Dr Seán Ketchem

@cskwriter.bsky.social

1497 Followers 2316 Following

An American/German in Berlin. Berkeley alum (Go Bears!). Erstwhile Texan. Credo: “There are other forces at work than those of evil. And that is an encouraging thought.”

Andrew Murray Burnham (born 7 January 1970) is a British politician who has served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party since July 2026. A member of Labour and the Co-operative Party, he has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Makerfield since June 2026, and was Mayor of Greater Manchester from 2017 to 2026. He was MP for Leigh from 2001 to 2017, and served as a minister under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. Burnham identifies as a socialist and is associated with Labour's "soft left" faction. His political ideology has been called "Manchesterism".
When war finally broke out, the government was so concerned with the possibility of invasion that Boy Scouts and local men – mostly those who were not eligible to fight – were engaged as look outs along coastal areas. This fear became even more apparent when Whitby and Scarborough were shelled by German warships in November and December 1914. Not only was this the first time the civilian population had been targeted, they had no way of knowing it wasn’t the prelude to invasion. Jessica Fellowes claimed in The World of Downton Abbey that because Downton Abbey was “situated in the north of England in the middle of the countryside, it would not have suffered the frightening spectre of fighter planes overhead or the distant echo of bombshell.” But this is not exactly true as given where Downton Abbey is located, the village would have been near to both towns and not only would have the Crawleys, their servants and the rest of the village have heard of the bombardment but there would be general fear among the populace. https://enoughofthistomfoolery.wordpress.com/2017/01/20/what-downton-abbey-doesnt-tell-you-about-the-first-world-war-part-1/
It Happened One Night is a 1934 American screwball comedy film produced and directed by Frank Capra. Claudette Colbert stars as a pampered socialite who tries to get out from under her father's thumb and falls in love with a roguish reporter, played by Clark Gable. The screenplay by Robert Riskin is based on the August 1933 short story "Night Bus" by Samuel Hopkins Adams, which provided the shooting title. It is considered a "pre-Code" production, as it was released just four months before the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America began rigidly enforcing the Hays Code. It is seen as one of the greatest films ever made and was the first of only three films to win the "Big Five" Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Adapted Screenplay. In 1993, it was selected for preservation in the U.S. National Film Registry by the Library of Congress, being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". In 2013, the film underwent an extensive restoration by Sony Pictures.
The Scarborough and Hartlepool raids caused a great scandal in Britain (yet somehow not in Downton Abbey Season Two), and became a rallying cry against Germany for its attack upon civilians and against the Royal Navy for failing to prevent it. The attack became part of a British propaganda campaign; 'Remember Scarborough' was used on army recruitment posters and editorials in neutral America condemned it; "This is not warfare, this is murder".[26] At first, blame for the light cruisers disengaging from the German ships fell upon the commander, Goodenough but the action was contrary to his record. Blame eventually settled on the confused signals, which had been drafted by Lieutenant Commander Ralph Seymour, who remained flag officer to Beatty, making similar costly mistakes at the Battle of Dogger Bank and at the Battle of Jutland. An order was promulgated to captains to double-check any orders to disengage if in an advantageous position.
The Raid on Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby on 16 December 1914 was an attack by the Imperial German Navy on the British ports of Scarborough, Hartlepool, West Hartlepool and Whitby. The bombardments caused hundreds of civilian casualties and resulted in public outrage in Britain against the German Navy for the raid and the Royal Navy for failing to prevent it. The German ships fired 1,150 shells into Hartlepool, striking targets including the steelworks, gasworks, railways, seven churches and 300 houses. People fled the town by road and attempted to do so by train; 86 civilians were killed and 424 injured (122 killed and 443 wounded according to Arthur Marder in 1965). Victims included the architect John Hall. Seven soldiers were killed and 14 injured. The death of Private Theophilus Jones of the Durham Light Infantry, age 29, was the first death of a British soldier from enemy action on British soil for 200 years. Eight German sailors were killed and 12 wounded.
Theobald Theodor Friedrich Alfred von Bethmann Hollweg (29 November 1856 – 1 January 1921) was a German politician who was imperial chancellor of the German Empire from 1909 to 1917. He oversaw the German entry into World War I and played a key role during its first three years. He was replaced as chancellor in July 1917 due in large part to opposition to his policies by leaders in the military. Between 1884 and 1899 Bethmann Hollweg rose rapidly through positions in the Prussian government and served briefly as a member of the Reichstag in 1890. The experience left him unsympathetic to the party system and an independent for the remainder of his political life. Emperor Wilhelm II appointed him chancellor in 1909, in part because he approved of his conciliatory political style. His eight years as chancellor showed him to be cautiously supportive of some liberalization but also a firm believer that a parliamentary monarchy was the best form of government for Germany. During World War I, Bethmann Hollweg thought that Germany was so threatened that it needed to take all necessary measures to survive. He assured Austria-Hungary of Germany's full backing and supported its aggressive demands against Serbia. He held back on German mobilization until after Russia's so that Germany would not appear to be the aggressor. Although he supported the invasion of Belgium as necessary given Germany's threatened position, he saw it from the first as an injustice that would need to be righted. He fought against the implementation of unrestricted submarine warfare but in the end bowed to pressure from the military and the conservatives in the Reichstag and approved its use. As the war progressed, many who had supported him in parliament felt that he had been in his position too long to be able to negotiate an acceptable peace.
The Volkseigenes Gut (German for 'People-Owned Property' or 'Publicly Owned Estate'; abbreviated VEG) was a state-owned farm in the German Democratic Republic (GDR), corresponding to the Soviet Sovkhoz and the Państwowe Gospodarstwo Rolne in the People's Republic of Poland. In contrast to the Landwirtschaftliche Produktionsgenossenschaft (LPG) or collective farm, another form of state agricultural enterprise, the VEGs were often the successors to former private farms which resulted from the land reform in the Soviet sector of Germany. Each VEG was directly integrated into national economic planning. They were either central (formulated by the national government) or subordinated to the district (Bezirk). A Volkseigenes Gut was state property and the agricultural counterpart to the state-owned enterprise, in the GDR Volkseigener Betrieb. They were run by a director according to the principle of individual management. Unlike the LPG, the workers employed on a VEG had no say in running it. Initially, the VEGs predominantly raised animals and plants and propagated seed to supply LPGs. In 1960, the approximately 690 VEGs had under cultivation approximately 6.3 percent of the available agricultural land in the GDR. As with the LPGs, so with the VEGs, in the late 1960s, a politically motivated separation of animal husbandry from arable farming was instituted. The VEB-P (for Pflanzenproduktion, 'plant production') and VEB-T (for Tierproduktion, 'animal production') classifications arose. However, these were simultaneously amalgamated into larger units, so that their total numbers declined from 511 in 1970 to 465 in 1985, while the agricultural land under cultivation by the VEGs remained almost constant at approximately 440,000 hectares. Compared to the LPGs, in many cases the VEGs received preferential treatment, in the form of superior machinery and more capital investment, since they functioned as so-called pillars of the preferred working class on the land.
The Alexanderplatz subway station is the largest station in the Berlin subway system in terms of area. Lines U2, U5, and U8 operate there. The station is laid out in an H-shape; the U2 runs along the eastern arm, the U8 along the western arm, and the U5 on the lower cross-level. The platforms for the U2 and U8 are also connected by a shopping arcade above the U5 station. The platform for what is now the U2 line, designed by Alfred Grenander, was built between 1910 and 1913 and opened on July 1, 1913. At that time, a structural framework for a future line to Friedrichshain was constructed beneath the platform. However, this line was never built due to World War I. A few years later, AEG wanted to build its own north-south subway line (today’s U8 line). To this end, a tunnel had already been excavated west of the Stadtbahn viaduct. However, after AEG was unable to complete the project for financial reasons, the City of Berlin took over the line that had been started. The experts, however, decided to route the new line via Alexanderplatz to enable a connection to what is now the U2 line. Construction of this new station began in 1926 next to the Stadtbahn and it opened on April 18, 1930.
After the Berlin Wall was built on August 13, 1961, and Berlin was thus completely divided, the U8 line’s platform was separated from the rest of the station and its entrances were bricked up, since trains on the line—which ran from the Western Sector through the Eastern Sector and back to the Western Sector—passed through here without stopping. As a result, the platform became one of the “ghost stations.” To conceal the platform’s existence, the bricked-up sections on the concourse level were painted on the plaster to match the color of the tiles, and the grout lines were painted on as well.
The Barnim Plateau is a plateau which is occupied by the northeastern parts of Berlin and the surrounding federal state of Brandenburg in Germany. The limits of the plateau are easily definable. The southern boundary is marked by the Berlin Valley, through which the River Spree flows. To the west, the boundary between Barnim and the Glien Plateau is marked by a north–south glacial valley. To the north and north east is the boundary with the Eberswald Valley, and in the east, Lubusz Land.
Berlin Schönefeld Airport (German: Flughafen Berlin-Schönefeld (ⓘ); IATA: SXF, ICAO: EDDB, ETBS), name from October 31, 2020 until decommissioning on November 18, 2022 Flughafen BER Terminal 5, was the secondary international airport of Berlin, the capital of Germany. It was located 18 km (11 mi) southeast of Berlin near the town of Schönefeld in the state of Brandenburg and bordered Berlin's southern boundary. It was the smaller of the two airports in Berlin, after Berlin Tegel Airport, and served as an operating base for easyJet and Ryanair. In 2017, the airport handled 12.9 million passengers by serving mainly European metropolitan and leisure destinations. In the same year, the travel portal eDreams ranked Berlin Schönefeld as the worst airport in the world after evaluating 65,000 airport reviews. Schönefeld Airport was the major civil airport of East Germany (GDR) and the only airport of the former East Berlin. On 25 October 2020 the Schönefeld name and IATA code SXF ceased to exist, marking its closure as an independent airport, with large parts of its infrastructure being incorporated into the new Berlin Brandenburg Airport (IATA: BER, ICAO: EDDB), including the remaining runway and the passenger terminal (as BER's Terminal 5) However by November 2022, the refurbished Terminal 5 had been closed for good without being put in operation.
“Flugstaffel Meinecke” is a 1989 television series produced by East German television. Synopsis The series depicts the work and daily lives of the Interflug agricultural pilots as they fertilize and apply pesticides to cooperative farm fields. In addition to offering insights into the preparation and execution of flights, the series also explores the ups and downs of interpersonal relationships, brief love stories, and abundant criticism of the shortages in the GDR, as well as—albeit subtly—some criticism of the political system. Over the course of seven episodes, the staff of the Agrarflug division of the GDR airline Interflug—stationed at the fictional airfields of Langenfeld and Kynast in the north of the GDR—use their aircraft to assist the agricultural cooperatives (LPGs) with crop protection and fertilizing their fields, as well as with fighting forest fires. Production The series was filmed in the spring and summer of 1989, including at the Anklam airfield. The first episode, “Gewitterflug,” aired on January 5, 1990, on Channel 1 of East German television. All subsequent episodes followed on a weekly basis. After “Treffpunkt Flughafen,” this series was the second aviation series on East German television. Since its premiere in 1990, the series has been rebroadcast several times on the third channels of MDR and ORB, and later on rbb.
The Odyssey is a 2026 epic fantasy action film written and directed by Christopher Nolan. An adaptation of Homer's ancient Greek epic the Odyssey, the film stars Matt Damon as Odysseus, the Greek king of Ithaca, and chronicles his long and perilous journey home after the Trojan War and his encounters with mythical beings as he attempts to reunite with his wife, Penelope, portrayed by Anne Hathaway. The ensemble cast includes Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong'o, Samantha Morton, Zendaya, and Charlize Theron. Nolan and his wife Emma Thomas produced the film through their production company, Syncopy. Nolan began writing The Odyssey in March 2024, secured the project with Universal Pictures by October, and the film was announced in December. Casting occurred from late 2024 through early 2025, and Damon was confirmed for the lead role in February 2025. Nolan studied several translations of the Odyssey. He depicted a realistic interpretation of Greek mythology, drawing inspiration from the epic historical films Andrei Rublev (1966) and Ran (1985), as well as the films of special effects artist Ray Harryhausen. Filming took place from February to August 2025 in Morocco, Greece, Italy, Scotland, Iceland, Western Sahara, and Malta, as well as at the Universal Studios Lot in Los Angeles. With an estimated budget of $250 million, the film is among the most expensive of Nolan's career, and the first to be shot entirely on IMAX's 70 mm film cameras. Leading up to the film's release, the costume and production designs, accents, dialogue, and casting choices sparked critical discussion and scrutiny regarding historical accuracy to the source material and the setting depicted. The Odyssey premiered on July 6, 2026, at the Odeon Luxe Leicester Square in London, ahead of a theatrical release by Universal Pictures on July 17 in the United States and the United Kingdom. The film received critical acclaim, with particular praise for Nolan's direction.
FRIDAY PUZZLE — Clear your calendars. Set your phone to “Do Not Disturb.” Flag down motorists and stop passers-by to tell them the good news: A triple triple stack has reappeared in the New York Times Crossword. In a crossword, a triple stack consists of three grid-spanning entries stacked on top of one another — already no easy feat. In today’s puzzle, Coz Berlin, a first-time constructor for The Times, has pulled off a triple stack three times, resulting in the triple triple stack: a hat trick of hat tricks. For the folks counting at home, that’s nine spanners gifted to us today, five of which are debuts. A triple triple stack is a rare and awe-inspiring occurrence, like the Perseid meteor shower, or the McRib. This is only its 24th appearance in the 84-year history of the Crossword, and it’s an especially memorable one. Several of these spanners echo and riff on each other, so much so that this themeless puzzle almost has a flavorful mini-theme to it. It’s ready to serve if you’re hungry for a challenge as well: There’s chewy wordplay, sly misdirection and a clue list that’s peppered with question marks. Let’s dig in.
Kniereitvers (German for "a verse for riding on knees") is a nursery rhyme that is recited while two people play. Usually an older person plays with a younger one (mostly a child), with the child sitting on the older person's knee. In the German language the following Kniereitvers ("Hoppe, hoppe Reiter")is most popular: Hoppe hoppe Reiter, wenn er fällt, dann schreit er. Fällt er in den Graben, fressen ihn die Raben. Fällt er in den Sumpf, macht der Reiter plumps! Hop hop rider, when he falls then he will cry, If he falls into the ditch, the crows will eat him. If he falls into the swamp the rider will go plop!
The Lesbian and Gay City Festival (Lesbisch-Schwules Stadtfest) in Berlin is Europe's largest street festival for lesbians and gays. It has been held in the traditional gay area around Nollendorfplatz in Schöneberg since 1993. In Berlin it is often referred to as the Motzstraßenfest (Motz-street festival) as the Motzstraße is locally well known for its concentration of gay bars. The first festival only took place in this street, being organized by bar tenants of the street. The founders had created a work group, "Konzertierte Aktion lesbisch-schwuler Wirtschaft in Berlin" (Concerted Action of Lesbian-Gay Economy in Berlin) that grew into the current organizer association "Regenbogenfonds e. V." (Rainbow Funds Association). Over the years the festival has grown both by area and theme coverage. The festival takes place each year in June in the streets Motzstraße, Eisenacher Straße, Fuggerstraße and Kalckreuthstraße. The festival has spread over seven festival areas: World of Radio, World of Travel, Positive World, World of Film, World of Politics, World of Sports and World of Wellness and Health.
Joachim-Friedrich Martin Josef Merz (born 11 November 1955) is a German politician who has served as Chancellor of Germany since 6 May 2025. He has also served as Leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) since January 2022, leading the CDU/CSU (Union) parliamentary group as Leader of the Opposition in the Bundestag from February 2022 to May 2025. Merz was born in Brilon in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia in West Germany. He joined the Young Union in 1972. After finishing law school in 1985, Merz worked as a judge and corporate lawyer before entering full-time politics in 1989 when he was elected to the European Parliament. As a young politician in the 1970s and 1980s, Merz was a staunch supporter of anti-communism, the dominant political doctrine of West Germany and a core tenet of the CDU. He is seen as a representative of the traditional establishment conservative and pro-business wings of the CDU. His book Mehr Kapitalismus wagen (Venturing More Capitalism) advocates economic liberalism. After serving one term he was elected to the Bundestag, where he established himself as the leading financial policy expert in the CDU. He was elected chairman of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in 2000, the same year as Angela Merkel was elected chairwoman of the CDU, and at the time they were chief rivals for the leadership of the party, which led the opposition together with CSU. After the 2002 federal election, Merkel claimed the parliamentary group chairmanship for herself, while Merz was elected deputy parliamentary group leader. In December 2004, he resigned from this office, thereby giving up the years-long power struggle with Merkel and gradually withdrew from politics, focusing on his legal career and leaving parliament entirely in 2009, until his return to parliament in 2021.
Éomer is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth. He appears in The Lord of the Rings as a leader of the Riders of Rohan who serve as cavalry to the army of Rohan, fighting against Mordor whilst consuming enormous quantities of Snickers, his favourite sweet. The name Éomer, meaning "Horse-famous" in Old English, is from Beowulf, a work that Tolkien had studied extensively. Despite the evident Old English connection, Tolkien denied that Éomer and the Riders of Rohan directly represented the Anglo-Saxons. Scholars have noted that while written imagery remains ambiguous and can combine suggestions of Gothic and Anglo-Saxon origins, film such as Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy inevitably have to choose. When Éomer appears in a helmet recalling the Sutton Hoo helmet, he is plainly Anglo-Saxon.
The Battle of the Seelow Heights (German: Schlacht um die Seelower Höhen) was part of the Berlin Strategic Offensive Operation (16 April – 2 May 1945). A pitched battle, it was one of the last assaults on large entrenched defensive positions of the Second World War. It was fought over three days, from 16 to 19 April 1945. Close to 1,000,000 Soviet soldiers of the 1st Belorussian Front (including 78,556 soldiers of the Polish 1st Army), commanded by Marshal Georgy Zhukov, attacked the position known as the "Gates of Berlin". They were opposed by about 110,000 soldiers of the German 9th Army,[4] commanded by General Theodor Busse, as part of the Army Group Vistula. This battle is often incorporated into the Battle of the Oder–Neisse. The Seelow Heights was where some of the most bitter fighting in the overall battle took place, but it was only one of several crossing points along the Oder and Neisse rivers where the Soviets attacked. The Battle of the Oder–Neisse was itself only the opening phase of the Battle of Berlin. The result was the encirclement of the German 9th Army and the ensuing Battle of Halbe in which the 9th Army was destroyed.
The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 American musical fantasy film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Based on the 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, it was primarily directed by Victor Fleming, who left production to take over the troubled Gone with the Wind. The screenplay is credited to Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson, and Edgar Allan Woolf, but includes contributions from other writers. The film stars Judy Garland, Frank Morgan, Ray Bolger, Jack Haley, Bert Lahr, Billie Burke, and Margaret Hamilton. The music was composed by Harold Arlen and adapted by Herbert Stothart, with lyrics by Edgar "Yip" Harburg. The film is celebrated for its use of three-strip Technicolor, fantasy storytelling, musical score, and memorable characters. It was a critical success and was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, winning Best Original Song for "Over the Rainbow" and Best Original Score for Stothart; an Academy Juvenile Award was presented to Judy Garland. It was on a preliminary list of submissions from the studios for an Academy Award for Cinematography (Color) but was not nominated. While it was sufficiently popular at the box office, it failed to make a profit until its 1949 re-release, earning only $3 million on a $2.7 million budget, making it MGM's most expensive production at the time. The 1956 television broadcast premiere of the film on CBS reintroduced it to the public. According to the U.S. Library of Congress, it is the most seen film in cinematic history. In the inaugural class of 1989, it was selected by the Library of Congress as one of the first 25 films for preservation in the United States National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". It is also one of the few films on UNESCO's Memory of the World international register.[18] It was ranked second in Variety's inaugural 100 Greatest Movies of All Time list published in 2022.
On Golden Pond is a 1981 drama film directed by Mark Rydell from a screenplay written by Ernest Thompson, adapted from his 1979 play. It stars Katharine Hepburn, Henry Fonda, Jane Fonda, Doug McKeon, Dabney Coleman and William Lanteau. In his final film role, Henry Fonda portrays Norman, a crusty, retired professor grappling with many effects of aging. He has been married for many years to upbeat, feisty Ethel (Katharine Hepburn) but has a remote, difficult relationship with their daughter, Chelsea (Jane Fonda). At their summer home on Golden Pond, Norman and Ethel agree to care for Billy, the son of Chelsea's new boyfriend, and an unexpected relationship blooms. On Golden Pond was released theatrically on December 4, 1981, to critical and commercial success. Reviewers highly praised Rydell's direction, Thompson's screenplay and the performances of the cast. The film grossed $119.3 million domestically, becoming the second highest-grossing film of 1981 in North America. It received ten nominations at the 54th Academy Awards, including for Best Picture, and won three: Best Actor (Henry Fonda), Best Actress (Katharine Hepburn) and Best Adapted Screenplay.
Sean‘s Super 2026 Summer at the Movies! Jaws Dirty Dancing Dog Day Afternoon National Lampoon’s Vacation Rear Window Suddenly, Last Summer On Golden Pond Stand By Me Nashville Smokey and the Bandit Grey Gardens A Streetcar Named Desire
Dog Day Afternoon is a 1975 American biographical crime drama film directed by Sidney Lumet and produced by Martin Bregman and Martin Elfand. The film stars Al Pacino, John Cazale, James Broderick and Charles Durning. The screenplay is written by Frank Pierson and is based on the Life magazine article "The Boys in the Bank" by P. F. Kluge and Thomas Moore. The feature chronicles the 1972 robbery and hostage situation led by John Wojtowicz and Salvatore Naturile at a Chase Manhattan branch in Brooklyn. Elfand brought the article to Bregman's attention, who proceeded to negotiate a deal with Warner Bros. Pictures and clear the rights to use the story. Pierson conducted his research and wrote a script that centered on the story of the robbery around Wojtowicz. The cast was selected by Lumet and Pacino, with the latter selecting past co-stars from his off-Broadway plays. Filming took place between September and November 1974, and the production was finished three weeks ahead of schedule. When theatrically released on September 21, 1975, Dog Day Afternoon was a critical and box-office success. The film was nominated for seven Golden Globe Awards, six BAFTAs (winning Best Actor for Pacino and Best Editing), and six Academy Awards (winning Best Original Screenplay). In 2009, Dog Day Afternoon was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress, and was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.
Cat asleep on a bed next to some summer movie DVDs
Patrick Gordon (played by Trevor White) is a major in the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry who made a request to stay at the convalescent home at Downton Abbey because he claims he is related to the Crawley family. Major Gordon then claims to be Patrick Crawley, the first cousin once removed of the Earl who perished with his father James Crawley in the sinking of Titanic (neither of their bodies were recovered). Gordon says he was rescued from the freezing ocean by Fifth Officer Harold Lowe but developed amnesia and was sent to Montreal after being mistaken for a Canadian. He took his new surname from a bottle of gin. It is impossible to recognise Major Gordon as Patrick Crawley because his face was severely burned by mustard gas during the Battle of Passchendaele. Gordon convinces Lady Edith by relating experiences in Downton. For example, he recalls that he and the sisters disliked their governess, which Edith identifies specifically as Fräulein Kelder. Gordon decides to leave, rather than commit to his claim, after learning the earl's agents will be investigating Peter Gordon's history after his emigration to Canada. It is suggested by the earl's solicitor, George Murray, that Major Gordon might actually be Peter Gordon, who worked with the real Patrick Crawley at the Foreign Office, which would explain how he knew some of the private details of the Earl's family.
Identifying the causes of World War I remains a debated issue. World War I began in the Balkans on 28 July 1914, and hostilities ended on 11 November 1918, leaving 17 million dead and 25 million wounded. Moreover, the Russian Civil War can in many ways be considered a continuation of World War I, as can various other conflicts in the direct aftermath of 1918. Scholars looking at the long term seek to explain why two rival sets of powers (the German Empire, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire against the Russian Empire, France, and the British Empire) came into conflict by the start of 1914. They look at such factors as political, territorial and economic competition; militarism, a complex web of alliances and alignments; imperialism, the growth of nationalism; and the power vacuum created by the decline of the Ottoman Empire. Other important long-term or structural factors that are often studied include unresolved territorial disputes, the perceived breakdown of the European balance of power, convoluted and fragmented governance, arms races and security dilemmas, a cult of the offensive, and military planning. Scholars seeking short-term analysis focus on the summer of 1914 and ask whether the conflict could have been stopped, or instead whether deeper causes made it inevitable. Among the immediate causes were the decisions made by statesmen and generals during the July Crisis, which was triggered by the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria by the Bosnian Serb nationalist Gavrilo Princip, who had been supported by a nationalist organization in Serbia. The crisis escalated as the conflict between Austria-Hungary and Serbia was joined by their allies Russia, Germany, France, and ultimately Belgium and the United Kingdom.
The July Crisis was a series of interrelated diplomatic and military escalations among the major powers of Europe in mid-1914, which led to the outbreak of World War I. It began on 28 June 1914 when the Bosnian Serb nationalist Gavrilo Princip assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his wife Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg. A complex web of alliances, coupled with the miscalculations of numerous political and military leaders (who either regarded war as in their best interests, or felt that a general war would not occur), resulted in an outbreak of hostilities amongst most of the major European states by early August 1914. Following the assassination, Austria-Hungary sought to inflict a military blow on Serbia, to demonstrate its own strength and to dampen Serbian support for Yugoslav nationalism, viewing it as a threat to the unity of its multi-national empire. However, Vienna, wary of the reaction of Russia – a major supporter of Serbia – sought a guarantee from its ally, Germany, that Berlin would support Austria in any conflict. Germany guaranteed its support through what came to be known as the "blank cheque",[c] but urged Austria-Hungary to attack quickly to localise the war and avoid drawing in Russia. However, Austro-Hungarian leaders would deliberate into mid-July before deciding to give Serbia a harsh ultimatum which Serbia was certain to reject, and would not attack without a full mobilisation of the army. In the meantime, France met with Russia, reaffirmed their alliance, and agreed they would support Serbia against Austria-Hungary in the event of a war.
For the six months of the year it is comfortable to sit outside for lengthy periods, my balcony redeems my tiny overpriced apartment. I got really lucky with the location, I am the top floor (the penthouse haha) which means it is like living in a treehouse. Südende (South End) was a villa district before the war popular with people in the publishing industry (and with one of the largest percentages of Jewish residents in all of Berlin) who liked the closeness of the nearby commuter rail station, which whisked them (and now me every workday morning) into the heart of the city in under 15 minutes. The neighborhood was pulverized by an accidental RAF bombing raid in WWII (the pilots miscalculated and thought they were over the government district). After the war the city planted tons of trees to help improve the blighted, empty appearance. There are still empty lots that have their old front gates (with house numbers even) guarding what is now a grove of trees. I have two of these old property lots next to and across the street from me, thus all the lush greenery in spring and summer (and the brief fall color show around Halloween). Like in Tokyo, Berlin authorities preserved the street grid after 1945 even though the buildings were gone, to speed up redevelopment by not creating thorny property disputes, thus an 1890s map of my neighborhood looks exactly like a 2020s one, though the "street view" is of course dramatically different.
green trees and blue sky view from a balcony with a rolled-up canopy above
The Atlas Mountains are a mountain range in the Maghreb in North Africa. They separate the Sahara from the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean; the mountain range stretches around 2,500 km (1,600 mi) through Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. The mountains are associated with the Titan Atlas. The range's highest peak is Toubkal, in central Morocco, with an elevation of 4,167 metres (13,671 ft). The Atlas Mountains are primarily inhabited by Berber populations. The terms for 'mountain' are Adrar and adras in some Berber languages, and these terms are believed to be cognates of the toponym Atlas. The mountains are home to a number of animals and plants which are mostly found within Africa but some of which can be found in Europe. Many of these species are endangered and a few are already extinct. The weather is generally cool but summers are sunny, and the average temperature there is 25 °C.
Marrakesh or Marrakech is the fourth-largest city in Morocco. It is one of the four imperial cities of Morocco and is the capital of the Marrakesh-Safi region. The city lies west of the foothills of the Atlas Mountains. The city was founded circa 1070 by Abu Bakr ibn Umar as the capital of the Almoravid dynasty. The exact meaning of the name is debated. One possible origin of the name Marrakesh is from the Berber (Amazigh) words amur (n) akush, which means "Land of God". According to historian Susan Searight, however, the town's name was first documented in an 11th-century manuscript in the Qarawiyyin library in Fez, where its meaning was given as "country of the sons of Kush". The word mur is used now in Berber mostly in the feminine form tamurt. The same word "mur" appears in Mauretania, the North African kingdom from antiquity, although the link remains controversial as this name possibly originates from μαύρος mauros, the ancient Greek word for "dark". The common English spelling is "Marrakesh", although "Marrakech" (the French spelling) is also widely used. The name is spelled Mṛṛakc in the Berber Latin alphabet, Marraquexe in Portuguese, Marrakech in Spanish. A typical pronunciation in Moroccan Arabic is merrāksh (/mər'ra:kʃ/) with stress on the second syllable. From medieval times until around the beginning of the 20th century, the entire country of Morocco was known as the "Kingdom of Marrakesh", as the kingdom's historic capital city was often Marrakesh. The name for Morocco is still "Marrakesh" to this day in Persian and Urdu as well as many other South Asian languages. Various European names for Morocco (Marruecos, Marrocos, Maroc, Marokko, etc.) are directly derived from the name Murrākush.
French baguette on a carving board with butter and garlic salt and a cookbook behind it
The Polabian language,[a] also known as Drevanian–Polabian language,[b] Drevanian language, and Lüneburg Wendish language, is a West Slavic language that was spoken by the Polabian Slavs (German: Wenden) in present-day northeastern Germany around the Elbe, from which comes the term Polabian. It was spoken approximately until the rise to power of Prussia in the mid-18th century – when it was superseded by Low German – in the areas of Mecklenburg-West Pomerania, central Mittelmark part of Brandenburg and eastern Saxony-Anhalt (Wittenberg originally part of Bela Serbia), as well as in eastern parts of Wendland (Lower Saxony) and Schleswig-Holstein, Ostholstein and Lauenburg). Polabian was also relatively long (until the 16th century) spoken in and around the cities of Lübeck and Oldenburg. The very poorly attested Slavic dialects of Rügen seemed to have had more in common with Polabian than with Pomeranian varieties. In the south, it bordered on the Sorbian language area in Lusatia. Polabian is characterized by the preservation of a number of archaic features, such as the presence of nasal vowels, a lack of metathesis of Proto-Slavic *TorT; the presence of an aorist and imperfect verb tenses, traces of the dual number, and some prosodic features, as well as by some innovations, including diphthongization of closed vowels, a shift of the vowels o to ö, ü and a to o; a softening of the consonants g, k in some positions to d', t', an occasional reduction of final vowels, and the formation of complex tenses, many which are associated with the influence of the German language. Polabian also has a large number of Middle Low German borrowings. By the 18th century, Lechitic Polabian was in some respects markedly different from other Slavic languages, most notably in having a strong German influence. It was close to Pomeranian and Kashubian, and is attested only in a handful of manuscripts, dictionaries and various writings from the 17th and 18th centuries.