Life and Death in Austria [MEGATHREAD]

[Syt]

Maps!

A recent survey maps the education per district. Share of people whose highest education is the mandatory minimum school attendance:



Next, people whose highest education is Matura, i.e. qualified to university (however, this also includes many schools that do job preparation, so many of these go right into the job market afterwards):



Then, the share of people who have a master's or higher from university:



And finally people who have gone through formal job training (typically after mandatory minimum school):



In related statistics: over 70% of children whose parents are academics will study at university vs. less than 25% children of non-academic parents. Upward mobility in education is still pretty low.

[The Brain]

In Sweden families with brains made the education class move 1-2 generations ago. I guess it's the same in Austria?

[Syt]

http://www.thelocal.at/20160127/american-student-found-dead-in-vienna-apartment

American student found dead in Vienna apartment



A 25-year-old American au pair who was found dead in her apartment in Vienna's 4th district on Tuesday may have been murdered, police have said.

The young woman's employer became alarmed when she did not turn up to work on Monday and called the police.

Firemen broke open the door to her studio apartment on the Wiedner Hauptstrasse on Tuesday evening, to find her half-naked body lying face down on a mattress on the floor.

Detectives said that an autopsy showed she had no external injuries, and have now ordered a toxicological report to see if she was poisoned. Police spokesman Thomas Keiblinger said that traces of blood were found near her head, which may indicate an internal injury.

A forensics team initially had trouble examining the scene as all the light bulbs in her apartment had burnt out and had to be replaced with the help of a ladder.

Keiblinger said the young woman was from Colorado and had been studying and working in Vienna for around three years. Her employer said she was "very reliable" and had therefore thought it was unusual when she didn't turn up for work.

The Krone newspaper has named her as Lauren M., although this hasn't been confirmed by police.

No external injuries, all light bulbs burnt out? Better call Mulder and Scully ... 

[Valmy]

I guess she died with the lights on and they burned out before the cops got there.

Sounds like a possible OD situation to me.

[Syt]

I guess she died with the lights on and they burned out before the cops got there.

Sounds like a possible OD situation to me.

They say she suffocated. When she was found she was surrounded by many burning candles. 

[mongers]

I guess she died with the lights on and they burned out before the cops got there.

Sounds like a possible OD situation to me.

They say she suffocated. When she was found she was surrounded by many burning candles. 

So too lazy or incapable of replacing the bulbs, though perhaps the landlord didn't respond, instead she resorted to using more and more candles to light the apartment, till one day the carbon monoxide build-up killed her?

[Syt]

Came across this picture from 1860:



This is before the Ringstraße was built. The building with the globe on the top is the military geographical institute; I live in the little street behind it. Today, the right half of the picture would be covered by the town hall.

Modern view:



You can still (barely) see the two tips of the church on the left hand side.

[Syt]

So too lazy or incapable of replacing the bulbs, though perhaps the landlord didn't respond, instead she resorted to using more and more candles to light the apartment, till one day the carbon monoxide build-up killed her?

That would have been poisoning, not suffocation. Vienna has a couple of carbon monoxide incidents every year when people skimped out on having their heaters maintained (continuous flow water heaters powered with gas are very common in Vienna apartments). Usually they're quickly recognized as such.

[Valmy]

Now how are you supposed to do proper military maneuvers with all those trees they planted there?

So this was pre-Ringstrasse but post-tearing down the city walls?

[Syt]

Now how are you supposed to do proper military maneuvers with all those trees they planted there?

So this was pre-Ringstrasse but post-tearing down the city walls?

It's roughly the time of the map I posted earlier in the thread, the area called "Drilling Ground".

I looked it up and it seems the old city walls were demolished between 1858 and 1863 (though it already started under Napoleon's occupation in the area from Albertina to what's today's Burgtheater - some of it was partially rebuilt after the Napoleonic Wars, a bit further out; Burgtheater would be the approx. position from which both shots were taken, though it didn't exist in 1860).

Here's the old walls shown on a modern map:



The Werdertor during its demolition in 1860:



The Kärntnertor in 1858:

[Malthus]

You guys are so fucked when the Ottomans return. 

[Syt]

You guys are so fucked when the Ottomans return. 

They have to beat traffic on the Südosttangente first.

[Syt]

In other news, large swathes around the Hofburg are locked off tonight. Until Ash Wednesday it's ball season in Vienna. Tonight is the Academics Ball, sponsored by the FPÖ and in the past a magnet for right wingers and neo-nazis from all over Europe to waltz in the Hofburg, plus the usual assortment of fraternities (which, in Germany/Austria are usually - 95% and up - of the far right/nationalist variety). Obviously, there's protests against it. Unfortunately, it draws the violent kind of left wing protesters who like to trash police and property when they protest against right wingers. In past years it caused a rather unseemly ruckus, causing the police to declare ever large exclusion zones every year. This year:



So far everything is peaceful, fortunately.

[Syt]

http://www.thelocal.at/20160205/swiss-arrest-gambian-suspected-of-killing-american-au-pair-in-vienna

Swiss arrest Gambian suspected of killing au pair

Swiss authorities have arrested a Gambian man suspected of murdering a 25-year-old American woman working as an au pair in Vienna.

The Swiss justice ministry told AFP the Gambian man had been arrested at a centre for asylum seekers in the northeastern town of Kreuzlingen, not far from the Austrian border.

The man, who was not identified, "is suspected of having murdered a woman in Vienna," the ministry said in an email, adding that he was being held pending extradition to Austria.

The arrest comes after a woman, named as Lauren M. from Colorado, was found dead last week in her Vienna apartment lying face-down on a mattress with splatters of blood on the floor.

Her half-undressed body had been surrounded by a sea of burning candles, according to the APA news agency.

Swiss authorities said on Friday the suspect "will be questioned today by the prosecutor in the canton of Thurgau on behalf of the justice ministry," stressing that if he agreed to be sent to Austria, he could be extradited "immediately".

If he opposes the move, however, Swiss authorities will need a formal extradition request from Austria before determining if he can be sent out of the country, the ministry said.

The office of Austria's state prosecutor meanwhile said it had already filed a formal extradition request for the suspect on Friday, although Swiss authorities said they had not yet received it.

Lauren M. was first reported missing by her employers, who described her as "very reliable", after she had failed to pick up their child from kindergarten.

[Syt]

http://www.thelocal.at/20170120/cut-free-wifi-to-combat-station-violence-say-rail-bosses

Cut free WiFi to combat station violence, say rail bosses

Viennese rail bosses are blaming free WiFi at stations for a spate of violent incidents.

There have been reports, confirmed by police, of groups of youths attacking passengers and each other at Vienna's main rail stations.

Rail chiefs think the youths are attracted to the stations partly by the allure of limitless free internet access - and now plan to restrict the free WiFi service to 15 minutes per day, per traveller.

In the latest incident, captured on film by a witness at Vienna's Westbahnhof railway station, a group of youths intimidated a woman on the platform. The film shows the woman walking along the platform when one of the group approaches her and aggressively knocks off her hat.

The five youths then walk away. Police are seen talking to a group of lads at the end of the clip but say they are still looking for the one who harassed the female commuter.

Local media reported that an increased police presence had done nothing to curtail incidents of this type.

Police spokesman Paul Eidenberger said that most of the incidents are occurring late at night. Local media reports that fights often break out between groups of Afghan and Chechen teenagers.

Eidenberger added: "There have been complaints because there is often noise from the youngsters, especially when they also consume alcohol. We've also had reports of minor bodily injuries, and small fights."

"This is, of course, unpleasant for the passengers, for the people who are shopping here, and of course for the people who are running a shop here."

"There are simply many people here who are without social and economic perspective. And that is less a policing matter than it is an issue of integration," he added.

One shopkeeper who didn't want to be named described the activities of youths at Westbahnhof as: "scolding, arguing, brawling - nothing good."