TBD - To Be Done or Work-in-hand

A recurring pre-occupation in my web and blog approaches, has been and is, concerned with of the concept of limitations and their positive (or negative or equilibrating-neutralising) power and their definitions. This is becoming more and more apparent to me! I do hope readers share this perception, if not I trust you will send your feed-back for improvement or contribute via your own web-logs and links.

To start this "conversation," and hopefully help understanding, let me developpe this as follows:

""Many of you will know of the idea of the “weakest link” as in a chain, or in a team or human system, and again in chemical kinetics, “the slowest reaction in a series of reactions may determine its overall rate or speed” or upon further analysis may depend on in what is known in chemical or mechanical engineering –as fluid dynamics and heat and mass transfer as opposed to purely chemical reaction rate. In a few of words “Holistic Systems Approach.” These notion appear throughout. ""

Current up dates to blogger with AdSense are:

· "Toe the line" or "The Prefects Prayer"
Already posted here-in.
. It is based upon the very clear short book "Les Constantes Universelles" (Universal Constants in english) by the Physics Nobel Prize winner Gilles Cohen Tannoudji. I warmly recommend both C.Cohen Tannoudji's book for the concise,insightful account of the universal constants; G, c, k & h the gravitational constant,the speed of light,Boltzmann and Planck'constants respectively and my,hopefully mind stimulating, verses on LIMITS in

· "Newton is Dead"
Already posted here-in
ENTROPY,Chemical-Thermodynamics; Gibbs, Helmholtz, J.C.Maxwell et al. in

· "From Entropy to Poetry," (Work completed)
or
LASER Light-beams in
· "Jaggy Stuff" (Done cf next post above)
or again on WORK & JOBS

· "Le travail c'est la santé-a damned good job too",
Alreadt posted herein
or
even on Neutrinos in
· "Not so Shy" (TDB follow-up from John Updike's poem The Shy Particle)

. These and other subjects are treated in a light-hearted but fairly sound fashion. As suggested in my original weblog post “”, despite such exponential increase in knowlege,(that non-trivial “hockey stick” crops-up again) it is trivial, still,to say that infinitely more is unknown than is known, even excluding the outer space & extraterrestrial exploration often involked in such statements, and less explicitly as in Nuclear Fusion.

An Innovative Energy Network Brings Carbon-Credit Hope-Highlighted by my poem "THE DC NETWORK" High Voltage Direct Current -Also Sound Advice on HIV

This militant poem, "The DC NETWORK!" was posted earlier as an add-on to

"Letter in the Scottish Tradition-"LE TRAVAIL C’EST LA SANTE…"
(a damned good job too!)

Due to the value of the Innovation's refered to,(1)HVDC[link] & Materials Science's Role (rubber)[via IOM3 Link] in Battle against HIV, I appeared highly desireable to give my poem & links (TBD)higher visibility.

Source of Inspiration:
Footnote Sus Dev: ref. "Material Matters" & Letters to the Editor Materials World & our following debate on HVDC:

"The DC NETWORK!"

HVDC should in no-way be confused with HIV.

Both refer to distributed energy, waste to flee!

HIV needs no explanation for today's generation,

-Remember...!

HVDC means High Voltage Direct Current, premption

Notice here that, "mean" takes an "s", giving "means"!
Both relie on the Materials Sci. Scot, rubber(s) for insulation.
Let worldly saints see,

Lack of protection is Devil's temptation.

Soon the world solar energy links,
May end the current energy jinks,

Wind in Scotland powering Poland & Germany!

Can you just imagine, more than one man thinks

A 6million kilted, bagpipe nation starts to dream a link

Fossile energy sources may end some day - happily,
Spreading, comfort instead of dire, wild-fire
The latter is a climate change hard trier.

Trust the solar-nuclear; Wind & water
Marine-Hydro, Fuel Cells & Geothermal
Decide on Solar source, dash...
Not just all that,trash and hash.

Scottish Mettle!

copyright JA (080328)

It is particularily fitting to dedicate this post to the Pylon Poets.

[& again thanks Jack -Material Matters, Materials World -IOM3, Sept. 2002, p70. ]
The so-called "Pylon poets" of the 1930s were mocked for writing poetry that seemed to praise the scourge of the National Grid spreading itself across the hills and valleys; Stephen Spender, W.H. Auden and Louis MacNeice all got tainted with the brush (even though Spender's original Pylon poem doesn't seem all that straight-forwardly enthusiastic if you read it now).
But it reminds me of our current national debate about wind farms. I absolutely love the idea of a landscape which combines respect for our architectural heritage, with a delight in what is to come - and for me, wind farms and pylons are exciting: a gorgeous, exhilarating sight. But to listen to some Radio 4 phone-ins, you'd think I was completely alone. Now I've got Brian Hayes, though, I know there must be other people out there who like pylons. courtesy of The Independent, Emma Townshend.

Footnote: The excellent "Leonardo Energy" web site, is managed by The European Copper Institute

MORE on RUBBER - Roadmap for Rubber & Polymers, please Comment

My Poem on Mechanical Limits-"NEWTON IS DEAD."

LIMITS TO A PHYSICAL & MECHANICAL APPROACH.

NEWTON is DEAD.

(Inspired by -“Newton is dead” by Peter M. Allen, Prof. of Physical Chemistry,MIT

ref: “La Mort d'Newton”

Ed. Maisonneuve & Larose(in French translated from Italian under the direction of Augusto Forti-Bureau Européen de l’UNESCO, Paris).

"NEWTON is DEAD".
Newtonian physics and thermodynamics have succeeded.

In economy, biology, and ecology, problems have receded.

Based upon some false sense of equilibrium,

We have reduced the complex sys. Triumvirum

To some potential function; utility, convenience, efficiency,

Vital to human condition if only one could wait and see.

The blind watchmaker has had his say.

Old man time has cast his arrows way,

Breaking the egg timers universal symmetry.

Please don’t get me wrong, there is no gimmickry.

Even in evolution, which is where it’s at,

Darwin is in essence a view of the past.

The mechanical world is in a right damned panic,

Dissipative processes have sapped dynamics.

In breaking systems into constitutive parts,

Atoms and molecules have lost life’s spark.

Could it be that my own equilibrium is fleeting

From balanced short time to long* my life eating?

Because all is not of equal possibility,

We simply seek the average probability.

But this machine, I may tell you, can only function.

It’s job is not to compete, co-operate, disposition.

To grow, evolve, and even innovate.

Continuous learning, conscience create!

Only as a mainly mortiferrous linear decision,

Can physics keep its present power of prevision;

Entropy, Free Energy potential associates imposes relaxation,

Inevitably deterministic, predetermined, equilibrium variation.

This last word is to-days reality,

Far from all known bounds of reversibility,

Instabilities three wicked witches, turn, twist, and flirt

**“Out of line” modern body of physics & chemistry comforts it.

Do you get the picture of the human system devotion?

Individual components immerged in a potential ocean,

Whose evolving contours are hills and valley postures,

Hyphens for present and possible (potential) futures,

And each of them as in some fog or smog vaguely visible.

Choose carefully here, the dreams of some brave individual!

For awaits devilish dilemmas fork, requiring doctor’s care,

Or on average smooth, sooth, through fear of life’s dare,

For history moves equally to individuals and to systems rhythm

At least this is Peter’s hope;DASHED & DROWNED?

[**& NSF below ]

Here I must stop least language becomes the new barrierOf our species,

much worse than any animal carrier.

*(Long & short time economic model-pendulum?/eqm.)

**Non-linear

Jas. Alexander © (written about 12/12/1999 .This edition 20 Sept. 2001 & 11Oct.)

Please quote the author in any communication/transmission, written or verbal… copyright © J.A
More on Entropy [Link] or

[Link]

Practical Applications of Thermodynamics &

Communities-Families:[Link]

Why I Chose Red-Pourquoi j’ai choisi le rouge

POURQUOI J’AI CHOISI LE ROUGE.

H.Macdiarmid. Ed. Penguin Vol.1. Complete Works (trad. J.Alexander).

Je me bats en rouge pour la même raison
Que Garibaldi a choisi la chemise rouge
-Parce que quelques hommes dans un champ portant le rouge
Semble être très nombreuses - s’il y a dix vous diriez
qu'il y a cent ; s’il y a cent vous les croiriez mille
Et la couleur rouge danse devant le viseur de l’ennemi
Et son visé sera mauvaise-Mais la meilleure raison de tout
Un homme dans une chemise rouge ne peut ni se cacher ni fuir.

Trad. J.A.© (1 /06/2001)
(m. j. a. m.)

Why I Chose Red

I FIGHT in red for the same reasons
That Garibaldi chose the red shirt
- Because a few men in a field wearing red
Look like many men – if there are ten you will think
There are a hundred; if a hundred
You will believe them a thousand.
And the colour of red dances in the enemy's rifle sights
And his aim will be bad – But, best reason of all,
A man in a red shirt can neither hide nor retreat.

© H.Macdiarmid. Ed. Penguin Vol.1. Complete Works

permission was requested.

Conversations on Innovations: One Innovation most are awaiting - Longevity

Conversations on Innovations: One Innovation most are awaiting - Longevity

My Poem,"Toe the line" on LEARNING-HORIZONS/HORIZONS APPRENANTES!

Time to leave my translations of Hugh MacDiarmid and introduce some "pseudo-science..." through one of my own Franco-English poetry efforts.

LEARNING HORIZONS/HORIZONS APPRENANTES!

- The super-cord runners! -

Alternative title: "The Prefect's Prayer"

(It is based upon the very clear short book "Les Constantes Universelles" (Universal Constants in english) by the Physics Nobel Prize winner Gilles Cohen Tannoudji. I warmly recommend both C. Cohen-Tannoudji's book for the concise,insightful account of the universal constants; G, c, k & h the gravitational constant,the speed of light,Boltzmann and Planck'constants respectively
“Les Constantes Universelles”[pdf] par Gilles Cohen-Tannoudji )

Other Inspirations and influences on this approach are due to

Interdisciplinary Reviews Ed. J.E.Harris & Order in Intermetallics by R.W.Cahn.(ref.author's signed print transmitted personnaly, many thanks) & to the late
J. Rotblatt-founder of Pugwash "1st meeting,Pugwash,Nova Scotia,Canada" Hi forever!)

Toe the line

("A vos marques")
Ce n’est pas un terrassement
Toe the line
C’est le début du commencement
Toe the line
C’est l’intention absolue de dépassement
Toe the line
Maintenant, les yeux rivés, fixement
Toe the line
Sur la corde plus que jamais, en filament

Bang ! Soit-il grand !

Big-Bang blum,
On est sur la piste.
Stu-Peur !

C'est une horizon qui s'éloigne

Et une autre horizon qui s'approche.
Ce sont les concurrents qui s’éloignent.

Les un des autres, les horizons témoignent
Par déplacements, expansions bidirectionnelle,
Le corps s’échauffe,

Comme un ressort!
Mais l’esprit reste froid, calme comme la nuit.
Le but atteint, c’est l’horizon affranchi
Les corps se rencontrent, de nouveaux se percutent.
Sourires ou larmes, des visages s’allument,
Embrassant vainqueurs et vaincus.
Dans l’effervescence, le temps s’arrête.
Au-delà du tout "quantum" discernabilité,
On a inventé "l’amplitude de la probabilité".
Nous sommes spectateurs, des parieurs tous !
Mais dans l’énergie de l'action, on vit,
Ici, maintenant, conscience
On découvre la remise des médailles,
manifestation de la life réalité !

So-t
Toe the line! - all in Time-GENTLEMEN-Please.

(Coude à Coude, derniers Verres, Messieurs, SVP.)

Jas. Alexander © (29/03/2001 up-date2008)
(m. j. a. m- mostly just a metallurgist).

Oh What a "Great War", That Was!

Well Beyond Exile / Bien au-delà de l'exile.

(versions en français et en anglais suivent)
(Suggested by H. Mcdiarmid “Beyond Exile.” Salonika (1916)
and surely,the pipe music “The hills of Tyrol”, paroles A. Stewart).

Note historique:

This true story happened in the same place (Dardanelles near Salonika), one year after Michel Grieves (alias H. Macdiarmid) wrote his beautiful lines "Beyond Exile cf previous post)

C'est histoire vrai à eu lieu dans la même région(Les Dardanelles près de Salonique) ou M. Grieves (alias H. Macdiarmid) à écrit ces très belles paroles dans "Au delà de l'exile" cf. log précédent

One Year On /Un an de plus
To Salonika and Back/ Salonique aller – retour-1917.
For Françoise et sa Famille: Mamie Lulu, Paul, Dédé et Michel
and especially Grandfather Jaconnet, he who survived the
atrocious: "Chemin de Dames"- Verdun

(To Jean, 1893-1917).

"Le cousin de ma femme est mort aujourd’hui"


“My wife’s cousin died today,
Son nomEm, Jean Crochet.
‘Maréchal de ceci ou de cela ?’
«Tout simplement des Logis. »
‘Diplôme en poche aussi ?’
« Des Ponts et Chaussées . »

Il a quitté le 201e d’artillerie
Le silence sur la 26e batterie

Sur ses terres lointaines
Trouver le vieux chemin
De la colline et de l’école
était au-delà de ses propres forces
Son père comme lui a dû allé
Car Jean, lui-même, à trop tardé !

Il a quitté le 201e d’artillerie
Le silence sur la 26e batterie

A Salonique. Quel beau voyage !
L’instituteur, directeur, la norme
A trouver le vieux chemin
De la colline et de l’école.
Jean a passé l’ultime borne

Il a quitté le 201e d’artillerie
Le silence sur la 26e batterie

Ils sont de retour à nouveau, Nevers
Jean, Alphonse, et Francine
Ensemble devant la pierre, l’hiver,
Vieillis de cent ans un jour
Silent memory to a living “hymn”

Il a quitter le 201e d’artillerie
Le silence sur la 26e batterie

Il faut bien le dire,( tout haut ?)
Ca fait beau sur son tombeau.

JA © (1/06/2001). Trad. Update (5/06/2001)

Footnotes :

Francine née Perrier
1° version ever = anglais pour "toujours"

Variations
Silent memory to a living “hymn
(Mémoires si-les-cieux - la vie en hymne).

English Translation

Well beyond Exile – “One year on”
( Translation to English of” my poem
Bien au delà de l’exile. Originally in French. Inspired by H. Macdiarmid )

My wife’s cousin died to-day.
Oh, his name? Jean Crochet
Major General this or that?
Simply a sergeant major
A young university graduate, eh ?
From‘les Ponts and Chaussées’

Jean left the 201st artillery
Silence on the 26th company

In distant lands to find
The old hill road and
The village school was well…
Beyond his strength, now unkempt
His father, like Jean also went
Jean’s life was down right spent

Jean left the 201st artillery
Silence on the 26th company

To Salonika what a wonderful trip
The school head master, directorship
Found the old hill road and
The village school was well…
Jean had passed the ultimate mile post

Jean left the 201st artillery
Silence on the 26th company

They are now all back in Nevers
Jean Alphonse and Francine
Together before the headstone, ever
Aged a hundred days, one day
A silent memory to a living hymn.

Jean left the 201st artillery
Silence on the 26th company

Should I allow, my voice be heard
Declaring that it does look good
On his grave head?

JA copyright@J.A
Trial translation 25 Oct. 2001. ©

Footenote: Jean's cannon had fired so many rounds that day that it blew up on them. A sort of metallurgical-quality assurance-defect, then "that's war that was" and maybe still is?

Tribute to Lazare Ponticelli & to those who survived or tried to survive WWI

Lazare Ponticelli, was the longest and last French surviver of the "Great War" The 1st World War (WWI) Lazard died today. A short well documented tribute to Lazard was published by The Economist.

I did not intend to write so soon on work inspired by H. Macdiarmid, soldier in the British Army medical corps who wrote the following lines which I find beautiful and poignant, a plea or prayer in essence, hence my desire to translate them into french. There is another reason concerning close family, some survived some died! Lazard & Hugh survived...


Au-delà de l’exile

(Beyond Exile by H. Macdiarmid trad par J.A. -Original in english - scroll down)




Que dieu soit loué, mes pieds peuvent encore trouver
Dans ces terres lointaines le vieux chemin de la colline,
Et piétine toujours aucune glaise étrangère
Mais leur gadoue, familière terrine

Et tout l’état étendu de l’océan
Ne sera qu’une lamelle brillante
Qui glisse entre les champs ondulants
Pour ne trouver aucune mer étrangère

Aucun toit d'arbre d’étranger m’abrite
Même que je voyage au lointain détour
Et les ligues qui nous séparent, ne sert qu’à me rapprocher
Aux cotés de mon amour

Et si je passe l’ultime borne
Et bien, je serai chez moi à nouveau-
Le pas rapide à la porte discrète
Les yeux pétillants à la vitrine !



Salonique, 1916.



Traduit par J.A. (6 Juin 2001)

.A short well documented tribute to Lazard was published by The Economist. This includes several of his outstanding exploits & personal memories as well as his credo formed before, during and especially in his long-life after WWI. His thoughts on his war experience went always to those less fortunate than he, to his comrades who lost their young lives and families. The Economist article does not forget the company "Ponticelli Frères.", Link in english.
founded in 1921, by The Ponticelli family; Lazard and is two brothers, all Italian immigrants.

Beyond Exile

Praise God that l my feet can find
In distant lands the old hill-road,
And tread always no alien clay
But their familiar sod.

And all the ocean’s broad estate
Be but gleaming band to me
That slips between the bending fields
To find no foreign sea.

No stranger’s roof tree covers me,
Albeit I travel far and wide,
And sundering leagues but closed bind
Me to my darling’s side.

And if I pass the utmost borne
Why, then, I shall be home again-
The quick step at the quiet door,
The grey eyes at the pane!

Salonika, 1916 by Hugh MacDiarmid (died 1978)
Complete Works Vol. 1, Pub. Penguin
Ed Michael Greave & W.R. Aitkin
©Christopher Murray Grieve (1978)
© Valda Grieve (1985) & family?

French translation of "Reflections in an Ironworks" by H.Macdiarmid

Prelude:

From the previous log if you managed to reach Footnote 3,

you will see that not all foundry workers and steelmakers

have been deaf to pleas such as that of Big Mac (H. MacDiarmid).

Poem in French, followed by the original in English.

Corrections by language teachers warmly invited.

Des Pensées dans une Fonderie D’Acier.
(Reflections in an Ironworks by H. MacDiarmid Ed. Penguin Vol.1.)


Seriez-vous semblable au métal que vous travaillez,
Serait ce que le fer est entrer dans vos âmes souillées,
Seriez-vous devenu comme l’acier pour votre propre compte ?
Est vous encore seulement de la pâte, par la tyrannie, laminée
Entre ses doigts ! Vous, fabricants de baïonnettes et de fusils
Pour votre propre destruction ! Il n’est pas surprenant que ces
Armes, que vous fabriquez, tournent contre vous, meurtre et meurtri !
Vous, les sots qui équipent vos ennemies par ailleurs sans défense.


Traduit 14/04/2001 par J.A.

The translator worked as chief metallurgist, quality control and assurance manger in order to improve methods & honour outstanding orders subjected to stringent QA. standards, during the early stages of the closure of the special steels & alloy foundry by Imphy SA. at their plant in Imphy, France in 1980. He resigned from this position when the decision not to undertake development was made clear, then took a leading role in the alloy 718 development project, whose results were reported at the Trace elements in superalloys meeting in London 1983, part of which were published in Materials Science & Technology first issue Feb. 1985.


Reflections in an Ironworks by H. MacDiarmid Ed. Penguin Vol.1. P335.
(Ed. Michel Grieve and W.R.Aitken copyright:Christopher Murry Grieve 1978.
Copyright: Valda Grieve 1985.)


Would you resembled the metal you work with,
Would the iron entered into your souls,
Would you become like steel on your own behalf!
You are still only putty that tyranny rolls
Between your fingers! You makers of bayonets and guns
For your own destruction! No wonder that those
Weapons you make turn on you and mangle and murder-
You fools who equip your otherwise helpless foes!

Poem_"Market gets Spice" -Times of Abuse -Sport, Business, Finance...

I did not intend to write so soon, nor, to subject the poor chance reader to some "prose" in Scots vernacular. In fact when I originally wrote this poem a few years ago, around 2001, and submitted it to the European Union (EU) for corrective action, only to be told, correctly, that Scots is not an official EU language.

I bet it is better understood by the large contingent of ex-pats of Scottish origin, notably: New Zealand, ouch! They whip the home brew in rugby; Canada, Oh! their salaries and living standards are so much higher- USA, Australia, South Africa..! At the time I guess I went for food wine... & culture in France. And believe it or not, metallurgy was part of this scheme, I discovered the world of special steels and alloys; one of the widest ranges one can find, anywhere in the world, in one and the same plant cf. Footnote 3 scroll down.

With no further a-do, here is my piece called "Market gits Spice", addressed to a fictious footballer "Mr. Foot-ham and friends - any likeness to specific persons is probably only a source of motivation to write and fired entirely by jealously or other low instincts and may be termed a Revised Version of Foot and Mouth Disease). Some explanation for native english & other foreigner english speakers still (TDB-to be done but adepts can read on.

Market gits(1) Spice.

Ye git’s! Ye bunch o’git’s, (2)

ye mak’ me mad, blin’ daft.
Market gits Spice.

Mr Boot-ham, or is it back’m?
No'(3) enough cash, I’d brand ‘im!
Tae squander on spice and the likes, I bluster!
The kind that wid gae the strangest(4) an ulcer.

I’m doubled up in shear pain.
‘Must be market’s shear strain.
The git’s, wid they feel ony shame?
We’ve heard how much he’s worth but to whae? (5)
But does ay ken hoo much ‘e-costs an’ to wham?(6)

REFRAIN: Ye git’s! …

The pair weans(7) the pair wee(8) weans.
Yur daddy ponded yur wee toy train
Y'ur(9) fired! Y'ur a’ damned fired by Goad! (10)
Naebuddy wi’ sense wid gae yeese a joab.
Is it Boab(11) or Alex that sets the wage?
The slate’s a nae Start, richt(12) Salty gage
Doon richt stupidity has nae boun’ or age
Busby’ s babbes must turn in their graves
A-spire,
Their weans waited near forty years save

REFRAIN: Ye git’s!

Fig’s guid, Zizou, and king ‘Enry too
Emperor Eric a’ways did his team true
Ryan presses the wick,(13) victory he riggs

Glides like the white ghost(14), a fine Gigg.
But a’ this dope, incense an’ spice? .
It’s lawfu’ but no’(3) quite nice.
I’ve got it, thanks tae a day’s thoucht(15)
That’s richt,(12) a chap broadcast oucht (16)
“In auld Britannia a man is mare concerned
Wi the inequalities in horsies, race banned

REFRAIN: (Ye git’s!…
Market gits Spice)

Than awe the inequalities in blessed mankind”
"A man’s a man fur a’ that an’ a’ that” (17)
So whit’s (18) the trouble, lay me alaine(19) ye top hat
Tae win the price o’ a packet a coffin nails
Or a pint o’ bitter tae pit(20) wind in ma' sails
Fur company, while a canter hame. (21)
Y'ur no' gonie put on me, ony blame?
"Fur ‘a that an’ a’ that it’s coming yet
That man to man the warld o’er
Shall brothers be for a’ that" (17)

So listen tae y'ur brither(22) noo

REFRAIN: Ye git’s!…
Market gits Spice

J A-No_Holds_Bard
(29/03/2001).

Footnote 1.
1. git's- USA for gets 2. gits- idiots 3. No-Not
4. wid gae the strangest-would give the strongest 5. whae- whom
6. ay ken hoo much ‘e-costs an’ to wham? does he know how much "he" costs and to whom - Double meaning : e-costs slash -(poetic licence svp, s'il vous plait-please)
7. weans - chidren 8. wee- tiny 9. Yur-you are & a' - all 10. goad! God!
11. Boab- Bob short for Robert 12. richt-right, truely
13. Ryan presses the wick -Homage also to Ryan Air which flies Beauvais Fr to Prestwick (Scotland)
14. Hommage to the late John White known as the of Spur’s & Scotland, nick-named the white ghost(premonition!)-sadly died young, on the golf couse, by a lightening strike
15. Thought for the day, BBC4 16. oucht - once
17. Taken from Robert Burns' Poem, "Auld lang Syne" sung the world over to ring out the old year (Hugmanay-NY eve- and herald in the New Year.
18. whit’s-what is 19. alaine- alone 20. tae pit- to put 21. canter hame- trot home
22. yu'r Brither noo-you brother now.

Footnote 2.
Some may have noticed, I decided to upload, today 27 Feb. 2008, this original little painting, which I like a lot, while I searched through my old files and CD back-up & old 3.5" floppies for this piece in order to review its relevance (from memory, my poem was an "angry reaction" one more sorry to say" to over paid sometimes over-rated footballers" and their paying supporters on the terraces who are often in shaky economic circumstances. Seems things have not changed, the wage gap has never been so wide, and spreading like gangrene, best expressed by such french commentators such as Jean-Francois Kahn (JFK) who points out, that a worker on minimum guaranteed wage in France (1280euros brute-1000euros net, 2007-08) would need to work for 15 Centuries, yes 15 000 years to obtain the annual salary of top managers -perks & gifted stocks. (called stock options) included. ie. from the time of the French King Clovis(485-511) to this day! as Kahn likes to add. Try the following link for more on the French History Time line[link]. JF Kahn,[link in French only,]
International Reporter, founder of the now failed"Les Jeudis de l'Informaton" & the sucessfull "Marianne", the only weekly information magazine financed uniquely by subscribers. JFK is the brother of famous medcine & genetician Axel Kahn and Biochemist Olivier Kahn)

Footnote 3.
Football, food wine... & culture in France and believe it or not metallurgy was part of this scheme. I discovered the world of special steels and alloys; one of the widest ranges one can find, anywhere in the world, in one and the same plant not to mention it’s own well equipped Research Centre and three big laboratories for product control:

Chemistry for raw materials and steel formulation process & product control,
Mechanical testing, destructive and non-destructive micro- and macro-graphic examination, and
Physical testing for cryogenic-dilatation and magnetic testing all in a little known village called Imphy, in France.

Such concentration, I believe, defies all management theory but one, seldom talked about by the Ivory Tower sad guy's; ie. "that, variety is the spice of life." Today if you are lucky you may find a similar set-up in a very few Big Outfits with Big R&D – Corporate Universities etc or techno-poles, innovation parks, centres of excellences, skunk-works, what have you.
For some, the working conditions, hot and difficult, danger never far-off, could border on "hell-on-earth." although pay was good for the period.

We metallurgical engineers (physicists & chemists) and managers, many renowned in there respective fields, fought hard to alleviate this. I wish we could have done more, for it was a metallurgist's paradise and probably still is despite the fall in popularity of these professions and trades.

The perks you may ask? As in all difficult & dangerous professions and trades there was a strong community spirit. Most management had a strong sense of their social responsibility as well as their scientific aims and economic and financial basics, in my experience.

This is not as unusual as it may appear for a plant, established by the famous and very able French Finance Minister Colbert (a protestant) on the banks of the Loire river, and run by the famous Henri Fayol, around the time of the 1st World War, both before & after.


The director of steel-making the three steel workshops (an ex-R&D man of course such was the technical level required) drove to the plant in his 2CV, lean on gas.

I and three other metallurgical engineers; the head of R&D, the manager of R&D for the Invar alloy family and the manager for powder metallurgy R&D and special powder manufacturing plant travelled the 15kms to the plant sharing the same car by rote.

No elderly men in Mercedes cars accompanied by younger platinum blonds, as I discovered later, around Aerospaciale & Airbus head office in Toulouse. I did hear that this may have changed by the more recent breed of visiters to the Cobert founded plant in Imphy.

Needless to say I am happily married, and still in France, a miracle?