The Wasp in the Cauliflower

It is winter. I hate winter. You lug kilos upon kilos of clothing around with you. It takes ages to get dressed. It is dark for too many hours every day. I used to think that no matter how horrible winter was, at least you are not bothered by wasps. When it comes to wasps, I am phobic.

Preparing my purple cauliflower before steaming it, I saw my insectoid attacker. It had survived a trip from Spain to Germany and 3 days solitary confinement inside a plastic bowl - but it was alive. Mercilessly I butchered it with the knife I was holding and threw it in the bin with some cauliflower stems.

I should have told you right from the start that this is no harmless fable in the style of Aesop or de la Fontaine, but a gruesome monster movie. Yes, just before I had to leave for work, I saw something moving near my rubbish bin. It was the brute crawling about on my floor, dragging its mutilated body along. I put on my monster crushing protective clothing (rubber glove) and squeezed it in wads of toilet paper.

Do not tell me that such things just happen. These organic farmers are sinister types who will do anything to protect their cauliflowers from pests - even set those nightmarish monsters on them.

Procrastination

As you might guess from the title of my blog, there are not too many things I go into thoroughly. However, if this is a rule, it must have an exception: procrastination. So while I delve into that a little deeper, have some fun with this animation? documentary? I know it has been all over the blogsphere. I saw it first on boingboing.

Global Dimming

I found this BBC article via kottke. It seems global warming would be much higher, if it were not for small particles of soot etc. which seed more clouds. Clouds in turn reflect heat away from earth. And although these clouds cause some nasty flooding in some monsoon regions perhaps all the filtering of exhaust particles might not be such a brilliant idea after all, unless CO2 production is reduced simultaneously.
What more can I say? Happy commute, everyone!

Simple Sums

The BBC points out 100 things we did not know at the end of 2003. (via del.icio.us)

13. Smoking killed nearly one million people worldwide in 2000, according to the World Health Organisation.

89. Continuing in this cheery vein, more than 1.2 million people die in traffic accidents worldwide each year. The first was Bridget Driscoll, knocked down by a car travelling at 12mph in London on 17 August 1896. The coroner recorded a verdict of accidental death, and warned: "This must never happen again."

Yes, I am a smoker, but I'm also a cyclist... Ah, this is enough for one post, so I shall refrain from pointing out the increased health risk for 300 million obese people who might not all be so fat, had they not stopped smoking?

Dietrich Schwanitz R.I.P.

Looking for a German professor with with a well developed sense of humour? A (German) university teacher who was not ashamed of writing a commercially successful novel? A man interested in useful knowledge who does not care for disciplinary boundaries? Alas, you will not find him anymore, for he died last month. His name was Dietrich Schwanitz (for short obituaries see here or here).
During the first year of my degree course in English literature I was on the brink of despair, because all the knowledge on offer seemed to come out of neat little pigeon holes while I wanted the whole world explained. Then I attended Schwanitz' lectures. He did not do hommage to the holy shrine of literature. He used literary theories as tools for explaining phenomena, instead of teaching them as ends in themselves. He was a fearless, refreshingly reckless intellectual. And he introduced his students - and everyone else who would listen - to Luhmanns Systems Theory.
And although this may not be immediately obvious from this blog - systems theory has kept me sane ever since.
Indeed, it is a great boon to have known Dietrich Schwanitz.