Where no one has gone before.

Worf at his best. And Data's command. If you are missing in quotes it's most likely you will find them here.

Star Trek greatest moments.

Jörg Schönenborn wäre auf der Insel arbeitslos

Auch nach fuenf Jahren in London gibt es noch immer Dinge, die mich verwundern, amuesieren oder die ich schlicht nicht verstehe. Ich habe schon ueber die Situation der Geldautomaten und das mit Hingabe vollzogene Schlange stehen geschrieben. Dieses Mal geht es um Politik und Wahlen, genauergesagt um Wahlergebnisse und wie sie zustande kommen.

In Deutschland gibt es bei Landtags- und Bundestagswahl eine Prognose nachdem die Wahllokale geschlossen habe. Das wird sogar mit Countdown angekuendigt. Bis auf wenige Ausnahmen sind diese Prognose, die Umfrageergebnissen nach dem Urnengang beruhen, akkurat.

Die erste Hochrechnung gibt es in der Regel 15 Minuten spaeter, die Zweite weitere zehn Minuten spaeter undsoweiter. Meines Wissens wird in den fruehen Morgenstunden das vorlauefige amtliche Endergebnis veroeffentlicht.

Beispiel von der Insel gefaellig? Gegen zwei Uhr morgens erklaerte der Wahlleiter Labours Debbie Abrahams zur Siegerin der 'by-election', also der Nachwahl, in Oldham East and Saddleworth.

Das war zwar keine grosse Ueberraschung, Journalisten und Politiker hatten in Interviews einen komfortabken Sieg vorhergesagt, aber offizielle Zahlen gab es nicht. Warum also, macht die BBC oder andere keine exit polls?

Bei der General Election vom 6. Mai 2010, die die Konservativ-liberaldemokratische Regierung hervorbrachte, waren um acht Uhr am folgenden Tag erst 500 der 650 Wahlkreise ausgezaehlt.

Ein Freund wies darauf hin, dass Grossbritannien eben (noch) ein reines Mehrheitswahlrecht habe und nicht wie beispielsweise Deutschland einer personalisierten Verhaeltniswahl.

Aber was spricht dagegen, Wahler nach der Wahl zu fragen, wo sie ihr Kreuz gemacht haben? Der Englaender nennt das exit poll.

Ich habe immer noch keine schluessige Antwort gefunden. Wer mir eine schickt, bekommt ein Pint.

Supporting the EFF campaign No Censorship

Say No to Online Censorship!

Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Nice room to let in Whitechapel

A single unfurnished room will be free in Whitechapel from mid August. Nice and diverse area, very central, a lot of small shops, a big Sainsbury's and Whitechapel Gallery are only down the road. Plenty of buses around the corner, tube stations are close as well, either Whitechapel or Aldgate East. The rent is roughly around £550 total, there are a kitchen, living room, 3 bedrooms, all spread over the two top levels of a Victorian terrace. It is available from the 18th of August. Oh and no couples and no pets – sorry.

You would be living with two people. We are Simone and Eva, in our late 30s and 20s respectively, and if I may say we are rather easy going and nice. We are a landscape architect and working in the photography industry. Interests include art, architecture, photography, music, sports as well as relaxing. We are looking for someone friendly and easy-going, who cares about the place and is generally happy to live with other people. The flat should not be an impersonal functional place but we are also busy with our own lives and it easily happens not to meet for a few days. So it is all about balance, which includes respecting the other’s privacy and noise levels but also having fun, if there is time for the odd drink or nice chats together.

Simone has lived in the flat for a few years now and Eva will be joining shortly, so it is two fairly new people moving in around the same time. The landlord does not live in the property.
If this sounds about right to you, please drop us an email with some information about who you are etc and we get back in touch after.

Best

Simone and Eva

NDR Online - Nachrichten - Hamburg- Ole von Beust vor dem Rueckzug ins Private

Schade eigentlich, einer der wenigen sympathischen CDU-Politiker.

NDR Online - Nachrichten - Hamburg- Ole von Beust vor dem Rückzug ins Private

Aggressive motorists

I sent this letter to Southwark News.

Have you realised how rude motorists have become? I had a chat with a bus driver on Tooley Street recently. “Car drivers are under a lot of stress and have become very aggressive”, he said.

That might explain the very unpleasant encounter I had on Wednesday. I stopped at a red light on the junction Borough High Street St and Thomas St. I was in the lane for the right turning traffic which is clearly marked as such. The motorist behind me, who apparently wanted to go straight on, honked and, as I ignored him, overtook me. There were only a couple of centimetres between his car and my jeans.

I then complained and waved my hands at him because I felt threatened by his manoeuvre. He immediately stopped his car in the middle of the road, jumped out of his car and ran towards me. I won't repeat the words he yelled at me, but they weren't nice. He came so close to my face that I had to move back in order not to hit it.


And if that was not bad enough the next car in the lane behind me started honking and complaining. And swearing. I pointed to the red light and tried to communicate that it was a right turn lane. But no one seemed to care.

I can understand when motorists are stressed because of heavy traffic. But it's neither mine nor other cyclists fault. The fact that we can get around the traffic more easily should not be punished by motorist by threatening and dangerous behaviour, but encourage them to cycle too.
The London Cycling Campaign has a commendable bike to work programme and also offers cycle training.

Florian Leppla (working in SE1)

Little History lesson for the Baroness

Following a recent article in Countryman's Weekly, I couldn't resist sending a letter to the editor which is quoted below.

I doubt that Baroness Mallalieu has any knowledge of recent German history (Matt David’s article “The Baroness who fights for fox hunting”, The Countryman’s Weekly 25 November). If she did she wouldn’t link a democratically elected government to the secret police of the communist dictatorship of the GDR. This comparison is disgraceful and, as a German, I am deeply offended by it.

I have seen the conditions under which opponents of the regime were treated in the remand prison of the Stasi in Berlin-Hohenschönhausen. I was shocked and deeply moved when the guide, a former detainee, explained that he was tortured and held in solitary confinement.

The GDR dictatorship who built the Berlin Wall and the heavily guarded and fortified “death zone” at the inner German border was responsible for over 1,000 deaths.

In linking the British government with the Stasi Baroness Mallalieu insults these victims and others who were tortured by the Stasi and other sidekicks of the GDR regime and makes a mockery of the torture they suffered from.

She might want to visit the website of Memorial Berlin-Hohenschönhausen to read the eyewitnesses’ accounts of former detainees (http://en.stiftung-hsh.de/index.php). She might also want to consider donating to the Memorial.

Comment on "Matadors at each other’s throats"

Comment on the article in the Sunday Times, 7 March 2009

It is hardly surprising to see the integrity of bullfighters questioned by accusations of favouritism and jealousy (Matthew Campbell, Matadors at each other’s throats, Sunday Times 8 March 2009). Matadors are in fact not “used to adulation for confronting death in the ring”. On the contrary, there is no danger of death or serious injury for a matador because the “fight” is seriously rigged. The bull’s horns are regularly shaved making it lose its sense of orientation. Once in the arena lances are driven into the bull’s back and neck muscles, which weaken it further and prevent it being able to raise its head. Men on foot then stab harpoons into its back. This all happens before the matador takes action. To put it bluntly, bullfighting is as dangerous to the matador as is crown green bowls to the player.

Comment on "As Bullfighter Gains Honor, Peers Perceive a Grave Loss"

Comment on article in The New York Times, 19 March 2009


It is not surprising that Spain's bullfighters must now wage a war of words as well as flouncing around in the arena (Victoria Street, As Bullfighter Gains Honor, Peers Perceive a Grave Loss, 19 March 2009). They are so nervous because their livelihood is threatened due to declining attendance. So they are desperate for any publicity they can get to promote their “sport”. Neither locals nor tourists are in favour. Whereas 67 percent of Spaniards are not interested in bullfighting (Gallup poll 2008), 89% of the British public would never visit a bullfight when on holiday (ComRes poll commissioned by the League Against Cruel Sports, 2008). Bullfighting is a cruel past time that has no place in a modern society. Pledge your support for a ban!

Japanese pyramids

From Times Online February 5, 2009

Japanese businessman Kazutsugi Nami arrested for £1bn fraud

Richard Lloyd Parry in Tokyo

Police have arrested a businessman and 21 of his executives for allegedly defrauding investors of a reported 126 billion yen (£1 billion). 

Kazutsugi Nami was drinking a tankard of beer when police, accompanied by reporters, arrested him in a restaurant close to his office in Tokyo at 5.30am (local time). "It was not a fraud," he said as he was led away. "The police have destroyed my businesses . . . I am a victim of the police investigation." Asked if he felt sorry for his investors, he replied, "No! I have put my life at stake." 

Police have not commented on the size of the alleged fraud but Japanese media were describing it as the country's biggest scam. According to the Kyodo news agency, Mr Nami's company, L&G, collected some 126 billion yen from approximately 37,000 people, promising them 36 per cent annual interest, despite having debts of 42.3 billion yen and only 1.4 billion yen in assets. Other news agencies reported that L&G had allegedly defrauded 50,000 investors of up to 226 billion yen. 

The net had been tightening steadily around Mr Nami ever since L&G went bankrupt. The company became well known as a seller of bed linen and health products and for issuing its own virtual currency – Enten, or Divine Yen – which were stored on mobile phones and which customers could use to buy mattresses, food, clothes and jewellery at markets and in online shops. 

Those who introduced new investors to the company were rewarded with commissions. In 2005, the company set up a "research institute" called the Akari Laboratory, which was registered with the Government as a non-profit organisation dedicated to the revitalisation of local economies. Famous musicians and distinguished academics performed and lectured at events organised by Akari. 

It became obvious that something was wrong in February 2007 when L&G announced that dividends would be paid in Enten instead of cash. It laid off most of its employees in September of that year and its offices, as well as Mr Nami's home, were raided by the police the following month. Japanese newspapers reported at the time that he had a history of involvement in pyramid schemes. 

Mr Nami was in the early Seventies the vice-president of a car parts dealer named APO Japan, which enticed 250,000 people into a pyramid scheme involving exhaust pipes. He then set up a company called Nozakku, which sold stones that, the company claimed, could turn tap water into natural water. The company went bankrupt with debts of 4.5 billion yen in March 1978 and Mr Nami was jailed for fraud. 

He established L&G and became its chairman in August 1987 with executives of Nozakku. Among the goods L&G sold was a futon mattress said to boost the immune system of those who slept on it. L&G's president, Masuo Saeki, was arrested in 1987 for a separate pyramid scheme. 

The Jobmarket. At home.

Maybe you need the distance of three years living abroad. Looking at the German job market now makes you wonder how this economy works. Okay, this is only one example but it is striking nonetheless.

This organisation is looking for a member of staff for the membership department of the umbrella organisation of Berlin child and pupil shops. Reading through the job spec I wasn't able to determine what the job really is about. They don't tell you how much you earn, unless you now what BAT Vc/IVa is.

BAT is short for Bundesangestelltentarif which is the salary scheme for federal state employees. And if you google BAT West (Germany that is) you learn that grade Vc/IVa is between 1,661.70 and 2,286.68 Euros. Per month, so an annual salary from about 20K to 27K. I fyou are between 33 and 35 years old. Less if you are younger, more if you are older.

Just dig a little bit deeper into the German public service salary structure you will soon find that BAT was changed to Tarifvertrag für den öffentlichen Dienst or TVöD in 2005. And if you are lucky to find a calculator you will eventually know your salary. It's group 8,9 or 10. Anyway, the money is the same

Oh, and they are looking for someone to join their team at 20 April 2009. Any more questions?

Harry, fahr schon mal den Wagen vor

Der Satz, der ihn berühmt gemacht hat, obwohl er so nie gefallen ist. Hort Tappert, weltberühmt für seine Rolle als Oberinspektor Stephan Derrick, ist tot. Er starb laut Bunte bereits am Samstag im Alter von 85 Jahren in München. Das ZDF strahlte die legandäre Serie Derrick zwischen 1984 und 1998 in Deutschland aus und exportierte sie in 107 Länder. Die 281 Episoden wurden in 12 Sprachen übersetzt. Einmalig in der deutschen Fernsehgeschichte.

Mich wird er immer an meinen Zivildienst erinnen. Donnerstag abend war Derrickzeit. Und, legandär, Tobias, solltest du das je lesen, an Jan, weil er nach der zweiten Hochrechnung für die Bundestagswahl 2002 nach Hause fuhr, um sich eine Folge Derrick anzugucken. Die Wahl war ihm zu spannend.

Tagesschau und Der Spiegel zum Tode von Horst Tappert.

The Brits and the Euro

Now this is really a nice surprise. I have found a UK citizen that is enthusiastic about the Euro. Thank you very much Will Hutton.

That the Euro is a subject Brits do care about becomes clear when you look at the comments page. 173 entries. Not all of them negative. Nice one.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/nov/16/comment-will-hutton-euro

German Wikipedia up and running again

Lutz Heilmann http://www.lutz-heilmann.info abandoned his lawsuit against Wikimedia Deutschland e.V., the charity that runs the German Wikipedia.de site. In a statement Heilman said that the articles containing false and defamatory details against him were removed and as a result he would refrain from further legal action against Wikimedia. He also said he was sorry for the inconvenience users had experienced because of his actions.

Pressure mounted on the left wing MP after a storm of protest among German Wiki users and bloggers. More than 300 member signed up to a facebook group in 2-3 days which is remarkable given that Germans rather use a different social platform. Furthermore, a protest website http://protest.blog.de was launched.

For Wikimedia the whole action turned out to be a great success story. Daily donations increased

German Politician blocks Wikipedia.de

Wikipedia.de was blocked today after a German politician, Lutz Heilmann, was granted an injunction against the domain owner Wikimedia Deutschland e.V. which is subject to German jurisdiction.

There are a few websites in English who cover the story. And a facebook group has also been launched.

According to tagesschau.de all German Wikipedia articles are available on de.wikipedia.org. So the injunction is useless and Mr Heilmann shot himself in the foot.

Wikipedia's lawyers revealed that Heilmann attacked details with regard to his career and personal life. These details are subject of the injunction so you may get in trouble when quoting them. But I'm sure it's to do with his past in the GDR...
 

Neverthelss, please send protest emails to lutz.heilmann@bundestag.de

His website was down but keep trying http://www.lutz-heilmann.info/


You can also call him if you are brave enough +49 30-227-70788

Always be polite but make your voice heard.

Obama, Obama

Just imagine a Vice President who doesn't know that Africa is a Continent. And not a country. "I can see Russia from my door..." Well, fortunately that didn't happen. Thank you, America! And good luck President-Elect Barak Obama.

New Anti Bullfighting videos launched

There is a new group on youtube that is worth checking out. Balls to bullfighting has been launched today on the video channel. Lovely Lucy Evans from Coronation Street went to Seville to look for a cruelty free holiday. Rather difficult in Spain's bullfighting capital.

Actually it's not. There is loads of stuff you can do. But watch for yourself.

One event, two completely different stories

While the BBC highlights China's concern its Deutschlandfunk presents the facts, i.e. China catches up with US as climate emitter No 1.

China holt USA als größten Klimasünder ein

China hat die USA als größten Produzenten von Treibhausgasen eingeholt. Das geht aus dem Weißbuch zum Klimaschutz hervor, das die Regierung in Peking heute vorlegte. Danach haben die Emissionen der Volksrepublik inzwischen das amerikanische Niveau erreicht. Dieses lag im Jahr 2005 bei knapp 1,6 Milliarden Tonnen Kohlenstoff. - Experten befürchten, dass sich der Ausstoß von Kohlendioxid in China durch das rasche Wirtschaftswachstum in dem Land bis 2030 verdoppelt.

dradio-newsletters: Deutschlandradio 20 Uhr Nachrichten, 29 Oct 2008


And the BBC:

China warns on emissions control
File photo of a man squatting near a power plant in Beijing, October 2007
Economic growth is sure to remain China's top priority

China has admitted that controlling greenhouse emissions is a "difficult task" and warned that there is little prospect of an early improvement.

In its first policy paper on climate change, Beijing acknowledges for the first time that its greenhouse gas emissions are equal those of the US.

China's reliance on coal to ensure economic growth makes pollution control difficult, the paper says.

It adds that the developed world should do more on the issue.

Deutschlandreise

Ich war ja daran gewoehnt, in Reisefuehrern zu lesen, dass man als auslaendischer Tourist, zumal noch als Schwarzer, nicht unbedingt den Osten der Republik besuchen soll. Aber Verhaltensregeln dieser Art kommen mir Spanish vor, oder wie der Englaender sagt "It all sounds Greek to me".

Gammelfleisch? Koennen wir auch

Es ist doch immer wieder schoen, wenn man voneinander lernen kann. Nachdem es nun auch in Deutschland weit reichende Datendiebstaehle gibt , macht sich postwended der Englaender auf, die Teutonen zu kopieren. In Sachen Lebensmittelhygiene.

So berichtet der Guardian am 15. Oktober:

Caterer prepared kebabs close to dead body

A catering company boss prepared kebabs feet away from a dead man lying on a sofa, a court was told. Jaswinder Singh, 45, was cooking opposite the body at the Pappu Sweet Centre in Wolverhampton as it was discovered by police, city magistrates heard. The sudden death of a worker on August 27 was not treated as suspicious, West Midlands police said. At the court hearing yesterday, Singh was fined £3,846 including costs and banned from managing a food business. The court was also told that a dead rat had been found under a cooking pot and rat droppings were discovered during a health inspection.
Press Association



Der Begriff "Gammelfleisch" hat uebrigens schon Einzug in einschlaegige Online-Enzyklopaedien gefunden.

Bleibt mir nur, allseits Guten Appetit zu wuenschen. Ich gehe gleich mal zum Doenermann um die Ecke, kommt jemand mit?