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Worshipping in the electronic cathedral
The Electronic Church is behind an unprepossessing door on Greifswalder Str., behind an advertising poster that must be replaced every few days, when the Werbung people come around to stick their latest offers on the wall. But today, at least, there’s a small note written in black pen: “Electronic Church,” and a small arrow pointing…
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Down the economics rabbithole, pt. 1
For anyone with a little soft spot for economics arguments, whether of the strictly WSJ type or the bearded (post-)Marxist variety, the discussion going on here is worth reading. Long story short: Nation writer Chris Hayes published an article a week or so ago (also worth reading, here) arguing that the current orthodox trend in…
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Already breathing easier…
So, it’s out already, the U.S. is going to reject most of what the Europeans and the rest of the world want to accomplish on the environmental front at next week’s G-8 meeting. But not to worry, Bush has his own plan. The U.S. takes this very seriously, his spokeswoman says. We’re going to lead…
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(Year old) quote of the day
Stolen from the Pharyngula blog, while reading links to it elsewhere. A quote worthy of Wilde, or at least Thomas Reed. On Wednesday, March 1st, 2006, in Annapolis at a hearing on the proposed Constitutional Amendment to prohibit gay marriage, Jamie Raskin, professor of law at AU, was requested to testify. At the end of…
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Time to swallow pride, listen to Iran
Just do it. In the first official high-level talks with Iran in decades, the U.S. apparently managed to complain about Iran, while Iran’s representative suggested a constructive step forward: a regular trilateral group allowing the U.S., Iran, and Iraq to meet regularly and, with luck, hash out some security issues. The U.S. is balking, for…
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Love note to Thor hammer-handed
Thunder outside, raindrops that leave an inch-wide mark on my T-shirt as I ride in out of its fringes, hail bouncing off the window, cars already leaving wakes like speedboats on Bornholmer Str. outside. But it’s nothing compared to yesterday, when the sky turned an ugly orange-red in the west, and then black, and then…
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Collective patronage, a democratic arts funding
According to Sequenza 21, a mini-movement of art funding is happening beneath the surface of the debates over government versus corporate sponsorship. Small orchestras are pooling their resources to collectively commission pieces by contemporary composers, in the way that big groups in New York or Boston or San Francisco do fairly routinely. Apparently pianist Jeffrey…
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Wallowing in the misery of Bush’s mistakes
This evening to the splendid St. George’s bookstore here in Prenzlauer, which was hosting a discussion with New York Review of Books writer Thomas Powers, a longtime chronicler of intelligence agencies and their misdeeds. It turned out to be wholly retrospective, covering again the role of the CIA in setting the stage for the Iraq…
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Keeping order, with dangerous echoes
The G-8 Summit here in Germany early next month is already fulfilling its own prophecies. It almost doesn’t matter what happens at the meeting itself; it is the raw stuff of symbolism, for both sides. Europeans, and the UN, are hoping for an environmental breakthrough from the US that won’t happen. Russia will dig in…
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Bats and rooks, swallows and swifts
Seen outside my window, long after sunset: a dark shape that can’t be anything but a bat, based on its erratic flight. We’ve seen them fluttering down a specific street a few blocks away, and over the gardens at sunset, but I’ve never noticed them at night like this, not so close to the house.…
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US health care system in last place, except for price
A new study from the Commonwealth Fund ranks big-country health care systems on a variety of measures, including such desirables as access to care, patient safety, cost, efficiency and equity. Perhaps predictably, the US comes in last in almost all categories, except for price. It’s a tired refrain now: We pay more, and get less,…
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Some a that fresh nudeln
Recipe: Zis German Life‘s pasta machine. A bag of flour. A bunch of eggs. Some water. A table. Dirty fingers. A clothes rack, for drying. Outcome: tasty pasta.
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Not enough fire, devil masks, or battle axes
Granted, Lordi’s a hard act to follow. A battle axe that shoots little flames, and devil wings that come out (a little creakily, granted) right there on stage. Yeah, baby. But this year’s Eurovision just didn’t have that hummable, wtf, is that Gwar?! factor? But, ok, it had a large Ukrainian man of extremely ambiguous…
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Honoring the dead
The memorial to the Soviet war dead in Schönholzer Heide is monumental, in the true Soviet sense, unlike anything else I’ve seen in Berlin. It sprawls out an acre or two long, funereal marble everywhere. In the shadow of a soaring obelisk, a woman’s statue holds a dead soldier in her arms, almost Pieta-style. In…
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New Spinal Tap short, with miniature ponies
Back with Marti DiBergi, it’s Spinal Tap, in a new short, back together for the 26th time in 25 years. Nigel is picked up off a horse farm, where he’s working with the miniature ponies, hoping one day to race them with miniature jockeys. David St. Hubbins is a hip-hop record producer, and Derek Smalls…