Icarus . . .

30 years ago this week Steve Jobs introduced the MacIntosh.

Bill Gates and I fell out of the sky that week. In my case literally :-(

I spent five months in hospital, shattered left arm, thrice-broken right leg, a couple of ribs. Time healed. And when I was healed, I flew my hang-glider again a couple of times, just to prove to myself that I wasn't chicken. Then I moved over to regular small planes for some other adventures. But I spent some time reflecting where a sense of adventure ends and foolhardiness begins. Sometimes you think Mother Nature is the opponent, but the only opponent is yourself, overestimating yourself.

One of my other lifelong adventures has been (and still is) motorcycling. Ever since I read Jupiter's Travels by Ted Simon, about his travels around the world on a Triumph motorcycle in the '70s, I've wanted to do it too. But I just recently bought myself the 3 DVD set of The Long Way Round, wherein Charley Boorman and Ewan McGregor (one of the incarnations of Obi Wan Kenobi) did ride their motorbikes Around the world. Yes, Ewan, that's Around, not Round; learn to spell please! So I now realise what an impossible dream that is. They planned well, trained hard, had an efficient support team, a doctor and 3 trucks following them, and a seemingless endless supply of money (Star wars stars do ;-). But looking at the DVDs I see how hard, hard, effing hard it is to do. I no longer have the physical fitness, nor mental stamina, nor the deep pockets nor sheer willpower to do what they did. Well done, the whole team!

I can thoroughly recommend the DVD set to all my biking readers, Carl, Haggiswurst, Doc C42, Older but no wiser, indeed, all and sundry. It is in English, but you can turn on subtitles in a variety of languages. In the meantime I will restrict my motorcycle travels to countries with tarmac roads (even roads at all), Slovenia and places west.

The small gallery below shows yours truly riding with some friends in the Mosel valley. Sorry about the quality, they are stills from the on-bike DVD Fireblade-Alex made :-)

Copyright ^© Stu Savory on 29th July 2006 at 06:29 CEST permalink Email

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Great Balls of Fire ;-)

It is alleged that the American who "won" this year's Tour de France was using a performance enhancing drug. The papers here say he had a medical plaster stuck on his testicles which dispensed the hormone testosterone. How was this discovered? Perhaps photographic evidence showed that (in violation of the rules) his crossbar was not attached to the bicycle ;-) If Lance was called Armstrong because his arms were strong, I wonder what this guy's future nickname will be ? ;-)

Copyright ^© Stu Savory on 28th July 2006 at 10:48 CEST permalink Email

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Memorial Chat for Mandarin Meg at BlogHer

Friend Frank Paynter is organising an interdenominational(?) memorial service for Mandarin Meg, who died last month. For those who want to participate, the memorial will be being held physically at BlogHer on Friday July 28, from 3:45 to 4:45 (US West Coast Time Zone) in suite 8111 at the Hyatt. A Freenode IRC chat space will be set-up for remote participants. Frank has posted instructions on how to join the IRC chat. The time slot is US-centric :-( It translates to one o'clock in the morning of saturday here in Europe. I doubt whether I'll be awake enough to chat myself, so I sent Frank the speech I wrote on behalf of all us bloggers (which Rob read out at Meg's funeral).

We're all still missing you Michelle; gone, but not forgotten.

Copyright ^© Stu Savory on 27th July 2006 at 06:27 CEST permalink Email

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Up & Down & In & Out, let's do it again . . .

Girls ! You'll just love this guy! He'll get your heart beating wildly. He'll get you screaming out loud and panting for breath. He'll get your knickers in a twist. He'll get you all in a sweat, waving your legs in the air and dying for more, more, more!

Is it Sean Connery? Keanu Reeves? Robbie Williams? No, his name is Werner Stengel and he designs the world's best ever Roller Coasters.

There are some 900 roller coasters in the world and Werner Stengel designed over half of them. Over three thousand million rides so far, on what is the world's safest mode of transportation (of delight?). He'll give you some of the figures from WW 1 aerobatics, a loop, a barrel roll, a zero-gee pushover and even an Immelmann turn. While doing so he keeps the peak acceleration down to 6 g for a maximum of 1 second, or less Gees for longer; healthy people can manage that OK. Fighter pilots and we aerobatic pilots (I was a flying instructor for over ¼ century) are generally fitter and are wearing a Gee-suit (dynamically inflatable trousers) to let us take (say) nine Gees for a highly-banked curve ( centripetal acceleration a = v²/r, where r is the radius of the circle and v is the speed around the perimeter). An Extra 300 aerobatter is rated to pull 12 g positive and push 8 g negative. I can't take that any more :-(

Werner Stengel is 70 this year. He designed his first roller coaster in 1963, it was a departure from the traditional wooden constructions (e.g. Coney Island), because it was made of steel. It was only 40 feet high and the single carriage for only 4 people went at only 54 km/h (~ 33 mph). Nowadays you drop upto 140 meters (460 feet) almost vertically, pulling out at up to 200 km/h over a period of some 4 seconds!

So, now that the summer holidays are here, why don't you head on out to the local amusement park and let Werner Stengel take you through those loops and bunts and rolls and turns for the ride of your life? And if you are too jaded even for that, get an experienced acro pilot to put you through a Lomcevak, because even the talented roller coaster engineer Werner Stengel can't get a roller coaster to do that!

Copyright ^© Stu Savory on 25th July 2006 at 06:25 CEST permalink Email

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Mathemagical Mindreading

C omplying with my blogreaders' request for more maths trick, here's another anaemic arithmetical anecdote. I've tried to write it in such a way that you too, dear blogreaders, can join in too, plugging in your own choice of numbers:-

So we were gathered down at the pub, the usual gang, who for reasons of Aloha-holics Anonny-mouse I shall call A, B, C and his new young maths-student girlfriend, Dee. And your erstwhile narrator, Stu. Young Dee was being warned "Watch out for old Stu over there, he can read your mind, you know!"

"Oh come on, nobody can read minds! I'll bet you can't read MY mind, Stu!"

"I don't read the minds of minors, Dee, so you're safe with me." (leer)

"I'm not a minor any more, I'm 23, I'll have you know, Stu!"

"OK, then I'll read your mind, Dee. But first tell me your favourite colour, your favourite kind of car, and your favourite championship soccer player please?"

"Blue, Porsche 911 and Ronaldhino, respectively," said Dee.

"Thankyou, now let's get the others roped in to help you with a bit of maths. You can use pencil and paper or even the bartender's pocket calculator if you want. So, A, now I want you to choose any whole number you like, with any number of digits you like and write it down where I can't see, I'll turn my back! You may want to choose a number short enough though to fit in the calculator if you are going to use it." I said.
You can do this now too, dear blogreader.

"Now it's B's turn. You too can now write down beneath A's number any other number which can be made by using exactly the same digits which A used, and you can mix them up in any new order you like, OK?" You can do this now too, dear blogreader.

"Now it's C's turn, 'cos it's getting a little bit harder, unless you are using the calculator. Calculate the difference between these two numbers and write it down."
You can do this now too, dear blogreader.

"OK, finished." said C "What now?"

"Now it is Dee's turn" I replied, "Dee, add your age, 23 you said, to that number, then divide the result by nine, writing down just the remainder on the back of your beermat and discarding everything else." You can do this now too, dear blogreader.

"Done" she said.

"Now let me touch your forehead while you concentrate on that final result, then I'll read your mind!"

"OK", Dee said guardedly, "But what's the bet?". After a few concentrated seconds I wrote a number on the back of my beermat and gave it to her, number down.

"That's the result you were thinking about, Dee!" I said. "If I'm wrong, I'll buy you that number of drinks, if I'm right, you get to buy me that number of drinks, OK?"

"OK", she said, laughing, "I have 8 chances out of 9 of winning, so here goes :" and flipped over both beermats, hers and mine : both read 5, as does yours, dear blogreader ;-)

See, I can even mindread YOU, across them internets ;-)

US Dems are thinking : How many days does W have left in office today? Nine-eleven (911) of course :-(

Copyright ^© Stu Savory on 23rd July 2006 at 06:23 CEST permalink Email

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Friday Feedback : as you wrote . . .

H aven't done a feedback-of-your-comments post in a while, so let's play catch-up, in which I take your mailed comments and paste them together with my answers to see if they give a coherent tale ;-)

Four Dinners, Caroline and Joy have all asked why I don't do comments (see top of right sidebar)? Well, the law here in Germany makes us wholly responsible for the contents of our websites, including any comments made. That means that I would have to elide any offensive remarks within 24 hrs. Every effing day! Because I don't want to be under that legal obligation, comments are turned off. If you want to comment, send an Email to the address given. I will/may include it in one of these Friday Feedbacks, censored as necessary. Indirect? Yes, but easier on my nerves.

What constitutes 'offensive'? German law prohibits e.g. denial of the holocaust, stirring up racial hatred, making false statements about foreign heads-of-state (e.g. "Dubya is a genius") etc etc. And there are things which I don't want to see here: stupidity, evangelism for ANY religion, porn, excessive bad language and above all comment-spam! As a countermeasure to the latter alone, I'd turn comments off!

Similarly, there are no Email addresses as text here, merely as .gif files. That has defeated the spambots so far, 'cos they can't type in the .gif as you can :-)

I'm glad to see that several of you agree that one cannot underestimate George Bush (that's not possible). I got links about the 'Is this mike live?' Bush/Blair conversation from Annabel, Haggiswurst, and Helen. Also Peter (Harris), Kim (Walker) and Helen (again) pointed me to various articles about Dubya groping Angie at the G8 summit.

I always love reading about about other people's cultures and their everyday lives, so I like to read blogs from far-away places. One such blog is Sotho by Rethabile Masilo who lives in France but blogs about life in Lesotho. Sometimes he uses portmanteau words I don't know, e.g. "Buxi", which I had him explain :- "A buxi is my appellation of what in Kenya is termed a matatu. We have these mini-vans in Lesotho that we load up with passengers enough to threaten their seams. There are no stops, Lesotho buxis stop everywhere to pick up or drop any passenger. I've never understood how they calculate the fare. Someone will yell, "Ak'u nt'sie hukung moo!" Or, "Drop me at the corner, will you?" And the buxi will do just that. Buxis aren't taxis, because those are sedans and they take one passenger for a specific fare. Buxis aren't buses because those have stops and specific fares. And buxi sizes are indeed between taxi and bus. So the word I settled on, as you rightly point out, is a portmanteau of taxi and bus". Still sounds quite rude in German though ;-)

Cowtown Pattie, who "knows How the West Was Won!", wants more tourism style photo blogging; she wrote:- "I don't know how I'd manage it, but boy oh boy, I wished I could spend some touristy time in Germany. Your pictures are gorgeous!"

The Time Lord (Who?), from the UK, sadly reports : Exterminated! Annihilated!

Lots of you wrote to say you enjoyed my Bow Street appearances. Several asked, do I have a criminal record? Yes, I do, just the one. It's an LP by Barry Manilow :-(

Several of you [except Kim, Caroline and Wong Sum (sic!)] want to see more mean (sic!) mental arithmetic tricks. OK, another one coming up next week!

Thanks to all of you who told me your screen sizes and screen resolutions, by which I was able to fine tune this blog's layout, with help from Jane. Thankyou, Jane.

Amongst a dozen others, Winston Rand replied to my slimming post 'Stu Savory's Sixteen Summer Slimming Schemes' asking :- "All that and you'll be fit as a fiddle, skinny as a rail, hungry as a horse, and bored to death... Will you post before and after pix?" Ok Winston, here's a photo of my before, and here of my after ;-)

Copyright ^© Stu Savory on 21st July 2006 at 00:03 CEST permalink Email

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Sitting on top of the world . . .

If you are into hiking, hill-walking or climbing, I have just the place for you to stay in the UK. It is the Pen-y-Gwyrd Hotel, Nant Gwynant, Gwynadd, North Wales, LL55 4NT, UK. Typical welsh, look you, even the postal code starts with a double LL ;-)

The highest mountain in the world, Peak XV was renamed Everest in 1865 after Sir George Everest, one of the men who originally surveyed India, and he , boyo, came from Crickhowell, one of those Welsh valleys. But in 1953 John Hunt gathered 8 men about him to climb Everest for the first time. Their training ground was here in Wales, their base camp was the Pen-y-Gwyrd Hotel. Subsequently, with 13 tons(!) of equipment and over 350 native carriers, their attack on the 1600+ ft East Face succeeded and the names of New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tensing went down (or rather up?) in history. Just in time for H.M Queen Lizzy's coronation, too :-)

When they got back to their training base they signed their names on the low ceiling of the bar, now known as the Everest room. To be visited in respect and reverence. BTW : The bus which stops outside the door belongs to the Sherpa Line ;-)

On the CD-grinder, The Cream are playing "Sitting on top of the world . . ." ;-)

Copyright ^© Stu Savory on 19th July 2006 at 06:19 CEST permalink Email

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Bow Street Magistrates' Court shuts up shop

Another great English tradition has rolled over, popped its clogs, and started pushing up the daisies. The Bow Street Magistrates' Court - I remember it well - closed last friday, the building being sold to an Irish speculator who wants to turn it into a hotel. I spent a night there in 1962 as a 'Guest of Her Majesty' ;-) , of which more later.

I went to City University, London, UK, in the early sixties, which is in the City of London (that's an area of about a square mile at the heart of the sprawling conurbation that is Greater London). The university is not far from e.g. the church of St.Mary-le-Bow^*. If you are born within earshot of that church's bells you may call yourself a cockney. The very first UK police force was called "The Bow Street Runners"; it was set up by author and judge Henry Fielding, whom I suspect Terry Pratchett uses as a model for Sam Vimes in his tales of the Ankh Morpork Watch.
NB, Bow Street was not a long drunken stagger away from our students' hostel.

The Bow Street Runners served the Bow Street Magistrates' Court, or vice versa. It was a court with a long tradition, now sadly over. In 1760 one Casanova appeared there before the famous blind judge Sir John Fielding, a ½-brother of the afore-mentioned founder of the Bow Street Runners. And what crime was Casanova charged with? Assaulting a prostitute! From which we can deduce he wasn't always the successful lover he claimed to be ;-)

Famous gay writer Oscar Wilde was sentenced there for buggering a hotel page boy in the Cadogan Hotel. When the police knocked at his hotel door, he answered the knock by crying out "Just let me get to the bottom of this page"; legend has it that the arresting policeman found neither a magazine nor a book in the room ;-)

Sir Roger Casement's trial for Treason started there in 1916. The treason trial of William Joyce (Lord Haw Haw) took place there. The murdering Doctor Crippen appeared before the Bow court too (there's a Hitchcock movie about it).

And your's truly appeared there in 1962, charged with - if I remember correctly - "Behaviour likely to cause a breach of Her Majesty's Peace" :-)

What had happened? Having left school earlier that year and gone up to university, I discovered girls and beer :-) But I had no real practice handling either of them :-(
My roommate John and I were at a pub somewhere near Bow Street which was up several steps from street level. I got stuck into the Guinness for my first time. Tasted great in the fuggy air of the bar. However, when we went out for some fresh air, the Guinness hit me and I keeled over and rolled down those steps onto the pavement. Unfortunately, a copper had just come around the corner and I landed at his feet, gasping for air. (This is all John's version, BTW, I don't remember any of it ;-) The copper said in his best Dixon-like manner, despite it being bleeding obvious what was happening, "What's going on here then?" Quickwittedly, John replied "He's having an attack of asthma!". The copper turned to me and asked "Is that right sir?" just so that he could smell my breath when I answered (these were the days before breathalysers). I gasped "Yesh Ossifer" and vomited all over his trouser leg & boots!

Needless to say I got nicked, put in a night cell to sober up and appeared before a magistrate the next morning. He let me off with a caution though, as long as I paid for the dry-cleaning of the copper's trousers and personally polished his boots, so I had no record of "Drunk and Disorderly" :-) Thankyou, lenient Bow magistrate!

My second Bow appearance at Her Majesty's Pleasure was about 3 years later. I'd been picked up and carried off from a sit-down peaceful demo. Either for the CND (Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament) or for the release of Nelson Mandela ^** from jail, I can't remember. The magistrate (another one) said "You are not allowed to sit down just anywhere, you know!", so I replied smartly "You're telling me I should stand up for my rights, M'lud? That's exactly what I am doing right now!" Again, with a twinkle in his eye at the pun, he let me off with a caution :-)

Fond memories of Bow Street Magistrates' Court; so long ago! Goodbye, my Beau ;-)

^* On the iPod right now : Oranges and lemons, by The Mixed Fruits ;-)

^** 50 % success rate isn't bad, huh? :-)

Copyright ^© Stu Savory on 17th July 2006 at 06:17 CEST permalink Email

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16 Summer Diet Tips

B oy am I ever getting fat again! It's all these phat summer barbecues, garden parties, superb soccer desserts with lots of clotted cream, booze-ups, Black Forest gatocks, oh bolleau, am I ever putting on weight (BMI=28) :-(

So it's time for a diet, using light summertime ingredients. Fat ladies and gentlemen around the world, sit down and listen, pull up two chairs, I give you :-

The acronym suggests the sound of air escaping from an overfilled balloon ;-)

1. Drink water, at least 2 litres daily (=0.2 l/hour). But NOT cold. If you drink warm tapwater at 22°C it will cause your body to consume an additional 200 calories daily because it increases your calorific burn-rate.
2. Adding peppermint, banana or apple aroma will trick your brain into suppressing those hunger signals; you could lose 5 lbs/month without dieting :-)
3. Eat cherries. They are an ideal snack, 100 grams only have 60 calories, and they contain lots of pectin which improves digestion. Cherries also regulate your blood sugar levels well thus preventing those hot-hunger attacks.
4. Breakfast well and you will eat less calories over the day. Oatmeal with fresh fruit. Mate´ tea (no sugar) helps prevent those hot-hunger attacks too. If you just have to eat bread rolls, then wholewheat which contains chromium, preventing hunger signals from reaching the brain. A small banana mornings and evenings contains tryptophan from which our bodies make serotonin which prevents frustration-eating and helps us sleep well. Ideal office breaktime snack for civil servants ;-)
5. Between-meal snacks? Eat celery. It's only 17 calories per 100 grams and can prevent hot-hunger attacks for three hours.
6. After your meals - and only then - a cup of Espresso. It stops you getting sleepy from eating and turns up your calorific burn-rate for up to 3 hours.
7. A slice of pineapple before breakfast. It contains bromelin, potassium, iron, and zink and will accelerate your burn-rate, getting rid of extra calories.
8. Eat topinambur instead of potatoes (french fries, chips, etc) with your main meal. It has only 31 calories/100 grams and contains inulin as its main carbohydrate, which is indigestible. So you feel full up but don't add weight. Cook them as you would potatoes, e.g. by boiling them.
9. Zaziki. That's yogurt dip with cucumber and garlic. Ideal sauce for chicken salad.
10. Need a sweet dessert? Try raspberries. Lots of vitamin C which increases your burn-rate. Deep cooled grapes are great, have few calories and lots of vit. C.
11. The cynarin in artichokes sinks your blood fat level and so burns the calories even as you eat.
12. Parsley on all your meals or even eat two tablespoonfuls daily to increase your burn rate. Careful tho', ladies, 'cos parsley is an old wives' trick to induce early natural abortions. Old wives? No. more like young not-yet-weds ;-)
13. 100 grams of watermelon have only 38 calories, honeydew melons only 24 even!
14. Don't sleep more than 7 hours a day, lest you get depressed and thus become susceptible to frustration-eating and getting fat :-(
15. Use olive oil for salads. Even drink 2 tablespoonfuls daily. Increases your burn rate; olive oil is the only fat with which you can lose weight.
16. Finally, get out your bicycle again and go for a 30 minute ride daily. That takes off 2 pounds a week, provided you ride fast enough to pant some of the time.

PS: This blog-entry inspired by this entry in the blog of Wasted Days, Wasted Nights and the associated comments. PPS: If you wanna see something really phat and cool, go look at the photos Mike Golby has posted recently :-)

On the CD-grinder : Sweet little sixteen ;-)

Copyright ^© Stu Savory on 15th July 2006 at 06:15 CEST permalink Email

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Good Riddance, George !

W e can sigh a heave (sic!) of relief, Dubya has left our country (Germany) :-) Yesterday's TV survey was the binary choice "Is President Bush welcome here or not?"; a mere 21% said Yes, 79% said resoundingly No! In true Bushco style (don't listen to your critics) Dubya cancelled a planned (because NOT another carefully orchestrated) town meeting; instead he borrowed a mountain-bike and went for a ride through the Mecklenburg woods. Escapism, anyone? Finally, Merkel and Bush had a barbecue party on thursday evening (see photo left). As a non-thinking gesture of disrespect towards our muslim citizens (ALL of whom were excluded from the party [religious discrimination, anybody?]), they ate pork. That's typical politicians' tact for you!

Copyright ^© Stu Savory on 14th July 2006 at 06:14 CEST permalink Email

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Terrorists are everywhere :-(

O ur condolences go to the families of those who died in tuesday's terrorist attack on the trains in Mombai, India. Sympathy too, to all those injured. Mombai used to be called Bomb-bay, I guess changing the name didn't help :-( Flippancy aside, the issues of terrorism happen all over the world. Here in Germany, we are grateful that there were no terrorist attacks made on the football stadia during the recent World Cup which we hosted. Terrorists are everywhere :-(

T alking of ubiquitous terrorism, we've got a state visit today (the 13th) from the number #1 man. Our democratic rights to protest in Stralsund (the place he is to visit) have been curtailed, no demos allowed there :-( The hotel where he is staying has been surrounded by barbed wire, not unlike Guantanamo Bay; I like to think it is to keep him inside, rather than us outside ;-)

Go home Dubya, you are not welcome here!

For those of you who have forgotten the sickening biography of the miserable failure, I refer you to an excellent 6 piece article written in 2004 by Jeffrey St. Clair , entitled "High Plains Grifter : The Life and Crimes of George W. Bush" :-

• Part One: The Ties That Blind
• Part Two: Mark His Words
• Part Three: More Pricks Than Kicks
• Part Four: Jesus Told Him Where to Bomb
• Part Five: Bush's Mask of Anarchy
• Coda: The House Rules

Nothing has gotten any better, in fact it has gotten worse :-( Impeach Bush now!

Copyright ^© Stu Savory on 13th July 2006 at 06:13 CEST permalink Email

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"You have Mail . . ."

H ow easy that sounds. We now have the infrastructure to exchange mails across the whole world in a matter of minutes. A sunday mail from Helen Babby (California) took just 2 minutes to get here. One from Frank Paynter (Wisconsin,USA) took just 6 seconds, which must be some kind of speed record :-)

But what was it like in the past? The Incas had a very long, thin, kingdom, which was administrated by mails carried by messengers running along the Inca Trail. Centuries later Europe (and the US) used horse-drawn mail coaches. Both were limited by the speed of feet. Apropos speed of feet : as a child I always thought the name of the original Marathon runner, Pheidippides, was "Fey, d'Pedes" , which sounds similar ;-)

The way to get messages faster was to use signalling (for low bandwidth messages). The appearance of the Spanish Armada off Plymouth was signalled by fiery pyres to London within hours. As was Drake's victory. This was years before the UK Admiralty introduce the shutter telegraph. Up the hill behind our house are the remains of an 18th century telegraph tower, which would waggle its mechanised semaphore arms relaying messages across the length and breadth of the whole country. This technology is used delightfully in Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels, where it is referred to onomatopoeically as "Sending a clacks". Go read his novel "Going Postal"!

H ow much more difficult things were in time of war, where infrastructures like telegraph towers were easily destroyed, especially if your city was under siege. One story I like from ancient Greece is of the king who wrote a message for help on the scalp of a shaven-headed slave, let his hair grow back and then snuck him out at night through enemy lines. They had plenty of time in those days, I guess :-) But another historical tale is equally interesting :-

In 1870/71 German troops lay siege to Paris. Getting mail out was fairly easy, the French used pigeons and especially hot-air balloons which then flew behind the German lines given favourable winds. Getting mail into Paris was more difficult^* however, balloons (or rather winds) proving unreliable in beating the German siege.

Enter the idea of submarine mail, as illustrated on the commemorative stamp shown here on the left. Letters were collected in Moulins, which is about 60 miles upstream of Paris on the Seine. There was even a rubber stamp "Paris via Moulins"! The letters were stuffed tightly into metal balls half a meter across which contained a timer and a spring-loaded flag. The balls rode along underwater in the Seine, past the unsuspecting German siege troops. When the timer went off, hopefully when the underwater ball had drifted along the Seine to within the Paris city limits, up popped a flag saying "You have Mail . . .".
Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose ;-)

^* ObJoke: getting a male into Paris is much easier these days ;-)

Copyright ^© Stu Savory on 11th July 2006 at 06:11 CEST permalink Email

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Help me! My lowly resolve . . .

When I started this blog over 3½ years ago most people (here) still had the (a bit tiny) 15" or 17" monitors and used an 800 by 600 pixel resolution. My blog was (and is) layed out accordingly. This meant that people with larger 19/21" monitors and/or higher screen resolutions see it all scrunched up with rather small print and insufficient(?) line-spacing.

The time has come to review the situation.

Please send me an Email, telling me your screen diagonal and the resolution you usually use. I'll see what the (modal) average is and maybe change my layout beginning next month to optimise the modal viewing experience. This is your chance to improve this blog! Then I can perhaps address you:

"We here highly resolve . . ."

UPDATE : Your suggestions so far : (noon on the 11th)

• Jane said : Most blogs are still written for 800*600, leave it like that but make the following minor changes to your CSS :-
• Increase the font size from 12 to 14px in posts, this makes it better readable in 1024*768 and still readable in 800*600 : OK, done :-)
• Make the right sidebar a percentage (e.g. 20%) of the width instead of an absolute number of pixels. OK, done :-)
• Size your full width pictures at 600 pixels so they fill the column width at 800*600, but declare them in your blog as 98% of the column width instead of absolute 600 px. That way the users' browsers will fit them to the column width, albeit at some loss of detail for people with higher resolutions. But the column layout will be maintained. Analogously for the half-width pix at 49%. Leave the left-oriented little sketches and pix as they are. OK, done :-)
• Kim criticized this one and added : Size your full width pictures at 752 pixels so they fill 98% the column width at 1024*768, and let the 800*600 readers' browsers downsize them. That way you don't lose quality at 1024*768 nor at 800*600, and only some at 1280*1024. Oh, and your greens are over-saturated. OK, I can't resize in retrospect but I'll try it in the future.
• Ivan said : Your big pictures are offputting for us modem users, use thumbnails and hide big pix behind links to make them optional. Ivan, I use links in > 50% of the cases anyway. It's a compromise.
• Centre your photo in the right sidebar with a DIV instead of using a SPAN. This will prevent the current text-overflow alongside the pic at high resolutions (personally I use 1280*1024 on a 21" screen). Similar for the book covers in the sidebar. OK, done :-)
• Isabelle adds : Increase the line-height from 140% to 150% for better legibility at higher resolutions. OK, done :-)
• Finally, ask your blog-readers what they think of the changes ;-) OK, done :-)

UPDATE 2 : Size matters
Your Emails give a head to head race between 1024*768 at 27% and 1280*1024 at 25%; 800*600 is a mere 18%. The other 30% are various strange (to me) resolutions, seemingly a mixture of laptops, particularly in the USA. (DVD watchers?).

Copyright ^© Stu Savory on 7th July 2006 at 15:07 CEST permalink Email

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Something to reflect upon . . .

The Scottish poet Robbie Burns once wrote :

So, being a literal-minded sort of megalomaniac, I decided to become that Power :-)

Have you ever wondered that you look different in photos from what you do in a mirror? This is especially true if you have a markedly asymmetrical face. So I decided to build an "unmirror" which reflects photorealistically, i.e left/right NOT swapped.

If you are any good at carpentry you can make one yourself. Make a stable wooden frame such that two abutting mirrors are exactly at right angles to one another. In the sketch shown on the left here they appear as a roof at the top of the picture.

In the sketch I have drawn a face with asymmetrical ears and a finger put in one ear, so that you can follow the light-rays which I've drawn as dotted lines. The ray from the hand goes up the right side of my sketch, bounces from the right mirror to the left mirror and comes down on the left. And vice versa for the cauliflower ear on the left of my sketch.

This is exactly the opposite of what a single mirror does.

Do however be warned that this "unmirror" takes some getting used to. Men should be very careful when they try shaving in front of the "unmirror" ;-) It has some other interesting properties too : if you rotate the "unmirror" by 90° so that the mirror-joint is horizontal rather than vertical, then your head will seen upside down. It's a topsy-turvy world here at Chez Stu I can tell you. And you should see my lady-visitors' make-up after they return from the bathroom, hee hee ;-)

A practical tip : when you have built the 90° frame and mounted the two abutting mirrors, polish them to perfection. Then mount a sheet of well polished plate glass across the front of the frame. This makes people think that the plate glass is the mirror. More importantly it keeps their grubby finger-marks off the real mirrors and the plate glass is easier to clean.

Updates : Udalrike asked about the size of the unmirror. Take a sheet of A4 paper (or legal pad size in the USA) and fold it in the middle of the long side, giving the two mirrors each of size A5. This would be the minimum size unmirror in which to see a face. As a maximal size, I would fold an A3 sheet to give two A4 mirrors; IMHO this is on the large side, I prefer the aforementioned 2*A5 unmirror.

Writing from Switzerland, Wilhelm, whom I can Tell (?) is from Vierwaldstädtersee ;-) , says the perpective is confusing in my sketch. True! The sketch shows the mirrors as seen from the top. There should be a sheet of clear plate glass in front (i.e. 'below' in the sketch) of them as I explained above. The joint-line where the two mirrors abut should be vertical. Personally, I recommend a rectangular frame with a regular mirror on the back. That way you can just turn the whole assembly around at random intervals to confuse your guests some more. Or even stand it on its side, with the joint-line horizontal, to get a 'chin-up' mirror, confusing visitors even more ;-)

Copyright ^© Stu Savory on 5th July 2006 at 07:05 CEST permalink Email

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The day the USA achieved Independence.

Today our American friends are celebrating their liberty^*, when the peoples (sic!) of the USA usurped sovereignty. Click to see the Presnit ( IQ 91) explain the concept ;-)

^* : 'Liberty' was not made available to their slaves, however :-(

Today's Bushwhacking is dedicated to the memory of the sadly missed Mandarin Meg.

Copyright ^© Stu Savory on 4th July 2006 at 07:04 CEST permalink Email

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Dogblogging : Getting stuck in

Growing up : As Granny said "Most important every day is a good breakfast :-)

Copyright ^© Stu Savory on 3rd July 2006 at 06:03 CEST permalink Email

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The Bells! The Bells!

Back in April I told you we were planning a visit to a bell foundry. Now I'll wrap up the trip reports of our June motorcycle tour to the Mosel about which I was blogging last month by telling you about the bells, the bells. However none of the guys are called Victor, who go on our trips, and none were hunchbacked either ;-) We took a ride to Brockscheid, in the Eifel hills, to visit Johannes Marks' bell-foundry. This is some of what I learnt there.

History : Gongs and primitive bells were first used in China, about 3000 B.C, despite the assumption that they first arose in the Campana area of Italy (because 'campana' is Latin for bell). Actually, in the early christian Era 'signa' was the Latin word used for bells (hence 'signal' in English). The earliest recorded mention of bell-casting in Europe was by bishop Patricinus in the 5th century a.d. Indeed, I remember being on the remote scottish peninsula of Hy where bell-ringing has been going on since 550 a.d. Sturmius of Fulda (died in 779) wrote about peals of bells, so there was bell music at christian funerals even then.

The oldest bell found in Germany is from Iggenbach in lower Bavaria and is inscribed 'Cast in 1144'; the oldest bearing a foundry's name is from 1246. Bell-casters were usually employed by the local princes and dukes and became cannon-casters in times of war. Same bronze used, same casting technology. In subsequent centuries the 'Glockenspiel' was invented by the east-flandrian bellcaster Bartholomy Kneck. Before the 19th century, freelance bellcasters were mobile, digging their pits and casting their bells right next to the churches where the bells were to be hung. The Mark family, whose foundry we visited, have been making bells since 1620. Centralised foundries came later when it became easier to transport multi-ton bells across country (i.e. as the roads improved). The foundry we visited in Brockscheid dates from 1840 and has delivered bells all over Europe.

Bell-casting : There is a nice old man at the foundry - 70 if he is a day - who explained patiently to us tourists some of what he knows about bell-making. He has probably forgotten more than most of us will ever know! First of all the calculations are done so the bell gets the required note, taking into account all the carving and decorations to be put on the bell. No, he wouldn't tell us his algorithm, it's the family's trade secret ;-) Then a profile is made of the bell and a clay former is turned from that profile. The clay former is mounted on a brick interior-form in the pit, as shown in the photo on the right, above. In the photo on the left our guide is showing us the clay form used for casting the crown of the bell (from which it is later hung). I'll not bore you with the other 8 steps : Go visit!

Sizes and weight : After 3 or 4 months of preparatory work the pit is filled with earth and the bronze is poured into the moulds. Up to 7 tons per oven and there are 3 ovens. The photo above gives you some idea of the size of a large bell. Up to five tons of best bronze! Do not wonder about all the white markings on the bells in this photo and the first photo in today's blog. It is birdshit! The foundry is well ventilated to keep the heat down (1000° C) and the pigeons roost in the rafters, hence the random white 'decoration' :-) Of course the bells are fine tuned, burnished and polished before they are delivered :-) BTW: big bells are only made to order, there is a waiting list. The foundry's shop also sells handbells though, pre-produced en masse. I bought one for the kitchen, to call for meals :-)

Bell music : Outside the foundry there is a carillon (and a modernistic pyramid shaped clock-tower) as shown in the photo above. 'Glockenspiel' music is played here, wonderful to hear. Bell-towers, e.g. at churches, contain several bells, for example three melodic ones (C-D-E) or three harmonic ones (C''-Es-G). Other popular triples are Te Deum (C-Es-F), and the Gloria (C-D-F). Popular quadruples are the standard C-D-E-G, the Salve Regina (C-E-G-A), and the Parsifal (C-Es-F-As). In anglo-saxon countries peals of 5,6,7 and 8 bells are used to ring all possible sequence combinations (a full peal being 120, 720, 5040 and 40320 individual bell-pulls respectively, i.e. factorial(5), f(6),f(7) and f(8).) Wow!

If you can read German, go visit the Marks' family bell-foundry's website and enjoy!

Copyright ^© Stu Savory on 1st July 2006 at 06:01 CEST permalink Email

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