published 1 day ago (11.05.2008 22:36)
Timbuktu (in Mali) from above
seen on google maps.
published 15 days ago (29.04.2008 00:08)
life is what happens when you're making other plans
this list has just reappeared, i put it together in munich at the end of september 2006. it strikes me that just one month later, i would move to a city that’s not
even mentioned.
published 19 days ago (24.04.2008 18:50)
chris king headsets — on and on and on
mine, today.
i’ve had this Chris King NoThreadSet on my mountainbike for 13 years now. it looks worn, but works as well as on day 1.
fortunately i was wise enough not to get it in anodized blue, which at the time was second only in hipness to “3d violet”.
as a hommage to the great craftmanship, and the amazing 1996 bike-pro buyers guide, here’s their page on the “king cycles” headsets:
»After several years of research, Chris King began making his headsets available to the public. That was over ten years ago.
aah, the classic.
His headsets incorporate the highest level of craftsmanship and performance in a segment of bicycle parts that had been seriously overlooked. The fork race is made of stainless steel to resist corrosion and machined to make a perfect seat for the bearing. The race is cut and polished to receive the inner dimension of a sealed bearing cartridge. The upper and lower bearing cups are machined aluminum then turned to tight tolerances that fit snugly and squarely into the head tube. There is an upper adjusting nut, which would be called an upper cone race in a traditional ball bearing headset, and head lock nut. Both the adjusting nut and the head lock nut begin as machined aluminum pieces. They are then turned and machined, to create the threads for the steerer tube as well as precisely squared surfaces for installation tools.
this is what the NoThreadSet looks like today.
All the alloy pieces are machined from 7075- T651 aluminum, then anodized. For the bearings, both cups have stainless steel precision sealed bearing cartridges pressed into them. King Cycles makes these bearings so they will handle the horizontal load on what is traditionally a vertically loaded bearing. They are well shielded from moisture using a metal seal, (not rubber or nylon) and should provide years of life, if not the permanent solution to anyone’s headset problems. They come in three stack height sizes, Standard European 43.5mm, a Short Stack Japanese 34.0mm, and a BMX size that is also used for pre- ‘91 Yeti framesets. The 1” Short Stack headset weighs 109 grams. All Chris King headsets are available in Blue, Black, Red, Silver or 3DV (Violet/Lavender).«
published 19 days ago (24.04.2008 11:33)
stoned olympics!
published 20 days ago (23.04.2008 17:28)
P.S.: Ich werde mich am 24.12. betrinken.
widmung eines unbekannten an eine andere unbekannte, im antiquarisch gekauften buch “1984” von george orwell.
»Liebe I,
Weihnachten 1973 schenke ich Dir dieses Buch. Ich finde es albern, nur einen Tag im Jahr des Tages zu gedenken, dessen Aufgabe es der 24. Dezember eigentlich sein soll. Dennoch möge man versuchen, Heiligabend und die weitere Entwicklung im christlichen Sinne zu beobachten. In diesem Sinne wünsche ich Dir eine glückliche Zukunft.
Dein J
P.S.: Ich werde mich am 24.12. betrinken.«
published 29 days ago (14.04.2008 19:48)
Human development index
every couple of years, the UN try to assess how “developed” all earth’s countries are. the result is the human development index. the factors going into it are income per capita, life expectancy and literacy. this is the result:
green => high, red => low, dark colors are the extremes.
gapminder has some excellent interactive visualizations of this data, like this one (static image, click to be taken there):
published 29 days ago (14.04.2008 13:03)
Der Ursprung des olympischen Fackellaufs
»Und warum bestehen die Organisatoren der alle vier Jahre stattfindenden Olympischen Spiele so sehr auf diese verrufene “Entzündungs-Zeremonie” und den nationalsozialistisch inspirierten Fackellauf? Die Antwort ist offensichtlich. Die Zeremonie ist notwendiger Bestandteil der propagandistischen und vor allem kommerziellen Seite der Spiele. Um auch den letzten Zweifel daran auszuräumen, sei hier daran erinnert, dass bei “unseren Spielen” 2004 in Athen der Generaldirektor für Marketing und Ticketverkauf der Olympiade als Verantwortlicher für den Fackellauf bestimmt wurde.«
Auszug aus dem Artikel Löscht die Flamme bei telepolis.
published 5 months ago (30.12.2007 13:35)
the japanese hacked a mouse - a real one.
japanese scientists have created a genetically modified mouse that doesn’t fear cats (article in german).
published 6 months ago (17.11.2007 16:23)
clockwise, it's obvious!
via a xing blog post by andreas reisenbauer of syscomm and basicthinking. the original english language article is here.
p.s.: best blog comment on the article: Wen interessiert die Richtung? Sie ist nackt! :-)
addendum: after a couple of hours of programming, i suddenly see her spinning counter-clockwise. aaargh !!! take this computer away from me !!! one more thing that leads to the gates of madness!