Running In High Winds
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Running In High Winds

Byrichard

Yesterday I tried running and walking in high winds. I have cycled and walked in high winds but I had not yet had the sensation of running in high wind and it is quite interesting. In cycling you feel that the wind pushes your bike to the side, and you counteract the wind.


With running in high wind I found that if I ran with the wind then my body behaved as a sail and I could feel the wind pushing me faster than usual. Of course the legs and cardiovascular system need to keep up. It’s when you turn perpendicular to the wind that it becomes interesting. As the feet lift the ground the wind pushes them laterally so that the right foot bangs into the left leg. I had to avoid tripping.


wind speed and weather information
wind speed and weather information


According to Strava the wind speed was 40km/h. According to Garmin the wind speed reached 59 kilometres per hour. Coping with the cold is the second challenge. In such conditions you want to be dressed warmly. The more of you is covered, the warmer you remain.


Before the run I went to take video of the waves by the lake. I got hit by a few waves and my core body temperature fell. I then went for a slow walk where I could really feel the cold again. I didn’t expect to run. I was cold. Staying home made more sense.


I ran. I expected I would turn around and give up. I didn’t. I turned and my back was to the wind, and that’s when the wind eventually started to push me forwards and I had to fight it from pushing me too fast. Usually I reach a river, I run beyond it, and then I run down to the village and continue from there.


Yesterday I reached the running goal, and turned to head home. That’s when I turned into the wind, and had to walk into it. I stepped forward, but sometimes I had no inertia due to the force of the wind. I had to wait for the wind to slow, before being able to continue my walk.


This was the type of wind where only eccentric people, and dog walkers, walk. It’s the type of weather where you want to be wrapped in layers and protect as much as possible from the cold wind. I had a cagoule and a cap. I tilted my head downwards, and used the visor to protect myself from the wind, and to prevent it from blowing off.


I will leave you with this: an article about the consequences of the high winds.

The Illusion That The Pandemic Is Over
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The Illusion That The Pandemic Is Over

Byrichard

Switzerland is living under the illusion that the pandemic is over. If you look at the data on the RTS website and other sources of information such as Cotrack – Grafana then the pandemic is over. The number of new cases has gone done so if you look at the metrics then it is over.


There is a good chance that this is an illusion, demonstrated in three ways. The first of these is the number and saturation of hospitals now, with many of them overloaded and in a situation of crisis. The second indicator that things are not fine is the increased mortality for years, at this point. The third indicator is that people with COVID compromised immune systems might have stopped testing positive for COVID but there is a lag between when someone stops testing positive for COVID and when their immune system has fully recovered from the disease, able to combat other illnesses that would otherwise have little or no effect.


They charge for COVID tests. They no longer test sewage for traces of the disease. They tell people that the pandemic is over, and then they provide data that gives this illusion.


Two things bother me about this situation. The first is that I don’t trust that the pandemic is over. If we had frequent tests, and everyone was testing positive then I would trust that the pandemic is over. The second is that by not having data that proves that the pandemic is over I will keep wearing a mask when I am indoors and keeping my distance outside of people in my family, or that I am staying with.


Graphic from RTS insinuating that the pandemic is over.


Information for the Canton De Vaud, 44 tests, 4 positive, 9 percent positivity.


At the start of the pandemic there was a thing that said “the pandemic will be over when we have zero transmission for two weeks”. We are not at that stage yet. We are also at a nine percent positivity rate. That’s four percentage points higher than the five percent required for a situation to be considered under control. In reality I don’t need to be confused. When I see 0 new cases for two weeks, and the test percentage is down to 0 then I can consider removing the mask.

A Return to Cycling

A Return to Cycling

Byrichard

For three years I did not cycle. For one year it was because I broke my arm while cycling, The second year it was because we were in the first wave of this never-ending pandemic so I preferred not to stray too far from home. The third year it was because the pandemic was still not over, but it felt as if we had a chance. This year is different. This year we know that the Swiss government doesn’t care either way. For the Swiss the pandemic is over, whether that is true, or false.


A dry landscape view during a bike ride between France and Switzerland


In light of this we could continue to self-isolate and to avoid doing anything away from home but cycling is one of the rare things that we can do that doesn’t A) Require a car and B) Doesn’t require being indoors with others. For both of these reasons cycling is a good sport to practice when Covid denialism is government policy.


For this bike ride I intentionally went into France, to explore a little. Usually I forget the passport or other documents but not this time. It feels good to explore the old places, once more. Despite the never-ending pandemic, at least solitary cycling can range further afield.


My mental health would do a lot better if I knew that various European countries were working towards Covid-Zero, but as has become the tradition now, European countries are pretending the pandemic is over, so that there is another Autumn and Winter wave. This has become the new normal. The new normal is not moral. There is little we can do about this as private individuals except self-isolate.


Over the last day or two I have taken a break from JavaScript to look at Ruby. It feels like a very different type of language so it’s good to see how things work in another programming language. So far I am struggling with transposing the knowledge with some things, but others are clear. I decided to write the JS equivalent name in my notes, to help with comparing the two. I might continue in this line for the weekend, and resume my regular studying on Monday.

A Weekend Walk During a Pandemic

A Weekend Walk During a Pandemic

Byrichard


Today I went for my daily walk and I saw a shape. I thought, “That looks like a fox” and as I approached i had a doubt about it being a dog and I felt fear but I continued forward anyway. Eventually the fox noticed me, looked at me and then fled the other way. This is good news. This means that the fox was healthy, rather than rabied. It also means that I can keep being relaxed about seeing foxes.


Plenty of flowers in a field


At this time of year fields are filled with flowers by the thousands and if you walk around the right fields you hear the buzzing of bees. I didn’t hear them today. Summer heat seems to be back now. The thermometer is going up to 26 to 27 degrees. Warm enough to cycle in shorts and not feel cold. This is a nice time of year for such sports. I have cycled 100 kilometres so far and tomorrow I expect to add another 20 to 30 kilometres so I will have reached my pre-pandemic goal for the first time in two or three years. I haven’t cycled seriously since I broke my arm.


I have now completed 50 percent of The Complete JavaScript Course so I am finally closer to the end than the beginning of this course. I feel that I am learning new and interesting things, as well as consolidating knowledge about other topics. What I am learning about JavaScript can be found here. This is sorted by learning, rather than projects. I keep this as a notebook rather than a repository for others to use. When I am confident about the projects I am working on I will share them in an organised manner.


Coquelicots, and the Alps

A New Yorker Cartoon, Existentialism and The Absurd

A New Yorker Cartoon, Existentialism and The Absurd

Byrichard

Today I saw a picture of a frog sitting in a sauce pan on a cooker speaking to another, saying “I Know the water is heating up but that’s the next generation’s problem” and this can be a comment on a few things. The first, linear comment is of course about global warming and its consequences for current and future generations. Every generation, we, as children, want to make a better place when we grow up. The realities of adulthood make this more of a challenge than we had anticipated.



The second comment, and the one I leapt to is about the habit of saying “We’re safe, everyone can remove their masks and meet in big groups this summer, before, when winter comes, seeing that there is a huge new wave of Covid cases. In my eyes summer is the best time to work towards Covid Zero and be like most of Asia, New Zealand, and before recent changes, Australia.


The existential part of today’s blog post title comes, from knowing that the pandemic will get much worse again, and that we are windmilling towards another wave. Data I saw today suggests that the next wave is already on its way back. If this is true then self-isolation is not absurd.


In Summer it does feel absurd to self-isolate but at the same time there is evidence that it is not absurd, that it is rational, and normal. Another existential question is whether I want or need friendships anymore. It has been at least five years since I have had any. Any need, or deep desire has been muted years ago. Years ago I cried with pain, due to solitude. Now I think I’m blazé about solitude. I feel that if I wasn’t growing older I would be completely fine with the pandemic solitude I am currently living with, as well as the solitude I felt before the pandemic.


We couldn’t live in self-isolation for two years, going into the third if we were convinced that we needed to have a social life and all that other crap. People will think this is posturing but I’ve been solitary since some of my earliest memories. The pandemic doesn’t help. Neither does job insecurity, and neither does having to drive to see people who will never return the favour.


One of my reasons for not wanting to do things, either alone or with people, is that if you do things with people you need to walk close to other people who are not wearing masks. If you go to walk a mountain path it will be narrow and people will not be masked. If you wear a mask you will looked at as if you were swearing at them whilst playing a bagpipe. You do get strange, disapproving looks when you wear masks.


I don’t mind in the shops when I buy food, but in stairwells and other places it is uncomfortable. This discomfort is the government’s fault, for spreading disinformation about the pandemic being over, when it clearly isn’t.


Trevor Noah was at the correspondent’s dinner two nights ago and called it a super spreader event. This morning I saw multiple reports of people testing positive for covid, and aranet4 readings in the 2000+ range of c02 parts per million. Western countries are constantly selling the lie that the pandemic is over, when all of the data and previous seven waves prove are premature. The Northern Hemisphere should work towards Covid Zero but has chosen covid denialism instead, so the window of opportunity to stop covid before window is being missed. Spring and summer are the ideal opportunity to get to Covid Zero with the lowest social cost.


We have provided the virus with a pilot light of opportunities to spread this summer and we will pay the price in September, yet again.


When I check glocals I see that no events are planned anyway, so i am not missing out at the moment. Those that do sports where groups meet, and use cars, are still self isolating. it is only the alcoholics and others that are meeting and socialising without masks during a pandemic.


And that’s it for today. Less euphoric than sometimes, but this situation induces a level of fatigue that we just have to get used to.

Stormy Skies Near Nyon
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Stormy Skies Near Nyon

Byrichard

The weather was finally dynamic today. The storm warnings were flashing towards Hermance, on the French side of the lake. This gave a nice contrast between the yellow of the Colza fields and the dark threatening clouds behind.


At moments I thought that rain would begin to fall but luckily the doppler radar, and my instincs were correct, so I did not get drenched in rain or pelted with hail. At one point it did feel as though hail could be a possibility.



In the last week or two I have cycled around 150 kilometres, which isn’t bad. It could be better but single rides are around 49 kilometres. Once the ride was 49 kilometres but I saw that I could easily get an extra few meters to make it 50 so I made the effort. The second time I skipped.


My only trips into Geneva this year have been by bike, but only up from the lake, up the Via Appia and then back towards Vaud. No stops in Geneva itself so far. We are still in a pandemic and I am not going to play Pandemic Roulette, as I like to call it. I am not taking risks that are not worth taking.


If you are so inclined you can now listen to Germinal as podcasts via France Culture. Each episode is 28 minutes long so easy to slot into your day, either commuting or doing other things.


During the pandemic I spent a lot of time reading swiss news, to keep up with current affairs. Now that the Swiss government has decided to pretend that the pandemic is over I have stopped reading the RTS info site. There is not much value when they do not provide relevant news and information.


I will update this blog erratically because it’s hard to know when I will or will not be inspired. Today’s blog post is mainly as an excuse to share photographs.

Spring Cycling
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Spring Cycling

Byrichard

The weather is relatively cold but the sun is out so the time for spring cycling has come. Spring cycling is like other forms of cycling, but you want to dress warm enough to be comfortable, but not so warm as to overheat. You also want to find routes that are short enough so that if it is cold you can get home without being cold for too long.


The conditions were mild today. The thermometer showed about 12°c so acceptable for cycling. For years I was cycling with Suunto devices but now I am playing with the Garmin instinct and the Garmin Speed Sensor 2 and Cadence sensor. I switched over to the Garmin Instinct Solar because I am curious to see how it copes this summer, and I got the speed sensor 2 and cadence sensor 2 because the Suunto device has finally failed, and I saw them offered at a good price so I decided to test them. So far I haven’t had to worry about them. They just work, no need to make sure the sensors are in the right place or anything else.


The speed sensor is self-calibrating so spend a few seconds attaching it to a wheel hub, and then pair it. Once that is done it will self-calibrate during rides. The cadence centre is easy to set up too. Strap it onto a pedal and you’re ready to go for a bike ride.


In the mobile application you can see the battery status for the sensors, so when the batteries are low you will know. With the Suunto device you would go for a ride and half way through stop getting data due to the battery dying without warning.


Eventually I may try to use these sensors in connection with Zwift. For two years now I haven’t used Zwift because my sensor failed and I didn’t want to spend hundreds of francs on a new indoor trainer. This is an affordable solution that I am happy with.


An Interesting Structure In the Mouth of a Cavern.

Byrichard

I find the image in this tweet interesting. I don’t know the context of this location. I find the wooden building interesting. I also find it interesting to see the lighter patch around where the chimney exhausts. It is something out of the ordinary and could be interesting to see in person.


https://twitter.com/nicola98923617/status/1492856083441983488


To find out more about this building you can watch an SRF Ding Dong episode in German. They speak about this home about six minutes in. The program reminds me of a Swiss German Grand Designs or similar type of program. The structure looks normal. There is a space behind the building where you can walk between the building and the rock.

Become A JavaScript Developer Completed and GeoJSON

Become A JavaScript Developer Completed and GeoJSON

Byrichard

We’re in a pandemic, and it makes sense to invest time in learning. I completed the Become a JavaScript Developer course last night and today I played around with some code to see if it worked for what I wanted. It didn’t. I also listened to a live stream which discussed geojson, smapshot and other projects. I like the idea of geotagged data, and an open API to allow for the data to be shared more easily


I could see this as especially useful for climbing, hiking, archeology and other activities. This reminds me of photosynth, mixed in with photogrammetry and other technologies. When images are taken they are geo-tagged but another layer is added, by detecting the angle the picture was taken at. Whether it was looking down, up or in another direction. In other words in three, rather than two dimensions. This is great for modelling, but also for helping people get a sense of the images that they’re looking at. Climbing pictures, where we can see the upward or downward angle would be interesting.


It would also be fun to write a blog post, find the api information, and include that within a geojson file, to provide location info, angle, and other data. This data could then be ported from a photo app, to a hiking app, to a website and more. With more images 3d models become possible. Imagine gathering Via ferrata images and documenting the route.


Of course they can also use this for mapping glacier progress, or regression, coastal erosion and a multitude of other topics. I found this talk really interesting, and I see plenty of uses for such data.