Sunday Sermon:In Mysterious Ways

According to Asma this was a miracle. God Saved Her.  Of course I always think that one should also consider the bigger picture. (Click for full resolution)

[[NB: Actions of a particular one true only God are displayed, other one true only God's are available]]

To me the above diagram is a more accurate portrayal of the supreme and omnipotent God's puzzling plan over time. 

God does indeed move in some mysterious ways. 

Links
Alive after 17 days
God's Mysterious ways Walter Goodfellow
U2 Mysterious Ways

EuroVision 2013

Thanks to the wonders of the BBC iPlayer, 3 transfixed faces played (quite literally catch up) watching Eurovision (EV) 2013 from Sweden late Saturday night.

As a child it was a mandatory honour/ duty/ torture to sit thru the countries from all the European states, marvel at how the United Kingdom entry was always the best, and  wait thru (it seemed like) hours of voting and then usually decide that the fact that we had not won was due to  jealous and strategic voting of our misguided European partners.

So in 2013 what has changed?

Well the first matter is that I completely forgot Eurovision was on at all!  Shame on me.

These days I understand that Europe is so enlarged that there are 2 sets of semi finals in the week preceding the final and so your country might not even make it  (like Poland and so Polish television did not even televise the final :-)

Somehow United Kingdom always gets in  (something about UK, Germany, France and Spain always qualifying due to a rule change in 1999).

So in this year 2013 of his most noodly goodness:

• The Germans used the Cascada dance singer as their entrant.   So I am afraid I wanted Germany to win over the UK.  There I said it!
• I think in EV your country has to decide whether to show a quirky, simple song with some semblance of national character or go for the big choreography, big sound, big action, dramatic EV spectacular
• After Last years UK old age pensioner  and musical legend Engelbert Humperdinck  was selected I thought the UK would have learnt its lesson  (moving song, but not fast enough for EV)
• However in 2013 the UK selected the ageing but moderately famous Bonnie Tyler  to singe Believe in me
• Again, for me, a confounded choice since Eurovision is to me more about young, new musical talent, rather than rolling out the established treasures
• To make matters worse I thought Bonnie was off key on the night and given her <middling> age was a contrarian in-between the energetic youthful acts and the distinguished performance of Engelbert in 2012. In other words just average
• And the UK got the votes (or rather the lack of them) to prove it

Winners Denmark?   Well for me I or course would have preferred Cascada

Links
Denmark Wins Eurovision 2013
Bonnie is ready to Party

Cool looking but really

Subtitle: My life is not that interesting!

It seems that technology has arrived at a point as to make life recording a practicality

Memoto are to launch a small wearable camera that takes photos of your direct environment every 30 seconds

Obviously there is no sound, also it is not taking a movie, just 5M pixel still photographs, something that is quite ironic since all the Youtube promos are quite obviously videos!

I think overall I could use this on a sports event, though it may be deemed illegal I am pretty sure, rather like the oncoming train of dissent against Google Glass.

I can imagine most employers will ban it automatically citing security as a catchall excuse.

Probably most of our lives are not so interesting as to warrant recording, and at a photograph every 30 seconds, just think of the editing challenges.  I suppose a significant portion of the day would be pictures of me editing my pictures?!

Love it or loath it, I predict it is the future, in 10 years we'll all have one,  but recording video and sound, not just stills.

Links
Memoto 

Thank God Amanda Berry is Alive

I'm not sure at to the rationale shown in the above video above thanking God for the current state of Amada Berry.  

The first person I would thank would probably be Charles Ramsey

I might instead pose a question to the Godly as to why an all knowing God would allow Amanda Berry's incarceration for the last ten years.


This does however lead onto the thorny subject of how you feel when

A Peer in your neighbourhood
Those of your race / Ethnicity
Those of your religion
Those of your Nationality

commit attrocoties against individuals or communities. 

As usual I rely on one of my personal heroes; Chris Rock to strongly convey the sentiment. 

[Warning, strong language, not for the faint hearted, contains swearing or cus'ing as Americans say]
  

And for the record, the alleged perpetrators of this longterm abuse on Ms Berry were of course not black.

Being nice for Mothers Day

I am certainly not trying to trivialise motherhood, but in post Industrialised modern societies it has steadily become easier.

Whilst the birth itself is down to the mother, (and skilled medical team), all aspects of raising your child should now be shared between mother and partner.

And the other enabling factors were surely:

• You have a partner and they have stuck around
• Your partner actually wants to participate and contribute their 50%
• You didn't try or were forced to overpopulate your family beyond your families means
• You are not trying to overpopulate the world
• You are not breeding children to fulfil the doctrine of a wacko religion that tells you to outbreed those lesser faiths.
• You are not subsistence living and so have access to 21st century technology from modern medicine, to post natal care, to the dishwasher
• You cared enough about yourself and child to think about the consequences of your pregnancy before it happened!

So with all of those qualifications you and your partner are no doubt on the way to raising a fantastic child.

Happy Mothers Day!

But spare a thought for some mothers less fortunate than the above:

Here are some other perspectives:

Stop Using Paper

Yes, incredibly in Lausanne we still receive a telephone directory.   I hate paper!  And the above cartoon summarises this situation nicely.

But I hear you ask: What practical steps can I take to reduce paper consumption.  And thus the large energy cycle that was needed to transport and refine the materials necessary.

1. Minimise to as close to zero the purchase of Paper Magazines
2. Digital Books not Paper Books
3. Don't accept the free Paper Newspaper, or any Newspaper
4. Try never to use paper anything e.g. tickets, lists, maps when a digital equivalent is an available alternative
5. Prefer suppliers who use minimum packaging, small & just enough to keep goods safe
6. Only print when absolutely necessary, example legal documents
7. Shred then recycle all paper you do receive. Flatpack all cartons then recycle.

Challenge: To gain an idea of the scale of Industrial paper/carton usage, volunteer to work for your local supermarket warehouse for even just one week. 


[disclosure: I have worked for 2, UK retail chains]


And other musings on this subject
Digital Magazines
Shred Me Baby
Stepping Back in Time
I think therefore I scan

The Problem with Brussels

I have a favourite story to tell about childhood food phobias.  It concerns the Brussels Sprout.   Unfortunately there is a tragic append.   Read on


The Story
Throughout my childhood Brussels Sprouts were cooked and served at the family Sunday lunch.   And each Sunday I rejected them on the ground that they looked funny.

Over 10 years later at a school dinner I somehow decided to eat some sprouts.  Revelation!   The most delicious and strong tasting green vegetable I had ever eaten.  How could I have deprived myself?

And so for the next decades I have been catching up on the Sprouts intake.  No portion is too large, witness the Sprouts only meal of over 500grams I have often eaten in the last year  


The Moral
The moral children is that one should always try food and not be afraid of how it looks.   This explains my enthusiasm for tasting Intestines in Turkey, or Chickens feet in Hong Kong.   You never really know how it tastes until you try.

(Of course today there are multiple reasons to reject food based on the suffering of the animals that make the meal but this is a topic beyond this post).


The Addendum
And so, I was horrified to find that after the recent 700 gram jumbo Sprouts meal I again have symptoms like

• Violent itching
• Pronounced skin rash
• Difficult breathing
• Dizziness

It has now happened on the last 3 mega sprouts meals and so I conclude that either the Sprouts, or chemicals used in their packaging are responsible.

The Consequences: 

• Allergies lead to tolerance!  Tolerance of others with allergies. In Vaud Canton of Switzerland many people are recently affected by Hayfever during summer months. I feel their pain.
• I will have to experiment if Brussels in moderation, say a mere 100 grams, is edible without side effect.
• I will have to be careful back home in Poland, where Agata might reasonably expect me to eat Cabbage, a traditional national dish! 

Links
Brussels sprout allergy
Cabbage allergy

Sunday Sermon: One Love

I almost cried this Sunday, but not in a good way, when I listened to the

BBC Radio 4 Documentary of the Week

Jemima Khan and the Part-Time Wife

The documentary talks about a trend where lonely women are moving towards polygamy spurred on by their religion. And no, I am not talking about the Mormons.

For Marcus it would be both unacceptable and unthinkable to entertain such a concept.  The practise fails at the first hurdle of equality between the sexes.

I fail to accept how 2 verses in a Book, which describes an attempted elucidation to an uneven Gender imbalance due to an 8th century condition of war should be deemed relevant in the 21st Century.

Unless of course; you would wish to revert the world back to the 8th century AD.

But do not take my word for it.

• The BBC Documentary of the week contains thought provoking audio programmes.  You can subscribe to it via iTunes or similar.
• But in the meantime listen to this episode

Further Reading

Polygamy in

BBC Radio 4 Documentary of the Week Podcast
iTunes Subscription

Audible and DRM

Whilst a subscription to Audible is providing us with one audiobook to listen to per month we are concerned about the format.

It is DRM  (Digitial Rights Management) protected.

In fact encrypted with our userid information.

Audible does provide add ons to play on multiple platforms, for example via iTunes on Apple OSX, but we would like to be able to play it on any platform anywhere using our favourite music player VLC

And this is how

• You need to buy Aimersoft DRM Media Converter This will cost you 36 US Dollars
• For usability reasons I built a totally isolated Windows 8 virtual machine under VMware
• Install iTunes and Aimersoft

• Copy your first trial audible download to the Virtual Machine
• The first conversion will start iTunes and iTunes will ask you for your audible credentials.  So enter them (userid and password)
• After that the conversion to DRM free .mp3 will proceed in real time.  My 8 hour test audiobook took 8 hours to convert therefore.

• You will see that iTunes is playing the book and that Aimersoft is just intercepting the audio output and saving as an .mp3

There is another way which is to burn CD's containing your iTunes Audiobook, but none of our computers have Media drives so attaching a temporary one seemed like a messier solution.

Note: Why do all this in a Virtual Machine?

• Well of course your computer may not be on 24x7.  So you can suspend the Virtual Machine and then resume it and the conversion next time your PC is on.

We joined Audible

Audible is the world largest supplier of audio books and because Marcus tries hard never to read a book  (yes I said it!), well you might presume he would be an Audible subscriber.

But until recently no.

The problem for us is DRM  (Digital Rights Management).

Despite this setback Marcus agreed to make this part of Agatas birthday present ...

I still prefer to use Apple music players so how does it work with Audible for our family?

• We signed up for the Audible monthly plan and Agata installed the Window Dowload Manager on her Windows native Mac Mini :-)
• Many other Operating Systems are supported
• She selects a book and downloads it to our Synology Network Storage
• Next, we either copy the relevent .aa file(s) into your private iTunes Library or Link the original download to your iTunes Library
• The first time you try to play any Audible download inside iTunes you need to enter your Audible credentials

• The books show up in iTunes as above
• You can have at least 2 computers on one account hence one each for Marcus and Agata

Audible Costs!

Considering we pay for our own storage (Synology) and distribution (Swisscom Internet)  I am most displeased  that it should cost more than the original Paper Book or Physical CD.

SO what is the summary

= We signed up for the monthly plan
+ For a one stop audiobook selection Audible provides the best selection over any competing service
+ Both Marcus and Agata can listen
++ It is a legal way to listen

- The monthly subscription is 8GBP, pricey says Ebenezer Marcus
-- I really object to paying more for an audiobook than the CD or physical book

--- It is DRM protected.  So if I don't want to use iTunes or if Audible goes bust then I am sort of screwed

Doubly Unusual

Doubly Unusual:  This was the quote that summarised my friend's findings having relocated to a rather posh area in the South of England.

Ian found that on his street the majority of his neighbours did not work.  In a typical nuclear family of 2 both were not working

This either meant retired or choosing not to work   (and without recourse to claiming State Benefit).

Back to reality,  a short poll of old friends whom I still keep in touch with has  promoted the Marcus-Maslow hierarchy of working



A We never had to work  

The pot of money from mater and pater has lasted pretty well

B Happily Retired

After a life time or working and saving it is time to stop and smile into our sunset years

C Happily Working

This means having a Career not just a Job.  There is money coming in for now and your retirement with work that seems to be fulfilling and fun.   A transient category for all we surveyed.

D Reluctantly Working

A distasteful job, but it pays the bills

E Shitty Working

Distasteful job, organisation, co-workers from hell, but a pay cheque nonetheless

F Early Retirement 

It was all going so well until my Employer cut short my career

G Seeking Work

But after working a lifetime (>25 years), employers won't hire me into a senior position

H Desperately Seeking Work  

In debt, no savings, no nest egg, need a job

I Desperately Seeking Work AND

In debt, no savings, no nest egg, need a job, and we have [ungrateful] children.

So I have established the categories, where are you on this merry scale?   I will refer to this post in the future when we talk about retirement planning.

Links

1111 things to do whilst unemployed

Running on Swiss Again

There comes a point in a Marcus and Agata adventure vacation when we normally declare to be

Running on Local

This normally means that all our carefully selected Swiss food that we normally consume is out of our bodies and instead we are digesting and exiting just the local produce!

But now we find the reverse is also true.  Since we don't long for more possessions the only items we are likely to bring back from a holiday are mundane items like the Sensodyne toothpaste shown above.

Correspondingly therefore we feel that so long as we are using some imported holiday lotions from South Africa that in some [very] small way our holiday continues.

And so when the toothpaste ran out we thought that was it. Our wonderful holiday is truly history.

And then we found the holiday sourced South African Cinamon and Sanex shower gel!   The Holiday is not done just yet :-)

Knockout

"Fueled by central bank liquidity and quantitative easing (QE) , and since there is no limit in sight to these policies, there is also no limit to the stock market running higher"

Next landmark 16000

Next landmark 15000

Next landmark 6000

RBS : We are desperate to Lend
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22422743

India: Cutting Rates
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22394212

ECB: Cuts rate
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22391177

Australia: Cuts rate
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22430652


LAS Vegas Housing Bubble
http://libertyblitzkrieg.com/2013/05/02/las-vegas-housing-8-of-single-family-homes-vacant-yet-new-construction-permits-up-50/

Japan QE programme
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22023291


As friends know,  I am not known to promote RAP music, however:   Currently I am afraid that  the above lyrics of LL Cool J make more sense than present monetary police.  

There, I said it.

Finally,  I recommend that we all at least understand the fundamentals of QE so  at the very least watch LL and 

This  QE basics video  

Slow UP 2013 Lausanne

I had noticed last week that the Lake road will be shut on Sunday May 5th.  However finding out what the attraction was proved difficult.

Eventually we found it to be

Vevey Lavaux-UP Day of soft mobility

And so in mid Sunday afternoon we set of somewhat heroically to try and add to the local festivities

Heroically because both Agata and Marcus are suffering from being a little 'under the weather'

After waiting over 10 minutes for a Crepe, I gave up.  Kids kept pushing into the queue.    I was really hungry.

 Would you believe it, we bumped into some friends, out for a stroll!

Lots of interesting stands including Electric Bicycles, mobility, and local wine produce.

Lots of exhibits for kids

So with the glorious weather the event was pretty highly saturated with families including children cycling in pretty much any random direction and speed.

So in conclusion

• It was definitely a fun day out
• It was the most dangerous and anxious cycling  (due to kids)   that I've ever had on this lake road, ever.
• Probably we should not have gone out (due to bad health), but we wanted to participate and we did

Sunday Sermon: Losing My

Whilst one could argue the Church of FSM provides a more realistic and rational religious base than some of the so called  mainstream religia, there is no doubt that some other people have 

 really lost it

But finally to come to the point, to all of us outside of America, stand proud, our chance to overtake the USA in science teaching, which moves in some mysterious ways.

Since it came to pass [allegedly] the Blue Ridge Christian Academy did teach students and test them accordingly:

Links

Losing my religion (house remix)
Losing my religion (Swedsh House Mafia)
Losing my religion (Pian Jansson mix)

Porsche 911 Turbo

I am so glad to see that the 2013 iteration of the Porsche 911 turbo is newly released.

This is a miniature BBC posting

http://www.bbc.com/autos/story/20130503-porsche-911-turbo-revealed

The Turbo  is probably the smallest, lightest, relatively easy to service, daily usable  performance car that one can buy.

[Of course it is unfortunately missing a hatchback but does have folding rear seats]

Fact Check

• Length 4506 mm (+40), width 1878 mm
• weight 1605Kg  DIN
• 3.8 litre 560 BHP  (S model)
• 4 Wheel Drive
• 7 speed PDK only  (no manual)
• C02 227g/km !! (Amazing)
• Ceramic Brakes and LED lights
• 4 wheel steering (gulp)

So I checked the prices for the Turbo -S

England 140K GBP  (218 USD )

USA 182K USD  (reference)

Switzerland 270K CHF   (288K USD)

I conjecture that Porsche does not sell the 911 Turbo S at a loss in its largest market, the USA, meaning that the privilege for a Swiss car is knowing that you are paying a 58% ripoff surcharge.

Ah well, maybe next year for us then.

Links
2009 (aka old) Porsche Turbo Users Manual
2010 Porsche Turbo Brochure (old :-)
2013 Porsche Turbo Press Release
2013 Porsche Turbo Brochure  .. er still waiting

La Barjot Run

It has been a strange sort of Saturday but Agata and Marcus can say that we finished the 5Km mud fun run at the town of Biere.

Although the course is only 5Km it is 5Km of mainly obstacles

So we met up with our organiser Kathy 

and the rest of our team of about 10 people for the 14.30 start

I found it difficult to jump over such an ordinary Opel.  Note to organisers, next time at least an Audi

There were a couple of log jams, delaying our elite team.

We eventually made the finish in about 90 minutes.   We have never moved so slowly.  In our defence there was a 20 minute queue for the last obstacle:  A steep pyramid shaped wall that needs to be scaled with a rope

 Marcus and his banana,  proud finisher

Darling Agata

So it has been a fun filled afternoon of quite literally running around in the mud for over an hour.  Now it is definitely time for tea.



Links
La Barjot Run