Category Archives: History

Ka-boom!

NPR Here and Now: 75 Years Ago, Scientists Conducted An Unprecedented Nuclear Experiment.

“Seventy-five years ago this week, scientists from the University of Chicago created the first controlled, self-sustained nuclear chain reaction, a feat that was essential in the development of an atomic bomb during World War II.

Enrico Fermi and his team of physicists secretly conducted the Chicago Pile 1 experiment on a squash court under the stands of a football stadium on Dec. 2, 1942. The anniversary of this unprecedented achievement comes as tensions escalate between the U.S. and North Korea, which launched a new ballistic missile on Tuesday.”

Als Hitler das rosa Kaninchen stahl

Judith Kerr had to flee Nazi Germany as a child because her family was Jewish and her father, a famous writer, criticized the Nazis. In Germany, When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit (Als Hitler das rosa Kaninchen stahl) is probably her most famous book and often required reading in schools. Even though it’s been 30 years since I read it, I remember many details of her story vividly.

New Statesman: My father and other animals. “Judith Kerr’s dad, Alfred, was an outspoken German critic who railed against Hitler – but he had a soft spot for baby seals.”

BBC: Judith Kerr and the story behind The Tiger Who Came To Tea. “Author Judith Kerr is famous for her children’s books, but behind the sweetness of works such as The Tiger Who Came To Tea lies a past set against the horror of Nazi Germany.”

iNews: Judith Kerr: ‘Will I ever bring back Mog? No, I killed her’.

“Beginning an interview by thrusting your phone in your subject’s face and insisting they scroll through pictures of your cats is not generally considered best practice.

There are exceptions, however. Within moments of stepping into Judith Kerr’s home I’ve whipped out my iPhone and, like an excited child, am demanding the picture book author “look at my cats!“
[…]
“Oh, yes please,“ she says solemnly, taking my phone. “This is absolutely essential.“ “

The Guardian: Judith Kerr: ‘I’m still surprised at the success of The Tiger Who Came to Tea’. “The creator of Mog on learning how to draw a tiger at the zoo, heeding the advice of her cat and still working at 94.”

Radio Times: When Mark Gatiss came to tea with Judith Kerr. “Mark Gatiss visits childhood hero and author of The Tiger Who Came to Tea, to chat children’s books, family and sci-fi.”

Links via MetaFilter.

“If there’s a virus anywhere in the world, it could just come back in.“

Gizmodo: The Last of the Iron Lungs. “In 2013, the Post-Polio Health International (PPHI) organizations estimated that there were six to eight iron lung users in the United States. Now, PPHI executive director Brian Tiburzi says he doesn’t know anyone alive still using the negative-pressure ventilators. This fall, I met three polio survivors who depend on iron lungs. They are among the last few, possibly the last three.” Includes a 7:00min video.

“But another thing they all had in common is a desire for the next generations to know about them so we’ll realize how fortunate we are to have vaccines. “When children inquire what happened to me, I tell them the nerve wires that tell my muscles what to do were damaged by a virus,“ Mona [Randolph] said. “And ask them if they have had their vaccine to prevent this. No one has ever argued with me.“

[Paul] Alexander told me that if he had kids he would have made sure they were vaccinated. “Now, my worst thought is that polio’s come back,“ he said. “If there’s so many people who’ve not been—children, especially—have not been vaccinated… I don’t even want to think about it.“

[Martha] Lillard is heartbroken when she meets anti-vaccine activists. “Of course, I’m concerned about any place where there’s no vaccine,“ she said. “I think it’s criminal that they don’t have it for other people and I would just do anything to prevent somebody from having to go through what I have. I mean, my mother, if she had the vaccine available, I would have had it in a heartbeat.“ “

Link via MetaFilter.

I remember the posters in doctor’s offices during my childhood: Schluckimpfung ist süß – Kinderlähmung ist grausam. (Translation: Oral vaccination is sweet, polio is cruel.)

Wenn nicht Jamaika, was dann?

Na, das wird ja spannend…

Deutsche Welle: Nach dem Scheitern der Jamaika-Sondierungen – Die Erklärung des Bundespräsidenten im Wortlaut. “Manche hatten die Ankündigung von Neuwahlen erwartet. Doch Bundespräsident Frank-Walter Steinmeier schlägt einen anderen Weg ein. Hier seine Erklärung, die er nach einem Treffen mit der Kanzlerin abgab, im Wortlaut.”

Frank-Walter Steinmeier: “Für mich steht fest: Innerhalb, aber auch außerhalb unseres Landes und insbesondere in unserer europäischen Nachbarschaft wären Unverständnis und Sorge groß, wenn ausgerechnet im größten und wirtschaftlich stärksten Land Europas die politischen Kräfte ihrer Verantwortung nicht nachkämen.”

Die Zeit: “Eine Minderheitsregierung kann auch eine Chance sein”. “Wir könnten zum ersten Mal eine Minderheitsregierung auf Bundesebene bekommen. Warum wir uns davor nicht fürchten müssen, erklärt Staatsrechtler Joachim Wieland.”

“[Eine Minderheitenregierung] kann aber auch durchaus eine Chance sein. Die Mehrheit wird nicht zur Selbstverständlichkeit, und auch den Bürgern wird deutlich, dass für jedes Projekt eine neue Zustimmung gefunden werden muss. Alle Beteiligten müssen darlegen, warum sie bereit sind, an so einer Mehrheitsbildung teilzunehmen, oder warum sie sie ablehnen. “

Zeit Presseschau: “Merkel kann Krise”. “FDP-Chef Lindner habe die Sondierungen kalkuliert scheitern lassen, lautet die Analyse vieler deutscher Medien. Manche sehen dadurch Angela Merkel wieder erstarken.”