megaspora » Europe

Unfounded european protectionism against Google

By: psr, 2010-04-04

Several European states and European companies seem to be planning a host of measures to curb the business of Google. The excuse is that Google makes too much money. Not a bad excuse, as lame excuses go.

Governments and companies around Europe are “unhappy” that Google is here to compete. Publishers in Germany complain that they only earn €100m per year in advertisement, while Google earns €1.2bn (in Germany). In Spain, the main telecom operator is considering charging Google for the use of its network. In Italy, privacy protection advocates are calling for making Google liable for the content of its Youtube service (despite it all being provided by Youtube users, not Youtube itself). In the U.S. Google has faced opposition …

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2010-04-04 | Economy - Europe - Rights | Trackback | No Comments »

Censored Spanish anthem?

By: psr, 2009-07-26

Alberto Contador (from Pinto, in Spain) won the Tour de France today, but when he climbed up to the podium, the Danish anthem was played instead of the Spanish one. Mistake? I doubt it… it was pretty clear that Contador would win the Tour. How can the organizers make a mistake on what anthem to play? The on-line media I have read contains no explanations from the organizers about the mistake, but I think there is wrong-doing to avoid the Spanish anthem being heard. (Yes, I am proposing some small-time conspiracy theory, with the only proof of how absurd and unlikely the so-called mistake is).

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2009-07-26 | Europe - Spain | Trackback | No Comments »

Museum of Communism

By: psr, 2009-05-18

While walking around Prague last week, I ran into the following banner on a street wall:

Very nice.

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2009-05-18 | Europe - General - Rights | Trackback | No Comments »

False privacy protection

By: psr, 2009-03-18

Finland’s Parliament passed a law allowing companies to track workers’ e-mail messages, but not to read the messages themselves. With this law in effect, companies will be able to retain information about the e-mails, such as the sender, recipient, the sent and received time and date, and whether the email contained attachments [ref].

Even with such a weak law (it does not permit reading the content of messages), some opposed it arguing it “gives employers more powers than the police, and could lead to an erosion of Finland’s proud heritage as a world leader in human rights” [ref].

It is rumoured that Nokia was pushing for such a law to pass (for it was dubbed “Lex Nokia”). If it were so, they should be applauded for …

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2009-03-18 | Economy - Europe - Rights | Trackback | No Comments »

Disreputable business practices go unpunished

By: psr, 2009-01-25

Ryanair lost a court battle in Spain against an intermediary travel agency (Atrapalo)
that was selling Ryanair flight tickets irregularly.

Ryanair has no agreements with this travel agency. Ryanair sells its own flights through its own web page, directly to its customers. The Ryanair website usage policy states that their website may be used exclusively for private and non-commercial purposes. Atrapalo was using automatic mechanisms to use Ryanair’s end-customer service, introducing itself as an intermediary, and offering Ryanair flight tickets to its own customers, thereby using Ryanair’s website for commercial purposes and thus clearly violating the website usage policy.

Even so, the Spanish court has ruled against Ryanair. Ryanair was right to claim that this travel agency (Atrapalo) and others (e-Dreams, Rumbo, Opodo, Bravofly, V-Tours …

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2009-01-25 | Economy - Europe - Spain | Trackback | No Comments »

Embarrassing European Union

By: psr, 2008-12-14

Ireland and a few other European countries decided to ask their citizens in referendum to ratify (or not) the EU Lisbon Treaty. Other countries simply voted in parliament.

In June 2008 the majority of Irish said “no” to this treaty, while the rest of Europe voted yes. The single “no” vote meant, in theory, that the treaty was not accepted (officially all 27 EU member states had to vote “yes” for the treaty to be approved).

So… what to do when the vote is not what you want it to be? Just make people vote again, and see if you get the result you want this time! That’s exactly what the European Union proposed Ireland to do, and it seems Ireland has agreed to …

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2008-12-14 | Braindead - Europe - General - Rights | Trackback | No Comments »

Back to GMT+1, waiting for GMT+0

By: psr, 2008-10-26

Tonight (Oct 25 to Oct 26) is the end of DST (Daylight Savings Time), which has kept central Europe artificially in GMT+2, commonly known as CEST (Central European Summer Time), and we’ll go back to the usual timezone, called “CET”, or Central European Time, or GMT+1.

Along with central europe goes Spain, which however is geographically far from “central” europe, and thus we ought to be using a different timezone. GMT+1 is not right for Spain. At 7am there is sunlight coming through your window in Rome or in Zurich, while in Spain it’s pitch dark. At that time, it ought to be 6am in Spain, or GMT+0, the same time as in Portugal or the United Kingdom, our meridian neighbours.

I encourage all readers to advocate …

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2008-10-26 | Europe - General - Spain | Trackback | 4 Comments »

Let it all fall down

By: psr, 2008-10-14

Governments around the world are trying out different formulae to tackle the financial crisis. They claim they are trying to reactivate the financial sector, to encourage banks to offer loans to small businesses and people, and to other banks. Other cases of government intervention are focused on preventing banks from going bankrupt.

This is all wrong. If the financial sector is in a financial crisis, let the financial sector sweat out its own illness. Any part of it that cannot survive the crisis should simply be left to die, because its demise means that it has no value. The crisis must be allowed to work as it should, promoting consolidation, discarding some old players and creating opportunities for new players to enter.

Government intervention is absolutely wrong. …

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2008-10-14 | Economy - Europe - World | Trackback | No Comments »

Let us establish the death penalty

By: psr, 2008-08-17

Late last month (July 2008), it became known that the U.S. would execute the death sentence of soldier Ronald Gray after his conviction for rape and murder.

The decision is correct and must be applauded. The death penalty should be applied more frequently in similar cases. The execution of such criminals may not necessarily heal their victims, families or society, but execution is the just response from society to individuals who have completely violated the rules of society, showing utter contempt for those people who became their victims. There is no possible reintegration. It is necessary for society to have mechanisms to get rid of such cancers. Such elements are not worthy of cure; they are rather malignant tumors to be removed completely from society.

Apart from the possible deterrent …

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2008-08-17 | Europe - Rights - Spain - World | Trackback | No Comments »

Oil prices, carriers and the Spanish government

By: psr, 2008-06-14

ï»¿The recent increase in oil prices affects all transport. Air, ground and sea transportation, passenger and cargo alike, have seen their costs rising in the last few months.

Analysts have provided several theories on the causes behind the oil price hike. Some put the blame on the credit crisis in the USA, others blame oil producers, others point at the US Federal Reserve, and others remind us of the significant increase in energy demand. I am not going to analyze the reasons here.

This week Spain saw a strike by some truck drivers (apparently about 20% of them), demanding Government intervention to help their activity, after fuel price increases are rendering their business a loss-making operation. Their strike blocked major communication roads around the main …

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2008-06-14 | Braindead - Economy - Europe - Spain | Trackback | No Comments »

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Archive for the 'Europe' Category

Unfounded european protectionism against Google

Censored Spanish anthem?

Museum of Communism

False privacy protection

Disreputable business practices go unpunished

Embarrassing European Union

Back to GMT+1, waiting for GMT+0

Let it all fall down

Let us establish the death penalty

Oil prices, carriers and the Spanish government

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