the year is two thousand and 1984
Minitruth is established.
The European Commission has flung £6m at a new digital archive for storing public and private sector data generated by European nations. Dubbed E-ARK, which stands for European Archival Records and Knowledge Preservation, the new system will set a "gold standard" for the hoarding of old and new information. E-ARK is a future- …
I can't see how that name is unfortunate. In Danish the meaning is roughly "Middle seafaring" and alludes to the fact that there used to be ferry services from Middelfart to Jutland. Now there's a bridge, but you do pass Middelfart if you go from the island Fyn to Jutland. "Fart" can also mean movement or speed in general, so there is a joke that goes like this: "Q: Why are there so many speeding tickets between Odense and Fredericia? A: Because you have to go over Middelfart." (middle speed).
By the same reasoning you call Middelfart unfortunate, Middlesex is downright disastrous.
No, they just find it embarassing when drunk Z-List celebs come on German chat shows and make Fahrt jokes (yes, I'm looking at you Pink!)
She was totally wasted and it was the first time I've seen a presenter (Stefan Raab) looking at the floor producer with a begging look for him to jump to commercial.
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We can still read ancient Egyptian scrolls after thousands of years. Because a scroll can just sit in a cave all that time. Not so digital data. It requires a digital infrastructure to exist always, and constant trans-coding due to technology advances. Even if you just lobbed a thumb drive into a tomb, would the machines to read it be around after 1000 yrs?
Jim 59 raises a very interesting issue. 30+ years ago I was archiving stuff on to 1600 BPI tape. Two years ago I found my old tapes and attempted to read them The best I could do was pay a data recovery company a small fortune. Frankly, my old Fortran and PL/1 code was not worth that so I junked them.
20 years ago I was installed DEC kit with SCSI arrays using 2GB disks. Top of the range then. Now I could not even boot Windows on to 2GB. I would struggle to find an interface card to to read handle DEC's specific implementation these days.
Disks don't last forever, even tapes have to be refreshed.
I wonder how long they think the e-Ark will last?
There are some towns in Denmark that even the locals find embarrassing: Tarm (intestine, though originally used for any long and narrow passage), Hørmested (smelly place, origin probably from "horn"), Bøvl (trouble, originally "bend"), and Lem (member, originally "barrow place").
Then there are some that are just mildly funny, such as Sengeløse (without beds), Springforbi (jump past), Tappernøje (taps liquid precisely), Bagsværd (back sword, though originally back sward) and Middelfart (middle speed, originally middle ferry passage), though we can see why some English speakers find that name a bit embarrassing.