Tag Archives: Berlin

The famed Berlin man who was said to be cured of HIV after undergoing blood transplants for leukemia may still have the virus in his body. [N]ew research presented on 8 June at the International Workshop on HIV & Hepatitis Virus “challenge[s] these results,” asserts Alain Lafeuillade of the General Hospital in Toulon, France, a well known HIV/AIDS cure researcher. …

Along with LGBT activists, thousands of advocates for the victims of child abuse protested the Pope’s appearance in Berlin yesterday.

Berlin’s openly gay mayor was reelected to a third term yesterday. Berlin’s mayor, Klaus Wowereit, will remain in office for a third term. Wowereit, who became the first openly gay leader of a German state in 2001, is known for his popular touch and distinctive Berlin accent. He has ruled in alliance with the Left Party for 10 years but …

Knut, the polar bear who as a cub captured the hearts of the world and sold millions in plush toys for the Berlin Zoo, died unexpectedly yesterday at the age of four. “Everyone is just in shock here,” said Claudia Bienek, a spokeswoman for Berlin Zoo where Knut shot to global fame in 2007 as a photogenic snow-white cub after …

Berlin’s memorial to gay victims of the Holocaust is an austere concrete block with a small window that displays a “never-ending” video loop of two men kissing. Installed in 2008, original plans for the display called for the gender to the two people in the video to change every two years. But now that it’s almost time for the switch …

It took a few days to get my photos off of Aaron’s laptop, but I’ve finally posted a gallery of some of my pics from Berlin and Folsom Europe. There’s a small slideshow at the bottom of this post, but since a few of the pics are NSFW, you’ll probably want to view the full-screen versions on your home machine. …

Similar to the program I’ve seen in DC, these bikes are parked all around Berlin for folks to rent and explore the city. You register with Call-A-Bike online or by phone and they’ll give you an access code for the lock of a nearby bike. A 24-hour rental is quite inexpensive at $14 and when you’re done you just call …

OK, so after the first couple of days of being bothered by dive-bombing bees in Berlin, I was thinking I’d come home and blog something like, “Now I know where all our bees have gone. They’re in Berlin.” Then on Sunday we were wandering around Alexanderplatz and decided to stop at a quite lovely looking bakery for something sweet. I …

As you can see by the coffee table in our Berlin apartment, by yesterday it was apparent that it hadn’t been the most “cultural” of visits. Depends on how you define culture, I suppose. Embiggen at your own risk. NSFW.

We had an incredible lunch at a place called König in the Alexanderplatz neighborhood of Mitte, the centermost Berlin borough where most of the museums are. Then we rode to the top of the Fernsehturm, the Communist-era tv tower which is the tallest object in Germany. The view reveals the striking differences between the stark and ugly formerly East Berlin …

Pretty much every person we’ve met here immediately wants to talk about Sarah Palin thanks to my Obama cap, which only a hour finally elicted the above quote from a shopper at Checkpoint Charlie. The consensus on Palin is completely horrible, of course. One very tall Finn told me last night that she’s become a national joke for his countrymen. …

Aaron, Little Tom, Chris and I are in Berlin until next week, posting will be light except for some touristy photo stuff from the occasional cafe. Now we get to see what good three years of high school German does me, thirty years later. I’m betting, nicht viel.

The Republican National Committee has issued their “parody” of what they think an Obama-in-Berlin ad might look like. Ken Wheaton at AdAge responds: Perhaps the Republican National Committee needs to lay off the prescription drugs. It certainly should consider laying off web videos. Consider this monstrosity, which “provides a parody of what an Obama TV ad in Berlin, Germany might …

Reviews of Barack Obama’s speech in Berlin yesterday appear to be mixed, with the New York Times calling it “vague on crucial issues of trade, defense and foreign policy.” However, The Nation loved it, saying, “To much of the world, Bush’s talk of freedom is code for messianism, arrogance and empire. Obama reframed the debate–and reclaimed the word–with his spectacular …

Photography fans should drop in on my buddy Aaron’s blog, Meanwhile, for some stunning images of his trip to Berlin. Aaron begins each post with a photo of his morning cup of coffee before he heads out for a day of sightseeing. If you’re an art fag or a foodie or a foodie art fag, you’ll love his work.