Matthias Thibaut has an article in Handelsblatt today on Nigel Boardman, a partner in Slaughter and May.

bq. Boardman spricht leise, behutsam, wie gedruckt. Später zeichnet er die Pyramide der Rechtsanwaltskarriere aufs Papier. Rechtskompetenz kommt ganz unten, ist gerade genug, den Anfänger aus dem „Ursumpf“ herauszuholen. Wer rechtliche Lösungen für wirkliche Probleme findet, der erst wird Business Berater. Tatsächlich interessant wird es, wenn man nicht nur bei Rechtsproblemen um Rat gefragt wird, sondern zum persönlichen Berater avanciert, erklärt Boardman. Ganz oben kommt sogar Kreativität ins Spiel, „die man mit dem Beruf des Rechtsanwalts eigentlich weniger in Verbindung bringt“. Und erst hier, an der Spitze der Pyramide, sagt Boardman hart, „kann man wirklich Freude an diesem Job haben.“

(Via Jurabilis)

Fib
o
nacci
stuff is like
haiku, but in fact
the fib is easier to do.

Gibt es Fibs auf Deutsch schon?

The invention.

bq. That led me to a six line, 20 syllable poem with a syllable count by line of 1/1/2/3/5/8 – the classic Fibonacci sequence. In short, start with 0 and 1, add them together to get your next number, then keep adding the last two numbers together for your next one. It’s a wonderful sequence, and it’s one that is repeated in nature (most famously in nautilus shells).

Fibonacci number

(via The Independent)

This is how you sell the locals the idea that the whole pedestrian precinct is about to be relaid.

You can climb up the scaffolding and look at plans (with the sun behind you).

You can buy the cuddly mole for 5 euros in the happy shops about to have all their custom disrupted.

Before this, you planned such a stunning new design with unusual stones that none of the bidders on the project were capable of presenting a correct tender in good time. After that, you decided to have simpler stones.

LATER NOTE: This picture was taken in the City of London in December 2004 and is in response to Paul’s comment (click to enlarge):

Benjamin Zimmer at Language Log, with the assistance of Chris Waigl of Diacritiques, examines a mysterious translation.

A discourse (I suppose) on comments, consisting of 738 thereof, e.g.:

Comment by Brian C.B. —
April 7, 2006 @ 9:51 pm
Egregious mspelling.

Comment by Eric Scharf —
April 7, 2006 @ 10:11 pm
Off-topic, self-promoting link.

Comment by Kevin B. O\’Reilly —
April 7, 2006 @ 11:12 pm
Nazi analogy employed; Godwin’s law invoked.
Thread over!

Comment by Jim Henley —
April 7, 2006 @ 11:21 pm
I would have gotten away with it too . . .

Comment by Barry —
April 8, 2006 @ 12:23 am
(incomplete)
6a – Boast about comenter’s education and IQ – mispelled, of course.

Comment by PhillipJ. Birmingham —
April 8, 2006 @ 12:27 am
Non-sequitur fart joke.

(Via Anggarrgoon)

Liquidated damages are a sum fixed in advance by the parties to a contract as the amount to be paid in the event of a breach. They are recoverable provided that the sum fixed was a fair pre-estimate of the likely consequences of a breach, but not if they were imposed as a penalty.
(Oxford Law Dictionary)

The German equivalent is Vertragsstrafe. We sometimes hesitate to translate Vertragsstrafe into English as contractual penalty, because the word penalty is used to refer to the kind of agreed damages that are extortionate. But liquidated damages is not a term easily understood.

On liquidated damages and penalties, there is an article at Consilio.

But Cheshire, Fifoot & Furmston (1996 edition) says that the term used does not matter so much as the intention of the parties:

bq. The fact that the parties may have used the expression ‘penalty’ or ‘liquidated damages’ does not conclude the matter, and the court must still decide whether the sum fixed is a genuine forecast of the probable loss.

I see Furmston was at Brizzle.