Monday 31 December 2012
silvestergala
catagories: antiques, graphic design, holidays and observances
Sunday 30 December 2012
katzenjammer
catagories: ๐บ, antiques, graphic design, lifestyle, networking and blogging
bright lights, old business
The comet’s scintillations will outshine the full Moon and be a historic experience for all. It will even radiate for those who cannot see the procession of the stars and planets for themselves either because of light-pollution or impatience for the mathematical harmony of the skies. It is interesting how such astronomical apparitions, comets, novae, conjunctions and transits, became markers of the ages, a fixed reference point in time, that are equally accessible to us as inheritors and far in the future, who are able to trace backwards and reliably match our measures against those of our ancestors. I wonder how people will reckon this upcoming year of the comet.
catagories: ๐ท๐บ, ๐ญ, philosophy
Saturday 29 December 2012
yearbook and mizzen-mast
catagories: ๐, ๐บ, ๐ญ, environment, networking and blogging
Friday 28 December 2012
down on cripple creek or stockholm syndrome
By engaging in the politics of terror, I think the United States is poised to play a very risky game that risks it becoming a caricature, mockery of the democratic process. It is unfair to lay blame squarely and solely on one party faction, since there is more than ample blame to go around—including the voting-public and the abstentious, but I think it is a safe assertion to point to one cadet wing of the Republican Party, trenchantly conservative and angry, as blocking compromise and negotiation.
catagories: ๐ง , America, economic policy
sweded
The Swedish language is celebrated as a plastic and living entity and each year dozens of new words are championed by the Sprรฅkrรฅdet, the national language council.
Thursday 27 December 2012
force majeure
The BBC reports on a project underway along UK roads that aims to deploy privacy screens to erect around the scene of traffic accidents, so rubberneckers (Gaffern) in the oncoming lane will not slow to get a glimpse of the wreckage and response.
Wednesday 26 December 2012
moveable type or three-penny opera
Though the idea of handling it at all made my fingers feel nubby and sebaceous, I was really astounded by how it’s aged, the feel of the leather binding and the wear of the pages that I didn’t know paper was capable of as I looked through the book’s chapters, dicovering, and at the family chronicle that lists dates for ancestors well before the publication and continues until the year 1998. This venerable institute for biblical scholarship greatly propagated publishing with refined printing (Stehsatz, block typesetting) techniques and sold some four million copies at a cost of just six Groschen a piece. This enterprise not only made the Bible and other books more affordable but also supported a neighbouring foundation, die Franckesche Stiftungen, which grew from an orphanage in Halle to an international social and educational network and the institute soon merged with the foundation.
Success led to the found- ations’ works being accorded a special status and freedom by the Prussian throne, almost like a city state with imperial immediacy and allowed operations to expand and charitable works to spread. In addition to establishing schools, libraries and nursing homes there and abroad, August Hermann Francke, the founder, also gave Europe one of the first public museums by putting his personal cabinet of curiosities (Wunderkammer) on display for the emendation of all visitors. We pass Halle (Saale) often and now I feel even more guilty about not taking the time to explore and see this wonder of organization and edification at work. What great present this is, and I am sure we will be visiting soon.