Monday, March 18, 2024

Ten years in our (new?) home!

Yesterday marked the 10th anniversary of moving into our new home, the 4th in Park City and perhaps the last one, but who really can tell? 

Do we still like the house we’re in now? On the whole, absolutely! 

Even though it’s the third home I have participated in the construction, and the 12th dwelling we’ve lived in as a couple, what would we still change are quite a few things in fact, as the human species never stops learning, its tastes evolve and needs change.

 But still, let’s say that we’re 90 to 95% there, so we won’t complain and feel truly satisfied with what we’ve got and stating the contrary would be all, but being grateful, so we’ll appreciate our current dwelling and hopefully live in it at least a couple more years to make it the place in which we’ve lived the longest amount of time!

Sunday, March 17, 2024

Getting out of tough situations with questions

Whether it's because we are in a bind, taken by surprise or angry or otherwise emotional, asking a question might often be the best way to get unstuck and literally, turn a bad situation around. I must state that I’m not at all expert on that subject, but had a strong intuition that the tactic might be very useful and wanted to explore it further with you, my readers. 

First of all, as we all know, asking a question buys time and enables some turn-around time which offers a nice alternative to being stuck in place without anything to say or knowing how to act. It certainly clarifies things. Besides, a good question might generates new ideas by opening new perspectives and potential solutions not considered before.

Some also say that it promotes critical thinking, encouraging a good analysis of the situation by showing underlying causes as well as options. Finally, it’s super useful in breaking mental blocks when we find ourselves in a rut and get our creative juices flowing again. 

As for the type of questions that we can ask ourselves, they can be of the clarifying type, like, “What exactly do I want to accomplish?" or "What obstacles do I have to overcome?" They could also be open-ended “What are my alternatives to approach this problem?" or "Are there other original solutions?" They can also be probing like "Am I assuming things that I should re-evaluate?" or "Am I overlooking certain risks?" 

Always remember that they’re no bad questions. Even if what we ask seems basic it can lead to breakthroughs. Never be afraid to ask. It’s always a sign of strength and a willingness to learn. 

To conclude, there are all the questions we can ask other folks from different backgrounds and experiences who can bring some insights we’d never considered. We should also ask specific questions: The more specific the question, the more targeted the answer could be. Also, always pay very close attention to the answers received and always consider them carefully...

Saturday, March 16, 2024

How I became environmentalist…

When I was a young kid, I must admit that I mostly was attracted by modernism, fast cars, airplanes and tall buildings. 

It’s only when I traveled to the USA in 1971, that I discovered the terms environment and ecology, especially around San Francisco. Then, we had the first oil crisis in 1973 that made me think of earth’s limited resources, but did stop me in my tracks. 

That concept hit closer to home, when in 1979, freshly installed in New York, I had to line up to fill up my car during the second oil crisis. I kept on traveling a lot, mostly with North America and Europe, but never thought for a second about my carbon footprint, totally ignoring what that animal was.

Once I became a Park City resident, I began to think about snowless winters and their increasing occurrences both in the Rockies and in the Alps, plus their impact on the industry I worked in, and began to worry about a day when snow wouldn’t show up. 

I always wanted to build a solar-passive house, but when it happened in 1990, there was just the sunny location of our new home that answered that call. It’s precisely in the 90s that we began to hear about climate-change issues after the Rio de Janeiro summit in 1992 and that of Kyoto in 1997. 

All along, me and my household had remained very thrifty and quite sensitive to our environment, for the most part driving economical cars and living well below our means. The early 2000 made me consider the terrible impact on the environment overpopulation was having. Our messed up environment was the symptom, but a crowded earth was the cause. 

All this led us to Al Gore’s book and film “An inconvenient truth” in 2006 and we became sold on planet warming and greenhouse effects. That same year, the movie “Who killed the electric car?” was released (it was killed by both George Bush and the oil industry). 

It took me until 2019 to install solar panels on my roof and 2022 to park an electric car in my garage. Progress does come eventually, but it always takes an awful lot of time!

Friday, March 15, 2024

How much skiing is left?

With the warmest winter on record so far in the United States, and with snow shifting to much higher elevation in the Alps, ski aficionados have good reasons to worry. In fact, since 1990, the length of the skiing season in the French Alps is said to have shortened by an average of one month, a loss of around 3-5% per decade.

This season, unseasonably warm weather in Japan’s northern parts have caused iconic winter sights to melt earlier, the Japan Meteorological Agency forecasts temperatures in early March to likely be higher than usual. 

So there seem to be change all over the Northern Hemisphere this winter and while we try to blame El Niño for that, we should ready ourselves to see shorter ski seasons, climbing snow limits and less fluffy powder in years to come. How fast and how intensely this will come to pass, is hard to predict, but we shouldn’t be shocked if the process unfolds much rapidly than we might anticipate. 

Utah, that was legendary for its dry light powder snow, is finding more water content in it, and soon, “The Best Snow on Earth” might become part of ancient ski history. So my advice to you skiers and riders is to practice your beloved sport as much as you possibly can while it’s still possible, because your “turns” as wide or tight they might be, could be severely limited…

Thursday, March 14, 2024

The difference between Jewish and Palestinian DNA

The war between Israel and Gaza has been the occasion for certain folks to be labeled as “antisemitic”, including myself on the account of my various blogs. 

Yet, both Jews and Arabs share some ancestral links due to their Semitic roots, including genetic markers with ancient populations from the Eastern Mediterranean or Levant region, even though there some slight genetic differences between the two populations. In fact, the term "Semitic" refers mostly to a linguistic group. 

The language family in question includes Hebrew, Arabic, Aramaic, and others spoken in the Middle East and North Africa. Yet, it’s also vaguely linked to ethnicity. Obviously, over many centuries both groups intermixed with surrounding populations, leading to some genetic differences. 

Jews, for example, show some genetic connection to European and Middle Eastern populations they interacted with during their diaspora and Palestinian obviously show more genetic connections to populations from the Levant. This includes Mizrahi Jews from the Middle East and North Africa, Ashkenazi Jews who migrated from the Near East to the Rhine Valley region around the first millennium after Christ, Sephardi Jews from the Iberian Peninsula before their expulsion in the late 15th century. 

As for the Palestinian population, it likely descends from a mixture of ancient inhabitants of the region, including Canaanites, Israelites, and Arab tribes who arrived in the 7th century of our current era. Over time, these populations intermixed, forming the core of the Palestinian identity. 

So, we’re dealing with pretty much the same people but with different religions and cultures, Judaism and Zoroastrianism two very ancient (respectively 4,000 and 3,500 years old) monotheistic beliefs, and then Islam an updated monotheistic religion inspired from Judaism and Christianity. 

In conclusion, pretty much the same folks with similar origins and DNA that are behaving like tribal factions, stealing their brother’s land and killing each other. Not a paragon of civilized behavior.

Wednesday, March 13, 2024

Biden, Netanyahu, and Trump

I sincerely believe that Biden is dead wrong in his support of Israel and his weak handling of Netanyahu. Still I believe all Americans that are a tiny bit intelligent or more, should hold their nose and vote for Grandpa Biden to guarantee that Trump can go to jail without the burden of a second term.

This makes us accomplice of Biden for the genocide in Gaza, but we’ll have to learn how to live with that and demand better candidates, next time for the DNC along with a few changes in its party platform. Never should we allow to have the “Orange Man” re-incarnate into a 21st century Adolf Hitler. 

And I didn’t even start mentioning the US support for Ukraine that would vanish under Trump. It’s as simple as that. Vote Biden, don’t abstain, vote against Trump, let the chips fall where they may, but don’t even think twice. Send Trump to jail, the place he truly deserves, not the Oval Office. 

Passed that, there still will be plenty of time to cut all aid to well-to-do Israel and hold them accountable to the world instead of opposing the traditional US veto to save that rebellious country’s ass.

Tuesday, March 12, 2024

Learning to ski on YouTube

Last Sunday, we rode the chairlift with a young man who had just skied for 3 days and told us he had just skied down a black run. I realized where he went down and even though the difficult part of that trail was quite short, I could appreciate the value of his achievement on the basis of his short experience. 

A personal trainer and physical therapist, he said he was spatially gifted, and told us that he had learned how to ski by watching YouTube videos, memorizing them and translated what he observed into what might have been a surprisingly excellent execution. 

Skiing isn’t intuitive and since I believed the individual I was genuinely impressed. This said, I don’t think this lone achievement is likely to put all ski instructors out of a job. Sure, YouTube learning isn’t for everyone and it takes time and sometimes luck to find the right tutorial whether it is for fixing a lawn mower, learning to knit or how to snowboard. 

This said, there are few people who have the stamina and discipline to self-learn, but it’s still amazing to realize what technology can do the help those ready to help themselves!