Today was the referendum for disclosing the contracts for the partial privatisation of the Berliner Wasserbetriebe (Berlin Water Supply, 49.9% of which belong to the companies Veolia and RWE), which was initiated by the organisation “Berliner Wassertisch”. It has been accepted according to the preliminary results (German page of the election supervisor).
Living in Cottbus, I'm not directly affected, but I am convinced that, if something as essential as the public water supply is privatised, the contracts and agreements have to be public and be prepared with the participation of the elected representatives.
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Some time ago, I've blogged about my stylesheets (CSS) with the colour codes of the International Stratigraphic Chart (ISC) of 2009. For some months now, I own a Palm Pre smartphone (which I am quite happy with) and thought that it would be quite handy to have this chart on the phone. Of course, you can browse the web to look up stratigraphic units, but stand-alone apps are often nicer and quicker to work with, and independent of reception quality.
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Dear readers (all two of you 
), I wish you a happy new year. Hopefully it won't be as foggy as this New Years Eve in Obermaiselstein
and also not as messy as this long-exposure experiment with falling camera
Soon I'll post something geological, I promise.
In November 2008, I wrote my stratigraphy stylesheet, which contained colour codes for all units from the International Stratigraphic Chart (ISC) down to the period/system level. Later I added some Cenozoic and Mesozoic units of lower rank.
When I was ill during the last weekend and therefore sometimes rather bored, I completed the colour codes. I have added the new colours to the original stylesheet file.
As an example, I have prepared (or more honestly, made my computer do it) a HTML version of the International Stratigraphic Chart 2009.
Some gory details about how to get hold of stratigraphic colour codes below the fold.
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Blue light all around Cottbus – the Film Festival takes place next week!
Last Sunday, there was the “Day of Stones in the City” in various cities throughout Germany. Mr Wolfram Köbbel offered a walk through Cottbus to show the various stones used in the buildings and their history.
The original post in German is quite long, so I have not translated it completely yet. But perhaps some of my English-speaking readers might like to have at least a look at the pictures. If you're interested, just ask and I will extend the English text.
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Considering such exuberant culinary delights, I could understand that some people want the GDR back.
![Wolfgang Polte: Unser Haushalt [Our Household]. Verlag für die Frau, Leipzig, 1971. Plate 53.](http://blog.effjot.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/unser-haushalt-tafel53-328x480.jpg "Wolfgang Polte: Unser Haushalt [Our Household]. Verlag für die Frau, Leipzig, 1971. Plate 53.")
Wolfgang Polte: Unser Haushalt [Our Household]. Verlag für die Frau, Leipzig, 1971. Plate 53.
It's nice that there is always something new to be learnt: the moon is covered with quite a lot of thrust faults, some of which could be “relatively young” (approx. 800 to 1000 million years). They are probably a result of a slight shrinking of the moon due to cooling.
I've found this at Bad Astronomy, who has a nice post about it.
I've bought a “Bavaria Ticket Single” online. Afterwards, I was asked to take part in a little survey. Having time and being in a friendly mood, I agreed. But then, this rather weird questions pops up:
Translation:
Are you traveling with the Bavaria Ticket Single alone or with several people?
- alone
- group of two
- group of three
- group of four
- group of five
In case I didn't answer “alone”, would the Online Conductor visit me and make me pay the 40€ elevated transport fee?
Being just a ordinary person, I sadly don't look deep into the legal foundations of life. Thus, I've only recently found out from a blog post on Astrodicticum simplex that Article 131, paragraph 2 of the Bavarian Constitution contains these paramount educational goals:
The paramount educational goals are reverence for God, respect for religious persuasion and the dignity of man, selfcontrol, the recognition of and readiness to undertake responsibility, helpfulness, receptiveness to everything which is beautiful, good and true, as well as a sense of responsibility for the natural world and the environment.
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![Wolfgang Polte: Unser Haushalt [Our Household]. Verlag für die Frau, Leipzig, 1971. Plate 53.](http://blog.effjot.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/unser-haushalt-tafel53.jpg "Wolfgang Polte: Unser Haushalt [Our Household]. Verlag für die Frau, Leipzig, 1971. Plate 53.")
