Buffet eating strategies

Gratuitous 1991 Sizzler promotional video:

FlixBus is coming to Southern California

The German bus company is coming to America. Has anyone used the service in Europe?

For now, it looks like service will be limited to Southern California, Las Vegas, and Arizona.

Distribution of Finnish population

Edvin: Where does Antti live?

Tolstoy, 1908

Spotted: Bugatti Veyron Mansory Vivere

My mother spotted this and sent me some pictures. It's for rent in Las Vegas ($15,000 for four hours).

In which the owner takes the Veyron to Carmax for an appraisal:

Eating the Globe: Guyana

With the jar of casareep (cassava extract) that I bought, I made pepper pot. It's a meat stew with sugar, orange peel, cinnamon, and cloves. It came out really sweet. Too sweet. The recipe says because casareep is a preservative, I don't have to refrigerate the meat stew for up to two weeks! Perfect for the tropics, I guess.

Countries tried so far:
Africa: Algeria, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Liberia, Madagascar, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Nigeria, Somalia, South Africa, Tunisia, Zimbabwe
Asia: Afghanistan, Armenia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burma, Cambodia, China, Georgia, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Lebanon, Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia, Nepal, North Korea, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Syria, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Yemen
Europe: Albania, Belgium, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Ukraine
North America: Belize, Canada, Cuba, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Trinidad & Tobago, USA
South America: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Venezuela
Oceania: Australia, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga

Falcon market and camel race in Qatar

I'm having a great time vicariously traveling to the Arabian Peninsula via a travel guide and YouTube.

Just look at all those Land Cruisers following the camels along the 8 km track! Thank goodness they replaced the Bangladeshi children with robot camel jockeys.

Surprise 2nd Inter-Korean summit

There is no sound to this video.

Check out South Korea's motorcade!

Three places to visit in Kuwait

From this tourist's point of view, Kuwait has a few more noteworthy places to visit than Bahrain. I found these in my guidebook.

1. Kuwait Towers.

The Scandinavian-designed towers are actually useful. The middle tower contains equipment to power the other two. The left tower's sphere stores water. The top sphere of the right tower is a restaurant. The top half of the bottom sphere of the right tower contains a restaurant, reception hall, and cafe. The bottom half of the bottom sphere of the right tower also stores water.

2. The bridge to nowhere

Bubiyan is a marshy, uninhabited island. But Iraq and Iran both claim it. So Kuwait spent a lot of money building a bridge to nowhere.

3. Al-Qurain Martyr's Museum

This is a shot up building from the Iraqi invasion. Kuwaiti freedom fighters were hiding in the building when Iraqi intelligence attacked. It appears both sides were driving Chevy Caprices.

King Fahd Causeway connecting Saudi Arabia with Bahrain

In 2016, I bought a Lonely Planet travel guide of the Arabian Peninsula. I'm finally reading it. The first chapter is Bahrain. Sectarian and human rights issues aside, it does not have many attractions which pique my interest. The most interesting part of Bahrain is the long causeway that connects it with its giant neighbor.

Here is a time lapsed video:

Here is a propaganda video:

Detailed map of Spanish empire

Source.

Casareep and pepper pot

I went to a Jamaican market on Sunday, looking for West Indies food. The only non-Jamaican item I found was a bottle of cassareep from Guyana. It's super concentrated cassava and it's used to make a Christmas dish called pepper pot. I'm going to try to make it this weekend.

This is how they make cassareep. Jump to 2:35.

Adnan Khashoggi on Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous

Did everyone enjoy watching the Royal Wedding? I was on Wikipedia and it appears Dodi Fayed's uncle was Adnan Khashoggi! Small world.

50-lane traffic jam in China

Who designed this?!

Florence, Italy, travel advice needed

We are thinking of visiting Florence next January. Has anyone been there? Too cold? Child friendly? Any and all advice appreciated.

Welcome to 2018 America

Top Gear at Bonneville

I'm really looking forward to my trip in August. Now I'm looking for a fun rental car.

Turbo cologne

San Francisco bar pilots video

Living in the San Francisco Bay Area, we see huge container ships all the time and take them for granted. This video shows just how nerve wracking it is to skillfully guide them into the Bay.

Long weekend in Sedona, Arizona

My wife's very outdoorsy younger sister married an even more outdoorsy guy last weekend. We went to Sedona for the wedding.

We flew in to the Phoenix airport and had to drive another 2.5 hours north to Sedona. This Bondurant driving school car was on display at the baggage claim area.

Our quarters were very rustic. My 13 month old son really likes to mimic. Here he is, pretending he has allergies like me.

No key, not even a doorknob.

We stayed on the property nearly the entire time. I went to town to pick up some allergy medication and bottled water at a CVS drug store. These motorcycles (a BMW and a Suzuki) with British plates were parked next to me. That YJ Wrangler in the background was pretty sweet.

The food on-site was fantastic. This was one of my breakfasts. Fried trout (from a lake next door) with corn fritters.

Spending Mother's Day morning on the front porch of our cabin.

Wedding day.

The property is a working farm. We had cider that was made with 13 different varieties of apples grown there.

On our way back to Phoenix after the wedding, we stopped at Montezuma's Castle. It's a five-story residential complex from the 13th century. It had nothing to do with Montezuma or the Aztecs.

And in Phoenix, we spent a little bit of time with my wife's parents at a Japanese garden. It was a very relaxing trip.

Putin drives truck over new bridge connecting Crimea

Sixt rental cars

I generally rent from Alamo and Thrifty because I am a cheap bastard. I am seeing these orange Sixt kiosks at American airports more and more often. I saw another one while in Phoenix. I asked for a brochure and they even rent Gelandewagens. Unfortunately, Sixt is not available at the Salt Lake City airport, or anywhere else in Utah for my Bonneville trip.

By the Time I Get to Arizona

A Public Enemy classic.

How do you feel about John McCain's legacy?

American energy use in one diagram

I'm not convinced that my i3 gets its energy from solar.

Source.

Porsche 919 Hybrid in Spa

For the record, Vettel did a 1:46.577 at Spa last year.

Volcanic eruption from space

A world of languages

Source.

Nico Rosberg drives his 1955 Gullwing in Monaco

It sounds like he has a French accent now.

Eating the Globe: Latvia

I was supposed to go to a Senegalese restaurant last week, but work got in the way. So yesterday, I went to a local Eastern European market to see what I could find.

Whenever I read old travelogues about the Soviet Union, people raved about Moldovan wine. The store had four different kinds. They all cost $10.99 per bottle, so I bought the one that came with a free cross. It was pretty strong and tasted of raisins.

I figured with canned foods, I could figure out what country the food was from. I bought this jar of Latvian smoked sprats. It only had three ingredients: sprats, canola oil, and salt.

I was too exhausted to cook anything elaborate, so I went online to look for simple Latvian sprats recipes. One just had you mush up the sprats with a fork and mix them with cooked pasta. I can do that.

The meal was okay. The fish was definitely smokey but it was not oily or salty at all. In fact, it was bland. I had to put some black pepper on top.

Countries tried so far:
Africa: Algeria, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Liberia, Madagascar, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Nigeria, Somalia, South Africa, Tunisia, Zimbabwe
Asia: Afghanistan, Armenia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burma, Cambodia, China, Georgia, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Lebanon, Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia, Nepal, North Korea, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Syria, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Yemen
Europe: Albania, Belgium, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Ukraine
North America: Belize, Canada, Cuba, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Trinidad & Tobago, USA
South America: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Venezuela
Oceania: Australia, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga

Antarctica

Doug DeMuro reviews the BMW i3

And here is the reaction to my tweet (click on the blue bird):

"The center of gravity is high..."

i3: 18.5"
3-series sedan: 20.0"
4-series coupe: 19.6" https://t.co/axB9f0qQIk

— Tamerlane's Thoughts (@TamerlaneBlog) May 3, 2018

Iranian girls/women at a soccer stadium

My carbon footprint for a year

I was curious to see how the electric i3 compared with my flights. This is via Terrapass.

Tearing into a Model 3

The synopsis: The electronics and battery are fantastic. Everything else is shoddy and head-scratching.

Russian firefighter saves a cat