Aug 27, 2006

Aachen


Aachen, or Aix-la-Chapelle according to the French, was a much fought over border city which proved to be right there with Cologne/Koln when it came to locational funkiness. It sits pretty on the threshold of a host of cultural and social domains which freely intermingle in an atmosphere of overall friendliness.


The cathedrals were naturally a highpoint, spires and domes with elaborate masonry to engage the artistic neurons. Despite the growth of commercialism, the cathedrals are still the focal points of the city; street performers, artists, and hawkers gather at their base along with the ever encroaching outdoor cafe tables bearing myriad fare. Strains of German, French, English, and Dutch are heard at every turn through the music and unrestrained conversation of the crowds, a conforting and much missed characteristic of the Mediterranean.


We ducked into a gourmet retail establishment and were welcomed to a host of olive oils, vinegars, mustards, and relishes that were on exhibition and which, with the aid of many breadsticks provided a refined starter to our lunch of rucola salad topping a pizza. We had of course had desert before all of this in a chocolatier's studio which makes fine pralines for the masses (us).



The latter part of the day was dedicated to art and photography shops, the obligatory browsing through garment merchants, and the exploration of one of those Eastern themed stores that rips customers off blind. I did buy a didgeridoo (priced well - about the same as mail order Aussie numbers) which I'm practicing daily, much to the dismay of the landlord who has mysteriously gone on vacation....




Aug 25, 2006

New lab technique churns out fungus' potential cancer fighter


Now here's something interesting: rasfonin a compound produced by the cave fungus Trichurus terrophius - a step towards the magic bullet in combatting cancer cells while leaving normal cells intact. A promising compound, definitely worth keeping an eye on and another reason to protect even the more unlikely habitats out there.

Aug 23, 2006

"Meet your meat"

Depicted, a calf being raised for veal in a motion restrictive stall to ensure that its muscles don't develop enough to affect the 'quality' of the product. Since most of us stopped killing animals directly for meat and meat products the situation has gotten quite ugly without most being even remotely aware of it.

Calves raised for veal are kept in stalls so small that they can't even turn around.

Industrial farming has led to the severe mistreatment of animals to keep up with the demand for meat. Their sentience is hardly questionable, leaving only ignorance and the lack of will to change the shameful state of affairs on our side to blame. If you're going to eat factory meat, at least know you're doing it, what it is, and where it comes from. Check out GoVeg.com for information or if you're in the mood for documentary, click here (NB: the documentary features very graphic images).

Aug 21, 2006

Art, awareness, and statistics


This site is run by a group of Brazilian artists seeking to raise popular awareness using everyday cues - site here


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Aug 20, 2006

Superstrings in 10-dimensions







Here's a little flash tutorial to help the old 4 dimensional faculties twist around some of the theoretical physics out there.

A handy little framework for handling karma too, just hover over the Navigation panel and click on "Imagining the Tenth Dimension" for the feature presentation...

Pushing the human condition




Willard Wigan is a UK sculptor who has trained himself to create microscopic sculptures by hand.
His works require 10 times greater manual precision than the human hand is normally capable of - so sensitive, he even has to synchronize his heartbeat with the process. Check out the article here.

Aug 19, 2006

I'll read it later...

Overcoming procrastination...


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Trilobis 65


The eco-friendly aqua apartment of the future...buy one at
http://www.sub-find.com/trilobis65.htm

We're in the navy now..

The image “http://www.nata2.info/humor/pictures/americans.gif” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.Click on the image to expand...

Shrooooooms

Hours of fun, really....The Game of Life


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The Apartment gremlin's best friend

 Well, perhaps not the best. An interesting little recipie database that allows you to mix and match the stuff that's just vegging out in the fridge; it's Cooking by Numbers
Enjoy...


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Aug 6, 2006

Cologne

There's definitely a difficulty here in finding hip-fun-happening things and places in the hip-fun-happening cosmopolitan focal points here in what many porpoises believe to be hip-fun-happening-Germany. The Lonely planet scoops tried, didn't really work out since their presenter was too fried on acid in a shifty East Berlin cafe - we tried traveling around Hamburg, Hanover that sort of thing looking for hip-fun-happening anti-commercialist, semi-cultural and early evening activities to pursue and atmosphere to imbibe. Alas, disappointment looms high in the territory. More often than not one just ends up wandering around getting progressively more damp occasionally stumbling upon a funky looking shell of a hip-fun-happening pseudo dead end that wasn't pseudo at all but was, in actual fact, absolutely dead.


Cologne on the other hand proved to be a truly live place to be. In the begargoyled and scaffolded shade and soap bubble breezes of the great cathedral buzzed and hummed the hip-fun-happening international crowd that pulse through the whole city spicing up even the most humble city trudge to a nice tingly degree.


Just around the cathedral was an anti-war protest held by both Arab and Israeli activists who oppose the disaster currently sweeping Lebanon and the Middle East at large.
The police were present but the protest was very peaceful if heated. Many had lost loved ones in the conflict so far and anything short of an utter stop to the violence is far too short to quell their anger. To them, it's hardly a question of views.




It's a just married rickshaw darting through and around the tense scene above - just married to what we'll never know. Probably another rickshaw. Very imbibable. Browsing through the streets was rather cool. Anti-commercialism aside, the store-browsing gets a very unusual 3/5 fairly happening rating mostly due to the untiring crowd flow couple with an array of street performers ranging from your happily strumming Rastafarian singers pouring out a healthy pinch of soul to impromptu string quartets refining the air. After picking up a evil six pack of dunkin' donuts (I'm such a sell out I know, but Bavarian cream!) we headed out for lunch in a nifty little Indian restaurant unsurprisingly called the Taj Mahal in which faces were stuffed to the extreme. The donuts were relegated to snack-in-lieu-of-dinner. As an additional bonus we happened upon an 'English Store' which imports all sorts of Avon sourced succour. Real tea was acquired.

Early afternoon was spent by the Rhine, watching the locals stroll, a rather eccentric ladies' club drinking champagne in hats, and some of the more ambitious catching some sun. On the way back we watched the end of a street acrobatic and comedy show done by "Winston".

Good stuff, high wire and everything with politically incorrect and sharp humour. Hope to see him again sometime. Well, there are the highlights of the day - today's dedicated to recouping and getting ready to slaughter more bacteria on Monday. Till next time!

Aug 1, 2006

Swamp sardines




Acidic grasping micro-fish, not pretty, this is about 2 evolutionary steps from those creatures that slither out of the local swamp, grab people, and make them into more creatures