By Tim Giago (Nanwica Kciji) © 2009 Native Sun News July 13, 2009 Wednesday, July 8, was filled with ironies. I was seated at…
Posts Tagged ‘Germany’
Scott Atran: The Moral Failure of Our National Intelligence
July 11th, 2009 |
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A new government report on the Bush administration’s surveillance of personal commmunications reveals a familiar pattern of intellectual deafness and moral abuse of the country.
North Korea Army, Lab 110, Suspected Over Cyber Attacks
July 11th, 2009 |
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SEOUL, South Korea — A North Korean army lab of hackers was ordered to “destroy” South Korean communications networks _ evidence the isolated regime was behind cyberattacks that paralyzed South Korean and American Web sites _ news report…
North Korea launched cyber attacks, says south
July 11th, 2009 |
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Intelligence service claims document shows hackers across border waged internet war on Seoul and the US
South Korea has obtained intelligence that North Korea ordered a military institute of computer hackers known as Lab 110 to “destroy” its neighbour’s communications networks last month, news reports said.
The National Intelligence Service told parliament of its finding on Friday, the JoongAng Ilbo newspaper reported, citing evidence the north was behind cyber attacks that paralysed major South Korean and US websites in recent days.
The newspaper, citing unidentified members of the parliament’s intelligence committee, said Lab 110, which is affiliated with the north’s defence ministry, received an order to “destroy the South Korean puppet communications networks in an instant”.
The JoongAng Ilbo said Lab 110 specialised in hacking and spreading malicious programmes.
The NIS – South Korea’s main spy agency – said it could not confirm the report. Calls by Associated Press to several key intelligence committee members went unanswered.
South Korea’s Yonhap news agency carried a similar report, saying the NIS obtained a North Korean document issuing the order on 7 June. The report, quoting an unidentified senior ruling party official, said the North Korean institute was affiliated with the people’s army.
The state-run Korea Communications Commission said it had identified and blocked five internet protocol (IP) addresses in five countries used to distribute computer viruses that caused the wave of website outages, which began in the US on 4 July.
The addresses point to computers distributing the virus that triggered the “denial of service” attacks in which many computers try to connect to a single site at the same time, overwhelming the server. They were in Austria, Georgia, Germany, South Korea and the US, a commission official said on condition of anonymity.
The attacks targeted high-profile websites, including those of the White House and South Korea’s presidential Blue House.
Though fingers were immediately pointed at the north, the IP addresses themselves provide little in the way of clarity. It is likely the hackers used the addresses to conceal their identities – for instance, by accessing the computers from a remote location. IP addresses can also be faked or masked, hiding a computer’s true location.
South Korean media reported in May that a North Korean internet warfare unit was trying to hack into American and South Korean military networks to gather confidential information and disrupt service. The Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported that the north had between 500 and 1,000 hackers.
Members of the parliamentary intelligence committee have said in recent days that the NIS also suspects North Korea because of a threat it made in state media last month where it boasted of being “fully ready for any form of hi-tech war”.
The fact that some of the attacked sites – such as that of the ruling party and the office of President Lee Myung-bak – have links to the South Korean government’s hardline policies toward the north were further cited.
The north has drawn repeated international rebukes in recent months for threats and actions seen as provocative by the international community. Those include a nuclear test in May and short-range ballistic missile launches on 4 July.
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Now you’re talking …
July 4th, 2009 |
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Want to speak like a native but don’t fancy spending your entire trip in a classroom? These holidays combine lessons with activities and the chance to hang out with locals
French
Surfing: Biarritz
If only school could have been this relaxed. At a solar-powered surf camp in a 300-year-old farmhouse close to Les Casernes beach, near Biarritz, language lessons take the form of informal two-hour chats over beers in the afternoons. Mornings are spent riding the waves, and five days of surf lessons (for 1½ hours per day) are included. The camp has plenty of places for practising tenses in your free time – in the garden, hydro-pool, hammam, tree hut, canoe or hammock. Suitable for beginners and improvers.
• A week costs £606pp, including surfboard and wetsuit hire. 08445 020 445, golearnto.com.
Outdoor adventure: Verdon
Perhaps you’re more likely to remember new words if you learn them while scared out of your wits. A French immersion course in Moustiers, in the Parc Naturel Regional du Verdon, includes morning lessons (beginner to advanced available) in a converted hilltop monastery, plus afternoon exploration of the river Verdon by canoe, treks into the Garrigue with a forest guard, games of pétanque in the village square, dances at a bal populaire or viewings of French films, all accompanied by teachers to ensure French is spoken throughout. At the weekend, the adventuring ratchets up a gear with canyoning, rafting, kayaking and abseiling where no doubt you will learn the French for “Help!” and perfect your pronunciation of merde
• Course €1,670pp for 14 days, accommodation €458 per week, 0121 430 7660, experiencelanguage.co.uk.
Wine: Bordeaux
Many people’s language priority is being able to order food and drink. But imagine how impressive you’ll sound when you can not only stammer out “Un verre de vin, s’il vous plaît”, but are also capable of ordering a fine Bordeaux, commenting on its complexity of flavour and describing the time you visited the very vineyard where it was created. This seven-day French and Bordeaux wine course will set you well on the way to talking about terroir like a native, with four 45-minute sessions of French a day (there’s a test on day one to establish your level), three afternoon sessions on Bordeaux wines, including tastings at l’Ecole du Bordeaux, and excursions to Saint-Emilion and Médoc vineyards.
• Courses start 20 July, 17 August, 14 September, 12 October, £705pp. Homestay accommodation from £170 per week, flight from £115pp return. 0871 230 8512, statravel.co.uk.
Spanish
Walk the talk: Pyrenees
“When we visit my neighbour Hilaria’s vegetable garden, if you pick tomatoes, you’ll learn how to talk about them,” says Georgina Howard, who runs the Pyrenean Experience, a language course in the Baztan valley that teaches Spanish by living Spanish. Language tutors are always on hand to help guests in conversation practise while they ramble through the Pyrenean mountains, meet local farmers, visit bars and hamlets, have lunch with the neighbours or host parties at the seven-bedroom farmhouse, and generally live the Basque life. There are more formal morning lessons on a terrace, and weeks for beginners, intermediate and advanced speakers are run separately.
• Full board £850pp per week, 0121 711 3428, pyreneanexperience.com.
Surfing: Tenerife
Insted runs language courses in Austria, Spain and France that are combined with skiing or surfing. Its Tenerife course runs year-round from a central base in Puerto de la Cruz, a thriving town with busy bars and restaurants serving Latin American and African-influenced dishes. Minutes away from the classroom are the beaches, where the breaks have earned the Canaries the title “Hawaii of the Atlantic”. Accommodation is with a local family, or in an apartment sharing with other students from the course.
• Homestay with family from €165pp per week B&B in private room, €200 half board. Apartment from €165pp for private room. Two week minimum, €220 per week for the course. 00 33 450 530 366, insted.com.
Tango: Buenos Aires
“Bailamos?” is Spanish for “Shall we dance?” – as those returning from this trip will know. In the historic centre of Argentina’s capital, near the bohemian San Telmo district, pupils take a daily four-hour classroom lesson of Spanish, and Argentinian and Spanish culture, politics and history in groups of up to seven. Afterwards they don their dancing shoes to learn one of the world’s sexiest dances at a nearby milonga, or tango hall.
• Six nights including homestay with from £467pp, tango classes £4 per hour. Hotel accommodation available. Journey Latin America (020 8747 8315, journeylatinamerica.co.uk).
Portuguese
Capoeira: Brazil
Practise whirling your limbs to the moves of capoeira while learning to twirl your tongue around the Portuguese language on a two-week course combining the two in Salvador. Classes of eight study beginners’ Portuguese for 20 hours a week, then concentrate on the acrobatic Brazilian dance/martial art twice a week; both take place in a language centre. A samba lesson and cookery class are also included, and homestay accommodation is available so that you can practise over dinner (the language, not capoeira).
• Course £285 pp for 14 days, homestay accommodation from £89 per room per week. 08445 020 445, golearnto.com.
Italian
Food and cookery: Tuscany
For an indulgent foodie break with a side serving of language lessons, Sanctuary Villas puts up large groups of friends or two families in a luxurious converted farmhouse villa with an outdoor pool, sauna, steam room and Jacuzzi, near the medieval village of San Gimignano. The company can arrange extras including cookery classes with local chef Giuseppina and language lessons, taken in your villa, the garden which overlooks rolling, cypress-lined Chianti hills or wherever you prefer. Villa La Terme consists of two large houses, together sleeping 10 plus two children.
• From £5,824 per week (£69 pp per night) accommodation only, language lessons from £41 pp per hour with Sanctuary Villas (01242 547 902, sanctuary-villas.com).
Photography and cycling: Umbria
Northern Umbria is a very untouristy part of Italy, a bonus for language learners as locals are unlikely to revert to English when you chat, and because they have more time to do so. Guests at the Labbazia school in the Upper Tiber Valley will meet plenty of them on trips to local markets and bars in the nearby medieval villages, where they’ll put into practise all they learned that day in class (three levels available). There’s usually some sort of local pageant, dance or festival to attend, and many other activities are arranged on demand, from photography classes to tai chi, cycling or horse-riding.
• From €1,050pp per week, full-board at the agriturismo where lessons are held, including 20 x 45min lessons, transfers from Perugia and guided trips. 00 39 075 857 3004, labbaziaschool.com.
Greek
Beach and culture: Syros
On this two-week course at the OMILO centre on the Cycladic island of Syros, there are classes at the Pension Echo in Azolimnos (which is also one of the self-catering accommodation options) from 9.30am to 1.30pm each day. Then it’s time to hit the beaches right by the centre for swimming and sunbathing, before moving a short distance to the village’s lively tavernas. Excursions such as Greek dance lessons, museum visits, guided walks and local concerts are included and everyone goes along to a sociable first night meal. The island’s capital, Ermoupolis, an affluent harbour of neo-classical buildings, mansions, marble-paved streets and white houses, is 4km away.
• Catch a ferry from Athens. Next dates September, €590 for two weeks. Rooms from €35 per night. 00 30 210 612 2896, omilo.com.
German
Watersports: Bavaria
Lindau is a beautiful town on its own island in the eastern side of Lake Constance, with a historic medieval centre and pretty harbour. It’s a great base for learning German – after classes, pupils cool off by sailing and waterskiing on the lake, cycle around it or go on excursions to Meersburg, Salem Castle and Liechtenstein.
The Dialoge language school provides 20-25 lessons per week, and has a sports hall for basketball, volleyball and football games. Social evenings with barbecues, wine tastings and the cinema are arranged too.
• From €490 per week including accommodation with a host family or the school’s apartments, €330 without. 0808 234 8578, studytravel.com.
Arabic
Interaction: Cairo
Pupils of the Bridge Abroad programme will learn the Egyptian dialect (one of the easiest to pick up) as well as classical Arabic on a week’s beginners’ course in Cairo. The focus is on learning through interaction with some of the city’s 14.5million residents, after daily lessons in a school 15 minutes from the centre. Afternoons are spent among the throng, picking up more vocabulary in the souks, cafes and squares, and at lectures, concerts, cinemas and the famous sites.
• Three weeks (minimum) including accommodation costs from $878pp, $399 without accommodation, or from $711 per week private tuition, from $855 with accommodation. 0808 120 7613, bridgeabroad.com.
Japanese
Cooking and karaoke: Tokyo
Nowhere gives a culture shock like Japan, so throwing yourself into the local way of life is as important as learning the lingo if you are to have a hope of ever fitting in. Alongside a beginners’ course that also covers Japanese culture in a centrally-located school, pupils can take workshops on calligraphy, tea ceremonies, noodle cooking, judo and karate, and interact with native Japanese speakers on nights out bowling, to quizzes and, of course, singing karaoke.
• From $2900 for two weeks including accommodation with a host family, in student dorms or apartments with World Link Education (0046 5580 3720, wle-japan.com).
Mandarin
Live-in learning: Beijing
Moving in with your teacher would have been an abhorrent notion when you were a teenager, but now it could be the best way to develop your language skills. Instead of trawling through a textbook twice a day, you can chat to your tutors from breakfast to bedtime while staying in their home on Go Learn To’s “home language courses”. These suit all levels and give the option of staying with your teachers, couples and families around Beijing as well as informal tuition. Guests get a set of keys and are free to come and go as they please, but are usually invited to join in with their teacher’s life, to meet relatives and friends, go shopping and explore the nightlife.
• Seven days from £864pp per week full board, 08445 020 445, golearnto.com.
Russian
Culture: St Petersburg
Russia is one place where you’re unlikely to pick up much of the language without some serious tuition. A course that includes 20 lessons per week in St Petersburg is a good place to start. After class, it’s time to absorb the city’s rich culture at its many sites.
Bi-weekly group activities include visits to the theatre and ballet and to other places such as the riverside city of Novgorod. Go in the summer and you can join in many vercherinkas – small parties with caviar, vodka and Russian folk songs. Beginners’ and advanced courses are available, but everyone is asked to learn the Cyrillic alphabet before arriving.
• Two weeks from $2,170pp all inclusive, but excluding flights, languagesabroad.com.
• Don’t miss our free phrasebooks every day next week, plus Italian the week after
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From iron curtain to green belt
July 4th, 2009 |
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When Germany was divided during the cold war, nature took control of the deserted border area. Today it forms a reserve as fascinating as the country’s recent history
When I told friends I was setting off to explore the former border that once separated East and West Germany, several of them, even the German ones, scratched their heads and dug out their maps to find out where it ran. Unlike the Berlin Wall, the infamous symbol of the cold war that separated West Berlin from East, the much longer border that ran through the heart of Germany, has been largely forgotten.
German nature lovers, however, are well aware of the scar left by the iron curtain, once one of the world’s most heavily fortified borders. For four decades up to the end of the cold war in 1989, around 600 threatened species of animal and plant life were given a free rein in a no man’s land overshadowed by minefields, metal fences and watchtowers. The legacy is a unique and extraordinarily rich chain of ad hoc nature reserves running for nearly 1,400km in a gentle zigzag from the Vogtland region, near the German-Czech border in the south, to the Baltic Sea in the north, now interlinked to form a grünes band, or green belt.
It is an impressive living monument to recent European history that is accessible to walkers and bikers. Eckhard Selz, a ranger and former East German from the Harz national park, summed it up over a bowl of pea and sausage soup atop the Brocken peak, one of the highlights of the route: “The division of Germany was a travesty that robbed people of their freedom, but a positive side effect was the way the sealed border allowed nature to flourish.”
It has created a treasure trove of wildlife, including black storks, wild cats and winchats, a range of rare mosses and wood grouse. The newcomer is the lynx, which has been successfully reintroduced to the region since the border came down.
In four days we hiked around 100km of the green belt, starting at the Torfhaus visitor centre in the Harz national park, just outside the picturesque former mining town of Goslar. It was organised for us by the Harz tourist board and the Green Belt initiative, who will arrange guides, luggage transfers, routes and accommodation, allowing you the freedom to concentrate on the surroundings. Alternatively you can do the hikes alone. The paths are well marked and the local tourist offices on the route are stocked with plenty of maps and information about activities.
In Torfhaus, our guide, biologist Jens Halves, offered everything from reflexology foot massages in the park’s cool mountain streams to tours that trace the past journeys of Hans-Christian Andersen and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe to reconstructing the lives of the 18th- and 19th-century charcoal burners who lived in the forest and served the steel industry.
In Goslar – home to the delicious Gose beer that is brewed with a high concentration of malt and the region’s soft and mineral-rich water – we stayed at the Kaiserworth Hotel, once a 15th-century cloth traders’ guild house. The following day our rucksacks were picked up by a luggage taxi for delivery to our next destination while we set off on foot to the charming town of Hornburg. A room in the local museum details the West German town’s precarious proximity to the iron curtain, including a model of the automatic spring guns that the East German authorities installed at the border. Triggered by movement, they sprayed would-be escapees with bullets.
“It was like living at the edge of the world,” said Hinrich Schüler, our guide, who worked as a forester on the border and recalls the day in November 1989 when the Berlin Wall came down. He and his colleagues had to act rapidly, cutting paths through the forest and laying temporary roads for the thousands of Trabants and pedestrians rushing from East to West. Now the towering 69-year-old was accompanying us on a brisk walk through a forest in Lower Saxony into the 1,030-year-old village of Osterwieck in the former East.
Osterwieck has received millions of euros in grants over the last 20 years to help restore its stunning collection of 400 half-timbered houses. But much of the former East is revealed in the many abandoned homes of the thousands who have been forced to leave because of lack of work.
In Ilsenburg we spent the night in a former East German army barracks, now the swish Berghotel, from where we trekked in drizzle through the pine and rock landscape of the Brocken along the distinct border patrol path, constructed out of perforated slab concrete, that runs like a seam for practically the entire length of the former border.
“The Brocken is to the Germans what Ben Nevis is to the Scots,” explained Friedhart Knolle, a national park geologist.
The 1,141m mount was also a favourite haunt for British tourists as far back as the 1830s, when they were lured by the promise of the Brockengespenst – the Brocken spectre – an illusion formed, it is believed, by the thick fog and the shadows of climbers cast upon it. The seminal role it played in the history of broadcasting, when the 1936 Olympics were transmitted from the world’s first television tower here, is explained in a museum at the summit.
The GDR authorities turned it into a military zone, out of bounds for all Germans, so today it is one of the most potent symbols of German partition and reunification.
A 19th-century narrow-gauge steam railway, the Brockenbahn, took us downhill to the pretty town of Schiercke (in the former East), close to our next destination, the town of Braunlage (former West). At the foot of Wurmberg mountain there, slalom skiers were once instructed to concentrate on curbing the end of their runs lest they ended up cruising into the forbidden East.
Hartmut Dörge, a former customs officer on the West German border who now gives tours of the area around Braunlage, pointed out the gaps in the heavily-fortified fences where foxes, rabbits and badgers were able to tunnel their way through.
Our walk took us past a brook, just 1m wide, that was pedantically split down the middle by the international border, a house in the forest where secret agents once met and a former East German army barracks turned asylum seekers’ home.
Dorge gave me a piece of the metal mesh border fence as a souvenir before handing us over in the pretty town of Hohegeiss to our next guide, his former colleague Manfred Gille. He led us on a steep path through a spectacular pine forest that was so thick and dark it would have been the ideal setting for a Grimm fairytale. In a clearing near the East German village of Sorge, he pointed out how the tilling of the earth in search of landmines inadvertently churned up seeds and helped a wealth of birch and pine saplings to take root all along the former border. There are still bare patches, however, where industrial weed-killer sprayed by GDR authorities to ensure unbroken views of their borders, have killed all the nutrients.
Gille recalled a bizarre encounter he had with a Westerner who fled to the East, saying he was sick of the capitalist system: “He clung to the fence, rattling on it and crying ‘Let me in!’ while ignoring our suggestions that he should think twice about what he was doing.”
At the Ring of Memory near the village of Sorge (which, fittingly, means “woe” in German), landscape artist Hermann Prigann’s sculpture of naked concrete pillars encircled with charred wood piles celebrates how the forest has enveloped the former border area.
We met Inge Winkel, the mayor of the 120-soul village, who admitted she still stuck to the border patrol path for fear of stepping on an undiscovered landmine if she strayed into the forest. She stood at the fence marking the first of the two metal fortifications that once separated Sorge from the West and dwelt on a detail that has haunted her for years. “It’s the highest quality steel, especially chosen by a regime that needed to keep its citizens locked in, otherwise they’d have run away,” she said.
We ended our four-day journey in Eichsfeld, a Catholic enclave that is famous for successfully defying the regime, and rested our weary limbs on a bench at the former border – a gift to the green belt initiative from none other than the man who had initiated the monumental changes, Mikhail Gorbachev.
Way to go
Getting there
Air Berlin (0871 5000 737, airberlin.com) flies Stansted-Hanover and Stansted-Berlin from £48 rtn inc tax.
Border trail
German tour operator Wandern im Harz (0049 5322 559603, wandern-im-harz.de) arranges hikes along the border trail from April to November. Hikes last four to six nights; the four-night tour costs €230pp, including hotel accommodation, transfers to and from the nearest railway station, breakfast, packed lunch, introductory talk, map, information material, luggage transfers and SOS assistance, but no guide.
Further information
Harz Mountains Tourist Board: +5321 34040, harzinfo.de. For details of the wider route across Europe: greenbelteurope.eu.
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Nazi death camp accused fit for German trial
July 3rd, 2009 |
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John Demjanjuk, an 89-year-old retired car worker, is fit to stand trial over murders at Sobibor death camp in Poland
Doctors have determined that John Demjanjuk, suspected of having been a guard in a Nazi death camp, is fit to stand trial as an accessory to murder, clearing the way for formal charges to be filed this month, prosecutors said today.
The doctors said the 89-year-old retired car worker, who was recently extradited from the US, can stand trial so long as court sessions do not exceed two 90-minute sessions per day, Munich prosecutors said in a brief statement.
They added that formal charges can be expected later this month.
Demjanjuk is accused of being an accessory to murder in 29,000 cases at the Sobibor camp in Nazi-occupied Poland during the second world war.
He has been in custody in Munich since arriving there 12 May after losing a court battle to stay in the US.
Demjanjuk’s health was a key issue in that case. His son has said he is dying of leukaemic bone marrow disease. Dramatic photos in April showed Demjanjuk wincing in pain as immigration agents removed him from his home in Seven Hills, Ohio, during an earlier aborted attempt to deport him to Germany. However, images taken only days before and released by the US government showed him entering his car unaided.
Demjanjuk says he was a Red Army soldier who spent the war as a Nazi prisoner of war and never hurt anyone.
But Nazi-era documents obtained by US justice authorities and shared with German prosecutors include a photo ID identifying Demjanjuk as a guard at the Sobibor death camp and say he was trained at an SS facility for Nazi guards at Trawniki, also in Poland.
Efforts to prosecute the Ukrainian native began in 1977 and have involved courts and government officials from at least five countries on three continents.
Charges of accessory to murder carry a maximum sentence of up to 15 years in prison in Germany.
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Opel Magna deal uncertainties
July 1st, 2009 |
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It would seem that negotiations between Magna and GM have hit some choppy waters. GM is reportedly concerned over giving away too much technology to Magna and a prospective Opel/Vauxhall Mark 2 with its Russian connections. There’s also the issue of carving up territories for future Opel sales. GM is wary of creating a monster that hurts its own future chances in key markets.
Is the deal really moving towards being off? I somehow doubt it. The German government is still right behind Magna’s bid and has already provided bridging finance and loan guarantees for Opel. Berlin is not seeking to fuel the press speculation about other bidders being invited back to the table, though it has been acknowledging that we don’t have a done deal yet.
But it looks like there has been a bit of press manipulation emanating from Detroit. Anonymous sources said to be close to events are popping up everywhere. By creating the impression that the deal is far from done and that other bidders are very much in with a chance, GM puts added pressure on Magna in the negotiations. But if the Magna consortium bid does unravel, a whole load more uncomfortable questions get asked about other bidders, Berlin has a heart attack and, apart from anything else, even more GM management time likely gets diverted to the Opel/Vauxhall sale. They have more than enough on their plates in the Ren-Cen at the mo.
The competition for Opel/Vauxhall is still not over, but Magna’s consortium is still by far the front-runner due to its strong backing from Germany – government and labour unions. Marchionne may look on with interest, but his bid caused much consternation in Germany before and would do so again. If holding company RHJ has really improved its offer, it may well get a hearing, but it should be wary of being ‘used’ by GM as a lever to chivvy Magna. Oh, and by the way, RHJ has just posted a big loss suggesting it’s perhaps not really in position for anything more than a small role or stake. Beijing Auto? I don’t think so.
That said, if a seismic shift is coming, and Magna is really on its way out, expect an announcement very soon. Time is short. The German government needs to be on-side. And Opel is already eating into bridging finance.
England U21s suffer final indignity
June 30th, 2009 |
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Germany Under-21s 4–0 England Under-21s
Goalkeeping blunders are not the sole preserve of the England senior team. And nor is heartbreak when glory is within touching distance. On a night when two years of hope and rigorous preparation went up in smoke and the nation felt the familiar ache of disappointment, Watford’s Scott Loach wanted a large hole in the ground to swallow him up. As Germany celebrated inflicting a humiliating defeat, Stuart Pearce and his England Under-21 players probably felt the same way.
Loach, having been promoted to the starting line-up after Joe Hart’s suspension, misjudged the swerving flight of Mesut Ozil’s 48th-minute free-kick and, as time momentarily stood still, the ball rode up off him and trickled over the line. At the beginning of the 2007-08 season, Loach was on loan with the Conference club Stafford Rangers. This was comfortably the biggest game of his career and it was heart-wrenching that his error effectively killed the contest.
German teams do not throw away 2–0 leads and so it proved. Although England chiselled out a trio of openings, their opponents twisted the knife further on the counter with late goals from the centre-forward Sandro Wagner who, for much of the evening, had looked to lack the composure of his namesake.
It all appeared to be too much for Pearce. The England coach raged on the touchline, his targets alternating between his players and the fourth official and, after the left-back Sebastian Boenisch had cut through James Milner in front of the dugout in the 65th minute, Pearce stepped onto the pitch and looked set to throttle the German. Mercifully, he pulled himself together and stepped back. Pearce’s frenzied eruptions did him or the Football Association no credit.
Pearce will fight on. He has signed a new two-year contract and he is determined to go one better at the next finals in Denmark in 2011. The hurt here last night, though, was never far from the surface. “I don’t subscribe to boom and bust,” he said. “If I had won tonight, I would not have been the best coach in the world. The defeat chews me up inside but all it does is spur me on to become a better coach.”
Germany effectively throttled England. The defeat was a long way from being Loach’s fault, although he was also culpable in part for Germany’s first and third goals. England were collectively second best while, tactically, they were outmanoeuvred.
Pearce’s approach was dictated by the necessity to play Theo Walcott as the lone central striker in his tried and trusted formation; Gabriel Agbonlahor and Fraizer Campbell, the only recognised front men, were suspended. England, though, were never likely to get much hold-up work from Walcott while their efforts to play him through the channels were easily repelled.
Walcott lacked support; England’s midfielders the necessary drive and invention, and Pearce, consumed by emotion, waited until the 77th minute to make a major change. He sent on Jack Rodwell in central defence and asked Micah Richards to step up front alongside the isolated Walcott. The die, however, had been cast.
Horst Hrubesch, the Germany coach, had brought in the defensive midfielder Mats Hummels to match up with England’s starting formation and he was among the many outstanding German performers, making a series of vital challenges. Germany’s ace, though, was Ozil and, having threatened to do so early on, he unpicked England to usher Germany into the lead. His through ball inside Martin Cranie was made to measure for Gonzalo Castro and the clipped finish was too smart for Loach, who went to ground too early.
Germany had been boosted by the presence of Joachim Löw, the senior manager, and as he conducted a pitchside TV interview before the game, his England counterpart Fabio Capello was conspicuous by his absence. Capello, who has been on a reconnaissance mission at the Confederations Cup in South Africa, had known since Friday that Pearce’s team had reached the final. He tried his best to make it, apparently, but he could not get a flight that worked.
England dug deep after Ozil’s goal and Pearce was a snapshot in anguish when Lee Cattermole rattled the top of the crossbar and again, when Andreas Beck somehow cleared Adam Johnson’s flick off the line after a mazy run by James Milner. Beck would scramble off the line again, from a Cattermole header. Germany finished in style with Wagner, after missing an open goal on 76 minutes, lashing his first through Loach’s legs and curling his second beautifully beyond him.
There have been many positives to this European Championship for England, among them the emergence of Kieran Gibbs and the flash of promise from Rodwell. Pearce stressed that one bad game had to be judged in the context of two encouraging years. Ultimately, though, he felt the sharp stab of failure.
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Nuclear industry accused over Irena
June 29th, 2009 |
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Critics say France is using debate about where to base new Irena global renewables body to co-opt organisation
The nuclear power industry has been accused of trying to muscle in on plans to establish a global body to represent the renewable energy industry at a key meeting in Egypt tomorrow.
France – a major user and exporter of nuclear technologies – is accused by critics of trying to win the top job inside the renewable organisation so it can move the International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena) towards being a promoter of “low-carbon” technologies – including atomic power.
The talks in Sharm el-Sheikh are already threatening to become a major standoff between Germany and the United Arab Emirates over which country should win the right to have the headquarters of Irena based in its country.
France, which recently signed a nuclear co-operation agreement with the UAE, is supporting Abu Dhabi. It also wants one of its own civil servants, Hélène Peloss, to be given the top role.
Britain, which only signed up for membership on Friday, has given no indication whether it plans to cast its vote in favour of Bonn or Abu Dhabi, while the US is expected to join Irena in Egypt and then lend its support to Germany.
Karsten Sach, an official in the German environment ministry with responsibility for Irena, said he was “very optimistic” that his country would be chosen but he refused to be drawn on the competition with Abu Dhabi or the role of France.
“I think we have an excellent offer in terms of experience, policy frameworks and vibrant research but we are not campaigning against any other offer,” he argued.
Bonn is considered by many to be the more obvious location because the renewables agency was the brainchild of the Germans, who have led the way in the clean technology sector through its determined championing of solar power. The promoters of Bonn are also suggesting that the Danish renewables policy expert Hans Jørgen Koch should be chosen as director general.
But Abu Dhabi, in the UAE, is pushing its claims to host Irena by emphasising its new commitment to clean technology through the construction of the hugely ambitious, low-carbon Masdar City project. It is also arguing that a developing country rather than the west is better placed to pursue the vital north-south dialogue needed to beat global warming.
At previous planning meetings for Irena, the French have talked about “low-carbon” technologies, encouraging speculation about its ultimate motives.
Eric Martinot, a senior research director with the Institute for Sustainable Energy Policies in Tokyo, and a former environment specialist at the World Bank, told the Huffington Post, an online newspaper, that the French manoeuvres should be resisted.
“An Irena located in Abu Dhabi under such circumstances would be ‘nuclear tainted’ because the negotiating process used to select a host country would be based on support for nuclear power,” said Martinot.
“Are the original goals of Irena being co-opted so that renewables become a mere appendage to a nuclear agenda? ‘Sprinkling some renewables on top of our nuclear power’?” he asked.
More than 100 countries have signed up to the new organisation, although the US and China have yet to do so. Sach said he was hopeful that the US might join in Egypt and that China would eventually come on board.
The renewable agency will have a mandate to disseminate knowledge, develop regulatory framework and to actively promote the widespread adoption of renewable energy technologies around the world.
It comes ahead of vital new talks in Copenhagen at the end of this year about how to tackle global warming and amid excitement that the US and China are finally starting to play more constructive roles compared with the past.
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Sat Eye Candy: Bernie Worrell
April 18th, 2009 |
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HAPPY FREAKIN’ BIRTHDAY TO THE WIZARD OF WOO!!!
As much (and sometimes more than) George Clinton, Bernie Worrell has been the architect of the Parliament-Funkadelic sound, one of the late 20th century’s most permeating influences, stretching far beyond the corridors of “funk” or “soul” and into music as a whole. Tomorrow, Worrell turns 65 and we want the whole world to sing him a hearty “Happy Birthday.”
His work has touched the Talking Heads, Les Claypool and myriad others (including some REALLY nice work with the Eric McFadden Trio in recent years), and his creativity seems limitless and often unlike any other keyboardist in history. We offer up a tiny smattering of his work in celebration of his birth and encourage y’all to make your funk the P-Funk this weekendÂ…
Let’s jump on an insect and enjoy some quality improvising from Worrell, Warren Haynes, Will Calhoun (Living Colour) and Brett Bass.
While Parliament- Funkadelic is legendary for their sonic Viagra-like jams, it’s Worrell’s arrangements and horn charts that often provide much of the crispness and punch to their trademark sound. To wit, this ditty from Houston in 1976.
Most musicians would be super fortunate to be part of one massively influential band in their lifetime. Bernie Worrell has two, and though never an official member, his role in the Heads in the 1980s was pivotal. Here they are throwing sparks in Germany in 1980.
Bernie has a jester’s wit and a broad sense of play that he brings to the stage. For example, this craziness from back in the day, just one of the broad strokes he helped cook up that had P-Funk filling stadiums in the ’70s.
Worrell’s compositional sense can often be detected most clearly in later period Parliament like this wriggling salute to hitting it from the back, captured in rump-diddly-umptious style in 1981.
Dig this ultra-rare mix of musicians tearing up Creem’s “White Room.” The man keeps heavy company!
A vintage look at the boys at their start. Dig the juxtaposition of show host and this gaggle of super freaks.
No salute to Bernie would be complete without this Widescreen rock epic. This version is tinged with wonderful Pink Floyd patina, proof that Worrell is always listening to what’s happening around him. And then he ingests it for his own sustenanceÂ…and ours.
Things gets weird with this super nutty lineup, which includes Marc Ribot and Arto Lindsey on guitars. Play loud to scrape some paint off the walls.
Let’s boogie off into the weekend with our hands raised high and our spirits to match. Thanks for the music, Mr. Worrell. We think you’re the freakin’ bee’s knees, brother!
And don’t forget, you can eyeball video sweetness 24/7 with JamBase TV.
Super Computers – What are They?
December 30th, 2008 |
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Worlds Top 500 Super Computers Reviewed
MANNHEIM, Germany, BERKELEY, Calif., and KNOXVILLE, Tenn.—The 32nd edition of the closely watched list of the world’s TOP500 supercomputers has just been issued, with the 1.105 petaflop/s IBM supercomputer at Los Alamos National Laboratory holding on to the top spot it first achieved in June 2008.
The Los Alamos system, nicknamed [...]