Katherine Hepburn dies aged 96.
She was a great actress, and a beautiful woman. The list of her accomplishments is stunning, even though… she did not play the piano herself as Clara Schumann in “Song of Love” (1947), as she once told my sister on a handwritten postcard. According to Salon.com, tomorrow at eight pm, the lights on Broadway will [...]
read onToo cocky indeed.
Just two links to articles in today’s Sueddeutsche Zeitung in this post. But since they are about Mr Cocky mentioned in the previous post I decided to put them here. In the first article, Juergen Peters is described as failed missionary, while the second reports that some people in his union want to see his [...]
read onWe Guard The Canadian Border
We Guard The Canadian Border, we guard the American dream… that’s at least what we were taught in “Wag The Dog“. Now Salon comes up with a plethora of reasons why this is not just true – but why preemptive military action against America’s northern neighbour could indeed be inevitable for the United States.
read onStrange Happenings…
Now at least the universe loves us ;-). From sixsixfive via Le Sofa Blogger… Entirely unrelated – the desk-cleaning action did take longer than expected, so I won’t be able to comment in lenght on this weekend’s exciting developments in German politics. The proposed accelrated tax break is quite remarkable in itself, as is the [...]
read onIs Google God?
Thomas Friedman must have had too much sun lately. In today’s NY Times column he wonders if Google is like God citing citing Alan Cohen, a V.P. of Airespace, a new Wi-Fi provider, who clearly had too much sun lately – “If I can operate Google, I can find anything. And with wireless, it means [...]
read onMy Good Old Desk.
I don’t know if you have heard about the commercial that won this year’s Cannes advertising festival’s grand price. In this spot, developed for Ikea by the Miami based advertising agency Crispin Porter we are encouraged to take pity on an old lamp that’s being tossed on the street as garbage. Then, from the perspective [...]
read onMinistery of Silly Deaths
Now this story makes me happy I sang “New York, New York” at my friend Frank’s wedding last year…
read onUnintended Consequences.
The investigation against a Ukrainian criminal women trafficing organisation that has also led to cocaine possession charges against the tv talk show host and vice chaiman of the Central Council of Jews in Germany is having a positive side effects. Just as Mr Friedman’s home was raided and searched for cocaine because he had talked [...]
read onThe Next Tirpitz?
Ha – I knew it. My gentle readers, I am going to tell you a little secret. On last new years eve I bet a young German Navy officer for six bottles of Champagne that, in ten years, Germany would have at least ordered a brand new Aircraft carrier… and today – according to Spiegel [...]
read onThe Next Tirpitz?
Ha – I knew it. My gentle readers, I am going to tell you a little secret. On last new years eve I bet a young German Navy officer for six bottles of Champagne that, in ten years, Germany would have at least ordered a brand new Aircraft carrier… and today – according to Spiegel [...]
read onGod’s Own Agenda?
Haaretz reports that, according to Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas President Bush allegedly explained at the recent Akaba summit that “God told me to strike at al Qaida and I struck them, and then he instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did, and now I am determined to solve the problem in the [...]
read onWhat’s the real deal?
Apple’s new G5 64-bit PowerPC is the new hot babe in town since, as Wired explains, – “For the past couple of years, Mac users have been burdened with a shameful secret few would admit, even to themselves. Their machines were slower than Windows PCs.” While pure computing power was never what made people admire [...]
read onPotter’s Testosterone Level
Not only did J.K. Rowling sell 5 million copies of Harry Potter’s latest adventure on the very first day of its availability – of the 500,000 English copies initially available in Germany there are hardly any left already – but critics seem rather unanimous in their appraisal of “Harry Potter and the Order of the [...]
read onSaddam’s new small change.
Apparently, lack of small change is strangeling the Iraqi economy to an extent that the US administration has decided to begin reprinting old Iraqi 250 Dinar notes (about $ 1,50) featuring the face of – he who must no longer be named on the streets of Baghdad (via Sueddeutsche Zeitung)
read onSkandal im Sperrbezirk?
The ongoing investigation regarding a ring of east European women trafficers that has led to alligations of Cocaine posession against the German “political” talk show host and vice-chairman of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Michael Friedman seems likely to become some sort of the Berlin Republic’s first Heidi Fleiss scandal. Meanwhile, Sueddeutsche Zeitung [...]
read onNational Security Update.
Lillimarleen tells us about “the real state” of national security in the United Kingdom. According to several news reports Aaron Baarschak, a comedian, crashed Prince William’s 21st birthday party by climbing over a Windsor Castle wall wearing a false beard, a turban and a pink dress. According to newspaper reports, he climbed on the stage, [...]
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Regime change begins at home
was the slogan of an advertising campaign by the left leaning American Political Action Committee (aka interest group) MoveOn. Now they offer everyone to participate in this effort by organising an online Democratic primary. So go their site to have your say in deciding which Democratic candidates will get kicked out first…
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And The Winner Is…
Spiegel Online has all the winners of the magazine’s 2003 pupils’ magazine competition. Looking at the winners’ (semi-)professionally produced magazines and online publications makes me partly jealous and partly reminds me of the good ol’ times when desktop publishing still meant typewriter, paper, pen, glue and carpet knive. And yes, that was in 1992…
read onA Common Sense Of Inevitability.
What made the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, the agreement that started the power-sharing government in Northern Ireland, possible? I believe, above all, it was shared expectations about the demographic future. True, there are still more problems than solutions to most practical, especially procedural questions of a truly open-ended devolution in Northern Ireland. But despite [...]
read onCAP. Again.
However much I am fascinated by institutionalised European cooperation (aka EU), there’s one policy area in which even the most pronounced criticism is likely to be insufficient: The Common Agricultural Policy – reform resistent. Not that the US is only concerned with its effects on the world’s poorl, given the US farmers’ export interests, but [...]
read onBody Mutilation Efforts.
You know how people say that there’s nothing you can’t find on the internet? Well, a quick look at the page of the “Body Modification Ezine” increases the likelihood of you believing in that statement, too. And doesn’t their logo sports someone wearing handcuffs for earrings?
read onMy Gentle Readers,
I would like to inform you that recent hardware rescue efforts have been rather successful. As a fortunate consequence I am now able to post again. So in my next entry, I will try to explain why I – contrary to most German commentators – believe the Israeli policy to militarily weaken Hamas and other [...]
read onArgh!
My (main) computer is still experiencing an extreme amount of unwarranted file-system induced “strokes”. Keeping it running and online long enough to write this is as good as it gets today. Hopefully, I’ll be able to fix this tomorrow. If anyone has any idea why my system (Win98SE) suddenly crashes all the time – and [...]
read onIt’s Been A Hard Day’s
and I’m having trouble with my computer. So I won’t be exactly long winded for a change ;-). There are many reasons for people to pursue a particular lifestyle or live in a particular culture. Some do it by choice [disregarding for practical reasons that any discussion about "choice" will sooner or later approach the [...]
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