Blogging in Germany: the final straw?

A man holding his head in despair - ©Can Stock Photo Inc. / alexandrenunesBloggers in Germany have only just recovered from not having to classify all of their posts.  Yet other Government officials are still finding ways to make our life difficult.

Last week, data protection officials in one part of Germany decided that using 3rd party advertising on a website constituted an unauthorised passing on of personal data, ie. the IP address.

In a similar issue to the use of Google Analytics, this would mean that unless you host all of your banner adverts on your own server or webspace, you would need permission to show them from your visitors.

Can you imagine visiting a site and being asked if you would like to see it with or without banner advertising?  What would you click on? [Read more…]

Smuggling the Amazon

If I was to write about smuggling something out of Bolivia, you would probably expect me to write about problems with illegal drugs leaving the country.  Of course, I could also write about more trivial things that, although not illegal in Bolivia, would be considered “smuggled” when the arrive in other countries – such as coca leaves.

But instead I want to link to an item that I read this evening about a different type of smuggling: timber!

Yes, it seems that away from the places usually associated with smuggling, such as ports and airports, smuggling of a different kind is taking place.  Trees in the Amazon rainforest are being cut down and taken down the Amazon river to Peru and Brazil.

I have to ask the question: why?

I thought, that those countries had enough of the Amazon rainforest for themselves.  In fact, most of the criticism that I read about cutting down the rainforest is aimed at Brazil.

Have the loggers there given up and are fetching their timber from across the border instead?  I wonder just how effective the border patrols will be…

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