bunkermuseum

Travelling on a bit north of the Rennsteig (previously here, here and here) and taking advantage of the bright but frosty weather, H and I went to a part of the vast nature reserve known as the Frauenwald and took a tour of a compound that was once maintained by the East German Army (die NVA, Nationale Volksarmee) under the authority of the Ministry for States Security (MfS, die Stassi) as an emergency command-and-control bunker for continuation of governance in case of attack during the Cold War, established well behind enemy lines.

Constructed in parallel a nearby rest-and-recuperation resort constructed for soldiers on leave, the nearly thirty-six hundred square metre complex was mostly above ground but designed to be sealed off from the outside environment and stocked with provisions to keep its compliment alive for four weeks before restocking was needed.

The installation was decommissioned and mothballed after 1989 and run as a private venture since 2004. The narrow corridors and vaults was like being on a submarine—especially mindful of the point of this exercise and keeping it self-sufficient, uncontaminated as it were, prepared for all contingencies including chemical, biological and nuclear strikes—and the period dioramas recalled us to the museum once housed in the Colossus of Prora.

The past is a foreign country.  The former situation room was especially poignant with original furnishings and woodchip on the wall and not much different than the legacies centres still in operation (contrary to how they’re portrayed in the movies) and imparts a since of relief that somewhere so delicate and relatable was not ultimately conscripted to be part of mutually assured destruction and hope that such redundancy might inform the geopolitics we are heir to.

there’s plenty of room at the bottom

Delivered on this day in 1959 before an assembly of the members pf the American Physical Society at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena (see also), Richard Feynman’s (*1918 – †1988) lecture—subtitled “An Invitation to Enter a New Field of Physics” addressed the virtually limitless possibilities of miniaturisation and is heralded in retrospect as the birth of nanotechnology. A culmination of research, including though-experiments and practical demonstrations, Feynman’s intrigue was contagious as he pondered the ramifications of manipulating matter at atomic scales—creating incredibly dense circuitry, data-storage systems as well as vanishingly small mechanisms and medical interventions that were precision-controlled rather than relying on chemical processes that could be poorly grasped or might not work outside of the laboratory.
Though these motorized enzymes and ingestibles remained theoretical concepts and the bailiwick of science fiction until recently, the seminar ended with Feynman issuing a couple of challenges to his audience, the first of which were solved in very short order: the first thousand dollar payout came with the development of the first nanomotor the following year, the second—fitting the whole of the Encyclopædia Britannica on the head of a pin took a bit more time but its equivalent was finally accomplished in 1985

the constitutions of clarendon

Beginning just ahead of the eight hundred-fiftieth anniversary of his murder in Canterbury Cathedral on 29 December 1170, the British Museum is hosting a series of events and exhibitions on the life and legacy of Thomas Becket (previously).  Acting on what they interpreted as an express order from Henry II, four knights brutally killed the archbishop (see link immediately above) and this palace intrigue which went on to inspire sainthood and pilgrimage, solidified by his earlier exile for crossing the king—whose later inversion and disfavor helped curry the Protestantism and the fledgling Reformation in the bulwark of Henry VIII (see also). Read more about the special collections at the links above and at the museum’s own blog and watch this space for further updates.

fundbüro

Via Dave Log v.3 (broken link unfortunately) we’re well acquainted with the Unclaimed Baggage Processing Centre in Enterprise Alabama that sells on lost and never claimed luggage from the airlines and more recently were given a tour of Paris’ but we were heretofore unfamiliar with the logoistics behind reuniting when possible, warehousing then auctioning off lost items from Germany’s railways as told in this visual storyboard from the New York Times.
Nearly a quarter of a million items, from the mundane to the esoteric and inexplicable—steeped in more mystery when one considers how one might lose track of certain treasures much less be unable to follow up on their whereabouts, are found every year in stations, on the platforms and left in the trains. A team of a dozen curators headquartered in Wuppertal try to deaccession their collections through research and detective work and find their owners.
Once all efforts have been exhausted, items go under the hammer, auctions held weekly on Platform 1. Though it would be a bit of a railway journey in itself but I’m going to resolve to check the city and the Bahnhof for the clearance event out one Thursday afternoon soon.

visitor count

Courtesy of Gizmodo, we are referred to a register of pages ranked, rated and annotated that Wikipedia users have visited over the past year.
Over a quarter of a trillion inquiries were logged for 2019 and moderators have stretched out that list out to its top five-thousand topics (the very last place still netted one million two-hundred thousand page views). The very top-tier most read articles—for the English language suite of sites at least but one wonders how that hegemony is exported and translated, mostly seem to by playbills, programmes and Cliffs’ Notes to help audiences better understand what entertainment that they just consumed.
Not only is it interesting to see on the expanded list that indelible mark of purple for a link visited as one scrolls through this list, it’s also an engrossing exercise to realise that one has perhaps not researched a particular figure or event further (on Wikipedia at least) which one hopes that they were better informed or should have been more curious about or those that stand out as utter mysteries and make one want to hover over it if not click through and glean more.

令

Our apologies for the late proclamation, as the announcement for the Kanji Character of the Year—under the auspices of the scholastic organization Kanji Aptitude Test Foundation, based in Kyoto—is writ large in bold calligraphy on the portico of a historic temple every 12 December (previously), but it is still an annual superlative worth reflection.
Maybe we will remember to watch for it next time it comes around.  Jured from a variety of sources including people’s choice, the character 令 (pronounced rei) was selected. It’s primary meaning is order but harking back to the abdication and enthronement of a new emperor with a new era, Reiwa, we are also reminded that it can connote beautiful harmony, which one can hope is not just a record of the year that’s passed but also a portend of the year to come.

say what?

Though possibly more familiar to audiences as cover-version and originally debuting on their album Honey, the formative funk group Ohio Players’ hit single Love Roller-Coaster first topped the charts in North America on this day in 1975, remaining on the Top 40 list for weeks.
Though in line with the premise of the song that romance is like a thrill-ride, a seemingly errant though audible scream (heard around 01:24 of the single, about a minute later on this album version) has been a persistent source of urban legends since its release, ranging from a deadly recording studio mishap to the confession of guilty conscience. The scream was in reality voiced by keyboardist Billy Beck. The contributions of Beck, Leroy Bonner, James Williams and other members were recognised in 2013 with the group’s induction into the Rhythm and Blues Hall of Fame (matriculating as part of the inaugural class) in Cleveland.