feeding the five thousand

Nico Muhly

• September 29, 2010
• 

  Whale Watching Tour – Gent, BE

  Unread items (40)

  Posted: September 28th, 2010, 12:30am EDT by fmyers

  with Nico Muhly, Ben Frost, Sam Amidon and Valgeir Sigurðsson

• September 28, 2010
• 

  Whale Watching Tour – London, UK

  Unread items (40)

  Posted: September 27th, 2010, 12:30am EDT by fmyers

  with Nico Muhly, Sam Amidon, Ben Frost and Valgeir Sigurðsson

• September 27, 2010
• 

  Whale Watching Tour – Dublin, IR

  Unread items (40)

  Posted: September 26th, 2010, 2:00am EDT by fmyers

  with Ben Frost, Nico Muhly, Sam Amidon and Valgeir Sigurðsson

• September 09, 2010
• 

  Apple Store Santa Monica

  Unread items (40)

  Posted: September 8th, 2010, 12:00am EDT by fmyers

  Q&A with Grant Gershon and performance with members of the LA Master Chorale featuring works from the new Decca release A Good Understanding.

Copenhagenize.com - The Copenhagen Bike Culture Blog

• September 03, 2010
• 

  Textbook Bicycle Marketing from Netherlands

  Unread items (40)

  Posted: September 3rd, 2010, 11:15am EDT by Mikael

  
  We're loving this photograph. It's from a Dutch advert for the bike brand Sparta. THIS is how to sell bicycles to Citizen Cyclists. Thanks to Will for the heads up.
  
  The text on the advert, roughly translated by Will, reads:
  You want a bike that fits your lifestyle. Which is why we make bikes with something extra. Like the pickup. An old style Dutch delivery bike with a modern twist. With a unique and distinctive double top tube for support. Also available in several retro colors. Something Special, we call it. Go for the specials list for more information.
  
  
  And it gets even better! This Sparta advert spells it out in no uncertain terms. This bike will suit you. Urban living. The preferred transport for well-dressed businessmen. Brilliant marketing and Ultimate Cycle Chic. Hats off to de Fietsensmakers and Sparta.
  
  The advert is from de Fietsenmakers, a bike shop chain in the Netherlands. If you buy this bicycle, you get a 'matching' Morgan Stanley suit - with a value of €389 - free!
  
  Trendy Sparta Summer City Bike
  Sparta specially designed this bike for this offer. A true summer bike in cool matte blue. A solidly built model with leather saddle and leather grips, 7-speeds, coaster brake, retro front rack and large puncture-proof tires. Helping you stand out!
  
  A stylish suit fits a trendy bike. Only at de Fietsenmakers - when you buy a unique Sparta Sommer for €799 you get a luxury Morgan Stanley suit with shirt and tie from the 2010 collection, worth €389. This offer runs until September 30, 2010...Copenhagenize the planet. And have a lovely day.

cloudpilot

• 

  Photo

  Unread items (40)

  Posted: September 3rd, 2010, 9:13am EDT

  
  
  

More Canals than Venice

• 

  Erasing David

  Unread items (40)

  Posted: September 3rd, 2010, 8:00am EDT by PixieSixer

  The Birmingham Co-operative Film Society  is a new-ish film society which screens films to make you think. Their monthy film night raises issues in relation to social justice, the environment, peace, co-operation and human rights. Screening on 9 September is Erasing David, a thought-provoking documentary about privacy, surveillance and the database state. David Bond lives in [...]

Language Log

• 

  The babbling phase: ranting toddler speaks out

  Unread items (40)

  Posted: September 3rd, 2010, 7:01am EDT by Geoffrey K. Pullum

  When the stresses and strains of university department administration get me down, when I need a break and I really want to giggle till I'm helpless, I simply close my office door, bring a box of Kleenex over to near the computer so I can wipe off the tears running down my cheeks, and watch, once again, the Facebook ranting toddler video. Victor Mair first brought it to our attention here at One Language Log Plaza, and we have been watching it occasionally ever since. The extraordinary intensity of this little girl's concentration on the nonsense she is babbling, together with the strange fantasy of the wandering themes in the subtitles, yields an experience the like of which I have never seen anywhere.

  I'm assuming the performance is a result of a truly unusual degree of energy being put by this little girl into the babbling phase of language acquisition. All young children go through a stage of trying out vowels and consonants and syllables without any connection to meaning. It is usually quite early: babies in cradles can be heard trying stuff out phonetically before they go to sleep, at a point where they have absolutely no clue (so far as we can tell) about how to put together a proposition or express an idea. But I have never before seen such a commanding performance of meaningless rhetorical nothing as this. I wish I could tell you some more interesting stuff about the babbling phase of language acquisition, and make this post nominally educational, but I can't (as the great Jim McCawley would sometimes say to a class after a digression, "I've already told you more than I know about this"). It's not my area. I'm not a serious and responsible child language specialist; I'm just an admiring audience member. This little girl is a star, and I want to join her fan club.

  Occasional Language Log contributor Steven Bird reports that when he showed the video to his computational linguistics class someone asked whether the subtitles were being done automatically by computer. I still don't know whether to believe him. But if it's true, fantasy and reality and the inanities of machine pseudo-translation and transcription are combining (in at least some students' addled brains) in a mix of truly surrealist strangeness; nobody knows what to believe any more.

  Except that you can believe that the Facebook ranting toddler video will lift your heart and lower your stress level. Visit the bathroom before you watch it (it is forbidden to urinate in office chairs belonging to your employer), and keep the helpless giggling down so as not to disturb co-workers.

Homologue

• 

  The Pigeon Wing

  Unread items (40)

  Posted: September 3rd, 2010, 6:27am EDT by Tamarin Norwood

  WRITING/EXHIBITION/PUBLICATION opens tonight at The Pigeon Wing with performances by Julia Calver, Press Free Press, Helen Kaplinsky, Tamarin Norwood and Pippa Koszerek from 6:30-9:30pm. Exhibition/reading room open every Fri-Sun 12-5pm, or by appointment, 3rd September – 3rd October 2010. From The Pigeon Wing site: For their residency at The Pigeon Wing, VerySmallKitchen presents a month [...]

cloudpilot

• 

  Photo

  Unread items (40)

  Posted: September 3rd, 2010, 6:07am EDT

  
  
  

Liz's blog

• 

  Re-opening for Arrangement Commissions

  Unread items (40)

  Posted: September 3rd, 2010, 6:00am EDT by Liz Garnett

  Having cleared my backlog of bespoke arrangements, I am now inviting requests for new ones. I’ll be looking for about 12 to do between October and April – so, if I get up to 12 requests, I’ll do all of them, but if I get more I’ll have to pick which ones to do. This post is, firstly, to talk about the logistics of the process, and secondly to explain how I’ll make the choices if that becomes necessary.

  So, first the key dates:

  Please get your requests to me by Tuesday 21 September 2010 and I will let you know by the end of the month if you’ve been scheduled, and for when.

  If you’ve already been in touch trying to get ahead of the game, you’ll need to send me your request again as I have no way of knowing if you’re still interested unless you tell me you are!

  When you make a request, please include the following information:

  read more

cloudpilot

• 

  Photo

  Unread items (40)

  Posted: September 3rd, 2010, 5:37am EDT

  
  
  

Photos from chai wallah's contacts

• 

  AnnaEmilia posted a photo:

  Unread items (40)

  Posted: September 3rd, 2010, 4:15am EDT

  AnnaEmilia posted a photo:

  

  Blogged: Forest Tearoom

xkcd.com

• 

  The Carriage

  Unread items (40)

  Posted: September 3rd, 2010, 4:00am EDT

  

languagehat.com

• 

  NINETEENTH-CENTURY TEXTSPEAK.

  Unread items (40)

  Posted: September 2nd, 2010, 2:08am EDT by languagehat

  Ben Zimmer of Visual Thesaurus has a post on some very early examples of what we think of as text-speak. He says that Allen Walker Read, in the course of his investigation of the origin of "OK," proved that it "had emerged out of a kind of 'abbreviation play' that was popular in the U.S. in the 1830s — OK originally stood for 'all correct' intentionally misspelled as 'oll korrect'":

  Even before KTJ of UTK (Katie Jay of Utica, or Uticay) came on the scene in the United States, England had LNG of Q (Ellen Gee of Kew) and MLE K of UL (Emily Kay of Ewell), who starred in two tragicomic verses published in 1828 in the London-based New Monthly Magazine. You can read "Dirge, to the Memory of Miss Ellen Gee of Kew" here, and "Elegy to the Memory of Miss Emily Kay (Cousin to Miss Ellen Gee of Kew)" here. These verses (the second one in particular) traveled far and wide, appearing in newspapers and magazines on both sides of the Atlantic. They very well may have played a role in the American fad for silly abbreviations that gave rise to OK.

  Zimmer reprints "Elegy to the Memory of Miss Emily Kay," with a "decrypted and annotated rendering" which can be very useful (it's not immediately obvious that "How soon so DR a creature may DK,/ And only leave behind XUVE!" means "How soon so dear a creature may decay,/ And only leave behind exuviae!"). And at the end he has a surprise:

  But wait! Could this verse style have been an American invention after all? On the American Dialect Society mailing list, Joel S. Berson provides an example that uses many of the same types of abbreviation play, published in U.S. newspapers in 1813 — a full fifteen years before Miss LNG and Miss MLE K. The hunt continues...

  The 1813 example begins "Come listen to my DT, all those that lovers B;/ Attune your hearts to PT, and read my LEG."

Diary at the Centre of the Earth

• 

  A Watched Livejournal Never Boils

  Unread items (40)

  Posted: September 2nd, 2010, 12:40am EDT by Dickon Edwards

  As part of my birthday present, Dad sends me a package of old and curious books and bookmarks. One vintage bookmark is an advert for toothpaste (or rather, ‘dental cream’), in the shape of the product itself. Double-sided, too.

  

  The toothpaste company is ‘Kolynos of Chenies Street, London W.C.1.’ I’m looking at this at home when Charley S texts me with a proposed meeting point for tonight, close to where she works: Chenies Street. No signs of any toothpaste companies there today. Just the Drill Hall venue, home of gay plays and BBC radio recordings.

  From there we walk to the Artspace Gallery in Maddox Street, Mayfair, to see an exhibition by the Stuckists. Excellent paintings, though frustratingly without any labels to indicate artist or title.

  Still, Ella Guru’s Last Supper is unmistakable. It really should be put on permanent display at the Tate Modern, given it’s a chronical of all the Stuckist types – Billy Childish et al.

  

  Close-up detail here.
  Annotation by Ella here.

  Ella’s portrait of Debbie Smith with her collection of snuff boxes is another highlight.

  

  More at Ella Guru’s site: www.ellaguru.org.uk

  Am also impressed by Peter Murphy’s rendition of rock stars in the medieval Russian icon style. He uses your actual egg tempera and gold leaf on gessoed panels.

  

  Taken from Peter Murphy’s website here.

  My favourite work in the exhibition is Paul Harvey’s ‘Charlotte Church’ (2006). I love his clean lines style.  A touch of 1890s art nouveau mixed with 1960s psychedelia.

  

  Taken from www.paulharveypaintings.com

  ***

  Charley buys me dinner at Yo Sushi in Woodstock Street nearby, and I do what normal people call ‘catching up’. I’ve learned that whenever you look away from a friend’s blog or Facebook updates, that’s the time all the big events in their life happen. Moving to a new country, splitting up with their other half, getting together with a new one, getting married, getting divorced, babies. Always the last to know. As Del Amitri once sang. I know useless things like that.

  If in doubt, I just assume people I’ve not heard from in a while have either moved to Berlin or had children. Or both. Seems to be the popular options.

  Today’s lesson: A watched Livejournal never boils.

  Also in Yo Sushi, Charley says hello to Rob Ellis, drummer with PJ Harvey and umpteen other notables.

  Thinking about trendy musicians in Yo Sushi reminds me of the first time I went to one of these places. It was in the late 90s, in the then-new Poland St branch, as the guest of Nick ‘Momus’ Currie – a lover of all things Japanese – and Anthony ‘Jack’ Reynolds. Anthony kept trying to put the empty plates back on the conveyor belt, to get away with not paying, but was stopped by the more law-abiding (and I suppose, less rock and roll) Momus.

  Actually, Momus’s cousin is the singer with Del Amitri. I really wish I knew less of these sort of things and more things that actually mattered.

  We talk about the stress and strain of what to do on one’s birthday. Charley suggests I contact Seaneen Molloy, whose birthday is Sept 4th, the day after mine. She suggests we organise some sort of joint party.

  ***

  On the overground train from Liverpool Street to Cambridge Heath, I bump into Marc Samuels. Marc tells me how he’s just interviewed one of his heroes, Andy McCluskey from OMD.  A new OMD album is doing the rounds. Original line-up, a tour in the offing.

  In the midst of our 80s synthpop chat, a cartoonishly large spider suddenly scuttles across the carriage floor, prompting a yelp from a female passenger. The doors open at Cambridge Heath, and I expertly kick the blameless arachnid out into the gap between train and platform. The woman smiles at me as I get off. I have the glow of a Useful Gentleman. I’ll be putting up shelves next.

  Used to have something of a phobia about spiders. Clearly no longer. Though downing a large bottle of sake helps.

  ***

  Onto Wynd’s Little Shop Of Horrors (11 Mare St, E8) for a private view. Zoe Beloff – ‘The Adventures Of A Dreamer by Albert Grass.’ The moment I enter, I hear ‘Dickon! You know about Momus, don’t you!’

  Wynd’s shop has a range of decadent and cult books, including titles from Dedalus and Atlas, plus several copies of ‘Lusts Of A Moron – The Lyrics Of Momus.’ Some customer was surprised that other people knew about Momus at all, hence the utteration.

  Also at the private view is Robert V, boyfriend of the aforementioned Seaneen M. So that’s my message to her sorted out.

  Zoe Beloff’s show is a sequence of comic book-like panels inspired by one Albert Grass, who apparently founded the Coney Island Amateur Psychoanalytic Society in the 1920s. According to Ms Beloff, he tried to have the resort’s Dreamland attraction rebuilt as a kind of Freudian theme park. He also created a journal full of oneiric images, which comprise this exhibition. Just how much is Ms Beloff’s own imagination and how much is Grass isn’t clear. I wonder if Grass himself is in fact her fictional avatar.  Regardless, I like the panels of dreams, particularly this one with a small badger whispering ‘Je t’aime! Je t’aime!’ in Grass’s ear.

  

  Zoe Beloff: [www.zoebeloff.com]

Photos from chai wallah's contacts

• September 02, 2010
• 

  Milton Keynes

  Unread items (40)

  Posted: September 2nd, 2010, 11:50pm EDT

  teylaminh posted a photo:

  

  This is what Milton Keynes laughingly refer to as a "bus station". We had to hang around here for an hour for our transfer back to Birmingham. The only scenery nearby was a cricket ground.

dw.blah

• 

  sunset

  Unread items (40)

  Posted: September 2nd, 2010, 8:36pm EDT by dw

  

  

  obligatory sunset picture. helsinki, september 2010

  

velorution

• 

  Calling all Christiania Owners and Riders

  Unread items (40)

  Posted: September 2nd, 2010, 6:17pm EDT by admin

  

  This Sunday, 5 September Velorution will be at the London Sky Ride with the  Danish Embassy, our line of children’s bikes, and our famous Christianias.

  There will be a Children’s cycling workshop organized by the Danish Embassy and, most importantly, an organized Christiania ride.

  The Christiania ride will be led by some of Velorution’s most eager and helpful Christiania Agents (local Christiania reps in many London neighbourhoods) taking place around St James’s Park at 2pm.  Participants, on their Christianias, are encouraged to show up by around 1:30 to 1:45 at the Danish Embassy location at the London Cycling Zone, in St James’s Park, located on the tarmac in front of Clarence House.

  The idea of the Christiania ride is not simply just advertising of how many of us happy Christiania users are out there, but also an opportunity for us to meet and chat with (and of course cycle with) each other.  There will be some snacks at the Danish Embassy meeting point and cycling games for kids to take part in (so please feel free to come earlier) while Christiania parents can meet others and exchange Christiania stories and tips.

  We suggest all Christiania riders who’d like to take place register their interest on the Sky Ride website to ensure entry and avoid disappointment on the day ( [https:]).  You can also find more info on the Danish Embassy website at this link:[www.amblondon.um.dk].

  Please also feel free to email Julia or Monika at Velorution with any questions at info@velorution.biz.

  We look forward to seeing many of you on the day!

Copenhagenize.com - The Copenhagen Bike Culture Blog

• 

  Fantastic Scraper Bike Film

  Unread items (40)

  Posted: September 2nd, 2010, 6:00pm EDT by Mikael

  
  What a cracking film this is. Nuff said. 161k views on vimeo. Wicked.
  
  Scraper Bike Team.Copenhagenize the planet. And have a lovely day.

howies - brainfood

• 

  Wee Do – The Ride Journal

  Unread items (40)

  Posted: September 2nd, 2010, 5:43pm EDT by carnaby st

  

  next Tuesday, 7th September we have the creators of  ‘the ride journal’ joining us at Carnaby Street to do a Wee Do Lecture.

  they will be here to tell us all about the inspiration behind the books, how they put their ideas into reality, the huge success they have now become and what’s going to be happening from here. 

  if you missed your chance to get hold of the first 3 they are available to download from the website and are well worth it, issue 4 is still currently available to buy but be quick because i doubt they will hang around for long.

  the lecture will begin at 7:30pm, if you would like to come down or know anyone else who may like to come then just drop us an email at carnabyst@howies.co.uk or ring us on 0207 287 2345 and reserve your free tickets.

  the usual beers and juices will be available to quench your thirsts.

  we hope to hear from you all soon!

  
• 

  T-Shirt of the Week – No Gears

  Unread items (40)

  Posted: September 2nd, 2010, 4:39pm EDT by ruben

  

  This Weeks T-Shirt of the Week is ‘No Gears’ by 45rpm
  

  No Gears is a group of like-minded cyclists who live and ride in Bristol.

  From premiering some of the best cycle films in the world, to curating bike-based
  art shows, they have a love for anything with two wheels.

  45rpm is an artist and member of the collective. He has designed this t-shirt
  to commemorate the 2010 Bristol Bike Week.

  
  

  Click Here for the Men’s
  Click Here for the Women’s

  

Going Underground's Blog

• 

  Tube Strike Talks Fail

  Unread items (40)

  Posted: September 2nd, 2010, 3:02pm EDT by Annie Mole

  Any chances of Monday's London Underground strikes being called off have failed, as the talks with ACAS fell apart today. The RMT stated they had "made it crystal clear that there can be no compromise on safety and safe staffing levels – the failure of LU management to recognise that, and to lift the threat of cuts to allow talks to proceed, sabotaged the ACAS negotiations."
  
  Ex-Metronet (maintenance and engineering) staff will begin their first 24-hour strike at 5pm on Monday September 6, with similar action also scheduled to begin at the same time on Sunday October 3; Tuesday November 2 and Sunday November 28.
  
  All other London Underground workers including station and revenue staff, operational managers, drivers and signallers will start their first 24-hour strike at 9pm on Monday September 6, with similar action also set to start at the same time as the other strikes above.
  
  
  Union leader Bob Crow who insists the dispute is about safety as well as job cuts said "RMT and TSSA have been presented with a stark choice. We could sit back and wait for a major disaster while safety cuts are bulldozed through turning the tube into a death trap or we can stand up and fight for passenger and staff safety. On Monday we will be making a stand on safety and safe staffing levels on behalf of all Londoners."
  
  At time of writing there has been no statement from TfL over the break down of talks.
  
  All Tube lines will suffer some disruption from delays to full or part suspensions. Before you leave work on Monday night, check TfL's website for the latest on the exact situation and be prepared for continued disruption on Tuesday.
  
  Update - 3rd September - TfL have released their plans as to how they will help travellers during the strike action.
  
  Boris Johnson added "Londoners are a hardy bunch and I am sure a Tube strike will not deter us from getting around. I have asked TfL to pull out all the stops. But we must be clear that the RMT and TSSA plan to inconvenience Londoners for no good reason....this planned action will cause disruption for millions of Londoners and I call on the unions to get round the table and show common sense."

howies - brainfood

• 

  a good days work

  Unread items (40)

  Posted: September 2nd, 2010, 2:36pm EDT by ade

  Yesterday I tripped upto Manchester to see Oi Poloi to show them the new Spring/Summer range for 2011.

  I had 3 huge bags to show them so it was a driving mission, but this means passing up through North Wales and mountains.

  Which also means Cader Idris on the way home. The run is from 300ft to 2854ft and back in 7 miles.

  4pm I parked up, hid all my stuff round the car. Put on shorts, shoes and merino, stretched and plodded off to the steps.

  The first few hundred feet are steps and stones that need a slow constant warming pace.

  By the top of these I am drenched in sweat, breathing to the bottom of my lungs and my legs are burning.

  The steps stop, the mountain still climbs on rocks, gravel and grass. The sun is in my eyes, my shades are off as the lenses are already sweat stained. I tap out a constant pace. I pass all the walkers coming off the hill to go home.

  I try to thank them for moving aside but my breathing is too hard and I am beginning to descend into that level of concentration you need when pushing beyond.

  I reach the lake and decide that today is the day to go right to the top, round and down. But I have bought no water or food.

  The climb from the lake really kick. I can run short sections and then others it’s marching pushing on my legs. I pass another set of walkers who look at me with questioning faces.

  The trail flattens for a short spell and I calm my breathing and concentrate hard on a smooth pace.

  I run, march, run, march up and up feeling the onset of dehydration. When I look back this was the toughest bit. I run a sentence through my head over and over asking the next walkers if I can have some of their water. Will I ask, won’t I ask?  The last people thought I was mad. Who wants to speak to a sweating runner in the wilds.

  No one comes along. I see bilberry bushes along the trail that all seem bare. I search harder and find that bushes in the shade of rocks have fruit. I eat every one I find no matter how ripe.  50 berries kick in. Pace rises.

  I see the top with a ladder over a fence where I stop and look at the view. 44 minutes.  I look down to the lake and rejoice.

  I then look along the ridge and see I still have a decent and another climb. A big climb. To higher than where I am.

  I am not at the top.

  I am super hot, vision is blurred and my hands feel tight and cramp like. And I am not at the top. I am a long way off and this knocks me.

  I have a very long steep decent followed by a sharp climb. People are coming down and I can only just see them. Should I continue. Will going on be harder than going back. I can’t get this far and not do this. Now or never.

  Top off, volume up, wipe face and down the slope. It is really steep and loose and I have trouble slowing down. I am worrying about injury and my ability to get round and I am making mistakes.

  I meet the walkers at the bottom of the climb. They all smile and say hi and I cannot bring myself to ask for water. Am I embarrassed about being so far out and so unprepared?

  I start the last climb. I can’t run, but I maintain my fast march. I look for bilberries but up this high there is nothing but rock. I look for pools of water, but the only ones are peaty.

  Then there is the last gully to the trig point. It’s looks like a greek mountain. And then I am up.

  I spend 10 minutes at the top. Absolute silence. Birds are on the floor resting. No wind. The Irish sea to the fore and North Wales behind. There is a rock shelter.

  It all come back. My legs. My breath. My confidence. I have done it and now I just have to get back.

  I hear voices and decide to descend.

  The fist section is over grass. Steep and fast. Rocks appear. Picking a line has to be fast and acurate.

  I then enter back into rocks and gravel and the perfect hip hip mix enters the head phones. I pick up the pace across the rocks despite the gradient feeling like vertical and relax into the tune. I dance down the boulders. The more I relax the faster I can be.

  There is nothing right now but the rhythm and my rhythm.  I am now flying along and I have shoved the fear of falling away.

  I join the path I climbed up on and know it’s steps all the way to the car. I pass all the walkers I passed on the climb. I replay the last track and dance the last decent to the car.

  On the very last step I stop and whoop.

  I am soaked, boiling hot, my knees and ankles are painful, my shoulders and back are stiff but I feel like I won.Further, higher, longer and faster.

  And I beat my head.

  

Photos from chai wallah's contacts

• 

  ryanair north danish micro breweries

  Unread items (40)

  Posted: September 2nd, 2010, 2:35pm EDT

  lolitanie posted a photo:

  

  thisted - restaurant bryggen
  
  4 day trip around North Jutland to shoot a feature about micro breweries for RyanAir Magazine

• 

  erm yahoo?

  Unread items (40)

  Posted: September 2nd, 2010, 2:16pm EDT

  1541 posted a photo:

  

  wonder why yahoo needs to know all this about me / my friends just to display my pictures in FB?

Language Log

• 

  It is forbidden to urinate here. The penalty is bang.

  Unread items (40)

  Posted: September 2nd, 2010, 12:38pm EDT by Victor Mair

  Despite the best efforts of two dozen stellar native and non-native scholars and teachers of Chinese, we still have not reached a consensus about the exact meaning and syntax of the sign at a Shanghai construction site presented in "Next Day's Chinese lesson":  Jìnzhǐ xiǎobiàn, fǒuzé sǐrén 禁止小便,否則死人 ("prohibit urine, otherwise die person").

  Such is not the case with the sign in this photograph, taken a few years ago in Bohol in the central Philippines.  The photographer was Piers Kelly, editor of Fully (sic), and the language is Visayan (also called Cebuano).

  

  Transcription:  Guinadili ang pag-pangihi dinhi. Ang silot [bang!]

  This can be roughly analyzed as:

  forbidden TOPIC act.of-urination here. TOPIC penalty [bang!]

  More freely: "It is forbidden to urinate here. The penalty is [bang]"

  One could hardly be more explicit, especially since the "bang" is vividly illustrated with a picture of the tool that will produce the sound.

• 

  The Wall Street Journal Is Probably Not Red-Faced

  Unread items (40)

  Posted: September 2nd, 2010, 11:22am EDT by Victor Mair

  Last summer, I posted on an ad in the New Yorker sponsored by the Massachusetts Office of Travel & Tourism in which a string of Chinese characters was inverted mirror-fashion: "Masschusetts is red(-faced)", 6/5/2009.

  When I saw this photograph in the Wall Street Journal, I immediately did a double-take and thought that I had caught the WSJ committing the same error (Paul Mozur, "Taiwan and China work on their thesaurus", 8/31/2009):

  

  What is shown in the photograph is the reverse image of the following:  台北富邦銀行, the name of a bank (Taipei Fubon Bank).  Looking more closely, though, one can see that the characters are written on the other side of the glass, and the photographer shot through the glass, showing a man behind the characters, which gives a nice effect.  Thus, the mirror inversion was not the fault of the editors, designers, and printers.

  More interesting than the writing on the glass, however, is the article, entitled "Taiwan and China Work on Their Thesaurus," that the photograph accompanies.  The "thesaurus" refers to something called the "Chunghua [i.e., China] Chinese-Language Thesaurus," which is intended to be an online reference work that will supposedly enable the PRC and the ROC to bridge the sizable gap that has developed between the writing systems on the two sides of the Taiwan Strait.  This follows on the heels of the recent enactment of the sweeping Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) between Taiwan and China.

  For Annette Lu, former Vice President and a leader of the opposition party, the rush to bring script on Taiwan and in the People's Republic of China closer together raises the specter of political unification:  “When Qin Shihuang (China’s first emperor) established his empire one of the first things he did was to unify the writing system.”

cloudpilot

• 

  Photo

  Unread items (40)

  Posted: September 2nd, 2010, 11:09am EDT

  
  
  
• 

  Photo

  Unread items (40)

  Posted: September 2nd, 2010, 10:58am EDT

  
  
  

Copenhagenize.com - The Copenhagen Bike Culture Blog

• 

  Traffic. Get Used To It

  Unread items (40)

  Posted: September 2nd, 2010, 10:41am EDT by Mikael

  
  I was just reading this article "Bicyclists to LA Drivers: We are traffic" and I recalled a poster I had done last year.
  
  Isn't it time to just make this point?
  
  Fortunately, there is a silver-lining in the clouds of anti-bicycle sentiment. A spot of research in the UK has shown that sentiment towards cyclists is actually rather positive and it's improving. Read the good news at The Guardian:
  "Cyclists! The public thinks you're cool and normal"Copenhagenize the planet. And have a lovely day.

cloudpilot

• 

  Photo

  Unread items (40)

  Posted: September 2nd, 2010, 10:11am EDT

  
  
  

Photos from chai wallah's contacts

• 

  |

  Unread items (40)

  Posted: September 2nd, 2010, 10:04am EDT

  les brumes posted a photo:

  

howies - brainfood

• 

  Great sports photography

  Unread items (40)

  Posted: September 2nd, 2010, 9:47am EDT by aron

  

  Click here for some insanely great photos including shots by Ricky Adam,
  who has worked with howies before.

  Personally, I vote for Stéphane Candé.

  

Copenhagenize.com - The Copenhagen Bike Culture Blog

• 

  If Your City is Broken, Fix It.

  Unread items (40)

  Posted: September 2nd, 2010, 8:59am EDT by Mikael

  
  Another poster generated from the wealth of leftovers from a job for a client.
  
  Let me know if any other taglines pop into your mind. Maybe the text could be different.Copenhagenize the planet. And have a lovely day.

howies - brainfood

• 

  September

  Unread items (40)

  Posted: September 2nd, 2010, 8:22am EDT by mel

  September has only just began and…

  the car parks are empty

  the beaches are quiet

  there are no queues in the supermarket or coffee shop

  the mornings are clear & crisp

  the berries are bursting out of the hedgerows

  the evenings are drawing in

  there’s a nip in the air before the sun goes down

  jumpers are coming out of storage for snuggling into

  there’s some surf on its way

  hurray hurray hurray I love september

  

Photos from chai wallah's contacts

• 

  IMG_5154

  Unread items (40)

  Posted: September 2nd, 2010, 8:14am EDT

  halften posted a photo:

  

  Beef burger (with coriander, grated carrot, breadcrumbs) with cheddar, fresh roasted beetroot, lettuce, homemade chutney, homemade pickle and mustard.

• 

  Wonder Where You Are

  Unread items (40)

  Posted: September 2nd, 2010, 7:21am EDT

  Quiet Corners posted a photo:

  

riks raks poks

• 

  SCORETTi've been looking for these in ...

  Unread items (40)

  Posted: September 2nd, 2010, 4:56am EDT by noelani

  SCORETT
  i've been looking for these in scorett stores here in stockholm. where are they?? i am impatient for all the great fall stuff from everybody to come out! it's already fall here! on that note, the crisp air is totally delightful and reminds me actually a bit of living in santa cruz. heaving contented sighs.

languagehat.com

• 

  STENICH.

  Unread items (40)

  Posted: September 1st, 2010, 2:01am EDT by languagehat

  Occasionally in my reading I come across mentions of people who seem significant beyond the sparse traces they've left in the historical record, and when they have a connection with literature I sometimes try to memorialize them here. Such a case is the couple Valentin Osipovich (or Iosifovich) Stenich (a pseudonym—his birth name was Smetanich) and his wife Lyubov Davydovna (née Faynberg or Feinberg). Valentin was born in 1897 and was probably shot in 1938; Lyuba is given the dates 1908-1983 here, but (according to the Russian Wikipedia linked to her husband's name) the KGB said she was 33 in 1937, which probably is more realistic. They were both translators, as were so many writers not in favor with the Bolsheviks; he (after writing poetry praised by Blok) translated both Dos Passos's The 42nd Parallel and parts of Joyce's Ulysses (according to Geert Lernout's The Reception of James Joyce in Europe, "There are rumours that he had translated the whole novel, but his archive was confiscated when he was arrested"), and she translated Maeterlinck, Sartre, and Brecht, among others. But more important is their humanity. In her second book of memoirs (translated as Hope Abandoned) Nadezhda Mandelstam writes "I can count on my fingers the people who kept their heads and thought the same as M. The main ones were Stenich, Margolis, and Oleinikov [...] All three perished—two in the dungeons, and one in a labor camp." In the first volume, Hope Against Hope, she devotes most of Chapter 67 to a description of the couple, calling Stenich "a man with a great feeling for language and literature and an acute sense of the modern age" and saying "he might have become a brilliant essayist or critic, but the times were not auspicious"; when the Mandelstams said they needed money, Lyuba "put on a stylish hat and set off," returning with "a little money and some clothing." At this time the Steniches were living in terror, waiting for Valentin to be arrested (friends of theirs had been arrested, and they knew it was only a matter of time), but "nothing happened that evening, and Stenich was not arrested until the following winter." This was his final arrest, after which he was quickly shot; before that he had spent some years in internal exile, and it was during such a period that Cummings visited Moscow and met Lyuba, whom he calls "eyes." He reports his last encounter with her thus:

  (eyes' eyes open,understanding; she laughs softly)"drôle homme!"(then with a,to myself,completely new part of herself;a secret a luminous — and scarcely which might dare to recognize its own existence — tenderness unadventured,lonely;not with ideas not through ideals nor by comrades by a million or a billion or innumerable or humanity explored)"comme mon mari"

  After Stenich's death she married the screenwriter and director Manuel Vladimirovich Bolshintsov (1902-1954). She was also a friend of Anna Akhmatova, who often stayed with her when visiting Moscow.

  It enrages me that good people like this, utterly harmless to any state, were ground casually underfoot by the Soviet regime, simply because it needed an endless supply of enemies and victims and the name Stenich wound up on their list. It's easy to talk about "millions of victims" and feel an abstract horror, but it's important as well to remind oneself of the lived reality of that victimization for all those real people, people much like you or me. And this is why I urge you all to read Nadezhda Mandelstam's memoirs if you haven't already.