billy-goat's gruff oder when there's trouble, you call d-w

Though better known right now for the its bishop being a bad custodian of tithes and negligent of his vows, Limburg an der Lahn (on the river—like Stratford-upon-Avon) is a pretty dynamic city, situated halfway between the megalopolises of Frankfurt and Köln. Recently civic planners and architects secured the permission to redistrict the arches and concrete pylons of the old valley Autobahn bridge, scheduled for decommissioning in 2016 due to age while a new span is being constructed for apartments, office-space and hotel. Historically, bridges were so zoned.  It looks like a pretty cool concept, if the realty firm involved can pull it off without squashing the vision, and think it would make the perfect lair for a brooding, reclusive super-hero—or a villain, like T-Bartz.

seismograph or triple-witching

A certain breed of a meme has been circulating the internet since around last November, superimposing the contemporary US stock-market erratic-pulse with those of 1928 and 1929 in the period that led up to the crash and following world-wide Great Depression.

A market-watcher originally drew these parallels for entertainment, reportedly, but the analogy has held since. Projections often find their point-of-departure and yield something more surprising but it is nevertheless frightening what such a trend pre-supposes. This correlation and foreshadowing is especially interesting, as the announcement that the US House of Representatives support a capitulation that will raise, without conditions or visible trade-offs, the borrowing ability of the US government—the debt-ceiling. While it is money that America owes itself, the investors did not flinch, neither bombasting nor blanching at this development, and there are fictions about what this policy means at both extremes of the spectrum, it does seem like a delay of the inevitable, which is due in May of this year, according to the charts.

study-hall oder archetype

One forgets, sometimes, how Wikipedia, and earlier with bibliomancy at the library or with encyclopedia articles, can be a digest for the curious.
Recently, one of its featured entries invited visitors to learn more about an auditorium, an art deco masterpiece, and research centre called the Atlantis House (Atlantis Haus, more historical photographs hier) in Bremen built during the interbellum years by an accomplished architect at the behest of a wealthy coffee-magnate.  The businessman was himself entranced by the theories of the ethnographer who would go on to found the Ahnenerbe Society. This group conducted expeditions, sponsored by the Nazi regime, to explore mythological and ideological links, mostly constructing specious and affirming connections. The function of this institution was to promote the theory that the Germanic race issued from a now sunken continent in the North Sea and were responsible for creating the continuum of civilisation that we've inherited from Mesopotamia. I wonder what sort of lectures were delivered there. I still recall vividly the feeling on learning that Hollywood treatments like the sagas of Indiana Jones and Hellboy were not without some basis in reality. That's a strange sort of legitimising to assume for one's posture.

grenzwache or crowd-sourcing

Sunday, the citizens of Switzerland went to polling stations to cast a plebiscite, whose assent is casting a chilling pall over the Confederation's relationship with the European Union and towards foreigners living there and prospectives as well. The matter of immigration reform and limits on the numbers of cross-border workers from neighbouring countries was put to a popular vote—which ironically has many crying foul of direct-democracy and those making the most clamor is the Germans who compromise the biggest single class of migrants and also wryly are facing, potentially the same kind of discrimination and quotas that immigrants from Turkey, Eastern Europe and beyond have to deal with when they come to Germany. French and Italian commuters are also concerned. The move, seen in part to protect native workers from outside competition and curb over-crowding—primarily of Ausländer, I suppose, suggesting a type of xenophobia that's just been codified, could see negative, punitive repercussions, as EU leadership question whether neutral Switzerland can continue its special tax-treaties with the bloc if they choose to reject their values and the thinning of boundaries. I wonder what forms sanctions could take. More tariffs could be levied against trade as a result. Politicians are also afraid, I think, of what kind of precedence such a decision—put into the hands of the majority without necessarily minority protection, might bode, what with such movements and closing of borders established throughout the union.

bishop of bling, sultans of swing

As the Vatican is dealing with how to respond to a very frank and confessional survey, which was solicited at the highest levels, of members' attitudes towards sex and loving relationships that reveal in many ways an urgent need to reform, the Church is also dealing with the unresolved investigation, the verdict still out, into the deportment of Francis-Peter Tebartz-van Elst, the suspended senior leader of the diocese of Limburg and also known as the Bishop of Bling for his extravagance.
The Church could probably do without this sort of publicity, and not for the sake of its image and whatever feedback such misguided behaviour or a polling brings but rather I think the Pope would not want the distraction of what's the stuff of headlines and relatively coherent scandals. These detract from real and substantial changes, which in many important ways ought not to be surprising since they are in their job descriptions, and already some quite significant shifts towards to humility, service and inclusion have been accomplished and indiscretions addressed by example, which I suppose might have been tolerated or even culturally encouraged under past regimes. Still, I do wonder—as I suppose I belong to that pastoral-zone, whether he calls himself T-Bartz as his behaviour does seem pretty gangster, not only ignoring run-away cost overruns for his apostolic seat but also taking vacations and maintaining a secret apartment at parishioners' expense.

a bird in the hand

Here is a clever and thoughtful review of the new book, The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking by British reporter Oliver Burkeman, that also presents a brilliant and worthwhile exploration into the recesses and reaches of plans, contingencies and preparedness — the sort of responsible behaviours that are supposed to be key to success in any venture.

Burkeman, with interviews and testimonials of others, however, shows rather that an unflinching focus of on a rigid set of goals is more of a liability and the sort of safe achievement that we are most accustomed to and not something innovative, original and sustaining. Taking the next steps along the path to realise ones goals and resolutions, idealised or assumed and inherited, can sometimes be only for the sake of vanquishing that uncomfortable feeling when one does not know where to go next, and detours—rather than embraced as opportunities or sabbaticals, are seen as set-backs and getting back on the imagined right path can become something counter-productive or ultimately hopeless. There is much wisdom and solace to found in flexibility and improvisation, too.

red kuri squash soup with ginger and coconut milk

We tried a really simple but savoury and delicious recipe for a soup with Hokkaido Squash (also known as Red Kuri Squash or the Onion Squash, cultivated in Northern Japan) that's got a fusion of ingredients that one could vary and substitute infinitely.

For three to four servings, one will need:

• One small Red Kuri Squash, about 500 grams (18 ounces)
• One medium onion 
  
• 3 medium sized carrots 
• One one inch length of ginger root 
• Veget- able bullion to make ½ a litre of broth (2 cups) 
• 200 ml of coconut milk (about one cup) 
• The juice of one lemon 
• Butter (about two tablespoons) 
• Salt, pepper, soy sauce and coriander leaves for garnishing and seasoning 

Hokkaido pumpkins do not need to be peeled—just slice and remove the seeds, and dice up the sections of the squash, onion, carrots and ginger root (removing the outer dry layer) in a food processor. Meanwhile bring the bouillon to a low boil. In a separate, large pot add the butter and transfer the diced vegetables to saute them for about three minutes, folding over the mixture so nothing gets overcooked. Pour in the vegetable broth and allow to simmer for about twenty minutes. Now that the vegetables are soft, puree the soup thoroughly with a hand-mixer directly in the pot and add the coconut milk and lemon juice. Stirring, introduce about two tablespoons of soy sauce and the other spices. Serve with a garnish of soy sauce and coriander leaves and a port or sherry.

confectionery

The Presurfer pointed to this research project, that is certainly worth revisiting, concerning a group from the University of Tokyo study into creating an efficient battery out of more common substances that are in no short supply, sodium (salt) and sucrose (sugar). Traditional Lithium-ion batteries are very good at energy storage and have a relatively long lifetime, but extracting the metal, whose deposits are limited, is a dirty process and the disposal and repurposing usually is not very effective.

The team was making strides in developing a functional vehicle powering items and serving as a receptacle for holding energy until needed about a year and a half ago, but I was not able to locate much news regarding their progress. It seems like promising approaches—especially out of Japan, are sometimes disappeared down a rabbit hole, not out of some sort of conspiracy, I think, but without real explanation, nevertheless, like for all the really neat and clever technologies that won't work outside of Japan or that aren't for export—like those ultrasonic laundrettes or at least there was a significant lag time—like with using one's cell phone as a virtual wallet/coin-purse. I did learn, however, that last year, there was a summit held in the Basque region of Spain that focused on the continued growth of the so-called Sodium Battery (the sugar part is just an extreme carmelization process to make a carbon positive pole to the anodyne of Sodium—and recalls the origin of the word confection, from the Latin for to put together), which could prove instrumental in achieving a real sustainable balance between ecology and growing demand for power.