Michelle Obama in Senegal

Prototype, Heart Shaped Box, Grand Canal

videos...

Girl Walk All Day - go to 4:26

Green Army - Johnny B

Nelson Algren and Simone de Beauvoir

Simone de Beauvoir visited Nelson Algren in Chicago in 19.. They were lovers.  In de Beauvoir's novel "The Mandarins"......

Frank Sinatra starred in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_with_the_Golden_Arm

Nelson Algren

Author of "Ipso Facto" and "A Walk on the wild side"

Simone de Beauvoir author 

of "The Mandarins"

Cocophone - Glory Shoes

Holbrook is off to see "Love in Dublin" tonight.  "Love in Dublin" is two plays by Paul Kennedy showing at the newly re-opened Focus Theatre.  I recently found out that there will be music by Cocophone.  I downloaded their "Special Offers" EP from their Bandcamp site.  Please support the band and download their music.  In the meantime, you can watch an unofficial video by GroundskeeperXI for their song "Glory Shoes"

Blaise Pascal 2

This snippet of Blaise's life or la vie de Blaise (all corrections to my French are welcome) I learnt from 'A Slice of Pi' by Liz Stracham.  Apparently Blaise's father wanted him to learn Latin and Greek before he tackled maths, but one day he found him writing with coal on a garden wall, writing out a proof that all angles of a triangle add up to 180 degrees. So after that, the father let his son study maths and he went on to great heights in mathematics including lots of work on the Theory of Probability.

Buddhas of Bamyan

So, the Taliban, you've heard of them right?  They don't like the USA and all that stuff alright, but what a crap thing to do to blow up these statues.... stoopid.

And then there is this band, unrelated, except in my mind now, as I listen to them...

check them out here.

Blaise Pascal

Blaise Pascal was born in Clermont-Ferrand. Clermont-Ferrand is in the Auvergne region of France. It's looks close enough to being smack bang in the middle of France.

Pascal has stuck in my head for years. I have this vision of making a short film in France that would feature Blaise Pascal transporting a barometer over the brow of a rural hill. A few tufts of grass and a worn track of dried light brown mud and two men carrying a glass tube on either side with a third and fourth on hand to help. Pascal carried out an experiment with quicksilver in glass tubes to test his theories on vacuums and air pressure.

It's a nice portrait.  I think he looks like a kindly, happy man, wide open friendly eyes and the hint of smile at the edge of his lips.  I don't know who painted the portrait.

Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram

This is a graph that represents the stars of our universe.  The vertical axis measures luminosity, i.e. how bright a star is.  The horizontal axis represents surface temperature. Be careful though because the temperature does not get hotter as you go from left to right or from blue to red, it gets cooler.  Blue is hotter than red and the horizontal axis starts at the left hand side with the hottest stars.

So stars in the top left hand corner are very bright and very hot.  Stars in the top right hand corner are bright but not as hot.  

The line going through the centre of the graph is called the main sequence.  Our sun sits somewhere near the middle of that line.  Middling brightness and temperature.  

I heard about the HR diagram when I watched a series of astronomy lectures from Professor Robert Nemiroff.  I downloaded the lectures from iTunes (search for Introductory Astronomy, PH1600).  The actual classes were given in Michigan Technological University in Houghton, Michigan.  Nemiroff also runs a website called Astronomy Picture of the Day or APOD.

Anish Kapoor

'The Bean'

Until recently, I had never heard of Anish Kapoor until a friend who visited an exhibition of his at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao mentioned him to me.  When I googled him I was really taken by 'Cloud Gate' in Chicago. What a beautiful piece of public sculpture, in a city with some great architecture.  The sculpture, nicknamed 'the bean' by locals, has a 3.6 metre hollow underneath that visitors can walk under.  It is made up of many stainless steel plates that were welded together and then the welds were smoothed and polished down.  Amazing, and beautiful, inspired by the look of mercury.  I'm sure the citizens and visitors to Chicago get a great kick out of it.  And if all that is not enough to make you 'wow' nearby you also have the Jay Pritzker Pavilion.

Cloud Gate, Millenium Park, Chicago

Cloud Gate with the Jay Pritzker Pavilion

Cloud Gate, Millenium Park, Chicago

Air sing Kelly Watch the Stars in France

This video features scenes from Castellane and the Gorge du Verdon in 2009.

Promenade de l'oiseau by Victor Brauner

I saw this painting in the Musée de Grenoble a few months back. It was one of many fine paintings in that beautiful art museum. It was so spacious; purpose designed to hold large and small pieces. A modern building with wood floors, white walls, a very easy way through the building, a sculpture garden outside. Trés jolie. The photo is from here.

In 1934 Victor Brauner had his first solo exhibition in Paris at the Galerie Pierre.

Maxfield Parrish

I like to hear of other people with 'field' in their names (like Matthew Elderfield the new financial regulator in Ireland).

I was watching a Gorillaz video. Noodle was set against clouds, standing and looking out over a high prominence and it reminded me of Maxfield. The clouds.

The subjects of Maxfield's paintings look like statues from antiquity. Yet they have a modern flourish and there is an excitement in the natural and classical settings. The painting above is named 'Ecstasy'. The world is being born again. Perhaps that's how the beginning of the American 20th century looked to Maxfield ?

Do you like his paintings? He was an illustrator too who made many advertisements in his day. If you're ever in San Francisco you can pop into Maxfield's bar at the Palace Hotel to admire his Pied Piper of Hamlin painting.

European politics - some basic info

Can you navigate the bureaucratic tangle of European power structures? This is my effort to get a grip on how the EU works now that the Lisbon Treaty has passed. It's very basic.

So the EU Commission is made up of 27 commissioners and is located in the Berlaymount building in Brussels. The Commission is the executive branch of the EU with responsibility for proposing legislation, spending and ensuring compliance with treaties. Jose Manuel Barroso has just started his second term (2010 to 2014) as the President of the Commission. Ireland's newly appointed Commissioner is Máire Geoghegan Quinn who is responsible for Research and Innovation (everything from Aeronautics to Water).

Then we have the European Parliament which is made up of 736 directly elected MEPs (members of the European Parliament). It meets in two locations: Strasbourg and Brussels. The current President is Jerzy Buzek (from the Czech Republic). It is the legislative branch of the EU. Ireland has 12 MEPS from 4 constituencies.

Finally (for this blog post in any case), there is the European Council that is made up of the heads of state or governments from each nation state. It meets twice every six months. Now that the Lisbon Treaty has passed it has a President - the delightfully named Herman Van Rompuy. The Council doesn't legislate. From what I can gather it sets the political agenda for the Union.

Well, as I say, that's just some basics. I hope to return to this topic in future posts. Have you got a question about the EU? or a comment?

The graphic above is of Justus Lipsius (or if you prefer Joose Lips). Joose was a Flemish professor who lived in the 1500s. The building that the EU Council meets in is named after him.

Fuck you said in Irish Dáil (parliament)

As a Green Party member I don’t know what to make of this. From a Joe Soap perspective it’s highly entertaining internet fodder, it’s refreshing. But there is a darkness to it. Is it more than just a laugh, is it a staging post in the country’s exasperation with politics? Could it conceivably get more people interested in politics because for once they understand the language a politician is using. Is it a low point in politics? It hardly seems that way when you think of the far more wretched things politics has brought us. Is it a harbringer of a tsunami of public anger in 2010 ? Is Gogarty a child lost in a sea of cynical adults, is he a muppet? Or is he a hero for being the antithesis of the smooth talking, PR groomed politician talking polite waffle? The joke on twitter is that he’s going for the 12 – 16 yer old vote ? Is that a good thing? Help me out here people, what should I make of this? Feel free to hurl abuse at me, Gogarty and the Greens. I reckon that’s only fair.

Read the full text of Paul Gogarty's speech here.

Laptops, digital media gadgets, Adbusters

The Congo River, Democratic Republic of Congo

Apparently the metal tantalum makes great capacitors for compact hi-tech items like mobile phones and laptop computers. I think its also known as tin-ore, cassiterite or coltan. There was a tantalum rush in Africa in the early part of this century. The price of tantalum was very high. One kilogram cost over a hundred dollars. You could sell a handful for around twenty dollars.

This is a link to an article by Greg Queyranne, a Canadian researcher focusing on conflicts in Central Africa. Thanks to Adbusters.

If you want to know more, you can watch this video.

Popeye the Sailor / Elzie Crisler Segar

Apparently Popeye's first words (when asked if he was a sailor) were "J'a think I'm a cowboy?" In this episode Olive becomes smitten with 'the International' a French radio presenter. Popeye takes none too kindly to this. Elzie Crisler Segar is the creator of the Popeye character.

Ten Rave Techno / Techno Rave Tunes

Maybe you know some of these songs? They were recorded in the late 80s or 1990s. The tracks that have links are to the tunes on YouTube. If it's your thang.... enjoy!

1. In yer face - 808 state
2. Anasthasia - T99
3. Lush 3-1 3-2 - Orbital
4. Majestic - The Orb
5. Stakker Humanoid - Humanoid
6. Stella - Jam and Spoon
7. Rainbows in the Sky - The Hypnotist
8. 2 Bad Mice - 2 Bad Mice
9. The Man With The Masterplan - Quadrophonia
10. No Deeper Love - Rising High Collective
    

French at About.com with Laura K. Lawless

The French number for nine is neuf, right? But neuf also means new, as in a brand new thing. So they are what is called....mmm, can I remember, they are called homonyms, or synonyms or something like that, I think, right? Anyway, how many of these types of words exist in the French language? Is there a handy list anywhere? Un avocat means lawyer and avocado, appropriate? La somme is a sum or an amount of something but le somme that means a nap or a snooze. J'ai prend une somme? An bhfuil an cheart agam?