there was a minor earthquake, noticeable all over Switzerland... Epicenter was near Besançon (France), magnitude 5.1 [more info].

You may think this is typical for Switzerland, but it happened near Hannover, Germany. A cow entered a bank, bypassed security and inspected some offices to get a picture of the banking system, then turned around and left the building. Everything caught by surveillance cameras. In this particular case, the bank employees were grateful the customer ( Read more... )

Sometimes, traffic accidents create very grotesque dynamics. Lucky if no one gets hurt. This one happened last Saturday when this trucker [maybe he fell asleep?] hit the guard rail of a highway viaduct. He lost control and mysteriously ended up on the opposite lane [there's a 60-70 meter deep and maybe 6-7 meter wide gap in between the lanes]. The ( Read more... )

Did you know that there's a very simple way to update your livejournal [or post to a community] by e-mail? The e-mail gateway is convenient and sometimes more practical than the web interface or a client. Read more about this useful feature and check out what options you can use. LJ lets you define up to three e-mail addresses which are ( Read more... )

     
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From now til mid-January, I'll be on vacation. I have no detailed plans yet but different options and certain fixed dates which are for sure. I'm gonna spend some time in Jordan, Lebanon, Israel and Egypt. The first and last couple of days will be spent in Tel Aviv. But I can't tell the exact route and schedule as this depends on the weather and ( Read more... )

i was just reminded by someone that i haven't updated my L
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Celia Cruz, the Queen of Salsa, died yesterday. I'm way too busy to write about this great artist in my LJ, but I wonder if the media reporting of her death will mention one interesting detail in her life: actually, she got her start and her success with the Partido Socialista de Cuba. Before the revolution, a radio station owned by the later ( Read more... )

In Taiwan, the first genetically enineered pets are for sale: they are called 'Night Pearls' and are genetically modified zebrafish. Originally, no one intended to create a new and trendy pet. Professor Huai-Jen Tsai at National Taiwan University was working on zebrafish, trying to make its organs more visible when studying them under the ( Read more... )

I need a bicycle. Mine got stolen some time ago and as my city [Basel] is one of the bike-friendliest cities in Europe, I really should start biking again. From my place, I can get to the station in three, to the center in two, to the French border in four and to the German border in five minutes. The river is just a two minute ride away and my ( Read more... )