I love Berlin.

This week was my second visit to the city, and the first time that I really had a chance to play tourist. You can find some of my favourite pictures over on Flickr.

The first time I visited the city I knew I liked it, but I really couldn’t articulate why. I had just recently been in Paris and the way I explained it was “Paris is chic, Berlin is cool”. Which is true.

But after looking over the pictures from this week, I realized a least part of the reason why I love Berlin is that it goes past the other major European cities in revealing its past. London, Paris, etc. make a point of showing off their history. Berlin puts the burden of its history front and centre. From the statue of a scowling Soviet soldier, to the unrepaired bullet holes, to the Holocaust Memorial, Berlin gives equal time to its unpleasant past whereas the other cities only reveal their glories. The whole history is there to find on public display, not just the victories.

That’s not to say that Berlin is sombre. The public art is incredible with a very cool mix of classical and modern. The street scene is hopping with some of the best buskers I’ve seen anywhere.

If you haven’t thought of Berlin as a travel destination, think again. It is a very walkable and lovely city with great hotels, restaurants and bars. I will definitely be going back. Next time I hope to be able to spend some significant time visiting the museums. From all reports they are incredible.

Some random thoughts on what to do or see:

• If you go the Holocaust Memorial don’t just look at it. Walk through it. If you haven’t been disoriented in the middle of it, you’re missing the point.
• I can highly recommend both the Westin Grand and the Intercontinental hotels. Especially the latter, as its location close to the Tiergarten, Zoo and Breitscheidplatz are hard to beat. They’re certainly not cheap, but they are both excellent.
• If you have the legs for it, the view from the top of the Victory Column (Siegessäule) is pretty incredible. But your legs will be burning by the time you walk to the top.
• The public transit is outstanding. I used the ICE to get there and the U-Bahn, S-Bahn and buses in the city. Clean, reliable and on-time.

I travel a lot in Europe and love the high speed rail system. In fact, I am sure that I am one of the very few Canadians that hold a Deutsche Bahn 50 frequent rail traveler discount card.

So I thrilled to see that the Obama administration’s announcement today that they’re pushing for a quite complete high speed rail system for the United States. But I got really excited when I noticed the little northern leg on this map. I poked around a little bit, and yes it seems that a high-speed rail corridor is on the plan from Boston to Montreal.

I wonder what this means for a Canadian high-speed plan? If that linked to the often-rumored Toronto-Ottawa-Montreal rail link, that would be very cool.

Update: There is also a link in the Pacific Northwest that goes up to Vancouver. Boy, I bet Bombardier is licking their chops on this opportunity.

The Politics Test is set up for Americans, but it seems to work for me too

Ian Skerrett, Ralph Mueller and I are in Berlin this week for the OSGi Community Event. We haven’t had too much time for touring, but I did manage to take a couple of quick photos.

The happy shot of Ian, Ralph and Naci Dai was taken at a Greek restaurant where we watched Greece play Sweden in the Euro Cup. It was good fun to soak up their enthusiasm for the game. But the crowd got pretty quiet as Sweden scored two quick goals in the second half.

I really like Berlin. It has a very nice, relaxed urban vibe. It’s a lot more colourful than Frankfurt. I would definitely like to come back and play tourist here some day.

Last week I read that the CRTC (the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission) is studying the possibility of regulating the internet. Like that is even remotely possible. Or desirable.

With the increasing popularity of online broadcasters such as Joost, Hulu and even YouTube, the CRTC has grown concerned that traditional broadcasting regulations outlining required levels of Canadian content are threatened.

Jeez, did it ever occur to these folks that the very reason people use these services is so they can watch what they actually want to watch, rather than what government regulators think is good for them?

Then this week I read that the Canadian, US and other governments are seriously talking about turning border inspectors into “copyright regulators” with the authority to inspect laptops, iPods, cell phones and the like to determine whether they have illegal copyright materials. And if they do find something which the inspector (in their sole judgment) determines to be an illegal copy of copywritten material, they can detain you, fine you and/or destroy your device.

Oh my. It really does seem that there are going to be some major political and regulatory battles over the next couple of years. But these ideas are just such utter nonsense it staggers me that policy makers would even consider them.

All I can keep thinking of is the time I sat beside a Canadian federal court of appeals judge on an airplane. He told me that he mostly adjudicated patent and copyright cases. He also told me that he had never used a computer in his life and had no idea how they worked.

It ain’t gonna be pretty.

I took the Nikon to Paris on my trip there this week, but unfortunately had very little time for playing tourist. Ralph and I had one free evening to walk around, and the light was only so-so.

We were staying in Montparnasse, which was definitely my favourite location so far in my trips to Paris. The hotel was right across the street from the Gare Montparnasse train/metro station, so getting everywhere was very simple. And its a great Paris neighbourhood. Real people live there, with some great local bistros to enjoy.

I’ve posted some pics, including a few that I took out of my hotel window.

It was great to see that at least one person in Paris has great taste in cars

I’ve grown and changed a lot as a coach over the past 12 years. A lot of it has to do with experience and maturity. But having role models to help define your approach to the game and how to interact with the kids is also huge.

Meet my new role model: Coach Jules

You learn a lot about a city by watching how its taxis work. New York: annoying but efficient. Chicago: dirty and surly. Paris: clean but impossible to find when you need one.

San Francisco Airport: maniacs.

Nowhere I travel do they have a rule like the one in San Francisco, where “turning a short” is the excuse used by cab drivers to find their inner Schumacher. If you are in a cab coming out of SFO that is doing 90 miles per hour, it’s because the driver is attempting to get you to your destination and return to the airport in less than 30 minutes. Because if they’re back in less than 30 minutes they get to jump the queue and pick up another fare immediately. Maybe someday the Freakonomics guys can use this to explain why more cabbies die in accidents in San Francisco than anywhere else

SFO to downtown and back in 30 minutes is not humanly possible if you drive anywhere even close to the speed limit. We are talking some serious velocity requirements.

The good news is that when it is 1:30am according to your body clock, there is nothing like being in a cab doing 90++ weaving through traffic on the 101 to keep you awake.

But it’s a shame. It is really a shame that none of our political leaders have the leadership, oratorical and internet skills of Barack Obama. The message of hope is not the property of either the left or the right. But it does require someone with vision and optimism to deliver it. I for one can’t think of a single leader in Canada who even tries.

You want to know how to get people – especially young people – involved in politics again? Check this out.

I’ve been slacking off on the sci-fi updates, but the reading itself has been coming along pretty well. In fact, I’ve read through two authors since my last post on the topic.

Charles Stross just rocks. Singularity Sky and Iron Sunrise are two of the best sci-fi books I have ever read. Well written, great plots, character development aplenty, and an alternative future that is truly compelling. The weird thing is that I was disappointed with Accelerando, which I had heard such great things about. I found a lot of the cyberpunk imagery feeling overly familiar, and the ending (to me) simply felt like he ran out out of gas. Ya, I know its a set of short stories, but I still think the conclusion could have been better.

Reading Richard Morgan was an interesting experience. I literally could not put the books (Altered Carbon, Broken Angels and Woken Furies) down. The pace was fantastic, equal to the very best detective or military novels out there. Morgan’s alternative future is a well constructed and nuanced dystopia where humanity has created a form of digital immortality that is just (yet?) another mechanism for the powerful to exploit the proletariat.

But I have to admit that after a couple of novels focused on a psychopathic killer slaughtering his way through Morgan’s vision of relentless class warfare I was tired. I mean seriously, I find dialectical materialism as amusing as the next guy but the politics of Morgan’s books are about as subtle as a Chomsky polemic.

That said, as I understand it, at least Altered Carbon has been optioned for a movie. The action film possibilities for these plot lines could really be cool. Cool as in even better than Blade Runner, as hard as that might be to believe.