By Dennis Jones  Friday, November 27, 2009

“Before facing major surgery wouldn’t you want a second opinion?”  Craig Idso and S. Fred Singer from Climate Change Reconsidered

Obama’s Attendance at the UN Climate Change Conference

Just days after the November, 2009 exposure of emails evidencing cooking the books of climate change research, President Obama announced his participation in the upcoming UN’s Climate Change Conference that takes place from December 7-18, 2009 in Copenhagen.  He will stop there on December 9, 2009 for a day on his way to accept his Nobel Prize. Largely ignored or dismissed as unimportant by the mainstream media, the public airing of emails provided the smoking gun about the Global Warming hoax, now named Climate Change since there is no proof of any warming over the past decade.  Since facts frequently are irrelevant to political agendas, at the Copenhagen conference President Obama will commit the US to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 17% by 2020 with enormous economic consequences.

According to the UN’s COP15 (fifteenth Conference of the Parties) website, the Copenhagen Airport is ready to handle the 140 or so jet aircraft bringing VIP’s in to attend the conference.  The estimated carbon footprint of 140 jet flights to gather these heads of state and other luminaries in Copenhagen is 300 tons of CO2.

The Motive and Background History Behind the UN’s Climate Change Agenda

The motive for so many developing and less developed countries to be willing to sign the Copenhagen Treaty is that it is the vehicle for a massive transfer of wealth from the developed countries like the USA and other Western nations to them.  In fact, the agreements are purposely disproportionate to accomplish this transfer. The Copenhagen treaty was produced by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) whose goal, according to their web site is “to use scientific literature to evaluate the extent and understanding of climate changes, as well as the potential to adapt to or counteract climate changes”.  The Copenhagen Treaty will supersede the Kyoto Protocol established in 1997 that both Presidents Clinton and Bush rejected.  The IPCC was established in 1988 by UNEP, the United Nations Environment Program and World Meteorological Organization (WMO).  According to the UN website “there are over 1200 independent scientific authors and 2500 reviewers who have taken part in the preparation of the IPCC’s Fourth Assessment Report published in 2007.”  The IPPC’s key authors and personnel have all been appointed by member governments with their research supported by government contract and so from its very beginning, a political rather than scientific entity. The IPPC has produced four assessment reports and Summaries for Policy Makers for each of the assessment reports.

The First Assessment Report in 1990 led to the adoption of the Global Climate Treaty in Rio de Janiero in 1992, but not without significant criticism.  The Science & Environmental Policy Project (SEPP) refutes the conclusions reached by the IPCC about global warming and climate change and underscores their misuse of the report to advance the global political agenda of the IPCC. SEPP was founded in 1990 by atmospheric physicist S. Fred Singer as a non-profit, 501(c)3 educational group.  Its original mission was to “clarify the diverse problems facing the planet and, where necessary, arrive at effective, cost-conscious solutions.”

After the Second Assessment Report, Climate Change 1995, completed in 1995 and published in 1996,  Dr. Fredrick Seitz, Chairman of the Board of SEPP, reported in an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal that substantial changes had been made in the document after scientists had agreed on the content of the paper.  In essence the skepticism surfaced by fellow scientists had been scrubbed from the document!  In the WSJ piece Dr. Seitz cited the following statements as having been removed from the IPCC document:

“None of the studies cited above has shown clear evidence that we can attribute the observed [climate] changes to the specific cause of increases in greenhouse gases.”

“No study to date has positively attributed all or part [of the climate change observed to date] to anthropogenic [man-made] causes.”

“Any claims of positive detection of significant climate change are likely to remain controversial until uncertainties in the total natural variability of the climate system are reduced.”

This action was the catalyst behind the 1996 publication of the Leipzig Declaration, signed by 100 climate scientists.  The Leipzig Declaration was produced prior to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol and contained the following admonition: “However, based on all the evidence available to us, we cannot subscribe to the politically inspired world view that envisages climate catastrophes and calls for hasty actions. For this reason, we consider the drastic emission control policies likely to be endorsed by the Kyoto conference—lacking credible support from the underlying science—to be ill-advised and premature.”  The Kyoto Protocol was subsequently adopted in December 1997 but voted down in the US Senate 95-0 and President Clinton refused to sign it.

The third IPCC assessment report and SPM was reputed to contain serious errors leading to faulty conclusions and refuted by SEPP in their paper titled “The Kyoto Protocol is not Backed by Science” in which Professor S. Fred Singer of the University of Virginia states that “action to “combat” global warming is hard to justify when the preponderance of data show no warming that can be assigned to human causes, when economists conclude that higher CO₂ levels and a warmer climate would be beneficial rather than harmful, and when proposed schemes to control greenhouse-gas emissions are largely ineffective. Considering the high cost of such controls and their political nature, the Kyoto Protocol, as President George Bush has stated, is “fatally flawed” and should be abandoned. “

The most recent IPCC fourth assessment report was published in 2007 and then later revised to conform to the Summary for Policy Makers.  It was reported that with the highly touted scientific peer-review process the authors rejected over half of the comments of the reviewers in the critical chapter attributing global warming to human activities.

Climate Change Reconsidered & 31,478 Scientist’s Petition

After these flawed and error-prone reports, SEPP formed the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change and organized a symposium in Vienna in April 2007.  The result was Climate Change Reconsidered, a 855 page report produced without government sanction and with donated time and effort.  Climate Change Reconsidered refutes and debunks the science distorted and misreported for the purpose of advancing the global agenda of wealth transfer from the US and other developed countries to the rest of the world.  In addition it contains the following petition that has been signed by the 31,478 American scientists and Ph.D.‘s listed in the report:

“We urge the United States government to reject the global warming agreement that was written in Kyoto, Japan in December, 1997 and any other similar proposals.  The proposed limits on greenhouse gases would harm the environment, hinder the advance of science and technology, and damage the health and welfare of mankind.  There is no convincing evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane or other greenhouse gases is causing, or will in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth’s atmosphere and disruption of the Earth’s climate.  Moreover, there is substantial scientific evidence that increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide produce many beneficial effects upon the natural plant and animal environments of the Earth.”

Based on observations of glacial ice melting and sea ice area, sea level rise and etc. the authors note that there is no evidence of trends that can be attributed to human causes. The conclusions reached are that variations in solar activity, not greenhouse gases are the true driver of climate change.

Agreeing to any part of the Copenhagen Treaty, with its punitive provisions, will have far reaching negative consequences to the US economy.  Like Cap and Trade, for most Americans, it will amount to another tax burden.

Links
http://en.cop15.dk/frontpage
http://www.nature.org/initiatives/climatechange/calculator/?gclid=CLDX3putq54CFSZdagodrUrblw
http://www.sepp.org/
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aDgL9I_.sxug
http://www.sepp.org/Archive/controv/ipcccont/Item05.htm
http://www.friendsofscience.org/assets/documents/monckton_2009.pdf -

CFP

Well, I am tired and this time only a few details. Legal Officer Support at the Fusion for Energy in Barcelona, Spain, with closing date fixed for Friday, November 27, at midday, local time. Programme Officer at the ENIAC JU in Brussels, Belgium, amd an Assistant at the Frontex in Warsaw, Poland, with deadline fixed for November 27.

26.11.09 Maybe you will be interested, but I will not apply for a post of Communications Officer – Internal Communications at the EASA from Cologne. Well, I have applied for a lot of years and no selection, but you may be chosen by the European Aviation Safety Agency. Please also take into consideration that you have to apply till the closing date, which is Thursday, November 26.

23.11.09 Surely at least nine years of professional experience could be quite a lot for sone of us. And also completed university studies in a three-year-course or more. That is what is required to apply for a post of Planning Manager and the closing date is Monday, November 23, at 1pm local time. Where? In Vienna, Austria, at the FRA, Fundamental Rights Agency. Grid and application form.

Scientific Programme Officer at the CoE, Council of Europe, in Strasbourg, France, with deadline fixed for November 23. Be aware: awareness is required about the context and regulations within the pharmaceutical and medical domains.

19.11.09 A reserve list for the post of Procurement and/or Inventory Assistant at the OAMI in Alicante, Spain. Deadline on Thursday, November 19, local time.

16.11.09 - Head or director? Becoming it is not easy. Well, at least twelve years of professional experience are quite a lot, but the job seems to be be quite important – being Head of Technical Training Department at the EASA in Cologne, Germany. This is an EU institution and the deadline of this job offer is Monday, November 16. I wish you really good luck!

The next job is, instead, addressed to all of you who are specialized in economics. It is a post of Market Infrastructure Expert at the ECB, the European Central Bank, which – if I am not wrong – should be based in Frankfurt, Germany. Closing date is  Tuesday 17 November.

Is it easy to become Director of the PMO in Brussels? I think it really isn’t with at least 15 years of professional experience required, but you could not agree with me. Anyway, you should apply till midday – I suppose, Brussels time – of Wednesday November 18. Will you apply?

- Travel Plan Advisor and Hotel Ratings Assistant in Greater London. Strategic Web Manager in the Travel Sector, Conference Producer, Media & Marketing Manager and Head of New Media in London. Manager in France in the Travel Sector and General Manager in Devon. Cycle Hub Project Development Manager in Lanhydrock, North Cornwall

- Press Office Manager in Essex

- A particular job (a cartoon)

- Your favourite travel destination (please vote)

- Which is your best song? (please vote)

Opera, an European browser, and Mozilla, Linux and Apple

Spreadthesign, the sign language dictionary. European Commission – Education & Training

Vanilla icecream, Vanilla Toffee Crunch and Chunky Monkey

Vanilla Bean, Strawberries & Cream, Double Chocolate, Mango & Passion Fruit Madness, Lemon Meringue, Cappuccino and Sticky Toffee Fudge

Mango & Banana Smoothie, Banana & Strawberry Smoothie, Frozen Yogurt, Cappuccino and Chocolate Icecream

Saturday, November 14, 2009

updated on Thursday November 26, 2009

calogeromira.wordpress.com – e-mail

Does this search engine save watts/hour?

Non so voi, ma io probabilmente non presenterò domanda per il posto di addetto alla comunicazione interna dell’Easa di Colonia, in Germania. Anche se avessi i titoli, infatti, mi chiedo: perché spedire la mia domanda via posta tradizionale, quando da anni spedisco la domanda senza alcun successo? Voi, tuttavia, potreste essere molto più bravi di me ed essere selezionati dall’Agenzia europea per la sicurezza aerea, spedendo la documentazione entro domani, giovedì ventisei novembre. In bocca al lupo.

23.11.09 Beh, nove anni richiesti di esperienza lavorativa forse sono molti per qualcuno. Oltre alla laurea, almeno triennale… Manager di programmazione alla Fra di Vienna (Austria) entro lunedì ventitre novembre all’una. Ora locale, naturalmente, che coincide con quella italiana. Modulo da compilare dell’Agenzia europea per i diritti fondamentali e domanda.

Addetto a programma scientifico, inoltre, al Coe di Strasburgo (Francia), il Consiglio d’Europa. Anche in questo caso molti di noi non potranno partecipare in quanto è necessaria una certa competenza nell’ambito farmaceutico. In bocca al lupo a chi partecipa, anche se queste selezioni sono difficili… E domande entro il ventitre novembre…

19.11.09 Assistente addetto ai bandi (spero di aver tradotto bene – in inglese procurement) e all’inventario. Per l’Oami di Alicante, Spagna, detto anche Ohim (Ufficio per l’armonizzazione nel mercato interno, un ente che si occupa di marchi). Domande entro giovedì diciannove novembre. Posso chiedervi se già lavorate per istituzioni pubbliche?

16.11.09 Ci sarà una motivazione ( l’incarico è abbastanza prestigioso), ma almeno dodici anni di lavoro alle spalle sono molti. Questo è, purtroppo, uno dei requisti. Comunque, sappiate che l’Easa di Colonia – Agenzia europea per la sicurezza aerea – offre un incarico di direttore del dipartimento «Formazione tecnica». Per lavorare, eventualmente, in Germania, dovete presentare la vostra domanda entro lunedì sedici novembre. Buon lavoro nel fine settimana per compilare la domanda!

Un lavoro di esperto in infrastruttura del mercato alla Banca centrale europea che dovrebbe aver sede – forse – a Francoforte. L’offerta scade martedì diciassette novembre.

Accidenti. Quindici anni di esperienza lavorativa per diventare direttore della Pmo di Bruxelles (Ufficio di gestione  e liquidazione dei diritti individuali), presentando la propria domanda entro mezzogiorno di mercoledì diciotto novembre. Pur tuttavia, non mi sembrano molti per un incarico direttivo. E voi cosa ne pensate?

Vorrei anche scrivervi qualcosa per chi ha un titolo Osa, operatore socio-assistenziale. Spero di riferirvi qualcosa su un incarico a Catania, in Lombardia o in qualche altra regione d’Italia. Ci riuscirò prossimamente?

- Segretaria in uno studio legale di Milano, informatico a Roma con il solo rimborso spese ed una laurea richiesta in ingegneria informatica. Webmaster a Foggia con il solo rimborso spese.

13.11.09 Boh, la richiesta è davvero specifica questa volta, assistente alla gestione delle costruzioni. Si dovrebbe lavorare all’Eit di Budapest (Ungheria), l’Istituto europeo per l’innovazione e la tecnologia. Tempo stretto, da oggi, per le domande, da spedire entro venerdì tredici novembre a mezzogiorno (ora di Bruxelles).

Quanto alla specializzazione, ancor “peggio” – o “meglio” in base ai punti di vista – per l’informatico che si occuperà di infrastrutture o per l’assistente finanziario con nove anni di lavoro – se ricordo bene – alle spalle… E che dire del consulente legale?

P.s. Queste domande europee sono ottime per scoprire anche che esistono le cosiddette «Comunità della conoscenza e dell’innovazione» e che c’è un posto per addetto ad un progetto che riguarda questi gruppi…

13.11.09 - Lavorare per l’uguaglianza uomo – donna. Beati voi che avete molti anni di esperienza lavorativa, almeno quindici. Potrebbe fare per voi questo incarico di direttore dell’unità «Operazioni» dell’«Istituto europeo per l’uguaglianza di genere» di Vilnius, Lituania. Ehm, l’ho saputo soltanto all’ultimo minuto e vi dico che la scadenza è oggi, martedì dieci novembre. Spero che siate in grado di perdonarmi…

E chissà com’è la Lituania turistica… Per un voto “turistico”, vedere sotto.

«Merci», «bonjour» e «bonsoir». Se siete, inoltre, esperti non soltanto in «merci», «bonjour», «bonsoir», eccetera, ma, in generale, avete un’ottima padronanza del francese, potreste diventare il segretario o la segretaria dell’Eurojust a L’Aia (Olanda). In questo caso, avrete più tempo, fino a giovedì dodici novembre, e vi pregherei di farmi sapere come è andata a finire.

Stagista in redazione a Treviso con rimborso spese. Un po’ troppo poco o forse no?

Le offerte di lavoro del 25 e 18 ottobre, 28 e 4 settembre, 14 agosto, 9 luglio, 14 giugno, 28, 22 ed 11 aprile, 10 febbraio e 2o novembre 2008

- Località turistiche straniere (Vota)

- Quale di questi monumenti italiani vi piace di più? (Vota)

- La musica. Quale il vostro brano preferito? (Vota)

Un browser europeo – Opera – e Mozilla o i sistemi operativi di Linux ed Apple. Neomedia.it

- Crema al cacao con nocciole ed anacardi, cioccolato fondente con nocciole o gianduia con nocciole intere oppure al latte con nocciole e nocciole intere

Spreadthesign, dizionario e linguaggio dei segni. Commissione europea – Istruzione e formazione

10 novembre ‘09 - aggiornato 25 novembre ‘09

calogeromira.wordpress.com – e-mail

Does this search engine save watts/hour?

This one’s called “Let There Be Music”. I guess it’s not difficult to guess why!

I have been playing with idea of starting a blog for the photos I click and then I finally gave in to the temptation. The question remains as to how long am I going to sustain this though. The previous 2 attempts at blogging have been… er… just that, attempts! So here goes another attempt!

As a first post, I was wondering what to start of with. Then I thought why not merge 2 passions of mine. Photography and Music.

This one is from the archives. Circa 2008. And this is how this “photo happened”.

I was representing my company at Sibos 2008. Sibos in 2008 happened to be in the beautiful city of Vienna, Austria! We were staying walking distance from the venue. On the first day, after the conference, we wanted to catch some dinner and a few of us went around looking for a place to grab some decent food. We found this off-beat looking Italian place a block or two away. It was drizzling outside and there was no hope in hell of seeing anything around. But I was carrying my camera… you know, just in case. Good thing I did I got this stunning trumpet hanging on the equally lovely old wall in the restaurant!

And now for you photographers out there who will not be happy to just stop at this and want the gory details on what went into this snap… sorry, it was an absolute no-brains-used, simple point and shoot affair! But no not on a point and shoot. It was on my trusty old Nikon D70S, with the Nikkor 18-200mm VR mounted on it!

A murder mystery set in Vienna in 1902 sounded like a terrific idea. Teaming up to solve the mystery: Oskar Reinhardt, a detective, and his friend Dr. Max Liebermann, a doctor who experiments with the new treatment known as psychoanalysis. (Naturally Dr. Freud appears in a walk-on part.) The victim is a beautiful blonde clairvoyant who has been shot in a locked room.  Along the way, the author places his characters in the famous coffee houses, at the Secession, and he even sets the climactic scene at the peak of the famous Reisenrand, the Ferris wheel in the Prater that Hitchcock so memorably employed in The Third Man.

It almost works, but Frank Tallis isn’t a terrific writer. Much of the historical and local color seems obligatory: why tell us exactly what everyone orders each time the characters sit down for a cup of coffee? Why trace their steps — right on this strasse, left on that brücke — when these are routes the characters would follow without thought? Why pause to tell us that Liebermann’s new coffee table was made by Koloman Moser? It’s all clumsy. And Tallis’s word choices are sometimes labored. “Weak spears of watery light angled through the mossy curtains, illuminating motes that glided through the air with the lymphatic grace of protozoa.”  ”Lymphatic grace?” If you say so.

That being said, the plot is satisfying and the pacing works nicely. The characters all feel a little bit second-hand, as if we’d met them before in other books (the bluestocking English governess, the sexually abusive bank president and his downtrodden wife, even the slightly plodding policeman Reinhardt and the more intuitive Dr. Liebermann). But the murder itself is quite ingenious and when all’s said and done, turn-of-the-century Vienna is a fine place to spend a few hours.

I thought I had pictures of this sitting on my hard drive, but I don’t, so here’s one from the Wikipedia page: Rachel Whiteread’s Holocaust Memorial in Vienna.

Thanks Hans Peter Schaefer for uploading your work to the Wikimedia Commons with a GNU Free License!

The monument is a concrete cast of a library turned “inside out” so that entrance is impossible and the contents of the books are lost. The weight of the sculpture is austere, an abrupt interruption to a beautiful square, and if you walk around the library and look at the ground you see the names of all the camps where Austrian Jews were killed. Whiteread’s career is about casting “negative space,” and this is an aesthetically and conceptually interesting use of the concept.

Simon Wiesenthal was on the committee that chose this design, and he explained that books are an important symbol for Jews: “We are a people of books. We didn’t build our monuments out of stone and metal. Our monuments were books.”

I still think it’s wholly unsuited to be Austria’s central Holocaust memorial.

“Jews are not metaphors,” to quote Cynthia Ozick, Jews are not symbols, and Jews are not books. I think this monument goes dangerously far in equating the two.

When I see it, I think “It’s very sad that we lost all of that knowledge,” and while this is a true statement, it’s not the point of the tragedy.

I was just reading a study about Holocaust education in Germany that warned against reducing Jews to the sum of their intellectual contributions, to a list of scientists and thinkers in a textbook. German (and Austrian) children today have for the most part never lived with Jews. They don’t have first-hand knowledge of the fact that Jews are people, who laugh, and cry, and play, and work, and they don’t have first-hand knowledge of the richness of Jewish culture.

I think this monument reduces Jewish culture to “a culture of the book,” and depicts the Holocaust as an intellectual and cultural loss rather than as a human tragedy.

I don’t know if I forget, when I’m looking at this monument, that six million people with rich human lives enmeshed in a living culture were brutally murdered, but I know that I become disassociated from that fact.

They become closed books to me, and I project that image back into the past, forgetting that there ever was such a thing as a living Jewish culture in Europe.

That’s the last thing a central Holocaust memorial should do.

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November 9-11

I took advantage of being in Vienna and attended a concert every night I was there. My standing ticket to the state opera was 4 euros, standing ticket to the operetta was 2 euros, and a seat in the chamber music concert was 5 euros. Is it ridiculous or what?

Mind you, there are a lot of touristy traps for performances. As you walk around the city, you will see many official-looking men in cloaks holding binders. They approach tourists and try to sell you tickets to concerts. Now, they are not liars and they are from a legit organization – the tickets they sell are regular prices (above 30 euros). The performances usually have the program of Mozart and Strauss. Now, it didn’t bother me until when I was walking into the state opera house box office 2 hours before the opera. The man stopped me and tried selling me a ticket – he told me everything was sold out and that I didn’t need to bother to go into the box office. I went in anyway, and obviously, I got in line and eventually got in with my standing ticket. Imagine someone who didn’t do the research on getting standing tickets and paid 30-60 euros for this performance! (Although, they would be able to sit).

First night, State Opera – Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District by Dmitri Shostakovich

Since I only decided to see this opera on the day of the performance, I didn’t have a chance to read up on it. Mind you, this opera is sexual, with many scenes that either made people uncomfortably cough or giggle. During the first few songs, I was still a bit confused with what was going on and thought to myself, What the heck am I watching? But eventually I got into the story.  It is very real and portrays women’s role during that time period.

The second night, Volksoper Wien – Der Vogelhändler by Carl Zeller

Shamefully, I had NO idea what was going on in this operetta. I was so tired from sight-seeing during the day and dozed off many times especially because I couldn’t really follow the story without a subtitle (time to learn German!). I didn’t feel too bad though because I only had to pay 2 euros, and the music was good. The operetta was like a musical, except that the singers sang in opera style.

The third night, Musikverein

5 euros got me a seat right above the stage. I still can’t believe that I paid 5 euros to see these high level musicians. Well, Vienna sure is the place for music lovers and music students because there are so many performances every night (hard to choose sometimes!). But for professionals? Working in this competitive place and the ticket can be as cheap as 5 euros? I don’t know.

My thoughts about Vienna? I don’t think Vienna will be the place for a one-city-trip. In the future, perhaps I’ll include it in a trip to Germany and Austria just to drop by for the concerts (and that’s probably all there is to do). It’s difficult to say because I am not trying to down-talk Vienna, and I did enjoy my stay. However, it’s a place to enjoy music, without too much to do in terms of sight-seeing (and the ones you’ve seen won’t be different the next time you are back, like some cities).

As a musician, visiting Vienna was a long dream. Although I was sad to leave Budapest (it somewhat captured my heart), I was excited to finally arrive in Vienna via train.

The architecture had a general Western European look. I noticed that I didn’t really try taking a lot of pictures (or asking people to take pictures of me). Maybe it was just because the city looked like many places I have gone to.

The music is wonderful, and it needs a separate post, but I will be honest – Vienna turned out a lot calmer and less lavish and dreamy than expected. Perhaps music is the only thing going there. Still, I will share a few highlights with you.

MozartHaus

Of course, there were many houses of famous musicians scattered in Vienna. I didn’t go to Beethoven’s or Schubert’s, but I visited the Mozart House. This is the biggest apartment that Mozart lived in during the time period when he was the richest. Although generally Mozart seems a bit too commercialized in Vienna, it was still cool to walk around the museum and see what his personal life was (sort of) like. No, the movie Amadeus isn’t all accurate, friends.

I said commercialized because there were too many shops, cafes, and more touristy shops with the word “Mozart” in the names and Mozart’s picture on the sign and logo.

Sachertorte

A Viennese specialty!

Zentralfriedhof (Cemetery)

I took the train out to Simmering on the second day. This cemetery has a huge musician section where graves of Mozart, Beethoven, the Strauss family, Schubert, etc were at. In the picture, I was standing next to Mozart’s memorial (his is right in the front) with Beethoven’s in the back on the left side. I felt a bit weird taking pictures of individual tombstones, but I think this is an exception. Notice the bag I bought from the Mozart House – with Mozart’s quote and everything in German! I figured I might as well go along with the city and be cheesy.

Hundertwasserhaus

This is actually a social housing project, built by Friedensreich Hundertwasser.

Kunsthaus Wien

It’s a museum! Unique architecture, isn’t it?

I also visited the Schonbrunn Palace on my last day. I don’t have a picture to show you – the weather was bad and my feet were soaked 10 minutes after walking out of the hostel. I was just not in the mood to take pictures while climbing up the hill in the rain. It is a nice place to visit though!

—

Finally, I leave with you a food picture. Viennese food has a lot of influence from Germany and Hungary. I met up with my Viennese friend (met in Copenhagen!), and she took me to a traditional Viennese restaurant near St. Stephan’s Cathedral.

Beef goulash with gnocchi-like pasta – Hungarian influence.

European Commission – Education & Training. A page with a video about the Lifelong Learning Programme.

20.11.09 Public open tender about a feasibility study on lifelong learning with closing date fixed for Monday, November 23. May I ask you whether you work in this sector?

01.11.09 – Vienna. Have you ever been as a tourist in Vienna? And what do you think of Christmas Markets?

28.10.09 You may take part till 6 pm of Wednesday, October 28, to the Focus 89 by the European Economic and Social Committee in Brussels, at the Room Civitas JDE, on the 6th floor (99 rue Belliardstraat).

28.10.2009 There will be a Culture in motion conference on Monday, September 28, in Brussels… Issues are the so-called Culture 2000 and Culture Programme 2007-2013.

27.09.09 Eurobarometer Conference about the future of Europe in Gothenburg, Sweden, on Sunday and Monday, September 27 and 28. At the local university – that should be in the centre – four topics will be discussed: Socio-economic climate in times of crisis, Environment, climate change and energy, Sweden in Europe and Citizens’ envolvement in the European process. Conclusions will be hold by Margot Wallström, vice president of the European Commission and European commissioner for Institutional Relations and Communication Strategy. The conference has been organized by the Directorate General Communication of the European Commission.

20.08.09 An international student camp – its name is Żabinki – in Żabinka, Poland. From Tuesday 20 to Saturday 29 August… Are you there? Among the organisers there is the ESN, Erasmus Student Network.

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A website for the European press, named Presseurop, and one for teachers of young boys and girls, students from 12 to 15 years, and pupils both between 9 and 12 years and up to nine years… Knowledge System for Lifelong Learning or, written differently, KSLLL.

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European Internet users are – obviuosly – aware of the existence of viruses according to a Eurobarometer’s report for the European Commission. Germany, Austria, Sweden, Portugal and the UK reach a 98% awareness and Finland and Czech Republic even 99%; EU27 and France 97%, the Netherlands 96% and Denmark and Spain 94% as well as Ireland 90%…

- Your favourite travel destination

- Which is your best song?

- How to build your website

- Photos in the website Pikemurdy.com

- Europeana and the European culture

Opera, an European browser, and Mozilla, Linux and Apple

Spreadthesign, the sign language dictionary. European Commission – Education & Training

Vanilla icecream, Vanilla Toffee Crunch and Chunky Monkey

Vanilla Bean, Strawberries & Cream, Double Chocolate, Mango & Passion Fruit Madness, Lemon Meringue, Cappuccino and Sticky Toffee Fudge

Mango & Banana Smoothie, Banana & Strawberry Smoothie, Frozen Yogurt, Cappuccino and Chocolate Icecream

Sunday July 5, 2009

updated on Wednesday November 25, 2009

calogeromira.wordpress.com – e-mail

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Hallo liebe Quilterinnen,

bitte vormerken:

Freitag, 27. 11. ab 16:00 Uhr

Wir sind eine Gruppe von QuilterInnen, die sich regelmäßig im K7 (A-1200 Wien, Klosterneuburger Straße 7) treffen und freuen uns über zahlreichen Besuch.

Ok so I should’ve been at my lecture half an hour ago. Today was one of those rare occasions when I was up and out of bed long before my alarm went off, and ready and waiting at my tram stop with a good 10 minutes to spare – only today there was no tram. I stayed a good half hour or so, watching the crowd of people waiting with me slowly disperse as they realised it was going to be a no-show. So rather than walk miles to the nearest underground and turn up an hour late, I decided I might as well fill you all in on the latest.

Bratislava

The past few weeks I’ve been insanely busy entertaining all the friends and family that wanted to squeeze a quick trip to Vienna in before Christmas. My parents were here ten days to stock my fridge with M&S food (yes, at least 80% of their luggage allowance was edible) take me out to dinner and treat me for my birthday. Since it wasn’t their first time in Vienna we got to do some of the slightly off-beat attractions for once – which included a day over the border in Slovakia. Now, although Bratislava scores major points for having an absolutely massive Tesco (why oh why won’t they open one in Vienna?) the only real attraction of going there is the incredibly low prices on everything – compared to Austria at least. Bratislava does have a cute little old town in the centre but, as my fellow Edinburghian Sarah pointed out, you can see everything worth seeing within an hour or two, and the rest of it really isn’t all that attractive. She tells me that if it’s a beautiful city you want, go to Budapest for the weekend… I shall pencil it in for January.

Wiener Christkindlmarkt

The same day that my parents left, Zach arrived. Lucky for him, the weather was absolutely stunning all weekend, and we made the most of it by touring all the main sights from the outside. We spent a day walking around the grounds of the summer palace Schönbrunn, where you can climb a small hill in the gardens to get beautiful views across the city and out towards the Wienerwald and the very lowest Alps, and spent the evenings drifting around the newly-opened Christmas Market outside the Town Hall. Naturally, we got stuck into some of the local cuisine there, with the old Bratwurst and Waffeln. Of course Schnitzel and Gulasch are always a bit of a hit too, but I have to say the Austrian diet of meat and cakes (no, not together) went down a lot better with him than with my parents. All I can say is I’m glad I’m no longer a vegetarian…

A few days after he left, my friend Kirstin arrived – recently graduated and ready to celebrate her new job with many, many mugs of Glühwein. And since she arrived the very day that many more Christmas markets opened, we of course did. The markets are definitely the highlight of Christmas here, and if there’s one tip I have for Vienna it is to come in December.

Llamas at Karlsplatz

Outside the palace at Schönbrunn they have some of the most incredible Punsch stands (always go for the Vanille-Himbeer), the Rathaus Market has amazing waffles, crepes, and a chocolate fountain, and Karlsplatz has… well, llamas and few bales of hay for kids to roll around in… No, I don’t really get it either, but I won’t lie – it does look like fun!

And so, now that everyone’s left and the dust is starting to settle, I’m beginning to think I should start charging guests. Anyone need a place to stay?

The year is almost over and soon it’s christmas again. Hooray!!! It’s one of my favourite times of the year. When the streets are decorated with lights and it smells like cinnamon and they play christmas songs in all the stores….oh I just love this time of year.

Today someone in the travel section of the New York Times was asking about christmas markets in Europe and as I am living in Vienna (Austria) I tought I’d tell you about my favourite places in town.

One of the most famous christmas markets in Vienna is the one at city hall, although this one is really touristy. There is also one at Karlskirche, which is close to Kaerntnerstrasse and the opera. Yu can find Gluhwein booths all over town, in the city centre as well as along Mariahilferstrasse, which is a big shopping street.

However my favourite christmas market is close by. It’s the one at Spittelberg, which is close to the Museumsquartier, a very cool place with museum, cafes (I have to tell you about that one some other time!) and a small ice skating rink in winter. Spittelberg is more like an area. I think it’s 3 oder 4 crssroads that are packed with booths that sell gluhwein, gingerbread, jewellery and lots of other stuff.

To get there just take the subway no. 2 or 3 and hop off at Volkstheater / Museumsquartier (click on the map for a better view).

Today, one of my patients asked me–Dr.Fan, You are the Provider in My BlueCross BlueShield Insurance Network, Why I have to Pay Acupuncture Treatments?

Here is the answer:

Only when the patient has acupuncture coverage, patient’s insurance may pay the acupuncture fee for patient. Why I say “may” pay for?

It depends on a few conditions:

(1) If patient has HMO, even patient does have acupuncture coverage, the provider is not an in-network provider, patient has to pay by himself/herself;

(2) If patient has PPO(with acupuncture coverage), and without limitation in deductible and illness condition, the provider also is an in-network provider, insurance company should pay for the patient’s acupuncture treatment.

If the patient has a PPO but without acupuncture benefit, patient have to pay out of the pocket. But the insurance may advise the provider to give such patients some extent discount/or just pay a reduced fee;

If the patient’s PPO with acupuncture benefit, but has some pre-conditions, such as acupuncture treating the low back pain only, the patient has to pay for acupuncture treating other conditions, such as upper back pain, neck pain, etc. If the patient has deductible, say, $500, or $1000, even acupuncture is covered, the deductible part has to be met first-pay by patient first.

And the copay(such as $25 or $40) or coinsurance part (such as 10%,20% of the “allowed amount”,etc) is patient’s responsibility.

(3) Another issue is: insurance may cover acupuncture, electric-acupuncture only, other related therapies, such as Cupping, Tuina, Infrared, etc, in the theory, should be paid by patient. However, sometime, the provider may give patient a courtesy–at no additional fee.

Sometime, the flexible spending account could help patient to cover the part of self-pay, save patient’s tax in healthcare part.

Anemia is a comon result of various cancers, it also could be seen after chemotherapies and other conventional therapies.

Many cancer patients seek acupuncture as a complementary therapy when they get conventional oncological therapies, such as various chemo, radiation, surgical treatments.

We have several cancer patients under acupuncture long-term treatments.

One patient had very bad anemia, after 2 year acupuncture treatments, her Hb improved from 5 g to 12.5 (recently). And her complexion improved a lot.

One patient under chemotherapy, his WBC droped down to 1,500, after two session acupuncture in one week, before his MD considered using drug to stimulate blood production, his WBC already got up to 6,500.

Our patients also told us,  after acupuncture, their energy level goes up, more relax and happier, acupuncture eliminates some uncomfortable from other therapies, help them tolerate more chemoand other strong treatments.

www.ChineseMedicineDoctor.us

We started with Vienna early this morning, a beautiful morning, u-bahning it across the Danube and then onto Krems, St Poelten, and finally Linz. G and I are powering forwards yet we do admit we are a little tired, especially mentally.  G is shooting for our new InterKuturelles Zentrum project on Friday in Vienna. He is a fast learner, because he is hungry for it. There are a thousand things running through our minds. I love the way pieces of an unknown puzzle starting sticking together. You never really know when, but when you do see, it’s a real boost that one is on the right path.

I’m a big fan of those two photos – the scratch is just one minor lovely aspect about them.

Now it’ 4 pm and dark outside – one of the things that makes me miss Summer.

Take care,

Bernhard

Dr.Arthur Yin Fan has been highly recommended by many friends/former patients in DC Urban Mom forum/website.

See Detail, go to: http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/jforum.page;jsessionid=6CC849C1F21385470C978CFCB7FFE49E?module=search&action=search&forum=3&match_type=all&search_keywords=arthur+fan

and

http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/35451.page#234484

http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/29626.page

www.ChineseMedicineDoctor.us

The opening for the 10 Days project was last Friday in Vienna. The projections for the day were cold, foggy, and big.

click the above two images to see them clearer…  like I said it was foggy.

This was our secret weapon for projecting, built by the Viennese branch of G.R.L.

The projections wouldn’t have been able to happen without Nicholas. Thanks for busting your ass for this, and we’re all glad you didn’t electrocute yourself trying to set it up.

By the end of the night everything was looking like those bars above.

After watching a snippet of Sissi in class, I went home to see the rest of the film on YouTube. It is the first of a classic trilogy of romantic films about the iconic Empress Elisabeth of Austria, also known as Sissi.

To my horror, the videos stop at 6/10! Grahhhh…

Nobody else has uploaded the original German version, so I had to make do with the version that’s dubbed in French (although I hate watching dubbed movies). Interestingly, while both versions do not come with subtitles, I could understand the German version better. Or maybe my brain just refused to process French dialogues delivered by a German-speaking cast?

In any case, the 1955 film is such a gem. The stunning Austrian landscape and Romy Schneider’s classical beauty blew me away. The film also brought back fond memories of Schloss Schönbrunn, the Habsburg’s summer residence in Vienna.

Time to hunt for the other 2 parts of the trilogy!