Viruses, Heisenberg and Zen. Being a Sheep.

Writing, even knowing that those concerned give jack shit about what I think. That's probably because they simply don't want to think, or maybe they can't think at all. I'm talking about believers in conspiracies, ignorers of science and destroyers of common sense.
Statement: I'm a sheep. I'm proud of being a sheep. Why? Because the modern definition of a human sheep is as follows: A human sheep doesn't believe in fake news. A human sheep believes only in verified facts. A human sheep will question claims without source. A human sheep will measure not how possible but how probable is some claim without source. A human sheep will rather trust a scientist than a John Doe who can't spell "science". Last but not least, a human sheep will never follow any shitty populist politician.
So please, feel fre to call me a sheep. I'm proud of it.
Why now?
Becuse the time is ripe, the morons are having a race to show who is dumber than dumb. Take an example, from one of my Facebook friends, no names here... He is 100% sure the Covid 19 pandemic is a hoax, he did his research on the web. He knows it so he keeps posting it. But guess what? Every third or fourth post is about who made the Covid 19 virus and who is spreading it across the world to kill (or reduce the number) humanity. OK, which one? Both, of course, everything becomes reality if you believe in it, it's just me, the sheep, who can't understand it. (Guess who, it's Bill Gates that made the virus that doesn't exist, that was 2 weeks ago. Last week was Trump...)
Another person is cursing daily the government for the enforced quarantine since there is absolutely no viruses, it's all a "social experiment". Sure, I can agree on the "experiment", I'm dead sure that analysts of all possible government services are studying the effects to see how far could they go... but that's all. So, no virus, the guy starts making fun of Americans who are protesting confinement measures, saying how stupid can they be, do they all want to die etc..
Yes, I know, what else can I expect from people who think that the North Korean dinasty of dictators is better than the US presidents (sure, many of them deserve to burn in hell, but the Kim dinasty belongs a few circles lower).
And why do I think that I'm right and they are wrong?
First of all, I'm very rarely absolutely sure of something - I mean it IS possible that tomorrow the sun will NOT rise. But how probable or plausible is that? Not enough to influence my life in any way. So yes, it's possible that we are living a moment in the wettest dreams of a conspiracist, but how probable is that?
Let's try what we need to make it real:
1. Most of the leaders and majorities of parliaments are part of the conspiracy (they always were).
2. The scientific world is part of the conspiracy (it always was).
3. The media are part of the conspiracy (they always were).
4. The police and military are part of the conspiracy (they always were).
5. All medical staff is part of the conspiracy (they always were)
6. I will not mention alien reptilians, illuminatis, zion communists etc... They belong to fairy tales, but you can probably add someone more plausible...
Now, let's put aside the coordination needed to keep this up, with so many people actively involved in a conspiracy, let's simply think about the number of people involved in it. It's not milions but bilions. What a shitty conspiracy can this be? Against who? Coming from personal experience with psychotic belivers in conspiracy - they were always the target, they still are. Self important beings, keepers of the only truth.. Hey, which one? This pandemic is real because THEY want to kill us? Or this pandemic is made up to confine us? Both, of course, it's me, the sheep, that can't understand something simple as this (someone starting to feel a bit of pride in being called a sheep?).
The conclusion: Schrödinger was an asshole. Because of his stupid box with a cat in it. He choose a box and a cat as symbols for quantum level and quanta, as symbols for quantic superpositioning of possibilities. Now every moron able to copy-paste "Schrödinger" keeps shouting in my ears how we are living simultaneously on different planes of reality; it's me, the sheep, that can't see it.
Ever heard of Heisenberg's car? No, of course not, I just made it up. Can you imagine Heisenberg saying that when you drive a car, you check the speed and you don't know where you are or where you're going... Then you look out the side window and you know where you are but not how fast you're going nor where you're going... and when you finally look at the road in front you finally know where you're going but not how fast nor you know where you are. (It could probably happen if you drive high on some illegal stuff - don't try it.)
Schrödinger is OK for quantum scientists. Also good for fiction or jokes. Until someone makes properly the rumored "quantum supercomputer", the quanta will not affect my life. Not yours.
Seung Sahn, the great zen master from Korea, once said: "We can argue about the color of that rock as long as we wish since to me it looks whiteish and to you blackish. To the rock it doesn't matter, it will stay gray."

Ten Years On The Road

A rough and very conservative estimate is 120 000 km by air, sea and land. After 10 years I have the 4th backpack, 5th  laptop and 3rd camera. Uncountable shoes and clothes came and went; from the start only three items survived to this day: the sleeping bag, a belt from my late father and the hair trimmer/shaver.

I was bitten by a Korean and two Californian dogs; by a bullet ant and dozens of green tree ants; by gazillions of mosquitos and bedbugs. In return I tried to eat silkworms and dogs, I found both disgusting. But the kangaroo was good.
I drunk soju, makkoli, shochu, umeshu, Ozzie moonshine and lots lots of beer everywhere. I drank Italian wine, French wine, Spanish wine, Californian wine, Australian wine and, unfortunately, also Korean wine. That was a bad idea. But the persimmon wine was good.
I saw pythons, fugu blowfish, crocodiles (from far far away), cassowaries, redback spiders, bullet ants, red-bellied black snakes, roadrunners, coyotes, wallabies and kangaroos, habu snakes, iguanas, ryukyu wild boars.
I harvested sugarcane, rice and marijuana; picked Korean radish, cabbage, onions, persimmon, strawberries, lemons, olives, potatoes and sweet potatoes.
I built houses of brick, stone, wood or cob; built gudeuls (floor heating), ovens and stoves; dry walls, roads and riverbanks.
I've been with buddhists, catholics, protestants, muslims and all kinds of newagers. I turned from radical atheist to radical anti-theist.
I've been with anarchists, communists, populists and right wingers. Occasionally I had better time with rightists than with leftists, but my political view went further in the unexplored realms of the extreme left.
I met people of all possible skin colorations and found out that stupidity is extremely politically correct, equally distributed regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation or age.
I saw deserts and oceans, mountains and coral reefs, volcanos and jungles, rice fields and vineyards, crazy skylines and soothing sunsets.
There are days I feel tired and sick of it all; but the day ends, a new one starts and I feel ready to go, to a new place, see a new face, make a new friend, drink another beer.

En Provance

Rooting for the brewer to spoil beer... sounds improbable if not impossible, but it's true.
The past year I spent in Italy, mostly on Sicily with a summer trip to Tuscany. Some bad experiences, lots of good ones, but overall nothing really worth posting. And I felt pretty lazy, too. In winter ramon joined me in Italy and in early June we left for France. A three day train travel with the slowest (and cheapest) regional trains and we finally arrived to our destination, Miramas, close to Marseille.Domain de Sulauze, a winery and brewery owned by Karina (Brazilian) and Guillame (French), an amazingly friendly couple. The property is more like a small settlement with a bunch of families living here, most of them working for the Domain, and a completely separated house for the woofers, at times there's even 10 of us. There's Costarican and French beauties, an American student that doesn't seem to know where his head and ass are attached and there's German "Gestapo" - she wants to indoctrinate "ordnung und disziplin" to everyone, deciding when, who and what music can be played, when to go to sleep, what to eat... I already sent her to hell twice but she's totally oblivious to it. Anyway, in a week she'll be gone.
The brewers... Looks like they love to experiment (or they just don't know their trade, who cares) and a lot of kegs ends being filled with spoiled beer. Sometimes the beer tastes awful, sometimes it has just a slightly more soury taste but in any case it can't be sold. And so all the kegs like that end on the terrace of the wwoofer's house to be consumed. With great pleasure.

Non Olet!

If I'm correct it was the Roman Emperor Vespasianus who said Non olet (It doesn't stink), referring to the profit he was making from the taxation of public toilets (in Italian the expression vespasiano means a pay-toilet, but even most Italians don't know it).
I had nothing to do with public toilets (and even less with money, too bad), but it was what I was thinking during this walk. I went again to Noto Antica and this time I descended into the gorge on the southwest side. What about the smell? Well, I was happy that there was no smell since I visited the ancient tanneries of the city. After 400 years there really was no smell and I wasn't curious at all how it smelled when the tanneries were active. There's another history that came to mind, that of William the Bastard. Easy to check on the web, but I'm writing this offline and when I'm online I'm very limited so I won't check and if I'm wrong, I'm wrong. If I'm right my memory still works. William's mother was supposedly the daughter of a tanner and during the siege of don't-know-which-city the brave (and foolish) citizens hung raw skins on the city walls and started making fun of William, shouting Work for the tanner! When they were defeated William ordered every man to be dismembered (literally: chopped legs and arms) and thrown from the same walls where the skins were hanging.Moral: never mock a Bastard.
The gorge with the tanneries.


Most of the path was carved in bedrock.

And the tanneries are in man made caves.

Even without the interesting tanneries the walk was worth a bit of sweat as you can see from this pictures.

And it's another festivity for a cannibalistic religion which, most of all, loves sacrifices. Well, instead of some agnus dei I opted for some corn and greens - polenta and wild herbs. No, I'm not saying this as some go-vegan commercial, I actually wanted to offer a bloody sacrifice myself after seeing that crap Berlusconi making a big fuss about his "adoption" of 5 lambs to save them from slaughter. Hell, fuck I know the lambs have nothing to do with it, it was just an instinctive reaction to anything politicians do or say.
You still believe in democracy, religious freedom and all the other crap that comes with it? I pity you, but at the same time I honestly envy you.