The Capital Letter - by BerlinBear

Stuff

2006-10-20T14:36:00.000+02:00

Quite by chance, I visited my own blog today for the first time in ages and discovered that it had been three months to the day since my last post. That is truly pathetic and is a new record. Nice. And, umm, sorry.

In case you hadn't noticed, I am not blogging at the moment. The reasons for that are several, but principal among them are the twin facts that a) in recent months I have been working on my thesis with renewed vigour and commitment, and b) I have just moved to a new city (see updated sidebar) and started a new job. Those two things combined mean that my plate right now is more than full and some non-essentials, including blogging, have had to be culled ruthlessly.

However, it is absolutely 100% my intention to return to blogging regularly at some (not entirely distant) future point, so the ether need not fear that it has lost the BerlinBear forever. I will, as they say in California and Austria, be back. Just not in the next couple of months.

In the meantime, I offer for your enjoyment, a new update on bears in the news. My heart does not bleed for this guy:

Man forced to pay $1500 after killing bear.

Bastard.

Anway, I'll be back at some stage. In the meantime, there are plenty of other blogs to read. Admittedly, not many which combine New Zealand in the news with Bears in the news, but you have to take it as it comes.

Cheers,
BB

Tags:
bears in the news, Marburg

New Zealand in the news

2006-07-20T20:09:00.000+02:00

Well, news from New Zealand has made the BBC News website once again, and as usual it's an odd and faintly embarrassing story. It seems that's the only way we ever break international headlines.

In any case, it turns out that a police officer in Auckland was working a second job to tide her over some financial difficulties. That's not the problem, as secondary work is allowed in the New Zealand Police service, subject to approval. The problem is that this particular officer's secondary job was ... as a prostitute. This, according to a police spokesperson, is "inappropriate and incompatible with policing."

Fair enough, I suppose, except that prostitution is legal in New Zealand. So it's not like she was moonlighting as a drug dealer or a hit-woman. However, she has been allowed to keep her job as a police officer all the same, which is a good thing if you ask me.

What I would be really very interested to know, is how this came to light. You can bet she didn't just randomly bring it up in a promotion interview, right? So, which of her superior officers accidentally found himself one of her customers? And how appropriate and compatible with policing is that?

Full story here [BBC] and here [Stuff.co.nz].

Tags:
Auckland, New Zealand, police, prostitution

Creative sentencing

2006-06-03T10:29:00.000+02:00

Here's a criminal sentence you will not see every day: 15 days of gardening. No, really.

A British man who overstayed his visa in Zambia, has been found guilty and sentenced to 15 days of gardening at the Zambian immigration department. During that time, he will be required to mow the lawn and tend the flowers. Interesting option. Perhaps this is something that the Americans should consider for the 'illegals' from Mexico that we keep hearing complaints about. If the numbers being bandied about are anywhere near realistic, the USA would soon have the best gardens on the planet. Worth considering?

BBC News has the full story.

Tags:
immigration; Zambia; weird news

!!

2006-05-24T20:54:00.000+02:00

[Hat-tip: Cufflinks]

New Zealand not for sale

2006-05-15T22:23:00.000+02:00

I don't know how I missed this when the news broke a few days ago, but in case you missed it too, it's official, New Zealand is not for sale.

Last week, some unnamed Aussie larrikin listed New Zealand for sale on Australian EBay. Habloodyha. The starting price, apparently, was 1 cent. Cheeky blighter. Still, on the plus side, there were 22 bids and the price had gone up to $2,300 by the time it was pulled by EBay Australia.

Like all ridiculous and vaguely embarrassing news stories involving New Zealand, this one was picked up by just about every news outlet under the sun.

Thankfully, most of them just regurgitated the AP newswire story word for word, meaning they didn't report what New Zealand's ridiculous and very embarrassing foreign minister, Winston Peters, had to say on the matter. You had to go to a New Zealand site to get his insightful input:

I don't think it's fun. I think that kind of nonsensical stupidity, I'll leave to the tabloid media.

If you're at all familiar with Winston Peters and his populist, uncomfortably nationalist politics, you'll know just how funny that is. For well over a decade, good old Winnie has made "nonsensical stupidity" one of the maintstays of his political career. Sadly, the voters of Tauranga, have lapped it up and re-elected him time and time again, allowing him to remain a blot on New Zealand's political landscape for far, far too long. As for the decision to appoint him as foriegn minister, well ...

Tags:
New Zealand; EBay; Winston Peters

Bears in the news

2006-05-15T21:49:00.000+02:00

Gee, it's been a while. Let me make it up to you with a joke.

What do you call a grizzly bear crossed with a polar bear?

Actually, it's not a joke at all. You call it Ursus maritimus horribilis. And then, if you're a nasty hunter, you kill it, even though it's the only bear of its kind ever found anywhere. Bastard.

Call it a grolar or possibly a pizzly: either way the bear shot by American hunter Jim Martell last month has startled experts. DNA tests of the bear, shot in the Northwest Territories of Canada, showed last week it was a hybrid of polar bear and a grizzly - perhaps the first ever seen in the wild.
'It's a total surprise,' said Roger Kuptana, the local guide who aided Martell on his hunt, for which he paid $50,000 (£26,388). As for its scientific name, researchers have proposed Ursus maritimus horribilis, from Ursus maritimus (polar bear) and Ursus arctos horribilis (grizzly bear).

Source: The Observer.

I would post a picture, but it's way too disturbing, and the "hunter" looks way too smug and pleased with himself for me to put it on my blog. If you must, the picture is here. [Hat-tip: tengrrl]

Tags:
bears

Chernobyl

2006-04-26T22:35:00.000+02:00

It's twenty years today since the Chernobyl disaster, the world's worst civil nuclear accident. My, how time flies. I remember the news reports and the concern, even in far-flung New Zealand, as if it were, well, less than twenty years ago.

As you would expect, the world's media are full of retrospectives, commentaries and reports about Chernobyl. Here are a few interesting ones:

The BBC website today devotes an entire "In depth" section to Chernobyl, including an interesting On this day retrospective and a number of Where are they now?-type victims' stories. I also found the Q&A section on Chernobyl very informative.

The English website of the German current affairs magazing Der Spiegel also has interesting coverage. The media roundup column "The World from Berlin" offers a concise and handy run-down on what the German newspapers are saying about Chernobyl today, while Lessons Forgotten looks at Ukrainian plans to go nuclear once more and build 14 new nuclear reactors. Finally, "Accident or Catastrophe" appealed to my linguistic geekiness, in examining the different terms used in different countries to describe what went on at Chernobyl.

Deutsche Welle's English website also dedicates an entire DW-World Special section to Chernobyl, which includes informative Flash presentations of the chronology of the disaster and the nuclear fallout from it. Included in that section is an opinion piece entitled Chernobyl: an Insidious Legacy, which considers the aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster, in particular the political fallout from it.

Of course, there are literally thousands of other articles out there covering this subject today, but those are a selection of the pieces I found the most interesting and informative. If you've got any others to recommend, please feel free to post a link in the comments.

An anniversary like this one, especially against the backdrop of recent developments in Iran, obviously gives one pause to consider nuclear power, its pros and cons, its dangers and benefits. This is a topic I've given a lot of thought to, especially in recent years. Which is not to say that I have reached what I would consider a definitive stance on the issue.

In fact, my opinion on nuclear power has evolved considerably over the course of the past few years, from one of absolute and vehement opposition, to one of considerable concern but nevertheless the recognition that in some circumstances it may be a necessary evil, and even the lesser or two (or more) evils. In short, I would have to say I've developed into a bit of a nuclear agnostic. But that is a topic for another post, or a series of posts. Perhaps one day not too far hence I'll get around to it. No promises though.

Tags:
Chernobyl; nuclear power; media

ANZAC Day

2006-04-25T08:25:00.000+02:00

Today, 25th April, is ANZAC Day, the day on which Australians and New Zealanders commemmorate the disastrous failure of the Gallipoli landings on this day in 1915, as well as remembering and honouring all those whose have served and fallen in war. It's a day of solemn remembrance, and a day of recognition of the futility of war.

Last year on this day I was in Berlin and attended an ANZAC Day memorial service, which I reported on in detail here. This year, as I am currently in Trier, there is no service I can attend, so I will just have to recognize the day in my own personal way. For this post, I'm going to let the words of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the commander of the Turkish troops at Gallipoli, who went on to become the founder of modern Turkey, do the talking for me. I find these words very moving and poignant. They give me goose pimples every time.

Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives...
You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country.
Therefore rest in peace.
There is no difference between the Johnnies
And the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side
Here in this country of ours ...

You, the Mothers, who sent their sons from far away countries
Wipe away your tears;
Your sons are now lying in our bosom
And are in peace.
After having lost their lives on this land they
Have become our sons as well.

Kemal Atatürk, 1934

Tags:
ANZAC Day

Shoddy headlining

2006-04-24T19:15:00.000+02:00

Oh dear! The BBC news website has been hit by the shoddy headlining bug which plagues so many newspapers as well. From this article's headline we learn the extremely dramatic news that all of Peru has been evacuated:

Volcano prompts Peru evacuation

it screams. Curious as to where all the residents of Peru had been sent, I read on, only to discover that in fact it's the residents of villages close to the Ubinas volcano, which is currently erupting in Southern Peru. While this is doubtless a very significant event in the lives of the people affected, it's not remotely what the headline says.

What they meant of course is:

Volcano prompts Peruvian evacuation

or alternatively:

Volcano prompts evacuation in Peru

A subtle difference, but an important one. It means the difference between the headline telling the beginning of the story or being complete nonsense. Come on BBC, pull your socks up!

Tags:
BBC; media; Peru

Happy Birthday Queenie

2006-04-21T19:24:00.000+02:00

It's New Zealand's Head of State's birthday today. She turns 80. How nice.

So, happy birthday to

Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and Her other Realms and Territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith

or, as we say in New Zealand, where she has a different title

Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Her other Realms and Territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith.

Much catchier, I'm sure you'll agree. Eighty, eh? Jolly good show.

Personally, I quite like the Queen. I don't think much of the rest of her family, with the exception of Prince William who seems a solid young man, but I do like the Queen. She has grace and style and she speaks a delightfully antiquiated and faintly ridiculous English. And she has stamina, and she doesn't meddle in politics or fancy herself a "political activist" like her son.

Now don't get me wrong. I'm not a royalist, by any stretch of the imagination. But then nor am I a staunch republican (in the "let's become a republic" sense of the word, not in the make-me-and-my-cronies-rich-and-screw-everyone-else- especially-the-French sense of the word). Basically, when it comes down to it, I don't really give a stuff.

Sure, having the Queen of England as New Zealand's head of state is anachronistic and a hangover from an imperialist and colonial past. Sure, it's hard to explain to non-Commonwealth people that our head of state is not a New Zealander, has never lived in New Zealand, and only visits once in a blue moon. Sure, it's pretty crazy that, if she fancied it, an 80 year-old woman in a palace in London could dissolve our parliament just because she felt like it. And sure, it's hard to make German university students grasp that a country can be a consitutional monarchy and a parliamentary democracy at the same time. But on the other hand, it's very cheap to have a head of state whose upkeep you only have to pay for for about a week every seven or eight years, when she and her ridiculous husband come to visit. Also, as the last 150-odd years have shown, the current system works just fine. And, to boot, it's handy not to have to bother writing a proper constitution.

In other words, I'm not in a huge hurry for New Zealand to become a republic. It'll happen in due course, sure, and when it does I'll think it's a Good Thing. But I'd just as soon watch and wait for the Australians to ditch the monarchy and become a republic first, observe carefully for a few years, watching for the things they get right and the things they get wrong, learn from their mistakes and then do it better.

In other other words, if it's only a little bit broke, wait for the Australians to show you how to fix it. They seem to be in much more of a hurry anyway.

In case you're interested, in true BBC style, the BBC website has an entire feature section devoted to the Queen's birthday today.

Tags:
The Queen; birthday; monarchy; republic; New Zealand

Bears in the news

2006-04-21T19:04:00.000+02:00

Being a bear myself, I always take note when one of my kind pops up in the news. In the past week, a black bear from China keeps getting a mention. That's because said black bear was the reason why the first face transplant ever performed in China had to be undertaken. It was only the second face transplant in the world, the first having been performed in France last year.

The recipient of the new face, or more precisely a new cheek, upper lip and nose - all from the one donor, was Li Guoxing, a 30 year-old hunter and farmer. He required the surgery after being attacked by a black bear some two years ago. Chinese media report that he is doing well, though it will be two months before doctors can be certain that his body has not rejected the new face.

While it's undoubtedly great for Mr. Li to have had his mauled face repaired, spare a thought for the bear. Given that Mr. Li was a hunter, for all we know, the mauling may have been self-defence, a matter of life or death for the bear. Perhaps he thought to himself "if I just rip half this guy's face off, but let him live, he at least won't be able to use his gun properly" or something to that effect. Or maybe it was revenge. Perhaps Mr. Li killed the poor bear's brother, or mother, or partner. Who knows? Just thought I'd throw the potential other side of the story out there, because the media reports have been neglecting it.

On a more serious note, New Scientist has a more detailed report on the face transplant operation, including consideration of ethical issues and whatnot. It's worth a read, though be warned, it contains pretty graphic images of Mr Li's new face and his old one, or rather lack of one. Not for the faint hearted.

Tags:
bears; China; face transplant

Happy Easter

2006-04-16T13:31:00.000+02:00

A very happy Easter to all who celebrate it.

Teflon John has questions to answer

2006-04-12T12:29:00.000+02:00

Also on the front page of BBC News today is a story about the Australian Prime Minister, John Howard. Now, anyone who's been reading my blog since the early days already knows what I think of Teflon John. To say he is my second most disliked Western leader would be to put it mildly. Back in April 2005, I put it like this:

I'm afraid that this just further confirms my previously-held impression of John Howard as, frankly, an arrogant tosser. ... If I were Australian, I'd view him as an embarrassment to my country.

and this:

[John Howard is] an odious little man with an attitude problem and a misplaced desire to turn his country into a carbon-copy of the USA.

This is the man, remember, who unabashedly maintained that the recent race riots in the suburbs of Sydney, stirred up by white supremacists and violently targeting the Lebanese community (some of whom retaliated with violence also), did not in anyway reveal a racist underbelly of Australian society. Yeah, right! And yet he keeps getting re-elected. Go figure.

In any case, it would appear that Teflon John is in a bit of trouble over an Australian link to irregularities (= accepted bribes) in the UN-administered oil-for-food programme, which allowed Iraq to export a limited amount of oil to pay for food. He has previously publicly denied that he or his government had any knowledge that kickbacks were paid under this scheme.

There is an inquiry into this scandal going on in Australia right now. John Howard has already submitted a written statement to said inquiry, but now, as the BBC reports today, he has been summoned to appear before it in person tomorrow. Oops! Not a good look, especially since this will apparently make John Howard the first serving Prime Minister to face an official inquiry in Australia since 1983. Poor chap, my heart bleeds.

You know what they say: where there's smoke, there's fire. I'll be watching the results with interest, to say the least.

Tags:
Australia; John Howard; international politics

New Zealand makes front page of BBC News: Bad news as usual

2006-04-12T11:57:00.000+02:00

Today once again, New Zealand graces the front page of the BBC News website. As ever, though, it's bad news.

It would seem that a young British chap had been missing in the Coromandel region, after failing to return from a tramping excursion, and now they've found his body. That sucks.

Robert Atkin, from Lancashire, was only 26 and was just 3 weeks into what was supposed to be a one year long holiday in New Zealand with his girlfriend. Poor guy, and for that matter, poor girl. My heart goes out to her, and to the young man's family. What a horrible thing to have happen.

The BBC article notes:

Rescue workers said Mr Atkin had experience of hiking in the UK, but not in New Zealand.

They said last week that he may have become disoriented by using northern hemisphere sun settings and inadvertently headed further into the bush.

As a personal aside, I would think that that is quite possible. I've lived in Europe for six years now and I still haven't got my head around the different movements of the sun - or the moon, for that matter - here, as compared with back home. What chance does someone in their first three weeks on the other side of the world have, then?

Tags:
New Zealand; BBC

Italian election result confirmed and denied

2006-04-12T00:52:00.000+02:00

Further to my post yesterday on the results of the Italian general election, there has been an, umm, interesting development. The official results are in, and Romano Prodi has been confirmed as the winner, by the narrowest of margins. But that's not the interesting bit. The interesting bit is that the incumbent Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, refuses to accept the result and refuses to concede defeat, citing voting irregularities and disputed ballot papers.

Strange. All I can think of when I hear that is: hanging chads. It'll be interesting to see how this develops, and whether Berlusconi actually has something concrete to base his claims on, or whether this is just some sort of last-ditch gambit designed to help him cling to power. From what I've seen of Berlusconi, my money would be on the latter.

BBC News and Reuters have all the details.

Tags:
Italy
politics

My heart bleeds

2006-04-10T19:17:00.000+02:00

Were today a Saturday, this would qualify as a "good news Saturday" post: exit polls in Italy suggest that Silvio Berlusconi may well have been ousted in the general election. No results have bee confirmed as yet, but as the BBC reports:

According to exit polls, centre-left leader Romano Prodi is on course to beat Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

A Nexus poll shown on Italian TV put Mr Prodi's coalition on 50-54% in both houses of parliament, with Mr Berlusconi's coalition on 45-49%.

All reports seem to indicate that the turn-out has been particularly high, up in the 80-85% region. It remains to be seen whether the official results will confirm these early reports, and if they do, what sort of a coalition Romano Prodi will be able to form, how long it will last, and how effective it will be. Italian governments, of course, are notoriously short-lived. Berlusconi's goverment, which now looks to be coming to an end, is the longest-serving Italian government since the Second World War.

I for one will not lament Mr. Berlusconi's election loss, should it come. Perhaps once he is no longer in power, the Italian authorities can pursue the corruption claims against him, without being thwarted at every turn and having special dispensations and laws passed especially for Berlusconi. We can only hope.

Tags:
Italy; politics; Berlusconi

Still here, honest

2006-04-10T19:00:00.000+02:00

Ugh!

I'm back in Trier for a few days. In my absence, they've had a change of state government. I'll try to knock a proper post about it together later in the day.

Well, that never happened, did it? I've been rubbish. You'd be forgiven for thinking this blog was moribund, but it isn't, I swear. You'll see.

Anyway, the Rheinland-Pfalz (and Saxony-Anhalt and Baden-Württemberg) state elections are so long past they hardly seem worth commenting on any more, except to say that in their different ways, all three state elections seemingly strengthened the hand of the "grand coalition" at state level. Three entirely different results, but all pretty good news for the coalition of SPD and CDU that is running the country as a whole.

The state election results, for anyone who's still interested, are here, but it's all old news I'm afraid.

Must do better.

Tags:
Germany
German politics

The other side of the country

2006-03-29T12:17:00.000+02:00

I'm back in Trier for a few days. In my absence, they've had a change of state government. I'll try to knock a proper post about it together later in the day.

Replica stadium coming to Berlin

2006-03-25T17:26:00.000+01:00

Germany is in the grip of World Cup fever. Barely a day passes here without some new story about the upcoming World Cup, whether it's doubt about the safety of the stadiums, concern about the abilities of the German national team, a tabloid-led campaign against Jürgen Klinsmann - the national coach, or controversy over how the army could be used to beef up security during the World Cup. (For historical reasons, Germans are very jumpy about any domestic military activity at all).

This week's big story, here in Berlin at least, was the announcement that Adidas plans to build a replica of the Berlin stadium, the Olympiastadion, as well as a surrounding "soccer park", on the lawn in front of the German parliament. Built on a scale of 1:3.3, the mini-stadium will seat around 10,000 fans, who will be able to watch games on giant screens and generally soak up the World Cup atmosphere, despite not having been able to gain tickets to the actual matches. It's apparently going to look something like the computer-generated image on the right. According to Deutsche Welle, tickets to the soccer park will cost just €1 and to the replica stadium itself just €3, with that money going to charity.

All 64 World Cup games are to be broadcast on giant screens on the grounds at the Reichstag. Adidas expects up to 70,000 visitors per day.

Yet the action will not be limited to passive spectating. Around the stadium, soccer fields will be set up. Tournaments are supposed to be held. Schools are encouraged to take field trips to the park and play soccer. Also, no World Cup in Germany would be complete without a beer garden. The public in general should have a good time.

Even on those few days when soccer players and fans have the day off from the tournament, the mini-stadium will host concerts. US hip-hop group "The Black Eyed Peas" are scheduled for June 28. English singer-songwriter James Blunt is scheduled to perform on July 7.

Sounds like a good idea to me. I might just have to head along and check it out when the time comes.

Tags:
Berlin; Germany; sport; World Cup

Good news Saturday

2006-03-25T17:12:00.000+01:00

It's been a long hiatus for Good news Saturday, but it's back. Today's good news comes from Africa, specifically Nigeria.

It has been announced that the Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo (what a great name!) has agreed to hand over the former Liberian President, Charles Taylor, to the Liberian authorities. Taylor has been living in exile in Nigeria since he stood down as the leader of Liberia in 2003. He is wanted by the UN-backed war crimes tribunal in Sierra Leone to stand trial for crimes committed during the Liberian civil war, which began in 1987. Until now, the Nigerian president had refused to hand Taylor over. His change of tack today comes in response to a formal request from the newly elected Liberian president Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf.

It it thought that the Liberian authorities will send Mr Taylor straight to Sierra Leone to stand trial, once they have him in custody.

Good news for justice, good news for human rights.

BBC News and Reuters have all the details.

Tags:
Africa; Liberia; human rights; Nigeria; good news

New Zealand in the news

2006-03-25T17:03:00.000+01:00

New Zealand has made the BBC News website once more, and as usual it's for something weird. This story details how a man was caught speeding in the NZ town of Papamoa. Nothing unusual or weird about that, of course, except that the guy didn't have a driver's licence or, umm, any arms. He was using one foot to steer and one to accelerate. Interesting tactc.

The best part of the story is this quote from Senior Sergeant Diedre Lack about the incident:

Obviously, driving at a speed like that, arms or not, you're just waiting for an accident.

Ha! The speed in question was 121km/h. She ought to come to Germany, where noone drives at under that speed, unless they're just waiting for an accident.

One day, New Zealand will make the pages of the BBC News website for a story that is neither weird nor embarrassing. I live in hope.

Tags:
New Zealand
weird news

Question for ya

2006-03-23T16:29:00.000+01:00

In what may or may not become a regular instalment here at The Capital Letter, this is the bit where I get to ask a question of my readers and you get to help me by enabling me to cure my ignorance just a little bit, one step at a time. The title, for what it's worth, comes courtesy of Miss Behaviour, who claims to have had a friend in High School who prefaced all his questions with "Question for ya" - just so there would be no doubt. True or apocryphal, I don't know, but it makes a cracking title for a post like this.

Anyhow ... today's question is directly related to the possible (fingers crossed) onset of Spring.

Near where Miss Behaviour and I live in Berlin, there are a number of lakes. Two of these lakes are the two Wannsees, a large one and a small one, imaginatively named Großer Wannsee and Kleiner Wannsee, respectively. You can see them both clearly in this image from Wikipedia.

Yesterday, I went for a walk along to the two Wannsees and discovered that while the smaller of the two has completely thawed from its previous frozen state, the Großer Wannsee is still almost completely frozen over. Thus, whereas this sculler can already train freely on the Kleiner Wannsee ...

... this tour boat is still frozen in, barely 100m away as the crow flies.

The ice of the Großer Wannsee gives way to the open water of the Kleiner Wannsee just before the bridge under which the two lakes join. As a result, whereas the gull in the background is standing on the ice, the ducks in the foreground are paddling in the water.

In the fading light as dusk approaches, the two lakes look like this:

Kleiner Wannsee, completely thawed

Großer Wannsee, still almost completely frozen over

Which brings me, finally, to my question for ya: why is that? How can that be? The lakes are joined together; they are located right alongside each other; the weather affecting one is the same as the weather affecting the other. So why the significant difference in thaw speeds? And why does the smaller lake thaw first?

If anyone with a clearer understanding of physics and meteorology than I (not hard) can shed some light on that for me, I should be most appreciative.

Tags:
queries; ice; weather; Berlin; Wannsee

Good news from Iraq for once

2006-03-23T10:28:00.000+01:00

Wow! This is good news: three hostages, one Briton and two Canadians have been freed in Iraq after four months in captivity.

Jolly good show. More of the same for the ~~dozens~~ thousands of hostages still held in Iraq, please.

Tags:
Middle East
Iraq

Thank heavens!

2006-03-22T23:01:00.000+01:00

Germany won. Germany 4 - USA 1. The world will not end tonight. What a relief!

Not a very good game though. Still, you can't have your cake and eat it.

Tags:
sport
Germany
football

Incidentally ...

2006-03-22T18:22:00.000+01:00

... if I am not here tomorrow, and there is no news coming out of Germany, it will be because the German football team will have lost to the United States in this evening's game and the world will have ended.

Thought you should know, just in case.

Impending doom is explained much more carefully and less cryptically by Paul at A Berlin Diary.

Tags:
sport
football
Germany