History, revisited

Kingdom of Heaven was a visually . beautiful movie. Now that Orlando Bloom is no longer riding the LotR / PotC wave, I suppose it might be easier to watch it without seeing Legolas in the Holy Lands. The biggest visual draw-back of the whole movie is Eva Green. Jeeze... can't she ditch the over-done icky eye makeup that's in all her work?

This is the Crusades done to Eyes Without a Face, Billy Idol.
At least the focus on this isn't so bad, as long as you don't make it full-screen.

Yes, this is a simplistic summary of the Crusades. It is also much, much better than the 6th Grade history textbook I looked at a few years ago. At least it mentions
a) that there were more reasons than "for the glory of god"
b) the Children's crusade
c) other consequences of the wars beyond "Europeans got their ass kicked by the Muslims"





and, if you want Kingdom of Heaven on screen - watch in on a big-screen if possible. The big battle scenes and the long shots of Jerusalem/surrounding lands are better big. The costuming and visuals are really impressive. It's Ridley Scott, a.k.a., Gladiator, in his historian (and unfortunately not Alien) mode. Balian's "rise a knight" speech is Hollywood-esque overdone "ain't the little peasant peon really the center of all that is Right and Good, who are the True Good Guys". It's one of those "sort-of-based upon a story we think the scriptwriter once read", but at least they didn't hire a WASP to play Saladin.

http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi1418789145/
sorry, can't figure out how to imbed it from IMdB.

When is it "safe" to be American?

When I heard the story on MPR this yesterday a.m., the "advice" from Sec.State was to avoid attracting undue attention as Americans. For example, don't wear American flags attached to clothes. My first thought: "fly the flag, but only at home?"

What's the message?

"You will be derided by certain tannin-containing groups as unpatriotic if you don't display stickers/signs/pins/etc of the American flag, but ... now you must show that you're patriotic, but only if you're inside the US."

What good are signs of patriotism here? Everyone knows I'm a rabid progressive who hates my homeland and refuses to conform to the desires of the Conservative One True Faith by ny embracing a socialist government. All those dipshits don't even know what socialism is. If they did, they wouldn't think I'm a socialist. Of course, I doubt they actually understand what communism or marxism or any other economic policy is either. If they did, they'd realize the "conservative" economic policy is actually stupid.

Now, seriously ... how can anyone fail to notice I'm American? I sound American when I speak, regardless of how I dress. I sound American, no matter what language I'm using. By the way, I have been assured my accent is 'cute' by one of my friends.

Ah-ha!

That's it! Speak some language other than English. No one will believe I'm American if I actually speak another language!

I am far more likely to be killed or maimed this afternoon at 15:00 (don't want to sound American when I tell time) en route (French!) to pick up my son at his foreign-language-(chic - more French)immersion school while driving my (German import) Volkswagen since my (foreign immigrant American-job displacing) Husband is at work than if I was in Europe somewhere (spending my American dollars supporting foreign businesses).

The State is always harping about being safe when abroad. Yes, stupid people need to be reminded that traveling in some places is a decision involving more risk than others. No, I don't particularly want to visit Nigeria or Cameroon or Palestine. That decision was reached without needing to consider my nationality. If it's a place where my nationality will be bad ... I assure you that I don't want to go there anyway. The Central African Republic has roaming gangs of rebel militia; Mauritania has terrorists kidnapping & killing French and Italian travelers. I don't know about you, but if I was a German citizen, I wouldn't be going there.

But now, as I review the State Department's travel warning website, apparently I shouldn't go anywhere. And, please take note, Europe is not on their travel warning website. Wouldn't want to piss off our mutually-euro-centric allies too much.

As observed by Mr. Ivey, he would be going to Europe: With a Teflon coated platinum walking sphere with radar and explosive sensors. I experience Europe through a small tube, but hey, no extremist is going to bag this American!

Safe is a relative, subjective word.

You're never safe.

Never.


I need to go find my car keys ...

Then v. Now Here v. There

The vacation trip was to München-Vienna-Innsbrück-Zürich. We hit the length of the alps. When we got to Innsbruck, it was the first time I'd actually played in snow. :)
I wish we had pictures of the trip.

When last Mr.Gopher & I were in Europe, we went to Schlehdorf in Oberbayern (within spitting distance of Austria, quite literally at the bottom of the Alps). Innsbruck was about 1.5 hr south. So, we went to one of the very, very few places in Europe that I've been & he hadn't.

That list originally consisted of: Innsbrück, Salzburg & Vienna. I remember being shocked that I'd been anywhere he hadn't, and even more surprised that those areas were all a) German-speaking, b) so close to Germany, and c) so close to the Alps.

I'd like to go back to Salzburg some time; having spent the Summer there as a college student (rather like The Writer's stay in Vienna), I have quite a few memories of it without needing a photo album. I have only vague memories of Vienna; I'd like to visit it as an adult and see what looks familiar.

When we went to Innsbrück, I wondered whether I would remember any of it. I was quite surprised, especially since I have a horrible memory. When we drove over the mountains, and the city came into view, my first thought was "Hey! I remember this!" There were several places I did remember, quite to my surprise. It is a nice city; it would have been a nicer trip if the 6-month old Jr.Gopher#2 hadn't been with us. Forgot the baby bottle Stateside; feeding therefore required mom. I was whooped; considering that the city is only 1300 ft., I can't really blame it on altitude sickness, which I get. Hauling 15 pounds of baby around just put a serious crimp in the hike. Because, of course, there was a lot of walking - I was there with Mr.Gopher, after all.

Fahrenheit 32 ... or 451?

"Book-burning seems terribly wrong but we have to get rid of unsold stock for pennies and some of the pensioners say the books make ideal slow-burning fuel for fires and stoves," from CNBC

Impure Thinking leads to Treason

Interesting view of the "democratic process" regarding climate change / global warming policies. The author questions whether scientists can claim a moral high ground. Questioning global warming policy is, in some quarters, 'treason to the Earth' and her associated advocates. Pleasantly, a change from physical sciences to economics. A topic more scientists should be familiar with (beyond grant proposals).

"Less well-known pundits make similar points, suggesting that people with “incorrect” views on global warming should face Nuremburg-style trials or be tried for crimes against humanity. There is clearly a trend. The climate threat is so great – and democracies are doing so little about it – that people conclude that maybe democracy is part of the problem, and that perhaps people ought not to be allowed to express heterodox opinions on such an important topic.

... argue that if the science of climate change concludes that CO2 emissions are harmful, it follows that we should stop those harmful emissions ... since science tells us that speeding cars kill many people, we should cut speed limits to almost nothing."


.

The powerhouses

Who's going to win the Olympic basketball games? Well, it's no longer a sure thing we will, but no one is going to write us off. Baseball? Well, I might start betting on Cuba or Puerto Rico, but no one's going to be surprised if we do. American football? No one else plays it, so who cares? Soccer? Only our women are seen as a serious threat internationally. Ice hockey ... hmmm....

Well, gone are the days of 1980's "miracle", mostly because all of the amazing Soviet players moved here. Still, they're retired. The Russians clogging the NHL now, that's different - or perhaps no so different.

Russia 7 : 2 France

They play ice hockey in France? Where?

Sweden is the powerhouse of ice hockey. The largest nationality group for the Red Wings is from Sweden. Sight unseen, if I had to pick a best bet, it would be them. Of course, no one is immune from failure.

Sweden 2 : 3 Latvia.

Do most people here even know where Latvia is?

“We are obviously going to need that killer instinct when we play the Swedes,” [the US coach] said. “They are a very good team, a puck possession team, and play a little different from what we’ve seen so far.” Well, it's good that someone has explained to them that you need to actually get your stick on the puck in order to score.

I'm curious as to why this is going on concurrently w/ the Stanley Cup. A couple of the teams have yet to announce their line up for the next round, due to the players being distracted by the Cup. Sorry, Mr. Gopher, the Fatherland is (probably) out by another one of the Germanic countries (CH), although we took out the other one.

Canada 9 : 0 Hungary

Sure, rooting for the underdog is great - but the finals are likely to be the same-old-same-old: Canada, Russia, Sweden, Finland, Czech, & Slovakia, and and the U.S. Although, just checking, the Russia-Switzerland game is 2:2. If I can't root for Germany, at least I can hope one of the other underdogs take down the big boys.

But, the power game for the Gopher household is tomorrow: U.S. vs. Svenska (Hey, Mr. Gopher, did you know Linköping has an ice hockey team?) The only way Mr. Gopher will cheer for us is if we're not playing Germany or Sweden. Unfortunately, 8:15 p.m. Central European Time isn't exactly coordinated with Minnesota Central Time. I suspect my professors won't be too keen on ice hockey rather than a boring goddamned waste of my time field trip tomorrow.

Surprise?

What, this is supposed to surprise me?

It also said that the UK and the US have "actively undermined" international law by their actions. It concluded that many measures introduced to fight terrorism were illegal and counter-productive.

The only news here is that someone bothered to sit down and write a report which will sit on someone's shelf, letting them thing happy thoughts that they somehow have improved the situation by vicarious approval.

Old Math

1 = 2.2
100 = 62
1 = 39

The European Commission acknowledged last year that persuading the UK to embrace litres and kilometres over pints and miles was a lost cause. Minister for Europe Caroline Flint said it was a "victory for common sense .... In the current difficult economic climate, it will also mean that British companies do not face extra labeling costs in order to do business in the United States."

Now, this sounds suspiciously like something one would find here, in dear old NOT METRIC USA:

"Metric martyrs" lost the battle to trade only in pounds and ounces. One was convicted in 2001 of selling bananas only by the pound. His offence: failure to provide customers with the metric equivalent, as required under EU law. I guess he should have moved here.

Hades Erupts

God, the world is just going to hell in a hand basket. Peter & I spent our honeymoon in Greece. The beginning and end of the trip was in Athens. I must be out of touch with the world, since the news was "Day 3 of rioting in Athens". Video here is in German, here is in English, or of course, in Greek (this is the best footage).
















We were staying in a little blue-collar neighborhood in downtown Athens, which looks a bit like some of the footage seen. This is what it looked like 5 years ago. The real "city center" is behind the photographer. The only marches we saw was upon the victory of the Greek national soccer team in the prelude to winning the European Championship.
























And, just in case you're thinking that 'all hell has broken loose' ... the Gates of Hades are actually located about 4 hours south of Athens, here:

Ban the Bulb

So much for the Light Bulb Freedom of Choice Act: the European Union is banning incandescent lightbulbs.

Sie frisst zu viel Strom und wird deshalb abgeschafft: Die klassische Glühlampe soll bis 2012 aus allen Geschäften verschwinden - so haben es jetzt Experten aus 27 EU-Staaten beschlossen. Besonders leistungsstarke Modelle werden sogar schon früher aus dem Handel verbannt. - Der Spiegel, 12/8/08

They consume too much electricity and will therefore be discontinued: the classical lightbulb should be removed from all stores by 2012, decided experts from 27 European states. Especially, the high-intensity models will be banned even earlier.

Phallus Fights & Other Strange Traditions

Title of a new series of articles from Der Spiegel. It's in English.

[running of the bulls in Pamplona] ... one of those festivals that make the saner among us scratch our heads in confusion and wonder, "How was that ever a good idea?" But just because it is Europe's most famous oddity certainly doesn't make it an isolated case.