Author Archives: Lorne Anderson
Out Of Control
Artificial intelligence was very much at the forefront of my consciousness when we visited The Atomium in Brussels. For the past couple of years they have had a digital art display as part of the museum, and for 2014 the special exhibit was titled Out of Control. It’s a look at a battle between a […]
When in Lippstadt…
Traditions are a big part of our lives. There is a comfort in the familiar – and that is especially true when you are traveling. As a stranger in a strange land, sometimes you just want something that feels like home. That may be why I had an ice cream cone at McDonald’s in downtown […]
Songs of Innocence
We interrupt these vacation memories for an important cultural announcement: U2 have released a new album, their first in five years. It is already the most widely distributed album of all time, as it was made instantly available for free to the subscribers to Apple’s iTunes service, at least 500 million people. “Free” to subscribers […]
Something Rotten in Parliament
One of the fun things about a vacation, for me anyway, is traveling to locations that can bring history alive in a new way, places like Dunwich, a village in Suffolk County on England’s North Sea Coast. I had never heard of the town before our English hosts, Peter and Charlotte, suggested we drive there, […]
Keeping Score in the War That Never Ends
A century later, it haunts them still. The last Canadian veteran of the First World War died in 2010, and I would imagine that is pretty much the case in most countries. The generation that fought and survived the bloody battles in France and Belgium from 1914-18 has now passed into the history books. But […]
Franz Liszt Played Here
In downtown Bucharest it seems there is a plaque on every second building, indicating some semi-interesting historical information to be shared in Romanian, English and French. Unable to resist the printed word in any form, I looked at the plaque on Capsa House, and discovered that its claim to fame was a recital given there […]
Is This a Cultural Difference?
I am a big believer in tradition. There is something comforting about doing something the same way our ancestors did. It gives us a sense of continuity, of contact with past generations. I am not, however, a Luddite (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/luddite). I do not fear new technology and have frequently been an early adopter of technological innovations, […]
How to see Europe in Two Hours
I will admit I went under protest. I couldn’t see the point of spending good money to see scale models of European landmarks. But my wife was insistent, and because we were also going to the Atomium, which is right next door in suburban Brussels, we got a couple of Euros off the admission price […]
Seize The Day
I am a news junkie, but I try to scale that addiction back when on vacation. I try not to read a newspaper, or watch television news. But sometimes a story is so big it intrudes on my holidays, like the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. I remember West Point, the Liberian ghetto almost no-one […]
Remembering The Dead
It is a solemn place and a stark reminder that there were no winners in the First World War. Langemark Cemetery is a memorial to young men who fought and died for a cause they believed in. But there are no rows of white headstones here. Instead the markers are black, set into the earth. […]
random thoughts from lorne 
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