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I walked across Luxembourg

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Re: I walked across Luxembourg

#191

Post by gottorf »

oblio wrote: post #181
gumby wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Governors General are more than a mere “representative” (though they re described that way in my passport), they are viceroys (vice kings) so exercise royal prerogatives. Of course monarchy is nonsense but I have a thing for pedantry like this. TBH the nonsensical nature of monarchy works out for Australia, as it costs essentially nothing and sort of acts as a ground strap to make the idea of “head of state” rather i…

> TBH the nonsensical nature of monarchy works out for Australia, as it costs essentially nothing and sort of acts as a ground strap to make the idea of “head of state” rather irrelevant. Just compare to countries like France or USA where the Head of State gets capital letters and is a person with actual power. > Next best would be a president like in Germany who is basically a nonentity with less power than a GG. Me…

The concept under description is effectively Bagehot's "dignified" vs. "efficient" parts of government. The head of state being the "dignified", the personification of the nation, and the head of government being the "efficient", the wielder of political power.

I generally favor the American-style presidential system over the British-style parliamentary system, but I think one flaw of the American one is that it combines the roles of the dignified and the efficient, often conflicting with each other, into one office.

The French semi-presidential system is a little weird, with technically the prime minister being the head of government, but the president still wields most of the executive power.

Re: I walked across Luxembourg

#192

Post by gottorf »

pjc50 wrote: post #46
pavlov wrote: post #9

The history of Luxembourg is an interesting microcosm of how the fortunes of states and dynasties have ebbed and flowed in Europe over the past thousand years. There was a time when the House of Luxembourg was the main rival to the Habsburgs for control of central Europe, contributing four Holy Roman Emperors: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duchy_of_Luxemburg The dukes of this area used to be so important to European…

> (Monarchy is pretty weird in practice.) Friend of mine back-tested the simple "the next king is the first son of the previous king" against the past 1,000 years of English kings and found it to be true only half the time.

Did your friend exclude situations where the previous king had no sons?

Re: I walked across Luxembourg

#193

Post by martin_a »

saiya-jin wrote: post #88
martin_a wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nah, don't worry, they (Deutsche Bahn) hit the hour mark quite often without any problems. Funny story on the side: German ICEs are only allowed up to Basel, so they will not cause any delays in the Swiss train network. The Swiss fear that we would destroy their fine-tuned system otherwise. :-D

I think the reason is more bureaucratic, costs, contracts etc - Swiss let happily French TGV on their trails, I took it few times with only Swiss ticket since I was getting off within Suisse (so no surcharge).

I think the TGV is pretty much on time, that's why they have no problem with that.

Re: I walked across Luxembourg

#194

Post by gottorf »

famahar wrote: post #129
tetrep wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While a compass helps with orientation, it doesn't help you find where you are or where you're going, so a map might be a good addition (or a replacement, as I find it pretty trivial to orient myself in a city when given a map). Why a disposable camera? I would think any user preferred camera would be fine, even a cell phone (just put it in airplane mode to avoid distractions).

With a disposable you'll need to be more intentional about how you want to capture moments. You only have 20 shots and no extra features to create the "best" shot. You begin to really value moments when you know that it'll make the cut for one of the 20. And you don't over think it. Just a quick snap is all you can do. Every shot matters but at the same time doesn't.

As someone who used to be very into photography, there are two other artistic advantages of a disposable camera or film cameras in general.

One, that you cannot see the photo you just took; it makes you more careful with your framing (similarly to your point about only having so many shots), and further helps you stay connected to the scene, instead of "chimping" the shot you just took.

Two, that because there is a period of time elapsed between when you take the shots and when you get back the results after the film has been processed, there is an additional delight factor when you get your photos back, and it can help you see your shots in a different light.

It's an interesting phenomenon that a technically superior implementation don't always mean the artistically superior implementation. Of course, a working photographer (working in news or sports) will sensibly choose the technically superior implementation; but the dilettante has more options, and I encourage all of them to explore those options.

Re: I walked across Luxembourg

#195

Post by gottorf »

martin_a wrote: post #188
mcv wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some ICEs only go to Basel, but there are definitely ICEs going all the way to Bern and Interlaken. Which is a funny thing: Interlaken is officially a town of 5700 people, and yet they're got two train stations receiving international high-speed trains. I guess it's really a town of 5700 Swiss and 100,000 tourists. And the ICEs that started in Interlaken left on time. But once our train to Switzerland got delayed, I…

I think they want to get rid of the trains going to Interlaken directly. At least that's what I read in the SZ [0]. If you haven't seen it, there's the great talk from David Kriesel on the 36C3 [1] about how Deutsche Bahn is... "doing statistics" to hide their delays. It's well worth the hour! [0]: https://www.sueddeutsche.de/reise/deutsche-bahn-verspaetunge... [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rb9CfOvojk

> "doing statistics" to hide their delays

"Lies, damned lies, and statistics." The older I get, the more true this becomes!

Re: I walked across Luxembourg

#196

Post by ianburrell »

wink wrote: post #101

I was a bit surprised that Luxembourg is actually quite a bit bigger than I had thought, especially as I wasn't too far off with the population. In my mind it wasn't SO much bigger than the other small European countries it's often lumped together with. Time to visit, I guess :P

I think Luxembourg gets combined with European micro-states, Andorra, San Marino, Vatican City, etc. But it is quite a bit bigger than them. Luxembourg is 5x bigger than Andorra and 3.5x smaller than Cyprus.

Re: I walked across Luxembourg

#197

Post by Ylpertnodi »

Wicher wrote: post #121
janosdebugs wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Parking is a problem in a lot of European cities. Trains are probably a better choice for such trips in Europe.

Parking is a problem? Just find a fence or lamp post and loop a lock through your front wheel and frame triangle. It's free.

"Free" parking, as far as bicycles go is often: how much can you afford to purchase a new one [after it gets stolen, despite the lock(s)]?

Re: I walked across Luxembourg

#199

Post by creole_wither »

famahar wrote: post #129
tetrep wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While a compass helps with orientation, it doesn't help you find where you are or where you're going, so a map might be a good addition (or a replacement, as I find it pretty trivial to orient myself in a city when given a map). Why a disposable camera? I would think any user preferred camera would be fine, even a cell phone (just put it in airplane mode to avoid distractions).

With a disposable you'll need to be more intentional about how you want to capture moments. You only have 20 shots and no extra features to create the "best" shot. You begin to really value moments when you know that it'll make the cut for one of the 20. And you don't over think it. Just a quick snap is all you can do. Every shot matters but at the same time doesn't.

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