backlog: past two weekends

Time flies, and I'm a bit behind.
I will break this into two posts, one of weekends, and one of the rest.




1. This past weekend I was in Bonn for a bit, and went to an interesting Museum (Haus der Geschichte).

Upon entering the (free) museum, one sees the car (and train car) of the post-WWII German Chancellor, and a video about how he took it everywhere with him, including Moskau

From Germany 2012-2013

Here is the actual signed unconditional surrender document of Germany from WWII:

From Germany 2012-2013

Just to make sure everyone knew about it, the Allies dropped what I might call ''Truth Bombs'' on the public, in the form of missile shells filled with a long scroll of paper. Here's one such:

From Germany 2012-2013

Once the war was over, a large effort was organized, with typical German efficiency, to help people to find missing persons. They posted signs advising people how to proceed. Step 1: Don't just wander around from city to city!

From Germany 2012-2013

And then Stalin turned 70. Oh, wait, I missed some stuff in there. Post war, everything gets divided, and everyone fights over whether to force Germany to regress to a completely agrarian society or not. France and Russia implement programs for this, and the US and Britain did as well, although they changed their minds while France and Russia were flatting factories and telling people to go grow some corn or potatoes or something (when not cleaning up rubble). Russia actually moved entire factories (cut up the building, transported it, re-assembled it and its contents) eastward into well-established soviet bloc areas.

Right, so, the greatest ally of the East German people (heh) turned 70. Hurrah:

From Germany 2012-2013

And Soviet-era Germany would not be complete without a slew of squashed rebellions, from as early as '53 and onwards. A swarm of school children came up and babbled things in German to their teacher, mainly declaring that following is a Panzer:

From Germany 2012-2013

Now we come to my favorite part. JFK's handwritten notes. Yes, those. From that speech. 

From Germany 2012-2013

I would translate them to proper German and then English for you, but for those who know German, I think I'd ruin the fun of trying to figure out it. My favorite is probably ''DOICH-lont''.

Oh, and of course; I am a jelly donut:

From Germany 2012-2013

Anywhere in Germany that is not Berlin, one calls (plum) jelly filled donuts "Berliners''. See here. Berliners like to call them "Pfannkuchen'' (Pancakes) which is what everyone else calls pancakes, confusingly enough.

Wikipedia has a nice explanation:

There is a misconception that Kennedy made a risible error by saying Ich bin ein Berliner (emphasis added): the claim is made that Kennedy referred to himself not as a "citizen of Berlin", but as a "jelly donut" (US) or "jam doughnut" (UK), known in parts of Germany as a "Berliner".^[7][8] Kennedy should, supposedly, have said Ich bin Berliner to mean "I am a person from Berlin", and that adding the indefinite article ein to his statement implied he was a non-human Berliner, thus, "I am a jelly doughnut".^[9] However, the indefinite article ein is omitted when speaking of an individual's profession or residence but is necessary when speaking in a figurative sense as Kennedy did. Since the president was not literally from Berlin but only declaring his solidarity with its citizens, "Ich bin Berliner" would not have been appropriate.

After all that, more red menace and cold war commentary.  My cold-war-era Germany++ history is weak, so I'm not sure who this is:

From Germany 2012-2013

I'll end with the following cheery sign:

Chernobyl is everywhere.

From Germany 2012-2013

2. A week ago, I went to Berlin for the weekend.

I visited a neat park and a museum.


The neat park was made of land formerly used by trains, gone to seed.

E.g. tunnel and former (now covered) tracks making a path:

From Germany 2012-2013

It was full of (sometimes artfully strewn) old railway stuff. Here's a look in one of the buildings:

From Germany 2012-2013

With an artistic statement around the corner: 

Comparative (bigger, better, faster, stronger) is the beginning of every conflict

From Germany 2012-2013

Nearby was a sort of workshop area, and also a round train track-changey thing: 

From Germany 2012-2013

There was also random art strewn around:

From Germany 2012-2013

''Art is the nearest neighbor to wilderness''

From Germany 2012-2013

and an old steam locomotive:

From Germany 2012-2013

The museum (Computer Spiele Museum) was in East Berlin, on formerly-known-as-Stalin-Street (now...Karl Marx Alley, I think).  The street was rebuilt post-war as some kind of poster child for soviet up-and-coming cities. 

Walking to the museum, saw a lot of buildings (and signs explaining the buildings), such as this cinema, with a painted poster for the 'Iron Lady'. 

From Germany 2012-2013

The museum itself explored such deep questions as 'What do old computers do when we no longer need them?' (apparently, play games with each other):

From Germany 2012-2013

They had some neat old hardware there, including these remotes dating back to the 50s:

From Germany 2012-2013

I also had had no idea that Eliza dated back to 1966.  I knew it was present on Bulletin Board Systems, at least.

Here's some misc old hardware from the 70's:

From Germany 2012-2013

I think the museum's main attraction was its collection of arcade console games, which I played some of (e.g. Frogger). Most exhibits involved playing some games. Old consoles plugged into TVs with super mario 3, sonic, legend of zelda. Monkey island. There were also some things that they were trying to preserve, so they would only let people play them once a month or such, like the 'virtual reality' machine (looked like something out of tron-- on this page, listed as 3-D simulator). On the same page as I just linked to, you can look at the weirdest game -- the Pain Station. You have to be an adult to play, and have to specifically ask the staff to unlock the machine for you to play. It's a beefed up version of 'chicken'. Some people played while I was there, and gathered quite a crowd.  The website's description:

How much pain is a victory worth? The PainStation reveals the dark side of our all-too-human craving for games. The game is an adaptation of the classic "Pong". If the player misses a ball, he or she will be subjected to one of three physical penalties (heat, electric shock, whipping), depending on which symbol the ball hits. Instead of hitting the ball in order to attain the highest score, the player has to avoid missing the ball in order to avoid being penalised. Physical punishment is an integral part of the game. The player loses as soon as he or she removes his or her left hand from the related surface.

So, yeah...