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In collaboration with the publishing house Argo, the Czech Scouts have released a new comic book that depicts a plethora of stories from key periods in modern Czech history. Titled Odvaha je volba (Bravery is a Choice) the publication features drawings from several leading Czech illustrators.

Today is the 150th anniversary of the birth of Adolf Loos, a pioneering modernist architect raised in Brno, who left a rich legacy also in Vienna, Prague and beyond. He is perhaps best known for the radical philosophy that “ornament is crime”  and multidimensional design of interior spaces, which Loos called simply the ‘Raumplan” .

The Baťa shoe company is one of the most famous and successful Czech businesses in the world. In large part thanks to its rapid international expansion during the interwar era, which was based around copy-pasting the successful company model abroad through the sending out of special core teams made up of Czech Baťa employees. But how did this work in practice? Jan Beránek has written a book which traces the life of his ancestor Silvestr Němec, who was one of the so-called Baťamen sent to Singapore in the 1930s. His life shows the adventures, but also tragic fate that a young village boy from Czechoslovakia could encounter by working for the shoe company.

It is exactly 30 years since the Czechoslovak government announced the key decision to sell carmaker Škoda Auto to German giant Volkswagen. The move followed months of talks, though fears that a major domestic enterprise would be undermined were not borne out and today Škoda is the Czech Republic’s largest exporter.

Scientists in the Šumava national park have started monitoring a wild wolf using a special telemetric collar. The project, the first of its kind in the Czech Republic, is being conducted in cooperation with experts from the Czech University of Life Sciences in order to better understand the wolves’ movement patterns and behaviour.

Between the two world wars, Karel Čapek was the Czech nation’s leading novelist, playwright, newspaper columnist, travel writer and critic. His most popular work during his lifetime both at home and abroad was his science fiction play ‘R.U.R.’ from 1920, which introduced the word “robot” into the English language. Čapek’s penultimate play, ‘The White Disease’ (Bílá nemoc), first performed in January 1937, was a dark satirical send-up of fascism and opportunism, set against the backdrop of a deadly pandemic. The antimilitary utopian play was as prescient then as it is topical today, in the time of coronavirus.

Should Czechs abroad have the possibility to vote electronically? One of the politicians in favour of making this possible is lower house speaker Radek Vondráček from the ruling ANO party. He has observed elections in Estonia, which makes so-called “e-voting” possible, as well as the counting of the postal votes in California in the United States. And as he told Vít Pohanka, he considers some sort of electronic distance voting more feasible than introducing a postal vote.

New restrictions aimed at curbing the spread of the coronavirus will force all Czech restaurants and bars to close at 8 pm from Wednesday. Such businesses were only allowed to reopen last week – and operators say they cannot be the reason Covid numbers are on the rise.

Composer, pianist and music teacher Vadim Petrov has died at the age of 88. Petrov created over 1,400 compositions in the course of his career, from symphonies to film and theatre music as well as music for children’s cartoons and fairy tales.

On the occasion of the festive season, the Czech Center in New York has prepared a series of events celebrating the tradition of Czech glass-making. One of the highlights is a new collection of unique Christmas ornaments manufactured in the renowned Glass School in Železný Brod, which is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year.