Listening to Alexander Nevsky

.
My previous post mentioned Sergei Prokofiev's Alexander Nevsky as a means to explain how I had come across a musical piece that had been in my CD collection for many years but that I hadn't actually listened to until just a week ago. Now I'd like to look more closely at Nevsky itself.

The work is a cantata that was taken from the musical score Prokofiev wrote for a 1938 film of the same name directed by Sergei Eisenstein. Rather than rehash all the great descriptions of the work that are already floating around out there, I thought I would just reproduce an excerpt from the liner notes of the Chicago Symphony recording that was done under the direction of Fritz Reiner:

Alexander Nevsky deals with the Russian defense of Novgorod in 1242 against the invading Knights of the Teutonic Order. Prince Alexander Nevsky, through the power of his personality alone, gathered an enormous army and met the enemy on the frozen waters of Lake Chud. There he dealt them a humiliating defeat, thus saving his country from the brutality threatened by the German horde. (The film was made one year before the signing of the Soviet-Nazi pact, and sentiment in Russia was at that time violently anti-German.) With this epic and heroic tale as a pivot, Prokofiev created a score that equaled in every degree the dynamism and vitality of Eisenstein's movie.

That's a pretty good description of the work. And now, here are some bits from each movement that should give you a good sample of what Nevsky is all about. (These excerpts are from the recording of Charles Dutoit leading the Montreal Symphony.)


I. Russia Under the Mongolian Yoke
This movement is intended to depict a battered landscape, a Russia that has been devastated by the Mongols. The music is desolate and sear, suggesting hopelessness and despair. Interesting that the piece opens with this mood.





II. Song About Alexander Nevsky
The Russians sing of past military glory, and they call on the people to prepare for the next threat. A very martial sound, stirring and inspiring. Appropriate for a call to arms.





III. The Crusaders in Pskov
The Teutonic Knights enter Pskov to the sound of ominous, doom-filled music. Imagine Darth Vader in medieval armor riding a dark horse, make it darker, and then you will have pretty decent picture to go along with such threatening music. The lyrics here are in Latin to reflect the Roman Church's influence over the knights, and their English translation is (roughly) "As a foreigner, I expected my feet to be shod with cymbals."





IV. Arise, Ye Russian People
Now with the invaders in Pskov, the Russian folk are urged to run to battle. Patriotic and grand, the music underscores the urgent call to defend the motherland.





V. The Battle on the Ice
The battle begins, and the forces clash on a frozen lake. Chaos and mayhem rule, and the Teutonic (German) theme comes back to duel with the Alexander Nevsky (Russian) theme first presented in second movement. The Russians are victorious, and the Teutons sink beneath the frigid waters of the lake.





VI. Field of the Dead
After the battle, a lonely woman walks the field of the dead. She mourns the passing of the brave soldiers, but she also praises their fighting spirit, and the music is appropriately somber. Strange that this is called the Field of the Dead given that the battle took place on a frozen lake.





VII. Alexander's Entry into Pskov
Victorious, Alexander Nevsky returns to Pskov to receive the praise and adulations of the people. The music is celebratory as the Russians sing songs of rejoicing.





A grand piece, and one of my favorites. If you like this kind of robust, boisterous classical music, I suggest you get your own copy of Alexander Nevsky and listen to it over and over again. I don't think you will be disappointed.

P.S.: Just remember to get a recording where the lyrics are sung in Russian! Much better than that weird version by Fritz Reiner where they sing in English!

Finding a gem

.
I recently came across a gem in my music collection, a little treasure that I didn't even know I had. Here is a sample:



That is the overture to Russlan & Ludmila, an opera by Mikhail Glinka. It's not the most inspired piece in the repertoire, but it is fun to listen to, as many overtures are.

So, why didn't I know that I had this piece? Because it is an extra on a CD that I bought a long time ago, a disk that was made to showcase another, grander work that I decided I didn't care for enough to even finish listening to the rest of the CD.

Allow me to explain:

Many years back I discovered a piece by Sergei Prokofiev called Alexander Nevsky. This work is a cantata put together by Prokofiev and based on music he composed for a 1938 Russian film of the same name. I’ve never seen the movie, but the cantata is breathtaking. After hearing some of the music on a sampler, I went out and bought this CD featuring the Montreal Symphony performing under the direction of Charles Dutoit.



I thoroughly enjoyed it at the time, and I still do.

But I needed another recording. You see, I have a habit of buying at least one other recording of a piece I enjoy very much just to get a different interpretation of it. Different conductors, performers, and orchestrations imbue new character to familiar pieces, and I feel I get to know a work better by hearing it in a new version. So I bought this CD, which is Fritz Reiner’s take on Alexander Nevsky using the Chicago Symphony.



And I was sorely disappointed.

For one main reason: the lyrics were in English!

My concern may be nit-picky, but the work is about a Russian figure, and it was written by a Russian composer, and my first exposures to it featured Russian lyrics. To me, Alexander Nevsky should be sung in Russian, and I found it oddly unsettling to hear the lyrics in a language I understood! It’s weird, but I was totally turned off to Reiner’s version, and I put aside the CD in a fit of pique and forgot about it.

But, in doing so, I missed out on the Glinka overture!

See, in the world of classical music recordings, albums that feature longer, broader works are often rounded out with a “bonus” work, a short piece that is somewhat in the same character and really just functions as filler for the end of the recording. These are often overtures for ballets or operas, and that’s what RCA Victor chose to put at the end of the Reiner recording. But, since I had never listened to the whole CD all the way through, I never actually heard the piece.

Until this past weekend.

I came across this CD again while going through my collection, and for some reason I decided to listen to the whole thing. To my surprise, the English lyrics didn’t bother me as much as they used to, and I found myself liking this version just as much as the original CD I bought. But even more pleasing than that is I got all the way through to the last track and listened to the Russlan and Ludmila overture for the first time. And I was happy to hear it.

I didn’t write this long post to say how great the Glinka piece is. It’s fun, but it’s not spectacular. No, I wrote this to remind myself that I need to pay a little more attention to things and to not write off the whole for one bad bit. You never know what gems you will find that way.

Victoria Crater

.
Here is a new image of Victoria Crater on Mars taken by HiRISE.



Stunning.

Image courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona. Story at Space.com here.

Musing on panspermia

.
Leave it to T-Rex to find the silly in serious science. (Click to expand comic.)



A crazy Friday night, indeed. Especially when aliens are involved.

Looking at a meteorite

.
On Mars.



Image courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell University

That rock is called Block Island, and NASA has just confirmed that it is, indeed, a meteorite.

Sunday sonnet: John Donne

.
John Donne was a very religious man. And he was a spectacular writer who put together poetry that was groundbreaking in his day and still ripe for analysis in this age. Here, today, is one of his Holy Sonnets, one of many complex pieces that illustrate his relationship with God.

This poem was written in 1633. The placements of the commas and apostrophes are accurate, and they demonstrate how poets used to struggle to maintain meter in their works. In this case, as in many poems of the age, the meter is iambic pentameter.


14

Batter my heart, three-personed God; for You
As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;
That I may rise and stand, o'erthrow me,'and bend
Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
I, like an usurped town, to'another due,
Labor to'admit You, but O, to no end;
Reason, Your viceroy'in me, me should defend,
But is captíved, and proves weak or untrue.
Yet dearly'I love You,'and would be lovéd fain,
But am betrothed unto Your enemy.
Divorce me,'untie or break that knot again;
Take me to You, imprison me, for I,
Except You'enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except You ravish me.

Rhyme scheme: abba abba cd cd ee

Vintage ad: 1993

.
Do you remember digital compact cassettes?



I don't. But if this old advertisement from the early 1990s is any indication, apparently someone thought this would be a good format to compete with the compact disc.

Obviously, the DCC never did take hold. It was just one of those experimental formats that got crowded out by another format or that never really appealed to the masses. Seeing this ad reminded me of a time (probably about the same time) when I went to an electronics store to buy a replacement home CD player for one that had died. I knew what I wanted -- a carousel with at least five trays so I could get a decent randomization that would play for a few hours -- and I said as much to the store employee that asked if he could help me find something. So, I was a little surprised when he said (I'm paraphrasing as best as I can remember), "Oh, no. What you want to get is a MiniDisc player."

I said, "What?"

He said, "The MiniDisc. It's the new format, and it's the direction that the industry is going. You'd be wise to go ahead and get it because compact discs are on their way out."

Now I had already undergone a format conversion some years prior. When my old turntable died, vinyl had pretty much been disappearing from local record stores, and I decided to make the wholesale switch to digital music by buying a CD player. Shortly after, I sold off my LPs and singles and used the money to buy a bunch of compact discs. So, when my first CD player gave up the ghost, I was more than willing to get another one. In fact, I was upgrading from a single-drawer model to a carousel with a random-play feature.

And here was this guy telling me that's not what I wanted. He was telling me I wanted something else, something that played a format I was unfamiliar with, something that would require me to get rid of -- and rebuild -- my music collection all over again.

So I told him, "No, I think I'm going to stay with a CD player." I was being polite.

I was rewarded with a snort. "You can do that, but no one's going to be producing CDs anymore."

I was a little miffed. I said, "So, what, they're going to be making nothing but these mini-disks from now on?"

"Yeah."

"I don't think so. I think this is just a flash in the pan."

Now he was miffed. "What? This is something that's being embraced by musicians and afficionados because of its superior quality. It provides a much better audio experience, and it does blah-blah-blah, and yackity-smackity, and technobabble ... and all that ... ..."

"But," I interrupted, "that's not what's out there. Stores sell nothing but compact discs right now. Perhaps if the mini-disk catches on, I might consider switching. But I have a whole bunch of CDs, and the record stores sell CDs, and if the mini-disk goes the way of the 8-track, I will still have my CDs. So, I need a CD player. With a carousel that holds at least five disks. And no mini-disk player."

Very few times have I seen someone hired to help paying customers actually show open, glaring contempt toward a person who is willing to spend money in that particular store. But that's what I got that day. He looked at me for a couple of seconds, and I could read all of his thoughts. "Fine," he finally said. "The CD players are over there." And he walked off without another word.

Now, I don't know why I didn't say something that day. I should have asked for the store manager and expressed my disapproval of the condescending attitude I got. I should have just left the store and spent my money elsewhere. But I didn't. I found the CD player I wanted, I paid for it (and the checkout lady was very nice to me), and I got many years of enjoyment out of it.

And, guess what? I still have all of my CDs. Sure, they're all ripped to my computer, and I listen to most of my music on an MP3 player now, but I still have them. And I don't have a single MiniDisc in my collection.

Feeding the sharks

.
Despite our best efforts to love cute animals, nature can be so cruel, dashing our feelings at every turn.

Dunham, a juvenile male dolphin, was released Tuesday morning after eight months in rehab recovering from pneumonia.

Jeni Hatter, spokeswoman for the Clearwater [Florida] Marine Aquarium, said the dolphin was attacked twice by at least two different sharks. Hatter said experts nearby were monitoring the dolphin with a VHF radio transmitter at the time of the attack.

Hatter said experts rushed to the dolphin and euthanized him because of the life-threatening injuries.

Animals eat other animals. It's not very pretty.

Most redundant headline of the day

.
"DPS Choppers Help Aid Local Agencies"

What I just finished reading

This is the second book of C.S. Lewis's Space Trilogy: Perelandra.

Since I had already read the first book in the series, Out of the Silent Planet, and since I had bought the third one (That Hideous Strength) because it was on sale for four dollars, and since I held a Barnes and Noble gift card with twenty dollars on it, I thought I would go ahead and get Perelandra to round things out. And, since I had already read the first one, I naturally gave the second one a chance.

In short, this story is not bad. But if you're thinking of reading it, be warned: it is entirely about religion, more so than the first book. As Alan from Blogonomicon said here, the only thing science fictiony about Perelandra is that it takes place on Venus rather than Earth. This seems to be Lewis's attempt to write an explanation of how he sees the Christian religion, to "justify the ways of God to men," as John Milton described his reason for writing the classic poem, Paradise Lost.

In Lewis's work, Ransom, the protagonist from Out of the Silent Planet, travels by angel power to Venus, called Perelandra. There he meets that planet's Adam and Eve figures, and he literally battles Satan to keep him out of the still-young paradise. The story starts off kind of slow, but it picks up when Ransom and the Devil start beating the crap out of each other and engage in a pursuit across the ocean and underground where magma flows and strange beasts lurk. Unfortunately, this isn't until page 128 of a 190-page book.

But it's not a bad read. If you like this kind of stuff, give it a try. It's not a long book. But if you're turned off by religious tales or if you're not Christian and therefore might be unfamiliar with some of the religion's finer points, you might want to give it a pass because some of the references might seem obscure.

Hopefully soon I will start on the next book, That Hideous Strength. I'm curious to see where Ransom will go from here.

Forty years of footprints

.
May they last forever.



[Music from The Eagle Has Landed by Saxon]

Plumbing in space

No matter how exotic or awesome space travel may seem, it still has its problems, especially when the commodes start acting up.

One of two toilets on the International Space Station is apparently broken, NASA announced Sunday.

It's too early to tell if the toilet has a serious problem, or can be fixed quickly, space station flight director Brian Smith said.

The station is currently host to 13 people - a record number of crewmembers onboard at once. While that toilet, which is in the U.S. Destiny laboratory, is down, astronauts can use the other almost identical facility in the Russian Zvezda service module, as well as the toilet onboard the space shuttle Endeavour, which has been docked since Friday.

"We don't yet know the extent of the problem," Smith said. "It could turn out to be of no consequence at all. It could turn out to be significant."

(from Space.com)

Naming

.
Do you hate your name? It could be worse. You could actually have a name so bad that you end up on Oddee's list of "13 Most Unfortunate Names for their Jobs".

Here's #11:



Do you think he knows?

Most eye-catching headline of the day

.
"Upcoming Military Robot Could Feed on Dead Bodies"

A Maryland company under contract to the Pentagon is working on a steam-powered robot that would fuel itself by gobbling up whatever organic material it can find — grass, wood, old furniture, even dead bodies.

Robotic Technology Inc.'s Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot — that's right, "EATR" — "can find, ingest, and extract energy from biomass in the environment (and other organically-based energy sources), as well as use conventional and alternative fuels (such as gasoline, heavy fuel, kerosene, diesel, propane, coal, cooking oil, and solar) when suitable," reads the company's Web site.

That "biomass" and "other organically-based energy sources" wouldn't necessarily be limited to plant material — animal and human corpses contain plenty of energy, and they'd be plentiful in a war zone.

EATR will be powered by the Waste Heat Engine developed by Cyclone Power Technology of Pompano Beach, Fla., which uses an "external combustion chamber" burning up fuel to heat up water in a closed loop, generating electricity.

So, is this the rise of the machines, or the rise of the zombies? Or both?

You decide.

Sunday sonnet: Gerard Manley Hopkins

More dense expression from Mr. Hopkins, an 1877 poem about the wonders of the deity.


"God's Grandeur"

The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
- It will flame out, like the shining from shook foil;
- It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
- An all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
- And wears man's smudge and shares man's smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

And for all this, nature is never spent;
- There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
- Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs---
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
- World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.


Rhyme scheme: abba abba cdcdcd

Answering the RNC

.
Michael Steele, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, sent me a letter. And a survey. I'm not sure why he did it; I'm not a member of any political party, and my voting record -- just by virtue of living in a city where most of the politicians are Democrats -- probably includes more Democrats than Republicans. But he did, and if he went to all that trouble, then surely I can spare a few moments to respond to his survey.

Of course, the letter and survey are really nothing more than fund-raising devices, so I'm pretty sure they were meant for actual members of the Republican Party and not just little old me. But I'm going to fill out the survey anyway. I'm not sending the GOP any money, but I think I will send them my opinions, just for the heck of it.

The survey is called the "2009 Obama Agenda Survey." It includes fifteen questions, and I'm supposed to answer each one yes, no, or no opinion. There are no blanks for me to fill out explaining my answers, so the GOP won't know why I'm answering them the way I am, but I would like someone else to know besides me. So I will explain them here.


1. Do you agree with Barack Obama's budget plan that will lead to a $23.1 trillion deficit over the next ten years?

No. I don't like any plan that increases spending or adds or expands programs. The U.S. government spends way too much as it is, and it never does enough to cut spending, if at all.


2. Do you believe the federal government has gone too far in bailing out failing banks, insurance companies, and the auto industry?

Yes. And in all fairness this horrible parade of bailouts began with George W. Bush. The first dollar of any bailout for a bank or insurance company or car company was going too far for me, and all that started before Obama took over. He just picked up the ball and ran like hell with it once he was sworn in.


3. Do you support amnesty for illegal immigrants?

No. Not generally. Specific cases might require some leniency, but blanket amnesty is a bad idea.


4. Should English be the official language of the United States?

No. I assume Steele is talking about a Congressional decree. By default, English already is the official language of our country, and I don't think we need Congress making a law saying that it is. Besides, if you legally acknowledge English as the official language of the U.S., then you're going to have to start making lists of recognized second languages, and if you start down that path you might as well recognize all languages because someone somewhere is going to claim even the most obscure tongue as the language they speak at home. Including Klingon. Or [gasp!] Esparanto!


5. Are you in favor of granting retroactive Social Security eligibility to illegal immigrants who gain U.S. citizenship through an amnesty program?

Yes. I don't agree with amnesty, but, hey, if our government decides to make someone a citizen of the United States, then that person deserves all the rights and privileges that other citizens have, including access to Social Security. I don't know what the "retroactive" term means here, but if you've gone and provided amnesty, and you've provided citizenship, and you've provided Social Security benefits, then making some "retroactive" determination seems like pointless nitpicking.


6. Are you in favor of the expanded welfare benefits and unlimited eligibility (no time, education or work requirements) that Democrats in Congress are pushing to pass?

No. Going back to question 1, I think government should be looking at ways to cut back on programs, not expand them.


7. Do you believe that Barack Obama's nominees for federal courts should be immediately and unquestionably approved for their lifetime appointments by the U.S. Senate?

No. Of course not. Lively debate is good.


8. Do you believe that the best way to increase the quality and effectiveness of public education in the U.S. is to rapidly expand federal funding while eliminating performance standards and accountability?

No. See question 1.


9. Do you support the creation of a national health insurance plan that would be administered by bureaucrats in Washington, D.C.?

No. That's just more federal spending.


10. Do you believe that the quality and availability of healthcare will increase if the federal government dictates pricing to doctors and hospitals?

No. It might, but I don't think it will.


11. Are you confident that new medicines and medical treatments will continue to be developed if the federal government controls prescription drug prices and sets profit margins for research and phamaceutical companies?

Yes. Advancements will be made. They may be government-driven, and they may not be done as well as in the private sector, but I am certain that new medicines and treatments will continue to be developed.


12. Are you in favor of creating a government-funded "Citizen Volunteer Corps" that would pay young people to do work now done by churches and charities, earning Corps Members the same pay and benefits given to military veterans?

No. The charities are doing their jobs, and the members of the military are doing theirs. We don't need another spending program.


13. Are you in favor of reinstituting the military draft, as Democrats in Congress have proposed?

No. The military is working fine as it is. There's no point in a draft.


14. Do you believe that the federal government should allow the unionization of Department of Homeland Security employees who serve in positions critical to the safety and security of our nation?

No. The need for unions is no longer what it once was. We don't need more unionization of our workforce.


15. Do you support Democrats' drive to eliminate workers' right to a private ballot when considering unionization of their place of employment?

No. Open ballots lead to voter intimidation. In almost all circumstances. The secret ballot is a valuable component of a democracy.


That's it. I answered my questions, and I'm sending them to the Republican National Committee, sans contribution. My responses will probably get tossed since I didn't enclose a check, but at least I got a good, long blog post out of it. And I feel as if I've done a little bit of my civic duty.

Do you think that will get me out of my next jury summons?

Word/name of the day

.
Hm.

I'm trying to decide if this is real. I have my doubts, but I know the Chaucer reference, so I also believe it somewhat.


WARNING: The easily-offended should not click the link above.

Eating well

.
Today I had some very delicious chunks of one of the best watermelons I have ever tasted.

I took a knife to it, a big serrated bread knife, and I began to slice through the green rind. I had cut almost halfway through when the fruit burst of its own accord, spilling juice and very ripe pieces onto my counter top. I grabbed one and popped it into my mouth. And I savored its ripeness. Then I cut off many pieces and gave them to my family.

Crisp, and juicy.



One of the best ways to spend a summer afternoon.

Happy Independence Day

Lunar evening

.
Remember the moon? We're going to be learning a lot more about it in coming years because of the new Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has started sending back pictures.

Like this one:



Image courtesy NASA/GFSC/ASU. Get the story at Space.com.

Marina evening

Fishing's over. Sailing's over. Time to pack it in for the day.

World's greatest guitarist?

.
Or just damn good at video editing?

You decide.



(via LGF)

Something tells me that the guy in the video can actually play that piece (though not with so many voices). A mind and will that has the patience and creativity to put together such a video also should also have the patience to practice and actually learn the piece.

Do languages have value because they exist?

.
Steven Bird at Language Log talks about Usarufa, a language of Papua New Guinea that is in danger of dying out. He wanted to pass on the seriousness of the language's fate to its native speakers, so he turned to an audio aid.

I played them a recording of the "last words" of the Jiwarli language of Western Australia. After some questioning looks I explained that this language is now dead, and we were listening to its last speaker before he died. As one they all looked down, shaking their heads in disbelief and saying sorry, sorry, sorry…. It was as if I told them a mutual friend had died. They urged me to put that recording on a cassette tape so they could take it back to their village. That way, everyone would surely understand what will happen to the Usarufa language unless there are serious attempts to revitalize it.

This story struck some readers of the Language Log as especially poignant, and it elicited such comments as this:

Thank you for this! I'm often struck by how apparently uncomprehending many people are about the gravity of language death.

And this:

The technique you’ve discovered seems to be effective in conveying the gravity of language death to people, and I’d recommend it to anyone else who has trouble convincing a group whose language is endangered.

And this:

This made me a little weepy.

These reactions prompted me to pop into the comments section and say this:

I understand that many people, including non-linguists, think it is a bad thing that languages die out, but why do they take it so hard? Is it simply an emotional gut reaction? Does a language — any language, including English — have an intrinsic value simply because it exists? Or, if it reaches the point where there are no more native speakers and it loses its value as a tool of communication, is it just as well that it passes into the realm of history?

I'm not saying this as a troll. I'm truly curious because, even though I appreciate the beauty of well-written words, I also realize that languages die out from time to time, and I don't think humanity is the lesser for it. In fact, we continue to reach for the stars, to better ourselves and our neighbors, and to make grand new discoveries. Think of me as insensitive if you like, but I wonder why the death of a little-used language always so horrifying.

What do you think? Is the death of a language always a horrible thing? Do languages possess a value because they simply exist? Or is a language a neutral tool that is used to pass on information, and when that tool is no longer needed it can be cast aside without emotional attachment?

I'm truly curious.

Auto-tune the news!

.
#4!



(Hat tip: Dubbing is Fun)

Squabbling over a word

.
Or should I say ****bbling over a word?

STOCKTON SPRINGS, Maine -- For nearly a decade, locals here have been fighting American Indians over the name of a dead-end dirt road.

The lane in question, on a woodsy bluff overlooking the ocean, was once called Squaw Point Road. Maine banned the word "squaw" from place names in 2000, in deference to Indians who consider it racist. Names such as Squaw's Bosom Mountain and Little Squaw Brook quietly receded into history.

But residents here played Scrabble with the spelling instead. They renamed the road Squawpoint -- then later, Squa Point and Squapoint, complying with the letter of the law but not with its spirit, critics say.

The resistance prompted the state into action again. This month, Maine lawmakers amended the law to ban public place names that include "the designation 'squa' or any derivation of 'squa' as a separate word or as a separate syllable in a word."

Lesley Cosmano, a retired Chicago schoolteacher who moved here with her husband in 2005, finds the amendment ridiculous. "This means birds can no longer squawk, people can't squabble" and town squares might be outlawed, she says, in her dining room with views of Penobscot Bay -- namesake of one of Maine's largest Indian tribes.

(From the Wall Street Journal)

It's an interesting look into small-town politics.

Answer: guilty pleasure

.
OK, here is my all-time musical guilty pleasure.


Ready?


It's the Moody Blues.

I can't help it, I love to listen to that band! From their hippy-dippy space travel stuff from decades ago through the 1980s synth-fests to wherever they ended up, I can't help grooving when I hear a Moody Blues song. That's odd coming from me. As you may know, if you have been reading this blog for a while, I am a fan of heavy metal (Iron Maiden in particular), and I can thrash with the best of them. That's why I don't share my guilty pleasure too readily. I get some stange looks if I do.

Anyway, I like to listen to the Moody Blues. A lot. And, just to jog your memory if you haven't heard them for some time, here is a brief medley:




There. I've shared. Now you. What's your musical guilty pleasure?

Question: guilty pleasure

.
Here's your chance to share if you dare: As far as music goes, what is your guilty pleasure?

You know what I'm talking about -- that song or band or musical artist that you know you shouldn't like (given your personal tastes in music, and given the subject's badness, wimpiness, overexposure, etc.) yet you do anyway. Perhaps you are a little ashamed of yourself, or perhaps you've come to grips with your choice, but you know you have one. What is it? What is your musical guilty pleasure?

I'll tell you mine shortly.

Bringing light to the blind

.
Absolutely cool.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

We are becoming cyborgs, and the future looks good.

"Alaska's Rat Island rat-free after 229 years"

.
Ambitious. Wiping out one species so that others can live.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) – Alaska's Rat Island is finally rat-free, 229 years after a Japanese shipwreck spilled rampaging rodents onto the remote Aleutian island, decimating the local bird population.

After dropping poison onto the island from helicopter-hoisted buckets for a week and a half last autumn, there are no signs of living rats and some birds have returned, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Rats have ruled the island since 1780, when they jumped off a sinking Japanese ship and terrorized all but the largest birds on the island. The incident introduced the non-native Norway rat -- also known as the brown rat -- to Alaska.

The $2.5 million Rat Island eradication project, a joint effort between the U.S. federal government, the Nature Conservancy and Island Conservation, is one of the world's most ambitious attempts to remove destructive alien species from an island.

But aren't we all introduced species at one point or another in history? Who says that after over 200 years that the rats didn't have a claim on the island?

Just askin'.

Checking in

.
I anticipate a very busy week. Blogging may be light for a few days.

A Norman Rockwell America

.
Was life more dangerous in the old days? And, if it was, did that make it more fun?

Placed below is a portion of Norman Rockwell's 1947 painting Going and Coming. Rockwell is famous for depicting positive scenes of American life in a way that reflected realism and caricature, and this painting is no different. In it, a family -- including the dog and Grandma -- are going out on a fine day to have some fun at a nearby body of water, and you can tell they eagerly anticipate that fun.



But that was the 1940s. They would have had a blast, for sure, but if this scene were to play out today, I don't think they would have had as much fun. That's because the first police car they passed would pull them over and cite them for numerous activities that were once ignored but are now against the law because they are too dangerous. For example:

1. No one's wearing a seatbelt. I don't think there is any jurisdiction in the United States today where it isn't required for at least the driver and front seat passenger to buckle up. However you may feel about mandatory seatbelt usage, the laws were enacted to protect you.

2. The youngest child is not in a car seat. In fact, she's in her mother's lap. Again, the law says you must have young children in car seats for their protection, and it doesn't matter if you're Britney Spears either.

3. Dad is smoking in the car. It's not yet illegal to smoke in your own car with children present, but there are some state legislators who want to make it so. In any case, there is a whole raft of anti-smoking laws everywhere that restrict the use of tobacco because it's viewed as dangerous.

These activities were innocent back in the day, but they are frowned upon (at the very least) today because others are watching out for our safety. We may be more safe these days, but are we having as much fun?

And would Norman Rockwell have as much to paint about?

Two buildings morning

Nothing but a couple of tall buildings on a beautiful day, standing side by side.

Hurting in space

.
Since we are creatures of gravity, traveling in the relative weightlessness of space is always going to present a problem. Unless we can develop reliable artificial gravity, we will always have to find ways to address muscle atrophy, sickness, decline in immunity, and other problems. But this is the first time I have heard that we will always need to pack Tylenol on our trips.

Clara Moskowitz of Space.com has the story:

Traveling to space is a lot of fun, but can also be a headache. Literally.

A new study of 17 astronauts found that the majority of them experienced painful headaches when they traveled beyond Earth. The findings prompted doctors to call for designating space headaches as a new "secondary disorder."

Space headaches have been reported before, but until now they were thought to be related to the common motion sickness astronauts experience in space. The new study found that the two maladies are not actually connected.

"Our research shows that space flights may trigger headaches without other space motion sickness symptoms in otherwise super healthy subjects," said lead researcher Alla Vein of the Leiden University Medical Center in The Netherlands.

"Space headaches." I hate Earth headaches. The space variety must be just miserable.

Going to the moon, Romanian style

.
In a bid for the Google Lunar X Prize, the Romanian team has come up with an unorthodox approach that involves balloons and balls.

That tested technology includes a balloon that can carry ARCA [Aeronautics and Cosmonautics Romanian Association]'s European Lunar Explorer (ELE) space probe into the upper atmosphere, eliminating the need for a traditional launch pad and allowing ARCA to launch close to the equator from a sea platform. The "0" pressure balloon design is similar to a giant black hot-air balloon that uses solar energy to heat the air inside, instead of the burner that normal hot-air balloons use.

Once the balloon soars above 11 miles (18 km), the three-stage rocket slung below will fire and boost itself into low Earth orbit. ELE will then travel to the moon and deploy its Lunar Lander, which resembles a knobby rubber ball that uses its own rocket engine to ensure a soft landing.

The Google Lunar X Prize requires teams to land a robot on the moon, move at least 1,640 feet (500 meters) and beam high definition views back to Earth. ARCA's round lander would skim the lunar surface using its rocket engine.

Unlike some teams with plans for lunar rovers or crawlers, ARCA sprang for the easiest lunar lander they could design. The team's focus is on getting to the moon, as opposed to what happens once they get there.

"Our design for the lander is extremely simple, it's a sphere," Sburlea said. "It's too complicated, too expensive to build a robot."

Interesting approach, but I wonder if that will qualify for the prize. It seems that the criteria calls for the lander to land first and then move across the surface, and it looks like the Romanians are more concerned with just getting there in one piece. Which, of course, is an admirable goal itself.

I wish them luck.

Seeing how far we've come

.
Probably because this is hitting the theaters ...




... the SciFi channel was running this all day long today:




I caught the tail end of one episode, and another was just starting when my seven-year-old son walked in and asked me what I was watching.

Me: This is a TV show I used to watch when I was a kid like you. We used to watch it on Saturday mornings.

My son: What's happening to those people?

Me: They're getting taken away to the Land of the Lost, where dinosaurs and lizard people live.

My son: What happened? Did they get shrunk first? 'Cause that's just a little creek.

Me: No, the special-effect world was much bigger then.

I don't think he bought it.

Remember

Memorial Day 2009
Fort Sam Houston

What I just finished reading today

My inspiration to seek out, find, and read this book came from a conversation in the comments of this post. While discussing Iron Maiden's Brave New World album, I included a sample of the song "Out of the Silent Planet." Totally unaware of C.S. Lewis's science fiction works, I was surprised when Alan from Blogonomicon told me that the name of the Maiden song came from this book. I was intrigued. Iron Maiden has based some of their songs on literary works, and I was hoping that this would also be the case and I would find a satisfying connection after reading the book.

But it was not to be.

Apparently this is one of those Maiden songs that simply borrows the name of the book without cleaving to the subject matter. Just as Maiden's "Stranger in a Strange Land" has nothing to do with Robert Heinlein's classic, Stranger in a Strange Land, so also Maiden's "Out of the Silent Planet" has nothing to do with Lewis's work.

Oh, well. I like the song, and I like the book. I suppose I can enjoy them both separately as well as together.

Later, if I'm so inspired, I might put up a review of Out of the Silent Planet. The book, that is.

Komodos are venomous

.
For a long time, people in the know thought the bites of Komodo dragons were deadly because of the septic properties of their mouths. Supposedly the high levels of bacteria left behind by a bite were enough to kill a person with infection.

Now they think otherwise.

SYDNEY (AFP) – The world's largest lizard, the Komodo dragon, has a snake-like venom in its bite which sends victims into shock and stops their blood from clotting, according to Australian research.

It had been widely believed that deadly bacteria in the carnivorous lizard's mouth helped kill its prey.

But magnetic resonance imagery has for the first time uncovered venom glands containing a shock-inducing poison which increases blood flow and decreases blood pressure, scientists say.

Lead researcher Bryan Fry said three-dimensional computer imaging comparing the Komodo's bite with that of Australia's saltwater crocodile showed it used a "grip and rip" pulling manoeuvre to tear deep wounds, similar to a shark or sabre cat.

Fry surgically removed a venom gland from a terminally ill Komodo at Singapore Zoo for the study, and said it contained a highly toxic poison which would induce potent stomach cramps, hypothermia and a drop in blood pressure.

Can those damn creatures get much more scary than that? First, they're big. Second, they're fast and aggressive. Now, they're poisonous. Geez, what else can this monster muster to scare us?

Brute force in space

.
Astronauts can be tough, when they need to be. They can even rip things apart in space.

After two separate attempts to unscrew the bolt out with different custom-made tools - Plans A and B - Mission Control finally gave [astronaut Michael] Massimino the go ahead to just rip the handrail off, while taking care not to lose any of the broken pieces. The handrail was attached to a cover plate with four bolts, three of which were easily removed. It was the last bolt that stuck fast, apparently because it was stripped.

"Make sure you're ready," said astronaut Andrew Feustel, who was coaching the spacewalkers from inside Atlantis.

Mission Control warned the astronauts that it would take some serious strength to bend the handrail and shear off the stuck bolt. Massimino braced himself, then let loose. Mission Control was essentially blind as Atlantis passed out of live video range.

"Easy Mike, just real easy," [astronaut Michael] Good said.

"There we go! I think I got it," Massimino said. "I don't think we even scattered any debris."

And then give it a stout kick, just for good measure!

Sunny shuttle day

.
Here is a great image of the space shuttle passing in front of the sun.



Read more about it here.

(Image courtesy of NASA/Thierry Legault, posted on Space.com. Caption at link: "In this tightly cropped image, the NASA space shuttle Atlantis is seen in silhouette during solar transit, Tuesday, May 12, 2009, from Florida. This image was made before Atlantis and the crew of STS-125 had grappled the Hubble Space Telescope.")

Word of the day

.
Here's a new word I learned today:

Pseudobiceros hancockanus.

The dinosaurs taught it to me. (Make sure you read the mouse-over quote!)

UPDATE: Drat! The mouse-over text isn't at the link. So, here it is:

one such species that does this is "pseudobiceros hancockanus", and don't worry, you will be easily forgiven for thinking its name is totally made up

Sonata evening

.
Earlier tonight, something started playing in my head. It was this:



That's the the first movement (allegro assai) of Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 23 in F minor, popularly known as the Appassionata sonata. This particular recording was done on a period instrument, a reconstruction of a type of piano that Beethoven would have actually been able to play. I like this recording because the sound is distinctly different from that of a piano from today, and you can tell that the construction of the instrument is not as hardy as that of modern models. Go back and listen closely to the selection at about the 38-39 second mark.

There you will hear something that I have never heard on a modern piano: string clatter. The performer is playing the forte parts with such power that the strings vibrate massively, interfering with each other before their sounds fade. You can hear string clatter sometimes on a vigorously strummed guitar with slack strings, but I have never heard piano wires do this before I heard this recording. It's a testament to the power of Beethoven's works and the level of performance he demanded from musicians and instruments.

One can imagine piano makers after Beethoven working hard to make their instruments more sturdy.

Sunday sonnet: John Clare

Here is another sonnet in blank verse, though it does not seem to exhibit the proposition/resolution structure that is characteristic of the verse form (unless the shift of the focus from people to the dog in the ninth line qualifies as the "turn"). Or perhaps this work, written between 1837 and 1841, is nothing more than a fourteen-line poem.


"Gypsies"

The snow falls deep; the forest lies alone;
The boy goes hasty for his load of brakes,
Then thinks upon the fire and hurries back;
The gypsy knocks his hands and tucks them up,
And seeks his squalid camp, half hid in snow,
Beneath the oak which breaks away the wind,
And bushes close in snow like hovel warm;
There tainted mutton wastes upon the coals,
And the half-wasted dog squats close and rubs,
Then feels the heat too strong, and goes aloof;
He watches well, but none a bit can spare,
And vainly waits the morsel thrown away.
'Tis thus they live--a picture to the place,
A quiet, pilfering, unprotected race.

Rhyme scheme: blank verse, or unrhymed iambic pentameter.

Thank you, Richard Branson

.
Practical space travel -- for laypeople -- could actually happen in my lifetime. In fact, within two years, possibly.

LONDON (Reuters) - Long-haul trips could be made in spaceships instead of planes in 20 years' time if Virgin's efforts to commercialize space travel succeed, the president of Virgin Galactic told Reuters in an interview.

Will Whitehorn said Virgin's plans to take tourists into space were just a first stage that could open up a range of possibilities for the company including space science, computer server farms in space and replacing long-haul flights.

Virgin Galactic, part of Richard Branson's Virgin Group, has collected $40 million in deposits from would-be space tourists including physicist Stephen Hawking and ex-racing driver Niki Lauda, and hopes to start commercial trips within two years.

Whitehorn said the bookings from 300 people willing to pay $200,000 each for a space flight had convinced Virgin the venture was viable. It is currently running test flights and hopes soon to win a license from the Federal Aviation Authority.

I hope so, too.

(hat tip: Instapundit)

Streetscape morning

Sometimes you walk because they won't let you arrive.

Symphonic poem: The Water Goblin

For no other reason than I think this piece is absolutely wonderful, I share with you a brief excerpt from Antonín Dvořák's symphonic poem called The Water Goblin.



Good stuff.

Ten random Wikipedia pages

Randomness chosen by others still involves careful thought.

1. Alexander Mair

The Hon. Alexander Mair (25 August 1889 – 3 August 1969) was an Australian politician and Premier of New South Wales from 5 August 1939 to 16 May 1941.

2. All Day: Nike+ Original Run

Commissioned by Nike, All Day: Nike+ Original Run is an original and exclusive composition written and performed by Aesop Rock.

3. Lex de Maiestate

The Lex Cornelia de Maiestate was a Roman law passed by Sulla during his dictatorship from 81 to 80 BC using the Tribune Cornelius.

4. Wierzchowo, Pomeranian Voivodeship

Wierzchowo [vjɛʂˈxɔvɔ] (German Firchau) is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Człuchów, within Człuchów County, Pomeranian Voivodeship, in northern Poland.

5. Wienerberger

Wienerberger AG is the world’s largest producer of bricks, and No. 2 on the European clay roof tiles market.

6. Charles Lawrence

Brigadier-General Charles Lawrence (December 14, 1709 – October 19, 1760) was a British military officer who, as lieutenant governor and subsequently governor of Nova Scotia, was responsible for overseeing the expulsion of Acadians from the colony in the Great Upheaval.

7. Greenwood Cemetery (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)

Greenwood (Knights of Pythias) Cemetery is a historic cemetery in the Frankford section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.

8. Chongjin

Ch'ŏngjin (Ch'ŏngjin-si), North Korea's third largest city.

9. Pardonnez-moi

Pardonnez-moi is a 2006 French movie, directed and written by Maiwenn Le Besco, starring Le Besco, Pascal Greggory, Hélène de Fougerolles, and Aurélien Recoing.

10. Derek Grimm

William Derek Grimm (born August 3, 1974 in Peoria, Illinois) is an American professional basketball player.

"Private Moon Rover Aims for Apollo 11 Landing Site"

.
Cool stuff from Space.com.

Nearly 40 years after Americans first set foot on the moon on July 20, 1969 with NASA's historic Apollo 11 flight, a host of private rocketeers are hoping to follow to win a $30 million prize. Here, SPACE.com looks at Astrobotic, one of 17 teams competing in the Google Lunar X Prize:

If there's one name that's on the lips of many Google Lunar X Prize competitors, it's Astrobotic. The team boasts a name that readily conveys its ambitious aspirations for reaching the moon and beyond.

"Astrobotic Technology is going to do a series of missions for scouting, prospecting, mining, and all sorts of things that robots can do to get ready for the human return to the moon," said David Gump, President of Astrobotic.

Winning the Google Lunar X Prize requires teams to land a robot on the moon, move at least 1,640 feet (500 meters) and beam high definition views back to Earth.

The team plans for a pinpoint landing just over a mile from the Apollo 11 site, where Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon. Astrobotic's "Red Rover" would then beam back high-definition images of the dusty footprints left by Armstrong and fellow Apollo astronaut Buzz Aldrin, all while taking care not to disturb the historical site.

Let's hope Red Rover is as resilient as Spirit and Opportunity.

Testing the splashdowns

.
It makes me feel good to see they are doing this. It means we are that much closer to extending our reach.

For the first time since the Apollo era, NASA is testing a new moonship in the turbulent waves of the open ocean.

The life-size mockup of the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle, NASA's replacement for its retiring space shuttle fleet, is undergoing a series of water landing trials this month in the Atlantic Ocean off the eastern coast of central Florida. They are the first ocean tests of a full-size NASA spacecraft since the Apollo capsule's development in the 1960s.

...

The Orion crew capsule is NASA's planned replacement for its three aging space shuttles, which are due to retire at the end of next year. Orion capsules are designed to launch atop a new rocket, the Ares I, and ferry six astronauts to the International Space Station or carry a four-person crew to the moon and back.

Hello, moon. We're coming back.

Sunday sonnet: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Achingly poignant with its imagery of loss, this sonnet was written in 1886.


"The Cross of Snow"

In the long, sleepless watches of the night,
- A gentle face--the face of one long dead--
- Looks at me from the wall, where round its head
- The night-lamp casts a halo of pale light.
Here in this room she died; and soul more white
- Never through martyrdom of fire was led
- To its repose; nor can in books be read
- The legend of a life more benedight.
There is a mountain in the distant West
- That, sun-defying, in its deep ravines
- Displays a cross of snow upon its side.
Such is the cross I wear upon my breast
- These eighteen years, through all the changing scenes
- And seasons, changeless since the day she died.

Rhyme scheme: abba abba cde cde

Early morning texture

Just a picture of some shadows thrown by the morning sun.

Low pitch evening

.
Check out the form of this pitcher from the Northwest Arkansas Naturals.



Nothing special here. I just liked the way this guy threw.

What I just finished reading yesterday

.
I know, it's incredibly geeky, but I really did just finish reading this book.



I bought it for some medieval class I took long ago, and it's one of those old college books that just never left my possession. It reproduces passages from earlier works that were familiar to and had an influence on Geoffrey Chaucer, and the point of the book is to read the original pieces and compare them to the relevant passages from Chaucer's works. Some of the pieces are blah and uninteresting, but some are quite entertaining. And, since they are packaged in sections that are usually just a few pages long, it's easy to read over a series of short sessions. With a full-time job and children, most of the time I only get about five or ten minutes of reading time to myself, so often I will need something that lends itself to quick reads. This fit the bill nicely.

Now I'm a little inspired to pick up Chaucer again and reread some of his stuff. But that might take me a bit longer and require a little more concentration. It is in Middle English, after all, and I am a bit rusty.

Some cause for worry ...

.
... for fans of space exploration.

"NASA’s moon missions face fuzzy future"

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - At a spacecraft factory down the road from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, a small robotic probe is being prepared to fly to the moon. Its mission: map the lunar surface so NASA can find safe landing spots for astronauts.

But that may be the least of its worries.

A report issued last week by the Congressional Budget Office warns that the new manned space initiative, called Constellation, which is intended to follow the space shuttle and space station programs, is likely to cost about 50 percent more than advertised.

"Stephen Hawking rushed to British hospital"

LONDON - Stephen Hawking, the British mathematician and physicist famed for his work on black holes, was rushed to a hospital Monday and was seriously ill, Cambridge University said.

Hawking has been fighting a chest infection for several weeks and was being treated at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, the university city northeast of London, the university said.

“Professor Hawking is very ill,” said Gregory Hayman, the university’s head of communications. “He is undergoing tests. He has been unwell for a couple of weeks.”

Iron Maiden: Brave New World

I finally got Brave New World, and I gave myself some time to soak it in before writing this review. My take: good. It's not one of Iron Maiden's best albums, but it has some strong songs on it, and it does feature the comeback of Bruce Dickinson on lead vocals.

The cover features Eddie as a ghostly figure among the clouds above a futuristic London. Spooky stuff, but not one of their better covers. At least it beats this one all to hell.

Thematically, the songs are all over the place. Subject matter includes mercenaries ("The Mercenary"), desert nomadic culture ("The Nomad"), dreams ("The Dream of Mirrors"), fallen supernatural beings ("The Fallen Angel"), ghosts ("Ghost of the Navigator"), and much more. Overall, I'd say my favorites are "The Wicker Man," "Out of the Silent Planet," "The Thin Line Between Love and Hate," and "The Mercenary."

But the album has been growing on me, and I like it more now than when I first got it. If I keep listening to it, Brave New World just might become one of my favorite Maiden albums.

Here's a bit of "Out of the Silent Planet" to give you a taste.

Iron Maiden examples

.
I've updated my reviews of the Iron Maiden albums with audio samples.

Also, I finally got Brave New World. A review will be coming soon, hopefully.

That's what IT always says to do

.
One of the Mars rovers is having a bit of a problem. Maybe.

NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit mysteriously rebooted its computer twice over the weekend; mission controllers are examining data sent back by Spirit to see if they can diagnose the problem behind the glitch.

"While we don't have an explanation yet, we do know that Spirit's batteries are charged, the solar arrays are producing energy and temperatures are well within allowable ranges. We have time to respond carefully and investigate this thoroughly," said Spirit project manager John Callas of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "The rover is in a stable operations state called automode and taking care of itself. It could stay in this stable mode for some time if necessary while we diagnose the problem."

Well, I guess you could expect a few glitches from a system that's been operating five years longer that was expected.

Warming up

.
Are you ready? It's that time of year again!



Go Missions!

Not knowing the meaning of "choice"

.
But, then again, what should we expect from our political leaders?

While many large restaurant chains have already eliminated trans fats, some [Texas] state lawmakers want to speed up the process -- especially when it comes to smaller, local eateries.

Juan Espinoza has owned Johnny's Restaurant for decades, and said he only uses trans fat products to cook up fries and the occasional chile relleno -- but state Senate Bill 204 would to put an end to that.

"When you see 200 pound fifth-graders, you know we need to do something about this," said State Sen. Eliot Shapleigh.

The bill, presented by Shapleigh and co-sponsored in the state House by Carol Alvarado, would ban restaurants from packaging, storing or using any products containing trans fats to prepare or serve food.

"Give people healthy options and choices. When you give them healthy choices, they'll make the right choice," said State Rep. Carol Alvarado.

[emphases added]

(from KSAT-12)

Compulsion is choice.

I'm beginning to think that I should just vote reflexively against the incumbent, whoever that may be.

Answer: quintessential "Texas" song

.
Want to give someone a taste of what Texas is like in musical form? I don't think you can go wrong with a little swing.

My choice is "Boogie Back to Texas" from Asleep at the Wheel's 10.

Playing with terms

.
Changing the names of things may play well with the political base, but it doesn't keep the bad guys from wanting to destroy us.

WASHINGTON — When President Obama briefed Congressional leaders at the White House last week on his plans to send more troops to Afghanistan, Senator Harry Reid offered some advice: Whatever you do, he told the president, don’t call it a “surge.”

Not to worry. Mr. Obama didn’t and wouldn’t. The exchange, confirmed by people briefed on the discussion, underscored the sensitivity about language in the new era. Mr. Obama and his team are busily scrubbing President George W. Bush’s national security lexicon, if not necessarily all of his policies.

...

Obama advisers said they were not trying to de-emphasize the danger of extremism but to take the politics out of it. Janet Napolitano, the secretary of homeland security, used the term "terrorism" during her Senate confirmation testimony, but also referred to it as "man-caused disasters." She later said that it was a deliberate attempt to change the tone.

“That is perhaps only a nuance,” she told Der Spiegel, the German newsmagazine, “but it demonstrates that we want to move away from the politics of fear toward a policy of being prepared for all risks that can occur.”

But the risk, in the minds of some critics, is looking like the government no longer takes the dangers of the world seriously. “They seem more interested in the war on the English language than in what might be thought of as more pressing national security matters,” said Shannen W. Coffin, who served as counsel to former Vice President Dick Cheney. “An Orwellian euphemism or two will not change the fact that bad people want to kill us and destroy us as a free people.”

(from the New York Times, via Althouse)

And let's hope the euphemisms don't numb us to the real dangers of terrorism that are actually out there.

"Man-caused disasters." :-P It's only April, but that already gets my vote for the most clunky phrase of the year.