tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88086393809800920752012-01-31T14:34:59.855+01:00Notes on mundane matters from an American on the other side - for my writings on energy after Sep 15, 2010, visit Renewables International (logo directly to the right).Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.comBlogger3571100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-62503312541517856512012-01-31T14:31:00.004+01:002012-01-31T14:34:59.860+01:00

One of the most fascinating things about the United States is our musicality. Our pop music is full of complex rhythms, and we clap on 2 and 4 – which practically no one else in the world does (I am leaving out our influence on neighboring cultures like Canada and the UK). Germans clap on 1, 2, 3, and 4, and the unbearable season of Carnival is about to begin filling up evening TV with such

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-25400246275158452672012-01-24T11:39:00.001+01:002012-01-24T11:41:54.948+01:00

Dirk Niebel, Germany's aid czar. Image by Liberale via Flickr In one of the translations I am working on, this UN report on the percentage of aid actually paid out (compared to the amount pledged) to Haiti in the aftermath of the earthquake is referenced. Typically, while the United States is probably very proud of its overall pledged volume to Haiti, which is second in the world behind

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-69970919984078367742012-01-11T10:24:00.005+01:002012-01-11T10:25:42.975+01:00

In an interview over at Die Zeit, David de Rothschild – the American-born head of the famous banking family who now runs the bank from France – says the following: If the rich only paid 20 or 30 percent tax (the current peak tax rate in the US is 35 percent), I would say that that is unacceptably low. But we currently pay just over 50 percent. I think that's perfect. I earn 100 euros, keep half

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-75525653807303972012011-12-25T09:49:00.001+01:002011-12-25T09:49:00.813+01:00

Happy holidays!

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-76532076708187772812011-12-16T09:29:00.001+01:002011-12-16T09:31:40.859+01:00

The allegedly unpresidential-looking Ron Paul. Image via Wikipedia Earlier this year, I wrote over at SolarServer about my surprise at how Germans were willing to listen to nuclear experts who looked like hippies. I also blogged about it here: My feeling is that, whatever their actual expertise, critics of nuclear power would need to look like conservative businessman to be heard out [

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-31442446717974490422011-12-13T12:18:00.000+01:002011-12-13T12:19:32.044+01:00

Around two years ago, when Germany's current governing coalition took office, I wrote about how I could not understand the cabinet appointments. Now, it seems that a certain Mr Guttenberg, whom I have written about considerably (the former German Defense Minister who committed flagrant plagiarism in his dissertation), has been asked to help EU Commissioner Kroes look into how freedom on the

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-46868211105130931342011-12-10T08:27:00.001+01:002011-12-10T15:07:58.356+01:00

One of the most important experiences in a foreign country is the food. In Korea, the emphasis is on freshness and variety. I don't think I have ever seen so much freshness in my life, and the wide array of side dishes made some meals seem like they had 15 courses. The Korean diet seems to be largely based on vegetables, and is very low on salt and fat. My hosts certainly made sure that I had

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-55330241947180316032011-11-26T00:30:00.000+01:002011-11-26T00:30:01.940+01:00

Prof. Yong-Du Jun, whom I mentioned in my post yesterday, apparently leads a team of researchers working to make Korean cars quieter inside. When I heard that, I could not help but think about this video, where the chairman of Volkswagen (at about 2:00 minutes) sits inside a Hyundai at a car show and gets frustrated because the car "sounds so tight" ("nichts scheppert"). He asks his colleague, "

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-69144593533789405972011-11-25T13:19:00.001+01:002011-11-25T13:55:39.182+01:00

I write (both of ;-)) you today from Seoul, Korea, where I will be holding two lectures comparing German and US energy policy next week. The person who invited me is also the Korean translator of my book, Energy Switch. We finally had the opportunity to talk about how he came to translate the book. The story is yet another event in my life proving that a lack of success can also be fortuitous.

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-40925629430467477872011-11-07T23:38:00.004+01:002011-11-08T11:31:44.714+01:00

In mid-September, I was reading through Die Zeit online when I discovered an article about Global 2000, a report commissioned by President Jimmy Carter. I was interested because I did not know of any reason to be writing about that study now, and as I read on I realized that the presentation sounded quite familiar – such as here: Vor allem aber den Klimawandel beschreiben die Global 2000-

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-1857143166423183482011-09-15T11:18:00.000+02:002011-09-15T11:18:14.962+02:00

For my upcoming presentation at the ATA Conference in Boston, I was thinking about using this chart to illustrate the energy sector in the US in general – until I noticed that it has a severe flaw: the blocks on the left and right should be exactly the same size going up and down. Now, I see that Bloomberg has come up with a really fantastic interactive version of basically the same

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-2565364499229925372011-09-11T14:42:00.001+02:002011-09-11T14:44:32.898+02:00

No words

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-57559256150437545132011-07-29T09:42:00.003+02:002011-07-29T09:42:55.528+02:00

An interesting comparison of the various covers of Time magazine over at FAIR, and I suspect you could make such a comparison just about any week.

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-38824327218493365372011-07-27T10:09:00.000+02:002011-07-27T10:09:23.127+02:00

As if to prove what I was saying a few days ago – that low taxation is in fact the main cause of US debt and that raising the peak tax rate is the quickest and easiest way to solve the problem – the New York Times has produced a chart showing how the debt has come about over the past two presidents. I was not aware that Obama's stimulus package does not even make up half the value of Bush's

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-11841178260666380312011-07-24T16:18:00.000+02:002011-07-24T16:18:00.211+02:00

Quite a bit has been happening in the past few weeks in Germany's ongoing plagiarism saga. First, CDU politician Bernd Althusmann will apparently soon face official plagiarism charges from his university. Second, FDP politician Chatzimarkakis has definitely lost his doctorate – and says he will be writing his dissertation again. Third, FDP politician Margarita Mathiopoulos is once again having

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-15839026301006757322011-07-23T12:55:00.004+02:002011-07-23T12:55:00.214+02:00

If you haven't seen the Budget Hero yet, it is a sort of online game that you can use to make decisions about how to balance the US budget.  Personally, I find it hard to use (if I want to replay it to change some things, I have a hard time getting it started again, and it seems hard to get the thing to play right away without instructions), but my main problem is the lack of options. It seems

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-86750386574744297942011-07-22T11:29:00.025+02:002011-07-22T11:29:00.331+02:00

I recently talked about rating agencies, and it turns out that there is one in Germany, though it is hardly known – and lo and behold, the German one has a different rating for the US. If you can read German, this press release (PDF) from June 8 announces that Feri has changed its assessment of the US from AAA to AA. I can't really assess this, but as I stated in my previous post, I also cannot

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-32930177500744143882011-07-21T11:22:00.001+02:002011-07-21T11:24:47.377+02:00

Over at her blog, my colleague Jill Sommer talks about the importance of a good desk chair, and I couldn't agree more. I believe I bought this chair to the left around six years ago. It cost a fortune (easily four figures in euros, but I'm not quite sure anymore, and it doesn't exist on the web), but it is worth it. My previous chair looked very much the same but broke after about five years,

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-49165371033371550082011-07-18T09:24:00.004+02:002011-07-18T09:38:57.908+02:00

Japanese defender Aya Sameshima, a real sweety-pie Today is Ocean Day in Japan, and my Japanese friend I watched the game with last night says that everyone goes out to the beach today. I expected the final of the women's World Cup to be exciting, but it exceeded my expectations. I saw Japan shut down undefeated Sweden, and I saw the US rally back against Brazil and France. Lots of

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-21843647863644709552011-07-13T10:59:00.002+02:002011-07-13T10:59:14.607+02:00

Maybe someone can help me out here. I have been looking for a chart that provides a quick comparison of countries like the US, Ireland, Portugal, Greece, Italy, etc. to get a better understanding of why a particular country gets in trouble (pretty much every EU country listed) with rating agencies and another (the US) doesn't. There is some material out there, such as the chart to the left from

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-77649889510445003762011-06-30T11:31:00.003+02:002011-07-07T13:18:22.700+02:00

This time, the culprit is Jorgo Chatzimarkakis, who has been in the news recently quite a bit because he is half Greek, half German and has therefore repeatedly been asked to explain what's going on in Greece to German TV audiences. I found him to be quite an affable fellow, especially because he openly says he holds both passports; Germany officially does not allow double citizenship, but in

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-66749615182684686422011-06-28T10:07:00.000+02:002011-06-28T10:07:03.724+02:00

Several times in the past, I have written about how Germans oppose tax cuts. Now, Germany is doing so well that tax revenue far exceeds budget plans – it's like Germany is undergoing the boom the US had in the 1990s. According to Deutsche Bank, tax revenue is up 10 percent, and the budget deficit is now below two percent of GDP. The governing coalition has responded in an American way by saying

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-70050024995910686552011-06-28T01:58:00.011+02:002011-06-28T09:36:44.453+02:00

As I mentioned in my penultimate post, I tried to find some indications that Diane Sawyer, a Republican by all indications, had at some point changed her political position towards the left – and could not find any. What I did find was a number of right-wing websites that list a number of statements she made, which the right-wingers perceived as being leftist (see these of Google hits). This

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-86982778457292422912011-06-27T13:57:00.000+02:002011-06-27T13:57:04.747+02:00

Over at Harper's, John R MacArthur wrote an interesting article a few weeks ago about how he, the son of a French woman, views American perceptions about the French, particularly in the context of Dominique Strauss-Kahn's current court case: If America really respected women, we would follow the French model. Reducing economic stress tends to reduce stress on marriages and helps keep families

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-20511104901729953962011-06-22T13:29:00.010+02:002011-06-22T15:16:33.189+02:00

Diane Sawyer as press aide shortly after Watergate. Source: www.whitehousemuseum.org /west-wing/press-secretary.htm  The interview between Jon Stewart and Chris Wallace on Fox News has drawn quite a bit of attention (if you have not seen it, it is here). While everyone seems mainly focused on Wallace's admission that Fox intentionally tries to go far right to counterbalance the perceived

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-83113966451860020692011-06-17T08:27:00.013+02:002011-07-12T17:08:28.013+02:00

Last week, I purchased a MacBook Pro with an SSD drive and eight GB of RAM. In the work that I do, I require special Translation Memory software, and I choose to use Dragon NaturallySpeaking on my Windows machines instead of typing. I wanted to comment in some detail on the performance of this set up just in case anyone else is thinking of going the same route. To cut to the chase, Dragon

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-14212106770210319312011-06-16T10:40:00.008+02:002011-06-16T20:46:57.964+02:00

As I mentioned a while back, another prominent German politician, Koch-Mehrin, was accused of plagiarism, and yesterday her university nullified her doctorate. I wondered in that previous post why so many of the people under review seem to be from conservative parties, and it turns out – according to a colleague of mine over at Heise, who put together the chart you see – that those parties

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-60396830622787762382011-06-15T22:39:00.001+02:002011-06-15T22:51:21.807+02:00

German public television has a very impressive online video library, where most things are available – even for downloading – for at least a week. I was thus impressed to find this video below online for downloading when a reader of this blog commented that it must have been a local paper the Germans were complaining about when they didn't like the coverage of Merkel's visit. On the news program

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-82788936834694753702011-06-08T21:35:00.000+02:002011-06-08T21:35:53.289+02:00

The German media are incredulous about their Chancellor's reception in the US – not because she has been poorly received, but because so little attention is being paid to the event in the media. Repeatedly, reporters on German TV flipped through US newspapers to show what the US reports on – and to show that Merkel's visit just barely warrants a mention alongside all the wars the US is fighting

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-23565124240087847492011-05-27T15:42:00.000+02:002011-05-27T15:42:58.302+02:00

From Telepolis, where my publishing career started:

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-82257142360509360912011-05-26T14:11:00.000+02:002011-05-26T14:11:38.820+02:00

Yesterday, Helmut Schmidt – the former German chancellor who is also a frequent contributor to German weekly newspaper Die Zeit – stated that the murder of Osama bin Laden violates international law. He also said that Americans have become used to "not viewing international law as binding for themselves." I don't know much about international law, but it seems a no-brainer to me that a country

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-6147196819826077632011-05-21T11:35:00.000+02:002011-05-21T11:35:05.333+02:00

The first thing I thought when I heard the news about Osama's killing was, "Is that legal?" It's apparently not a question that a lot of Americans are concerned about, though it was pretty much the first thing discussed over here. German Chancellor Angela Merkel commented in wag-the-dog fashion that she was "pleased that Osama was killed," which drew a lot of criticism from within her party (

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-8188187989917668102011-04-19T15:29:00.000+02:002011-04-19T15:29:01.087+02:00

An excellent essay (PDF) by Scott Horton on what James Madison might think of the current US political system today, with this sad conclusion: ... our hope against a police state rests more on the good will of those who make up the Executive Branch, and less on the checks and balances that James Madison crafted...

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-30328573247858034202011-04-14T00:08:00.002+02:002011-04-14T00:17:03.925+02:00

Koch-Mehrin, who once said she was "to pretty not to take advantage" of her looks. Image by Getty Images via @daylifeAs I mentioned in my previous post on this matter, the wiki that took down Dr. Mr. Guttenberg has gone after some other politicians – and has not come up empty-handed. Here, just under 19 percent of the pages in Dr. Silvana Koch-Mehrin's dissertation have been found to contain

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-56240037909337296382011-03-22T09:41:00.001+01:002011-03-22T09:42:29.349+01:00

This map from Die Zeit shows the area "affected by the earthquake and tsunami" and also places it within Germany for a better perspective. Nonetheless, it's not what I'm looking for. News reporters say that the main damage was caused by the tsunami, and they often report from areas affected by the earthquake, which they say are safer and still have infrastructure. I'd be interested to see this

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-87726945651207207712011-03-18T09:38:00.001+01:002011-03-18T09:39:32.174+01:00

I'm not much of a warmonger, but the resolution of the UN Security Council to enforce a no-fly zone over Libya is good news. Unfortunately, Germany abstained from voting and will not be helping out militarily. The reasons given by the government are that there is no way to tell where military intervention will stop – we may become as entangled as we are in Afghanistan and Iraq. Prominent German

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-72267953626490351212011-03-17T15:06:00.002+01:002011-03-17T15:08:20.368+01:00

While most of the attention on German television has shifted away from the effects of the earthquake and tsunami towards the nuclear problem, a German news channel (ZDFinfo) is broadcasting live Japanese television with German interpreters, and the coverage is once again quite different. The Japanese are focusing on hospitals with intermittent electricity (people are dying because their

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-1937586308812317752011-03-15T10:21:00.001+01:002011-03-15T10:25:04.951+01:00

Sad words from a friend in Tokyo, Japan. Over the weekend, he wrote that everything was okay, and the worst had been averted. It's heart-breaking. You can't turn on the TV in the morning anymore. There's something new every day. The New York Times has a list of ways to help. Gizmodo has a posted video of the tsunami rolling in taken by an amateur along with a Google Street View link of the

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-51321128764402098992011-03-14T12:50:00.003+01:002011-03-14T12:59:15.975+01:00

This image from the BBC is wrong. It should be a pie chart for electricity, not "energy" -- as a quick search at Wikipedia reveals, oil makes up roughly half of Japan's energy supply, which is what I would expect. Nuclear makes up less than half of what the BBC reports. As the dire events in Japan apparently continue to worsen, I can't help noticing some clear differences in the reporting on

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-91782576710772290372011-03-11T17:29:00.003+01:002011-03-11T17:38:11.858+01:00

13 years ago this month, I was in Japan with a group of Germans. We visited Kobe, which had been leveled by a giant earthquake less than three years earlier. As we stood above the city at a lookout point, the German Consul said that everything we were looking at had been flattened. It was hard to believe that the Japanese had taken less than three years to put a whole city back together. Roughly

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-65959126586011902352011-03-08T19:26:00.002+01:002011-03-08T19:28:29.697+01:00

Image via Wikipedia Clara Zetkin and Rosa Luxemburg International Women's Day is a German invention that goes back to Clara Zetkin. In a previous life, I studied German history and culture and remember being blown away by her life story. At one point, I wanted to write a biography about her; her unwavering bravery inspired me. (I should admit that I have practically forgotten everything I

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-53422989058474599732011-03-07T12:58:00.001+01:002011-03-07T12:59:55.204+01:00

When I have the time, I try to listen to podcasts of the Diane Rehm show, and on this one from January 20 (I am a bit behind) the speakers provide two interesting statistics: Funding for public broadcasting in the US makes up only 1/25th of one percent of discretionary spending in the US budget, and Expenditures on public broadcasting in the US pale in comparison to the budgets in other

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-51647660675771840572011-03-01T12:32:00.003+01:002011-03-01T12:50:19.322+01:00

Guttenberg has finally stepped down. One of the most interesting aspects of this issue was the public's continuing support for the German Defense Minister. In the recent polls published this weekend, an overwhelming majority of Germans across all political parties wanted him to stay in office. Perhaps because of the academic nature of plagiarism, support apparently seems to differ greatly

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-47458755113378888592011-02-25T12:07:00.000+01:002011-02-25T12:07:16.458+01:00

Only last week, I told some friends at Facebook who were complaining about reactionary politicians in their home state of Wisconsin that I have been tired of comparisons with Hitler and the Nazis for a long time. But Omar Qaddafi's recent performance in which he practically declares war on his own people does remind me of Hitler's comments at the end of World War II that the best Germans had

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-7315947182690635282011-02-22T18:39:00.000+01:002011-02-22T18:39:30.634+01:00

As you may know, German Defense Minister Guttenberg asked his university to take back his doctorate because his dissertation is demonstrably a farce. The Wiki devoted to collecting evidence of plagiarism has come up with the wonderful chart you see to the side. The blue bits are the table of contents at the beginning and the bibliography at the end. The white bits are the parts where no

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-44374502570019874512011-02-21T13:56:00.000+01:002011-02-21T13:56:26.258+01:00

Speaking of the German fascination with doctorates, I just remembered this piece that I wrote back in 2005: The one American businessman or the other had regular contact with German colleagues, who apparently generally had about three PhDs apiece. I tried to put things into perspective and pointed out that Germans were generally of the opinion that they could not compete with Americans. And

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-37276899491278790562011-02-20T12:02:00.005+01:002011-02-21T11:34:19.536+01:00

The case of Guttenberg is getting interesting. First, the swarm has reportedly found cases of plagiarism on 68 percent of the German Defense Minister's 475-page dissertation. Second, the passages are no longer limited to directly lifted paragraphs; if you were wondering why he didn't simply rewrite the passages he lifted, take a look at this. It seems fairly clear now that Guttenberg's

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-321680351422594692011-02-18T14:47:00.005+01:002011-02-18T14:57:57.221+01:00

Margaret Marks did me the favor of commenting on the case of plagiarism that Germany's Defense Minister currently faces. I was hoping in particular that she, as a legal expert, might have an opinion on whether his dissertation is as flimsy in general as his critics now charge (aside from the plagiarism accusations), but as she points out, 475 pages probably even wore down the people who had to

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-57645937238153770142011-02-17T13:01:00.001+01:002011-02-17T13:02:43.554+01:00

Image via WikipediaGermany's most popular politician, Karl-Theodor Guttenberg (a nobleman, so you also find him referred to as "Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg" – Germany did away with its nobility after World War I, but noblemen were allowed to retain indications of nobility, such as "von" and "zu"), now faces charges of plagiarism for his dissertation in law. Some legal experts say that the work

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-22369856796685752532011-02-11T02:00:00.000+01:002011-02-11T02:00:00.995+01:00

Since the beginning of the year, Comedy Central – the place where most left-leaning Americans apparently get their news – has had a new logo, and they obviously stole the idea from Petite Planète (see the logo to the right). If any lawyers out there would like to go after the company, be my guest. We'll split the compensation for damages 50-50.

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-54892034507501790252011-02-10T13:42:00.002+01:002011-02-10T14:23:50.593+01:00

Christina Aguilera's slightly botched rendition of the US national anthem at the Super Bowl on Sunday has been quite a hot topic, and Salon.com has a nice overview of some even worse versions. But the thing that amazes me is that so few people are pointing out that she has screwed up the Stars and Stripes before. What so proudly we what? She did it better when she was eight. If you want to

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-24178700146166050882011-02-07T22:34:00.000+01:002011-02-07T22:34:52.565+01:00

Yesterday, the Green Bay Packers won the Super Bowl, so I am retiring the Saints logo from the side column and putting it in this post, where it can stay for a better day. Congratulations to everyone in Wisconsin, one of the most German states in the US. And thanks again to the Saints, who not only were champions for a year, but also went out in typical Saints style – by losing to the only team

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-72844165229331070422011-02-03T11:28:00.001+01:002011-02-03T12:13:21.774+01:00

Image via WikipediaOver here in Europe, people laugh about cases like the one where an elderly lady burned herself by putting (and spilling) a cup of hot coffee in her crotch at the drive-through. As unfortunate as it was, the general take over here would be, "You mean you are 79 years old and you still don't know that coffee is hot? And what are you doing putting a hot drink in your crotch while

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-76083216458583809612011-02-02T11:26:00.000+01:002011-02-02T11:26:06.202+01:00

When I lived in France back in the 90s, I remember discussing the Arab world with a Frenchman, who had a different take on spreading democracy then we Americans do: "They have to stand up and demand democracy themselves. They have to have their own French Revolution." The situation in the Arab world is still dangerous, but it's also encouraging. Last year, back when I didn't have a subscription

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-13257990361860255362011-01-19T16:11:00.002+01:002011-01-19T16:15:01.150+01:00

In my campaign to convince Americans to switch to renewable power, the higher cost is often an issue. I have long wondered why Americans are so worried about high prices when Europeans aren't. One of the most interesting things about my visit to the US last summer was the feeling that prices were somehow much different. For instance, it only cost me around 260 dollars a week to rent a Prius,

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-13534473502429537672010-12-25T05:34:00.006+01:002010-12-25T05:34:00.223+01:00

(Traditional sign from the French Quarter in New Orleans)  

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-66350439382169171132010-12-21T14:11:00.001+01:002010-12-21T14:12:46.438+01:00

That didn't take long: Similarly, writers and editors, as Harper’s Magazine’s Thomas Frank points out, are being driven into penury by Internet wages — in most cases, no wages.... I have been radicalized, both as a publisher and a writer, and have instituted a “protectionist” policy in regard to the Internet and its free-content salesmen. Does that mean that Harpers is going to take my money in

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-28034744760961798632010-12-19T15:31:00.000+01:002010-12-19T15:31:52.385+01:00

Jon Stewart interviews 9/11 first responders about how their healthcare has been filibustered. The Daily Show With Jon StewartMon - Thurs 11p / 10c 9/11 First Responders React to the Senate Filibuster www.thedailyshow.com Daily Show Full EpisodesPolitical Humor & Satire BlogThe Daily Show on Facebook

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-39518477768142475872010-12-14T11:52:00.008+01:002010-12-14T12:24:24.586+01:00

As anyone who reads this blog knows, I am a regular reader of the New Yorker. Until a few weeks ago, practically all of the magazine was available for free online, so I simply read everything online and provided gift subscriptions to friends in the US in return. The US annual subscription price is 40 dollars, whereas the international subscription rate is 120 dollars – and I do not need to hold

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-90406651538049592942010-12-05T11:41:00.000+01:002010-12-05T11:41:00.201+01:00

From ForeignPolicy.org: judging by my email traffic, not all American officials are all that upset. Some, in fact, are delighted with the whole affair, for reasons ranging from professional pride in their handiwork to the opportunity to air longstanding grievances over possibly wrongheaded public perceptions of foreign events.

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-65041379001928477532010-12-03T12:35:00.001+01:002010-12-03T13:26:44.175+01:00

Image via WikipediaA few years ago, I managed to visit Mono Lake and I made a pledge to myself that I would get my kids over to it one day. Last summer, that dream came true. On a trip from Long Beach to San Francisco, through Yosemite, from Mono Lake to Las Vegas (where my boy turned 13) via Death Valley, over to the Grand Canyon, and back to Long Beach via Joshua Tree National Park, I told

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-75144493056694720872010-12-02T16:25:00.000+01:002010-12-02T16:25:04.229+01:00

Now that Amazon has announced it will no longer be hosting Wikileaks documents, the first Germans are announcing in Internet forums that they have deleted their Amazon accounts. I side with George Packer of the New Yorker on this: If WikiLeaks... were uncovering crimes, or scandals, or systemic abuses, there would be no question about the overwhelming public interest in these latest revelations

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-53159767243751025082010-12-01T16:56:00.010+01:002010-12-02T13:57:09.556+01:00

Banks claim that we need them because they finance our businesses, but this recent report at the New Yorker finds that most of what banks do is not financing businesses: "In the first nine months of this year, sales and trading accounted for thirty-six per cent of Morgan Stanley’s revenues and a much higher proportion of profits. Traditional investment banking—the business of raising money for

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-6656995210726010082010-11-30T16:21:00.001+01:002010-11-30T16:23:12.251+01:00

I am a bit frustrated with Apple's policies, but this one looks like it's going to take the cake: Jobs is apparently working with Murdoch to come up with a new digital "newspaper" specifically and exclusively for the iPad. It's not enough that, for instance, the iPad has very limited communications, such as restricted Bluetooth access, or that the iPhone was (outside of France, where the

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-87582324783443320222010-11-16T12:26:00.001+01:002010-11-22T18:50:18.591+01:00

It's not news to those of us who studied history a bit, especially US and German history, but the New York Times recently reported that the US actively recruited some high-ranking and Nazi officials after World War II to get their expertise. It's an interesting read if you are interested in the topic.

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-45993178359252787682010-10-15T11:10:00.000+02:002010-10-15T11:10:34.938+02:00

Last night, the Hermann Scheer passed away at the age of 66.  It is safe to say that no one has done more for the cause of renewables worldwide than Hermann. His death comes as a bit of a surprise. Over the past few weeks, I have been in personal contact with him because he personally decided that I was to be the translator of his new book. Ironically, I sat down to begin the translation

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-5785413030887763062010-10-13T10:16:00.000+02:002010-10-13T10:16:00.082+02:00

From the Gambit: At least 70 of the 315 houses that Habitat for Humanity has built in New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina have tested positive for corrosion problems caused by defective Chinese drywall, leaving people who were once grateful to Habitat for their homes feeling betrayed by the organization they had trusted.

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-67672837355791603002010-10-12T10:27:00.001+02:002010-10-12T10:28:07.391+02:00

... about the Tea Party (at the New Yorker): It appears that the extreme right wing is on the verge of securing a degree of power over Congress and the Republican Party that is unprecedented in modern American history. For defenders of national cohesion and tempered adversity in our politics, it is an alarming state of affairs.  A famous historian, he explains why the Republican party has been

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-7238484683295601932010-10-07T10:31:00.000+02:002010-10-07T10:31:17.240+02:00

Over at Harper's, Scott Horton has something to add about my last post: "If the terrorists’ principal object is to paralyze a society with fear, why should the government play right into their hands?"

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-35207241586443557532010-10-05T22:42:00.001+02:002010-10-05T22:43:10.103+02:00

US media are apparently full of reports about how Europe is unsafe because of threats of terrorist attacks. There is a good wrap-up at Der Spiegel about how the German media are just not buying it. I should add that the German public isn't buying it at all either -- we simply aren't scared over here. The comments under this article at Die Zeit are revealing. Everyone is really tired of the "

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-71401315554119509852010-09-27T09:57:00.000+02:002010-09-27T09:57:00.723+02:00

It's a bit long to watch at around 15 minutes, but a truly wonderful idea, especially for those of us who became politically aware around or after the end of the Cold War - thanks so much Isao!

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-2784003005021625402010-09-26T18:51:00.002+02:002010-09-26T18:52:52.445+02:00

Image via Wikipedia On German television, there was just a review of this book, in which a French woman living in the US provides her own tips on why the French are the least obese people in Europe: never eat with your hands, always sit at a table and use cutlery, and don't diet. Interestingly, Wikipedia presents a picture of European metal ware (along with wooden chopsticks and a porcelain

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-51099099643445885972010-09-15T16:12:00.002+02:002010-09-15T19:18:21.324+02:00

Image via Wikipedia As I announced back in April, my blog writings pertaining to renewables are moving to a professional website. Originally, I thought it would be going online in June, but you know how big projects are -- at any rate, it went online today and is called Renewables International. My first series, entitled Peak Demand Parity, focuses on what will happen when peak solar power

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-50023896311319883552010-08-29T08:09:00.008+02:002010-08-29T16:16:34.297+02:00

A pre-Katrina public service announcement (the creator of Mr Bill is from NOLA):

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-80908347322930621882010-08-01T16:23:00.001+02:002010-08-01T16:24:04.760+02:00

Image via WikipediaIf you want to know what I do not miss about Louisiana, look no further than this article.More than 10,000 Louisianans gathered at the Lafayette Cajundome July 21 to urge the Obama administration to lift the moratorium on deepwater drilling.Mark Hertsgaard, who has written two of my favorite books, also recently visited the area and surmises:It may be shocking to read in The

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-31290458847134533082010-07-23T16:29:00.004+02:002010-07-23T16:47:12.872+02:00

Over at his blog, my colleague Sebastian Göres tries to figure out the numbers behind the new 10 Million Roofs policy proposal in the US. Coming at it from the angle of system size, he finds that the US would have 70 gigawatts of solar by 2021 instead of the 40 gigawatts talked about in the bill -- but, more importantly, the policy would then cost 122 billion dollars instead of around 250 million

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-21264766361741982242010-07-22T16:15:00.001+02:002010-07-22T16:39:02.222+02:00

The Guardian writes:The world's first molten salt concentrating solar power plant'Archimede' demonstration solar plant in Sicily becomes the first to use molten salts to store energy overnightHere's Wikipedia on Solar Two from 1995:Solar Two used molten salt, a combination of 60% sodium nitrate and 40% potassium nitrate, as an energy storage medium instead of oil or water as with Solar One. This

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-8704621738533217402010-07-21T16:00:00.003+02:002010-07-21T16:01:49.171+02:00

A friend just wrote and said he has purchased my book for his Kindle. I took a look at the Kindle website myself and could not even find that my book was available. I told my friend that he had probably bought the wrong book, but he sent me back a different link, and I suddenly saw the problem:"This title is not available for customers from your location in: Europe"So we have this digital world

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-71791408001403325552010-07-16T08:29:00.002+02:002010-07-16T10:14:43.702+02:00

The Guardian has published another completely misleading article, this time conflating "solar power" with concentrated solar power. The former is simply any electricity generated from solar energy (photovoltaics and solar thermal), whereas the latter are only systems that use solar heat to boil water to drive a conventional turbine (no photovoltaic cells are needed).The author himself seems to

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-58982577123328765652010-07-14T18:30:00.003+02:002010-07-14T18:35:47.850+02:00

I have been on a business trip, but before everyone forgets all about the World Cup I wanted to congratulate Spain on a well deserved victory. The Dutch were lucky to still have 11 people on the field at half, and de Jong's foul was probably the worst I have ever seen. Frankly, it wouldn't have been right for the Dutch to win.It is worth noting that Spain got the fewest number of penalty cards

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-61153417271590817712010-07-11T03:22:00.072+02:002010-07-11T03:22:00.546+02:00

(Kudos to Jan) Tonight, the Dutch will once again be singing their national anthem, and it's a quite interesting one. For the full story, see the anthem's Wikipedia entry. Fascinatingly, the lyrics are in the first person, so the Dutch sing as though they were William of Nassau himself -- and the first two lines are especially interesting for the Germans, who are used to being hated by the

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-68829841274066751082010-07-09T10:09:00.004+02:002010-07-09T13:12:41.487+02:00

It is nice to have two new teams in the finals. As you can see here, Brazil and Italy have both come in first more often (five and four times, respectively) than Germany, but no team has been in the final four more often than Germany at 12 times (followed by Brazil and Italy with 10 and 8 times). Furthermore, three countries have won 12 of the 18 finals, which is too high of a concentration if

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-85238128267019103632010-07-08T10:47:00.007+02:002010-07-08T11:29:33.444+02:00

Sadly, I have been proven wrong. But the nice thing about Germany's loss to Spain last night is that the public reaction shows everyone here takes it for what it is -- a game. Overall, everyone from fans to TV moderators and the press agree that Spain that simply played better and deserved to win:Manchmal gewinnt im Fußball der Glücklichere, aber an diesem WM-Abend gewann mit Spanien die bessere

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-40394570140757559162010-07-07T10:23:00.008+02:002010-07-14T10:41:23.392+02:00

In the midst of my blogging on soccer (and as we wait for my new energy website to go on line at the beginning of September), I wanted to report the latest figures on solar in Germany, especially because there seems to be a misconception in the English-speaking world that Germany has changed its solar policy like Spain did, with the expectation being that the German market will not grow in 2010.

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-25760877321371180702010-07-07T08:32:00.004+02:002010-07-07T08:40:34.738+02:00

Over at the New Yorker, Hendrik Hertzberg has something interesting to say about interruptions in soccer:Compared with its established rivals, big-time soccer is ill suited to televisual exploitation. The game’s continuous, almost uninterrupted flow of action denies it a steady supply of intervals for the advertising of beer and the fetching of same from the refrigerator. I didn't mention that

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-67170146584361302232010-07-05T12:55:00.001+02:002010-07-06T09:57:39.156+02:00

The German coach is currently renegotiating his contract, which normally would have expired on June 30 (I assume it will simply the tacitly extended for the rest of this World Cup). Certainly, with the German team playing the way it is, he can probably dictate his terms at this point (during negotiations in late winter, no compromise could be reached). But there is one thing I would like to see -

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-70267259338305327012010-07-04T19:05:00.004+02:002010-07-04T19:24:16.184+02:00

I certainly thought Argentina was going to be a real opponent for Germany and was honestly concerned, but the Argentinians only played like Argentina for the first 20 minutes of the second half. Otherwise, even the first half (Germany led 1-0 at halftime) was a rout.Overall, the referees seemed to be focused on not determining the outcome of the game themselves, which is laudable, and they did an

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-28052044089821775342010-07-02T01:37:00.002+02:002010-07-02T08:03:31.882+02:00

Over in Germany, there has been some discussion about the term "public viewing" for events where a large group of people gather to watch the World Cup on large screens. Apparently, "public viewing" can be used in English for a wake if the person who dies is prominent and a lot of people come. Thus, "public viewing" is now understood in Germany as yet another supposed Anglicism that actually

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-41725764538501901662010-07-01T09:43:00.002+02:002010-07-01T10:28:30.722+02:00

In this interesting video over at TED, Ellen Dunham-Jones discusses how suburbia could gradually be converted into more energy-efficient, healthier dense developments. I don't agree with everything she says. For instance, she complains about gasoline being too expensive, whereas the answer to our problems is constantly increasing the price of finite energy. I am also not convinced that we need

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-78988955802887688312010-06-30T09:36:00.001+02:002010-06-30T09:37:20.291+02:00

The first day without soccer in two weeks -- I can go back to reading and cycling now.In the last four games of the round of 16, one game was decided by penalty kicks. The other three included goals that should not have been given for the team that ultimately won. It is hard to think of an unfairer game than soccer.FIFA is now apparently responding by talking about which technologies could be

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-3427194114456199472010-06-29T11:08:00.002+02:002010-06-29T11:10:42.688+02:00

Vorstand is an interesting word. Look it up, and you will almost always read that it is the board of executives, or something to that extent. The Vorstandsvorsitzender is the chairman of that board, more commonly referred to in English as the CEO.But bizarrely, German tends to use Vorstand for the chairman, not for the entire board. I recently came across this at Wacker, a major German

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-15171937309405034642010-06-28T20:09:00.003+02:002010-06-28T21:06:18.191+02:00

The British Telegraph writes: Adolf Hitler wrote a begging letter to a Mercedes dealership asking for a loan for a limousine until his royalties for Mein Kampf came through. We therefore have proof that this video, one of the funniest in German at YouTube, is true:And since I recently wrote about how Germans do not think courts are fair, I'll translate the last joke for you. "I told the judge

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-57269462098905073932010-06-27T20:42:00.001+02:002010-06-27T20:43:51.743+02:00

At halftime, the Germans I watched the game with were not happy. "If we don't win this game by a few goals, we'll never hear the end of this," one said. "I don't want to win like this," said another.After Germany won the game by a few goals, the Germans I was with were pleased to still be in the World Cup, but not convinced that the referee's obvious mistake (good God, how far does a ball have to

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-69242248033205062162010-06-26T01:16:00.012+02:002010-06-26T10:19:27.148+02:00

In 2006, France’s Zidane head-butted an Italian player in the final game, and although everyone in the stadium and hundreds of millions of TV viewers saw it, the French coach nonetheless challenged Zidane’s red card. He thought the referees had not actually seen the foul except on the screens in the stadium, which would have constituted a sort of video review – and that is not allowed.How French.

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-77054029121284390502010-06-24T11:25:00.002+02:002010-06-24T15:39:21.644+02:00

Over at Harper's, Ken Silverstein seems to be having a frustrating life. Rather than writing informative articles like his colleague Scott Horton, he merely posts asinine personal attacks that fail to rise above the level of the people he criticizes.Perhaps he is having a good time with his completely unfounded attacks on the US soccer team, and specifically on Landon Donovan, but I can assure

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-10821791868404773452010-06-18T17:05:00.003+02:002010-06-30T18:53:49.680+02:00

Ok, I know Germany just lost, but even with ten people on the field, they were the more exciting team in the second half, and they had more opportunities than most teams I have been (bored) watching. Yes, the Serbs had two shots at the post, but not much more. It could have been 0-3. But Germany still dominated.Let's call it an off game. Get eleven guys on the field, and there is no holding back

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-20974267623151830892010-06-16T11:28:00.003+02:002010-06-16T12:42:05.521+02:00

Just a quick note to clear up a misunderstanding -- you may have heard of the new Globama campaign, which aims to put photovoltaics on the White House. Essentially, a US company will donate the panels for free.The confusion comes in, for instance in this article, when people start putting the word "back" into the campaign (the campaign itself does not talk about putting solar back on the White

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-77448574341330101282010-06-15T20:18:00.001+02:002010-06-15T20:20:10.770+02:00

(Hat tip to Scott Horton at Harper's)For those of you who missed it, in Dec 2008 the Nation published an in-depth report on events in Algiers, a part of New Orleans just across the Mississippi River, in the days after Katrina hit. A warning to the faint-hearted: it's not an easy read. But it is apparently all true -- except, that is, for this one sentence by a staff member at Tulane University: I

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-73428872940880218402010-06-11T09:42:00.006+02:002010-06-11T14:01:00.148+02:00

A highly misleading article entitled "Calm the Feed-in Frenzy" has been published over at Renewable Energy World. The article is so bad it is not really worth commenting on except in one respect: it conflates feed-in tariffs with feed-in tariffs for solar power, which a lot of people do.You can see it coming near the beginning, when FITs are described as providing "returns from generating

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8808639380980092075.post-15407806930159586162010-06-11T09:25:00.005+02:002010-06-11T11:34:26.445+02:00

I returned from Intersolar on Wednesday night. One of the hot topics there is the decision by the Bundesrat to oppose the proposed rate reduction for solar power scheduled to take effect on July 1.Essentially, the Bundesrat - a sort of "upper chamber" of Parliament which represents the interests of the individual German states (there are 16 of them) - vetoed the rate reduction even though it has

Craig Morrisnoreply@blogger.com0