Fitting in

Is imitation the sincerest form of flattery?

What's in a Name?

I happened to pass by the information office of the snappily named "Federal Public Service for the Economy, SMEs, the Middle Classes and Energy" and noticed that they had information sheets on the top 100 first names for boys and girls in Belgium, as well as a breakdown for each of the country's 3 regions, Brussels, Flanders and Wallonia. You would expect there to be a difference between names used in the Dutch- and French-speaking areas of the country, but I was curious to see what would happen in bilingual Brussels. Well, here are the top 12 names, first for girls, then for boys:

Belgium.............Brussels.......Belgium........Brussels
01. Emma **** Sarah ***** Noah ***** Mohamed
02. Marie **** Raniah **** Thomas *** Adam
03. Laura **** Yasmine*** Lucas ***** Ayoub
04. Julie ***** Salma ***** Milan ***** Nathan
05. Sarah **** Imane **** Nathan **** Mehdi
06. Clara **** Clara ****** Louis ****** Bilal
07. Manon *** Luna ****** Maxime **** Anas
08. Léa ****** Inès ****** Arthur ***** Lucas
09. Lisa ****** Emma **** Robbe ****** Maxime
10. Camille *** Ines ****** Hugo ******* Zakaria
11. Charlotte** Laura***** Mohamed *** Noah
12. Luna ***** Chloé ***** Nicolas ***** Rayan

I think they tell an interesting story! I'm surprised at Luna (no. 7 in Flanders, 12 in Belgium), Océane (ocean) (9 in Wallonia, 22 in Belgium), and Kato (19 in Flanders) or Cato, for girls, and for boys, at Kobe (9 in Flanders, 23 in Belgium) , and some very Scandinavian- sounding names, like Lars, Jens and Niels in the list for Flanders.

Well at least they don't have the peculiar names allowed in England. For example I remember Astroflash being recorded in Glastonbury, Somerset, where there are a lot of hippies and "new age" people, I always thought it sounded like a floor cleaner (poor child). I also used to have a British colleague who rejoiced in the name of Endymion, I always wondered what his mother would call when his dinner was ready.

Dyslexia lures, k.o.!

Choc-u-lator

I'm not altogether sure that this would be a good idea - but I think I want one!

Nature v. Nurture

It's an old debate. A friend and colleague was told by a trainer yesterday that only 5% of what we are results from our genes, for the rest "everything is re-wirable". But I disagree: it is possible that Leonardo da Vinci COULD have been 95% NOT a genius, if he had been "re-wired" by a different upbringing and education, but it seems to me that circumstances would have had to have been pretty dire to repress his abilities to that extent. Certainly human beings are adaptable, but I do not believe fundamental things like sexual orientation and basic character traits can be altered, even if they could be driven underground, or expressed in different ways depending on the opportunities/obstacles encountered in life.

Of course, a trainer probably has to take such a view, after all, he was trying to persuade people that they could learn different ways of reacting in specific circumstances. And as regards the skills we acquire in life, of course these are learned and not inherited, even if we must be "hot-wired" for language-acquisition (but some more "hotly wired" than others?) and some other basic abilities needed to acquire these skills. I do believe education ought to include as much as possible a search for the various gifts an individual might possess, but which are not quite strong enough to emerge of their own accord: who knows how many individuals with musical ability, who have never had the chance to discover it, die with the music still in them?

Reflections

Biker bear

Bits from books

"No matter what they wish for, no matter how far they go, people can never be anything but themselves" (from "Birthday Girl", in "Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman" by Haruki Murakami)
"I was surprised that Buenos Aires was so majestic from the second or third storey upwards and so dilapidated at street level, as if the splendor of the past had remained suspended in the heights and refused to descend or disappear" (from "The Tango Singer" by Tomas Eloy Martínez, trad. Anne McLean)
"He moved with the grace of a refrigerator" (from "The Falling Palace" by Dan Hofstadter)
(Could be a description of me attempting to dance the tango.. or anything else for that matter.)

Brave new word

"They call themselves pyjamahideen. Instead of galloping off to fight holy wars, they stay at home, meaning, often as not, in their parents' homes, and clatter about computer keyboards..."
From the article "Bloggers may be the real opposition" (in Egypt) in yesterday's Economist (cf. mujahid, pl. mujahideen).

Otango

Didn't get around to posting about this show a few months ago, partly because I wasn't able to take any photos that did it justice; but now that it is on again in Brussels the organisers have sent me some, which is very nice of them! I've been a tango aficionado(/a?) since seeing a demonstration in the Argentinian pavillion at Expo 92 in Seville - but only for watching, despite an abortive attempt with L. at learning how to do it. I don't think my legs work the same way as those of Argentinian ladies!

I also found a great video of this show on YouTube but it has been driving me mad attempting to post it here - first YouTube said there was a problem because of the upgrade to Blogger2; and indeed, this has changed everyone's user name to their e-mail address; then I tried to edit video posting details in You Tube to my new blogger/google user name, but realised that my e-mail address was too long for the box; after much searching, it appears google account user name can only be an e-mail address, so the only way to get a shorter one is to change addresses! So then I created a gmail account which google automatically made my new blogger user name, and this is (again) short enough for YouTube. However, no matter what I do to change this in YouTube, when I try to post a video it keeps telling me the blogger user name/password is incorrect or I don't have access to the blog in question. And I don't think I made a mistake typing my password. Anyway, I give up, I'll have to give links instead. Apparently google/blogger don't tango with YouTube!

How Bendy is Your Banana?

Stu's recent musings on bananas remind me that I haven't yet mentioned a new gadget I acquired on my last trip to London, called a "banana guard". Its usefulness has so far proved limited because:

a) I haven't actually needed to carry any bananas around recently, and
b) my bananas seem to be either a bit too bendy or not quite bendy enough to fit, here I have had to squooch the stalk a bit to get it in the box.

Although, the box is designed with quite a long straight bit, to accommodate straighter or bendier bananas, depending on which EU standards they meet... even if much of what is said on that subject stems from another euro-myth.

Thumb and thumber

Inspired by boo's HNT photo - and I note that she is already in Thursday when I am still enjoying Wednesday, I got all dizzy for a moment when I saw the date of April 12th on her post!

You Are the Thumb

You're unique and flexible. And you defy any category. Mentally strong and agile, you do things your own way. And you do them well. You are a natural leader... but also truly a loner. You inspire many but connect with few. You get along well with: The Middle Finger Stay away from: The Pinky

What Finger Are You?

Flying footwear

Wonder who went home barefoot..!

Tiger-fishing in Zambia

I'm thinking this must have been produced by automatic translation from, perhaps, French. "Charts of Master or visa", i.e. Mastercard and Visa cards, could come from "cartes visa" etc., and "comprenant" can mean either "understanding" or, as should have been selected here, "including"; presumably the slash means the translation system was trying to indicate ambiguity.
But I'm puzzled as to what the original could have been for some of the following "The activities of guard include orders of play, orders of night, walks of nature or trails of horse. Other activities in the sector can be arranged, and include cruisings of boat on the street Lucia or the dam Jozini, guided open play of vehicle driven in Hluhluwe-Imfolozi, tribal dancing at a village of Zulu, the fishing of tiger, the treatments of beauty and a crowd of activities sea-based including/understanding the deep-sea diving of fishing and diving-suit."
I did wonder about finding tigers in Africa, but it seems the reference is to tigerfish!

Last from Italy - Brescia

Brescia's wealth was originally based on manufacturing weapons and armour, not particularly interesting to me, but I did like this foot-armour!



















A particularly Italian concept is "fare la bella figura" which might be translated as "putting on a good front" - here is a church doing just that!

Happy Easter

Which means, basically, pretty chocolate shop windows and a good excuse - as if I needed one - to eat chocolate.














I like the habit they have here of giving you a biscuit or chocolate with your tea or coffee - at this time of year, a little Easter egg.