The Best of the visual Web, sifted, sorted and summarized

For example, an EU directive states that all transactions in euros inside the EU shall have the same fees as euro transactions within the country concerned. This means, for example, that euros can be withdrawn without fees from Swedish banks at any ATM in the eurozone, and that krona- and euro-based transfers to bank accounts in the European Economic Area can be done over the internet without a sending fee. The receiving banks can still sometimes charge a fee for receiving the payment, though, although the same EU directive typically makes this impossible for euro-based transfers to eurozone countries.

This is different from, for example, Denmark where banks are required to set the price for international euro transactions within the EEA to the same price as for domestic Danish euro transactions which does not have to be the same as the price for domestic Danish krone transactions.

Germany, France and Switzerland Tripoint

However, banks in Sweden still decide the exchange rate, and so are able to continue charging a small percentage for exchanging between kronor and euros when using card payments. It is also now possible for limited companies companies limited by shares to have their accounts and share capital denominated in euros. Most major political parties in Sweden, including the formerly governing coalition Alliance for Sweden except the Center Party and the currently governing Social Democratic party , which won the election , are in principle in favour of introducing the euro.

Tommy Waidelich , then economic spokesperson for the Social Democratic Party , ruled out Swedish eurozone membership for the foreseeable future in August The newspaper Sydsvenska Dagbladet claimed on 26 November a few days after the former Danish Prime Minister , Anders Fogh Rasmussen , had announced plans to hold another referendum on abolishing Denmark's opt-outs including the opt-out from the euro that the question of another euro referendum would be one of the central issues of the election in Sweden. Swedish politician Olle Schmidt in an interview with journalists from the European Parliament when asked when Sweden will have good reasons to adopt the euro, he said "When the Baltic countries join the euro, the whole Baltic Sea will be surrounded by euro coins.

Then the resistance will drop. I hope for a referendum in Sweden in The social democratic party leader Mona Sahlin at the time has stated that a new referendum will not occur in the period —, because the referendum still counts. The EU commission revealed in plans to put pressure on the remaining EU countries to adopt the euro no later than During the election campaign for the European Parliament elections , Liberal People's Party and Christian Democrats expressed interest in holding a second referendum on euro adoption.

However, the Moderate Party and Centre Party thought that the time was ill-chosen. A economic study from J. James Reade Oxford and Ulrich Volz German Development Institute on the possible entry of Sweden in the eurozone has found that it would be likely to have a positive effect. The study of the evolution of the Swedish money market rates shows that they closely follow the euro rates, even during times of economic crisis. This shows that Sweden would not lose in terms of monetary policy autonomy, as the Swedish Central Bank already closely follows the rates set by the European Central Bank.

When adopting the euro, Sweden would swap this autonomy on paper for a real influence on the European monetary policy thanks to the gaining of a seat in the ECB's governing council. Overall, the study concludes that "staying outside of the eurozone implies forgone benefits that Sweden, a small open economy with a sizable and internationally exposed financial sector, would enjoy from adopting an international currency. Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt stated in December that there will be no referendum until there is stable support in the polls.

Since opinion polls have shown a strong support for "no". Polls on the question whether Sweden should abolish the krona and join the euro are regularly carried out, usually by the state statistics agency Statistics Sweden SCB. The results are always published in the press or online. If there were to be a referendum on the euro by the end of this month, what would you vote? Are you for or against: A European Economic and Monetary Union with one single currency - the euro? How the polling questions are phrased has a major impact on how people respond.

However, polls conducted by TNS Polska in Poland showed that this question finds a large group of supporters of euro adoption would vote no to adopting the euro as soon as possible, but that a majority of them would vote yes if asked whether or not the state should adopt the euro ten years from now. There are no designs for potential Swedish euro coins. It was reported in the media that when Sweden changed the design of the 1-krona coin in it was in preparation for the euro. A newer portrait of the king was introduced. The kronor coin already had a similar portrait.

This in fact is from a progress report by the Riksbank on possible Swedish entry into the euro, which states that the lead in time for coin changeover could be reduced through using the portrait of King Carl XVI Gustaf introduced on the 1- and kronor coins in as the national side on Swedish 1- and 2 euro coins. Only the national bank can manufacture valid coins by the law of Sweden. Some private collection mint companies have produced Swedish euro coins, claiming that they are copies of test coins made by the Riksbank.

Sweden's Financial Markets Minister Per Bolund has said that the country is conducting a study on joining, which is planned to be completed by From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. However, even if such "special circumstances" are found to exist, additional criteria must also be met to comply with the fiscal budget criterion. Swedish euro referendum, The Republic of Kosovo unilaterally declared independence on 17 February , but Serbia continues to claim it as part of its own sovereign territory.

The two governments began to normalise relations in , as part of the Brussels Agreement. Kosovo has received formal recognition as an independent state from out of United Nations member states , of which several have been revoked. Retrieved 12 August Retrieved 16 January Archived from the original on 18 January Retrieved 11 May Mr Rehn replied that it is up to the Swedish people to decide on the issue. Monthly data month average rate of annual change ".

Retrieved 6 September Retrieved 18 December Retrieved 22 April Retrieved 5 July Their wide scale opportunities for surveillance are also taken into account by states; In Europe and USA, governments pressure increasingly internet intermediaries, like ISPs, to directly or indirectly control and monitor network traffic for a variety of reasons from network security to copyright and license violations EDRI A setting of privatized management of contents also provides opportunities to economic censorship.

Associated Data

These fears are not philosophical, since e. Apple is currently accused of e-book cartel Whittaker The market dominance has also effected on business models like distribution policies. E-journals may be sold in costly packages and there may not be other alternative models available. Availability of articles may be guaranteed only for a certain period and after that already paid issues may be taken away from use McDermott, When access to information is hindered because of the price of the information, high-quality research may diverge into elite universities and colleges, concurrently lowering the quality of education and research at other universities and colleges Lessig Media convergence and concentration of the commerce also put consumers and intermediary organizations, such as libraries, in a less favorable position.

Optional contents and bargaining power will diminish. Lawyers of the biggest actors on the market sent smaller individual actors into a corner. Information flows and the use of information have been recently subjected to regulation especially by means of copyright legislation. Companies use also patents to take over significant means or contents of the virtual space Gustin Copyright restrictions increasingly indicate disproportionate measures in relation to the users like excessively long copyright protection periods, which prevent libraries and museums from digitizing publications and from disseminating them on public networks for everybody to read McDermott The most important material of the 20th century is practically speaking commercially copyright protected, although these documents may not be available on bookstores either.

Paradoxically, this arrangement does not really bring profits to any party. Also, the lengthy protection period does not comply with the business cycles of publishing and present paradigms of the use of the documents. At the same time, exemption provisions granted for libraries and museums are getting fewer and fewer. This poses further obstacles to citizens' access to information in the future. Public libraries already struggle hard for the rights of e-book loans Coffman Without the right to lend out e-books those libraries are mercilessly marginalized from network developments.

Copyright also leads libraries to practical problems without convenient solutions. How the true right holders of the s newspapers can be defined?


  • Migrações na Europa e em Portugal (Portuguese Edition).
  • 2012. La fine del mondo (eNewton Narrativa) (Italian Edition)!
  • The Mystery Of Mary Stuart?
  • Sleepwalking toward a control society? Ten Must-Know Trends!
  • Sweden and the euro - Wikipedia.
  • Sweden and the euro!
  • IFLA -- Sleepwalking toward a control society? Ten Must-Know Trends?

Why old newspapers cannot be imported freely into the network for a nominal fee? There has been a move from ownership rights to licenses, which practically means that, the user e. If it needs the publication at some later point, it must be acquired again. These practices develop new kinds of fears. Will the publication even be on the market after 10 years in some readable form? What kinds of contents libraries have after 10 years? This is how we arrive at entirely new questions regarding restricted access to information.

There is a constant battle over virtual space: As Hamilton and Moon indicate, the right time to have influence on these developments is now. There is an increasing government push for Internet intermediaries, to take a role of controller by investigating, monitoring and sanctioning users. Uses become blocked, logged, monitored, restricted and subjected to sanctions imposed by the intermediaries, who fear legal liability for the actions of their clients.

This trend is evident in USA and Europe. Copyright legislation is among the reasons which are used to set in force these obligations. Direct obligations have been suggested e. As such, these arrangements extend forms of surveillance and censorship. If these practices become permanent, they may establish structures of control which can be later used for other purposes — and extend the scale of data surveillance and censorship.

Copyright legislation and international agreements have assigned new standards and obligations to organizations which act as intermediaries of networked information to involve in controlling and monitoring of users. These arrangements may also concern parties like hotels, cafes, universities and libraries. Sanctions of copyright violations have strengthened.

If a young member of a family violates the law three times, the access to Internet can be denied from the whole family. If a library offenses the Act three times, it may be disconnected from the Internet. Non-governmental organizations and intermediary organizations, such as libraries, have taken acts to oppose recent decisions to monitor and control citizens' use of information e. The fundamental right of electronic civil rights is access to information, and free use of information with no threat to privacy.

These requirements are no more fulfilled. Censorship and data surveillance have been adopted globally on the Internet. Availability of Internet access alone, does not guarantee that users have safe environment of communication. Even strictly guarded people in China may have access on the net and availability of local blogs and social media.

These 10 Companies Control Enormous Number Of Consumer Brands [GRAPHIC]

However, a significant amount of information is filtered out from their availability, and they need to be very careful with their expressions to avoid becoming targets of heavy sanctions. Overall, the control mechanisms have largely taken over the virtual space without a public discussion about their acceptability, accountability and social effects. At the same time, the broader understanding and public discussion of the dimensions of the control mechanisms and their impact lack behind.

Citizens may not be aware of the existence of these control mechanisms or understand the altered definitions of misconduct or crime, since these concepts have become vague. The developers of the ubiquitous society speak for increasing transparency.

TBBT - Penny tells Leonard a 'gossip'

This is a fundamental misunderstanding. Ubiquitous environment has so far supported mainly such transparency which is one-directional: However, this does not necessarily work vice versa. Users are more vulnerable for different kinds of misuses of their data and they become targets for tightened control mechanisms. Ubiquitous environment is about extended control and manageability of people and environment, which seems to benefit increasingly data vendors, but they leave users primarily as targets of data collection, tracking and monitoring and provide them limited views and services based on their data.

Transparency and privacy are among the main concerns when control mechanisms spread around. As such, privacy and transparency complement each other to support the ground rules of constitutional and democratic society. Privacy is crucial for individuals, since other civil rights like freedom of speech, opinion, religion and movement cannot become true without privacy. Informational privacy, which more accurately relates to internet communications, defines limits and protections for individual citizens against the deliberate state involvement into their communications Bannister, On the internet, this is a limited picture, since there are also other parties, companies, organizations or individual people, who may override the borders of informational privacy for a variety of reasons.

Nonetheless, informational privacy basically includes a right of self-determination and creation of borders in relation to 3rd party involvement into private information and communications. Openness and transparency of public administration and the exercise of political power are conventionally regarded as signs of high quality of governance and democracy Firmino, Accordingly, transparency is a principle which needs to be applied to the government and other organizations which have significant power in a society, to ensure accountability and social acceptability of their actions.

This arrangement creates a balancing mechanism for the use of power and control. The paradox of the present developments of the control mechanisms is that they tend to destroy the basis of civil rights by narrowing down privacy and declining anonymity — but also spread transparency to the wrong direction: Now, the safeguards for citizens will erode, while the control mechanisms will increase non-transparency and uncontrollability of the major institutions which hold power — and indeed gives them more power and very efficient tools to manage citizens.

Erosion of civil rights and democratic principles is an evident consequence, since large-scale control mechanisms and their justifications have often overridden other principles. However, the status of democracy and civil rights are still valid issues of research and public discussion. What is a present state of the quality of democracy? How to find out a healthy balance of powers between citizens, governments and major stakeholders of the Internet? How civil rights could be protected? Users should gain more control over the management of their person related data to be able to check, correct and follow up how their person related data is used e.

European data protection law recognizes these types of requirements as data subject rights, EDPS A closed and non-transparent setting of infrastructural censorship and data surveillance should be opened in a future. Since data collection and management becomes more and more invisible, people need facts about the context in which surveillance schemes are to be deployed Clarke In an environment of extended data collection, users would require more protections against tracking, monitoring and use of their data without their consent.

Otherwise, the setting of ubiquitous environment may produce fatal consequences for users and society. Control over Internet contents and communications has extended dramatically, since the beginning of s and it is reflected in technologies, laws and social practices. The combined effect of these developments is that they have established conditions of large-scale control mechanisms, their juridical justifications and renewed interpretations of civil rights.

Internet censorship and data surveillance may not always produce direct restrictions, but their possible further multipurpose uses of data poses threat for users also in western democracies. In conditions of extensive data collection people are practically pressured into conformity, if they want to protect their benefits and future life opportunities in conditions. In a long run and if these practices become stricter, they may freeze public discussion and develop insecurity and fear in communications.

New control mechanisms will threaten the benefits of any minorities or individuals or groups with deviant opinions or life styles in a society. And fundamentally, they concern quality of management and democracy. Etzioni , Karhula b. Serious consequences of the opposite direction of the development have been witnessed in totalitarian countries, in which citizens may become heavily sanctioned for any opposing expressions La Rue In this respect, the same practices, like forced user identification and data surveillance, which may be justified in certain connections in western democracies, turn life threatening in societies, where the political atmosphere is different.

These same consequences may threaten the relationship between media and citizens, since there are signs of policies, which will threaten the balance of power between citizens and organizations with major power. Journalists are among the target groups of stricter surveillance even in European countries Privacy International b.

Protection of sources does not concern only media, but it supports the structures of democracy in society. Whistle-blowing is increasingly recognized as an early warning system and an effective tool for fighting corruption, fraud and mismanagement in society by revealing negligence or wrongdoing. If protection of sources erodes, also a crucial part of such checks and balances of democratic society become destroyed which would ensure acceptability and accountability of the management. However, their impact may turn for or against the censoring and surveillance efforts.

They could use their significant power by making large scale positive impacts on civil rights and for an open society. In , Google announced it would stop censoring the Chinese version of its search engine Fay , Reporters Without Borders Censorship is not a new phenomenon. Overall, any efficient and large-scale systems of controls, like ubiquitous environment represents, pose a threat and create significant risks for democratic society and civil rights.

Since these comprehensive control systems already have been largely taken into use or their implementation is in progress, it would be necessary to face the conditions and consequences they develop. These developments should be recognized, understood and their social impacts should be estimated. In political decision making, it would be crucial to regulate the tools of mass control and ensure their accountable, acceptable and proportionate use in a way that democracy and civil rights are still valued.

Skip to main content. Reporters Without Borders Internet control has taken various forms and measures in different countries. The film transports this 'sleeper' across the boundaries of economic and social status, of meaning, and of life and death. Through a process of extraction, covering, and replacement, the artist blends the properties of wood and silk, transforming the two materials into a production infused with her time and will.

Walsh’s ergodic theorem, metastability, and external Cauchy convergence | What's new

The resulting artworks manifest the subtle and infinite possible materializations that lie beneath the apparent determinism of finite forms. The exhibition sheds light on the concepts behind the aesthetics, offering both a rich visual and reflective experience. It signals various aesthetic and epistemological structures that suggest that nothing is constant in the universe and everything is always changing in form and essence. In our hyper-consumerist contemporary world, the works of these artists show their desire to re-enchant it, proposing unlimited possibilities for the future.

Tarek Abou El Fetouh has researched the Chinese art scene since and presented many Chinese artists in his exhibitions around the world.