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 Lundoxia Presents (1 of 10): A video about stoicism A 5-minute video about the ancient Greek philosophy of stoicism, which also bears similarities with ancient Chinese taoism. |
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Lundoxia Presents (2 of 10) : Facial recognition and the future of nanotechnology A fascinating 6,5-minute report by The Economist about facial recognition. Eventually, nanotechnology will become so advanced, combined with x-ray camera technology and powerful telescopes in outer space, literally each and every single living person on the planet (even humans living deep in caves) will be identified, on one single database, all 7 billion or more people. People are obsessed with privacy. You can draw a diametrical analogy with the Dutch Calvinist psyche centuries ago that if one had curtains in the window then he or she was obviously trying to hide something. Recently I tried explaining this to some young English women in their 20s. They responded saying: "that sounds suspicious". In their mindsets, you would only NOT have curtains if you were an exhibitionist. But what if the ones looking are Peeping Toms? Aren't the lookers the ones causing someone to be called an exhibitionist? Eventually it is nanotechnology that will erase terrorism. The technology will become so advanced that it will detect such people long before they can commit their misdeeds, similar to the Hollywood film MINORITY REPORT (2002) starring Tom Cruise. But they won't even need psychics, massive amounts of data and x-ray pictures, right down to the nanometer of any object on Earth (including caves and the bottom of an ocean floor) captured from as far away as a telescope in space, will be sufficient evidence. And the state? Even centuries before today's technology, this was a subject of continued debate. Yes it can be a slippery slope to an Orwellian totalitarian nightmare, or a benign one foretold by H.G. Wells in his prophetic satire THE TIME MACHINE (1895) in which humans in future societies are profoundly apathetic, have no opinions nor intellect as everything is done for them by super-advanced technology. Eventually technology will become molecular and indifferentiable from organic life so this prediction is a possible future reality. As the Dutch axiom goes: "wij zijn niet zo ver vandaan" (we are halfway there already.) |
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Lundoxia Presents (3 of 10): Engineering optimum humans: is Iceland the most cutting-edge nation state on Earth? An excellent 6-minute report by The Economist about gender equality in Iceland, where business ownership is 50% male and 50% female and generally ranks first in the world in gender equality. But looking deeper into the socioeconomic ramifications, the real issue is engineering humans to optimum level. Much has been written about the ideal nation state, from Socrates in Ancient Greece (who was given a choice by the authorities in Athens to either be exiled, stay in Athens but stop spreading his radical ideas or commit suicide; he chose the latter) to Thomas More's UTOPIA in which men and women met each other naked as an efficient way to select their partners (More was hanged and as he was, famously stated most symbolically: See me safe up: for in my coming down, I can shift for myself; the ultimate Stoic) and LEVIATHAN by Thomas Hobbes (1651), and heaps more. In the end, a nation state is only as good as its worst-off. There is a huge difference between a Nanny state (or paternalistic state) and a state-of-the-art state, or a progressive state. A Nanny state encourages laziness, cowardice and extreme cynicism (what is cynicism except intellectual laziness, a refusal to dig deeper and understand complexity?) A cutting edge state encourages alternative thinking, backed up by pith, grit and sound reasoning. This piece resonates. |
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Lundoxia Presents: (4 of 10) Liechtenstein''s 300th anniversary as a sovereign state (an excellent microcosm for any country in the world) 2019 is Liechtenstein's 300th anniversary as an independent country, or sovereign state. Of course there are many micro-states in the world, but Liechtenstein truly demonstrates the artificiality of an independent country. A cynic would call Liechtenstein a parasite state or satellite state, but if anything it is the exact opposite. One must look at facts relatively; in that case the Hermit Kingdom of North Korea is also a satellite state. On Earth we are long past the age of truly independent or isolationist countries, we are all deeply inter-dependent and intertwined by now. In fact, Liechtenstein is the most industrialized country on Earth, if looked at relatively by either area and/or per capita; Hilti (the hardware manufacturer) and false teeth are perhaps the most famous Liechtenstein industries, alongside banking, which has been severely restricted in recent years and taken off the list of uncooperative tax havens by the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.) How was Liechtenstein born? The name "Liechtenstein" is actually the surname of its ruling family, Liechtenstein from neighboring Austria. Liechtenstein had a castle in Austria and was a land owner, bought himself a title and eventually the current land that he named after his own self. I can't think of any other country named after a person*, other than Amerigo Vespucci but then again America is not the name of a country but the name of a continent. I always recall when I made the grave error of calling a USA American simply "American" to my Chilean professor and his immediate response was: "as a Chilean I am also an American!" Since then I always call them USAns, USA-ers, US citizens or US Americans or even Yankees/Yanks for the northern segment; after all there is a baseball team called the New York Yankees, therefore the term Yankees can only be a glowing compliment (just like the popular war song "The Yanks are Coming.") But getting back to Liechtenstein; it took over 200 years before a Prince of Liechtenstein bothered to go live in his own country, and then it was only because he wanted to avoid the Nazis during World War II. Up until then, Liechtenstein had been aligned with Austria and then when Switzerland became noticeably richer, Liechtenstein took up the Swiss franc as its currency. After World War I, the Austrian westernmost state of Voralberg asked Switzerland if it could become a Swiss canton and exit Austria, but Switzerland declined; had it accepted, Liechtenstein would have become an enclave of Switzerland; instead it now borders Switzerland to the west with the Rhine river as its natural frontier, and Austria's mountainous state of Voralberg to the east. Unlike the other microstates of Europe (not counting Malta which is smaller than Andorra in area but with a much large population, and an EU member state), Monaco, San Marino, Andorra and Vatican City (if Vatican City can be considered a sovereign state as it is not a UN member, throwing doubt on its exact legal status if UN membership is a basic criterion to qualify as a country), at least Liechtenstein joined the European Economic Area (EEA) alongside Iceland and Norway. Luxembourg is a founding EU member state and not a micro state, but simply a small country. The "Games of the Small States of Europe" defines "small country" as a country having fewer than 1 million inhabitants, and that event includes athletes from these ten countries: Andorra, Cyprus, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Montenegro, San Marino and Vatican City. What is a sovereign state? Essentially it is a slice of turf on Earth with a human population, and if you can let its human inhabitants truly believe they are that nationality as the man Liechtenstein indeed did, then you are a great con man, the world's greatest magic trick (everything is mental.) During a recent referendum in Liechtenstein whereby the Prince threatened to leave his land and go live in Vienna if his people did not vote in his favor and increase his powers (he can sack any government or Prime Minister at will), the people of Liechtenstein voted firmly in favor of the Prince. Linked is the Californian (or "USAn"!) Rick Steve's 3-minute piece on Liechtenstein; there are no good videos that do Liechtenstein proper justice, but Rick Steves does his utmost to synthesize Liechtenstein with excellent visuals and explanations. *Of course there are many countries named after persons, such as San Marino, named after the Croatian stone cutter Marinus of the 4th century (301 AD), but San Marino's early origins are much more vague compared to Liechtenstein due to San Marino being ancient, meaning its earliest written history is comparatively less exact. Wikipedia lists 42 countries named after persons or legends. What do most of these micro-states and other countries such as Bhutan, Austria, Oman and the United Arab Emirates all have in common? Their naturalization laws are the strictest on Earth. Generally you will have had to have resided there between 20 to 30 consecutive years, before you are eligible to apply for that country's citizenship. In the case of Monaco it is only 10 years, but obtaining residence there is extremely costly as the country recently ranked as the most expensive real estate on Earth, surpassing even Manhattan New York (and make sure you are physically residing in Monaco for at least 6 months per calendar year otherwise you will run into problems.) In the case of Liechtenstein, your residence must have been in one singular commune (there are 11 communes) and the citizenry of that commune vote on your citizenship application; you can be voted down simply because they don't like your face. It is similar in Switzerland, where I knew a U.S. professor who had resided there for over 30 years and kept getting refused on his Swiss citizenship applications. "Lekker pech" as the apt axiom goes in Dutch! Vatican citizenship may be the strangest one on Earth, as it is the only country (if it can be called a country due its lack of membership to organisations like the UN; observer status of the religious body The Holy See does not count as a member state) that does not grant citizenship based on the traditional jus soli (by birth on the turf or soil of that nation state) nor jus sanguinis (by blood; ie. your parents.) Instead, Vatican passports are granted to people who need to reside inside Vatican City for their work, similar to UN workers. Personally, I think Vatican City should become part of the Italian republic, or, it should make an effort to join the UN as a full member state as well as the Council of Europe. The case of Vatican city bears many similarities with Monaco, which only recently joined those bodies and had to undergo major judicial reforms in order to join the latter organisation. Yet generously, in case a Vatican citizen loses his or her Vatican citizenship and is thence rendered stateless, he or she automatically gains Italian citizenship, which ordinarily takes ten years to acquire. Comparatively, a person can apply for Dutch citizenship after only 3 or 5 consecutive years** of residence in The Netherlands, the so-called inburgeringscursus (citizenship course of 1 year) is waived if the applicant passes a state language exam. **3 years if the non-EU applicant is in a common law relationship or marriage with another EU citizen, 5 years if he/she is not; notice how people in relationships are favored. Why not the reverse? Half of marriages end in divorce and many relationships can be ruinous! |
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Lundoxia Presents (5 of 10): NaaktopStraat.nl pamflet video Het 5e Element De nieuwste video voor mijn petitie (naakt in het openbaar) gericht naar de tweede kamer.2 minuten. Ga na www.NaaktopStraat.nl en teken de petitie als u mee eens bent dat andere mensen mogen zelf bepalen of ze gekleed of ongekleed op straat gaan! |
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Lundoxia Presents (6 of 10): Deutsche Welle (DW) report on YouTube about nude sauna culture in Germany Another excellent, super-rare report about nude sauna practice in Germany, by a British woman, for Deutsche Welle (DW), Germany's public international broadcaster. This item is a gem for lovers of all things esoteric and eclectic. When I was a travel writer publishing pieces in mainstream magazines, if my submitted piece contained a passage about the super-exceptional unisex nudity of German, Austrian or Dutch public saunas then the editor would delete it before publishing; either the editor thought I was inventing this plain true fact, or automatically linked up the non-sexual nudity with lewdness, worried about potential complaints from the readership. Hence this "nude fact" remains one of the best-kept secrets on Earth. And yet wearing a swimsuit inside a sauna is severely unhealthy (inhaling its bacteria in the extreme heat of the sauna potentially causing legionnaire's disease), not to mention the foul odor of the wet swimsuit in the sauna. 30 years ago my father filed reports as television journalist for Deutsche Welle (DW), which had a large studio in Cologne (some reports still exist on YouTube as recent uploads*; search under " Neil Lundy / European Journal".) We initially lived in an apartment by the Rhine, a section of Cologne called Rodenkirchen. Nearby there was a local sauna I frequented. I could not believe the diametrical juxtaposition of being in the company and conversation of young nude Germany women as a then 16-year old in 1988, compared to the previous two years at an all-boys school in Toronto wearing a uniform with shirt and tie on a property where girls were forbidden. Night and day. Hallelujah to the German Freikörperkultur, the sign of an enlightened civil society. It was 30 years ago that I drove up to Amsterdam from Cologne in a vintage 1972 silver Mercedes Benz, assisting on reports about the homeless, soft drugs, prostitution, same-sex marriage and euthanasia, the latter three issues not then yet legalized (2000, 2001 and 2002 respectively); what a journey for any lad! *Probably the most popular of which is the 1987 report on Poteen, Irish Moonshine; a segment of which will be aired on Irish television as part of a sitcom in 2019 (!) |
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Lundoxia Presents (7 of 10): De Patrick, new Belgian film entirely shot at a nudist area Linked: YouTube trailer of new Belgian film DE PATRICK (currently screening at Eye Film museum in Amsterdam); this film is highly unusual in that it is mostly shot at a nudist compound. The abundant nudity is treated and shown as totally unremarkable (which is how all non-sexual nudity should be treated.) I saw this film and enjoyed it very much: beautifully shot/lit, a well-woven narrative, rich credible characters and excellent score. Eccentric, funny and gripping. |
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Lundoxia Presents (8 of 10): The emergence of electric cars in 2018 A 6-minute video about the emergence of electric cars in 2018, with some cities such as Paris, Athens, Madrid and Mexico partially only allowing electric cars into their city centers by the year 2025 (The Economist.) The end of fossil fuel cars by the year 2040? |
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Lundoxia Presents (9 of 10): An illustrated instructional video to proper sauna ethos (do it nude!) Updated 19 September 2019 At long last, a 3,5-minute illustrated instructional video to proper sauna ethos (namely, use the sauna nude, not with a swim suit!) This video is by ARTE (French and German language cultural television based in Strasbourg) and this link is on YouTube; the video's audio is in German but has an auto-text translation: left-click on the settings icon (round nut icon beside the CC icon, lower right side INSIDE the video screen), then click on "subtitles", then "auto-translate" and select the language you desire to read from the drop-down menu, even though it will be a word-by-word literal translation from the originating German. Note: this text-translation feature may only appear when logged into YouTube. Question: how many countries in the world sport sauna culture and practice correct sauna ethos in abundant unisex public facilities: namely, fully nude? There is the "black and white" A list and the "wishy washy/unclear" B list. All are located in Europe sadly. The A list is only 3 countries: Germany, The Netherlands and Austria. Are the Dutch losing their sauna ethos? Now Spa Zuiver in Amsterdam has "badkleding dagen" (swimsuit days) on Tuesdays and Thursdays, a gross violation of sauna ethos, like pouring a vat of hot chocolate on Italian pasta. Also, there used to be more small-scale saunas in Amsterdam such as Oibibio, Sauna Fenomeen (frequented by Brad Pitt when he spent some months in Amsterdam during his breakthrough moment, Thelma & Louise, 1991) and Sauna de Keizer; they have all closed down. Also, Wellness 1926 in Zeeburg (Amsterdam Oost), formerly Viking Sauna, basically also closed as of July 1st, when it transitioned into a women-only sauna and is now called MOON. Once gender-segregated, like the gay sauna NZ for men-only, those spots strictly speaking are no longer saunas but meeting places for the direct purpose of sex (not that I am against that, just saying.) The closing down of a small-scale sauna is a profound tragedy as it indicates an erosion of sauna practice. Correct sauna practice cleanses and refreshes the human body and mind; Mens sana in corpore sano. Finns are dead against the large commercialization of large sauna establishments. On the other hand, too many bad apples come to small-scale saunas in The Netherlands and disrespect sauna ethos: you're not to supposed to babble in saunas, the temperature is extreme and it is not meant for conversation, especially if there are third parties present who don't want to hear your babble. In Germany it is the contrary (perhaps due to the Prussian preoccupation with order); upon arriving at a small-scale sauna the German owner will admonish you. The Finnish sauna society publishes the bible of correct sauna use and describes the sauna as a formal environment, like a church. Even though you are nude, you make no issue of it, it's a non-sexual environment, quiet, clean and formal, sit upright (you are not meant to lay down and take up needless additional space) and no sighing nor slouching, and coming in and out of the sauna every few minutes. And most importantly: you are supposed to have done your bowel movement before or after the sauna, not during or in between sauna sittings and your anal region is supposed to be cleansed (no anal leakage allowed!) Then there is the issue of staring/looking. As humans (those who are not blind) we are blessed with the sense of sight, so we can see. Once I was at a local sauna in Amsterdam and a USA-American woman exclaimed angrily to her boyfriend: "he looked at me!"; no, I only saw her. The difference between looking and seeing will vary from culture to culture; in some countries one must avoid eye contact. As to body shame or body prudery (two different mental states, the first feels bad about being human while the second seeks to avoid social embarrassment but not necessarily a sufferer of the shame complex), I quote the response of a relative of mine who is a gynecologist/obstetrician: we are all naked underneath our clothing. As humans we are draped bodies (you have to approach it scientifically.) I always say the acid test is seeing your parents naked and not minding, if you do then you have a body complex. On the other hand you have very commercial mega-sauna spas such as Elysium, about 20 km north of Rotterdam. Elysium is overloaded with various sauna cabins, dozens of them in fact. And maybe only one is a proper sauna. The Finnish sauna society describes a sauna as having a minimum temperature of +80 degrees Celsius. At Elysium most of the saunas are below that; personally I prefer 100 or more; some of my most pleasurable sauna experiences were in Finnish savusaunas (authentic Finnish smoke sauna) at 120 degrees! Heat generated by fire instead of electricity is infinitely more pleasant. To be sure, the authentic Finnish savusauna (smoke sauna, that is, heat generated by fire, not electricity) by a lake in Finland is still by far the best sauna experience. Rustic, simple yet magnificent, finished off with some Finnish Vodka or cold beers afterwards, and remember the aromatic birch tree branches, whipped against your body and dunked in a copper vat of water. Most other saunas are electric and can make you sick; heat is not just heat, there are many different forms of heat and the savusauna form is the most organic and thus soul-soothing. The B list is "hit or miss" and includes, but is not limited to the following European countries (Finland, Estonia and Russia - especially Karelia which was formerly Finland prior to World War II - sport sauna cultures but most have access to their own free private saunas so there is little need for paid public facilities, which are gender-segregated there anyway, tragic as up to World War II in Finland there used to be public unisex nude sauna bath houses on every block; these vanished as the per capita income increased and more people built or bought their own private saunas): The other Germanic states or regions of Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Belgium, Luxembourg and some countries of the former Yugoslavia such as Slovenia (a sort of Slavic version of Austria if you will) have some too but it truly is unclear and in no way abundant nor universal as there is not a strong sauna culture base. I have also found and been to decent saunas in Ukraine, Poland, Czechia and Slovakia but again it is like finding a needle in a haystack. Once I was about to go into a sauna in Kiev with a woman, and the male owner calmly asked me in Russian: "are you going to fuck her in the sauna?" so we went away. In Copenhagen in Denmark the saunas are gender-segregated with the exception of Christiania but its use is excluded to Christiania residents only; having said that a naturist group reserves a public spa for unisex nude hours once weekly but then this counts as a club membership activity. People are stunned that there is no real sauna culture in the nordic states except Finland; you have to go to naturist resorts to find them such as the lakeside savusauna (smoke sauna) located in Nora in the middle of Sweden, a place called Gustavsberg. Again, club membership-based or private ownership-based sauna practice is esoteric (secretive, or exclusively known to few), so not exoteric; this is to say universal, unisex nude, instant-access abundant sauna facilities. Yet esoteric can be equally blissful if the participants are sauna-savvy; in Vancouver a group of us rented out an old bath house periodically; in Toronto a professor held sauna parties to a closed group. Similar esoteric groups also exist in New York, San Francisco, Budapest and many other places but you need to be "in the know". Very, very few countries of the world sport authentic Finnish sauna ethos. I have a guidebook from the Finnish sauna society which outlines the basic tenets. One of these tenets is, one is supposed to be respectful and quiet and mentally clean* (and physically clean, meaning all orifices) in the sauna, similar to the behavior in a church. People who try to make the nudity sexual or kinky spoil the ethos; you separate the sex from the nudity, otherwise you are not mentally clean. Boxes don't touch. Seeing without looking, knowing without thinking (Taoism.) It may sound preachy but try to engineer such sauna ethos in other countries where there is no sauna ethos; it is next to impossible. You can't engineer the core of a collective psyche: I know, I banged my head against a brick wall for a decade trying. Either a given society is geared up for it or it is not. Perhaps most of humanity will never manage to accept its own body, which is ironical because the moment no issue is made of it, there is no more issue. It is just mental. "Maak geen punt van" as the Dutch axiom goes. *I term this "The Art of non-Judgment", a hard stoic and Taoist art to master. A simple technique to try is, as you sense your mind about to form a judgment or even comment on someone or anything, pause and abstain from judging or commenting. Then notice the blissful sensation of non-judgment. Humans are fixated on judgment. Kant wrote about the deep mental physics of human judgment in his 1790 book Critique of Judgment (Kritik der Urteilskraft), a book you could spend the rest of your life reading. |
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Lundoxia Presents (10 of 10): Public Nudity Festival in Zurich Switzerland and Naakt op Straat petition a year later Body and Freedom Festival takes place at the end of August each year in Zurich, Switzerland's largest city, featuring dozens of nude artists performing fully naked on the downtown city streets of Zurich in broad daylight. For those public passers-by who enjoy the nude performance, they stop and watch. Each performance lasts 20 minutes or less and are repeated throughout the day. For others who are uninterested, they simply walk onward. Again, more proof that my NaaktopStraat.nl decriminalization of public nudity - which already happens in a variety of contexts in The Netherlands - could easily be realized without any problems. In fact, it is a total non-issue. I gave countless varied examples where public nudity is tolerated, which you could call "variants". After so many variants, it is safe to say "water is wet". This is a fascinating topic sociologically; if realized, it could radically change society and elevate human interaction to a more sophisticated level. When you walk around naked at a nudist resort it has a calming effect on the soul, enhancing a peaceful and harmonious collective mindset and mode of being. Yet many who heard about this petition immediately ridiculed it without reading the wording nor even attempting to understand it (the knee-jerk negative thinking mode.) I even met representatives of the NFN, the Dutch nudist federation and they told me I was 10 or 20 years ahead of my time. I was only trying to shift a non-official pre-existing de facto reality into an official new reality. When people know they have official permission it transforms and enhances the pre-existing reality into a new norm. Norms are made by people, they do not appear by magic. Public Nudity is in fact an equal variant of soft drugs at coffee shops. These were once illegal but were decriminalized. You see a coffee shop, you pass by a coffee shop but you need not go inside the coffee shop. You can purchase a marijuana joint from the coffee shop but you don't need a context to smoke it in public. You don't need to look at a coffee shop nor at marijuana smokers. You need not look at a thing or person you dislike, clothed or unclothed. Linked: Bodyfreedom.com Naaktopstraat.nl has an infinite shelf-life and could stay online open for digital signature until it attains the required 10K in order to upgrade it to a citizen's initiative (Burgerinitiatief), even if this petition's goal outlives me its initiator! |
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Lundoxia Presents (addendum/elf): Naakt in het openbaar petitite NaaktopStraat.nl nieuwe video 1,5 minuut Nieuwe toelichting video in het Nederlands (English subtitles, click "CC" bottom right inside black screen) met muziek van van Halen (Eruption, 1978.) Teken de petitie NaaktopStraat.nl Dit is een experiment om democratie te toetsen. Deze petitie is al een jaar oud. De meeste mensen die over deze petitie horen lezen het niet en hebben verkeerde ideeën erover; dit is een apathisch, cynisch en lui reflex. De democratie zit in een zwakke staat! Laten we zo snel mogelijk alles verbieden: prostitutie, coffeeshops, homohuwelijk, euthanasie...een fascistisch systeem is het resultaat van moderne apathie. Een democratisch denker ondersteund ook een idee juist omdat hij of zij niet per se mee eens is. Dit is de organisch alchimie van democratie. |
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Lundoxia Presents (The Dirty Dozen): Lundy vs Amsterdam Trilogy, and, The End of Rickshaws in Amsterdam in 2020? A summary of the case called Lundy vs Amsterdam (2016-2018) concerning my revoked rickshaw licence for Solar Rickshaw, in 3 parts, looped into a playlist thread on YouTube. The last court ruling ("uitspraak" in Dutch) of 21 February 2018 at The Hague's Raad van State (Council of State, one of four national supreme courts in The Netherlands, each specializing in a specific type of law) was also featured in Europa Decentraal, the legal journal about European law, on 5 March 2018 (article: "FIETSTAXI’S ZIJN GEEN RONDVAARTBOTEN".) New: in April 2018 the city of Amsterdam publicized its decision to terminate all rickshaw (pedicab or Trike taxi in US/Canada, or Fietstaxi in Dutch, VeloTaxi in French and German) licences effective 1 April 2019. Recently this termination was postponed to 1 April 2020 but appeals were filed to overturn this planned termination. Municipal appeals (bezwaarschriften) were filed in April 2019, heard ("hoorzitting") in July and subsequently denied in August 2019 ("ongegrond verklaard".) As with my last case, the municipal refusal lacked motivation, so a court appeal (beroepschrift) was filed at rechtbank van Amsterdam on 24 September 2019, on the eve of this particular rickshaw's tenth anniversary (and what a treacherous ten years it has been!) More news here as it develops. |
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