Joe's Random Ramblings

I know that lots of European expats, in particular from German-speaking countries, have continued to use products they know from their old home country. For me, that includes the Aronal and Elmex toothpastes produced by Gaba in Switzerland (Gaba was bought by Colgate-Palmolive in 2004.)
They are a big player in Europe. They have the second-highest toothpaste market share in Germany, for example (>30%).
Several European Delis and online stores used to sell the toothpaste products from Gaba. I recently noticed that one of them, Smallflower.com, where I used to buy this toothpaste from, doesn't have it in their product line anymore.
So, I sent them an email asking about it. Here is their answer:

Unfortunately we were forced to stop carrying these products due to an ingredient used in both products. We are not capable of importing them anymore so we had to discontinue the line.

Update: A couple of days after I posted their answer, the company seems to have it back in their offerings. Not sure what to make of that...

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I just came across a blog post from somebody who survived a horrible crash with a 18-wheeler truck in his Mazda Miata (MX-5).
Driving a Miata myself, I always get this "is it safe" question...
As that crash shows, the car, as small as it is, has some surprising qualities.
I actually have a rollbar installed in my car, to help protecting me in case of a flip-over.

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I was chatting with a friend about Legos and Legoland. I remember being at a Legoland in northern Germany as a child.
When I tried to look up the name of the city this Legoland was in, I was surprised to not find any hint on that on the Legoland website or on Wikipedia. They all only point to the Legoland in Guenzburg, in Bavaria, that was opened just a couple of years back.
Eventually, I did find this link. It says:

Opened in 1973 as Legoland Sierksdorf, the second Legoland after Legoland Billund. After only a few years the park was sold and became Hansaland.

That was the Legoland I went to as a child.
Guess I'll have to update the Wikipedia page about this
Actually, the German Wikipedia page about Legoland had the info already. Just the English Wikipedia page didn't.

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http://wattsupwiththat.com/2008/09/30/heres-the-problem-with-the-sun/
I needed the laugh.

Now getting thirsty

Recently, I parked next to a car with a rather interesting California license plate:
The car was apparently converted to use natural gas, and the license plate read SCRWOIL (I snapped a picture with my cellphone):

I had to laugh, but on reflection, I was actually surprised that the CA DMV let this go through. I thought they would deny vanity plate applications that contain swearwords. In this case, I don't mind much, of course...