This afternoon I’ll be leaving to study in Berlin. Before I go, I thought this would be the perfect time to let my friends know how much they have meant to me. This year, each morning, coffee in hand, I began my day posting a daily bloom on the Kierkegaarden, often before sunrise. Next I began reading and sharing the news on various topics that I found interesting on Twitter, Friendfeed & Facebook. Apparently, many others shared my interests and found my posts to be of value and followed them.

Since I posted so frequently, I avoided posting too many personal comments, but that did not stop me from getting to know you. I’ve read yur posts and enjoyed them immensely. I’ve learned so much from you. Many of you responded to me and we got to know each other via DM’s and email. I really appreciate the connection and thought you should know . I hesitate to mention names here for fear of missing someone, but @ YOU and I know who you are. Some of you greeted me with a sun filled hello every morning. Some of us communicated personally by phone & email. Many of you sent tweets of gratitude and encouragement, confirming the value of my efforts by oh so frequent retweets. You have brought me great joy, and it has been a pleasure to ferret through the news and choose from a plethora of headlines to determine what may be of mutual interest and import. We’ve shared so muc together.

While I am away, although I will have internet access, I’m unsure how much time I wil have to continue as it has been my custom. However, I do plan to keep in touch as I can and take up where I left off upon returning. I’ll be taking my camera and Flip Mino with me and intend to blog about my travels.

I hope that you will stay and virtually join me on my European Journey. This represents a lifelong dream for me and has been a long time coming. I’m so excited, I can hardly breathe. I’m looking forward with great anticipation not only to the travel and study experience, but to meeting new friends and reuniting with those I’ve had the privilege of meeting on my last brief visit. I can’t wait to see them! That’s the best part of all.

Meanwhile, don’t let anyone tell you that Social Media is silly or meaningless. I’ve made some wonderful and VERY meaningful business and personal relationships here. It’s whatever you make it. My two cents to newbies… be honest, be open, be yourself, be kind & considerate. There are wonderful people in the world just waiting to get to know you.

Again, many, many thanks. Hang in there with me. Soon I’ll be greeting you from the other side…of the Atlantic, that is!!! Have a lovely summer. I’m sure I’ll be having a blast. Life is good.

US Vice President Joe Biden is the star guest at the Munich Security Conference this weekend. His speech on Saturday is supposed to form the basis of the new trans-Atlantic partnership. Instead of concrete pledges, experts await a bid to mend ties between Europe and the US.

It’s been little over three weeks since Joe Biden became deputy to the most powerful man in the world and he still hasn’t grown into his new role. The former senator can be seen at the State Department discussing foreign policy or dining with President Barack Obama in the White House. Sometimes he presents himself as a champion of the middle classes, at other times he appears in shirtsleeves at on a railway platform pleading for investment in infrastructure. “It is hard now,” he admitted in a recent TV interview. “What I have to think now is, everything I say, I am the vice president. I am not the president. So everything I say reflects directly on the administration.”

REUTERS

US President Barack Obama (L) and Vice President Joe Biden.

This Saturday Biden will be speaking explicitly on behalf of the United States. His speech at the Munich Security Conference will be the vice president’s first major international appearance — and the Bavarian capital is rolling out the red carpet for him. The conference organizers promise that his speech will provide the impetus for a new start in trans-Atlantic relations.

What are the expectations for the speech? “The tone is the message,” Laurie Dundon, who previously worked with former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and is now at the Bertelsmann Foundation in Washington, told SPIEGEL ONLINE. “The right words would define the parameters for future cooperation, just as preparations are being made for Obama’s Europe trip at the beginning of April to the G-20 summit in London and the NATO summit in Kehl and Strasbourg.”

COMPLETE ARTICLE HERE…

Biden at the Munich Security Conference: Obama Sends Vice President to Build Bridges – SPIEGEL ONLINE – News – International.

SAN FRANCISCO – With an upgrade to its mobile maps, Google Inc. hopes to prove it can track people on the go as effectively as it searches for information on the Internet.

The new software to be released Wednesday will enable people with mobile phones and other wireless devices to automatically share their whereabouts with family and friends.

The feature, dubbed “Latitude,” expands upon a tool introduced in 2007 to allow mobile phone users to check their own location on a Google map with the press of a button.

“This adds a social flavor to Google maps and makes it more fun,” said Steve Lee, a Google product manager.

It could also raise privacy concerns, but Google is doing its best to avoid a backlash by requiring each user to manually turn on the tracking software and making it easy to turn off or limit access to the service.

Google also is promising not to retain any information about its users’ movements. Only the last location picked up by the tracking service will be stored on Google’s computers, Lee said.

The software plots a user’s location — marked by a personal picture on Google’s map — by relying on cell phone towers, global positioning systems or a Wi-Fi connection to deduce their location. The system can follow people’s travels in the United States and 26 other countries.

Read Full Article…

Know where your kids are? Check Google maps – Tech and gadgets- msnbc.com.

Vikas Swarup says he was inspired by the idea of an underdog coming out on top.

As a high-ranking Indian diplomat, his day job requires him to think about international relations, not the grit of survival in a teeming inner city.

But maybe his heart was in his homeland when he took his first stab at writing fiction with the story of an uneducated slum dweller who wins millions of rupees on a television quiz show.

He wrote the novel in 2003, while finishing an overseas posting before heading to New Delhi.

“My wife and children had already left for India. So I was two months alone in London,” Swarup said in an interview at the official residence of his current job as India’s Deputy High Commissioner to South Africa.

“There was no comfort, but more importantly there were no distractions. That’s why I wrote this book, almost in a frenzy. The idea was bubbling in my head.”

Swarup said he was inspired by the idea of an underdog coming out on top.

‘Slumdog’ author was inspired by opportunity, solitude – CNN.com.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier has high hopes for an improvement in US-German relations under the new administration of President Barack Obama. The chances of those hopes being fulfilled will become clearer over the next few days, after Steinmeier’s meeting Tuesday with his US counterpart Hillary Clinton and this weekend’s Munich security conference.

Steinmeier, who has been noticeably keener to engage the Obama administration than German Chancellor Angela Merkel, was upbeat about trans-Atlantic relations as he prepared for his trip. “I am now finding dialogue partners for issues where they were previously hard to find,” he said Monday before leaving for the US. He told reporters during his flight to Washinton that he wants to push for a “new trans-Atlantic agenda,” which would include arms control, energy security and climate change.

Steinmeier will be the first member of Merkel’s cabinet to be received by the new US administration. As well as talking to Clinton, who was sworn in on Monday, Steinmeier will also meet with Obama’s national security adviser, James Jones. It is not clear if he will also meet with the president. Among other issues, Steinmeier and Clinton are expected to discuss the forthcoming NATO summit in April, the global financial crisis, climate change, the situation in the Middle East, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Disarmament is also an issue close to Steinmeier’s heart. In an article to be published in the Wednesday edition of the newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, Steinmeier expresses his hope that progress can be made on the issue “after a years-long blockade by President George W. Bush.” Specifically, Steinmeier would like to see action on producing a successor agreement to the START 1 treaty on strategic nuclear weapons, which expires in 2009, and also for the US Senate to ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. During her recent hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Clinton said she would push for progress on both issues.

Steinmeier would also like to see the Obama administration roll back American plans for a controversial missile defense shield with installations in Poland and the Czech Republic. The missile shield, a brainchild of former President George W. Bush, has caused friction between the US and Russia. “I expect all the sides in the controversial question of the planned US missile shield in eastern Europe to get together to discuss the issue. My position remains: Where there is a common threat, common answers are also possible,” Steinmeier wrote in the article, which is timed to coincide with the Munich security conference. The closely watched conference starts Friday and will be attended by US Vice President Joe Biden and James Jones.

German Foreign Minister to Meet Clinton: Steinmeier Calls For ‘New Trans-Atlantic Agenda’ – SPIEGEL ONLINE – News – International.

Last year the champagne still flowed, but in 2009 angst will dominate the Berlin Film Festival. Cutbacks by studios, concerns about financing and a big-budget thriller about an evil bank — even the silver screen can’t ignore the world economic downturn.

Every movie gets the villains it deserves. Bandits attacking Indians? It’s a western. Hit men shooting police? A crime story. And when psychopaths try to achieve world domination, it’s either a terrorist drama or a film about Adolf Hitler. Those are the usual suspects.

Since the financial crisis, though, a range of unexpected villains has started parading across the screen. Werner Schulz, a politician from Germany’s Green Party, summed up the current mood a few days ago: “Now people are more afraid of their financial advisors than of al-Qaida.”

One German director seems to have anticipated this development. Tom Tykwer, known for his bank robbery fable “Run Lola Run,” will premiere his new thriller “The International” on Thursday, when it opens the 59th Berlin International Film Festival, or Berlinale. This time the bank itself is the villain.

The bank in the movie, in fact, is a criminal organization that commissions murder and homicide — a “bad bank” worse than anything from the current nightmares of the world’s finance ministers. The hero in “The International” is not a crusading protector of the public interest but British star Clive Owen (“Inside Man”).

The financial crisis will set the tone at this year’s Berlinale, the most important international film festival after Cannes. It will be the main topic of conversation at the parties and receptions, the festival’s speeches, press conferences and in the haggling over film rights and new productions.

Complete Article…

Worry Lines Through the Botox: Berlinale Reflects Leaner Times for Movie Business – SPIEGEL ONLINE – News – International.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the Vatican should state that there can be no holocaust denial. (Adrian Moser – Bloomberg News) » Top 35 World Articles » Most Popular on washingtonpost.com

German Chancellor Censures Pope on Bishop’s Holocaust Denial – washingtonpost.com.

The aggressive pursuit of personal success by adults is now the greatest threat to British children, a major independent report on childhood says.

It calls for a sea-change in social attitudes and policies to counter the damage done to children by society.

Family break-up, unprincipled advertising, too much competition in education and income inequality are mentioned as big contributing factors.

A panel of independent experts carried out the study over three years.

The report, called The Good Childhood Inquiry and commissioned by the Children’s Society, concludes that children’s lives in Britain have become “more difficult than in the past”, adding that “more young people are anxious and troubled”.

According to the panel, “excessive individualism” is to blame for many of the problems children face and needs to be replaced by a value system where people seek satisfaction more from helping others rather than pursuing private advantage.

A spokesman for the Department for Children Schools and Families said: “We know there are still risks and challenges ahead for children and parents and that there is more for us all to do”.

‘Tone deaf’

The inquiry has a long list of recommendations including:

• abolishing Sats tests and league tables in English schools

• a ban on all advertising aimed at the under 12s and no TV commercials for alcohol or unhealthy food before the 9pm watershed

• stopping building on any open space where children play

• a high-quality youth centre for every 5,000 young people

“Individual freedom and self-determination bring many blessings,” writes the report’s principal author, Labour peer Lord Richard Layard.

“But in Britain… the balance has tilted too far,” he says.

Another contributor, the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, suggests society has become “tone-deaf to the real requirements of children… in a climate where the mixture of sentimentalism and panic makes discussion of children’s issues so difficult”.

The panel, made up of 11 experts including eight university professors, says its conclusions are evidence based.

But some of its findings on family life in Britain are bound to be controversial.

Working mothers

It cites research suggesting that three times as many three year olds living with lone parents or a step-parent have behavioural problems compared with those living with married parents.

Children with separate, single or step parents are 50% more likely to fail at school, have low esteem, be unpopular with other children and have behavioural difficulties, anxiety or depression,” it argues.

“Child-rearing is one of the most challenging tasks in life and ideally it requires two people,” the report concludes.

It also suggests that having many more working mothers has contributed to the damage done to children.

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BBC NEWS | UK | Education | Selfish adults ‘damage childhood’.

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