Shoes! Shoes! Shoes!

Neil Patrick Harris is a shoe fairy, sings; got shoes for Sesame Street.


via Sneakergirls.

The Bra-Burning Myth - Uncovered!

From Indexed

Healin' and Killin': New Zealand Is Doin' It Right.

Okay, that might be a bit oversimplified. But New Zealand is spending 18.4% of its budget on health care, and 3.1% in its military. Actually, that's quite similar to the spending in Germany. And are "we" doin' it rite? Compared to others, maybe. The US is spending ruffly as much on its military than on health care (at the moment).
Compare these statistics yourself on Visual Economics and Sociological Images.
By the way, the US is spending 17.1% of the budget on education, New Zealand 15.1% and Germany - 9.5%
Ah, comparing statistics to turn them into populist slogans - it ain't easy.

Freiburg is on fire!?

In the last couple of weeks, and especially today, a large number of protest are going on all around Austria, Germany and other European countries as part of teh so-called Bildungsstreik. This is (or is supposed to be) a map of all universities where students are taking part in the protest against the the past introduction of tuition fees, the Bologna reform and other education related issues..

Unsere Unis auf einer größeren Karte anzeigen

Here in Freiburg, a demo with ruffly 5000 participants just ended and the main auditorium is occupied by students since Monday night. More info on twitter and on the corresponding website. The motto is "uni brennt" or "Freiburg brennt" (Uni/Freiburg is on fire), which is catchy yet, due to the implied violence, problematic.
We'll see where this goes. I wouldn't go as far as claiming that the broad student protest movement is "back", but there is certainly something going on. And the protest and demands are even slightly more differentiated and creative than in the past. It's also interesting to see the participation of high school students. Might add my 2 cents later, yet first I have to get back to... studying.

Poetry or Prose?

Once again, I am at a point where I ask myself: What is the better way to express all those timeless, priceless moments in life, good and bad, beautiful and ugly, sublime and vulgar? Poetry or prose?

So, if you can be arsed, let me know in the little poll box on the right hand side. Or, even better, start discussing in the comments section. Or both. Or whatever.

Clay Shirky on Copyrights, Prohibition and Access to Knowledge.

In an interesting interview with GRITtv, Clay Shirky talks twitter, technology, access to knowledge, journalism - and compares copyright law to the prohibition.

(via netzpolitik)

Homeward Bound.

Traveling down
a road you know
too well -

Travelers enchanted
by the sights are
too peculiar -

Pressing their noses
against windows you
don't need.

Mechanically you put on
your coat to arrive
before they remember
their suitcases.

Asti on the Train.

Sixteen-year-olds,
giggling,
discover the joy
of popping bottles
of Asti on the train.

Traveling and drinking,
talking 'bout boys,
for no good reason.

Twenty years from now
they'll have to join
clubs and societies,
to talk, travel and drink.

Boys turned into husbands,
the bottles multiplied,
the giggles got louder
- but rare.

Drink and dialect remain,
only the sixteen-year-olds
get lost on the way.

Everybody's Gonna Be An Author.

An interesting chart showing facebook and twitter authors and comparing the development to book authors:



Seed Magazine: From nearly universal literacy to nearly universal authorship.
(via Andrew Sullivan)
The post title is of course borrowed from this. Somebody should do a corresponding cover.

Come on baby let me tell you
All the things I wanna say
Come on baby let me tell you
All the things I wanna say, and
Everybody's gonna be an author,
which means you and me, my love.

(Un)favorability.

The anniversary of his election is coming up, time for a litte Obama related quiz.
A recent poll shows 2 variants of his favorability-unfavorability rating:
a) 28-67
b) 68-23

Guess which rating is for the Southern states.

Via marbury.