tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31969655276426498512012-06-02T09:46:55.868+02:00Articles about topics ranging from technology and software to scientific research. Occasional book reviews. Topics of general interest such as lifestyle, and nutrition. Exploration of blogs and the technical side of blogging.Benjamin Auffarthhttps://profiles.google.com/118440342400845052454noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3196965527642649851.post-78759742900192345862011-02-07T22:56:00.004+01:002012-01-27T12:56:48.412+01:00

The rate of atheism or agnosticism in different countries is a question which can commonly sneak up in discussions over dinner or lunch. Atheist writers, such as Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens, argued that belief in "a bearded man in the sky" — to take a somewhat provocative verbal expression — interferes with perception of reality. While there are few people who would go as far as to

Benjamin Auffarthhttps://profiles.google.com/118440342400845052454noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3196965527642649851.post-40428351838496836652010-12-14T00:00:00.011+01:002011-01-08T23:10:45.253+01:00

After wikileaks published the diplomatic dispatches, Politicians and political commentators around the world and from all parts of the political spectrum unsurprisingly use wikileaks to profile themselves for their voters and to get attention. Some reactions are quite shocking to some people not used to American politics. Some public voices call for assassination of Julian Assange, the founder

Benjamin Auffarthhttps://profiles.google.com/118440342400845052454noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3196965527642649851.post-57670440985314628302010-11-30T00:20:00.006+01:002010-12-04T13:55:59.809+01:00

Wikileaks is releasing 251,287 documents of U.S. diplomatic dispatches (as of November 30th, 272 are released). They reveal a lot about American views of the situation in different countries, about world leaders such as Vladimir Putin, Silvio Berlusconi, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, and Angela Merkel. Interesting reads provide also U.S. strategies concerning North Korea and Pakistan. This

Benjamin Auffarthhttps://profiles.google.com/118440342400845052454noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3196965527642649851.post-25936323732401769522009-12-07T15:29:00.002+01:002010-12-24T11:56:26.022+01:00

Along human history, more than 7000 plant species have been collected or cultivated by humans, but according to Food and Ariculture Organization from the U.N. (F.A.O.) about a 95% of human caloric needs is provided by only 30 crops plants, and four of them are responsible for more than the 60% of human ingested calories (wheat, rice, maize and potatoes). In order to increase food production, it

erolahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02068704520874426154noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3196965527642649851.post-34358942419983575452009-10-08T02:55:00.002+02:002010-12-24T11:57:10.726+01:00

This is a close translation of an earlier article which was written in Spanish by Erola Pairó, as part of an initiative to protest against the Spanish government's decision to reduce expenditure in science and development. The earlier article was called la ciencia no necesita tijeras, literally science doesn't need scissors. As an answer to the economic crisis, the Spanish government has decided

Benjamin Auffarthhttps://profiles.google.com/118440342400845052454noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3196965527642649851.post-52647997642207901202009-10-07T03:04:00.007+02:002010-12-24T12:04:13.059+01:00

This article is written in Spanish as part of an initiative to protest against the Spanish government's decision to reduce expenditure in science and development. A translation will follow up as another article, called Don't cut back on Spanish science! Como respuesta a la crisis económica el gobierno español ha presentado unos presupuestos que prevén un recorte de un 17,7 por cien en I+D+i [

erolahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02068704520874426154noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3196965527642649851.post-27246351045583443542008-09-28T12:29:00.006+02:002009-12-09T01:09:01.752+01:00

On Thursday morning a Chinese spacecraft launched. Part of the astronauts' mission was a spacewalk, the first spacewalk in the history of Chinese space missions. Dialogs between the astronauts in space were also published. However, these were taken down after a day and we were told the agency had had technical problems. After all what other reason could there be for posting the dialogs while the

Benjamin Auffarthhttps://profiles.google.com/118440342400845052454noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3196965527642649851.post-38483844936273509622008-09-21T19:38:00.008+02:002009-09-15T17:57:10.697+02:00

Maybe you thought it was bad enough that Americans vote presidents that we Europeans would only laugh about if reality wasn't so sad. News coverage of election campaigns inundates us with trivialities (that's what they call lipstick politics, I guess) and chances are, the next president is a general and the vice president a Christian fundamentalist, who want's to introduce education of science

Benjamin Auffarthhttps://profiles.google.com/118440342400845052454noreply@blogger.com0