- But what will become of James Bond if we don’t tolerate sexual harassment anymore?
- Trying to cash in on crypto-currencies, I have now invested all my savings in Paypal.
- I always find it strange when people say “I am writing an eBook”, as if form matters more than substance. On the same note, I find it fishy when people say “I am studying for a master’s”, without mentioning the subject.
- In Romania, you notice in the streets that the big Christmas dinner is near.
(photo by Bogdan Gabriel Nitu, hat tip to Valentina Dimulescu) - – Hey Andreas, how easy is the language in Montenegro?
– Well, the language calls itself “crnogorski književnojezički izraz srpskohrvatskoga ili hrvatskosrpskoga jezika”.
– Oh. - I have actually never been influenced by an “influencer”.
- From Wikipedia:
“Smoking in public places is prohibited in Montenegro, unless you obtain a smoking permit from the government.”
So where do I get this permit to smoke on top of a mountain? - Thanks to Daniel Kehlmann’s wonderful novel Measuring the World, Alexander von Humboldt became even more popular than he already was. But this BBC podcast points out that one of the other scientists in the book, the mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss, is just as interesting.
- How to get rid of fake friends. (I am the blue part in the conversation, of course.)
- If you find life in North Korea interesting, but you are more of a listener than a reader, here is a recent interview with Barbara Demick.
- Communism is on the march, at least in Nepal. The recent elections were won by the Unified Marxist Leninists and by the Maoist Center.
- More German language porn: Verkehrswegeplanungsbeschleunigungsgesetz.
- With every train ride and with every flight, I hate children more.
- Kenya bans plastic bags.
- All the brouhaha about the decision by the USA to move their embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem overlooked the fact that Austria always had its representative offices in Jerusalem.
The Happy Hermit 
To the last point, Israel always had its government offices in Jerusalem, so it is the capital of Israel no matter what any other country’s or organization’s feelings are on the issue. Of course, a part of it (or according to some, all of it), is a disputed territory, but until the dispute gets resolved, the capital will most likely remain there. Even if the dispute gets resolved with some part of the city given to the Palestinians or to an international mandate, it’s most likely that Israel will still keep the government in whatever part of the city they get to keep.
Exactly.
If capital cities depended on the “recognition” of other countries, we would have quite a mess in some places.
And having embassies in a different city than the capital city is also not completely unusual. In Bolivia, I think all embassies are in La Paz, although Sucre is the capital city.
When Germany moved the capital city from Bonn to Berlin, many embassies remained in Bonn for years (particularly those of countries who couldn’t afford to buy a new place in Berlin).
„I have actually never been influenced by an ˋinfluencer´.“
Me either.
Influencer is often a self-label, and people who call themselves influencers often have „successories“ on the walls of their offices. If you encounter successories on the wall of a nominal leader, my advice is to run like hell.
The same about self-appointed “leaders”, “thought leaders” or “inspirational thinkers”, by the way.
No 13: I’m sure my kids make everyone on trains and flights uneasy.
No 14: We have adapted to the ban in Kenya.
No 4: 😂
I have two cloth bags that I use for shopping (and laundry) all over the world. Super useful and easy. Also, they are much stronger than paper or plastic bags.
In some countries, supermarkets have a hard time understanding this, but maybe one or two people who watch me like that will follow the idea. But banning or making the bags very expensive would certainly work more quickly and broadly.
Wherever I can, I also go to the market instead of the supermarket. The ladies at the market are happy to fill the cloth bag with cucumber and potatoes and everything, while the supermarket needs to put a bar code sticker on every item and therefore likes additional plastic wrapping.
There seems to be a simple trick to silence crying babies:
Not all random thoughts are born equal. Kenya has just made the right move. Let’s see how long it takes for the rest of the world to follow.
https://planetlonelyblog.wordpress.com/2017/12/15/marine-plastic-pollution/
# 9: Oh dear. Someone’s off your Christmas card. Or at least, they would be if you had one…
#9: Stalker 😛😛
A professional stalker would at least read the blog meticulously.
# 9: Didn’t realise you had a follower in Orange County or wherever like..
# 9: Did she begin the conversation praising your beauty?
No. :-(
She should have…
# 9: Glad your doing ok ‘wherever’ you are……. that says it all. Smh. I bet she played the victim for the rest of the conversation. They always do that.
I am becoming quite quick with blocking people on Facebook Messenger, so I don’t know what would have followed.
# 9: I seldom read your blog, however it’s super obvious where you are all the time. Simple social media newsfeeding.
Particularly when people contact me through Facebook. It says right on my profile where I live.
But you should read my blog regularly!
You still need to like my B&B page
When I go on Thuild – Your world of creation, Facebook says: “Andreas, this is beyond your budget.”
But it’s actually the other business: Thuild – Your world of leisure
You have a whole business empire, I see.
One is the B&B, the other is the consultancy services for hotels, which starts its first project next month. So I will be traveling and helping others get their hotels and other accommodation units in top shape online and offline.
# 1: James Bond will have no problems, since sexual harassment exists only if the guy isn’t considered hot
I disagree and I think this line of argument is actually dangerous. Because (1) many people think they are hot, either physically or because they are rich or powerful, and (2) it makes it harder for victims of such perpetrators to be taken seriously.
Oddly enough, we always see this when a female teacher seduces a teenage boy. If she is somewhat attractive, there will be many comments like “this would have been my childhood dream”, but if it’s a creepy teacher seducing a girl in his class, everyone is calling for castration. But we generally shouldn’t allow teachers to abuse a position of power and age difference.
Also, James Bond really has some scenes where he is clearly assaulting or violent towards women. I am a big fan of James Bond, but that particular depiction is really a disturbing part of the movies, and it continues until today. (I criticized this in my review of SPECTRE.)
# 13: What to like about childrens? They are the expresion of the parents debilities, their toys, masks, escuses, but also dependecies.
I also find it sad how often people produce children out of sheer selfishness: to have someone to play with, to care for, for distraction from a boring life.
But most of all, to dominate
Maybe people want to be gods, or mini-gods at least.
That’s not a problem :)) Their impotence in succeeding is the problem :))
I also think (fresh parent here), that so many people have kids because “at certain age it is a must” and very few ppl think about what they really need/want in their life and just give in to a nagging society/family.
Yes, I think that social pressure is a real phenomenon. It can often be observed in a close circle of friends: once one couple has a child, soon all their friends have children too. – I once wrote a short story about this: https://andreasmoser.blog/2016/12/23/christmas-child/
Having children is one of the most selfless things one can do. Not everyone likes children, and that is fine, but degrading those of us who do have children is arrogant. This is coming from a single mother of 4. I wonder if your mother was just a selfish procreating idiot???
Note that I didn’t say parents are idiots, by the way, so no reason to become insulting. I say that people have children for selfish reasons (joy, to “save” a relationship, to avoid loneliness, to get a sense of purpose in life, for their dynasty to survive, and so on), that’s not idiotic.
# 13: I wish I knew this before you flew Luke back to me.
For a good friend, I could make that one exception! But without the two friendly ladies sitting next to me, I would have been lost.
I always carry duct tape when I fly. Works great! For my own kids or other people’s kids
I should have put some alcohol into his bottle.
Now that I think about it…….he was a little tipsy and had a big ass grin when you handed him over…….. Hmmmm……???
But alas, once too, you were an annoying child 👶 🤣
First, I was not annoying because I was reading books. Second, I didn’t go on airplanes or trains when I was so young that I was still crying.
Stupidest reason to have a kid… once you were a kid too
Jajaja…no creo que los odies!! Estoy casi segura que si convivieras con uno ( sobrino o alguna pareja que tenga uno) los amarias y hasta soportaría cada berrinche 😃😃
No, los odio.
# 13: Jajjajajjajajjaj Como puedes odiar a esos angelitos…odia a sus Padres que son el verdadero problema…😝😝
Es posible odiar a los ambos.
Pero hay que decir que los ninos en Bolivia son los más educados que he encontrado.
# 13: Imagine they are yours and you have no one to leave them with and have to travel with them in a plane and they start to cry and they are not old enough to read books…what would you do?
Abandon them.
# 13: You were just the same, a child.
But I didn’t scream. Also, I didn’t go on trains and planes at a young age.
# 13: That’s exactly what I said when I came back from Dublin this week. And I’m a mom-just saying!
Two children on a flight with no space between us. Horrible
# 13: :))), next time you return to Romania, come visit and you will see the exception to the rule. This time I will make sure to have both kids at home 😂.
Oh, oh, I only have time on school days in the mornings!
Imagine how happy they will be to stay home on a school day 😁. You might just make it on their “we tolerate those old people and great them with a silent grinn” list.
You could dislike bad parenting instead.
Parenting it’s the consequence of birth.
# 13: Understand your pain.
sexual harassment:
a client’s name is called Hardik (real Indian name) and currently my female colleague is dealing with him a lot. recently he called her but the line went through the reception. Receptionist (male) to my female colleague: “I have a Hardik for you on the phone”. My female colleague’s face – https://www.wikihow.com/images/thumb/b/b2/Avoid-Blushing-Step-2.jpg/aid174271-v4-728px-Avoid-Blushing-Step-2.jpg
Life in Korea – thanks for the interview link. gonna download it and listen to it on the plane.
Oh my gosh, what an embarrassment indeed!
Enjoy the podcast! I am always finding more interesting stuff than I can possibly listen to, but whenever I go running or traveling where I can’t read, at least nit without disturbing others (dark buses at night), or even on long walks, I listen to stuff ranging from history to literature, from economics to geography. Since I started doing that, I don’t find running as boring as I used to and I don’t mind walking for hours to get home.
Point 8 – have you read “The Invention of Nature” by Andrea Wulf? It’s about Humboldt- one of the better science/ history books I read this year
Oh yes! That was a really good book indeed!
Based on it, I have written these two articles already:
– https://andreasmoser.blog/2017/02/05/humboldt-infographic/
– https://andreasmoser.blog/2016/07/15/humboldt-valencia/
I’ll add Daniel Kehlmann’s book to my list
“Measuring the World” is really one of the best recent German novels I know. Quite funny. I think it did a lot to reignite the interest in Humboldt himself.
I’ll be sure to read it- any other recommendations for German novels translated into English in the same kind of historical/ scientific genre?
Different time and place (German colonialism in the Pacific) and more historical/cultural than scientific, but “Imperium” by Christian Kracht – http://amzn.to/2AzkzK3 – is another funny novel about a real historical figure.
I read the description on amazon- looks very intriguing. Alright I’m going to read these two books before I come back for more recommendations. Thanks!
And then I’ll have to read more myself in the meantime, to have more recommendations. But please also tell me if you didn’t like them, so I can maybe learn from that!
I certainly will and I’ll let you know if I come across any good books as well