Back already?
As we said way back when: ditching a platform of self-righteousness is not easy.
We will try, but we decided to end the year with dolphins getting high on puffer fish answering the question we have had for a year now: what were the people on who wrote the newest German law on the TV and radio license?
Having been bombarded with mail by the folks who process TV licenses in Germany, we mastered the courage to look into it.
Low income residents can get a waiver, and since our tax return shows income below the threshold, we thought, let's save the 200 Euros a year and apply.
You need to go to one of the social security services and submit their statement.
You may have to move some funds into an account which you cannot access under any circumstance before retirement, but once you do this, you are good.
That's where it gets interesting.
If you are a German citizen, you proceed, and you can decide to waive any money from social security, or you take it henceforth and live high on the hog. Just kidding with that latter part of the sentence.
If you are a foreigner, though, you cannot do this as easily. Say you have some work income below the social security cut-off and supplement this with income from investment.
You would have to move the investment into your retirement age. All 101% of it (100% principal plus the 1% interest). Which leaves a gap, which means you automatically violate the "sufficient income" provision of the German law that governs the conditions you need to comply with as a foreigner in this country. Thou shalt not collect social security benefits is one of the generic provisions, less so for EU nationals, more so for non-EU citizens.
While the "Auslaenderamt" does not have to kick you out of the country when you fall on hard times, they can try, and they are known to do so.
It is a nifty unintentional Catch 22 situation for foreigners who are not wealthy enough to simply buy themselves EU citizenship.
The benefit: the law can be said to discriminate against foreigners by preventing them from applying for a fee waiver in the same way as the Germans.
What to do?
Bitch and petition is what we did, the results will be in next year.
For those of you middle class or lower middle class folks thinking of moving to the European Union, you need to set up a Trust Fund beforehand.
Have the Trust Fund wire you exactly the amount of money you are required by law to have, not a cent more or a cent less. You won't be poor enough to be sent packing, or as the case may be herded off without being able to pack, and at the same time you won't be "rich enough" to make folks want some of the riches you do not really have.
We simply hope that we will be wealthy trust fund kids in our next life so we can pay for services we do not want, do not use and cannot really afford.
Alternatively, though a much harder life, why not be a dolphin next time around?
Do not be worried about our well being. While many German web sites call the previous incarnation of the license fee body some really nasty names, we have been told that they are just people, no jack boots, no five in the morning license collection swat teams.
Oh, wait, we are out working at five in the morning.
As they back home: Happy Fuckin' New Year!
Tuesday, December 31, 2013
Sunday, December 29, 2013
Is this a good time to move on?
Will anybody miss our daily missives?
As they said in some already forgotten episode of the U.S. TV series Scandal, "some guy in his underpants blogging from his mom's basement".
No, not in underpants, as amusing as the thought may be. Not from mom's basement either.
Oh, and it was not a quote from Scandal.
The blog will remain up, as will the other pieces we put on the web for a very dear friend. The ads remain up, too. A handful of cents a month won't pay the outrageous German tv license fees -- which we have to cough up despite not using their services at all.
Who knows, maybe we'll be back to rant about something, or to chronicle a few more stories of the "hillbillies" around here. We have grown fond of the many Germans who get by month to month, their money running out around the 20th of each month, their fridge empty by the 25th, in short those not working hard to bring you more Beemers or VWs, those not in warm and safe government jobs.
What about the Random Research Team, you ask?
They will be fine, the blog has been a minor side show for them, their day jobs, whatever they may be, we never asked, will support them.
Does your decision have anything to do with the surveillance thing?
Swell, imagine the non-headline "Unknown English-language blog out of Germany shuts down in protest of widespread government surveillance!"
It ain't so. Sure, we prefer Widespread Panic to Widespread Surveillance, which sane human being wouldn't? Unchecked surveillance is dangerous, as we found out first hand: Those news caused TheEditor to shake its (gender neutral) head hard enough to suffer a minor concussion. From which it has fully recovered.
As a wise man once said, as you hit 30, your experience widens but your options narrow. To which a wise woman responded....
Will there be updates on your New Year's Resolutions?
Not after this post. They are all done already!
1) Nobody on the planet needs Hewlett Packard. 2) We have opened a few new email accounts and subscribed to wonderful news out of the corporate world -- thus becoming hidden, unsung job creators, thank you. 3) And we got a TOR hidden service prototype up and running, just to prove to ourselves that we could set up such a thing. No, it won't be there for you or anybody else to play with. Setting up such a service is not trivial. Learning how to prevent ssh root logins, how to prevent a proxy or a web server from advertising its name and version number, forcing the mime type of documents, disabling directory traversal, restricting php, making sure that firewall is set up correctly, it is work. It is like that wise man said when asked "why in the world would you learn Russian?"
Because I want to figure things out by myself, not rely on some "expert".
This leaves us with the timeless question "Cui Bono?"
If you don't know the answer to this, how about Chaz Bono.
Have a happy and safe 2014.
As they said in some already forgotten episode of the U.S. TV series Scandal, "some guy in his underpants blogging from his mom's basement".
No, not in underpants, as amusing as the thought may be. Not from mom's basement either.
Oh, and it was not a quote from Scandal.
The blog will remain up, as will the other pieces we put on the web for a very dear friend. The ads remain up, too. A handful of cents a month won't pay the outrageous German tv license fees -- which we have to cough up despite not using their services at all.
Who knows, maybe we'll be back to rant about something, or to chronicle a few more stories of the "hillbillies" around here. We have grown fond of the many Germans who get by month to month, their money running out around the 20th of each month, their fridge empty by the 25th, in short those not working hard to bring you more Beemers or VWs, those not in warm and safe government jobs.
What about the Random Research Team, you ask?
They will be fine, the blog has been a minor side show for them, their day jobs, whatever they may be, we never asked, will support them.
Does your decision have anything to do with the surveillance thing?
Swell, imagine the non-headline "Unknown English-language blog out of Germany shuts down in protest of widespread government surveillance!"
It ain't so. Sure, we prefer Widespread Panic to Widespread Surveillance, which sane human being wouldn't? Unchecked surveillance is dangerous, as we found out first hand: Those news caused TheEditor to shake its (gender neutral) head hard enough to suffer a minor concussion. From which it has fully recovered.
As a wise man once said, as you hit 30, your experience widens but your options narrow. To which a wise woman responded....
Will there be updates on your New Year's Resolutions?
Not after this post. They are all done already!
1) Nobody on the planet needs Hewlett Packard. 2) We have opened a few new email accounts and subscribed to wonderful news out of the corporate world -- thus becoming hidden, unsung job creators, thank you. 3) And we got a TOR hidden service prototype up and running, just to prove to ourselves that we could set up such a thing. No, it won't be there for you or anybody else to play with. Setting up such a service is not trivial. Learning how to prevent ssh root logins, how to prevent a proxy or a web server from advertising its name and version number, forcing the mime type of documents, disabling directory traversal, restricting php, making sure that firewall is set up correctly, it is work. It is like that wise man said when asked "why in the world would you learn Russian?"
Because I want to figure things out by myself, not rely on some "expert".
This leaves us with the timeless question "Cui Bono?"
If you don't know the answer to this, how about Chaz Bono.
Have a happy and safe 2014.
Saturday, December 28, 2013
Sex and the Germans, Part 3; The Horny Professor
Part 3 of the efforts of the K-Landnews Random Research Team may sound as salacious as the vampire fan fiction turned overrated novel, yes, the one with all the shades of grey. Nothing could be further from it.
The professor did, indeed, profess his strong desire for female companionship, however, in an altogether different context.
He uttered "I really need a woman now" when the nurse first stopped by in the early hours of the morning. Then he promptly forgot about it. Although the staff could not be certain of this and thus mentioned the episode during the shift change briefing at the old folks home.
Should we make a call to get the requested company? the head nurse asked.
As funny as it may sound, the care of old people seems to have progressed beyond the simple routine of "keep them clean, make sure they take their meds and verify the TV is working".
Smokers are allowed to have a cigarette. If friends or family provide the cigs, and if the resident can go or roll out onto the porch -- the building is strictly non-smoking inside.
Though, again, the nature of the condition (Alzheimer's, dementia, the toll of old age) also means that many a smoker simply forgets that he or she has been smoking.
But if they remember for long enough, they do get their smoke break.
And those who used to drink, they do get a beer or a glass of wine with their evening meal.
And the more carnal desires as expressed by the professor that morning? While there is, on occasion, romance in the old folks home, that's not what we are talking about.
We do provide for these desires on occasion, explains the head nurse. If we conclude that the patient, or resident, benefits from it, we'll make a call to a provider of such services. We are there to make the last years or months of a person comfortable, pleasant, we are not in the business of dictating how people who are losing their hold on reality need to feel. Of course, some institutions are more open to folks like the professor.
If you need to know, just in case you are planning ahead: private, non-religious facilities are your best bet for comprehensive care. In Germany, that is. We do not know how the professors fare in a care facility in the U.S. -- do you know?
The professor did, indeed, profess his strong desire for female companionship, however, in an altogether different context.
He uttered "I really need a woman now" when the nurse first stopped by in the early hours of the morning. Then he promptly forgot about it. Although the staff could not be certain of this and thus mentioned the episode during the shift change briefing at the old folks home.
Should we make a call to get the requested company? the head nurse asked.
As funny as it may sound, the care of old people seems to have progressed beyond the simple routine of "keep them clean, make sure they take their meds and verify the TV is working".
Smokers are allowed to have a cigarette. If friends or family provide the cigs, and if the resident can go or roll out onto the porch -- the building is strictly non-smoking inside.
Though, again, the nature of the condition (Alzheimer's, dementia, the toll of old age) also means that many a smoker simply forgets that he or she has been smoking.
But if they remember for long enough, they do get their smoke break.
And those who used to drink, they do get a beer or a glass of wine with their evening meal.
And the more carnal desires as expressed by the professor that morning? While there is, on occasion, romance in the old folks home, that's not what we are talking about.
We do provide for these desires on occasion, explains the head nurse. If we conclude that the patient, or resident, benefits from it, we'll make a call to a provider of such services. We are there to make the last years or months of a person comfortable, pleasant, we are not in the business of dictating how people who are losing their hold on reality need to feel. Of course, some institutions are more open to folks like the professor.
If you need to know, just in case you are planning ahead: private, non-religious facilities are your best bet for comprehensive care. In Germany, that is. We do not know how the professors fare in a care facility in the U.S. -- do you know?
Friday, December 27, 2013
Deadbeat dads in Germany
From a modern day legal standpoint, one could call God a typical deadbeat dad.
He gets a young woman pregnant, does not tell her (instead he sends a buddy to break the news), he vanishes into thin air, leaving Joseph to bring up His son. No child support payments, not a single post card - not even on Christmas.
Then, later on the son gets killed, and dad goes all sentimental "oh, my son, he will be forever at my side"!
Before you call this blasphemy or anti-religious, please try to understand that this is a legal view only. There are more than enough examples of similar legal thinking in today's societies, right?
In modern day Germany, deadbeat dads have a surprisingly easy life compared to the United States. Sure, they can and do garnish wages around here if you do not pay up but getting to that point seems to take much longer.
And the Germans are not into making your life as a deadbeat dad utterly miserable beyond this.
Stateside, a nifty system of going after deadbeats has developed. It basically includes extending punishment into any and all areas of your deadbeat life.
Suspending a driver's license as a means to enforce child support is legal in many if not all U.S. states. Seeing how dependent many U.S. residents are on a car, the measure kind of equals an "if you don't pay, you don't eat" approach.
There are mumblings in Germany nowadays to go after the driver's licence of individuals for infringements that have nothing to do with cars and driving. Yes, globalization can be a bitch, my friend.
But, as far as we can tell, the serial deadbeat German dad who inspired the post will wiggle out of another few thousand Euros of child support long before the measure becomes law.
He gets a young woman pregnant, does not tell her (instead he sends a buddy to break the news), he vanishes into thin air, leaving Joseph to bring up His son. No child support payments, not a single post card - not even on Christmas.
Then, later on the son gets killed, and dad goes all sentimental "oh, my son, he will be forever at my side"!
Before you call this blasphemy or anti-religious, please try to understand that this is a legal view only. There are more than enough examples of similar legal thinking in today's societies, right?
In modern day Germany, deadbeat dads have a surprisingly easy life compared to the United States. Sure, they can and do garnish wages around here if you do not pay up but getting to that point seems to take much longer.
And the Germans are not into making your life as a deadbeat dad utterly miserable beyond this.
Stateside, a nifty system of going after deadbeats has developed. It basically includes extending punishment into any and all areas of your deadbeat life.
Suspending a driver's license as a means to enforce child support is legal in many if not all U.S. states. Seeing how dependent many U.S. residents are on a car, the measure kind of equals an "if you don't pay, you don't eat" approach.
There are mumblings in Germany nowadays to go after the driver's licence of individuals for infringements that have nothing to do with cars and driving. Yes, globalization can be a bitch, my friend.
But, as far as we can tell, the serial deadbeat German dad who inspired the post will wiggle out of another few thousand Euros of child support long before the measure becomes law.
Dr. Who and the war on Christmas
This year's Dr. Who Christmas Special featured a war on Christmas!
Once again, science fiction met British humor, and we got all the fireworks we could want. Granted, this happened on the planet Trenzalore, its only Earth born visitor to date being Carla, the impossible girl, so the "my space suit is bigger than yours" buffs are not interested. The Daleks, as cunning and as numerous as they may be, seem to be on their way to becoming nothing but an army of cosmic Roombas with guns. Could this be how the Daleks evolved, did they start out as Roombas on planet Earth, eventually becoming a shelter for the little guys inside?
As to the credibility of the plot, we found it much more credible than the plot lines in the Fox News War on Christmas.
The Fox News War on Christmas correspondents either failed to notice it, or - less likely but in the realm of cosmic probability - got the hint and shut up.
Looking at the bigger picture, after all Christmas is The Big Picture Event, Dr. Who once again managed to redeem the United Kingdom from some of the political craziness we have seen play out on the isles this year.
Even the cybermen, easily the greatest villains, not just in the current Dr. Who series, were represented by a nice, if slightly damaged travel companion aboard the Tardis.
Is 2014 going to be the year of "you will be upgraded"?
If someone, no matter how human they look, offers you a free upgrade, think twice before you accept.
Other than that, Happy New Year!
Once again, science fiction met British humor, and we got all the fireworks we could want. Granted, this happened on the planet Trenzalore, its only Earth born visitor to date being Carla, the impossible girl, so the "my space suit is bigger than yours" buffs are not interested. The Daleks, as cunning and as numerous as they may be, seem to be on their way to becoming nothing but an army of cosmic Roombas with guns. Could this be how the Daleks evolved, did they start out as Roombas on planet Earth, eventually becoming a shelter for the little guys inside?
As to the credibility of the plot, we found it much more credible than the plot lines in the Fox News War on Christmas.
The Fox News War on Christmas correspondents either failed to notice it, or - less likely but in the realm of cosmic probability - got the hint and shut up.
Looking at the bigger picture, after all Christmas is The Big Picture Event, Dr. Who once again managed to redeem the United Kingdom from some of the political craziness we have seen play out on the isles this year.
Even the cybermen, easily the greatest villains, not just in the current Dr. Who series, were represented by a nice, if slightly damaged travel companion aboard the Tardis.
Is 2014 going to be the year of "you will be upgraded"?
If someone, no matter how human they look, offers you a free upgrade, think twice before you accept.
Other than that, Happy New Year!
Thursday, December 26, 2013
The pain of the expert
A recurring theme in the open space of the web is the death of expert authority, a dislike of expert opinion in a world awash with social media.
It can be painful to see how a highly educated expert grapples with the subject, trying to make a case for listening to and heeding what experts tell us.
The most painful aspect comes to light when we get to see genuine doubt by experts, when mistakes made by experts are acknowledged in a serious way. No, egregious mistakes and errors of judgement are not being acknowledged in a statement like "when experts make mistakes they fail spectacularly" because we believe that spectacular failure is the wrong term, and disaster is generally more accurate.
It does not help the case if the Dunning-Kruger effect is invoked in defense of experts in a slightly incorrect way. "The dumb are those most convinced they are right" is a little off, unless - maybe - you include smart people in the "dumb" group.
The latter is what we are doing frequently on this blog, but it does not seem to be how the defense of experts interprets it. The common examples of the benefits of expertise are the doctor and the car mechanic. Easily understood, doctors generally beat faith healers, and car mechanics fix that most precious object of modern life, the motor vehicle.
Yet, both examples can be used to show why we, including the writer of this post, often fail "to value expertise".
How so?
Because just a few generations ago, almost all medical doctors in the Western world were no better than faith healers today. Arab doctors in Spain were, as far as we can tell, light years ahead of their faith driven Christian colleagues. Sure, we should give 21st century medicine more credit than earlier doctors. At the same time, incompetent doctors exist today, too.
And the engineering PhD at your local university has arguably better credentials than car mechanics, yet you are not likely to take your car to the engineering department for an oil change.
Complaints about disrespect towards experts at times also obscure that older experts have a low opinion of young people who are not bona fide child prodigies.
An indicator of distrust of young people is that many modern experts use a reversal of the don't trust anybody over 30 slogan from the 1960s: don't trust anybody under thirty.
On social media, many a credentialed expert is rightly upset about aggressive or plain wrong tweets aimed at them. This is another dilemma of every human: you expect to be treated in accordance with your self-view or the views of your peers. On Twitter or Facebook, a full list of academic titles or chairmanships tend to express these expectations.
But they don't protect you against yourself.
At the end of the day, communication becomes a matter of the frame of reference we emphasize so frequently on these pages.
To the expert in national security, it may be perfectly fine to call Edward Snowden's Channel 4 UK Christmas address "Ed's bumptiously self-important" while letting HM The Queen's address go without comment.
To be sure, we liked the Queen's address, we liked Mr. Snowden's too. Each from its own frame of reference.
As to disrespect shown to experts, does it really matter all that much? You make good money, right? People pay you well for speaking for half an hour or so. Which means, like the blogster here, you are complaining from a comfortable position.
We do feel your pain, though. Getting old and irrelevant happens automatically, but that does not make it any easier.
It can be painful to see how a highly educated expert grapples with the subject, trying to make a case for listening to and heeding what experts tell us.
The most painful aspect comes to light when we get to see genuine doubt by experts, when mistakes made by experts are acknowledged in a serious way. No, egregious mistakes and errors of judgement are not being acknowledged in a statement like "when experts make mistakes they fail spectacularly" because we believe that spectacular failure is the wrong term, and disaster is generally more accurate.
It does not help the case if the Dunning-Kruger effect is invoked in defense of experts in a slightly incorrect way. "The dumb are those most convinced they are right" is a little off, unless - maybe - you include smart people in the "dumb" group.
The latter is what we are doing frequently on this blog, but it does not seem to be how the defense of experts interprets it. The common examples of the benefits of expertise are the doctor and the car mechanic. Easily understood, doctors generally beat faith healers, and car mechanics fix that most precious object of modern life, the motor vehicle.
Yet, both examples can be used to show why we, including the writer of this post, often fail "to value expertise".
How so?
Because just a few generations ago, almost all medical doctors in the Western world were no better than faith healers today. Arab doctors in Spain were, as far as we can tell, light years ahead of their faith driven Christian colleagues. Sure, we should give 21st century medicine more credit than earlier doctors. At the same time, incompetent doctors exist today, too.
And the engineering PhD at your local university has arguably better credentials than car mechanics, yet you are not likely to take your car to the engineering department for an oil change.
Complaints about disrespect towards experts at times also obscure that older experts have a low opinion of young people who are not bona fide child prodigies.
An indicator of distrust of young people is that many modern experts use a reversal of the don't trust anybody over 30 slogan from the 1960s: don't trust anybody under thirty.
On social media, many a credentialed expert is rightly upset about aggressive or plain wrong tweets aimed at them. This is another dilemma of every human: you expect to be treated in accordance with your self-view or the views of your peers. On Twitter or Facebook, a full list of academic titles or chairmanships tend to express these expectations.
But they don't protect you against yourself.
At the end of the day, communication becomes a matter of the frame of reference we emphasize so frequently on these pages.
To the expert in national security, it may be perfectly fine to call Edward Snowden's Channel 4 UK Christmas address "Ed's bumptiously self-important" while letting HM The Queen's address go without comment.
To be sure, we liked the Queen's address, we liked Mr. Snowden's too. Each from its own frame of reference.
As to disrespect shown to experts, does it really matter all that much? You make good money, right? People pay you well for speaking for half an hour or so. Which means, like the blogster here, you are complaining from a comfortable position.
We do feel your pain, though. Getting old and irrelevant happens automatically, but that does not make it any easier.
Wednesday, December 25, 2013
Go home to your own country
We have written several posts about thinly veiled or total in your face xenophobia in Western Europe. The United Kingdom, as the canary in the coal mine, and Austria as "little Germany" have been the butts of our jokes.
But there is more.
You can get an unfriendly "go home to your own country" in other places. The old German expat couple, having been robbed three times in as many years, the man hospitalized after being stabbed in the last robbery, were given a brash "go home to your own country" by an African official.
However, we made the choice to hang on to the belief that for every such dumb ass official, many more do their job correctly, maybe not with big, welcoming smiles all the time, but at least without aggression.
Waiting at the arrival gate of the airport, seeing almost exclusively white folks come through the opaque sliding glass doors while, at the same time, noting that the small crowd waiting for passengers was about half white and half black, the thought "does this mean anything" crept up.
Two planes out of Africa had landed about five minutes apart, and the stream of white people, with a handful or so of blacks mixed in, was getting almost eerie about 45 minutes after arrival.
Our passenger arrived, and we headed out. On the way to the parking lot, the passenger explained: German immigration comes on board before they let any passenger disembark. This time, officials had hardly put their feet on the plane when they took two blacks off. The officials then continued to methodically check the papers of all black passengers as the whites get off.
But there is more.
You can get an unfriendly "go home to your own country" in other places. The old German expat couple, having been robbed three times in as many years, the man hospitalized after being stabbed in the last robbery, were given a brash "go home to your own country" by an African official.
However, we made the choice to hang on to the belief that for every such dumb ass official, many more do their job correctly, maybe not with big, welcoming smiles all the time, but at least without aggression.
Waiting at the arrival gate of the airport, seeing almost exclusively white folks come through the opaque sliding glass doors while, at the same time, noting that the small crowd waiting for passengers was about half white and half black, the thought "does this mean anything" crept up.
Two planes out of Africa had landed about five minutes apart, and the stream of white people, with a handful or so of blacks mixed in, was getting almost eerie about 45 minutes after arrival.
Our passenger arrived, and we headed out. On the way to the parking lot, the passenger explained: German immigration comes on board before they let any passenger disembark. This time, officials had hardly put their feet on the plane when they took two blacks off. The officials then continued to methodically check the papers of all black passengers as the whites get off.
Christmas, cats and make-believe
For Western children, Christmas is the single most important time of "make-believe", for American adults there are two dates, Independence Day and Halloween, but that's another story.
Do other mammals do make-believe?
Some do. Our cats do.
They know that the mice we bring home from the pet store are not real. Which does not prevent them from enjoying the fake mice. Same with the laser pointer. Once they saw that the laser dot on the floor was controlled by a human, they stopped reacting to the dot. Any further attempt by the human to tease them with a laser pointer only elicited a response that, in human terms, is clearly a "dirty look".
Last night, they were tearing around the house. The Cowboy Cat took to the black winter coat hanging on the door. For a few minutes, the coat became some sort of monster or something interesting to be taken down, to be hunted.
Interest soon waned, and they rushed off to other pursuits.
Like exhausted children, but without the sugar rush, they soon found chairs, rolled up, and went to sleep, one on them talking in her dreams.
Merry Make-Believe.
Do other mammals do make-believe?
Some do. Our cats do.
They know that the mice we bring home from the pet store are not real. Which does not prevent them from enjoying the fake mice. Same with the laser pointer. Once they saw that the laser dot on the floor was controlled by a human, they stopped reacting to the dot. Any further attempt by the human to tease them with a laser pointer only elicited a response that, in human terms, is clearly a "dirty look".
Last night, they were tearing around the house. The Cowboy Cat took to the black winter coat hanging on the door. For a few minutes, the coat became some sort of monster or something interesting to be taken down, to be hunted.
Interest soon waned, and they rushed off to other pursuits.
Like exhausted children, but without the sugar rush, they soon found chairs, rolled up, and went to sleep, one on them talking in her dreams.
Merry Make-Believe.
Tuesday, December 24, 2013
News from the hamster ball
The "Third Rock from the Sun" is a cute misnomer, sorry it took us so long to realize it.
It is a giant, mostly wet (as in: a swimming pool into which everybody pees wet), partly rocky hamster ball hurtling through space.
This realization was the unlikely outcome of an image from a youngish journalist attacking some utterly ficticius "Cult of Snowden" and a Politico article "Take this town and shove it" taking us to the web site "The Exiled".
Having grocked, or as they should say in late 2013 Germany "GroKo-ed", the reality of the hamster ball has had a calming effect on the folks here at the K-Landnews.
More so, it has given us the courage to predict some of the major trends of the upcoming year.
In a nutshell, 2014 will be like 2013, only the labels will change.
Most people on the hamster ball will be as busy putting food on the table in 2014 as they were in 2013. The same old faces, just a little older, will tell us what to buy, what to think, how to vote. There will be a few new faces hailed as saviors or super villains or both. People will die in various corners of the hamster ball in acts of "senseless violence", and we won't blink twice at this senseless adjective or at all the others just like it.
As to the K-Landnews, we'll continue to write about non-issues, continue to offer real or fake upset about everything and everybody.
Except about the cats and other non-human mammals.
So, Happy Holidays to y'all.
P.S.: "Happy Holidays" does not mean we ignore Christmas. Happy Holidays is simply, get this, a greeting that covers both Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
Expressed in the universal language of mathematics: Happy Holidays = Merry Christmas + Happy New Year.
It is a giant, mostly wet (as in: a swimming pool into which everybody pees wet), partly rocky hamster ball hurtling through space.
This realization was the unlikely outcome of an image from a youngish journalist attacking some utterly ficticius "Cult of Snowden" and a Politico article "Take this town and shove it" taking us to the web site "The Exiled".
Having grocked, or as they should say in late 2013 Germany "GroKo-ed", the reality of the hamster ball has had a calming effect on the folks here at the K-Landnews.
More so, it has given us the courage to predict some of the major trends of the upcoming year.
In a nutshell, 2014 will be like 2013, only the labels will change.
Most people on the hamster ball will be as busy putting food on the table in 2014 as they were in 2013. The same old faces, just a little older, will tell us what to buy, what to think, how to vote. There will be a few new faces hailed as saviors or super villains or both. People will die in various corners of the hamster ball in acts of "senseless violence", and we won't blink twice at this senseless adjective or at all the others just like it.
As to the K-Landnews, we'll continue to write about non-issues, continue to offer real or fake upset about everything and everybody.
Except about the cats and other non-human mammals.
So, Happy Holidays to y'all.
P.S.: "Happy Holidays" does not mean we ignore Christmas. Happy Holidays is simply, get this, a greeting that covers both Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
Expressed in the universal language of mathematics: Happy Holidays = Merry Christmas + Happy New Year.
Monday, December 23, 2013
The Old Man and the Tree
As Christmas time approached and the search for a tree morphed from abstract concept to practical undertaking, we became aware of a curious fact.
We know, first hand or second hand, several funny stories about Christmas trees, most involving trees which temporarily moved from their original location to the home of someone else.
One or two of the stories even made the newspaper, with an intrepid reporter describing a faint trail of bits of tinsel and shards of broken ornaments between the tree's original location and its improvised home.
A German variant recounted by an old lady adds some local Christmas cheer.
My father would work in the forest for much of the winter, and he would bring a Christmas tree a few days before Christmas. One year, he did not come home before dark. An hour passed, then another. Mother went and fed the cows and the pigs, we had dinner ready, but dad did not show up.
As the clock in the kitchen inched towards 9 pm, we began to get worried. It was not uncommon for people to get hurt while logging, and mom's voice betrayed increasing worry.
Towards 9:30 or so, we heard the front door open, heard a muffled curse, then the kitchen door flew open, a Christmas tree appeared, followed by dad. He was not hurt.
Over dinner, he recounted how he had cut the tree on a neighbor's property and then walked home along the main road. At the time, few people here had cars, and whenever he heard a vehicle he'd drop the tree and just walk on. Once the vehicle had passed, he'd turn around, pick up the tree and continue.
There was so much traffic, he smiled, I kept dumping the tree, then I had to backtrack, pick it up, walk a couple hundred yards, dump it, pick it up again. He ended his tale with a sigh: Of course, if anybody had asked, I could have told them the tree is from our property. Nobody would have crawled around the forest in the dark to check where one measly tree came from.
Starting the following year, we'd buy our Christmas tree at the town hall auction like everybody else. Trees were cheap back then, the town didn't make a profit on Christmas trees back then.
We know, first hand or second hand, several funny stories about Christmas trees, most involving trees which temporarily moved from their original location to the home of someone else.
One or two of the stories even made the newspaper, with an intrepid reporter describing a faint trail of bits of tinsel and shards of broken ornaments between the tree's original location and its improvised home.
A German variant recounted by an old lady adds some local Christmas cheer.
My father would work in the forest for much of the winter, and he would bring a Christmas tree a few days before Christmas. One year, he did not come home before dark. An hour passed, then another. Mother went and fed the cows and the pigs, we had dinner ready, but dad did not show up.
As the clock in the kitchen inched towards 9 pm, we began to get worried. It was not uncommon for people to get hurt while logging, and mom's voice betrayed increasing worry.
Towards 9:30 or so, we heard the front door open, heard a muffled curse, then the kitchen door flew open, a Christmas tree appeared, followed by dad. He was not hurt.
Over dinner, he recounted how he had cut the tree on a neighbor's property and then walked home along the main road. At the time, few people here had cars, and whenever he heard a vehicle he'd drop the tree and just walk on. Once the vehicle had passed, he'd turn around, pick up the tree and continue.
There was so much traffic, he smiled, I kept dumping the tree, then I had to backtrack, pick it up, walk a couple hundred yards, dump it, pick it up again. He ended his tale with a sigh: Of course, if anybody had asked, I could have told them the tree is from our property. Nobody would have crawled around the forest in the dark to check where one measly tree came from.
Starting the following year, we'd buy our Christmas tree at the town hall auction like everybody else. Trees were cheap back then, the town didn't make a profit on Christmas trees back then.
Sunday, December 22, 2013
Come si dice "numbnut" in italiano?
An Italian army reservist is being prosecuted for saving a cat's life in Kosovo, reports the British Guardian newspaper.
Read the whole story in the Guardian.
We wanted to send an email in Italian in support of the doctor but it is probably safer to send one in English in order to avoid any inadvertent insults.
There is a positive side to this mind bending story, though: No country has a monopoly on insensitive people.
Read the whole story in the Guardian.
We wanted to send an email in Italian in support of the doctor but it is probably safer to send one in English in order to avoid any inadvertent insults.
There is a positive side to this mind bending story, though: No country has a monopoly on insensitive people.
In the trenches of the war on Christmas
It has become a Christmas tradition of its own, at least to some folks at Fox News and a few radio stations.
The "war on Christmas" gets plenty of air time every year back home in the U.S.
Every single change to the name of a parade is lambasted as yet more proof that an unholy coalition of democrats, atheists, and some unnamed dark forces are set to destroy Christmas. Every sizable public non-Tannenbaum display is scrutinized for compliance with the pagan-christian mix of traditions known today as Christmas.
And every sizable public non-Tannenbaum fails the test.
The writers of the Daily Show and the Colbert Report can go on autopilot and paste together a few clips making fun of the Fox people.
We took you down this path of interpretation, now it is time to take another turn, thanks to the flexibility of the English language.
The other reading of the title "In the trenches of the war on Christmas" moves the emphasis of the sentence from"war on Christmas" to "the trenches of the war" at Christmas time.
Treated as an urban myth for a long time and for obvious reasons, the incredibly brutal trenches of the First World War saw a Christmas break, during which Germans and opposing soldiers came out of their trenches, talked, sang, had meals together.
They broke the vicious cycle of the tit for tat of "you shoot at me, I shoot at you" and brought the killing machine to a stop, for up to a week in some places on the Western front.
This pissed off the generals - on both sides. Eventually, the chain of command won, strangling the insurgent peace.
As it turns out, for peace to take hold in the trenches of World War I, the opposing sides needed to be in close proximity, so they could cautiously evaluate the effect of ceasing fire and building trust.
Next time you see some folks on TV talking themselves into a faux rage at Christmas time, press the mute button and reflect for a second. Maybe, just maybe, enemies celebrating Christmas together less than 100 years ago saved the life of your great grandfather.
The "war on Christmas" gets plenty of air time every year back home in the U.S.
Every single change to the name of a parade is lambasted as yet more proof that an unholy coalition of democrats, atheists, and some unnamed dark forces are set to destroy Christmas. Every sizable public non-Tannenbaum display is scrutinized for compliance with the pagan-christian mix of traditions known today as Christmas.
And every sizable public non-Tannenbaum fails the test.
The writers of the Daily Show and the Colbert Report can go on autopilot and paste together a few clips making fun of the Fox people.
We took you down this path of interpretation, now it is time to take another turn, thanks to the flexibility of the English language.
The other reading of the title "In the trenches of the war on Christmas" moves the emphasis of the sentence from"war on Christmas" to "the trenches of the war" at Christmas time.
Treated as an urban myth for a long time and for obvious reasons, the incredibly brutal trenches of the First World War saw a Christmas break, during which Germans and opposing soldiers came out of their trenches, talked, sang, had meals together.
They broke the vicious cycle of the tit for tat of "you shoot at me, I shoot at you" and brought the killing machine to a stop, for up to a week in some places on the Western front.
This pissed off the generals - on both sides. Eventually, the chain of command won, strangling the insurgent peace.
As it turns out, for peace to take hold in the trenches of World War I, the opposing sides needed to be in close proximity, so they could cautiously evaluate the effect of ceasing fire and building trust.
Next time you see some folks on TV talking themselves into a faux rage at Christmas time, press the mute button and reflect for a second. Maybe, just maybe, enemies celebrating Christmas together less than 100 years ago saved the life of your great grandfather.
Saturday, December 21, 2013
A Christmas moment on Grafton Street
Grafton Street is the main drag of the City of Dublin, Ireland. According to Wikipedia, it is one of two main shopping streets, but let's be honest, the pubs right off Grafton make the difference.
Grafton Street is decked out for Christmas like any big shopping street, and we found this website with photos of the Lighting Ceremony of 2013. At one end of Grafton Street, you find Ireland's Favorite Coffee and Tea Company, Bewley's, and Grafton goes out from there towards St. Stephen's.
Shoppers and revellers are out in force in the evenings and on the weekends.
One night before Christmas, a friend of the K-Landnews recounted a brief episode witnessed on Grafton.
I was standing next to M&S, taking in the bustle of the street before heading home. A group of young women heading north caught my eye, they were five or six, twenties, maybe early thirties, all wearing Santa hats, laughing, holding each others hands or hooked under. They took up much of the width of the street, and oncomers ducked and weaved to get out of their way. All of a sudden, one of the women broke free of the group and, picking up pace, headed for a solitary young man who was heading south on the other side of the street. She made a beeline for him. He stopped, she said something, and he nodded, lowering his head a little. She pecked him on the cheek, and they hugged.
Right about then, the rest of the group had caught up with her, and the woman closed to her reached out and pulled her back. She was obviously reluctant to let go. There was lots of giggling in the group as I heard her say: I had to, he looked so Christmassy.
This has become one of our essential Christmas stories, because of this moment of closeness among strangers. We'll never know if the young woman or the young man have held on to that moment. But we do.
Grafton Street is decked out for Christmas like any big shopping street, and we found this website with photos of the Lighting Ceremony of 2013. At one end of Grafton Street, you find Ireland's Favorite Coffee and Tea Company, Bewley's, and Grafton goes out from there towards St. Stephen's.
Shoppers and revellers are out in force in the evenings and on the weekends.
One night before Christmas, a friend of the K-Landnews recounted a brief episode witnessed on Grafton.
I was standing next to M&S, taking in the bustle of the street before heading home. A group of young women heading north caught my eye, they were five or six, twenties, maybe early thirties, all wearing Santa hats, laughing, holding each others hands or hooked under. They took up much of the width of the street, and oncomers ducked and weaved to get out of their way. All of a sudden, one of the women broke free of the group and, picking up pace, headed for a solitary young man who was heading south on the other side of the street. She made a beeline for him. He stopped, she said something, and he nodded, lowering his head a little. She pecked him on the cheek, and they hugged.
Right about then, the rest of the group had caught up with her, and the woman closed to her reached out and pulled her back. She was obviously reluctant to let go. There was lots of giggling in the group as I heard her say: I had to, he looked so Christmassy.
This has become one of our essential Christmas stories, because of this moment of closeness among strangers. We'll never know if the young woman or the young man have held on to that moment. But we do.
Friday, December 20, 2013
The eternal sunshine of the expat life
There are many reasons to become an expatriate; the expat life has its advantages and pitfalls, but there is one group of expats who may be more vulnerable than others.
We are talking of Western retirees with very limited funds, those lower middle class folks whose pensions make them poor in their home country but are high enough to maintain their lifestyle in some other countries.
Those other countries tend to be on the poorer side, and this sets the stage for some harrowing experiences, as a recent story about a German couple in Kenya illustrates.
When the couple retired, they looked at their pension and found they'd live a frugal life thereafter unless they moved to another country. They eventually settled on Kenya, where their German pension would be enough to maintain their current lifestyle, with lots of sunshine as an added bonus.
They arrived in their new country as late 50s, early 60s, spry folks and made themselves at home within the larger expat community. Then, a few years later, their life took a turn to the worse, a turn which is ending with the old lady leaving the country with the clothes on her back and a suitcase. The husband will follow soon as he fights of corrupt police and officials. Right now, he has to pay some 300 Euros a month in bribes to stay out of jail.
How did he manage to face being put in jail?
He went to buy the ticket home for his wife, and the travel agent called the police, saying that his German issued passport looked like a fake.
In a somewhat orderly country, they would check the passport, find it genuine and be done with it.
Not so, apparently, in Kenya.
How much of this is part of why Kenya has such an abysmal corruption record is not clear.
The couple's age may have something to do with it. Did they contact the German embassy in Nairobi? Would the embassy be willing and able to help, or would they refer them to a local lawyer.
If you think about finding a place in the sun, and we are not talking of Arizona or Florida here, do extensive research.
Starting retirement as an expat and ending that time as a refugee is not a good prospect.
We are talking of Western retirees with very limited funds, those lower middle class folks whose pensions make them poor in their home country but are high enough to maintain their lifestyle in some other countries.
Those other countries tend to be on the poorer side, and this sets the stage for some harrowing experiences, as a recent story about a German couple in Kenya illustrates.
When the couple retired, they looked at their pension and found they'd live a frugal life thereafter unless they moved to another country. They eventually settled on Kenya, where their German pension would be enough to maintain their current lifestyle, with lots of sunshine as an added bonus.
They arrived in their new country as late 50s, early 60s, spry folks and made themselves at home within the larger expat community. Then, a few years later, their life took a turn to the worse, a turn which is ending with the old lady leaving the country with the clothes on her back and a suitcase. The husband will follow soon as he fights of corrupt police and officials. Right now, he has to pay some 300 Euros a month in bribes to stay out of jail.
How did he manage to face being put in jail?
He went to buy the ticket home for his wife, and the travel agent called the police, saying that his German issued passport looked like a fake.
In a somewhat orderly country, they would check the passport, find it genuine and be done with it.
Not so, apparently, in Kenya.
How much of this is part of why Kenya has such an abysmal corruption record is not clear.
The couple's age may have something to do with it. Did they contact the German embassy in Nairobi? Would the embassy be willing and able to help, or would they refer them to a local lawyer.
If you think about finding a place in the sun, and we are not talking of Arizona or Florida here, do extensive research.
Starting retirement as an expat and ending that time as a refugee is not a good prospect.
GroKo this!
The word of the year 2013 in Germany is GroKo, short for Grosse Koalition, the temporary political marriage of the two big parties, the elephants in parliament.
Pompously translated as "grand coalition", this frequent constellation of government at the federal level stands for business as usual, a likely quiet four years ahead.
Since the junior partner SPD (the social democrats) had, a first in Germany, a vote by the party rank and file on the coalition agreement, it is fair to say that the wrangling and backroom dealing has more democratic support than in previous years. And, most importantly, there are more female ministers than before.
The choice of GroKo as the word of the year by the self-styled guardians of the German language has drawn some criticism and ridicule.
But, in our opinion, it reflects the business as usual atmosphere much more than even the selection panel may realize.
Take two well established components, join them together using the rule that both have to give up something, add a little bit of spice - more women in the government version, an ever so slightly capitalized letter K in the word of the year - and all is well.
Since the proof is in the pudding, only the coming years will tell how it all works out.
Do the Germans know how lucky they are that they don't have Christmas pudding?
Pompously translated as "grand coalition", this frequent constellation of government at the federal level stands for business as usual, a likely quiet four years ahead.
Since the junior partner SPD (the social democrats) had, a first in Germany, a vote by the party rank and file on the coalition agreement, it is fair to say that the wrangling and backroom dealing has more democratic support than in previous years. And, most importantly, there are more female ministers than before.
The choice of GroKo as the word of the year by the self-styled guardians of the German language has drawn some criticism and ridicule.
But, in our opinion, it reflects the business as usual atmosphere much more than even the selection panel may realize.
Take two well established components, join them together using the rule that both have to give up something, add a little bit of spice - more women in the government version, an ever so slightly capitalized letter K in the word of the year - and all is well.
Since the proof is in the pudding, only the coming years will tell how it all works out.
Do the Germans know how lucky they are that they don't have Christmas pudding?
Wednesday, December 18, 2013
Define Work
The recent American uproar about unpaid internships has its German, more muted, equivalent.
And guess what?
The German federal government is having numerous unpaid internship positions. The most sought after departments, like foreign affairs, pay zero Euros, which comes out to zero dollars, to their interns for 40 hours of work a week.
Despite recent changes to the law, they can do this because of a not very subtle but effective differentiation of the kinds of internships offered.
There are two, voluntary and mandatory internships.
A voluntary internship is the kind where a youngster wakes up in the morning and says to himself or herself, hey, I want to do an internship at the German treasury, let's apply. If you get this kind of internship, you get paid the awesome amount of 300 Euros per month. Which may or may not be enough to have a daily warm meal.
Then there is the mandatory internship. The kind your college makes you do in order to get credits, the kind someone makes you do for whatever reasons.
You do not get paid for these.
The ingenious difference lies in the definition of "work". Mandatory internships are legally not "work". Schlepping boxes, writing speeches, organizing events as part of a mandatory internship do not count as work. The law does not say as what these activities count. We assume they count as "fun". And the German government - still - does not like paying people to have fun. A point sometimes overlooked but felt accutely by those citizens on the basic social welfare program Hartz-IV. There is no fun allowance in this program either.
By offering only "mandatory" internship positions to the couple of thousand people who land one each year, the German government saves what must be huge amounts of taxpayer money (300 x 12 x 2000 Euros per year).
It is not known what the savings are used for, but there is a new airport in Berlin that is set to gobble up a few hundred years worth of savings on internships.
The concept of defining work as needed might have other applications, if you find the courage to think outside of the box. Retiree benefits, for instance, are tied to the number of years in "work". Creative redefinition of work could save the government massive amounts of money. All they need to do is codify the view out on the street that government employees don't really work, and bingo, the majority of government debt would be wiped out.
And guess what?
The German federal government is having numerous unpaid internship positions. The most sought after departments, like foreign affairs, pay zero Euros, which comes out to zero dollars, to their interns for 40 hours of work a week.
Despite recent changes to the law, they can do this because of a not very subtle but effective differentiation of the kinds of internships offered.
There are two, voluntary and mandatory internships.
A voluntary internship is the kind where a youngster wakes up in the morning and says to himself or herself, hey, I want to do an internship at the German treasury, let's apply. If you get this kind of internship, you get paid the awesome amount of 300 Euros per month. Which may or may not be enough to have a daily warm meal.
Then there is the mandatory internship. The kind your college makes you do in order to get credits, the kind someone makes you do for whatever reasons.
You do not get paid for these.
The ingenious difference lies in the definition of "work". Mandatory internships are legally not "work". Schlepping boxes, writing speeches, organizing events as part of a mandatory internship do not count as work. The law does not say as what these activities count. We assume they count as "fun". And the German government - still - does not like paying people to have fun. A point sometimes overlooked but felt accutely by those citizens on the basic social welfare program Hartz-IV. There is no fun allowance in this program either.
By offering only "mandatory" internship positions to the couple of thousand people who land one each year, the German government saves what must be huge amounts of taxpayer money (300 x 12 x 2000 Euros per year).
It is not known what the savings are used for, but there is a new airport in Berlin that is set to gobble up a few hundred years worth of savings on internships.
The concept of defining work as needed might have other applications, if you find the courage to think outside of the box. Retiree benefits, for instance, are tied to the number of years in "work". Creative redefinition of work could save the government massive amounts of money. All they need to do is codify the view out on the street that government employees don't really work, and bingo, the majority of government debt would be wiped out.
The great American Krampus Kraze of 2013
It's official, the beastly St. Nick/Santa sidekick Krampus is focusing on the United States in 2013.
We have seen Krampus themed episodes of Grimm, American Dad, and other TV shows and we were wondering if it was just an expression of our view from Europe or a different phenomenon. Krampus watchers are vigilant, as befits the dangers posed by the creature, and have already updated the Wikipedia page with the latest TV sightings of the horned critter.
Confirmation from friends in the U.S. just arrived: Krampus is performing highly public shenanigans in the U.S. this year!
In Los Angeles alone, there was a Krampus Fest with 20+ Krampus clones, leaving us to further wonder what the correct plural of Krampus is? Such numbers are usually reserved to hordes of jolly Santas!
Krampuses? Krampi?
The scary monster, out to flog naughty children, or even put them into a big burlap sack, must have good reasons to haunt the U.S. this year. Is it, as American Dad claims, the naughty sense of entitlement of our children? Or is it the eternal story of the dark and the light, as Grimm appears to suggest?
Could it be that Krampus has been emboldened by perceived headway made by the human forces of darkness in recent years? Is the resurgence of coal related to the Krampus phenomenon? Does the rise of metal music have anything to do with the Krampus revival?
We need the BBC to investigate this, unless the government has issued a Krampus D-notice, of course. Maybe the softball BBC Hardtalk could tackle the Krampus question to give us confused onlookers some real value for money for once.
The writers of Grimm know a lot more about Krampus than they let on. What does Krampus do during the rest of the year? Is he a small time photographer from Salt Lake City, or is he changing his incarnations? One year, he may take over the persona of a prime minister going after naught adults, the next, he becomes a bulky mayor showing the world that you too can smoke crack and be a mayor.
Look around, find the Krampus during the 330 odd days when he is not out as his horned self.
And let us know.
We have seen Krampus themed episodes of Grimm, American Dad, and other TV shows and we were wondering if it was just an expression of our view from Europe or a different phenomenon. Krampus watchers are vigilant, as befits the dangers posed by the creature, and have already updated the Wikipedia page with the latest TV sightings of the horned critter.
Confirmation from friends in the U.S. just arrived: Krampus is performing highly public shenanigans in the U.S. this year!
In Los Angeles alone, there was a Krampus Fest with 20+ Krampus clones, leaving us to further wonder what the correct plural of Krampus is? Such numbers are usually reserved to hordes of jolly Santas!
Krampuses? Krampi?
The scary monster, out to flog naughty children, or even put them into a big burlap sack, must have good reasons to haunt the U.S. this year. Is it, as American Dad claims, the naughty sense of entitlement of our children? Or is it the eternal story of the dark and the light, as Grimm appears to suggest?
Could it be that Krampus has been emboldened by perceived headway made by the human forces of darkness in recent years? Is the resurgence of coal related to the Krampus phenomenon? Does the rise of metal music have anything to do with the Krampus revival?
We need the BBC to investigate this, unless the government has issued a Krampus D-notice, of course. Maybe the softball BBC Hardtalk could tackle the Krampus question to give us confused onlookers some real value for money for once.
The writers of Grimm know a lot more about Krampus than they let on. What does Krampus do during the rest of the year? Is he a small time photographer from Salt Lake City, or is he changing his incarnations? One year, he may take over the persona of a prime minister going after naught adults, the next, he becomes a bulky mayor showing the world that you too can smoke crack and be a mayor.
Look around, find the Krampus during the 330 odd days when he is not out as his horned self.
And let us know.
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
New Year's Resolution 3: Make a TOR Hidden Service prototype
Three resolutions are enough, don't you agree?
In order of ascending difficulty, this one is it. Why this geeky project, why not something inherently useful? The answer fits into a single word: curiosity.
Configuring a TOR hidden service is described on the TOR website, and in the scoping of the effort, we found that the focus will actually be on hardening the operating system, installing a web server, and on populating the web server with something useful.
We will set up a simple file upload service, without using javascript.
If you were to set up such a service on a USB stick installation of Linux, you would have a mobile, protected web server -- a personal "cloud".
There is an unlimited number of what we in the biz call use cases for such a simple hidden service:
If you are a group of artists working on a project together, you could share the various iterations of the work before you publish Van Gogh 2.0 or Miles Davis 3.5.
If you have a friend in China who just took the cutest baby panda photo ever, the friend can upload it for you to stick it on YouTube.
If you manage to successfully enrol in a healthcare plan on the "Obamacare" web site, you can take a screenshot of the success message and forward it to you wife and children (they need their own USB sticks). This way,you won't inadvertently CC a "Success" email to other, less successful family members, potentially causing a family rift over Christmas.
In order of ascending difficulty, this one is it. Why this geeky project, why not something inherently useful? The answer fits into a single word: curiosity.
Configuring a TOR hidden service is described on the TOR website, and in the scoping of the effort, we found that the focus will actually be on hardening the operating system, installing a web server, and on populating the web server with something useful.
We will set up a simple file upload service, without using javascript.
If you were to set up such a service on a USB stick installation of Linux, you would have a mobile, protected web server -- a personal "cloud".
There is an unlimited number of what we in the biz call use cases for such a simple hidden service:
If you are a group of artists working on a project together, you could share the various iterations of the work before you publish Van Gogh 2.0 or Miles Davis 3.5.
If you have a friend in China who just took the cutest baby panda photo ever, the friend can upload it for you to stick it on YouTube.
If you manage to successfully enrol in a healthcare plan on the "Obamacare" web site, you can take a screenshot of the success message and forward it to you wife and children (they need their own USB sticks). This way,you won't inadvertently CC a "Success" email to other, less successful family members, potentially causing a family rift over Christmas.
Sunday, December 15, 2013
Mangled, twisted, expiring bits
In 2013, bits and their aggregates, the bytes, words and DWords (that would be compounds for you Germans) have suffered more than in the previous years.
Twisted and mangled beyond recognition, they litter the worldwide web. Innumerable bits which looked sound, healthy at the beginning of the year, met an early demise in the second half of 2013.
Concepts and statements carefully crafted by highly educated and well regarded people imploded or blew up in our faces. The remains of once strong and shiny metaphors dot the mental landscapes, abandoned like unwanted toddler toys. But there are no adults doing the cleanup.
The old days of carefree surfing in the sunshine of the internet are over. We have been conditioned to watch out for the sharks, who would appear out of the deep dark, we had been warned of pollution, had looked on as government officials closed off "dangerous" stretches of beaches based on unscientific criteria.
Newbies who carefully dipped their motherboards in the shallow waters on the warm beach were afraid of sharks and stinging creatures, afraid of the bullies one sand castle over.
We believed the happy, smiling life guards in their white towers were scouring the open water to keep us safe. Of course, we knew that some of the life guards would use their binoculars to check out some T & A, but it was harmless fun.
Most of us had no idea that the bulldozers and armed guards had assembled behind the dunes, that most of "dangerous" beaches were not dangerous but wonderful locations for gated communities, with the plans for condos having been filed and quietly approved a long time ago.
Time to be the adults our parents only pretended to be.
Bits, the God particles of social media cohesion, may be less attractive to you if you happened to cross the magic Western age threshold from 29 years to 30 this year. But it is going to be fine.
We want you back, said the title of an email not long ago.
Who has never craved to receive an email that says we want you back, or I want you back?
The visceral, emotional appeal of "we want you back" works as intended. You open the email despite seeing that the sender is the healthcare provider you had in a long forgotten other life. Health insurance starting at 495 dollars. Yeah, you jokers.
We won't ask the healthcare provider to stop emailing us. In fact, this is what gave us the idea to be a bit more open minded and create some email accounts to collect more invaluable reminders and updates from other sites.
It is also healthier to not fret and stress about unwanted email.
Or about the lifeguards in their white towers -- they will be fat, disillusioned middle aged men sooner than they realize.
Twisted and mangled beyond recognition, they litter the worldwide web. Innumerable bits which looked sound, healthy at the beginning of the year, met an early demise in the second half of 2013.
Concepts and statements carefully crafted by highly educated and well regarded people imploded or blew up in our faces. The remains of once strong and shiny metaphors dot the mental landscapes, abandoned like unwanted toddler toys. But there are no adults doing the cleanup.
The old days of carefree surfing in the sunshine of the internet are over. We have been conditioned to watch out for the sharks, who would appear out of the deep dark, we had been warned of pollution, had looked on as government officials closed off "dangerous" stretches of beaches based on unscientific criteria.
Newbies who carefully dipped their motherboards in the shallow waters on the warm beach were afraid of sharks and stinging creatures, afraid of the bullies one sand castle over.
We believed the happy, smiling life guards in their white towers were scouring the open water to keep us safe. Of course, we knew that some of the life guards would use their binoculars to check out some T & A, but it was harmless fun.
Most of us had no idea that the bulldozers and armed guards had assembled behind the dunes, that most of "dangerous" beaches were not dangerous but wonderful locations for gated communities, with the plans for condos having been filed and quietly approved a long time ago.
Time to be the adults our parents only pretended to be.
Bits, the God particles of social media cohesion, may be less attractive to you if you happened to cross the magic Western age threshold from 29 years to 30 this year. But it is going to be fine.
We want you back, said the title of an email not long ago.
Who has never craved to receive an email that says we want you back, or I want you back?
The visceral, emotional appeal of "we want you back" works as intended. You open the email despite seeing that the sender is the healthcare provider you had in a long forgotten other life. Health insurance starting at 495 dollars. Yeah, you jokers.
We won't ask the healthcare provider to stop emailing us. In fact, this is what gave us the idea to be a bit more open minded and create some email accounts to collect more invaluable reminders and updates from other sites.
It is also healthier to not fret and stress about unwanted email.
Or about the lifeguards in their white towers -- they will be fat, disillusioned middle aged men sooner than they realize.
Saturday, December 14, 2013
New Year's Resolution 2: Subscribe to email from lots of web sites
To some, this comes naturally, to others it is a complete change in online behavior.
As someone who used to get a bit ticked off when "unsubscribe" functions on a web site would trigger a message saying this will take 2 weeks, the plan to subscribe to more useless notifications, product news and other crap may be unusual.
But after a re-evaluation, the situation is different: it is a win-win.
All those companies. institutions, and non-profits with or without products but always with "news" or "important notifications" use the number of subscribers for many purposes. One of them being the decision to provide the resources needed to produce a newsletter or email blitz in the first place.
By signing up for tons, we imagine that we provide unpaid internships or give low paid writers something to do.
And we help those who want to save everything we do online by making their jobs more valued, we help their procurement people, we help software makers around the globe.
Realizing the power of inertia, the extent of this venture may not become an all out information grab on our part but a handful of new accounts with several assigned happy producers of product emails, event notifications and adult services spammers will be a start.
Old mustached German (OMG), familiar to some of our readers, broke into a grin so wide we feared for his jaw muscles. I like it, he said, you are turning a fuck me site into a fuck you site!
This old German bluntness is still refreshing to our ears after all these years.
Our intention is more nuanced, we have the Random Research (RR) team ready for the online sex dating sites. The RR team will try to find out how many gorgeous 25 year old women are really interested in hooking up with a balding, slightly overweight 40 year old male.
Other notifications are meant to enlarge our online presence, showing us to be voracious, sophisticated citizens.
And who cares if the newsletter from protein folding web site Folding@Home goes into the same inbox as an update from, say "college rules"?
As someone who used to get a bit ticked off when "unsubscribe" functions on a web site would trigger a message saying this will take 2 weeks, the plan to subscribe to more useless notifications, product news and other crap may be unusual.
But after a re-evaluation, the situation is different: it is a win-win.
All those companies. institutions, and non-profits with or without products but always with "news" or "important notifications" use the number of subscribers for many purposes. One of them being the decision to provide the resources needed to produce a newsletter or email blitz in the first place.
By signing up for tons, we imagine that we provide unpaid internships or give low paid writers something to do.
And we help those who want to save everything we do online by making their jobs more valued, we help their procurement people, we help software makers around the globe.
Realizing the power of inertia, the extent of this venture may not become an all out information grab on our part but a handful of new accounts with several assigned happy producers of product emails, event notifications and adult services spammers will be a start.
Old mustached German (OMG), familiar to some of our readers, broke into a grin so wide we feared for his jaw muscles. I like it, he said, you are turning a fuck me site into a fuck you site!
This old German bluntness is still refreshing to our ears after all these years.
Our intention is more nuanced, we have the Random Research (RR) team ready for the online sex dating sites. The RR team will try to find out how many gorgeous 25 year old women are really interested in hooking up with a balding, slightly overweight 40 year old male.
Other notifications are meant to enlarge our online presence, showing us to be voracious, sophisticated citizens.
And who cares if the newsletter from protein folding web site Folding@Home goes into the same inbox as an update from, say "college rules"?
[Update] New Year's Resolution 1: Continue to not buy Hewlett-Packard
It's that time of the year again, the bitter sweet process of making resolutions.
These resolutions typically are about change that is difficult, but we decided to start with an easy one. The obvious advantage is that you won't feel like a failure when you don't do the more difficult ones.
Continue not to buy Hewlett-Packard products is such an easy, success guaranteed resolution.
For new readers, we invite you to go back a year and see how we bitched about HP chips on printer cartridges as a game of evil monopoly. Sure, we can understand the rationale for doing things the new HP way: money.
But as in other areas of life, not everything you can do is advisable in a social context. On the bright side, there is enough choice in home printers, so the resolution is not a burden. The same turned out to be true for the new computer that replaced the ancient Dell earlier this year, walking past the HP computers in the store was no effort at all.
Of course, we won't go as far as investigating if any device is using some OEM version of something HP, has licenced a patent from them and so forth.
For our limited version of "no HP", we go by the box. If the box doesn't say Hewlett-Packard, we are satisfied.
[Update] Looks like we are not the only ones. HP is laying off more people than planned - or previously copped on to - in order to please the shareholders. Well done.
These resolutions typically are about change that is difficult, but we decided to start with an easy one. The obvious advantage is that you won't feel like a failure when you don't do the more difficult ones.
Continue not to buy Hewlett-Packard products is such an easy, success guaranteed resolution.
For new readers, we invite you to go back a year and see how we bitched about HP chips on printer cartridges as a game of evil monopoly. Sure, we can understand the rationale for doing things the new HP way: money.
But as in other areas of life, not everything you can do is advisable in a social context. On the bright side, there is enough choice in home printers, so the resolution is not a burden. The same turned out to be true for the new computer that replaced the ancient Dell earlier this year, walking past the HP computers in the store was no effort at all.
Of course, we won't go as far as investigating if any device is using some OEM version of something HP, has licenced a patent from them and so forth.
For our limited version of "no HP", we go by the box. If the box doesn't say Hewlett-Packard, we are satisfied.
[Update] Looks like we are not the only ones. HP is laying off more people than planned - or previously copped on to - in order to please the shareholders. Well done.
Friday, December 13, 2013
Ah, German service industry: the shoeshine man returns
Not long ago, the western business community was abuzz with the brave new world of the knowledge society, where manual labor and making things were no longer relevant to our wealth.
Personally, I found the term knowledge society nice but at the same time condescending because it seemed to neglect the knowledge of previous generations. The example of the farmer comes in handy: you cannot do farming without a pretty comprehensive set of knowledge and skills.
Right on the heels of the knowledge society came the service economy, much of the same, just less knowledge and even fewer people who make things.
In light of everything, is it surprising that a few shoeshine men have set up shop again in Germany?
In Big City USA, of course, the shoeshine man never went away completely. The job appeals too much to the American understanding of a man down on his luck putting in an honest day's of work to get back on his feet.
The current German version is a part time shoe shiner, driven more by nostalgia, a liking of good shoes and fun. Where does the modern German shoeshine man get his training?
It is a valid question given the job went extinct over here.
The answer is predictable. The Google Shoeshine Boys, like Dr. Google and others, have put out all the information you need to start shining shoes without destroying a few hundred pairs as part of your learning curve.
If we see a modern German shoeshine man in person in our upcoming tour of Christmas markets, we'll post a photo.
Personally, I found the term knowledge society nice but at the same time condescending because it seemed to neglect the knowledge of previous generations. The example of the farmer comes in handy: you cannot do farming without a pretty comprehensive set of knowledge and skills.
Right on the heels of the knowledge society came the service economy, much of the same, just less knowledge and even fewer people who make things.
In light of everything, is it surprising that a few shoeshine men have set up shop again in Germany?
In Big City USA, of course, the shoeshine man never went away completely. The job appeals too much to the American understanding of a man down on his luck putting in an honest day's of work to get back on his feet.
The current German version is a part time shoe shiner, driven more by nostalgia, a liking of good shoes and fun. Where does the modern German shoeshine man get his training?
It is a valid question given the job went extinct over here.
The answer is predictable. The Google Shoeshine Boys, like Dr. Google and others, have put out all the information you need to start shining shoes without destroying a few hundred pairs as part of your learning curve.
If we see a modern German shoeshine man in person in our upcoming tour of Christmas markets, we'll post a photo.
Monday, December 9, 2013
The new old European prostitution debate
German tabloid Bild Zeitung is running an article about a woman supplementing the infamous bare bones Hartz-IV social security payment by working in a bordello a few days a month.
This is but one of the many recent articles throughout the German media on a bitterly fought debate about changes to the prostitution laws in this country. While prostitution was made legal some ten years ago, a new debate has been started by various legal changes in other European countries where a reversal of policies has taken place. In Sweden, buying sex has been made illegal (offering it has not), and a similar statute change is under way in France.
So, Bild is, of course, using the opportunity to shed light on the normally under reported plight of folks on Hartz-IV by adding a photo of a not fully dressed lady.
To Bild's credit, they do not claim that the benefits are so inadequate that you cannot afford a full set of clothing.
As in France and Sweden, very real issues like human trafficking, rape, and violence are being mixed with plain moral views [all men are animals - which is technically correct] and legal arguments.
Even those politicians who want to (re-)criminalize prostitution do not plan to criminalize prostitutes, which shows that decades of research have made some impact. The people to be criminalized are the customers, which many German readers find offensive, "why punish one party and not the other" they complain.
Arguments for and against the business are so repetitive and well known that we won't bother with details.
We will instead focus on the inevitable rise of the snuggle industry in Europe (usually three to five years after a trend blooms in the U.S.), which means we have another two years to prepare for that debate. Right now, Europe is being introduced to the snuggle for cash concept through reports like this one about the Snuggle House in Madison, WI.
[Update 10/29/2015] BILD Zeitung seems to be doing a steady stream of stories on ladies who supplement basic means tested benefits with nudie work. We see frequent blips on Twitter.
The current German government has pushed a new law for the "protection of sex workers" with registration requirements that negate the "protection" aspect.
This is but one of the many recent articles throughout the German media on a bitterly fought debate about changes to the prostitution laws in this country. While prostitution was made legal some ten years ago, a new debate has been started by various legal changes in other European countries where a reversal of policies has taken place. In Sweden, buying sex has been made illegal (offering it has not), and a similar statute change is under way in France.
So, Bild is, of course, using the opportunity to shed light on the normally under reported plight of folks on Hartz-IV by adding a photo of a not fully dressed lady.
To Bild's credit, they do not claim that the benefits are so inadequate that you cannot afford a full set of clothing.
As in France and Sweden, very real issues like human trafficking, rape, and violence are being mixed with plain moral views [all men are animals - which is technically correct] and legal arguments.
Even those politicians who want to (re-)criminalize prostitution do not plan to criminalize prostitutes, which shows that decades of research have made some impact. The people to be criminalized are the customers, which many German readers find offensive, "why punish one party and not the other" they complain.
Arguments for and against the business are so repetitive and well known that we won't bother with details.
We will instead focus on the inevitable rise of the snuggle industry in Europe (usually three to five years after a trend blooms in the U.S.), which means we have another two years to prepare for that debate. Right now, Europe is being introduced to the snuggle for cash concept through reports like this one about the Snuggle House in Madison, WI.
[Update 10/29/2015] BILD Zeitung seems to be doing a steady stream of stories on ladies who supplement basic means tested benefits with nudie work. We see frequent blips on Twitter.
The current German government has pushed a new law for the "protection of sex workers" with registration requirements that negate the "protection" aspect.
Sunday, December 8, 2013
Research report, part 2, Sex and the Germans
The K-Landnews Random Research team disappeared for several days after delivery of the first part of its research into the fascinating subject "Sex and the Germans".
The RR team ceased all communication. Voice calls went straight to voicemail, emails were never answered, chat requests fell flat.
TheEditor, not easily worried, began rummaging through the cabinets for stationary, mumbling "a letter by mail", then settled for a sheet of paper from the printer tray.
Gee, this place does not even have any standard letter envelopes any more.
Right then the doorbell rang, if you can call the intermittent croaking, tinny sound a "ring".
It was the leader of the RR team. Redfaced as if he had just done a half marathon, he went: Sorry, really sorry. I think that the NSA might have my penis length and girth in their database now.
????
Well, you read the report about the NSA collecting porn data of people, right? I'm sure that the profile data on the German web site you made us investigate is a lot more interesting to them than which free porn clips you watch!
What's with the profile data?
This website has a tremendously detailed profile, not just the height and weight stuff, but detailed physical data, like the cup size for women and the penis length for men. There are fields for "do you wear glasses", which parts are shaved or not, whether you smoke. Then they have a twenty or so item list of sexual preferences.
You did not fill out a profile, or did you?
Well, you said we should research, and research means correct data.
Oh, my god.
So, I panicked, I'm sorry. I spent endless hours trying to get someone from customer service and ask them to erase my profile. That failed, so I changed my profile. I am now a 200 pound midget with a 1 inch member.
THAT makes you feel safer?
Eventually, I found that I can simply deactivate my profile. Here is the second part of our report, the team leader said, holding out a USB stick.
The report itself did not have anything that we consider worth writing about, so we settled for the meta story in the form of the exchange quoted above.
The RR team ceased all communication. Voice calls went straight to voicemail, emails were never answered, chat requests fell flat.
TheEditor, not easily worried, began rummaging through the cabinets for stationary, mumbling "a letter by mail", then settled for a sheet of paper from the printer tray.
Gee, this place does not even have any standard letter envelopes any more.
Right then the doorbell rang, if you can call the intermittent croaking, tinny sound a "ring".
It was the leader of the RR team. Redfaced as if he had just done a half marathon, he went: Sorry, really sorry. I think that the NSA might have my penis length and girth in their database now.
????
Well, you read the report about the NSA collecting porn data of people, right? I'm sure that the profile data on the German web site you made us investigate is a lot more interesting to them than which free porn clips you watch!
What's with the profile data?
This website has a tremendously detailed profile, not just the height and weight stuff, but detailed physical data, like the cup size for women and the penis length for men. There are fields for "do you wear glasses", which parts are shaved or not, whether you smoke. Then they have a twenty or so item list of sexual preferences.
You did not fill out a profile, or did you?
Well, you said we should research, and research means correct data.
Oh, my god.
So, I panicked, I'm sorry. I spent endless hours trying to get someone from customer service and ask them to erase my profile. That failed, so I changed my profile. I am now a 200 pound midget with a 1 inch member.
THAT makes you feel safer?
Eventually, I found that I can simply deactivate my profile. Here is the second part of our report, the team leader said, holding out a USB stick.
The report itself did not have anything that we consider worth writing about, so we settled for the meta story in the form of the exchange quoted above.
When Germans do customer service: BillSafe
Remember the old days of shopping?
Select item, hand over money, done?
These days, much of shopping has gone the way of the internet, and so has the payment. There are many payment options, one of them is BillSafe, a provider service owned by PayPal.
We are now in round three or four of a messy payment using BillSafe and will share the experience.
Round 1:
Buy something on the internet and get an order confirmation. Here is the order confirmation. It is in two parts because we took screenshots. Part 1 is fine, is has the order number, sales tax, and price.
Part 2 is the interesting section. Note the absence of payment information, specifically, there is no bank account to send money to, the routing number is "0", and there is no due date.
So, we wait for an invoice.
Round 2:
After around four weeks without an invoice, we start to wonder and think, well, give them another couple of weeks and we'll ask where the invoice is.
As week 5 ends, a letter arrives from BillSafe. It is labeled "past due notice" and tells us to pay the original amount plus a 7.65 Euro late fee.
They give a new format SEPA account to send the money to (note we changed the numbers a bit for privacy)
Empfänger: PayPal
IBAN: DE88025427
BIC: DEUTDEDBPAL
Bank: Deutsche Bank
Verwendungszweck: BT26009
The small problem: my bank does not do SEPA yet, but there is help from BillSafe. They do have the rare toll free number!
I call and explain that I have not received any invoice, and that the only email (the screenshots above) had no payment information. The helpful agent gives me a standard account number and routing number, so I can pay. What to do about the "past due notice"?
The answer is contact the seller to tell them I did not get an invoice. The seller can then get BillSafe to cancel the late fee.
Round 3:
I contact the seller and explain the past due letter, telling them that nothing like an invoice ever came and that the only correspondence had no payment information and no due date.
By the time I contacted the seller, I had transferred the original amount. I had not sent the late fee and told them so.
The seller gave the impression that the matter was now settled. My last Email saying "I hope there won't be any further issues" received a friendly "I hope so, too" response.
Round 4:
An Email nastygram from a PayPal rep in Luxembourg tells me they have received the original amount but not the late fee. It says they cannot undo the late fee without confirmation by the seller. And it says that I must expect more fees if there is no confirmation that I did not get an invoice in the first place.
An Email response goes to PayPal and to the seller asking to please take care of the matter.
[Update] Round 5:
It is Sunday, so imagine my surprise when - a minute after hitting Publish on Blogger - an Email arrives saying that BillSafe is removing the late fee. They remind me to please make sure future payments are done on time.
Lessons learned: if no valid invoice from an internet retailer shows up after a couple of weeks, send a one-liner to customer service.
Select item, hand over money, done?
These days, much of shopping has gone the way of the internet, and so has the payment. There are many payment options, one of them is BillSafe, a provider service owned by PayPal.
We are now in round three or four of a messy payment using BillSafe and will share the experience.
Round 1:
Buy something on the internet and get an order confirmation. Here is the order confirmation. It is in two parts because we took screenshots. Part 1 is fine, is has the order number, sales tax, and price.
Part 2 is the interesting section. Note the absence of payment information, specifically, there is no bank account to send money to, the routing number is "0", and there is no due date.
So, we wait for an invoice.
Round 2:
After around four weeks without an invoice, we start to wonder and think, well, give them another couple of weeks and we'll ask where the invoice is.
As week 5 ends, a letter arrives from BillSafe. It is labeled "past due notice" and tells us to pay the original amount plus a 7.65 Euro late fee.
They give a new format SEPA account to send the money to (note we changed the numbers a bit for privacy)
Empfänger: PayPal
IBAN: DE88025427
BIC: DEUTDEDBPAL
Bank: Deutsche Bank
Verwendungszweck: BT26009
The small problem: my bank does not do SEPA yet, but there is help from BillSafe. They do have the rare toll free number!
I call and explain that I have not received any invoice, and that the only email (the screenshots above) had no payment information. The helpful agent gives me a standard account number and routing number, so I can pay. What to do about the "past due notice"?
The answer is contact the seller to tell them I did not get an invoice. The seller can then get BillSafe to cancel the late fee.
Round 3:
I contact the seller and explain the past due letter, telling them that nothing like an invoice ever came and that the only correspondence had no payment information and no due date.
By the time I contacted the seller, I had transferred the original amount. I had not sent the late fee and told them so.
The seller gave the impression that the matter was now settled. My last Email saying "I hope there won't be any further issues" received a friendly "I hope so, too" response.
Round 4:
An Email nastygram from a PayPal rep in Luxembourg tells me they have received the original amount but not the late fee. It says they cannot undo the late fee without confirmation by the seller. And it says that I must expect more fees if there is no confirmation that I did not get an invoice in the first place.
An Email response goes to PayPal and to the seller asking to please take care of the matter.
[Update] Round 5:
It is Sunday, so imagine my surprise when - a minute after hitting Publish on Blogger - an Email arrives saying that BillSafe is removing the late fee. They remind me to please make sure future payments are done on time.
Lessons learned: if no valid invoice from an internet retailer shows up after a couple of weeks, send a one-liner to customer service.
Saturday, December 7, 2013
Black Screen of Death repair 101: remove the battery
In the swanky world of MS Windows 8.0, a world of screen tiles and no start button, there is a single thing you should not do with your new notebook.
Do not take it to the vendor service counter if the cool machine won't start up one day.
We had the not so rare opportunity to dive into the world of MS Windows 8.0 and learn all about the Black Screen of Death.
If you are one of the many millions of users who have come to accept the Blue Screen of Death, the folks of Redmond, WA., have a new one for you, the Black Screen of Death.
Windows 8.0 will show a black screen with a cursor when your boot fails.
No error message, none of the old cool reminders to press F2 for the BIOS or F8 for Safe Mode. Gone in the name of faster startup and slickness.
And in the name of security, there is the new UEFI feature which prevents installation of viruses and, incidentally, Linux.
So, if you are like most users, you will experience the mixture of rage and guilt that overcomes normal people when their computer won't start up.
You will direct that rage at Microsoft. Note that we do not support rage, it is a bad evolutionary leftover. But we cannot ignore it either.
Because the boogie man is Microsoft.
You will feel a little better and be able to ignore your guilt. The guilt of not having saved your crucial data on an external drive, the guilt of not having taken the 20 or thirty minutes it takes to make a recovery CD or USB drive.
But much of the rage is misplaced.
Because Microsoft has made lots of invisible improvements over the years. Windows 8.0 can recover from situations the older versions could not.
You should direct some of the rage towards the hardware maker.
Here is why: The instructional videos on troubleshooting on the computer maker websites lie. They do not lie on purpose but out of the omission that comes with knowing your stuff too well.
For example, not a single one of those websites we reviewed starts with the simplest of simple instructions: remove the battery and leave it out.
Instead, a friendly if not very camera experienced technician will show you how to get into the BIOS by pressing F2. It works beautifully, just not on your machine.
Why?
Because the battery keeps some, let's call it stuff, alive on your machine, preventing it to shut down "all the way". Windows won't tell you, the computer won't tell you.
If you ever get a black screen with a visible cursor and your computer is a notebook or a netbook, take out the battery.
Leave it out.
Hook up the wall socket power supply. Have a cup of coffee, then press the on button.
In a lot of cases, the computer will start. Make that backup of data and that recovery disc. Shut it down. Then put the battery back in.
If this does not work, maybe your hard drive is corrupted or dead, too bad. You need expert help, but don't go to the big box store customer service quite yet. Find the local repair guy who will try to save your data first.
Do not take it to the vendor service counter if the cool machine won't start up one day.
We had the not so rare opportunity to dive into the world of MS Windows 8.0 and learn all about the Black Screen of Death.
If you are one of the many millions of users who have come to accept the Blue Screen of Death, the folks of Redmond, WA., have a new one for you, the Black Screen of Death.
Windows 8.0 will show a black screen with a cursor when your boot fails.
No error message, none of the old cool reminders to press F2 for the BIOS or F8 for Safe Mode. Gone in the name of faster startup and slickness.
And in the name of security, there is the new UEFI feature which prevents installation of viruses and, incidentally, Linux.
So, if you are like most users, you will experience the mixture of rage and guilt that overcomes normal people when their computer won't start up.
You will direct that rage at Microsoft. Note that we do not support rage, it is a bad evolutionary leftover. But we cannot ignore it either.
Because the boogie man is Microsoft.
You will feel a little better and be able to ignore your guilt. The guilt of not having saved your crucial data on an external drive, the guilt of not having taken the 20 or thirty minutes it takes to make a recovery CD or USB drive.
But much of the rage is misplaced.
Because Microsoft has made lots of invisible improvements over the years. Windows 8.0 can recover from situations the older versions could not.
You should direct some of the rage towards the hardware maker.
Here is why: The instructional videos on troubleshooting on the computer maker websites lie. They do not lie on purpose but out of the omission that comes with knowing your stuff too well.
For example, not a single one of those websites we reviewed starts with the simplest of simple instructions: remove the battery and leave it out.
Instead, a friendly if not very camera experienced technician will show you how to get into the BIOS by pressing F2. It works beautifully, just not on your machine.
Why?
Because the battery keeps some, let's call it stuff, alive on your machine, preventing it to shut down "all the way". Windows won't tell you, the computer won't tell you.
If you ever get a black screen with a visible cursor and your computer is a notebook or a netbook, take out the battery.
Leave it out.
Hook up the wall socket power supply. Have a cup of coffee, then press the on button.
In a lot of cases, the computer will start. Make that backup of data and that recovery disc. Shut it down. Then put the battery back in.
If this does not work, maybe your hard drive is corrupted or dead, too bad. You need expert help, but don't go to the big box store customer service quite yet. Find the local repair guy who will try to save your data first.
Tuesday, December 3, 2013
Scary dreams
TheEditor has a hard time understanding parents when they wonder why their children have scary dreams since "they have nothing to be scared about".
Children practice life, says TheEditor.
This night time entertainment can have some physical consequences, as teenagers and the parents doing the laundry know. As an adult, if you are lucky, you can get hours of royalty free entertainment and insights out of dreams. If you are unlucky, of course, dreams can haunt and even cripple you.
One of the K-landnews folks had such an entertaining dream, consisting of geese that turned out to be drones performing all sorts of mischief.
Very funny, was the unanimous verdict.
The long winter nights must be good for something. Entertaining dreams are a great antidote to the hourly news which can depress the less resilient among us.
We'll skip the news today to pay attention to the cats' dreams after their scratching rug underwent deep cleaning and they have been playing on it like it was the best thing ever.
Children practice life, says TheEditor.
This night time entertainment can have some physical consequences, as teenagers and the parents doing the laundry know. As an adult, if you are lucky, you can get hours of royalty free entertainment and insights out of dreams. If you are unlucky, of course, dreams can haunt and even cripple you.
One of the K-landnews folks had such an entertaining dream, consisting of geese that turned out to be drones performing all sorts of mischief.
Very funny, was the unanimous verdict.
The long winter nights must be good for something. Entertaining dreams are a great antidote to the hourly news which can depress the less resilient among us.
We'll skip the news today to pay attention to the cats' dreams after their scratching rug underwent deep cleaning and they have been playing on it like it was the best thing ever.
Monday, December 2, 2013
Penalties as incentives for smart meters?
The new German government of the two biggest parties, the "grand" coalition that has historically not managed to achieve anything grand for the country, is almost inevitable now.
The junior partner SPD will have a vote of the party base on the coalition agreement. A vote that theoretically could nix the coalition but for all intents and purposes the docile SPD members will give the leadership a nod, and then nod off for four years until the next general election.
From the looks of it, this government will cost the citizens a lot of money. The small improvements to retirement benefits for non-working mothers and a proposal for retirement at age 63 if you had 45 years of social security contributions will eat up the pension coffers surplus. A minimum wage is coming, too. Starting in 2015, rising incrementally for some jobs to "full" minimum wage 2017, just before the next election, great timing.
A proposal for a general freeway toll for foreigners will be attacked by other EU countries as inequitable (German drivers are supposed to see a reduction in vehicle tax to compensate for the toll), thus giving the new government a perfect excuse for making Germans pay up, too. The statement a few years down the road will probably be like this: "Well, the EU won't let us charge only foreigners, and we really need the money, so, sorry folks".
The great push towards newable energy, already slowed down and hollowed out like Swiss cheese, is throttled a bit more. The latest version of the quintessential German incentive called "penalty" apparently is coming for smart meters.
While the K-Landnews folks love the idea of smart meters, we have lived through some of the nastiness around smart meters back in the U.S. and the German news elicited a nervous laugh on our part.
In addition to further energy price increases, we'll get a "you do not have a smart meter, so you pay a penalty" letter soon, as if nobody in that grandiose coalition had ever heard of incentives.
Clawing back incentives is not easy, as the U.S. debate about hybrid cars shows, so why not introduce a road tax on bicycles? They use roads too.
And while you are at it, don't for forget the steep rise in Zimmer frame sales of that ageing population. Zimmer frames almost double the footprint of the little old lady and the formerly burly male, putting an extra burden on sidewalk maintenance.
We'd be happy to devise more revenue schemes for the new government but no one asked.
The junior partner SPD will have a vote of the party base on the coalition agreement. A vote that theoretically could nix the coalition but for all intents and purposes the docile SPD members will give the leadership a nod, and then nod off for four years until the next general election.
From the looks of it, this government will cost the citizens a lot of money. The small improvements to retirement benefits for non-working mothers and a proposal for retirement at age 63 if you had 45 years of social security contributions will eat up the pension coffers surplus. A minimum wage is coming, too. Starting in 2015, rising incrementally for some jobs to "full" minimum wage 2017, just before the next election, great timing.
A proposal for a general freeway toll for foreigners will be attacked by other EU countries as inequitable (German drivers are supposed to see a reduction in vehicle tax to compensate for the toll), thus giving the new government a perfect excuse for making Germans pay up, too. The statement a few years down the road will probably be like this: "Well, the EU won't let us charge only foreigners, and we really need the money, so, sorry folks".
The great push towards newable energy, already slowed down and hollowed out like Swiss cheese, is throttled a bit more. The latest version of the quintessential German incentive called "penalty" apparently is coming for smart meters.
While the K-Landnews folks love the idea of smart meters, we have lived through some of the nastiness around smart meters back in the U.S. and the German news elicited a nervous laugh on our part.
In addition to further energy price increases, we'll get a "you do not have a smart meter, so you pay a penalty" letter soon, as if nobody in that grandiose coalition had ever heard of incentives.
Clawing back incentives is not easy, as the U.S. debate about hybrid cars shows, so why not introduce a road tax on bicycles? They use roads too.
And while you are at it, don't for forget the steep rise in Zimmer frame sales of that ageing population. Zimmer frames almost double the footprint of the little old lady and the formerly burly male, putting an extra burden on sidewalk maintenance.
We'd be happy to devise more revenue schemes for the new government but no one asked.
Sunday, December 1, 2013
News on our "Arrogant and Lazy" German
In April, we reported on the experiences of a young German with the Arbeitsagentur (job center, EDD). He was on a four week break from a one year "Meister" course and had to report to the job center. "Meister" (master) is advanced schooling after a three year vocational training plus subsequent years of work experience.
You can brush up on how it came that the sweet, competent employment specialist called the young man "Arrogant and Lazy". This earlier post also gives some insight into the meaning of temp work in Germany -- in short, it is not temp work as we know it in the English speaking world.
Having heard the story of the young man in April and having evaluated his chances of passing the Meister course, TheEditor of the K-Landnews sent a tweet to one of the national job center heads, pointing out that job center employees should not call kids like him as "arrogant and lazy".
We ran into the arrogant and lazy young man a couple of days ago and asked how the education project was coming along. Oh, I just graduated, he explained.
He graduated with an overall rating of "good" and sheepishly added that the accounting teacher had given him some additional advice. You passed book keeping, but if you want the company you are going to found to turn a consistent profit, get a professional accountant.
We could go on and on about a job center employee who had a bad day and wax lyrically about government agencies treating their "customers" like shit, but we decided to take a cue from the young man and take the high road.
So: The advanced vocational education system in Germany is obviously superb. The system manages to turn this arrogant and lazy kid into a productive, highly qualified professional and budding entrepreneur.
You can brush up on how it came that the sweet, competent employment specialist called the young man "Arrogant and Lazy". This earlier post also gives some insight into the meaning of temp work in Germany -- in short, it is not temp work as we know it in the English speaking world.
Having heard the story of the young man in April and having evaluated his chances of passing the Meister course, TheEditor of the K-Landnews sent a tweet to one of the national job center heads, pointing out that job center employees should not call kids like him as "arrogant and lazy".
We ran into the arrogant and lazy young man a couple of days ago and asked how the education project was coming along. Oh, I just graduated, he explained.
He graduated with an overall rating of "good" and sheepishly added that the accounting teacher had given him some additional advice. You passed book keeping, but if you want the company you are going to found to turn a consistent profit, get a professional accountant.
We could go on and on about a job center employee who had a bad day and wax lyrically about government agencies treating their "customers" like shit, but we decided to take a cue from the young man and take the high road.
So: The advanced vocational education system in Germany is obviously superb. The system manages to turn this arrogant and lazy kid into a productive, highly qualified professional and budding entrepreneur.
Saturday, November 30, 2013
The dirty side of Black Friday: discounts up, profits the same
National Public Radio (NPR) is giving us the Black Friday low down, and it is not a pretty picture for us average consumers.
First of all, Black Friday, the Friday after Thanksgiving, is presented as the day "that retailers traditionally start making a profit" - which is an urban myth. It is pretty firmly entrenched, and it is nothing but PR.
Second, those pesky academic researchers looking at numbers, well, they have findings that make minimalist consumers happy and could well infuriate the rest of us.
Since the Great Recession, those Black Friday retail discounts have been up by 63%, yet retail profits have remained steady, flat.
The explanation is as simple as it is logical: your friendly retailers will inflate the starting prices and then offer you deep discounts on these.
Finally, we can see what the big MBA tuition fees are really for. And how those student loans get paid back.
To be sure, there are a few real steep discounts, the "loss leaders", which are used to get you in the door and buy all the fake discount stuff.
Researchers have also found that, despite the internet price comparisons, determining "the price" of something is extremely hard. And that's just for the United States. Over here in Europe, the same "sh**" (short for 'shopping') happens, though largely less publicized.
We are not sure if NPR had any agenda when they laid out the discounted facts to their audience but the timing is perfect.
We are still basking in the afterglow of the turkey dinner, making us less easily upset when confronted by unpleasant facts.
First of all, Black Friday, the Friday after Thanksgiving, is presented as the day "that retailers traditionally start making a profit" - which is an urban myth. It is pretty firmly entrenched, and it is nothing but PR.
Second, those pesky academic researchers looking at numbers, well, they have findings that make minimalist consumers happy and could well infuriate the rest of us.
Since the Great Recession, those Black Friday retail discounts have been up by 63%, yet retail profits have remained steady, flat.
The explanation is as simple as it is logical: your friendly retailers will inflate the starting prices and then offer you deep discounts on these.
Finally, we can see what the big MBA tuition fees are really for. And how those student loans get paid back.
To be sure, there are a few real steep discounts, the "loss leaders", which are used to get you in the door and buy all the fake discount stuff.
Researchers have also found that, despite the internet price comparisons, determining "the price" of something is extremely hard. And that's just for the United States. Over here in Europe, the same "sh**" (short for 'shopping') happens, though largely less publicized.
We are not sure if NPR had any agenda when they laid out the discounted facts to their audience but the timing is perfect.
We are still basking in the afterglow of the turkey dinner, making us less easily upset when confronted by unpleasant facts.
Friday, November 29, 2013
A feast for the birds
Food for the many birds who stay around over the winter months is beginning to get scarce.
The birds don't know that German grocery stores and building/DIY chains start their fall sales of bird seed and greasy balls of winter food in early october, when shipping pallets stacked high with 2 gal. buckets crowd out the chewing gum, chocolate, lighter and what not items at the cash registers.
Judging by the speed with which the bird feed flies off the pallets even here in the rural countryside, German birds will do well until spring.
TheEditor ("I looove birds") at the K-Landnews maintains a tiny amount of bird feed as winter entertainment for the cats. Hang seed balls from a bush or tree with a clear view from a window, and the cats will spend most of the brief daylight hours watching birds.
No, the cats do not hunt birds, in case you wonder. It remains a minor mystery to us why the feral raised cats prefer kibbles, Sauerbraten, pea soup, and yoghurt over hunting.
And the birds don't seem to mind the onlookers either.
Our true contribution to getting a large number of birds through the winter season is much bigger and much more substantial: two tall mountain-ash trees out back represent the all you can eat buffet for our feathered friends. Wikipedia says that around 60 bird species eat the small, sour red fruit, and we can attest to the observation.
Right now, we have at least some 20 birds in the two trees at any given time, mostly blackbirds, chickadees, robins, with some nosy and noisy sparrows.
This year was a great year for mountain ash fruit, the branches were weighed down by the thick red clusters, and there are many pounds left after the late fall storms.
Fun for the whole family (humans watching cats watching birds) is ensured for months to come.
Happy Thanksgiving everybody.
The birds don't know that German grocery stores and building/DIY chains start their fall sales of bird seed and greasy balls of winter food in early october, when shipping pallets stacked high with 2 gal. buckets crowd out the chewing gum, chocolate, lighter and what not items at the cash registers.
Judging by the speed with which the bird feed flies off the pallets even here in the rural countryside, German birds will do well until spring.
TheEditor ("I looove birds") at the K-Landnews maintains a tiny amount of bird feed as winter entertainment for the cats. Hang seed balls from a bush or tree with a clear view from a window, and the cats will spend most of the brief daylight hours watching birds.
No, the cats do not hunt birds, in case you wonder. It remains a minor mystery to us why the feral raised cats prefer kibbles, Sauerbraten, pea soup, and yoghurt over hunting.
And the birds don't seem to mind the onlookers either.
Our true contribution to getting a large number of birds through the winter season is much bigger and much more substantial: two tall mountain-ash trees out back represent the all you can eat buffet for our feathered friends. Wikipedia says that around 60 bird species eat the small, sour red fruit, and we can attest to the observation.
Right now, we have at least some 20 birds in the two trees at any given time, mostly blackbirds, chickadees, robins, with some nosy and noisy sparrows.
This year was a great year for mountain ash fruit, the branches were weighed down by the thick red clusters, and there are many pounds left after the late fall storms.
Fun for the whole family (humans watching cats watching birds) is ensured for months to come.
Happy Thanksgiving everybody.
OECD not optimistic on German retirees
As the leftovers from last night's turkey dinner fill the fridge and the scale in the bathroom is fitted with a new button battery to help keep our food intake in check, we picked up a recent report by the OECD.
According to the OECD report, German retirees have reason to worry about poverty. For private sector employees, the basic retirement income is 55% of wages in Germany, whereas it is quite a bit higher in other European countries.
Add to this the fact that pensions have been stripped of their tax exempt status, and you can understand worries of the elderly.
But the newly formed German government has one good news for older women. For those who had children born before 1992, a "work credit" will be created, giving these women a little bit more money in retirement.
Public sector employees do better but, as is the case with many who are truly protected, their spokespeople claim they are undervalued and underpaid.
If you combine the outlook for the average retiree with a report just days before the OECD report that, even in Germany, poor people die earlier, the fact that there is a turkey shortage in the U.S. this year does not look as serious as the media make it out to be.
The question left open at the end of this post is whether the "economics of spite" the folks of Freakonomics Radio talked about might or might not have something to do with welfare cuts in wealthy countries.
According to the OECD report, German retirees have reason to worry about poverty. For private sector employees, the basic retirement income is 55% of wages in Germany, whereas it is quite a bit higher in other European countries.
Add to this the fact that pensions have been stripped of their tax exempt status, and you can understand worries of the elderly.
But the newly formed German government has one good news for older women. For those who had children born before 1992, a "work credit" will be created, giving these women a little bit more money in retirement.
Public sector employees do better but, as is the case with many who are truly protected, their spokespeople claim they are undervalued and underpaid.
If you combine the outlook for the average retiree with a report just days before the OECD report that, even in Germany, poor people die earlier, the fact that there is a turkey shortage in the U.S. this year does not look as serious as the media make it out to be.
The question left open at the end of this post is whether the "economics of spite" the folks of Freakonomics Radio talked about might or might not have something to do with welfare cuts in wealthy countries.
Thursday, November 28, 2013
Hailing greed as a "valuable spur to economic activity".
The K-Landnews would like to sincerely thank London Mayor Boris Johnson for some very open comments about intelligence and the value of envy.
To illustrate why we are thankful to the mayor, these are the relevant quotes according to the Guardian newspaper.
"Whatever you may think of the value of IQ tests it is surely relevant to a conversation about equality that as many as 16% of our species have an IQ below 85 while about 2% …"
"......called for more to be done to help the 2% of the population who have an IQ above 130."
Johnson made the remarks during a speech in honour of Margaret Thatcher, declaring that inequality was essential to foster "the spirit of envy" and hailing greed as a "valuable spur to economic activity".
No liberal weeping and whining can diminish the value of the statements, after all humans are a species, like dogs, and just like dogs, humans get killed in the most brutal fashion every day.
The immense value of these statements lies in the fact that they were made in front of a substantial audience. The true beliefs of modern day men of a certain age and a certain persuasion should be welcomed by the public.
So much of what we read and what we receive in the form of laws is governed by principles like this, yet, we can not call out the bullshit because it is hidden behind the rhetoric of the upstanding men and women who want to do "what is best for the country".
Again, Thank You Mr. Johnson!
We do have one point of criticism, though.
It is kind of serious. We do not feel good about the call for more to be done to help the 2% of the population who have an IQ above 130.
Calling for help for the 2% is, in our opinion, inherent discrimination of the 1% of most intelligent people. Sure, helping the one percent below our rarefied level is laudable and shows social conscience, but, let's face it, shouldn't the help go to those first who can make the sort of difference the rest can only marvel at?
Pssst, Boris, more help for the 2% means we are not already running the world? Which, if true, would make us less intelligent than we thought, or just more greedy?
To illustrate why we are thankful to the mayor, these are the relevant quotes according to the Guardian newspaper.
"Whatever you may think of the value of IQ tests it is surely relevant to a conversation about equality that as many as 16% of our species have an IQ below 85 while about 2% …"
"......called for more to be done to help the 2% of the population who have an IQ above 130."
Johnson made the remarks during a speech in honour of Margaret Thatcher, declaring that inequality was essential to foster "the spirit of envy" and hailing greed as a "valuable spur to economic activity".
No liberal weeping and whining can diminish the value of the statements, after all humans are a species, like dogs, and just like dogs, humans get killed in the most brutal fashion every day.
The immense value of these statements lies in the fact that they were made in front of a substantial audience. The true beliefs of modern day men of a certain age and a certain persuasion should be welcomed by the public.
So much of what we read and what we receive in the form of laws is governed by principles like this, yet, we can not call out the bullshit because it is hidden behind the rhetoric of the upstanding men and women who want to do "what is best for the country".
Again, Thank You Mr. Johnson!
We do have one point of criticism, though.
It is kind of serious. We do not feel good about the call for more to be done to help the 2% of the population who have an IQ above 130.
Calling for help for the 2% is, in our opinion, inherent discrimination of the 1% of most intelligent people. Sure, helping the one percent below our rarefied level is laudable and shows social conscience, but, let's face it, shouldn't the help go to those first who can make the sort of difference the rest can only marvel at?
Pssst, Boris, more help for the 2% means we are not already running the world? Which, if true, would make us less intelligent than we thought, or just more greedy?
The Pope doesn't like capitalism
Over here in Europe, the latest remarks by the Pope on unfettered capitalism have made waves.
The fault lines of the ensuing public discussion have been so predictable that a sustained yawn was all we could muster at the K-Landnews.
Then we heard a segment on National Public Radio about the elder Romney, the father of Mr. 47 Percent and reckoned, wait, something merits a few notes.
The elder Romney was a capitalist, and he had a heart. As head of HUD (housing and urban development), Mr. Romney would refuse money to states and districts that refused to desegregate.
Where would he be today, at a time when food stamps are cut, when a lot of people are still trying to recover from the loss of their homes?
We can only speculate, and we decline to do so.
It seems that the Pope has hit a nerve or two if we look at the comments to his remarks. Instead of looking to the future, those who feel offended by the pontiff have nothing better to do than drag out the old concepts of middle age feudalism and soviet style economy to show that we live in the best of sytems.
As in other emotionally charged debates, many of the fiercest defenders are clueless as to how hard life on or beneath a "living wage" really is.
It's okay to say "I am doing fine, a lot of people are doing fine, so I don't see any need to talk about improvements" but this sort of plain argument is not very acceptable in discussions about any big system, is it.
Instead of flogging a dead horse, why not turn it into delicious burgers or fertilizer? Make something useful out of it.
The fault lines of the ensuing public discussion have been so predictable that a sustained yawn was all we could muster at the K-Landnews.
Then we heard a segment on National Public Radio about the elder Romney, the father of Mr. 47 Percent and reckoned, wait, something merits a few notes.
The elder Romney was a capitalist, and he had a heart. As head of HUD (housing and urban development), Mr. Romney would refuse money to states and districts that refused to desegregate.
Where would he be today, at a time when food stamps are cut, when a lot of people are still trying to recover from the loss of their homes?
We can only speculate, and we decline to do so.
It seems that the Pope has hit a nerve or two if we look at the comments to his remarks. Instead of looking to the future, those who feel offended by the pontiff have nothing better to do than drag out the old concepts of middle age feudalism and soviet style economy to show that we live in the best of sytems.
As in other emotionally charged debates, many of the fiercest defenders are clueless as to how hard life on or beneath a "living wage" really is.
It's okay to say "I am doing fine, a lot of people are doing fine, so I don't see any need to talk about improvements" but this sort of plain argument is not very acceptable in discussions about any big system, is it.
Instead of flogging a dead horse, why not turn it into delicious burgers or fertilizer? Make something useful out of it.
Wednesday, November 27, 2013
Management novelty: leading like a cat
German business weekly Wirtschaftswoche is running an article about people management, titled "Leading like a cat".
Summarizing: managers behave more like cats, subordinates more like dogs, and it is important to make the transition, be able to use both approaches in order to be a charismatic leader.
K-Landnews evaluation: complete bullshit.
We do not dismiss the perfectly good uses of images, metaphors, and illustrations in writeups about people management. The worn out cats and dogs imagery, well, if you as a publication are willing to pay money for that, so be it.
The K-Landnews would simply like to remind everybody that we can all write great little people management guidelines by taking an arbitrary example and expounding on it.
Do you remember the former US mobster who wrote a book about what mainstream, presumably law abiding managers could learn from the way the mob does business? If you have missed it, look it up.
The K-Landnews has several ready made management concepts in a drafts folder waiting for the right time to make some money.
Help yourself to this list of cutting edge management concepts:
Manage like a butterfly
Manage like a ferret
Manage like a queen bee
Manage like a solar flare
Please leave these concepts to our editors:
Manage by not managing
Manage like a farmer
Manage like a bonobo
A new seasonal technique we may describe next year around the end of November would be "Manage like a Thanksgiving turkey".
Summarizing: managers behave more like cats, subordinates more like dogs, and it is important to make the transition, be able to use both approaches in order to be a charismatic leader.
K-Landnews evaluation: complete bullshit.
We do not dismiss the perfectly good uses of images, metaphors, and illustrations in writeups about people management. The worn out cats and dogs imagery, well, if you as a publication are willing to pay money for that, so be it.
The K-Landnews would simply like to remind everybody that we can all write great little people management guidelines by taking an arbitrary example and expounding on it.
Do you remember the former US mobster who wrote a book about what mainstream, presumably law abiding managers could learn from the way the mob does business? If you have missed it, look it up.
The K-Landnews has several ready made management concepts in a drafts folder waiting for the right time to make some money.
Help yourself to this list of cutting edge management concepts:
Manage like a butterfly
Manage like a ferret
Manage like a queen bee
Manage like a solar flare
Please leave these concepts to our editors:
Manage by not managing
Manage like a farmer
Manage like a bonobo
A new seasonal technique we may describe next year around the end of November would be "Manage like a Thanksgiving turkey".
German spelling skills going to hell in a handbasket
Not only is the population of Germany shrinking, those who remain have less and less adequate spelling skills.
Germany's education system looks good from outside the country, but if you believe the nay sayers ("Neinsager") and some conservative educators ("Dummköpfe"), German school children as well as many parents are not as proficient as desired.
Researchers have indeed found certain types of German spelling errors increase drastically over the past 40 odd years.
The causes and remedies are what the nasty fights of experts and politicians are about.
The noisier of the two camps' arguments can be summarized like this:
It's all the fault of those liberal teachers, and parents don't value hard work in school or demand a modicum of discipline from their children, and poor parents on social security assistance are the worst role models for children, and, oh, don't forget the immigrants who refuse to integrate into society.
More level headed observers will point out:
Changed teaching schedules mean children spent less time with a pen and paper, faithfully tracing letters. Modes of written communication have changed with email, texting, and social networks. Auto correction/spell checking makes it so you do not have to carry a full dictionary in your head. Maybe, just maybe, spelling is not exactly as important as believed.
To a foreigner, it sometimes seems funny that the Germans have a pretty strict view of what is correct and what is not while, at the same time, having been unable to figure out what "standard German" really is.
If this sound harsh, I can offer you an illustration. Somewhere in the depths of my library are a couple of books written in what is officially the "local dialect" in our hills. If you do not know any German, I'll send you a few pages of German, the local dialect, and some Dutch, and you'll pick the German text without cheating or googling.
Note: Our translation of "conservative educators" into German may be a bit negligent, we apologize.
Germany's education system looks good from outside the country, but if you believe the nay sayers ("Neinsager") and some conservative educators ("Dummköpfe"), German school children as well as many parents are not as proficient as desired.
Researchers have indeed found certain types of German spelling errors increase drastically over the past 40 odd years.
The causes and remedies are what the nasty fights of experts and politicians are about.
The noisier of the two camps' arguments can be summarized like this:
It's all the fault of those liberal teachers, and parents don't value hard work in school or demand a modicum of discipline from their children, and poor parents on social security assistance are the worst role models for children, and, oh, don't forget the immigrants who refuse to integrate into society.
More level headed observers will point out:
Changed teaching schedules mean children spent less time with a pen and paper, faithfully tracing letters. Modes of written communication have changed with email, texting, and social networks. Auto correction/spell checking makes it so you do not have to carry a full dictionary in your head. Maybe, just maybe, spelling is not exactly as important as believed.
To a foreigner, it sometimes seems funny that the Germans have a pretty strict view of what is correct and what is not while, at the same time, having been unable to figure out what "standard German" really is.
If this sound harsh, I can offer you an illustration. Somewhere in the depths of my library are a couple of books written in what is officially the "local dialect" in our hills. If you do not know any German, I'll send you a few pages of German, the local dialect, and some Dutch, and you'll pick the German text without cheating or googling.
Note: Our translation of "conservative educators" into German may be a bit negligent, we apologize.
Tuesday, November 26, 2013
Research report, Part 1, Sex and the Germans
The Random Research team exhibited an extraordinary amount of dedication on the subject "Sex and the Germans" and came back with some early results.
Much of the hookup activity is happening on the internet, with a wide variety of sites. Many of these are apparently rather dodgy, some are full of viruses -- the software kind, not the biological kind. Our research won't extend to the latter.
The RR team found one large site which proudly features some key statistics on its home page: over 3.6 million members who exchanged over 600 000 messages in the past 24 hours.
A research account was created and some browsing commenced.
The results in a nutshell:
1) Whatever your taste within the legal boundaries, there is someone there.
2) There is a strong correlation between the size of the town and the presence/absence of profile pictures. Small town seekers tend to have no profile photos or anonymized pictures.
3) There are many more single or "single" males than females.
4) They do age verification for x rated photos. Verification does not mean clicking a "I'm over 18" button but actual verification by their customer service.
5) To the folks on the site "NSA" still means no strings attached. To the serious researcher, the over 600 K messages a day are a potential national security issue, or - in both the language on the site and that of spooks - a backdoor.
So, our initial question "do the Germans do it", can be answered. Yes, they do, or at least they try hard.
More research results will follow as the RR team delivers.
Much of the hookup activity is happening on the internet, with a wide variety of sites. Many of these are apparently rather dodgy, some are full of viruses -- the software kind, not the biological kind. Our research won't extend to the latter.
The RR team found one large site which proudly features some key statistics on its home page: over 3.6 million members who exchanged over 600 000 messages in the past 24 hours.
A research account was created and some browsing commenced.
The results in a nutshell:
1) Whatever your taste within the legal boundaries, there is someone there.
2) There is a strong correlation between the size of the town and the presence/absence of profile pictures. Small town seekers tend to have no profile photos or anonymized pictures.
3) There are many more single or "single" males than females.
4) They do age verification for x rated photos. Verification does not mean clicking a "I'm over 18" button but actual verification by their customer service.
5) To the folks on the site "NSA" still means no strings attached. To the serious researcher, the over 600 K messages a day are a potential national security issue, or - in both the language on the site and that of spooks - a backdoor.
So, our initial question "do the Germans do it", can be answered. Yes, they do, or at least they try hard.
More research results will follow as the RR team delivers.
Monday, November 25, 2013
Ritter Spoil-Sport, the battle of the chocolate Squares
German chocolate maker Ritter Sport is famous for its square package, and is now in the process of adding the attribute "square" to the company image.
Never mind the stroke of genius that made the company include the word "sport" (sports, indeed) in the brand name, the premium brand image has been slightly tainted by the German Stiftung Warentest, a consumer protection non-profit testing all sorts of consumer goods. The non-profit slapped a "failing" grade rating on the "chocolate nuts" flavor of Ritter Sport because one stated "natural flavoring" is manufactured by a chemical process.
The company defends the label with "the flavor exists in nature", while the non-profit points to the EU regulations that say you cannot claim "natural" if an ingredient is chemically produced.
For once, EU regulations make perfect sense to us. If "exists in nature" was the deciding aspect of any substance, then we could feed our cows and our children pure crude oil and claim it is a "natural ingredient".
Notwithstanding the fact that only the "nuts" version of the many different flavors was hit with the worst rating, the Ritter Sport squares are not amused and have announced legal action against the testers.
We will refrain from buying squares henceforth, not because of the dubious provenance of the flavoring but because the company feels they need to waste money by taking the testers to court.
Our action will hurt Ritter because we have previously interpreted the "Sport" as "making it a sport to eat as much Ritter chocolate as you can".
That would make the author a Ritter Spoil-Sport, right?
[Update 13 Jan 2013] A court has sided with the chocolate factory. The consumer testers are barred from calling the chocolate label misleading.
Never mind the stroke of genius that made the company include the word "sport" (sports, indeed) in the brand name, the premium brand image has been slightly tainted by the German Stiftung Warentest, a consumer protection non-profit testing all sorts of consumer goods. The non-profit slapped a "failing" grade rating on the "chocolate nuts" flavor of Ritter Sport because one stated "natural flavoring" is manufactured by a chemical process.
The company defends the label with "the flavor exists in nature", while the non-profit points to the EU regulations that say you cannot claim "natural" if an ingredient is chemically produced.
For once, EU regulations make perfect sense to us. If "exists in nature" was the deciding aspect of any substance, then we could feed our cows and our children pure crude oil and claim it is a "natural ingredient".
Notwithstanding the fact that only the "nuts" version of the many different flavors was hit with the worst rating, the Ritter Sport squares are not amused and have announced legal action against the testers.
We will refrain from buying squares henceforth, not because of the dubious provenance of the flavoring but because the company feels they need to waste money by taking the testers to court.
Our action will hurt Ritter because we have previously interpreted the "Sport" as "making it a sport to eat as much Ritter chocolate as you can".
That would make the author a Ritter Spoil-Sport, right?
[Update 13 Jan 2013] A court has sided with the chocolate factory. The consumer testers are barred from calling the chocolate label misleading.
The saddest bulk trash days ever
Bulk trash pickup in Germany is depressing.
The craigslist "Free" section beloved by Americans is pretty empty around here unless you happen to live near a U.S. base.
A friend reported the other day that a neighbor had a sofa and two matching seats out and when asked how old the furniture was, got the response: six months, we bought a new set, so this can go.
Then there are old items, for example, a wonderful 1950s chair in perfect condition. Which we schlepped home.
Until a couple of decades ago, we are told, there were regular bulk trash days in Germany, and the recycling conscious, the recent immigrants, or folks with an eye for value would drive around with trucks and vans and help themselves to usable items.
We understand that some scavengers were inconsiderate and sloppy, tearing apart the neatly German stacks of bulk trash, spilling items onto the street, making a mess in this orderly country,
We are told that many German burgers were offended by such nuisances or by the scavengers as people and that in some towns the burgers would even send the police after scavengers to cite them either for traffic violations or theft. Legally, it appears that the moment you put bulk trash out you relinquish ownership to the town or the waste management company, who can then prosecute scavengers.
The current system of bulk trash removal is an on demand system, just like ours back in the U.S. For scavengers this is bad news, you don't have the sidewalks of whole neighborhoods to pick through anymore on a regular schedule.
The local waste management company has recently added an "exchange/for free" section to their website where customers can give away bulk trash items or offer stuff for sale or barter.
They call it progress.
The craigslist "Free" section beloved by Americans is pretty empty around here unless you happen to live near a U.S. base.
A friend reported the other day that a neighbor had a sofa and two matching seats out and when asked how old the furniture was, got the response: six months, we bought a new set, so this can go.
Then there are old items, for example, a wonderful 1950s chair in perfect condition. Which we schlepped home.
Until a couple of decades ago, we are told, there were regular bulk trash days in Germany, and the recycling conscious, the recent immigrants, or folks with an eye for value would drive around with trucks and vans and help themselves to usable items.
We understand that some scavengers were inconsiderate and sloppy, tearing apart the neatly German stacks of bulk trash, spilling items onto the street, making a mess in this orderly country,
We are told that many German burgers were offended by such nuisances or by the scavengers as people and that in some towns the burgers would even send the police after scavengers to cite them either for traffic violations or theft. Legally, it appears that the moment you put bulk trash out you relinquish ownership to the town or the waste management company, who can then prosecute scavengers.
The current system of bulk trash removal is an on demand system, just like ours back in the U.S. For scavengers this is bad news, you don't have the sidewalks of whole neighborhoods to pick through anymore on a regular schedule.
The local waste management company has recently added an "exchange/for free" section to their website where customers can give away bulk trash items or offer stuff for sale or barter.
They call it progress.
Sunday, November 24, 2013
50 years of Dr. Who
The Dr. is back in a Special that out-blasts and out-guns StarWars, even the clone version. And, you could watch it in 3D.
While the rest of the world was envisioning sleek, modern, huge yet uninspired space ships, the British BBC took the blue police box and ran with it.
The Dr.'s blue police box has survived the iconic London red telephone boxes, of which only a handful are left for the tourists. An imaginery collision with a blue box inspired our Twitter account logo.
Of course, the Dr. has his share of princesses and storm trooper like characters but the Dr. is much more classy about them. The ladies at the Dr.'s side have been varied personalities in their own right, and there must be a number of masters theses out there describing the evolution of the female "sidekicks". Oh, River Song, Madame Vastra, Amy and all.
Where StarTreck eventually had to turn to the device known as HoloDeck to maintain at least some variety and spice, the Dr. merrily saunters from ancient Rome to the far future, grabs currrent fringe trends like steam punk and does Christmas Specials like nobody else.
Irreverent writing has survived in the Dr. Who series from the psychedelic times to the 50 year Special, and the audience has to be alert to catch one-liners like "imagine what the Americans would do with a device that can rewrite history".
Distractors might see the London tourism board behind episodes featuring The Shard or the National Gallery, but, guess what, German TV's crime series "Tatort" supposedly (we don't do German TV) does the same on a less glamorous level.
The Dr. has not failed us even at his most morose and sullen, often when he talks about his home planet of Gallifrey. After one or two bleak, even tear inducing episodes, you can be sure to get a sparkling fun episode for balance.
True to his character, the Dr. may very well outlive us all. If the BBC survives its regular series of scandals and political meddling.
While the rest of the world was envisioning sleek, modern, huge yet uninspired space ships, the British BBC took the blue police box and ran with it.
The Dr.'s blue police box has survived the iconic London red telephone boxes, of which only a handful are left for the tourists. An imaginery collision with a blue box inspired our Twitter account logo.
Of course, the Dr. has his share of princesses and storm trooper like characters but the Dr. is much more classy about them. The ladies at the Dr.'s side have been varied personalities in their own right, and there must be a number of masters theses out there describing the evolution of the female "sidekicks". Oh, River Song, Madame Vastra, Amy and all.
Where StarTreck eventually had to turn to the device known as HoloDeck to maintain at least some variety and spice, the Dr. merrily saunters from ancient Rome to the far future, grabs currrent fringe trends like steam punk and does Christmas Specials like nobody else.
Irreverent writing has survived in the Dr. Who series from the psychedelic times to the 50 year Special, and the audience has to be alert to catch one-liners like "imagine what the Americans would do with a device that can rewrite history".
Distractors might see the London tourism board behind episodes featuring The Shard or the National Gallery, but, guess what, German TV's crime series "Tatort" supposedly (we don't do German TV) does the same on a less glamorous level.
The Dr. has not failed us even at his most morose and sullen, often when he talks about his home planet of Gallifrey. After one or two bleak, even tear inducing episodes, you can be sure to get a sparkling fun episode for balance.
True to his character, the Dr. may very well outlive us all. If the BBC survives its regular series of scandals and political meddling.
[Update] Don't die in my backyard
Not in my backyard (NIMBY) comes in many versions. It can be the branches of a neighbor's tree hanging over the fence, leaving Upstanding Upset Citizen with leaves or fruit to clean up in fall. It can be the kindergarten Upstanding Upset Citizen supports very much, just - doesn't anybody realize that - the kids come mostly from a few blocks this way and a few blocks that way.
An even more delicate issue is that of hospices, those places that provide care to people in the last weeks of their lives.
Dying with dignity is, of course, a concept everybody agrees to. So, when a charity or health care provider files plans to open a hospice in your neighborhood and you do not want it, what do you do?
Zoning law and building codes are the tools used by the discerning citizens to prevent a couple of ambulances and hearses adding to the shopping mall and pilates traffic in the neighborhood.
While the charities and providers try their utmost to involve the community and address concerns, all it needs is one or two holdouts going to court to scuttle a project.
In an ageing country where dying at home in the care of your family is becoming less of an option for more and more people, converting unused gathering spaces into hospices or turning an old villa into a small care facility, face opposition in a number of cities throughout the country.
The negative impact of visitor traffic on the well being of the neighborhood's residents must be the most worrying aspect of all. Visiting times must be awful for Upstanding Upset Citizens: Just imagine the white haired 90 year old bachelor careening down the street in his Porsche convertible, then skidding to a halt on the hospice lawn, or the old lady on a dirt bike taking up a handicapped parking space.
Death creeps out people as demonstrated, for example, by the traffic cop poised to write up a parking citation freezing in his movements, then turning away without a sound, as a gurney with a tighly wrapped corpse is being wheeled out of the house.
[Update 29 Nov. 2013] TheEditor could not let go of one of the court cases which is about a 12 room hospice in the northern city of Hamburg. Said TheEditor: The charities should go and file a permit for a small boutique hotel, I think this would be a good match as far as traffic, number of employees and such go. Once the boutique hotel is approved, they should change the occupants to hospice patients. Of course, legally that may not be permissible, but I'd bet the test would be interesting.
An even more delicate issue is that of hospices, those places that provide care to people in the last weeks of their lives.
Dying with dignity is, of course, a concept everybody agrees to. So, when a charity or health care provider files plans to open a hospice in your neighborhood and you do not want it, what do you do?
Zoning law and building codes are the tools used by the discerning citizens to prevent a couple of ambulances and hearses adding to the shopping mall and pilates traffic in the neighborhood.
While the charities and providers try their utmost to involve the community and address concerns, all it needs is one or two holdouts going to court to scuttle a project.
In an ageing country where dying at home in the care of your family is becoming less of an option for more and more people, converting unused gathering spaces into hospices or turning an old villa into a small care facility, face opposition in a number of cities throughout the country.
The negative impact of visitor traffic on the well being of the neighborhood's residents must be the most worrying aspect of all. Visiting times must be awful for Upstanding Upset Citizens: Just imagine the white haired 90 year old bachelor careening down the street in his Porsche convertible, then skidding to a halt on the hospice lawn, or the old lady on a dirt bike taking up a handicapped parking space.
Death creeps out people as demonstrated, for example, by the traffic cop poised to write up a parking citation freezing in his movements, then turning away without a sound, as a gurney with a tighly wrapped corpse is being wheeled out of the house.
[Update 29 Nov. 2013] TheEditor could not let go of one of the court cases which is about a 12 room hospice in the northern city of Hamburg. Said TheEditor: The charities should go and file a permit for a small boutique hotel, I think this would be a good match as far as traffic, number of employees and such go. Once the boutique hotel is approved, they should change the occupants to hospice patients. Of course, legally that may not be permissible, but I'd bet the test would be interesting.
Friday, November 22, 2013
Sex and the Germans
Many hard questions have haunted us in the years of living in Germany. For example, since the German population is decreasing, are they simply not doing "it"?
Or are they doing it in ways that beats the old equation "population = copulation * (effort + opportunity)", in other words, somebody changed the equation? Are Germans getting so tired of themselves that they pretty much stopped making more Germans?
We decided to investigate.
The assembled Random Research team accepted the task with their trademark stoicism.
You have all heard about sex, and we assume you have all done it.
Nods, and one But I did not inhale.
We need to approach the task in a scientific manner. You cannot let your personal beliefs be in the way of knowledge, and above all, you must not enjoy this project. If someone asks, you do it out of a sense of duty, honor, and responsibility, not because you enjoy an intimate look at people's lives, okay.
So, read the German tabloids, find dating sites on the internet, oh, and don't go to the satire mag Titanic's web site -- they don't seem to have worked their way up through the encyclopedia to the entry "sex". Are we all clear on this?
Quick question?
Sure.
If we go to a casual sex encounters site and find, I don't know, the old couple from next door or a friend with breasts and other bare parts, what do we do?
Keep mum. Remember, science, no supposedly funny email saying, oh, hey, it's you, no remarks at the meat counter in the grocery store, like, oh, Mr. Meyer, I'd buy the package of super sized sausages if I were you.
We'll share the RR team's insights with you as they become available.
Or are they doing it in ways that beats the old equation "population = copulation * (effort + opportunity)", in other words, somebody changed the equation? Are Germans getting so tired of themselves that they pretty much stopped making more Germans?
We decided to investigate.
The assembled Random Research team accepted the task with their trademark stoicism.
You have all heard about sex, and we assume you have all done it.
Nods, and one But I did not inhale.
We need to approach the task in a scientific manner. You cannot let your personal beliefs be in the way of knowledge, and above all, you must not enjoy this project. If someone asks, you do it out of a sense of duty, honor, and responsibility, not because you enjoy an intimate look at people's lives, okay.
So, read the German tabloids, find dating sites on the internet, oh, and don't go to the satire mag Titanic's web site -- they don't seem to have worked their way up through the encyclopedia to the entry "sex". Are we all clear on this?
Quick question?
Sure.
If we go to a casual sex encounters site and find, I don't know, the old couple from next door or a friend with breasts and other bare parts, what do we do?
Keep mum. Remember, science, no supposedly funny email saying, oh, hey, it's you, no remarks at the meat counter in the grocery store, like, oh, Mr. Meyer, I'd buy the package of super sized sausages if I were you.
We'll share the RR team's insights with you as they become available.
Taking away that expensive driver's licence for a loaf of bread?
The negotiations between Germany's two biggest parties bring up the odd topic every few days.
The latest one appears more interesting to us than, say, extending the use of DNA for large scale sweeps in law enforcement.
The one today is about using that most German symbol of personal liberty, the driver's licence, in ways unrelated to driving and personal transportation. The ruling conservatives have tabled a proposal to let courts use suspension or withdrawal of driver's licences as penalty in cases completely unrelated to any traffic issues.
The reason advanced is to give the courts an alternative to fines in cases "where the fine is not much of a punishment because of the suspect's sound financial situation". Are we the only people who find this argument utterly disingenuous?
Other than the fertile theoretical base for inventing all sorts of new punishments? Like take away the internet connection from someone who steals a loaf of bread.
You don't even have a driver's licence, hm, how can we make it harder for you to get around and hold down a job? You are hereby ordered to turn in all shoes and socks and not get within 200 feet of any store that sells shoes or socks for six months. Don't even think about cardboard and duct tape. Get used to the nickname Barefoot Bandit. Oh, you are mad that you will be without shoes in the winter? Time your petty crime better, if you must repeat.
Three strikes, and we'll have your foot.
Egregious enough, the legal proposal comes at a time when Germany has reduced the age for youngsters to start studying for their car licence. The German licence is extremely expensive and, depending on how they suspend or revoke it, you may have to start from scratch if you want one later.
Well, if the proposal is implemented despite criticism from the legal profession, maybe someone will offer a foot.
Medical care is still pretty decent in Germany, which means losing a foot and getting a prosthesis will be way cheaper than having to attend driving school all over.
The latest one appears more interesting to us than, say, extending the use of DNA for large scale sweeps in law enforcement.
The one today is about using that most German symbol of personal liberty, the driver's licence, in ways unrelated to driving and personal transportation. The ruling conservatives have tabled a proposal to let courts use suspension or withdrawal of driver's licences as penalty in cases completely unrelated to any traffic issues.
The reason advanced is to give the courts an alternative to fines in cases "where the fine is not much of a punishment because of the suspect's sound financial situation". Are we the only people who find this argument utterly disingenuous?
Other than the fertile theoretical base for inventing all sorts of new punishments? Like take away the internet connection from someone who steals a loaf of bread.
You don't even have a driver's licence, hm, how can we make it harder for you to get around and hold down a job? You are hereby ordered to turn in all shoes and socks and not get within 200 feet of any store that sells shoes or socks for six months. Don't even think about cardboard and duct tape. Get used to the nickname Barefoot Bandit. Oh, you are mad that you will be without shoes in the winter? Time your petty crime better, if you must repeat.
Three strikes, and we'll have your foot.
Egregious enough, the legal proposal comes at a time when Germany has reduced the age for youngsters to start studying for their car licence. The German licence is extremely expensive and, depending on how they suspend or revoke it, you may have to start from scratch if you want one later.
Well, if the proposal is implemented despite criticism from the legal profession, maybe someone will offer a foot.
Medical care is still pretty decent in Germany, which means losing a foot and getting a prosthesis will be way cheaper than having to attend driving school all over.
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
Qualified truck drivers needed in Germany
There is a shortage of qualified truck drivers in Germany, so if you feel like spending lots of time on the famed German autobahns and get paid for it, start looking for a job.
Being a professional trucker in Europe has some challenges that in part contribute to the shortage of drivers.
For starters, you will undergo a physical every five years and take mandatory training courses. Kind of like for a pilot's licence without the fear of heights part. The other significant aspect is the level of regulation of the industry. You will get a personal chip card that records all times behind the wheel and all breaks for the last four weeks. The card is read out at one of the many check points, which means that the fifteen minutes by which you exceeded your behind the wheel time, say, three weeks ago, will you bite you in the wallet just as you thought you were almost in the clear.
Full GPS tracking in real time from the dispatch office may, in some cases mean your cell phone will go off just as you pulled off into a parking area because the freeway ahead is closed due to a major accident or due to snow.
These are all fairly new technical and procedural considerations. In addition, there are some quaint regulations left over from the pre European Union days. If you cross an international border over here, which is really easy to do in tiny Europe, you can only take a route filed at the start of the trip. A bit like a mandatory flight plan but not as easily deviated from.
On the upside, there are fewer robberies, and the freeway parking areas are being outfitted with digital capacity signs, like inner city parking spaces that tell you how many unoccupied spaces are available ahead.
In case you cannot for the life of you sign up for affordable health care, your employer will do that on your behalf in Europe.
Being a professional trucker in Europe has some challenges that in part contribute to the shortage of drivers.
For starters, you will undergo a physical every five years and take mandatory training courses. Kind of like for a pilot's licence without the fear of heights part. The other significant aspect is the level of regulation of the industry. You will get a personal chip card that records all times behind the wheel and all breaks for the last four weeks. The card is read out at one of the many check points, which means that the fifteen minutes by which you exceeded your behind the wheel time, say, three weeks ago, will you bite you in the wallet just as you thought you were almost in the clear.
Full GPS tracking in real time from the dispatch office may, in some cases mean your cell phone will go off just as you pulled off into a parking area because the freeway ahead is closed due to a major accident or due to snow.
These are all fairly new technical and procedural considerations. In addition, there are some quaint regulations left over from the pre European Union days. If you cross an international border over here, which is really easy to do in tiny Europe, you can only take a route filed at the start of the trip. A bit like a mandatory flight plan but not as easily deviated from.
On the upside, there are fewer robberies, and the freeway parking areas are being outfitted with digital capacity signs, like inner city parking spaces that tell you how many unoccupied spaces are available ahead.
In case you cannot for the life of you sign up for affordable health care, your employer will do that on your behalf in Europe.
Haul-o-ween, a steampunk murder mystery
Our friends at the Obtainium Works factory have had to deal with the mysterious demise of Major Catastrophe last month.
Luckily, there was a camera around to capture the mayhem. They even had a sound designer on hand, so the internet video is decent.
The Neverwashaul, with its storied history and steampunk fame, makes a great location for mystery.
Will the mad scientist successfully develop the formula?
What formula -- you'll need to watch the video for this.
Luckily, there was a camera around to capture the mayhem. They even had a sound designer on hand, so the internet video is decent.
The Neverwashaul, with its storied history and steampunk fame, makes a great location for mystery.
Will the mad scientist successfully develop the formula?
What formula -- you'll need to watch the video for this.
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
Pray to Jesus and Play the Lotto
Brandy Clark's Pray to Jesus and Play the Lotto was today's late night NPR surprise. After all, the time difference between here and Washington State is nine hours.
We are now taking bets on how long it will take before someone whisks Brandy Clark off to Europe for a tour. Have a look at her website, checkout a couple more videos on youtube, and make up our own mind.
Of course, you can always play the lotto for a chance to win enough money for a plane ticket to catch her at a show in the U.S.
We are now taking bets on how long it will take before someone whisks Brandy Clark off to Europe for a tour. Have a look at her website, checkout a couple more videos on youtube, and make up our own mind.
Of course, you can always play the lotto for a chance to win enough money for a plane ticket to catch her at a show in the U.S.
Monday, November 18, 2013
An elegant yet tough lady [image]
Taking good photos of Tall Ships turned out to be a difficult undertaking, so there is not much to share, except this picture of the elegant yet tough lady boldly facing the elements. For the longest time, she was the sole token woman on board, with all those hardened males hiding behind her in storms and gales.
A bit like modern day corporate boardrooms.
Today, Germany's two major parties negotiating a coalition agreement have confirmed that they want a quota for women on the board of directors of major corporations.
The anti-quota males are howling.
A bit like modern day corporate boardrooms.
Today, Germany's two major parties negotiating a coalition agreement have confirmed that they want a quota for women on the board of directors of major corporations.
The anti-quota males are howling.
Bali, Indonesia, and back
Sitting in one of the eight or so treatment rooms of the large dental practice, waiting for the doctor, the eyes wander around the room, from the coat hanger towards the window, resting for a few seconds on a map of Bali.
On the ceiling above the chair, this room has a poster sized photo but unlike in the other rooms, where they have penguins, landscapes and vaguely impressionist art, this one is a group photo of the staff.
The doctor comes in, there is the greeting, the inquiry after the reason for the visit - checkup - then she gets busy with the equipment.
Did you do the annual company outing to Bali?
The question is meant to be smalltalk.
Oh, the map, right. Yes, we went to Bali a few years ago.
You did?
25 people in all, for two weeks, and we had a great time.
After some explaining and a few more questions, the nagging thought that socialized medicine has serious perks for the providers, is dispelled.
The trip to Bali was a very special occasion to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the practice. Paid for by the doctors.
On the ceiling above the chair, this room has a poster sized photo but unlike in the other rooms, where they have penguins, landscapes and vaguely impressionist art, this one is a group photo of the staff.
The doctor comes in, there is the greeting, the inquiry after the reason for the visit - checkup - then she gets busy with the equipment.
Did you do the annual company outing to Bali?
The question is meant to be smalltalk.
Oh, the map, right. Yes, we went to Bali a few years ago.
You did?
25 people in all, for two weeks, and we had a great time.
After some explaining and a few more questions, the nagging thought that socialized medicine has serious perks for the providers, is dispelled.
The trip to Bali was a very special occasion to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the practice. Paid for by the doctors.
Sunday, November 17, 2013
German retailers facing the dark
As online giant Amazon begins Sunday deliveries in some regions of the U.S., retailers in Germany continue to worry about their future.
Walk around the center of any small town in rural Germany, and you will see enough empty store fronts to make you wonder what's happening.
Retail shops in the small towns are closing at a greater rate than you'd expect in the context of slightly declining population numbers.
The plethora of online shops is cutting into their business, that's what many small town shop owners will tell you. You could get on your high horse and tell the bookstore owner that the industry was discussing "ebooks" thirty years ago, but that would be missing the point. You could tell them that, sorry, but you are now feeling the uncertainty most of your blue collar customers have already been hit with in the structural changes and the liberalization of the German labor market.
While it is perfectly fine for the German national retail association to whine and bitch and to stress the advantages you get at you local store, the personal service, the emphasis on quality instead of on cheap mass produced crap, the national association is a haven of backward thinking.
It's a complex world, but the dirty secret of German rural small town retail was that these folks enjoyed monopoly positions with markups to die for until supermarkets came along. With nationwide store hours limited to 8 to 6:30 Monday through Friday, 14:00 to 16:00 on Saturday, until the end of the 20th century, German shoppers were very much captives, except in the big cities. Then, the canary in the coal mine of online shopping (working conditions in the warehouses do justify the image) was the local book store. Now, lots of other store types are getting hit.
So, what will the town center in an average 10 000 inhabitant small town in rural Germany look like in the near future?
Retailers in one such town not far away decided to give the townsfolk a glimpse. Some 50 store owners blacked out their shop windows with cardboard for a few days to illustrate where, in their opinion, brick and mortar retail is heading. The shops stayed open during the event, pressures being what they are.
The newspaper article did not include lots of whining. It would appear that small town retailers are getting to the acceptance stage in the stages of grief.
Walk around the center of any small town in rural Germany, and you will see enough empty store fronts to make you wonder what's happening.
Retail shops in the small towns are closing at a greater rate than you'd expect in the context of slightly declining population numbers.
The plethora of online shops is cutting into their business, that's what many small town shop owners will tell you. You could get on your high horse and tell the bookstore owner that the industry was discussing "ebooks" thirty years ago, but that would be missing the point. You could tell them that, sorry, but you are now feeling the uncertainty most of your blue collar customers have already been hit with in the structural changes and the liberalization of the German labor market.
While it is perfectly fine for the German national retail association to whine and bitch and to stress the advantages you get at you local store, the personal service, the emphasis on quality instead of on cheap mass produced crap, the national association is a haven of backward thinking.
It's a complex world, but the dirty secret of German rural small town retail was that these folks enjoyed monopoly positions with markups to die for until supermarkets came along. With nationwide store hours limited to 8 to 6:30 Monday through Friday, 14:00 to 16:00 on Saturday, until the end of the 20th century, German shoppers were very much captives, except in the big cities. Then, the canary in the coal mine of online shopping (working conditions in the warehouses do justify the image) was the local book store. Now, lots of other store types are getting hit.
So, what will the town center in an average 10 000 inhabitant small town in rural Germany look like in the near future?
Retailers in one such town not far away decided to give the townsfolk a glimpse. Some 50 store owners blacked out their shop windows with cardboard for a few days to illustrate where, in their opinion, brick and mortar retail is heading. The shops stayed open during the event, pressures being what they are.
The newspaper article did not include lots of whining. It would appear that small town retailers are getting to the acceptance stage in the stages of grief.
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