When coming back from a business visit to Munich, where I re-met two lovely female employees of the Business Plan Competition (one now not just married but with two small kids) and two lovely elder male colleagues as coaches for the entrepreneurs, where I barely caught the night train going to Paris (France, not Texas) on my way home... when arriving at my desk where just a pot of lukewarm tea awaited me, I could not help but think of the question that other man with a moustache once asked, a long time ago: "I've seen all your qualifications... but where do you go to, my lovely, when you're alone in your bed?"
Somehow the Boulevard St.Michel makes me flinch and think of quite some cups I've drank there over those years of Paris, watching people go by or even writing.( ...Collapse )
I haven't met the Aga Khan (but several previous heads of my own government), I do not own a racehorse unlike the Romney style (but I've been and been betting and winning at the horse races not just on howrse, also in Bad Harzburg or Iffezheim or Paris) - but for the life of me I still can not answer that question, and I suppose she can't either.
( Lies mehr...Collapse ) But then I thought: Old friend, why are you so shy? I wish nothing but the best for you...
You know how the time flies... and now it's time for a short moment of bed.
Hopw to read from you, sometime soon. Nevermind...
Don't take too long to think about it. Fifteen authors (poets included) who've influenced you and who will always stick with you. List the first fifteen you can recall in no more than fifteen minutes. Tag at least fifteen friends, including me, because I'm interested in seeing what authors my friends choose. (To do this, paste rules in a new note, cast your fifteen picks behind the cut, and tag people in the note.) ( Lies mehr...Collapse )
I suppose some of you reading this can relate to this song somehow, sometimes. http://youtu.be/VjcdbofQNRc Maybe from time to time it makes sense to consider this simple truth stated below. Like this week. ( See the videoCollapse )
A certain LJ-friend of mine (named after a water-bourne mythical creature) recently posted about the first lines of books, how they can make a difference and get you hooked. That got me hooked and I checked some of the books closest to me at that moment for their first line - and will give them to you.
The last film I saw (well, besides "We Feed The World", sadly a nonfiction docu-pic) was "Das Mädchen, das die Seiten Umblättert (The Page Turner, La Tourneuse de pages)", a french film from 2006/2007. And I so agree with the review at KinoCritics.com (Your Guide in English to Movies showing in Germany) that I just give you the link: http://www.kinocritics.com/film_review.php?f=450
For the picture: Imagine a beautifully illuminated Eiffel tower in the heart of Paris, with some lighthouse beams going out, for the celebration of Armistice day, a national holiday in France.
For the athmosphere: Imagine a pleasant Paris evening, me strolling from the cocktail bar where I just spent the later part of the evening talking about politics (and struggeling to get a piece of cheese to accompany my drinks), warm enough so you do not need a coat here along the Seine.
I'm here on my second night, arriving Thursday from Germany, for the Congress of the European Green Party where I have the honour to represent the German Green party of my home state. ( Lies mehr...Collapse )
Maybe it took The Rachel Maddow Show to show me that the Cain Campaign, dear friends, is nothing but an art projekt: Pokemon as inspirational poet, Sim City as economics plan, Beckybeckystanstan and no idea about the right of return as foreign policy (with a 1 page nearly every day update), no idea what a neocon is or what life from conception has to do with choice, the "nice chicken" campaign video... and now Cain as Chris Tucker from Rush-Hour 3? Really? http://cassandra-chronicles.blogspot.com/2011/11/cain-punks-america-brilliantly.html
Want an example for "Desaster waiting to happen"? Since Fukushima the NRC, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (Reaktorsicherheitskomission) of the USA, has prolonged the licenses of no less than 5 old nuclear clunker plants with decaying nuts&bolts, for another 20 years (after their previous 40), without demanding any safety measures being taken or new safety rules met from lessons of the the Fukushima desaster, and in several cases without inspecting the plants on their own... Desaster waiting to happen, indeed! (Quelle: Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA), Energy and Commerce Commitee) Download his report here: http://markey.house.gov/docs/05-12-11reportfinalsmall.pdf
The Inverse Graphing Calculator (version beta-1) is like a backwards graphing calculator. Normally, you enter an equation into your calculator and then get a graph of the curve. The way the IGC works is, you type something you'd like as your curve, like 'Hello World' or 'I love you'. The IGC produces an *equation* which has this phrase as its graph!
The world is full of refugees They're just like you and just like me But as people we have a choice To end the void with all its force So don't forget or don't pretend It's all the same now in the end It was set in a different life Destroys my days and haunts my nights?
Vampires and werewolves, dragons and princesses, fighters and jesters, babies and demons... All author names are clickable and lead to BC-journals of the books. Some of these are already out, bookcrossed over to Switzerland, to a cousin, and to a LJer, a new BCer. Books want to be read, of course.
We owe Ralph Nader and Cynthia McKinney an apology.They were right about Barack Obama. They were right about the corporate state.They had the courage of their convictions and they stood fast despite wholesaledefections and ridicule by liberals and progressives. ( more )
Found this and wanted to share it: "My first HuffPost Book Club selection of 2010 is Janine Wedel's Shadow Elite: How the World's New Power Brokers Undermine Democracy, Government, and the Free Market.It's a gripping, disquieting book that exposes and explains why it'sbeen so hard to bring about any real change in our country -- whyWashington no longer seems capable of addressing the problems ournation faces. Fingers have been pointed at everything fromgerrymandering to partisan polarization to the misuse of thefilibuster. But, according to Wedel, the real problem is much deeper --and more disturbing -- than any of these.
As she writes in Shadow Elite, a new "transnational" classof elites has taken over our country: "The mover and shaker who servesat one and the same time as business consultant, think-tanker, TVpundit, and government adviser glides in and around the organizationsthat enlist his services. It is not just his time that is divided. Hisloyalties, too, are often flexible."
...or who did you want to be as a kid? That's the question ilona_andrewsasks and before I give my answer let me say that I very much would like to read yours. ( Lies mehr...Collapse )
Nach ermutigenden Schritten der türkischen Regierung was eine Annäherung an die Kurden und eine Lockerung der bestehenden Regelungen angeht, hat sich die Stimmung im Land immer mehr dagegen verdichtet - ein mögliches Verbot der demokratischen Kurden-Partei DTP (Partei der Demokratischen Gesellschaft) bedroht nun endgültig den ohnehin fragilen Friedensprozess. Für eine europäische Öffnung der Türkei, die ich wie viele Grüne immer begrüsst habe, ist aber nicht nur eine Erklärung zu Armenien notwendig sondern auch eine andere "Lösung der Kurdenfrage" als sie das türkische Militär viele Jahre wenn nicht Jahrzehnte lang auch mit Hilfe deutscher Waffen angestrebt hat. Dazu braucht es einen legitimen Gesprächspartner auf Seite der Kurden, den man nicht radikalisieren und in die Arme ohnehin radikaler Kräfte treiben, sondern als Gegenüber achten sollte - so wie übrigens die Menschenrechte der Kurden, um die es in der Türkei durchaus nicht zum Besten bestellt ist.
Die EU sollte, wie einzelne Politiker das bereits tun, in ihren Gesprächen mit der Türkei auf eine weitere Öffnung gegenüber den Kurden hinwirken und sich gegen eine Blockade kurdischer Gesprächspartner aussprechen. (Das obige Bild zeigt übrigens mich als Grünen Europapolitiker bei Gesprächen mit einem DTP-Vertreter beim "Mitreden über Europa" in Karlsruhe 2008.)
As for the ebook-pricing discussed by others here: As a consumer, collector of books and as a reader I’m willing to pay for ebooks which fill ~all~ of the following three criteria:
* Less than the current cheapest price for the dead-tree versions on Amazon. If printed prices drop because of the availability of a paperback edition or because the book is going out of print and the rest of the printed stock is sold cheap to wholesalers, please drop ebook prices accordingly.
* Less than 10$ or over here 10€ – more isn’t necessary to pay the author’s (and editor’s and/or translator’s) share and the overhead, if you don’t print. If that leaves you with some money, please pay a decent proofreader, thanks.
* Free of any DRM nonsense. No limit to the number of my own devices I can transfer it to, no limit to resale rights if I delete my own copy.
Give me that and I’ll buy it in any given ebook-reader format, epub, .lit, mobypocket or -preferably- PDF. At home I’ll read it on my PC, on the road on my Blackberry smartphone or -probably- my Palm Tungsten.</p>
1 c Margarine 3/4 c Brown sugar 3/4 c Sugar 2 Eggs 1 pn Vanilla powder 2 c Flour 1 ts Baking soda 1 ts Salt 2 c Chocolate chips
Cream butter and sugars. Beat in eggs. Combine dry ingredients.Blend. Stir in chocolate chips. Bake at 375 degrees F for 12 minutes oruntil soft in center.
Previous 
melancholy
lonely
thoughtful
amused
