Month: November 2008
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High tide in Venice
Tomorrow the tide in Venice will be exceptionally high, what they call the acqua alta. Normal high tides are about 80-90cm above the historical average, but a combination of rain and wind will push the tide higher tomorrow, up to around 120cm above the historical average, which means that about one third of the city…
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Personality disorder?
I played a bit with Typealizer which I found at Bonnie’s blog, who had it from Michael Bradley, only the result is a bit ambiguous. I ran the test on the two sites I put the most effort into, and got rather different results.
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Homosexual necrophilia in the mallard
This is so weird, some would probably say disturbing, but nature is a weird and sometimes disturbing place. On 5 June 1995 an adult male mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) collided with the glass façade of the Natuurhistorisch Museum Rotterdam and died. An other drake mallard raped the corpse almost continuously for 75 minutes. (source: “the duck”…
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No more war!
The armistice which became the end to the Great War, the first world war, took effect at 11:11 o’clock on November 11, 1918, exact 90 years ago today. It was the most horrible war the world had ever seen, with carnage on an industrial scale, taking tens of millions of lifes over a period of…
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The Gondola Blog
By chance one day I stumbled over the Gondola Blog by Greg Mohr, who nurtures a burning passion for gondolas. He is, as he states on his blogger profile, a gondola fanatic. There are quite a few gondolas in the USA. One day I visited the Squero Tramontin in Venice, Roberto Tramontin told that there…
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Video of Berlusconi’s ‘compliment’ to Obama
The Guardian has a video of Berlusconi followed by a few interviews with ‘common’ Italians. Video: Italians rage at Silvio Berlusconi’s ‘racist’ Barack Obama comment The Repubblica has another one with clips from many countries. L’abbronzato fa il giro del mondo. The Corriere reports that Obama has called the leaders of all the G7 nations,…
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Berlusconi compliments Obama on his “tan”
The election of Obama in the USA hasn’t gone down so well within the Italian government. Prime minister Berlusconi literally adored Bush, and apparently aren’t able to hide his disappointment with the election of Obama. While on an official visit in Moscow, Berlusconi answered a question about the election of Obama with a “Barack Obama?…
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If London Were Like Venice
If London Were Like Venice – Oh! That It Were! – by Signor Somers L. Summers
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Kayak coach exam
Back in August I took a kayak coach exam according to the Danish system. It was for the first of two levels, suitable for coaching beginners. Its the first time I have ever taken any kind of formal assessment of my kayaking skills. I followed the coaching course last year during the summer, but never…