Access America

Pop­u­lar Cul­ture, His­to­ry, and Cur­rent Events

Public Transportation: Not Just a Berlin Problem

By Kinga Julia Faraldo Stoklosa

Imag­ine this: You’re wait­ing for the next train to Berlin Alexan­der­platz at the train sta­tion Friedrich­straße. But before the train even stops, you let out an annoyed sigh. Not again, you think. It’s one of those old train cars, the ones with a step. Now you ask a strong-look­ing per­son for help, and even though it’s Berlin (which is not known for being the friend­liest place in Ger­many), the per­son is will­ing to lift the front part of your wheel­chair to help you get onto the train. Two sta­tions lat­er, you have to ask some­one else for help to get off the train.

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Studying With Limited Freedom of Speech: My Semester in Hong Kong

By Charlina Strelow

In 2021, Pres­i­dent Biden offered a safe haven to Hong Kong res­i­dents in the U.S., which allowed them to pro­long their stay for up to 18 months. This year, Biden extend­ed that offer for an addi­tion­al two years, call­ing Hong Kong’s poli­cies a “sig­nif­i­cant ero­sion of human rights and fun­da­men­tal free­doms.” To under­stand these poli­cies bet­ter, here’s a brief look into Hong Kong’s recent history.

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Winter Sports — At What Cost?

By Hannah Quinque

Not exact­ly an idyl­lic view: The future of win­ter sports lies in pro­duc­ing arti­fi­cial snow.
Pho­to cred­it: “Ski jump­ing in Ober­st­dorf, Ger­many” by Arne Müse­le

“Hav­ing the World Cup back on U.S. soil is very impor­tant in devel­op­ing the sport of Ski Jump­ing in this coun­try and across the world,” enthus­es one ski jump­ing train­er about the return of the Men’s Ski Jump­ing World Cup to his­tor­i­cal site Lake Placid, NY, after over three decades. As heart-warm­ing as this news may be for North Amer­i­can win­ter sports afi­ciona­dos, it’s hard to feel as opti­mistic about ‘devel­op­ing’ the future of snow sports when cli­mate change is already heav­i­ly impact­ing events even today.

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Valentine’s Day – A Marketing Scam or a Day Filled with Love?

By Veronika M. Heinrich

Valentine’s Day Card from 1876

When­ev­er I talk to peo­ple about Valentine’s Day, I get some sort of hate­ful response. It’s only about mon­ey. You’re forced to buy some­thing for your sig­nif­i­cant oth­er or they’ll be mad. It’s more roman­tic to show your love every day in small ges­tures rather than doing so only one day a year. And it’s all just a devi­ous plan of the indus­try, try­ing to sell heart-shaped food, flow­ers, and oth­er fes­tive nonsense.

Is that the truth or can Valentine’s Day be some­thing more? As a fan of spread­ing love and appre­ci­a­tion, I want to inves­ti­gate this fur­ther. What are the roots of Valentine’s Day? And how can we escape all this neg­a­tiv­i­ty and make it an enjoy­able day?

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Feeding Feathered Friends in February – National Bird-Feeding Month

By Veronika M. Heinrich

Christ­mas and New Year’s Eve are over. Now it’s already Feb­ru­ary, but Valentine’s Day is not real­ly your thing? Wor­ry not! Nation­al Bird-Feed­ing Month has arrived.

It’s just the right time of the year to pro­vide our feath­ered friends with food and water in our back­yards, then sit in front of the win­dow to watch them. It’s a great delight to see them feast on seeds. You can get in touch with nature, take a moment to relax, and help the envi­ron­ment. It’s also cheap, and kids will have a lot of fun learn­ing the dif­fer­ent birds’ names.

You’re not famil­iar with the A and O of bird-feed­ing yet? Don’t wor­ry about this either – I’ve been feed­ing birds in my yard for years. Let me feed you the most impor­tant tit­bits you need to know to participate!

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Sit, Drink, Eat, Repeat

By Nina Preußler

Did you know that there are now more dan­ger­ous­ly over­weight than mal­nour­ished peo­ple in the world? With over one third of their pop­u­la­tion clas­si­fied as obese, the Unit­ed States is one of the coun­tries most affect­ed. It’s easy to jump to con­clu­sions and dis­miss the ‘obe­si­ty epi­dem­ic’ as a symp­tom of ever-grow­ing lazi­ness in the West­ern world. Instead, the tripling of the obe­si­ty rate in the U.S. over the last 50 years can most­ly be attrib­uted to obe­so­genic envi­ron­ments. You’re ask­ing your­self what that is?

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