But before we trip lightly o'er the English Channel, down through France and over the Pyrenees - which are bleak and forbidding indeed when seen in person, I can tell you - to a certain city, I would like to abruptly change track and deal with -
Extrasolar Planets!
The total of these objects has now reached about 4,000; there is a bit of fudging about criteria used to determine what counts as an exoplanet, so there's a lack of an absolutely definitive and positive total at present. We'll definitely hit that 4,000 by the end of this year, as there are oodles of candidates gleaned by Kepler waiting to be assessed and confirmed. Kepler being a satellite named after Johannes Kepler the astronomer, who has also somewhat confusingly given his name to several extra-solar planets.
The Rocky road |
A "Hot Jupiter" |
Play nice, now!
Pyrrhus Of Epirus
I have alluded to Pyrrhus before, when complaining about the ridiculously difficult Codeword solutions being put forward in the MEN. The usual connotation when you encounter this Greek king and soldier is "a Pyrrhic victory", meaning one that has been won at ruinous cost to oneself.
Ol' Py has been rather traduced in this way. Art?
Pyrrhus |
He rapidly over-ran most of Sicily, but then alienated the Sicilian Greeks by demanding ships and crews to tackle the Carthaginian fleet, who were helping their last fortress resist a siege.
Lilybaeum a.k.a. Marsala |
Now About Bikes
You've been patient for long enough. Okay, one thing about Barca is that the city's residents like their mopeds and motorbikes, and there is no speed limit, so it is quite common to see some leather-clad biker doing 70 m.p.h. around the city centre.
Contrarily, the city also puts an effort into providing bike lanes for cyclists. Art?
Also communal bikes to go in those bike lanes |
There are other variants of bikes - electric ones, which can go at a fair pace without the rider having to fatigue themselves by anything as mundane as pedalling. Also innumerable electric scooters; we both wondered how they cope with hills. Then there were Segways; Sal and I saw a convoy of them down by the Zoo, seeking safety in numbers. Sadly gone too quickly for me to take a photo. There was also a dude on an electric unicycle - I think, he was here and gone rather nippily.
Scooter, electric, one of. |
No idea? No rubbish. Barca is amazingly clean for a major city, with absolutely no litter nor chewing gum all over the pavements. The Barcelonans just seem to carefully put all their rubbish in bins. This will be a stark contrast to my walk into work tomorrow, past puddles of vomit, broken bottles, discarded cans, cigarette butts and takeaway food wrappers for -
NO! Wait - Sal and I saw a paper tissue someone had dropped outside an expensive Barca hotel - there is hope for Manchester yet!*
Manchester, after a heavy night of it. |
Finally -
Let me introduce you to the Shrike. This is a carnivorous bird with unlovely habits, which we will detail shortly. First, if Art can put down his plate of coal -
The shrike in action |
Their name comes from Anglo-Saxon, meaning "shriek", for they have a strident call. And - that's all.
Right, time to hurl the motley into that geyser, wrapped only in raw bacon and salmon fillets! And having mentioned food, it is time Your Humble Scribe went and made his lunch for tomorrow and got some sustenance for tonight.
Tally ho!
* Maybe.
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