4. Feb. 1999. Tomi Engel

The world is full of things that can make you laugh or cry. It does not take a famouse philosopher to find out that everything has two sides and that "good" can not exist without the "bad".

Here is a list of things thet got me thinking and which I would like to share with those who care.

Yang ... Mr. White

Yang: the masculine active principle in nature that in Chinese cosmology is exhibited in light, heat, or dryness and that combines with yin to produce all that comes to be. (Websters Dictionary)

• Douglas Adams. Reading "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy" is something everybody should have done in his life. Otherwise you will never find out about the magic and mystery of the number 42.

• Human Powered Vehicles. Getting from A to B with a bike or recumbent is still one of the most energy efficient ways of traveling. And if you really want to travel comfortable you definitly should testdrive a recumbent.

• The Dvorak keyboard. Another good example of how things could be made better is the Dvorak keyboard layout which makes touchtyping a lot mare comfortable. Sadly it is yet another example for human narrow minded "worse is better" philosophy. Everybody uses the brain dead QWERTY standard. Looking for details ?

• Sports. A good day out in the waves of a blue ocean or the perfect ride down a snowy hill really can give you a reality kick. Perhaps not as intense as your first bungee jump...but anyway. (Check out: The windsurf pages, Maui weather today, or the Burton site)

• Red Indian wisdom. A lot of good books are available to show you the simple, honest and wise way of the Native Americans. It should also remind us of yet another dark age in white mans history.
  There are places where we still have a chance to prove that we did learn from history: Brazil and the Yanonmami Indians; who soon might be history as well if we don't get involved.

• Asian philosophy. There is a lot one can learn from many of the old traditions of the far east. Chinese, Tibetan and Japanese philosophy and religion is worth thinking about: Lao Tse and his "Tao Te King"; Dalai Lama and his peaceful fight against China; Buddhism ...

It is not Virtual Reality...but its Real Reality with nature and friends which makes fun living. Perhaps we should not forget about a couple of these things while rushing through this world and cyber space.

Yin ... Mrs. Black

Yin: the feminine passive principle in nature that in Chinese cosmology is exhibited in darkness, cold, or wetness and that combines with yang to produce all that comes to be. (Websters Dictionary)

• Discrimination. Even today there are way too many places on this lanet where minorities or females are treated. If you feel like this is a bad thing, then join organisations like amnesty international.
  
  There have been people who flamed me, because to them the Ying-Yang philosophie is sexistic and ths page offended them. In this case, however, I think that we should not waste our energie on arguing about old Laotses schnick schnack, but we should try to get some real problems solved.
  

• Mircosoft. I don't have much to say here. The (officially none existing) monopoly of Microsoft just makes the herd buy whatever needs to be sold. This whole situation just sums up the way humans act in general. Join the herd...where is my shepherd!
  

• Lawyers. The world seems to be full of lawyers who are not making peoples life easier but just harder. They seem to be running in some kind of brain-dead-mode which can not be explained with simple logic. The frightening thing is that these guys are playing according to the rules.

  The recent court trial in the USA,
  
  

• Patents and Trademarks. Since lawyers are involved it is of little surprise that the world is also full of silly Patents and Trademarks. The computer industry is pretty active in this field. Just a few keywords from the top of my head: XOR patent, Java(TM) vs. coffee, multimedia idea patents, Triton vs. Tricon, etc.pp.

• Cryptographie Paranoia. Not only the government in the USA is freaking out when it comes to ... It looks like they all think, that making something illigal will keep terrorists from doing it. Pardon me, but this is such a fascinatingly stupid argument that it almost cries out for braking the law and becoming a kriminal by using strong encryption technologie for your mom birthday-email.

I will try to dig out the pointers to the detailed press releases as soon as I can...this stuff can really make you shake your head and wonder where the human race is heading for.

There are tons of famouse quotes but one of my favorite is what Mahatma Gandhi replied when someone asked him, what he thought about Western civilisation: "I think it would be a very good idea"