Today is ...

… a day when pibbur once again is in Phoenix. USA. At the HL7 Workgroup Meeting (WGM). And he is not entirely happy.

1. Temporal disagreements. Pibbur time is at the moment of writing 13:00, and he's just come out of bed. Kind of late, but then he arrived at the hotel at 05:00 am, However, the locals claim it's now 04:30 am. And unfortunately things are running according to their interpretation of spacetime.

2. It's hot!!! Last time he visited Phoenix was in January 2013, which was not too bad. Now it's May and the temperature outside is 307 K (34 C or 93.2 in that weird, temperature scale wannabe that won't be mentioned by name). Pibbur has never in his life (outside the womb) experienced temperatures like this. And now he's exposed to it for a week. They say it's worse in august/september. Pibbur begs the powers that be behind selecting WGM places not to consider Phoenix for a september session.

3. The toilets. Say no more.

Other things:

1791: The Constitution of May 3 - November 23 1793 (the first modern constitution in Europe) is proclaimed by the Sejm of Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, giving the People the right to vote with a, typical for the time, somewhat restricted definition of who this People was. Didn't find any numbers, but for comparison, in the Norwegian constitution which humbly celebrates its 200 year anniversary on the 17th this mont, the People was around 13 percent of the people, and did not include women, of course.

BTW, the Norwegian word for seigmenn is "seigmenn" - didn't find the English word, but they are jelly , covered in sugars and shaped like a man (without a penis) or woman (with tits). One of the companies making them recently wanted to patent the word, claiming that any use of it not specifically connected to their specific product would be a specific infringement of their specific physical property rights. Didn't happen as this specific word in Norwegian predates the company by decades. Still somewhat amusing.

1802: Washington .DC transforms from a district (of Columbia, whatever that is) to a city (of Columbia? Whatever that is). The significance of said event, which is significant enough to be included on Wikipedia eludes pibbur

1830: The Canterbury and Whitstable Railway is opened. It's the first steam hauled passenger railway to issue season tickets and include a tunnel. Pibbur loves railways.

1837: The University of Athens is founded in … Athens (surprise!!!!).

1849: The May Uprising in Dresden begins in, Wikipedia doesn't say but I think we can safely assume it IS Dresden.

1957: Walter O'Malley, the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers, agrees for some reason to move the team from Brooklyn to Los Angeles, assumingly renaming them to the Losa Angeles Dodgers. As usual,pibbur hasn't bothered checking the details, he doesn't know what a Dodger is, but in general he finds the names of American sports clubs funny.

1960: The Off-Broadway musical comedy, "The Fantasticks", opens in New York City's Greenwich Village. At 42 years and 17,162 performances it's the longest-running musical of all time. Impressing, but it pales compared to Agata Christie's "The Mousetrap", which opened in 1952, and has been running continuously since then. Its 25,000th performance took place on 20121108. Pibbur has seen it twice, but as an accomplice in crime, he won't tell you who the killer is.

Other news, not directly related to today, is that Neil Robertson (not pictured) became the first snooker player to score 100 centuries in a season. Pibbur doesn't know much about this sport, but for some reason he knows that centuries has something to do in cricket. So he is confused.

pibbur who thinks the People are the 18800 googles voting for him
 
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Ha, 93.2 F isn't even hot yet. Wait till it gets about 110 F. Even I thnk that is hot, probably cause I'm getting older. Can't take the heat like i used to ....
 
110F in Houston is 10X worse than 110F in Phoenix because of the f***ing humidity.
 
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My comfort zone is below 75F

pibbur who can't believe he actually gave the temperature in F's.
 
I picture you as an older Viking (large beard) going thru the snow with axe and shield and short sleeved shirt. Actually I picture everyone in your part of the world as a Viking. hehe

I don't handle cold very well. Once my hands and feet get cold (below 70 F), it just sucks for me. I think something is wrong but thats why I live in a typically warm area.
 
Heh.

It's not as cold in Norway as (we like) you (to) believe. But of course, it is significantly lower then in SW USA. You won't find me wearing a short sleeved shirt when it's below freezing/snowing, but it doesn't take many degrees above before I might do it.

We all adapt to where we live. However, the wife is more frosty (correct word?) then I am. And she seems to have a more narrow temperature tolerance. I used to get annoyed with her whenever we were outside, because she constantly put on her jacket, then took it of again, then on then …. I tried to convince her that we have a temperature regulating system in our brains in order to use it.

pibbur who observes that

1835 – In Belgium, the first railway in continental Europe opens between Brussels and Mechelen. Pibbur has been to both places.
1865 – In North Bend, Ohio (a suburb of Cincinnati), the first train robbery in the United States takes place. Pibbur pleades not guilty.
1973 – The secretariat wins the 1973 Kentucky Derby in 1:59 2/5, a still standing record. Not ckricket. Not snooker. Nothing that pibbur has ever done.

18700
 
… a day that pibbur is still in Phoenix, now participating in the SOA & FHIR Discovery day. It's also the day that he discovers that pibbur time is not fixed. While it was 9 times ahead of phoenix time, the last day seems to have migrated together. Whether it's pibbur time who has changed, or phoenix time that have become more Norwegian he can't say. The temperature has definitely not done so.

1536 – King Henry VIII orders English-language Bibles be placed in every church.Just like George Washington ordered that there should be a vacuum cleaner in every cellar.

1659 – A faction of the British Army removes Richard Cromwell as Lord Protector of the Commonwealth and reinstalls the Rump Parliament. No, I won't find out what kind of parliament that is.

1949 – EDSAC, the first practical electronic digital stored-program computer, runs its first operation. Practical in the sense that it fit within one single room.

It was built in a room on the top floor of a building that was once the dissecting room of the Cambridge University anatomy school. This historical association brought with it an advantage and a disadvantage. The advantage came in the form of a large goods lift that had been designed to carry two cadavers. The disadvantage became apparent in the summer when the formalin (used to preserve cadavers) that had impregnated the floorboards over the years was vaporised by the heat. The smell of the formalin vapour was, according to the inmates, very penetrating!

1954 – Roger Bannister becomes the first person to run the mile in less time than it took EDSAC to perform 156000 calculation steps.

On a serious noter: Today is exactly one year after 3 women was liberated afgter being kidnapped for 10 years in Cleveland.

Pibbur who doesn't understand what's so bad about the smell of Formalin. And who is a bit puzzled because his number of googles have decreased from 18800 to 18700 to 18500.
 
… Saturday and it's one day after Pibbur came home from a hellish 95F inn Phoenix to a (much more) healthy 10C in Bergen, Norway. (I kept the different scales on purpose). And clouds. And rain. Pibbur is as close to happy as he ever will be (which is slightly unhappy).

1813 – William Lawson, Gregory Blaxland and William Wentworth lead an expedition to cross the Blue Mountains. They didn't meet any elves or dwarves.

1820 - The Beagle a-hoy!!!

1889 – An attack upon a U.S. Army paymaster and escort results in the theft of over $28,000 and the award of two Medals of Honor. Medals to whom?

1891 – Tsarevich Nicholas Alexandrovich of Imperial Russia suffers a critical head injury during a sword attack by a japanese policeman. He is rescued by Prince George of Greece and Denmark, which was HIS 15 minutes of fame. Or as Wikipedia says it: "is remembered chiefly for having once saved the life of the future Emperor of Russia, Nicholas II". The epsiode is called the Otsu incident, after an image segmentation (by thresholding) technique developed by Nobuyuki Otsu in the second part of the 20th century.

1927 - The Academy is founded.

1949 – Siam officially changes its name to Thailand for the second (and last?) time

1987 - First heart-lung transplanatation in Baltimore

1997 - Deep Blue literally pawns Kasparov

pibbur who once again says goodbye to the "Today is" thread, but who also would like to bring hope to the one of the few (I know there are at least 2) who enjoy reading his drivel: He'll be going to Chicago in september.

Hmmm. His popularity seems to increase when he stops "today is". Now 19000 googles is on his side. But I guess you don't need to know that.
 
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I'm still waiting for him to be 'sent' to Australia where he'll be forced to watch Cricket!! :p :)
 
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I'm still waiting for him to be 'sent' to Australia where he'll be forced to watch Cricket!! :p :)

Could happen. Not every HL7 WGM is held in the US. In may 2015 we're going to Paris. And the January 2011 meeting took place in Sydney. So unless the board got really scared by the spiders, the snakes, the sharks or the irwins, it could happen again.


pibbbur who wasn't involved in 2011
 
… Saturday, and I am in San Antonio.

After a long, but exceptional pleasant intercontinental journey (turbulence? What's turbulence?) yesterday, things got a bit ugly soon after leaving the plane in San Antonio.

First, my suitcase was missing. Second, and significantly worse, as I went to report my missing luggage, it turned out that I had left the thingy I kept my passport and traveldocuments (and iPad) in on the airplane. Now, it's bad enough being in the US (actually it's quite nice, but I'm trying to be funny here), it's much worse being here without a passport. In fact, I would go so far as saying it would be inconvenient. Fortunately the plane had not left, and the crew were able to find it (the plane) and my things in it. And return them to me. So everything solved itself in the end (my suitcase even arrived at my hotel during the night), but there were a couple of minutes there when yours truly felt a bit uncomfortable.

Other things:

1287; King Alfonso of Aragorn invades Moria. (Or was it Aragon and Minorca?)

1377: Pope Gregory ver. 11.0 moved from Avgingon back to Rome, being adviced to do so by some Catherine of Siena. The relocation wasn't entirely successful, as he died on march 27th the year after, and his follower, Urban ver 6, very quickly became the ultimate enemy of the cardinals who elected him (forced by italians breaking into the voting chambers). So the cardinal went back to Avgignon and selected yet another pope (Clemence ver 7.0) there.

1608: An Orome army at Ebenat (wherever that is) was surprised by Emperor Susenyos 1.0 of Ethiopia.

1648: England's Long Parliament passes the "Vote of No Addresses". Why am I reminded of the US congress here?

1873: A group of Morlocs defeats the United States Army in the First Battle of the Stronghold

1917: Denmark accepted $25 million from thhe US to get rid of the Virgin Islands.

1929: Inayatullah Khan, king of the Emirate of Afghanistan abdicates the throne after only three days.Not because he was assasinated.

Notable first time appearances:

1917: Popeye

Notable last time appearances

1945: Wallenberg
1983: The tallest department store in the world

pibbur who likes spinache, which is known by 5 googles.
 
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Glad everything turned out okay. I wouldn't want to experience it. Especially losing my passport.

Enjoy your stay in San Antonio. What's the weather like ? Pics ?
 
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Everything was there. Loosing an ipad wouldn't hurt too much, (after all it's only money) compared to loosing my passport....., *shivers*.

And for once i'm reall glad that my suitcase didn't arrive on time. Because if it had, I wouldn't have noticed my pasport was missing until I reached my hotel, and by then the plane would have been long gone. And I would probably still be quite uncomfortable.

Pibbur who has decided that hereafter he will only buy travel things made of sapient pearwood.
 
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Glad everything turned out okay. I wouldn't want to experience it. Especially losing my passport.

Enjoy your stay in San Antonio. What's the weather like ? Pics ?

So far I'm enjoying it. The weather is nice, which isn't nice if it stays nice for long, since I like rain.

Won't be much time for touristing, since I'm attending a meeting, the HL7 January 2015 Working Group Meeting, and there is much to do for me this time. But hopefully there will be some spare time at least for Riverwalking.

pibbur who wonders if he should turn on american tv (not fox news).
 
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I doubt that american tv will really turn you on!! :) British and European is often much better!!
 
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And for once i'm reall glad that my suitcase didn't arrive on time. Because if it had, I wouldn't have noticed my pasport was missing until I reached my hotel, and by then the plane would have been long gone.

What? Are you saying that there was no immigration passport checks between leaving the plane and the hotel? I haven't been to the US since 9/11 but I thought they ramped up immigration checks to the point where you have to leave your fingerprints, biometric features, photographs, strip down to your undies and cough when they grab your balls (OK, maybe not that last part ;) ).

Other than that: Enjoyable story. Especially if it didn't happen to oneself. Those are always the best ones. Hope you get to enjoy your trip! :)
 
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@Moriendor,: Oh yes, there was immigration control (mostly automatic this time). But that was in Atlanta where our intercontinental flight ended. The flight to San Antonio, where I forgot my passport, was domestic.

pibbur who will, just in case, say hi from the 13th of the JDRs to any male subject he meets.
 
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