Alarm für Cobra 11: why the inconsistent season numbering?

RTL Above: From the first episode after the half-season break, ‘Endstation’. All three men have, at some point, played the sidekick on Alarm für Cobra 11: die Autobahnpolizei: Erdoğan Atalay, who was hired to play second banana in the third episode but has since become the star of the show; Rainer Strecker, the man whom […]

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The end of the long Instagram video

After the last 11 months, only two Instagram users—myself and an Indonesian user called TryAink—uploaded videos of over a minute (his were up to four). It looks like he and I were experimenting to see how much Instagram would really allow. I guess we were the guinea pigs before IGTV was launched, though unlike those […]

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In the wake of terrorism in your own country

Above: Flowers at the Islamic Centre in Kilbirnie, Wellington on Monday. On 9-11, I wrote an editorial in Lucire immediately. It was clear to me what I needed to write, and the editorial got quite a few readers at the time.    Today is March 20, five days after a terrorist attack on our country, […]

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Autocade turns 11 as the web turns 30

The latest model to appear on Autocade today: the Mazda CX-30. It’s March, which means Autocade has had another birthday. Eleven years ago, I started a car encyclopædia using Mediawiki software, and it’s since grown to 3,600 model entries. The story has been told elsewhere on this blog. What I hadn’t realized till today was […]

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After driving automatic and manual trucks, the manual still wins for me

I rented a couple of trucks over the last few days, and I’m surprised that automatics have taken such a hold in this country.    I’ve written about my preference for manuals elsewhere, and for a regular car, I would consider one with a sequential gearbox. We’re in an era now where the advantages of […]

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