A Chinese man in the southwestern province of Guangxi has recently been sentenced to a suspended 2-years in prison and a fine of 200’000 yuan ($31’000) for flouting the Covid-19 rules: After a business trip to Vietnam he and his fellow travellers tested positive for the Delta-variant and were quarantined. The culprit, however, sneaked out […]
Author: Grumpy Old Man
Empty shelves
Interesting article in a recent edition of The Economist magazine on the availability of certain staples in British supermarkets based on data published by the Office for National Statistics: Frozen turkey was in the period from 5 to 8 November with 18% the item with no or low availability, followed by sparkling water (17%) and […]
COP26 by private jet
Of course, I wouldn’t expect heads of state to fly economy class to Glasgow to attend the COP26. Of course the billionaires and titans of industry attending the gathering have such busy schedules that only a flight by private jet at the timing of their convenience could guarantee the best use of their very precious […]
The COP26 President’s travels
Unless you follow British politics or are involved in the climate change movement you probably won’t have heard of Alok Sharma, Britain’s climate minister. And in his official role as President for COP 26, the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference, he has made a major contribution – for the worse – to climate change […]
Power outage
I never thought I would be writing something like this about a prosperous country such as Switzerland, but there we go: in future winters Switzerland may be running out of electricity. Because the framework agreement with the EU has failed (well, actually the Swiss government withdrew from the talks), Europe does not want to conclude […]
09:41
Maybe you hadn’t noticed it either (I certainly hadn’t), that on all screenshots of Apple’s products whenever they show the time digitally (i.e. not on the analog face of the iWatch) the time seems to be 09:41 hours. The story behind it is quite amusing, and, as you may have guessed, it is obviously not […]
Shortages
Shortages of shipping containers (actually there are probably enough of them but they are mostly in the wrong places) and microchips haven been affecting industries and disrupting supply chains all over the world. But now the situation is getting worse in the sense, that consumers are now starting to feel the pain as well. Just […]
Incentives to get vaccinated
In the developed world most people have had their Covid- 19 jabs by now and particularly among the older population acceptance to get vaccinated has always been running quite high. But as numbers in do UK, France and Switzerland to name just a few countries show, vaccination initiatives are running out of steam, hence why […]
Olympic sports
It was strange watching the Olympics in Tokyo on TV: not only should they have taken place a year ago, but seeing athletes performing in empty venues is somewhat bizarre. Having had the opportunity to attend a few events as a spectator at the 2012 Olympics in London, I will never forget the atmosphere in […]
Euro 2020 – Rich pickings for the few, not the many
For four weeks in June and July, Europe has been kept captive by the delayed Euro 2020 football competition: just-in-time in many countries bars and restaurants have been opening their doors again, allowing for public viewings. As you would expect at such a tournament, there have been some surprises: Switzerland sending the world champions France […]
The grumpy older man 