Does anyone here have the Helen Joseph Armstrong book: Patternmaking for Fashion Design ??

If you do have it could you look at page 32 and tell me if there are instructions for how to measure someone to make their bodice? I have this book back in Canada and scanned it (too heavy to move with me) but I missed page 32 and I just want to check if it is important.

Thanks!

 I've already had a time with this coat that has to be finished by next Friday already (as can be seen a few posts down!). We're going to a steampunk masquerade ball for New Year's Eve. 

I water-only washed this broadcloth cotton fabric the other day only to discover chalky white lines criss-crossing the material. I washed it again but the lines are still there. I call my BF who is out of state for the holidays (and who is the holder of the receipt!) and he says it's fine, go ahead. Then today I try to iron out the wrinkles and while the big folding line wrinkles will go away, these tiny crinkly wrinkles won't budge. 




Do you have any what's going on here? I think I'll probably just have to suck it up and go buy some more fabric and wait for him to come back with the receipt to return this piece of crap. >=(

My second question is which side is considered to be the right side of fusible interfacing? 

Thanks!

'Abwrackprämie' Named Word of the Year

The GERMAN WORDS OF THE YEAR are: 

1. Abwrackprämie – "wrecking premium"
2. kriegsähnliche Zustände – "war-like conditions"
3. Schweinegrippe - "swine flu"
4. Bad Bank - "schlechte Bank" in German
5. Weltklimagipfel - "world climate conference"
6. Deutschland ist Europameisterin - "Germany is the [feminine] European Champion"
7. twittern – "to twitter"
8. Studium Bolognese – "Bolognese studies," a sarcastic reference to the Italian dish that reflects German universities' failure to properly integrate the Bologna education reforms
9. Wachstumsbeschleunigungsgesetz – "growth acceleration law"
10. Haste mal ’ne Milliarde? – "Can you spare a billion?"


The Society for German Language (Gesellschaft fuer deutsche Sprache - GfdS) crowned Abwrackprämie, or “wrecking premium,” the most important German word of 2009. The word was coined to describe the country’s popular cash-for-clunkers scheme, which paid people to junk their old cars as part of the government's stimulus programme. The word was chosen to represent the “linguistic chronicle of the past year,” the organisation said from its headquarters in Wiesbaden.

The second place phrase was kriegsähnliche Zustände, or “war-like conditions,” used to describe the situation faced by German troops in Afghanistan – and also an indication of the enduring taboo of referring to Bundeswehr mission there as “war.”

Meanwhile Schweinegrippe, or “swine flu” came in third place for the year’s most popular word.

This year's winning word was made popular by average Germans and advertisers, GfdS head Rudolf Hoberg said, adding that the concept was carried over from cars to furniture, washing machines and bicycles. “One breaks something and gets money for it,” he said, explaining the word’s appeal. The original Abwrackprämie offered Germans €2,500 to scrap their old cars and buy new, more environmentally friendly models. Hoberg criticised the second place word, though, saying it trivialised reality. “Of course we’re in a war there,” he said, referring to Afghanistan.

Other words on the list are very recent editions to the German vocabulary. The fifth place Weltklimagipfel, or “world climate conference,” threatened to collapse on Friday as the word list was released, while the Bundestag approved the ninth place word Wachstumsbeschleunigungsgesetz, or “growth acceleration law” on Friday too.

Each year the GfdS selects words and phrases made popular by the German media and public discussion, voting for the term that best embodies the zeitgeist. This year they chose among some 350 entries.

Hoberg said he was particularly amused by the creative solecism in the phrase Deutschland ist Europameisterin, or “Germany is the [feminine] European Champion,” used to describe the women’s national football team victory in the European championships.

Haste mal 'ne Milliarde?, or "Can you spare a billion," was an ironic take on how the financial crisis has changed how Germans think of money. “In the last year we’ve started thinking in billions,” he said. “Millions are peanuts today.”

Last year's #1 word was Finanzkrise, or financial crisis. Seen at: http://www.thelocal.de

I'd never seen this. I've still not seen most of it. I was very surprised when

Animal lover warning

( Read more... )

If I used garbled linguistics to argue that Old Timey People didn't have the full range of sophisticated colour vision as modern people, how long do you think it would take before this theory turned up in an SF novel?

My thinking is twofold: Classical European languages probably didn't have exactly the same number of words for colours as modern English and they could either have more or fewer. I'll ignore any that had more. Also, if I aim this at monolingual English-speakers they won't be able to check (Bear in mind I am monolingual and I certainly won't be checking).

I might cherry-pick some examples from languages that happen not to have a lot of basic words for colours and which happen to be spoken by people in extremely underdeveloped regions. For extra hilarity, I'll make some sweeping assertations about Japanese and Chinese languages that are clearly false that nobody will check.


Would it be going too far to slip in a reference to Calvin's dad?

Living in a pretty much movie-theatre-less area for nearly a year now, I decided that the moment I will come back to Ottawa, I will go to the movies at least once. So yesterday, given that movie theatres are among the few things open on Christmas Day, I offered my brothers that we go see a movie. We were at first thinking of seeing Sherlock Holmes, but then decided on Avatar in 3D. I covered the tickets, as a sort-of Christmas present; besides, there had been several times before when my older brother at least paid for me at the movies. So, my younger brother driving, we went to SilverCity (one of the two biggest and most entertainment-focussed multiplexes in Ottawa, in my impression.)

There wasn't a gap of three seats in the central section, despite the fact that Avatar had been running for two weeks already. We picked up the 3D glasses and sat down in the back row of the front section, where I had never sat before, and I was concerned about craning my neck. As the commercials ran, I realized that I was getting disoriented, so with the blessing of my brothers I moved to find a seat farther back. As I continued watching the commercials, I realized that I was not used to scenes changing so fast - in the length of time since I last watched a movie in a theatre (which was pretty rare even when I was living in a city that had them), my eyes and brain had forgotten the skills necessary to follow such rapid cuts on a big screen. I hoped that at least the feature presentation would probably have fewer cuts than 30-second commercials and 90-second trailers, and I was mainly right.

I quite enjoyed the movie, and the 3D did add to the experience, although my brothers and I both agreed its most impressive use was not even in the movie itself but in a 3D commercial where a cow's head pops apparently two metres out of the screen.

Notes on the movie James Cameron's Avatar (MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS ALTHOUGH IT IS MOSTLY ON WORLD BUILDING RATHER THAN PLOT, AND WHAT IT TELLS OF PLOT CAN BE SEEN IN ANY PUBLIC MOVIE REVIEW!):

( Good heavens, Tourmaline does a movie review )

Contest! With no prize except the prospect of making me miserable.

( Read more... )

thesaucernews discusses Jetse DeVries' Should (written) Science Fiction Die.

I may come back to this later.

I think that DeVries is using a definition of SF in his title where SF = American SF, which strikes me as very funny in this context. I think this is because I need more sleep.

It was chilly today and raining so I was a little worried about the rain freezing. I did encounter one patch of ice but it was in a very specific place: on a set of concrete steps into a building. The material looked about the same as the sidewalk (which was ice-free) and it's not shaded. As far as I can tell it was just like the nearby ice-free sidewalk. Any guesses as to why that patch and just that patch of concrete was chilled enough to have ice on it?

Poll #1503463 How do you learn a new math subfield beyond your specialty?
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 5

How do you learn a new subject beyond your subfield? (Note that you can choose multiple answers)

The results of the poll are here.

Happy Holidays to all of you out there! I hope that the season is fruitful, healthy and joyful for you and yours!

Here's looking at the new year, 2010! I'm looking forward to seeing bigger and better from our favourite stuntwoman/actress!! Annnnnnnnnd.. I hope she graces our presence sometime in the future once more! :wub:

Go get'um, Zoë!!

Just ordered myself two nice commentary editions* of the Book of Proverbs from Eichlers. I've never been able to put my finger on why this book of the Hebrew Scriptures, in particular, fascinates me; but this article from the JPS Study Bible nails it:

Proverbs is a paean to the power of the human mind. Its authors are convinced that everyone who attends to the wisdom of the past and employs his powers of rational thinking has the ability to know what to do and what to avoid. These powers and the knowledge that goes with them are called wisdom. Wisdom - Hebrew hokhmah - is the great virtue that, for Proverbs, entails all others. No divine revelation is necessary, for G-d gave humanity the faculty of wisdom, and people need only listen to her call (ch 8). Thus, there is a certain tension between Proverbs and Torah books, which insist on the significance of revealed law. (Michael V. Fox)

Also I like that the verses of Proverbs, read in Hebrew, have a pleasant rhythmical quality. I find that this makes them excellent mantras for meditation, as is the case with Psalm 119 (the lengthy alphabetical psalm). This seems appropriate because, as the above analysis suggests, the emphasis of Proverbs is less on obedience than on introspection.

*ETA:  Artscroll and Torah Anthology - 2 volumes each!

Much love,
MKT

You know, I really feel like this speaks for itself.

Which is good, because I am too busy hiding in my closet from the scary white unicorn bride-monster to speak for it.

... I wanted to tell you about us, how wicked we are.
And yet also to say that the Star—you know the star I mean—
Is for some of us clearly visible still in the east at midnight rising, and all the night long burns serene—
And that on such nights on unaccustomed knees we kneel and in sweet discomfort
Pray for hours, and mean it, to be better than we are.
I am not one of these, I fear;
I loved you always for the things I read
About you in a book we had.
I did not meet you for the first time through the incense and stale smell
Of a room seldom aired, where people purred of heaven and howled of hell.
I used to read all day, when I was ten:
—You and Don Quijote were my heroes then.

Perhaps because of him I have been kind
Often with my heart, before consulting my mind.
I might have been wiser, had I learned direct from you—
Learned to make curlicues in the sand or on a scratch-pad while deciding what to say or do ...
Such as, "Sin—the waves come in—all pushing pebbles—each alone ...
I have it!—Let him among them who is without sin!—cast the first stone!"

I learned so young to know you, I could never see
Why we should not be playmates; you were wonderful,—
Oh, you were shiny!—and for some strange reason, fond of me.
But nothing will be done. I can do nothing. Nothing at all.
Only remember what you said, your voice, the way you said it,—
For it never was like something read, it was something heard, even while I read it—
And try to be wiser and kinder, in a world where Pity from place to place
Flees under cover of darkness, hiding her face;
Give Pity breathing-space.

- Edna St. Vincent Millay
from Make Bright the Arrows