Slashdot Mirror

At least that's what the government publishes.

Nevertheless most of the hard coal (Steinkohle) we burn is imported.

http://bmwi.de/BMWi/Redaktion/...

It is in german but the first table shows the import countries and amounts.

The country names are hopefully self explaining. The first column per year "Kohle" is coal, the second "Koks Kohle" is treated coal for steel production.

Germany still keeps its own hard coal mines open, heavy subsidized, probably the most unprofitable coal mines of the planet.

We are digging right now about 1500 meters deep, the deepest coal mines of the world.

However there are rumors that digging coal will be abandoned around 2018.

... is understandable especially since this comes out of left field. Yet, if this was fraudulent they either managed to get the German government to go along with it or managed to snooker the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology. The latter reports about this on their official governmental web site and take credit for funding the technology (German). The current Minister Rainer Brüderle was also very happy to have a photo op with the record braking vehicle.

If this was fraudulent somebody's political career just ended.

At the CeBIT the Federal German Ministry of Economics distributes for free the mail encryption program GnuPP 1.1 complete with manual. The mail roboter Adele shall provide a lead-in to the issue by practising the krypto mail communication together with the user.

The Federal German Ministry of Economics is supporting the open source project GnuPP (GNU Privacy Project) since the year 2000. With that the Ministry wants to provide the development of a cryptography infrastructure that does not depend on manufacturers, that is safe and corresponds to international standards. It would not be recommended to use standard software in security sensitive areas and the Ministry explicitly warns to do so in its press release. Only the open source principle allows the user to look at the complete programming of a software, and that means security to the greatest extent.

Apart from the software the package of the Ministry contains a two-piece manual that is completely new written and designed. With the help of this manual even laypersons shall be able to clear the first hurdle of e-mail encryption. And something else is new: "Adele" (adele@gnupp.org), an exercise roboter for practising the procedure of encryption and decryption as often as the entry-level user will need it. Adele reacts to sent-in public keys and encrypted e-mails, sends its own public key, and answers to encrypted and decrypted incoming e-mails. In this way a dialog between correspondence partners is formed so that entry-level users can practise transactions of e-mail encryption "like in real life" and may gain confidence in the safety of this procedure.

At the CeBIT one can get the GnuPP package (manual with CD-ROM) for free at the stands of the Federal German Ministry of Economics. During the entire fair the Ministry also provides presentations and advisory service for free.

For background informations and details on the fair please surf tecCHANNEL.DE and read our big CeBIT Special (German only, please bear with us). Moreover we have compiled for you all CeBIT news in category-specific news channels. (jlu/bmu)

Federal German Ministry of Economics: pavilion11, stand D25

Pavillon D / 11, stands 76 and 5

What I want to know is: who are the politicians making all of these progressive decisions

The German Government is a coalition between the Social Democratic Party and the Green Alliance.

On the Bundesministerium Wirtschaft und Technologie's (Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology's) site you can see more about who makes up the ministry. The BMWi's site also carries more information about this story.

Heise is a leading German news source. You'll find more information about similar technology news there.

The German CIA fact file has some more background about Germany.

Most of these sites have English versions, but there's not always the same level of detail. If you can stand its translations, it might be worthwhile firing up Babelfish or a similar translation service.

What I want to know is: who are the politicians making all of these progressive decisions

The German Government is a coalition between the Social Democratic Party and the Green Alliance.

On the Bundesministerium Wirtschaft und Technologie's (Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology's) site you can see more about who makes up the ministry. The BMWi's site also carries more information about this story.

Heise is a leading German news source. You'll find more information about similar technology news there.

The German CIA fact file has some more background about Germany.

Most of these sites have English versions, but there's not always the same level of detail. If you can stand its translations, it might be worthwhile firing up Babelfish or a similar translation service.

What I want to know is: who are the politicians making all of these progressive decisions

The German Government is a coalition between the Social Democratic Party and the Green Alliance.

On the Bundesministerium Wirtschaft und Technologie's (Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology's) site you can see more about who makes up the ministry. The BMWi's site also carries more information about this story.

Heise is a leading German news source. You'll find more information about similar technology news there.

The German CIA fact file has some more background about Germany.

Most of these sites have English versions, but there's not always the same level of detail. If you can stand its translations, it might be worthwhile firing up Babelfish or a similar translation service.

What I want to know is: who are the politicians making all of these progressive decisions

The German Government is a coalition between the Social Democratic Party and the Green Alliance.

On the Bundesministerium Wirtschaft und Technologie's (Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology's) site you can see more about who makes up the ministry. The BMWi's site also carries more information about this story.

Heise is a leading German news source. You'll find more information about similar technology news there.

The German CIA fact file has some more background about Germany.

Most of these sites have English versions, but there's not always the same level of detail. If you can stand its translations, it might be worthwhile firing up Babelfish or a similar translation service.

Which is why GnuPG is funded mostly by the German Ministry for Economy and Technology, for example.