If cost weren’t an issue, would you rely on solar power? For most who don’t live in Seattle, the answer would be yes. Between the environmental benefits, the social credibility, and the grid-free style of living that solar power allows people, it often just comes down to cost as the primary reason that solar isn’t as big in the United States as it is in other countries like Germany. The infographic below goes into great detail about the top solar states in the country. By “great” detail, I mean that as a fan of infographics, it’s enlightening to see one that focuses on a series of useful data sets without…

Today, the fastest standard flight from Paris to Sydney requires one quick stop and takes about 22 hours. The SpaceLiner project by the German Aerospace Center hopes to cut that time considerably by launching a rocket with up to 50 passengers into the upper atmosphere and gliding down to the destination at 24 times the speed of sound. If successful, the total travel time would be 90 minutes. If it sounds ambitious, it is. The target launch for commercial use of the concept is 2050. That doesn’t diminish the potential that such technology could bring to a world that is still desperately separated…

The internet is officially an “essential” part of life in Germany according to a court ruling Thursday. According to Reuters: A German court ruled on Thursday that people have the right to claim compensation from service providers if their Internet access is disrupted, because the Internet is an “essential” part of life. The court likened the loss of internet access to the loss of vehicular access. In other words, internet service providers can be forced to compensate those who are not able to get the internet access they require. It has become a right rather than a privilege in Germany thanks…

To those without the technological expertise to fully understand what this all means, it could seem as a harmless measure by a government body to protect copyright materials. To anyone who knows what deep packet inspections, embedded digital watermarks, and trace-back mechanisms are, this is the most dangerous digital path the world has traveled since the internet was first conceived. The United Nations voted yesterday to support internet eavesdropping. Make absolutely no mistake about it – this is the very clear and unavoidable start of full-blown censorship. It is the beginning of the…

As business models go, the file-sharing business model has proven to be precarious at best in the last few months. With MegaUpload being shut down in January and other file-sharing services under heavy fire from governments and copyright advocacy groups around the world, the ruling by a higher regional court in Germany that orders RapidShare to filter user uploads has many questioning whether the industry can survive. The glimmer of hope comes in the contradictions. The highest court in the EU banned anti-piracy filters just last month because it would violate user privacy and hinder freedom…

This is entirely a new one. A new German law, penned by Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière, will potentially disallow employers from peeking at potential candidates on Facebook and other non-career based social networks. However, googling (and LinkedIn-ing) a candidate is still okay, provided – get this – the employer disregards information that is old, or ‘outside of a candidate’s control’. The idea is to provide greater privacy for employees. But, okay, let’s think about this for a second. First of all, for the Facebook thing to work, I’d have to accept a friend request from a stranger…

Here’s an odd one. Seems Germany is now fining users who fail to protect their wi-fi networks. Why? Oh, you’re gonna love this. Said a Karlsruhe court, presiding over the matter: “Private users are obligated to check whether their wireless connection is adequately secured to the danger of unauthorized third parties abusing it to commit copyright violation.” In short: if someone jumps onto your wi-fi in Berlin and grabs a few MP3s for gratis, it’s at least partially your fault. The fine? Up to 100 Euro – not terribly steep considering the fines you hear people in America paying for piracy, but at…