w o r d s

Boy - Bill Gates is so not funny! Even Jon Stewart has a hard time being funny with the Über-geek in the studio. “What does the F12 button do?” ??? This is a bit of an awkward interview, especially for Stewart, who is usually pretty good at it.

Last night we watched the DVD of Andy Kaufman doing the Midnight Special in 1981. I would give a lot to see Andy Kaufman have Gates on his show. Wow - that would have been just out of this world! Of course Kaufman died in 1984 - way too young - before the age of the geek.

The funniest moment with Gates was when he left without waiting for Stewarts queue …

According to the Togolese government news website, EU officials informed the Togolese ambassador to Belgium this weekend of the lifting of the 14-year-old aid embargo against Togo. The EU decision apparently also prompted the IMF to re-establish relations with the Togolese government - for what that’s worth.

The EU suspended all development aid to Togo in 1993, after President Eyadema’s troops brutally crushed the nascent political opposition to his oppressive military rule. Several thousand Togolese were killed by the military and by RPT death squads during the riots of 1992/93. But all the EU sanctions did was punish a suffering people by undermining Togo’s economy. The deteriorating economy created a massive brain-drain, as many Togolese left for what seemed like greener pastures abroad. That meant that young people with university education left the country, instead of organizing an effective opposition. So suspending aid most likely helped Eyadema, rather than hurt him. If the Europeans really wanted to put pressure on Eyadema, the French should have stopped their military support for the Eyadema regime.

The decision to resume aid to Togo comes after the current “national unity government” was formed last year, based on negotiations facilitated by the government of Burkina Faso. The talks in Ouagadougu resulted in a commitment to hold elections this year, several compromises re the eligibility requirements for presidential candidates, and a coalition government of the ruling RPT and the opposition Union of Forces for Change (UFC).

With Eyadema gone, and the French president Chiraq a “lame duckq,” maybe there is a chance for a democratic election in Togo, after all. If the French keep their sticky fingers OUT of Togo, and the EU and the AU send lots of observers to the polling stations, maybe the seed of democracy can finally sprout in Togo, this year. Still, we’re only talking about legislative elections this year. Extracting the Gnassinbé clan from the presidency and from its stranglehold on Togo will not happen overnight. But if the EU and the AU help the Togolese hold the ruling RPT and the military accountable, maybe there is hope. And a new French president might also help.

… but doesn’t want to. A tale from the Black Forest in Germany.

Once upon a time, in 1791, to be exact, some Benedictine monks in the Black Forest decided to wean the folks in the nearby village off their beloved Schnapps (brandy). Folks were just drinking too much, and often things got out of hand. They were good people, hardworking mountain folk, who lived a short, harsh life logging, farming and making charcoal, deep in the Black Forest. So the Schnapps they made, their moonshine, was the only distraction, the one thing that made life seem a little less harsh. Yet, they drank too much, and the Schnapps also contributed to the shortness of many a man’s life.

So the monks decided that their best chance of cutting down the consuption of Schnapps, was to offer a more nutritious beverage: beer. Monks had been brewing in Germany for as long as any one remembered, and it was a natural thing to suggest for these Benidictine brothers. And so they started the brewery “Am Roten Haus” (The Red House) in Grafenhausen. At roughly 1000 Meters (3000 feet) altitude, it is today the highest brewery in Germany. In 1806 , the brewery became the property of the Grand-Dukes of Baden, and after WWI, the brewery was state-owned.

When I started drinking beer, the Rothaus brews were always a taste of country, and they reminded me of visiting my grandparents. We lived in Stuttgart, and you could not get any Rothaus there (a couple hours’ drive from the Black Forest). Especially in the South, beer is a very regional thing. Every area has its brew. If you’re lost, and you see a Bar, or a Gasthaus, and you see which beer they sell, you can figure out where you are, down to the ZIP code, in some areas.

So Rothaus was the mountain beer, and it had (and has) a very provincial image. They have not changed the label design in 30 years! So when I read in the Spiegel Online that Rothaus has become somewhat of a “cult beer,” I almost dropped my laptop. Apparently, about 100 bars in Berlin sell Rothaus beers and it’s the second most popular beer in Cologne. They just cannot brew enough to satisfy demand. And yet, they don’t even advertise aggressively. I mean it’s great beer. The Tannezäpfle is one of the best Pilsener beers in Germany. But it’s not a hip, sexy beer. Its image is downright boring and provincial.

So are the folks at the brewery excited about all this attention? Do they have plans to expand to fill the demand? Come up with a clever marketing strategy? No. They are quite dubious about this. Their little brewery is just fine the way it is - thank you very much.

Actually, the reasoning is more like this: if they expanded they’d have to buld a new brewery in the valley and they would loose the connection with the community of Grafenhausen. They also might loose the image of the little country brewery, which is a big part of the brand appeal to city folk. And the seven springs where they draw the water can only produce so much water - yet the quality of the water is a huge aspect of quality of the final product.

So what to do? Well, it’s really not that big a deal: brew a decent beer, take care of the local market (90 percent of the beer is still consumed within the state of Baden Württemberg), and see if there is some left over for the city slickers up north.

Nome net huodla, gell! Gsundheit!

After a few chilly days, temperatures were back to the 60s F (almost 20 °C) today, and so we went out to the Little River Park. Laura went for a run and when she got back I rode the bike trail. Jacob and Julia rode their bikes and played in the playground.

I helped Jacob ride his Thunderbike (as he calls it) and he did great. Finally, I don’t have to hold his bike and run with him! Running along with Jacob on his bike used to be half my exercise regimen at the park. Round and round and round …

Today, he got on his bike, I gave him a push, and he rode off … left … right … straight into a tree! He picked his bike back up and got back on - another push … and he was off again - straight into another tree. Soon, thought, he got the hang of it and was cruising around more and more confidently. His main problem was that when he gets distracted by something, like another child, or a dog, he looks at it and rides straight for it on collision course. So I rode in front of him on my bike, yelling at him “look at me! - look at me!” When I got him to focus on me riding in front of him, he stayed on the path and did really well on his Thunderbike.

I had a great ride through the woods on the single-track for almost an hour, scared up some deer, and got a great workout. When I came back, Jacob was cruising around the parking lot “wuuheee!! Look at me!” Good thing there were very few cars left in the parking lot.

[update 2/28: added the picture]

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Heat mining apparently has much greater potential in the US as previously thought. The idea of exploiting geothermal energy by drilling deep holes into hot rocks deep underground is not confined to Iceland and Yellowstone. According to a study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) this awesome, abundant source of energy (the hot core of the Earth) is accessible even is much less geologically active areas, like the East Coast. You just have to drill a bit deeper. A lot deeper. But it can be done.

According to panel member M. Nafi Toksöz, professor of geophysics at MIT, “geothermal energy could play an important role in our national energy picture as a non-carbon-based energy source. It’s a very large resource and has the potential to be a significant contributor to the energy needs of this country.”

Toksöz added that the electricity produced annually by geothermal energy systems now in use in the United States at sites in California, Hawaii, Utah and Nevada is comparable to that produced by solar and wind power combined. And the potential is far greater still, since hot rocks below the surface are available in most parts of the United States.

Even in the most promising areas, however, drilling must reach depths of 5,000 feet or more in the west, and much deeper in the eastern United States. Still, “the possibility of drilling into these rocks, fracturing them and pumping water in to produce steam has already been shown to be feasible,” Toksöz said.

MIT-led panel backs ‘heat mining’ as key U.S. energy source - January 22, 2007

I think this is really exciting news. Let’s go drill some holes.

Oops - apparently the harddrive fried on the server that hosts my website, this blog and my email server. So I was without email (at least non-work email) for two evenings, which was a bit disconcerting. And I was a bit nervous about the provider’s ability to restore all services and files and databases. I would hate to lose the information I gathered in this blog. I do have a local copy of the static website, but I have no backups of the databases. I should probably download a backup - just in case.

After 19 hours downtime, everything was back up and running. Phew! I am just glad I don’t run anything rally critical on this service. But then, you get what you pay for, and they are pretty cheap - $60/year.

This is one of my favorite pictures from Yikpa - it captures a true Yikpa moment during the funeral of the old chief of the village of Yikpa-Anigbe in 1991. As the drums were rumbling in the background, and the men occasionally fire an old rifle into the air, the women gathered to burn herbs and say prayers for the deceased. Finally Mama Celi, the chief of the women, put some herbs on the fire, and as the pungent, aromatic smoke filled the air, she slowly dances to the drums and recites with great intensity a powerful prayer for the old man.

I use this photo on my homepage and on the “Yikpa Spirits” page, because it nicely illustrates the sense of spirituality in the village. The smoke and the light illustrate the ancient mysticism of the traditions. The serious faces of the women and Mama Celis posture reflect the intensity of the moment and the depth of their faith.

Last weekend I got an email from a guy at a film production company who asked me if they can use the picture in a documentary film about the tradition of Mardi Gras Indians in New Orleans, LA. The image will be used to illustrate some of the cultural traditions that have influenced the African-American Mardi Gras Indian tradition. Sure, I don’t see a problem with them using the picture in this context.

In fact, I think it’s pretty cool that they picked this image. Sounds like a great film project - I hope I’ll get to see the film when its done.

Right after Christmas, Laura saw a Mr Beer homebrewing kit on super-duper sale and bought it. So this afternoon, we brewed up a batch of “California Pale Ale” in the Mr Beer. It’s really easy, and I am very curious how this stuff is going to turn out. It’ll have to sit in the barrel for a week now, then I’ll fill it into bottles (I’ve been collecting the very nice 1-liter, pop-top bottles the Highland brewery uses for it’s Cold Mountain Winter Ale - one of my favorites).

After it sits in the bottles for another couple of weeks my homebrew should be ready. This should be interesting!

Out of 538 vehicles at the start (264 bikes, 189 cars, 85 trucks ) 300 made it to the finish line today. Stephane Peterhansel won the cars category in his Mitsubishi, Cyril Despres won the bikes on a KTM, and Hans Stacey won the trucks category with his MAN.

Tragically, this rally also cost the lives of four people. Two children were hit by cars and died, and two bike riders died in the competition. The deaths of people who live in the host communities is especially tragic, and this makes the Dakar quite controversial. The riders know the risk they take, but the rally organizers need to make an even greater effort to ensure the safety of the host communities. The deaths of these children due to a motor sports event is not acceptable. If spectators died at Formula One or NASCAR events it would certainly be taken very seriously. It should be taken just as seriously here.

Although the organizers claim to impose strict safety rules, it is apparent that this was not sufficient, and that even more efforts have to be made to ensure the safety of the population and spectators.

Still, this is a fascinating event - check out these cool pictures on the BBC website.

Rock, that is. Rock Balakiyem Gnassingbé, the brother of the President of Togo has been voted out as head of the Togolese Football Federation. After Togo’s first ever appearance at the FIFA Worldcup last year was thoroughly mismanaged, to a large degree by Rock and some other RPT cronies, the FTF finally rid itself of the powerful, but incompetent Gnassingbé and elected Avlissi Tata as its new head.

Some in Togo see this as a hopeful sign for the country, and perhaps as a harbinger of broader change. Who knows, the FTF presidency is a coveted, plush assignment, and for the Gnassingbé clan to lose this job is pretty significant. It goes to show that pressure from the outside (FIFA and the African Football Federation), if applied consistently, can produce progress.

German President Horst Köhler visited Ghana last week, and and attended a conference with several African leaders. Apparently he also met Togo’s Faure Gnassingbé, who “inherited” the family business of running Togo from his dad, the late Gnassingbé Eyadema. The official Togolese government news website claims that the meeting was cordial, and that Köhler promised Germany’s support for the democratization of Togo. After a decade of German and EU sanctions against the illegitimate regime of the Gnassingbé clan in Togo, the fact that this meeting took place alone, could be construed as a warming of relations, I suppose. But promises of “support for democratization” efforts could mean anything.

With legislative elections in Togo this year, the EU is probably interested in warming relations with the regime in Lomé so they can keep a closer eye on the elections. Also, the national unity government between the RPT and the UFC has raised hopes that there may be progress possible in Togo. With the old man gone, engagement may be the way to turn Togo around. However, only if the French government stops propping up the RPT and the Gnassingbé clan. Unless the French quit meddling in Togo, neither sanctions nor engagement will produce democracy in Togo.

Since last weekend, this cold front moved into North Carolina and the temperatures in the Triangle area dropped from the mid-70s F. /low 20s C on Monday to below freezing Wednesday (a difference of over 40 deg. F or 20 deg. C in about 40 hours!). And this morning we woke up to an inch (3-4 cm) of snow on the ground! Wow - from a day on the beach to snow in a couple of days.

To Accra, to be specific. The German President Horst Köhler headed a delegation of 170 Germans at the Partnership with Africa conference that included several African heads of state and international leaders: Presidents John Agyekum Kufuor (Ghana), Festus G. Mogae (Botswana), Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf (Liberia), Olusegun Obasanjo (Nigeria) as well as Alpha Oumar Konare of the African Union. The focus of the conference was on leadership development - perhaps the most important aspect of development aid. Besides the big-wigs, the conference brought together 50 African and European “young leaders” for networking and for brainstorming about the future of the Africa, and Germany’s role in it. The event took place at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre in Ghana’s capital Accra on Jan 12-15.

The fact that Köhler bothered to attend this event is a good sign, maybe. And considering his IMF background, it makes sense. I think Germany, and the rest of Europe, may begin to realize that they need to engage African countries and their people in constructive ways, in order to strengthen the relationship between the two continents. The problem right now is that Europe is trying to fence itself off from Africa, and that is a dumb idea. Europe needs the immigrants from the South, to bolster its dwindling workforce. Those immigrants send substantial amounts of money back home, which supports local economies and builds buying power of consumers in Africa. And if Africa’s ties to Europe are strong, chances are African consumers will want European products. China has discovered Africa as both a labor pool and a market for Chinese products. Europe is going to have to get on that train, or it’ll leave the station. If China has the stronger ties with Africa in the upcoming years, China will have better access to the wealth of resources in Africa, as well as to African markets.

From a European perspective, it’d be a shame to loose out on access to Africa. But if the Chinese wins this one, they deserve it, as they clearly take Africa very seriously. From the African perspective, a strong relationship with Europe must be desirable, because of the geographic proximity and because so many Africans already live there. And competition between Europe and Asia for access in Africa would certainly benefit African economies.

And that’s where the leadership development comes in. Africa has to develop its pool of civic leaders, at every level, from farmer’s coops and teachers to national parties and government. Every community needs a handful of civic leaders, men and women with a clear, progressive vision for the future of their community and their country. These people are the seeds of democracy, and a true, participatory democracy is the best recipe for successful, sustainable economic development. Aid, and debt relief may help, but only in combination with leadership development and local, broad empowerment initiatives. If Germany is serious about its engagement with African countries, that’s where it should start. Germany has a strong tradition of civic leadership and civic life, and it should be quite possible for German leaders to leverage this tradition to help build a new generation of civic leaders across Africa. I think that Germans will find a lot to learn from their African counterparts, and I am sure that such a collaboration would benefit both sides tremendously. And that would make development a two-way street, and a win-win proposition.

Here are some more pictures from our weekend at the beach January 14/15! Sunday morning was gloriously warm and sunny; in the afternoon clouds rolled in, which made the light for our trip to Cape Lookout quite interesting. (more…)

Today, on the way home from work, the Jetta passed its 65,000 miles marker (and the airbag light came on). That means, it’s been running on mostly biodiesel for over 27,000 miles. :) Yippee!!

No -this is not Southern Florida or South Africa - this is Atlantic Beach, NC in January! Looking at the weather report for the Martin Luther King holiday weekend, our friend Susan decided to head out to her beach house for the weekend. When she asked if we wanted to come along … well, we had to carefully consider our plans for the weekend … for 2 seconds.

We drove out to Atlantic Beach on Saturday evening after Laura got off work. Sunday morning was great - it was sunny and warm (mid-70s F. /low 20s C), the kids were playing in the surf (!) and Dolphins were cruising up and down the beach (LOTS of dolphins). The water was freaking cold - 55F/12C - but the kids did not care! I did - I tried it and it was freezing!! I wanted to see if I could get close to one of those dolphins … duh! I spent about 5 Minutes in the water and Laura says I was purple when I came out.

In the afternoon, we took a boat (see right) to the Cape Lookout lighthouse and went for a walk along the beach. It was gorgeous - a gentle breeze was blowing in from the ocean and there were hardly any people around. But lots of Dolphins were hunting right off the beach. Once in a while they’d get a baitball going and the water would start boiling, and the pelicans would start dive-bombing, while the dolphins were feeding on the fish.

On the way back, the skipper picked up a family on Shackleford Banks, where they had been hanging out with the wild mustangs there. Sometime in the spring we should go there camping over night. That would be a great adventure and it’d be so cool to watch the mustangs.

Today, we hung out in the morning, and cleaned the house. Then we went to the Pine Knoll Shores Aquarium (free admission today!). We spent a couple of hours looking at the “fishies,” petted the horseshoe crabs, and gawked at the sharks in the big tank. Around 3 PM we headed back home. What a great weekend!

In December, right before Christmas, I went to Sam’s Quick Mart in Durham to pick up some of my favorite beers for the holidays. I came across the Olde School Barleywine from Dogfish Head in Vermont. I have had some barleywine from other breweries in the past, and did not get too excited about what I tried.

On Christmas Day, we had some friends and family over, and Laura cooked this wonderful goose, which was accompanied by a very hearty, yummy Zinfandel. after the meal, I opened a bottle of the Olde School, but then it was also time for desert. So I ended up with a glass of barleywine and a slice of peppermint pie (Julia’s request for desert). I was quite amazed that the Olde School barleywine and the peppermint pie actually went together just fine.

The Olde School is one hell of a beer! It’s more like a nice, old port, and it demands attention. At 15 percent Alc. Vol., this is not a beer you chug from the bottle at a party. Pour it into a tulip glass, (I had it in a red wine glass) and let it warm a bit. It quite sweet, but it has a lot more character than any barleywine I have had. It’s intense, but the alcohol is not overpowering. Clearly, this is not everyone’s thing, but I think this makes a fine desert drink.

Prost!

For all you non-parents: Elmo is a red Sesame-Street “monster” that talks about himself in the third person. Toys based on this character have been extremely successful over the last 10 years. In 1996, a Wal-Mart clerk “suffered a pulled hamstring, injuries to his back, jaw and knee, a broken rib and a concussion” after he was trampled by 300 crazed shoppers because he held one of the remaining Elmo toys in the store (Wikipedia).

I remember hearing about Elmo Extreme last fall on the NPR news-quiz show “Wait-Wait, Don’t Tell Me” when the guy behind Elmo, the master puppeteer Kevin Clash plays their game called, “Shut up! Shut up! I’m going to cut your mike!” about Bill O’Reilly. Kevin is really funny, so I thought the brief reference to the Elmo Extreme was just a joke. (A bit of a sick joke, actually.)

Not so. Last fall the toy manufacturer Mattel came out with the 10th-anniversary edition of the best-selling and much loathed “tickle-me-Elmo” - the Elmo TMX (see this video on YouTube). In the cherished Elmo tradition, this toy seems rather annoying, but I also know that these robotic toys often inspire hackers, and I can’t wait to see what the geeks are going to do with Elmo when they figure out how to hack him (Elmo probably run a Linux flavor). Yeah, like the geeks who hacked “Big Mouth Billy Bass” and tried to turn the singing fish into a video-conference device.

In the meantime, we’ll have to contend with the less creative, but quite effective Elmo Extreme on Fire (video). The images of the little red monster doing its giggle routine, while burning to a crisp, is oddly disturbing and cathartic at the same time. Enjoy, I guess …

The Dakar Rally has always fascinated me, even though, over the years, I became increasingly aware of its questionable ethics regarding the communities it touches, and the waste of resources on a vain, more-or-less useless sporting event. Motorsports are basically pretty stupid, but still, I cannot totally escape the fascination of a race across the Sahara.

I wish they’d work more to produce support for the communities they cross, and I wish they’d use renewable fuels, like biodiesel or ethanol. Still, of all motorsports, this is the one I find pretty interesting. Formula One is a huge circus of primadonnas in big cars, and NASCAR should be called NASnore. I mean, how long can one watch cars making left turns?

After crossing the Sahara many years ago in shitty, banged-up Peugeots, I always dreamed of going back there with decent equipment, four-wheel drive trucks, and a decent camera, to really enjoy this amazing, tough place. At the time, we were so focused on just making it, that we wasted very little thought on how awesome a place the Sahara is.

So, once again, the Dakar is under way, and the first stages in Portugal apparently were dominated by the Portugese. It appears that the Volkwagen team is doing well (places 1-4 in the first stage). The trucks look cool, OMG. Anyway, I hope that there are no major accidents, and that they don’t run over too many chickens in the villages in Africa.

Last year had a couple of surprises for us, although most of these have yet to be completely realized: we found a new house, but we have yet to move there; we began planning our trip to Togo (and Ghana) for the upcoming July; and the Democrats won back the U.S. Congress.

One of the biggest changes in our lives in 2006 was Agbessi’s move to Durham. He stayed with us during the summer and then moved to an apartment in Durham. It’s great to have him here; he is like a family member to us. Hopefully we’ll all be able to travel back to our village in Togo together this summer. It’ll be really cool to show up back in Yikpa, the village where Laura and I met 15 years ago, with our children AND with one of the Yikpato from America!

In July 2007, Laura will lead a group of customers an volunteers from her Fair Trade store in Durham on a tour of Ghana, visiting some of the artisans and coops that offer their wares at One World Market. We are planning to leave a week earlier and visit our village in Togo first. This is a big deal to us - taking our children back to the village where we met. And if Agbessi can come with us that’ll e even cooler because he knows our life in the U.S. and his presence will strengthen the bond between our families even more.

In August, Laura found a little house for us, a bit closer to Durham, and a very pretty 2-acre property. We signed a contract but the inspection turned up some serious structural problems. The seller agreed to have the problems fixed. Now, three months later, the contractors have left, and a water test turned up problems with the well that supplies the house with water. Currently we’re in the process of determining what needs to be done to treat the water. Probably a filter and a UV light will be alright. It’s really too bad that this is such an obstacle course. Yet, we have looked around, and we have not found another house for sale that would change our mind.

For Laura’s store, 2006 was a great year. They sold over $430,000 in Fair Trade merchandise, which supports communities all over the world. About a quarter of that was sold between Thanksgiving and X-mas! During most of the year, selling $1000 worth in merchandise is a good day’s work at the store. During the peak of the Christmas shopping frenzy, the mostly volunteer-staffed store was selling at a rate of about $1000 an hour! And as they don’t have much storage space, they were almost continuously unpacking merchandise and stocking the sales floor. And Laura was continuously ordering more stuff. Still, when I saw the store last week, I was amazed to see how depleted it looked! But they set new sales records for the store, both for holiday sales, and for the entire year. Congratulations!

The biggest change for Jacob and Julia last year, I think, was discovering the Horse Ranch where they spend a couple of hours every day after school. While Julia got really serious about learning how to ride - and to ride well - Jacob seems to mostly enjoy playing with his buddies around the Ranch. Julia has won several shows at the Ranch, and she can canter a horse across 3-foot (one-meter-high) obstacles! Jacob has learned how to ride a horse, too, but he is still a bit young for the more advanced stuff.

On my end, my job at Duke changed quite a bit. In addition to all the network stuff and computer security business, I also got to re-design an office suite at Brightleaf Square. I moved my office and the server room, and my co-worker’s office into a new, self-contained office suite. The latter, we just completed in December. So, we’ll see how that shakes out …

A nice perk of my job was being able to sneak out and watch football games last summer, during the Worldcup. As I work with several “dang for’ners” from football nations (England, Germany, Turkey, Togo, Haiti) we had a pretty good contingent over at Satisfaction for some of the games. And the folks at Satisfaction even opened the bar early (at 9:00 AM) several times so we could catch some of the early games (like the Togo games).

The Worldcup was great fun: from the ecstasy of Germany’s win over Argentina to the agony of Togo’s first Worldcup appearance. We saw some wonderful football, especially in the first round, even though real upsets were rare and in the end the Worldcup was dominated by “millionaire football” and somewhat tainted by some really questionable officiating, most painfully noticeable in the Ghana-Brazil game and Australia’s 95th-Minute loss to Italy. And then, of course, there was this unfortunate incident during the very unfortunate Worldcup final.

In the fall of 2006, I started another chapter in my biofuels quest: I completed my biodiesel reactor and began producing biodiesel in the basement. I collect the used fryer oil from several restaurants around Brightleaf Square and process the vegetable oil at home into fuel for my 2002 Jetta TDI. Although this is quite a bit of work, it is very satisfying to reduce my reliance on fossil fuels, produce much less harmful exhaust and safe some money doing it. And it is also a fun, relaxing hobby. As I am typing this, my 200-liter “New Year’s batch” is sitting in the washtank downstairs.

Finally, politics. I mean, I am pretty excited about the fact that the Republican’s lost the congress to the Democrats. Almost more importantly, though, are the implications of this loss to the power of the so-called neocons in the Republican party. Right now, it looks like that in 2008, the “New American Century” will come to an end. Finally. I just really hope that the Democrats manage to re-assert congressional oversight and reintroduce accountability into this corrupt, incompetent administration. And get the US troops out of Iraq ASAP!

I’d say 2006 was pretty good to us. We don’t take this for granted, as we see around us people who had a difficult time, and we certainly are quite aware of all the pain and suffering in the world. Yet, we also see all the hope and generosity around us and we try to contribute to the positive things that go on around us. I am painfully aware of the many serious problems and challenges ahead of us and future generations. But I also see all the energy and hope and strength growing in our children, I can’t help but feel optimistic about the future.

So, thanks to you all for your interest in my blog. I hope 2007 brings you good news and exciting things to do. Feel free to comment and share with us what is going on with you.

Cheers, and a Happy, Prosperous, Healthy 2007!

Jürgen