Category: thoughts

Wiktionary says:

“1. (reflexive, informal) to feel secondhand embarrassment; to feel ashamed about something someone else has done; to be embarrassed because someone else has embarrassed themselves (and doesn’t notice)“

and rightfully so. I’m referring to this article, written by a German about (some of) us Germans. It’s about song lyrics which are sexist, or “loud in volume, unsophisticated in tune and often offensively bawdy in content” as the author has it. Or that they even play down on things like rape. And what’s totally embarrassing about it is the reaction from some of our media, like “Bild” (not a newspaper at all, but dangerous opinionated arsonists), complaining about “censoring” – that is Trump-like dumb, sorry guys.

I’ve seen the word “Fremdschämen” used in English media before, it’s explained in this article for instance.

And yes, not only are these lyrics and German Schlager music in general (or “us” Germans always clapping on the “1” and “3” only) a reason for my own embarrassment, but even more so that reaction of “Bild”.

Sorry about the rant…

P.S.: in Wikiloops, where I am one of the moderators, we have tendencies like these as well, regarding inappropriate content and lyrics. And trust me, decisions of banning and about the deletions of a song don’t ever come easy, but we do have a code of conduct which handles topics like the limits of free speech. Maybe some recording companies should have or at least consider the same before they publish any crap?

Oh, and one nice thing about the article which lead to this blog post is the photograph of the city of Würzburg which they’ve used – very pretty.

Give ’em an inch and they’ll patent the ruler.

DJV in The Register

Here’s a nice article which explains the importance and the benefits of having a dark sky. Britain seems to be ahead and leading, so bravo 🙂

In the photo above you see lots of stars – but on the left you also see the heavy light pollution of the city where I took this (Darmstadt, Germany).

As always, thanks for reading.

The Welsh BBC asks: “Wildflowers: Should grass cutting be stopped in summer?“, which would get a strong “Yes!” from me. It’s really a perception point only, but *not* unnecessarily cutting grass would save so many insects, which are good for pollination, birds, and so on, the list goes on… I wish we Germans were wise enough to even think about this, and ask such intelligent questions…

As always, thanks for reading.

Kathryn Bromwich interviewed Emilia Clarke for The Guardian.

And that taught me several things, first: never to judge a person from a short interview on TV, and second, should I ever again subscribe (and/or pay) for any newspaper, magazine, or online publication, it would probably be for The Guardian. Not the first really good article I’ve read there, and hopefully, not the last also.

See also essay in The New Yorker.