News Archives
1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2004-2008
Sun 02 Nov 2008
I've been following the government service career of John McCain for many years (mostly by reading transcripts of his appearances on NBC's Meet the Press and lately by viewing Podcasts of the program) and believe him to be a dedicated public servant, although lately I have seen very little of that selfless commitment in a campaign being directed by Republican party hacks. I am an independent, not a Democrat, yet the Democratic party most closely matches my views on most major issues. The Republicans, on the other hand, have been acting almost completely counter to the way I would prefer the American government project itself at home and on the world stage. John McCain is a good man and a fine public servant, but is unfortunately a member of a party that disgusts me.
As an American living overseas, at no other time in the past two decades have I observed such a low opinion of America as in the last eight years. And although I don't live in the USA, I am still a proud, patriotic American and very strongly believe in the "American Dream" and the "American Way of Life". And yet in the past few years it has quite frankly been embarrassing to be the citizen of a country that condones the torture of prisoners not permitted to appear before a judge, a country that engages in an illegal and undeclared war against a sovereign nation that posed no threat to our security, a country where profit comes before compassion, where divisions are emphasized to the detriment of unity, a country that imprisons a higher percentage of its citizens than any other nation on the planet, a country that spies on its own people, a country with abstinence programs being taught in schools to youths suffering from the highest teenage pregnancy rates in the world, a country with a badly maintained and failing infrastructure, a country that on average per person consumes far more fossil fuels and fouls the environment at a faster rate than any other nation, a country that consistently spends far beyond its means, and on and on and on. There is much to be dissatisfied with.
Barack Obama represents not only change, but hope. Hope that things will be different. Hope for a brighter future, not only for the USA, but for the entire world. Hope for positive change.
Barack Obama speaks clearly and forcefully and uses full sentences and proper grammar. He can motivate others to act in a positive way.
Barack Obama has shown that he can listen. Listen to opposing views. Listen to a lot of different ideas. And then make a decision based on the merits of the idea and not "gut feeling".
Barack Obama is not a guy I would want to sit down and have a beer with - he's too intelligent to be a "normal Joe". I don't need a person in the office of the presidency who I can pal around with, I need a really smart guy who can solve the problems of the nation better than anyone else.
The fact that Senator Obama is a black man plays almost no role in my decision to vote for him, but I do think having him as president will send a powerful message to the rest of the world. It's not the color of your skin, but the quality of your character that counts in my country.
I'll be staying up late watching the election returns (starting at 2:00 a.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 5 in Germany). I trust enough of my fellow countrymen will make the right decision and choose Barack Obama to become the next president of the United States of America.
That would make me once again feel proud to be an American.
Tue 03 Apr 2007
Last Minute English is my site for learners and teachers of English. It's updated daily and offers an RSS newsfeed.
For advanced learners of English it offers:
Useful vocabulary and phrases in everyday situations
Information about English resources, both offline and online
Tips for learning English
Information about cultural differences
Book recommendations
Real English, not school English
For teachers of English it offers:
Templates for teachers
Sample lesson plans
Tips for teaching conversational English
Ideas for your next lesson
English tips and tricks
Please stop by for a visit.
Sat 06 May 2006
The FTC has phased out their previous address for reporting spam. From now on, report spam to the following address:
For more information, refer to this article:
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2004/07/newspamemail.htm
And remember, to prevent crime you have to report it!
Tue 25 Apr 2006
For about two months now the average number of spam e-mails I get per day has been reduced from over 7 to less than 2.5. Of course, I have set up server-side spam filters to catch keywords like "viagra", "stox" and "Rolex", but haven't touched them in months. I also use my e-mail client's baysian filtering feature, but also haven't changed any of the settings for over a year (and I still inspect everything that lands in the "Junk" mailbox).
So, how have I been able to reduce the amount of spam I get? By reporting it!
I first make sure that all e-mail headers are visible (in Eudora this is done by clicking on the "Blah, blah" icon) and then forward them to the following addresses:
1. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission for all spam in English and other languages, uce@ftc.gov
2. The Internet-Beschwerdestelle operated by the Verband der deutschen Internetwirtschaft e.V. for all German-language spam, spam@internet-beschwerdestelle.de
I'm not exactly sure what these organizations do with reported spam, but I assume they are collected, analyzed and *used in e-mail server filtering technology*. So, the more spam that gets reported, the better these filters become and much less spam actually reaches the intended recipients.
Think of it this way: if someone vandalizes your property and you do not report it to the police, the police likely won't do anything about it. So, there's very little preventing it from happening again and the vandals are also unlikely to be caught. You have to report vandalism for something to be done against it.
In the same way, if spam e-mail goes unreported, there is very little the authorities or your e-mail service provider can do about it and more and more junk mail will continue to slip through their filters and end up in your mailbox. You have to report spam for them to be able to doing anything about it.
For this reason, I encourage everyone to report all spam they receive. I believe that spam can be almost entirely eliminated if just 10% of users report it. Please do your part.
And again, it seems to be working really well for me!
Mon 22 Nov 2004
I've been revising the German-language pages on this site over the past few months and am finally putting them online. Although I've been learning German for over 30 years now, it's still a difficult language to write correctly and it takes me much longer to write than English. Fortunately, I had help from Dr. Kimberly Crow, who is truly bilingual.
The election
Of course I am very depressed about the results of the U.S. election. John Kerry won in my home state of Washington, but unfortunately that wasn't enough to prevent four more years of "W." in the White House. I wish well for my country, but will be happy when the War President is no longer in office.
Spam
No, I don't want a fake Rolex and I don't take medicines, except for the occasional aspirin!
Work
My work situation is improving and I'm managing to spread the risk across a number of different services. Currently I mostly work on translation projects. I am also increasing the number of hours per week I teach English to IT professionals. And computer training is picking up nicely again - I recently gave a course in Mac OS X and will be giving an e-commerce course at the end of the month in Stockholm.
I hope to get my first real communications consulting projects early next year and will be putting on presentations, courses and workshops together with Kimberly Crow. I'm really looking forward to being in regular contact with people, instead of sitting alone in my office and translating.
End of the year
The year is soon coming to a close and Christmas is just around the corner. We had our first real snow this past weekend and it's now getting dark just after 4:30 p.m.! Western culture tells us that this is "the happiest time of the year", but I'm really not so sure about that.
Thu 05 Aug 2004
The view from over here
It may come as a surprise to most Americans to find out just how unpopular the current occupant of the White House is abroad. A solid 90% of Germans would vote for Kerry over Bush. Now, of course I'm not suggesting that German citizens should be able to vote in U.S. elections or even that they should have say in the result at all. But don't you find it interesting that so many of them would rather have a new candidate win over a "known factor"? Foreigners typically prefer a second term for a sitting president, because although they might not agree with his policies, they have gotten used to doing business with him over a period of years in his first term. This is clearly not the case this time around.
Moreover, considering the upswell of support for the U.S. after the events of September 11, this is a dramatic change indeed. I've lived outside the borders of my native country for most of the past 20 years and support for the "American Way" is at the lowest level I've ever seen.
Since George Bush proclaimed "War Against Terrorism" the terrorists have been winning most battles and certainly the P.R. ones. How is this so? It's become the president's *main platform* for re-election, basic human rights for Americans and others are being greatly restricted (Patriot Act, detention at Guantamo Bay) and I personally have never felt so vulnerable to kidnapping or other terrorist act simply because I carry an American passport. Welcome to a culture of fear - exactly what the terrorists intended!
It's also obvious now that the German Chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, made the right decision when he stated that Germany would not be supporting American "adventurism" in Iraq. The situation in Iraq is worse that even he probably imagined at the time. German participation would not have made matters any better and could not have prevented things from getting as bad as they are.
The miserable failure in Iraq
The stated reasons for going to war in Iraq in the first place have been shown to be bogus. The war has clearly been mismanaged, Iraqis are not safer than they were before, and there was no plan for winning the peace, not to mention the lack of an exit strategy. There are two groups profiting from the current situation: Those actively resisting the American occupation of their country and the Good Ole Boys back in Bush's Houston, Texas.
Playing team ball
George Bush is not a team player on the international stage. He hogged the ball and took it down court alone and now he's missed the shot. In attempting to go it alone, he left too many others behind. This is not independent initiative. It's also not leadership, because so many other players were shut out of the game.
While campaigning for President before the last election, George Bush stated that he was a "compassionate conservative" and "... a uniter, not a divider." What a load of bullshit! He has divided the world community and the U.S. population more than any other president in history. G.W. Bush is an egotistical and divisive president.
On to John Kerry
The major reason why I have chosen to give my vote to John Kerry is the fact that he is *not* George W. Bush. For the reasons given above, just about any candidate with a chance of beating him in the polls would get my vote. That's right, just about any Democrat put up against Bush would gain my support.
I am also voting for Kerry because I think he has a better understanding of leadership and being a team player. Republicans accuse him of "waffling" on the issues, but I have deep respect for someone who evolves his positions based on changing circumstances, especially when he can explain why in such great detail. He would definitely involve traditional allies in any matters of grave international concern and listen to all viewpoints before making such important decisions.
John Kerry can understand others better, because he understands and speaks several foreign languages, including French and Norwegian. He's a real communicator - speaking multiple languages provides ample proof of this.
John Kerry is intelligent. He is not the showman that Clinton was, his face has a hollowed out look to it and his delivery is bit stoney. This doesn't necessarily make good TV. But if you can get away from the sound bites, you might discover that his comments actually mean something and he can explain the facts as he sees them. I think a president should be smarter than the average Joe and be able to expound at length on his positions and the reasoning behind them. John Kerry fits the bill well here.
John Kerry's history as a decorated war hero and subsequent anti-war protestor show me that he is willing to put his life on the line to defend my country and yet recognize when things are going terribly wrong and fight to put things right. This shows that he has strong convictions and is an activitist for positive change.
Kerry has 18 years of experience as a U.S. senator. He's not a novice at national politics and he's used to serving his constituents and listening to their concerns. He knows the political ball game and the current players. He is qualified to be president. I have no doubt about that.
I think John Kerry would have a much greater chance at unifying a divided country and world. I also suspect that he will make my life abroad substantially easier, because I won't have to explain to others here why my president has made such illogical decisions. I'll also be a much less attractive target for terrorism. It's time to become a proud American once again.
Fri 21 May 2004
Last night you broadcast a report about how the Republicans have now started attacking John Kerry for speaking French, and then showed a clip of him speaking Norwegian. I was very happy to hear a peppering of French in both your introduction and summary!
As an expatriate American having lived in Asia and Europe and able to speak several languages, I am incensed that the Republicans have sunk so low as to imply that speaking a foreign language is somehow anti-American or unpatriotic.
I served my country in the U.S. Peace Corps for 2.5 years and have voted in every presidential election since leaving my home country in the early 80s.
Speaking other languages in no way makes me less of an American nor less able to assess the political damage being done internationally by the Bush administration due to its general lack of understanding for international viewpoints. It's clear to me why: They don't understand other languages and are proud of the fact, demonstrating that they're not interested in the rest of the world. (Except perhaps for Great Britain, 'ceptin' y'all talk funny.)
An American president would gain wide respect in the Middle East if he started learning Arabic and could hold a speech in it soon after. This will plainly not be Mr Bush as it has now become politically inexpedient for him to do so. And would Mr Kerry be up to the task? Mais bien sur! Aber klar! Sí, como no!
Mon 03 May 2004
[ http://www.mediadeck.de/mediadeck_biotop.html ]
Every year starting in 2000 a female duck has been laying her eggs on the top of a parking garage in downtown Hamburg. mediadeck is the name of the multi-media center I helped found in 1996 and is located on the top parking deck of said garage.
In addition to the excellent view of the Hamburg harbor there are two open air inner courtyards in the mediadeck complex. The mother duck lays her eggs in one of the large planters in a courtyard and most of the people working in the surrounding offices join in on taking care of the duck necessities: proper duck food in pellet and seed form, drinking water and - the biggest challenge - a place to swim that is regularly cleaned.
The first year surprised us, because it was a terrible spring and no-one even noticed the duck or eggs before the ducklings hatched. It was cold and rainy and we were totally unprepared. Before they were picked up by a swan and duck expert and released at the Alster lake 4 of the 11 ducklings had died. The next year we had all 11 picked up right away.
Last year, Julian, the "captain" of mediadeck asked if we wanted to try keeping the ducks. There was overwhelming interest in doing so and we got very well organized. Everything worked wonderfully and it was a great feeling to be able to participate in a bit of nature preservation with a large group of motivated people. I counted 15 people that helped raise all 11 ducklings to maturity before they flew away at the end of August, 2003.
This year there are only 7 ducklings and so far they are doing fine. (Perhaps the mother duck's instincts have told her that she doesn't have to have so many babies, because they'll all survive? There were always 11 in the three previous years.) The big twist this time is that the big duck family is in the smaller courtyard for the first time.
This has given us the opportunity to do things even better this year. Last Saturday 12 mediadeck people helped to thoroughly clean the larger courtyard and the heavy plastic pond basin was delivered this morning. We are expecting the pump/filter to arrive tomorrow (ah, the wonders of eBay!). I'll be setting up the Webcam later on today.
In a day or two the whole duck family will *somehow* be transferred over to their bigger, more duck-appropriate home and we hope to capture some of that in pictures. The Webcam will keep visitors to the biotop (habitat) page on the mediadeck site up to date about current duck happenings.
It'll be loud again (quack, quack) this summer and ducks are neither housepets nor clean animals, but hey, a mixed group of Internet and multi-media companies is successfully raising wild ducks on the top of a parking garage in downtown Hamburg, Germany and we think it's pretty cool.
Mon 03 May 2004
I've been working long and hard hours for months now, that's why there haven't been any updates to this site in quite a while. Regular 10-12 hour days and working most every weekend (except over Easter) in the past few months has put me in such a state that I hardly know what to do when I have some free time. I guess updating this site is always an option...
Tue 27 Jan 2004
The seventh revision of my Web site is now online. I hope to have the missing German pages revised and back online within the next few days.
As always, your feedback and comments are welcome.