the next stop on our route was hallstatt [G], a town that sits in the 40 meters between a lakeshore and a rock face that goes up 300 meters.
up to the end of the 19th century, hallstatt was only reachable by boat or narrow paths. i think the only reason that the village was established there in the first place, lies in the rich deposits of salt, which have been mined since approx. 5.000 b.c.
parts of that history can be seen in the salzwelten (salt worlds), a mining museum which offers guided tours into the mines.

internationally, hallstatt is probably best known for the beinhaus: since there’s hardly any space at all available in hallstatt, the dead remained buried for about 10 years, after which time the bones were be removed from the cemetary. they were then painted and decorated elaborately, and placed in the beinhaus (ossuary).

last time we were in the region, we only had a few hours in hallstatt, which is why we stayed overnight this time. bräu-gasthof lobisser is located in the narrow part of hallstatt with views of the lake, and has comfortable rooms with typical austrian furniture.
(i recommend to reconfirm your reservation before you arrive in hallstatt.)

[view photos: hallstatt, austria]

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my mom spotted a small group of beautiful, unfamiliar birds in a tree today.
they turned out to be bohemian waxwings (bombycilla garrulus, de: seidenschwanz).

bohemian waxwing (bombycilla garrulus)

bohemian waxwings usually live in the northern regions of the world, such as scandinavia and the taiga, so i assume that these were just passing through.

• http://twitpic.com/2dgfk – twitter public timeline. it’s nice that twitter goes multilingual, but is the spanish version really obligatory? #
• http://is.gd/oxk8 – nike+ competition “men vs. women”. might join. #
• http://is.gd/nPfM – coloring book fail. one of the comments says: “you could use red if it had a rash.” #
• http://xkcd.com/74/ xkcd: binary sudoku #
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fun fact: in some species of polychaetes, the removal of a female’s brain causes it to change into a male worm.

my usual response to this kind of information:
“that may be, but one man’s orgasm could theoretically get every woman in the USA¹ pregnant!”

photoshop actions allow you to record and automate frequently used procedures, much like the “record macro” feature does in microsoft office.
for example you could automatically insert a text or image into a photo, move it to the top left corner (0/0), set opacity etc., and merge the layers.
it’s that easy! well, almost.

usually, copyright notices are placed in the bottom right corner of a photo, so you’ll get a problem if you’re working with different image sizes – i.e. landscape and portrait orientation.
the top corner will always be at 0/0 pixels, but the position of the bottom right corner is variable.

i’ve been searching for a solution to this for a very long time, and eventually settled with two separate photoshop actions – one for standard 640×480 (landscape), and one for 480×640 (portrait) photos. everything else had to be modified manually.

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here’s an example of how governments make financially related decisions nowadays…

in an attempt to improve my efficiency and productivity, i’ve spent some time reading up on the most common natural products & substances that increase activity and energy.
 

here’s a short (non-exhaustive) list of things i’ve com across:

caffeine:

increases activity and concentration. stimulates the central nervous system, heart activity and blood pressure.
negative effects: adaption, addiction, nervousness and anxiety, irritability, anything up to cardiac arrhythmia.
overdose (according to wikipedia): 7 to 10 cups of coffee consumed within a short timespan.

guarana:

contains more caffeine than regular coffee. here, the caffeine is linked to tanning agents, which makes it longer-lasting (it’s released little by little).
same negative side-effects as with pure caffeine.
overdose: 20g guarana powder.

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