The article analyses information exchange agreements between competitors. The article aims to reveal the cases where the exchange of information between competitors might be considered as a prohibited agreement, violating Article 101 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union or Article 5 of the Law of the Republic of Lithuania on Competition. The article analyses the legal nature of the information exchange agreements between competitors, with utmost regard to the criteria, according to which an agreement on the (...) exchange of information could be acknowledged as prohibited or violating the rules of competition law. In the article it is presumed that information exchange agreements do not aim at restricting competition, however in certain cases they might have the effect of restriction of competition. (shrink)

The history of the idea of biological progress shows that it is not a selfexplanatory category, so a clear definition is required. Biological progress exists if: “more progressive” is defined as “more complex” – in that case evolution is synonymous with progress, i.e. development from simple to complex, from homogeneous to heterogeneous; we perceive the expression “more progressive” as more successful in relation to the environment, in these terms some groups in the history of life were more progressive because/so that (...) they survived, while others were retrogressive or less progressive because/so that they died out; on the other hand, within their ecological niches, certain forms of life are perfectly adapted to their environment as long as it is stable ; we take the span or reach of a potential adaptation of populations as a measure . However, there is no active, innovative problem solving in relation to the environment either with plants or animals – only the variability mechanism / selection is in place, automatism, instinct. In the light of the above-mentioned biological criteria, man is the most complex living creature by his constitution , he is the least dependent on the environment and can be innovative in relation to the environment. Man is the only living creature capable of establishing an active relationship with the environment through his special tool – culture. Considering the level of organization and quantity of information, the mammal genome is more progressive than the bacterium genome, while the human genome comprises most information which makes man the most progressive living thing. We can talk about biological progress if we define progressiveness as advancement toward complexity of organisation, but sometimes thesimplification of structure enables survival. It seems that we can talk about progressivenessin biology only if we accept the anthropic principle – that is why only cultural progress is possible. Information is the link between biological and cultural-anthropological successfulness . Biological information is a “complete” piece of information to an animal . To a human being, it is only a condicio sine qua non for the reality of human spirit which receives, keeps and generates information. Progress can be measured according to the capability ofestablishing an active and innovative relationship with the environment, but only within some sort of anthropocentric outlook which is a criterion of value. It is not possible to talk about progressiveness of life if man is not the measure of all things.Povijest ideje biološkog napretka pokazuje kako to nije samorazumljiva kategorija, pa se traži jasna definicija. Biološki progres postoji ukoliko: “naprednije” definiramo kao “složenije” – evolucija je tada sinonim napretka, tj. prelaženja iz jednostavnijeg u složenije, iz homogenog u heterogeno; “naprednije” shvatimo kao “uspješnije” s obzirom na okoliš; u tom smislu neke skupine u povijesti života bile su naprednije jer/pa su opstale, dok su druge bile nazadnije ili manje napredne pa/jer su izumrle; s druge strane unutar svojih ekoloških niša pojedini oblici života savršeno su prilagođeni svojem okolišu dokle god je on stabilan ; kao mjerilo uzmemo raspon ili širinu moguće prilagodbe populacija jer tada postoje razlike; ipak ni u biljaka ni u životinja tu nema aktivnog inovatorskog rješavanja problema okoliša, nego djeluje samo mehanizam varijabilnost/selekcija, automatizam, nagon. U svjetlu gore navedenih bioloških mjerila čovjek je svojim ustrojstvom najsloženije biće , najmanje je ovisan u odnosu na okolinu, može se novativno nositi spram okoline. Čovjek je jedini kadar za pravi aktivni odnos prema svom okolišu putem specifičnog oruđa kulture. S obzirom na stupanj organizacije i količinu informacija, genom sisavca je napredniji od genoma bakterije, a genom čovjeka raspolažes najviše informacija, pa je on po tome najprogresivnije biće u prirodi. O biološkom progresu možemo govoriti ako progresivnost definiramo kao porast složenosti organizacije, no ponekad pojednostavljenje građe omogućava preživljavanje. Čini se da o progresivnosti u biologiji možemo govoriti samo usvajajući princip antropičnosti, zato je u svijetu moguć samo kulturni progres. Posjedovanje informacije je veza između biološke i kulturno-antropološke uspješnosti . Posjedovanje biologijske informacije za životinju je “potpuna informacija” , dok je za Čovjeka samo condicio sine qua non za zbiljnost ljudskog duha koji dobiva, posjeduje i stvara informaciju. Progres je moguće mjeriti prema sposobnosti aktivnog i inovativnog odnosa spram okoliša jedino u nekoj vrsti antropocentričnog obzora koji u središtu ima mjerilo vrijednosti. Nemoguće je govoriti o progresivnosti života ako svemu nije mjera sam čovjek. (shrink)

U opisima razvoja zbivanja u prirodi od trenutka prapraska koriste se pojmovi ‘energija’ i ‘materija’. Sustavnosno, tim opisima nedostaje treća sastavnica svakog sustava – informacija. To je potaklo pitanje gdje je u tim opisima informacija i prethodi li možda ona energiji. U raščlambi je upotrijebljena opća sustavnosna teorija, jedna moćna metoda suvremene znanosti. Za opis opće tehnike , od prapraska do konačne točke , upotrijebljen je vlastiti koncept koji se temelji na dvije misli: tehnika nije ništa posebno već (...) sasvim općenito i fraktalno podrijetlo Prirode . Ustanovljeno je da u opisima nedostaju odgovori na pitanje o podrijetlu informacijskog sustava čije djelovanje započinje prapraskom. Taj informacijski ulaz dijeli se u naredbu i podatke. Uz pomoć filozofskih spoznaja, među ostalim Platona, Aristotela i Tome Akvinskog, zaključilo se da je netko morao izraditi prirodne zakone koji su u obliku informacije prenesene u energiju tijekom prapraska a prije inflacije i stvaranja materije. Posebno je važno pitanje tko je naredio izradbu prirodnih zakona i početak prapraska. Ovim se tekstom ne navodi eksplicitno tko su naredbodavac za izradbu i izrađivač prenesenih informacija. (shrink)

The article is a summary of recent experimental data on anchoring heuristic and models that seek to explain it. Anchoring heuristic represents one of the mechanisms of decision making in situations of limited information or time, by using a comparison standard called – an anchor. Given the supposed wide usage of this heuristic, authors explore the unconscious character of the heuristic and ways of making its biasing effects less prominent. Apart from the standard experimental design in which anchor is directly (...) connected to the judgment in question, evidence shows that people can be anchored indirectly, even when the anchor is perceived unconsciously. Newest data show that anchoring effect should be explained by two distinct processes. In the concluding remarks, authors consider broader implications of anchoring for the field of social cognition.U članku se opisuju noviji eksperimentalni nalazi vezani uz heuristiku sidrenja kao i modeli koji ih objašnjavaju. Heuristika sidrenja označava jedan od načina na koji ljudi donose odluke u nedostatku informacija i/ili vremena, a podrazumijeva korištenje standarda usporedbe kako bi se došlo do željene procjene. S obzirom na pretpostavljenu široku upotrebu ove heuristike, u članku se istražuju teoretska objašnjenja, razjašnjavaju razlozi zbog kojih je utjecaj te heuristike nedostupan svijesti te kako umanjiti njome izazvanu pristranost u razmišljanju. Osim standardnog nacrta kojim se ispituje ovaj fenomen opisani su i dokazi prema kojima sidro može vršiti svoj utjecaj i kad se ne dovodi u direktnu vezu s procjenom, čak i kada je percipirano nesvjesnim putem. Najnoviji skup istraživanja pak pokazuje da se heuristika sidrenja, prvotno zamišljena kao jedinstveni mehanizam, zapravo može podijeliti na dva bitno različita procesa. Zaključno se razmatraju kakve bi implikacije ovaj razvoj u istraživanjima mogao imati za područje socijalne kognicije općenito. (shrink)

Internet gradually becomes the inevitable source of information in almost every field of life and enables very quick information flow between people from various continents. Considering the difference in the level of Internet development across the world and the great number of web presentations, domestic web sites have great competition in informing about Serbia coming from foreign web sites. Internet polako postaje nezaobilazni izvor informacija u gotovo svim sferama zivota i obezbedjuje da informacije velikom brzinom cirkulisu izmedju ljudi sa (...) razlicitih kontinenata. Internet ima znacajnu ulogu i u prezentaciji zemlje, njenih institucija i vrednosti. S obzirom na razlike u nivou njegovog razvoja u svetu i na ogroman broj prezentacija na web-u, domaci sajtovi u informisanju o Srbiji imaju veliku konkurenciju od strane inostranih sajtova. (shrink)

Mediteransko nasljeđe kulture, filozofije, povijesti i umjetnosti nepregledan je univerzum procesa, informacija, sinteza i imaginacija. Sam po sebi, Mediteran se predstavlja kao jedna opća imenica takvog opsega da predstavlja rod u kojem je velik dio opće europske kulture uvijek jedna od njegovih vrsta. No, ipak, riječ je o dojmu koji ne može težiti precizno utvrđenoj konstataciji već jednoj općoj opservaciji koja samo pokazuje da zamisao o zahvaćanju u smisao Mediterana kao nasljeđa ili suvremenosti predstavlja jedan ogroman, ali nikad dokraja (...) dovršen posao.Kao opće i široko obuhvatno ime, mediteranski prostor, onaj virtualni i onaj stvarni, otvorio je prostor mnogim iznimnim osobnostima. koje ukazuju na pojedinačni značaj svake od njih. Neizbježno, one ne mogu u kontekstu mediteranskog prostora predstavljati više od pojedinačnog slučaja koji nikad ne može obuhvatiti cjelokupni doseg pojma mediteranskog. Ali ono što mogu jest obznaniti one vlastite dosege koji ukazuju na vrijednost onoga što im je u mediteranskom prostoru otvoreno da misle, stvaraju i žive. U kontekstu Mediterana tu je uvijek prisutna jedna dimenzija napetosti između općeg i pojedinačnog, između napora da se izrazi duh vremena i nasljeđa, vlastito slaganje i neslaganje s njim, ali i promišljanje koje može probiti duh danog. Jedan od takvih filozofskih i umjetničkih osobnosti jest Albert Camus. Kao jedna od danas gotovo zaboravljenih figura mišljenja i umjetnosti, njegovo propitivanje humaniteta u djelima kao što su Mit o Sizifu i Pobunjeni čovjek svojevremeno su ostavili dubok trag iza sebe. Iako on nije napisao svoje pismo o humanizmu kao što je to učinio Heidegger , njegovo se djelo čini kao poseban slučaj jednog općeg govora o humanizmu suprotstavljen i zasigurno najpoznatijem intelektualcu svog doba, Jeanu Paulu Sartreu, intelektualnom hegemonu onoga doba. Postoji iskušenje da se Camusa u toj konstelaciji dovede u vezu s, recimo, stoicizmom, no time bismo promašili bit u odgovaranju na pitanje koliko bi njegov humanizam imao snage biti suvremeni humanizam, a koliko nova tehnika interpretiranja istog. Stoga mi je namjera propitati, suvremenu mogućnost tvorbi Camusovih promišljanja o povijesti, humanizmu, politici i umjetnosti, kao i danas uočljivi pomak u odnosu na prijašnje dosege u propitivanju etičnosti, politike i umjetnosti na mediteranskom prostoru.The cultural, philosophical, historical and artistic heritage of the Mediterranean is a measureless universe of processes, information, syntheses and imaginations. In itself, the Mediterranean portrays a general noun of such scope that it represents a kind in which a large part of general European culture is always but one of its sub varieties. However, this is but an impression, which cannot aspire to become a precisely verifiable or verified statement, or a general observation, which only demonstrates that the idea of penetrating the meaning of the Mediterranean as a heritage or contemporaneity represents an enormous yet never fully completed task.The Mediterranean space – both the virtual and actual – as a general and widely inclusive toponym has opened its doors to countless exceptional individuals, who point to the particular significance of each. Inevitably, within the context of the Mediterranean space they cannot exemplify more than a particular case that can never embrace the range of the Mediterranean concept as a whole. Yet, what they can do is disclose their own reaches that point to the value of that which is open to them in the Mediterranean realm to be thought, created and lived. A dimension of tension between the general and the particular, between the effort to express thespirit of time and heritage, one’s agreement and disagreement with it, as well as one’s reflections capable of penetrating the spirit of the given – are invariably present within the context of the Mediterranean. One such philosophical and artistic individual is Albert Camus. As one of the almost forgotten figures of thought and art today, his questioning humanity in The Myth of Sisyphus and The Rebel once left a profound trace. Although he never wrote a letter on humanism as Heidegger did , his work appears to be a special case of a general speech on humanism opposed to even surely the most famed intellectual of his time, Jean-Paul Sartre, the intellectual hegemon of his time. Within this constellation one can easily be tempted to compare Camus with, for example, Stoicism, but by doing so one would fail to answer the question of whether his humanism has the strength to be a contemporary humanism or just a novel interpretation technique of the same. This paper intends to examine the contemporary possibilities of constructing Camus’s reflections on history, humanism, politics and art, as well as the today distinct shift in relation to the earlier reaches of the studies into ethicality, politics and art within the space of the Mediterranean. (shrink)

Tema ovog rada je afera iz 2001. godine u vezi sa finansijskim transakcijama izmedju Srbije i Kipra tokom devedesetih. U radu se analiziraju strategije koje politicari, drzavni sluzbenici i strucnjaci u oblasti borbe protiv korupcije primenjuju kako bi kroz javne debate odbranili svoje interese. Rezultati ukazuju da se vecina ucesnika opredeljuje za jedno od sledeca dva nacina: javno objavljivanje informacija o aferi kako bi se stekla legitimnost za anti-korupcijsko delovanje, ili koordinisano izbegavanje rasprava o aferi kako bi se umanjila (...) moguca politicka steta. (shrink)

Ako je u antičkom polisu Platona brinulo što se građani samodovoljno oslanjaju na vlastita uvjerenja o vrlinama, ne tragajući za znanjem, današnjeg žitelja globalnog pseudopolisa opčinjavaju simulirane informacije, slike i uvjerenja koja nezamislivim bujanjem kreiraju društvenu svijest. U sjenci masmedijskih pećina uočavaju se obrisi transformirane demokracije koja je sve izloženija silovitim naletima megakorporativnih interesa, dominantnih geopolitičkih utjecaja, kulturnog determinizma i redefiniranog vjerskog fundamentalizma. Usamljenom pojedincu na Agori sve je teže formirati i sačuvati vlastito mišljenje, ideje i vrijednosti. Infoprostor je pokriven (...) globalnom mrežom informacija i podataka, dok čin razmjene simboličkih sadržaja od čovjeka preuzimaju strojevi! Sloboda izražavanja medija je kisik otvorenog, javnog komuniciranja, stup demokratskih građevina, ali problem je u činjenici što čuvari informacijskih ulaza i dalje stražare, ovoga puta pred cyberprostorima.If Plato was upset that people leaned on their own convictions about virtues, without seeking knowledge, present resident of global pseudopolis is obsessed by simulated information, pictures and convictions, which create social consciousness with their hyperproduction. In shadow of massmedia’s caves, contours of transformed democracy can be seen. This democracy is more and more exposed to the interests of megacorporations, dominant geopolitical influence, cultural determinism, and redefined fundamentalism. Under such circumstances, to some lonely individual, “in Athena’s Agora”, is even more difficult to form and keep his or her own opinion, ideas and values. Infospace is covered by global network of information and facts; the process of symbolic exchange is taken off humans by machines. Freedom of speech in media is the air of open, public communication, the pillar of democratic structures, but problem is that watchmen of “information gates” still standing guard, but this time in front of cyber spaces. (shrink)

The Article analyses how one of the basic consumer rights – the right to information – is regulated in the European Commission Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on consumer rights (hereinafter referred to as the Proposal): the article analyses trends of regulation of the consumers’ right to receive information; problems related to the scope of provided information and the issue of consumer standard that should be used in evaluating the sufficiency of provided information (...) and transparency of contract terms. Furthermore, additional possibilities to improve the consumer right to receive information at the national level are shortly discussed. The regulation of the consumer right to receive information established in the Proposal may imply a new era in the regulation of the B2C relations, where the aim to ensure high common level of consumer protection is opposed against the aim to ensure the balance of interests of consumers and business. Such „slight“ conversion of the aims may impact the application of legal norms regulating consumer right to information and the scope of the disclosure obligation of the business, while reducing the level of the consumer protection. (shrink)

U kompleksnom ispreplitanju znanosti i javnosti već je Oton Kučera krajem 19. stoljeća vidio važnu ulogu filozofije »koja savjesno računa sa napretkom prirodne znanosti« kojoj »stadosmo na prag« s novim razumijevanjem prirodnih procesa i pojava. Budući da su mediji u približavanju znanstvenih informacija javnosti nesumnjivo najučinkovitiji, ovdje ću prikazati rezultate recentnih europskih i američkih anketa o informiranosti javnosti o znanosti , o stavovima javnosti prema znanosti i očekivanju javnosti od znanosti. Ukratko ću se osvrnuti na utjecaj medija s obzirom (...) na sadržaj i na neke od modela komuniciranja znanosti te opisati vrste i osobine publike za znanost u javnosti. Naime, korelacija znanja i pozitivnih stavova postoji do određenog stupnja informiranosti i dosadašnje su studije pokazale da kod donošenja odluka ili zauzimanja stava prema osjetljivim ili rizičnim pitanjima veliku ulogu imaju vjerovanja, više nego informiranost ili znanje. Nakon analize nekolicine studija slučaja, moj će zaključak biti da filozofija može pomoći upravo u tim najslabijim točkama javnoga razumijevanja i prihvaćanja znanosti. (shrink)

In 2012 there are 76 countries of the world still criminalising same-sex sexual acts between consenting adults. In seven of those countries homosexual acts are punishable with death penalty (i. e., Mauritania, Sudan, the northern states of Nigeria, the southern parts of Somalia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Yemen). Homophobic (transphobic) attitudes are also frequent in many societies. However, the LGBT asylum seekers are frequently left outside the refugee definition due to many refugee qualification and procedural problems in LGBT cases. Criminalisation, (...) state protection against non-state persecution, concealment of sexual or gender identity, internal protection were discussed in the previous article ‘The Refugee Qualification Problems in LGBT Asylum Cases’ by Laurynas Biekša2. In this article the authors aim to describe the main procedural problems in LGBT asylum cases (i. e., credibility assessment, late disclosure, country of origin information and reception) and propose their solutions. Guiding European and international standards are laid down in the Reception Directive3, Qualification Directive4, Procedures Directive5 and UNHCR Guidance Note6. Today these standards should serve as a starting point for identifying the problems LGBT asylum seekers may have during their asylum procedures and for finding possible solutions. (shrink)