happy blogoversary to us: the edge of seventeen

As PfRC turns seventeen years old we wanted to once again extend our gratitude to our readership and to the members of the wider blogosphere (many of those fellow caretakers are listed under our Smøgåsblog) and new ones discovered for their serendipity, sustainment and inspiration that keeps the internet curious, entertaining, engrossing and engaging. Since hitting our last milestone, here’s a round-up of some of our most popular posts with a few honourable mentions from the past year. Then it’s birthdays all the way down: 

10: Reviving the old racist names of US sports franchises

9: An assortment of premium links

 

8: A remembrance of the past year’s departed

7: Carsinisation

 6: Governance per tweet 

 

5: musical backmasking on LinkedIn

 4: Howard Hughes’ streaming service 

3. A visit to the Tauber valley 

 2: A 1954 encounter with a meteorite 

1: US presidential regnal numbers 

synchronoptica

one year ago: blogoversaries all the way down, the People’s Crusade, the Berlin Crisis of 1961, a defector to North Korea, quibbling over possessive apostrophes plus assorted links worth the revisit

thirteen years ago: WWII week: submarine warfare, the single currency and quantitative easing plus the Lost Autobahn

fourteen years ago: more rainy summer plus quelling unrest and violence

fifteen years ago: a trip to Leipzig 

seventeen years ago: a trip to the Bretagne 

synchronoptica

one year ago: liquid water discovered on Mars (with synchronopticæ) plus a maximal truth-seeking AI

thirteen years ago: WWII week: Pennemünde plus a chance lilly in a glass   

seentour (12. 648)

H found a habour renting out sports boats for the day in Eldenberg, being on of themain tributaries and outflows for the system of glacial lakes that forms the landscape of the Mecklinburgerisch Seenplatte.

Maneuvering out of the marina, we took a turn in Lake Müritz and saw the palace, a fourteenth century knight’s manor redesigned most recently as a neorenaissance hotel,and boardwalk at Klink on the opposite shore from the campsite. Canals connect the major lakes and also saw Kölpinsee and Fleesensee.

We moored at the little fishing village of Damerow and had lunch at a place specialising in smoked local catch.

H had eel (Aal) but I am still too traumatised by Kurt Vonnegut’s passage in The Tin Drum to try though it did look good. There was a gathered regiment of swans to salute upon returning from a day on the lakes and our little dog was quite the trouper.

 

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links to revisit (with synchronopticæ) plus lethonomia 

thirteen years ago: WWII week: Berlin

fourteen years ago: counterfeit experiences 

sixteen years ago: diplomas mills  

naturnah (12. 647)

After having explored just a taste of the numerous trails extending from the campgrounds—propose-planned and among the original weekend retreats we learned and organised by outdoors enthusiasts in the 1930s in earnest once vacation time became a statutory right and with the influx of newcomers to industrial zones, evolving over the decades but still faithful to its charter, we walked along the beach promenade back to Waren.

At first along the chaussee, we passed behind rows of stately villas that buffered the trail from the lake front, since rewilded and access restored to the public.

For the 1936 Berlin Olympics, Waren constructed this English garden as sort of an early Public Viewing arena at a time when watch parties were not so common.

The way from the beach to the marina and habour was a bit more manicured with a multistorey new development with lawns tended by mowing robots but at least it remained dog-friendly with a stick lending library. We explored the city some more and prepared for the next day’s adventures.

synchronoptica

one year ago: the Philadelphia experiment (with synchronopticæ)

thirteen years ago: WWII week: Norway

fourteen years ago: creeping portmanteaux and other unwelcome Americanisms 

fifteen years ago: plugging leaks  

malchow (12.646)

The island settlement central to Slavic paganism up until the twelfth century and the forced conversions of the Wendish and Polabian crusades—hence the dominant Cistercian cloister facing from the mainland (once a retreat for noble women, the former abbey and nunnery is now an organ museum—see also), Malchow straddles the Müritz and the Plauer See with Altstadt connected to a spit of land by a unique draw bridge that swings out hourly to accommodate boat and canoe traffic.

We took a nice stroll through the town, and like other urban areas here, bicycles and pedestrians are very much privileged over cars.

During World War II, it was the location of a dynamite factory of Alfred Nobel Company (the major industry beforehand was towel making) and forced labour was drawn from the nearby concentration camp at Ravensbrück

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links worth revisiting (with synchronopticæ) plus the invention of hip-hop

twelve years ago: the Prelinger map collection, more flea market finds plus introducing tolls to German roads

thirteen years ago: tending orchids, parishes of trees plus the EU is not the United States of Europe

fourteen years ago: a hotel room in a drainage tube plus the devolution of democracy

fifteen years ago: wildfires in Russia plus geocaching with vintage photos

waren (müritz) (12. 645)

Arriving in the town—not so ancient as its first documented mention suggests by geographer Ptolemy as Virunium, Slavic for the place of crows, the lake‘s name comes from the Wendish meaning German sea, as it was leveled and rebuilt during a succession of wars and revolutions and takes its present form preserving some of the Altstadt after public outcry during DDR times when the city was partially demolished as part of a modernisation effort as one of the four Soviet ballistic theatre nuclear depots in East Germany, Темп-С short range missiles banned under treaties that outlawed intermediate range warheads.

The successful protest to conserve a part of the historic character of Waren (as framed from the marina between the churches of Saint George and Mary)—prior to reunification—was considered a landmark achievement and had lasting repercussions into the future with other preservation and reconstruction programmes, the city’s uneasy balancing act between industry and nature eventually resolved and the place restored as a wellness resort (Kurort) and gateway to the lake district (Mecklenburgerisch Seenplatte). We found a nice pitch at the entrance of the national park in the forest on the shore of lake Müritz, named after the quarter Ecktannen on the outskirts of town.

synchronoptica

one year ago: social media platform formerly known as Twitter suing advertisers for leaving (with synchronopticæ), assorted links worth the revisit plus more isometric renderings

thirteen years ago: buying banking data, werewolf crossing plus bespoke luggage labels

fourteen years ago: a visit to Dresden 

fifteen years ago: corporate bail-outs 

sixteen years ago: agents of the apocalypse  

markkleeberger see (12. 644)

For the first leg of our return camping trip after many, many years to the Mecklinbergischer Seeplatte, we took another campsite on the Leipziger Neuseenland–this time in Auerhain on the southwest coast.

like the other lakes of this resort region, it is a flooded lignite mining operation and was developed for Leipzig‘s bid for 2012 Olympics–around the time that potential venues were realising the onus of hosting the games which had become more of a showcase and prestige project for despots and authoritarians, ultimately awarded to London. Built to specifications as a whitewater and slalom standards, like Germany‘s first for the 1972 Games, the facility now boasts a marina for canoeing enthusiasts as well as professional training for the national team with attendant obstacle course as well as standing waves for surfing practise.

synchronoptica

one year ago: more on teletext pages (with synchropoticæ) plus US vice presidents’ day

twelve years ago: August holidays and observances

fifteen years ago: visa requirements for travel 

sixteen years ago: more flea-market finds