Worldcrunch
PARIS — Try to imagine that an intelligent robot is out to kill you. It remembers all your passwords and has access to all your data. Equipped with facial recognition technology, it can identify you wherever you go, even though you have no idea what it looks like. This nightmare is actually possible. Drone assassins […]
MUNICH — For a communal housing project, there are bound to be endless discussions over commons areas before the foundation stone has even been laid. There are also financial questions such as “can I sell the apartment if I have to?” But the most pressing point is just how many people will be living more […]
Saving rainwater and increasing green spaces are two small steps shown to help fight the ravages of climate change in cities.
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He may be a genius, but the legendary physicist is using his renown to hock an outlandish idea that humans must go to space to survive, a notion that only betrays Hawking’s own arrogance.
After the Greek election of radical leftists and the European Central Bank’s new liquidity, Europe is still where the rest of the world looks to understand themselves. History has so much to say.
A charmless pariah city for 20 years, the Serbian capital is finally reclaiming its standing and artistry. Belgrade’s residents are torn between pride in their city and dreams of leaving it.
Scottish voters have handily rejected the independence referendum. Still, Scotland is destined to gain more autonomy and drift ever farther away from London, with consequences across the UK.
Dutch aerospace student Boyan Slat, 20, has an idea that could conceivably remove millions of tons of toxic trash from the world’s waters. It even has a revenue model. But will it work?
-OpEd- BERLIN — American Foreign Policy magazine’s home page is a little bit like a quotation board for security policy strategies. Here you see not only how various players evaluate the world’s conflicts but also how much support there is for their point of view, because the number of times the article has been shared […]
MUNICH — As the pilot sits in the cockpit with his hands in his lap, the airplane’s control stick moves all by itself. The plane lands perfectly. Automatic pilot? No, the pilot controls the flight simulator — using only the power of thought. From electrodes on the test pilot’s head, “We read brain signals that […]
Starting on Tuesday, arriving passengers at Düsseldorf airport will be able to turn their car over to robot Ray who’ll park it for them. Vehicles are left in one of six boxes about the size of a car-wash unit. Each box is equipped with its own Ray. Once the car is parked in the box, […]
MUNICH — At a simple café near the main street, a group of mountain bikers comes in, and they’re thirsty. “What kinds of beer do you have?” one of them asks the server. He starts reciting: Amber Ale. India Pale Ale. Summer Ale. White Ale. Porter. Stout. Then he adds Lager — a little sheepishly, […]
The overwhelming majority of Thailand’s people are Buddhists. Yet almost everyone there believes in fortune-telling — palm-reading, tarot cards, you name it. Not being the superstitious kind, I didn’t personally consult this “maw du,” but he looks like he means serious business.
-Analysis- PARIS — Is this 1989 all over again? One generation after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the protests in Ukraine instinctively bring to mind the revolutions that swept away the dying communist regimes in Central and Eastern Europe. The images of crowds, initially peaceful and festive in Kiev’s Independence Square, are similar to […]
-OpEd- BOGOTA — “Thinking that everything can stay the same is the biggest utopia of all…” Margarita Marino de Botero is a Colombian environmentalist who aims to be as creative as she is dedicated. Environmentalism — dynamic and obsessed with changing reality — is continually touching upon the concept of utopia. This is, in fact, […]
The eldest daughter of the disgraced prime minister controls the family businesses with an iron fist. The question is whether she’ll decide to bring the same passion to politics.
That is one bold idea floated to prevent older voters from paralyzing the democracy and blocking necessary reforms for the future.
-Analysis- ROME – Silvio Berlusconi’s sentence to seven years in prison and a life ban from public office signals the end of his political adventures. More generally, it also marks the end of Italy’s so-called “Second Republic”: the political era that began in 1992 of which the ex-prime minister has been the ubiquitous figure, just […]
VATICAN CITY – A long queue of men dressed in black is winding silently around St. Peter’s Square: They are Roman priests here to say their last goodbyes to Benedict XVI at a recent Vatican audience. When he decided to resign, did it cross the Pope’s mind that the cross he’d bear would also affect […]
BERLIN – Drivers have been communicating with each other for 125 years with brake lights, turn signals and horns. But a new era is beginning: Car-to-X Communication (C2X). This is connectivity between vehicles making it possible for them to exchange information and warn of dangers. In early 2007, with about 40 million euros of taxpayer […]
BERLIN – Everybody should have a car like KITT — the black 1982 Pontiac Trans Am that David Hasselhoff, in the TV series Knight Rider, fought crime with. Hasselhoff’s character couldn’t believe what happened the first time he drove the car. As he was driving 140 miles an hour on the highway, a truck appeared […]