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Pulling down Berlin’s history
When we were in Berlin last year, a man sat down with us at a Bavarian restaurant and asked us how we liked the city. We were thinking of moving there, we told him. We loved it: the way it felt, the cafes on the streets, the energy of change and art. He shrugged, and…
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Technology = making the treadmill move faster
A study supported by Acco Brands — the Day Timer organizers company — says that Americans feel much less productive than they did years ago. It’s not that they’re objectively getting less done. According to the U.S. Conference Board, labor productivity overall grew at an annual rate of about 2.9 percent between 2000 and 2004.…
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Does the truth confuse?
Andrew Hill, jazz pianist of elegant fractured melodies, angular dolphy-n rhythms, asks: “Am I confusing you? Does the truth confuse you?” Link: Andrew Hill: One Man’s Lifelong Search for the Melody in Rhythm
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Europe Rejects Genetically Engineered Drug
EU regulators declined to approve a new drug produced in the milk of genetically engineered goats. No, it’s not the spidergoat. This is a human protein, secreted by goats who have had human genes inserted into their cells. The protein can then be purified and used in drugs — in this case as an anticlotting…
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Europe gets broadband over powerline spec
A European Comission-funded standards group has approved a standard for sending broadband data over power lines. Several German groups had experimented with the technology in the late 1990s, putting them ahead of U.S. efforts, but have abandoned the projects since, citing cost and efficiency concerns. Critics note that newer access technologies such as WiMax are…
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South Dakota passes abortion ban
How many days has Roberts been on the Supreme Court? And already we have South Dakota passing an all-out ban on abortion, with the intention of forcing the Court to revisit Roe v. Wade. The governor there has vetoed a similar bill in the past, but is viewed by both sides as unlikely to do…
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Europe wants a European Institute of Technology
The stats aren’t pretty. Europe used to win the lion’s share of Nobel Prizes (say what you will about parochial voting): 73 percent in the first half of the 20th century. That fell to 33 percent in the second half, and just 19 percent if you count from 1995 to 2005. Or take patents. Between…
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Shrine bombing, restraint, and the apocalyptic imagination
Apocalypse is the mood in Iraq today. Clerics and prisoners are being killed, reprisals for the gaping hole in a shrine’s once-golden roof. The bombing of the Askariya Shrine in Samarra targeted the tombs of the 10th and 11th Imams – in Shi’ite tradition, the descendants of the Prophet, and infallible leaders of Islam. Nearby…
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A Short Audio-Visual History Of The GDR
Hail the sights and sounds of the German Democratic Republic. Watch the cheery white-helmeted men scramble into a Trabant and careen dangerously around orange traffic cones. And just look how much you can fit in that trunk! Link: WFMU’s Beware of the Blog: A Short Audio-Visual History Of The GDR (mp3s, videos)
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In the beginning
I am home sick today, a computer on my lap in bed, and two cats curled up for warmth in front of me. It seems a good time to begin experimenting. This is meant to be a place to share experiences as I move overseas. Eurotech will be the more professional page, where I will…