Confucius is rehabilitated in China.

Canadian Broadcast Standards Council proscribes the original version of 'Money for Nothing' (Dire Straits) for its use of the word 'faggot'.

Michel Gondry is making an animated film documentary about Noam Chomsky. I wonder if this bit of William Buckley's suave nastiness makes in.

The story of art group Voina (pronounced 'Vi-' as in 'vi-king' + 'nu' as in 'nutty') is now partially presented in English here. On January 14, Leonid Nikolaev was denied bail on the grounds that
his certificate of emplyment lacked official letterhead, and that the party providing the bail money was unknown to the court.

Also, openspace.ru reports: The Prosecutor's office in Perm will likely impose a fine on the Perm Museum of Modern Art (PERMM) because of the recent exhibit by Leonid Yuschenko which depicts cops doing silly things. Technically, the depiction of the Russian flag is in question; indeed, it would be just too ridiculous if the same article of Criminal Code was used as the one imputed to Voyna (aggression against specific social group). Perhaps, defense can adduce as an exculpatory evidence depiction of God the Father in some Russian churches.

102 pilgrims die in a stampede at a religious ceremony in India, when a car ran into a human multitude on a narrow forest path.

Eliot Weinberger reviews the fake memoir by our previous president. An enjoyable read, but I wish he'd carried the Foucaldian comparison to the end of the piece.

Since the Arizona shooting the sales of Glock pistols in particular ( and of guns in general) have jumped significantly in several states. We also note, with a curious surprise, that the three states, which do not require a permit to carry concealed weapons are Alaska, Arizona, and... Vermont.

For those of you who have been following the Khimki forest story, here is a shot of the current rail to Sheremetevo. It would be nice to get a shot of what the same spot looks from a passing train.

Iran puts Paolo Coelho's books on the proscribed list. (As of January 11, it is a rumor, rather than official pronouncement from Iranian Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance.) Perhaps, John Gray's books, a huge bestseller in Iran, are next? Coelho's Iranian editor is Arash Hejazi, otherwise famous in the West from appearing in the footage of the death of Neda Agha-Soltan in June 2009 post-election protests. Coelho promises to make Farsi translations of his works freely available online. Recently, I watched about half of Kirby Dick's documentary on MPAA. Somebody says in it that in no other country is a comparable certifying body staffed by anonymous members. The Iranian ministry is an obvious exception.

update, Jan. 16
Iran denies banning Coelho's book. The note from Iranian embassy in Brazil calls Hejazi a prime suspect in the death of Neda Agha-Soltan.

Incidentally, the National Society of Film Critics criticizes both MPAA and Iran in its recent report. In December, film director Jafar Panahi was given a 6- year jail sentence. His first arrest arrest in Itan was at Agha-Soltan's funeral in 2009. But it is important to remember that in April 2001 he was detained at JFK. Ironies abound. The Wikipedia article on Panahi incorrectly implies that the JFK incident occured in 2003. Panahi's lawyer, Farideh Gheirat, is preparing the appeal. Panahi is reportedly on hunger strike.

Update, Jan 20. Farhad Pouladi of AFP reports
Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie, Ahmadinejad's chief of staff, says that Panahi's sentence is too harsh, quotes Iranian Shargh newspaper. The pro-government newspaper Kayhan registered disagreement with Mashaie.


While we are on the subject of Iran, I'd like to state that the U. S. hikers should be considered hostages of Iranian state in the absence of the speedy trial against them. The fact that they were critics of US politics in the region does not, by itself, prove that Iran has no case against them.
However, if there was a case, one would think that Iran would by now produce some evidence.

Mining on my mind

On January 4th, Bob Hopper died. On January 3rd, Judy Bonds also died. Today we also learned about the practice of blow top mining, a sort of scalping of the mountains: a quick returns operation, which is safer for the miners in that it doesn't really need them. All you hear is: "BP this", "Gulf that". What about the poisoned streams, Mr. Blankenship?
And what about La Oroya? Say, Ira Rennert, the junkie extraordinaire, junk bonds are supposed to be risky but high paying, right? What did it mean, then, when Greece's something or other was graded as 'junk' recently? Was someone invited to speculate straight away?
It is important to know the richest men of one's nation, and Ira Rennert is quite a man.

"we might have confused in the past two entirely different meanings of the word
“correspondence”: the first seems to rely on a resemblance between two elements
(signs on the map and territory, or, more philosophically words and worlds); while
the second emphasizes the establishment of some relevance that allows a navigator to
align several successive sign posts along a trajectory. While the first meaning implies what
William James called a salto mortale between two, and only two, end points through a
huge gap, the second defines what James called a deambulation between many
successive stepping stones in order to achieve the miracle of reference by making
sure that there are as little gap as possible between two successive links (James,
1907). Both are depending on correspondence, but one engages the mapping
impulse into an impasse (ironically recorded by Borges’ fable: is the map similar to
the territory?) while the other allows to move away from it and deploy the whole
chain of production that has always been associated with map making —as we
recognized above.
To make clear the difference between the two meanings, we are going to call
the first one the mimetic interpretation, and the second the navigational
interpretation of maps."
Bruno Latour et al.

peppi

Peppi Dlinnyichulok povest-skazka by Lungina L. Lindgren A.

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I heart Peppi, or Pippi, if you like. When I was in elementary school, the Soviet television version came out (1982) and to watch the premiere, i would have had to miss school. (That makes no sense to me, but is true. Perhaps, it was a case of one of those silly occasions, when a weekend was declared to begin on Friday, and all the Soviet citizenry had to put in a day of work on a Sunday following. Or maybe the anti-authoritarian streak in Peppi was deemed slightly dangerous: not quite dangerous enough to prohibit, but suspicious enough for the censorious television programmer not to grant it the primest spot.
Somehow I convinced my mother to let me stay home that day. At the time, I was just becoming friends with a prettiest girl in my class. ( at least that's how I remember her). Things weren't going well with my then girlfriend Olya, and I was eager to cultivate Oksana, who was the 'starosta' of our class (something like an honorary student, perfect grades, neatest demeanor and costuming, a model of disciplined young pioneer, who was responsible for reminding the other nine year olds to behave and to study). I lived in the old part of Baku, and every morning Oksana would come by my house, and i would take her to school always by a different route, through a different winding little alleyway, except on the day of Peppi the Movie. As I tried, leaning out the window, to blame the elaborate hoarseness of my voice on yesterday's ice cream (oh, how different from those other occasions when the real cough, initiator of a bronchitis, had to be concealed from the parents: "No,no, just choking on my saliva"), Oksana stomped her feet, and shouting like one who is being betrayed: "Liar! You just want to watch Peppi!", she raced away. That romance withered. Peppi is a zealous mistress and brooks no opposition.

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Istorii iz moei sobstvennoi zhizni by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The first part, describing her childhood in the 1930s and 40s is amazing. Moody, bizarre, scandalous, terrible, touching, gripping. The rest of the book is very informative, but has a different tone.She is forever in my personal museum, (excuse me, memory palace, with refreshments, flirting, light jazz, fountains, and all, although she is also guarding some pretty wicked trap doors in there) for having helped Yury Norstein with the script for "Tale of Tales'. I like her short stories quite a bit, although I know her more recent fairy tales better than her older, more naturalistic stories. But it may be that she is most important as the playwright of 'Cinzano'. I reserve judgment until i find a volume of her drama.

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died in June

David Markson
Arie "Lova" Eliav