German state bans Facebook ‘Like’ button

The German state of Schleswig-Holstein has ordered organizations to remove the Facebook ‘Like’ button from their websites and shut down fan pages.

The Independent Center for Privacy Protection (ULD) says it’s taken the measure because information on ‘Likes’ is sent back to Facebook in the US and used to create a personal profile, contravening Germany’s tight privacy laws.

“Whoever visits…

German researchers develop world’s thinnest pico projector

German researchers have developed what is being billed as the world’s “thinnest” pico video projector.

The prototype device measures just six millimeters thick, but is capable of rendering images 10 times brighter (11 lumens) than current projectors of a similar size.

So, how does it work?

Well, the mini-pico boasts an array of carefully shaped microlenses, each with its own miniature…

HISTORY OF ZANZIBAR

A Portuguese interlude: 16th – 17th century AD

The small tropical island of Zanzibar, a mere twenty miles off the east coast of Africa, has played a part in local history out of all proportion to its size. The reason is its easy access to traders and adventurers exploring down the east coast of Africa from Arabia. Islam is well…

HISTORY OF TOGO

German colony: AD 1884-1914

The first German connection with Togo is the arrival of missionaries in 1847 to work among the largest tribal group in the region, the Ewe. German traders soon follow, establishing a base at Anécho on the coast.

When Bismarck decides to put together an off-the-peg German empire in Africa, Togo is one of the three places which…

HISTORY OF TANZANIA

Uncharted territory: to the 19th century AD

In the uncharted centuries of prehistory, Tanzania is criss-crossed by tribal trade routes linking the Great Lakes (Victoria and Tanganyika) with the coast. These are the same routes along which Arab traders subsequently move inland, searching for slaves and ivory.

In a second wave of penetration by outsiders, Europeans use Bagamoyo (opposite Zanzibar) as…

HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND

La Tène and the Helvetii: 5th century BC – 5th century AD

Switzerland’s earliest European role is as the heartland of the Celts. Various tribal groups, from whom the Celts evolve, share an origin in the early Iron Age culture of Hallstatt in Austria. But the metalwork and pottery found at La Tène, at the eastern end of Lake Neuchâtel…

HISTORY OF PRUSSIA

Brandenburg and Prussia: AD 1657-1701

Since 1525 part of Prussia, on the Baltic, has been a hereditary duchy belonging to the Hohenzollern family, but they have held it only as a fief of the Polish crown. In 1618 the Hohenzollern line in Prussia dies out and the duchy passes to a Hohenzollern cousin, the elector of Brandenburg.

On the coast between…

HISTORY OF POLAND

Mieszko I: AD 963-992

After being the homeland of illiterate Slav tribes for many centuries, Poland bursts into recorded history with unparalleled suddeness. The first mention of the Polanie tribe is in 963 when a German knight, pressing eastwards, comes into contact with them. They control the area round the town of Gniezno. Prince Mieszko has become, within the past…

Hamburg

Hamburg Travel Guide

Water—in the form of the Alster Lakes and the Elbe River—is Hamburg’s defining feature and the key to the city’s success. A harbor city with an international appeal, Hamburg is one of the most open-minded of German cities. The media have made Hamburg their capital by planting some of the leading newspapers, magazines, and television stations here….

Angela Merkel Biography (1954-)

German stateswoman and chancellor (2005– ). Born July 17, 1954 in Hamburg, Germany. The daughter of a Lutheran pastor and teacher, Merkel grew up in a rural area north of Berlin in the then German Democratic Republic. She studied physics at the University of Leipzig, earning a doctorate in 1978, and later worked as a chemist at the Central…

HISTORY OF THE GERMANIC PEOPLES

Indo-Europeans in Europe: from 1800 BC

In Europe the first Indo-European tribes to make significant inroads are the Greeks. They move south into Greece and the Aegean from the 18th century BC.

Gradually other tribes speaking Indo-European languages spread throughout Europe. From an early date Germans are established in Denmark and southern Sweden. Balts settle along the southern and eastern…