HK - starting off with some ranking

I heard from some of my fellow students that they are already abroad. I have 7 days left until I finally wake up off summer dreaming. Therefore I now seriously start getting excited:

What is Hongkong? - let's do some serious ranking.

Please have in mind that any index is made according to a certain political agenda, as all social science students know: objectivity is highly philosophical and lays in the eyes of the beholder!

City: Hong Kong [Wiki]
State: "People's Republic" of China
Inhabitants: ~7 mio

Press Freedom Index 2005, published by: Reporters sans Frontier
Hong Kong, rank: 39
[Netherlands:1, China: 159]

Corruption Perception Index 2005, published by Transparency International [Wiki]
Hong Kong, rank:15
[New Zealand:2, Namibia:47, China:78]

Human Development Index 2003, published by: United Nations Development Program (UNDP)
Hong Kong rank 22
[UK:15, Greece:24, China:85]

Satisfaction with life published by Adrian White (Psychologist at University of Leicester)
Hong Kong, rank: 63
[Bhutan:8, China:82]

Index of Economic Freedom 2006, published by: Heritage Foundation [Wiki] (an influencial, conservative US 'republican' research institute)
Hong Kong, rank: 1
[US:9, Sweden:19]

You get what you deserve

I learned something usefull for a lifetime - I will spare you the details. I just like to share the lesson learned because I believe stupidity can be cured. Maybe it works for you aswell. Maybe it doesn't.

1. Motor oil is like chocolate!
("You" need it! But one can use too much of it!!!!!)

2. Motor oil is not the only oil a car is using and the other ones should be checked from time to time, too.

3. And since I have this realy big pool of stupid experiences: check wether the battery is dry aswell.

My advice: Get yourself the following friends
1. A Lawyer
2. A general doctor
3. An automechanic
4. A type of handcrafsman
(to be completed)

Have a successful life!

I am a nihilist

I don't want to be put into the axis of evil. I do not like fundamentalists and especially not terrorists, even for very personal reasons:

• they make life difficult!
• they normally have an extremely old fashioned taste, most notably concerning hair cuts!
• they have this annoying type of social hyperactivity, meaning: they just won't leave you alone!
• I think they are problem bears people.
  

Never the less I fear that they are a nasty product, like cancer from smoking or being turfed out for having an affair or a hang over. I mean, I don't make friendly overtures to neither Israel nor the Saudi family. I'm not a masochist - I dislike bombings.
A remnant of idealist dreaming is noursihed by organisations like Coalition of Women for Peace and the tiny, little rest of pragmatism tells me to hold a pistole to Israeli/Palestinian heads, make two states no matter what and get some troops in their to settle the border one day ( building a proper wall between them might actually be a good cooling-down method).

But nihilism is stronger: Nuke them! And the Whales! And lets go back to the trees or better to the seas!

I am cynical

Life lately has been stressfull, times are over when the silly news season had to be filled with broadcasts on snakes in the gully. Don't get me started on the old hat North Korea with their missiles, Iraq, Afghanistan or radiating Iran. A day ago priority had Libanon.

And now - as if there weren't enough problems already preventing me from relaxing my mind on some kind of carribean island (preferrably without the pirates, see previous post):
L-O-N-D-O-N -again!

I have a suggestion, I think a lot of mistakes have been made since 2001. Things were misinterpreted. For instance the issue about Atta and his loopy folks, where were they before? Right, Europe!
And now this: 12 plains intended to be bombed? Europe again!!
It's for sure: all these dangerous, crazy terrorists are hiding in Europe!!!

Secondly, Europe has 9 million weapons of mass destruction, more or less- that's a fact. It's a thing one can't deny. Like the fact that there are terrorists.Not only biological and chemical - even the A-bomb. That could do a lot of harm, if European terrorists get in charge of them.

Since the fight against terrorism has been so extremely successfull so far and "one by one the terrorists are learning we are building a culture to encourage international terrorism", one should go a step further: Someone should sovle the problem and bomb Europe!
If Europe is bombed there won't be much of a terrorist problem anymore - funny isn't it?
With such an act one never has to deal with any of these disturbing questions again:
WHY did European troops attack Iraq?
WHY do people hate the west so furiously that they bomb London and Madrid?
WHY do even intellectuals support Hisbollah?
WHY is Europe eating biscuits in the UN watching Israel bombing Libanon?

A sustainable peacemaker
If you want peace - get rid of the trouble maker!

Friends Maps

I know it seems I am having a little too much time.

You could be right!
I had a weakness for googleearth/ mars/ moon and goyeollow for a while, now I found a new cute little tool:
I opened Globalisation Games a google map on Friend mapper, where you can sign in yourself or locations or realy weird stuff you always wanted to find on a map.

Check it out!

Pirates of the Carribbean

After the enthralling first part with Johnny Depp contributing the humor as egocentric Jack Sparrow, the second part is rather disappointing. The animations are great but spinning wheels, hordes of cannibals and mystic-candle-light voodoo sessions are flooring the content of the story so much that one gets difficulties to follow why they went to island X,Y and back to X in the first place. The pathetic motivations of the actors be it to get married, finding your darling or rescuing your dad remind me of my own rather weak performances as a role-play master. And when finally the last character from part 1 is showing up in the last 30 seconds; the movie becomes a true parody. I don't mind parodies, but it wasn't a convincing one yet, I have hopes for part 3.

http://www.zeit.de/2006/31/KaribikFluch

http://indie.imdb.com/title/tt0383574/