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It is easy to envy the rich und super-rich like Warren Buffet, Bill Gates or many of these odd Russian Oligarchs.

But envy is not really a good foundation for any society or social politics. The problem is not that rich people are rich and poor people are poor. It’s about Social Mobility.

A modern society should give everyone the same chances to grow up, educate themselves and achieve something if they want to. So we need good education, food and health care for all kids – so they can move up.

Social Mobility in many Western Countries has declined since Maggie and Ronnie have reintroduced the so called "free markets". Since then the Middle Class is disappearing, the classic working class has been downgraded to the working poor – since all they jobs have been lost either to robots or much cheaper Asian labor …

A kid in the UK is more likely to get "stuck" in the same social class than it’s parent. The class system is slowly making a comeback and most poor people don’t even recognize it …

That is why so many poor people vote against their own interests for conservative / pro companies parties, because in their minds they think they will be rich someday and benefit from a more capitalistic system.

There is no problem with being rich, but there is a problem when the "system" isn’t fair and offers support for those who are weaker or want to built a better life for themselves.

Today’s social and financial systems are skewed, it makes it harder or often near impossible to move up the social ladder, no matter how much the "common (working) man" works and struggles.

Click image for a bigger blessing.

Some superstition can help to overcome some rational fear when you sit on hundreds of tons of explosive fuel.

Fear can do terrible things to people …

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There are only a few professional athletes I deeply respect. Amongst those are the amazing cyclists on the Tour de France.

The sheer distance they cycle is already breath taking, but going up and down really steep mountains is mind boggling. Just watching gives me an heart attack.

But there are also frequent crashes and clashes between the cyclists. But even after a bloody harsh downhill crash they continue …

Compared to those professional douche bags like football players in the English Premier League or German Bundesliga these guys hardly earn anything!

Letter written by hand are much more personal plus the handwriting reveals the character of the writer …

Most people can hardly write a letter by hand these days, so the writing is painful and distorted.

And who needs to see someone’s handwriting anyway to see their rotten and non-existent character anyway.

Analyzing handwriting made sense in the time of Sherlock Holmes, when we didn’t have telephones and videoconferencing. Today a Skype call reveals the douche bags …

It must be pretty frustrating if that Animal in that show is more important than you. In shows like Flipper, Daktari, Skippy etc. the animals were the stars. And even in Tarzan the Chimp was often more important than the blonde human female.

Hans Rosling is one of my personal Data Gods. He translate massive amounts into sensible observations. Something at which Mainstream Media usually fails.

In this case I am not sure I can agree with Mr Rosling’s conclusions. Our societies or better say the economic system our societies rely on needs disparity. And disparity means that capitalism exploits cheap labor.

The poverty in early industrial societies has mostly been "exported" to poorer countries. The emerging middle classes in the West always ALSO profited from it’s capitalistic exploits in so called "developing" nations.

Now that Countries like India, Brazil and China develop their own middle classes, some of the poverty makes it’s way back to Europe and America.

I don’t believe in trickle-down-economics, no do I believe that the richness of some will lift up others. Today’s world only proves that the divide between the Superrich and the Superpoor gets deeper …

The 1980′s were the Decade when Advertising was lifted into the glorious Halls of fine Art. Suddenly it was all about aesthetics and meaningful messages …

Now after almost a hundred years of professional PR, Advertising and Marketing these three apocalyptic Riders of modern Consumerism are considered essential to the fabric of modern life.

Although everybody says they are not influenced by modern marketing and PR they run out like Mad Men and buy the newest crap.

And advertising and marketing have become the trendsetters for our lifestyles. Art no longer imitates Life, people model their lives on lifestyles and momentums they see in television ads or sneaky guerilla campaigns on the web.

Advertising is not about change, but establishing or exploiting stereotypes that help products and companies.

We will save you … and your money.

Examples? Apple still tries to pretend to be the cool underdog that saves the world (like in the 1984 ad), although it’s paranoid behavior and market capitalization has long surpassed Microsoft.

Many food companies pretend to sell you healthy and fresh food, while the packaging labels tell a VERY different story.

But the Brain Washing is now so deeply entrenched in modern society that Consumers are now Evangelists for their "Brands".

Brand Loyalty is a new form of personality disorders, similar to Nationalism or Racism.

Most dreadful of all are the lies that companies care about the environment or that they have a social consciousness.

Trust us we are greener than green …

Modern Consumerism and good old fashioned Capitalism doesn’t work without some form of exploitation, waste and injustice (ask those people building your cool iPhone).

I only wish people would care AND SPEND as much money on fighting poverty and saving the planet as they do on Brands.

The first working Aerial was built 1888 bei Heinrich Hertz. But it seems that not all gadget vendors have mastered that ancient technology.

In today’s wireless world “bad reception” is a capital sin.

Some cultures use almost any "public" body part to beautify women. Jewelry and makeup are used to enhance the sexual attractiveness and therefore often the market value of the women.

Marketdriven Sexuality … women reduced to genetic breeding pools "sexed up" to climb the social ladder (for their families).

I wonder if modern feminism has really brought some enlightenment to this matter? How many billions is the makeup and fashion industry making per year?

Click image for a bigger small frog.

The Kihansi Spray Toad was recently declared extinct in the wild. Only a couple of Zoos have some of them "on display".

Here is the tragic story:

It was discovered in 1996. It was found only in the spray zone around the Kihansi and Mhalala waterfalls in the southern Udzungwa Mountains in Tanzania. It is now listed as an extinct species in the wild by the IUCN Red List^[1] due to a restricted range, habitat loss and a declining population. This was due to the Kihansi Dam being built in 1999, which reduced the amount of silt and water coming down from the waterfall into the gorge by 90 percent. This led to the spray toad’s microhabitat being compromised, as it reduced the amount of water spray, which the toads were directly reliant on for oxygen. This also meant that the toad may have been more susceptible to a chytrid fungus, which was believed to have been transported by conservationists’ boots. This chytridiomycosis, which in 2003 was confirmed to be in dead animals of the species, was possibly responsible for the sudden population crash after the world’s largest sprinkler system was installed in that area in August 2003. This system was installed to try and conserve the toad species from becoming extinct in the wild, but did not succeed.

Not all our attempts in conversation are that futile. But it’s a sad story anyway.

Sideburns against Sunburn! Is there a better summer song? In the Summertime will be my eternal happy-happy-joy-joy-song for this very season …

Appearing at an important international sport event doesn’t make you more popular. Mere mortals like to be left alone and don’t like to see politicians when they want to enjoy themselves …

Don’t even try to imply you are "one of us" …

Click image for a cuter sleeper …

Ah, summer! Is there a nice thing to sleep though the afternoon heat and enjoy lovely summer nights?

On one side this sounds pretty perverse, but on the other it’s smart. Who else knows better how pedophiles operate and think than a pedo himself?!

Today’s life is gloriously surreal …

Click image for more incompetence.

SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) is the bottleneck that saves all data relating bank transfers in Europe.

Until recently SWIFT’s servers were located in the US, therefore making it easy for the Americans to suck in all data crossing this data centers.

Now the SWIFT servers are in Europe – but the US still demands access to all European Banking Transfers. Today the EU Parliament granted the Americans almost unlimited access to all European Banking Transfers. The data retention is five years and the data sets include name, address, bank account and the recipent’s data as well.

We have already seen how the War on Terror was used by the Americans to seriously stamp on American Civil rights. But the US Government is insatiable – it wants more and more data …

Giant Nations like China and India are moving from basic food to more varied and luxurious diet. That means two meals a day, more meat and sophisticated recipes.

That means more food needs to be produced, more energy is need to harvest, transport and prepare it.

Most of all that means more machines: manual labor is too slow and not efficient enough to deliver the goods.

Without machines we wouldn’t be six billion people.

It’s great to have choice and things that inspire you, but creativity and the will to create can create rich new worlds.

An empty world should not lead to an empty mind.

Sharks are slowly disappearing from our Oceans. We care about Whales and Dolphins, but hardly anyone would wear a "Save the Sharks" T-Shirt.

As much as "Flipper" made us love Dolphins and portrayed them as cute animal friends the movie "Jaws" scared us to death. A whole generation is paranoid about sharks although sharks hardly attack humans. It’s us killing all the sharks – mostly ONLY for their fins for soup. What a waste …

Sidenote: The movie "Orca" showed us a pretty nasty Killer Whale, but "Free Willy" made us love them again.

But sharks are a very important part of our Ocean’s Ecosystem. In many areas where sharks have been decimated vicious swarms of Humboldt Squids have taken over as top predator and they are killing everything.

Sharks need a better press and we humans need to learn to "love" even ugly and not so cute creatures.

In the Age of the Internet and a gazillion Porn Sites many men still behave like they have never seen a naked women before.

Click image for more Reds.

Communism was born as a result of the harsh reality workers had to face in the Industrial Age. You can count on the Spanish Master of Surrealism to put a different spin on it …

PS: Does anyone know the great Photographer?

Click image for a larger Banana.

This is an odd portrait: it follows the old tradition of "still life studies" (painting a bunch of fruit of vegs) and mixes it with a hot celebrity.

Sure the fruits are strategly places in her crotch to imply fertility and juiciness, but Marilyn has a sad expression in her face. Not sexy at all …

Our eyes don’t work like cameras, they don’t have a frame rate. But there is a limit to how much information the human eye and brain can process. For example if you on a fast train you can’t "capture" objects "shooting by" … it’s all a blur …

Insects (and birds) obviously move faster than humans and therefore need a faster "capture". But insights have to compromise: they see "faster" (and also have a wider viewing angle), but we humans see "sharper".

The Dutch and Germans are supposed to be mortal football enemies, but I love our neighbors! They have brilliant sense of humor and are not afraid to laugh about themselves.

The Oranje Fans have organized a huge Fan Trek through South Africa, camping and visiting games together. But most of all they donate stuff to local football clubs. Is there a better way to advertise for your country by being entertaining, charitable and an inspiration for others?

Well done Oranje!

The World of Consumer Electronic can be divided into two categories: selling you overpriced cool NEW stuff (like iPads) and desperate attempts to make very OLD technology sexier.

3D-TV is such a sad case of trying to making old crap more exciting and charging you a lot of money for it.

3D is a kind of technology zombie that comes to live at least once every decade. There have been many attempts to make 3D movies, 3D TVs and recently 3D Gaming appealing to the masses.

But only a few ventures like Avatar have been commercially successful, but none of these attempts lasted longer than a year or so.

Come home with me and I show you some exciting 3D.

I am glad to see that even the dumb TV watching masses are smart enough to "see" that they don’t need that extra dimension. A good movie is a good movie – even in 2D.

Most of all: a good story stimulates your brain – that pseudo 3D effect is not needed to bond with charming or fascinating character. It’s all about the "content" on your screen – not the screens technology.

Click image for a larger finale.

Funerals are for the living. We celebrate the dead and glorify their lives. We say goodbye. We bemoan our loss.

The dead are simply dead.

But many living worry about their funerals and their graves. Many buy their graves in advance and are very picky about it. Some leave detailed instructions how their funeral should be celebrated.

Have you ever thought about your funeral and your grave? Any instructions your family has to follow? Or do you simply not care?

Gerd Müller is one of the Gods of the Teutonic Football Pantheon. Now there is a new Bomber – Thomas Müller!

I am not much into football, but another good Müller at play makes it more worthwhile to watch.

Oh well, nothing beats the weirdness and surrealism of 1970′s (?) Superhero movies from Japan.

Click image for more space age.

It seems like almost everyone and everything has been in outer space – except me!

More? The story behind Teddies in Space.

BBC News:  Snakes in mysterious global decline

We humans love bees, we understand their importance. Snakes are hardly as popular, yet they play their part in the ecosystem.

Once again, we don’t understand why the snake population is declining. Let’s hope this is only a small hiccup and the snakes recover …

Click image for more Retro Tech.

Against some human functions can be devastating no matter how much high-tech you throw at it. 

A perfect ad where Surrealism and Satire mix perfectly! The global Idiocracy makes huge steps forward with political candidates like this.

All countries have nuts like this one – but only in America they stand a real chance of being elected and starting another bloody war on a global scale.

BBC News: Women freeze eggs to wait for ‘Mr Right’

How cares about the biological clock if can beat nature with science? Outsourcing motherhood, sperm or egg banks are well established tools in family planning.

With falling fertility and aging populations in rich countries it’s no surprise that "making babies" is becoming a highly successful industry.

Plus it speaks volumes about modern life and personal egos that family life is more and more about the individualism of it’s parents that it is about the "natural family unit".

Click image for a bigger break.

Even Sexbombs like Jane Russell and Marilyn Monroe need a pause from all the glamour and horniness of their admirers …

I love my iPod, but it’s a sterile way to consume music. There is no haptic or creative element in consuming your favorite bands in this digital way.

With records and tapes you had a physical relationship to the medium, because it was all mechanical.

Just selecting the tape or record from your collection was the first act, pulling it out of it’s sleeve the second and inserting it into the player the third one …

It was a bit like foreplay – a preparation to listen to something you had actively selected. Not some track from your huge mp3 collection selected by randomness.

But most of all I miss the lost Art of of making Mixtapes for your friends. Sure you digital gifts for your friends on iTunes, but it’s simply not the same.

One would spend hours selecting the right tracks, arranging them in an meaningful sequence, recording the masterpiece and finally "beautifying" the tape.

Now that is some musical gift extraordinaire! It had personality, it was unique and it was arty. Such a mixtape could be a great friendship booster and also a great medium to tell your friends how you felt …

Today it’s hardcore consumerism and sharing your music on a network (either at home or a pirate P2P network), buying tracks on iTunes or a website like Last.fm is too clean and too emotionless.

PS: I’ve written about Walkman Nostalgia before …

Visit this BBC Gallery for some incredible Portraits.

Black faces have such a different, but incredible expressiveness and not many photographers really know how to work with this different kind of facial contrasts.

I always have to laugh at Vegetarians and Vegans, when they say that eating less meat will save the world.

The problem is that to grow huge quantities of primary food (wheat, vegs, etc.) you also need fertilizer in large quantities to sustain production for billions of people.

Either you use chemicals (which are mostly oil based and therefore evil) or you need dung. But dung means animals and animals usually means herbivores like Cows and Sheep. And especially these animals fart a lot of very evil methane …

For dung production you need less animals than for producing meat – but you still need a lot of them.

So being a vegetarian / vegan is not as green as many people think it is. Especially when you have to feed so many hungry humans ….

James May aka Captain Slow is one lucky Bastard. He is one of the few civilians allowed to fly with a U2 spy plane.

The U2 can fly very close to outer space (as the video demonstrates). Soon rich mortals can experience the same kick by flying Virgin Galactic, but it won’t be the same as flying (or better say gliding) in this Cold War Relic over the clouds …

Our modern celebrities are like the old Gods. They are our idols we worship and love. And like the Greek Pantheon we categorize those stars and worship certain characteristics.

One primary category is to have a Love and Fertility Goddess. There is always a willing supply of more or less talented flesh, eager to satisfy the medias and the masses hunger for a Überfräulein.

She needs to be young, quirky, accessible (at least in our minds), single and shamelessly sexy. Men will adore the "Venus", because the want to inseminate the Alpha Slut. And women just want to be the Alpha Slut.

Most young Venuses disappear from our Radars, when they get too old, get married or have a baby. Nobody wants a spoiled virgin …

Photo Journalists try to satisfy our huge hunger for images. It’s not enough that we watched an event on television, we still need / want pictures when we read about the very same event in a newspaper or online.

It’s no longer enough to read a text that something happened, we want a visual confirmation. After the Age of Text we are entering the Age of Video.

And the Pixel Wolfs are happy to deliver …

The Ziegfeld Follies Stars were mainstream Erotica – as much as the early 20th century America allowed – cleverly disguised as a Broadway show.

They were inspired by the French Folies Bergères – which was just another excuse for guys to stare at half naked ladies.

Nevertheless we have to thank Mr Ziegfield for discovering many great stars and beauties.