Passing Comments

Yesterday, Germany’s Der Spiegel (SPIEGEL ONLINE International) ran a fascinating piece about the hows and whys, and what’s yet to come in the ongoing, lopsided relationship between the dollar and the euro.

Writing about the Federal Reserve in the U.S. and the European Central Bank, Christian Reiermann offers a snapshot comparison of the two men in charge of them, and a history of how the contrasting philosophies of the two institutions came to be (”KEEP CALM AND DON’T PANIC” April 29,2008).

The article’s intro:

Never before have the central banks of the United States and Europe pursued such divergent strategies when it comes to dealing with a financial crisis. The increased value of the euro against the dollar reveals which strategy is working.

Reiermann writes in clear, straightforward prose that illuminates a subject that’s often presented — at least for mere mortals –as if it’s organic chemistry poorly translated from the original Swahili. Grazie!

Read more here.

An article last week in InformationWeek online highlights some gloomy numbers for recent sales of Microsoft’s Windows operating system (”Microsoft Windows Sales Plunge 24% Amid Rising Competition” by Paul McDougall, April 25, 2008):

Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) on Thursday revealed that sales of licenses for its desktop Windows operating systems fell 24% in the company’s fiscal third quarter, a sign that the Redmond’s stranglehold on the PC market is weakening as new competitors emerge.

Microsoft posted revenue from all desktop versions of Windows of $4 billion for the three months ended March 31, compared with Windows sales of $5.3 billion during the same period a year earlier.

Read more here.

Today the blogger writing as Hunter on DailyKos offers an acerbic and (painfully) funny list of “Lessons Learned” from the U.S. Presidential primary campaign that is now well into its third millennium.

A sample:

In a race that includes a former First Lady of the United States and a multimillionaire Republican senator rumored to share up to eight residences with his wife, the black guy from Chicago is unforgivably elitist.

Racism in America is caused primarily by black Chicago preachers.

Complete list here.

Last week, Beacon Broadside website printed an excerpt from the essay “My Green Manifesto” by David Gessner. Below I’ve excerpted from Beacon’s excerpt. If you want to read Gassner’s full essay, you can find it here.

In Manifesto, Gessner himself excerpts one of his earlier essays:

The essay came about when, after throwing a book against a wall in which the author had droned on serenely about “being the present moment” and “living in the natural woods,” I went for a walk on my unnatural beach carrying my unnatural micro-cassette recorder, into which I spoke the beginnings of an essay. When the essay was later published it began exactly the way I spoke it that day as I tramped along the beach:

I am sick of nature. Sick of trees, sick of birds, sick of the ocean.

Of course I wasn’t really sick of the natural world, just of the way some writers chose to portray it. I was sick of the hushed voice, sick of the saintliness, sick of the easy notions of the perfectibility of man, sick of the apocalyptic robes, sick of the scolding. But most of all I was sick of the certainty that seemed to ooze out of the words. Writers certain that they knew what would happen in the world and certain that they knew how to be in that world and certain that they should tell us these things. The odd thing was that, for all their certainty, the world they described didn’t sound much at all like the world I happened to live in.

A team of scientists studying the barks of dogs have concluded that when a dog is barking because it’s lonely versus barking when a stranger wanders along, other dogs can tell the difference, according to a story today in New Scientist (”Dog’s bark means more than its bite” by Ewen Callaway, April 2008).

Okay. (But any dog owner could have told them that, if they’d just asked). Good they’re finally catching on, though.

EIAA (European Interactive Advertising Association) reported this month that adults living with children spend more time online than adults in households without minors. The findings about online trends in Europe are from EIAA’s first ever “Digital Families” report, according to the media trade organization.

“Almost three-quarters (73%) of people living with children are logging on to the internet each week, compared with only half (52%) of those without,” the EIAA report reveals.

Overall, digital parents are ramping up their web time, spending 11.6 hours online each week (up 36% since 2004) and over a quarter are heavy users of the internet (27%). Digital families are also more likely than those households without children to use the internet at the weekends (58% vs. 40%).

This online activity has meant that digital families are consuming other media less as a result of the internet – 44% of digital parents are watching less TV, almost a third read fewer magazines and newspapers (31% and 30% respectively) and almost a quarter (24%) listen to the radio less.

Read more about the study here.

Weep, probably, judging by some conclusions in a series of articles beginning today in Advertising Age. Taking a look at the ongoing decline of newspapers, the report focuses on what’s being done to forestall collapse (”The Newspaper Death Watch” by Nat Ives, April 28, 2008).

One expert quoted in the article predicts that newspapers will survive only about 20 to 25 more years:

Of course, newspaper owners aren’t going to just give up and wait — and that’s why Ad Age is launching this series about the 1,437 dailies still working hard in the U.S. It’ll look at the thought leaders in the industry, their attempts to leave the past — and even formats — behind and their strategies for finding new business models.

(Link to this story came from mediabistro.com).

Each month, TateShots posts some videos online focusing on modern and contemporary art exhibitions at The Tate in London. Last month, artists Paul Harrison and John Wood were featured talking about the ideas behind some of their works. The duo are described by TateShots as “an art-world equivalent to Laurel and Hardy.”

Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu’s recently-released, first solo album “Gurrumul” has shot to the top of mainstream music charts in Australia. The 37-year-old musician, who was born blind, is now outselling major stars such as Mariah Carey, according to the International Herald Tribune (”Aboriginal musician astonishes Australian audiences” by Tim Johnston, April 22, 2008).

This video featuring Yunupingu is from the Italian newspaper La Repubblica (Italian text, in translation, paraphrased):

Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu sings in the language of his native Aboriginal tribe, Yolngu, and recounts the difficulties of his people.

Russell Morse definitely knows how to bring fresh meaning to the saying “telling it like it is.” In a commentary piece for New America Media yesterday, Morse begins:

PHILADELPHIA, PA — I’m concerned that this election is turning me into a misogynist.

Last night, I watched Hillary Clinton deliver her victory speech in a hotel in downtown Philadelphia, cringing. I looked around nervously and realized I was in a ballroom full of my mom. Instantly, I became terrified of this middle-aged white woman army, marching through America, stomping young people’s dreams out with their sensible shoes.

If you’re in Barack Obama’s camp during this hundred-year primary, you may love every word Morse writes. If you’re in Hillary Clinton’s, probably not so much.

Maureen Dowd, eat your heart out!

The human mind is not elegantly designed, according to New York University psychologist Gary F. Marcus, who is featured in a recent Q&A article (online) in Scientific American (”Infant Language and the Imperfect Human Mind,” April 23, 2008). Rather, he tells editor Jonah Lehrer, the mind is “a cobbled together contraption.”

Lehrer talks particularly to Marcus about his new book, “Kluge: The Haphazard Construction of the Human Mind.” The final two questions were especially interesting:

LEHRER: Your book ends with a series of prescriptions for helping us make better use of our imperfect mind. Is there one prescription that you think is particularly important? Which piece of advice do you have the toughest time following?

MARCUS: The most important piece of advice might be the one that says, “Don’t just set goals, make specific contingencies plans”—good advice that follows from the studies of my colleague [psychologist] Peter Gollwitzer [of New York University]. It’s important because it’s the best band-aid we’ve got for dealing with one of the more problematic kluges in our evolution: the split between a set of really ancient brain mechanisms that tend to be short-sighted and automatic and a more modern set of “deliberative” mechanisms that do their best to take the long view. As a species, we humans are the only creature that’s smart enough to make long-term plans, but most of the time no matter how foresighted we might be, in the heat of the moment, our ancestral reflexive systems still tend to hold sway. By converting abstract goals (like a desire to lose weight) into specific if-then statements (e.g., “If I see the dessert menu, then I’ll sit on my hands and discuss the election rather than choosing a dessert”), we can trick the older systems into following the sometimes-wiser goals of our more modern deliberative systems.

The hardest one?…

Read more here.

Years ago when I lived in Southern California, I was on my way one day from Westside LA to the Valley to see a friend. Coming off the San Diego Freeway, I stopped at the bottom of the off ramp for a red light. To my left I saw a homeless woman begging, holding a cardboard sign. Directly in front of me, in the left turn lane, was a late model, convertible Mercedes sports car with the top down, the woman driver talking on her car phone. When I got to my friend’s house, I couldn’t stop talking about the contrasting images.

Why is this so important to me, I asked my friend. Because, she said, you don’t know which of the two you are closest to.

She was right. And, in fact, I still don’t.

Arlo Guthrie’s Hobo’s Lullaby: (lyrics here)

Political strategist Robert Creamer, in a blog for The Huffington Post today, cites the harsh facts of life that emerged for Senator Hillary Clinton out of yesterday’s Democratic Party primary in Pennsylvania. Beginning with this:

The Pennsylvania Primary was Hillary Clinton’s last chance to deliver a game changing blow to Obama’s campaign for the nomination. She failed to deliver.

Read more of Creamer’s analysis here (”Last Night Clinton Won the Pennsylvania Primary, but Lost the War for the Nomination”, by Robert Creamer, The Huffington Post, April 23, 2008).

Father of the Constitution” James Madison (see here and here) once said:

A popular Government without popular information or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy or perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance, and a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power knowledge gives.

This is a basic concept I remember fairly well from my high school American government class, and from my undergrad journalism classes. It’s a concept, however, that way too many of those who are in charge of the traditional news media in the U.S. seem to feel is a throwaway these days.

This morning, as a case in point, I read yesterday’s article by Glenn Greenwald on the Salon website - “Media’s refusal to address the NYT’s “military analyst” story continues.” The intro:

I was hoping to write about the fallout from the NYT’s Saturday story regarding the media’s use of Pentagon-controlled “independent” military analysts, but there hasn’t really been any fallout at all. Despite being accused by the NYT in a very lengthy, well-documented expose of misleadingly feeding government propaganda to their viewers and readers, virtually all media outlets continue their steadfast refusal to address or even acknowledge the story. How can “news” organizations refuse to address — just completely ignore — accusations which fundamentally indict their behavior as “journalists”?

Also yesterday (thanks to a post on joho the blog by Harvard scholar David Weinberger), I saw the video below by Alisa Miller. Miller, who is the CEO of Public Radio International, describes the hows and whys of the blockade of information flow that is now commonplace in the U.S.

And what does Britney have to do with all this? It’s explained in the video:

The UK’s Guardian newspaper has a fun feature on its front page (online) today. The editors asked four top U.S. cartoonists to talk about their thoughts as they draw cartoons of Obama, Clinton and McCain (”Sketching the next president”, The Guardian online, April 21, 2008). Twelve cartoons are included in the feature.

Everything you may want to know about carmelizing onions (”Onions That Don’t Bite Back” by Andreas Viestad, The Washington Post, April 16, 2008).

In this morning’s e-mail:

Hello,

A scrawny cream colored, with brownish ears, face, and tail, kitten-cat came to our back patio yesterday just before dark. He yammered loudly and continuously, so I fed him quite a bit of chicken. He was extremely affectionate. He devoured the chicken, ate a huge amount. Then, he spent the next few hours trying to figure out a way to get inside, staring through the glass with his blue eyes with ruby pupils, caressing it with his head, climbing up the screen in pitiful appeals to be let in. Josey was disturbed, highly attentive for a good long while, but not angry after the first several minutes of rubbing noses through the window screen.

The kitten finally went to sleep in one of the the big flower pots (now just dirt) in front of the left window beside the front door. I managed to put out a cat bed for him about mid-night–he was sleeping there for hours as I checked on him during the night. Before daylight, I checked again, and he was gone. Then I noticed he was curled up in front of my office door at the rear of the house. Then I noticed that Bailey, the neighbor’s cat was stalking him, hunting him like he was a bird or something. The little fellow was oblivious to it all, like some kind of ka-diddle-hopper goof walking into a biker bar. Bailey is a very efficient killer, no nonsense, switchblade character–we know this from watching her do her thing to some of our critters out back the last two summers.

I went to get the flashlight, to try to shine it to blow Bailey’s stalk, as a way to help the kitten (not wanting to get too involved and end up taking on another cat for the house although Andrea was all for it), but by the time I got back Bailey had chased the kitten into a nearby flower bed. The stand-off went on for a few minutes, with the kitten trying to make like a smiling, friendly hayseed Gomer Pyle facing a ghetto gangster or something. Bailey was not to be reconciled, though. I told myself it would all work out some way for the kitten.

Then when the kitten moved out into the lawn, Bailey chased him into another flower bed and was looming viciously over the poor little fellow in an attack mode. The kitten was trying to shrink into the earth and avoid eye contact with Bailey. Fearing for the kitten’s life, and having in mind that the chipmunks Boo and Bo have both disappeared this last week, now that Bailey is out of her owners’ house in this warmer weather, I ran to put on some old shoes and get out there, still wearing my heavy bathrobe.

The kitten came running to me and wrapped itself around my legs in a state of fright, limping on the back right leg-hip (I suspect Bailey got in a strike or two) and trying to find a way to climb up to safety. I scooped him up and went to unlock and raise the garage door to put him in there away from Josey and Bailey.

So, now what?

So far he is a noisy, leggy kitten who is eating huge amounts of food and doing fairly well at the potty routine. He is incredibly skinny, but still cute as a kitten can possibly be. He only stops meowing when he is asleep or after a long time out in the garage, or when he’s being petted. He is still in a pretty anxious state of mind for the most part. I think, however, he is going to make a very affectionate and elegant looking cat. I named him Fuzzy, but Andrea said that was too babyish for a life-time name. She wanted to name him Percy for persistence, so I convinced her to change it to Purrcy. So, Purrcy he is.

This week we will get him neutered, vaccinated, de-wormed, and otherwise examined and treated ($$$$! for sure for all that, and not at a good time for my budget, either), then we will see if we can get him to be good buddies with Josey. Purrcy seems very ready to be best buds with Josey, but Josey is on high alert and remaining non-committal.

I think if any more wretched critters, these heart-string-pulling kittens, dying things, come to our back door we are just going to have to turn away from them and let Bailey do her neighborhood enforcer work in the dark of night, with us pretending we have no idea what happened to the poor creatures. I don’t think I want to go to the local death camp shelter as a solution and see all those death row pets on their own “green mile.” It is a cruel world out there for the wee critters, for the wee kittens and cats who are suddenly alone and at the end of themselves.

In The Washington Independent today, Boston University history professor Bruce J. Schulman offers some advice to Senator Barack Obama (”When Elite Get Tough” by Bruce J. Schulman, The Washington Independent, April 21, 2008).

In particular, Schulman writes about Franklin D. Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy, and how they overcame the elitist slur. Of FDR, he writes:

But Roosevelt’s dedicated efforts to shield ordinary Americans from what he called the “hazards and vicissitudes of life,” his congenial temperament and his zest for the rough-and-tumble of partisan politics more than compensated for his aristocratic background. FDR also reveled in the opposition his presidency provoked among his fellow sons of privilege. Never before had the forces of selfishness, FDR told a massive rally at Madison Square Garden in 1936, “been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me. They hate Roosevelt — and I welcome their hatred.”

Read more here.

From The Independent (”Closing the gender gap: Why women now reign in Spain” by Andy McSmith, April 16, 2008):

For the first time in history, unless you believe the ancient Greek myth of the Amazons, a European country has a government in which more women than men hold positions of power. The new Spanish cabinet, sworn in by the socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, has nine women alongside eight men, including Spain’s first woman Defence minister, Carme Chacon, and its youngest-ever cabinet minister, the 31-year-old minister for equality, Bibiana Aido.

Long, long, long, long (looooooooooonnnnnng) overdue! Read the rest of the story here

At the time Eric Clapton’s Pilgrim album was released in 1998, I just happened to be drowning in a deep funk of my own, so far down I’d forgotten up even existed (things are much better now, fyi). So Pilgrim suited my mood most precisely. I listened to it over and over and over again. It was a solacing boon to my gloom. Sometimes, it helps to just go with the sadness, I discovered, as have many others, so I’ve heard.

Words of praise from a Rolling Stone review (David Wild, Mar 19, 1998):

On the album’s sizzling title track, he evokes some of the soulful eloquence of the great Curtis Mayfield. And Clapton’s vocals on “River of Tears” and “Broken Hearted” (with lovely backing vocals and tin whistle from Paul Brady), the ultradelicate “Circus” and the country-tinged “Fall Like Rain” are among the most convincing of his career.

So it wasn’t just me and my mood.

River of Tears (lyrics here) is truly one of the most powerful songs on the cd, if your mood is inclined toward the blue zone. Today, I found this video of Clapton’s live performance of the piece in Los Angeles during his 2001 world tour. Watching this, I traveled back in time (briefly). Easy to understand here, also, why those fans all those decades ago in London used to scrawl “Clapton is God” on walls.

Religious scholar Karen Armstrong was awarded the 2008 TED Prize in February. In accepting her prize — $100,000 and the granting of “One Wish To Change The World” — Armstrong wished to start a movement to build a Charter For Compassion. The purpose, as described on the TED website, will be “to help restore the Golden Rule as the central global religious doctrine.”

In her acceptance speech at the conference in Monterey, California, Armstrong said to her VIP-studded audience:

“I wish that you would help with the creation, launch and propagation of a Charter for Compassion, crafted by a group of leading inspirational thinkers from the three Abrahamic traditions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam and based on the fundamental principles of universal justice and respect.”

TED stands for technology, entertainment, design, according to the website, and the organization was started in 1984. Previous TED Prize winners include Bill Clinton and Bono.

In this video of her speech, Armstrong traces the lineage of the Golden Rule back to its first known appearance:

And a teacher in the Bronx.

Yesterday, following a link to a link to a link in classic surfing style, I spotted news of an upcoming exhibition in Milan of Abbas Kiarostami’s celebrated “Snow White” series. It’s a collection of b&w photos of trees and snow that the Iranian filmmaker has taken over the years since 1978. The exhibition is at Ciocca Arte Contemporanea museum. The show opens this week on April 5 and will run through May 31.

A couple of years ago, a friend who writes about film invited me to a special screening of Kiarostami’s just-released film Tickets (2005). The event, for young Italian film and acting students, was held on a sound stage at Cinecittà Studios in Rome. Kiarostami was present and, following the screening, took questions from the audience. He had the confidence and worldweary attitude of a veteran master filmmaker at the top of his profession, but he truly was kindness itself, I remember, in the patient and close attention he gave to the students and their never-ending queries.

In an article in the San Francisco Chronicle online last year featuring an interview with Kiarostami, reporter Jonathan Curiel wrote this intro of the revered filmmaker:

In a critics’ poll taken a few years ago by Sight & Sound magazine, Abbas Kiarostami was ranked the fourth most important filmmaker of modern times — behind Wong Kar-Wai (No. 3), Krzysztof Kieslowski (No. 2) and Martin Scorsese. Asked about Kiarostami, Scorsese once said, “Kiarostami represents the highest level of artistry in the cinema.” (”Kiarostami/Iranian director’s work from cinema to photos on display in Berkeley retrospective exhibition” by Jonathan Curiel, SFGATE, July 9, 2007)

Kiarostami made the short video above, Romeo, as part of a celebration of the 60th anniversary last year of the Cannes Film Festival. He was among a group of thirty-five international auteurs invited to make a three-minute vignette on the “theme of cinema” for the celebratory occasion.

You can see an interview with Kiarostami in which he talks about the video here (”To Each His Own Cinema Interviews,” At The Movies website).