Chemnitz represents two things to me; the love of trying out new exotic experiences, and my amateur fascination with the history of architecture. My first time in Chemnitz lasted just a few hours, but was enough to give me a comprehensive overview of the city’s history. I did the trip Read more…
I didn’t know how high the sky was until I passed over the Rockies, I didn’t know how large the earth was until I got lost in the plains of Minnesota, I didn’t know how empty the sea was until I knelt in the sand on the Atlantic shore. After Read more…
About ten years ago, former US President Barack Obama claimed that women in the US were paid 77 cents on the dollar when compared to men. Soon after, further dissemination of the studies showed that the actual pay gap between the two genders are actually much lower (93 cents on Read more…
If you want to fall in love, the 36 questions that lead to love are terrible at doing that. I suspect that the online videos showing people falling in love after answering the questions are only doing it for show. But the questions are a great way to get to Read more…
Most of what I express here will be directed towards North America’s path dependency on the private vehicle although some of it will also be relevant to policy incentives in East Asia. As my father always used to tell me: “You have to think in systems, you can’t expect everything Read more…
A short distance away from Halle, Wittenberg, and Leipzig where Martin Luther frequently lectured, Eisleben is his famed birthplace and place of death. It’s a good idea to visit these places all in one trip to get a feel of what it was like to live during the 16th century, Read more…
The real reason why I wanted to go to Hannover was to see the Waterloo Column. Why does Hannover have a column to commemorate the defeat of Napoleon? In fact, the Kingdom of Hannover actually used to be in a personal union with the monarch of the United Kingdom until Read more…
If you look at a large fold-out map of the VBB (Verkehrsberbund Berlin-Brandenburg, the regional transit provider for Berlin and its suburbs), you’ll find Brandenburg on the western end of the map. Travel 90 minutes by train west of that and you’ll get to Magdeburg. It’s easy to see why Read more…
In HPAIR’s 2018 Asia conference I had the privilege of participating in a workshop with the World Bank in Malaysia to come up with a tentative policy proposal for providing internet access for rural Malaysia. The key issues are spotty and inconsistent internet coverage across Malaysia as well as slow Read more…
Adjacent to Nürnberg, Fürth doesn’t only have it’s own beer, it also has a Faber-Castell outlet and factory. When I was there they gave out free balloons reading “Einkaufsstadt Fürth” – shopping city Fürth. Though I would have to disagree, I found the local fruit markets and restaurants with ice Read more…