Flashback: Tales from Middle-Earth [en]

This is a flashback post, that is, it refers to a long-passed event, or contains content that was originally published through a different channel.
In this case it’s based on an e-mail I sent to a bunch of friends on 2007-12-02.

Hey girls, hey boys!

Time sure passes by! Last time I wrote, I was sitting at the beach in LA. As you may remember I went on to New Zealand the next day. Now, more than two months have passed, and I’m still stuck here in NZ! Of course that’s a good thing, and lots of stuff happened since. So let me fill you in on the details…

Changing planes in Auckland I arrived in Christchurch, a small city on the South Island. After experiencing the American lack of urban planing in Las Vegas and LA, Christchurch turned out to be refreshingly European. Several aspects of the city center (P1) made it
quite hard to believe that I had actually arrived down under.

P1: Neuschwanstein Wieners @ Christchurch

Anyways, the next day I continued my Journey to Queenstown, a small resort town in the middle of the Southern Alps. There I met Vonkish — an old friend of mine from Prague — who has already been living in NZ for 1.5 years. As promised, I could move in at his place, and that’s where I’ve been living ever since.

P2: Lake Wakatipu @ Our Living Room

We share the house among 7 people at the moment, which is quite a lot considering we only have three bedrooms. However, it’s very close to the center of QT, and we have a great view on Lake Wakatipu from our living room (P2). The house itself is not overlygood-looking. Moreover, Kiwis haven’t heard of double glazing or other means of insulation yet. That’s no problem now, but it was rather inconvenient in the winter.

Speaking of which, I was actually able to spend the first few weeks of my trip to NZ enjoying winter. The ski fields closed down about 3 weeks after my arrival, but I was lucky enough to get a cheap pass for the rest of the season. So I’ve been up a place called “The Remarkables” about a dozen times.

While it is one of the most famous resorts in NZ, it is by no means comparable to Europe. They only have three chair lifts, which are all painfully slow. Also, you have to go all the way up by car, and they only have a dusty gravel road. So in the end it takes you about 40 minutes to reach the lifts from Queenstown. To preserve Vonkish’s car, we’ve been hitchhiking most of the time.

Nevertheless, it was a lot of fun to go snowboarding there. They have a pretty decent snowpark and also some nice beginner rails and boxes. However, we got lots of fresh snow on the last days of the season, so we went free-riding most of the time. Even after all accessible slopes are pisted, you can get some great runs hiking up to the ridge of The
Remarkables. And the view up there is astonishing! (P3)

P3: Snowboard Hike @ The Remarkables
(BG: Lake Wakatipu, Queenstown)

After the lifts where closed, the season was not over yet. We still hiked up a couple of times, both at The Remarkables and at Coronet Peak, the other nearby resort. There I met Petr, another Czech guy who has been living here for some time. Since then we were up several times mainly for building boxes (P4) and kickers (P5).

P4: 50-50 to BS 180 out @ Coronet Peak
(BG: The Remarkables)
P5: Frontside Air @ The Remarkables

I also learned some new tricks during that time, including a frontside boardslide and a proper backside 180 over a medium size kicker (6 meter table)(P6). So after all, the snowboarding season was quite good over here. But I’m still a bit pissed hearing that you’ve already got heaps of snow back home in Europe now!

P6: BS180 Mute @ The Remarkables

On the other hand, snowboarding is not the only thing to do around here. Though I haven’t been traveling too much yet, I did a nice trip to the west cost about eight weeks ago. I visited Wanaka (P7), Mt. Aspiring National Park, some nice beaches (P8)(pretty cold though, I was lucky I bought that wetsuit in the US), and the glaciers Fox and Franz Josef, which descent from the Southern Alps and almost reach the sea, surrounded by tropical rain forests.

P7: Lake Wanaka
P8: Haast Beach

Queenstown itself is a rather interesting place, too. Though it only has about 12000 inhabitants, it is crowded with tourists and long-term visitors. Rumors say, there are some 3000 Brazilians living here, and there definitely are heaps of Aussies, British, Irish, Japanese, Koreans, etc. However, you will rarely find Kiwis here!

As you can imagine, this place has anything to rip of tourists. Besides skiing in the winter Queenstown focuses on a wide range of adventure activities. The world’s first commercial bungee jumping site is just a couple of kilometers away, and it’s not the only one nearby. Otherwise they offer stuff like helicopter trips, river surfing, para-gliding, and jet boating. The latter usually costs 60 EUR for a 20 minutes trip, but me and my flat-mates did it almost for free on locals’ day. For 8 Euros, this was actually fun! (P9)

P9: Jetboating @ Shotover River

The other thing I did after the snowboard season ended was getting a part-time job. So I’ve been working at a small computer company for about two months now. They do websites for customers from the tourism industry, and they are a rather relaxed employer. Though it has been fun working there, I decided to quit now and try something else for now.

Last week I applied for a job in some of the local bars here in Queenstown. I was actually invited for a trial in a place called World Bar yesterday, and I’ll start working there next week. Though the place is pretty busy, this kind of work seems very relaxing so far. No
responsibility whatsoever! And it’s only three nights a week, so I should finally have the time to travel some more.

Though I really enjoy working at that bar and going out in Queenstown, all the pubs, bars, and clubs around here are actually pretty crappy. Well, most of you know, how picky I am about the places I go to in Munich. And I have to say, I really miss places like KuK, Favorit,
Hochhaus, and Registratur! On the other hand, it is fun hanging around in these tourist joints with lots of drunk people from all over the world. I even don’t care about the boring music any more. I guess, that’s what it’s like being on vacation!

So that’s about all for now. Just for the record, I intend to stay in New Zealand for another two months. That means, I should be back to Europe by the end of February.

It also means, I’m going to spend Christmas and New Year’s Eve here in Queenstown. Pretty weird considering it is summer by now. We’ll probably do a BBQ by the lake or something. Should be fun! At least I won’t have to put up with all that winterly Christmas decoration crap!

I hope I’ll manage to send my next report a little sooner than this one. Until then, I’d appreciate to hear lots of stories from you! Though I’m not home-sick yet, I definitely want to hear what’s going on at home!

Peace out,
Michael

PS: I still haven’t seen “The Lord of the Rings”.

Perspective [en]

I love how science puts things in perspective:

The earth is a microbial planet, on which macroorganisms are recent additions—highly interesting and extremely complex in ways that most microbes aren’t, but in the final analysis relatively unimportant in a global context.

[…]

Microbial life on this planet would remain largely unchanged were all plant and animal life eliminated, but the elimination of microbial life itself would lead in very short order to a completely sterile planet.
— Carl Woese
(1998) PNAS 95:11043-11046
(first paragraph from private correspondence with Mark Wheelis)

And that’s merely biology. Think physics…

I Feel Hate [en]

Danke Donna! Und danke Giorgio! Schad’ ist’s.

Sehr viel weniger Dank hingegen an die GEMA und die GEZ:

Screenshot der Tagesschau vom 17.05.2012 - Anmoderation des Beitrags "Donna Summer Gestorben" Screenshot der Tagesschau vom 17.05.2012 - Standbild mit folgendem Hinweis: "Kurze Unterbrechung (Dieser Beitrag darf im Internet aus rechtlichen Gründen nicht gezeigt werden)"

Gesehen im Podcast der Tagesschau — einem der wenigen Gründe, die mich noch dazu bewegen ehrlich meine GEZ-Gebühren zu bezahlen. Statt aber auch Internetnutzern adäquate Inhalte zu bieten, halten es ARD und ZDF wohl für sinnvoller mich mit zig Briefen (ja, auf Papier, im Briefkasten) zu belästigen, um zu fragen ob ich nicht doch einen Fernseher hätte.

Hm, bei YouTube ist’s leider auch nicht besser. Zumindest nicht, wenn man’s von Deutschland aus aufruft.

Sacral Architecture [en]

Admittedly, religion can be good for something. What I enjoy most, is some of the architecture it left behind. As for Christianity, some of their buildings even prove useful for skiing:

Shout-out to the rider and the photo team! I think I know who you guys are;)

Btw, found this on Facebook, with no copyright notice in the metadata. So I just assume it’s public domain. Please let me know if you have plausible claims on the image, and want credit or removal!

Update: Rider confirmed as Tobi. Kudos. Turns out however, it’s not exactly a sacral place. More like a mini theme-park, called Play-Castle Tirol. Well, at least the snow is real!

Getting Old in Other Fields [en]

I notice that a most of my recent (!) posts are related to atheism and similar. Didn’t I study computer science and software engineering? Does that mean I’m getting old?


A comic that makes fun about how physicists when they get older inevitably have to be smartasses in other fields.

As seen on SMBC

Hm, I have to post some more on computing in the future. That’s serious stuff, but I can still pull it off. It can’t be true that I’m that far along the line already!

Then again: computer stuff tends to be soooo nerdy. Why not more travel reports? Or snowboarding pics? Or why not express my reservations about surrealism? Ahhhrgg!!! I’m going there, and I cannot help it…

Respect [en]

Recently, friends have brought to my attention that I tend to be rather annoying at times, with respect to stating my views on religion. In particular, that I like to bring up related issues in conversation and to stick to the ensuing discussion persistently. They also point out that I can be quite upfront about such topics, and often lack respect for other people’s religious views.

Well, yes, I admit most of that is true. However, as far as lack of respect goes, I try to apply the following rule:

“We must respect the other fellow’s religion, but only in the sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart.”

— H. L. Mencken, Minority Report (1956)

I originally read this in Dawkins’ The God Delusion, and for a long time I thought he was the original author of the quote. I cannot find it right now, but I think Richard went on to elaborate what it means. It may have been along these lines:

If people mention above belief, we may nod politely, and we should let it go. However, if they constantly rub it in our faces, or insist that we accept their theory as truth, we should point out its flaws. This may go as far as stating that one might consider their wives ugly and their kids not overly bright — if that is what evidence suggests.

So that’s how I like to hold it with religion. Though I have to admit that I am in deed overly sensitive when it comes to religion being rubbed in my face. And yes, on such occasions, I may point out the flaws in religious concepts quickly and sometimes aggressively.

And of course, the religions I’ve encountered so far make it way too easy to point out flaws! Don’t think so? Please feel free to leave a comment or contact me, and discuss your objections…

Note: The original quote is from the fifties, so no wonder it’s slightly sexist. Please feel free to replace all occurrences of fellow with gal, his with her, and (if you wish) wife with husband. IMHO the resulting sentence transports the message equally well.

New Rule: Germany Needs a TV-Show Like Bill Maher’s [en]

Germany has never been as renown for good comedy or politics, as it was for bureaucracy, luxury cars, or invading Poland. Needless to say that political TV shows here are pretty repetitive and uncontroversial. I have to admit that I don’t watch a lot of TV, but I’m always bored to death when I get a glimpse of one these prime-time talk shows with high-profile political guests.

And while many German comedians like to have a poke at politicians, there seems to be few shows that seriously discuss politics from a humorous point of view. Actually, only the heute show comes to mind, which is — as the name suggests — more or less a rip-off of John Stewart’s Daily Show. It’s not bad, but definitely not as good as the original.

So sure, I’m jealous of the US for having great shows like John’s and Stephen Colbert’s. I’ve been watching them for quite some time now. But I got even more jealous, when I recently discovered Real Time with Bill Maher.

Unlike other comedy shows, which focus on monologue or dialogue, Bill Maher invites several guests and actually has a discussion with them. While some of the guests appear on the show regularly, there is a huge variety of guest from politics, culture and science — some rather famous, others hardly known outside their field. But they all seem to have interesting things to say on Real Time and actively engage in discussion. It may be because Bill does not shy away from inviting guests with different points of view. At the same time he manages to moderate conflicts and keep the discussion factual while encouraging witty humor.

Of course Bill (also being a stand-up comedian) throws in his own jokes now and then. For instance his proposal for a new gun control law, after the horrible Trayvon Martin incident:

I think we should have a ‘use it or loose it’ law. Yeah. Where at least once every 6 months you HAVE to shoot someone! After all, isn’t that what gun nuts really want? Otherwise what’s the point of collecting something that just sits on the shelf? I mean I collect rare Ming-Dynasty opium pipes — but I USE them.

Or this remark to Republican voters in the 2012 primaries:

For a Republican candidate to NOT disappoint you, he would have to be Jesus of Nazareth. And even Jesus would be toast after a few news-cycles, because:
– Feed the hungry? Sounds suspiciously like welfare!
– And heal the sick? For free?? … That is definitely Obama-Care!
– And turn the other cheek? Maybe you didn’t hear, Jesus, but this is the party that cheers executions!

Or his famous New Rule segments:

New rule: If you wanna send me a link, you must take the extra 5 seconds to tell me what it is! How do I know if I’m going to see some adorable kittens at play or a piece of truly disgusting fetish porn that will be burnt into my brain for the rest of my life? I NEED that info, because really at this point, I’ve seen plenty of kittens.

New rule: If you find yourself prefacing more than half the things you say with: ‘I’m not a racist, but …’ — you’re probably a racist.

New Rule: Mitt Romney has to start understanding why people don’t like him. It’s not because he’s rich. It’s how he got rich. […] Henry Ford […] Walt Disney […] Jobs and Wozniak […] Mitt Romney […] You see what the first 3 have that Mitt doesn’t? A product! Something they made besides money.

Boy, I really wish we had a show like that here in Germany. Although, to be fair, American politicians really make it easy for comedians. I mean German politics is fucked up (especially here in Bavaria) but luckily we don’t have weirdos that would match up with Bill O’Reilly, Sarah Palin or Rick Santorum.

Open Letter to the Atheist, Secularist and Humanist Society at London School of Economics [en]

Subject: Your controversy with the LSE Students’ Union

Dear Members of the Atheist, Secularist and Humanist Society,

I’m writing to support and encourage you in your struggle with the LSE Students’ Union, which apparently originated around your endorsement  of a Jesus and Mo cartoon on Facebook. Actually, to me it seems the conflict only arose because some people decided to be pissy about it.

I mean, come on! This whole issue is utterly ridiculous! I’m not familiar with the organization structure of the groups at your University, let alone their statutes. Admittedly, I wasn’t even able to reconstruct which particular Jesus and Mo strip caused all the hassle. (Was it seriously just the cover art of the Jesus and Mo Vol. 3 book?) Nevertheless, as someone who has read most Jesus and Mo strips in the past, I can say that the issue has been blown out of proportion tremendously.

Can people be offended by Jesus and Mo? They certainly can! Do people have good reason to be offended by Jesus and Mo, based on “any form of racism and discrimination” or lack of “tolerance, diversity, and respect”, as the LSE Students’ Union claims? I strongly disagree with that notion! Being familiar with the cartoons, I can say that Jesus and Mo do not engage in discrimination, intolerance, disrespect, or similar towards any person or group. The strips criticize concepts, rather than people. And IMHO they pick on concepts that deserve criticism, and they do it in a calm, civilized and well-rationalized manner.

Now, if people are offended by that, that’s all well and good. But are you the ones to blame? Heck no! Different people are offended by all kinds of things. And I think its not very polite to knowingly rub such things in their faces.  However, you did not rub anything into anyones face. You did not walk up to arbitrary students and try to convince them to like Jesus and Mo cartoons.  You did not nail a Jesus and Mo poster to a church door. You did not shout Jesus and Mo punchlines from a minaret. And even if you did, the worst thing I could say is that you were not being very polite. Or as you yourself put it, “offence is not a sufficient reason for certain artistic and satirical forms of expression to be prohibited.”

I for one feel offended by the prevalence of religious ideology in our society. I feel deeply troubled by the effects of superstitious believes on public live and politics. The fact that well-educated and influential members of our society still believe in supernatural deities is an insult to my intellect. But I’m not blaming these people for offending me. You won’t see me running to mommy (or the authorities) and demand that everyone else changes their offensive beliefs. Likewise, the people that are offended by your reference to Jesus and Mo should stop being such crybabies about it!

Sadly, this controversy is not going on in Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Sumatra, or the US Bible Belt. This is happening in Britain, in Europe, for Bobs sake! In 2012! Whatever happened to our ideals of free speech and tolerance? Didn’t we learn anything from Voltaire? You are not the ones who are running contrary to these principles! But the LSE Students’ Union certainly appears to be.

That’s why I’d like to encourage you ‒ the Atheist, Secularist and Humanist Society ‒ not to give in to the demands of the LSE Students’ Union. I seriously doubt their claim that “the action of posting these cartoons was in breach of Students’ Union policy on inclusion and the society’s constitution.” And even if it was, there are higher values at stake here, and the respective statutes would need to be adjusted accordingly.

I’m confident that you’ll be be able to “engage with LSESU and work with them further to resolve the situation.” But please don’t compromise your ideals just to avoid conflict. I’m sure there are many people out there who fully agree with your stance on the issue. I certainly do. Please let all of us know, if you need any support!

Best regards,
Michael Riedel

“I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”
‒ probably not Voltaire

Titanic’s Überwachungs-ABC [en]

Die Titanic hat es mal wieder geschafft. Im aktuellen Heft gibt’s einen sehr guten Überblick zu dem, was mich im Moment an sogenannter “Sicherheitspolitik” stört. Leo Fischer kommentiert das Thema viel treffender und unaufgeregter als wir Internet-Nerds es je könnten:

Das kleine ABC der Überwachung

Der Herr Friedrich (und seine Vorgänger) sehen dabei nicht gut aus:)

Widerstand gegen Facebook formiert sich [en]

Dass ich persönlich kein großer Fan von Facebook bin, ist einigen Leuten sicher bekannt. Schön zu sehen daher, dass sich langsam Widerstand formiert!

Das entsprechende Engagement des Datenschutzbeauftragen von Schleswig-Hollstein mögen manche zwar für kleinkariert halten, es ist aber längst überfällig. Neulich wurde ich durch einen Telepolis-Artikel auch auf die Initiative Europe vs. Facebook aufmerksam, die sich kritisch mit dem Thema Datenschutz bei Facebook auseinander setzt. Die haben es wohl tatsächlich geschafft, die irischen Behörden dazu zu bewegen Facebooks dortige Europa-Zentrale mal etwas genauer unter die Lupe zu nehmen, was die Einhaltung europäischer Datenschutzbestimmungen angeht.

Auf der Website der Initiative gibt es auch eine schöne Auflistung dazu, welche personenbezogenen Daten Facebook überhaupt speichert. Da geht primär um den Teil der Daten, dessen Speicherung Facebook selbst zugibt ‒ also nur um die Spitze des Eisbergs. Ist zwar alles ziemlich offensichtlich, aber trotzdem ein netter Einstieg für Leute, die sich noch nicht mit dem Thema beschäftigt haben.

Höchste Zeit also, sich nach Alternativen umzusehen. (Google+ ist dabei kein Schritt in die richtige Richtung, denn es ist genauso zentralistisch strukturiert, und genauso von fiskalischen Interessen geleitet wie Facebook.) Werde mir mal genauer ansehen müssen, wie es derzeit um verteilte Ansätze wie Diaspora oder Buddycloud steht…

Update: Hier noch schöner kurzer Artikel bei Netzpolitik.org, der meine Meinung zu Facebook ziemlich gut wider gibt.

Elektroviehgatter [en]

In manchen Gegenden der Alpen scheint es immer noch massive Vorbehalte gegen Radfahrer (wenn’s sein muss: Mountain-Biker) zu geben, die zu allerlei Schikanen führen:

Elektroviegatter - Radfahrer bitte ohne absteigen langsam durchfahren!Autsch!!! Im Bild sieht man’s schlecht, aber da ragen zwei stromführende Schwenkarme in Hüfthöhe über den gesamten Weg. Zum Glück war ich zu Fuß unterwegs, und konnte die Umgehung nehmen. (Wenn’s sein muss: den Chicken-Way.)

Wireless Earphones: The next generation [en]

Almost a year ago, I reported about the Bluetooth earphones I got. I still don’t get why so few people are using similar devices. Let alone, why there are so few similar products on the market.

The Bad

However, the model I picked (Jabra Clipper) was not all sunshine. After using it some while, it turned out that the wireless connection between my cell-phone and the earphones was rather frail. It worked most of the time, but when something got in between the two devices it easily got interupted, which lead to short breaks in the audio. Hence not suited for sports!

More annoyingly, the earphones always broke. I say always, cause it happened to me 3 times within half a year: The socket that connects the main part with the actual ear-plugs got messed up. It did not hold the plug properly any more, and I could only hear one channel. A simple matter of corrosion, I assume. Exactly the time of problem you’d expect with a high-tech device!

Anyways, I returned the device to the dealer, and got a new one no questions asked. Three times. The last specimen I had actually worked well for a couple of months — until I lost it. Due to all the trouble I had had, I decided to go for a different model this time…

The Ugly

This time I picked a product by Sony Ericsson, the MW600. It was a tough decission, since IMHO the device looks really horrible. It’s a bulky stick with an ugly logo on it, and a mostly irrelevant LC-Display. The whole Jarba Clipper was built as a flat clip itself, one that was solid and functional. The MW600 has a separate clip attached to it, which looks ugly, is fiddly, and does not seem overly robust.

Even worse, the thing has 5 buttons on it, plus one touch-sensitive volume control bar. The buttons are distributed all over the  MW600, which makes it allmost impossible to hold it without accidentally stopping music or dialing a call. In contrast the Jabra Clipper only had 3 easily distinguishable buttons, and made use of gestures (double-click, long press, etc.) for advanced functions. I could easily control the device without looking — and with my skiing-gloves on. I doubt I’ll be able to do that with the MW600 next season.

The Good

Looks and usability left aside, I’ve had the MW600 for a couple of weeks now, and I’m quite happy with it so far! Why? Mainly because it lacks all of the wireless connectivity issues I’ve had with the Jabra Clipper. Previously I assumed, these issues were due to limitations of the Bluetooth standard. But it appears that the antennas built into the particular devices make a big difference. With the MW600, I can hold the phone behind my back, and still listen music uninterruptedly. It also seems much more reliable during sports!

Needless to say that, so far, I didn’t experience any trouble regarding the audio jack that connects the ear-plugs. So overall, I’d recomend the MV600 over the Jabra Clipper at the moment. However, I really hope will bring Jabra a new release that fixes the quality problems described above. In that case I might be tempted to switch back.