I don’t know what’s super in a Supermarket or what is convenient in a Convenience Store. If you fancy convenience then you have the Tabaccino for a bottle of Cynar and a pack of Gauloises Caporal late at night - for breakfast! I personally don’t smoke, but had intimate insight into the breakfast triology: café, cigarette, caca. That’s convenience! The whole thing about the retail of necessities, is that a supply meets a demand in style. And that’s about the opposite of any modern retail format …
No ships can pass. When you drive down to the entrance of the Upper Middle Rhine Valley you see a very abnormal scene at Rhine kilometer 530.The “Mäuseturminsel” is not an island any more. You can walk over. Around the tower, where the current should be pressing hard against the quartzite, there is gravel, mud, dried algae and the smell of a river that has withdrawn. The Nahe River comes in behind you as a trickle …
Normally I write about exceptional bookshops and libraries, places with a soul. This time I want to do the opposite. I want to elaborate on observations in mass-market chains, the Thalias and WHSmiths of this world, precisely because they have no soul of their own. My hypothesis is, that they are mirrors of societies. A chain bookshop does not curate, it responds. Its assortment is optimized by category managers with sales data, and so the shelves are, in effect, a referendum. Nobody claims in a survey that they read pop-psychology paperbacks - but the till receipts don't lie …
I recently found myself at Daunt Books on Marylebone High Street, after a short visit to London Business School. An exchange student from the University of Hong Kong, brought me over, obviously knowing that my thinking is geographical and not by genre. If you have never been: the shop occupies an Edwardian building completed in 1912, originally the antiquarian bookseller Francis Edwards, and is said to be the first custom-built bookshop in the world. Long oak galleries, graceful skylights, William Morris prints. Under "Arabia" I picked up a copy of Wilfred Thesiger's Arabian Sands. I owned it once before, but I lent it to somebody years ago and, as it goes with lent books, never saw it again …
I do not have the privileges of memberships with Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok, you name them. LinkedIn is my last and only social media resort, because for some time it had something professional. But now and again I am very ambiguous about it’s usefulness. For some time now, I've observed a troubling trend among people I know - even close friends - where many are becoming increasingly insufferable online. This phenomenon has led me to wonder: what's driving this shift in temperament, particularly among otherwise rational professionals? …
The flight out of Germany started in Frankfurt. This is a major airport, and like many of this category it is not designed for travel, but for transport. Everything is cargo here, including the people. There is no romance left in this operation, no sense that you are embarking on anything. You are being processed. And yet, against all statistical probability, I made it onto the plane out of Germany on time. This, I assure you, is an exception of historic proportions for German transport. Just a few days prior, …
With recent events, triggered by the US-Israeli attack on Iran, I was reminded a scenario workshop where a potential blockage of the Straight of Hormuz was discussed extensively in the context of alternatives provided through the “One Belt, One Road Initiative”. But let’s not go into that now. We all had enough geopolitical ignorance Made in America, by now. Instead, looking into Mediterranean travel and crossing Île de Bendor, I recalled “La Caravane de la Soif” masterminded by Paul Ricard’s during the Suez Crisis …
When I first experimented with ANNs (Artificial Neuronal Networks) in the 90s, during my PhD research in the field of artificial weather modification, I did not really succeed to make them work for me. This was long before the current AI boom. The SUN UltraSparc was the best machine in town, but still computing power was very limited. Another reason, not to proceed that direction, was that these models help to predict, but not to conclude or understand. And of course, science is about understanding stuff. This was my first contact with this form of AI and …
When I look at the geography of traditional industries, which are based on agricultural commodities, I always remember the model of Johann Heinrich von Thünen, a land owner an economist, who developed a theory in which agricultural intensity generally decreases with distance to the market. This is the Thünen Ring Modell from 1842. Another phenomena it describes, is that with increasing logistic cost, the value ad of the products produced increases …
The year is soon coming to and end, and even it’s not quite time to wrap up yet, I am spending some times in the forests above the Upper Middle Rhine Valley. It is a UNECO World Heritage Site, with idyllic landscapes of rolling vineyards and historic castles. Very picturesque, but also here you can feel economic pressures and cultural decline, like in many other parts of Germany. The areas does not just stand for castles and old Sagas like the Nibelungs, …
For the majority of two years, I have been passing buy the Leuty Lifeguard Station more than once a day, strolling out with “Eddie” the Australian Shepherd. It is close to a fenced area, where dogs are amoung themselves and at the beginning of The Beach-stretch to the really amazing R.C. Harris Water Treatment Plant. During winters, dogs are allowed to run free, behind the snow fence. That’s something Eddie definitely made use of. The Leuty Lifeguard Station is one of the last remaining historic structures on Toronto's waterfront in the neighborhood known as The Beach …
After a few weeks in Ontario, I flew from Toronto via San Francisco to Hong Kong, where I am currently waiting for the landfall of Typhoon TAPAH. I abandoned my plan for a hike in the New Territories, as heavy rain bands are already touching the city on the periphery of the cyclone. Last week, I had the chance to go for a hike on Lamma Island and revisit my previous home turf. I also took the opportunity to climb Mount Stenhouse on the island's southern part and enjoyed the view over the South China Sea …
For some time now, I've observed a troubling trend among people I know - even close friends - where many are becoming increasingly grumpy and irritable. This phenomenon has led me to wonder: what's driving this shift in temperament, particularly among older men? While discussing this observation with younger people, a friend mentioned Pick's Disease, a form of frontotemporal dementia that affects the brain and typically strikes people under 65 …
Somehow the time of wheat harvest has been always a melancholic moment for me. It always strikes me, how fast the first half of the year has passed. Even many crops and fruits are not in their harvesting season yet in Central Northern Europe, the grains start this season of closing down the year early. Of course, this is disproportionate, because there are still 5 months to go for the new year …
In the mid 90s, I did my PhD in Essen, a city in the Rhine-Ruhr-Area (Germany). Back then, I was working on man made precipitation modifications in urban areas. Honestly, back then I did not know really what an “urban area” looks like, and I thought this conglomerate of smaller towns, growing together to one urban cluster could have impacts on the atmospheric boundary layer that modify rainfall patterns. Actually, it does. But that’s a different topic. Earlier this week, …
In April 1960 a group independent Dutch electronics retailers brought a 1 kW AM offshore pirate radio station on air, broadcasting from the a former lightship Borkum Riff. They intended to boost sales of radio appliances by offering an alternative programme to the official Dutch radio and selling airtime to advertisers. VRON, Vrije Radio Omroep Nederland (Free Radio Station Netherlands) was born, which later became “Radio Veronica” named after the poem "Het Zwarte Schaap Veronica" (The Black Sheep Veronica) …
Some time ago, I went to Ottawa by train. But now, I decided to go by car again and visit friends on the weekend. We were actually neighbors back in Beijing in 北京東湖別墅 and have not seen each other for more than a decade. It’s always great, when you can catch up after more than 10 years and it feels like, “just yesterday”. This time in Ottawa, I was for there for leisure and I really enjoyed the historical views (given the short modern history), and just to see how life is in town. It’s a very pleasant city and easy to get around. It’s now summer of course, when living is easy …
I just returned from a study trip to the United States, which I helped organizing for the MBA Programme of the Hong Kong University Business School. We studied the success factors of tech clusters in and around the Boston/Cambridge area, explored the startup environment in New England, debated the current US-China trade relations at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and also got quite some insight into the current struggles between the US federal government and Harvard University …
There were a few nice events since returning to Toronto: Eugene Onegin directed by Robert Carsen performed by the Canadian Opera Company for example. Even, I am more and more bored by love stories - as they are so predictable - this was a well done interpretation. But the biggest heartbreak I had, was Eddie, the dog, …
I am maintaining a journal in the format of noting down the days in a tabular way, having always the same day on one page, just for the current year. Like this, I see what happened exactly that day the years before. Such has a capacity of 5 years. There are also versions with 10 years, but then the daily space for writing gets quite compressed. This is a very nice way of keeping a journal. Now I realized that exactly a year ago, I packed a “Movecube” which is an OSB box available in different sizes …
This week I am leading a study tour of Hong Kong University MBA students and we all met up in Helsinki. I enjoy these trips, not just because we visit interesting companies and institutions, but also it is extremely rewarding to make a contribution to these very smart, interested and open minded students. All this would not be possible of course, without hosts and guest speakers …
Tim Hortens is more than just a doughnut place for every Canadian. It is a community center and has a place in Canadian identity. The first “restaurant” being started in May 1964 Hamilton (Ontario) at the crossing Ottawa Street North and Dunsmure Road by the the ice hockey player Miles Gilbert “Tim” Hortens, playing for the Toronto Maple Leaves, and his partner Jim Charade to provide an income in off season. Hortens later played for the Pittsburgh Penguins, …
Arriving in Toronto at the beginning of the week, spring wasn’t that advanced. But also here the snow melted away within a week and I took the chance catching up with my favorite hangouts: the Norma Ridley Lounge at the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Toronto Reference Library. The Lounge is in The Grange, which was the first home of the gallery, in a Georgian manor. It also has also a small and cosy library. The reference library of Toronto though, …
When Wilhelm Kattwinkel visites the Olduvai Gorge in 1911 to research sleeping sickness , he observed humanoid archeological remains, in 1913 identified by the German Geologist to be probably the “cradle of mankind”. I visited Germany, also for a different purpose, but now sitting at Frankfurt Airport waiting for my flight out, I am convinced, I discovered “the cradle of Teletubbies” …
My last means of transportation in Germany is running on fossile fuel. It’s a red Vespa Primavera, and it’s a fast and furious little machine. I had an intense week in Germany, which ended with a scenic ride along the Rhine River and crossing it eventually by ferry. Among other things to manage, I have sent personal effects and furniture by sea freight, first forwarded to Frankfurt, further to Berlin and from there to some exit port. There is only an estimate, when they will arrive. It highly depends on how smooth the land transport to the port will go …
Toronto’s Streetcar 501 QUEEN is the world’s longest streetcar line. It spans Toronto’s East and West by reaching from Neville Park Loop to Humber Loop, and taking the 24.8 km (15.4 miles) ride along Queen Street is a good way to get an impression of the city along this profile. Today I did it, starting from the East, passing through The Beaches first, which is the nice and lively residential area we live. From Leslieville …
As you may have read in the news, the German automotive industry is under unprecedented pressure. It is the result of a mix of internal factors, changing geopolitics, new technologies, new competitors and last but not least a dysfunctional German government. Volkswagen Group, the company I have been associated with for decades, has been hit exceptionally hard. It is not the first crisis we see in the company, …
Since returning to Toronto, I have experienced some highlights. For instance, we celebrated a birthday dinner at the 360 Degree Restaurant in the CN Tower. We were advised to go early to enjoy the view starting in daylight, and it was a fantastic recommendation. The most impressive sight was the view of Billy Bishop Airport from the top. This regional airport serves routes to Canadian destinations as well as cities like Boston and New York …
Luckily Chinese Airlines continue flying over Russia, and so I was able to take the short cut from Toronto over the North Pole to Hong Kong. It is interesting watching the flight map, diving into Asia from that perspective. Still the 12 hour time difference, made me a little trouble this time. Then I also caught a fever and still had to flag pole over Macao due to a delayed visa process ...
The Grube Dr. Geier above Waldalgesheim is not a ruin in the picturesque sense. It is an abandoned baroque palace that happened to be a manganese mine, and I spent this afternoon walking around it. Two symmetrical wings, a gate house, a court of honour, an octagonal basin in front of the machine hall that was really a cooling pond. Weeds in the joints, a burnt-out section from a fire in 2003, corrugated iron over windows. What is most conspicuous is what is missing: the 50-metre steel headframe that stood at the centre of every photograph of this place until January 2014 …