Sonntag, 7. November 2010 14:38
In a remarkably silent tone, a NYTimes Editorial provides some more numbers and historical context to the question of election advertisement. First to the numbers:
Sonntag, 7. November 2010 14:12
Ich bin vor kurzem wieder auf Banksy gestoßen, einen meiner liebsten zeitgenössischen Künstler, und vor allem auf seine Werke auf der Mauer in Palästina (bzw. auf den „Israelischen Sperranlagen“, wie sie Wikipedia nennt). Einen schönen Überblick über die Bilder inklusive kleiner polit-philosophischer Diskussion („‚Cheap publicity from other peoples misery‘ or ‚Publicity for Palestinian misery‘?“) liefert das Brian Sewell Art Directory, und hier ist noch ein schönes Bild, das dort nicht zu finden ist:
Sonntag, 7. November 2010 13:23
An interesting NYTimes Magazine article (quite lengthy but entertaining) takes the judicial battles brought about by BP’s gulf oil spill as a prominent example and has a look at the US practice of „trial lawyers“. They can be seen as an alternative to extensive government regulation — while most European countries regulate in advance, US corporations are regulated by the prospect of huge compensations after accidents. In the complex judicial system, this has attracted a specialized brand of lawyers, the trial lawyers, whose business model is to monitor big corporations and look for opportunities to sue them.
Interestingly, the metaphor of parasites came to my mind even before that analogy was mentioned in the article. And while it is used there with the negative implication it has in everyday language, I immediately had an evolutionary perspective on it as well, where parasites are acknowledged for regulating the growth of their hosts and contributing to a dynamic balance.
Hardly surprising, the public opinion on them is mixed:
Mittwoch, 3. November 2010 11:51
As somebody who is often annoyed with the role cell phones have taken on in our lives, I have been surprised a couple times recently when reading about the role of cell phones in developing countries. A recent NYTimes article about Nokias involvement with „emerging markets“ makes me feel especially ambivalent about it.
Without much profit so far, Nokia seems to be pursuing especially farmers and small entrepreneurs, offering them low-cost subscription services about market prices, weather forecasts and other information apparently very valuable to them:
Montag, 1. November 2010 15:24
Wie die ZEIT berichtet ging gerade ein großer Feldtest mit Elektroautos von BMW (in Gestalt des Mini-E) zu Ende. Die Erprobung sei fast schon überraschend positiv verlaufen, so haben sich die Testfahrer selbst ohne die für die Zukunft vorgesehene Elektro-Infrastruktur kaum eingeschränkt gefühlt. Allerdings war das Elektroauto oft Zweitwagen, und die Erprobung lief in großen Städten. Zu kaufen soll das erste Serienauto mit Elektroantrieb schon 2013 sein.