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2004-12-03 16:14
In particular, The
Indybladet. Which I read from Friday last week to yesterday,
neglecting its Sunday sister paper. Somebody suggested, you see, that
it would be a good preparation for a bit of social "science", and
since I mostly learn about Blighty from 'Wegian 'bladets, my grasp of
the minutiae of the domestique political landscape is not what it
might be.
I discovered I do quite like the illusion that a whole day's news is
linearised onto one tree-derived codex, with no chasing after linkages
and no possibility of not noticing that one is skipping all the
"World" stuff. (Africa is apparently still screwed, I couldn't help
noticing in passing.)
But the (extensive) domestic coverage mostly amounts to politicians' sex lives,
and celebrity reality TV, while the (derisory, really) Europe section
was reduced into Ukrania coverage that the Interweb does better.
(Apparently a whole week has passed without anything happening in or
to Germany, which must have been relaxing for them.)
I might be tempted to continue if I commuted (I hope not) or I could
have a 'bladet to peruse over fastbreakning and I was in the habit of
breaking my fast before noon.
The above being other than the case, I'm going back to Aftonbladet, thanks all the same.
[Permalink]
2004-12-03 nearly weekend! (utc)
Lacking, as I most certainly do, both Anna K's intrepidness and her
grasp of Slavonic, I exuberate from a nice safe, Englishy distance at
the excellence of the Beeb's pressuproundnings.
Compare and, if you wish, contrast this:
Parliament has voted no-confidence in the cabinet, but this does not
affect anything at this stage. Everything depends on which agreements
the opposition and the authorities reach... It may look as if
parliament has sacked the government, but Yanukovych will not leave
his post unless the president decides so.
Ukrainian pro-government daily Segodnya [boo!]
with this:
Our orange movement is not so much a political campaign as our
Woodstock and our May 1968, our Dadaism and our revolutionary
velvet. In short, it is our common childhood, which was missing from
our too-grown-up history. This is why everybody is looking so young in
Kiev, even the old people.
Ukrainian independent daily Den [hoorah!]
and this:
Russia cannot afford to allow defeat in the battle for
Ukraine. Besides everything else, defeat would mean velvet revolutions
in the next two years, now following the Kiev variant, in Belarus,
Moldova, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and possibly Armenia.
Russia's Rossiyskaya Gazeta [yikes!]
Those wacky pa-Russkies, eh? "If we let one vassal tyrrany escape
from bondage, they'll all be at it! And besides, the elections
were too fair!" And Sovetskaya Rossiya is even scarier!
With service like this I almost wish I paid a license fee.
[Permalink]
2004-12-03 samwidge (utc)
�1. I am scientiste! Bring me gravy!
Go on, Yoorp, you know you want to:
Europe must make good on plans to set up an independent funding body
for science or face an unprecedented brain drain, a leading scientist
has warned.
Framework 6, you say? Framework Death By Paperwork, more like!
In Europe, research is funded by individual national agencies as well
as the EU's Framework 6 programme (FP6). But FP6 has been criticised
widely for being over-bureaucratic, skewed towards big, complex
collaborations and subject to political pressures.
There are persons who specialise in training and consultancy
pertaining to FP6, and it is not old rope they want money for, for
sure.
Do it right, this time, Yoorp!
�2. General Certificates of Education, Advanced Level
Known to their many friends as "A-levels", these are what you get at
the top end of skool here.
And, unlike Swedish, Dutchy-Double-Dutch rejoices in the possession
of such a level:
Since 2001 the A-Level Dutch qualification has been based on a new
syllabus and examination format set by the OCR examination
board. There are now two 3-hour examination papers called AS and
A2. The AS paper consists of reading comprehension, translation into
English, and writing tasks. The tasks in the A2 paper are reading
comprehension, translation into Dutch, and writing about set topics
and/or texts. Each paper is awarded 50% of the total marks. There are
no listening or speaking tasks in either the AS or A2 papers.
(Emphasis added.) Dutchy-Double-Dutch for non-native
non-speakers! Who could resist?
�3. Lardcrisisupdate!
[Previous episode]
A silly-season story in the Manchester Evening News ("Lard stockpiler
goes E-bay!") gets sensible half-way through:
The government's Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs,
said it has received reports from supermarkets complaining of a fall
in the supply of lard. The Meat and Livestock Commission said the
shortfalls could also be traced to Poland and Russia.
"Pig stock in Poland dropped dramatically although demand for
processed meat remained the same, so Poland started to import. But
Russia also started taking processed meat and lard from the EU so a
great deal of processed meat is disappearing into Eastern Europe and
Russia," said a spokesman.
The shortfall has led to fears of panic-buying in the run up to
Christmas but a Tesco spokesman said its stores were now stocked with
lard.
Mmm, lard!
[Permalink]
2004-12-03 09:01
Continuing our occasional series of cameo
appearances by Dutchy-Double-Dutch ("Dutchwegian"), we have some news
of
or pertaining to sn�:
Morgen opent het Sneeuw- en IJsfestival in Antwerpen zijn deuren voor
het publiek. Het ijspaleis is niet alleen artistiek en ontspannend,
het biedt ook tal van romantische mogelijkheden.
Tomorrow [i.e., today] the Sn�- and Ice festival in Antwerp opens its
doors to the public. The ice-palace is not just artistique and
exciting, it offers also numerous romantic possibilities.
Well of course it does! Sn� + tall Dutchpersons = Romance, for
sure (the details are left as an exercise to our Varied Reader).
(This is in point of fact new Phlegmisch-Phlavour Dutchy-Double Dutch,
because the original flavour's 'bladets have a tendency to lock up
their contents when marauding bands of raiders ride into town.
Yee-ha!)
[Permalink]
2004-12-02 tea (utc)
�1. Hardlanguageoutdropsyndrome hits Germanlanguageteaching
You just can't getthe
childrens these days, isn't it?
A survey of drop out rates from German between AS and A-level showed
that most students gave up the subject because it was too
difficult. Some 74% of participants felt German was the hardest of all
the AS-level subjects taken, while 69% felt carrying on with it to
A-level would have brought down their overall grades for university
entrance.
�2. Not quite a brand new leopard-skin pillbox hat, but closing in
It's prinsess
Alex! In a lovely zebra-effect hat!
Prinsesse Alexandra f�r tydeligere og tydeligere sit eget liv uden for
de vante kongelige rammer. Er tirsdag i Falkonersalen p� Frederiksberg
p� banen som protektor for UNICEF Danmark.
Prinsess Alexandra is more and more clearly making her own life
outside of the usual royal frame. On Tuesday in Falkonersalen at
Frederiksberg she was on the pitch as goalkeeper for UNICEF Danmark.
(A tip of the brand new leopard-skin pillbox hat to Birgitte!)
�3. Twinkletree Tallinn trippnings
It's so very cheap, you
see:
�r du sugen p� att julhandla utomlands, och tycker att London och New
York �r f�r dyrt? �k till l�gprisstaden Tallinn. F�r 2 000 kronor
fick jag sju fina klappar - och sparade 1 000 kronor.
Are you keen to do your Christmas shopping abroad, but think London
and New York are too expensive? Go to lowpricecity Tallinn. For
2,000 kronor I got seven nice presents - and saved 1,000 kronor.
(I calculate at 10 kronor to the zloty sterling, although that is
pretty far from the mark.)
But if you actually read the article, it strongly suggests that
Tallinn isn't really so cheap anymore unless (as the article neglects
to mention) you're stocking up on booze or (as it does mention) you
have an unwholesome fascination with amber and/or knitware.
But they have a Stockmann's and several yummy Hesburger outlets, and
it's a day out, after all.
[Permalink]
2004-12-02 samwidge (utc)
�1. On disintermediation in contemporary political history
Which is to say, Thank you Interweb, for nice Ukraine
sources. (Executive summary: the Good Guy does seem to be good;
the Bad Guys certainly are bad; the person on the sn�-covered streets
aspires to EU membership as a guarantee of honest governance rather
than a source of gravy. And Polish correspondents are way ahead of
everyone else, having taken the precaution of speaking the langwidge.)
�2. �l and tact!
Remember, Varied Reader, that correlation is not causation! And then
read on:
Czech brewers have reacted angrily to claims by Britain's Campaign for
Real Ale, or Camra, that the quality of Czech beer is on the decline.
Camra says that modern production methods introduced by multinational
companies are having an adverse affect on the taste.
It is, as it so often is, technology versus, or seen to be versus,
tradition:
What do you say, head of the Czech Beer and Malt Association,
Jan Vesely?
In the early 1990s, beer was fermented in wooden vessels. The quality
for sure could not be kept at that level, the equipment didn't allow
that. They decided to jump from the 19th to the 21st century.
The only aim was to keep the final quality the same - unchanged.
CAMRA earned its place in Englishes hearts by stopping bad-nasty
brewing conglomerations killing off tasty English �ls in favour of
yucky kegged substitutes, you will certainly recall, so it's not as if
"Wolf!" is their only cry. But brewing is a form of chemical
engineering, and there is no call for fetishising obsolete tech just
for that Golden Retro Gl�.
Perhaps it is time for this 'bladet to undertake some field research on
Czech �l quality. Preferably on someone else's gravy train. (Can you
imagine how thrilled the British 'bladets would be to hear that we had
spent tax-payer's money on this?)
�3. Why I am so very relieved
Officials in France's Socialist party say its members have voted "yes"
in an internal referendum on whether to back the EU constitution.
A non-story, for sure, but there were threats it could 've gone the
other way, and that would have been curtains. The ratification of the
EU Constitution is probably the most elaborate international game of
Russian Roulette I've ever been emotionally entangled with, for sure,
and I anticipate being a nervous wreck by the end of the process.
[Permalink]
2004-12-02 morning (utc)
How cool is "Ever so 'umble" Umberto Eco?
Han �r en intellektuell superstar, talar fem spr�k flytande, �r
professor i semiotik, kulturfilosof, historiker med medeltida teologi
som specialitet och en m�sterlig f�rfattare.
He is an intellektuel superstar, speaks five [5] languages fluently,
is a professor of semiotiques, cultural philosopher, a historian
specialising in medieval theology and a masterly author.
And his new book is number one (#1) in the Italian fiction charts.
Pling!.
Oh dear, the cool-o-meter's gone again.
[Permalink]
2004-12-01 15:20
By ancient Danish tradition, the husband of a queen by birth rather
than marriage is called the Prinshenrik. But Expressen, the
honourability of whose motives
we doubt, suggests a tweakning:
Om fr�ken Sommerlath fr�n Tyskland kan gifta sig till drottning i
Sverige borde ju till exempel unge herr Westling fr�n Ockelbo kunna
gifta sig till kung.
Enligt den grundlag vi har i dag ska han kallas f�r prins. Orsaken �r
att kung anses finare �n drottning, varf�r en drottning inte kan vara
regent och gift med en kung, allts� f�r Daniel bli prins. Det �r ett
solklart exempel p� sexism. Sedan 1979 kan b�de m�n och kvinnor bli
regenter - en typiskt likhetsfeministisk reform - och d� borde ocks�
titlarna likst�llas. Varf�r ska titeln drottning vara underordnad
titeln kung n�r b�da kan vara statschefer?
If Miss Summerlath from Germany can take the title of queen of Sweden
on marrying, then young Mr Westling from Ockelbo should surely be able
to become king by marriage.
According to the constitutional we have today, he would be called
"prince". The reason is that "king" is seen as more prestigious than
"queen", so that a queen can't be monarch and married to a king, so
Daniel could only be a prince. It's blatant sexism. Since 1979 both
men and women can be monarchs - a typical feminist equality reform -
and thus the titles should also be made comparable. Why should the
title of queen be valued lower than the title king when both can be
head of state?
Personally, we consider that "prinsess" outranks "king" or "queen" by
a country mile, of course. But if I was going to change anything,
which I wouldn't, I'd make it so as kronprinsess Vickan were crowned
king herself, and Daniel could be queen. If Expressen were
sincere, which it isn't, it would presumably have to address first the
question of why girl-monarchs and boy-monarchs need different titles
for the same job.
[Permalink]
2004-12-01 samwidge (utc)
That's no zombie, it's Paul
Ricoeur! And he's being awarded an award!
An 80-year-old American historian, Jaroslav Pelikan, and a 91-year-old
French philosopher, Paul Ricoeur, will share the $1 million Kluge
prize, created last year to honor achievement in fields not covered by
the Nobel prizes. [...]
[Librarian of Congress James H.] Billington, announcing the award he
will present on Dec. 8, described Ricoeur's work as drawing "on the
entire tradition of Western philosophy to explore and explain common
problems: What is a self? How is memory used and abused? What is the
nature of responsibility?"
Bra fr�gor!, as we like to say in 'Wegian.
Also, the
'Vlobs (we don't even have a vendor for the 'Vlobs, anymore):
Paul Ricoeur, 91 ans, est un penseur chr�tien (de confession r�form�e)
dont la philosophie a �t� influenc�e par l'existentialisme et la
ph�nom�nologie. [...]
Parmi ses principaux ouvrages figurent �Philosophie de la volont�
(1950-1961), �Histoire et V�rit� (1955), �De l'interpr�tation: essai
sur Freud� (1965), �La m�taphore vive� (1975) ou plus r�cemment
�Soi-m�me comme un autre� (1990) et �Un canard et ses diff�rences�
(1995).
All of which are available in attractive, cheap, Frenchy-French
editions. (Except for the one we made up. Did you spot it?)
�2. What tree would outshine a prinsess, anyway?
Publicity-shy Norwegish ex-prinsess M�rtha
made a rare public appearance with a tree! A recalcitrant
tree! Ingrate!
Teknikken var ikke p� prinsesse M�rthas side da hun skulle tenne
julegranen i Washington D.C., men prinsessen ble reddet av
verdensidolet Kurt Nilsen.
The Twinklelights
Put up a fight
When M�rtha came along!
But Kurt stepped in
And plugged them in
And then he sang a song!
�3. Upsidedown
winter!
Flere steder i staten var temperaturen over 40 grader, skriver Sydney
Morning Herald. Men midt i selv byen slapp man unna med omkring
35.
"It's hot enough to boil a badger's bum, Bruce!" chortled Sydney
M. Herald.
It's all topsy-turvy, all the time, down there in Upsidownia!
�4. Trafalgar's Twinkletree Tra-La-La'ed Toward!
It's from Norway, you
know:
The 150-year-old pine tree was cut down in the forests of Oslo and
brought across the North Sea as a token of gratitude for Britain's
help in the Second World War.
The tradition was celebrated for the 58th time when Oslo mayor Per
Ditlev-Simonsen pressed the light switch together with Westminster
mayor Catherine Longworth at 6.30pm.
Same procedure as every year!
Hundreds of people braved the biting cold to sing Christmas carols
lead by the choir of St Martins in the Field church.
Sing to the Twinkletree, persons! Sing to the Twinkletree
NOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWW!
[Permalink]
2004-12-01 09:39
Heh. Actually we're ignoring that story, but we always have
time for Soarin' Sigurd Pettersen.
Ingenting ble overlatt til tilfeldighetene da hopperne ble beordret
opp i vekt i sommer. Sigurd Pettersen har trent seg til en mer
aerodynamisk kropp.
Nothing was left to chance when the hoppeurs were ordered to go up in
weight over the sommer. Sigurd Pettersen has built up a more
aerodynamique body.
New rules, isn't it? Mimimum BMI of 20, or
no hoppning. He's had to put on 12 kilos!
[Permalink]
2004-11-30 17:45
Stroopwafel? Stroopwafel!
These delicious Caramel Cookie Waffles (called
Stroopwafels by the Dutch) with richly filled chewy centers are one of
Holland's true specialties.
I, for one, am happy to reassure any tall handsome wimminly
Dutchpersons reading that my advantages as a suitor extend to an
unconditional willingness to leave your many stroopwafels, at least,
unmolested, if no further.
(This offer also extends to any tall handsome wimminly Dutchpersons
neglecting to read, of course, and you can tell them I said so.)
[Permalink]
2004-11-30 15:20
(This is not intended, of course, to be news to my Varied Reader,
whose religious paintnings we would not in any case dream of
desecrating.)
But still, end of year booklists? They're rubbish!
Speak truth to power, Stephen Moss:
The ideal Christmas books contributor would be JD Salinger, or perhaps
George Bush surprising us by saying he'd been reading War and
Peace. In Russian. Books editors will routinely write to such figures,
asking them whether they would like to contribute. Of course they
never hear back, so they turn instead to AS Byatt, Beryl Bainbridge
and JG Ballard, who have been giving us their annual selections since
Dickens was producing collections of his journalism.
The fatal flaw, which you will of course have already spotted, is that
JG Ballard's opinions on anything at all are well worth seeking out.
This is how end of year booklists work:
- The intrepid reader
skims daintily through the assorted names of the equally assorted
Greighton-Goodes, until happening across one whose opinions are of
interest!
- The intrepid reader reads the associated text!
- The intrepid reader lathers!
- The intrepid reader rinses!
- The intrepid reader repeats!
Imagine, Varied Reader - Varied Intrepid Reader! - just how
clever you have been to have been doing exactly this for all these
many years!
[Permalink]
2004-11-30 12:01
(I don't claim I can actually say "jinglning", incidentally.)
Is it sleigh bells a-jingling? Or is it weddning bells?
Do they, in fact, toll for thee, kronprinsess Vickan of Sweden?
Enligt Expressens k�llor v�ntas f�rlovningen ske efter ny�r - f�ljt
av ett br�llop till sommaren i Storkyrkan invid Stockholms slott.
According to Expressen's sources then engagement or betrothal is
expected to happen in the new year - followed by a weddning in the
summer in the Bigchurch of Stockholms ch�teau.
With kronprinsesses Mette-Marit of Norway and Knudella of Danmark
already hitched, this would be the last kronprinsessly weddning in
'Wegia for a generation, and is thus extra especially exciting.
(Although Expressen's sources have often been inexact in the past, so
we're not knitting our floral tribute just yet.)
[Permalink]
2004-11-30 09:57
You may have escaped us up till now, Supersymmetric Pimpernels, but I
hardly think you will elude the large
hadron collider!
Under the so-called standard model of physics, all fundamental
particles fall into two groups: fermions that make up matter and
bosons that exchange the forces acting on matter.
In supersymmetry, every fermion has a so-called "superpartner" which
is a boson, and every boson has a fermion superpartner.
There's just one teensy-weensy snag with this theory:
"We haven't seen any of the supersymmetric partners yet, and one
explanation for this is that these partners have to be heavy," Dr
Weidberg explained.
Bah! We will find you, Pimpernels! We will track you to your
hyperenergetique Swiss mountain lair, whatever the cost! WE WILL
KABOOM AND KAPOW AND KABLAMM EVERYTHING! EVERYTHING!!
Sorry, Nurse. Yes, Nurse, the blue pills.
[Permalink]
2004-11-29 16:07
The University of Openness was
scheduled to send me Stuff on Friday.
It did no such thing and according to its despatchnings page it still
hasn't. I am starting to suffer from stuff deficiency ("rerum
insufiencia" in medical terms), a very worrying condition,
especially in the run-up to Twinkletree.
And don't be all "Oh you just got a bunch of stuff in Danish"; it's
not as if I can actually read Danish or anything.
[Permalink]
2004-11-29 samwidge (utc)
It's the time of year when the very northerly Swedish town or city of
G�vle erects a giant straw goat! And you can see it on their nice webcam!
But hurry, because it is also fairly traditional for the goat to be
burned or otherwise destroyed by person or persons typically unknown.
(Bad person or persons typically unknown! No biscuit!)
Anna �stman s�ger att hon hoppas att den eldf�ngda skapelsen kommer
att klara sig igenom vintern.
Vi har ju stor bevakning p� den, f�rutom kamerorna.
Vad f�r bevakning?
- Det �r otroligt hemligt. Men vi hoppas att den klarar sig,
f�rra �ret gjorde den det inte, men �ret innan dess gick det ju
bra.
Anna Eastman says that she hopes the fire-prone creatin will survive
the winter.
"We have of course a great guardning or protection for it, besides the
cameras."
What sort of procection, or guardning?
"It is too secret for words! But we hope that it will survive; last
year it didn't but the year before it of course went well."
D'you think William Hill, turf accountants, would give me odds on
this?
[Permalink]
2004-11-29 kaffedags (utc)
I've got a copy of Martin "Heigh-ho" Heidegger's Et brev om
'humanismen' in Danish!
Have you got a copy of Martin "Heigh-ho" Heidegger's Et brev om
'humanismen' in Danish?
Thus, I would win. (I've also got Jørgen Staun's Centraleuropæiska
forbindelse: EU's østudvidelse, which is significantly more
coffeetable than I was expecting.)
[Permalink]
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