"Russia's Colony in America"

Alaska: The tsarist empire once sold Alaska to the USA for a pittance. The Orthodox Church has preserved traces of the colony to this day. Now the Moscow patriarchy is getting set for a new America mission. More than a third of the 85,000 native inhabitants of Alaska - Inuit, Native Americans, and Aleutians - willingly continue to wear their Russian Orthodox crucifixes to this day.

"Fear Allah"

German states: The financially ailing state of Saxony-Anhalt wants to attract Arab investors with a credit operation which conforms to the laws of the Koran - while turning a blind eye to the risks. The local government, under Wolfgang Böhmer of the conservative party CDU, wants to take out mortgages on state property in the form of so-called Islamic Bonds, bonds conforming to the Koran, in order to obtain funds for its overstretched budget. Such a pronounced tendency towards exoticism is leading to resistance in his own party. The department for real estate property, for instance, has issued an internal reminder that "the advantages of leasing, particularly when done by local governments," are the subject of controversy. In addition, the structure of the deal is said to be extremely obscure, investor could well be dubious - and that might have nasty consequences: for instance if the initial sum of 100 million euros were suddenly to be named "in connection with arms deals, money laundering or terrorism".

"The King of Smugglers"

Human smuggling: The Syrian Majed Berki brings thousands of Kurds to the coast of Southern Europe in unseaworthy ships - and then on to Germany. Under pressure from the German government, the Lebanese finally arrested him, but released him again in spite of a full confession. Now Europe lives in fear of the next ship.

"Unbridling the Camera"

Music videos: Directors of music clips have shaped the image of pop stars and revolutionised the aesthetics of cinematography - yet many of these artists feel underrated. A series of DVDs demonstrates that video clips are the true avant-garde of cinema. Michel Gondry and Spike Jonze have come up with a series of DVDs, named "Director's Label", collecting the life's work of successful clip directors. Apart from clips and commercials by Gondry and Jonze, the first three DVDs, which have just been released on the German market, also include works by the Briton Chris Cunningham.

"Lego Building Blocks for Octopuses"

SPIEGEL interview with US biologist Gordon Burghardt about playing turtles, fish and Komodo dragons, and the evolutionary benefits of playfulness:

"For a long time, it was believed that playing was a way of training certain behaviour such as hunting or running away. But that doesn't always have to be the case. I'm trying to trace the evolution of playful behaviour. And it turns out that perhaps playing didn't originally serve any purpose. ... In fact, playful behaviour only became of value to survival comparatively late in evolution. ... Patterns of behaviour are preserved playfully so that they will continue to be available to the animal later on. Only in the next stage is playing also a form of learning."

"The Viennese Snippet Musicians"

Computers: Can a computer replace an entire symphony orchestra with all its instruments in a life-like way? A company in Vienna has set out to prove just that - but the effort involved is enormous: musicians have to individually record hundreds of thousands of sound snippets for the computer.

"The Work Ethic of a Craftsman"

SPIEGEL interview with Kant biographer Manfred Geier about the philosopher's private life and his current topicality:

"I think he had a fulfilled, happy life. The big adventures took place in his mind - in his imagination he travelled all the way to the firestorms of the sun and through the infinite expanses of the universe. He was also an avid reader of travel literature. ... Today, Kant is the great figure of modern philosophy. Even Jacques Derrida has recently been referring less often to Heidegger than to Kant - as the philosopher who represents free thinking, subtle wit, a sharp intellect, and thoughtfulness about peaceful coexistence in unique conjunction."