the second soul of the unhappy- Goethe, the dream of those who wake- Matthew Prior, the thing with feathers that perches in the soul- Emily Dickinson, the worst of all evils, because it prolongs the torments of man- Nietzsche

Ah. Uncle Franz. He always was too optimistic: Man proceeds in a Fog
The historical record is our great shared reservoir of human experience. Past episodes are amenable to systematic analysis and reflection exactly because they are past. We can concentrate on understanding, rather than on acting or reacting or refusing to act. And there is a further benefit.
The role of historians - who are scientists of the human - is to unscramble myths...
· Struggle of men against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting [SMH ]

I did not care about glory, or money, or fidely old age, because I was sure I was going to die very young, and in the street.

Band of Brothers
Dumas constructed two different characters and then exchanged their destinies. So that when Dantes escaped he was already one character inside another, and all that was left of himself was his good swimmer's body
· Truth of my soul: having lived that life in order to tell it [Guardian: 1]
· Years of solitude: Kafkaesque riddles [Guardian: 2]
· Russian roulette and Fidel Castro [Guardian: 3]

Partnerships, Community and Local Governance
Papers include: Limits to Local Governance: Lessons From the UK (Professor Mike Geddes, University of Warwick), Partnerships and Local Governance: Some Lessons from European Innovations (Professor Mark Considine, Centre for Public Policy, University of Melbourne) and Enhancing Diversity: Managing Partnerships with the State (Professor Paul Smyth and Dr Tim Reddel, University of Queensland)
· International Perspectives and Australian Experiences [ UNIMelbourne]
· Why California is more unpopular with public companies headquartered in California [CorpLawBlog ]

Khemlani - klaim and kounter klaim
A second allegation that has floated around in the national media in recent weeks concerns money laundering through a local Ryan restaurant, Jindalee Oriental.
· Mon(k)ey Mon(k)ey... [Crikey ]

From Native Lantana to Perfect Strangers
I don't think it's till, until you're in danger or there's elements of risk that we find out who we are, and it's through what we risk that we find out our personal boundaries and who we are, our personal credo, and I think that's what Melanie does.
· Your Place Frederik, I have seen Mine... [Sunday Nine]

Royal Engagement More Interesting Than War
Is a royal event more important than a nation going to war? Hopefully not, but it seems that the engagement between Danish Crown Prince Frederik and Australian Mary Donaldson has brought more readers to Danish websites than did the war in Iraq. This despite the fact that Denmark was one of the few nations engaged actively in the war.
· It's an emotional day, but how long will the fairy tale last? [Berlingske Tidende via E-Media Tidbits]

UnRoyal No means no: Half the Sins of Mankind
Is sexual conversation confusing? Yes? Is it frustrating? Maybe. Should we change laws because women are conflicted and men are horny?
· No No Yes [Slate ]

The First Draft of Mystery
Glenn was a good editor who prized a good read more than anything else about a story. That's what I liked about him. In this business editors are of two schools. Some like facts and cram them into a story until it is so overburdened that practically no one will read it to the end. And some like words and never let the facts get in the way.
· There are a lot of would-be novelists in newsrooms ... [Poynter ]

1803 - 2003 AD: Then & Now Convicts Shipping Out Criminals: New Purer Colony
Mr Carr's comments - and allegations from Deputy Police Commissioner Dave Madden that the Greenacre shootings were related to a family feud - were part of a smoke-screen. Mr Madden had been informed a criminal turf war had been growing for 12 months.
· Pressure mounts to slaughter criminal elements at sea ...(irony intended) [SMH]
· Suffering from a carrse because of the actions of their forefathers [BBC ]

Face it, Migrants will never be rich: Our surnames are just loaded with Irony
Why do migrants still believe in the rags-to-riches fairy tale? In this final extract from his explosive new book, Michael Moore explains why the corporate bosses will never let the new world dream become a reality
· Less is Moore?! [The Guardian(UK)]

Pro Activism
Some people believe that social movements are fueled by misery—that communities only start standing up for themselves when things get really bad. It's an appealing thought in difficult times. However, fear is historically a lousy engine of solidarity. Progress and optimism go hand in hand. When people are hopeful about the future, they are inclined to demand positive change.
But if the misery theory is wrong, so is the belief that activism dies when the going gets tough. Few progressives doubt that the past two years have been the most politically trying in recent memory. Nevertheless, union members, globalization activists, immigrant rights advocates and anti-war groups have persevered. This fall, just when we need some good news, those of us concerned with social and economic justice can see a remarkable number of our efforts bear fruit.
· Fruits [TomPaine.com]

Somewhere, Orwell's ghost is smiling grimly
Almost all of the bureaucrats at the information ministry have done very nicely for themselves since the war. The government minders who spent their days reporting to the intelligence services on foreign reporters or doing their best to obstruct their work have gone on to well-paid jobs - for the same foreign news organisations they once hounded.
The second-in-command at the information ministry, who spent his days reading the reports the minders wrote about visiting foreign journalists, has been employed by Fox News.
· Irony [Guardian(UK) ]
· Let he who is without Spin... [The Age]

The Plame affair gets to the dilemma of how journalism is practiced in Washington
T he first real political scandal of the Bush administration appears to have legs, to the discomfort of an unusually large number of people in Washington -- both in the White House and the press corps.
· Uneasy bedfellows: White House and journalists both under scrutiny [SFChronicle]

TOO-SEXY LIBRARIAN
Beautiful Harvard reference assistant Desiree Goodwin is one smart librarian - but her sexy short skirts, tight blouses and dark skin are holding her back professionally, her lawsuit against the stodgy university claims.
The 39-year-old Cornell graduate has two master's degrees and 16 years of experience in her field, but those qualifications haven't helped ignite her career.
· Proof is in the pudding [ NYPOst]
· Why the beer belly may be a myth [BBC ]

World's Largest Book Fair Opened a New Chapter for mmmwwwwaaa and James Cumes. The word at The 55th Frankfurt Book Fair was that the Cold River experienced the first thawing of the ice and the fair has initiated a steady stream of inquiries... Even Hollywood received a nod at the world's largest book fair in a special forum highlighting the symbiosis between the printed word and the movies. For the first time, a cinema at the book fair showed films and TV series based on popular books. Surrounding forums and discussions aimed to encourage exchanges between writers, publishers and filmmakers.

From its Inception, the Frankfurt Book Fair Symbolized the Freedom of the Word
Author Susan Sontag, 70, who is of Polish-Lithuanian Jewish descent, received the German book trade's prestigious Peace Prize on Oct. 12. Announcing the award in June, the prize jury cited her role as an intellectual ambassador between the United States and Europe and for her human rights activism.
Sontag is the fourth American to receive the prize in its 54-year history. Last year's winner was novelist Chinua Achebe of Nigeria. Past winners also include Octavio Paz and Hermann Hesse, both Nobel Peace Prize laureates, and Vaclav Havel, the former Czech president and anticommunist dissident.
The Book Fair finished on Monday. According to James Cumes, attendance had been up 8 percent this year, with almost 300,000 coming through the gates in six days.
· A writer unafraid to speak the truth [Common Dreams]

Vaclav Havel The Soul of a Nation
Just recently friends of mine sent me a couple of photographs of Aung San Suu Kyi. The nonviolent struggle of this woman for her fellow citizens' freedom dwells in my soul as a stark reminder of our struggles against totalitarian regimes in Central and Eastern Europe.
Thousands of human lives have been destroyed, scores of gifted people have been exiled or incarcerated and deep mistrust has been sown among the various ethnic groups. Human society is, however, a mysterious creature, and it serves no good to trust its public face at any one moment. Thousands of people welcomed Suu Kyi on her tours, proving that the Burmese nation is neither subjugated nor pessimistic and faithless. Hidden beneath the mask of apathy, there is an unsuspected energy and a great human, moral and spiritual charge. Detaining and repressing people cannot change the soul of a nation. It may dampen it and disguise the reality outwardly, but history has repeatedly taught us the lesson that change often arrives unexpectedly.
· To talk about change is not enough, change must happen [WashingtonPost ]

Against all odds, Peter Finlay dances on the literary high wire...

Downward Cultural Spiral: Not bloody likely!
You may think that one of the ways in which you can test this book . . . is to ask yourselves the question . . . would you approve of your young sons, young daughters—because girls can read as well as boys—reading this book? Is it a book you would leave lying about your house? Is it a book you would even wish your wife and servants to read? The genie was well and truly out of the bottle, the supply had created a demand, and the appetite grew with feeding.
· Unflinching flirting with taboo [CityJournal ]
· Evaluating John Paul II's Papacy: A Czech View [EuroSavant ]

Slavic sentence structure
Five literary translators on the art of turning written Czech into readable English.
Artists in their own right, they face twin daunting challenges: interpreting, culture and sensibility into English of reading each book or poem in its original form.
· Channeling the voice and soul of the original author to re-create the experience [ PraguePost]