Thierse: Issues like 'Florida-Rolf' threaten democracy

He's certainly right about that. The more polemical and primitive the media become, the lower the level of public discourse sinks, and that really does harm democracy. After all, democracy doesn't consist only of elected representatives, but also of the people themselves. And the more stupidly they behave, the stupider the outcome. And sensationalist articles like the fuss over Florida Rolf (the costs for which are only a fraction of those for the ridiculous Eurofighter—yet he received far more space in the tabloid press) certainly don't help with opinion formation...

An important factor in a democratic society is functioning and critical press as a counterbalance to the state apparatus. The problem is that while our press is certainly critical, some of the unreflective drivel can hardly be called functioning.

Does every society get the press it deserves?

I found the original article at RP-Online: Multimedia.

Of Generals and Members of Parliament

So, the General is fired because the MP read his panegyric to Frontal21 of all places. Bad move, but the reaction (firing the General) is appropriate.

But what about the MP? Still only a reprimand, a bit of admonition and finger-wagging, and the — long overdue — removal from the Interior Committee (why did such a right-wing character get on there in the first place). Instead, he's now allowed to manage nuclear power plant safety.

But when will a real consequence — faction expulsion — be drawn here? Or does he have so much support within the Union that the necessary majority for it can't be assembled? How deep is the brown swamp in the Bundestag?

To Mr. Struck: from my own experience during my Bundeswehr service, this is definitely not an isolated case, the General. Believing that is very naive, Mr. Struck.

Why Do Fish Bubble Air Out of Their Anus?

Marine researchers are puzzled by mysterious bubbling sounds from herrings. The fish apparently deliberately release air through their anuses in bubbles. Researchers suspect that herrings communicate this way. - and evolution does have a sense of humor

I found the original article at RP-Online: Science.

It's starting...

Hey. For people like me who read other sites almost exclusively through the aggregator, it would have made sense to put a notice as the last post in the old RSS feed, colleague! Then you wouldn't have to wonder where the weekly dose of shockwave is staying...

(by the way, it would also be cool if the RSS feed contained complete post texts again, then you wouldn't have to click through so often to read the rest)

At Der Schockwellenreiter there's the original article.

GROKLAW - this time SCO violates the GPL

And at Groklaw there are now comments on SCO's actions, which I already mentioned in P1488 Here's the original article.

Home of the 4tH compiler

I must indulge my — old and slightly perverse — fondness for Forth again and post a link here to 4th — a standalone Forth compiler. Such a standalone compiler is nice, but actually completely contradicts the nature of Forth, which is actually based on an interactive system. On the other hand, however, a compiler that really produces minimal programs is quite nice. Definitely interesting for small systems. By the way, the website looks like it wants to win first prize for ugliest website of all time Here's the original article.

Always Funny

Great. A Union MP known for years for antisemitic remarks gets—after his latest outburst—what? Exactly. Not fired. Not ostracized. He just gets a different committee position.

At INSTANT NIRVANA you can find the original article.

Anniversary - One Year of Hugo's House of Weblog Horror

It just occurs to me: exactly a year ago I published the first comment (P2) with Radio.

Municipality is in dire straits

Do all municipalities have the same intelligence as Münster and, during their austerity measures, prefer to promote and support stupid prestige projects instead of social facilities? At tagesschau on the internet you can find the original article.

Leaf blower ...

... the horror in autumn.

Wired News: Anti-Copy Bill Slams Coders

A new push by the American legal system to abandon any contact with reality. According to a strict interpretation of the proposed legislation, it would then be illegal to distribute any code that does not contain copy protection code approved by a central authority. Somehow we've seen something like this before with export restrictions on cryptographic products - the result was that interesting projects emerged outside the USA ...

Here's the original article.

The Poison of 'Inquisition Light'

|KK| The questions Meisner should ask himself, if he's already mounting such a high moral horse, are laid out in the Telepolis article: What healthy organism is Meisner talking about? Pedophile priests? The repressed sexuality in the Catholic Church, which gifts the urges of its dignitaries to God, but neither to women nor men? Is the archbishop talking about holy matrimony, which remains a sacrament only in the fulfillment of procreation, but not of desire? Does he mean the "housekeeper concubinages" behind the doors of the parsonage? Or should he talk about the misery of illegitimate priest's children, who are denied today and were abandoned in the times of Urban II, while their mothers were sold as slaves? - but Meisner will definitely never engage with that. Because it cannot be what must not be. The question I ask myself when I read quotes from Meisner: when verbally propagating his unspeakable disgustingness, does he actually have an erection?

At Telepolis News you can find the original article.

Allow me, Hohmann, People's Representative!

In the TAZ, some of the derailments by Hoh(l)mann were summarized at some point. Of course, the Union never really did anything about it. For this reason, I also view Rüttgers' calls for resignation as mere shadowboxing.

At TAZ I found the original article.

Ronald Schill wants to shake up federal politics

Not necessary, Ronny, really not necessary. Just stay outside. Go away. The Bundestag is already full.

At RP-Online: Politik I found the original article.

Heise News-Ticker: DNS confusion due to new country code

Reusing historical abbreviations should be avoided, writes the IAB, or only considered after 200 years. - right. 200 years. Sure.

Here's the original article.

Linux is no alternative for DATEV

The short version of what Datev is saying: We have no idea about Linux, we're too lazy to inform ourselves and anyway our software is a heap of old junk that can't be properly ported anywhere because we didn't pay attention to portability during development. We are losers.

At heise online news there is the original article.

SCO offers Unix license for Linux users

Hmm. That's a massive violation of the GPL - after all, a derived product is being kept under wraps here.

At heise online news you can find the original article.

CDU Member of Parliament calls Jews 'perpetrator people'

Oh yeah, the brown filth in the Hessen Union. Sometimes the master, sometimes the rabble. And then right away the double dose: communist, Jewish revolutionaries! But ugh, that's absolutely dreadful, not just Jews, but lefties too! And Marx, he was certainly the worst of them all! What a huge pile of garbage that Hohmann is spouting. Are there Hessian Union politicians with brains? I'm just asking, after Koch one doesn't really expect that anyway, but maybe a few are hiding from the public? If so: why don't they defend themselves against such nonsense?

At tagesschau im Internet you can find the original article.

GROKLAW - first reactions to the latest SCO texts

As formulated so nicely on Groklaw: the representatives of Open Source and IBM probably wanted to first verify whether this was all just a hoax, whether SCO really made all these absurd claims. After they found their voice again, representatives from IBM, the FSF and some others are speaking up. SCO doesn't come out looking very good in the reactions...

Here's the original article.

Problems with Java on Mac OS X 10.3

Hmm. And then there are still problems with FileVault and you hear more frequently about difficulties with Firewire drives. Ok, it was probably a good thing that I waited, I'll probably stick to the .1 version. At heise online news you can find the original article.

US researchers breed deadly smallpox viruses

And the madness continues

At Spiegel Online: Wissenschaft you can find the original article.

Strong geomagnetic storm hits Earth [Update]

Do we now have to rock back and forth in our seats like Kirk and colleagues in the ion storm?

At heise online news there's the original article.

GROKLAW - the next round of documents

Well, folks, I guess it's true. They must really be trying to inspire IBM to buy them out. I don't see any legal hope for SCO. - yes, that's how it looks. Legal kamikaze or something like that. Although, he's not wrong about this either: As for the GPL, it's total war. - the statements that the GPL is not enforceable, that it's invalid, that it violates the US Constitution, that it eats small children and makes them fat (ok, SCO left out the last two), that could actually lead in this context to the GPL having to be defended in court for the first time. The outcome should be very interesting.

Here's the original article.

Paulus kicks Middelhoff in the balls retroactively

I love these subtle titles at http://dotcomtod.de/ I found the original article at dotcomtod.

Telekom demands income sacrifice for reduced staff cuts

That's great. An employer where I definitely don't want to work...

At heise online news there's the original article.

Soon the directory will be full

Oh yes, another well-researched article from Spiegel Online. Still prominently announced in the article's headline: In 2005, the numerical address book is full - but nowhere in the article is there evidence for this absurd claim. Nowhere is there mention that even through the return of some large (Class-A) networks more addresses are now available than were previously expected for that time, nowhere is there mention that even more Class-A networks exist as reserves that could also be drawn upon, nowhere is there mention that through CIDR (Classless Inter-Domain Routing), NAT (Network Address Translation), and dynamic address assignment for dial-ups the problem of limited address space has been significantly eased, nowhere is there mention of whose numerical address range is actually supposed to be full and who has claimed this based on what data.

For those who prefer facts and numerical models as the basis for such claims, I recommend the very good article at ISP Column - here various models are presented showing how the address space is viewed. Depending on the model, the point of exhaustion lies between 2019 and 2029 - so still quite some time, time being used to establish IPv6. Well, dear Spiegel Online journalists. The Internet is full. Just go somewhere else.

At Spiegel Online: Netzwelt there is the original article.

Cannabis affair: Pieper rails against Kubicki

Hey, the FDP is becoming quite entertaining again

I found the original article at RP-Online: Politik.

GROKLAW dismantles SCO's latest verbal dances

As usual, it's very amusing to read how the latest moves by SCO are torn apart on Groklaw. In this case, SCO's reaction to IBM's call to finally put facts on the table. SCO seems to have a serious problem in its legal department - the conclusion on Groklaw: Shucks. These folks just don't understand IP law. That's the bottom line. Well, never mind. They'll find out. Here's the original article.

Internet Explorer endangers Windows

Wow. That's serious. All patches included and still holes without end. People, finally use a proper browser (or better yet a proper operating system) At heise online news you can find the original article.

Vehicle Cease and Desist Letters Again

Hermann Runs Out of Lawyers

I found the original article at Kai Surendorf's blog.

Regulatory authority cleans up 0190 numbers

Good. Even if it's probably only a drop (well, a fat drop - but still just from one tap) in the bucket.

At tagesschau im Internet you can find the original article.

Stone Age settlement discovered in the Baltic Sea

This will interest Jutta.

I found the original article at RP-Online: Science.

License plate warnings: "Suspicion of fraud absolutely unfounded"

Oh man, the con artist really wants to continue. Against all facts and realities. Let's hope that a test case will put an end to him and he disappears back under the stone he crawled out from under ...

At heise online news you can find the original article.

MC Hawking's Crib

Cool. HipHop with and about Hawking, science and similar topics. My favorite track? Fuck the creationists of course. You can download all songs via Soundclick after free registration. Definitely worth the time it takes. Steven Hawking is crazy as fuck - yo, man! Here's the original article.

Package found in IC

I find this sentence particularly interesting: "What exactly the package contained could no longer be determined because it was severely damaged during the defusal." - I'd really like to know what method of defusal they used if nothing remained that could provide information about the original contents. Did they atomize it? Here's the original article.

Construction halt at Holocaust Memorial

One would think that a committee for the construction of a Holocaust memorial would at least have rudimentary knowledge of the involvement of companies still in existence today in that very Holocaust...

I found the original article at tagesschau on the Internet.

Two Million Dollar Fine for Spammer

That's a start at least.

At Spiegel Online: Netzwelt you can find the original article.

Beware of the duck

Ducks are evil.

At but shes a girl... you can find the original article.

Child protection regulations on the internet are becoming serious

And another censorship tool installed. The question is: from when are politically left-wing opinions considered development-inhibiting? From when is criticism of the state regarded as development-inhibiting? When does satire cease to be an art form and start being considered a threat to youth?

It's so cheap to justify such censorship tools on the grounds of restricting access to pornography. Nobody will seriously protest and want to present themselves as a potential pig, right?

What actually endangers youth more - the availability of pornography (or rather the availability of pornography distributed in Germany - hard international systems help little with that) or the existence of censorship tools?

And another question: from when will the Regierungspräsidium Düsseldorf in North Rhine-Westphalia, with reference to youth protection regulations, demand the blocking of masses of sites?

Hard pornography is - at least in most cases - misogynistic. Wouldn't it be time to combat the cause of the distorted image of women in society, instead of making ineffective attempts to censor the symptoms? Education and enlightenment, anyone?

At heise online news there's the original article.

Jurors Without Competence

I have no expertise in statics, neither for trees nor anything else, but couldn't it also be just perhaps simply the case that here an interest group for expert witnesses sees their members' livelihoods swimming away? The suspicion really does suggest itself...

At Spiegel Online: Science there's the original article.

New Privileges: Otto Schily allowed to cause trouble drunk in London

I don't quite know why, but somehow I can't imagine Schily using his privileges. I mean, getting drunk and causing a riot in London would be just barely conceivable (if only remotely), but driving a herd of sheep over the London Bridge is much less so (and I'm refusing to make any statement about the use of the silk rope ...)

I found the original article on RP-Online: Politik.

Police search FDP general secretary Pieper's house for hash

Ok, politician behavior is often irrational and strange, but I wouldn't normally suspect hash

I found the original article at RP-Online: Politik.

Schools Sell Curriculum to RIAA

In class - American schools are selling lessons to the RIAA so they can then drum their version of reality into students' heads and improve their budget in the process. Great idea. Microsoft could be sold hours where they explain why open source is anti-American, and maybe some hours to Diebold too, why controlling the functionality of voting machines violates the DMCA?

I found the original article at lies.com.

When Work Becomes Scarce...

A summary at Rollberg of links to current efforts to dismantle the social system. Much of it fits very well into the Banana Republic Germany.

At Der Rollberg you can find the original article.

Report: Government Considers Increase in Value-Added Tax

Great. The strategy par excellence to stimulate purchasing power and thereby give the economy a boost is surely the increase in value-added tax. Or how, or what?

At RP-Online: Politik I found the original article.

CSU and FDP treasurers allegedly accepted illegal donation

In general, Panorama reports are well researched. So it could be interesting to see what comes out, especially regarding the criminal complaint filed against the Panorama staff. Panorama reports are also online after the broadcast, so if you miss it today, you can catch up. Update: I'm watching the report right now. This is brutally hilarious. This report is definitely going to cause some fun. If you haven't seen it, be sure to check the archive when it appears there!

I found the original article at RP-Online: Politik.

Gator refuses to be called spyware manufacturer

Well, if Gator doesn't want to be named as a spyware manufacturer anymore, they should simply stop producing and distributing spyware ...

At heise online news there's the original article.

Gerolsteiner: Bölts becomes Sports Director

Good. Perhaps Bölts will then ride along in the Tour again - albeit then in the car of the sporting director.

At RADSPORT-NEWS.COM - News Overview you can find the original article.

Largest Indian life insurance company switches from SCO to Linux

Could it be that some SCO bosses are just a tiny bit annoyed about this decision?

At heise online news there's the original article.

Israel's Army: 'Arafat dead or alive'

Strategies for de-escalation.

At RP-Online: Politik I found the original article.