After returning my hire-bike, we went to an exhibition about ancient gold mines in the Kunsthistorischesmuseum. Photography wasn’t allowed in the exhibition. Then, making like total tourists, we went to the Prater park (via a walk to Wien Westbahhof) and rode the Riesenrad. Dinner was in a veggie/vegan restaurant in Meidling, followed by a walk back to the hotel along the Wienfluß. Continue reading
I hired a bike from pedalpower.at and cycled out to another of our traditional haunts, the Kahlenberg (a hill just north of Vienna, with fantastic views over the city). Elly was sensible and took the U-bahn and then a bus.
Meanwhile, I failed to get up the MTB path, so cycled on to Klosterneuberg and ascended via a shallower but longer route – and cooked my arms in the sun.
Several drinks, including a verlängte Brauner (look it up!), later, we walked down to Klosterneuberg. Elly took public transport back to our hotel, while I went via the Donauinsel. Dinner was at another of our favourite haunts, the Dreivierteltakt. More Kartoffelsalat, Gurkensalat and Petersilkartoffeln. Austria does spuds! Continue reading
Elly fancied seeing the display of the Habsburgs’ book collection at the National Library. The state hall is full of books from mostly Empress Maria Theresa’s time (18th century). It’s absolutely amazing – I hope the photos do it some justice.
After a room full of books, none of which we could touch, let alone read, we headed for the Donauinsel for drinks, a shisha and (for the silliness addict) a dip in the Donaukanal. It’s rare that I’ve been so cold.
Dinner that night was at the Loving Hut – vegan Wienerschnitzel with mayonnaise-Kartoffelsalat. Totally yum! Continue reading
Relax – I’m safe, I’m not a homeless beggar.
Currently Police Scotland and the UK Borders agency are running an operation in Edinburgh to immediately deport foreign homeless beggars back to their home countries. If they want to go, fine – but I’m a bit afraid of coercion of the form ‘You do want to go home, don’t you, sir!’ As far as I’m concerned, anyone has the right to be in any non-private property they choose.
I’m fuming that at a recent community council meeting, it was said that ‘unfortunately, begging of itself is not a crime’ (my emphasis). As far as I’m concerned, if there’s a crime, it’s that we haven’t organised society so that there is no need to beg. Of course, if a beggar acts in an offensive manner, then there is some right – and public nuisance laws – to deal with this.
But if you are offended by people simply and politely asking for money because they aren’t in a position to earn enough for themselves, then do something about it! Attack the cause, not the symptoms – try to build a fair society where we all have enough.
For no good reason, I feel so hungover and generally bufued that I’ve had to resort to a soya milk latte. I almost snarled at the prof just now – apologies Hazel!
So the music is Gloryhammer’s Tales from the kingdom of Fife.
Back to work, now Bruce!
My colleague Frances Ryan, along with Professor Hazel Hall, will be running a one-day research symposium on 22 June 2017. ‘Connecting people, connecting ideas‘ (CPCI) will focus on research priorities in Information Science as related to everyday life information seeking and information behaviours in online environments.
More information is on Frances’ research blog. If information science is in any way your thing, I’m sure this will be an interesting and provocative event.
Two things that are pleasing me today
I’m in Worcester. It’s sunny. I need a solar-powered laptop.
I’m reasonably pleased that I was one of several thousand people braving Saturday’s perishing cold to protest against Donald Trump’s actions and policies. I hope that he might be persuaded to tone his offensiveness down just a little, but I’m not holding my breath on this score.
Some placards and posters were quite amusing, in my opinion.
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I shouldn’t be pleased that I’m on this video (sadly no longer available on the BBC) around 27 seconds in – the point is not to aggrandise myself.
a back-up of https://friends-ssct.org
wibbelwobble
Good governance and leadership
Participatory Budgeting for the Leith Neighbourhood Network
Maximising the impact and value of library and information science research
News, funding opportunities, and support from Research, Innovation & Enterprise
Digital evidence that Bruce might have a life 