Dr. Claus Volko

Some people have already received the first issue of "Diskussion" which was edited by me. I had already finished the magazine in the first October week, but as the magazine was so large this time, it took the printing company quite long... (I shall visit them one day, it would be interesting to see what equipment they have; I guess it's a rather small one. But it offers Mensa Austria good conditions, and that's what counts.) The print-run is less than half the number of people who regularly download an issue of Hugi... so it's a nice mag, a nice additional platform to publish articles in, but Hugi is still far more effective in reaching a fair number of people. *eyes burning, gotta shut off my computer*

ps has collected links to blogs from people related to the demoscene. They can be found at: http://del.icio.us/psenough/blog%2Bdemoscene How many familiar names have blogs which I haven't noticed (and I'm not unhappy about it, as most of what people write in their weblogs is not as interesting for strangers as for themselves).

I've been invited to a new (free) online RPG, which is called KnightFight. If you want to join, simply click http://www.knightfight.de/?ac=vid&vid=61020900 . Attention: The game is in German language. It was made by the producers of BananenKoenig. The gameplay seems to be a bit more complex (... hopefully).

I've had an idea regarding computer linguistics. Since I have no clue about the current state of this science, I've borrowed a textbook on computer linguistics from our university library (680 pages). It seems like nothing similar to what I have in mind is described in there. I wonder if it's just missing in the book or if my idea is perhaps a real innovation (which I doubt, but...). I've got to find some expert at this subject in order to get more information. It would be a nice dissertation project. However, it's not so important for me as for me, exams currently have priority, and in computer science I first have to work on my Bachelor project (which will be about another, equally interesting topic). Ah, LJ has just modified its mood box. Nice, so now I'm able to simply enter a word instead of having to select it from the combobox all the time.

Yesterday I spent 6-7 hours studying without interruption. I'm currently studying for my psychiatry exam. This is the first subject that interests me. (Imagine: I've already taken the pains of studying medicine for more than five years, and now finally a subject has come that interests me! What should this be called? Masochistic personality disorder, perhaps? ;-)) In addition to the standard textbooks, I've borrowed yet another book focusing on personality disorders only. Since I know a lot of people with peculiar traits, I can relate to this subject well and therefore it's especially interesting for me. Let's see if I've already memorized the 9 diagnostic criteria of schizoid personality disorder: 1. enjoys only a few activities 2. emotional coldness, flat affect 3. inability to display warmth and anger 4. no apparent reaction to criticism or praise 5. little interest in sex 6. loner 7. prefers dealing with his/her phantasy world 8. lack of social contacts 9. p

Von den Überlegungen, ein Mehrheitswahlrecht einzuführen, wie sie etwa in http://derstandard.at/?url=/?id=2638464 geäußert wurden, halte ich nichts, aber auch gar nichts. Die Proponenten dieses Systems vergessen ganz darauf, dass die Verfassung eine "Gewaltenteilung" vorsieht. Das heißt, dass Exekutive und Legislative zwei verschiedene Gewalten sind. Warum muss die Regierung unbedingt die Mehrheit im Parlament haben? Das bedeutet doch nur, dass Exekutive und Legislative praktisch in einer Hand sind, was dem Geist der Verfassung widerspricht! Andererseits ist das Wählen von Listen mit der Vier-Prozent-Hürde zu überdenken; ein Personenwahlrecht, das auch Außenseitern Chancen gäbe, wäre begrüßenswert.

I watched "Hero", a Chinese Wuxia movie, on TV today. Last week the same channel presented "Zatoichi", a Japanese sword-fighting movie. I guess the channel will continue broadcasting films in this style. They're very interesting since they depict the Asian culture of former centuries. Much of the way people in these films think seems strange to me. But this has made me come to the conclusion that human existence is simply not exactly only what we've been told from our parents and the older people in our community. Human beings are wild animals, and only law and tradition made them peaceful. These films from Medieval China and Old Japan show what people are like if the ethical and judical systems are still less developed. The two assassins' decisions not to kill the Emporer in "Hero" when they had the opportunity to showed the power of intuition - "Calligraphy has taught me", one of them said. The king's dismayed approval of the pe

An intellectual is a person who has discovered something more interesting than sex.  - Aldous Huxley I'll add this one to my list of favourite quotes.