Day 365 (bis) : End!

Well this is it.  After 365 days my blog is finally coming to an end.  I know there have been ups and downs, good and bad, controversial and bland, funny and depressing so I appreciate those of you who have managed to stay with me all this time.  My blog has been a great outlet but also a burden sometimes.  On average it has taken me 1 hour a day which, if you subtract 7hrs of sleep and 9hrs of work, represents 12.5% of my personal and family time (25% of my evening time).  My darling wife has been very understanding (even appreciative sometimes) but I think I need to increase my level of home interaction.  I have the feeling that I haven't managed  to convince a large following to take up cold showering or close their facebook accounts but I hope I have occasionally informed and provoked.

I would like to thank all of you who commented, sent me messages of encouragement, referred to me in their own blogs or just occasionally read it.

This blog has been made with 100% organic thoughts and is completely recyclable.  No animals were harmed in the process.  No slave or child labour was used in the production of this blog which is certified as 100% free of nationalism.

Just in case you were wondering the blog competition was won by my sister (hiding under the pseudonym of Aunt_C).  She therefore wins the right to takeover my blog for a year (you're welcome!  Ruben came in second thanks to a concerted effort in the last quarter and Julian Farod (10 retroactive points to the first one to tell me who that is) came in third after being in the lead for the whole of the 3rd quarter.

Day 365 : End ?

Not quite.  Its late and I have a 6:40 AM flight tomorrow so my final blog post will be tomorrow!

Day 364 : Justice

This is my penultimate blog and I realise I haven't talked about justice.  I have had occasion to go to (civil) court a few times in my life and while you wait for your turn you listen to other people's cases.  The most interesting part of the proceeding is the realization that most of the time both sides have equally plausible stories.  I remember wondering how judges could ever decide cases when both sides have seemingly cast iron cases.  When my children were younger if they had done something wrong and they started to blame it on each other I would tell them I'm not interested in the stories as it was impossible for me to tell whose version was the "real" one (if there is such a thing).   I'm not a fan of the criminal justice system, but I can see why sometimes society needs to protect itself against individuals with violent behaviour.  On civil cases however I think we need to rethink our approach.  Instead of having a judge we could have a mediator.  The parties involved in the dispute would be required to negotiate until they had reached a common agreement.  In the absence of an agreement both parties could be fined (according to their means) or the object of the dispute could be sequestered.  The best outcome is always a negotiated rather then an imposed outcome.  Justice is based on the idea that there is a "fair" or "real" version of a human interaction.  We need to move away for this absolutist (quasi religious) view of the world and accept the relativity of all our point of view. There are 15 million civil lawsuits every year in the United States: that's 15 million occasions to engage with someone and try to come to an agreement.

Day 363: Offset

Its Tuesday night and I left Paris on Sunday afternoon taking a train to Amsterdam then I drove 3 hours to Essen near Bremen in Germany the next day Monday I drove 2 hours to Hamburg. Finally today I flew to Paris this morning and flew back to Hamburg this evening and then I will fly back to Paris on Friday morning.  In one week I will have generated at least 250Kg of CO2 when the individual target to  combat climate change is 40Kg per week. As I can't change jobs in the short term I need to offset my excess carbon generation.  Luckily there are  all sorts of projects to which you can give money to plant trees or otherwise offset your CO2 emission.  I'm not a fan of just sending a check, so I worked out what I need to do:

1. Assuming I will live to a 100
2. My full life of CO2 emissions will probably represent around 800 Tons
3. I need 2 trees to absorb 1 ton of CO2

That means that if I want my presence on this earth to have been carbon neutral I need to plant 1,600 trees, lets call it 2,000 to be safe.  So my next project will be to work out where I can buy enough land (preferably for a low price) to be able to plant 2000 trees!

Suggestions and offers welcome

2 more posts

Day 362: Water

I had 5 hours sleep last night and I will have less than 5 tonight, so I will keep this post brief.  Yesterday I slept in Cloppenberg which is a small village close to Bremen in North Germany.  I can confirm that cold showers there are particularly cold probably 12° rather than 14° or  even 15° in Malta.  After over a year of cold showers I have no desire to go back.  Even though its still hard sometimes to get under the water my overall level of satisfaction is extremely high.   I'm also sure that they contributed to my overall health this year..  I wonder if I will ever take a warm shower again?  

3 Posts left. 

Day 361: Carbon

Today Theo suggested that we should stop buying any beef and cow milk as the raising of cows worldwide is becoming a major environmental issue.  In addition I recently read an article on the problem linked to disposing of cow pooh which is full of methane and is harmful to rivers and lakes.  The idea that as it is "natural" it can be used as fertilizer is a fantasy.  It seems there are now lakes of the stuff in certain areas of the US as farmers don't know what to do with it.  The problem is that its not just milk and beef that we should stop eating, it would also include butter, cheese and cream.  I decided to look at my individual carbon footprint to see what it would take for me to stay within acceptable levels.  It seems that if everyone lived like me we would need 2 Earths to be sustainable.  Its depressing because I don't feel I'm a big meat eater, I don't use a car, Our apartment isn't huge and is well insulated and I don't buy that much "stuff".  If I need to divide my overall consumption by two that seems challenging to say the least. The worst part is that most of my excess carbon footprint is mainly linked to flying (for work and holidays).

I guess I need to become unemployed to save the planet!

4 more posts!

Day 360 : Writing

Fianna and I went to see a nice French movie tonight Le mystère Henri Pic.  Its a very French film centered around a mystery, literature and romance.  Don't worry I'm not going to start doing movie criticism in my blog but as I come to the end of my year it reminded me of  my ambition? desire? fantasy? to one day write (and publish) a book.  Over the past 360 days I have written on average 150 words a night which represents just under half a novel.  If I can do that in my spare time surely it should be possible for me to write a book in a year if that's all I did.  I'm not sure why I have always had this feeling that writing a book is something I need to do.  What kind of book you may ask ?  Well here are 10 books that have made me want to write:

1. Les racines du ciel
2. 100 years of solitude
3. Belle du seigneur
4. The world according to Garp
5. Revolutionnary road
6. L'éducation sentimentale
7. Pride and prejudice
8. Gone with the wind
9. Dead souls
10. Catch 22

Now all I need to do is find a story, decide on the language and set aside the time.  

Day 359 : Elite

Tonight I was discussing his university options with Theo. Most countries have elite educational institutions which can be deplored or applauded depending on you point of view.  Although I'm sure the French grandes écoles offer (in their own way) an extremely rigorous education, I do feel they lack diversity.  French elite institutions are either engineering, business or political schools. There is no real possibility for studying German or religion or anthropology at an elite establishment in France. In the US or the UK on the other hand excellent universities pride themselves on their diversity.  If you go to Stanford or Oxford you can study practically anything from the sciences or humanities:  art history, mathematics,  psychology, linguistics, etc.  The French system produces highly intelligent elites... But they tend to think in similar ways. Some times its good to just have a different point of view.

6 posts left!

Day 358: Censorship

Following the massacre of 30 muslims in New Zealand last week there have been many debates about internet social media sites and in particular twitter, you tube or facebook which allowed people to upload images of the massacre.  Why does the internet have different rules to other publishers of content (newspapers, tv channels) ? Is the internet a publisher or is it a infrastructure provider.  My first reaction was to think that the internet should be considered a publisher and should have responsibility for the content, however I have since changed my mind.  Internet providers are more like billboard companies.  If a poster advertised on a billlboard is deemed offensive its not the billboard company that is liable its the advertising company.  Social media providers are like paper companies or tv sets they do not create  or even choose any of their content so why should they be held responsible?  I find censorship always difficult to justify.  Where and who draws the line ?   Do we trust people or not ?  Censorship implies that certain people know better than others  what is good or bad for everyone ?  Its on that principle that authoritarian governments get built! 

Day 357: Optimism

Most people who know me would probably classify me as an optimist. I tend to see solutions rather then problems (I have a T-shirt to prove it) and I have faith in my fellow man (or woman).  I believe that most people would rather help me than hinder me.   What I find strange is that there are people who don't think like this.  I've never understood the concept of expecting the worst or preparing yourself for a bad outcome.  If things go wrong its not your preferred outcome whether you're an optimist or a pessimist.  I feel like pessimists have a double whammy of feeling bad because they expect things to go bad and then still feeling when they do, at least if your an optimist you have a an initial positive feeling and I don't think you feel worse if things do go wrong.  Actually, as an optimist when things go wrong you just think it will be better next time.  The rational attitude is to be an optimist.

Countdown: 8 more posts to go. ( For the optimists out there: Don't think I will be extending my deadline!)

Day 356: Left

Yes as I mentioned yesterday I am part of the oppressed minority of left handed people.  In these times of  political correctness, gender acceptance, colour blindness and general acceptance of differences I am disappointed at the lack of attention which has been given to the plight of the lefties.  For those of you who don't realise how hard the world is for us here are a few pointers:

1. We are forced to shake people's right hand instead of using our left
2. Dessert spoons and fish knives have the knife edge on the wrong side
3. Potato peelers are often made for righties (although now there some ambidextrous ones)
4. Why is there no national holiday for lefties ?  
5. Spoons are put on the wrong side of my plate
6. Why are there no statistics on lefties in parliament or in board rooms ? (Its a plot to keep us out)
7. Why do I have to write from left to right when the other way would be much easier?
8. Why are scissors and can openers made for right handed use?
9. Is it fair that right also means correct, implying that us lefties are always wrong?
10. Breast pockets on shirts and jackets are always on the left side (making it impossible to use with your left hand)
11. I would like to call for the creation of the position of "left-hand man or woman"

Day 355: Watch

I've always liked watches even as a teenager. My current watch was given to me by Fianna, I like the Milanese mesh bracelet and the minimalist design.  But I'm wondering what's the point of having a timepiece on your wrist in the 21st century. I'm often at my computer which displays the time permanently and I always have my smartphone with me which gives me the exact time instantly.  So in reality my watch is just an accessory like a hat or a tie.  Maybe I need a watch detox so that I can wear it occasionally rather then everyday?  In over 40 years I don't think there has ever been a time where I didn't wear a watch.  As this has been the year of breaking habits (even if only temporarily) I'm going to try going watch-less for a month.  Maybe after my detox I can then learn to have my watch on my right hand which is where I should wear it since I'm left handed.

PS: As an early warning I am now 10 blogposts away from the end of my Year of Blogging

Day 354: 7

The reason Fianna and I spent the weekend in Malta is that its our 7th wedding anniversary.  This year is the wool anniversary (maybe that's where the itch comes from) although I did pick cashmere for Fianna's gift. The weekend was a perfect encapsulation of our marriage.  I picked a destination I knew she would like, Fianna was enthusiastic, we had a smallish fight, we made up (with all the trimmings!), we had some good meals and some simple meals, we went swimming in cold water (some of us took longer to get in!), we stayed in a nice hotel but went around on a scooter and most important we fully enjoyed each other's company...

The only itch I'm feeling is the one to spend 7 x 7 more anniversaries with Fianna

Day 353: Hearing

1 million people marched against Brexit in London today.  4.5 Million people (and counting) signed an official government petition demanding the withdrawal of the Article 50 notification.  These are significant numbers demonstrating that there is clear dissatisfaction with the current Brexit process and that "the will of the people" is far from clear.  Why is it so difficult for politicians to hear disagreement ?  I don't expect Theresa May to reverse her positions but at least she could engage in dialogue ?  At this point time is running out but what stopped her from organizing citizens assemblies and debates in order to get people involved, weigh the different options and understand the trade-offs.  A year of national dialogue  after the Brexit vote would have helped to determine a common realistic position which would then have probably been much easier to negotiate with the EU.  It would still have been a compromise (which means nobody is satisfied) but it would have been everybody's compromise rather than just the Prime Minister's.  Successful politicians near to understand that listening does not have to mean agreeing it just means engaging! 

Day 352: Malta

I have arrived in Malta  for a 3 day weekend with Fianna.  Malta is situated between Sicily and Tunisia and was the home of the Knights Hospitallers of St John for 500 years.   We are staying in Valletta the "capital city" which is quite striking.  Its on an outcrop of rock surrounded by water and the architecture is a mixture of Italian renaissance Palaces and Medieval fortifications.  As the country was a British colony for 150 years English is one of the official languages and they drive on the left.  Walking around Malta I thought about how it is an example of why I find the European Union such a great organisation.  The country joined the EU in 2004 and is the smallest country in the EU with 460 thousand people.  It is also the smallest economy (though not the poorest). And yet it has (more or less) the same rights in the EU Council as France or Germany.  When Theresa May asks the 27 EU leaders for an extension or a renegotiation of Brexit everybody has to agree including Malta.  I can't think of any other international organisation where the smaller members have as much influence and respect (within reason of course).  The EU may well have many faults and problems (tell me which state doesn't) but its founding principles are based on compromise, tolerance and mutual respect.  Can we ask for anything more?

Day 351: Teleworking

In developed economies more than 80% of jobs are office based.  Considering the technology we have today I wonder why these people need to go to an office to carry out their duties.  E-mail, skype, mobile, shared drives, cloud services our main "work tools" allow us to be anywhere.  Office space costs between 100€ and 1,000€ per month per person depending on where you are.  If we seriously encouraged organisations to do teleworking we could :

1. Save an average of 1 hour a day of commute time per office worker
2. Reduce the amount of CO2 released in the atmosphere
3. Reduce the amount of office space needed  which would lower housing prices and possibly homelessness
4. Reduce the number of Bullshit Jobs as defined by David Graeber (not that I necessarily agree with him).  If you work from home you need less managers checking what you do.  Everybody becomes self motivated
5. Enhance social interactions with family and friends which can only bring positive mental health benefits (Ok Fine it depends on  your family!)
6. Increase employees pay since organisations no longer have to pay for all that unused office space

It's easy to implement:  Significantly increase taxes on office buildings and companies will immediately react!

Day 350 : Principle

Finally the PPE (centre right party in the European Parliament) has decided to expel Viktor Orban's Fidesz party from its group.  I am not a believer in the idea that by accepting fascists and nationalists we will somehow win them over.  People with authoritarian tendencies are inherently cynical and Manichean they do not think in terms of win-win.  The European Union project is based on democracy, freedom and tolerance.  Countries that do not recognize themselves in those values should be put on temporary suspension.  

Day 349: Swimming

As I mentioned yesterday in the absence of my bicycle I have decided to take up swimming for a while.  I have been doing 14 lengths at the local swimming pool.  What I like about swimming is that it is an all around sport.  You use you leg, your arms, your body and you need to control your breathing.  I would actually prefer to do swimming everyday rather than cycling, if there weren't a few issues:

1. Swimming pools in Paris do not open at 6:AM
2. You have to spend a lot of time going to the pool, undressing, showering, dressing again ... which means to do 40 mins exercise takes at least an hour and half
3. I haven't found earphones that work for swimming which means I can't listen to music or the radio while I'm in the pool...(it does get boring)
4. The water in swimming pools isn't cold enough (yes you read that right)
5. I lost and cannot find the book called "Yoga Swimming" which a friend lent me 20 years ago and which explained how to transform swimming into yoga (my gratitude and a gift of 10 bandes dessinées to anyone who finds the book and sends it to me). 

Day 348: Hamburg

Here I am in Hamburg for the week.  Its quite far North so still gets dark early and quite cold. But there is always something appealing about cities on water.  As I could not take my bike with me to do my morning ride I decided to do evening swimming instead.  I identified a pool a few kms away from my hotel that is open until 10:30 PM but I didn't realise Hamburg is still stuck in the 20th century.  First there is no Uber in Hamburg (only normal taxis that you can't find),  no Lime or Bird scooters, no Cityscoots, no Velib and no shared electric cars.  In the end I had to rent a bike from the hotel which was quite expensive and required filling in forms at the desk.  It made me realise how lucky we are in Paris with the wide range of options which we now have to get around.  On the positive side the swimming pool was really great.  A spacious modern building with an olympic pool which was nearly square it was so wide.  The swim lanes had plenty of space which meant you never felt crowded.  Finally the shower (cold of course) and dressing room were pleasant, clean and in great condition.  

Day 347: Streets

Today I played squash with Louis.  The squash court in on the other side of Paris, so I borrowed Fianna's (electric) car to go there.  On the way there an back we noticed the amount road work which was being undertaken to reduce the space for cars and make space for pedestrians, bicycles and buses.  Although I am in favour of banning petrol cars from cities I find this approach even better.  Instead of banning cars the mayor of Paris is just making it very slow to drive around Paris.  As less and less road space is given to cars, people will realise that it is be coming the slowest rather than the fastest way to get around.  The mayoral elections are due next year I will be voting for whoever promises to reduce automotive traffic the most! 

Day 346: Entitlement

If anybody doubts the fact that having too much money not good for you they can just look at college bribery scandal in the US. Rich people who's children already have a huge built in advantage payed hundreds of thousand of dollars to get their offspring into elite academic institutions.  This kind of entitlement is exactly why there are revolutions.  I understand the parents and the bribe takers will be facing legal consequences, but I haven't heard any measures being taken against the universities themselves who are pleading ignorance. The truth is that most of these institutions have a tendency to take a disproportionate amount of "legacy student" (sons and daughters of alumni) even without bribes.  Since universities are keen to be well regarded in the rankings the best way to change those behaviours would be to change the ranking systems. Instead of the present "objective" peer review based on publications, academic views and employment prospects lets use different criteria:

1. Absence of legacy students
2. Representatives of the student body compared to society
3. Gender balance
4. Variety of school results of the students before coming to the university
5. Originality of the recruitment process 

Day 345: Travel

Sunday I'm off to Hamburg to do a diagnostic of a Cement Company. I'm leading a team of 6 people for the next 3-4 weeks in Germany this will entail me flying back and forth from Paris a few times much to the detriment of our planet.  It seems strange that despite Hamburg having a population of 1.8 million my client still needs to ask a non-German speaking Frenchman to come and their diagnostic.  Throughout the world the number of (supposedly intelligent) graduates has been going up every year. The world is now producing 200 million graduates each year and we have the technology (at no cost) to undertake video conferences with participants from all over the world.  Of course its helpful to have met somebody at least once physically before interacting with them through a screen but I believe that a big share of the business travel we do is unnecessary and wasteful.  If we really wanted to develop local sourcing there is a simple way: massively increasing the cost of airline fuel.  

Taking a plane (even in economy) is a luxury which destroys our environment we should make sure that the price of a ticket includes a high enough carbon tax to completely offset the environmental damage. So for a transatlantic flight you would have to pay into a fund that would buy 40m2 of amazonian rain forest to be preserved. 

Day 344: Foreign

Yesterday Louis pointed out to me that he doesn't really understand the concept of Foreign.  What he meant was that he doesn't see himself as a foreigner when he is living in a country.  When he is in Paris he is Parisian, in London a Londoner and in Montreal a Montrealer (?).  I'm sure that he would feels the same anywhere he happens to live and I would be surprised if Sasha doesn't feel the same way.   I think the whole concept of Foreign should be removed from our collective consciousness.  We could remove the word from the dictionary as a start.  People don't see themselves as foreign when they move from one area to another inside a town or from one town to another inside a country.  Why do we need to label people as foreign ?  Its not a language thing since there are countries with multiple languages and there are multiple countries with the same language.  Its not a race thing since people of all races can share the same nationality.  Its not a distance thing look at Russia or Luxembourg.  A person is no more (or less) a foreigner to me if the live in Tokyo or in the flat underneath.

PS:

Well done to Aunt_C who pointed out my first reference to Brexit was in my very first Blog.

2 Points to the one who guesses whats my favourite film that takes place in Tokyo.

Day 343: Brexit

Today my Californian friend T.  sent me an e-mail asking me to explain why the British don't just take a new vote since they can't seem to agree a way forward and must have realised by now that the original vote was based on lies and deceit by the Brexiters.  So here are some reasons why rerunning the vote is still a long shot:

1. The Prime Minister (Theresa May) converted to Brexit after the vote and like all new converts she is now "more royalist than the king" as we say in France.  Se feels her duty is to execute "the will of the people" even if no one is quite sure what that is anymore.
2. The Leader of the Opposition (Jeremy Corbyn) is actually a life long opponent of the EU and would prefer to just ignore the whole subject.  Although most of his party is now against Brexit he is still avoiding making any decisions on the subject if at all possible. 
3. Although their would be large theoretical majority across parties in Parliament for stopping Brexit or having the softest possible version.   The Right/Left divide is still stronger then the Pro/Con Brexit divide.
4. Many politicians are afraid to be seen as reversing "the will of the people".  For some reason a new vote would be seen as anti democratic.  Of course that makes no sense since if you accept that referendums are democratic then surely you can have as many as you want. (The whole problem is that referendums are not a good way to resolve complex problems).
5. If there were a new referendum nobody knows what the question would be.  Would it be Stop Brexit or Mrs May's deal?  Or No deal Brexit vs Staying in the EU? Or a 3 way choice?
6. At this point in time after close to 3 years of Brexit drama from morning to night the British public's main attitude is one of utter boredom with the whole subject.  Many people just want the whole thing over and done with, irrespective of the outcome.

My friend gets a point for giving me  a Blog subject.  And I will mention that with 23 days to go before the end of the competition 4 readers are still in the running to come out top.  Everything is still possible even for those who are seemingly far behind. 

2 Bonus points to the first person who can tell me in which Blog post I first mentioned Brexit.    

Day 342: Spam

Its the internet's 30th birthday and although overall its been an amazing invention I find one aspect particularly irritating: SPAM. Unsolicited e-mail (and increasingly phone calls) are an unacceptable imposition on our time.  It should be illegal to phone or write to people without their prior consent.  I'm pretty sure that internet and telephone companies have the technical capacity to make too hard for the spam industry to survive.  The problem with these e-mails and calls is that they now cost practically nothing so it doesn't matter if only 1 person in 10 or 100 thousand actually answers.  You can reach 100s of millions of people at practically no cost.  If we had to give written consent by physical mail for any company to be able write to us it would kill a useless industry and save our postal system.  In the mean time I urge you all to never answer unsolicited e-mails or unknown phone calls nothing good ever comes from them.

Day 341: Conversion

My cold shower this morning felt practically warm after a week of icy water in the mountains.  The cold showers in the ski resort last week were particularly icy, and although I can't say I enjoyed them at the time I (sort of) miss them now.  I have a feeling that I may not have persuaded as many people as I would like to the benefits of cold showers.  And yet I'm convinced that it is healthy for the mind and the body as well as for the planet.  I have not been ill this year, whereas I use to always have a sore throat for a week or two in the winter.  

Day 340: Private planes

Today I was reading in the economist that Private Jets (for the very rich) represent close to 1% of all US CO2 emissions and could represent 4% by 2050.   How can it be right or ethical that less than 0.01% of the population in America is allowed to disproportionately pollute the planet for the rest of us.  Private Jets (as they have no legitimate use) should either be completely prohibited or at least taxed prohibitively with the money going to a carbon offset fund.  Another possibility would be to increase the transparency around the carbon footprint of companies and possibly individuals.  People are always more reluctant to engage in antisocial behaviour if they know it may be publicised.

Day 339: Pleasure

We left Les Menuires, in the French Alps, this morning at 8 o'clock and after a three hour drive a short lunch in Lyon and a 2 hour TGV ride we were home by 3:30PM.  If we had driven (as we used to) we would probably have arrived at 6 or 7 pm after navigating the end of vacation traffic jams around Paris.  Not only is the TGV environmentally friendly compared to either the car or the plane it is an actual pleasure to take it.  The seats are quite comfortable and within 15 mins I was sleeping my way to Paris at high speed.  There are 50,000km of high speed train lines in the World mainly in China and Europe.  If all the countries in the world aimed for a similar level of fast trains as China (or western Europe) we would need to build a further 250,000 km of lines which would cost around 750 billion $ per year for the next 10 years.  That might seem a lot but as a an element of comparison that is half what the world spends on its military per year.  Instead of aiming for all NATO countries to spend at least 2% of their GDP on Defence we should be agreeing an international limit of 1% maximum on military budgets worldwide.

Day 338: Music

Popular music in all its form is a massive industry.  Hundreds of millions of people listen to it, collect it and worship the artists.  You would think that all these people listening to music, humming the songs and remembering the lyrics would be classified as music lovers but that is far from the truth. There are 2 phenomenons that I cannot comprehend:

1. When on the piste there are people who ski with a boombox in their backpack.  Aside from the fact that the sound is rarely very good, as soon as you are in a skilift queue you have competing sounds which transform any potentially good music into a cacophony of sounds (also it is socially obnoxious to impose your music on others).
2. The second (and possibly worse) phenomenon is people who listen to music straight from their computer or telephone speakers.  How can anyone pretend they are a music lover and then listen to tinny electronic sound from an under-powered speaker.  It would be like going to a three star Michelin restaurant and being served in plastic cutlery and paper plates.  Or going to a beautiful sandy beach and not caring about the litter.  

If something is worth doing it should be done well.  

Day 337: Agent

I think I may have mentioned in a preceding blog that we are staying in a small ski flat this week.  In addition to the lack of space I have already written about, I find that the slats on my bed are mostly broken which means that 3 or 4 of them fall out every time I sit on the bed. Of course we will complain to the agent but I don't really expect anything to happen.  If we had rented this flat through an online platform we would have lot more recourse to express our dissatisfaction.  The transparency that peer to peer platforms like AirBnB, BlaBlaCar, Uber or  Tripadvisor bring to their respective sectors is a great improvement.  If you know that your service will be publically reviewed you are much more careful about how you describe and price things.  I would say that we are only at the beginning of the transparency revolution.  

Day 336: Solution

A few days ago I talked about the environmental impact of using paper for taking notes and generally handwriting.   My blog-post led me to look for (and find) a solution.  You can now buy notebooks which are reusable.  The paper is made from a special paper which you can wipe clean with a damp cloth (or a hairdryer - which looks like magic!).   If (for some reason) you want to preserve your notes you can scan them to your computer using a mobile app.  The experience is really equivalent to writing on actual paper.  We now need printers that work on the same principle (I looked its not available yes) to cater for the still numerous people who insist on reading things on paper rather than on screens.  Just remember : more than 6 billion trees a year are cut down for the paper industry.

Day 335: Space

Spending a week in a small 1 bedroom apartment with my wife and three teenagers makes you realise how space is the ultimate luxury. When I say space I mean having your own area. I don't think it's a question of having superfluous square meters with empty rooms or big storage areas, it's more that everyone needs a room (however small) which they can call their own. My office at home is probably less than 8 m2 but it has everything I need.

I'm used to writing my blog standing at my desk using my computer rather than on my phone in bed. (Now you know why my blogs will be short this week.)

Day 334: Test?

Either this was a test and only my sister passed. She sent me an sms this morning requiring her blog post of the day (she gets 2 bonus points and takes a commanding lead in the competition).

Or I had so much exercise, raclette and white wine yesterday that I fell asleep straight after dinner.

Or I wanted to see if I can write my blog on a ski lift. (which obviously I can - sort of)

Or Huawei shut down the Internet to demonstrate they are not security risk. That doesn't make sense you may think... But then what does these days?

Day 333: Skiing

First day of skiing and it was a beautiful sunny day with great snow.  We made the most of it as the rest of the week is supposed to be more mixed with snow falls and only occasional sunshine.  Skiing is a strange sport.  You have to drive up a mountain to a ski resort,  you have to bring all your ski gear which you use once or twice a year, once there you rent skis and buy a ski pass which will allow you to be pulled up a mountain so that you can then slide down again (sounds a bit like a luxury version of Sisyphus' punishment).  In addition it can be very cold and you discover painful parts of your body that you didn't know existed.  Despite all that it's an amazing experience and I hope that like my mother and Pierre I'll still be skiing at 75 (with my free pass!).

Day 332: Discount

Today we traveled from Paris to Les Mesnuires where we will be skiing for a week.  As I have mentioned before (blog #190) the fact that Fianna now has an electric car means that we travel by train for long journeys and if necessary rent a car to finish our journey. As we were not able to bring food from Paris we decided we would do some basic shopping before going up the mountain to avoid the outrageous prices of the ski station.  As it happens there was an Aldi in Albertville (the last town before you start to go up).  Aldi is a discount store a concept which started in Germany and is expanding.  Although discount stores have an image of poor quality this is actually far from the truth.  The reason these stores have such competitive prices is that they are focused on a limited number of basic products and they do not stock multiple versions of the same product. You can only get one kind of shampoo or butter or spaghetti in a discount store.  This means that they can ensure their suppliers give them good quality at rock bottom prices.  Discount stores are actually anti consumerist in many ways.

Day 331: Packing

Tomorrow morning we are off to Les Mesnuires in the French Alps fro a week of skiing.  As I have travelled quite bit in my career (especially when I was a full time Analyst) I have learned to pack extremely light for my business trips.  I practically never check in luggage on airplanes and often travel with just a small shoulder bag for my business trips.  It's taken me longer to be as efficient on my holiday travels. But this year I feel I'm getting there.  I'm going skiing and I only have one small wheely suitcase and a bag for my ski shoes.  I pared down to the minimum aside from my ski clothes I have kept the rest to a minimum 1 spare shirt, 1 pair of trousers, 3 pairs of socks, 6 pair of underwear and 3 t-shirts.  I'm pretty sure this time all my clothes will be worn at least once.  

Day 330: Handwriting

When I'm in meetings at work I still write things down in my notebook with a pen which seems normal but will probably be considered quaint in 10 or 15 years.  We all have phones and computers so why are we still writing things down on paper?  If you write (or record) everything on a laptop or phone you know you won't lose it.  It will become instantaneously available on all your devices and most of your spelling mistakes will be corrected.  Finally if you're left handed like me you'll have the novel experience of actually being able to read your own notes.  (I'm also pretty sure an electronic page has less environmental impact than a paper and ink page).  I wonder if I should try to wean myself off all forms of paper based writing?  Actually I rarely re-read my notes anyway, its more that the act of writing which helps me to remember things.  I either need to stop using notebooks or start planting trees.  (let me write that down!)

Day 329: Poll

The European Commission has launched on an opinion poll on whether we should maintain summer/winter time.  I have already spoken on this subject in my blog #149. In order to ensure we finally get rid of this pointless exercise in bureaucracy I urge you all to fill in the EU's questionnaire which can be found at this address:

https://questionnaire.assemblee-nationale.fr/785621?lang=fr

In order to assist you  I urge you to answer : 

1. That your experience of time change is very negative
2. That time change should be forbidden
3. Its very important that the EU decides to stop the time change
4. We should chose Winter time as the permanent time
5. France's Time Zone should be UTC+1 (Like Germany, Italy and Spain)

We have until March 3rd to fill in the questionnaire please encourage everyone you know to fill it in!

Lets help the European Commission do something visible, practical and popular.

Day 328: Vow

When Fianna and I exchanged vows in 2012 our most important vow was that we would never let the sun go down on an argument. So far we have managed to keep that vow for 2,530 Nights (there was 1 minor exception).  I actually believe that it should be a mandatory for all weddings to replace all that guff about "honour and obey" or "in sickness and in health" with our vow (copyright to be discussed).  When couples have arguments there are three possible outcomes:

1. One or both parties stays angry and sullen which usually brings about increased grievance
2. One or the other decides to ignore the issue. Somebody just pretends the argument didn't happen, which usually means the other  party will feel frustrated
3. Both parties continue to discuss the issues and make their points until the both feel they have been heard.  The issue may not have been resolved but both people can move on without feeling frustrated or angry.

I assume everybody has guessed which is the preferred solution in order to maintain a healthy marriage?  When you write it down it seems obvious but often its feels nearly impossible to get to that 3rd option.  I do feel blessed that I have a wife who is as committed as I am to that vow.  Thanks you for your understanding Fianna.

Day 327: Prize

Yesterday was the Oscars.  All sorts of prizes were awarded to a variety of people for being best "something in cinema".  I can't help wondering what the point of these prizes are ?  What is the validity of the process?  Why do we need someone to be named best actor of best director every year, especially as the winners are always controversial.  I have the same question around other prizes do we need a Nobel Prize, a Pulitzer or a Prix Goncourt ?  The people who win these prizes are usually well recognized in their field so why do they need further prizes ?  I don't believe these prizes serve a particular purpose or encourage particular behaviour (other than self promotion which I don't think is the point).  Let's leave prizes to sport and agree that other forms of human activity don't necessarily need to be competitions.

Day 326: Exchange

I recently wrote about the pointlessness of Fashion and today I read on article on the environmental impact of the clothing industry. (It creates 10% of all greenhouse gas emissions and 120 Million trees are cut down every year to make clothing).  I wonder if it would be possible to set up clothing exchanges (ClothEx).  You would be able to take any surplus clothing as long as it was clean and still in good condition to your local ClothEx and you would then have the right to pick an equivalent amount of clothing then or later. If the ClothEx concept went international you could also use it to travel light.  Drop off some clothes in Paris and you would be allowed to pick up clothes in Los Angeles. And vice versa. The shops and personnel could be financed by either a subscription fee or some kind of sponsoring.  We need to reduce greenhouse gases by 50% by 2030 in order to limit global warming to 1.5°C.  If ClothEx halved the clothing industry that would be 10% of our goal. 

Day 325: Big Data

Today I went to play squash with my friend Guy and then we enjoyed the sunshine by strolling down the Boulevard St Germain and having a coffee on a terrace.  I was telling him about Louis' interest in doing the Ecole 42 and we started talking about which are the most interesting parts of the IT domain.  We both agreed that Big Data is the area with the most potential in the future.  As the amount of available information grows exponentially there will be increasing requirement for people who can not only extract and store all this information technically but who can also use the right tools to make sense of it.  The companies and organisation who understand this and invest in Data solutions early will have big advantages in developing their products, understanding how they work and constantly improving them. This will be true in all economic sectors.  Data mining will be the Gold mining of the future.

Day 324: Saturday

Tomorrow is Saturday and although most of us get to sleep in, Theo has to go to School as many French teenagers.  Of all the things wrong with the French education system this is probably one of the most annoying, least useful and easiest to fix.  In New Zealand a company has tested the 4 day work week which resulted in a boost in productivity and happier employees.  In Seattle they moved the start of the school day from 7:45 to 8:45 AM (keeping the same number of hours at school overall) teenagers got 35 minutes extra sleep and overall grades improved.  It is scientific fact that teenagers who go through a lot of biological change between 13 and 18 tend to stay up late and therefore would benefit from a later start.  So what do we do in France ?  We have a 6 day week and school starts at 8AM!  If we need proof of the insanity of administrative thinking this is it.  Nobody has ever come up with a rational explanation as to why school should start at 8 or how Saturday morning classes make any sense.

Day 323: Bath

Mistakenly, some of us, thought it would be a good idea to have an actual bath in the children's bathroom.  Now that they have both grown so much they can barely sit in it let alone have a proper bath.  Before they further outgrow the tub we have decided to replace it with a large shower.  I really don't understand why baths are still legal.  Baths need around 100 l of water whereas a 5 min shower (which is more than enough - especially if its cold) uses around 50 l.  On average in the world people take around 2 baths per week.  If we all switched to showers  we would save 18.2 Trilllion litres of water per year  which is the equivalent to 1 day of water flow from the Amazon.  

Day 322: Assessment

Many organisations private or public feel they need to have Formal Employee Assessment Systems.  I mention this because my company recently decided to introduce such a system.  I have worked for many different types of organisations in my life and I have never come across a HR evaluation system which  added any value.  The idea people can be assessed through forms, formal interviews and self criticisms is totally bonkers (to use a technical term).  In most cases these assessments start with a self analysis each employee is expected to come up with their strength and weaknesses, things they could improve upon, training needs etc.  In general this is an exercise in how creative you can be in showcasing your achievements and inventing weaknesses that are actually hidden strengths.  I cannot imagine that these forms and processes are used in any useful way.  Promotions and salary rises are always based on "management discussions".  In these discussions nobody ever looks at the forms what you have is people who are in favour, people who are against and some who are uncommitted at the end of the day the manager who is most convinced carries the day.  If we want to increase productivity at work: Stop measuring it!

Day 321: Fashion

Karl Lagerfeld the man behind Chanel for close to 40 years died today.  I mention it because it is in all the newspapers much to my chagrin.  I cannot understand the point of fashion.  Why would we need to change our perfectly good clothes every year irrespective of the state they are in?  Why are bell bottom jeans out (or a better question why were they ever in?)  Fashion is a direct assault on the environment.  It creates a requirement to buy unnecessary items (and throw away  perfectly good ones) for no rational reason.  According to McKinsey the Fashion Industry represents 2.4 Trillion $ and none of it is environmentally friendly.  I guess on the positive side the more global warming we have the smaller the Fashion Industry will get as we will all be walking around in T-shirts, Shorts and Flip Flops.

Day 320: Parties

7 MPs have decided to quit the Labour Party to form an independent grouping (not a new party).  They seem to be a disparate bunch united mainly by their pro European stance and their exasperation with the present Labour leadership.   Although there seems to be little belief that they will manage to change the political system they made me realise that part of the problem is the existence of political parties. If there were no political parties people would have to actually pay attention to what their local candidates were saying.  You couldn't just vote for a party for tribal reasons you would have to decide whether you agreed with a candidate's views rather than his parties views. Also no parties means no party discipline so candidates would vote according to their conscience rather than according to party leadership.  Isn't the whole point of representative democracy to have a wide variety of opinions expressed in Parliament?

Day 319: AI

Last night we watched ex machina an interesting slightly disturbing film about the creation of an "intelligent" robot which can pass for human.  The Turing test is a well known AI test which is based on interacting with a computer on a screen and not being able to tell whether it is a human or a computer.  Of course as this is a Holywood film the robot has a female form. What I found interesting was that during the film we start to root for the robot as "she" is effectively a prisoner in the testing facility. But in my view the only reason we identify with it is because the machine has been given a human form. If the robot was just a square metal box or an insect like form I'm not sure we would have the same sympathy whatever the quality of its dialogue.  I'm not sure how far AI will go in being able to develop "artificial humans" but I think we should avoid giving them human form.  In the long term it is probably healthier if machines are always recognizable for what they are.

Day 318: Smart

Cars should be purely utilitirian pieces of equipment. They are there to transport you from A to B efficiently and yet there is an inate pleasure to be had from driving certain cars. Recently electric Smarts have appeared in the streets of Paris and I do find them cool, especially the convertible ones.  In principle I have limited interest in cars but for some reason electric cars have changed my perspective.  I feel the sense of freedom that we get from driving our cars is magnified by the silence, it's like having a magic carpet. 

Day 317 : Strike

While Trump breaks rules to get a pointless wall and Mrs May procrastinates endlessly on Brexit, Greta Thunberg, a Swedish 16 year old has started a mass movement of young people going on strike from School. Is it possible for adults to follow in her footsteps?  Historically strikes have always been about improving working conditions (pay, hours, holidays, firings, security, jobs) isn't the state of the planet the ultimate "work benefit" ?  If there was a call for a general strike in favour improved climate conditions I would be prepared to participate in an organised labour movement for the first time in my life.  Maybe environmental issues are not to meant to be political as they cross all party lines. If saving the plant is to become the central issue of our lives that it should be we need to follow Greta in developing other forms of mass demonstrations.

Day 316: Mule

In a recent blog my Dad mentioned Clint Eastwood's latest film The Mule.  The film is quite slow and is based on the true story of the oldest drug mule that was ever caught in the United States.  It's a nice film partly because not much happens, but the reason I mention it is that I find it highlights the absurdity of the War on Drugs.  The Clint Eastwood character makes huge amounts of money by transporting hundreds of kilos of Cocaine in his pick-up truck from the South to the North of the USA.  At the same time DEA agents spend even more money tracking down an old man in a van.  The illegal drug trade in the United States is estimated to be around $100 Billion at the same time State and Federal Drug related law enforcement costs the United States around $30 Billion per year.  If all drugs were legalised (but controlled) the impact would be :

1. Save $30 Billion 
2. Taxing the now legal drug trade would probably raise another $20 Billion
3. Legal drugs could be checked so that consumers would know what they are taking and sold in specific shops with specific conditions like guns, tobacco and alcohol.
4. Reduction in drug related deaths
5. Huge loss of revenue for criminals
6. Big boost to the poor farmers in drug producing countries who would now get a fair wage for their work

.  

Day 315: 42

Calories: 589

Louis is considering going to do a course at the École 42.  This is the programming school which was founded by Xavier Niel in 2013 and which is completely different to traditional universities. The key principles are as follows:

-  its free

-  you don't get a degree

-  you decide how long it will take

-  there are no pre-requirements (other than being 18)

-  the test to get in is based on motivation and logic

-  there are no teachers: learning is project based and assessed by students

-  there are no exams

I find it interesting that the school is all about self learning, collaboration and creativity even though it is a coding school. 

Although it was developed for programming I don't see why the same principle couldn't be used successfully for other disciplines such as Medicine, Economics, Psychology, History or Philosophy. It actually sounds a lot like the university version of the school my Dad is involved with in Luxembourg. 

Day 314: Billboards

In this age where most of people's information on current events is obtained through Facebook, Instagram or Twitter, I find the recent British Anti-Brexit  billboard campaign most refreshing.  A small group of friends have organised a billboard campaign where they just post actual quotes from key brexit politicians.  Examples have included :

• Therese May:  I believe it is clearly in our national interest to remain a member of the European Union

• Michael Gove: The day after we vote to leave, we hold all the cards and we can choose the path we want.

• Nigel Farage: In a 52-48 referendum this would be unfinished business by a long way.

• David Davis: If a democracy cannot change its mind, it ceases to be a democracy.

The campaigners call themselves #LedByDonkeys and I strongly urge you to follow them on twitter and to contribute to their funding.

I would love to see similar campaigns developed in other countries holding politicians to account for the things they have said.  In this age where we are bombarded with online information simple quotes on large billboards have a lot more credibility and impact than never ending tweets and likes.

Day 313: Guest

Calories: 597

This evening Theo asked me to read and correct an essay he had to hand in at school the next day.  I told him that I could only do that if he wrote my blog.  So today's blog is courtesy of a guest speaker: Theo.

At dinner tonight, Louis asked “What is the point of life?”. No one had a satisfying answer, at least in my eyes. However, I believe, my 16 years on this planet, allow me to contribute an answer.

Some might say society provides purpose by making our lives seemingly more interesting through objectives such as earning money, going to work, acquiring objects… However what would be left of our societies in the advent of a “natural” catastrophe (such as global warming) what would be the point of our lives then ?

In the old ages people relied on religion to give meaning to their life. But now (except in Trump's America) science has replaced it. So how about science? Science is based on testable and justifiable explanations of how the universe works. In a way it is there to find an explanation to everything. Yet how many of us can really feel the effect of quarks or electrons on our day to day lives.

So if society, religion and science are all illusions I ask once again: What is the point of life ?
As I will learn next year in Philosophy, Descartes said “I think therefore I am”. The fact that we can ask ourselves this question is what makes us different. And the fact that we can articulate that thought allows us to also consider that possibly there is no point to life. This might seem a depressing answer however I find it quite beautiful. Because if there is no point to life that means we can choose our own “point” whether it be to help future generations be born in a beautiful world, to make people smile, to have fun or to work incessantly.   If there was a point to our lives we would be governed by an ordained objective with no hand in our own fate. We would be just like a tree growing fruits year in, year out with no choice in the matter. So in the end the answer to the question is that each of us can choose our own!

Thanks Theo. 

Those of you who wish to appear as guest speakers can send your contributions to my regular e-mail.

Day 312: 12 Years

According to the IPCC we have 12 years left to limit global warming to 1.5° C and then reverse it.  The consequences of not meeting those targets would be quite catastrophic.  Despite the consistent and wide spread warnings of scientists  from varying disciplines there does not seem to be any sense of urgency.  Its as if the world was in a car speeding towards the edge of a cliff and the people are debating whether we should go from 5th to 4th gear rather then hitting the brakes as hard as they can.  Everywhere around the world awareness of the issues around climate change is rising and yet that does not seem to be translating itself into significant concrete action.  Green parties may be winning the argument but they are not capitalising on these concerns at the ballot box.  If we take the upcoming European elections the Green's are expected to get around 7-8% of the vote, and yet this should be an ideal forum for Green issues.  Environmental issues are by definition trans-national and European elections are seen as an occasion to express one's actual preferences rather than having to take into account political expediency.  I believe the Green parties need to focus and simplify their message.  They need to propose a limited number of clear policies which would have a significant impact on global warming (also they probably need to change their name, Green parties stand for too many different things).

Day 311: Tattoo

I was reading an article in the guardian about a british photographer who takes photos of naked men or women (usually focused on the genitals).  I read the article because the photo illustrating it showed a thigh with a discreet tattoo which I thought was interesting.  Usually I don't have much time for tattoos, I don't really understand how people can assume that they will like their tattoos for the rest of their lives.  Also why would one's younger self  impose things on one's older self without their consent.  I guess it's a bit like drinking or smoking is it really fair to do things in your youth that can cause damage that your future self will have to deal with ? 

Day 310 : Euro

For no particular reason I'm going to talk about the Euro today.  As a firm believer in the European project and more widely in Internalism I was greatly in favour of the creation of the Euro and I would actually go further and suggest that a single world wide currency would be even better.  I have never understood the political or economic arguments in favour of having separate currencies.   If a single currency can accommodate California and Alabama or Moscow and Kamchatka then why couldn't it accomodate Luxembourg and Haiti?  The main purpose of money is to serve as a medium of exchange.  It's easier to have a common currency than to have to barter goods and services for every transaction.  If one of the purposes of money is to facilitate transactions between people then  I don't see how having different currencies makes things easier.  The average daily trade in foreign exchange is over $5 Trillion per day which if we assume a very low cost of 0.01% (1 cent per 100$) represents $650 Billion  per year. That would be enough to cancel the foreign debt of the 83 poorest countries in the world. 

Day 309: 20%

Earlier this year I mentioned some resolutions that I wished I had taken.  Amongst those resolutions was going to a new country.  As I was thinking that I might be able to manage that one, I found an interactive world map which allows me to log all the places I have been to so far (big countries are broken up into states or regions so its harder to cover everywhere).  As of today I have visited or lived in areas or countries representing 20.52% of the surface of the globe which I find disappointing.  I need to start adding more new places (preferably big places) so that I can reach at least 50%.  I need to visit my daughter in Brazil and next time we go to California we should use a car (or train if I want to be green) that should add a few percentage points to my score.

Day 308: Racism

Calories : 596

Recently Liam Neeson (the famous actor) has been making headlines because he admitted that twenty years ago he wanted to beat-up or even kill any random black man in revenge for the fact that a friend of his had been raped by a black man.  To be fair he was telling this story to show how bad the idea of revenge is and he was not proud of it.  The story has sparked outrage on social (and traditional) media, principally because Liam Neeson is deemed to be a racist for thinking and saying these things.  The actor has defended himself by claiming that he is not a racist and that he understood that he was wrong. 

We can all agree that Liam Neeson's reaction 20 years ago was wrong, but a more interesting question is whether he was right to make public his darkest thoughts or should he have kept them to himself ? 

On balance I believe that he was right to talk about this to help show that bad instincts happen and the question becomes what do you do about them? Do you let them overtake you or do you control and suppress them when you recognise them as wrong? 

Where I do object to Liam Neeson's confession is when he says he is not a racist.  I am perfectly prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt in that he does not consider himself a racist now but what he did decades ago was definitely racist whether conscious or not. (Just the fact that he asked his friend what colour the rapist was, shows racism. How is that a relevant question!)

We all have unconscious bias to a greater or lesser extent its better to admit it and then let our rationality compensate.

Day 307 : Probability

Dinner Menu:

• Coucou de Rennes au vin blanc à la Romertopf
• Gratin dauphinois
• Yaourt de brebis avec banane et myrtilles

My friend Shane who is slowly recovering from some pretty major medical procedures asked me today to help him develop an excel model to beat the Casino at roulette.  He gave me the principles, I just had to translate into an Excel model.  I'm counting on my share of the winnings to retire early! In reality lotteries and other games of chance are just an unfair tax on the poor, the odds of winning are usually 50 Million to 1.  We should make them illegal and replace them with more interesting lotteries:

1. Democracy lottery: At each election a random voter would receive 10 Million € (This would be a big incentive to get people voting)
2. Traffic Ticket Lottery: Every month one person who had payed his traffic fine on time would receive a brand new (electric) car
3. Education Lottery: Every Term one school child from each year who had not missed any classes would be picked to receive a full 4 year full scholarship to university
4. Income tax lottery: Every year one randomly picked tax payer would get a "tax free card" exempting them from income tax for the rest of their life
5. Immigrant lottery: 1 (participating) foreigner from each country in the world would receive a French Passport.  

I'm sure we could think of more, and it would be a more interesting TV show than just watching some numbers pop up.

Day 306 : Licence

I happy to report that Louis passed his driving licence last week.  He had to go back to Canada to take the test as taking it in France would have meant re starting the whole process which would have taken at least 3-4 months for a probable cost of 1,000€.  I find it quite nonsensical that there is a requirement to have taken a certain number of lessons to be able to apply for a driving test.  Surely it should be either one or the other?  If you can pass the test then that should be it.  Similarly, why do taxis have a licence?  It used to be that they had passed a difficult exam testing their knowledge of their city but nowadays taxis just follow their GPS so what is the exam and licence for ?  Similarly we could definitely get rid of the licencing requirements for Estate agents, Lawyers, Chimney sweeps, Grave diggers, Butchers, Opticians and Hairdressers to name just a few.

Day 305 : Opinion

A few days ago I was reading the Opinion page of the Financial Times and I noticed on the right hand side a column entitled "Want to write a piece for the Financial Times op-ed page?".  There were 5 key recommendations to have a chance of being accepted:

1. Think about our readers
2. Write what you know
3. Write clearly and accessibly
4. Use specific examples
5. Be pithy and sharp

Having read the FT's advice it occured to me that I have occasionally expressed opinions in my blog and that I might be able to share them with a wider audience.  The FT expects an opinion piece to be around 800 words and my posts are around 200 words on average so it shouldn't be too difficult to develop one of the ideas I have posted over the last 10 months.  Here is a chance for some of you to get back into the competition.  I will award 1 point for those of you who send me your choice of which one of my previous posts you feel could be developed and 5 points if I decide to pick that one.

Day 304 : Papa

Today was my Dad's birthday.  As he happens to be in Paris he and Isabel are coming round to the house tomorrow for a birthday lunch, also with Ruben.   My Dad was a key figure in building my intellectual curiosity and self esteem.   Irrespective of my grades, occasional laziness and utter failure at French grammar I never felt anything but complete confidence in my capabilities and total support for anything I wanted to do in life (as long as it was becoming a Historian of Science - Sorry Dad).  My Parents were quite young when I was born so by the time I was 5 they were still Students intent on remaking the world.  I remember learning at an early age that if I stayed quiet I could stay up late at the dinner table and listen to my Dad and his friends have long discussions into the night about politics and society.  Later when we were living in England every evening after dinner my Dad and I would have wide ranging conversations as he would wash-up and I would dry the dishes.  Later when I was a teenager I remember my Dad coming home to dinner and talking about his research (he was writing his second doctoral thesis at the time) discussing his latest discoveries and thoughts.  As I grew older, in my late teens and early twenties I appreciated how non judgemental he was, especially when I started bringing girls home.  I never felt that my Dad disapproved of my friends or girlfriends whatever he may have thought of them.  I hope that some of that has rubbed off on me.

So thanks Dad for having given me the self-confidence that comes of being unique and the humility to realise that everyone is unique.

PS: Also "Thanks" for introducing me to cold showers.

Day 303: Anarchist

Dinner Menu:

• Verre de whisky Kavalan
• Tartare de saumon
• Filets de carrelets au four
• Risotto au poireaux et safran
• Tomates cerises au four
• Fromages
• Tarte aux pommes et poires

We had some good friends over for dinner tonight and after a  heated debate about police violence I was called out as an anarchist.  I said yes at the time but in reality although I am sympathetic to the anarchist concept I' m not sure how it could work in practise in view of the society we live in.  Large organisations underpin our way of life in many areas such as infrastructure, hospitals and education, and its difficult how that would work in a stateless society.  The state's job (however well it performs it) is to protect the weak from exploitation and bullying.  If the state is not there to protect the weaker members of society there are only two options left:

1. You accept that many people may be taken advantage of with impunity
2. You hope that the removal of state violence will ultimately result in a fairer, kinder society where all people are equal

What would you choose?

Day 302: Flashball

Calories Today: 599

I am not a fan of the French Yellow Jacket movement which seems to have no clear goals and includes a wide variety of demonstrators with was shocked by the differing agendas some of which are quite unpleasant.  However I am increasingly shocked by the state's response.  It's bad enough that we have riot police with body armour, special vehicles, water canons and truncheons, there has also been widespread use of Flash-Balls and other "non lethal" projectile weapons.  The Flash-balls which can main or severely injure people have been use close to 10,000 time since the start of the Gilets Jaune movement.  Although these weapons shouldn't kill you they can easily maim  people.  I find it unacceptable and completely counterproductive that the police are allowed to use weapons against their own citizens. As I mentioned a few days ago concerning Venezuela if the state has to resort to violence against its own citizens it loses its legitimacy. I accept that in our society as it is organised at present we need to have "security" forces to contain occasional extremes of anger in demonstrations but I dispute the fact that is necessary to arm these forces.  My future programme of government will include the disarmament of all police forces in the country.

Day 301: Lost

Calories Today: 592

So Donald Trump lost the shutdown.  Its looking good for my bet, even if 2 years is a very long time in politics.  If you are an idiot you will make idiotic, self harming decisions and after a while people will notice.  I believe that Trump can only go downhill he is incapable of managing to rise up from defeat.  Still its a shame that people think in terms of winning or losing.  The shutdown is a loss for everyone and I was disappointed to hear journalists, on one of the liberal podcasts I listen to in the morning, talking about not letting the other side win.  I'm not saying that the Democrats were wrong in their tactics and the way they held out, I just think we should be clear that it was about standing up for certain issues rather then just winning against Trump.  One of the most important things to remember about negotiations is that is should never be about winning.  You negotiate to get a deal which should bring benefits to both parties.  Ego only gets in the way as it has nothing to do with the issues you may be negotiating.      

Day 300: Pressure

As my wife and a lot of her friends have teenage children some of which are getting close to university I am privy to the anxieties of upper middle class parents in this situation.  These parents are closely in their children's schooling and university applications.  Its all about tutors, special courses, summer camps, networking, early applications, tactical choices and the "pressure" of attending school AND applying to universities.  As I look at all this from the outside I can't help feeling that the more parents help (meddle with) their children's post school education, the more they get stressed  themselves which is then communicated to the children. We have children who have had every advantage (material comfort, international holidays, exposure to culture, access to books and even interesting conversations at the dinner table) and yet their parents are worried about them not getting into "good" universities.  At some point helping your children becomes counter productive, but I admit its not easy to know when that point is!

Day 299: Films

Calorie count for the day: 582

On Saturday we went to the cinema with Theo and Eliot to see Green Book.  The film is about a Black Piano virtuoso who hires an Italian-American bouncer as a chauffeur for a tour of the Southern States in 1962.  It a nicely done film mainly about the relationship between the two men but of course with segregation omnipresent in the background.  During the film the two men interact with a wide variety of racists and it made me wonder what do these people think when they go to the cinema?  The film and TV industry is full of liberals (in the American sense of the word).  I would argue that a huge preponderance of films espouse a liberal and generous point of view.  I don't think I have ever seen a film where hateful values triumph.  So if everyone is seeing films where bullying, oppression and exploitation are deemed  to be "bad" why is this not percolating faster throughout society ?  Are there movie goers who identify with the slave owner or the fascist cop ? I find that hard to believe.

Day 298: DVD

Today I spent some time cleaning up our cellar.  Aside from the 27 different bags and suitcases we have accumulated, I also found 70 DVD of films I accumulated before the age of Netflix and Streaming.  As I no longer have a DVD player I have decided to copy the Films to my computer and then give the DVDs to people who might still use them. 

Here is a  numbered list of the first batch of DVDs which are available.  Send me a comment or e-mail with your postal address if you would like to receive any of them:

1	Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
2	Cube
3	Carnage
4	One Day
5	The Holiday
6	Le Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain
7	The Artist
8	Catch .44
9	The good, the bad and the ugly
10	My name is nobody
11	For a fistful of dollars
12	Le Mépris
13	L'incompris
14	The Magnificent 7
15	Love is a many splendored thing
16	Missouri Breaks
17	La vie en rose
18	The Dubliners
19	The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean
20	Le déclin de l'empire américain
21	St Jacques ... La Mecque
22	Intolerable cruelty
23	Red Dust
24	Maria full of grace
25	Private Benjamin
26	Meet the Parents
27	Spy Game
28	Three Kings
29	Ronin
30	The Birds

Day 297 : Lie Detectors

I read an article in The Economist today about the possibility of increasing the use of lie detectors when interviewing criminals or possible criminals.  It seems that they are getting better, although they are still far from foolproof.  Rather than using them in the justice system I thought it would be interesting to use them in politics.  Whenever a politician would be on screen in a debate or a speech a little needle could appear on the TV and indicate whether the statements being made were truthful or untruthful.  Of course the main problem with that is that it doesn't protect us from stupidity.  I'm sure Donald Trump doesn't hesitate to lie when he has to, but his real strength is that he believes his own lies and therefore can project what seems (to some people) to be honest conviction. 

Day 296 : Numbers

I mentioned a few months ago that I sold a big project (which probably saved my job at the time). At the time the client asked how much time I would personally spend on it, and I responded whatever was needed.  As it happens I have spent quite a bit of time on it and especially building an excel model, which is something I really enjoy.  There are two things that I believe I'm particularly good at in my work:

• Identifying and communicating an issue and a solution (Negotiating)
• Simplifying and identifying trends in numbers (Modelling)

The balance of my career has been more on the first one which means that I miss the numbers side.  There is something inherently satisfying in making large amounts of numbers get organised and tell a story.  When I see my colleagues or clients struggling with unwieldy, complicated and untidy spreadsheets I feel like just telling them to let me do it properly for them.  I wonder if I could have a second career in numbers ? After all in the old days there were "public letter writers" so I could set myself up as a "public excel modeller".