Car No Longer Manufactured Since 2003 Will No Longer Be Manufactured Again Next Year

September 14, 2018 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Hi-tech, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: Automobiles, Beetle, Cars, German, Germans, Germany, Volkswagen, VW Leave a comment

The compact Beetle was introduced in Germany in 1938 during the Nazi era before becoming a symbol of Germany’s rebirth as a democratic, industrial powerhouse after the second World War.

It came to the US 11 years later, where it became a symbol of utilitarian transport for the postwar baby boom generation – often used by hippies.

The famous car sold for about 30 years before US sales stopped in 1979, through production continued continued production for Mexico and Latin America. The last of the original bugs was produced in Puebla, Mexico, in 2003.

VW Käfer wird bereits seit 2003 nicht mehr hergestellt.

Must Be The Heat

August 21, 2018 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hi-tech, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: Angela Merkel, Armies, Bundeswehr, Defense, German, Germans, Germany, Helicopters, Managers, Mismanagement, NATO, NH90, Ursula von der Leyen, Women 2 Comments

Modern German war machines aren’t made for it, if you know what I mean.

German army shows off ailing NATO helicopter – German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen is touring the ranks of the Bundeswehr this summer. But some of the military hardware she is admiring, like the NH90 helicopter, has seen more ground time than flight time.

Mismanagement or routine problems?

Can’t be mismanagement because Frau von der Leyen is Miss Management herself. She has been the Bundeswehr boss for ages now and would never allow this type of thing to happen even though it clearly is happening (a man would have been fired long ago). Besides, she’s one of Chancellor Merkel’s very top girls in the Chancellor Merkel girl group. They’re called The Untouchables.

“We can say that the NH90 has proved its worth.”

One Million Dollars!

July 18, 2018 By Hermann Observer in Habeas Corpus, Hard Facts, Heconomy, Hi-tech, Hurt Feelings Tags: Android, Android Antitrust Case, Antitrust, EU, Europe, Fines, German, Germans, Germany, Google Leave a comment

No, wait a second. I mean… Five billion dollars!

The European Union hit Alphabet Inc.’s Google with a record antitrust fine of €4.34 billion ($5.06 billion) and ordered changes to its business that could loosen the company’s grip on its biggest growth engine: mobile phones.

In the EU’s sharpest rebuke yet to the power of a handful of tech giants, the bloc’s antitrust regulator found Wednesday that Google had abused the dominance of its Android operating system, which runs more than 80% of the world’s smartphones, to promote and entrench its own mobile apps and services, particularly the company’s search engine…

As part of the decision, the EU ordered Google to cease requirements that push phone makers to pre-install Google’s web browser Chrome, make Google the default search engine on their phones, and offer payments for exclusively pre-installing Search.

“Today’s decision rejects the business model that supports Android, which has created more choice for everyone, not less.”

That’s Not Fair

June 14, 2018 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Helplessness, Hi-tech, Humor, Hurt Feelings Tags: Armies, Army, Automobiles, Defense, European Tank Challenge, German, Germans, Germany, M1 Abrams, Tanks 1 Comment

Why couldn’t German tanks take part in the competition?

Oh, I forgot. They’re all broken.

The idea of green U.S. Army M1 Abrams tanks with big white stars on their sides, huge American flags flying on top, and art on the hull depicting a turtle wearing a World War II-era tanker uniform, running over a pile of cars sounds like something straight out of a 1980s arcade game. But its actually a real scene from the annual Strong Europe Tank Challenge at the service’s 7th Army Training Command’s Grafenwoehr Training Area in Germany.

Turkey

May 8, 2018 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Hi-tech, Hideology, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy Tags: Defense, Exports, Germany, NATO, Profits, Submarines, Turkey, Weapons Exports 1 Comment

Beautiful German weapon sale of the week.

Because somebody has to admire them.

Einen Auftrag zur Aufrüstung von Panzern für die Türkei hatte die Bundesregierung vor einigen Wochen noch gestoppt. Jetzt aber erhält das Land sechs neue Jagd-U-Boote – geliefert von ThyssenKrupp.

PS: Funny how these expensive exports always meet the client’s expectations but the weapons systems used in Germany never seem to work. Hard to believe, actually. It’s almost as if it were intentional. Nah.

German Of The Day: Ausbeutung

April 8, 2018 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Hi-tech, Home Cooking Tags: Antarctica, Astronauts, German, Germans, Germany, Language, Lettuce, Research, Science, Space 1 Comment

That means exploitation. You know, like the exploitation of our planet’s natural resources?

The nerve of mad German scientists these days. Growing salad in Antarctica like that. They should be ashamed. There are German Greens. Then there are German greens.

Antarctica is not the most likely place to find fresh ingredients for a salad. But German scientists have just collected — and eaten — their first batch of lettuce, cucumbers and radishes from a new greenhouse on the frozen continent.

The shipping container-size greenhouse, called EDEN ISS, was installed in February about a quarter-mile (400 meters) from the research station, which is located on the Ekström Ice Shelf. The food-growing lab is providing welcome fresh veggies for Gropp and his other isolated colleagues during long missions in Antarctica. But EDEN ISS has a loftier mission; the facility is an experiment led by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) designed to test the best methods for cultivating crops for astronauts.

If The Deutsche Post Does It It’s Different

April 2, 2018 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Helections, Hi-tech, Higher Education, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy Tags: Cambridge Analytica, Data, Data Mining, Data Privacy, Data Security, Deutsche Post, Elections, Facebook, German, Germans, Germany, Political Parties 3 Comments

As usual, German Scheiße doesn’t stink.

When it comes to data mining = Cambridge Analytica = Facebook = US-Amerika, we’re talking pure evil. The Deutsche Post, on the other hand, is the Deutsche Post so it ain’t no big deal – when they do the same thing. The outrage hält sich in Grenzen (is kept within limits).

Deutsche Post sold client microtargeting data to the Christian Democrats and Free Democrats before the 2017 elections. Is this a scandal along the lines of Cambridge Analytica in the US? That depends on whom you ask.

“German ‘data-driven’ canvassing cannot be compared with the highly sophisticated US campaigns, which use reliable data, experimental findings and data modeling to identify individual voter targets.”

Karl Marx Traffic Lights?

March 21, 2018 By Hermann Observer in Heconomy, Hi-tech, Hideology, Humor Tags: German, Germans, Germany, Karl Marx, Traffic Lights, Trier 2 Comments

Whose bright idea was that?

That photo is a bunch of bull. They’re only going to turn from red to red.

The home town of influential communist thinker Karl Marx is celebrating the 200th anniversary of his birth… with new pedestrian lights.

The philosopher and author of The Communist Manifesto was born in Trier in western Germany on 5 May 1818, and spent his first 17 years in the city.

Bei Rot musst du stehen, bei Grün kannst du gehen. Das wird sich auch mit der neuen Karl-Marx-Ampel nicht ändern. Auf der neuen Marx-Fußgängerampel gibt es sowohl einen roten, als auch einen grünen Karl Marx.

Australia

March 14, 2018 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hi-tech, Hypocrisy Tags: Defense, Exports, German, Germans, Germany, NATO, Rheinmetall, Weapons Sales Leave a comment

Beautiful German weapon sales of the week.

Because somebody has to admire them.

But when it comes to SPENDING money for defense in Germany, well… German officials are scrambling to make sense of the latest twist in the brewing war over U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs, which could see Washington dole out exemptions based on allies’ defense-spending levels.

And The Message From 1886 Read…

March 6, 2018 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Hi-tech, High Art, Higher Education Tags: Australia, Bottles, German, Germans, Germany, Messages 1 Comment

“Is Merkel still chancellor?”

Message in a bottle tossed into the ocean in 1886 discovered on remote Australia beach.

“Incredibly, an archival search in Germany found Paula’s original meteorological journal and there was an entry for June 12 1886 made by the captain, recording a drift bottle having been thrown overboard. The date and the coordinates correspond exactly with those on the bottle message.”

Nachdem die Finderin die Flasche dem Western Australian Museum überlassen hat, wird sie dort von Donnerstag an zu besichtigen sein. Mit 132 Jahren gilt sie als die älteste Flaschenpost-Sendung der Welt. Laut Guinness-Buch lag der bisherige Altersrekord einer Flaschenpost bei etwas mehr als 108 Jahren.

Observing Hermann

“Was interessiert mich mein Geschwätz von gestern?”

Category Archives: Hi-tech