Attempt and conspiracy (81 charges)
4.Material involving sexual exploitation of minors (53 charges)
5.Mail fraud – frauds and swindles (51 charges)
6.Bank fraud (31 charges)
7.Prohibition of illegal gambling businesses (22 charges)
8.Fraud by wire, radio, or television (20 charges)
9.Hobbs Act (Robbery and extortion affecting interstate commerce) (17 charges)
10.Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO)-prohibited activities (17 charges)

There seems to be a bit of a disconnect, and I doubt that deputizing every second US citizen as a spy and informant and being able to comprehensively and seemlessly babysit every hobgoblin could result in a decisive victory over terrorism.  How was public corruption fought or civil rights protected?  After all, it was not the work of a glamourous, glancing of Hollywood agent that foiled the Shoe Bomber or the Underpants Bomber but the slight viligance, attentiveness of the passenger sitting next to them.

double-rainbow

Though the heat en route was oppressive, I am glad that H and I were able to enjoy the sun and the sand and the summer weather last month, since it seems that Sommer ist vorbei—or at least delayed on account of rain. It has been a real shock to the system, this mercurial heat replaced by sultry dampness stock-still, and people are struggling with summer colds. The weather needs to be redirected to Russia where fire-fighters are battling encroaching flames on the periphery of Moscow and countless villages have been grazed by uncontrolled fires. I hope they can curry some relief. Meanwhile, undetered, we are planning a few get-aways nearer to home, planning maybe to visit the ancient city at the confluence of rivers, and aptly-named, Regensburg, and seeing the monument at Valhalla or perhaps some tamer river-rafting on the Danube.

Monday 2 August 2010

location scout

Hollywood is in the pre-production phases of a period adventure, a new version of the Three Musketeers starring Orlando Bloom, Christoph Waltz and Milla Jovovich, which will be at least in part filmed in the nearby cities of Wรผrzburg and Bamberg, both beautiful and rich in history. Later this week, there will be a casting-call for extras. I am pretty excited about the exposure and augmented appreciation this will bring for this part of Franconia, but at the same time, I have a protective instinct for these places. I have remarked that both Wรผrzburg and Bamberg have some excellent and authentic shoots to offer, and these places are not exactly undiscovered but neither are they over-run with tourism and too-common parlance.
I had wanted these streets as back-drops for independent movies or at least to tell the stories that Wรผrzburg or Bamberg have to tell, and not some transplanted, ersatz swashbuckling in three-dimensions: the Peasants' Revolt, political intrigues with the Electoral College of the Prince-Bishops, the castle and the keep, Celtic monastics, the discovery of the x-ray, the invention of radar, the fire-bombing post Dresden, the US occupation, the art and architecture. I ought to work up a treatment myself, though H and I can be the perfect wall-flowers in the meantime.