Images of food I forgot the image for my last notebook entry. These are two of my last meals cooked by my self - very delicious :-)

Vegan I have been vegan for 10 months, before that change I was a vegetarian. My motivation to be vegan was a little bit of "try something new". Only after my decision to be vegan I have read some books and articles about the livestock farming and all the impacts on the clima, water, soil, health, hunger. And today I know it was the right decision. Every time I read something about the issue, I'm glad to be not a part of the system anymore. My last book was "Veganize your life!", I can recommend it. I know it takes decades until more people will change their diet. But I see the beginning. I know a lot of kids who are vegetarians, in my childhood I didn't know anyone. In Berlin it is almost difficult to find a food stand without an offer of vegan food (slightly exaggerated :-)). In my opinion most of the elder generation will not change their diet. Meat and cheese are an expression of wealth. But for the younger generation I hope it will be not so important. Besides I think it's easier for the youth to change a behaviour. Hint: If you have Netflix you can watch the documentary Cowspiracy. The facts are easily digestible.

Cycling trip in the Alps Last month I was on my first cycling trip in the Alps. The journey went from Chur (Switzerland) via the Albulapass to Meran (Italy). It was an amazing trip. We had perfect weather conditions, the rain started to fall on the departure day, when we took the train. The Albulapass was closed when we started in Chur as an avalanche was released a few days before. Fortunately the road was open the next day and we could take the planned route. Before the trip I had great respect for the 4000 m altitude difference, so I did a little bit exercise the weeks before. And the exercise had paid off, it wasn't that difficult like I thought. Below you can find some pictures of the journey.

Vote on a basic income Do you heard about the concept basic income? The basic income is unconditionally granted to all individuals. The concept isn't really new. There were some experiments in the USA and in Canada in the 1970th. I think the discussion has got more attention since it is obvious that robots and AI will compete with the workers and clerks for the jobs. The basic income could buy time to find solutions for the labor market changes. The issue basic income is complex and there are many opinons all around. I can recommend these TEDs (you can find all TEDs on YouTube). - What if we were free to work? | Olivier Schneller - What will future jobs look like | Andrew McAfee - A BIG idea, a bot idea – How smart policy will advance tech | Albert Wenger The Swiss can vote on a basic income in June 2016. But only one party supports the referendum, therefore it hasn't any chance. Canada and Finnland are going to perform experiments in 2016. I share the opinion of some experts who think the first nation with a basic income will be the USA.

What's the connection between the Segway and the SlingShot? I think a lot of people know the Segway. But do you know the inventor of the Segway? It's Dean Kamen. Kamen invented also a lot of medicine equipment, e.g. a transportable equipment that enables patients to perform their kidney dialysis at home. Kamen invented the SlingShot, too. The SlingShot is a water purifier that can produce clean water and doesn't need much electricity. The purifier doesn't need maintenance or chemicals. It works by vapor compression distillation. Billions of people don't have clean water or have to go long distances to the next well. One of Kamen's objective is that all these people can use his invention to get clean water. But there are some challenges: - The purifier needs electricity and a lot of people don't have it. - People without clean water are often poor, for that reason they cannot afford the SlingShot. - A man cannot transport the SlingShot alone therefore the distribution to outlying areas is not easy. I think, there will be solutions to overcome all these challenges. I can recommend the movie SlingShot. For example you can see it on Netflix.

WhatsApp with encryption After Snowden I have choosen very carefully my apps to chat with my buddies. I'm using Threema and Telegram. Both have an end-to-end encryption or an option to activate it. Allthough Telegram has more than 100 million daily active users, only a subset of my friends uses the Telegram app. WhatsApp is the most used messenger in Switzerland. WhatsApp has released a new version of its messenger this week. The new version activates an automatic end-to-end encryption for all platforms (iOS, Android, etc.). Now I can install and use WhatsApp without to sacrifice my privacy. But there are some other popular messengers without an encryption: Facebook Messenger (Facebook is the owner of WhatsApp), Skype, Hangouts. I hope encryption will be a standard for all popular messengers in the future. ----- By the way: Only the two chat partners can read the messages with an end-to-end encryption and nobody can demand from WhatsApp to give over old chat protocols. So it's more secure as an old-fashioned letter.

Example of a referendum in Switzerland The initiative "Hornkuh" (hornkuh.ch, English: cow with horns) has collected the necessary 100'000 signatures. What is the claim of this initiative? All farmers who don't dehorn their cows shall get higher subsidies. This farmers should be compensated for their higher effort. Why do farmers dehorn their cows? They can put more cows in their stalls. Another point is the industrialization of the farming, cows with horns don't fit in the modern milking installations. Instead a farmer has to milk the cow with a small milking machine and needs more time for that work. Good to know: - The farmers dehorn a calf by burning the beginning of the horn. - A horn of a cow has blood vessels. - A cow uses its horns to communicate with other cows. The initiators want to save the dignity of the cows, too. The cow should not be a thing, which give only milk but a creature. What do you think? Today I have taken a picture of cows with and without horns. I like the cows with horns.

Beautiful Sunday in the spring We had a sunny day in my town today. On the morning we cleaned our bikes, because there were some salt from the winter. I use my bike to go to work, in winter as well. After the cleaning I went cycling to a near castle, not surprisingly I was not alone. A lot of cyclist toke the same way. I like the spring so much. It's nice to see when the nature wake up after a long sleep. Fortunately the nature is not far away of my home.