Handbook for Bloggers

... and cyber-dissidents, by Reporters Without Borders, pdf-download here, a practical guide and manual, made with the help from bloggers all over the world, e.g. Jay Rosen or Dan Gillmor.

S.N.O.W.

end of november snow in muenster 005
Originally uploaded by francessa_Rich.

.. in Northern Germany where it seldom snows - more than 700 accidents, electrical power outage in several villages for several days and nights - and a gorgeous landscape.

Fairytales

fairytales
Originally uploaded by francessa_Rich.

would probably be a good title for this entry - considering the misty photo on the right (taken a week ago in Germany). Instead I'm thinking about logos, because that's the topic I'm discussing with a group of 16-year-olds this week.
What makes a good logo? The kids like Michelin, Apple, Starbucks, Puma and Mickey. What about YOU?

Of the Google holiday logos I still like the Bloomsday logo (2004) best. But maybe this is only because I was pleased as punch when it appeared.

Winter Darkness

winter darkness
Originally uploaded by francessa_Rich.

First snow over here (that's Vienna).
Finally.
It's World Cup Time again.
Here are some statistics.

Language Matters

Lots of useful language information here, e g.:
In the US 322 languages are spoken, the most linguistically diverse states being California with 207 different languages and New York with 169 different languages.

In Austria, the official language is German, and there are two more additional official languages: Croatian and Slovene.In Carinthia, a legal right to use and display bilingual place-names has been granted in those areas where at least 25 per cent of the population belongs to the Slovene ethnic group. This right is not, however, implemented in all the areas to which it theoretically applies. Street-names are not put up bilingually, nor are place-names in telephone directories, public transport timetables and other such semi-official material given bilingually. But this is a political matter and has to do with the political situation in Carinthia and the right wing Carinthian governor, Joerg Haider. Besides Slovene and Croatian there are minority languages: Czech, Slovak, Hungarian, Turkish.
Germany includes five indigenous minority languages in addition to the official one, which is the German language: Danish and Northern Frisian, Sater Frisian, Sorbian, and the Romany language.

A diary from the WSIS-Summit

Read a 3-day-diary, written by the Indian journalist Amit Jain who was in Tunis for the World Summit on the Information Society (16 - 18 November 2005), on key issues such as internet governance and financing the digital divide. Lots of links on this BBC-site as well.

And here's the collaborative effort in the form of a blog by an international group of journalists working with Panos London to provide a media perspective on the World Summit.

Presidential disfluency

Mark Liberman in the Language Log Blog on George Bush, in his 11/16/2005 press conference in Kyoto.

Now what do these pauses tell us?

Uncyclopedia

green eyes green grapes
Originally uploaded by francessa_Rich.

"Contrary to popular belief, a cat is not a dog. It is well known that cats are widely acknowledged to be, by nature, nearly as royal as one of the gods/God's finest creations, the pigs. The Royal family tree of the cat is heretofore unknown to us, but catalogues are working to address this issue, which is considered to be of immense and dire importance to present concerns...."


More(lots) of this gibberish in Uncyclopedia, the content-free encyclopedia.

Mixed societies

Dominique Vidal, deputy editor-in-chief of "Le Monde Diplomatique" (in an interview, available only in German with the Austrian daily "derStandard" of Nov 14, 2005) sees the riots in France as the result of 30 years of failed "banlieue"-policy (the suburbian areas holding 95 percent of Arab or black people, with a 50%-unemployment rate among youths) and not as a revolt steered by Islamist groups, as is maintained by right wing MPs.
Only a mixed society could deal with these post-colonialist & social problems - problems - in his opinion too big and too expensive for France to solve without the help of the EU.

I dreamed I saw St. Augustine ..

roses2
Originally uploaded by francessa_Rich.

On November 13, in 354, Aurelius Augustinus, Roman Church Father, Doctor of the Church, theologian, philosopher, thinker, saint, central figure in Christianity and the history of Western thought, was born in Thagaste (today Souk-Ahras in Algeria).
Two quotes:

Miracles are not contrary to nature, but only contrary to what we know about nature.

Give me chastity and continence, but not yet.

Hats off!

my park at noon in november
Originally uploaded by francessa_Rich.

A cheap tool
that turns salt water into potable water in an uncomplicated, cheap and swift manner - a ground-breaking invention made by a German.


Here's a report of watercone's test phase in Yemen.

Only in the movies

autumninmuenster
Originally uploaded by francessa_Rich.

These things happen only in the movies

I'd love to see a film where everything happens the way things usually happen: searching for a parking spot for about 23 minutes, starting to dance in the street and everybody's crying for help and so on ....