German defense minister charged with plagiarism

Image via WikipediaGermany's most popular politician, Karl-Theodor Guttenberg (a nobleman, so you also find him referred to as "Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg" – Germany did away with its nobility after World War I, but noblemen were allowed to retain indications of nobility, such as "von" and "zu"), now faces charges of plagiarism for his dissertation in law. Some legal experts say that the work itself is crap, but most of all there are entire passages that are extremely close to – if not literal copies of – some other publication not referenced at all. If you want to get an idea of it, check out this list here (PDF).

Guttenberg says he would be happy to check whether some of the more than 1000 footnotes across 475 pages need to be revised, but he says he did not copy and paste. After a quick look at the evidence, I'd say things do not look good for him.

The attack is obviously politically motivated, with some of the main accusations coming from legal experts with close ties to the SPD – but no matter – if the shoe fits, wear it.

The interesting thing for me is to see how Germany will react to this. Plagiarism, in my estimation, is not taken as seriously here as it is in the US. During my five years as a lecturer at a German university, I found that the idea of failing someone for plagiarism was tendentious; I was told I could also just give someone a stern look and a slap on the wrist.

In this age of the Internet, copying has not only become extremely easy, but also easy to detect. It seems that Guttenberg may have been handed over a PhD in law for really flimsy work, but I cannot judge that (and Margaret Marks has yet to comment on it) – it remains for the University's ombudsman to decide.

I should also point out that I was accused of plagiarism when getting my Masters, but my cases differed from Guttenberg's. I had actually provided footnotes to my sources, and the professor charged that I was sticking too close to the original. The case was brought before the graduate studies committee and dropped.

Comedy Central stole my logo!

Since the beginning of the year, Comedy Central – the place where most left-leaning Americans apparently get their news – has had a new logo, and they obviously stole the idea from Petite Planète (see the logo to the right).

If any lawyers out there would like to go after the company, be my guest. We'll split the compensation for damages 50-50.

Oh say, can you sing?

Christina Aguilera's slightly botched rendition of the US national anthem at the Super Bowl on Sunday has been quite a hot topic, and Salon.com has a nice overview of some even worse versions. But the thing that amazes me is that so few people are pointing out that she has screwed up the Stars and Stripes before.



What so proudly we what?

She did it better when she was eight.



If you want to waste some time, search for "worst national anthem" at YouTube.

Incidentally, my biggest culture shock last summer in the US was all of the situations where the national anthem is sung. In a park with fried chicken in my hands, a concert was about to start given by the local big-band, and the first two was the national anthem. With greasy hands, I was completely unprepared, leading one of the people with me to sternly warn: "Take off your hat."

I'm not sure what it's like in France, Spain, the Netherlands, etc., but in Germany the national anthem is not played at concerts, football games, and other similar events. I rather like this guy's take on the ubiquity of the national anthem in the US. He also talks about how the event gradually became so commonplace over the last century at sports events

Finally, it is worth mentioning that the US national anthem is probably the most difficult one of all to sing. It stretches roughly over nearly an octave and a half, which is about all the range your average Joe has. A skilled singer with more than two octaves nonetheless has to carefully choose the key – if you start off too high, you'll be pushing your luck when you hit the high notes. The German national anthem, for instance, stretches across one octave exactly and only hits the top note once. In Stars and Stripes, you have to go to the major third in the second octave twice.

Fortunately, my vocal range is well over three octaves, so if you want me at next year's Super Bowl, I promise to get the lyrics right.

Fun while it lasted

Yesterday, the Green Bay Packers won the Super Bowl, so I am retiring the Saints logo from the side column and putting it in this post, where it can stay for a better day.

Congratulations to everyone in Wisconsin, one of the most German states in the US. And thanks again to the Saints, who not only were champions for a year, but also went out in typical Saints style – by losing to the only team to ever make the playoffs with a losing record...

US style consumer protectionism

Image via WikipediaOver here in Europe, people laugh about cases like the one where an elderly lady burned herself by putting (and spilling) a cup of hot coffee in her crotch at the drive-through. As unfortunate as it was, the general take over here would be, "You mean you are 79 years old and you still don't know that coffee is hot? And what are you doing putting a hot drink in your crotch while you drive around?"

If I did something that stupid, I would honestly be too embarrassed to sue McDonald's.

Now, I see that Dennis Kucinich, a former candidate for the presidency and a champion of left-leaning Democratic causes, sued the cafeteria at the House of Representatives because he bit into a sandwich containing an unpitted olive. He was awarded 150,000 dollars.

It sounds like he honestly did go through quite a bit of torment – his tooth split – but here's the deal, Dennis: sometimes, the pit stays in the olive. My mother-in-law sometimes gives me a jar of cherries from her garden, and she has a little machine to remove the stones – but there's always a stone or two (or a piece of a stone) in that jar somewhere. Should I ever break a tooth on a stone, I won't be suing her.

The Arab "French Revolution"?

When I lived in France back in the 90s, I remember discussing the Arab world with a Frenchman, who had a different take on spreading democracy then we Americans do: "They have to stand up and demand democracy themselves. They have to have their own French Revolution."

The situation in the Arab world is still dangerous, but it's also encouraging. Last year, back when I didn't have a subscription and could still read the New Yorker (now I have one and can't read it), there was an interesting article about the role that social media (Twitter and Facebook) can have in bringing about political change. The gist was that, when it comes right down to it, you have to put your feet on the pavement, and social media only play a role in organizing such get-togethers at the beginning.

Last night, a German media expert in an interview on television basically said the same: "All of these silly tweets we have made fun of along the lines of 'my cat has a cold' were really just a dress rehearsal. When the time comes, people put these social media to good use." But she also agreed that, now that the Internet has largely been shut down in Egypt, everything is organized by word-of-mouth as in the good ole days. Nonetheless, all that Internet gave young professionals a way of voicing their dissatisfaction – and seeing how widespread the dissatisfaction was.

So let's hope for the best – and remember that all of this came about irrespective of any input from Western governments, meaning that it's not because of a speech Obama gave or a policy Bush implemented. I'll let my colleague Hans Dembowski have the last word:

The Arab youth are demanding Western-style freedom – but they consider Western governments to be the allies of their dictators, rather than promoters of liberty. Europeans and North Americans have failed to build coalitions with those who want democratic change in the Arab world. They should have done so in public and early on. Instead, they relied on the Ben Alis and Murbaraks who promised to keep Islamists in check. 

Purchasing power USA vs. D

In my campaign to convince Americans to switch to renewable power, the higher cost is often an issue. I have long wondered why Americans are so worried about high prices when Europeans aren't.

One of the most interesting things about my visit to the US last summer was the feeling that prices were somehow much different. For instance, it only cost me around 260 dollars a week to rent a Prius, which – as I found out – starts at 22,800 dollars in the US. In Europe, the Prius starts at 25,750 euros, equivalent to over 34,000 dollars at the current exchange rate. In other words, the same car costs 50 percent more in Europe.

I wondered if that might be an anomaly with that particular car, but it's not. The Lexus RX 450 costs 43,000 dollars in the US but nearly 60,000 euros in Europe. Maybe it's just Asian imports? No, the Porsche Cayenne S Hybrid apparently goes for just under 68,000 dollars in the US but costs 79,000 euros in Europe. The Mercedes C 300 sells for 34,000 dollars in the US with all the extras, but it will cost you around 38,000 euros in Europe.

I wondered if the reason might also be that labor costs are greater in Europe, but it turns out that cars made in the US are simply of lower quality. For instance, Volkswagen now plans to sell the Passat in the US for around 20,000 dollars, with the cheapest version in Europe going for 24,425 euros (around 32,000 dollars). According to this report (in German), the car has a cheaper interior than the European version – though I have a hard time imagining a 50 percent price difference based on a cheaper dashboard, etc.

Under the hood and under the chassis, so to speak, we find additional reasons. For instance, the Volkswagen Jetta apparently has a cheaper rear axle in the US. I don't have all the details, but we begin to understand why Volkswagen has a reputation for being unreliable in the US – a reputation that will come as a bit of a surprise to Europeans.

It's not just cars either. The picture up above shows a 250 gram package of organic cherry tomatoes that I bought at a normal (not especially cheap) grocery store last fall. In the US, I had sticker shock when I saw what a pound of cherry tomatoes, which my daughter loves, costs. For roughly 453 grams, you have to pay four dollars, and they're not even organic -- that's nearly 0.90 dollars per 100 grams. The package above cost the equivalent of 1.67 dollars for 250 grams or around 67 cents. The non-organic tomatoes would, of course, be significantly cheaper.

Now have a look (and click to enlarge) at the second picture (yes, I told the people at my local bakery that I'd like to take a picture of their shelves). I was amazed to see that a loaf of bread in the US can easily cost four dollars, though you can certainly get a loaf of white bread at Walmart for closer to a dollar (see this discussion). If I remember correctly, a loaf of bread generally weighs around 24 ounces in the US, with some loafs coming in at 20 ounces. To make the math easy, 24 ounces is basically 1.5 pounds, which puts us at roughly 680 grams.

As you can see from the photo, you could get a loaf of K & U Sonne weighing 750 grams for 2.70 euros, which is basically 3.50 dollars, so not much cheaper than in the US. But the 1 kg loaf of Wiesentäler Brot to the left and above it is the one I usually buy (it makes really fantastic toast when it's a few days old); it runs me three euros. I don't think a fresh bakery can quite compete with loaves of white bread from Walmart, but fresh bread in Germany seems to be a good deal cheaper than the prepackaged stuff you get in the US.

Of course, prices vary wildly. For a liter of milk, I can pay 0.50 euros or 1.20 euros. The former puts me at about 2.50 dollars per gallon. But especially for fresh produce, the prices in the US were enough to make me want to eat meat. One reason may be that the produce section is often highly refrigerated and may even have tiny sprinkler systems in the US, whereas Europeans just set their produce out without any air conditioning or hydration system even in the summer.

So it's really hard to compare. When it comes to income tax, for instance, Germans are already paying 25 percent income tax at 48,000 euros, and the peak tax rate has already reached nearly 40 percent. In the US, at the equivalent 63,000 dollars you are only paying 17 percent income tax, and your peak rate is 25 percent. In return, universities are (practically) free in Germany, etc.