Pirate Parties: This past weekend, elections were held in Luxembourg and the Czech Republic. The Pirate Party of Luxembourg tripled their support and entered the Luxembourg Parliament with two MPs, and in the Czech Republic, the Pirate Party increased their support further – now receiving a full 17% in Prague.

With 6.45% of the votes of the final tally, the Luxembourg Pirate Party is entering its national Parliament, being the fifth Pirate Party to enter a national or supranational legislature (after Sweden, Germany, Iceland, and the Czech Republic). This may not seem like much, but it is a very big deal, for reasons I’ll elaborate on later. A big congratulations to Sven Clement and Marc Goergen, new Members of Parliament for Luxembourg!

Further, the Czech Republic has had municipal elections, and the Czech Pirate Party showed a full 17.1% support in Prague, the Czech capital, making the Pirates the second biggest party with a very narrow gap to the first place (at 17.9%). This may or may not translate to votes for the Czech national legislature, but is nevertheless the highest score recorded so far for a Pirate Party election day. I understand the Czech Pirates have as many as 275 (two hundred and seventy-five!) newly-elected members of city councils, up from 21 (twenty-one). Well done, well done indeed!

For people in a winner-takes-all system, like the UK or United States, this may sound like a mediocre result. In those countries, there are usually only two parties, and the loser with 49% of the vote gets nothing. However, most of Europe have so-called proportional systems, where 5% of the nationwide votes gives you 5% of the national legislation seats. In these systems, the parties elected to Parliament negotiate between themselves to find a ruling majority coalition of 51%+ of the seats, trying to negotiate common positions between parties that are reasonably close to each other in policy. This usually requires a few weeks of intense negotiations between the elections and the presentation of a successfully negotiated majority coalition.

Further, it could reasonable be asked what kind of difference the Czech Republic or Luxembourg could possibly make on their own in the global information repression. The answer is, a whole lot. The key here is realizing that one country is sufficient to break the global repression of information; the repression is completely dependent on every single country keeping watertight doors. If one single country decides to allow the free movement of culture and knowledge, then all such distribution will immediately be based there. The copyright industry lobby in other countries will protest, quite loudly, but there’s not really anything they can do about it.

And since the problem from a policymaking standpoint has been that the industry-age era politicians consider the Internet-related policy areas completely peripheral in the first place, conceding those policy areas will be seen as very cheap price to bind those votes to a majority coalition.

“One country is sufficient to break the global repression of information.”

A relevant comparison is how Canada has now legalized cannabis at the country level, following many state-level initiatives here and there in the world, and at once, the floodgates are open. Not just for the illegal distribution networks, but more importantly, for legalization everywhere else. As a German politician dryly said today, “what’s possible in Canada is also possible in Germany”, proposing that cannabis should be legalized outright in Germany. I would imagine the tone is similar in most places — or, importantly, many enough places.

The Luxembourg and Prague coalition talks have just started, with an outcome typically expected in a few weeks.

Children's Geographies; 02/01/2024
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Spokane Valley has finished its nearly $4.6 million Sprague Avenue stormwater and multimodal project, which reduced the road from five to three lanes between North University Road and North Herald Road, where Balfour Park and Spokane Valley City Hall are located…

A poem by Thom Caraway, Spokane Poet Laureate …

Mr. Angel Gurría, Secretary-General of the OECD, will be in Prague on 16 July 2018 on an official visit. He will present the 2018 OECD Economic Survey and the Environmental Performance Review of the Czech Republic.

A city’s brand is pivotal for its position in global society, particularly in global competition. Indeed, a city has many aspects of a commercial product. The very strong international brand that I represent is Prague, the million-strong capital of the Czech Republic.

Mr. Sprague has been endorsed by Marquis Who's Who as a leader in the performance industry

Bělohlávek and the BBC SO make a powerful case for this intense work.

Thank you to everyone who's commented on our blog entries and apologies it took all of a month to approve them.Now log in to FB and check out the photos we've uploaded. They'll take you from Venice through to Budapest across the border into Vienna ove

The Amateur Traveler talks to Audrey Scott and Daniel Knoll of UncorneredMarket.com about Prague where they lived for 5 years. Audrey and Daniel are currently traveling around the world and talked to me from El Salvador. Audrey and Daniel talk about the touristy things to do in Prague like the Prague castle, the Charles bridge and Wenceslas Square. They also talk about the touristy things that they would recommend skipping like Karlova street and its souvenir stands (they even give us a shortcut through the university and the Karolinum to avoid it). They would not; however, skip drinking Czech beer in a beer garden like the Latna (but would pass on Czech wine). They tell us how to walk around the barkers in period costumes selling packaged concerts to tourists and find the real music scene in Prague from classical to Balkan. Since they have moved on you can’t crash on their couch but you can share in their expertise of how to cherish Prague.

I talk about my recent trip to Berlin and Prague in December. This trip was just after the 20 year anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall and 20 years after my last trip to Berlin. We will look at a 3 hour free walking tour of Berlin and at a paid private tour of Prague (a gift from OurExplorer.com). We will talk about the history of World War II, Communism and even the Hussite Wars. We will talk about the Christmas markets which are everywhere in both cities in December with their booths, crafts, food and mulled wine. I will tell you of some of the sites of these cities including museums, castles, churches, memorials, and even an Art Nouveau stain glass window in a very old yet also very new cathedral.

Hear about travel to Central Europe (Prague, Krakow, Budapest) as the Amateur Traveler talks to 4 people who joined me on this year's Amateur Traveler trip: Darrell, Derrick, Loraine and Holly.

The Boston Bruins had planned on opening up their 2020-21 NHL regular season overseas against the Nashville Predators in Prague as part of the NHL Global Series, but that plan to visit the Czech Republic has now been postponed.

National Hockey League regular-season games that were scheduled for early in the 2020-21 campaign in Helsinki and Prague have been called off in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. With concern about when or if the halted 2019-20 campaign might resume due to the deadly virus outbreak, the NHL and the NHL Players Association announced the decision to scrap the matchups with an eye to a 2021 return. "The NHLPA and the NHL remain committed to maintaining and growing our international presence," a joint statement said.

047 - Swedish official Jonas Eriksson to handle FC Bayern München v Chelsea FC

DMN's editor-in-chief hunts the social through the streets of Prague and the "luxe bunker" offices of Socialbakers

Prague Daily Monitor

After the weekend hack-a-thon proved that a CZK 401 million contract for a web based vignette system can be made in a few hours time, with 60 programmers, Prague's politicians are on a witch hunt. Next is the CZK 15 billion Prague metro maintenance contract which was signed without a public tender.

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Prague Daily Monitor

Strong winds felled trees on to cars and flung loose materials across the city on Tuesday afternoon. The spokesperson for the Prague Firefighter Brigade said that "so far we have responded to 23 incidents related to wind up to 15:00. The most common calls were related to fallen trees, scattered branches and debris."

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Prague Daily Monitor

The Prague Transport Authority (DPP) is funding a project to extend the tram track from Sídliště Modřany to Nové Dvory. The extension will be 1.8 kilometers long and cost about CZK 350 million. The target completion date would be 2027.

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by Ileana Lobkowicz | Prague Daily Monitor

There's no doubt that the Czech Republic has a long and proud history of beer, claiming the title of highest beer-consuming nation per capita. But what is perhaps less known is that beyond the country's drinking abilities lies a centuries-old tradition of brewing beer — and in the most unlikely of places: monasteries.

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Prague Daily Monitor

Along with spring comes Million Moments next protests, scheduled for March 1st in Prague. The planned gathering place is Hradčanská, from which the movement will take a scenic walk to Staroměstské náměstí and begin the official protest. The planned protests are the result of Wednesday's election of Stanislav Křeček as Ombudsman. The movement will inform the public on February 16th about dates for protests in other main cities across the country.

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Prague Daily Monitor

In an article written by Jakub Plíhal for news server Aktualne.cz, about Prague's coming war with short-term rentals, he covered a symbolic protest in a building where out of seventeen flats only three are occupied by families permanently. Prague Mayor Zdeněk Hřib joined the protest organized by the Stop Airbnb group.

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Two Hour School

For bilingual families, choosing a school may no longer be a dilemma. The Two Hour School has opened in Prague.

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HomeToGo

As we celebrate the International Wheelchair Day this coming Sunday on March 1st, we are sharing the results of a report into the 'Most Wheelchair-Friendly Cities in Europe'. Prague ranked at spot #15 and was found to be more accessible than larger cities like Paris or London.

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Prague Daily Monitor

There is not very much in the news outside of the fear selling virus epidemic, as it is being increasingly referred to. As of Sunday, March 8th there were thirty-two cases confirmed in the country. They are mostly people returning from Italy or close contacts. There does not appear to be any run away escalation of cases as in some other countries. But life as we know it will most likely change for a while. The Czech Republic seems to be the first country to threaten quarantine breakers with a maximum fine of CZK 3,000,000.

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Prague Daily Monitor

The Covid-19 virus brought new measures to the Czech Republic. With cases quickly growing to over 10,000 in Italy, and surrounding countries running over a thousand cases each, the Czech Republic has decided to try and get ahead of the virus and stop its spread. Schools are closed for an unspecified amount of time. All activities which have groups larger than 100 people are cancelled.

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Prague Daily Monitor

Europe and the world are entering a new phase in the fight against the epidemic. Yesterday, the WHO declared the spread of the Covid-19 virus a pandemic. The Czech Republic is closing in on 94 confirmed cases as of Wednesday night. This includes a few cases which are not traced to a patient zero, meaning the patient got the virus from another person who may not yet be known to the health authorities.

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Prague Daily Monitor

Starting today, the city requests that all people using Prague public transport to wear protection across their nose and mouth. Also, the Mayor of Prague Zdeněk Hřib recommended to stores that they insist that customers cover their face and nose as well.

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In late 1989, popular protests against the communist government in Czechoslovakia brought an end to one-party rule in that country and heralded the coming of democracy. The Velvet Revolution was not met with violent suppression as had happened in Prague in 1968. A new book from the Brookings Institution Press documents the behind the scenes…

In late 1989, popular protests against the communist government in Czechoslovakia brought an end to one-party rule in that country and heralded the coming of democracy. The Velvet Revolution was not met with violent suppression as had happened in Prague in 1968. A new book from the Brookings Institution Press documents the behind the scenes…

Count Prague in on the trend toward green hostels and hotels: The opening late last week of a cool new central-city accommodation not only provides a fresh option for eco-conscious travelers, it also marks a green "first" or two

Heavy traffic, aggressive drivers, few bike lanes, and fear of theft made the Czech capital a place where cycling was "only for the brave," as an article for Radio Prague put

How a floating pool could help filter this city's contaminated waters so residents can once again enjoy them.

Mr. Angel Gurría, Secretary-General of the OECD, will be in Prague on 16 July 2018 on an official visit. He will present the 2018 OECD Economic Survey and the Environmental Performance Review of the Czech Republic.

SLAVIA PRAGUE 1-2 BARCELONA: Lionel Messi scored his 113th Champions League goal as Barcelona beat Slavia Prague to tighten their grip on Group F to move three points clear of Inter Milan.

There was a tense and honest discussion in Barcelona's dressing room after their fortunate 2-1 win over Slavia Prague. The Catalan side edged past their Czech opponents.

She kicked off the week by rubbing shoulders with royalty in London. And Katy took advantage of being in Europe as she jetted over to Prague to visit Orlando , who has been filming there.

Orlando Bloom and Katy Perry wasted no time together during their getaway, as they headed for a romantic lunch together with their pooch Mighty on Thursday.

The actor, 43, was clad in an off-white shirt and black waistcoat, complete with a black bowler hat and a pocket watch tucked into his jacket pocket.

The actor posted a video on Instagram on Thursday from the Prague set of the show, surrounded by his castmates as he said: 'It's farewell from us as we go home to be quarantined.'

CHRIS WHEELER AT GENERALI ARENA: It wasn’t pretty by any means but Northern Ireland have the point they wanted to get their World Cup qualifying campaign up and running.

MARTIN KEOWN - INSIGHT: Gareth Southgate will have learned a lot about his players on Friday in what would have been a very disappointing night for him. 

NYX Hotel Prague is located slap-bang in the centre of the Czech capital. James Murphy checked in and found the property is an explosion of art, photography and colour.

Top photographer Amos Chapple has taken a set of fascinating photographs of Prague's rooftop statues and sculptures, from the beautiful to the bizarre and from the elegant to the grotesque.

Cham : Springer, 2019.

Cham : Springer, 2019.

Cham : Springer, 2019.

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