From the monthly archives:

July 2005

Pause

19 July 2005

Closed for vacation. See you in August.

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Who Are You Going to Believe?

19 July 2005

Why is it that Christopher doesn’t believe us when we tell him sensible things like it’s not good to eat too many sweets and that he should go to bed on time, but he’ll believe a total stranger who gives him a magic candy jar that refills itself at night when it is emtpy? And [...]

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When In Doubt, Throw It Out

17 July 2005

Q Daily News: Computers as disposable commodities “Rather than cleaning their computers of viruses and spyware, people are now throwing the machines away and buying new ones.”

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90% of Everything is Crap

16 July 2005

It doesn’t take much to get the German blogosphere riled up. This time it was a column at netzwelt.de that asserted that most weblogs are crap, although there are a few good ones. So what? That’s true of anything, even online columns. Of course, crap is in the eyes of the beholder, and one person’s [...]

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He doesn’t even like to leave Bavaria

16 July 2005

Today’s Economist print-edition article on German foreign policy (subscribers only): “What many in Berlin dread most is that Edmund Stoiber, boss of the CDU’s Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), insists on being foreign minister. That would give him a top post, but let him stand above the political fray: it is easier [...]

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Last Day

15 July 2005

Yesterday was Christopher’s last kindergarten day for the year. It was a bit sad since the two leaders of his clique won’t be coming back, and it was also the last day for his favorite Zivi (Zivildienstleistender). Today was the end-of-year fest, and now he has 3-1/2 weeks off. Next year his group will have [...]

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Wanna Ruin Your Resumé?

15 July 2005

If you’re female, giving birth to a child will ruin your resumé for upper-management jobs.

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Not That Starbuck

15 July 2005

We’ll be flying to Minnesota next week and spending two weeks on Lake Minnewaska at my parents’ lake house near Starbuck (not to be confused with the coffee shop chain). I just realized that they no longer have a telephone at the lake, since they have a cell phone. And I doubt that Starbuck (without [...]

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What do the conservatives want?

11 July 2005

Sign and Sight: What do the conservatives want? A look at the tradition of German conservatism. Promising “blooming landscapes” rather than calling for “blood, sweat and tears”.

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Berlin! Berlin!

11 July 2005

We spent the weekend (precisely 27 hours, to be exact) in Berlin, finally using that luxury hotel gift certificate that I had received for my birthday. We did a lot of touristy things, but not at real fast pace as we had a 5-year-old in tow. The highlight on Saturday was coffee with Jörg, Gabi [...]

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Job Security

8 July 2005

Chicago Karl: “People here in Germany don’t get it. I don’t want job security that comes from seniority or because my employer isn’t allowed to fire me. I want job security provided by an economy that is dynamic enough so that if I do lose my job, I can just go out and find another [...]

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1945

8 July 2005

Susan Kitchens is live blogging the development of the atomic bomb, time-shifted by 60 years.

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Change for the Better

8 July 2005

The good news is: I don’t have Diabetes mellitus type 2. The flip side is: I’m well on my way to getting it unless I change my lifestyle, fast.

My sister-in-law is a Heilpraktikerin (alternative practitioner) together with her husband, and I’ve been helping them with their website Naturheilzentrum Drochtersen. She’s started offering a weight-loss program [...]

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Changeback

7 July 2005

Sometimes you just have to change things around… (back to Wordpress, in case you’re reading in an aggregator). No fear, all your (I mean my) favorite PapaScott non-features and non-design will return… sometime.

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Iron Mädchen

6 July 2005

Mrs. T at AFOE points to a profile of Angela Merkel at Slate that Wahlbloggers in Germany might find interesting. The comparisons to Thatcher are inevitable, and reflect wishful thinking by US conservatives that Merkel is somehow like them (she’s not). There are some minor mistakes; for example a Mädchen is no “Lady”. And [...]

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Europe Parliament Nixes Software Patent Law

6 July 2005

AP: Europe Parliament Nixes Software Patent Law. Some good news from Strasbourg for a change.

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Really Important

6 July 2005

Dave Rogers: “Computers were a lot more fun before the internet came along and turned everything into something really important.”

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Party Platform

4 July 2005

The Declaration of Independence “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Grundgesetz für die Bundesrepublik Deutschland “Die Würde des Menschen ist unantastbar.” “Alle Menschen sind vor dem Gesetz [...]

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Jackknifed

4 July 2005

“An auto-transporter has jackknifed in the construction area on the Autobahn A1 between Maschen and Hamburg. The A1 southbound is completely closed, northbound only 1 lane is free. Commuters to Hamburg are advised to completely avoid the A1 and take the A7…” Days like this make me glad I no longer commute.

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No Confidence

1 July 2005

I watched the confidence vote in the Bundestag this morning, hoping to watch a historical event. I haven’t watched a government slowly disintegrate since Nixon resigned, and this being Germany the unraveling of the Red/Green coalition is taking place in painfully slow motion. But the debate and the vote were short and disappointing. It was [...]

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