Eunoia
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--> Most recent Blog Comments Policy Impressum Maths trivia Search this site RSS Feed Eunoia, who is a grumpy, overeducated, facetious, multilingual ex-pat Scot, blatantly opinionated, old (1944-vintage), amateur cryptologist, computer consultant, atheist, flying instructor, bulldog-lover, Beetle-driver, textbook-writer, long-distance biker, geocacher 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 he also has a neat English Bulldog bitch 'Frieda'. And her big son 'Kosmo'.
Some of my bikes
My Crypto Pages
My Maths Pages
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Tuesday, July 25, 2017
A short visit to VeniceL ast tuesday morning at Lake Garda, we realised we were barely 200kms (120 miles) from Venice. So it was but a 2 hour ride to get there. But then! SIXTEEN goddamn Euros just to park your motorcycle for a ½ day, cars cost even more! Everything in Venice is expensive; fleecing the tourists :-(The Cathedral in Venice
St.Mark's square and a surfing gondolier.
The Rialto bridge, the oldest bridge across the Canal Grande
Detail of the carving above the Doge palace balcony. The hike around to see the famous landmarks etc is almost 5 kms (3 miles), tiring in the hot sun! Then the ride back to Rovereto; a very full day :-) Last time I was in Venice was in 1989, to hear the Pink Floyd concert, overwater from St.Marks square, a really great trip back then ;-)
Comments (2) Saturday, July 22, 2017
Lake Garda Mountain RideLast week a couple of friends and I took our motorcycles south to the alps for a bit of mountain riding :-) Turned out to be raining in Hofgastein (Austria), so we continued SW to Lake Garda in northern Italy. There are neat mountain roads to the north, east and south of Rovereto (which is just east of Lake Garda), so we based there, the lakeside itself being overcrowded with tourists.The weather was mostly sunny, noon heat reaching 34°C, as you can see in the photo above taken from a wide valley road. We loved riding the narrow mountain roads, often single track, which connect the tiny mountain villages via multiple hairpin bends. It was cooler up in the mountains, where we were above 2 or 3 layers of cloud. Mebbe 3000+ feet down to the lake? Riding through the national park, you might see some bears, so keep well clear and keep your engine running. If on foot, back away slowly. Back down on the wider valley roads, you can get a breathtaking view of the mountainous National Park you've just ridden through. Next day we rode through the mountains NE of the lake and were rewarded with an occasional glimpse of the lake. Hazy though, due to high humidity :-( Over a pass again, looking south, gives a great view of the mountain range on the italian side of the Alps. We were well above the clouds again :-) Finally, just east of Rovereto, there is an active church carved into the face of a cliff. We couldn't see how worshippers nor priest got there; it must be a difficult hike! Sunday's trip home was a nerve-racking fifteen hours instead of the expected nine. The Jenner pass was closed due to the police having to defuse a bomb there. Everyone scrambled to ask their satnavs for alternate routes. Dense traffic led to the Grossglockner which was jammed. So we decided to go the long way around (300 kms extra) via Lienz and Salzburg. Took us 15 hours to get home with various minor traffic jams along the way. Just as well we'd brought some typical Italian fare for our wives ;-)
Monday, July 17, 2017
Jack-off-all-trades ;-)Suitably named tradesman's van, as seen in Austria last week ;-) Thursday, July 6, 2017
Gender-irrelevant marriageThe German parliament voted last week to make marriage a gender-irrelevant issue. This after pressure from the LGBT community etc.An hilarious discussion arose at the pub, suggesting that this was a re-issue of Jane Austen's 1813 novel, now called Gay Pride and extreme prejudice ;-) One of the participants was the lady who distributes letters and parcels in the surrounding villages, using american terminology she's a mail-woman ;-).
The very conservative Aunty Vera used to address her letters to The Bates family until she discovered the young lad's dirty secret, whereupon her letters were addressed to Mr and Mrs Bates and their son Master Bates ;-) The homosexual at the other end of the And what about the children being taught to play the violin in the church hall choir practice room? Their mail would surely be addressed to The kiddy fiddlers c/o the vicarage ;-) The new law only allows for couples, no polygamy. The only way to have a threesome is if one of you is a hermaphrodite :-( But enough of the innuendo, marriage also has political and economic issues. No other country has more married-person privileges in tax and pension law than in Germany. Divorce often leads to the costs of single-mothers bringing up children being fobbed off onto society. Foreigners can gain a new nationality with the implied residence permits just by marriage, so there will more pseudo-marriages for this purpose. Adoption laws require marriage as a pre-condition. These political and economic issues haven't been thought through yet. Conservatives are likely to challenge the new law as being unconstitutional via the supreme court, so we shall see what results. Don't hold your breath.
Comments (1) Saturday, July 1, 2017
Stagger McFly ;-)There are new tourist attractions up in the Harz hills. Just downstream of the Bode river valley dam, there is now a pedestrian suspension bridge, the longest on the world (over 500 yards). So we coughed up the 6 Euro toll and walked out on it, as did many others. Not all broke step though, so with that and the wind it swings laterally about a meter. This had us staggering around, trying to find our sea legs. The photo below shows my good friend Manuala just behind me, both of us holding onto the railing ;-)Next to the suspension bridge is a tower bearing a zipline over to the other side of the river. It is for those disappointed by the suspension bridge ;-) The photo below shows friend Hubert getting ready for his flight. And here he is, on the zipline, just having launched himself into the void. Here are the two valiant flyers half way across the river. The landing area is the yellowish field on the far river bank. I chickened out here and let the younger ones do that "adventure" :-)
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Recent Writings
Visit to Venice Lake Garda Mountains Jack-off-all-trades LBGT marriages legal Stagger McFly Aircraft Museum ecce libri : Hobbitus ille The HP warehouse Bode River scenery :-) May-Hem On turning 73 Time to die :-( Covfefe Learning to fly... In Memoriam : Klacks Pynchon turned 80 Oldtimer Meet in Boke May Day ;-) C W-M's Persistence UN World Book Day Rosy Posy Elephant ears / Blinkers Kosmo turns ten Blogroll Ain Bulldog Blog Badtux... Balloon Juice Cop Car Curmudgeonly... Earth-Bound Misfit Fail Blog Finding life hard? Hattie (Hawaii) Mockpaperscissors Mostly Cajun Not Always Right Observing Hermann Pergelator Rants from t'Rookery Yellowdog Grannie Archive 2017: Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Archive 2016: Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Archive 2015: Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Archive 2014: Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec This blog is getting really unmanagable, so I've taken the first 12 years' archives offline. My blog, my random decision. Tough shit; YOLO. 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 ;-) Books I have written
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