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Jan_Keeskop

Listed below are comments made by Jan_Keeskop between Monday, 21st December 2009 and Monday, 28th December 2009.

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Europe: My picks for 2010 07:20am on 28 Dec 2009 democracythreat: Your post 43 brings many questions to mind. Would the half-cantons get part-time animal rights lawyers, or would each pair of half-cantons share a single one? What rights do/would animals have in Switzerland? Would animals raised for slaughter have a “right to life”, to not be slaughtered? Could animal-rights organisations file suit on behalf of Bella the cow against her owner Farmer Schlächtli? Would wild animals have the same rights as domesticated ones?

MarcusAureliusII: In post 53, do you find the accents of newsreaders from the BBC World Service incomprehensible? I happened to be listening to it late on the 23rd/early on the 24th (while preparing the Christmas bird) and I only noticed two oddities: a mispronunciation of Houston (the city in Texas rendered as “Hoostin” rather than “Hewstin”), and a word ending in -icious (I don’t remember the exact word) pronounced as “-issy-iss” rather than “-ish-iss”. The only English-speaking person I’ve heard who I haven’t been able to understand was a fellow on the border of the Carolinas; if you’ve ever seen King of the Hill, his speech was something like that of the blond-haired guy in the cartoon.

EUprisoner209456731: On post 68, if there be something wrong with the Catholic mind, does that mean that Henry VIII. was able to instantaneously cure millions of minds by making himself head of the Church of England, as a remarkable side effect of accelerating the annulment of his first marriage? Did that simultaneously justify the fate of William Tyndale?

If dictatorships be evidence of something wrong with the continental mind, what conclusion should be drawn from Cromwell? What about the minds of people in continental nations without a history of dictatorships?

Gheryando: In post 79, the unified system of measurements was not due to the EU.
Europe: My picks for 2010 05:52am on 27 Dec 2009 Mathiasen: In post 9, from my perspective, the “debt crisis” is the most interesting of Gavin’s picks, because of its long-shot potential to produce a domino effect for several EU states. (I don’t wish for trouble to befall any state — people need more troubles like they need more holes in their heads — but the possibility remains, like the chance of a multi-car pile-up during a road race. I also look in wonder at the estimates of M3 here in the States, since the Federal Reserve stopped publishing that data, and wonder how long our creditors will grin and bear it.)

Gheryando: For post 26, if the people are sovereign in your EU member state, then you the people do have the luxury of creating something from scratch. Whether you’d desire to do that or not is another question…

EUprisoner209456731: In post 29, what would you consider to be reasonable levels of NI contributions, income tax, and import duties? Do you have particular amounts in mind, or ideal percentage reductions from the current amounts, or … ? What would be your optimal revenue target for road pricing and property taxes? How would your allowances for family size regarding property taxes intermesh with achieving an optimal population for the UK? How would an increased police presence and an improved NHS be paid for? [I enjoy learning from global variations of If I were PM / President / Chancellor / Secretary-General / King of the Forest …. ;*) ]
Climate change and big figures 7:21pm on 23 Dec 2009 funniinnit: The word government is thus the very source of the steering the ship of state metaphor. To be absolutely clear, any word for “mind” is absent from government. (There’s a straight line for someone to make some hay with…)
Climate change and big figures 6:40pm on 23 Dec 2009 WebAliceinwonderland: More a lazy system than a scientific system — I much prefer not having to get on my knees to check the water level of the tree’s reservoir every couple of days, and the convenience of refilling the jug once every few weeks (even though it’s about 20 kg at a time).

MarcusAureliusII’s explanation of LEDs is accurate, and well-suited to people with engineering backgrounds. If you remember the first generations of pocket calculators or digital watches, with red or green numbers lit up on dark backgrounds, those numbers were formed from LEDs. (See Svetodiod and Losev, Oleg Vladimirovich in Russian Wikipedia.)

Apartment purchases here are rarely done in cash (is it most often in euros or dollars there?), most often depending upon the buyer getting a mortgage, so the paperwork usually reflects the actual purchase price. Notaries serve a different purpose here (and perhaps in other common law jurisdictions), but the “civil law” notaries (for want of a better adjective) serve a useful purpose in real estate transactions, which I think would be a helpful addition to our system. We have “title insurance” available that offers responsibility in case of previously unknown owners appearing out of nowhere, but you’ve mentioned before the distrust of insurance companies there.

funiinnit: I can’t answer your first question, and everyone has his own answer to your second question. I can state that government is not Greek for “mind control”, as -ment is a Latin suffix (from -mentum [a suffix also found in English ornament, fragment, &c.] rather than from mentum [genitive form of mens, thus Latin for mind’s, but not a suffix form]). The govern- prefix comes to us via Latin gubernatio from the Greek word for “steering”, so it is control in the same sense as steering a ship would be controlling it. Any Greek word for “mind” is absent from government. A little study of Latin will also reveal the etymology of the word human — think of homo sapiens and ad hominem.
Climate change and big figures 11:29pm on 22 Dec 2009 Jukka Rohila: I agree — population density is not the only difference. This is why I’d stated part (but not all).

U4466131: The spring of 2008 showed that petrol at $4 per US gallon (66 p per litre) was sufficiently high to leave SUVs and large pickup trucks to rust on dealers’ lots. Given the Big Three’s dependence upon the fat profit margins on these types of vehicles to subsidise the lower margins on their more fuel-efficient cars, and their inability to adapt quickly enough to this change in US consumer sentiment, it’s not surprising that they got into financial hot water.

My older car (Japanese marque, made in North America) was offered in North America with a six-cylinder engine, with the option of an eight. At the time I read that it was sold in Europe and Australia (if not elsewhere) with a four-cylinder engine, with the six as an option. Had it been offered here with the four as an option, I would have taken both the four and the six for a test drive; given my general apathy about 0 to 100 km/h performance, there would’ve been an excellent chance of the four being our pick. Sometimes the available choices constrain one’s actions. [There, another fine specimen of American excuse! ;*) ]
Climate change and big figures 6:29pm on 22 Dec 2009 Maria Ashot: From your post 126, it sounds as though there are still many Russians who take greater pride and satisfaction in doing things despite the rules — which could just as well describe many Americans (not to mention our own considerable prowess in excuse-making). Perhaps this somehow ties into Jukka Rohila’s theory of extra-Europeans?

angloscotty: On post 127, given the exclusions of force and edict on family size, it would seem unfair to refer to leaders as innumerate. I doubt that they are unaware of projections of population levels and energy usage — rather, that their acute awareness of it was precisely what caused them to offer those wheelbarrowfuls of money to the developing world, that they ought to accept such a payoff in return for forswearing the developed world’s own path of development — that their own development should take the sustainable high road, while accepting those brightly coloured stacks of paper as full amends for the developed world’s soiled path. Do as we say, not as we do!

WebAliceinwonderland: For post 129, I don’t know about the Siberian larches, but the tamarack doesn’t tolerate shade well — is your dacha’s larch in a sunny spot? If the Chinese are getting your larches, and they’re not being floated across the border, then whatever is transporting them south ought to be able to transport them west of the Urals too, no?

In post 137, that movie-by-movie robbery is what keeps our media executives in the lifestyles to which they have become accustomed. (Those prices are typical here.)

For post 144, I didn’t know that the Keeskop Christmas tree traditions were traditionally Russian! Our tree gets a chaos of colour, and we usually try to keep the tree up until Easter. ;*) We use a homemade automatic watering system: a 20-litre water-cooler jug sits on top of a five-litre pail; the pail has a small hole near the top, to allow aquarium tubing to run from the bottom of the pail to the tree’s water reservoir. The pail and jug sit on top of a toddler’s stepstool. Once the vacuum is established in the tubing, gravity keeps the tree reservoir filled with water, and the jug can be filled (with a few ml of bleach added to prevent unwelcome buildup in the tubing) as needed without disrupting the vacuum. Mrs K. decided to try LED lights on the tree this year (Chinese, as one might expect); to my eyes they’re overly bright for the purpose, but perhaps they’ll tone down (or maybe I’ll get accustomed to them).

On post 163, I didn’t know about 60° North hosting such a superhighway of wind — obviously of importance for Piter! For some reason we’re more familiar with the “Roaring Forties” of the southern hemisphere over here — perhaps due to trade routes of the clipper ships before the Panama Canal opened.

In post 168, the Julian calendar is “late” from the Gregorian perspective, due to the Julian having more leap days than necessary to synchronize with Earth’s orbit: the October Revolution happened in November, and Julian 25th December happens in January.

MarcusAureliusII: On post 141, cutting Europe off from Russian energy would not cause European demand to decrease; Volkswagen AG isn’t going to get its welding done on pedal power! Europe’s demand would flow to suppliers not currently serving the European market. You’re right in that its demand could not be completely met by shipped supplies; the insufficent supply would drive prices up, as I noted in 118.

I never claimed that government cheese was a gourmet food; I did have expectations of it tasting like cheese, though. Its best use would be as an ingredient in cheese sauce, say for macaroni. To be fair, the tinned government beef was better than the cheese (I never did find out where he got them…); shredded rather than ground, quite edible with some garlic and a little salt and pepper, with only an occasional bit of bone or gristle.

Were I to live abroad, I think that the only food I would miss is a certain mayonnaise whose brand name depends on which side of the Rockies it’s sold on. [I know that it’s available in Canada, so I’d be able to get my fix there. ;*) I wonder if the Rockies determine its brand name there as well?]

Jukka Rohila: Regarding post 166, part (but not all) of the reason for that disparity is the greater population density of France and Germany as compared to the US, which reduces transport costs, and increases the viability of passenger rail service, which is far more fuel-efficient per person-km than automobiles are.
Climate change and big figures 5:20pm on 21 Dec 2009 cool_brush_work: Agreed! The series was a stellar example of what television could have been, rather than the Who Wants to Make a Publicly Humiliating Spectacle of Himself? direction that it took.

MarcusAureliusII: When I was a hungry student, a friend had acquired a ten-pound (4.5 kg) block of “government cheese” from somewhere, and the lot of us decided to try it out in grilled-cheese sandwiches. The best thing about that cheese was its price; the experiment wasn’t repeated, despite the dearth of alternatives within our limited means.

WebAliceinwonderland: I think that it was filmed in the early 1970s. I watched it in the mid-1970s, one episode per week for six months or so. I haven’t seen it since [yet ;*) ], but its opening theme music still readily comes to mind. I don’t remember what it covered on the USSR v. Japan conflict, but my guess is that this series is what was shown on your TV.

Jukka Rohila: I’m sorry, I didn’t plan on going down this old familiar by-way. To try to bring it back towards the thread’s topic — I wonder if anyone has tried to estimate the amount of greenhouse gases produced between 1939 and 1945, how global temperatures could have been affected during that period?
Climate change and big figures 3:54pm on 21 Dec 2009 Ah, judgment has been returned on post 105: apparently the tree comment was immoderate, because it contained a non-English word. A redacted reposting follows:

geoffrey terry: On post 51, how much would you estimate your bipolar pumping project to cost?

Seraphim85: For post 57, it would still require an enormous infrastructure investment to move the electricity across the Mediterranean, wouldn’t it?

Jukka Rohila: In post 61, whether or not the results of Copenhagen were a failure depends upon what one’s expectations were for it. I don’t doubt that for some people, the results of Copenhagen were a success — due to having had different goals for it. What next? for the EU would depend upon each person asking the question, and each person’s readiness, willingness, and ability to pursue his goals.

angloscotty: For post 63, what would you recommend as answers to the global population question?

luke: On post 70, all tools have limited use… except duct tape. ;*)

WebAliceinwonderland: In post 72, Euro-4 is coming to Russia on New Year’s Day, so it sounds like Russian industry is closing the gap.

Regarding post 95, my dictionary gives larch as the English translation of [the immoderate Russian tree name]. Wikipedia lists three different larch species growing in Siberia. The wood from tamarack (a North American larch) is also recommended for outdoor uses, such as porch construction.

For post 99, perhaps the ZIP code from your Charleston would be appropriate? ;*) — 29401.

MarcusAureliusII: For post 81, that wouldn’t force a reduction of just European energy use; what it would do is set off a bidding scramble for the remaining oil and gas on the market. Everyone’s oil and gas would become more expensive, which would benefit the remaining suppliers, and which would force a reduction of energy use worldwide (due to price) — except for the place no longer selling their oil and gas to foreign customers.
Climate change and big figures 06:11am on 21 Dec 2009 David: If you look on a certain Web site known for auctions, you can find the set on DVD for immediate purchase for considerably less than $80, delivered.

Richard Rodgers, as in Rodgers and Hammerstein? Seems a bit of a departure for him, compared to, say, Getting to Know You and My Favorite Things… ;*)
Climate change and big figures 04:27am on 21 Dec 2009 WebAliceinwonderland: I’d replied to many posts in my last post, so perhaps I’ve managed to simultaneously offend a wide swath of the general Europe-blog readership. I haven’t received an e-mail from the moderators yet, as to what the nature of my apparent immoderacy was.

On the chance that my tree-related comment was sufficiently inoffensive, I’ll repeat here that the tree in your post 95 is called a larch in English.

You undoubtedly know more about NATO aviation than I do! All I can say is that when I was a boy, I’d watched enough episodes of The World at War to also conclude “not in winter!” ;*)

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