The next pandemic

Foreign Affairs has an interesting, yet rather chilly section on the threat from an influenza pandemic which might already have broken out as you read this. Particularly interesting are the practical scenarios to be put in place if the pandemic struck now, in one or in ten years' time. Strangely, they seem to have missed out on a country which is also in the business of influenza vaccination - Switzerland's Berna Biotech has been doing that for quite a while now.

Bond. James Bond.

Did you know that Bond actually was half Swiss, born in Zürich & raised for a couple of years in a large house in the countryside outside Basle, Switzerland? I wonder where exactly that might have been ... find out more for yourself in Silverfin.

Swiss Apple Store!

Brilliant! According to this rather reliable looking FACTS-report (via stefanbucher.net), Apple plans to bring a flagship store to a top address (Bahnhofstrasse?) in Zürich! Which would make it the first continental European Apple store in my book. The spokesperson is reluctant to comment on the time horizon, but FACTS expects that the launch will not take place this year. A bit strange though is the mentioning of the number of Apple stores going up to 125 until September - the Swiss store included. Whatever - it's great to have a Genius Bar in Zürich soon!

Precious Ramotswe

Believe it or not, but that's actually a name, albeit of a fictitious person: It's the name of the very first lady detective in Botswana & the hero of McCall Smith's best selling The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. Although the story entails a pleasant enough change of perspective (picture Miss Marple as a youngish, gravitationally challenged, African lady in Botswana - 'nough said), it's not quite my cup of tea, however amazing the totally different beat of the
language and the story's atmosphere is, compared to the same author's The Sunday Philosophy Club. As you can see from my rather pleased earlier review of that particular book, which I intend to follow btw, I rather prefer the urban, intellectually stimulating to the rustic.

Logbuch Arlesheim

Who said there were no political blogs in Switzerland? Apparently, the well written Logbuch Arlesheim (German) is just that, and with its wicked sense of humour and critical observation, it even has an impact in the real world of the sleepy, well off Basle suburb of Arlesheim. So much so that even the Basler Zeitung notices (subscription) - wow! Too bad that it's anonymous, though ... but I suppose that that is only a question of time, because I wouldn't really be surprised if the authors ended up forming a political party. Finally, it also lacks an hides its RSS feed well!

Suppression, China, Oil

Final pointer to an extraordinarily interesting article in this Economist (subscription). My hunch concerning the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation seems to inch its way into geopolitics ... and it is hardly being noticed!

Going nuclear?

The Economist has published a very timely special report on the nuclear power industry in its current issue. It's particularly timely for Switzerland as well since the debate about nuclear power has been reïnitiated here very recently.

Obviously the debate is a very important one, particularly given the long lead times of building power plants, and the even longer half life period of those plants' output ... I am not convinced it's a good thing that the nuclear power industry is aiming for a revival, this time even with the uncomfortable support of the environmentalist faction because of nuclear power's alleged zero carbon emission. This allegation is simply not true because mining & refining uranium requires a lot of fossil fuel (would that be grey carbon, I wonder?), so it's a question of degree again. I seem to remember to have read somewhere that the carbon content in a nuclear MW is comparable to conventionally produced power on fossil base. Strangely, the Economist does not talk about this, nor does it take into its economic consideration the very high cost of low probability accidents which are externalised to the public because there is no insurance protection available for that kind of liability. In order to be able to take sides, I would need to have these two issues clarified as well.

Biggles?

Name rings a bell, does it? It certainly did for me just now when I came across a reference to Biggles-style goggles. Nostalgia-time, big time! Captain James Bigglesworth a.k.a. Biggles is the hero of a wartime series of children's books featuring the adventures of the fighter pilot hero all around the globe. Back in highschool, when geeky me was auxiliary school librarian, I raided the shelves for every available tome of that series - back then, in German of course. Dashing good read it was, too, if I recall correctly, and not putting too much weight on the occasional imperialist (sic!) jingoism. That's probably why it would come across as rather dated nowadays - and yet, there is the International Biggles Association!

Blogs & Medienkritik

Eigentlich interessiert mich das Thema ja nicht wirklich so sehr, aber ich nehme doch erstaunt zur Kenntnis, dass die Schweizer Blogosphäre die am Freitag in der Medienbeilage der NZZ veröffentlichten beiden (!) guten (!!) Artikel zum Thema offenbar gerade nicht zur Kenntnis genommen hat. Vielleicht hilft dieser Eintrag ja - sofern er überhaupt gelesen wird ... und überhaupt bin ich froh, dass ich das BBQ abgesagt habe, wenn ich so nach draussen schaue!

Sobriety

Here (German) is an excellent text, advocating sobriety in the face of terrorism, if it were at all possible. The sobriety advocated is of a rational kind, seeing that the risk of being the victim of a terrorist act is much smaller than that of being involved in a traffic accident for instance. However, sobriety must not become indolence towards victims, once the inevitable happened. And yet, the repeat use of the subjunctive indicates the author's awareness of the danger involved in that approach: cynicism.

What can we do in the face of the terrorist threat? The political response by the authorities is one thing of course, althought the strategies chosen are open to debate, and must remain so by all means. Seeing that the new breed of terrorism is perpetrated by loosely, maybe even only ideologically connected cells instead of a hierarchical organisation with a command & control infrastructure that can be destroyed, I wonder whether there is a proportionate citizen response that is not subject to the dangers of vigilantism. I suppose vigilance & loyalty towards open societies may have a particularly appropriate place for instance in immigrant groups where fundamentalism & extremism can thrive if unchecked. For the rest, it is trying to remain sober, of course, and engaging those in debate who mistakenly think that terrorism is the weapon of the weak against the strong - it is the rage of the angry against the defenceless and innocent. "It is an evil means to an evil end." (Sir Jonathan Sacks)