Diving for Pearls

OK, if you are interested in diving for pearls you've probably come to the wrong place. I want to draw attention to an interesting German language site with plenty of treasures for the culturally minded. Perlentaucher.de describes itself as Online Kulturmagazin mit Presseschauen, Rezension, Autorenliste, Feuillton.

Their Links page includes access to a very comprehensive links listing of just about every publisher on the web. I have found some offering free e-books to download. They also list by country the most important Zeitungen, Zeitschrifte und Internetmagazine, Buchkritiken und Literaturmagazine.

Earthquakes

Earthquakes - Erdbeben - and other natural disasters have been in the news rather too often in recent months. When you are learning German it's often useful to be able to talk about such things - their affect on people and their causes.

jetzt.sueddeutsche.de carries an interesting article about the earthquake in Chile Trümmer, Schreie, Verzweiflung. It looks like reality caught up with a Chilean reality show. There is also criticism of the liberalisation of building regulations in Chile.

All the German newspaper websites are reporting this earthquake which has left hundreds dead. There are also fears of a tsunami in the Pacific, particularly as there was another quake centred near Okinawa, the southern most Japanese island. I suspect we'll be worrying about the affect on copper production since Chile produces more than a third of the world's copper. The following quote about the Pacific ring-of-fire is from FAZ and you can view their report here

Chile liegt am sogenannten „Pazifischen Feuerring“, einem hufeisenförmigen Vulkangürtel am Rande des Pazifiks. Etwa 90 Prozent der Erdbeben weltweit ereignen sich innerhalb des Feuerrings.

Coverage in Spiegel online includes some information in the sidebar about die Richterskala and Erdbebenwelle (Tsunami) and they have a forum where you can discuss Tsunamis - sind wir richtig gerüstet?

Quarks & Co the science series from WDR Fernsehen has covered Erdbeben in the past. You can download a PDF file from the broadcast in 2008. The video Erdbeben – wenn die Erde zuschlägt is a 60MB download. I found these broadcasts very accessible and well presented. Having the PDF file means you can look up any unfamiliar vocabulary. For anyone wishing to explore the science a little more than try the Geoforschungszentrum Potsdam which has English as well as German pages.

News News News

One thing I want to do with this blog occasionally is pick up something in the headlines in Germany and make comment on it. Perhaps I'll copy a short extract so my readers can see if it interests them and I'll provide a link to the full piece.

How to keep up with the headlines? Turns out that's easy. Go to InfoLive - Das Nachrichten Portal You'll find the headlines from the main TV and radio stations. Not only that you'll find tabs for Magazines/Daily papers and much more.