Mein Deutsch ist nicht das Gelbe vom Ei, aber es geht.
Bekannt? aus /r/germany, /r/german, /r/greek und /r/egenbogen.
Truly an xkcd #1172 situation.
The depth of the reduction and all the built-in escape valves show that this was an extremely tough compromise, but hopefully we can use this landmark deal to boost the fight for the 4-day work week as the new norm. I think that's something IGM made a priority, but many sectors represented by ver.di are also ideal sectors for this.
I think the idea is that the funding might come with conditions to reach a significant % of the audience. E.g. often public broadcasters have a remit of 99% of population coverage with their broadcast technology, while private stations have much lower or no legally obligatory reception target.
I don't think that's a big obstacle in this case though.
You seem to he framing it as, “scientists went to nature to find out how humans should act,” and in my view you are missing quite a lot. I could be wrong, open to hearing more.
What is important, imho, is what I wrote in my top-level comment: I don't want to find myself in the same camp as other groups who make "nature" arguments (like "evolutionary psychologists"). If I accept their premise, I will have to accept their conclusions too -otherwise I'd have to be cherry-picking naturalist arguments only when they are politically expedient for me.
So to me, this argument is a retort against lazy, commonly used, longstanding, nonsense arguments.
I believe that this argument is best countered by saying that "regardless of what you think is natural or not, a person has the right to do what they want to do so long as their actions do not violate the freedoms and integrity of others". That's a moral value you can reason yourself into and you can be consistent about.
Humans are animals, and this shows non-human animals can be queer too.
I don't think it shows anything more than that the animals in question engage in same-sex intercourse. Claiming anything more than that is, to me, arbitrary anthropomorphism. I am not prepared to accept that whales can be "queer" until whales start writing sociological papers for us to find out how they understand homosexuality in their system of norms and values.
The fact animals have some behavior shouldn’t, alone, be a justification to punish or encourage some behavior.
Maybe I'm jumping the gun here, but I've been in plenty of discussion already where animals engaging in same-sex intercourse was used as an argument to defend queer rights - e.g. my local queer association did hold such a panel discussion at the zoo last May.
To see this news article in /c/lgbtq_plus instead of /c/biology or /c/science does make me extrapolate that this is somehow understood as being relevant to human sexuality.
I dunno, I'm still not comfortable with with linking human queerness with biologism and the natural argument. Other animals also regularly do unsavoury things and those urges might still exist in our biological programming but we have reasoned our way of them them.
I don't want to accidentally make strange bedfellows with other groups who point at animal behaviours to justify their problematic shit. Such studies on animal sexuality should stay a matter of science, the queer movement should not take them on as political arguments.
Ich wohne in Berlin, also ist Umarmen üblich. Ich frage trotzdem immer kurz nach - wer die Frage peinlich findet, ist sowieso kein gutes Match zu mir.
Es liegt an einer Mischung aus wenigen Kassensitzen sowie hohen Aufnahmehürden.
Ich helfe grade einem Freund mit dem ganzen Prozess - hier ist meine bestmögliche Strategie.
Und da es kein englisches Wort für verschlimmbesserung gibt
https://www.linguee.de/englisch-deutsch/uebersetzung/disimprovement.html
We are back, baby.
Berlin’s Amazing Trams and What We Could Learn from Them
Ich bin auch überrascht.
I’d say for me it would depend what the monument stands for.
The problem with this is that there's often multiple interpretations. Is it a monument to the celebrate the defeat of Nazism, or to glorify the paternalist role of the Soviet Union over the Warsaw Pact countries? You can't really say it's only one or the other - you can only decide which one matters more to the society at a given point in time.
I think that when there's no consensus about an interpretation in a society, a good place to start is with contextualisation. A high-profile but contentious monument should come with a small open-air museum that provides the context of what the monument was intended to stand for, what where the motivations of those who built it, and how it came to be seen as the time passed.
Then, time will tell if the society decides to interpret it one way or the other. At some point it will be clear if it should stay or go.
I probably didn't express myself well. What I meant to say is that with an area so spread-out, any placement of the bus stop would make it extremely unreachable from some other adjacent destination.
This kind of makes me feel that the problem starts one layer before: this are is so spread out. It really doesn't look like there's any visible reason for buildings to be so far apart.
There's so few buildings that yeah, I think one bus stop is enough to serve them as far as amount of users is concerned. But the green could have been around the built up area, not between the buildings. Parking could also be compacted, maybe multi-floor or underground to reduce the surface area.
One can hope that the store operators will also be heavily fined for their apparent failure to protect their customers' information from infosec threats. Show them teeth, GDPR.
Should the PISA findings be trusted? | UCL Institute of Education
Germany: shock
Cyprus: anger
None had any discourse around what the PISA scores measure and if there's any problematisation warranted around the methodology etc. So, in the end, it just serves as a regular outrage topic for the news cycle, but because no-one understands what the scores mean, no-one can do anything about them.
Massive parking lots at the edge of the city. At least this was the recommendation of the Berlin Autofrei initiative.
income-proportional fee structure for government services?
This is income tax.
And if the strike spreads to Germany, which it very well could, it could mean the cease of operation of the Model Y factory in Berlin, which would be devastating to them.
A big problem is that Germany's labour laws do not allow sympathy or political strikes. A strike can only be legally called in association with a collective bargaining agreement negotiation/dispute.
Germany will be the weak link in this cross-country wave of strikes.
Zones vs Flat Fares: What’s the Better Transit Fare Scheme?
Where scrappy Berlin shines as the A+ example
For clarity, I'm in favour of changing the terminology to highlight the historical injustice.
I just thought it's important to admit that it's a recent change of linguistic preferences even in the most official Greek publications. Indeed, up to the last couple of years, the adjectival "Elgin" was used in Greek as an accusation of theft, not a recognition of ownership.
Quick Note: Anti-Green Identity Politics
In Northern Europe right now, there’s a growing backlash to perceived injury to people’s prosperity inflicted by the green movement. In Germany this is seen in campaigning this year by …
Die Straßenbahnlinie 60 soll von Johannisthal in den Bezirk Neukölln verlängert werden, beschließt der Senat. Auch zur Tram durch den Görlitzer Park und zum Blankenburger Süden gibt es Neuigkeiten.
Bill to protect workers right to sit down | Cyprus Mail
The House plenum should vote before Christmas on a bill proposing to end prolonged periods of standing imposed on employees by businesses, the House labour committee heard on Tuesday. The bill was submitted by Akel a few months ago, and according to MP Giorgos Koukoumas, who tabled the bill, it…
Amsterdam will give car traffic less priority in the future. The city’s streets and sidewalks are filling up as the population grows. Traffic speed and flow will get less focus as the Amsterdam government tries to find space for everyone, traffic alderman Malnie van der Horrst (D66) said in a guidan...
Some interesting points:
That may mean that Amsterdam residents will have to “wait a little longer” during rush hour, motorists may spend longer at red lights, and locals may have to accept that same-day delivery is a thing of the past.
Cyclists will also have to adapt. Next year, the city will introduce streets where faster cyclists, often on e-bikes and fatbikes, can choose between the motorway or the bike path. Those who choose the bike path must adhere to a speed limit of 20 kilometers per hour.
For a city moving in the opposite direction: Change to the mobility law - Berlin CDU wants to abolish priority for cyclists
PSA: Deutsche Bahn will currently not let you pay for Sparpreis tickets and for a BahnCard 100 with a SEPA direct debit due to fraud concerns
I got hit with it just now and I was wondering what's going on. Here's the FAQ page: https://www.bahn.de/faq/6-warum-kann-ich-sparpreis-tickets-nicht-mit-lastschrift-bezahlen
Machine Translation:
Why can't I pay for saver fare tickets and a BahnCard 100 by direct debit?
There is currently an increase in fraudulent activity based on so-called phishing emails. As a precautionary measure for your protection, you cannot pay for Sparpreis tickets and a BahnCard 100 on this website and in the app using direct debit until further notice.
One now has to use PayPal or a MasterCard/VISA/etc-branded bank card.
Our View: MPs should not back supermarkets over stretched shoppers | Cyprus Mail
The cabinet approved the proposal for the creation of a digital platform, known as the e-kalathi (e-basket), that would list prices of 300 consumer goods in different supermarkets in April. The idea was to inform people during this period of high prices what was being charged for similar products in...
The cabinet approved the proposal for the creation of a digital platform, known as the e-kalathi (e-basket), that would list prices of 300 consumer goods in different supermarkets in April. The idea was to inform people during this period of high prices what was being charged for similar products in different shops, with the main emphasis being on food, baby items and household products.This would enable people to buy the most competitively priced goods.
Searching for shade and trees in Nicosia | Cyprus Mail
Cyprus’ capital city boasts just four per cent of tree coverage Whenever a data collection company releases a table of statistics regarding tree coverage or green spaces in European cities, Nicosia tends to prop it up, or at the very least find itself somewhere towards the bottom. Just four per…
It's no exaggeration that as someone raised on the island of Cyprus, I was astonished by how green the cities looked from above when I first travelled to Europe.
A paper published by the Association of German Transport Companies (VDV) has revealed much the Deutschlandticket is likely to go up in price in 2024.
Meine Beförderung wurde abgelehnt, was nun?
Seit Anfang des Jahres habe ich eine Beförderung beantragt, die meinen erweiterten Verantwortlichkeiten entspricht. Meine Abteilung unterstützt mich, der Personalchef hat sie abgelehnt ("Priorität der Firma sind neue Mitarbeiter").
Das ist natürlich Bullshit. Ich bin nun auf der Suche nach einem neuen Job.
Ich bin mir über zwei Punkte nicht ganz sicher:
Where would you host your code if you prefer non-for-profit communities with FLOSS commitment?
My first idea was to use the Gitea instance of the Free Software Foundation Europe, but T&Cs strongly encourage only projects with direct relation to the FSFE activities, so personal projects don't seem welcome.
The first-party Gitea platform seems to be in risk of becoming for-profit.
Berlin Tech Workers Conference, 13+14 October 2023
Berlin Tech Workers Coalition is a landing page for tech workers looking to organise their workplace. Whether it is through Works Councils (Betriebsräte), union campaigns for higher wages, or broader struggles against racism and gentrification, we are here to support you! Tech Won’t Save Us…Organise...
The 13th is exclusive to members of works councils. The 14th is the public portion of the conference.
Limassol anti-migrant protest turns violent, police arrest 7 (photos and video) (update 2) | Cyprus Mail
By Andria Kadis and Nikolaos Prakas Over two hundred far-right protesters gathered at the Molos are in Limassol for an anti-immigrant rally, which became an almost war-like scene, as things quickly became violent and police made arrests on Friday. Around ten minutes into the protest, as around 200 d...
What are all these revolving doors for?
Never before in my life have I encountered revolving doors so often as in Germany, and every time I have to use one, I wonder what's exactly the point.
Any ideas? The only think I can think of is that they slow down people on purpose, for crowd control.
Likely also for energy efficiency, but then the double doors system that I'm use to seems more efficient and probably cheaper than revolving doors.
Suggest me a libre OS to try using on my new desktop PC
Edit: And in the end, it's back to good old Fedora with Xfce. I guess I'm an old man, fixed in my ways. Haiku was interesting, but not nearly as stable as needed. OpenSuSE with Xfce was rough, it requires more polish.
I've been a Fedora Linux user for a million years by now, and I haven't touched any other OS (outside of Windows 10 and 11 at work).
Lately I got a refurbished ThinkCentre from ca 2018 (7th generation Intel i5, 16GB RAM, Intel HD 630). The initial idea was to use it as a media PC but the small form factor ended up not being small enough for my living room.
Now I'm thinking of using it as a desktop PC for a while, to see if it can make my laptop be a portable machine again instead of always plugged, always on. If it doesn't work out, I'll use it as a home server.
Since this is all an experiment, I want to give a new OS a shot before I settle for the familiar Fedora.
OpenSuSE is the first on my list, but even from the LiveUSB I noticed that the software selection
Do you feel strongly about your immigration to Germany?
In the more active version of this community, there's a long back and forth of posts between people who need to demonstrate to others that moving to Germany was the best thing they did in their life and anyone who doesn't feel the same is doing something wrong, and of course also the inverse - that moving to Germany was the worst choice they made and that everyone else is deflecting criticism.
I have to admit that I don't get it. To me it feels very obvious that living everywhere require making trade-offs and that the balance is very individual.
I don't see for example why I should gush about Germany at every turn or try to prove that someone is objectively wrong if they find Germany unliveable for themselves. At the same time, I don't understand why someone would find it sensible to tell me "leave if you don't like it" when I express a criticism. A place doesn't have to be perfect for me to want to live there. It just needs to give me a more favourable balance of pros to cons.
S
If it applies to you, how did you engage with the instinct that drug-based treatment would make you not feel your real feelings?
I have been living with depression since a teenager and after so many years, I recently finally started receiving psychotherapy (CBT). While I'm already seeing some modest changes in my thinking patterns, my therapist noted that in the last few weeks the severity of the condition is worsening and it might be a good time to talk with my primary care provider about antidepressants as a combination therapy.
This got a reaction out of me, specifically that I don't like the idea of chemically altering my mental state and losing access to what "I really feel" (as I perceive it).
I know that the logic behind this sentiment is not very solid, but we can't reason ourselves out of our feelings that easily. For me this is also challenging because I don't take any recreational substances that affect my mental state, so I can't tell to myself that it's like e.g. smoking weed only more targeted and supervised.
I'm curious if this sentiment is familiar to anyone else, and how you dealt with it (wh
An ambivalent experience with the Deutsche Bahn that left us feeling slightly bemused but overall satisfied
In support forums people naturally only share negative experiences because making a post to say "things worked out more or less as I expected them" is weird.
It does seem though that some people do not correct for that negativity bias, so I'll just share today's experience that left me thinking "boy, Deutsche Bahn definitely has a room to improve on this area but even if their processes are inefficient, they did offer us the solution we wanted!!11elf"
Me, a friend and a dog have a trip abroad coming up, and we have booked our two-way tickets through bahn.de but with paper tickets (because dog tickets were not normally available as eTickets when we first booked).
Very recently the situation changed so that we had to return to Germany on different dates and so we wanted to modify the booking so that one of the return Sparpreis fares and reservation are cancelled and refunded.
The bahn.de website would only allow us to cancel the entire journey (all individuals, both di