Brussels

Brussels is a strange city.

It has curbsides that can kill, especially if you want to cycle accross them in an angle not steep enough.

There are public places with tiles that are so slippery that you have trouble walking when they are wet, which is almost every day (Naamse Poort, Brussels).

When you move here you have to register, fair enough, but there is an agent who has to check that you really live at the address which you registered, this sounds like from the middle ages (and does not prevent people to be registered somewhere and live somewhere else!!!)

The commune sends you letters that never arrive, either they don’t send them, or the postal system is awful. There seems to be some indication that it is the latter: parcels sent from abroad got sent back without us being notified about anything.

Or the commune sends you 2 letters (probably in case one does not arrive) inviting you for an interview, with the same content, but different quantities of things to bring (photos, euros), when you go to the meeting they demand yet a third quantity of photos and euros from what they demanded in the two letters that were sent by the same person on the same day.

There are several electricity companies but the Belgian does not care, because it is too difficult or too much effort to check the differences that most people stay with the once state owned company. When you switch then they charge you 5 times the amount the previous tenent payed, because they do not have a record of your consumption.

There are also several telephone companies and the same thing happens as with the electricity companies, but they use an outdated system and the lines are overloaded.

Belgians are nice people, though. Otherwise nobody would stay probably.

Censorship

Thoſe who would give up ESSEBTIAL LIBERTY to purchaſe a little TEMPORARY SAFETY, deſerve neither LIBERTY nor SAFETY from An Historical Review of the Constitution and Government of Pennsylvania which is attibuted to Richard Jackson who might have used words from Benjamin Franklin who published the book in 1759.

Amnesty International has a campaign going to fight unwarranted censorship:

I hope this will lead to something.

ext (linux) file system on windows

Now I am using ext2fsd because it is uncomplicated and lets me read my linux partition with a large inode number. On the maintainer’s page there are lots of resources which show other projects related to ext2|3.

The first method I used to read linux partitions was explore2fs. I did not like the interface at the time and switched away when I found ext2ifs. Now I have a new linux installation with the number of inodes = 254, but ext2ifs only works with 128.

DiskInternals Linux Reader is an explorer like interface to look at ext2|3 file systems. I have not used this and another one I have not tried is ext2fsnt.

immunizations

I am reading Your child’s best shot by Reginald Gold and Vaccinations: A Thoughtful Parent’s Guide: How to Make Safe, Sensible Decisions about the Risks, Benefits, and Alternatives by Aviva Romm and are more confused about vaccination than I was before.

In Your Child’s best shot endorsed by the Canadian Pediatric Society I am told that I should trust scientific methods because at least in Canada reactions to and effects of inoculations to patients is closely monitored. They argue that it is difficult to find good advice that can be trusted amongst the contradictory information that can be found in the media and that therefore this book was produced. They imply that their information can be trusted (it reminded me of the saying Trust me, I am doctor). It is well written with good information about the vaccines available in Canada which are very similar to those in the United States of America. Each disease is thoroghly described, with good information about the history (before and after the vaccine), the germs (how the illness is caused and spread), the illness (with complications, diagnosis and treatment), the vaccine (types, manufacture, available forms, administration, schedule and side effects) and the results of the vaccine.

Vaccinations on the other hand gathers information that has been published and asks critical questions about why we vaccinate or if vaccines are important. Romm goes into some detail explaing how our immune system works. It is well explained and very well written which gives authority to what she is writing. There is good information about the probability of getting severe cases of the diseases when not vaccinated, so that an informed decision can be made about taking the vaccine or not.

I have not finished the books yet, which explains the confusion I have, but it seems apparent that the decission of vaccination is more a personal issue rather than a decisson of what is right and wrong.

It is now the 30 October 2008: I started to read yet another book:

Vaccinations : Les vérités indésirables which is written by a biology teacher. He addresses the human immune system, how vaccines are made, the efficacy of vaccines, the danger of vaccines, the political interest of vaccines and the interest of the pharmaceutical industry from a French perspective. He investigated the subject because he wanted to know more than what his doctor could tell him and he found out a lot more. The main thing he criticizes is the lack of unbiased information the normal person gets. With this book he wanted to show the complete story in an unbiased way. After reading this book anyone
will question the vaccination system that most countries in the world follow. It gives back to the people an educated way of critically assessing the pro and cons of vaccines, which has gradually been eroded by misinformation and propaganda.

atmospheric chemistry and physics

Today I got notified that the article Validation of NO2 and NO from the Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment (ACE) written by
T. Kerzenmacher, M. A. Wolff, K. Strong, E. Dupuy, K. A. Walker, L. K. Amekudzi, R. L. Batchelor, P. F. Bernath, G. Berthet, T. Blumenstock, C. D. Boone, K. Bramstedt, C. Brogniez, S. Brohede, J. P. Burrows, V. Catoire, J. Dodion, J. R. Drummond, D. G. Dufour, B. Funke, D. Fussen, F. Goutail, D. W. T. Griffith, C. S. Haley, F. Hendrick, M. Höpfner, N. Huret, N. Jones, J. Kar, I. Kramer, E. J. Llewellyn, M. López-Puertas, G. Manney, C. T. McElroy, C. A. McLinden, S. Melo, S. Mikuteit, D. Murtagh, F. Nichitiu, J. Notholt, C. Nowlan, C. Piccolo, J.-P. Pommereau, C. Randall, P. Raspollini, M. Ridolfi, A. Richter, M. Schneider, O. Schrems, M. Silicani, G. P. Stiller, J. Taylor, C. Tétard, M. Toohey, F. Vanhellemont, T Warneke, J. M. Zawodny and J. Zou
in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussion 8, 3027-3142, 2008
was accepted for publication in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics as is after its revision demanded by two anonymous referees. A stone falls from my heart!!!

mushrooms every where!

Because of the humid summer in Quebec there are mushrooms popping up everywhere. Like this funny one.

Mushroom by fabrivelas on Zooomr

wasp collecting wood

I recently heard some tiny high pitched scraping noises while eating on my patio and discovered that it is wasps collecting wood, creating 2 cm long light scrap marks on gray wood.

Guêpe by fabrivelas on Zooomr

andreas jonsson’s numpty physics ubuntu package

Finally there is a ubuntu package for numpty physics. I have been waiting for this. Great work Andreas. It would be nice to have a detailed guide on how you compiled the source.

what are capers?

Capers are the buds of this plant:

Caper by fabrivelas on Zooomr

There is one in the middle of the picture. They are put in a salty solution for preservation. They taste good.