144 Madeira Consorcio Meeting 22.6.2024
Jun 23, 2024 at 2:53 pm | Posted in Posts | Leave a commentTags: brick, Consorcio, heat battery, john o'donnell, Madeira, madeira consorcio, ted
We met in the Gallery as usual and saw an uplifting Talk on new ways to store electricity as heat: “Can a simple brick be the next great battery?”
The Speaker (https://www.ted.com/speakers/john_o_donnell) introduced his company’s idea to store electricity in form of bricks and as heat. This could help to de-carbonize the industry which is responsible for about a quarter of CO2 emissions.
The group was a bit sceptical about the bricks (not like in construction work, strangely shaped and in sealed containers). If and once oil producers and other big industries get the idea that they can make money with this new way of energy storage, and switch from fossil fuels, this would be very positive for the environment and humankind’s survival.
There is also an interesting Spiegel article this week (“The fight for clean energy”) by a German reporter that we are on a good way to lower CO2 emission a great deal (hydropower, geothermal energy, biomass, with wave and current power plants, with green hydrogen, with e- and recycled fuels). Many such initiatives are not being seen and reported on, but they exist.
We also talked about our non-existing ferry and the political cha-cha going on behind the curtains, and decided to go to dinner early.
141 Madeira Consorcio meeting 16.3.2024
Mar 17, 2024 at 11:59 am | Posted in Posts | Leave a commentTags: climate change, Funchal, lyn stoler, Madeira, madeira consorcio, sustainability
We met in the Gallery and saw
Eco-anxiety to Climate Optimism | Lyn Stoler |
Other good talks:
We WILL Fix Climate Change! Animation
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The most important thing you can do to fight climate change: talk about it | Katharine Hayhoe
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3 Ways Your Money Can Fight Climate Change | Veronica Chau | TED
Lyn Stoler spoke about Eco-Anxiety and how to combat it. Some of the numbers she came up sounded unreal.
Maybe we should rather use the term “sustainability”. H & J already practise this in their Quinta B. (Wash-balls for the laundry, refilled soap etc for guest rooms, cleaning with self-made products based on lemon and vinegar,… H made a Blog entry about it (www.madeira-time.com in German).
The Anglican Holy Trinity Church has a gold certificate for sustainability from the home administration in the UK. They even have an “ecological” person to watch over things. The wafers are made of flour and water. Our suggestion: Add a bit of sugar, and more people will come to church…
Germany is seen to be able to reach 50% use of alternative energy sources by 2030. The underestimate their progression.
S. and her brother started a permaculture system on their land in Neves. As part of it, they want to install moisture nets (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fog_collection) to collect moisture from the clouds /fog to water the plots. This is being already done in many South American countries in high areas with low water supplies. The water in Neves will contain more salt; they will see how it goes. Our suggestion: make a report about it, also for publication in www.madeira-weekly.com , and we will visit Neves with the group once the project is more advanced.
Lots of initiatives – reason for optimism!
The result of climate change on the island: More and more, the Pombo Trocaz and blackbirds are descending from the mountains to Funchal. Sea weed arriving on the beach in Porto Santo causes increased breeding of mosquitos which by now, can bring diseases (Madeira had four imported cases of Dengue recently.)
Bad news: Our wind turbine pylons are corroding with time; one already fell over. But they will be replaced, they bring money.
The water from the source in Porto Santo cannot be sold anymore, it now contains too much salt. The tap water in Funchal is drinkable, the water in Canico de Baixo tastes awful
Cl. said that we probably reached the 1.5% heating threshold in 2023. The ocean water seems to heat up faster than the air. The scientists do not know what this means. The AMOC (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_meridional_overturning_circulation) may be breaking down soon, until 2030, or earlier. In this case, it would get very cold in the UK, but Madeira would not be affected that much.
Sustainability: houses with flat roofs should be painted white, to reflect the heat, or have solar panels or be greened. Rivers need bigger floodplains.
There are already initiatives which supply solar cookers to poor regions in the Third World. Hopefully, people there have something to cook.
South Africa is erecting a border fence to Mozambique; they are trying to stop the people from that country to come to SA as climate refuges.
Cl. said that they stopped using solar panels on their house in SA because they would be stolen. M.J. said that in his last Church in the UK, the lead from the roof was stolen once. In Funchal recently somebody stole copper from a place. How do the thieves sell it? They couldn’t get it through the airport, it is probably shipped to the mainland by boat to be sold there.
Cl. said that AI may come up with way to fight climate change that we do not envision yet.
Burial: The Farsi have Towers of Silance (https://iranparadise.com/zoroastrian-towers-of-silence/) where bodies are deposited. The bones which are picked clean by vultures are then buried later. UGH
Anyway: we should not talk of “climate change” but “sustainability”, and every citizen can do his small part.
136 Madeira Consorcio 24.6.2023
Jun 25, 2023 at 11:40 am | Posted in Posts | Leave a commentTags: ethics, Funchal, intelligent, madeira consorcio, moral, stupid, talk, yejin choi
We met with a small group in the Gallery as usual. The topic was “AI” (artificial intelligence), more concretely ChatGPT and similar programs,
The video is here:
The speaker pointed out that vast amounts of information are placed in AI on a massive scale but this does not mean that AI is intelligent or has common sense. It sometimes gives very stupid answers.
Websites which can now be found through a search engine, will in the future only be accessed via AI and if the website is not a part of a plugin for say, the search of news on Madeira or art galleries in Funchal, then they won’t be found anymore. Business owners may have to pay to AI companies to be found via paid plug-ins.
Human input will be lost with AI, it is scary. It will be more difficult to distinguish between truth and falsehood because AI is very good at inventing things, and many human beings are not good at using common sense to see if an information can be true (the pope dressed in a skiing outfit!?).
Voice generated AI can copy the voice of a woman and say, call her grandma and say “Granny, I have been abducted, you have to pay ransome for me.” Such thefts on unsuspecting older people will become more common.
“Mimo” “games” are already compelling children online to perpetrate small crimes and move them on to bigger crimes and even suicide. In the future, an AI driven game could copy the parents’ voice and lead them more toward to all kinds of obnoxious actions.
Humankind is already veering toward more nefarious things. There are people in the internet who watch moneys being tortured for “fun”, AI can be used to produce more sociopaths.
AI is already out of control because its actions cannot be verified by humans. AI could plan to kill all humans at some point. Software engineers, even the developers of AI, are warning against their own product. It should be unplugged now.
People are gullible to all kinds of false information because life is too confusing, and religious guidance is crumbling. Spiritual questions such as “Why am I here? What is my purpose in life?” need to be asked, and getting to the answers takes effort and persistence. A trait that most human beings do not have. More and more, people are taking drugs, just to get out of life’s confusion for a few hours.
Evil deeds stem from fear, AFD voters in Germany (“Chega” in Portugal) are scared to lose their livelihood and property. AI will eliminate a lot of middle-class jobs.
With fear, aversions come to light, that then creates hatred for others which the person may never have met.
People who voted for Trump and “Chega”, are less cosmopolitan, many of them do not travel outside their known paths. In Spain: “Where can we get a Germany sausage?”
On the good side, young people are more “European” and bring with them less aversion against what seems to be “foreign”.
Wealth is more visible and obscener, creating envy in the simple folks. With AI, the jobs, many in health care, will be veering toward comfortable life styles, As long as AI can keep the working population in a comfort zone, these people will not complain or strive to change things. Amusement parks should proliferate, and artificial AI games become more accessible to the simple people. Bread and Games.. Revolution may not take place.
Is AI aware of itself? Answer by Rupert Spira: it is made of consciousness, like we are (all things are based in consciousness, not on atoms) but it is not self-reflective.
What is the remedy? Common sense. Children are much mor intelligent that AI, because they learn by trial and error and experiment. They base their next steps on real life experience which AI does not have. Even children will always be smarter than AI.
We can unplug and refrain from using the internet. We can try to live of the grid, autonomous. The Google search engine can be replaced with “DuckDuckGo” really, a good search engine!).
On getting results from AI on a question, we can ask AI on the topic of religion or spirituality, and it will have no answers because it cannot deal with morals or ethics. It has no values.
So a good question might be:
“What is your information good for?”
It might not be able to answer. This can reveal and distinguish AI answers to everybody, even simple people.
(Sherlock Holmes in “Elementary” asks the AI “What is love ?” Answer: “It is a concept and therefore useful.”)
AI does not know kindness and cannot take unpredictable decisions we humans can take.
Question:
“Is this kind?”
could be a good answer to a proposal raised by AI.
Humans argue with themselves, AI never questions its answers. Another question politicians, business owners and rich people should ask themselves anyway is also a good question for AI:.
“Is this useful for the community?”
134 Madeira Consorcio Meeting 22.4.2023
Apr 23, 2023 at 11:21 am | Posted in Posts | Leave a commentTags: al, alojamento local, foreigners, lisbon, madeira consorcio, Portugal, rent control
We met in the Gallery again. The Topic was the Gentrification of Lisbon. The ARTE video is here:
https://www.arte.tv/en/videos/107194-056-A/re-sold-out-lisbon/
The report about Alojamento local (AL) and influx of foreign residents with money is quite nice but it left our the “rental history” of Lisbon.
The city centre has a lot of old, rent-controlled buildings in which the tenants are paying a very low rent of perhaps 20 € month. (The CZ Foundation had a rent-controlled house once where the tenants paid a rent of 200 escudos, around 1,50€, per month.)
A building owner will not invest in the upkeep for such low rents and when the roof leaks (accidentally, not deliberately) the money isn’t there to pay for renovations. If the owner damages the roof deliberately, the juridical costs to fight such a treatment is too high for simple people.
Owners also use the ploy that they need the apartment for themselves to get tenants out. It should be checked by the state if they really move in themselves.
The advantage Lisbon has from the AL boom is that decrepit buildings are now being renovated well, and once AL is stopped by the Government, the apartments are going to be offered for long-term rental to local residents.
The Government can and it seems, will turn the screw (as is custom in Portugal, slowly) by changing the taxation on AL (now net 8.75%) and long-term rental (now 28% minus certain expenses). The tax on AL could be increased and on long term rental is already being lowered. Investors will react to that and switch more and more from AL to long term.
The Golden Visa scheme is also a fact that impacts on real estate prices but the lobby to keep it is place is strong
Tourism in Madeira:
The Levadas are nowadays packed with so many tourists that the crowds resemble the Mount Everest ascent. Low-cost tourists are camping in the Laurissilva, Forbidden, but they have no clue. They should be informed and show respect for the island.
Madeira had 15 Mio tourists passing through in 2022, and many will want to relocate here.
Money talks:
We can expect that the Madeiran Government listens to the “money” and reacts too late to the squeeze on the real estate market which already disfavours the population. Salaries cannot keep up with rising real estate prices, so young couples have to keep living with their parents.
Tenants in Germany can be asked to help with renovation costs for, say, a new roof by paying an add-on for 20-30 years; that is affordable for tenants.
The Government gets high taxes from real estate purchases by foreigners because they pay more than Madeirans. Luxury projects such as Savoy and Socicorreia should be coupled with housing at affordable prices, but.. nothing is happening yet.
This may cause the Madeirans to develop ressentiments against foreigners.
The Association helping the old tenants in Alfama is:
APPA Associação do Património e da População de Alfama
Organização Não Lucrativa
Localizado em: Miradouro de Santa Luzia, : 1100-058 Lisboa
They will have an IBAN number for donations.
92 Madeira Consorcio Meeting 14.10. 2017
Oct 16, 2017 at 2:22 pm | Posted in Posts | Leave a commentTags: brasil, consciousness, joao de deus, madeira consorcio, peter russell
We viewed a documentary S.brought from Brazil about the healer Joȃo de Deus
(http://www.healing-themovie.com/about-the-film/)
This film is not available on YouTube.
S. was in Brazil for treatment for three weeks and found that afterward, her health was/is much better that before. (She doesn’t want to take heavy-duty allopathic medicine.)
Interesting: Joao de Deus is a simple man with the potential to channel healing spirits. He was persecuted and beaten, before he found a “protector” who set him up in Abadiania (near Brasilia) where he and a team of other mediums are now working to heal on a physical and spiritual level.
Spoiler: The film is a bit heavy on catholic veneer as Ignatius of Loyola is involved, but if you replace “God” with “source”, the content works for everybody.
Afterwards, we went to “Pátio das Babosas” and had a great meal on a terrace above Monte; we enjoyed one of the last summer evenings.
PS: Interesting info about the Consciousness topic:
Peter Russell https://www.scienceandnonduality.com/the-reality-of-consciousness/)
David Chalmers https://www.ted.com/talks/david_chalmers_how_do_you_explain_consciousness
Dan Dennett https://www.ted.com/talks/dan_dennett_on_our_consciousness
Anil Seth https://www.ted.com/talks/anil_seth_how_your_brain_hallucinates_your_conscious_reality
87 Madeira Consorcio Meeting 11.3.2107
Mar 12, 2017 at 12:38 pm | Posted in Posts | Leave a commentTags: Bread, gluten free, Madeira, madeira consorcio
Support for the Foundation
As mentioned before, the Foundation relies on private funding only. The stock market is providing less income than before but another point is that the judge in charge of the Court of Families and Minors is of the opinion that children should be given to foster parents,
The Foundation has been very quiet about their work so far, but times change and more funds are needed so the Foundation needs to show more face. From a website and handouts via Diario ads up to TV interviews , everything is possible. The management team needs to decide how far they want to go with public exposure.
The Foundation is fully compliant with the law. Social Security made a full check up. Transparency and compliance are the essential for fundraising efforts.
D & S have a good example of how it should be done with http://www.refugio.pt/ (nice website – clean, simple and welcoming), a well-known entity in the Algarve for just the cases the Foundation is caring for as well (“emergência infantil”).
We shall help the Foundation with marketing efforts, to strengthen the base for ongoing fundraising. D proposed the 0.5% Tax Donation avenue. Private citizens can donate this amount to a charity of their choice, with no cost to themselves, Accounting companies can even set this up as a default option, informing their clients that if they do not say otherwise, the accounting can set up their donation automatically.
Fir this to work, word needs to get out that the Foundation is asking for this help. This can be done be email to all contacts and former alumni. The request for help can also go out via A5 handouts, with an appealing text in (not too complicated) Portuguese, citing the Foundation’s NIF number.
U.prepared a text and showed it to the Team. The Portuguese has to be fixed and the text polished and improved. M will do this with his Team as soon as possible (Tax declarations will be delivered as of April 1st), then we’ll receive the final text. U will deliver prints , E. & Gr can take the handouts to the cinema in Ponta do Sol, etc.
D suggested that the Foundation tries to set up a list of former students to draw them in for support. They might want to keep in touch with each other as they, after all, all, grew up together.
He also suggested asking former students for an annual donation, it can be small but it would strengthen their sense of belonging. Another way is via estate planning: donors can help by bequeathing houses or funds after their demise.
Special projects can be used to attract donations as well. Esaid that an “institution” (no better word for it yet) can expect support from a community when it offer something to this community, e.g. theatre plays, concerts , Christmas tree lighting on the grounds, etc. (the group was not enthusiastic about Christmas plays, though) .
Web site upgrade
U has received the access codes to the existing website and worked on the background to improve things. She will acquire some photos of children, and S.Z. could provide photos of the home and hopefully the staff, to add them to the website. We also need the WORD originals of the annual report 2016, there is good material in there to fill the pages. (The Foundation has a good team, this should be emphasized as well.)
U will look at a PayPal Donate button (other option: MBNet) to suggest donations. This can be set up with a 10€ minimum as PayPal takes a cut for the payments, albeit on a lower rate for an IPSS.
In our time, with more and more angst ruling the people, it is important to strengthen the ties in the community so that people contact and get to know each other. Fear cannot take hold so much if you know your neighbor and community.
The Bread Project:
E met with G.V. who is interested in the gluten-free-bread as he cannot produce it in his two (or more?) bakeries. E gave him a sample and received a very good feedback.
We discussed the price, D was skeptical if the price is not too high. R.V: has the experience, he is often educating the clients on nutrition and value and he says that the price is not too high, compared with the bland quality of industrial gluten-free bread, and that he can “sell” the price to his clients.
We also discussed the possible production of the grains on the island. At the moment, they can be bought from Italy (Tuscany) , Austria and the US.
E received some originals , he can have them planted here but the yield will not better, and the cost would be the same (around 6€/kg). Planting them on Madeira would be sustainable, creating work, helping the community… great idea, but is has to be kept for the future.
83 Madeira Consorcio Meeting 17.9.2016
Sep 18, 2016 at 11:11 am | Posted in Posts | Leave a commentTags: Bread, Escola, Funchal, madeira consorcio, madeira think tank, mark zuckerberg, meeting, mundo sustentavel, Portugal, recycly, vegetarian friendly
The Bread Project:
V gave E. a “plastic” bag, to store bread and keep it fresh. The bag, produced in Austria, is not made with oil but of plant material, and decomposes easily; it can be re-used several times. The bag can be printed on. The producer is www.naku.at.We discussed the logo and design for linen bags for sale along with the bread.
We also spoke about the support we want to give the Escola de S..
We shall propose to their Team to create a blog for them, based on the text that we developed after the July meeting with them. U is going to send the approved content to Do. to look at. E.has photos; we need those for a blog. U will ask Ma. for their bank details so we can perhaps also add a PayPal donation button.
We also spoke about fundraising and how to go about it
Do. said the most important issue for fundraising is to answer the questions on what the project is and what they need. The fundraisers also need to propose adequate gifts as thank you for the donations received, e.g.
- a postcard with children’s paintings for a donation of 5€,
- for 10€ a donor would get a mug,
- and for 25€ he would get a yearbook,
- for higher amounts he would receive a mention of his name as sponsor on a (movable) plaque in the school.
An ongoing fundraising effort would be better that an occasional action, with the receipt of money from time to time.
“Teaching” support
There we have many options. S.used to go to her children’s school and read a poem which would inspire the children to make a drawing/painting about the topic, S. then gave assisted them in this. Such visits can lead to the composition of a yearbook, also as Thank You to donors.
Rui A.could do physics experiments with them, and so on…
Additional info.
Open letter from a Danish Newspaper to Mark Zuckerberg: http://www.aftenposten.no/meninger/kommentar/Dear-Mark-I-am-writing-this-to-inform-you-that-I-shall-not-comply-with-your-requirement-to-remove-this-picture-604156b.html
We have a recycling shop behind the Forum, “Mundo Sustentavel”, They accept used goods for household, decoration & more and resell them; the proceeds are split between the seller and the shop: Tel 291619768, info@mundo-sustentavel.com
Frente Mar has some shops out for public tender for rent in/near the Lido Swimming pools, several artists are working there.
The list of 10 vegetarian-friendly restaurants in Funchal :
http://frommadeiratomars.com/pt/10-vegetarian-friendly-restaurants-in-madeira/
D & S like “Olive” in Oudinot best, the restaurant needs business so we should all go there and recommend it.
Also very good: “Tipografia” in the Castanheiro Boutique Hotel. “Mania de Cozinha” in S. Pedro is closed due to fire damage.
Our next meeting will be in mid-October,
77 Madeira Consorcio Meeting 17.2.2016
Feb 19, 2016 at 6:00 pm | Posted in Posts | Leave a commentTags: Funicular, GrafiMadeira, Madeira, madeira consorcio
We visited a printing plant in Cancela.
GM was founded in 1979. In the old days, when printing was done with much more laborious methods, it used to employ up to 65 persons. Nowadays, and with the island still in the grips of the Crisis, the company employs 15 staff. Some of them are with the company since more that 35 years, and salaries, Social Security and taxes are paid in time. The staff seems happy.
For pre-production, GM uses Apple computers. The designers receive the documents from the clients in digital format and after control and correction, prepare aluminium plates with several pages on one plate for the printing presses within two hours.
The printing plates are made of aluminium, the layout is fixed on it by laser; most of the printing machines (black & white , 2 colors, 4 colors) are made in Germany, and therefore may be old but still work well 🙂
Printing is followed by page assembly, cutting and if needed, by folding, the machines they use are very versatile. The amount of waste paper is enormous, it is collected and sent to the mainland for recycling.
The company needs to invest a lot to keep up with the rapid development in the industry; on the other hand, they lost a lot of clients due to the crisis. The cost of paper and ink is high as well.
The company works in 8 hour shifts and could easily tripe their output with 2 more shifts, as in the old days.
Our discussion afterwards (not in the Café by the roundabout , closed 😦 but in a Pub in Canico:
We spoke about the search for the perfect product for Madeira.
Our banana is 70% “Cavendish” and will be hit hard once we get the bug here that demolishes the Cavendish plants in Latin America.
D. would promote special wheat – for export as well as for E’s bread – and said that Madeira problem with the terrace plantation could be eased with the use of an open “Funicular” or “cliff railway” ( see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Funicular ). a railway with open cars (there is also one in Lisbon: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ascensor_da_Gl%C3%B3ria ). With such a machine, the access to old terraces and the transport of the harvest might be greatly improved.
D.& P. have 15 terraces on their land below their “platform” with the main house; this might be a perfect example of a property where to use such a railway.
E. knows of a place which employs such a Funicular, we’ll see if we can visit the place on the weekend.
Christmas 2015
Dec 23, 2015 at 11:04 am | Posted in Posts | Leave a commentTags: 2016, aquavit, madeira consorcio, medicinal herbs, smorgasbord
The Team had a great dinner in one of our member’s Quintas (Manor House), built in 1866. A wonderful atmosphere for a Christmas Dinner with much discussion and friendly banter. The best: our hostess is Swedish, so she treated us to a genuine Smorgasbord (google it) with marinated salmon and knackebrot. Aquavit is not that well known on the island so we had that, and we learned (or rather, listened to) the proper Swedish song to be sung before drinking it (good digestive!).
The Madeira Consorcio started its activities in April 2012, and we had 75 meetings so far. We have learned that, having good ideas and giving them to the population, is not working. Of maybe 10.000 farmers on the island, you would have to find the two or five persons who get the idea – say of an island covered in high quality medicinal herbs – to have the project come to fruition. Not easy, and we do not want to approach the Government for input because experience has shown that this is often the wrong approach…We shall develop new approaches next year
Now we are looking forward to a new year, with new ideas and exciting projects!
Ursula
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