31/03/2007
faking it
The differences between faking, copying and imitating, or building on the work and advances of others, or working 'in the style of'... or being part of a movement, seem very blurred and hard to define. Do we 'stand on the shoulders of giants' because we are pygmies unable to get any where without using others as a ladder? Or want to pretend to be giants too and get the unearned kudos? Or is it the whole basis of advance in understanding and in art?
Written out
Reading Brooklyn Follies I found a list of how young people were who achieved literary feats. Well, how young they were when they died: Poe, 40; Kafka, 40; Marlowe, 29; Keats, 25; Georg Buchner, 23; Byron, 36; Emily Bronte, 30; Charlotte Bronte, 39; Shelley, 29; Wilfred Owen, 25; Leopardi, Garcia Lorca, Apollinaire, 39; both Pascal and Flannery O'Connor at 39; Rimbaud, 37 ; Chatterton 17.
That's just the writers though - think of the musicians , Pergolesi, Mozart....
Still, organists and harpsichordists all seem to have kept going to enormous ages so it must be composing that does it. Philosophers and economists are tough too. No-one is to take up writing novels, plays or poetry , or composing before they are already old. Perhaps it's living in garrets that does it?
That's just the writers though - think of the musicians , Pergolesi, Mozart....
Still, organists and harpsichordists all seem to have kept going to enormous ages so it must be composing that does it. Philosophers and economists are tough too. No-one is to take up writing novels, plays or poetry , or composing before they are already old. Perhaps it's living in garrets that does it?
28/03/2007
word endings
While typing voci bianche I remembered that I had intended to preserve the words on the butcher's sun shade as an example of how trikki endings can be in Italian but I forgot to copy them down and now the sun shade is gone. Can anyone remember?
something like Bottega delle Carni di Mara. might that be right?
something like Bottega delle Carni di Mara. might that be right?
colours
Castellina is to be painted the colour of Monsoglio, with the inside a lighter shade of pale, unless anyone has objections?Floors waxed red, ceilings natural waxed chestnut with pianelle waxed to match floors. No other colours (oh, pietra serena lightly lucido in its natural colours).
They are clearing the Sooty.
They are clearing the Sooty.
chorales
Can any Library user formerly in the voci bianche remember which chorale Bridge over Troubled Water is based on?
27/03/2007
Italianita'
Quite some time ago, when translating some early Italian poems into English I was taken by how much of the imagery derived from the same usages in the two languages. The words are different, (though often evocative of an English word) but the mind sets are twinned.
I checked and discover that Shakespeare translates ever so handily into Italian, although really early Italian poetry like Dante, doesn't change over from one language to the other with any grace at all.
So what was it about late 1500s and 1600s Italian and English writing that set them up so similarly? It's not a common classical heritage or it would be present in Buonarotti and D., and it isn't. Was there a massive export of Italian poetry form and style into English, as there was with music, that even survived translation?
I googled some likely headings and found I was wading into a very beautiful blue ocean of scholarship that shelved so swiftly into being quite out of my depth; when it comes to swimming in waters like that I'm still wearing water wings.
So if any Library user knows: why does English literature of that period (and presumably common language use to some degree) lean so heavily on earlier Italian models? Has the rinascimento struck again?
I checked and discover that Shakespeare translates ever so handily into Italian, although really early Italian poetry like Dante, doesn't change over from one language to the other with any grace at all.
So what was it about late 1500s and 1600s Italian and English writing that set them up so similarly? It's not a common classical heritage or it would be present in Buonarotti and D., and it isn't. Was there a massive export of Italian poetry form and style into English, as there was with music, that even survived translation?
I googled some likely headings and found I was wading into a very beautiful blue ocean of scholarship that shelved so swiftly into being quite out of my depth; when it comes to swimming in waters like that I'm still wearing water wings.
So if any Library user knows: why does English literature of that period (and presumably common language use to some degree) lean so heavily on earlier Italian models? Has the rinascimento struck again?
Definitions
Those Library users familiar with the concepts of communism and socialism are invited to give succinct portrayals of both.
Those whose everyday lives are not passed handling worlds where these ideas are central are also invited; innocence of view is often discouraged as ignorance when it can offer all kinds of insights. I am struggling with an offering while belonging to the second category.
Those whose everyday lives are not passed handling worlds where these ideas are central are also invited; innocence of view is often discouraged as ignorance when it can offer all kinds of insights. I am struggling with an offering while belonging to the second category.
A German library user makes an important observation on the failure of socialism. She remarked that communism (to which I was declaring continued, indeed sole, allegiance) is certainly an ideology free of socialism's unfortunate relations with the state and all the problems that brings, but that as communism is an ideology of angels it's not a lot of use to us in achieving the Good.
It's the delivery system that's failed in the technological and economic circumstances of today, but condemning socialism because it cannot live up to the ideology that has given it it's moral imprimatur and and has been used by some to justify degraded policies and acts, is escapism into angelic spheres that can deliver nothing (other than making me feel good).
Ouch!
So how is a delivery system developed and controlled by all of us? Perhaps first, what could it be made-up of ?
It's the delivery system that's failed in the technological and economic circumstances of today, but condemning socialism because it cannot live up to the ideology that has given it it's moral imprimatur and and has been used by some to justify degraded policies and acts, is escapism into angelic spheres that can deliver nothing (other than making me feel good).
Ouch!
So how is a delivery system developed and controlled by all of us? Perhaps first, what could it be made-up of ?
14/03/2007
Form
The point of view adopted is that of a reasonably educated, peacefully brought up, sane, usually well-disposed to the rest of humanity, European person.
Sources of information are: the reasonable education (perhaps that is a prism through which to look), the Library, the internet, fellow travellers (boom, boom) and any other materials suggested that are useful.
Not a lot of econometric or statistical detail will be offered; certainly it can be obtained but it will hold things up. Those who feel that evidence can be offered that refutes a stance, offer it. Silence is assent.
Argument, not evidence, rules.
Incomprehension should be resolved with queries, which are, in themselves, helpful in gripping what is being talked about.
No laughing.
Sources of information are: the reasonable education (perhaps that is a prism through which to look), the Library, the internet, fellow travellers (boom, boom) and any other materials suggested that are useful.
Not a lot of econometric or statistical detail will be offered; certainly it can be obtained but it will hold things up. Those who feel that evidence can be offered that refutes a stance, offer it. Silence is assent.
Argument, not evidence, rules.
Incomprehension should be resolved with queries, which are, in themselves, helpful in gripping what is being talked about.
No laughing.
12/03/2007
Setting out
The Library bears out that it is a time-honoured tradition to expound a complex argument, or even a novel and, certainly many children's books, in the form of a journey. The form has the advantage of ensuring that everything doesn't happen at once - even when what is under consideration is doing just that; it ensures also that as it requires setting out from one place and arriving in another, the traveller knows that the starting point is not the goal - useful when considering what is to be done now because, by definition, it is accepted that where we are now is not the best that can be done.
The best-equipped travelling companion has declared: ' old, tired, have given', but may be enticed into the journey by puzzles and adventures along the way; others may set off at the start with contributions, or join in if the journey passes through somewhere they know, or have techniques to overcome obstacles to the goal. Marathon running experience could be particularly helpful.
The start is to give an account of where we are now. Where we are physically; and what do we think is good and bad about it; a technical task and a moral task. I am taking who and when we are as given.
The best-equipped travelling companion has declared: ' old, tired, have given', but may be enticed into the journey by puzzles and adventures along the way; others may set off at the start with contributions, or join in if the journey passes through somewhere they know, or have techniques to overcome obstacles to the goal. Marathon running experience could be particularly helpful.
The start is to give an account of where we are now. Where we are physically; and what do we think is good and bad about it; a technical task and a moral task. I am taking who and when we are as given.
11/03/2007
new Buffy targets
Benedict XVI (or XV depending on what view is taken of an earlier ant-pope) is proposing to canonise John Paul II in double-quick time; he's already been declared blessed which is over half way.
On considering the purposes of canonisation the similarities with vampirism are striking or, perhaps, biting.
The maintenance of a personality after death; not just the traits embodied in the life of the dead but their continued growth and projection and change in reaction to continued events, as if there were a living entity independent of corporeal death.
The assertion of physical intervention into life now by way of miraculous activity.
The organisation of life activities and the generation of wealth.
Agreed there isn't the excitement of neck-nipping in the night, but lots of ecstatic activity by ladies chanting litanies -
Tower of Ivory,
House of Gold.....
The Heavenmouth is in Rome; minor outlets are throughout Christendom.
On considering the purposes of canonisation the similarities with vampirism are striking or, perhaps, biting.
The maintenance of a personality after death; not just the traits embodied in the life of the dead but their continued growth and projection and change in reaction to continued events, as if there were a living entity independent of corporeal death.
The assertion of physical intervention into life now by way of miraculous activity.
The organisation of life activities and the generation of wealth.
Agreed there isn't the excitement of neck-nipping in the night, but lots of ecstatic activity by ladies chanting litanies -
Tower of Ivory,
House of Gold.....
The Heavenmouth is in Rome; minor outlets are throughout Christendom.
10/03/2007
the state of Denmark
These are the things that are frightening and disgraceful and being pressed forward in the United Kingdom. Just for a start, this shows that something must be done. Pispolo worked with the Earl of Onslow and was most impressed.
Sunday April 23, 2006
The Observer
Dear Mr Cameron,
You and I are Conservatives. It could even be said that we both had a traditional upbringing. I have always understood that we Conservatives have been at our best when we use conservative and traditional methods for constructive change. From our beginnings in the Restoration parliament as defenders of church and king, we have seen ancient liberties as the key to the advancement of our fellow citizens.
Throughout the centuries, that Conservative-Tory tradition has been used for the immense benefit of our people. Peel's Tamworth Manifesto stated that so clearly in 1834. That is why we have been the most successful and long-lasting political party in history. From the Stuart kings to the modern, mass-political democracy, our great party has defended our constitution and benefited our country.
Something is missing from our rhetoric. We have a government by a party that reinvented itself by being ashamed of its roots and determinedly betrayed the traditions and ideas of its founders. They may well have been right so to do, but they cannot be trusted to hold dear the traditions of others.
In no order of awfulness, this government has emasculated the House of Commons by the permanent use of guillotines. On the whim of the Prime Minister, the Lord Chancellorship has been neutered, removing a voice of law from the cabinet.
Those instances are on the parliamentary front, but what the government has done to the liberty of the subject is far worse. Note that I say liberty of the subject, not the rights of the citizen. That is because liberties are boundless unless circumscribed by law and rights are, by their nature, circumscribed.
It has repealed the law on double jeopardy. With Asbos, it has sent to prison some of the young on hearsay evidence for things that are not even criminal. It has created a centralised register held by the government on all citizens and proposes to force them to have ID cards. It has formed a police force with unprecedented powers of arrest - the Serious Organised Crime Agency - over which the Home Secretary has authority no predecessor has previously enjoyed.
Through its control orders, it has introduced a system of deprivation of liberty without trial on the say-so of the executive. It has passed the Civil Contingencies Act that allows a minister to override any statute after the calling of a state of emergency and now there is the Regulatory Reform Bill, which has been described as 'the abolition of parliament bill' and against which our party did not even vote at second reading. This gives gauleiter-like powers to ministers which we are blandly told will not be used.
The government has allowed the retention by the police of DNA details of thousands of innocents and it has given us section 81 (6) of the Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claims) Act 2004 which amends the Nationality, Immigration and Asylums Act 2002, creating a single-tier appeals procedure which Lord Steyn, in a recent lecture, described as, in effect, ousting the jurisdiction of ordinary courts. The government has introduced anti-terrorism stop-and-search powers that are constantly being misused, such as when the elderly Walter Wolfgang was ejected from the Labour conference.
This list is by no means comprehensive. What surprises, worries and depresses me is the apparent relative quietude on the part of the Conservative party on these issues. I repeat - it did not vote against the Regulatory Reform Bill on second reading. It has not remembered the great Edward Gibbon's comment on Augustus Caesar's Rome: 'The principles of a free constitution are irrecoverably lost when the legislative power is nominated by the executive.'
It was dozy on the Civil Contingencies Act until the excellent Peta Buscombe in our house took it up; this from the party which, since the restoration of Charles II, has been so jealous of our constitution. Have we a guilty secret? Remember Burke saying: 'All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.' Why are we not shouting from the hustings that we will return to the people their ancient liberties?
Why, Mr Cameron, is the Conservative party passing by on the other side while our old liberties fall among thieves?
Yours sincerely, Onslow
· The Earl of Onslow is one of the 92 hereditary peers and takes the Conservative whip.
Sunday April 23, 2006
The Observer
Dear Mr Cameron,
You and I are Conservatives. It could even be said that we both had a traditional upbringing. I have always understood that we Conservatives have been at our best when we use conservative and traditional methods for constructive change. From our beginnings in the Restoration parliament as defenders of church and king, we have seen ancient liberties as the key to the advancement of our fellow citizens.
Throughout the centuries, that Conservative-Tory tradition has been used for the immense benefit of our people. Peel's Tamworth Manifesto stated that so clearly in 1834. That is why we have been the most successful and long-lasting political party in history. From the Stuart kings to the modern, mass-political democracy, our great party has defended our constitution and benefited our country.
Something is missing from our rhetoric. We have a government by a party that reinvented itself by being ashamed of its roots and determinedly betrayed the traditions and ideas of its founders. They may well have been right so to do, but they cannot be trusted to hold dear the traditions of others.
In no order of awfulness, this government has emasculated the House of Commons by the permanent use of guillotines. On the whim of the Prime Minister, the Lord Chancellorship has been neutered, removing a voice of law from the cabinet.
Those instances are on the parliamentary front, but what the government has done to the liberty of the subject is far worse. Note that I say liberty of the subject, not the rights of the citizen. That is because liberties are boundless unless circumscribed by law and rights are, by their nature, circumscribed.
It has repealed the law on double jeopardy. With Asbos, it has sent to prison some of the young on hearsay evidence for things that are not even criminal. It has created a centralised register held by the government on all citizens and proposes to force them to have ID cards. It has formed a police force with unprecedented powers of arrest - the Serious Organised Crime Agency - over which the Home Secretary has authority no predecessor has previously enjoyed.
Through its control orders, it has introduced a system of deprivation of liberty without trial on the say-so of the executive. It has passed the Civil Contingencies Act that allows a minister to override any statute after the calling of a state of emergency and now there is the Regulatory Reform Bill, which has been described as 'the abolition of parliament bill' and against which our party did not even vote at second reading. This gives gauleiter-like powers to ministers which we are blandly told will not be used.
The government has allowed the retention by the police of DNA details of thousands of innocents and it has given us section 81 (6) of the Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claims) Act 2004 which amends the Nationality, Immigration and Asylums Act 2002, creating a single-tier appeals procedure which Lord Steyn, in a recent lecture, described as, in effect, ousting the jurisdiction of ordinary courts. The government has introduced anti-terrorism stop-and-search powers that are constantly being misused, such as when the elderly Walter Wolfgang was ejected from the Labour conference.
This list is by no means comprehensive. What surprises, worries and depresses me is the apparent relative quietude on the part of the Conservative party on these issues. I repeat - it did not vote against the Regulatory Reform Bill on second reading. It has not remembered the great Edward Gibbon's comment on Augustus Caesar's Rome: 'The principles of a free constitution are irrecoverably lost when the legislative power is nominated by the executive.'
It was dozy on the Civil Contingencies Act until the excellent Peta Buscombe in our house took it up; this from the party which, since the restoration of Charles II, has been so jealous of our constitution. Have we a guilty secret? Remember Burke saying: 'All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.' Why are we not shouting from the hustings that we will return to the people their ancient liberties?
Why, Mr Cameron, is the Conservative party passing by on the other side while our old liberties fall among thieves?
Yours sincerely, Onslow
· The Earl of Onslow is one of the 92 hereditary peers and takes the Conservative whip.
Lenin's question
Bitterly has the thought been fought, with imagination, explanation, historical excuse, a lifetime's commitment, it cannot be denied: Socialism is dead.
The striving towards fairness, impartial justice, the commitment to reason not faith, and to the technological, not use-of-force solution to inadequacies of physical provision (with social provision for diversely occurring vulnerability - youth, sickness, age, disbility), is undimmed. But socialism as it is determined in and by all its nineteeth and twentieth century glory, is history. Worse, by failing to bury what is dead we contaminate everything we wish to achieve for our lives. And provide easy targets for the wicked of the world to deny goals and denigrate achievments that are wholly to be endorsed.
Surveying the dreary deathscapes produced by Stalinism, and all its lesser manifestations from Cambodia through the miserable post 1945 years for everyone east of Berlin, to the (so minor in comparison, but nonetheless deeply repugnant) BrownLabour party, we are defenceless in proposing the good if we associate ourseves with socialism. The self-seeking of apparatchiks and their client-state producing tactics when threatened by democratic votes, subverted everything that wasn't killed.
What is to be done?
The striving towards fairness, impartial justice, the commitment to reason not faith, and to the technological, not use-of-force solution to inadequacies of physical provision (with social provision for diversely occurring vulnerability - youth, sickness, age, disbility), is undimmed. But socialism as it is determined in and by all its nineteeth and twentieth century glory, is history. Worse, by failing to bury what is dead we contaminate everything we wish to achieve for our lives. And provide easy targets for the wicked of the world to deny goals and denigrate achievments that are wholly to be endorsed.
Surveying the dreary deathscapes produced by Stalinism, and all its lesser manifestations from Cambodia through the miserable post 1945 years for everyone east of Berlin, to the (so minor in comparison, but nonetheless deeply repugnant) BrownLabour party, we are defenceless in proposing the good if we associate ourseves with socialism. The self-seeking of apparatchiks and their client-state producing tactics when threatened by democratic votes, subverted everything that wasn't killed.
What is to be done?
lost
'There's a delicious pecorino if you would like to try; it's truly exceptional'. Pecorino is one of the least attractive cheeses imaginable;sour, sweating, salty, with a lingering after -taste.
Is its truly exceptionalness an exaggeration of these qualities - or their amelioration?
'It's Sardinian!' Does that make it worse or better? Aren't qualities supposed to act as a guide?
Is its truly exceptionalness an exaggeration of these qualities - or their amelioration?
'It's Sardinian!' Does that make it worse or better? Aren't qualities supposed to act as a guide?
grinding axes
Fried fish for dinner yesterday suggested a thought that lots of sayings are shortly going to become unintelligible - the sort of thing asked about in class by falslely bright and encouraging English teachers. Healthy eating will give them lots of grist to their dead mill. Other fish to fry, fat in the fire, pot callling kettle black (that one's not allowed any more), different kettle of fish. It's surprising too that so many English ones are kitchen or housework metaphors. In Italian metaphor is just as distant but quite another pair of sleeves.
09/03/2007
eeeeeek
There was a giant cockroach under the washing machine liquid so after shrieks and shakes it has been hoovered to extinction. Spending the afternoon finding new hoover bags as the one full of cockroach was instantly discarded into the bins down the hill is not a good use of a sunny afternoon. Unfortunately the preponderance of sunny afternoons, and mornings, and were it possible, nights threatens a scary Spring and Summer. Nothing like hard frosts and deep and crisp and even for killing beasties off. Come prepared to be brave and resourceful.
dead mimosa
A call from a friend suggested some sort of outing for 8 March. That seemed right so we went to see if the house of the dead had any interesting remnants to buy. There was a particularly pretty 50's drinks trolley so it is now in the cantina. Still, some celebration for the wimmin - even the mimosa had finished flowering last week. Sigh.
06/03/2007
Bacheca
Library subscribers with US desideri are requested to get in touch with Pispolo who wil be in NY around the festival of the Liberazione. Any request arriving before 20 April should be in time.
More interestingly, P. will also be debating the Euro with another subscriber (who should comment, I'm beginning to keep count, services unused will be discontinued to non-contributers) in Warsaw, at the end of March. Comments and contributions on the Euro and/or the Poles are eagerly sought. Come along now, we can't leave economists to their own devices - we all know they think counter-intuitively and have to be guided back to reality.
More interestingly, P. will also be debating the Euro with another subscriber (who should comment, I'm beginning to keep count, services unused will be discontinued to non-contributers) in Warsaw, at the end of March. Comments and contributions on the Euro and/or the Poles are eagerly sought. Come along now, we can't leave economists to their own devices - we all know they think counter-intuitively and have to be guided back to reality.
Buffy shrugs off competing claimant
Someone has staked Slobodan Milosevic. The wannabe Slayer then reported himself to the local police who refused to do anything about it all. Not being a girl militated against his claim to be the Chosen One.
Inviting Trouble
Cardiff University geologists have discovered an undersea earth-crustless terrain which they intend to explore. The Earth's mantle is being lapped by the whispering waves. I wonder what is holding the inside in or the outside from pouring inside. Although most have vague notions that the planet is a red hot molten ball covered by a few, worryingly thin, layers discovering there are spots where layers are missing is most unsettling. Jules Verne was always a cause of childhood concern, deliberately poking holes, but this is real. And the Welsh intend to try and get bits out from underneath; there will be tears before bedtime.
Voyage to the Centre of the Earth isn't a patch on The Lost World, no Professor Challenger, for starters.
Voyage to the Centre of the Earth isn't a patch on The Lost World, no Professor Challenger, for starters.
04/03/2007
red moon
Instead of standing on the terrace to watch the eclipse of the moon your Librarian went to bed without a second thought.
It was the hype alla italiana, the cooing female voice spouting rubbish about heavenly bodies, the astrology of it all. How worrying that reality can be rendered repellent by foolish overwrites.
Lovely cartoon in Corriere della Sera: Prodi to Fassino looking at red moon, ' godiamoci questa luna rossa altrimenti bisogna aspettare altri diciannove anni'.
It was the hype alla italiana, the cooing female voice spouting rubbish about heavenly bodies, the astrology of it all. How worrying that reality can be rendered repellent by foolish overwrites.
Lovely cartoon in Corriere della Sera: Prodi to Fassino looking at red moon, ' godiamoci questa luna rossa altrimenti bisogna aspettare altri diciannove anni'.
03/03/2007
update
The man is an Englishman, now widower of a native Ferrarese. His prontezza di spirito in asking for ambulance -calling was only betrayed by crew noticing she had been dead some time; he held out til 4am then confessed that he had killed her before going to work as she nagged him about his drinking. He had had a few before setting off down the stairs with his horrid burden.
It is now leading the 8.30 news, outdoing Prodi's reforms.
It is now leading the 8.30 news, outdoing Prodi's reforms.
whoops
Carrying his freshly-murdered spouse down stairs while the neighbours were occupied watching the main evening news, (key opening bars of the telegiornale), the husband stumbled, dropping his victim, who disturbed the condominio by breaking pots of flowers on two landings as down she went. Quick as a flash he cried for help to be called after her unfortunate fall, but was found out when the paramedics arrived, and arrested by carabinieri who had been summoned as well by one of the quicker- witted vicini di casa.
What is it that is so essentially Italian about this grisly tale?, - the intra-familial murder (they are reported night after night as generations, siblings, affines, off one another in every conceivable way and circumstance from one end of the peninsula to the other), rinascimento memories of heads and baskets of figs, cold rages, cruel stalkings? the casualness of the disposal plans, the non e' colpa mia she fell on the potted plants- hopeless denial of responsibility of it?
What is it that is so essentially Italian about this grisly tale?, - the intra-familial murder (they are reported night after night as generations, siblings, affines, off one another in every conceivable way and circumstance from one end of the peninsula to the other), rinascimento memories of heads and baskets of figs, cold rages, cruel stalkings? the casualness of the disposal plans, the non e' colpa mia she fell on the potted plants- hopeless denial of responsibility of it?
sooty and sweep
Up the hill the wood cleansing for this year is completed. The route for the fencing is cleared. The Sweep and its meadows are released, and so are the terraces of the orto alongside the Sooty.
The Sooty orto is to be fenced separately from the home park fencing immediately, so that it can be planted up for veg. and salads. Leo will plough it next week; the scattering takes place as soon as it is fenced otherwise porcupines will descend from above the fountain and eat all the shoots and leave.
The windows and shutters have been fitted at the house and now the carpenter has to remove all the handles, and all the shutters as he has been impertinent enough to stamp them all with his name as if the house is his advertizing hoarding. I have declined to have any further part in choosing with this particular tradesman as he is a local, puffed up, masculinist creep of a kind all too familiar. The architect has goldenly-smiled and agreed to deal with him on Monday.
The Sooty orto is to be fenced separately from the home park fencing immediately, so that it can be planted up for veg. and salads. Leo will plough it next week; the scattering takes place as soon as it is fenced otherwise porcupines will descend from above the fountain and eat all the shoots and leave.
The windows and shutters have been fitted at the house and now the carpenter has to remove all the handles, and all the shutters as he has been impertinent enough to stamp them all with his name as if the house is his advertizing hoarding. I have declined to have any further part in choosing with this particular tradesman as he is a local, puffed up, masculinist creep of a kind all too familiar. The architect has goldenly-smiled and agreed to deal with him on Monday.
Moon of Alabama
The German government is to contribute to a German research and engineering body that plans to put a space rocket into orbit round the moon and obtain data to map the moon's surface in great detail. This project is to be followed by a landing to obtain physical samples of various areas of the moon's surface so that a geophysical mapping can be carried out.
The Germans have said they are doing this separately from the European Union space research bodies. They remark that they have the economic, technical engineering and organisational skills to be confident of the success of their project.
They were pioneering in all this in 1941 and were hindered only by the intervening losses of the second world war and the removal en masse of their scientists and engineering infrastructure to America and the Soviet Union.
If the speed and efficiency with which eastern Germany has been rehabilitated since the fall of the Wall, the costs so deftly spread across the whole of the EU (only fair, I concede) and the glowing confidence and surefootedness with which they are stepping up to globalizing, and distributing fairly, are to go by, I believe them.
Last year my visit to Berlin was a winter adventure ( I have remarked before on the weirdness of walking through the Austalasia houses of the Botanischergarten fully euipped with parrots, looking out at a snowbound landscape) so my friend and I may go a little later.
Should we be looking to buy a bit of the Moon? Or at least a bit of Berlin.
Library users will know that I have been taken away by German culture and its denial to me by aforementioned contrary circumstances.
The Germans have said they are doing this separately from the European Union space research bodies. They remark that they have the economic, technical engineering and organisational skills to be confident of the success of their project.
They were pioneering in all this in 1941 and were hindered only by the intervening losses of the second world war and the removal en masse of their scientists and engineering infrastructure to America and the Soviet Union.
If the speed and efficiency with which eastern Germany has been rehabilitated since the fall of the Wall, the costs so deftly spread across the whole of the EU (only fair, I concede) and the glowing confidence and surefootedness with which they are stepping up to globalizing, and distributing fairly, are to go by, I believe them.
Last year my visit to Berlin was a winter adventure ( I have remarked before on the weirdness of walking through the Austalasia houses of the Botanischergarten fully euipped with parrots, looking out at a snowbound landscape) so my friend and I may go a little later.
Should we be looking to buy a bit of the Moon? Or at least a bit of Berlin.
Library users will know that I have been taken away by German culture and its denial to me by aforementioned contrary circumstances.
01/03/2007
reviews
The Librarian invites reviews from all Library members who are enthused or repelled by whatever they are reading. This will help keep us all updated with much less effort than doing the reading ourselves (unless here, where reading is obligatory).
no no global
An interesting-looking parcel arrived this morning; inside was Philippe Legrain's Open World:the truth about globalisation.
Library members who heard the Caffe' Lectures will be interested that the arguments presented there which caused such consternation among the standard left-leaning professionals, are put forward here too, with a slightly different emphasis - more refutation of the no-globals and a less broad sweep on positive aspects of planet-wide economic integration and problems of distribution and fairness, than our hero undertook.
To be reviewed.
Library members who heard the Caffe' Lectures will be interested that the arguments presented there which caused such consternation among the standard left-leaning professionals, are put forward here too, with a slightly different emphasis - more refutation of the no-globals and a less broad sweep on positive aspects of planet-wide economic integration and problems of distribution and fairness, than our hero undertook.
To be reviewed.
High table Labour
While looking at 2020, the website set up by Charles Clarke and Alan Milburn to open discussion both within the Labour party and outside on where it is going and should it be going there, I see Professor the Right Honourable Lord Eatwell well up in the endorsing comments on its opening page.
Most discussion in the dead tree press has agreed this is an anti Brown- takeover website so, having a high regard for John's economist's learning and skills, as well as a warm appreciation of his knowing which side the political bread is buttered, I though this boded bad for Brown. John knows more than most about pensions, the big bad bogey of Brown's incompetent micro-managing, and almost everything about the real shape the UK economy is in (fine the globalized sectors run by the Bank of England and the sectors controlled by the EU Growth and Stability Pact parameters) awful the nightmare of control freak high tax/highspend and redistribute to clientalise the Brown/Labour vote bits (which fortunately impinge less on London than the rest of the country).
Just a straw in the wind but I think it indicates it's not over for Tony yet, not any where near.
Most discussion in the dead tree press has agreed this is an anti Brown- takeover website so, having a high regard for John's economist's learning and skills, as well as a warm appreciation of his knowing which side the political bread is buttered, I though this boded bad for Brown. John knows more than most about pensions, the big bad bogey of Brown's incompetent micro-managing, and almost everything about the real shape the UK economy is in (fine the globalized sectors run by the Bank of England and the sectors controlled by the EU Growth and Stability Pact parameters) awful the nightmare of control freak high tax/highspend and redistribute to clientalise the Brown/Labour vote bits (which fortunately impinge less on London than the rest of the country).
Just a straw in the wind but I think it indicates it's not over for Tony yet, not any where near.
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