In German, "einen Augenblick," or literally "an eyeblink" is used to mean "just a moment." Well, it turns out that two months are little more than a few eyeblinks in the context of a year, or a career. The Burns fellowship is at an end already; this is my last official day at Reuters (though I may take on a few more assignments before I leave the country in two weeks).
As with most conclusions, I greet this one with mixed feelings. It's a bit sad, because I feel as though I've just barely gotten settled. It's satisfying, because now I can look back and see how much I've learned and accomplished in a relatively short time. And it's scary, frankly, because I have no idea where I will live or work next. (Maybe I should call that exciting?)
My parents arrive on Tuesday for a two-week European adventure before we all head back stateside together. I'm looking forward to this chance to show them some of my favorite places, and to discover new ones together. Do any of you who have traveled in this region (broadly including southern Germany, Switzerland, Italy and Austria, since we'll be renting a car and are flexible about our route) have any suggestions about must-see places?
Friday 28 September 2007
Thursday 27 September 2007
Stories published
The main reason I applied for this fellowship in the first place was to explore the German side of the story about AMD, a major semiconductor manufacturer that currently has two plants in Dresden and plans to build a new one in upstate New York. Here's what I discovered:
In the Times Union:
http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=624000&category=BUSINESS&newsdate=9/22/2007
And a version for Reuters:
http://www.reuters.com/article/companyNewsAndPR/idUSL2469055520070924
In the Times Union:
http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=624000&category=BUSINESS&newsdate=9/22/2007
And a version for Reuters:
http://www.reuters.com/article/companyNewsAndPR/idUSL2469055520070924
Monday 17 September 2007
A weekend in the east
I went to Dresden on Friday for the Burns fellowship "midterm meeting" (technically, more like the three-quarter-term meeting, since there are only two weeks left!) and was startled by the city's beauty. Knowing how badly it was bombed during World War II, I was expecting something bleaker. There is still some evidence of that senseless destruction, to be sure, but the lavish Baroque architecture has been restored to splendor in several key places.
We were lucky enough to get a private tour of the Green Vault from its effusive curator on Friday night. This was literally like walking through a treasure chest, and I appreciated the simplicity of the displays, which kept the artifacts safe and yet approachable. There was a dazzling array of diamonds, silver, gold, crystal, pearls, porcelain and ivory in the collection, but I think my favorite piece was a humble cherry pit. Somehow, an artist had managed to carve over 100 faces onto this miniscule natural canvas! I asked the curator why someone would have bothered to do this, and I liked his answer: "To astonish you."
On Saturday we moved on to Leipzig, where the highlight was wandering through an area called the Spinnerei -- an old, abandoned cotton mill that now houses artists' studios. I loved this combination of ruin and creativity; the tired old brick walls seemed to welcome the burden of fresh ideas and colors.
In two places during the weekend, we learned about the Stasi and its astounding breadth and impact in the former East Germany. I was struck by the sinister brilliance of some of the agency's schemes -- they literally drove some people crazy, by systematically destroying their professional and personal lives in a way that left the victim wondering if it was their own fault -- and the utter stupidity of others, such as "collecting" people's smells in jars as part of surveillance. We met with the director of a modern-day agency that helps people seek reparation for their losses due to oppression by the Stasi, but he said it can be very hard to prove this legally. He himself was once a victim, and said it was personally liberating to gain access to his Stasi file and finally see exactly who had accused him of what, and why certain things had happened to him, such as losing his job and failing to graduate from school. I can only imagine what that must be like...certainly puts my own problems into perspective.
He said the question that he and many other east Germans are now asking is no longer "What did the Stasi do?" but instead "How could this happen? How could humans have been convinced to do such inhuman things?"
We were lucky enough to get a private tour of the Green Vault from its effusive curator on Friday night. This was literally like walking through a treasure chest, and I appreciated the simplicity of the displays, which kept the artifacts safe and yet approachable. There was a dazzling array of diamonds, silver, gold, crystal, pearls, porcelain and ivory in the collection, but I think my favorite piece was a humble cherry pit. Somehow, an artist had managed to carve over 100 faces onto this miniscule natural canvas! I asked the curator why someone would have bothered to do this, and I liked his answer: "To astonish you."
On Saturday we moved on to Leipzig, where the highlight was wandering through an area called the Spinnerei -- an old, abandoned cotton mill that now houses artists' studios. I loved this combination of ruin and creativity; the tired old brick walls seemed to welcome the burden of fresh ideas and colors.
In two places during the weekend, we learned about the Stasi and its astounding breadth and impact in the former East Germany. I was struck by the sinister brilliance of some of the agency's schemes -- they literally drove some people crazy, by systematically destroying their professional and personal lives in a way that left the victim wondering if it was their own fault -- and the utter stupidity of others, such as "collecting" people's smells in jars as part of surveillance. We met with the director of a modern-day agency that helps people seek reparation for their losses due to oppression by the Stasi, but he said it can be very hard to prove this legally. He himself was once a victim, and said it was personally liberating to gain access to his Stasi file and finally see exactly who had accused him of what, and why certain things had happened to him, such as losing his job and failing to graduate from school. I can only imagine what that must be like...certainly puts my own problems into perspective.
He said the question that he and many other east Germans are now asking is no longer "What did the Stasi do?" but instead "How could this happen? How could humans have been convinced to do such inhuman things?"
Friday 7 September 2007
More articles published
I contributed to three Reuters articles on the IFA electronics convention last week, which felt good given my general lack of productivity on this fellowship so far. One of the articles, about consumer attitudes toward so-called green products at the fair, got picked up all over the Web, by everyone from Boston.com to the Washington Post. Here it is...
Public indifferent to green overtures at IFA fair
By Georgina Prodhan and Amanda Bensen
Mon Sep 3, 1:47 PM ET
Manufacturers at Europe's biggest consumer electronics touted their green credentials in vain to customers more interested in bigger and brighter screens.
Exhibitors at IFA including Philips, Sharp and Fujitsu-Siemens tried to entice consumers with lower power use, more environmentally friendly production methods and recyclability.
Philips, Europe's biggest consumer electronics maker, uses a self-certified green logo on its more energy-efficient products. At IFA, the company said it would be making new energy-management targets public in the next few weeks.
And Sharp, the world's biggest maker of solar cells, said its new LCD televisions would offer "unprecedented" environmental performance.
Fujitsu-Siemens launched its first green personal computers for consumers, the Scaleo Green PC, which boasts energy efficiency, extremely quiet operation and a halogen-free motherboard, which will go on sale this autumn.
The company cited a Greenpeace study that puts environmental concerns third on buyers' lists of priorities after value for money and brand.
But most visitors to whom Reuters spoke at IFA seemed uninterested or even confused when asked what importance green concerns had in their buying choices.
Richard Lee, a 35-year-old electronics engineer, shrugged when asked whether he preferred green products. "I prefer Japanese products," he said, prying the back off a high-definition TV monitor to peer at the inner components.
Lee said he wanted to buy a 42-inch (107-centimetre) plasma HDTV and was prepared to pay about 3,000 euros ($4,100) for it.
Plasma has suffered in its battle with rival technology LCD from the fact that it uses far more power, and top makers of both plasma and LCD TVs told Reuters at IFA they aimed to reduce their models' power consumption by about 20-25 percent per year.
But the size of today's TV screens means that they easily draw three to five times as much power as smaller, older models, even if they are more efficient.
Frank Schmitz, 23, who came to look for a guitar audio processor, said he did care about environmentalism but questioned whether it was really possible to combine energy efficiency with some of the luxury-sized TVs on display.
"I saw one big one showing images of the Arctic and the melting ice caps, and I thought: This is a bit ironic, because probably it is part of the problem," he said.
IFA runs until September 5.
Public indifferent to green overtures at IFA fair
By Georgina Prodhan and Amanda Bensen
Mon Sep 3, 1:47 PM ET
Manufacturers at Europe's biggest consumer electronics touted their green credentials in vain to customers more interested in bigger and brighter screens.
Exhibitors at IFA including Philips, Sharp and Fujitsu-Siemens tried to entice consumers with lower power use, more environmentally friendly production methods and recyclability.
Philips, Europe's biggest consumer electronics maker, uses a self-certified green logo on its more energy-efficient products. At IFA, the company said it would be making new energy-management targets public in the next few weeks.
And Sharp, the world's biggest maker of solar cells, said its new LCD televisions would offer "unprecedented" environmental performance.
Fujitsu-Siemens launched its first green personal computers for consumers, the Scaleo Green PC, which boasts energy efficiency, extremely quiet operation and a halogen-free motherboard, which will go on sale this autumn.
The company cited a Greenpeace study that puts environmental concerns third on buyers' lists of priorities after value for money and brand.
But most visitors to whom Reuters spoke at IFA seemed uninterested or even confused when asked what importance green concerns had in their buying choices.
Richard Lee, a 35-year-old electronics engineer, shrugged when asked whether he preferred green products. "I prefer Japanese products," he said, prying the back off a high-definition TV monitor to peer at the inner components.
Lee said he wanted to buy a 42-inch (107-centimetre) plasma HDTV and was prepared to pay about 3,000 euros ($4,100) for it.
Plasma has suffered in its battle with rival technology LCD from the fact that it uses far more power, and top makers of both plasma and LCD TVs told Reuters at IFA they aimed to reduce their models' power consumption by about 20-25 percent per year.
But the size of today's TV screens means that they easily draw three to five times as much power as smaller, older models, even if they are more efficient.
Frank Schmitz, 23, who came to look for a guitar audio processor, said he did care about environmentalism but questioned whether it was really possible to combine energy efficiency with some of the luxury-sized TVs on display.
"I saw one big one showing images of the Arctic and the melting ice caps, and I thought: This is a bit ironic, because probably it is part of the problem," he said.
IFA runs until September 5.
fíne wine by the Rhine
My boyfriend arrived Wednesday for a ten day visit. This is his first foreign adventure (I don't think going to Canada counts, especially since he grew up in Buffalo), and it is refreshing for me to see things through a new traveler's eyes...he is amazed by little things I might consider ordinary, like old stones, and good croissants, and the sound of certain German words.
Yesterday, we took a day trip to the villages of St. Goar and Bacharach, along the Rhine river. They are the kind of places you see in postcards, with tiny train stations and narrow cobblestoned streets that seem ghostly quiet in the evenings, but life pulses inside the walls of little wine cellars and cafes if you know which doors to open.
In the afternoon, we climbed the hill above St. Goar to explore the ruins of Burg Rheinfels castle, where I had been once before with my grandmother but certainly did not mind seeing again. The misty weather seemed to suit the place, I felt like I might discover a knight or a watchful archer peeking through a slit in the stone wall. Instead, all we discovered was an old man selling postcards...oh well.
We took a train a few minutes south to Bacharach for dinner, and enjoyed some of the fine local wine with our meals. For only 3 or 4 dollars a glass, you can get some delicious whites, especially Riesling! If I lived there I might drink a lot more...I am guessing most of the locals do, since the place is named after the Roman god of wine and revelry (Bacchus)!
Yesterday, we took a day trip to the villages of St. Goar and Bacharach, along the Rhine river. They are the kind of places you see in postcards, with tiny train stations and narrow cobblestoned streets that seem ghostly quiet in the evenings, but life pulses inside the walls of little wine cellars and cafes if you know which doors to open.
In the afternoon, we climbed the hill above St. Goar to explore the ruins of Burg Rheinfels castle, where I had been once before with my grandmother but certainly did not mind seeing again. The misty weather seemed to suit the place, I felt like I might discover a knight or a watchful archer peeking through a slit in the stone wall. Instead, all we discovered was an old man selling postcards...oh well.
We took a train a few minutes south to Bacharach for dinner, and enjoyed some of the fine local wine with our meals. For only 3 or 4 dollars a glass, you can get some delicious whites, especially Riesling! If I lived there I might drink a lot more...I am guessing most of the locals do, since the place is named after the Roman god of wine and revelry (Bacchus)!
Monday 3 September 2007
The future has red hair
The consumer electronics convention (called the IFA) in Berlin must have been heaven for gadget geeks, since even my not-so-tech-savvy self found it interesting. There were at least a dozen exhibit halls, packed with everything from the biggest, flattest, most high-definition TV screens to odd little items like a toothbrush sterilizer.
The prize for weirdest exhibit could easily have gone to the "high-tech clothing" display, which consisted of a creepy-looking army of white plastic mannequins decked out in outfits that included built-in controls for personal electronic devices. My favorite was the lederhosen with an iPod holster -- you could adjust the volume by pressing a button on your thigh.
I guess it is normal at conventions like this, but I was amazed at how blatantly sex and sales are tied together. Nearly every exhibit included a beautiful woman in a slinky dress (or at least a tight shirt) who, frustratingly, was unable to answer most questions I asked about the products. And then there was "Miss IFA (click for photo)," a pretty young woman in a cherry-red dress with hair dyed to match. The press materials said she "was transformed from a virtual figure into a real-life one" in 2005. Wow, that is quite a trick! Is she related to Pinocchio?
The press release also said that Miss IFA's look is meant to represent "the latest innovations and technology." Yeah, a hot girl in a red dress...very innovative indeed. Why couldn't they at least invent some more comfortable shoes for the poor woman, who spent her week trekking through endless concrete halls on painfully spiky heels while maintaining a perky smile at all times. If I were her, I might want to go back to being virtual!
The prize for weirdest exhibit could easily have gone to the "high-tech clothing" display, which consisted of a creepy-looking army of white plastic mannequins decked out in outfits that included built-in controls for personal electronic devices. My favorite was the lederhosen with an iPod holster -- you could adjust the volume by pressing a button on your thigh.
I guess it is normal at conventions like this, but I was amazed at how blatantly sex and sales are tied together. Nearly every exhibit included a beautiful woman in a slinky dress (or at least a tight shirt) who, frustratingly, was unable to answer most questions I asked about the products. And then there was "Miss IFA (click for photo)," a pretty young woman in a cherry-red dress with hair dyed to match. The press materials said she "was transformed from a virtual figure into a real-life one" in 2005. Wow, that is quite a trick! Is she related to Pinocchio?
The press release also said that Miss IFA's look is meant to represent "the latest innovations and technology." Yeah, a hot girl in a red dress...very innovative indeed. Why couldn't they at least invent some more comfortable shoes for the poor woman, who spent her week trekking through endless concrete halls on painfully spiky heels while maintaining a perky smile at all times. If I were her, I might want to go back to being virtual!
Thursday 30 August 2007
Smile! You're on...well, we can't tell you that.
(Sept. 3: Sorry for the delay in posting this, which I actually wrote last week, but I ran out of coins and time at the Internet cafe!)
I am in Berlin for the week, allegedly to cover a consumer electronics convention. But there isn't much to cover until the actual consumers arrive tomorrow, so today I am just seeing the sights. When the flocks of tourists and pigeons (sometimes I don't see a huge difference, to be honest) started to get annoying, I sought respite in a quiet-looking cafe.
From the moment I walked in, I had the sense that there was something strange going on. Everyone seemed to know something I didn't. People sat at a few of the tables with coffees in front of them, but no one was taking a sip. The man at the table across from me was wearing headphones and had a heavy box of audio recording equipment slung around his neck. He was ostensibly reading the newspaper, but his eyes were directed over the top of the page, toward the front door.
A woman sat alone at another table, smiling and waiting. She seemed to be looking a lot at a white box in front of her, beside the front door. A chalkboard with the list of specials covered one side, and what looked like a television screen faced her. But I could see some dim motion and shape in the screen -- a hand pressing against it, a murky face? It reminded me of a magic 8 ball, with something mysterious bobbing around beneath the opaque surface.
The two guys in the corner seemed nervous and out of place, too. They were smoking and talking, but keep getting up and down from their chairs. A staircase made to look like flames covered the wall across from me, and behind the orange frosted glass I could make out the face of a waitress, crouched and curious, peering something I couldn't see. When she noticed me watching her, she scurried away. I ordered eggs and coffee and decided to stay put and see how this scene played out.
Suddenly, one of the guys jerked to attention and ran to the front door. He made an almost imperceptible gesture toward the white box and returned to his seat. A moment later, a middle-aged man entered the cafe, sat down with the woman, and . The audio guy began buttons and fiddling with a pole that I realized was an extendable microphone. After a minute or two, the woman ran out of the cafe. The man looked down at something in his hands, then back at the door, obviously befuddled. When he got up to run after her, the audio guy dropped his newspaper and followed, no longer attempting to hide his equipment. A cameraman popped out of the white box.
Wow, I thought, is this a taping for a television show? A journalistic expose? An elaborate joke?
Well, yes to all three, in a way. I hung around and asked some questions, since that is what journalists do, after all. I discovered that this was a taping for a pilot TV program along the lines of the American show "Candid Camera," but with a public-service spin. They wouldn't tell me the name of it or the network it would air on, since it isn't officially sold yet, but they explained the premise.
"It is about hustlers, or -- what do you call it? Scams?" the audio guy explained to me. In this particular episode, the unsuspecting victim had purchased a laptop on eBay, and the seller said she would need to deliver it in person. So they arranged to meet at a cafe, and the woman showed him a real laptop, then distracted him with friendly conversation (it didn't hurt that she was pretty, I bet) and switched the real thing with a wooden laptop.
"This is a common problem," one of the producers told me with a straight face.
Hmm. I'd kind of like to see this show. Maybe next they will trick someone into buying a wooden car? That would require a very, very pretty woman indeed.
I am in Berlin for the week, allegedly to cover a consumer electronics convention. But there isn't much to cover until the actual consumers arrive tomorrow, so today I am just seeing the sights. When the flocks of tourists and pigeons (sometimes I don't see a huge difference, to be honest) started to get annoying, I sought respite in a quiet-looking cafe.
From the moment I walked in, I had the sense that there was something strange going on. Everyone seemed to know something I didn't. People sat at a few of the tables with coffees in front of them, but no one was taking a sip. The man at the table across from me was wearing headphones and had a heavy box of audio recording equipment slung around his neck. He was ostensibly reading the newspaper, but his eyes were directed over the top of the page, toward the front door.
A woman sat alone at another table, smiling and waiting. She seemed to be looking a lot at a white box in front of her, beside the front door. A chalkboard with the list of specials covered one side, and what looked like a television screen faced her. But I could see some dim motion and shape in the screen -- a hand pressing against it, a murky face? It reminded me of a magic 8 ball, with something mysterious bobbing around beneath the opaque surface.
The two guys in the corner seemed nervous and out of place, too. They were smoking and talking, but keep getting up and down from their chairs. A staircase made to look like flames covered the wall across from me, and behind the orange frosted glass I could make out the face of a waitress, crouched and curious, peering something I couldn't see. When she noticed me watching her, she scurried away. I ordered eggs and coffee and decided to stay put and see how this scene played out.
Suddenly, one of the guys jerked to attention and ran to the front door. He made an almost imperceptible gesture toward the white box and returned to his seat. A moment later, a middle-aged man entered the cafe, sat down with the woman, and . The audio guy began buttons and fiddling with a pole that I realized was an extendable microphone. After a minute or two, the woman ran out of the cafe. The man looked down at something in his hands, then back at the door, obviously befuddled. When he got up to run after her, the audio guy dropped his newspaper and followed, no longer attempting to hide his equipment. A cameraman popped out of the white box.
Wow, I thought, is this a taping for a television show? A journalistic expose? An elaborate joke?
Well, yes to all three, in a way. I hung around and asked some questions, since that is what journalists do, after all. I discovered that this was a taping for a pilot TV program along the lines of the American show "Candid Camera," but with a public-service spin. They wouldn't tell me the name of it or the network it would air on, since it isn't officially sold yet, but they explained the premise.
"It is about hustlers, or -- what do you call it? Scams?" the audio guy explained to me. In this particular episode, the unsuspecting victim had purchased a laptop on eBay, and the seller said she would need to deliver it in person. So they arranged to meet at a cafe, and the woman showed him a real laptop, then distracted him with friendly conversation (it didn't hurt that she was pretty, I bet) and switched the real thing with a wooden laptop.
"This is a common problem," one of the producers told me with a straight face.
Hmm. I'd kind of like to see this show. Maybe next they will trick someone into buying a wooden car? That would require a very, very pretty woman indeed.
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