Friday 19 November 2010

flying dutchman or space ghost coast-to-coast

As the BBC reports, astronomers from the Max Planck Institute in Heidelberg have discovered the first exo-planet that seems to have originated outside of the Milky Way galaxy. Researchers believed that this planet, found in orbit around an ancient star in a stellar stream, formed before its host dwarf galaxy was absorbed by our own. These wispy bands of red giants are the remnants of once independent galactic bodies. Nothing yet, as with all distant planets, can be determined about is composition, nor is there reason to believe that it would betray any kind of departure from the imagined and the expected, as if anything could be safely assumed about alien worlds--rather, it is more evidence of the abundance of stars hosting planets. It also reminds me of the Martian meteor found in the 1980s in Antarctica. Without even addressing questions of extra-planetary biogenesis and whether the imprints on the rocks surface are fossils, just the fact that material could be ejected or otherwise shrugged off of Mars and travel through space and be captured by Earth's gravity to be found later by rock-hounds at the bottom of the world, just seems amazing and almost lyrical, purposeful and mysterious all at once.

Thursday 18 November 2010

red herring

Whenever we enjoy a bottle of Portuguese wine, which is not limited to Port incidentally, I recall from my MBA training one tract about the origins of trade and economic theory: the text posited that two not so very hypothetical countries, England and Portugal, who discovered a mutually beneficial arrangement in the exchange of English fabric for Portuguese wine. This barter sounds rather simplistic but was lucid and the example's transparency allowed one to discover all the nuances as trade blossomed into more complex markets--wine-making was less labour intensive to the people of Portugal than to the people of England, natural endowments were taken into account,worth, novelty, currency exchange and so on were considered.   But, like a toy poodle or a liger, this system could not evolve organically into a situation where hedging, speculation, and unabashed gambling are the chief financial expressions of the markets.  These, I believe, could only be successful through fear and manipulation, a reverse psychology, which comes after the pride of inventing a new outlet for wagers and getting the rating agencies and one's peers to vet it, when bookies can convince investors that missing this opportunity would be a grave mistake.  It is the antithesis of the fear driving most other news and developments, of which I have certainly not been immune, the fear of inclusion, assault by an airport-screener even though it only happens to a select few or some animal hybrid-based influenza-become-raging-hypochrondria or of terrorism itself or of jonsing to keep up with the Joneses.  While preoccupied with the sour idea of exclusion, meanwhile, the book-makers are concocting the next novel and impenetrable way to perpetuate this losing game.

#blurmany or good fences

Though it is difficult to determine how long this will last and how it should be judged, the hive--the swarm has digitally captured great metropolitan swaths, presumably of the willing exhibitionists only, of Germany, inviting a virtual tour, a stakeout of neighbourhoods and destinations. I cannot say if the whole operation should be expanded or quite puzzle out the exact nature of the resistance, however, I would probably opt out myself if given a choice. Vicarious visits are never as exciting or insightful as the real thing, especially for those for whom it is possible (which is why I do not see a rush for neighbours and stalkers spying on one another and being generally nosy) and images are a strange time-stamped slice of street life, but of course, it is nice and novel at first, and by turns a little frightening and repulsing, and a good resource to see the environs of one's real estate or hotel accommodations. The enterprise has gotten untenable in Europe, with too many legal challenges, redactions and pixilations to sustain, and it seems better to err on the side of restraint or allow individuals to fill in the blanks of this mosaics, rather than institutionally force unwanted and untried attention on the public.

Wednesday 17 November 2010

abwesenheit von lรคrm

“Meine Damen und Herren,” German Interior minister de Maiziรจre began in a press-conference, “there is cause for concern but no cause hysteria,” citing foreign intelligence that gave more substantial leads on a possible terrorist plot to carry out attacks in Germany at the end of November. Such news could also transform into nebulous and scary, but necessarily de Maiziรจre cautioned that response and vigilance should not negatively affect the hallmarks of a free society. Some critics claim the minister and whole security apparatschik for not sharing the urgency that the US unloaded a few weeks past about an even vaguer threat fear the blowback when something might materialize: at the time, it was offered that there was not need to change routine; now however, de Maiziรจre excused this press conference precisely because people might see their daily routines disrupted—there might be a more noticeable police presence, and he just though “the public to know why.”
To call it a tempered and reasonable response sounds like the political talk that signifies nothing, but it is refreshing and affirming that not only are scare-tactics not unleashed wontingly, though the statement was brief, the news is also constantly repeated, including all the admonishments, with analysis and the public parsing every word. It is a lot different than in the US where measures, arguably morale crushing and furthering submissiveness, are only escalating. Statistics record that with the past decade tragically about three thousand people perished as a result of terrorist related air travel, albeit mostly on one day. When draconian response is not at all commiserate, then the boogeymen need do nothing else.

Tuesday 16 November 2010

obarmate

If you agree that elevating refudiate to a literate status is the very height of impudicity, then you might enjoy the finely crafted site Save the Words (sadly no more) from the Oxford Dictionaries consortium.  This is a great resource that celebrates the poetic exactness of the English language and rehabilitates obscure and nonce-words.  Who, in his quiver of vocabulary, would have sinapistic (consisting of mustard) at his disposal when singing the praises of the Grey Poupon marketing campaign?  Or that primifluous (that which flows first) is an excellent term to describe the tapping of the keg that opens Oktoberfest, when the master-of-ceremonies adimpleates the Munich Burgermeister's MaรŸ?  One can register to receive a word a day or adopt a neglected word, pledging to use this word in conversation and correspondence, as frequently as possible and to the very best of one's ability.

rock lobster or divide and conquer

There ought to be no surprise that the provisions of the P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act were a slippery slope, window-dressing and wallpaper, though load-bearing it may be in terms of supporting belief and angst, and that the public would be lulled into submission by this new normal, like a lobster in a pot slowly brought to boil. It is a welcome sign, however, that the American people and those early-adopters (one may want to follow the money-trail, in case the US market actually does wither away) and dwindling list of social-callers have reached their collective boiling point over Department of Homeland Security/Transportation Security Administration's hyperbole and traumatic and taming options for flight: either molestation or a starring role, exposed, in a conscripted bawdy film, which are neither discreet, private, nor effective. I cannot imagine how anyone could abide by a loved one or even a fellow traveler faced with this uncomfortable choice, much less submitting to either a gratuitous physical violation or potentially dangerous and enduring memento--especially to very young or older people. It is just terribly sad that the means of control and influence have stooped this low and is sure to significantly curb airborne travel and keep North America as a destination to avoid. Perhaps the makers of aircraft should be rethinking their giant-capacity air-galleys if there is this much vitriol in mass-transit.
Pilots and crew are a source for solidarity with passengers, however, I suspect that the unions that rightly argue that the exposure to the scanners is unsafe, attended by an endless army of untrained goons deputized, baptized with too much authority and hubris and snared with fear themselves over job-security in a poor economy, will be given a concession, a pass in the form of an alternative screening that alleviates just enough industry pressure to give the travelers no recourse. I am happy that this holiday season, I do not have a need to travel to the States, the Atlantic has certainly gotten wider, but I don't relish the thought in the future either. If flyers just grin and bare it, resigned as intended, things will only get worse, more invasive and more unreasonable.