Tonight we're going to show you eight silent ways to kill a man.

A man who would start a novel with a sentence like that on will have our immediate attention here in Highgate.

Seven years ago I already had the joy to write about strong beginnings on these pages. I did so by quoting from two very good American authors, Thomas Pynchon and Bruce Sterling. The sentence above is by another American and the start of a science fiction novel that I missed to read before this vacation although I am an avid reader of science fiction and "The Forever War" a very significant contribution and a key work of the genre.

Good reading, gratifying and enjoyable.

Vor 15 Jahren

Am 1. März 2006 hat das Medium hier mit folgender Schlagzeile aufgemacht.

    Katzengrippe ab heute Weltproblem Nr. 1

Damals konnte man noch spotten. Heute wirkt das gespenstisch auf mich.

The 5th Risk

Since the end of the Second World War, weather data collection has become one of the greatest illustrations of the possibilities of global collaboration and public-spiritedness. Every day thousands of amateur weather observers report data to their governments, as do a lot of experts aboard commercial planes in the sky and ships at sea. Everyday, twice a day, weather balloons are released from nine hundred different spots on the globe, ninety-two of them by the U.S. government. A half-dozen countries, including the United States, deploy thousands of buoys to collect weather from the ocean surface. Then there's the data collected by billion-dollar satellites and fancy radar stations - in the United States alone, the National Weather Service maintains 159 high-resolution Doppler radar sites.

Michael Lewis' The Fifth Risk beschäftigt sich mit den "neoliberalen" Taktiken und Verhaltensweisen, die dazu tendieren, wichtige öffentliche Arbeiten und Prozesse aus rein ideologischen Gründen zu behindern und zu zerstören. "Highly recommended" für alle, die sich gedanklich damit auseinandersetzen, welche Arbeiten besser von der Gemeinschaft und welche besser von Individuen erledigt und gelenkt werden sollen.

How To Win A Tech War

If you got a tech product, do not, we repeat: do not talk to CTOs, talk to the CEOs and CXOs! Place your ad in the Wallstreet Journal!

Of course, this does not apply to tech combinations packaged for the consumer. You'd need the super bowl for that. And CTOs and software engineers have higher profiles now than 30, 20, 10 years ago. You still gotta talk to CEOs because "at the end of the day" it's them who make the decisions and nobody sells mass market products without partners.

Want prove for the advice? Here's an educational video. You gotta watch through it though to really learn all about it. If you are too impatient and just want the essence and soon forget it again, watch from about 13:00 or even more to the point from 24:30.

Crush the Competition!

Geschichtsinn

Dana International/Yaron Cohen (1. Platz 1998) ist lange vergessen und Verka Serduchka/Andrij Danilko (2. Platz 2007) wurde hierzulande nie wahrgenommen.

Die entsprechenden Suchergebnisse in nationalen österreichischen Medien haben uns dann auch ein wenig enttäuscht:

• ORF.at auf http://www.google.at/#q=dana+international+site:orf.at
• derStandard.at auf http://www.google.at/#q=dana+international+site:derstandard.at
• diePresse.com auf http://www.google.at/#q=dana+international+site:diepresse.com
• kurier.at auf http://www.google.at/#q=dana+international+site:kurier.at
• krone.at http://www.google.at/#q=dana+international+site:krone.at

Auch das Fernsehen hat uns diesbezüglich natürlich nicht befriedigen können. Damit aber die beiden obigen Damen doch nicht ganz vergessen seien, hebt Youtube wie meistens alles auf und kann man einfach nachsehen

Verka Serduchka - Dancing Lasha Tumbai

Dana International - Diva