Germany is a comparatively neat and tidy place, but there are quite a few problem spots and scapegoats for litter. Politicians are targeting one visible culprit, with some precedence and a mixed record of success, in Munich and Berlin by proposing levying a fast food tax on the disposable remains of daily routines—coffee cups, greasy bags, waxy paper. Not wanting to dispatch more sanitation workers on new beats or provide ever growing waste-bins, however, the tax scheme, borne by the cafes and fast food outfits that produce these leavings and pass the costs on to the consumer, seems to be only punitive.
Sunday 4 November 2012
zum mitnehmen oder latchkey take-away
catagories: ⚖️, ๐ฉ๐ช, ๐ช๐บ, ๐, environment, food and drink
Saturday 3 November 2012
timetable or free-on-board
The Bundesrat (Germany’s upper house of the legislature) has voted to remove long-standing protections on the national railway network, the Deutsche Bahn, to allow competition for commuter and holiday travel from long-distance, inter-city bus and coach companies. After much debate and research, parliament, risking the displeasure of this established institution, determined that the virtual monopoly should be allowed to lapse, since private enterprise could offer travelers alternatives adhering to environmental standards, at a discount and with greater flexibility.
catagories: ๐ฉ๐ช, ๐, environment, transportation, travel
four-square and eight-bit
Considering the estimable impact and pioneering influence the surprisingly simple and intuitive yet habit-forming diversion Tetris had on the video game landscape, it seems ironic that the concept and programming, built in turn off of earlier mathematical models and gaming traditions that go back to antiquity, Connect-Four or Penta (that glass bead game with the scroll for the playing area that they sold at Pier One), emerged not from the US or Japan but rather the Moscow Academy of Computer Sciences in 1984, spreading to Western markets prior to glasnost and faster than conventional diplomacy in just a matter of months. Did you know that tetrominoes fall in accordance with the laws of gravity, accelerating in proportion to the height of the stacks below?
Friday 2 November 2012
simulacra, simulcast or a night at the opera
Although this installation is not part of the historic opera house in Munich but the State Opera of Saxony in Dresden, I thought it was a comical touch to put one of the world’s first “digital” clocks (with Roman numerals that scrolled by the minutes and hours) above the stage—I suppose so patrons could be discrete about wondering when the show would end, without having to dig out their pocket-watches. I do think it’s important that it be live, however, and an occasion for dressing-up—even if one is only going as far as the living-room. Opera was never meant to be elitist and inaccessible and was traditionally quite the opposite, but I think now people shy away from the commitment of time and would rather call it so. What do you think? Is this offering expanding the audience, like a pay-per-view match or post-game camaraderie, or is it like putting church on television and only mildly engaging?
Thursday 1 November 2012
castor fieber
catagories: ๐จ๐ญ, ๐, environment