Education in the EU

This post is about tertiary eduction in the EU. We Europeans have to admit, that when it comes to cutting-edge science, we lag behind the US. The US has some of the worlds best research universities. Harvard, Stanford, Berkeley and of courese the MIT are prestigious names all over the world.

Let us take a closer look at the success story of MIT to see how we in Europe could possibly form a similar institution.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology was founded in 1861 by W. B. Rogers. It was founded as an engineers school, whose main prupose was not scientific study for its own sake. The main purpose was to educate young Americans to become successful innovators. So ties to big industry and military were there right from the beginning. During WW1 and WW2, the MIT received a lot of federal fudning to create state-of-the-art military technology.
MIT has a very distinctive, anti-authoritarian culture. This is also evident by the fact that to this day, the MIT does not arward honorary doctorates and does not issue diplomas and official documents with Latin phrases. Furthermore, the hacker culture began at MIT.
I think we urgently need a European version of the MIT.
The MIT is surrounded by big IT, Biotech, Medtech and pharmaceutical companies who all closely collaborate with the MIT. It's a win-win situation.
I know that European legislators have begun to see the necessity of world-class institutions like the MIT. In Germany, the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology was founded in 2009 as the first such institution in Europe. The KIT will also develop military technology. The Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship will teach students the necessary business skills to help them transform ideas into money.
In Germany, we have a very prestigious research organization, the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft. The MPG is responsible for the Max-Planck-Institutes throughout the country. Most of the German Nobel Laureates are affiliated with the MPG.
One should also consider implementing the MPG on a European level and installing MPIs in, say, France or the Netherlands.
Also, I think the German Center for Cancer Research in Heidelberg should be renamed to European Center for Cancer Research, esp. since the European Molecular Biology Laboratory is already situated in Heidelberg.
These are just a few thoughts, I'd be happy to hear your comments on the matter.

EU Defence Ministers to discuss the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP) on 2-3 October

The EU Defence Ministers will gather for an informal two-day meeting in Levi, Finland, on 2-3 October. The Ministers will discuss the ongoing EU operations and missions in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Sudan/Darfur and Democratic Republic of Congo. On 2 October, President Martti Ahtisaari will, during dinner, give a briefing on the situation of the Kosovo status negotiations.

The Ministers will also discuss the development of military capabilities for crisis management purposes and Civil-Military Coordination (CMCO) in crisis management. EU High Representative Javier Solana and NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer will also attend the meeting. The meeting will be chaired by the Finnish Minister of Defence, Seppo Kääriäinen. During the second day, the European Defence Agency will hold a meeting of its Steering Board at Ministerial level.

The press conferences for the meeting, at 18.45 (GMT+3) on Monday, 2 October, and at 13.15 (GMT+3) on Tuesday, 3 October, can be viewed as live webcasts or as recordings from the archive on http://www.eu2006.fi/

EU in brief

The European Union consists of 25 democratic states that have come together and committed themselves to working together to promote peace and prosperity. The Member States have conferred some of their powers on the institutions of the European Union, which makes it possible to take democratic decisions that apply to all members.
To date, the Union has undergone five enlargement rounds and grown from a six-member Community to a Union of 25 members. Currently, there are almost 450 million EU citizens.

EU Presidency statement on the military coup in Thailand

The Presidency of the European Union condemns the take-over of power from the democratic government of Thailand by the Thai military forces.
The Presidency demands that the military forces stand back and give way to the democratically elected political government.
Thailand has been living several years without major political turmoil. The Presidency wishes that Thailand will soon be able to return to democratic order.

- Adopted from http://www.eu2006.fi

911

September 11, 2001 - a terrible day in world history. Islamic terrorists crashed air planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Two planes hit the twin towers of WTC, another plane crashed into the Pentagon. A fourth plane (United Airlines Flight 93) didn't reach its destination, the White house, because of the bravery of its passengers, who tried to retake control over the plane from their hijackers. Of course, these so called 911 events were terrible and awful. Many innocent people died because of the stupidity of some islamofascists. They died because of the entity of religion(s). They died because some people thought that they are fighting a holy war, just like the US today. Of course, the US is a free country, with free citizens, but some of them, including godly Mr Bush, think as the "war on terror" as a "holy war". Some time ago I read a statement of Mr Bush. He was asked if he had consulted his father before invading Iraq. He responded, that when it comes to those questions, he prefers to ask a higher father (I'm sure he meant god). There you have it. He uses his belief as a justification for war. Isn't that strange, that Mr Bush hears voices from a beyond-the-clouds being? I'm asking myself sontantly: Is he conscious? Is he aware of things going on here on this earth, on this world, on our beautiful planet? It makes me wondering, when the most powerful man in the world makes his decisions not by sanity but by his personal belief. This is really strange and, which is sad, dangerous to the world. Think of it: What differs guys like President Bush fom guys like Osama bin Laden. Both of them think they own the absolute truth. Both of them think of their believs as the best and only believs. Of course, Mr Bush makes his crusade more subtle than Mr bin Laden, but in my opinion he tries to convert people, too. America once was a power of freedom, of liberty. Religious freedom was one important thing in US history. People were free to chose their religion or to deny religion.

Secret CIA prisons in the EU?

I read in the newspaper about some secret CIA prisons in the EU. This can't be. The EU should not participate in US war crimes. We make ourselves guilty if we harbor these secret prisons. They violate international law. They violate international treaties that have been signed by the EU. If President Bush violates international law it's one thing, but it's another thing if we do. We are different, we are better. We are the fighters for peace, freedom and democracy. We shouldn't forget that. We don't torture detainees. We don't wage wars for oil. We don't kill innocent people in the Middle East. All these things make us different, make us better from the US, at least I thought so till I read this newspaper article. I am very disappointed by EU member states that are suspicious of harboring unlawful CIA prisons. But I am even more disappointed by a US President ordering these measurements. All free people worldwide are called to watch out, to critisize unlawful, undemocratic behavior and to inhibit torture and war.

Pope calls for public commitment to Christianity

On the second day of his visit to Bavaria, Pope Benedict XVI has called for a clear public commitment to God. At a mass attended by around 250,000 pilgrims, he said that he had noticed a certain deafness to God, especially in the West. However, the world needs God, the Pope added, even in the areas of science and technology. He said that social affairs and the Gospel could not be separated. It is not enough to give merely technology to the people of Africa or Asia, he said; that is too little. That permits the tools of violence to quickly gain the upper hand, the ability to destroy and to kill in order to gain power; and that path leads away from reconciliation, Benedict added. At this hour, the Pope is celebrating a vesper service in Munich's Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady).

- adopted from http://www.germnews.de/dn/

My comment on that: Dear Mr Pope, why do we need god? I don't think we need him, espeially not in the areas of science and technology. There are absolutely no signs of god, I personally never ever recognized him. The biblic earth history and the biblic earth age have been disproven by modern science. Mankind wasn't created by a supreme being, mankind evolved from apes. Am I an unethical person, just because I'm not Christian? No, I am not. But I prefer philosophical ethics, ethics that are warrantable by reason. Becuase of that, I am a strong supporter of stem cell research, evolutionary biology and astrophysics.

European multilingualsim - disadvantage or advantage

It is no secret that Europeans don't share a common language like the Americans. In fact, we have 25 member states with 20 different languages. This comes because some member states share a language. German, for example, is spoken in Germany, Austria and parts of Liechtenstein, Belgium and Italy. French is spoken in France, Luxembourg, Belgium and Monaco. So, you see, we have 25 member states but "only" 20 languages. The question is, if this fact (the multilangualism) is good or bad for the Union. On the one hand, we get cultural enrichment from our many languages, on the other hand, fellow citizens should be able to communicate and understand each other. Therefore the European Parliament promotes multilingualism, which is a good thing in my opinion. Europeans should be able to speak their mother tongue and English fluent and two or three other languages. I would prefer English as the main language in Europe, because hardly the whole European population speaks and understands it more or less well. I think our different languages are not a disadvantage, they are an advantage, because these languages enrich our cultural variety. They inspire artists and thinkers in a much better way and they enable a great vocabulary, which allows Europeans to write and to think in a very accurate way and to express their thoughts very accurately. Americans don’t have such an advantage. They should be jealous because of our multilingualism. I personally speak German (my mother tongue), English (first foreign language) and French (second foreign language). The great economist and mathematician Reinhard Selten promotes European multilingualism and the artificial language Esperanto. Selten shared the Nobel prize for economy together with US mathematician J.F. Nash. Esperanto is a mixture of nearly all languages. Maybe this would be a good thing, to have Esperanto as the common EU language. Everybody would be happy: the French, The Germans, the Italians, nobody could argue against Esperanto. But honestly, I believe European multilingualism is a particular good thing.