Ed. note: Andy Sundberg must be the only former US presidential candidate to celebrate his birthday by creating an Excel program we can all use to see just how long and valuable our time on Earth has been, since the day we were born. Happy number 69, Andy! And thank you for letting GenevaLunch share this delightful missive, sent to friends. The Excel file at the end is Andy’s, a game happily shared.

An additional bonus is that we now know that Andy, who is best known to many as the founder of American Citizens Abroad, was born on a truly special day, for on 6 January, over the centuries, the following have happened (credit goes to onthisday.com): the South Sea bubble was discussed, George Washington was married, Samuel Morse demonstrated the telegraph for the first time, the first commercial airplane flight took place, South Vietnam and the US launched a major offensive, known as Operation “Deckhouse V”, in the Mekong River delta, Britain recognized the Communist government of China – and the comic strip Peanuts debuted.

By Andy Sundberg, born 6 January 1941 in Hoboken, New Jersey

69 and All’s Well

An intergallactic report card

Birthdays are those special occasions when we can generously and gratuitously grant ourselves a brief indulgence to step back for a moment to reflect on the meaning of all this, and to contemplate what, if anything, we might have accomplished so far.

Obviously, we are free to choose any parameters we want and make any kind of calculations we think might enhance the significance of any bold claims we might be tempted to make.

After quickly having to admit the embarrassing lack of anything of any great moment to boast about, my search for bragging rights wandered off in the direction of how many different kinds of frequent flyer credits I might have accumulated to date, as the bits and pieces of “me”, in carne this time, were carried along, gratis, as a passenger within our inter-galactic space-time continuum.

So, for what it is worth, here are my accomplishments as of 3pm (Hackensack, NJ time) on the 6th of January, 2010.

On My Watch: Data from my birth certificate suggests that I have now been breathing continually for a full 69 years, which translates to roughly 604,830 hours (throwing in the leap year bonuses), which also comes to about 36.3 million minutes, or 2.17 billion seconds. Now that’s quite a few heartbeats!

Spinning Around the Earth: At the latitude where I have spent most of my life, a spot on the surface of the Earth moves tangentially at a rate of 1,073 kilometers per hour as the Earth spins. So this means that I have now spun through 649 million kilometers around the Earth’s axis since I was born.

Orbiting Around the Sun: As a “year” is the word we have assigned to define one complete circular tour our Earth makes around the Sun, I have now completed 69 of these full solar orbits as a free passenger on Spaceship Earth.

Accumulating Solar Orbit Frequent Flyer Credits: As Spaceship Earth circles around the Sun at a speed of 107,100 kilometers per hour, I have now clocked up 64.78 billion kilometres in solar orbit.

But that’s not all:

Cruising Toward Hercules: Our solar system, carrying Spaceship Earth along as a free passenger, moves within our Constellation, which we call “The Milky Way”, in the direction of the stars and planets comprising the Constellation Hercules at a rate of 72,360 km/hr. So I have now traveled 43.76 billion kilometers from whatever we want to call the starting point in space where I was born onward in this Herculean pilgrimage.

But wait, there’s still more:

Mega-Cruising Toward Leo: Our entire Milky Way Constellation moves through space toward the Constellation Leo at a rate of 2.16 million kilometers per hour. So I have now travelled 1.30 trillion kilometers from wherever we were when I was born in an intergalactic safari pursuing this elusive lion.

After all of this space travel, I still feel remarkably refreshed, thanks to whomever it was who decided to let me travel first class this time around. My only frustration is that I still haven’t figured out how to cash in all of these myriad frequent flyer credits, and the library of new travel brochures is awesomely intimidating.

A Few More Facts about Our Little Space Ship

Planet Earth is the third in distance from the Sun and the fifth largest in diameter. The mean distance of the Earth from the Sun is 149,503,000 km (92,897,000 mi). It is the only planet so far known to support life, although some of the other planets have atmospheres and probably contain water.

The Earth is not a perfect sphere but is slightly oblate, or flattened at the poles. The diameter of the Earth, as measured around the North and South Poles, is about 42 km (26 mi) less than the diameter of the Earth measured around the equator.

The Earth in Motion

The Earth and its satellite, the Moon, move together in an elliptical orbit about the Sun. The eccentricity of the orbit is slight, so that the orbit is virtually a circle. The approximate length of the Earth’s orbit is 938,900,000 km (583,400,000 mi), and the Earth travels along it at a velocity of about 107,100 km/h (about 66,000 mph).

In common with the entire solar system, the Earth is moving through space at the rate of approximately 20.1 km/sec or 72,360 km/h (approximately 12.5 mi/sec or 45,000 mph) toward the Constellation of Hercules.

The Milky Way galaxy as a whole, however, is moving toward the Constellation Leo at about 600 km/sec or 2,160,000 km/sec (about 375 mi/sec or 1,350,000 mph).

The Earth rotates on its axis once every 23 hr 56 min 4.1 sec (based on the solar year). A point on the equator therefore rotates at a rate of a little more than 1600 km/h (about 1000 mph), and a point on the Earth at the latitude of Portland, Oregon (45° north), rotates at about 1,073 km/h (about 667 mph).

The Earth’s Vital Statistics

Equatorial circumference – 40, 076.5 km (24, 902.4 miles)
Polar circumference – 40,008.6 km (24,860.2 miles)
Equatorial diameter – 12,756.34 km (7,926.42 miles)
Polar diameter – 12,713.54 km (7,899.83 miles)
Total surface area – 510,100,000 sq. km (196,950,000 sq. miles)
Volume – 1,083,230,000,000 cubic km (259,880,00,00 cubic miles)
Average density – 5.52 (water = 1)
Mass – 5.98×10^21 metric tons
Average temperature – 14C (57F)
Highest temperature – 58C (136F)

So Now You Know!!

And Now You Can Calculate Your Own Travel Results Too

If you want to calculate your own travel results so far, you can use the Birthday Calculator. Don’t touch anything except the number in the blue box at the top. Put in the number of years you have accomplished so far and the rest will calculate automatically.

Anyway, all the best and I hope you will enjoy the rest of this very welcome New Year 2010.

It was purely coincidence, but on Monday afternoon I had just finished writing on my other blog Living in Nyon about looking for property in the Nyon area, when I then went into the town and saw the afternoon shoppers looking up into the sky.

The reason, a helicopter delivering scaffolding and gradually lowering it onto the building that houses the Old Droguerie right in the centre of Nyon.

Read more…

Over 60,000 candles were lit by volunteers on Saturday night in the grounds of the Chateau of Prangins. The reason: to mark the 10 years the chateau has been the home of the Swiss National Museum.

Luckily there was no rain or wind on the night, the air was crisp and clear and when nightfall came, the thousands of tiny tea lights glowed in the courtyard, in the gardens, and around the trees in the grounds.

Read more…

Suzy

Last night was by far the best of the week. Arriving early we went off to La Ruche where I wanted to watch my friend in a circus show. Ecole Atelier Shanju is a circus/horse riding/theatre school based in Ecublens, and they put on a fantastic spectacle at 4pm yesterday in the circus part of the Paleo. Juggling whilst standing on horses, drumming, balancing off hoops and acting, they pulled off an impressive show in the late afternoon heat.

Read more…

Suzy

My new red Hunter wellies finally got to see some real festival weather. After losing my flats into the mud last year, I decided to acquire some real glastonbury style footwear, but had no chance to sport them due to the heat until yesterday. We arrived under threatening clouds at around 7pm, and sure enough the heavens opened around 8.30. We danced to a Brazilian drumming band in the Dome called Olodum, which was quite a spectacle of crazy hairstyles, hip shaking, giant drums, and classics such as “No Woman No Cry” sung in Portuguese. The Dome was packed, an unusual sight as the Village du Monde bands usually have trouble filling the tent, however I think its fair to say that we haven’t come across one single bad band in the Dome this year.

Read more…

Suzy

A slight delay in the posting of this blog is due to the stupid time we got to bed last night, and consequentially the fact that we got up an hour ago. I distinctly remember my clock reading 6.10AM before I closed my eyes.

Read more…

Suzy:

”We are the first band opening the Paleo. Obviously, this is all wrong, it’s like having dessert before dinner, the orgasm before sex, but anyway, we say good morning to you paleo, ARE YOU READY?!”

Read more…

Every Easter the fountains around Nyon are decorated by local schools, voluntary groups and organisations. From down near the lake, to up into the old town, you can find chicks, eggs, rabbits and flowers amongst all the displays.

One group used just painted plastic bottles for their work of art, a good way to recycle and very effective too.

There are fifteen fountains decorated in total, go check them out and Happy Easter!

I ended my last blog entry with astonishment at the happiness level of the people of Bhutan as measured by Adrian White at
the University of Leicester in the UK. Bhutan shares the 4th happiest country in the world position with Brunei, Canada, Ireland and Luxembourg. Bhutanese live 20 to 25 years less, earn a fraction of the yearly wealth and have half the literacy rate of these countries. This defies Professor White’s theory that happiness is the result of abundant health, wealth and education.

So why are Bhutanese so
happy?

Professor White suggests that Bhutan’s strong national identity, their beautiful scenery and intact culture explains their
high level of happiness.

Bhutan’s national identity is fiercely protected by the government, which is famous for
it’s Gross National Happiness policy.

Bhutan strictly enforces annual
limits to the number of tourists who can visit. In 2007, about 21,000 tourists
entered the Kingdom and the government sees little reason to increase this
number. The stated reason for this, according to a  tourist website is to “avoid the negative impacts of
tourism on the culture and the environment.” Tourists need to be on a guided
tour for the duration of their visit.

The tiny kingdom, about the size of Switzerland is surrounded by the beautiful Himalayan mountains which both isolates and protects it from the outside world and makes travel difficult at best. Television and
internet was only allowed throughout the country starting in 1999 and is government controlled. Television program are allowed based on what increases a person’s happiness. The government recently decided that watching MTV and World Wide Wrestling do not make people happier so they were taken off the air.

Buddhism has been the dominant religion in Bhutan since the 7th century. The Bhutan Tourism Corporation Ltd.
website states that Buddhism “has inculcated deeply the value that all forms of
sentient life, not just human life, are precious and sacred.” This statement
conflicts drastically with the government’s expulsion of over 100,000
Nepali-speaking Lhotshampas in the early 1990’s. The Lhotshampas practice the
Hindu religion. The 1988 census revealed that the Nepali’s constituted 45% of
the population  in Bhutan,
threatening to become the majority. The Lhotshampas have been exiled in Nepal and
confined into seven refugee camps for the past 15 years. A detailed history of
their situation is found on the UNHCR site.

Hindus are not the only devalued religious group in Bhutan. Bhutan4Christ is a website
which details the struggles that Christians have experienced in Bhutan.

Yesterday the BBC reported that the first group of
Bhutanese refugees were being resettled in the US and New Zealand.

Perhaps they will find freedom to practice the religion of their choice in
these countries.

After 15 years in a refugee camp, perhaps they will finally find
happiness.

More chocolate festival photos in the GenevaLunch "Versoix, Switzerland Chocolate Festival" photo album.

"Go on, only a few hundred calories!"

Paradise if you love the stuff and don’t have to worry about your weight, but purgatory if you do.

Everywhere you turn in this annual festival there are stall holders offering their wares, tempting visitors with plates of little squares of chocolate, all too good to resist.

There are also vendors with chocolate fish, chocolate rabbits, chocolate fountains, chocolate for children, dark rich chocolate for adults sold in dark, rich sophisticated boxes. Cakes with chocolate, ice cream with chocolate, chocolate covered apricots, chocolate in boxes from every cocoa bean producing country in the world. A chocoholics delight.

This annual chocfest in Versoix is very popular, so it is also very busy. The queue for the free visit to the Faverger chocolate factory was so long I couldn’t be bothered to wait. Maybe I missed the sight of Oompa Loompas operating the machinery or sailing on rivers of chocolate, but never mind.

There are other attractions laid on for visitors such as a "choco" train, balloons, food stands, and the obligatory Swiss band to entertain the crowds. This is a good day out for a family albeit a bit of a chaotic one. The chocolate tents can get quite squashed at peak times, so I would advise next year go early to enjoy it at its best. This way you can try all the varieties on offer in peace, even if you have to live off salad for the following few days.