Sparty rocks!

Yesterday I wrote about my extracurricular activities at the University of Michigan back in the 1980s. Although I moved to Europe after graduating in 1991, I am still attune to the Michigan / Michigan State rivalry and must grudgingly concede one point where Moo U tops Big Blue: mascots. MSU has Sparty. Michigan has a …

Acid trips as a productivity boost?

It has been many years since I experimented with controlled substances. Back in my carefree student days in Ann Arbor I may have occasionally had a hit from the bong. That was all, however, and I always took the Bill Clinton approach and never inhaled. Some of my fellow students may have actually inhaled and …

Cathedrals or climate?

Two years tomorrow ago, a fire broke out in Notre-Dame de Paris causing the spire to collapse and severely damaging the UNESCO world heritage site. At the time, class conflict in France was playing out in violent street demonstrations as the gilets jaunes movement protested Emmanuel Macron’s economic reform policies. The destruction of Notre-Dame demonstrated …

Plastics reloaded

Last October I posted about excessive plastic food packaging. Today I am revisiting the topic based on a recent article in my daily newspaper, Die Presse. Citing a study conducted by the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU), they reported that less packaging does not always have a better climate balance. The …

Is that allowed?

My daily newspaper, Die Presse, recently ran a special Sunday edition about morality and ethics. Throughout the paper they asked a wide range of people – from politicians to philosophers, from captains of industry to curators of art – the same three questions: What should humans no longer be allowed to do?What should humans never …

Turn off, tone up, and get out!

Given that we don’t own a television, I usually immediately junk the glossy television program insert that is part of the Thursday edition of Die Presse. Today, however, the title page caught my eye and I thumbed through it. I was surprised to see that there were over 40 channels listed. I still remember when …

Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show unequivocally proven as the greatest band ever

Last night while drinking beer Astrid and I tried to determine which bands and solo artists deserved inclusion on our GREATEST EVER list. After quickly agreeing on easy shoo-ins, we soon found ourselves arguing if a given musician or group really merited inclusion in THE most critical demarcation of popular music credibility since Little Richard …

The sad case of Dr. Greg Patton

Today I am taking a sidestep from my harm series and examining the case of Dr. Greg Patton. On August 20th, 2020 Dr. Patton, a professor at USC’s business school with over 20 years of teaching experience, delivered a lecture on oratory to students in the master’s program. He explained the importance of avoiding filler …

Chronic illness and healthcare availability

Last post I noted that many Austrians assume that public healthcare is a guaranteed public good. Today I will examine how this mentality endangers the continued functioning of the system. While I will only examine Austrian healthcare, Austria can serve a proxy for similar scenarios in other countries. Healthcare is financed in Austria primarily through …

The societal and economic cost of obesity

In 2010, the OECD issued a comprehensive report titled Fit Not Fat in which they noted that ‘before 1980, obesity rates were generally well below 10%. They have since doubled or tripled in many countries, and in almost half of the OECD, 50% or more of the population is overweight.’ The report outlined various approaches …