France/Spain 2011 - Day 4, Part 5 - Paris: Musée des Arts et Métiers

"You can't make up anything anymore. The world itself is a satire. All you're doing is recording it." - Art Buchwald

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France/Spain 2011
Day 4 - 20th March - Paris: Musée des Arts et Métiers (Part 5)


Large Electrostatic Machine, 18th c.


Detector amplifier type "L1", 1917


TV Camera, 1935


Strowger selector, c. 1940


Box of Cable Samples, 1924


Hugues printing device, 1875
I'm not sure what the piano keys do


"Interview" film camera, 1922
Notice it says "Made in France" in English


Pathé Kok projector, 1911


Optical Amusements - this gave the illusion of a moving image


Pens, 1894


Plate as cast for Marinoni's rotary press, 1883


Movable type


Stuff for Phantasmagoria:

"a form of theatre which used a modified magic lantern to project frightening images such as skeletons, demons, and ghosts onto walls, smoke, or semi-transparent screens, frequently using rear projection"


On Phantasmagorias


Glazed earthenware dishes, 1889

There was a room with materials which was quite boring, but it was better than gears.


Electroplated shield, c. 1850


Autovacc, 1990
So why are we still vacuuming?!


Luckily, I'm too young to recognise this. This is an 8" floppy, not a 5.25" one.


Counting Machine


Mystery (?) clock, late 19th c.


Box of simple microscopes. Germany, mid-18th c.


Astronomical clock, early 19th c.


Clock with double annular face, c. 1770


Lavoisier's gasometers, 1785


Device for experimenting on vinous fermentation, late 18


Barometers, early 19th c. and 1780. They have a weather indicator, not just a pressure one

There were scientific instruments with weight and measures, but I didn't see a reproduction of the official KG weight.

I then went back to the ground floor to hear a talk about Foucault's Pendulum. I arrived 5 minutes late so I didn't get a very good spot.


Guide explaining. I was quite tired and hurting by this time so I didn't really pay attention.


Bicycles


Steam Car, 1770


There were too many spoilt screens for the inconvenience to be "occasional"


Unidentified Flying Object

There was also an exhibiton: "Doubles vies. La face cachée des machines" ("Double Lives. The hidden face of machines") but this was just photographs ofmachines taken from odd angles so they looked like faces etc., so it wasn't very interesting.


La Café des Techniques à toutes vapeurs
Apparently all their dishes are steamed. Ugh.

Religious Tolerance in Singapore

"This is the devilish thing about foreign affairs: they are foreign and will not always conform to our whim." - James Reston

***

I was pointed towards threats made against someone over "a personal issue in a private discussion forum that was leaked out":


"I tot he already been nab??? How cn he still freely outside.. Ni help frm ISD... (help help help) btw.. He cn escape us, bt he cn't escape Allah punishment...."
"Stand Firmly for Allah. If you find him, seize him and teach him a lesson. Do not just sit down and accept what that scum has to say bout the religion of Allah, but instead teach him a lesson here he will never ever forget."

Since I don't know Malay, the target of the mob translated the remarks for me: "basically they want to exact justice on me by way of vigilantism, burn my house down, kill me, beat me up."


More choice bits from the Facebook group Muslims Unite Against Asy'ari J. Asni (for obvious reasons I will not reproduce those from the Malay version, Pendedahan Eksklusif-Siapa Sebenarnya Sitt Al Wuzara):


"i spotted him at Bazaar Geylang with a girl... Me n friends turned back n tried to chase him but then we didn't managed to get him. tsk!"


"we all know that the punishment prescribed by Allah and his Messenger s.a.w. is death"
"Apostasy Act and Hudud law is unfortunately does not valid in Singapore. Anyway it's not easy to conduct Hudud law even in Malaysia too, look at the case of Lina Joy, Murtad Mama or Nor Aishah Bokhari. Even stronghold Islamic state like Kelantan can't do anything to interfere... it's not easy to conduct Hudud law in our region. Unless we are living in Afghanistan where Taliban rules."


"Indians will forever be like that.. Their mouth and the rubbish bin has no diff.. Thats why rubbish always came out from their bloody mouth.. Stinks!" (thread)
(the irony is killing me)


"i dont wish him well. May he die the most horrible and painful death."


Now, whatever your feelings about the allergy to any serious discussion of race and religion in Singapore, if you're reading this blog you probably agree that making such threats is unacceptable (and hopefully you also agree that this is almost certainly worse than his original alleged transgression).

This is especially alarming in light of the Alex Chang affair, which saw only somewhat less violent threats being made (some of them incoherent [e.g. calling him "racist" even when the putative issue was about religion instead of race], in response to a simple question*), and where one person commented "people stop the religious debate. it will lead to no where but disaster. lets put a stop to this."

Again, religious tolerance in Singapore amounts to religious ignorance, and this is just perpetuated by the moral panic imposed from above and replicated by most - which is a self-fulfilling prophecy.

In other words, if you keep telling people that race and religion are sensitive issues in Singapore, they become even more sensitive issues.

Perhaps this is a reminder that the sort of religious extremists who want to blow things up are not the only sort we should be concerned about.

Addendum: RT @ridztheone: Reading those comments from the "Ban Alex Chang from all McDs in Singapore" page on Facebook, I'm ashamed to be a Muslim.

***

* - Interestingly, MUIS's Halal requirements say that "Figures of deities, if any, in the applicants’ premises should be hidden from the public’s view".

Thus, a publicly visible figure of a deity is seen as a expression of religious sentiment sufficient to invalidate an establishment's Halal certification. One could then draw a parallel between a publicly visible figure of a deity and playing the call to prayer (a bell or announcement is a secular and perfectly practical way to announce that eating can commence) and conclude that they are both expressions of religious sentiment that call into question the secular nature of a place.

Indeed, McDonald's Singapore's response asserts that the outlet in question should not have done what it did (for whatever reason).

One counter-claim put forward to me was that all Halal-certified places already ipso facto endorse Islam, so it is nonsensical to claim that they should not engage in expression of religious sentiment. The parallel drawn was that a place serving vegetarian food is endorsing the vegetarian lifestyle, so a place serving Halal food must be endorsing Islam.

In that case, what does it say about a Muslim who sells pork and alcohol (as you find in countries with culinary traditions involving pork and alcohol, and where Muslims are a small minority)? Could this Muslim be called an apostate by endorsing pork and alcohol, which are inimical to Islam?

We can see, then, that your choice of menu is merely a matter of economics (though perhaps not for a vegetarian place, given the size of that market).

(return)

Conversations - 28th August 2011

"I hate quotations. Tell me what you know." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Me: See women check each other out as much as or more than men. But no one complains

Frigid Girl: *** said after he went to *** he realised women check out each other way more than men


Someone: i realise why u're so unpopular

cos u're always right
and people dun like to be told they're wrong

read "getting to yes" lol


Someone else: Back for good! No more Shanghai, thanks

A/B - i just miss home :)

Me: After China I would too

Someone: thousands of americans will fly across the pacific ocean just for a chance to intern in shanghai

Me: Millions of Chinese will pay people smugglers just for a chance to live in the US

Someone else: ^5! i was just about to post a similar reply lol


MFTTW: Anyway that's trivial
Singaporeans are good at trivial arguments
Missing the forest for the trees

Me: haha
no this is a classic liberal argument against stereotyping

MFTTW: Uh what's that you always say? Stereotypes are based on truths

Me: stereotypes persist and endure because they're often true

MFTTW: Ah ok I note down

Me: wah note down my wisdom
I can write little red book liao

MFTTW: Yes yes the Tao of gabby


Someone: only idiots do [want to make partner]
there's no life
and the money isn't worth the time lost

your partners hate you, your minions hate you
probably your wife and children hate you too
you'll be fucking your secretary or mistress and they'll hate you too
basically only fools try to make partner

Me: I thought partners make more and work less than grunts

Someone: no la, that's a myth
their workload is just as bad, if not worse
when the clients call who do you think they wanna speak to?
the minions or the boss?
then when the clients fuck ppl over the phone, who do you think is the
one being fucked?
and best of all they got to take it with a smile on the face


Someone else: Chey used goods

Me: -_-
this is why dating sucks in sg

Someone else: Too few girls too many guys
U gotta take it or leave it sorts

Me: hurr hurr
the sex ratio is not that unbalanced what

here's a better way of looking at it
it sucks to break in shoes yourself =D

Someone else: So the girls learn to be better partner?
Interesting way of looking at it


TC: your ideals will leave you cold hungry lonely and horny
lol

Me: cock lah
hungry - got job
cold - got heating
horny - got whore
so just lonely
get puppy lor


Someone: You have a lot of energy. When I was 14, I made a promise to myself that I'd never debate with religious people about religious issues.o

I think I should make another promise to myself that I'd never debate with feminists/racists.

Oh, I think I should never argue with Mac users too.


Someone else: men are so easy
easy to please
no wonder lesbians are an angry people
frustrated


Someone: i did not bother to climb the eiffel tower
lol

Me: sad.
were you busy mounting something else?


Someone else: have u taken *** studies before?

*** took it
she said it was impossible to get any serious discussion

*** esp were basically self victimizing all the time
and sensitive to remarks that no serious discussion could take place


Frigid Girl on Salome: I don't like Strauss, except for his waltzes