nourishing obscurity

Dedicated to Mark Wadsworth:

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SCENE V. Another part of the platform. Enter GHOST and HAMLET HAMLET Where wilt thou lead me? speak; I’ll go no further. Ghost Mark me. HAMLET I will. Ghost My hour is almost come, When I to sulphurous and tormenting flames Must render up myself.

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First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a communist; Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist; Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew; Then they [...]

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Filed under: Politics & economics, Society & human issues

1.  The phenomenon whereby rain evaporates while falling through dry air is called what? 2.  Infrequent methane rain is thought to carve numerous surface channels on which moon? 3.  A scientific model known as the  ….  process explains how rain forms and falls. 4.  On the United States’ Eastern Seaboard, the effect can be dramatic: [...]

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[Thanks, LfaV, for the photo] Congratulations to the Devil’s Kitchen [Chris Mounsey] on his appointment as LPUK leader – here is Ian Parker Joseph’s speech.  Andrew Withers remains as Treasurer and is the new Deputy Leader. The Albion Alliance came up in business and it’s time to set the record straight here. We are not [...]

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She finally catches that fish It has to be admitted I was wondering if she actually writes the material out there at sea or whether her mum or someone else does. It seems many other thousands around the world were also wondering the same thing – the prose was just too good, if you see [...]

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Filed under: Leisure, travel & sport, Society & human issues

1.  Which is the most populous state of the UAE? 2. Which country has Schaan as it’s biggest town? 3. Which nation had reason to be thankful for the Franco-Monegasque Treaty of 1861? 4. Which country has a Thanksgiving Day on October 25th, to celebrate another country’s invasion? 5. Not really such a pleasant island, [...]

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The Washington Post has this: Egypt’s grand Mufti Ali Gomma called on Muslims in his traditional Eid sermon to avoid wasteful spending and instead support charities. “A good Muslim should bring happiness to the hearts of fellow human beings” he said. That’s great news that Muslims are presumably being asked to reject: #  The takeover [...]

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The word ceramic comes from the Greek word κεραμικός (keramikos) meaning pottery, which is said to derive from the Indo-European word ker, meaning heat. A ceramic material is often understood as restricted to inorganic crystalline oxide material. It is solid and inert. Ceramic materials are brittle, hard, strong in compression, weak in shearing and tension. [...]

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You might not like the song itself but one of the best pieces of bass was Doug Yule’s – from about 3:30 on in this and particularly around 4:15 to 4:50: … and they do it again here. Jean-Jacques Burnel was, IMHO, one of the best bassists in rock because he led with his bass, [...]

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On gold: Central banks are now net buyers in the aggregate for the first time in many, many years. This is a significant change since they were a major source of marginal supply. The post Bretton Woods dollar regime created by Nixon in 1971 is shaking hard, trembling the foundations of a world currency system [...]

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Oops – think I missed it. To my American friends – don’t eat too much turkey. You know how I remembered? The cranberries in the chutney in my cupboard. It was a surprise that it’s only been an annual tradition in the United States since 1863. It did not become a federal holiday until 1941. [...]

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The oldest flute ever discovered, though this is disputed, may be a fragment of the femur of a juvenile cave bear, with two to four holes, found at Divje Babe in Slovenia and dated to about 43,000 years ago.  In 2008 another flute dated back to at least 35,000 years ago was discovered in Hohle [...]

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The fundamental disconnect between almost anyone and the economists is that the latter use jargon – they can’t help it – and consequently, they don’t so much talk down to us but they ignore us in their analyses. This is an attempt to make it more comprehensible. The recent post on The True State of [...]

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Last evening saw some refined voices of purity and that’s well and fine. I’d contend though that sometimes there is a case for just plain rough and immediately, Louis Armstrong springs to mind. There’s a Russian with a similar voice in this category. What follows here are singers or groups which were just plain rough [...]

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Filed under: Music