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About
Stu Savory ;-) School report for Stu Savory
Eunoia, who is a grumpy, overeducated, facetious, multilingual naturalised German, blatantly opinionated, old (1944-vintage), amateur cryptologist, computer consultant, atheist, flying instructor, bulldog-lover, Porsche-driver, textbook-writer and blogger living in the foothills south of the northern German plains. Not too shy to reveal his true name or even whereabouts, he blogs his opinions, and humour and rants irregularly. Stubbornly he clings to his beliefs, e.g. that Faith does not give answers, it only prevents you doing any goddamn questioning. You are as atheist as he is. When you understand why you don't believe in all the other gods, you will know why he does not believe in yours.

Oh, and after the death of his old dog, Kosmo, he also has a new bulldog puppy, Clara, since September 2018 :-)


Some of my bikes


My Crypto Pages




Thursday, December 29, 2022

Shit Xmas hols this year :-(

Well, we seem to have gotten a lot of rather bad news over the holidays this year :-(

First off, SWMBO's eye (cateract) operations didn't go so well as mine did. She is still seeing streaks of prismatic light in one eye. Hoping it will improve with time; next checkup on Jan 17th.

Then motorcycle friend DG had a stroke and is in hospital. No visiting due to Covid restrictions. He hopes to have recovered by february, regarding the stroke as minor. Another motorcycle friend was diagnosed with tongue cancer, he tells us. In my case the diagnosis was skin cancer, but they freeze those spots away with liquid nitrogen, giving me big blisters that were gone after a week though.

Then HW (university friend DW's wife) had a major stroke, so she is in hospital, likely for months. At least they live in Canada so will not be crippled by a major medical bill like an american friend was. Now David's uncle is dying in Buffalo, NY, where the snowstorms are so bad that the mayor has forbidden driving. I don't know if ambulances and hearses are allowed to drive, but I'd think so. It is not like Longyearben on Spitzbergen where it is forbidden by law to die there, because the ground is so frozen they cannot dig graves. You have to be flown out in your final days.

My physical fitness is deteriorating; as I told you in August I have sold my motorcycle, so now I'm selling just sold my red wingsuit and in spring I'll sell my black wetsuit as I can no longer do these physical sports. Wingsuit and wetsuit (neoprene) would suit(sic!) someone 182 cms tall who weighs 88kg. Mail me if interested, both suits 9 years old. Wingsuit flown only 8 times (in Switzerland), wetsuit only worn for 5 dives. Perhaps I should combine hobbies ;-)

On the positive side, Iwan is still in a datscha in the Urals, so hasn't been called up. Maybe he's just too old anyway ;-) Another friend is recovering from bone cancer treatment and should be well again by the fall of 2023, he says :-)

Hoping all you readers are keeping well, all the best for 2023.

Copyright © Ole Phat Stu on December 29, 2022 permalink Comments Email


Tuesday, December 27, 2022

The Lincoln coincidence

Here is a true anecdote for my american readers trapped at home by the snowstorms.

Abraham Lincoln was shot dead (while watching a play at the Ford theater ). He was shot in the back of the head by John Wilkes Booth, a second rate shakesperian actor from another theater. John Wilkes Booth, who was also a Confederate sympathizer, had a brother called Edwin who was a much better actor, later famous for his portrayal of Hamlet. Years after the assassination Edwin Booth was waiting for a train in Jersey City when a boy fell in the gap between the train and the platform. Reacting quickly, Edwin Booth grabbed the lad and pulled him up to safety, thus rescuing his life. That boy was Lincoln's son, Robert!!! How is that for a coincidence?

I would be interested to know whether my US readers knew that.

Comments (5)
Cop Car wrote " The outline of the tale that you present has not been verified to my satisfaction and, at least in what I had read, the saving of Lincoln’s son supposedly occurred prior to Lincoln’s assassination. Nice tale, though. (Doing a bit of research, I find that Snopes rates one version of the tale “True”.) " Thanx for the feedback,CC.
Ed (USA) didn't know that.
David (NY) wrote "In Buffalo for Hannukah and it looks like I`ll be stuck here for another week. NBC is reporting 56 dead, 22 here in Erie County alone." Stay safe,man!
Billions of Versions... wrote " Snopes has every version of the story but they all say Edwin Booth saved Robert Lincoln. (Didn’t know that)."
Janet (Florida) "...DID know that!" Dammit, Janet!

Copyright © Ole Phat Stu on December 27, 2022 permalink Comments Email


Saturday, December 24, 2022

Xmas weather

Just been reading about the terrible winter weather in the US mid-west right now. Places in Montana with 40 below zero! Further south, states having 6 feet of snow and more! 17 dead already and surprisingly, none by shooting!

We've been luckier. Admittedly when I drove off at dawn early last week the thermometer in the car was soon showing -15°C, but the car started well as it had been in the garage at around zero. The snow was less than 6 inches deep as you can see in the photo below of the single-track road through the woods.

The only problem was the black ice on the road which was very slippery indeed. So I averaged less than 10 mph on that trip!

When I let the dog out for her run she was clever enough to avoid the black ice and run in the snow instead :-)

Now this week we have +6°C, no snow, and it has even stopped raining :-)

So let us hope all american readers have a safe Xmas despite their bad weather. Now it`s almost midnight Bethlehem time, so I'll let you Xians go watch Mary's water break or whatever y'all do at midnight.

Comments (3)
Ed (USA) noted that "We are up to 28 dead by now, mostly car accidents" There will be more :-(
Billions of Versions... wrote " Here in Missouri, there is a little snow but the catch is it’s been down to -8°F. But by next Thursday it’s supposed to be back in the 50’sF. "
Ed (USA) added that "We are up to 33 dead by midnight 26th, the snow is focussing on NY state". Stay at home folks.

Copyright © Ole Phat Stu on December 24, 2022 permalink Comments Email


Thursday, December 15, 2022

Why no year Zero?

Recently I was asked why there was no year zero. I`d assumed that this was common knowledge, so I`ll spread the explanation a little more.

I replied by asking in what year Mary was pregnant and was told in 1 BC (before christ). Then I said that Jesus was Jewish, so he would have been circumcised 8 days after his birth and asked what year that was and was told 1 AD (anno domini = year of our lord). But noone called those two years BC and AD back then. Bethlehem was in the roman empire back then, so the dates were written as AUC (Anno urbis conditae = years from the founding of the city (of Rome)). So the birth year would have written as 753 AUC. Actually the Bible doesn`t tell us when it was, it wasn't worth writing down. But when the first Xians used BC and AD, they did so using roman numerals since they were still part of the roman empire. 753 AUC would have been written as DCCLIII AUC. Roman numerals don`t have a zero. Zero first showed up about a thousand years later when people started using arabic numerals. So when the first Xians used BC and AD, they jumped from 1 BC to 1 AD because they were still using roman numerals and had no way of writing a zero. 1 AD meant the first year in the life of their lord. Nowadays we think of age 1 as meaning 1 year completed, not begun. Hence the confusion.

Copyright © Ole Phat Stu on December 15, 2022 permalink Comments Email


Saturday, December 10, 2022

Fractal Food

Having successfully managed to avoid blogging about Pearl harbour on wednesday, let me show you my photo of some Romanesco broccoli which I saw at the farmers' market on wednesday. I like the appearance of this veggie because it is approximating a natural fractal; each bud is composed of a series of smaller buds, all arranged in a logarithmic spiral. This self-similar pattern continues at smaller levels. The pattern eventually terminates when the feature size becomes sufficiently small. The number of spirals on the head of Romanesco broccoli is a Fibonacci number, aesthetically pleasing to the mathematician in me :-

Zooming in, we see a self-similar pattern :

Zooming in again, we see another self-similar pattern and so on and so forth

Wikipedia has a thorough article on fractals if the concept is new to you.

Comments (1)
Finding life hard? wrote " It is so beautiful too." I think so too.

Copyright © Ole Phat Stu on December 10, 2022 permalink Comments Email


Wednesday, December 7, 2022

Mars occultation

Astronomy fans, this is a pre-warning. Mars is currently the second brightest object in the night sky because it is currently so close to Earth. However it will soon be occluded by the moon, on the 8th for Europe and on the 7th for the USA. Details in UT (Universal Time) below, showing when Mars disappears and then reappears from behind the moon.

The event will be visible to the naked eye (cloud permitting), but of course binoculars or a small telescope are recommended. Grab your viewing aids and look at the edges of the moon as described above & hope for good seeing :-)

Comments (3)
Ed (USA) asked "What is a pre-warning?" In the US you say 'heads-up."
David (NY,NY) asks "Whats that, eastern Time?" Afaik, 10 pm.
Ole Phat Stu added : Overclouded; nothing seen here .

Copyright © Ole Phat Stu on December 7, 2022 permalink Comments Email



Link to the previous month's blog.
Recent Writings
Shit Xmas hols
The Lincoln coincidence
Xmas weather
Why no year Zero?
Fractal food
Mars occultation
Choosing a burial site
A pun for Mike
Last of the phone boxes
WW2 Airshow Crash
Ailihphilia
Napoleon's Boner Part
Fehmarn butterfly farm
Fehmarn furniture
RIP Phil Read MBE

Blogroll
Ain Bulldog Blog
All hat no cattle
Balloon Juice
Billions of Versions...
Cop Car
Digby's Hullabaloo
Earth-Bound Misfit
Fail Blog
Finding life hard?
Hackwhackers
Infidel753
Mockpaperscissors
Not Always Right
Observing Hermann
Pergelator
Rants ... Rookery
Silicon Graybeard
Starts with a Bang
Yellow Dog Grannie

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Link Disclaimer
ENGLISH : I am not responsible for the contents or form of any external page to which this website links. I specifically do not adopt their content, nor do I make it mine.
DEUTSCH : Für alle Seiten, die auf dieser Website verlinkt sind, möchte ich betonen, dass ich keinerlei Einfluss auf deren Gestaltung und Inhalte habe. Deshalb distanziere ich mich ausdrücklich von allen Inhalten aller gelinkten Seiten und mache mir ihren Inhalt nicht zu eigen.

This Blog's Status is
Blog Dewey Decimal Classification : 153
FWIW, 153 is a triangular number, meaning that you can arrange 153 items into an equilateral triangle (with 17 items on a side). It is also one of the six known truncated triangular numbers, because 1 and 15 are triangular numbers as well. It is a hexagonal number, meaning that you can distribute 153 points evenly at the corners and along the sides of a hexagon. It is the smallest 3-narcissistic number. This means it?s the sum of the cubes of its digits. It is the sum of the first five positive factorials. Yup, this is a 153-type blog. QED ;-)
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