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Day 72 of Self-Isolation in Switzerland – British Anger At The Wrong Thing
I want to write about British anger at the wrong day today. As Switzerland gets closer and closer to zero cases and zero deaths per day it’s dangerously easy to think it will be over soon only to find out that it isn’t. I thought that by April 19th we could be back to normal but we weren’t. I thought that when the soft lock down was lifted we’d be able to do group activities. Of course we still can’t and I don’t want to get my hopes up anymore.
I speak about hope because from Thursday to Saturday or so there were no deaths in Switzerland linked to COVID-19 and then three in the last day or two. We seem to be even further along the long tail of the virus.
If you look at twitter, and what the Brits are tweeting about you see that they’re angry about Cummings 240 mile drive when people are not meant to go more than five miles from their homes. Guy Verhofstadt is saying:
Clear now there is one rule for populists like Trump, Bolsanaro, Kaczynski, Johnson and Cummings & another for the people they claim to represent.
By putting themselves above the law they set for others, they become the elites they tell us they rage against on our behalf! pic.twitter.com/3MYbMinRnB
— Guy Verhofstadt (@guyverhofstadt) May 25, 2020
The Slowness of Public Transport
Today someone something to the effect “If I go from here to there it will take me two and a half hours so it would require a car.” That’s what I have been saying for years. That’s one of the reasons for which having a sporty life, during the pandemic, is not possible, or at least requires a much bigger commitment.
Summer sporting activities are vulnerable because in times of pandemics car sharing is no longer possible, and is no longer advisable. If you’re in a car for an hour or two each way then the mask will not protect you effectively, especially if the windows are closed. Trains used to have windows that you could open. Now that they don’t their allure is diminished during such times.
The problem, during this pandemic, has been the same for months now. We don’t know where people were when they were exposed so we don’t know what locations are safe, and which locations are not. We’re stuck in limbo. We might have been safe for the entire pandemic, never being within a kilometre of the virus, but we have no way of knowing.
With fourty infections during the last two days is Switzerland back to Pre-21st of June numbers or is the lull simply because those who were most likely to be infected are now on holiday? Will we see a big increase in the number of cases shortly?
As long as that insecurity lasts summer socialising through sports is less appealing. People have also migrated to using Facebook to plan activities and a consequence of this is that if you want to dump Facebook, you have to be creative about finding other groups, and websites, to find activities to participate in.
Imagine an app like Happn or SwissCovid but for sports. That would be really useful. You would not have to spend hours on social networks, looking for opportunities and you would not have to be active about finding things. It would run in the background and if you spend enough time it could give you more info.
It’s like the flyby function on Strava. You go for a ride and you can see who the other cyclists were, that you crossed paths with. In theory, you can then start to plan group activities. We need apps to help us meet new people who live close by so that we can stop relying on cars, public transport, and social media websites.
As the pandemic has reset how we think of time and space we need to rethink how we use modern technology to connect with others. Do we really need to rely on American Social networks to connect with people in Europe? Do we really need to be so centralised?
With Apple Login it would be interesting to create apps that allow us to connect with others, without relying on websites with dubious moralities. With my learning of Ruby On Rails, PHP, MySQL, PHP and more, the opportunity to create such a service is growing.
Getting Up Getu – some impressive shots
Getting up Getu is short documentary climbing video about Alex Honnold and Felipe Camargo climbing a beautiful roof climb. The most spectacular aspect of this video is the size of the arch that they are climbing. In two or three shots you see the size of the rock formations compared to the climbers. The people look tiny.
The rock formations that droop down from the ceiling look interesting. The climbing at this location ranges from 5a to 9c according to one source I skimmed through. There are 250 routes to choose from so this is ideal for a great number of climbers. This was the 2011 location for the Pezl Roctrip.
Getu looks like a beautiful area in china with interesting rock formations, arches and much more. The video below provides you with a glimpse of what else there is to see in this region. It is in the Guizhou province of china and the nearby city is Anshun.
from Ryan Deboodt on Vimeo.
It’s kind of like one big double-edged Jian. On the one hand, the country is somewhat of a political and economic threat to the United States and our international prosperity. But on the other, it has the Getu Valley, a dramatic stomping ground of limestone cliffs and arch formations that promise to enrapture even the most seasoned spidermen and monkey boys.
Source: Travelmint.com
According to a CNN article climbers have been enjoying this location for generations. As I explored this topic further, to find video or more detailed information I came across this:
Dangling from slippery cave walls 100 meters up from the floor below, Luo Dengping maneuvers across the steep rocks and crags in a dramatic high-wire climbing act to the amazement of spectators below.
Luo, known locally as “Spiderwoman”, is the only female member of a troupe of climbers who entertain visitors to the Getu River Scenic area in Guizhou, with their death-defying acts of high-altitude bravery on a daily basis. Source
If I find some videos of traditional climbing from this site I will share them at a later date.
Four Practical Jokes to Play in a bunker
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.
A Nonverbal Autism Video Interview
I saw Horyou share a link to Speechless with Carly Fleischmann. This is a Nonverbal Autism Video Interview carried out via typed words on a tablet.  The text is read out electronically. The interview is warm and convivial.
It stands out because it does not use a fast talking or energetic host. The interviewer does not talk, in the conventional sense. They could easily have inter-titles rather than synthesised voice. It is because they show the challenge of this interview that it is interesting. It shows that charismatic fast talkers are not the only people with an opportunity to interview artists. It shows that given the right circumstances anyone can interview artists and that desire and interest are required but that solutions can be found for other challenges. It opens up the world to a diversity of people. Imagine video interviews in sign language for example. There is no reason for a specialist channel not to take on this challenge, to fill this niche.
Three things make this possible: Video production costs have gone down so it is easy to find the budget to record such an interview, technology makes communication for nonverbal people much simpler and finally Youtube makes content distribution to an audience easy. This video has three and a half million views.
I will find more videos like this. I believe that they play an important role in modern society where we believe that everyone should be treated equally, to have equal opportunities. It is too easy to idealise the charismatic radio presenter who has a way with words and forget that charisma can be found in people’s intellect. You see it through the laughter in the interview, you see it in the way the interviewee is so relaxed. It’s a shame that there is just one interview. Imagine it as a weekly show.
Day 61 of Self-Isolation in Switzerland – World Community Grids Pandemic work units.
World Community Grids OpenPandemic work units are now ready. With your laptop or desktop, you can help find a cure for COVID-19.
As a World Community Grid volunteer, you download a secure software program to your computer. And when your computer is not using its full computing power, it will automatically run a simulated experiment in the background which will help predict the effectiveness of a particular chemical compound as a possible treatment for COVID-19.
Research:
OpenPandemics – COVID-19: Project Overview
Downloading and installing the software and creating an account is quick and easy. Once you have done this, and once the application is running your laptop or desktop will help in the effort. It costs us little effort and we can still use the computer as usual.
The idea is not a new one. My laptops and desktops have been contributing to such efforts for decades now. I was introduced to this concept back in the late 90s to early 20th century. My first glimpse of this was the Seti@Home research project back in 2002.
With Grid computing, you don’t need to purchase or develop supercomputers. Instead, you rely on a networked cluster of computers to work together to process data. Instead of requesting and waiting for slots to become available on supercomputers scientists have access to thousands of machines to help them work through the data. Every work unit is worked on by at least two or more computers and verified.
World Community Grid has 650,000 individual contributers and 460 organisations helping in the effort. They have contributed to 31 research projects to date. This has resulted in 35 peer reviewed papers.
Over the years my computers have contributed 356 days of computing power. They have generated over a million points for mapping cancer markers. They have contributed to the Microbiome Immunity Project, FightAIDS@Home Phase 2, OpenZika, Outsmart Ebola Together, Genome Comparison, Help Defeat Cancer, Fight Aids@Home, and Smash Childhood Cancer.
Although Folding@Home gave people the power to help in the search to beat COVID-19 sooner I prefer the World Community Grid application because it runs in the background without me hearing the fans running. When you’re using a laptop that you want to keep using for years this is important.
I will leave you with this short video.
See you tomorrow.