We Did It!

Sunday morning, exactly 26 hours and 57 minutes after the start, we arrived in Calingford under a warm cheering from our support crew and all the Oxfam staff who were around the finish lane.

Yeah, congratulations to all of us, to our enormous determination under extreme weather conditions! The 5 months of training covering roughly 500Km surely paid off.

A special thanks to our support crew who made this possible: Anna, Teresa, Julie, Bianca and Owne, thanks for everything - the smiles and words of encouragement at every checkpoint, the logistics, the help with our walking gear, the lovely sandwiches and food, the weather reports, the foot-reviving massages, the rock'n'roll soundtrack and the sheer commitment to make it happen.

We were 23rd overall, out of 108 teams, and 15th among the teams who completed with all 4 members - not bad at all, I'd say!

We didn't manage to have the champagne, but we sure need to celebrate this achievement with a glass or two...

Check the results here.

Everything has a reason...

I grabbed a photo of a Castle from  the internet and got this email:

It has come to my attention that you have made an unauthorized use of my copyrighted work, a photo entitled Castelul Hunanzilor, which will from hereon be referred to as the Work.

I have reserved all rights in the Work, first published in 2004, [and have registered copyright therein].

Your work, http://eduardomiranda-plog.blogspot.com/ , is using, without authorization, my Work. - for photo infringement

As you failed to receive permission to use the Work within Castelul Hunanziolor and did not receive permission to make or distribute copies, [including electronic copies,] you have infringed my rights under 17 U.S.C. Section 101 et seq. and could be liable for statutory damages as high as $150,000 as set forth in Section 504(c)(2).

Such an Artist, uh? This is what I call a copyrighted mind ! Well, I have to thank this person. His/her attitude made me search for another illustration of a castle - but not any castle. I deliberately searched for the same castle, and guess what? I ended up finding a better work, from an artist who is more interested in spread the art than trying to make a profit by threatening people. Check it out!

Yes, the Internet is a vast world... wide... web. Some people should just stay away from it.

Aesop's fable

Tells Aesop in his fables that one day his master - Xanthus - asked him to go to the market and buy the best that he could find to serve as a meal for some guests. Aesop went out and bought a bunch of hog's tongues. Asked why tongues, Aesop justified:

Is there anything better than the tongue? It is the bond of life, reason, and through what the cities are built and policed. Thanks to it people are not only educated, persuaded and convinced in the assemblies, but also fulfill the first of all duties, which is to praise God.

Xanthus, willing to embarrass Aesop, asked him to go back the day after and buy the worst he could find. The next day Aesop brought hog's tongues again. Without understanding anything, Xanthus asked for an explanation:

The tongue is the mother of all questions, the origin of all cases, the source of discord and war. On one hand if it is the organ of truth, is also another error, and worse yet, slander and infamy, because if at some point it praises the gods, on the other is used for blasphemy and impiety.

Where ones read tongue, read word. The word - especially the written word - is a powerful instrument. And it must be used properly and with discretion. Because of these and others I always say: Do not imbecilize yourself! Avoid the temptation of abbreviations and simplified spelling (of words sic). MSN, Twitter, Facebook, email... they all are tools that came to aid communication, not to deteriorate languages.

Call out this manifesto, whatever the language you write!

Fat is fact

Who is obese and who is fat? It should be a clear rule: if your BMI (body mass index) is greater than 25,01 and 29,99 you are obese. From 30, you are fat. Seriously fat! Thanks to the north-americans - here they go again! - and their introduction of politically correctness, everybody overweight had to be called obese, otherwise they could be offended - and prosecute you!

It seems that these days are gone, at least in UK. England's public health minister Anne Milton says the term fat was more likely to motivate people into losing weight, and has said that GPs and other health professionals should tell people they are fat rather than obese.

for a better life

After the announcement of reductions in the overall budget programme to €39 billion (from the original €75 billion) for infrastructure, plus the possible call for privatisation of particular state companies and agencies (ESB, CIE, DAA, Bord Bia, RTE, etc), comes to light what everybody already knew but pretended not to know: the crisis is not financial but about values. Surely privatisation can improve competition in areas like transport, but in the energy sector, would be better to keep the assets and clean the bills by other meanings, such as efficiency and private investment.

The solidarity is down, distorted by all those "tigers" - Celtic Tiger, the Four Asian Tigers, Gulf Tiger,  Baltic Tiger, etc. People are busy making money, while they are lobotomized to believe that their happiness is all about consumption: we have to buy more in order to keep the economy growing, without  realising our needs are limited, the resources are limited, and we are coming to an inevitable explosion.

A brand new economic model is needed, based on community, solidarity, better values, justice,  and sustainability. Live a simpler and better life, is all we need...