Allgemein

Madness in the West Wing.

Just when it seems that America is remembering some of its worthier political traditions (morals, you know…) the West Wing universe is going crazy – from the Television Without Pity recap of the most recently aired episode –

They sit down on Will’s sofa to look at the chart. Kate asks why the British royals are sitting with the German ambassador, noting that there are tensions between the countries related to the World Cup and currency devaluation. Will suggests switching in the Swedish ambassador, but Kate thinks that would be a bad idea in light of “a thing” the Queen had with the ambassador sometime in the past. I really don’t need to hear anything about any “things” the Queen might have had.

There won’t be any problems with the English because of the World Cup… Gary Lineker will be proven right again. Germany will win against England in the semi-finals through a penalty shoot-out, as usual. They’re used to it, and so are we. The only thing that’s not clear yet is whether Brasil will indeed win again or not. Given they’re ahead of both Italy and Germany with 5:3:3 World Cup wins, there’s a chance the world as well as statistics are in favour of Germany for once…

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almost a diary, oddly enough

News from the School.

Still laughing my head off. Got this from the Guardian’s backbencher newsletter – they did not yet feature it in the alumni newsletter ;).

Congratulations to Monica Lewinsky, who will begin an MSc in social psychology at the LSE next month. Regrettably, the option on Gender and Psychology, which includes a unit on workplace relations, is not available in the next academic year. LSE suggests “Rethinking the [Word Omitted] Body: Theories, Cultures and Practices” as a suitable alternative.

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Allgemein

Warp 9.5 to Stockholm. Or to Oblivion.

As past seemingly spectacular breakthrough experiments on “Cold Fusion” have only managed to spectacularly disappoint and discredit the scientific reputation of everyone involved, it is understandable that most physicists have grown a little cautious with respect to experiments that sound like hey have been copied and pasted from a Star Trek screenplay.

Yet, there can be no doubt that actually inventing a method to effectively use fusion energy outside of multi-billion thermo-nuclear reactors that use as much energy as a small country just to produce magnetic fields to separate “the sun” inside from the rest of the world would be (not just) the scientific jackpot, and would most certainly buy a first class round-trip to Stockholm.

So UCLA scientists Brian Naranjo, Jim Gimzewski and Seth Putterman actually tried and, according to an article they published in Nature, may have come close to winning the jackpot – but – maybe not close enough. (I quote from the Economist)
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cinema

Immigrant Connection.

Immigrant Connection.I’ve just come back from watching “Kebab Connection”, a new semi-independent movie following on the heels of last year’s surprise comedy success “S�perseks” and, – less obvious – Fatih Akin’s smash hit “Gegen die Wand” (Head On). The Kebab Connection is set in the Akin urban immigrant universe, is partly payed by Akin-Alumni like Sibel Kelkili, has been co-authored by him, and yet he did not direct the movie.
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almost a diary

Me – a Grammar God?

I’m not sure this English grammar test is using appropriate categories. But who would be a better judge than you, my gentle readers. And as it’s always nice to be complemented, I had to post this here…

Grammar God!
You are a GRAMMAR GOD!

If your mission in life is not already to
preserve the English tongue, it should be.
Congratulations and thank you!

How grammatically sound are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

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