April 30, 2003
April 16, 2003
on presidential salutes
Like the boy soldier salute, the sentimentalization of the military is juvenile. Television depictions of modern technological warfare, for example, make it seem as if a military campaign were but a superb game, an occasional Super Bowl that America is bound to win - and with almost no human losses. ("We'll keep our fighting men and women out of harm's way" - a senseless phrase that emerged during the Clinton years.)
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The exaggerated vesting of the president with his supreme role as commander in chief is a new element in American history.
April 15, 2003
April 10, 2003
new colours for spring
from the flambingo paint range
font joke
a group of fonts walk into a bar and the barman says
"oi, we dont' want your type round here"
Decoding Iraq's symbols of celebration
what do hitting with shoes, chest beating and clay disks mean?
"Going into someone's house or a mosque, you would always take your shoes off first. Shoes are used to beat servants, thieves, prostitutes; it indicates servility. Were you to beat your children, this would be done with a stick or the hand, but never shoes."
coots and elephants
every morning walking along the victoria embankment i see wild fowl, moorhens and cormorants (often catching eels and looking rather like some heraldic beast wrestling snakes). this morning passing a disused mooring opposite temple bar i saw a family of coots at their nest with two small red headed chicks.
i doubt however that the coots will be busy rescuing other animals, unlike a herd of elephants from kwa zulunatal who have liberated captive antelope.
"Did a typically self-confident and noble-looking matriarch know what she was doing this week, when she lifted a set of latches on a game reserve gate and liberated a herd of antelopes?
The deer were being held captive for research and breeding, the sort of thing that offends fellow-animals in children's books, but has little credible history in real life. When a herd of wild elephant trundled up, the researcher Lawrence Anthony thought that they were after the antelopes' fresh lucerne bales (an adult elephant on average eats 165 to 330lbs of greens per day). But instead they circled the pen, the matriarch "very carefully and deliberately" did her work, then they plodded off, leaving the lucerne untouched."
April 08, 2003
hippopotamus / behemoth
i've been looking at the marvelous jewish encyclopedia recently. aparently the behemoth may be modelled on the hippo. not as foolish as it sounds given that hippos kill more humans each year than any other big game. however the relationship to Tiamat (primal chaos) is probably a better fit. though hippos rising from the primordial chaos.......
April 02, 2003
strange spam
"Subject: Iraq: The New Babylon?"
erm, well, actually the old babylon.
• Is the UN a precursor of the One World government prophesized in the Bible?
• Could the Antichrist be alive now? If so, how can he identify so he does not deceive us?
• Are ATM's and other revolutions in global banking foretelling of the Mark of the Beast?
no. still more amusing that cheaper injet cartridges.
Mesopotamia. Babylon. The Tigris and Euphrates
Arundhati Roy's beautifully measured fury from todays guardian
"And now this talk of bringing the UN back into the picture. But that old UN girl - it turns out that she just ain't what she was cracked up to be. She's been demoted (although she retains her high salary). Now she's the world's janitor. She's the Philippino cleaning lady, the Indian jamadarni, the postal bride from Thailand, the Mexican household help, the Jamaican au pair. She's employed to clean other peoples' shit. She's used and abused at will."
April 01, 2003
last of the silent machines
how soothing is a catalogue, how especially soothing is manufactum.
"Enjoy the silence.
Today, every thermometer, stove, wristwatch or scales is expected to emit shrill tones - if not, verbal abuse.
So called human-machine interfacing is fast becoming the norm. And it is obvious where it will end: with bellicose beeping machines on the one hand, and helplessly nerve-wracked humans on the other. We have decided that it is time to strike back - with the very last of the silent machines."