A little garden by the sea

That's what our people call this plot of land that is our country: um pequeno jardim à beira mar plantado.
A peaceful little place, where people are mostly gentle.
It seems we are the ninth most peaceful country in the world...

(if you want check how peaceful your country is)


This would sound a lot better if it weren't for the fact that violent crime is rising here too. If it weren't for the fact that although I'm not that old I still remember when people felt a lot safer than they do today.
Still this is a rather nice place to live in.
True we don't have color coded alerts to tell people how scared they must feel, but then again people usually don't feel frightened around these parts.

The feeling however gets a lot worst when I stop looking at my own belly button and start looking around, looking at the war thorned countries, at the countries where law and order are but a dream, where the only law is the word of those who hold the guns.

And even in countries that may seem mostly peaceful from the table, when I think of Ghana ranking 40th, my mind wonders to the slave children there...
Call me naïve if you want to, but I really believe it would be possible to build a better world where this ranking would make no sense, where all people could feel safe and where all children could play and go to school.

How's that for non-pollutant?

A former Formula 1 engineer, Guy Négre, has signed a deal with an Indian company (Tatra Motors) to produce an air-driven vehicle.
This car works on compressed air, thus having zero emissions.

A completely non-pollutant vehicle.

Or is it? Its air tank must be filled with an air compressor, either the in-built electric compressor or an industrial compressor.
So although the car by itself is environmentally friendly, charging it means you'll have to use electricity.
Now, you can have a windmill generating the electricity, or a solar panel, that way you won't be using fossil fuels to generate the electricity for the compressor, but then you'll have to spend energy to build the windmill or the photovoltaic cells...
Don't get me wrong, I DO think this car is great and I do think we must try and find environmentally friendly solutions. But the main issue remains in electricity. Most of the processes in our so called civilized world require energy, at some point or another. Nuclear power is dangerous and generates pollution. Fossil fuels aren't going to last forever and you all heard about the problems associated with them.
As for all the other sources of energy... they are not efficient enough to satisfy our needs for energy.
Without wanting to seem pessimistic, but assuming it will take a long time to solve our energy problems, maybe we all should really focus on the other side of the equation and instead try to reduce our need for energy. Walk instead of driving, use public transportation, turn off the lights when you don't need them, unplug all the useless electrical gizmos around the house. Electrical can opener? What for?
Off course this idea can also mean don't spend so much time on the internet, turn off the computer...

In the meanwhile, a big HURRAY!!! for Guy Négre for is contribution!

Featured photo

This is Hundertwasserhaus, you can read more about this building here.

Find where this place is

Book suggestion

Most people nowadays talk about global warming.
Some people follow the eco-leaders, assuming all the arguments of the environmental gurus are right.
Some others simply deny the theories of the environmental groups.
How
many people actually try and understand what is at stake? How many
people do actually know what the real issues are, what the real
knowledge about our situation is?

Well, this book can give a real down to Earth easy to understand explanation on what we know about global warming.

However you should also read this other book, although fictional it has sound
scientific basis, well documented, and points out several important
issues about activism without adequate knowledge of the issues
defended...

Delusions of grandeur

Our glorious government has been telling us all that cutting down on public expenses is absolutely necessary.
To cut on said expenses hospitals, schools, maternities and other public services have been closed throughout the country.
Yesterday however we’ve learned through the media (Portuguese only, sorry) that the city of Al-Khader, in Palestine, has a new football stadium (soccer for you American folks), FIFA approved, seating 6000 people, offered by the Portuguese Government.
A gift in the value of over 2 million dollars.
Although poor we are however a very generous people.
You would expect that such an action from a government would cause a revolution, you would probably expect riots… Well… No.
As I said we’re generous.
So as soon as the news was heard the Portuguese people supported it in the form of an e-mail that spread around. This e-mail suggests we should even make a few more offerings, namely a gym for Afghanistan, an Olympic Stadium to Somalia and all our politicians to the crocodiles of the Nile!
I’m am not a rich guy. At the present I’m actually short of cash. But one thing is for sure, I would gladly chip in for the last item. My only doubt is: wouldn’t those poor crocs be poisoned were they to eat such crap food as our politicians?

40 abs a day keep the belly away

After slacking our exercise for some time (we haven't been using our gym lately), GH decided to start a minimal routine of 40 abs a day.
Today I decided to join her.
Only to realize I'm way out of shape.
Gone are the days of 50 abs and three times over the tartan before a rugby practice... it seems age and beer are starting to take their toll.
Just hope tomorrow the 40 abs will feel less of a pain.
But nothing like this feeling to make a firm resolution: at least two hours of gym per week from now on. Plus the 40 abs a day of course, if she can stand so can I!

My panoramio

From now on my new pics shall be posted both in the blog and here, so you guys can know where the places are. Who knows, maybe you decide to visit those places yourselves, heh?

Gearing up for Summer

We got ourselves a new bike rack that can be mounted in either of our cars (here it is in GH's).
Fast enough to mount and dismount unlike the old one, that could only be fitted in my car and took a long time to assemble.
This will mean more bike rides this Summer, and farther away from home.
It will probably mean less blogging time too, but then again it may mean more photos of nice places.
This will be a budget season, so instead of traveling to some place nice but far away we will stay home (not too bad when you live close to the beach) and make do with our surroundings.

Things people say

“When an espresso cools down the coffee’s concentration increases”
by an alleged chemist just about to finish her PhD!

I wonder, if it gets more dilute again if you nuke it for a few minutes…

Weight problems

One of the technicians at our lab has a weight problem.
Actually several of them do, but this one in particular is a severe case: she destroyed an average of 6 chairs per year in the last few years.
Some weeks ago she got a drastic gastric band.
As soon as she got back to work she wanted to celebrate with her colleagues so she brought plenty of cakes... oh, and when the day was over she finished up the leftovers so she wouldn't take any home.
Today someone asked her if the gastric band was having any effect.
Her answer: "I'm not quite sure, the doctor told me not to weigh myself in order to avoid stress, but most of my clothes don't fit me anymore, I had to buy larger ones".
The next question was obvious: "Larger?!"
The next answer: "Yes, my stomach gets full really quickly now and if I follow the prescribed diet I'm always hungry, so now I'm eating mostly sugary stuff, maybe that is why I'm getting a little larger, but soon I'll be thinner, you'll see!".

Yeah, right!

Poked with a stick

Well, not really... but an e-mail from Kris made me feel I had neglected this here blog thingy for too long.
Things are going rather smoothly, although we've both been busy and we're broke.
No, relax, this is not one of those "send us your money" posts.
In fact even being broke is something relative, nothing to worry about.
During this absence a few e-mails from some of you had already made me feel like resuming my posts, but being tired from work gave that ranting mood that would probably mean ranting posts, so I kept in "pause mode".
I'll still be unable to read as many posts as I used to, but at least I'll try and start posting again.

PS: BTW it was about time to change the featured photo too, so here goes.
As some of you will probably assume I'm coming back from the dead, I leave you with a detail of a sarcophagus from the Imperial Crypt in Vienna. GH had to attend a conference there and I went along just for fun.