Signals play a particularly important role within organisms and among individuals of highly cooperative species. Because in both these cases there is little or no conflict of interest, signals should be as cheap as possible while still maintaining reliability. Cheap signaling systems enhance the efficiency of the organism or cooperative system but they are also more easily subverted by exploitative agents (Markl 1985), such as pathogens or politicians.

( Peter Hammerstein et al. (2006). Robustness: A Key to Evolutionary Design. Biological Theory. )

Frauenquote für Führungspositionen in der Wirtschaft – pro oder contra? Angela Merkel hat heute über ihren Sprecher Seibert zu dem Thema verlautbaren lassen (tagesschau.de berichtet):

(1) Man ist sich einig, dass es “zu wenige Frauen in der Führungsspitze der Wirtschaft” gibt.

(2) Vor zehn Jahren hat die Wirtschaft sich die Selbstverpflichtung auferlegt, für höhere Quoten zu sorgen. In den letzten zehn Jahren hat sich so gut wie nichts getan; Zitat Seibert “kaum Verbesserungen”.

(3) Und dann das überraschende Fazit unser Kanzlerin:

“Der Wirtschaft sollte nach ihrer Meinung noch einmal die Chance geben werden, freiwillig zu Fortschritten zu kommen” [Zitat Seibert!].

Das Thema Quoten kann man meiner Meinung nach so und so diskutieren, und ich finde dass beide Positionen schwierige Punkte haben. Aber so kann und sollte man das Thema wohl nicht diskutieren.

Once upon a time, there was a kingdom.

In the calculation of times of the people in the kingdom, the second millenium had just recently started. The rulers of the kingdom made many mistakes, but also came up with some great ideas. One of them concerned nuclear energy: they passed a law to stop nuclear energy production. For security reasons, for health reasons, but most importantly for the reason that the people of the kingdom had no idea what to do with the nuclear waste.

However, because the people were dependent on nuclear energy, the decision was made to wait 20 years until the shutdown would occur. There were several reasons for this: it would give the scientists two decades to focus on energy research, and come up with alternatives; it would give the energy companies enough time to adapt to the new situation; it would keep the nuclear plants running as long as the people needed them, since the rulers did not want to shut down the plants and then import nuclear energy from other kingdoms (especially one called France, with which our kingdom had wars on a very frequent basis).

All in all, it was a thourough decision. The alternative energy industry in the country started booming shortly afterwards, many jobs were created in the sector. They started to put more gold into research, and became export nation #1 for green energy very fast. Even the French bought the products!

It was a big environmental and economical success.

But things changed, and ten years later a group of evil wizards took over the kingdom. It turned out that the old rulers were also evil wizards, just disguised in red and green robes instead of black ones, and were therefore fought relentlessly by pirates, but that is another story.

The evil wizards started burning books, took gold away from the farmers and gave it to the clerus, the nobility, and rich people running taverns.

Also, they frequently were visited by embassadors of the nuclear energy lobby. These messengers claimed that they would lose a lot of gold if the plants were to be shut down, and asked the evil wizards to do something about it.

And they did.

They knew very well that the people of the kingdom were unhappy about the leadership, and about the broken promises. The rulers needed a lot of gold to work their magic, persuading the people with foul lies about their “achievements”, forcing them into silent obedience. And gold in abundance was offered.

The evil wizards accepted, and the law was changed.

The nuclear energy plants would not be shut down 2020, but about 20 to 30 years later. Many scientists would leave the kingdom, because there was really no point anymore for research. Many people would lose their jobs, because nuclear energy production was, due to the massive funding of the evil wizards, still cheaper than alternative energy.

It was a terrible time for the people.

However, to pretend that it was really a good thing the evil wizards stated that the companies would have to pay a fee: a fixed amount of about 2.300.000 gold coins in total.

First of all, that does sound like a lot of gold, but the companies in the kingdom get about 20 percent of the gold back due to the way the tax system works. The evil wizards did not mention this, because they wanted the number to look as big as possible. Second, and more severe, the companies would make around 100.000.000 gold coins. And 2.300.000, minus 20 percent, is really nothing compared to 100.000.000.

And the embassadors were very happy, and made a party and invited the evil wizards, and they drank the blood of children and did other horrible things.

And then came the pirates, led by a huge flying creature with noodly tentacles who had once created the planet on which the kingdom was, and punished the evil wizards by raining flaming meatballs upon their heads.

But that is another story, and will be told another day.

If you have two political parties – blue and red – and three districts, the outcome of the election depends on the district borders. In the following case, the red party has only 4/9 of the votes, but wins the election. The resulting district is known as a “gerrymander”.

This has happened very regularly in the past, and is still being done. In the United States, districts are changed every ten years, leading to major abuse. Examples in abundance can be found on wikipedia, sometimes with hilarious graphical results:

The two big areas are mostly inhabited my Hispanics, who also live along the interstates (look at the green lines!).

Read the rest of this entry »

We are often told to go voting, to participate in democratic processes, to take an active role in politics.

And I could not agree more.

Today, the German Bundestag discussed a bill of the green party. They proposed to treat homosexual and heterosexual partnerships equal regarding taxation.

The result was this (question: “Are you against equal taxation?”):

Three things strike me as interesting.

First of all, there were no defectors in either party. CDU/CSU & FDP voted unisono against the bill, SPD, LINKE and B90 GRÜNE voted in support of it. No single person voted against their party. This is noteworthy because the German constitution states that the only thing that delegates of the Bundestag are responsible to is their conscience (and not what their party leaders tell them to vote for).

Second, Guido Westerwelle, leading party member of the FDP, Foreign-Minister and Vice-Chancellor of Germany, is openly gay. But he voted against the proposal, as did everybody else in his party.

Third, take a closer look at the results of DIE LINKE. I already mentioned this a year ago when there was a vote regarding the introduction of internet-censorship in Germany, and 32% of the delegates of this party did not show up to vote. Obviously, that seems to be some kind of trend, once again there were about one third of the delegates missing. I do know that N=2 is not an exhaustive statistical analysis, but 2/2 is striking enough to mention it here.

Dear delegates: your job is called “Volksvertreter”, which literally means “representing the people”.

Please go vote.

Reporters Sans Frontière published the Press Freedom Index 2010, which is the ninth annual report so far.

To quote some highlights:

Secretary-general Jean-François Julliard said [...]: “More than ever before, we see that economic development, institutional reform and respect for fundamental rights do not necessarily go hand in hand. [...] We must salute the engines of press freedom, with Finland, Iceland, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland at their head. [...] It is disturbing to see several European Union member countries continuing to fall in the index. If it does not pull itself together, the European Union risks losing its position as world leader in respect for human rights. And if that were to happen, how could it be convincing when it asked authoritarian regimes to make improvements?”

I’d like to know whether there is a significant correlation to the economic and the educational situation, but I guess it is safe to assume there is. However, what Julliard is trying to point out here is that the correlation doesn’t seem to be that high.

Thirteen of the EU’s 27 members are in the top 20 but some of the other 14 are very low in the ranking. Italy is 49th, Romania is 52nd and Greece and Bulgaria are tied at 70th. The European Union is not a homogenous whole as regards media freedom. On the contrary, the gap between good and bad performers continues to widen.

France scored 44 and dropped compared to last year’s index as well. Germany went up the fourth year in a row and is now on place 17. It’s the last country in the first of the five categories (“good situation”) with 4.25 points, Australia (#18, 5.38 points) is leading the second category “satisfactory situation”. Turkey, with a very elaborate internet censoring mechanism is in the fourth category (“difficult situation”), scoring rank 138 with 49.25 points. Countries in the last category (“very serious situation”): Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Kyrgyzstan, Libya, Somalia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tunisia, Vietnam, Cuba, Equatorial Guinea, Laos, Rwanda, Yemen, China, Sudan, Syria, Burma, Iran, Turkmenistan, North Korea, Eritrea.

The BRICs – Brazil, Russia, India and China – may all be at a roughly similar stage of economic development but the 2010 index highlights major differences in the press freedom situation in these countries. Thanks to favourable legislative changes, Brazil (58th) has risen 12 places in the past year, while India has fallen 17 places to 122nd. Russia, which had a particularly deadly preceding year, is still poorly placed at 140th. Despite an astonishingly vibrant and active blogosphere, China still censors and jails dissidents and continues to languish in 171st place. These four countries now shoulder the responsibilities of the emerging powers and must fulfil their obligations as regards fundamental rights.

I also found the summary on Germany:

German media is renowned for its plurality, independence and courage in tackling sensitive issues and conducting investigative research. The media reacted negatively, however, to laws on regulating the use of electronic data and telephone communications breaching confidentiality of information. In addition, a discussion has evolved on the issue of whether the principle of the public broadcasting system‘s autonomy and independence can still be assured. The debate followed a controversial decision not to extend the contract of a public broadcaster’s chief editor. Futhermore, the trend of concentration of dailies is an increasing danger for the media’s diversity in Germany.

– Methodology: How the index was compiled
– Worldwide map of freedom of press

So wie es aussieht, wird gegen die Demonstranten, die sich gegen den Umbau des Stuttgarter Bahnhofs zur Wehr setzen, in einer Art und Weise vorgegangen, die mit einem Rechtsstaat nicht mehr allzuviel zu tun hat.

So verlor beispielsweise ein Demonstrant durch Wasserwerferbeschuss sein Augenlicht, es gab viele Verletzte durch Pfefferspray und Reizgas, und es wurde sogar ein Demonstrant mit einem Wasserwerfer aus einem Baum geschossen. Und den Bildern und Berichten nach zu urteilen sind diese Demonstranten keine Vermummten, die Steine schmeißen, sondern Schüler, Rentner, Familien – ein Querschnitt der Bürger Stuttgarts und der umliegenden Regionen.

Natürlich muss man hier immer vorsichtig sein, selbst dem ZDF live Reporter merkt man eine klare Befangenheit an, von einer reinen Reportage kann man da nicht mehr sprechen. Aber es gibt doch ein paar Quellen und Dokumentationen, die sehr glaubwürdig erscheinen.

Beispielsweise die Dienstaufsichtsbeschwerde eines ehemaligen Richters (“Ich bin kein Berufsdemonstrant und kein Chaot, sondern habe diesem Staat bis zu meiner Pensionierung vor einem Monat treu gedient, zuletzt elf Jahre lang als Vorsitzender einer Strafkammer des Landgerichts Stuttgart”), sowie einige Videos.

Und dieses Interview mit Heribert Rech (Innenminister BaWü, CDU) ist wirklich nur etwas für starke Gemüter.

EDIT: ein kurzweiliger Brief, der darauf hinweist, dass in Stuttgart keine Berufsdemonstranten auf der Straße sind, sondern gemeine Bürger.

(via Malte)

(Look for the update at the end of the text)

On the 31st of May, Israel attacked a boat traveling in international waters. At least nine activists were killed by the military, twenty wounded. Most of the dead were Turks, an Israeli senior military official announced.
The boat was carrying humanitarian supplies for Gaza, and was accompanied by five other boats, carrying around 600 activists. Among the crew was the Swedish crime writer Henning Mankel, Nobel peace laureate Mairead Corrigan-Maguire, celebrities and politicians.

Israel claims that they were attacked and had to defend themselves – and posted a video in which some of the activists seem to carry wooden and metal sticks, hitting soldiers with these improvised weapons. One of the dead activists was a 21 year old men, 4 times in the head. To me that doesn’t really sound like self-defense. Moreover, the official video does not contain any of the 9 killings.
The only evidence so far is a photo which appeared in the newspaper Hürriyet today, showing a soldier who was supposedly beaten up by the activists during the day in question.

The Guardian collected some video footage.

Riyad Mansour, Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations, called for an international investigation … Read the rest of this entry »

Many citizens interested in in a transparent state and worried about power abuse have heard about the discussion regarding general video surveillance. In Berlin, for example, cameras are omnipresent, especially in Mitte.

To give you an example, last year’s demonstration “Freiheit statt Angst” passed over 150 cameras. None of these – nor any of the many police cameras – filmed the unchecked police aggression towards an innocent man peacefully protesting; fortunately, demonstrators switched their cameras on as soon as they saw a crime being committed. This actually led to a reform of the Berlin police force: they have to wear an identification number on their uniform now.

Sometimes, the cameras in Berlin have a little sign next to them: “For your own safety, this place is under video surveillance.”

But that is simply not true: a camera does not increase your safety. It is just a piece of metal. If people rob you or assault you a camera will not help you. It will be there, filming, and show people robbing and assaulting. In nearly all cases, these people cannot be identified – that is very well known from cities like London where there is extensive research regarding the usefulness of video footage. We also know that cameras do not reduce crime rates, which was to be expected, because it is common knowledge in psychology that draconic measures of punishment like the death penalty do likewise not reduce crime rates.

Something has happened in London now that really upset me.
In January 2009, there were demonstrations against the Israeli offensive on Gaza. People were throwing bottles at police officers, which is not okay – and so the London police spent months watching CCTV footage in order to identify protestors and charge them. I understand that. But as the Guardian puts it: “It is only right that similar efforts are made to uncover police wrongdoing.” And there have been many documented assaults of policemen towards innocent and peaceful protesters, so that there is a lot of reason to investigate.

One case is a special, however:

“More worrying is the way in which CCTV is being used by the police. Demonstrator Jake Smith was charged with two counts of violent disorder. These charges were later dropped when Smith’s solicitor, Matt Foot, viewed the original CCTV footage and discovered that the police video had been edited to show events out of sequence, at one point implying another man was Smith while omitting footage showing Smith being assaulted by a police officer without provocation.”

Matt Foot, Jake’s solicitor, has published a short and very insighful written statement of the events.

To sum it up: the London police tampered with video footage in order to prosecute an innocent citizen, and they were caught by a very insistent lawyer.
I find that really hard to digest.

However, there was also one good consequence of the demonstrations. Russell and Ashley Inglis were assaulted by the police, but the police officers responsible could not be identified (youtube video).
They wrote a complaint which was turned down, appealed the decision with the same outcome, then decided to take their case to a solicitor for a civil claim. Russell and Ashley have been awarded £25,000 compensation, although the police officers responsible still remain unidentified! That is the first time this has happened, and although it might not be the best solution to let tax-payers cover for police crimes, at least there seems to be the possibility for compensation when the perpetrators cannot be identified.

Posts on this blog with related content:

• Police aggression in Berlin at “Freiheit statt Angst” demonstration, September 2009
• STOP IT: violence towards policemen at Berlin demonstrations

(Sources: Netzpolitik.org, The Guardian)