When Daihatsu produced the Lemon Edition of its Cuore, coloured lemon-yellow and with smart accessories, it apparently (anscheinend?) wasn’t aware that in U.S. English, a lemon is a dud – most often a car that you buy new but that develops so many problems that the law will allow you to change it for another.

There are lemon laws that define exactly how many defects a car has to have to satisfy this requirement.

Now, via Ernie the Attorney, a new U.S. legal weblog, Out-Of-The-Box Lawyering, claims to teach lawyers how to solve various everyday problems, and ‘turn lemons into lemonade’.

bq. What’s this weblog – blog – blawg – all about? It’s about creativity – how lawyers have come up with unusual solutions in their practices. And, it’s about how lawyers can come up with more. It will also be about general principles of creativity – as used in business, in science, in anything – and how those principles can be and have been applied in the practice of law. Continue reading →

When Daihatsu produced the Lemon Edition of its Cuore, coloured lemon-yellow and with smart accessories, it apparently (anscheinend?) wasn’t aware that in U.S. English, a lemon is a dud – most often a car that you buy new but that develops so many problems that the law will allow you to change it for another.

There are lemon laws that define exactly how many defects a car has to have to satisfy this requirement.

Now, via Ernie the Attorney, a new U.S. legal weblog, Out-Of-The-Box Lawyering, claims to teach lawyers how to solve various everyday problems, and ‘turn lemons into lemonade’.

bq. What’s this weblog – blog – blawg – all about? It’s about creativity – how lawyers have come up with unusual solutions in their practices. And, it’s about how lawyers can come up with more. It will also be about general principles of creativity – as used in business, in science, in anything – and how those principles can be and have been applied in the practice of law. Continue reading →

On May 28, I forgot to add my third photo of Fürth. This shows the latest efforts to make the inner city green. Today’s paper shows two people tending their plants. Herr Jahreis of the City planning office says ‘So langsam wird aus der Steinwüste eine Streublumenwiese” (the desert of stone is gradually turning into a flowery meadow).

The trouble is, the really striking thing about these turn-of-the-20th-century streets is their very lack of green.

A house owner whose building is in the subsidized area (there are EU funds) can get 100% subsidy for this. A lady in Theaterstraße is strewing pepper on her creeper to keep dogs off. 10,000 euros per year are available for making houses and inner courtyards greener. I can understand the courtyards – there are 750 of those in the inner city alone, and Fürth has more than 2000 listed buildings (I’m sitting in one now), more than practically any other city. But is it right to destroy the sight of beautiful rows of sandstone houses by putting creepers all over them? Perhaps I am just too negative. I wonder what the city historian (Stadtheimatpflegerin) Barbara Ohm (author, inter alia, of ‘Durch Fürth geführt’) thinks of this?

This is my real worry. These before and after pictures on how to improve your office come from a 1995 German magazine.

On May 28, I forgot to add my third photo of Fürth. This shows the latest efforts to make the inner city green. Today’s paper shows two people tending their plants. Herr Jahreis of the City planning office says ‘So langsam wird aus der Steinwüste eine Streublumenwiese” (the desert of stone is gradually turning into a flowery meadow).

The trouble is, the really striking thing about these turn-of-the-20th-century streets is their very lack of green.

A house owner whose building is in the subsidized area (there are EU funds) can get 100% subsidy for this. A lady in Theaterstraße is strewing pepper on her creeper to keep dogs off. 10,000 euros per year are available for making houses and inner courtyards greener. I can understand the courtyards – there are 750 of those in the inner city alone, and Fürth has more than 2000 listed buildings (I’m sitting in one now), more than practically any other city. But is it right to destroy the sight of beautiful rows of sandstone houses by putting creepers all over them? Perhaps I am just too negative. I wonder what the city historian (Stadtheimatpflegerin) Barbara Ohm (author, inter alia, of ‘Durch Fürth geführt’) thinks of this?

This is my real worry. These before and after pictures on how to improve your office come from a 1995 German magazine.

Calpundit, on June 4, had an entry on the Paul Wolfowitz quote the Guardian got wrong. The entry is headed Translation Woes. I know that Wolfowitz was saying ‘we had to fight Saddam because there is so much oil in Iraq that he can keep his régime going for ever, whereas in North Korea we expect the economy to break down sooner or later’.

But what is new to me is this story that the German paper Die Welt had a translation of Wolfowitz which misled The Guardian. The entry – and above all the comments – discuss whether there was a translation mistake by Die Welt or by The Guardian. The original, German and Guardian quotes are given. Continue reading →

Calpundit, on June 4, had an entry on the Paul Wolfowitz quote the Guardian got wrong. The entry is headed Translation Woes. I know that Wolfowitz was saying ‘we had to fight Saddam because there is so much oil in Iraq that he can keep his régime going for ever, whereas in North Korea we expect the economy to break down sooner or later’.

But what is new to me is this story that the German paper Die Welt had a translation of Wolfowitz which misled The Guardian. The entry – and above all the comments – discuss whether there was a translation mistake by Die Welt or by The Guardian. The original, German and Guardian quotes are given. Continue reading →