According to a group of energy industry experts, the European Union will derive almost one-fifth of its total power from offshore wind farms by 2030, starting from almost none today. The transition will come as the EU attempts to transition from nonrenewable sources of energy to renewable, cleaner energy sources.
 
The European Wind Energy Association revealed that offshore wind energy capacity will jump from around 1.5 gigawatts today to 150 gigawatts in 2030. A new law has decided that the EU must derive double or 20 percent of its total energy from renewable energy sources by 2020, with other potential energy …read more

Google has long stated that its main goal is to make all the information in the world accessible to everyone, and its latest step toward doing so has been to undertake an ambitious book digitization project that would eventually allow Google to sell digital copies of millions of books. However, this project, as well as a forthcoming U.S. legal settlement regarding the issue, has met staunch resistance from several groups throughout Europe for alleged copyright infringement.
 
So far, Google’s project has the support of several big-name European publishers, among them Oxford University Press and Bertselmann and Holtzbrinck, owners of Random House …read more

A while ago I saw an article (which I unfortunately didn’t bookmark) touting the superiority of the European wireless network over the US, and essentially pitying us for getting all hot and bothered about the iPhone. Now, I’ll be the first to acknowledge that our wireless network is really quite pathetic, but I am dying for a new iPhone. Part of that is because I have a Mac, but part of it is the sheer elegance and ease of use as compared to any cell phone or blackberry I’ve seen to date.
Apple seems to think you all want one …read more

 
The average number of days employees were sick went up in Germany last year from 15.4 (2006) to 16.3 (2007).
That’s a lot of sick days and I am happy to say that my company in Munich is significantly under this level.
The news item prompted me to look for a comparison table of average sick days in Europe and the US. This is what I came up with:

Sweden           26
Norway           21
Finnland          15
Belgium           16
France             16
Germany         16
Netherlands   14
UK                   13
Denmark        10
Austria            10
USA                  9
Switzerland     7
Italy                 7
Ireland             6

 The main story here: average sick leave in Europe is a lot higher than in the US. Most countries guarantee a …read more

I’ve been reminded a lot recently that European males really have to be exceptionally careful when traveling to the US for business. Crime, perhaps? Or excessive shopping brought on by the abysmal dollar? No, although those may well be reasons for concern as well. European males have to be concerned about women or, more correctly, the way they treat women (or anybody for that matter).
Now, I’m not going to go on a screed about sexual harassment or discrimination, because that’s not really the point of this blog. What I will say is that males from overseas in a management …read more

Lufthansa is running a promotion for their Miles-and-More members (frequent flyer club) and they have put together a nice interactive puzzle of Europe. It is pretty tricky to place all of the 45 countries (!) into Europe just based on their shape. To make it a bit easier, you can also have the country names displayed.
Try this link first, if you don’t want to register with Lufthansa. Europe Puzzle.
If that doesn’t work for you, you will have to go through the registration process, (click here) but you can enter any 9-digit number if you are not a Miles-and-More member.
Any other …read more