Am Samstag feierte Mick Jagger seinen 60. Geburtstag.
Herzlichen Glückwunsch!

On s’est peu passé la bague au doigt, l’année dernière, en Sarre. Le nombre des mariages a été en baisse sensible : sans doute un effet de la crise. Des paramètres bien cachés jouent en faveur de certaines villes comme dans le district de Neunkirchen, où – on ne sait pas pourquoi – on dit plus « oui » que dans le reste de la Sarre. Enfin, on se marie de plus en plus tard : à plus de 28 ans pour les femmes et plus de 31 ans pour les hommes en moyenne.

„Welcher Seemann liegt bei Nani im Bett?“ Seit Jahrzehnten merken sich Schüler die Reihenfolge der ostfriesischen Inseln Wangerooge, Spiekeroog, Langeoog, Baltrum, Norderney, Juist und Borkum mit dieser Eselsbrücke. Die ARD meldet nun, dass der Spruch bald erweitert werden muss. Denn westlich von Juist wächst ein neues Eiland. Dieses entwachse langsam dem Stadium einer Sandbank, sagte der Leiter des Niedersächsischen Landesbetriebs für Wasserwirtschaft und Küstenschutz im Norden, Frank Thorenz. Der überwiegende Teil werde bei Hochwasser nicht mehr überflutet. Nach bisherigen Berechnungen der Behörde hat die neue Insel eine Länge von rund 2,5 Kilometern und misst an der breitesten Stelle etwa 1,3 Kilometer. Es sei außerdem zu sehen, wie erste Gräser wachsen und kleine Dünen entstehen.

If you’re bored, here is something to amuse yourself….

On Tuesday, July 22, 2003, BBC Online News carried an article on weblogs. Why? “You know a web trend has reached a high pitch of popularity when AOL starts including it in its basic software,” they wrote, “but can blogs be truly mainstream?”

If you want to check your e-mail or surf the web outdoors, you can do so now in St. Louis. The city is setting up the nation’s largest free wireless internet network, which will cover a 42-block area downtown. All the infrastructure should be in place by the end of the month, so all you need is your laptop and a wireless network card. Log on using the network name (Service Set Identifier, or SSID) “stlouis” to establish a connection. First-time users will be asked to fill out a confidential user profile, then set up a user name and password. More….

In Boonville, Missouri, at the end of last year, Boonville High School basketball player Kolby Hurt missed the first three games of the season because his coach Dick Smith insisted that the teen’s cornrows were a violation of team policy (see “Jefferson City News Tribune”). Sane people asked themselves how braids such as cornrows could seriously be considered “distracting,” as the coach maintained, but Superintendent Greg Gettings wanted to postpone a decision until the basketball season was over.

Hurt filed a lawsuit arguing that the policy violated his civil rights. A temporary restraining order allowed him to play with cornrows until the court would decide if the injunction should be permanent.

Yesterday morning, Judge Scott Wright of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri dismissed the case, saying participation in extracurricular sports is voluntary and that coaches have the right to set rules on hairdos. The judge was not shy, however, to comment on the policy itself. “This court would be remiss if it did not offer the comment that the grooming rule leveled by by Boonville against Kolby Hurt is an asinine, stupid rule,” he wrote.
Amen.

The Google search for Weapons of Mass Destruction (see July 6, 2003) has now pretty much made the round on the Internet. But there is a less known cousin. Go to www.google.com. Type: French military victories (no quotation marks). Do not click Google Search. Instead click I’m Feeling Lucky. Then read the message carefully. Note especially the first line.

At last night’s City Council meeting in Charlottesville, Virginia, a resolution was passed with 4–1 votes denouncing the Patriot Act. Members of the audience called it a “well-meaning bark” and encouraged the councilors “to give it more bite.”

Opinionist and local resident Barbara Rich commented: “I am old enough to remember the McCarthy era. And let me tell you that compared to John Ashcroft, Joe McCarthy looks like Mr. Rogers.”

Councilor Rob Schilling voted against the resolution. “It’s a little dicey when we as a city get involved in what is supposed to be federal law,” Schilling said. Individual opinions should be expressed by individuals, he said, and not assumed by the council.

A story about the council resolution was carried by the local “Daily Progess.”

Der Kabarettist Günter Grünwald, zitiert am Montag von der in Neu-Isenburg erscheinenden Ärzte-Zeitschrift „Der Kassenarzt“: