Thursday links

Elevator Moods changes your perspective (requires Flash). [via jenett]
Robert Kagan on the US-European relationship. [via Rollberg]
Hetty asks: Does the US now own China, too?
Ralf's Finnegans Wake illustrations are now online. Haldur loves the Mookse.
Creepy: Termite.com's spider identification chart [via Presurfer]

And finally, words of wisdom deduced from the Columbia Accident Investigation Board: "Engineers are trained to ask 'what could possibly go wrong?'. Managers are, too, but they use the phrase with a completely different intonation." [via megnut]

Grumble

I don't believe this: Annie Mole of Going Underground fame actually has a weblog. Turns out she's had it since January, which, even though I read her website religiously (having an underground website myself), I knew nothing about. See, I had to read Ralf's blog to find out about it. And the worst bit is that Ralf actually met her and they seem to have had a great night out. Unfair!

Today's links

Badgers badgers badgers badgers mushroom mushroom!! [via Boing Boing]
The Tristram Shandy Web [via Cartoonist]
Rat Phink A Boo Boo? [via Greengrl]
Dorothea on safety in the blogosphere.
BBC quiz: Would you get a British passport?

Haldur's link of the week

Making Fiends is an excellent series of animated cartoons by Amy Winfrey, in which she shows the adventures of Charlotte, who's making friends, and Vendetta, who's making fiends. I particularly like the 6 ft hamster (pictured left). Amy has also created Muffin Films, which are all about muffins. Yum! (requires Flash)

Haldur's link of the week

Jack Lynch's Moose Resource Page has been around for ages, and I have no idea when it was last updated, but I think it deserves an honorable mention in the world of mooses. Mickey Moose also has a handful of moose links, and guess what, there is even a moose webring. How cool!

Monday links

Great industrial photography from Haiko Hebig. [via hebig.org/blog]
The most depressing book cover of the year. [via Antipixel]
Hm, interesting web design. [via Davezilla]
Where Ikea gets the names (also in German). [via PapaScott]

Today's round of personality quizzes revealed that I'm a trendsetter duck who's really intellectual, which is kind of interesting as I also have an an inner child aged one. Plus, I'm also Morpheus (the god, not the guy from The Matrix). [via Baronesse, Presurfer and Greengrl]

Thursday links

U.S. officially severs relations with Them. It's about time.
Mobile phones may make you senile. [via Antipixel; full study here].
While another 8 US soldiers are killed in Iraq, President Bush tells the truth for once.
How much do you know about Islam? [via Greengrl]

Haldur's link of the week

The mental hospital for mistreated fluffy toy animals by Martin Kittsteiner is a truly cute Flash/Shockwave animation, in which you can try to cure neurotic or psychotic toy animals with all sorts of therapy. It's not completely finished yet, so for now you can only cure the little crocodile, whose history, once you found it out, is a terrible tragedy. I'm really looking forward to helping the little hippo and sheep, too. [found via warteschlange]

Wednesday newslinks

What's going on here? First, it hit northeastern America, then London, and now there was a huge blackout in Denmark and southern Sweden. All this after decades without problems? Coincidence?

Oh my. The world's best pizza baker is Japanese, and the world barbecue champions are Austrian.

Speaking of which: New recipes over at The Aardvark Cooks: Bifteki yemistó and another Chicken Vindaloo variation.

And thanks to the bug in the Mac OS X 10.2.8 update and my site being linked to by macsurfer.com, I can proudly announce a new record. Yesss!

Friday links

Awful Plastic surgery, a weblog chronicling celebrity plastic surgery that has gone awry. This is strong stuff. Makes you wonder if plastic surgery can actually improve things. [via Presurfer]

Why the weather always seems to be bad on weekends. It's not Murphy's Law. It's pollution. [via BoingBoing]

Ewald Nowotny, a leading Austrian economics expert and former vice president of the European Investment Bank, has an explanation for the increasing number of power blackouts in Europe: it's privatisation. And apparently Enron played a key role in all of it.

For the first time in history, an underground station in Vienna will be closed today. Last chance for trainspotters to jump into their anoraks and take pictures.

And finally, here's what the world has been waiting for: Calendars of roundabouts. Love them. [via Ministry of Propaganda]

Haldur's link of the week.

I found nothing this week. Absolutely nothing. Sorry.

Monday links

Power blackout in Italy. All of Italy. Apparently caused by one tree. This is getting spooky.
Can this page really trap spambots in a deadly loop or is it just some advertising gimmick?
Provincial elections in Upper Austria and the Tyrol. Strongest party in the Tyrol was the Party of Non-Voters, which beat the Conservative Party by almost 50,000 votes.
The world's oldest man died aged 114. The world's oldest woman, aged 116, is still alive and well.
Seven quick tips for a spam-free blog. [via Vowe.net]

Quick links

How to tell when a relationship is over (in 90 seconds) by Tony Roche (requires QuickTime). [via vowe.net]

GM crops are harmful to the environment. Says 3-year study conducted by British scientists. [via Keys Corner]

Update: This is even better: Insurers will not cover GM farmers. Splendid.

Schwarzenegger has killed the kangaroo: Austrian embassy gets fewer calls by people wanting information about Australia.

50 reasons not to vote for Schwarzenegger. Finally a few arguments that go beyond his groping habit. [via Presurfer]

Austrian Airlines refuses to give passenger data to US Homeland Security Office. That's not why it's my preferred airline, but it's a good reason to keep using them.

Spammers everywhere/Fall back

I can't believe it — some online spammers seem to have taken over the old URL of the official 'The Fall' website, so instead of music info and M. E. Smith anecdotes you're now being asked if you think your penis is long enough.

Thankfully, the official Fall website does still exist — now at http://www.visi.com/fall/. And the long awaited new Fall album is finally out next Monday! Yesss!

Oh boy

You'll never guess on which site I just found The Aardvark Speaks listed alongside William Gibson and Jason Kottke. I'm seriously flattered. Thanks, Mark!

The Glasgow Story

"A new website has been launched to bring the history of Glasgow alive on the internet. TheGlasgowStory.com is lavishly illustrated with thousands of captioned photographs, paintings, posters and drawings from the rich collections held in Glasgow's museums, libraries, archives and Universities." [via BBC]

All the water, all the air

This year's Visions of Science award in the category "Concepts" goes to Dr Adam Nieman, who has developed a computer model showing all the water and all the air in the world, compared to the size of the Earth itself. It's frightening. [found via Der Standard]

In related news: What is the Meatrix?

Numbers

This one is too good not to relay: Cooking by numbers, your insta-recipe guide for quick meals from leftovers in your fridge. [via Quarsan]

On this blog one year ago

On this day last year, I had a lot of links to number radio stations and bemoaned the possible impending death of Radio Austria International (ROI), the official Austrian shortwave radio station. The number stations are still broadcasting, but ROI is now dead. In its place, you can now listen to Radio Ö1, a domestic programme, via an Internet stream, but only if you're dumb enough to have Windows Media Player installed.

Also on this weblog last year: This Is Finland. Still a good laugh.

Best Of This Blog 2003

Following Armin's example, I'd like to take this opportunity to recapitulate and present you, in roughly chronological order, what I consider to be the 15 best stories on The Aardvark Speaks in 2003. Enjoy!

• The Door of Perception
• Victims of Geography
• The Aardvark Speaks on audioblogging
• Bass for Peace
• Weblog is taken over by militant platypi (also read subsequent entries)
• Closer to God
• Cute, but useless and Table of Mystery
• Pictures of rocks
• Haldur Gislufsson vs. Ari Fleischer
• Words of Wisdom from the Great Moose
• Rooms you don't want to stay in
• Don't believe his lies
• How Horst Met Haldur and How Haldur Met Horst
• Month of Hell
• Truly shocking video document

Photographers/cinematographers have a look

This is quite fascinating... the personal website of Indian cinematographer/director Santosh Sivan, whose work (especially Dil se, The Terrorist and Asoka) I admire greatly for the stunning beauty of its cinematography. On his site, Sivan shares some of his thoughts on photography, cinematography, light and making films in general.

Santosh Sivan's IMDb profile is here, but you should really watch The Terrorist or Dil se to appreciate his visual art. He is also responsible for the cinematography of Bride and Prejudice, a Bollywood adaptation of Jane Austen's classic by Gurinder Chadha, the director of Bend It Like Beckham, in cinemas later this year.

Quick links

Via Annie Mole comes Animals on the Underground. It's not about real animals, but animal shapes hidden in the London Underground map.

Via Der Standard comes a Flash game featuring Austrian finance minister Karlheinz Grasser, who is in trouble over the unclear financing (and possible tax evasion) of his private website: in Kalleinz Go! you must throw as much money as possible into the barrels of your friends' online companies, out of the window or into the fire.

Via Dave Gillmor comes a link to an excellent article on Why and How Not to Use HTML in E-Mail. This is required reading.

Today, Davezilla brings us George W. Bush's Amazon wishlist and promises the wishlists of the other candidates over the next few days.

Koloman Wallisch (†19-02-1934)

Koloman Wallisch, an Austrian democrat, was murdered by the Austrian fascists 40 years ago today. It was a purely political murder, intended as a blow against the democratic forces in Austria. Wallisch was executed for his involvement in the 1934 uprising against the fascists, although he had been one of the few Social Democrats who had opposed the uprising and there was no evidence against him. The picture above shows him two hours before his execution.

Quick links

The Top 52 Reasons to Vote Republican in 2004 — or not. [via Al on IRC]

Gay penguin for America — finally a candidate who makes sense [via Greengrl]

Which Peanuts character are you? — I'd rather not say. [via vowe]

Donald Rumsfeld fighting techniques — crouching tiger, hidden monkey [via Presurfer]

I am blue cheese

Click on the cheese to find out what cheese you are. [thx to greengrl, who is parmesan]

Birthday dinner menu

Food: Tarka dal, Tofu saag, Spicy fish with coriander and green chilies.
Drink: Rodenbach Grand Cru.

The recipes can be found over at The Aardvark Cooks. If your local dealer doesn't have it, the beer can be ordered from Beermania.

In brief

First, an important customer announcement: if the person who ordered the Martin Parr book from my Amazon wishlist is a reader of this blog, would you please identify yourself and tell me whether you ordered this for yourself or for me, because I really want to order it myself now and don't want to get it twice.

And now, a few links:

• Over at Chocolate and Vodka, Suw is testing ...um... well, chocolate and vodka.
• BookOnDemand CEO Pascal Zimmer explains in an interview with Der Spiegel why wannabe writers are excellent business [in German, thx to SWR].
• I found the Useless Quiz and wanted to publish the results here, but they were just too useless.

Map update

As it has been so hugely successful (page hits have quadrupled and I'm getting tons of some fan mail) , the mock-English translation of the Vienna Underground map has been updated to contain the sections and stations scheduled to open within the next 4 years. Also, "Nestroy", "Pilgram", "Tschertte" and "Erlaa" have finally moved out of obscurity into plain English and some minor translation errors have been corrected. Have fun!

Bhagat Singh (d. 23-03-1931)

On March 23rd, 1931, one day earlier than scheduled, a man called Bhagat Singh and two of his associates were executed in Lahore Central Prison (India), their bodies smuggled out through the back door, chopped into pieces and burnt by British officers.

Bhagat Singh's story is extraordinary and very relevant today, as he is a prime example of somebody you could either call a "freedom fighter" or a "terrorist", depending on your perspective, and these days perspective seems to be more crucial than ever when it comes to political activism.

As one might expect, Bollywood has made a number of movies about this charismatic man, no fewer than five in 2002 alone, of which probably Rajkumar Santoshi's The Legend of Bhagat Singh [2] (the only one of the five I've seen myself) seems to be the best. It has a couple of historical inaccuracies and some weaknesses which are most likely due to its completion in great haste for a release before the other movies, but I'd say it serves well as an introduction to the subject and makes a compelling 3-hour movie experience.

What an address

Karl has pictures of the moor near the village of Ibm in Upper Austria [thx IT&W], which happens to be only some 15 miles from the town where I was born and grew up. The joke about Ibm and computer manufacturer IBM is so old over there that it never occurred to me that it actually is kinda funny. Now that Karl went ahead and published it, I might draw your attention to a village that is only a few miles west of Ibm, which one might misconceive as a statement about the computer manufacturer. Or the village. Or whatever.

(Click on the map to enlarge it)

I assure you that this map has not been doctored apart from adding the red circles. If you want proof, check out http://www.austrianmap.at/.

Easter blogging break

Taking a few days off blogging. Haldur might entertain you tomorrow if he's not too busy looking for Easter eggs. I'll be back on Tuesday or Wednesday. Until then, a few interesting links:

• Easter Bunny Rap [via Cartoonist].
• Metrorama — panoramic pictures of Paris Métro stations [via ad++].
• Very good analysis of the situation in Iraq by Ian Macwhirter from The Herald [via MoP].
• Pictures of those who have been defeated too early in Iraq [via Quarsan].

Absurdities of the day

Atmospheric pressure stops trains. Yes, after leaves and dew there's a new explanation why British trains won't run. [The Guardian]

Austrian politicians smoke water pipe. This is what happens when party leader Jörg Haider and vice chancellor Hubert Gorbach go to Libya to visit Moammar Gadhafi. [deedee]

William Shatner fans rejoice! He's baaaack. [requires Flash; via Greengrl].

Know the exact position of your Bakerloo Line train. Yes, I know it's useless if you need the Central Line instead. Or if you don't live in London. It's still cool, though. [via Cartoonist].

Postbox or cheese? Possibly the hardest test in the world. No other two items are so easily confused. Allegedly. [via Presurfer]

Enjoy your ride

One of the remarkable features of the Pyongyang Metro is the martial music played in the system. This consists of North Korean anthems and patriotic songs, although the speaker system is also used for, shall we say, public service announcements, reportedly including messages exhorting people to be on the lookout for traitors and spies.

Much of the time, though, travelers hear music such as the selections presented here.

This makes me feel so glad they stopped the experiments with muzak on the Vienna metro. Strauss waltzes, if played continuously, are at least as awful as "No Motherland Without You" or "Reunification Rainbow".

[Sincere thanks to Harald, who posted this link on stadtverkehr-austria. It was just too good not to repost.]

Agreement/disagreement

Niek is one of the bloggers with whom I'm never sure as to what degree I agree or disagree with him. Like, with Sunday's entry on his weblog, I kind of like the pictures, but then I also don't, because I just can't share his appreciation of thongs at all. And I agree with much of what he says in this entry, and yet I don't. Which makes reading his weblog worthwhile. Because the interesting thongs things are not those with which you totally agree or disagree, but those that puzzle you a while before you figure them out.

This sounds interesting

Hm, I wonder whether this kind of moose assertiveness training could also be useful in the kind of situation where I want cookies, but Horst tells me I can't have any.

Spamusement

From Steven Frank comes Spamusement, "poorly-drawn cartoons inspired by actual spam subject lines". Brilliant!

Update: The Register brings Spam Poetry. Of limited poetic or economic value. Are these spammers really trying to sell anything?

Moose therapy

If you ever find yourself in a truly dire situation, fear not — some people have found out that the presence of a moose can help you overcome a traumatic event.

Pretty cool

This is pretty good: John Peel session #24 of The Fall, broadcast 12 August 2004 (pics here). The new stuff sounds promising.

And this is just as interesting: The Fall Video Archive.

Update: According to Fall News, The Fall play in Vienna at the Szene on 12 October. Guess who'll be there. Anyone else interested in coming?

Totally unrelated stuff

What's this then — the Blair Digicam Project? Well, creepy it is. Look closely and you may see more than you wanted to see. [via Hebig #2].

Konstantin mentioned Tyneham yesterday, so I thought I should mention Döllersheim today. A striking parallel, except for the fact that the inhabitants of Tyneham left voluntarily, whereas the inhabitants of Döllersheim were forced to leave. None of them were ever allowed to return. [Both links in German].

And people will probably never be able to properly distinguish between Austria and Australia when such a fine athlete as Australian-born Kate Allen wins the first gold medal for Austria at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games. Congrats, Kate!

Oh, and lastly, in case you didn't know — I'm apparently schizoid. Which is of course the reason why I'm writing totally erratic weblog entries about totally unrelated stuff. Which Personality Disorder Do You Have? [Quizilla via baronesse]

Link tips for your perusal

• An Unsolicited Commercial Love Story. Hilarious. [via ad++]
• Saint Clinton. Precious bad taste. [via Niek]
• J. W. von Goethe's Totentanz (Dance of Death). In Lego. [via subkontent]
• The breast-enlarging cell phone ringtone (more). Amazing. [via ??]
• Spamusement. Still brilliant. [via myself]

Contains Images

XXXX GALUMPIA ADULT XXXX
WARNING: THIS SITE CONTAINS IMAGES

You trust me, right? Then go to this site and click on the thumbnails. [via Gloria Brame]

Similarly brilliant, from the same people: The Royal Family: "Sit back and enjoy this unique portrait of the Royal Family relaxing at home. Roam from room to room exploring the Windsors' private quarters." Requires QuickTime.

Indian restaurant guide refurbished

I just finished remodelling my guide to Indian restaurants in Vienna (German version | English version). Apart from some much-needed updates (5 restaurants deleted, 2 new ones added, 1 relocated), most of the changes have been subtle; however the only way I could think of to get rid of the long list of all restaurants on one page was the current popup window solution, which I guess some people won't like. Let me know what you think.

Bah

Even though I sat next to Jane Perrone on the panel during the BlogTalk conference and smiled nicely at her all the time, she has not listed me on her list of weblogs The Guardian likes. I hate it when people are incorruptible. If you are looking for new weblogs to read, check out the list, though. It's good.

Thank you (1)

We don't celebrate Thanksgiving Day in Austria. Well, some expats do. Like Mig, who starts feeling like a pervert as he prepares his turkey and thinks of Condoleezza Rice. Hilarious. Read it now, especially if you own a mobile phone.

Thank you (2)

Thanks for the last and greatest betrayal of the last and greatest of human dreams.
William S. Burroughs: A Thanksgiving Prayer. [thx dd]

Pointer

New on The Aardvark Cooks: Vegetable Biryani, Lamb Biryani and Spicy Kidney Bean Curry. Enjoy.

Believe it or not

After more than six months' silence, The Aardvark Cooks again: Fish with okra. An original recipe of mine that I improvised on the spot last Friday and that turned out to be really yummy. Enjoy.

Bloglist

As the blogroll on my weblog's front page has only very limited space and therefore can only contain a selection of the weblogs that I'm reading, here is a more extensive listing of blogs that I am in some way connected with.

Schedule

Since there are apparently not enough other things to do, I'll probably participate in this and this tomorrow.

If you're into music and poetry, you might just enjoy the Theseustempel event, as there will be plenty of both (and you can hear/see me read some new poems).

At any rate, I thought I'd let you know.

Further reading: Vienna tramway

As a follow-up to my recent blog entry on the reorganisation of two important Vienna tramway lines, here is a link to an article in the German Strassenbahn & Nahverkehr-Magazin on the sad state of the Vienna tramway network, which is about the only network in Europe that is not being extended, while millions of euros are wasted on subway extensions with more than questionable value.