Illuminati-R-Us

Arneb wrote:

Lance wrote:ETA: https://www.facebook.com/lance.clarke.3 ... 0864104083

Oh dear. Does that mean I'll get hated on Facebook without even being there?

It didn't get as much reaction as I thought, but what it did get was positive.

Well, my regards to your FB friends then.

Not an anniverary, but a very special day.

Today is the day on which the Berlin Wall has been down exactly as many days as it had been up. I can't really believe it, but the math tells us it's true.

The Wall came down without a single shot being fired. The calm and peaceful determination of the protesters; the (as I see it) moral decision by M.. Gorbachev not to provide armed back-up from the Red Army; and the lack of determination on the part of the ruling clique to go all-in (some have undoubtedly called it cowardice) made this possible. This is especially good luck as fve months before, the Chinese government had made precisely th opposite decision and got away with it.

A very, very happy day indeed.

Arneb wrote:Not an anniverary, but a very special day.

Today is the day on which the Berlin Wall has been down exactly as many days as it had been up. I can't really believe it, but the math tells us it's true.

The Wall came down without a single shot being fired. The calm and peaceful determination of the protesters; the (as I see it) moral decision by M.. Gorbachev not to provide armed back-up from the Red Army; and the lack of determination on the part of the ruling clique to go all-in (some have undoubtedly called it cowardice) made this possible. This is especially good luck as fve months before, the Chinese government had made precisely th opposite decision and got away with it.

A very, very happy day indeed.

That is very cool, and I suddenly feel very old.

The Wall started to go up just before I was born so was always a fact of life, and I also feel very old.

Being a West Berliner, you can imagine how old I feel.

A number of my co-workers noticed the day, too, on a happy note. None expected to live to seerhe end of the Wall, let alone live through an equally long period without it. Yet here we are, it's a terrific feeling. Many people here in my little rural ex GDR church-run hospital started working here in the 70s. They've seen this place trundle on under two political systems, two ownerships, three currencies, and many a Chefarzt. They are very happy we are still here but deeply disappointed that of all adverse political circumstances, ours might be the ones that finally kill the hospital, with their focus on efficiency and large technology-driven hospitals.

Stupid question... The wall clearly divided Berlin, and many folk died trying to get from east to west that way. But with West Berlin sitting as an island in East Germany, wasn't there an easier/safer way to sneak in? What was to stop folk "going around" the wall? What was the border round the other edges like?

The wall went right round West Berlin, not just through the city. So there was a wall between West Berlin and the rural area surrounding it. Also between Berlin and Potsdam, Arneb went so far west he's in the old East. See here.

That makes more sense, cheers!

ETA - I wonder why I didn't know that. Never thought about it, I suppose.

20 years ago, an Austrian pop singer of some renown, Falco, was killed in a car accident which he caused DUI of alcohol and cocaine. I remember him and his crazy, witty, funny and provocative songs from my youth in the eighties (altohough I didn't care for any of it then).

Ten years ago, launch of the Europeans science module for th ISS, Columbus, aboard Space Shuttle Columbia.


I was struggling to get a grip on my role at the Aachen hopital; Khruschevs Other Shoe was a reluctant American; our boss was with Big Evil before it even became REALLY evil. We had teri tait, troubleagain, and even the Michikids still on board. In Merka, the junior Senator from Illinois gave Crown Princess Hillary a good run for her money, While in Germany, a young Chancellor struggled to stave off the effects of the looming financial crisis.

And oh, Shuttles were still flying.

Those were the days...

Wow, a lot has happened in the last decade.

February 8th, 1587 - execution of Mary Queen of Scots by Miranda Richardson.

Nw kybord pls!

I always thought it was Cate Blanchett, but I know fuck about British history, to be honest.

1865, publication of „Versuche über Pflanzenhybride“ (Exoeriments on Plant Hybrids), by one Gregor Mendel. Nobody thought much of it then, but it's on Wikipedia so it must be important.

February 13th, 1462 - the little known, and even less understood, Treaty of Westminster, between English King Edward IV and John MacDonald, Lord (or in Gaelic, King) of the Isles.

February 13, 1945 - the bombing of Dresden begins at 9:00 p. m.. During two days, around 25,000 people, most of them civilians are killed, and one of Germany's most beautiful cities is reduced to rubble.

Next to the two atomic bombs dropped on Japan, this is probably the most controversial bombing of WWII, with the "they had it coming" people on one side clamouring as loudly as the "this was the worst of all Allied war crimes" lot on the other. That our very own neo-nazi scene gleefully blusters around the latter camp makes everything even worse.

The official commemoration in the city, supported by thousands of citizens, will be a daisy chain of candle-holding people around the perimeter of the old city, and nothing else. Which is probably the best you can do.

I'm firmly in the outrageous war crime camp for that one, although from what you say it sounds like I won't enjoy ALL of the company I keep there.

Ah, and of course. February 13th, 1692 - Perfidious Albion murders 38 MacDonald clansmen, and a greater number of men, women and children die in the snow either while fleeing or because their homes had been burned down. An ancestor of mine, at the time an old woman, successfully escaped.

February 15th, 1942 - the end of the Battle of Singapore, resulting in the capture of around 80,000 British, Australian and Indian troops.

Oh, and happy 53rd birthday to the marvellous Canadian flag which replaced this fucking awful thing on this date in 1965.

Oh, and not to forget (Son the Elder alerted me to this; school has its uses, apparently):

Happy 454th, Galileo Galilei!

17 February, 2008: Kosovo becomes an independent state form Serbia. Its area is between Delaware and Connecticut (10k sqkm), its population about equal to West Virginia or Nebraska (1.9 million). Happy tenth!

Also, today would have been the 89th birthday of my god-father. The family&friends gathered at his grave and met for soup, sandwiches, coffee and cake later.

Yah Kosovo!

Boo Arneb’s godfather. That sucks.