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Three Lanes Are Better Than Two

Byrichard

Three lanes are always better than two but environmentalists are against expanding from two lanes to three lanes because they say that having three lanes will promote the use of the car. I believe that this is a flawed argument.


https://youtu.be/8UpVDaugZW0


The A1 motorway between Geneva and Lausanne is often congested because when a slow vehicle wants to overtake a slower moving vehicle it blocks the motorway as can be seen in the video included within this post.


On a three-lane motorway you have the slow lane for slow vehicles, insecure drivers and stoned people with no rush to get anywhere. In the middle lane you have those who want to drive at the speed limit without having to slow down and accelerate all the time. In the left lane, you have all the cars that want to overtake everyone else.


In a system with three lanes, there are three options, and these three options usually ensure that all cars are going at the speed that they are restricted to, or feel comfortable with.


In a two-lane system, these three groups of drivers are stuck in two lanes, but in reality, you only have one lane, the fast lane. The problem with having just two lanes is that if you’re in the right lane you will need to move out and back in constantly as you are expected to do.


Frequently when you do this you find that you are constantly having to go from 100-120km/h burning a lot of fuel constantly accelerating and decelerating. The reason for this constant change of speed is that you’re constantly getting blocked by cars in the right lane either driving too fast or too close to each other. This is another behaviour you see in the two-minute clip.


This results in large stretches of the motorway being empty. As two slow vehicles overtake faster vehicles are unable to overtake and the density of traffic behind the slow vehicles increases. As soon as the slow vehicle has finished overtaking vehicles able to go at the speed limit accelerate and the accordion of traffic expands again.


In a three-lane system, the accordion has less chance to occur resulting in greater fuel economy as cars stick to a steady speed.


I filmed the motorway as a distraction during a walk, not expecting to get such a clear illustration of how easily congestion occurs on a two-lane motorway.

A walk Above the Woods
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A walk Above the Woods

Byrichard

Sometimes a walk above the woods is easy. I don’t mean walking while flying hanging from a parapente. I mean walking at an altitude where there are fewer trees.


The walk from the transmission mast of La Bariellette to La Dôle is an easy walk that I have done many times. Sometimes I have done it at dusk. Sometimes I have done it with snow and sometimes I have done it when I was walking through clouds. Usually people do it when the weather is nice



There are two routes. One Route is safe for children, dogs and people who are not used to exposed paths. It is on the Jura side. The other option is more dangerous because the path is not maintained. If you slip you could fall to your death. There are no ropes, cables or chains to hold onto. When the dangerous option is wet it is slippery.


Today the weather was nice but the visibility was crap compared to what I have experienced on other walks. We couldn’t see the Alps, for example.


It’s amusing because on this walk I heard a lot of English spoken. Usually you hear a lot of French as French speakers enjoy the walk. The only wildlife I saw on this walk were groups of birds going after insects. They were feasting. With good weather the wildlife like to hide from human attention.


This was day five of week three of the Escape plan. I have easily managed to reach the goal as I do fifteen minutes or more of exercise every single day.



The walk to La Dôle is a good way of getting exercise because of how much walking you have to do uphill one way and how much walking you have to do going the other way. If you feel ambitious you can walk from Nyon to La Dôle and from La Dôle down to St Cergue. In St Cergue you can catch the train back down. I have only done the long variant once.


Walking from La Barillette to La Dôle is a seasonal walk. It can only be done when the road to the top is open. As soon as the snow comes the road closes to ordinary traffic and it is cut off from the world. In Winter you would need to do it with snowshoes and the walk would be considerably longer.


This is a nice walk to do during a day off or during the weekend. Some people even use the routes to practice trail running. It’s a 8km circuit and will definitely give you a workout. For walkers it is a nice walk to a nice viewpoint to see the bassin Lemanic.

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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.

Twitter Threads and Blogging
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Twitter Threads and Blogging

Byrichard

Twitter threads and blogging are both free but whereas with one you need to click to read the continuation and it’s hard to print the other is self contained and easily shareable.


I see twitter threads, that as twitter threads are a waste of time on a conversational channel but would be ideal for a blog post. Imagine that you combine two or three tweets. That length would justify a blog post.


Blog posts can be of any length but ideally they should be three hundred words or more. In the case where a twitter thread has three or more points it would perfectly justify a three or more paragraphs post.


With a blog post you can source and give examples of the point you are trying to make and you are not limited to a specific number of characters. You don’t need to run a sentence from one tweet to the other.


You can also add images, documents and more and add headings and more. If you often feel the desire to write threads you could even take up blogging again.


Your blog posts can be written with a mobile phone at any time of day or night and from anywhere. I mention this because with the unreliability of newer Mac book pros mobile phones become a more tempting proposition.


I deleted twitter from my mobile phone because the signal to noise ratio is so high that it is no longer a social tool. It is used like RSS and the conversation is uni-directional. Do you really want your train of thought to compete in such a noisy environment?


The blogosphere is just as noisy as twitter but with one key difference. People who read blog posts are looking to invest their time rather than scroll mindlessly. We might as well take advantage of that.


I saw an image on Facebook that said that we need to keep our social media appropriate for good mental health. I’m suggesting that we take it a further step and skip social networks like Facebook and twitter and start conversing via blog posts again. Let’s re-allocate the time that we devoted to social media to self owned blogs and platforms where we go to learn, share and be creative.


I still love blogging because the aim and the challenge is to find just one idea to write about daily. It’s easy to write 20 tweets and post twenty thoughts a day to Facebook. It’s much harder to write one blog post a day. The challenge is good. We gain in creativity, self discipline and focus.


Next time you’re tempted to write a twitter thread stop yourself and write a blog post. It will take the same amount of time but your audience will be more engaged, eventually. Give your ideas the treatment they deserve.

Bouldering in Geneva – Park Chuit

Bouldering in Geneva – Park Chuit

Byrichard

Bouldering in Geneva now has a new bouldering wall in a park. There are two structures with bouldering problems to experiment with. Some of these are easy and go straight up while others are overhanging and require more experience.


Rather than place crash mats on the floor that would be exposed to the weather you have loose stones and the walls are not as high as in other places. This affords the chance to fall onto your feet if you are so inclined.


Parking at this bouldering zone is not ideal. There are a limited number of parkings so going by bike, scooter or public transport is advisable.


Park Chuit is the name of the park and it is accessible from the Quidort tram and bus stop in petit Lancy.



Future plans include building an indoor climbing wall to cater for climbers as well as boulders. In so doing it should provide people with an opportunity to climb regularly and without the need for a car. Without a commute climbing can be on weekdays as well as the weekends. For people working nearby this is a place where they could climb during their lunch break or once their shift ends.

Back to Cycling

Back to Cycling

Byrichard

Yesterday I went back to cycling after breaking my arm and letting it recover. My lower body is fine despite not cycling for a long time but the left arm still feels vulnerable. I could feel it when changing gears and when going over bumps.


As silly as it sounds to wait for weeks before getting back on the bike I see that it was justified. When I tried to shift gears I could feel that the muscles for shifting gears have not entirely recovered. The bone has fused, but all of the muscles that were seldom used during my injury still need to grow back and strengthen.


Changing gear is so simple when you are feeling normal. You do it without noticing. Now there were instances when I felt that I was lacking the strength to push the lever.


I could also feel that my upper body was getting tired. I had to take a break or two during this ride. The longest break was when I was waiting for a person walking two horses to get off of the rural road I was on. I didn’t want to get kicked. I also had no reason to rush.


I took an unsurfaced road for part of the ride to avoid traffic. During this section of the ride I was slower than usual. I checked for potholes and had no intention of putting more strain than needed on the arm. I actually thought about turning back after this section.


On the straight road that goes down from the farm, past the observatory and down to the roundabout I didn’t pedal as hard as I could. I cruised instead.


We will see how I feel the next time I ride the bike. I expect it will feel better. I need to get my arm used to these strains, and to strengthen the muscles accordingly. At the end of this winter I should be back to normal. Imagine if i tried snowboarding with this weak arm.

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Thoughts on the Oculus Quest

Byrichard

During the World XR Forum I had to carry six or more Oculus Quest devices from a car to the conference centre and then help with setting up at least one of these devices. At first I thought it was like most VR headsets where the phone is the display.


In reality, the Oculus Quest is a self-contained VR headset driven via an app from the mobile phone. Once the Oculus quest and the mobile phone are paired you can play with content and use it. This is great because it no longer requires a high spec computer, it has no cables and best of all it’s affordable. At 400-500 CHF it’s affordable within most geek budgets.


The pole Vault/Barrier to entry is now just a skip and anyone can experience VR games whether on Android or iOS.


If you leave the controllers on a desk as you set up it is easy and intuitive to pick them up without taking the headset off. When you’re starting a session you can draw the outline of the room and mark where the walls are. In doing so you can set it up safely within seconds rather than minutes.


It also fits within a small box so you can carry it with you when you travel or when you’re doing things. In theory, you could hike with it and use it in a refuge. In practice, it’s better to use it where power outlets are common.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=60&v=Di7dIhUFsbw


It’s computer gaming, without sitting at a desk. It’s Virtual Reality without the constraints of time and space.

Sea of Tranquility – Snorkeling VR by Pierre Friquet
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Sea of Tranquility – Snorkeling VR by Pierre Friquet

Byrichard

During the World XR Forum this year in Crans Montana I helped Pierre Friquet with his Sea of Tranquility VR Experience. This VR experience was unique in that it required you to be either in your swimming clothes, your underwear or other.



This was a VR experience where you went from being outside where the temperature was descending to winter temperatures to what felt like a warm room when dressed but comfortable when wet.


The experience is simple. You change from your conference clothes into your swimsuit and step into the pool. You stood on a ledge with a depth of just 75 centimetres and received a short briefing. “Are you familiar with snorkelling?”, “Are you familiar with VR?”. They then stepped towards the rope and a tethered floatation belt was brought to them. They placed the belts around their hips and when ready the VR headset was placed on their head, the snorkel was placed, and then a headlight. “When you’re ready to let me know and I will start the video”.



As the video started to play those experiencing The Sea of Tranquility VR experience leaned forward and assumed a horizontal position and floated towards the deep part of the pool. From here they could look down. They went from being in a room if they looked down and started their trip towards the moon.


The audio they could hear was mission audio from Appollo 11. They could turn their head if they quickly wanted to look around but they could also turn by thrusting with their arms either left or right. Instead of a swivel chair or a wheelchair, their support was water.


I personally tried the experience once when tethered and then again when free. During this experience I wanted to swim down and so did others. Two others and I tried the experience untethered as well. The desire to dive down was strong so two of them did.


In one case I saw that a person was uncomfortable with snorkelling so I brought her back to the shallow part of the pool and she enjoyed it. Usually, this VR experience is in 1m20 of water and here people were in 2 meters of water. That’s why I brought the person who looked uncomfortable to the shallow end of the pool.



The torch that people wore on their head added to the experience. As they watched the video and moved in the water so their head turned, and as their head turn you could see that they were looking around. When two people were in the water at once it was quite entertaining.


When some people finished the experience they were so absorbed by the video and the VR experience that they needed to re-acclimatise to reality. In one case it took several minutes.


In several cases, people tried the VR experience and then went for a swim. In one case I did several laps with another person and that was one highlight of the event. It’s the third time I go as a volunteer to this event and I think that between sleeping in a bomb shelter, helping people experience VR in water and by having regular meals this is the best World XR event I have experienced to date.


As a bonus, some of us got to try two other VR experiences. One of them was floating through the ISS but the one I really liked was the scuba diving demo video. In this VR video, you are descending a slope and as you look right and left you to see fish, sharks, a wreck and more. At one point you get to the end of the slope and get to a wall. You float over the wall and then you’re in the water with three whales. As a diver, this sensation was familiar, as was looking around like this.


I really like snorkelling VR experiences and I would love to experience one with scuba equipment. Imagine being underwater, rather than floating on the surface. Imagine being able to dive down and experience the depth, as well as weightlessness.


Four Practical Jokes to Play in a bunker
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Four Practical Jokes to Play in a bunker

Byrichard

Sock on the door



In US films a sock or other object on a door handle implies that there are two or more people enjoying bedroom sports. As a couple were in one room I took the opportunity of speaking about doing this joke and then doing it. It’s harmless fun in an original context. How often do you see this in an air raid shelter?


Glass of water thrown onto a person taking a shower


I always want to throw cold water onto people taking a shower so I tried with my hands. I mentioned this idea to someone else and he grabbed a glass of water and threw it onto his girlfriend. I think she was slightly disappointed that it hadn’t been me throwing the water.


Glass of water balanced on a door



Someone else liked the idea of glasses of water falling on people so he took a glass and placed it above the door and leaning. The intention was that when the next person opened the door it would soak them. As this was during a party it was normal behaviour.


Playing sounds through the ventilation shafts.


When you’re standing outside near one of the vents you can hear people speaking inside. It’s fun to play tricks on people so I queried what we could do to scare or surprise the people downstairs. One person decided to play the sound of an emergency vehicle.


When a person came up to the surface he spoke of hearing a fire truck or other vehicle so the joke was a partial success.

Sleeping in an Air Raid Shelter

Sleeping in an Air Raid Shelter

Byrichard

I volunteered in an event that I saw us sleeping in an Air Raid Shelter. Usually, when participating in this event we sleep in an empty summer camp as it has free rooms before the summer activities start. From the summer camp, we have nice views from the balcony and rooms for three or four people. In the air-raid shelters, there was space for 36 people to sleep per room.


The first night we slept in the shelter the front door was left open, as were all the metal concrete doors so the bunker was cold and noisy. The “windows” were nothing more than ventilation shafts that could act as emergency exits.


Initially, this looked like it would be a harsh and possibly unpleasant experience if things had been as they were on the first night. By the second night, the front door was closed, as was the concrete door to the room. I would have closed it on the first night but worried that it would make people claustrophobic. They asked to close it and I agreed.


By having so many people in such a small space two positive things happened. The first is that we couldn’t recharge all of our devices and cellular coverage was weak. Both of these factors resulted in all of us spending a lot of time together. It might be the most convivial atmosphere I have experienced between volunteers.


Beds


If you have slept in a mountain refuge then these beds are the same. They are thin mattresses just one person wide. They are set up as single unit bunkbeds with space for twelve people on three rows. This equates to 32 person in a single room. The bed frame itself moves as people move. If you sleep in the top bunks you will feel every movement people make. If you sleep on the bottom bunk you will feel less motion so if you get motion sickness stay on the lower bunk. Sleeping bags are essential.


When we were in the shelter we were advised to put one mattress, one on top of the other, to make it softer and more pleasant. The space between mattresses could then be used for bags and other possessions. With an external battery, you can charge your devices as you sleep.


Showers


I expected the showers to be cold but they were nice and warm and easier to adjust than many of the showers I have used in hotels. The floor is bare concrete and the showers had nowhere to hang dry clothes so I improvised with shoes as a shelf.


As this bunker can take over 200 people and several dozen people per room it is recommended to take a shower before going to sleep. In this way you can mitigate the consequences of so many people living in such a cramped space.


Temperature


When I checked a thermometer in one of the rooms it indicated that the room was at 20°c. It feels cold enough to need a sleeping bag and pyjamas. The temperature was relatively comfortable with the sleeping bag I had.


Noise


If 32 people were sleeping in a single room then the room would probably be uncomfortable due to snoring, sleep talkers and others. There are two sets of showers. One of them is between two rooms and could only be used when everyone was awake and the second set could be used at any time of day or night.


At least twice a day you hear the sound of the ventilation system come on to circulate air.


Power


There is only one plug per room so multipliers are important.


Final Thoughts


Sleeping well in a bunker is possible, especially when it is not filled to capacity. By sharing a bedroom with three or more people friendships form. As the rooms are so empty of luxuries it encourages people to spend time in the common room and socialise before going to sleep. Groups become close and I’d equate the experience to being more like university. On the first day, everyone is a stranger and by the last day, everyone knows everyone else.


The cost for shelters varies depending on the size and equipment. This bunker costs just 5 CHF per person to use. That’s affordable for almost all budgets, as long as you don’t mind being several meters underground in a room with a thick concrete door and mixed showers and toilets.


The experience was good and I’m going to miss having people to socialise with. During this event, I hardly touched social media, as I was so busy with people in the physical world. By accident, I had a social media detox.