during the twenty-first century, we are going to see the end of mass wage labour on this planet. sophisticated new technologies - software technologies, computer technologies, robotic technologies, intelligent technologies - are already beginning to replace entire job categories. […] by the mid-decades of the twenty-first century, we’re going to be able to produce goods and services for the whole world with a fraction of the workforce we have now.
the key question this raises is, what will happen to millions of human beings when we no longer need them to produce basic goods and services? we’re already seeing that there is nowhere in the world where we are not facing long-term structural unemployment. so how do we redefine what a human being is in the twenty-first century? whether consciously or unconsciously, we have become so accustomed to defining humans in terms of their productivity at the workplace that we scratch our heads when we try to think: is there something else human beings can do on earth? if you think about it, you start to see how narrowly constructed our consciousness is about ourselves.
[jeremy rifkin in wie? issue 23 spring/summer 2003]

damn. the political activist who contested the police methods yesterday was found guilty after all.
now that really sucks.
if in fact he was innocent, this would have been perfect to show how dangerous such publishing of fotos can be. now things look less convincing. and the media of course is having a field day.
however he did “only” get charged for participating in riotous assembly and inciting riots [= he was one of the organisers of the official demonstration. this seems to be a very farfetched accusation].
this again raises the question, whether this police method represents a justified means. is it really appropriate to publish somebody’s fotos online if their only crime was the particiaption in a riotous assembly? if the person did actually destroy property this is already a very tricky question as usually people’s fotos only get published for much more severe crimes. the weaker the “crime” the more questionable the police method, no?
c’est un scandal
c’est un scandal bis

google not so wonderful after all?
the idealistic web-search tool, coded by hippies, is losing it’s clean reputation fast as more and more journalists start to uncover the dark side of the search engine of choice [70% use google]. all the recent abuses of power come to light.
an excellent, highly recommended three part series about all things google [who done it, why certain search results always appear on top, why they bought blogger] was recently published in de-bug.
in german!!! author: mario sixtus
here are parts 1 & 2.
part 3 is in the current issue and cannot be found online yet.
[interesting online publishing policy that…]

a 32 year old political activist from neuchatel/switzerland is pressing charges against geneva police for publishing fotos of his face on the website they used as part of their online hunt for violent protesters.
he swears, that he did not take part in the riots following the peaceful demonstration on june 1. this year. the police had so far claimed, that for all the people, whos fotos had been published, they had bullet-proof evidence, that they were offenders during the riots in the destruction of property.
interesting detail: the activist in question had a severe accident less than a year ago and is often forced to use crutches to aid his walking, which makes it hardly possible to participate in riots envolving lots of running from cops and such physical activities.
c’est un scandal
c’est un scandal bis

a few days ago we went to saint vincent near aosta in the italian alps. we parked our car and decided to take a walk in this prestine mountain village. as we approached the main strip, so to speak (= the small main road, where all the shops are), we noticed fairly loud music blaring towards us. it’s probably some outdoors concert, we thought. but then we noticed, that the music came from a system of loudspeakers installed all along the street on the walls above the stores.
here we were in a supposedly “quiet” mountain village, that had been transformed into an open-air shopping mall, elevator musak blasting over the village P.A. included.
needless to say, that they played really horrible music; genre piano instrumentals of famous pop-songs played by richard klaydermann or someone equally horrible. in the short time we were able to take this, we heard “we are the world” “let it be” and “unica donna” …. *barf*
seems to me most people go to the mountains to enjoy some quiet … so what were they thinking when they installed this? i can only imagine the meeting where the city planners decided this nonsense. some young dynamic architect probably sold it to the others by saying how modern and hip saint vincent would be with this feature.
now that such things are technologically possible, one can only fear what else well-meaning people like these will come up with…

oops. i forgot.
i was supposed to take part in blogathon 2003. it started yesterday and goes on for about another 2 hours or so.
oh well… i did not have any sponsors anyway.
blogathon asks bloggers to post every 30 minutes for 24 hours. the idea is to raise money for a good cause. people are asked to sponsor the blog of their choice by pitching money for the good cause, that the blogger has selected.
so far 85′000.- were raised.
i was just talking to one blogger who is participating. sounds like a huge challenge.
maybe next year

last night swiss television tsr1 has announced in their newscast, that two (correction: four!) arrests have already been made since the fotos of anti-g8 activists have been published by the police on wednesday. geneva police has received over 100 leads in 2 days.
the witch-hunt is on!
so far the practice was to only publish fotos of criminals, that had commited extreme crimes, like massmuder, rape or the like. somehow the police of geneva seems to think that in the “free” medium internet such conventions are obsolete. and even worth: the people play along…

recently we got a bit insecure …

click4mo’
but now we are certain again: PLASTIC RULES THE WORLD. ‘TIS A WORLD MADE OF PLASTIC !! WOO! YAY!

clickahmuchbiggeryet

the police forces of geneve are publishing photos of 39 anti-globlisation activists on their official website in their search for supposedly violent protesters during the recent anti-g8 protests in june.
internet-users are asked to help in identifying these “casseurs” engl. = destroyers.

geneva police had been surprisingly passive during the protests in early june. without a doubt this had to do with the watchful eye of the world media turned onto them, controlling every move of the police, making shure, that the disasterous police campaigns in genoa a few years prior could not repeat themselves. with this passive stance the police allowed an incredible amount of destruction of property to occur, which now they want clarified. (is it not better to prevent such destruction?) but to publish photos of supposed offenders in such a way seems hardly legal, putting in danger such principals as the benefit of the doubt.
the police spokesperson argues, that in police inquieries of this caliber all instruments, all media, have to be used, especially a modern medium like the internet, which everybody is able to use nowadays.

but what results is a sort of public denunciation, that was unheard of in previous years. it is a known fact, that right-wing militants are very agile in their use of the internet and they have proved in the past, that they will not shy away from singleing out and aggressing left-wing militants, once they are able to identify them. but other extremly problematic situations are conceivable: apprentices or employees recognised by their employers, sons or daughters by their parents, students by their teachers. and some of these situations might produce strong private repercussions. and all this based on mere suspicions at this point. any offender is innocent until proven guilty, or is it not?
it is one thing to publizise photos of killers or bankrobbers. but these political activists can be charged with destruction of property at the most - hardly an offense that justifies such a public witch-hunt.

oh how in times like these i wished i was a hacker …
[first read about this in le matin (the page might be open 4 subscribers only after today)]

your first pet’s name and your mother’s maiden name make up your porn name, apparently.
we of course tried this, but we think, that this only works in english and maybe some other languages. but it does not seem to work in german!
just listen to this, my porn name would be ferdinand matter [i know…], while frenzy’s would be kasimir schönholzer…
sooo those two would absolutly not work, would they now?
but maybe there are other german versions that work better…
anyone ???