Friday Open Thread

by afew Fri Feb 24th, 2012 at 12:37:50 PM EST

Open for talk

Friday Open Thread | 59 comments (59 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0)

Here goes.

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Fri Feb 24th, 2012 at 12:38:25 PM EST

Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0)

Wie goes it you?

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin

by Crazy Horse on Fri Feb 24th, 2012 at 12:41:18 PM EST
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Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0)

OK. (Anyone would think you were speaking German).

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Fri Feb 24th, 2012 at 12:46:53 PM EST
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Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0)

No, Lübke-Englisch.

by Katrin on Fri Feb 24th, 2012 at 01:22:17 PM EST
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Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0)

I thought he was "washed with all waters." And "painted not the devil on the wall."

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin

by Crazy Horse on Fri Feb 24th, 2012 at 01:24:36 PM EST
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Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0)

Impossible is nothing.

by Katrin on Fri Feb 24th, 2012 at 01:35:58 PM EST
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Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0)

There you don't stick in.

by IM on Fri Feb 24th, 2012 at 01:38:39 PM EST
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Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0)

well true

by Katrin on Fri Feb 24th, 2012 at 01:45:10 PM EST
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Re: Friday Open Thread (4.00 / 2)

One of the wondrous joys of learning a new language at my advanced childish age, has been the hundreds of phrases which make no sense in english, directly translated.

It's so funny (and so revealing of the culture), and i love it. Now... if i could only remember most of them.

If all the german speakers who lurk on this blog, and there must be millions, we could write a wonderfully funny book, and use the proceeds to fund the site and take control of Commerzbank.

But i haven't been bike riding in days, so i have too much wood in front of the hut.

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin

by Crazy Horse on Fri Feb 24th, 2012 at 02:50:32 PM EST
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Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0)

Back and forth between English and German is a central part of Otto Walkees's humour.

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Fri Feb 24th, 2012 at 02:57:30 PM EST
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Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 1)

One of my favourites in in Colonel Blimp. Theo has very limited knowledge of English, at this point in the movie. He understands Clive's "cuckoo" because the word is almost the same as in English, but gets the meaning completely wrong. It's at 1:40 below

by gk (g k quattro due due sette "at" gmail.com) on Fri Feb 24th, 2012 at 03:06:32 PM EST
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Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0)

So now, must i Otto Walkees googlieren?

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin

by Crazy Horse on Fri Feb 24th, 2012 at 04:08:33 PM EST
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Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0)

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Fri Feb 24th, 2012 at 04:18:27 PM EST
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Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0)

He could say a lot if the day is long.

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin

by Crazy Horse on Fri Feb 24th, 2012 at 05:09:37 PM EST
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Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0)

You mean you've got bread on the plank?

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Fri Feb 24th, 2012 at 02:57:40 PM EST
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Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0)

Only in the manly sense, i'm not a warm showerer.

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin

by Crazy Horse on Fri Feb 24th, 2012 at 04:04:55 PM EST
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Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0)

Impossible is not French (lol)

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Fri Feb 24th, 2012 at 02:01:06 PM EST
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Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0)

Lübke English - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lübke English is named after a President of Germany of the Sixties, Heinrich Lübke, whose English language skills suffered from the aforementioned flaws

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Fri Feb 24th, 2012 at 02:01:23 PM EST
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Re: Friday Open Thread (4.00 / 3)

But if you believe they are real Lübke quotes, you are on the woodway. ;) In reality the quotes were invented by some Spiegel editors and then ascribed to Lübke. The point is, everyone believed it. No smoke without fire, and so on. Lübke used to do the weirdest things, after all. Later his dementia became obvious, and it became clear that it had already started while he was in office.

by Katrin on Fri Feb 24th, 2012 at 02:11:06 PM EST
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Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 1)

Nevertheless, the EN Wikipedia page on Lübke contains a strange paragraph:

Heinrich Lübke - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Meanwhile the "Bundespraesidialamt" corrected the error of an acceptable biography for the Higher Service in the Federal Republic, according the Grundgesetz, Art 139 Abs 1, Basic Law and prooved the truth of the vain censored accusation documents/notifications/CIA documents Luebke signing KZ Barrack building plans at Neu-Strassfurt 16 Sep 1944. KZ liberated by the UNWCC/US/Red Army.

Couldn't be Lûbke's ghost setting the record "straight"?

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Fri Feb 24th, 2012 at 02:30:32 PM EST
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Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0)

Absolutely. Wonderful English, that paragraph. By the way, the accusations were false and there is now evidence for that: Lübke had made plans for a barack camp. It was a Stasi thing to make that plans for a concentration camp.

by Katrin on Fri Feb 24th, 2012 at 02:41:36 PM EST
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Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0)

The German Wikipedia claims that those claims were only partially false.

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Fri Feb 24th, 2012 at 02:52:12 PM EST
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Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0)

That accusation apparently was false. There was enough true stuff, though, but the Stasi didn't know that.

by Katrin on Fri Feb 24th, 2012 at 03:21:13 PM EST
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Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0)

Your source doesn't say that the accusation was false, nor that there was material unknown to the Stasi, to the contrary. It says that the document the Stasi used didn't mention that the facility in question was an outlying facility of a concentration camp, so they faked a cover for the document that did say so; and that after this became known in 1985, the West German public falsely believed that the entire document was false.

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Fri Feb 24th, 2012 at 03:32:58 PM EST
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Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0)

Okay. The documents were forged, but that doesn't prove that the accusations were false.

by Katrin on Fri Feb 24th, 2012 at 03:47:05 PM EST
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Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0)

No, the cover of the documents was forged, but the inside was not, and the second column in your source refers to experts confirming that his signature on the documents was genuine. And the first column also says that the KZ-Außenlager Neu-Staßfurt facility was just one of many for which this company made plans while Lübke was its deputy leader.

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Fri Feb 24th, 2012 at 04:23:58 PM EST
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Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0)

The document itself did not refer to KZ's. That's why the word had to appear on the -forged--cover. So the "Barackenlager" could have had any purpose and there is no proof that Lübke knew what he had planned there. On the other hand nobody thought of asking him then if he had used slave labour of KZ inmates, which he had. We can conclude that Lübke was a swine and that it was right to pressure him to resign, only the actual reasons were wrong.

by Katrin on Fri Feb 24th, 2012 at 04:39:56 PM EST
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Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0)

Given that the Neu-Staßfurt facility was one of several as part of a project to move war production facilities out of sight, which was overseen by the company of which Lübke was deputy head, a lack of knowledge of the purpose is as unrealistic as Weizsäcker's lack of knowledge about Agent Orange.

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Fri Feb 24th, 2012 at 06:28:12 PM EST
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Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0)

The German Wikipedia also quotes the "Frau Tananarive" blooper which does not originate in Spiegel. Meanwhile, the claim that Spiegel made it up is credited to Hermann L. Gremliza, on whose German Wikipedia page I find the claim that he admitted to have been Günther Walraff's ghostwriter for the book Die Aufmacher – the book on working undercover at Bild!?

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Fri Feb 24th, 2012 at 02:54:45 PM EST
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Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0)

"Frau Tananarive" fits the diagnosis: he suffered from dementia. Apperently he often forgot where he was and who he was talking to.

by Katrin on Fri Feb 24th, 2012 at 03:02:28 PM EST
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Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 1)

Here is another German politician who is famous for his English:

by Katrin on Fri Feb 24th, 2012 at 02:20:52 PM EST
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Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0)

Sarkozy with the Queen of England did well too. "Eet eez magnifical!" he said to her of the dining hall at Windsor.

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Fri Feb 24th, 2012 at 02:28:06 PM EST
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Re: Friday Open Thread (4.00 / 3)

It is a thing of wonder to imagine a german politician being mocked in germany for the poverty of their english. In the UK a politician is considered suspect if they can speak any foreign language, let alone do it well

keep to the Fen Causeway

by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Fri Feb 24th, 2012 at 02:48:45 PM EST
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Re: Friday Open Thread (4.00 / 2)

And here is the classic

by gk (g k quattro due due sette "at" gmail.com) on Fri Feb 24th, 2012 at 02:56:54 PM EST
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Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0)

And you, wie geht's?

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Fri Feb 24th, 2012 at 12:47:46 PM EST
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Re: Friday Open Thread (4.00 / 3)

Comme sea, comme saw,
i survive ok as of this moment, despite all.
at least it's back to very interesting work angles.

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin

by Crazy Horse on Fri Feb 24th, 2012 at 12:57:33 PM EST
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Interesting work angles (none / 1)

Having trouble with your back again? ;-)

You can't be me, I'm taken

by Sven Triloqvist on Fri Feb 24th, 2012 at 01:16:39 PM EST
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Re: Interesting work angles (none / 1)

No, but for sure not enough dancing.

And your comment about how grips get the spirit of a shoot or not, and begin to set the magic in place, or the just a job mood, was right on.

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin

by Crazy Horse on Fri Feb 24th, 2012 at 01:23:22 PM EST
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Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 1)

Zee best lungooege-a is Svedeesh, becoose-a yuoo cun trunslete-a it ell doon intu oone-a shurt phrese-a. Bork Bork Bork!

http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/jbc/home/chef.html

by asdf on Fri Feb 24th, 2012 at 02:56:05 PM EST
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Re: Friday Open Thread (4.00 / 4)

An hour of Bill Maher standup : CrazyStupidPolitics

"Got to give credit to Rick Santorum, when you can stand between a megalomanical serial adulterer and a robotic mormon and still come off as the creepy one...that takes some doing

keep to the Fen Causeway

by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Fri Feb 24th, 2012 at 01:16:11 PM EST

Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0)

Why is Santorum creepier? (I ask as someone who failed to keep track of the primary race & has only vague memories of Santorum as a loudmouth during the Dubya era.)

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Fri Feb 24th, 2012 at 04:32:35 PM EST
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Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 1)

umm, let me count the ways. It's not one thing, it's just all those sleeveless jumpers as opposed to suits, absolutely every little bit of his more extreme than the vatican interpretation of catholicism, he's the Stepford candidate from the middle 50s. He just smells wrong

keep to the Fen Causeway

by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Fri Feb 24th, 2012 at 05:16:24 PM EST
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Re: Friday Open Thread (4.00 / 2)

he kept a miscarried foetus in a glass jar on the mantel piece. it was his child. he made his young children say "goodbye" to it.
he compares gay marriage to man on dog sex

etc.

by stevesim on Fri Feb 24th, 2012 at 06:01:10 PM EST
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Re: Friday Open Thread (4.00 / 2)

the BBC seems to be on big hiring drive, but I can't really tell if there is anything that could be interesting to Helen

by stevesim on Fri Feb 24th, 2012 at 01:56:10 PM EST

Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0)

got any ads I can chase ? As I said, apart from a diminishing part of BBCNews, they were totally outsourced the last time I looked.

keep to the Fen Causeway

by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Fri Feb 24th, 2012 at 02:05:57 PM EST
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Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0)

I saw a ton of ads on an IT web site, which I don't think is good for you, so I went to the BBC site, and saw they had a few more positions open, but not knowing your professional profile, I can't say which ones are good for you. I suggest you have a look-see yourself.

by stevesim on Fri Feb 24th, 2012 at 03:26:19 PM EST
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Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0)

I had a look on their site and only saw a couple. mostly NewMedia. I'm a bog standard customer support person at best, but my currency is well past its sell-by date.

soon as they start asking for specific technical skills I'm outta there

keep to the Fen Causeway

by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Fri Feb 24th, 2012 at 03:40:02 PM EST
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Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0)

hmm. there were some for producer, and journalists today.

by stevesim on Fri Feb 24th, 2012 at 03:49:22 PM EST
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Israel to change the name of its currency (none / 0)

From Ha'aretz

The State of Israel is only 64 years old, but it has had three different currencies - the lira, which replaced the Eretz Israel lira; then the old shekel; and then in 1985, the new shekel. Now, 26 years after that last change, the Bank of Israel is considering changing the name of the country's currency once again, in 2013, when it issues a new series of banknotes. The new currency will probably be called the Israeli shekel.
"You can't say that a 30-year-old currency is new," says a source at the Bank of Israel. "The intent is to convey stability, something the name 'new shekel' does not do. Issuing new banknotes, a significant change that happens only every 10-15 years, gives us a window of opportunity."

I propose that the Americans finally rename "New York" as simply "York". You can't say that a city that's been around for centuries in new.

by gk (g k quattro due due sette "at" gmail.com) on Fri Feb 24th, 2012 at 03:24:56 PM EST

Re: Israel to change the name of its currency (none / 0)

New Orleans, on the other hand...

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Fri Feb 24th, 2012 at 03:34:08 PM EST
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Re: Friday Open Thread (4.00 / 2)

Good news, people are so willing to pay for creation of culture!

Kickstarter Expects To Provide More Funding To The Arts Than NEA | TPM Idea Lab

NEW YORK -- Kickstarter is having an amazing year, even by the standards of other white hot Web startup companies, and more is yet to come.
One of the company's three co-founders, Yancey Strickler, said that Kickstarter is on track to distribue over $150 million dollars to its users' projects in 2012, or more than entire fiscal year 2012 budget for the National Endowment of the Arts (NEA), which was $146 million.
"It is probable Kickstarter will distribute more money this year than the NEA," said Stricker in an exclusive phone interview with TPM. "We view that number and our relationship to it in both a good and bad way."

A vote for PES is a vote for EPP! A vote for EPP is a vote for PES! Support the coalition, vote EPP-PES in 2009!

by A swedish kind of death on Fri Feb 24th, 2012 at 03:33:19 PM EST

Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 1)

I've been waiting for KS to go international. Currently you can only use it if you have US citizenship, or some reasonable facsimile of same.

Geek out commercial projects tend to do better than pure arts projects - which is about what you'd expect, given the audience. So I'm not sure it's a better model for culture overall.

But they are getting stuff done and funding a lot of work that wouldn't be funded otherwise. And that has to be good.

by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Fri Feb 24th, 2012 at 03:53:18 PM EST
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Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0)

Getting stuff done IS culture.

You can't be me, I'm taken

by Sven Triloqvist on Fri Feb 24th, 2012 at 05:38:20 PM EST
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Re: Friday Open Thread (4.00 / 2)

I think we will see more different models, and indeed Kickstarter does not replace NEA.

Just looking at webcomics (and it was the OOTS kickstarter drive which sought 57 000 USD to make re-prints of sold out comics and landed 1 250 000 USD that made me look around) models for webcomic donations are often in line with the tune of the individual webcomic. OOTS for example has never done donations as they appear to stress the author, so instead they sell comic books, and use Kickstarter to make sure they don't overprint.

Ultimately I think the variation is a good thing, it makes it harder for middle-men - and there will always be middle-men, Kickstarter for example takes 5% of succesfull drives - to control the marketplace and extract rent.

A vote for PES is a vote for EPP! A vote for EPP is a vote for PES! Support the coalition, vote EPP-PES in 2009!

by A swedish kind of death on Sat Feb 25th, 2012 at 04:35:09 AM EST
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Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0)

There are various models emerging already. Equal Dreams, for instance, has built a very stable and powerful financial engine which could 'manage' many other types of sharing.

I don't see 5% as a middleman fee: compared to any other method of raising capital. It is admin as a service. In fact we need a new name for the role of 'middleman' in these networked 'businesses'. Custodian, Facilitator, Strange Attractor, Servicer? None of these hit the spot. Any ideas?

You can't be me, I'm taken

by Sven Triloqvist on Sat Feb 25th, 2012 at 05:27:52 AM EST
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Re: Friday Open Thread (4.00 / 2)

What a coincidence! I'd never heard of Kickstarter until this morning on Facebook where I noticed that a friend was seeking funds to finance her participation in some events at SXSW in Austin in order to get her film production going. I joined and then kicked in a little donation.

'tis strange I should be old and neither wise nor valiant. From "The Maid's Tragedy" by Beaumont & Fletcher

by Wife of Bath (kareninaustin at g mail dot com) on Fri Feb 24th, 2012 at 04:37:06 PM EST
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Re: Friday Open Thread (4.00 / 3)

No coincidence. that's how it worksxsw.

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin

by Crazy Horse on Fri Feb 24th, 2012 at 04:47:28 PM EST
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Re: Friday Open Thread (4.00 / 3)

Starry sky without a moon – I grabbed my binocular and went watching comet C/2009 P1 (Garradd). A nice little one, its head was right next to a 8.45-magnitude star, at first I thought I see double.

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Fri Feb 24th, 2012 at 06:23:33 PM EST

Re: Friday Open Thread (4.00 / 3)

Nice show with moon, Venus, and Jupiter tonight.

by asdf on Fri Feb 24th, 2012 at 10:14:24 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Friday Open Thread | 59 comments (59 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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