Category: News

The head-to-head race between the SPD and CDU in lower saxony in the polls is getting more and more exciting. About two and a half weeks before the state elections, the social democrats have almost closed the gap on the cdu.

According to a survey by infratest dimap, the CDU currently has 35 percent of the vote, just one percentage point ahead of the SPD (34 percent) led by minister president stephan weil.

Three coalitions are possible, according to the survey commissioned by NDR: a rough coalition of CDU and SPD, a "jamaika" alliance (CDU/green/FDP) or a traffic light alliance (SPD/green/FDP), with which weil could hold on to power.

Since yesterday, seat reservations are also possible in the area of the nurnberg S-bahn network. The offer thus also applies to the S 1 line between nurnberg and bamberg. Initially, however, only railroad subscribers will be able to use this option. A seat will be reserved for them in special reservation zones. The offer can be booked for one year at a price of 40 euros. As a railroad spokesman explained, it is not yet possible to reserve a specific seat during the current test phase.

Soon also for single trips

After completion of this test phase, it will be possible to reserve a seat when buying a ticket for a single journey before the end of the year. According to bahn, this service should cost one euro per route and person.In the meantime, seat reservations can also be made on regional trains. A particularly interesting offer for train commuters. Such individual or permanent seat reservations are also possible on the mainfrankenbahn between wurzburg and bamberg and on the franken-thuringen-express between nurnberg and wurzburg or the franken-thuringen-express between bamberg and wurzburg. Between nurnberg and sonnefeld or jena saalbahnhof possible.

Interested railroad subscribers can register for a permanent reservation at the price of 40 euros with their subscription number and the end date of the subscription period at my-seat-regio.De register and choose the route, the departure time and the seat you want to take. Such a permanent reservation is valid from monday to friday.
In the regional trains are also single reservations for the price of one euro possible. Here the booking can be made at the vending machine by indicating the desired seat. At the moment, the railroad is not yet able to offer this service on all regional train routes. However, the reservation option on regional trains is to be expanded step by step.

Ramsdorf – the results of the ATS swimmers at the international bavarian championships for masters in open water swimming over 2.5 kilometers are impressive: four starters – four podium places. Theresa deichsel became bavarian champion, sandra and jens polanetzki and marianne schwarz took silver places.

In contrast to last year, the open water swimmers of the ATS kulmbach expected optimal conditions at the coarse brombachsee this year. At 24 degrees air and 23 degrees water temperature, 95 athletes simultaneously plunged into the lake. "We literally had to defend ourselves at the start with our hands and fists to avoid being submerged and pushed off", theresa deichsel emphasized.

In total they had to swim two laps on a triangular course, which was marked out with buoys, in an anticlockwise direction. The first part of the course ran parallel to the shore, while the second went out onto the open lake and the third back to the start near the shore.

The company wanted to have its competitors ethical coffee company and betron ordered to label their cheaper coffee capsules with the statement that they are not suitable for "nespresso. (file numbers 4b O 81/12 and 4b O 82/12)

According to the court, however, the coffee capsule is a component but not the functional "heart" of the overall patented "nespresso" machine. Their buyers were entitled to expect that they could use the device not only with the original capsules intended for it, it says in the ruling. The lawyer for the defendant companies also argued that the coffee capsules are a common commodity.

The market for portioned coffee is extremely lucrative and fiercely contested. It grew by 30 percent last year, although the capsules are much more expensive than loose coffee and leave behind a lot of gauze. The ethical coffee company, against which nestle has now lost in court, advertises capsules that decompose by themselves in waste. The head of the company is jean-paul gaillard, who previously headed nestec for ten years and is considered the father of the success of nespresso.

Monika pfundmeier beams with her little bouquet of sunflowers as if she had won a gold medal at the olympics.

At the frankfurt book fair, the munich native has just received the 10.000 euro self-publishing prize won. It is a historical novel from the middle ages about the last staufer king konradin.

The self-publisher is one of the "strongest voices in contemporary literature," the jury said in justifying the award. The author from bavaria is filled with "a burning desire for literature". Like pfundmeier, more and more writers in the book market are taking their fate into their own hands. Without publishing help, they take care of the design and marketing of their books after the text has been completed.

For many years, konigsberg has always held its european day on the 27th. January with the duke-wilhelm-chain-celebration an event takes place, with which even many konigsbergers can do nothing, because they do not know, what the occasion is.

It has its origins in the history of konigsberg and commemorates duke wilhelm, who on 11. Born in altenburg on april 1598 and was a scion of the ducal house of saxony-weimar. A window picture of him can be seen in the choir room of st. Mary's church in konigsberg. To the possession of this house belonged at that time also konigsberg and approximately 32 villages, which belonged to the duke at that time johann ernst IV. Were subject. While johann ernst was more concerned with administration, his brother wilhelm took up a military career.

Two camps

The reformation had divided the german people at this time into a protestant and a catholic camp. In some parts of germany, only the faith decided by the sovereign was valid. This belief had to be accepted by the inhabitants of the respective area. The weimar house was one of the first to join the reformation, and therefore konigsberg also became protestant. In 1608, the protestant princes formed a union, while the catholic princes formed a league. This was, as a chronicler writes, the "first tinder of the following three years' war (1618 to 1648) and other disasters that arose from it"."

For the year as a whole, PC sales fell by 3.2 percent to 352.4 million units. The industry is struggling because consumers prefer to use smartphones and tablets. In addition, companies are holding back on buying new computers in view of the uncertain economic situation.

The decline in the christmas quarter was even more pronounced than expected: IDC had expected a decline of 4.4 percent. Even the freshly launched microsoft operating system windows 8 has not been able to reverse the trend. A total of 89.8 million pcs have been sold. However, the market could recover somewhat this year, among other things, if the prices for the dark ultrabook laptops fall, predicted IDC analyst jay chou late thursday. In addition, most of the devices presented so far had not yet fully exploited the possibilities of windows 8.

Hewlett-packard was still the world’s largest PC manufacturer in the last quarter of the year, according to IDC, with a market share of 16.7 percent in the fourth quarter, although HP sold 0.6 percent fewer units. But the chinese rival lenovo, with a market share of 15.7 percent, has already crept close to HP. The chinese are on course to become the world leader: their PC sales rose by 8.2 percent in the christmas quarter. Dell defended its third place with a market share of 10.6 percent, although sales fell by more than a fifth. One reason was that number four acer was hit even harder, with sales down 28 percent.

Since the introduction of the bavarian e-government law, municipalities have been required to ensure the security of their information technology systems as part of their responsibility for maintaining the system. The law stipulates in detail that appropriate technical and organizational measures must be taken and the necessary information concepts drawn up for this purpose.

Small and medium-sized municipalities in particular are reaching the limits of their capacity and know-how. The mayors and IT managers of "lebensregionplus have therefore been in close contact for more than two years. To raise awareness among employees, workshops were organized and initial steps were taken in the inner circle to draw up the concepts.

Pooling resources, saving costs

"It became quickly and increasingly apparent that the work was overtaxing the administrations", the manager of the alliance "lebensregion plus" declared, ulla schmidt.

Only three days after the building permit was issued, excavation work began at the beginning of august last year for the construction of the nudlingen senior citizens’ residential complex at umpfig. After 15 months of construction, the first tenants moved in at the beginning of october. At the moment the aubenanlage is still being prepared and gardened.

"It took a lot of effort to build", investor gunnar hiller (hiller immobilienservice KG, niederwerrn) looks back on the past year. For a short time, construction even had to be interrupted due to archaeological investigations. "Despite this delay, some procurement problems and well-known capacity bottlenecks in the construction industry, our senior housing complex was completed on schedule and, with the exception of two apartments, is fully rented out."

Residents of the senior housing complex: skeptical at first, now enthusiastic

Egon (67) and erika krug (72) were among the first tenants to move in on 1 january, as contractually promised by landlord hiller. October they moved into their 75-square-meter three-bedroom apartment. Three months earlier, they had taken a look at the building shell and at that time did not really want to believe in the promised date of moving in. "I was an electrician in the construction industry for 50 years. I know how it often goes", egon krug was skeptical at first. The joy over the punctual completion was all the greater. "What mr. Hiller has put here is really sensational", former saleswoman erika krug can hardly contain her enthusiasm. "The apartment is a dream for us."

If interest rates remain this low, "the industry will have to take further countermeasures and think about new solutions and other business models," said the president of the federal financial supervisory authority (bafin), elke konig, at a banking conference of the "borsen-zeitung" in frankfurt on wednesday, referring to building societies.

"The medicine that the ECB has administered to the banks and the states in order to trim them has side effects, like any medicine," konig noted. The european central bank (ECB) lowered the already extremely low prime rate in the euro zone to 0.5 percent in may 2013. Since then, the interest rate has remained at this record low. Building societies are struggling with the fact that customers continue to save for old contracts with comparatively high interest rates. Providers are having difficulty generating the promised returns with the current extremely low interest rates.

The low interest rates have had a "noticeable impact on the earnings situation of the financial institutions," explained martin zielke, member of the board of managing directors of commerzbank for private customers. "Any bank that wants to be successful in the retail banking business must radically restructure its business model. Only tweaking small parts of the business model will no longer be enough."