New measures “reflect widespread nervousness”

They reflect the widespread nervousness caused by the somewhat older new measures created to increase this widespread nervousness, a widespread nervousness that was increased by other new measures before them that much, much older new measures created in the first place.

You know the routine. Ritual, actually. “Right-wing extremism” is on the rise in Germany. It’s always been on the rise, of course. It’s been on the rise for decades and decades yet it never seems to rise quite high enough to satisfy those worrying about its rising. These are, at the moment, those politicians in the established parties being threatened by the AfD, a party that actually claims to be interested in addressing the migrant madness German voters want them to address, something these established parties refuse to do. They’re plotting to ban the AfD, in other words, because they are incapable of addressing the problems the electorate wants them to address.

Germany bolsters gun curbs, financial policing to rein in far right – German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser on Tuesday unveiled measures ranging from stronger financial policing and earlier detection of so-called botnets to tightened firearms controls to tackle a far-right surge that has spooked the country.

The measures reflect widespread nervousness that the far-right Alternative for Germany party could end up the largest party in several state parliaments later this year, propelled by a gloomy economy and overburdened public services.

The Super Bowl was yesterday

Like, literally. Now it’s time for some real sports action.

Final single event tickets for SmackDown and Bash in Berlin available Thursday – WWE, part of TKO Group Holdings, today announced that the final remaining single event tickets for SmackDown on Friday, August 30, and Bash In Berlin on Saturday, August 31, emanating from the Mercedes-Benz Arena in Berlin, Germany, will be available from 10 AM CET this Thursday, February 15, 2024, at http://www.ticketmaster.de.

Other than that, though…

Germany’s economy is doing just fine.

Germany’s economy is on shaky ground and glimmers of hope are few and far between – Good news has been sparse for the German economy. And the latest economic data has not done much to change this.

A few key 2023 data points, namely factory orders, exports and industrial production, were out last week and indicated a weak end to the year that saw questions about Germany being the “sick man of Europe” resurface.

“Persistent weakness” sounds bad

But not as bad as “greatest real estate crisis since the financial crisis.”

The fun just never seems to end these days.

German bank alerts the market on exposure to commercial real estate – The troubles in the US commercial property market, which have already hit banks in New York and Japan, moved to Europe this week, elevating fears about broader contagion.

The latest victim was Germany’s Deutsche Pfandbriefbank AG, which saw its bonds slump on concern about its exposure to the sector. It responded by issuing an unscheduled statement Wednesday that it had increased provisions because of the “persistent weakness of the real estate markets.”

It described the current turmoil as the “greatest real estate crisis since the financial crisis.”

I don’t know why they do either

But I sure do wish they’d stop.

It’s dangerous out there on the streets with all these aggressive bike bats out fo hell.

Why do Germans cycle?

Is Germany only the land of cars? Yes and no, says Shabnam Surita. Even though Germans make and drive a lot of cars, their relationship with bicycles goes back a couple hundred years. And when it comes to bike-friendliness, Germany ranks quite high among other countries in the world.

What a great step forward!

Into the brave new renewable energy future. The German government has announced it will spend €16 billion to build four major natural gas plants to meet the electricity demand their beloved renewable energy technology simply can’t meet.

A brilliant move, and long expected. Overdue, actually. You see, wind and solar power are so unreliable that you must always build a second “dirty” system (CO2 is a BAD “pollutant,” remember?) to back them up. This way you get to spend twice as much as you would have if you had only used the dirty system to begin with. Or, heavens forbid, if you had used nuclear energy to begin with (it doesn’t produce any CO2). This way, in other words, you can save the planet with one hand while you continue to pollute it with the other.

After scrapping nuclear reactors, Germany to spend billions on new gas power plants – The fossil fuel expansion is needed to ensure long-term energy security, according to industry and the government.

In a statement Monday, officials said the new strategy came “in addition to the consistent expansion of renewable energies,” and was key to ensuring steady power supplies “even in times where there is little sun and wind.”

Asteroid City

Det is Berlin.

Meteorites from Asteroid 2024 Bx1, which just hit Earth, may be super-rare space rocks – Meteorite hunters have successfully recovered fragments of an asteroid that impacted Earth over Berlin, Germany, on Sunday (Jan. 21).

“Generally speaking, for all types of meteorites, about 10 fireballs drop at least 300 grams of meteorites over an area the size of California, France, or Spain. Half of them happen during the daytime and go unobserved. The remaining half happens during overcast skies, leaving about two to three that are observable in theory, out of which only a tiny fraction actually get found.”

The African invasion of Germany began much earlier than previously believed

It started, like, geez. More than 45,000 years ago already.

And they were all Homo too.

Bones from German cave rewrite early history of Homo sapiens in Europe – Bone fragments unearthed in a cave in central Germany show that our species ventured into Europe’s cold higher latitudes more than 45,000 years ago – much earlier than previously known – in a finding that rewrites the early history of Homo sapiens on a continent still inhabited then by our cousins the Neanderthals.