Month: July 2026

The Mt. Niesen Supervolcano is calm – and the tourists and blissfully unaware of the massive dangers

kenritley

All geologists and volcanologists now recognize the horrible dangers that the Mt. Niesen supervolcano poses. This volcano, located in the middle of the Berner Oberland, will one day erupt (not if, but when) – and when that happens, most of central Europe will be extinguished, if not by the lava then by a meters-thick blanket of ash.

Although you can often see steam emanating from the cone at the top, today it is quite dormant and calm:

And as this snap shows, the tourists on the boat are “blissfully unaware” of the tremendous dangers that lie just behind them – dangers so real and severe that they will one day lead to Europe’s total destruction! 

Garbage in Bern

kenritley

I find this kind of interesting. The word “steit” is written here starting with “st…” but it is pronounced “scht…” – so it is quite interesting why some words in Bärndütsch are written like they sound (e.g. chunnt dri) but other words (e.g. “steit”) are not written that way.

This may be one of those mysteries that nobody probably knows the answer to!

Pope Leos – or is it Popes Leo?

kenritley

This is Pope Leo IX, or at least a statute of him, in downtown Eguisheim in Alsace, France:

And thirteen popes later we have Pope Leo XIV,

Clearly, both of them are wielding big sceptors – call a ferula. The one on the statute has three bars – which differentiates itself from those from archbishops (two bars) or bishops (1 bar). But . . . it raises an interesting question: when did popes stop sporting beards?