Posts
Starfrosch has issued a fun podcast on the subject whether Dub enhances milk production in cows (up to 10% guaranteed!) - cool listening with subtly (well, maybe not) ironic comments in heavily accented German, making fun of our occasional agricultural backwateriness. Have fun!
On the matter of cows: My home village is hitting the news (subscription)! Actually, this one is not funny: Last Friday, a cow has been mutilated at her udders. This is already the third such incident in the region in the last couple of days, with the previous incidents involving similar attacks on horses. Sick bastards! But what's even more worrying is that psychiatrists say that these could be precursory acts of a sick mind, gathering courage for the real thing, an attack on a human. Let's hope they're wrong and the bastard can be caught.
In fact, this place is having a string of negative news lately: There are two well known chemical waste disposal sites in the immediate French neighbourhood, which Greenpeace is now pushing for a decontamination of. Since those sites appear to have been inert ever since their dump in the 50ies & 60ies, the locals (including myself) have been pretty mum about it. But I guess it's better if it gets taken care of, seeing that I live only a few hundred meters downstream ...
08/06/2005
07/06/2005
Collective perception
The mechanics of collective perception are forever fascinating. They are particularly evidently at work in collectively traumatic situations, such as the Holocaust, Armenia 1915, Tiananmen 1989, Rwanda 1994.
The most interesting case in point right now is related to the 1995 massacre of about 8000 civilian men & boys in Srebrenica, perpetrated by Serb forces. This is a well known fact which is the object of proceedings before the ICTY. Despite of, or maybe because of mounting international pressure, the Serb public opinion has steadfastly refused to acknowledge that fact and to deliver, let alone prosecute war criminals.
But this is changing fast now. In the wake of the recent unearthing of incriminating video footage a few days ago, Serb public opinion is performing an amazing about-face, complete with presidential apology and arrests of suspects who were able to roam freely for the last couple of years. It wouldn't be very surprising if war criminals on the "run" would be found and delivered quite soon.
While this is an exciting and entirely welcome development which will do a ton of good for the Serb public image and their collective spirit, I am very curious as to how it may have come to pass. I am looking forward to seeing more backgrounders like this.
The most interesting case in point right now is related to the 1995 massacre of about 8000 civilian men & boys in Srebrenica, perpetrated by Serb forces. This is a well known fact which is the object of proceedings before the ICTY. Despite of, or maybe because of mounting international pressure, the Serb public opinion has steadfastly refused to acknowledge that fact and to deliver, let alone prosecute war criminals.
But this is changing fast now. In the wake of the recent unearthing of incriminating video footage a few days ago, Serb public opinion is performing an amazing about-face, complete with presidential apology and arrests of suspects who were able to roam freely for the last couple of years. It wouldn't be very surprising if war criminals on the "run" would be found and delivered quite soon.
While this is an exciting and entirely welcome development which will do a ton of good for the Serb public image and their collective spirit, I am very curious as to how it may have come to pass. I am looking forward to seeing more backgrounders like this.
06/06/2005
California
Die aktuelle Ausgabe des NZZ Folio ist Kalifornien gewidmet: "Es gibt ein hohes Mass an Phantasie und Irrealität in Kalifornien, uns fehlt der Sinn für's Tragische, der das Zeichen einer reifen Zivilisation ist." Aber der beste & amüsanteste Artikel daraus handelt - wie könnte es anders sein - von San Francisco. Unbedingt lesen!
05/06/2005
A good Sunday
Well, this was a good Sunday, all in all. First, all the referenda went my way, both in the borough as well as in the country as a whole: The accession to the Schengen & Dublin treaties passed rather comfortably just as well as the new law on domestic partnership & two other cantonal matters of far less consequence. To make it even more satisfactory, the rate of participation was unusually high. So all is well, and for once, those loony scaremongerers didn't get their way.
To celebrate, have a look at this bit of satirical Swiss TV (German & DivX) which actually is quite good! (via timbuk2)
And then, we got to belatedly celebrate my sister's birthday in her garden. The weather may not have been quite as nice as it could have been, but it was great fun regardless! Pity that my nephew Tomi wasn't there - while he wasn't elected, he still made a respectable 3491 votes for the Green Party in the Basle elections for the citizens' council. Congratulations!
Oh yeah, & don't forget, while today's referenda may be over, I still want your opinion on introducing English as the 5th language of the country in Switzerland!
To celebrate, have a look at this bit of satirical Swiss TV (German & DivX) which actually is quite good! (via timbuk2)
And then, we got to belatedly celebrate my sister's birthday in her garden. The weather may not have been quite as nice as it could have been, but it was great fun regardless! Pity that my nephew Tomi wasn't there - while he wasn't elected, he still made a respectable 3491 votes for the Green Party in the Basle elections for the citizens' council. Congratulations!
Oh yeah, & don't forget, while today's referenda may be over, I still want your opinion on introducing English as the 5th language of the country in Switzerland!
04/06/2005
Legalise English
I herewith propose to amend Art. 4 of the Swiss Federal Constitution to contain German, French Italian, Retoromantsh and English as languages of the country.
Such a move would have lots of advantages: For starters, it's just a reflection of reality. Just look at commercials & day to day language. When people from different parts of the country meet, they tend to resort to speaking English because that's the second language most people have the best active command of. The traditional federal practice of everybody speaking his mother tongue with the expectation that everyone understands it passively is slowly disappearing from daily use. Then we would be able to end an unspeakably boring debate about which language should be the second language to be taught at school. And thirdly, such a move would be perceived as rather innovative & daring.
There's not many arguments against it. The cost argument about having to translate official documents in yet another language can be moderated by a phased introduction. But I suspect that very many documents would then be drafted in English first. The only serious argument - which is one of fiat, not of ratio - is that English is not in our tradition or history. To that, I say: Let's put it there!
Please give me your vote in the new online survey in the sidebar!
Such a move would have lots of advantages: For starters, it's just a reflection of reality. Just look at commercials & day to day language. When people from different parts of the country meet, they tend to resort to speaking English because that's the second language most people have the best active command of. The traditional federal practice of everybody speaking his mother tongue with the expectation that everyone understands it passively is slowly disappearing from daily use. Then we would be able to end an unspeakably boring debate about which language should be the second language to be taught at school. And thirdly, such a move would be perceived as rather innovative & daring.
There's not many arguments against it. The cost argument about having to translate official documents in yet another language can be moderated by a phased introduction. But I suspect that very many documents would then be drafted in English first. The only serious argument - which is one of fiat, not of ratio - is that English is not in our tradition or history. To that, I say: Let's put it there!
Please give me your vote in the new online survey in the sidebar!
Political blogging
Effective this week, blogs are a political force to be reckoned with in Europe, too (not sure whether that's true for Switzerland as well).
What makes me say that? According to this BBC story, blogs have made an important contribution to the success of the No-campaigns in both France & the Netherlands. Etienne Chouard's blog (French, naturellement) is mentioned as an example: Being a highschool teacher (formerly of law), he's done a rather lengthy assessment of the Constitutional Treaty and comes to a negative conclusion. Interestingly, the conclusion is drawn from the viewpoint of statehood, i.e. the Constitutional Treaty doesn't go far enough. So, on a very cursory first read, it doesn't seem to make any scare mongering points about globalisation / liberalisation, which have been quoted as the main reason for the no. There is of course an agenda for that interpretation, but let's not go there now.
We'll see what happens in Switzerland. The Anti-Schengen/Dublin scare mongerers have certainly discovered anonymous spam mailing as a means of propaganda distribution - interestingly with non-Swiss email addresses that do not receive answers either.
What makes me say that? According to this BBC story, blogs have made an important contribution to the success of the No-campaigns in both France & the Netherlands. Etienne Chouard's blog (French, naturellement) is mentioned as an example: Being a highschool teacher (formerly of law), he's done a rather lengthy assessment of the Constitutional Treaty and comes to a negative conclusion. Interestingly, the conclusion is drawn from the viewpoint of statehood, i.e. the Constitutional Treaty doesn't go far enough. So, on a very cursory first read, it doesn't seem to make any scare mongering points about globalisation / liberalisation, which have been quoted as the main reason for the no. There is of course an agenda for that interpretation, but let's not go there now.
We'll see what happens in Switzerland. The Anti-Schengen/Dublin scare mongerers have certainly discovered anonymous spam mailing as a means of propaganda distribution - interestingly with non-Swiss email addresses that do not receive answers either.
02/06/2005
No to Noise!
Obviously, I have a thing for headphones by land, sea & air!
This morning, I bought a set of noise reduction readphones from macally to replace the Sennheiser set that I've misplaced somewhere on a trip. You see, I don't like the low-frequency hum that usually comes with transportation of any kind, so there's two ways to get rid of it, either by in-ear headphones, which I cannot stand, or by active anti-noise headphones producing de-phased anti-noise which cancels out a good bit of that sort of noise. I just love the smart technical concept, and it works! When I saw the price tag of the macally set, I was a bit doubtful as to its quality, because the Sennheiser (as well as the Bose) cost about thrice as much, but I got it anyway - fortunately! It is really very comfortable to wear, sounds good (although the trebles seem a bit weakish) and does a rather good job at noise reduction. Plus it doesn't have the silly battery stick that's connected with the Sennheiser. The only negative point is when you have low-frequency short noise peaks like they sometimes occur on a train. The macally has some latency when the signal's gone, so you actually get to hear it with a minor delay. But it's rare, so that's ok. But wait, there's another minus: my iPod was running out of power in the afternoon, but when I tried switching from the macally back to the conventional headphones that came with the iPod, I got another hour or so of music out of the charge. Very strange - evidently, the macally requires more power. I'll have to look into that.
As for the seaborne headset, there's news, too! Finis has finally found out that their SwiMP3 does not work well with Mac OS X, so they patched their devices to work with Panther (at least). For me that means I have to find a cost-effective way of exchanging my old, never used one with a patched one. Fortunately, they offered to make the switch next time I am in the US, which is probably going to be DC in September. I hope it'll work out!
This morning, I bought a set of noise reduction readphones from macally to replace the Sennheiser set that I've misplaced somewhere on a trip. You see, I don't like the low-frequency hum that usually comes with transportation of any kind, so there's two ways to get rid of it, either by in-ear headphones, which I cannot stand, or by active anti-noise headphones producing de-phased anti-noise which cancels out a good bit of that sort of noise. I just love the smart technical concept, and it works! When I saw the price tag of the macally set, I was a bit doubtful as to its quality, because the Sennheiser (as well as the Bose) cost about thrice as much, but I got it anyway - fortunately! It is really very comfortable to wear, sounds good (although the trebles seem a bit weakish) and does a rather good job at noise reduction. Plus it doesn't have the silly battery stick that's connected with the Sennheiser. The only negative point is when you have low-frequency short noise peaks like they sometimes occur on a train. The macally has some latency when the signal's gone, so you actually get to hear it with a minor delay. But it's rare, so that's ok. But wait, there's another minus: my iPod was running out of power in the afternoon, but when I tried switching from the macally back to the conventional headphones that came with the iPod, I got another hour or so of music out of the charge. Very strange - evidently, the macally requires more power. I'll have to look into that.
As for the seaborne headset, there's news, too! Finis has finally found out that their SwiMP3 does not work well with Mac OS X, so they patched their devices to work with Panther (at least). For me that means I have to find a cost-effective way of exchanging my old, never used one with a patched one. Fortunately, they offered to make the switch next time I am in the US, which is probably going to be DC in September. I hope it'll work out!
01/06/2005
Just say No
(aes via pieceoplastic)
It appears that the bet I've placed with an EU lobbyist some two years ago is paying off now. There are many good material reasons for not accepting the draft treaty as a European Constitution. One, it's definitely not a Constitution in the traditional sense, establishing statehood for Europe - in fact, it is (or was) an update to the Treaties of Rome with some new features to accomodate the expanded Union. Two, it was almost exclusively an executive led project which was supposed to bring the EU closer to the citizen. Yet, there is no sign of a European citizenry in the ratification procedure. Three, the text lacks the elegance & brevity of a real Constitution - sorely. In Philadelphia, I bought a facsimile of the US Constitution with its seven articles which can be put on one parchment.
So, that's the formalistic argument, which certainly does not justify to kill the project, unless you're really pedantic. I know for a fact that the French are not (not so sure about the Dutch). But unfortunately, there's more. One is the ratification procedure by referendum in some countries. We know our referenda here in Switzerland, having a couple of them each quarter. Believe me, the best thing to do if you want to get a No is to tell the electorate that their only choice is to say yes. Then there's the current political & economic situation in most continental European countries which are in denial (both, governments & electorates) about their serious need to open up & reform & get their government finances in order. A climate of fear does not allow for courageous projects, unless there is a perspective for change & strong leadership. Strong leadership? Just look at that loser couple Chirac & Schröder. And as to the perspective of change: the draft Treaty is the outcome of a long process of horse-trading and thus a convolute of institutional rules & material policies devoid of any potential inspiration. Consequently people have been voting against their current dissatisfaction rather than against the Treaty itself. Thus, given a bit of time & an upturn in the economy, they might even vote for it without any changes to it, if that were not so outrageously undemocratic...
But here is my most important criticism of the Treaty: As a would be Constitution, it should only contain institutional rules & procedures that are devised for eternity (in principle). Never should there be material policies, which are prone to interested parties' support and opposition. For hence comes the probably fatal equation of the Treaty with much despised globalisation and vulture (or was it locusts?) capitalism. Which of course disrespects the fact that we're all locusts!
So, what happens now? Will the EU brake down and will the Euro be abolished? Of course not. The EU will continue to work as an institution. The Treaty however will be shelved with key provisions being put into place pragmatically. And the pressure to reform will keep building regardless.
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