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Do you remember William of Baskerville, the detective character in Umberto Eco's fantastic novel The Name of the Rose?
It transpires from this fascinating story in the Independent that Brother William would have a high tech enabled field day. Researchers at Oxford University have been able to read the Oxyrhynchus Papyri thanks to novel infrared technology. The previously unknown texts, read for the first time last week, include parts of a long-lost tragedy - the Epigonoi ("Progeny") by the 5th-century BC Greek playwright Sophocles; part of a lost novel by the 2nd-century Greek writer Lucian; unknown material by Euripides; mythological poetry by the 1st-century BC Greek poet Parthenios; work by the 7th-century BC poet Hesiod; and an epic poem by Archilochos, a 7th-century successor of Homer, describing events leading up to the Trojan War. Additional material from Hesiod, Euripides and Sophocles almost certainly await discovery.
17/04/2005
16/04/2005
Bugs in the White House?!
According to this BBC story, some republican entomologists have come up with the fine idea of naming three kinds of slime mold bugs after the leaders of the free world, namely Agathidium bushi, Agathidium cheneyi and not to forget the unknowable Agathidium rumsfeldi. 
15/04/2005
Flatten it!
Great! The Economist leads with some articles on flat tax, and I just found this paper assessing its pros & cons for Switzerland from the point of view of the Federal Tax Administration. Tactically savvy, it concludes with a theoretically nice, BUT ... - more about flat tax in Switzerland as usual here.
13/04/2005
Bottleneck federalism
Swiss think tank Avenir Suisse organises a panel discussion about the pros & cons of Swiss federalism, which along with half-direct democrary is the major form factor of the Swiss political system. Remember, we're a tiny country, 41'000 square kilometers, some 7 mio inhabitants, but 26 cantons with some 3600 municipalities. You can imagine that things don't move fast around here - some also call it stability.
Check out the live feed of the debate here (Realplayer), starting tomorrow at 1600h UTC.
Check out the live feed of the debate here (Realplayer), starting tomorrow at 1600h UTC.
12/04/2005
Power
If you are interested in the non-altruistic modes of human interaction, then The 48 Laws of Power is an absolute Must Read for you! While the cover text attributes "Amoral, cunning, ruthless, and instructive ..." are certainly true, it is much more than that.
Here are those laws in summary, just to give you a sample of the style. Yet, in the book, each of those timeless rules is expanded in a set structure over several pages. For instance 35 Master the Art of Timing is set in Observance of the law, Interpretation, Keys to Power, Reversal. In the observance or transgression sections (of which there are often up to three), you get historic examples of the law in action, spanning from ancient Chinese, Persians, Greek to Japanese tea masters, Macchiavelli (of course), Gracian, Louis XIV, Madame de Pompadour, Napoleon I vs. III, up to early 20th century con artists. There's a wealth of stories there! These examples are set in relation to the law in the Interpretation section.
The Keys to Power section gives you the parameters of the law and explains what context it may be applied in and where it is overly risky. This is the manual section, if you like. Finally, in the Reversal section, the author demonstrates how, if at all, the law may be applied in the reverse, which very often is surprisingly true as well. To sum, it is a comprehensive guide to human interaction as qualified above. In its amorality (which is not the same thing as immorality), it is a worthy contemporary successor to Macchiavelli's Prince.
I should also mention that it is exceptionally well designed with its classical red & black type colour scheme and the small stories, fables and quotations set in the margin in red. And maybe, it would be wise not to tell people that you have read the book ...
Here are those laws in summary, just to give you a sample of the style. Yet, in the book, each of those timeless rules is expanded in a set structure over several pages. For instance 35 Master the Art of Timing is set in Observance of the law, Interpretation, Keys to Power, Reversal. In the observance or transgression sections (of which there are often up to three), you get historic examples of the law in action, spanning from ancient Chinese, Persians, Greek to Japanese tea masters, Macchiavelli (of course), Gracian, Louis XIV, Madame de Pompadour, Napoleon I vs. III, up to early 20th century con artists. There's a wealth of stories there! These examples are set in relation to the law in the Interpretation section.
The Keys to Power section gives you the parameters of the law and explains what context it may be applied in and where it is overly risky. This is the manual section, if you like. Finally, in the Reversal section, the author demonstrates how, if at all, the law may be applied in the reverse, which very often is surprisingly true as well. To sum, it is a comprehensive guide to human interaction as qualified above. In its amorality (which is not the same thing as immorality), it is a worthy contemporary successor to Macchiavelli's Prince.
I should also mention that it is exceptionally well designed with its classical red & black type colour scheme and the small stories, fables and quotations set in the margin in red. And maybe, it would be wise not to tell people that you have read the book ...
11/04/2005
Beyond redemption
OK, it is official now. I am stupid. Beyond redemption.
What caused this unusual bout of self-depreciation? Well, ever since playing around with iChat, Skype and other audio chatting systems, I've been dissatisfied with the sound quality provided by my setup, so I considered getting one of those USB headsets.
I did NOT think however of the bluetooth headset that I've had sitting around for ages! Until now! And it works! Yay!
But now for something completely different. This is actually a birthday post to commemorate the 1st anniversary of this weblog! One year ago today, I started blogging - and I am still going strong. Unfortunately, blogger.com's statistics are currently turned off, so I cannot tell you how many posts there are, but I've got another statistic: Since starting the blog counter on August 25th, I've had 5022 unique visits (excluding myself), so this blog has had 22 visitors per day on average during that period. Lately though, the average looks more like 60, and that's not counting the subscribers to the RSS feed. So, thank you for your attention & your comments - keep them coming!
What caused this unusual bout of self-depreciation? Well, ever since playing around with iChat, Skype and other audio chatting systems, I've been dissatisfied with the sound quality provided by my setup, so I considered getting one of those USB headsets.
I did NOT think however of the bluetooth headset that I've had sitting around for ages! Until now! And it works! Yay!
But now for something completely different. This is actually a birthday post to commemorate the 1st anniversary of this weblog! One year ago today, I started blogging - and I am still going strong. Unfortunately, blogger.com's statistics are currently turned off, so I cannot tell you how many posts there are, but I've got another statistic: Since starting the blog counter on August 25th, I've had 5022 unique visits (excluding myself), so this blog has had 22 visitors per day on average during that period. Lately though, the average looks more like 60, and that's not counting the subscribers to the RSS feed. So, thank you for your attention & your comments - keep them coming!
08/04/2005
Microfinance
I am just coming home from an unusually captivating client event about microfinance of an otherwise very traditional private bank that I am not even a client of.
Microfinance is a successful approach to provide very small size loans (in the $100s per client) to micro-entrepreneurs in developing countries, who usually are not creditworthy in the traditional sense. But these loans often make a real difference. We were treated, among other things, to a very informative & energetic presentation cum Q&A by Maria Otero, CEO of Accion International, which evidently was awarded the strange animal of a Social Capitalist Award 2005. Closer to home are the financiers of resonsAbility whose investment fund I'll have to look into. Also, there's likely to be a TV report on the event in tomorrow's 7vor7.
There's two things I wonder about, however: 1) Why is this considered to be a market failure, since the market is beginning to provide microfinance without a great deal of prodding from the public sector, and 2) why is this apparently usually not done for profit even though there seems to be a prima facie viable business case?
Microfinance is a successful approach to provide very small size loans (in the $100s per client) to micro-entrepreneurs in developing countries, who usually are not creditworthy in the traditional sense. But these loans often make a real difference. We were treated, among other things, to a very informative & energetic presentation cum Q&A by Maria Otero, CEO of Accion International, which evidently was awarded the strange animal of a Social Capitalist Award 2005. Closer to home are the financiers of resonsAbility whose investment fund I'll have to look into. Also, there's likely to be a TV report on the event in tomorrow's 7vor7.
There's two things I wonder about, however: 1) Why is this considered to be a market failure, since the market is beginning to provide microfinance without a great deal of prodding from the public sector, and 2) why is this apparently usually not done for profit even though there seems to be a prima facie viable business case?
NZZ on blogger meeting
The long expected article in NZZ about the recent blogger meeting turns out a mild disappointment. The journalist basically reports a few personal viewpoints from the random sample of people he talked to. Materially, he posits that there are no political nor critical Swiss blogs. Well, obviously he doesn't read mine ... ;-)
Forensic mathematics??
What? NZZ writes (German) about the CBS TV show Numb3rs, which is essentially about the forensic use of ... mathematics! Rather strange & potentially interesting - check out available episodes on btefnet. Forensic medicine, accounting, and now mathematics - that's all very well, but how about forensic philology, for instance?
SJVEZQ<
1. 1DREYER/CHRISTIANMR<
1 LX 7407 D 4MAY ZDHZRH HK1 0942-3 1056-3 C-D<
2 LX 52 A 4MAY ZRHBOS HK1 1300-3 1520-3 F-A<
3 LX 52 D 4MAY ZRHBOS HK1 1300-3 1520-3 C-D<
4 US 836 F 4MAY BOSPHL HK1 1700-3 1827-3 F-F C*1G<
5 US 634 F 9MAY PHLBOS HK1 1530-1 1650-1 F-F C*1G<
6 LX 53 A 9MAY BOSZRH HK1 1855-1 0815-2 F-A<
7 LX 53 D 9MAY BOSZRH HK1 1855-1 0815-2 C-D<
8 LX 7406 D 10MAY ZRHZDH HK1 1004-2 1118-2 C-D<
Everything clear? Thought so ...
SJVEZQ<
1. 1DREYER/CHRISTIANMR<
1 LX 7407 D 4MAY ZDHZRH HK1 0942-3 1056-3 C-D<
2 LX 52 A 4MAY ZRHBOS HK1 1300-3 1520-3 F-A<
3 LX 52 D 4MAY ZRHBOS HK1 1300-3 1520-3 C-D<
4 US 836 F 4MAY BOSPHL HK1 1700-3 1827-3 F-F C*1G<
5 US 634 F 9MAY PHLBOS HK1 1530-1 1650-1 F-F C*1G<
6 LX 53 A 9MAY BOSZRH HK1 1855-1 0815-2 F-A<
7 LX 53 D 9MAY BOSZRH HK1 1855-1 0815-2 C-D<
8 LX 7406 D 10MAY ZRHZDH HK1 1004-2 1118-2 C-D<
Everything clear? Thought so ...
07/04/2005
Mac friendly Swiss service
While there is plenty of politically entirely justfied badwill around regarding Swiss (personally, I would have just let it go, or maybe bought a controlling stake in BA instead), some compliments are in order occasionally! Here's one:
Yesterday night at 2102h, I finally got round to complaining about a website problem I've had for a bit now. As a consequence of that problem, I carelessly misbooked a deep discount flight to Vienna a couple of weeks ago.
Today at 1218h, I received an adjusted electronic ticket free of charge, followed by this answer at 1235h:
Response (Miriam Dietrich) - 07/04/2005 11:35
Dear Mr Dreyer,
thank you very much for your correspondence.
We are actually aware that MAC users may encounter this problem, bot only on swiss.com but on other sites as well. Our homepage is running perfectly on PC's, but is sometimes instabel with MAC. However, since there are more and more MAC users, our IT department is working on adjusting our system accordingly.
Therefore, we did exceptionally change your reservation as follows :
(details omitted)
You should have already received a modifies receipt of your electronic ticket in a separate e-mail. We hope we have been of assistance. For any further queries you are more than welcome to contact us again.
It goes without saying (I'll do it anyway) that I am very pleased - not just by the unexpected swiftness and completeness of service, but also by the phrase about "more and more MAC users"! So, kudos to Swiss for working towards ending Mac discrimination!!
Yesterday night at 2102h, I finally got round to complaining about a website problem I've had for a bit now. As a consequence of that problem, I carelessly misbooked a deep discount flight to Vienna a couple of weeks ago.
Today at 1218h, I received an adjusted electronic ticket free of charge, followed by this answer at 1235h:
Response (Miriam Dietrich) - 07/04/2005 11:35
Dear Mr Dreyer,
thank you very much for your correspondence.
We are actually aware that MAC users may encounter this problem, bot only on swiss.com but on other sites as well. Our homepage is running perfectly on PC's, but is sometimes instabel with MAC. However, since there are more and more MAC users, our IT department is working on adjusting our system accordingly.
Therefore, we did exceptionally change your reservation as follows :
(details omitted)
You should have already received a modifies receipt of your electronic ticket in a separate e-mail. We hope we have been of assistance. For any further queries you are more than welcome to contact us again.
It goes without saying (I'll do it anyway) that I am very pleased - not just by the unexpected swiftness and completeness of service, but also by the phrase about "more and more MAC users"! So, kudos to Swiss for working towards ending Mac discrimination!!
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