On the claims of NATO's reponsibility in the invasion of Ukraine by Russia

As I understand it, the logic behind the claim of NATO's responsibility for the war in Ukraine goes as follows:

1. When the Soviet Union fell, the West promised that NATO would not expand a single step eastward
2. NATO broke that promise when it welcomed the Baltic countries and Poland
   
3. NATO attempted in 2014 to extend further towards Russia by supporting a coup in Ukraine and preparing to include Ukraine in the alliance

I don't think the facts support this reasoning, but even before considering the validity of these points, it's worth noting that they, at best, justify an action of Russia against NATO, not Ukraine. This reasoning paints the picture of an hostage-taking crisis, where Ukraine is the hostage, Russia is the terrorist and NATO is being pressured to make concessions. Really, this picture is an indictment of Russia itself rather than NATO. Sympathy for Russia in this scenario is a case of Stockholm's Syndrome.

Getting back to the three points underlying NATO's supposed responsibility, the first point is an exaggeration of the discussions that took place around the reunification of Germany, as explained by Steven Pifer. As stated by Gorbatchev himself, no formal promise of non-extension was made.

The topic of ‘NATO expansion’ was not discussed at all, and it wasn’t brought up in those years

What was discussed was the non-positioning of foreign troops in Eastern Germany.

NATO has conformed to this promise, to the point that a common complaint by NATO's eastern members was that NATO's presence was insufficient. See for instance this quote from 2017, three years after Russia's invasion started.

Poland has previously demanded a full-scale permanent Nato base on its territory, and officials admit that the promised reinforcement will only amount to a “speed-bump” for any potential invasion from the east.

The last point which describes the Revolution of Diginity as a coup by the CIA doesn't acknowledge Ukraine's ability decide for itself. It also blends the USA, NATO and the EU as a single uniform entity, which they are not, especially when it comes to relations with Russia. The leaked recordings of a discussion between Victoria Nuland give limited credence to the theory of US involvement. While I can imagine the CIA supporting the ousting of Yanukovich, it does not take anything away from the legitimacy of Ukrainians' yearning to leave Russia's sphere of influence and join the EU.

Before the invasion this year, Ukraine's access to NATO had been denied by Merkel's Germany in 2008 according to the BBC

She had opposed Nato membership for Ukraine in 2008, she said, because she had wanted to prevent escalation with Russia

Accession to NATO was not a valid justification for the urgent necessity of Russia's "special operation" against Ukraine.

A week-end spent in a hospital

This past week I have had the chance to experience something new, a stay at a hospital. The event was not entirely negative. Here is a recollection of the sequences of events.

In spring 2010, I contacted my local health centre about recurring diarrhea and stomach pains. I had been having problems for a year, but after a positive test for lactose intolerance, I was pretty sure cutting off milk products would do the trick.
After additional tests for various food allergies, some of which were slightly positive, I was sent to a coloscopy and a gastroscopy. The examination itself did not show much, and I went back home with the diagnosis of Irritable Bowel Syndrom (IBS). Further analysis of collected samples showed however some form of inflammation. So did my blood samples, showing low levels of B vitamins.

All this lead to getting an appointment with a specialist at Södersjukhuset in Stockholm during autumn. Further analyses and blood samples did not really clarify the situation, I went back home with a somewhat uncertain diagnosis of ulcerative colitis.

Winter went well, but around mid-march, my troubles started again, on and off. In a desperate attempt to ease the symptoms, I simply stopped eating, keeping myself to water in order to avoid dehydration. Here is some good sensible piece of advice if you are having similar problems and considering fasting as a solution: Don't do it. Although it seemed it was working for me the first time, a relapse quickly came, and this time my body had no reserves to get over the flare.

I contacted my specialist and was invited to come in the next day at 7.30 for some analyses and possibly taking part in an experimental treatment. The treatment would involve filtering my blood of substances that trigger inflammation.

I showed up the next day at the hospital, where examination showed I was in no shape for the treatment. It was also not clear if ulcerative colitis was the cause. I was admitted and administered intravenous cortisone and nutrients.

The cortisone had immediate effect, relieving the pains and burns. Getting normal stools took about a week. The intravenous nutrients got me back on my feet after one night.

I was released after 5 days, during which I exclusively ate soup, lactose-free "filmjölk", hi-carb food supplements and "Skorpor". It may not sound like the most savory meals, but after what I went through, they tasted exquisite. This episode has had me rediscover and appreciate food to levels I had forgotten. Eating, and tasting, is a simple yet intense pleasure I had forgotten.

Doctors and nurses were fantastic. Although obviously very busy, they took the time to answer questions. I think I'm an easy patient, never complaining. Not all patients behave that way (which is understandable, some spend a lot of time in care, which can get boring and tiresome, I imagine), nevertheless nurses were always in a good mood and showed patience.

The state of the building and in particular its cleanliness is horrendous, though. It is infuriating to see what recent governments and their budget cuts are inflicting to health care. You would expect that a department filled with patients with digestive troubles would have their toilets and bathrooms cleaned up regularly. I have seen cleaner toilets in football dress rooms. As far as I could tell, toilets were rinsed once a day. Judging by the smell, they were not properly cleaned or disinfected. Happily, hand-disinfectant dispensers were available everywhere, and I made heavy use of those. Visitors are well advised to do so as well.

I spent a night in a single room, then the rest of the stay in a room of four. I'm a bit mixed about that. I think there are advantages to being four in a room, namely social contacts. It's probably better than being two, as two incompatible people can easily get on each other's nerves. When it comes to sleeping, nothing beats single rooms.

I'm sad I did not take pictures from my window, because it was fantastic. It offered a view over Årstaviken, a water area separating Södermalm (one of Stockholm's islands) to the mainland on the south. When you have little energy to do anything and a lot of time, being able to look at the forest on the opposite bank and boats sail by is valuable. Here is a picture grabbed from another blog, to give you an idea.

All in all, the experience was positive. I am now back at home with a leave of sickness, enjoying some relaxing time and salivating at my next meal. Contact with a team of competent doctors and nurses has been tightened, making me better prepared for future flares, which I know will come. Having an official diagnosis for my constant level of tiredness these past years is also comforting.

Big thanks to my family also for constantly checking up on me from a distance. I live in Sweden, they live in France, and they must have felt frustratingly powerless. I felt your support nevertheless, and be assured I was in good hands. Thanks also to my friends who brought me clean clothes and my laptop, and paid me a long visit on Sunday. By the way, the hospital has a free wifi which I found very valuable; it was fast enough to sustain streaming a movie from lovefilm.se (mobile phone coverage, on the other hand, was shaky). My employer was also very quick to send me beautiful flowers, it's nice feeling the workplace is not just all about work, but people too.

Civilized vacation

I am taking 4 weeks of vacation this summer and a few days around Christmas. This should leave me with a few days off left. Considering that Civilization V is coming out in September this year, I wonder if I should take time off just to play the game around the clock for a week or so.

I can't really stay away from the game altogether, and late nights sessions aren't good for my productivity at work. Maybe getting an overdose of the game at once when it comes out could solve that problem.

Although I have always been interested in video games, I have never seen myself as excessively passionate about them. I have looked down at the World of Warcraft crowd, thinking that their dedication to the game was a bit ridiculous. It turns out I might not be much better myself.

Civ and WoW are the two games I can think of that can turn video-game skeptics and illiterates into addicts.

Difficult situation for NATO in Afghanistan

I approved the new American strategy consisting of redeploying US forces away from Irak and into Afghanistan, as I don't see the Taliban as worthy of ruling, regardless of the local popular support.
When you think about it, the very poor condition of Afghanistan should make it easy to win a popularity contest with a bunch of religious, backward, murderous zealots: Remove landmines, help agriculture develop, build up infrastructure, promote free education for all children, including girls...
All this should be relatively easy, provided a certain level of safety can be provided.

Unfortunately, after seeing "Dokument utifrån" on Swedish national television (SVT), I fear the NATO coalition is going to fail miserably. I don't know if American forces differ from other NATO coalition members in Afghanistan, but the attitude and tactics of the US army appeared deeply inadequate to me.

First, we get to see how a soldier reports the situation to his commander during a debriefing. The soldier reports that locals are mute when it comes to providing information about Taliban fighters which America forces know must be in the sector. Instead, locals insisted on complaining about goats and trees, or rather the lack thereof. What's got that to do with the US forces? It turns out US forces burned trees and killed goats in an attack the year before. No big issue, certainly... The American commander shook his head, and said "That's what happens when you provide support to terrorists, you lose your goats and trees" (or something in these lines).
This reminds me of the failed tactics used during the Vietnam war.

Apparently, Pachtuns are naturally bent on supporting Talibans, both for cultural and historical reasons. Regardless of their claimed goals, Westerners are seen as invaders, and will be fought and dealt with in the same way all earlier invaders were.

Leaving Afghanistan is in my opinion no option, seeing how the previous regime behaved in September 11, 2001 and before. Staying and using that kind of fruitless tactics is doomed to fail, and will eventually lead to a new Taliban regime anyway. So what should we do?

On charities and microloans...

I have recently discovered Kiva and Myc4. These sites make it possible to lend money to poor people in the world (mostly in developing countries).

Kiva does not allow lenders to make a profit. Instead, repayments are typically reinvested in new loans. Alternatively, a lender can also retrieve the money after as a loan is repaid. Entrepreneurs across Asia, South America and Africa can request loans.

Just like Kiva, MyC4 puts in contact lenders in rich countries and borrowers in poorer parts of the World. Unlike Kiva, MyC4 is still in Beta phase, and it allows lenders to make benefits. MyC4 is also limited to loans targeted at a few African countries (Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda).

Compared to other charities, microloans have the advantage of helping local businesses get established. One could say the idea is to "teach a man how to fish, instead of giving away fish", except that the man actually knows a lot more about fishing than I do! Instead, I lend money to the fisherman and trust him to use it in whatever way he finds best, as he probably knows better what he needs.

In exchange for that, I (hopefully) make a benefit. I tend to think that development is more likely to be sustainable when based on transactions than when based on generosity. Generosity is scarce, and tends to follow the media's spotlight, which jumps from one side of the globe to the other, as disasters happen.

Charity still plays an important role. Microloans and business development require a certain degree of entrepreneurial freedom and a stable supporting infrastructure. Where these lack, charities are the only ones capable of filling in the void and helping people survive through the worst.

A cure worse than the disease

My laptop (running Win XP) is suffering a strange illness: it gets very slow, for no known reasons. The process viewer shows the processors are supposed to be idle.

Suspecting a malware, I looked for a free malware detection and removal tool. I went for SpyHunter free. The experience did not go well.

The installer started the scan without asking me, it installed a boot loader (grub4dos) without asking me, and finally rebooted (after asking me, finally...)

The result: a corrupted ntldr I spent most of this Sunday trying to recover.
Interesting facts learned during this process:
1) The recovery DVD I had to create after buying the laptop (an EasyNote from PackardBell) is useless, failing after giving an cryptical error message ("CDrom <> Operating System!!!", got to love the "!!!" at the end...).
2) The reinitialisation procedure which uses the backup partition is worse than useless (it does nothing but reboot, no error message).
3) The Windows XP installation cd I got many years ago through MSDNAA is no longer readable, at least not on my laptop.

As usual, it was Linux that saved the day in the end. I hate this kind of sundays that just go to waste. So little free time, so many interesting projects, so much better to do.

Cesar dies, aliens win an Oscar, Amazing things happen to genetically-engineered super doctor

I took 3 novels with me this summer: The Gods of War by Conn Iggulden, Agent to the Stars by John Scalzi (which is available online here) and Stardoc by S.L. Viehl.

The Gods of War is the last in the Emperor series. Although I liked the first book, I had some difficulties taking myself through the other books. They were obviously interesting enough for me to buy all of them, but I don't feel too enthusiastic about them. More battles, more victories... I'm relieved Brutus and the senate put an end to this.

Agent to the Stars is a book I recommend. It has every ingredient I like: It's funny, believable and touches (briefly) some classical themes in science-fiction, such as the essence of sentience and consciousness.

Stardoc, by S.L. Viehl is the opposite. OK, I'll concede it sometimes is funny, but without the insight on the human being and its social life "Agent to the Stars" has. Furthermore, it's excessively unrealistic. I can't really criticize the book without summarizing the story, so here it goes.

Dr. Cherijo Grey Veil is a genetically-enhanced super doctor who runs away from her father to the other side of the galaxy. She lands on a luxurious planet where she fulfills her duty as a doctor in a small colony. This takes a lot of her time, and it shows in the story. The reader never really gets to know much about the planet and the dangers the colony faces. That's a shame, really, seeing how Viehl (whose name is suspiciously very similar to the main character's) describes the planet as beautiful and mysterious, both inviting and menacing at the same time. Instead, we get to follow Cherijo's daily routine, how little modesty her cat has, and how she falls in love with the first tall guy she meets. She even marries the guy, who conveniently promptly dies, leaving the door open for more romantic adventures (some of which are disturbing, see below).
Somehow, she manages to be the center of conflict threatening to take galactic proportions, barely escapes the planet on a starship operated by her deceased husband's family, and goes on to further adventures I won't follow.

The number one hard-to-swallow ingredient in the book is the power of her father. He is some sort of mad evil doctor who illegally engineered the perfect doctor. To Viehl's credit, the reader is spared yet another perfect genetically-enhanced warrior. Understandably, the father is upset at his creature's run for freedom. Somehow, he manages to bring the entire federation's military might into the chase. In the process, a pact with a powerful alien race is broken. What gives him that kind of decision power is left to the reader to imagine.

Other surprising events include the accusation brought against the main character. As a genetically-engineered creature, she is considered non-sentient, and she must return to her owner. The obvious flaw here is that creating and modifying human beings is considered unethical precisely because all humans are considered sentient. The accusation is totally absurd, and that a tribunal would judge in favor of Dr. Frankenstein is unbelievable.

I could go on for long, but I'll keep myself to just one more mystery. During her time as a doctor on K-2, Cherijo is faced with an epidemic caused by a sentient collective formed of virus-like individuals. These individuals were ingested by mistake by a colonist during a field trip, and they try all they can to return to their natural habitat. OK so far. Things get wrong when they take control over Duncan Reever, one of the characters. Under their control, Duncan Reever rapes Cherijo, an act described in bizarrely erotic terms. That scene will remain for ever in my memory as one of the most disturbing I've read. The goal with the rape (other than getting readers feel guilty about their reactions to the rape's description) was to transmit the infecting aliens to Cherijo, at which point they would get her to take a trip back to the forest and return the virus-like aliens to their home. Now, can anyone explain to me why they don't just get Duncan to walk back to the forest? What's the frigging' point with the rape?

Enough about this book now, but if you too made the mistake of reading this book and you are regretting it, you may feel better after reading these inspired reviews.

The Dark Knight

I went to watch the Dark Knight yesterday, after the advice of a friend.
Globally, it was a pleasant action movie, but nothing breath-taking. The Joker is truly frightening and insane. Batman tries very hard to have conscience issues, but it's not very convincing, and I think that is the main problem of the movie. It's hard to see the dark side of the dark knight.
The story is mostly an excuse to pass a certain number of messages inspired by the events of 9/11 and the Iraq war:
- Terrorists are irrational (the Joker is insane)
- You don't negotiate with terrorists (you don't give in to the insane demands of the Joker)
- Your honor will suffer in your fight against evil (the dark knight stuff)
- It is OK to listen to everyone's mobile phone, provided there are safeguards
- It is OK to lie to the public in order to maintain morale (the lie about Two Face)

I suspect the movie targets US soldiers returning from Iraq and their relatives. Whatever bad is said in the media about them, and whatever their conscience may tell them, they can feel reassured that they did the right thing.

Blind Faith, by Ben Elton

This book tells the story of Trafford, a man leaving in London after large parts of the world were submerged in water due to the global warming effect. The brittish society has become ego-centric, exhibitionist and religious. The dominating religion, which is vaguely Christian, decides over the lives of all citizen. Cameras accessible to all, including the government, are present at every corner.

Trafford is unsatisfied by the daily routine, and has difficulties sharing the enthusiasm of his fellow citizen for his lifestyle. Through a colleague, he discovers the life, philosophy and science from before the great flooding. He joins the resistance and plans to spread his newly acquired knowledge to others who dare not yet voice their critical views.
Unfortunately, Trafford is betrayed and the resistance movement is crushed.

My main complaint against the book is its similarity to "1984". Ben Elton updates Big Brother to include contemporary devices, such as western religious extremism, the Internet, Facebook and reality shows. Oddly, he also throws in self-help books in the lot. This novel reeks of fear of technology and of conservatism. Ben Elton is out of touch with the new generation. He uses "1984" to validate his negative opinion of the freedom of expression offered by modern media.

On a positive side, I enjoyed the (somewhat) positive ending of the story, even though the book closes on "Trafford knew that natural selection would save the world, [...] and that one day the Confessors of the Temple would be extinct", a sentence which I find naive.

Evolution: a belief or a fact?

It is not uncommon to "meet" people on the net who are critical of others who "believe" in evolution. I think the term "believe" is not the correct one here. Is evolution scientifically proven? Probably not in the sense in which e.g. the theory of gravitation is. It does however make a lot of sense, and as far as I can judge, it is consistent with what can be observed of nature.

I too was once suspicious about evolution. It is hard to believe that we evolved from a bunch of cells swimming in sea water.

I changed my mind after considering what is required for evolution to work. Each of these prerequisites is in itself so simple and obvious that no sensible person can reject it. So what is needed for evolution to take place?

First, you need a genetic code that decides survival. This genetic code need not be the only factor deciding survival, but it should be relevant.

Then, you need heredity. Parents must be capable of passing their genes to their children.

If the reproduction mode is cloning, i.e. one parent alone is capable of generating children, as is the case for viruses, then mutations are needed to introduce new features.

These ingredients are all that is needed for evolution to work. Because I do not doubt any of these ingredients, I am left with no other option than to "believe" in evolution. I am quoting the word "believe", because my acceptation of the theory of evolution is not based on faith, but on rational thinking.

ManagerZone football

I have discovered the world of online football managing games, and how fun it is.

I first tried soccer-manager.tv6.se, which was advertised on the web site of a Swedish TV channel. Although the concept seemed interesting, I decided to move to another game.

The main reason for my lack of satisfaction was the low usability of the user interface. For instance, when choosing the line-up and the formation, you cannot see the players' abilities, which forces you to go back and forth between pages. Another example is the strategy screen, which seems unfinished. It seems possible to choose between long and short passes, but I can't figure out how to do it. All my clicks on the screen remain unanswered. Weirdly, this screen lets you choose how much doping you want to use. Realistic? maybe, but it should have nothing to do there.

Another bad point is that the players' abilities are strongly skewed towards the physical: form, health, condition and strength. For all I know, my players could all be horses! Not much is said about the technical ability, play intelligence, heading capabilities...

Finally, all training is handled on a team basis. Your entire squad will have the same training, you can't train your players individually.

I then considered Hat Trick and ManagerZone. I went for the latter, as it offers 3d views of games. I am very pleased so far. Here is a random list of the things I like:
- Helpful help.
- Large community.
- The possibility to challenge other players
- You can create your own private leagues and cups. Note however that this feature is not free.
- Advanced training (handled individually, possibility to send players to training camps).
- Easy access to your players' capabilities.
- The preferred position of each player is unknown, you have to figure that out from the players' stats.
- Coaches have abilities, just as players do. Coach recruiting is non-trivial, and it should be that way. Finding good coaches to train you players is just as important as recruiting good players.

If you know other football managing games, please let me know, and don't forget to say what makes your game so special.

Pres. Sarkozy raids Tchad and saves the lives of French prisoners

No, that did not happen. But sometimes I wonder how our president plans his communication.
In the recent affair of "L'Arche de Zoé", a group of French citizens tried to kidnap children from Tchad under the pretense that these orphans (many of which actually have parents) needed to be saved. They are now detained by the local authorities.

Sarkozy has always condemned the action of "L'Arche de Zoé", and claimed that justice should be administered by Tchad, a sovereign country.

A few weeks ago, he went to Tchad and brought back a few journalists, flight attendants and a pilot. This went well with Tchad's president, but not so well with the justice system. Back in France, N. Sarkozy recently announced "I will fetch all those who are left in Tchad", which obviously contradicts his earlier announcements. I guess he was trying to please the families of French citizen still under arrest in Tchad, but he managed to anger an entire country. Being a former French colony, Tchad is upset that the former occupier intends to take care of the case. Cannot Tchad be trusted to judge the case and apply the sentence?

This behavior is unfortunately typical of our president. He is obsessed with appearing decisive and frank, whereas I believe he should give more importance to achieving his goals, which often requires having a low profile.

What is depressing is that this slip of the tongue was not visibly reported by the international media. Instead, newspapers keep spreading the image of an energetic leader, when a more critical reporting should be suggesting another image, that of a pretentious fool whose mistakes can have long-lasting consequences.

Conversation with Viviann

Viviann is the bot replacing customer support at Viasat.se
I got bored waiting for my electric stove to get warm, so I chatted a bit with Viviann.

Are we going to win the game on Saturday?
You have asked a question which is not in the database...
Do you know anything at all?
I don't know if I do.
Why are you smiling?
Unfortunately I don't know why, try to reformulate the question.
You aren't so smart, but you are pretty anyway
It is nice that you think I'm pretty!
Shall we meet?
You have asked a question which is not in the database...
What do you mean?
Unfortunately, I cannot put it more clearly.
That was not very nice
I don't understand what you mean.
Sure.
Ok!

Strange

There is an ongoing controversy about the limits of freedom of speech in Sweden. Lars Vilks made a drawing of Mahomet as a "rondell"-dog, i.e. a statue of a dog used to decorate circular road crossings. Circular crossings are popular in Europe, I don't know about other parts of the World. About "rondell"-dogs, if you don't understand the concept, then we are two. As far as I know, we don't decorate "ronds points" in France with statues of dogs.

As you may have guessed, Muslims around the world are angry and burning Swedish flags. Now that I think about it, I can only think of one picture showing a session of flag-burning, so the correct sentence would probably be "20 Muslisms somewhere burnt a Swedish flag". Actually, the flag that got burnt was green with a yellow cross, when it should have been blue with a yellow cross. Maybe these guys are normally busy burning American and Danish flags, and they were out of blue paint.

One of the reason Swedish peaceful protesters gave for their protest was that it is written in the Koran that no representations of the Prophet shall be made. That such a representation was made hurt their feelings.

I don't understand that explanation, since hopefully Muslims in Sweden are tolerant enough to accept that non-Muslims do not follow the Koran.

Finally, I find it surprising that many Muslims are called after Mahomet the Prophet. Wouldn't that be a more serious offense than making a drawing of him?

There are no rules

I'm reading "The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins. It's taking me a long time to read because it sparks all kinds of reflections on the origin of the universe.
I think Man (or more likely Woman, Man was too busy hunting to think) came up with the idea of God as an explanation for its origin, and by extension, for the origin of the universe. The problem with this explanation is that we don't know what's responsible for God's existence. Really, it's not much of an "explanation".
But why do we assume there are explanations for everything?

Let's play a game. I give you sequences of 0 and 1, and you have to guess the rule I used to generate the sequence.

0000000000000000...
1111111111111111...
0101010101010101...
0101110111111101...

All these sequences can apparently be generated by more-or-less simple rules: "Only 0", "Only 1", "Alternate 0 and 1", "Read the sequence aloud and concatenate the result to the sequence".
But how do we know the unseen parts of these sequences (the dots) follow these rules? If I want you to lose the game, I can always add a 0 or a 1 to a sequence in such a way that your guess will turn out wrong.

Scientists look at the universe, the way you look at the sequences. They guess a rule that is consistent with the universe as observed so far, then check if the rule continues to apply. But how do we know the universe will continue to obey the rules?

The fact is that if you consider the set of all infinite sequences, there are sequences which follow rules, and sequences which do not follow rules. What's more, there are many, many, many more sequences that do not follow rules.

If we continue the analogy between universes and sequences, what are the odds we live in a universe that follows rules?

French elections

We have now elected our next president. After 12 years of stagnation with a not-so-exciting Jacques Chirac, it was about time.
I voted for Bayrou during the first round, for Royal in the second. I can't really say I was thrilled by this last choice. I now wonder what Sarkozy is up to.
I hope his tough stand against crime (especially the crime committed by dark-skinned youngsters) was mostly talk to attract Le Pen's voters.
The majority of the media sounds excited about the new president. The news coverage here is Sweden was suprisingly high. At least it was much higher than the coverage of Swedish elections in the French media!
Will Sarkozy be able to get his reforms through? Previous unpopular attempts never made it past the street protests. This summer and this fall will decide the future of France. I expect Sarkozy will start cutting public spending, which will draw major protests from the public institutions. If transports are affected in any way, the country will be paralyzed. If the education is touched, students might go down to the streets (see protests against the CPE last year, a law allowing for increased job flexibility for young people).
At that point, I wonder how the rest of the people will react. Those who elected Sarkozy and have high hopes might not look too kindly upon these protests. We might actually have protests in favour of the president.
If I was in his shoes, I am not sure what I would do: Risk a confrontation with trade-unions now, or choose discussion?
The first alternative has a potentially strong positive outcome: brake the back of the powerful unions, allowing for long-needed reforms. If it fails, as it has always been the case so far, not even the smallest reform will go through, leading to more stagnation. The second option, more reasonable, may not achieve the quick results which the people is expecting.
If we look at the past, Chirac tried but failed to pass reforms. The difference today is that Sarkozy (who belongs to the same party) will benefit from a stronger popular support.

You gotta love them...

Politicians are just like that, "s'ils n'existaient pas, il faudrait les inventer" ("if they didn't exist, one should invent them").
Swedish highschool students were visiting the Swedish parliament. The newly elected leader of the social-democrat party (Mona Salin) decided to give a talk about marijuana. She explained marijuana was bad, then mentioned she had tried once in her youth. For those who might be worried she would soon turn into a junkie she reassuringly declared there was no such risk. You see, she just "tried once". In my opinion, telling youth it's ok to try drugs "just once" ranks high on the all-time stupidest things to do.
Just as if the visiting youth weren't fucked up enough already... When asked about a potential new law allowing the police to bug anyone without permission from a judge, a group of three students declared how enthusiastic they were about the law. Since they were honnest citizen, they didn't see any problem with the police being allowed to spy on them.

Unrelated to that, I received a mail from the French ambassy I was allowed to vote for the French presidential elections from here in Sweden. Considering I thought they had lost my registration papers, it's a pleasant surprise. Now I'll have to pay a little less attention to the absurdities coming out of Swedish politicians, and listen to the infinite wisdom (ahem) of French candidates.

What goes up must come down...

I got a high fever last Monday, which is unusual. I seldom get fever. I guess it does not hurt to have one now and then (well, rather "then" than "now"). It cuts appetites, which helps you get rid of fat without the hassle of training. It makes you see yellow, which is pretty cool. Kind of like x-ray or infrared vision superpower. I have not found a use for yellow vision yet, but I'm sure there must be some.

More seriously, I got pretty scared when I realized I was stuck alone at home with a body thermostat gone wild. Strangely, it was all gone the next day. Applying cold towels on my forehead made wonders to bring the temperature down from 40 to 38.7 degrees.

Macro mode

I discovered the macro mode on my camera...

Emperor - The Death of Kings -

A book by Conn Iggulden. It's the second by him I read after "The Mosaic of Shadows"... Wait a second... No, that one was written by Tom Harper. Funny, I had the impression the two books were written by the same person.
Anyway, I liked both. Now that I think of it, "The Death of Kings" lacks a central story, as opposed to "The Mosaic of Shadows". The former tells a part of Julius Caesar's life, mentioning several unrelated successive battles, while the latter is focused on one particular event, the siege of Byzantium by a "friendly" allied army.
C. Iggulden describes the life of Romans - civilians, politicians and soldiers - in an precise and accurate way.
A good read if you are interested in ancient Rome and Caesar.