When I browse my buying history at the Amazon cartel website and go to the very first order, I see it was January 1999. I was working in Germany then, and it was my first commercial transaction on the internet. Amazon was still young, fresh and traded only books. It was easier, as well as cheaper, to get English books …

Well, it is done. I'm through with it. I have to admit is was somewhat of a struggle, but I do not regret anything. Like mentioned in a former post, the book really has its lengths. The book keeps its promise, it gives a historical digest of debt, and the concepts around. It covers philosophical, moral and financial …

A week ago I started reading this book; I am interested in the topic, since it is one of the topics that are central to the current crises, especially of European states. In my opinion a psychological and even philosophical issue, and David Graeber's book should give me some insights to this. Well, today I conquered …

Every other book I buy and read should be a classic; that's a rule of thumb I once started to apply on me, why exactly I really do not know: must be some kind of socialization. In advance I am not always happy with this self-regulation, but hardly did I regret afterwards to have read a classic, though.   Similar with …

Bees gather not only pollen but also a lot of human sympathy: They are diligent, benefical, gentle - but with a certain sting. So, not only the Erste Stiftung (one of the major owners of the company I work for) has started a career as beekeeper, but also Marc Shuttleworth seems to find bees intriguing - as well as the …

Especially in my younger years I have been a dedicated fan of Ridley Scott's movie "Blade Runner". That might be because I liked the dark scenery, the dry acting style of Harrison Ford, and liked the music of Vangelis even more. But it was also the story that was not a usual good guys vs. bad guys stuff that …

It has been Discworld Novel #18 for me - I strictly stick to the proper sequence. I still suck the pages into the humour district of my brain, and quite often the areas of social criticism, history and science are also heavily used. Indeed, after quite a lot of stories I read about the Discworld, one or another …

I found this book by pure chance, and pure change is also one of the topics of this book. Is it pure chance that life looks like we see it? Or are there deeper laws (of mathematics, physics, chemistry, or God) involved we may do not know about? How on earth was life able to create more complex (and ordered) specimen …

One thing I enjoy wenn I fire up my private computer is one of my plasma widgets showing the daily "astronomy picture of the day".  Just today, a dark cloud (mysterious!) that sucks in all the light of the stars behind it. But whooo - maybe it's intelligent? At least more so than some people I know? (I resist the urge …