In a country whose Economics Minister is named Karl-Theodor Maria Nikolaus Johann Jacob Philipp Franz Freiherr zu Guttenberg, the verdict seems illogical. But on Tuesday, Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court rejected a woman’s appeal to go by her new married name, Frieda Rosemarie Thalheim-Kunz-Hallstein, arguing that the name is too long. The court was upholding a law introduced in 1993, which banned multiple surnames in Germany
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Why Google Wants You To Google Yourself
The act of Googling oneself has become the digital age’s premiere guilty pleasure — an activity enjoyed by all and admitted by few. The phenomenon has even been the subject of scholarly research.
California woman mistaken for suspect in girl’s killing
Yes, she is 28. Yes, she is a Sunday school teacher, and yes, her name is Melissa Huckaby. But the woman from Manteca, California, said she wants people to know that she is not that Melissa Huckaby
NASA names cosmic treadmill after Colbert
What do you do when you’re NASA and comedian Stephen Colbert wins your contest to name the new wing for the International Space Station? You name an orbital exercise machine after him
KenKen: The Next Sudoku?
Will Shortz is to puzzles what Oprah is to books — an endorsement by the New York Times crossword editor is as good as gold. He helped popularize Sudoku in the U.S.
The Jesuit Who Inspired the Pope’s Ideas on Islam
Before he was Pope, then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger would hold an annual summer retreat for his former theology students, focused each year on a single theme of acute concern. Three months after his rise to the papacy, Benedict XVI continued the tradition with a closed-door encounter in the Vatican’s breezy summer residence, Castel Gondolfo
Behind the French Ruling on WWII Deportations of Jews
Following decades of debate over the nation’s wartime history, France’s highest judicial body has formally ruled that the French state bears moral and legal responsibility for the deportation of nearly 76,000 Jews during the nation’s WWII occupation. In doing so, the court officially recognized the willful participation of France’s collaborationist Vichy government in anti-Semitic persecution that had long been attributed to Nazi occupying powers. The ruling Monday, by the Conseil d’Etat, or State Council, was cheered by organizations representing French Jews and families of Jews who were deported during the war — a mere 3,000 of whom ultimately returned
Men ‘plotted to blow up jets with liquid bombs’
Eight men plotted to use bombs disguised in drinks containers to blow up planes heading towards the United States in mid-flight in the name of Islam, a British court heard Tuesday. Prosecutors told London’s Woolwich Crown Court the men planned to make the explosives from household objects to resemble drinks bottles, batteries and other items to be carried onto aircraft in hand luggage, the UK’s Press Association reported. The foiling of the alleged plot in August 2006 triggered the imposition of strict new security measures at international airports around the world, restricting the quantity of liquids passengers can carry on to aircraft
Hunger Activists Want Al Gore to Make Another Movie
From a distance, it looks like an ordinary movie poster.
Surprising stories behind 20 Muppet characters
Like a lot of people, I grew up on Sesame Street and the Muppets. But did you ever stop to wonder where they came from? Some of the characters we know and love were recycled from other TV shows and commercials Jim Henson worked on, while others were invented by using whatever materials were around.