Weekend task

This weekend will be a big one in Geneva. They will have a big voting time.

As this is a very democratic country (?) they will vote on constructing (or finishing the construction) of a train that would link part of the city that have quite long traffic jams and we need some buses to get there. Also they will vote if Switzerland should keep exporting 'war weapons'. I think since the two big wars they are big producers!

Also, they will vote, and this will be one of the most important ones, if they should ban construction of more Minarets within the country borders an idea launched by right-wing political Swiss groups. WHy is this topic interesting? two reasons:

1. the Swiss Federation of Jewish Communities and the Platform of Liberal Jews in Switzerland said this law would infringe religious freedom and inhibits the integration of Muslims in Switzerland and also that banning them is no solution serving to create a sense of alienation and discrimination for them here. This opinion is quite historical since local Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders have also joined forces to reject a ban on minarets. Unfortunately, the Minaret-mosque in Grand-Saconnex close to the Airport was attacked and some windows got broken...

2. In Switzerland, like in other countries around here, voting is not obligatory, in Brazil it is! And here you can vote by post! Can you imagine what some countries could do with this? I can imagine what would happen in Brazil.

Advertisement displayed all over the country!

I think that banning or not their construction won't stop the racism problem. I think people should get better informed and learn more other cultures!

Should we be con-CERN-ed?

THis is a general question. Did you watch or read the book 'Angels and Demons' from Dan Brown? No, this is not an ad. Have you ever heard what is CERN?

in the tunnel (imagine how fit you can get if you work inside it)

Well, maybe in short words: "it is the European Organization for Nuclear Research and one of the world’s largest and most respected centres for scientific research. Its business is fundamental physics, finding out what the Universe is made of and how it works. At CERN, the world’s largest and most complex scientific instruments are used to study the basic constituents of matter — the fundamental particles. By studying what happens when these particles collide, physicists learn about the laws of Nature.

The instruments used at CERN are particle accelerators and detectors. Accelerators boost beams of particles to high energies before they are made to collide with each other or with stationary targets. Detectors observe and record the results of these collisions."

"The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is a gigantic scientific instrument near Geneva, where it spans the border between Switzerland and France. It is a particle accelerator (I just love this name in Hungarian) used by physicists to study the smallest known particles – the fundamental building blocks of all things. It will revolutionize our understanding, from the minuscule world deep within atoms to the vastness of the Universe."

In other words, this very serious antimatter stuff is built right under our noses. The LHC accelerator is a ring 27 kilometers in circumference. It is installed in a tunnel about 100 m underground. You can see the round outline of it marked on a map of the area.

The circle shows the position on the map of the 27 km tunnel of the LHC!Right under us...Does this mean anything to us in case something goes wrong?

These are temperatures to be registered in this week around here. Does it have something to do with the fact that the LHC was turned on some few time ago? After 7 years living in Europe, I never experienced that warmth in November! Maybe it is just the old friend global warming...

Does a commercial always tell the truth?

Unilever is being sued. Well, all these big companies have been sued. But this time it is a quite interesting reason. A 26 year-old men from New Delhi wants to acquire 26000 pounds with the excuse that what they said in the advertisement is not true.


Probably this didn't happen to him, poor one.

He claims to have been using the products from the brand for years and nothing happens. And?Well, the product affirms that if you use it, girls will fall for you. Since he has tried all the products of this line and nothing happened after about 3 years he feels it is his right to be 'reimbursed', specially after he has been suffering of depression and psychological damages.


He says in his court petition: "The company cheated me because in its advertisements, it says women will be attracted to you if you use Axe.I used it for seven years but no girl came to me."

Lynx - how unilever is known in India - didn't make any comments.

I am very curious with the outcome of this case.

Actually, when I met my husband, he used Axe. If Unilever wants to use us as witnesses, we are in...

2012?

The idea that the world can finish in 2012 as some predicted is quite....how can I say, shocking?

This image of the film 2012, where the Cristo Redentor or the Christ Sculpture in Rio de Janeiro falls apart together with the rest of the city is raising some polemic questions in Brazil a country which the majority of the people is very catholic, this kind of image is almost hurting their feelings.

The Cristo Redentor falling from the top of his mountain meanwhile the Pao de Acucar (Sugar Loaf) in the back and the Guanabara Bay get flooded by a big wave (at least the favela-slums- problems in these mountains would be solved!)

Would that be possible? Would it be like this? Well, let's see in 3 years. Until there we have time to visit this beautiful sightseeing in one of the most beautiful cities of the world.

The film will be on cinemas from Friday 13th (good timing!)

Snow walk!

As I mentioned before Geneva is positioned in quite an outstanding valey(?). One side the Jura mountain chain, on the opposite side the Saleve, 'behind' which we find the Mont-blanc chain, and besides it we find some other mountains. This confers to Geneva an unique weather, at least I think so : )

People we know that come from Nyon or that region to work here often say that the weather here is quite frightening because when they leave home in the early morning to come to work, the sun is shining and warm and when on their way here the see the big foggy cloud that swallows the entire city and nothing can be seen, even the other side of the road.

Yesterday we tested this theory. We left home to go hiking in the Jura mountain, since from our windows it looks like chantily was poured all over its top, like a nice sundae! Here it was foggy, rainny and cool on our way there, 5 km from our home, the sun started to shine strongly, birds started to sing and we got a nice visual on the Jura as Jack Bauer would say. Every example of autumn colours were visible. As we climbed the mountain bits of snow started to appear until everything was totally white like in a Xmas tale we see on TV. Even in Hungary I haven't seen this amount of snow.

Looking for snow to start the snow ball fight (ekkora hogolyo lehetett csinalni!). Look at the pines, cool!

As a Brazilian who was used to experience 17 degrees at night as the coldest temperature of the year I have to admit this is INDEED cold, but nevertheless magical. Everybody surrenders to this capricious beauty of nature.

The entrance of the ski court that was still closed at the Col de la faucille. Families with kids and their sledges (we need to get one for us)

The city of Mijoux in France, between the Jura and another moutain. Just gorgeaous. Imagine it with Xmas decoration??!!
We walked up and down testing gloves and hats that Decathlon provided us one day before, but we realized that we don't have proper shoes and trousers because everybody else was wearing the ski trousers and not getting as wet and damp and heavy as our trousers were.

We realized we have to equip ourselves and keep coming back to this piece of paradise (a cold one actually) that we have so close to us, since Geneva is still warm with its 7 degrees despite the lack of sun (though we heard and a fine snow might be coming next week).

And enjoy the chantily over the Jura top.

Not only of chocolate, Swiss army knife and Matterhorn lives the Swiss tourism

Besides chocolate, Swiss army knives, the Matterhorn, the alps for sking, watches and others, one more reason has been augmenting the tourism in Switzerland: the death tourism.

Euthanasia, does everybody know what this difficult word means?

It is the intentional killing by act or omission of a dependent human being for his or her alleged benefit. Another expression has become as 'famous' as that one is assisted suicide which happens when someone provides an individual with the information, guidance, and ways to take his or her own life with the intention that they will be used for this purpose. When it is a doctor who helps another person to kill themselves it is called "physician assisted suicide."

Why would one choose it, this is really personal, because it provides a way to relieve extreme pain and also a relief when his/her quality of life is low. All these reasons appliable only in one case: when one has a terminal incurable illnes, not the least, it is a case of freedom of choice.

Assisted death is such a controversial topic that it is only accepted as legal in a minimal amount of places like Switzerland, The Netherlands, Belgium, Luxemburg, and the State of Oregon in the USA. From these Switzerland has a particularity, it has been the only place in the world where non residents can go and legally find help to end their life. The Swiss law that allows anyone to help patients die, as long as there are no ulterior motives, dates back to 1942 and is at risk recently after a study showed more and more foreigners are traveling to the Alpine country to take their own lives.

Some weeks ago, Swiss Justice Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf announced she is considering either restricting Switzerland's assisted suicide law in an attempt to cut what she called "death tourism" claiming that somebody can come to Switzerland and already the next day can have an assisted suicide through one of the so-called assisted suicide organizations. Conitnuing she says "We have no interest, as a country, in being attractive for suicide tourism,". Not to mention that "About one-third of the 400 people who came to Switzerland to die here in 2007 were foreigners from either Great Britain or Germany, where helping someone to kill themselves is almost always illegal," explains Bernatto Stadelmann, vice director of the Swiss Justice Ministry in Bern. The new rules would also prevent oganised assisted suicide from becoming a profit-driven business.

Non-government groups in Switzerland offer assisted suicide programs, including organizations like Exit, Ex-international, and Dignitas. From these just the last one welcomes foreigners., helping patients from abroad to obtain a prescription for a lethal dose of pentobarbital, a sleeping potion. Patients must ingest the drug themselves. Those too ill to drink can use a self-induced injection or a tube through the stomach.

This act of buying death in legal terms where the existing law of the land permits to do so has been seen with bad eyes since the gouvernment received information that in the last years not only patients suffering of terminal illnesses passed decided to end their lives like a British couple who were paralysed after an accident.

Probably until next March the government will send a draft law to the parliament.

Source: http://www.eturbonews.com

the sun

the guardian

popcorn session!

Have you seen these adds?


or
or maybe



The film today is District 9. At the beginning I really didn't want to watch it. Krisz is a witness.
Nevertheless we started watching... and it turns out it is not that bad, at least from the truth point of view. What the hec?

Well, if we stop to think that most of those hollywoodian aliens didn't really care about intereacting with humans, didn't have an organized community and were kind of not what we expect as aliens, that is what would happen to them.

First, humans wouldn't be sorry, they would isolate and as they show experiment with them, but not so few as they showed. Maybe because it took place in Johannesburg and not close to area 51!

After all, the special effects were good quality, the structure of the aliens was well imagined. I just don't understand what they eat finally, dead animals or one another?
Deserving a great OK is the marketing of the film. First time I saw these pictures I swear I had to think twice. Great idea.

So, interesting movie, in kind of a documentary shape that makes you think what humans would really do to them.

Bravo to area 51? I don't think so...