But which are pretty cool nonetheless – ‘this site is intended to allow science fiction fans to get an impression of the true scale of their favorite science fiction spacecraft by being able to campare ships accross genres, as well as being able to compare them with contemporary objects with which they are probably familiar.’ – Jeff Russell’s starship dimensions.
Archiv der Kategorie: quicklink
Haim or no Haim?
The American/Egyptian/Israeli media entrepreneur Haim Saban, who decided to take control of roughly 20% of the German tv-market – the majority of the main business of the bankcrupt former Kirchmedia empire – for roughly 2bn Euros is allegedly having second thoughts as other investors do not seem to share his enthusiasm for the deal. (from manager-magazin/Spiegel Online).
Conflicting Interests.
JD’s new media musings point to an interesting article regarding the consequences of digitalised production environments for the relationship of publishers and journalists in the LA Times –
“Convergence may be good for media companies, but it’s bad for journalism”.
Poland wants German troops.
A headline that could easily be turned into a bad joke, I suppose. But it’s apparently true: The Polish government allegedly can’t feed its Iraqi peacekeeping forces and has thus turned to the Pentagon asking if it were ok to invite some Germans and Danes down to the desert… (from the FT Deutschland).
Propaganda.
Wanna see media bias in action? The EU Observer writes in today’s newsletter that the German press casts doubt about Joschka Fischer’s possible nomination as a future European Foreign Minister. What? The German press? Well, if you check the article it’s actually only the FT Deutschland… and suddenly all makes sense again.
Different Standards.
At the end of February, when a Frankfurt court sentenced Mounir Motassadeq to 15 years of imprisonment for aiding the 911 terrorists, the Washington post was a tad bit cynical about the fact that “European countries have different visions of just sentencing than those that prevail in [ths US]” entitling their commentary “1.8 Days Per Murder”. Today, Salon.com’s coverage of unjust executions in the US would allow to reciprocate the cynicism – if it weren’t so sad.
I’m frightened.
Fair enough, all this is probably even more speculative than the much debated question how long the US will stay in Iraq. Now that a lot of people believe that Joschka Fischer will go to Brussels next year to become the first ‘European Foreign Minister’ once the Constitution will be ratified, the establishment of his party is already vulturing for his current job.
According to SPIEGEL ONLINE, even the current Minister for environmental affairs, Juergen Trittin, is interested in the top-job in the German foreign ministery. Even though his most notable foray into foreign affairs was rather successful (he managed to get the Kyoto treaty through against W’s opposition), I cannot possibly imagine “Juergen-can-deposit-Trittin” as Germany’s top ambassador. No way. Never.
Computers ARE stupid.
Wanna know how far machine translation is still from being remotely useful? Guess what Google’s automatic site translation made of George W. Bush? For those who do not want to try for themselves – it is “George W. Buisson”.
Preemptive Eavesdropping. Home. Slightly Drunk.
Just had a great two-hour argument with a Sueddeutsche-Journalist about the vices and virtues of his profession. And now I come home to find this article in his newspaper about how a proposed state law is about to legalise preemptive eavesdropping on journalists in Bavaria. I may be too tired to reflect on this, but I am certainly not tired enough to oppose it.
Much Ado about not much.
The McKinsey Quarterly looks at the incentive effects of the Bush dividend-cut proposal and decides that it, well, is largely a placebo. Won’t hurt, won’t heal, as most shares are held by tax-exempt entities anyway –
“The fact, however, is that tax-paying US individual shareholders own a minority of all US shares?28 percent in 2002, whereas tax-exempt US institutions and individuals who hold shares in tax-exempt accounts owned 61 percent. (The remainder was in foreign hands.) … Since these investors are indifferent to the issue of taxes on their dividends, they are unlikely to set in motion the kinds of changes in their portfolios that would drive up share prices.”