Municipalities as key actors of German renewable energy governance: an analysis of opportunities, obstacles, and multi-level influences

In recent years, policies to promote renewable energy have become increasingly popular among municipalities in different parts of the world. This article examines the case of Germany. It argues that municipalities, compared to other state and private actors, already have the potential to play a key role in German renewable energy governance. Although both private actors and the European Union have gained importance in the past 20 years, German municipalities still play a crucial role and can apply five distinct and important modes of governance in the field of renewable energy policy. In this regard, the notion of a general development towards a "cooperating and ensuring state", which increasingly delegates its tasks and thus becomes less important, cannot be confirmed in the field of municipal renewable energy governance in Germany.Seit einigen Jahren ist in verschiedenen Weltgegenden eine zunehmende Verbreitung kommunaler Ansätze zum Ausbau erneuerbarer Energien zu verzeichnen. Der vorliegende Artikel widmet sich deutschen Kommunen und argumentiert, dass diese im Vergleich zu anderen staatlichen Ebenen und privaten Akteuren das Potenzial haben, eine Schlüsselrolle bei der Energiewende in Deutschland zu spielen. Obwohl private Akteure ebenso wie die Europäische Union in den letzten 20 Jahren an Bedeutung gewonnen haben, spielen Kommunen hier weiterhin eine wichtige Rolle und können im Politikfeld erneuerbare Energien fünf bedeutsame und voneinander abgrenzbare Governance-Modi anwenden. Die weit verbreitete These einer stetigen Entwicklung hin zum so genannten Kooperations- und Gewährleistungsstaat, der seine Aufgaben zunehmend an Private delegiert und an Bedeutung verliert, kann im Bereich kommunaler Erneuerbare-Energien-Politik daher nicht bestätigt werden

Semantic Visual Localization

Robust visual localization under a wide range of viewing conditions is a fundamental problem in computer vision. Handling the difficult cases of this problem is not only very challenging but also of high practical relevance, e.g., in the context of life-long localization for augmented reality or autonomous robots. In this paper, we propose a novel approach based on a joint 3D geometric and semantic understanding of the world, enabling it to succeed under conditions where previous approaches failed. Our method leverages a novel generative model for descriptor learning, trained on semantic scene completion as an auxiliary task. The resulting 3D descriptors are robust to missing observations by encoding high-level 3D geometric and semantic information. Experiments on several challenging large-scale localization datasets demonstrate reliable localization under extreme viewpoint, illumination, and geometry changes

Von der „Gentechnikfreien Zone“ zur „Gentechnikfreien Anbauregion“ : Erfahrungsbericht aus dem Biosphärenreservat Rhön

Was wir erreichen wollen, die wir diesen Kompromiss von nur 3 Jahren mittragen, ist eine Ausweitung auf den gesamten Flächenlandkreis Fulda und darüber hinaus Richtung Vogelsberg („kreisübergreifende gentechnikfreie Bewirtschaftung“). Des Weiteren sollen Engagierte (Anbauverbände, Naturschutz und Verbraucherschutz, Imker und Weiterverarbeiter, Lebensmittelhandel/Tegut) stärker bzw. neu eingebunden werden. Entsprechende Gespräche haben begonnen. Allerdings ist in Zukunft der Anbau transgener Bäume ein über die landwirtschaftlichen Anbaugebiete hinaus notwendiges Aktionsfeld. Hier müssen Waldbesitzer und staatliche Forstwirtschaft mit einbezogen werden

Phosphorus, sulfur and pyridine

The synthesis of distinct neutral or anionic P,S compounds in solution provides a great challenge for chemists. Due to the similarity in the energies of the P–P, P–S and S–S bonds nearly solely a mixture of compounds with different composition and charge is obtained. Our interest focuses on the system consisting of phosphorus, sulfur and pyridine, with the aim of a greater selectivity of P,S compounds in solution. The combination of these three components offers the opportunity of stabilizing unusual P,S compounds as pyridine adducts or pyridinium salts, integration of main group and transition metals (formation of metal-thiophosphates) and the investigation of many more reactions of this class of compounds in a basic environment

Iconography transformed: a few notes on the god Vaiśravaṇa

This article aims at an integration of the topic of iconographic transformation processes into a wider context of meaning, in order to enhance its importance from a religious and cultural-scientific point of view. In this sense, my research is not interested in asking how a deity is depicted, but why it is depicted in a particular way; what conclusions can be drawn, and what factors might influence artistic work? Thus, the topic of the image’s context, its usage, and its meaning become the focus of attention. By taking the example of the god Vaiśravaṇa, my analysis of ‘religious images’ of him is composed of two interlinked parts: an exemplary study of a transcultural iconographic transformation process, as well as an analysis of the images’ context.

Big Data:A Revolution That Transforms How We Live, Work, and Think

How can we spot a disease 24 hours before symptoms appear? How can we predict which manholes in New York City may explode next year? Can we really identify criminals before they have committed a crime? Welcome to “big data” — the idea that we can do with a vast amount of data things that we simply couldn’t when we had less. The change in scale leads to a change in state. It upends the nature of business, how government works and the way we live, from healthcare to education. Big data will even change how we think about the world and our place in it. As we collect and crunch more data, the good news is that we can do extraordinary things: fight disease, reduce climate change, and unlock mysteries of science. The bad news is that it raises a host of worries for which society is unprepared. What does it mean if big data denies us a bank loan or considers us unfit for a surgical operation, but we can’t learn the explicit reasons because the variables that went in were so myriad and complex? How do you regulate an algorithm? Viktor Mayer-Schönberger is Professor of Internet Governance and Regulation at the Oxford Internet Institute / Oxford University. In addition to his recent international bestseller Big Data (co-authored with Kenn Cukier), Mayer-Schönberger has published eight books (including the awards-winning Delete: The Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital Age with Princeton University Press) and is the author of over a hundred articles and book chapters on the information economy. After successes in the International Physics Olympics and the Austrian Young Programmers Contest, Mayer-Schönberger studied in Salzburg, at Harvard and at the London School of Economics. In 1986 he founded Ikarus Software, a company focusing on data security and developed the Virus Utilities, which became the best-selling Austrian software product. He was voted Top-5 Software Entrepreneur in Austria in 1991 and Person of the Year for the State of Salzburg in 2000.Viktor Mayer-Schönberger, Big Data: A Revolution That Transforms How We Live, Work, and Think, lecture, ICI Berlin, 28 April 2014 <https://doi.org/10.25620/e140428