Samstag, 20. Dezember 2008

A Day in Downtown DC


Small, but beautiful: whenever you go to DC, go to the Renwick Gallery (how convenient, it's just next to the White House).
Not only are its temporary exhibitions breath-taking (if you think we glass is only useful for windows, think and watch again, cf. picture, source of the picture: http://www.linotagliapietra.com), but worth-a-visit is also teh George Catlin Indian gallery.

Lino Tagliapietra is a son of Murano, the famous Italian glass-blowing industry island nearby Venice. The connection to the US: he became acquainted with a glass blowing school in Seattle and helped to create talented people over there.

George Catlin (folk art?) anticipated the trouble between the Indians and the White Man and painted a couple of hundred pictures to contribute to the preservation of Indian tribes.
Besides him, you can find other stunning oevres, such as a seemingly veiled clock, whose perceived covering linen is actually wood (very fanzily made; even from a 2 feet distance you can't tell that this is actually wood, it's made so wel).

It's not just cool that there is no admission fee, but also that the museum actually consists of two buildings (i.e. the second part of American Art is together with the portrait gallery at F Street further to the East, let's call it the real SAAM).
The SAAM houses an amazing amount of presidential paintings and other inspiring pictures about American history. And if you fall almost asleep (e.g. because you sleep not enough also during your holidays), then you get a boost by a coffee and "gourmet" cookie at the "Robert and Arlene Kogod Courtyard" (i.e. the courtyard is covered by a 900-ton (really? so says the flyer), 28'000 square feet glass roof consisting of 864 individual glass panels.

go there and enjoy:
http://americanart.si.edu/

In times of trouble, it's always good to reinforce your confidence in democracy, its institutions and recall its ideas. Ideally, a walk on the Mall makes you thinking and inspiring.
But not only - a closer look, and a healthy portion scepticism reveals that the many lights on a Saturday evening 8pm in the many (and the many big) federal office bunkers, ahm, buildings along/around the Mall, is most probably not because zealous and hardworking employees...
People here seem to talk much about change, how to relaunch the economy ... and about climate change (watch out, the oil price is down to around 40$/b compared to the 145$/b this July...!). Why only talk and await a big push in the green direction when everybody can make a (little) difference on his/her own - AT NO COST? It just takes the willpower of a second to switch off the light in the evening and switch it on in again in the morning.
[if they have a central on/off switch for the whole bureau, why not use motion-detectors, so you won't even need to do the job on your own?)?
Energy efficiency does not just mean MPG (miles per gallon, which is here ridiculously low anyway) and it's not coming from big companies only, but from the bottom - from each individual. If we do not believe in change and our OWN capacity/discretion to (at least initiate it), then we do not need to listen to people promising us the same. Both need each other - otherwise it's not going to work, whether the world is flat, hot or crowded or not.

Freitag, 19. Dezember 2008

What makes you tick?

"to commit every nerve, every muscle, and every drop of sweat to a work, to a great task; to grow with the work, to become greater oneself in the struggle with one's betters - and then to be able to say at the end: I die, but there remains something that is more important than my life and will last longer than my body: my work."

[Morgenthau, H.J., (?) School Composition, "Was ich von meiner Zukunft erhoffe, und worauf sich diese Hoffnung gruendet", as cited in Frei, C. (2001). Hans J. Morgenthau: An Intellectual Biography. (p. 80) Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press.]

Mittwoch, 17. Dezember 2008

Freitag, 12. Dezember 2008

Would you like to see an example of America's infrastructure?


"....Address the Lauinger Problem", as The Hoya (student newspaper at Georgetown University) put it in an editorial (issue of Friday, Dec. 5, 2008). Indeed, our campus' main library is not only not known as a beauty, it has some other severe drawbacks.

I can't put it more vivid terms than the editorial: ".. not just because it's physically ugly, outdated and decrepit. (Earlier this semester, for instance, Lauinger's ceiling was leaking so much that many stacks had to be covered with blue tarp to protect them from water damage.
In its current configuration, Lauinger stifles the intellectual life of our community. With only a handful of meeting rooms and woefully inadequate study space, it remains stuck in an obsolete notion of what a library should be. In the 21st century, a library must be more than a warehouse for storing books."
And it goes on: "Changes must reflect the need for expanded study and meeting space, and for the development of a more inviting learning environment. Lauinger must become a destination, not a mark of shame on our campus."

It's indeed a sad reality: Tables and chairs are worn out and seemingly never clean, the restrooms seem to be not properly taken care of, the computers are slow (except those in the Media section on the first floor), the heating system is crazy (either too hot or too cold, and the air filter are either too loud or (but usually and) not really working well so its a stuffy atmosphere to work in. Copy machines are often out of order and ...
And one wonders about the ridiculous security measures (whenever you enter, show your ID; as if that would prevent somebody to make nasty things...; however, sometimes the guards are too much into a conversation among themselves...).

However, one must point out that the staff is really friendly and always ready to help. And, a big advantage compared to the University of St. Gallen: you can download journal articles and papers online from home by logging in - you do not need to download them on the campus.

A nice idea from Singapore: RFID chips to make everybody able to check out books individually instead of waiting in line for too long and bothering the circulation desk guys (who are students, and sometimes do not seem to be very committed to do their job).

Go on, and keep on fighting for the good sake

"Sometines, bad things are good for us, because they teach as a lot of things. Who would we be if and what whould we learn about life, if we didn't have bad things anymore, and trust me, God doesn't give you more than you can take."
[A friend of mine, December 2008]

Sonntag, 7. Dezember 2008

Bird of prey

You'll be sick, if you continue like this...


The F-22, too good (and expensive) to become widely used?


While we're in a financial/economic crisis and a new administration is incoming (promising to cut the Defense budget), you wonder what happens to big projects such as F-22 (which was downsized several times already).





One of the most expensive fighters (Raptor) becomes a prey of the congress. The new plan to invest huge sums in America's basic infrastructure to boost and retool the economy is probably not focusing on such projects as the Raptor.


Nevertheless, cool website> http://www.f22-raptor.com/


And the Chinese? They seem to make a copy... (surprise?), or at least something, that might look like a copy (even though apparently several design studies exist, the J-XX seems to be based on the Flanker platform, with resemblance to F-22, F-16 etc.)

some sources:




White -

hey, the first day (Saturday) when snow was falling (quarter of an inch or so - and disappeared the same evening).

Instead of white snow, this is maybe black snow (i.e. surprise):
An old boy after years of introspection may see that he maybe did sth on wrong grounds
http://www.nzz.ch/nachrichten/international/george_bushs_ploetzliche_reue_ueber_den_irak-krieg_1.1367934.html