Things that make you go .....Hmmm, that's interesting.

[Olly]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogY44aX5pHU

[Declan]

The cardboard bicycle
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2012/1015/breaking20.html

[seafoid]

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/78a22320-d892-11df-8e05-00144feabdc0.html

Jeremy Siegel, professor of economics at the Wharton School in Philadelphia, produced a model, in his The Future for Investors, that suggested that westerners'comfort in retirement was almost wholly dependent on productivity growth in the developing world. If the developing world keeps raising productivity at 6 per cent per year, then the US could meet the needs of its ageing population while barely raising the retirement age from 62. If, however, developing world productivity growth stalls completely, then the US retirement age by 2050 will have to rise to 77.

[BarryBreensBandage]

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/78a22320-d892-11df-8e05-00144feabdc0.html

Jeremy Siegel, professor of economics at the Wharton School in Philadelphia, produced a model, in his The Future for Investors, that suggested that westerners'comfort in retirement was almost wholly dependent on productivity growth in the developing world. If the developing world keeps raising productivity at 6 per cent per year, then the US could meet the needs of its ageing population while barely raising the retirement age from 62. If, however, developing world productivity growth stalls completely, then the US retirement age by 2050 will have to rise to 77.

Seafoid, Love your footnote, although I don't think Joe Canning was about when I heard it first. Was it because of O'Muircheartaigh or O'Hehir that it became a well known phrase? Hmmmm....

[thejuice]

Kaliningrad Oblast

I only realised this week that Russia has this exclave on the Baltic Coast between Poland and Lithuania. After all these years looking at maps of Europe I never noticed it before.

I took notice of it while looking on Google Maps at a region that had a border but no name. And I spoke to myself those immortal words, "hmmmm, that's interesting."

[haveaharp]

Kaliningrad Oblast

I only realised this week that Russia has this exclave on the Baltic Coast between Poland and Lithuania. After all these years looking at maps of Europe I never noticed it before.

I took notice of it while looking on Google Maps at a region that had a border but no name. And I spoke to myself those immortal words, "hmmmm, that's interesting."

Think i saw this place on Palins New Europe documentary, think it was very pro russian, probably the result of some dodgy border drawing after the war.

[trileacman]

I think it's an entity because Russia require a Baltic port to access the Atlantic, the next viable option for them would be Murmansk and I think it sometimes freezes in winter, making it less accessible. That and the fact Russia's Cold War fleet, including many nuclear submarines now rot in Murmansk docks.

[seafoid]

Kaliningrad was a German city, called Königsberg before 1945.

It had a glorious history. Kant lived there.
It was totally destroyed by the Soviets and the people were either murdered or expelled.

This is in German but the before and after pictures show the extent of the damage.
http://www.welt.de/welt_print/article2372749/Auf-den-Spuren-Kants-durch-Koenigsberg.html

This book explains what happened to Germany after the war was over
http://www.bookshop.kennys.ie/book/UK/9780719567667/After_the_Reich

[armaghniac]

Kaliningrad Oblast

I only realised this week that Russia has this exclave on the Baltic Coast between Poland and Lithuania. After all these years looking at maps of Europe I never noticed it before.

This was East Prussia before the war, the Russians took the northern part around Königsberg to get a port as you say. Obviously all of the Germans were removed, one way or the other, and Poland got the southern part of East Prussia. In Soviet times Kaliningrad was joined to the USSR, via Lithuania, but now it is surrounded by the EU. One part of the world that changed utterly during the war.

it would be interesting to visit, but the Russian visa thing is a pain.

Also "interesting" in those parts is the Königsberg autobahn, which was partly built but then largely unused because of the other changes.





The Russians demolished the flyovers and used the concrete as fill in their bit.

[seafoid]

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/78a22320-d892-11df-8e05-00144feabdc0.html

Jeremy Siegel, professor of economics at the Wharton School in Philadelphia, produced a model, in his The Future for Investors, that suggested that westerners'comfort in retirement was almost wholly dependent on productivity growth in the developing world. If the developing world keeps raising productivity at 6 per cent per year, then the US could meet the needs of its ageing population while barely raising the retirement age from 62. If, however, developing world productivity growth stalls completely, then the US retirement age by 2050 will have to rise to 77.

Seafoid, Love your footnote, although I don't think Joe Canning was about when I heard it first. Was it because of O'Muircheartaigh or O'Hehir that it became a well known phrase? Hmmmm....

They use it all the time on TG4 and Raidio na Gaeltachta . "Cic mór mílteach" is another nice one

[Hardy]

It rings a lot better that "a huge one down".

[seafoid]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/oct/20/thomas-quick-bergwall-sweden-murder

It reads like a real-life Scandinavian crime novel. In the 1990s, Thomas Quick confessed to more than 30 murders, making him Sweden's most notorious serial killer. Then, he changed his name and revealed his confessions were all faked

[Santino]

What does your footnote mean Seafoid?

[Hardy]

What does your footnote mean Seafoid?

Let me Google Translate that for you:

[Santino]

I had no idea that google function existed! Hmmmm, now that is interesting