Tag: GERMANY

While we've made empty promises here in the U.S. to teach digital literacy and privacy in the classroom, German schools are actually stepping up to the challenges of the 21st century. This year, the state of North Rhine-Westphalia will institute a school curriculum that not only teaches students how the Web works and how to use it as a tool, but also explains to them the potentially negative ...

In the saddest news we've heard today (which means it's been a relatively good day), 440 people have enrolled in a master's course, held at Potsdam University in Germany, that instructs students in how to be flirtatious via text message and e-mail, how to impress acquaintances and how to deal with that girl who will inevitably text back, "uhhh NO, perv." The course's instructor, Philip von ...

Most of Germany's urban transit system runs on an honor code. In essence, the functionality of an honor system rests on the assumption that people will act as law-abiding citizens, and pay metro or bus fees even in the absence of enforcement. It's an interesting approach to behavioral economics, and one that, like everything else in Germany, seems to work pretty well. Now, though, one German ...

In our ongoing look at Tech Art History, we've been examining how technology has revolutionized the ways in which we both create and consume art. And, as we've seen, technology, among other things, has blurred the once impermeable divisions between artist and observer, and between the commercial and the artistic. It's a continuously fluid and evolving paradigm that German researcher Johannes ...

Highlights from this morning's other big tech headlines.... Ashton Kutcher's recent cerebral endeavors have apparently bored Twitosphere simpletons. Britney Spears has actually usurped Kutcher as Twitter's reigning despot, as her followers now represent the largest horde on the site. In response, Kutcher (who just earned himself a slow, dramatic clap) tweeted the perfectly succinct, "I don't ...

Share Ever wonder what would happen if you suddenly bought a robotic maid, gave it a bunch of sharp objects, and let it run wild? Sure you have. Well now, the world finally has an answer to this eternally burning question, thanks to a trio of insane German scientists who decided to take the conversation beyond the realm of stoner circles and into the laboratory. To find out what would happen ...

According to The Register, Google Street View cars in Germany have been scanning Wi-Fi networks and recording users' Media Access Control (MAC) address, which are unique identifiers assigned to networks, without permission. The country's Federal Commissioner for Data Protection Peter Schaar isn't happy about it, either. "I am appalled... I call upon Google to delete previously unlawfully ...

Sometimes, albeit rarely, what initially seems like wasting time on the Web can turn out to be anything but that. Case in point, a German woman who had only wanted to enjoy a beautiful view via a webcam recently became a long-distance lifesaver. According to the Associated Press, an unidentified woman was recently watching a live webcam broadcast of the sun setting over the North Sea when she ...

The German government has decided to hop on the blame-Microsoft bandwagon this week, and is urging citizens to use alternative browsers, instead of Internet Explorer. After the company admitted that security flaws in its Internet Explorer 6 browser were the point of entry for the attacks on Google in China, Germany decided to take the somewhat over-reactive step of warning users off of all ...

Typically, Wikipedia is lauded as a gateway to pretty much everything you'd ever want to know. But when the free dissemination of information butts heads with governmental legislation, censorship rears its ugly head, and things get complicated. Such is the case in Germany, where a man convicted of killing Bavarian actor Walter Sedlmayr in 1990 is now suing Wikipedia for the removal of his name ...

A self-regulating coffee mug may have been a pipe dream for warm beverage drinkers everywhere, but according to the Telegraph, German scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics (IBP) have created a 'smart' mug that keeps drinks, hot or cold, at the ideal temperature. The interior of the porcelain mug is filled with a waxy substance called phase change material (PCM), which is ...

What's a country without emergency sirens to do? That's the question Germany has been pondering ever since its sirens were dismantled at the end of the Cold War. The country has long used a satellite-based system that broadcasts warnings via TV and radio, but not everyone watches TV or listens to radio. So, over the years, they've considered everything from using cell phones to smoke detectors, ...

It's usually not a good idea to buy things from folks on the street, unless you're into knockoff watches and stolen radios. If, though, for some reason you feel inclined to hand over a wad of cash to some stranger holding a large unmarked bag, at least make sure you verify its contents first. In Braunschweig, Germany, a group of Germans who thought they were purchasing a small suitcase full of ...

From time to time, kids have accidents on their way to school. Maybe they crash their bicycle and scrape their knee. Or, maybe they twist their ankle stepping off the sidewalk. Or, even worse, a car might hit them while they cross the street. Gerrit Blank, a 14-year-old German boy, has one of these stories, although it's a little less ordinary. According to a report from the Telegraph, a ...

A German man has been fined the equivalent of $2,300 for sending a text message, Reuters reported Friday. The 28-year-old man, who was unnamed in the article, was found to have sent a text message reading, "By opening this SMS, you have killed a Turk." The message, which was sent last June in the midst of Europe's heated Euro 2008 soccer tournament, continued to call for a "clean" tournament, ...