Joe’s Blog

From Ronan’s Page

and the follow up: “Losing the Knack is Seriously Devastating”

nice song and a message about imdb

It has since been restored but it just goes to show how imdb has a bit of agenda too.

Watch and see how the American soldiers drive through Iraq

Berlin got cold this past week - meaning highest daily temperatures of -1 and lowest temps. of -7 so it snowed too of course. Here are some pics from my window:

I’m trying out Flickr too as you can see

Even with the snow, I went running on Saturday in Grunewald. The sun was shining and the forest looked like something from a fairytale, a bit like this but with quite a lot of children sledding, walkers, joggers and nordic walkers.

Afterward, we had an AGM with loads of cakes and buns! I even contributed some Rock Buns using a recipe from Odlums and I added sultanas. Very easy to make and tasty! Rock buns recipe from Odlums

Btw - the National Development Plan - sounds like Transport 21 and dozens of other programmes announced repackaged. In effect, essential infrastructure is being presented as a gift to us from the government. Well, hear this - it’s our money you’re spending and wasting on all too often. Another example of bad managment from someone who know’s their stuff:
Group Broadband Scam Scheme

“Noel Dempsey has really pissed off a lot of rural communities after finally admitting that they won’t invest in the Group Broadband Scheme anymore. Despite telling people for all of 2005 and 2006 that all they had to do was apply for a GBS, the last round to apply was some time in 2005. Since then there has been nothing apart from lots and lots of “coming soon” talk from the DCMNR. Rural communities have been strung along since 2005 and were told round three would open in September 2005. Noel, you’ve deceived 1000s of people desperate to get broadband. I hope the voting public remembers that.

Sarah Carey points out how it is now trendy to diss FG and not give credit for something as big as showing that Mary Harney did know about the problems in nursing homes all along - Nursing Homes and in general. How often have you heard that the Criminal Assets Bureau was set up by the Rainbow Coalition?

I take down the Johnny Logan link and he makes another comeback…this time with McDonalds!

Knut - the cutest polar bear in Berlin:

Poor little Knut was rejected by his mother and his twin brother died 4 days after being born. He was just 810g and his chances were slim but he has grown to 3.9kg already. He has to be taught how to swim too…

This looks pretty cool: A non lethal ray gun

Ray gun makes targets feel as if they are on fire (CNN)

Some updates on the running. In Nov, I did the cross-country run (9K), took a weekend off, then the relay-marathon (12K section), another weekend off (it rained). But then in Dec I got back to the long distances - 17Km and did that 3 or 4 times. Then I was in Ireland for 3 weekends and doing a tour of Berlin on the 13th. So after a month I’m back running, 9K for a start last weekend.

What have I done about driving in Germany? Just a few things like:

• 14 Theory lessons - 1.5hrs each
• First-aid course
• Eye-sight test

I’ve also started the compulsory driving lessons (12) and it won’t be too long before I get to do the other compulsory lessons on the autobahn, in the countryside and at night….
I can so far recommend the driving school - MAX Sicherheitsfahrschule which has the added bonus of driving simulation and a day at the ADAC driving park to learn and practice how to control a car when it aquaplanes etc. It also has several driving instructors and cars.
So far I’ve driven the Volkswagen Caddy (Diesel)

And an Audi A3

Google Reader (Labs), updated and so far I like it a lot. Especially handy when using 2 operating systems and more than one PC. Only problem is the odd message:

“Oops…an error occurred. Please try again in a few seconds.”

I’ve started reading Sarah Carey’s blog - GUBU which had a very interesting article on the Irish ministers in Saudi Arabia - Saudi Trip

Not quite sure why mulley mentions that “everyone loves ferris wheels” but it’s true. Vienna has a big wheel, London has the biggest (135m) , so now Berlin wants one too (even though it’s in huge debt) and a little bigger of course - 150m. Still at the planning stage but the State Senate has give the go ahead and it will be near Berlin Zoo. Station.
kr
Berlin’s last prestige project - the Hauptbahnhof has suffered a bit of a catastrophe. Last Thursday the “Kyrill” storm passed over Germany - trains were cancelled, schools were closed and the police and fire brigade were at a state of emergency (overtime etc). BUT - a 2-tonne girder came crashing down on the steps of the main train station! Mercifully no-one was killed and a second girder didn’t fall all that far. It turns out they weren’t welded or bolted down becuse they don’t carry any load and are just part of the façade.

---

Station was evacuated for 14 hours.
They have started securing the remaining girders.
Station was closed again on Sunday for around 5 hours due to danger of high winds.
Report in English from Spiegel Online
And this is after the roof was shortened to complete the station on time, after a crazed person stabbed people at the opening and after the architect won a court case to have an internal roof refitted according to his design at a cost of maybe €40m.

Stephen Colbert explains the whole AT&T thing!

Think about this:

According to the Financial Times, “it often now costs more to ship a container by road 100km from a port to its final destination than it does to move the container by sea from China to Europe.”

read Emma Maersk: The Largest Cargo Ship in the World

And I finally identified what two rather strange looking structures in Berlin are: gas storage tanks or “gasometers”

and

And finally…sometimes Berlin just has too much graffiti

Fluffy links is a name grabbed from mulley.net - hope you don’t mind. Anyways:

A website with links to TV programmes on the internet, some broken/slow naturally www.tv-links.co.uk. Captain Planet and the Belfast episode is there too but terribly slow.

This is funny

BUT is now being investigated by the Gardai
From Irish Independent - free registration required

Claire Wilson, who posted the recording on her webpage, has made it clear that she was not responsible

“I know people might say it is only a prank but you have to look at the serious aspects of that call. If you have only one garda looking after a station, which would be the position in Westport, he’s tied up with a nuisance phone call and you could have an emergency call coming in. We want our lines to be clear for the job we have to do.”

- Supt Pat Doyle, of Westport station, who confirmed that a garda investigation into the prank call is now under way.

The UL laughing soc have been busy:
The UL marketing ad redubbed…

The alternative UL marketing ad

What could be wrong with driving 100 miles on just 4 ounces of water?

Someone on digg explains it nicely:
A water-powered car isn’t really powered by water. It’s battery-powered. The water is electrolysed using power from the local electricity plant and it takes HUGE amounts of power. The energy is then stored in the water. Using water allows you to still use a combustion engine, rather than electric motors. It’s not nearly as efficient, which is why this route isn’t being pursued by car makers.

Lastly: how to cure a side stich for those runners out there.

I had a visit from a friend recently and I took him on a tour of Berlin. From this experience here is a list of highlights and a map which may serve as a guide for any visitors to Berlin.

Part 1 - Bus from Zoo to Reichstag (2.88 miles - €2.10)
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=642171
Zoologischer Garten Train Station
Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church
Europa-Center
Zoologischer Garten
Michael Fischer-art at Hotel Berlin see Metroblogging Berlin
CDU headquarters
Siegessäule
Schloss Bellevue
Haus der Kulturen der Welt
Kanzleramt

Part 2 - Walk from Reichstag to Alexanderplatz (5.64 miles)
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=642042
Reichstag
Brandenburg Gate
Holocaust Memorial
Sony Center at Potsdamer Platz
Potsdamer Platz Arkaden
Tilla-Durieux-Park (see-saws)
Berlin Wall - original section
Berlin Assembly Building on Niederkirchnerstraße
Bundesfinanzministerium - Ministry of Finance on Wilhelmstraße - Memorial of the 17th June 1953
Topography of Terror
Checkpoint Charlie
Friedrichstraße
Gendarmenmarkt - Französischer Dom, Deutscher Dom & Konzerthaus
Fassbender & Rausch Chocolatiers am Gendarmenmarkt
St.-Hedwigs-Kathedrale
Humboldt Universität
Neue Wache
Lustgarten & Altes Museum
Berliner Dom
Marienkirche
Neptunbrunnen
Marx-Engels-Forum
Rotes Rathaus
Fernsehturm
Alexanderplatz

Part 4 - Alexanderplatz to Oranienburger Tor(1.3 miles)
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=642186
Hackescher Markt
Hackesche Höfe
Tacheles
Neue Synagoge

Ever wonder what the difference is between Eurotrance and PSY? Or Neurofunk and Darkcore? Well then I’ve found a nice website for you:

Ishkur’s Guide to Electronic Music

Here is a pic of just the Trance section:

And how they describe “German”:

DIES IST TECHNO SEX!! OONCE OONCE OONCE OONCE OONCE OONCE OONCE OONCE! This is the goofiest, poppiest trance music that exists, but like its very eurocentric sister Eurodance (which emerged around the same time), it’s not all that bad. Primarily for two reasons: 1) Acid and 2) It doesn’t seem to take itself too seriously, and if it does bombard you with pompous anthems, they’re merely to speed things along. That is, not dwelling on heavy, uplifting, emotional shmaltz. But especially the acid. From this genre came two offspring: one took just the acid and became Hard Acid Trance. The other took just the bouncey basslines and became NRG. There’s nothing wrong with straight-ahead, dancey pop beats. Music is never meant to change your life or give you a new car; it’s escapism pure and simple. Sometimes I wish trance would understand how stupid it’s making itself look by even trying to be something else.