Freiburg kanns auch!

I do apologise, Freiburg. They don't have a logo. Yet. But they have used the football methaphor. Ok, may be a bit hackneyed. It still makes a good reading though.

German understatement

The whole thing must seem odd for the English speaking world. A lot of Germans also wonder if the "Exzellenzinitiative" is a good idea. In its attempt to close ranks with the Harvards and Oxfords of this world, the Federal Government decided to fund a number of universities with a speacial grant. This grant is called "initiative for excellence" and worth EUR1.9bn. According to the department of education and research it was founded "to establish internationally visible research beacons in Germany". Exzellenzinitiative may be a catchy title and also gives it the academic touch it probably needs. It is, however, rather hard to pronounce. Konstanz Uni's press office has already had some problems with it (see below).

In the second round of the initiative six more universities were chosen by the German Research Association (DFG) and the Science Council yesterday. The Technical University Karlsruhe and both of Munich's universities (LMU and TH) won in the first round in October 2006. Germany's new elite universities are:

RWTH Aachen, FU Berlin and Universities Freiburg, Göttingen, Heidelberg and Konstanz.

The decision entitles them to some EUR100m in Government funds over the next couple of years. Let's prentend for one moment that this is a very good idea and that there is no criticism.

You would expect the lucky winners to promote this success in any way they can to attract students and business, wouldn't you? Let's have a look at their websites then.

It seems that no one of the Heidelberg staff has noticed that their employer was awarded a new title. There is absolutely nothing on the website. Oh, sorry. I missed it. There is a link in the menu on the left hand side. Almost invissibly. 1/10.












Some 100km further South, the colleagues in Konstanz are indeed aware of their prize. The didn't feel, however, that it is worth more than a press release. 3/10. Take a closer look at the wording of the headline. It honestly says, even in the English version: "Exzellenzinitiative: Universität Konstanz wird Exzellenzuniversität. Exzellenzuniversität Konstanz - mehr Informationen". Hello, McFly? Anybody home? A five year old could have been more creative. I have sent them an email saying that I have never read anything that boring.

Similarly unspectacular, FU Berlin calls itself "light tower of science". There is a nice image on Spiegel online. My god, welcome your students to the Elite University in the capital!

Even duller is Göttingen's version (my home uni btw!): "Excellence initiative: success." Wow! That's creative. 2/10. What about: Wer in Göttingen studiert ist exzellent!

The only university that has a good PR team seems to be Aachen. They actually use the term "exzellent" in the headline of the press release and furthermore have created a new logo - even better than Munich's. Almost there, guys. Just one more thing. An English translation of the website might attract foreign students and business as well. 8/10.

Thank you, Mr President

There are a lot of reasons to criticise US President George W Bush. And I have done that on this blog a number of times. It seems though that the anti-Bush camp does not mention his few positive moves. I do. Because it is only fair and in this case also very important.

Bush met the Dalai Lama this Wednesday. "Privately", they said to calm down the fire and brimstone breathing Chinese. Does it matter? I don't think so. A US President cannot meet someone privately. It will influence the world in any case.

You could argue that this move was not very brave, given that Bush is in the last month of his presidency. His has nothing to loose. Well, on top of the meeting with, Congress awarded the "man of faith and sincerity and peace" with a gold medal. Its highest award.

The German chancellor Angela Merkel infuriated Bejing when she had met the Dalai Lama in September. Well done, chancellor.

AI Music Night in The George Tavern, E1 this Friday!

Bella Italia?

The Italian people have voted overwhelmingly in favour of a labour and pension reform in a referendum on 8th October. Landmark agreement, great success for the fragile government under Romano Prodi. Fine. Reading on the FT article you find this in the last paragraph:

The Italian government spends about 14 per cent of GDP on pensions, the highest rate among OECD countries, for Italians to enjoy one of the youngest retirement ages of 57 years. The proposals would gradually raise the minimum retirement age to 61 between 2008 and 2013.

What? 61 years? Throughout the country not until 2013. And there is no outcry! Hey, you leasy buggers: Get going! This is disgraceful. Germany is going to raise the retirement age to 67! And then you wonder where the clichés come from...
Der Deutschlandfunk fasste es etwas anders.

Italien: Mehrheit der Beschäftigten stimmt für Erhöhung des Renteneintrittsalters
Bei einem Referendum über die Erhöhung des Renteneintrittsalters in Italien hat eine breite Mehrheit der Beschäftigten mit Ja gestimmt. Nach vorläufigen Ergebnissen votierten mehr als 82 Prozent für einen im Juli zwischen den Gewerkschaften und Ministerpräsident Prodi erzielten Kompromiss. Danach soll das Renteneintrittsalter schrittweise von jetzt 58 auf 61 Jahre steigen. Am Freitag wird das Kabinett in Rom über den Entwurf beraten. - dradio-newsletters: Deutschlandradio 20 Uhr Nachrichten vom 10. Oktober

Kann mir das mal jemand erklären?

WELTMEISTER AGAIN!

2-0 over Brasil! Germany has won the World Cup. The women's that is. Two terrific goals in the second half secured Sylvia Neid's team the victory over Brasil. Just after the interval Birgit Prinz (52') scored from 13 metres. Finally, Simone Laudehr scored in the 88th minutes with a brilliant header.

To quote the BBC2 commentator: "The are quite simply the best around!" Nadine Angerer was voted best goalkeeper of the tournament; she saved a penalty from Marta (Brazilians never seem to have a surname, I wonder why). The team did not concede a single goal throught the World Cup.

It's also the first time a team has ever defended their title. Germany won the Cup in the USA in 2003.

Empfehlungen für den baldigen Rentner E.S.

"Um erfolgreich ein Unternehmen zu führen, müssen zwei Dinge stimmen: Fachwissen und Persönlichkeit. Stoiber hat weder fachlich Ahnung noch Charisma."

Headhunter Dieter Rickert über die Chancen des bayerischen Ministerpräsidenten in der Wirtschaft. Edmund S. scheidet in zwei Monaten aus dem Amt.

Oh, sorry, you would like to read it?

And finally: Bryan

While Cerys is on Sky News on Sunday, I have eventually published my first article.

There is something (or someone) good in the world

The BBC interviewed the US soldier who exposed the abuse of Iraqi prisoners in Abu Ghraib.

Joe Darby being asked if he saw himself as a hero or a traitor: "I see myself as a soldier who did his job. No more, no less."

If you come across an AK-47...

... call the DoD. It might belong to the 190,000 they gave to the Iraqi forces. It was said that they can't rule that these weapons might now be used by the insurgents. So, against their own forces.

I have a deja vu here. Didn't the CIA support of the mujahideen in the war in Afghanistan in the 80s? Apparently one "freedom fighter" (R. Reagan) was called Osama bin Laden...

See also David Gardner's article in Friday's FT.

For Life

This week has been depressing. For one one from the doorstep community told me that he's terminally ill and that doctors had told him he'd be lucky to see the end of September. I really feel sorry for him. He's a nice guy, very frienldy, always greets.

Secondly, I read an article in the guardian weekend magazine about prisoners who had been sentenced to life without parole. Bad enough, they were kids when the committed the crime. And worse still, two of them actualy didn't kill anyone. They were complicit to murder. I knew that the judicial system in th US is strange. I knew about the death penalty of course. And thought that's bad enough for a democracy. Pustekuchen.

I have learned that life sentenced actually means imprisonment for life. You never leave prison,. You die in prison. In one way or the other. Excuse my ignorance, in Germany it's 15 years.

I have also learned that kids can be jailed. For life. In one case a 17-year old was convicted because her boyfriend, the killer, accused her of actively taking part in the murder - in contrary of what he said while question first by the police. So the murder actually made a deal by testifying that his girlfriend took part in the murder. The result, he gets a 20-50 year sentence with the chance of leaving prison earlier for good bevaiour. She gets life without parole. What kind of world is it, we are living in? An injustice that cries out to high heaven.

Even here, we can add some sarcasm to the already absurd story.

"When she was sentenced, the judge ruled that the time she had spent in jail awaiting trial - 264 days - should be credited against her term of incarceration. What does that mean?"

Weisheit

Ich dachte, wenn ich schon keines der wichtigsten Bücher gelesen habe, sollten sie doch zumindest auf meinem blog erscheinen.

Liste der rezensierten Werke
(in Klammern die Namen der Rezensenten)

1. Die Bibel (Rudolf Augstein)
2. Homer, Odyssee (Herbert Bannert)
3. Platon, Apologie (Urs Jaeggi)
4. Vergil, Aeneis (Bernhard Kytzler)
5. Tacitus, Germania (Heinrich Böll)
6. Longos, Daphnis und Chloë (Bernhard Kytzler)
7. Augustinus, Bekenntnisse (Golo Mann)
8. Die Erzählungen aus den tausendundein Nächten (Iring Fetscher)
9. Wolfram von Eschenbach, Parzival (Peter Wapnewski)
10. Gottfried von Straßburg, Tristan (Peter Wapnewski)
11. Das Nibelungenlied (Peter Wapnewski)
12. Dante Alighieri, Die Göttliche Komödie (Horst Rüdiger)
13. Giovanni Boccaccio, Das Decamerone (Herbert Heckmann)
14. Thomas Morus, Utopia (Rudolf Augstein)
15. François Rabelais, Gargantua und Pantagruel (Herbert Heckmann)
16. Michel de Montaigne, Essais (Rolf Michaelis)
17. Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen, Der abenteuerliche Simplicissimus (Günter Kunert)
18. Blaise Pascal, Pensées (Iring Fetscher)
19. Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe (Ulrich Greiner)
20. Jonathan Swift, Gullivers Reisen (Eberhard Lämmert)
21. Henry Fielding, Tom Jones (Ludwig Harig)
22. Laurence Sterne, Tristram Shandy (Rudolf Walter Leonhardt)
23. Voltaire, Candide (Robert Minder)
24. Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Die Leiden des jungen Werthers (Reinhard Lettau)
25. Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Anti-Goeze (Dieter Hildebrandt)
26. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Die Bekenntnisse (Rolf Michaelis)
27. Karl Philipp Moritz, Anton Reiser (Peter Laemmle)
28. Immanuel Kant, Zum ewigen Frieden (Rudolf Walter Leonhardt)
29. Ulrich Bräker, Der arme Mann im Tockenburg (Peter Wapnewski)
30. Friedrich Schiller, Ästhetische Schriften (Hans Platschek)
31. Denis Diderot, Jacques der Fatalist und sein Herr (Helmut Heißenbüttel)
32. Jean Paul, Siebenkäs (Leo Kreutzer)
33. Friedrich Hölderlin, Hyperion (Rolf Michaelis)
34. Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, Sudelbücher (Klaus Schröter)
35. Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Die Wahlverwandtschaften (Reinhard Baumgart)
36. Heinrich von Kleist, Erzählungen (Eberhard Lämmert)
37. Johann Peter Hebel, Das Schatzkästlein des Rheinischen Hausfreunds (Hartmut von Hentig)
38. Die Brüder Grimm, Kinder- und Hausmärchen (Hartmut von Hentig)
39. E. T. A. Hoffmann, Kater Murr und Kreisler (Hans Mayer)
40. Giacomo Casanova, Geschichte meines Lebens (Manès Sperber)
41. Joseph von Eichendorff, Aus dem Leben eines Taugenichts (Petra Kipphoff)
42. Stendhal, Rot und Schwarz (Luise Rinser)
43. Georg Büchner, Lenz (Peter Schneider)
44. Honoré de Balzac, Verlorene Illusionen (Hans-Jörg Neuschäfer)
45. Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist (Ludwig Harig)
46. Nikolaj Gogol, Die toten Seelen (Horst Bienek)
47. Søren Kierkegaard, Entweder – Oder (Heinz Josef Herbort)
48. Heinrich Heine, Deutschland. Ein Wintermärchen (Wolf Biermann)
49. Edgar Allan Poe, Phantastische Erzählungen (Dieter E. Zimmer)
50. Herman Melville, Moby Dick (Rolf Hochhuth)
51. Arthur Schopenhauer, Parerga und Paralipomena (Rudolf Walter Leonhardt)
52. Karl Marx, Der achtzehnte Brumaire des Louis Bonaparte (Oskar Negt)
53. Hans Christian Andersen, Märchen (Egon Monk)
54. Gottfried Keller, Der grüne Heinrich (Adolf Muschg)
55. Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary (Eberhard Lämmert)
56. Iwan Alexandrowitsch Gontscharow, Oblomow (Hans J. Fröhlich)
57. Victor Hugo, Die Elenden (Hanns Grössel)
58. Lewis Carroll, Alice im Wunderland (Dieter E. Zimmer)
59. Iwan Sergejewitsch Turgenew, Väter und Söhne (Reinhard Baumgart)
60. Wilhelm Raabe, Abu Telfan oder Die Heimkehr vom Mondgebirge (Hans Mayer)
61. Leo Tolstoi, Krieg und Frieden (Walter Kempowski)
62. Adalbert Stifter, Erzählungen (Ilse Aichinger)
63. Fjodor Michailowitsch Dostojewski, Die Dämonen (Luise Rinser)
64. Friedrich Nietzsche, Menschliches, Allzumenschliches (Rudolf Walter Leonhardt)
65. Emile Zola, Germinal (Günter Wallraff)
66. August Strindberg, Sohn einer Magd (Helmut Heißenbüttel)
67. Knut Hamsun, Hunger (Gabriele Wohmann)
68. Oscar Wilde, Das Bildnis des Dorian Gray (Rudolf Walter Leonhardt)
69. Anton Tschechow, Erzählungen (Peter Urban)
70. Theodor Fontane, Der Stechlin (Peter Härtling)
71. Thomas Mann, Buddenbrooks (Hans Mayer)
72. Robert Musil, Die Verwirrungen des Zöglings Törleß (Thomas Brasch)
73. Rainer Maria Rilke, Die Aufzeichnungen des Malte Laurids Brigge (Jürgen Becker)
74. Heinrich Mann, Der Untertan (Alfred Kantorowicz)
75. Marcel Proust, Auf der Suche nach der verlorenen Zeit (Walter Mehring)
76. Jaroslav Hašek, Die Abenteuer des braven Soldaten Schwejk (Pavel Kohout)
77. James Joyce, Ulysses (Wolfgang Hildesheimer)
78. John Dos Passos, Manhattan Transfer (Siegfried Lenz)
79. Franz Kafka, Das Schloss (Dieter E. Zimmer)
80. Hermann Hesse, Der Steppenwolf (Petra Kipphoff)
81. Alfred Döblin, Berlin Alexanderplatz (Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
82. Ernst Bloch, Spuren (Fritz J. Raddatz)
83. Sigmund Freud, Das Unbehagen in der Kultur (Hermann Glaser)
84. Leo Trotzki, Mein Leben (Christian Gneuss)
85. William Faulkner, Licht im August (Hans C. Blumenberg)
86. Franz Kafka, Erzählungen (Hans Mayer)
87. André Gide, Tagebücher (Hans Mayer)
88. Anna Seghers, Das siebte Kreuz (Susanne Schäfer)
89. Albert Camus, Der Fremde (Reinhard Baumgart)
90. Heinrich Böll, Erzählungen (Wolfgang Weyrauch)
91. Jean Genet, Querelle (Fritz J. Raddatz)
92. Ernest Hemingway, Der alte Mann und das Meer (Dieter E. Zimmer)
93. Max Frisch, Stiller (Joachim Kaiser)
94. Claude Lévi-Strauss, Traurige Tropen (Peter Wapnewski)
95. Samuel Beckett, Das letzte Band (Benjamin Henrichs)
96. Günter Grass, Die Blechtrommel (Fritz J. Raddatz)
97. Jean-Paul Sartre, Die Wörter (Fritz J. Raddatz)
98. Bertolt Brecht, Geschichten vom Herrn Keuner (Benjamin Henrichs)
99. Uwe Johnson, Jahrestage (Rolf Michaelis)
100. Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quijote (Golo Mann

Maybe that's the only way...

Sehen wir's mit Humour. Das Tourteam von tagesschau.de präsentiert eine amüsante Analayse von Kollegen und Alberto Contador. Es klingt wie eine Satire ist aber offensichtlich eine Aufzeichnung der gestrigen Pressekonferenz des maillot jaune.

Please have pity on us!

Anything less than the termination of the Tour de France is unacceptable. How can it get more embarrassing? Even before the start in London on 7th July it didn't look very bright. Apart from Jan Ullrich most of the German top cyclists (retired and active) confessed being involved with doping. Also 1996 champion Bjarne Riis admitted to have taken EPO.

So, did we think that the others were all clean? Let's pretend we believed this. What do the recent events show us?

To begin with there was the positive doping test of Telecom rider Patrick Sinkewitz. We then saw the preliminary peak when Alexandre Vinokourov was convicted and his Astana team withdrew subsequently. The following day Christian Moreni confessed and Cofidis dropped out as well. Thenof course the climax, when Michael Rasmussen was sacked by his team Rabobank over his lies about his whereabouts earlier this year.

Ah, right, that means the controls work. I recall Floyd Landis's "victory" last year. No, sorry, guys. I won't believe a word of what you say. "Cheating" will always be on my mind if I see the maillot jaune. Be it Contador, Evans, Leipheimer or whoever in Paris or elsewhere.

When the stroy broke last night I was hoping that the peloton would have the guts to say au revoir to the Tour. The start today abviously proved me wrong. Okay, it was naive to assume that all cyclists would leave, especially because it's the teams and sponsor who have control.

But how can Alberto Cobtador feel comfortable in is maillot jaune now? After Rasmussen's sacking, the Tour presents it's next suspect asks German's daily Süddeutsche Zeitung. The Spaniard had allegedly contact to doping doctor Fuentes.

Left: Doping at the Tour has a long history: Many times winner Lance A. drinking with a mate.

Salbutamol (Petacci), EPO, blood doping (Vinokourov), Testosteron (Sinkewitz, Moreni). It is hard to keep it all in mind. A friend of mine said, why don't they allow all this stuff. Then they would at least admit that they can't control and the Tour would be fair. A radical view. Maybe. It is, however, the only credible alternative to my demand above.

Vattenfall hat seine Hausaufgaben nicht gemacht

Man fragt sich dieser Tage, wie es zu den Störfällen in den AKW Krümmel und Brunsbüttel kommen konnte. Als ich mich 2002 für meine Magisterprüfung mit dem Thema Krisenkommunikation befasste, fand ich für die Störfallserie der Hoechst AG 1993 sehr umfassend Literatur. Die von dem Konzern begangenen Fehler scheinen denen von Vattenfall sehr ähnlich zu sein.

Folgen der Öffentlichkeitsarbeit der Hoechst AG
Bewertung
- späte Informationen
- unglaubwürdige Informationen
- Fehleinschätzungen
- Verhaltensregeln

Eine Nachfrage bei Aventis würde sicher nicht schaden. Den PR Verantwortlichen seien unten stehende Werke ans Herz gelegt.

Das Foto zeigt eine mit dem ausgetretenen Farbenvorprodukt ortho-Nitroanisol verschmutze Anlage auf dem Hoechst Gelände in Frankfurt Griesheim.
Gärtner, Edgar. „Erfahrungen aus einer Störfallserie“. In: Rolke, Lothar/Rosema, Bernd/Avenarius, Horst (Hg.): Unternehmen in der ökologischen Diskussion. Opladen 1994: 223-230.

Kepplinger, Hans Mathias/Hartung, Uwe. Störfallfieber. Wie ein Unfall zum Schüsselereignis einer Unfallserie wird. Freiburg und München: 1995.

Kesselring, Sven : Die Störfälle bei Hoechst im Frühjahr 1993. „Eine Fallstudie zur sozialen Konstruktion ökologischer Konflikte“. In: Brand, Karl-Werner/Eder, Klaus/Poferl, Angelika (Hg.): Ökologische Kommunikation in Deutschland. Opladen 1997: 269-306.

Raketenabwehr

USA äußern sich besorgt über Aussetzung des KSE-Vertrags durch Russland

Die Suspendierung des KSE-Vertrags durch Russland ist international kritisiert worden. Die USA äußerten sich besorgt. Ein Regierungssprecher sagte in Washington, man werde in den kommenden Wochen mit Moskau über das weitere Vorgehen sprechen. Bundesaußenminister Steinmeier betonte, das Abkommen, sei zentraler Bestandtteil der internationalen Abrüstungsarchitektur. Auch Polen, Tschechien und Rumänien bedauerten die Entscheidung Russlands. Nach Angaben des Kreml soll die Suspendierung in 150 Tagen in Kraft treten. Präsident Putin hatte das Abkommen, das Obergrenzen für konventionelle Waffen festlegt, bereits im April im Zusammenhang mit dem geplanten US-Raketenabwehrsystem in Polen und Tschechien in Frage gestellt. - Der 1999 geänderte KSE-Vertrag war von Russland fünf Jahre später ratifiziert worden, von den NATO-Staaten dagegen nicht. Sie machen dies von einem vollständigen Abzug russischer Truppen aus Georgien und Moldawien abhängig.

Auszug aus dem Newsletter des Deutschlandfunks vom 14. Juli 2007

Nukes are back

Just read that the US and Russia agreed to reduce their arsenal of strategic weapons.

The foreign ministers, Rice and Lawrow, even agreed to only hold on to as many weapons as necessary for the security of their countries.

I wonder what that means. Article II of the START between the Soviet Union/Russia and the US states that ICBMs have to be reduced to 1,600 and wareheads to 6,000. Well, START expires in 2009 and that's why the above mentioned talkes took place.

I mean, great effort, only 6,000 nukes. Are there chances that this number is reduced even further. Great, it would possible mean that they can only annihilate the planet, how often? Four times? Three times? Twice?

You may want to ask CND for councel.

Moving House in Downing Street

Some headline from the shortest move in history. Interstingly New PM Brown often wasn't the number one headline as Blair has been confirmed as Middle East envoy and Merkel gets some credit at the end of German presidency. Here we go. The German tageeschau.de runs a rather dull "Erst Premier, jetzt Gesandter", Where as Der Spiegel (German weekly magazine) focuses on "Brown's Independence Day" ("Browns Unabhängigkeitstag") The Swiss are also dull, the headline of Neue Zürcher Zeitung reads "Blair zum Nahost-Sondergesandten ernannt" (and continue in smaller print, "Browns Kabinett soll am Donnerstag vorgestellt werde", and Die Zeit simply informs "Blair ist neuer Sondergesandter" (Blair is new special envoy) . Interstingly Süddeutsche Zeitung is the only that doesn't rank the news among the top three. In fact it's the fourth headline after Merkel re Poland, Merkel re Marco and, yes, Merkel re the Kaczynskis. And the SZ also seems to be the only paper that claims to know that the German Government is not amused about Blair's new job (Bundesregierung irritiert über Berufung Blairs).

Adieu Ténéré

I've sold my motorbike today. My dad stored it for me in a garage and has recently convinced me put to up for sale. Obvioulsy he was right as I haven't used it in two years. And even in my last year in Germany I rarely took it for a ride. Still a bit sade though. we had a good time. So from Whitechapel in London it's good-bye.