Necessity may be the mother of invention, but the wheel is her most famous child. On its own the wheel is pretty useless, but the system of wheel and axle turned out a pre-historical technological revolution. But when, where, why, by whom and how […]
Category: Europe
Om hundre år er allting glemt
On June 7 1905 with the most flimsy pretext the Norwegian parliament staged what ultimately turned out to be a peaceful nationalistic coup. In the twentieth century this was very much the exception, only two more cases followed. Iceland seceded from Denmark in 1944. […]
More revolution or evolution
It was too tempting to stay away from and nobody has been able to. An election where the liberal pro-Europe candidate was predicted the winner by the exit poll, but the incumbent is declared the winner in a process where the election itself got […]
Through Hermans
Just another case of being railroaded to places you really wouldn’t want to go to. The route Malaga-Cadiz leaves you stranded in the Dos Hermanas junction, though hopefully not for too long. Shuttling Malaga-Sevilla, Sevilla-Cadiz would still make more tourist sense.
It’s Prague Gypsy week
Or to be far more accurate, World Roma Festival. This is the same week Lidové Noviny had a notice that the recently published book Psychologie Romů (The Roma psychology), which among other things claims that Roma have smaller brains than non-Roma, is under police […]
Bokbålsvarsel
Jeg har gleden av å invitere til det første årlige bokbål i Oslo førstkommende lørdag 29. mai. Selv om bokbål har røtter helt tilbake til bokbålet i Alexandria og enda tidligere, har denne ærverdige tradisjonen ligget brakk de siste årene. Det er de som […]
Live and texting at the end of the line
This entry keeps me awake on the Czech-Polish boreder. It is past midnight and still one and a half hour to wait. Bohumin might be a nice town for all I know, but at this hour I wish I wasn’t here. That is the […]
Circus Českomoravska
The venue for all this hokej was the recently built Sazka Arena in Vysočany, naturally the target for the daily pilgrimage. I had an additional reason for a visit. After the revolution but before the normalization I used to live there. In fact it […]
All Hokej in Prague
The Czech Republic might join the Union tomorrow, but that is completely overshadowed by The Event, the 2004 Ice Hockey World Championship. I have never yet attended a hokej match, not that I could possibly afford a ticket for this event, and am quite […]
Europe
It is odd to name a continent after a rape victim, even when you consider all the brutality four millennia of European history can muster. More prosaic sources might separate the name’s real root from the myth of Zeus and Europa, but the Phoenician […]
