Dalferthian tidbits

I would love to update this blog more often. Currently work is taking over my life, as is the little boy Milan Josua sort of sleeping next to me. So I will have to postpone blogging until the worst is over. Then I will be back.

There is a lot to be written about the dismal state of environmental politics in Germany, the question of public participation, its evaluation and other finds from the internet.

Oh well, that’ll have to wait. So for now:

Merry Xmas.

Via IB-Liste, the list of group of young scientists of the German international relations research network, I received a rather eclectic list of IR-Blogs which have an – at least slightly – academic focus. As I had wondered before, where and how to look for good IR blogs, I thought I’d share this quite helpful list with you.

Here you go:

http://danieldrezner.com/blog/
http://duckofminerva.blogspot.com/
http://fistfulofeuros.net/
http://www.elected-swineherd.blogspot.com/
http://icga.blogspot.com/
http://www.ssrc.org/blogs/darfur/category/darfur/
http://www.theory-talks.org/
http://crookedtimber.org/
http://www.terraplexic.org/
http://analysis.foreignpolicyblogs.com/
http://opiniojuris.org/
http://humanrightsdoctorate.blogspot.com/
http://enwicklungspolitik.blogspot.com/
http://www.wissenschafts-cafe.net/

Of these I find A Fistful of Euros, Wissenschafts Cafe and Opinio Juris the most interesting. OJ I have been following and enjoying for quite some time now and can highly recommend it.

Beyond this helpful introduction, I regularly read the Blog of the Standing Group on Organised Crime, which provides very helpful analyses and research resources on anything related to OC.

For work related fun, I regularly check Pep-Net and EurasiaNet.

What I have not found yet, is a well done, regularly updated blog on Central and Eastern European affairs. Anyone got ideas?

I couldn’t put it better than tagesschau.de to illustrate the values relevant to the IOC in the run up to the Olympic games in China.

Kritik übte IOC-Marketingchef Heiberg an der starken Militärpräsenz – sie “beunruhige die Sponsoren”, weil sie Besucher davon abhalten könnte, deren Produkte anzusehen.

Rock on, IOC! Why criticise the military presence for what the military deployment are more likely meant, namely to keep the people from voicing their criticism of their political leader.

Having read the first ever (?) Banksy interview, I could not help to fall in love with this one of his most recent pieces:

Whenever I look at the picture I have to think of this:

I found this on Planblog and really liked it for its bad use of acronyms as well as its simplicity. There is a certain elegance to it.

H.O.S.E.D.

• Hand over the reins
• Over-engineer everything
• Seek growth before profitability
• Establish culture of subservience
• Disregard cashflow

S.H.A.F.T.

• Show nothing to anyone
• Have an exit plan
• NDA
• Funding = exit plan
• Theme weeks for the office

F.U.C.K.D.

• Forget your purpose
• launch Under funded
• miCro manage your team
• be the King
• believe the Dreamkillers

So there you have it. You should feel much better prepared now and ready to run your startup into the ground.

Link.