Does it smell?

You can get this (or similiar) in nearly every German supermarket. Where it's called "Kinderwurst", which I would loosely translate into "Kids sausage".
I'm so used to it I didn't consider it weird (much), but from the outside I agree, it's pretty strange.
Why do you want your sandwich to stare at you?
Has this something to do with Douglas Adams' pig that wants to be eaten?

"Not my country, not my problem"
As much as I like the idea of having enough problems in one's own country to be too busy to care for someone elses, I'm quite glad that the Allied Forces invaded my homeland to end the war.

I don't want to say anyone should declare war on China, because I don't believe war or violence should be a politic device to solve problems - it worked once (see example above), in Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq it made everything worse.

I truly believe people should be able to speak their mind, everywhere. It's a very basic right.

In the olden days, you could even run over the prostitute after she finished her work and get your money back.
I always thought that bit was a lot more tasteless than that Hot Coffee thingie. Never quite understood why people weren't upset about that.
In some strange way I'm glad to see Rockstar hasn't caved in and is as tasteless and sexist as ever.

Pure Nihilism. No ferrets involved.

"They will be able to tell us when to wake, sleep, learn, and exercise; they will cue us to remember what we've read, help us track whom we've met, and remind us of our goals. Computers, in Wozniak's scheme, will increase our intellectual capacity and enhance our rational self-control."

Learning vocabulary is all fine and dandy (and the deity of your choice knows I've now forgotten more kanji than I ever knew but I can look them up really, really fast) but what's with the quote above? Computer-facism!
What's next - a console telling me my BMI and encouraging me to workout?

@Fergus:
That's one of my favourite arguments.
Just because one thing is wrong and another thing is wrong, too, it doesn't make anything less wrong.
It's illogical.

I usually agree that there are several different truths to every story but in this case - China and Human Rights violations - it's all too easy because the KP makes it all too easy.
They've closed Tibet.
If they wanted the world to know what's happening there, they wouldn't have. So my educated guess is they are doing things that they don't want to be seen.
I don't think getting a Chinese friend would help me here. Some Chinese you meet on the 'net tend to be a bit aggressive when it comes to this topic, shouting at the top of their lungs what they've learned from the KP at home. Aggressive shouting never makes a good discussion.
That goes for the Chinese rethoric against the "Dalai Clique" as well. But maybe it's because I'm german that aggressively shouting men seem more than just a little suspect to me.

@Tuktuk: Thank you and your friend for everything you do. I think it's wonderful.

You'll be surprised, Christophery, but I actually do.
I'm also not buying Adidas or Volkswagen and I agree it's quite difficult to boycott things made in China, but it's still possible. I've even given up on my favourite Pai Mu Tan tea, which is a shame, but nicely replaced by Japanese tea. Granted, that only does something for my conscience, but maybe I'm not alone in this.

"And I’d only just bought myself a new fridge-freezer! If I’d only known!"

Reminds you of what is really important in life, eh?
(hint: nooo, it's not the fridge-freezer, although it's certainly nice to have one. I guess.)

Japanese fashion magazines are full of these ads for "rounder eyes" that will make you look more "awake", just next to the ads for diet pills which help you loose a fantastic amount of weight in a really short time and similiar scams.
It's a fashion thing, somewhere else women get their chins/noses/whatevers done - as to why, I have no idea because I generally think people look better without surgery.

Give the man what he deserves - in this case, give him his Umlaut back. It's Schäuble, not Schauble. Also known as "Stasi 2.0".
Strangely enough he threatened to sue the CCC but this news seems to have disappeared over the weekend and now he apparently takes it with good humour. Which is weird, because he doesn't have any.

Corruption, probably.
All the other nature-bending projects went so well for China (like "let's all make steal!", which resulted in a famine that killed millions), I'm interested how this one will go.

Free Tibet!
Declare independence, Taiwan!

@RJ: Okay, here's your cookie.
Now start thinking about what you say. That's a good boy. And neither of you gets a Nobel price.
There are quite a lot of people "blasting away at each other amid the rubble of their homes" in the world. Some people even travel quite a long time to "blast someone elses rubble", if you will.
I think that's insane.
War is always insane.
Mr. Fadhel Al-SaidWhen is just some sort of somehow charming weirdo, just like all these Intelligent Design guys. I find them rather amusing.

I personally prefer my world to be flat, carried on the back of four elephants standing on the giant star turtle Great A'Tuin.

Interesting to see Iraquis are catching up to Intelligent Design and Creationism. Very zeitgeist. Of course it's the Koran according to which the earth is flat and not the bible and I might be wrong but wasn't Galileo Galilei rehabilitated by the Catholic church only in 1992?

And I'm too disgusted at what RJ had to say to comment it. Shame on you.

Oh, you funny Americans!
Weapons in every home are okay, but everything sexual is bad!

@Tom: That's not what I meant. I was saying that China does not have the exclusive rights to being the only evil empire ever.
Violence is always wrong, no matter if it happens in the Iraq, against Chinese in Tibet or against Tibetans in Tibet.
Chinas retoric brings back old memories of the German Democratic Public before the Wall came down, they seem so full of hatred. I'm quite interested in seeing proof that a Nobel Peace Price winner actually masterminded several global violent protests. Ridiculous.

I think it's quite weird to assume there would be only one "evil" nation. Unfortunately, there are far too many "evil" nations. Noone is free of guilt, and being German I won't throw too many stones.
However, I consider it very interesting how China is handling this conflict. They are not afraid of consequences, they don't care what the rest of the world thinks. They only know one reaction to an uprising: the famous Tiananmen-Tactic. Accusing the Dalai Lama they are giving quite the handbook act of "How to be an evil emperor".
And unfortunately, they are right.
Nothing will happen. The Olympics will go on, their economy will continue to boom. In several months, quite a lot of people wearing sponsored cloithes by McDonalds, Adidas and Coca Cola will act as if nothing happened.
I don't know if that is fatalistic or realistic yet. Either way it's depressing.

And who wouldn't want to wake up to the lovely smell of wasabi...
Wait a moment: Beds that shake violently and/or strobe lights?
Are we talking about torture instruments?!

As if Heathrow wasn't fun enough already, what with the announcing of the gates 10 minutes before boarding and the always delightful shoe-and-laptop-stripping.
Next time I visit the UK, I'll take the ferry, thank you very much. And busses, trains and rental cars.

Actually, I do see some paralells to China invading Tibet to the German Reich invading Poland (Austria is another matter, google it).
Both happened rather fast and quite efficient, both went against people with a different culture and a different language.

Just the reactions of the international community were different. One happened in the middle of Europe, the other happened in some part of the Himalaya hardly anyone had ever heard about.
And I guess the Chinese Army is rather a lot bigger than the German ever was.
Another thing I really don't get is why Mao is usually seen as some benevolent pop culture icon (thanks to Warhol), because he is just as bad as Hitler and Stalin.

Björk definetely is short of several marbles but I do love her.
But relations between Tibet and China are far too complicated to be sorted out that easy, but it's good she raised the topic.

@Will Shatterly:
Actually, it doesn't really matter if Tibet is "historically an integral part of China" because, well - who writes history? See.
I personally think it's just wrong to invade a country, kill people and then send thousands and tens of thousands people over for a slow genocide: Today, there are more Han Chinese in Tibet than Tibetans. The Tibetan language in Tibet dies. Tibetan culture dies, Tibetan religion in Tibet is more a touristic spectacle than a religious experience.
That's wrong - no matter if Tibet was a part of China since this princess married the whatnot. Of course Tibet wasn't Shangrila before China invaded - but that has nothing to do with the fact that Invasion and Genocide is just wrong.

Free Tibet!
And the Panchen Lama!
And while you're at it, make Taiwan declare complete indepence without any interest with a reunification with the "motherland"!

So strange how fast one can become what one hates the most. The whole reporting seems very STASI or even Blockwart-like (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockleiter) to me.
Apart from all this 1984-ness.

Why don't ebooks actually use the medium people already have? In Japan, you can read books or manga on your cell phone. Why can't you get an ebook for the PSP or the DS? That sure can't be harder to do than a game, can it?
Another thing I always ask myself when this discussion comes up: Is there actually a demand for ebooks? While I quite enjoy searching through Shakespeare and Goethe on gutenberg.org when I'm wondering where to find that quote, I'm rather fond of books. I like the look, the feel, the smell, the touch, signed copies, copies signed by friends, things I underlined when I was 14 and very enthusiastic about something, the very old leather bound volume I found in that shop on this-and-that occasion.
But then again, the same could be said about newspapers, and I haven't read the paper version of a newspaper since 2000 or so.

@Mark: I know the chinese have a great deal of control about whp carries the torch, that's why I said "It's never going to happen that the Dalai Lama is carrying the torch".
So unless you've mist a "don't" in you sentence, I assume we are of the same opinion?
I was thinking of Taiwan, too, actually. This week they've had the torch for the Tibetan Olympics which will be held in Dharamsala.
China might have let Taiwan out of being included forcefully to parading the torch in Taipeh, but the Dalai Lama with the torch is just not going to happen.

@Antonious: Yeah, right. I just knew someone would pop up with an obscure religion nobody remembers to disprove my point :) But how many "sex is not just for reproduction"-happy religions are there today? And how many of them can be considered a world religion (at least one million of living and active believers) today?

As far as I know, that's pretty much in line with most other major religions - the bible calls homosexuality an "abomination", I'm pretty sure the Islam isn't too fond of homosexuality and since the first testament isn't too friendly on it I'd wager a guess that the traditional Jewish view on homosexuality isn't too nice either.
But since the Dalai Lama said this, he's spend several years to explain in interviews why he said what he said and what he didn't mean. Google yourself.
(Just in case: I, personally, don't really care what you prefer. I just wanted to point out homosexuality and religion are not a good match.)
Tibetan Buddhism is quite old and has many esoteric traditions, this Dalai Lama is the first in a long line who actually went to see the world and open up to the world, slowly changing old traditions (well, he had to). Chances are, his view on homosexuality will change, too.
Back to the topic:
Never going to happen. China will never allow this to happen.

"Sprudelwasser" means "sparkling mineral water", just in case anybody wants to know. Never heard it used the way he does, seems like a random choice to me.
He's not so much German (or French) as more a collection of every German (or French) clichè Americans seem to have about German or French people. Which usually baffles me a bit: How do you guys come up with that? We're not like that.
We actually do wash our hair ever once in a while, you know, most of us even on a regular (daily) basis.
But then again, maybe I should just be thankful that the jodeling dumb blonde Nazi type seems to be out of fashion... compared to that, Klaus-Pierre seems pretty good. Hell, even Ralf Möller is good compared to that.

Beer and wine are among my favourite offerings, too. ALthough I wouldn't say no to some whisky.
Now, tell me your wish.

What's wrong with videogame journalism?
Either it's fanboys pushing everything by company X ("It's by X, and even if objectively it's a boring piece of crap, it's by X so it must be a gloriously wonderful offering that's just beyond my grasp").
Or it's the old, old story of conflicts of interests ("If I write what I really think about this boring piece of crap, company X will never give me free samples again, yet alone talk to me again or buy some advertisement space in my magazine and then my boss will get really angry with me").
Sorry for being maybe just a tiny bit too polemic.

And another thing that's really wrong with the industry as a whole: most new games are hardly original or feature something fresh, creative, new. Creativity went out for commercialism, which today means FPS.
(Which I personally consider one of the more boring genres available, but I know that's just me.)

I think her personal opinion would be very helpful as well. She is writing too emotional too offer a neutral viewpoint anyway.
Plus, I'm curious and I'd just like to know if she thinks the independence of the Kosovo is be a good thing and I'd also like to know why this independence enrages people so much. Because I don't understand. If Bavaria would declare independence from the rest of Germany next week I'd probably shrug and say "Well, yes, how nice, have a good day". Being German, I won't go and break into embassies because I want Silesia back (whole different story anyway).
I wouldn't do anything about it, so I don't get what the Serbs are so angry about they seem fine with the idea of heading straight into the next war.
Tešanovićs opinion - and I'm sure she has one - would help to get some insight. Highly subjective, of course, but so what?

Because acting the same way is just not a very grown up thing to do?
I guess, but what do I know - maybe we are just too lazy, many we've worked too long in Europe to get the borders down and reduce controls to get them up again.
And honestly: Flying from Heathrow already is bad enough, I'm not sure if I could take any more trouble there without getting into hysterics.

Besides, Japan does. They do all they can to make visiting Japan as unpleasant as visiting the United States.

I'm glad I've been quite often in both countries, at the moment I really don't want to. Actually, I don't think it's going to change, not any time soon. Collecting data is the new thing, someday they might even figure out what to do with them and why they want them so much. Orwell would have been so proud. Or scared.

Unicorn Chaser. Pretty please.

True proof that on the internet, there's a place for everyone.
Fascinating.

(How can anyone think Xeni is a transvestite? You're just trying to be mean, hm?)

Hu Jia is in prison since December last year, his wife and his two month old daughter still live in house arrest.
Wasn't China supposed at least to act as if they had something resembling free speech before/during the Olympic Games?

I actually do boil beans, pasta (tagliatelle) and (peeled) potatoes in one pot occasionally. Drain it, put some pesto on it, maybe some grated parmesan - pasta genovese. Very nice and very easy. And takes only about 8 minutes in cooking time.

Great, that's even better than the Stasi in East Germany used to be (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stasi).

I wish I could make my mother get a Mac - she has this very, very special knack to drive me really crazy when talking computers. After discussing (over the phone, of course) for an hour the difficulty of installing a screen saver we got into a mayor argument and stopped talking for six months or so.
Today however she asked about a Mac - maybe there is some hope...

@ moon:
"Have you seen the sugar and calorie count of fruit? Unbelievable.

And tofu? 5 grams of fat per serving! It's ridiculous!"

Well, of course - everything we eat has calories. I still hang on to the old-school diet of "everything in moderation", and you need everything - fat, sugar, carbs etc. - in moderation.
The body however does not need preservatives, additives, artificial food coloring and so on.
In moderation it's even okay to eat a burger, but not as a staple in your diet.

It's not only fast food and a lack of exercise that makes us fat. It's all in the supermarkets - you eat what you buy.
When in a foreign country, I always really like to go to supermarkets for some comparative cultural studies (and because I want to buy stuff) and I've never seen so enormously big potato chips/crisps bags, giant peanut butter glasses, chocolates etc. as in the USA. All the food seems to be sold in giant portions. In the next two rows you'll find pills helping against constipation and , even better, weight loss pills.
Visiting Japanese supermarkets you'll find a lot of fresh vegetables, fresh fish, fresh meat and a lot less junk snack stuff.
We don't really need McDonalds to get fat. It just helps. People should really just start to think - when you eat a lot of fat, sugar and carbs, you get fat.

(totally agree with the point that school makes you avoid sports btw.)

Apparently they make soup out of the veggies after the show. No kidding. I know how much spittle there's in a clarinet after an hour of playing, so this soup is some kind of polite "oh, no, thank you, I've already eaten."

I have to agree with ElNico (#8). That stuff is really common knowledge in Germany, it's not forgotten but hardly newsworthy.

That's pretty puritan for boingboing, isn't it?
Of course I might fall easier when wearing high heels, but when I leave the house I might also be hit by a roof tile.

Sounds like total science fiction to me. How could this even work? Every time I fly I look angry, tired, aggressive, annoyed and afraid (of not catching my plane because I'm stuck in security and the gate hasn't been announced yet).
And so does everybody else.
So that would mean nobody is allowed to board a plane who isn't really good at poker.

I think it's brilliant. They could become the USA's very own Taiwan. Go, Lakotas!

Nothing you'd like to wear on a business date. Or a date, for that matter. Or at a game of poker. Or teaching a class ("Let's see if we can make Miss Smith go red again!"). Or at an international conference about human rights ("asked about Tibet, the deputy of China went bright red. Again.")
Then again, seems like a lot of fun.

I met him once and learned more about writing in 45 minutes than in three years at the university. As he himself says: He ain't dead. And I want to believe he's as tough as Granny Weatherwax, though how he survived trying out Nanny Oggs recipes for the book I may never know, but these English men are a tough lot.

I've been born twenty years before the wall came down, so I remember it well.
Certainly lack of resources paid a big part in the overall badness of GDR chocolate, but I keep wondering if it's only that or if the method and the making had something wrong, too. Every chocolatier will tell you the secret is in the stirring of the conche and cocoa butter tends to curdle? clod? congest? if this isn't done right. GDR chocolate tasted of old dust and straw and nothing nice.
I wouldn't wonder why you've never eaten this stuff, small kids are plenty smart when it comes to eating.

Why East German equipment? East German chocolate was quite awful, nearly as bad as Chinese chocolate. I really love chocolate and will eat anything with choccolate, so my taste isn't that discerning (don't like Hershey's, though), but East German chocolate was something even I skipped and threw away after the visit of the nice old aunt from the East was over.
So it'd be interesting to know how you'd get something nice from the machines of chocolate dread.

Hm. Teapunk is a She-punk, actually.
Let me make this clear: I don't mind people wearing bandages or bananas and feathers and funky chocolate wrappers.
All I said was: Child porn is wrong. Children should have nothing to do whatsoever with fetishes.
If the girls in the books mentioned were women - and not 16 or under, and you get a lot of "Junior Idol Books" as good as naked in Akiba - it wouldn't bother me much.
If they were women.
But they are girls.
Children should not be considered as sexual objects, I guess we can all agree on this point.
I quite certainly don't want to enlighten anyone, I just want to state my opinion.

@Kyle Armbruster:
No, nothing is wrong "by any standard." Sorry. That's what makes different standards different. There are some things that are wrong by your standard, but those judgments are clearly not shared by the models, the publishers, or the consumers of these expensive, glossy, advertised books.

Only because underage models are exploited by fotographers, publishers and so on and people acutally buy it doesn't make underage pornography a good thing. It's wrong.
When I lived in Japan I got advertisements in my mailbox for videos featuring eleven year old girls "showing everything!!!".

I absolutely agree with Lauren - this is something that should be considered wrong. Because it is.

Isn't that more of an Akihabara thing?
Harajuku as I know it is usually all about fashion, while Akihabara today sadly is all about fetish, not so much "Electric Town" (though you can still find that, too). I've never spotted these girls in Harajuku, but I can remember some "injured maids" handing out leaflets for their maid cafe in Akiba.

Darrell makes some interesting points, but I have to add: There are some cultural things you can't "get over", because some things are just wrong, by any standard. Underage pornography is one of them.

@Nex (27):
Ah, okay, if the cup is made of glass it's indeed a "Glas", you're right, I agree. Which would make it "Zwei Mädchen, ein Glas".

I don't know how to get the cute quotation marks, so this will have to do:
(Imagine quote here!)
Therefore: 'Glas' good, 'Becher' meh, 'Tasse' wrong. I agree that it's not wrong to call a small drinking vessel for tea or coffee 'Tasse' even if it doesn't have a handle; but this usage is less common...

I totally don't get why this should be the case, there have always been cups with or without handles in my kitchen and in the shops. Supercommon usage.

... so as a rule of thumb for German learners, the existence/absence of a handle is a pretty good indicator of whether you're dealing with a tasse or a becher :-)

But I get this point. Unfortunately, some "Becher" also have handles, at which point this gets rather confusing.
I'm not a learner of German, I'm German and work with my language every day.

@Nex: Well meaning I might be occasionally, but it would only be a "Glas" if the cup was actually made of glass.
If it's plastic or cardboard or whatever, it would be a "Becher", and if you have to see a doctor for certain medical tests then yes, you might be asked politely to fill the "Becher", which would make it now "Zwei Mädchen ein Becher".
I actually own several "Tassen" without handles, but I agree many "Tassen" have handles.
Since I've never seen the video (and really, really don't plan to although why exactly I keep following this thread I do not know) I have no idea whether "Becher" or "Glas" would be more appropriate and I seriously don't know any part of Germany (can't vouch for Austria or Switzerland) where "Becher" wouldn't be okay.

Allow me: It should be "Zwei Mädchen eine Tasse", because "Schale" usually means "bowl". If the cup is bigger, and I don't want any details, it would be a "Becher".
Also agree you guys have way too much fun with this.

I want a proper unicorn chaser. Cats are not strong enough to get this out of my mind, and I've only read about it.

Does it really matter if she loves or loathes the tube?
She obviously does good a good job and I personally don't care whether the person who tells me to "mind the gap" is actually really fond of minding the gap herself. I want to understand her, that's all.

I still remember Munich in the 80s, before they switched to a softspoken female announcer the drivers had to make every announcement themselves and did so in a harsh, aggressive bavarian dialect. Couldn't understand a word.

The key problem of the American foreign policy are the double standards they are using - and constantly re-defining what actually is torture.
America still claims to be "the Land of the Free" and a democracy, yet it still has the death penalty and uses torture as a means to extract information.
And refuses to call it by it's name.
Torture never leads to useful information, people will confess to anything.
It's rather curious to watch how fast one can become what one despises the most.
Well, as Benjamin Franklin said:
"Those who sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither."

The saddest thing about the baby hatch in Japan is that one of the first babies abandoned their was a three year old kid. Really, a "father" left his three year old son in a baby hatch.
There are several baby hatches in Germany. Most of them not only offer the baby hatch but also therapy and counseling for the mothers, anonymous births and they really care for the mothers and the babies. The mothers can decide afterwards whether they want to keep the baby or not, if they don't, the children will be adopted and the mother will always have the possibility to stay in contact with her child, if she wants to.
It's not a perfect solution, but it is so much better than another baby dying somewhere hidden under the garbage.

I have to echo that - when it comes to dieting, all men are not created equal.
Age also plays a large role, when you're young, it's a lot easier to lose weight, when you're getting older, every lb (or kg, for that matter) just clings to you.
I've tried the gym (cardio and weights) and a diet and all it did was bore me out of my mind. I lost 300 gramm (aka "nothing") in six weeks of torture.
I've also tried David Kirschs Fad-Diet (enormous amount of exercise and turkey, low on carbs), which made me sick of turkey and rather testy because of two hours exercise per day.
One kg in two weeks. Okay, but I really, really couldn't stand it any longer and I couldn't imagine living the rest of my life with turkey.
So in my case, exercise might be healthy but it doesn't help me to lose weight.
Dieting is really all about finding out what works for you. And well, the age old thing that some things should only be eaten in moderation (you know what!), you should cook your food yourself (no so-called "convenience" food) and have some fresh fruit and veggies and some meat if you like.
Balance is key.

@Eclectro: As an amoral atheist I fell like adding: I find this discussion quite delightful and not amoral at all.
You can believe whatever you want, I won't take your God away from you - how could I?
And why should I?
But I can question theories or whatever pitches my interest and I consider strange, because this is what humanity is all about, questions: Why do things fall down, not up? Why is it dark at night? Why do flowers bloom?
When we stop to ask questions, our brains will just go numb and die. More or less metaphorically. Some people don't even notice.
Every age presents us with new answers to our questions. Some people even find their own answers.
And some people will laugh because there is no problem with religion and science coexisting - can't you see god and his wonders in the raindrop under the microscope? - but to me it is really just plain silly to assume dinosaurs were vegetarians and lived at the same time as humans, who wouldn't be related to apes.

@tsol: yes, isn't it really, really strange how many things the christian-right-creationist and the radical muslims have in common?
Fascinating, because these groups probably see each other as arch-enemies.

But the funny thing is, that the imam is not returning to the middle ages, he has actually never left this kind of thinking. The christian right has seen the light and then decided to turn around and walk back to where they came from, meeting the imam somewhere in the middle.

@GaryG: Yes, well, since Mrs Merkel, my chancellor, took over we try to be best friends forever again with the US.
I'm afraid the day when someone will start teaching "Intelligent Design" in school might not be too far off. But you might need a strong religious-right foundation for something like this, so it can grow and I don't see this happening here, in Germany, religion is between you and your god and more of a private thing.
So the day might not be that close.
But until then, I can still sit here in wonder and mock all these weird ideas.

I'm still utterly fascinated by the simple fact that creationism is really a serious topic of discussion in the USA.
Of course, I'm comfortably far away in Europe and can enjoy the return of medieval thinking before the enlightenment because it doesn't really concern me, it's like watching an avalanche from afar, some kind of "Oh, the funny Americans, what will they think up next!".
I'm about as equally baffled that "global warming" is still up for discussion with you.
Seriously, what will you think up next?

The only thing that ever hurt the music industry wasn't mp3 and piracy. It's the "music" they are trying to sell - pretty boys and girls dancing prettily singing pretty tunes.
Casting bands with no real talent whatsoever. That's not music. That's just boring and in my opinion (not humble) it's absolutely okay to delete it after some time. Todays music is the acoustic equivalent of popcorn - nice and sweet but soon forgotten.
I'm so sick of this constant whining of the music (and movie) industry - if you're product sucks, you're not going to sell it.
Sometimes, it's just that simple.

But civilians are always killed intentionally in wars - whether it be Bomber Harris in Hamburg (and the Queen gave him a medal for it) or someone else burning down Dresden. Or any other war anyone cares to mention.

What I really, really don't get is how the one who is himself personally responsible for dropping the bomb on Hiroshima (don't get me on "Me? I was just following orders") could sleep well all the nights in his life. I can't believe this. He is guilty of murdering thousands of people. People still die today of the long-time consequences because of what he did.
Whatever his faith was, I truly hope he gets what he deserves.

Frankiez: please, do yourself a favour and read a bit about Shintaro Ishihara (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shintaro_Ishihara) who has just been elected governor of Tokyo. Again.
After blaiming all the crimes on foreigners and declaring stuff like "Women over 40 have no reason to live".
Have you ever watched Japanese TV? How can you say there's no xenophobia in Japan?
But I forgot - there are so many gaijin in Japan who don't want to see any fault in the land of their dreams.
Wake up.
It's just a place, not nirvana.

"Gaijin" very literally means "Person from the outside" aka "not a Japanese person".
And that's what I am, and as far as I'm guessing, you too. It's not "nigger" or "jap" or "kraut" (which is what I am, actually). "Gaijin" is pretty neutral. There are far worse words.
I agree - especially after reading 2ch and Japanprobe lately - that some Japanese are highly xenophobic, which can be explained somewhat if you consider Japan was closed to the world until about 200 years ago.
I'm not so much bothered about the party and the fact that Japanese can be rather annoying too - at the very end of it all we are all just human beings and it's our nature to annoy our fellow humans from time to time.

Ah, the good old Yamanote Halloween Party. Basically, if you're a foreigner in Japan this is the one day in the year when it's sort of "traditional" to blow off some steam by getting drunk and partying in the subway. Usually, no harm is done and often it's enjoyed by well, not everyone, but quite many.
And on the next day, your head will hurt but you'll be the nice, well-behaved gaijin again. And you will ride home in the Yamanote surrounded by drunken Japanese who will either try to nap on your shoulder or grope you.

As for Halloween: so not christian. It's pagan New Year. Samhain. No connection to Christianity whatsoever. Of course I'll be interested if someone finds one. And I'll wish for my Gods quietly.

It's right that Thalia and Hugendubel are taking over the market but there are still quite a lot specialist bookstores.
Not sure if there's one just for angels, but I know a store for crime thrillers and whodunnits, some bookstores for SF and Fantasy only, several esoteric bookshops, probably even more for gay and lesbian literature and even a bookshop specialising in modern American literature. All in walking distance.
So it's not that bad, yet.

On the other side, fixed book pricing allows you an enormously clear calculation: printing, marketing, the author, the translator and so on.
I'm quite sure panic would ensue in Germany if this system was changed.

At least they are not (yet) topping it with cheese, like cheese gyudon this spring. I agree, Pork Kimchi is pretty much standard, the rest is just a "look what I can eat" dare.
I'm still remembering the Lotteria Kimchi-Shake...

As someone from a "rotten culture" in old Europe I'd gladly pay 1200$ (or 1200 €) for a handbag if
- there were only 100 of it
- the leather would be of extremely good quality, not too thick, yet smooth and of no endangered species or reptiles
- it was made by a master of his/her craft who would have to be paid accordingly
Never going to happen.
But I just don't like the thought that children get some cents (American or Euro, doesn't matter) for something I am supposed to appreciate as the ultimate luxury.
Same goes for replica bags - they don't "feel" right. Cheaper, yes, made under the same conditions, yes - for me it's just wrong.

And beef jerky is better than dried squid because ...?
Your "weird" is someone elses "normal".
My Japanese friends run away screaming when I'm cooking pasta with creamy gorgonzola sauce, yet the same people manage to eat natto (use google, look it up) with a raw egg for breakfast.
If you'd look beyond your own nose you can find plenty weird stuff outside - and isn't that what makes life wonderful?
I'm actually wondering: Would the artist date the guy who takes a picture of a vending machine every day? http://jihan.sblo.jp/

... and it only took 31 posts until someone mentioned the soiled panty vending machines. I've lived in Japan for quite some time and visit ever now and then and I have never seen one of those. And I've been in places where good women should not go, I've seen schoolgirl prostitutes and sleazy old men entertaining enjo-kosai-girls but really never soiled panty vending machines.

There are many, many vending machines in Japan, and most of them sell drinks (hot or cold), some sell rice (5 kg or 10 kg), some eggs, some pantyhose (unworn, I might add), but the soiled panty thing is really something you can probably only get in sex shops, which is where you can get stuff of that kind in your country, too.

It's an Austrian-German coproduction and was made in Babelsberg film studios. So you're both right, somehow.

Holy iPhone, Batman, he's wearing your Batfingers!

What you really want is Alessis electric kettle: http://www.alessi.co.uk/ashop-uk/home-design/electrical-appliances-90150/electric-kettle-945/
which also gives you the authentic "Get your ass over into the kitchen already the water is cooking and if you don't turn it out right now your hysteric neighbour will come over and kill you" whistle sound.
Lovely, isn't it?

The whole Creative Commons thing is quite interesting, but since I translate for a living I'd really like to know: Where is the money? Of course translating and writing is an immense pleasure and a really nice way to spend the day (and often nights as well) and I know I won't ever become rich, but I do have to eat and pay the rent.
So: Where is the money?