Last night I was in the downtown bookstore to pick up some stuff for travel planning, and I glanced over at their bestseller rack. Number one was Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. In English. The German edition won’t come out until October.
The best-selling book in the store is in a foreign language. That’s some [...]

At least I’m not the only one.
Good discussions here, here, here, here and here.

Looks like I won’t be writing a post like this next year.
[Hat tip to His Imperial Majesty.]

I was recently fiddling with the German Federal Railways’ on-line European timetables, when I noticed something very strange. They have the best cross-European timetable, no doubt about it, but some odd things happen if you’re heading too far east. For example, when I asked it for a route from Paris to Tallinn, everything went a [...]

As big-media Matt says, it’s all over the net already, but the question of whether Bush’s watch was stolen in Albania is a convenient hook to link to this hilarious but tasteless guide to what various groups of Europeans think about one another. Albania is near the end, in the Balkan section.
I have a friend [...]

So France gets a new president. So I’m jumping from the window, running to the AFOE control room..
Nicolas Sarkozy’s first act as President has been to go for a “retreat” in the monastic surroundings of a giant yacht belonging to media boss Vincent Bolloré, who claims to have no business with the French government. Well, [...]

My comments on the French election posters, which appeared in bulk last weekend with the formal beginning of the campaign, after which strict equal-access rules apply…
The ruling principle is the difference between those who want to be elected, and those for which the style of candidacy is most important.
Those who want to be elected are [...]

Fritz Stern was born in what was then Breslau, Germany, grandson of Jews who converted to Christianity, son and grandson of physicians and researchers, at a time when medicine was truly becoming a science and Germany was leading the way. His godfather and namesake was Fritz Haber, who discovered how to fix atmospheric nitrogen, won [...]

Ali and Nino, the closest thing that modern Azerbaijan has to a national novel, was first published in German in 1937, sold in various translations, hit US bestseller lists in the early 1970s and bears the name Kurban Said as its author.
But the question of the author’s identity had never been resolved. All anyone agreed [...]

What percentage of the top 10,000 titles in any online media store (Netflix, iTunes, Amazon, or any other) will rent or sell at least once a quarter?

Read more… or Read more right here… »

That’s the [...]