Random Ramblings
Created | Updated Jan 21, 2009
Ja, jetzt wird wieder in die Hände gespuckt.
Wir steigern das Bruttosozialprodukt
(We roll up our sleeves again,
We increase the gross national product.)
This was a song by German Band Geier Sturzflug, which was number one in the charts of Germany, Austria and Switzerland in 1983. You have to be my age to even remember the song, and I don't know why it popped up in my head, but a quick look at the statistics for 1983 showed that all was not well at the time in Germany: there was an increase (compared to the year before) of unemployed people by 23.2 percent, which made a total of 9.1 percent of unemployed people. Comparing this to 2008, we are obviously better off now, with 'just' 7.8 percent, but that's misleading. Government now differentiates between long and short-term unemployment, and quite a few of the long-term unemployed don't appear in the statistics any more. Looking at the net income, it was about 3.1 percent more in 1983 (than in 1982), with an inflation rate of 3.4. In 2008, the inflation rate was 3.1 percent, but the net income has dropped from - 1.1 percent in 2005 to -1.3 percent in 2008. The GNP of 1983 showed an increase by 1.3 percent (compared to 1982), and – guess what: it was 1.3% in 2008. And no, this was not only due to the credit crunch, it started three years ago and the credit crunch just made things worse.
You're probably wondering in how far this is related to what's going on here on hootoo. Well, the lack of money makes getting to meets more difficult for one thing1. And it's made being here even more important to me. After all, lacking the means of going abroad for a holiday, hootoo is my 'window' to the world. Here I get information, learn new things, get the odd challenge and generally have a refuge from my RL worries. I don't have to succumb to drinking, which I think is something people often do when they're desperate.
Last week's Talking Point: Drink! seemed to me to be very topical, and you can see it in the replies it got. Our friend and fellow Researcher Mazin'MadFiddler submitted his thoughts to the h2g2 Post and you can find his article here.
However, The Stretcher is best enjoyed sober. I don't know whether you've followed it, but I was amazed by its instant success. There are 14 contestants who are willing to be 'stretched'. Getting back to statistics, of these 14 Researchers exactly 50 percent are male, and the other half are female. Eight of the 14 are (or used to be) familiar faces in Peer Review, of the remaining six I know four from the Alternative Writing Workshop, and nearly all 14 either have written or still are writing for the Post. The first challenge left it to the contestants to choose which forum they submitted their offerings to, but if, like me, you expected to see more submissions to PR than to the AWW, you'd be wrong. There was again a 50/50 divide2, and some I had expected to see in PR submitted to the AWW and vice versa. I haven't seen the AWW so busy (comment-wise) before, but then I have to admit that my visits there haven't been very frequent, so my impression may well be entirely wrong. This is really going to be fascinating to watch. I fully expect this week's The Stretcher to provide you with links to all submissions for your voting.
Talking about voting: Entry of the Month is still open for votes until the end of January, so please don't miss the chance to cast your vote for your favourite Edited Entry of December.
In case you missed it: there is yet another new challenge: the Acrostic Poetry Challenge. No voting is required here, and there is no kudos to win. It is just a bit of intelligent fun. It started as a 'challenge' between my friend PedanticBarSteward and yours truly in 2007, and when some more people joined recently, Rich suggested a revamp of the page lay-out and the Acrostic Poems Archive , and everyone is invited to join in.
Looking at the time I spent writing this, looking up statistics and searching for links, I think I deserve a cup of coffee now before I go on with my other Post work – as do you3 if you've made it through the whole Rambling.
