Cyprus banking crisis

It seems that the Cyprus banking crisis is amongst the more interesting things, well here we go. It seems that there is some agreement that the immediate reason for the banking crisis in Cyprus was the restructuring of Greek government debt in March 2012 (e.g., Washington Post, Wikipedia) which imposed a haircut of 53.5% on the approximate of €22bn held by Cyprian private investors. Of course, other factors contributed such as an increasing unemployment rate. But the actions to "rescue" Greece triggered writedowns and massive losses of Cyprian banks. Interestingly, the German Minister of Finance Wolfgang Schäuble was part of the body who decided on the restructuring of Greek government debt. But it is difficult to agree with Schäuble that high interest rates paid to depositors or a sound legal system initiated the current development. The same Wolfgang Schäuble said the Cypria banking sector was not viable. Though, assuming the losses with Greek bonds were the trigger, this measure agreed by the so-called Troika including Schäuble. So, is it Troika that is not viable? Also, the levy on bank deposits including small accounts was agreed by the Troika. Schäuble regretted that the measure was not accepted by the Cyprian parliament though rejected having been in favour of the levy on small deposits (but nevertheless must have agreed in the meeting).
The negotiations on the Cyprus rescue package must have caused some severe dissonance amongst European Finance Ministers. This became apparent in some remarks, e.g., in response to Schäuble's criticism that Cyprus had an disproportionate banking sector, Jean Asselborn of Luxemburg said "There is no one who says that the automobile industry or the weapons industry are over-proportional in Germany". It is also interesting to note that Germany has not only suffered but also benefited from the financial turmoil. First, investors regarded and still regard German bonds as a safe haven. As a result, the interest rate that Germany has to pay for borrowing has gone down to 0.03% for two year maturity (it was even negative at -0.5% for short periods). This reduced the cost of borrowing and contributed to the aim of producing a balanced government budget. Secondly, the Euro devalued over the financial crisis. Thus, German products became cheaper outside of the Euro zone. And indeed, Germany increased exports in the recent years. Thirdly, Germany has lent to Greece as part of the rescue packet. The interest rate was initially set to 5.5% but reduced in July 2011 to 3.5% and in February 2012 to 150 basis points above Euribor (currently about 0.5% for 12 months maturity, thus about 2.0%). No matter which of these interest rates is taken into account, there is a net profit for Germany if Greece does not default.

Birthday and Stimmung!

The faculty of Linguistics celebrated its 40th birthday. Interestingly, the Dean said a healthy minded individual would either become sarcastic and develop a grim sense of humour or turn mad. The food would have been sufficient if only one out of three would have been hungry. Sadly, the event started too early to go home and have food, and it took too long (2.5 hrs) for not becoming hungry. After about one hour all drinks were drunk as well. This was despite the fact that Germans don't drink as they have to drive a car ("Driving a car is not a privilege, it's a right"). I marked the celebrations with Nanaimo bars. The next sentences subtly provide some background information on Nanaimo. They were invented on Vancouver Island, more precisely in Nanaimo which is right opposite Vancouver across the Strait of Georgia. The British Columbia Metro ferry service connects Departure Bay (Nanaimo) and Horseshoe Bay (Vancouver) as well as Duke Point (Nanaimo) and Tsawwassen (Vancouver). Having used the word Metro, you should be aware that there is a German company which owns the rights of this word. Recently, they stopped Microsoft from using the term Metro design with regards to Win 8. Microsoft now calls it modern UI. I wonder how long it takes them to realise that parts of Paris' transport system and an administrative body of Vancouver might infringe their proprietary rights. And don't say they wouldn't, they are German.

Later that month, some people celebrated the day of reforming the church. Specifically making it the Lutheran church (remember that episode where Lisa Simpson jumps up happily as she realises the people living on her tooth are Lutherans?). Well, the whole thing is accompanied by a specific kind of bread roll. In theory, this bread roll is only available on the day and resembles the Luther seal. Though, there have been reports of the rolls being sold on other days of the year. As far as I am concerned the bread roll is the most important thing. Well, being here I am surrounded by people who enjoy their cars more than anything, i.e. carharrt, carholic and Catholic. One of them was passionately dubious about the baked thing. His argument started with pointing out that Luther was actually born in Koblenz (rather than in Eisleben as the many others might believe, nevermind) and from this he produced some argument I can't remember. The baseline was that it just can't be right to eat the thingy. Despite my plans to dance on the following day (All Saints accompanied by state ruled dancing prohibition), I just lied in bed trying to cure a pneumonia/cough/cold thing. As usually in this country, I was refused medical treatment. I was told to go and maybe see a chemist or whatever. If it wouldn't be manageable by them, they could make an appointment with the GP. In situations like this, you can shout: Stimmung! to express your serious fun and to engage others in the fun as well.
On a slightly different note, being from East Germany does not constitute a circumstance of birth, upbringing, religion, sex, ethnicity, race, caste, disability, age, dress, culture or sexual preference. Thus, laws of equal opportunities are not applicable and discriminating against these people is just fine (Hon. 17th Chamber of Stuttgart Magistrates Court: Aktenzeichen: 17 Ca 8907/09). Stimmung!

Air space and issue

Following verbal attacks, Ryanair's O'Leary now offered that Spanish officials may review data about the airline held by the Irish air safety body. Ryanair is Spain's largest carrier with 30m passengers last year and 17 destinations, but it can be assured of Spanish authorities' most vigilant attention. The move is said to reflect Ryanair's fears of being left with a damaged image.
A lot of water power station feature so-called fish ladders. The idea is that fish would climb using the stairs rather than being killed by the blades of the water turbines. The German secretary of infrastructure, Klaus-Dieter Scheurle joked about the amount of literally shredded fish in German water power stations. Most fish do not climb the stairs, but enter through the main water outlets of the turbines. Travelling downstream fish are sought through the grids protecting the inlets of the turbines and transformed into fish mousse. But no worries, Scheurle is changing position and will be head of the German flight safety body. Reminds me on the number of almost-accidents around Berlin-Tegel (TiXeL) airport in the times before it stepped in for the failed Berlin-Brandenburg airport (BER). Supposedly, the numbers just increased.
Some detail on wealth distribution: in 1998 the poorer half of the German population held 4% of the total assets, today it's 1%. On the other hand, the divergence of incomes reduced in the time span from 2006 until today.

Markets and airspace

Some media have recently claimed that the drought in the US reduced the available crop and, importantly, investors would not only benefit more than anybody else - it was them driving the prices. Nevertheless, it seems that this time a number of investors simply missed out. Actually, they held short positions or reduced their longs (e.g., Dow Jones UBS Commodity Index) on corn and wheat since the farmers were out on the fields early this year and a rather good turn-out was expected. Only recently, fonds invested in long positions to participate and for correcting their losses. Nevertheless, this suggests that at least the initial increase in prices in June was caused by food and fuel producers. Hopes are now focussing on harvests Brazil and other parts of South America. But if everybody is buying corn in Brazil, prices will rise - without the contribution of evil forces (investors) whatsoever.
On another note, the Financial Times Deutschland published a report saying that AESA was investigating three incidents on 26 July 2012. Following a thunderstorm at Bajaras airport (Madrid, Spain) all flights were redirected to the much smaller Manises airport (Valencia, Spain). This included all Ryanair services to Madrid. The small capacity of the airfield (compared to Bajaras) and the unusual large number of flights arriving resulted in a massive hold time, i.e. aircraft had to remain in flight and wait for a landing slot. Within a timespan of three minutes, three Ryanair flights issued a Mayday call to Air Traffic Control after their fuel was hitting the 30 mins in-air minimum requirement. Thus, these flights were given highest priority to perform emergency landings. According to the news, allegations include that Ryanair acted systematically in not refuelling their machines appropriately. This was backed by the German pilot union (Cockpit) alleging Ryanair of pressuring pilots into refuelling at the bare minimum. Furthermore, the Irish Independent published reports that pilots who would use too much fuel or refuel above limit would be bullied and had to report for failing to achieve target numbers, which was denied by O'Leary. The emergency landings caused potential dangers as other aircraft had to remain in flight for longer which in turn reduced their fuel. Thus, AESA investigates whether the safety of Spanish air space was put at a risk as a matter of misconduct. It should be noted that another three aircraft were calling Mayday over Valencia this day (two EasyJet and one LAN Chile). All three of them for the same reason - a lack of fuel. Though these cases appear to be independent from the Ryanair flights under investigation. A Spanish consumers association said Ryanair could be banned from Spanish airspace for up to three years which is one of their main destinations. O'Leary denied any misconduct and said aircraft were handled and refuelled as required by EU regulation. He argued the problem was not Ryanair's refuelling policy but an unusually long hold time in Valencia. Furthermore, O'Leary insisted Ryanair's licence was issued by the Irish regulatory body and Spain could not expire or amend their licence.

The market

Recently, a rather naughty person transformed the 3 ft tall letters forming the signage to the section L, U and T of the university. An additional three foot tall letter S was cut out from black card board and somehow attached to this wall location. The letter had been removed the other day - it could mislead visitors as section S is located further down. I should add a photo of this and put in here. See, this is the kind of exciting stuff that happens around here.
Well, I discovered a market in Bielefeld. They do sell like fresh veg there! So, find me there early Saturdays. Though, despite having stuff on offer they haven't lost their special personal warmth. I asked for floury potatoes and frisée. The response were rants on how I could possibly go about and ask for stuff like that on a warm and sunny day. Apparently, I had no clue what I did and hence, had to be told. This involved farmers, how and where they grow and after all, people don't buy frisée not to mention floury potatoes. From personal interest, what do people do with their waxy potatoes in this country? Chips are deemed to be the most unhealthy thing. And what else could there be?
My journey went on to the cheese stall. Actually, that is a normal place. They do cheeses of different countries, all sorts of makes from solid to creamy, old and young, with lots of stuff on them or just little. I know that because a group of three ladies was being served right in front of me. They tried almost everything but bought only little. More interestingly, there was a man with the second assistant buying large amounts of stuff. Like 60 oz of each sort. Also, he engaged the lady who owns the stall in a conversation about their goats. How much milk they produce, how many they had, how many nannies a buck could serve (40) and so on. During these conversations, the sunshine was taken over by clouds, a shower started and stopped again, and more sunshine returned. Finally, I got some cheddar (semi mature), some Le Jersy (no, this is not a typo) and some Italian stuff whose name I always forget.
Earlier that week, I handed my suit to the dry cleaners (actually a single little lady). On my collection, she tried wrapping it in some sort of plastic bag using sort of a primitive hanger with rolls of bags attached. Having failed her initial two attempts and completing the task with a long sigh, she looked at me (or shall I say scanned me top to bottom and up again) and looked at the suit. From her assessment, she concluded "You look different. Are you French?" My surprise made her explain, that it is alright to look different these days. There is a growing number of people looking different these days. My enquiry revealed the issue at hand were my proportions (or the size of my suit that gave her such a hard time). I'd look smaller (i.e. shorter, less wide, less long), but fiddling around with the thing she found, I was less smaller than her initial assessment. Just I appear to be more less than I am actually less. Nevertheless, less. I am not sure I am reproducing this properly.
Having been confronted with all these Olympic events, I have to spread some random fact, right? So, here we go. The winners of the 1896 Olympic games received a silver medal, an olive branch and a diploma. There was bronze for second place and nothing for thirds. Tug of war was recognised as an Olympic sport from 1900 to 1920. The highlight of the 1896 games was the marathon won by the local boy Spyridon Louis. According to myth, he figured that there was a competition and started spontaneously-ish. During the race, he stopped by the local in Pikermi and had a glass of wine (or an Orange and a Cognac). He quizzed the people on how much ahead his competitors were. Once being presented with the facts, he declared he would catch up and win the race, so he did.

Banoffee pie

Well, I have been asked a few times how to produce the Banoffee pie. So, this is how. Though, I am not transforming this into a cooking blog as there is so much good stuff out there. Just check the Grilled Cheese Social, the Pioneer Woman, Saveur and of course BBC (look for Sophie Dahl and Lorraine Pascale). Mainly, this will be about substituting ingredients with stuff that is available in Germany.
For a quite substantial 28cm cake that will serve ten hungry people (or something between 12 and 14 normal people), you'll need:

• Chocolate Hobnobs, which are not available and substituted by one package of wholemeal biscuits (like Leibniz or De Beukelaer)
• A 100g chocolate bar (like something that wasn't sure whether to become milk or dark chocolate)
• About 1.5oz (some 50g) butter
• A tsp baking powder
• Two 14oz (397g) tins of sweetened condensed milk, I'd say Carnation, but in Germany you'll find Dogvan or Steinhauer products. The pre-caramalised stuff is fine and saves you a lot of time. If you can choose, the Steinhauer stuff is a bit more caramelised and more solid making the cake less likely to "melt" away.
• Six medium sized bananas (but since that's the healthy part, you can have six large ones with no probs)
• A big containter double cream (16oz/450g), which is not available in Germany. But there are two options. If you're lucky your supermarket offers "Crème double". There is only one supplier in Germany who lives in Bielefeld and and for some reason they believe it was sort of Crème fraiche (Can you believe it?). Second option is Amazon. They offer a 1l (aka 35 Imperial oz) package of Frischli Creme Double. You'll need four thimble sized packs of Dr Oetker or half a Frischli package.
• Finally, some cocoa for dusting

Once you've got all that stuff together, you've been to a number of shops and assistants will have looked at you as if you were alien. Dare you. Asking for double cream.

The toffee: For starting with the stuff that takes longest, you put the tins with the condensed milk in a saucepan and fill it up with water. You make it boil and leave it there for almost 2 hrs. Take care, the tins have to be covered by water at all times. Otherwise, there is a certain risk of the stuff exploding. Also, you might want to use an old-ish saucepan as something leaves some horrible stains on a stainless steel one. The tins will increase in size over time and they will be piping hot at the end of the process. So, you'll need something to get them out of the water. Maybe place them in the sink for a moment and get some cold water. This will caramelise the condensed milk. If you have the pre-caramelised stuff, you don't have to do that and you save almost two hours. Also, this is already cold and you don't have to wait.

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The pie: Whilst your toffee is boiling, you crush the biscuits. This should be sort of fine crumbles at the end of the process. You add those crumbles, some 1/3 of your chocolate bar finely chopped, the baking powder and the molten butter in a bowl. Mix it nicely. You want to press this in your cake tin such that it is packed and evenly spread out. You put that in the fridge and let it sit.

The banoffee layers: Chop all the bananas and lay half them on your pie. Again, this should be evenly spread out. Then you are careful with opening your first toffee tin. If something squirts out of there on your hand, put it under running cold water right now. Try to spread this toffee evenly (it can be quite thick and sticky and refuse to do so. But it's fine if it's not perfect - we gonna cover this with cream later). Put in the next layer of chopped banana on top of this toffee layer. The remainder of the chocolate should be molten by now (have I told you to put in a bowl and melt it?) and you use a spoon for sort of sprinkling the chocolate it all over the place (but within the boundaries of your tin). The idea is that once the chocolate becomes solid again it provides sort of a grid for stabilising the thing. As a side effect it tastes like a bit of extra chocolate. Finally, you aim for spreading the toffee from the second tin sort of evenly.

The cream: So, this is the double cream. Now, the toffee stuff is all warm and putting whipped cream on warm stuff is not a good idea. So let it sit, put the cake in the fridge until you are like serving it. It's only 5 mins from now. You put the double cream in a bowl and start whipping it, just way more gently than German so-called cream. The cream becomes stiff and fluffy faster than German whipping cream and if you're doing too much it'll turn into butter rather quickly. So give it a gentle whipping. Spread the whipped cream evenly all over the cake. Now this time you actually try to get it nicely evenly spread. Just in case there is some cream left, you might want to do some creamy decoration or just taste whether it's nice and fluffy (though too late for making amendments now). Finally, dust some cocoa powder all over.

Tidying up

Some people start tidying up as one form procrastination, others stumble into performance art or dancing or stuff or typical German food. I decided to have a look into the things that I always wanted to write a post about, but haven't come around doing it.
Okay, IKEA is a place that is in Brackwede and apparently a popular place as I have bought almost all (well, what shall I say) my furniture there. It had been rated down in 2010. Dare you. They have their own loop bus line numbered "123" traveling from "Brackwede, Kirche" to IKEA and back. In other words, you can't miss it. On a side note, Brackwede is pronounced with a long vowel a. Though, that seems to be quite surprising to most people. In a similar case, Hamburg altered the orthography of all place names ending in -beck to -bek in 1946 simply for conserving the long vowel in the pronunciation. The effect of not doing so can be observed in place names like Lübeck and a bit more local Jöllenbeck. These places are pronounced with a short vowel now. Having mentioned what kind of things people make up, let me say a big breakfast is not any more satisfying over the course of the day than my "ridiculously small portion of porridge" (yes, I am getting myself a camera for filming how I am using a mortar for making porridge oats). Anyway, IKEA experienced problems in selling ad-hoc items, such as baskets, glasses, pillows, covers, candles. More precisely, problems refers to lower growth rates of sales than usual, i.e. German customers buy still buy more useless stuff than before, but less more. Two years ago they were planning their first High Street shop in an effort of competing with their competitor stuff sellers with branches in the city centres. The most recent item on their news blog says they might receive allowance to start works mid this year. For making the point really clear, this shop can be reached without using a car or extensive travel on public services. What a move!
The next item is from 3rd November 2010. From today's perspective, reminds me on pussy riot with their naked protest. The High Street soap selling company Lush was said to having pressed staff into joining the "Go Naked Day". Also, shop assistants were said having been trained to refer to customers' private parts purposefully - and it wasn't like "You want to make a clean and well-kept impression there", apparently it was more aimed at size.
Well, German food. But let me say something nice towards the end of February 2011 (I mean with clearing the backlog): Even you have been a criminal and all that, you can become a star. Really.

Dancing prohibition

A day after the German holiday of Fronleichnam, I realise that there was no prohibition of dance in this county. Though, the prohibition of dance is a story of misunderstandings. There is a different set of regulation for each county and each day within a county - and there are regulatory differences on whether sports is performed in public, in private, with the aim of commerce or for regenerating the mental health, and whether the whole day or a just a few hours are affected. Actually, there is no English version in Wikipedia - hopefully the German does. The holiday also involves a Monstranz, e.g. in Cologne (a really dirty building, right next to Central station - seen it when changing for trains to Bruxelles). Nevertheless, the Germans can denunciate each other - for dancing.
What else? The eurozone seems to be in a considerable crisis. One of the main contributors is Germany's chancellor Angela Merkel. In fact, her actions seem to suggest that she attributed the crisis to some less well managed member states. That means some member states overspent and thus, increased their government gross debt excessively. According to this account, these countries have to be regulated and brutal spending cuts especially in pensioners, unemployed and public service staff are inevitable (in Merkel's world). Actually, Spain's government gross debt as a function of GDP is roughly 13 percent points less than Germany's. And one might wonder why Spain has such a hard time refinancing. One answer could be that there is threat of the country being unable to support its struggling banking sector. If that was the case, it would be refinanced by some ESM and in fact be under dictatorship of Merkel. If that is was case, Spain's economy could just close the doors. When Merkel offered benefits for Germans buying cars in an attempt of hindering a recession, no measure of stimulation was an option in her Greek policies. Indeed, Merkel's measures remind the observer on Brüning's ideas of austerity. The result is (and was) an unemployment rate of some 52% amongst adults younger than 25 (eurostat). In Germany, these measures were followed by most horrible parts of history and should increase caution if not hinder any German politician in doing the like. Well, maybe it is a more systematic crisis accompanied by half-hearted rescue measures. This would suggest that Merkel's austerity put Europe at risk and topped the bill for the German taxman.

Topping the daily chaos, my laptop is slowly dying. I suspect the CPU cooling device is not working well resulting sudden shut downs. Germany is suffering the carpet affair (the secret service transported a carpet on behalf of a member of government and did not pay custom). Current projects involve a trifle. Simply for marking the most joyful, relaxed and happy event. In contrast to a civilised pageant, streets tend to involve chaos, e.g. Tehran suffers the cars of its inhabitants. Side note, cars are Germany's main industry and Merkel claimed the premium for buying a new car was key in hindering a recession. Another side note, driving a car in Germany is a right not a privilege. Recently, a severe accident occurred. In the ten o'clock news, the moderator said the accident reminded him opening fire into a forest full of tourists and hoping you only hit the trees. In brief words, the driver suffered epilepsy and had an attack before the accident. Also, he used cannabis during the night before. He was sentenced three and a half years for killing four people and severely injruing another three (sounds little, but driving a car was not his fail, just bad luck it went wrong). Bielefeld's university got an aestehtic centre. Really? Seriously? I suppose it's just me and I should increase my asbestos intake (see this university website featuring research from wikipedia). Bielefeld was also home to two severe events, first a fire and a week later an explosion.

Are you sweaty?

Apparently, the so-called body scanners have been used in trials in Germany, more precisely in Hamburg Fuhlsbüttel. Having flown a number of times in and out of there I am surprised I have never seen one. It is well known that body scanners have downsides, including attacks of co-workers. But on the German side of things the main problem was that these machines triggered a substantial number of false alarms - due to underarm persiparation. As an embarrassing result the home secretary asked security companies to develop a more underarm persiparation proof software (see the news).
Also in Germany, I have been confronted with rather bizarre habits of the natives - more on this later, but first of all I was explained that the most standard-ish standard German is spoken in the city of Hanover. I wondered how come. In the quest, I found two potential reasons: a) the largest so-called Schützenfest (I don't know what it is yet. I guessed it involves a lot of people shooting at something, but picures suggest it's best translated as binge drinking.) in the world is held in Hanover, thus a number of German marksmen might have spread the word that this town would set the standard, or b) Hanover is the most noisy city of Germany and perhaps people have to speak very loud and clear?

Bündnerfleisch

Bündnerfleisch mit gepfefferter Nachfrage.
Gymkhanaprüfung. "Und ich bin überzeugt, Sie wollen das auch."
Im Gegensatz dazu ein deutscher Landtag mit Debatte über landwirtschaftliche Produkte - ein Beitrag der FDP von Heinrich Heidel, sowie im Bundestag Detlef Kleinert für die FDP. Letzterer übrigens Ehrenmitglied der Deutschen Parlamentarischen Gesellschaft.

Prince of Darkness

James Gosling the man who founded Java while he worked for Sun Microsystems famously called Larry Ellison "The Prince of Darkness" in his blog. Interestingly, Larry Ellison is CEO of Oracle. About a year ago, Oracle bought Sun Microsystems for 7.4 billion US$. The deal included Java and OpenOffice. There were speculations out there whether Java would cease its existence in the freely available world and programmers using the language would have to pay for employing Java in their programmes. Also, Oracle was said to terminate the "Open" bit in OpenOffice. Others speculated Orcale could attack Google by transforming OpenOffice in an online based suite competing with Google Documents and Microsoft's Web Apps Office. Later in the process, Oracle sued Google for using Java technology in their Android OS. In particular, Google's Dalvik was said to be very similar to Java - though the case is still open. After Oracle made their stand, the programmers of OpenOffice decided to go and form LibreOffice. Now, and here comes the actual point of this: James Gosling was hired by Google. In his blog he said, he would not know what his job would really involve. This is in a row of hirings by Google. Tim Lindholm leading expert in the development of Java for mobile devices was also hired by Google. Wonder where this is going. Should one switch to something else that is compatible with almost everything? It's all changing.
Also in the change log: Cycling in a new area. See the map. At some point in the future, it might more scenic with photos as usual. Also, new language in the environment, an old language in here.

Hunger2.0

Wenn man mal Hunger hat, kann man entweder in den Supermarkt gehen und Essen erlegen - oder auf die öffentlichen Bäume ausweichen. Man kann sich nämlich am städtischen Obst bedienen. Das ganze gibt es dann auch gleich mit der passenden Web2.0-Anwendung. Wenn man ein Tigerhai ist, reicht etwas Fallobst natürlich nicht aus. Vor einigen Wochen wurde in Hull (Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire) ein einzelner Fuß angespült. Er war mit Socke und Turnschuh bekleidet. Einige Wochen später wurde ein Fuß in Terschelling, Westfriesland aufgefunden. Er war ähnlich bekleidet, und Ermittlungen ergaben, die Schuhe stammen vom selben Paar. Und nun das: in einem Tigerhai vor den Bahamas  wurde ein Bein ohne Fuß und weitere Körperteile, aber keine Füße, gefunden. Mit Referenz auf gruselige Mördergeschichten, Agatha Christie wäre am 15. September 120 geworden - und die deutsche Version von Lady Diana, Königin Luise Herzogin zu Mecklenburg[-Strelitz] (auch bekannt von Schadows Prinzessinnengruppe) ist vor 200 Jahren gestorben. Bei Wikipedia, wo man von preußischer Madonna, Lebensbild und Märtyrerin spricht, findet man sogar ein Blatt mit Kritzeleien der Königin (der Herzen - wenn sie damals schon Tony Blair gehabt hätten). Ihre Lobpreisung ging mit ihrem Feiertag nach dem zweiten Weltkrieg unter.
Bei RyanAir geht es auch mysteriös zu. Nachdem man die Strecke nach Altenburg (AOC, aka "Leipzig") einem Review unterzogen hat, ist man wohl bei der Thüringischen Landesregierung nun doch entschlossen nach zweieinhalb Monaten Pause wieder zu zahlen, damit RyanAir Altenburg anfliegt. Das hat natürlich die Lufthansa nicht davon abgehalten, die Preise um 80 Pfund zu erhöhen. Außerdem hat bei RyanAir ein Pilot vorgeschlagen, den raubeiningen Chef O'Leary doch gleich durch einen Flugbegleiter zu ersetzen. Zu dieser Äußerung kam es, nachdem O'Leary Piloten bei kürzeren Flügen einsparen wollte. Bon Voyage, dachte sich O'Leary da wohl und verhandelt nun mit Flughäfen, die in der Nähe größerer Städte sind. Damit möchte er nicht nur Fluggäste, die bewußt auf Risiko gehen, gefährden, sondern auch eine größere Zahl Menschen als man mit den abgelegenen und leicht erpresslichen Regionalflughäfen erreichen könnte. Außerdem läßt sich so die Omnipräsenz der Marke unterstreichen.
Zum Ende noch ein Hinweis auf zwei zeimlich verwegene Sachen: das friedliche Herumklicken auf dem iPad und das Tragen gelber Kleidung.

Constabulary stellt Einbrecher

PCSO Carole Lawford und PCSO John Cundy haben einen Einbrecher gefaßt. Der Mann hatte am Mittwoch, 22. September 2010, gegen 21:30 Uhr in den Iceland in Egham High Street eingebrochen. Nach kurzer Flucht zu Fuß wurde der 35jährige Mann aus Acton in Station Road gestellt und verhaftet. Die zurückgelassene Beute wurde später auf dem Parkplatz hinter dem Iceland gefunden. Inspector Roger Nield lobte die Officers für ihren erfolgreichen Einsatz.
Siehe: Surrey Police News

Komplett und vorbei

Es ist September und ich bin umgezogen, davon habe ich aber noch keine Bilder gemacht. Die Kamera ist vermutlich in der Kiste und noch nicht wieder aufgetaucht. Das könnte sie ja bald tun. Nun hat es kein anständiges Recycling mehr - früher hat man alles mögliche recyclet und eine automatische Müllsortieranlage verwendet (die Leute sortieren nämlich sowieso alle falsch) und jetzt recyclet man noch Flaschen, aber keine Folie. Außerdem heißt das, daß ich am Wochenende nicht nach London radeln kann, denn ich bin ja bereits da. Statt des Landlebens werden es wohl jetzt urbane Motive werden, wie Battersea Power Station oder Bahnhöfe. Passend zum Blick zurück: Seebäder im Wandel. Der Weg von Egham im Surrey nach Chiswick Library ist aber gerade so noch fertig geworden, trotz der Kamera, deren Hochtechnologie gerade ein paar vierzig Bilder speichert und deren Akku eben diese 40 mitmacht und daher regelmäßig mal nicht funktioniert. Die Bilder sind also hier:

From The Thames Path - National Route 4

Außerdem war ich endlich in Hampton Court Palace. Nach all den Photos von außen und dem Blick auf das Gatter, könnte es nun bald auch Photos von innen geben! Das ist ein Ausrufezeichen wert.

Bilder, Bilder und mehr Bilder

Es gibt viele neue Bilder. Zunächst einmal neue Bilder von RHUL.

Royal Holloway, University of London (Jahreszeiten)

Neu ist alles ab den Magnolien.

Und natürlich auch Neues von der Themse. Diesmal mit der doppelten Menge neuer Bilder als üblich, weil ich zwischendrin schonmal wieder in Eischinken war und die Kamera von Bildern entleert habe und die Akkus aufladen konnte. Jedenfalls, sind die Bilder jetzt schon aus Greater London. Neu ist also von Hampton Bridge über Hampton Court, entlang am Hampton Court Palace Golf Club nach Kingston Bridge und das zweite Stück von Kingston entlang der Themse nach Teddington Lock, durch Ham entlang am Ham Green und durch Ham Gate hindurch an Isabella Plantation vorbei zu den Pen Ponds.

From The Thames Path - National Route 4

The Thames Path - National Route 4

Außerdem hatte Gordon schon wieder einmal Pech und sein Abschied aus 10 Downing St. Angela Merkel nachdem ihr Niocal Sarkozy gesagt hat, wie teuer das Zögern der NRW-Wahl wegen tatsächlich war.

Verplappert

Angela Merkel hat die Griechen richtig rein geritten und beim Nachtreten auch Portugal, Spanien und Italien erwischt. Für den Euro "ein Schlag in die Magengrube", der die Devisenhändler schon zu Kurswarnungen hingerissen hat. Der Euro wertete deutlich ab, das britische Pfund hat sich im Vergleich zum Euro entsprechend verbessert.
Gordon Brown hat sich verplappert.

Noch mehr Asche vom Vulkan

Nachdem der Vulkan nun bereits vier Tage den Flughafen lahm gelegt hat, gibt es nun erste wagemutige Versuche. In Finnland ging es fast schief, die Kampfjets haben wohl erhebliche Schäden erlitten. Andererseits ist die Lufthansa mit ihren Maschinen von München nach Frankfurt geflogen und hat keine Schäden erlitten. Interessanterweise war nach den Daten dort auch gerade keine Vulkanasche und die Flughäfen waren ohnehin frei gegeben. Hingegen der Aussagen der Lufthansa hat das VAAC London (Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre) die Vorhersagen überprüft. Meßstellen in England haben die Vorhersagen bestätigt. Die Asche beginnt nun auch auf den Boden zu rieseln und sich in Schichten auf Autos zu sammeln.
Die Deutsche Bahn verlor am neusten Modell, dem ICE 3, während der Fahrt auf der neusten Hochgeschwindigkeitsstrecke zwischen Frankfurt und Köln eine Tür. Sechs Menschen wurden verletzt und die Außenseite eines BordRestaurants zertrümmert. Die Bahn sieht jedoch keinen Anlaß die Türen der Züge zu testen.
Abgesehen von dem Vulkan, gibt es kleines Update zu Photos.

Royal Holloway, University of London (Jahreszeiten)

Die Asche des Vulkans

Am Tag, an dem die Asche des Vulkans den Himmel nicht verdunkelte, wurde es ganz ruhig. Im Moment sind in Heathrow schon etwa 1500 Flüge nicht gestartet. Etwas befremdlich ist es schon, wen man rüberguckt und nichts hoch oder runterfliegt. Soweit es die BBC betrifft, ist es der Eyjafjallajokull am Eyjafjallajoekull Gletscher (beides in Bild). Die Ruhe hat die Enten dazu veranlaßt auf dem Gebäude nebenan Platz zu nehmen, das kommt sonst selten vor.
Neues gibt es auch von den Reichen. Charles Montgomery "Monty" Burns ist auf Rang 13 der reichsten fiktionalen Personen. Das ist ein Rückschlag, war er doch erst 2006 auf Platz 2. Desweiteren kann man aus der Liste schließen, daß man sein Geld ruhig daheim aufheben kann. Dagobert Duck (Scrooge McDuck, Onkel Dagobert) ist auf Rang zwei. Siehe dazu auch: hier.
Wer sich Suppe kauft, kann die Suppe nicht nur essen, sondern auch versuchen sie nachzukochen, sofern ihm das geschmeckt hat. Wer sich Musik kauft, darf sie sich aber nicht überall anhören.
Abgesehen von diesen Neuigkeiten, ist das Ende der Krise für einige Länder absehbar. Ein paar seltsame Erkenntnisse. Alle Freiliberalen würden sagen, daß niedrige Steuern gut sind. Besonders gern wird Großbritannien gelobt, wie kommt das eigentlich, daß die Produktion auf dem Stand von 1972 ist? Sollte nicht gerade hier produziert werden und der Wohlstand nur so sprudeln?
Andere Frage: wenn man sagt, daß Wettbewerbsfähigkeit das wichtigste ist und man die dadurch erreicht, daß man billiger produziert als andere, geht diese Rechnung dann immernoch auf, wenn das alle gleichzeitig versuchen oder könnte das zu Lohndumping, zu weniger Konsum, niedrigeren Preisen und schließlich Deflation führen? Die Wettbewerbsfähigkeit durch Kürzen an Investionen und Gehältern zu steigern verlangt Deutschland gerade von Griechenland. Diese Haltung kann auch falsch sein. Leider hat auch gerade das deutsche Zögern und Zaudern die Lage nur noch schlimmer gemacht, anstatt ein Zeichen zu setzen. Glaubt man Joseph Stiglitz, immerhin Nobelpreisträger in einschlägiger Kategorie, dann ist Griechenland nur vorübergehend bedroht, da die Fundamentaldaten gar nicht schlecht sind. Mit anderen Worten die Kernindustrien (Schiffbau, Tourismus) sind durch die Krise hart getroffen, aber kein Grund zu glauben, es würde nie besser werden. Leider haben die Banker darauf gewettet, daß Griechenland so schnell keiner hilft. Wirtschaft ist wohl wirklich nur Psychologie und es konnte jedem klar sein, daß die Kanzlerin bis zum allerletzen Moment warten würde - sprich genug Zeit zum Spekulieren bleibt. Je mehr spekulieren, um so schneller steigen die Zinsen und um so höher die Kreditversicherungen (also worauf man mit CDS wettet). Um so höher die Zinsen sind, um so teurer wird es für ein Land Kredite aufzunehmen. Die Kredite sind nötig, weil alte Kredite auslaufen und beglichen werden müssen und man entsprechende neue aufnimmt (man kann wohl auch "Rollverlust" sagen, weil die Schulden sozusagen "gerollt" werden - dabei verliert man den günstigen alten Zins und muß den höheren neuen bezahlen, ohne wirklich mehr Schulden aufgenommen zu haben). Dieser Verlust kann so hoch werden, daß ein Staat sich nicht mehr finanzieren kann und pleite geht. Je schneller man aber sagt, daß die Spekulation zwecklos ist, weil die EU (oder wer auch immer) den Staat schützt, um so weniger steigen die Zinsen, um so geringer das Risiko einer echten Pleite. Also, liebe Kanzlerin, nächstes Mal dem Unausweichlichen etwas entschlossener zustimmen und das Risiko für alle gering halten. Übrigens, das deutsche Zaudern hat Griechenland richtig Geld gekostet, schließlich sind die Zinsen für letzten Anleihen deutlich höher gewesen, als sie hätten sein müssen. Damit ist auch das Risiko gestiegen, daß Griechenland tatsächlich das Rettungspaket benötigt.
Ganz nebenbei bermekt, würde Deutschland sogar Gewinn machen, wenn es Griechenland Geld leiht. Es ist nämlich eine Spekulation, daß Griechenland nicht pleite geht. Deutschland leiht sich das Geld für Griechenland zum normalen Satz für Deutschland, also rund 3,35%, und verleiht es dann für rund 5% weiter. Fällt Griechenland nicht aus, macht man rund 1,65% pro Jahr Gewinn. Wenn Spanien Hilfe braucht, sollte man es sich genauer überlegen. Weil die spanischen Gehälter an die Inflation gekoppelt sind, können die Reallöhne nicht sinken -  im Gegensatz zu Deutschland, wo in mancher Branche der Lohn real in den letzten zehn Jahren gesunken ist. Das heißt Spanien verliert konstant an Wettbewerbsfähigkeit. Das lange Zögern im Fall Griechenland hat nun aber auch Spekulationen gegen Spanien und Portugal ausgelöst.
Eine ähnliche Wette gab es auch schonmal gegen Island. Hat aber damals geklappt, schon weil Island keinen Euro hat und der Außenwert der Währung schnell abstürzte -  was blöd ist, wenn man Schulden in Fremdwährung hat.

Osterei 2

Dieses Mal gibt es auch das richtige Osterei zu sehen. Es handelt sich dabei um die Schokoladenversion eines berühmten schottischen Eis. Davon sollte wohl auch ein Photo erscheinen. Man kann jedenfalls die einzelnen Lagen eines echten schottischen Eis sehen. Das Ei ist übrigens weder in Schottland entstanden, noch symbolisiert es die Freude der Schotten am Frittieren (das ist kein Gerücht, wie die BBC berichtet).
Es gibt jetzt nur noch Billigflieger. Der Grund ist, daß es nur noch Reisende "minderer Qualität" gibt, wie die FTD einen spanischen Taxifahrer zitiert. Die Lufthansa hat ihre Flüge nach Hamburg bis auf einen Flug und nach Berlin ganz eingestellt und setzt jetzt auf British Midland (bmi) und teilweise auf die Eurowings. Damit ist wohl die Zeit vorbei, als es noch mit Contact oder Cityline von City nach Berlin oder Hamburg ging und man einen Saft gereicht bekam. Die British Airways will mit der Iberia fusionieren, vermutlich gibt es dann eher eine Anpassung nach unten als nach oben. Dann ist die Lufthansa zwar mit weniger Anstrengung und deutlich günstiger zu erreichen als die Linien, die die im Wartebereich des Flughafen schlafenden Ellenbogenrucksacktouristen, die weder rechnen können und noch besagte Nacht im Plasteschalensessel ungemütlich finden, bevorzugen, aber sie bietet dann nicht mehr Komfort.

Lustiges Pflanzenraten - RHUL-Blüte Teil 2

Einige Gewächse sind noch unidentifiziert.
Da wäre zum einen dieser Baum, dessen Äste und Stamm man auf dem Bild sehen kann:

From Royal Holloway, University of London (Jahreszeiten)

Und dann noch diese Blüte, die Teil eines Busches ist, den man auch im Hintergrund sieht:

From Royal Holloway, University of London (Jahreszeiten)