After trying /douglas and actually getting a message that the name was available - miliseconds later chaning status to taken - I finally rested my mind on /dstridsberg. Not too bad, but perhaps /douglas.stridsberg would have been better?

I don’t know, and I sure was way too fired up to think about anything else at the very moment…

I did, though, have a chat with the Douglas that received /douglas and in his timezone (6 hours behind mine) he only just had to stay up till 12AM (which isn’t that late considering its a Friday night). Life’s unfair - isn’t it?

Anyway, I’m still rather happy with my new facebook username, Douglas Stridsberg! Perhaps this will in some way or another favor my Google search rankings?

The study of organic chemistry is the study of the chemistry of carbon compounds. Not all carbon compounds are counted as organic, the rule excludes carbonates (x-CO₃), carbon monoxide (CO) and carbon dioxide (CO₂).
Hydrocarbons contain hydrogen (H) and carbon only. They are divided into groups such as alkanes, alkynes, alkenes and alcohols, and are homologous series. Homologous series are, accodring to tiscali.co.uk, “any of a number of series of organic compounds with similar chemical properties in which members can be described by a general formula and ofen differ by a constant relative molecular mass”.

Alkanes

Alkanes are, thanks to their purely single carbon bonds (C-C), saturated. Physical properties include low melting- and boiling points considering the molar mass. They do not conduct, have low densities and do not solve in water.

Examples

• Methane - CH₄
• Ethane - C₂H₆
• Propane - C₃H₈
• Butane - C₄H₁₀
• Pentane - C₅H₁₂
• Hexane - C₆H₁₄

Alkenes

Alkenes have one double carbon bond (C=C), and as they have at least one double bond they are unsaturated. Physical properties include the appearance; ranging from colorless gas to black solids, the non-conductivity, the low melting- and boiling points, the low densities, the insolubility in water and the volatility - as alkenes react rather much due to their double bond (resulting in either combustion or addition).
Examples of addition can be found when mixing an alkene (or any other unsaturated hydrocarbon) with Bromine water. When shaken, unsaturated hydrocarbons decolorize the solution.
Also, ethene forms ethanol when reacted with water, essentially saturating the unsaturated hydrocarbon. This process is often used in margarine production, to state an example.

Examples

• Ethene - C₂H₄
• Propene - C₃H₆
• Butene - C₄H₈

Alcohols

Physical properties of alcohols include liquid state at room temperature, rather high volatility (resulting in combustion), lack of color, low melting- and boiling points, low densities (compared to water) and a lack of conductivity.
Among the chemical properties one finds a low reactivity. The uses for alcohols are in beverages and foods as well as in fuel and disinfectors.
Alcohols are made using two different processes - fermentation of sugar and hydration of ethene.
The process of fermentation is to convert glucose sugar (C₆H₁₂O₆) into alcohol (CH₃CH₂OH) and carbon dioxide (CO₂) - essentially adding yeast to sugar.
The process of hydrating ethene is to add water in a gaseous form (H₂O) to ethene (C₂=C₂), also in a gaseous form. Ethene is mixed with the water steam and passed over a catalyst consisting of solid silicon dioxide coated with phosphoric(V) acid, all under a pressure of 60-70 atmospheres and a temperature of nearly 300°C.

Examples

• Methanol - CH₃OH
• Ethanol - CH₅OH (or CH₃CH₂OH)
• Propanol - CH₇OH (or CH₃CH₂CH₂OH)

A sketch or two are available at the new page, go have a look!
I will hopefully bring you more news as time goes by, stay tuned!

The NSDAP after Hitler’s freeing

Hitler did not mind that the Nazi party was weak and split when he was release. Now he could take control and shape the party. At the 1926 Party Congress in Bamberg, Hitler did just this.
The Strasser group had on its side a strong PR expert, Dr. Joseph Göbbels, who intended to “defeat” Hitler at the said meeting. Instead however, Göbbels was impressed by Hitler and actually joined his camp.
Furthermore, Hitler managed to introduce some key principles into the party ground rules; the “Führer Prinzip” (i.e. Hitler would from now on be the leader and he alone would make important decisions to be obeyed) and he also decided that power was now to be reached not through violent coup d’état but rather by working within the democratic system and winning elections for the Reichstag.
After Bamberg in 1926 the main problem for Hitler remained the lack of Nazi support in the Reichstag. During the booming German economy a party of the discontented like the NSDAP had hard times winning popular support.

The NSDAP gains votes (1929->)

By 1927 the situation of German farmers was deteriorating. The Nazis reacted on this and started to go out in the countryside offering help and support to the peasants. In the elections from 1930 and onwards it became apparent that a large majority of Germany’s farmers voted Nazi.
In 1930, the last SPD Chancellor, Müller, resigned. The economic crisis was causing a massive growth of unemployment and the government couldn’t find majority support in the Reichstag for its policies.
In May 1930, Heinrich Brüning (Catholic Centre Party) was appointed Chancellor by President Hindenburg. Brüning was reluctant to increase government spending on subsidies for companies and support for the unemployed - as he had the 1923 hyperinflation in fresh memory.
At no cost did he want to risk the occurrence of a new inflation. For this, Brüning earned the nickname “The Hunger Chancellor”. He was Chancellor until 1932, running a minority coalition.
Therefore, the government was completely dependent upon the presidential emergency decree (Article 48), which was used at an increasing rate.

The Backstairs Intrigue

Brüning tried to create support for his government in 1930 by asking for new elections. However, the situation in the Reichstag just deteriorated.
The extremist parties won more seats (the NSDAP won 107 seats, the KPD 77 seats) which was quite the opposite of what he had hoped. Now he became even more dependent on the presidential decree.
The Nazi paramilitary organization, Sturmabteilung (SA), became very active, creating violence in the streets and picking fights with the communist bands.
The SA had by the early 1930’s grown into an organization of 2.5 million men, lead by Ernst Röhm. In order to try to restore calm in the cities, Brüning imposed a ban on the SA in 1930.
They were no longer allowed to parade the streets in uniform. With the dysfunctional situation in the Reichstag, influence over President Hindenburg instead became the key factor for political power.
He was during 1930-1933 very much listening to the advice of General Kurt von Schleicher.

The Intrigue evolves

von Schleicher had suggested the choice of Brüning as Chancellor. By 1932 however, von Schleicher had begun to disagree with Bru¨ning’s anti-Nazi attitude.
In May 1932, at von Schleicher’s advice, Hindenburg withdrew his support for Brüning and dismissed him. Franz von Paper was appointed and formed a government which was named the “Government of Barons” due to all of it’s ministers being noble.
Hoping for support in the Reichstag, von Papen asked for new elections. The result was more than 50% of the seats in favor of the extremists, and the Nazis had now the biggest party with 37% of the seats.
In order to please Hitler, von Papen lifted the ban on the SA. Furthermore, Hitler is offered a port in Papen’s new government, but he refuses to accept anything but the Chancellorship.
Thus, von Papen’s new government is left completely dependent upon Article 48. By November, the economic depression and political violence had plunged German society even deeper into chaos.
Now, von Schleicher asked the President to dismiss Papen. He had a plan.

On the return from Zermatt I paid a visit to the Café de Paris in Geneva. As you may know they only serve one dish, the Entrecôte Café de Paris with the famous Café de Paris sauce and the French Fries. Let me just say this - it tasted amazing. Nothing short of amazing.

I do hope you enjoy watching the newly uploaded photos as well as further reading my blog!

The Troubled Start

At the end of the First World War different political extremist groups tried to take power. Amongst them were a Socialist republic under Kurt Eisner, the Spartakist Uprising (which leaders were brutally murdered (Kurt Liebkniecht and Rosa Luxemburg)), right-wing extremists under Wolfgang Kapp.
Out of the above, the army spared only the latter which in fact was crushed by the Weimar Republic itself…

The Weimar Republic and Adolf Hitler
Due to the early troubles, the Weimar Republic inherited a weakness already; the Germany army could perhaps not be trusted to defend the existence and power of the Republic.
In the cases of left-wing attempts to overthrow the state however, the army commander were keen to defend the government.
What in the end killed the right-wing attempt to overtake power was a general strike issued by President Ebert, which forced Wolfgang Kapp to leave his power after 3 days.
In 1993 in Munich, Adolf Hitler and the local right-wing party, the Nazional Sozialistiche Deutsche Arbeiter Party (NSDAP), tried to carry out a coup. The attempt was supposed to create a massive following as Hitler wanted to make a march to Berlin. It was however stopped by the Munich police who shot at the marchers, killing some.
Hitler fled but was arrested and sentenced to 6 years in prison in 1924.

More weakness

Weimar politicians were blamed for the 1918 armistice, nationalists claimed it was a “Stab in the Back” of the victorious Germany army.
These politicians were also blamed for signing the Treaty of Versailles.
The republic had an election system which was proportional. This was 100% democratic. There was however no threshold to how small the parties of the Reichstag could be (only needing about 60’000 votes).
Therefore several small parties sat in the Reichstag which in turn created political instability. On average, the republic changed government every six months, and it was difficult to create stable majority support for the government.
Instead, the governments were weak coalitions with the SPD (Sozialistiche Partei Deutschlands) depending on the Catholics or Liberals for support.
In 14 years, the Republic had 21 different governments, only eight of them had majority support.
The political parties of Germany had never under Bismarck or Wilhelm really carried the responsibility of governing the country. Thus, they had not understood the importance of compromise and pragmatism.
Some parties even went as far as organizing troops against each other. This added to the weakness of the parliamentary system under Weimar. According to the constitution, in case of the parliament failing, the president had the possibility of governing through emergency decree.

Important events

In 1921 the reparation payments for Germany to pay were fixed at £6’600 million. This was seen as a burden too heavy to bear, and France agreed that it could be payed in goods instead of currency.
But the Germans asked for postponement in 1921, 1922 and 1923… The French lost their patience as they needed the money not only for reparations but also to pay their debts to the USA. As a result, French troops invaded the Ruhr area in 1923 to physically make Germany pay.
Berlin ordered a strike and France sent over their own workers to run the factories. The invasion was called the Ruhr Crisis.
Economically, the Ruhr Crisis was a major disaster for Germany as they lost 95% of the level of production in the area.
Following this event, Germany also started over-printing money to pay the striking workers. It seems that Germany wanted to demonstrate to the world how unfair the reparations were.
Germany was struck by hyper-inflation, some big change in German policies had to happen!

The Second Crisis of Weimar

In 1929 a financial crisis started in the American countryside which by October hit the stock market at Wall Street. The Wall Street Crash caused US banks to urgently ask the debts to be paid.
For Germany this was disastrous. Investment funds for German industry dried up and factories laid off workers. Within two years, six million people lost their job. Consequences of this were that extreme parties gained voters causing an impossibility to create a majority government. This undermined the Republic and opened the door to the Nazis.

Now you know, thanks to me. I’ll take the signing of autographs later!

The amp

The BANDIT 112 in all glory - it is truly a fantastic amp - but it has a pretty dull and compressed distortion. That particular type is suitable for some songs, but I want more!
So therefore I am, as stated, looking for distortion pedals in the range of -$60 USD. That might sound as very little, but as I am selling my old effect-box for about that amount.

I have mainly been looking at the Behringer HD300 Heavy Distortion pedal. It looks amazing, I just hope it sounds as amazing!

The quote above, taken from a paper lying in front of me, describes the relationship between tourists and travellers. It describes the impact they cause on the country they visit as well as their general attitude towards another country, culture or other people. What exactly does it mean, though?

I believe it means tourists are unwilling to spend time and effort to try and adapt to the country they visit or to the cultural habits they are facing. Tourists see themselves as by-passers, trying to enforce the “watch but don’t touch”-idea at all times. They do not foresee how much impact their own actions do, meaning that they generally negatively impinge on the surrounding area and environment.
The quote describes travellers as people whom whole-heartedly attempt adapting to the culture and the ways of the country they visit. They are very aware of how to behave, what to not do and why, thus by also “leaving their culture behind” they take in a lot more knowledge and positive impressions from the visit.

It’s not the first time we’ve heard about the dangers of tourism, and it surely is not the last either. Often the environment has been victim of littering and other harmful behaviour, resulting in a lot of attention from the press and environmental organizations. Tourism can of course be a negative thing, and it probably mostly is, however it does have some bright sides to it. Tourism is to many countries the foremost source of money and fame, and in some rare cases big areas live solely on the profits from tourism. Although perhaps this looks like a symbiotic relationship, wealthy tourists visit the area and receive great service whilst the people obtain money to build schools and hospitals, it is absolutely reliant upon tourism. There is no “partnership” in this case, consequently if tourism dies then so do all the funds. Not vice-versa.

In comparison, travellers are tourists with an open mind and a conscious way of living. They do practically no damage to the environment, they interact in a helpful way with the people and their culture, they live on what is available more than trying to acquire what isn’t there.
Personally, I consider the main difference between tourism and travelling boils down to be the attitude. With an open mind and a positive attitude towards other cultures and ways of living I think humanity can come far, not only solving problems with tourism but also solving major environmental crises. I believe the cause for most problems on the Earth is attitudes and the way they affect how we act and think. Seeing the key role advertising plays in how we consume I assume it’s the best way to combat habits that affect the environment negatively, as consumption is closely linked to how much we influence our surroundings.

Which type of visitor I would rather be? That’s a difficult question! In most cases I do not wish to endeavour the lengthy process of becoming part of a culture nor do I wish to live by its rules even though I may deeply respect them. I am more of something in between; I avoid both affecting nature but also the affecting the culture, a moral I live by and which works for me. Admittedly none of us can be perfect, but I say let us overcome our differences and unite to save the Earth from what awaits it!

Demography is the study of population changes. I will describe two general views, the Neo-Malthusian and the Modernization view, on the matter, starting with the former.

Thomas Malthus, a late demographer and economist, believed that food production would increase over time but not as fast as population growth.
In his studies, he assumed that love (sex) and food was necessary.
The Neo-Malthusians believe that population growth is the main problem, not only because it will outrun food production but also since it is a threat towards the environment and therefore the base of survival.
The remedy, according to the Neo-Malthusians, is to reduce population and population growth (family planning).

The Modernization theory says that the main problem is economic and social backwardness, thus making population growth occur. If there is economic development the population growth will decrease instantly.
The remedy is therefore is economic and social reforms.

Colonialism

What does history explain?
Colonisation took place in the 16th century and onwards. Trade posts were established along the coasts. Europe started a globalized trade (such as the Triangular Trade) which sent profits back to Europe.
This led to industrialization in Europe in the 19^th century. A dependency upon export in the Americas and in Africa was developed since the industrialization in the colonies was prohibited.
The slave trade in Africa created wars and destroyed the already existent local trade. Since slaves often were young and productive women and men a drainage of young workers was created.

Imperialism (1870 - 1914)

During the so called second phase exploatation was intensified, the interior of the continents were penetrated. European industry needed cheap raw materials such as copper, rubber, cotton and food.
Capital profits from industry in Europe needed new investment projects which were found in the colonies.

How to clean your G15 keyboard easily and safely!

Was Germany guilty?
The growth of Germany’s industry led to the growth of the scialist movement. Wilhelm’s “Weltpolitik” seems to have been motivated by a desire to rally the growing number of industrial workers behind the emperor. This in order for them not to support the SPD (Sozialistische Partei Deutschlands) and the Trade Union.
All this can be seen as a way to try to neutralize the socialist threat to the domination position that the Junkers held in German politics.
According to the Fischer Thesis, this domestic motive only continues into war. Germany wanted a war also a way for Wilhelm and the Junkers to stay in control. Thus the war is only an extension of the Weltpolitik.

Was France guilty?
France was the architect behind the encirclement of Germany using the alliance with Russia, and she would never accept the loss of Alsace-Lorraine. By 1914, president Poincarré changed attitude towards Russia. All of a sudden, Paris would now support the Tsar instead of stopping him when he wanted to act against the Austrians.

Was Russia guilty?
The Tsar had domestic problems; a growing wave of strikes and protests against his government would have motivated him to have the population focus on a foreign foe. In essence the Tsar wanted to go to war in order to rally the people behind him.
The Russians mobilization plan caused German reactions, and the support Russia gave to Serbia made the bold enough not to fully accept Austria’s ultimatum.

Was Austria-Hungary guilty?
Austria-Hungary’s ultimatum was most likely designed to create a war with Serbia. Because of the blank cheque Germany had given her, she went ahead and attacked Serbia regardless of the consequences.
She clearly wanted a war, as her position as a Great Power was weakening.

Was Serbia guilty?
Serbia was proud, bold and consciously provoked Austria-Hungary with her attacks.

An Austrian envoy, Count Hoyos, brings a letter from Franz Joseph to Kaiser Wilhelm. The letter says that Austria-Hungary will crush Serbia militarily on the condition that she would receive German support.
Wilhelm virtually gives Austria a blank cheque, in essence support for whatever actions they wish to take. Berlin thought that this would be just another small Balkan War.
On the 23rd of July, Vienna hands over a nearly impossible ultimatum to Serbia. On the 25th, Russia mobilizes against Austria-Hungary whilst Grey, the British Foreign Minister, desperately tries to get a conference to be held.
His efforts are rejected by Austria-Hungary and Germany.

Historians disagree about the general causes for war, but one can clearly say that all parties more or less wanted war at the time.

The Schlieffen Plan

The German Schlieffen Plan (named after Count Alfred von Schlieffen), drawn up in the 1890’s, said that Germany could defeat France and then later defeat Russia, thereby fighting two one-front wars.
It basically said that Germany could win wars against both France and Russia by first moving through Belgium, capturing Paris and then returning to the Russian border.
The follow description is a key part in Frederick Taylor’s work and theory, “War by Time-Table”, which says that the planning was very important for the outbreak of the WWI.
On the 28th of June Russia was going to mobilize her army. The Tsar’s first order was for a full mobilization (along both the Austrian-Hungarian and German border).
Soon after the first order however, the Tsar tried changing the order to only invoke a partial mobilization, towards Austria. This was to avoid provoking Germany.
The Tsar was adviced by his staff not to call off the complete mobilization, for it would then render Russia defenseless against a German attack.
The elaborate mobilization plan involving hundreds of thousand men had to be followed once it was put in motion, or else an irreversible disruption of troop transport would follow.

On the 25th of June Russia started to mobilize along the German frontier. Normally this would only be seen as a “flexing of muscles”, a political way of displaying one’s power.
But for Germany, who needed to quickly defeat France, this essentially meant an immediate mobilization and movement through Belgium. She had to act.

Klagshamn Hamn #1 from Douglas S on Vimeo.

Klagshamn Hamn #2 from Douglas S on Vimeo.

Klagshamn Hamn #3 from Douglas S on Vimeo.

Did some more recording during the weekend, this time in Blekinge.

Various shots of Blekinge from Douglas S on Vimeo.

1908

Russia and Serbia were forced to accept the annexation of Bosnia as Kaiser Wilhelm II sent the Tsar Nicholas II: “If you get involved we will support Austria-Hungary”.
Serbia was embittered and from now on slav and serb terrorism would become an increasing problem for the Austrians.

1911

In 1911 Italy attacks Tripoli in Libya and manages to push the Ottomans away. This inspires Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria and Greece to form the Balkan League.

1912 and the First and Second Balkan Wars

In 1912 Turkey’s European territories are attacked by the said Balkan League on both north and south flanks and are swiftly defeated.
The four states of the League acted independently of the instructions from the Great Powers (“do not start a war!”).
Even though Turkey was driven out of Europe, the situation in the Balkans was not stabilized, and the area remained the “powder keg of Europe”.
One result of the war seemed to be that Serbia would get a coastline on the Adriatic Sea. However, a conference with the Great Powers was called, where Austria-Hungary’s and Italy’s urge to stop Serb access was supported by Great Britain, France and Germany.
So, Serbia had to evacuate and instead the new state of Albania was created. The Serbs were bitter and decided to bring up an old disagreement with Bulgaria over the division of Macedonia. As a result of this quarrel Bulgaria attacked Serbia, but was easily defeated when Serbia was joined by Greece, Romania and Turkey (the Second Balkan War).
After this attack Serbia, with a boosted self-confidence, yet again tries to take Albania but is forced to evacuate because of a subsequent conference where Austria insists upon it.
Serbia has to bitterly give in and leave Albania.

Conclusion

During these two wars, tensions between the big powers rose. Especially between Russia, who was supporting Serbia, and Germany, supporter of Austria-Hungary.
Russia was unable to support Serbia’s party of the wars due to Kaiser Wilhelm threatening the Tsar Nicholas II and at the same time giving Austria-Hungary full diplomatic support.

The foreign ministers of Russia and Austria-Hungary, Alexander Izvolsky respectively Alois Lexa von Aehrenthal, negotiated in secrecy an agreement: Russia would accept an Austrian annexation of Bosnia and Austria would support Russia’s desire to get free access through the Dardanelles. The would be done at an international conference at a later date (not set at the time).
However, before Great Britain and France gave their approval for such a conference, the Austrians went ahead and proclaimed their annexation of Bosnia. This caused an outrage in St. Petersburg, in Belgrade and in other slav quarters. Meanwhile it seemed unlikely that London or Paris would accept a conference to facilitate Russia’s access to the Mediterranean…

Liberalism
Liberalism appeared in the late 18th century, paving the way to an industrial society during the said period by allowing new groups to gain political power. It appealed to the middle class in the growing cities.
It’s main philosophers were Locke, Smith and Voltaire.
Liberalism believes in mankind; you are rational, you are capable, you can make sensible decisions about your own life, you are developable. Since you are able to make sensible decisions, your property and income should not be stolen or taken over by the state.
You should also have various freedoms such as freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom from coercion, economic freedom, et cetera.
Mainly this means the state can not interfere in your affairs, and in extreme liberal cases the state should not be allowed to take taxes, as this is regarded as stealing from your property.
Liberalism believes in democracy without a king where one man gets one vote and the power is focused around the parliament.

Conservatism
Conservatism appeared after the French Revolution, when the philosopher Burke wrote a book on the subject, criticizing the rapid changes to society which the said revolution had brought.
This ideology spread, mostly appealing to the aristocracy and clergy.
Conservatism believes society should undergo development, but in a very slow pace. They like to compare society with a human body, growing all the time but very slowly. A revolution could mean chopping an arm off, and it should therefore be avoided.
It also makes use of hierarchy whenever possible. God is on the top, followed by the king, the noble, et cetera. In the family this hierarchy is also applied thus making the father the one in charge.
Conservatism believes that the way to maintain stability in society is by avoiding so-called “social mobility”, the ability to move between groups in society (e.g. earning enough money to move a class up from farmers).

Socialism
The acting people behind Socialism were Karl Marx, Engels and Vladimir Lenin (I had no idea until recently his first name was Vladimir).
Socialism was based on several different points, one being “historical materialism”, i.e. Karl Marx’s interpretation of history. He wrote several books about Socialism which still are a foundation for modern Socialism.
He pictured society as an evolving entity with four different stages. Slave society, Feudalism, Capitalism, and lastly Communism. He believed all societies would eventually evolve into Communism, as it was the last stage in the evolution.
Marx description of the different stages included the well-known so-called “class struggles”, i.e. the struggle between the poor and the rich.
During the slave society the struggled lied between the slave-owners and the slaves themselves.
Feudalism brought struggles between the clergy and aristocracy and the peasants. The landlords owned the land and the peasants farmed it in exchange for protection from the lords.
According to Marx, Capitalism brings on struggles between the employers and the employees. Marx’s image of Communism was a struggle-less society.
To achieve communism Marx believed that society had to, inevitably, go through a bloody revolution with certain period of dictatorship following. The last few remains of capitalism had to be cleaned out, and for that society needed a firm hand, i.e. a dictator.

Nationalism
Nationalism is a vague concept, not really an ideology but still a host of ideas that play important roles in modern politics. As I noted in the post Basic Political Concepts, “a nation is a group of people that share common characteristics of culture, language and historical experience”. Hence, Nationalism is about the love for ones country and the common identity the inhabitants share.
Generally there are two kinds of nationalism, citizenship nationalism and ethno-nationalism. Citizenship nationalism emphasizes kinship and solidarity towards the own state. It derives from the French revolution and the enlightenment.
Ethno-nationalism emphasizes kinship and solidarity towards the people. The objective is to have one state with one nation. It derives from the German romanticism.
To summarize this two-sided coin one can say that Nationalism is a gnome keeping states together, but also a seed of war.

There will be more to come!

A Nation
A nation is a human group sharing common characteristics of culture, language, historical experiences etc.
There are about 200 states whilst there are about 2000 nations.

A Centralized State
This name is used when talking about states which are governed from the capital. Most states are centralized.

A Federal State (a union)
When power has been decentralized from the capital to different provinces the state has become federal. Examples include the USA.

A Government
The ruling party of a country including a set of institutions (ruling the country).
The government has power over the military and police, amongst other things.

A Parliament
This is the lawmaking body of a state.

The Head of Government
Also known as the prime minister, bundeskansler or statsminister (in German resp. Swedish).

The Head of State
The head of state can be a king or a president. Often this post only has a symbolic value, becoming more powerful during times of war.

A Constitution
A constitution is a set of fundamental laws about how to rule a country and fundamental laws about important values in society, e.g. human rights and freedom of speech.

Democracy

• Direct democracy: everyone is allowed to vote. Referendums are held.
• Indirect democracy: when representatives (to a parliament) are elected to make decisions.

• The emergence of Germany (unified in 1871) as a Great Power on the continent.
• The gradual weakening of the Ottoman Empire, which started when Greece became independent in 1830 and Serbia, Romania and Bulgaria in 1878. The term the sick man of Europe for the Ottoman Empire derived from this decay.

Next article in the series: Origins of WWI.

When I first saw these new captchas, a year ago or so, I had no idea what the point of them was. But, as time went by, my interest of this thing grew, and today I started reading up on what it did.

A quote from the reCAPTCHA site:

To archive human knowledge and to make information more accessible to the world, multiple projects are currently digitizing physical books that were written before the computer age. The book pages are being photographically scanned, and then transformed into text using “Optical Character Recognition” (OCR). The transformation into text is useful because scanning a book produces images, which are difficult to store on small devices, expensive to download, and cannot be searched. The problem is that OCR is not perfect.
reCAPTCHA improves the process of digitizing books by sending words that cannot be read by computers to the Web in the form of CAPTCHAs for humans to decipher. More specifically, each word that cannot be read correctly by OCR is placed on an image and used as a CAPTCHA. This is possible because most OCR programs alert you when a word cannot be read correctly.

You might be wondering how reCAPTCHA can know if you’re spelling the word right or wrong? It assumes that if you spell the first word right, you’re spelling the next word correct as well. Does it work? Yes, I think it does, and therefore I have added it to the comment- and contactform. Have fun digitalizing books!

When the weather is windy enough I do windsurfing, and when it’s calm I do waterskiing. The latter is something I do at very rare occasions, but something I am enthusiastic about.
During very calm period it feels like plowing through a big piece of butter with the skis, just an unbelievable feeling to say the least.
Those of you who have me as a Facebook friend know where to look for pictures, I might upload some here as well.

Do you do any watersports? Comment!

The picture I used to show it just does not bring out the true beauty of it. I’ll see if I can get a better preview of it in a near future.

What are your thoughts?

I wish I had one of those, but according to Top Gear every engine is built by hand and that drives the price up sky-high =( .