t9 or sui generis

Although not quite in contention as laureate material for its sometimes frustrating poetry, the chain of developments—from Pennsylvania 6-5000 to telephony for the hearing impaired to text-messaging—that led to predictive text, T9 technology, I think, deserves acknowledgement.
At first, I didn’t care to have my lines stepped on or my sentences completed when tapping out a little telegram, plus the fact that nimbleness of digits come with practice on any keyboard, but once I got more accustomed to the interface and being able to switch languages, I started to enjoy it, even appreciate it. Another interesting aspect is the strange word puzzles, poems by substitution that come out of the sequence of numbers, at first as broad suggestions and then narrowed down, like from gone, hone, home, hoof, goof, hood, to good. This transforming vocabulary do not quite make anagrams (Anagramme) but have a similar feel and I think the hidden relationships of neighbouring words that pop up are surprising and probably reveals something about the spacing and arrangement of the alphabet and the dimensions of language, as both disambiguations adapt.

powerhouse or conundrum

There is political and business consensus that the Energie-Wende, Germany’s planned transition away from nuclear dependency and towards more ecologically sustainable energy sources, will demand sacrifice and see a dearer cost placed on utilities, probably a truer reflection of the impact our accustomed lifestyles have on the environment. The recently passed bundle of regulations championing renewables, das Erneuerbare Energie Gesetz (EEG), is expected to propagate an increase in electricity costs of up to two fold in the coming year, which will of course having ripples through out the marketplace, and not ending with the average 50 € annual increase per household. That does not seem like too great of a price to pay but it may continue to climb by the same percent or higher in the following years, and does not take into account other fuels and knock-on prices.

Consumers are not bearing all the costs associated with the greening of the of the energy sector, but a significant contributing factor to the rate hikes households will see is the subsidizing of energy intensive industrial activities with reduced rates and tax exemptions. In some cases, the breaks have probably overreached their intent, places like golf courses beneficiaries of the same savings as factories, but however one feels about this reserved advantage to manufacturing, the lower rates help keep jobs and production in Germany and keep costs for finished goods competitive. Discounts for businesses means that the public have to pay higher rates to keep on track with targets, but should these cuts go away, there will be a certain threshold beyond which it is more economically sensible to relocate production and/or have domestic consumption and exports suffer by higher end-costs. Perhaps a two-tiered, public and corporate standard for carbon-swaps and emissions controls is not far behind, to ensure reforms are not damaging to important businesses.  Germany’s stewardship and aims are admirable, though in this economic environment, such behaviours do not seem to be courting many imitators, and while consumers aren’t exactly footing the entire bill for corporate influentials, but I do feel that a better equilibrium should be struck between commerce and ecology to keep all sides viable and not dishonour those ambitions by merely propping an artificial and hollow sense of affordability, competitiveness and real, overall progress on protecting the environment.

tabula rasa oder pen and ink

With her stylus and ink-pot at the ready, this lady from classical antiquity seems to enjoy drawerering quite a bit. I can’t decide, however, if she would be a graffiti artist herself. Nonetheless, what could go on this blank canvas seems like an open invitation to construct one’s own meme.

swimlanes

I wonder if a flowchart ever really simplified a human decision-making process, or whether such diagrams always instigated a little aversion and defeat at first glance, regardless of content. Such a tool may be fit for representing, in terms of a more natural language, the input/output of computer programming but I think the collection of conditions and operators presented is just another layer shrouding instinct or bias in many cases. Flow diagrams provide a framework for solving algorithms, which computers can become very good at, but are not exhaustive or predictive of every contingency and are probably best at making snarls, choke-points more apparent.

Humans, I believe, are more apt to respond to a proof or a concrete and universal rule, rather than a passably effective way to work something out. While we are not always afforded the luxury of hard and fast laws for guidance and improvisation is called upon, but I do not think that the absence of established rules calls for the creation of provisional systems that either beggar our worse judgment or second-guess real leadership and such a method is not a substitute for an authentic imperative or thorough reasoning.

Once a system or method gets complicated enough, and I believe such code sketched out in long hand would quickly become too complex for human navigators, it becomes fairly convincing.

The people who design such charts are also fairly keen on the credibility of their work-product, and it can become problematic when inventors get too proud over their schemes and throughput. It’s scary to think that such guidelines (the branching off of process charts is called a swimlane), which is the deft guesswork and approximation of machines and field manuals, might be held not to the same rigour and standards as something inviolate and accepted without question.

grammar of ornament

The online consortium of partner museums, Europeana, citing the original artefacts, gives one the means to curate his own special exhibits—like this astounding collection from Black County History in the English Midlands of the conscientious renderings of regional and historic patterns distilled by an astute Victorian observer named Owen Jones in a sampler called The Grammar of Ornament.

There are several colour plates of patchwork patterns typifying Turkish, Egyptian, Far Eastern and Mediterranean designs, as well as European work from different periods, all collected and projected through the lens of that era. Both the European site and its contributing resources are definitely worth a visit, and are sure to leave one inspired and searching for more.

halltree and hutch

We were passing through the town of Kelkheim, in the midst of the conurbations of Wiesbaden and Frankfurt/Main yet still buffered by farmland and with a detectable difference in character that is not always preserved in suburbia. I thought that this modernist water element in the market square was intriguing—water erupting out of and cascading down a verdigris chest of drawers.

It was not until later did I realize that this public fountain was a connect to the town’s living traditions of carpentry and furniture-making. For unbroken generations, I understand, the community’s talent was a nexus for the furniture business, bringing together quality materials, craftsmanship and shrewd entrepreneurship, having the foresight to equip a population on the transition from rural to city living with affordable furnishings, together. The characteristic pieces of the town’s workshops reflect the equally sensible and canny coming together that mark the era of industrialization, Gründerzeit, the Founding Epoch, that created the need for such a profusion in homes and homewares for workers and their families that flocked to the factories seeking work. The furniture is massive and monumental but with an elegance like the architecture of the time, functional and adorned with elements and embellishments of historic movements. The styles prefixed with “neo-,” like Neo-Gothic, Neo-Classic, Neo-Baroque were developed then. It is interesting to appreciate how trends and traditions contribute to one another.

station house rock oder kalendarblatt

Though I’ve passed by this information board in front of our local police station dozens of time, in all seasons and through all sorts of reminders, like this one admonishing drivers to practice extra caution with the resumption of the school year, I never had my camera with me before to capturing these charming, vintage bulletins. I am sure the force has been faithfully cycling through the same almanac of annual events, warnings and advice campaigns for decades. It reminds me of how they used to decorate elementary school classrooms for the seasons and the holidays, tacking up to the walls a succession of presidential busts, leprechauns, tall ships, skeletons, turkeys, etc. Schools and office lobbies are still decorated but I guess dealing out such calendar pages does not happen so much any longer—at least at some places.

gianni cakes or crespelle alla fiorentina

We have made this delicious meal, which is by turns, either like crepes or quesadillas, a few times but did not bother to document it before. It is more labour intensive but very tasty and worth the effort and concentration. This is the only dish of detail I know that conspicuously calls for a hard and a soft cheese.

To make approximately 5 generous-sized crespelle, one will need:

• 300+ grams (11 ounces) of frozen spinach 
• 200+ (7 ounces) grams of Ricotta cheese 
• 6+ tablespoons of freshly grated Parmesan cheese 
• 4 large eggs 
• Salt, pepper, fresh Muscat (grated) 
• 500 ml (2 cups) of milk
• 150 grams (1¼ cup) of flour
• Cooking oil and extra butter to fry the crespelle and line the casserole dish 
• 250 ml (to make about one cup) of vegetable stock or bouillon for the Béchamel sauce

Begin making the spinach and ricotta filling by ensuring the spinach is thawed and malleable. Combine this with the ricotta, 2 eggs, 3 tablespoons of the Parmesan and seasonings to taste. Mix until thoroughly blended and no longer lumpy.

Next, prepare the batter and one’s work space for the crespelle. Melt about 50 grams (2 ounces) of the butter in a pan. Meanwhile, combine the other two eggs, about half of the milk, some cooking oil, a pinch of salt and about 100 grams (2/3 cup) of flour into a large mixing bowl and beat with a whisk. Adding a ladle’s worth of batter to the pan on medium heat, make the crepes, frying them about two minutes on each side, and allow the stack to sit for a few minutes to cool.

In the meantime, one can prepared the Béchamel sauce, first melting the remaining butter in a small pot and adding the rest (about 50 grams, about half a cup) of flour to it. Once melted, pour the mixture of flour and butter into the frying pan used for the crespelle. Slowly introduce the remaining milk and stock to the pan and stir gently on low heat, seasoning with the muscat, salt and pepper to taste.
Watch it to make sure the milk is not scalded. Scoop about four table spoons of the spinach filling onto each crepe and roll loosely and place in a greased casserole dish. Pour the Béchamel sauce over the crespelle and top with the remaining three tablespoons of Parmesan. Bake the casserole in an oven preheated to 175°C (350°F) for approximately 30 minutes. Then serve and enjoy with a light Riesling.