LIFE IN KURTISTAN

A new site!

2010-11-21T22:30:00.000+01:00

There are some changes afoot in the online world of Kurt!

I've created a new site which will be the focus of the majority of my web publishing. Don't worry though, it's got an address that I'm sure all of you will be able to remember: kurtmuehmel.com.

Why a new site? I found that the purposes of this site and eandus.com were starting to get a bit mixed. Eandus was supposed to focus only on energy issues, which I now find too limited. On the other hand, this site was supposed to collect other interesting thoughts as well as provide more personal updates to family and close friends.

The new organisation will be as follows:

kurtmuehmel.com: Environment, energy, economics, politics, etc
kmuehmel.blogspot.com: Personal updates, funny things

Furthermore, to allow me to comfortably post more personal information, this site will no longer be publicly accessible. If you'd like to continue to have access to this site, just send me an email. If you don't have my email address but you think I have interesting thoughts on various subjects, it's best to direct your attention to kurtmuehmel.com.

I plan to make the change around the New Year. Let me know if you have any questions!

Greetings from Berlin!

2010-09-04T19:09:00.000+02:00

Currywurst at Checkpoint Charlie, 2010

Apartment sought, apartment found

2010-07-25T16:18:00.000+02:00

Following about six weeks of searching and four visits, we've found a new apartment! It's the first time that we've gone through this process and from what everyone tells us, we got off easy. That said, the quantity of documentation required to rent an apartment in France is worthy of its own post (to be written shortly).

The new apartment is about 50% bigger than our current place, is in a better situated neighborhood and, most importantly, has a balcony along its entire length. The entire process went extremely quickly, with Esther calling in response to an ad on Thursday morning, her visiting Thursday afternoon, me visiting Thursday evening, the owner choosing our dossier on Friday afternoon, and us signing for it on Monday evening.

It's entirely empty (except some cabinets in the kitchen and the bathroom) so we're very quickly going to be in full furnishing mode, doing our best to avoid IKEA and to bring some character into the house. Given that it's a typical 1980's construction, "charming" doesn't come to mind when viewing the building from the outside, but it's well laid out inside and has wonderful views on the Haussmannian buildings across the wide, tree-lined boulevard. We will have plenty of space inside to organize it intelligently, it's just going to take some time to fill it all in.

Naturally, pictures will follow as soon as I have the chance to take some!

Hiking in the Vosges

2010-07-14T22:13:00.001+02:00

A little behind on this one, but better late than never. In mid-May, Esther and I took a long weekend to go hiking in the Vosges Mountains in eastern France, near the border with Germany. It's a beautiful part of the world, though not always known for its beautiful weather, an aspect that we got to experience first hand. Despite getting lost in the fog on one of the days, it was a great few days hiking around and experiencing the local culture (an enjoyable mix of French and German).

Here is a brief collection of photos:

Hiking in the Vosges

How bad is BP's disaster in the Gulf?

2010-06-23T09:49:00.000+02:00

Having a hard time imagining the scale of BP's disaster in the Gulf? Nothing like a few images to give you a better sense.

Here's the spill superimposed over Paris (and reaching from Le Mans to Belgium):

And here's the spill over Rochester, MI, reaching from Illinois to Toronto:

Beyond words, really. Have a try for yourself at http://www.ifitwasmyhome.com/.

Le Mans

2010-06-22T00:17:00.000+02:00

I had the opportunity to take in the spectacle that is the 24 Hours of Le Mans again this year. Unlike last year, I was able to stay throughout the entire weekend.

The noise, the scale, the drunken Europeans, it was everything that it could possibly be. As usual, the pictures tell the story the best. Of the nearly 600 photos that I took, the most illustrative 115 are in the album below.

Here are a few samples:

Le Mans 2010

Economists: Stay away from my car!

2010-03-01T15:47:00.002+01:00

I'm reading an article by an economist about how consumers incorporate fuel economy into their vehicle purchasing decisions. I was first skeptical when I read this:

"a. Model

Automobiles are purchased for the travel services they provide."

Really, is that all? What about style, image, fun?

Then I read this:

"Performance is measured by turning circle..."

That was it. Her one measure for "performance" was turning circle. Wow. It's no wonder that real-world buying decisions haven't been exactly what (most) economists have predicted.

A New Job! (February 2010 Edition)

2010-02-07T18:45:00.000+01:00

I'm very hopeful that this is the last time that I'll be posting that title for a long time. After about 8 months, my time with UNESCO has come to an end and I'll be starting a new position tomorrow as an environmental consultant at BIO Intelligence Service. Very briefly, BIO helps public and private sector clients make well-informed decisions about new products, services and policies by analyzing the relevant, environmental factors. As a consultant with them, I'll be doing research, writing reports, and generally geeking out on all things environment. Needless to say, I'm excited.

In all, my time with UNESCO was a very positive experience, though it certainly had its ups and downs. The United Nations System certainly needs competent, motivated (and young) people to fill its ranks, but there are a lot of barriers which prevent it from being an attractive option. That would be too much to get into now, but suffice it to say that I take my current professional transition as a positive career step.

Time to choose my socks for the big first day tomorrow...

Disturbing

2010-01-16T18:12:00.000+01:00

For over a month, this poster has been plastered all over the Paris metro:

Needless to say, it was pretty unsettling to see that every morning, especially when the review blurb on the right-hand poster reads "We love to hate Esther." Hey, that's my wife you're talking about!

Thankfully, they're now all but gone, only a few stragglers remain, waiting to be covered by a poster for Alvin & the Chipmunks 2.

Catching Up

2010-01-10T14:55:00.000+01:00

The bad news is that it's been a few months since I last posted anything here. The good news is that ti's been a pretty busy period meaning that I've taken plenty of photos. Let's do this chronologically:

Thanksgiving in Michigan

Thanksgiving in Michigan 2009

Esther and I went back to Michigan for Thanksgiving and enjoyed not only ten (more or less) relaxing days but also several gustatory delights including Thanksgiving dinner (of course) as well as Lazybones Smokehouse BBQ. Hands-down, the best BBQ I've ever had. It's enough to turn a vegetarian.

Christmas in Paris

Chistmas Breakfast 2009

Normandy - December 2009

It was a quiet Christmas in Paris this year. Esther and I enjoyed a delicious brunch at our house (first album) before heading out to Normandy for a few nights. In the larger town (Deauville) near the village (Villerville), there was something of an inexplicable parade. It had to do with the 150th anniversary of Deauville, but I have no idea why there was a guy riding a giant carousel horse. It made for interesting pictures though.

Day Trip to Strasbourg

Travels - Strasbourg 2009

While I had the week between Christmas and New Year's off from work, Esther did not so I had to keep myself busy. One way of doing so was to enjoy two of my favorite things about France, the high-speed trains and the diverse regional cultures. I booked a round trip ticket to Strasbourg (on the border with Germany) leaving early in the morning and returning late in the evening. The two-hour train ride was blissfully uneventful and much quicker than the four-hour drive (and with my young person's reduction card, a wash in terms of cost). I really enjoyed the city and the photos are all fully captioned, telling the whole story.

Into 2010
The new year has started without much change though it has been the occassion to think about my mid-term plans. As those develop, certain aspects will certainly be shared here. I'll do my best to keep this updated more often and wish everyone a very Happy New Year.

Old

2009-09-12T21:50:00.000+02:00

I got old, and I noticed the moment when it happened. It's when, all of a sudden, there is a practice which is common among the youth of the day, that you find completely incomprehensible.

Here's what happened:

Reading a NY Times article a few weeks ago about teens and Twitter (by the way, do you all know that I tweet?), they mentioned the case of Kristen Nagy, 18, to illustrate the case of a teen who sends a lot of text messages, but doesn't use Twitter. How much does she text? Let me tell you. She sends 500 text messages per day!

What???

500 texts per day? Over the 16 waking-hours of a day, that's a little more than one text every two minutes. For 16-hours straight! If it takes you 15 seconds to send one text, that's more than two hours spent sending 15-second text messages, not including the time it takes to read the messages you receive.

Trying to understand this, I compared this to my experience. Esther and I have unlimited texting included in our plans to go along with our text-friendly phones. Sometimes, when we get really crazy, we might send 15 texts per day. But 500? That's simply incomprehensible. I can't even imagine why someone would ever want to do that. It's stupid. It doesn't make sense. It makes me a little mad. I just don't understand.

And that's it, now I'm old. Kids are doing something and I, despite all my blogs, Twitter feeds, RSS subscriptions and social networks, simply can't wrap my head around it. Does not compute.

I think it's only going to get worse from here.

Ravenchase, in the NYT!

2009-08-14T19:24:00.000+02:00

The company that I used to work for, Ravenchase Adventures, just had an article published about them in the New York Times. It focuses on the trouble that such a company would have in this economic climate, but has an overall positive tone. I have a certain, extra measure of pride in this because, before I left the company, I was put in touch with the reporter who I in turn put in touch with the company president. It's like I'm almost famous!

My shallow pride aside, it's a really great company and I hope that this brings them some more well-deserved attention!

Promoting Corporate Excellence

2009-08-10T22:29:00.000+02:00

Via kottke, I came across a stack of slides from Netflix on developing a corporate culture, embedded below.

Some highlights:

Slides 24-29 on building a strong team.
Slide 33, on the difference between efforts and results.
Slides 41-55 on the relationship between employee freedom, business complexity and the percentage of high performance employees in a company.
Slides 76-84 on the responsibility of managers to create a context where high performance employees can thrive.

And many others on compensation, an innovative vacation policy, etc... I encourage you to look through them all. In short, I'm impressed. It strikes me as the sort of environment where high performance individuals will thrive in a cohesive and coherent way, leading to great results.

What frustrates me, though, is the outcome of all this incredible performance. After all this work, all this effort, how is the world different? Someone in Minnesota gets a DVD one day earlier than they would have otherwise. While the global energy challenge remains unresolved, while one billion people get by on less than $1 per day, etc...

The real challenge going forward is building a system wherein this level of performance can be sustained while providing benefit where it's most needed. I understand that Grameen Bank has had some success in this respect, but I want to see more.

Of course, I have nothing against Netflix, I wish them nothing but continued success. They're providing the world with an excellent organizational model, let alone a lovely DVD rental service.

Enjoy the slides!

Culture

View more presentations from reed2001.

To Versailles, Finally

2009-08-05T23:58:00.000+02:00

Thanks to college friend Adam coming to explore Paris, I finally had an excuse to go see Versailles. Esther and I were thinking about going when I first visited her in 2005, but I had already seen another château and was getting frustrated with the ridiculous displays of wealth.

My impression after having seen the palace and its grounds is that I made a good choice in 2005. It is a pretty incredible on the part of Louis XIV to have responded to social unrest due to the injustices and excesses of his government to build an even bigger, less sustainable palace outside of palace. The guy had already been living at the Louvre, how much more can you want?

Apparently much more. Here's some photographic evidence:

It was, understandably, extremely luxurious, but it left me wondering what the ultra-wealthy are doing these days. There, at Versailles, the floors creaked, there was no impressive technology on display, it was all very traditional. What are the moderns doing with their disposable income?

More than anything, it made me want to go to Las Vegas to see what that example of excess and unsustainability looks and feels like.

Here's the full album:

Versailles with Adam

Never in America, or, The French and Taxes

2009-07-23T14:42:00.000+02:00

As part of the economic stimulus package that the French government has put in place in the wake of the global recession, part of it was the reduction of the VAT (a sales tax, almost) from 19.6% to 5.5% for restaurants.

Naturally, most restaurateurs were ecstatic and went to the trouble of printing up new menus with the "Before" and "After" price. Not bad marketing all things considered, consumers like to know how much they're saving.

One evening while sharing a bottle of wine with a friend at a bar in the Marais called Les Philosophes, however, I noticed something curious. They had indeed printed up new menus, or at least a new front page, but it wasn't what I was expecting. The title read, "Restaurant contre la baisse de la TVA", or, "Restaurant against the lowering of the VAT."

What followed was a full page diatribe (Garamond, 10pt. type) on why they thought the lowering of taxes was a bad idea. I was already a bit too far into the bottle of red to be bothered to read the entire thing, but it really struck me as uniquely French: the government lowers the taxes and the citizens refuse.

Just like home, right?

New Layout

2009-06-29T23:55:00.001+02:00

It's not just your eyes, I just updated the layout of the blog. Everything should be the same, just centered better on your screen which should allow the large pictures to display better on smaller monitors. Let me know what you think!

Le Mans!

2009-06-29T23:23:00.000+02:00

So it's been a while since I've been back, but other things have been keeping me too busy to post here. That said, a brief review of an American at Les 24 Heures du Mans:

Le Mans, the city, is like most other provincial French cities, full of little squares and narrow streets:

That said, some things stand out:

Not the least of which being the British. Here they are camping out of the back of a Bentley. How quaint:

Then there is the track itself. It's a world apart from the narrow, Medieval streets of the town. In fact, it would be downright familiar to anyone who's been to a major speedway in the US.

Then, finally, there are the cars. Living in Paris, I've gotten accustomed to thinking that 45mph was fast. That quickly changed once the cars started going by.

Perhaps even more striking than seeing the cars fly by was hearing them. Specifically at Le Mans, you have four classes of cars running against one another at the same time on the same track. And even within those classes there are many variations. In short, the variety of exhaust notes was pretty incredible. The Peugeots that would ultimately win, for example were extremely quiet (for a race car) being turbo diesels.

The Aston Martin LMP1 cars, on the other hand, screamed like Tie Fighters. Literally.

The award for most incredible auto-aural performance, however, goes absolutely hands down to the Corvettes. My God, they shook the Earth when they went by, nothing sounded as amazing as those American V8s.

I may be a Detroit boy at heart, but there was still a certain appreciation for how the Europeans get around.

Rarely do three characters mean so much as they do in RS6.

In short, it was a great time with the friends, I highly recommend it. It is one of the motorsports experiences to be had, hands down.

Alright, that's enough car-obsession for the time being. Those true-fans who want to see more can check it out in the full gallery:

Le Mans 2009

A New Job!

2009-06-17T23:52:00.000+02:00

That's it! I've signed my contract, received my badge and should be getting my email address tomorrow: I've started working at UNESCO!

UNESCO is the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. It's headquartered in Paris and works on those above-mentioned subjects; in general promoting science and education, protecting the environment, and preserving culture.

I am part of the Natrual Sciences Sector, in the Basic and Engineering Sciences Division, and part of the Renewable Energy Programme. My title is "Consultant" which is the do-all, limited-term contract that they give to someone with my level of education and experience. I'll be supporting all aspects of the Programme's work which mainly focuses on using renewable energy technologies to build capacities in developping countries. A big part of it is training the technicians to take care of the systems that we and other organizations install (which fits nicely with the 'Education' part of UNESCO's mandate).

I haven't been working there for very long so I can't give any deep impressions, but so far it's fascinating. I'm meeting a lot of interesting people, I spend my days reading about energy in general and renewable energy in particular (which sounds far more boring than it is for me), and it's now a lot easier to explain what I do when people ask.

All in all, I couldn't be happier with it. To new adventures!

It's About Time

2009-06-07T23:22:00.000+02:00

What, dear reader, is this shockingly sub-par photo a representation of? Indeed, it is a train ticket for the French TGV. You see at the top that it starts at "Paris Mont 1" (that would be the Paris Montparnasse 1 station) and ends in two little words, indicated by the red arrow. What nice words indeed.

Yes boys and girls, it's time. It's been nearly three years that I've been in France and I've not yet made to the mecca of French motorsports events. It is time to rectify this rather serious oversight. Next weekend, two friends and I are off to Le Mans, to enjoy all of the insanity that a 24-hour auto race has to hold.

Thankfully, I'm going with a seasoned veteran who will be able to lead us around. I'm anticipating something like the Daytona 500 crossed with the Paris Metro during rush hour: pure insanity, so it will be good to have a guide. I will take plenty of pictures and, undoubtedly, bring back plenty of stories.

And yes, I do recognize the tension between my passions for renewable energy and for cars which get 6 mpg. It's just the way I is.

Pictures from the Phone

2009-05-21T19:07:00.000+02:00

Living in modern times is nice, my phone can make pictures! Enjoy a view of Paris as the sun sets.

Hidden Paris Neighborhoods

2009-05-20T12:49:00.000+02:00

I've taken to running in the early morning. It allows me to run in the streets without constantly having to stop for old ladies with their shopping carts or having to inhale the exhaust of countless diesels. As such, I've been running without a set destination or path, exploring different neighborhoods. Here is a good example of what I've found (it's Google StreetView, you can drive around and have a look for yourself):

View Larger Map

It's not far from where we live, but I've never seen anything like it in Paris. The stairs to the houses, the gates, the style of the buildings, it all looks like something from Amsterdam or maybe Brooklyn. I'll have to go back to see if there is a plaque somewhere explaining the history of the area.

Corsica: Impressions

2009-05-16T11:59:00.000+02:00

First, a bit of background. Corsica is part of France as much as Hawaii is part of the US. It just happens to be an island and, as such, has a unique culture. Here's a map:

View Larger Map

Given Corsica's strategic location in the Mediterranean, it's been controlled by many different empires and countries. Over the millennia, it has only had a brief period of sovereignty. (For the full rundown, have a look at Wikipedia's History of Corsica.) That said, the people remain very independently minded which is seen in the island's motto, "Often conquered, never subdued." Unfortunately, this independence of mind has given rise to an armed separatist movement which has, at times, resorted to violence.

That said, we found the island and it's inhabitants extremely warm and welcoming, really it was a fantastic place.

People and Language
Like I said above, everyone that we met was absolutely fantastic. Maybe it's because we're tourists and are contributing to the economy, maybe it's because we were there early in the season, but whatever it was, the people were great.

People spontaneously offered us directions and local history. It was a bit like walking through some educational "period town" where people wearing funny clothes tell you, "Blacksmiths were an important part of the 18th century economy..." Except, in this case, they were wearing normal clothes and told us where we could buy food, where we could find the trail, and the history of the town.

The official language is French (of course) and everyone we met spoke it natively. That said, we also heard a lot of Corsican both spoken and on the radio. The language itself is very close to Italian, with its own variations.

Food
We ate really, really well on the trip. In the gîtes, it was a family-style meal, often with meat, pasta, and/or potatoes. Many of the ingredients were local, from the cheese (brucciu is one local favorite, it's somewhere between feta and ricotta, though it's only available in the spring and early summer) to the meat (goat, mutton, and wild boar being particularly popular).

The island is known for its charcuterie, the best of which comes from the aforementioned wild boar. I ate my fair share, rationalizing that it would really be too bad to miss out on this opportunity. We still have quite a bit in our refrigerator waiting to be eaten...

They drink a lot of wine (red, white, and rosé) which is all locally produced. I don't think that I saw a bottle of wine from the continent on a single restaurant menu. They also have surprisingly good beers, especially Pietra, a brown ale made from chestnuts.

The cuisine of the coasts is different from that of the interior, despite the small size of the island. In the mountains, they eat a lot of meat and cheese (including hard sheep and goat varieties) whereas the cuisine of the coasts includes that as well as plenty of seafood. The Mediterranean influences are clear throughout.

One disappointment was the bread, it was just nothing compared to what you get in Paris.

Hiking on the Trail
The trail itself was usually a narrow path cutting through the forests and scrub land that we crossed. It was marked, usually well, with orange stripes of paint.

We had topographical hiking maps with us, but only ever used them for confirmation of the route and estimating distances.

Life in the gîtes was quite nice. Though it wouldn't satisfy your needs if you were looking for a wilderness experience (I don't think anywhere in Western Europe would...), it is a really civilized way to hike. Your food is prepared for you, you have a bed and a shower every night, really it's quite nice. There is even a service that will transfer your bags from one gîte to the next so that you would, conceivably, never need to carry anything more than your lunch and water while hiking. That seems to defeat the purpose a bit, but it's nice to have the option.

It was also an opportunity to meet other hikers. We met a Swedish couple, a French guy (who had never lived in France) and his German friend, and a bunch of other nice people. There was only one somewhat strange, though even he was quite nice.

The Other Tourists
May is still rather early in the Corsican tourist season which, like most areas in France, peaks in July and August. That said, we were far from the only tourists on the island. It seems to be a popular destination for Germans and Swiss, as well as the French. It is especially popular with motorcyclists. Given the endlessly winding mountain roads, nice climate, and beautiful sights, this isn't much of a surprise. At an ice cream parlor in Porto Vecchio, we shared the terrace with 20 members of a German biker club.

The Roads
Narrow and winding, and all two lanes (or less). There's no highway on the island, and most of the major surface streets follow the coasts. Since we were there early in the season, traffic and parking were never a problem, but I can only imagine how bad it would be at the peak. Entering the popular town of Bonifacio, for example, is done by one, narrow road, in and out. According to the guidebook, it's common to have to wait several hours to be able to enter. Thankfully for us, it wasn't the case.

The Car
Having decided to rent a car for the second half of the trip, I got to drive a Renault for the first time. It was a new model, the Modus:

It had a 1.5L common rail diesel with a mere 85hp but 147ft-lbs of toque. For the driving conditions (narrow, winding mountain roads with plenty of corner exits) it was plenty competent to get around. What's better, it's rated at 52mpg and was averaging 47mpg in the mountains. Not bad at all.

Final Conclusions
In the end, it was one of the best pure vacations ever. Certainly it's nicer to visit family in the US, France, or Israel, but for simply discovering a new place, this trip was really wonderful. The combination of the difficult period at the beginning and the more relaxed period at the end was really ideal.

I hope that it won't be too long before we get back to Corsica...

Corsica: The South by Car

2009-05-15T20:19:00.000+02:00

Following up on the previous post about hiking the Mare a Mare Sud, here's the chronology of events for the rest of the trip.

Thursday, May 7
We woke up slowly in the tent, did laundry, and made our way to Porto Vecchio. We saw the sea (thereby officially ending the hike) while we had lunch in the port.

The town is full of interesting old buildings, walls, and gates.

We decided it would be best to rent a car to be able to explore more of the island, as well as to have a place to lock up our stuff (since we were staying in campsites). The first thing we did with the car was to drive to an out of the way beach and lay out in the sun for a while.

The view out to sea was quite impressive:

While on the beach, we chose a restaurant from the guide book and drove out there. It's called Le Passe Temps (The Pass Time, obviously) and was really delicious. Esther had grilled pork and I had a pizza from their wood-fired oven. We were quite lucky because they had only opened for the season that night. It was clearly popular with the locals, the owners were a bit distracted as their friends kept pulling them aside to talk to them.

Friday, May 8
We drove around quite a bit, passing many of the towns that we crossed while hiking and seeing others that we couldn't quite get to. I've traced our route on the map below. Leaving from Porto Vecchio, we saw L'Ospedale, Zonza, Levie, Santa Lucia, Sartène, and finally Bonifacio.

View Drive 1 in a larger map

As one can imagine, there were plenty of wonderful sights. A sampling:

Sartène was particularly impressive with its narrow, convoluted streets and passageways.

We arrived in Bonifacio, our final destination, in the late evening. It is another impressive city as it's built onto the white cliffs that overlook the southern tip of the island.

The geology forms a nearly perfect natural harbor, in which a marina has been built which has become popular with mega-yachts. (Fun fact! The natural harbor of Bonifacio is believed to have been visited by Odysseus during his travels in The Odyssey, given how closely it matches the description.)

The city, like Sartène, also has beautiful, narrow streets, full of intriguing details.

Night fell, we had dinner on the port, and made our way back to the campsite, exhausted once again.

Saturday, May 9
On our last full day in Corsica, we started by walking out to the lighthouse outside of Bonifacio. The view was incredible.

Coming back in, we took a boat tour of the cliffs and the lagoons around Bonifacio.

We continued our explorations, making our way up to the archaeological site of Filitosa. The site has been inhabited for about 7,000 years by various tribes, one of which built many (rather phallic) statues which apparently depicted their enemies. It was impressive to be on such an old site.

Everything was old there, even the big olive tree in the center of these statues is thought to be 1,200 to 2,000 years old.

Finally, for our last dinner in Corsica, we decided to explore the small town of Campomoro. It required driving out on a harrowing road. You may have images of "dangerous road" in your mind; this must be the model. It was a strip of pavement about one and a third lanes wide, with no lane markings, no guardrails, and no shoulders stuck to the side of the cliff. Oncoming traffic (which there was thankfully very little) meant coming to a near stop and narrowly brushing by. To make matters worse, there were often cattle and sheep on the side or in the middle of the road. In short, quite an adventure.

View Untitled in a larger map

The effort however, was well worth the beach and the dinner. The beach was just about perfect and the dinner (at the nice hotel in town) was fantastic. Bonifacio-style eggplants (aubergines à la bonifacienne) may be the best food I've ever tasted.

We said goodbye to the sea and the mountains, and made our way back to the campsite. (Back along the same road, now in the dark.)

Sunday, May 10
We were supposed to get up and leave, but little did we know, Corsica had one last surprise for us.

We had some extra time so we decided to have a coffee up in the old city of Bonifacio. We went to the first, cheapest-looking place that we saw, ordered our coffee and croissants (it's still France, after all), made our way to the back of the cafe and were greeted with the following sight:

We had our coffee and croissants (technically, Esther had a pain au chocolat) overlooking both the sea and the cliffs. A wonderful surprise, and a wonderful end to a fantastic trip.

Corsica: Hiking the Mare a Mare Sud

2009-05-15T19:27:00.000+02:00

Rather than posting one massive "Our Trip to Corsica" post, I think it might be a bit easier to split things up. First, you'll have a "Just the facts, ma'am" chronology of the hike which will then be followed by a chronology of our other travels. I'll finish off with our more subjective impressions. This (of course, given the title) is the chronology of the hike.

There are, of course, plenty of photos in the album, nearly all with captions that add some details to the story.

Travels - Corsica 2009

Saturday, May 2

View Larger Map

From there, we were supposed to take a bus to Propriano (see map below) but it came about 30 minutes late. The driver took it upon himself to make up time on the winding mountain roads, around blind corners, in the rain. I took the opportunity to remind Esther that tour bus travel is one of the most dangerous forms of travel. Amazingly, we arrived in Propriano on time. He made up 30 minutes of delay on an 80 minute trip. Suffice it to say that he was pushing it pretty hard.

In Propriano, we found a restaurant that was serving and had some salads and our first taste of Corsican beer.

From there, we hiked to our campsite, pitched the tent and went to sleep.

Sunday, May 3
Our first day hiking, and perhaps the hardest day of my life physically. We decided to hike all the way from Propriano (blue dot, below), bast the first stop at Burgo (yellow), all the way to Santa Lucia di Tallano (red).

View Sunday, May 3 in a larger map
As you can see from the terrain, the hike to Burgo is relatively easy, just up a valley. It took us about 2.5 hours. The hike to Santa Lucia took another 6 and it was very mountainous, with some stretches of the trail at the limit of what you can go up using only your feet (not climbing with your hands). Fortunately, there were some beautiful sights along the way.

That night, we stayed in our first gîte d'étape, which is a sort of bunkhouse along the trail that, in addition to being a place to sleep and shower, also serves breakfast and dinner. It cost about 35€ per person, which made it a bit more expensive that we liked.

Here's our room:

And here's the exterior of the building:

In any case, I was very happy to be off my feet, it was a real mental struggle to make it up the last hill to the gîte.

Monday, May 4
This was a much shorter day, only hiking from Santa Lucia di Tallano (green) to Serra di Scopamène (red).

View Untitled in a larger map

The trail here, like most other areas was really beautiful:

Serra is a nice, but small (pop. 122) town. Here's the gîte:

We were also able to visit an old olive oil mill. Corsica is still known for its olive oil so it was interesting to see the old method of producing it.

Tuesday, May 5
This third day of hiking took us from Serra (green), north to Jallicu (yellow), through Quenza and into Levie (red).

View Untitled in a larger map

It was a longer day, and the only one in the rain. Also, it was the only time that I had to stop because of pain (A blister that I hadn't seen grew to enormous proportions and required treatment on the side of the trail. Thankfully our first aid kit had a needle...)

Spirits were high, despite the rain. It gave a nice atmosphere to some of the forests that we hiked through.

We arrived in Levie considering whether we wanted to continue further that day, or not. We couldn't make it to another gîte and camping along the side of the trail is forbidden (though easily done if you're discrete about it). We bought some sausage and cheese in preparation for the hike, but the continuing rain (and the smell of the soup from the gîte) convinced us to stay the night.

Shortly thereafter, the weather cleared and we enjoyed a sunny evening in Levie (pop. 1200).

We resolved, however, to make a big push the following day and make it all the way to Porto Vecchio, our destination.

Wednesday, May 6
Indeed, it was a big day. We started hiking in Levie (green) around 8:30am and didn't arrive at our campsite in Porto Vecchio (red) until 7:30pm.

View Untitled in a larger map

Not only was it long distance, but there was considerable elevation change as well. We started at 900m, went down to 200m, climbed to our peak at 1100m, and then walked down to 0m at the sea. Ouch.

We walked quickly in the morning to separate ourselves from a group that we'd been stuck with from the beginning. We arrived in Carbini (see photo) 45 minutes earlier than expected, taking abot 40% off of the posted time.

Shortly thereafter, we arrived at the Punta della Vacca Morta (Dead Cow Peak) and climbed to the top. The views were amazing.

We then began our descent, after taking water from the gîte in Cartalavonu, where other people normally stop.

We started hiking down rather slowly, until we realized we would need to pick up the pace. We hurried, but the flat part at the end, especially the last five miles on the road, really killed us. We arrived in the campsite totally exhausted. We didn't have the energy to go to a restaurant so we ate the ramen noodles that we had with us.

Conclusions
We hiked the trail in only four days, rather than the more normal five or six. It was more difficult on the first and last day, but it left us a lot more time to explore and I'm sure it was the right decision.

In the future, if I were hiking it again, I would resolve to stay in the gîtes along the way. That would absolve me of the need to carry a tent, stove, and sleeping bag, cutting the load in our packs by at least half. It's a bit expensive, but hugely convenient.

It's not exactly an easy trail, but full of wonderful sights and great little towns. I strongly recommend it to anyone looking to discover southern Corsica, off the beaten path.

Corsica Preparations

2009-05-01T13:47:00.002+02:00

Esther and I will be spending the next week in Corsica. A few weeks ago we took the suburban train out to a forest to get some mud on your boots. I couldn't help but make stupid faces for the camera.

I'll bring back plenty of pictures from Corsica, expect updates the week of May 11th.

Photo of the Day

2009-05-01T13:32:00.000+02:00

One more reason to like Paris: These guys walking through the streets, playing their music. I tossed them a euro from the window.

Because One isn't Enough

2009-04-28T21:41:00.000+02:00

Poor blog, how I’ve let you fall to the wayside these past few months. And, to make matters worse, I have to confirm your worst fear: it’s because there’s another. That’s right, I wasn’t satisfied with one blog in my life so I went out and created another. I customized the template, I designed the logo, I even went so far as to register a domain. It’s called E&US, and you can find it at www.eandus.com.

It’s focus is different, though, it’s a blog about energy in general and renewable energy specifically. I’ve been reading so much about the subject lately and having so many thoughts that I wanted to share that it seemed a shame to not put it up in a public forum. The truth is, I see my future in renewable energy and I just can’t keep myself away from it.

That doesn’t mean that I’ve forgotten about you, blog (or your readers). It’s just been really busy lately and I haven’t had the time to make the updates. What’s more, I’ve wanted to take some time to discuss a professional change, and it seemed that it was just better to stay away. But don’t worry, there are plenty of subjects that I want to write about, plenty of pictures to post, plenty of stories to share. All in due time.

The Future is Now

2009-03-17T15:34:00.000+01:00

I can't get over how often I feel like I'm living in the future. There are two major components: portable computing and public transportation. Let me explain.

I'm currently sitting on a platform waiting for a suburban train to take me back to Paris from an English lesson in the suburbs. (Now I'm on the train.) I had to wait ten minutes, and how the entire trip (train, metro, a bit of walking) back to the house in Paris will take about 45 minutes more. If I had a car, I probably could have done the entire trip in 25 minute.

At first glance, it sounds like a car might be a better deal, but we have to consider the costs. I'd have to pay not only for the gas that I'd use during the trip but also the assurance and any interest on a car loan that I would pay regardless of my use of the vehicle. That starts to get expensive. Then we can add in the external costs which include environmental degradation, contribution to global warming, noise pollution along the streets, ect... It starts to look like less of a good deal.

Now we add in the game changer: mobile computing. I'm typing on my Dell Mini 12, a lightweigt, relatively low-powered notebook that you can get for about $400. Before I started typing this post, I was reading and responding to my email, consulting my calendar, and reading my favorite news sites and blogs. All of this without any connection to the internet thanks to the offline features that Google has added to Gmail, Google Calendar and Google Reader. Since I can turn off my wireless radios battery capacity isn't a problem, even with the lightweight 3-cell battery.

The result of this combination is that, although the trip with the clean (environmentally that is, there is a nasty stain on the floor at my feet) and efficient public transportation takes longer, I come out ahead time-wise because only about 15 minutes (when I'm walking) is true down time when I can't work (though I am getting a bit of exercise).

Now, there are certainly some caveats. A lot of people live in places without public transit, rendering this plan impossible. You could contact your elected officials and campaign for better transit systems, but many areas simply lack the necessary density to make the systems workable. Also, it's not as if I could do this every time I take the metro or the train. On some lines at some times of the day, it's simply too crowded to sit and I'm not about to be that guy balancing his laptop on one hand, navigating with the other (though I apparently have no qualms about being that guy with the computer on his lap in the metro).

But, given the right conditions and the right material, pretty nifty things can be done with existing technology. Don't wait for the future, live it now!

No Explanation Needed

2009-03-17T09:56:00.000+01:00

Watch Meet the Monkeymobile on CollegeHumor

Life Update

2009-03-14T15:42:00.000+01:00

Just a quick post to let everyone know that things are going well here, despite the lack of posts recently. There have been several projects that have been keeping me busy recently and which have distracted me from my bloggerly duties.

For one, my faithful ThinkPad finally died on me. You'll remember it from the screen replacement post in October, unfortunately I didn't get the life out of the screen that I was hoping for. It's final undoing was some undiagnosed hardware problem, if you moved the computer it would just shut down. Given its age, this doesn't come as much of a surprise. I've only just now replaced it with a relatively powerful desktop and a light and highly portable laptop. It's a good combination (even if my attempt to install Xubuntu Linux on the laptop failed, apparently it has one of the few unsupported Intel graphics cards) and I'm quite happy with the result (not to mention that the total price was far less than my ThinkPad was four years ago). I've got Lightroom installed on the desktop with all of my photos transferred over so you should see some pictures soon.

There have been some other projects that I'm not quite at liberty to talk about yet, but you'll be hearing about them in the coming weeks.

Hope all is well for all of you, wherever you may be.

Red Lentil Soup with Lemon

2009-02-16T22:12:00.002+01:00

Ever since I had my first bowl of lentil soup at Jerusalem Garden in Ann Arbor, I've been wanting to make it myself. After a lot of trial and error (producing still very edible soups, it's a forgiving recipe), I've come to something that, while not exactly the same as the Jerusalem Garden version, I'm quite happy with none the less.

20 minutes of preparation, 2 hours cooking

1 medium onion
1 quart of water
10 oz of red lentils (They look orange when raw and turn yellow when cooked. Go figure.)
1 bouillon tablet
1 lemon
1.5 teaspoons of cumin
1 teaspoon of turmeric
1 teaspoon of paprika
1 tablespoon of olive oil
fresh cilantro
salt

Rinse the lentils well, until the water runs clear.
Chop the onion in small pieces and cook it in the bottom of a large pot with the olive oil and a bit of salt.
When the onion has browned a bit, add the water, lentils, and spices.
Let the soup simmer for about an hour, then dissolve the bouillon tablet in a bit of boiling water and add it to the soup.
Let the soup simmer some more, maybe about an hour, until the lentils break down and the soup gets a creamy texture.
Squeeze the lemon juice into the soup.
Taste the soup and adjust the level of salt and lemon juice to your tastes.
Serve and garnish with the chopped cilantro.

Super simple and really, really cheap. Feel free to add more spices, lemon zest, or bits of grilled pita. It's all excellent!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

2009-02-16T21:58:00.002+01:00

I've been making chocolate chip cookies recently that have been a bit of a hit in these parts (I was pleased to know that they led to a fight between Esther's brother and sister). Now, that may be a simple result of the fact that the cookie market here is pretty dry.

What's my secret, you ask? The New York Times. They did a report looking for the best chocolate chip cookies and I've simply adapted that recipe to the ingredients that you can find in France. If you're in the US, simply follow the recipe as written in the times. Here's how I've adapted it to France:

480g flour
7g levure chimique (comes in little packets in the little baking installation in most supermarkets)
7g bicarbonate de sodium (comes in a blue and white box, often near the flour and starch)
10g salt
250g beurre doux
230g white sugar
270g cassonade (what we would call raw sugar, as close as it gets to brown sugar over here, is usually found next to the regular sugar in the supermarket)
2 eggs
10ml natural vanilla extract
500g chocolat pâtissier, at least 60% cocoa, cut into pieces (I use a mix of the darker and the lighter Nestle Dessert bars)
sel de mer

Using those ingredients, follow the instructions as listed in the recipe. I typically make the cookies smaller, forming dough balls about the size of a ping-pong ball. I bake them at 170 degrees Celsius for about 13 minutes, without the convection fan.

There it is, that simple. And very delicious

Suzy's Surprise 60th

2009-02-09T22:48:00.008+01:00

On February 1st, we hosted a surprise 60th birthday party for Suzy. In short, it worked:

A great time was had by all. I made some lentil soup and chocolate chip cookies that were quite a big success. I'll be posting those recipes (in English and French) shortly.

L'anniversaire de Suzy (Surprise!)

La soupe aux lentilles rouges au citron

2009-02-08T13:52:00.048+01:00

Dans la ville universitaire de Ann Arbor au Michigan, il y a un tout petit restaurant libanais qui s'appelle Jerusalem Garden. Ils font une soupe aux lentilles qui est une institution historique ; il est rare de trouver un ancien de l'université de Michigan qui ne la connaît pas. Ceci est ma tentative pour reproduire cette soupe.

20 minutes de préparation, 2 heures de cuisson

1 oignon moyen
1 litre d'eau
300g de lentilles rouges (elles se trouvent dans les épiceries arabes)
1 tablette de bouillon (je me sers de la marque Knorr, saveur légumes méditerranéens)
1 citron
1,5 cuillère de café de cumin
1 cuillère de café de curcuma
1 cuillère de café de piment doux
1 cuillère de soupe d'huile d'olive
coriandre fraîche
sel

Rincer les lentilles dans une passoire fine jusqu'à ce que l'eau coule claire. Les mettre de côté.
Couper l'oignon en petit et le faire revenir dans une casserole avec l'huile d'olive.
Quand l'oignon est doré, ajouter l'eau, les lentilles et les épices.
Laisser mijoter pendant une heure, puis faire dissoudre la tablette de bouillon dans un peu d'eau bouillante, et l'ajouter à la soupe.
Continuer à laisser la soupe mijoter jusqu'à ce qu'elle devienne onctueuse, environ une heure de plus.
Presser le citron et ajouter le jus à la soupe.
Goûter et ajuster le sel ou l'acidité en ajoutant encore du sel ou du jus de citron.
Garnir avec de la coriandre coupée.

Les cookies de Kurt

2009-02-07T17:41:00.126+01:00

Grand classique des États-Unis, voici une adaptation d'une recette du New York Times.

45 minutes de préparation (avec un mixeur électrique, 60 minutes sans), et au moins 24 heures dans le réfrigérateur.
Environ 70 cookies de 7cm de diamètre.

480g de farine
7g de levure chimique
7g de bicarbonate de sodium
10g de sel de table
250g de beurre doux
230g de sucre en poudre
270g de cassonade
2 œufs
10ml d'extrait de vanille naturel
500g de chocolat pâtissier (au moins 60% cacao), coupé en morceaux
du sel de mer

Mélanger la faine, la levure, le bicarbonate et le sel dans un saladier et le mettre de côté.
Sans faire fondre le beurre, le mélanger complètement avec les sucres dans un deuxième saladier pour obtenir une pâte homogène. C'est facile avec un mixeur suffisamment puissant, un peu moins facile avec une fourchette rigide.
Ajouter les œufs un par un au mélange de sucre et beurre, en mélangeant bien à chaque fois.
Incorporer l'extrait de vanille.
Tamiser la farine et l'ajouter en mélangeant jusqu'à ce qu'elle soit complètement incorporée.
Ajouter les morceaux de chocolat et mélanger.
Mettre du film plastique directement sur la surface de la pâte et la mettre au réfrigérateur pour au moins 24 heures et jusqu'à 72 heures. (Vous pouvez également la congeler pendant plusieurs semaines.)
Préchauffer le four à 170 dégrées. Mettre du papier cuisson sur une plaque.
A l'aide d'une cuillère, former des boules de la taille d'une balle de ping-pong. Les poser sur le papier cuisson, laissant 1,5 fois le diamètre d'une boule entre chaque boule.
Mettre la plaque dans le four préchauffé (chaleur traditionnelle) et faire cuire pendant 12 minutes, jusqu'à ce qu'ils soient dorés.
Les sortir du four et les transférer délicatement sur une grille (je fais glisser le papier de la plaque vers la grille), saupoudrer légèrement avec du sel de mer et laisser refroidir pendant 15 minutes.
Répéter les étapes 9 à 11 jusqu'à ce qu'il n'y ait plus de pâte .

Traditionnellement, les cookies se mangent avec un grand verre de lait froid dans lequel on trempe son cookie !

Photos of Christmas Past

2009-01-29T00:03:00.034+01:00

Now that's been over a month since I've returned to Paris after a wonderful Christmas in Michigan, it seems like I ought to get around to posting some of the pictures. I took a lot (over 800!) and there were nearly 200 that I wanted to share. To make it easier I broke them up into albums and have posted a few of my favorites from each here. I hope that this brings back as many warms memories for all of you as it did for me.

Bonnie reacts as Al gets the second dog to complete the collection.

Ben arrives after taking the train from Chicago.

Esther helps clear the snow at Oma and Opa's house.

Pete looks sweet, as usual.

Nick waits patiently for presents.

Rachel too.

The classic, with Nick's most normal face.

Mom makes her famous French toast (Esther approves!).

Pete can't be bothered to get up, even though it's Christmas!

Dad, as usual, bringing the wood.

The goose.

Mike attempts to open the goose with a corkscrew.

Forget Santa Claus, this is the face of Christmas.

Esther likes the cold air.

The goose is carved.

Pete prepares his plate.

And get's comfortable with Jimmy.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

There are a lot more pictures in the albums, please have a look at them!

Christmas 2008 - Gregory House

Christmas 2008 - Snow Storm

Christmas 2008 - White Elephants

Christmas 2008 - Christmas Eve

Christmas 2008 - Christmas Day

Peaceful Transition of Power

2009-01-22T21:39:00.001+01:00

Why did the talking heads during the inauguration on CNN keep going on about the singularity of the peaceful transition of power in American politics. Not only is the United States not unique in its tradition of a peaceful transition of power, but it would be genuinely remarkable if there were a non-peaceful transition in a developed country.

Sure, we Americans like to feel good about our country with good reason. There is an incredible amount to be proud of, but that doesn't mean that we need to go around making ludicrous claims. In fact, doing so cheapens our appreciation of our country. An affection built with even a few falsehoods is forever tainted by their presence. What is true and what is false become forever mixed and this conflict is resolved by either cynicism towards the country's true greatness (they may be lies after all) or blind allegiance to all purported facts (since you're already accepting some lies, why not all). It's framing in action, what becomes true of one object ("facts" regarding the country) become true of all.

Love your country for what it is, not some bizarre, feel-good claims.

Inaugurated

2009-01-22T00:54:00.000+01:00

It was a bit of an adventure to watch the inauguration yesterday. I had planned to meet with Greg at Harry's New York Bar, a moderately famous little place about 25 minutes from our house. Greg was bringing some friends from UNESCO and it was supposed to be a jolly old time. However, Harry's was a bit crowded:

So we made the split decision to run back to our house to watch it there. The deciding factors were the presence of CNN (not guaranteed at other bars) and beer (not guaranteed at UNESCO). This ended up being a really great time as we all watched the inauguration together:

It was a great mix of people and I can't help but feel that the new millennium is only now getting under way. Oh, and to top it all off, we had really good pizza later:

Esther liked it.

Obama Inauguration 2009

Pro-Palestine Protest in Paris

2009-01-06T23:47:00.008+01:00

Last Saturday there was a sizable (twenty to twenty-five thousand people according to various counts) protest in support of Palestine and, often, against Israel. Esther and I decided to go to see what there was to see. Thankfully I brought my camera as the situation, tense throughout, degraded considerably at the end.

The march started at Place de la République and progressed down the Grands Boulevards to Place St. Augustin.

This was a surprising route for any protest march as it passes directly in front of the "Grands Magasins", major banks, and plenty of very expensive real estate. Normally, protests (of which there are many) are routed towards more modest districts.

The anger towards Israel was evident in the crowd.

The chant "Israel, Assassin!" was popular, as was the swastika/Star of David equivalence.

Protesters carried pictures of dead and injured Palestinian children and adults, as well as at least one mock dead child.

I was surprised to see several Hezbollah flags on display. Paris has a large Lebanese population and apparently a certain number of supporters of the paramilitary organization.

The advertisement in the background for the Tribune Juive (Jewish Tribune, a magazine for the French Jewish commonity) featured Carla Bruni, the wife of President Sarkozy, and was not particularly popular with the protesters.

Further down the route, slogans began to be spray-painted on many different surfaces.

There was an interesting conflation of causes as the flag of Hezbollah (literally, "the party of God") came into close proximity with the flag and secretary general of the PCF (Parti Communiste Français, not exactly the party of God).

As we got closer to the Grands Magasins and some larger bank branches, the police presence visibly increased.

Eventually we arrived at Place St. Augustin, the scheduled end of the march.

A young man carried the flag of Hamas as others prayed. Things started off rather peacefully.

Unfortunately, trouble-makers in the crowd had other ideas for how to end things. They started by climbing scaffolding attached to a building.

This led to tear gas.

Which, in turn, led to fire set by the protesters.

Smoke rose over the square.

Riot police began to advance, passing in front of the Saint Augustine Church, confining the protesters and forcing them out of the square.

We learned that the fuel for the fire was the French classic: a car that had the bad luck of being parked in the wrong place at the wrong time.

More police arrived in full riot gear. They needed to clear the area to allow the firefighters to arrive safely.

Ultimately the firefighters made it through...

...though it was a bit late for the car.

Meanwhile, other cars were overturned and burned.

The square was left strewn with banners and ashes.

Full album:

Palestine Protest in Paris

Thanksgiving in Paris

2008-11-29T13:49:00.000+01:00

Even over here, thanks to Greg, we got in on the holiday cheer. Greg invited Esther and I to a party at his house with a bunch of his UNESCO coworkers. The verdict: Delicious. I even had a bit of turkey. You know, for old times' sake. Still though, nothing will compare with being back in Michigan for Christmas. See you all soon!

Thanksgiving in Paris 2008

Photo of the Day

2008-11-12T18:39:00.000+01:00

Zombie Hunters preparing for the Undead Invasion in front of Notre Dame

Makes Me Move

2008-11-06T18:41:00.000+01:00

Whatever you do, wherever you go, never forget that the Beastie Boys will forever remain awesome:

The Face of a Nation

2008-11-05T20:11:00.000+01:00

The Big Picture has a collection of the best pictures of Obama over the course of the campaign. Via kottke.

Election Night in Paris

2008-11-05T17:59:00.001+01:00

Esther and I decided to go to the "official" (which we learned means 'expensive') election night party at CinéAqua, an aquarium/movie theater just across from the Eiffel tower. It wasn't worth the money, but it was a great night nonetheless.

Enjoy the pictures:

Obama Elected

Incredible

2008-11-05T17:16:00.005+01:00

If this were a film, the plot would be difficult to believe. This is a victory of intellect over ignorance, truth over innuendo, hope over fear. It is a victory not only for Americans, but for the entire world.

The reaction in France is very positive. Many here thought that the United States would never do this. There was always a rather virulent skepticism about the possibility that we would elect a black man. We've surprised the world and have once again shown another face of American exceptionalism.

This is what pride in my country feels like. Pride not only it's founding principles, that has always been there, but true, deep pride in its current reality. It's a wonderful feeling.

Photo by flickr user alexandra.matzke used under Creative Commons license.

A King's Life

2008-11-04T01:25:00.000+01:00

We've seen the luxurious side of life and we can report this: It's boring. The Pavillon Henri IV was indeed very nice, but definitely not the sort of thing that we would ever spend our own money on.* The room was nice, though the comfort of the Louis XIV era furniture left me wishing for our IKEA bead instead.

The highlight of the trip was the dinner. I had an appetizer of langoustine (mini-lobster) spring rolls followed by an excellent plate of sea bream in a wild mushroom foam. Dessert was figs roasted in a caramel sauce with cinnamon ice cream, all washed down with a delightful 2007 Brouilly.

Now that I've exposed myself as having completely converted to the ways of the cheese-eating surrender monkeys, I think that it's perhaps best to simply post the photos. I didn't take any pictures during the dinner; it was an awkward, whisper-only environment (as the 9 year-old next to us announced to everyone, before being shushed by his mother, "Ambiance: zéro!") and I don't think the other diners (average age: 67) would have appreciated it.

Pavillon Henri IV

*Interestingly, this is actually the mark of a good gift, something that we enjoyed but that we wouldn't have gotten for ourselves. Alex Tabarrok of Marginal Revolution puts it this way:

The bottom line? If you want to please the economist in me, send me cash. If you want to please my wild self (I know, not many of you, but you know who you are!) use your imagination.

Adventures in Luxury

2008-11-01T15:30:00.000+01:00

After a successful defense in Paris against the Undead Invasion last night, Esther and I are off to the Pavillion Henri IV to finally use a gift certificate that we received over a year ago at our wedding.

The site is famous for being the birthplace of both King Louis XIV of France and Beranaise sauce. I hope they have the latter on tap.

Naturally, you can expect pictures of our brief escapade into luxury to be posted soon.

Just in case...

2008-10-28T09:55:00.000+01:00

...there are any conservatives reading this blog who are in need of convincing, here are Andrew Sullivan's ten reasons for a conservative to vote Obama on November 4th(Sullivan is, of course, himself a British, Thatcherite conservative):

10. A body blow to racial identity politics. An end to the era of Jesse Jackson in black America.

9. Less debt. Yes, Obama will raise taxes on those earning over a quarter of a million. And he will spend on healthcare, Iraq, Afghanistan and the environment. But so will McCain. He plans more spending on health, the environment and won't touch defense of entitlements. And his refusal to touch taxes means an extra $4 trillion in debt over the massive increase presided over by Bush. And the CBO estimates that McCain's plans will add more to the debt over four years than Obama's. Fiscal conservatives have a clear choice.

8. A return to realism and prudence in foreign policy. Obama has consistently cited the foreign policy of George H. W. Bush as his inspiration. McCain's knee-jerk reaction to the Georgian conflict, his commitment to stay in Iraq indefinitely, and his brinksmanship over Iran's nuclear ambitions make him a far riskier choice for conservatives. The choice between Obama and McCain is like the choice between George H.W. Bush's first term and George W.'s.

7. An ability to understand the difference between listening to generals and delegating foreign policy to them.

6. Temperament. Obama has the coolest, calmest demeanor of any president since Eisenhower. Conservatism values that kind of constancy, especially compared with the hot-headed, irrational impulsiveness of McCain.

5. Faith. Obama's fusion of Christianity and reason, his non-fundamentalist faith, is a critical bridge between the new atheism and the new Christianism.

4. A truce in the culture war. Obama takes us past the debilitating boomer warfare that has raged since the 1960s. Nothing has distorted our politics so gravely; nothing has made a rational politics more elusive.

3. Two words: President Palin.

2. Conservative reform. Until conservatism can get a distance from the big-spending, privacy-busting, debt-ridden, crony-laden, fundamentalist, intolerant, incompetent and arrogant faux conservatism of the Bush-Cheney years, it will never regain a coherent message to actually govern this country again. The survival of conservatism requires a temporary eclipse of today's Republicanism. Losing would be the best thing to happen to conservatism since 1964. Back then, conservatives lost in a landslide for the right reasons. Now, Republicans are losing in a landslide for the wrong reasons.

1. The War Against Islamist terror. The strategy deployed by Bush and Cheney has failed. It has failed to destroy al Qaeda, except in a country, Iraq, where their presence was minimal before the US invasion. It has failed to bring any of the terrorists to justice, instead creating the excrescence of Gitmo, torture, secret sites, and the collapse of America's reputation abroad. It has empowered Iran, allowed al Qaeda to regroup in Pakistan, made the next vast generation of Muslims loathe America, and imperiled our alliances. We need smarter leadership of the war: balancing force with diplomacy, hard power with better p.r., deploying strategy rather than mere tactics, and self-confidence rather than a bunker mentality.

Those conservatives who remain convinced, as I do, that Islamist terror remains the greatest threat to the West cannot risk a perpetuation of the failed Manichean worldview of the past eight years, and cannot risk the possibility of McCain making rash decisions in the middle of a potentially catastrophic global conflict. If you are serious about the war on terror and believe it is a war we have to win, the only serious candidate is Barack Obama.

Why I'm an Optimist

2008-10-28T01:16:00.001+01:00

Call me a naïf for trusting the man at his word but I'm tired of cynicism. Hope feels good.

Three Ashleys and the Transformation of a Nation

2008-10-28T00:44:00.000+01:00

As if the comparison needs to be clearer, Sean Quinn from fivethirtyeight.com traces the story of three Ashleys from three Presidential campaigns. There is Ashley Faulkner who said of Bush in 2004, "He's the most powerful man in the world, and all he wants to do is make sure I'm safe, that I'm OK." Then there is Ashley Todd, the source of the B-carving Obama supporter hoax. Finally, there is Ashley Baia whom Obama talked about in his More Perfect Union speech on race in early 2008. Quoting directly from the speech, via the 538 post (I encourage you to read it in its entirety):

There is a young, twenty-three year old white woman named Ashley Baia who organized for our campaign in Florence, South Carolina. She had been working to organize a mostly African-American community since the beginning of this campaign, and one day she was at a roundtable discussion where everyone went around telling their story and why they were there.

And Ashley said that when she was nine years old, her mother got cancer. And because she had to miss days of work, she was let go and lost her health care. They had to file for bankruptcy, and that's when Ashley decided that she had to do something to help her mom.

She knew that food was one of their most expensive costs, and so Ashley convinced her mother that what she really liked and really wanted to eat more than anything else was mustard and relish sandwiches. Because that was the cheapest way to eat.

She did this for a year until her mom got better, and she told everyone at the roundtable that the reason she joined our campaign was so that she could help the millions of other children in the country who want and need to help their parents too.

Now Ashley might have made a different choice. Perhaps somebody told her along the way that the source of her mother's problems were blacks who were on welfare and too lazy to work, or Hispanics who were coming into the country illegally. But she didn't. She sought out allies in her fight against injustice.

Anyway, Ashley finishes her story and then goes around the room and asks everyone else why they're supporting the campaign. They all have different stories and reasons. Many bring up a specific issue. And finally they come to this elderly black man who's been sitting there quietly the entire time. And Ashley asks him why he's there. And he does not bring up a specific issue. He does not say health care or the economy. He does not say education or the war. He does not say that he was there because of Barack Obama. He simply says to everyone in the room, "I am here because of Ashley."

"I'm here because of Ashley." By itself, that single moment of recognition between that young white girl and that old black man is not enough. It is not enough to give health care to the sick, or jobs to the jobless, or education to our children.

But it is where we start. It is where our union grows stronger. And as so many generations have come to realize over the course of the two-hundred and twenty one years since a band of patriots signed that document in Philadelphia, that is where the perfection begins.

This historic moment, this watershed in American history is perhaps difficult to comprehend while living it. We're distracted by out daily routines and the disruptions to them. It is worthwhile, however, to step back and attempt to appreciate the moment that we are all living.

I'm proud to have been a supporter of this campaign for the past two years. I consider my small contributions to be an investment in that more perfect union. Perhaps I've passed a few too many hours following the twist and turns of the campaign in obsessive detail but I cannot help but be fascinated by our present reality.

The deal remains to be closed by I have nothing but confidence in the cool professionalism of the Obama campaign's ability to do so. Eight more days, only eight more days until we begin the trasformation away from the past eight years.

Redistribution!

2008-10-27T18:50:00.001+01:00

More than just sounding like threadbare conservative ideology, the McCain-Palin campaign's focus on Obama's purported desire to redistribute wealth seems way off pitch. Given the current economic situation, the millions of Americans who've lost their homes, the millions who fear for their job, etc. doesn't it seem like a large swath of the United States (maybe even a majority) would be in favor of a little bit of wealth redistribution right now? I assume that this has something to do with why the Obama-Biden camp isn't coming out with some mealy-mouthed rebuttal. Let them dig their own hole, it's easier that way!

The View from France

2008-10-25T01:00:00.001+02:00

It shouldn't come as any surprise, bu the French are following the American election very closely. Every night there are updates on the evening news and several times per week there are in-depth analysis pieces. Compare that to how many times you heard the names Ségolène Royal and Nicolas Sarkozy in 2007.

It should also not be any surprise that, like the rest of the world, the French vastly favor Obama. Where I and the average French person disagree, however, is in the the likelihood that Obama will actually be elected. Some of this skepticism is based on the national reporting that implies that the race is far closer than it actually is. Earlier this week, the anchor on one of the major national evening news broadcasts did an overview of the state of the race (Obama way ahead in the polls, massive turnout for early voting, etc...) and then reminded the viewers that "at this point in 2004, Kerry was said to be winning." First, look at this data and you will see that they must have been a bit too optimistic in their poll reporting to have given the lead to Kerry. Second, and more importantly, the equivalence that he is drawing between 2004 is absurd. Compare the 2004 data set to this year's (and this is coming from RealClearPolitics, a site with a Republican bias) and it's obvious from the numbers alone that any equivalence, even any comparison, between the two years is totally off base.

In addition to this inaccurate reporting on the state of the race, you have certain stereotypes and misconceptions held by many French people about the United States that cloud their vision of reality. (I should put two disclaimers here; first, American have plenty of inaccurate stereotypes of the French and, second, many Americans hold similar stereotypes about other Americans.) The most commonly reported concern is that the polls are overstating the average American's willingness to vote for a black man, the famous "Bradley effect". The second is a more generic belief that has been learned over the past eight years that the United States can't possibly elect a decent President. Bush's reelection in 2004 really drove this point home when much of the French had their hopes dashed on November 3rd (the French media misrepresenting the polling certainly had something to do with this).

Looking at this, I realize that the French position is not that far off from many of the Americans that I've spoken with. I routinely find myself being the only person in a group to be confident that Obama will win, the common response is this very French skepticism of, "Well, I certainly hope he will, but I just don't know..." I wrote about my confidence way back before the conventions and perhaps it's time to revisit. Suffice it to say, that nothing has really changed, I take the lead from fivethirtyeight and am more than 90% confident that Obama will win (based on current polling).

Photo of the Day

2008-10-24T22:41:00.000+02:00

Sketching on the Seine

Cogent Commentary

2008-10-24T18:07:00.000+02:00

Andrew Sullivan and Marc Ambinder from The Atlantic say it like it is:

I can't hold back, I feel some political posting coming in the near future...

Photo of the Day

2008-10-23T12:07:00.001+02:00

Our street, and especially the café at the end of it, is a popular location for filmakers.

Welcome to the Year 5769!

2008-10-22T21:58:00.000+02:00

Both Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur fell in the last month so, quite naturally, that meant lots of dinners at Esther's parents' house. I took a few pictures and will let them (and their captions) speak for themselves:

Les Fêtes 5769

Mazel tov!

Inside the Belly of the Beast

2008-10-21T18:57:00.001+02:00

A while ago the screen on my trusty laptop, an IBM T42 that has served me well for the past four years, started to go pink. Research showed that it was the result of argon gas depletion (or some other inert gas that I can't quite recall right now) in the compact fluorescent bulb that serves as a backlight for the LCD screen. That bulb costs about $15 but requires soldering and opening tape that says "DO NOT OPEN!!!!" Instead, given the scratches and general abuse that the screen has taken over the years, I decided to replace the entire LCD. That would cost about $100 from a Malaysian guy on eBay, but would require me to totally dismantle the computer, including opening the screen housing itself. I had never been that far inside of my computer so I decided that it would be a good educational experience. And if anything really went wrong, there could only be one result, new computer!

I printed about 40 pages out of the T42 service manual, borrowed a set of small (but not small enough) screwdrivers from Ilan, and got to work. All in all it took about five hours to complete with only relatively minor frustrations along the way. Those frustrations were surprisingly similar to those that you run into when fixing a car (stripped screw heads, real life situations that don't match the manual, a manufacturer that loved thread locker a little too much, etc...)

The end result is that I now have a fully functioning, perfectly clear screen. And, this is the important part, the pride of having gone into the belly of the beast and made it out the other side.

Here are some gory pictures:

You can take the kid out of Detroit...

2008-10-21T00:48:00.001+02:00

...but you can't take the Detroit out of the kid. In addition to me wearing a Tigers baseball cap (something that I never did when in the US, this simple fact means that when the auto show rolls into Paris, I can't help but drag myself down to the massive convention center complex on the south edge of town. Some brief observations:

It's huge. Like really huge, at least twice as big as the Detroit show. I finished the first hall thinking, "that was decent, but it seemed like there were some big brands missing." I then found a map that showed me three additional halls. I had to hurry to see it all the cars (not the accessories and suppliers, race cars, driving schools, etc...) in four hours.
Fuel economy is a major selling point here. Since gas costs about $8.50/gallon these days, that shouldn't come as too much of a surprise. Fuel data is not just printed on the little information sheet (or, increasingly, flat-screen display) next to the car, it's a big graphic on the door. Also, they present grams of CO2 emitted per kilometer. This is becoming a standard way of presenting energy efficiency in Europe so that you can easily compare the environmental impact of a trip by car versus a trip by train, for example.
Pure American cars really stand out here. They are big and ungainly when shipped directly here. Ford, however, simply builds entirely different cars for the market and comes out looking like one of the crowd.

Here's some photographic evidence of what things look like over here:

From Paris Auto Show 2008

Full album:

Paris Auto Show 2008

Addendum: A post like this is never complete without a picture of "my ride". Here she is: nuclear-powered, seats 200, God knows how many horsepoewr (probably around 2,000), yearly payments of about $600 for the loan, assurance, fuel, etc...:

From Paris Auto Show 2008

Paris isn't all bad...

Pretending to do Graphic Design

2008-10-17T12:41:00.004+02:00

Part of the fun of my job is that I get to pretend to be a graphic designer and teach myself all sorts of tricks in Photoshop and Illustrator. Here's a graphic that I made for a 007-inspired "luxury adventure experience" that we're starting to market.

If you know anyone with $20K to burn on two crazy days, let me know!

Un match de foot !

2008-10-16T00:41:00.003+02:00

Through his dark magic, Ilan was able to get free tickets to the exhibition match between the national teams of France and Tunisia. Given the colonial history and the current immigration situation between the countries it was expected to be a bit tense. It didn't dissapoint.

Tunisian flags outnumbered French flags by at least three to one and suffice it to say that the Tunisian supporters were more vocal than their French counterparts. (Just to be precise, most of the Tunisian supporters most likely have French nationality; they identify, however, much more strongly with their country of origin when it comes to soccer.) They were vocal not only in support of their team, but against the French team going so far as to boo all of the French players and the Marseillaise, the French national anthem. Apparently this last part didn't go over so well with Sarkozy and the Minister of Sport announcing today that any future match at which the Marseillaise is booed will be immediately canceled.

Despite the overall tense atmosphere, our experience was very good. We had good seats and, although the young guys in front of us were standing for a lot of the match, we saw the game quite clearly. I was even able to follow the action since the rules of the game are mercifully simple when compared to popular American sports like football and baseball. What was surprising, however, was the level of intensity in the crowd. Sure, this was probably more lively than a Paris-Lille game that ends in a tie, but I really can't compare the intensity to anything that I've seen in an American stadium. In short, it lives up to the stereotypes that we have for European soccer matches hold true. Here's a short video (sorry, no sound from my six-year old compact camera) of the crowd reaction to the first and only Tunisian goal.

In the end "Les Bleus" pulled it out with a 3-1 victory that left the crowd rather subdued at the end. It also needs to be noted that the public transportation system that got us and the vast majority of the other 74,000 spectators to and from the stadium was really extraordinary. Not only did we not have to wait for a train, but we even got to sit down inside. It was orderly, efficient and cheap. French infrastructure never ceases to impress.

Here are my photos from the game. Again, they're coming from my old compact camera (big cameras aren't allowed) so the quality isn't what it normaly is:

Match de foot!

Negev

2008-10-10T12:40:00.000+02:00

The Negev Desert stretches southeast from Kibbutz Nirim, all the way to the port city of Eilat on the Red Sea. Altogether, it accounts for more than half of Israel's land area, but only a tiny fraction of its population. It's full of interesting geological features including countless wadis as well as the unique makhtesh (often referred to as "craters", they are technically "erosion cirques".) Roni was kind enough to take us on a tour of the area in one of the kibbutz's silver Subaru Imprezas. There were many impressive sights, not the least of which were the Merkava main battle tanks doing training exercises along the side of the road.

Travels - Israel - Negev

Kibbutz Nirim

2008-10-09T09:27:00.000+02:00

In the south, we stayed with Roni, the brother of Esti (a distant relation but extremely close friend of Esther's family), in his kibbutz, Nirim. Nirim is a more traditional kibbutz, maintaining more collective ownership and activities than Yehiam in the north. A small but important example of this is the fact that the communal dining hall still serves several meals a day, though you now have to pay a nominal fee to eat there.

What is perhaps most striking about Nirim, however, is its proximity to the Gaza Strip and the security implications that that has on life in the kibbutz. At only two kilometers (just over one mile, you could walk the distance in less than 30 minutes), you can see the low skyline of the strip. The kibbutz is surrounded by concertina wire and has strong metal gates that remain closed all day long. In addition to the entrances to the underground shelters, there are also above-ground emergency shelters every hundred yards or so, should you ever hear incoming rockets. The kibbutz is typically not targeted for rocket attacks, however, as they are generally aimed at the larger town of Sderot.

Walking in the fields surrounding the kibbutz, outside of the perimeter fence, you have the impression that you are in a perfectly bucolic setting. Not even over the horizon, however, is the Gaza Strip and its choking population density, desperate economic conditions, and unstable political situation. Once again, Israel shows itself to be a land divided, a contradiction in the most complete sense.

Travels - Israel - Kibbutz Nirim

Haifa

2008-10-08T14:13:00.000+02:00

We were only in Haifa for a few hours, just enough time to see the Bahá'í World Center, return our rental car, and take a train to the south. It certainly seemed pleasant and it's distinction of being the most demographically-balanced large city in Israel was plainly visible. It's a very short photo album, consisting of a few photos that I took on the top of Mt. Carmel. (By the way, if you're not familiar with the Bahá'í Faith, it's worth looking at its Wikipedia entry. If you're going to believe in an organized religion, you would be hard pressed to find one based on more appealing principles.)

Travels - Israel - Haifa

Jerusalem

2008-10-07T10:09:00.000+02:00

My original post, Juxtaposition in Jerusalem, captures the immediate sensation of the city much better than my rapidly fading recollections ever could. To those written words, I simply add the photo album below.

Travels - Israel - Jerusalem

Golan

2008-10-06T13:54:00.000+02:00

The Golan Heights are a mountainous plateau in northern Israel with both strategic military and natural resource value, leading to the area being claimed by Israel, Syria, and Lebanon. Controlled by Israel since the Six-Day War in 1967, they will likely be returned to Syria as part of the negotiations leading to a peace treaty.

Oded, Yona, and Maya took us on the tour of the region and it was indeed impressive, not only for it's physical beauty, but for it's importance in the history of countless empires and regimes. Nimrod Fortress is a good example. Built by the nephew of the Sultan of Egypt and Syria, Saladin, in the twelfth century, it was designed to defend Damascus from the crusaders. It served as one link in a chain of hill-top fortress, each visible to the other by sight, to protect Syria from the invading Europeans.

Naturally, over time, it passed from one empire to the next, serving various functions including luxury prison and, today, tourist attraction. It is relatively well preserved and features some impressive construction for its time and its remote location.

The Golan is full of interesting locations, from Alawite and Druze villages, to hidden waterfalls, and including rusting armored vehicles on the side of the road. It is a rough land, its surfaced pockmarked by centuries of battle and it maintains the sense that its status is still far from finalized.

Travels - Israel - Golan

Sea of Galilee

2008-10-05T23:41:00.000+02:00

The Sea of Galilee is Israel's largest body of freshwater and, from the perspective of a Michigander, it's only freshwater of note. Back in the day it was, of course, the site of Jesus' miraculous, low-speed water skiing while today it is the site of regular-old, physics-driven water skiing. The one large city on it's banks, Tiberias, is a very popular tourist destination in the north, drawing a larger-than-average proportion of wealthy religious families. The one experience that sticks with me from this town is melting in the 100-plus degree heat while waiting to get a falafel. Inside of the sandwich shop, the open grills easily raised the temperature to a smoky, greasy 120 degrees. Esther was bravely waiting in this line as tempers gradually mounted until a portly, young, religious man stormed in and demanded to be served before everyone else because he, HE!, couldn't stand the heat. It wasn't a particularly welcoming situation; people were self-centered and impatient and it didn't give me the desire to go back.

On a seperate trip, however, we went to a much more peaceful area, the site of Capernaum, Jesus' hometown when he lived there. Today, there are several monasteries on the site which is calm and peaceful, a considerable contrast to the modern-day insanity of Tiberias.

Almost all of the pictures are from Capernaum, I simply didn't have it in me to take pictures of sweaty, rude, rich people at Tiberias.

Travels - Israel - Sea of Galilee

Nazareth

2008-10-03T19:48:00.000+02:00

Nazareth, home of Jesus of, is now a sizable Arab city that draws off of its history. The streets were full of tourists wearing funny hats, including some German guys of high school age wearing white mesh hats with a solar powered fan built into the brim and directed at their faces. You get the impression that the tour buses pass through everyday, drop off their human cargo for an afternoon, before continuing on to another site of historical importance; all of this while the residents calmly look on. Admittedly, this is precisely what we did.

We made an effort to find Mount Precipice and were told by the security guard at a strip mall that we had to cut through a fence and then hike up a trash-strewn slope to get to the small chapel at the top. Standing up there, looking at what could have easily been a strip-mall in Rochester (complete with Office Depot and Ace Hardware!) on one side, the modern Arab town on the other, and the ancient chapel straight before us did make for a moment of strong cognitive dissonance though one that is representative of Israel as a whole.

Travels - Israel - Nazareth

Feats of Strength!

2008-09-25T23:12:00.000+02:00

Buzzfeed brought my attention to this program, One Hundred Push Ups, which is a program to be able to do just that, one hundred push ups, after six weeks of training. Esther and I decided that it would be a good thing to do.

We just started Week 3 and it just got a lot harder all of a sudden. For the first time we haven't been able to advance to the next day. The results, however, are already visible. Perhaps it's just the low baseline that we're coming from, I know that creating adventures actually involves a lot of sitting behind a computer all day which does not, in general, promote muscle definition.

So far things are going well and I hope that we'll be able to do the hundred sometime in December. Having the external program telling you exactly what you need to do every day makes it a lot simpler, so far we've stuck to the regimen without exception. Since making this effort public helps to keep me motivated, check back in the future for further updates.

(By the way, this is nothing compared to Chris competing in a triathlon. Congratulations Chris, awesome job!)

Rosh Hanikra

2008-09-25T21:29:00.000+02:00

At the northwest extreme of Israel, there is a unique formation of brilliantly white, exceptionally soft chalk jutting into the pure blue waters of the Mediterranean called Rosh Hanikra (the Head of the Grottoes). During the British Mandate, a train tunnel was cut through the rock, one step in the British Empire's goal to connect Cairo with Istanbul and, from there, Europe.

On top of the rocks is the border crossing with Lebanon that is operated by the UN. You can walk right up to the gate and, like good tourists, we did. It was quiet and calm, though I imagine that wasn't the case two years ago.

Travels - Israel - Rosh Hanikra

The Beach

2008-09-25T21:21:00.001+02:00

The northern Israeli Mediterranean beach is absolutely fantastic. The water is warm, the sand is clean, and the ever-present waves prevent swimming from ever becoming dull. Laying on the beach, watching the sunset with a cold bottle of Goldstar is really a wonderfully pleasant experience. The climate, falling into the upper seventies as the sun goes down is, of course, the perfect compliment. It's happy, peaceful place, though the passing patrol boat reminds you that you're never that removed from the rest of the world.

Travels - Israel - Beach

Acre

2008-09-25T21:11:00.000+02:00

Acre, like many cities in the region, has been in the hands of various empires and kingdoms. In 1799, under Ottoman rule, it held off a two month siege by Napoleon's troops in his efforts to weaken Turkey.

Today, it is a predominantly Arab city and, as such, has a unique flavor to it. The streets are narrow; the market is crowded, noisy, and in some places, pungent; and the hummus is really delicious.

It appears to derive much of its economy from the tourism that its various historical sites attract. Esther and I were there only for a few hours with Yona before heading to the beach.

Travel - Israel - Acre

Kibbutz Yehiam

2008-09-23T22:17:00.004+02:00

Before I can talk about Yehiam and what makes it unique, a brief discussion of kibbutzes in general seems necessary.

Kibbutzes (kibbutzim following Hebrew plural rules) are, typically, agricultural communities organized around deeply socialist principles. In their most traditional form there is no private property, even clothing is shared among the members. These communities were vital to the development of the country of Israel, allowing the population to rapidly settle the desert, converting much of it to arable land.

This traditional model is extremely rare today and most kibbutzim have undergone some degree of privatization. In its weaker forms, members now own their own clothes and personal possessions, but all of the land, buildings, and vehicles are communally owned. It is not uncommon that all salaries that are earned outside of the kibbutz are given to the community under the principle of "give what you can, receive what you need."

In other cases, privatization has gone much further with members owning their houses, their cars, and keeping a certain portion of their salaries. Yehiam falls into this later category. The transition to this weaker model was not entirely voluntary; it was largely motivated by the poor management and near insolvency of its center of economic production, a factory processing poultry into deli meats.

Naturally, there are a variety of opinions about the future of the kibbutzim and under what model they should be organized. Experience has shown that, unsurprisingly, the communities function very well under the traditional model when the members are there voluntarily and don't feel that they were born into a system that doesn't represent their values. Thus, the first generation of kibbutzniks were exceptionally motivated, the second generation somewhat less so, and the third generation much less. In some cases where a family has moved off of the kibbutz for some years or even a generation, the younger members will move back with the motivation of the original members.

Yehiam is unique in that it is the site of a fortress built originally by the crusaders and used by various empires and governments up to and including the War of Independence of 1948. In that war, the kibbutz was an important rally point for the convoy that supplied the north of the country. This convoy was ambushed with only a few members escaping to the kibbutz; there is a memorial to those lost made of the mangled armored vehicles.

It is the kibbutz that Esther's family is most closely connected to being the current residence of her aunt, uncle, and cousins as well as the previous residence of her father. We spent nearly half of our time at the kibbutz and it was indeed a peaceful time. The landscape is gorgeous, the air is clean and clear, and life inside the kibbutz is quite tranquil. The security situation is never far from view, however. One evening I wondered why the street lights pointed to the exterior of the chain link fence surrounding the kibbutz. I realized that it's because they aren't street lights at all, but perimeter lights.

Travels - Israel - Kibbutz Yechiam

Photo of the Day

2008-09-22T20:34:00.000+02:00

Color Monster - Rosh Hanikra, Israel

Tel Aviv

2008-09-21T21:22:00.003+02:00

We stayed in and around Tel Aviv several times, it was our point of arrival and departure, as well as our base for our trips to Jerusalem. It is the de facto capital of the country and is clearly its economic and cultural hub. Eating dinner one night in a pan-Asian restaurant, we could have easily been in Miami or Berlin, if it weren't for ever-present political situation (quite a euphemism, no?).

More than anywhere else in Israel, however, a certain distance is taken from the problems, lending to them impression that you're removed from it all, almost like you're living in a bubble. At fourteen miles from the West Bank, thirty-five miles from Gaza, and seventy-five miles from Lebanon the impression is quite thin indeed.

Combined, the cities of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem provide a concentrated experience of the contradictions and contrasts inherent to Israel. If you had only two days in the country and you spent one in each city you would leave with quite a good understanding of the country (as best as one can have after only 48 hours, of course).

We stayed two nights in the apartment of Esther's cousin, Yona. Admittedly, drinking coffee on his large balcony in the warm morning air does give you the desire to settle in the city more permanently. The surrounding circumstances return quickly, however, to remind you that the skin of the bubble is indeed fragile.

Travels - Israel - Tel Aviv

Jaffa

2008-09-21T18:56:00.004+02:00

Jaffa is the ancient port city just south of Tel Aviv. According to tradition, it is the port from which Jonas set sail on his journey that landed him in the belly of the whale.

Today it is still a port, though of much less importance than before. Compared to the metropolitan Tel Aviv, it has the feel of a forgotten backwater. Whereas the population of Tel Aviv is predominantly Jewish, that of Jaffa is mainly Arab giving it a very different feel. Rather than feeling like you're at the intersection of Los Angeles and Madrid as you might in Tel Aviv, in Jaffa you feel very much like you're in Amman or Cairo. In general, I got the impression that Tel Avivites rarely visit their southern neighbor.

It was the first town that we visited after arriving and is thus the beginning of this retrospective.

(Following its recent redesign, PicasaWeb no longer offers the static gallery links as before, the only option now are these slideshows. Fell free to watch them here, though I would suggest clicking on anywhere but the play button to go to the PicasaWeb site itself. You will see much larger images there as well as my captions.)The old option is back! I'm replacing all of the albums now.

Travels - Israel - Jaffa

Return to Working Life

2008-09-20T11:05:00.000+02:00

Briefly, my apologies for the dearth of posting recently. Coming back from the tirp to Israel both Esther and I have had inodinate amounts of work to do. There have been some positive developments, notably Esther commiting to a new job and Ravenchase having quite a few private and corporate contracts.

I've sorted almost all of the pictures from Israel (there were 1,700 in total) and most are up on my PicasaWeb page. I'll be posting the albums and some reflections on the locations as soon as possible. To borrow a term from when electronics were made with vacuum tubes and crystals, "Stay tuned!"

Photo of the Day

2008-09-15T20:38:00.000+02:00

Looking out from the Inside - Closed rail tunnel under Rosh Hanikra, Israel

Photo of the Day

2008-09-01T20:32:00.000+02:00

The Last Flag in Israel - Israel/Lebanon Border

Palin

2008-09-01T19:26:00.000+02:00

I can't not post on this, even if I'm in Israel. As is often the case, Andrew Sullivan nicely summarizes my thoughts:

We have had two big presidential decisions from both candidates - the first time we can clearly judge their decision-making skills. Obama's was prudent, cautious, thoroughly vetted, and serious about governing. McCain's was impulsive, rash, barely vetted and decided at the last minute by a small coterie that left everyone else gasping.
We are at war. Another 9/11 is possible. Israel may attack Iran. Pakistan may go up in smoke. Putin may invade another country. Who would you rather have as president?

And:

Sarah Palin seems to have been invented by Stephen Colbert - true believer, gun-lover, relentless foe of polar bears, sister with nine kids and no father in the house, caribou killer...

That's all.

Photo of the Day

2008-08-31T10:11:00.000+02:00

Making Movies in the Bananas - Kibbutz Yechiam, Israel (Photo by Esther)

Photo of the Day

2008-08-30T08:04:00.000+02:00

Market Streets - Old City, Jerusalem

Juxtaposition in Jerusalem

2008-08-27T22:31:00.002+02:00

Imagine a city that's the host nation considers its capital but lacks foreign embassies. A city that is almost completely segregated between its two primary demographic groups. The city was physically sepated a few decades ago of which half has since been officially annexed by the host country, but is still considered to be an occupied territory according to some accounts.

Make that city the home of the holiest sites of two major religions and home to very holy sites for a third. Between these religions, add some talk about a "war of civilizations" and "existential struggle" just to heat things up a bit. Don't only put these sites close to one another, but litterally layer them in some cases.

Visit these holy sites and you'll see devout pilgrims rubbing oil onto a slab of marble, tourist snapping pictures of the fragment of a rock, trash-strewn courtyards with middle-aged men sipping tea, barriers seperating the sexes and the religions, as well as metal detectors, cardboard yarmulkes, and guards with assault rifles to keep everything in order.

The atmosphere is tense but rarely boils over. Encroachment is the favorite passtime, inevitably a zero-sum game in a city hemmed in by walls and mountains.. The struggle is constant and often (though not always) subtle; it's rarely a punch in the face, more often an elbow to the ribs in a crowded elevator.

It's inextricably complicated and will presumably remain so for centuries to come. It's Jersusalem; the center of the world for some, the end of the world for others.

Photo of the Day

2008-08-24T20:40:00.001+02:00

Lovers on the Beach - Beach near Nahariyya, Israel (Photo by Yona Rozenkier)

Photo of the Day

2008-08-21T20:41:00.000+02:00

Streets of Nazareth, Israel

Photo of the Day

2008-08-18T22:17:00.000+02:00

Tunnel of the Templars - Underneath Acre, Israel

Israel: First Impressions

2008-08-18T20:07:00.000+02:00

Dusty and humid, a complex mixture of American, European and Middle Eastern cultures. You walk two steps and you go from Miami Beach to Amman, Jordan. Drive twenty minutes and you're at the closed border to Lebanon. You can talk about the depth of history in a literal sense; there are layers of history dating back thousands of years that are still reflected in the current layers of food, habit, and language.

An Step in the Right Direction

2008-08-18T11:13:00.000+02:00

A researcher at MIT may have made a major step forward in making solar and wind energy practical on a large, industrial scale. One of the obvious problems with solar is that it doesn't work so well when the sun doesn't shine. It's the same story for wind; on a calm day you're left with nothing but a forest of thirty-story modern art sculptures.

In this case, the MIT researcher may have found a way to use electricity to efficiently split water into its constituent elements, hydrogen and oxygen, a process the smart kids call electrolysis. These gases can then be stored for later use in a fuel cell giving you energy even on the calmest, darkest of nights.

Is this the solution to the global energy problem? Almost certainly, no, but it could be another step on the long path towards cheap, clean energy.

(Via Andrew Sullivan)

Photo of the Day

2008-08-17T14:46:00.000+02:00

Gods of the Sun - Tel Aviv Beach

Photo of the Day

2008-08-16T12:55:00.001+02:00

Above the sunset - Somewhere between Paris and Tel Aviv

Holy Land Blogging

2008-08-15T16:02:00.001+02:00

We're off to Israel for two and a half weeks, whenever I have a chance I'll post pictures and wry commentary.

From Potty to Potable

2008-08-15T10:07:00.000+02:00

A very good article in the New York Times about the system which reintroduces treated waste water into California's drinking water supply. The sewage is collected and put through a multi-step process that renders it nearly pure. It is then pumped into a man-made reservoir where it mixes with naturally-collected drinking water, percolates through several hundred feet of sand and gravel, and replenishes the aquifer. About 18 months later, it's pumped back above-ground where it's chlorinated and is brought back into the drinking supply

In addition to the technical specifications, there are several interesting observations, the first being how the issue is typically framed:

If you like the idea, you call it indirect potable reuse. If the idea revolts you, you call it toilet to tap.

Also interesting is the range of possible fresh water to waste water ratios in various systems around the world (think of it as the supply of tolerance relative to the demand for water):

Singapore mixes 1 percent treated wastewater with 99 percent fresh water in its reservoirs. (In Orange County, the final product will contain 17 percent recycled water.) Residents of Windhoek, Namibia, one of the driest places on earth, drink 100 percent treated wastewater.

There is a reminder of the many hidden uses of energy, noting that "about a fifth of California’s energy is used to move water from north to south".

Finally, an example of the technical absurdity that the human psyche makes necessary:

It’s one of the many pardoxes of indirect potable reuse that the water leaving the plant in Fountain Valley is far cleaner than the water that it mingles with. Yes, the water entering the sewage-treatment plant in Fountain Valley is 100 percent wastewater and has a T.D.S. — a measure of water purity, T.D.S. stands for total dissolved solids and refers to the amount of trace elements in the water — of 1,000 parts per million. But after microfiltration and reverse osmosis, the T.D.S. is down to 30. (Poland Spring water has a T.D.S. of between 35 and 46.) By contrast, the “raw” water in the Anaheim basins has a T.D.S. of 600.

If everything in the Fountain Valley plant is in perfect working order, its finished water will contain no detectable levels of bacteria, pharmaceuticals or agricultural and industrial chemicals. The same can be said of very few water sources in this country. But once the Fountain Valley water mingles with the county’s other sources, its purity goes downhill. Filtering it through sand and gravel removes some contaminants, but it also adds bacteria (not necessarily harmful, and local utilities will eventually knock them out them with chlorine) and possibly pharmaceuticals.

The main message is, of course, that rising demand pressures on available resources and the consequences of consumption mean that it is becoming economically and morally necessary to look to the waste stream as a potential resource stream. Thankfully, this is an arena in which technology can play a large role (indeed, that is the subject of this article). I tend to have greater faith in our potential to create new technologies rather than our ability to curb our consumption. That's not to say that I think that this reality is morally defensible, only that it's historical trend which appears very difficult to change. Call it realenvironment.

Photo of the Day

2008-08-14T21:00:00.002+02:00

14th of July Picnic - Parc de Belleville

Photo of the Day

2008-08-13T21:00:00.001+02:00

Call it "Urban" - Marché aux Puces

Mythology and Victimhood

2008-08-13T18:03:00.002+02:00

Ta-Nehisi Coates has written an excellent reflection on "the false nobility of victimhood". It's a concept that I've long thought about, often in the context of Israel/Palestine, and he puts it to words extremely well.

Key point:

All of us need some sort of mythology and no group is immune to nationalism, to the need to believe that we are special.

The consequences of this aspect of human nature are difficult to overstate. Read the whole post, it's worth the time.

Order of Operations

2008-08-13T14:40:00.003+02:00

I'd imgaine that there is a much lower incidence of bank cards being left in ATMs in France. One simple reason: they return your card before your cash. Leave the ATM without collecting your card, maybe. Leave without taking your cash? Very unlikely.

Top Three

2008-08-13T09:12:00.002+02:00

Add this to my top three favorite videos of all time:

I long ago accepted the fact that they would be better than me at climbing trees and eating bananas, peel and all, but it looks like I now need to concede ice skating as well. Who would have thought that the word "graceful" would be appropriately applied to a chimpanzee?

Photo of the Day

2008-08-12T23:13:00.000+02:00

A Question of Scale - Jardin du Luxembourg

Commenting: Now Even Easier!

2008-08-11T23:51:00.002+02:00

Dear Loyal Readers,

It is now even easier to post comments, you were previously redirected to some strange site asking you to jump through all sorts of hoops to get you comment posted.

Now just click on the "Comments" link below any post. A box will appear where you can type your comments. In the drop-down box below that, if you don't have any of the accounts offered (Google, OpenID, etc...) you can select Name/URL and enter just your name (if you don't have a website that you want to share you can leave the URL field empty). Click on "Post Comment" and your comment will appear immediately!

No moderation, no indecipherable words to type in, just pain-free commenting. I hope this encourages all of you to comment more frequently, blogs are best when they're two-way discussions.

Your loyal blogger,
Kurt

P.S. Feel free to try out the new commenting function on this post; go ahead, write anything you'd like! Trust me, it's really easy!

Photo of the Day

2008-08-11T22:29:00.004+02:00

River Seine from Pont L.S. Senghor

I'm going to do my best to post a photo every day. It will, most likely, not have been taken that day, rather it is simply something that I've seen that I'd like to share. Enjoy!

Makes Me Move

2008-08-11T13:37:00.000+02:00

Gnarls Barkley - Going On