Personal · 22 June 2010 ·
The Sun is, as a matter of fact, green
My Sun frame is back from the powder coaters in a lovely British Racing Green. I will get some white paint and do the appliances over the weekend. After that, the folks from Common Wheel are going to take over again and do their mastery, to bring this old frame back to glory.
· 22 June 2010 ·
Jeremy Rifkin - The Empathic Civilisation
This is a really cool way to illustrate lecture content. This particular talk is by Jeremy Rifkin on the evolution of empathy. You can finde more videos like that on the RSA’s Youtube channel.
Personal Tech-stuff · 20 June 2010 ·
The Sun is rising...
Since my bike got stolen over Easter, I need a new one. I decided to go back to the Common Wheel Project, a Glasgow-based charity that employs people with mental illness to build and repair bikes. It’s a brilliant project and they do a very good job at building bikes, too. Plus, they are a bit geeky.
A suitable frame was quickly found, it’s an old Sun frame, made in Birmingham. It required a little bit attention, a few holes had to be welded and it’s currently at ESP powder coaters for a new painting. The bike will be build up as a touring/commuting bike. It will probably feature a Sturmey Archer 3-speed hub, drop bars, mud guards and a pannier rack, so that I can go onto the odd ride into the Scottish countryside. Also, the gears will ease the way up at Gilmorehill. Clearly the founders of my beloved university weren’t cyclists themselves…
Either way, here are a few pictures of the frame before and after the welding:
Politics · 20 June 2010 ·
Fnording the BP oil spill
German blogger and fnording specialist Fefe has digged out a couple interesting facts related to BP’s oil desaster. Thus BP’s CEO Tony Hayward has sold BP shares worth £1.4 million weeks before the catastrophe to finish off his mortgage for his house. This alone would not be newsworthy, if BP hadn’t been aware of problems with the Deepwater Horizon already in February. Make of that what you will, although personally I tend to believe in coincidence…
Either way, Hayward claims that he had not been aware of anything whatsoever. The Houston Chronicle has a number of well-entertaining quotes by Mr Hayward:
- “I was not involved in that decision. So it is impossible for me to answer that question.”
- On the money saved with certain well design decisions: “I’m afraid I can’t recall that.”
- On the time saved by some decisions on the well: “I don’t recall that either, I’m afraid.”
These are just three, and Houston Chronicle has some more, if you like. Such things never cease to amaze me. Managers and CEOs of large companies always claim that their extraordinary wages are due to their enormous responsibility they take for the company. Yet when something actually goes wrong they shy away and claim to have not been involved at all. So what are they being paid for, if I may ask? Being blissfully ignorant? Of course a CEO cannot possibly be involved in all decisions, yet at the same time it is his/her responsibility to ensure that his/her subordinates are, and act in a responsible manner. But maybe that is the key to the problem — companies are mainly responsible to their stakeholders, and not the public (or even the environment). Thus, decisions taken try to maximise profitability on the cost of responsibility. Yet at the same time free marketeers claim that we need even less regulation.
The most entertaining quote however is this one:
“With respect […] we drill hundreds of wells around the world,” Hayward told Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Texas. “Yeah, I know,” Burgess shot back. “That’s what’s scaring me right now.”
And just to keep you entertained, this brilliant sketch by John Clarke and Bryan Dawe:
Music · 20 June 2010 ·
Isan - Channel Ten
Blips. Bleeps.
ISAN: Channel Ten from morr music on Vimeo.
Music · 17 June 2010 ·
Sóley - We will put her in two graves
Politics · 17 June 2010 ·
Icelandic Modern Media Initiative
There are not enough good news in this world, the bad ones are far more common. in the field of civil rights and press legislation, how many good news are you able to recall for the past one year, and how many bad ones? How often do you hear about a legislation being passed that will actually increase civil rights?
Right now I feel we have come to a point where even deferring legislation that is effectively reducing freedom is seen as a success, as in the halt of the British ID-card scheme or the German web filtering attempts against child pornography. (Noteworthy, that the very secretary Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger who ruled out access blocking against child pornography now thinks it’s appropriate against copyright infringement [DE]) In the meantime we hear about restrictions in the freedom of speech all the time. Let’s take Turkey’s recent ban of a number of Google services as an example, which now not only includes youtube.com, but also translate.google.com, books.google.com, google-analytics.com, tools.google.com and docs.google.com. And whilst officially legal reasons are the reason for the unavailability of these services, semi-officially things might speed up with a little bit of tax money, according to an article by the Hurriet. I don’t know what’s worse. But before we start bashing our Eastern Neighbours, we should try to remove the beam in our eyes than complain about the splinter in theirs. British libel laws are amongst the worst in the Western world and have severely inhibited press coverage about the Trafigura scandal through the imposition of super-injunctions. And similarly, BP is restricting access to their wee little oil spill for journalists, so that they can effectively control what pictures are released from the area. I could recall all these events and cases without straining my memory too much, yet examples of the opposite are rare, and right now there is only one serious initiative that at least attempts to tackle these issues and increase the freedom of the press or civil liberties. (some may have noticed that I have used these two terms interchangeably, and frankly for me they are. Citizens can only exercise certain liberties if they are well informed, which requires a free press)
When last in August last year the Icelandic television station RÚV was about to air news regarding a scandal surrounding the infamous Kaupthing bank (Read up on the background), the bank prevented the broadcast legally with an injunction. All RÚV was able to report was that there was one story they were not allowed to share, but people should inform themselves on wikileaks.org, the original source of their information. Just a note for UK readers — if this had happened here and Kaupthing had used a superinjunction they wouldn’t even be allowed to report this!
In response, a bipartisan, cross-party alliance started working on the Icelandic Modern Media Initiative (IMMI), a comprehensive piece of legislation that intends to combine the most progressive press legislation of various countries, thus creating the by far most liberal press law. There is also a dedicated website for the IMMI with a snippet from Al-Jazeera News, which sums it up pretty well:1
Nevertheless I remained sceptical, history has taught me to be. Far too often such legislation won’t leave the stage of proposal and will be repelled. Also, the notion of a bipartisan coalition seemed utopian, if not unthinkable to me (at least in this area of legislation), knowing only British and German party politics. But now it seems that the
“IMMI has passed! The Icelandic government unanimously supports press freedoms and will put IMMI into law! More soon.
— wikileaks
Wikileaks remains as cryptic as ever, yet according to the timeline on the IMMS website, on the 15th of June the
“Proposal will be processed from the general committee. [And the] Proposal will be voted for by all Parliamentarians.”
Good news, which are also confirmed by the Independent. I am curious what impact this will actually have on the national Icelandic press and the international press, which has the potential to benefit from the IMMS as well. Thus, according to the Independent article, there are rumours that even the German weekly Der Spiegel and ABC News are considering using the increased freedoms in Iceland, and it is hoped that there will be knock-on effects to other countries as well. I am more than optimistic, yet I cannot disband all scepticism. I wonder whether the effects will be as significant, and what role this new piece of legislation will play during Iceland’s EU membership talks. Yet it is a stunning law, a sign of hope. Please excuse my pathos, when I put up a wee Iceland playlist:
Benni Hemm Hemm, bennihemmhemm.com – Retaliate
Seabear, www.seabearia.com – I’ll build you a fire
Björk, bjork.com – Declare Independence
Sigur Rós, sigur-ros.co.uk – Starálfur
1 Isn’t that a Sigur Rós sample that’s looped in the background at around min 3.20?
Music Concert impressions · 16 June 2010 ·
Immergut Festival 2010
As it is in the tradition, right after the exams I went back home and attended this year’s Immergut Festival again. For me it was the 8th year in succession, in the 11 year history of the festival.
This year’s highlights include Lali Puna, who just blew me away, in just the same way they did in 2004. It was just such a brilliant, atmospheric concert. I also enjoyed William Fitzsimmons as well as Efterklang a lot, FM Belfast were terribly dancable. Unfortunately I missed Talking to Turtles. Apart from that it was a truly beautiful festival – once again. It was also one of the most relaxed ones I have ever been. A total success.
· 12 June 2010 ·
Europe by Rail
I hate flying. I hate planes, I hate airports, I hate airport security, I hate the long queues and the fact that you can’t really read nor work when travelling by plane. On the other hand I quite enjoy taking trains. Obviously, it’s not as fast, but most of the time that’s not a problem for me. Yet, there are other obstacles I find far more cumbersome: The price and the booking process. Both have gotten better over time, but the process of buying train tickets can still lead to enormous frustration. The actual train journey is quite pleasant, as I have experienced a few times already.1
Although air travel has increased in price considerably and there are now many special offers for international train travel available, taking the train is still more expensive in most cases. You can travel rather cheaply by train, however it requires a lot of effort to do so. The main problem here is in the lack of a unified booking process: Although you can book international tickets from virtually any ticket shop or travel agency, these won’t include special offers and you will have to pay some hefty sum of money. Thus, when I was travelling from Berlin to Romania a few years ago, the German Bahn sold me month passes for the itinerary outside of the German Eurocity, which were much more expensive compared to the tickets I would have bought on the train.
Currently, there are two offers that ease the booking and fees considerably: One is the German Bahn’s London Special, the other one is the Interrail programme.
Europe Special
The German Bahn has a number of specials that connect European cities with the German railway system, one being the London-Cologne Special, which despite its name also gets you to other places in Germany. Thus, you easily get to Berlin for €49 Euro. However, the contingent is limited. And even though you have to book early, tickets become available 3 months before the date of departure. Or, if there’s a time table change, only when the new time table is published. And they sell out pretty fast. The other problem is that the Bahn only offers these tickets on their own ICE trains between Cologne and Brussels and not on the Thalys. Thus, you might run into trouble if you need a connection from London (e.g. to Glasgow) and don’t want to stay overnight, because the ICE from Germany to Belgium departs rather late during the day. Also, you if you’re going further than London you will have to book separate tickets for the UK operators. Thus, when I enquired the route from London to Glasgow in Germany, I had been quoted the standard price of over £150,00 one way, when I eventually got the tickets for about £50 return. But to get these tickets I had to look at three dozen different trains and connections in order to find one that’s affordable and works with the remainder of the itinerary. This required me going to the Bahn’s site, noting all the dates and arrivals of the trains with special offers, then checking the UK’s NationalRail site for cheap connection trains and matching these back and forth, until I went to the individual operator’s site to book the tickets. I have not yet found a solution to this… But if London is your destination (or point of departure), this offer is pretty good! However, if money is indeed a problem, you should consider taking a coach. If booked early, you can get around pretty cheaply. Again, welcome to a zillion different operators and finding the right route.
Interrail
Interrail has the potential to be all I ask for, yet, again, has a number of shortcomings: Not all countries are participating in Interrail. For example when you take the sleeper from Berlin to Budapest you travel through Slovakia, but Slovakia isn’t covered by all tickets (albeit included in some) and you may have to pay extra. Also, in quite a few countries you will have to pay reservations for the individual trains. For example, in France you have to pay €6,00 per train and in Italy this is even up to €10,00. This can add up to a considerable amount. If you intend to take the Eurostar you are also better off booking their early bird tickets.
I haven’t used Interrail yet, but I hope to do so during the upcoming holidays, to go down to Italy. Thus, you are probably better off checking Seat 61 and Rail Europe.
Outlook into the future?
The big railway companies, the German Bahn and the French SNCF are in fierce competition to expand outside of their home countries. Thus, the German Bahn is trying to obtain a license for the Eurotunnel, so they can send their ICEs directly to London. This will be very interesting, since I would expect more competitive prices. Yet, the key problems haven’t been addressed: A unified booking system that allows me to check and book all the discount and special offers of the individual rail companies. Competition is great, but competitors like airlines cannot be met
otherwise. Until then, it’s still a long way, unfortunately.
1 Apart from when I was stuck in the Eurotunnel and delayed by 12hours, but that is a different story and I got an extensive compensation for it as well. Mind you, things like that can happen with planes as well. In fact I met quite a few travellers on the my journey whose planes were bound to the ground due to the “severe” weather conditions at that time. Oh, and one more word: Eyjafjallajökull. And another one: BA Strike.
Music · 12 June 2010 ·
Boy in Static - Young San Francisco
Boy in Static – Young San Francisco from Alexander Chen on Vimeo.