Oh the strikes of France
More railway strikes here, big surprise. This time, however, my boss found me a ride to get to work. Lucky me. It's pretty funny to evaluate everyone's reaction to the strike. All the French people just take it in stride, with minimal bitching; everyone is more just concerned about finding a way around it. Some of the people from other countries at our office just non-stop bitch about it, talking about how much they hate the unions and the railway staff. Me? I just laugh it off and tell myself, "Only in France." Life is too short to get yourself worked up over these things, and it's just one of the tradeoffs of living here.
I continue my reading of "The Omnivore's Dilemma." The author took a trip to a real farm, one which he refers to as zero sum. By zero sum, he means that it requires almost nothing from the outside, it is ecologically sound because it produces everything it needs and if anything gives back to the environment. I love the idea myself, but as the author points out, this type of farming is very labour intensive. Or is it? If an average conventional farmer only has to work 150 days a year now because of advances in technology and lives in poverty, well, isn't that about right? I mean, if I only work 150 days a year, I would live in poverty as well (well maybe not in France, the average work year is 185 days). But if you work every day, you get paid for it. Not just in money, but such farms produce everything they need since all the food they need is covered.
Where am I going with this? Well, the reason that these farms work is that because they are not a monoculture of crops. They produce all types of animals (chickens and eggs, beef, rabbits, turkeys, pigs) but all sorts of crops (corn, various vegetables, etc..). But this is the only way it can work as each element helps each other, and relies on each other. I think it's really interesting that nature leans toward natural complexity. If you look at a given ecological system, there is no direct logical format to it. Everything is in so-called "strange loops" (to use Douglas Hofstader's terminology), where the result of any given action effects other actions and it is almost impossible to trace a single causal event to every result. What does this say? Well, it seems nonsensical to search for simple solutions to nature if it all tends towards complexity. People knock on science for being too complex, and I've heard arguments such as "If I can't understand it, it can't be true." Maybe you can't understand particle physics (I know I can't at the highest level), but that doesn't mean everybody can't. Maybe it's impossible for one person to understand everything in entirety.
What else? I'm loving the boxe francaise. There is something about sparring that I feel is so...pure. I know when I enter the ring with someone, everything else falls away. All my thoughts of the day, all the other people in the room other than the guy (or girl) in front of me, my surroundings completely other than the ropes of the ring. If you lose your concentration for a second, a good opponent will pounce. So it requires utter focus. I think what best captures it is the final boxing scene from Snatch. It captures the feeling, the memories, the sound, it's very well done. The feeling of time slowing as you see the opponent drop his hand and you drop a left hook across their face, knowing exactly what is going to happen (and it does), such a great feeling.
So not too much else new right now. I'll give another update soon, hopefully before my little vacation to Eastern Europe.
I continue my reading of "The Omnivore's Dilemma." The author took a trip to a real farm, one which he refers to as zero sum. By zero sum, he means that it requires almost nothing from the outside, it is ecologically sound because it produces everything it needs and if anything gives back to the environment. I love the idea myself, but as the author points out, this type of farming is very labour intensive. Or is it? If an average conventional farmer only has to work 150 days a year now because of advances in technology and lives in poverty, well, isn't that about right? I mean, if I only work 150 days a year, I would live in poverty as well (well maybe not in France, the average work year is 185 days). But if you work every day, you get paid for it. Not just in money, but such farms produce everything they need since all the food they need is covered.
Where am I going with this? Well, the reason that these farms work is that because they are not a monoculture of crops. They produce all types of animals (chickens and eggs, beef, rabbits, turkeys, pigs) but all sorts of crops (corn, various vegetables, etc..). But this is the only way it can work as each element helps each other, and relies on each other. I think it's really interesting that nature leans toward natural complexity. If you look at a given ecological system, there is no direct logical format to it. Everything is in so-called "strange loops" (to use Douglas Hofstader's terminology), where the result of any given action effects other actions and it is almost impossible to trace a single causal event to every result. What does this say? Well, it seems nonsensical to search for simple solutions to nature if it all tends towards complexity. People knock on science for being too complex, and I've heard arguments such as "If I can't understand it, it can't be true." Maybe you can't understand particle physics (I know I can't at the highest level), but that doesn't mean everybody can't. Maybe it's impossible for one person to understand everything in entirety.
What else? I'm loving the boxe francaise. There is something about sparring that I feel is so...pure. I know when I enter the ring with someone, everything else falls away. All my thoughts of the day, all the other people in the room other than the guy (or girl) in front of me, my surroundings completely other than the ropes of the ring. If you lose your concentration for a second, a good opponent will pounce. So it requires utter focus. I think what best captures it is the final boxing scene from Snatch. It captures the feeling, the memories, the sound, it's very well done. The feeling of time slowing as you see the opponent drop his hand and you drop a left hook across their face, knowing exactly what is going to happen (and it does), such a great feeling.
So not too much else new right now. I'll give another update soon, hopefully before my little vacation to Eastern Europe.
posted by Poshy at 10:07 AM
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