"Fasching" ( Carnival in Bleiburg.)

It is the last day of this year's Carnival. Shrove Tuesday. ( Fasching Dienstag).
Tomorrow is "Ash Wednesday" and all the fun and joy is supposed to be over.
Bleiburg celebrates this day with a "Children's Carnival".
They gather in front of City Hall and our Mayor welcomes them.
Children and Parents.
Cookies, Candies and Hot Drinks are being served.
"Glühwein" and Schnaps for the parents. Soft drinks for the children.
An Accordion player entertains the assembled crowd, Songs are sung by the kids and
a good time is being had by all.

Bleiburg's future is safe and sound.

No fear of the town running out of people.

Pretty mothers and proud fathers bring even their toddlers.

Center top: Bleiburg's Mayor and Vice Mayor

above and below: what else is there to say?

Even though the button-accordion plays a happy tune,

the kid in green seems not to like the music a whole lot.

Mayor Stefan Visotschnig

flanked by two mothers who kept the spirit.

Springtime, just around the Corner

I could not believe it.
There it is, only the end of February, and what do I find in our garden?
Beautiful Snowbells!
Harbingers of Spring.

some more of Africa

Male and Female Impala

surround a Zebra

The fastest of them all:

A Cheetah and its prey.

Back to Africa

Although departure to Africa is not until 14th May, some 80 days in the future, the anticipation, not to say excitement, is slowly building. One might think that after 12 such Safaris I would get used to the adventure and approach the 13th trip with a certain equanimity. This, however, is not so.
Africa, for me, holds a never ending challenge, a new vista, another discovery.
Even if I have taken literally hundreds of photographs of elephants, for instance, this next one just might be the all time best image ever of such a marvelous animal.
Will I be able to improve upon some of the lion images from previous Safaris?
Can there be a more graphic shot of a black maned Lion of the Kalahari, than the ones I was lucky to get during my visit there two years ago?
Of course there can! And it is this possibility and a thousand others which drive me there again and again.

Through the Looking Glass

Anyway, that's my 'Looking Glass'

The view from our livingroom window.

Two Sunfish sailboats.

Pythagoras of Samos

According to him, in a right angle triangle a2 +b2 = c2

where a and b meet there is, by definition, a 90 degree angle.

the other two angles add up to also 90 degrees.

so, in accordance with the formula, if a = 5, and b = 10, 

c must be 11.18.....

in  this case c is 0.894% longer than b.

If I now extend the base line (b) from 10 to 100, we get the following result:

25+10,000 = c sq

c = 100.125, which is 0.998% longer than b

let me now extend base line b to infinite.

does that mean that the hypotenuse "c" must also be infinite and the angle where a meets c must now also be 90 degrees. Are we now dealing with two parallel lines b and c, which will never meet

at best we are no longer dealing with a triangle, but a square.

unless one considers the theorem that parallel lines meet in infinity.

Or is this whole thing a bunch of h.s. since there is no "infinity" in Geometry?

or is there?

Bertstravel

wonders about the craziest things.

More Joy in Austria

Yes, it happened today.
In the men's slalom Austrian ski stars shone brilliantly on the World Championship Alpine Skiing firmament.
Not only did Marcel Hirscher grab the Gold by 68/100th of a second over his team mate, newcomer Manuel Feller who, in turn,  outdistanced Felix Neureuther of Germany by 25/100th of a second, but he lead the Austrian team to the overall nations cup.
With 3 Golds, 4 Silvers and 2 Bronze, Austria defeated Switzerland in the total medal count with 9:7.
Canada and the USA garnered 3 medals each for 4th place.

It was a wonderful competition.

Marcel Hirscher leaving the starting gate.

Half way down the course Marcel is leading by 0.15 seconds.

Marcel Hirscher and his team mate, Silver Medalist,  Manuel Feller.

They call him the "King of St. Moritz!"

Feller, Hirscher and Neureuther.