Hiking in Ferney

Valley Ferney, a small nature preserve surrounded by deer-hunting grounds. Owned by the Ciel group, a large industrialist. A small area of forest within the valley is open to tourists. The hotel lobby attempted to build a road through the valley to the hotels in Mahebourg, the Ciel group created an activist body that protested the construction, on grounds of destroying biodiversity. The Conservation Ministry became involved in the project, and discovered particular flora (the Nail Tree below is an example) that would become extinct as a result of the highway. The government therefore disallowed the highway project.

Two-dimensional palm trees in Ferney:

Stone statue in Mahebourg, put together by volunteers in 1977:

Mushrooms full of water:

My cousin Roukaya, a professor at the University of Mauritius.

The humble "Nail Tree" that saved the forest. Only three such examples exist in the world.

Me, pretending to be a deer (at Roukaya's request). The truth came out after I spoke to my uncle (the ex-Director of the National Parks) : the forest was saved in order to preserve the hunting grounds, not the Nail Tree!

200 year old tortoise. In no hurry to avoid the paparazzo:

The old hunting lodge, now a restaurant. We had an excellent meal here:

The road out out of the preserve:The lagoon in Mahebourg. A battle was fought here between the British and the French for posession.

Update: First week

I've finally adjusted to the time difference and the perpetual tiredness of the +11 hour time difference. Woke up at 0500, let the miao-ing cat in from the garage, and had a long look outside at the garden. Mauritius is more wintery than usual, with blustery winds, fine drizzle and dark clouds dominating the skies. It feels more like July and less like October (remember, this is the Southern Hemisphere).

Let me give you a glimpse of my accommodations. I'm staying in my sister's room, which used to be my brother's room, a charming room, complete with luminescent stars on the ceiling, an attached bathroom, air conditioner/heater (which of course there's no use for these days), and a remarkable doll museum:

Here are some pictures of my room:

You might be asking, what about my own room, that I occupied from 1990-1992 as a student in Mauritius. Well it's now a fully-functional gym, that my father uses every night:

From this:

To this:

To this:

(and that's not counting the beach! Return on Wednesday to see latest pictures)

Trip: Day 1

Friday Oct 04, 2008

After a disastrous start (I missed my outgoing 1320 flight to London: reasons why ought not to be discussed, but I take the blame!), I caught the 1900 flight. Vahe dropped me at the airport. Was given an aisle seat, with a spare seat next to me, and managed to sleep for 30 minutes.

I  arrived in London at 1300 the next day, and was met by Adnan, who whisked me off to Richmond in his massive black Audi A8. We spent time talking about family matters, and in the evening were joined by Alexis, Adnan's girlfriend, who is an interior designer. 

Next, met my cousins, Sahar, Ali and Hasan, who are all students in London (Actually Sahar works at Barclays Bank). Had an Italian meal with them at a local restaurant, squeezing 6 people into the Audi. 

Adnan and Alexis showed me to a tastefully decorated room, with a new dual LED lamp and custom sun shades, where I fell into a deep sleep, where I dreamt that I was falling down a long, never-ending chute.

Sunday, October 05, 2008

Woke up at 0930, after not being able to sleep most of the night. Adnan very kindly drove us to Angel, where we had a pleasant brunch, then met with the cousins briefly before making my way home by train, then having dinner with Adnan and Alexis

Monday, October 06, 2008

Went to the Riko gym with Adnan, stylish gym with its own coffee bar, internet-linked exercise equipment and classical music piped into the wood-panelled changing rooms. Then, had a snack with Adnan and went to Embankment station to meet Ali again. Adnan dropped me at the airport at 1900 after picking up Alexis, then boarded Air Mauritius for the epic, 12 hour journey to Mauritius.

Seated next to me was Jennifer, a delightful person and an instant friend, whose English husband has worked for Hong Kong telecom for 25 years. She lives in Trou aux Biches and knows Hugh Vitry (the Divemaster) and Shanaz and Coen (my friends in South Africa, also divemasters). We talked for nearly 11 hours. Truly delightful and very charming!

Met my Mum and Dad in Mauritius at about 1130 am, and was whisked to the house in the Honda CRV, with my mum driving and dad sitting in the back. We spent the rest of the day talking, though I had to interrupt for a 3 hour nap. Jetlag was starting to catch up.

Solar powered plane

A British firm has developed a prototype of an unmanned aeriel vehicle (UAV) to be used to assist military reconaissance operations.

One word describes it: elegant

No stats yet on the speed such an aircraft could attain.

I'd be sure that 450kg could certainly support a single human passenger, pressurization system and water.

Take-off velocity might be reached by launch from an aircraft-carrier catapult.

Could this be the future of air travel? 

The Energy Race

One of the most spectacular failings of the current Administration has been its alternative energy policy.

Its policies have had these goals at their forefront:

1. Ensure that alternatives will be owned by BigOil (Biodiesel)

2. Ensure that BigOil's distribution network will be maintained (Hydrogen)

3. Shift focus away from the physical alternative to the source (drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as opposed to importing oil from people who "want" to kill us)

Needless to say, these policies haven't done anything to help matters. 

1. Riots worldwide, due to a shortage of staple food crops and consequently higher food prices. 

2. A $1,000,000 prototype that currently only Mr Schwarzenneger can afford, with about two sources of fuel in the whole of California. The best available so far is hydrogen gas dissolved in an organic, petroleum-derived solvent, stored in high pressure, super-cooled canisters under the vehicle. The best part: go on holiday for 2 weeks and your full-tank of hydrogen's gone. This energy source is at least 15 years from production

3. I feel sorry even watching Mr Bush declare this a victory. Mr Reagan, at least, could get away with statements like these, as he compensated for them with his great ability to win over his audience.

I can only hope that the next government has fewer lobbyists in key cabinet positions, and that its leader declares an Energy Race (akin to the Space Race). A key element of this energy race would be reducing demand (just as a key element of the space race was predicting demand for the spinoffs of expensive prototype technologies: don't think that these happened by accident (well except for the publically available zero-gravity pressurized pen but that's another story)).

Reduction in demand could easily come from federal incentives for cities to create micro-communities, that would require less commuting, tax breaks to micro-community employers, employees, schools, supermarkets, hospitals, malls, real-estate developers and so on. 

The airline industry is dead. Long live the airline industry

1. Oil prices are higher. Over $140. In small part due to a loophole that allows speculators to bid the price up (thanks Wendy Gramm), but in most part due to the fact that there is no more oil (despite what Enron says about makings lots of money from oil exploration). Oil's a dying business, which leads us on to:

2. How much thrust do you need to bring a 350-tonne aircraft airborne? Answer: over 800 kiloNewton, an amount not available using solar panels, even at 20% efficiency, electric or even biodiesel (in a pinch)

3. But what about Natural Gas? Hmmm, smart, as it preserves BigOil's distribution infrastructure. But still a finite fossil fuel, and in shortish supply.

4. The only non-oil alternative capable of generating large amounts of energy on demand (almost) is nuclear power. But good luck controlling a nuclear reactor at 30,000 feet, let alone flying lead around to shield your passengers.

5. Southwest Airlines and Jetblue's recent announcements of supernormal profits from having hedged for fuel prices of around $50-80 for their 2008 fuel purchases were very wise and very lucky. It's unlikely that any airline will secure such lucky pricing from now on on their hedges.

6. Which of course will discount their current share prices

7. Can American Airlines swallow Continental whole? Expect to hear such stories (or rather talks of "friendly" mergers first, until the target's unions force their employers to put up stiff resistance (you can't exactly merge without a core workforce, though predators might like to think you can)

8. A flagging economy won't help things, as business travel expenses will be cut first (and people flying economy class will be sick of fares like these:

SFO-LHR-SFO, departing mid-October 2008, 16 day trip:


Taxes and Fees

Please read the following carefully.
Display of fares, taxes and fees in:
Advertising: Fares shown in off-site and on-site advertisements include the service fee described below and some, but not all, applicable taxes, charges and government-imposed fees.
Flight Cost Summary: On the Flight Cost Summary page, and all subsequent pages leading to a booking, all taxes, charges (including fuel surcharges), service fees, and government and airport authority fees are either included in the fare or itemized separately to provide a total trip cost.
Government and other authority taxes and fees:
September 11 Security Fee: A September 11 Security Fee of $2.50 USD applies per flight segment (maximum charge per trip -- $5.00 USD one-way, $10.00 USD round-trip). A flight segment is defined as one takeoff and one landing.
Passenger Facility Charges: Passenger Facility Charges (PFCs) of up to $18.00 USD may apply, depending upon the itinerary chosen.
Federal Excise Tax: A 7.5% domestic tax applied to the airline base fare. The tax may be pro-rated for flights to/from the 48 contiguous U.S. states and Alaska and Hawaii, and some international destinations. A Travel Facilities Tax of $7.70 USD per direction also applies to flights to/from Alaska and Hawaii and the 48 contiguous U.S. states or between Alaska and Hawaii.
Federal Domestic Flight Segment Fee: A federal domestic flight segment fee of $3.50 USD applies per flight segment. A flight segment is defined as one takeoff and one landing.
U.S. or International Departure and Arrival Charges: U.S. or international departure and arrival charges of up to $200.00 USD may apply [ed- ????????????????? isn't my arrival or departure supposed to be included in the fare?], but may vary depending upon the itinerary chosen.


Sad to see airlines blaming the government by using the "Tax" word (tax takes about 15%: 85% of the "taxes and fees" are simply to offset the airline's costs. The advertised fare of $415 is just a marketing disguise... Now, additional $10 fees to check in your baggage are adding insult to injury (but helping airlines meet their marginal cost), yet are distracting the flying public from the obvious question: why are airlines blaming high prices on the government?

9. Having said all this, the airline industry is likely to see a temporary boost in 2009, due to the exogenous effects of an election year, and a new energy boom (that will fuel cars and homes, not airplanes)

Cuil's almost there...

...but needs some work

http://www.cuil.com/search?q=cobol&sl=long

I'm not sure about Yuil -seemed to give me more ads than results (and that was before it got taken down!)