Michael In mid-August, our (ahem!) beloved "Gouvernator" Arnold Schwarzenegger stopped by for a visit at the Yahoo! cafeteria. I had already been wondering in the morning when I came in why part of the parking garage was cordoned off, but it was probably so that the famous gentleman could enter the cafeteria through the back entrance, where a bunch of Yahoo! employees were already waiting for him.

Michael It has already been mentioned that you can no longer watch TV news in the USA. The channel "Fox" is the mouthpiece of George W. Bush's Ministry of Propaganda. And he is increasingly embarrassing to most Americans I regularly interact with. The previously quite objective channel CNN has recently been reporting in a strangely one-sided manner. And the local stations don't cover world news, but rather local nonsense, weather, and sports. The Iraq war only seems to interest these editorial teams if there is news about a soldier from the local county who died.

Angelika In Germany, by now, every store has its own bonus program. When a customer buys something, bonus points are credited to chip cards, which shoppers can redeem later. When I recently bought something at a pharmacy during a visit to Germany, I was handed different colored plastic tokens along with a brochure explaining how many tokens I needed to get a pack of tissues for free. Almost like in Americ!

Michael Sure, in America, ruthless capitalism prevails. But precisely because everyone knows that people without money have nothing to laugh about, and also receive nothing or very little from the state, many high earners feel obliged to donate something to the not-so-well-off. Germans would be more likely to say, "I already pay so much in taxes, the state should take care of the bums, right!" But here, many publicly and proudly show that they also care for the disadvantaged.

I don't really need to tell you in Germany about expensive gasoline. But lately, here in our cheap-gasoline country, prices have been skyrocketing to the point where it makes you dizzy. Especially the owners of gas guzzlers are groaning when the gas station attendant laughs in his booth because the fools are already paying with a $50 bill for the third time in a week.

I'm not exactly Heinz Sielmann, but in sunny California, there are some curiosities in the animal kingdom that even fascinate me as a techie. Recently, we were in Point Reyes, and during a hike, I almost stepped on a snake that slithered lightning-fast across the path. Phew, that was a close call.

Recently, I devoured a book that I absolutely must recommend. The intellectual father of "Freakonomics" is Steven D. Levitt, an economist, but not of the ordinary kind. Unlike millions of business students who mindlessly parrot the principles of Adam Smith, Levitt approaches questions with an open mind and scientific rigor. The book is not about macro- or microeconomics. It is about human, all-too-human reactions to economic stimuli.

Angelika After five years, a California driver's license expires and you have to apply for a new one. It's a mere formality. The responsible authority, the DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles), has quite a bad reputation, but recently it hasn't been as slow and disorganized as generally assumed. I received a letter by mail stating that a new driver's license needed to be applied for, and this could be done either by sending a form to the DMV by mail or, brand new, via the internet. I'm always up for modern conveniences, so I went to http://www.dmv.ca.gov, where I not only found a button for "Online Driver License Renewal" but also could immediately enter the number included with the letter, quickly confirmed that my eyesight is still reasonably good, paid $25 by credit card through a secure browser connection, and that was it. To my great surprise, the new driver's license arrived by mail just three days later. That's how I like dealing with bureaucracy!

Angelika I had a feeling: If an earthquake comes, we have to help ourselves. The images and reports about the failure of the American government and also of local politicians on the American Gulf Coast to quickly implement relief efforts after Hurricane Katrina prove me right. Not to mention the lack of extensive preventive measures for a foreseeable disaster. Even Michael no longer mocks my earthquake emergency kits, which are stored under our bed and can provide us with essentials like water, food, a battery-operated radio, a first aid kit, and warm clothes in the event of a severe earthquake ( Rundbrief 04/1999 ).

Angelika This week, our "Gouvernator" Arnold Schwarzenegger revealed to us that he will run for election again in California in November 2006. The man is showing courage, as according to newspaper reports, he currently has the approval of only 34 percent of the population.

Michael I have tried many headphones in my life. When you're on the go, however, there's always the problem of ambient noise spoiling the listening experience. The airplane roars or the train rattles, and you have to turn up the portable music player quite a bit just to hear anything at all. This is not only unenjoyable but also extremely harmful to the ears, which can become irreparably dulled. That's why there are so-called "noise-cancelling" headphones, which electronically create a counter-noise to the external sound, effectively filtering out static noises like humming or droning. However, if some idiot three seats away starts talking on their phone during a train ride, even noise-cancelling won't help anymore.

Michael And yet another top product: In the USA, there is this hysteria about colds. Everyone avoids anyone who sneezes or blows their nose, and anyone who has a cold naturally cancels all appointments immediately.

Recently, something came out that made me think: It's amazing what an exciting time we live in. The internet company Google released an innovative map service that allows you to see both street maps and the corresponding satellite images. Curious?

Michael When our TiVo recently picked up a rerun of the Western series "Bonanza," which I used to greatly enjoy as a young lad, I noticed a map at the beginning of the show that displayed the location of the Ponderosa Ranch. Ha! It's right near Reno and Carson City in the state of Nevada, a bit north of Las Vegas! We must have unknowingly driven by there on one of our road trips.

Angelika Around here, hurricanes are raging, and in yours, it's election chaos. However, it's not my fault because, even though I wanted to dutifully exercise my right to vote in the federal election, I was unable to cast my vote. I already mentioned in the newsletter that you have to apply to be entered into the electoral register of the municipality (in my case, Munich) where you were last registered in Germany ( Rundbrief 09/2002 ), seperately for each election.