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  • Daniele Ganser: Fear as a Weapon – the Effects of Psychological Warfare on Domestic and International Politics

    IPRD » Fear as A Weapon The Effects of Psychological Warfare on Domestic and International Politics

    I looked the author up, browsed the resp. articles on de.wikipedia.org and fr.wikipedia.org. There is no en.wikipedia.org article on him yet.

    “Fear as a weapon“, that reminded me almost immediately of “FUD” = “fear, uncertainty and doubt“:

    a tactic of rhetoric and fallacy used in sales, marketing, public relations, politics and propaganda …

    Sort of “funny”:

    … Then, on Tuesday, November 6, a NATO spokesman probably Robert Stratford explained that NATO’s denial of the previous day had been false. The spokesman left journalists with a short communiqué which stated that NATO never commented on matters of military secrecy …

    … Field Manual FM 30–31B details how and when the state can carry out terrorist operations. It specifies the methodology for launching terrorist attacks in nations that “do not react with sufficient effectiveness” against “communist subversion.” Ironically, the manual states that the most dangerous moment comes when leftist groups “renounce the use of force” and embrace the democratic process. …

    Daniele Ganser’s conclusion:

    Those very few scientists who have researched the fields of psychological warfare and published on the subject realise that the weapon of fear is still being used today by a number of international actors in the context of the so- called ‘war on terrorism’. Without fear the so-called ‘war on terrorism’ could not succeed. Yet fear cripples the personal development of every human being and promotes violence in human interactions. Therefore all efforts should be made to assess the reality and power of fear as a secret weapon. Thereafter a conscious decision to monitor one’s own emotions, and particularly one’s fears and those who manipulate them, can allow every human being to break free from the destructive circle of fear and violence. For fear is a dangerous weapon only as long as the target remains ignorant of its real causes and the secret strategy is undetected. In full light it loses its strength and tends to dissolve. Regaining control of one’s own thoughts and emotions, and making a conscious decision to steer clear of fear and hatred, seem therefore, adequate answers to some of the major challenges of the twenty-first century.

  • from Fort-de-France back home to my client / host

    Got on a bus.

    Left the bus at the giant Carrefour / Dillon market.

    Some shopping incl. getting the Toy Story sneakers for son#2, some beer and tea bag and lovely red jam and nut cream and instant coffee and last not least some guave fruits.

    My client / host and me had agreed in the meantime to meet at the Gwa Gwa pub to eat out.

    Got on a bus, asked the bus-driver to tell me, where the stop for the hospital resp. Gwa Gwa would be, and he told me to take the bus in the other direction (stuttering and not easy to understand).

    Got to the bus stop in the opposite direction, called my client / host again, and he confirmed that I actually was in the bus in the right direction – so, girls, do you know, why men don’t ask strangers for the direction? because they hate to get fooled. Even if he didn’t fool me on purpose, I just shouldn’t have asked.

    So waiting for the next bus in the right direction, which could take up to an hour.

    Had the foolish idea to show my thumb, like hitchhikers do it in Germany, but why shouldn’t I? I had to wait anyway, so I can just as well do something useful at the cost of very little energy. Apparently hitchhikers do it differently over here, they more like wave their right hand to say “Helloooooo!”.

    A lady and her maybe 12y daughter stopped, not taking me for too serious, but not being too anxious as well. That was rather nice. After leaving their car I checked for my iPod, confused where I had put it at last, ran to their car, asked them to let me have a look at where I sat, didn’t find it there, finally found it in my rucksack. Of course.

    I got to the Gwa Gwa quite some time before my client / host, and enjoyed sitting there and watching people, apparently middle class.

    Had some nice time there with my mate.

    Had a gentle walk back later that evening, actually always slightly anxiously watching the traffic, not only because we were hard to spot during this nightly walk on that rural road.

  • my trip to Anse-Mitan wasn’t really, what I expected it to be

    during the 1st couple of minutes, I happened to read on the ferry, that there is an out-of-order ferry schedule being applied on Saturdays currently, so effectively this was the last ferry going from Fort-de-France to Anse Mitan,
    and I was rather lucky, too, to read this at all, as this ferry was also the latest one to take me back to Fort-de-France.
    so effectively this was “just” a pretty pleasant round-trip with a slightly long waiting period before the start and no time at all on the beach.

    Note à l’attention de notre clientèle: Nous informons notre aimable clientèle que jusqu’à ce que des solutions contre les actes d’insécurité soient trouvées les services du week-end s’arrêtereront le Samedi comme suit: …

    So first stop on my round-trip: Anse-à-l’Âne.

    2nd stop: Anse-Mitan.

    3rd stop: Pointe du Bout – and all of a sudden, I got the idea, the note did not explicitely say, the ferry would return to Fort-de-France, it just looked logical, but then on what basis could I use the term logical under these conditions?

    Actually I was pretty silly to notice the note only after the ferry left the harbour of Fort-de-France, as I was sitting close to it for like 15 minutes, when the ferry sat in the harbour waiting … to keep the schedule.

  • a ferry approaches, I hope it’s mine

  • the ferry to Anse-Mitan didn’t come

    And it only comes and goes once per hour, but I have Marisa Monte in my ear, so it’s not really that bad, and I also started dancing on my own by her music. Out here you think, it’s not worth being ashame for this kind of exaltation.

  • yet another blog? yes, in French

    I will mainly collect bookmarks in French, but I will also write a few things now and then.

  • heading for the beach at Anse-Mitan across the bay

    I finally got the bus schedule as PDF on the phone, that will be useful.

  • EUROPEAN COURT OF JUSTICE: Minor Invoice Errors – Deduction of VAT

    Judgment in case Pannon Gep Centrum Kft (C-368/09) – Minor Invoice Errors – Deduction of VAT

    In other words: the taxman may and must not regard your invoices as nil or invalid, just because there are minor errors.

    A German interpretation of the decision:

    Rechnungsnummer muss nicht fortlaufend sein

    Der Europäische Gerichtshof hat entschieden:
    Das Finanzamt darf den Abzug der Vorsteuer nicht verweigern, nur weil der Unternehmer seine Rechnungen nicht fortlaufend, sondern nach einem anderen System nummeriert (Aktenzeichen C-368/09).
    So können Firmenchefs verschiedene Nummernkreise zum Beispiel für unterschiedliche Stammkunden verwenden. Die einzelnen Nummernfolgen müssen aber nicht lückenlos sein. Folglich darf das Finanzamt den Vorsteuerabzug auch nicht aus diesem Grund verweigern.

  • digital cameras, the Orientation tag, pictures not standing upright

    Modern cameras (some mobile phone cameras included) sense, what is up and what is down, if you take a picture. And if the software on your computer likes interpreting the “EXIF Orientation” flag of the picture, you will never notice, something unusual is going on. Some software doesn’t though, so sometimes you are tempted to turn your picture long enough, until it does stand upright. But that kind of software also doesn’t properly keep the Orientation flag in sync, so next time you browse you pictures with modern software, the pictures look no longer standing upright with that software.

    Now today I thought of a simple trick, but I wasn’t sure beforehand, whether it would work – and it did work.
    Let me explain the idea! Let’s suppose you watch your picture in modern software! If you turn your picture once to the left, and once to the right, that looks like it should not have any effect, but afterwards the Orientation tag is set to “Horizontal (normal)“, and internally the picture is also represented “upright“.
    Why is that?
    Well, when the software 1st picks up the picture with a value different to “Horizontal (normal)“, it turns the picture, so that it looks upright to you. But I assume, you wouldn’t like it, if that operation would cause the picture file to change on your disk, right?!?
    But if you turn the picture to the left, that is an operation, that you would allow to have an effect to the picture file, right?!? And if you turn the picture to the right, that annuls the visual effect in your eyes.
    If your software is rather smart, it only keeps track of the orientation changed and updates the EXIF Orientation tag. That wouldn’t help us.
    If your software isn’t overly smart but just smart enough for us, it will leave the picture and the picture file in a state, so that the picture’s internal representation is upright and the EXIF Orientation tag is set to “Horizontal (normal)“, and everything is fine. Now pretty much every software will show the picture properly regardless of the EXIF Orientation tag.
    Neat trick, isn’t it? Works for me on Mac OS X with the Previewer.
    That software requires me to confirm, that I want the changed files saved to disk. Other software may have done that already without asking you.

  • Stuxnet worm can control industrial systems – The H Security: News and Features

    Stuxnet worm can control industrial systems – The H Security: News and Features