Soros is pushing Ukraine towards a better future

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Ukraine has been in the news for so long with mostly negative topics related to the Russian invasion in the eastern parts of the country and the annexation of Crimea by the Russian army before. These reports overshadowed the fact that the people of Ukraine decided to rid a corrupt and cleptocratic Regime, that was leading the country back to tyranny. The people of Ukraine chose freedom and and a free economy, and with it an open society following the western model. Its really been that – the choice between cleptocrates stealing the assets of the country or a free society. It had only little to do with any east / west conflict in my view, at least internally in Ukraine. The Ukrainians simply did not care for what Russia thought about their strive for freedom. Obviously, looking at the bigger picture, the Russian regime feared something like this could happen at home and they feared NATO coming closer and, probably most importantly, they feared losing influence. And everyone knows what happened next.

During these rough times, the young and educated in Ukraine did not stand still to move the country forward. I reported earlier about the efforts of the Brain Basket Foundation to educate more IT engineers and Software Developers, with the goal of strengthening this big and important industry. 

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Airy strikes prestigious German Innovation-Award

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Peer Arne Böttcher and Helge Knickmeyer proudly holding their award

Peer Arne Böttcher and Helge Knickmeier proudly holding their award

Airy Green-Tech has received the prestigious „Invention Gründerpreis“ in Berlin yesterday for its groundbreaking innovative air-cleaning solution utilizing the power of nature: the Airy planting system. The award is initiated by the „Verband der jungen Unternehmer“ (Young Entrepreneurs) and the national Newspaper „Die Welt“.

What is Airy? Simply put, its a flower pot that ventilates the roots of your plants – and enables them to do magic. According to a NASA study about purifying air in outer space, the best way to remove pollutants and hazardous substances from your environmental air is by using the power of nature. And: other than one might expect, its not the leafs but the roots doing the job. Airy helps the plants to unleash their power by ventilating their roots.

Congratulations to Peer-Arne Böttcher and Helge Knickmeier for their success!

EU Parliament informs in a Video about the latest decision on Payments (PSD2)

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eu parlamentI am not the biggest fan of the EU parliaments decision on payments as I believe the effects will be quite different than expected and not make payments cheaper or easier for Consumers – but in fact will lead to a much more clustered market and increasing cost, as more players have the share the market, leaving each of them with the overhead cost for the highly regulated business. Payments, as I see it, is a business of scale. Too much clustering prevents scale and leads to increased cost.

But anyway: The EU parliament has decided and here is a link to the EU parliaments ITV channel, explaining the decision. Interesting in any case.

EU Parliament ITV: Cheaper and safer online payments

Science-Fiction in Low Tech: mit AIRY filtern Pflanzenwurzeln die Luft.

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airyPflanzen reinigen die Luft, das ist bekannt. Die NASA hat in einer umfangreichen Studie nachgewiesen, dass diese Fähigkeit nicht wie bis dahin vermutet über die Blätter, sondern zu rund 90% über die Wurzeln vonstatten geht. Wird die Luft dann direkt an die Wurzeln gebracht, entwickeln einige Pflanzen gradezu erstaunliche Leistungen bei der Beseitigung von Schadstoffen. Sie sammeln diese nämlich nicht nur, sondern wandeln sie in Nährstoffe um. Hochgiftige Schadstoffe wie Benzol und Toluol, Formaldehyd und Trichlorethylen sind dann dauerhaft beseitigt.

Spannend ist dabei auch, dass Pflanzen die Luft nicht nur viel effektiver, sondern auch viel schneller reinigen als „technische Verfahren“ – und zwar ganz ohne Strom und allein durch die Kraft der Natur.

Kostenloses Buch: „Bogenhanf ist nichts zum Rauchen“

Das Hamburger Startup AIRY Green Tech hat vor diesem Hintergrund einen Pflanzentopf entwickelt, der das Wurzelwerk belüftet. Bevor dieser Topf zum Ende des Jahres erhältlich sein wird, gibt es von AIRY jetzt ein Buch, dass tolle Einblicke in diesen hoch innovativen Ansatz bringt: „Bogenhanf ist nichts zum rauchen“ bereitet viel wissenswertes rund um Pflanzen, Luft und Mensch anschaulich auf. In fünf Schritten und auf 102 Seiten widmet sich Autorin Karin Riesterer beispielsweise der Frage, was wir eigentlich einatmen und warum die Innenluft so eine überragende Rolle für das Wohlbefinden von uns Menschen spielt. Sie erläutert, warum die Lösung für unsere Probleme auf der Fensterbank wächst und stellt mit „Dr. med. Drachenbaum und Kollegen“ 18 Pflanzen im Portrait vor.

Das Buch „Bogenhanf ist nichts zum Rauchen“
ist kostenlos und zu finden im Forum von Airy.

The 100 hottest cars of all times – Esquire

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p1800Esquire got most of them right – but the 90th rank for the beloved P1800 is too low! But then again, there IS tough competition and I believe one should just say: these are the 100 hottest cars money can buy and shut up about the ranking. 🙂 I feel like I need more money and a bigger garage. :)))

Esqiure: 100 Hottest Cars Of All Times

@Esquire