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Kurzer Hinweis auf eine gute Zusammenfassung der gerade zu Ende gegangenen Sommerakademie “Offene Informationsgesellschaft und Terrorbekämpfung – ein Widerspruch?” bei heise. Scheint ja hoch hergegangen zu sein dort...

Update 29.8.:
Worum es außer der Online-Durchsuchung noch bei der Sommerakademie ging, wird in diesem heise-Artikel geschildert.

Alle kommen!!!11!1!elf!!

Wir sehen uns am 22.9. in Berlin. Jawoll.

Seminar für angewandte Unsicherheit

Kurzer Tipp: Wer sich in Berlin für Überwachung interessiert, kommt nicht an der SaU vorbei, dem Seminar für angewandte Unsicherheit. Dort werden halbwegs regelmäßig Filme gezeigt, “Kameraspaziergänge” durchgeführt oder Diskussionsrunden zu verschiedenen Aspekten der Überwachung durchgeführt. Aktuelle Termine gibt es auf der Homepage.



If you're living in Berlin and are interested in all aspects of surveillance you should get familiar with the SaU (silly German pun), the Seminar for Applied Uncertainty/Insecurity. They regularly show surveillance-related movies, they go on “camera walks”, and they regularly host discussion rounds on all sorts of surveillance. You can find a recent schedule on their homepage.

The Picture Wars

Your flickr pro-account account will expire on June 28...

Mer, my much beloved flickr has failed me, now for the second time. While I swallowed the obligation to associate my flickr-account with a Yahoo!-ID (Yahoo! acquired flickr in 2005), the recent change of terms of service that blocks content for users from certain countries is really pissing me off. I am well aware that this is by no means only flihoo's fault but rather a case of overcautious interpretation by company lawyers of stupid (German) laws. What is even worse than this mild form of censorship, however, is Yahoo!'s policy of cooperating with repressive regimes (no, I don't mean Germany) in prosecuting dissidents. I do acknowledge that any company must to a certain comply with local laws to a certain extent if it wants to stay in business. But, maybe in a similar fashion to the overcompliance to German regulations, Yahoo! has apparently shown absolutely no willingness to protect its users from the Chinese authorities. This has also become clear in last week's rejection of a proposed anti-censorship policy by Yahoo!'s shareholders.

What is to be done?

All this leads me to the conclusion that I'm not willing to renew my subscription for another year, for two main reasons. First, I don't want to give money to a corporation that does the things that I've mentioned above. Second, and maybe more important, I don't want to be stuck with flihoo for a whole year. Who knows what will come next!? Maybe you're asking yourself why the second reason is the more important one. Well, as a good Adornite I am well aware that “there is no right life in falsehood” and that the idea of making capitalism better by consumer choices is a burgeois illusion. I readily admit: I have Continental tires on my bike, I drink Starbucks coffee, I buy at Lidl. Therefore, it doesn't make a big difference if Yahoo! will get my 25 bucks or not. But paying 25 bucks for a product that might get drastically worse within the subscription period, with no chance of getting your money back, seems like a bad decision.

Unfortunately, there are a number of problems with leaving flihoo: flickr is not just some consumer product but it is a social network. Telepolis has an interesting article (German only) on how it becomes virtually impossible to switch from one network to another since this virtually means that your network disappears---my contacts, my comments, my favorites, my groups are all at flickr and not at ipernity, zoomr, 23hq or wherever. In addition, most of the alternative services simply suck when compared to flickr. Ipernity in my experience is the one closest to flickr but that's mainly because it is a very blunt knock-off, apparently even using “stolen” code.

So, in the end, what is to be done? I think I'll just wait and see. Flickr will deactivate the pro-features after the subscription ends but they can be re-activated at any time if flihoo will come to its senses.

Gegen Überwachungswahn!

Am 14. April findet in Frankfurt a. M. die Demo Freiheit statt Angst – gegen Sicherheits- und Überwachungswahn statt, getragen von einem breiten Bündnis von Datenschutz- und Bürgerrechtsvereinigungen. Aus Berlin wird es einen Sammelbus geben – wir sehen uns, hoffentlich.

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“Freedom, not fear -- against control und surveillance madness” is the slogan of a rally which will take place in Frankfurt/Main on the 14th of April. See you there, hopefully!

--Edit 2007-03-23--
Heise hat inzwischen auch einen Bericht im Newsticker.

Happy Women's Day!

Okay, this year's International Women's Day is almost over (at least in my time zone) and I don't really have time to write something insightful. However, I am sure you'll find lots of interesting contributions over at the taking place blog that celebrates the second edition of the Blog Against Sexism Day. Hopefully, next year I'll be able to participate again, and until then I can only say: Let's celebrate the past accomplishments of feminism and then continue our struggle for true equality!

Seufz, der Weltfrauentag ist – zumindest in dieser Zeitzone – schon fast wieder vorbei, und ich habe echt keine Zeit, etwas Tiefsinniges zu schreiben. Das ist aber nicht so schlimm, da man sowohl in der heutigen taz (sage ich das wirklich??) als auch drüben beim taking place blog veranstalteten, zweiten Blog-Against-Sexism-Tag einen Haufen guter Beiträge finden kann. Insofern bleibt mir also nur noch einen guten Frauentag zu wünschen, an dem man die bisherigen Errungenschaften feiern sollte, um dann wieder gestärkt unseren gemeinsamen Kampf um wahre Gleichberechtigung weiterführen zu können.

Listening to Havidol

Machen Sie sich auch manchmal Sorgen wegen Ihres Lebens? Fühlen sich angespannt, ruhelos oder müde? Bemerken Anzeichen des Älterwerdens? Machen Ihnen Aktivitäten, Ihnen früher Freude bereitet haben, heute weniger Freude? Dann könnten Sie von DSACDAD, der Dysphorischen Soziale Phobie-Aufmerkamkeits-Konsum-Defizit-Störung, betroffen sein. Diese neue entdeckte psychische Erkrankung wird vollkommen unterschätzt, betrifft aber große Teile der Bevölkerung. Glücklicherweise kann man DSACDAD effektiv mit dem neuen Medikament Havidol behandeln.

Wer sich nun leicht verwundert fragt, seit wann die Luftpumpenwelt sich um die gesundheitliche Aufklärung sorgt, sollte sich die Havidol-Produktseite einmal genauer anschauen. Spätestens dann sollte einem auffallen, dass es sich bei Medikament wie Störung um einen – verdammt gut gemachten – Spoof handelt. Offensichtlich so überzeugend, dass eine beachtliche Anzahl von Personen die Seite ernst genommen hat. „Entdeckerin“ von DSACDAD ist Justine Cooper, eine australische Künstlerin, die sich in ihrer Arbeit viel mit den Überkreuzungspunkten von Kultur, Medizin und Wissenschaft auseinandersetzt. In der New Yorker Daneyal Mahmood Gallery wird das Havidol-Projekt, das neben der Website auch noch Anzeigen und Werbevideos umfasst, noch bis zum 10. März zu sehen sein.

--Edit 07-02-25: Didn't I promise to post in two languages whenever possible...? Also edited two typos.

Are you sometime worried about your life? Feel tense, restless, or tired? Notice signs of aging? Do you no longer enjoy certain activities as much as you used to? Then you can probably suffer from DSACDAD, dysphoric social anxiety attention consumption disorder. The seriousness of this newly recognized disorder has often been underestimated but over 50% of the population show some degree of DSACDAC! Fortunately, there is a “magic bullet” (MedNews) for treating it, Havidol.

If you are now wondering since when the Luftpumpenwelt is doing health education you should probably take a second look at the Havidol website. The you will realize (I hope so, at least!) that both disorder and drug are – pretty convincing – spoof. Apparently convincing to a degree that a lot people took it seriously and even self-diagnosed... “Discoverer” of DSACDAD is Justine Cooper, an Australian artist, that is working about intersections of culture, science, and medicine. The Havidol project which also includes ads and TV-commercials will be shown in the Daneyal Mahmood Gallery in New York City until March 10.