The little Inn by the wayside

[Zyx]

That door... Water broke it or they had to break it to get inside?

I would expect that the had they tried to break the door themselves, the door would be open the other way around, or to the right direction.

But it's good to hear that most of the stuff that was destroyed sounds like something that the insurance covers and is quite easy to replace?

[eMTe]

Quite right. I didnt notice at first they're open to the wrong side...

[Chroelle]

Well to answer your first lines - Denmark isn't that susceptible to floods, and these are local sightings. This was the hardest we got hit ever, and secondhardest was 30 years ago, so.....
Problem was biggest in Copenhagen and the many closely placed suburbs around it, as there is much asfalt and not much dirt to suck up the water. All our sewers got filled quickly and the holes that lead down there - manholes and grids - all got covered in leaves, garbage etc so fast that they had no chance of keeping up with the downpour. The more rural districts of Denmark didn't get hit bad. Biggest problems came around bridgeunderpasses -
trainstations

tunnels
(go towards the end to see some pics of how high the water reaced...
etc.

They showed a news piece about how hard it hit the trains... which I really wanted to find for you but couldn't... The reporter is standing on some rails showing how hard the guys are working with a pump to get away the water. There isn't much water so I thought...Whats the wow-factor in this newsstory... And then she showed that behind some fences ran a nice little river. Still I was thinking "no wow-factor?", and then they zoomed out and showed that 15 cm above the waterline was some train-wires (wires needed for electricity in trains - dont know what they are called) which meant that about 5 meters down there was rails going past, where trains were supposed to drive - and people wondered how come the trains had so much trouble running after the rainstorm...

[eMTe]

I guess asfalt and plunged holes are not the problem, after all you dont find dirt roads in big cities nowadays. The problem is that nobody was prepared for such a heavy rainfall, after all it's very rare what's happened, as you said. No city in the world would stand a chance against such disaster.

Is the water still there?

[eMTe]

On another note. I was finally able to grab a bottle of India Pale Ale, about which we spoke here some time ago and I expressed my great surprose that something like IPA exists and I havent even heard of it. A very fine beer indeed, in the beginning metallic, thus a bit off-putting, but soon clear and longlasting taste of citruses followed. It costs fortune, but I think Ill tempt myself once a couple of weeks.

[Chroelle]

IPA's are good, but for some people only.

Indeed no city could have been prepared, but MORE prepared/"preparederer" for this amount of water. No the water was gone within a day or two. My very clever neighbour (who was telling me how they had stacked everything high and thus had not been hurt by the water in the basement - a little too smug) just found out that they hadn't searched the back of their storage room, and just found ot that water was still there... So they are spending the day where I was spending my last week more or less.
Dont mean to be mean here, but smugness always looks better on the way back down peoples throats...

[Scythe]

And I was on vacation and completely unaffected when all this happened...

[eMTe]

Nothing but the rain. 30 years of life is relatively short to some, but I really dont remember July like this. 19 days, 2 sunny, 17 rainy. More, I dont remember spring and summer combined like this. Month after month, 2/3 of days are rainy.

Something bad is happening.

[Pager]

Hope you guys get a break from the rain soon. We got hammered by rain here in May, so many days consecutively of rain. I agree with eMTe, more than I have seen in a short amount of time, in my life. May is usually dull and rainy, but it was heavy rain, day after day of it...We were trying to patch the parging at our house, but needed it to stop raining for long enough to dry it out. Definitely too much rain. But I would love some now though...

...Right now, we are in the middle of a heatwave. The worst I have ever had to live through, tomorrow it is supposed to be 37C without the humidex. The highest recorded temperature (without humidex) for Southern Ontario was 38.3C in 1948, they think it might even be in the running to beat that if it goes above 37C. I hate the heat, winter is fine with me, it is easy to make yourself warm, but trying to cool yourself down is terrible, doesn't always work out the way you intend. Plus our city is having a lawn watering ban, so everyone's lawns are brown and burnt.

My wife and I have been sleeping in our living room for the past few nights. It is cooler because we have more windows on the main floor and the fan going all the time. It is times like these I wish air conditioning didn't give me a splitting headache.

I remember once when I was a kid it snowed in July. I think it was a cold summer, and their was a volcano eruption that messed up the climate...but all I remember was it still being warm enought to wear a t-shirt and having it snow. Wasn't enough to do anything with...like tobogganing or snowball fights...but just enough to be weird.

[eMTe]

Special agent on the prowl.

http://www.expatica.com/nl/news/dutch-n ... 63770.html

[Zyx]

Hmm... noticed this morning that there are flags everywhere at half-mast. I doubt it isn't because of Ms. Winehouse. =)

[Tormuse]

I suspect it's because of the bombings and shootings in Norway from the other day.

The latest I heard was that the death toll was at 92 people, most of whom were in their teens and early 20's.

It's really sad. My condolences go out to anyone affected by these senseless killings.

[eMTe]

They werent senseless, they were deeply meaningful. Exactly what madman wanted, because this shooting will probably strike even hotter debate than Columbine and similar shootings. Mostly because there's an islamization of Europe topic in the background.

Personally, I think that this is a new type of terrorism. What's for me most characteristic is what he was doing before the shooting. Media say that he was inciting extremist organisations in UK to provoke Muslim extremists, so that they in turn refer to acts of violence. It's no longer violence against outsiders, like oldschool skinheads used to act, it's violence against "innocent" people who are guilty of being passive. You dont hate Muslims? Eat this! He desperately tried to terrorise society in a new way - to be afraid of people who will punish them for not taking actions against Muslims. Instead of being one of the few bigmouth extremist activists who are more or less visible and have usually little following, he decided that whole society must be turned against Muslims if The Cause is to be won.

Of course, it must not be his only way of thinking, but I tried to analyse it a bit and i think Im quite close.

[eMTe]

Besides, there's many things we dont know yet, and the truth will be revealed slowly. There are already informations that he was not a nazi or racist, but a zionist extremist. Several days should pass, before the picture will become more or less clear and reliable media will confirm the gossips.

[Chroelle]

It is indeed sad! The deathtoll is up to 93 after one of the wounded passed away at the hospital today - some are still missing, but the police has concluded that he has not killed more than 90 at the island camp - so there is a max this can grow to - thankfully. This is actually the terrorist attack that has shook me the most, because it was a Nordic country, it was not islamic, it was the work of one single man, and it was undetected all the way from planning started 9 years ago to the act finished this week. It makes me shiver thinking how bad this is, and that it could easily inspire others. I hope they break alot of broomsticks on this guy in prison! (I was never one to be vendictive, but he is so far being trialed for a crime where the maximum penalty is 21 years... doesn't quite fit the crime if you ask me).

[eMTe]

21 years? Is it a joke?

I assume you can be sentenced to maximum 21 years for murder in Norway, but doesnt it sums up when you kill more people? Something like 21x93?

[Tormuse]

Of course, it must not be his only way of thinking, but I tried to analyse it a bit and i think Im quite close.

I agree that this seems to be his way of thinking... but in the end, the killings are still senseless, because, if his goal was to turn people against muslims, then he isn't going to accomplish what he set out to do. This isn't going to motivate people to hate muslims or to not want to encourage multiculturalism; if anything, it will just motivate people to hate him and people who think like him. In the end, I suspect that this will encourage multiculturalism.

Personally, I value multiculturalism. I'm proud to be living in a country as multicultural is Canada and no terrorist could make me feel otherwise. There is beauty in diversity and value in the sharing between different cultures.

If someone put a gun to my head and told me that they would kill me if I don't hate muslims, or really any particular race, culture, or religion... they might as well just kill me, because I don't hate.

(I was never one to be vendictive, but he is so far being trialed for a crime where the maximum penalty is 21 years... doesn't quite fit the crime if you ask me).

21 years? Seriously? That's also senseless! The goal of punishment is supposed to be to stop the person from doing it again and also to deter others. If he gets 21 years for this, neither of those goals will be accomplished. In a mere 21 years, he won't "learn the error of his ways" and he won't be too old to just go and do it again and there will probably be other people who decide to follow his example. I would hope, as eMTe said, that those 21 year sentences are stackable.

[Pater Alf]

In Germany a lifelong prison sentence means that after 15 years it has to be checked if the prisoner can get out of jail without being a danger for the society any longer. If he can, he will set free, if he can't it will be checked every two years again. Only if there is a "exceptional gravity of guilt" he can be kept in prison forever.

[eMTe]

It looks like it's true. 82 days of prison for each victim.

[Zyx]

In Finland, the life sentence is in practice 12 years, but it's a bit like Germany where at around 12 years they are pardoned by the president. Naturally, in a case like this that won't happen.

I don't think the sentences stack in any modern western court anymore, and the criminals usually get a group discount for their offenses. I guess there's some neat law theory behind this, but not haven studied it I wouldn't know. Anyway, the dilemma of a modern western justice system is that heavy penalties do not really discourage criminals. Even if the penalty for a mass murder like in Norway was defenstration (no, they don't take away his windows in that), I guess he would have still committed it. Also, the point of our justice system is not to act as a place where the victims get revenge. These things are fortunately so rare and such extreme cases that I don't think any system can bring "justice". He's just such a f*** up case that no doubt the society is a better place without him but barring death penalty there is very little to you can do.

Anyway, the 21 years is the criminal penalty for that murder, but you have to keep in mind that there will be a nice pile of civil cases, which while won't add any jail time will involve some pretty huge damages. Will the victims or their survivors see any of that money ever is another case.

I think the right punishment would be for all the newspapers and media to stop talking about the guy and just move on. He wanted recognition and attention and we give it to him. Terrorism doesn't work if we just say f*** you and move on and refuse to be terrorized.