Darth Vader at Brandenburg Gate

Some photos just need to be explained.

For more, see Xinhua. (Xinhua/Reuters photo)

Is WePad the Android-Based iPad Challenger?

The Berlin-based makers of the WePad hope to leverage its open-source platform to give it success in the competition against the Apple iPad.

The company -- whose name, Technologieentwicklung und Informationsmanagement GmbH, just rolls off the tongue, doesn't it? -- expects to have the products for sale in May, shortly after the iPads go on sale.

The WePad includes a camera -- something the iPad's been criticized for lacking -- plus two USB plugs, reports The Local.

Giant Puppets in Berlin for Unification Anniversary

Berlin was taken over -- in enthusiasm if not in power -- by giant puppets who helped celebrate the anniversary of the country's reunification. It's the 19th year since East Germany agreed to be absorbed into the Federal Republic, and it's the 20th year since the fall of the hated Berlin Wall.



The capital city marked the event with ceremonies and other such behavior. But the most eye-catching event was the performance of two giant puppets, who represented an uncle being reunited with his niece from the other side of the wall. The uncle, wearing an old diver's uniform, rose out of the river before coming ashore for the reunion.

BBC reports that former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev was present for the ceremonies (in human, not puppet form -- and I'll suppress any urge to call the East German government a Soviet puppet regime) (but it was). He planted a tree in commemoration of the huge events of two decades ago.

Daniel Libeskind on the Fire at the Berlin Philharmonie

Famed architect Daniel Libeskind answered questions from the audience at an appearance today at San Francisco's Commonwealth Club of California. One question was whether the building of the Berlin Philharmonie (Berlin Philharmonic) should retain its original, 1960's modernist look in any reconstruction. Libeskind says it should, in a short response.