Per Diemtag:typepad.com,2003:weblog-2501312014-09-03T10:55:12-04:00Essays about life in France, life in the United States, comparisons between the two, favorable invidious and otherwise, usually humorous, but always with an edge, with an emphasis on style and quality of writing, not on brevityTypePadPer Diem is movingtag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83420ccf953ef01b8d0626c89970c2014-09-03T10:55:12-04:002014-09-04T07:19:55-04:00Actually, Per Diem has been moved. All posts here since February 2002 (it's actually been ten years; some earlier posts were written earlier and posted later) have been moved to the archives of my new blog: 1standarddeviation.com. 1SD has been up and running for over a month, with a new format. It also has somewhat different editorial "policy," the subtle differences of which are perhaps only detectable to myself and my most dedicated readers. If...hdininA whining lament about geek news becomes a rant about the political state of the worldtag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83420ccf953ef019b00558a91970d2013-10-26T10:39:10-04:002013-10-26T10:49:43-04:00To some people one thing that emerged from the recent major product announcement by Apple that was of the utmost interest and importance was a new version of the operating system, OS X, now called Mavericks (after one of a whole series of challenging surfer beaches on the California coast). The mainstream press mainly concentrated on the reduction of the cost of this nominally major upgrade to zero. That is, Apple has said that anyone...hdininErosion, Cascades, and the Miretag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83420ccf953ef019b0044ec0c970b2013-10-24T08:35:19-04:002013-10-24T09:27:23-04:00Water and air, almost nothing and virtually nothing at all, can, with constant motion, wear away rock or reduce it to sand and silt. In an eon surely, but at times in minutes, perfectly natural forces can alter the land irreparably. With an outer crust as well that is perpetually unstable, shifting and tearing, the earth has been formed for constant change, even as Man moving about the surface beguiles himself with dreams of permanence....hdininPolyphemostag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83420ccf953ef019b0044d0be970c2013-10-24T08:33:52-04:002013-10-24T08:33:52-04:00If events of the past six years, or 25... 50... 100 or even 200 years have taught us anything it is that it doesn't matter how well you have informed yourself as a nation. Or armed yourself. Or how rich you are. Even a very small band of individuals determined, or inspired, or desperate enough can bring you to your knees, sometimes by the simplest of means. Sometimes one person, with enough grit and spontaneity,...hdininNew Photo Book by Howard Dinintag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83420ccf953ef019104ce311e970c2013-08-17T12:12:23-04:002013-08-17T12:21:58-04:00I've just published a book of photos, called sitting, consisting of photographs in France and America and to be thought of as a meditation on the title subject. It's a premium design: case bound with archival materials, salon quality paper and printing technology. For a limited time it's available at the actual cost of on-demand production (each issue is printed to order), a significant discount over the retail price marked. It's fully registered with the...hdininSome Loose Rules of Thumb for Americans in Rural Francetag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83420ccf953ef019102cf0659970c2013-06-01T08:12:02-04:002013-06-01T08:12:02-04:00(inspired partially by Satchel Paige’s advice on “How to Keep Young”) Everyone moves at his or her own pace. You might as well do the same. No one is slowing down or speeding up for you, I assure you. They’ll get out of your way, if you’re polite about it. The corollary, even in the dead of night, in the middle of a village, is do not ever just step into the roadway to cross....hdininSocial Media and the Erosion of Valuestag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83420ccf953ef017eeaecf6d7970d2013-05-08T11:17:32-04:002013-05-08T16:17:51-04:00Flattened Preferences and Decaying Judgment Like it or not, many of us are spending non-trivial amounts of time on-line using social media, most likely Facebook, but whatever. I’ve decided the time’s long past due for having a way to choose with greater subtlety exactly what we get to look at once we log in, and for as long as we can tolerate being there. I think most of us are aware there are ways to...hdininThe gaptag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83420ccf953ef017ee8055e58970d2013-01-29T11:04:57-05:002013-02-06T12:00:53-05:00Have you done or said or thought anything that you’re not sure you’d be ashamed of? Presumably, the way to find out, or to rid yourself of the nagging bit of your conscious mind we used to call having a conscience, is to disburden yourself of said thought, or utterance, or an account of said action by posting it on Facebook… While you’re at it, make sure you have all your personal data up to...hdininOn Gérard Depardieu's change of citizenship...tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83420ccf953ef017d3ee348cd970c2012-12-17T10:03:20-05:002012-12-17T10:03:51-05:00Poor François Hollande. He should only be glad that Depardieu didn't choose to begin a run for President. Our political heroes (and leaders) are largely voted in on the strength of their apparent personalities and popularity (notice I said "apparent"). For all we know, Hollande may be a completely decent, boring fellow, who has a problem with women, but is otherwise harmless and well-intentioned--not correct necessarily; economists who are very much smarter than we are...hdininA new blogtag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83420ccf953ef017d3edba2ef970c2012-12-16T11:57:45-05:002012-12-16T11:58:11-05:00As if Per Diem were not sufficient for a world not yet fully prepared for its dubious wisdom and antic ways with the English language, I have decided to launch (or actually re-launch) a blog devoted to the subject of art. It's called Art Long, and it was originally intended, starting some three years ago, and a bit more, to be brought to the world under somewhat other auspices and by a different hand than...hdinin