EU again

The European Union advances to my favorite topic, as it seems. I just can't help exploring what hilarious ways are tought out by eurocrats to wast our tax money.

So basically this time the EU has noticed that current programms are becoming to complex for anyone who adminsters them to understand. Frankly speaking, what do you do if you don't understand anymore what you are doing? For my part I'd go for reducing complexity. But this plan is probably too straightforward...

Thus if you're the European Union and you're running three programs to spread money according to some arbitrary but highly sophisticated rules, and this doesnt work, you naturally opt for establishing a fourth program which adminsters the other three.

This has several advantages to it
1. you can hire more staff - everyone will think because you're expanding it's a big success
2. as a eurocrat, you probably get a rise because more people report to you
3. you make yourself irreplacable: complex stuff needs to be taken care of..
...and probably lots of other good points...

For all the details check out the Spiegel article.

big hike holidays - GR20 Corse

If everything goes well, what I expect, I'm going to start working in June, which leaves some time to relax in May.

I'm not quite sure where to go and what to do, but one idea I like a lot is the plan to go on a big hike in mid may. So I was reminded that Marius, a friend of mine, told me about the GR20 (Grand Randonnée 20) some time ago. It's a trail circling the isle of Korsika in around 15 days, and I'm confident that there's some room for speeding up that time from what I read.


Here's some ressources I checked on the net:
- Abenteuer Korsika
- GR20 Tagebuch

What I'm not quite positive about is whether the season is already right for doing it, my main concern is snow as a lot of the track is around 2000 meters, and some parts even above, with the highest peak on the island being at 2700 meters. Experiencing snow in the Ticino last year in May/June I can tell that it's partly funny but also very exhausting if longer stretches are covered with deep snow, and north faces can be covered in snow pretty long.Also probably a lot of food will have to be carried, as some huts might only be open in the main season for the trail starting in June.

Thus I would appreciate any hints on how weather, snow and everything is like in Korsika/Corse currently. Maybe you know somebody who lives there or something, that would be cool.



On the other hand, maybe you have different cool ideas for a short two week break somewhere else in the world???

UPDATE: STephan on the Globetrotter board told me that the GR20 is completely free of snow currently. Only the hut wardens won't be there yet, so it sounds like a lot of stuff to carry around, incl. gas (this makes for few boxer-shorts... - but hey, it doesnt look like anybody is up to joining me anyways.. ; )

Flight event: Axalp 2007

Ok, it's a bit early to announce but the Axalp event of the swiss army is taking place from October 9. to 11. this year. I've been there for two times already and it's really awesome flight-action with all types of military airplanes. Some "freaks" I met there last time told me it's probably the most exciting air show out there in Europe or even the world.

Check out swiss-sky or Patrouille Suisse for more infos.

(cool) university shirt

Wouldn't thought that it would happen, but University of Basel actually managed to produce some cool t-shirt that you might be actually proud wearing. They're made by Tarzan , a young swiss label. They're already sold out as far as I know, luckily a got one as a graduation present.. ; )



Anyway, now my collection is complete, as I already had a t-shirt from New York University and Simon Fraser in Vancouver. Looking forward to wearing the shirt, especially when going abroad. You just can't beat more than 500 years of experience (since 1460) ...

Here's the link to the details on how to get one.

Unlucky Porsche dealer - business sense gone mad

Wow, check out this article

Glen Fergusson - Sales and Marketing manager for a brand new Californian Porsche dealer. Has lost his job and faces possible legal proceedings as the company strives to reclaim the costs of the 18 Porsches given away free under Glen's Opening day "buy one get one free promotion" "I admit I didn't really do the numbers properly on this one" said Glen who told reporters that he had "seen the concept work really well for coffee stores" and in terms of numbers you could argue that Glen's campaign worked. As the new Porsche dealer sold 18 Porsches in the first hour of the store opening. [ continued on stuffed.co.nz ]

I find this to be a very nice example of how stuff can go wrong if you transfer ideas from one business where they make sense to another industry with different characteristics, where they obviously do not make sense.

Sadly, the story seems to be made up, as can be read here on urban legends references pages of snopes.com .

Anyways, I think the point made is still very true. This story probably happens a hundred times every day in numerous companies around the world. Except that the guy's name is not Glen (well, maybesometimes) and he's probably not a Porsche dealer. And most of the times, it won't be that obvious what happens, but still value is destrcuted.

E.g. you have a top CEO that turns around a whole company in 2 years and has the best track record you can imagine, plus is highly appreciated by analysts and the stock market. So what do you do? Right, you fire him ...

Pizzo Centrale

At the end of the season I finally managed to put my new ski touring boots into use. Some people migth argue that mid april with 25 degree in the valley is not exactly made for skiing - but there's still plenty of snow - well, above 2000 meters..

We decided on backcountry.ch to go for a tour in the Gotthard area. So Dave, Jeanny and I met at the Andermatt gondola saturday morning at 7:15am (getup at 4:30am..) and took the gondola to the top of Gemsstock at 3000 meters.

From there we first had to descent on frozen snow, not exactly a nice ride. After arriving at the low point we started ascending again, first with skis, then by foot after the ski depot. The last section up to the peak was already pure hiking/climbing, as it was exposed to the south. Arriving on the peak we met two guys enjoing their fondue on a small camping cooker and who even invited us for some bits.

Pizzo Centrale (on the right)

After descending again to our skis we traversed and went on for another peak, "Glocketürmli". From there, we had a really nice ride down in the valley.


But then at some point, spring time showed it's full power: the last hill was almost completely burnt away by sun. So we had to take the hiking path by foot for the last section before starting to walk back on the road to Hopsental and then taking the train to Andermatt again.


To finish off the day, we then went to Flüelen at the Vierwaldstädtersee and had some serious BBQ at the lakeside in the evening, doesnt get better ; )

You can find a full gallery of pics here on rockthepowder.com ! And a short additional description of the conditions here on backcountry.ch .

how to become a gastro expert

Ok, I get this mail in Xing by a woman who is looking for a manager / lessee for her restaurant in Basel, which is currently about to be rebuilt and due to open in autum.

Obviously, I must thus be a reckoned expert for the gastro scene in BAsel. Question: how come? Pretty easy: I've written an article on Xing on the "Basel geht aus" restaurant guide, which now seems to be ranked on google.de on the 7th position when you search for "gastroszene basel" ...
(You're not on Xing yet? - it's free, guaranteed).

Well, being an expert in this field, let me give some recommendations:

- Check out Acqua at lunchtime, it's 20CHF for menu (starter & some kind of pasta + red wine & water a discretion)
- If it's warm enough in the evening have dinner at Don Camillo, on the terrasse. Food is very good as well, but you just can't beat sitting there outside on a warm summer evening
- check out Ono on Petersgraben in BAsel, they don't have homepage yet, but guess who's xing post is coming on 3rd place in google results when searching for "ono basel" ...

Acqua

how do you like

the stuff that is posted here?

I'm aware it's a pretty wild mix of arts, ski, politics, mountains and whatever comes to my mind or happens to me. So I'm kind of curious what's really interesting (of course the best thing to hear would be that it's the wild mix..)

I will also try avoiding such long gaps between posts like the other days...

Baselworld

Baselworld, the international jewlery and watch show is coming to an end today. From what I've heard, it was pretty impressive. For my part I was kind of reluctant to spend 45CHF entry fee to check out stuff I cannot afford (yet...).

The main afterparty spot was the area around the Acqua, remodelled as "Baselworld Village". I finally made it there yesterday evening, which was also the last chance as it was the last day. I can only say that Simon Lutz really has it. After pulling of Acqua and Baracca Zermatt, this is taking it to the next level. Regarding Basel nightlife I would say they're well ahead 2 or 3 years compared to the other locations in terms of concept and execution.



The village was using the whole area around Kuppel and Acqua, with lot's of possibilities to chill and very nice details like flowers, a huge fireplace etc. Some impressions below.

But the best part was the VIP lounge, where luckily the colleague of mine I went with had an entry card. This meant beer for free the whole evening and a stunning live performance of a very nice brasilian singer. Way to go...- looking forward to next year.


Check out the gallery for more pics of the village.

weekend & cool knowledge

Wow, not much time for an update. I'm all in the midde of my application process after I finished the last bit of my MSc studies. Also I'm struggling with my allergy against pollen , think you call it hay fewer in english. so that's the reason i'll escape to the mountains tomorrow (well, there are other reasons as well.. )

Anyways, here's some feeding for your browser, somewhat grouped around the topic "cool knowledge":

dropping knowledge - cool project
howstuffworks - anything you never knew about the world..
covers project - knocking on heavens door is originally from ? right, Bob Dylan. and it was covered by? Grateful death, Leningrad cowboys...
international movie database - okay, I mentioned it some posts ago, but it just belongs in this list

have a nice weekend...

this weekend

Andermatt, definitely the place to be on the coming weekend. Here's the link to the event. It's on Saturday, 14 April. Too bad I won't particiapte, but I figure it's the smart choice given the condition of my right leg, although it feels pretty good when I go biking etc.; So I figure I gonna take it easy, some laid-back skiing and watching other people race.. ; (

Monopol, Art & Liste

I currently have a test subsrciption of Monopol.

There's a cool article about the NY artist Dash Snow, looks like Jim Morrison and probably takes as many drugs as the Doors singer did once. Check this link for some impressions of his art. (you have to click on the dash..)

Also presented in the issue is the collection of an collector from Iran, Ebrahim Melamed. Those two works byFarhad Moshiri are from his collection, I find it's a pretty cool idea. The images are taken from here .



Talking of ART it has to be noted that ART2007 is opening soon on June 13th ! We of course all know when the official start is ... --- Not less important of course the young art fare in basel Liste2007 ! starting on June 12th.

new skis

Haven't mentioned it here but I broke my skis in Engelberg two weeks ago. So the day after I rented this beauty (Made 'n' AK) here and fell in love. It's soft like chewing gum and floats on powder like a feather, well, a feather made of stell I guess. As far as I can tell it's build for going fast in powder and jump big stuff...





So some days later I got me the successor of the Maidn, the " AK Enemy" . I find it's hard too argue which one looks better. I probably would've gone for black if it was still available but start to like this one with my marker M14 free with red flames as well a lot.


The only thing it can't handle as far as I can tell is the combination of icy slopes and high speeds, but then again it's not designed for this and excels in what it does best: powder & speed ...

Easter movie quiz

If you ask a 10 year old what happens at easter you probably get the answer that movies on TV are even better than on Christmas.

Anyways, I watched TV yesterday and couldn't help zapping around. After a while of rough overview I decided to spend my evening with Mel Gibsons Jesus, Alien and Predator. Thus it's pretty obvious what the question is, what is the difference between the two movies ?
I admit, this is an easy one. Clearly the blood is red in the Passion of Christ and green in Alien vs. Predator. On the other accounts, I couldnt note much difference, and here's some points to illustrate:

- both are classical stories (the first Alien movie was shot in 1979, so almost 30 years now, wow)
- the plot is very predictable in both cases
- main actors speak in strange languages

I don'T know if it's my strange kind of perception of reality or just the equalization of everything that Hollywood gets in its fingers that makes me think so ...

Anyways, check out IMDB for more cool infos about more cool movies, it's addictive ...

happy easter!

how can you tell that it's easter? rabbits get long ears.. ; )


so let's play a easter game -- the first person who can tell me where this rabbit was spotted gets a chocolate rabbit ...

Prague trip

As noted earlier I visited Prague together with Eva last week. So check out the gallery with some impressions. We mostly checked out what everyone else was looking at: old stuff. But honestly it's pretty cool: the castle, the jewish quarter, Kafka museum and so on.

If you plan going there let me know, I sure have some tipps and hints to offer. Foremost I can tell you about the many way that Czechs manage to make you as a tourist pay around 10-20% more.. - in the end it doesn't kill you to pay 40EUR for a meal for two including wine and everything, but still it's annoying to pay tip if you don't feel like it because the waitress was unbelievable unfriendly..

But in summary it's a pretty cool town, and beer is at 1EUR for half a litre ... haven't checked the pictures yet ?

samuels gallery

this is a pic from Samuel's gallery, a friend I often go freeriding with. check out his whole gallery here. by the way, he is aiming to become a pro-rider, so just in case you have a ski company let me know and I'll forward his details, I can assure that he's really a strong and stylish rider.

I gonna study at Stanford and Princeton

I read about this in karriere . Many of the top universities in the US offer free online material for their lectures. Haven't checked this out in detail but it sounds like it is really good material including exercises and even video material. Go here for the article on the karriere.de homepage.

Here's the link list for your convenience

Berkeley, University of California: itunes.berkeley.edu; webcast.berkeley.edu Carnegie Mellon University: www.cmu.edu/oli Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health: ocw.jhsph.edu Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT): ocw.mit.edu University of Notre Dame: ocw.nd.edu Princeton: www.princeton.edu/WebMedia/lectures Stanford University: itunes.stanford.edu Tufts University: www.ocw.tufts.edu Utah State University: ocw.usu.edu

najo beanies

A friend of Samuel, a friend I go skiing with, makes really cool beanies together with a friend of hers. Got it?

check out the homepage, the stuff looks cool and is definitely unique and hand made: najo



oh yes, Prague pictures are in the pipeline..

Flip flop season is on

As summertime is approaching the European Union launched a new directive on flip-flops security. For your convenience I have extracted and illustrated the two main regulations.

As can be seen in figure A, flip-flops may for security reasons only be worn with appropriately mounted socks. Grey is color of choice as sweat or other wet substance are indicated very fast by visual check. If unattended, flip-flops have to be secured in a sufficient way, indicated in figure B.

Happy summertime!

Figure A

Figure B

Finally update again..

Wow, I don't feel too good about not posting for 10 days or so.

Well, gonna try to catch up with what happend from then to now. First things first I went skiing on Sunday and monday (25./26. March) in Engelberg. It was incredible. Sweet pow-pow at its best. Make sure to check out the new GALLERY. yes, HERE !!!




Then some more skiing on Wednesday at Schilthorn, but it was kind of disappointing compared to the glorious two days at the beginning of the week. So Tobi and I spend most of the time eating and drinking in the sunshine, but still checked out one new line which sure will come in niceley when there's better snow (well, next season..)

Then, from Friday to Monday I was in Prague with Eva. So that's a bigger thing. I'll put up a gallery and some text and some tourist tipps a.s.a.p. ...