ironclad patriotism

Collectors' Weekly features a fascinating little show-and-tell of the nineteenth century phenomena of sweetheart pendants, when aristocratic families of Prussia exchanged their gold and silver jewelry for austere and gothic-looking iron brooches, blackened with a flaxen coating to prevent rust, to help fund the Napoleonic Wars. These so-called intricate Berlin Iron pieces often bore patriotic (and shaming) slogans like “Gold gab ich für Eisen” (I gave gold for iron)—which was something en vogue for later conflicts, too, though not restricted to the upper-classes, like the saying that goes round the edge of this skillet from the Great War that I found: In World War 1916, the German Housewives shared in the spirit of sacrifice by giving up their copper for iron (it rhymes in German).

unbeholfen

It is difficult to say what the artist intended to portray with this ensemble of sculptures.  The little girl, however, is apparently aghast at whatever those boys are doing on the bench and points judgmentally.  I cannot tell if it is just supposed to be rough-housing or taking someone's lunch-money.


In any case, it was installed in 2000 for the occasion when Hünfeld was a regional host for Hessentag, a statewide showcase of local culture and attractions.  I wonder if such statues, and sponsoring foundations, help keep kids like these off the streets.

There was a Spring festival going on just now and a moment earlier that seat was fairly crowded with beer-drinkers sharing the bench. I suppose whatever it was meant to be, the bronzes have since become part of the furniture.

check-digit or sonderzeichen

Though the mandate was delayed and not without controversy, reforms to standardise the naming-convention for bank accounts, to make the IBAN (International Bank Account Number) coding sequence also apply to domestic transactions—the changes incorporated for what is called the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA), came across pretty seamlessly. Compliance helps eliminate the potential for dysglossia or duplication during transcription.
I noticed, however, that in practise, it yielded another affront against the maligned Umlaut. I enjoy completing payments with the automated tellers as it is one of the rare chances for me to use a German keyboard layout and try to use the language properly. Due to SEPA parameters, though, what are considered special characters are culled. It's like the initiative in the UK to remove all punctuation marks from street names so as to ensure that they are not garbled in navigation devices. “Turn left at St#àààààààà John█qwkl Wood.” I am surprised that the ü and ö are still accommodated on German vehicle license plates, as lands that employ Cyrillic (or Greek) characters are hardly afforded the same: only Latin appearing letters are allowed (though the H is really an E) and one will never see a backwards R, Space-Invader combination on a Bulgarian plated car. Space and data is not really a premium any longer and one has to wonder about the enforcement of old call-signs and the frailties of computing platforms, like the wondrous but technical legacy of British zip-codes—and registration plates.  I wonder how this policing might change in the future, now that the US has relinquished its hold on the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and now the world at large can fix standards.

epimethius

Ever ready to take recourse to its core values—seemingly that of safeguarding the interest of powerful industry lobbies that know no bounds of patriotism but are exceedingly well-versed in all sorts of jingoism—the United States invoked a star-spangled jibe at its European allies during the G7 summit, which seemed to make quick amends of all America's recent transgressions and wiped the collective memories of those in attendance.

Of course the character of the meeting was drastically changed by its omission, though not shying from acknowledging the new by-laws and membership, and though some of the original rhetoric—that of curtailing nuclear proliferation, made the edit of more immediate and reactionary issues however countered with a demonstration of crouching prowess courtesy of the North Koreans with a test-launch of mid-range rockets—no one attempted to ignore what is happening on the periphery of Europe with the Russian incursion into the Crimea and further advances expected by the West. The exhortation for action and unity was certainly not an empty one, nothing schmaltzy or sentimental (but perhaps would have been taken so in a different context), since we all are really heirs to this peace, though probably not in the same ways as the venue was constructed, but it was a opportune one that has been maybe overlooked, as a comforting elision. In order to sway, I believe, those resistant to adopting wholesale the latest free-trade pact with the US, negotiated in secret and having accumulated many justified reservations over the standards of environmental and labour protections—or copyright embodied by the elusive Atomium landmark of Belgium and promises of endless prosperity that seem impossible to fulfill on a mutual level without losers, the current situation was nuanced to embrace a fuel-independence for Europe that America could help alleviate, as if by opening up a valve that would magically siphon US frack-gas (refined) to the Continent, with the condition of accepting all the other conditions, like accepting GM foods without stint or disclosure. Hopefully politicians will realise the awkwardness of this pitch afterwards and appreciate that acceptance of a commercial-accord is not the moral-imperative called upon.