The German parliament's email system was hampered for several hours for more than 4,000 staffers and deputies when hundreds of workers responded to an errant email sent by one staffer named "Babette" to all 4,032 co-workers. The flood of emails began when "Babette" accidentally replied to "all" on the Bundestag email list with a short answer to a colleague: "Please bring me a copy of the new directory."
Their exchange quickly multiplied when hundreds of colleagues responded with comments ranging from please "remove my name from your list" to "I'd like to take this opportunity to say hello to my mother."
It was a rare moment of light-hearted confusion in a country with a reputation for doing things with precision.
Many Germans working in the parliament remained uncharacteristically relaxed. One member of parliament for the Greens party, Volker Beck, said: "One mistaken click and the parliament's email system is turned into a new social network."
One anonymous staffer in the usually anonymous parliament building wrote: "I think this is great. We should do this once a month. It'll help us grow together."
A spokeswomen of the Bundestag confirmed that there had been a flood of emails in response to the errant email and that it was possible, as German media reported, that emails in the parliament were delayed by up to a half an hour due to the high volume.
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
School bans fuzzy boots used to hide cell phones
Singer Nancy Sinatra may have had boots made for walking, but she never attended Pottstown Middle School. Starting Monday the Philadelphia suburban district is banning the wearing of fuzzy open-top boots, including the popular Ugg brand, to middle school classes because students have been stashing cell phones in the loose footwear, according to district director of community relations John Armato.
"Cell phones are a problem for obvious reasons," Armato said.
Superintendent Reed Lindley said the school principal asked for the boot ban "because of the classroom disruptions that are resulting from ringing cell phones."
Students at the school can avoid going toe-to-toe with school officials by wearing boots that lace up and usually have a snugger fit.
First time offenders will get detention, and subsequent violations include two detentions, followed by confiscation of the phone, Armato said.
Middle school parent Adrienne Beyer said she thinks the ban is extreme.
"I understand there may be a handful of kids that shove cell phones down their boots, but why does the handful have to ruin it for the other 600 students? But, I said to my daughter, 'It's a rule and we're going to follow it,'" Beyer said.
Ugg sheepskin boots originated in Australia and New Zealand and have become popular with pre-teens and teenagers in the United States in recent years.
"Cell phones are a problem for obvious reasons," Armato said.
Superintendent Reed Lindley said the school principal asked for the boot ban "because of the classroom disruptions that are resulting from ringing cell phones."
Students at the school can avoid going toe-to-toe with school officials by wearing boots that lace up and usually have a snugger fit.
First time offenders will get detention, and subsequent violations include two detentions, followed by confiscation of the phone, Armato said.
Middle school parent Adrienne Beyer said she thinks the ban is extreme.
"I understand there may be a handful of kids that shove cell phones down their boots, but why does the handful have to ruin it for the other 600 students? But, I said to my daughter, 'It's a rule and we're going to follow it,'" Beyer said.
Ugg sheepskin boots originated in Australia and New Zealand and have become popular with pre-teens and teenagers in the United States in recent years.
German beer drinking slide stopped by warm weather
A steady slide in beer consumption in Germany was stopped cold last year thanks to warmer weather, the federal statistics office said on Monday. German brewers sold 98.2 million hectoliters of beer last year, down by just 0.1 percent in 2011 after dropping by an average of two percent every year since 2006. Beer consumption in Germany had fallen in all but two of the last 10 years.
Despite Germany's reputation as a nation of beer lovers, young people are turning away from the national beverage in favour of other non-alcoholic beverages, brewers say.
The warmer weather last year as well as the World Cup soccer tournament in 2006 helped to put a floor beneath what is still the country's most famous beverage. Germans still drink more than 100 liters of beer per capita each year.
"Beer sales depend on the weather. In the first half of 2011 -- in April and May -- we had a lot of warm weather, and the figures were up by 1.0 percent," Juergen Hammer, an official at the Federal Statistics Agency, told Reuters.
"This is why this year's results aren't so bad. So I guess the old adage is true that when it's warm people drink beer."
Consumption of German beer, which has been subject to a purity law since 1516, has been in slow decline for decades.
The World Cup football tournament helped German beer consumption rise by 1.4 percent in 2006, the strongest increase in 12 years, the federal statistics office said on Monday.
Despite Germany's reputation as a nation of beer lovers, young people are turning away from the national beverage in favour of other non-alcoholic beverages, brewers say.
The warmer weather last year as well as the World Cup soccer tournament in 2006 helped to put a floor beneath what is still the country's most famous beverage. Germans still drink more than 100 liters of beer per capita each year.
"Beer sales depend on the weather. In the first half of 2011 -- in April and May -- we had a lot of warm weather, and the figures were up by 1.0 percent," Juergen Hammer, an official at the Federal Statistics Agency, told Reuters.
"This is why this year's results aren't so bad. So I guess the old adage is true that when it's warm people drink beer."
Consumption of German beer, which has been subject to a purity law since 1516, has been in slow decline for decades.
The World Cup football tournament helped German beer consumption rise by 1.4 percent in 2006, the strongest increase in 12 years, the federal statistics office said on Monday.
San Francisco airport unveils yoga room for travelers
Just cleared airport security and in need of a little deep breathing and stretching relaxation?
San Francisco Airport has opened what it calls a first of its kind yoga room, and while it's not quite a mountaintop in Tibet, airport officials say the low lights, and soothing blue walls aim to afford travelers, stressed out or sanguine, an oasis of calm in which to flex, twist and decompress.
"As far as we know it's the first (yoga room) at an airport anywhere in the world," said Michael C. McCarron, director of community affairs for the airport.
He said the idea for the room, in the newly refurbished Terminal 2, came from a passenger suggestion at an open house. It joins the Berman reflection room, a space intended for silence and meditation located before Terminal 2 security.
Airport Director John L. Martin called the room, which opened last week, "another leap forward in providing our travelers the opportunity and space to relax and decompress on their own terms."
The architects, Gensler Design, set the lights low and warm in contrast to the light, bright concourse, according to a statement, and a floating wall was constructed to symbolize "a buoyant spirit and enlightened mind. "
Large felt-constructed rocks will be installed in the Spring in a nod to the Zen gardens of Japan.
John Walsh, duty manager at San Francisco Airport, said the room is already attracting its share of travelling yogis, many equipped with their own props.
"I've seen people using it. They do yoga," Walsh said. "We have mats, but some people actually bring their own." There are also folding chairs, popular in many senior yoga sessions. So far there are no plans to hold classes.
Located just past security, it's a particular draw for people with time to kill before their flight, Walsh said.
Santa Monica-based yoga teacher Tamal Dodge believes the yoga room at the airport will be the first of many yoga spaces to be attached to airports and public transportation venues.
"How amazing will it be to stretch out and meditate before you get on a plane for a 12-hour flight," said Dodge, who is featured in the "Element: Hatha & Flow Yoga for Beginners" DVD.
"You are now given the opportunity to really relax and prepare your body for something as taxing as sitting in an airplane seat for hours on end," he said.
Airport yogis are directed to their room by the usual method-- the pictograph: this one of a figure seated in full lotus position.
San Francisco Airport has opened what it calls a first of its kind yoga room, and while it's not quite a mountaintop in Tibet, airport officials say the low lights, and soothing blue walls aim to afford travelers, stressed out or sanguine, an oasis of calm in which to flex, twist and decompress.
"As far as we know it's the first (yoga room) at an airport anywhere in the world," said Michael C. McCarron, director of community affairs for the airport.
He said the idea for the room, in the newly refurbished Terminal 2, came from a passenger suggestion at an open house. It joins the Berman reflection room, a space intended for silence and meditation located before Terminal 2 security.
Airport Director John L. Martin called the room, which opened last week, "another leap forward in providing our travelers the opportunity and space to relax and decompress on their own terms."
The architects, Gensler Design, set the lights low and warm in contrast to the light, bright concourse, according to a statement, and a floating wall was constructed to symbolize "a buoyant spirit and enlightened mind. "
Large felt-constructed rocks will be installed in the Spring in a nod to the Zen gardens of Japan.
John Walsh, duty manager at San Francisco Airport, said the room is already attracting its share of travelling yogis, many equipped with their own props.
"I've seen people using it. They do yoga," Walsh said. "We have mats, but some people actually bring their own." There are also folding chairs, popular in many senior yoga sessions. So far there are no plans to hold classes.
Located just past security, it's a particular draw for people with time to kill before their flight, Walsh said.
Santa Monica-based yoga teacher Tamal Dodge believes the yoga room at the airport will be the first of many yoga spaces to be attached to airports and public transportation venues.
"How amazing will it be to stretch out and meditate before you get on a plane for a 12-hour flight," said Dodge, who is featured in the "Element: Hatha & Flow Yoga for Beginners" DVD.
"You are now given the opportunity to really relax and prepare your body for something as taxing as sitting in an airplane seat for hours on end," he said.
Airport yogis are directed to their room by the usual method-- the pictograph: this one of a figure seated in full lotus position.
Toddlers subjected to palm-reading assessments in China
Several kindergartens in a province in northern China are charging parents 1,200 yuan ($190) for a palm-reading test that they claim can predict their toddlers' intelligence and potential, state news agency Xinhua said. Many parents have flocked to palm readers for the test, used in kindergartens in northern Shanxi province and designed for children above the age of three months, the report said.
According to the company that designed the tests, Shanxi Daomeng Culture Communication Co, the reading of palms helps "determine the children's innate intelligence and potential," Xinhua reported.
In Communist Party-ruled China, a one-child policy has raised the stakes for parents who place great emphasis on educating their children in the expectation that the offspring will support them when they grow old.
Some experts, however, have dismissed the idea of the palm-reading technology.
"This technology remains unaccounted for," Xinhua quote a pediatrics expert as saying.
Fortune-telling, including palm-reading, has deep roots in Chinese tradition, although China's leaders have discouraged and punished devotees of the practice which they brand superstition.
Many people, including government officials, seek geomancy masters' guidance on financial, career and personal matters and many Chinese couples go so far as to plan the timing of a child's birth to fall within auspicious times in the lunar calendar.
According to the company that designed the tests, Shanxi Daomeng Culture Communication Co, the reading of palms helps "determine the children's innate intelligence and potential," Xinhua reported.
In Communist Party-ruled China, a one-child policy has raised the stakes for parents who place great emphasis on educating their children in the expectation that the offspring will support them when they grow old.
Some experts, however, have dismissed the idea of the palm-reading technology.
"This technology remains unaccounted for," Xinhua quote a pediatrics expert as saying.
Fortune-telling, including palm-reading, has deep roots in Chinese tradition, although China's leaders have discouraged and punished devotees of the practice which they brand superstition.
Many people, including government officials, seek geomancy masters' guidance on financial, career and personal matters and many Chinese couples go so far as to plan the timing of a child's birth to fall within auspicious times in the lunar calendar.
German city's parking fines are just the ticket
German authorities are giving parking violators in one city an unexpected break by issuing tickets without fines. The tickets, put on carelessly parked cars in Potsdam, include a fine of 0 euros and the cheerful message "Glueck gehabt!!!" (Lucky you!!!). The new approach is designed to admonish motorists without hitting them in the wallet.
"The tickets serve as a warning to parking offenders," said Regina Thielemann, a city of Potsdam spokeswoman. "They're issued when the driver isn't around. So they're given written notice when they'd ordinarily only get a verbal warning."
Potsdam, the state capital of Brandenburg just outside Berlin, earned around 1.2 million euros from parking fines in 2011, she said. Around 120,000 parking fines were issued last year.
In Germany -- a country known for its fondness for obeying rules and punishing offenders -- Potsdam's fine-free tickets have caught the attention of the national media.
One recipient, Kathrin Bach, said her initial reaction to finding a note on her windscreen was one of annoyance -- until she read the message.
"I thought 'Oh no - got another ticket'," she told Germany's Bild newspaper. "I've paid loads of parking fines before because there are so few parking spaces in the area," she added.
Bach's offence -- parking less than five meters away from a road junction -- should have cost her 10 euros, according to the city's parking rules.
"The tickets serve as a warning to parking offenders," said Regina Thielemann, a city of Potsdam spokeswoman. "They're issued when the driver isn't around. So they're given written notice when they'd ordinarily only get a verbal warning."
Potsdam, the state capital of Brandenburg just outside Berlin, earned around 1.2 million euros from parking fines in 2011, she said. Around 120,000 parking fines were issued last year.
In Germany -- a country known for its fondness for obeying rules and punishing offenders -- Potsdam's fine-free tickets have caught the attention of the national media.
One recipient, Kathrin Bach, said her initial reaction to finding a note on her windscreen was one of annoyance -- until she read the message.
"I thought 'Oh no - got another ticket'," she told Germany's Bild newspaper. "I've paid loads of parking fines before because there are so few parking spaces in the area," she added.
Bach's offence -- parking less than five meters away from a road junction -- should have cost her 10 euros, according to the city's parking rules.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)