Ramen Review

Actually, it’s a folk myth[de:].
The crazyshitness quota is quite high[de:] these days, as you have heard. If they will talk of the 21st century world revolution afterwards, we’re already in it. It is quite unlikely that this can be stomped out anytime soon. Particularly since the hottest years of this decade are yet to come (remember the temperature curve lags about one year after the radiation curve).
As a side note, 2013 is the year of the scheduled Federal elex. However, … read more

So, revisiting the river valley overlooked by Hill 431, where two nights before the CinC[*] and his “publisher of a major newspaper” friend went to their little outing.
While the Minister was back in Berlin getting 80% of the major media pissed off mightily (and one Mr. Wonka of the Leipziger Volkszeitung[de:] presumably shitlisted — watch 1:20 to 1:32 and 1:50 here:)

some Afghan guy who presumably will forever remain nameless had decided to take matters in his own hands — alas, … read more

Hanging tough at Hill 431 with the publisher of a major newspaper (To be ’splained below)Image by fritz13.
Dax floating free above the train wreck (but still within grund effect I presume — TINA was a capitalist whore all along after all). DJIA is so-so, definitely not off the ground. N225 remains groundbound essentially.
Them sandniggers are getting restive, and neither Sammy not Johnny (nor the Kaiser nor anyone else) can seem to hold them at bay. Too bad too that it’s … read more

I was about to write “DAX smashes 6.5K, rising and holding.” Well I presume it will try to hold, and probably manage to hold on for a few. But we’ll have to see and wait, wait how this Ireland/Portugal/Cyprus thing turns out.
This, by the way, will give you an indication of the sheer size of it all. When did you first hear about the “Celtic Tiger”’s problems? Some time ago, you may distantly remember.
Well, that’s how long it took. Gauges … read more

(My Portuguese may suck; I apologize. I am barely able to grasp the basic rules, and have been forced to do so by necessity alone.)
There is a lot of talk these days about admigration. Google knoweth not that word, yet Germany does[*]. We do not know, or have, “immigration”, except in the negative: Germany is not, and will never be, a country of immigration. Or so it has been said.
The following quotes are, à votre plaisir, rendered into English trying … read more

Picture is not that much related.
So… by now it should be clear theat the Greek Situation is dead serious.
No Flachs[de:]
The SocDems are doing perhaps the first major thing since long that looks like it might actually work, instead of making you think “ho hum, again? Prions or brain flukes, I wonder…”.
Which is to say they abstained when the Greece bailout bill was put on vote today[de:]. The Socialists went for an all-out Nay, as was expected. The Greens were … read more

“Gutti“’s conception of things military must have been heavily influenced by his clan’s ancestor worship of his great-great-uncle. After all, Karl Ludwig was the Good Nazi[de:] of the von und zu Guttenbergs, and many of us Germans did not have even remotely good Nazi ((great-)grand)fathers at all. Mine were both moderately to fairly serious assholes for example. Not involved in exceptional brutality, but definitely eager cogs in the machine til the end, and that is about average. But Karl Ludwig … read more

All this is severely shocking for das deutsche Volk of course, given that it has been less than one week since the dead of not-at-all-Good Friday were buried. But that’s life in Afghanistan for you, and it is not like the locals would be given much of a respite by any party in this disgusting war splendid little thing that colloquially might be called “war” by some either. And if you think: “at least it has been going for a … read more

Actually, no[de:].
They had been long Arified through and through, and as far as I can think of, entirely voluntarily. Certainly, not a single dirty smelly money-grabbing Jew had any major say about it even before the Nazis, and by 1945 it had itself completely whored[de:] out to the highest bidder.
They flaunt their Jew heritage, possibly because after haShoah, things Jewish have the attractiveness of things taboo in Germany. But I presume they were Catholic[de:] in “modern” times — if anything … read more

German speaks you.
Ich bitte Sie, Herr BeBeZeh-Mann. Bei allem Verständnis.

Not much more needs to be said.

We didn’t go to the demonstration 2day, but I went to where they had their final speeches and cultural programme. Met w/a few ppl I know, though I’d hoped I’d meet some other folks who weren’t there. One guy is a local activist, in whose case his non-presence represents quite epic FAIL. Or I have not understood his methods and he’s in a weird tree-hugging magickal cult that hopes to bring civilization as we know it crashing to its knees … read more

This year has had some funny weather that far. Not bad though. First decent winter since I moved here or so, >10 years ago. When the cold started to get obnoxious, spring broke out. Lasted for 3 weeks or so, unexpectedly turned into summer. April has been what you’d expect May to be. By now, it is colder again and wet, has been raining on and off again for the last few days. But again, the sun is coming thru.
The … read more

I missed Lafo’s speech, but I could hear the boos’ and cat-calls’ echo:
ACHTUNG, FOREIGN WORKERS!Feeding not permitted!

FAU anarcho-syndicalist union in front of the HeLaBa HQ.The Hessische Landesbank is another example for why "socialize the banks!" cannot much resolve this mess.
He is not very popular with many of the less populist leftists over here, because of his anti-immigrant stance. True, it was some years ago, in the beginnings of his new pet party project. But he has not clarified his views … read more

Last Saturday’s mass protests in Germany were not like this:

T. rex vs. Big Bad Bank Building
I was in Bankfurt, where around 20k ppl gathered, take a few thou, give a few thou; the official figures ran mostly between 15k and 30k. More — closer to around 30k, perhaps as much as 35k protested in Berlin.
The demonstrations were generally peaceful, to the point of being boring. In Berlin there was some aggro at the very end, when police charged into some … read more

N225 chickened out Monday morning as closing time approached, lost 4.5%; indices are bleeding like a butchered pig today. DAX struggled w/4k, lost. Tomorrow’s gonna be interesting; the bears, though, seem to have lost this round, though the N225 in Mon-Tue night recovers some.
Still, they know that they can make some sort of “recovery” — make some money, sort of. Which is all the collective hive-mind of the buck marketeers would want at such a time: swap some derivatives or … read more

My name is Hartmut Mehdorn, and my 'soul' is 100% 34CrNiMo6 steel.
Mehdorn[de:] offers to step down.
Finally.
I cannot be polite here. This man is, or was, the human equivalent to a really huge pile of shit, fecal matter of all different colours and flavas rolled into one.
He was a Schröder plant, replacing Lacklustre Ludewig[de:]. Ludewig was Kohl’s man, second in the post since German Rail was formally privatized in ‘94 (though as of yet hasn’t IPO’d due to stauch resistance of … read more

The Con supreme-mayoral candidate of Cologne announced today that he’ll quit the race for re-election (elections due August).
He had been a staunch supporter of the subway project that came to almost topple a church belltower[de:], killed two, destroyed much of the documental archive of Cologne, sunk millions of euros; he had been investigated by the police more than once, had been entangled in networks of bribery, kickbackry, ill-spent funds, construction scandals and the likes. His time of office benefitted … read more

Starting March 9th, indices have adopted a new pattern, one not seen since long. The N225 bottomed out at 7k, and since has risen to above 8.5k-ish, rising again not quite 23% from the lowstand.
The DAX dropped to 3k 666, to rise again 16%ish to above 4.2k. And the DJIA stopped its decline at just below 6.6k, rising some 21% to just below 8k.
Today, DAX and DJIA recorded solid drops for the first time (IIRC) since the bear rally … read more

…not really. But the difference is about as much as fluctuation, with Citi stock dropping to about a buck a hit.
And yet[de:]: all the humans in the world legally entitled to conduct business could not own it yet, if each gave this one buck.
Indices bouncyballed, with the dax very tenderly raising Tue but strongly Wed - only to lose all and more today. Dow got a huge load of flak. It looks like the Dax is gonna take cover … read more

Loses only 0.2% tonight, after DAX (-3.5%) and especially DJIA (-4.2%) underwent major slaughter. DAX can be expected to try and make a mad dash for 4K, as bargain hunters will pick up the opportunity. Probably won’t make 4K though.
If it does not make a mad dash for 4K, a few aspects of current events demand reassessment.
UPDATE: N225 expands loss to -0.7%. Still, simply to have and — more or less — to hold qualifies as relative outperformance these days.

aig kaput. read all about it in the mass media.
they will feature it aplenty and in lurid detail. “march is the new october”, or what?
dow needs to hold 6k this week, or all bets are off.
in other news:

(background: the eu head-of-states’ decision[de:] that there will be no eur160-190mrd blanket bailout for non-eurozone eu eastern europe.
i assume that if they would have had the bucks, they would have shelled them out with kisses, smiles and flowers. eastern europe’s economies are … read more

Indices cavorted all over the place, settling in for a solidly red week, though today — as did the DJIA a few days ago — the N225 manages to make a near spot landing with plusminus zeroish change. The last 3 weeks’ bumpy bounce, tumbling down a broken and rough slope, shaved some 12.5% off the DJIA, while the N225’s losses could well (for a while at least) be limited to just below another 10%. The DAX, in spite of … read more

As staple rice, I prefer the nondescript parboiled rice you get in kilo packs in the supermarkets over here. I have no idea where it comes from, what cultivar it is, and so on. It has a good combination of keeping fresh and being healthy (for a carb staple). I sometimes don’t like rice, so I eat something else as carb staple, taters or pasta or whatnot. Brown rice would start to spoil under such conditions ever so often, so … read more

Preliminary[de:] accountancy checks at Hypo Real Estate reveal nearly EUR600mrd, that is, nearly
600.000.000.000 euros,
or approximately the annual GDP (as per PPP) of The Netherlands,
in grey and black funds — not or not sufficiently accounted for.
The total sum on the brink of combustion is 10% of the annual GDP (as per PPP) of the US. It is a Lehman-scale event.
The problem is twofold:
First — if HRE is allowed to go bust, the impact has a reasonable chance to smash the global … read more

Some mixed odds’n’ends…
“No police officers will be prosecuted over the death of Jean Charles de Menezes, Crown prosecutors Service say.”(BBC, February 13th 2009)
Those were strange days, back in 2005. For a conspi take that is at the same time kooky and rather interesting in an unJonesian way, try 7/7: The Ripple Effect. It seems certain from the weight of evidence that some MetPol honchos were investigating rumours of an upcoming attack on some Israeli interest, although the question of whether … read more