Hi all – I visited Wurzburg on Saturday. What a great city – a nice mix
of old and new – good transport that runs right through the city centre. Beautiful river – shopping laid out with nice market squares and interesting buildings – it makes Frankufrt look like the absolutely boring place it is.
They have it right in Wurzburg – I’m a fan now.
Well this is about the most honest and, dare I say it, needed speech that EVERY young person should be obliged to read at least once.
Of course, were I young now (as I once was) then I would completely ignore it and do what I wanted to do anyway – the impertinece of youth perhaps.
(my parnter, who is cleverer than me has, of course, just stated firmly in my ear that she would not ignore it – but then she is much more worldly wise than me (at least – in the words of the famous prophet :- She is a legend in her own mind) 🙂
s are youll end up working for one.
via Bill Gates high school speech on The Eleven Rules of Life-Fiction!.
A majority of people polled on all continents said Germany had a positive influence on the worldGermany is the most positively viewed nation in the world in this year’s annual Country Ratings Poll for the BBC World Service.
More than 26,000 people were surveyed internationally for the poll.
They were asked to rate 16 countries and the European Union on whether their influence in the world was “mainly positive” or “mainly negative”.
Germany came out top with 59% rating it positively. Iran was once again the most negatively viewed.
Global views of Europe’s biggest country have improved significantly in 2013, according to the poll.
It was conducted for the BBC by GlobeScan and PIPA, who conducted face-to-face and telephone interviews with randomly selected people, mainly in urban centres, in 25 countries around the globe.
View of India deteriorates
A three-point increase in Germany’s average rating returned it to the top of the BBC list, displacing Japan, which saw its positive ratings drop from 58% to 51%, and fell from first to fourth place overall.
The UK saw a bigger increase in positive ratings than any other country and climbed to third place in the table, in the wake of its hosting of the 2012 Olympics.
The poll also indicates that positive views of China and India have fallen sharply around the world over the last year. After improving for several years, views of China have sunk to their lowest level since polling began in 2005, putting it in ninth position.
India is ranked 12th, with negative views (35%) slightly outnumbering positive ones (34%) for the first time.
But Germany, whose economy has done better than almost every other in Europe in recent years, scored well across the world in the poll.
In Ghana, 84% of people polled said Germany’s influence was mainly positive, while 81% in neighbouring France and 76% in Australia felt the same. The big exception to the trend was in recession-hit Greece, where a majority of people polled gave Germany negative ratings.
Positive views of the EU dropped to their lowest level last year but have stabilised this year, rising one point to 49% on average.
But this figure masks significant changes. There has been a sharp drop in positive ratings by Germans, down 14 points to 59%. Canadians and Americans both give significantly lower ratings to the EU. In the UK, positive views of the EU continue to fall steadily and, for the first time this year, more Britons rate it negatively (47%) than positively (42%).
Israel, North Korea, Pakistan and Iran came out worst in terms of how they are viewed globally. Only 15% of respondents said they saw Iran as having a mainly positive influence.
Ah the sunny weather is here – why even if I had work – I wouldn’t like to be doing it!!! 🙂
I like the simple things in life – like fixing a puncture in my bicycle tyre, going for a bike ride in the Taunus (not on the roads), laying on a park bench up there and dozing whilst gazing at the clouds – we should all do more of that I think.
I was having a rest – and I thought – “Do I really have to rush off on my bike to do even more kilometers? NO, I thought – just lay here on your back and relax and watch the world go by”.
So I did.
I believe I found the profession for which I was born …. :-))
I was walking, admittedly with purpose, up a hill in Kronberg on Sunday morning – around 10:00 in the morning.
I was wearing my walking boots, good, solid leather things – and I admit that they make firm contact noises on the ground.
I noticed a woman turning around to look at me – she was on the oppposite side of the road and also heading in the same direction.
On the second or third glance of hers I greeted her, in my best German ” Guten Morgen”.
Imagine my suprise when she responded “Was für einen Krach Sie machen”
I was somewhat surprised but responsded “Ich bin Flach Fussig” or I think it was something to that purpose.
So now I know – it is posssible to walk too loudly in Germany.
Can anyone can tell me what the Strassen Recht Verordnung is that I in my studpidity have broken?
Best
Bruce
Oh you uninitiated peoples of the world!!!!!!.
Your sorry specimens who know not that your taste buds sleep,
Look on longingly to an Empire built on “Marmite”
And yearn for wholesome satisfaction from discarded beer brewing waste.
I sing the glories of ……Marmite.
Now this brings back memories. Before Star-Trek there existed
Dr. Who. Whizzing through time and space – (especially parts of the U.K.)
In fack this TV show is still being produced – I don’t know how many Doctors have rejuevenated since the original one (a grumpy old scientific type – he was one of the best). But the show is still going strong.
If you don’t know what this is about – sorry to hear that.
Bruce
http://www.economist.com/news/obituary/21572725-ray-cusick-designer-daleks-died-february-21st-aged-84-ray-cusick
Hi my happy readers – this is a very interesting video – in English- about this young lady who is suddenly very famous in Germany.
Anne Wizorek
So the question I have to ask is – why won’t our good lady queen, who has served her country fastidiously, now serve the country by letting her son reign?
Or does she know somehting that we don’t?
BBC News – Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands to abdicate for son.
Well, have you seen it yet? You know what I mean – Skyfall – the latest Bond movie.
Great movie – lots of action, good story line, great locations, humour – and, and, and.
Some questions for you:
1. Where was Bond injured?
2. Where did he leave his gun?
If you haven’t seen it yet – GO!!!!!!