Category Archives: Around the World

In his first 10 months in office, [Trump] has told 103 separate untruths, many of them repeatedly.

The New York Times: Trump’s Lies vs. Obama’s. By David Leonhardt, Ian Prasad Philbrick and Stuart A. Thomson.

“After we published a list of President Trump’s lies this summer, we heard a common response from his supporters. They said, in effect: Yes, but if you made a similar list for previous presidents, it would be just as bad.

We’ve set out to make that list. Here, you will find our attempt at a comprehensive catalog of the falsehoods that Barack Obama told while he was president.”

Eine Transaktion die gleiche CO2-Bilanz wie ein einstündiger Flug mit einer Boeing 747

Deutsche Welle: Die schmutzige Seite des Bitcoin-Booms. “Nur wenige Menschen nutzen Bitcoins, doch alle zahlen den Preis für die Auswirkungen der Kryptowährung auf die Umwelt. Verbraucht das digitale Schürfen der Bitcoins sogar mehr Elektrizität als ein komplettes Land?”

“Für die Goldsucher, die während des Goldrauschs im Kalifornien der 1860er Jahre vom schnellen Reichtum träumten, kam die Umwelt an allerletzter Stelle. […]

150 Jahren danach hinterlassen ihre Nachfahren aus dem Silicon Valley ähnlich schmutzige Spuren. Die neue digitale Währung Bitcoin, die zuletzt mit Rekordkursen von knapp 17.000 Dollar gehandelt wurde, ist immer mehr wegen ihrer exorbitanten Stromkosten ins Gerede gekommen.

Ihre Kritiker nennen die Kryptowährung aus einem ganz einfachen Grund schmutzig. Denn jeder Bitcoin – dieser unter nahezu undurchschaubaren Algorithmen begrabene virtuelle Goldklumpen – benötigt eine immense Computerenergie, um ‘gefördert’ zu werden.

Seit sich der Wert eines Bitcoins im Laufe des Jahres 2017 verzehnfacht hat, beziffert die Analysten-Website Digiconomist seinen jährlichen Energiebedarf auf rund 32 Terawattstunden (TWh). Damit rangiert der Bitcoin in derselben Liga wie kleinere Staaten.”

“Mr. Trump told top aides to think of each presidential day as an episode in a television show in which he vanquishes rivals.”

The New York Times: Inside Trump’s Hour-by-Hour Battle for Self-Preservation. “With Twitter as his Excalibur, the president takes on his doubters, powered by long spells of cable news and a dozen Diet Cokes. But if Mr. Trump has yet to bend the presidency to his will, he is at least wrestling it to a draw.” By Maggie Haberman, Glenn Thrush and Peter Baker. Published December 9, 2017.

“As he ends his first year in office, Mr. Trump is redefining what it means to be president. He sees the highest office in the land much as he did the night of his stunning victory over Hillary Clinton — as a prize he must fight to protect every waking moment, and Twitter is his Excalibur. Despite all his bluster, he views himself less as a titan dominating the world stage than a maligned outsider engaged in a struggle to be taken seriously, according to interviews with 60 advisers, associates, friends and members of Congress.

For other presidents, every day is a test of how to lead a country, not just a faction, balancing competing interests. For Mr. Trump, every day is an hour-by-hour battle for self-preservation. He still relitigates last year’s election, convinced that the investigation by Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel, into Russia’s interference is a plot to delegitimize him.”

“There were hundreds of letters, stretching over four years of war and beyond.”

The Washington Post: Brothers in arms. “Four siblings wrote hundreds of letters to each other during World War II. The story they tell of service, sacrifice and trauma was hidden away in an abandoned storage unit — until now.”

“We have been called out on air raid alarms the last few days, but you know as much about what was happening as I do, the radio is the only dope we get as well as you about them Japs and nasty Germans. Bastards are what they are, raiding without warnings, sneaking up at night and such wrong methods of a clean fight.”

There’s also a related podcast called Letters From War:

“Bringing the letters to life are modern U.S. military veterans. At key moments in the story, we’ll talk to them about how these letters compare to their own experiences — what’s universal about war and what’s changed. How they felt reading the words of these men who fought some 70 years ago. And why everyone who picks up these letters feels like the Eyde brothers become a part of their family.”

So far, a short introduction and the first episode have been published.

See also MetaFilter: Letters From WWII found in a storage locker.