Alex's Journal

So, after some thought about my blog consolidation problems, I have decided to change Alex’s Thoughts entirely around. I now have a new theme that corresponds better to my German blog, Es Wird Kalt and a new name for Alex’s Thoughts, which is Und Es Regnet. “Und es regnet” means “and it’s raining” in German. The reason I chose this is two fold. First of all, I already had the domain which was just sitting stagnant. Secondly, I’ve decided to go with a different theme for this blog.

Whereas it used to be focused more upon technology and politics, I am going to change that focus to more of the world from a student of German’s perspective. So I will be complaining or praising or reviewing things that have more to do with the German language, culture, history, politics, etc. I will still post things of interest that have to do with technology and what not, but the focus is really going to be on things that are German-related. Thus the correlation with my German blog, Es Wird Kalt.

Because of the change in theme, there will also be some reorganizing with categories. I will continue doing history posts with History Rhymes and commentary about American politics on Despotic Democracy.

I have come to the conclusion that I have far too many blogs. At the moment I have 15 different blogs registered with Wordpress.com. Most of them are old and I have long since taken out of public view. There are, however, 2 that are registered with Wordpress.com that are used for news (AlexSeifert.com and ScratchPad) and one that was used as a public journal during my time studying abroad in Germany which I no longer update since I am no longer in Germany, but that still leaves me 4 that are used for generic blogs. I consistently update them, but I am considering consolidating them.

These blogs are Despotic Democracy, Alex’s Thoughts, History Rhymes and Es Wird Kalt.

Each blog serves its own purpose. Despotic Democracy critically discusses American politics with a conservative biased. History Rhymes is a blog dedicated to my infatuation with the history of the American West. Then both Es Wird Kalt and Alex’s Thoughts are more generic blogs where I post various things that come up of interest or rants about whatever I find obnoxious. The former is in German and the latter, in English.

I know that each blog has a very specific purpose, but given my subscriber base, I don’t really know if it is work the upkeep of the 4 separate blogs. The real problem I face with updating 4 blogs is that, although I consistently update them, it appears that I don’t update them all that often because the updates are spread across all 4 of them. That means, that while I have 12 posts on this blog for the month of January (as of this writing), I actually have more like 30 or 40 posts across all of the blogs for this month.

I don’t know what to do. If I were to consolidate them, that would mean that users who are only interested in one area would then have to sift through all of the uninteresting posts. Not to mention I would really have to keep the German and English blogs separate because I don’t think a bilingual blog is probably a good idea unless the blog is designed as an aide for learning one language or the other.

What do you think I should do?

In this modern world of electronics and gadgets that watch you, individual privacy is increasingly being violated and molested. There used to be a time where companies had a very difficult time of obtaining information about individual people unless the people voluntarily provided their personal information. Not so anymore.

The latest of these privacy violations comes in the form of “smart” advertising. Essentially, ads are put up that have small cameras embedded into them to watch which people pay attention to them. These ads can for the most part identify gender, age group, race and ethnicity. They can then use that information to target specific advertisements to passer-byers.

They claim that the information is not recorded, however in the same breath, they claim that they can use this information to see which advertisements work for which group. To me it seems to do any sort of research of that type, you would have to record the data.

Anyway, here is a part of the article:

Watch an advertisement on a video screen in a mall, health club or grocery store and there’s a slim — but growing — chance the ad is watching you too.

Small cameras can now be embedded in the screen or hidden around it, tracking who looks at the screen and for how long. The makers of the tracking systems say the software can determine the viewer’s gender, approximate age range and, in some cases, ethnicity — and can change the ads accordingly.

You can find the full article here.

According to the German news site, Der Spiegel, the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, has warned Obama against protectionism. She says that giving bailout money to the auto industry was not a good idea and that that kind of behavior is not what is needed to solve the financial crisis.

The original article is in German, but I translated the opening paragraph of it for you:

Critical message for President Obama: Chancellor Merkel expressed her distrust of the billion dollar subsidies for the US auto industry at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Protectionism is not the right answer to the financial crisis.

It’s just sad that it has come to the point that Germany or any other European government is warning the President of the United States of America about bailing out industries and government intervention. I say that because the governments in Europe are exceedingly more socialist than our own government and even they aren’t intervening (or should I say interfering) with the free market as much as the American government. On the contrary, they are tell us to back off.

Perhaps Obama will take Chancellor Merkel’s advice, but I highly doubt it. Especially with this $825 billion stimulus plan that Obama has proposed and is trying to push through Congress. By unanimously voting against the bill, the House Republicans have done what is best for the country. But that is an entirely different story.

Reuters is reporting a very strange story about an Indian girl who married a dog apparently to ward off spirits or something. Here is what Reuters has to say about it:

Jan 26 – In India’s eastern Jharkhand, villagers ‘married’ off a young girl to a stray dog to ward off an evil spirit.

The locals at Munda Dhanda village performed the ceremony as they believe it will overcome any curse that might fall on the family.

Interestingly, the girl is free to get married later in life to a man without even seeking a divorce.
Superstitions are widespread in India, especially in rural areas where literacy is scarce.

Reuters is reporting that Nigerian police have arrested a coat on suspicion of armed robbery. They claim that a man who tried to steal a Mazada 323 ran from the police and turned himself into a goat using black magic. They think this goat is him. I’m speechless.

Bahhh

LAGOS (Reuters) – Police in Nigeria are holding a goat on suspicion of attempted armed robbery.

Vigilantes took the black and white beast to the police saying it was an armed robber who had used black magic to transform himself into a goat to escape arrest after trying to steal a Mazda 323.

“The group of vigilante men came to report that while they were on patrol they saw some hoodlums attempting to rob a car. They pursued them. However one of them escaped while the other turned into a goat,” Kwara state police spokesman Tunde Mohammed told Reuters by telephone.

“We cannot confirm the story, but the goat is in our custody. We cannot base our information on something mystical. It is something that has to be proved scientifically, that a human being turned into a goat,” he said.

Belief in witchcraft is widespread in parts of Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation. Residents came to the police station to see the goat, photographed in one national newspaper on its knees next to a pile of straw.

This would make it difficult to get away:

This is extremely embarrassing for those of us who live in the US!

Atheism

For those of you who don’t speak German, let me do a bit of translating for you (from top to bottom, right to left):

• Deutschland – Germany
• Frankreich – France
• Italien – Italy
• Großbritannien – Great Britain
• USA – USA
• Mexiko – Mexico

• Ich glaube nicht an Gott. – I don’t believe in God.
• Ich weiß es nicht, ob es einen Gott gibt, und ich glaube nicht, dass man es herausfinden kann. – I don’t know if there’s a god and I don’t think that we can figure it out.
• Ich glaube an keinen personalen Gott, aber an eine höhere Macht. – I don’t believe in a personal god, but in a higher power.
• Manchmal glaube ich an Gott, manchmal nicht. – Sometimes I believe in god, sometimes not.
• Ich habe Zweifel, aber denke, dass ich an Gott glaube. – I have doubts, but I think there is a god.
• Ich weiß, das Gott wirklich existiert und habe keine Zweifel. – I know god exists and have no doubts.
• Nicht sicher – Not sure

If you looks carefully at the chart, you’ll see that 70% of the people surveyed in the US chose the “I know god exists and have no doubts” answer. That’s sick and makes me want to puke a little. We are only surpassed by Mexico at 80%. Only 2% of the people surveyed in the US choose “I don’t believe in God.”

There is a great blog entry on the Libertarian Party website that I think is definitely work reading. It’s entitled “Congress blocks 15,000 ticketholders from inauguration — and they want to run health care?” Here is part of it:

Thousands of now-angry people secured tickets to the historic inauguration of Barack Obama through the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies and stood in line for hours on a frigid D.C. morning — only to be told they wouldn’t be allowed to see the event.

So you spent thousands of dollars on airline tickets, a hotel and new clothes. You traveled thousands of miles to wake up in the early morning and wait in freezing temperatures. You’ve stood in line for hours holding a ticket from Congress itself allowing you to witness a historic event at the Capitol.

All so you can be hustled out like you’re homeless. But hey, Congress is at least mailing you a picture of Barack Obama.

And these people think they should control your access to health care? What does your surviving family get if you’re refused cancer treatment, as is often done in countries with socialized medicine? A signed photo of Tom Daschle?

I read in a Slashdot post that Microsoft has reintroduced DRM on music that is purchased using its new MSN Mobile Music service. Apparently, the songs you buy are more expensive than songs on places such as Amazon or iTunes and they are locked to the phone you purchase them on, which means if you upgrade your phone, you lose the songs you purchased. All this at a time when everyone else is shedding the dreadful and cumbersome DRM. As usual, Microsoft is ridiculously out of touch with the rest of the world and reality. I don’t expect this attempt at a music store to work any better at all than any of their other attempts. They just can’t get it right because they lack the common sense and the market-reading capabilities that almost every single other company has.

Despite all of the complaining I have done, I still have to say congratulations to the new President of the United States of American, President Barack Obama.