Author: kenritley

Saint-Dié-des-Vosges – Birthplace of America?

kenritley

A very pretty village nestled deep in the Vosges Mountains of Eastern France:

It was named after Saint Deodat and dates back to the year 700.

But the most amazing thing about this little village is something that probably even the residents may not know. When news about the discovery of the new world by Amerigo Vespucci reached Europe, this was the village where the decision was made to name the New World America. In fact, here’s the snippet from a book printed here, Cosmographia Introductio, which was the very first time the word America appeared in print:

and the very first maps and globes using the word America were created here.

IT Transformation: how the new military and IT are starting to think alike

kenritley

I was surprised when I saw this recent graphic, posted on a social networking site:

It reminded me at once of a book I just finished reading, but recommend only sparingly: Team of Teams: New rules of engagement for a complex world, by Gen. Stanley McChrystal (ret.). This is his book:

And this is General McChrystal:

If you haven’t heard of him, General McChrystal commanded all of the U.S. Special Forces teams during the 2000’s, and his biggest success is probably the capture of Saddam Hussein.

His book Team of Teams is not a fun-to-read action story of business ideas embellished with special forces military anecdotes; for a good book of that genre, you can try Extreme Ownership: How the Navy SEALs lead and win.

Rather, Team of Teams is a serious academic book that explains in great detail the organizational challenges but also philosophical shift in thinking needed for transforming from the old top-down military hierarchy to a new “agile” approach needed to reach the full potential of elite teams, such as special forces operators.

What I especially like about the book is that it goes into quite some depth, not just about the organizational concept but more importantly, about how to overcome the challenges to get there.

 

 

Yorkshire Gorse

kenritley

This is Yorkshire Gorse growing wild in the Yorkshire Moors. Even the best scientists could never genetically engineer a plant to be more dangerous than gorse, since it is covered with the most razor sharp thorns that would kill anyone unlucky enough to fall into it:

Funny story: until I visited Yorkshire, I’d never heard of gorse before. But in the local dialect it’s pronounced goss, so naturally I assumed it was spelled g-o-s-s.   It took me quite some time on Wikipedia to discover the real name of this extremely thorny plant (ulex europaeus).

щъркел – Shturkl!

kenritley

Everybody knows you can find some storks living in Alsace, France – but these days, just a few.  And if you look hard enough, you can find some living in Southern Germany – but these days, even fewer.

The first time I left Sofia to explore the West Bulgarian countryside, I was amazed to find huge numbers of storks – also known as “shturkl” in Bulgarian. Here are storks on a monument (monument storks):

Here are storks on a transformer (transformer storks?)

And here are storks on a house (house storks):

Happy Cows

kenritley

It’s hard to take a bad photograph of a good cow!

These cows are relaxing just outside the ultra affluent town of Gstaad, deep in the Bernese Oberland.  Most likely the few square meters of ground they are laying on is worth more than my apartment!

The world’s most expensive boarding school is located here (Institut Le Rosse, costing well over CHF 100K per student per year); and the international school for smaller children is so select, they have no webpage.

Hidden canals #4: Covered Canal in Muhlouse

kenritley

Continuing the series, if you find yourself in the Middle Ages and are looking to find a nice place for your market, you’ll probably locate it on a river or a creek.  Easy way to bring in the goods and the people – and easy way to float away the trash and the refuse.

You would never guess it by this photo taken in Muhlouse, Alsace, but here I am standing on a market built over a canal:

Outside you’ll find the outdoor market, a vegetable market, as you can see here. And that yellow building in the distance is the indoor market, the Marché de Canal Couvert de Muhlouse. To provide that I’m really over a canal, here’s that same yellow market from the rear:

And here is a view looking down the canal, away from the market:

If you look closely you’ll see that it’s not just a natural creek but rather it’s lined with cut stones.  Muhlouse sits at the intersection of several shipping canals, so most of the small creeks in the area have been long since under active management.

China is cleaner than Zurich!

kenritley

The first reaction of most people who’ve never been to Switzerland’s city of Zürich when they come here: how can a place be so clean?!

And of course, most people who’ve been to big Chinese cities like Shanghai or Beijing have a similar reaction: how can a place be so dirty?

Well . . . if you think China is dirty, think again!  The tourist island of Hainan is at least 10 to 15 times cleaner than the cleanest city in Europe!

Here is a view of downtown Hainan from the city park, with the Hilton Hotel framed between the trees:

And here’s another view of dowtown Hainan, taken from a beautiful park built along the north coast of the island:

Why is Hainan so clean?  The government has mandated this: strict fines for pollution, a huge staff of people to keep it clean.  And the amazing part: only electric vehicles are allowed in some areas of the city, as you can see from the electric scooters here:

It probably also helps that Hainan is a small tropical island, to the rains and winds keep the air clean.

 

Incredible Baroque Church

kenritley

Located deep in Southern German Schwabian landscape, it does not look impressive from the outside; in fact, it is one of the most boring, plain church facades I’ve ever seen:

But when you step inside, your brain explodes:

 

As you walk around the church and look deeper and deeper, you’ll find that even the gold and diamond encrusted details have gold and diamond encrusted details:

It might be so boring on the outside because in fact it is not a church, but a Benedictine Abbey.

If you want to visit, don’t worry about tourists. I don’t think anyone outside of the locals know that this place exists – and probably even they avoid it, to keep their brains from exploding.

Fancy trucks

kenritley

Just as in Europe or the U.S., truck drivers who are owners/operators usually like to decorate their trucks.  Perhaps the Indians take it to the next level, as this snap from a truck stop in Rajasthan shows:

In this snap, the owner is on the left.

True story: The first snap I took was of the empty truck – no people.  Then two guys (on the right) jumped into scene and wanted to be photographed.  Then the owner came along, tried to smash his two younger “lakeys” with a big stick he was carrying, made it clear to me that HE was the owner . . . and he had me take a photo with him on the left, and his “hired hands” on the right.

Moral of the story for me: first ask – and be careful of truck drivers carrying sticks.

(PS. In case you are interested, I priced out Indian trucks like this one. At current conversion rates, trucks like this one can start at about $15K – but a Kenworth in the U.S. can easily cost ten times this amount. Believe it or not, if I did the arithmetic correctly, and adjusted for local currency, Indian truck drivers can earn “more or less” the same as their American counterparts.)

Let sleeping camels lie

kenritley

I took this picture of a sleeping camel in  Rajasthan, India:

What is really interesting, and what I never really thought deeply about until I saw this picture, are the various patches of calloused skin, particularly the one in the center between the front two legs. When camels stand up or sit down, it is this part of their bodies that presses against the ground.

I’ve seen camel roadkill, and it is much, much worse.

Following Jason and the Argonauts

kenritley

One of my favorite all time stories and movies is called Jason and the Argonauts. All the scenes were memorable, but who could forget this especially memorable scene:

Many historians believe this chronicles events dating back to around 1300 BC.

So on a recent trip to Turkey, it was a thrill for me to take this photograph of the Bosphorus Strait opening to the Black Sea – the original location that the Gods tried to destroy Jason’s ship by rolling huge boulders into the water to crush him.

This ship about to cross into the Black Sea looks pretty safe from huge metal statues and any boulder hazards.

Big Schwabian Bug

kenritley

I saw this fellow in the Southern German town of Zwiefalten.  At over an inch long, he looks somewhat like a cross between a Jerusalem cricket and an earwig – maybe a Jerusalem earwig?  It on my to-do list to one day learn what kind of a bug he is.

In case you didn’t catch it, the town is named Zwiefalten, not Zweifalten. I’ve never understood why, but vowel shifts from /e/ to /i/ (Gleichfalls –> Gliichfaus) are a common feature of the Alemannisch language, which is spoken in that area.

Hungry seagull

kenritley

Well, probably they are all hungry, all the time.

This fellow joined me for lunch at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida:

I’m not making this up: this fellow was so used to humans that he not only ate out of my hand but ate WITH me, sitting next to me and taking whatever he wanted from my plate.  I wonder if this is how the race of dogs originally got their start?

Slow cooker

kenritley

The process of slow cooking is so effective because some chemical reactions that occur during cooking, such as the elimination of the chemicals that cause meat to be tough, require time.

Ingredients:

In the slow cooker:

Final result over pasta: