Human extinction? Let's think again! Terrarforming Mars

       Well well well, lucky humans have I got another option for you! Forget the eating meat or plants thing, we need to jump on this idea!

We need to colonize Mars!!! Yeah I said it, I'm on this bandwagon. Terraforming is the way to go to. We still have about another 200-300 years to go, but let's start now! 

Before I get into Terrarforming, let me just tell you I haven't been interested in the Mars stuff yet until I start reading up on how NASA has almost found recent evidence of this planet once containing water. They found slopes and canyons that have looked as if water has run through them. Currently in the status of Mar's atmosphere water could not be currently sustained in large quantities because certain points in Mar's terraformation there are at extreme temperatures beyond freezingly cold. NASA has found frozen water on hop of high altitude surfaces and expect to see more evidence of of water aided gullies in the upcoming months.

The full story you can find here: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/MRO/news/mro20110804.html

What is the significance of this you might ask yourself? Well I'll tell you my spin on it and probably a few others. I read about the triology of movies that came out in the 1990s about how it would be possible to create basically another world on Mars.

We first have to get Mars spinning with different rotation velocity to affect the seasons and predictable climate. Some people have suggested hitting Mars with lasers, or firing projectile asteroids at it to get it to start moving a bit. I vote for firing projectiles at it, because I think that would be sweeeeeet. And make it possible to create lakes and water formations because the closer you get to the planet's core, the hotter the temperature will be. Thus flowing water, potentially.

Apart from the sweetness of this, I would probably suggest with the creating a living organism to dominate the Red Planet and make it GREEN ^^. We have the technology, we just need more time. I believe this would be the best idea possible. If we can create an organism that is sustainable in such harsh conditions and is able to replicate and eventually spread throughout the world, we just need to make sure this created being loves putting oxygen into the atmosphere. That's what I'm talking about! A new world has many endless opportunities that were not previously possible on this planet. This new set of plant life could inhabit the planet for a while, making it more sustainable for life as we know it on Earth. Although we would need to set up things rather in a hurry. If we started to terraform this planet in such a rapid fashion, it may change orbital patterns, interfering in some other astronomical operations that may be going on. But think of the endless meaning of this accomplishment? If we learn how to build onto different planets or moons, we have potential to actually further colonize this astronomically big universe. A whole engineering field could be dedicated to creating planets to sustain life.

But on another note, each and everybody has a universe inside them. All the tiny particles inside you are just working together but could disappear at any second. What's to say we aren't just part of something much bigger and we are the tiny things inside "ourselves"? Anyways..

You have my vote NASA, send us to Mars. We want to go, just like the professor says;

Thanks for reading, any suggestions on topics you would like to see? Feel free to comment.

Once again I do not own any of the photos posted in this blog. 

Zombie Apocalypse, or Greener Earth? DON'T GO VEGAN.

Learning to live within our Earth

Hey there folks! Today I was bored and starting thinking in random thoughts. I went to Google maps and just looked at the world. Sitting and thinking about how many trees and natural earth we've cut down within the time the species of homo sapiens has started to dominate the world. Here is a picture to sort of decipher what I am talking about.

Building off this picture, we the human race are producing ourselves way to quickly and destroying the very thing that helps this earth needs to grow and develop. I think you know what this means, there is only one logical choice over the matter. That's right, we need to start eating more meat!!! You heard me right, next time you are walking down candy cane lane and smell a nice juicy burger, treat yourself to it, you will be thanking me later. 

Sure sure, you can go ahead now and say to yourself, "My my, heavens no! Poor little creature. Poor delicious creature...plus I know meat is just SOOOO unhealthy...*snicker*." Well I'm telling you go for it. According to the world population growth map:

That's right, at this rate, our society will be wiping out much of nature for homes and whatnot for this earth. I am here to plee you to stop going Vegan. We need to eat more meat!!! Okay you're probably thinking, what are the correlations here with a growing population and eating meat? Well let me tell you. 

Our modern species has only been here around 200,000 years ago from first form. In the last 300 years we have seen an exponential growth that has nearly multiplied our population 10 fold. We are seeing more and more of our environment get destroyed while we somehow flourish on the land. This will just not do! We need to start planting more trees and growing more plants. But let's think about this for a second. Growing more vegetables?! Are you mad?

I may in fact be mad. haha ;) but you'll never know, til you know. With that being said, we should grow out our earth more and try not to expand so heavily and modernize everything. Maybe we should go back to our roots and live a much simpler and green society so we can be able to keep this wonderful earth how it is meant to be without such great interference. 

Back to the point. EAT MORE MEAT. If we eat more meat and let our fellow animal friends eat the things we produce so that can give them an evolutionary boost! If we feed all of our great vegetables and fruits, they will start to change their biological DNA in the farther future. We should feed them rich, complex vegetables so we can breed them and harness this same energy and nutrients from their meat (in future generations). There is also the possibilites if we just start eating mainly meat, we could help animals evolves more quickly and possibly start to communicate with us! Wow, what a loon you're thinking. But it could be true, have a little faith ;D haha. Yeeeah.

So there are basically only two possible outcomes that I see from eating more meat and not becoming a vegan:

1) You can help earths creatures evolve and help create a better, greener earth while tilting on the verge of starting a zombie apocalypse. Meaning that if we start to evolve our animals and just keep eating meat and planting trees and whatnot. We will eventually run out of meat if we all turn carnivore. So which may lead to a thirst for human flesh! I've heard if you cook it just right, it ain't so bad ;). But anyways, back to the apocalypse, we would just start feeding on each other because our long history of meat eating would never be fed by meer animals anymore. Thus in turn would lead to a vast expansion of forest and jungle and a never ending hunt for flesh that would cause our species to once again be ruined. 

2) You become a vegan and try to start a revolution to where everyone thinks they need to start eating only vegetables and fruits and whatnot. You keep cutting down trees for your precious tree tea and HONEY which is a byproduct of animals. Then our global population explodes because people find out that certain plants gives you an staggering increase in reproductivity. We will exponentialize our modern world and population because everyone is eating sooooo damn healthy for once. We destroy all of the life on the plant because we are eating it. People will become skinny and desperate for food but will not resort to eating meat. The world will not be able to balance out the Oxygen and Carbon Dioxide ratio enough to allow life to flourish and we will create an ever expanding set of polar deserts.

So in other words. We're fucked right? Well maybe not!

I suggest we eat both!!!! Keeping a good ratio of meat to vegetables/fruits. If we can somehow balance out the meat intake to vegetable intake to fruit intake and keep revitalizing nature as we take it out. I believe we can successively stop a looming extinction for at least another 10,000 years. Or Prove Me Wrong ^^

HOW DELICIOUS, and well balanced!

So thank you for reading. More subjective things seem to be on the way. So keep your ears peeled and your minds open. Have a good one!

Once again I do not own any pictures in this blog post. Rights go out to their respective owners. 

Zombie Apocalypse, or Greener Earth? DON'T GO VEGAN.

Learning to live within our Earth

Hey there folks! Today I was bored and starting thinking in random thoughts. I went to Google maps and just looked at the world. Sitting and thinking about how many trees and natural earth we've cut down within the time the species of homo sapiens has started to dominate the world. Here is a picture to sort of decipher what I am talking about.

Building off this picture, we the human race are producing ourselves way to quickly and destroying the very thing that helps this earth needs to grow and develop. I think you know what this means, there is only one logical choice over the matter. That's right, we need to start eating more meat!!! You heard me right, next time you are walking down candy cane lane and smell a nice juicy burger, treat yourself to it, you will be thanking me later. 

Sure sure, you can go ahead now and say to yourself, "My my, heavens no! Poor little creature. Poor delicious creature...plus I know meat is just SOOOO unhealthy...*snicker*." Well I'm tell you go for it. According to the world population growth map:

That's right, at this rate, our society will be wiping out much of nature for homes and whatnot for this earth. I am here to plee you to stop going Vegan. We need to eat more meat!!! Okay you're probably thinking, what are the correlations here with a growing population and eating meat? Well let me tell you. 

Our modern species has only been here around 200,000 years ago from first form. In the last 300 years we have seen an exponential growth that has nearly multiplied our population 10 fold. We are seeing more and more of our environment get destroyed while we somehow flourish on the land. This will just not do! We need to start planting more trees and growing more plants. But let's think about this for a second. Growing more vegetables?! Are you mad?

I may in fact be mad. haha ;) but you'll never know, til you know. With that being said, we should grow out our earth more and try not to expand so heavily and modernize everything. Maybe we should go back to our roots and live a much simpler and green society so we can be able to keep this wonderful earth how it is meant to be without such great interference. 

Back to the point. EAT MORE MEAT. If we eat more meat and let our fellow animal friends eat the things we produce so that can give them an evolutionary boost! If we feed all of our great vegetables and fruits, they will start to change their biological DNA in the farther future. We should feed them rich, complex vegetables so we can breed them and harness this same energy and nutrients from their meat (in future generations). There is also the possibilites if we just start eating mainly meat, we could help animals evolves more quickly and possibly start to communicate with us! Wow, what a loon you're thinking. But it could be true, have a little faith ;D haha. Yeeeah.

So there are basically only two possible outcomes that I see from eating more meat and not becoming a vegan:

1) You can help earths creatures evolve and help create a better, greener earth while tilting on the verge of starting a zombie apocalypse. Meaning that if we start to evolve our animals and just keep eating meat and planting trees and whatnot. We will eventually run out of meat if we all turn carnivore. So which may lead to a thirst for human flesh! I've heard if you cook it just right, it ain't so bad ;). But anyways, back to the apocalypse, we would just start feeding on each other because our long history of meat eating would never be fed by meer animals anymore. Thus in turn would lead to a vast expansion of forest and jungle and a never ending hunt for flesh that would cause our species to once again be ruined. 

2) You become a vegan and try to start a revolution to where everyone thinks they need to start eating only vegetables and fruits and whatnot. You keep cutting down trees for your precious tree tea and HONEY which is a byproduct of animals. Then our global population explodes because people find out that certain plants gives you an staggering increase in reproductivity. We will exponentialize our modern world and population because everyone is eating sooooo damn healthy for once. We destroy all of the life on the plant because we are eating it. People will become skinny and desperate for food but will not resort to eating meat. The world will not be able to balance out the Oxygen and Carbon Dioxide ratio enough to allow life to flourish and we will create an ever expanding set of polar deserts.

So in other words. We're fucked right? Well maybe not!

I suggest we eat both!!!! Keeping a good ratio of meat to vegetables/fruits. If we can somehow balance out the meat intake to vegetable intake to fruit intake and keep revitalizing nature as we take it out. I believe we can successively stop a looming extinction for at least another 10,000 years. Or Prove Me Wrong ^^

HOW DELICIOUS, and well balanced!

So thank you for reading. More subjective things seem to be on the way. So keep your ears peeled and your minds open. Have a good one!

Once again I do not own any pictures in this blog post. Rights go out to their respective owners. 

Subletting in Berlin (A Guide and Experience)

The beautiful city of Berlin at night.

Everyone has considered moving somewhere new and different, right? So why not Berlin? The rich cultural history mixed with the wide variety of nightlife and international food has got to be reason in itself. If you have an itch to travel and want to stay only temporarily in a big city but don't want to pay big city prices, subletting is right for you. I will give you my experience in subletting a place in Berlin.

First off, to sublet something means to rent or lease a place that is already rented or leased by another person. So basically you are just moving in temporarily with all the things furnished and up to date. This is the perfect way to travel from country to country if you are looking to take a trip across Europe.

First you may ask, where would I find such opportunities? Well for me, I checked the good ol' world wide web!! Amazing, right? To be specific, I used http://www.craigslist.com in the Berlin section.


I have highlighted the area in red in case you have trouble finding it.

So a couple of cautions before you start your search. There will be fake ads and fake responses. This is the norm. So you really have to know what to look for with a a fake response. Here is a small list of things that can tip you off that it is fake:

1. They require a deposit to secure the place before you have even been there. Never send anyone money ahead of time. They could have a fake address and fake pictures.
2. If the place looks incredibly nice for such a low low price, it is probably fake.
3. If the response is asking for a lot of personal information prior to seeing the place.
4. If a response is telling you that they have sooo many applicants they need any kind of money beforehand (no matter how small of an amount) so you can have the best chance at being chosen.


Be aware that some places are going to be great deals but I would look definitely take your time when choosing. Some of these things from the list have happened to me. It was a bit ridiculous because it just seemed like a joke to me. Although the responses or ads can seem very convincing at the time, people will go to great lengths to pull off a scam. So just keep that in the back of your mind when you are searching around for these places.

On the other hand, many people have great places for rent for a short term that are actually a very good deal. I was lucky to find a place for about 290euro a month with everything included and a free bike to use. This place was just on the outskirts of the urban city, the closer you get to the center, the higher price you will end up paying.

I basically was searching on this forum for about a week, exchanging emails with countless people, trying to see what was best for me. Always set up a meeting beforehand to check out the place and go over the details of the agreement. If they cannot show you around first, then I would steer clear, it means something is up with their place that they might not want you to know about. I'd advise you to make multiple viewings of places just so you get a feel for your options.

The best thing to do if you don't have a place when you get there is to rent a hostel for cheap and explore all of your options. Make sure each place you check out has the right amenities for you and what you are comfortable living with. Next once you have found a place, notify the renters and make sure that they will be drawing up a contract. I can not stress this enough, a contract is a MUST. A rental contract legally binds both parties upon the written agreement and is the only way to fly when subletting. Once you have a contract drawn up, make sure that you understand everything before signing blindly, this is another important aspect. You don't want to sign a contract saying that you'll pay 400 euros/month when you verbally agreed on 300 euros/month and so on.

Anyways getting to my experience, I was lucky enough to go about viewing a couple different places all over the city of Berlin. Some were in the center and some were farther out, but not too far. The people in the center seemed like very rushed people and always having something to do. This is a fine way to live because there is so much to do in Berlin. There was something off about the center though, there was a lot more graffiti over everything and a lot more hustle and bustle that might keep you up. This is all well and good but I prefer somewhere a little quieter. So that is why I chose to pick a place just on the outskirts of Berlin where I could still get to the city center in about 20 minutes or so by tram or bike. The outskirts of the city are full of natural parks and lakes that make for a great environment to relax while still being fairly close to all the happenings.

So pick your destination wisely because you may be in that contract for anywhere from a few weeks to a few months. That is also the leer of subletting, you can always make a short contract somewhere and then the next month change places to somewhere totally different. So if you feel like trying out both the center and the outskirts, you really have a good opportunity if you play your cards right. Just make sure to always let the renter know what your next move is, that way it is easier for both parties to accommodate.

Berlin has so many places to visit and buried treasures in niches you may never find, so really, if you find yourself begging to get out of your normal routine. Sublet a place in Berlin, meet some new people, make new friends, enjoy life from a different perspective. The possibilities are endless, it is ultimately up to you to decide how to live but try something new once in a while, you might enjoy it more than you think ;)



Once again I do not own any photos in this blog. Thanks for reading!

Teaching Overseas - The Connection

Ever thought of moving to a new and exciting country? Exploring the jungle or climbing a steep mountain to get a feel for a new culture? Well you are not alone. There are many opportunities for students and volunteers to gain access to teaching positions across the entire world!

If you have ever thought about enjoying another culture while spreading the wealth of knowledge, I encourage you to do so before you are 30. I believe 30 is about the age where you start to really think about settling down. So why not take the chance and live somewhere exotic? Teach some less fortunate kids to read, learn English, study history, or even how to do simple mathematics  You can do this all while gaining valuable globally cultural knowledge. 

Here is a link of a few places that can get you started (Americans):

http://www.state.gov/m/dghr/flo/c21946.htm

This link has teaching positions ranging from scholarship programs to volunteering options. Most of the time you will get paid in some manner for what you are doing, and nevertheless if you do not, your teaching experience will be a valuable assets to add to your resume when you get back. 

One thing here is that you have to be motivated to accept new ideas and motivated to teach new ideas while being culturally patient in the process. Where you could end up going may never have heard of any of your traditions or daily habits. You may be forced to live like the people of the region and ad hear to their respective bounds. But in doing so, you are really challenging your views of the world and how we all function in this complex global society. 

This teaching experience will really change your life. You will be more flexible in more situations you might not have been previously. You will learn to step into other people's shoes easier. You will ultimately have a new outlook on life and will want to share all of your experiences and keep on gaining new and more compelling experiences out of life. Once you start traveling, you cannot stop. Learning to live in different cultures is one of the most rewarding things you can do as a human in my mind. Integrating with another society is just the tip of the iceberg for really truly understanding a little bit more of this world. 

I believe in the power of knowledge and all things that come with it. Knowledge is power and we need to keep our race afloat. Teaching children and adults alike helps us stay connected with one another and fuels our global economy to strive for something better for us all. Without this "connectedness", we will all be doomed to fight and die over silly things such as religion and government procedure. Take a walk in someone else's shoes and really think about how they view the world compared to you. Of course not everyone will get to have this experience, so take it while you can and help bring this world a little closer together. 

Here are some more links to programs if you are interested (Everyone):

http://www.goabroad.com/teach-abroad

http://www.worldteach.org

http://bunac.org/

http://www.goabroad.com/

http://www.openmindprojects.org/

http://www.travellersworldwide.com/

http://www.uvolunteer.org/volunteer-teaching-english.php

http://www.languagecorps.com/

Stay safe and have fun! =]

Once again I do not own any of the photos in this post. 

Now from the view from a Right wing extremist.

Norway, or the highway.

What the fuck was he thinking?

The article on yahoo can be viewed here:

 http://news.yahoo.com/court-finds-norwegian-mass-killer-breivik-sane-082140655.html

If you haven't all read, there was a massive serial killer in Norway that bombed a government building, killing 8 people and then when on a shooting spree at a summer camp killing another 69 people. All of these people were deemed by this man as not of the same type. He was mainly targeting Muslim people with this attack. He is against immigration into his country. He stands proudly in trail and demands that he be sentenced or put to death because being insane would be a mockery of the cause.

Here we see another very extreme case but this time from the right wing party. This an example of conservative extremist, trying to keep his land "pure." This "man" named Anders Behring Breivik is literally a radical in nature. He has been so ever since he was a teen. From selling fake diplomas to diamond scams, this man is at heart a negative person. He does not care for rules and does not seemed to abide by them. He is truly for a reform of immigration policy.

Breivik standing true to his punishment in court.

What was he thinking when he went on a massive rampage through a summer camp, killing children of Islamic religion by the dozen. This man stand proud by this action. Not even the most extreme right wing parties stand by this man's actions but yet he seems to think he is leading a reform.

I do no agree by any means to what this man has done. It is a terrible terrible thing. But one has to think, what made this guy tick? What fueled his hatred for Muslims? What part of the religion made him hate these type of people?

He wanted everyone to know he was sane, and that was a fact. He perhaps was socially misguided during his teen years and maybe that lead to some of his radical ideas. What really made him snap though? Killing over 70 people is not an accident. He must have been planning this attack for a while now.

Also, the maximum sentence is only 21 years in prison? What the hell is with that? Perhaps knowing the law, he saw this as an opportunity to make a statement and still be able to live freely in another two decades. Does this pose a question to Norwegian law? Or perhaps this happens so rarely that they never need more than a maximum sentence to really set someone straight. Does this not bother anyone else?

Breivik being handcuffed.  

This killing machine of a man should be given the death sentence in my book. He was reckless with the lives of others. What about all the families of the kids and adults that died that day? What do you think they are thinking of this man? I'm sure they can't be thrilled that this happened. Perhaps though some are used to such radical actions that this does not phase them. I am not sure, because I do not come from a middle eastern country. I am only assuming middle eastern because a main religion there is Islamic.

Is this man a terrorist, or just misguided in his understandings? We all have our opinions, but please, share yours.


I do not own any pictures in this post once again.

A little piece of history on Terrorism (Red Army Faction)

Terrorism: Conference in Germersheim over the RAF

What is the difference between right and wrong?

Hello again bloggers. Today we had a conference with themes about Terrorism and the R.A.F. while interpreting in our multilingual conference session today. Let's start you off with some background knowledge about the RAF or Red Army Faction (Rote Armee Fraktion, auf Deutsch). 

The RAF was a left wing militant group that was founded in 1970 by Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin, Horst Mahler, and Ulrike Meinhof. It was formerly called the Baader-Meinhof Gang because Baader and Meinhof were the key figures in this group. They conform around communist and anti-imperialist ideals. This is basically the generation after the Nazi era rebelling against the system. Although when you think terrorist group, you might automatically think evil or terrible. These people were the pioneers to a shift in the tide. Every "terrorist" group has radical ideas and radical ideas are always going against the tide. The RAF was fighting back the Nazi-influenced hierarchical system with less than standard means. This is of course just one perspective on this topic and you may think otherwise. The RAF did act in terrorist ways and killed some innocent people, so you yourself will have to judge what you feel over this topic. 

I find this to be such a complex and interesting movement that I had to share it with you all. 

I was lucky enough to also watch the Baader-Meinhof Complex in German this evening as well, and let me tell you, it was good. The story from the perspective of the "liberalists" has always fascinated me. There is so much to cover that I don't believe I could effectively make a whole post about it. But hey, while I'm here I'll give you the swing on it from my perspective. 

So basically this whole movement started with a student protest in West Berlin when the Shah (Emperor) of Iran came to visit. Back then in 1968 West and East Berlin were still separated because of the cold war.The students were protesting against the Shah and the dictator like rule he seemed to have. It was also a protest of the German government hypocrisy that had befallen its system. Even after World War II there were still some Nazi figures in political positions. This influenced how the system ran. Anyways, this student movement turned violent after a group of "fake protesters" took off their signs and started beating the real protesters with the wooden planks that remained. This started a huge wave of police brutality. Many of the protesters were bloodied up and lots were arrested. In this movement, one student was at the forefront, and his name was Rudi Dutschke. 

Rudi Dutschke giving a politically fueled speech.

After this student movement broke out, there was an assassination attempt on Rudi Dutschke. During a normal trip to the market Josef Bachmann (a right-wing extremist) shot Dutschke in the head right in broad daylight. With the grace of God, Dutschke survived this atrocious attack against the left wing party. He luckily was able to stay active in the German Green Party for another 10 years until he passed away in a bathtub. 

After this assassination attempt, this movement blew up. There were many more political movements that turned violent right away because of this extreme and violent action against the liberal ideals. This is where Ulrike Meinhof comes into play. Meinhof always had communist ideas running through her head. I believe this is why she became a journalist. She was first interested in this movement when she saw the backlash of this assassination attempt. She was at the forefront of this movement, writing journal articles for this movement.

Ulrike Meinhof

A popular quote from her was:

 "If one throws a stone, it is a criminal offense. 

If 100 stones are thrown, it is a political movement. 

If one sets a car on fire, it is a criminal offense. 

If 100 cars are set on fire, it is a political movement."

This quote really moves me. It has an overtone of fighting the system with civil upheaval. If the people of the system believe that the system no longer functions in a way that benefits the whole, then people of the system have a right to rebel and fight for what they feel is right. These people fight fire with fire. The German system brutally stifles these movement, so the rebels resort to terrorist actions to make their statement. 

Andreas Baader

This is where Andreas Baader comes into play. He really started making the statements with firstly making homemade Molotov cocktails and setting a huge shopping center in Frankfurt on fire. His motivation was the to protest the public's indifference opinion on the genocide in Vietnam. That was when the US had invaded Vietnam during the Vietnam War obviously. He was also just an all around bad ass in my mind. He loved to steal cars and could get into a Mercedes, BMW, or Porsche in less than a minute. After he would steal them he would take them to the limits. He would not follow the rules and he loved it. He was eventually caught for the bombing of this shopping center, so before he was tried he fled with his girlfriend to camps in France, Switzerland, and Italy, before coming back to Germany undercover. 

Baader would later be picked up for speeding in a stolen car while being illegally in the country. What a surprise eh? After he was taken into custody, his girlfriend planned an ingenious escape where they portrayed a fake book deal with Baader's lawyers and Meinhof there as the journalist. They then killed all the guards and escaped with Baader and Meinhof. They were now all on the run. This is where the name "The Baader-Meinhof Gang" comes from. 

After they formed this "gang" they all fled to the country of Jordan. Here they undertook small arms training to fuel their guerrilla warfare style. This training helped them rob banks when they got back to Germany to help fund their campaign of "terror." Even despite killing around 30 or so innocent people, the Baader-Meinhof gang gained a bit of support in West Germany. Once the German Government figured out that this gang was back and staying illegally in the country, they began a massive Manhunt for these "terrorists." They were eventually caught and arrested after a long shoot-off in June 1972. 

After their arrests, they were all held in solitary confinement in the maximum security Stammheim Prison. Here is where they began using aliases and writing long codes to their fellow group members on the inside and outside. This is another interest of mine. How can people in solitary confinement communicate effectively with one another without being caught? The answer is codes. They would read books, texts, anything they could get their hands on. Then they would write down a series of numbers that would conform to random words in the books and pass these numbers off in small secretive notes. Each one had a lot of time of their hands so it would be easier to come up with new codes if one was compromised.  

The German Autumn

Hanns Schleyer holding a sign saying "Prisoner for 31 days"

Anyways in 1977, the actions of previous member had lead to a next generation of RAF members to become active. A head of the German Bank, Juergon Ponto, was shot and killed in front of his house in a failed kidnapping attempt. Following this murder, this group then stopped and ambushed a pair of cars that was transporting Hanns Martin Schleyer, a former officer for the SS (a major military branch in Hilter's army). At the scene of the ambushing 3 police officers and the driver was killed. They successfully kidnapped Schleyer in the aftermath. Mind you these ambushers had fully automatic weapons and handguns. 

After this kidnapping the RAF members demanded that the others that were in the Stammheim prison be let go. But the German government would not give in. So they had to take a more radical approach, they contacted someone from a middle eastern country to hijack a plane for their cause. So then in October of 1977, a Lufthansa plane was hijacked and redirected towards the middle east. This series of events was heard from the cells in Stammheim from all of the "leaders"of the RAF. The very next day all 4 "leaders" were found seemingly dead in their cells. 2 from gunshots to the head, 1 from hanging herself, and the other was actually still breathing faintly after 4 punctures in the chest. The last member recovered after a long hospital visit and was eventually released from prison in 1994. These killings were ruled to be a collective suicide to make a final statement for their cause. After these suicides had gone public. Schleyer was executed by his captors en route to France. Although there is always going to be theories as to that not being the case. Questions arise as to how did they get guns? How did they shoot themselves in the back of the head? The RAF never formally announced any of these conspiracy theories.

This series of events was known as The German Autumn. 

This is where I will stop by collection of historical background and start perhaps a subjective discussion over this left wing militant party and their actions. There is more than just this mind you, the RAF never formally dissolved until 1998, but here is where I will stop. 

The RAF was determined to be a "terrorist group" by the German government. They did in fact terrorize the German institution but for what cause? They were a radical group that saw the injustice in the world. Whether it be with the Vietnam War or the harsh authoritarian ways of the German government, they wanted reform and they weren't waiting for a political figure to step up. They wanted to change the world that we didn't previously experience. Fascism could never be the answer and they would never give in to these ideals. Radical actions demand radical change. And that is exactly what they wanted. People may call them terrorists for their actions, but some may call them freedom fighters. They wanted a system where unfitting members did not have to be purged from society. They were for equal rights for everyone, a communist fashion if you will. The fight for equality is always an uphill battle. So who is really to blame here? The RAF? The German Government? The Americans? I invite you to discuss and share your opinions if you have any. I would really like to see some more input from another point of view. Research this topic a little more, because this is just the surface.

I know that I have a certain perspective on this issue and am always open to new and perhaps contradicting perspectives. If we did not have theses perspectives, we would just be going along with the crowd, never really thinking for ourselves.  So I leave you with this final quote:

“Protest is when I say I don't like this. Resistance is when I put an end to what I don't like. Protest is when I say I refuse to go along with this anymore. Resistance is when I make sure everybody else stops going along too.”  -Ulrike Meinhof

Once again I do not own any of these photos and do not take credit for any of them.

4 weeks into a Translation and Interpreting Course

So I am attending a Translation and Interpreting summer school program in Germersheim (pronounced [gehr-mehrs-hi-mh]), Germany.

I am into the 4th week of the course and have learned so much so far. We have gone over subjects such as:

-Liaison Interpreting
-Translating (English into German)
-Translating (German into English)
-Simultaneous Interpreting
-Conference Interpreting
-Note taking Techniques for Interpreters
-Stylistic Variation for Translators 

This summer school course runs a total of 4 weeks with instruction time ranging from Monday - Friday
9:30 - 4:30 most days. There is also excursions every Wednesday and Saturday that take you to places around the quaint town of Germersheim, or even as far as Strasbourg, France. It is conducted through the University of Mainz (pronounced [my-enz]), but does not take place in Mainz, Germany. Germersheim is a branch campus so to speak from the main University of Mainz.

I will hope to shed some light on the art of Translation and Interpretation from my experiences here in Germersheim. I will provide some interesting links to some useful resources and my input as well.

Liaison Interpreting

This type of interpreting is basically where the interpreter acts as a median of communication between two people. Perhaps the most basic type of setting here would be an interview. One in which one person may speak only German and one person may speak only English. So one of the persons will start out talking, maybe for a good 1-2 minutes before stopping. Then the interpreter will interpret in his/her own words what that person has just said. The main point in this type of interpreting is to convey the whole message rather than the fine details of the message itself. Then after the interpreter has done his/her job for one rant, it will flip flop to the other person. So a good base knowledge of both target and source language is required in this type of interpreting.

Sometimes for this type of interpreting one must really prepare his/her self for a specific topic. In our case in the summer school we had to research a bit about equestrianism. Equestrianism? What the bloody hell is that? That was my same exact thought. But I soon came to learn that equestrianism is all about horses and how they are ridden in shows and events. We did a mock interview between a reporter and a Olympic equestrian because the Olympics were going on during that time. So really we had to look up and research so many things we had not previously known before. This is really the work of an interpreter. To know the ins and outs of small things that everyday people would not consider knowing about if it didn't hold their interest.

Translating in General

Translating is not just merely a way to convey a message across languages. Translating is a way to convey entire ideas and messages across cultures and languages. Cultures is always important when you are translating. You must know the culture of the source text and the cultures of the output text. This way you can really grasp each of the concepts and convey them in the manner that is most appropriate for the respective culture. If one must translate from German to English, you must keep in mind that the Europeans do things a lot differently than the Americans and vice versa.

You usually translate from your foreign language into your mother tongue because you know all of the nuances of your own language. Some people do it the other way around and are fine, but they have to be careful. If you were raised in a bilingual environment, than you already have an advantage starting off.
We did both German to English translation and English to German translation. And let me tell you, the English to German translation was MUCH harder. Of course my German is not totally up to speed with all the rest of the people's German skills, but nevertheless translating into your mother tongue is much easier. That was my experience with it anyways. I would be glad to hear experiences from anyone with this sort of experience. It intrigues me how language works and how we can communicate so effectively on a global level sometimes.

Simultaneous Interpreting 

Simultaneous interpreting is basically listening to a speech in real time and interpreting that speech in real time as well. For this type of interpreting, we went into sound booths and put on headphones to hear the speaker. Once the speaker starts speaking, you must interpret the message right then and there that the speaker is presenting. Sometimes speakers talk for a long time between pauses so you have to really concentrate on comprehending what the speaker has said and actually vocalizing that thought in your own language. This can seem daunting at times because it is. You will occasionally miss words or ideas but you have to keep going and never act like you have stumbled on an idea. If you miss a phrase, you have to think logically about what the speaker is speaking about and either make up something similar or just leave it out and keep the flow going with the rest of the interpretation. Sometimes you do not have time to rethink and reevaluate what the speaker has said because it goes so fast. This is normal and practice helps one draw closer to perfection but never truly attaining it.

I have found the simultaneous interpreting is by far one of the harder types of interpreting because it requires you to know a lot about the topic the speaker is presenting and you have to think, translate, interpret, and render, all at the same time. After some practice though it does get easier, but you really need to have a good level of concentration. One must also learn to harness the power of their own short term memory. Being able to let the flow of ideas go in and out while just being a median is very important. Most excellent interpreters would not be able to tell you what they were just speaking about 3 minutes ago since they use up their short term memory in the interpretation.

That is all for this post. I do not own any of the rights to the photographs above, I merely took them from the internet. I will be updating you with more things about Translation and Interpreting soon. Also if anyone has any questions/ideas feel free to email me at birk.15@buckeyemail.osu.edu . See you next time bloggers!

Introduction

Hello Bloggers!

I can't believe I have finally given into blogging. But I'm sure that there is a lot of useful information I have been missing out on because I have not been doing this sort of thing. Anyway, I am here to basically convey any knowledge that the world may need or want to know.

My name is Stephen Birk. I just graduated from The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. I graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Linguistics and a minor in Sociology. I am a very open minded person, embracing new cultures and ideas.

This blog will mainly start with me being in Germany. I have moved here after my Bachelors because I really don't know what I will be doing for a career yet. I am going with the flow and trying out new things like Translation and Interpreting. Seeing what really interests me.

I am not exactly sure how people find these kind of blogs, but I hope you can find something that interests you on here. And continue to read because there will always be adventures for the curious mind to embark on.

Here are some pictures in Germany from my trip so far:

Email me if you have any questions or if anything strikes your interest in particular.