The 21st Century Beetle

Foto: Lothar Spurzem

 Well, if the nazis have made something for the world besides throwing a war against everyone this was the good old Käfer (Beetle). 'Volkswagen' was the postwar name that replaced "Gesellschaft zur Vorbereitung des Deutschen Volkswagens mbH" (company for the preparation of the german national car). It was a nazi project to make cars affordable for the people, the idea was originally brought by the social nationalistic organization KdF, undertaken by the labor authorities (DAF -  automobile industry had no interest in such business) who incumbered Ferdinand Porsche, Porsche's founder, for creating one product: the beetle. Below one can see Hitler and Porsche (far right) on the day of the inauguration of the Volkswagen-werks on the 26th of May 1938.

Despite its bloody history the beetle was an uncontested success worldwide. Cheap, durable and easy to repair because spare parts were easy to make and find. Without forgetting to mention that VWs known name is in great part Beetles' fault. All the fame enjoyed by the old Beetle is basically the opposite for the new beetle 1998, a total flop ('new market segment') that only sold reasonably in the US market where they are a lot of young ladies with money (or debts). Price and size are said to be unattractive as well as, especially for men, the design. It inherited a name to which it didn't stand up to in any way. For the same prize you get something way better than a sissy's car, that's what people say.

Yesterday I saw somewhere that the "contemporary" Volkswagen presented the new New Beetle or Beetle 2012. IMHO, that sounds awfully wrong just for being new twice. It sort of reminds me of the saying "trying to block the sun with a sieve". As soon as I went after it on VW website I had a very negative impression, it looks very like the old new Beetle: an  undecided sport/non-sport and girly Porsche-wannabe.

I am hoping to see a classic 69' Beetle, those with the white stripes on the tires and chrome rims, before than the new new one. I could observe some reactions out on the net, for instance the Motor Trend website:

"Volkswagen has already sold almost 300 of the 2012 model, despite the car not hitting dealers until this fall. That's because Oprah gave away 275 of the new New Beetles to her audience members during the "Favorite Things" special of The Oprah Winfrey Show last November. The media queen currently drives a VW New Beetle, and has it on her trend-setting list of favorite things."  April 11th, 2011. http://www.motortrend.com

Someone commented another post about the new new beetle on the same website:

" So they tried making a girl car appeal to guys by whacking it on the head and giving it a flat roof.  Now it looks like a lesbian's car.  Too butch for a girl but still too girly for a guy.  They should have left the roof alone and redone a bunch of other stuff.  Interior is a welcome change but belongs in the Golf."

This is funny since the new old Beettle was openly a car for the female segment, sort of in the mini segment. VW tried to masculinize the new old beetle, put affordable golf interior in trying to make some are calling the "cheap version" of a Porsche. Let's see how it goes. 

A Neighbour and his Mother

For the past couple of years I have been living in four stores apartment building and we are supposed to clean the stairways according to some list arranged by some guy who lives here but he's not part of the building administration. He sells his mom labor who avidly does the cleaning job for several people in the building.

The reason why I am posting here is because I wouldnt do that myself (I mean telling mother to clean the stairway, Id do it for her), but the main reason is actually because the guy annoys me since ever with little reminders tossed under the door for over 2 years. I try to collect them although I usually end up throwing away, so this time I thought I rather tale a pic before getting rid of them.

The lady who lived in the apartment before me said she never cleaned it. I started to realize that people living above me also do not it. One of these days he came around collecting signatures because building adm wanted a cleaning co. to do the job and he was against it. I have no trouble in doing this 15 min task, but I strongly disagree with his using-the-mom approach.

Karneval in the Cologne area

I am not familiar with Carnival in Brazil, neither am I a German Karneval connoisseur. Nevertheless, I'll try to do a little parallel between Brazilian and German Carnival.

I have been to the Karneval in a small city around Cologne, a friend of mine grew up there and invited me to the festivities this year. Apparently, as I was told, the idea is the same as the Kölner one although is it naturally reduced in amount of people and there is a sort of a more familiar/countryside feeling. It looked very neat. 

The basic idea of all Carnivals seem to be the same everywhere: a couple of weekdays off, heavy drinking and a well organized parade.

I won't go into the formalities which indeed differ i.e. how the parade is organized, categories judged in order to elect a winner, what days it happens and symbolic/historic meanings of certain things. I'll keep my argument to 2 general aspects that I find very different from the Brazilian Carnival. As one can expect there is no sex-appeal in the German one, besides the fact that drunken people are usually more willing to get wild. In the parade I have seen the main thing was to collect candies and flowers thrown by the paraders. I wasn't really enthusiastic about that but the whole bunch of kids and some guys definitely were. I was told that flowers are used to get kisses on the cheek from ladies (that might the sex-appeal part) but it didn't seem to be so appealing and I actually didn't see it happening. One can notice at the picture above kids holding bags and well-positioned to collect candies. In the one bellow one of the paraders in action.

The other issue was that, compared to Brazilian Carnival music and dancing play a secondary role. There are no well fit ladies demonstrating her dancing skills as one can see in the picture above. I had the feeling that dressing up to watch the parade was very common.  So, costumes were the deal since everyone paraders and spectators really did put some effort into that. From my point of view, in Brazil just paraders really go deep into dressing and heavy make-up.

Karneval in the Cologne area theoretically begins with a celebration on November 11th at 11:11, day of the presentation of the main characters of the Karneval (Farmer, Virgin and the Prince) but celebrations are then suspended until the days before the Lent when it actually takes place. For this reason at the Karneval I have been there were 111 parades cars. There is more informational about the Cologne Karneval at wikipedia. I can only suggest visiting this celebration, it is great craic. Alaaf!

Online music and internet radio

Moin,

7 months ago I decided not to use Lastfm anymore. Great deal, I started more often to listen to my own stuff and used mainly Jango to get a classical music playlist in order to be able to study and relax. Today I got to know a database called Grooveshark. No reason at all to look behind, considering that I dont even use such services for mobile. Even if I would, Grooveshark is way ahead for me because of the amount of Brazilian music.

How did I find the site? I was checking Lastfm's forum...my alias is still being displayed when googling, even though in there it is somehow deleted. Found out later reading some threads that others also shared the same point of view, long before me. Just like this guy asking about alternatives:

Or like this one providing the alternatives:

And this other two also provinding further hints.

I have checked some of them out and Grooveshark impressed me the most, besides their database the outlook is very similar to a standard music player however the songs are online. And you can even play the same artist in a row. Here below I leave some links mentioned by the guys above.

Enjoy music, it feeds the soul!  XD

'International' (support at a least a couple languages)
http://www.jango.com/

 http://musicovery.com/

http://www.spotify.com/

http://www.live365.com

 http://www.deezer.com/

http://listen.grooveshark.com/

English (maybe other languages if you go further than I did)

http://blip.fm/

http://mixtape.me/

http://somafm.com/

 http://www.ilike.com/

http://shoutcast.com/

http://www.esnips.com/

http://www.finetune.com/

http://www.thesixtyone.com/

http://www.streamerp2p.com/   (p2p radio)

French

http://www.jiwa.fr/

Spanish

http://www.yes.fm/

 http://www.goear.com/

Portuguese
http://cotonete.clix.pt/

One can still dig deeper. Wikipedia has a considerable list of music databases. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_online_music_databases

Funny bier ads

I have got these ads per email. What goes through one's mind when...

 

Invited for a bier

At the WC

There are further intentions

I stopped using Lastfm

Continuing with my scarce contributions I have to state that simply stopped utilizing the Lastfm music service even though I do not necessarily need to pay for it. Why?

1 - The whole deal with the "social music revolution" is a crap. They simply used users scrobbling and voluntary efforts (editing info about bands) to systematize and develop radio stations.

2 - Suddenly there is the decision to charge a fee for the service, except for US, Germany and UK, "social music revolution"? Typical hypocrites, people earning cash with this enterprise are themselves are prolly Brits, Germans and Yankees that care about their huge tax duties.

3 - Marketing in the internet that you offer free music and than charge a fee afterwards goes against consumer rights (at least where I come from there is the right of not being fooled through marketing tools. Btw, a place where consumers receive decent legal cover).

4 - Even though I wouldnt need to pay this situation really pissed me off. So I deleted my account and by the way I discovered that I does not erase a bunch of posts and entries that still happen to be at google searches.

5 - They list your nickname, songs and forward you musical taste for commercial purposes to other websites...I did not read the fine prints...and wont.

6 - There are other options that provide the same services for free.

Climatrix and finally...my comment

I was trying to add a comment to a post at Avaaz.org, more precisely to the satire - The Climatrix - which is somehow funny. This was done before the Copenhagen Climate Talks.

Unsuccessful attempt to do it at the site, this sort of "do what I say not what I do". So, it follows bellow.

"Hi, nice initiative tho...

Other interests play a role behind trying to save the world from a catastrophe. What developed countries dont wanna lose is their status quo.

Unfortunately, the climate deal would still only benefit developed world (also the US) with more arguments (science based!) to protect their non competitive markets (comparative advantages) through concepts such as carbon leakage and border measures (see German Marshall Fund there's a publication on climate strategies and competitiveness), (see also literature on the social construction of climate change, just type it in at google books).

Id like to see you guys campaigning for bioenergy i.e. biofuels. Very likely, this wont happen because "food security" is where the funding is. Anyways, nice job.

All the best,

The South"

Nevertheless, I supported and signed the campaign Ficha Limpa - a petition to the Brazilian Congress against the use of political immunities to obstruct investigations and/or to be back into political life during prosecution. There one can also find the tel numbers from deputies just in case one is willing to try to "chat".