Book of the month Book of the month: "Voltaire Almighty" In which I praise Roger Pearson's most readable Voltaire biography.
Books Through a "River of Ink" "River of Ink", the debut novel of Brit Paul M.M. Cooper, is a marvel. I'd not heard of the man until he did his Reddit AMA a few months back, but the book was an easy sell on me: I'm quite partial to historical fiction and also
History von Korncrake And here’s something for you, when all you want to do is kill time while reading elaborate satire. Korncrake – The Website of Herr Professor Dokto Boethius P. von Korncrake
History Uncle So here I am, joining the ranks of millions and millions of bloggers posting cute baby photos. Only that this time it might well be the best picture ever posted. Say hello to the kid who’s turned me into an uncle and designated godfather: It’s Astor Karl Theodor,
History Tuition or bust As a follow up to yesterday’s post, and answering the comment by “eigenschaft”, I will now write a bit about the watered down compromise I mentioned yesterday: the one about the tuition fees. Tuition fees were introduced by the Schüssel government in 2001, only shortly after the minister for
austria An unholy marriage People would think that people learn from mistakes. People are mistaken. About an hour ago, the Socialist Party’s head Gusenbauer announced the finalization of coalition talks with the People’s Party. Even though the SPÖ had the majority after last year’s elections, they have now handed over all
austria BREAKING NEWS - sort of Well, here’s to me, and all the other people whose final votes brought the Greens to third place. Read all about it here (if you know German…if you don’t, look at the pictures, they tell the story too). There are still enough people who voted for the
History BREAKING NEWS - Limbo reviewed Rejoice, Christians, for the concept of the infant limbo is expected to be renounced by the Vatican, according to a reputable source from the small Island. In case you’re not familiar with the limbus infantium, as it was lovingly coined by late medieval clergymen, it’s the notion that
austria In which I return to my newfound love of coming up with descriptive titles, totally breaking the layout of my site, and write about the outcome of yes So, here we are. The hegemony of the People’s Party is finally over. Yesterday more people voted for the social democrats than for Chancellor Schüssel and his unrelenting neo-liberal stooges. Which is a good thing. Unfortunately, there is no such thing as a good thing without a bad thing.
elections Time to vote It’s time to vote again, and the girlfriend and I will be on our way shortly. We held an election party four years ago, with red and green pasta, but unfortunately, the elections didn’t reflect our culinary choices. This year we don’t have anything planned. Maybe if
austria Dubya (final) So Dubya’s gone, and I won’t even pretend I was any good at covering it. The relevant things about the visit have been said by others who are more articulate than me. I’ll resort to showing you a picture (taken from here): It’s a man’s
History Carinthia, medieval I’m back from the excursion, and I brought a shitload of pictures. Click here to see the batch on my site’s own gallery, or click here to admire them from within Flickr (if you’re planning on leaving witty comments!). I don’t think I’ve ever before
academia Wibald's curse I’ve been trying for the last half hour to print out the article on Wibald of Stablo/Corvey from the online version of the International Encyclopaedia for the Middle Ages. Somehow Firefox suddenly goes bonkers when using the Encyclopedia. I’ve printed out and read dozens of articles from
art Porno Viennese Well, Austria’s made international headlines again. In the course of a government sponsored art project which lasted all year, posters were put up all over Vienna depicting the lower torso of a woman, wearing nothing but panties displaying the logo of the EU. Adding to this lewd image fit
austria Irving arrested David Irving, self-proclaimed historian and Holocaust denier was arrested on the 11th of September November (of course) here in Austria. Read all about it here. Well, it’s great they got him. Especially because he was on his way to talk to members of a right-wing student league (which are
austria On the intricacies of high finance Tomorrow is Austria’s national holiday. In case you don’t know how that came about, it’s the day when we’re supposed to commemorate the signing of a treaty including the law of permanent neutrality (and a few other things). Since the signing happened 40 50 years ago
History R.I.P. Critter Dear old critter, dignified head of my parent’s cat household, found his early demise yesterday. He’s been a good sport through all of the twelve years of his existence, and although I pretended to, I never actually minded him biting my toes when he was impatiently waiting to
History How to become an Austrian Although many people here in Austria beg to differ, it’s actually quite a nice country to live in. Especially if you’re a fugitive, or emigrated to Austria in search of better living conditions. The downside is, that our government is not only ruthlessly conservative, it’s also extremely,
History The big 25 Well, today marks my completion of a quarter of a century on this very soil called earth. Not that I had to do much to complete it. It’s more of a completion by default, if you don’t forget to eat (haha), breath and once in a while drink
History Everything's going to be just the way it used to be A new pope has been elected, and I would really like to write something witty about the fact that the Catholic Church still thinks using condoms will send you straight to hell, but I think it’s much more entertaining to read about AIDS in Africa. So, here you go.
History New far-right party in Austria Well, now it’s official. Freedom party, notorious for being the most obnoxious party in the whole of the political landscape of Austria, has now been split into another movement, the BZÖ, which spelled out may be translated into something like “Coalition for the future of Austria”. Instead of creating
History Of Elvis and chemistry sets Upon listening to a mashup which included an Elvis Presley song called “Crying in the Chapel”, I suddenly was reminded of little ampules filled with powders and a little instrument with which to extract tiny little bits of these powders in order to mix them up. It then dawned on
History Macaronic Poetry In the course of my research for a paper I am writing, I stumbled upon this great definition of a kind of poetry dating back to the medieval and early modern period of English: This poetic art is called “macaronic” from macarones, which are certain dough made up of flour,
History Austrian politics - a sad story Well, another minister has decided to simply leave office in favour of the much more attractive “private economy” as they call it. Federal Minister of the Interior, Ernst Strasser, stepped back from office, and now our Federal Minister of Defence, Günther Platter, has been given that ministry as well. Now,
History Ukraine election chaos - part 2 Since The Insider has made it into the mainstream Internet media already, I’ll quickly post his update on the situation now: Candidate of the opposition, Juschtschenko, has called for a national strike, which has led the Austrian embassy to advise people to get out of the Ukraine sooner or
