Day Twelve of Orca in Switzerland – Three Kilometres to go

Day Twelve of Orca in Switzerland – Three Kilometres to go

Byrichard

I have just three kilometres to go before I reach the Activity goal of walking 298.8 kilometres in a month. Reaching the goal in and of itself is relatively easy. What makes it a challenge is doing it during a pandemic when you need to keep a safe distance from everyone. Some days I got tired of avoiding people so I felt like giving up but I kept at it and now I know I will succeed.


298.8 kilometres is shorter than the distance you cover for the Via Alpina from Lichtenstein to Montreux on the Via Alpina. I didn’t have much vertical travel walking locally but I did get to know the local countryside better. I’ve explored even more variants than over the last two years.


I avoided the shops entirely today. I know they will be busy and that it will be impossible to avoid people. It’s not worth the frustration. During COVID-19 as a single person you have all of the pressures of society without any of the advantages.


It’s a fantastic time for couples. Imagine being with your loved one 24 hours a day, imagine not having to see each other’s friends. It’s like a couple’s retreat or a honeymoon but rather than lasting for a weekend, or a week it’s lasting for up to a few months. Such a rare and privileged position to be in. I’d have found it so good when I was in relationships not to have to go out and see their friends sometimes.



During my walk I saw this sign from a theatre along one of my routes. I also saw that the Barbecue and Flammenkuche place is still going. I’d like to think that rather than ordinary life being frozen as Chappate joked in one of his cartoons life has been reset and now it’s time to adapt to a new way of being.



If we’re lucky enough not to be trapped at home then this is the time when we invent new careers, new way of doing things. We can be early adopters and alpha testers of a new model. If I wanted I could eat Hamburgers and Flammenkuche and I could even have some flowers to go with the meal. Of course, I’d do it in solitude for now.


Solitude is not hard. It’s not having opportunities to have more that’s hard. A woman said “I’m feeling lonely on twitter, I lost six followers” and an army of men started following her and suddenly she had a crowd. By then I had unfollowed. I want to be a conversation, not a statistic.


I should prepare dinner now. The sun is setting and I’m terrible at eating at a reasonable time at the moment. The meal is quick to prepare anyway.


See you tomorrow.

Day Seven of Orca in Switzerland – Quietness

Byrichard


Today’s topic is quietness. As the weather was bad, and as there is no reason to leave the home unless you have to work, or to go for a walk everywhere was quiet. The roads were quiet, with few cars, the paths between fields were quiet. Even the motorway was quiet, as you can tell from the image above. It took just seconds for traffic to be rare enough for me to take this image.


On a normal weekend, you’d have hundreds of cars on this stretch of road. People would either be coming back from the mountains or commuting along this stretch of motorway to cross Switzerland.


Walking outdoors was pleasant because there were no people to avoid. It was unpleasant because today has been cold, windy and grey. That’s why no pedestrians were out. Even the dog walkers were home.


It might finally be the right time to start taking interesting pictures of deserted streets.

Day Five of Orca in Switzerland – Next Time We Discuss Shaking Hands We Should Stop and Go Into Self-Isolation.

Day Five of Orca in Switzerland – Next Time We Discuss Shaking Hands We Should Stop and Go Into Self-Isolation.

Byrichard

It’s Day Five of ORCA in Switzerland. Next time we discuss shaking hands we should stop, and go into self-isolation. We had all the signs that a pandemic was coming. We knew about China and we saw what was going on in Italy. We knew that a virus was infecting people at a rapid rate.


When I chose not to go to the Graduate Institute because I knew a Pandemic was coming I was right. It wasn’t worth the risk. If everyone had had the common sense, and forethought to start isolating we wouldn’t have seen such a rapid increase in the spread of the virus.


When I saw people discussing whether to shake hands I thought it was alarmist and stupid and to some degree, I wasn’t wrong. I was wrong to think we should shake hands but I was right to start avoiding large groups. The trick, to avoid pandemics is to follow international news, and see what is happening in other countries, and to see what actions they are taking. we should then take the same actions pre-emptively.


If everyone outside of Italy had taken those actions sooner the virus would have struggled to spread and society might have fewer affected people.


The lesson we should have learned is that when we see a pandemic is coming we should discuss whether to go into self-isolation, rather than whether to shake hands.

Day Three of ORCA in Switzerland

Byrichard

On Day Three of ORCA in Switzerland, I have decided to deactivate my account. In the last three days, I have been bullied by two people, a third tried to discredit me and a fourth reported a link for spam. As a result of these unpleasant experiences, I have deactivated my Facebook account.


Facebook used to be a network for connecting us to university friends as students, and professional colleagues in the world of work. Ever since Zynga games were allowed Facebook has been decreasingly about connecting with people, and more about compulsively checking for updates from friends that never come.


In theory, now is the time to be more active on Facebook, and I was until a few minutes ago. When I got that notification I finally had the motivation to deactivate, not delete my Facebook account.


During COVID19 the most important thing for us is to keep our mental health. As Facebook is not contributing to me feeling happier it is worth taking a step back.


“Oh, but your friends won’t be able to keep up to date with what you’re doing without facebook.”


I am still on Twitter, Linkedin, Telegram, Whatsapp and other platforms. Facebook is only a drop in the ocean. If people miss my presence on Facebook they can find me on other platforms.


We will see how long I stay away from Facebook. It might be half a day.


[Update 6:30pm PT: Facebook also warned that due to it sending its moderators home and relying more on artificial intelligence to screen for abuse, it could make “more mistakes”. At roughly 4pm today, a bug in Facebook’s spam filter caused a wide array of innocent links, including some about coronavirus, to be blocked from the News Feed. That led some to wrongly assume Facebook was purposefully censoring their posts. Facebook tells TechCrunch it’s investigating the problem.”]


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A Homemade Electric Car – Youtube Video

Byrichard

On one side of the Channel, you have people like Colin Furze building fun machines that have the fatal flaw of having an internal combustion engine. On the other side of the Channel, you have people like Marc Gyver building an electric car with easily bought components. The video below shows the construction process without talking, and without music.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FIznSec7BA


For about 2000 Euros, with bike parts, and the right skills, you can build your own cars. You have four powered bike wheels to power the car, two solar panels on the roof to generate 200W and a charge time of two and a half hours for a range of 20 kilometers and a top speed of 50 km/h. The range is perfect for when you need to do things within a short distance.


Four young people riding the electric car.


Within the video, you see quite a few shots of four people sitting in the car at once. I especially like this because it illustrates that young people are not limited to protests, skipping school and more. With the right skills, they build their own electric car to get around, even if it is on private property where it’s legal.


The project discussed above was uploaded seven months ago and since then he has made a car with a body, indicator lights, a windscreen and more. It looks like the cars you see in old films and cartoons. (Some of the cartoons are old). It is slowly getting closer to being road legal.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Smo1q9MbSg


What I love about these homemade projects is that they show that self-driven cars still have a future. With electric cars, we can still do small journeys without ecologists being mad with us for combusting fossil fuels.


Electric Car Adventures


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4ulkuEIDA8


If we go off on a tangent of electric cars then you have electric cars like the one above. It’s designed so that you get the pleasure of driving a car, but without the internal combustion engine. There is an entirely new niche of projects to be thought up and programs like The Grand Tour and others could play with these devices.


For years I thought that Top Gear, Motortrend TV, and The Grand Tour were outdated and old fashioned, bound for the video archives of culture. With electric bike technology plenty of new opportunities are being created for electric cars, and in the process for our pleasure.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wo3JzateMM4


An interview with the creator.


I love this concept. I love the concept of young people, rather than owning conventional cars like my generation have used, owning or renting devices as we see in the video below. Too often we watch news and current affairs programs about environmentalists and the future and we think we’ll be trapped on trains and in buses with no scheduling freedom. With these machines we preserve the freedom that we’ve been used to for years, but with technology that is sustainable.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZB_yqSuaEFE
“Where we’re going, we don’t need rails”


The future of exploration is on foot, by bike and for those who want to cover different distances by Swincar. Cycling and walking are great when you’re not in the middle of a heatwave like we’ve experienced for two or three summers. In a heatwave, vehicles like this are nicer. As you’re rolling over earth, grass or stones you’re cooler than if you were on the tarmac. Because you’re outside you have the breeze. I would like to play with one of these.


The Negative side


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zWpyiLOutk


There are a few concerns with these machines. The first is that they still need to be parked somewhere and these take up as much space as a car. The second concern is that these vehicles can go anywhere but this doesn’t mean that they should. If they go on hiking paths, if they go on slopes, on skip pistes, and in other places then they’re going to come in conflict with other users of the same area.


We see a shot where these vehicles are beside horses, but if you have cycled near horses you’ll be told by the rider to make noise so that horses know you are there.


Off-Roading without the Carbon Footprint.


I enjoyed watching Dirt Every Day and programs like it but I never saw myself as ever trying offroading because of the carbon footprint. I’d rather hike, cycle or climb. I am tempted to play with the electric version. No need to worry about planting a forest after each outing.

Living Or Working By The Lake

Byrichard


When you work or live by the lake you see it change as the wind, temperature and light change. Sometimes it’s beautiful and pleasant as it was before, as you walk and keep warm. Now that I sat down to write this post the clouds have gone in and you can feel the cold.


I like the complexity of the image above. You see the diving boards, you see the winter trees, you see the flag and the people walking. You also see how the strong wind is blowing water over three or four times its own height. If it was blowing the other way it would drench the boats. That’s why they would turn it off.


When the wind is like this you can see two to three windsurfers taking advantage of the wind. I didn’t notice whether anyone was swimming today. The usual running groups and individuals were out.





We’ll see what route I follow tomorrow.

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Does the World Wide Web Dumb us Down too Much to Read

Byrichard

Does the World Wide Web dumb is down to much to read is an article exploring the idea that we have too many distractions and that as a result we are unable to focus. Yesterday I wrote about blogging rather than writing twitter threads and this article goes some way to exploring the same theme.


The first thing I would look at is the quality of writing and the quality of information. Are we reading articles that are clickbait, that have little content of substance and being little of value? Are we reading a guardian long read article that has been researched over days, weeks or months? Are we in the living room with family around providing us with distractions or are we in bed reading a book before sleep?


When I was at a conference there were four clusters of people. One group were outside talking, another were in the common room and then two of us were walking around and talking about nothing and everything at once. I bring it up because on the top bunk in one room I saw someone reading a book as we talked on the bottom bunk.


I also saw him reading in the lunch room and at least one other people. Rather than join in and enjoy the distractions of being at a conference he was in his own world reading a book.


I am in my own world as I write this blog post. I am sitting in my living room with the balcony door open so that fresh air can come in. I am writing this on my phone because the computer was updating its OS.


Reading and writing take courage. For a period of time you need to decide that you don’t want to read the constant streams from twitter and Facebook. You decide that you’re content in the moment. There are no external inputs.


When I lived in Weymouth I knew everyone that worked in bars, shops etc. I would spend hours a day out in the center trying to find people to spend time with. Paradoxically I also read a lot. I think this is when I read all but one of Kundera’s books. I also read quite a few thick books of fiction, including Lord Of The Rings.


For me the distraction of the World Wide Web has always been to find new technology and innovations but it has also been about finding friendships because, as an introvert socialising in person can be lonelier than solitude. The extroverts speak and we go into passive listening mode.


This is relevant because if we speak about the dumbing down of society we must also look at what we want to get from our distractions. In my case I want to meet new people and establish new friendships that would make a road, train or plane trip worthwhile. For years now I haven’t found this to work via social media so the “always distracted” occurrence is gone. It frees up time to work on projects such as this blog, to walk, to hike, to watch television series, to look for work, to volunteer at events and live in the moment and finally to watch YouTube content and tv series online.


We could say that we are becoming too stupid for the long form but look at the state of films. Back in the early 2000s I went to see a film every few days. After nine months of this I knew the film formulas so well that I lost interest. When I am alone I never watch films. When I am with female company I almost never finish the film.


It is not that I can’t focus for an hour and a half. It’s that the content is so mediocre. The films have no story and we feel no empathy for the characters so the allure of watching these films is gone.


We should also think about marketing when discussing the increasing idiocy of people. Marketing wants us to be gullible. Advertisers and public relations professionals want us to be interested in something only long enough to purchase the product. They don’t care about the environmental impact and social cost. For the first two years twitter and Facebook were excellent for networking and establishing new friendships. That’s why they were such compelling distractions back then.


We say that people are less focused than ever and that they are being dumbed down but then look at PVRs, Netflix, Amazon prime and more. We got so angry with all the adverts that we stopped watching over the air television because we no longer wanted to waste time being forced to see the same five to ten adverts every ten minutes. We are the ones reducing the distractions.


Related to this I would also look at binge watching culture. If you watch one or two episodes a night you’re going to be more focused than if you spend a day watching an entire season. When it’s television we call it bingeing. If we had a book we would call it “engrossing”. It wouldn’t be vilified.


The point is that if you’re reading a book you can’t check for tweets or scroll through Instagram because to stop looking at the page is to break the stream of consciousness. With TV series you can tweet, check e-mails and more. It’s vidzac or some other silly marketing term. It’s playing in the foreground until we get distracted and then it’s background noise.


We shouldn’t discount the lowest common denominator when speaking about intelligence and attention. Tenk.fr and curiositystream are documentary video networks. YouTube has plenty of intellectual content for those that are looking for it. The content with the most views is the content that algorithms are pushing on us but this does not mean that is the content that people wanted to view. The trap of the lowest common denominator is that it over-represents distractions whilst making intelligent content invisible.


If we went back to chronological timelines twitter, Facebook, YouTube and other social networks would paint a different image of the society we live in. Emotion would be replaced by intellect and with this intellect conviviality and intelligent discourse would re-emerge. We would see that intelligence is not declining.

134 days of Duolingo

Byrichard

I have been studying languages with Duolingo for 134 days.


For 134 days I have been studying German as well as other languages every single day. In so doing my reading comprehension has gone up and I no longer become a “deer in the headlights” when someone asks me a question in Spanish. I was even able to understand the questions people asked, and able to answer.


As I have been focusing on German and Spanish I find it increasingly easy to understand words so I can go through exercises that translate from German to English easily enough. The challenge comes when I have to remember the words to write phrases from English to German or Spanish. With repetition, I will increase my fluency in the language. The goal is to get to at least a beginner level before I take courses.


I see no reason to learn a language at a beginner level because applications, books, news programs in podcast form and other forms of content can help with this.


I like to choose exercises and learn new words. In so doing I sometimes make no mistakes several exercises in a row and progress smoothly. At other times, for example, when I am tired I make mistakes immediately. When I make mistakes I practise until I have refilled the five “hearts” and then I continue trying to learn new words.


With this application, you can practise anywhere. You can practise in front of the TV, while waiting for food to be ready, in various forms of transport and elsewhere. If the place is not suitable for audio and speaking I turn off those exercises and practise with other exercises. The point is that for 134 days I have practised and earned 50 points every day.



At the end of every week, you get learning stats that show how many words you have learned, how much time you have spent learning and finally how many words you have learned. If you’re new to a language then the learned words will be much higher. I spend time consolidating what I have learned, hence the time spent and lessons completed being so high. These stats are new.


I would still recommend playing with Duolingo every day to learn a new language or to consolidate what is already known. I have German and Spanish lessons downloaded on the phone and practise anywhere I want.

Zwift events, a social ride and a race

Zwift events, a social ride and a race

Byrichard

Today I participated in two Zwift events, a social ride and a race. The social ride was one hour of pedalling at a comfortable pace trying to keep to the same speed as the group. Rather than trying to be as fast as the group I was trying to pace myself to be within the peloton rather than riding off. 


Social rides are amusing because you start on the peer and wait for the counter to get down to zero and when it does you go from being on a home trainer in the real world cycling on a home trainer in the virtual world to cycling on the roads of Watopia. Social rides are interesting because you have people from Australia, England, Denmark and many other countries, so long as they are in a timezone where it would be reasonable to cycle at such a time of day. 


It’s the first time that I get out of bed, look at the schedule for Zwift events and feel excited about doing something virtual like riding a bike. Keep in mind that today I could have burned diesel by heading to St Triphon to climb with people I know. I felt no motivation to drive that far so I was happy to stay home. 


Don’t be fooled into thinking that riding a bike on Zwift is riding an apartment bike because it isn’t. It’s similar to riding a bike in the real world, with real hills, virtual drafting, virtual fellow drivers, no cars and more. What is real is the conviviality, the desire to share a few phrases, the cheering and the desire to ride as a group. 



During the ride we did sprint twice and on the first sprint I beat my personal record and on the second go I had less energy remaining. During the first sprint I put out up to 934 watts in theory. That’s enough energy for me to rest on the handle bars for a little bit before catching my breath and continuing. 


When I ride in the real world it’s usually alone and I race against myself but when it’s on Zwift I have a choice between virtual social rides, virtual races, training, or just a “as the wind takes me” option. Of course there is no wind, I mean that you ride for the pleasure of riding. 


A Race up a Volcano



The second ride of the morning, about 15 minutes after the first ride finished was a 15km race up the side of the volcano on the Watopia map. I thought that with my abilities I should select group D. I pedalled during the countdown to keep warm and a few seconds before the race started I pedalled at a higher cadence to compensate for the lag that I experience with my current setup. I started well but I tired more quickly than most. While I was trying to maintain 200 or more watts they were racing off into the distance. I found myself in 110th or lower positions but I continued pedalling. I tried to maintain between 180 watts and 220 watts. I kept looking at the riders beside me and most were category C riders.


Keeping up


I worked hard to keep the power up and at moments when I felt that I needed to rest I changed gear, changed my cadence, but tried to keep the cadence up. Usually my cadence is about 85 when I’m riding alone but in this race, as I tried to keep up it reached an average of 105 strokes per minute. Over the duration of the race I was generating about 2.61 watts per kilo. 


I didn’t know what to expect from the other racers so my goal was simply not to be dropped into last position. After that and as I got closer to the end my goal was to be within the top one hundred so although my body wanted me to slow down I kept working at it. I was pushing at over 200 watts for 14:45 in this race. 


I spent hours and days training on Zwift before I felt ready to try a race. I trained for multiple sessions and those sessions got me used to pushing beyond my comfort levels for minutes at a time and it paid off in this race. If I continue training I can aim for better positioning. Today I was in 6th place in D category out of over 40 riders and 99th out of 180+ riders. So half of the racers have trained more than me. I can continue training and see where I come up next time. 


What I like about the race, that I don’t have except for sprints is information on how far it is to the end of the race. If I know for how many more kilometres I have to make an effort then psychologically I can push harder. This was just a short race at 15km and I would struggle on a longer race and I would struggle on the flat. 


I want to participate in more races and I need to choose which training course to attempt next. It’s nice to race virtual cyclists rather than real cars, e-bikes or people on lighter bikes than the one I ride in the physical world. In the virtual world today I was riding a trek emonda. This might be geeky but it’s pushing me to be fitter so fewer people can object.