The only good genetically modified potato…

Is a dead genetically modified potato!

“After two decades of research efforts, BASF’s biotechnologists using genetic engineering succeeded in creating a potato, named Amflora, where the gene responsible for the synthesis of amylose has been turned off and thus the potato is unable to synthesize the undesirable substance, amylose.”

This means that, uh, hell if I know. But neither do the pissed off environmentalist anti-Amflora types in northern Germany who just raided that potato field up there. That didn’t stop them from getting in a rage and ripping those perilous plants out by their rapacious roots. Not until they got busted by the Plant Police, I mean.

“Gendreck weg!”

Berlin police not allowed to film peaceful demonstrations

“There is no legal basis for filming peaceful demonstrators in Berlin,” a German administrative court spokesman said today, referring to a practice carried out by cops here for several years now.

“Besides, it’s only worth filming them once they start throwing rocks and stuff anyway.”

The judges said the recordings were an inadmissible breach of basic assembly rights, as they could scare people (without rocks?) away from public gatherings.

Glück muss man haben

Ya gotta have luck (no, not that old GDR gameshow).

Seven crew and passengers were injured when a DC3 “raisin bomber” that takes tourists on flights commemorating the Berlin Airlift had to make an emergency landing on a street leading to a construction site at Berlin’s Schoenefeld airport.

„Wir waren vielleicht 15 Meter über dem Boden, da fing das linke Propeller-Triebwerk zu stottern an.“

Big plane

But the contract with Emirates Airlines announced during the Berlin Air Show is even bigger.

No Hintergedanken (ulterior motives) here or anything, though.

Dubai’s Emirates Airline ordered 32 additional Airbus A380 superjumbo jetliners, and deliberately announced the $11.5 billion deal in Germany’s capital to fight a trade battle with flag carrier Deutsche Lufthansa AG.

Emirates, which had already ordered 58 of the world’s largest passenger plane, wants Berlin to grant it greater access to the huge German aviation market. Lufthansa argues that its home market of 80 million people shouldn’t be thrown open to a carrier from one of the United Arab Emirates. Dubai has a population of roughly 3.5 million people. Carriers from the UAE may now serve at most four German cities.

Erst 2015 sollen die Produktionskosten so weit gesenkt sein, dass der Flieger Gewinn abwirft. Im Klartext: Die meisten der 32 an Emirates verkauften Maschinen werden Airbus einen Verlust bescheren.

Too little too late

What’s five years late these days? Too much for even the German Defense Ministry, it seems.

They’re mad as hell and aren’t going to wait it anymore for an order of 80 EADS/Eurocopter/Tiger helicopters to be delivered – five years behind schedule and counting.

Well, that’s not the whole truth. Eleven have actually arrived already (probably driven in on trucks), but these Tigers weren’t the ones they ordered. Hey, Rome (and the EU) wasn’t built in a day either.

Eurocopter, the world’s largest maker of helicopters by units, is a subsidiary of European Aeronautic, Defence & Space Co., which also makes Airbus SAS commercial and military planes.

Book ’em if ya got ’em

The euros, I mean. And the nerves? Be the first kid on your block to book the maiden Lufthansa Super Airbus A380 flight from Germany to Japan and tell your grandchildren about it later (you could tell them about it beforehand but they probably wouldn’t believe you).

The “Frankfurt am Main” will be taking off from Frankfurt for Tokyo on June 11. Hope the Japanese don’t mistake the thing for Godzilla or Mothra or something.

Personally, I’m not quite “there in my head” just yet. This baby’s just too damned big and “if it’s not a Boeing I’m not going” and all that. Give me a little time though and I’ll be just fine.

Die Maschine ersetzt die bislang eingesetzte Boeing 747-400.

Google wasn’t home that day or something

Anti-Facebook feelings in Germany are growing these days because, well, uh, bashing Google day in and day out all day long even gets boring for Germans to do every once in a while.

An organization here called the VZBZ (Very Zesty Bitching Zealots?) said that Facebook should have to ask its users for approval every time personal information is passed on to third parties via an “opt-in” option and not continue with the “opt-out” option it uses now.

Facebook opted-out on the opt-in option, opting for the opt-out option opstead.

Meanwhile, German Consumer Protection Minister Ilse Aigner is so pissed off with the company that she says she will delete her Facebook account if it does not straighten up its act sehr pronto already. So there. That’s the end of that company.

Partly for historical reasons, Germany is particularly sensitive about privacy issues, with campaigners bristling at plans by US internet giant Google to launch its Street View service later this year allowing users to view panoramic still photos of city streets.