Thursday, 15 March 2012
Time for a re-launch
Hello! Just a quick note to say in the next few weeks I plan to re-launch this blog, giving it a new look and contributing travel and news features on a much more frequent basis. Thank you for your patience.
Wednesday, 10 February 2010
Snow Hell
Meanwhile, way across the continent in Vancouver, British Columbia, where folks would think of these blizzards as they would a day to the beach, there has been a freak dry spell with no snow for more than a month.
But remember, these people are also due to play hosts to the upcoming Winter Olympics, kicking off this weekend. And forecasters now say there will be no snowy weather in time for the games to start.
That’s right, for the first time in history there is a crisis of not enough snow in Canada, probably one of the snowiest places on Earth. Now the Vancouver Olympic organising committee must find a way to still host the world’s biggest winter sporting event in what has become the only place left on the planet complaining of not enough snow this winter. Ha!
What’s that you say? Host the games on the East Coast of America? Well, we soon may not have a choice.
Saturday, 30 January 2010
Time's Deceit
These mallard faces do not last
Like frozen pollards they gleam with hope
Iced in fading memories which
Desert them at record pace.
They rise in number
Thousands of famished black pea eyes
Who foolishly assume numbers could defeat
The fury of Time herself.
I collect their imperfections
In a boggled memory bank, burdened by
Graven stones and decaying tomb scripts.
Here we rot together, in a deserted sand yard.
Naivety reigns here,
Our soul eyes are drained of their purity, revealing
We are mere protective glass sheets
Whose demise has been preordained.
They come for us
No pit of shadow to crawl into
The insanity of it all
Is revealed in a single crack, forever and now, we pray.
Thursday, 10 December 2009
'Got' or 'Gotten'? I have forgotten..
I could not even count the times I have been told off by people in the United Kingdom for using the word 'gotten'. I am told it is not a real word, it is unnecessary and redundant of the past participle 'got', or it is another vulgar ‘Americanism’ and just plain 'bad English'. However, upon a little research I have found the word, a past participle of ‘to get’, has its origin in the United Kingdom itself.
The Oxford English dictionary actually traces the word back to the fourth century. It has been used by Shakespeare, Bacon and Pope before being exported to the American colonies by Puritan settlers, along with the word 'fall' for autumn and 'guess' for think.
Some British people falsely assume ‘got’ and ‘gotten’ have the same meaning and Americans use them interchangeably in all circumstances. Contrarily, both of these past participles convey slightly different ideas. "They have gotten an apartment in Boston" means they have recently taken the apartment, whereas "they have got an apartment in Boston" simply indicates they have it (there are those who would argue that in a sentence like this one ‘got’ is redundant, and that ‘have’ alone would do the job). In informal usage, 'have got' can also be followed by an infinitive to denote obligation (I’ve got to go to the party means “I must”), whereas have gotten with an infinitive denotes opportunity (I’ve gotten to go to the party means “I’ve been given the chance to attend”).
In fact, Americans largely cut down on usage of the word ‘got’ as a past participle, instead opting for only the word ‘have’ in its place, with some taking the view the word's existence itself is unnecessary as 'have' can do the job all on its own. For example, "I haven’t any memory", "I haven’t any money in my purse". And, as a final note, the British did retain the word 'gotten' in aspic, such as ill-gotten, forgotten and begotten.
Just to quell any suspicisions that I am writing with an anti-British English agenda, there are many things I favour in British English over its American counterpart, such as omission of the overused demonstrative adjective 'that', especially in indirect quotes.
Hopefully readers will have gotten my point after they have got through this article.
The Oxford English dictionary actually traces the word back to the fourth century. It has been used by Shakespeare, Bacon and Pope before being exported to the American colonies by Puritan settlers, along with the word 'fall' for autumn and 'guess' for think.
Some British people falsely assume ‘got’ and ‘gotten’ have the same meaning and Americans use them interchangeably in all circumstances. Contrarily, both of these past participles convey slightly different ideas. "They have gotten an apartment in Boston" means they have recently taken the apartment, whereas "they have got an apartment in Boston" simply indicates they have it (there are those who would argue that in a sentence like this one ‘got’ is redundant, and that ‘have’ alone would do the job). In informal usage, 'have got' can also be followed by an infinitive to denote obligation (I’ve got to go to the party means “I must”), whereas have gotten with an infinitive denotes opportunity (I’ve gotten to go to the party means “I’ve been given the chance to attend”).
In fact, Americans largely cut down on usage of the word ‘got’ as a past participle, instead opting for only the word ‘have’ in its place, with some taking the view the word's existence itself is unnecessary as 'have' can do the job all on its own. For example, "I haven’t any memory", "I haven’t any money in my purse". And, as a final note, the British did retain the word 'gotten' in aspic, such as ill-gotten, forgotten and begotten.
Just to quell any suspicisions that I am writing with an anti-British English agenda, there are many things I favour in British English over its American counterpart, such as omission of the overused demonstrative adjective 'that', especially in indirect quotes.
Hopefully readers will have gotten my point after they have got through this article.
Thursday, 26 November 2009
Wednesday, 14 October 2009
Mr Blair - President of Europe?
With Ireland recently approving the Lisbon Treaty the second time round, and the Polish government quickly following suit, it seems a new European charter is imminent - as well as a new president.
Fair enough, there are still several loopholes to get through. Czech President Vaclav Klaus has found a series of new ways to delay signing the treaty, which has already been ratified by the Czech parliament.
And London also may try to delay proceedings. The head of the British conservatives, David Cameron, sent a letter to Klaus asking him to delay his signature until British parliamentary elections in spring of 2010. Cameron seems well positioned to win the election, and he wants to hold a Lisbon Treaty referendum in Great Britain—despite the fact that the country has already ratified the document.
But despite all doubts, if the treaty is passed before British parliamentary elections, could we see former Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair scoop up the European leadership? Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi sure seems to think so.
Read this:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8307267.stm
Fair enough, there are still several loopholes to get through. Czech President Vaclav Klaus has found a series of new ways to delay signing the treaty, which has already been ratified by the Czech parliament.
And London also may try to delay proceedings. The head of the British conservatives, David Cameron, sent a letter to Klaus asking him to delay his signature until British parliamentary elections in spring of 2010. Cameron seems well positioned to win the election, and he wants to hold a Lisbon Treaty referendum in Great Britain—despite the fact that the country has already ratified the document.
But despite all doubts, if the treaty is passed before British parliamentary elections, could we see former Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair scoop up the European leadership? Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi sure seems to think so.
Read this:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8307267.stm
China is well on its way to Global Dominance
Like it or hate it, China's dominance in the world economy is imminent.
Already, despite a recession that has played havoc across the globe, Chinese industries have managed to continue growing in a much-envied bubble.
So much, in fact, that they have now overtaken Canada to become America's largest trading partner, making the USA-China trade block the world's largest.
Likewise, the Far Eastern country has overtaken the United States in its number of billionaires - perhaps in itself nothing more than a dent in the amour of ethnocentric patriots, but possibly an implication of a broader shift of economic power away from traditional North American and European powerhouses towards the developing world and especially China.
Please read the link
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/14/business/global/14rich.html?hpw
Nonetheless, the USA still accounts for a quarter of the world's GDP and spends almost as much as the rest of the world combined on its military. Despite the concerns of this situation forwarded by Western media, the global influence of America will, in all likelihood, remain prominent for some time.
Just the same, China has firmly asserted its ascendance onto the world stage as an emerging superpower.
Just take a look at China's National Parade Day in Beijing, celebrating 60 years of communist rule!
Already, despite a recession that has played havoc across the globe, Chinese industries have managed to continue growing in a much-envied bubble.
So much, in fact, that they have now overtaken Canada to become America's largest trading partner, making the USA-China trade block the world's largest.
Likewise, the Far Eastern country has overtaken the United States in its number of billionaires - perhaps in itself nothing more than a dent in the amour of ethnocentric patriots, but possibly an implication of a broader shift of economic power away from traditional North American and European powerhouses towards the developing world and especially China.
Please read the link
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/14/business/global/14rich.html?hpw
Nonetheless, the USA still accounts for a quarter of the world's GDP and spends almost as much as the rest of the world combined on its military. Despite the concerns of this situation forwarded by Western media, the global influence of America will, in all likelihood, remain prominent for some time.
Just the same, China has firmly asserted its ascendance onto the world stage as an emerging superpower.
Just take a look at China's National Parade Day in Beijing, celebrating 60 years of communist rule!
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