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Post by onlyMark on Nov 18, 2018 13:52:35 GMT
As we are on the subject - Quite some way along the Karakoram Highway is one of the signposts. There obviously are others. We are heading for Gilgit (left side) and beyond - The road climbs at this stage towards the mountains - You take the opportunity to stop for lunch - The scenery becomes a little more dramatic the further you go - Any stop you make draws a small crowd - The road follows the rivers - Up until now it has been tarmac. I can’t remember where, in the late 90’s, that stopped. I think the north side of Gilgit but I’m not sure. I never went to the northern border, never had any need to, but this is what the road soon deteriorates to. You have to hope it is not too slippery, nor much wants to come the other way because, after all, we are in a truck towing a trailer that is quite difficult to reverse in a straight line with it being a lot shorter than the truck itself. Plus, it is thinner, so you cannot see it in your mirrors until it starts moving out of line - Just to give you the idea.
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Post by mickthecactus on Nov 18, 2018 14:07:48 GMT
Way beyond my abilities although I can reverse into a parking space.
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Post by bixaorellana on Nov 18, 2018 15:27:22 GMT
Magnificent pictures, Mark, although that last one is making me feel panicky.
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Post by kerouac2 on Nov 18, 2018 15:41:33 GMT
Although the road in that photo is wet, I once had to drive on a dry version of the same thing in Utah, I think. It was terrifying.
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Post by questa on Nov 18, 2018 21:59:50 GMT
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Post by kerouac2 on Nov 19, 2018 18:59:07 GMT
There was a TV news report tonight about toilets (due to the fact that 50% of the world population has no access to toilets) and they showed not only the urinals in Belushi's bar in Paris with mouth-shaped urinals surrounded by Trump's head but also the women's toilets at the Crazy Horse Saloon in Paris which has a double booth for ladies who want to pee together. This is apparently in answer to a common request.
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Post by mickthecactus on Nov 20, 2018 13:45:07 GMT
There are 8 million trees in London with 21% tree canopy cover.
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Post by kerouac2 on Nov 20, 2018 13:59:13 GMT
I love factoids like that.
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Post by breeze on Nov 20, 2018 20:13:15 GMT
Ineresting, Mick. London takes care of its trees.
Washington DC calls itself a tree city, so I looked it up for comparison purposes. 145,000 street trees. 38% canopy coverage, down from 50% in 1950. The Casey Trees website says potential canopy is 55% but DC's goal is 40%.
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Post by kerouac2 on Nov 20, 2018 20:22:15 GMT
The surface of Paris is very small compared to London, but the city is apparently in charge of 184,500 trees plus about 300,000 additional trees in the Bois de Vincennes and the Bois de Boulogne. I didn't find any statistics on the coverage.
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Post by rikita on Nov 21, 2018 1:20:13 GMT
according to one article, Berlin has 80 trees per kilometer of road, altogether 433.000 trees at roads. another article says there are 437.964 trees at streets, and 1 million trees altogether (including parks, cemetaries etc.) according to that article the oldest tree in Berlin is over 900 years old. it is called "dicke marie" (fat mary).
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Post by mickthecactus on Nov 22, 2018 7:49:07 GMT
The worst year to be alive was 536 when the summer temperature did not rise above 2.5c. This was caused by a huge volcanic eruption in Iceland which blotted out the sun.
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Post by kerouac2 on Nov 22, 2018 10:53:45 GMT
Like the one that is apparently in preparation?
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Post by whatagain on Nov 23, 2018 17:03:08 GMT
Fake news.
536 didn't even exist
(I read a magazine about plots and they did write that we have been lied to about how many years have passed since JC : the reality (I mean their reality) is that the 2000 years amonut to about 700 or 800 years top. Some people should be locked up, and I should be punished for buying such magazines.
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Post by mickthecactus on Nov 23, 2018 18:24:19 GMT
If 1066 existed why not 536?
It was in Time magazine btw.
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Post by kerouac2 on Nov 23, 2018 20:16:26 GMT
I do have to wonder if they had correspondents there with thermometers.
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Post by mickthecactus on Nov 23, 2018 21:02:46 GMT
Apparently it was done by analysis of ice in a Swiss glacier. Clever eh?
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Post by whatagain on Nov 23, 2018 21:08:15 GMT
1066 existed because it was 900 years before I was born.
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Post by kerouac2 on Nov 23, 2018 21:25:42 GMT
Apparently it was done by analysis of ice in a Swiss glacier. Clever eh? Just one glacier? You made it sound like it was the situation everywhere.
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Post by mickthecactus on Nov 23, 2018 21:52:43 GMT
Apparently it was done by analysis of ice in a Swiss glacier. Clever eh? Just one glacier? You made it sound like it was the situation everywhere. The Ethiopian glacier was inconclusive.
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Post by kerouac2 on Dec 16, 2018 12:39:48 GMT
The revolver used by Strasbourg terrorist Cherif Chekatt when he was gunned down by the police dated from... 1892.
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Post by bixaorellana on Dec 16, 2018 13:52:18 GMT
Just think: if he'd been in the United States he would have been able to acquire a better weapon(s) which could have done far more damage.
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Post by questa on Dec 16, 2018 21:33:56 GMT
If that revolver could talk it would probably have some tales to tell!
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Post by mickthecactus on Dec 18, 2018 22:24:21 GMT
Greenland is the twelfth largest country in the world with a population of 60,000.
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Post by kerouac2 on Dec 18, 2018 22:46:39 GMT
If migrants were attracted to it, that would solve a lot of problems.
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Post by lagatta on Dec 19, 2018 1:22:02 GMT
I don't like terrorists of any kind, but better (or "less worse")low-tech terrorists than higher-tech ones. If this guy hadn't been such a loser, he might have murdered far more people.
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Post by kerouac2 on Dec 19, 2018 4:57:58 GMT
I doubt if he used that same gun for his actual attack, though. It seems unlikely that he could have killed and wounded so many people with an antique.
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Post by lagatta on Dec 19, 2018 13:49:01 GMT
Yes, so far five dead and others seriously injured. There was a brain-dead victim, but I imagine that he or she might have been the fifth declared dead (probably after organs were harvested for transplants).
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Post by bjd on Dec 19, 2018 14:41:19 GMT
The brain-dead victim died the other day.
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Post by bixaorellana on Dec 26, 2018 5:12:32 GMT
Recently, I think in Blah blah blah, there was some discussion about Stendahl Syndrome and Paris Syndrome. I just this minute read about another psychosis & immediately looked it up. It appears it's a real thing! Visiting Jerusalem, the holiest city in the world, can often be a moving and intense experience. For some visitors, however, this can be too much to handle. Every year, around 100 tourists catch what is known as Jerusalem Syndrome, a real phenomenon whereby foreign visitors suffer psychotic delusions that they are figures from the Bible or harbingers of the End of Days. sourceMore fun reading. I love the holy pilgrim with all his plastic goods and his cigarette.
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