Thank you. I radiate indifference but it's a pose: kudos mean a lot! (And thumbs-downs do register.)

I almost didn't post this thing, which, as with all my things, I had in the greenhouse a good long while. But then Mr. E. Kat came along this morning, and provided good context. Or so I thought. His post should have attracted much more attention than it did. It was the most profoundly European thing I have ever seen on Ricochet, or anywhere, really. With an effort, I can recall the Slovene for "solution" - it's usually to do with some reinterpretation of welfare-state law - but when the word comes right out of a European's mouth in English, I tense up, for death itself is surely near.

(duplicate post -sorry!)

Europe is a very foreign place. It is alarming to see "...the best thing for civilization..." and "...should just die..." in the same sentence. To answer the final question: Christianity, maybe. Or at least the forgiveness that Christianity preaches. But I don't think many Europeans want that. I myself would find it a challenge, with flagwaving Russians at large.

Comments nontrivially surpassing follows by an order of magnitude - is that a record?

I'm still thinking about the conspicuousness of diplomatic personnel. I won't venture much on the larger theme of Africa. I don't think it's possible to explain Africa. Certainly I can't, though I've tried. But if someone else wants to take a crack at it, one might start with those visibly patrolling diplomats. I find it hard to imagine anyone really driving Ethiopia end to end, but if people really are, and in trucks, trucks loaded with something other than khat...well, who loaded 'em? Diplomats, disbursing "aid"?

It seems to me I've mentioned this before, because it seems to me I've typed I'm the one wearing a shirt before. Me, with chatty Brazilian, by a passenger craft on the Madeira River, Porto Velho, January 1989. As I display just part of my real name, so I wanted a picture that was not of me, but had me in it. I didn't want to be pseudonymous, yet I couldn't quite nerve myself to be perfectly candid.

None of the above, because no one ever states firmly the time scale over which temperature, past or future, is to be surveyed. Put it this way: suppose the Earth actually has a "correct" average temperature; suppose tomorrow the observed average is 1 degree higher, and on Tuesday it's 1 degree higher too, but on Wednesday it's 2 degrees lower. Do we call it even? If not, why not?

Another great post, and thanks. About the "unseemingly" part: I think the proper word is unseemlily. More pertinently, made me look up technetium 99m, probably the only nuclear isomer I'd ever heard of, and also hafnium-zirconium separation processes, which aren't handy. But that's just me being me. As for government grant reviewers just being themselves: even if one is not interested in this, not interested in nuclear science, not interested in science at all, one should at least know about science. And knowing just that much, when one hears about an amazing experiment, or even a dull one, one should ask, "And what did the control do?"

And hope one's next question doesn't have to be, "What do you mean, they didn't run a control?" Followed by, "What do you mean, they refused to run a control?"

I should write as rich an encomium to my dissertation supervisor, but for now, He put up with me will have to do. Come to think of it, that's actually high praise. The guy I'd really like to compose a Festschrift for, though, is the one who hired me for an entry-level job in computer programming, a vocation for which I am vastly better suited. I never had any business being in academia, and have come to wonder about anyone who does. If they are like Dr. Kagan, I am much reassured.

A side note, about Cornell: my advisor graduated from it in 1972, as I did in 1978. I picked his lab mainly because the research field was exactly what I'd wanted to get into, but also because I imagined the Cornell experience would make for a bond. It did not. I'd had a great time; he hardly spoke of his time. Except to say what dorm he'd done his time in, I don't think he ever said anything at all about it. I get the idea that Cornell c. 1970 was an awful place.

This morning, as on most mornings, I went to haberturk.com to see what the Turks were up to, even though I already knew: they were rioting in Istanbul. Apparently they always do that on May 1. I have no idea why: Turkey never was congenial to Communism, or to any idea that a Russian might think was good. But there they are, every damn year like clockwork, hurling rocks and getting arrested. I learned the Turkish word for "catapult," and I guess that's a plus for me...but what do Turks get out of this? Nearly as much as the murderousness of "labor unrest," the mindlessness of it bothers me.

Well, at least I also learned the Turkish word for "common sense" in a lamentation-commentary appended to the news stories. I admit it says more about my faulty scholarship than about Turks that I would not have seen the word before. On the other hand, how is it that I learned the Turkish word for "genocide" so much faster? They play hardball in the Eastern Hemisphere. It's a mean place. A Brazilian website, apparently referring to May Day, had mentioned only a "holiday" weather report.

Unless it says "Welcome to Madison," I am unimpressed and I feel certain all evildoers are too. Evildoers (I refuse to say "terrorists" because I myself am not terrorized, even if my entire Executive Branch is) will strike where there are the most apologists for them. And though it's just a guess, I'll guess it anyway: collegetowns, capitals, or both will consider it a point of honor, civility, and sophistication to excuse any violence visited on them.

I'll start by stripping my posts of all gratuitous umlauts.

How does anyone know what mood-dampening is, or what investors "likely weigh"? Back when I was investing, nobody asked me. Never was I invited or compelled to state a reason before firing off a trade.

Naturally I reached for my Turkish dictionary to see what the word for "eclipse" is, and then I went to a Turkish news website to do a search. Annnnd...it was in the news yesterday, under a headline that starts with "Tomorrow." So I think we're dealing with the right eclipse here. The comments are interesting. Well, the comment: there's just one. It is anonymous, and just one word: "earthquake." Also,the story is under the "Astrology" tab.

Ohh-kayy. Let's check another Eastern-Hemisphere place, Slovenia. Whose word for "eclipse" is, aptly, mrk. Well, we got the astrology angle there too, or at least an astrologer is interviewed.  This under the "For Me" tab. That's the spirit: expect celestial events to work for you! As in Turkey, just one comment, but less murky: "I'd ask [the astrologer] what sedative her psychiatrist has prescribed and why she isn't taking it regularly."

I trust the pop-feel in Switzerland is closer to the Slovenes' than the Turks'.

I am unsure whether civilization can be an institution in the plural or just a condition in the singular, or if there is or should be a distinction between civilization and civility. I do feel however that a distinction must be made between civilization and society. The dictum (or is it slogan?) "Taxes are what we pay for a civilized society" has things quite backward, I think. As if we start with society, then - by canvassing for money, or more likely pumping it in from elsewhere - civilize it. I think it's just the opposite: you start with civility, which I define as "the state of nature wherein you can trust strangers not to hit you,"  and from there develop constructive and complex relationships with those strangers.

I always check the Member Feed before I post anything of my own, to see what the context will be. Usually my stuff has nothing to do with what's just been put up, but this time it could be different: I was going to speak at length about Colombia, where soldiers and cops do have a lot of functional overlap. And yet...I can't even remember what color their outfits or equipment were. Jungle camo? Heck, I can't even remember what the police livery is in my own small town in Texas! The cars have some orange - I'm pretty sure of that.

I agree black is a rather aggressive choice, but I would not take it very seriously. Probably just a New York or Northeastern thing.