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I was quite suprised to find a fake cam in Hamburg yesterday. From the distance it looked quite real but a look from a closer distance discovers that it is just made from cardboard.

I’m not quite sure whether it’s a scare tactic of the government or just locals, but either way it looks like fearmongering. This isn’t the first story of a fake camera you’re likely to hear, either; fake speed cameras are also an existent threat, and act as a form of social placebo to encourage responsible driving. Responsible walking, though? I think it tends to toe the line between Big Brother and crime prevention.

Imagine if someone had placed a VeriSign logo on Foxy Bingo or Amazon, only for you to find out it was simply a jpeg tacked onto the site? You’d be shocked, and I think the same applies here. The main issue I have with it is, as you can quite clearly tell from the photograph, it’s not the most convincing of fakes when you get close enough. I think it relies on the fact that most people are unwilling to scrutinise their immediate environment. Ignorace is bliss, right?

Roland Brückner from Berlin loves to draw, as you can see on his MySpace-page. Some time ago I found his page recordsheet.blogspot.com and wanted to join as well, putting a card on my blog and afterwards getting a special card from him. Just that meanwhile he started a new page lindas-ex.blogspot.com. So now people, check it out and enjoy the pictures! There is the card. I have done my part. I am curious if I the Optimistic Journalist will get his own card as well and how soon that will be.

A creative guy from Berlin had a great idea. He made pictures of one hundred food products and their package. The result is an art project that does not want to judge the industry and their products but to inspire us. And for sure it inspired me to think about the illusory world created by commercials. You know, what I am talking about. The place where all the people are happy, healthy and do not even have pimpels. The place where the sun is always shining and the food is not only delicious but also looks perfect.

Honestly I have been suprised how close most of the food has been to the picture on the package – of course with the exception of the microwave-menus. By the way the name of the project is “Werbung gegen Realität” which means “Commercials against reality”.

Here is a presentation on Youtube:

I got the story from Robert (german link), who found it at the Shopblogger (german link as well).

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Now a short one right before bedtime. As I just read this as usually very informative article by Fiete Stegers on the webpage of the German news-programme Tagesschau.de, the picture on the right has caught my attention, because it looks like just cut out of an random PR-picture. So when I searched for “Laptop in der Straßenbahn” (German for: “laptop in the tram”) at Google-picturesearch and went there on page three, I found this:

The page Teltarif offers a text from february 2005 with the title “Telekom stattet Bonner Bahn mit mobilem Hotspot aus” (“Telekom equipts the traincompany of Bonn with a mobile hotspot”). Here on the photo as well laptop, seat covers and hands may seem familiar to the interested reader. Now just for one more time using Google-Picturesearch with the optimized searchterms “telekom + surfen in der bahn” and well:

On Presseportal.de we find another very similiar article about the internet in the public transport in Bonn with the title “Das Internet fährt mit” “(“The Internet drives with [us/the train]“). And there we are even able to zoom the picture:

So this is like we have been able after 40 seconds of work and two searches at Google-Picturesearch to explain why the illustrating picture on Tagesschau.de looks like just cut out of an random PR-picture. Answer: It just has been cut out of an random PR-picture.

And the best is, that such a general photo can also be used in a general way not only for the “Klimakosten des Internet-Booms” (“Climate Expenses of the Internet-Boom”), but as well for a story about the “Bundestrojaner”.

On the website of the Norddeutsche Rundfunk (State television and radio of Nothern Germany) visitors may watch for free “Head-On” (Original title “Gegen die Wand”) by german-turkish film director Fatih Akin (Interview 2005). Just go here and click on the face of the woman.

Informations about the plot can be found here at IMDB or here at the english Wikipedia. The movie is only to be seen in german and turkish language, but with the help of the subtitles, that can be downloaded on several places in the net (For example here), it should be also possible for foreigners to get the point. In fact the power and energy that has made this movie winning several awards does not only come from the dialogues but as well from the pictures, the music and the atmosphere in general. A couple of scenes take place at my favorite areas in Hamburg like Altona – were I also live today – and the worldwide known Reeperbahn.

The movie gives an inside view on the conflict between traditional conservative and modern ways of life within migrant families. Director Fatih Akin who carries both the turkish and the german culture within himself plays an important role in the reduction of prejudices and creation of understanding for the situation of Turks in Germany, which is badly needed as with more than 2 million Turks are the by far biggest group of people with foreign background in this country.

This picture offers an impression from the harbour of Hamburg. This area is called the “Landungsbrücken” (english “gangplanks” or “jetties”), because in the past for the ships from overseas it has been “the place to land”. More information about this area can be found at the english Wikipedia.