If you see those garbage loads after Whitsunday, you know that we had a nice weather situation over the weekend and that people enjoyed their pizzas in the park over the long weekend. I often think that a deposit a couple of Euros should be introduced on pizza packings and that pizza shop should be forced to take them back and recycle them. It should not be the case that this kind of dirt should be removed by society. On the other hand there are a lot of bottles bought with a deposit in this heap of garbage, the buyers do not seem to care.

But there was something exciting about this morning as well: the clematis has open her blossoms the first time this year.

On Saturday there will be a reading in Neukölln and I am part of it. Anyone in Berlin is welcome to come.

The following people are going to read:

susanne englmayer
jochenausberlin
don dahlmann
Axel Wegner (myself)
björn graumodeste
ally klein
maike

Gärtnerstraße

The area around Boxhagener Platz was cleared extensively before 1 May this year. As we hoped there were no major riots that night as was the case last year.

But the roads were cleared prophylactically anyway. Sort of a strange feeling to see roads, which are full of parked cars usually, suddenly cleared of all resting traffic. Tow-cars were very busy as the temporary no-stopping-signs usually are ignored by residents. They will get a substantial invoice.

Seumestraße

Wenn Michael was here we went out for dinner. Originally we wanted to go for an Indian restaurant, but on our way we passed “Kaspar und Hauser” and decided to go there after having a look at the menu.

I would call the way of cooking as something like “international bistro cuisine”. We went for the Wiener Schnitzel, which was wonderful, the meet was thin with a batter showing bubbles like it should be. The asparagus going along with it was marvellous and fresh. And my variation to have melted butter instead of Sauce Hollandaise with the asparagus was fulfilled without complaints.

Upon leaving the venue, the band for the evening arrived. Managed by an Ukrainian they wanted to start with German chansons, continue with Andalusian music rounded off by Klezmer.

Kaspar und Hauser, Knorrpromenade, Berlin-Friedrichshain

The ICE, which I enter at Berlin-Ostbahnhof is supposed to bring me to Dortmund stopping in Berlin Central, Spandau, Hannover and Bielefeld. I just had settled in my seat, when a group of punks enters the car, the only smoking compartment in second class. Typical punks with either leather or camouflage clothes, decorated with chains and one or more Mercedes or Volkswagen signs. They are well equipped, a crate of cheap lager, meat balls and sausages. No cigarettes however, making one of them travel the car to ask people for one, which he eventually gets.

They not only look typical (one of the girls had spikey hair as seen in the picture), their behaviour is typical as well, loud conversation, not interested in other people’s privacy and opinion. Everybody in the car learns from their talk that they want to go to Hannover, and they simply talk about not having a ticket and speculating that the conductor will only come after Berlin and that there will be no possibility to throw them off the train before their target city. Seemed like a clever idea.

But surely they did not take into account that DB was counting their passengers that day. Shortly before the last stop in Berlin therefore the conductor entered the car with a small counting machine. He stopped counting immediately when he saw the punks and instinctively asked for the ticket. The punk he had asked showed his identity card and said that they wanted to Hannover. The conductor remained unimpressed and asked for money or ticket or that they should leave in Berlin.

Normally I say that punks try to provoke but generally are quite peaceful. This proved to be true, without any protest they left the train with all their provisions. They discussed however if they should enter the train in its second, independent part.

If they had done that, I do not know. The conductor after that still looked confident and very distinctive. And distinctive he surely was, I recognized him from another trip to Hamburg. I just imagine… but no, that surely would be another “People” story.

Image by: Shavar

Since this week you are able to visit Berlin virtually, the first city in the world being presented in this way in Google Earth. Spiegel Online writes:

Berlin has gone virtual. As of Thursday morning, the German capital – from the gigantic Alexanderplatz TV tower right down to the potholes in the side streets — can be seen in Google Earth. The virtual visitor can even enter the new Berlin Central Station and marvel at the Reichstag. Other landmarks are likewise on offer.

To start the tour you have to open Google Earth via the link http://www.3d-stadtmodell.eu/berlin/GE/start_berlin3d.kmz öffnen. To get Google Earth you may click here.

Note: However I have difficulties to start Berlin 3D. Either I am doing something wrong or the servers operated by berlin.de are overloaded.

Note 2: Looks like loaded servers, I stuck to this user manual (in German) and the “loading symbol” does not disappear.

Note 3: It is working, but you need a lot of patience. And still, I think the quality of the 3D images are not that wonderful

Since the opening of the new central station in Berlin I go there on most Monday mornings from Ostkreuz during rush hour to catch the ICE to Hamburg. Normally the trains are frequented well. What I notice however, at the station Friedrichstrasse, the former border crossing between East and West Berlin, the train is emptied significantly.

Ok., is this only because this station is a crossing and passengers just change?  But then a lot of people should also enter the train. Or is it just a sign for East Berliners not visiting the West? Or that they do not have jobs in the West? I cannot judge how it is with the West-East-Berlin time of the day. Is there any body to contribute similar or opposite experiences?

If you have passed the German education system, no matter at what level, you surely have encountered Homer at some stage., and I do not mean Homer Simpson. Ancient times and Greek and Roman history belong to the curriculae and some may have cursed this old stuff.
But even our modern times are full of images from old history. Sportsmen very often have problems with Achilles’ tendon. And that is where we meet Homer, who has described the half god Achilles, who practically was invulnerable, had there not been the small error when the goddess held him at his heel and who therefore spoiled the protection when bathing him in the mythical liquid. In the end this small error sealed his fate. In German myths this also was the case with Siegfried in den Nibelungenlied, whose protection was spoilt by a leave on his back.

Well, you might say that these are old fairy tales, what do they tell us?

Achilles was an important figure in the Troyan Wars described by Homer in the Iliad. After long years these wars were decided by a cunning manoeuvre, the proverbial Troyan horse. The  besiegers gave a wooden horse to the Troyans as a gift, in which some warroirs were hidden who the open the city gates from inside.

A Troyan horse, short Troyan, therefore means a “posionous” gift, aone that is looking good but has a negative effect. Many computer users accept such gifts by clicking on a promising link which then installs a program, which sim ply takes control of the computer. This gift may come in an Email (yes, there are supposedly users operating their computers in the net without antivirus software and the still open spam mail) or maybe through infected web sites, mostly with porn or other stuff of this kind.

But you do not necessarily have to click, there are other method of smuggling a Troyan onto a computer. Then it sits there, opens a back door and transmits any data it wants to the outside world.

The German Federal Criminal Agency had remembered this old manoevre in the “war against terror” and was thinking of spying useres compputers without their knowledge. This practice has been recently stopped by the German Federal Constitutional Court, who ruled that privacy is of higher value than the wishes of terror investigators.
Of course this decision ultimately will not stop the intrusion onto computers forever. But the Germans will have to find a law which will regulate these practices and rule, when these methods may be used, probably under supervision of a judge.

This at least is something.

Sometimes it is suprising how small the world is: my niece recently started a voluntary social year in Berlin. And it is an organisation where a good friend of ours is working. I always say there is no auch thing as “coincidence”. But this time I was not involved, in contrast to other occasions.

By the way, the voluntary social year is an interesting practice. Years ago I worked on a study for the European Commission investigating the programme “Youth for Europe”. There also is a component called “European Voluntary Service”. In this context I visited the managing organisations for this programme in Oslo, Helsinki, Copenhagen, Bonn, and the Netherlands. In Germany and in the Netherlands it was not difficult to find suitable posts while it was a severe problem in Scandinavian countries. Reason was a profound cultural difference as Scandinavians say that social service is a normal service which has to be paid accordingly. Therefore the tradtion of a voluntary social year with only a kind of pocket money as compensation  was totally unknown in Scandinavia.

In Germany those offering such posts always say that this service was founded in 1954 by the protestant bishop of Bavaria. The history however is longer in Germany, first requests for a working service for all youths were voiced. This idea howver was discredited by the paramiltary working service in the 30s, which was compulsory for all male youths before military service and which was complemented by a voluntary service for women. This kind of year therefore has a slightly longer tradition.

At the corner of Wühlischplatz to Holteistraße is a small staue of a hippo. Nohbody really expected winter’s arrival, except one person who crocheted a measure-made winter protection.

Friedrichshain cares for its art objects.