Tag Archives: berlin

Blockade des CO2-Grenzwerts für Pkw: Bundesregierung zertrümmert Glaubwürdigkeit beim Klimaschutz

By Guest PostOctober 15, 2013Environmentautohersteller, automobilindustrie, berlin, bund, co2 grenzwert, deutschland, eu demokratie, eu ebene, hilgenberg, kanzlerin angela merkel, klimaschutz, luxemburg, pkw, umweltminister peter altmaier, umweltpolitik, zukunft

Luxemburg/Berlin: Als “Schlag ins Gesicht der europäischen Umweltpolitik und der EU-Demokratie” hat der Bund für Umwelt und Naturschutz Deutschland (BUND) die Blockade der Bundesregierung bei der Verschärfung von CO2-Grenzwerten für Pkw kritisiert. Das Drängen von Kanzlerin Angela Merkel und Umweltminister Peter Altmaier auf eine Verschiebung der Entscheidung der EU-Umweltminister über einen neuen Grenzwert zertrümmere Deutschlands Glaubwürdigkeit beim Klimaschutz, sagte Jens Hilgenberg, BUND-Verkehrsexperte. Durch ihr Vorgehen schwäche die Kanzlerin ihre Position auf EU-Ebene bei anderen wichtigen umweltpolitischen Vorhaben wie der Durchsetzung der Energiewende oder eines globalen Klimaschutzabkommens. Zudem führe die Bundesregierung mit ihrer Klientelpolitik die mühsam geführten Verhandlungen im Europaparlament um europaweit akzeptierte Vorgaben für die Automobilindustrie ad absurdum. (more…)

Greenpeace-Aktivisten protestieren bundesweit für Freiheit ihrer inhaftierten Kollegen in Russland

By Guest PostOctober 4, 2013Environmentarctic sunrise, arktis, berlin, christoph von lieven, der konzern, deutschland, freiheit, gazproms plattform, gericht in murmansk, Greenpeace, greenpeace aktionsschiff, greenpeace aktivisten, hamburg, istanbul, mexiko stadt, nanna zimmermann, nordpol, oelkonzern gazprom, oelunfall, russische botschaft, russland, russland inhaftierten kollegen, schutzgebiet, stockholm, taipeh, tokyo, umweltkatastrophe

30 Umweltschützern drohen bis zu 15 Jahre Haft

Hamburg, 4. 10. 2013 – In 30 Städten protestieren am morgigen Samstag Greenpeace-Aktivisten für die Freilassung ihrer in Russland inhaftierten Kollegen. Die 28 Aktivisten und zwei Journalisten befinden sich in russischer Untersuchungshaft und sind von einem Gericht in Murmansk wegen bandenmäßiger Piraterie angeklagt. Bei einer Verurteilung drohen ihnen bis zu 15 Jahre Haft.

Die Umweltschützer hatten gegen Ölbohrungen des russischen Ölkonzerns Gazprom in der Arktis protestiert. Einen Tag danach war das Greenpeace-Aktionsschiff „Arctic Sunrise“ von der Küstenwache in internationalen Gewässern geentert und nach Murmansk geschleppt worden. (more…)

First Readings: A first taste of college life

By Guest PostSeptember 17, 2013Culture, Education1938 olympics, anti lbgtq, beautiful souls, berlin, broker, brown university, Chicago, college life, croats, dan harwood, eyal press, first readings, first readings seminars, first taste, florida, hayley bounds, hitler, hong kong, illegal settlements, illinois, israeli commando, labor day, new york, olympic, omer bartov, Ponzi Scheme, president christina paxson, professor of history, russia, sense of empathy, serbian, smuggled jews, south korea, swiss border guard, us states

On Monday morning — Labor Day — first-year students gathered in classrooms around campus for their First Readings seminars. The program, initiated at Brown seven years ago, is designed to give new students a common reading experience and prepare them for college life.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Classes don’t officially begin until Wednesday, but first-year students got their first taste of academic life at Brown on the first Monday in September, when all 1,537 of them gathered in classrooms around campus for the annual First Readings seminars. (more…)

Steve Ballmer Talks Up Windows 8 and Windows Phone in Europe and Israel

By Guest PostNovember 13, 2012Technologyberlin, david cameron, discovery event, era, Europe, Germany, Israel, london, Microsoft, microsoft ceo, modern jago, Paris, prime minister, shoreditch area, smart mice, software, start ups, steve ballmer, tech, tel aviv, uk, wave, windows 8, windows phone, windows rt, xbox

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was in Europe and Israel last week to showcase Microsoft’s wave of newly updated products, including Windows 8, Windows Phone 8, and Surface with Windows RT. He reinforced to customers, developers, students and others that the company is moving into a new era.

REDMOND, Wash. – Nov. 13, 2012 – World, meet Windows 8, Windows Phone 8, and Surface. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer last week took Microsoft’s wave of new products on the road, visiting Europe and Israel.

He said the launch of Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8, an upcoming new version Office, and updates to the company’s Xbox platform—all part of the biggest wave of updates in the company’s history—signify that Microsoft has entered a new era. (more…)

Commentary: Sergei Khrushchev – The Cuban Missile Crisis, 50 years later

By Guest PostOctober 18, 2012Politics13 day, 50th anniversary, air strike, american, american mythology, balance, berlin, brown, Cuba, cuban, cuban invasion, diplomatic lesson, enemy, europeans, ex comm, executive committee, iranian republic, john kennedy, middle east, missile base, missile crisis, nikita khrushchev, nuclear exchange, nuclear weapons, october, power, president, president castro, president kennedy, President Obama, psychological crisis, resolution, russian premier, russians, secret, sergei khrushchev, slavic language, southern america, soviet bloc, soviet union, tense time, united states, victory, weapon

October marks the 50th anniversary of of the 13-day Cuban Missile Crisis, when President John F. Kennedy discovered that the Soviet Union was building secret missile bases in Cuba. Forgoing the option of a Cuban invasion or air strikes, Kennedy asked Russian Premier Nikita S. Khrushchev to remove all weapons from the island, and on Oct. 28, 1962, Khrushchev conceded, halting the standoff. Here, Khrushchev’s son, Sergei Khrushchev, visiting professor of Slavic languages at Brown, reflects on the diplomatic lessons.

The perspective of the crisis has changed over time and today the history of the crisis is more focused not on the confrontation, but on cooperation.

The Cuban Missile Crisis showed that two leaders decided not to shoot first, but to think and negotiate with each other. And today that is very unusual, because we think we can only negotiate with friends. Today, we impose unconditional surrender and nobody surrenders unconditionally until fully defeated. (more…)

Chicken with Plums

By Guest PostJuly 14, 2012Entertainment1958, angel of death, azrael, berlin, chicken with plums, edouard baer, Germany, marjane satrapi, mathieu amalric, melancholic, musician, nasser ali khan, studio babelsberg, teheran

Synopsis

Teheran, 1958. Since his beloved violin was broken, Nasser Ali Khan, one of the most renowned musicians of his day, has lost all taste for life. Finding no instrument worthy of replacing it, he decides to confine himself to bed to await death. As he hopes for its arrival, he plunges into deep reveries, with dreams as melancholic as they are joyous, taking him back to his youth and even to a conversation with Azraël, the Angel of Death, who reveals the future of his children… As pieces of the puzzle gradually fit together, the poignant secret of his life comes to light: a wonderful story of love which inspired his genius and his music… (more…)

You’re Beautiful, Vesta

By Guest PostMay 11, 2012Scienceancient roman goddess, beauty, berlin, building blocks, ceres, christopher t russell, crater on vesta, dawn mission, dlr institute, dwarf planet, earth, freie universitaet, gamma ray, Germany, gravitational field, gravity, hearth, ion propulsion, iron, iron core, jet propulsion laboratory, jpl, jupiter, katlenburg, los angeles, mars, max planck institute, monterey, moon, mount everest, NASA, neutron spectrometer, orbit, planetary, protoplanet vesta, radiation, regolith, san francisco, Science, solar nebula, solar system, solar system models, solar system research, south polar region, ucla, vesta, vestoids, wavelengths

NASA’s UCLA-led Dawn mission shows protoplanet’s surprising surface

When UCLA’s Christopher T. Russell looks at the images of the protoplanet Vesta produced by NASA’s Dawn mission, he talks about beauty as much as he talks about science.

“Vesta looks like a little planet. It has a beautiful surface, much more varied and diverse than we expected,” said Russell, a professor in UCLA’s Department of Earth and Space Sciences and the Dawn mission’s principal investigator. “We knew Vesta’s surface had some variation in color, but we did not expect the diversity that we see or the clarity of the colors and textures, or their distinct boundaries. We didn’t find gold on Vesta, but it is still a gold mine.”

Dawn has been orbiting Vesta and collecting data on the protoplanet’s surface since July 2011. Vesta, which is in the doughnut-shaped asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, is currently some 321 million miles from Earth. (more…)

Did Bone Ease Acid for Early Land Crawlers?

By Guest PostApril 28, 2012Scienceacid buildup, anthracosaur, aquatic animal, aquatic tetrapod, aquatic whatcheeria, berlin, bony skin feature, bony structure, caimans, cell, christine janis, CO2, daniel warren, dermal bone, donald jackson, florian witzmann, four legged creature, Germany, kelly devlin, oxygen molecule, reservoir of antacid, semiterrestrial species, tetrapod, tetrapod fossil, turtle

In a new paper in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, scientists propose that the bony structures in the skin of many early four-legged creatures might have been there to relieve acid buildup in bodily fluids. Analysis of their anatomy suggests that as they ventured out of water, the animals would have had trouble getting rid of enough CO₂ to prevent acid buildup.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Here’s an anatomical packing list for making that historic trip from water to land circa 370 million years ago: Lungs? Check. Legs? Check. Patches of highly vascular bone in the skin? In a new paper, scientists propose why many of the earliest four-legged creatures that dared breathe on land carried bony skin features. (more…)