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Eunoia
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Oh, and after the death of his old dog, Kosmo, he also has a new bulldog puppy, Clara, since September 2018 :-)
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Tuesday, April 27, 2021
Nice Curves!Several biker readers have asked me over the winter months for tips about nice curvy roads for bikers, preferably showing videos. I don't take videos because they seduce you into showing off, riding faster than is sensible. So I've just linked to a couple of YouTube videos (which confirm my theory) instead.I'm showing you two routes I liked riding, Mulholland Drive near Malibu (Los Angeles) in the USA and the San Boldo pass which tunnels through the Alps in northern Italy. 
I last rode the Snake (Mulholland Highway and Mulholland Drive) in the late 90´s on a hired Honda Blackbird 1100XX. Since then it has become VERY overcrowded at the weekends. mostly by bikers and some sportscars. Here is a video of the excessive bike traffic there. Unfortunately, a non-negligable portion of these weekend-warriors overestimate their abilities, go faster than they can (due to showing off), and crash :-( Aged 76, I now ride slower and enjoy some fantastic roads and scenery. Here is a spectacular road in the Italian alps, the San Boldo pass which tunnels through the Alps! 
There is a good video here of the alternating one-way (tidal flow) section here. Enjoy! Biker-friend Frank is particularly enthusiastic about the San Boldo pass road. Note that there is MUCH less traffic, it's a tip for tourist-style biking. Frank rides his Yamaha FJR1300 on these trips. I downsized to a Triumph Street Triple after my own FJR1300, see clickable photos of both bikes on the left sidebar.
Tuesday, April 20, 2021
Royal-Air-Force Museum Duxford GBNo thanks to Covid travel restictions, lockdown and hotels/restaurants being closed, I haven't been making many motorcycle trips this year. Which is why you are getting a rehash of older M/C trips today. These are photos taken by my old petrol-head friend Paul Gockel on a visit to the Royal-Air-Force Museum in Duxford (GB). He has graciously given me permission to use them.The Royal-Air-Force Museum in Duxford is specialised in restoring planes etc from WW2, showing (and flying) the restored WW2 aircraft, and opening their workshop hangars to show us their work-in-progress. In no particular order, here is a Stringbag biplane torpedo-bomber such as were used to help sink the Bismarck. Built by Fairey afaik. 
This photo below shows a downed Me109 / Bf109 with a member of the Home Guard keeping watch on it to prevent souvenir hunters stealing pieces. I've had to cover the swastika on the rudder fin to comply with current German laws about not using Nazi symbols. Prop-blades bent back due to a wheels-up crash landing. 
This is a V-1 German flying bomb, the first (subsonic) cruise missile, on its ramp. 
Below is a Bf109G German fighter, with a Focke-Wulf 190 in the background. Neither with the characteristic yellow nose for identification in dogfights. Swastikas covered up by me to comply with current German laws about not using Nazi symbols, as explained above. 
Close-up of the crankcase of a twin-row radial engine, without its cylinders in place. As seen in a work-in-progress restoration hangar. 
The next two photos are also work-in-progress, showing biplanes used e.g. by the Royal Navy as torpedo bombers. 
Below is an american P51D Mustang fighter; restauration work-in-progress. 
Finally, the two stalwart Brit fighters of WW2; this is a Hawker Hurricane. 
And this is a Spitfire with a second cockpit added aft (for tourist/publicity flights and for (rich!) pilots getting their type ratings). 
Comments (3)
Tuesday, April 13, 2021
Yuri Gagarin orbital anniversaryYesterday was the 60th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's first orbit of the Earth, the first man in space. I apologise for forgetting to blog about it/him and thank Ivan for his email admonishing me :-)So it was on April 12th 1961 that Yuri Gagarin, a 27 year old fighter pilot, was launched into an elliptical orbit around the Earth lasting 108 minutes, the first cosmonaut. The flight was controlled from the ground, that was the way the USSR did things, so Gagarin was mostly just a passenger. In fact he only had 4 switches in his spacecraft. For comparison, Alan Shephard (USA) had 56 for his 15 minute sub-orbital lob a few weeks later. 
The spacecraft was an R-7 ICBM rocket developed by the team of Sergei Pawlowitsch Koroljow, the USSR version of Wernher von Braun. The R-7 had launched the Sputnik back in 1957. In slightly modified form it is still used for the Sojuz rocket; tried and true, Reliable! By january 1961 three candidates had been chosen for the ride, Yuri Gagarin, German Titow, and Grigori Neljubow. But Sputnik 9, which flew on March 9th, had a dummy called Iwan Iwanowitsch and a dog on board the Wostok capsule. The Wostok back then was not built for a landing, so Iwan Iwanowitsch was ejected to land safely by parachute; I assume the dog stayed on board and crashed :-( On April 8th Gagarin was chosen for the orbital flight; he was only 157 cms tall and so fitted easily into the capsule. Upon return, he too ejected and landed by parachute, a fact the Soviets hid for almost a decade! 
After a safe landing, secrecy was released and much press publicity was made with photos of Gagarin in his spacesuit. He had a photogenic smile :-) I was seventeen at the time and much fascinated by the news. Gagarin was subsequently sent on a propaganda tour to other countries. I remember this photo of him with the then UK Prime Minister (Harald MacMillan) and being surprised at how small Gagarin was, only 5 ft 2 inches. 
Gagarin died when his MiG-15 fighter jet crashed in bad weather several years later; I've seen the plaque on the Kremlin brick wall where his remains are interred. Read more about him in his detailled Wikipedia page. Comments (3)
Thursday, April 8, 2021
The Number of the BeastAs you may know, Biblical numerology is the use of numbers to convey a meaning outside of the numerical value of the actual number being used. Happens in the Torah and in the Bible too. One passage, KJV (King James Version), Revelations 13:18, gets everyone curious; it reads "... Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast:... and his number is Six hundred threescore and six."With this is mind, use the usual biblical numerological trick of assigning numerical values to each of the letters (in English, since this was the language used in the KJV). Thus A=1, B=2, C=3 all the way through to Z=26. Then write down a word we all now know, CORONA, vertically in the left column, counting one for each letter at the bottom of that column, so getting 6. In the right column write the numerical value assigned to each letter and sum these at the bottom of the right column. Now see what you get when you juxtapose the numbers at the base of the table. 
CORONA = 666, the Number of the Beast :-( But while we're talking about Corona, the good news is that SWMBO and I had our first jabs yesterday. The Biontech variant. Second jabs due mid-may, so we are just 6 weeks behind Yellow Dog Grannie , we are now expecting immunity by june. Comments (4)
Monday, April 5, 2021
Easter Eggs in high quality :-)Over the years, we have found that the quality of factory-made easter eggs has gotten worse. We don't like Hershey's US chocolate and Cadbury's Creme Egg isn't even made of chocolate any more, Wikipedia phrases it carefully as "... a chocolate-like confection..." :-( So this year we decided to lash out on easter eggs hand-made by a professional chocolatier, each about half as big as a rugby ball, made from dark chocolate and split almonds, hollowed out and containing over 20 pralines of various flavours. Delicious, just as good as we remembered from decades ago!
They survived the parcel post since Herr Haberstroh had labelled them as "Fragile : glass!" :-) Once opened they were to be seen in all their glory :-
We can thoroughly recommend these traditional easter eggs. Here are the German contact details for Mr. Haberstroh, including his web-page.
 Cost? Yes, they are not cheap. Including shippage for two ostrich-egg-size ones, they cost about €34 each. A bargain for their fantastic quality though! PS: Contain no preservatives, so not suitable for shipping overseas. Sorry :-(
Friday, April 2, 2021
Misheard Lyrics @ Easter
If you wanted to hear what the original lyrics might have sounded like, here it is, recited in Aramaic, a widespread language used in Palestine around 33 AD. Like Susan coughing up Evergreen phlegm that was blocking Sue's passage.
Link to the previous month's blog.
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Recent Writings
Nice Curves! RAF Museum Duxford Yuri Gagarin anniversary The Number of the Beast Easter Eggs Misheard Lyrics @Easter Toad mating season Famous female scientists Mike the Bike RIP Sabine Schmitz On St. Patrick's Day Roadkill To the barber at last Earth is flat ;-) Easy Covid Math Chapter and Verse RIP Hans-Werner Grosse Corona Policy Q & A Valentine's day 2021 Motorcycling in Winter :-) 360° video of a belfry No Privacy on WhatsApp FTP problems Minus fortyfive Laws of Nature 2.0 Thank you Georgia Quadratic equations Give generously ? Dead Stick Landing Salmon Pie Local call from ET ? My last Great Conjunction 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 Observing Hermann Pergelator Scotties Toybox Silicon Graybeard Starts with a Bang Yellowdog Grannie Archive 2021: Jan Feb Mar Archive 2020: Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Archive 2019: Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Archive 2018: Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Archive 2017: Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec 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 : F?r alle Seiten, die auf dieser Website verlinkt sind, m?chte ich betonen, dass ich keinerlei Einfluss auf deren Gestaltung und Inhalte habe. Deshalb distanziere ich mich ausdr?cklich von allen Inhalten aller gelinkten Seiten und mache mir ihren Inhalt nicht zu eigen. This Blog's Status is 
Blog Dewey Decimal Classification : 153FWIW, 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've written
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