metaphorge- the Archbishop of Balogna!!!

One of the odder things I encountered during my trip to Berlin last winter was the currywurst phenomenon:

"Currywurst is a German dish consisting of hot pork sausage (German: wurst) cut into slices and seasoned with curry sauce (regularly consisting of ketchup or tomato paste blended with curry) and generous amounts of curry powder, or a ready-made ketchup-based sauce seasoned with curry and other spices. Currywurst is often sold as a take-out/take-away food, Schnell-Imbisse, at diners or "greasy spoons," on children's menus in restaurants, or as a street food.

Usually served with French fries or bread rolls, it is particularly popular in the metropolitan areas of the Ruhr Area, Berlin, and Hamburg. Considerable variation both in the type of sausage used and the ingredients of the sauce occurs between these areas, and there are disputes over where currywurst was originally invented and which version is the best. Sometimes currywurst is sold in food booth with a machine that will slice and spice with sausage. It is also sold as a supermarket-shelf product to prepare at home."

It turns out that curry ketchup can be attained in Redwood City, so tyrsalvia and I had currywurst for lunch, which made us both rather nostalgic for quick lunches at the Hauptbahnhof. I see little chance that we'll be able to afford 24C3 this year, but I'm definitely going back for 25C3 in 2008.

The currywurst was, by the way, delicious.

...flying home tomorrow. Much to do and see.

*zoom*

From the Museum für Islamische Kunst, part of the Pergamon Museum on the MuseumInsel in Berlin.

By damn, do Berliners ever love their explosives! I don't really know how to convey just how nuts last night's seeing out of 2006 was, but it seemed like every single one of the tens of thousands of people we were surrounded by last night had their own personal arsenal. There were constant fireworks and explosions for hours in every direction, leading to an atmosphere somewhere between Bacchanalian revel and war zone. The photos cannot possibly do the scene justice, and my ears are still ringing a bit 24 hours later.





Many more shots are here.

This night was also our first encounter with the new Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. I'll have many further thoughts on this once I've returned there during the daytime to more extensively photograph it. Here's one during Silvester:

All in all, a most excellent evening with most excellent company.

Too tired to comment on these now, but here are the talks we made it to today (I'm still pretty jet-lagged, and we had to locate the power converter for the laptop, so we missed some of today's sessions):

The Grim Meathook Future:
How The Tech Culture Can Maintain Relevance In The 21st Century
-Joshua Ellis

Amongst technology pundits and futurists, it seems to be a given that "progress" in the 21st century will be driven by technological advancements -- nanotechnology, biotechnology, networking technology, etc. However, recent global trends and events suggest that the course of human destiny can just as easily be driven by religious fanatics using weapons and tactics which are hardly on the technological cutting edge.

Meanwhile, the promise of a global Internet providing equality to all is still a pipe dream; the developing world's primary interface to our networks come in the way of 419 spam and data piracy. Not to mention, of course, the fact that we're rapidly approaching the end ofcheap, freely available energy sources and the likely beginning of massive climatic change.

( Read more... )

We Don't Trust Voting Computers:
The story of the Dutch campaign against black-box voting to date
-Rop Gonggrijp

This talk covers the Dutch campaign against unverifiable voting on computers, which is part of a growing movement world-wide to reject these computers. Successes in Ireland and (surprise) the US seem to indicate that media, law-makers and the general public are beginning to wake up.

( Read more... )

Revenge of the Female Nerds:
Busting Myths about Why Women Can't Be Technical
-Annalee Newitz

Why do media and industry lag behind reality when it comes to estimating women's technical and scientific abilities? That women have these abilities is obvious. The question is how to change social expectations about them. What are women doing, and what can they do, to combat pervasive myths about their inferiority as engineers and scientists?

( Read more... )

I particularly liked the latter two and will have a bit to say about them when I get a chance, especially the black-box voting hack job.

BTW, here's the abstract for our presentation, Culture Jamming & Discordianism: Illegal Art & Religious Bricolage, which is on Saturday. Turns out it's going to be in the large room, which has the capacity for several hundred. *gulp* ioerror, what did you get us into? ;D

A bit annoying that my bio got flubbed at the web site, but such is life.

I'm going to be out of the country from Christmas Day through January 18.

First off, I'll be attending the 23rd Chaos Communication Congress in Berlin from December 27-30.

tyrsalvia and I plan on staying in Berlin through January 1, after which we'll depart for various points in Eastern Europe. Some spots we'll definitely be hitting will be Krakow, Auschwitz/Birkenau (both in Poland); Budapest (Hungary); and Prague (Czech Republic). We may also hit Vienna (Austria) and Bratislava (Slovakia) if time and budget allow.

I'll definitely have internet access through our stay in Berlin; expect photos and other updates. I will not have my cell phone, so don't bother calling until I get back.

[Poll #893946]

I'm sending out postcards in lieu of holiday cards this year. ;D