Zaha Hadid will build no more

Zaha Hadid poses for a photograph in front of the redeveloped
Serpentine Sackler Gallery in Hyde Park [Oli Scarff/Getty Images]

Paul Crosby in The Conversation:
Zaha Hadid: an exceptional, complex, and inspirational person to work with

Hamid Dabashi at Al Jazeera:
Dame Diva Zaha Hadid will build no more

The Land of the Fox

Nice 'dog walk' at Tyrebagger just off the A96 half way between Aberdeen and Kintore.

The sign says: What's in a name?
The woodland gets its name from Tir a' Bhalgaire - Gaelic for the land of the fox.

Chloris

"As she talks, her lips breathe spring roses:
I was Chloris, who am now called Flora."  (Ovid)

Close-up of the goddess Chloris
from Boticelli's Primavera

Read more on Wikipedia.

Abschied von Guido Westerwelle

Klaus Brinkbäumer, Chefredakteur Der Spiegel, nimmt Abschied von Guido Westerwelle:

Der politische Betrieb stockte am Freitag, und dann verstummte er, ungläubig. Guido Westerwelle ist tot. Es war einer dieser Nachrichten, die so grausam sind, so gemein, dass man sie selbst dann nicht glauben kann, wenn man sie erwartet hat. Westerwelle, ehemaliger FDP-Vorsitzender, ehemaliger Außenminister, wurde nur 54 Jahre alt; er hatte die Qualen der Leukämie und die Qualen der Knochenmarktransplantation überstanden, so schien es, und dann überstand er all das eben doch nicht. Im November 2015 hatten mein Kollege Dirk Kurbjuweit und ich die Gelegenheit und durchaus die Ehre, mit Westerwelle über sein Leben und auch sein Leben mit dem Krebs zu sprechen: "Ich will weiterleben" hieß der SPIEGEL-Titel (den ganzen Text können Sie hier lesen). Wir sprachen in Köln über den Moment der Diagnose und fragten: "Haben Sie sich sofort mit dem Thema Tod befasst?" "Ja", sagte Westerwelle, "der Gedanke ist sofort da. Sie sitzen da, vergießen Tränen, Sie sind sehr traurig, und die Wahrscheinlichkeit ist ja nicht so groß, dass man diese Art von Leukämie überlebt. Ein wichtiger Gedanke war aber auch, dass ich in die Jahre meines Lebens viel hineingepackt habe. Ich habe viel erlebt, vieles gesehen und habe nichts versäumt." "Sie hatten ein perfektes Leben?" Und Westerwelle antwortete: "Das gibt es nicht, ich habe Menschen gekränkt und Fehler gemacht, aber ich wusste, dass ich ein erfülltes Leben gehabt hatte. Meine Antwort auf die Frage 'Was bereuen Sie?' wäre der Klassiker gewesen: Ich habe zu viel gearbeitet."

DPA

How a farm boy from Wales gave the world pi/π

An updated version of this blog post can now be found on the HE Translations blog at https://hetranslations.uk/blog/how-a-farm-boy-from-wales-gave-the-world-pi

Chris Huhne

Would be fair to describe Chris Huhne as one of Britains's more principled (ex-)politicians? His 'performance' at the memorable Shell/Daily Telegraph Energy Scenarios event in London a few years ago was impressive, as was his (unfortunately still very topical) broadside against anti-wind pontificators at the Renewable UK 2011 conference in Manchester, during which he referred to an "unholy alliance of short-termists, armchair engineers, climate sceptics and vested interests ... selling the UK economy short by their refusals to acknowledge the benefits that renewables will bring".

Update 28 July 2016: Has Chris Huhne been brainwashed?

Chris Huhne at the Delabole windfarm in Truro, England.
Photograph: Matt Cardy/Getty Images

Myanmar deforestation

Did you know that the forests in Myanmar are in crisis, and illegal deforestation has reached appalling levels? According to the Environmental Investigation Agency, every year, hundreds of millions of pounds worth of timber is being stolen from forests within Myanmar and then smuggled over the border to China, with the help of criminal networks and corrupt officials. More info on the EIA website.

Source: https://eia-international.org

No Point

Trotz anhaltender pronuklearer Propaganda von Seiten britischer 'Dinosaurier-Gewerkschaftsbosse' und in der Vergangenheit recht erfolgreicher entsprechender 'Gehirnwäsche' auf Seiten der Labour Party, scheint die von einem gewissen Mr Blair in die Wege geleitete nukleare Renaissance inzwischen mehr oder weniger definitiv dem Untergang geweiht zu sein.

Trump Donald

Impressive new Trump website  !!!

Keep Sunday Special

Interesting to note the Guardian headline: No 10 concedes Sunday trading defeat after Commons rebellion. The large number of more than 2000 comments indicates that this is clearly a 'hot' issue. The 'bottom line' (literally) in the Guardian article would appear to sum up the situation nicely: “The current Sunday trading rules are a fair compromise, which has worked well for over 20 years.”

Is there any hope that the irritating Sunday noise generated by DIY & gardening equipment and other sources (even noisy road repairs in residential areas!) that is all around us in Britain will become 'socially unacceptable', as in Germany, for example? 

 

Three Possibilities

Source: Savage Chickens

Mehr zum Thema bei Postillon unter der Überschrift:
Wissenschaftlich erwiesen: Alles Vollidioten außer Ihnen.

Durchschnittliche Person, bei der es sich nicht um Sie handelt
Quelle: Postillon

The mystery over the @ sign

According to today's edition of the BBC Magazine, no-one really knows where the @ sign came from! Continue reading here.

Eaton Hall

Did you know that the Duke of Westminster's seat is at Eaton Hall in Cheshire? See Wikipedia pages here and here. Not to be confused with Eton and the associated mess, of course.

On a related note, see also Grosvenor Estate website.

Neil Kennedy, via Wikimedia Commons

Lazy person

Rutland Avenue, Leicester. The 'graffiti' says:

STOP dumping on our street, you lazy person!

Word of the day: Trump

Did you know that in British English, trump can mean to pass wind?

Biodiversity enhancement

Impressive new biodiversity enhancement scheme at Aylestone Road, Leicester!

Any sarcasm in the above exclamation is entirely intentional...

Goetze Kolbenringe (piston rings) advert

Nice/interesting 'historic' advert (poster?) from a recent translation assignment

Placebo

Source and copyright:
http://www.savagechickens.com/2016/03/placebo.html

An epidemic of prepositional anarchy?

In his linguistically thought-provoking Guardian article under the heading "Back to prep school", Andy Bodle reckons that Harry Blamires, the author of The Penguin Guide to Plain English, is far from alone in thinking we are in “an epidemic of prepositional anarchy”.

His bottom-line advice is to "check the dictionary", although interestingly (and perhaps contradictorily?), he also refers to Google Ngram Viewer as a tool for trying to determine which version can be regarded as 'more correct', in cases where several 'legitimate' options exist, e.g. bored with/of, obsessed with/by, identical with/to.

Further reading: comprehensive Wikipedia page on prepositions, postpositions, circumpositions and adpositions.

HE Translations and Brexit

In the recent past, HE Translations has been asked for comments on the Brexit saga by the FSB, the BBC and the Society for the Environment. In response, here is an (admittedly somewhat simplistic) 'sound bite statement':

After the madness of WWI and WWII, it would be fundamentally crazy to undermine the foundations of the 'unity' achieved since then, not to mention environmental aspects.

Knallkopf of Kallstadt

In einem kürzlich von der Deutschen Welle veröffentlichten Artikel unter der Überschrift Donald Trump's German roots hieß es:

The ancestors of the "anti-immigrant" crusader Donald Trump come from a small village in western Germany. The documentary film "Kings of Kallstadt" explores the modest roots of the family's real estate empire.

In einem Welt-Artikel vom August 2015 stand zu lesen, dass man dem "schrillen Milliardär" in Kallstadt, dem Heimatdorf von Trumps Großeltern, auch nach seinen umstrittenen Auftritten die Stange hält. Als eine Art 'Entschuldigung' für Trumps Auftreten galt: "Er macht halt Brulljes", und es war durchaus auch von einer Art Bewunderung die Rede: "Der hot was druff".

Im Januar 2016 ging Julia Niemann von der Frankfurter Allgemeinen in einem Artikel unter der Überschrift "King of New York, Knallkopf of Kallstadt" weniger zimperlich mit dem "Großmaul" um und berichtete, dass Trump in Kallstadt gänzlich unpopulär sei.

René Pfister, Leiter Hauptstadtbüro DER SPIEGEL, ließ sich kürzlich gar zu der wenig schmeichelhaften Bezeichnung Monster hinreißen.

Meanwhile, hot-off-the-press bzw. druckfrisch erläutert Deborah Orr im Guardian, dass Trump und die britischen Brexiter einiges gemeinsam haben, und zwar: "A disregard for all but themselves. ... They’re anti an establishment that limits and contains them. They want to be at the centre of an establishment in which they are free to do whatever they please".

Quelle: Welt, Foto: Projekt Gold / Barnsteiner Film

European Central Bank

In the March edition of Management Today, Howard Davies reports on a recent visit to the European Central Bank, "now magnificently rehoused on the edge of the city in what used to be the fruit and vegetable market". He reports that "the basement of the vegetable market was rented out to the Nazi government two days a week and used to assemble Jews en route to the camps. ... The ECB has a thoughtful display commemorating the dark side of the building’s past on the ground floor", but he reckons the refurbished building plus new-built addition is "one of the most inspiring pieces of modern architecture" he knows.

Source: ECB website

Leonardo DiCaprio on climate change

Birdwatching: Starlings

According to the 1986 edition of the Kingfisher Field Guide to the Birds of Britain and Ireland, the common starling (Sturnus vulgaris) is a "highly successful and abundant species", and its status was reported as: "abundant and widespread resident and winter visitor".

However, the RSPB website contains this statement:

"Starling numbers have declined markedly across much of northern Europe and the UK. The decline in the UK started during the early 1980s and has continued ever since. Recent data from the Breeding Bird Survey suggest continuing population declines affecting starlings in England and Wales since 1995. The cause of the starling decline in the UK is unknown". And: "Because of this decline in numbers, the starling is red listed as a bird of high conservation concern".

See also March 2012 Guardian article under the heading Garden starlings in 79% UK decline.

Birdwatching: Blackcap

Can anyone confirm that this is a Blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla)? For Wikipedia entry see here.

Lake District: Helm Crag

Looking forward to trying this walk in September...

A walker takes in the early morning view across the Lake District national park
from the pinnacle of Helm Crag, near Grasmere,
Paul Kingston/North News and Pictures, Guardian Eyewitness series