Verblendet.
Der Spiegel titelt: “Die Lüge ist ministrabel geworden”. Das ist natürlich Blödsinn. Manche Lügen oder Auslassungen waren schon immer ministrabel, andere nicht.
read on“The privacy and integrity of information processing systems”
Striking down state legislation from Nordrhein-Westfalia, the German constitutional court has derived a new basic right to “privacy and integrity of information processing systems” (my quick and dirty translation).
read onBush in Bild
For those of you, gentle readers, who do not engange in in-depth analysis of Germany’s tabloid newspapers, here’s a transcript of the US President George W. Bush’s interview with Kai Diekmann of BILD – here’s the edited German version published by BILD. They met in the Oval office and discussed, among other issues, the rug-choosing [...]
read onFernsehtip
Es hat ein wenig gedauert, bis sich bei der vor der Verbreitung von PCs überaus wachsamen, aber schließlich durch den Umgang mit “bunten Bildchen”, bzw. dem WWW, in Bezug auf Datenschutz abgestumpften Zivilgesellschaft ein Problembewußtsein eingestellt hat. Aber – besser spät als nie. Nach dem gläsernen Bürger bei Maischberger wird sich nun auch Gerd Scobel [...]
read on357 Magnum?
Schon beim ersten Blick auf dieses Plakat habe ich mich gefragt, warum der Typ vom CDU Wahlplakat eigentlich eine Riesenknarre über der Schulter trägt. Oder eine Abschußvorrichtung für Boden-Luft-Rakteten.
read onIt can happen everywhere.
Seriously, Thuringia’s state premier Althaus, one of the most unpleasant “attention junkies” in German politics, has invited a proponent of intelligent design theory for a debate with an evolutionary biologist in a state-chancellory-sponsored debate called “Erfurter Dialoge”. So, it can happen here, too, apparently. While declaring that the “prominent invitees” do not always (sic!) represent [...]
read onLadenschluß.
Shopping from midnight to 4am, in Germany. It’s possible – at least for promotional reasons. Last Saturday, a couple of hundred of local retailers celebrated the “night of the senses”, during which shops were allowed to open. Apparently, the project’s revenue was satisfactory, as 100,000 people decided to postpone their shopping from Saturday afternoon to [...]
read onThe Need For Speed.
The German Embassy to the United States publishes a newsletter called TWIG (as in “This Week in Germany”), mainly aimed at the American public, that more often than not features little known gems, news that’s news only in the eyes of true connaisseurs – like you my gentle reades. Last Friday, TWIG published a story [...]
read onNot Even Sarcasm.
Usually, I’m less critical of the current state of the German academic reality than most people. This is probably owed to the fact that my experiences within the German university system were rather positive, for I attended one of its shining models, Mannheim University. But I probably have to face the fact that many, if [...]
read onSophie and Hans Scholl, Our Best.
I’m still not writing much these days because of my broken elbow, but today I just had to say something.
read onA Friend in Need.
Markus of Dormouse Dreaming points to a comment by Richard Cohen, published today in the Washington Post. Mr Cohen is apparently travelling in Germany these days and his observations made him write a manual for future American administrations about “how to loose a friend.” While his observations are certainly accurate – “… the indulgence that [...]
read onStupidity.
If you ever wondered why crime doesn’t pay, read this: “Police in Germany are searching for a burglar who they say is the most stupid they have ever come across.” (from Ananova)
read onSaban Again.
Hollywood Producer Makes 2nd Bid for German TV Group (from the NY Times Deal Book)
read onWay To Go: Germany On The Move
Sure, one has to be extremely careful when citing a sitting chancellor’s opinion that things are going well. But when Gerhard Schroeder opened today’s Bundestag debate by saying that “Germany is willing to change [economically], Germany is on the move” he is right. It wasn’t his reform “Agenda 2010” in the sense that people think [...]
read onZeitenwende. End Of An Era.
It took some time and more of their money to make Germans understand. It took more than ten years of subsidizing consumption and unemployment in a previously bankrupt former communist economy and virtual non-growth to make us see that it is not only necessary to think about the problematic long-term consequences of the current incentive [...]
read onAnother Perspective.
Just stumbled on the US Census website and found this genealogical break-up of the US population. Not that their ancestors’ cultural origins would matter in current affairs – US immigrants of German descent always assimilated quickly and – given the German history in the 20th century understandably – were never too keen to showcase their [...]
read on0190-spam.
In Germany, phone-numbers starting with 0190 can be charged at imaginary rates by a service provider. No wonder some doubtful service providers call mobile phones and wait for unwitting users to just press callback. But according to heise online it is not even illegal to send spam like “Someone would like to get to know [...]
read onTo Guard The American Poo
Ok, I know this place is getting progressively mono thematic. And I know there is a lot of note/newsworthy stuff going on that too many people, including myself, are forgetting about because the war in Iraq is requiring too much of our sensory bandwidth. But there’s hope: yesterday morning, for the first time in weeks, [...]
read onToo Big? Too Small!
I contend that the United States of America might be not powerful enough. And Henry Kissinger – whatever your personal take regarding his personal moral responsibility for doubtful US foreign policies, he is clearly someone with a certain grasp of international realities – would probably agree with me. After all, it was he who once [...]
read onMy New Ralph Lauren Sweater.
So via Blogdex, I found this hilarious article published by USA today called “Ugly sentiments sting American tourists”. I suppose it was pretty tough to write this article. You can literally sense how the evident editorial intention to publish yet another “peaceful American tourists tortured to death by mad and naked European pacifists”-peace made the [...]
read onCarnival Junkie…
is not just a great song by singer/songwriter Cindy Alexander. Some carnival junkies are real people. And on this weekend, about a million of them will be on the streets of my home town, Mainz, Germany. And even though I am not exactly one of them, chances are I’m going to wear a costume in [...]
read onIf You Are In London This Week…
why not attend some of the great events organised for this year’s London School of Economics German Symposium by the LSE German Society. Unfortunately, you have already missed the one hour special performance “Old Europe At Its Best” by Harald Schmidt, Germany’s #1 late night talk-host. Remembering the one time he did a show entirely [...]
read onVive la France!
40 years of official “amitié Franco-Allemande” will be celebrated by a joint session of both nations’ parliaments Paris today. And the Franco-German tv-station arte will broadcast the festivities all day long. That’s cleary must-see-TV. However, on the web, they have a funny little game called Voulez Vouz Klischee Avec Moi (German), ou bien Voulez Vous [...]
read onZe Tschermans Are Coming I
I wanted to write something about the appropriate perspective concerning Kraut-bashing in the UK, following some recent reports in German and British newspapers. But I am too tired to finish it now. So I will do that tomorrow and leave you for tonight with this link to The German Theory that a google search for [...]
read on