Now, who invented eternal life? (Part 2)

Following yesterday's blog, it would be quite interesting to find out who came up with the creative idea of eternal life. I certainly can understand that it sprung from the state of denial humanity found itself in as everyone faced an unavoidable demise, so an alternative would provide some temporary relief to make the inevitable more palatable. 

It’s true that these creative fellows weren’t born yesterday as we have to go back to old religions like ancient Egyptian religion and Zoroastrianism. These initial concepts got refined in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

It all began with Ancient Egypt, more than 4,400 years ago, as evidenced by the Pyramid Texts that described the pharaoh’s soul ascending to join the gods in an eternal afterlife. This form of immortality (only accessible to elites) allowed for the soul to survive death if preserved by mummification and rituals that opened up the profession of mortician. 

Between 2,600 and 3,200 years ago, Zoroastrianism picked up where the Egyptian left with the teachings of Zarathustra (Zoroaster) who was the first prophet to teach a moralized eternal afterlife (with heaven and hell as places of residence). At time of death, the dead were resurrected. When they got to Chinvat Bridge, their souls faced judgment and either went to House of Song (paradise) or House of Lies (hell). 

Judaism fine tuned the concept 2,500 years ago by beginning with Sheol (a shadowy underworld, with no reward and no punishment), then the Pharisees just before our era taught bodily resurrection before the Messianic Age that linked eternal life to God’s kingdom on Earth. 

This paved the way to the Christian upgrade with Jesus preaching personal resurrection and heavenly eternity. The main idea was one of salvation through Christ with a reward of eternal life in God’s presence. 

Islam added its twist by describing Jannah (paradise) and Jahannam (hell) and said that both options lasted for eternity, but the upside was physical and spiritual pleasures in paradise that probably talked about the 72 virgins but said nothing about the availability skiing, golfing, snorkeling or mountain biking. 

There were of course other more diverse or complicated versions from the Babylonians, the Greeks and the Hindus, but I’m confident you already got the idea! Tomorrow we’ll see if there are religions or philosophies of life that’ll save us from having to keep on living after death!

Do we instinctively need or want to live after death?

As a tiny kid, as soon as I can remember, I was told there's heaven and there's hell. It wasn’t debatable, it was a factual fact of life in the way it was presented to me. There was no doubt and no question about it. That was it. It was further reinforced during my entire youth and in my mind it became a fact of life like, say, gravity. 

Sure, one can argue that humans have a hardwired instinct to survive (self-preservation), but why would this translate into a conscious desire for an afterlife? Evolution favors behaviors that avoid death, not beliefs about what comes after. 

If our awareness of mortality creates anxiety, so here we have a fertile ground for afterlife beliefs if those are systematically implanted when the mind is young is the most malleable or when we are faced with desperate choices, hence the importance placed on systematic and intense religious education for all children, as early as possible, or on poorly educated if not uneducated individuals, by most organized religions. 

It’s true that the idea of ceasing to exist is psychologically hard to swallow, so the most creative among us have constructed the narratives of heaven or reincarnation to reduce that existential fear. Also, since we crave permanence and push back the brutal change that death represents, the idea of an afterlife satisfies this need. 

Existential philosophers like Sartre or Camus have long argued that life has no inherent meaning, and the desire for an afterlife is a human-fabricated belief to avoid facing the thought of mortality. 

Societies quickly discovered that belief in the afterlife was a useful tool for imposing social rules, morality, slavery, and even for bringing in money, or paying in that next life cathedral builders, by dangling paradise rewards or hellish punishment. 

So, in conclusion, we may not have a true instinct for the afterlife, but if it is placed in the center of our lives, it will feed our consciousness and somehow reduce our fear of death. This belief in the afterlife works for most people but not for all, as folks like atheists, materialists, or those who accept mortality may not crave it, but readily accept that the end of life is simply for real. 

In the next blog, we’ll try to see the origin of religious afterlife.

Musk cuts off his nose to spite one's face

Musk “going to Washington” was a big mistake! 

It’s always been my opinion that a vast majority of Tesla owners were leaning liberal or progressive, as their initial motivation for buying the car was their interest for the environment and their concern about emissions that are worsening climate change. 

Their conservative and particularly MAGA counterparts were more likely to get gas guzzlers like GM, Dodge or Ford SUV as a show of their disdain for such beliefs and their embrace of “Drill, baby drill!”.

Yet, Elon Musk chose to ignore his core Tesla clientele and ally with Trump. The same thing is happening in Europe, where after getting involved in politics there, (AFD in Germany and extreme positions in the United Kingdom) he’s seen a collapse of his car sales over that continent. 

Today he claims falling Tesla sales are the result of his total focus on DOGE and on retooling his factories for the update model Y when in fact it’s the result of turning his back on his original clients and their ideology. 

It’s my belief that Tesla sales will continue to decline and crash and that a company like Toyota will pick up the pieces and revive the brand. The guy might be technically smart but hopelessly lacking in emotional intelligence.

Lennon imagined better than most

One of my favorite songs is “Imagine", the song John Lennon released in 1971, as it embodies life as it should be on our small, beautiful blue planet.  I bet he got part of his inspiration for the song after pictures of earth became available from the Apollo missions. 

Beyond that view, the meaning of that song to me is a plea for a world at peace, without the barriers of religion, nationality, and material possessions that often divide humanity and cause conflict and suffering. In retrospect I’m amazed that he grasped these fundamental truths at the threshold of his 30s, but his life experiences were multiple, complex, challenging and relentless until that time. 

On religion, when he sings "Imagine there's no heaven... And no hell below us... And no religion, too," he goes after the religious dogma and the concept of an afterlife that constantly creates conflict and distracts us from the present and John suggests that humanity would be much better off without that burden. 

His vision of unity envisions a world where people are united as one, transcending national borders as seen on the blue planet picture ("Imagine there's no countries"), racism and living in perfect harmony ("the world will live as one"). 

There is no room for nationalism either in his worldview: "Nothing to kill or die for / And no religion, too." This rebukes nationalistic fervor and the idea of dying for one's country as ultimately futile in a truly peaceful world. 

Then there’s that demand to focus on the present: "Imagine all the people / Livin' for today" where he emphasized the importance of concentrating on the present moment and earthly existence rather than falling for the promises or threats of an afterlife. 

Sure, one can criticize the seemingly Utopian vision of the song, but its message of hope is forceful. Lennon acknowledges that he might be seen as a dreamer, but he expresses the hope that others will join him in this vision, eventually making it a reality. 

At its core, "Imagine" promotes humanistic values such as peace, love, compassion, and the sharing of resources. 

It envisions a world where basic human needs are met and people live in mutual respect and to me, is the embodiment of the updated philosophy Jesus would have conveyed had he lived in the 20th century... 

The day I lost my passport!

Yesterday's blog about Chuck Ferries reminded me of a bad incident that happened to me when we did that trip to Europe in 1990. Tom Stendhall, then general manager of Scott Europe and Ferrie’s partner, took us in his can after picking us up at the Geneva airport and drove us through Munich. 

Around that city, we stopped along the authobahn to have lunch, and then proceeded towards the Austrian border (these days were well before the Shengen agreement) and once there, I realize I didn’t have my French passport on me (it was a few months before I would become a naturalized American citizen). 

We searched everywhere in the car, couldn’t find it and (correctly) assumed I lost it where we ate (I remembered laying my jacket over the back of my chair), so we turned around and went there, looked for it where we had lunch, asked the personnel, check again but to absolutely no avail. 

Of course, this happened on a week-end so the solution we reached was for me to return to Munich, find a hotel there, and on Monday, go to the French Consulate, while my buddies would drive on to Austria and to Italy. 

When the Consulate opened on Monday I was given a “Laissez Passer” by the consulate with only two permitted border crossings, so I boarded a flight to Venice to rejoin my party. Once there, we conducted the rest of our business, and after stopping at the Scott pole factory near Aosta, we went on through the Grand St Bernard pass and cleared immigration at the border. 

By then, I had burned all my allowed crossings on my Laissez Passer and still had to return back to France from Switzerland to get a new passport, so when we got to Geneva, I rented a car in Switzerland and don’t recall how I did it without a valid ID, but anyhow, I wondered what would happen if I got stopped at the Swiss-French border. 

Luckily the custom agent waved me through and I was on my way to get my new passport made at the town I was born on the south shore of Lake Geneva. I had to wait a couple of days to get it and was then able to return to the US. The lost passport was eventually mailed back to me one year or so later; someone found it where I lost it and had returned it to the authorities. 

All this to say that learned a hard lesson: don’t lose your travel documents when you’re abroad!

Chuck Ferries, 1939-2025

Charles “Chuck” Ferries was a former American alpine ski racer, and an Olympian in 1960 and 1964. More notably, Ferries became the first American to win a European race, the Hahnenkamm slalom, at Kitzbühel in 1962. At the 1964 Innsbruck Olympics, he fell in the slalom, quit school after the Games and moved to Seattle as a sales rep for Head. 

In 1966 he coached the US women’s team through the 1968 Olympics when he joined Bill Kirschner at K2 to run its marketing. By 1976 Chuck Ferries moved to Sun Valley, where he partnered with Clay Freeman and Bud Godfrey to create Wintersports International, a company that sold US-built ski equipment abroad. 

In the early eighties, at K2’s request, he created Precision skis or PRE, to help the Seattle brand expand its sales and run that division. At about the same time, along with partners, including the founder of Smith goggles, Ferries bought Scott USA out of bankruptcy. They re-established Scott as the world’s best-selling ski pole brand, added Scott goggles and along with Smith ended up controlling about 70 percent of the North American market for ski goggles. 

In 1990, Chuck Ferries asked me to help them in developing a ski boot that would have been called “The Boot” and I went with him, Ned Post and Larry Morton to scout for potential ski boot partners in Italy. That was my sole interaction with this tireless ski entrepreneur, who then entered Scott into the bike business. 

After selling his interest in Scott in 1997, five years later he bought Chums, a Utah-based manufacturer of eyeglass retainers. He stepped away from the business in 2018 and kept skiing until illness restricted his activities. Quite a rich and creative character with an impressive life path!

A good Pope says goodbye

Of all the ones I’ve known, Pope Francis has been my favorite and I’m sad he’s gone, even though I’m not a practicing catholic. Still I know that I’m counted into the 1.3 billion Catholics worldwide and that’s okay with me. 

That figure is based on the number of people who have been baptized into the Catholic faith. This said, it seems that the Catholic Church isn’t too exacting when it comes to keeping statistics, simply because of its sheer size, as there are more than 250 million Catholic parishes. 

Assessing the number of faithful doesn’t hinge on strict methodology, instead, parish priests are asked to estimate the size of their flock. That's partly a function of how many people turn up to mass, but they also make some sort of guesstimate of the number who might come along for rites of passage like baptism, first communion, weddings, funerals and so on. 

This may lead to some vast over-counting of anyone who has lapsed or left the Church altogether or has even died be still is counted, a problem that every religion faces, not to mention a natural human tendency for one-upmanship that most religious are guilty of. 

But back to Pope Francis, filled with humility, compassion and goodness, I can only hope that his successor will be as tough on the Catholic establishment and the Curia as his predecessor has been, and will continue on the path of meaningful reforms, for which I’m still ready to be disappointed...

Sure, Francis as a Pope wasn’t perfect as he stumbled with Ukraine, but even when labeled “infallible” who really is?  In the meantime, as Pope Francis discovers that there’s an afterlife or just nothing, I wish him a well-deserved rest!

The end of Dynastar skis?

Born in 1963 from the collaboration between Starflex and Dynamic skis that also gave the company its name through a contraction of the two brands, Dynastar stood as an innovative manufacturer with its fiberglass torsion box ski design. 

It was purchased by Rossignol in 1967 and in recent years became a marketing brand that struggled to stay alive and keep its manufacturing going. At last count, the company employed less than 60 workers to produce under 120 to 150,000 pairs of skis yearly. 

In the meantime, the Rossignol group has changed hands from other public companies to private equity funds and it was a matter of time until it would come to an end. On April 8, Rossignol announced it would cease operations at its Dynastar ski factory in Sallanches, citing a "difficult situation" for the site, which was employing 57 people. 

All manufacturing will be consolidated at two of Rossignol’s sites, its headquarters in Saint-Jean-de-Moirans in Isère, France and Artés in Spain. Hard to keep going when a unit is losing money and is no longer innovating I guess. The brand will keep going as a marketing facade, but for how long? 

RIP Dynastar.

Skiing my age… finally!

If there’s something I’ve taken for granted in recent years, it’s my ability to “ski my age”, that is to make as many ski outings as I racked up years. So, it’s with some trepidation that around the middle of March time in the season when I’ve historically “skied my age”, I realized that I only had skied 48 times! 

Sure, I fell on my posterior while blowing my snow, back in December, followed by a full-blown sciatica, and this put a serious damper on my ability to ski and, even after healing completely, I never recovered my pace again. 

In spite of my advancing age and aside from being much stiffer all over, I felt good on my skis as my cognitive skills, technical ability and comfort at all speed and in all terrains had not changed a bit. At that point in time, I knew that Park City Mountain was scheduled to shut down on April 13, so I started to panic, since I only had 29 more times to go out while there were only 26 days available… 

Thank God, nearby Deer Valley Resorts decided to extend its ski season to Sunday, April 20, so that pushed Park City Mountain to reciprocate, even going one day better, as it extended its season to April 21. I was technically saved and on April 19 I hit 77 times matching my number of years.

I ended up above that, but in the process, I learned a valuable lesson to pay more attention in the upcoming years, when meeting that milestone isn’t as likely to be so easy!

Our UPS man…

If I’m impressed with a few American companies, United Parcel Service (UPS) is one of them. Devoted to delivering parcels for years, it was founded in 1907 as the American Messenger Company specializing in telegraphs.

Today, it has become the largest courier company in the world by revenue, with annual revenues around $85 billion in 2020, ahead of competitors like FedEx and DHL. Its trucks are well maintained, clean and its personnel stay forever with the company. 

We used to own a large home in Park City that we sold in 2002 and moved to a much smaller, more modest home, not as high up on the hill. When our UPS delivery man realized that, he told my spouse how sorry he felt that we had “lost” our great home. She definitely appreciated his heartfelt empathy but said that we just scaled down as we had become empty nester… 

This past Thursday I ran into the same man and his shining UPS truck and we greeted each other. Then he said “Do you know that I have your snowblower?” At first, I couldn’t understand what he was talking about, then he went on and said “Yeah, you know your old Honda, it’s me who picked it up, I fixed it and it works great!” 

It then dawned on me that I had abandoned the old, broken-down snow remover on the curb of the street, next to my home with a “FREE” sign on it. He was the one who had been smart and handy enough to fix the old machine and give it a new lease on life. 

His UPS culture of good work, perfect maintenance and presentation had equipped him with the necessary drive and skills to make it happen and just increased my appreciation for UPS and his people even more! 

Fifty years ago, rediscovering America!

Part of my new job at Look ski bindings was to assess the role and the effectiveness of its important and costly ski racing service. During the winter 1974-75, I had plenty of time to see and understand how the system worked within Europe and I found it to be pretty scattered, disorganized and highly inefficient. The missing part of that puzzle was the work done in North America. 

So, towards the end of the season I undertook to visit our respective racing servicemen in the USA and Canada, Denys Liboz and Jean-Louis Villiot. I had met them the previous Fall and saw Liboz several times with the US Team on the Alpine world cup circuit. This time, I flew from Geneva to New York JFK, then hopped on a TWA plane to Reno, where Liboz picked me up and took me to Mt. Rose where the Spring Series Races were going on. 

I was impressed by the 8 feet of snow still left at the resort and understood the complexity and the immensity of the job Denys was up against. I recall that we spent a couple of days around Lake Tahoe, I even skied and I had brought my old Trappeur boots and got them replaced by a brand new pair of Nordica Meteor the late Tony Hedgecock, then boot racer-chaser for Beconta, gave to me. 

Later on, Liboz drove me down to San Francisco and on the way down the valley I picked up a pair of cowboy boots and a Levi’s jeans. I then flew to Calgary, Canada. From there, I drove to Banff where I met Villiot. I remember seeing my very first moose half asleep on the sidewalk. We talked about the scope of Jean-Louis’s job and our limited budget to be able to run it as it should have, the size of the country and the complexity of being everywhere for everyone at the same time. 

From Calgary I flew to Montreal where I met with Nordsport’s Peter Kirby, our Canadian distributor a very pleasant fellow, then I caught a flight to New York La Guardia, where I think my friend Peter Juen picked me up and drove me to Beconta’s Elmsford office (our US distributor) where I me the principals, Jim Woolner and Karl Wallach. 

Both told me Look was wasting its money on a ruinous racing program and that instead the company would be better advised to develop good products for the masses in order to stop the onslaught of Salomon that was emerging as a formidable and hard to beat competitor. As short-term oriented merchants, both probably had a self-serving point, and obviously didn’t care about maintaining the company’ s strong racing image. 

Later on, a limo would take me to my Swissair flight at JFK as I was on my back to Geneva. I was quite pleased with my new ski boots, my whirlwind trip but quite confused about what to do next in order to achieve the best possible result for my employer... .

A strange looking magpie!

The Eurasian magpie (Pica pica) is a species from the corvids family (Corvidae). Magpies can be found over almost all of Europe and north-western parts of Africa. For a long time, the Eurasian Magpie and the American Black-billed Magpie were considered the same species (Pica pica). 

However, in 2000, based on their vocalizations and behavior, significant genetic divergence were found between the two, the American Ornithologists' Union officially recognized the Black-billed Magpie as a separate species (Pica hudsonia), which is the one abundantly found in Park City. While they look very similar with their black and white plumage and long tails, subtle differences exist. 

Some sources note differences in the gloss of their feathers and the amount of white on their plumage. Black-billed Magpies can also reach a slightly larger size, mainly due to a longer tail. Their calls are also distinctly different. Further, there are differences in their social behaviors and nesting habits as Black-billed Magpies sometimes nest in loose colonies, unlike the more spread-out nesting of Eurasian Magpies.

So that pretty long explanation serves as introducing the unusual encounter we had a few days ago, when we stumbled upon a white magpie, next to a normal one. My first reaction was to say “It must be a case of albinism!” 

But after checking it, I had to conclude it was a more common case of leucism instead (partial loss of pigmentation, leading to white or patchy feathers but normal-colored eyes, not pink). Albinism in birds is far less frequent (roughly 1 in every 10,000 to 30,000 birds in the wild) while leucism is a bit less rare as it appears in 1 for every 1,000 to 10,000 birds). 

According to what I’ve read, leucistic birds have normal eye color (not pink) and may have mixed white and normal feathers. Will we ever see that unique bird again? I’d love to, but I doubt it!

What’s good judgment?

Good or sound judgment is a crucial quality in any leader, and one badly missed within our current American government. In the past I’ve always defined “good judgment” as a balance between common sense, experience and an ability to project consequences into the future. 

Part of it is what we mean with common sense for instance. In it, there’s adaptability and what we also call “critical thinking”, that ability to evaluate facts objectively, avoiding biases, and questioning assumptions. Common sense also includes a good dose of integrity and ethics, that is, choosing what’s right, not just what’s easy or beneficial. 

While the experience is invaluable as it educates us by drawing from past lessons and relevant information, as is the ability to anticipate outcomes and the long-term effects of our decisions.

One element I didn’t include though, is emotional intelligence, namely understanding emotions of the various parties involved in judging a situation without letting this fickle set of elements cloud and affect our reasoning. 

This domain is often harder to master because few of us have been trained to identify emotions well enough and develop effective responses to them. Like any living skills our judgment can be improved constantly by seeking diverse perspectives, and avoiding “echo chambers”. 

Also and mostly by learning from our mistakes, by slowing down when our emotions run high, staying well informed and training ourselves to distinguish facts from opinions. 

Poor judgment, in contrast, is impulsive, biased, or self-serving and is perfectly exemplified by Trump and his accomplices.

Europeans living in the United States

If someone had asked me how many European Community citizens live in the United States, I would have said, “I have no idea”. I had a vague guess for the number of French people, maybe 2 to 300,000 but that would have been it. 

Estimating the number of European Union (EU) citizens living in the United States is not an easy task because the US Census doesn’t track immigration status by EU citizenship. However, I found that there might be up to 5 million EC and British citizens living in that country for the years 2023–2024 out of a total population of 340 million, namely less than 1.5% (see table). 

The UK, Germany, Italy, France, Poland, and Ireland have the largest expatriate populations. That number is a mix from the US Census and immigration data, the Embassy registrations and the Pew Research estimate. These people include both legal permanent residents (green card holders) and temporary visa holders (work, student, etc.). 

Dual citizens like me and members of my family, or any one who came and is staying in the United States for good, may inflate these numbers if their ancestry was reported, and this might amount to a significant number of people which I couldn’t begin to guess.

Getting older and compensating for it…

Intuitively, I believe that we can fight the physical decline due to old age by becoming intellectually sharper, if our mental and cognitive skills allow it. I certainly realize that the relationship between physical decline and cognitive sharpness during old age is a complex one, but the little research I’ve done suggests that maintaining strong mental and cognitive skills can indeed help mitigate some effects of aging, both mentally and physically. 

Even as we grow older, the brain retains some ability to rewire itself. We’ve all read or heard that engaging in challenging intellectual activities (learning, problem-solving, meditation) can strengthen neural connections and build cognitive reserve, which we hope may delay dementia and cognitive decline. 

Further, cognitive engagement can indirectly combat physical decline by promoting healthier habits (getting information on health for instance) and is also key to stimulating motivation and reducing stress. I am convince that all this mental activity more than compensate for our physical losses due to aging! This said, moving a lot through physical exercise remains critical—it boosts brain function and vice versa, creating a feedback loop.

I believe for instance that skiing in challenging conditions that mix mental and physical coordination works well for my cognitive and physical heath. We also all know that a sharp mind fosters adaptability when a variety of physical limitations plant hurdles in front of us. Finally, a positive attitude toward aging correlate with better physical health and longevity. 

While cognitive sharpness may compensate for some physical decline, it won’t fully reverse biological aging (like muscle loss, joint deterioration) but at the end of the day with all the wisdom we gain by remaining sharp and mentally active, the overall net result is positive. At least that’s what I believe!

Discovering an poorly known Extreme Skier

While many experienced skiers have heard of Sylvain Saudan, Patrick Vallençant, Anselme Baud, or Jean-Marc Boivin, few have heard of André "Dédé" Anzévui, a mountain guide and ski instructor from Arolla, Switzerland.

That said, comparing all these "extreme skiers" who fascinated us all during the three decades spanning from the 60s to the 80s is the normal thing to do, and the following table will give those who don't know these folks too well an idea of ​​each one's place in ski history. 

Dédé Anzévui became famous for making the first ski descent of the north ridge of the Matterhorn in 1989, a feat that has never been repeated since. This descent, made in a fuchsia-colored jumpsuit, very narrow 2-meter Lacroix skis, in fact, the uniform of the extreme skier of the 80s, was the result of meticulous preparation and a passion for melding skiing and mountaineering. 

The north face of the Matterhorn was steeper and less accessible than the east face descended by Boivin who had introduced the "ski-that-really-feels-scary" when he descended the east face of the same Matterhorn, in June 1980. Anzévui's descent included many technical sections with slopes reaching 55 degrees, making it extremely demanding. 

Unlike Boivin, Anzévui had been dropped off by helicopter. Before this, Dédé Anzévui had made the first ski descent of the Dent-Blanche in the 1980s. I really discovered Dédé in a Swiss documentary (narrated in French) that you can watch below.

The sorcerer's apprentice

Ever since he got elected in 2016, Trump has always boasted that he knew more than the generals, the economists, the financial gurus and the best scientists. Just before that time, Trump earned his US fame through his “Apprentice” TV reality series and as I was thinking about all this, and I made the logical connection with the Sorcerer's Apprentice’s story and its unintended consequences, especially today in view of the tariffs fiasco. 

In fact, the Sorcerer’s Apprentice is a tale about pretentious people getting over their heads when they don’t know what they’re doing, and it’s precisely the way Trump has acted with his cruel immigration policies, his obsession on tariffs, his beliefs that he knows international politic and science better than anyone, and in the process has created havoc both the US and the entire world. 

In Goethe’s poem, the sorcerer's apprentice is training under the supervision of a Sorcerer. One day the Sorcerer (the adult in the room) has to leave momentarily and now alone and impatient to test the power he thought he learned from his boss, the apprentice uses the little magic he knows to make his broom clean up for him, but since he doesn’t know about to control it, the broom soon gets out of hand causing huge problems that he is incapable to fix until the Sorcerer returns. 

The story tells us that it takes competence, knowledge and practice to do things well, and it’s a very bad idea to undertake big things without having the proper qualifications. One should always respect learning and experience, and should never meddle in something that you one doesn’t understand. In Goethe story, the sorcerer, very benevolently didn’t punish his apprentice because he knew that this was one lesson he had learned well!

Can I use AI as a shopping tool?

That’s a question I’ve been asking myself lately: can I really use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to shop for consumer products or services? Guess who I’ve asked? AI of course and a resounding “Yes!” is the answer I received.

Not only that, but doing so can make the process faster, smarter, and more personalized. Here’s how AI can help and some tools you can use, starting with AI powered resources like ChatGPT , Google’s Bard (Gemini), Amazon’s Alexa or Google’s Assistant. 

In addition, AI can monitor prices across websites and alert you when a product drops in price such as Honey (by PayPal), CamelCamelCamel or Keepa to track Amazon’s price drops. Now, if you’re looking for a loan, an insurance, or a travel deal, AI can compare options in seconds, with Kayak / Hopper for travel, Policygenius for insurance or Credit Karma for loans or credit. 

This said, not all AI tools are fully autonomous, some still require manual checkout. Obviously, if privacy is of concern to you, be aware that some engines will also track your shopping habits. You'll also need to remember that certain results won't be totally unbiased as AI may favor certain brands due to certain commercial partnerships. 

With these tips in mind, have fun shopping!

Quick entry and exit from ski boots

This past week, I continued shopping for ski boots with greater ease of entry and exit. Remember, as I’m getting older I have more challenges in getting into and out of my ski boots, to the point that it’s become a major headache of mine! 

Three models have since attracted my attention, like the Nordica HF series, the Rossignol Vizion and the K2 Revolve (old Flexon). The former looked to me a bit flimsy while the Vizion appeared just as gimmicky as Pat Quigley’s Lange “mid-entry” from the 80s. As for the K2, it looked very soft to me. 

Yet, when I was sitting trying on a pair of Head conventional four-buckle model, the shop owner came with his phone showing me a video of a tool called “Shuvvie” describing a tool to enter and exit a stiff boot with relative ease. 

The clip I saw was done well enough to appear convincing and that led me to searching for other similar devices aimed at achieving similar results. 

Another solution, but only to facilitate entry is to use a “boot horn” (see photograph), but for exit, you may have someone to help you out of your ski boots right on the parking lot… 

I plan to test the Shuvvie and will let you know how it holds up to its easy-to-use claim!

Will my meditation practice last?

A large number of people try to meditate, but few stick with the practice for a long period or even the rest of their life, so I was wondering what percentage stay with it in the long run. I wasn’t expecting precise statistics due to the scarcity and the variability in studies, how we define the "practice," and its data quality. 

This said I have researched it a bit in order to get a rough answer to my question. In reality, many begin meditation, but fewer can sustain the practice as their initial enthusiasm often wanes due to what they see as lack of time, difficulty focusing, or not seeing any immediate benefits. 

 Those who maintain a consistent practice for their entire lives only account for 1 to 5%. People who stick to it for a decade or more show a deeply ingrained habit and their percentage is still below 10% of those who initially started. Maintaining a practice for at least 5 years (my current case) shows a significant commitment and might involve around 10 to 20% of those who began. As for those dropping after a year, their percentage might be close to 50%.

When I first began meditating in 1969, I might have lasted one or two months at best. Staying with meditation for the longer term often involves having a teacher and finding meditation beneficial enough to justify pursuing it. That latter part is important and I credit it for still practicing it. 

There are other valid reasons to stay with it, like overcoming practical and mental obstacles to practice or having a higher sense of conscientiousness than most… Having friends, family, a community or participating in organized retreats will also increase adherence to meditation. If you have some experience, don’t hesitate to post a comment!

Discipline, rigor and personal success

It’s my belief that a good mix of discipline and rigor can bring more success into someone’s life, but is it really true? While it’s natural to assume that personal success is strongly correlated with discipline and rigor, it certainly is not the only determining factor and it’s true that other elements also contribute. Success won’t happen without the acquisition and the continued development of skills. 

Then, a plan is needed with goals along the way, to keep one’s eye on the ball at any time, and of course consistent efforts to make it happen. This brings the two ingredients I was questioning. Goal achievement demands rigor and maintained efforts require discipline, even when faced with obstacles or distractions. In the mix, add good time management to accomplish things effectively and prioritize tasks. 

It’s also true that discipline and rigor build resilience, allowing us to bounce back from setbacks and failures, and keep tasks in focus, preventing distraction along the way. Besides rigor and discipline, our natural abilities like creativity, social adaptability, intelligence and talents will give us a head start in multiple areas. 

Same thing with access to opportunities, like education, mentorship, and active networking. Finally, there are luck and circumstance that never fail to influence our lives, well beyond our control, like being in the right place at the right time. Still, all these elements can’t eclipse discipline and rigor as essential components of a broader success equation.

Watching the “Adolescence” series

Our daughter had recommended that we watched the limited series, Adolescence on Netflix. It’s a family drama roughly based on a true story that happened in the UK. Without giving away the plot of that four-part show, we’d say that it was very well acted, riveting and was both both painful and uneasy to watch. 

What’s different in that story is that it’s told by focusing on the perpetrator of a crime and his family, not the victim’s, as normally is the case. 

A parent’s worst nightmare, that made us question the culture and the environment that surround today’s youth today and the pressures they face from their peers, misogynistic influences, identity development, and most importantly, the number one poison, the nefarious impact the internet and social media on society. 

Watch it if you can. 

How dental crowns are now built…

In a few weeks, I'm scheduled to get a new dental crown. If you have ever had a crown put on, you remember the traditional impressions you went through. It involved some gooey material stuffed in your mouth to mold to the shape of your surrounding teeth. 

Today, as I just experienced, there’s a much better way to achieve this. Now, a digital scan allows a dentist to get the necessary information for creating the needed crown. The simple and quick procedure just generates a 3-D map of the area of your mouth on a computer screen that enables the dentist to view your entire set of teeth on the screen. 

The quality of these scans is better too, as there’s less room for error with totally digital information. Combined with X-rays, the crown can be placed in a perfect geometric position and the digital file is then used to design and fabricate the crown using CAD software and 3D printing or milling. 

As anyone could guess, these digitizing systems made by Dandy in the US and Imagoworks in South Korea aren’t cheap and can cost in the $50,000 range. When my crown will be installed, I’ll chime in to let you know how the installation process went ! 

Ski World Cup Finals, Val Gardena 1975

It happened 50 years ago, and I still vividly remember the event. March 23, 1975 will forever remain a historic event in my mind, like it will for Italian skiing as a whole. That day, I witnessed the most exciting finale in the history of the World Cup. 

The setting was the Ronc slope in Ortisei, where Gustavo Thöni, the champion from Trafoi was ready for the final parallel slalom of a World Cup that saw him, Ingemar Stenmark and Franz Klammer show up with the same number of points at the finals in an absolutely unparalleled event with over 40 thousand people in attendance and some twenty million Italians glued in front of their TV. 

Klammer, a downhiller, not a technical skier paired with Helmuth Schmalzl, went out immediately in the opening heat, while Thöni climbed quickly into a controversial quarter final against Poland’s Andrej Bachleda. Likewise, his Swedish opponent reached the semifinal against Fausto Radici and won it, while Thöni beat Switzerland’s Walter Tresch to arrive head to head with Stenmark for a super-charged intense final run of two legends. 

The Italians fans were not nice to the Swede as they pelted him with snowballs as he was riding the surface lift up to the start. In the last gates of the final run, Stenmark trying to recover after slipping away into the last two gates lost his momentum, while Thoeni crossed the finish line victorious while Stenmark stood frozen and incredulous on the edge of the run. 

“Ingo” as Italians nicknamed the Swede, would win the next three crystal globes and win the most World Cups until Shifrin beat his record, effectively putting an end to the domination of the “Valanga Azzurra” (the Italian avalanche) led by Mario Cotelli. For my part, not only was Thöni, the overall World Cup champion on Look bindings, but so was his Austrian female counterpart, Annemarie Moser Pröll! 

With all these festive feelings and an everlasting memory inside my head I drove home thinking I had witnessed an incredible moment in ski history and some bittersweet feelings as this would be a premonition marking the beginning of the end of my job as racing director… 

Vail Resorts still doesn’t get it!

Recently, Park City Mountain, that’s owned by Vail Resorts, sent me one of their customer surveys. I get two or three of these by winter. This time, I said once more that I wasn’t terribly satisfied with my experience. 

Good points: Removal of “whippers”, on a few ski runs. These plants growing on ski runs are both dangerous and unpleasant that have grown since Vail Resorts took over Park City Mountain ten years ago, yet many more still need to go. 

Negative points: Had lunch with family once this winter at “Cloud Dine”. It was messy, overcrowded, dirty with mediocre food, the experience was unpleasant. Then, you closed down most of your Canyons Village parking lot mid-March to build a new covered garage. Why didn’t you wait till mid April? 

This clearly shows the lack of importance of customers to you. Since Vail Resorts took over, that parking lot has been peppered with huge potholes that were a challenge to avoid. So to add insult to injury, you’ve plastered the chain-link fence that borders the construction site with stupid, arrogant signs making a mockery of its clients. 

Like “Your car alignment will thank us” or “Potholes, the ultimate speed bump, enjoy them while the last!”. Not funny, when it’s Park City Mountain that let that lot deteriorate to its terrible condition and should PAY for wheels alignment and damages to my car. It shows that Park City Mountain has no concept of customer service. 

I guess, like for the Aesop fable of the frog and the scorpion, bad customer treatment is in Vail Resorts’ nature!

A knee-friendly ski binding?

While ski release binding technology has stayed stagnant for half a century, I wonder what’s behind new ski bindings designs like Tyrolia Full Heel Release, Knee or Howell Binding. All allege protection of the ACL tear, that would show a marked improvement over traditional bindings, but are these claims backed up by some serious evidence or are they just hype? ACL protection is a complex and still misunderstood issue. 

While traditional ski bindings are primarily designed to protect against lower leg injuries, like tibia fractures, they’re useless against knee injuries, particularly ACL tears, which often occur from backwards twisting falls. 

Tyrolia claims that its “Full Heel Release” (FHR) is based on solid scientific research and development in collaboration with the University of Innsbruck. 

Its technology allows for lateral and vertical heel release, in hope to reduce the risk of knee injuries, including cruciate ligament tears (ACL). These studies are said to show that this heel piece can reduce knee stress by more than 50% during falls involving backward rotation, which today are among the most common causes of ski injuries to the knee. 

Knee (Kneebinding) claims that their own research has found that their binding with fast-release characteristics and pivot points positioned strategically can reduce strain on the ACL during falls. In one of their studies using a biomechanical knee model they claim that their bindings with dual pivot points (front and back) could sense twist loads more effectively, reducing the occurrence of ACL injuries. The company also claims KneeBindings reduced the risk of ACL injuries by 82.5% and all ski-related knee injuries by 75%. The proprietary research involved over 1600 participants across multiple ski resorts and seasons. 

Again, all of that is company controlled and difficult to believe. As for Howell, its founder that was previously involved with Knee, has presented his findings at orthopedic, biomechanical engineering, and sports science conferences over the past 20 years. Some of this research has been published in peer-reviewed journals like the British Journal of Sports Medicine. Like for new innovations in health and sport medicine, the proof is in the pudding and only one or two decades of widespread use of these designs will provide the ski public with more satisfactory and tangible results. 

To me, this “improvement” is mostly fictional, as there’s no mechanical nor electronic way to measure the stress applied to the knee as opposed to what a mechanical traditional binding senses at the level of the foot and ankle levels. Short of having a measurement tool to sense and measure that energy, all the rest is hocus-pocus! As with any new products, marketing often grossly amplifies the benefits of new ideas to attract consumer’s attention. 

I’ll be waiting a few more years to see if there is any figment of truth in these attractive claims...

A phone call to dream for?

These days my dreams have been rather tame, not to say boring. They’re definitely less stressful and I credit this to my meditation practice. This said, I have an original one to share with you. 

A few nights ago, I was in the middle of a dream in which I heard a persistent buzz, so after a significant while, I realized it might have been my phone buzzing. 

So, in my dream, I pulled my device out of my pocket and began to swipe its screen, swiped it and swiped it again and kept on swiping it to no avail until my vain efforts woke me up and I realized that the buzzing came out of my wife “buzzing” respiration (some less generous folks would call this “light snoring”!) 

So that this was the extent of my high-tech dream that realized itself into hard reality! It’s true that everyone wonders why it can be so hard to swipe a smartphone when taking a phone call? No one can deny that taking a phone call can be so difficult at times. It can be caused by touchscreen sensitivity, but most likely by slightly wet or cold fingers, perhaps a film to protect the screen, and some screens maybe more sensitive than others. 

The way we operate the swiping motion also requires precise swipe direction and speed, and may not register if not done right. Also Android and Apple handle calls answering slightly differently (Androids can be more finicky than iPhone’s) and, additionally, the specific implementation can vary between phone manufacturers and OS versions. 

There’s additionally the instance when we’re distracted or in a hurry that might make it harder to perform a correct swipe. Make sure the screen is clean and dry, swipe firmly and deliberately in the correct direction, don’t hesitate or don’t rush! If available, using a bluetooth headset can make answering calls much easier. 

By following these tips, we all could significantly improve our success rate when taking calls on smartphones or resolve complicated dreams like mine...

Fifty years ago, trip to Stans…

I still remember a trip I made fifty years ago, in March 1975 with Jean-Michel Lamy, sales director at Look. We flew from Charles de Gaulle to Zurich, Switzerland, to meet Gaston Haldemann, importer and distributor of Rossignol, Nordica, and Look in that country, and Kaspar Heutschi, his sales director. 

The meeting took place at Haldemann's offices in Stans, a small mountain town in the heart of Switzerland, in the canton of Niedwalden, an hour's drive south of Zurich. I knew the town because it was the home of the famous short-takeoff aircraft Pilatus Porter. 

Lamy, recruited from Peugeot in central France, had absolutely no idea about the ski industry and was a bit like a fish out of water, while Haldemann, who had devoted his entire life, energy, and passion to skiing, knew what he was talking about. 

An engineer by training, he was the inventor of the Rossignol Fiberglass, a hollow-core slalom ski that Adrien Duvillard had taken to America in 1963, where he scored some victories in the early days of the professional circuit. 

We had gone there to discuss the future of Look's racing program and its place within the company. Haldemann was neither impressed by the impact of ski racing on sales, nor enthralled by the way Look was run, particularly by the company's lack of innovation. 

The meeting had achieved little, but it had called into question the costly investment the company was making in its racing department. Clear-eyed, I realized that this cost would ultimately strangle the company's future, resulting in its takeover by Bernard Tapie in 1983 for one symbolic French franc.

Skiing and… falling!

This video made from videos from the 2024-2025 alpine racing ski season came to my attention and along with my wife, we managed to watch the full 24 minutes of its footage. 

That’s one reason why I decided to pass it on to you if you can stand the pain of watching excellent skiers take dismembering tumbles to keep you entertained! In addition, what I took away from this rough spectacle, is that it’s a learning lesson for all of us who ski, at any skill level, I should add. 

As for the rest of our lives’ moments, we learn significantly from our mistakes than our successes. For instance, as skiing goes, this clip shows that we all should avoid skiing too much on the inside ski, but everyone does it! 

We shouldn’t either initiate direction changes at the last fraction of second or lean too much forward. Another observation is that security fences aren’t not installed or created equally, as some still let skiers through them without slowing them down much. 

Well, in the end, I can only hope that these involuntary heroes are doing okay today, and won’t suffer too much as their bodies get older. 

Did I vote for Trump?

It appears to be so long that can’t really remember which president I voted for in 2024. I think I went for the loud candidate who promised to make America great again as I liked his red hat and his assured ways. He spoke a good game, and even as a very old guy, he looked more alive than his opponent who vaporized at the first debate. 

The loud candidate promised to eliminate illegal immigrants that were stealing our jobs and were for the most part criminals. I know, these folks were doing the work no “Anglo” would ever do, so that must be illegal! 

He also guaranteed to kill inflation, bring grocery prices back to pre-Biden levels, promised using tariffs to enrich the country and bring all manufacturing back home, balance the federal budget and cut taxes. 

He promised me miracles better than the ones expected in Lourdes, and that sounded good to me because I believe in things I like to hear, and I can see that he’s hyperactive and doing all kinds of big things all the time. 

He’s like a huge bull inside a tiny china shop, it’s full of action, it’s noisy, things fly around and it sounds just like he promised…