FDP links der Mitte?

Sofern dieser Bericht der Sonntagszeitung bestätigt werden sollte und die FDP damit tatsächlich noch weiter nach links abrutscht, muss ich leider meine Parteimitgliedschaft so lange sistieren, bis sie wieder auf den "rechten" Weg zurückfindet oder aber bis eine Partei auf den Plan tritt, die sich tatsächlich an ein urbanes, weltoffenes, liberales (im Sinne von Hayek, Popper, de Jasay) Publikum richtet. Die vom neuen Präsidium der Partei eingeschlagene Richtung ist somit genau falsch, liegt aber immerhin in der Logik der früher schon ventilierten Fusion mit der CVP, beackert diese doch nämliches Gärtchen. Damit dürfte auch klar sein, dass ich nicht zu "der anderen" Partei wechsle, mindestens so lange diese AUNS Inhalte repräsentiert ... die Zahlung meines FDP-Mitgliedschaftsbeitrages konnte ich jedenfalls gerade noch aufhalten.

Argghhh!

Yesterday evening, I received my second ticket in a row for not putting on display the bloody parking disc in the exact same half empty car park (Bachgraben for those in the know) after having parked there for years without doing it (ok, they changed the rules - so what?). Don't I just hate the police, especially when they are obviously so much more efficient at prosecuting small fry traffic violations such as mine while they let go the big fish! And the officers in question wouldn't even listen when talked to sensibly. This is my equivalent of showing them the finger, I guess. And I wonder whether I should just put a graphic depiction of one on display in the close vicinity of the parking disc next time I park there ... childish, I know, but satisfying.

Stay crazy, stay foolish!

Weltwoche prints the German translation of college dropout Steve Jobs' (founder & CEO of Apple & Pixar) Commencement Address at Standford. Great stuff!

P.S. I am happy to welcome the 10'000th unique visitor to my small abode in the world wide web since August 25th, 2004, and that's not counting my own visits ... keep coming, I am glad to have you here!

UK stays multicultural

The Beeb offers encouraging results of a survey about the multicultural character of Britain. The survey has been conducted among "original" Britons and Muslims and shows that both group's ideas are by and large the same. I am glad to see this, because it wouldn't make sense otherwise. After all, it makes no difference from which misguided religious fundamentalism (catholic - IRA, communist - Brigade Rosse, RAF, islamistic - al Qaeda et al) the current strain of terrorism arises: they will be neutralised. I wonder whether similar surveys have been made in the Netherlands. Any Dutch correspondents out there?

Diamonds are forever

Shirley Bassey's song would be the ideal backdrop to this post. Then again, the eponymous 70ies Bond movie could be redone to an entirely different script ...

But the Fisher family from Six Feet Under should definitely reëvaluate their business modell. They could turn it from a gold mine into one churning out diamonds! Swiss firm Algordanza offers to turn a deceased's cremation ashes into a one carat diamond. Margaret would certainly have had second thoughts about throwing Bernard's ashes out over the balcony sill if she had known that!

While the business idea is absolutely fascinating, what with all the symbolism involved, it is also open to a lot of scheming which could only be overcome by a reliable audit. (via handelsblatt)

Remember September 2005

Barring a surprise outcome of the deliberations of the German Constitutional Court, this coming September promises to be a politically memorable month for two big countries - Germany & Japan. Both are going to have premature parliamentary elections, and in both cases, action in economic policy is urgently required. Unfortunately, the odds are rather against that happening in Germany, I am afraid ... nonetheless, a prize to whoever recognises the source of this post's illustration!

Negative information

What generations of students of bad teachers have known intuitively is now scientific fact: Information can be negative, i.e. you know less after receiving it than you knew before. But you needn't worry about this being some sort of brain virus snatching that laboriously collected education from under your eyes (or from behind there, actually), because we're talking about the wonderful world of quantum physics, of course. Here is a popularised description of the concepts, together with links to the tough stuff (via slashdot).

Independent alarmist

Articles like these (via Samizdata) in the otherwise quite sensible Independent do not seem to be very well advised. It's not obvious to what degree the evident alarmism is cooked up by the editors and how much is actually in the sources, but the numbers game seems to be a bit nonsensical to me. Argueing that way, the pretty strong Swiss community with its widespread standard military training (not "just" AK-47!) should be considered a risk factor, too! No, it's not just the sheer nonsensicality, it's bordering to racism & alarmism, neither of which is the Best of British now, is it.

No Bushism

Why many Americans complain about their P going on an atypically long vacation is quite beyond me. According to this article, he has already racked up more vacation days in the 4.5 years of his presidency than his rather relaxed predecessor, the late R. Reagan has in his full 8 years! But the aforequoted Tallahassee Democrat has got it right: I wouldn't even begrudge a permanent vacation to him, starting immediately!

Dandy - ism?

A rather amusing ontological treatise without any pretension to objectivity on the ever green, ever changing phenomenon of the dandy, as appropriately & entertainingly reflected in a contemporary medium. "So, dear reader, purge yourselves of philosophical pretensions, emulate the lilies of the field, and ponder life's most important question: What will you wear?"