Former Indonesian president and scientist Bacharudin Jusuf Habibi visited "his" University, the RWTH Aachen in Germany last Saturday. Please find impressions of Habibi's visit below.

In the age of 19 Habibi came to Aachen to study. During the following years he studied aerospace engineering receiving Diploma (equivalent to Master in most countries) in 1960 and doctorate in 1965. Now, many decades later 75 year old Habibi talked in Aachen in front of 300 Indonesian students from 10 European countries. Habibi is still very popular and a role model among the young generation. 

In exactly 1 week Etihad will bring me from Frankfurt via Abu Dabi to Sydney. From a cold German winter into nice Australian summer. Many pictorious photographs will be posted here and on Facebook. I'll keep you up to date!

Wie traurig. Tom, ein 5 Jahre alter Kater wird vermisst – und das in der Weihnachtszeit. Es ist rätselhaft warum der kleine Moppel (5 - 6 kg !) überhaupt geflohen ist. Draußen ist es bitterkalt und es liegen 40 cm Schnee.

Three busy weeks of voting are over and because of you I’ve made it to top 4 of Sony’s national photo competition! Thank you so much for your voting support during the last weeks. The 3 photo challenges I went through were quite fun. But in the end the competition was rather a voting challenge than a photo competition. Hopefully, Sony will draw several insights out of this project. The voting regulations haven’t been clear in the beginning; the voting site wasn’t perfectly programmed etc. For an electronic giant this is kinda sad.

Overall my impression of the NEX 5 is good. However, I wouldn’t buy this camera for myself. In comparison with basic DSLR cams it is too expensive
(~ 750 EUR). It’s rather for photographers seeking for a cam with pro-like features. What I’ve liked was the switch to a completely manual shooting, depth of field blur, HD video function as well as the panorama option. But I prefer bigger cams – that’s why I’ll keep my Nikon D200. I just like its output, the surface feel and its speed.

Some shots I've made with the NEX5 during the competition.

Not for president – but to become SONY’s NEX-Travel-Scout. Sony told me today that I’m in the final 16 of their NEX-Travel-Scout photo competition. The competition will start this Friday. Every week I and 15 finalists have to solve a photo or video job. For those jobs I’ll get a brand new SONY NEX 5. Let’s see what this camera got.

Btw, I've made it to the final round with my picture of a Balinese bride. Additionally, SONY wanted to know to which country / location I’d like to go as the NEX-Travel-Scout. My answer was North Korea ;-)

I’ll keep you up to date as soon as I’ll receive my first job! And don’t forget to vote for me. Thank you so much!

Usually I don’t really recognize people in the street holding or walking around with promotional signs. It’s always the same - kind of boring. In this case it was different. Those 2 guys spinning around their “Albamon Arrows” really attract my attention. It was fun watching them doing their street show. But check it out yourself. You’ll find the short video below. What do you think?

THE RED FACE is Korea’s answer of American outdoor brand THE NORTH FACE. I’ve found THE RED FACE stores and clothes all over South Korea. South Koreans like outdoor activities such as hiking and wearing functional clothes is a must. Thus, there are several local outdoor clothes brands competing with the global brands.

THE RED FACE doesn’t only sound similar to THE NORTH FACE, even the logo elements and the corporate colours (white on red) were taken from THE NORTH FACE, a brand of VF Corporation. On top, THE RED FACE uses the headline “Born in the Nature 1966”.  Interesting fact: THE NORTH FACE brand was established in 1966 in San Francisco, California by Douglas Tompkins and Kenneth Klopp. Having a look at the domain details shows that theredface.com has been registered on August the 25th, 2005 - about 10 years after thenorthface.com has been created.

The longer I browse THE RED FACE website the more confused I get. The company uses a hotmail-address (theredface@hotmail.com) what seems rather unprofessional. And why are there links to the websites of salomonoutdoor.kr and salomonsports.com? It seems Salomon cooperates with THE RED FACE. I couldn’t find any advice for this fact in the www but on the store I’ve photographed you can read the Salomon letters as well.

Genesis is Hyundai's brand name for the premium car segment. According to Hyundai Vice Chairman Kim Dong-jin, the name Genesis is a reflection that the vehicle is the first of many premium cars the company will introduce. The 1st Genesis type was introduced in 2007. On the pictures below you can see the latest, the 2010 version. Hyundai sells the Genesis nearly worldwide, except Europe because of the competitive premium market situation.