Stunning Volcano Pictures

(Source: FAZ online)

(Source: FAZ online)

Eyjafjallajokull? Huh?

Europe should recognise this name. Eyjafjallajokull is the name of the powerful volcano in Island that catapulted so much volcanic ash into the air after a spectacular eruption on the 14th April 2010, that the airspace above Europe had to be closed for almost a week. The BBC issued an informative series of slides explaining:
1. Why the volcano has such an explosive power,

2. How the ash cloud evolved,

3. How ash particles endanger flying,
4. How the ash cloud spread over Europe in the course of several days,
5. How the ash cloud spread in satellite images, and
6. How the closure of the airspace above Europe affected the air traffic.
(Source of image: 'Island-large')

Another Earthquake Hits China!

China was hit today again by an earthquake of a magnitude of 6.9. 300 people are believed to have died and hundreds more hurt. The region is remote, which will make it difficult for aid and aiders to reach the people in need now. Poor souls.
BBC compiles a list of earthquakes in the last 100 years. Shocking, how many people died because of earth's tremors!! (Graph: Wikipedia)

Quote by Garcia Marquez

"[...], Judge Arcadio thought that life is nothing but a continuous succession of opportunities for survival." Quote from In Evil Hour (1996) by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Bailout

Bailingout might be the most-used and most-hated word of 2009 and 2010, most-hated at least by those countries which have to pay the bailout bill. Last year governments in Europe and America had to bailout their banks. Now bailing-out has reached the highest ever form of preventing total and utter ruin: countries bailing out other countries. The bailout contenders in the moment of truth: Germany and Greece. The Germans - with utmost reluctance  and unwillingness - were forced to give billions to the Greeks because the Greek system had gone bust. It happened in April 2010.

There is one man who had predicted exactly that: Nouril Roubini, Economist. That was in March 2009! Time Magazine published his assessment.

EU to Bail out East European Countries?

Time Magazine in March 2009 incidentally reported in a few lines that the European Union dismissed a request of bailing out nine East European countries, which claimed to be hit too hard by recession in order to cope. They would need $240 billion. Hungary led this initiative, insisting that Europe soon would have a "New Iron Curtain" because of the unequal economic stands. Hopefully, the European Union with the strongest nations Germany, France and Great Britain at its centre will not become the cow that all countries in Europe can milk when they are hungry! (Source image: howstuffworks.com)

Garcia Marquez about Wisdom

"But if they had learned anything together, it was that wisdom comes to us when it can no longer do any good." (Garcia Marquez in Love in the Time of Cholera, 1985)

Lev Tolstoi ueber Verzicht auf Gewalt

Am 07. September 1910 schrieb Tolstoi in einem Brief an Mahatma Gandhi: "Die Liebe ist das Streben der Menschenseelen nach Vereinigung und ihr daraus sich ergebendes Verhalten untereinander. [....] Er (Christus) wusste, wie es jeder verstaendige Mensch wissen muss, dass jede Anwendung von Zwang unvereinbar mit der Liebe als dem hoechsten Lebensgesetze ist und dass, sobald Vergewaltigung auch nur in einem einzigen Falle als zulaessig erscheint, damit zugleich dies Gesetz negiert wird." (aus Tolstoj. Insel-Almanach auf das Jahr 2010 von Lux, Christian & Hans-Joachim Sinn (eds). Frankfurt und Leipzig: Inselverlag: 2009)

Who's Europe's Engine?

Cover of the magazine The Economist (March 13-19th 2010)