Booked: Schindler's List

A tale assembled from first-hand accounts of Oskar Schindler and his Kitchenware/munitions factories in Poland/Czechoslovakia during WWII. 


It's still hard to comprehend the atrocities of Nazi Germany, but Schindler's List is full of details from the first days of occupied Poland, through the development of the Concentration and Death Camps outside of Krakow, and finally the nerve-wracking closing days of the war in which anything could have happened in trying to cover up the Holocaust. The sheer mass of random killings by SS troops and coolly-calculated exterminations in the book are overwhelming. Writing on Auschwitz-Birkenau: "The moral universe had not so much decayed here. It had been inverted, like some black hole..." A machine designed to end civilian lives as quickly and cleanly as possible. Of course, the human supervisors of the Final Solution often took care to make it a dirtier process.

Auschwitz I: Work Makes One Free

I haven't seen this movie, but I have been to the Auschwitz and Dachau camps, so I had a picture in my mind of the bleak fall evenings, and the endless rows of barracks and barbed wire. To me, it seems that even had the Nazis managed to exterminate their resident Jewish populations completely, the machine would still have been hungry for any reason to feed it- be it small infractions by conquered gentiles, to their own fascist power struggles. I think there would have been no end to it.

Auschwitz II: Crematoria Remembrance Plaque

The book also goes into many specific details to show that Schindler himself was not a 'paragon of perfection' but a man of many vices. But he was human, and could recognize that saving the few people he could would be better than resigning himself to their fates. Since he is lauded as rescuing more from the gas chambers than any other individual, I actually expected him to save more than just 1,200 people or so in the end- it seems like such a small number compared to the 6+ million total victims of the Holocaust. And Oskar probably always wondered if he could have done more. But to have that many people survive a terror due to your hard work has to be some consolation. "He who saves a single life saves the world entire."

Past Blast [literally]: Mt. Vesuvius

Mt. Vesuvius

Growing up I had access to a large collection of National Geographic VHS tapes. Aside from having one of the greatest intro-title songs ever, the videos were chock full of history and science. One of my favorites dealt with the ancient city of Pompeii and current archeological discoveries there. I remember the quiet pans on the video, showing Vesuvius overshadowing the ruins of Pompeii. So while my class abroad only spent a day in Pompeii, I made sure to get back and climb to the top of the volcano myself.

The steaming gun

A little background: Mount Vesuvius [Italian: Monte Vesuvio] is located east of Naples [Napoli], Italy. Well-known for its 79 A.D. destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum, its most recent eruption was in 1944 when US troops were occupying the Italian peninsula. Over 3 million people still live near the officially active [albeit 'green level'] volcano.

Naples in the distance

There are a number of buses that leave from Naples for Mount Vesuvius, which is now an Italian National Park. They drop you off at the foot of a path that winds around the outside of the cone, providing views of the Bay of Naples. It was cool and crisp the morning I was there; kind of eerie with its moonish-landscape of rocks and ash. At the top of the path you can see into the crater, which looks like the ash is feeding down into a funnel. White wisps of steam still make their way through the rock and dissipate into the air, letting you know there's still a hot magma connection deep beneath your feet.


If you're ever in bustling Naples and have a spare morning, I recommend visiting this quiet crater.

Fore Play

Lining it up...

Being out in the suburbs + having a lot of free time = finally playing golf on a regular basis. For most of my golfing life [freshman year of high school... 13 years?!] through the present I have been fortunate to get out on the course at most 2 or 3 times a year.


Which usually meant a litany of 7-8-9s all over the scorecard. While it was helpful in keeping my basic addition skills sharp, I usually had to count on my 1-or-2 decent shots of the day to keep me coming back.


My younger brother, Tony, and I have made it out every week this summer [when he was in town, and not on one of his many boy scouting trips]. There are several golf courses around that charge $12-15 for 9 holes; not a bad deal. So I can finally confirm that simply getting out and playing can make a huge difference in your game. For the first time in my life, my irons are actually lofting the ball onto the green, rather than making the ball scream 5 feet off the ground for 50 yards. 4-5-6 are now making regular appearances on the scorecard. A par or two isn't a 'miracle' any more.

Claiming victory over Tee-Hi's hole 7

Of course I still love to play the right-hand side of holes [thank you, slice], and on any given day my putting can be atrocious. And some days my golf balls all seem to hide after every shot. But when you think about it, getting a 1.68" ball into a 4.25" hole that is 250+ yards away is quite an accomplishment, even in 10 strokes. And a tasty beverage with some friends can make anything fun. Just don't forget the sunscreen.


Bonus:


Keeping with the Foreplay theme:

Past Blast: Assisi

Previously, in Italy:

Piazza del Comune, city center

This week's mini-tour occurred on one of our Architecture Class' frequent field trips in Italy. Assisi, home to St. Francis, sits on a mountainside in the Umbria region of central Italy.


Its central piazza still has a Roman-era temple front nestled into its street wall. Of course the pagan structure has since been converted into a church. Hello, photo op.


I also dug up a short video taken at noon- when the many bell towers in Assisi let you know it's time to grab some lunch. One thing we don't have in the States is this daily, sometimes overpowering ringing of bells. Too bad.



A couple more random photos: once the morning fog lifted, it was a perfect day.

Arcade, Basilica di S. Francesco d'Assisi

Overlook, Basilica di S. Francesco d'Assisi

Booked: Before the Fallout

A good, in-depth read about the 45 years between Radioactivity's discovery, and its weaponization. Also as much of a history of the scientists themselves, similar to Bill Bryson's 'A Short History of Nearly Everything' [although not as humorous]. 

Very interesting to see how many of the scientists, slowly sensing that nuclear physics could lead to some sort of weapon, were talking about an eventual 'arms race' 20 years before the USA and USSR would both have the bomb, and do exactly that. A sense that this was a weapon to have, but not to use. 

Can a line be drawn, if research is leading to a device that could change/destroy the world? The German scientists tried to claim that they slowed down their programs to prevent Hitler from getting a bomb; but this is moot since the Allies would have been able to seek and destroy any of the huge facilities required to enrich uranium or produce plutonium on the continent. The author mentions today's emerging science in genetics and nanotechnology, which may be our current ethical-line-drawing fields [although don't forget CERN and its black holes!]. 

I had known about Oak Ridge and the many facilities set up in the USA during the Manhattan Project, but this book helped clear up exactly what they were doing and why. Also, I now have a rudimentary picture of how/why Little Boy and Fat Man worked. Don't tell the Iranians. 

Finally, the book also touches on the changing views during WWII of bombing civilian targets, leading up to Hiroshima. Numbers of casualties are knocked around, but it is clear that this isn't an easy question to answer; the what-if epilogue shows both sides of the argument well. What happened, happened. Let's hope humanity learned something from it.

Past Blast: Neuschwanstein Castle

Previously, in Germany:


A trip post-College but pre-Real-World included a Mike's Bike Tour in Bavaria near Neuschwanstein Castle. Despite an overcast day and my camera not zooming, the castle still provided a dramatic approach:





The castle was built in the late 1800s by a crazed Ludwig II... and is best known America-side as the inspiration for Disneyland's Sleeping Beauty castle. "I can't believe somebody built that" is a common reaction. 

TV Timeout

As the Fall TV schedules begin to make their rounds, it seems like the same-old same-old. CBS showing the same old folks' crime procedurals. NBC having a deep-voiced announcer saying how 'dramatic' and 'new' its latest bunch of soon-to-fail-because-they're-trying-too-hard shows. ABC... well, we'll see how they come back to a year without LOST.


Am I the only one tired of shows that go on-and-on-and-on indefinitely, until people just don't care anymore? Until the cast has been picked apart, or jumped ship? From what little I know about English Television, it seems most of their shows- be it drama, comedy, or travishamockery- are limited in their runs, and capped around 2 seasons. So the characters are fresh their entire run, storylines are wrapped up and concluded, and comedic bits don't have to be stretched out beyond their Use-By dates [see: The Simpsons].


I've wondered how a show would do, keeping the same actors and characters each season, but each year completely changing the setting. Maybe have a few 'winks' back to a previous year, but make it about how characters adapt to their situation. What if these guys, who were mutual enemies last season, existed as buddy cops this year? [OK, that sort of came from LOST] And while sexy-times relationships would exist, at least they could match up new couples without all the wacky, fake drama they usually use.


So the news that Steve Carell is leaving the Office, but that "The Office Shall Go On"... can't say I'm on the edge of my seat on that one. Maybe they'll pull it off. Maybe I'll forget to turn it on.


/Rant. At least there'll always be Football.

Summer Stretch

Having [another] mostly work-free summer can give you a lot to think about:

Stuff like the outrageously corrupt politicians of Illinois or The Universe...


But here's a file I came across my computer last week. I had assembled all the SPQR-related pics from one of my return trips to Rome [when my sister was studying there] and combined them into one poster-sized collage which hangs above my desk. FYI 'SPQR' is from Roman times, when monuments were dedicated by 'Senatvs Popvlvs Qve Romanvs': by the Senate and People of Rome. Nowadays it can be found on Rome's manhole covers and lightposts. [Click to Enlarge]