Health

Although I am a non-smoker: there is an interesting article on Süddeutsche on the stupidness of outlawing smoking. Nice to read, it not only applies to smoking but to other things considered not healthy as well...

Snippet, badly translated by myself:

Einen Schritt weiter kommt man beim Nachdenken über die Formel der Gesundheit, die von der Weltgesundheitsorganisation (WHO), vage genug, aufgestellt worden ist. Da wird dekretiert, Gesundheit sei der „Zustand vollständigen körperlichen, geistigen und sozialen Wohlbefindens“. Diese Definition umfasst mehr als die Gesundheitsvorstellung jedes Hausarztes. Wie könnte er auch, neben dem körperlichen, das geistige und soziale Wohlbefinden bestimmen? Das tut jeder für sich selbst. Und in dieser allgemeinen Bestimmung steckt ein Restchen anarchischer (und das heißt, genau übersetzt, herrschaftsfreier) Selbstbestimmung ohne soziale Kontrolle. Über den Zustand seines geistigen und sozialen Wohlbefindens entscheidet – wie lange noch? – jeder Mensch selbst.



You will get a step further when you think about the formula describing heath which has been formulated vaguely enough by the world health organisation. It decretes health as being the "state of complete well being, physical, spritual[1] and social." This definition implies much more as the definition of health your doctor has. How could your doctor aside of your physical wellbeing say something about your spritual or social well being? That everybody has to do for himself. And in this general designation of health there is a little remain of an anarchist (and that literally means without authority) self definition without social control. On the state of his spritual and social wellbeing decides - who knows for how long - every person himself.


[1] geistig can mean spritual, mental, intellectual. Not really sure which too choose, as all apply...

Tags: Health | Smoking | Sueddeutsche

Herr Paulsen

Tuna marinated
Originally uploaded by I&eye.

Herr Paulsen hat nicht nur ein lustiges Blog sondern auch nette Fotos...

Winter Walk

Winter Aboard
Originally uploaded by perreira.

Went for a walk on sunday. Until I got a phone call basically sounding like "It's beautiful weather, snow, everybody's on the outside for a walk, why aren't you at work".

Photos are on Flickr (of the walk, not the work).


Tags: Winter | Photos

Failure...

It seems that the last five years I have worked for a project which failed. It was always at the verge of failing, but managed to get along somehow, but right now my measurements suggest that the detector won't work. It might be possible to get some stuff out of it by intensive data massage, but it basically does not work.

Very motivating to have spent the last two years in a definitely not loved environment for that. I will get drunk quite soon...

Winter...

Mussno Ubahnfahn

Nässeltestlletona. Bidde-ll-esteign. Ausstglnks. Ltonadieserzgndethierbddelles-steign.

New Blog

For those interested in what my new car is doing, have a look at http://frontantrieb.blogspot.com

Tags DKW | blogs

Webcédario

Nice Cartoons at webcédario...

Tags: Cartoon | Portûgues

Hope...

Plugs
Originally uploaded by perreira.

Hopefully my last shift forever will be finished in 17 minutes...

Hopefully the light at the end of the tunnel is not a train.

Tags Hope

Physics seems to get sexy...

Found another blog on physics, which tries to transmit physics (and physicists) to the real world:

Cocktail Party Physics

It seems that physicist try to get rid of the image they have as being very intelligent, but strange people, who look even weirder. Trying not to be the Doc from Back to the future. Which is nice. Most of them aren't. Even within physics there are some astonishingly normal people, some even looking normal. The problem is - there is also a lot of weirdos, and there is a certain geek-culture.

Sometimes you get the impression that people try actually to look like a physicist (meaning look like Einstein), trying to behave like a Physicist (meaning erratically, complete out of this world behaviour), chosing carefully clothes which scream around "I do not care about clothes and dress whatever I find". Nothing against geeks. I think I am one myself. But can't stand the "We are geek! We are different!"-attitude some tend to develop...

And there is very hard problem: the only ones which stay in physics (at least here in Europe) are the weirdos, who will not survive outside university care. All the normal ones leave physics to get a job which is payed much better, has more or less finite working hours and no strange people...

Tags: physics

Control Room

Control Room
Originally uploaded by perreira.

There's something german in all of us...

Comments on Strike

First a short translation for the non portuguese readers: Nuno's and Mariana's comments basically said with said reasoning (see last post) it never works striking against "The State" and if we don't strike now against the raise of 18 minutes, we will have to cope with a lot more minutes in a couple of years. Unions, as corrupt as they may be, at least are fighting for the right side.

Which I don't really discord. My problem with this strike and with a lot of other strikes is: it simply does not work. And that we don't know about anything else is not true. The strike right now transmits no message or the wrong message. The message I get is: Unions tell people to strike about nifty things, cannot prove their point and people will not be on the side of the workers who have to work more and in the end actually fear about loosing their job. Which I thing is a signal that striking in the sense of we just won't work fails.

I can think of a couple of things which you should do better, you might as well. What you want is tor transmit your message to the work, to your employer and to get your rights. So, why don't they use the full PR machinery? The trash removers pass every house. Why not put flyers in the letterboxes. Why not talk to people. Why not get the people on your side instead of just pissing them off? Where is the big announcments in newspapers? Where is the message you want to translate seen? I have not yet seen any consistent thing what they actually strike for and why it is necessary to whine about 18 minutes per day or about working 40 hours a week (by the way, explain why this is bad to somebody who will work something like 60 hours this week, getting paid for 18.5 hours).

Unions (and the left in general) might actually be fighting for the right cause (I never really understood what the left actually wants, if you ask two of them, you get three different answers), but they just can't get the message past. Not even between themselves. Ever talked to them? Ever tried to get a consistent picture what any left wing political party wants?

Don't get me wrong. This is ment provocative. I am actually considering myself on the left side of the political spectrum and think the workers should fight for their cause. I also think if we don't do it now, it might turn much worse and then it is too late. But: having to fight with a very well organized right, fighting against people who will use all your weaknesses, you just cannot afford being dumb. Where are the big posters from the creatives? Where are the left intellectuals we used to have? Where are the consistent movements? All of them disappeared for some leftish gibberish, trying to revive the oh-so-golden days of Soviet Russia, under their great Führer Stalin...

So, to the left: the future is ahead of us. If you want to change anything, look there. Learn from the past, but think for the future. Use whatever media you want, but use all of them and use them aggressively and consistent. Printing flyers you distribute to the masses who pass the factory gate does not work anymore. Print flyers and distribute them everywhere, get the TV, get the Radio, get the Papers. Don't be the left of Marx. Be the left of the future. No longer Viva Marx, Viva Castro. Viva our children! Viva their children!

End of polemics.

Garbage.

The following is generally oversimplified and much too short. But I don't want to bore you more than I do anyway...

In Germany, public services are on strike. They fight against a rise of the weekly working hours from 38 to 39.5 hours (or something in that order), so roughly 18 Minutes per working day. That's why garbage is lying around in the streets, why kindergartens and schools are closed.

In my, maybe naive, understanding, a strike is thought to be something you use against your employer, something to pressure your employer. Which is a valid weapon to get yourself heard and to get your rights garantueed. So, whom do they hurt in this case? Children, Parents, basically everybody. Except: the employer, who is "The State". And who does not get hurt by definition. The State does not bloody care. Next elections are in three years, by then everybody forgot about it. Government is a big coalition, opposition is ridicully to non existent, and even if they would be there, hey, they are opposition, so they are generally moaning about. Publicity you get from the strike: look, those idiots fight for a ridiculous cause, using arguments which are void (If you hear them, you wold note that they are definitvely void, as you can use them also to argue against the unions...)

Whom does that strike do good? Maybe the unions, because they had too much money... Politically, these strikes are the dumbest I have seen in a long time (OK, university politics is dumber by far, but that is a different world of students and professors trying to play real people and failing miserably). Time to move on, maybe time to get into the 20th century. The 21st seems still too far. Nowadays wars are fought on different levels, the old methods don't work if you are lucky, and fire back if you aren't.

Predictions

A few days ago a friend of mine said that now, as I have my classic car, all my friends are going to marry and I have to drive them around. I though that a funny remark. So, at 09.09.2006 I will be close to Bremervörde driving friends to their wedding...

Register soon, the price will go up :-)

Note to self

Doro, Wendla and Sandra. Gender studies, engineer and pedagogue. (Don't ask.)

It's all Israels fault...

I just like the reasoning of certain islamist dictators that dumb danish cartoons are all created by the zionistic international conspiracy and it's all Israels fault. Besides that, this post at cosmic variance wraps up mostly what I am thinking about the cartoon story as well.

Escape from Hell

The car dealer where Markus and I went last week burned down (Image above shamelessly stolen from spiegel.de). Around 50 vintage cars worth more than 10 Million of Euros were destroyed. Just by sheer luck the DKW I bought was already put on the delivery truck on friday, together with an old Volvo. These were the last two cars to leave the shop in a non-burned state.

My DKW arrived today, around 21:00, slightly wet by the rain but alive. So, be prepared that this blog will turn into a praise how marvelous DKW cars are and that my car is the coolest car evar!

Budapest

Budapest
Originally uploaded by perreira.

for Markus. I can do panoramas too :-)

which way?

which way?
Originally uploaded by Dean Forbes.

Found on Flickr in a nice series of B&W shots...