European Tribune

Saturday Evening Open Thread

by p-------
Sat Sep 30th, 2006 at 02:02:59 PM EST

"The art of writing is the art of discovering what you believe."

--Gustave Flaubert

How is your weekend coming along?


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Ok, I'll go first then.  It is storming here; I'm trying to justify the "camera phone" being offered to me free of charge as I renew my wireless contract (will no longer have an excuse for not posting my picture, huh?); broke down and got broadband (may be out of internet service for a few days during the change-over); looking for a recipe for grouper.

Any fans of grouper out there?

Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. -Voltaire

by p------- on Sat Sep 30th, 2006 at 02:52:14 PM EST
Grouper's good, but I don't have a recipe.

Baked bluefish is best in my book(stuffed with crab meat better), side of fries, and cole slaw.

Nice, texturey,oily, fishy-tasting fish.

"When the abyss stares at me, it wets its pants." Brian Hopkins

by EricC on Sat Sep 30th, 2006 at 05:43:17 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Ended up baking it in lemon, butter and bread crumbs.  Wasn't bad.  Wasn't duck confit and a glass of Calvados either... </swoon>

Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. -Voltaire
by p------- on Sat Sep 30th, 2006 at 06:49:14 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Well I missed a package delivery this morning which always tees me off. Before heading off to SF for the afternoon I'm trying to avoid further engagement on the torture bill since everyone is foaming at the mouth.

you are the media you consume.

by MillMan (millguy at gmail) on Sat Sep 30th, 2006 at 03:33:44 PM EST
Rained...rained some more...and rained some more...

Spent the entire day down with the horses...groomed them, mucked out their beds, fed them, exercised them by going for a nice fast hack in the Phoenix Park, got WET, groomed them some more, fed them some more...swept the huge puddles into the gutter...just the sort of day that makes you want something stewy and warm.

Headed home to where we're waiting on a jar of duck confit with beans - from our last trip to Paris - to turn into something related to cassouleut which we'll eat with a nice bottle of Burgundy.

Oh...and it rained some more...and will probably rain even more...

(Typed by Sam...semi dictated by Colman)

by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Sat Sep 30th, 2006 at 03:36:53 PM EST
Two days of southerlies here, a foehn on the northern slopes of the Pyrenees, very warm. The thought of duck confit and beans... hmm... later, when it gets cold!

Bon appétit, all the same!

When locusts move on, they leave nothing behind

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Sat Sep 30th, 2006 at 04:01:30 PM EST
[ Parent ]
It was the first day it was miserable enough to justify autumnal/winter food. We're both pretty rosy cheeked at this stage!

Now for some coffee and Metaxa 7 star (for Sam) and Calvados XO for me, then off to bed and do it all again tomorrow.

by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Sat Sep 30th, 2006 at 04:44:45 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Went to a local airfield to talk about booking an aerobatic flying lesson.

Rain - and lots of it - stopped play. Instead I got to sit in a cockpit, peer at dials while making 'Hmmmm...' noises and waggling controls around. (No 'brrrm brrrm' sounds though.)

Drove home over Salisbury Plain, chased by occasional rainbows.

by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Sat Sep 30th, 2006 at 04:55:31 PM EST
I don't know whether Laurent GUERBY mentioned this, but a few days ago a delegation of people from StopDRM.info decided to present itself at a central Parisian police station. The idea: to turn themselves in for infringement of the DADVSI law (each had brought proof of their action, one had transferred a legally purchased MP3 from one MP3 player to another MP3 player, another had watched a DVD on linux, etc). There is a video of them arriving at the police station, and there are dozens of policemen waiting!

Video (not particularly interesting, and in French, but if you skip to the end you'll see then arriving at the station): http://blog.mendes-france.com/2006/09/19/premier-smartmob-judiciaire-de-stopdrminfo/

And here is StopDRM.info's article on their own action (all 3 were released):
http://stopdrm.info/index.php?2006/09/20/110-compte-rendu-de-l-operation-des-interoperabilisateurs-v olontaires

by Alex in Toulouse on Sat Sep 30th, 2006 at 05:00:02 PM EST
More varied news. The president of the Bobigny tribunal, who was recently accused by Nicolas Sarkozy of not putting enough kids in jail, has a blog (in French).
by Alex in Toulouse on Sat Sep 30th, 2006 at 05:11:24 PM EST
I'll just translate this passage from his blog, because I like the irony:

Apparently, things have calmed down ... until the next election breezes. This week, no new ministerial words have blown on embers. In a way, it's a pity: thanks to M. Sarkozy, a 12% increase in educational employees was granted to us by the Judiciary Police of Seine St Denis. What we had never obtained through normal channels, we got delivered in 3 days. The Interior Minister is after all incredibly efficient. If he could make another verbal slip, maybe we could get that building which could house the child's tribunal room.
by Alex in Toulouse on Sat Sep 30th, 2006 at 05:17:32 PM EST
[ Parent ]
I love Maïtre Eolas' (lawyer) take on this (in French):

In the 93 (Alex note: the Seine St Denis département to the North of Paris), the Interior Minister is listened to. Among November's rowdy crowd, among the most violent of delinquents, those who consider they are at war with the Republic, Sarkozy is a gang leader. He comes and challenges them on their turf, cops are his men. To sum it up, he's the enemy. If he talks about "scum" or "cleaning the place up with a karcher", tensions rise.

And here, what do we here him say on TV? That the magistrates at the Bobigny tribunal do not send kids to jail. That they have given up, that they don't give a shit, you can go free each time.

Now the Seine St Denis's prefect is totally right in his memo (Alex note: memo which Sarkozy used as an excuse to blast the tribunal) about one thing: the first factor of delinquency among youths, particularly minors, is the feeling of impunity. Not real impunity: all you need to see is how surprised they are when they are handcuffed and brought to the child's tribunal. They're not proud, no. A feeling of impunity, a conviction, although erroneous, that if they go out and "cause trouble", they'll get away with it.

And here our minister offers them the following on a plate: the conviction that this impunity, in their region, is a fact. This comes from the mouth of their sworn enemy himself.

Nicolas Sarkozy acts thus like a pyromaniac fireman. It's totally senseless. If it's calculated, it's criminal. And for a candidate to the highest function, it's worse than a crime, it's a fault.


by Alex in Toulouse on Sat Sep 30th, 2006 at 05:33:13 PM EST
[ Parent ]
EU-US airline data sharing talks have collapsed.

Airlines that don't provide the information don't get US landing rights. Airlines that do are breaking EU law.

It's worth reading.

by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Sat Sep 30th, 2006 at 05:21:36 PM EST
This is great news if confirmed.

Down with the Visa Waiver Program!

Those whom the Gods wish to destroy They first make mad. -- Euripides

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Sat Sep 30th, 2006 at 06:55:45 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Flights from UK 'escape US bans.'

In other words the UK sticks two fingers up at the EU and its own domestic data protection laws and gives the US everything it wants.

Cause for concern is that it's possible that even more information is being requested, collected, collated and sent over. But we're not going to hear about it because it's secret.

by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Sat Sep 30th, 2006 at 07:14:00 PM EST
[ Parent ]
What is Liberty saying about all this? And what's up with ThatBritBlog? Can I help in any way?

Those whom the Gods wish to destroy They first make mad. -- Euripides
by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Sat Sep 30th, 2006 at 07:28:04 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Pissed it down all day here in Oslo.

I can't understand why they are sitting on gazillions in oil money but they invest ALL of it abroad.

Apparently it's inflationary to invest in your own country's infrastructure.

What total bollocks conventional Economics is.

by ChrisCook (cojockathotmaildotcom) on Sat Sep 30th, 2006 at 06:13:28 PM EST
Watched a movie against my usually better judgement due to being outvoted by two female Orlando Bloom fans - and actually enjoyed it very much.

It could have been a disaster, but good direction, good acting and a script that needed a sensitive, fresh director to make it work, brought in a minor classic. It is laugh out loud funny too. Excellent casting.

You can't be me, I'm taken

by Sven Triloqvist on Sat Sep 30th, 2006 at 07:49:47 PM EST
the weather is lovely again, autumn sliding in as yet quite unobtrusively.

mushroom season is just beginning, chesnuts too.
i found some ceps, fried them up and served them on toast, brit style.

some tasty field mushrooms from the paddock are popping up regularly too

yum....

this is a great time to harvest chestnuts, as there is a 2 week window before the leaves start to fall, when the nuts are easiest to harvest, being easily visible against the ground.

i likes 'em boiled, then eaten as a snack, biting off a corner, then pressing the shell between incisors, thus squeezing out the puree onto the tongue.

simple annual pleasures that define the seasons, and are new each year, yet ever more familiar.

massaged three people on a painting villa holiday, all 3 very nice and mellow, polled out the tablas this evening and had a jam with a friend on acoustic bass, experimenting with some interesting time sigs, like 7/4.

meditated on relationship between music and mathematics, while internalising these rhythms by counting them until they felt familiar enough to stop counting, then picking up the count again, and seeing if the votes tallied!

serious fun...

off tp massage in the morning, then the rest of the day doing chores, goofing off and warming up for the gig at the restaurant, come vespers time.

a. is visiting from napoli. so the tomato sauce was extra special tonight!

i've been burning cd's of my fave blues podcast, called the roadhouse.

these have been amazing to listen to driving to work....funky, raw and stimulating blues. all types, eras and styles.

new faves: blues caravan...anyone here know them?

'time bears witness' is such a well contructed tune, imo. i figured it out on the piano, and i can feel it influencing me on a deep level...i wish i'd written it.

so i looked them up on the web and fired off an email complimenting the writer, ian parker.

he graciously wrote back, and i felt a little less 'cosmically alone'.

as i do when i pop in here and catch up widja blogbuds.

a friend sent me a book about horse psychology that looks like a great read.

happy weekend et'ers!

Peace is not the absence of war -- peace is the absence of fear. Ursula Franklin

by melo (melometa4(at)gmail.com) on Sat Sep 30th, 2006 at 11:25:57 PM EST


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