Markus Stocker

The Panettone Crisis

2014-05-01T00:00:00Z

A few months ago—it was around Christmas, so perhaps more than a few—I had the sweet idea of sending azizam a panettone. She likes the sweet bread loaf with candied fruits and raisins. I contacted my favorite panetteria pasticceria (a bakery, anonymous, read on to understand why) in Ticino and asked if it is possible to send a panettone to Iran, noting that I couldn’t pick it up myself and mail it, because I am in Finland.

“Of course, and we will bring it to the post office,” the panettone master chef replied.

I think he would have brought it to the post office even without me trying to appeal to the Italian sense for romance by explicitly underscoring that it is all for love.

The panettone was sent and arrived, eventually.

More than a month after my wire transfer, when the panettone was long gone, I got a letter from my Finnish bank noting that the monies had not been transferred and were returned to my account. The letter solicited me to call the branch manager. So I did. The Finnish branch manager asked me some rather weird questions about panettone, Ticino, Iran, and who am I anyway. I complied, and explained what a panettone is, why it was sent from Ticino to Iran, and made sure to note that it is all for love.

Then I started to ask myself, while continuing the phone conversation, how on earth did the branch manager of the Finnish bank know that the transaction was for a panettone and that it was sent to Iran. After all, there was a digital gap between bank accounts and the post office.

The conversation went on and made me wonder if my all for love sweet bread loaf inadvertently triggered a diplomatic crisis between three countries. Until … I recalled that, naively perhaps, my thank-you message to the master chef, which I added to the transaction, included the word “Iran.” The branch manager confirmed that this was sufficient to block the transaction. In disbelief, I thought, and perhaps said: Mitä?

After suggesting to repeat the transaction, this time without the word “Iran,” the branch manager ended the conversation, encouraging me to stop by personally the next time I visit the branch. I have yet to do that. Perhaps I shouldn’t, I doubt they will serve me panettone and sparkling wine.

The master chef received the monies, eventually.

This is how far our paranoia has gone. I am proud to counteract by building a rainbow over it.

In the meanwhile I have been to Iran, my passport is stamped with an Iranian visa, and in about a month I will travel to the US to a scientific conference.

Will I travel below the radar?

Wish me luck, for customs more than the talk.

Thanks H.Z. for the title of this post.

The Wavellite Software Framework

2013-10-12T00:00:00Z

Environmental sensor networks generate data. Large networks can consist of dozens, in some cases hundreds, of sensors and generate a considerable amount of data. Small networks with sensors sampling at several kHz can also generate a lot of data. Data is accessed and encoded in various ways. Some sensors implement a tiny web server and data is retrieved via HTTP. The data of other sensors is copied on a USB memory stick and processed from there. Data may be streamed on demand, pushed to a queue, persisted to a store. Data may be binary encoded or plain text, formatted in csv or xml or otherwise. The store may be a relational database systems, a non-standard database, a bunch of files. Clearly, sensor data is heterogeneous.

The purpose of environmental sensor networks is often, if not mostly, to monitor one or more properties of one or more environmental phenomena, over time and space. For instance, a thermometer monitors the temperature of air. Temperature is the property and air is the phenomenon. A beta attenuation monitor monitors the concentration of particulate matter. Concentration is the property and particulate matter is the phenomenon. A differential mobility particle sizer monitors the particle number size distribution of an aerosol. You get the point.

A frequent task in research that builds on environmental sensor networks is to process and analyse data in order to acquire information about the monitored environmental phenomenon. Indeed, scientists have data generated by environmental sensor networks but what they want is information, or knowledge, about the environment. They want to study and understand the formation, development, interactions of environmental phenomena. The assumption is that such information can be acquired from sensor data. The problem is that the task is often laborious and non trivial.

During my studies I stumbled upon this task several times. For instance, I had sensor data for the vibration of the pavement of a road section but what I wanted was information about vehicles on the road. Researchers often use Matlab or R or similar software to process sensor data and implement information acquisition in scripts. So did I. A bunch of Matlab scripts for this, some Phyton code for that, and more Java code for everything else. This may work but I think it is far from optimal. To make matters more interesting, and complicated, over time I encountered two application classes: those that process historical sensor data and those that process real-time sensor data.

At some point I figured that the task can be generalized. In fact, the problem consists of the following main three sub tasks: retrieval (and possible decoding to numbers) of sensor data, processing of sensor data, and information acquisition from processed sensor data. I studied these sub tasks further and eventually I came up with a software framework architecture and implementation for the task. This software framework is called Wavellite.

Wavellite supports the development of applications that build on environmental sensor networks to acquire information for environmental phenomena from sensor data. Heterogeneous sensor data is its input and represented information for environmental phenomena is its output. It covers the three sub tasks of sensor data retrieval, sensor data processing, and information acquisition. It integrates the sub tasks and provides a unified representation for processed and generated data and information.

I have used Wavellite at various stages of development in several case studies on sensor data and environmental phenomena. Wavellite is under active development. If you want to know more, please visit the Wavellite project page.

My Travel Mug

2013-10-08T00:00:00Z

On my recent travelling I boarded enough airplanes to realize that I could easily bring my own mug, instead of wasting all that plastic and paper. Today I brought one with me.

The Finnish flight attendant commented: “Very ecological.”

The question is, of course, whether or not my mug really is more “ecological,” and I am not going to make a life-cycle assessment here. Still, I highlight a few pros and cons. First and foremost, you can get yourself a liquid tight and heat insulated mug which keeps you safe from spilling your tea or coffee and keeps your drink warm longer. Second, you can enjoy your beverage longer because flight attendants will not collect it as trash on their speedy clean up to leave time to sell stuff. Third, you have a chance to inspire fellow travellers, and you may never get to know it. The main downside may be that you need to carry the mug.

Travelling

2013-09-05T00:00:00Z

Conferences aside, I don’t travel much. But when I do I seem to like doing it so that in a few days I get enough of it for some time. I will be on the road, or in the air, the next 10 or so days. Two weddings, the first in Bulgaria the other in Switzerland, an important birthday celebration in Switzerland, and an appointment with authorities back where I (still) spent most of my life, for the making of a new passport. They hopefully won’t invalidate my old passport next week because I cannot wait until they ship the new one. In the age of hopping over airports of cities to get anywhere, this entails boarding eight aircrafts. The busy week also means that I will sleep in seven different beds. This is assuming that LOT Polish Airlines will find my booking, which so far is nowhere to be found in online check-in and self check-in at the airport. Otherwise I will have to improvise. On a side note, I look forward to a time when I will not have to turn off mobile data just because I leave the borders of a country, at least within Europe. Seriously, policymakers and industry: get this done, it is long overdue.

Update

I stopped at the following places: Kuopio airport, Helsinki airport, Warsaw airport, Bucharest airport, RIN Hotel airport, Piata Constitutiei Bucharest, Varna bus stop, Hotel Marina City Balchik, Botanic Garden Balchik, Berlin airport, Zurich airport, Zurich main station, Arth Goldau train station, Bellinzona train station, Locarno train station, Ascona, Waltenschwil, Wohlen train station, Aarau train station, Olten train station, Bern train station, Murten, Sugiez, Fribourg train station, Riga airport.

Some of them more than once.

Food Culture in Kuopio

2013-07-12T00:00:00Z

Kuopio is a relatively remote place on Earth. Perhaps you shouldn’t expect too much with respect to food culture. While I like some of the Finnish culinary curiosities, like Rosvopaisti or Kalakukko, I have found Kuopio to be relatively poor in world foods choice. Other than Finnish, like Sampo or Kummisetä or Wanha Satama, we had, and still have, Greek, Chinese, Italian, Spanish, and Viking (-like) restaurants. And then there are the beasts, which you may enjoy only occasionally because of their quality, such as Amarillo or Memphis or Hesburger or Buffa, and there are the beauties, which you may enjoy only occasionally because of their price, such as Ravintola Os or Musta Lammas or Isä Camillo. There is even Sushi, if you drop by the Matkus shopping center. And then there are a few more which I forgot, I don’t want to remember, I utterly dislike, or I have never heard of. Oh, and are the IKEA meatballs still around?

One of the more disconcerting facts is that many of these restaurants are somehow chained. Ravintola Mestarit seems to dominate and I am sure S Group plays its cards well, too. Moreover, it is unfortunate that, at least in my opinion, only Ravintola Os is a true experience. Some restaurants are good, most are average, and some mostly to avoid.

This being said, over the past few months, Kuopio has seen a veritable awakening in matters of food culture. With Ravintola Shalimar we now have Indian, Nepalese is served at Ravintola Mount Sherpa, a great lasagna and the best pizza can be found at Trattoria Sorrento, and — still to test myself — Ravintola Rustik, which hopefully serves food as tasty as their ambiance is tasteful.

Though some time ago I was suggesting some coffee shops should extend their opening hours, I have never owned, and unlikely ever will, a restaurant in Kuopio. Still, I think it is not easy for newcomers to break into this market with new tastes, flavors, dishes, even silverware. So, good luck to you brave newcomers, I wish you a bright and happy future in this nordic city. You certainly serve Kuopio well by adding to its diversity.

Some Thoughts On My Silence

2012-02-21T00:00:00Z

February is almost gone and I have yet to write my first post this year. I have been wondering why. Looking back, starting October, this blog has seen 15 posts in 2008, 77 in 2009, 44 in 2010, and 14 in 2011. What happened between 2008 and 2012? Am I running out of topics to write about?

Something changed: In 2009 I moved back to Europe, from the US. And I moved to Finland. In Finland, silence is said to be part of speech, so I have been told. Walter Bauer (1904-1976) wrote “[A]us der Arktis kommt die Endsumme aller Weisheit: Schweigen” [1], typically translated into “[T]he Arctic expresses the sum of all wisdom: Silence”. Silence is golden.

Compared to Washington, DC — where silence must be hunted — Finland is a different universe, sort of. While in transition, I used to argue that the great thing about the chatty American (US) is that, while 80% of what is said can be trashed, the remaining 20% is brilliant, and getting that makes being exposed to smart-ass crap worth it. In Europe, the further north the more silent, one may be less likely to be exposed to nonsense but, unfortunately, also to the brilliant — with people, politics, journalism, blogs, even advertisement. In 2009 I was in share-much mode, 77 posts. In 2011 I was in share-little mode, 14 posts.

However, more than my transitioning, I find it increasingly difficult to draft text or thought that is correct and comprehensive, and this is what has been keeping me from writing. When do you know something is correct? Even if you argue that what is said is correct, how do you know the arguments in support of what is said cover much that is relevant?

Let’s assume I state that “plants have no mental complexity, hence, no interests”, an argument that leads to the conclusion that plants are not objects of moral concern. Now, I suppose most agree that plants have no mental complexity. In fact, mental complexity relates to the mind and plants do not have one. Further, let’s agree that having interests is a valid proxy for being an object of moral concern. At this point, you may argue that the conclusion is correct, plants are not objects of moral concern. After all what else other than mental complexity could create interest? You may be correct, at least with respect to a specific school of thought, but there may be more here that is relevant and should be considered.

Some plant species have developed rather sophisticated defense mechanisms, not least because they cannot escape. One such mechanism is the recruitment of the predator that is a natural enemy of the herbivore a plant is under attack from. In essence, upon attack from a specific herbivore species, such plants produce and emit a certain mixture of volatile organic compounds to which the corresponding predator, natural enemy of the herbivore, reacts. The plant is, thus, recruiting the predator by signaling the presence of food. In doing so the plant is more likely to be relieved from the attacker. Is the plant expressing an interest, namely to avoid to be harmed? Can interest arise from complexity other than mental complexity? Are, thus, plant species with such behaviour objects of moral concern?

I’m not going to answer, or even attempt to address, these questions. My point here is that one is more likely to question the statement that plants have no interests if one knows about such plant behaviour. For this, however, one needs to be somewhat literate in plant biology. Of course this is obvious, right? The more you know, the more you can relate things, the more likely you are to make correct statements and suggest a comprehensive set of supportive arguments. However, being literate in fields one may draw from in daily discussions is, well, no piece of cake.

Discussing offshore banking, rather complex in details, Nicholas Shaxson recently said in an interview with Tages Anzeiger “[W]er redet, weiss nichts. Und wer etwas weiss, redet nicht. Sondern schweigt in seiner Villa.” which translates into “[W]ho speaks, knows nothing. And who knows something, does not speak. Rather keeps silent in his mansion.” In this case folks may keep silent for altogether different reasons, yet I also see the point that if one knows something about a complex system one also knows how difficult it can be to make accurate statements about such a system. The one who, on the contrary, speaks much about a complex system may well know nothing about it.

[1] Angelika Arend. Documents of Protest and Compassion: The Poetry of Walter Bauer. McGill-Queen’s University Press 1999.

Ecological Limits And Global Poverty

2011-11-17T00:00:00Z

According to Tim Jackson [1], and others, beyond a certain income rising GDP per capita is no reasonable proxy for rising prosperity, because once basic needs such as for food, shelter, security, education, health are met, prosperity correlates with the “ability to flourish” as human beings — i.e. the strength of our relationships, trust in the community, satisfaction at work, shared sense of purpose, participation in society — rather than with income. Obviously, we assume, correctly, that income does not correlate with, for instance, the strength of our relationships. Indeed, meaningful relationships are not marketable: we cannot buy them. This argument is used to demand by the conventional view of ‘indefinite economic growth’ — held by many economists and politicians — to face two realities: (1) the ecological limits of a finite planet and (2) the drift of global wealth towards the few.

No matter on what side of the debate one may be, the Earth’s ecological limits are not a matter of debate, even though after T.R. Malthus, the Club of Rome, and others it is ever more clear that the estimates for those limits with respect to our species come with considerable uncertainty. If and when we hit those limits is, hence, a matter of debate. Similarly, the ethics of the disparity between the world’s rich and the world’s poor is, obviously, debated. In fact, though many may argue that inequality is “unfair” it is probably safe to assume that few of the richest 20% are willing, or able, to trade their wealth for “fairness” to the extent to which it is necessary to significantly reduce inequality. The same can be observed with respect to the environment. Most may agree that something needs to be done, and anything goes as long as it doesn’t touch my wallet. That solutions to the problems of ecological limits and of fair global wealth distribution would somehow come without a price tag to us 20% is, I’m afraid, wish thinking.

I think there has been a fair amount of discussion on identifying what has “gone wrong” with respect to global justice and the environment. Probably even the most fervent technology-optimists begin to wonder about the consequences at the prospects of China, India, and Africa gradually achieving the level of affluence expected in the OECD nations, an economy that would have to be 15 times the size of today’s economy by 2050 [1] or, in other words, an economy that supports 72 billion people at present consumption rates. Something needs to be done, we sense that. Much has also been discussed about what could be done. Instead, what it precisely entails for us 20% rich, i.e. those who would face the biggest cuts and those who predominantly drive the academic discussions, has been discussed far less, if at all.

What it entails for us 20% rich is politically so unpalatable that we intuitively know no democracy is going to vote for, or keep in office, politicians that would force upon a nation’s people the severe cuts that ecological limits and fair global wealth distribution truly entail. Just look at what happens when governments on the verge of bankruptcy announce austerity measures: people riot, new governments are formed. Whether or not one thinks those austerity measures are necessary, they still are for — the, current or future, advantage or disadvantage of — the people of a nation. Imagine the reaction if austerity would be forced upon the people of a nation for the sake of the global environment, or the world’s poor.

Unless we 20% rich wake up one morning and, miraculously, equally value the global environment and the global poor’s welfare I am, currently, of the opinion that it is only through a semi-totalitarian global government — which imposes (1) regulation upon national economies to keep the aggregated world economy within ecological limits (assuming we can define those) and (2) regulation to globally transfer wealth such that “everybody” has employment and a minimum wage, similar security, health care, education, social safety nets, etc. — that we might achieve the dramatic changes that ecological limits and egalitarian access to global wealth entail. Such regulation would not just come with a staggering price tag to the 20% rich but it would dramatically reduce the democratic freedoms that the 20% rich have been enjoying in historically unprecedented ways since the end of World War II.

I don’t believe there is an easy exit strategy when it comes to the issues discussed here. Our current freedom will be reduced if and when the music of the party ends, either by a world government, which likely won’t be democratically legitimate, or by nature, if and when we overshoot. I do not underestimate the impact that groundbreaking discoveries and technology will have in delaying the stop of the music but I’m skeptical that we will manage to decouple our economic activity from resource input and waste output sufficiently to lift 80% of humanity to the level of the 20% richest, or, to echo a currently popular slogan, 99% to the level of the 1% richest.

[1] Tim Jackson. Prosperity without Growth: Economics for a Finite Planet. ISBN 978-1-84407-894-3.

The Time Of The Year That ...

2011-10-26T00:00:00Z

Together with spring, fall is the time of the year that sees a spectacular natural phenomenon unfolding here in Kuopio, Finland. The city has a total area of 2,317.24 square kilometre and water area of 719.85 square kilometre. Thus, about a third of the total area is water. That is a fair amount of water. In comparison, water area in Washington, D.C. is just about 10% of the total area.

The specific heat of water is high, which means that adding heat to water changes temperature relatively little, which is important to organisms living in water bodies at tropical latitudes. With the end of winter, due to increased solar radiation also beyond 50 degrees north latitudes the water temperature of lakes can increase dramatically, in Kuopio from just slightly above zero to around 25 degrees Celsius. Though, the mass of the water of many lakes here in Kuopio is not huge, the amount of heat necessary for such a temperature increase is of course substantial. Water has also high latent heat of freezing. This means that water releases a lot of heat while freezing.

Hence, a third of the surface of the city of Kuopio absorbs a lot of heat between spring and early fall and releases a lot of heat before it freezes, cooling only slowly. Instead, during fall air cools relatively fast here at 60 degrees north latitudes. Due to the large water masses, however, the air does not cool as fast as it would without the beautiful lakes. As a consequence, the period during fall that air temperature in Kuopio hovers around freezing point is relatively long, I would argue well beyond a month. There is a relative steep drop in air temperature between end of August (+15) and the end of September (+5) and then it might take two months until it drops from just below zero to well below -10, or -20, degrees Celsius. That is when a layer of ice covers the lakes. In spring something similar occurs, while the ice cover melts, due to water’s high latent heat of melting. Once solar radiation increases end of February, air temperature rises relatively fast from a nice -20, or -30, to just below 0 degrees Celsius. Then, the period while air temperature hovers around freezing point is relatively long, again, as a lot of heat goes into melting ice. Only when snow melted and lakes are free of ice cover air temperature rises again.

This phenomenon in fall is also a main factor and reason why permanent snow cover in Kuopio starts rather late, possibly only mid-end of December. Naturally, I’m simplifying things here because in reality a range of factors affect the time of freezing or permanent snow cover, such as solar radiation in summer (intensity and duration) and precipication. However, if you check out this figure you can spot the periods I discussed here (notice the almost flat, gray-colored, 5-year average of November and, similarly, the practically flat average of the black-colored plot [for 2011] of March).

Connection

2011-09-02T00:00:00Z

British novelist Samuel Butler wrote in Life and Habit (1878) that “[I]t has, I believe, been often remarked, that a hen is only an egg’s way of making another egg”.

When you eat an apple and leave behind, or eat, its core, from the perspective of the tree that brought into existence your apple you disperse its seeds. The tree is, in essence, using you as a vector for seed dispersal. There is a interrelated interest at play here. You eat the apple because you are hungry, or because you like to eat apples, or because you have otherwise a reason to do so. The tree brings its fruit to ripeness—an energy-demanding process largely consisting of sugar accumulation—to make it pleasurable to you. Unless you are very hungry, if the tree would not bring the apple to ripeness you would be less likely to eat it and, thus, to behave in the plant’s interest.

In my opinion, drawing boundaries between self and not-self is largely arbitrary, and to reduce the distance between self and not-self is a life-long exercise towards an awareness that connection, relatedness, can be shared with just about anything.

An idea that in my experience has been, time and again, one of the most powerful source of happiness.

Offsetting My Own Flight Emissions

2011-07-26T00:00:00Z

Practice what you preach.

My own birthday present this year goes for an idea. I have suggested its practical implementation in a previous post.

This weekend I’ll be traveling. From where I currently live this often translates into traveling by plane. According to myclimate.org the journey (return) will be 4,205 km long, with an estimate for carbon dioxide emissions at 0.907 t. Thus, the estimate for the tree area necessary to offset the flight emissions, over 20 years of tree protection, is 198 m2. I visited Treems to pick and protect a tree of approximately that area. I found Uirapuru 5437 of area 191 m2.

Therefore, by adding 96 Euro to the ticket, Uirapuru 5437 is going to offset the carbon dioxide emitted by my seat.

Happy birthday.