Not Bright To Call Germany Dark

It is weder (neither) dark noch (nor) bright.

Personally, I like to think of it as being more of a Wehrmacht gray. No, wait. Leave that Wehrmacht part out. Gray like all cats are in the dark, I mean. When it’s not light out there in Dark Germany.

Refugees

And being that it’s always darkest before the dawn and there is no darkness but ignorance and out of darkness comes creation, well, let’s all lighten up and Schluss (enough) with these all of these dark thoughts already.

Which Germany will prevail? The Germany of racist chants from the roadside? The Germany of rioters and drunken rock-throwers? “Dark Germany,” as President Joachim Gauck calls it? Or will it be the new, bright Germany, represented by the young policeman with his roots in Afghanistan?

Racism Not Eastern German Problem

Hell no. It’s all over the place here. Although actually, what we’ve really got here is another good old case of classical German schizophrenia in action again.

Germans

The real issue isn’t the humanitarian one, however. Of course the refugees currently flooding Europe have to be helped and have to be helped in an equitable manner, i.e. each country takes on its fair share of the burden. The real issue is the unspoken one: They have to be stopped from coming here in the first place. The problems that are causing them to flee aren’t being addressed but Europe can’t solve them. Europe can’t even solve its own problems.

And the reason this issue is still unspoken is that keeping them from coming here implies doing something really unpleasant. You know, something really unpleasant like Americans and Israelis do? You know, like putting up a wall of some kind to keep them out. Set your clocks. This issue won’t remain unspoken for very much longer.

“At the moment, refugee shelters are burning night after night all across Germany. And the hot spots for far-right violence are spread in all directions.”

Weird Science

More German environmental backwardness in action. Or would it be better to call it genetic illiteracy?

So much for Europe’s efforts to put the junk science surrounding genetically modified (GMO) food to rest. Berlin this week signaled it will prohibit cultivation of GMO crops in Germany, even if the crops have been approved by EU scientific bodies and despite an attempt by Brussels to legalize them.

Science

Sure enough, neither environmentalists nor German politicians have come up with a justification for Berlin’s looming ban other than, well, because. Supporters cheer the move as an expression of “food democracy” in a country where opposition to GMOs is widespread and the government faced intense pressure to ban them…

Back in reality, EU scientific and food-safety authorities have repeatedly cleared various GMO crops for human and animal consumption. The process often takes months to complete, and in 95% of cases EU regulators ask producers for more evidence before greenlighting GMOs, so it’s hardly a rubber stamp.

Top Speed Ever: 26 Percent

Wind energy is inexhaustible, right? Well, not really. The talk about it is, though.

Wind

Researchers now tell us that when it comes to wind parks, due to a saturation effect, the upper limit for natural wind energy produced is one watt per square meter – not the seven watts per square meter as we had been told about before now. This means that a maximum of 26 percent of natural wind energy can be turned into energy here. “The more wind turbines I install, the less energy is produced by the individual turbines.”

“Wind turbines remove kinetic energy from the atmospheric flow, which reduces wind speeds and limits generation rates of large wind farms. These interactions can be approximated using a vertical kinetic energy (VKE) flux method, which predicts that the maximum power generation potential is 26% of the instantaneous downward transport of kinetic energy using the preturbine climatology.”

Maximal 26 Prozent der natürlichen Windenergie lassen sich für Strom nutzen.

Weissach

Beautiful German arson attack of the week.

Weissach

Because somebody has to notice they’re happening.

Im baden-württembergischen Weissach ist ein Gebäude abgebrannt, das für die Unterbringung von Asylbewerbern vorgesehen war. Verletzt wurde niemand. Über die Brandursache könne noch nichts gesagt werden, sagte ein Polizeisprecher. Ausgeschlossen werden könne derzeit nichts. Auch ein Brandanschlag als Ursache sei möglich.

Today’s Headlines

Riots in Suhl refugee camp in Germany.
Refugee chaos in Macedonia.
UK sends cops to Calais to stop migrants from coming through the Chunnel.
Slovakia refuses to let in Muslim refugees.
Germany expecting 800,000 migrants this year.

Migrants
Maybe this is just me but I think the problem here could have something to do with all of the refugees coming to Europe right now. Has anyone called Brussels yet?

Maybe it’s time for the Europeans to consider putting up a wall down there in the Mediterranean Sea somewhere. And have Mexico pay for it.

Als Erstes muss eine Mauer gebaut werden, für die Mexiko zahlen muss.

German Of The Day: Dumm, Dummer, Til Schweiger

That means dumb, dumber, the dumbest.

Til

Speaking on German TV Thursday, Schweiger dismissed claims he is using the immigration debate as a way to garner positive PR. “I’m the most successful filmmaker in the country, what do I need PR for?”

“Sie gehen mir auf den Sack.”

How Do You Want Your ID?

Rare to non-existent, many Germans will tell you. They place them in microwaves here to destroy the RFID chips inside, you see.

Or boil them – if they’re paranoid about microwave ovens, too.

Otherwise most of these folks appear to be able to live normal, somewhat productive lives.

When it comes to privacy, Germans can’t take a joke. After it was revealed that the U.S. National Security Agency had intercepted calls in Germany, sales of old-school typewriters were reported to have skyrocketed, as some Germans assumed that sending letters might make communications surveillance harder for U.S. officials.

It’s not only American surveillance that Germans are concerned about, however. On Tuesday, a 29-year old man was arrested at Frankfurt Airport after authorities noticed that he had microwaved his German identification card, reported German news agency dpa.

German Of The Day: Umweltunfreundlich

That means eco-unfriendly. Or in the case of biodiesel, this means “being so eco-friendly that it is eco-unfriendly.”

Umwelt

More starry-eyed government interventionism in action. To save the world from destruction by using biodiesel they have to destroy the world first by producing it. This reminds me of those good old communist planned economy days. And we all know how that went with the best made plans of mice and communist men.

Dem Biokraftstoff gehört die Zukunft. An negative Begleiterscheinungen dachte keiner. Doch die Indizien, dass vermehrt für das Weltklima wichtige Wälder gerodet, Sümpfe entwässert und in Ackerflächen umgewandelt werden, mehren sich. Nach Informationen der Weltagrarorganisation FAO dienen nur noch 47 Prozent der Weltgetreideproduktion – Weizen, Reis, Mais – der Ernährung.

I Thought Germany Already Had All Driverless Cars

Just try crossing a busy street here and you’ll see what I mean.

Driverless

But word is that only one in five Germans would be happy to ride in an autonomous car, according to a survey by Germany automobile industry monitoring association KueS.

I guess Germans just can’t stand the idea of losing control. Over the car that’s already out of control, I mean.

If we took the lead in autonomous vehicles, we could over-take the Germans, the Spanish and the French in a huge new industry. We just need to keep our foot on that accelerator – while browsing some play-lists on Spotify and sending a few e-mails of course.