Eunoia : Stu Savory's Blog

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Nav Tools --> Most recent Blog Comments are OFF, so send any via Email to :- Comments Policy DSGVO Impressum Maths trivia Search this site RSS Feed About 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 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 My Maths Pages	Friday, February 26, 2021 Chapter and Verse We (SWMBO and I) were discussing the news a few days ago and saw the headline "Rush Limbaugh dead". So I quoted the Bible , saying "... when the wicked perish there are shouts of gladness" and SWMBO asked where that came from, so I said "Proverbs 11:10, chapter and verse". So I then had to explain the idiom "Chapter and Verse" letting people locate quotations from their Bible. Nowadays you can just Google the text and Google will return the Chapter and Verse for you, but in my youth one committed maybe a hundred of the more famous quotations to memory. Thankyou sunday school for occupying chunks of my memory which could have been put to better use! Jesus wept! [John 11:35] ;-) But it wasn't always like that. If you look at early Bibles, there are no chapters and no verses, just a continuous stream of text. The photo below is of the first printed Bible, the Gutenberg Bible, printed in 1450 AD, there were 180 printed afaik. The second photo (below) shows part of the Old Testament (Epistle of St Jerome). Again, neither chapter nor verse. There is no significance afaik to the use of red ink at the top of the page. The beautifully illustrated initials are not separators, they're just there where the monks who did the handwritten versions previously wanted the page to look pretty. The text is in Latin, if you are struggling to read it. Accents show the intended pronunciation. There is not just one bible. Various sects decided what to include; the Hebrew bible, Samaritan Pentateuch, Septuagint, Catholic, Protestant just as examples. The (sic!) Bible was divided into chapters in the 13th century by Stephen Langton and into verses in the 16th century by French printer Robert Estienne and is now usually cited by book, chapter, and verse. This became possible by standardising on a canonical version (in England, on the KJV, King James Version, in 1611 AD). Since then, other versions and translations have been produced, but the idiom "Chapter and Verse" generally refers to the KJV produced by a team of academics of the day. Apropos the authors of the KJV: Look at Psalm 46. Count 46 words in from the start; that word is "Shake". Count 46 words back from the end; that word is "Spear". How about that for a 1611 AD easter-egg hint :-) Copyright ^© Ole Phat Stu on February 26, 2021 permalink Comments Email Sunday, February 21, 2021 RIP Hans-Werner Grosse Hans-Werner Grosse, the legendary sailplane pilot, died on thursday at age 98. He held over 50 world records in gliding. Perhaps the most famous was a "straight-line" flight on 25. April 1972 from Lübeck in northern Germany to Biarritz on the border to Spain in the south of France, flying an ASW 12 over 1461 km in 11½ hours. He had still altitude enough to fly on and into Spain, but no maps of Spain, so he wisely decided to land before dusk in Biarritz :-) That record still holds! I only met the great man once, when I was duty tow-pilot for the day, but had a short chat with him. Must have been about 30 years ago. Now he'll be above the clouds rather than below them, but always soaring on high! There's a nice in-cockpit interview on You Tube here, but it is in German. Comments (1) Billions of Versions... wrote " Not [even] you can break that record!" So true. I'm a powered aircraft person, Mike. Of my 5000+ hours, I have less than 50 hours in sailplanes and similar in hang gliders. I'm not very good at 'reading the thermals'. I am rated to tow sailplanes/banners etc but otherwise I have not much contact to the gliding scene. I am happy though to say I have flown an SG38 (pre-war open) primary glider a few times :-) Copyright ^© Ole Phat Stu on February 21, 2021 permalink Comments Email Wednesday, February 17, 2021 Government Corona Policy Q & A Today I want to explain (if that's humanly possible) our German government's Covid-19 policy. To keep it simple - like our politicians - I'm phrasing it in the form of 20 questions and their honest answers :- Q : Once I've been inoculated, can I stop wearing this stupid mask? A : No! Q : Can all the restaurants, bars, hairdressers etc reopen and work normally now? A : No! Q : Once I've had (both) jabs, am I 100 % resistant against getting Covid-19? A : No. We can't guarantee that. Q : Well, can I then no longer infect others? A : No. We can't guarantee that. Q : Well, once we inoculate all the children, will all the schools be reopened? A : No! Q : But when I have all my jabs, can I stop all this social distancing thing? A : No! Q : If I suffer from strong side-effects of the jabs, is the jab-maker liable? A : No! Q : If my grandad and I both get inoculated, can we embrace again? A : No! Q : If I and all my friends get inoculated, can we meet each other again? A : No! Q : Nevertheless, if everybody is convinced by your policies and want jabs, have you at the very least ordered enough jabs for everybody? A : No! Q : Well, have you asked the Russians in the last 6 months for some of their jabs? A : No! Q : Okay, how about China? A : No! Q : Ah ha. How about Cuba? A : No! Q : If, statistically speaking, the virus is not going to kill me, why should I get a jab? A : To protect others. Q : Well, if I still get inoculated, can these others be 100% sure I won't infect them? A : No! Probably not. Q : Will the lockdown end ~~(on Valentine's day as promised?) or~~ when the weekly incidence rate drops below 50 35? A : No. We can't guarantee that. Q : Will theatres, cinemas and stadia reopen then thanks to all the inoculations? A : No. We can't guarantee that. Q : Well why should I get the jabs then? A : So the virus doesn't kill you! Q : Are you sure the inoculations themselves won't kill me? A : No. The virus might mutate further. Q : Just why do you think the virus might mutate more? A : Because we're inoculating so much. . . . and so on and so forth :-( Copyright ^© Ole Phat Stu on February 17, 2021 permalink Comments Email Sunday, February 14, 2021 Valentine's day 2021 In any normal year - one without any Covid lockdown / restrictions - we used to treat ourselves to a luxury dinner & evening out, maybe with a show etc and we wouldn't bother with the roses and huge boxes of Belgian chocolates both with the inevitable mark-up that this date brings to their prices. But due to the lockdown we have had to stay at home and so are having a much simpler Valentine's day today. Instead of the exorbitantly priced Chilean roses, I bought SWMBO 31 tulips today. Why 31? This year come june we will have been married for 31 years. That's a good a reason for 31 as any :-) Instead of going out for a luxury meal, I had the local baker make us a delicious Sachertorte (that's a Vienniese chocolate cake), but with my recipe, using raspberry filling instead of apricot jam. Still nicely moist though :-) As you can tell from the photo below, it was very favourful, washed down with a wild-berry bubbly sekt (a russian-style red champagne) :-) Temperature is much warmer today (-13°C) , ten degrees warmer than it was on friday in Brilon; and it is likely we get positive temperatures by tuesday. Otherwise, we're not expecting Spring until april. Hope you are all having a good time too, and that your Valentine's day was enjoyable too :-) Comments (5) Cop Car wrote " At first, I thought you had put Hunky Husband to shame by making the luscious-looking Sachertorte; but then I noted that your baker made it. (The 31 tulips was a nice touch, Stu.) Most of us in the northern hemisphere are feeling the cold, these days. It was -22C, here, when I went to bed last night and when I arose this morning; but, we are supposed to soar to -18C in the heat of the day. The coldest that I recall experiencing here in south central Kansas USA was -17C in about 1960. It was cold walking across the Boeing-Wichita flight line that day with a 30 mph wind. I don't really recall the wind speed from that day; but, the winds yesterday gave us a wind chill in the -35C to -40C or F range. (I do recall in general science class, in primary school, that we were required to figure out at what temperature C = F and, as you noted, those of us who did the computation correctly found -40 degrees.) CC (C will always be Centigrade to this oldster!)" Now we have 1°C warm rain on deep-frozen ground, so it's VERY slippery; invisible, black ice. Doug (Canada) found THIS special deal on sale at his supermarket :-) Morag (UK) notes that "Tulips here in the UK just have petals around the outside and a stamen inside. Your tulips seem to have petals in all the inside too. Are they a special kind? " Don't know. I'd have to ask a florist. Mine came from Holland and were labelled as Double Tulips, whatever that means. Cop Car corrected herself " In reading the comments on your posting, I just realized that there was one temperature that I failed to convert from F to C. My -17C was actually -17F which converts to -27C." Okay. Denise (UK) admonishes me "Like most people, you're cutting that (round) cake wrongly. You have cut two wedges and put the Pac-Man shaped rest back in the fridge, leaving two exposed edges which will dry out. You should cut across the whole cake, a centimeter left and right of the diameter, you can halve your slice to get two pieces. The rest you put back in the fridge with the open edges pushed together, unexposed, so they remain moist. You can even hold them together with a rubber band. Next day, repeat but at 90 degrees to the first slice, and so on. There are no exposed edges in the rest ever, so it remains moist :-)" Good idea, ma'am, I shall try that in future! Thanks. Copyright ^© Ole Phat Stu on February 14, 2021 permalink Comments Email Monday, February 8, 2021 Motorcycling in Winter :-) Now we are having some unusually cold weather. Despite climate change allegations, we are having blizzards and at least foot of snow daily and siberian cold (-12°C), not the usual german mild mud & sleet winter. So I had a chat with my russian blogreader friend Ivan who was in Novosibirsk (Siberia) last week, just to hear what it was like over there. Temperature peaking at noon friday at -40. That's Minus. Forty. Degrees! And about ten degrees lower at night! If the traffic lights on Kranskky Prospect get stuck on red again, you bikers may have a problem, he quipped icily. When I was younger and fitter I used to ride to the Elephant Rally, held on the 3rd weekend in february, bikers camping at the Nurburgring in the Eifel hills. I couldn't find my old photos, so I googled for one, getting this (below). My first time there (1964?) I made some stupid mistakes, like having a white tent! And not understanding why people often had a flagpole with a unique flag outside their tent (so you could find it in a snowdrift) etc etc. But I was pleasantly surprised how warm it is when the tent is buried by a snowdrift :-) After telling artist friend Rudi Kuhfeld about the 1992 rally, he painted this picture for me (knowing that we are Bulldog fans too). Thanks, Rudi! But this year the Elephant Rally has been cancelled, despite the ideal weather, due to the Covid-19 lockdown travel restrictions :-( Secretly I'm happy with this since I have been suffering from chronic lower back pain for about a month now, and would have chickened out anyway :-( Haven't had chronic lower back pain as bad as this since I fell off my Luge at about 40mph in the early seventies; that took about 3 months to cure back then :-) A Luge is a small toboggan ridden feet first and face up as opposed to a Skeleton which is ridden head first and face down, which I find too scary. But back to motorcycling in the snow. Icy (main?) roads are to be avoided, uncleared back roads are rideable though, although in deep snow you can't really tell if you are riding on the road or the sidewalk or a grass verge or even over a ditch. Biker friend Paul sent me this 6MB MP4 TikTok video illustrating the problem ;-) It's hilarious!!! Comments (4) Ed (USA) asks "Negative forty? But C or F?" FYI, -40°C = -40°F :-) Jenny (Ibiza) notes "It's much warmer here; shame the Covid prevents you from traveling. That video is funny indeed :-)" Expecting -19°C tomorrow :-( Schorsch (D) points out "You only had one Luge? Trump had 30,573 ! " By way of explanation, Luge is the German word for a Lie. David (NY,NY) grins "We can beat Nowosibirsk! Ever since January 20th, we've been at minus forty-five, and thankful for it :-)" Ah, NOW I get it ;-) Copyright ^© Ole Phat Stu on February 8, 2021 permalink Comments Email Monday, February 1, 2021 360° video of the Paderborn cathedral belfry My calender tells me that today (monday) is National Freedom Day in the USA. So I presume there will be celebrations, including the ringing of many bells. Except for the Liberty Bell of course, in Philadelphia, which cracked many years ago. That's also what happened to the Tsar Bell in the Kremlin in Moscow, the world's biggest bell at over 200 tons. I've seen them both but heard neither. So I thought I'd share this bellringing video with you, made in the belfry of the local cathedral in Paderborn. It's a 360° video, so you can explore the belfry by moving your cursor around your screen. Nice sound too. Of course, in the USA, there is also a risk that tRump's seditionist mob will reappear to celebrate THEIR idea of freedom. Let's hope nobody gets hurt. Comments (2) Billions of Versions... noted " Sad to say but I've never heard of National Freedom Day. There were no celebrations. No mention of it. " So, either my calender was wrong, since I saw no mention in the US news either, or one of tRump's rare successes was the removal of freedom from the US? Abe (USA) wrote "No, we celebrate Juneteenth instead." Okay. Copyright ^© Ole Phat Stu on February 1, 2021 permalink Comments Email Link to the previous month's blog.	Recent Writings 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 Murder-Witness ? Alexa! Roast me! French is not always... Not always 5 & 5 digits No More Fucking :-( Local Lockdown Library Extreme Hotels The Sound of Silence Guten Morgan! Unlucky for some :-( 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? Greg Laden Hackwhackers Infidel753 Mockpaperscissors Observing Hermann Pergelator Scotties Toybox Silicon Graybeard Starts with a Bang Yellowdog Grannie Archive 2021: Jan Feb 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 : 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've written