Kfirlog

Clay Shirky’s talk on Cognitive Surplus at the Web 2.0 Expo. Something to think about.

Summer came, and summer is almost gone now. I have been quite busy and so neglected my blogging commitment. Here to make it right is a post about this wonderful summer.
During this summer I had two major vacations. Two weeks in Berner Oberland, Switzerland, and a week in Israel out of which 3 days were taken by a dive safari in the Red Sea. Before I start telling about these two thought, I’d like to say that the actual travelling start with two visits to Fontainebleau within a month. Bleau is always fun, and every time I come back I find myself wondering why I don not go there more often. I hope this new trend of vising at least once a month on average (more in the summer, not so much in the winter).

Berner Oberland, oh, Berner Oberland. Home of the Jungfrau, the Eiger with its world famous north face and the Aletschhorn glacier to name a few. Paula and me spent a day in Bern, which was nice, but I was feeling restless. I wanted to see the Eiger. So the next day we left for Launterbrunnen, which lies in a dale starting close to Interlaken. It is a place out of a fairy tale. The dale has walls of a few hundred meters high. A few waterfalls flow from the top to form magnificent waterfalls. It is a place that, at least in me, steers a feeling of magic. The next two days we spent mountain biking in the area.

The first day we went up from Launterbrunnen to Muren. That proved to be a somewhat difficult day. In total its 900m of a continuous climb. We were not ready for that much climbing. By the time we reached Muren it really felt like a victory. We were quite tired, and, failing to find an apple shtrudel had to settle for a cup of coffee. The way down was fun. Those 900m went flying by. There were a few places with warning signs instructing us to get of the bikes. We didn’t. It was fun. The next day we went for a somewhat flatter route, going only 400m vertical. It was still bloody difficult. Our legs were tired but the scenery was so beautiful they were easy to ignore. The third day we were expecting Bas and Charlotte to arrive at the afternoon. Seeing as we were about to embarke on a 8 day hike we decied to take it easy. The day’s activity consisted of getting provinces and getting the bag ready for the coming hike. Bas said they would be there at around 16:00. So we expected them at 19:00 the earliest. We were caught by complete surprise when Bas and Charlotte actually arrived on time.

The hike itself was amazing. I have almost forgotten what a wonderful feeling it is to walk in the alps, sleep in huts, and just generally be out, in nature. Every day I was having more fun. We walked in 7 days from Grosse Scheidek to Oeschinsee. I find my words fail me when I come to describe how it was. The nature was so there, all around you, taking you in. Making me feel small, and at the same time as free as can be. Standing at the foot of the Eiger north face, looking at a wall 1700m high, its exhilarating. we were also very lucky with the weather. We had almost exclusively sunny days. Till 16:00. then it rained, hard. Then at 16:45 it became sunny again. Apparently it has something to do with the area’s micro climate. Lots of glaciers and a warm sun will do that.

The second vacation was the diving safari in Sinai. I am a new diver. Its less then a year since I followed a diving course during our trip to Thailand. Less then a year and already I have dives in some of the est places in the world.
Coming from Israel I am no stranger to the Red Sea. This was however the first time I properly dived in it. The safari was a 3 day, live on-board(as in on a boat). Every day there are 4 dives, except the last days which can only have 3 because of time constrains. I don’t know if I can conclude from this first experience about all live-onboard safaris, but I believe they are all pretty much like this. And by this I mean totally relaxing. You have zero worries. All you have to do. All you can do is dive, eat sleep and read. Oh and setup discos to dance into the night, but I think that was a bit unique . It is an wholly relaxing, and energy filling experience. I highly recommend it as an anti-stress treatment.
Thats it for now, I’m all written out. Ill write some more in the weekend.

The World War animation film bellow, was created by Vincent Chai for his final degree project, while studying 3D Animation at the University Of Hertfordshire, UK. Its well made, amusing, and the action is really good. Keep an eye out for this guy.

As I was going through youtube adding the clips for the previous post I can upon A LOT or remixes for Dead or Alive’s “You spin me round round”. So much so that I felt I had to put these 3 mixes, starting with Jessica Simpson, which unfortunately do not allow embedding so here it is

the next one is by Thalia. I have to say, I have no idea who she is

and finally a more straight forward remix, if you can call it that

Its amazing to see how the video clips have grown from an afterthought to a central piece in the creation of main stream music

At work today I was listening to a classic rock station when “I ran” by A Flock of Seagulls came up. It must have been at least 15 years since I last heard it. So with this nostalgia in mind, here are some of those 1 hit songs from the 80s

this post wont be complete without “You Spin Me Round”

And for a final touch

Oh the memories

The secret lives of invisible magnetic fields are revealed as chaotic ever-changing geometries . All action takes place around NASA’s Space Sciences Laboratories, UC Berkeley, to recordings of space scientists describing their discoveries . Actual VLF audio recordings control the evolution of the fields as they delve into our inaudible surroundings, revealing recurrent ‘whistlers’ produced by fleeting electrons . Are we observing a series of scientific experiments, the universe in flux, or a documentary of a fictional world?.
Awarded Best Film at Cutting Edge at the British Animation Awards 2008.
Awarded Best Experimental Film at Tirana International Film Festival 2007.

An interesting talk about secret software and why it should not be allowed in the public sector

Paris Hilton made a funny, intelligent video in reaction to Mr McCain’s TV spot.

Yes That is “Paris”, “Intelligent” and “Funny” all in one sentence.