hiobsbotschafter oder i spy

Though the German government and the people of the world had already lower their expectations regarding real reform to the practises of the fledgling police state that America has become—and from those partners duly or unwittingly deputized, the awkward spectacle of defending the indefeasible and saying essentially nothing by anyone in a position of authority was a more than a little revolting.

No stop the spying agreement, as Germany has called for—not instigated by “learning” that vast swaths of its citizens are under surveillance without cause but over the bugging of the Chancellor's cell-phone, which she's relying on even more since she has been out on crutches after a skiing accident, but the fact that the US is carrying on with its role, no longer out of necessity but rather self-appointed, without blush or stint is rather besmirching. Aside from this business as usual, which is ever on the rise, stride never broken, there were empty reassurances that the spying apparatchik was above abuse and has prevented damaged to US interests—neither of which are true, and reform was limited to oversight by committees of confirmed insiders and actual operations will mostly remain in the shadows—until or unless the next slate of unwanton exposures, at least. The term Hiobsbotschaft figuratively means bad news in German—from the string of bad events that happened to the biblical figure Job, but with the reports of the US embassies (auch Botschaften) in Berlin and elsewhere being used as listening posts, the term takes on a double-meaning.

wysiwyg

Collectors' Weekly features an interesting glimpse on vintage examples and the movement to revive the art of artisan sign-makers. In the face of ever-advancing graphics programmes—irrespective of nuance like kerning and other foundry-disciplines—everyone can fancy themselves a professional, and not without some amazing achievements, but also with a lot of lack-lustre, derivative and overly-polished banners. Most modern examples stand in pale contrast to the ghost signage, old privilege marketing preserved on the sides of buildings, either out of indifference or nostalgia, and interesting that graffiti artists kept the art viable and devolving.

schweifstern oder osiris

After a long slumber, the space probe Rosetta is expected to awaken from hibernation of two years next week, signalling the European Space Agency (ESA) with the message “Hello Darmstadt!” and then slowly schlep into the orbital path of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The architects of the mission hope then the probe, first launched a decade ago to coordinate the encounters, will be able to hitch a ride like the Little Prince in the wake of the shooting-star and shadow the comet for some 18 months, studying its composition and decoding the behaviours of these primordial travellers, before ultimately attempting to land on its surface.

rassgat: a term of endearment

Spiegel's international desk has an interesting and humourous postcard on the character, economic collapse taken in stride and subsequent recovery of Iceland. The nation's attitude and come-back certainly makes amends for the past gambling that lead to the crisis—responding in a model-fashion, allowing its banks to fail and political reforms, plus a return to core-competencies and capitalising on native ingenuity that is worthy of precedence. There are also a lot of bonus items contained in this missive: Icelanders are spoilt with geo-thermal energy (also a promising natural resource for future export) to the extent that they can heat their sidewalks with subterranean pipes to prevent them from freezing and water from the tap needs to be cooled below scalding before it can be used and the saying Petta reddast—the mantra that everything will work out.

pig in a blanket

When I first saw this post on the rare but returning chimera of a woolly pig, I thought it was some lure for the gullible—like the Vegetable Lamb of Tartary or the Jackalope, but the Manglitza breed does in fact exist. Originating as an experimental pedigree in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, husbanders crossed domesticated stock with wild boars—trying to produce an animal that would yield more lard. As food preparation and storage became more sophisticated, the demand for lard plummeted and so did interest in the pig-sheep. I would think people would be interested in their fleece too.  In German, they are called Wollschweine and are apparently raised here as well.