January Roads Θ 劍鋒路

Wednesday, December 30, 2020

№ 532. G for Generosity

"I think the vaccines are the way to go. But people seem to have a view of it will give me 100% protection -- no vaccine does that," Collignon. And even if someone is vaccinated, scientists don't yet know whether it's possible that they could get the virus and spread it, even if they don't get sick themselves.

It's likely that even once there is widespread vaccination, we might still have to live with the virus. After all, only one virus in human history has been declared eradicated by a vaccine -- small pox."

№ 530. The Politics of Spam

I am in good company. The war-time delicacy is also known as Special Army Meat.

Who knew The Iron Lady shopped for Spam? Who knew Spam also fed the Soviet army in World War 2?

Spam was my go to staple at 11pm dinners after work from Makati.

"In his memoirs, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev writes that "without spam we wouldn't have been able to feed our army," while British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher recalled serving spam and salad to friends over Christmas in 1943, along with "one of our very precious tins of fruit which we'd saved from the pre-war days." Even decades later, when she was living in Downing Street, Thatcher still bought a can of spam as part of her regular supermarket shop."

№ 529. Many Words, Many Worlds

Brad Veley

Sometimes a word is not enough. You have to string a number of them to describe one confounding reality. Complexity is in the details. The words help untagle these layers of little gods and tiny devils.

"It was the first thing I found strangely fascinating about German: a word that went on and on until you ran out of breath or got totally lost in the middle. Invariably it had to be hyphenated on to the row below. Geschwindigkeitsbeschränkungen, all 30 letters of it: a very big word for a fairly simple idea (it means speed limits)."

№ 528. Rule of Law

William Roper: “So, now you give the Devil the benefit of law!”

Sir Thomas More: “Yes! What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?”

William Roper: “Yes, I'd cut down every law in England to do that!”

Sir Thomas More: “Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned 'round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man's laws, not God's! And if you cut them down, and you're just the man to do it, do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake!”

― Robert Bolt, A Man for All Seasons