Archive for the ‘Behaviour’ Category

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

Swedish justice system in free fall as serial killer who never was is cleared

February 1, 2013

The Swedish justice system not only looks ridiculous today but also apparently deals with something other than justice.

As a film script it would not be considered even for a C-movie. But the Swedish justice system seems to have conspired and cheated and framed a man as a serial killer for 28 murders and had him convicted and imprisoned for 8 of them. Gullible judges and a conspiracy-ridden prosecution service would seem to be the stars of this circus.

As a comment on the article at The Local puts it:

…..  He was then asked a series of blatantly leading questions, and his ramblings presented to a rather gullible judge as his “confessions”. The prosecution probably only stopped at 28 murder “confessions” because they had run out of unsolved murders that occurred during Mr Quick’s adulthood. One wonders if they considered sub-contracting him out to other countries to clear up their cold-case load too.

The small prosecution team made their careers on this charade, and to this day, have important and well-paid jobs in government, justice and medicine. …..

….. This is a scandal of titanic proportions that brings great shame on Sweden. On top of the Assange case, jurists from other countries must be wondering what on Earth is going on here.

I find the whole case fantastic since I usually associate the Swedish justice system with undue leniency and as requiring an unreasonable level of evidence. Criminals acting in concert have been known to get away even with murder by blaming each other. But this case turns all my perceptions on their heads.

Swedish Wire: A Swedish man long considered Scandinavia’s worst serial killer was formally acquitted Friday of the 1988 murder of a nine-year-old Norwegian girl, a Swedish court said.

Sture Bergwall had in March been granted a new trial for the murder of Therese Johannesen, but the prosecutor decided to drop that case last month due to lack of evidence, effectively acquitting him.

“The prosecutor’s decision to drop the indictment should be the basis for the assessment of this case. In light of that … the acquittal is authorised in accordance with Sture Bergwall’s claim,” court documents read.

Bergwall, who for many years was known as Thomas Quick, is serving a life term in a psychiatric institution after being convicted of eight murders committed between 1976 and 1988.

YahooNews: 

On Friday, a court in northern Sweden granted a retrial for Sture Bergwall in two murder cases from 1976 and 1984, citing doubts over confessions he made in the ’90s but which he has since withdrawn.

Bergwall’s five other murder convictions have already been overturned.

Bergwall, now 62, told AP on Friday that he had lied about the murders “to make myself interesting,” and while being under the influence of heavy medication.

His lawyer Thomas Olsson said that if Bergwall is cleared at the retrials he could be released later this year.

Tags:, , , , , ,
Posted in Behaviour, Sweden | Comments Off on Swedish justice system in free fall as serial killer who never was is cleared

Beatrix retires (abdicates) but Elizabeth dare not

January 29, 2013
Prince Willem-Alexander is the host on veteran...

Prince Willem-Alexander

The retirement age in the Netherlands is 65 years and the intention to increase this to 67 has already been tabled. Royals of course are exempt from such “regulations”. Queen Beatrix will be 75 on Thursday this week. Just as her mother Queen Juliana abdicated in her favour at the age of 71 on 30th April 1980 , Beatrix Wilhelmina Armgard will abdicate in favour of her son on April 30th this year. Even Juliana came to the throne with the abdication of her mother Queen Wilhelmina on 6th September 1948.

Independent: The Dutch head of state, Queen Beatrix, is to abdicate in favour of her eldest son, Prince Willem-Alexander, after a 33-year reign marked by controversy and even civil disobedience.

Beatrix, who is 75 on Thursday, announced in a national television address this evening that she would step down on 30 April, enabling her son, 45, to become the first Dutch king for more than a century. She has ruled since 1980 following the abdication of her mother, Queen Juliana.

“I am not abdicating because this office is too much of a burden, but out of conviction that the responsibility for our nation should now rest in the hands of a new generation,” she said. “I am deeply grateful for the great faith you have shown in me in the many years that I could be your Queen.”

While the Dutch have established a tradition of abdication while the successor is still of “reasonable” age, the British precedent is for abdication only when royal scandals have become publicly unacceptable and not for any consideration of the age of the heir. The Royals just don’t have the numbers to establish a trade-union presence so, in Britain Charles cannot expect any support from this quarter. Moreover his scandals as heir have been sufficiently sordid that it could be considered that he has already fulfilled the conditions – in advance – for an “abdication”. But of course the law of succession would put him on the throne if his mother abdicated. His son William could not succeed Elizabeth directly without a special Act of Parliament to disinherit Charles.

Moreover Charles will be 65 this year but he does seem to be more relaxed though even more bizarre in his views. Elizabeth will be 87 this year and her mother lived to be over 101. Charles probably still harbours hopes of becoming King and making Camilla his Queen but even if Elizabeth felt like retiring – she probably does not dare to do so.

Of course in the event of his succeeding to the throne, Charles could always do the right thing and abdicate before he was crowned!

Tags:, , , , , ,
Posted in Behaviour, Trivia | Comments Off on Beatrix retires (abdicates) but Elizabeth dare not

Australia rejects carbon credits for killing camels because emission reduction assessment was incomplete

January 27, 2013

The Australian carbon credits scheme goes from bad to mad!!

So, killing camels for carbon credits is perfectly acceptable provided only that the emissions reduction by the curbing of their flatulence can be properly assessed.

The Reasons for Refusal of the application states:

The Domestic Offsets Integrity Committee (DOIC) advises that it has decided to refuse to
endorse methodology proposal Management of large feral herbivores (camels) in the
Australian rangelands (Ref: 2011FA001) because it does not satisfy the requirements for a
methodology determination specified in Section 112 of the Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming
Initiative) Act 2011 (the Act).

Feral Australian camel: wikipedia

I expect that after a program of installing measurement balloons to the rear end of feral camels and measuring their typical flatulence the application could be resubmitted.

Camel-Slaughter Plan Rejected for Australian Carbon Credits

A plan to give carbon credits for slaughtering camels, curbing emissions coming from their flatulence, was rejected by an Australian government committee.

The proposal by Northwest Carbon Pty, a land and animal management consultant, didn’t provide clear instructions for protecting animal welfare, and the method for assessing emission reductions was incomplete, according to a report by the Domestic Offsets Integrity Committee published yesterday on the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency’s website.

….. “This decision by the DOIC simply serves to highlight the significant challenges faced by private proponents attempting to develop any genuinely innovative new methodologies under the CFI,” Tim Moore, managing director at Northwest Carbon, said in the e-mail. “We expect to submit a new, revised methodology in the second quarter of this year, having dealt with all the specific issues the DOIC raised,” he said.

Northwest Carbon proposed shooting the camels or sending them to an abattoir, after which the meat would be processed for animal or human consumption. Wild camels are estimated to cause more than A$5 million ($5.3 million) in damage to pastoral lands, fences and buildings annually, according to the Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities. …… The legislation for Australia’s Carbon Farming Initiative listed management of feral camels as potentially eligible for carbon credits, Moore said in his e-mail. “A feral animal methodology is important to the ability of the CFI to deliver quantifiable emission reductions domestically within Australia.”

Tags:, , , ,
Posted in Air pollution, Australia, Behaviour, Politics | Comments Off on Australia rejects carbon credits for killing camels because emission reduction assessment was incomplete

German Education and Research Minister’s dissertation in formal revocation proceedings

January 25, 2013

Yet another German politician’s dissertation is being questioned. But it is particularly ironic when the politician accused of plagiarism is the current German Minister for Education and Research and has been since 2005. Professor Debra Weber-Wulff reports:

Düsseldorf University to open formal revocation investigation

 After an almost six-hour-long meeting behind closed doors, the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the University of Düsseldorf voted to open formal revocation proceedings on the dissertation of Annette Schavan, the current German Minister of Education and Research, as noted in a press release issued this evening. Since so many people are interested in this topic world-wide, I am translating it to English here:

In May 2012 a public allegation was raised that the doctoral thesis of Prof. Dr. Schavan contained plagiarism.  If we as a faculty find substantial evidence of  scientific misconduct, we must pursue it vigorously —  regardless of the person involved or their social position. There is no legal statute of limitations on such cases. 
The Faculty of Arts and Humanities must then determine if the doctorate was correctly granted at the time it was granted. 
As part of the process, the doctoral committee of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities conducted a preliminary investigation. They examined Schavan’s written thesis and obtained a statement from her on the situation. 
Based on the recommendation of the doctoral committee, I [the dean, Bruno Bleckmann] presented the question to the Faculty Board at today’s meeting as to whether or not we should proceed with a formal revocation investigation. 
The Faculty Board discussed all of the issues raised during the preliminary investigation in detail today. They voted by secret ballot with 14 votes in favor and one abstention to open a formal revocation investigation.  
In the coming weeks, the members of the Faculty Board will intensively deal with the documents prepared by the doctoral committee and the statement from the person in question. The next meeting of the Faculty Board is set for February 5, at which time the continuation of the revocation investigation will be on the agenda.  
I want to emphasize that the process is still open-ended at this point.

 

Tags:, , , ,
Posted in Academic misconduct, Behaviour, Ethics, Germany, Politics | 1 Comment »

The real Sweden peeks out from under the hate-mongers

January 24, 2013

Over the last decade or so the sometimes virulent anti-immigration rhetoric has obscured the reputation of Sweden as a land of opportunity for innovators and one offering sanctuary to the politically oppressed and has hidden the reality that:

Immigration has been a major source of population growth and cultural change throughout much of the history of Sweden. 

But once in a while a story such as this one reassures my faith that the real Sweden is  not only still present – but alive and well and thriving. And it can be found wherever one looks – just under the surface but sometimes hidden by noisy rabble and hooligans wielding iron bars.

The Local:

A small-town shopkeeper’s folksy Facebook greeting to newly-arrived Syrian refugees kicked off a big-time media frenzy that continues to reverberate, making Bo Oskarsson of Kaxås our pick for Swede of the Week.

Oskarsson’s unexpected ascent to nationwide recognition began with a humble posting on the Facebook page of the Ica grocery store he runs in Kaxås, a small village in Offerdal, nestled among the hills and forests of the northwestern Swedish county of Jämtland.

“We welcome all those newly arrived from Syria and we hope that you’ll enjoy beautiful Offerdal,” read the post, published on January 18th. …

… By Tuesday, Oskarsson had been featured in several Swedish newspapers, prompting comments from celebrities and commentators mystified over the fact that more Swedes seemed to be talking about a local grocery store than news that Swedish Equality Minister Nyamko Sabuni was stepping down.

“Every now and again you catch a glimpse of a hero. First time I’ve been proud to have an Ica-card,” tweeted author and comedian Jonas Gardell along with a link to the story.

While most of the attention was positive, Oskarsson also found himself the target of criticism and threats from those critical of Swedish refugee policies.

“Someone wrote that I should be hung from a lamp post,” he told the Aftonbladet newspaper.

…. Oskarsson sees the refugees as a needed boost for the area’s dwindling population, but remains baffled that his Facebook experiment has engaged people across the country. 
“We only created the page to make it easier to publicize offers to our regular customers,” he said before hastily drawing the conversation to a close. 
“I’ve been doing interviews for four days and need to get back to work.”

Of course the loony far-right and their hangers-on are appalled and have stepped up their hate campaign. They would rather not acknowledge that it is the inflow of immigrants which is vital to the future demographics of Sweden. It allows the number of people in the working population to increase. Without this there would be an unsustainable shrinkage of the working-age population as the Central Statistics Bureau writes:

Net migration to Sweden has by and large been positive since the 1930s. As a consequence the number of foreign-born people has risen. The number of people who are born abroad is presumed to increase during most of the forecast period at about the same rate as observed in the last preceding decades. In 2005, 12.4 percent of the population was born abroad. According to the forecast, this percentage is expected to increase to 18.5 percent in 2050. …. The number of people of working age (20-64 years old) is rising but the proportion of people of working age is shrinking. The cause of the shrinking proportion despite an increase in numbers, is mainly that the number of people aged 65 and over is increasing much more relative to other age groups.

Tags:, , , , ,
Posted in Behaviour, Politics, Sweden | Comments Off on The real Sweden peeks out from under the hate-mongers

Gender equality for dummies!

January 24, 2013

ScienceNordic reports this research — but this seems to me to be more related to weight rather than to gender.

 Crash tests by Swedish traffic researchers show today’s car seats are too firm to protect women against whiplash injuries caused by rear-end collisions. And there’s a good reason for this: the crash test dummies used by car manufacturers to develop safety features are all male.

The Swedes have now created the world’s first female crash test dummy to help manufacturers make vehicles that protect both sexes from whiplash injuries, not just men. ….. “Women are generally lighter than men, so they are catapulted forward more quickly, and subject to greater acceleration. A woman is also thrown forward hard against the seatbelt,” said Anna Carlsson from Chalmers University of Technology in an interview with the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK).

But what should car manufacturers do differently? “The seats should be less stiff, more pliant. When a car is hit from behind, the seat back acts like a trampoline and catapults us forward. I’d like to see seat backs that are better cushioned, made a little softer,” Carlsson said.

Male crash test dummies have dominated long enough. Now a female variety is entering the fray. Photo: (Chalmers Technical University)

The female crash test dummy was the brainchild of Astrid Linder of the Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute (VTI). She is head of the EU project ADSEAT, which has as its goal to provide guidance on the best ways to evaluate seat designs so that they reduce whiplash injuries.

Linder found that new cars with whiplash protection were primarily constructed with men in mind. It’s not surprising, when you think of it, though, since crash test dummies are designed to mimic a male driver’s relative weight and anatomy.  …..

The female test dummy BioRID 50 F, developed at Chalmers University of Technology in cooperation with VTI and Volvo, is still just a rough prototype. The researchers hope to develop it into a full-fledged crash test dummy. ….

Of course funding is rather easier to obtain if a “politically correct” spin can be put on a research project and in Sweden anything even remotely connected to eliminating gender difference is generally seen as a “good thing”. If Junior ever becomes reality I’m sure it will happen first in Sweden. I can’t help feeling sometimes that the fight for the elimination of gender prejudice and discrimination has morphed – especially in Sweden – into trying to eliminate gender by legislation!!

Tags:,
Posted in Automobiles, Behaviour | Comments Off on Gender equality for dummies!

Facebook envy is a hidden threat to life satisfaction

January 22, 2013

Social networking has its downsides. I suspect that all enhanced networking for the many will always lead to new stresses and some form of negative behaviour for a few.

The results of a German study of Facebook users is to be presented at an international conference next month:

11th International Conference on Wirtschaftsinformatik, 

Envy on Facebook: A Hidden Threat to Users’ Life Satisfaction? by Hanna Krasnova, Helena Wenninger, Thomas Widjaja  and Peter Buxmann

A pdf version of the report is available here: Facebook Envy

cbronline.com: According to a new German study of over 600 people, using Facebook could make its users feel envious of their successful friends. This result may lead to frustration and dissatisfaction.

The joint research was conducted by Prof. Dr. Peter Buxmann from the Department of Information Systems of the TU Darmstadt and Dr. Hanna Krasnova from the Institute of Information Systems of the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.

The research, “Envy on Facebook: A Hidden Threat to Users’ Life Satisfaction” revealed that over one-third of surveyed Facebook users reported negative feelings,including frustration, when using the site. Many said this was a cause of feeling envious towards their Facebook friends.

Hanna Krasnova said that although respondents were reluctant to admit feeling envious while on Facebook, they often presumed that envy can be the cause behind the frustration of ‘others’ on this platform — a clear indication that envy is an increasing phenomenon in the Facebook context. “Indeed, access to copious positive news and the profiles of seemingly successful ‘friends’ fosters social comparison that can readily provoke envy,” Krasnova said.

Medical Daily adds:

The study also found that people who use facebook to browse pictures, read wall posts or check newsfeeds are more likely to harbor negative feelings than people who actively participate on the networking platform.

Previous research has associated Facebook use with anxiety, debt and even higher weight. Whether or not Facebook increases depression is still open to debate. But almost everyone agrees that Facebook is addictive, and according to a study, sometimes even more than sex.

A recent study on facebook published in the journal Memory & Cognition had found that people are more likely to remember facebook status updates than lines from a book or even a person’s face. 

Researchers who conducted the present study also found that about a fifth of all events that lead to envy among people were somewhere within the context of facebook. Researchers call this phenomenon as the “envy spiral” where envy leads a person to change his or her profile which in turn leads “others” to be envious.

Tags:, , ,
Posted in Behaviour, Media | Comments Off on Facebook envy is a hidden threat to life satisfaction

5 year old “terrorist” grilled by ombliferous school officials

January 21, 2013

One wonders how the minds of these school officials work.

The Daily Item: January 18, 2013, Mount Carmel: A 5-year-old kindergartner who told classmates she was going to shoot them, and then herself, with her pink bubble gun, was grilled for three hours by Mount Carmel school officials without her mother’s knowledge, then suspended, a family attorney said.

The girl was initially kicked out for 10 days in what the school categorized as a “terroristic threat,” according to the kindergartner’s mother and confirmed by the family attorney. That suspension was reduced to two days and labeled as a “threat to harm others.”

It would take a Lewis Carrol or an Edward Lear to do justice to these ombliferous soldiers in the war on terror.

There was a toddler from Mount Carmel,
Who armed with a bubble gun did go;
But she was put to the rack,
And forthwith had to pack,
To be sent off to Guantanamo.

(with apologies to Edward Lear).

Tags:, , ,
Posted in Behaviour | Comments Off on 5 year old “terrorist” grilled by ombliferous school officials

Are climate scientists like Lance Armstrong? When will they admit their models are doped?

January 21, 2013

P. Gosselin at No Tricks Zone  is quite right in pointing out the enormous political problems in now admitting that the global warming hypothesis which has been accepted dogma for 3 decades may not be correct after all.

The big question now circulating through the stunned European media, governments and activist organisations is how could the warming stop have happened? Moreover, how do we now explain it to the public?

His recent posts got me to making the parallels between the AGW climate “scientists” and Lance Armstrong.

Both

  • have posed as heroes “saving” the world / sport
  • have promoted dogma based on lies for many years,
  • have made fortunes in the process,
  • have lied and cheated to maintain the initial fraud,
  • have attacked and tried to destroy those who would disclose their fraud,
  • have – on the side – led to some good work along the way (in cancer research and in many disciplines connected to climate), and
  • will come out of the cesspit smelling of roses

I wonder if the Nobel Peace Committee could revoke their decision and if Al Gore and the IPCC could be stripped of their Nobel prize?  They can both afford to give the money back.

Major German Daily Carries Front-Page Headline: “Global Warming Keeps Us Waiting!…CO2 Over-Estimated?”

Warmist Spiegel/Euro-Media Concede Global Warming Has Ended…Models Were Wrong…Scientists Are Baffled!

Lance Armstrong, Livestrong And Climate Research

Weather Service Warns of “Shock Cooling” Coming To Europe…4th Bitter Cold Euro-Winter In 5 Years Shaping Up!

Tags:, , , ,
Posted in Alarmism, Behaviour, Climate, Politics | Comments Off on Are climate scientists like Lance Armstrong? When will they admit their models are doped?

Facebook copies social networking concept from 600 years ago

January 21, 2013

The Facebook concept was anticipated some 600 years ago.

A collaborative research project is ongoing between Royal Holloway, University of London, the British Library and Reading University, in which a team of academics are cataloguing and investigating the works of the Italian Academies, dating from 1525 to 1700.One of the major outcomes of the project is a comprehensive database of information on Academies from across the Italian peninsula, detailing their membership and publications. This is publicly accessible through the British Library on-line catalogue

Learned Academies represent a vital and characteristic dimension of early modern culture. There were ca. 600 Academies in Italy in the period 1525-1700. In the 16th and 17th centuries the Italian Academies were responsible for promoting debate and discussion in many different disciplines from language and literature, through the visual and performing arts to science, technology, medicine and astronomy.

And the researchers have also found that scholars at the Italian Academies were networking socially with satirical nicknames while sharing comments on topical events and exchanging poems and plays and music.

The project provides information about the academies, their members, publications, activities and emblems. Researchers were surprised to realise just how similar the activities of these sixteenth and seventeenth century scholars were with society today. 

Professor Jane Everson, Principal-investigator, said: “Just as we create user names for our profiles on Facebook and Twitter and create circles of friends on Google plus, these scholars created nicknames, shared – and commented on – topical ideas, the news of the day, and exchanged poems, plays and music. It may have taken a little longer for this to be shared without the internet, but through the creation of yearbooks and volumes of letters and speeches, they shared the information of the day.” 

The scholars created satirical names for their academies such as Gelati  and Intronati. Professor Everson explains: “They are jokey names, which really mean the opposite of what they say. Intronati has nothing to do with thrones; it means dazed, stunned, knocked out and so not able to think straight – but really the Intronati were engaged in serious study, debates, dramatic performances and the like from the moment they were founded in the 1520s – and they are still as active as ever in their home city of Siena. The Gelati were not going around singing just one cornetto. Gelati means the frozen ones – so a pun on the fact that these academicians far from being totally inactive through being frozen cold, were busy debating, exploring ideas, challenging received opinions and changing the cultural world of their home city of Bologna, and indeed of Italy and far beyond.”

Just as the names of the academies and the nicknames of the individual members were fun, so are the emblems and mottos which illustrate the name of the academy. The scholars took great delight in creating puzzling emblems with hidden meanings. Professor Everson adds: “They do sometimes take some working out, but it is great fun when you can see the hidden meanings in the images.”  

Tags:, , , ,
Posted in Behaviour, History, Italy | 1 Comment »

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »