So Pithy

Apparently Berlin is where it’s at. As an American in Europe, Berlin was, if I’m not mistaken, one of the places I could have caught a fireworks display on Independence Day (in conjunction with the opening of the new US embassy, built on the same lot where the US embassy was located before World War II). Also, on Saturday the new Madame Tussauds opened in Berlin with some commotion as one man ripped Hitler’s head clean off (not that he didn’t have it coming.)

And now I hear that Barack Obama may be giving a speech in front of the Brandenburg Gate. You know, á la Reagan. The word is sometime in July, but I expect it’s after I leave.

In the past five years I have been home for Independence Day one time: last year. This year, of course, I’m in Germany. Two years ago I was in Kenya. The year before that I was in Germany, and the same goes for the year before that.

So I’m home for July 4th 20% of the time. That number might sound small until you remember that less than 5% of people are in the United States on July 4th.

Eating breakfast this morning (and every other morning I’ve been in Magdeburg, really) I noticed Niko’s spoons have a slightly elongated bowl. Unfortunately he only has one type of spoon, so I’m stuck with them. In Berlin the kitchen had a variety of spoons and I’d settled on one type in particular for my daily use, with an appropriately sized and proportioned bowl and acceptable handle. If none of those were available, I wouldn’t use another; instead I’d immediately wash one of the spoons approved for use.

I think with spoons, as with many things, my standards have been determined by my childhood, by what my parents had. I say “had” because sadly now even some of the spoons at my parents house don’t quite fit my ideal (I think it’s the handle on those that gets me.) So add spoons to a list that includes Diet Coke, our couches, and much, much more.

I am almost done packing, which means I have reached the stage where I just want to throw up my hands and say “good enough.”

To remember tomorrow:

• computer and related cables
• especially mouse and keyboard
• running clothes/shoes
• iPod, headphones, armband, etc.
• alarm clock
• deposit back (should get that yet tonight)
• leave keys/give to landlord
• cell phone charger
• shampoo, etc.
• Apple remote
• I must be forgetting something…

The television feed of Germany’s dramatic victory in Euro 2008 was disrupted during the game on account of a power outage in Vienna. Per UEFA contracts all international TV feeds went through Vienna. The Swiss, however, had their own, separate, local feed for the game (since it was in Basel) and at least Germany (perhaps other European countries, too) managed to tap into that feed until the situation in Vienna was resolved.

At least that’s what ZDF told viewers after the game.

Apparently Germany is the greenest country on earth (sorry, Ireland):

German use of oil, gas and coal in 2007 fell by 5.6 per cent compared with 2006, according to a new report from BP. Global energy consumption, driven by China, America and India, rose by 2.4 per cent in the same year. -via Telegraph

Spending any significant amount of time in Germany makes clear how Germany has attained such a distinction: incredible public transportation (when the unions aren’t on strike), tiny fuel-efficient cars, recycling, the works.

2008 might not show the same drop, though, if this past weekend is any indicator: untold tax-euros spent driving fellowship-holders back and forth from one building to another when we were all staying in a perfectly good hotel and convention center.

Also, I wonder about the drop from 2006 to 2007. In 2006 Germany hosted the World Cup, bringing huge numbers of fans to the country, teams competing in the tournament, journalists covering it, etc. With venues around the country, a lot of travel was necessary for everybody involved. With all that going on that summer, wouldn’t you expect a drop the next year?

The Devonian Fossil Gorge was created in July 1993, the last time water burst over the spillway. When that water subsided, a picture emerged in the exposed limestone — thousands of fossils from the creatures that lived here 375 million years ago, when Iowa was a tropical sea. via The Gazette

The recent flooding once again sent water rushing over the spillway, widening the gorge and revealing new fossils. Also: the fact that Iowa was a tropical sea reminds us of the origins of Coralville’s name.

In the Euro 2008 semifinals Germany will face Turkey. This could get interesting given the large Turkish population in Germany (largely a result of West Germany’s guest worker program). Any controversey over the outcome of the match may very well spill out into the streets of Berlin and other German cities. There’s also the possibility, of course, that a well-earned German victory (which many “experts” seem to predict) could unite everybody behind the German team, regardless of citizenship or background.

Prior to the year 2000, citizenship was difficult for non-Germans to attain because German citizenship was based on blood (jus sanguinis) instead of place of birth (jus soli). Thus even the second and third generations of Turkish guest workers who had only ever known Germany, spoken German, etc. were not automatically German citizens and could only obtain citizenship with some difficulty.

Reforms to bring German citizenship law in line with the rest of the European Union changed things for the better, but nonetheless decades of exclusion have created a population of Germans who are not legally Germans.

(An interesting side note: Euro 2008 is co-hosted by Austria, a country which after World War II had to restore Austrian citizenship to all its inhabitants and strip them of German citizenship as a result of Germany’s annexation of the country before the war.)

Heard an interesting segment on Science Friday recently:

Some people just can’t carry a tune — not because they have poor voices, but because the difference between ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ notes isn’t significant to them. Writing this week in the journal PLOS One, however, a team of researchers report that the brains of tune-deaf people do actually react to incorrect notes unconsciously.

The summary suggests that this discovery won’t help improve anybody’s singing, but I have to wonder about that. As a caller noted, if the brains of tone-deaf and tune-deaf individuals can tell the difference between right and wrong then all is not lost; training could help individuals to process what their brain is telling them. After all, the brain also has to learn to see, a process that usually begins at birth. Why can’t it learn to recognize and (to varying degrees of fidelity) reproduce differences in pitch?

Lyrics to the theme song of the German version of Disney’s Gummi Bears:

Wutig und freundlich, so tapfer und gläubig,
fröhlich und frisch kämpfen sie auch für dich.
Leben im Wald, unter Bäumen und Steinen,
in ihren Höhlen, da sind sie zuhaus.
Gummibären
hüpfen hier und dort und überall,
sie sind für dich da, wenn du sie brauchst,
das sind die Gummibären.
Last euch versaubern von ihrem Geheimnis,
der Saft bringt die Kraft, das Abenteuer lacht.
Gemeinsam könnt ihr so viel mehr noch erleben,
kommt doch hier her, und singt einfach mit.
Gummibären
hüpfen hier und dort und überall,
sie sind für dich da, wenn du sie brauchst,
das sind die Gummibären.
Das sind die Gummibären.

(via wunschliste)