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fun 3

topic archives: fun 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 III-2004: 03 08 08-2 22

fun 3

pooh sticks!

Winnie-the-Pooh, the much loved companion of Christopher Robin may have retired to New York City Library with some of his friends, but the admirers of Pooh and his biographer, A.A. Milne, still celebrate that great sporting event – Pooh Sticks.

Although Winnie-the-Pooh, Piglet and Christopher Robin played Pooh Sticks on a bridge in East Sussex, the Pooh Stick World Championships are now held at Day’s Lock, Little Wittenham in Oxfordshire, UK. “Between 1,500 and 2,000 turned out to watch and take part in the event, based on A.A. Milne's tales about Winnie the Pooh and friends. — The championship, known across the globe, involves dropping a stick from a bridge over a river and seeing how fast it travels to cross a finishing line.” For a different spin on Pooh Bear’s retirement, read this article. And for those who want to play Pooh Sticks, but do not have a nearby stream, here is Virtual Pooh Sticks.(You have to first register, with your playing characteristics and an e-mail address.) Also at this site are photographs of the original Pooh Stick Bridge in East Sussex, while at this page there are links to descriptions of the Pooh Sticks game.

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gefilte fish speaks up

“An obscure Jewish sect in New York has been gripped in awe by what it believes to be a mystical visitation by a 20lb carp that was heard shouting in Hebrew, in what many Jews worldwide are hailing as a modern miracle.”

aerial imagery of the usa in b&w

Accessible here. This new wonder from the Net boasts of over 3 terabytes of data, photographing the whole of the USA from the air. All sorts of wonderful search facilities, if you live in the USA, see your house from the air. This example is of the aircraft graveyard in Arizona. (This full link is even more impressive.)   [lead from the auroran sunset]

Image courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey

strolling drones too rude for the dick-takers of peking

“Head of Beijing Time New Century Entertainment, Chen Jixin, said that the band have been told they cannot perform 'Brown Sugar', 'Honky Tonk Women', 'Beast Of Burden' and 'Let's Spend The Night Together'.”

One suggestion for seeing the ‘shocking’ lyrics:

• Brown Sugar
• Honky Tonk Women
• Beast Of Burden
• Let’s Spend The Night Together

The Stones had wondered whether the Chinese authorities had banned Beast of Burden because it is crap.

yucatan meteor impact delineated from space

“A high-resolution map from NASA's Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM), released yesterday, has provided the most telling visible evidence to date of a 112-mile (180-kilometer) wide, 3,000-foot (900-meter) deep impact crater, the result of a collision with a giant comet or asteroid on one of Earth's all-time worst days.”

You may see a great satellite photo of the Yucatan peninsula here.

What is the value of a euro? part 2—Xavier reporting (with introductory note by abelard)

European Monetary Union (EMU), sometimes known as ‘the euro’, was deliberately designed to cut the values of pensions and the wages of the masses by means of steady inflation. An early milestone (or should that be kilometre marker) on that road has now surfaced in Finland, where the smaller coins are now being withdrawn as their value and usefulness moves steadily towards zero. In due course, if the EMU project does not fall apart before then, look to the ‘new euro’ to replace the current euro, eventually worthless other than its scrap metal price in ‘new euros’. Thus, sensibly, the coin collectors are hoarding coins in anticipation of their long-term rarity value.

For more understanding of the great paper ‘money’ swindle, visit the mechanics of inflation.

Meanwhile, numismatists are still mining the euro .

The most valuable euros are now:

1. the Finnish 1 centime and two centime coins, because they are no longer made. A law passed in autumn 2000 specified that payments must be rounded to the closest 5 centimes.
2. the Finnish gold 100 euro coin, of which 25,000 were struck for the first anniversary of the euro’s introduction. These are now worth 315 €.
3. English euros! 20,000 sets of nine euro prototype coins were struck by the International Numismatic Association. On the face, they have the ‘queen’ in the robes of the Order of the Garter, and, on the reverse, either a dove (for peace), a sailing ship (for commerce) or scales (for justice).

Other collector’s delights:

1. French 1 and 2 centime coins dated 2003 are not being struck, except for collector’s sets, because there is already a sufficient stock of 1 and 2 centime pieces in circulation.
2. German euros are produced at five mints. Coins from each mint are struck with an identifying letter:
   A: Berlin, D: Munich, F: Stuttgart, G: Karlesruhe, J: Hamburg.
   Further, there are also two varieties of 2 euro coin. The text that goes round the edge does not always go round in the same direction (that is, the text is right way up with either the face, or the reverse, upwards).
3. Belgium centime pieces, similarly, have two versions, this time concerning stars.
4. Spanish 2 euro coins vary because, on the image of King Juan Carlos, the length of hair varies.
5. On some Italian 1 euro coins, the name of the engraver does not appear.
6. On some Portuguese 1 euro coins, there are 28 stripes, instead of 29, round the edge of the coin.
7. Remember, only 520,000 sets were struck by Vatican City. The eight coins, with a face value of 3.88€ now fetch 1,500€. A Vatican centime now goes for 5,000 times its face value.

related material
What is the value of a euro?
Directory site for coins and coin-collecting

03.03.2003

related material
What is the value of a euro?

tempting fate....

“A painting by Salvador Dali that had hung in the Riker's Island jail for more nearly 40 years has apparently been stolen and replaced with a poor copy, police said.”

email email_abelard [at] abelard.org

© abelard, 2003, 14 march


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