These flowers with up-turned petals that hide their plant-business below are a variety of Alpen-glรถckchen (Soldanella, little coins in Latin but I guess in English, they're known as snowbells) remind me of the piranha plants of Super Mario Brothers. They unfortunately are rather delicate and fussy things and tend not to do well in captivity. Another long-term inmate is blooming upside-down, whose made of sturdier stuff, more adapted to neglect and smothering, with an ugly little flower unfolding. This Zanzibar Gem (Zamioculcas zamiifolia—also called the ZZ Plant, a Zamie or eine Glรผcksfeder) or most-fittingly the Eternity Plant.
Though not a tuber, like a potato or a tulip, it forms bulbous reservoirs of water at its base that can (within reason) be either stored for drier times or squished, transmuted into leaf-form in response to the environment—or the watering-can. H had had one for years that I fawned over and over-watered but I am glad we have an understudy doing well. Not that I mind these untraditional flowers one bit, but I had the notion that house-plants that require a certain maturity before blooming, unlike the weird probing cactus, the baobab trees and the giant schefflera that has been proudly sprouting these little giraffe horns every year since would only do it once and take a rest from such activities.
Monday 23 September 2013
savage garden
catagories: ๐ฑ, environment, language, lifestyle
Sunday 22 September 2013
photo-bomb or underwater
These disasters, with funny commentary included, do not just come from severely distressed markets or places with such a housing-storage that the mere whisper would draw interest but rather from contributors and readers of classifieds all over the world, and it makes me wonder if the down-swing in the housing-market isn't also due too bad presentation. There were too many awful and awkward pictures to list, causing genuine curiosity about what was hoped to convey by framing these images, and one should browse through the gallery in order to check the reputation of your scout and agent.
catagories: economic policy, lifestyle, networking and blogging
hanging gardens
catagories: ๐ธ๐ฌ, ๐, ๐ฑ, environment
Saturday 21 September 2013
raubgold or double-quick time
After studying a cipher subtly scribbled on a music score, a Dutch film-maker and musician is convinced that the lost cashe of Nazi treasure is buried somewhere under the town of Mittenwald, in the Isar valley and near Garmisch-Partenkirchen and the Austrian border—Der Spiegel International reports. Although the treasure-hunter's focus is not exactly the stuff of the Da Vinci Code, the patriotic march having not been composed as a vehicle for hiding in plain sight and transmitting secrets, but rather a collection of documents thought to be from the personal secretary of Adolf Hitler (though a chain-of-custody has not been established with certainty), which includes a copy of the sheet-music foot-noted that supposedly point to the exact location of the hidden, legendary Alpine treasure-trove. Preliminary excavations are underway in Mittenwald and although nothing might be unearthed, the notion has a lot of people intrigued.
Friday 20 September 2013
playable character or level-boss
Learning about the passing away of visionary and creative genius Hiroshi Yamauchi who took the Japanese traditional board- and card-game company Nintendo under his leadership for more than fifty years, producing a multitude of arcade games and then gaming consoles for home use, I was reminded about this poster of spiraling constellations that chart all the games produced during the company's most prolific period from Pop Chart Labs.
With such a memorable cast of characters, studying the accompanying manuals, legends and bestiaries were almost as engrossing as playing the games itself. Almost. While its competitors sought to deliver flashier graphics and greater computing power, Nintendo endured by remaining true to family of avatars—many the inventions of designer Shigeru Miyamoto, another pioneer Yamauchi encouraged, like Zelda and the Brothers Mario, that frankly made the others look like road-kill, and challenging environments, with innovative interfaces from the gun for Duck Hunt, R.O.B. the little robot challenger, a microphone in the Japanese version that could be used to shout down certain enemies, the power glove, to the Wii controllers, which pulled players into the game, more than any degree of realism could hope to. Thanks for all the endless hours and entertainment, Mr. Yamauchi, and know that your legacy lives on.
Thursday 19 September 2013
invisible hand
There are quite a few conflated statements and actions in
circulation regarding America's economy and monetary policy. While
it is true that raising a debt-ceiling does not in fact increase
overall debt, rather just re-calibrates a county's ability to fulfill
its outstanding obligations, and despite evidence to the contrary
about past fiscal cycles, history and precedence and possibly the
very definition of madness in expecting any other outcome, such a
correction does not necessarily speak to thrift and discipline. On
the contrary, a commitment to not default and continue to match the
caretaking and stewardship responsibilities of a government
demonstrates a discipline usually understood to be the opposite.
catagories: ๐ฑ, foreign policy
Wednesday 18 September 2013
polling place or fragenbogen
A section of the German electorate is gifting its ballots to expatriates and EU citizens unable to influence the outcome of the campaign via a social-media group called Electoral Rebellion in order to lend a voice to those outliers affected by Germany's stance in the European Union, like the Spaniards and Hellenes in the face of austerity measures and others further afield with the potential to be touched by new German policy. From a legal standpoint, it appears, that the volunteers are simply soliciting the advice of foreigners, and participants—with no expectation of quid pro quo, would have probably voted for the candidates most sympathetic to the views of those voting by proxy, but the action does raise a needed discussion on supra-national politics and infringements as well. What do you think? Is this action, stunt not far from buying and selling votes or a broader and necessary world-view?
catagories: ๐ฉ๐ช, ๐ช๐บ, ๐ฌ๐ท, economic policy, foreign policy, networking and blogging