Travel and creativity: Expats at work | The Economist
Having lived overseas for four years, I can support those conclusions.
May 31, 2009
May 13, 2009
What Makes Us Happy? - The Atlantic (June 2009)
This is a great article about a horizontal study that followed a cohort of Harvard men ('42, '43, '44) throughout their lives.
Well worth the time it takes to read it:
What Makes Us Happy? - The Atlantic (June 2009)
Well worth the time it takes to read it:
What Makes Us Happy? - The Atlantic (June 2009)
May 11, 2009
To Oslo! To Turkey!
I will be taking off in the morning for Oslo. Then to Turkey. I will be blogging at a new address for this trip - you can find it here. (It also has an RSS feed)
I am uncertain of the Internet access on the Anatolian Plains. But I will do my best.
I am uncertain of the Internet access on the Anatolian Plains. But I will do my best.
May 10, 2009
Passing a subway station
Passing a subway station from Eirik Solheim on Vimeo.
That is the station where I get out in Oslo to go to my hotel.
I did not, of course, make that video, but I recognized the station when I saw it.
May 7, 2009
Oh God, what am I doing here?
Tonight Doreen was off discussing Out Stealing Horses with some old friends. I was left alone with some old friends as well.
After Doreen was whisked away by her friend in a Mini-Cooper, I sat on the front porch reading my Kindle about Turkey. When it started to get dark, I went in. I don't yet have a light for the Kindle.
Then I made supper. 1/2 of a cold bratwurst (you can see the rest of it here) with some home made sauerkraut. I had a couple of bottles of Rio Blanco Pale Ale with the wurst and kraut.
While eating, I read in the New York Times Magazine how horrible it is to live in a socialist country like The Netherlands.
Then I came upstairs and put on some music.
No videos, no reading, just alone listening to some tunes.
I started with the Holy Modal Rounder's disc "Last Round"
My baby don't bother to wear,
none of that pink underwear.
She's so slick and sleazy,
She just don't care.
There is plenty more that would not be appropriate for a family blog.
Then I moved onto Graham Parsons' disc "The Grievous Angel"
I remember something you once told me
I'll be damned if it did not come true
20,000 roads I've been down, down, down.
They all bring me straight back home to you.
What is it about artists and Heroin?
Then I turned on Tom Waits and "A Foreign Affair"
Trains and planes and boats and buses
Characteristically
Evoke a common attitude of Blue
Unless you have a suitcase, a ticket and a passport
and the cargo that their carrying is You.
and David Bromberg's dual disc that included "Bandit in a Bathing Suit". I think he is the only heroin free artist this evening
As you read this letter that I write to you
Sweetheart, I hope you understand.
You're the only love I've even known
So please forgive me if you can.
and rounding the evening out with Warren Zevon's first (self titled) disk.
Don't the sun look angry through the trees
Don't the trees look like crucified leaves
Don't you feel like desperados under the eves
Heaven help the one who weeps.
All the lyrics are from memory.
Which is the best, don't you think?
So long Norman.
She said: "So long, Norman"
After Doreen was whisked away by her friend in a Mini-Cooper, I sat on the front porch reading my Kindle about Turkey. When it started to get dark, I went in. I don't yet have a light for the Kindle.
Then I made supper. 1/2 of a cold bratwurst (you can see the rest of it here) with some home made sauerkraut. I had a couple of bottles of Rio Blanco Pale Ale with the wurst and kraut.
While eating, I read in the New York Times Magazine how horrible it is to live in a socialist country like The Netherlands.
Then I came upstairs and put on some music.
No videos, no reading, just alone listening to some tunes.
I started with the Holy Modal Rounder's disc "Last Round"
My baby don't bother to wear,
none of that pink underwear.
She's so slick and sleazy,
She just don't care.
There is plenty more that would not be appropriate for a family blog.
Then I moved onto Graham Parsons' disc "The Grievous Angel"
I remember something you once told me
I'll be damned if it did not come true
20,000 roads I've been down, down, down.
They all bring me straight back home to you.
What is it about artists and Heroin?
Then I turned on Tom Waits and "A Foreign Affair"
Trains and planes and boats and buses
Characteristically
Evoke a common attitude of Blue
Unless you have a suitcase, a ticket and a passport
and the cargo that their carrying is You.
and David Bromberg's dual disc that included "Bandit in a Bathing Suit". I think he is the only heroin free artist this evening
As you read this letter that I write to you
Sweetheart, I hope you understand.
You're the only love I've even known
So please forgive me if you can.
and rounding the evening out with Warren Zevon's first (self titled) disk.
Don't the sun look angry through the trees
Don't the trees look like crucified leaves
Don't you feel like desperados under the eves
Heaven help the one who weeps.
All the lyrics are from memory.
Which is the best, don't you think?
So long Norman.
She said: "So long, Norman"
May 6, 2009
Dylan Thomas
DO NOT GO GENTLE INTO THAT GOOD NIGHT
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
May 5, 2009
May 4, 2009
Jung Center Gala
Doreen was invited to the Jung Center's gala (ie, big fund-raiser) this evening.
I had to go, too.
They had Cokie Roberts as the main attraction.
The speakers started off painfully. Did you know that Jungian psychology consists of new age platitudes and pretensions? Well, according to what the director of the Jung center here said, that is exactly what it consists of.
But it got better once we got past the tributes and self aggrandizement.
Cokie Roberts, to no surprise, is an excellent speaker.
She talked about her books, and her mother (who lives on Bourbon Street! Across from Pat O'Brien's!) and her great aunts (4 women, 9 husbands between them)
Her theme was “Untold Stories” (which I guess is a Jungian thing. I certainly wish that the director of the center had left his stories untold) and she was focusing on the stories of women in the course of the development of the country. All very good.
For you Brownies, she spoke of the current president of Brown, Ruth Simmons. A Texan, who lived for some time here in Houston. Also the first African American president of an Ivy League school.
Her comments, when she was invested in the position, resonate true:
“...a job is a job is a job. But, a life is something that is just too short. Live a life that you can be happy with.”
Can people tell pate from dog food?
AAWE_WP36.pdf (application/pdf Object)
Money quote:
Conclusions
Subjects significantly disliked the taste of dog food compared to a range of comestible meat products with similar ingredients. Subjects were not better than random at identifying dog food among five unlabeled samples. These two results would seem to be paradoxical. Why did the 72% of subjects who ranked sample C as worst in terms of taste not guess that sample C was dog food?
Money quote:
Conclusions
Subjects significantly disliked the taste of dog food compared to a range of comestible meat products with similar ingredients. Subjects were not better than random at identifying dog food among five unlabeled samples. These two results would seem to be paradoxical. Why did the 72% of subjects who ranked sample C as worst in terms of taste not guess that sample C was dog food?
May 3, 2009
May 2, 2009
Cities
From the book _False Economy_:
...of America's sixteen biggest cities in 1959, only four have a larger population today then then, even thought the national population has double.
!
Brats for supper
May 1, 2009
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