Thursday, March 17, 2011

Just connecting ...

Two related statements from today's online edition of Der Spiegel.

In the top story about the Fukushima catstrophe:

"Inzwischen hat ein Ingenieur, der am Bau beteiligt war, schwere Mängel bei der Konstruktion der Anlage eingeräumt." ("In the meantime, an engineer involved in the construction of the plant has acknowledged major construction flaws.")

In a less prominent (but oddly related) report in the "Uni-Spiegel" section (which deals with anything related to education) we learn that

"[i]n Informatik, Naturwissenschaften und in Ingenieurstudiengängen brechen besonders viele Studenten ab: Fast jeder Zweite hält nicht durch, jeder Vierte verlässt die Uni sogar ganz ohne Abschluss." ("In IT, the natural sciences and engineering, a particularly large number of students abandon their degrees: Nearly every second student gives up, every fourth fails to graduate at all.")

Well, one must be grateful for small mercies. Given the current "Fachkräftemangel" in Germany chances are that even a technical dimwit like me would be hired to design a nuclear power station and situate it slap-bang in the middle of an earthquake-prone area.

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