Stories about Western Europe from December, 2014
The Christmas When the French City of Angoulême Built Cages Against Its Homeless People
The holiday spirit in the French city of Angoulême this year meant taking measures against homeless people. The outrage was swift, but will it last?
Despite Appearances, 3 Reasons for Madagascar, Algeria and France to Be Cheerful in 2015
It seems that things have not been ideal in Algeria, France and Madagascar, yet the Happy Planet Index ranked them quite high on their happiness list.
How to Reduce the Production of CO2 in Daily Life?
Rut Abrain reflects on her blog Esturirafi about one of the main cause of climate change: the production of carbon dioxide (CO2). In this sense, the blogger stresses out that not only factories, vehicles and planes produce CO2, but also each one of un in our daily lives. To have...
Britain's Top Gear Show Not So Top in Argentina After Falklands Gaffe
In October the BBC's Top Gear program exacerbated bad blood between Great Britain and Argentina over the Falkland Islands when filming on location. The show they filmed airs this weekend.
Serbia Arrests 11 Foreign Human Rights Activists Ahead of Protest
Amnesty International has requested that Serbian authorities release eleven activists from Bulgaria, Finland, and Slovakia who were in Serbia to hold peaceful protests during the CEE-China Summit in Belgrade.
‘Spain Is a Corruptocracy': Netizens Slam Google News Tax
News aggregator Google News has announced the shutdown of its Spanish subsidiary starting December 16, 2014 due to the tax imposed by the new Intellectual Property Law.
A Mexican Protester Interrupted the Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony. Now His Mom Would Like a Word.
According to the protester's brother, he was hoping to draw attention to the disappearance and presumed mass murder of 42 Ayotzinapa school students in Mexico.
Online Entrepreneurship: Interview With Ana Bizarro from ‘Acción Alegría’
Andrea Collazo, who we already know from her blog Profesora de Informática (Computing teacher), shares an interview with entrepreneur and creator of accionconalegría.com, Ana Bizarro. Bizarro's website aims to provide support to “entrepreneur parents, with children and no time, this is, people who are responsible for their lives”. There is...
What is Sinology?
Sinology is still unknown to many people, as Isma Ruiz writes after attending the I International Congress of Sinology in Spanish, last June at the University of Tamkang – Tamsui, Taiwan. Although the focus was translation and interpretation of classic Chinese books, the necessity of learning a new language when...
Astrophysicist Shares the History of the Rosetta-Philae Mission
The comet Churymov-Gerasimenko was discovered on 1969, the same year a mission landed on the Moon. Back then, no one would have imagined that 45 years later a small spacecraft called Rosetta transporting a landing module and the hopes of thousands would touch down on surface of a comet known as...
Architects in Finland Battle Over the Helsinki Guggenheim and the “Next Helsinki”
In early December 2014, the shortlist for a competition of the desing of the new Guggenheim museum in Helsinki was announced. The bulk of the building of the new Finnish venue of the famed museum of modern and contemporary art will be financed by the government of Finland and the...
Contestants in This French Beauty Pageant Strike a Pose—With Their Cows
A French farmer organized a tongue-in-cheek beauty pageant on Facebook for "country girls only" as an answer to the glittery official Miss France pageant.
Drones Flying Over Nuclear Power Stations in France Raise Concerns
Internet users in France are worried that a series of drone sightings above French nuclear power sites suggests an unacknowledged national security vulnerability.
Do You Read Ecolabels When Shopping?
Rut Abrain Sanchez on her blog Esturirafi defines and identifies legal and volunteer product labels. Among the latter we find ecologic labels, “so manufacturers show us they are abiding by a series of requirements and for the consumer to be able to identify products environmentally more sustainable”. There are Type...
Promoting Responsible Use of Social Networks
Andrea Collazo, blogging for Mujeres Construyendo (Women Building), proposes educating parents about the resposible use of social networks, so they can promote it among their children. Collazo advises parents on how to socialize their children from very early age with new technologies, promoting responsible use of social networks. She points...
Do You Know What Sustainable Fashion Is?
After watching Sweatshop TV series, where three Norwegian youngsters travel to Cambodia to discover the miserable living conditions of garment industry workers, Rut Abrain reflects on sustainable fashion. Sustainable garments are those that take care of the environment on the electing their raw materials and their manufacturing processes. Likewise, those...
