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Heute scheint ein WM-Qualifikationsspiel stattzufinden, und zwar zwischen den Fußballmannschaften Rußlands und Deutschlands. Es geht um die Weltmeisterschaft 2010 in Südafrika. Bekanntermaßen habe ich keinen Plan, aber das Spiel scheint für Deutschlands Teilnahme wichtig zu sein.
In Anbetracht des chauvinistischen Flaggenwahns der letzten WM, die zu allem Überfluß noch in Deutschland ausgetragen wurde, bleibt nun zu hoffen, daß Deutschland das heutige Match verliert und möglichst auch zukünftige Qualifikationsspiele. Wäre ja mal lustig – Fußball-WM ohne Deutschland.
Einer kurzen Recherche zufolge geht es um Gruppe 4, also Liechtenstein, Aserbaidschan, Wales, Finnland, Rußland und Deutschland. Cool wäre, wenn beide verlieren könnten. Und Brasilien, schließlich haben die ja schon die Olympiade (übrigens ist mein persönlicher GAU ja ein Endspiel Brasilien Deutschland).
In Moskau ist es etwas kälter und es handelt sich um ein Heimspiel für das russische Team. Die Chancen stehen also gut für eine Niederlage. Um 17:00 geht es los, ich sollte dies jetzt mal posten.

Video (Link, english)

Recently I received an email from a Chinese researcher. He was asking for one of my articles. So I replied and sent him the link to my homepage, where he would be able to download the pdf of any of my publications. However, he answered that he could not access the site and asked whether it was open for public - which it of cause is. Now I wonder if my homepage or even my domain is censored, and I worry because there is no reason to censor it. If this happens with many sites of this type then people might only have a very limited view of the World Wide Web. Nevertheless, this could as well be some coincidence that the guy for some other reason (such as a virus on his computer) was unable to reach my site.

Yesterday, some friends and me went to a party in terms of an exhibition, namely Sentjabrist (Brandlegen) by Igor Oleinikov (wiki).
Paintings were nice, the party too. Since the normality question came up again (although maybe less pronounced), I conclude that 'disguise' is the motto. We stayed long and the way home was adventurous - to express it positively.

G20 in Pittsburgh?
APS in Pittsburgh!

"Reports that say that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns - the ones we don't know we don't know." (Donald Rumsfeld)

Friday I came back from Stockholm. I really liked it and now I am teased. Similar to Riga, now I would like to have a vacation there.
Everything was super easy. After arriving, Wednesday I first had a walk and went to the Moderna Museet. Nearby, I met someone from a project partner institution. Thursday, we worked, went to the Mensa (where they even offered Hummus) and had a nice dinner. Friday I gave my talk. In the evening, I was invited to join a crayfish-dinner. That was interesting, since I had the opportunity to learn about this very Swedish costume. Eating crayfish and singing traditional Swedish songs (I was bad at the second part). After that I went out to Södermalm with I guy I met at the dinner, in the beginning also two girls joined us. I was only back around 4am. Unfortunately the flight was at 12:30. Nevertheless, it was good and I did not miss the flight, but was somewhat tired. We had a lot of fun. In a club or so, I found a CD, namely “Split-CD Deluxe – El Grande Rock’n’Rollito”. The cover is funny and the music quite good.
Swedish has the shortest word for “Thank you” I ever encountered, namely “Tack”. It is funny, because it is not only short, but also rather hard, even the german “Danke” is not as hard. I learned, since it is so short, people tend to repeat it, such as “tack, tack” or “tack, tack, tack” (but not sure if the triples are really used).

On my todays flight to Stockholm (where I am now) I got the current issue of the Time (Sep 21, 2009). Form time to time I like to read time in order to get a junctaposition to the german monocentric news journals.

Because of the forthcoming elections (27.10.) it contains an article about Germany ("Divided They Stand"). I found it is written okly. In particular, it does not reduce Germany to its Nazi-history, but focuses on the more recent part, including the reunification, life in GDR, Ostalgie, Baader&Meinhof, Dutschke, Ossis, Wessis, Turks ... (ok, is a lot).

I like the part saying "Germany has achieved so much in such a relatively short period after reunification — stability, democracy, prosperity — paradoxically highlights its failings, the sections of society that have been excluded from the success story".

Yesterday I went with two friends to a vernissage of an exhibition by Annette Ruenzler.

We arrived rather late, maybe 15min. before the official end of the opening. She does quite interesting art. But the funny thing were the other guests. Sometimes, I - as a researcher - have the fealing to be different from others, to appear like a freak when going out with 'normal' people. This time all the guests were 'different', in particular the way they dress and behave. Compared to them we must have left the impression of complete 'normalos'.

On the other hand, since we were the minority, they represented the norm and we were different again .. confusion, no idea :|

Although I definitively don't know much about cars, yesterday I had a funny discussion with two friends. Here I just want to point out again, that Mazda 121 was the first round car, which was in terms of design pioneering for models like this one.

... zu dem 'Internet-Manifest', aber die 17 wird schon stimmen.

I don't comment the 'Internet Manifesto' but 17 must be right.

FR 29.8.2009: Universitäten ohne Asta

Wie kürzlich bekannt wurde, arbeitete die Ex-Terroristin Becker in den Jahren 1981 bis 1983 mit dem Verfassungsschutz zusammen. Das an sich ist eine ziemliche Sensation - bei genauerer Betrachtung und vor dem Hintergrund ihrer Begnadigung aber vielleicht doch nicht so überraschend.
In diesem Beitrag will ich jedoch auf etwas anderes hinaus. Ende August 2009 wurde sie erneut festgenommen. Dabei spielen tagebuchartige, persönliche Notizen eine Rolle, zB "wie ich für Herrn B. beten soll", "Ich habe kein wirkliches Gefühl für Schuld" und "einen Neuanfang". Mir stellt sich die Frage, inwiefern solche Gedanken juristisch relevant sein können. Schließlich handelt es sich um eine Art Prosa. Ebenso könnte man schreiben "bin froh nicht beteiligt zu sein". Würden solche Fragmente als entlastend gewertet werden?

"Regeln sind dazu da, um zu lernen, wann man sie brechen muss."

During the flight to Riga we saw a gigantic peninsula which I assume is the impressive peninsula Hel. The trip from the airport to the city center was easy. Therefore my preliminary conclusion - Riga is a friendly city. We had a brief come together (see picture below) in the university which is a nice building located very central. It is good that there are people from all project partner countries. Naturally we went out at night, namely in the old part of Riga where there is quite some activity going on. However, I was surprised that a lot of police cruises the area. I learned that the police is not protecting the tourists but protecting the Riga-people from drunken tourists (somehow). Nevertheless, suddenly a young woman showed up speaking to use in a foreign language. As we did not react, she spoke in English, asking for some change, with the argument that she needs to buy a ticket to go home. I have been in many countries and have been asked for money quite often. The weird thing in this case was, that she was well dressed and somehow insisting. In principle, I cannot imagine how she got in this uncomfortable situation. Anyway, after leaving our table with one Lats she went on to the next table. This was a singular event and in general people are very nice and helpful.
We made an excursion to Salacgriva (also: 1, 2) which is located in a so called biosphere close to the Baltic Sea. The trip by bus takes one and a half hour. Time that our local project partners used to explain us some sites that we passed and to give a very brief insight in Latvias changeful history. It was also interesting to learn that forests a very important and protected in Riga and Latvia, representing approx. 50 percent of the countries land cover. People go and search for berries as well as mushrooms. Beavers have been extincted at certain time in the past. After resettling them in Latvia, they seem to be some kind of a plague by now. I recommend to renaturalize the habitat of the otters (which used to be one of my favorite animals when I was a kid).
The last day we had a meeting in Jurmala which is one vulnerable region. We inspected the coastal protection. The town used to be part of Riga. There are many very nice summer lodges, mostly wooden, whereas many of them are renovated. Some of them are not and look somewhat old having a very special charm. The villas are integrated in the wood, mainly pine. It is somehow a contrast to Riga.
Finally, I also bought some stuff before leaving. Among it is also a CD by the Double Faced Eels. By accident I bought a rather good CD. The band from Riga is playing something between alternative pop and rock. I only wish their music would be influenced a little bit more by Latvian culture.

Vor ein paar Jahren pflegte ich noch zu sagen "ohne Computer bist Du nur ein halber Mensch". Nachdem ich die letzten vier Monate ohne heimischen Internetzugang ausgekommen bin, habe ich seit gestern dieses Problem gelöst und muß nun feststellen, daß es vielmehr "ohne Internet bist Du nur ein halber Mensch" lauten sollte.