This is beautiful mystery of nature: on a dry lake bed in Death Valley in California, rocks are moving around and no one knows exactly how or why. The rocks leave tracks in the dirt and they appear to move sometimes at speeds faster than a human walking. Yet, no one has ever seen one move. The sailing stones of Racetrack Playa have inspired many theories: from aliens, gravitational abnormalities and compressed gasses in the rocks to wind, water and ice pushing them around.

This is beautiful because it is such a poetic and stubborn mystery. For decades researchers have tried to figure this out. But so far no one has ever observed the actual event. Probably it is also not really a huge scientific priority. It’s not like solving the “mystery of the sailing stones” would earn a scientist a Nobel prize. But the effort to figure this out would be considerable. This is a very remote and hostile environment, with brutal temperature changes, hurricane-force winds and sudden flash-floods. The stones apparently may not move for years, and when they move they do it suddenly.

And yes – they have attached GPS devices and eventually someone will set up a camera with a motion detection system and capture a the mysterious event. But until then, we get to enjoy the mystery. It’s good to know that there are still such strange puzzles out there. This one feels a little bit as though nature had a sense of humor.

Preserved at 50 Meters depth on a ship wreck in the Northern Baltic Sea, divers discovered a cache of roughly 200-year-old beer and champagne. Experts seem to think the drinks are still good, because they were “stored” at a constant temperature of about 5° Celsius in total darkness. CNN – Sept. 3, 2010:

“At the moment, we believe that these are by far the world’s oldest bottles of beer,” Rainer Juslin, permanent secretary of the island’s ministry of education, science and culture, told CNN on Friday via telephone from Mariehamn, the capital of the Aland Islands.

“It seems that we have not only salvaged the oldest champagne in the world, but also the oldest still drinkable beer. The culture in the beer is still living.”

Very cool – I’d love to taste that stuff!

Yesterday I ran 3 miles on the Al Buehler trail and I think I’ll make that a habit, again. I stopped running in May because of a fracture of a metatarsal bone in my right foot. I think I may have broken that bone practicing kicks on the old punching bag at the gymn … anyway it’s all healed now and I plan to get back into running. Barefoot, of course.

The run yesterday felt good – although I took off a bit overly enthusiasticly and had to work on pacing myself better  halfway through the 3-mile run. It was also quite warm (around 90F/32C) and the trail was very busy that Wednesday evening at 6PM. The gravel makes you tread lightly and pick up your feet; the occasional sandy stretch feels really good. Today, my calves are not too sore – which means I did not tip-toe too much, and I feel my thighs a bit, which means I did pick up my feet pretty well. And NO BLISTERS!

Yesterday we put the roof on the run-in shelter and today we spent most of the day playing with the horses. Both Waldo and Cleo got a good workout and after dinner Cleo got a bit sleepy and laid down for a while.

Clearly, Cleo is feeling pretty relaxed and a bit sleepy from a good workout on a warm summer day. Most horses never lay down during the day, but Walking Horses sometimes will do that. The only time I have previously seen a horse snooze in the pasture was in Iceland – those Icelandic Ponies do that all the time. But to sit next to a full size hose that’s sacked out in the pasture is a weird and very cool experience.

Today we brought home our horses Waldo and Cleo! This weekend we got their run-in shelter (mostly) done, so we borrowed a trailer and brought them home from the place were we had them boarded for the last month.

DE … Waldo und Cleo sind endlich zuhause! Wir haben die beiden heute abgeholt und sie grasen jetzt zufrieden nebeneinander auf der Weide hinter unserem Haus. Das Grass is satt und grün und es gibt einfach nichts Besseres!

They got off the trailer and went right down to business.

The pasture has been recovering for 2 months and we’ve had a good amount of rain lately. So the grass is thick and juicy. In fact, they are not even all that interested in the grain and hay we got them. Fine with me …

Cleo – aka “Funny You Should Ask” – and Waldo … our two Tennessee Walking Horses.

More pictures on Flickr hat noch mehr Bilder.

In his column on the BBC website, Zimbabwean filmmaker and columnist Farai Sevenzo sums up his experience at the Worldcup in South Africa and what this event meant for South Africa:

For the first time, the South Africans kept telling me, all South Africans have come together, people are conversing across colour divisions, we are incredibly proud of what we have achieved.

Everyone, it seems, had raised their game – from the police to the broadcasters to the boys and girls from advertising.

“Feel it,” said the state broadcaster, “it is here.”

And feel it we did.

Congratulations and Thank You to South Africa for a successful and enthusiastic event. When Germany hosted the 2006 Worldcup, it felt good to to hear people from all over the world say they felt welcome in Germany. I think this shared experience helped pull the country together and grow a new, self confident, peaceful patriotism that promotes peace and understanding internally AND externally.

I hope that the shared experience of hosting the 2010 Worldcup will have similar long-term effects on South Africa. In such a fractured country it may really make a big difference to boost national self confidence by hosting a big, international event. Clearly, this won’t solve any of the country’s pressing problems, but I hope that such a shared experience may help people to start taking down some barriers (and razor wire) and help strengthen a national identity. We will see.

Personally, this was the best Worldcup I remember watching – just looking at the quality of football played. Not all was glorious, but the good stuff was fantastic. Despite the loss, I think that the Germany – Spain game was the best match I ever watched. And most Germany matches were quite awesome to watch (not that I am biased, or anything). That team has a great future!

My second-favorite team – Ghana – also played really well and they were just unlucky in the Uruguay game. Man – what drama. There was so much drama in this Worldcup – game-drama – crazy goals, last-second-goals, dramatic referee decisions, lots of emotion, and a well-deserving, first-time champion.

Congratulations, España! Wonderful performance – beautiful football.

See you in 2 years …

Saturday we finished building the pasture fence. Wow … what a slog! We started working on this project 4 weeks ago. I rented a Bobcat and built a 200 foot/70 meter driveway through the woods up the hill to the top of the pasture. There, we installed a 14-foot/3.5 Meter gate and then we built a 1200 foot/400 meter pasture fence (see photo).

We set 76 posts  (6-inch posts in the corners and at the terminations and 4-inch line posts) and strung 5 lines of coated, high-tensile conductive wire.

For the post holes I used the Bobcat with an auger attachment and an 8-inch auger bit. We have red and brown clay with plenty of rocks in some places. So the Bobcat S175 with the  auger was the right choice.  It still took 2 days to auger all the post holes. And rocks kicked my butt in some places.

In the top South-Eastern corner, the brace post was a real problem. When I tried to auger it in the measured place I got nowhere. I moved it over a foot, and hit another rock about a foot deep. I ended up hand digging this one and I pulled out a water-melon-sized rock and another, smaller one 3 feet deep. But I got the post-hole to 4 feet and cemented it and it’s good now.

So next we need to build the shelter for the horses, clean up the brush around the pasture and we’re ready for our horses. Yes – plural … we bought another horse today …

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Yesterday was the second day at over 100 deg. F here in Durham. At RDU airport a heat record for that day was recorded at 102 °F / 38 °C.

Great week for building a pasture fence …

wieder in Halfinale … ist es vorbei. Bravo für Jogi’s Jungs – was für eine Weltmeisterschaft! Toller Spaßfußball! Aber Spanien war einfach zu gut.

Congratulations to Spain. See you in two years. Again.

Frau Angie got her way in the end – the longest session of the German Federal Assembly finally elected her faithful party soldier Christian Wulff to the office of President of the Federal Republic of Germany.

The opposition candidate Joachim Gauck, a civil rights activist in Stalinist East Germany, made a respectable showing, but the refusal of the Linke Party – successor to the … Stalinist SED state party of former East Germany, prevented him from upending the candidate of the center-right coalition’s loyalist candidate.

This longest session ever was a real loose-loose scenario … Merkel’s regime looks weak, the opposition looks fractured, and the Linke  party looks like jerks. Way to go. Good luck Herr Wulff.

Here are more pictures of our new, 9-year-old Tennessee Walker “Funny You Should Ask” aka “Cleo” Click on the picture for a larger version.

Cleo the weekend after we bought her. She has turned out to be a very intelligent, talented and willing horse.

More pictures below …

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Yes – undeniably England was robbed yesterday. Of one goal. Not of a game, probably.  But it was also an amazing, fateful decision that brought back football history and the moment when Germany was robbed. Not just a goal, but possibly the title, at Wembley stadium in 1966 at the Worldcup final when a goal was counted for England that was not one. So we’re even now!?

Jorge Larrionda’s mistake in yesterday’s game, as well as several other dramatic mistakes by other refs, like Tevez’ offsides goal in the Argentina – Mexico game, have helped reignite the discussion about technological aids for football referees to help make such decisions. The fundamental problem why  FIFA won’t even entertain the idea seems to be Blatter’s ignorance of the technology. I think after this Worldcup FIFA needs to talk to its top referees and make serious efforts evaluating and testing some of the available solutions. It seems there are some solutions that can help referees make such critical decisions and avoid making the game look anachronistic and foolish.

The amount of technology wielded to observe these games has vastly outpaced the tools the refs have to make their decisions. It is absurd that the players can point to a replay on the stadium screen that shows the player who just scored clearly offsides, and the ref has no clear procedure to reconsider his decision to let the goal stand. I’d really like to hear Larrionda’s opinion and whether he would have liked to have a way to quickly check an electronic device to verify his decision about England’s goal. I think it is important to get the refs input and buy-in on any new tools. But Blatter’s luddism is really not helpful.

[UPDATE 6/29: Blatter says he is now willing to discuss goal-line technology. ]

… is the name of the 9-year-old, blue roan mare we bought yesterday.

"Funny You Should Ask" aka Cleo

Her stable name is “Cleo” and she is a registered Tennessee Walking Horse, which is a peculiar, uniquely American breed. She is a very gentle, curious soul with an impressive pedigree.

We had planned to start building the fence yesterday, but there was a 1-inch downpour in the morning that turned the unfinished driveway into a muddy mess which made it near impossible to get any of the fence material and equipment to the pasture. Everything was soaked, and more rain was in the forecast, so we said, “let’s get the horse”! We called this guy in Selma, NC who rents horse trailers for $65/day and he said that we could have it if we get there by noon. That was at 10:30 and it’s an hour’s drive! So we grabbed the kids, ran to the bank and got the money for the horse and drove to Selma. We got there at noon, hooked up the trailer and continued to New Bern. Right before New Bern we had to drive through this furious thunderstorm with blinding rain and massive lightning.

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Three days of football fun so far. I watched the opener, USA game and the Germany game at Dain’s Place and the Ghana game at home. I wore my South Africa shirt for the opener and Gloria (Dain’s cook) almost killed me!  Dain had to wear a Mexico shirt just to avoid having the kitchen staff go loco (there were quite a few SA supporters in the bar). However, Gloria did serve up her famous enchiladas, and since there was no biltong, I had enchiladas with mole sauce at halftime.

The Place was packed for the USA game and Jacob and I squeezed in to watch and have a drink. What fun! And what a game! Whenever they showed Botox-Beckham, the Place erupted in jeers.

There were few Krautheimers around for the Germany-Australia game, too. So. Much. Fun.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen any German Nat’l team have so much fun at a Worldcup game. They are talented and disciplined and they seemed relaxed and ready to take on the world! Argentina watch out!

Today was the hottest day this year, so far: 96 Deg. F / 35 Deg. C and max humidity at 90%. Summer has begun in Durham!

If you have ever traveled or lived in a tropical country, you can appreciate the value of a fridge there – especially in rural areas with no access to the electrical grid. There is nothing quite like getting a cold drink from the only refrigerator within miles on a scorching hot day. However, beyond cold beers or sodas, without refrigeration, perishable foods – especially meat – are often kept in unsanitary conditions. Also many important medicines, for example vaccines, require refrigeration. So this is also a public health issue. This is a need that’s addressed by an interesting German-Swazi project:

Swaziland is one of the poorest and most rural nations in the world. Most of the villages have no running water, electricity, or refrigerators. But a new innovation is serving to make life a lot more manageable for rural families in Swaziland. The communal building in many of the villages now has a solar powered fridge. See how these responsible refrigerators are impacting many African villages.

Many of Swaziland’s villages can now enjoy cold milk and fresh meat thanks to solar powered refrigerators being installed in their villages. In a country where 1/3 of the entire population has no work to speak of and many families are suffering, this is a bigger deal than it may seem. In fact, the manufacturing of these fridges could also bring jobs and modernization to the area. These fridges are also eco-friendly and do not use the chlorofluorocarbons that are known to deplete the ozone. This is the first project of its kind in Swaziland and Africa as a whole. The program is funded by the International Climate Initiative.

From DW TV via Treehugger

Although Memorial Day is a a bit of a somber holiday, to most Americans the long weekend at the end of May is less about death and patriotism and more about celebrating the beginning of summer; about cookouts, parties, fishing trips and other family fun.

For us, last weekend was all bout bonding with our new land and with our pond in particular. We made a fire pit at the edge of the pond, set up some lawn chairs, got a couple of cheap fishing rods and spent most of the weekend, fishing in the pond (unsuccessfully) grilling hot dogs and drinking beers in our newly expanded back yard. We also got a tiny inflatable boat and took turns cruising the pond.

Curiously, the turtle that lives in the pond exhibited quite an interest in what we were doing. If the kids don’t make too much noise, the turtle seems quite at ease with our presence, and when you’re just quietly standing at the edge of the pond (fishing, for example) s/he will occasionally swim over and see what you’re doing.

I had another interesting encounter with local wildlife when I explored the woods next to the pond. I went to collect some rocks for stepping stones across the spillway, when I found a 2-foot copperhead snake.

So now we’re now wondering whether there are any big fish in the pond – there certainly are lots of tiny fish. But even though we did not catch any fish we had a great time trying, and relaxing at the pond, grilling hot dogs over the campfire with the kids and exploring the woods around it.

This evening, Laura tried out her new waders in the pond, and as she was poking around the edge of the pond she met the pond’s resident turtle: a 10-inch yellow-belly slider. The poor turtle protested some, but did not seem too worried overall. At her size (10 inches/24cm) she is pretty much as big as they come. At that size it is also much more likely that she a female, as male sliders tend to be a bit smaller in size.

In this photo you can see her hurrying back into the pond, after we put her back down. She waited for about 15 Minutes, during which she stuck her head out several times to scope the situation. Finally she got up and made for the water at a pretty determined clip. It was about 7 PM and so the shutter speed was real slow on my camera (1/8 at 1600 ISO) – that’s why she’s a bit blurry. I did not want to freak her out with the flash.

Here is a shot of the pond from the Southern end. After we let her go, she swam around in circles right there for about 20 Minutes before she disappeared.

Yesterday, Jacob and I went to the Durham Country library and he got the current Guinness Book of World Records. So I started wondering what the connection was between the book of records and beer. Wikipedia to the rescue:

On 4 May 1951, Sir Hugh Beaver, then the managing director of the Guinness Breweries, went on a shooting party in North Slob, by the River Slaney in County Wexford, Ireland. He became involved in an argument over which was the fastest game bird in Europe, the koshin golden plover or the grouse. That evening at Castlebridge House he realised that it was impossible to confirm in reference books whether or not the golden plover was Europe’s fastest game bird.

Beaver knew that there must be numerous other questions debated nightly in pubs in Britain and Ireland, but there was no book with which to settle arguments about records. He realised then that a book supplying the answers to this sort of question might prove popular.

So the Guinness book is really the precursor to the KGB answers service …