PFlight2000 - Soaring through Life in Switzerland

DRI-Panorama

2009-10-15T23:08:00.004+02:00

I just tried out some new software. The pictures were taken at night out of my living-room window. This was my workflow: I took three sets of three pictures, exposure 30", 15" and 5", aperture f:5.0. The three sets were processed with the Photomatix DRI-tool, then the panorama was created using PTGui. The last steps were done in Photoshop CS4: Increasing contrast, and sharpening. For those who have been here before: What you see used to be our lawn with apple-, pear- and nut-trees.

Von PFlight2000 - Soaring through Life in Switzerland

COW

2009-08-27T23:46:00.003+02:00

Don't text while driving! That's the message the Gwent (Wales, UK) Police Department wants to send to us. And I think in this format the message is VERY clear: Cassie Cowan kills 4 people in a car accident because she gets distracted by using her cellphone while driving.

Be warned: What you are about to see is EXTREMELY GRAPHIC!!!!!

And here's NBC's The Today Show on that topic:

Colléction Schlumpf, Mulhouse

2009-08-16T19:51:00.006+02:00

Hans Schlumpf ran a yarn factory in Mulhouse. His factory held the monopoly for rough yarn all over France, which gave him absolute control of the market for this yarn. That made him a wealthy man. Unfortunately he and his brother Fritz had a very expensive hobby: They collected cars. Old cars. Antique cars. And here comes the sad story: Not only did they spend every single penny of their own pile into their car collection, they also used money from Hans’ company to buy more and more cars. In 1977 the company went bankrupt, leaving over 2000 people without a job. At a raid during a strike in 1977 the mob discovered the 400+ cars. Selling all these vehicles – the oldest was built in 1886 – would have brought all the money to pay the company’s debts. But the French government insisted and turned the old factory halls into a museum, the ‘Cité d’Automobile’, City of Cars.
The vast majority of the cars in the collection are French built cars, such as: 19 Panhard & Levassor, 19 Renault, 29 Peugeot etc, etc. But the highlight of the museum are 123 Bugattis. Amongst them are 2 Type 41 Royale from the original Schlumpf Collection, and a replica of a third one. Only six of these wonderful automobiles where ever built.

Here are some of the highlights of the museum:

Bugatti Type 35
If anybody hadn't heard about Bugatti cars in 1924, this changed with the Type 35. Approx. 200 of all variants were built, more than 2000 races were won until 1930. Bentley, Alfa-Romeo, Mercedes, you name it, Bugatti beat it with this car. This was the car that finally created the legend of the brand.

Von Colléction Schlumpf

Bugatti Type 41 Royale
Built for Royals, but none of them were interested... Only 6 cars were built in total, two of them are exhibited in Mulhouse, also the replica of the Royale Roadster.

Von Colléction Schlumpf

Bugatti Type 46
The Type 46 from 1929 was a direct hit against the Mercedes-Benz SS and the Hispano-Suiza H6B. Its 5.3 liter engine was smaller than the engines of the opponents, but Bugatti had enough expertese to make up for that with power and stamina. And of course the body looked like the american cars of that time. The car was also known as 'Petit Royale'.

Von Colléction Schlumpf

Bugatti Type 50 T
Had the Type 46 established the brand Bugatti all over the world - the Type 50 should now prove that this wasn't just by accident. 'Le Patron' Ettore brought his 20 year old son Jean into the company, and he was responsible for rhis construction and for the breathtaking design of the T-Todel. The 'normal' Type 50 raced the 24 heurs du Mans 4 times, but none of the cars ended the race, mainly because of damaged tires. This was also a problem for the T-Model, as the engine produced 275 hp which was too much for the tires.

Von Colléction Schlumpf

Bugatti Type 57
Ettore Bugatti's son Jean built this car, and also designed some of the most spectacular carbodies of all times for it. The bodies Ventoux, Galibier, Stelvio and especially the breathtaking Atlantic Coupé, of which only a handful were built, remain unforgetable.

Type 57 C Galibier:

Von Colléction Schlumpf

Atlantic Coupé - extremely rare!

Von Colléction Schlumpf

The replica of the famous Type 57S Atalante Coupé:

Von Colléction Schlumpf

Bugatti Type 101
After Ettore's death in 1947 the company only built one more model. But without the genius on the helm, the car remained unsucessful. Actually the company missed to do new developments, and so this car was basically a Type 57 with a new body - so the car was basically 25 years old when actually came out...

Von Colléction Schlumpf

This Type 101 obviously does not have its original body anymore. It's been redesigned by an italian designer.

Von Colléction Schlumpf

Bugatti Type 251
The attempt to build a car for the new 2.5-liter formula ended in a disaster. Although Gioacchimo Colombo - the father of Ferraris pre-1954 12-cyclinder engines - had designed the engine the car lasted only half a race.

Von Colléction Schlumpf

Both Ettore Bugatti and his son Jean had died already years ago, and the small company from Molsheim had financial problems and was taken over by Hispano-Suiza in 1963. In 1966 Simca bought Hispano-Suiza, and the brand Bugatti disappeared.

Bugatti EB 16/4 Veyron
Well, yes, it's a Bugatti... In 1987 Romano Artoli founded the Bugatti International Holding in Luxemburg. He knows people who have money. On September 14 and 15 in 1991 the EB110 is being presented on the Place de la Défence in Paris and in the original factory halls in Molsheim. Many former Ferrari and Lamborghini constructors have worked on the car, but the audience misses the connection with the original Bugattis. 139 cars have been built, plus the prototype of the limousine EB112, when in 1995 the company is going bankrupped. Artoli and his crew have created a financial mess.

When it comes to exotic cars, big brands have the advantage: Ferrari, Alfa Romeo and Maseratti belong to Fiat, Lamborghini once belonged to the Mimram family, before it was sold to Chrysler, then to Mega Tech in Indonesia, and now it belongs to Volkswagen. And Volkswagen also bought the rights of the name Bugatti in 1998. After various design-studies the EB 16/4 Veyron is being presented in 2000, production begins in 2003 in Molsheim - but not in the old factory halls, since they still belong to Hispano-Suiza-Mercier. 16 cylinders, 4 turbochargers, 1001 hp, 406 km/h - that's truly Bugatti-like. Although, not much is left from the myth in this car...

Von Colléction Schlumpf

Ferrari 500 TRC
The Testa Rossa saga began in 1957 and ended in 1962. The concept was to create a competitive open-bodied race-car for gentlemen-drivers, who didn't have the opportunity to race for a factory team. So Testa Rossas were hardly ever operated by the Scuderia Ferrari. The model 500 TRC was actually the last ever Ferrari to have a 4-cylinder engine. The Testa Rossa saga found a follow-up in the timeless ugly 512BB Testarossa from 1984.

Von Colléction Schlumpf

Although looking roughly the same, this car is not a Testa Rossa. The bodyshops Scaglietti and Fantuzzi in Modena used the same design from Pinin Farina for several open-bodied racing cars, so it's very difficult to tell the difference. This one could be a 412MM or a 860 Monza.

Von Colléction Schlumpf

Ferrari 250 GT Lusso
The Ferrari 250 in all its variants marked the beginning of the Golden Age for the italian company with the jumping horse. Most of the cars were designed by Pininfarina, who's name by then still was Pinin Farina. Ferrari built a so-called rolling chassis with the engine, and sent this to Scagliatti, who built the body of the car and the interior. This particular car already showed typical 1970s elements back in the late fifties.

Von Colléction Schlumpf

Ferrari 250 Le Mans
Although not a real 250 model (the number means the ccm per cylindre) but rather a 330, Ferrari tried to cheat the FIA on this one. The car was presented as a race-variant of the 250 SWB from 1959, but really had nothing in common with this one. The FIA found out what had happened, and the car was banned from the 3-litre races. It had to compete with much more powerful opponents, which eventually lead to the legendary P-Series, ending with the 330 P3 and P4.

Von Colléction Schlumpf

Alfa Romeo 8C 2,9 A
With the 8C - stands for 8 cylinders - Alfa Romeo presented a new generation of sports cars in 1931. The car first had 2300 ccm, in 1936 the engine was enlarged to 2900 ccm. About 30 cars were made of that type, with some of the most elegant bodies ever seen and very typical for that time.

Von Colléction Schlumpf

Arzens La Baleine
Paul Arzens was a French designer who designed many locomotives for the SNCF. Also he constructed two cars: La Baleine and L'Oef. La Baleine was based on the chassis of a Buick, and wich it's streamline shape it was 40 km/h faster than the american original.
This car is not part of the original Colléction Schlumpf, as it was in use until Azens' death in 1990.

Von Colléction Schlumpf

Trabant 601
How many people do you need to build a Trabant? 5: Four fold the cardboard, one handles the glue...
This car represents more than anything else the lifestyle in the DDR / GDR. It's twin-stroke engine with 600 ccm produced 27 hp, enough for 107 km/h topspeed.
This car is not part of the original Colléction Schlumpf.

Von Colléction Schlumpf

The Group B Monsters
Ford RS200
Peugeot 205 Turbo 16
In 1984 the FIA introduced a new formula into Rally Sports: Group B. I won't bother you with reglementation details, just so much: Allowed was basically everything, as long as you produced 200+ cars of that model. This lead to this legendary Peugeot 205 Turbo 16, with 500 hp, AWD, and a weight of only 900 kg. The engine was mounted in the middle of the car, behind the driver's and copilot's seat. Technically these cars had absolutely nothing in common with the 'original' 205 that populated european streets in the 80s and 90s, the RS200 never even had a 'brother' for normal street use. Once unleashed, the engine turned the care into a rocket on wheels, hardly controllable by its driver. Many fatal accidents within a very short period forced the FIA to bring this adventure to an end in 1986. Never again have so highly overpowered vehicles entered a rally-track, but the thundering sound of the engines, the puffing of the whastegate-valves and the turbine-like whining of the gearbox still brings goosebumps to fans.
These cars are not part of the original Colléction Schlumpf.

Von Colléction Schlumpf

Here's for some Action:

Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Roadster
After the success of the SSL and the W154 forumla cars back in the 30s Mercedes-Benz tried to catch up to the Ferraris and Porsches after WWII. The result was the 300 SL, which was built as coupes and roadsters, both for normal use and for racing.

Von Colléction Schlumpf

Porsche 962
In the early 80s Porsche dominated the so-called Group C with the model 956 and its successor 962. The engine was an evolution-version of the original 911 engine.
This car is not part of the original Colléction Schlumpf.

Von Colléction Schlumpf

Audi R8
The successor of the Group C in track racing is todays Le Mans Series. The peak of the series is the 24 heurs du Mans, the 24 hour race. The prototypes are the kings of the road, and Audi won the race 6 times with the R8, plus many more races in total.
This car is not part of the original Colléction Schlumpf.

Von Colléction Schlumpf

PS: I appologize for the messup with the name Franco Sbarro in the first version of this blog, and I want to point it out very clearly here: Franco Sbarro had NOTHING to do with the Bugatti-disaster in the early nineties. He was not involved in the EB110 project. His connection with the name Bugatti is a replica of the Type 41 Royale that has been built until 1983.

PFlight in Alsace

2009-08-07T22:54:00.004+02:00

Let's face the facts: A mobile home is a convenient way to spend your holiday on a camping ground. You fill the car with all the stuff you think you might need, like clothes, food, drinks, toiletry, laptop, camera, bicycle, etc, etc, and then you drive to the camping of your choice. If you're lucky enough they have still some place for your vehicle, so you park it, plug in the electricity, turn on the gas for the kitchen, and there you go. Happy camping!

So far, so good. Now, in my case the car was 5.5 meters long, 2 meters wide and 2.3 meters high. The camping ground wasn't the problem. BUT: Imagine you have to drive that thing somewhere because you want to see some of the beautiful cities in the area! I drove over to the beautiful region of Alsace in France, so the plan was to visit Strasbourg for the European Parliament and of course the huge cathedral, and to visit also Colmar for the famous altar of Isenheim, painted by Matthias Grunewald. Believe it or not: I didn't find any parking place in either city where you can park a car higher than 2 meters for longer than 2 hours!!! And if you park there, you really get ripped off! In Colmar these parkings cost twice the price for a normal car parking...

In Strasbourg I parked the car for two hours, rushed for the cathedral for a couple of pictures, rushed back to the car and left the city in frustration. In Colmar I didn't even park, I was so frustrated after searching for a parking for more than an hour, so I left the city without having even really stopped.

I ended up in Mulhouse that day, at the National Car Museum with the huge 'Collection Schlumpf'. I'll tell you more about that later.

At least I spent two wonderful evenings in the beautiful village of Ribeauville. But the short trip left a bit of a bad taste after what I've experienced. One tends to think 'what do you expect from a land where they eat snails and frogs', but that's unfair since my parents experienced the same in Germany and Spain with the very car.

Here are some pics:

A stork walking around in the camping Pierre de Coubertin in Ribeauville

Von Elsass

Dramatic lighting by a nearing thunderstorm in Ribeauvile

Von Elsass

Ruined castle in the distance

Von Elsass

After the thunderstorm

Von Elsass

The next evening showed 25°C and sunshine

Von Elsass

The famous Metzger tower in Ribeauville

Von Elsass

Beautifully lit house: The light comes from the fassade of the next house, which is also painted yellow

Von Elsass

Full moon rising - some of you might know a similar scene, seen about a year ago in West Van

Von Elsass

The giant Munster of Strasbourg - unbelieveable how they managed to build this a couple of hundred years ago!

Von Elsass

The entrance with the huge round window above it

Von Elsass

Beautiful old house next to the cathedral. It's a restaurant now.

Von Elsass

That's it, hope you liked the pics! Pictures of the Collection Schlumpf and the story to that museum follows later.

The 30 Years Revival Party

2009-07-01T19:45:00.002+02:00

It all started with a briefly mentioned idea at a birthday-party: How about meeting again, the same people, at the same place? People who haven’t met for ages...
For this I have to take you back three and a half decades. In a little village near Baden a new terraced house was finished and young families moved in. Some of them already knew each other briefly, others just met when moving in. Four of the seven families became very close friends, as the parents as well as the kids where of roughly the same age. We, the kids between 2 and 6 years old by then, used to visit each other day in day out, we played at the huge playground and had lots of fun together. From 1979 we spent Whitsun together in a farmhouse in Eastern Switzerland. The last time we did so was 1982, as our family had moved to Staufen in 1980. I lost contact to most of these people in the meantime, and so seeing these folks again was quite interesting.
As well was the weather: The forecast said constant rain from Friday afternoon till Tuesday. But we managed to stay out of the rain whenever we were outside.
But now I’ll let the pictures speak:

Von Grub Revival 2009

The Saentis, the highest mountain in the area:

Von Grub Revival 2009

Impressive cloud over Lake Constance

Von Grub Revival 2009

The house where we had spent Whitsun together 30 years ago:

Von Grub Revival 2009

This is warming you up after a long day in cold weather:

Von Grub Revival 2009

A foggy morning:

Von Grub Revival 2009

Altstätten/SG:

Von Grub Revival 2009

Forgive me for not showing people, I primised'em that.

Recent Work

2009-06-17T21:02:00.005+02:00

It's been a while since my last post, and I want to show you some of my recent pictures.

We had a company-dinner lately. The company gave out two tickets for the Interlaken Green Field Festival (Hard Rock and Heavy Metal), and we organized a little airguitar-contest. For those not knowing what an airguitar is: it's an imaginary guitar that people play at rock-concerts. So here he is: The winner of the tickets, accompanied by Queen & Paul Rodgers.

Last weekend I went to the Botanic Gardens in Zurich. It was a hot and sunny day, and this colorful dragonfly grabbed my attention.

The Jumper

2009-05-18T21:52:00.003+02:00

No comment, just something for fun. I took this at the Bike Days in Solothurn and put 16 pictures of one jump together. Shutter: 1/2000s; Aperture: f:5.6; Rate: 8 pics/s. Therest was 7 hours photoshopping (them bicycles have too many spokes...)

Von Ablagebox

BTW: Can you find the mistake in the picture? Look hard!

About money, politicians, Indians and a cavalry

2009-03-19T22:07:00.004+01:00

Switzerland is a tax-haven. Our politicians take every chance to deny that, but it’s a fact: Property tax is very low here, and we have double-tax contracts with only a few other countries.

The Germans, and especially their financial minister Peer Steinbrück, don’t like this. I don’t blame him. So the OECD came up with the idea, to make a ‘black list’ with all countries that are so called ‘tax haven’. With Switzerland ranking on first place.

Now our politicians started to panic. In order not to be put on that list our financial minister Rudolf Merz announced a week ago that the banker’s discretion shall be weakened. Then first doubts occurred that this special list maybe didn’t even exist. Switzerland was furious.

Peer Steinbrück assumed himself to have been victorious. In an interview he said: ‘You don’t have to send out the cavalry. The Indians only need to know that the cavalry exists!’ (Link is in German) It's a comparison widely used in Germany. In this context the cavalry being the ‘black list’, the Indians being the Swiss. We didn’t like it though – and our parliament fired back with speeches way below the belt. Some referred to Mr. Steinbrück as 'ugly German', others even put him in comparison with the Nazi’s back in the 30’s in Germany.

But today I found out some interesting facts: Steinbrück’s saying refers to the U.S. 7th Cavalry Regiment under the command of General Custer. The Indians are the Hunkpapa-Sioux tribes Cheyenne and Lakota, with their chiefs Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse and Big Foot. Custer attacked their village at Little Bighorn. Since the heavy cavalry-weapons were inapplicable in the hilly terrain and Custer underestimated the Sioux both in number and tactics, he suffered a crushing defeat.

Having learned this, I must say I’m proud to be referred to as an Indian. Mind your tongue, Mr. Steinbrück, or we might strike back and give you a real whitewash!

Bless you!!!

2009-03-02T16:35:00.001+01:00

Just a short one this time. The famous sneezing panda - in case you haven't seen this yet:

Enjoy!

Just another day at Masoala Rainforrest...

2009-02-20T19:30:00.004+01:00

Finally I got myself a macro lens. And of course I had to try it out immediately. So what better to do than taking the camera to the shop and then leaving for the zoo's giant Masoala building?

At first I was a bit worried since I always struggle keeping the camera still. And with a macro lens of that focal length (105mm) and that aperture (f/2.8) you get a depth of field of only one or two millimeters at miminum distance. See the berry, that's only about 5mm big:

Von Masoalah!

Time for some animals:

Von Masoalah!

How many years of turtle-life do you count on this picture?

Von Masoalah!

After having taken the usual pics of the cameleon and the turtles, I thought it was about time to see something new. It didn't take me long to find a couple of crested couas, and one was kind enough to pose for my camera:

Von Masoalah!

And then something very unusual happened: Normally the lemurs in the masoala building hide in the trees or climb up and down the roof, so you don't really get near them. But today an aloatra gentle lemur appeared upfront of my camera and climbed down the tree very slowly, letting me take several pictures. Things don't get much better than this!!!

Von Masoalah!

Just another Saturday afternoon at the zoo...

2009-02-12T22:46:00.003+01:00

I'll let the pictures talk this time.

Von Zoo 7.2.09

Ben Roethlisberger - or how to get an American back to where he belongs

2009-02-02T13:04:00.002+01:00

It truly was a disastrous weekend for Switzerland. Nothing but bad news...

Let’s look at the WEF: Recep Tayyip Erdogan (Turkish Prime Minister) left the meeting after a rather loud discussion/argument with Israel’s Prime Minister Ehut Olmert on Thursday evening, and shouted at the audience that he’d never return do Davos anymore. The WEF ended on Sunday evening, with more new questions than old questions answered.

Sports: Men’s Ski-Downhill and Woman’s Super-G on Saturday were cancelled due to fog. Of course no-one wants the athletes to race downhill at speeds of 100+ when you can’t even see the front tips of your own skies. Unfortunately these two races are the only ones of the weekend where Swiss athletes would have had a chance. In the Slaloms the Swiss didn’t even win a flowerpot...

Australia: Roger Federer lost the final of the Australia Open against his all-time rival Rafael Nadal and broke down in tears. Not that tears are a bad thing! I like athletes who show emotions! But Roger’s emotions just showed what the country felt overall after this weekend.

So is there really no good news at all? No.

Uhm, wait a minute! The Pittsburgh Steelers won the Super Bowl on Sunday! And their Quarterback, Big Ben Roethlisberger, is Swiss! Well, at least he has a Swiss name... Telling from reactions of dozens of journalists all over the country (Switzerland, not the US) you could think the guy really is Swiss. The facts are slightly different: Ben’s great-great-grandfather Karl left Unterfrittenbach in the bernese Emmental (that’s where the cheese with the big wholes comes from) in 1873 for the US. It was the time of the industrial revolution, when unemployment was very high in Switzerland and the government gave everyone CHF 100.—who decided to leave the country for good.

When the Steelers won the Super Bowl the last time in 2005 (where didn’t really matter), Ben was invited to visit the small village of his ancestor in the Emmental – before that he probably couldn’t even point out that tiny little cheese-and-chocolate-country on the map...

To cut a long thing short: The Swiss feel so bad after this disastrous weekend, that we have to be proud of a Football Superstar with Swiss roots, who’s even more American than President Barack Obama...

Kitzbuhel / Austria 2009

2009-01-24T18:27:00.005+01:00

140 km/h (93 mph) is one hell of a speed. In Switzerland you're only allowed to drive 120 on the highway. In Kitzbuhel in Austria the ski-professionals are racing up to 143 km/h on their skis. Kitzbuhel is the steepest downhill-ski-slope in the world, the fastest, and definitely one of the most difficult and dangerous. At that speed if things go wrong, they really go wrong. As Swiss skier Daniel Albrecht found out on Friday morning:

Listen to the commentary from the two Austrian journalists - you don't have to be fluent in German /Austrian to understand how shocked they were by the crash.
At the moment Daniel's in hospital in intensive care, kept in coma to prevent stress causing brain damage. As far as the doctors can say he'll survive, but they don't know about permanent injuries now. May he get well soon!
Just two days later the main race was held, won by another Swiss, Didier Defago, who just won the Lauberhorn downhill in Wengen a week earlier.

Congratulations!

The Glory (????) of the Human Voice

2009-01-10T14:49:00.003+01:00

Between Xmas and New Year I converted all my 400+ CD's to MP3 for my iPod. Working as a salesman in a CD-store back in the early 90's I happen to have some collector's items which I came across again now. I'd like to show you some of them.

Warning: If you're a musician with a discriminating ear, then DON'T watch the second video in this post as it might be ototoxic for you!!!!!

Note the questionmarks in the title. What I'm going to show you gives you a completely different look at singers.

If you're a regular reader of my blog you will remember the post about the English salesman who sang an aria in a talent show. Here comes the opposite: Florence Foster Jenkins was an American 'singer' who started her career in 1912 and died in 1944. All her relatives and friends advised her not to sing. But when her father died and she inherited several million dollars, she funded her singing career. Her concert were very rare, normally once a year she would sing at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in New York. Only one month before her death she sang at Carnegie Hall in New York. The audience was always chosen by herself in personal interviews, so it wasn't easy to get a ticket. The concerts were always sold out, and people left with tears in their eyes - tears of laughter, where as FFJ thought it was tears of emotion. Once a critic stated that she 'didn't let herself get terrorize by the intention of the composers'.

To give you a reference what I'm talking about, here's 'Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen' from Mozart's Magic Flute, sung by Diana Damrau, a German opera-singer. The aria itself is a real tester. It's one of the most difficult pieces to sing in classical music:

And here, Ladies and Gentlemen, is the one and only Florence Foster Jenkins with her version of the same aria. Note her complete lack of rhythm, pitch, tone, and overall singing ability:

Welcome to the year 2009

2009-01-08T22:11:00.002+01:00

Here's a selection of pictures I took between Xmas and the New Year:

Staufen has an Advent calendar every year. People from the village create one window for each day, this year I found this one the best.

Von Jahreswechsel 08-09

Although it got freezing cold on New Years Eve - the streets were basically ice-rinks - I went up the hill in our village to see the bonfire.
Lighting the fire up

Von Jahreswechsel 08-09

Lots of smoke at first...

Von Jahreswechsel 08-09

It's slowly starting to get hot

Von Jahreswechsel 08-09

On fire!

Von Jahreswechsel 08-09

The next day showed winter in all its beauty - time for a nice shot of a blackbird eating holly-berries.

Von Jahreswechsel 08-09

And last but not least: A whiteheaded maki at the zoo in Zurich wishes you all a Happy New Year!

Von Jahreswechsel 08-09

The Sixdays of Zurich

2008-12-15T21:57:00.005+01:00

The Sixdays of Zurich have a tradition that goes on for ages. This kind of bicycle race is actually quite a big deal all over Central Europe.

The formula is this: You have bicycle races for six nights, each from eight in the evening till two in the morning. The main races are being held by 12 teams with 2 riders each, so you see the teams in about 6 different races each night. The main races are:

L'Américaine / Madison: All teams are on the circuit, one rider each races, the other one rides on ‘standby’. Each ten laps there is a sprint, the whole race lasts 125 laps. Teams change riders on their own discretion. Speeds up to about 60 km/h.

Von sixdays

Team Pursuit: Something like the above, but since the race is shorter it gets much more hectic. Rider changes are more frequent. Speeds up to 70 km/h.

Von sixdays

Derny: Racing behind a pacemaker. Each rider had a pacemaker on a small motorbike (the Derny), and has to tell him how fast he’s able to go. 75 laps, one rider change, and extremely enthralling duels. Speeds up to 80 km/h. The catch is: The bigger (and fatter) the pacemaker is, the easier is the job for the rider.

Von sixdays

After each night the accounts are being made, and who has the most points after six night wins... Easy, isn’t it?

Not to forget are the fringe events, like the dancing barmaids at the Caipirinha bar...

Von sixdays

Enjoy the pics – and excuse their poor quality, I only had my compact with me and the light was pretty dark.

Happy time

2008-11-10T20:51:00.003+01:00

Finally the stress of the past 2 1/2 months is over, and I have 2 weeks to recover. The initial plan was to have 2 weeks vacation on my own and maybe with my brother who planned to go to Africa for a while. But plans can change, and so did this.

First: My brother went yesterday, and not only for a while, but for at least 18 months, probably even 2 years. Read his blog - if you can read in German...

Second, my dear friend Natasha is staying in Germany for three months, and we eventually made plans for her to come over for a couple of days - which happened today! I'm so extremely excited!!!!

Chinese bubbles in space

2008-10-24T08:15:00.003+02:00

The Chinese are a very proud race. Actually they're so proud that their pride sometimes stands in their way. This can either end in tears, but that's not what I want to show you. I want to make you laugh.
About a month ago the Chinese sent a couple of Taikonauts (Chinese for astronaut) into space. The Chinese were very proud of that, as it was their second mission where they sent men into space. In fact they were so very proud that they even published a news-story including the detailed dialogue between the Taikonauts - hours before the spaceship even left the ground. Read the AP-story about this.
Now, it seems that this wasn't the only goof in Chinese publicity for this mission. Watch the video below: Right at the beginning - in the first one or two seconds - you can see an air bubble rising from the exit for the Taikonaut. This phenomenom appears again at minutes 5.52, 6.44 and 7.19. I havent't been in space myself yet - and probably never will - but this is the first time I've seen something like this.

I want to make something clear: I don't doubt that the Chinese actually were in space. Several nations are watching the skies, they would have told the Chinese not to tell lies. But to me it seems like the space-walk was re-performed (or pre-performed?) in a water tank. Maybe something happened to the original video - or there wasn't any? Or the Taikonauts never really left their space ship? The last possibility is, that the Chinese have filmed a phenomenon that no-one has ever seen before. Questions and questions... We will probably never know the answer.

Queen & Paul Rodger

2008-10-18T11:38:00.004+02:00

I know I’ve been awful quiet for the past few weeks. There are several reasons for this. For one I’ve just been too busy at work – I had an exhibition in Germany for a weekend in September, and then we had our own exhibition for three weekends in our company. So spare time was very limited. For the other reason: I’ve been busy learning HTML and relating stuff. What this means might be pretty clear – think fast! (Sorry for the dig...)
But here I am, back at blogging and photographing!
It’s been almost three weeks now that Queen & Paul Rodgers played their concert in Zurich’s Hallenstadion. And as a big Queen and Bad Company-Fan it was clear for me to get tickets for me and a friend.
The sound was great, the band played lots of old Queen songs (which I still managed to sing along), some songs from Free and Bad Company (Paul’s former bands), and also some songs from the new album The Cosmos Rocks.
Here are some impressions:

Von Queen & Paul Rodgers

Concert video taken in 2005 - Queen rocks with Paul Rodgers:

Concert video taken in 2008 - Queen play Bad Company:

Ugly bloke with one hell of a voice

2008-09-13T13:28:00.001+02:00

He was the perfect winner of Britain’s Got Talent-show: Ugly bloke with wry teeth, and a nervous wreck when he has to face a camera. But what a voice!!! There are rumours that Luciano Pavarotti himself has taught him singing like that. Just sit back and look/listen to that:

CERN, LHC and Black Holes - or: What has happened and what has not (yet) happened

2008-09-10T21:23:00.003+02:00

Today the CERN launched its largest experiment yet: After 15 year of planning and a 6 billion Euro investment just to build the 'Large Hadron Colider' (LHC) the scientists started two streams of protons. Those two streams are now being accelerated up to almost the speed of light, which will take several weeks. By the time these protons travel at target speed - and everything is still stable in the experiment - the scientists will lead them onto collision course. The aim is to get several protons to collide and produce an effect similar to what the scientists believe happened shortly after the Big Bang. So far, the machine has just been started and is now running on idle. There hasn't been any collision of protons yet.

But there is also a catch: When two protons collide there is a possibility that a black hole appears. Black holes are generally known as fields of immense gravitation, strong enough to suck everything in and crush the atoms of all matter. I've heard stories about black holes that could shrink the earth to the size of a tennis ball - please don't hold me responsible if this is not true. Since the whole process at the CERN experiment is rather abstract and 'normal' humans can't really describe everything I do understand fears about the nearing end of the world.

The CERN guys try to wipe away those concerns - obviously. Tiny little black holes appear everywhere in the universe - some even here on earth. And none of these has ever sucked in the earth because they only last for very short time.

Personally I'm confident on what the CERN guys say. I don't think the earth will disappear with a huge firework in October. If it does, it's been a big show.

Here's some clips and facts I found on the web today.

And this is what happens if something goes wrong on the experiment:

The End of the World

2008-09-10T07:56:00.000+02:00

Today is the first day of the end of the world. What makes me think of that? The following event: Today the Nuclear Research Centre in Geneva (CERN) is starting an experiment which results in a tiny little black hole.

Several scientists – namely some that are not working at the CERN – have addressed their conCERNs to the world that this experiment could very easily result in a black hole that could not be controlled and would eventually eat up Geneva, Switzerland and then the rest of the world. Therefore this experiment should not start – according to those scientists.

Now, the CERN is probably the absolute research centre when it comes to nuclear stuff. So if there is a bunch of scientists who can handle this it’s definitely the ones in Geneva. Therefore I don’t have any worries that we will be sucked into that black hole in Geneva this moooaaaaaaaahhhhhrrrgggg!!!

See you tomorrow in the next world.

Work, Photoshop and Germany

2008-09-05T20:09:00.005+02:00

The first two weeks are done. Well, almost. I don't have a weekend really, since tomorrow morning our team leaves for Friedrichshafen for an exhibition. But I'll have a day off on Monday. I don't know what I'll do, but photography is definitely an option.
I learned a lot about retouching in Photoshop lately. I bought a bunch of tutorial-DVD's of respected Photoshop professionals, and seeing their workflow actually on screen is by far better than just reading it in magazines and books.
One example is this self-portrait that I just did within half a hour with several layers, masks and filters, and a technique called 'Dodge&Burn' by Calvin Hollywood. It shows the PFlight presenting the latest trend in MTB freestyle-fashion (I mean the beanie, not the glasses...) according to a big Japanese cycling-company.

Coming Home

2008-08-22T14:44:00.003+02:00

Deutsch
Ich bin wieder zuhause. Viel verändert hat sich nicht. Die Häuser, die um uns herum gebaut werden, sind etwas weiter in der Fertigstellung, aber sonst ist alles noch wie vorher.

Letzte Woche habe ich noch einen Rundflug zu den Gulf Islands gebucht, mit Harbour Air. Ich war Gast auf einem Post- und Taxiflug nach Salt Spring Island und Maple Bay. Es war ein wunderschöner Morgen mit einem Hauch von Nebel in der Ferne.

Am Freitag besuchte ich mit ET das Vancouver Aquarium im Stanley Park. Mitten im wunderschönen Park gelegen, gibt's nicht nur Fische zu sehen: Diesen Sommer ist eine Langzeit-Ausstellung über Amphibien, und es gibt auch einen Raum mit exotischen Schmetterlingen. Und natürlich haben wir auch das kleine Beluga-Kalb gesehen.

Am Morgen des letzten Tages fuhren wir nach Granville Island. Mir gefiel der überdachte Markt am Besten, und auch der Wasserpark für die Kinder. Am Nachmittag trafen wir Mausi, und zum Dinner trafen wir eine weitere von ET's Freundinnen. Anschliessend genossen wir einen wunderschönen Sonnenuntergang - und einen nicht weniger spektakulären Vollmond über der Lion's Gate Bridge.

Der Abschied von ET und Kanada ist mir erstaunlicherweise weniger schwer gefallen als andere Abschiede. Woran das lag kann ich nicht genau sagen. Normalerweise bin ich derjenige, der sich nach der Heimkehr in der Wohnung einschliesst, das Radio anmacht und dann heulend zusammenbricht. ET hat's am Flughafen ganz schön deftig erwischt, ich bin ehrlich gesagt etwas erschrocken darüber und habe den ganzen Flug über ein wenig ein schlechtes Gewissen gehabt sie wieder alleine ihren Problemen und Herausforderungen zu überlassen. Ich hingegen gehe nächste Woche wieder meiner Arbeit nach, die mir Spass macht.

Mir bleibt im Moment nur noch, mich vollständig von meinem Mörder-Jetlag zu erholen - ja, den spüre ich auch nach 4 Tagen noch - und Euch noch ein paar letzte Bilder zu zeigen. Die kompletten Alben können hier betrachtet werden.

English
Back home again. Not much has changed, though. The houses that are being built around ours got a bit further in the making, but everything else is like it used to be.

Last week I booked a scenic flight to the gulf islands with Harbour Air. Actually I was the guest on a mail run and taxi flight to Salt Spring Island and Maple Bay. It was a great morning, no clouds, and a nice layer of haze in the distance.

Friday ET and I went to the Vancouver Aquarium in Stanley Park. It's a really nice place, and there's not only fish to see: This summer they have an exhibition about amphibians, also there's a room with lots of exotic butterflies. And of course there's the Beluga Cub which we also saw.

The last day was dedicated to Granville Island. I mostly liked he indoor market, and the children's water park. In the afternoon we met Mausi, and for dinner we met up with another of ET's friends for a nice outdoor dinner and a great sunset - including the rising of the full moon over Lion's Gate Bridge.

For me, leaving ET and Canada wasn't as difficult as it used to be on other leaves. I can't say why this is so. Normally I'm the one locking myself up in my flat after the returning, turning the radio on and then break down and cry. It hit ET quite hard at the airport, and to be honest, I was a bit terrified about that. On the flight back a bad conscience took over about leaving her alone with her problems and challenges to deal with, while next week I will be going back to my work that I love.

What's left with me is a killer-jetlag still 4 days after my returning - and showing you some last pictures. The complete albums can be viewed here.

Victoria

2008-08-16T04:14:00.004+02:00

Deutsch

Eigentlich war der Plan ja gewesen, mit Susan und Ray nach Tofino zu fahren und dort zu campen. Einiges hat dann aber dagegen gesprochen und so war schon Anfangs letzter Woche klar, dass wir in der Gegend von Victoria bleiben würden. Genug zu sehen soll es dort auch geben, wurde mir gesagt.

Wie ich in den folgenden vier Tagen herausfand, ist das auch wahr. Ich will deshalb diesmal gar nicht gross Worte verlieren, sondern vor allem die Bilder sprechen lassen. Viel Spass!

English

Actually the plan was to go camping at Tofino with Susan and Ray. Several things then cropped up and so it was clear by the beginning of last week that we would stay in the Victoria area. There would be plenty to see as they told me.

And as I found out the following days it is very much so. Hence I don’t want to talk too much today and rather let pictures speak.