Michael Rosen talks to Keith Houston about punctuation symbols and how they came to exist. Keith is the author of Shady Characters: Ampersands, Interrobangs and Other Typographical Curiosities.
6 August 2016
Time: What West Germany Got Wrong About the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum
In the summer of 1982, while he was still opposition leader in Bonn, future German chancellor Helmut Kohl expressed his concerns about the plans for a national Holocaust museum in the United States. Peter Petersen, a CDU member of the Bundestag, recorded what Kohl had said to a group of Bundestag parliamentarians about the museum, which “the Jews,” as Petersen put it, were building in Washington. In the early 1980s, he summarized Kohl’s statement: “What would a young German visiting the United States think when he passed the Holocaust Museum on the Mall? . . . What would he feel when he saw his country’s entire history reduced to these twelve terrible years? Was this the way in which the United States was going to treat its most valued European ally?”
Throughout the 1980s and the early 1990s, a network of mostly conservative West German officials and their associates in private organizations and foundations, with Kohl located at its center, perceived themselves as the victims of the afterlife of the Holocaust in America. They were concerned that public manifestations of Holocaust memory—for example museums, monuments, and movies—could severely damage the Federal Republic’s reputation in the United States. [...]
Through a series of behind-the-scenes interventions, a network of official and unofficial German emissaries attempted to integrate the history of German anti-Nazi resistance and of postwar West Germany into the exhibition concept. They aimed to show that not all Germans had been Nazis and that the Federal Republic had learned its lessons. For instance, they considered the country’s coping with the Nazi past, its model democracy and the alliance with Israel a success story, which should be told in the museum. For more than a decade, German intermediaries tried to convince the museum planners to design the exhibition accordingly, arguing that the museum would be incomplete without references to the “good Germans” that lived and suffered through the Third Reich as well as postwar West Germany’s accomplishments. As claimed in interviews and oral history transcripts with former museum representatives Michael Berenbaum, Miles Lerman, and William Lowenberg, they also offered a very large donation—up to $50 million—to make an even more convincing case in Washington.
The Guardian: Man or beast: why is a pack of bronze wolves terrorising Berlin?
Though real wild wolves have been spotted again in Germany in recent years, these creatures warn against another creeping threat: racism. “I want to start a discussion,” says Rainer Opolka, the artist behind The Wolves Are Back. “What can we do so that people don’t need to hate anymore? In Germany, it looks like racism has now become standard. I don’t want people to get used to that.”
Opolka’s wolves appear in the aftermath of a week that left Germany reeling: an axe attack on a train near Würzburg; a mass shooting in Munich; a woman killed by a machete in Reutlingen; and a bomb detonated in Ansbach. Two of the attacks – carried out by asylum seekers and since linked to Islamic State – have sparked fears that events could be exploited by right-wing groups. Since Angela Merkel welcomed hundreds of thousands of refugees into Germany, attitudes towards minorities have come under the spotlight. [...]
Since 2015, the Federal Criminal Police Office – or Bundeskriminalamt – has registered 1,031 “crimes against asylum accommodation” across Germany – from offensive graffiti to 94 acts of arson. It was the arson attacks that spurred Opolka to create his wolves. “Since Thomas Hobbes, the wolf has been a symbol for the inner social conflicts of men,” says the artist. “I remain in that tradition. I want to show those conflicts and use the wolf as metaphor.”
Racism in Germany extends beyond asylum seekers, something the Brandenburg-based artist has witnessed first hand. Opolka remembers watching drunk Germans attack a Turkish man in Hamburg. “Just because he was Turkish,” he says. “That shocked me.”
Business Insider: 9 facts about cheating that couples — and singles — should know
Psychologists have spent years studying the science of infidelity, including what makes someone inclined to cheat, how your partner is likely to react after you cheat, and how to bounce back from cheating.
Below, we've rounded up some recent findings and how they might help you maintain a strong relationship. [...]
Recent research suggests that a person who is economically dependent on their spouse is more likely to be unfaithful — and that's especially true for a man who relies financially on a woman.
Interestingly, when women are the breadwinners, they're less likely to cheat. When men are the breadwinners — specifically, when they earn more than 70% of the total household income — they're more likely to cheat. [...]
In a recent study, university students reported that the average person of the opposite sex has about a 42% chance of cheating on their partner.
But when it came to their own partners, participants estimated that there was about a 5% chance that their partner had already cheated on them and about an 8% chance that they would cheat on them in the future.
Quartz: These are all the events that the refugee athletes will be competing in at the Olympics
For the first time in Olympic history, a team of refugees will get to compete in the upcoming games.
The International Olympic Committee handpicked 10 athletes to compete under the Olympic banner. The team of 10 includes six men and four women, who between them fled the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, South Sudan, and Syria. The refugee team, which consists of swimmers, Judo players, and short and long distance runners, will be participating in a number of events.
Politico: Thousands sign petition calling for Russian PM to resign
More than 178,000 people have signed an online petition calling for Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s resignation after he suggested teachers wanting more pay should seek a different career, AFP reported Friday.
When asked by a university lecturer at a public forum why teachers receive less money than policemen, the prime minister replied that “there is no need to compare, the issue is what you choose in life.” [...]
Medvedev was lampooned earlier this year for telling a woman receiving a small pension payment on a visit to Crimea, “Hang in there! Cheer up, and good health!”
Medvedev introduced a law making it obligatory for the government to consider any petition that gains over 100,000 signatories on a government-run website, AP reported, adding that no such petition calling for Medvedev to resign was visible on that site Friday.
The Telegraph: Singles 'more fulfilled, sociable and self-sufficient than married people'
Dr Bella DePaulo, of the University of California, claims the pervasive view that singles must be "sad and lonely" is nonsense and claims people on their own often live more meaningful lives.
Speaking at the American Psychological Society’s annual meeting, Dr DePaulo said there was a relentless celebration of marriage and couples in popular culture, which she labels "matrimania", while singles faced discrimination and stereotyping. [...]
“Considering all of the financial and cultural advantages people get just because they are married, and all the ways in which they are believed to be advantaged by the social support and other relational aspects of marriage, it becomes even more striking that single people are doing as well as they are,” she added.
Research comparing people who have stayed single with those who have stayed married shows that singles have a heightened sense of self-determination and are more likely to experience a sense of continued growth and development as a person. [...]
However, she warned that a preoccupation with the perils of loneliness often obscures the benefits of solitude and can make single people unhappy.
“There is no one blueprint for the good life,” she added. “We can create our own life spaces. What matters is not what everyone else is doing or what other people think we should be doing, but whether we can find the places, the spaces, and the people that fit who we really are and allow us to live our best lives.”
Politico: Insiders to Trump: Drop out
That’s according to The POLITICO Caucus — a panel of activists, strategists and operatives in 11 swing states. The majority of GOP insiders, 70 percent, said they want Trump to drop out of the race and be replaced by another Republican candidate — with many citing Trump’s drag on Republicans in down-ballot races. But those insiders still think it’s a long-shot Trump would actually end his campaign and be replaced by another GOP candidate. [...]
In this scenario, Republicans would likely struggle to find a consensus nominee, but immediate options would include Sen. Ted Cruz (the runner-up in the GOP primary), Trump running mate Mike Pence and House Speaker Paul Ryan.
Insiders suggested a handful of replacement candidates: A Florida Republican said Ryan “is the only one who can unite the party,” while multiple others plugged Ohio Gov. John Katich. [...]
A handful of insiders said they wanted Trump to stay in, but not because they believe in his ability to win or capability to serve as president. If Trump stays in and loses, they said, it could help the party heal itself after the election.
“Trump won the nomination,” a Michigan Republican said. “He should lose fair and square. Only then will the party base have to reckon with what they've done.”
The Atlantic: The Colorado Company That's Tackling 36 Million Tons of Food Waste
The United States throws away 36 million tons of food each year, which amounts to 40 percent of the total food generated. However, this massive issue presents a big recycling opportunity. In this short film from the web series The Perennial Plate, we tour A1 Organics in Colorado, which uses a machine called biogas digester to turn that waste into renewable natural gas.
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