Schokine’s Portal

Recently I had a discussion about NGOs acting against unnecessary animal experimentation. There was one argument that those NGOs should help humans in need instead of animals, since there is already enough suffering within our own species. I could not agree but neither could I convince him otherwise.
So I caught a simple thought: If an old woman stumbles in front of you, would you not help her to stand up and make sure she is not injured, only because an undernourished child is crossing by (and would be out of sight after helping the old woman) who you could feed now for some weeks so she/he can gain weight again?
Since I was not able to find a consensus to this topic, I will end this story for today with an open question. Why should one not concentrate on a problem at hand, only, because there are others everywhere around?

Some impressions of our 3-day trip to Istria for diving, beneath,
and dayly trip for biking, above – MY NEW NEW BIKE!

Letztens wurde mir die Frage gestellt “Kann es sein, dass Enzyme extrahiert aus Tieren zur Herstellung von Halloumi verwendet wird?”

Zur Herst. v. Halloumi:
Im Unterschied zu anderen Käsesorten wird Halloumi bei der Prod. länger gekocht, wodurch Lab u.a. Enzyme inaktiviert werden und dadurch laut Beschreibung der feste Halt des Käses entstehen kann. Siehe hierzu meinen aelteren Artikel über Käse-Bakterien!
Wie bei allen Käsesorten ist Lab unumgänglich, und gerade dieses muss gentechnisch hergestellt bzw. aus Mägen von geschlachtete Wiederkäuern gewonnen werden. Angeblich ist in manchen Ländern gentechnisch gewonnener Lab noch nicht erlaubt. Wie weit dies nun wahr ist, will man als Vegetarier besser nicht wissen …

* Replacement * Reduction * Refinement *

for further information see:

Some impressions of our 4-day trip to Carinthia for biking

Last week I have been to a introductionary workshop on high resolution respirometry (HRR) at Schröcken, a vacation paradise in the “Vorarlberger” mountains. During two afternoons we also had some time left for cross-country skiing next to oxymetric measurements. It has been a great experience and nice time with many different researchers from all over the world.

Last three weeks I was wandering through China, starting from Shanghai, over Putoshan, Hangzhou, Xian, Lyoang to Beijing, enjoying great sites, a fascinating and sometimes weird experience. Though I took a Chinese language course for a semester, there was no way of communication without body language and hand signals, since most Chinese did not even try to understand my words and their English is even more incomprehensible.

Sticking out of the crowd is really easy. If u re an average European, u are long-nosed, your hair shows other colors than black and u ll be about the tallest person in any crowd. But size is not everything, Chinese also show different behavior. Spitting is tolerated everywhere, even on the dinner-table, alike belching and similar stuff.

While having a snack during the day, one could come across some Chinese sleeping at lunch or dinner tables. Chinese menus look about the same over the day. It does not matter if u have breakfast, lunch or dinner, u will get noodles or rice. But as a vegetarian u should be aware, that only a tiny number of Buddhist don t eat meat or fish and less than a tenth of Chinese are Buddhists. So every standard vegetables offered at a Chinese restaurant will be mixed up with meat some-how.

What about the question of how much Chinese fit into an elevator? If u thought GVB are cramped during rush-hour than u should try Chinese metro! Everywhere in town there are crowds of people, pushing their arms and elbows against your rips without apologizing. Anyway, waiting lines do not exist, so if u re waiting for a free toilet. u will have to compete with Chinese and the quickest one will win. Europeans could also have problems with Chinese toilet build, but there are probably the reason for old Chinese people to stay fit (otherwise it is TaiChi).

After riding a road-bike equipped with an aluminium frame for the last few weeks, I upgraded to advanced-grade composite with a carbon fork and seatpost in order to reduce vibration generated by bumpy roads while increasing the comfort during cycling. This weekend I will test it at the bike marathon in Wildon.

I joined the red cross more than a year ago, and I also passed the exam to paramedic in july. Since then I am allowed to decide over and rescue lives, while working for the ambulance once a week.

Starcraft 2 – beta version at least! We were waiting over a decade for the release of this future strategy game’s sequel. This summer it is finally happening! And all – except of me – have obtained access to the beta version – let’s see how long I can resist till the official release in july …