Scott Adams, the cartoonist who created Dilbert, likes to say that there are only nine news stories, constantly re-written.
Every once in awhile I like to check the newspaper with his list in mind, to see if he is right. I'll start with his wording unmodified by examples.
1. EXTREME WEATHER BATTERS SOMEPLACE
2. IDIOTS KILL INNOCENT PEOPLE
3. POLITICIAN DOES SOMETHING ILLEGAL
4. PRIMATE ATTEMPTS INAPPROPRIATE SEX
5. EXPERTS WARN OF FINANCIAL CALAMITY
6. BIG COMPANY BUYS ANOTHER BIG COMPANY
7. FAMOUS PERSON DOES SOMETHING INTERESTING
8. A SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY MIGHT BE USEFUL IN TEN YEARS
9. GOVERNMENT FAILS TO ACHIEVE A GOAL
Does that break-down hold up for the news of the past week or so?
1. Extreme weather? Check.
2. I'm sure somebody's idiocy (or worse) will be found at the center of the fire that killed students at Marist College, my alma mater, this week.
3. A politician (specifically, a state legislator) is on trial in Harrisburg, PA for insisting that his egislative employees work on his campaigns on their taxpayer-paid time.
4. Primate attempts inappropriate sex? Perhaps such monkey business explains the need for newer tests for simian HIV, herpes, etc., chronicled here.
5. Experts warn of financial calamity. South Africa considers a carbon tax as its contribution to limiting global warming. Industries there ... warn of calamity.
6. Big Company Buys Another Big Company. Apache and Cordillera Energy Partners.
7. Famous Person, i.e. assassination-attempt survivor Gabrielle Giffords, does something interesting, i.e. she resigns her seat in the US House, in a moving video message.
8. The scientific discovery that might be useful in ten years? Sediments found at bottom of ocean near Straits of Gibraltar could help guide "future oil and gas exploration, the researchers believe."
9. Government fails to achieve a goal. Too easy, but let's go there. There have been recent reports that the various recipients of the US space program's moon rocks, mostly museums and labs with good connections, have been losing them. Can't governments even achieve the goal of storing rocks properly?
Yes, I think Scott Adams has a point. We're in a loop!
Showing posts with label Italy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Italy. Show all posts
29 January 2012
31 July 2011
William James on Aesthetics
"I remember seeing an English couple sit for more than an hour on a piercing February day in the Academy at Venice before the celebrated 'Assumption' of Titian; and when I, after being chased from room to room by the cold, concluded to get into the sunshine as fast as possible and let the pictures go, but before leaving drew reverently near to them to learn with what superior forms of susceptibility they might be endowed, all I overheard was the woman's voice murmuring: 'What a depracatory expression her face wears! What self-abnegation! How unworthy she feels of the honor she is receiving!" Their honest hearts had been kept warm all the time by a glow of spurious sentiment that would have fairly made old Titian sick."
30 January 2011
Annual Dilbert Post
Scott Adams, the cartoonist who created Dilbert, likes to say that there are only nine news stories, constantly re-written.
Every once in awhile I like to check the newspaper with his list in mind, to see if he is right. I'll start with his wording unmodified by examples.
1. EXTREME WEATHER BATTERS SOMEPLACE
2. IDIOTS KILL INNOCENT PEOPLE
3. POLITICIAN DOES SOMETHING ILLEGAL
4. PRIMATE ATTEMPTS INAPPROPRIATE SEX
5. EXPERTS WARN OF FINANCIAL CALAMITY
6. BIG COMPANY BUYS ANOTHER BIG COMPANY
7. FAMOUS PERSON DOES SOMETHING INTERESTING
8. A SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY MIGHT BE USEFUL IN TEN YEARS
9. GOVERNMENT FAILS TO ACHIEVE A GOAL
Does that break-down hold up for the news of the past week or so?
1. The extreme weather story. One word: Australia.
2. Idiots kill innocent people. Always too easy. I won't even include a link. Check your local paper this morning.
3. Politician does something illegal. For this one, I've got a cool link, and it brings us in imagination to sunny Italy!
4. Primate attempts inappropriate sex. A porn-film operation under the primatological name "Cheeky Monkey Inc." seems to have made inappropriate use of a food vending truck.
5. Experts warn of financial calamity. And the municipal bond market is the target of many of the latest warnings.
6. Big Company Buys Another Big Company. These mergers often take on a trans-national cast. That's nothing new. But when the industry that is consolidating is defense consulting, it's still news.
7. Famous Person Does Something Interesting. Ah, the celebrity news category! Ricky Gervais seems to have touched a few Hollywood nerves.
8. The scientific discovery that might be useful in ten years? That CERN thing -- wasn't it supposed to have found that all-important Higgs boson by now? How long will it remain elusive before particle physicists wonder (a) whether it exists and (b) if it doesn't, how to patch up their theories?
9. Government fails to achieve a goal. The governments of Europe have experimented in recent years with the creation of a unified currency zone. That experiment may be crashing to an end. Symptoms of the crash are in all the papers.
Yes, I think Scott Adams has a point.
Every once in awhile I like to check the newspaper with his list in mind, to see if he is right. I'll start with his wording unmodified by examples.
1. EXTREME WEATHER BATTERS SOMEPLACE
2. IDIOTS KILL INNOCENT PEOPLE
3. POLITICIAN DOES SOMETHING ILLEGAL
4. PRIMATE ATTEMPTS INAPPROPRIATE SEX
5. EXPERTS WARN OF FINANCIAL CALAMITY
6. BIG COMPANY BUYS ANOTHER BIG COMPANY
7. FAMOUS PERSON DOES SOMETHING INTERESTING
8. A SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY MIGHT BE USEFUL IN TEN YEARS
9. GOVERNMENT FAILS TO ACHIEVE A GOAL
Does that break-down hold up for the news of the past week or so?
1. The extreme weather story. One word: Australia.
2. Idiots kill innocent people. Always too easy. I won't even include a link. Check your local paper this morning.
3. Politician does something illegal. For this one, I've got a cool link, and it brings us in imagination to sunny Italy!
4. Primate attempts inappropriate sex. A porn-film operation under the primatological name "Cheeky Monkey Inc." seems to have made inappropriate use of a food vending truck.
5. Experts warn of financial calamity. And the municipal bond market is the target of many of the latest warnings.
6. Big Company Buys Another Big Company. These mergers often take on a trans-national cast. That's nothing new. But when the industry that is consolidating is defense consulting, it's still news.
7. Famous Person Does Something Interesting. Ah, the celebrity news category! Ricky Gervais seems to have touched a few Hollywood nerves.
8. The scientific discovery that might be useful in ten years? That CERN thing -- wasn't it supposed to have found that all-important Higgs boson by now? How long will it remain elusive before particle physicists wonder (a) whether it exists and (b) if it doesn't, how to patch up their theories?
9. Government fails to achieve a goal. The governments of Europe have experimented in recent years with the creation of a unified currency zone. That experiment may be crashing to an end. Symptoms of the crash are in all the papers.
Yes, I think Scott Adams has a point.
26 August 2010
World War II In Greece
I'm reliably told that August 26, 1944 was the day that Nazi Germany began withdrawing its forces from Greece.
This is an appropriate time to reflect, then, on the war in Greece. The looting thereof during the period of the Nazi occupation was a very successful element of Germany's war finance. Occupied Greece sent massive quantities of food to German armnies around Europe, during a period when more than 250,000 Greek civilians died of starvation.
The first Axis attack on Greece was the Italian invasion in October 1940. Il Duce was sure he'd have help from the Bulgarians. Bulgaria might have been amenable had the Italian government done the necessary diplomatic work. But Mussolini was too sure of himself and didn't bother even asking until ten days before the scheduled day for the start of the campaign. King Boris declined.
This was worse than a faux pas. It helped make the Italian campaign in Greece a disaster for Italy. When the Greeks figured out Bulgarian wasn't joining in, they re-assigned troops from their border with Bulgaria to aid in resisting the Italians.
By April 1941 the Italian phase of the war in Greece was over, Mussolini had failed, Greece was still independent, and the Italians had lost 38,380 men in the effort. Greek fatalities were about a third of that. Germany swooped in. Why? Other than bailing out a troublesome ally, what was the strategic significance of Greece for Germany?
There were several elements to it. One was the prospect of booty I mentioned above. Another was a matter of securing the right flank for an eventual attack on Russia. A third was the prospect for using Greece as a staging point for Mediterranean operations, increasing the pressure on the Brits in Egypt from the north, while Rommel pressed against them from the west.
This is an appropriate time to reflect, then, on the war in Greece. The looting thereof during the period of the Nazi occupation was a very successful element of Germany's war finance. Occupied Greece sent massive quantities of food to German armnies around Europe, during a period when more than 250,000 Greek civilians died of starvation.
The first Axis attack on Greece was the Italian invasion in October 1940. Il Duce was sure he'd have help from the Bulgarians. Bulgaria might have been amenable had the Italian government done the necessary diplomatic work. But Mussolini was too sure of himself and didn't bother even asking until ten days before the scheduled day for the start of the campaign. King Boris declined.
This was worse than a faux pas. It helped make the Italian campaign in Greece a disaster for Italy. When the Greeks figured out Bulgarian wasn't joining in, they re-assigned troops from their border with Bulgaria to aid in resisting the Italians.
By April 1941 the Italian phase of the war in Greece was over, Mussolini had failed, Greece was still independent, and the Italians had lost 38,380 men in the effort. Greek fatalities were about a third of that. Germany swooped in. Why? Other than bailing out a troublesome ally, what was the strategic significance of Greece for Germany?
There were several elements to it. One was the prospect of booty I mentioned above. Another was a matter of securing the right flank for an eventual attack on Russia. A third was the prospect for using Greece as a staging point for Mediterranean operations, increasing the pressure on the Brits in Egypt from the north, while Rommel pressed against them from the west.
08 May 2009
Renaissance Florence
I've been reading diligently through Richard Goldthwaite's Summa, "The Economy of Renaissance Florence."
I use the word "Summa" with care. Goldthwaite has spent a long and distinguished academic career studying this fascinating subject, so what he says over the course of these 600-plus pages deserves our careful attention.
And his expansive vocabulary is a wonder in itself. But to that I devoted an entry in my other blog at an earlier stage in my reading.
Today I'd like to address your attention to a nugget I found on page 390. It seems that the art critic and biographer Giorgio Vasari was "one of the very first writers in the Italian language to use the word 'competition,' especially in its economic sense."
The Italian for "competition" is concorrenza, and competing is "concorrente."
Vasari used both words repeatedly, notably in his introduction to his life of Perugino.
Why? Because the idea of competition was essential to Vasari's conception of why Florence possessed its eminence as a center of the arts. The artists of Florence are lean and hungry, he said, driven by "the need to be industrious ... to know how to make a living." In this context, he called concorrenza "one of the nourishments that maintain them."
Words to heed, I think.
I use the word "Summa" with care. Goldthwaite has spent a long and distinguished academic career studying this fascinating subject, so what he says over the course of these 600-plus pages deserves our careful attention.
And his expansive vocabulary is a wonder in itself. But to that I devoted an entry in my other blog at an earlier stage in my reading.
Today I'd like to address your attention to a nugget I found on page 390. It seems that the art critic and biographer Giorgio Vasari was "one of the very first writers in the Italian language to use the word 'competition,' especially in its economic sense."
The Italian for "competition" is concorrenza, and competing is "concorrente."
Vasari used both words repeatedly, notably in his introduction to his life of Perugino.
Why? Because the idea of competition was essential to Vasari's conception of why Florence possessed its eminence as a center of the arts. The artists of Florence are lean and hungry, he said, driven by "the need to be industrious ... to know how to make a living." In this context, he called concorrenza "one of the nourishments that maintain them."
Words to heed, I think.
15 February 2009
Tell me wikipedia: how long did Titian live?
Titian, of course, was the great 16th century Venetian painter.
He is in the news of late because the British prime minister, Gordon Brown, recently compared himself to Titian. Brown was apparently just trying to say that one can keep learning throughout life, and one can end up doing one's best work late -- even perhaps as old as ninety. As a comparison, though, it sounds like Brown was a bit full-of-himself, and it isn't surprising that the head of the Tories, David Cameron, pounced.
Cameron may have hurt himself in the process. Here's a link to what a 1970s American radio personality would have called "the rest of the story".
As you'll see if you follow that link, the good name of wikipedia has become entangled in the brawl over Titian.
This weekend's issue of the Financial Times runs a huffy editorial on the subject of wikipedia. "Any attempt to turn mob opinion into the test for truth is pernicious. That a thought might be popularly believed does not make it true," and so forth.
Valid enough, but still huffy. As for Titian's age at his death, it doesn't seem that anyone is quite sure.
Deal with it.
He is in the news of late because the British prime minister, Gordon Brown, recently compared himself to Titian. Brown was apparently just trying to say that one can keep learning throughout life, and one can end up doing one's best work late -- even perhaps as old as ninety. As a comparison, though, it sounds like Brown was a bit full-of-himself, and it isn't surprising that the head of the Tories, David Cameron, pounced.
Cameron may have hurt himself in the process. Here's a link to what a 1970s American radio personality would have called "the rest of the story".
As you'll see if you follow that link, the good name of wikipedia has become entangled in the brawl over Titian.
This weekend's issue of the Financial Times runs a huffy editorial on the subject of wikipedia. "Any attempt to turn mob opinion into the test for truth is pernicious. That a thought might be popularly believed does not make it true," and so forth.
Valid enough, but still huffy. As for Titian's age at his death, it doesn't seem that anyone is quite sure.
Deal with it.
03 April 2008
Bill Mauldin
A toast to Bill Mauldin, the cartoonist remembered for the creation of Willie and Joe, the famously unkept and slouching GIs that Mauldin invented when he was serving as an infantry sargeant in Italy in 1943.
Mauldin died more than five years ago, and there's no particular reason I should think of him just now but, hey, it's my blog. "I don't need no stinkin' reasons."
Actually, I've just been leafing through a recent biography of Mauldin, by Todd DePastino, which tells me that Willie & Joe made their first appearances in the 45th Division News, and only by stages became world-famous.
One of the many reproductions in the book shows our protagonists trudging through the mud and cold rain of the Italian winter, when an officer (who of course, is dry in his vehicle) sticks his head out thereof to ask Joe, "Have your men tried Dubbin, Sargeant?"
[As anyone likely to have been reading the 45th Division News would have known, Dubbin was a water resistent boot wax.]
DePastino helpfully tells us that nearly 70% of all non-battle injuries in Italy involved trench foot. There are two possibilities here, either encompassed in the weariness of the faces of the two men travelling on foot. It is possible that the officer is so ignorant of his men and the life they're leading that he thinks his suggestion is helpful. Or it's possible he's just being an arrogant son-of-beatch and the question is a form of sneer.
Through Willie and Joe, and through his own talent of course, Mauldin got to speak a little truth to power. We should all be so lucky.
Mauldin died more than five years ago, and there's no particular reason I should think of him just now but, hey, it's my blog. "I don't need no stinkin' reasons."
Actually, I've just been leafing through a recent biography of Mauldin, by Todd DePastino, which tells me that Willie & Joe made their first appearances in the 45th Division News, and only by stages became world-famous.
One of the many reproductions in the book shows our protagonists trudging through the mud and cold rain of the Italian winter, when an officer (who of course, is dry in his vehicle) sticks his head out thereof to ask Joe, "Have your men tried Dubbin, Sargeant?"
[As anyone likely to have been reading the 45th Division News would have known, Dubbin was a water resistent boot wax.]
DePastino helpfully tells us that nearly 70% of all non-battle injuries in Italy involved trench foot. There are two possibilities here, either encompassed in the weariness of the faces of the two men travelling on foot. It is possible that the officer is so ignorant of his men and the life they're leading that he thinks his suggestion is helpful. Or it's possible he's just being an arrogant son-of-beatch and the question is a form of sneer.
Through Willie and Joe, and through his own talent of course, Mauldin got to speak a little truth to power. We should all be so lucky.
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