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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Monday, September 29, 2014
Devilishly subtle satirical book tip ;-)Some of you may have read and enjoyed Lord of the Rings by J.R.R.Tolkein, an Oxford don. One of his friends and a fellow(sic!) don was C.S.Lewis, who famously wrote The Chronicles of Narnia. He (Lewis) also wrote several other books exploring the themes of Christianity and Atheism.I particularly like this one, The Screwtape Letters which he wrote during WW2, in 1941. I can recommend it to all my religious readers and to the Atheists too. Screwtape is a devil, a burocrat half way down in the heirarchy (lower-archy?) which reaches down to Satan (Our Father Below) in the pits of Hell. Each chapter is a letter to his student-devil Wormwood instructing him on how to tempt an unnamed human; Wormwood is a beginner and thus not particularly accomplished in The Satanic Arts. The book opens your eyes to the small steps which start you down the steep slope to Hell (Think: been there, done that, so easy!) A neat touch by Lewis is the assigning of definitely-not-Christian names to the various Devils : Screwtape, Wormwood, Slubgob, Claptrap etc. :-) He is also careful not to awake any positive feelings by the Denizens of Hell. But I'll write no plot-spoilers here, even I am not that evil ;-) The ISBN (Infernally Satanic Book Number) is 978-0-06-065293-7 and, to my surprise, it costs a whole $14.99 USD, and not as I had expected $6.66 :-( Friday, September 26, 2014
Unplugged :-(Goddamn interfering Eurocraps!There is a river - the Altenau - which runs through the valley where we live. Usually it is only about 5 inches deep, falling dry in the dry season and rising to 1 to 2 feet deep at the thaw and during autumn thunderstorms. This is because it is well regulated by a dam built upstream in Husen in the late sixties because in 1965 huge flash floods swept down the valley, raising the river tens of feet and drowning a few people. But now some goddamn interfering environmentalist Eurocrap has introduced legislation requiring that all rivers be navigable for fish, crabs and other wildlife all the way from the mouth to the source. What fish? In the Altenau it would be at most sticklebacks, nothing bigger, let alone fishable! So the dam has to go they allege! Seriously? This is what the little lake behind the dam looks like now it has been drained. Just a big stinking mudflat! Stinking because the river used to carry away any excess manure used by local farmers which had washed off in the rain. Now it accumulates on the mud-flats :-( I took this picture from the top of the dam, where the road now runs. You can see the old road on the lower left of the photo. It rarely flooded because the lake-overflow (see photo lower right) kept the water level down. As you can see, the 'stream' aka river through the lake-bed mud-flats is barely 1-2 feet across and currently just 4 inches deep. But now we have to live with the risk of flash-floods again just so some stickle-back loving Eurocrap legislator can pat himself on the back??? Maybe we should just hogtie them naked and 'waterboard'/drag them all the way from mouth to source just so they can see how little water there is in these drought-decades and perhaps appreciate the senselessness of their arbitrary 'environmentalism! Koyaanisqatsi ! /rant end Thursday, September 25, 2014
Rosh HashanahHappy New Year to all of my Jewish readers (if there are any). Today is the first day of the Jewish Year 5775. Actually it started at sunset yestreen, Jews start counting at sunset probably because the World started in the dark (Genesis 1:2 says "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface...").Talking about keeping us in the dark, the papers today have no news from Israel, which is unusual, see Sept 23rd, Sept 10th, Sept 9th, etc. etc. however, this may be due to Jews not working on this day (which is supposedly the anniversary of the creation of Adam and Eve, neither of whom would otherwise have a birthday party (nor a belly-button, despite many artists' renderings to the contrary ;-) Now I shall breakfast on an apple soaked in honey, which is a good Jewish idea, after all : an apple a day keeps the doctor away. Unless you are a diabetic of course, in which case...
Comments(2) : Wednesday, September 24, 2014
Eppur si muove*!Last wednesday I warned my German readers about thursday's speed-trap marathon day. Now the results are in :-(And the winner is ..... a car driver in Reutlingen, the Speed King, who was caught doing 238km/h in a 100km/h area. Or should I say ex-driver? Methinks he lost his licence on the spot and will have to take the "Idiocy test" and resit his driving classes. Second place was a guy doing 219 in a 100 zone. But the cops also nicked a driver for going too SLOWLY, only 32 in a 100 zone : his excuse was that he was so busy looking for speedtraps.... ;-) On thursday over 13,000 police at 7,500 locations (which were announced in advance!) lasered and radared everything that moved. In Germany a total of 93,000 people got nicked, mostly for speeding, but some for phoning and/or texting while driving :-( In our local area (Paderborn) 16179 blanket speed-checks were made and 547 drivers (=3.4% vs. 4% statewide) got a speeding ticket. Most were fined peanuts, since they were just marginally over the limit (police credit you with 3km/h margin of doubt). The local prizewinner did 114 in a 70 area in a small Seat car; pedal to the metal. But inattention is the problem, not speed. Sometimes accidents happen at ZERO speed, as even police-bikers well know :-(
Schoolchildren had been asked to suggest to police where they deemed it especially dangerous and one guy was indeed caught doing 60 in a 30 area around a kindergarten. The schoolchildren were present too, to lecture speeders on the dangers, this being deemed morally more effective than the cops giving the lecture. One such young lad in Dusseldorf nicked his own mother :-) A primary schoolgirl even caught her own class teacher! A few two-wheelers were nabbed too, mostly scooter commuters, none of our local bikers who were well-behaved (or elsewhere, canyon-racing ;-) Drivers of underpowered scooters and cars are used to driving pedal to the metal whereas methinks riders of big-bikes are used to exercising more twist-of-the-wrist restraint on a day-to-day urban basis. In fact the ONLY bad accident reported in our local paper as due to speeding was a police car shunt :wry grin: ;-) Meanwhile, beautiful blonde Valerie Thompson set her 7th land speed record on her BMW S1000RR at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. 208.81 mph on what is basically a street bike, just with the mirrors removed for aerodynamic fine tuning (MPS-G 1000 (literbike) class).
Comments(3) : Monday, September 22, 2014
Jings! Crivvens! Help ma Boab! :-(Sadly the Naysayers were in the majority and Scotland has missed its chance to become an independent nation.So its back to feeding from crumbs off the Westminister table. Let's just hope that the Brit politicians remember their promises of more freedoms, rights and self-management by the local Scottish parliament. As part of the "vote no" campaign, British Prime Minister Cameron promised that if the Scots voted NO, that the British government would cede (or "devolve") more power to Scotland. Bet he conveniently "forgets" that :-( And of coarse(sic!), the Naysayers were so ill-informed that they even marched with the Union flag held upside down :-( If you Naysayers don't even know what your Brit national flag looks like, maybe you should have been excluded from voting to stay Brits! :-( Instead, what we got was deliberate vote-rigging e.g. by this vote-counter :-( There were NO winners :-( And the sad thing is that such a capable man as Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond saw fit to resign :-( Sunday, September 21, 2014
World Alzheimer DayToday (Sunday 21st) is World Alzheimer Day... and I remembered :-)So this blogpost is dedicated to all those loving and CARING people, husbands, wives, brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, and the nurses and staff in geriatric homes everywhere who look after the Alzheimer sufferers. Forgotten, but not gone! So this is for you. Let me say Thankyou on behalf of all your patients :-) Comments (1) : Friday, September 19, 2014
Vincents @ Tonenburg :-)Last weekend, the Vincent Owners Club had a biker meet at Tonenburg castle (a bikers-only hotel) which is barely an hour's ride from where I live, so I popped over on friday afternoon to take a look and interview about a dozen Vincent owners and riders :-)
The Vincent was the Brit superbike of the 1950s, a 1000cc V-twin and a 500cc single (the Comet). Back in 1965 the 59 club published this poem of mine about one. Rare as hens' teeth nowadays and thus expensive. So it was nice to see so many of them together and meet their owners. The oldest particpant was Werner Jährig, in his eighties, who has ridden this 1947 Shadow sidecar outfit since 1962. He rode over from Oberhausen on it for the Tonenburg weekend meet. Werner also owns a Moto Guzzi Mille GT outfit, Michael Burkert tells me.
Werner was accompanied by Michael Kamper on his Norvin. A Norvin has a Vincent 1000cc V-twin engine in a Norton Featherbed frame (renowned for its excellent handling). Michael bought a 1951 D-Shadow in bits three years ago and built this Norvin himself. It weighs a mere 202 kg, despite having a sidecar-capable frame. With a Manx frame it might weigh 10 kg less(?). Michael uses Maxton forks which he regards as an improvement over the original Norton Roadholders. Others teased him about his "Oil sardine" as the engine was losing a few drops of oil (see photo below). Since Michael lives near Neuss, he managed to get a neat registration number, NE-RO 51 (George Brown's unsupercharged first works sprinter was called "Nero" ;-).
Next interviewee was Ernst Hegeler (aged 73) who owns this Norvin (FRI-FZ1) some 4 years now. The frame dates from 1968 but he built the motor himself. He has had Vincents since 1968, a Lightning for the road and then used it for racing. He prefers the Roadholder forks on his slimline-framed Norvin. He also built his own generator and ignition for this bike, putting it up front and adding a home-built electric starter where the generator used to be. He changed the primary drive to a belt drive and uses Mikuni carbs. And that looks like a John Tickle 2LS front drum brake to me :-)
In the photo below we see Horst Tannhauser (68) who 'popped over' from the Canary Islands just to take part on this 1949 Rapide (FRI-TE83) which also belongs to Ernst (see above). Dedication!
Next I talked to Gill Windeatt(53), Hon.Sec. of the UK branch who had come over on a Triumph Bonneville and Ernie Lowinger (72) who came on his Ducati ST4. They have a garage full of Vincents, but these were playing up and not regarded as 100% reliable for the long trip from GB. So no photo ;-) Willem Klaaskate (NL) came on a Harley, so no photo for him either ;-) Vince Lonsdale(43) (yes, he IS named after the Vincent) came on the 1955 Series D Shadow shown below which belonged to his father and which - he proudly claims - has been in the family longer than he has :-)
Next interviewee was Michael Burkert (62) who came down from Hamburg on a 1950 Rapide (HH-Z1139) which he has modified considerably (no matching numbers); I noticed the Amal carbs. His longest trip on it has been down to Augsburg in Bavaria. Michael is the guy who organised this Vincent meet and to whom all thanks are due for doing so!
The only 500cc Comet which I saw there belongs to Erich Kruse (78). It dates from 1953; he has owned it since 1979, importing it from Holland then. He races it (e.g. in Schotten) and has won several prizes with it. The wheels he built himself, the saddle he sewed himself too. The saddle bags are bicycle bags, but they suited the Comet nicely :-)
The next photo I took was of an Egli Vincent, note the nickeled frame and the DBD34 "Goldie" 'silencer' (for want of a better word ;-).
Sadly I couldn't find the owner ( The Egli had the traditional huge Smiths chronometric speedo and a large chronometric Smiths rev-counter whose scale went far too high ;-) Then Kai Heide (52) rolled up on a second Comet, this is a Comet C dating from 1950 which Kai has owned since 2000. His major modification has been the addition of disc brakes to cope with the added load of sidecar work. Kai also pointed out to me that Vincent rear wheels usually have two sprockets, one on each side, so that you can change easily from solo to sidecar gearing just by flipping the rear wheel around! Clever design! Next I talked to Calle Sööblom (62) who had ridden XXF 604 over 900 kms from Sweden to attend! It is a 1954 Shadow he bought in 2000 and which has caused absolutely no problems. He has added disc brakes and a touring fairing and panniers, riding the 60 yr. old bike as far south as Italy. Finally I talked to Vincent (guess where he got his name from!) Speet (55) who came on his 1949 Shadow ZF 08-62 which he has owned for about 4 or 5 years, blueprinting and overhauling it himself, then ridden all the way down to the Santander Rallye in Spain! Faith in your own work ! :-)
I'm not sure that I have spelled everyone's name correctly. If not, perhaps they or Michael Burkert could mail me (mail (at) savory (dot) de) with corrections. I only spent an hour there so this was only half the bikes, there were plenty more, but I missed their owners and my time ran out; sorry! The permanent link for this particular blog entry, Vincent fans, is http://www.savory.de/blog_sep_14.htm#20140919 if you ever need to refer to it. Comments (4) : Wednesday, September 17, 2014
Speed trap marathon day tomorrow :-(This is just to remind my German readers to drive carefully tomorrow. Politicians have decided that "Speed kills" and are demonizing it. So they are dedicating as much police time as possible for 24 hours to operating speedtraps in the hope of catching the unwary. Obviously this is cheaper and more lucrative than actually investing road tax funds for the purpose for which they were intended, viz. keeping the roads in good condition and free of potholes etc.Now we still do have sections of the autobahn free of speed limits, so if it is your wont, you can get out there early on a sunday morning (thus no truck traffic) and blast down the autobahn as fast as you like (in this case at 288 km/h = almost 180 mph (& 1000 rpm still to go on the rev-counter)) Of course, there are places where speed limits are appropriate: Near schools, kindergartens, old folks homes, built-up areas, pubs(sic!), indeed anywhere unwary(sic!) people might wander into the traffic. But there are drivers who ignore even those, like this Berlin BMW car driver, caught doing 112 mph in a 50mph road-building-site zone :-( He got a hefty fine and forfeited his licence for several months. As I implied earlier, some of the speed limit signs seem rather arbitrary; limit signs get put up often because it is cheaper than fixing the roads :-( And others are superfluous, just examples of the nanny state wanking :-( Presumably none of you are stupid enough to think that officially documenting your maximum speed is going to increase the resale value of your vehicle!
Keep your licence clean and your eyes open tomorrow! ;-) Comments (1) : Monday, September 15, 2014
Riaghaltas na h-Alba ! :-)That headline today is in Gaelic and means Scottish Government! As an ex-pat Scot living in Germany I don't get to vote in thursday's referendum :-( So this is my appeal to those of you living in bonny Scotland to vote "Aye"/"Yes" on the question of independence :-)If you intend voting "Yes" for Scotland's independence, go to your polling station on thursday 18th september and do so. Naysayers should go to the polling station on friday 19th to vote "No". You can't say fairer than that ;-) Here's a link to Scotland's referendum blog. Sassenachs may ignore this post. Comments (6) : Friday, September 12, 2014
Gyrocopter Flight :-)One of the items on my bucket list of things to do before I die WAS a gyrocopter flight. Now I can check that off the list. Here are some of the photos I took - and the first is one that SWMBO took :-)Zipping up against the cold breeze in an open cockpit reminded me of my days flying old biplanes (Bücker Jungmann, Stearman duster, etc). This is the autogyro's instrument pod. L2R top row are Rotor speed (1900-3200 rpm), Altimeter (700 feet a.m.s.l airfield elevation), airspeed indicator, an orange watch added as an afterthought, and the engine oil pressure gauge. L2R bottom row are rev-counter, main circuit-breaker, radio, variometer, oil temperature and cylinder-head temperature. No compass! Climbing out through 400 feet ground, I missed getting a good shot of Herbert's farm and got the rear left wheel spat instead. Oops! :-( Circling south of our village I got a good shot of our house (ringed here). Also, a spectacular shot of Wewelsburg castle, Germany's best-known triangular castle (there are only 2 or 3 of them). Now a youth-hostel. I also got a good photo of the wind-damage done to the grain crops by the thunderstorms we had just last week. Crop too wet to be saved :-( Then turned back to the airfield (EDLP) because it was starting to rain. Thanks here to Peter Schmitz at www.LetsRotate.de for a half hour of fun - and a shorter bucket list now :-) Comments (2) : Thursday, September 11, 2014
Torsten's taxi gone :-(Local german blogger Torsten, who used to drive a taxi in our local town of Paderborn and blogged about his adventures in the Taxi Blog has quit his job as a taxi driver after nine(?) years and is now starting afresh (at the ripe old age of 43) in a call-center for a large energy-provider. We'll all miss his taxi blog, but I hope we'll soon be hearing "Tales from a call-center" if his new employer allows such a blog.Blogfriend Renke and I shared a ride in Torsten's taxi a few years ago, so he is one of the few (a score?) bloggers whom I have actually met in the flesh. Here's wishing Torsten all the best in his new job; but no, I'm happy with my present energy provider thanks lad :-) Wednesday, September 10, 2014
The new 10 Euro NoteS tarting on 23rd September, a new 10 Euro note will be issued. These are the security features to look for.At position A : as you tip the note back and forth the colour of the number 10 changes from green to blue and a stripe moves up and down. At position B : there is a watermark showing the mythological figure of the goddess Europa. At position C : there is a vertical security stripe which appears dark when held up to the light. At position D : there are four holograms, Goddess Europa, a window, then the € symbol and the denomination (10). At position E : there are tactile stripes at the right edge which you can feel. Source : European Central Bank. PS: Whenever there is a change of currency there is an increased number of counterfeits, so keep your eyes peeled. BTW, the existing €10 notes retain their validity too. PPS: Note that the signature of M.Draghi (upper left) cannot IN ANY WAY be regarded as a security feature, even by the ECB (my emphasis) ;-) Comments (1) : Monday, September 8, 2014
Ice Bucket Challenge rejectedNo, I shall NOT be doing the Ice Bucket Challenge. What started life as a "Genteel Cubicle Hack" to collect money for a deserving charity (ALS research) since got anagrammed into "Ice Bucket Challenge" and has gone downhill from there.Whilst I have no objection to obscenely rich people giving money to charities, I do object to VUPs* becoming public exhibitionists just to prolong their dying careers. Media whoring! :-( This sort of bad behaviour must be discouraged. Give to charity by all means, but stop the incessant self-glorification! That's what blogs are for ;-)
Friday, September 5, 2014
Nude celeb photos hacked ;-)So I saw a link to the headline shown in this screenshot, with the subtitle "including close-ups", obviously designed to interest those of the prurient persuasion, and clicked on the "nude celeb" link...However, the photo was a close-up indeed; how disappointing ;-) This shows why everything in the Cloud is really "in the pub(l)ic domain" ;-) Macabre photoshopped humour aside, this PR "catastrophe" shows just how untrustworthy Cloud services are. Cameras and phones that AUTOMATICALLY upload everything to the Cloud :-( Keep your data - and photos are data - local, don't go sharing them with Welsh carrots, photoshoppers, hackers, GCHQ, the NSA and similar criminal elements! Comments (1) : Wednesday, September 3, 2014
Wasserkuppe revisitedOn the way home we stopped for lunch at the top of the Wasserkuppe, German's main gliding centre. Many years ago I spent a vacation there flying their tow planes for them and was rewarded with a rare catapult-start flight on a SG38, "Broomstick" glider, the mainstay pre-WW2 training glider. Single seat, no instruments, glide angle only about 1:10 :-(We spent a pleasant couple of hours in Germany's sailplane museum. Here is a shot of one of the rooms there, filled with classic sailplanes. Then we lunched on the tower terrace and watched the launching action. This is a Robin DR180 doing the tow, which I also used 3+ decades ago. There was a queue of gliders waiting for a tow and a dearth of tow pilots, so I cautioned Frank not to mention that I am licensed to tow, otherwise I would have been tied up there for the rest of the day! :-( Around 6 pm we got home, having sat out a rainstorm in a roadside cafe´. Ten days, around 3000 kms, averaging 60km/h, just under 5 hours rolling time each day. The rest of the time was spent sightseeing, etc. Very enjoyable ride, but tiring at my age (70). Trip report now finished. Monday, September 1, 2014
PottensteinSunday morning we had to leave the Alps and head for our next overnight stay, in picturesque Pottenstein (northern Bavaria).Pottenstein is a tiny town nestled in a narrow valley with steep sides. It houses a museum of medieval "justice", here's a photo of the guillotine. The museum itself is painted red, we were assured it was only oxblood ;-) The photo on the left shows a bejewelled chastity belt about 1000 years old. The photo on the right shows a sign on one of the breweries. Other towns of this size might have nine pubs, Pottenstein has nine breweries! Next morning as we headed for the Wasserkuppe (see next post), I took Frank to the Kathe Braue, biker meet, beergarden, brewery and general party pub, which I remembered from previous overnighters there :-) As it was early and we would be riding all day, we only had a coffee there though :-( . . . road trip report to be finished next posting . . . |
Recent Writings
The Screwtape Letters Unplugged :-( Rosh Hashanah Eppur si muove! Jings! Crivvens! :-( World Alzheimer Day Vincents @ Tonenburg :-) Speed trap day tomorrow Riaghaltas na h-Alba ! Gyrocopter Flight :-) Torsten's taxi gone :-( The new 10 Euro Note Ice Bucket Challenge Nude celeb photos Wasserkuppe Pottenstein Dachstein Grossglockner Lunch @ The Speck Alm Kaunertal Glaciers... Achensee, Gerlos Pass... On the road again :-) A round (of) Pythagoras Fields medal 2014 Blogroll Ain Bulldog Blog Badtux... Balloon Juice Cop Car Curmudgeonly... Earth-Bound Misfit Echidne of the snakes Fail Blog Finding life hard? Hattie (Hawaii) Making Light Mockpaperscissors Mostly Cajun Murr Brewster Not Always Right Observing Hermann Pergelator Rants from t'Rookery Scary Duck Spork in the drawer Squatlo Rant The Alternate Brain The Magistrate's Blog Toxic Drums XE Express Yellowdog Grannie Archive 2014: Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Archive 2013: Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Archive 2012: Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Archive 2011: Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Archive 2010: Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Archive 2009: Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec 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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