Astonishing:

Academics have carried out a detailed analysis of the 700 head injuries suffered by characters in the Asterix comic books, in a paper published by a respected medical journal.

[...]

The researchers, led by Marcel Kamp of the Neurosurgical department at Heinrich-Heine University in Düsseldorf, conclude: "The favourable outcome is astonishing, since outcome of traumatic brain injury in the ancient world is believed to have been worse than today and also since no diagnostic or therapeutic procedures were performed." [...]

[Via Ansible 288, July 2011]

It's a shame that Apple Germany have taken legal action to block the production of the eiPott. So cute.

[Via The Null Device]

The Guardian has unearthed a nice little vignette from the National Archives about the reaction of officers in the British Army of the Rhine to a proposal to ban fox hunting in post-war West Germany:

Officers' enthusiasm for bloodsports was evident in a letter sent by the commander of the British army of the Rhine (BAOR), Sir John Harding, to the secretary of state for war, Anthony Head, in March 1952.

By then there were 14 packs of hounds run by British soldiers in the zone occupied by UK forces after the war.

"There is … under consideration in the German Bundestag the draft of a bill forbidding hunting of wild game by hounds … which is likely to reach its final stages in 2-3 weeks," a worried Harding informed the war secretary.

[...]

"The action proposed by the Germans in this respect is somewhat the same as if we were to introduce a law in the UK making baseball illegal for the American Air Forces," he suggested.

[...]

However, in October 1952 Churchill's private secretary, Anthony Montague Browne, wrote to the War Office confirming the government's final position. "The prime minister has expressed the following view: 'Do the Germans really object to fox hunting by British troops in Lower Saxony? If they do, it should be stopped. You may occupy a country, but that does not give you unlimited freedom to indulge in sports which annoy the inhabitants.'"

How can you resist a news story that includes this comment from the German police?

"What motivated him to throw a puppy at the Hell's Angels is currently unclear," a police spokesman said.

[Via The Law West of Ealing Broadway]

Although this article about the Oberammergau passion play focuses on the recent tensions over modernisation of the play, what really struck me was the way the event takes over the entire town:

[...] For months, even the village's elderly and sick residents have been doing their part, while younger people have been reshaping their plans to accommodate the event. This year's Philip the apostle interrupted his doctoral studies, and one of the two actors who will play Jesus gave up his job, which was too far away. The mayor issued a "hair and beard decree" on Ash Wednesday of last year, and since then men, women and children have left their hair and beards largely uncut, so that they will look the way people supposedly did in ancient Jerusalem.

Locals use phrases like community, homeland and identity when they attempt to explain the event to outsiders. Anyone who was born in Oberammergau or has lived there for at least 20 years is entitled to take part in the festival. One of the many attractions of the event is that it brings a welcome change to residents who have spent the last nine years working in their ordinary jobs, as teachers, plumbers or landscapers, and who now get the chance to appear in the global spotlight. In fact, it must be painful not to be a part of it.

It would have been nice to have seen some comments in the article from locals who are ineligible to take part because they've only been living there for, say, a decade. Do they find themselves counting the years until they can take part, or do they live a life in parallel with that of their longer-established neighbours for the duration of the festivities?

The New York Times published a cleverly designed slideshow that lets you compare photographs of parts of Berlin that were once divided by the Berlin Wall. Nice work.

[Via Memex 1.1]

Royal De Luxe, the people who brought The Sultan's Elephant to London in 2006, have just helped Berliners celebrate the 20th anniversary of reunification by presenting The Berlin Reunion.

That last link is to my favourite picture from the event, but do check out all the photos on that page: the whole extravaganza looks to have been another remarkable feat of art and engineering at play.

The event: a Town Hall Meeting on Health Care Reform. The place: Berlin. The year: 1939…

Protester #4: Hey, what about the fact that Hitler combs his hair over to hide his democratic sympathies?

Nazi Rep: Well, I have to admit that that would be an extremely odd way for the Führer to hide something like that. But you can rest assured that he has no such predilections. He believes in totalitarianism and the power and judgment of the state. It's a wonder I'm even here right now, soliciting opinions and questions from you all. You can rest assured that nothing you say will make it back to the Führer.

Protester #4: What about the secret holes he has in his nose where he hides his boogers?

Nazi Rep: Those, sir, are what I believe are referred to as nostrils. Everyone has them.

Protester #4: And if someone doesn't – are they entitled to free health care under Hitler's crazy plans for reform?

Nazi Rep: No, it's my understanding that people without exactly two nostrils will likely be shot.

The Treptow crematorium in Berlin might just be the most imposing place of mourning in the world.

[Via deputy dog]

I now know what a Schwerbelastungskörper is:

It's a massive cylindrical block of concrete, standing 18 meters high and weighing in at 12,560 metric tons. It is located in the Berlin neighborhood of Tempelhof, where the eponymous airport is found.

The name is translated as "heavy load-bearing body," although someone in the discussion page has suggested that "heavy load-exerting body" might be more accurate. It was constructed in 1941 to test how well the marshy ground upon which Berlin sits could handle the massive projects planned for Germania. More specifically, it was built to see how the landscape would react to Hitler's gigantic Triumphal Arch, whose opening would have accommodated Paris' Arc de Triomphe.

The results were not encouraging:

The Schwerbelastungskörper sank 7 inches in the three years it was to be used for testing, a maximum depth of 2.5 inches was allowed. Using the evidence gathered by these gargantuan devices, it is unlikely the soil could have supported such structures without further preparation.

Hitler dismissed these findings, perhaps confident that the landscape can be subjugated with fine Teutonic engineering. But Hitler's capital had to wait. There was a war to be waged.