skid, hook and roll (12. 653)

There are certain signifiers of general human etiquette like unshodding one’s shoes at home, not littering, wearing one’s safety belts—and returning shopping carts to their corral after use, rather than leaving a exit hazard for drivers and pedestrians. Most German grocery stores have a nominal Pfand, deposit to encourage this behaviour—though a few franchises rely on the honours’ system, initiated during the pandemic and a hold-over from COVID times to enforce some extra social-distancing and as a way to easily count and control the number of shoppers inside at any one time having dispatched with the coin or token slot (usually taking just a basket personally) and requiring a cart—and one local market still has not brought back needing a coin to unlock a cart and seems to be still functioning in a civilised way. We however were not aware, until seeing this clip via MetaFilter, that there were competitive leagues of buggy bowlers—see also—or in this case the portmanteau of cart plus archery and at least for trying to best a celebrity with one’s hidden talent—going for accuracy and style in landing it back its pen from a distance.

synchronoptica

one year ago: design one’s own Amsterdam (with synchronopticæ), AI or Die, license to serve plus assorted links to revisit

twelve years ago: a visit to Frankfurt 

thirteen years ago: a trustworthy typeface plus a precarious doomsday stone

fourteen years ago: sovereign debt crises plus Earth’s ring of antimatter

 

7x7 (12. 652)

tariff tango: Canada’s claymation response to Trump’s thirty-five percent levy on exports and other affronts 

modulator-demodulator: a tribute to AOL’s decision to discontinue its dial up service and how technologies gradually fade out rather than disappear overnight  

periphrasis: the search for the perfect English infinitive   

a sunday in the park with georges: the symbolism of class and segregation on display in Seurat’s Bathers at Asnières—see previously—via Damn Interesting  

koń jaki jest, każdy widzi: the Polish language’s first encyclopaedia was an eccentric compilation that didn’t have time for the manifestly obvious 

silicon doodles: a gallery of microchip art added by engineers for fun and whimsy—see also  

comprehensive internal review: Trump orders Smithsonian museums to highlight American exceptionalism

synchronoptica

one year ago: a gallery of images that look like AI but are not (with synchronopticæ) plus the proposed state of Absaroka

twelve years ago: ligature letters 

thirteen years ago: auspicious births, WWII week: D-Day, more Wikileaks extradition manoeuvrers plus plumbing and public conveniences 

fourteen years ago: a balance siphon coffee maker 

fifteen years ago: Lutherstädte 

you know i spoke to vladimir today—we had a wonderful conversation—and she said (12. 651)

Though ending without any tangible agreements as far as promoting peace for Ukraine after only a few hours, Russian president Vladimir Putin coming out the clear winner in terms of public relations insofar as being legitimised by another faded petrostate with nuclear arms and given a ride with Trump in his armoured limousine—America infamously not party to the International Criminal Court of the Hague and can host with impunity war criminals, like Benjamin Netanyahu, without fear of acting of their warrants at large and the first meeting on US soil since the George W Bush met with Putin in 2007 in Kennybunkport Maine and said he could see in the long-term Russia leader’s soul, the US president bucked the worst fears for now by conceding not to make further concessions to the admired aggressor which might have included a land-swap not of the Crimean peninsula of the former Russian colony of Alaska or mineral and fishing rights (all seemed to be on the table). The summit held on the Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson outside of Anchorage, turned out to be little more than a press-conference, with reporters unable to ask questions and Trump intimating after the fact that the responsibility had shifted to the state under siege to cede territories in order to stop the war, both Ukraine and European allies being sidelined during the entire process. Rather than making good on threats for more sanctions on Russia or countries that do business there or sabre-rattling over repositioning US nuclear submarines with “dead hand” orders for counterattack in case America was struck first, Trump afforded Russia an extra chance, airing tired old grievances about how the 2020 election was stolen from him by the campaign interference hoax (Russia, Russia, Russia—I always wonder if they say it in their heads like “Marsha, Marsha, Marsha”) which was validated by Putin’s agreement that the Ukrainian invasion only occurred under the Biden administration—untrue considering that the Crimea was occupied in 2014 and who could say what license a second Trump term would have been and we know all of the kompromat and grooming to be real and has Trump, incompetent businessman, felon and notable child-rapist, over a barrel.

happy blogoversary to us: the edge of seventeen (12. 650)

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 

seenlandschaft (12. 649)

Taking advantage of the forest’s shade for a hot, muggy day, we explored more of the trails along the shores of the Müritz—second only to Lake Constance (der Bodensee) in size and the largest body of water entirely within German borders.

The basin (Seenplatte) with several large bays and inlets kept to paths that did not extend past the tree line in order to preserve the relatively intact ecological history of Europe through the last glacial period, the Ice Age that ended about eleven thousand years ago, with primeval beech and pine woods but afforded observation platforms to look out on to the water.

The landscape that extends to Neustrelitz in the south east in made up of moraines, lowlands—including marshes and meadows—and sandur (Sander, from the Icelandic), the outwash of rocks pulverised to sand by the advance and retreat of glaciers that supports the dense forest, and contains about a hundred lesser lakes. The city of Müritz has two sizeable urban bodies of water and we walked through the spa disctrict (Kurviertel) through the Kurwald—an early realisation of the benefits of forest bathing—to take a look at the Feisneck- and Tiefwarensee.

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 (see also) 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 (see previously), 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