Only One Man and Germany goes Crazy

In Munich the whole Terminal 2 of the airport was closed down because one man went into the safety zone even though his notebook was tested positively on possible bomb ingredients. Yet, these ingredients are also used in perfumes and similar articles, which means that it is totally uncertain if he was dangerous.

The security stuff did not retain the hurrying man who (according to a Bavarian radio station) “looked like a business man”. He just passed by and could not be found again. Therefore, Terminal 2 was closed than and the search was continued, but it was in vain.

“Body Scanners are the solution”

As you might know reading my blog there’s a discussion about body scanners in Germany since one guy tried to bomb an American plane.  In connection to this new incident in Munich the German Minister of the Interior proclaimed the introduction of these body scanners once again. According to the Bavarian broadcast he called them “promising”.

Yet, if the staff is incapable of retaining a man, how should body scanners help? There was a positive, either a false positive or a true positive—whichever, it was positive. What else should a body scanner do if not show a positive value? Moreover, how should a body scanner find explosive in the notebook? Body scanners are used for bodies, not for notebooks. At least other institutions like the Labour Union of the police are arguing that it was the security staff’s fault.

Why so much security for planes?

Why do we even need so much security for planes? There would be much better targets for terrorists if they wanted to attack us severely: e.g. dams. Yet, it seems to be more humurous for them to show that they can circumvent our security measures. They are always considered inferior by Western civilisation, therefore kidding these countries must be a pleasure for them.

Of course, you could say that transatlantic flights cannot land on another airport if something goes wrong, but then European-Asian flights would not have to be under the same security measures. Moreover, you could say that ship travellers would have to face the same security checks, because ships cannot head for a harbour on the Atlantic Ocean, either. Though, searching on the internet leads to no results about ships and security controls, moreover it’s even the case that instead you find the sentence “airline passengers to the US have to deal with stricter security controls”.

Even police are claiming that it was probably only a false positive alarm, but still people will be worried now. Media is reporting about bomb alarm at an airport, so the plausible conclusion for most people in this terror frightened world is that it was a terrorist.

Passenger Name Records also in EU

If the European Council was in charge the EU would also introduce Passenger Name Records for flights within the Union. The system of Passenger Name Records is mainly used by the United States forcing airlines to store data about passengers travelling there and pass them to the US government.

These records include a lot of data and are a huge threat for our privacy. Of course, it is not sure which data should be collected within the European Union, but it seems as if credit card number was very important to them. Ministers of the Interior are always argumenting with terrorism, but why should terrorists not be able to change their credit card number (in case one was already suspicios) or use another payment method? Some people even talk about information like food preferences which would be totally useless with regard to terrorists.

The European Council again seems to be willing to introduce more and more surveillance based on the ever same argument of terrorism. You could even say they just waited for the past terroristic attempt, because while nothing happened German politicians tried to introduce surveillance and censorship “against childpornography” using faked statistics and defaming other countries. We can just hope that for the sake of all passenger the Parliament will refuse this law and sustain our privacy.

The Race for Extreme

“Catastrophic Blizzard”

It was two weeks ago when media announced horrible winter weather with huge loads of snow. What then came was rather normal winter incidents, because there were road problems in some regions, some towns in North Germany were isolated for a few hours, and in my region everything was totally normal, or even more harmless than normal.

However, the reports about it were hyped like hell, even in the so called “reliable news”. A reporter was standing somewhere in the snow and talked about plow men who removed the snow to a village were a young woman was getting a baby or an older one needed medical help. As if this had not been there every year! We’re seeing snow every year, we’re seeing cut off villages very often and—guess what—sometimes there’s even no electricity for some hours!

I can just repeat myself and say that it seems Germany is waiting for an apocalypse. Probably, it’s not the people who are waiting for this, but rather the media, because they always need to increase their viewer levels. This is easiest achieved by reporting about horrible incidents, unbelievable events and maybe also an upcoming apocalypse (without making the mistake to name it directly, because otherwise you would be called a Nostradamus and become noncredible).

TV superlatives

First Germany, then the world

You can also see this will for ever more important news in an advertisment for a TV movie. A German TV station is advertising a movie called Gonger 2 as “world premiere”. Now guess where that movie comes from: It is a German production for exclusively this TV station and it was never released in any other country. Therefore, the correct description would be just “premiere” or “Germany premiere”.

Moreover, they started calling their evening movies “blockbusters”. Of course, now this is not enough anymore, so they came up with the term “superblockbuser” for the same type of movies. I am already wondering if they do not even recognize that there are not any “blockbusters” anymore, so there cannot be a even higher level. Probably, the producers of the advertisment know it, but since the usual audience will not sense they do not care.

Oh my god, he will die!

Watching other TV series it is always the last chance if something finally gets done. There is only one last chance to rescue a specific person. Some series started with a nice concept, e.g. helping companies or restaurants to become better, but then they also surrendered to the lovely sound of emotion. They soon started to show only people who were deadly sick, who lost a son or suffer from some other stroke of fate.

It is just disgusting to use the sorrow of people for one’s own income, to increase the ratings. Moreover, it deadens tactfulness and makes viewers become dumb which is then reused by the media to avoid the need of new series. Instead the same sentences are repeated over and over, even only one or two days later.

Photo Tour through Tübingen

Having been on a photo tour in Tübingen today, I can say that Tübinger people seem to be pretty friendly and communicative. When I left the train station a guy asked me why I was so interested in a motive I was standing in front of. He explained that these used to be barns of the former casern (which is now used for administrative offices). He also told me that Tübingen was indeed a military town in the past.

University Town Tübingen

However, usually Tübingen is well-known as university town, it is even called University Town Tübingen (Universitätsstadt Tübingen) by the administration. The university itself is—if I know it correctly—famous for studies like politics or philosophy, which are called Geisteswissenschaften in Germany. Moreover, there is a university hospital, so medicine should not be unfamous.

There is also a castle in Tübingen, but you have to prepare for a steep way if you want to visit it. You have to find a way through the labyrinthine alleys of the Old Town up to the castle. However, once you have reached it, you can enjoy a magnificient view on the whole town.

Boule players and a photographer

On my further way through town I met some boule players. I watched them for some time, which was quite interesting, because I did not understand directly that they were playing in teams. They allowed me to take some pictures and told me that they would not play in winter, but they had read it would work if the snow was hard enough. Since the weather was nice today they just went out and tried.

The players even invited me to drink a French wine and eat something of their French sausage.

Only some minutes later a photographer talked to me, since he saw my tele-lens. He told me something about Dohlen (jackdows, some kind of bird), which made me look at a hole in the tree, because I only knew Dolinen (holes in the ground). He explained that he was talking about birds and showed me some. Quite a nice guy ;)

Images

You can find some images in my Tübingen album at 23hq.

How IT Companies try to Circumvent Democracy

Recently there has been a decision about another special duty for being allowed to create private copies of media. This time it’s about computers, but not all computers. Currently, there are already duties on CD / DVD writers, the discs and hard drives which are then given to copyright associations, e.g. for music or text. It is a strategy of the German entertainment industry to denigrate each type of copy (they do not mention private copy, but they neither exclude it) and then demand compensation for the damage these “evil” private copies do to them.

However, this case is not about entertainment industry, at least not mainly. It rather is about companies who follow these claims just to achieve a better balance sheet at the end of the term. Even worse is that these huge companies also want to force other companies to do the same.

The range between 13 and 30 €

It has already begun some years ago with law suits between entertainment industry and PC manufacters. The entertainment industry claims they have a right on duties on each sold computer, which leads to a problem for the computer manufacters: They have to retain money just in case they lose and have to pay.

I read the number of 30 euros in a news paper, which they wanted to get rid of. It is a really huge difference if a company has to save 30 € per sold computer or ca. 13 €. Therefore, some major companies wanted to stop the law suits and sign a treaty with the ZPÜ, an association for copyright holders.

Working committee in their way

Yet, the working committee of the German association for IT, tele-communication and new media (BITKOM) was in their way. A report mentioned that 1 € was enough, but of course this offer was refused by ZPÜ. Therefore, the needed 2/3 majority could not be reached in a democratic voting. Since there would have been a normal majority, the executive committee tried to sign the treaty itself, luckily being stopped by two other IT companies.

The solution was the foundation of a new association called Federal Computer Manufacters Association (BCH). It seemed a bit strange when media reported that there had been a agreement between BCH and ZPÜ, because nobody had ever heard of BCH before—and now it’s clear: The BCH has been formed by seven companies who wanted to sign this treaty.

ZPÜ using its position

Instead of being confident the ZPÜ is now trying to use their advantage and demand even more duties on “similar devices”. This could mean a lot, but according to Frank Brunen, CEO of Belinea and opponent of the high duty, probably devices like “USB sticks, mp3 players etc. etc.” are meant.

Moreover, the BCH is trying to confuse people by mentioning that “PC manufacters and importers” now had to pay about 13 € for each sold computer to the ZPÜ. This was understood by some media as if each manufacter now had to pay 13 €. However, according to Brunen’s lawyer, BITKOM is in charge of the negotiations and a great number of participants would be needed to make it obligatory for everybody and these seven major companies—even though it’s Acer, Fujitsu, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Medion, Samsung und Sony—are not even an average number.

Moreover, BITKOM wants to change its rules to require only normal majorities for such changes. This is done due to the huge pressure that these major companies have on the association paying much money to BITKOM. If BITKOM signed this treaty, this would be a huge defeat for the small PC retailers etc., because they are said to have good chances at Federal Court.

Ruhr.2010 - European Capital of Culture for one Year

Some people in North Rhine-Westphalia celebrated New Year’s Eve at a former industrial plant, because the Ruhr Area is European Capital of Culture this year. This is—if I know it right—the first time that a whole region (it was registered as Essen + Ruhr Area) receives the title. Essen and Ruhr Area won the competition against some other cities, including other cities in North Rhine-Westphalia like Cologne.

Industry in Ruhr District

There was a lot of heavy industry in Ruhr Area, which means they have some problems with regard to unemployment nowadays. Still, there are some companies mining coal, but German coal is too expensive for the world market, so it has to be subsidized by the state.

This however will lead to even more problems in the future, not only in North Rhine-Westphalia: If the state spends money on outdated technology instead of using it for the future, then Germany will use its leading position in the technology market.

However, you should not reduce the Ruhr District on heavy industry only. When I talked to a girl from there (she by the way was even from Essen), she protested that the area was not as bad as people think about it.

Ruhr Citizens proud of it?

However, it seems like many Ruhr people are proud of their region and the heavy industry. As already said they even celebrated in a former industry plant, the Zeche Zollverein (Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex). There have been 100.000 people each day at the celebration on January 9 and 10.

Press photo taken by Manfred Vollmer

The German singer and songwriter Grönemeyer even wrote a song for the Ruhr Area. He sings about the typical character of people living in this area, however this is of course not true for everybody. Though, there might be special attitudes in different regions.

European Capital of Culture

It seems to be their way to show excitement about the new title, even though it does not change anything. Would it not have been the same region even if it was not called European Capital of Culture now? There would have been the same places, there would have been the same sights and there would have been the same people.

The only difference seems to be, there are a lot o parties these days over there and government has to pay for it. Federal government pays 17 million, state North Rhine-Westphalia and Regionalverband Ruhr (regional association Ruhr) each 12 million, and the town Essen 6 million Euro. There are some more public institutions and a lot of private sponsors.