The Off Topic Topic

[mongers]

Today I was twice press ganged into helping some  Chinese tourists translate broken English demands (ah china) into Japanese.
Which was bizzare.
Yes, logically Chinese people have little more reason to know Japanese than the people of any other country. But still..... Seems weird to have a white guy translating for Asians in an asian language.

Oiling the wheels of civilisation. 

[Ed Anger]

Wow, that is amazing.  I can't imagine such a thing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_of_the_Worlds_(radio_drama)

No shit Sherlock.

I hope a Aspie molests you.

[Syt]

The new migration report for Austria has been released. 20% of people in Austria have been born abroad or have a parent that was born abroad.

In Vienna that number is close to 50%.

In the age groups 20-40 the percentage is between 45 and 55%; for children 0-10 years it's 70%, and for teens it's roughly 60% (all Vienna numbers).

51% of people think integration of foreigners works well, up from 39% a few years ago.

[Josquius]

They don't have figures to separate the born abroad and those with one and two foreign parents?

[Syt]

They don't have figures to separate the born abroad and those with one and two foreign parents?

Why, yes they do (graph by age groups, 2011 figures):



From top to bottom:
- Austrians born in Austria, no migration background
- 2nd generation: Austrians born in Austria, at least one parent born abroad
- 1st generation: Austrian citizen, but born abroad (naturalized immigrants)
- 2nd generation: foreign citizen, born in Austria
- 1st generation: foreign citizen, born abroad

Mind you, having this amount of immigration is not something extraordinary in Vienna. Around 1900, a lot of non-German citizens of the Habsburg Empire moved here, and many "old" Viennese families will have distinctly Czech/Slovak, Hungarian, Croat etc. names. After WW2, a lot of refugees came from Hungary in 1956 and from CSSR in 1968. Then from ex-Yugoslavia in the 90s. And since the 60s or 70s Turkish guest workers.

It's why I'm not too worried about the FPÖ in Vienna itself, because the electorate will get more and more people of immigrant background that the FPÖ so far has tried in vain to attract (they are pretty popular with young Austrians of low education).

[CountDeMoney]

Heh, Troublegum.  Was listening to that on the way home today.  Everything they did after that was pretty weak.

[Syt]

Yeah, there were a few "One Album Wonders" in the 90s that failed to capture the glory of their milestone release.

[MadImmortalMan]

Some of them were more along the lines of the rest of their stuff was decent too but that one album was unrepeatable.

I'm thinking of Superunknown, Throwing Copper--ones like that.

[MadImmortalMan]

I just noticed in my wanderings that the entire audiobook of Frank Herbert's Dune is on youtube. It's over thirty hours long.

Edit: Thirty! 

[Syt]

I've started listening to Asimov's Foundation books which are fortunately not quite as long.

I like the books, but an editor today would probably tell him to get rid of all those adverbs ("said colly", "said angrily" etc.).

[Caliga]

I've started listening to Asimov's Foundation books which are fortunately not quite as long.

I like the books, but an editor today would probably tell him to get rid of all those adverbs ("said colly", "said angrily" etc.).

I love Foundation.  I read the entire series over a period of like 15-20 years.  Finally finished Forward the Foundation about 7 or 8 years ago.

[Ideologue]

Some of them were more along the lines of the rest of their stuff was decent too but that one album was unrepeatable.

I'm thinking of Superunknown, Throwing Copper--ones like that.

That seems fair to both (especially Live) in terms of their subsequent success, but Down On the Upside was almost as good (only lacking an equivalent to "The Day I Tried to Live," though I won't argue if you said it doesn't have a match for "Black Hole Sun" either).

[Eddie Teach]

Soundgarden had a string of 3 platinum albums. You could just as easily mention 10 or Nevermind.

[Ideologue]

Yeah, but nobody remembers Down On the Upside and the other one (whatever it was called) quite so well as Superunknown.

[Eddie Teach]

Nobody remembers In Utero or Bleach as well as Nevermind either.