Saturday 29 January 2011
colourfast or ghost of laundry future
One experiment, which I always found maddening and counter-intuitive but I do not think others are so easily impressed, is that two polarized lenses never fully cancel one another out, as I’d expect: each only lets 50% of light through and rotating the other around, even when the filter is at a right angle, perpendicular to the other, still lets 25% of the light to sneak through in as a particle-wave prankster.
Friday 28 January 2011
dromedary
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the US response to the revolt in Egypt is mild, cordial to the old despot, as if in these past three decades, he could most heinously be called the Grinch who stole Twitter. The sympathy is creeping although, and however shameful the lack of support and commitment may be for revolution, it is perhaps more telling of America’s dwindling relevance.
spectral analysis or pink is like red but not quite
catagories: ๐ง , graphic design
Thursday 27 January 2011
der zauberberg oder table, donkey and stick
The gathering of the World Economic Forum annually in the alpine retreat, exclusive and guarded, is a very strange, ornamented ritual, and I wonder if Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain (Der Zauberberg), set in a sanitorium in the same village, is required reading for any and all attendees.
catagories: ๐ฉ๐ช, ๐ซ๐ท, ๐, ๐, economic policy, foreign policy
no sugar tonight/new mother nature
catagories: graphic design, labour, lifestyle
Tuesday 25 January 2011
rosinenbomber or fishmonger
Since the shuttering of the stunning Tempelhof city airport of Berlin in 2008, a rather sad winding down of a historic place--built on lands owned originally by the Knights Templar and witnessed the Airlift of Berlin during the Cold War when the Western exclave was blockaded by the Soviets, people have been trying to come up with good ideas for use of this massive space.
Certainly the variety is available but it isn't grown overseas, and while it may come from the fields of Spain sometimes, a lot, greens less hearty and less suited to Germanic climate, is grown here in hothouses and with a modicum of coaxing in nicer weather. With food prices rising out of proportion, there is a lot of talk of sustainability and feeding an exploding population and doing so more efficiently through vegetarianism (yay!)--all of which are certainly pressing and deserving of attention and serious thought, but maybe realigning one's attitude towards food begins with growing one's and bringing it to market.
catagories: ๐ฉ๐ช, ✈️, ๐ก, environment, food and drink
Sunday 23 January 2011
noblesse oblige
I wondered what the neighbours thought of this abdicated royalty. It reminded me of when we were house-hunting and seriously entertained the idea of renting another nearby
We were walking around the stately manor and gardens when I presume the lord of land, current pretender to the throne, emerged from ye royal woodshed and alighted his horseless carriage. He seemed rather disappointed that we did not kneel before him, or at least bow graciously.