A horse in the street

I went for a quick walk downtown, had a couple of quick errands to do. On the way back home, I walked through one of the oldest streets in town. The street is named after a local saint, I think. it’s been there since medieval times, long before the reformation. Monks used to walk there on the way to the cathedral.

Suddenly my feeling of ancient times was kind of confirmed by a horse pulling a sled up the street. Horse traffic is sparse in town now. It's more common to see Teslas and other electric cars.

A few moments later I passed over the old town bridge, with a view to the technical university (where i once was a student), where they do reasearch on artificial intelligence and under-water robotics. All kinds of advanced stuff was invented here, like internet search and the GSM cell phone network.

I think that we have come pretty far since the last catholic arch bishop fled the town in1536. The first step of progress is to get rid of religious power.

Now I’m sitting in my favorite coffee shop (not the the Amsterdam type, here they only sell coffee). I'm drinking the coffee of the day and writing some crap, like I often do when I'm here. Whatever. The coffee is very good >:)

(Picture taken on my walk to town center today)

Coffee of the day for me too

Yesterday, I walked downtown to get a haircut at my favorite hairdresser. Machine cut as usual; quick, cheap and easy. Later I went to a coffee shop nearby (not the Amsterdam-type of coffee shop, but a place that just sells coffee).

The girl in front of me in the line ordered the coffee of the day, a blend of Ethiopian and Kenyan beans. “One for me too”, I said.

I picked up a newspaper from the shelf by the counter. It was the Saturday issue of what used to be the paper of the Marxist-Leninist party. It's still quite, and still quite good. However, they have given up the idea of armed revolution. Very good; I dislike everything armed.

I sat down by a small table and started to read. I read about a drunk 39-year old female politician. She fucked an even more drunk 17 year old boy in a farm field at a wedding party. Voluntary sex, no victim, no problem. I read about a male left-party politician accused of sexual harassment of women. “We always believe the victims”, says the party. “No need to hear the man's version, no need to investigate anything. He's guilty, no doubt.”

I had chosen a bad table, by the door between the outer and inner room of the shop. It was annoying when people passed through the narrow door. I happened to touch the big butt of a chubby woman. She had a nice ass, but it wasn’t my fault. She rubbed her chunky ass against my hand, probably not on purpose. I hope this will not be a #metoo, because anyone who claims to be a victim is always right. That’s the new law of the land.

(Picture taken yesterday while walking down to town)

Satan's coffee

During the summer vacation, we happened to visit Satan's Coffee Corner. It's true, it really exists, and even has four stars on TripAdvisor.

I liked the atmosphere, and the smell of burning souls, or maybe it was Spanish coffee. Unfortunately, we came in 5 minutes before closing time. So, I ordered a double espresso to go. The coffee was excellent, with sweet smell and strong and bitter taste. Satan knows how to make coffee.

Before we left, I took a picture with my cell phone. I don't know who the girls in the picture are. I don't know if they were tourists or locals. They were just sitting there on a bench waiting for something. Maybe they were waiting in line to go to Hell, or maybe they were just waiting for their coffee.

Who knows. Maybe I should try to join them >:)

New shoes

Yesterday I went downtown to buy some new shoes. When I passed by the bookstore, I felt this strong attraction which was impossible to resist.

I didn't want to buy any books, just take look in the shelves. 20 minutes later when I left the bookstore, I had bought a book by Paul Auster.

I met my best friend. We went for a cup of coffee, and I felt such a strong attraction again.

Then I walked back home, with my old shoes.

The big magnet

I'm working late again tonight, preparing a lecture for Friday morning. Tomorrow night I'm taking Little Boy to skiing practice, so I have to prepare the lecture one day in advance. It doesn't mean I've got better habits, starting early. It's just because I have to.

The subject this week (for the lecture, not the skiing practice) is magnetotellurics. It's a crazy word composed of two parts:
o Magnet; everyone knows what a magnet is.
o Tellus, which is the The Earth.
The Earth (Tellus) acts like a huge magnet. That's why such things as an old-fashioned compass works. The arrow points towards the magnetic north pole of The Earth. The magnetic north pole is different from the geographic North Pole. So if you're very close to the geographic North Pole, your compass would point to some place in Canada rather than towards north (you better use GPS in that case).

Furthermore (and this is where the fun starts), our dear Sun sends out so-called solar winds, continuously. A swarm of electric charges is raining over The Earth, and pushing the magnetic field out of equilibrium.

Just relax. It's not dangerous, and there's no way to stop it. This will go on until the sun stops burning (which will be really dangerous, but it's still some billion years into the future).

When the earth-magnet is disturbed like this (by the solar storms), The Earth sends back an echo which reveals it's inner secrets, not all the details, but more like a rough sketch. If we put down some sensors and measure the echo, we can compute an image of the earth and it's inner structure, many kilometers below the surface.

Cool isn't it? Do you wanna know how to do it? Then you have to come to my lecture on Friday morning. We're starting at 9am, after a cup of hot coffee >:)

(The picture above is an illustration of solar winds distrubing the magnetic field of The Earth. I took it from a report written by a former MSc student of mine. He (the student) probably stole it on the internet. I don't steal stuff; I just borrow it.)