frankfurt am main 08:30

It seems like I always have a layover in Frankfurt whenever I visit Europe. Except for the fact that its airport is too small for the amount of people it serves (hence it always being crowded) it is a nice city to stop by if you have enough time to leave the airport. It only takes about fifteen minutes to get to the city center.

In reference to the original inhabitants of the area, Frankfurt means the 'ford of the Franks.' The main attraction is the Römerberg (Roman Hill) where the elections of the emperors of the Holy Roman Empire took place for 600 years. In this area, eleven buildings make up the Römer (The Roman). They are all said to be connected by hallways and labyrinths. The center building of the three gable-roofed structures was where the emperor's coronation would take place. It is known as the Haus Römer (Roman House) while the left and right one are called Alt-Limpurg and Löwenstein respectively. Many of the buildings were heavily damaged during World War II and reconstructed thereafter. The picture below is dated from the late 1880s.

Much detail was added in the recent reconstruction of these buildings. The wooden balcony for instance was added so that ceremonies could take place before a crowd of people. One interesting fact about these buildings is that the rulers bought them from wealthy merchants rather than building separate structures for their city.

Directly across from the Römer are these buildings in the picture above. All of them have been reconstructed and now have restaurants on the bottom floors.

Dom Sankt Bartholomäus (Saint Bartholomew's Cathedral) is the city's main cathedral. It was constructed in the 14th and 15th centuries on the foundations of an earlier Merovingian building. The building was destroyed in an 1867 fire and rebuilt in its modern day form.

innovation 15:12

Nothing is ever too objective but charts and graphs give us a good picture of what is generally going on in the world. So what can this list of the fifty most innovative companies tell us?

1) US still dominates in innovation. 22 out of 50 companies are American. If one breaks down the companies by their countries, it would go something like: Japan in second with five, China and Britain with four, Germany and Korea with three, Switzerland, Canada, Italy, Brazil, Finland and Spain with one each.

2) Innovation is increasing in Asia (13 in total). Especially as China rises, the number of innovations, patents, and companies will naturally increase as well. We see this in the number of patents Asia is producing (The top three patent holders are America, Japan, and South Korea) and even in the number of gold medal counts at the Olympics.

3) Innovation is decreasing in Europe (11 in total). Although still a very affluent part of the world, many continue to wonder when and if Europe will ever be as powerful as it once was. Or perhaps, the social Marxist bent of many European governments tends not to lend itself to innovation? I personally wouldn't care to work hard to create if the government took care of all my needs. (Although with the collapse of certain economies (i.e. Greece), the E.U., especially with Germany's lead, is slowly realizing that their socialist governments were unsustainable and unrealistic. While our country, on the contrary AND unfortunately, goes the other way.)

4) Brazil is listed as well (although the one company seems to be an oil company). Will we start to see more companies from other parts of the world?