Polaroids and Thoughts

Circuit

(The translation of a few lines:)

Raised in the shadows,

Forever hungry for power,

Never satisfied with yourself,

And almost bursting with strength.

Wild water,

Smoldering fire.

Look into the mirror—

Orange Gaffer Tape

Part of a 1970‘s computer from a bank.

There was no running water. Instead, everyone relied on a hand pump in the yard, and right next to it stood a simple outhouse shared by all the residents.

We are not talking about the Middle Ages. We are talking about Germany around 1960. It is a striking reminder of how dramatically living standards have changed within just one generation.

The house my grandparents built in the 1960s was already a step forward. It had its own deep well for water, and the wastewater was collected in a septic tank. We actually continued using that septic system until the late 1980s.

Again, this wasn’t some remote rural settlement or a story from centuries ago—it was everyday life in Germany within living memory.

Greetings from the sleeping gods..

So, with a little help from ChatGPT, here’s what I learned.

„FIFA is a private association under Swiss law, made up of national football federations and organized through continental confederations. Its enormous revenues come mainly from selling broadcasting, sponsorship, licensing, ticketing, and hospitality rights for the World Cup. Its monopoly is not granted by any state; it exists because national associations “voluntarily” accept FIFA’s rules and recognize its tournaments as official. In practice, however, this voluntariness is limited: leaving FIFA would mean exclusion from the World Cup and much of international football. An alternative system could be a transparent, non-profit global football federation that makes broadcasting rights freely available and uses advertising revenue for grassroots sport and public-interest projects.“

Germany’s conservative-right AfD held its party conference today. Massive protests and blockade actions by left-wing activists had been planned—but were simply bypassed by getting up early and starting the conference at 5:00 a.m.