In Berlin, there's the 18th Long Shopping Night instead...

Found a nice, alternative personal transport solution for the 30-3000 km range. Mechanic and engineer Jochen Sommer has discovered a market niche that addresses unconventional travellers. He imports classic Royal Enfield Bullet motorcycles from India and replaces original petrol engines with industrial Hatz diesels.

Besides the coolness of the machine, which is a subjective thing of course, it also runs on biodiesel. Fuel consumption swings around 2,5 litres per 100 km (over 110 mpg) so you can escape at least 500 km with a tankful. Top speed reaches just 100 km/h, but avenues are nicer than Autobahns anyway.

Kabel eins has a video feature in local language.

Almost two years of (mostly) Germany now and the love/hate relationship with the language goes on. From a non-native speaker's perspective German is in its complexity a frightening instrument of power, but also an infinite source of linguistic pleasures. In my case, especially in its written form.

Frustrations mostly deal with the spoken word, especially on TV, on stage or such. To battle this, I had taken up a tradition to go see the latest transmission of Tatort with a friend every Sunday. These 90-minute murder mysteries have been on air since 1970 and have become quite an institution. I've come to believe, that Sunday Tatorts have taken the place of Sunday Sauna in my weekly rhythm. Both are somewhat purifying and masochistic experiences.

I discovered help from an unlikely source. Recently I voluntarily watched an English language film dubbed into German – not Die Hard 4.0 but V for Vendetta. No problem whatsoever, everything was loud and clear. With the mandate given by the results of the revered PISA study, I've had a bit of a stuck-up outlook on the culture of dubbing, but now the tables turned. There, I may have found the missing link.

The most weirdly funny piece of news lately has been the story of euro banknotes that tear themselves apart into the thin air. Money comes out of the cash machine all right, but after a while, starts to decompose. Berlin police have been CSIing these problem banknotes and come to the conclusion that they were predisposed to sulphuric acid.

Whether this has been deliberate or result of a spilling battery inside certain cash dispensers, is not yet clear. The prospect of an artistically motivated intervention is captivating, at least to my imagination. So far around 1500 contaminated banknotes have been reported - typically of 50 euro denomination. Consumers need not worry, as long as more than 50% of the note remains, it can be exchanged in a bank.

If this is intentional, I have to commend the saboteurs for creative approach. Then again, one must keep in mind that 75000 euro is petty cash compared to what the members of former techno band KLF accomplished in 1994. After paying their taxes they packed their money into a suitcase and flew off to the Scottish whisky island of Jura. There they casually burned one million pounds sterling and filmed it on 16mm.

Related links:
Experten rätseln über Brösel-Euros
Brittle euro notes baffle Germans
The K Foundation burn a million quid
KLF - The Documentary

Update:
BBC Video: Mystery of crumbling banknotes

Update 23.11.2006:

Just got a comment from a friend, whose message had been stuck in instant messaging limbo for nine days. Independent has the news that decomposing originates from banknotes that were "used to portion out and snort designer drug known as crystal meth". 20 and 50 euro notes are said to be perfectly proportioned for this. In contact with sweat, methamphetamine becomes corrosive. Towards the end of the article, a German professor also shares his findings about drugs and banknotes across Euro currency zone.