Thursday 3 October 2019

prager botschaft

To prevent further exodus to the West Germany via Prague, the government of East Germany closed its border with Czechoslovakia on this day in 1989 after some seven-thousand political refugees had camped out on the grounds of the West German Embassy and were granted safe passage on special trains bound for the BDR. The Velvet Revolution is fomenting at the same time as unrest in Berlin, Leipzig and elsewhere ensues and once the border is reopened a month later, another group of East German asylum-seekers cross into Hof, a West German frontier town.

Tuesday 1 October 2019

registreret partnerskab

Passed into law by the Folketing on 7 June of that year, legal recognition for same-sex domestic partnerships came into force in the Kingdom of Denmark on this day in 1989.  The first legislation of its kind, registered couples were accorded almost equal rights and responsibilities as opposite sex married couples with the proviso that one member either be a Danish citizen or that both parties be in residence for at least two years. The definition of a resident was expanded extraterritorially for the purposes of the law to cover Norway, Iceland and Finland, extending the jurisdiction as far as they could. On 15 June 2012, the partnership law was repealed and replaced by a gender-neutral Marriage Act (ร†gteskabsloven).

Monday 19 August 2019

paneuropรคisches picknick

Held on this day in 1989 the peace protest known as the Pan-European Picnic in the border town of ล opron (formerly Ödenburg), Hungary on the Austria border sponsored in part by the former Archduke of both nations is considered by many to be the final death-rattle of Communism, presaging what was to follow in Central Europe, signalling the end of accommodation for protracted situations like Romanian refugee camps in Hungary or the East German encampment at the Prague embassy. Borders were eliminated for a space of three hours during the exchange and many took advantage of this window, with border guards given orders not to interfere. Presently, few signs remain of the walls that separated east from west.

Tuesday 2 July 2019

cola wars

The always engaging Messy Nessy Chic reminds us of the time that soft drink giant Pepsi held temporarily the distinction of being one of the world’s largest naval powers, taking ownership of seventeen obsolete diesel-powered submarines, a decommissioned crusier, destroyer and frigate and a fleet of oil tankers from the quickly disintegrating Soviet Union in 1990.
The relationship of the rival cola company vying for market dominance and the Eastern Bloc goes back to the cultural, domestic-science exchanges held between Nikita Khrushchev and Richard Nixon back in July of 1959, these kitchen debates netting among other things a photograph of the Soviet Premier enjoying a cold, refreshing beverage. Pepsi executives recognised a monumental opportunity to break into new markets. Straightforward expansion, however, was hindered by US sanctions and a Soviet restriction on the export of rubles abroad but worked out a deal to trade syrup for Stolichnaya vodka. The monopoly was negotiated in 1972 and would expire unless renegotiated in 1989. The USSR was a very different place when the terms of the trade deal were coming to an end and with little else of value to barter with, the Soviets offered part of its navy. Sweden and Norway bought the tankers while the tactical vessels were scrapped and sold as salvage, the president of the company quipping to then US president George HW Bush that they had managed to disarm the USSR at a faster pace than the American administration.

Wednesday 15 May 2019

worms against nuclear killers

Recently declassified documents obtained by the investigative team at Muckrock details how NASA dealt with the one of the early infections by a computer worm and arguably one of the first acts of political hacktivism, though the timing might be coincidental, back in October 1989.
Unidentified hackers from Melbourne, some contend Julian Assange (previously) was also involved but he has never attested to this claim, had infiltrated a computer system shared by the space agency and the US Department of Energy (which also has oversight for America’s nuclear arsenal) just as the shuttle was preparing to ferry up the plutonium-powered Galileo space probe. With the Challenger disaster (28 January 1986) still fresh in people’s minds, there was concern and public protests over the launch, fearing an accident that could spread fall-out over Florida. Instead of the accustomed start-screen, workers were greeted with the pictured message and led to believe that files were being deleted though no actual lasting harm was done. The subheading, “You talk of times of peace for all, and then prepare for war,” is a lyric from a Midnight Oil song, an Australian activist rock band with a strong stance against nuclear proliferation. More to explore at the link up top.

Wednesday 13 March 2019

www

While working at CERN, having helped established the world’s then largest networked node of computers, Tim Berners-Lee (previously here and here) recognised the opportunity to merge hypertext with their internet, in efforts to make his job easier and more transparent for his collaborators.
On this day in 1989, he submitted his proposal to the laboratory’s communications office, whose abstract contained the concept of the world-wide web, later distributed and received as “vague but exciting,” the abstract linking disparate but already existing technologies in ways no one else had though to beforehand. The image is the coat of arms for the British Computer Society—of which Berners-Lee is a distinguished fellow, and was founded in 1956 as a professional body and learned association for the advancement of computer science, receiving a royal charter in 1984.

Thursday 30 November 2017

crypto-currency

Well before the stellar—and perhaps ultimately not unlike the ascent of Icarus—rise of one form of trusted electronic money that we are presently witnessing, there were quite a few antecedents including the primogenitor, DigiCash, invented by computer scientist and cryptographer David Chaum back in 1989.
Very much ahead of its time, Chaum’s idea evolved from a need he recognised in 1982 to protect the privacy of individuals conducting online transactions and devised a way to digitally commit to a deal by negotiating between public- and private-key security that was selective about the exposure of details and terms. The early form of electronic payments and exchange was wholly anonymous thanks to a system of protocols maintained across a network, much like its descendants. Though Deutsche Bank was one of the currency’s early-adopters, DigiCash went bankrupt in 1998 having come to the market prematurely, before the integration of the internet with electronic transactions which lagged behind. E-commerce is older of course than on-line shopping with clearing houses for bank transfers, automated teller machines and credit card infrastructure but it’s really amazing to think how different our relation to money and trade was back then and how little the underpinnings have changed.