This is just so fascinating to me. Remember Knut? I remember his keepers saying that after a certain age it's just too dangerous to continue human contact because they become so unpredictable. Cool video.

I've seen the vids. The protests is a knut of very old radicals reliving their 'nam glory days, and a bunch of kids just there to feel like they've got a purpose. You've got Cornel, Fonda, Saranden, and other bozos getting people to chant anti-American revolution dogma. You've got these yahoos blocking traffic and sidewalks. It's called "Day of Rage".

A peaceful protest is one where you confine your demonstration to a place where you are not interfering with innocent citizens. The Wall Street yahoos are blocking both foot and road traffic, causing a disturbance, and being a public nuisance. When that happens - boom - the cops show up. When the cops show up in that situation, stuff like this happens. Duh. Protesting is fine - but don't be stupid about it.

And I'm not a Republican. I'm a fiscally conservative, socially libertarian constitutional constructionist. Or - as I like to call it - a FiSCCaL. These protestors are angry at the wrong target. The Wall Street problems (and they are a problem) are merely a symptom of the greater issue. The problem is government which creates an environment of corruption and cronyism. Wall Street couldn't have done squat if government hadn't served up a bunch of exemptions, loopholes, and other shenanigans. Did companies WANT those things? Sure - but they can't HAVE them without a corrupt government. The solution is not to whine about Wall Street. The solution is to slap down government hard, reduce their power, and have simple tax reform like Cain's 9/9/9 plan (moving to a Fair Tax), and eliminate all the pork projects and government 'subsidies' of industry. Limit government and root out federal corruption and you create a system where Wall Street abuses can no longer exist because there is no 'system' for them to abuse.

Oh and I must comment that Jeremy Soul is a hell of a good video game composer. But in my opinion nobody can best Knut Avenstroup Haugen, the composer at Funcom. Say what you will about their games, but the music in them is by far the best in the industry.

Tags for this video have been changed from 'hamburg, germany, lab3, Tomas Nowack, Knut Sodemann, professor kliq' to 'hamburg, germany, waterfront, lab3, Tomas Nowack, Knut Sodemann, professor kliq' - edited by calvados

I'm currently reading "The Fall of the Roman Empire" by Peter Heather, recommended to me by my brother / fellow sifter Almanildo. It proposes a new solution to the mystery of the death of the Roman Empire, different from the prevailing notion of a decadent elite gone soft. Heather writes very engaging for a historian, and the book is propped full of exciting anecdotes from the time period in question.

There are a lot of books I would like to recommend, but I've noticed that my reading tastes are very similar to a lot of other sifters (Who would have thought?), so they will probably get recommended anyway. So as not to clutter this comment with too much info, I will only recommend two norwegian books, because I think most sifters haven't heard of them. If you are going to read only one book by a norwegian author, read this one:

"Mengele Zoo" by Gert Nygårdshaug. This book takes on heavy subjects like environmentalism, north-south conflict, imperialism and terrorism, but in an extremely page-turning and action-packed way. And you can not help but fall in love with the main protagonist from the moment you meet him. When you are finished reading it, you will be unsure whether you have become a better or worse human being for doing so.

"Out Stealing Horses" by Per Petterson has a radically different mood. It is a mellow story about a father/son-relationship, love and betrayal. It starts out as almost a non-story, but gradually reveals layer upon layer of intrigue. Petterson has often been compared to another great norwegian author, Knut Hamsun, for the way he uses the norwegian landscape to describe the psychology of his characters, in this case the heavy fir forests on the Norway-Sweden border. It also has the best closing sentence I have ever read in a book.

Oh, and anything by Kurt Vonnegut jr.

Umm, she jumped in there on purpose:

Sky News Report

... though I'm sure she regretted it the moment her feet left the ground.

This really should have been one for the Darwin Awards, but unfortunately the silly cow lived.

The music she uses is Enter the Dragon played by the Norwegian band Euroboys, featuring the lead guitarist in Turbonegro, Knut Schreiner.

That first guy falling is Knut Anders Fostervold, a retired Norwegian footballer. This incident occured in 1999 and got a lot of media attention. So the next week, John Carew (currently playing for Aston Villa), made fun of it, as can be seen in the second clip.

Hey, just saw now that you asked for a translation, so despite the sad news about Thomas here it is: (Makes more sense in german of course

"Knut is a cuddly bear, but he doesn´t have a mom any more.
Despite that he is cheeky and happy, and he is the star at the zoo.

Little varmint in white, with four cuddly paws.
Everyone loves Knut, it is great to have you here.

Knut, Knut, little polar bear from the zoo
Knut, Knut, you are feeling great

Knut you are a cuddly bear, become cuter all the time,
You can walk quite well now, keep going dont be afraid.

Feeding bottle in your mouth, drink up, thats good for you
After that you have to go to sleep, little Knut sleep well.

Knut, Knut, little polar bear from the zoo
Knut, Knut, you are feeling great

Knut you cute cuddle bear, it´s not hard to like you.
When petting your belly, you are happy.

Your little teeth are still small, you have to get a strong bite,
So you become big and strong of course.

Knut, Knut, little polar bear from the zoo
Knut, Knut, you are feeling great
Knut, Knut, little polar bear from the zoo
Knut, Knut, you are feeling great"

So the song is about this bear or some other famous German character of the same name?

In reply to this comment by EDD:
My German isn't good enough for me to actually attempt to translate, but it's a simple rhyme about Knut the orphan's daily activities and mischiefs (playing, getting dirty, going to sleep, etc.) and about how lovable and famous he is (that's very very very famous, especially in Germany, of course).

My German isn't good enough for me to actually attempt to translate, but it's a simple rhyme about polar bear Knut the orphan's daily activities and mischiefs (playing, getting dirty, going to sleep, etc.) and about how lovable and famous he is (that's very very very famous, especially in Germany, of course).

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

Separating the "Knut brand" from the animal. God marketing people are soulless shits.

Tags changed from "cute, baby, polar, bear cub, cub, bear" to "cute, baby, polar, bear cub, knut" by gold star member HistNerd.

Tags changed from "baby, polar, bear, cute" to "baby, polar, bear, cute, knut, germany" by gold star member HistNerd.

Today was the first time Knut was allowed to leave his room and go outside. N24 (the german CNN) did a 45min live coverage this morning ;-) This was the first time other persons than his keeper and the doctor were allowed in his closeness (all the footage was done by the doc until now).

Knut is now 113 days old and weighs just over 9kg (800g at birth...).

Today at Berlin Zoo there were camera teams, reporters etc. from all over the world (south africa, japan etc.). Even several school classes got the day off to see Knut (!).

The guys of Berlin Zoo are awaiting at least 10,000 people a day this weekend. Knut is shown from 11am to 1pm every day from now on in the brown bear´s enclosure. Those poor guys have to stay inside for that time...

Berlin Zoo is dependant on public funding, so they now use Knut as money machine: There´s the Knut song (no kidding), Knut cuddly toys etc.

Even the German 'Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency' (or environment minister or however you guys call him) is using Knut´s popularity (election´s are ahead and his party is very weak): He "adopted" the little bear. His agency is going to pay for his food for his lifetime.

You see, a lot going on around this little fellow...

That was your cuddle reporter Conan, live from Germany :-)