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2004-12-10 15:25
It is prinsess
Madeleine! And she has got the lurgi! And, which is slightly
devastating, will not be attending the Nobelprizeoutgivingdinner!
Hon �r nedb�ddad, har feber och �r ont i halsen, s�ger Ann-Christine
Jernberg.
"She is down-bedded, has fever and a pain in the neck", says
Ann-Christine Ironmountain
Ann-Christine Ironmountain, I can confidently assure you that
right now I feel considerably worse than any such prinsess. But do I
slack off in my country's hour of need? Do I shirk the duty for which
fate has destined me?
Bloody right I do! Trevlig helg!
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2004-12-10 12:50
As the old man of the mountains used to quip enigmatically. Still
drunk then, it has turned out, and still drunk now if I do not miss my
guess. Mr Bombay and his performing sapphires have done for me.
I have a vair vair boring paper to respond to vair vair tiresome
referees's comments to, and it has to be done today or else. (There
isn't really much of an "or else", given that this is academia, but we
do like to pretend.)
If anyone needs me, I'll be starching my upper lip.
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2004-12-10 09:56
Let us say, since it is the case, that I haven't been home last night,
and I'm not sure if I'm hungover or just still drunk.
Expect lower even than usual standards of clarety and rigger, for sure.
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2004-12-09 15:13
The University of Openness will be wanting its essays referenced
in the popular Harvard (Someone, 1900) style. I will be writing and
typesetting them, needless to say, with
Emacs and
LaTeX.
But I've just upgraded to Suse Liunx 9.1, and the
bundled TeX distribution didn't include the Harvard BibTeX stuff.
It's all better, now. But, oh, what fun I have not had. (It isn't, I
regret to say, easy being a geek.)
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2004-12-09 smawidge (utc)
�1. Engleesh, all
too Engleesh
Over tien jaar zal bijna de helft van de wereldbevolking Engels
kunnen spreken. Dat blijkt uit een Britse studie die donderdag in
Edinburgh is gepubliceerd. Uit het onderzoek blijkt dat rond 2015 in
totaal drie miljard mensen zich in het Engels kunnen uitdrukken.
In ten years half of the world's population will speak English,
according to a British study published in Edinburgh on Thursday. The
research shows that around 2015 a total of three billion people will
be able to express themselves in English.
This is the British Council saying this, though, so don't stand down
the Saltsprinkling Squad just yet.
�2. Sour grapes
Who'd be a Frenchy-French
winegrower, eh?
Competition from Australia and Latin America has seized an important
share of France's export market, which is in its sixth successive year
of decline. [...]
At the same time, a bumper crop of grapes this year has caused a glut
of French wines, while domestic consumption steadily drops. The
average French adult now drinks about 50 litres each year, compared to
126 litres in the 1960s.
Needless to say, they are reacting in time-honoured Frenchy-French
style by holding demonstrations. In particular, against the
government's publicity campaign against alcoholisme. They may be a
drain on the health services to you M. le ministre, but to us
they are our most loyaux customeurs!
�3. I haven't been so surprised since the sun came up this morning
So, Greece defrauded its way into the Euro. And guess what?
Italy joins Greece under scrutiny for misreporting data
[...]
A report drawn up by the European Commission has alleged that Italy
has been underestimating its deficit since 1997.
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2004-12-09 09:53
Historically-(isn't
it always)-motivated:
The so-called "Russian-Germans" are descendents of immigrants invited
to Russia by Catherine the Great in the 18th Century.
Oppressed during the Soviet era, they were allowed to leave for
Germany by Mikhail Gorbachev in the 1980s, and more than two million
have done so.
And their descendants have been granted a right to return to German,
which they have exercised, and in the process created Russophone
ghettos in (in particular) Berlin, "so" the right of such persons to
immigrate now going to be restricted to those who can demonstrate
competence in German.
Because, as we all know, Ett land, ett spr�k, ett folk!
Skipping, as you shouldn't, over some feecha journalisme, we find a
revealing remark:
Around the corner from Alexander Reiser's office a small class of
middle-aged Russian-German women grapple with verb conjugations,
helped by Mariana Fox, a retired Russian teacher who lives nearby.
"I want to help them speak their mother language," Ms Fox says. "They
are our brothers and sisters. They are German, they're not
Russian. They can't speak the language because it was forbidden."
When the FDRUSA was still sane, this was often one of the things it
was most conspicuously sane about. Now, I think it's probably a lost
cause for the forseeable.
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2004-12-08 16:08
�1. Unprinsessly ponchos
It is Mr Bush and Mr Putin! Together! In Mejico! Wearing
ponchos!
�2. He's not the Prince of Darkness,
he's
a very naughty boy!
Instead of the usual Father Christmas, visitors to Satan's Grotto at
York Dungeon are greeted by a man dressed as the Devil with a red face
and horns. [...]
"It is not just complaining for the sake of it," [a priestly type]
continued.
"There are real evil forces and we in our work come across people who
are damaged seriously through their involvement with occult forces."
�3. Stuff!
I forgot to mention that among the Stuff the Amazon pixie brought was
a Berlitz Engels-Nederlands woordenboek. Dutchy-Double-Dutch,
here I come, ready or not!
[Permalink]
2004-12-08 12:19
�1. Bah!
The University of Openness is now scheduling Stuff for delivery next
Tuesday.
�2. Bah preemption!
I was all set to moan about Amazon's recent tendency to interpret
"usually despatched within 24 hours" as meaning "I'd give it a week if
I were you", but then the Amazon pixie visited.
�3. Livl�karens bes�k
You can read Aftonbladet's
review, but la-di-dah DN's is behing their paywall. With so many
'bladets operating a short public window, I think I need a meeja web
cache/archive to stay sane as a European studiesiste.
Since I can't find a pre-built one, I may yet find myself back down t'
code mines.
Meanwhile, on the translat�r:
Like most literary folks, the couple dream of hitting the best-seller
list - Nunnally works part time as an office manager for an
architectural firm, employment that gives them both medical
coverage. Her latest candidate for best-sellerdom is her translation
of "The Royal Physician's Visit" by Swedish author Per Olov Enquist,
which will be published this fall by Overlook.
She missed the gravy-train with her translation of Miss Smilla's
Feeling For Sn�, translated on a royalty-free per-word contract;
let's hope she caught this one.
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2004-12-08 morning (utc)
Can anyone say "Long winter
evenings"? But, really, wow!
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2004-12-07 15:13
Enfin je me rappelai le pis-aller d'une grande princesse � qui l'on
disait que les paysans n'avaient pas de pain, et qui r�pondit: Qu'ils
mangent de la brioche.
At length I recollected the wise saying of a tall prinsess, who, on
being informed that the country people had no cod on account of it
being so well hidden, replied, 'Then let them eat salmon. Can't stand
the stuff myself, mind you.'
- Jean-Jacques
"Snack-Attack" Rousseau, Confessions, book 6
And lo!
Un saumon sauvage p�ch� dans la Seine, apr�s 100 ans d'absence.
A wild salmon caught in the Seine, after 100 years of absence.
This is an upcleanning story, at heart, of course.
[Permalink]
2004-12-07 samwidge (utc)
Codfishes! Come out, come out, wherever you
are:
N� viser en studie av hyse i Nordsj�en at fisk trolig kan ha
hukommelse som strekker seg over flere �r. Hyse skal ha opparbeidet en
forbl�ffende evne til � unng� � bli fanget i garnet - ved � bruke
�overlevelsesteknikker� de l�rte seg tidlig i livet. Ekspertene er
sikker p� at andre arter, som torsk og hvitting, er minst like kapable
til det samme.
Now a study of North Sea hyse has shown that fishes really can
remember things for several years. Hyse have developed a
surprising ability to be avoid being caught in the nets - by using
"survivaltechniques" that they learned earlier in life. Experts are
sure that other species, such as cod and hvitting are at least
as good at this.
If it wasn't for sonar-equipped mega-trawlers, they might even have
had a future. Sadly:
Commercial fishing should be banned in 30% of UK waters to save
threatened species, an influential report says.
The Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution said the UK had to
"reduce the capacity of the UK fishing fleet to an environmentally
sustainable level".
Needless to say, it's recommendations are being opposed by
fisherpersons and ignored by politicians.
The RCEP also said some of the effects of current fishing practices
were ruinous: a recently-introduced net with a mouth the size of 50
football pitches, for example, and bottom-trawlers which plough
furrows up to 6m wide and 0.15m deep for many km across the seabed.
Let's see you hide from that, then, Colin McCodfish, eh?
[Permalink]
2004-12-07 09:40
�1. Poncho!
It
is prinsess Madeleine! And she is wearing a poncho!
I g�r tog prinsessan Madeleine och kronprinsessan Victoria emot unga
forskare p� Stockholms slott -och det var just en poncho som
prinsessan Madeleine kl�tt sig i.
Yesterday prinsess Madeleine and kronprinsess Vickan met young
researchers at Stockholm castle or ch�teau - and she was wearing a
poncho.
Apparently ponchos are set to be this winter's must have, but we, for
one, recommend accessorising them with a prinsess if avoiding ridicule
is a priority.
�2. Book!
Prinsess M�rtha Louise of Norway, who has to earn her own keep these
days, has followed the time-honoured route of persons unilaterally
convinced of their own talents and written a
childrens' book:
Prinsesse M�rtha Louise opplever en salgssuksess uten like med boken
�Hvorfor de kongelige ikke har krone p� hodet�. Hittil er boken
trykket i 20.000 eksemplarer.
Prinsess M�rtha Louise experiences a sales success without like with
the book "Why the royal wears no krown". To date the book has been
printed in 20,000 examples.
Did we all read the long interview
with Prinsess M-L exclusive to Plus Medlemmar, which we surely all
are? As a thinker, she makes a great prinsess, for sure.
�3. Skis!
It is
kronprinsess Vickan of Sweden:
Victoria och Daniel Westling har varit p� hemlig skidsemester.
Kronprinsessan har blivit friluftsprinsessan och tillbringade helgen i
l�ngdskidsp�ret.
Victoria and Daniel Westling have been on a secret skiing holiday.
The kronprinsess has become an openairprinsess and spent the weekend
on cross-country ski trails.
They are electrically lit, on account of the dark, you see.
�4. Bogglement!
It
is kronprinsess Vickan again! And she is apparently now
considered fit to undertake one of the most solemn and onerous duties
of 'Wegian royalty, the Twinkletree interview with a frog:
I �r f�r grodan Skurt n�ja sig med att intervjua kronprinsessan.
- Silvia tyckte att hon redan hade tr�ffat Skurt s� m�nga g�nger,
s�ger hovmarskalk Elisabeth Tarras-Wahlberg.
Grodan Skurt �r en av landets mest rutinerade hovreportrar.
This year Skurt the frog will make do with interviewing the
kronprinsess.
"Silvia thinks that she has met Skurt so many times", says
hovmarskalk Elisabeth Tinsel-Warblog.
Skurt the frog [it says here] is one of the country's most experienced
court reporters [honest].
It isn't, as we have previously had occasion to remark, easy being a
prinsess!
[Permalink]
2004-12-06 15:59
As per bleeding
usual:
EU justice ministers meeting in Brussels on Thursday
(2 December) took further steps on controversial proposals to retain
data about telephone calls and e-mails as part of an overall fight
against crime and terrorism.
Kudos to the Germans, who spotted (as they have reason to, after all)
some of what this sort of behaviour can lead to.
And kudos also to The Scotsman for headlining the story Fury over EU Bid
to Log Private Communications. And remember: when the EU stitches
you up a treat, cherchez les ministres.
And a hearty raspberry in the general direction of David "Security"
Blunkett, who we suspect knows very well what this sort of behaviour
can lead to, and finds it good. (He wasn't there, presumably being
too busy with his recent meeja stardom to stitch us up in person,
despite being one of the chief architects.)
[Permalink]
2004-12-06 12:46
Jos� ("Hans Christian") Anderson, that it. And in particular his
many ambassadors and ambassadrices, of which in most particular the
lovely Kronprinsessmary of Danmark. But also some new
translations of his charming fairy tales:
The most handsome of the pair is the Penguin Viking edition, which
comes with a plush red cover, gold-tipped pages and a bookmark,
angling it towards the Christmas market. In fact, this is a book that
has so much sense of itself that it is quite possible to imagine it as
a character in an Andersen tale, one of those inanimate objects that
develops a crush on a snowflake. What it also has is a translation by
Tiina Nunnally who did such a brilliant job on that unlikely hit of
2002, Per Olov Enquist's The Visit of the Royal Physician.
I knew, it embarasses me somewhat to confess, nothing of this unlikely
hit (AKA Livl�karens bes�k) until just now. Knowing, as
I now do, that it was both in Swedish and much concerned with the
ideas of the Upplysningen (Englightenment), and for all I know may
even involve prinsessor and is certainly available in cheapo
Pocket format, I feel I will be owning a copy before long.
And big kudoses to Tiina Nunnally for translating bi-'Wegianally,
also, as well!
[Permalink]
2004-12-06 09:32
�1. Mudhoppning
Skihoppning, which is to say, with no sn�. The big story in VG is
that Their Boy woulda won, if the judges had done the decent thing
about conditions.
Happily, for once Finwegish Hufvudstadsbladet
also covers the hoppning, and simply remarks that Their Boy won,
and has now won a record-equalling first four stages.
Actually they do concede that Lj�kels�y [sic] had the worst of the
conditions, eventually.
�2. Peppercakehousecompetition!
Over at VG.
Sadly I am too silly an Engleesh to know much of
peppercakearchitecture. Maybe next time.
�3. Mmm, wine
It
is Nicholas Lezard reviewing a book (Phylloxera, by Christy
Campbell) on how the bad-nasty Phylloxera insects nearly put the
kaybosh on Yoorps vineyards.
Featuring frightful insects, superstitious Occitanophone peasantry,
and a guest appearance by American rootstock as the fifth cavalry!
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