Saturday 31 March 2012

thunderstump or paratonnerre

Maybe the day is not so far off when we can choose whether March goes out like a lion or like a lamb. Physicists in Toulouse, after an edifying battery of experiments with a high-powered laser beam (ion cannon) in the desert of Mexico, have demonstrated that they can redirect and guide, if not also trigger, a lightning bolt away from intended, Thor-chosen, target.

High powered pulses from a laser create a channel of ionized air that lingers like the ozone smell after a thunder storm and forms a path that the lightning will travel down, instead of keeping to the shortest route for grounding and discharge. Researchers hope that in the future, such techniques could protect buildings and power-grids from storm damage, but I think that this also has some exciting and dark implications. Maybe engineers could harass the power of thunderstorms for energy production with a better grasp and control of the pattern of strikes.

Or maybe, like my mother has always feared, this is the start of weather-control for diabolical purposes.
Lightning-wielding agents certainly could escalate tensions, grounding aircraft and decommissioning whole fleets of surveillance drones, as well as disrupting communication. The potential for intimidation could be stronger than any direct-attack, I think. The sabotage that weather can wreck on mood and health presents a potential marketing tussle as well, off-putting for some activities and making shut-ins of us all. I hope these fulminologists (those who study the phenomena) are being responsible with their research. Despite the sophistication of technology, the forces of nature are still surprising and overwhelming.

Thursday 29 March 2012

toxicity or mabel, black-label

Unless and until I am proven (or convinced) otherwise, I tend to regard all exports and the odd re-import from the United States with quite a bit of skepticism and distrust. It was probably always there, a latent suspicious of institutionalizing industry and a gradual realization that there were independent and impenetrable markets elsewhere that did not need or want American products and that businesses were skimming, eking out nominal profits on a fair trade, but lately it seems to me that packaging, product placement and horizontal cartels have gotten much, much worse. It feels like everything that's peddled and touted is either poisoned by the chemical, pharmacological and cropping guilds with dyes, preservatives, unnatural agribusiness or old-fashioned guilt or is designed to make one dependent and indentured to a certain label.
 The intangibles from the States are acquiring that flavour as well, including best-practices that have seen that same conduct go international. Elections too have become more a vote on personalities rather than platforms and the unseating process has become likewise prying, and fillers—tricks, short-cuts, hacks—have started to infiltrate German consumption as well. None here would tolerate anything toxic or questionable in their food yet, but the alimentary-hack of Aroma, essence and Ersatz is taking on. It's all very unpalatable and I worry for those under the tyranny of apparent and abundant choice.

Wednesday 28 March 2012

collectors' edition or canting-arms

For all of the dreadful excellence of history and their respective and combined accomplish-ments, both Germany and France, it seems, rather squander their chances sometimes to mint special series of coins. There is a very byzantine regulation stipulating how often a euro-zone member can issue commemorative coins, the frequency and quantity, that one country is allowed no license for departure. Germany and France have only reinforced their perhaps unwelcome image and esteem as papa and mama euro by continuing to put out coins, two-euro pieces, that are recursive and self-referential to the EU and the currency. Germany’s 2012 model (which is really quite a cute design with construction cranes, wind turbines, sustainable housing and happily integrated families and Germany is issuing a series of coins within its borders that feature landmarks and monuments for each state) is another example, Germany and its neighbor having released coins that celebrate the Treaties of Rome, Maastricht, EU institutions and the Union’s founding personalities, like Robert Schuman. These are all great things that ought to be remembered, honoured and were nicely executed but perhaps not on currency. The symbols of unity and cooperation almost seem as if they risk becoming signs of animosity and division.  Contributing to the reputation that Europe’s more stable economies denigrate and shame the others, they become sort of like educational, public-service comic-book action heroes whose popularity never quite takes off—the EU Super Friends are no match for papa and mama euro.

interstitial or variety show

Radio is great co-pilot for the long commute, and I did enjoy listening to pure news broadcasts with the occasional searching of the spectrum for a good classic rock song when the Headline News effect, repetition, set in. I was afraid, however, I was always missing something and was never wholly satisfied with the same programme selection of pop. State broadcasters, who also offer the news station and one of the ubiquitous tiger beat stations, feature a channel (DE) that I usually passed over, thinking it was exclusively jazz or Volksmusik (Volxmusik), nothing against either genre, however dithered over it for a while one morning to discover that the bulk of the daytime line-up is brilliant and exactly the sort of stream-of-consciousness narrative on the news and cultural items that I was looking for. The reporting is more in depth and based on expert interviews and there’s a real mix of talk and interstitial (dazwischenliegend) music. “We’ll be discussing Obama’s embarrassing stage-whisper to Dmitri Medvedjev, which he will transmit to his once-and-future president, and then the continuing public-service sector strikes, but first we have two more hot mics for you: Johnny and June Carter-Cash performing their number Jackson.” That’s fantastic and the whole day’s stories are punctuated like that--with a clever soundtrack.

Tuesday 27 March 2012

cordon sanitaire or the moon of endor

While Poland was hosting the new German president on his first official state visit, to reaffirm the ties of the two neighbouring countries, Poland was declared, again, the unwilling football of dรฉtente and appeasement. I am sure a great deal of diplomacy is carried out in the footlights, in hushed tones and without attendant-minders, like this Cold War melodrama. Certainly, there is an element of smug fatalism, but it seems as if old rivalries are drawing the same lines in the sand and perhaps the same promises written on water. Starting with the rise of Bolshevik governments out of the chaos of World War I, America sought to staunch the spread of the Communist revolution, but it was not until the victors picked over the wreckage of the World War II, that the US policy of containment became such a formalized game.

Crying foul at the “subversion” of free peoples by Soviet tyranny and without deference to Poland’s history of being swapped, the first bargaining-chip, the country was overlooked again, but despite the clash of the ideologues enveloping it, Poland—like many of the other Eastern Bloc, buffer states—did manage to overcome adversity and neglect to thrive. It is probably not more (but also not less) than an uncomfortable and sad reality to defer change or meaningful negotiations (in as much as such promises are worth) until after a campaign, as was overheard in the candid exchange between the US and Russia regarding Western encroachment into Russia’s domain—casting into question the fumble over the planned deflector shield, to protect Europe from Middle East aggression, to be based in Poland (and in the neighbouring Czech Republic). There is a certain quid pro quo detachment inherent in these dealings, which probably means that tensions and disagreement over Syria and Iran are being broached in the same way, and that’s likely the bigger embarrassment behind shelving the focus on this one slip.

Monday 26 March 2012

รถsterlichen brauchtum or thanks easter bunny, bock, bock!

Generally, we are pretty good about decorating for the season but this year, for Easter, we are being a bit delinquent. In the past, we’ve gotten these miraculous twigs, from whose boughs we hung papier-mรขchรฉ Easter eggs to make an Osterbaum (which is something of a mixed metaphor). I call them magic, since the sticks, when kept in water for a few weeks, will suddenly transform from dead reeds into an explosion of yellow flowers, just in time for Easter Sunday. I think that’s pretty keen, and I tried to get some from the florist this year, too, earlier last week. I had noticed a few bundles outside the shop, but when I went back the next day, none were left. I poked around inside but realized, when I was going to ask where I might find them, I don’t know the proper name for such blooming sticks and also wasn’t sure how to pantomime my question. There is still time to be all decked out.

Sunday 25 March 2012

coffee and tv or tea and sympathy

A very clever Dutch entrepreneur, frustrated with the cavalier, disposable attitude of many consumers but also sensitive to the hardships that make it usually easier to replace an item rather than repair it, is running a chain of cafes in Amsterdam (with more planned throughout the Netherlands) that brings together darners, tinkerers and fixers to give broken goods a second, fighting chance. Like knitting groups and crafting clubs, this new cafรฉ culture attracts like-minded Do-It-Yourselfers and offers a workshop where they can meet, over a coffee, to repair gadgets, mend clothing, refinish furniture and educate themselves about how stuff works. This is a great idea, and I hope the founder’s continued success is contagious.

Saturday 24 March 2012

olive tree, very pretty or gartenschlau

With the beginning of Spring, it is nearly warm enough, aside from some frosty mornings, to put some of the plants back on the balcony. Indoors real estate (with a view and a share of the sun) came at a premium and a lot of the houseplants were crowded and vying for space. I have had this ornamental olive tree for years and it has refused to grow much, since with the onset of Winter, it would drop all of its leaves and go dormant, which I figured was normal, especially in German climes, because a few tentacles of leaves would come back every year and continued to branch out over the summer.

It was always a little pathetic, however, since it never was again full and bushy and I would trim back the decidedly dead twigs and thread the one or two strands of leaves around, like a comb-over on a balding man. I keep trying with this one and I refuse to give up. It has sprouted a single leafing branch late this Winter again, however, this time, in revolt to whatever I am doing wrong, it seems to have evolved, mutated with these big wanky leaves that don’t appear to be regular olive leaves at all, which ought to be narrower and more cactus-like.

Maybe it’s some parasitic plant, I thought, at first, but it seems to be part of the olive tree. If this is the case, I never knew that a plant’s frustration could lead to adaptation. Here are some proper olive trees in temperate Rome, growing around the Triumphal Arch of Constantine, just behind the Colosseum.