You find the original post here www.worldphoto360.co … | Richard Dennis

The territory of Germany covers 357,021 km2 (137,847 sq mi), consisting of 349,223 km2 (134,836 sq mi) of land and 7,798 km2 (3,011 sq mi) of water. It is the seventh largest country by area in Europe and the 63rd largest in the world. Elevation ranges from the mountains of the Alps (highest point: the Zugspitze at 2,962 metres (9,718 ft)) in the south to the shores of the North Sea (Nordsee) in the north-west and the Baltic Sea (Ostsee) in the north-east. Between lie the forested uplands of central Germany and the low-lying lands of northern Germany (lowest point: Wilstermarsch at 3.54 metres (11.6 ft) below sea level), traversed by some of Europe’s major rivers such as the Rhine, Danube and Elbe.
More here www.worldphoto360.com

from Bernd Brägelmann

from Bernd Brägelmann

You find the original post here blog.thefind.com/200 … | Stephanie

In our fast-paced society of instant gratification and non-stop networking (we can’t even keep in touch with friends guilt-free on Facebook without calling it “networking”), it is easy to become stressed and harried. Even weekends, the lone couple of days we had to rest and recuperate, are now filled with playing catch-up for the office or partaking in fun, but taxing activities that don’t let our bodies just sit back, take a deep breath, and truly relax. The next time you get a some vacation time, treat yourself to somewhere that is fun, interesting and will also give you some time to really breathe a sigh of relief.

Try Berlin, Germany and stay at the beautifully streamlined Lux Eleven hotel. Imagine Calvin Klein had designed the interiors and you have the modern minimalism of steel and hardwood in a clean and spacious area.
More here blog.thefind.com

from urbanartcore.eu

from urbanartcore.eu

You find the original post here gogermany.about.com/ …

The annual “Jewish Culture Days”, the largest festival in Germany dedicated to Jewish life, art and history, gets under way in Berlin next weekend.

In its 23rd year, the festival presents concerts, exhibitions, readings, and architectural tours…
More here gogermany.about.com

from Steven Lilley

from Steven Lilley

You find the original post here www.luxique.com/blog …

Recipe For Success

The currywurst is something of a national dish in Germany and it’s become so revered that it’s just got its own museum.

A currywurst is a pork sausage that’s fried, chopped into slices and served with lashings of a special curry and ketchup sauce. It’s served at many a street-side kiosk on a cardboard plate with a plastic or wooden fork, together with bread, chips (fries) or potato salad.

The currywurst has been Germany’s favourite snack since 1949 and to mark this 60th anniversary, the 5 million euro (£4 million / $7 million) currywurst museum opened earlier this month – right next to Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin.
More here luxique.com/blog

While in London a few years ago, I stopped in a bookstore and picked up a guide to vegetarian restaurants that was a solid inch thick. Needless to say, I didn’t have any trouble finding delicious vegan food in England’s capital city (I still crave the scrumptious lasagna I had at Manna).

Berlin, one would think, would be a different story. These are the folks who invented bratwurst, after all. But our friends at PETA Germany are out to disabuse people of the notion that the only thing a vegan can eat in Berlin is sauerkraut. They’ve produced a short video that tours the city’s best vegetarian and vegan restaurants. Warning: Don’t watch this on an empty stomach.
More here prime.peta.org

In the Pines has been in several locales over the past nine months or so, most significantly in Europe (last summer) and in the studio. One place the Kansas City band hasn’t been recently is in the clubs, doing live shows.

After an extended songwriting and recording hiatus, the six-piece rustic indie-rock band is ready to show off some of the material that will be on its second album, the follow-up to the rapturous “In the Pines,” its debut album.

Saturday night, ITP will headline a show at the RecordBar, 1020 Westport Road. We caught up with Brad Hodgson, Laurel Morgan and Darren Welch, who discussed the record they are producing, that tour of Germany and what’s in store in 2009.
More here kansascity.com

After opening to throngs huddled in the slush and snow on a recent Friday night, long lines are still snaking around C/O Berlin, an exhibition space for photography housed in an old postal station in the city’s Mitte district, to see the traveling show “Annie Leibovitz — A Photographer’s Life, 1990-2005″ during its only stop in Germany. The recent reports of financial trouble — Ms. Leibowitz has had to put up the rights to her photographs as collateral against loans — has clearly not diminished interest in her work.
The show combines some of The photographer’s well-known celebrity images — an infamous portrait of a very pregnant Demi Moore is on view, as are early shots of Leonardo DiCaprio, Mick Jagger, a salt-and-pepper Bill Clinton and members of Bush’s cabinet — run alongside intimate photography from her personal life.
by Kimberly Bradley
more here blogs.iht.com

There are approximately 1.000.000 illegal immigrants in Germany, 250.000 alone in the capital Berlin. These people live without any papers and without an insurance card that allows them access to the German health system. The state of Berlin considers now to issue these illegal immigrants living in Berlin an “anonymous insurance certificate” that allows them to seek medical help without fearing repercussions after revealing their identity and illegal immigration status.

German law states that people who help, instigate, prolong or support the stay of an illegal immigrant can be penalized. That means that doctors, nurses and other hospital staff is required to report people to the authorities when the illegal status of an immigrant seeking medical help. The medical profession opposes this rule that is a lot stricter than in many other european countries, where help can be given to aliens without revealing their identity.
more here Elisa Jaehner (www.erblawg.com)

After the success of open everything Berlin last December (see documentation), the newthinking network and CC Salon Berlin teamed up to put on another event in Berlin last night:

* CC Salon Berlin and openeverything focus - Feb. 26 (CC Blog)
* openeverything focus + CC Salon (Michelle Thorne’s blogpost)

I was invited to speak - and gave an overview of the Open Knowledge Foundation, our projects, events, the background and rationale behind the Open Knowledge Definition, and a quick walkthrough of CKAN.

After me was Sebastian Moleski from Wikimedia Deutschland talking about the large donation of images from the German Federal Archives to Wikimedia Commons:

Starting on Thursday Dec 4, 2008, Wikimedia Commons witnessed a massive upload of new images. We received nearly 100,000 files from a donation from the German Federal Archives. These images are mostly related to the history of Germany (including the German Democratic Republic) and are part of a cooperation between Wikimedia Germany and the Federal Archives.

These images are licensed Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 Germany License (CC-BY-SA). Wikimedia Germany and the Federal Archives have signed a cooperation agreement that, among other things, asserts that the Federal Archives owns sufficient rights to be able to grant this kind of license.

more here Open Knowledge Foundation Blog

Guten abend from Berlin! I have been quite busy for the past few months, but now I am here in Germany and somewhat acquainted with the city and ready to start spilling my adventure stories! To start with, here are the top ten things that have surprised me (thus far) about Berlin.

1. I always push the door when I should pull and pull when I should push. It must be backwards from what it usually is in America, because I ALWAYS do the wrong thing. And it is always awkward.

2. The keyboards here have the y and z switched, among other things. Typing is slightly off… when I am not paying attention it would go like this: Hez! I hope zou are having a great daz! But I am learning to switch it fairly rapidly, so hopefully I will be back up to my normal typing speed soon. I wonder what that will mean when I switch back to an American keyboard?

3. Crossing the street is weird. I never wait for lights to cross the street, you just cross when there are no cars, right? WRONG. And also, when the walk light is green, cars can still run you over.. and frequently try.

4. “Subway” (S Bahn, U Bahn here…) tickets are on a on-your-honor system with a little bit of fear. You buy a ticket, but you do not have to show it anywhere or validate it when you ride the train or anything… however, randomly they “control” you which means undercover agents are on the individual cars and once the train is moving pull out their official badges and make everyone show them their tickets. If you do not have a valid ticket, it is 40 Euros. Yikes! I have been controlled once already. It is actually pretty exciting as long as you have a valid ticket.

more here