"Sign and Sight" (who is about to celebrate its first birthday by the way) has the English translation of the proposed citizenship test for the German federal state Hesse. 100 questions!
After quick scanning and skimming of the test I'm sure I couldn't pass it without proper preparation.Okay, I'm not German, but still, living there part-time.
But help is in sight!
Wikipedia has the answers, only in German so far, I think.
The Austrian Government is also working on a citizenship test.
Ananova reports, that Austrian Civil Servants were "left with red faces, because they had made howlers on a new citizenship test for immigrants", such as making Mozart responsible for the National anthem (which is actually disputable and no historic fact) and the like. I don't know all the questions for this test, but I'm sure the country would be reduced to 20 percent of the population, if the Austrians themselves had to take the test.
3/28/2006
3/17/2006
Kangaroo-Country Austria
Until a few years ago: when being abroad and people heard where I came from, almost everybody confused Austria with Australia and said something like: Oh, you're from kangaroo-country .....which got a bit unnerving at times.
In the last few years Austria seems to have achieved a much better name recognition, what with Arnold Schwarzenegger and similar important personalities ;-). Now I usually keep quiet about my origins, respectively consider telling people I'm from Australia.
This is not as far fetched as it may seem: Some days ago a kangaroo (or, actually a wallaby) run away from a vet in Carinthia/Austria and had to be caught in the masses of snow. Luckily, it worked.
In the last few years Austria seems to have achieved a much better name recognition, what with Arnold Schwarzenegger and similar important personalities ;-). Now I usually keep quiet about my origins, respectively consider telling people I'm from Australia.
This is not as far fetched as it may seem: Some days ago a kangaroo (or, actually a wallaby) run away from a vet in Carinthia/Austria and had to be caught in the masses of snow. Luckily, it worked.
3/05/2006
Creating Creative Minds
CreatingMinds links to descriptions of critical principles about being creative, and tools, for defining them, creating new ideas, selecting and implementing the best ideas.
Hm... Well, gonna get started with defining my problems ..:-)
Hm... Well, gonna get started with defining my problems ..:-)
3/04/2006
To make poverty history
There's an essay in Prospect by Robert Cooper (who works with Javier Solana) "The Mystery of Development" - on the role of development of poor countries, development aid and supporting measures. He sees the necessity of this process as being political in a deeper sense - any effective development must include the creation and development of the state. There are many differences between developed and less developed countries, but the one that is clearly visible in every case is the quality of the state and the important role of the law.
Campaigns such as the Make Poverty History movement, do, in his opinion "much good by raising consciousness and mobilising resources. But we will not make poverty history by our own efforts. Poverty is eliminated by the creation of functioning states; and only the poor nations themselves can do that. We should help those who are on the road—and we should be more ready to put money into making political and security solutions work. But we might as well recognise that for the most part we give aid not for development but to mitigate the evils of non-development. The objective is charitable: to help the poor survive, if possible with some dignity." Read more ..
Campaigns such as the Make Poverty History movement, do, in his opinion "much good by raising consciousness and mobilising resources. But we will not make poverty history by our own efforts. Poverty is eliminated by the creation of functioning states; and only the poor nations themselves can do that. We should help those who are on the road—and we should be more ready to put money into making political and security solutions work. But we might as well recognise that for the most part we give aid not for development but to mitigate the evils of non-development. The objective is charitable: to help the poor survive, if possible with some dignity." Read more ..
3/02/2006
Visual Complexity
This is beautiful!
An array of almost 300 representations of visual complexity from fields like art, biology, business networks, computer systems, food webs, the internet, knowledge networks, social networks, transportation networks, and more. Each one a work of art!
An array of almost 300 representations of visual complexity from fields like art, biology, business networks, computer systems, food webs, the internet, knowledge networks, social networks, transportation networks, and more. Each one a work of art!
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