the perils of penelope pitstop or dutch-east-india company

The final stage of two eras is in the works: one, the de-commissioning of the US Space Shuttle programme, and the edict of the German government to end nuclear energy within its borders. The latter decision, in my opinion, was a bit rash, maybe too hysterical, but nonetheless a necessary one, since nuclear power and the waste it produces is not a tenable situation in the long run. The former choice is being met crestfallen, while on the other hand, Germany’s action was not made without debate and planning for contingencies. In fact, businesses, universities and scientists are recognizing that there’s a job to do to satisfy this mandate and fill the deficit left in the country’s power supply. Already, creative thinkers are working together to approach this problem from all angles, designing more aesthetic masts for high tension wires, wind-turbines and photovoltaic arrays with input from ecologists, engineers, architects and historic preservationists—as well as the daydreamers. The space shuttle is a shuttle, something for hauling cargo, but I think representative of ingenuity and at least the spirit of exploration. There’s little waiting in the wings, it seems, to replace it (thank goodness for the hale and hearty Soyuz that Russia is not stinting and continues to deliver). Proceeding without a framework to replace this flagship is a bit disheartening—especially for the rocket scientists at NASA, I’m sure—and is not conducive to invention. Hopefully some creative entrepreneurs will usher in greater strides, but space should not be solely a commercial enterprise for any partner in discovery.

poll tax

Ever pragmatic and with a healthy dose of skepticism, the German public is divided over pre-election promises to lower taxes. The survey does not delivery overwhelming verdicts either for or against cutting personal taxes over austerity, shoring up funds for a rainy-day, but a clear majority is doubtful that any reduction or reprieve would translate to any appreciable household savings. It reminds me of the excruciating and mean-spirited debate last year over increasing the monthly allowance for families on welfare (Hartz IV) that netted five euro in the end. Of course, allotted over all recipients, that's quite a monthly cumulative sum but it probably was more an insult than a help individually. With German employment at record highs and the export-mechanism churning strongly, the government is realizing some windfalls but it is still scheduled to take on more public debt. About half of the respondents were more in favour of sustaining their current tax situation and not undermine the economic recovery or handicap the ability to weather future turmoil. Most further view this tax-cut proposal as a myopic campaign-promise, which probably fails to factor in (I think) the loss of Zivildiener or Zivis with the end of mandatory conscription for young Germans. Without this labour pool to draw from, I think, social services will become more expensive to provide, and no one would want to see a cut in that area. If the government insists on paying back the people, maybe they'd do better to roll back the Value-Added Tax (Mehrwertsteuer, sort of like a national sales tax) by a percentage point. Everyone, regardless of their tax-situation, would see an immediate benefit and cost to the treasury, I think, would be minimal in the long-term.

green shoots

Watching this plant recover and slowly start to grow again once moved from the window sill to the balcony, it's new bunch of leaves ready to unfurl like something inchoate from a chrysalis, and the venerable, old cactus sprouting a new pseudo pod, has got me think about the different cues of light and temperature that plant-life has outside of seasonal fits and bursts. Perhaps there are things more subtle in the senses that yield good horticulture and horticulturists.

Our geraniums were looking a bit unremarkable, healthy but late-bloomers, and learned that if during transportation, the flowers are kept in the dark for more than forty hours, they hold off on further growth after the first spurt. Despite any amount good care and coaxing, they need to normalize their cycle on their own terms. That too made me think about the curious story of tropical poinsettias (Weihnachtsstern), which will only flower or develop those trademark red leaves when exposed to equal amounts of diurnal sunlight and dark night, like the conditions near the Equator.

kraken or there be dragons here

The Big Think, a surpassingly excellent curator for unusual examples of cartography, has a thoughtful piece on political satire, not such subtle ones, and portrayal of maps with anthropomorphism and zoomorphism. Going by national symbols alone, one would have a whole motley herd of eagles, lions, bears, dragons and griffons, but we also have these geo-political works of art that betray sentiment and fears. One of the more utilitarian propaganda monsters has been the land octopus, the kraken, an unappeasable force of nature that is a bigger threat than caricatures of kaisers and ministers. A lot of different countries, not just Russia and its successors, have assumed these writhing tentacles and it is interesting to reflect on these allegorical portrayals and meaning behind them--like in this map from the collections of Bibliodyssey. United, more or less under shifting regencies, Europe was often depicted as the Queen of the World, Europa Regina. I am sure that along with all available map-making precision at the time, a lot of thought, slights and glories, went into every feature. I cannot fathom the symbolism and deferring nature of this language but I hope we retain the ability to interpret the subtle and the dense and multi-layered.

Karte oft ungewöhn-licher Kartographen und Satirikern finden in The Big Think blog, und in der jungsten Ausgabe befinden sich ein nach-denklich Artikel über vermenschlichter und zoomorphischen Figuren der Karten. Anstatt nur nationalen Symbolen--die Löwen, Adler, Bären, Drachen, Griffins--gibt auch die festlandlich Krake, auf Gefühl und Angst hindeuten. Die pur Naturgewalt--der Kraken--ist Propagandamittel und mehr bedrohlicher als politischen Karikaturen. Nicht nur Russland sondern auch vielen anderen Ländern dargestellt mit Ausläufern war. In der Vergangenheit gezeigt Europa so wie eine Königin. Das ist sehr komplex und vielschichtig. Hoffentlich können wir weiter solche Sinnbilder und Symbolismus schätzen und verstehen.

colossus

The local has a dispatch from the Baltic strand of Rügen 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.

This ambitious feat of engineering and architecture, built from 1936-1939, had over twenty-thousand accommodations, theatres, dance-halls and a berth for cruise ships and was sponsored by the Third Reich's Kraft durch Freude (Strength through Joy) programme as a rest-and-recuperation facility for military personnel. The KdF programme was also the original impetus, incidentally, to make automobile ownership possible for every citizen, sort of a people's car or a Volks Wagon. As the war escalated, resources were diverted and the Seebad Prora never saw a single guest.

After the war, the complex was used by the East German military for billeting and training, and access for the public was restricted--the buildings' existence was virtually unknown during the DDR time and it still does not appear on many maps. Mostly, since--except for a bizarre and endearing museum installation in the central building, the place has been derelict. When we toured the Baltic in the Bulli last summer, we camped just outside of the monolithic shadows of Prora and had a great time on the fine beach and exploring the unspoilt ruins, untouched and undeveloped. I was a bit disappointed to read, already back then, of plans--placarded on the buildings themselves, to refurbish some of the units and offer them as vacation homes. It was a bit creepy, chilling I thought, to live there--but mostly I would not want to see the place over-developed and loose that austere and imposing isolation, even with surrounding beaches crowded.

Now the state government has introduced a compromise measure, to open up the resort as a youth hostel. Many castles and fortresses here include a youth hostel on their grounds and rather than detracting from the historic character, acts as a curating influence, letting young people get excited about staying in the midst of such a place and keeping away the vandals that helped along the decline.

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 Österreich 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.