Baut Eure Städte an den Vesuv

If computers don’t lie, here are some stats for 2007: I read 1,802 papers (+10% than in 2006), sent 2,034 emails in response to 5,661 incoming messages (-15%), (co-)published 12 papers (+20%) and gave 7 lectures (+0%). Does this make me happy? Yes, and no, even when reading now a book on happiness. The number of paper ever increases but not necessarily our knowledge. “Glück!” by Wolf Schneider is one of the few books that cannot be translated into any other language as he is one of the masters of writing German language. So there are many things left to do in 2008… Schneider quotes Nietzsche

Das Geheimnis, um die größte Fruchtbarkeit und den grössten Genuss vom Dasein einzuernten, heißt: gefährlich leben! Baut Eure Städte an den Vesuv! Schickt Eure Schiffe in unerforschte Meere! Lebt im Kriege mit Euresgleichen und mit Euch selber! Seid Räuber und Eroberer solange ihr nicht Herrscher und Besitzer sein könnt, ihr Erkennenden.
The secret for greatest fruitfulness and the greatest enjoyment from existence is to live dangerously ! Build your cities on the slopes of Vesuvius! Send your ships into uncharted seas! Live at war with your peers and yourselves! Be robbers and conquerors as long as you cannot be rulers and possessors, you seekers of knowledge!

which is taken from Nitzsche’s “Die fröhliche Wissenschaft”! See you again here next year, yea, yea.