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I will not analyse the pharmaceutical giant's annual report here, you'd have to pay far too dearly for that. Nonetheless, I recommend you to go and get your hands on a copy of it, if only for the excellent portrait photography it contains - and I am not talking about the members of the board of directors.
13/02/2006
Novartis
I will not analyse the pharmaceutical giant's annual report here, you'd have to pay far too dearly for that. Nonetheless, I recommend you to go and get your hands on a copy of it, if only for the excellent portrait photography it contains - and I am not talking about the members of the board of directors.
12/02/2006
FOWL Radio 4: Switzerland
Just in case you haven't noticed yet: FOWL Radio is on the air, and there are already four episodes to listen to, the latest one dealing with Switzerland. Click here to subscribe to the podcast via iTunes!
11/02/2006
Jack's back!
Oh no! There goes my scarcely allotted TV time ... what's worse: there are already six episodes that I have to catch up on! Seriously, this programme requires a warning of the Ministry of Mental Health: Watching it will get you hooked and it will disrupt your time budget effectively. Btw., President Palmer used an iMac just before he was shot...
07/02/2006
Lego vs. Playmobil?
The latest geek war to fight! Check out my nephew Tomi's first steps as a skilled animation movie director! If you ask his age - I am not telling. ;) The geeks over at Wired have taken the opposite position though. I wonder who's going to make it!
04/02/2006
03/02/2006
And back!
My short series of trips is over & work is piling up. Meanwhile, go here to buy a piano. As far as buying is concerned, I largely resisted the temptation of the last few days of sales in London, with the exception of this. Now I know it's not a rearview mirror, but my dying old navigation system has cost me too much time as it is, and this wonderful new toy promises to double as a handsfree kit as well!
29/01/2006
Off to L&L
If things seem a bit slow in the next few days, then that's because I'm off to the Principality of Liechtenstein bright & early tomorrow morning. I'll only return on Tuesday morning to change suitcases for the ensuing trip to London until Thursday night. But I can nonetheless be reached via the usual means, of course.
You know it's really cold, when...
you find drops of an unidentified liquid on the dashboard of your car which was parked safely in the garage and this liquid turns out to have leaked from the LCD based rearview mirror that went frozen. I guess I'll need a new rearview gadget now - how about this?
Check out the just aired 2nd show of FOWL Radio! The day temperature in my co-producer Simran's home town Pune is usually above 30 degrees ...
Check out the just aired 2nd show of FOWL Radio! The day temperature in my co-producer Simran's home town Pune is usually above 30 degrees ...
27/01/2006
Grounding
Yesterday night, I went to see Grounding - the final days of Swissair. I really like the movie.
But first, some expectations management: I did not expect to gain any factual information as to what exactly led to the downfall of the once proud national carrier of Switzerland. And indeed, that's not what you get. At the onset, there are a few minutes of summary about the political & managerial errors committed which led to the default, but that's that.
The real drama unfolds in the fall of 2001, when the already dire economic condition of the firm is aggravated by a succession of management changes and the final coup de grâce of 9/11. The movie demonstrates very effectively and almost in the style of a classical tragedy how a slowly building development may find its nerve shattering climax within a very short timespan. The ambition and, at the same time, the helplessness of most players are unnerving. The 24-like rythm of the piece contributes a lot to that - we're only missing: Previously on the Balsberg ...
There's some less savoury subtext, though. The inner machinations of the actual crisis are not really known, and are likely never to become public knowledge. The film posits a conspiracy of the villainous Basle gang, consisting of Ospel (UBS) with his sadistic lawyer sidekick & Suter (Crossair), against the formerly arrogant Zürich boys (and girl) around Mühlemann (Credit Suisse) and Corti (Swissair), who are defeated & in full retreat. The fact that Swissair was grounded proves that the Basle gang won. Until now, I thought the traditional regional feud between Basle & Zürich was pretty much tongue in cheek, but maybe not. Funny how federal councilor Villiger with his own numerate sidekick are characterised in an almost gnomish way.
The failure of Swissair is one of the most important events in the recent history of Switzerland. It will be interesting to observe whether Grounding will initiate the long overdue katharsis in public opinion. This is not at all improbable, since we are currently observing the long agony of the publicly funded successor of Swissair, which I think will come to a final conclusion within the year.
But first, some expectations management: I did not expect to gain any factual information as to what exactly led to the downfall of the once proud national carrier of Switzerland. And indeed, that's not what you get. At the onset, there are a few minutes of summary about the political & managerial errors committed which led to the default, but that's that.
The real drama unfolds in the fall of 2001, when the already dire economic condition of the firm is aggravated by a succession of management changes and the final coup de grâce of 9/11. The movie demonstrates very effectively and almost in the style of a classical tragedy how a slowly building development may find its nerve shattering climax within a very short timespan. The ambition and, at the same time, the helplessness of most players are unnerving. The 24-like rythm of the piece contributes a lot to that - we're only missing: Previously on the Balsberg ...
There's some less savoury subtext, though. The inner machinations of the actual crisis are not really known, and are likely never to become public knowledge. The film posits a conspiracy of the villainous Basle gang, consisting of Ospel (UBS) with his sadistic lawyer sidekick & Suter (Crossair), against the formerly arrogant Zürich boys (and girl) around Mühlemann (Credit Suisse) and Corti (Swissair), who are defeated & in full retreat. The fact that Swissair was grounded proves that the Basle gang won. Until now, I thought the traditional regional feud between Basle & Zürich was pretty much tongue in cheek, but maybe not. Funny how federal councilor Villiger with his own numerate sidekick are characterised in an almost gnomish way.
The failure of Swissair is one of the most important events in the recent history of Switzerland. It will be interesting to observe whether Grounding will initiate the long overdue katharsis in public opinion. This is not at all improbable, since we are currently observing the long agony of the publicly funded successor of Swissair, which I think will come to a final conclusion within the year.
Linguistic protectionism
The other day, I zapped across a wireless (I like this undoubtedly endangered word) programme about the Lexikon der bedrohten Wörter, which is a dictionary of endangered words in German. I've seen it mentioned before elsewhere. That's the kind of thing that turns on word nerds such as myself! Even relatively recent words, such as Yuppie, may be threatened by extinction.
An immediate turn off however is the issue of the German Rechtschreibereform, an effort spearheaded by the Rat für deutsche Rechtschreibung to simplify the admittedly often arcane rules & regulations of the German language. That's all nice & dandy, if only the effort were independent of politics, which it isn't. That means that schools and the public administrations in the entire German speaking area are obliged to follow those rules. Not everybody is pleased, if these statements by Swiss teachers' associations are to be believed. The fact that the first attempt at a reform had to be reformed again was certainly not helpful, but very indicative as to the root of the problem: Language is a highly dynamic set of rules which is in constant flux. It is a totally ridiculous and very German endeavour in my view to try and squeeze the life out of the German language by means of red tape. Even the French have pretty much resigned.
An immediate turn off however is the issue of the German Rechtschreibereform, an effort spearheaded by the Rat für deutsche Rechtschreibung to simplify the admittedly often arcane rules & regulations of the German language. That's all nice & dandy, if only the effort were independent of politics, which it isn't. That means that schools and the public administrations in the entire German speaking area are obliged to follow those rules. Not everybody is pleased, if these statements by Swiss teachers' associations are to be believed. The fact that the first attempt at a reform had to be reformed again was certainly not helpful, but very indicative as to the root of the problem: Language is a highly dynamic set of rules which is in constant flux. It is a totally ridiculous and very German endeavour in my view to try and squeeze the life out of the German language by means of red tape. Even the French have pretty much resigned.
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