aurora, not a palindrome

A team of Italian, Swedish, Russian and German astrophysicists, shifting through volumes of data, have discovered that there is a faint, disperse ring of anti-matter particles around the Earth. These particles, whose existence to me raises many questions by its confirmation, like: were they trapped by the strong magnetic fields whose lines of influence extend many thousands of kilometers beyond the atmosphere, are some cosmological readings, anomalies really the ghostly scintillations of anti-matter and normal matter meeting (e.g., the dark matter and dark energy conundrum or the Doppler shift or a hatful of universal constants), or even should it be more risky to attempt to break free of the mundane sphere than it seems to be, are apparently suspended within the van Allen radiation belts, which by virtue of scale make an ideal trap to keep at least some of the anti-particles from interacting with their everyday nemesi.  How neat and exciting!  On the practical side, researchers are now hailing the magnetosphere as a potential source of fuel for the next generation of space craft, carefully harvesting this volatile Bizarro substance, although the boundary between space and sky has always been known as an explosive and rich source of potential energy with cosmic rays in constant volley, if we were only smart enough to tap into it.

debenture or sweet lorraine

German and French senior leadership have been holding a series of coy summits in order bring some resolution to the sovereign debt crisis across the Eurozone, whose uncertainty has strained the economy globally--coupled with America's insolvency. One crisis is always serviceable to distract from the other, but I suppose that Germany was incited to action by reports out of Wiesbaden (Das Hauptsitz des Statistische Bundesamt) that the Wirtschaftswunder driving the markets of Europe had stagnated of late. Proposals of introducing Eurobonds, shares in public debt that have an equalizing effect on the interest-rates that states would incur for issuing more debt--Germany and France and other fiscally sound countries would share the same burden as Italy, Spain, Greece and Portugal, were roundly rejected, though some say it is a quick and effective fix for the euro, because Germany and France argue that such an institution is not conducive to economic integration at the onset but rather during the culmination. Level-growth for Germany and Europe is not as reassuring as unbridled progress, however, sustainment is nothing to be ashamed of. Besides, the level of confidence of Germany's customers, trade-partners determine who's buying what and makes up at least half the indicators of an exporters' financial health. Debt management certainly cannot go unaddressed, but no radical changes are being touted: rather than a "collective government," they are espousing a shared-governance under the established European Union legislative and executive frameworks with more time devoted to consensus building on tax-collection, trade- and market-regulation, and management of pensions. Maintaining a common-currency that does not impose common economic policies is a challenge--essential for allowing individual state to keep their national character.

What is rumoured to be a significant topic of discussion, however, is the proposed financial transaction tax. How this will develop is complete speculation but it is not double-taxation or something to impede free-trade, rather, if it does glean something off the top from the frenetic activity of stock-brokers, it might prove to be a positive thing. For those who buy and sell but never hold a commodity for longer than a few seconds, maybe a market-tax might induce some stability and thinking beyond the horizon. Trades have been relinquished to computer algorithms that cause these wild variations from one minute to the next, especially on the US market--some brokerages are using computer-routines that spurs volume ever faster by considering the limits of the speed-of-light down a wire and adjust to make the way shorter. Taxing the blatant opportunists is not sour-grapes, but perhaps a way to tame markets and closer align stock-exchanges with the real economy.

you'll get no potato juice or coffee perpetuum

Over the weekend, we were treated to another demonstration of my parents' very clever vintage balance siphon coffee maker, which I have decided violates the laws of thermodynamics. It's quite a brilliant and entertaining performance, like an ornate fountain or Glockenspiel to toll the hour: a spirit lamp heats up water in the metal chamber and once it reaches a critical temperature, siphons through and infuses the coffee grounds in the glass carafe (bell jar).

Voided of water, the metal piston rises and extinguishes the fire, and as it's cooled, the pressure imbalance forces the brewed coffee back into the canister. It is a heuristic perpetual motion machine, a challenge to find the right grade of ground, right ratio of water to coffee, and the coffee tastes very pure. The whole process is engrossing, having never seen such a configuration or knew a kitchen contraption to operate on such principles, and very steam-punk--much more heroic than the usual delivery method.

nom de guerre or incite-a-riot

Some European politicians are making well-intentioned calls, with the massacre in Norway and street riots in England fresh on the public conscious, that networking sites and commentary refuse made-up names or (pseudo) anonymous contributions in order to prevent circulation of hate-speech or organizing chaos. Some instigators have always cowered behind anonymity when disseminating destructive suggestion to avoid catching any of the blame when things end badly, and though most faceless pontiffs only go so far, speech and expression are protected, for one, to keep tyranny in check. The paradigms of the Arab Spring do not owe their existence solely to tweets and spasms but the democracy movement certainly would have managed a different pace without networking tools and the privacy that the internet can afford. Mobilization of thuggery, as characterized by some, is a frightening thing but internet crowd-sourcing and crowd-control has not completely managed to transform the population into lemmings.

Those motivated for a cause can discern between leadership and cowardly advocates. Meanwhile, this Orwellian crack-down has already come to pass, autonomously--without discussion or policy-debate, locally enacted without a higher-mandate, which is illustrative of the mindset of some people, over the weekend on the platforms of the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system in and around San Francisco, California. In response to the killing of two passengers by BART officers--which is another disturbing insight into the mindset of some, when a bus driver is licensed to kill--supposedly a protest rally had been organized. Though the planned rally did not take place, wireless services were disabled to prevent further, real-time coordination by the unruly mob. These broad powers to take a group or individuals offline because they might incite a riot is disturbing. No one wants authority figures to decide what is seemly and warranted--and I suspect that most listened when their mothers admonished, "if all your friends jumped off a bridge..."--but it certainly seems even more dangerous to let a protest escalate into a violent confrontation with multiple bystanders with no way to call for help.

for the rain it raineth every day

Again this year, we have not seen much of a summer over large swaths of Germany. I feel especially sorry for children and their families as school summer holidays come to an end and people grow rabid about getting out from under this cloud--August is inflexible and not everyone can afford to escape to clearer climes, though weather is sometimes too big to get away from. With the incessant drip and spatter, I was thinking about precipitation and I wonder if before deforestation, farming and urban-sprawl, when there were more trees, was there also less water in circulation. Catastrophic floods have complex origins, as does the climate, but I wonder if the weather wasn't fairer with more of the stuff driving the weather sequestered in living things.

Von sommerlichen Wetter schlecht angenommen wurden auch dieses Jahr wieder über weiter teil Deutschlands. Vor allem bedauere ich es, dass Kindern und ihren Familien haben kein Sommerschulferien: Urlaubskalendar sind jedoch starr, und nicht jeder kann es sich leisten, andere Länder zu bereisen. Während dieser Regentage frage ich mich, wie die Niederschlagsmuster veränderte hat: ehemals habe man (vor Entwaldung, Landwirtschaft und Zersiedelung) weniger Regen und Schnee aufgrund weniger Wasser im Umlauf. Der Klimawandel und die Naturkatastrophe hat komplexen Ursachen, aber frage ich mich, ob es hatte schönes Wetter wenn mehr Wetterkraftstoff im Holz gebundene war.

mimicry

Ambitious counterfeiters (flatterers, really I suppose) have moved beyond mere knock-off goods, Austrian villages and amusement parks and have managed to emulate entire retail franchises. Authorities have closed down no less than 22 fake Apple retail outlets in the country (EN/DE) that were made to appear to be the genuine article. A few months back, there were reports that someone had managed to create an entire unsanctioned furniture store, based off the Swedish model.

presque vu or deppenapostroph

 While visiting the País d'Òc recently, we saw nothing of the native language of the region, and there was a conspicuous absence of anything other than French. We discussed how statutes mandate all signage and advertisements should be exclusively in the official language and without creeping impurities, portmanteaux (mot-valises, Kofferworter) and English nonce words. I also found it interesting that publicity laws have been interpreted in France to also impose a ban, in print and television, on inviting customers to friend, like or follow their business or organization on specific, named social networking sites: one may advise clients to look them up on the internet or promote their own website but to be more exact unfairly endorses one (garbled and probably multi-lingually threatening) service over others.

These signs are not shifting between German and English and the onus is not on the local businesses to wonder how their names might sound to an inter-national audience, but I suspect that the French would probably be even less unapologetic about what others might snicker about.

minced oath or london bridge

Although maybe the Cycle of Democracy is not genuinely attributable to Alexander Fraser Tytler, Lord Woodhouselee--Scottish writer, historian, lawyer, and educator of the late 18th century, and rather to an editor from the Daily Oklahoman newspaper, Elmer T. Peterson in 1951--the statement still contains some truth: "Two centuries ago, a somewhat obscure Scotsman named Tytler made this profound observation: 'A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the majority discovers it can vote itself largess out of the public treasury. After that, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits with the result the democracy collapses because of the loose fiscal policy ensuing, always to be followed by a dictatorship, then a monarchy.'"

Or rather, from bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to great courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to complacency; from complacency to apathy; from apathy to dependence; from dependence back into bondage. Alexis de Toqueville, who planted the seeds of the idea of American exception, even echoed himself that America's growing population would be better managed by a monarch and that democracy could only be so elastic. I wonder where the world might be in this cycle, with hysterics over the market and unrest and estrangement in the streets--on the rise or fall? Hysteria, detached and writhing like a Water-Wiggle, could be used to justify cuts to social services, just as pointing to rioters, destroying what infrastructure and opportunities for employment might remain in their neighbourhoods, might either be an expression of frustration or more justification to dismantle social-safety nets. Greed is nothing to aspire to, but neither is playing into the characterization of an angry and an idle mob nor the complacency of leaders and role-models. What's the face of it elsewhere, and might this happen anywhere?