http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,681691,00.html
Hey it sounds like a winner to me.
They cause accidents and they blight the streets -- extreme winter weather has resulted in a rash of potholes across Europe. With a shortage of cash to fix them, one German town has come up with a unique solution: selling sponsorships, complete with a plaque.
The snow has finally melted in most of Europe. But what it has left behind is not entirely to the liking of most. In Berlin, for example, the vanished drifts have revealed mountains of charred waste from fireworks still left over from New Year's. Weeks worth of newly thawed out dog dirt has likewise made walks in the city a chore.
Most of all, though, cities and towns across Europe are finding that their streets are full of brand new potholes -- deep, wide and dangerous. TÜV Rheinland, a safety certification company, estimates that 30 to 40 percent of all German roads have suffered serious damage as a result of the winter weather this year. Even worse, after spending mountains of cash to remove snow and salt ice, many municipalities have none leftover to fix the craters.
