Unrelated links

[franceslievens]

With me working again and LiveJournal being down I didn't have time or the possibility to post. To fill the void, here are some fun, interesting and completely unrelated links I picked up on my newsfeed:

• Not so fun: Germany asks for a Europe-wide swastika ban. I find this very strange. A swastika is a heathen symbol for the sun and was perverted by national socialism. Why should we give in to this? Let it be a symbol for the sun again.
  Unless, of course, they're simply talking about the nazi depiction of the symbol, as viewed on Prince Harry's uniform. But then again I ask: What good does a ban do?
  
  
• Darth Tater (via Boing Boing)
  
  
• I'm not so uncool for carrying around a notebook and owning only a desktop computer. Jeremy Wagstaff says: "Ever thought of ditching your laptop, personal digital assistant or smart-phone for a pen and paper? [...] There's a practical limit to how many digital devices you can carry around." (via Moleskinerie and Boing Boing)
  
  
• Free ebooks! from University of California Press (via Bitch. Ph.D.)
  
  
• Very lovely journal, although it's a bit too classic for me: It's in need of an ink pot and a goose feather pen... (via Mark Bernstein)
  
  
• No-one's gonna steal pizza! (via tingilinde)

Comments

[kashmanik.livejournal.com]

A swastika ban is ridiculous; what next? Banning History students from learning about Hitler? The swastika, regardless of how people view it, is nevertheless an important part of our history. Banning the image of it would lead to banning historical photographs of it also, wouldn't it? So school textbooks would no longer have pictures of Hitler, other leading Nazis, or Nazi soldiers?

Seems kind of pointless.

[frances-lievens.livejournal.com]

I don't think the ban would cover educational uses of the swastika, so it would be possible to still use it in textbooks, but for instance not on the cover of those textbooks... In Germany certain bits of nazi-imagery are actually forbidden, like bringing the Hitler-greeting. I'm not sure if the use of swastikas is already forbidden over there.

Germany has a big feeling of guilt over the second WW. Only recently they dare to make films about it, like Der Untergang (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0363163/), about the last days of Hitler, and Napola (http://www.film.de/moviespecials.php/id/2273/), about Hitler's elite schools where boys and girls were raised the become "Übermensche". (second links in German -- I'll look for an English link...)
Both films are considered very controversial because Germans aren't portrayed as the "bad guys", but as victims of their own history.

(okay I got that last phrase from my newspaper that had a piece on Napola Friday)

[frances-lievens.livejournal.com]

An English summary of Napola (http://www.german-cinema.de/archive/film_view.php?film_id=1061).