Oops! [en]

[The joke “sorry” page has been replaced by a real one. My apologies for my lack of sense of humour, but this is how I reacted.]

I’m certain I’m not the only person who felt a little surge of panic a moment ago. Was it really a good idea?

I mean, it’s fine when you know Steven Den Beste personally and go out for dinner each week with people who post on MeFi. But when you live on the other side of the world (almost) in a little village up in the Alps (so to speak), and that your web of belief has already been seriously shaken up by the KC affair, Matt’s post can very well be understood in the line of what was written on the sorry page. And we’re not all IA geeks who can see through the technical aspects of what is exposed there.

Yes, I’ve already been told I take things much too seriously. Online and off. And I guess I lose my sense of humor completely when I’m tired, under quite a lot of personal stress, and when I’ve just been through a few emotionally disturbing days (KC).

Maybe I need to pull the plug for a while.

Violence [en]

On my walks with Cali, I meet a lot of other dog-owners. I’m often shocked at how many dog owners will actually hit their pets when they disobey. I mean, isn’t it an established fact for everybody here that praise-training works 100 times better than stick-training?

I was already appalled at the number of dogs I saw in Chennai which had most obviously been stick-raised, but I kept thinking “this is India, in Switzerland nobody would ever dream of hitting a dog – or in any case, those who do it are badly violent people”. Not so.

There is a double absurdity in stick-training. First, it is the “punishment” vs. “reward” thing. You will do something better if it is for a reward than if it is to avoid punishment. That goes for human beings as well as animals. Second, people who hit their dogs often do it after the dog has disobeyed and they have caught it. The poor dog doesn’t associate the punishment with the wrongdoing, because it is delayed. It will more probably be associated with the owner himself. Just think of how that must damage the relationship.

And somewhere, I suspect that people who find it right, or even “good” to hit a dog when he has done something wrong will be more prone to hitting children too. I mean, it’s just a question of education philosophy, isn’t it?

Photos [en]

Il y a bien longtemps, Karl nous demandait si nous nous souvenions de notre première photo. Maintenant que j’ai acheté et installé un scanner, je vais pouvoir enfin vous faire profiter!

Voici ma première photo, ainsi qu’une autre photo de moi à  l’époque. C’était le 7 juillet 1981, le jour de mes sept ans.