The Water
Timelapse with a still camera and long exposure to give a different feel than we are used to.
In theory I should remain neutral and not comment about current affairs but what is happening in Europe and the US merits comment. The runaway growth of the pandemic warrants comment. We are in week 98 of the pandemic, just two away from 100 weeks and people are still debating whether to wear masks, sing in choirs and more. People are still meeting in large crowds and doing more irrational things.
I was looking at the statistics for the last few days in Switzerland and the situation is nuts. Almost all canton are with rates of at least 1000 per 100,000 but some are as high as 2000 or more. What is nuts is that there are no soft lockdowns, no self-isolate at home, no “please avoid events”. It feels as if the guarde fous have been removed and the nutcases are running the asylum. Governments are not being held to account for their incompetence, and in cities like Geneva people are protesting against masks for children, during what we know is an airborne pandemic. That’s nuts. It shows that people are not as knowledgeable about this pandemic as they should be, but also that the fourth estate is not keeping governments honest. Look at England and Switzerland as two examples.
A few months ago Japan had the olympics, and the number of cases went up, but within days they got the situation under control and within weeks it was back to normal life. In Europe countries like Switzerland have been through five ways, and no lessons have been learned.
We have gone from a pandemic that affects old and vulnerable people, to one that affects young adults and older, to, one year later, i.e. this summer, where the Delta and the Omicron waves work their way through child populations where masks, safe distancing, vaccinations and other measures are not taken. Governments are behaving in a manner that could be labelled as Eugenics, and they are getting away with it. We are in a pandemic and the emergency brakes have been disabled.
In the grand scheme of things I am frustrated that children’s lives and well-beings are being endangered by health ministers with economics backgrounds, rather than health or humanities, and by the prospect that this could go on for decades, not weeks, months or years. Every wave is getting to be worse and people are failing to learn from their mistakes over and over. We are living through an irrational time.
We know how to end the pandemic. We see that Australia, New Zealand, Japan and other nations have little flare ups but they deal with them immediately. Switzerland and other countries are just watching a pandemic, without doing everything to stop it. If Australia, New Zealand, Japan and other nations can control the pandemic then so can other countries. Europe, the US and other continents are failing. This pandemic could have been over a year ago. It is irrational that it isn’t.
I keep this post because I think it is important to log the absurdity of the situation we are in today.
In theory shoes are meant to last for eight hundred kilometres before they need to be replaced. I am now one eighth of the way towards needing to replace my Trail Gloves. In theory.
In practice the left shoe is worn and the tread is gone, in two spots. The toes, where most of my force is transmitted to the ground, and the heel, where I tend, or least tended to strike. That’s why the vapor gloves hurt if they’re used too much.
The Five kilometre Run
Yesterday I went for a walk, but as I walked I decided that I felt like running, so I did. I had not intended to run but I managed to run five kilometres without suffering. My feet felt fine, my legs felt fine. I felt fine. I was able to run five kilometres in minimalistic shoes. No real heel protection. Just the tone of my leg muscles to ensure that I did not injure myself. I consider that switching to “barefoot shoes” on a whim was a success.
What I enjoy is that they’re half the price of running shoes, and paradoxically, you work on your own body, rather than rely on the shoes. It was a smart move. Instead of spending 180CHF or more on running shoes, I spent around half of that amount.
The Feel
There are moments when I’m walking in these shoes and the ground feels really smooth and gentle. It’s really nice when the road surface and temperature are just right. For some reason it feels like walking on a soft matt, rather than the road. I prefer running on dry soil and short grass than tarmac.
With the vapor gloves I feel like I am walking slightly tip toe, to avoid smashing my heel into the ground and feeling pain. In the trail gloves I walk normally but try not to land with a thud, on my heels. The trail gloves forgive my mistakes. That’s why I wear them as my normal shoes now.
The Push Away from Normal Shoes
I was pushed away from normal shoes for two reasons. The first reason is that for some reason the vertical part at the back of the shoe gets worn through, and when my foot rubbed against the plastic back I had to wear blister protection. I also didn’t like to feel the top of the shoes rubbing against my toes. For some reason shoes that had been comfortable, have been changed, and are now uncomfortable.
And Finally
I never expected that one day I would feel the desire to wear barefoot shoes. I thought “What a stupid idea” but now, several week in, I like the sensation of such shoes.
I just noticed that I’d love living in Singapore because that’s the city where people walk the fastest. Copenhaguen is a city I’ve walked in but I didn’t notice it being particularly fast. Berliners walk faster than New Yorkers and Londoners walk slower than all of the above.
I wonder how I’d compare to all these people and how I’d affect the averages. It’ just the type of news story I enjoy. Out of all these cities Malawi is the slowest. It’s 20 seconds slower than the rest.
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.