Two speed riders/flyers swooping the Eiger west face

François Bon and Antoine Montant did the world's first speed riding/flying descent from the mount Eiger in Switzerland on July 14th 2006. From the top on the edge of west face, then in the north face all the way to the bottom... Enjoy!

If you prefer to watch it with the original sound, here it is:

Skydiver swooping the Eiger west face

Stefan Klaus during a run down the mount Eiger's west face... Please enjoy!

Of feminism and theology

"I am also conscious that the Abrahamic God is (to put it mildly) aggressively male, and this too I shall accept as a convention in my use of pronouns. More sophisticated theologians proclaim the sexlessness of God, while some feminist theologians seek to redress historic injustices by designating her female. But what, after all, is the difference between a non-existent female and a non-existent male? I suppose that, in the ditzily unreal intersection of theology and feminism, existence might indeed be a less salient attribute than gender."

Richard Dawkins, in "The God delusion", p. 56-57 (Black Swan edition 2007).

Surfing a tzunami wave

Some people prefer to hide from a storm... But not this surfer!

Larvatus prodeo

"Er [Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo] gehört zu den Menschen, die ihre zweite Lebenshälfte damit verbringen, die erste niederzuschreiben, gelehrte Abhandlungen zu verfassen, die, das weiß er, aufgeklärte Leser fünf Jahrhunderte später aufschlagen werden, er ist der festen ueberzeugung, dass sein Werk zu diesem Thema so vortrefflich und nützlich sein wird, dass jede neue Arbeit dazu nicht umhin kommen wird, darauf zurückzugreifen oder zumindest seinen Namen zu erwähnen. Larvatus prodeo. Er weiß auch, dass man zwischen den Zeilen schreien oder flüstern kann, was es damals bedeutete, der Mensch zu sein, der man war - denn man kann sich weder sein Leben noch seine Epoche aussuchen, man muss die Rolle erfüllen, die einem zugefallen ist, und sein Vorhaben ist auch immer autobiografischer Natur: Ich war jener Oviedo, von dem hier die Rede ist. Ueber die Jahrhunderte hinweg wendete er sich in der Zeit zurück an diejenigen, die er seines Anliegens für würdig hält, wie Aristoteles oder Ovid, und nach vorn and diejenigen, die ihn seiner Ueberzeugung nach auch in fünfhundert Jahren noch lesen werden. Und so kommt ein Gespräch in Gang, denn man kann sich seinem Oviedo nach fünf Jahrhunderten letztlich näher, vertrauter fühlen als den meisten lebenden Zeitgenossen. Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo, Befehlshaber und Chronist des Königs, stribt am 27. Juni 1557 im Alter von neunundsiebzig Jahren in der Festung Santo Domingo."

Patrick Deville, in "Pura Vida - Leben und Sterben des William Walker", p. 151-152 (Deutsche Uebersetzung aus dem Französischen 2007)

Manila - Shanghai

Today, I finally checked out from Great Eastern Hotel. Before going to the Airport, I collected my cloths at the Laundry shop next to Oxford Suites, where it took them a moment to realize that my cloths have finally not been lost. Once at the Airport, the check in procedure took its time it takes when you fly Economy class, and I guess, with one open counter, it took even a bit longer this particular Sunday. Before I passed the immigration gate, I had another snack in the Airport restaurant, in which the service was casual but the beef was raw.

The flight PR 366 was very smooth, and as usually in planes, I was given a chance to watch a movie I would never have watched if it wasn't enforced by the physical laws of a three hour flight from which I could not escape once in the air: "Catch and release". The movie had a special impact on me, not because it was especially good, but because it touched the same subjects I have quite extensively discussed with various people over the last couple of days: love, the falling for it and the knowledge of when one is/should falling.

In Shanghai, everything is different, and everything is the same: An impressive Airport ("gate to heaven", like in all countries you tend to arrive from the sky), built to leave an unforgettable first impression. I think I will forget Pudong Airport.

Finally, a 143 RMB taxi ride brought me to "Rich Gate" (this is truly the English name of a very nice upscale Apartment complex in Xiengdie), where I finally met Andreas, before we went to have dinner with Arven, Gevin and Stanley.

Synaesthesia - or similar...

In todays's Economist, an article on Synaesthesia was able to grab my attention. "Synaesthesia". The word is often spelt differently, but for those who ever get to experience the meaning, they will never forget it, regardless of the spelling...