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This is a really funny video, even though it’s at the expense of a poor Japanese tourist. Here we go…

Judging from the multitude of videos with similar content it appears to be some part of the Turkish culture that is even exported to other countries.

Trying to imagine how this would work in Germany which imported lots of Turkish ‘guest-workers’ in the 60s and 70s. Maybe this Turkish-Ice-Cream gig is something newer because I have never seen it while I lived in Germany. There were certainly plenty of Turkish ice-cream parlors and ice-cream cafes in Germany after the work, for which the workers had been imported initially, went away and these Turkish workers did not want to go back and had to find something else to support them.

Turks opened ice-cream shops just as the Italians opened pizza restaurants.

Maybe some Turks tried this ice-cream trick but word must have gotten around that it’s not advisable to play this trick on German males if you wanted to keep your nose un-bloody.

Without further comment, a story forwarded by Beverly (thanks, Bev!)

A Guys Fairy Tale…

Once upon a time, a Prince asked a beautiful Princess…

“Will you marry me?”
The Princess said “NO!”

And the Prince lived happily ever after and

• collected firearms and
• rode motorcycles and
• went fishing and hunting and
• played golf and
• dated women half his age and
• drank beer and scotch and
• had tons of money in the bank and
• left the toilet seat up and
• farted whenever he wanted.

The End.

I just ran into a big problem of today’s web search technology. Sure, Google made things a bit easier compared to the early players in the market like AltaVista (who does still remember that?) but if you search for something of which you only have a picture in your mind, Google fails totally.

I was after an image I had seen once, most likely on the site Worth1000.com, of a photo-shopped MC Escher picture, drawn by a very young Escher and graded by his art teacher.

I remembered that I might have seen it on BoingBoing.net, but, can you believe it, I did not find a search function on that site! OK, so Google has BoingBoing probably indexed in its entirety so I searched for worth1000 site:boingboing.net but did not see any search result that might be the right one.

The search function on worth1000 also was of no help.

What now?

I remembered that I had this image once published in a post of a long defunct web site. I rarely throw data away because storage is so cheap, so I was off to some Google desktop searches because I was sure that the source files for that web site were still somewhere on my machine. To no avail, but I guess mostly attributed to the fact that I misspelled Escher as Esher – darn, how Americanized I am! But then again, I just tried again and there are indeed no search results for Escher on my computer either.

Back to basics: go to the top level directory where that image file might be if it was indeed  there, use the windows 7 search for all *.jpg files and display thumbnails.

And there it finally was!

With the textual information in that image “Dream House” and Maurits I could finally locate the whole series Childhood Renaissance 3 on Worth1000. After all this effort looking for this image I certainly had to look through – and enjoy – the rest of the entries to this contest, and this one here I liked the best…

I heard recently a rumor that Google actually attempts to remedy the shortcomings I encountered. This rumor told that Google is now starting to attempt to OCR the images in its index and adding whatever it finds as textual, searchable info to its index. Would not have helped in my case as I did not remember that the words ‘dream house’ and Escher’s first name were in the image, but I can imagine that it will help many.

Thanks, Kathie, for passing on this story…

The following is an actual question given on a university chemistry mid-term.

The answer by one student was so ‘profound’ that the professor shared it with colleagues, via the Internet, which is, of course, why we now have the pleasure of enjoying it as well:

Bonus Question: Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic (absorbs heat)?

Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle’s Law (gas cools when it expands and heats when it is compressed) or some variant. One student, however, wrote the following:

First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time. So we need to know the rate at which souls are moving into Hell and the rate at which they are leaving. I think that we can safely assume that once a soul gets to Hell, it will not leave. Therefore, no souls are leaving.

As for how many souls are entering Hell, let’s look at the different religions that exist in the world today. Most of these religions state that if you are not a member of their religion, you will go to Hell. Since there is more than one of these religions and since people do not belong to more than one religion, we can project that all souls go to Hell.

With birth and death rates as they are, we can expect the number of souls in Hell to increase exponentially. Now, we look at the rate of change of the volume in Hell because Boyle ‘s Law states that in order for the temperature and pressure in Hell to stay the same, the volume of Hell has to expand proportionately as souls are added.

This gives two possibilities:

1. If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter Hell, then the temperature and pressure in Hell will increase until all Hell breaks loose.
2. If Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in Hell, then the temperature and pressure will drop until Hell freezes over.

So which is it?

If we accept the postulate given to me by Teresa during my Freshman year that, ‘It will be a cold day in Hell before I sleep with you,’ and take into account the fact that I slept with her last night, then number two must be true, and thus I am sure that Hell is exothermic and has already frozen over! The corollary of this theory is that since Hell has frozen over, it follows that it is not accepting any more souls and is therefore, extinct….. .leaving only Heaven, thereby proving the existence of a divine being which explains why, last night, Teresa kept shouting ‘Oh my God!’

THIS STUDENT RECEIVED AN A+

… and probably a job in Hollywood as a writer for one of the better comedians – - or maybe he should pursue a carrier of his own.

I have no idea if the following story is true but it is a good one and from all we know about government, it is at least credible. Here we go…

The following is an actual letter sent to a man named Ryan DeVries regarding a pond on his property. It was sent by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Quality, State of Pennsylvania.

SUBJECT: DEQ File No.97-59-0023; T11N; R10W, Sec. 20; Lycoming County

Dear Mr. DeVries:

It has come to the attention of the Department of Environmental Quality that there has been recent unauthorized activity on the above referenced parcel of property.  You have been certified as the legal landowner and/or contractor who did the following unauthorized activity:

Construction and maintenance of two wood debris dams across the outlet stream of Spring Pond.

A permit must be issued prior to the start of this type of activity. A review of the Department’s files shows that no permits have been issued.  Therefore, the Department has determined that this activity is in violation of Part 301, Inland Lakes and Streams, of the Natural Resource and Environmental Protection Act, Act 451 of the Public Acts of 1994, being sections 324.30101 to 324.30113 of the Pennsylvania Compiled Laws, annotated.

The Department has been informed that one or both of the dams partially failed during a recent rain event, causing debris and flooding at downstream locations.  We find that dams of this nature are inherently hazardous and cannot be permitted. The Department therefore orders you to cease and desist all activities at this location, and to restore the stream to a free-flow condition by removing all wood and brush forming the dams from the stream channel.  All restoration work shall be completed no later than January 31, 2009.

David L. Price
District Representative and Water Management Division..

Jared Parks
Land Protection Specialist
Eastern Shore Land Conservancy
District Representative and Water Management Division.

Here the dam and pond in question:

The owner of the property, being a good citizen (subject to his rulers) was quick and eloquent answering the official letter to set the record straight…

Re: DEQ File No. 97-59-0023; T11N; R10W, Sec. 20; Lycoming County

Dear Mr. Price,

Your certified letter dated 12/17/08 has been handed to me to respond to.  I am the legal landowner but not the Contractor at 2088 Dagget Lane , Trout Run, Pennsylvania .

A couple of beavers are in the (State unauthorized) process of constructing and maintaining two wood “debris” dams across the outlet stream of my Spring Pond.  While I did not pay for, authorize, nor supervise their dam project, I think they would be highly offended that you call their skillful use of natures building materials “debris.”

I would like to challenge your department to attempt to emulate their dam project any time and/or any place you choose. I believe I can safely state there is no way you could ever match their dam skills, their dam resourcefulness, their dam ingenuity, their dam persistence, their dam determination and/or their dam work ethic.

These are the beavers/contractors you are seeking.   As to your request, I do not think the beavers are aware that they must first fill out a dam permit prior to commencing construction.

In my humble opinion, the Spring Pond Beavers have a right to build their unauthorized dams as long as the sky is blue, the grass is green and water flows downstream.  They have more dam rights than I do to live and enjoy Spring Pond.  If the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection lives up to its name, it should protect the natural resources (Beavers) and the environment (Beavers’ Dams).

So, as far as the beavers and I are concerned, this dam case can be referred for more elevated enforcement action right now. Why wait until 1/31/2009? The Spring Pond Beavers may be under the dam ice then and there will be no way for you or your dam staff to contact/harass them.

In conclusion, I would like to bring to your attention to a real environmental quality, health, problem in the area. It is the bears! Bears are actually defecating in our woods. I definitely believe you should be persecuting the defecating bears and leave the beavers alone. If you are going to investigate the beaver dam, watch your step! The bears are not careful where they dump!

Being unable to comply with your dam request, and being unable to contact you on your dam answering machine, I am sending this response to your dam office.

THANK YOU,
RYAN DEVRIES & THE DAM BEAVERS

Just to round this out, some photos of the contractors…

You would expect that I, growing up in Germany, would be very much into soccer, or better Fussball, but that was just not so. We even had a long-term renter in our house who played soccer – made no difference.

The only time I was ‘interested’ in soccer was when I had a girl friend who was a Schalke-fan (you know, one of these teams in the national league). I always had the strange notion that you do sports instead of watching them – what do I know?

But then it happened, many many years and thousands of miles away, in Far-Away-Land California. All this ignorance I will describe is probably not good for my reputation but I hope it will have a soul-cleaning effect on me, so it will be worth it.

I was, at that time, heavily involved in my son’s school,  in the parent part of the parent-teacher organization. One of the activities was to send out emails to the parents to make them do things. Not an easy thing to do as they had already paid a high tuition so they had done enough already for the kids upbringing.

Once I got an email back (that did not happen often) asking me if I spoke German. I guess my German accent had peaked through my writing. ‘Sure,’ I said, after which I was asked if I could help with the lyrics to some music. Having always been involved with music through friends who made it, I was delighted to oblige.

I had seen this other parent in school but never interacted with him, but we talked on the phone and arranged for me to come over to his house where we would be working on that song. So far my past musician-friends had always been either students or just starting out on their career, so I was expecting to help somebody out to get started. But I was surprised when I got to the address to find a big, beautiful house, and was led to a dedicated music room with a grand piano.

Cool, I thought and asked what this music, we would be working on, was all about. Placido, this parent’s name, told me that he was competing to write the anthem for the soccer world cup that would be in Germany this year (2006) and his plan was to make this a multi-lingual song to express the idea that people from all over the world would gather peacefully, forgetting all differences. I had never been to a soccer match so how would I know how much peace there would be between the fans of two teams, one of which would lose.

The music was already composed and the text for the English and Spanish part was pretty much there, so we sat on the piano and hammered out lyrics for the German part of the anthem. It all felt rather bizarre. I f you ever get a chance to see the movie Ishtar, you will enjoy a scene where Dustin Hoffman and Warren Beatty compose and text a song on the piano – and that is how I felt – and extremely enjoyed it.

When our allotted time was up, we rescheduled for another meeting and on the way out I asked the obvious question how somebody in a Southern California suburb gets to write, or at least compete to write, the anthem for the soccer world cup on the other side of the planet. At that time I still thought that the chances to actually get his song in there were at least slim. His answer was something like that it helps if you are the son of Placido Domingo. Hmm, I thought, must be an important person.

Later that day I told my friend Maria about my Ishtar-experience and mentioned the name of the musician in passing. Hold on! she said, what’s the name? ‘Not sure, Placido, junior – domingo, ???’

So Maria then eradicated some of my ignorance – Placido Domingo, one of  The Three Tenors!  World famous singers!

Isn’t that amazing how you stumble into these kind of things if you are not in awe?

With this information at hand, now it looked more likely that this song would make it to the top of the competition and in our second meeting Placido, jr. confirmed that it was pretty certain that it would be his song that his dad would sing at the conclusion of the word cup.

And so it was. I later bought the CD on Amazon, checking if I was in the credits…

Moments of Passion

When you are living within one specific group and have little or no information flowing into you from the outside, it is obvious that this closed system will make at least some sense. Often these systems are consistent within themselves.

Such a system could be your church that does not allow you to consider outside information (Scientology is a very clear example for that) or, if we go a bit bigger, you country. As countries go, one that has not many borders (compared to its size) is the best to accomplish that. Here the US of A is a prime example – pretty big land mass, no neighbors to the left and right and not very loud neighbors at the top and bottom. In a closed system like  this, especially if the flow of information is so tightly controlled, the members of this system will hardly get a chance to assume an external viewpoint.

Europe is in the process of becoming a more closed system now that the European Union is tying all the countries more and more together. In the old days of a weak EU and more nationalistic countries the variety of opinions was much bigger and these different opinions could traverse borders rather easily through radio waves that did not stop at borders and the exchange of foreign newspapers.

After moving into the US and being exposed to one-sided reporting within its closed system I soon noticed that reading a British or German news paper often shed a completely different light on a situation. But with Europe and the US becoming more friendly and ruled by the same kind of tyrants the difference in opinion has become smaller and it gets more difficult to find a differing opinion.

Where can we go now to find different views on a specific situation?

I just learned that it’s the unlikely candidate Australia! See here what we can learn from down under…

Alex reports that recent research confirms that drinking gives you the same benefits yoga.

Here the scientific proof:

Savasana

Position of total relaxation.

Balasana

Position that brings the sensation of peace and calm.

Setu Bandha Sarvangasana

This position calms the brain and heals tired legs.

Marjayasana

Position stimulates the midriff area and the spinal column.

Halasana

Excellent for back pain and insomnia.

Dolphin

Excellent for the shoulder area, thorax, legs, and arms.

Salambhasana

Great exercise to stimulate the lumbar area, legs, and arms.

Ananda Balasana

This position is great for massaging the hip area.

Malasana

This position, for ankles and back muscles.

Thanks, Dennis, for sending me this great commercial for Telefunken tubes. I actually remember finding a radio like this in the attic, plugging it in to see if it still worked – did not – unplugging it, opening it, getting in there with some pliers and being thrown right across my room. Did not know then that these big metallic pots were capacitors (no, not flux capacitors!) that kept a charge for quite a while after unplugging the radio. Never forgot it after that, though.

Without further ado, here this little gem…

Just in case your German is a bit rusty, here’s the translation of what is said:

In a moment we will hear the high C.

NOW!

Bravo, bravo, nearly as Caruso!

We have to record this very gently.

The precious note is then entrusted to the antenna
which carefully puts onto the wave – to be received elsewhere.

And here comes the catastrophe!

What’s a beautiful radio if it has used up, hoarse tubes?

The wonderful note is wretchedly mutilated;
and what then leaves the speaker – for goodness sake!

But not to worry, your radio gets back its impeccable sound with new Telefunken tubes.

Out with them! (The old ones, into the trash – Müll)

And now listening to the radio becomes delightful again.
Often one new Telefunken tube is all it needs, and the sound is full and clear again.

Even the high C – brilliant again with new Telefunken tubes.

Let your specialist check your radio;
Maybe you should also rejuvenate it with new Telefunken tubes.

If you have not read Bradbury’s novel Fahrenheit 451 please skip this post…

OK, so you know his frightening vision of the future, where firemen don’t put out fires but instead start them in order to burn books.

We are not there yet and we might never get there because who would let any fireman burn his or her Kindle, right? Book are on the way out anyways, so his vision might never come to pass, or in a different, much easier way by censoring the web.

But I am digressing. What I wanted to report on is today and right here. Our current fire department is still in the business of putting out fires and also tasked by our masters to prevent them. One of the ways to do this is to publish rules about, for example, how far away from your house scrubs, trees and flowers have to be. To go and check every house is a big task and they are not quite equipped for that. So instead of charging us $13 to come out and make sure you comply, we have the option of studying the rules and then self-assess our property and send in an affidavit that we did indeed comply.

I did this to save the $13 and to keep them away from the house as they would probably find something that is not right. I needed to download something from the country assessor to describe the property (we are talking about LA County here) and get some photos of the property. Thanks to Google street view I actually did not have to crank out the camera but let Google take the photos for me (will see if this is accepted.)

I got my paperwork all done and got ready to write the address on the envelope when I noticed this…

Is this funny, or what!? Just curious if this is really a coincidence or if there is somebody in the fire department with a type of visionary humor.

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