lake district or mood indigo

The expanse of plain surrounding the metropolis of Leipzig—extending to the corner of Saxony-Anhalt, is known as the Neuseenland for the numerous artificial bodies of water created by the flooding of derelict mining operations. The process of reclamation takes decades as a lot of industrial pollutants have to be filtered away first so that people and Nature can enjoy these resources. The character is different, of course, from the marshy areas that once covered these plains before cities and farmland but the effect is stunning and attracting a new range of wildlife.
A surrendered mine-shaft, a former brown-coal (Braunkohl, lignite—the low-grade coal that comes from ancient peat-bogs found throughout Europe) extraction site, forms one very picturesque lake by the name of Runstedersee in the community of Braunsbedra that made a very nice venue for a party weekend. Deemed unsafe for bathing, however, it stands in the wake of the nearby Leuna Works and as a reminder that the area, though certain phases have passed and more care is taken concerning environmental impact, the area in general is not a post-industrial one. Originally built during the height of World War I by Robert Bosch for the synthesis of ammonia for the production of explosives, this huge chemical campus slowly diversified and the ammonia was used for the manufacture of fertilizer during the interbellum period. Moreover, with the loss of colonial-holdings, research into other means for obtaining rubber and fuel oil became vital for the reestablishment of civil and military prowess in Germany under the directorship of IG Farben (Interessen-Gemeinschaft… meaning syndicate of the dye-makers after their first commercial successes in creating artificial colouring agents).
Synthetic materials and the process for converting brown-coal into oil (Hydrierwerke) were pioneered at these factories. During World War II, the refineries suffered heavy damage from bombardment and the disruption to the supply-chain became a pivotal moment in the war. The complex was rebuilt during East Germany times and continues to operate as a fuel refinery and produces a wide range of chemicals and plastics. Hopefully, with better stewardship of a dirty business, Nature can reclaim this lake fully as well.

autarky or war of words

It is strange how words become ammunition in reporting:

one would, reading the coverage of Russia's decision to impose strict limits on imports of US and EU goods, think it was something that could be laughed-off and easily dismissed as a bluff or empty-threat, whereas the commensurable response by the West and associates is called by the more macho name of embargo. Sparingly, the term sanctions is sometimes applied. Pretensions aside, I believe that it is a buyers' market, and it is not so easy to find contingency consumers as it is to find alternate suppliers.

creative-commons or infinite monkeys typing

Wikipedia is rebuffing the take-down requests of a nature photographer, who after leaving his camera disguised in the jungle to capture images of macaques of Indonesia discovered that the monkey had discovered the hidden device and took hundreds of selfies.
Since the images have gone viral, the photographer hoped to earn something in the form of royalties or at least recognition and became rather irked when the images became part of Wikipedia's open collection. Demands that the pictures be removed and relegated to the nature photographer were rejected by the public encyclopedia, reasoning that the monkeys were the authors of the collection and it would be their decision if the material remained in the public-domain or not. US statute, which Wikipedia cites and most editors agree with, states that non-human authors have no automatic expectation of attribution and so such material defaults to be released to public-domain. What do you think of this legal battle, this copy-fight? The photographer did go through a lot of trouble and expensive to set up this photo-booth but maybe the macaque also knew what he was creating.

gentrification or the YUN ones

The Daily Beast featured recently a bitter-sweet and thought-provoking interview and profile of a blogger who is passionately documented the death-knells of a great metropolis. New York City is being summarily and quickly terraformed into a suburban-idyll, a playground acceptable to American Mid-Western standards and values and is being turned away from its eclectic identity.

The main reasons behind this lamentable, and frustratingly unstoppable, transformation is clearly exponentially high rents that price not only residents but also small shops out of the market, with only monied franchises to act as place-holders and no real anchors of the community—plus the leadership of Gotham over the last decade that helped to sanitize the landscape and insert comfortable order. It is a warning, years in the making but accelerating exponentially, that other great cities failed to heed, like London, Paris and the larger cities of Germany, too, that are quickly becoming unlivable and sacrificing their character and drive, despite the hard lessons of the property-bubble and subsequent burst, tendered by the same conditions. There is another less flattering contributor to this change that is not easy to address: inheriting the success of the Yuppies, the Young Urban Narcissists (YUNs) are pleased to have this backdrop for their curricula vitarum without dealing with the grittiness and reminders of bootstrapping and failure that do not belong in the picture. What do you think? Is a balance possibly for urban blight? The blogger, though angry and sad to see this charm slip away, has no plans to leave because he also has the chance to find those redeeming malingerers.