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FLYER THE ESSENCE OF E MOUNTAIN BIKING
Mountain biking is a sport that is growing in popularity. We see that technology is keeping up with the riders. Between suspension, specialist tires and safety equipment the sport has had the freedom to become more adventurous. Bigger jumps, more travel, stronger components all allow the sport to become more extreme.
Usually there are three ways to get to the top of a mountain. The first option is to ride up but with a mountain bike that can be tiring. I have an area where I can mountain bike near home but it’s a 12.7km ride up with a 10 percent grade. It takes two hours to get to the base. I could of course take the car up and cycle around at the top but this requires removing the front wheel and putting the seats down. Another option is to head to specialist resorts where the remontée mécanique are equipped to take bikes to the top of the slope. The third option is to walk up and push the bike.
In this video we see a fourth option. An electric mountain bike. I like the idea of mountain biking this way. I like the notion that the mountain bike will assist with getting up the hill more efficiently. Several times I have cycled up a 10% gradiant for a distance of 12.7 kilometres. With the mountain bike I use it takes 2 hours of almost non stop pedalling. It leaves me with little energy to enjoy going off road at the top. With a flyer I’d let the bike get me to the fun part and then use my own power to play up there.
I won’t buy one of these bikes but the video is interesting to watch.
Plague inc, the game
Plague inc is a game that is available on multiple platforms. These are pc, android, ios and windows phone. The version I played was on android. If you want to watch someone play the game you can watch this series:
I was at the first general Staff Meeting for the UNAIDS program a few years ago and more recently I was at the World Health organisation during the SARS crisis helping with Virtual Press conferences. During these two weeks I learned about the language used when discussing epidemics and how to mitigate the threat they posed.
During and after the Ebola crisis I was able to go to two or three conferences discussing how best to prepare future responses as well as to discuss what systematic weaknesses there were and how best to address them to deal properly with a future epidemic.
Plague inc is a real time decision based game. There are four tabs.
Overview provides you with an overview of air and sea transportTransmission: you can decide whether it is spread by air, water, blood, animals or birds. Symptons: You can decide how it affects people, whether through coughing, fever or other forms of discomfort. Abilities: You can develop, cold, heat, drug and bacterial resistance.
The game is an opportunity for people who do not live a 20 minute drive from the World Health Organisation and other UN organisations to learn more about the terminology of diseases as well as the factors that can make it more or less virulent and how best to counteract the threat.
In the game you may spend two or three years spreading a disease but in the real world diseases can spread over decades or even centuries. Look at Polio for example. Within the last two weeks we saw this headline Only complacency can stop Nigeria – and Africa – from finally conquering polio. For context UNICEF has a fact sheet about Polio eradication milestones. The Virus was first described by Michael Underwood in 1789, it was theorised as contagious in 1840 and in 1907 Dr Ivar Wickman categorised the different strains. It was first hypothesised that Polio was caused by a virus by Karl Lendensteiner in 1908. You can read more details in your own free time but the first vaccinations in Europe started in 1955 in Denmark. It is in 1988 that the World Health Assembly, the World Health Organisation yearly conference, adopted a resolution to eradicate Poliomyelitis by the year 2000. This goal was not reached due to various factors but finally in 2016 it looks as though the disease is ever closer to being eradicated.
Polio type 2 virus destroyed as strain no longer in Kenya
The Global Certification Commission verified that the type 2 virus had been eradicated globally in September last year. This means Kenya is polio-free as the last case was reported in 2013.
Whilst games like Plague Inc. can introduce us to the terminology used in the game we can also benefit from reading about real world epidemics, pandemics, plagues and more. I remember watching a documentary a few months ago that showed that thanks to the Plague in the Middle Ages in Europe serfs benefited as they were less numerous. It meant that they could finally pressure land lords to provide them with better working conditions and more freedom. Games are interesting but with the complement of history we see that reality is even more interesting.
Unhappy facebook users – Marketers and Academics are looking in the wrong place.
Unhappy Facebook Users – Marketers and Academics are looking in the wrong place.
Every single day they publish articles about why social media is bad for us. Every day they ignore that we meet people via social media rather than bars. Every day they ignore that those I meet through social media work on interesting projects. Every day they ignore that if it wasn’t for social websites I would not have taken up via Ferrata, rock climbing and other sports.
Every day they assume that we prefer alcohol, weed and hard drugs rather than textroverted conversations with people we get to feel comfortable with online, before meeting them in person.
Do you really think that Facebook users would be happy sitting at a bar with a half empty glass of alcohol?
The findings? Using Facebook was tightly linked to compromised social, physical and psychological health. For example, for each statistical jump (away from the average) in “liking” other people’s posts, clicking their links or updating one’s own status, there was a 5% to 8% increase in the likelihood that the person would later experience mental-health problems.
The article doesn’t spend a single word discussing introversion and geographic locations as reasons for people to socialise more via Facebook than in face to face meetings. If you’re not the happy go lucky, soul of the party, then do you have much motivation to socialising in the physical world where you listen to conversations without being heard?
Still, there are some nuances to consider. Why would online social activity be so damaging to health and well-being in this study when the same activity was found to be correlated with longevity in a 2016 study co-written by Prof. Christakis? The bottom line, he says, is that replacing in-person interactions with online contact can be a threat to your mental health. “What people really need is real friendships and real interactions,” he adds.
Online social activity is not damaging to health and well-being. It is not because you socialise online that you do not have fun in the real world. The article ignores that the nefast nature of social media comes from marketing and public relations. Social media is all about the conversations. The more conversations you have with people the happier you are. If you’re a passive follower of people of brands then, of course, you’ll felt left out and alone. Academics, marketers and public relations people should study how best to make brands conversational and warm rather than cold and utilitarian.
Do we want to follow brands on Facebook that post the same message twice a day for weeks in a row? Of course not. We want brands on FB and other social networks to provide us with the adventures they’ve been on. Look at Crosscall, Petzl, Mammut and other brands. I follow them because I like to see the videos, the photographs and the stories they tell. I like it to be an ongoing conversation.
At this moment I have no concrete plans to go to New Zealand and yet I follow Wildwire Wanaka because they reflect my passion for Via Ferrata.
[caption id="attachment_3522" align="aligncenter" width="231"] Social Media are positive[/caption]Facebook and other social media platforms are conversational tools for people planning trips, preparing for events or simply keeping in touch with university and school friends, colleagues and more. If academics and marketers took the time to understand why people use social media they would see that they are an enhancement to our social lives rather than a replacement. We build relationships and collaborations through social media.
More pictures of Frozen Nyon
Here are more pictures of frozen Nyon. These were taken with an Olympus rather than the iPhone. Notice the texture of the ice and the berries that have been captured within the ice. Beautiful setting. I wore quite a few layers. They kept me warm.
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