I know no better way to mourn the death Vaclav Havel to remember the congratulations on his birth that friends snuck past censors back in 1989.  Then they wished him health and continued success.  Now I thank him for that success–success I not in his fame or political success but in his constant attempt to [...]

According to press reports in SME and Pravda, the most recent FOCUS poll shows the party Smer-SD with a commanding lead and the capacity to gain a majority of seats in parliament.  And for once those press reports are correct.  This does not mean that Smer will win the majority, but this FOCUS poll is [...]

I’ve wanted to post this for some time but did not dare to do so until I knew it would work out. Now it has and I can reveal the identity of the guest in yesterday’s Democracy class: But before you say, “what a bad Photoshop job!” you should know that I would never stoop [...]

I always bury the lead in these stories and I’m trying not to, so here’s the four sentence summary: According to current polls Smer is likely to be able to form a government with SNS and would almost be able to form one on its own, but polls are often misleading and obscure narrow margins [...]

Work in progress here, but I wanted to get out the first half while anybody was still interested.  Before I get to that, however, a bit of news: Slovak media is reporting an agreement: Smer will support the EFSF package in a vote to be held Friday at the latest in return for early elections [...]

I love Slovakia.  I also love the Czech Republic.  And if you do to–or if you want to–now’s your chance:  Fulbright Scholarships to both of these countries are available and–with the right plan of action–not out of reach for any US citizen with academic interests.  I went as a researcher but they are also–especially–looking for [...]

This is the way the world ends, not with a b-a-n-g but with an -n-i-a. At least that’s the way a good share of the world’s country names end. Having used fictional country data to make “maps” of the beginnings and endings of non-existent countries, it was an obvious next step to try it with [...]

Don’t post on it for three months. How to resurrect it? Like most things, it’s probably easier to break than to fix. But I’ve been saving up some nice bits and intend to post them over the coming weeks. Starting today.

If a previously unknown astronomer announces the discovery of a major comet, major news outlets might be forgiven for not immediately running with the story.  It could, of course, be another Hale-Bopp (or Deep Impact) or it could be dust on the lens.  This is the problem the Slovak media faces with regard to a [...]

Only with SNS below the threshold and HZDS below the threshold or lured by the current opposition is it possible currently to envision a non-Smer government taking office in 2010.