unterwegs

My navigation device is still one of my favorite innovations, but I find fewer and fewer reasons to use it on a daily basis (i.e., when one knows where one is going).  At first, I had a co-pilot all the time for its MP3 player when I did not have a radio--also to monitor the speed traps and project my estimated time of arrival, which was always reassuring to know I would not be terribly late to work.  I had a thought that I submitted to the TomTom brain-trust for their consideration.  Perhaps it's an irresponsible and dangerous proposal, but given all the amazing user-created content, maps and points-of-interest, I have to wonder that they are not conducive to new ideas.  Could TomTom be trained, and in turn, train its driver, to beat all the traffic lights, timing the intervals and having one slow down en route to miss them?  I would like not to catch all the red signals in Bad Karma in the afternoons, and sometimes, it seems that I do.  If the navigator had told me to relent in speed just a little bit on the approach, could I avoid leaving the engine running at the intersection?  It seems like a good idea, but maybe it is also tempting fate just a little bit.  After all, how many bad things were we oblivious to because we missed them, waiting at the corner?

språchraum or lollipop guild

At the end of the summer, friends of my parents are visiting and are hoping, among other things, to visit Oktoberfest.  Normally, I would probably discourage entering into that mob, and possibly going to one of the counterfests or side-shows--especially as my parents are in the storied jewel of a town, Bamberg, with its own local celebrations and home-brewed delights.  I crowded in one of the beer tents once, and felt that that was enough for that particular experience.  This year, however, on the two-hundred year anniversary of the party's founding, first held so the whole town of München could toast the wedding of Prince Ludwig and Princess Therese, aside from the total smoking ban and the high prices, Oktoberfest will be returning to its origins with fancy costumes, a fest king and queen, and great fun Renaissance Festival stuff.  Huzzah!  O'zapft is!   I think my parents' guests will have a lot of fun there. 
I was doing a little bit of research to see what other ideas jump out for entertainment in the area, and I see that after tapping the first keg, the parade through the market is led by the Münchner Kindl, whose name and appearance is apparently the source of Frank L. Baum's Munchkins in the Wizard of Oz.

gordian knot

The European Union banking sector is expected to report today on the findings of its self-assessment--the stress test.  Studying 91 major banking institutions that represent some 65% of all EU transactions seems pretty comprehensive, but I wonder what junk-journalism and bad review practices were learned from the Americans and their financial report card.  This too could prove too secretive and selective to be of any real value in terms of guidance or for pointing out potentially explosive deficiencies.  Low marks could trigger a crisis in the sector and non-findings would probably garner due suspicious in this exercise.  I hope, though, it becomes a good heuristic tool: the bankers framed their analysis in some moderately dire economic and growth conditions: EU in recession and veering into worse territory.  Maybe the threshold was set too low or the research was not of expected rigor, but seeing what impact the banks can withstand, I think, is an important first step.  The EU is not simply one big undifferentiated mass of debt and subsidies and there may be some saving vindication in store yet.

vorsicht torte or bulli for you

I like the warning "vorsicht Torte!"--caution cake, since it sounds especially alertist in German, like danger, falling rocks.  Some of H's co-workers made him this darling cake in the likeness of our little VW bus for his birthday.  It was a nice way of commemorating the trips H has already taken and send well-wishes for future voyages.  Happy birthday--bully to you!

time-lock

The other day, H and I watched a bitter-sweet documentary "The Vault and the Electronic Frontier" about the singular Berlin discothek whose celebration paralleled the razing of the Wall and German reunification. It was particularly interesting how the MoTown influence in techno was fostered in Germany and then re-exported to the States. The reporting and interviews covered the final months of Tresor through its financial problems and eventual wrecking, which was pretty sad and indignant to see, in 2005 at the hands of a dastardly developer. I remember years ago when I visited Berlin for the Love Parade seeing the low-clearance and sleek letters of Tresor's entryway and regretted not having seen it back then--though, apparently, it was reincarnated in 2007 in an East Berlin electric company. In a related torch-song, the Wall Street Journal had a quirky, brief on the discography of one of Disco's unremembered heroes, Walter Gibbons. I really want to check our this jungle-music album, pioneered at a time before Disco had really gelled as a genre and co-opted by bigger labels.  Though these styles have been formalized into very different, divergent things, techno and Disco, I really appreciate them both--anything with a beat that you can dance to, like the characters from Peanuts breaking into their peculiar routines on the floor when the music plays.

gaudeamus igitur

Look to this day, graduate... I understand that this year's graduating class is pursuing having itself cryogenically frozen until the job market improves.  I feel hopeful about continuing my education--though I have no designs as to what ends.  Perhaps the next spunky flock of MBAs can save the economy from certain doom--or get their come-uppance as they snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.  We shall see.  I was satisfied with the educational challenge and the material covered, despite a bit of kow-towing to questions of ethicsand corporate responsibility that was approached in superficial kind of way, general lack of engagement and cohension--that I suppose is part and parcel of an online degree, and talk of robust, unsinkable markets that seemed painfully naive and dated.  I really enjoyed the course work, and delving more than a headline's smattering into market analysis, trade and regulatory environments and economic theory.  Good old diploma mill university--a part of the whole experience, however, makes me think of those old Sally Stuthers commercials for career-development in hotel/restaurant management.  Do you want to make more money?  Or just advance in your present job?  Do you like to paint, or just sketch or doodle?  Can you draw Petey the Pirate--or how about Tommy the Turtle?  But maybe such hiberation is not completely out of order.

spacely sprockets

Since visiting the first test facilities at Peenemuende, notwithstanding the occasional pleasant afternoon at the local airshow, I have a renewed fascination with rocketry.  The excellent museum there tempered science with war-waging and was thoughtful but not in an overly preachy way.  German engineers at the National Aerospace Center have successfully developed a new sharp rocket that is poised to revolutionize space travel--all for a paltry 12 million euro.  The new, reusable space glider is much more manueverable, and manages to guide itself safely back to Earth.  Its faceted nose-cone makes it especially resilient and resistant to the heat of reentry.

In related news, the Russian space agency, with no shortage of ambitious missions waiting in the wings, will slowly vacate its cosmodrome at Baikonur, since while the whole region benefited from Soviet investment in space infrastructure, the cosmodrome is fully in Kazahk territory which Russia leases at a high price.  A bigger and better space port will be built in the Russian far east at Vostochny near the Chinese border and the city of Harbin.

capitol intelligencer or no such agency

The Washington Post released its compendious study of the parallel topography and the sprawling landscape of Top Secret America.  It's a very clever read.  The two-year project concludes that the forces to combat terrorism have grown so large as to be unwieldy, information is not promulgated nor shared for coordination and triangulation, and petty tyrranies and turf-battles not only are squandering the whole enterprise with redundancy but also inviting warring shadow-factions to rise up. 

No creature is better at job-preservation by sustaining need than government bureaucrats and job-security could turn vicious.  Maybe this is not as sensational or surprising as the revelations of Deepthroat but maybe it can cue public attention and bring about reform to a problem that is endemic to the US government and cull some unneeded duplication and coveted red-tape.