Pick-A-Day

March 2024
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Archives

On (1) why Eurovision matters, and (2) why it had to be in Azerbaijan this year.

I neither got around to reviewing the second Eurovision semi-finals, nor to discussing the Eurovision Finals – badAdam.

I have a good excuse: I was exhausted and any free time I had this weekend, I was asleep. Friday’s super early alarm (4:30, after 5 hours of sleep) in combination with a late evening (home past […]

What’s worse: Allowing Neo-Nazis to murder 10 people or Joe Paterno letting a coach rape kids?

Honestly, I cannot answer my own question, but it is something that I’ve been pondering of late.

The details of both are disturbing – and I’ve been inundated with details about one from the German half of my life and details about the other from the American half of my life.

The Neo-Nazi story actually […]

Where was I when I found out…

I was in bed, asleep, when I heard an SMS arrive. 5 AM.

Holy shit Osama .bin laden is dead.

I sort of fell back asleep – waking an hour later at my usual time, heading off to work, passively reading bits and pieces of news on the Internets during pauses in work.

Truthfully, while […]

“Like” Issue in Google Reader

A month or two ago Google Reader introduced the “like” feature, which lets you identify news stories and blog posts that you find interesting and to share that information with the world.

Unfortunately it leads to moments like this which are, I think, a bit inappropriate. I hope that nobody “likes” the fact that […]

Dutch against child who wants to “live freely”

Via the BBC / In light of the recent discussion:

Social workers in the Netherlands have taken legal action to try to stop a 13-year-old girl from sailing around the world on her own.

They want Laura Dekker to be made a ward of court, so that her parents, who support her plans, temporarily lose […]

Multicasting Overload

I have to admit it: I’m addicted to the Internet—and the current version is even better than the one that I first started exploring back in the mid 1990s.

My first web browser, for the record, was Netscape. If you remember the version with the throbbing N, that’s the first one I ever used.

Today […]

Personal News Embargo

I am forecasting unprecedented tsunami of uninteresting news over the next 24 hours.

Accordingly I will not be reading or listening to any news between 16:00 CET on Tuesday and 16:00 CET on Wednesday—which should, because of evening plans, actually be much later.

Somebody SMS me if real legitimate news happens.

Economic Distress

It’s great to be in Bloomington.

I had lunch today with a couple friends at Wee Willies (as good as I remember), and then I struck out alone for dinner at Greek’s Pizza (I think its fall from grace is complete—the pizza is not as good as it used to be).

I also picked up […]

Germany & Obama

The best German newspaper!

Judging by the cover of yesterday’s Bild, one would think that Germany is ready for Michelle Obama to be first lady.

It’s not difficult German, but for those of you unable to translate “So sexy ist die neue First Lady”, let me provide a quick and dirty translation: “How sexy […]

Atheist Commotion

Apparently it’s bad not to believe in God.

Maybe that’s not bad, but telling other people it’s ok to not believe in God is problematic. I first realized this back in November when I read about a piece about a billboard in Denver that read, “Don’t believe in God? You are not alone.”

Eight simple […]