Unbetitelt

The SS Warrimoo, a passenger steamship traveling from Vancouver to Australia, was silently knifing its way across the mid-Pacific waters. The navigator had just finished calculating a star fix and handed the results to Captain John DS. Phillips.

The Warrimoo's coordinates were LAT 0º 31' N, LONG 179 30' W. The date was December 31, 1899. "Know what this means?" First Mate Payton announced, "We're only a few miles from the intersection of the Equator and the International Date Line."

Captain Phillips was prankish enough to seize the opportunity to do the nautical feat of a lifetime. He summoned his navigators to the bridge to double-check the ship's position. He altered his course slightly to focus directly on his target. He then altered the engine's speed.

The calm weather and clear night worked to his advantage. At midnight, the SS Warrimoo rested on the Equator, exactly where it had crossed the International Date Line. The ramifications of this odd arrangement were numerous.

it is not a trip where you have a right to enter a train and reach a destination in an allotted time.

It is not a trip. It’s a journey.

An epic journey as the myths have foretold. There we once again feel the brittleness of our human powers when confronted with the uncaring forces of fate!

we may try to steer our destiny but find ourselves blown around helplessly like Ulysses when he had already lost all his men.

But like Ulysses we rise to the challenge! We confront the merciless forces and fight on in adversity, never losing sight of our goals even when forced to take detours that seem to lead us far away!

and in it we also feel the strength of humanity!

That is the German train experience!

Man darf diesmal sogar mit 16 Jahren schon wählen. Nutzt dieses Recht!

Wenn ihr nicht wisst, wen ihr wählen sollt: Der Wahl-O-Mat zur Europawahl 2024 ist seit heute online. Dort einfach bei den 38 Thesen auf stimme zu/neutral/stimme nicht zu (oder überspringen) klicken und dann kann man sehen welche Parteien zu einem passen. Dort kann man auch die Stellungnahmen der Parteien zu allen Thesen finden.

Auch wenn ihr nicht mit den großen Parteien zufrieden seid, geht wählen! Bei der Europawahl haben wir keine 5% Hürde in Deutschland, sodass auch kleinere Parteien 1-2 Abgeordnete stellen können (Nico Semsrott, der für Die PARTEI ins EU Parlament kam [wobei er dann aus der Partei ausgetreten ist], gibt einige interessante Einblicke ins EU Parlament auf seinem Youtube Kanal). Ich würde aber trotzdem empfehlen ein paar Prognosen zu verfolgen und nicht eine Partei zu wählen, die mit großer Wahrscheinlichkeit nicht genug Stimmen bekommt für mind. eine*n Abgeordnete*n.

Grundlegende Infos zur Europawahl 2024 von MrWissen2go:

Learning about CERN and the search for the Higgs Boson was one of the main reasons I went into physics at uni — I stayed off school on the day of the LHC switch-on in 2008 to follow the coverage and listen to the Torchwood radio play they'd created for the occasion; woke up at the crack of dawn on my 18th birthday (4th July 2012) to watch the livestream announcement they'd finally found the Higgs Boson; caught Peter Higgs at various physics events and talks around Edinburgh when I moved up there later that year.

Later on, after leaving uni and moving away from Edinburgh, I met a friend who'd worked at CERN back when the discovery happened. She'd got to know Peter Higgs fairly well, the two of them travelling back and forth between Edinburgh and the LHC together on occasion. She was with him in the plane back home when he got the call they'd found his boson, and, as she recounted, they'd cracked open a small bottle of champagne together to celebrate.

Probably my favourite Peter Higgs story though, is from the Nobel Prize announcement. A quiet guy who had no interest in the limelight, he wasn't one for big celebrations. He knew the Higgs Boson would win the Nobel Prize that year, so as the story goes, on the day of the announcement he told his friends and colleagues he was off on a hike up in the hills and so would be unreachable, but instead simply turned off his phone and went down to the local pub for lunch.

I believe he told this at a science festival talk I attended a year or two after the fact, but I can't be sure. All I remember is sitting on the steps of The Mound in the middle of Edinburgh, sharing a pizza post-talk, and thinking how lucky I was to exist in both the universe and the city at such time of scientific discoveries.