2009-04-09
Stories about the full moon usually involve people freaking out, crazy rituals or werewolves. You can definitely say that the full moon's got an image problem. That's why I have to post my positive story:
Driving in my car, I spotted the full moon at around 21:15h. My first thought was "how beautiful". My second thought was "damn, I'm such an idiot". You might think I was scolding myself for having left the house unarmed on a night that might lead to an encounter with crazy people and/or werewolves.
That's a reasonable assumption, but this case is a bit more complicated: About two weeks ago, I made a detour to avoid a traffic jam and passed a meadow with apple trees. Even though it was a bright and sunny day, these bony old trees look quite spooky. Naturally, I immediately made plans to return on a full moon night and take a scary photo which I could then sell on istockphoto.com. I'm sure you would have had the same idea in this situation.
I had completely forgotten about that brilliant plan until I saw the full moon tonight. Unfortunately, I had missed a rare opportunity as it was already too dark to take a picture of the tress. I was pretty angry at myself while driving back home. Just before arriving, it occurred to me that I should take a picture of the full moon anyway because I might need to do some image manipulations (due to the limited dynamic range of cameras).
Turning into my street, I slowed down to see if the moon was covered by clouds or hiding behind houses. I should tell you that, some months ago, the speed limit on my street was lowered to 30km/h, which makes a lot of sense during the day when kids are out playing or on their way to/from school. I can't really guarantee I would have strictly respected the speed limit at this time of the night, though.
Approaching my house, I saw a car with people sitting inside parked at an odd place. Then I spotted a police car and a second later I saw the cop pointing a laser speed gun at me. I was doing no more than 20km/h.
They caught another car while I walked to my door with a big smile on my face. Thank you, full moon.
2009-04-06
13:06:12 by Stephan, Categories: English , Tags: food, indian restaurant, luxembourg, star of asia, vegetarian restaurant It's been a while since I promised to write about my favorite vegetarian-friendly restaurants in Luxembourg. Well, it turned out it isn't as easy to take enticing pictures of food as I thought ("that looked so much better in reality"). Luckily, yesterday I had another chance when one of my brothers and his girlfriend came to visit me and insisted that we go to the Star of Asia (they're not vegetarians, BTW)
The Indian restaurant Star of Asia is located right in the city center of Luxembourg (19, rue des Capucins, close to the parking "Place du Théâtre"). As you can see on the menu on their website, they have more than a dozen vegetarian dishes.
Here are some we had yesterday:
Mutter Paneer (44): Cottage cheese and green peas in curry sauce
Bhagara Baigan (50): Aubergines prepared in a special rich and spicy sauce. My non-vegetarian brother's all-time-favorite Indian dish. Mine, too. Must be genetic.
Aloo Burtha (51): Potatoes mashed and prepared with rich spices. Watch out for the super-spicy tiny brown chilies... seriously!
Aloo Gobi (60): Fresh cauliflower gently cooked with potatoes. I generally don't like cauliflower, but this dish is amazing.
Chili Naan (80): Freshly baked in a clay oven. I'm getting hungry again!
Big thanks to everyone who went with me for their patience while I snapped the photos and to everyone at the Star of Asia, too.
Shyam Montiani, owner of the Star of Asia and one of the genuinely friendliest persons I've ever met.
Contact info:
Indian restaurant Star of Asia
19, rue des Capucins
L-1313 Luxembourg
Tel. for reservations: 47 12 40
Website: www.starofasia.lu
Open from 12:00h to 14:00h and 18:30 to 23:00.
Closed on Monday evening, Saturday & Sunday noon.
External links:
2009-04-01
Best Taipei Times article ever!
The pandas arrived in Taipei last December as a gift from the Chinese government. The pair were first offered three years ago, but were rejected by then-president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁). After the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidate Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) won the presidential election last May, the pandas were accepted, though critics continue to decry what they see as an attempt by Beijing to bribe Taiwanese with cute, cuddly furballs in lieu of a more meaningful gesture of goodwill such as removing some of the 1,500 missiles China has pointed at Taiwan.
Even the pandas’ most diehard supporters were brokenhearted yesterday. Some angrily compared the subterfuge to last year’s contaminated milk scandal, when melamine that had been added to watered-down milk sickened 300,000 victims across China and led to a recall of diary products in countries including Taiwan.
“First the milk scandal and now this. What are we going to hear next?” said Chang I-jun (張麗君), a Taipei resident.
Chang, who operates a souvenir stand near the zoo’s entrance, added that the scandal would affect sales of her stuffed panda toys, panda T-shirts, panda pens and notepads, remote-controlled pandas on wheels, caps with panda ears on top, panda fans, panda flashlights, panda mugs, panda eyeglass cases, panda face masks, panda slippers, panda wallets and panda purses.
Read the full article here (may take some time to load).
Supporters of the alternative projects "Bus-Bunn", "BTB" and "Lux Heli Shuttle" rejoiced today as rumors spread that the government was no longer supporting Luxtram. Their joy, however, did not last very long.
Decades of discussion
"We're not choosing one of the known alternative projects, either", a spokesman clarified. "After decades of discussion we noticed we had missed one crucial option." He continued to explain that all proposed rail projects either had the tracks running through tunnels or at street level. Both options have significant disadvantages, particularly when considering older voters passengers: Subterranean stations would scare them while the tram could not manoeuvre around obstacles, leading "to an enhanced injury risk".
A new paradigm
The ultimate solution, therefore, would be a mass rapid transit system with elevated trackage called Lux-MRT. The advantages are overwhelming:
- Only one lane is blocked on the street for two elevated tracks.
- No interference by traffic.
- No scary tunnels and easily vandalized subway stations.
- Special open-air cars could replace annoying tourist buses.
The simulation below - said to have cost 20.000€ - shows how the Lux-MRT fits in perfectly with the existing traditional cityscape:
Lux-MRT by Stephan Lechner is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Luxembourg License.
Uses a photo by sanbeiji from www.flickr.com
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Finally, the Lux-MRT also solves the Schueberfouer issue: While the tram would split the funfair in two, thereby ending this 5000 year old tradition, a "permanent roller-coaster-like segment" could be built for the Lux-MRT, bringing "fun and excitement" into the passengers' daily life.
2009-03-26
18:47:16 von Stephan, Kategorien: Deutsch , Schlagworte: blogs, energieautarkie, erneuerbare energie, güssing "Was liest du denn für Sachen", bekomme ich häufig zu hören, wenn ich Freunden interessante Links schicke. Wohl war, häufig stehen fundierte und aufschlussreiche Artikel neben Verschwörungstheorien oder völligem Blödsinn.
Dass ich auf die Lektüre dennoch nicht verzichten möchte, liegt an Beiträgen wie diesem: Wie eine Gemeinde autark werden kann
Eine kurze Suchen in den Archiven von Spiegel, F.A.Z., Sueddeutsche und Zeit zeigt: Nur die Zeit berichtete ausführlich über die autarke Energieoase von Güssing.
Auf SPON gab's dafür heute ein Interview mit Deutschlands oberstem Atom-Lobbyisten.
Ein Beispiel von vielen. Ein guter Grund, jedem Versuch der Einschränkung der Meinungsfreiheit im Internet mit größter Skepsis zu begegnen.
