Headlines 

Mystery bird illness investigated after German blue tit deaths

More than 11,000 cases of dead and sick birds reported in past fortnight Thousands of blue tits have been found sick or dead in Germany, prompting an investigation by conservation groups and scientists. More than 11,000 cases of dead and sick birds, mostly blue tits, have been can be spotted all year round in the UK, with the exception of some Scottish islands. According to NABU, symptoms of the diseased birds include breathing problems, no longer taking food and making no attempt to escape when approached by people. The group…

Read More
Odds and Ends 

Pre-school edtech startup Lingumi raises 4m, adds some free services during COVID-19

At these difficult times, parents are concerned for their children’s education, especially given so much of it has had to go online during the COVID-19 pandemic. But what about pre-schoolers who are missing out? Pre-school children are sponges for information but don’t get formal training on reading and writing until they enter the classroom when they are less sponge-like and surrounded by 30 other children. Things are tougher for non-English speaking children who’s parents want them to learn English. Lingumi, a platform aimed at toddlers learning critical skills, has now…

Read More
Headlines 

Coronavirus outliers: four nations with very different approaches to the crisis

Some nations have managed to maintain surprisingly low death rates even without swinging into lockdown Harrowing images of emergency workers struggling to cope with the onslaught of Covid-19 cases have made front pages around the world, highlighting the terrible impact the disease is having. Death tolls in Italy and Spain have been especially alarming. But not every nation has suffered to the same grim extent. Some have avoided lockdowns but have still not suffered huge leaps in case numbers. Others have introduced strict monitoring and contact tracing of infected individuals…

Read More
Odds and Ends 

Guy Hacks Google Maps With 99 Phones and a Little Red Wagon

Artist Simon Weckert transported 99 smartphones in a little red wagon to generate a virtual traffic jam in Google Maps. He was able to turn a virtual ‘green’ street ‘red’, which impacted the physical world by navigating cars using Google Maps on another route to avoid being ‘stuck’ in traffic. Check out the video below and scroll down to learn more about this project. The advent of Google’s Geo Tools began in 2005 with Maps and Earth, followed by Street View in 2007. They have since become enormously more technologically…

Read More
Odds and Ends 

The Schienenzeppelin in Berlin, 1931 (Colorized)

Original Photograph by George Pahl | Colorized by Jecini In this colorized photo by Jecini, we see the Schienenzeppelin in Berlin in June of 1931. A train on the way to Hamburg passes the newly arrived ‘rail zeppelin’ at Spandau main station. The Schienenzeppelin or rail zeppelin was an experimental railcar which resembled a Zeppelin airship in appearance. It was designed and developed by the German aircraft engineer Franz Kruckenberg in 1929. Propulsion was by means of a pusher propeller located at the rear: it accelerated the railcar to 230.2…

Read More
Headlines 

Angela Merkel speaks of ‘deep shame’ on first visit to Auschwitz

German chancellor says crimes at Nazi death camp will always be part of countrys history Angela Merkel has expressed deep shame during her first visit as German chancellor to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Holocaust memorial and vowed to fight rising racism and antisemitism in Germany and Europe. Dressed in black, Merkel said the crimes committed at the site in southern Poland where the Nazis ran their largest death camp would always be part of German history. This site obliges us to keep the memory alive. We must remember the crimes that were…

Read More