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.