Da Vinci without a Codebook

I saw yesterday on CNN's pretentiously called "Insight" program a segment on Dan Brown's incredibly well selling novel "Da Vinci Code", "controversy" surrounding it and what the Church has to say. Hordes of "codehunters" visiting the book's locales were also covered. Here is an article that contains perhaps half of the program (that is, almost everything except the most interesting parts where actual specialists talk about early history of Christianity). BTW, to see what kind of industry has sprung around the novel, just search for it on Amazon.

(Warning: mild spoilers ahead) Now, I don't think too high of the novel: research is sloppy, style so-so, the "code-breaking" part almost childish. As for research, if the author is too lazy to learn how GPS locators work, describe Louvre's Great Galery accurately or invest more that one sentence in claim that Dead Sea Scrolls contain New Testament texts, it will somehow make suspension of disbelief harder. OTOH, it in not necessary to repeat twenty times that the Church changed quite radically in its early centuries, that authentic apocryphal (so to say) gospels exist or that religion is not "naturaly male-dominated" (though, judging by the novel's success, it seems to actually be news to many).

Anyway, what I wanted to harp about is this CNN's sentence: "The book supposes that [...] one of the fastest growing movements in the church, Opus Dei, is populated with plotters and assassins." Well, it does not. Actually, one of my main complaints to the novel is that it depicts the Church in general and Opus Dei in particular as angels at best and well-meaning but missguided sincere believers and victims of knowledge-seeking vilains at worst. Give me a break! (BTW, the elided part of the sentence is about quite popular theory of Mary Magdalene being Jesus wife - nothing new here, either.)

Update: I just saw Da Vinci's "Madonna of the Rocks", the Louvre version (in the Grand Galery packed like a metro car - it was the first Sunday of the month, meaning free admission). Well, Brown's interpretation might have something to it...

Good Samaritan

I went today to Paris Autoshow. Entering metro, I saw a tall young black guy sprawled on the floor. He looked asleep. He probably was asleep, as Paris homeless people sometimes are on metro benches. Perhaps he was dead, in which case there was nothing to be done. But he might, just might, had been in some kind of trouble (drunkenness, overdose, stroke...), and not beyond help.

Nobody paid any attention; actually, everybody pretended not to notice him; myself included. On next station I saw several RATP employees chatting; I did not exit and alert them, although half a minute before I thought "If I see someone...". On my destination there were people from RATP security and police; I did not alert them, either. I can't say why.

The young guy is probably OK, if a bit hung over. But I, instead of feeling like a good Samaritan for a trivial act of tugging some guard's sleeve and pointing to the lying figure, I feel ashamed.

Sic transit gloria mundi (or something like that)

CNN has an article about a judge questioning former Chilean dictator Pinochet. Too little, too late, of course, but there is an encouraging element in the article: Pinochet's supporters staged a demonstration; all four of them.

Living in Harmony with Nature

Can somebody please explain to me why don't Americans build proper houses, at least in hurricane-prone areas? I mean, I understand Japanese houses made of bamboo sticks and paper: nothing heavy to fall on one's head when the next earthquake decides to make face of the earth wart-free. But that is appropriate. This Florida stuff is anything but.

I am watching on CNN some poor soul boarding up his windows for the fourth time in six weeks. Hasn't it occurred to him to install solid hinged blinds like those used in the Mediterranean? Does his roof have to be made of light shingle or sheet aluminum? How about flat concrete, or (again Mediterranean-style) ceramic tiles or slate embedded in hard mortar?

People hit by a hurricane (or snowstorm or freezing rain, for that matter) are likely to be without power and telephone for days, sometimes weeks. Is putting power and telecom cables underground (as is done everywhere in Europe, for example, except sometimes for 110kV+ transmission lines) so far from reason (and so expensive, compared to recurrent repairs and cost to consumers)? Perhaps consumers should start requiring service level agreements from their utilities (without 'act of God' clauses)...

(Update: more on this here. In short, where we have regular strong katabatic winds, we build houses as below:)

Breaking news

I read on CNN teletext, as one of about ten top news from the world, about several American students punished for installing in their on-campus apartment a 'stripper-pole' and holding a dance competition among their (clothed) female colleagues. Somehow, I dont think there were only nine more important things happening in the world at the moment. Or did CNN publish this as an illustration of the state of citizen rights in the USA (in which case it would be important, but very old news)?

Inervention

Sickening images of hurricane survivors in Haiti fighting for food and water reminded me that USA does not tend to intervene in situations like this quite as easily as when a little regime change is called for. Then again, considering the track record (say, in Somalia), this is perhaps as well....

Real Stuff

I saw another day on one satelite Travel channel or another an ad for something called "RealTV". It goes like this:
In a dirty alley two policemen, hunkered behind a squad car, are exchanging fire with a young 'bag guy'. The guy runs out of ammunition, reloads, wounds one of cops, and then the third policeman appears with a machine gun and cuts the 'bad guy' down. The twist is that the machine gun is a broom or something, sidearms are fingers, and people go "pow, pow, ratatata, ka-pow" at each other. After the "battle" is finished, a voice-over says: "It is better when it's real, isn't it?" over the cut to quick succession of scenes of cars crashing, shootouts filmed from a chopper, bungee jumps with the cord too long... You get the idea.

My late friend Darko used to call this kind of programs the most morbid pornography. Sickening.

Nagibanje

Jučer je "Vjesnik" donio člančić o jugomasonskoj judeokomunističkoj zavjeri da se svo hrvatstvo istrijebi nagibnim vlakovima. Te mišljeni su za kraće pruge (da, kraće od transsibirske), te svima je u njima muka (vidi dolje), te putnici više vole odjeljke (oni s demižonima i pečenim picekima koji odmah stave noge na vaše sjedalo, možda; ja ne).

Danas se mogla pročitati i vidjeti vijest o tome kako Bransonov 'Virgin Trains' ponosno uvodi nagibne vlakove (i obara rekorde) na mnogim prugama, između ostalog u brdovitu Škotsku (gdje pruge još nisu popravljene, nakon desetljeća zapuštenosti poslije privatizacije). Tony Blair je uvođenje nagibnih vlakova nazvao "velikim danom za britanske željeznice". CNN je imao prilog o istome; novinar se čudio kako mu je vino mirno u čaši, i jedva da osjeća ikakvo kretanje. (Cijela ideja nagibnih vlakova je da se u zavojima naginju tako da je rezultanta gravitacije i centrifugalne sile uvijek okomita na pod - tako čine i avioni. Rezultat je da vas ništa ne bacaka uokolo. To ih čini naročito pogodnim za zavojite, brdske pruge, kao u Italiji i Španjolskoj, i kod nas na prugama za more.)

In Paris again

Have I told you yet that I arrived in Paris, for the second part for consulting stint at SNCF? Well, here I am! No much time for sightseeing, but I will do my best! Semi-organised photos (mostly from the first tour) here.

Bonzi u Parizu, 2. dio - update

Sutra doista idem u Pariz. Nije to tako jednostavno - prekjučer sam nazvao ljude od kojih Prolifics unajmljuje stanove, tek da čujem gdje će mi ostaviti ključeve, jer nedjeljom ne rade. Umjesto toga sam saznao kako s Prolificsom nisu imali kontakt od preliminarne rezervacije prije mjesec dana. Nakon mnogo emailanja, IM-anja i telefoniranja uspjelo je sve skrpiti (ali nisam u stanu koji je izvorno bio rezerviran). Oh, well...

Bonzi u Parizu, 2. dio

Izgleda da za tjedan dana opet idem u Pariz. Pokušat ću se javljati redovnije...