Que sera, sera, whatever will be, will be, but first I need more coffee.

Year: 2021 (Page 1 of 2)

Bloody Hell

So you hear that English use the word ‘bloody’ as an expletive all the time. I just learned the German word blöde which translates as stupid. It sounds a bit like the English bloody and is similar in meaning. It’s an intensifier in German but not as intense as it is in British English. Americans don’t use the word bloody the way the Brits do.

Wikipedia tries to explain: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloody

I think it’s time to look up the etymology of the word blood to see if their is a connection. I’ll leave that as a homework assignment as I’m too tired to continue expositing on the words. I just happened to notice the similarity.

 

From The Ruins of the Dresden Library

I did not know that Albinoni’s Adagio was allegedly based on a fragment from the Dresden Library. I’d been a fan of this piece ever since I heard it used in the original Rollerball (1975) with James Caan. The composer Remo Giozatto used it to make the actual composition. He never produced the fragment to prove his claim.

The piece of music is fitting for the city of Dresden as it was firebombed by the Allies at the end of WWII. It was a war crime, and no one was ever brought to justice for it. Kurt Vonnegut was a prisoner of war in Dresden when it was bombed. He wrote about it in his novel Slaughterhouse Five and A Man Without a Country.

U.S. students bring Kurt Vonnegut back to Dresden for firebombing anniversary
https://www.sott.net/article/274060-US-students-bring-Kurt-Vonnegut-back-to-Dresden-for-firebombing-anniversary

“I am the Law!”

Sometimes you see things in life that are so outrageous that it makes you want to become a vigilante to right the wrongs you see. This is a bad idea. Yes, there are laws that are morally wrong and unjust and just plain bad.

So what has me upset this time? Food disparagement laws. So if you don’t think the way food is produced on one of 13 states is safe, you can be sued for libel. Even if you back up your claims with scientific evidence it doesn’t matter. A person with little financial resources could be sued into ruination even if you are right. The purpose of these laws is to stifle free speech.

 

You cannot shout “Fire!” in a crowded theatre when there is no fire, but what if you tell the audience the theatre would be a deathtrap if it caught on fire and it were true. Say like the fire exits were blocked. You should be a responsible adult and tell the management first, but what do you do if they refuse to do anything. Would the next step to tell the audience or call the fire marshal? I suppose it would depend on the immediacy of the threat. If you saw sparking wires or someone smoking then you would probably feel obligated to tell the audience, “Gee! I see sparking wires. By the way did you notice the fire exits were blocked?” However, you should also call the fire marshal.

What happens if the fire marshal determines that there is no cause for alarm and the exits are still blocked? And then you are threatened with a fine or arrest if you tell the audience? You might even be sued by the theatre owner for causing them to lose business.

This is analogous to the food disparagement laws. Here are the thirteen states that have them: Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and Texas. Of interest to me is the Oklahoma law which states:

§ 3011. Definitions

As used in this act, unless the context otherwise requires:

1. “Disparagement” means dissemination of information to the public in any manner [ emph. mine] which casts doubt on the safety of any perishable agricultural food product to the consuming public; and

That is a chilling statement: “in any manner”. So if you have any reservations or doubts, keep them to yourself. So if you tout that the beef you buy is grass-finished and better than CAFO produced beef is that casting doubt? Or if you tout you like milk better that has been produced by cattle that don’t use artificial hormones. I would say that is a choice made by an informed consumer.

The law also says:

§ 3012. Cause of action for damages

Any producer of perishable agricultural food products who suffers damages as a result of another person’s disparagement of any such perishable agricultural food product, when the disparagement is based on false information which is not based on reliable scientific facts and scientific data and which the disseminator knows or should have known to be false (emph. mine), may bring an action for damages and for any other appropriate relief in a court of competent jurisdiction.

I could say that grass-finished beef tastes better to me than CAFO raised beef. That is entirely subjective. How would I determine if facts and data are scientifically reliable? Is it enough to cite an article written by a journalist who cites peer reviewed journals and talks to informed scientists? Or do I have to go to the same sources? The bar seems awfully high.

This fight over food safety has been around for a long long time. Back in 1998, Texas cattlemen sued Oprah Winfrey regarding her statement that she’d not eat beef out of fear of BSE. She won.

Note: Draft originally written on 9 April 2009. I’m going through my old drafts to see if they are worth finishing and posting. This one made the cut.

Breach

In the summer of 2004 my wife and I went to the Red Cross Museum in Geneva, Switzerland. It was one of the most moving places I’ve ever been. If real compassion can be said to institutionalized and embodied in an organization it is the ICRC. The only place more moving that I’ve visited is Kilmainham Gaol in the summer of 2006.

ICRC never reveals the contents of their reports to anyone except the country’s government who is holding the detainees or prisoners. This is a book based on that report. How it was acquired is unknown.

Book Cites Secret Red Cross Report of C.I.A. Torture of Qaeda Captives
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/07/11/america/11detain.php

The Red Cross does not release these reports to anyone except the government holding the detainees or prisoners. It’s so they can continue to have access to them and work to improve humanitarian conditions and effect their release. However, that does not prevent officials from releasing or leaking those reports. I highly recommend a visit to the Red Cross Museum in Geneva. Few places can show you the best and worst humanity is capable of.

Note: I wrote the draft of this post on 11 July 2008 the day the article came out. The original link was to the International Herald Tribune which appears to have been purchased by the New York Times, so the link goes to the same article on NYT. Also, we weren’t married yet in 2004.

On Refilling non-refillable fountain pens (and non-refillable cartridges)

In the past few years I’ve become a fan of fountain pens. I was actually looking for a way to write quickly and a lot on my iPhone. To no avail. I even tried the Swype keyboard once it became available to iOS, but still I just couldn’t get the hang of it. Someday, I hope to learn how to write quickly on my mobile devices (other than a laptop).

I’ve been writing in notebook since high school. I’ve never kept a formal diary or journal. In fact I tossed a large number these notebooks in 2000. About seven years ago I upped my game when I bought a moleskine on a lark. At first I used a regular ink pen, but eventually gravitated to fountain pens when I started reading on how to improve my handwriting (see whole arm movement or muscular movement).

My first fountain pen was a Pilot Varsity that my wife had amongst our pens and I started to play around with it. I eventually bought some more from an online retailer as I had no luck finding them in a local office supply store (though I didn’t check art stores). I suppose I could write this as a piece of article marketing and link to the online retailer where you can buy these pens and earn a pittance for directing you there. And maybe I will, but I’ll be up front about it. The idea isn’t to think of ways to earn money then write an article, but to monetize an idea.

And by that I mean, if you want to write with an fountain pen, you’ll need to buy materials, and I can make recommendations on what I’ve used and where I got them, I’m sort of giving free advertising to a retailer, and I may sort of earn a little money on the side from those recommendations, but it is all in the service of sharing my joy of writing with a fountain pen.

Technology shapes how we do things. Fountain pens lend themselves to writing in cursive.

Anyway, back to the Varsity. It is “non-refillable” unless you know what you are doing. This post shows you how, but it is missing one critical step. The author says how much ink he used and if you can measure it, great, but what if you need to eyeball it and just keep putting in the barrel until it’s full enough. Where do you stop? I looked at how far the nib goes back into the barrel and remembered where it stopped. It’s easy to see there’s a line where the barrel widens just a bit to fit the nib, so I used a straw which was narrow enough to fit inside the barrel and I dipped the straw into my ink bottle, put my finger over it, then lowered the straw into the pen barrel and removed my finger. I repeated this process about 3 times with the last step only getting a third the amount of ink, the first two put plenty of ink.

I don’t know if this is going to work. I put the nib back in with my Leatherman. It clicked. I turned the pen nib down to make sure no ink dripped out. I used an old newspaper and paper towels to catch and clean up any ink spillage or drips. I put the cap back on and letting the pen sit for a few minutes nib down to let the ink fill it, and I’ll give it a test. It could take several hours before enough ink gets to the point where I can write.

How to refill your Pilot Varsity
https://peninkcillin.blogspot.com/2011/07/how-to-refill-your-pilot-varsity.html

Addendum

I wrote this post about three years ago and left it as a draft. Forgot about until now. Decided to update and publish. Once you start buying fountain pens you can use converters and refill them with ink, but you can also take the non-refillable cartridges and refill them with a blunt needled syringe. Just make sure you wash the cartridge before using them.

Second Addendum

If you want to try out fountain pens, I’d recommend getting a Platinum Preppy with some of their proprietary cartridges. For less than $10 you can decided if you like them. And if you do, you can prepare to spend a lot more on pens, inks, and paper. A lot more. You can get decent pens under $30 but don’t be surprised when you see them going for $200 or $500.

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