Blog
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Image: Johannes Wilm — All rights reserved Do not kill the common market for small shops and producers!
I hope I am wrong about this: the new EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation requires anyone shipping packaged goods to register with the authorities in each country they ship to. That is no problem for Amazon, which can easily…
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Image: Erica Fischer — CC BY 2.0 — Source The return of Y2K in 2030?
A possible issue I thought up in the last few days: Most large servers, phones, etc. are running Unix-based systems, and in Unix, time is counted as how many seconds have gone by since January 1st, 1970. Software was written…
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Echoes of the Past: A 1952 UN Mission and the Unresolved Refugee Crisis
While doing some family research, I recently came across an article about my grandfather from October 29, 1952 in the newspaper of his hometown, Silkeborg, Denmark. He was spending his holidays there while working with the newly created United Nations…
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Paraguay – and the longterm consequences of the coup d’etat
It is now four years ago that the democratically elected President Fernando Lugo was removed from office by means of a parliamentary coup. The consequences of the coup continue to be felt in the country, and there is still no…
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Why there is an argument to be made for Norway to turn off its FM band
Norway is set to turn off FM broadcasting in a few months. Most Norwegians seem to be against turning it off, based on the argument that the digital radio technology that is to take over, DAB+, is not really needed…
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The closing of Öresund – On borders, trains and state power
With the so-called “refugee crisis” and the terrorist attacks in Paris in Europe, several European countries have either reinstated border controls to their neighbors or are planning to do so. One very particular case is the Danish-Swedish border-bridge which separates…
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Case against campesinos connected with coup d’etat in Paraguay in 2012 takes surprising turn
An important point of the aftermath of the parliamentary coup d’etat in Paraguay in 2012 was reached today — although with a rather surprising turn of events. The case against former leftist President Lugo had started when police tried to…
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Some animals are more equal than others – on net neutrality and roaming charges in the European Union
“Don’t ever let a good crisis go to waste.” While all of Europe is starring at Greece, the European Union has finally come up with new rules for roaming and net neutrality. And how do these rules look? Not as…
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The European game of chicken
A week ago it seemed as if the Greek debt crisis finally had been solved. Suddenly everything is undecided again and no-one can quite say if the Euro survives another week. How did we get here, and how do we…

