For the first time, 21st-century audiences are able to hear the voice of Otto von Bismarck, one of the 19th century's most important figures.
The National Park Service announced this week that the German chancellor's voice has been identified among those found on a dozen recorded wax cylinders, each more than 120 years old, that were once stored near Thomas Edison's cot in his West Orange, N.J., lab. They include music and dignitaries, including the voice of the only person born in the 18th century believed to be available on a recording.
The trove includes Bismarck's voice reciting songs and imploring his son to live morally and eat and drink in moderation, and Helmuth von Moltke, the longtime chief of staff for the Prussian army reciting lines from Shakespeare and other literature. Comparably, this would be like finding voice recordings of Ulysses S. Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman. Continued on Page 47
[Al Jazeera] Greece has only one day left to clinch a eurozone bailout and a bond swap with creditors to manage its crushing debt repayments, its finance minister has said, warning that talks were "on a knife edge".
"The moment is very critical," Evangelos Venizelos told news hounds on Saturday after a telephone conference with fellow eurozone finance ministers, which he described as "very difficult".
"Everything must be concluded by tomorrow (Sunday) night... so that we can be within the timetable given the bond maturities in March," the minister said.
Athens has been negotiating with the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... , the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank on further action needed to unlock a new rescue deal worth 130bn euros ($171bn).
Pressure is also mounting for a deal with private lenders to wipe out part of the 350bn euro ($460bn) Greek debt, with Athens facing loan repayments of 14.4bn euros ($19bn) on March 20.
Venizelos said two major points of contention with the EU and IMF remained open - controversial labour cost cuts, and new fiscal measures to address slippage to deficit targets owing to a greater than forecast recession. He said the time had come for the coalition of socialist, conservative and far-right parties backing the Greek interim government to make "a decision and a commitment" to pave the way for agreement.
Prime Minister Lucas Papademos is expected to summon the coalition party leaders to a meeting on Sunday. But the outcome is unclear, as all three parties have expressed misgivings about the additional fiscal reforms demanded by Greece's creditors.
Papademos has reportedly threatened to resign if his coalition backers reject the demanded austerity measures, though government front man Pantelis Kapsis refused to confirm this.
The coalition leaders are strongly opposed to demands for further civil service cuts, now reportedly affecting teachers and military staff, and for a reduction in the minimum monthly wage which now stands at 750 euros ($986).
Defence Minister Dimitris Avramopoulos warned on Saturday that "social tolerance has reached its limit" in Greece after two years of austerity.
"I fear society will not be able to respond to the asphyxiating terms being imposed," Avramopoulos told financial daily Imerisia.
Continued on Page 47
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2012 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
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#1
We should be watching these events unfold. Our government has done the same thing but only in a much bigger way. Increase taxes, continue to spend, and barrow. What happens when you can no longer barrow is what we are about to see (China has lost 250- nearly 500 billion on our dollar). So government must cut safety nets. Cut government services/programs. Then turn on their people to save themselves. Tax revenue continues to decline.They have made mistakes that have been made many times in the past. I remember in (I think it was the Hunt for Red October) "you ass, you have killed us").
#2
Perhaps it's a law of nature that the rubes can't understand the concept of a government -- an entire nation -- running out of money.
I'm sure B.O.'s counting on that.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2012 12:15 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Fred, B.O. is one of those rubes. I doubt he's ever considered that it might take more than his anointed presence, the lapdog media, and a good protection racket.
#4
Nah, he's just planning on getting his, and continuing to get his, while we get nuttin'.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/05/2012 14:23 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Most politicians are not leaders. They wii not tell the bad news and will tell the public what the think the public wants to hear. An exception to this rule was Winston Churchill. Maybe jealousy explains part of the reason why Winston's bust got sent back from the White House.
Most politicians are parasites. They live off the fat of the land.
So......if the public does not demand responsibility, politicians will say platitudes while the country collapses.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/05/2012 14:26 Comments ||
Top||
#6
Governments that print their own currency and only borrow in their own currency never run out of money.
Rather the reverse. They end up with far too much of it. Like Zim where it took a gazillion zimdollars to buy a loaf of bread.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Greece has only one day left to clinch a eurozone bailout and a bond swap with creditors to manage its crushing debt repayments, its finance minister has said, warning that talks were "on a knife edge".
