Category Archives: Around the World

So many podcasts, so little time

My daily commute is about one hour, and I like to listen to podcasts or audio books while driving. I subscribe to This American Life and Radiolab as well as The Quilted Cupcake, but I also like to listen to something else for a change. Did you know that the BBC offers 262 podcasts? I found them via the MetaFilter thread BBC World Service Documentaries:

“BBC World Service has over 500 audio documentaries you can download. The subject matter is incredibly wide ranging, for example, internet cafés, the influence of Islamic art on William Morris, South African female AIDS activist Thembi Ngubane, Yiddish, the importance of cows, novelist Chinua Achebe, financial risk management, Obama as an intellectual, the physical and emotional effects of a car crash and many, many more. If the quantity and variety are overwhelming, you can subscribe to a podcast, which delivers a new documentary to you every single day.”

I plan to listen to some of the documentaries for a start, but have also subscribed to A History of the World in 100 Objects – the first 30 objects/episodes are online so far, and the next set of programmes begins on 17 May.

Desert Wonderland

New York Times: America’s Outback: Southern Utah.

I think another trip to the US Southwest is in order. André and I traveled in the area almost ten years ago, but missed a lot since we we didn’t spend enough time at any one place, nor were we experienced hikers back then. I’d love to visit Bryce Canyon, Zion and Capitol Reef again, and I’d also like to hike to the Wave, but it’s not easy to get a permit since only 20 hikers are allowed per day. Some day, maybe…

Sad and disturbing news

Today there was another shootout at a German school. A former student killed nine students and three teachers, then fled the school (possibly because the police were entering the scene) in a kidnapped car, finally killing himself during a shooting with the police some 40 km (25 miles) away.

It’s the first shootout at a German school in which people were killed since the one in Erfurt in April of 2002.

Deutsche Welle: Teenage Gunman Takes Own Life After German School Shooting.

“Police in Stuttgart have confirmed the death of a gunman in a school-shooting incident that left at least 15 victims dead and several injured near Stuttgart in the southwest of the country.”

Spiegel: Germany Shocked by Teenager’s Killing Spree.

“Germany was in shock on Wednesday after a 17-year-old youth killed 16 people in a shooting rampage that began at his school, where he shot dead 10 pupils and three teachers. He later took a gun to his own head during a shootout with police. His motive remains a mystery.”

I’m not only concerned because I’m a teacher myself and the school where this happened today is quite similar to my own but also because it happened in a town where a friend of mine works. A lot of his colleagues have children in the school, and the town is small enough that many people know each other. At his company they were told to shut the gates and the window shutters, and for hours many of his colleagues didn’t know how there children were.

Update:

BBC News: German school gunman ‘kills 15’.

“Fifteen people have been killed by a teenage gunman who went on a rampage in south-west Germany, officials say.
Among the dead were nine pupils, eight of them girls, and three teachers at the Albertville secondary school in the town of Winnenden, north of Stuttgart. “

New York Times: Teenage Gunman Kills 15 at School in Germany.

“Winnenden, Germany — A teenage gunman killed 15 people, most of them female, on Wednesday in a rampage that began at a school near Stuttgart in southern Germany and ended in a nearby town, where he then killed himself after the police wounded him.”

Watching the English

… is the title of a book by a British anthropologist I read last summer before visiting the UK. The author, Kate Fox, takes a close look at her fellow countrymen, and to this foreigner at least, her observations were both interesting and amusing.

Of course, queuing is a particularly English habit which I’ve often observed. The English do it everywhere and consequently get cross if someone tries to jump a queue. What I have never seen, though, is what they do if someone actually jumps a queue, but MeFi user garius explains it in this comment, which I urge you to read:

“If you ever want to see British queuing at its best, go to Victoria Station in London during the rush hour… “

Hilarious!

The rest of the thread about queueing is worth a read if you are interested in queueing habits around the world.