Attack of the five pound hummingbird

Is it true that it doesn't matter what kind of bird you put on your windows? Are birds really so ignorant they can't tell a bird of prey from a hummingbird? Or are bird sticker designers?

Germany? Not my job.

Rarely does one get the chance to find a great analogy in the hall. Today I did –  it was right there at my feet! I had been thinking about the view Americans and Germans have of their countries. Why people in America get excited about presidential elections and why Germans oftentimes consider the act of voting an unpleasant duty. I thought and thought and walked down the stairs and ... then I tripped over the pile of paper in the hall. Torn envelopes, candy wrappers, free newspapers, eureka! If people throw away their trash in their own house, why would they care for the well being of their country? "Germany is an apartment house" I thought. People live here, but they don't take ownership. It's just a house, not a home. They pay rent, and they pay taxes, and they believe this money buys them certain rights and services provided by the owner. Which - of course - is true, but only one part of the story. Why do people feel so  separated from their own lives?

Have to go... They are coming...

A milk mystery revealed: scientist Stephen Myers says "coconuts actually mammals".

This could be the end of a milk mystery: earlier today Leipzig based scientist Stephen Myers published a photo showing a female coconut breast-feeding her baby. "Coconuts are very shy. Until now we didn't know anything about their social life and breeding. Most people consider them just nuts, but the fact that coconuts produce milk kept bothering me", says Myers. The scientist spent three years in a coconut community and finally got a chance to take a picture of a nursing coconut mother. Myers claims that if his research results prove to be true, the "coco nucifera" has to be renamed "coco bovina".

Jim Jarmusch fails in attempt to keep awake copywriter (36) in Hamburg movie theater.

Thinking outside the red cube: German Social Democrats count on interactive poster campaign.

For today's European elections Social Democrats in Hamburg have come up with a modern approach to attract voters: the interactive offline campaign. "Analog is the new dialog. Everybody can launch an internet forum, but only we have posters that you can actually design yourself - with a pencil, a spray can or simply your fingernails. We even left the bottom of the poster blank, that's how we give people a voice", says a party official. The campaign proved to be quite successful in the run-up to the elections. Almost every poster shows signs of voters' creativity and involvement. Art techniques include collage, pastel, oil painting, pen and ink, chocolate milk, and tempera, combined with comments like "Impostor" or "I know what you did last summer".

Declared dead Hans von Mueller reports back with new CD after 86 years.

German fighter pilot Hans von Mueller who had disappeared with his ultraviolet triplane in 1923 over Thuringia and was officially declared dead in 1926, is back with a vengeance. Surprisingly enough it's a musical one – earlier today the 105 year old presented his new CD "Amazing Greis" to the public and the international media in Eimsbuttel, Germany. "After the plane crash I survived in a subterranean reservoir of hyaloronic acid", says von Mueller who bears his age well. "Amazing Greis" will be available from June 8th 2009. 

Don't read - listen.

A month after we broke up he started sending me flowers.

No, I don't want to talk about it!