Making of Metropolis ~ Silent-Era Urban SF Epic!

The Making of Metropolis -- and its painstaking restoration story! Incredible special effects! Changing our futurevision!

CSCL Globe ~ Biggest (For Now) Containership!

Thanks to gCaptain for covering maiden UK visit of world's largest (for the next couple months) containership, the 400 meter long, 19,100 TEU-carrying MV CSCL Globe! First, Mike Schuler introduced the ship in November...

"Move over Triple-E’s, there’s a new big dog in town. Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. in Ulsan, South Korea has just named the new title-holder for the world’s largest containership."

Second, covering UK arrival with video by Shipping TV as the vessel approaches the Port of Felixstowe... And most recently, container handling and bridge-tour with Shipping TV’s Chris Gosling... Plus, here's BBC's Richard Westcott sailing near and getting onboard! Here's first visit to Hamburg plus engine-room view!

Fowl Factories? ~ Yes, Amazing Food Production!

It's fantastic to see the efficiency and scale of chicken-related agribusiness, from hatching to slaughtering, egg sorting through consumption. First, an overview of industrial farming in the German context, including the perspective of both producer and protestor... Hatching Chicks... Processing Eggs... The amazing "Long Egg" process!-) Slaughtering Chickens... Processing Chickens... Serving it up at KFC... Next, check out this piece from Westgate Integrity in Kenya showing how that market is beginning the process of modernizing towards the global state-of-the-art in chicken care and egg production... Finally, be aware that there's a counter-movement to all this efficiency-orientation. Generously speaking, the "free-ranger" assert greater quality of overall product and spin the benefits of so-called "organic" production. And it's certainly believable that factors such as stress and feed indeed make a difference to ultimate meat-taste, so there's room for improvement in the factory approach. On the other end of the spectrum, however, we have criminal "animal liberators" run amok as revealed in this Australian 60 Minutes piece...

A Plane's Journey ~ Lufthansa Technik Aero MRO!

German airplane MRO firm Lufthansa Technik shows how to maintain, repair, and overhaul aircraft!

Waldkindergarten ~ Back to Nature Campfire Kids

Der Spiegel's Rupert Neate writes about Campfire Kids: Going Back to Nature with Forest Kindergartens...

"These children are sitting on logs in a forest around a campfire. This no ordinary day care center, this a Waldkindergarten. [...] the risks are outweighed by the "massive" mental and physical benefits of playing outside. "Children who have attended a Waldkindergarten have a much deeper understanding of the world around them, and evidence shows they are often much more confident and outgoing when they reach school." [...] the US and the UK's obsession with health and safety and regulations may have slowed adoption of the idea, but [...] forest kindergartens have proved very popular in Japan, which is also known for its red tape bureaucracy."

And here's what it looks like in short docu by Hubert Ulrich...

Too Many Bikes? ~ Euro Cycle Boom Backlash

Holger Dambeck asks in DerSpiegel are there Too Many Bikes? Europe's Cycling Boom Sees a Backlash...

"More bicycles were supposed to make Europe's cities more livable. Instead, the popularity of two-wheeled travel is causing problems in some cities in Holland and Denmark, where traffic jams and parking shortages are common. [...] Cycling has been heavily promoted, and more and more people are taking to the pedal -- but eventually cycling paths, bike racks and other parking areas have begun to run out of space. The bike boom -- long seen as the universal solution to roads jammed with parked cars, dead inner cities and other urban maladies like noise, smog and lack of exercise -- threatens to choke on its own success."

Logos Hope ~ Floating Bookstore & Reading Ship

I've written before about the hospital ship African Mercy, and Shell's Prelude FLNG, NYC's prison barge, and even the Blueseed visa-free startup ship -- which are all great examples of flexible, floating infrastructure. Thanks now to UD for spotting the Logos Hope...

"...the world’s largest floating bookstores. The Logos Hope is operated by a German charity organization, and its mission is to take books, education, and community outreach around the world. [...] Part of the ship’s mission is to make low-cost books available in parts of the world where books are hard to come by–this includes not only selling books below retail prices, but also establishing libraries in local schools, children’s homes, and other community organization wherever the Logos Hope sails. In addition to book-distribution, the Logos Hope hosts educational programming about fitness, AIDS prevention, and a variety of other subjects. Since it set sail in 2004, the Logos Hope has distributed more than 3 million books and had more than 2.5 million visitors onboard."

Sky Chefs ~ Tasty Food Prep on Industrial Scale!

CNN spotlights Restaurant Food Cooked on an Industrial Scale... This is part of larger series on Frankfurt Airport (including some really stellar tilt-shift timelapse!-)...

MRI of Human Birth ~ Moment Mother Delivers!

DailyMail spots first MRI imagery of human birth!

"Doctors at a Berlin hospital have released an MRI video that shows the first real-time footage of a baby being born -- from the inside. The team led by Dr Christian Bamberg made the medical breakthrough in November 2010 but only published still images at the time. The 30-second movie shows a baby as it descends down the birth canal of a 24-year-old mother who volunteered for the project. The mother spent 45 minutes inside the MRI machine during the second stage of her labour, also known as the 'pushing stage'."

P.S. This is, of course, the inevitable consequence of earlier activities, also captured via MRI;-)

German Economy Map ~ Firm Logos Geoloc'n

MapPorn spots German Economy Map...

Miniatur Wunderland ~ Germany's Model City!-)

Lovely to see more of Germany's Miniatur Wunderland!

Knuffingen Airport ~ Miniatur Wunderland Flies!

Wow, check out Knuffingen Airport HO-scale model!

Parkways ~ Hamburg's Green Covered Autobahn

Itir Sonuparlak on The City Fix shares how Hamburg, Germany to Cover Expanded Highway with Public Park...

"... officials are adamant about expanding the highway’s capacity by adding lanes. At the same time, to meet the noise regulations of the city, planners of the project are looking into building noise barriers and tunnels. In an effort to ease the burden and negative effects of an expanded highway, officials are looking into making good use of the surface area on top of the tunnels by converting them into public parks. The urban areas near the noise-calming sections of the highway will be developed into housing."

Fehmarn Tunnel ~ Linking Germany & Denmark

Hauke Goos writes in Der Spiegel about Germans and Danes Split over Undersea Link...

"...an enormous, groundbreaking project: nearly 20 kilometers (12.5 miles) long, 40 meters (130 feet) wide, nearly 10 meters high -- and expected to cost at least €5.5 billion ($7.2 billion). Four tubes are planned: two for the highway, each with two lanes, and two for the railway, each with one track. The tunnel would consist of huge concrete elements assembled on land and lowered by boats into a colossal trench on the Baltic seafloor. It would be one of the longest immersed tunnels ever built."

HafenCity ~ Achieving Urban Vitality By Design?

Der Spiegel video and article spotlight the latest developments at HafenCity Hamburg...

"HafenCity sits less than a kilometer from the Hamburg town hall and its success is essential to Germany's second largest city. But how to ensure that success? How can one make certain that this very important piece of real estate actually becomes a living, breathing part of the city -- a place where people want to both work and spend their leisure time? Indeed, how can one guarantee that a brand new neighborhood actually feels neighborly? [...] Many of the new structures are certainly aesthetically pleasing, but HafenCity does not feel like a city center. In fact, apart from a couple of lit windows and one or two pedestrians out with their dogs, it feels like nothing so much as an oversized ghost town."

Nuclear Luddites ~ Euro's Abandoning Future...

In a knee-jerk reaction to recent Japanese tsunami disaster and safety malfeasance, both Germany and Switzerland have renounced nuclear power joining even more backwards Italy. This neo-Luddite move signals that incompetents are in charge and listening to the greenie-weenie protesterati. According to the AP...

"Europe's economic powerhouse, Germany, announced plans Monday to abandon nuclear energy over the next 11 years, outlining an ambitious strategy in the wake of Japan's Fukushima disaster to replace atomic power with renewable energy sources. Chancellor Angela Merkel said she hopes the transformation to more solar, wind and hydroelectric power serves as a roadmap for other countries. "We believe that we can show those countries who decide to abandon nuclear power -- or not to start using it -- how it is possible to achieve growth, creating jobs and economic prosperity while shifting the energy supply toward renewable energies," Merkel said. Merkel's government said it will shut down all 17 nuclear power plants in Germany -- the world's fourth-largest economy and Europe's biggest -- by 2022"

How disgustingly stupid.

Prostitutes as Perks ~ German Sex "Incentives"

Frank Patalong sheds light in Der Spiegel on the role of Prostitutes as Perks: Sex Incentives 'No Exception' in German Business World...

"Germany has some 400,000 prostitutes, estimates the Berlin-based sex worker advocacy group Hydra. Each of them caters to a number of clients, which means millions of men are buying sex -- even if few of them will admit it. Germany legalized prostitution in 2001, giving sex workers the right to job contracts, social security and public insurance. But the profession remains taboo. Sex as an "incentive" or means of bribery in the business world -- such as the corporate prostitution party for German insurance salesmen organized by Mannheimer International -- is incompatible with western values. A businessman mixed up in red-light parties can't be tolerated -- at least not officially. [...] Sex as a business incentive is "widespread," confirms Mechthild Eickel, who works for a sex worker educational association called Madonna. "It's in every branch, it's just that not every company can afford it." [...] corporate orgies have grown in popularity. There are agencies that specialize in organizing events similar to the Mannheimer International sex party in Budapest. Larger escort services will also make such arrangements."

You learn something new every day. In fact, 'Corporate Sex Parties Are Commonplace' writes Julia Jüttner in a related piece...

"Companies routinely hire call girls to spice up excursions and parties, say two Berlin prostitutes following a furor over last week's revelation that a German insurance firm organized a sex party for high-performing salesmen in a Budapest bathhouse. The men start out coy -- but usually jettison their inhibitions after a few drinks, they say. [...] corporate bashes with prostitutes are commonplace. "Many large firms have an extra budget to fund such parties in such a way that they don't show up in the official accounts," [...] "These days you've got to motivate your staff."

Indeed.

VroniPlag ~ Outing Plagiarizing Politicians...

Oliver Trenkamp writes in Der Spiegel that Web-Based Plagiarism Hunters Have Politicians Nervous...

"It started with Germany's defense minister. But once Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg lost his job, many of the researchers who uncovered his plagiarized dissertation have moved on to new targets. The activists prefer to remain anonymous, but their VroniPlag Wiki page has proven remarkably effective."

The color bars show what pages are suspected of being partially or entirely plagiarized and whether it's confirmed...