Just a quick note to any readers who blog on the Blogger platform: I recently had to switch to the ‘Opera’ web browser since Firefox inexplicably stopped working and I refuse to use IE. For some reason Opera refuses to let me comment on Blogger blogs.
We hope to resume normal commenting at the earliest opportunity. Thank you.
I’ve just finished a book about the White Rose anti-Nazi group who distributed leaflets during the war and were executed by the Nazis as traitors. I have to say it’s moving stuff, young conscientious people willing to put it all on the line because it was the right thing to do while most buried their head in the sand. I feel like I should pop down to Munich one February 22nd to pay tribute. Next year will be the 65th anniversery of the first 3 executions - of Hans and Sophie Scholl and father of three, Christoph Probst.
One of the things I especially like about the group is that they didn’t just oppose the Nazi war crimes, but they also opposed their world view. They opposed the overly strong state. They opposed the view of man as a tool, a means to an end, and the state as an end instead of a means.
The strange thing about this particular text is the fact that it claims to be written by a couple of academics, and on the face of it seems well researched, (its the only book on the subject I’ve read so I’m not in a good position to judge) yet it isn’t footnoted.
I’ll finish with the final paragraph of the book:
“The impact of the White Rose cannot be measured in tyrants destroyed, regimes overthrown, justice restored. A scale with another dimension is needed, and then their significance is deeper; it goes even beyond the Third Reich, beyond Germany: if people like those who founded the White Rose can exist, believe as they believed, act as they acted, maybe it means that this weary corrupted, and extremely endangered species we belong to has the right to survive, and to keep on trying.”
from Annette Dumbach and Jud Newborn, Sophie Scholl and the White Rose, (Oxford: Oneworld, 2007)
Tonight’s the big release of the last of that series of books I usually prefer not to mention. I really don’t see the attraction of them. I mention this because my brother has it pre-ordered at a shop which is opening at midnight for the release. I think in such situations they only want people who are there to buy that particular item, not to browse, which is a terrible shame.
I think the Next sale starts at 5 am, so if the shop was to be open later one could go shopping for some clothes afterwards. I think that would be much better. I suppose you could buy the book at midnight, read it until 5 and then head to Next.
What really gets me though is the fact that people have been waiting outside shops all day ready for the release of a book which is going to be in plentiful supply. There are no expectations of a shortage. Small independent retailers have got copies of the previous books they can’t get rid of because the supermarkets flog the books dead cheap.
They’re just plain daft if you ask me.
I don’t appreciate Sir Liam Donaldson’s desperate grab for my organs. My organs are my own, they belong to me and nobody else. They most certainly are not a state resource to be distributed by some government bureaucrat who probably wouldn’t even spell my name correctly. If they did try to implement an opt-out organ donor system their computer network would undoubtedly crash as everybody tried to save their skins, and kidneys, and livers…
I’m sure the nominees for the Mercury Music Prize get worse each year. I’m not sure what I would want to be nominated instead though. The only decent record by a British act I can think of off the top of my head is Jarvis Cocker’s album. I’m sure there must be plenty of others that I just haven’t heard.
There’s been some changes at the Devils recently and as usual they’ve mostly been bad. I am not refering to signing Brent Sutter as their new head coach because I have no idea if he’ll be a good coach for them or not.
Losing Brian Rafalski to Detroit was a big blow. From when he started in the 99/00 season I had him marked down as a future Norris Trophy (best defenseman) winner. As yet that trophy has eluded him, but he’ll be playing with Chris Chelios and Niklas Lidstrom who have won it eight times between them. Scott Niedermayer’s Norris Trophy-winning season (03/04) was his last for New Jersey, leaving a hole in their defensive core that they haven’t been able to fill.
In the forward lines Scott Gomez has followed the money across the river to New York. Gomez won the Calder Trophy for rookie of the year in the 99/00 season. When Bobby Holik moved to New York I felt he never performed as well for the Rangers as he had for the Devils. Hopefully the same will be true of Gomez.
Regardless, there’s no hiding that there has been a steady trickle of talent away from New Jersey since the 99/00 season, which I think was their highest point ever. The most striking exception is of course Brian Gionta. Gionta broke Pat Verbeek’s long-standing goals record, (for New Jersey, not the entire NHL!) with 48 in the 05/06 season.
My internet connection has been on and off like a prostitute’s knickers. My computer is not in the best location relative to the router, yet normally there’s no problem.
I don’t like that Firefox have moved the cross for closing tabs from the right hand side to the top of the tabs. I’ve barely used it since the change and it is already annoying the hell out of me. What makes it worse is the fact Opera use the same system.
What more could a man want?
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I hadn’t wanted to post another video for a while because I’ve done a few of them lately but this one was too good to pass up. It was Ryan North of Dinosaur Comics who posted (but did not film) the vid.
Yes that’s right, today is the day they’ve published our 2nd semester results online (we’ll also get them in the post at some point supposedly). It has kept slipping my mind but my parents have kept reminding me. This morning my mother walked in and asked, “Well, have you got ‘em yet?” “Got what?” was my puzzled reply. The only thing I thought I might have been supposed to get this morning was some bread.
I think the reason for this is that I was always confident I knew what my final result would be so this is just a confirmation. I got the expected solid 2:1 - 66 2/3 overall mark with a 74 for my research essay (now that was a nice surprise).
I want to text some fellow student to ask what they got but I don’t want to sound like I’m being smug, because I got the result I was expecting and happy with, if they’re disappointed with their results. I know a couple of good people who seemed pretty sure they’d completely messed up in some of their exams.
I’ve already received a message from my (degreeless, A Level maths failing) brother saying, “repeat after me, ‘would you like fries with that?’”
