Scotland is reaching for independence

The Scots are voting today for their new government. For the first time in Scotland the SNP is leading in the survey. Well, if they really win the poll, this could have a crucial effect, because the SNP has a strong tendency towards an independent Scotland. They want to conduct a referendum in three years whether scotland should be independent from Britain. It is pretty amazing when you consider that the so called "Act of Union" was 300 years ago, in 1707 and since then Scotland was part of Great Britain. But there have always been opponents which fight for independence since then.
In the article they claim that one of the most popular supporters of the SNP, namely Sean Connery, has promised to move from the Bahamas back to his homecountry if his party wins. We'll see if he keeps his promise (-:

Euroeans and their Languages

Mr. Newman provided an interesting Link about Europeans and their Languages at yahoo groups. It is a summary of a fieldwork conducted from November-December 2005 of the European Commission. I think the three main themes focused, are incredibly important in our multilingual society nowadays. They are:

• The long-term objective for all EU citizens to speak two languages in addition to their mother tongue
• Lifelong language learining starting from a very early age
• The importance of education

Being a language learner I feel that these aims are the starting point for a well working multicultural and multilingual Europa.
Some of the results the survey provided were very informative, some even sobering. For example 44 % admit not knowing any other language than their mother tongue. That's quite a high number, don't you think?
English is the most commonly used language in the EU, followed by German, French and Italian. So I guess studying English and Italian was a good choice, at least when I remain in Europe.
It is also mentioned that education is the key and in this point I think Austria is still miles behind. There must be a lot more done in the educational sector to achieve the goal of mother tongue+two. I hope that my children will once have the opportunity to study as many languages as they want. (But to be honest, that will still take a while - with the children I mean (-;

All in all, it's a very informative article and if you haven't read it yet, go for it and see why you are studying languages and why you made the right desicion.

national traits in technology

This week I came across an article in the NY-Times which is about stereotypes of countries concerning technology. It wasn't a very interesting article - at least not for me - I'm not so into technology, but because stereotypes is one of our topics this semester I thought it's worth mention it.

It was called "National Traits and the Nature of Innovation". The author claims that every country has its stereotypes when it comes to technology. Like, for instance, the French lead in technologies that require large government subsidies, so it was clear that the fastes train, with astonishing 575 kilometers per hour, was designed by the French. (It's not designed for transport though - well, what purpose does it have then? I guess the French only want to boast (-: )
The Chinese are only imitators but nevertheless make a very good living from making the products of others. So why change? Finland and Ireland, once agricultural countries, are now booming in the electronic and pharmaceutical sectors.

Well, not very captivating, hu? Next time it will be more interesting or funny, I promise.

The Year in Manhatten without toilet paper

Iiiih, disgusting.
Well, that's the title of an article in the NYT this week. I love those crazy articles. They always make me chuckle. Anyway, this article is about Colin Beavan who is a writer of historical nonfiction and his wife Michelle Colin, a writer at Business Week. They take part in a yearlong lifestyle experiment they call "No Impact". That means that their life should have no impact on the environment. Therefor they are not allowed to produce any rubbish whatsoever, expect organic garbage. In detail this means only eating organic food, using no paper (no newspapers and no toilet paper , of course), using no transportation (no elevator either)...
You might ask yourself, why are they doing this? Well, the only reason is to write a book about it and earn money.
But honestly, is this worth living a year without virtually everything? Beavan sais: "Like all writers, I'm a megalomaniac (Größenwahnisinniger) and I'm just trying to put that energy to good use." Okay, that explains everything (-:

You want to win the lottery?

I found this "odd" statistic in the NYT today:

What are the Odds?

Lottery officials put the odds of winning the next Mega Millions jackpot at
1 in 175,711,536

The odds of someone in the U.S. being hit by lightning during a year are much better. Experts put them at about
1 in 280,000

The odds of dying in a lightning strike are about
1 in 3,000,000


So what does this tell us? Don't spend your money on buying lottery tickets, watch out instead for lightnings (the odds here are much bigger)

For nostalgic Irish, soil is available by the bag

This is the headline of an article I've just read in the NYT. There is a company in Irland which ships Irish dirt to the States. It's crazy, but the business is growing. I have to quote some statements of this article:
"If only I had a bit of dirt, just to have the feel of the old country, just a little bit of Ireland to throw on the casket.
casket (AE) = Sarg
The founder of the company said that the soil was often tossed atop coffins or sprinkled on grass over graves. wow
The customers are also attracted by the legend of Irish luck. And there are a few unbelievable stories, like a native of Country Cork spent $148.000 on Irish soil to spread it under his ous in Massachusetts.
Isn't this ridiculous. Well, some people don't know what to do with their money, I guess.

Here is the link in case you don't believe me. I've already checked it out: 4 bags of Irish dirt cost about $20. Not too bad, hm?

article New York Times

Last week I've read in the New York Times an interesting article called " Reaching for a better life". It was about young Vietnamese women seeking Korean husbands. Since there is a lack of marriageable female Koreans, also due to the rising social status of women, the Korean men are looking for female partners in other countries, especially poorer countries like Vietnam.

It was a very shoking article, which made me start thinking of just how different the western and eastern cultures are. Those young women, some of them barely 18, go to Korea voluntarely to have a better life there and to marry a man who they've never seen before. Inconceivable for me.