Dr. Claus Volko

It's Monday, October 2nd, and the university year officially starts again. For me it begins with the so-called "practical course" in psychiatry - a subject that is rather interesting for me, so still I hope that it will not be too boring. However, it seems like this "practical course" consists mostly of lectures and seminars, and only on the last day of the week (which will also be the last day of the course) we'll spend one (!) hour at the clinic working with patients. Well, I've just had about 60 minutes of psychiatry lessons: a psychologist (not an M.D.) told us about the diagnosis of psychiatric disorders in children. While sitting there, listening and from time to time making some comments which were appreciated by the lecturers, I had the following thoughts: Now since many years I experienced something like "freedom" in my holidays for the first time: After passing my pharmacology exam on July 14th, I invested the time as planned, with ma

The party I voted for has become #1 in Austria. So the desired change of government is going to come. I'm curious what reforms of the educational systems they'll have. My suggestions would be:   * There should be primary, secondary and tertiary schooling.   * Primary schooling should usually start at an age of 6 years and last until 12.   * It should, however, be possible to start primary schooling at an earlier age if the child appears to be gifted.   * If a child already knows how to read, write and make simple calculations before entering school, then the child should be allowed to start at the 2nd form.   * Secondary schooling should usually start at 12 and last until 18.   * Tertiary schooling (university, university of applied sciences and related institutions) should start after finishing secondary school.   * It should be possible to skip up as many grades as you like both in primary and secondary schooling. All that's necessary is to pass an exam about the contents

On Sunday we're gonna have national elections in Austria... There are 7 parties that run for office in all federal states of Austria: the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP, the conservative government party), the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ, a bit less market-oriented than the ÖVP), the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ, right-wing), the Greens (left-liberal), the Alliance for the Future of Austria (BZÖ, founded by former members of the FPÖ who formed the government together with the ÖVP in the last few years), the Communist Party of Austria (KPÖ, the name says it) and a platform led by former SPÖ politician Hans-Peter Martin. In some states, there are also some other parties, but they have little chances. Probably the ÖVP, SPÖ, FPÖ and Greens will enter next parliament, while the others will probably fail to pass the 4% margin which is required to gain a seat in parliament. There will also be one seat for the Liberal Forum (LiF, liberal) because they are having an alliance

I've joined the Pirate Party of Austria. My reason for joining is: I've had the idea to make a demo using photos I found at the Internet. As these photos are copyrighted (it's allowed to view them on the web, but it's not allowed to use them in own productions), I had to abandon this plan as I could get legal problems otherwise. I support the Pirate Party hoping that these silly copyright laws which harm creativity will eventually be changed.

Ich habe mir von einem Ex-Mitschüler, der inzwischen Politikwissenschaft studiert hat, sagen lassen, dass an der Universität die Begriffe "links" und "rechts" nicht verwendet werden, weil es keine wissenschaftlich allgemein anerkannte Definition dafür gibt. Hingegen werden diese Begriffe in den Medien tagtäglich verwendet, und ich meine, eine Definition gefunden zu haben, die mit dem allgemeinen Sprachgebrauch (der vielen intuitiv klaren Bedeutung dieser Begriffe) gut übereinstimmt. In der politischen Mitte liegen jene Gruppierungen und Parteien, die mit der bestehenden gesellschaftlichen Ordnung und den Wertmaßstäben der Mehrheit der Bevölkerung im Einklang stehen. Links der Mitte stehen diejenigen, welche gegen diese Ordnung und die damit verbundenen Werte opponieren. Hingegen sind im rechten Spektrum jene Menschen angesiedelt, welche mit der bestehenden Ordnung im Prinzip einverstanden sind, aber sie noch gerne verschärfen würden. Demnach repräsentiert in Österre

Heute habe ich beim Nachdenken eine Einteilung der Menschen in vier Temperamente gefunden, die meiner Meinung nach wesentlich sinnvoller ist als die von Keirsey: - der Intellektuelle (IN) - der Manager (EN) - der Handwerker (IS) - der Schauspieler (ES) Ich möchte nur auf das Temperament IN näher eingehen, weil ich die anderen Temperamente zu wenig kenne. Der Intellektuelle (IN) Der Intellektuelle ist ein Mensch, der durch rege geistige Tätigkeit gekennzeichnet ist. Charakteristisch sind ein breites Interessensspektrum und ein aktives, nicht nur passives Beschäftigen mit der Materie: Er macht sich eigene Gedanken zu Erfahrenem und Gelesenem. Oft schreibt er sie auch nieder, primär, um sie festzuhalten, und nur sekundär, um sie anderen Menschen mitzuteilen. Das Wort "Intellektueller" wird im Deutschen auch als Berufsbezeichnung verwendet; man versteht darunter Journalisten, Schriftsteller, Philosophen, Psychologen, Theologen, Geistes- und Naturwissenschaftler, aber zum Teil auc

EP has pointed me to an interesting site: http://textalyser.net/ There I learned about the {Gunning-Fog Index}, using which you can measure the level of language knowledge that is needed to understand a text. I'm not sure if textalyser.net is good; I still have to play around with it. Yet it would be interesting what Gunning-Fog Index some well-known newspapers/magazines have - and how my medical textbooks would score.