Sunday, 31 July 2011
truth or consequences, new mexico
crawlspace or urban spelunking
Via the superlative BLDGBLOG, Der Spiegel (auf englisch) reports on a persistent mystery that’s been buried and forgotten in locations all over Bavaria. There are hundreds of discovered ancient stone passageways tunneled into the earth, mostly impossibly narrow and tight, in farmers’ fields, under churchyards and in towns, that have been described with such creative names as Schrazelloch ("goblin hole") and Alraunenhรถhle ("mandrake cave"), because locals believed that they were the mines of dwarves and oubliettes of elves—since no one can really say what the purpose of these articifical caves were.
Saturday, 30 July 2011
aqua-velva
Friday, 15 July 2011
nam alii oc, alii si, alii vero disunt oil
foundry sans informal
Thursday, 14 July 2011
flea, fly, flea-fly-mosquito
catagories: ๐ฌ, networking and blogging
cosmic architektonik


Wednesday, 13 July 2011
evasive maneuvers
Tuesday, 12 July 2011
eight-bit or the red-coats are coming
The military, especially the US army, has an expensive fashion-sense. I understand the role is of fatigues and battle-rattle to help keep soldiers safe and inconspicuous but a lot of changes seemed to be pushed through all at once, the repeal of DADT besides. The reviled standard issue black berets went away and combat boots changed, Velcro badges, and now the introduction of the latest camoufleur pattern to be field-tested downrange in Afghanistan. Surely, it is pricey for the government to award all these apparel contracts, and it’s at a cost to the individual solider too, who though issued uniforms end up paying for it on store credit (not to mention the dry-cleaning bills) like a carefree troop of novice flight-attendants. Here, a deploying unit is in formation with the rear-detachment, who will stay behind. The juxtaposition is interesting, and I do like the new retro-camouflage a lot better than the pixilated old one. One got used to it and I suppose the uniforms become invisible though no one really blends in. The new so-called multi-cam has a classic look, single and in the right sun, the colours almost look like a trained, super-imposition of an old Kodachrome photograph, instead of some cheap and over-done CGI special-effect.
fahrsprung
H has become quite handy and bold with assaying our fair Lady, and making sure she is fully outfitted for our upcoming big trip. The word jalopy has, I think, too many negative connotations and can't aspire to be something refined and finely engineered. Our third generation Volkswagen Transporter--sometimes sold as Vanagons in the States (Lady is a "Sport R" and I always thought that was a very special and rare model... maybe we should have named her VGER like the Voyager space probe in the first Star Trek movie)--was the first model of bus water cooled (instead of air-cooled) and was the last VW of any type to have the engine in the rear. That's a bit like those dinosaurs that had two brains, one in the head and one in the tail to govern each. The word jalopy does suggest, however, dependability--or at least, flexibility, serviceableness and the ability to intuit. It is always comforting to know that one's trip won't have a contrary, single-minded computer as a roadblock and that with less, one can go further.
catagories: transportation, travel
Monday, 11 July 2011
odious debt


Friday, 8 July 2011
the perils of penelope pitstop or dutch-east-india company
poll tax
Thursday, 7 July 2011
green shoots
catagories: ๐ฑ, environment, lifestyle
Wednesday, 6 July 2011
kraken or there be dragons here
Tuesday, 5 July 2011
colossus
The local has a dispatch from the Baltic strand of Rรผgen about designs to convert the colossal planned holiday-going compound of Prora, which stretches for 4,5 kilometers along the strait separating the Bay of Jasmund (Jasmunder Bodden - recently too elevated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site [DE]) from the sea, after many decades, back towards its original intent.



catagories: ๐ฉ๐ช, environment, travel
Monday, 4 July 2011
a.e.i.o.u.
Otto von Hapsburg, the eldest son of the last Emperor of Austria-Hungary, has passed away, at the advanced age of 98, and with him one of the last links to this time in the world, not so long ago, when monarchy and lineage dominated and republics were the exception.
I wonder that people can really put their minds around such a difference in governance and birth-right. Hapsburg of course renounced his claim to crown-lands back in 1961 and has since worked ardently for European peace and unity, but his passing raises questions about a resurgence in entertaining a return to royal rule. Hapsburg was not only a private citizen, serving decades in the European parliament but did live quietly under a self-imposed exile in Bavaria and outside of his native Austria. The subdued word of his death—though respectful—seems like a cautious calculation, to avoid exalting him too highly and invite royalists and courtiers of all persuasions that have used disenfranchised nobility for all sorts of causes, positive and negative. A.E.I.O.U. incidentally was a symbolic (signature) device used by the Austrian emperor, which no one really knows stood for--probably "Alles Erdreich ist รsterreich untertan" or "All the world is subject to Austria" but no one is for certain, maybe also in Latin Austria Europae Imago, Onus, Unio or "Austria is Europe's spitting image, burden and unification." Further, I wonder about that singular moment in 1919, after witnessing the nightmare of World War I, when the royals abdicated en masse. How that played out does not seem clear to me: did revolution and revolt compel the nobles or did they choose to give up their power on their own accord, did they all agree without dissent or expect the situation to be temporary or as the Empire and Kingdom went, dukes and barons found their free-hold to be without meaning or enforcement? Such events, something never to happen again since their no ceremony and strife of succession, ought to be marked solemnly, but not kept out of sight or we really will be losing that historical era and that historical change.
Sunday, 3 July 2011
national lampoon
Vor wenigen Wochen gab die Onion ein Bericht, der kommt zu dem Schluss, dass die Depression der amerikanischen Wirtschaft erwรคchst vollstรคndig aus der Tatsache, dass das Land liegt auf einem riesig, vorzeitlichem indischem Begrรคbnisfeld (wie im Film ,,Poltergeist’’ – hier findet man solche Kultkino Kreationen). Und aggregiert davor ein geschickt Gruppe den Empรถrung an Menschen ohne Kenntnisse dass die Onion haben die Nachrichten parodiert. Manchmal sagt Parodie mehr, als jede wahr Nachricht, genau wie Leichtglรคubigkeit. Obwohl nichts Neues, versauern nicht was lustig ist.
Friday, 1 July 2011
the glazier's fallacy or ce qu'on voit et ce qu'on ne voit pas
The New York Times has a circumspect article on the end of mandatory military conscription in Germany, which official ended today, marking the transition into an all voluntary force. Formerly, when young men and women reached the age of majority, they were required to serve a tour of eighteen months in military or comparable civilian service, with waivers granted for certain career tracks. Often I think about the incidents and accidents and quirks of history and how things would have turned out completely different had events and practices taken another course: H was able to avoid conscription in the East German Peoples' Army because of the timing of Reunification, and without East Germany to begin with, an American military presence in Germany certainly would not have been so enduring. I wonder if one knows when human events took the wrong course. What does that feel like? I cannot speak to whether the experience is formative for young people or whether the democratized military benefited more from mandatory rather than a voluntary composition, but I do imagine that all sorts of business and industries as well as the apprentices gained a lot from the free-help and career-sampling and development opportunities. As the New York Times story points out, a disproportionate number of military personnel are represented by residents of the former East, where sometimes gainful employment can be harder to secure. Perhaps military service, on a voluntary-basis too, can help distribute opportunities to talented individuals and not become the distasteful, minioned last resort it is elsewhere. It is a big experiment to shift the direction of one's armies like this, and while I am not sure about any analogues or the shape of things to come of this, it did not take place without discussion and debate, and perhaps introduces a measure of reason to the stuff of defense and aggression.
Hier geht es zu einem Artikel von Focus รผber der Ende der Wehrpflicht--der Schnittstelle der รbergangs von obligatorisch zu freiwilligen Dienst. Vormals, werden alle jungen Mรคnner und Frauen mรผsse, sich mit 18 Jahren entweder fรผr die Bundeswehr oder Zivildienst zu dienen. Often habe ich mich selbst รผber die mรถglichen vom Vorfรคllen und Begebenheiten Geschichtes nachzudenken. Wie kรถnnte es anderes sein? H vermied Einberufung bei der DDR-Volksarmee aus Grรผnden des Timings der Wiedervereinigung. Ohne der DDR, haben nicht weder der amerikanischen Militรคrprรคsenz in Deutschland fรผr mich erdulden mussten. Ich frage mich, ob das vom Kurs abkommen. Ich weiร nicht, ob das Erleben was prรคgend fรผr Jugendlichen oder nichts, oder ob das mit gut fรผr die Armee war. Aber ich glaube, dass begรผnstigte Arbeits- und Sozialausschusses davon Helfer und Nachwuchsfรถrderung. Das Militรคrpersonal kommen Bรผrger aus die neuen รถstlichen Bundeslรคndern. Manchmal gibt dort nur wenig Mรถglichkeiten, Qualifikationen zu erwerben. Vielleicht wird weiterhin Freiwilligendiensten als effektiver Zugangsmรถglichkeit und Bildungschance statt letzten Ausweg unterstรผtzen. Auf diese Weise wรผrde der Armee einen bisher unbekannten Wagemut an den Tag legen. Vielleicht wenn wir setzen die Debatte fortzu, dann kรถnnen wir eine gewisse Menschenverstand und Vernunft in die Verteidigung und Aggression einfรผhren.