On this day in history...

[Arneb]

60 years ago yesterday, Adolf Eichmann was sentenced to death by an Isreali court. He had been kidnapped from his hiding place in Argentina in spectacular fashion. he had made the ususal plea that he was just a midlevel functionary organizing a war operation according to the orders given to him - which prompted hannah Arendt to coin her apercu of the "banality of evil".

I am not a supporter of the death penalty, but even I agree that if it was ever justified, it was certainly justified for him.

[Lianachan]

December 23rd, 2011. For the first time, your correspondent visits the 1730 gravestone of Donald Fraser in Boleskine cemetery on the southern bank of Loch Ness, immediately adjacent to the old military (Wade’s) road. It carries tangible scars of the ‘45 uprising - 3 musketball holes created in the weeks after the Battle of a Culloden. A party of British Army soldiers was escorting a supply wagon along the road, heading from Inverness to Fort Augustus, when they fired into a local funeral that was taking place in the cemetery. These were dark times in the Highlands, with genocide and cultural cleansing being enthusiastically carried out by the United Kingdom of which we were apparently subjects, then and now. The genocide has thankfully stopped, but cultural cleansing and the denigration of the Gaelic language and culture continues.




Oh, and.....

I am not a supporter of the death penalty, but even I agree that if it was ever justified, it was certainly justified for him.

100% agreement with this.

[Мастер]

On December 25, 1991, the Soviet Union turned off the lights for the last time.

[Arneb]

100 years ago today, first application of Insulin in a human. You know, sometimes I DO take pride in the achievements of my profession.
Learn all about it:

Watch on youtube.com

[Мастер]

On this day, 27th January, in the year 98, Trajan got a new job.

[Lianachan]

January 30th, 1972 - "Bloody Sunday" in Northern Ireland.

50th anniversary today, and still no closer to justice.

[Arneb]

70 years ago, death of King George VI and ascension to the throne of his daughter Elizabeth.

We are a Scoxit-leaning board here, but you have to give it to her: She has largely been making the best of an absolutely impossible shit-job ever since. Nice office space though.

[Lianachan]

The monarchy and government are different institutions of course, and some Scots would like to keep the monarchy after independence.

Not me though. The modern world has no need or place for born to rule, inbred pony fuckers. This milestone simply means she’s managed to stay alive for 70 years after getting her posh hat, she’s done nothing else. The monarchy should end with her.

[Arneb]

The hats! I forgot the hats!

I'm always saying that the actual people that make up the nobility are the best argument for democracy, 'cause imagine this degenerate pack actually had a say in our affairs. But I'll stick with my personal respect for this particular specimen.

[g-one]

Having something like the orange man next door can make one much more forgiving.
"we love our Queen, God s-i-i-ves" (no future)

[Richard A]

And there's also the point that ran the Australian republican movement into the sand: what should replace her? A President, presumably, but should they have serious political power, as in France, or be more of a figurehead, as in Germany? And how should they be appointed?

Interestingly, the one time England tried having a republic, it didn't go so well. Cromwell soon became King in all but name - Lord Protector for life and when he died, his successor was ... his son. Who proved a waste of space, so Parliament got rid of him and ... invited the exiled son of the executed Charles I to restore the monarchy. And I'm with Arneb - I do like the Queen. We'll see what happens when she goes, but William & Kate are probably popular enough to help Charles keep the ship afloat.

Lianachan & Heid, the Scots that want independence but want to keep the monarchy after it - what are their reasons?

[Arneb]

Having something like the orange man next door can make one much more forgiving.
"we love our Queen, God s-i-i-ves" (no future)

There is that, but thrn again, she didn't keep BoJo from happening either.

[g-one]

Lianachan & Heid, the Scots that want independence but want to keep the monarchy after it - what are their reasons?

If tubeswell were lurking, I'd like to hear the NZ perspective on that as well.

[Arneb]

60 years ago today, the city of Hamburg was hit by a severe storm tide, breaking levees over long stretches and flooding more than 25 % of the city's area. It came at night, and warnings either weren't issued to begin with or went unheard. 360 people died that night, especially in poorer neighbourhoods where makeshift dwellings (still makeshift 16 years after the War) had no chance of holding our against the advancing, ice-cold water.

Rescue operations were co-ordinated by a quick-thinking and decisive young Senator for the Interior, one Helmut Schmidt, who (unconstitutionally, as it were) recruited the newly-mindted Bundeswehr and their equipment to the recue. Let's just say that overstepping his comeptencies that morning didn't exactly hinder his career.

For those interested, here is a photo collection from that event.

[Мастер]

2065 years ago, Julius Caesar had a bad day at the senate.

[Heid the Ba]

For those interested, here is a photo collection from that event.

Photo 25 shows what look to me like ex-Wehrmacht gulaschkanonen.

[Arneb]

They might well be. After the war, throwing away anything still useful was unthinkable.

[Heid the Ba]

Gulaschkanonen should have been capitalised, shouldn’t it?

[Мастер]

Gulaschkanonen should have been capitalised, shouldn’t it?

I was always taught that nouns should be capitalised. But based on recent (today) experience from native German speakers, I would say this practice is not always respected.

Well it was a Swiss German person. Maybe that makes a difference.

[Richard A]

Apparently there are genuine grammatical differences between Hochdeutsch and Swiss German. I've always gone with: any noun in German is capitalised.

One charming aspect of Swiss German is putting "mit'n'and" at the end of a phrase to emphasise the plural you - a bit like the US Southern "y'all".

[Arneb]

There have been numerous attempts, both on a literary and on an official level, to introduce Kleischreibung, sorry, kleinschreibung into German. They have all had little effect, but (to complement Mactep's observation, the kleinschreibung movement was quite lively in Switzerland, IIRC. Still, you can always count on being right if you capitalize each, any, and every noun.

Personally I think the capitalization is useful and should definitley be kept. German has long words, long sentences with widely spaced grammatical elements (think subject-predicate-object? Think again!), and long paragraphs. the capitalization helps structure what would otherwise be walls of long-worded text. If you must write words like wiedervereinigen and wiedervereinigung, it's nice to announce that the second one is a noun right up front by writing Wiedervereinigung.

[Мастер]

Apparently there are genuine grammatical differences between Hochdeutsch and Swiss German. I've always gone with: any noun in German is capitalised.

One charming aspect of Swiss German is putting "mit'n'and" at the end of a phrase to emphasise the plural you - a bit like the US Southern "y'all".

In some cantons, "wohin kommst du?" and "woher gehst du?"

[g-one]

Here the mennonites speak Plautdietch. I don't, but my dad is fluent though in school they were taught Hochdeutsch.
The Hutterites apparently speak an extinct Tyrolean dialect. (there is a colony a couple miles away)

[Richard A]

On the other hand, one of the many eccentricities of English is to capitalise any and every adjective of a place name. A quick look on Google Translate tells me the other languages of the British Isles do likewise, but not many do once you hit mainland Europe. Of course, Chinese solves the problem by not having upper-case or lower-case script at all.

[Arneb]

60 years ago yesterday, West Germany won a men's football game, 3 - 1. Against Enlgand, at Wembley. Sports-wise, it was a momentous event. With it's young, elegant, agile young players, Netzer, Höneß, Beckenbauer, Breitner, and the very free interpretation of the Libero position, the Nationalmannschaft scored the first away victory against England, at the site of their World Championship defeat 6 years earlier - against an team built around England's aging '66 heroes.

After a goalless draw in the 2nd leg at Berlin Olympiastadion (where the English kicked averything that moved in frustration) Germany went on to reach the Finals round in Belgium, and won eht European Championship for the first time, easily, elegantly, seemingly effortlessly. One of our iconic football phrases came from a commentary about that match, Netzer kam aus der Tiefe des Raumes, Netzer came from the depth of space (not Space, just the rear space on the football pitch, from which Netzer started breathtaking attack runs).

If you have an hour and a half in your life to watch it's on YouTube. It's actually fun to watch even nowadays.