Live data from Hacker News

Kraftwerk's radical 1976 track

bbc.com

121–130 of 222 posts

Re: Kraftwerk's radical 1976 track

#121

The original version is quite different from the version performed today. The original lyrics refer to the pun of "radioactivity" versus "radio activity", meaning, activity on the radio. The new live version refers almost exclusively to the former meaning, and adds "stop" to turn it into a protest song. I've seen Kraftwerk live twice, at London's Albert Hall and Berkeley's Greek Theater, both times absolutely amazing…

both times absolutely amazing. Highly recommended.

Saw them last year in Brussels. And while I agree with this and would go again and would recommend it to others, the side note for me is: I've listened to a lot of electronic music old and new and for my personal taste almost everything Kraftwerk makes is on the mediocre side. I'd never play it at home to listen to. But to see them in concert with pretty nice visuals and at the same time realizing they basically pioneered all of this 50 years ago does remain sort of mindblowing.

Re: Kraftwerk's radical 1976 track

#122
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great story. Had no idea. Still love the name Uwe. One of those German names that doesn’t have an English equivalent unlike, say, Pieter.

I was told once Hugh is the nearest equivalent to Uwe, but i can't tell if thats correct.

Doesn’t appear to be correct, assuming the information here is correct: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh

“Hugo” would appear to be the German equivalent.

Re: Kraftwerk's radical 1976 track

#123
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great story. Had no idea. Still love the name Uwe. One of those German names that doesn’t have an English equivalent unlike, say, Pieter.

I was told once Hugh is the nearest equivalent to Uwe, but i can't tell if thats correct.

According to https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uwe, the only certainly known "relative" of Uwe is Ove, which is used in Scandinavian countries. Other than that, the origin of the name is unclear, and there is a theory it might be related to Oswald.

Re: Kraftwerk's radical 1976 track

#124
post #75
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which directly followed the USA stationing Jupiter missiles in Turkey with the range to strike Moscow. As part of the mutual climb down from the missile crisis the USA removed the Jupiters, as both sides then understood the wisdom of avoiding hot brinkmanship

It's genuinely amazing how few people in the USA appear to be aware of what you have written. It'd be nice to put jingoism aside for a change.

americans are the most brainwashed people on earth when you consider how naïve of their own propaganda they are

Re: Kraftwerk's radical 1976 track

#125
post #103
post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nuclear power has been amazing for my native country Sweden and I do not believe for a nanosecond that there were “economic forces” that shut down many of our operational nuclear plants. It was political lunacy, in Sweden and Germany and many other countries.

I take a center position on this: every year new nuclear looks worse economically, but that's not a good reason to shut down already operating plants. The safety issues .. I think the combination of low probability (unknown) and potentially huge cost (Chernobyl affected almost the entirety of Europe!) make it exceptionally prone to toxic discourse. You just can't assign reliable numbers to it. There's a risk of endin…

The problem is just that already operating plants don't become safer or more state of the art as time goes by. I'd be as comfortable with a 70-year-old nuclear power plant as I would be flying in a 70-year-old airplane...

Re: Kraftwerk's radical 1976 track

#126
post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

s/Russian/American/ Either way, Germany has perfected the efficient foot bullet, at least. I could imagine Kraftwerk devising a stonkin’ “Fußkugel” track, actually ..

Check your facts, please: Germans figuratively shoot themselves in the knee, not the foot ;)

See also: the back!

:)

Re: Kraftwerk's radical 1976 track

#127
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More like the robot thing to do. Anti-nuclear sentiment in Germany was entirely manufactured; it was the product of Gerhard Schröder and similar robots who enriched themselves on Russian oil and gas. Ironically, it is also where the so-called Green Party began.

Sure, it was all Schröders fault. It had nothing to do with for example chernobyl, where children were not allowed to be outside on the playground for weeks and where you had to pay attention where your food came from and it also has nothing to do that you still have to have the meat of wild boars checked and be careful with eating mushrooms. Totally unrelated. Seriously, the anti nuclear crowd might have not been ra…

> And those dangers can be handled, if companies and regulators act responsible.

As further proof of how well that works, Fukushima arrived in 2011: https://www.scribd.com/document/819988755/Examining-Regulato...

Re: Kraftwerk's radical 1976 track

#128
post #91
post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nuclear power has been killed off by economic forces; there’s no turning back. Solar and wind power generate cheap electricity in abundance, and midday electricity prices in Europe regularly dip into negative territory (as low as minus €500 (sic!) on May 1!). Modern grids do not require high-risk investments in ultra-inert baseload power that ultimately fails to find a market; instead, they require low-risk investmen…

Nuclear power has been amazing for my native country Sweden and I do not believe for a nanosecond that there were “economic forces” that shut down many of our operational nuclear plants. It was political lunacy, in Sweden and Germany and many other countries.

It certainly was political - with tax policies, you can make nuclear uneconomic which is exactly what happened in Sweden. For decades, the production and capacity taxes were a material part of the operating cost for operators. Only some 10 years ago the political positions started to change and become more nuclear-friendly.

Re: Kraftwerk's radical 1976 track

#129
post #110
post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Solar and wind are still heavily subsidized are they not? If they're so economically amazing why are they subsidized?

I'm not sure why subsidies are per se bad. But also almost all infrastructure is subsidized regardless: roads, trains (cargo as well), ports, nuclear, coal, etc...

I did not express an opinion on whether subsidies are good or bad :)

Re: Kraftwerk's radical 1976 track

#130
post #78
post #11

I love Kraftwerk, but contributing to anti-nuclear sentiment in Germany hasn't been a major success. If only more European countries had followed the French example and developed substantial nuclear fleets.

Nuclear power has been killed off by economic forces; there’s no turning back. Solar and wind power generate cheap electricity in abundance, and midday electricity prices in Europe regularly dip into negative territory (as low as minus €500 (sic!) on May 1!). Modern grids do not require high-risk investments in ultra-inert baseload power that ultimately fails to find a market; instead, they require low-risk investmen…

If power is so cheap mid-day, why don't european buildings have sufficient air conditioning not to kill the elderly during heat waves? The laws restricting AC all have power conservation as their rationale.
Post reply on HN