04/14/2005

SPIEGEL Surfs the Web

Cardinal Ratzinger Superstar

Poland was crazy about its pope. Now Germany wants one too. The German papers are full of stories about Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. But the real campaign is taking place in cyberspace -- and is being run by the Cardinal Ratzinger fan club.

Cardinal Ratzinger Superstar

"Gimme an 'R'! Gimme an 'A'!" Cardinal Ratzinger has cyber-fans.

Germany wants what Poland had -- a pope! And it appears that the prayers, alas, have been heard. No more standing second to the bland Eastern neighbor. The German soul, and also press, thank God for the man that could be the savior from this humiliation, the new face of German Catholicism -- Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. Well, new might be stretching it a bit far considering he is 78, but with the death of John Paul II, this man of god has become a new superstar in his own right. Feverishly, the German public discuss his chances of being elected -- or in true German style, why he should be elected and who would be to blame if he weren't. And as every superstar has devout followers who build him a shrine, Ratzinger's fans haven't been idle, either and maintain a Web site in his honor. They claim that the site has not been "set up to endorse Ratzinger as a pope" but has been online since 2000. If this dubious claim to neutrality is true then I suppose we'll have to leave it to the rest of the German media to hand out buttons and kiss babies on Ratzinger's behalf. Get that promo train going.

Air Bags

You've spotted them in New York's Williamsburg neighborhood, in Berlin's Prenzlauer Berg and even in Mexico City's Zona Rosa: the logo airline handbag. Each country has its own -- in Germany, bags sporting the icon of former East German flag carrier InterFlug are all the rage. In America it has and always will be PanAm. Troy Litten's "Airline Bag Lounge" gives you a clickable world map that will take you to the handbag of literally every airline out there -- present and past.

Pixel-Perfect Postcards

Normal postcards are so yesterday. Cool people buy vintage postcards, hand-drawn postcards, sewn postcards or even holographic postcards. But our favorite trend these days are pixel post cards -- crude Commodore 64-era renditions of our favorite world cities. Today in links, we look to Postertronic, a small company in Spiegel Online's home city of Hamburg. Postertronic's homepage includes animated pixel postcards of some of our favorite spots -- from the fish market and harbour to the spectacular neo-Renaissance city hall. (A tip of the hat goes to Heiko Hebig for the link.)

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