Buy cheap, sell expensive.

Would you believe that this bowl is worth $2.2m? Well neither did the person who sold it for just $3 in a garage sale just a few years ago. Nevertheless that's what it sold for at auction at Sotheby's yesterday. Apparently it is unbelievably old and rare. Although Song dynasty, it was certainly bought for a song, however did not go for a song.

I think I am going to have a look in our attic. You never know what you can find there. It's going to be a dead cat most likely with my luck :-D

True story. Or is it?

Ben Affleck's new Oscar winning film Argo has sparked a wave of comments which are far from positive.

First there is the question of how true the allegedly "true story" is. The Syrians certainly do not feel like the film is showing a true picture of their country.

Then there are the Iranians who find the film really hard to watch.  Iran is even thinking of suing the film over unrealistic portrayal of the hostage crisis.

And last but not least there are the British diplomats who helped the Americans in their time of need, however in the film they are portrayed as turning them away. Clearly in that respect Argo just follows the long Hollywood tradition of British villains and American heroes.

"Harlem Shake" in Oxford (UK)

 Have you ever heard of the Harlem Shake? Well, the first time I have ever heard about it was actually this morning. Unfortunately it was in connection with a poor Oxford librarian who got sacked, because she allowed some students to make a video of it while she was on duty. You can read all about it here.
I do hope she gets reinstated.
Nevertheless, it looks really fun and I think it would be great if someone organized something like that at our university :-D
BTW there are a lot more videos on YouTube. Some of my favorite ones are here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTEtbuR0VZ8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pl5d4JNXxE

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Sunday is St. Patrick's Day, a holiday with an interesting history in terms of Anglo-American relations. The English don't celebrate it, or at least didn't when I was living in the UK; they didn't seem to be aware of it. It's an Irish holiday, and therefore has functioned at times as a statement of defiance against England's historical domination and colonizing of Ireland. But because immense numbers of Irish emigrated to the US, and particularly to America's northern cities, St. Patrick's Day became a big deal, almost an unofficial national holiday, in America. There are big parades marking it in Boston, New York, and Chicago. The Chicago River is dyed green for the occasion, as in the photo here, and tradition calls for wearing green items of clothing and drinking green-colored beer, and lots of it. (If green beer isn't readily available, tradition permits drinking beer of any color at all. Irish whiskey is also encouraged, as is "Irish coffee." The Irish, as you probably know, are stereotyped as big drinkers.)

Like every other American holiday, St. Pat's is also the occasion for big sales and (alleged) discounts in most of the stores, including those whose business has nothing to do with Ireland. Here, though, is an example from one business that does.

Beannachtaí na Féile Pádraig oraibh!

Why don't the French speak better English?

That's the question discussed in this article, which cites statistics showing how relatively poorly the French do on tests of English. Various theories are then proposed to explain this, ranging from the way French children are raised to the way languages are taught in French schools to the fact that most English TV and movies in France are dubbed rather than subtitled. I would be interested in knowing how the factors described here are different in the Czech Republic. The students and others I deal with at the university here (luckily for me) speak fine English, as do a surprising number of waiters, store clerks, ticket agents and train conductors. What are Czechs doing to teach and learn English that the French aren't?