Picture this.

Nasa, United Newsreels, Department of the Interior.
As Gavin says, hours of fun.
National Archives
Thanks, Gavin!

MTR system map

Above is a regular map of the local mass transit railway (click on image to enlarge). However, there's now a meme going: devising anagram plans of assorted tube, metro, mass transit and underground train systems.
The idea may have been inspired by Simon Patterson's The Great Bear, purchased by London's Tate Gallery in 1996: Tate/Bear.
But whoever it was decided to do their own version -- an anagram one -- and put it online for general enjoyment.
Evidently, what is suitable for a public gallery is not suitable for elsewhere: Transport for London has unleashed its legal rottweilers. So, the site has now gone down. No problem. The London Tube anagram plan is now mirrored here.
Lots of people have joined in -- a new Tubeway Army -- and it's fun if you know the places concerned.

If you're going underground, why do you need bother about geography? It's not so important. Connections are the thing.
Harry Beck, designer of the classic Tube map

For more about the London Underground:
Mapper's Delight and Tube Map Variations
As of today, there are two, yes, two versions for Hong Kong. Who ever you are, thank you!
Invisible Company
and
Notes from a Cube Dweller
Cube Dweller's has stations on the Island line which go from A Hen Swung, through Cal Rent, Dirty Lama, Inca Haw, A Saucy Way and all the way to Wah Inca. Oh, and the/an anagram for Lantau Island. . . who knew?

In praise of sushi

Mentioned a couple of weeks back how sushi is available from one of the food hawkers after 10pm on the waterfront of a little island in the South China Sea.
Well, guess what? Now there's a history of sushi, evolution of sushi, sushi goes global, local sushi.
Where?
Today's Guardian/Observer Food Monthly has a great article about, yes, sushi.

Belatedly, Happy Birthday!

Who wrote this?

Constant revolutionising of production, uninterrupted disturbance of all social conditions, everlasting uncertainty and agitation distinguish the bourgeois epoch from all earlier ones. All fixed, fast-frozen relations, with their train of ancient and venerable prejudices and opinions, are swept away, all new-formed ones become antiquated before they can ossify. All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned, and man is at last compelled to face with sober senses his real conditions of life, and his relations with his kind.
The need of a constantly expanding market for its products chases the bourgeoisie over the entire surface of the globe. It must nestle everywhere, settle everywhere, establish connexions everywhere.

Yea, verily, Karl Marx and Frederick Engels. It's from the first section of what is popularly known in English as the Communist Manifesto. A pamphlet, it was first published in German on 21 February 1848. An English edition quickly followed, most other European languages soon after.
Twenty-first February!
One hundred and fifty-plus years later, The Manifesto of the Communist Party is online at numerous sites, including: Marxists.org

Path finder

One of my regular ports of call is An Overgrown Path.
If you want to see why, click here.
One recent Overgrown Path post really caught my eye: Eric Whitacre outsells Mozart
Lots of stuff about Mr Whitacre.
Apparently, he is quite famous.
I had never heard of him.
Which says something about me, I suppose.
Anyway, it's a good read.
Toward the end of Overgrown Path's post, there is a link to an mp3 download.
So, I downloaded.
And listened.
Nice.
Go down the path some more?
The CD is called Cloudburst.
It's on the UK's Hyperion label.
Hyperion: Cloudburst
Fourteen poems set to music.
Choral works. Choral, works.
What works opens with a poem by E. E. Cummings.
It's E.E. Cummings, not ee cummings, nor e.e. cummings, by the way.
Don't believe me?
Brothers and sisters, see here: NOT "e.e. cummings"
Anyway, I recognized the title of the poem, and decided it deserved a public airing.
A websearch will easily find it, but Cummings was a stickler for typography and whatnot, and several versions out there in cyberspace (does anyone say "cyberspace" anymore?) are somewhat careless.
So. . . what follows is what I studiously transferred from my E. E. Cummings 100 Selected Poems (Grove Press edition).

i thank You God for most this amazing
day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky;and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun's birthday;this is the birth
day of life and love and wings:and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any--lifted from the no
of all nothing--human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

Cool, eh?
Cloudburst CD?
My birthday is coming up soon. I may just very well treat myself.

One for the Brighton crowd:

10 February 2006:

Ensconced with Norman Cook, Simon, Tom, Jim and others at Norm’s studio overlooking the Channel in Brighton. My previous impression of Brighton was when I played here at the Dome a couple of years ago in the summer. At that time my daughter was appalled and slightly frightened by all the drunken women in town, weaving and tottering and vomiting on every street. Now it is quiet and peaceful and the sunsets are glorious.

Life, according to ex-Talking Heads' David Byrne
(You might also like to check out some of the rest of Byrne's site, including Radio. Lots of good music!)

Mao: symbolic acts

In May 1989, protesters in Tiananmen Square in Beijing handed over to the security police three activists who had thrown red paint at the portrait of Mao which overlooks the square.
Convicted of sabotage and counter-revolutionary propaganda, journalist Yu Dongye was sentenced to 20 years, bus driver Lu Decheng was sentenced to 16 years, and friend Yu Zhijian was sentenced to life.
Almost seventeen years after that symbolic act in the Square of Heavenly Peace, Yu Dongyue, the last of the trio, has now been released from prison.
During his detention, Yu was very badly mistreated. As well as suffering bouts of brutal beating, Yu was subject to electro-shock treatment, and spent long periods in solitary confinement. Sadly, Yu has been reduced to a babbling shell, a wreck of a man. He is now 38.
According to the human rights watchdog Dui Hua Foundation, this leaves about 70 political prisoners still serving time for the 1989 protests. Tiananmen's broken rebel is freed: Times Online

(Amnesty International? Please, press the button that's in the column on the right)

Neil Young?

And Crazy Horse.
Live in New York City, 1970.
Mister Bijou's hot pick: Cowgirl in the Sand, all 14 minutes and 42 seconds of it.
Bliss.
Hurry now while stocks last.
For A Perfect Echo mp3s.

Hong Kong: Spiderman in court

The junction of Queen's Road Central, Pedder Street and D'Aguilar Street has long been the whirling kernel of Hong Kong's central business district. Lunchtimes, those streets and the ones adjoining are packed with office workers going about their own personal business.
Last 3 June, pedestrians and road traffic came to a halt when someone dressed as Spiderman appeared on top of the huge video screen on Queen's Road Central and unfurled a banner about the 1989 Tiananmen Square 4 June bloodbath.
The multitudes watched as Spiderman was soon joined by the members of the fire brigade (left) and police. Meanwhile, a huge yellow inflatable cushion was set up on Queen's Road Central. Road traffic was diverted.
Mr Pearce finally came down after his request for dim sum was granted. Whereupon the multitudes returned to the tedium of their fluorescent-lit, air-conditioned, windowless workplaces.
Now, Spiderman, aka Matt Pearce, is having his day in court. He is charged with causing a public nuisance:

Prosecutor Bina Sujanani said Pearce had failed to take into account the rights of the owners of the TV screen; the advertisers who paid for the use of the screen; the rights of the public to watch adverts on the screen and to shop; and the rights of the nearby shopowners who were affected by the disruption in the height of "golden" business hours.
Sujanani said Pearce's actions were not lawful ones that can be reasonably tolerated. She noted that a total of 44 policemen, firemen and ambulancemen were engaged for his action. She said his stunt was "nothing more than a prank."
Burkett replied: "Shopowners have to acknowledge there's no legal obligation on Hong Kong citizens to shop during their lunch break." He noted that anyone with the intention to make a purchase could still have accessed those shops.
"Thank Heavens," Burkett said, that Pearce offered lunch-time browsers an alternative to shopping, "either to shop, or watch the man on the TV screen. They chose to watch the man on the TV screen."

Report: Standard

Hong Kong inquest: Annie Pang

Although Annie Pang's (decapitated) skeletal remains were found in a Yau Ma Tei apartment owned by former chief secretary Anson Chan's brother in October 1999, it is only now that a coroner's inquest is taking place. This after previous decisions by both the police and coroner's office not to investigate the death.
Yesterday was the first day of the inquest. The story is all over the front pages of all the Chinese- and English-language newspapers. Standard.

Hong Kong: Don't Touch Live Poultry

Hong Kong Government TV announcements have always had a flat-footed yet je ne sais quoi quality about them. That, and the near-ubiquitous John Culkin doing the voice over.
The official avian flu TV announcements continue that fine tradition, including the Grand Award winner in the Best of Public Service Announcements at 2005 Questar, New York: Prevent Avian Flu
Better yet: The Avian Flu Collection
Or, how about Social Harmony? Take Care of Your Own Belongings? Your Vote Can Make Hong Kong A Better Place? Hungry Eyes need look no further: TVapi.

BBC cartoon news

(to enlarge: click on image)

Blue weekend

Ferry fares up 6.5%

Price hike announced 16 February 2006. New fares take effect as of 21 February 2006.

Despite strong protests from islanders, New World First Ferry will increase its fares by an average of 6.5 percent from next week, affecting 30,000 passengers daily.

Read more: Standard
Central/Cheung Chau; Central/Peng Chau; Central/Mui Wo
(Adult fare: one-way)
Weekdays
Ordinary ferry
Regular: HK$11.30
Deluxe: HK$17.80
Fast ferry: HK$22.20
Sundays & Public Holidays
Ordinary ferry
Regular: HK$16.70
Deluxe: HK$26.00
Fast ferry: HK$32.00
+
Peng Chau/Mui Wo/Chi Ma Wan/Cheung Chau
(Adult fare: one-way)
Inter-island ferry: HK$9.20

Hong Kong battles bird flu

Or something.
Ban on backyard poultry: Hong Kong's Standard

Hong Kong Marathon: only one death

On Sunday, the 2006 Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon took place in much less than ideal conditions: that day the local air pollution was the worst in the past five months.
Over 38,000 people ran. The men's full marathon was won by Simon Bor of Kenya in 2:14:18, and the women's by Dire Tune from Ethiopia in 2:35:01.
One of the other runners was 53-year-old Tsang Kam-yin, who apparently had a history of respiratory illness. He died early Tuesday morning at Princess Margaret Hospital , after collapsing unconscious Sunday at Ting Kau Bridge, Tsing Yi, during his third marathon, having completed about 13km of the 42.195km race. At time of this writing, cause of death unknown. Inquests, medical and otherwise, to follow. Meantime, condolences to Mr Tsang's family.

The Shipping News

No, this is not about that fine book by Annie Proulx. This is one of those 'six degrees of separation' thingies. And one of those 'if a butterfly beats its wings in the Amazon' thingies.
So Nick G is on an island-bound ferry and bumps into a M, who works for a shipping company on the Big Island. So far, so good.
As well as her regular grind, M, it turns out, has been dealing with the collateral damage that happens when a very big container ship runs aground on the coast of Mexico.
Among the customers who had cargo on the grounded vessel is one who had a container-full of frozen Thai shrimp. Sure enough, the refrigeration soon went down.
The shrimps? They gently cooked as they sat in the container that sat on the ship that sat on the sea-washed sands that sat on the sun-bathed coast of Mexico.
Result? Extra paperwork, phone calls and emails for the harried Ms M.
But ship ran aground, you say? Turns out it is one of those huge 550ft-long, ocean-going behemoths that weigh 15,000 tons and carry 30,000 tons of cargo. Takes five miles to stop, etc.
Unless you run it onto a beach, that is.
Or, rocks.
Usual story: sailing under an Antigua and Barbuda flag, owned by a company based in Bremen, Germany, chartered by a global transportation company, APL. The 25 men board were also an international group with the captain and officers from Croatia, first engineer from Poland, crew from Myanmar (Burma).
The ship went aground at Ensenada, Mexico.
On Christmas Day.
Christmas Day? Too much Christmas cheer? Who knows?
San Diego Union-Tribune is covering the story:
Tugboats tug and pull (14 January 2006)
Crew's Testimony (23 January 2006)
After helicopters, plan B (9 February 2006)
Another view: Gringo Gazette North
It's rough out there, the cruel sea. Plus, there are all sorts working the shipping lanes. A year or so ago New York Review of Books carried a review of a book about that -- The Outlaw Sea: Chaos and Crime on the World's Oceans, by William Langewiesche
The NYRB review is now in its pay-per-view archive. No matter. The book was very recently reviewed in the Guardian by Nicholas Lezard: the wide anarchic sea
Thanks for the news, Nick G!

Truth in advertising

Feeling hungry? Lots of good stuff here. For starters, try Treet

Spring Lantern Festival

Being the fifteenth day of the first lunar month in this the Year of the Dog, let the multitudes go forth and celebrate Spring Lantern Festival.

Consumer watch: the only red lanterns on a little island in the South China Sea are the ones left up from Chinese New Year. Oh, and I think they made this up:

During the festival, singles gather to play matchmaking games with the lanterns, to determine who will be their lover.

Switched on swingers? Here? I ought to get out more.
Anyway, tonight, there is a full moon.

Midnight munchies

Midnight, Saturday.
Feeling peckish, I took myself down to the waterfront to buy some sushi off the hawker who sells the stuff between 10pm and 2am.
Take away.
Salmon, eel, fish roe, and some shredded octopus.
Minimalism
Ms Hawker always sprinkles soy sauce over it all, then always asks me if I want wasabi. As usual, I reply in the affirmative, adding that I only want a little. She proceeds to drop a great dollop of the green stuff onto the sushi-laden polysterene tray. I smile, say 'thank you', and hand over my money. She puts the tray into a plastic bag, hands me the bag. We both say 'thank you'. In English and Cantonese.
Come home, eat the stuff.
Germ killer