Frankfurt 2010 - 3

August 13 (Freitag) - We hopped on the 12 tram to Römer Platz because Robb wanted to go back to the Galeria  to buy some slacks.  He ended up buying another pair of jeans.  To get there, we had to pass the Liebfrauenkirche.  There is a neatly decorated door at the entrance. Just past that, we chanced upon a Velo Taxi, sort of like a rickshaw but upscale.    

After Robb bought his jeans, which we have to pick up tomorrow, we walked around to have a look at the Solar Gas Station. I was right, it's not a gas station, it's a station to recharge your electric vehicle.  You can just make out the plugs between the gas pump pictures.

When I turned around, I spotted the Eschenheimer Turm.

Just down the street was this department store that I thought was the building I had photographed the other day.  Since that wasn't the building I mistakenly called the opera, we walked down the street and around the corner where we found the Bourse.  You can see there are a lot of people milling around in front of the Bourse.  We went to see what was going on and found what seemed to be some kind of mid-day wine and wurst festival.  We figured we might as well join in, and got ourselves a grillwurst.  We went to get our wine and discovered they had a nice German sparkling wine.  This is the place that was selling the wine (and after the crowd had thinned out).  We each got a glass.  So for about 9€ total, we had a great lunch.  Robb bought a bottle of the wine to take back to the hotel.

On the way back to the tram station, we passed a fruit stand that had this huge strawberry in front.

We had dinner again at Baseler Eck.  We both had the Jägerschnitzel with a fantastic mushroom cream sauce.  I drank bier and Robb drank rotwein (red wine).  I wasn't hungry at all and asked if my portion could be small.  Mine was about half the size of Robb's.

August 14 (Samtag) - If you're thinking of living in Europe, consider Germany.  Everything here costs less.  An added bonus is that almost everybody speaks English and is happy to do so, unlike in France.  If you love France, Germany is just next door.  You can be in Paris in a few hours, unless you make the same mistake we made a few years ago, and get on the wrong train.

We took the tram to Römer Platz, where we went back to the Galeria to get Robb's jeans.  Then Brave Bob decided we could walk all over Frankfurt to find the Hard Rock Cafe.  We walked and asked directions.  We walked and asked directions.  And then, we walked and asked directions.  Most of the taxi drivers had no idea (excuse me, you drive a taxi and you don't know the whereabouts of a world famous institution?).  We did not find it, but we had walked all the way to the Steinberger Frankfurter Hof, a five-star hotel, at which we will have dinner tonight.  We further walked down to Willy Brandt Platz, where having had enough walking, we caught the tram.

It was nearly 17h00 when we returned to the hotel and we were both quite tired.  We Googled the Hard Rock and discovered it had moved to Sachsenhausen on the other side of the River Main.  No wonder no one knew where it was.  We slept a bit and then around 20h00, prepared to go to dinner.

We had dinner at Oscars in the Frankfurter Hof.  We were the only ones sitting inside.  I still can't believe people will sit outside in this chilly weather.  Of course, you people who live in the mountains are probably snickering at our idea of chilly.

Dinner was St. Pierre, which is a white meat fish, with a great sauce and side of which I thought was ratatouille, but wasn't (don't ask, I don't know).

After dinner, we walked down to Willy Brandt Platz, again, and got the tram to Baseler Platz.

These are today's photos:  the Zeil (as far as the trees go, so goes the Zeil) , a statue in Goethe Platz (I'm sorry, I can't remember who or what it depicts), KaiserstrassenFest, which we will check out since it's only a couple blocks from the hotel, the Neue Oper (the New Opera), a street sign (the ß is the German way to write double 's'), another Römer Platz photo, and, finally, St. Bartholomeus' Cathedral.

August 15 (Sonntag) - It's cold and wet.  Watching a dive meet from Budapest on EuroSport Live.

The rain let up around four-ish, so we bundled up and went down to catch a tram  We took the number 16 this time.  It was a really great ride from end (Ginnheim) to end (Zur Stadtgrenze - that wasn't really the name of the place but I couldn't find anything with the name on it and this was just outside the tram-) The ZS stop was the first time they didn't make us get off the tram.

Along the route we saw some neat stuff, but because of the rain, I could only get a few pictures.  The Leaning Tower (which wasn't really, it was just the way I shot the picture).  The same holds true of the Leaning Kirsche.  Which is really Frauenfriedenskirche.  We first caught sight of the TV Tower in the fog.  Then we got a better view.  I think these photos came out pretty good considering I was taking them from a moving tram.

The number 16 goes through Sachsenhausen, which is a very nice area on the other side of the Main (in Paris it would be called Rive Gauche, so I guess in German, you can call it Linken Ufer) with lots of great looking restaurants, some of which we'll definitely try before we leave.

Dinner at Gaylord India.  It was very busy tonight. I like the food warmers they bring out pre-dinner.  Dinner tonight was Sag Meat for me (the nearest container in the photo), and lamb chops for Robb.  I had never heard of Sag Meat, but it was really good.

Incredibly, we found ourselves going to bed at 22h30.

You can see all the Frankfurt pictures here - Frankfurt 

Bis zum nächsten mal, meine Freunde

Frankfurt 2010 - 2

August 9 (Montag) - Things are not going so well.  We got up early, I felt better than I have in about a week.  We went down, had breakfast and came back to the room.  Suddenly Robb was so tired, he had to go back to bed.  I guess the jet lag finally caught up to him.

After he awoke, around 13h30 or 14h00, we went out to get some stuff we need.  We walked to the sundry store, got some stuff there and started off down the street.  We've been looking for a local market and came across one that I had seen on the internet.  Robb bought a bunch of stuff there, including a box of un-refridgerated milk.  It's quite tasty.

Walking back to the hotel, we passed O'Reilly's Irish Pub, it's about two blocks from the hotel and we've never passed when it wasn't crowded, except this morning when I took the picture.  But then again, it was morning..  Robb ordered a nacho salad with wine.  I ordered my very first Guiness.  Both were great.  We sat outside because the weather is beautiful and the people watching is much better.  We stayed about a hour or so.  We got back to the room, and I was exhausted.  Okay, I swear this is the last time I'm going to talk aboiut my health, and I only mention it for those who might be wondering why we're not doing very much at all.  Truth be told, I was worried about this very problem long before we left, but I figured, at least we'd be in our beloved Europe, even if we couldn't do anything.

Last night, on the advice of the bartender (bar manager?), we went looking for a restaurant he had suggested.  We found it but it was closed. Tonight Baseler Eck was open.  When asked about a drink, we both ordered apfelwein.  Robb, because he likes it and me because I've never had it.  I did not like it and gave mine to Robb to finish.  For dinner, I had bratwurst with potatoes and sauerkraut, Robb ordered Rippchen, a pork roast..  The bratwurst dish was very good but I could barely finish the meat, much less the potatoes and sauerkraut.  Needless to say, Robb cleaned his plate.

August 10 (Dienstag) - After breakfast, we walked over to the apotheke (drugstore) where Robb got some Alka Seltzer and I got some sleeping pills. We took our stuff back to the hotel, then walked down to the Baseler Platz tram station and bought our day ticket from the Fahrkarten machine.

When it arrived, we boarded the number 12 and rode all the way to the end of the line, the Zoo.  While we were waiting for the tram in the opposite direction, I noticed this cool building across from the zoo.  The really neat thing about buying a day ticket (or better, a monthly pass), is that if you see something interesting, you can get off the tram, check it out and catch the next tram.  And that's what we did.  We spotted a full size grocery store, got off at the next stop and walked back.  I have been trying to find a place that sells small, hand-size sponges and was hoping this place would have them, but we were out of luck.  BTW, if you're interested, they're called "schwamm" in German.

We walked back to the tram station and waited for our number 12. We could have taken any tram that came by, but I insisted on the 12.  It came and we rode to the other end of the line, Schwanheim.  We had to get off and get on the tram that was already there.  Then we rode back to the Baseler Platz station.  The round trip took a little over three hours and was a very pleasant way to see a lot of the city we would not have otherwise seen.

When we got back to Baseler Platz, I decided I could walk over to the Main River for a few photos.  We did make it, though I had to stop many times.  These are the pictures I took from the Friedensbrücke; one, two, three.  Just on the other side of the bridge and on the river, is this neat building.  I also got a shot of the Smart Four Door.

After our walk to the river, we started back to the hotel, but happened upon a little store selling ice cream.  Since the temperature today was all the way up to 26°, we stopped and bought a white chocolate popsicle.  OMG, it was fantastic!  The hotel is practically next to the little shop, and they have tables set up outside, so we sat there and ate our ice cream.  While we were there, I saw a Peugeot that is obviously intended to rival the Smart Car.  It's the same size and only looks slightly different.  You have to look for the Peugeot emblem to really know.  I will be looking for one to get a picture.

Tonight, we ate at an Iranian, oops, I mean Persian restaurant.  It's part of the Hotel Oriental.  I had Fessejan, which was chicken in some kind of sauce.  Robb had a dish with eggplant.  Even though we can't remember the name, Robb said it was very good.  The decor of the place was very nice also, except the lights were too bright and there was a set of steps on each one of which there was a light that, after awhile, became quite nasty.

August 11 (Mittwoch) - We walked over to the bahnhof today and got our month-long tram passes (Monatskarte).  They're also good on the bus and the metro.  Then we walked to the Baseler Platz station where we caught the 12 to the Römer and MyZeil.  In the tree-studded Zeil, we sat at a bench where I shot this picture of one of the overhead lights.  Then, we entered MyZeil and rode the escalator all the way to the top floor.

I was wondering the other day, how or if, they clean the skylight-roof.  Today, I got the answer.  I managed to get this picture of the guys out there cleaning 'windows'. Afterwards, we covered almost every store on every level.  Robb was looking for a German Eagle pendant, but we didn't find any.

After doing MyZeil, we walked over to the Galeria which is next door.  We entered the H&M store.  Robb bought a hat and I bought a T-shirt.  Robb felt the call, so we had to go to the top floor.  While we were there, I went to the outside terrace and took some pictures. The church with the clock is the oldest cathedral in Frankfurt, two: the church on the left is the one of which I took the night picture of its steeple, this one shows some of the skyscrapers,  I think this is the Alte Oper (opera), but don't quote me. Next is an area of the city called the Hauptwache. This one also. This is supposed to be a solar operated gas station, according to a picture I saw before we got here, but now I'm not so sure it really is.  There are solar panels on top of it, but I didn't see any gas pumps.  Maybe they meant a place to recharge an electric car.

Robb was getting hungry, so on the walk back to catch the tram, we stopped at Weiner Feinbäcker.  Robb spotted a pastry his grandmother used to make and got one for each of us.  It's called Pflaumenkuchen and it's a plum cake.  It's also quite good.  While we were sitting there eating the Pflaumenkuchen, we noticed a guy with a professional video camera and a girl with a microphone.  They were interviewing whoever would stop and talk to them about what appeared to be a Brita water filter.  A lot of people either never heard of it, or just didn't want to be interviewed.  This woman did.

After eating, we walked down to the tram station, but we had just missed our tram, so we walked across the street to an upscale souvenir shop.  We didn't find anything but the saleswoman told Robb about a store that sold the pendants he was lookig to buy.  We started to the store but it was too far for me and Robb took off on his own.  While he was gone, I took these pictures of the bridge between two buildings and a ratskeller (beer hall).

Then it was back to the tram station and our tram back to the hotel.

On our way to dinner, we had a happy accident.  We were planning to eat at the Markt im Bahnhof (MIB in the picture).  It is a huge place with so many varieties of food, you could eat there everyday and not eat the same thing twice.  But, as we were walking toward it, we looked up and saw the sign advertising the Cosmopolitan Restaurant.  At first, we only saw the steps leading up to it, but then found the elevator just in back of them. Up we went.  We were totally surprised to find such a great restaurant in the bahnhof and had previously been quite unaware of its existence.  We were seated at a table with a fantastic view of the trains. That's Robb wearing his new hat.  Our waiter is from Afghanistan and spoke no English. Every once in awhile, I answer in French before I realize it, so now he thinks Robb is American, but I'm French.  We had a great dinner.  I had steak medallions with wonderful French fries, and Robb had salmon.

August 12 (Donnerstag) -  I've been eating a lot more for breakfast than I would ever eat at home.  This morning, for instance, I had a glass of orange juice, a glass of milk, two cups of coffee, a waffle, a muffin and a banana (that I took back to the room for later).  At home, I would have had a cup of coffee and maybe a piece of toast later.  Of course, I'm not nearly as active at home as here.  This where we have our breakfast.  

The train stations in Europe are a good place to find a lot of things, including ATM machines.  We've found that it's much more convenient and considerably less costly to use the ATMs.  As you can almost see in this picture, there is a branch of the Commerzbank in the bahnhof also.  There is a great model railroad set up enclosed in glass, with five different train sets that you can start moving by putting in a couple euros.

If we leave our room, walk, down the hall and look out the window, we can see this rooftop.  I've noticed there are a lot of places like this in Frankfurt.  Probably more than anyone except someone in a plane will ever see.  This one could use a bit of trimming though.

Robb wanted to check a couple more jewelry stores, so we caught the tram up Münchener Strasse where we had seen a couple the other day. They didn't have the one for which he was looking, but I saw this building and liked it.

Today, we caught the 21 tram and rode to the end of the line in each direction.  On the way to the second line end, we got off because we saw a place selling bags, and Robb is still trying to replace the one he lost at the airport in Fort Lauderdale.  He didn't find anything he liked, but I got this picture of a typical German neighborhood on the outskirts of the city.  Once we got to the second line end, we entered a Rewe super market, where I bought some sponges (schwamm) and Robb bought a bottle of Obst Wasser (a kind of schnapps).  Across from the tram station was this Grillstation.  The smell from this place almost made us want to eat again.

We rode back to Baseler Platz, started back to the hotel, but were drawn into a store by the strong pull of white chocolate popsicles.

You can see all the Frankfurt pictures here - Flickr Frankfurt.

Bis zum nächsten mal, meine Freunde 

Frankfurt 2010

August 4 (Mittwoch) - Wir sind hier.  We left Dallas-Fort Worth around 2:45pm.  It was about 104°F.  We actually arrived in Frankfurt half an hour early, but had to wait for a berth to open and that put our time right on the original schedule of 07h20.  It was 59° in Frankfurt.  We both decided not to have breakfast on the plane, and after collecting our bags with no passport or customs problems, stopped at Le Café for coffee and a croissant.  Yeah, I know, Le Café in Germany?  We have found that there are a lot of places with French names here.  We got a taxi to the hotel, Hotel National.

Because it was so early, we couldn't check in, so we left our luggage and went out for a walk.  We walked down to Kaiserstrasse, where we saw this example of German architecture, you have to remember when you see these buildings, that most of them are copies of the originals because most were blasted out of existence during WWII.  We walked until we came to a park where on the left we saw this neat art piece and to the right, we saw this symbol which represents the European Union.  We crossed over to Münchener Strasse and walked back to the hotel.  It was still too early, so we just sat there until a guy came by and told us our room was ready and we could go up.

We were assigned Room 124, but because Robb had heard somewhere that we should ask for a "renovated" room, he mentioned it to the desk clerk.  She said there were only three such rooms and nothing would be available until at least Friday.  We were okay with that schedule and went up to our room.  

We were both so tired we slept for a couple of hours.  Then we went out to eat.  We thought we would just eat in the hotel since we were so tired, but the hotel restaurant was closed because they had no customers.  There is an Indian restaurant next door to the hotel, but neither of us felt we could handle that, so we turned left and walked down the block to see what we could find.  We got to the end of the block seeing nothing inviting, and turned the corner.  From the corner of my eye, I spied a bunch of people sitting at outdoor tables about a block away, and suggested we should have a look.  It turned out to be a Japanese restaurant.  We went in and sat at a table on seats that were like individual benches.  The food at MoschMosch was really good.  Robb had a vegetarian dish (that wasn't because there was beef or pork in it) and I had ramen soup.  Now don't even think of that dried stuff you buy at your local supermarket.  This ramen soup was fantastic and had several large slices of chicken along with the noodles, carrots, scallions and bean sprouts. 

After dinner, we walked back to the hotel and up to our room.  The room was huge, but really, really noisy.  The hotel is about a block from the Hauptbahnhof, which you can see as the brownish building, (the main train station) and there is a tram line that runs past the hotel's front door. The trams were not a problem.  You could be standing on the street when they go by and, if you had your eyes closed, you would never even know they were there. But the trucks and cars that pass on the street are really noisy.  And it never stops, not permanently anyway.  They do stop when the light changes to red, but that only lasts a few seconds and the racket starts right up again.  Add to that the several bars that stay open until the wee hours of the moring and the drunks talking at the top of their voices, and it's not pleasant or inducive to sleep.  We were both awake most of the night.

August 5 (Donnerstag) – After a terrible night, during which we got very little sleep, Robb went down to the desk and asked them to move us to a room off the street.  He came back up, we packed up our stuff and moved to room 418.  After the original room (124), it seemed like a broom closet.  It had a nice Samsung flat panel TV and a great shower, but if we had stayed there, we would have been bumping into each other every time we moved.  We decided we would rather put up with the noise in the large room.  We went down to the desk to ask.  The manager took us back up to the fourth floor (fifth in the US) and took us to room 427.  It is beautiful and even larger than 124.  He said they didn’t offer us this room because of the construction going on next door, which starts each morning around 07h30.  We said we didn’t care.  We would rather put up with the noise starting at 07h30, than to have to put up with it all night long.  As if to prove us correct, the room was rather quiet while he was showing it to us, and it was only around 14h00.  So we moved again and sure enough, it was very quiet.  According to the manager, the workers leave around 17h00 each day and don’t work on the weekend.  

Having gotten that settled, we walked over to the bahnhof to get some coffee.  I’m not sure what’s going on in Germany (Frankfurt at least) but there seems to be a lot of places and things that are considerably more French than German.  Le Café, where we had coffee and a croissant; Le Petit Restaurant in the hotel (which we discovered will not be open until the 16th) and even the carpet in our new room has a French fleur-de-lis pattern.

I was too tired to go out walking, so we returned to the room and hung out until 20h00.  Then we went downstairs and asked the desk clerk to call us a taxi.  Robb asked the driver to recommend a place and we were off.  Unfortunately, during the drive, he asked if the place was expensive.  The driver replied that he didn’t know because he had never eaten there, but the place was well-known.  Somehow, we ended up going to Römerberg Platz.  Once there, we saw several restaurants, a lot of which were quite crowded.  We chose the one that wasn’t that crowded, Zum Schwarzen Stern (To the Black Star).  It was way too chilly for me to sit outside, so we went in and found a table by the window.  We started with a Kir Royal.  For dinner, I had wiener schnitzel (because I couldn’t remember having had it before) with a potato-cucumber salad.  Robb had duck breast with red cabbage and potato dumplings.  I wasn’t crazy about the schnitzel, but the salad was excellent.  Robb loved his duck.  We skipped dessert and just had an espresso to finish.  Before leaving the restaurant, I took a picture one of the windows because I just really liked it.. 

After dinner, we walked around a little, but it was quite chilly.  The weather has been in the low twenties (seventies) during the day, and the low to mid teens (fifties) in the evenings.  Robb loves it, but it’s a bit cool for me.  I took a picture of the church steeple because it was lit up.  It came out fairly good, considering my shakiness.

August 6 (Freitag) – For the first time, we made it to breakfast in the hotel dining room.  They present quite a varied spread.  We only had orange juice, coffee and a couple of tiny muffins.  We’ve been curious as to why the hotel dining room is not open for dinner.  Today we learned from the breakfast waiter that everyone is on vacation, but they’ll be back and the restaurant in full operation on the sixteenth.

We did relatively little today.  Checked out a couple stores and a hostel because Susan said she might like to try that instead of the hotel which is kind of expensive.  It seemed rather nice and it’s right across the strasse from the Hauptbahnhof..

When we checked into the hotel, we were given a voucher for free drinks in the hotel bar.  We used them today to get a couple glasses of wine.  Robb got all excited when he heard the barmaid tell another customer that she is from Havana, Cuba.  Of course, that meant they had to have a conversation in Cuban Spanish.

We finally tried Gaylord India Restaurant next door.  We both ordered the Chicken Tikka Masala.  It was great.  Spicy but very good.

They have free WiFi in the lobby here, but it’s a pain in the butt to have to run down there every time we want to use it.  The option I chose is to pay to be able to use it in our room.  The desk clerk either didn’t understand my question, or just doesn’t know how it works.  It is through a company named Frederix and they offer three plans.  For 5€, you get 12 hours, 9€ = 24 hours and 20€ = 72 hours.   Because the desk clerk didn't seem to understand how it works, I decided to try the 12 hour plan.  According to him, your time starts as soon as you enter your password and continues until that time limit is reached.  That didn't make any sense to me, because if one opts for the 72 hours, there is no way anyone (even me) is going to be on the computer for 72 hours straight.  So I got the 12 hour plan and tested it to see how it works.  Turns out I was right, the time stops ticking as soon as you log off and doesn't start again until you log back on.  My original 12 hours ran out at midnight on August 7.  Oh yeah, there is a date limit as well as an hour limit, and I suspect the date is the real time limit.

August 7 (Samstag) - Today, we bought a tram ticket and caught the tram to the Römer Platz because we both wanted to check out the Zeil, a shopping street, and MyZeil, a cool modern shopping mall.  Here's a link to a video about MyZeil.  We went to a store named S. Oliver where Robb bought three shirts.  We wandered about for a while during which we came across what appeared to be a store, but there were people lined up on both sides waiting to be let inside.  It was the strangest thing I've ever seen.  Next time we go back, we'll have to check it out and see what's really going on.


After, wandering around MyZeil for a while, we left and started back to get the tram.  Robb was feeling hungry so we stopped at an outdoor café (Rafaello's) where he ordered a pizza and I ordered a glass of orange juice.  We sat there under the trees, for several hours, just watching the bazillions of people walking by.  Between the Römer and MyZeil, there is a pedestrian walkway of about three blocks.  That's where the café is located along with many, many others. 

Back at the hotel, we rested up until late.  We neither felt like wanderig around looking for a restaurant, so we walked over to the bahnhof and got a sandwich and a bottle of water, which we brought back to the room.  We watched some German TV and ate our sandwiches.  They were a surprisingly very good dinner.    

German TV is more like watching US TV, but in a different language.  Most of their night time programming are US TV shows dubbed in German.  They even have most of the same commercials.  The main difference there is that they show the commercials only once during the show and between the shows.

By the way, if you read this and there are a few missing 'N's, it's because my 'N' keypad fell off and I can't get it back on.....yet.

August 8 (Sonntag) - The jet lag has really gotten to me on this trip.  I have no energy whatsoever, and breathing is a major problem.  That, of course, means that we can do very little, and nowhere near what we want to do.  Sunday in Germany is a good day in which to do nothing because every thing is closed except for the very touristy areas.  I slept most of the day trying to get back some of my energy, but it doesn't really seem to have helped much.  Robb, as he is wont to do, went out for a walk by himself.  I made sure he knew the name of the hotel so if he got lost, he could find his way back.  I finally got out of bed and tried to catch up with this journal.

He returned a while later and we went down to the bar for our very first German beer since arriving.  As luck would have it, the bar was open, but only because they were getting prepared to hold one of those "speed dating" things.  The kind where there are several guys and girls who introduce themselves, chat for awhile then move on to the next person.  If any couple hits it off, they arrange for a date.  The guy who was running the show is from Greece.  Apo moved to Germany with his parents after the war, and has been here ever since.  Robb asked him to recommend a restaurant for the evening.  He told us about Baseler Eck which is only about two blocks down the strasse.

We left for the restaurant.  It was pretty chilly and there was a gusting wind, but we figured we could stand it for two blocks.  (You do hear that buzzer, right?)  Baseler Eck was closed.  We had just passed another place so we went back there.  It was an African restaurant and there wasn't a white person to be seen.  We looked around but no one made any effort to seat us, so we left.  Robb said that during his earlier walk, he had passed an Italian restaurant, so we set off looking for that.  We walked down along the Main (pronounced 'mine') River.  Luckily, the wind wasn't quite so fierce, but Robb suddenly couldn't remember what route he had taken.  Somehow, we found the Italian restaurant.  It was closed.  We figured it was going to be another bahnhof sandwich night and started walking there.

On the way, we passed Le Méridien Parkhotel (there's that French name again) and saw that their restaurant, Le Parc, was open, so we went in.  We both had the roast pork loin with baked potatoes and a really great salad.

You can see all the pictures here - Frankfurt 

Bis zum nächsten mal, meine Freunde

We're Off (Almost)

I've decided I don't like smart-phones. There's just too much going on. After all, the main function of a phone (at least, the main function of mine) is the making and receiving of phone calls. Yes, I like all the apps and games, but not on my phone. I suppose if I was a lot younger and could see tiny writing and pictures without a magnifying glass, I would feel differently. But it's getting to the point where I can barely make out the caller ID names, so I'm not comfortable using the features of my smart-phone.


Just for fun, I tracked the American Airlines flight we will be taking from Dallas. After seven and a half hours, it was only just off the Newfoundland/Labrador coast. It did say that the plane landed on time, so hopefully ours will do the same. But, if we had left from Miami, we would have been half-way across the Atlantic. It's almost 14h30, tomorrow at this time, we will still be in Dallas.


BTW, if you have a flight you want to track, here is the URL: Flight Tracker Post Options

We stopped at the credit union to get some cash for taxis and such. While we were there, another Smart pulled in next to us. The exact same colors. I thought I was seeing double. We are starting to see more and more of them.


Here's a part of the "war" in Iraq that you'll never see on the six o'clock news. Iraqi Prostitutes - Syria.  
LV tattooed pigs removed from art show in China. 
Data Leak: Galaxy Rich in Earth-Like Planets. NASA didn't plan it this way, but earlier this month a co-investigator on the Kepler satellite mission in the hunt for other Earth-like planets announced to a conference in Oxford, England, that "planets like our own Earth are out there. Our Milky Way galaxy is rich in this kind of planet." 


Amazon deforestation in dramatic decline, official figures show. The Brazilian environment agency, Ibama, which is responsible for protecting the forests against illegal logging, said the drop was due to the increased use of satellite data to spot the felling of trees and new tactics to deter loggers, including ending their ability to hide under cloud cover. 

Orchids growing on a Palm Tree at our condo.
Canadian cows drink red wine for better flavor. A farmer in British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley is feeding her cattle red wine for the last 90 days before slaughter. According to the Vancouver Sun, Janice Ravndahl of Sezmu Meats stumbled on the idea while watching chef Gordon Ramsey feed beer to pigs on his show, The F Word. Because she thought her Angus would get bloated from the carbonation in beer, she started feeding her cows a liter of local red wine a day, sometimes mixed in with their food, sometimes straight. 


This is so cool. AMAZING Liebherr Excavator Climbs To The Top.

The Science of Global Warming in Perspective. "Ice ages occur every 100,000 years. The next one is scheduled to begin now. Oceans and temperatures rise before the ice ages begin. These are ocean temperatures measured through sea shell isotopes being used as a proxy for global (atmospheric) temperatures. Warm oceans precede ice ages, and warm oceans increase precipitation. So precipitation increases before ice ages, contrary to some claims."

Scientists Produce First Cloned Fighting Bull.

If you think you can believe everything you see or hear, you might like to see this video. 


« Fais de ta vie un rêve, et d'un rêve, une réalité. » Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
    Make life a dream, then make the dream a reality
À la prochaine, mes amis

Avatar Flight

I just saw Avatar. A fantastic movie. Okay, the storyline was older than Hollywood, but the special affects were simply astonishing.

Have any of you seen those stupid Plavix commercials? The ones in which they tell you that their product could cause a heart attack?

We're just a little more than a week away from our next journey to Europe.  It's a rather ambitious trip this time taking in three countries; Germany, Spain and, of course, France.  We will be joined for a short while by one of Robb's lifetime friends, Susan.  She will join us in Germany for a week or so and then another week in Barcelona, where she will stay with us in the apartment we've rented there.  I'm looking forward to the trip, but I'm dreading the first and last flights.  For whatever reason, we've been booked on a flight with American Airlines from Fort Lauderdale airport.  We don't particularly care for American, but c'est la vie.  The real problem is that American doesn't fly directly to Europe from Fort Lauderdale.  We will leave there and first fly to Dallas, Texas, where we will board the plane to Frankfurt.  Stupid way to go to Europe?  You bet.  But that's where we're stuck.  And of course, the reverse on the return flight.  ¡Ay, caramba!! 

Apple’s Antenna Problem Is Different. Apple then posted videos of several smartphones, including the iPhone 4, suffering diminished signal strength when gripped in certain ways. The point of these exercises was to demonstrate that the iPhone 4’s antenna issue is not unique among cellphones. However, it is.... 

The most incredible display of gymnastics I've ever seen. 

Bones made from wood. 

Scientists taking vitamin D in droves. "Dr. Hollis is so convinced about the possible health benefits that he has been taking 4,000 International Units daily, for years, but recently upped it to 6,000 IU, to raise his blood levels of the nutrient. “I don’t know of anybody who is studying this who isn’t taking” the vitamin in robust amounts, Dr. Hollis says. The quantities Dr. Hollis takes are well above what Health Canada recommends." 

McDonald's Apologizes For Condoms In Happy Meals PROVINCETOWN, Mass. (CAP) - McDonald's executives were left with egg (McMuffin) on their face this week, when over 5,000 Happy Meals were distributed with colored condoms instead of a plastic toy from the movie The Last Airbender. "They were so bright and colorful, they were mistaken for Happy Meal toys," explained McDonald's vice president of public relations Robin Anderson.  But here's the most amazing part of this report: "Unfortunately most of the workers there don't read English, and they thought 'Ribbed Latex' was a character from The Last Airbender." 

Egyptian impact crater first spotted on Google Earth. Researchers poring over Google Earth images have discovered one of Earth’s freshest impact craters — a 45-meter-wide pock in southwestern Egypt that probably was excavated by a fast-moving iron meteorite no more than a few thousand years ago. 

Sex is like your salary..... You don't disclose what you get but you always think that others get more than you...!!!

À la prochaine, mes amis

J'ai Un Sciphone

I bought a new phone. It's an iPhone clone called a Sciphone. I still don't even know how to use all the features. This is the main screen when it's turned on. This is the screen  that comes up when you "Slide to Unlock". There are ten screens in total. Most of them are games (I think) and there is a lot of room for other apps if you want to add them.  I most likely won't add any for a long, long time because A) I don't want to pay to use them and B) I don't know how to use them.

We went to dinner with Dee and Judy at The Manor on Wilton Drive. It used to be several smaller places, but was recently renovated into one large place. Inside, there are two bars and a "restaurant" area. If you like to converse while dining, The Manor is not the place to go. The food wasn't that good either, which is too bad because it's really a neat place. On the other hand, if one is to believe Mark's List the food is quite good, but neither Robb, nor I, was impressed. Maybe we just got them at a bad time. It was quite early for us (17h00), but Judy had to get up very early the next morning.

Dark Matter May Be Building Up Inside the Sun. The sun could be a net for dark matter, a new study suggests. If dark matter happens to take a certain specific form, it could build up in our nearest star and alter how heat moves inside it in a way that would be observable from Earth. 

Carl Sagan: A universe not made for us. 

Is Gravity Real? A Scientist Takes on Newton. It’s hard to imagine a more fundamental and ubiquitous aspect of life on the Earth than gravity, from the moment you first took a step and fell on your diapered bottom to the slow terminal sagging of flesh and dreams. But what if it’s all an illusion, a sort of cosmic frill, or a side effect of something else going on at deeper levels of reality? 

The incredible shrinking solar cell. The next generation of solar cells will be small. About the size of lint. But the anticipated impact: That’s huge.

Reconstructed: Archimedes's flaming steam cannon. Did the ancient Greek inventor Archimedes build a solar-powered steam cannon that fired flaming projectiles? That's the suggestion of an Italian engineer who has come up with a design for such a weapon. 

The best marimba player I've ever seen. 

Flying Car a Step Closer to Reality. 

Truth Wins Out exposes creepy practices of 'ex-gay' therapist. Another "ex-gay" fraud is exposed by Truth Wins Out. And, this one is really disturbing and creepy: Truth Wins Out (TWO) released an exclusive video statement today from two former clients of “ex-gay” life coach Alan Downing. 

À la prochaine, mes amis

French-ified

America's Deadliest Sweetener Betrays Millions, Then Hoodwinks You With Name Change. Aspartame is the most controversial food additive in history, and its approval for use in food was the most contested in FDA history. In the end, the artificial sweetener was approved, not on scientific grounds, but rather because of strong political and financial pressure. After all, aspartame was previously listed by the Pentagon as a biochemical warfare agent! 

Might We Do as the Romans Do? Three years ago, the Italian energy giant Eni began what is now a summer tradition: from June 1 to Sept. 1, the company sets the thermostat in its corporate office buildings 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) higher than it had in summers before 2007. It also allows employees to “take off their ties” – that is, wear lighter, more casual clothes to work. Don’t misunderstand: Eni uses air-conditioning, and the offices are more than comfortable. It simply allows the temperature to creep up a tiny bit; most workers wouldn’t even notice. 

“Steamy” French commercial. 

Here's bad news for those of us who love Paris. Paris Aims to Curb Apartment Rentals to Tourists. 

French civil servant lifts lid on five-hours-a-week culture. A French civil servant who lifted the lid on the wastefulness of the country's state sector in a book describing a "five-hours-a-week" culture where people competed to take the longest coffee breaks has been suspended. 

Humungous bubbles blown from small black hole. A relatively small black hole has been spotted blowing bubbles with diameters of more than 300-1500 light years. 

Republicans more likely to be involved in (gay) sex scandals.

 

À la prochaine, mes amis

Islam Closet

The holiday (4th of July) wasn't so great in Fort Lauderdale. It rained all day. There was supposed to be a barbeque-get-together at the condo between 4 and 6, but the rain cancelled that. All the rain didn't have much effect on the bazillions of people who were shooting off fireworks. It sounded like we were in the midst of a war zone. The air was so full of smoke, it was difficult to both breathe and see. We had planned to go out to eat, but every place we called, was closed. I guess they didn't think they could compete with all the barbequers. We did run out to the market to get a few things, where we chatted for a couple of minutes with a very cute, very drunk young guy.

What Jefferson was thinking. Analysis reveals a last-minute revision to the Declaration of Independence.

Islamic science: The revival begins here. Today the Royal Society will publish the first report based on its Atlas of Islamic-World Science and Innovation Project. The reason we have chosen to undertake this project is the potentially staggering impact that countries such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar and others could have on science in the coming decades.

Sea Ice News. We have been hearing a lot about how the decline in Arctic ice is following the “steepest slope ever.” The point is largely meaningless, but we can have some fun with it. The Bremen Arctic/Antarctic maps are superimposed above, showing that ice in the Antarctic is at a record high and growing at the “steepest slope ever.” You will also note that most of the world’s sea ice is located in the Antarctic. But those are inconvenient truths when trying to frighten people into believing that “the polar ice caps are melting.”

"Can You Guess Who Lives in This House? Maybe your mind is going towards a Saudi Prince? or Queen of England? or a Billionaire? Well, see all pictures of this one of luxurious houses of the world and at the end of the post you will find the answer that who is living in this home."

74-MPG City Car Makes a Smart Look Big. As the man behind some of the most successful McLaren Formula 1 cars and the incomparable McLaren F1 supercar, Gordon Murray has designed some of the fastest cars ever. Now he’s building one of the smallest. And most radical.

The British engineer finally unveiled his T.25 City Car, the Lilliputian runabout he’s spent three years developing. Although the 74-mpg T.25 and its T.27 electric sibling recall the microcars of post-war Europe, it’s quite advanced. Beyond using a tubular steel frame, composite materials and a canopy that opens like a Lamborghini’s doors, the T.25 will use a manufacturing process said to tremendously reduce capital, space and materials.

10 Gay Candidates Shake Up South Florida.

Top 20 Countries With Best Quality of Life. Notice that 13 of them are in Europe, and I didn't even include Norway or Sweden.

If you'd like a little French experience, check out these restaurant videos.

It's the season of rice paddy art in Japan and Pink Tentacle has collected some exquisite examples! The massive artworks are grown through the strategic arrangement of rice plants of varying hues.

Things they wish they hadn't said: "With over 50 foreign cars already on sale here, the Japanese auto industry isn't likely to carve out a big slice of the U.S. market." -- Business Week, August 2, 1968.

À la prochaine, mes amis

Lesbian Youth Pill

Robb and I went over to Steven's to say our final goodbyes and because Robb had a present for him. We stayed long enough to meet his father and his nephew. His father is a truck driver who drives the big rigs, so I was pretty amazed to hear him say "girl", as in, "girl, you should have seen it". Also, he was very emotional; he cried when he thanked us for watching over his son. We didn't really but I guess that's just a technicality. His nephew is a thirteen year old cutie who is at least 6 feet tall. He kind of reminded me of one of my cousins in Illinois who was well over six feet and only fifteen.

At the library the other day, we ran into a 'girl' who is the Building Maintenance Manager. We've both known her a long time, of course, but I never realized she is a lesbian. It just never occurred to me. Robb apparently knew all along. Anyway, she was suddenly very friendly and we had quite a little chat. I always got along well with her, but we were never what one might call 'friends'. She was just someone to whom I spoke occasionally and saw in an official capacity once in a while. But if anyone had seen us the other day, they would have sworn we were all the very best of friends. She gave her email adddress to Robb and he sent an email. Evidently, we're all going to have dinner one night soon.

An Anonymous Person (AP) replied to my challenge to show me one place in the Bible in which it indicates the answer to prayer can be NO. AP presented three, but two of them weren't even in the ball park. However, the one AP did present that was kind of close, simply raised a couple more questions, because basically, it was taken out of context and really doesn't mention prayer as such. It was more or less about killing to get what you want and adultery. I'd hardly equate that with someone begging for the life of a child or world peace. But I refuse to get into an argument because I've learned over the years that you simply can't win an argument with a Christian. They always have their infallible comeback, "God works in mysterious ways and it's not for us to understand."

Here's a view I don't share, but find interesting, since religion has killed (and is killing) far more people than it ever saved. How our species owes its success to religion

Pocket change.

The Youth Pill. "Then in 1988 a miracle happened -- the University of Colorado's Thomas Johnson reported that a gene mutation in nematodes could more than double their life spans. Five years later, Cynthia Kenyon at the University of California, San Francisco, nailed a similar worm "gerontogene" dubbed daf-2. These flabbergasting discoveries revealed that not everything about aging is intractable chaos -- worms, at least, apparently possessed gene-encoded modules poised to oppose the ravages of advancing age when activated by a single mutation. Optimists soon speculated that similar modules exist in mammals.

Blind mice see again. Researchers have restored sight to blind laboratory mice by using gene therapy. The new treatment, published online June 24 in Science, may one day allow some people with retinitis pigmentosa, an incurable genetic eye disease, to read, drive and navigate a room.

Brain origins of 'blindsight' revealed. Some blind people have the remarkable ability to navigate physical obstacles without consciously perceiving them (see video, above). It now looks like they have their lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) - part of the thalamus in the middle of the brain - to thank for this "blindsight".

You will find this very interesting and informative.

Red Sea Oil Spill May Have Cairo Reduce Offshore Drills. As oil continues to gush into the Gulf of Mexico, a leak into the Red Sea is causing the Egyptian government to reconsider the number of rigs it operates in sensitive waters.

June 23, 1912: Computer Pioneer Alan Turing Born. 1912: Alan Turing, who will go on to become one of the 20th century’s greatest mathematicians, computer scientists and philosophers, is born. Turing is probably best known to Wired readers as the inventor of the “Turing test,” a way of measuring a computer’s ability to simulate intelligent human conversation. But he’s more significant as one of the most influential computer-science pioneers of the 20th century, the man who invented and formally described the concept of a universal computing device, now known as a Turing machine.

Google Voice Now Available (provided you have a US phone number).

Memories made of light. Researchers have coaxed laboratory crystals to capture and release information carried within a light pulse at the highest efficiency yet. The work, reported in the June 24 issue of Nature, could one day lead to new types of secure communications that take advantage of the weird properties of the quantum world.

Vatican cardinal faces corruption inquiry over Rome property deals. A senior Vatican cardinal is under investigation for corruption, dragging the Catholic church into a public works scandal that has sent shockwaves through the Italian government.

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Why is it so hard to find men who are caring, kind, and good looking? Because those men already have boyfriends.

What's the best form of birth control after 50? Nudity

Chocolate is derived from cocoa beans. Bean = vegetable. Sugar is derived from either sugar cane or sugar BEETS. Both of them are plants in the vegetable category. Thus, chocolate is a vegetable.

To go one step further, chocolate candy bars also contain milk, which is dairy. So candy bars are a health food.

Chocolate-covered raisins, cherries, orange slices and strawberries all count as fruit, so eat as many as you want.

Remember: "STRESSED" spelled backward is "DESSERTS"

À la prochaine, mes amis

Another Birthday

Saturday, Robb took me to Thai Spice where we had a fantastic dinner to commemorate my birthday. My birthday was really Thursday, but for reasons I no longer remember, we decided to go on Saturday. I don't really care that much about my birthday. To me, it's just another day and nothing special. The only one I thought would be special, the 21st, was so disappointing. I'm not sure what I expected to happen, but I had this thought in the back of my mind that it would be super magical. It wasn't.

And yet, the richest country in the world can't do it. A Dirt-Poor Nation, With a Health Plan.

More hope for genetic fix for HIV. Genetically modifying the stem cells of HIV patients may one day prove to be an effective, one-time therapy against the hard-to-kill virus, according to the results of a proof-of-principle trial published this week in Science Translational Medicine.

This is hilarious. If you've ever been to France, you'll be nodding your head in agreement. Should I Move to France? (28 Questions to Ask Yourself)

The Hidden Wealth of the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church in Germany, already struggling to cope with the sex abuse scandal, has been hit by revelations of theft, opaque accounting and extravagance. While the grassroots faithful are being forced to make cutbacks, some bishops enjoy the trappings of the church's considerable hidden wealth.

Barcelona bans burkas in public buildings. Barcelona has become the first big city in Spain to forbid full face veils in public buildings such as markets and libraries.

What's wrong with the sun? Sunspots come and go, but recently they have mostly gone. For centuries, astronomers have recorded when these dark blemishes on the solar surface emerge, only for them to fade away again after a few days, weeks or months. Thanks to their efforts, we know that sunspot numbers ebb and flow in cycles lasting about 11 years.

Six new planets discovered. An international team, including Oxford University scientists, has discovered six diverse new planets, from 'shrunken-Saturns' to 'bloated hot Jupiters', as well a rare brown dwarf with 60 times the mass of Jupiter.

Don't miss the Mondrian-inspired cake *interior* at Cake Wrecks; it'll blow your mind! Scroll down, it's about the fifth or sixth cake.

A lawyer, a salesman and a banker had gathered by a coffin containing the body of an old friend.

In grief, one of the three said, "In our family, we have a custom of giving the dead some money, so they'll have something to spend in heaven."

They all agreed that the custom was quite appropriate.

The salesman dropped a hundred dollar bill into the casket, and the banker did the same.

The lawyer took out the two bills and wrote a check for $300.

À la prochaine, mes amis

BP Boogie

I recently read the blog of a young friend who is battling cancer, and it got me to thinking about two of my favorite rant subjects: The Secret and Christianity.

If you're not familiar with it, The Secret is a new 'philosophy' that postulates that things happen to us because that's what we want to happen and all we have to do is think about what we really want in order for the "Universe" to supply it. A lot of "Secret" gurus have sprung up who are perfectly willing to explain why it isn't working for you and how you can make it work. Of course, they won't just give you this information but they'll be happy to SELL it to you. To the people who believe this crap, I ask....how many infants do you know who lay around dreaming of having some deadly disease that's going to kill them before they even reach their teen years?

I have multiple problems with Christianity, but I think my all-time favorite is when someone prays for something and the prayer isn't answered. The Christians explain this by saying "the prayer was answered but the answer was No". Okay, Christians, here's the challenge; show me even one line in any Bible where it says the answer to a prayer can be No. Just one. Here, I'll even give you a place to start: St John, Chapter 14, Verse 14 "If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it." Please note that it does not state "I will do it if the mood strikes me". And yes, I know there have been studies that conclude that prayer does work. But those studies are misleading because what they really show is that sometimes, if someone, or some group, believes in something strongly enough, it can happen. Which is a testament to the psychology and power of the human mind, not religion or prayer.

Something else I've been wondering about; all the advertisements on websites. Do the advertisers really believe that we pay attention to this crap? Do they think we're going to be encouraged to buy their product simply because they're annoying the hell out of us? It seems to me in this time of economic bust, that they would be looking for ways to save money, not ways to waste it. Few things annoy me more than clicking on a website and having to click off, or wait through a stupid 'commercial'. It is the very reason I stopped going to movie theaters. I will not pay to see a f**king commercial. I think someone needs to invent a new internet.

Saturday afternoon, Robb and I went to the farewell party of our friend Steven. We had planned to stay only two or three hours but didn't leave until almost midnight. Steven works for the county library system which has screwed him around. After fighting many illnesses and loss of class time, he finally managed to get his Masters in Library Science and became a Librarian I. Normally, that pays rather well, but the county cut his hours to 19 per week, which is the main reason he's leaving. He is returning to Alabama where he got a full-time job as a Librarian, and he can live with his parents until he puts together enough to get his own place.

Scientists challenge BP containment claims. Some scientists are taking issue with BP's statement that a containment cap placed over a gushing well could be capturing "the vast majority" of oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico.

A MUST SEE: http://www.koreus.com/video/bp-maree-noire-cafe.html

Lloyd's: ditch oil, invest in renewable energy. The current generation of business leaders need to rethink their approach to energy risks or be left behind as energy becomes less reliable and more expensive... The environmental and economic cost of our reliance on fossil fuels is too high. We need a long-term plan to reduce consumption and diversify our energy resources.

Shock and Age. The accumulation of misfolded protein marks the accrual of years as the body ages. Could heat shock proteins be used to reduce the effects of aging and diminish the risk of disease by untangling improperly folded proteins?

Paper trail: Inside the stem cell wars. Some stem cell biologists are crying foul, however. Last year, 14 researchers in this notoriously competitive field wrote to leading journals complaining of "unreasonable or obstructive reviews". The result, they claimed, is that "publication of truly original findings may be delayed or rejected".

Foxconn gives workers second pay rise. An electronics company hit by a string of suicides has raised wages in China - for the second time in less than a week.

Hooked on Gadgets, and Paying a Mental Price

Get a Flu Shot Without Any Needles. Biosolutions has created a device that with the help of lasers, makes tiny holes in your skin to let the medicine in and keep the pain of getting shots out. The Painless Laser Epideral System (PLEASE) boasts that it can be a great advance for diabetic patients and for wanting-to-be mothers who have to go through a series of painful shots. With this, you can even do it in the comfort of your own home and avoid the doctor all together.

Sci-fi universes featuring both magic and science.

Portrait of a youthful planet.

A couple of redneck hunters are out in the woods when one of them falls to the ground. He doesn't seem to be breathing and his eyes are rolled back in his head. The other redneck starts to panic, then whips out his cell phone and calls 911.

He frantically blurts out to the operator, "O my gawd! Help! My friend just died. He's Dead! What can I do?"

The operator, trying to calm him says, "Take it easy. I can help. Just listen to me and follow my instructions. First, lets make sure he's dead."

There's a short pause, and then the operator hears a loud gun shot!!!

The redneck comes back on the line and says, "OK, now what?"

À la prochaine, mes amis

Manboy

Robb and I met Gerti at the Sage in Hollywood for dinner the other night. I think I like the Hollywood Sage better than the Fort Lauderdale Sage. Although, having stated that, I must say the Gratinée de la Mer I had was not quite as good as it was in Fort Lauderdale. Robb and Gertie both had the Tuna Provençale and raved about it. Gerti is German. She works for the county library system which is how Robb met her. She reminds me a lot of Geoff, in that she doesn't seem to like anybody, she doesn't like the US, she doesn't like the food, and neither she nor her husband like the medical care, but she resists going back to Germany with her husband George. In the meantime, husband George spends a small fortune flying back and forth to Germany to go to the doctor there. Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't get it.

Speaking of not getting it, another thing I don't understand is this; the Muslims claim to hate the Israelis, but when was the last time you heard of a suicide attack in Israel? I wonder if this Gaza thing will propel them into some kind of retaliation. And don't you admire Helen Thomas? I think her colleagues should be begging her to remain in the press corps.

Eat less, live longer? In Greek mythology, the tale of the Trojan prince Tithonus is a tragic one. His lover, the goddess Eos, asks Zeus to grant him eternal life, but forgets to specify eternal youth. Time passes, and while the goddess of dawn stays young and beautiful, Tithonus degenerates into bedridden senility. Eventually Eos shuts him in a chamber of her celestial palace, where his feeble voice can be heard begging for death. Dreams of eternal youth feature in many cultures throughout history, but it was only in the 20th century that research into longevity really began. Much about ageing is still mysterious - we don't even know the underlying reasons why we journey into old age. There are many lines of enquiry into how to live longer, though, with one of the most intriguing being calorie restriction: in effect, going on a lifelong diet.

Hubble identifies Jupiter's attacker. The object that smacked into Jupiter in 2009, leaving a dark bruise, was probably an asteroid, according to a new study based on ultraviolet Hubble Space Telescope images.

Out of the shadows: our unknown immune system. Deliberate infection with a blood-sucking worm seems an odd way to treat multiple sclerosis (MS). Yet more surprising is what this experiment may tell us about a "shadow" branch of our immune system. Completely unknown until recently, this is pointing to new ways of treating a host of complex diseases.

Physicists keep trying to explain why time flows one way. In a famous passage from his 1938 book The Realm of Truth, the Spanish-American philosopher George Santayana compared time to a flame running along a fuse. The flame’s position marked the present moment, speeding forward but never backward as the fuse disappeared behind it. “The essence of nowness,” Santayana remarked, “runs like fire along the fuse of time.” Each spark along the fuse represents one of the “nows” that transform the future into the past and “combine perfectly to form the unchangeable truth of history.” It’s far from a perfect analogy. A flame flitting along a wire doesn’t fully capture the quirky features of time that perplex physicists pondering relativity and quantum mechanics, for example. But Santayana’s sparks do illustrate one of time’s most enduring and puzzling properties — its irreversibility. Read the complete article.

Gay? Whatever, Dude

Monday Puzzle: Martin Gardner’s Birthday Celebration

A woman is just getting out of the shower when the doorbell rings. Her husband, heading to the shower himself, asks her to see who's at the door, so she wraps herself up in a towel and runs downstairs. When she opens the door, there stands her next-door neighbor, Rob. Before she can say a word, Rob says, "I'll give you $500 to drop that towel you have on." After thinking for a moment, the woman drops her towel. He looks for a few seconds, hands her $500, and leaves with a big smile on his face. Excited about her earnings, the woman puts the towel back on and runs upstairs. Her husband yells out from the shower, "Who was that?" "It was Rob from next door," she replies. "Great," the husband says. "Did he say anything about the $500 dollars he owes me?"

À la prochaine, mes amis