and wants to be taken seriously as a gubernatorial candidate, writes Michelle Goldberg on Salon.com.
Archiv der Kategorie: oddly enough
Japanese For Runaways.
Did you know that the Japanese adapted German words for “gypsum-corset” (Gipskorsett – gipusukorusetto), “dry-construction” (Trockenbau – torokkenbau), “potence” (Potenz – potentsu) and “stroll” – (Wanderung – wanderungu), only to name a few? To bridge this and similar gaps in geography and lifestyle, go and grab one of Die Zeit’s daily knowledge-bites.
Trading Bush-Shares.
Ever wanted to short sell a few Condis and find out what the price for three-month Colin-Caps is? Spiegel Online reports that Paris-based American expat Andrew Geiger has initiated the American Action Market, a trading platform that will (intentionally) provide insights into the actions and decisions of the US government. The idea is modeled after the US Department of Defense’s now withdrawn idea of a Policy Analysis Market. (link to story)
A New Kind Of Democracy.
Look what I found on “ciao.com” while looking for credibilty ratings of an ebay pro-seller.
Now that’s what I call “political marketplace”. For those not literate in German, the image below is a screen capture from ciao.com, a website where people can leave their opinions on everything from white laces to, well, globalisation. The latter, of course, is only 68% recommended.
I wonder if it wouldn’t be a good idea to demographically profile the membership of these fora to see whether these opinions are anywhere close to “representative”. While I suppose that would be too hard to implement, especially because of privacy concerns I guess in ciao.com’s strategic business outlook they already see themselves as a real competitor in the traditional polling market.
Will be interesting to see.
Fly away, astray…
Papascott links to this worldmap on the homepage of AirIndia, wondering if their pilots will know where to go when on their way to European airports. Not too bad a question, I have to say…
But let’s face it, geography, particularly European geography, can be tricky sometimes, as the US edition of the National Geogrpahic found out last November in a poll regarding the geography knowledge of young people from several countries, including Germany and the US. And as this classic image from a geographically usually reliable news source indicates… (I could not find the one where they put Iraq instead of Poland ;))
By the way, I have been a bit quiet for some days, but I have some drafts in preparation.
Deep Throat.
I wonder what Mrs Clinton wants to tell us here – personally, I suppose she’s indicating that she can solve the puzzle about the identity of Bob Woodward’s and Carl Bernstein’s secret helper in uncovering the Watergate scandal, deep throat. On the other hand, regarding the traumatic oral experiences her husband made her go through back in 1998, different interpretations are clearly possible ;)…
(found at zogbyblog.)
The Schill Factor.
People living in Hamburg have to cope with a rather special political crop these days: Roland Schill, a former judge who founded his own party and in 2001 managed to gain enough votes among dissatisfied conservatives to become junior partner and senator responsible for police and internal affairs in a CDU led coalition. Knowing that only continued bullshitting can assure public attention, he now demands taking genetic fingerprints for fare evading… (via Spiegel Online).
Weiterlesen
Python Slithers Out Of Toilet.
Scary Movie –
“A pet python missing over the last two months made its reappearance by scaring a Dutch woman when it slithered out of her toilet bowl.”
And Scary Movie II –
“[L]ocal residents were unhappy to hear the owner admit that a second pet python, this one almost one-meter long, had also escaped and was still on the loose.” (from Reuters.)
Shorter Denis Boyles.
Denis Boyles over at the National Review Online reviews last week’s European Press for the literate American conservative. Here’s a summary :
“Germans are sissies for not agreeing with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi that calling the “annoying socialist” Martin Schulz a Nazi is indeed really funny. Why? Germany is Unpatriotic/ Antiamerican/ LEFT/ EVIL to its core as it was against the war in Iraq. And Silvio Berlusconi was for the war (boy did we kick Saddam’s ass!). And he’s also rich, powerful, and never has to actually pay for the illegal stuff he did, aka self-made, which is really cool in my book. But those sissies on the European LEFT/EVIL, just can’t see clearly. They’re always lamenting about justice (bleah). Europe needs more RIGHT people like Mr Berlusconi. Disclaimer: Beware – Europe is in the hands of THE EVIL/THE LEFT! Ceterum censeo THE LEFT/THE EVIL should be destroyed.”
Spoke too soon.
I did indeed. Looks like this morning’s press reports have been wrong. Gerhard Schroeder is not going to do the Hanibal this summer, after all. Now he’s just staying at home in Hannover. Not quite the same, I have to say. Although the town does have beautiful corners here and there…
According to Spiegel Online, his Italian friend and host, the artist Bruno Bruni explained the chancellor’s decision with the words “There’s a limit to everything.” I doubt not going is any better than going in this situation. It’s too bad for Schroeder, but this bizarre discussion has turned his holidays into a public matter. I am pretty sure that Mr. Stefano will be politically punished for his publicity desire once Mr. Berlusconi no longer feels the need to prove something by not restraining him.
So instead of hosting the Chancellor this summer, the Italian province of Pesaro, is going to host a lawsuit. According to Spiegel Online, the regional government is going to sue Silvio Berlusconi’s central government for compensation for the economic damage done to the region’s tourism industry. The website quotes the region’s president, Palmiro Ucchielli, saying (my translation) –
“The stupidy of the people at the helm of government is of such an extent, they are doing great economic harm to the image of our region’s tourism industry.”
Did no one tell them about Mr Berlusconi’s record with respect to law suits?