Eurovision in Bratislava

We have taken up the tradition of going to small European capitals to watch the Eurovision Song Contest, and this year it was the turn of Bratislava, capital of Slovakia.

Sadly, Eurovision has been losing it distinct flavour, and this year was the blandest yet. Where were the Scandinavian punk rockers or the Eastern European girl bands covered in glitter? Sure, we still have the British complaining that the contest is rigged against them (it probably isn't) as their recycled popstars do poorly, and Romania did submit a vampire-goth opera singer, but highlights were rare.

Fortunately we had good company and a cut little city to visit:

 

The only hiccup is that we might not be able to return, after I was repremanded by the waitor for making "excessively realistic bear noises" while reading books to Hayden. I must say, I do a very good bear noise - indeed, Hayden always comes to me when the story calls for a bear growl - and I don't appreciate the anti-bear sentiment.

Visiting the World Dog Show

We were accompanied on our flight to Budapest by two elegant Chinese Crested Dogs, one Hairless and one Powderpuff. Their owners proudly told us that these were the Argentinian champions of the breed, flying to Budapest to compete in the World Dog Show. On our first day walking around Budapest we saw so many other championship dogs being taken for walks that we decided we would wisely invest our second day in the city in visiting the World Dog Show.

It was actually quite an interesting event. Vast numbers of quality dogs and puppies (sadly, the International Cat and Guinea Pig event was scheduled for after we left), and a collection of accompanying humans who really took dogging seriously. You could see the concentration on owners taking their dogs for a run on the dogwalk, the disappointment when their dogs were not selected, and the sheer joy when their dogs won a trophy. For one old gentleman his dog taking first prize was clearly the most important event in his life, as he couldn't stop pumping his fist in the air with elation, almost hugged the judge and practically had to be dragged away from the photo shoot at the end.

I am fairly sure that this lady won a trophy by sneaking in a couple of sheep and pretending they were dogs:

Lydia was so taken with the competition (especially the miniature Schnauzers) that she started to consider seriously getting into dogging herself, and was very pleased to see that Brussels will be hosting the 2016 European Dog Show!

Budapest

More photos are here.

Hayden in Mini-Europe

With friends from Australia visiting, we took the chance to show them and Hayden Mini-Europe before it closes in August. 

 

Hayden loved everything about Mini-Europe - the Hayden-sized buildings, the things to climb, the buttons to push and the national anthems. Best of all, though must have been the earthquakes Hayden could cause by pushing a button at Mount Vesuvius:

The bluebells of Hallerbos

The bluebells are in flower, so we went out to Hallerbos forest to see them. Bluebells grow best in ancient forests, where a dense summer canopy and thick leaf-litter prevents most other plants from surviving in the undergrowth. Hallerbos is one of the few surviving fragments of the primordial European forest, part of the mighty Silva Carbonaria that once making up the frontier of the Roman Empire, and even though most of the largest trees where felled during WWI, the mature forest is still one of the best places to see bluebells in flower.

 

More photos are here.

Pseudoscience is criminal - James McCormick deserves jail

Today James McCormick was found guilty of massive fraud, after pocketing £50m profit from selling dowsing sticks. The "harmless" activity of dowsing is not just carrying around a Y-shaped stick looking for water; like many other ancient superstitions it has been incorporated into New Age nonsense and is used to look for everything from untapped oil reserves to lost golf-balls. 

I hope you are thinking "what nonsense"; I expect you followed it up with "but who does it hurt?". The problem is that believing in any pseudoscientific nonsense is a faith-based enterprise, removing evidence and reason from the decision-making process. If someone sells "lost golf ball dowsers" and sells them to the gullible at $20 each, it doesn't do much direct harm. But when society embraces this garbage it can do a lot of harm indeed.

Moving on to James McCormick, he bought up large shipments of the $20 "lost golf ball dowsers", replaced the stickers and then sold them to the Iraqi government at $40,000 each as explosive detectors. The claims were so over the top (it is powered by the user's static electricity, it can detect explosives from the air or even 1km underground, you can reprogram it by putting it in a jar with any other substance to absorb the vapours), that it is obvious to any rational person that the thing was a shame. McCormick even said in an interview that "the theory behind dowsing and the theory behind how we actually detect explosives is very similar". 

Unfortunately, we aren't all rational people, and anyone who believes in dowsing for water is hardly in a position to rationally reject the concept of dowsing for explosives. The Iraqi government was so taken with these devices that they replaced physical inspections with dowsing - and people died as a consequence. When confronted with the scam the Iraqi General Directorate for Combating Explosives replied: "Whether it's magic or scientific, what I care about is detecting bombs". And that is exactly the problem. It does matter whether it is magic or science, because science works but magic/dowsing/crystals/prayer/etc do not. Before you laugh too hard at Iraq, more than 20 different countries have bought into this scam, including Belgian police using them for detecting drugs.

James McCormick deserves jail. The greater point, however, is that a society which embraces "harmless" faith-based rubbish is more susceptible to harmful faith-based rubbish. Belief in crystal healing doesn't hurt directly, but it can lead to use of alternative medicines that can kill. Praying to get better from a cold leads to praying to get better from HIV - and hence less diligent use of actual HIV meds. Believing in a God looking out for you makes you more susceptible to lottery scams and the like. And the worst, of course, is when the gullible fools taken in are in positions of power, so we all feel the consequences of their faith-based decision making.

France joins the equality club

Today France voted to recognise love. Finally same-sex couples will be able to have their love for each other recognised in exactly the same way as opposite-sex couples - through marriage if they chose, through adoption if they chose, or not - if they chose. For anyone who is LGBTQ or a supporter, this is a huge step forward for equality. For everyone else - it doesn't affect you in the slightest. 

And yet. The same old gang of reactionaries have came out to voice their hatred: the Catholic church, Muslim groups, evangelical Christians and right-wing conservatives. What makes someone so virulent that they will spend so much energy in order to ensure that other people don't gain equal rights? The massive anti-gay protests have even turned violent, and hate-crimes have been committed against LGBTQ people. Not hard to predict considering the violent language spouted by the leaders (Frigide Barjot: "Hollande wants blood, and he will get it"; Hervé Mariton: "This is an incitement to civil war"). Nasty regressive thugs, nothing more. 

Fortunately, the tide has turned against these regressives. It is only April, and this is already the best year in history for marriage equality - three more countries have approved same-sex marriage (Uruguay, New Zealand and France, plus four more Brazilian states) and another 100+ million people have been granted to right to have their love recognised by the state, regardless of sex or sexuality. The Christian and Muslim Churches are showing once again that preventing equality is far more important to them than any other topic, and political parties like the UMP will be tarred for decades by their embrace of open homophobia in an era where attitudes towards sexuality are inexorably turning progressive.

Lausanne

Canterbury

Canterbury canals

The gate to Canterbury cathedral

Why not try the best sandwich in Sandwich, as judged by the Earl of Sandwich?

The white cliffs of Dover

Egg hunting in Whitstable

Crazy old Ron Paul

Ron Paul is well known as the eccentric libertarian in the US Republican party. Unlike most Republicans, who say they are for small government only when it suits them, Ron Paul has been fairly consistent in taking libertarian positions regardless of whether they are conservative (in favour of tax cuts) or liberal (against drug regulation). He is hardly a perfect libertarian, being economically illiterate (does he have any idea of the consequences of scrapping the floating currency?) and radically anti-choice (apparently the government has no role in medicine, except to control women's reproduction), but he is the closest to it in today's Republican party. This explains why Ron Paul has the most fanatic supports of any politician in America, a hardcore group of Paulites that support him in every doomed Presidential primary campaign he goes on.

So it is interesting that this free-marketeer is going to the United Nations to sue his own supporters. Ron Paul supporters have been running www.RonPaul.com to support Ron Paul's election. Now Paul wants direct control over the website, and like good freemarketeers his supporters want him to pay for it ($250K). Yes, like good libertarians, they are willing to damage their own long-term interests in order to make a quick buck, an entirely self-consistent (albeit, flawed) ideology. Ron Paul, by contrast, having campaigned against government oversight in general and the UN in particular, is hypocritical in appealing to regulatory bodies for a forced takeover of a private enterprise. Oh, he has a valid point in the website being associated with his name, but I guess government regulation is only okay when it helps him?