Rome Colosseum, Forum, Palatine Hill

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My son summed up the situation well about the Roma Pass, which probably isn’t worth the $25 Euros to most if they can avoid the Colosseum lines, which I think you can do if you buy that ticket as a combo ticket at the Palatine Hill Entrance to the Ancient Rome area.

It’s important you see the Forum and Palatine Hill as well as the Colosseum, and with an audio tour of these three you’ll spend perhaps a half to full day in this area for about half the cost of the Roma Pass. The Vatican is NOT included in the Pass so our 2.5 Rome days involved only one where we used the Pass. We DID get to skip a huge line at Colosseum but I think we could have done that with the combo ticket you get at Palatine Hill or Forum area where lines are likely to be much shorter.

Ben:
“We decided to buy the ‘Roma Pass’ which lets you skip lines, get into the Colosseum and stuff, and ride public transportation for free. We picked up the passes in the station for 25 euro each. The kit it’s contained within is well put together, it contains a little map and some tourist information. However, in hindsight we’ve determined it wasn’t worth the cost in our case – mainly since the metro here is cheap, only 1 euro a ticket.”

Buffett vs Krugman: Economic Optimist vs Pessimist

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When I hear Paul Krugman -brilliant nobel laureate economist – fret about the economy and global warming I’m always confused by what seem to me to be grossly overstated concerns about both the health of capitalism and the health of the planet in general.    Krugman’s views – to me – seem poisoned by the tendency of smart people to “overthink” problems and “understate” the potential for innovation and technology to rescue people from our foolishness.

A good example of this intellectual defect were the grossly overstated concerns back in the 70s that the earth simply could not sustain the inevitable population increase, and we’d have massive starvation and horrors … by now.       Although it’s VERY important to note how poor many people are in the world, this is NOT at all a function of carrying capacity of the planet and does NOT lead one to the conclusion “don’t feed or they will breed” which is nonsense.  That view is fundamentally naive and misguided and I’m amazed how many people still cling to it – extensive research now makes it crystal clear that the best path to lower birth rates and better quality of life is poverty reduction, education, and health initiatives in the developing world.

But let’s go back to the health of the economy.   Buffet’s the man to listen to, not Krugman: Buffet on Economy

Obviously these are still perilous times, but fretting isn’t called for.    It’s time to fret less and innovate more.   Let’s GO.

The Singularity … will return after this message from our sponsor?

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First, note that I’m a big fan of the concept of “The Singularity” and of Ray Kurzweil, the brilliant technological evangelist who is creating a film to introduce the concept, The Singularity is Near. However I find it more than ironic that the film is delayed.    It’s not even clear from the website if it’s out yet – I think screenings at a couple of film festivals went more poorly than expected so I’m (wildly guessing) they are making some changes before widespread distribution.    But in any case it was supposed to be out in 2009 and it’s not even out yet.

Nitpicky?   To some extent yes, but I think a major  challenge for the pro-singularity, pro-technology movement is that despite the brilliance of many advocates, we need to see a lot less talk and a lot more action.    Skeptics reasonably point to a history of failed promises of artificial intelligence, where advocates like Kurzweil reasonably counter-note that you can’t call these major shots to the exact date, that there is every indication processing power will equal human brainpower very soon, and that technology is clearly advancing in exponential  fashion – basically  that technological progress over the last year is far greater than that of the preceding year and we can expect this accelerating rate of technological progress to continue.

Still, it’s conspicuous when somebody insisting that “The Singularity is Near”  can’t get the movie launched in the year it was supposed to be out.    Perhaps, Ray, your timeframes are too optimistic?   I sure hope not, because I’m rooting for the singularity ASAP, but ….

Invictus

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Invictus by William Ernest Henley (1849–1903)

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

UNESCO World Heritage Sites

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On the Europe trip we visited several places designated as “UNESCO World Heritage Sites” such as the Naeroyfjord region of Norway, The Jungfrau / Aletsch Glacier in Switzerland, and the Cinque Terre in Italy,  but I was only vaguely familiar with how those designations come to be.     Here is the list of all 890 global heritage sites and more from UNESCO about the process.

I’m still wondering how much the process is political and subjective vs analytical and objective, but in general I do think it’s neat to designate areas in this fashion and encourage travelers to better understand and explore their world.

Here are the criteria:

Selection criteria:

  1. to represent a masterpiece of human creative genius;
  2. to exhibit an important interchange of human values, over a span of time or within a cultural area of the world, on developments in architecture or technology, monumental arts, town-planning or landscape design;
  3. to bear a unique or at least exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition or to a civilization which is living or which has disappeared;
  4. to be an outstanding example of a type of building, architectural or technological ensemble or landscape which illustrates (a) significant stage(s) in human history;
  5. to be an outstanding example of a traditional human settlement, land-use, or sea-use which is representative of a culture (or cultures), or human interaction with the environment especially when it has become vulnerable under the impact of irreversible change;
  6. to be directly or tangibly associated with events or living traditions, with ideas, or with beliefs, with artistic and literary works of outstanding universal significance. (The Committee considers that this criterion should preferably be used in conjunction with other criteria);
  7. to contain superlative natural phenomena or areas of exceptional natural beauty and aesthetic importance;
  8. to be outstanding examples representing major stages of earth’s history, including the record of life, significant on-going geological processes in the development of landforms, or significant geomorphic or physiographic features;
  9. to be outstanding examples representing significant on-going ecological and biological processes in the evolution and development of terrestrial, fresh water, coastal and marine ecosystems and communities of plants and animals;
  10. to contain the most important and significant natural habitats for in-situ conservation of biological diversity, including those containing threatened species of outstanding universal value from the point of view of science or conservation.

Vernazza in Cinque Terre Italy 310

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Vernazza in Cinque Terre Italy 310

Originally uploaded by JoeDuck

Not sure if I already blogged this picture, but the place I can’t stop thinking about on our Europe trip is Vernazza and the Cinque Terre. It really was a beautiful combination of scenery, solitude, great food, and old world charm that is hard to find, especially in the big cities where the frantic pace combines with the dirt and grime to make things interesting and stimulating, but not very relaxing.

I want to throw in a few tips for others travelling in Italy by train:

1. Italy seemed to have a greater number of late trains than other countries, so keep this in mind if you have tight connections. If there are frequent trains to your destination this won’t be a problem, but probably best to allow at least an hour transfer time if at all possible if you have “essential” connections such as for overnight trains.

2. Note that sometimes the “R” on timetables or other papers means “regional” rather than “reservation required”.

3. (NOT SURE ABOUT THIS AT ALL BUT….) Rail pass holders may be able to get on “Reservation Required” trains without a reservation if you are willing to stand up or sit in isles. Still not clear about this but some Canadians were doing this on a long stretch from La Spetzia to Rome after they were unable to get reservations.

4. In my opinion first class was generally not worth the extra fees we paid for those reservations. For example the wonderful X2000 trains in Sweden had a Eurail Supplement of 17 Euros for first class but only 7 euros for second class. This was nice and included free internet, fruit, coffee, and nicer seats, but for a 3.5 hour trip most people would probably be fine in second class and with the family this meant an extra 40 euros I could have better spent elsewhere.

5. Supplement fees will add up. Eurail passes do NOT cover reservation and supplement fees and you’ll run into a lot of those across the continent. Also, your cost for beds on overnight trains is not included with a Eurail pass. Expect about 3-10 Euros per trip reservation fees, and about 35 Euros per person for a “couchette” bed on overnight trains. More on train couchettes and overnight trains later.

Note: A special thanks to Eurail for the passes we used to take 26 trains from Norway to Italy and back on our amazing European Railroad Family Adventure.

Go USA

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Although we had a wonderful trip to Europe, with fewer problems and more great moments than I expected, it’s so great to be back in lovely Oregon USA.    Free water and free clean public bathrooms are only part of the charm and appeal.    Yesterday I headed down to our local grocery to pick up a few items and the conspicuous low prices compared to Europe were really remarkable.   I’ll never complain about US food prices again.    In Norway you can spend 80 on a single buffet meal, where here in the USA that will buy a *better* buffet meal for a whole family.       Norway was beautiful and I really enjoyed our stay, but the sticker shock of $12 for a hamburger and coke did detract a bit from the charm of that amazing country.    Norway is often listed as the best place in the world to live – I think in large part due to superb free health care and  free education systems – but one wonders how well those metrics include the benefits one enjoys from the dollar menu at McDonald’s and ubiquitous refrigerated water fountains.

Europe’s a great place to visit, but I’m glad to be living …. right here.

Health Care Costs

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Most of the European health care systems provide about the same care as the US at about half the cost.   This is extraordinary when you think about it, especially because  we in the US pride ourselves on innovation and cost effectiveness.    What’s up with this?    Still not at all clear to me, but I think a major part of our problem is our … freedom to choose combined with our political spending craziness.   When you ask people about allocating risks they tend to very foolishly think we should have “no risks” or at the least always be working to reduce risks.    This is not rational – we should actually be increasing some risks in our health care system when this increase in risk would lower the costs.    For example rather than spending a huge sum on care for a patient in a coma with a very low chance of recovery we should allocate the money to improving inner city ambulance service times.      These types of decisions should be  practical / institutional / cost driven and not left to stressed individuals in hospital settings as we tend to do in USA.      It’ll take a lot more research to figure out the answer to my question however, which is how in the heck we can spend so much to get the same outcomes!

Here’s a nice article from Kaiser about the spiralling costs of US care, indicating that half the costs are now from hospital care: http://www.kaiseredu.org/topics_im.asp?imID=1&parentID=61&id=358

In France the pharmacy can prescribe antibiotics and other medications from easy to diagnose conditions.    This is a great cost innovation and I’m looking into why we don’t do this here, forcing patients to involve a high cost doctor when this is not needed at all for many ailments.