On this day in history...

[Мастер]

Also of significance:

1974, a certain non-mustachioed мудак resigns as President of the United States of America
1999, another non-mustachioed мудак becomes Prime Minister of the Russian Federation

Большой мудак и маленький мудак

Question is, which is which?

Well I was going to go one way, but people from, let’s say, Cambodia, may disagree.

[Richard A]

Indeed they might.

However, I saw an interesting point made about the earlier of the two by a US commentator on CGTN a few nights ago. The context was the various indictments of yet another non-moustachioed мудак. They remarked that Gerald Ford's blanket ex-ante pardoning of the earlier мудак paved the way for the politicisation of the legal cases against the later (US) one. Had earlier мудак not been pardoned, he would likely have been indicted, very probably convicted and the way dealing with his future successor would have been a lot simpler. Possibly true at that. But then we wouldn't have had the fun now of commenting that the recent one is the first ex-President to face criminal charges.

[Arneb]

Slow day in world history, so a bit of light entertainment: ABBA's Dancing Queen became the no. 1 hit in the USian billboard charges 47 years ago today. So there.

Watch on youtube.com

[Мастер]

On this day in 1945, the Pacific war ended. Sort of.

[Richard A]

Sort of as in some Japanese soldiers continued to fight on in the jungles for decades afterwards? Or as in the fact that the Japan have never fully recognised, as Germany has, its culpability for its actions?

[Мастер]

Sort of as in some Japanese soldiers continued to fight on in the jungles for decades afterwards? Or as in the fact that the Japan have never fully recognised, as Germany has, its culpability for its actions?

Whichever you prefer

[Arneb]

Happy birthday, Україна (32)

[Мастер]

Happy birthday, Україна (32)

Маргарита saw the ambassador yesterday, but didn't get to talk to her. I've met her a few times briefly.

In any event, people who are used to German language might find it a bit weird that in Russian, there are "umlauts" over the E sometimes, Ё. As Arneb has pointed out, in Ukrainian, they have them over I as well

[Richard A]

Interesting, when I learned Russian, many years ago, we were taught that e and ë were different letters. But then that in informal Russian, the umlaut could sometimes be dispensed with. Ï, as far as I know, only appears in Ukrainian - a reminder that different Cyrillic languages have different letters. Sometimes because ... they just do, just as w and k don't exist in Spanish. And sometimes to accommodate the fact that the Cyrillic alphabet was imposed on languages it wasn't designed for (e.g. Kazakh) in the same way that the Latin alphabet was imposed on, say, Vietnamese.

Trivia fact: Mongolian is written in Mongolian script in China but not in Mongolia.

[Arneb]

It might be that the dots over the i in Ukrainian aren't an Umlaut but a trema - to signify that the a and i are not drawn together to form a diphthong but to be spoken as two distict vowels.

[Мастер]

we were taught that e and ë were different letters

They are. ë is more closely related to "o" than to "e".

But then that in informal Russian, the umlaut could sometimes be dispensed with.

It is often omitted, but since everyone is supposed to know what the words are, you're supposed to be able to figure out when it's an "e" and when it's an "ë" - I can often, but not always.

Ï, as far as I know, only appears in Ukrainian - a reminder that different Cyrillic languages have different letters.

I think there's a fairly close correspondence between some of the Russian vowels and the Ukrainian vowels, but not all. But the thing to keep in mind, after Comrade Ulyanov came to power, there was a reform in Russian spelling. When I was in St. Peter and Paul's looking at some of the tombs, I noticed the inscriptions often had letters that don't exist in modern Russian.

"Putin" is written three different ways in Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian

Trivia fact: Mongolian is written in Mongolian script in China but not in Mongolia.

Heh, you can even see it on the Chinese bank notes

[Richard A]

I think there's a fairly close correspondence between some of the Russian vowels and the Ukrainian vowels, but not all. But the thing to keep in mind, after Comrade Ulyanov came to power, there was a reform in Russian spelling. When I was in St. Peter and Paul's looking at some of the tombs, I noticed the inscriptions often had letters that don't exist in modern Russian.

I knew that the practice of putting ъ after final consonants went with Comrade Ulyanov, but I didn't know there were letters that no longer exist.

Heh, you can even see it on the Chinese bank notes

Yes indeed. If ever I run a quiz night, one of the questions will be: which languages appear on Chinese bank notes?

[Мастер]

I have edited your post to deal with your ruthless assault against the norms of attribution.

[Arneb]

100 years ago today, Interpol was founded.

Undoubtdly an organisation of great merit, it has a very dark spot in its record. The Viennese Chief of Police was President of Interpol by statute, so starting with the annexation of Austria, Interpol was usurped by the German Nazi regime, which used its institutions of information exchange and international warrants as a means to exert pressure and extend political persecution to beyond the German borders. Famous Nazi bigwigs like Reinhard Heydrich (famously murdered in Prague in 1942) and Ernst Kaltenbrunner (executed after the Nuremberg trials) became Interpol Presidents and put its resources to bad, very bad use.

[Richard A]

I have edited your post to deal with your ruthless assault against the norms of attribution.

One of these days, I will work out how to quote selected bits of a previous post rather than the whole thing. That is still a mystery to me - so thanks for the editing in the meantime!

[Richard A]

100 years ago today, Interpol was founded.

Undoubtdly an organisation of great merit, it has a very dark spot in its record. The Viennese Chief of Police was President of Interpol by statute, so starting with the annexation of Austria, Interpol was usurped by the German Nazi regime, which used its institutions of information exchange and international warrants as a means to exert pressure and extend political persecution to beyond the German borders. Famous Nazi bigwigs like Reinhard Heydrich (famously murdered in Prague in 1942) and Ernst Kaltenbrunner (executed after the Nuremberg trials) became Interpol Presidents and put its resources to bad, very bad use.

Good to know that Russia chairing the UN Security Council following its invasion of Ukraine has precedent!

Things have now, happily, moved on: a number of its staff, present and (more recently) past contributed to the conference I've just been at. But the dark spot during the 1930s and '40s does underline the danger of a particular state chairing an international body by definition.

[Мастер]

On this day, September 17, in 1939, Poland attacked the Soviet Union, only sixteen days after it attacked Germany.

[Heid the Ba]

Them Polacks got no sense.

[Arneb]

Happy 80th, Lech Wałęsa. Your Polish people, and we in Europe, owe you a lot.

[Мастер]

Happy 32nd, to Masha, yesterday (September 28th).

Probably no one here cares about Masha. But I do.

[Arneb]

I do if you do. Who is the Masha you congratulate?

[Мастер]

I do if you do. Who is the Masha you congratulate?

Going private.

[Мастер]

After midnight here , so September 30.

On this date in 1938, Czechoslovakia bowed to the inevitable (which is sometimes known as “the Munich betrayal”), and allowed the Sudetenland to be annexed by Germany.

Thus beginning the chain of events that led more than 25 years later to the birth of an IRU member much, much farther to the east.

[Heid the Ba]

Not all bad things are completely bad.

[Мастер]

On October 4, 1993, after an extended showdown between the president and the parliament of the Russian federation (independent for about two years), the Russian "White House", where the parliament sat, was the target of a military assault.

The building has been repaired, but no longer houses the Russian parliament, who would most assuredly not challenge the president in any significant way these days.