philly murals.

this picture is taken from here. i love the colours of the murals, their allegorical nature and their large claim to non-commercial public space. i like philly but i kind of want to go back to europe right now.

cockaigne/cocaine.

Meaning: 1. Paradise, utopia, an imaginary land of luxury. 2 (Facetiously) The land of the Cockneys, which is to say, the East End of London.

Notes: Today’s Good Word has nothing to do with cocaine, despite the resemblance in spelling and meaning. Cocaine originates in the Quechua word for the coca plant, kúka. The first syllable of today’s word is [kah], not [ko].

In Play: In Foucault’s Pendulum, Umberto Eco wrote, “Everyone was seeking renewal, a golden century, a Cockaigne of the spirit.” Aren’t you glad the translator didn’t use the English slang equivalent, la-la-land? The second sense of today’s word refers (humorously) to the land of Eliza Doolittle, in whose Cockney accent Henry Higgins becomes ‘Enry ‘Iggins. This leads to the possibility of saying, in the right company, “Reliable carpenters in this area are as rare as Hs in Cockaigne.”

Word History: Today’s Good Word is capitalized since it is supposed to be a proper geographical name referring to a country. It is based on the Old French phrase pais de cokaigne “land of cakes” (Modern French pays de cocagne), referring to a country where good fortune abounds. The word takes on its current meaning in the Old French phrase trouver cocaigne “find a land where good things drop from the sky”. The word for “cake” at the root of cocaigne was probably borrowed from German Kuchen “cake”, a word sharing a source with English cook and kitchen.

Must re-read Foucault’s Pendulum at some point.

Apparently the word ‘cockaigne’ is not related at all to ‘cocaine’.  that was my reason for looking it up in the first place. disappointing, really, though i am glad anaesthetics have moved on since the 1870s…

1874, from Fr. cocaine (1856), coined by Albert Niemann of Gottingen University from coca (from Quechua cuca) + -ine, arbitrary use of L. -inus, -ina for noun ending. A medical coinage, the drug was used 1870s as a local anaesthetic for eye surgery, etc.

fourletterword.

found this today.

Variations on the Word Love – Margaret Atwood
This is a word we use to plug
holes with. It’s the right size for those warm
blanks in speech, for those red heart-
shaped vacancies on the page that look nothing
like real hearts. Add lace
and you can sell
it. We insert it also in the one empty
space on the printed form
that comes with no instructions. There are whole
magazines with not much in them
but the word love, you can
rub it all over your body and you
can cook with it too. How do we know
it isn’t what goes on at the cool
debaucheries of slugs under damp
pieces of cardboard? As for the weed-
seedlings nosing their tough snouts up
among the lettuces, they shout it.
Love! Love! sing the soldiers, raising
their glittering knives in salute.

Then there’s the two
of us. This word
is far too short for us, it has only
four letters, too sparse
to fill those deep bare
vacuums between the stars
that press on us with their deafness.
It’s not love we don’t wish
to fall into, but that fear.
this word is not enough but it will
have to do. It’s a single
vowel in this metallic
silence, a mouth that says
O again and again in wonder
and pain, a breath, a finger
grip on a cliffside. You can
hold on or let go.

cycles, ripples, patterns, shapes, rhythm.

the seemingly cyclical nature of knowledge formation.

Emergent structures are patterns not created by a single event or rule. Nothing commands the system to form a pattern. Instead, the interaction of each part with its immediate surroundings causes a complex chain of processes leading to some order. One might conclude that emergent structures are more than the sum of their parts because the emergent order will not arise if the various parts are simply coexisting; the interaction of these parts is central. Emergent structures can be found in many natural phenomena, from the physical to the biological domain. For example, the shape of weather phenomena such as hurricanes are emergent structures.

It is useful to distinguish three forms of emergent structures. A first-order emergent structure occurs as a result of shape interactions (for example, hydrogen bonds in water molecules lead to surface tension). A Second-order emergent structure involves shape interactions played out sequentially over time (for example, changing atmospheric conditions as a snowflake falls to the ground build upon and alter its form). Finally, a third-order emergent structure is a consequence of shape, time, and heritable instructions. For example, an organism’s genetic code sets boundary conditions on the interaction of biological systems in space and time.

 

thresholdin’.

if someone were to ask how i was and i were to think about it rather than answering that “yes, i was fine, and how about them”, i would probably not know the answer. it is hard to stay grounded and acknowledge that i have moved on in different ways. that in the midst of all this thresholding i am, actually, fine and true and beautiful and at ease and smiling at the future. that i’ve made decisions that have made me grow away from people that used to live near me. that i may think i have not gone anywhere can be traced to the absence of any sustained effort to make a home in one place. and that the way this is judged in some parts more than others. for they do not believe in miracles and connection and vision.

i still do.

and that this feeling might be shared by others i love and miss.

i love my job.

today this email came to my inbox. how cool is that??! a conference on the history of chocolate.

Call for Papers

International workshop on the history of cocoa and chocolate

Date and venue: Chocolate museum Cologne, 28 -29 October 2010

The history of chocolate, its production and consumption is a
fascinating and important part of our modern economic, social and
cultural history. Since the arrival of the cocoa bean in Europe in the
early 16^th century its products have shaped the pattern of consumption
and enjoyment.

Today it is hard to imagine a life without chocolate in the western
world. The industry has acquired a central position in some European
countries. In Germany the chocolate industry had a turn-over of 4.4
billion Euros in 2008 and in Switzerland 1.2 billion Euros. Indeed,
Switzerland has had the highest per capital consumption with 12.4 kg,
closely followed by Belgium, Britain and Germany.

Chocolate is not only a mass product but life-style. Within the last few
decades multiple new products have been created, which on the one hand
draw on the indigenous cultures of America. On the other hand a new
culture of chocolate consumption has emerged which manifests itself in
chocolate festivals, exhibitions and chocolate shops or “chocolateries”.
Medicine has also rediscovered chocolate. Big international research
programmes have been undertaken on the health supporting properties of
the flavanols or polyphenols in the cocoa beans.

While chocolate has become the relish of the masses, the history of
chocolate has been neglected in historical research for a long time.
Only within the last few years a certain change can be seen. A few
publications have come out either on the history of single companies or
on particular aspects.

However, since the arrival of the chocolate in Europe it has experienced
a profound change. It was turned from an Indian hot drink to a solid
chocolate bar and truffles followed by a variety of new product
variations. In the regions of origin it has also had a deep impact on
the production methods and working conditions.

The cultural and economic changes shall be subject of an international
workshop on the history of chocolate. Proposals are invited on any
aspect of research relating to the history of chocolate including the
following themes:

1. Areas of cultivation and production methods

2. Development and organisation of the cocoa trade

3. Technical innovations and product innovation (transition from craft
to industry)

4. cultural innovations specific patterns of chocolate consumption and
rituals, chocolate china etc)

5. Working conditions on the plantations and in the European chocolate
manufactories)

6. Enterprise and marketing

7. Chocolate and health

The conference languages will be English and German

*Deadline* for submission is 31.Oct. 2009

The workshop will be co-organized by the Chocolate Museum Cologne,
Rheinisch-Westfaelisches Wirtschaftsarchiv Cologne and Historisches
Seminar II, University of Duesseldorf

Proposals for papers should include a short (one page) abstract, and a
brief CV. If you have any questions, please contact Margrit Schulte
Beerbuehl at …

saturday afternoon musings.

“[S]ome evolutionists will protest that we are caricaturing their view of adaptation. After all, do they not admit genetic drift, allometry, and a variety of reasons for nonadaptive evolution? They do, to be sure, but we make a different point. In natural history, all possible things happen sometimes; you generally do not support your favored phenomenon by declaring rivals impossible in theory. Rather, you acknowledge the rival but circumscribe its domain of action so narrowly that it cannot have any importance in the affairs of nature. Then, you often congratulate yourself for being such an undogmatic and ecumenical chap. We maintain that alternatives to selection for best overall design have generally been relegated to unimportance by this mode of argument.”

— The Spandrels of San Marco and the Panglossian Paradigm, Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B 205 (1161): 585.

Came across Stephen Jay Gould in my wanderings on biology and evolution. Great stuff, but how on earth can I incorporate it into the article. Hope to figure that out next week.

The article will be something on history and anthropology…

Stay tuned for exciting developments. Muhahahaha.

neil smith. geographer.

sometimes i think that geographers are the courageous anthropologists. they are not afraid of generalisations, and yet they are rigorous enough not to shy away from making statements that are of particular relevance in  the contemporary world.

i went to a great lecture today by professor neil smith who just got a sixth century chair at aberdeen university, but he is based at the centre for place, culture and politics in new york.

this flavour of academia i like…. hmmmm… if i could find my niche with activists…

*back to thesis*

tee-hee.

The Romantic notion of love involved profound thoughts on the balance to be struck between symbiosis with the other person and an unconditional willingness to recognise the otherness of the other person.

(Joas 1996: 185)

richard sennett – read him! don’t wait till next week

beautiful writing, significant issues, wonderfully broad knowledge. a definite treat.

a profile by the guardian here.

his home page here.