29 Ιουνίου 2007

Θεολογικός διάλογος στη Βαλτική, υπό την αιγίδα του Εκόνομιστ

The hottest of these is energy. The Balts, dependent on Russia for their gas and subject to lengthy and frequent blockades of oil deliveries, want to build a new nuclear power station jointly with Poland. So far, a year’s haggling has produced little result. The argument is mainly a cultural one based perhaps on different religious traditions. Catholic Poland and Lithuania think texts are secondary to belief: they want firm emotional commitment to the project before focusing on the details. Protestant Estonia and Latvia want the details written down clearly before they can believe.
Facing a cold wind
Αλλά και στην Αμερική ο διάλογος έχει φουντώσει για τα καλά.

Άνω Πουρναριά


Η αποκαθήλωση (...) ενός τηλεοπτικού μύθου της παιδικής μου ηλικίας
Στην Καλιφόρνια τον πρώτο τύπο βλάστησης τον λένε τσάπαραλ. Αλλωστε, επειδή οι ταινίες γουέστερν γυρίστηκαν στο Χόλιγουντ, πιθανώς οι αναγνώστες θα θυμούνται αυτό τον τύπο βλάστησης, που σίγουρα δεν είναι δάσος. Ακόμη και το όνομα ­ τσάπαραλ ­ προέρχεται από την ισπανική λέξη «τσαπράλο», που δεν σημαίνει τίποτε άλλο από πουρνάρι.

Ο γκραμσιανός ρόλος του Τύπου

Ο Μιχάλης Μητσός στα ΝΕΑ και στο μπλογκ του γράφει 440 λέξεις, για μια περίληψη 700 λέξεων στη Λα Ρεπούμπλικα, ενός άρθρου 2800 λέξεων του John Lloyd στο Prospect.

Κανονικά εδώ θα τελείωνε το 30 λέξεων ποστ μου. Ο νοών νοείτω.

Καταλαβαίνω πως δεν αποφασίζει ο (εκάστοτε) Μιχάλης Μητσός πόσο χώρο θα έχει στη διάθεσή του. Αλλά και πάλι, ποιο το νόημα μιας αναπαραγωγής από δεύτερο χέρι χωρίς κάποιον εμπλουτισμό; Για να μάθει ο αναγνώστης των Νεων που δεν έχει πρόσβαση στο δίκτυο τι γράφει μια ιταλική εφημερίδα;

Σε ελάχιστο χρόνο με μόνο βοήθημα το Google βρήκα αμέσως το αφιέρωμα του Prospect στον Μπράουν: 'An intellectual in power' by John Lloyd, 'Lessons from history' by Iain McLean, 'Just a bookworm?' by Daniel Johnson, 'An American liberal' by Geoff Mulgan, 'Leap of faith' by Richard Cockett και 'Courage and sorrow' by Kamran Nazeer.

Χωρίς καμιά ιδιαίτερη φαντασία έψαξα γι' αυτό το Red Paper on Scotland και βρήκα το άρθρο Life on the ante-eurodiluvian Left του Neal Ascherson.
Brown's foreword shows he had been excited by Gramsci. But the other big influence on him was Tom Nairn - who had already absorbed 'Gramscian' ideas. Brown noted that nationalism was not a 'mere bourgeois survival', but an authentic response to uneven modernisation and socio-economic change. And he warned that it would be 'fatal' for socialists to regard nationalism as some sort of disease.
Νομίζω αρκετά ενδιαφέρον για τον έλληνα αναγνώστη των Νέων. Και πάντως βούτυρο στο ψωμί του Καλλίμαχου. Και, στα πλαίσια της διατήρησης ισορροπιών,μια ανάσα δροσιάς για τον καψερό τον Αθήναιο.
This week the Brownite house journal, Prospect, makes a valiant attempt to present its hero as an intellectual, a term apparently equated with reading books and knowing how to pronounce Gramsci. While reading may be a necessary condition for intellectual status, it is not sufficient. Any fool can read and (like a columnist) dapple his prose with quotes.

Brown's reading seems confined to American conservatives such as James Wilson, Gertrude Himmelfarb and Francis Fukuyama, and the groupies of dehumanised globalisation seminars. He does not enjoy fiction or those with whom he might disagree. Nor has he ever matched his apparent belief in "civil society" (whatever that means) with his controlling and authoritarian decisions in government. Brown shows no trace of comprehending such shrewd analysts of American democracy as De Tocqueville or Hayek, champions of Brown's pet hate, civic autonomy.
Νομίζω πως οι άνθρωποι των Μέσων, όχι μόνο οι δημοσιογράφοι, θα πρέπει σιγααααα-σιγά να συνηθίσουν στην ιδέα ότι πλέον δεν ανταγωνίζονται εαυτούς και αλλήλους. Αλλά τους αναγνώστες τους.

Τέλος δύο μπόνους, Gordon Brown and the making of a Prime Minister και Gordon Brown answers your questions.

Mikhail Bakhtin: The Word in the World

Βιβλιοκριτική από τον Terry Eagleton
Bakhtin, too, was a fifth columnist. He was born in the provincial Russian town of Orel in 1895, the son of an untitled nobleman turned banker, and studied classics at Petersburg University. His years as a student coincided with the First World War and the Russian Revolution. Bakhtin, the Bolsheviks, Futurists and Formalists emerged more or less at the same explosive historical moment; and though he was a devout Russian Orthodox Christian rather than a Marxist, Bakhtin lived through a period of heady cultural synthesis in which a marriage of Communism and Christ didn’t seem out of the question. If he was not exactly a historical materialist, his thinking was both historical and materialist. The intensely communal bent of the Russian Church, along with its spirituality of the senses, played its part in this alliance. So did its quasi-materialist belief in the sacredness of the bodily. It was a faith which hymned the humanity of Christ and the complex richness of everyday life. Behind Bakhtin’s fascination with the materiality of the word, as Pechey’s title suggests, lies an incarnational theology. The Word-made-flesh is the figure in the carpet of his work.
μέσω Ρομπερτ Αμστερνταμ

Νομίζω όμως ότι η ουσία βρίσκεται σε μια αράδα.
Deprived of cigarette papers in the Second World War, he deprived posterity of some priceless insights by tearing up one of his own manuscripts to roll his tobacco.

28 Ιουνίου 2007

Καπιταλισμός = Εξηλεκτρισμός (more or less)

Sioufas, whose portfolio includes energy policy and oversight of state-run PPC, said the utility logged 66 hours of peak loads above 9,000 MW; 36 hours above 9,500 MW and 16 hours of peak loads above 10,000 MW(για 11Μ κατοίκους). Additionally, he said power consumption for Attica prefecture -- host to roughly half of the country's 11 million residents -- totaled 4,118 MW, as opposed to a peak of 3,540 MW in 2005 and just 3,000 MW in 2003.
ΑΝΑ

Demand for electricity reached a record 9,500 megawatts (για 7,1Μ κατοίκους) on Tuesday afternoon, the Israel Electric Corporation said. Its maximal capacity is 10,500 MW. The IEC warns that a single systems breakdown means it may not be able to supply the demand. Israel is suffering from a heat wave this week. Temperatures in the country's center peaked at 42 degrees on Tuesday afternoon, the utility said. The prior peak demand was 9,450 MW during a cold snap in December 2006. Last summer demand rose as high as 9,400 MW as the People of the Book turned on air conditioners en masse. But as the summer wears on, the IEC is anticipating that demand will exceed 10,000 MW.
Haaretz

The sharp rise in temperature has led to a sharp increase in the consumption of power in the Capital. On Saturday, when the temperature rose to 44.9 degree Celsius, the maximum power load registered was 3,742 MW (για 13,8Μ κατοίκους). To meet this excess demand, the Delhi Government's Power Department is pinning its hopes on Madhya Pradesh and the Damodar Valley Corporation.
The Hindu

27 Ιουνίου 2007

Grandma Duck vs Creative Commons

Δεν θα πήγαινε το μυαλό μου, αν δεν πήγαινε ο Mike Madison.
Norms-based intellectual property systems: the case of French chefs

Τελικά δεν είναι όλοι οι μάγειροι παλιοχαρακτήρες (χμ).

26 Ιουνίου 2007

Φωτορεπορτάζ καύσωνα



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Το σχετικό μέγεθος μετράει περισσότερο

Πριν λίγο στις ειδήσεις του ραδιοφωνικού Σκάι έγινε αναφορά στις πλημμύρες σε Πακιστάν και Ινδία. Για την Ινδία σημειώθηκε πως ιδιαίτερα έχουν πληγεί τα κρατίδια Andhra Pradesh και Karnataka.

Το κρατίδιο Andhra Pradesh έχει πληθυσμό 75 εκατομύρια και το κρατίδιο Karnataka 53 εκατομύρια.

Με άλλα λόγια, τα δύο αυτά κρατίδια μαζί αντιστοιχούν στο 25% του πληθυσμού της Ευρωπαϊκής Ένωσης.

23 Ιουνίου 2007

Για τον Χριστόδουλο


I gotta take a little time
A little time to think things over
I better read between the lines
In case I need it when Im older

21 Ιουνίου 2007

Intro (more or less)


Eugenie Rose Chaney: My full name is Eugenie Rose. Of the two names I've always favored Rose, 'cause it smells of brown soap and beer. Eugenie is somehow more fragile.
Bennett Marco: Still, when I asked you what your name was, you said it was Eugenie.
Eugenie Rose Chaney: Quite possible I was feeling more or less fragile at that instant.
Bennett Marco: I could never figure out what that phrase meant, "more or less."