number-crunching or currently trending

As the capital city of the state of Hessen, Wiesbaden is host to a number of important offices of governmental affairs internally but also is home to a national institution, which one hears cited continuously on all topics, das Statistisches Bundesamt (the Federal Statistics Office of Germany)—also known by its short-form, Destatis.  It’s funny to be in the neighbourhood with such a voice of authority, not quite like living next door to the Encyclopedia Britannica but instead like knowing where the Harper’s Index is compiled or where the random fact factory is and where the sibilants try to triangulate all this data and bridge disparate trends.

All bureaus in all governments are mandated to report out and analyze micro- and macro-demographics, sometimes with different competency and the spin of omission, but I believe this independent institution that pries open raw figures from all sources, maintaining a one of a kind research library amongst the headquarters and field offices in Berlin and Bonn, and conducts its own surveys (Umfragen) and censuses (Volkszählungen) from inflation, immigration, birth-rate, crime, employment to include delving into people’s attitudes and sentiments and venturing into the qualitative, rather than quantitative, arenas, like happiness and overall satisfaction, by studying the meta-mines of information that factor into civics for public benefit.

f.o.i.l. or quadratic erratic

From beyond the land of Mathmagic, there is a lively debate about the identity—and indeed the complexity of the infamous equation and set of approaches that dealt a coup de grâce to the stock markets and exchanges, which ticker-taped out of Wall Street. Rather than a formula that takes an inscrutable and evil-genius to comprehend, however, one source, which is not alone in its disappointing accusations, offers proof that a much simpler but overlooked preparatory lesson caused that down-fall. Many sources were satisfied with putting the blame on early, emergent and exotic sets of equations that governed derivatives and other seductive pyramid schemes and championed by most all subsequent publications. I felt the dazzle of these novel formulas were to blame as well, but it is generally the case that it is easier to obscure one’s own motives, greed and misapprehension behind a knotty math problem than admitting to not doing one’s homework, despite the culture.

punxsutawney

With the augurers turning their attention to omens of Ground Hog Day soon, I’m reminded of a weird tale, vintage sci-fi pulp by Frederik Pohl called the Tunnel under the World. That featured a day, however, whose repeating was a questionable occurrence.

toute votre base sont nous appartiennent

French illustrator Sebastien Feraut (with the nom de plume Niark1) has a wealth of artwork to explore, and I particularly like this adventure landscape mapping out twenty things that were recently brought to us by the internet. Can you pick them all out?

lexical or i will not buy this record, it is scratched

One of my favourite passages from the helpful and earnest 1884 Portuguese authors’ phrase book “English as she is Spoke” is on Trades, which presents the career possibilities of “starch-maker, porter, barber, Chinaman, coffeeman, Founder, Porkshop keeper, gravedigger, Cartwright, Tradesman, Tinker (a brasier), Stockingmender, Nailer, and Lochmaker.” Another is a bestiary of quadruped’s including Lamb, Roebuck, Ass, Dragon, Shi Ass, wild sow, Ass-colt, Lioness, Ram (Aries) and Dormouse. Of course, there’s small talk, like For to wish the good-morning—How does your father do? He is very well. I am very delight of it. Were is it? I shall come back soon, I was no came to know that to know how you are. Willingly good by.

type o-negative or captain caveman

Quite a bit of fad diets and spindled advice come and go, and while the best home-spun recommendation usually run don’t skimp on food and know one’s constitution, some candidates, I think, remain enticing and sensible, and without disparaging the strength of motivation and paying attention to one’s body, one’s habits, earn more credit than is due. It’s no Jedi mind-trick to present any comer with an array of caveats where one is bound to find enthusiasm, either for or against. Validation and challenge to one’s palette or approach is equally fixing and offer the same such bait for consideration.
Seeking out a healthy mix of second-opinions can raise a lot of incompatible ideas and contradicting advice. Reinforcement with chiding is a situation that one is more accustomed to than even pure success of failure, regardless of the estimation. Some dispensaries are more effective than others, and if not loyalists, franchises like eating for one’s rH factor, like one’s great grandparents, or like a Neanderthal have garnered much interest, which is a quality as compelling as any visceral emotion—just so with homeopathy and training to become a confirmed optimist. To have a kernel of truth, a bit of solace is a hook, enough and enduring when there’s a bald hint of reaffirming rightness and knowing one’s misguidance was common enough to merit correction. Maybe the new packaging has more to do with processes than any inherent weakness, without condemning the bulk and body of the industry to willing prospecting, maybe the explosion of allergies and sensitivities is more attributable to lifestyle and shortcuts in production. It is immature cheese that has the highest lactose content, and maybe the vogue of intolerance is more because of how it’s cut, even in polite company, than any new epidemic or any revelatory remediation.

trance or quantum-leap

The science desk of BBC has a fascinating article that opens up the disciplined world of knowable physical phenomena to the confounding confines of quantum mechanics, which normally escape experience and expectation in tiny, evanescent spaces, through the aspirations of Nature, a force which works within an established framework, surely, but is known and distinguished by its ingenuity, regardless of what invisible hand might guide it.

Abiding biological mysteries, like the sense of smell, certain migratory instincts, and the processes of photosynthesis, may elude definitive explanation because their mechanisms have shoe-horned bizarre physics, which may as inventive and opportunistic as life itself. Maybe an inter-disciplinary approach will lead to answers and discovery of more novelties. Organisms have an embarrassment of choices, without having to commit to one paradigm over another, and perhaps in a narrow sense the pantheon of the sciences admits the same.

gumshoe

A very common and ancient motif for guesthouse signage frames figures in a pentagram, usually comprised of intersecting triangles, like so generally but not always

Despite its ubiquity, I never bothered to find out what meaning there was behind it, since unnoticed symbolism governs all such establishments and I was content in guessing the common emblem was the Star of David or some time-out-of-mind male-female duality cipher, which carry enough hidden meaning and glosses of interpretation already. It turn out, however, that there is a quite but not necessarily separate legacy to this design. The society of Pythagoras associated the sign with hospitality since antiquity—imparting protection for travelers. Germanic lore understood the symbol as the footprint of a circumspect swan, stepping ahead and back again and would insure guests a good night’s sleep, warding away sprites and nixies that stir nightmares for those away from hearth and home. They called it the Drudenfuβ, resembling the footfall of its nemesis, and it kept noisome spirits from crossing the threshold by encouraging them to turn right around.