Things you don't need to know...

… it's starting in an hour. It was supposed to start much earlier today, but wind conditions were unfavourable. But now they've started prreparing for the final step.

Don't know what I'm talking about, huh? It's Baumgartner. THE Baumgartner. Felix among friends. Going there (36 km into the border of space) and back (earth) again at a slightly greater speed. Live broadcast starts on http://www.redbullstratos.com/live at 1700 GMT.

pibbur who refuses to translate proper length and time units/references to the americans. And the english. And the canadians. The Swedes? (ok, they use the metric system, but - for no rational reason - pibbur suspects they're not very good at it). Who cares about Down Under?
 
The name "Baumgärtner" would translate as "Treegardener". But that's a thing you don't need to know. ;)
 
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Jump cancelled for today. Bad winds and other problems.

pibbur who watches from a distance
 
… it's starting in an hour. It was supposed to start much earlier today, but wind conditions were unfavourable. But now they've started prreparing for the final step.

Don't know what I'm talking about, huh? It's Baumgartner. THE Baumgartner. Felix among friends. Going there (36 km into the border of space) and back (earth) again at a slightly greater speed. Live broadcast starts on http://www.redbullstratos.com/live at 1700 GMT.

pibbur who refuses to translate proper length and time units/references to the americans. And the english. And the canadians. The Swedes? (ok, they use the metric system, but - for no rational reason - pibbur suspects they're not very good at it). Who cares about Down Under?

I think EVERY country in the world now EXCEPT the US uses the metric system now!! I know Canada, England and Oz have used it for years and years.
 
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I think EVERY country in the world now EXCEPT the US uses the metric system now!! I know Canada, England and Oz have used it for years and years.

Ahh. Great. So now I only have to harass the US. Saves me a lot of time. Yay!

BTW: From a local newspaper who quotes the ADAC (Allgemeiner Deutscher Automobil-Club e.V) (which is Germany's largest automobile club) BMW owners are the worst, most aggressive drivers. Which could mean that american BMW owners must be the worst of all?

pibbur who
1. Drives a Toyota
2. Goes into hiding
3. Promises he'll stop misbehaving long before his next US visit (Phoenix) in january.
 
One common thought is that BMW = big epeen (a word I took from the DDO community).
 
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…the Duchess of Marlborough kept a revolver in her bedroom in Blenheim Palace to prevent her husband from entering. Wikipedia mentions that eventually "the couple started drifting apart". It didn't help that she got herself a "hobby of breeding Blenheim Spaniels, much to her husband's displeasure".

pibbur who admits he's never read Lysistrata and who prefers cats
 
I have read Lysistrata, but you don't really need to know that!! :)
 
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.. some sports today:


  1. Gibraltar F.C. (team in 1895 pictured) was one of the first civilized football clubs established in Gibraltar.
  2. Alan Phillips wasn't allowed to compete in badminton for South Africa in the 1992 Olympics because he was too old at 36. Hah! I seem to remember at that age you still wear diapers!
  3. Alan Philips played baseball in the 2000 Olympics at 44.
  4. Female Nectophrynoides tornieri is viviparous and has been known to carry 35 young at one time Ok. not sports news, but it smells like a world record
  5. Despite being a centre back, Norwegian footballer Edvard Skagestad has played most of his matches as a striker. No doubt a surprise to most of you.


pibbur who admits there may be a typo in item 1.
 
Since we're discussing patents (in another thread), this might actually be somewhat useful, or rather a word of warning mainly for males above a certain (post diaper) age.

You know, the comb-over, or like some (me) might say: the final countdown to androgenic alopecia.

You got to be careful how you applyt it, because, you know, there appears to be a patent involved. More specifically for the "variation of the comb over where baldness is concealed by long hair combed in three separate directions" (U.S. Patent 4,022,227), granted in 1977 to Donald J and Frank J Smith. They even got an engineering award (slow link) for it in 2004.

pibbur who realizes that there may be more to it.
 
… some graves in the Sanhedria Cemetery of Jerusalem are five times closer to residential housing than the law allows. And yet nobody (afaik) has made a teenage horror (light) film out of , like "Day of the Neighbours", "Neigbours from Hell: The publisher" "They came from the yard". Or "Resident Evil X: Neighbours".

pibbur says Get'em out by Friday!
 
… 6 things, that is
  1. The British Library (not pictured) has records of what 46,000 people did on 17 October 2006. Alrik suspets, the Illuminati knows, who they are.
  2. Liquid nitrogen is added to cocktails to create a smoky, bubbling "cauldron effect. No need for ice.
  3. When Benny Goodman called to commission a clarinet concerto, Malcolm Arnold yelled "Sod off!" abut later bribed BG to accepting it by a fifth of Jack and (ok, probably not) a bottle of Prozac(?)
  4. Rønne Theater in Rønne, Bornholm, is Denmark's oldest provincial theatre still in active use. In norwegian "rønne" means a house in a very sad state, on the brink of collapsing.
  5. 1996 video game Soviet Strike featured a fictional mission to rescue then-Russian President Boris Yeltsin. No doubt banned in Oz for depicting heavy consumption of alcohol.
  6. Norwegian footballer Jonatan Tollås posted a nude photo of a teammate on Twitter and said that his goal was to upload one new photo every day, clearly an improvement of his 0.67 goals per year statistics.
pibbur who will dig out his old microscope to distinguish his collection of pine spikes from their relatives (the Gomphidias).
 
The length of the Norwegian coastline is a problem, according to Norwegian police. So far they haven't found out what to do about it.

pibbur who observes that sometimes his length (191 cm) can be problematic. OTOH he has developed a very solid skull.
 
… people interested in Ren fests in Texas, Wikipedia and above all computer aided diagnosis in pathology are also interested in Pakistani cameras and projectors.

pibbur to whom this came as a surprise
 
... Chao Mae Tuptim in Bangkok is a site crammed full of wooden circumcised penis statues which are said to endow good fortune and fertility on anybody coming into contact with them. There are more than 100, ranging from the size of a cream doughnut to the size of a canoe. Some of them are said to be funny.

The Haesindang in South Korea (south of Samcheok in Gangwon Province, in case you want to visit) is a similar park, although a bit more artistic, judging by the pictures in Wikipedia..

pibbur who is too embarassed to come up with a final who-comment.
 
Spring in Melbourne is windy. Generally speaking it's a north wind, and from what I understand it's caused by the differences in pressure between cold air left over from winter, and warm air generated by the longer, sunnier days.

I have no issue with longer, sunnier days, but I ride north home from work on my pushbike, so am literally very tired of the wind. Toss in a little hayfever from the horrible European trees that we Melburnians insist on planting for some reason, and spring in Melbourne can really suck.

Summer is hot. Winter = kids with colds.

Autumn though is perfect. Mild days, no wind. If anyone is thinking of visiting - Autumn's the time of year you want to do it.
 
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