Messages

Present state of my coin collection:

I'm keeping three coins (Argentinian 1 peso, Omani 50 baisa and 25 baisa) for your collection.

Oh! A peso? Thanks! Can't wait to feel it in my hands!

Sometimes I also forget about the baisas.

(Then 42 currencies of countries instead of 40.)

Omain, Argentinian and Saudi Arabian coins have arrived to my collection. Half a Cypriot pound was also added to it. I also have some new coins from Jordan and Israel.

In the meantime, I've noticed that I have Slovenian and Russian coins in my collection, too. I've identified my oldest coin (from 1800), it is a 1 Austrian kreuzer coin.

And partly genetics. Latino people are really good at football. Chinese people will never be on that level. Just like Europeans (and South Americans) will never touch the table tennis ball like them. It is their sport. And none of us will run like Kenyan and Ethiopian runners.

I don't think genetics has an effect as large as culture. In Italy most kids will be exposed to football, many to volleyball and skying, a good number to track and field events. It took me 25 years to see a table tennis table, and running any long distances is a pain with too many hills and mountains. So a really large pool of young people is constantly interested and "tested" in football, and you are bound to find the individuals motivated and interested in training.

Another thing that statistics point to is wealth: in rich countries kids and young people are more likely to have access to equipment, and time to play and train. This gives you again a larger pool, and better resources to improve. In poor countries, only exceptional individuals will be able to train, instead of working to support themselves and their family. Fewer participants, strong results, but usually only in "low cost" fields, long-distance running being a prime example.

Well, as far as I know, China has a huge football development program launched around 5-10 years ago, I'm really curious about its success. So they spend a lot of money on it. South American countries are not among the wealthiest nations, still, they can play excellent football. They don't need money to develop, they play great football in the small pitches between the houses, too.

About table tennis, it is a successful and relatively popular sport in Hungary. Maybe its success has been decreased a bit in the past 10-20 years, but earlier it was the case that Hungarian players were good at European and World Championships until they had to face a Chinese or a naturalized Chinese player...
I know a few people who were playing it as a registered player in sports clubs (one of them in the third Hungarian division), however, they weren't professional players. I also like to play table tennis very much, sometimes I play it against my wife. Many of us grew up in playgrounds where there were table tennis tables (from concrete of course).

Not the same for volleyball. It is quite an unpopular sport somehow in Hungary, especially related to its world popularity. Volleyball is introduced to only a very few children. I guess most Hungarians were never taught playing volleyball and never played indoor volleyball. In schools, rather football, basketball or handball is played in classes. Some people are playing it only on the beaches as 100% amateurs. But there are surprisingly few professional Hungarian players and teams registered (one of the top Hungarian teams is in my hometown, Kazincbarcika, so the popularity here is higher than in most places in my country). Our international teams are weak, too, especially the men's squad.

About running, let's see short distance running. In the world elite (for example, in an Olympic final), you will find only massive, muscular black people (once or twice a white man might occur, but really rarely). White people can load tons of money into short distance running, they still won't or barely run under 10 seconds. When you see long distance running, its the field of tall and thin African people. White athletes can rather dominate in technical events (e.g. pole vault). I find the genetic factor almost as important as culture.

Yes, skiing needs money (and mountains, too). It is not a sport for Hungary, that's sure. Though I like alpine skiing very much and I follow the World Cup every year on Eurosport or ORF1.

ENG 0 - HUN 4 

What a beating!

Well... I guess the English players really took this match easily. As for team Hungary, our Italian head coach built a decent team. We have some Bundesliga players, but of course individually the English team is better. But on that night, our team functioned better. And wanted the victory more. And had a scoring efficiency which is very rare. That's a shame for the English team, under no circumstances should they let a medium-level team win against them 4-0 in England. They deserved it because booed and whistled all the time during our anthem.

Tell me how a small country with 3,5 million people like Uruguay can have such high level in football? That's remarcable, they are up there almost since the football was born and they are so few. If India or China or Indonesia or Phillippines with their much higher population have had the same football culture than them we could face a major opponent.

You gave the answer partly: football culture. Fanatism, enthusiasm, sense of football, atmosphere. And partly genetics. Latino people are really good at football. Chinese people will never be on that level. Just like Europeans (and South Americans) will never touch the table tennis ball like them. It is their sport. And none of us will run like Kenyan and Ethiopian runners.

This is good news, Italy will soon be available for all without vaccination or test: https://www.thelocal.it/20220530/italy-set-to-scrap-covid-entry-rules-for-travellers/

I'm sorry, I'm always checking the web page of the Hungarian Consular Services to be aware of up-to-date COVID travel restrictions. So what I've written, is only valid for EU citizens. Yes, according to Daniel's information, you need a proper vaccine (or tests) to enter the Netherlands. Or a citizenship of an EU country.

I'm interesting in knowing what the CoViD situation is in your countries. In particular, if people are required to prove vaccination to go to restaurants, shopping centres, etc., and in that case, how they normally prove it. I am vaccinated, but I have the Russian vaccine that's not recognised almost anywhere and even worse right now. I think now it is possible to get other vaccines so if I'm to get another dose, I'll try to pick according to convenience.

At the moment many European countries practically don't have COVID rules (including NOR, SWE, GBR, CZE, HUN, POL, ROM, NED, DEN, CRO, AUT). But some Southwest European countries and Western Central ones (ITA, ESP, BEL, FRA, POR, GER) still hold on to the importance of the vaccination (these countries generally require 3 vaccines, at least the last one being a Western one). Without adequate vaccination, a PCR test is required, which have to be paid yourself. I'm not well informed about the Eastern European region.

That's very interesting. Thank for taking the time to write it. Leninváros... I'm sure it changed the name in 1992 too.
Why do you think Hungarian football dropped its quality from the golden era? Is there a more popular sport?

Hungarian regime change took place in 1989. This was the end of the communism/socialism in my country. Communist/socialist idols faded away during the years. Leninújváros changed its name to Tiszaújváros in 1990. The change of my hometown's football team's name can also be associated with the regime change, it happened in 1992. However, the change of street names in my hometown can be dated to a bit later. My former primary school changed its name from Kun Béla Általános Iskola (Béla Kun/Kohn [-> Hungarian-Jewish communist] Primary School) to Árpád Fejedelem Téri Általános Iskola (Square Lord/Monarch/Prince Árpád Primary School) only in 1994. Moreover, later in a nearby village, Sajókaza, we could still could find Lenin Street on the map. In Sajószentpéter, a small town nearby, we still have Élmunkás Street (Elite Worker Street, typical communist theory to be an elite worker)...

Btw Lenin Town... we also had Sztálinváros (Stalin Town) until 1961... brrrh...

Hungarian football quality drop: my next post... UPDATE 23rd June: next time I'll post about it.

In Hungary, the census could have been in 2021 (it takes place in a 10 yrs interval, last one: 2011). Due to the pandemic, it has been postponed to autumn 2022. I think electronic data is less reliable than giving personal information to interviewers. The distribution and change in percentage of ethnic and religous groups are also interesting things to be investigated.

The track was delivered so is up to Duplode (dreadnaut is out for 14 days for business just like vamologocomisso  )

It was Dark Chaser.

Difficult names. How the people sings their name if it is that long?  just wondering... Or they just say "go tigers"? 

Well, if you wonder, you can hear the pronunciation of the team names on Google Translate. Just click on the listen button.

These names are not too long in my opinion. I just typed Debrecen and Budapest as city names, they are not included in the team name.
Kazincbarcika is usually called KBSC (acronym of the old [1992-2021] name of the club, KazincBarcikai Sport Club) or Vegyész (means chemist, originating from the original [1957-1992] name of the club, Kazincbarcikai Vegyész Sport Egyesület, there is a big chemical industry company in the town) when the fans are chanting their name or singing a song to them. Kazincbarcika is a town merged from two former villages, Sajókazinc (Sajó is the river which flows near the town) and Barcika, that's why the town name is so long.
Hajdúszoboszló and Tiszaújváros are also just names of the town, I don't know their exact nickname chanted in songs. They are long town names, too: Hajdú is related to the Hajdúság region (where Hajdúszoboszló is) in Hajdúszoboszló, Tisza means the river in Tiszaújváros (literal translation: Newtown-upon-Tisza, formerly known as Leninváros, which means Lenin Town). BKV is the public transport company in Budapest, Elöre means (go) ahead/forweard. DEAC is the acronym of Debreceni Egyetemi Atlétikai Club, which means it is the athletics sports club of the University of Debrecen.

Btw yes, our cat can also type strange 'words' or 'names' on the keyboard... 

Coin collection topic: I found a 1/2 Swiss franc coin today on the bus. I haven't had such a coin before.  Not a new country where I have a coin from, but an important coin in my collection.

[1. Kazincbarcika 33 29 3 1 93–17 +76 90]

Football team of my hometown won the NB III East championship title and found the way back to 2nd tier football (NB II, countrywide, 20 teams; behind the 12 teams of NB I). 5 rounds to go, the advantage is already 18 pts! 

1. Kazincbarcika   33   29   3   1   93–17   +76    90
2. DEAC Debrecen   33   22   6   5   78–29   +49    72
3. BKV Elöre Budapest   33   22   4   7   57–33   +24    70
4. Hajdúszoboszló   33   18   8   7   63–31   +32    62
5. Tiszaújváros   33   18   6   9   66–46   +20    60

Back to on-topic:

I enjoy the technical-curvy beginning, but last part (after the loop) is quite hard for me.

The only thing I saw it's that you castrated the Stratos....how it will win now with 12% for the future compétition.. what is the interest to ask me to include some of my car if it's to ridiculous me?

I am very angry about this seriously !!!!! I spent a lot of time on my cars, nobody care and finally in compétition, it's for being ridiculous .

And if you want original car.....we can't build track on sea so it's a non sense reasonment.

You seem to be a bit impatient and self-biased.

The 10% negative bonus is only temporary, Stratos will get it back next month. Plus the additional growth ratio for not being used this month. Stratos time is close, maybe only a powergear Ferrari track can it take away from Stratos in May. Depends on the designer's desire.

So keep calm. Btw why didn't you book an early guest track this year? You could have designed a suitable track for Stratos, and you also could have adjusted the car bonuses for the track.

The original car designers had to do (at least) the same degree of work, didn't they? We respect your work, but we also respect the work of the original car designers.