Category Archives: Hard Facts

For Being Such A Smart Guy It’s Odd That He Still Hasn’t Figured It Out

November 3, 2021 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Hideology, Higher Education, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , , Leave a comment

I guess you have to live here for a while to get it.

If German bureaucracy gets all up in your face when trying to get some commonplace document, as it does, then it’s certainly going to ruin your day (year? life?) when you try to build a gigafactory.

Tesla’s Elon Musk bemoans German red tape, again – Tesla Inc Chief Executive Elon Musk took to Twitter to bemoan a consultation process launched on Tuesday for local citizens to express objections to a huge factory he is building near Berlin.

The process, being repeated over concerns the first time around did not comply with regulations, is a snag in Tesla’s plans to start production of electric cars this month.

“Sigh.”

German Of The Day: Impfzentren

November 1, 2021 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Hurt Feelings, Hysteria Tags: , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

That means vaccine centers.

And Germany needs to reopen them again. You have to ask yourself why they closed them down in the first place. It looks like with the need for COVID-19 booster shot after booster shot after booster shot they will be needing them for many, many years to come.

Germany’s outgoing health minister is calling on state governments to reactivate some specialized COVID-19 vaccination centers that were closed in the late summer to help administer booster shots as new coronavirus infections increase rapidly.

Serving Grievances

October 31, 2021 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Hurt Feelings, Hysteria Tags: , , , , , , Leave a comment

Now serving language grievance number 731!

“Once you start addressing the third gender, it’s not long until you’re required to address a fourth or fifth and, for me as a lawyer, this gets too complex linguistically.”

Too complex linguistically? It’s too complex mentally already. Leave the German language alone. Please.

Germany debates how to form gender-neutral words out of its gendered language – How do you pronounce a word with an asterisk or a colon in the middle?

“Legal texts are not there to serve such grievances. There are more important issues in this world.”

German Of The Day: Ausladung

October 29, 2021 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Higher Education, Hostility, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy Tags: , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

That means disinvitation.

German Academic Freedom Is Now Decided in Beijing – German universities are bowing to China on censorship.

The two German journalists Stefan Aust and Adrian Geiges were disinvited from giving public talks at the German Confucius Institute about their new biography of China’s president, Xi Jinping: The Most Powerful Man in the World. The disinvitation came at the behest of the Chinese consul general in Düsseldorf. Aust told the German newspaper Die Welt that an institute staffer informed the journalists that “you cannot talk about Xi Jinping as a normal person, he is supposed to be untouchable and unmentionable now.”

German Of The Day: Rasanter Anstieg

October 28, 2021 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Health, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings, Hypochondria, Hysteria Tags: , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

That means rapid rise. But willkürlich would have been a good German of the day, too. That means arbitrary.

Rapid rise as in: OMG! The Corona incidence rate in Germany is now at 130,2 and rising!

Arbitrary as in

COVID: Germany set to end national state of emergency – Despite a rise in infections, the parties set to form a new government want to end the national state of emergency. But Germany should not yet expect a “freedom day.”

This just goes to show you how arbitrarily the panic buttons are pressed during our brave new COVID era. Just a few months ago, the Germans were losing sleep at night because the COVID incidence rate was threatening to rise over 30. Keep enjoying the show!

Experts Frustrated?

October 26, 2021 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Health, Helplessness, Hideology, Hurt Feelings, Hypochondria, Hysteria Tags: , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Well, we certainly don’t want that, do we?

It’s a terrible thing for experts when “misunderstandings” still persist. It makes them look bad. And that would only cause them more frustration.

Experts frustrated as German footballer says he has not had Covid jab – Immunologists say Bayern Munich’s Joshua Kimmich is mistaken and vaccine misunderstandings persist.

I have concerns about the lack of long-term studies.”

German Word Of The Day: Cringe

October 25, 2021 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Higher Education Tags: , , , , Leave a comment

That means cringe.

OK, it’s the German Youth Word of the Year word of the day. But it still means cringe.

It’s a good word of the year, I find. For this year or any other year, these years.

Wenn Jugendliche etwas peinlich finden, nennen sie das häufig “cringe”. Besonders unter den bis 20-Jährigen ist dieser Begriff laut Langescheidt-Verlag weit verbreitet. Nun wurde er zum Jugendwort des Jahres gewählt.

As American As Apple Pie

October 22, 2021 By in Hard Facts, Hate, Heconomy, Helplessness, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , , Leave a comment

That good old Greyhound Bus. Or at least it used to be. Now it’s as American as FlixBus.

FlixMobility, the $3 billion-German transportation startup that has doubled down on long distance buses and slowly and quietly gobbled up transit lines and operations across Europe, today announced a big move to raise its game in the U.S. The company announced that it is acquiring Greyhound Lines, the iconic U.S. bus network, from U.K.-based owner FirstGroup. Flix said the deal — which includes a vehicle fleet, trademarks, and related assets and liabilities — has an enterprise value on a debt-free/cash-free basis of $46 million, with an unconditional deferred consideration of $32 million with an interest rate of 5% per annum alongside that.

The World May Think Germany Is Hunky-Dory

October 21, 2021 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Hate, Helplessness, Hideology, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy, Hysteria Tags: , , , , , , Leave a comment

But you can bet that’s only because the pollsters didn’t bother to ask any Germans.

Woke Germans (the only ones who count) love to hate Germany more than woke Americans love to hate US-Amerika (AKA The Banana Republic), if you can imagine that.

Soft Power: Germany Gets Record-High Approval From World – The world’s approval of Germany’s leadership during Chancellor Angela Merkel’s last full year in office in 2020 hit a new record high, not only for Germany, but for any global leader in more than a decade. The 52% median approval rating for Germany’s leadership in 2020 towered above ratings for Russia (34%), China (30%) and the U.S. (30%).