The timeless wisdom of Dilbert (click for full size):

Hat tip – Ilona

The full list is here, and well worth a read. But I decided to present an abridged version of my favorites. Note though, that all is not lost. Somewhere in the text, he does mention a positive:

Just about the only thing good you can say about the Brits is they had the good sense to colonize India and then giving enough of them visas to introduce decent food into London.

On to my picks:

I promise this blog will not become an echo of Google Video, but this one is too good to pass up.

Stephen Colbert brings you a special edition of the Colbert Report, right from the White House Correspondents Association Dinner. Now if you’ve been anywhere near the USA, you will know this will be a great laugh.

You have to hand it to GW (Bush) though – he’s being sarcastically insulted, and takes it well. You have to hand it to the Americans. They have Fox News, but they also have Comedy Central (thank god). They know their humor and its a pity we miss it outside of America.

If you don’t die laughing, you never will!

My apologies to all my German friends.

Thanks to Kaushik Pattnayak.

The Swiss parliament has voted to allow limited Sunday shopping, particularly in the run-up to Christmas.

This amendment allows individual cantons to “authorise the general opening of shops for up to four Sundays per year.” Yes, thats right. Swiss shoppers can regale in going to the store four times a year. Wow. That’s once every season!

If you don’t live in Switzerland, you have no idea how big a deal this is. After all, it was only in 2005 that the Swss allowed trading at train stations and airports.

Just over 50 per cent of voters – predominantly in seven urban regions – approved the legislation, with 49.4 per cent voting against.

What next? Work past 5pm? God forbid, no!

This past spring, in March, elite members of the Swiss Army accidentally invaded neighboring Lichtenstein. Yes, that’s right. Accidentally.

The event did not spark World War III, nor create waves in the local media. Most Swiss, it would appear, consider it perfectly natural that their soldiers get lost occassionally. Nor were they worried about any untoward incident. As the Army spokesman explained, “the troops were armed with assault rifles – however, they had no ammunition.” Whew, that’s a relief!

Nevertheless, this is serious business. Switzerland, after all, has an army of a quarter of a million men, underground bunkers in every apartment block, secret communications rooms under roads, and armored safe houses scattered around the countryside. The IHT put it in perspective, and is worth a read: A Wartime Scenario, starring unlikely Swiss.

Books on India are a dime a dozen these days. But while much of the attention has been focused either on fiction writers, in the vien of Jhumpa Lahiri or Amitav Ghosh, or on the economic success of India, a series of books have been published in the last months that analyze India’s polity and society. The first I read, enjoyed, and reviewed was In Spite of the Gods: The Strange Rise of Mondern India, by Ed Luce.

Edward Luce spent five years in India as South Asia bureau chief for the Financial Times. In his words during that time, Indians were, with few exceptions, “unreservedly kind, open, hospitable and tolerant.” In return, Luce has gifted India this book – In Spite of the Gods: The Strange Rise of Modern India.

The title suggests the subject matter is full of contradictions – just how exactly is the rise of India “strange”? Those apparent contradictions are explained so well that Luce makes my job of recommending this book easy. If you can read only one book on India, make it this one.

There is a bike exchange tomorrow near Zurich.

Now, bicycles are definitely the only way to travel in a city like Zurich. I left my old one in Geneva but with good weather and summer here, it is time to get my wheels again. So, I head tomorrow to the Bike Exchange.

This is a rather organized system of sale/exchange of old bikes. Anybody can bring their old bike and sell it and anyone else can buy it. The next one is tomorrow, May 12 in Glattpark, just outside Zurich (in a place called Opfikon).

These things happen several times a year all over the country. For a full schedule, and a “how it works”, see Pro Velo Suisse, the organizers.

The good news is I finished the SOLA. The not so good news is I took 1 hour 19 minutes and 23 seconds (see results) to complete my 13km lap. That means, 1 hour 19 minutes and 23 seconds of running in cold, pouring rain. It also means I ranked 676 out of about 800, with an overall team ranking in the 596 (team ZÜRCHER ANWALTSVERBAND 2)

On the other hand, the Zurich Bar Association was very happy and sporting about it, and their other team did much better, finishing 482nd. Meeting some of my running mates after dinner proved that not all lawyers are like they tell you they are!

I’m waiting for photos, but must admit running flat out for 13km, half uphill, isn’t what I do everyday. Time to start training for next year.