“I Don’t Know What’s Wrong With Me But I Love This Shit”
During the cold winter months when the via ferratas are frozen over we might as well have some fun watching people in warmer places climbing.
“The implications of these numbers can be put in another way: good journalism is not just the responsibility of the journalistic community; it is a global effort that must be bolstered by individual governments’ commitment to protecting the freedom of the press, and fought for in the face of authoritarian entities. It has become far too dangerous a fight for the individual – or even the individual organization – to tackle.”
I have heard this over and over this year. I have seen Antonio Guterres say this, I have seen two high commissioners for human rights speak about this. I have witnessed Vincent Cochetel speak about his experience for a TED talk. I have listened to Melissa Fleming speak about the importance of providing generations of refugees with a future.
This is not an abstract idea. Last week I read about two cars being used to run down people due to religious differences.
I was also in Spain, where the Moors were kicked out of Spain. For hundreds of years people have been using religion and other diffrences to forster violence and I see this getting worse.
I see a return to a warlord existence where people, rather than fighting for unity are fighting for the opposite.
I listened to Barroso speak about the European Union and his vision when he talked at the Graduate institute.
We are at an age where cultural differences and ideals are the most easy to access thanks to information technologies and yet this is the time when the narrow mindedness of people seems to be at it’s peak. People avoid hard news and context. Others misinform and terrorise people to get their warped visions to become realities.
199 journalists were kidnapped this year and 50 million people are displaced or refugees. This is more than were displaced during the Second Wold War.
The way I have had access to those archives has changed the way I view the world forever.
And yesterday I read about how 15,000 westerns were victims of bad weather and road conditions. Imagine the contrast to what is happening in the Middle East. Imagine comparing it to 2 million people and all of those children with no access to an education.
Facebook pretends it has been a good year. As my view of the year was formed from raw material rather than soundbites my vision is different.
inspiration: http://time.com/3647079/photographers-died-2014/
If you’re learning about editing but don’t want to spend much money then Quicktime pro is a cheap and easy straight cut editor. It’s quick and easy to use.
With the short cut apple+c apple+N and apple+v you have a very simple editor. Using J to play backwards, k to pause and L to play normally you control how the video plays. With the I key for marking in points and the O key for out points you’ve got everything you need.
Find a video clip that is recognised by Quicktime and play the video. Find the footage you want to keep with the J,K,L keys and mark your in and out points. Once this is done cut the video with apple+C and open a new player with apple+n. Paste the video segment in your new player and you’ve got the first shot. Repeat this process with the source video and you’ve got a simple straight cuts editor.
There was some footage I wanted to process quickly, without opening finalcut pro and it worked fine. It’s more intuitive than imovie (for me at least) and it’s very affordable.
This year I finally got to see the Via Ferrata of the Waterfall (La Cascade Via ferrata) in Les Diablerets Switzerland. As a child it is a place where we would walk as children and experience the freezing river water. A few days ago I went for the via ferrata.
It was amusing to be with friends rather than family. As I know this landscape so well the effort felt minimal. The Via ferrata is a nice medium via ferrata. I’m tempted to say that I found it easy but that’s going to mislead people and I don’t want them to get stuck. According to the geotrails post this is a demanding VF because of the overhanging bits. That’s where doing one or two VF a week pays off.
If I was to do this via ferrata alone I would park at the Montée mecanique of Isenau, take the egg up to the top and then walk down by the lake and towards the Glacier 3000 lift. From there I would cross over to the via ferrata on the other side. Access to the via ferrata is quick and the path is easy. The Via Ferrata has some vertical moments but most of the time you are moving laterally. You have a very nice view of the valley below. After you have completed the principal part of the via ferrata you come to a clearing where rock climbers have a number of routes. I recommend keeping yourself attached to the via ferrata cable. Two people slipped on the soil and it’s a useful habit always to stay attached when the option is available.
From the flat section you climb a little and then head back down through a split between two rocks. From this point you can head down and consider the via ferrata complete or you can have fun and try the tyrollean. The tyrollean will require you to walk along some slippy rocks to where the platform is. Here you can attach yourself and enjoy the first tyrollean across to the other side. It’s not the fastest tyrollean I have done but it’s the first time I pass under a waterfall and that is fun. When you get to this side you detach, walk down for a short distance and can cross over again. The second tyrollean is slow and there is a good chance that you will have to pull yourself across as I did.
At this point you can follow the path down towards Les Diablerets along the river and back to where the car is parked.
Pokemon Go has been available in Switzerland officially since yesterday but people have been playing the game for longer than this. Some have achieved level 20 and above. There is a vibrant Swiss Pokemon Go community in the French speaking part of Switzerland.
Pokemon Go Switzerland is one place where French speaking players can unite. One thousand nine hundred people have already liked the page so if you are looking for other players this is a good place to start.
There is the Pokemon Go Lausanne group. This group has 430+ members at the time of writing. Friday they had their first event and at least elevent people were present. Another event is coming up on the 24th of July 2016.
2850 people have liked the Pokemon Go Genève page.
Ingress players from Lausanne, Geneva and other french speaking towns have had a Google Hangout dedicated to Pokemon Go for several months. At this moment there are 83 members. 50 members of the Yellow Instinct faction are also highly active on Telegram. Hundreds of messages are exchanged.
These communities form online to facilitate meeting other players offline in the physical world. By playing the game there is a good chance that you will come across other players, as would frequently happen with Ingress. Having online communities allows people to plan events and meetings, shares hints and tips and more. Factions can plan a campaign, come to my village and lets capture it from this faction or that faction. Come to that train station or event and you will find these pokemons. The game is creating new social groups and the age range according to one thread I saw today is between 15 years old and 45. I am certain that all age groups are playing. That is the range people disclosed in that specific thread.
I expect the community to grow and for events to be organised on a regular basis. If you do play the game then there are hundreds of people to meet and play alongside in the Léman region of Switzerland.