Toytown Germany

Germany's English-speaking crowd
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Welcome to Toytown Germany, the English-language community website for Germany. Over 11,000 English-speakers are currently active members. Read the intro, view the members map, or jump right into the discussion forum.

Germany | Berlin | Munich | Other cities | ...all cities

Rhine River warming rapidly - The water temperature of the Rhine River is three degrees Celsius above its natural average, the result of power plants along the river and global warming, the environmental group BUND said in a report issued Tuesday. Parts of the heavily-polluted river can reach a balmy high of 28 degrees during the summer, the study said. The warmest segment is between Mainz and Worms. "The days when the water temperature exceeds 23 to 25 degrees have been… read more…

Sandra Bullock is applying for a German passport - Hollywood actress Sandra Bullock said Monday that she was trying to get German citizenship during a press conference for the premiere of her new film "The Proposal" in Munich. The 44-year-old daughter of an American and a German opera singer said she is hoping to make her German roots official. "It would be wonderful if my sister and I could succeed. It is something my mother wished for her children," the actor said. "Half… read more…

American driver follows outdated GPS and crashes - An American tourist caused an accident near Karlsfeld over the weekend, banging up some €45,000 in damages when he followed an outdated navigation system prompt in the wrong direction, daily TZ reported on Monday. According to the paper, the man's Mercedes Vito rental car system had not been updated with the new exit from the B471 motorway near Karlsfeld, 20 minutes north of Munich. The oversight caused him to drive himself and seven passengers into… read more…

'Dr. Death' plans to plastinate King of Pop - Controversial Body Worlds creator Gunther von Hagens plans to preserve the late Michael Jackson's body in a dancing pose for display using his plastination process, a spokesperson told The Local on Monday. One day after the legendary pop entertainer was pronounced dead in Los Angeles, von Hagens released a statement on Friday that revealed his personal assistant had been contacted by an anonymous member of Jackson's management team about plastination… read more…

WHO warns 1 in 3 Germans could get swine flu - The World Health Organisation has warned one in three people in Germany could catch the swine flu this autumn. Europe's largest country is certain to se a second wave of the virus when influenza season comes around later this year. If the outbreak is combined with a seasonal flu, the virus will become that much more deadly, the organisation warned this week. Virologist Alexander Kekulé told Die Welt newspaper that more infections across Germany are… read more…

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Schumacher backs rebel F1 teams - Michael Schumacher has waded into the row engulfing Formula One racing and suggested that the breakaway competitor series being organised by the teams could be more exciting to watch than the original. Writing on his website at the weekend, Schumacher, who was F1 champion seven times said, "Of course at first it seems unimaginable, but this time all the big teams are standing behind this. So a new championship would already seem much more realistic.… read more…

Music industry pulls plug on Popkomm trade fair - The German music industry has cancelled this year's Popkomm trade fair in Berlin due to a dramatic plunge in interest. One of the most important annual events for Germany's music industry, the fair had been scheduled for September. But Popkomm director Katja Gross said on Friday that a "striking" collapse in the number of expected industry visitors forced organisers to pull the plug on the 2009 edition. Going from current registrations,… read more…

Nanny sentenced to five years for toddler's death - A 34-year-old Munich nanny was sentenced to five years in prison on Friday after being found guilty of shaking a toddler to death last September. In an emotional courtroom scene, the nanny identified only as Alexandra S. tearfully confessed to shaking the 14-month-old Christopher to death in what the judge called a fit of "momentary irritation" because he refused to take his mid-afternoon nap. The defendant, herself a single mother, had… read more…

Whales may be singing their own names - A German scientist has found whales may be doing more than serenading love interests or telling their pods where the herring is by singing: through their songs, they may actually have names. "From our research, one can say that whales have signature tones," said Heike Vester from her lab in the northern Norwegian town of Hennigsvaer. "When many pods of whales come together, the sounds the whales make is very different than if they are… read more…

UK Conservative leader makes Nazi gaffe - David Cameron, the leader of Britain's opposition Conservative Party, unsettled a discussion about ID cards in the UK by adopting a fake German accent on Monday evening. In a mock voice apparently attempting to mimic a Nazi officer, Cameron asked an audience in Norwich: "Wer are your papers?" Cameron was criticising a planned initiative by the Labour government to introduce national identity cards for all British residents. Cameron's routine… read more…

Germans want common public holidays across country - Southern German states have far more holidays and long weekends - especially during the spring - than northern German states. A new survey says many Germans are sick of this system and want the same holidays nationwide. 69 percent of those polled said they wanted a common, federal standard for holidays, according to the poll published Sunday in the Bild am Sonntag newspaper. Only 29 percent wanted the current, highly fragmented system to continue.… read more…

Darmstadt team finds new periodic table element - Periodic table gets a new element (BBC News) reports today that a team from Darmstadt's GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung (Helmholt Centre for Heavy Ion Research) have been credited with the discovery of a new element on the periodic table, more than a decade after the creation of a single atom of "super heavy" 112. The team, led by Sigurd Hofmann, will however need a name before the element can join the table. Professor Hofmann… read more…

Latest topics from the lo-fi chat forum:

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Homework help - Please can somebody translate?
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Reward for the return of a lost wallet - Info on what the culture is i...
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