Europe CNY 2012 - Day 14 - Lyon

Europe CNY 2012
Day 14 - 1st February - Lyon


Lyon in snow again - the cold weather continued


Bugnes. A local speciality. I'd never seen it before. There was a sample so I tried some. It was very light and crisp, with icing sugar.

For breakfast, I decided the other items didn't appeal to me so I opted for the classics (croissant, pain au chocolat). In the end I ended up giving a bit of the croissant and the pain au chocolate to beggars.

First, since it was very early, I went to the cathedral.


Nave


Book of Life.


Relics of St Jean-Marie Vianney, curate of Ars
"This prayer can be lengthened in lighting a small light"


Astrological clock
I was amused that the names of the months on the primary clock face are in English
One could hear the clock

The stained glass was well described, and from the 13th century.


Window of the Redemption


Altar


Nave to door


Rose Window, in West Transept (above Astrological Clock)


Virgin Chapel


Henry IV and Mary of the Medici were married here in 1600


"To the eternal memory of St Louis, King of France"
This gushes on about his virtues. His remains stayed at this cathedral in 1271.




Chapel of St Vincent de Paul


Window of Good and Bad Angels


Window of Two Adams


Life of St John the Baptist


"The Virgin among Virgins"
When I saw this, I laughed


Municipal library (Palais St-Jean)


I don't know why I took this dog




From bridge beside cathedral


Basilica from below


River




"Borgen, a woman in power
From the first episode, you will be like them: ready to do everything to go to the end"


Bellecour (large square)


This was the second time I'd seen a woman on a kick scooter (second time period, too). As with how generally only women wear boots that tells you something. Later I saw a few more kick scooter users - and all were women again.


Louis XIV statue


Bellecour


Tourist office


Basilica from Bellecour


The tower is above the metro entrance. I liked that.


Apparently it was a big thing that the Samsung Galaxy Note was available in White. They copy the iPhone in more than one way.


"Choose your side of the force: Jedi Burger"


Ad for the same TV series as earlier: "To make the best TV series, we went so far as to take the worst of human nature"


Cute pun. "Or €n Ca$h" (This is a pawn shop, "or" is "gold")


"Choose your side of the force: Dark Burger"
Apparently no one liked Quick's Dark Vador Burger


Get advice on tax reduction! I thought it was not kosher to talk about reducing one's taxes in France

I then went to the Fabric and Decorative Arts museum (housed in the same complex).


Museum of Decorative Arts


Fabric Museum


You get a Late Bird discount of €2 after 4pm


Courtyard from Museum

Photography (even sans flash) was not allowed. I kind of understood as they were sensitive to light.

The Decorative Arts Museum was laid out like a palace, i.e. quite blah (for example, the labelling was lousy, being mainly card holders on shelves, so if something was at the back of the room you wouldn't be able to see the label). The layout suited the collection as it was mainly 18th century stuff. Probably things looted from palaces during the Revolution. Here, sans historical significance/context they were even more plain than in normal palaces (e.g. Versailles, Schönbrunn). Actually some of the stuff was even quite bad - perhaps the Fine Arts Museum had had first dibs.

The Fabrics Museum was more interesting. Not least for the commentary: "Mahomet disappeared in 632", "The Mongols were seduced by Persian textile production".

Even more interesting was some really old textiles. For example jambière aux chevaux ailes (leg pad with winged horses, which was very nice), from the 5th-6th century and Antinius in Egypt. There was even stuff from the 3rd century which was very well-preserved (from Egypt, naturally). It was rare indeed to see textiles which were so fine, as they degraded easily.

There was a 4th century caftan of pimias, also from Antinus, Egypt. It was basically a peacock on silk design.

The museum had a room showing examples of damage from light and pollution to textiles.

In the Ottoman empire, only Imperial Workshops in Istanbul could use metallic thread.

There was a special exhibition with dresses for Virgin Mary statues (for Notre-Dame de la Daurade in Toulouse). They were mostly 19th an 20th century robes (though they started dressing them from the 12th century), but there was one from 1760-70. The monks of St Maur had a book to track the "descentes" (descents?) of the Black Virgin. They recorded the miracles of the effigy and the offerings. The phrasing was amusing: "les dons qui ont été faits à la statue" (the donations which were made to the statue). So it was like idol worship! There was alo a 21st century robe for the Virgin - in a camouflage pattern (i.e. military garb). Err.

There was a fragment of a sarong or "écharpe, selendang" for "Women of Chinese Origin". Apparently other races couldn't wear this type of sarong.

On le costume 1870-1900: "Le corset se maintient tandis que le costume façon tailleur donne de la sinuosité à la silhouette féminine, affinant la taille, dessinant les hanches, accentuant la cambrure tuant des reins (seins?) et la saillie de la poitrine". This was a fancy way of saying that the corset was very uncomfortable.

There was a painting, "Murmures" from Lyon by Bucol after Paul Delvaux, 1979. 5 young women with hats, nice hair and jewellery but they were topless and showing off their pink nipples. Wut:


In looking for this picture, I found a page of someone who took some pictures of both it and other items in the collection. The page is in French but you can just look at the pictures: Lyon (VI): Dernier jour, dernier musée... - Nouvelle Feuille

Sadly but predictably the bulk of their collection was French stuff from the Enlightenment Era and especially Lyon. In other words, from the time when Lyon was big in the Fabrics business. This was not too interesting, with the Persian, Dark Ages and Egyptian stuff being much more so. I was thinking maybe I should have gone to the Gallo-Roman museum isntead.

For lunch I looked around. There was cheap tapas:


€2 patatas bravas!

However I decided to go for Asian food.


Viet place menu


5 minute Bánh xèo


3 minute nems. This was actually a special request - the menu item came with rice and was a main course; I asked for an entrée portion.
This made me think of whether it was safe for most people to eat them in Vietnam. The cold ones would be liable to attract bacteria, and the hot ones would be eaten with uncooked lettuce and mint.

Interestingly, the food came quickly but people were eating à la française (i.e. slowly).

The decor was very Chinese, which I found very amusing. Even before going to Vietnam (which came 3 months later), I'd known that they'd stolen a lot, but it was amusing to see it in the flesh.


Decor


This lantern was particularly striking: "小田原城". I recognised this correctly as Japanese, and have found that it refers to Odawara Castle. Perhaps their decor was not too Vietnamese after all. Not that many clients would be able to tell.


Chinese (?) Mandarins


From the outside the Vietnamese cafe "Petit Grain" didn't look like an Asian restaurant.


Delights of the East


"Say YES! to condoms. 1€. 5 lubricated condoms. Making love for 20 minutes is 300 calories burnt"
I protest the racist act of putting a picture of Africa on the package and so linking Africa with STIs


Paul: stuff you can't find in Singapore (i.e. pork)


Stuff I got: a Chouquette and an Apricot Tart


I found out why the chouquette was so cheap - it was all air
The tart wasn't very good being all sour, and there wasn't enough crème anglaise to counter the sourness. And it wasn't fresh, so the layers of the pastry were not flaky.


"A stop in the station, a stop in life. SOS travellers"


So much for helping travellers - weekend hours are very short at "Travellers'aid"

I then took the plane to Stansted in the UK.


Planned obsolescence - they retired the airport bus for the train


"No entry (acces authorized by prefectoral decree)"
It must be difficult getting people access to work in the airport

I took Easyjet back to the UK. Easyjet was in Terminal 3, which was like a warehouse.


I'm not one for frills, but this was ridiculous. Terminal 2 was not that good but at least it was better.
The first picture especially is representative of the long, bare, spooky, empty corridors, reminiscent of the lairs of Evil Geniuses. It was a temporary building, but still.


"Easy Shopping"
Yeah, right.

At least I managed to buy something from a Brioche Dorée. I love Brioche Dorée - it is both cheap and good (definitely cheaper and better than Paul).


My chocolate feuilleté was chock full of warm fresh chocolate


Slightly more normal airport scene


To save time during security screening, "place yourself in the trays provided"


Apology for the shitty building


"You are passing through the future terminals 1 and 3"


Another foreboding corridor

EasyJet was super kiasu. Before checkin even closed (i.e. >40 minutes before the flight) there was an announcement to say you had to go to your gate immediately. Maybe they were scared it was too far due to the construction.

Worse, they announced the gate was closed but let people in. So if they tell you that the gate is closed, you must come immediately. If they tell you that you have to come immediately to the gate, you must come to the gate. And if you are told that you must come to the gate, you can take your time.


Cute packaging for Les Galipotes d'Ardin: "All the ingredients of love". "Galipote" is part of an expression about womanising, amusingly enough.


"iPhone charger. iPhone not included"
Uhh...

You don't need to fill in the UK landing card if you have an EU passport. Makes one wonder why the card is in French and especially German.


I've found that, with the arguable exception of warnings about the death penalty for drug trafficking in Malaysia and Singapore aside, UK immigration's signs are the most hostile towards their customers.

The "all other passports" sign at Border Control said "including US citizens". Perhaps this was for dumb Americans. Or dual citizens.


Cute ad aside: Yes! In Europe you have rights if your plane is delayed, unlike in Asia! No wonder Easyjet and Ryanair are so expe...


"The Low-Cost way to London. From £8
The Fastest way to London. 45 minutes"
This is a perfect example of market segmentation


"No mobile phone use
*QR code*"
FAIL!


Outdated sign from Swine Flu era

There was no one at Stansted Customs, so I couldn't have declared anything even if I had wanted to.


They admit they are screwing you with exchange rates at the airport, but tell you at least it's not as bad as if you waited even longer. Well done.

I used Scottish money to pay at the Airport Duty Free. The cashier paused, then asked if it was from Scotland. Hurr.


English breakfast hotdog. With spicy baked beans, brown sauce, mushrooms. The cashier gave me the chips free. The guy asked me how it was: the mushrooms were boiled (sautéed would've been better) and bacon would've been good. He said they were limited by their facilities. Frankly all this didn't work -grilled onions owuld've been better.


I bought 2 pairs of Clarks for £90 (there was a sale) and finally bid farewell to my old, battered New Balance pair, which had served me on many travels over the years (since 2007, I believe, and maybe even mid-2006).


Vending machine accepting multiple currencies

There was a cleaner who set off the security screening machine. Amusingly they scanned her broom.

I then took a 3 hour bus to Oxford. One streth had lots of very reflective metal stus in the road. There were different colours for the lane and road shoulder, and when a turnoff was coming up too.

One thing nice about English highway signs - they warn you they are coming up. So a sign will come up with 2 strokes, then a sign with one, then the actual sign. This was good so you wouldn't miss, say, directions.

At Oxford I bunked with Hum Sup Guy who, beside offering me his room (and bed - he took the floor) feasted me as only he can.


"I'm glad you are come, for there is such fun here!"


Pear and Raspberry Koridal Cordial


Various yummy things


A life skill I want to learn but will probably be unable to: how to spot a hair weave

When my stick was out some people in Lyon gave up their seats to me. This didn't happen all the time.

The UK Android Market had movies. Singapore sucks.

Socrates, Piety and Truth

"The Socrates of the Apology at least is, as he himself proclaimed, a “gadfly” (30e), a questioning examiner of lives who aimed to arouse us from our sluggish, sleep-walking lives. The important lessons in that dialogue are, as Talisse puts it, “the need to question authority, to examine ourselves and others, and to pursue truth even if at the cost of cherished traditions and comforting pieties” (163). Philosophy, on this view, is primarily a practical activity, not a theoretical enterprise...

For Talisse, the center of the Euthyphro is “a contest between two concepts of expertise, namely the sophistical and the philosophical, one founded on power, the other on logos” (165)...

Individually, none of us can escape the persuasive force of our own beliefs and of the arguments that convince us. In theory, we all admit a distinction between good arguments and merely persuasive arguments; in practice, we all count those arguments that persuade us as good ones. This is why, I think, Socrates held that we must test our convictions in a public forum—with others who do not share our beliefs and commitments—so that the test of our convictions can transcend our own, individual (subjective?) conceptions of “good reasons” and, indeed, of Logos. That, I think, is why Socrates had to go into the agora. It is why he couldn’t accept the suggestion made in his trial that he just shut up and quit bothering his fellow Athenians. Thus, the Socratic kind of expertise is not only logos-driven; it is the result of a shared inquiry.

The humility necessary for genuine dialogue requires that we admit both that we might well not know despite our internal self-examination and also that this person with whom we are now talking is someone from whom we might learn. Socrates notoriously does not treat his interlocutors as people from whom he might learn...

Talisse calls Euthyphro’s conception of expertise “the sophistical view,” because it aims primarily at power and influence (173). Of course, any kind of acknowledged expertise about matters that people consider important—like piety and religious obligation—will confer power and influence. So, the philosopher, too, will enjoy power and influence if her expertise is recognized. And, in fact, Socrates must have had both—one does not get prosecuted for impiety and corrupting the young if he is a nobody or a laughable old fool whom no one takes seriously. But, presumably, unlike those who seek sophistical expertise, the Philosopher does not aim primarily at power and influence. She seeks wisdom, primarily...

For Socrates, the view that we can do anything to benefit God is impious, or at least insulting to God. “Prayer and sacrifice” (14b)—the staples of many forms of piety—are not beneficial to God. God doesn’t need our acknowledgement; God already knows that She is God and that She gives us every good thing. It doesn’t help God if we tell God that. If, prayer, thanksgiving, praise, worship, belief in God, and the like are beneficial at all, they are beneficial to the believer. This is very disturbing terrain for many students, especially as the implications of this view emerge...

Socrates says, “You are not keen to teach me, that is clear. You were on the point of doing so, but you turned away. If you had given that answer, I should now have acquired from you sufficient knowledge of the nature of piety” (14c—my emphasis). The divine work that we are to help God with cannot be designed to benefit God. So it must be designed to benefit God’s creation, or in the terms of the Euthyphro, our fellow men. The conclusion is that piety reduces to morality. What pleases God is simply the other part of justice, lives lived to benefit our fellow humans.

This conclusion squares nicely with Socrates’ puzzling statements in the Apology that he is on a divine mission (28e, 29e, 33c) and also with his claim that “there is no greater blessing”10 (30a) than provok- ing people to self-examination. If our confidence in our beliefs about the good life (which are often false) is the main obstacle to human fulfillment, then the life of the gadfly will be the life lived to benefit our fellow humans. Regardless of how much everyone dislikes be- ing examined about our lives and the beliefs we base them on, this examination will be “the greatest benefit” (36c). The life of dialogue is the pious life.

Who, then, is pious? Who is pleasing to God? Those who believe in God? No, for that would mean that God wants/needs our belief. The desire for acknowledgement or gratitude are, on this view, signs of self-doubt or insecurity and hence imperfections. Unlike Euthyphro and other very human experts, God does not need recognition. Our piety cannot benefit God in any way...

This is very powerful stuff indeed for many students and very nearly as challenging today as it was two millennia ago. Atheists can be pious? If there is a God, God is pleased by atheists? Once they grasp this Socratic view of piety, some students would be prepared to prosecute him for impiety and corrupting the young. Others, attempting to evade the force of Socrates’ argument, are busy trying to figure out what we could do for an all-powerful God. Some are wondering whether the mistake was to bring philosophical method into the domain of piety. Still others are wondering whether there can be genuine piety without metaphysical convictions. At this point, deep questions about the nature and function of piety have emerged. Read in this way, the Euthyphro is very much alive today. It is still the site of Socratic philosophy—it prompts real self-examination."

--- Socrates’ Conception of Piety: Teaching the Euthyphro / JOHN HARDWIG

Links - 2nd February 2013

Better behaviors urged for Chinese tourists - "Living Social, found the Chinese to be the second-worst tourists in the world - next only to the American respondents themselves... Efforts to instill better behaviour among Chinese tourists have been going on for years. In October 2006, spurred by unflattering media reports on mainlanders visiting the newly opened Hong Kong Disneyland, the Ministry of Tourism issued manuals for foreign and domestic travelers. The international version, titled Manual on Proper Behavior for Chinese Citizens Traveling Abroad, also sought to address complaints made online... People who have lived in China know that public order is not the mainlanders' greatest strength. Jaywalking is the rule, rather than the exception. Drivers are prone to speeding and swerving. Cars park in bike lanes, leaving cyclists to pedal alongside cars, buses and tricycles. During rush hour, commuters jostle their way onto buses or subway carriages. Screaming matches between bus drivers and passengers are common. Orderly, single-file lines are a rarity"

'Rent-a-Girlfriend' service offers simulated romance ‹ Japan Today: Japan News and Discussion - "to answer the question that’s probably at the forefront of many of your minds, Moe Date makes it clear that it is not an escort service and employees are forbidden from entering hotels or private rooms with clients…unless they ask they take their “relationship” a step further. n fine print, Moe Date explains that, on some occasions, girls may “confess their love” to repeater clients, in which case the client may hire them for another date without having to pay the extra fee. Receiving a confession also gives the client the right to request a special “room delivery course”, which is priced at 10,000 yen per hour and only available with staff aged 18 and above. While the site maintains that sexual acts are forbidden while on dates, we know Japan well enough to see the red light shining through this shade of gray. And wait: “aged 18 and above”…? Does that mean Moe Date lets you “date” underage girls as well?"

Ask me about my T-rex (image)

You Never Marry the Right Person - "In generations past, there was far less talk about “compatibility” and finding the ideal soul-mate. Today we are looking for someone who accepts us as we are and fulfills our desires, and this creates an unrealistic set of expectations that frustrates both the searchers and the searched for... This will indeed require a woman who is “a novelist/astronaut with a background in fashion modeling,” and the equivalent in a man. A marriage based not on self-denial but on self-fulfillment will require a low- or no-maintenance partner who meets your needs while making almost no claims on you... no two people are compatible... 'We never know whom we marry; we just think we do. Or even if we first marry the right person, just give it a while and he or she will change. For marriage, being [the enormous thing it is] means we are not the same person after we have entered it. The primary challenge of marriage is learning how to love and care for the stranger to whom you find yourself married'... “Why should neurotic, selfish, immature people suddenly become angels when they fall in love ... ?”"
Christian preaching aside (why do so many Christian marriages fail?) this is pretty good

The incentive effects of higher education subsidies on student effort - "although subsidizing tuition increases enrollment rates, it reduces student effort. This follows from the fact that a high-subsidy, low-tuition policy causes an increase in the percentage of less able and less highly motivated college graduates. Additionally-and potentially more important-all students, even the more highly motivated ones, respond to lower tuition levels by decreasing their effort levels"

Top 10 Scams in Thailand - "We started the website www.BangkokScams.com in order to make people aware of some of the more common scams that take place in the Kingdom of Thailand. But, even we were overwhelmed by the large number of scams and comments that were being posted every day. These are not isolated incidents. Despite the warnings in guidebooks and in websites like ours, these scams are still happening. It is really tragic because some tourists get hurt so much that they will never return to Thailand again. Even worse, they will tell their friends to avoid our adopted country like the plague"

India's 'Telecom Revolution' Turns Ugly - NYTimes.com - "Facing new regulation and retroactive taxation, telecommunication companies in India are revolting – foreign companies are pulling out of the country, local executives who were once cozy with government are publicly condemning official policies, and several operators are suing or threatening to sue the Indian government. “We have probably the most destructive regulatory environment virtually since the inception”

Ticks are turning victims into vegetarians

He had sex with underage girl, then learns she's his daughter - "The judge said: "Make sure you look after your child so that she does not do what you and your mother have done"... The judge told the accused that she had to take public interest into account in passing sentence. "This is the time people your age are performing their Haj, but you are going to jail instead," the judge remarked... In another case, a man forced a 31-year-old woman to pay him RM1 (40 cents) after raping her three times in a hotel room in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday"

Why Doesn't MTV Play Music Videos Anymore? - YouTube

Sir Ian McKellen: there will be no more British acting greats - "“Why do you act? You act for an audience. In the theatre, you’re in their presence. Film stars don’t know what it is to have an audience,” he said. “You see some at awards ceremonies who can hardly make it to the middle of the stage, they’re so nervous. There’s a microphone so they don’t have to project. And they read their words. “You see a theatre actor come on and it’s, ‘Oh, hold on, there’s a show happening’. Hugh Jackman at the Oscars - that’s a theatre man, who happens to be a film star.”"

Universities trying to attract more women into engineering - "At the outreach programme, women engineers shared how their inherent traits can be an advantage. Dr Guo Huaqun, who is the chairperson of IEEE Section Women in Engineering said: "First, ladies are more careful. They pay attention on the detail about specifications and design. Second, ladies can be a good listener. They can listen carefully about the requirements from customers. Third, ladies can be well-organised. They can document all files properly. Finally, ladies can be a good team player. If a whole team have a lady engineer, then the whole team will become more excited and more energy."" Somehow I think an excited team of engineers may not be a good idea; Good luck to men who try to argue that they are less emotional than women and this helps them in nursing

German lawyer claims 38DD girlfriend tried to smother him to death with her breasts

Police Raid 9-Year-Old Pirate Bay Girl, Confiscate Winnie The Pooh Laptop

When Islamic atheism thrived - "Al-Razi directed his most vehement attack against the holy books in general, including the Qur'an, because he saw them as illogical and self-contradictory. He also believed that all human beings were equal in their intellectual capacities as they were in all other things. It made no sense therefore that God should single out one individual from among them in order to reveal to him his divine wisdom and assign him the task of guiding other human beings. Furthermore, he found that prophets' pronouncements and stories often contradicted those of other prophets. If their source was divine revelation as is claimed, their views would have been identical. The idea of a divinely-appointed mediator was therefore a myth"
Her idea of "Islamic atheism" somehow has room for gods

Mark Kennedy: Undercover PC to sue Scotland Yard for £100k - "A former undercover police officer is suing Scotland Yard for failing to ‘protect’ him against falling in love with a woman in the group of eco-warriors he was sent to infiltrate. In a landmark case due to be heard at the High Court next year, Mark Kennedy says his superiors at the Metropolitan Police knew he was sleeping with women he had been sent to spy on, but turned a blind eye because of the quality of intelligence he was providing. In a writ filed last month, Kennedy, 43, is claiming damages of between £50,000 and £100,000 for ‘personal injury’ and ‘consequential loss and damage’ due to police ‘negligence’... Ten women and one man are also suing the Met for emotional trauma saying they were duped into having sex with undercover officers. Three of the women are ex-lovers of Kennedy... ‘The world of eco-activists is rife with promiscuity. Everyone sleeps with everyone else. If I hadn’t had sex they would have rumbled me as an informant’"

Sex-linked lexical budgets - "the eight words "most characteristic of male speech" (by χ2 value) in the BNC conversational corpus were fucking, er, the, yeah, aye, right, hundred, fuck, while the corresponding list for the women was she, her, said, n't, I, and, to, cos"

India’s Jewish community condemn 'Hitler’ clothes shop - "An Indian romantic comedy film Hero Hitler in Love was watched by large audiences in Punjab last year, while a politician in Meghalaya state named 'Adolf Hitler’ was re-elected to the state assembly in 2008 and is a member of one of India’s ruling coalition parties. "

Rihanna: Unapologetic – review | Music - "it's hard to think of another perky disco-house number featuring a victim of domestic abuse duetting with her abuser about how perfect their relationship is. "Could we become love's persona?" they coo, prompting the answer: no you probably can't, because three years ago, one of you beat the other one up... You get a lot of stuff about how exciting dangerous men are, the appeal of affairs that are wrong but feel right, how no one else can match up to him"
Hit me once, shame on you. Hit me twice, shame on...

9 in 10 employees working overtime: survey - "Work-life balance does not yet exist in Singapore, according to an overwhelming majority of employees who took part in a survey on the subject in Singapore...
(a) 45 per cent indicated that the company pays lip service to work-life balance with policies in place just for show
(b) 42 per cent indicated that they chose not to use the company’s initiatives for work-life balance with majority citing the concerns of receiving an inferior performance review as the main reason"