20. Dez 2015

How should VW make up for the environmental damage caused by its cheating?

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Option 1 – Fines: Penalties and sanctions may hurt the company and they have the potential to avoid more cheating in the future, but they won’t be able to compensate for the damage already done. Even their suitability to discourage future misbehavior can be doubted. Not only because they put pressure on the company to somehow still deliver the results its shareholders expect, but also because fining an employer often means relieving employees from individual accountability and liability. 1

Option 2 – Recalling and fixing every affected car: Like penalties, this option inflicts financial damage on VW while doing little to make up for the damage already done. Each recalled car would marginally reduce the total future negative environmental impact but would at the same time externalize the cost of VW’s malpractice to the owners of the troubled cars. That’s also the reason why it’s really unlike to get a significant number of cars outfitted with any fix.

Option 3 – Burden VW with an environmental liability. And offer a way to pay actually pay it off: Weiterlesen »

  1. Whether or not individuals should be liable for actions taken in their roles as employees shall not be discussed in this article. Currently very few employees face criminal or civil charges due to non-compliance in their job, especially in high-profile cases. ↩
4. Dez 2015

The Other Hundred & A Conversation on Entrepreneurship

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The East Wing Gallery was hosting an exhibition of works from the series „The Other Hundred – Entrepreneurs.“ The collection, initiated by the Global Institute for Tomorrow (GIFT), aims to provide a counterpoint to the various top 100 lists of famous and infamous people that are published by different magazines, most notably Forbes. Instead of focusing on high profile entrepreneurs that often are – or at least seem – to be detached from the realities the majority of mankind is facing, GIFT wants to look at the many forms of activities and ideas that people all over the world bring to life in order to make a living or the world a better place. While still not representative, the photos – and the stories behind them – provide a much better view on what entrepreneurship means. In connection with the exhibition, the East Wing Gallery was also organizing two „conversations on entrepreneurship.“ The first one took place Oct 3, 2015 and the second one week later. This post is a collection of thoughts from the first talk, not a complete summary. If you’re interested in the full event, you can find a (mediocre) audio recording here.

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17. Nov 2015

On ISIS

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ISIS cannot kill all of us – keeping up with traffic related deaths would pose a serious logistical challenge for them. ISIS doesn’t even want to kill all of us. ISIS wants to make our lives miserable – we should not allow them to.

ISIS wants us to stop having fun – we cannot stop going to concerts or football games.

ISIS wants to make it impossible for millions of people to flee from their „caliphate“ by spreading doubt in supportive nations – we must not be quiet when politicians question the right for asylum or insinuate that refugees pose a serious thread to security.

ISIS wants us to horse trade actual freedom for a pretense of security – we cannot allow our parliaments and elected leaders to limit judicial oversight or to lock down open borders.

ISIS wants us to believe the same Orient vs Occident narrative that right-wing populists and extremists in Europe are trying to draw – we cannot forget that ISIS killed 43 people in Beirut just one day before the attacks in Paris and hundreds more before that in other places around the region.

ISIS has very limited power over our lives. Politicians, the media and ourselves have power. Whether we use this power to advance ISIS‘ cause is our own decision. Looking at mainstream media, Beirut is all but forgotten. On Friday we will find out how long Schengen will hold up. 

[Update: DE – NL football game cancelled]

7. Okt 2015

War crimes and suicide attacks

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On Oct 3, 2015 US forces upon request of their Afghan allies bombed a MSF hospital in Kunduz, killing 22 patients and staff.

Imagine that same hospital had been struck by a suicide attack instead. A member of the Taliban drives up in a car full of explosives and detonates them. Bombs explode. People die. The only hospital of its kind in the region is partially destroyed. The world would be outraged and rightfully so.Now look at what happened – according to official statements anyway: One or more members of the Taliban were in that hospital, without explosives though. They didn’t have to bring any, because they were delivered by the US air force. Bombs explode. People die. The only hospital of its kind in the region is partially destroyed. Suddenly this is – somehow – considered to be a good thing.

As this article in The Intercept points out, the official story keeps changing. I guess because everyone involved knows how much of a screw-up this is, but nobody wants to lose face.

Still, some Afghan officials continued to suggest that the attack was justified. “I know that there were civilian casualties in the hospital, but a lot of senior Taliban were also killed,” said Abdul Wadud Paiman, a member of Parliament from Kunduz.

As per MSF, 7 adult patients were killed – even if all of them were Taliban, this is not „a lot.“ And while „senior“ implies „high-ranking“ it could just as well mean „old“ – or nothing at all. If there had been any high ranking Taliban killed in the strike, we would know names by now – security forces like bragging about their achievements too much.

If there’s anything good about this at all, it’s the fact that it was a hospital run by MSF, a well organized, connected and respected group with no intentions to shut up. With a bit of luck this story is going to blow up. Just like the hospital did.

14. Jul 2015

Zur Schule in Cottbus, Studium in Magdeburg …

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… und dann doch nicht Fahrraddieb geworden. Da muss man sich glatt wundern, wenn man diesen Artikel in der Süddeutschen liest:

So wurden 2014 in Münster gut 1500 Fahrräder je 100 000 Einwohner gestohlen. Das reicht zwar immer noch für den Titel „Diebstahlhochburg“ – aber eben nicht für die Spitze der Kriminalitätsstatistik. Dort befinden sich Cottbus (2030 Fahrräder) und Magdeburg (1638).

Falls es bei Lexmark irgendwann nicht mehr klappt, kann ich ja immer noch umsatteln (siehe auch).

28. Mrz 2015

How to say goodbye to Google*

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After many years of dependence reliance on Google, I have decided that it’s time to say goodbye – or at least bring some distance between me and the US based company. The reasons behind this change will have to be discussed in a separate post. Today I will just review which parts of the Google universe are easier to escape from and which harder. This post can be considered a follow up to my original move from a personal Gmail account to Google Apps for Business about three years ago. A few things have changed since then, several services are no longer important to me and will not be migrated. At the same time, the scope of work has been expanded due to the fact that I want to leave most of Google behind me instead of just moving from the consumer section to the business department. So let’s have a look at Google’s various offerings and the alternatives I have chosen.

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17. Mrz 2015

Es sieht so aus, als müsste ich bis zur Rente arbeiten

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Die Süddeutsche hat für ihre Serie über die Zukunft der Arbeit eine (oder zwei) Studien ausgewertet, die sich mit der Ersetzbarkeit des Menschen der menschlichen Arbeitsleistung durch Maschinen befassen. Das Ergebnis ist dieses Online-Werkzeug. Nachdem man seinen Beruf ausgewählt hat, verkündet der Computer seine Lust Fähigkeit, einem den eigenen Job streitig zu machen. Für mich sieht es so aus, als würde ich zumindest in den nächsten 20 Jahren nicht ersetzt. Ich bin mir noch nicht ganz sicher, ob ich das gut finde – aber die Meinungsfindung zu diesem Thema hat ja nun offenbar noch Zeit.

Wirtschaftsingenieure werden nicht ersetzt

Finanzanalysten vielleicht doch

Meine persönliche Meinung zu dem Thema ist, dass Arbeit die von Maschinen erledigt werden kann, auch von Maschinen erledigt werden sollte. Damit haben Menschen mehr Zeit, das zu tun was ihnen Spaß macht. Es wird Zeit, die regelmäßige Arbeit von der Finanzierung des eigenen Unterhalts zu trennen. Wenn Steuern und Sozialbeiträge auf alle Arten von Einkommen erhoben werden, ist da womöglich sogar finanzierbar.

2. Jul 2014

What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas

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Hence, this will should be a very short blog post. However, after long and difficult discussions with Philipp, we decided to disclose some of the joy we experienced in Sin City. To put the most important thing first: The food in Vegas was much, much better :)

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27. Jun 2014

A journey begins – Grand Canyon

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Vacation, finally. After a few busy weeks in the office and a terribly long journey, I actually made it to the US (Albuquerque, NM to be specific) and was picked by Philipp to commence a road trip across the United States. Philipp has already been on the road for roughly 3’000 miles (~ 4’800 km), but my trip started only here. We left Albuquerque early on Saturday morning to drive to the Grand Canyon, my first real stop.

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