”Helt python?”

3 meter lang var den iallfall. Slangens fulle navn følger rett nedenfor:

Python reticulatus (Broghammerus reticulatus*2) (Reticulated Python)
Thai: (ngoo leuam)

Den fikk skikkelig kraftig tak rundt foten min, noe jeg ikke hadde våget om slangen ikke var tjoret fast med tau.

Kyllingen på bildet hadde vært en halvmeter inne i slangen før den ble gulpet opp. Da var den død.

”Mye vind på Khao Sadao”

Alt for mye vind for PG, men startbart med HG-en som jeg først får i begynnelsen av september. Nå har det vært omtrent 4 uker med vind på 10 sekundmeter og mer. Når skal dette roe seg ned, lurer jeg på?

I går blåste det for mye. Hele natten var det kraftig vind som pulserte fra null vind til mer enn 10 sekundmeter (bølgevind?), og det bare fortsatte på morgenen. Det var derfor bare å dra hjem.

"Khao Sadao i morgen og lørdag"

selv om det er meldt mye vind av litt for vestlig retning. Men man vet aldri hvordan været oppfører seg (det er kan hende et menneskelig trekk).

Om det ikke blir flyging, treffer jeg muligens denne nette lille fyren på bildet.

”Nattsvermeren hadde nettopp forlatt puppen”

og satt og tørket vingene da den lot seg fotografere. Morgenen etter var den fløyet. Den lille grønne kulen er trolig et egg fra samme art. Skal følge med hvordan det egget utvikler seg fra dag til dag. En annen av mine flyvenner, en nett liten sak på noen få millimeter, holdt til på et blad like ved.

”Motorsykkel med spesielle løsninger”

ut fra oppskriften ”man tager det man haver”. Det viktigste er vel at den går, men det er mulig det er greit med hjelm, hvilket de færreste her i området bruker. Forståelig at motorsykkelen ikke har skilter.

”Does man have a free will?”

was what Atle was pondering about while running in the evening. The air was humid (100 % humidity?) and hot (more than 34 degrees for sure). Even before running while putting on shorts and shirt his body got soaking wet.

Running is kind of easy when you have started. You lift you back foot, moves it forward, and suddenly your back foot is your front foot. If you don’t do this foot interchange while moving on you will fall, and who wants to fall and make a mess out of everything? Maybe someone is watching, too?

The question about having a free will concerning running is a practical one, NOT a theoretical one. There is action involved. At least that is what is Atle’s opinion. All actions have a start and a practical output. As for starting running and finishing running Atle thinks his free will is involved, but while running one foot is put in front of the other automatically. No will is involved at all.

Does that go for other actions as well?

As for himself Atle WANTS very much to have a free will, to be able to choose without anyone pushing him. He likes to imagine his free will is balancing on top a fulcrum and that it is only up to him which side will go up or down.. But is it so?

Some examples from real life:

1. Someone hits you from the back. It hurts!!! You hit back without thinking. Where is the free will?
2. You eat your food – it tastes terrible, and you stop eating automatically. Where is the free will? You force yourself to eat in spite of the bad taste – now may be your free will is present. But Atle guesses you eat because you are hungry, or because you want to be polite, or because of  mulltiple other reasons.
3. You want to fly using your free will. You cannot because of gravity. Your free will cannot abolish the laws of nature.
4. You come to a crossroads. You don’t know if you are to go left or right. You make a haphazard choice and go right. Where is the free will when you choose haphazardly? Or may be it is only when you choose haphazardly that the free will is involved, when there is nothing that pushes you in one or another direction?

Look at the problem ”does man have a free will?” this way. Why is it important if we have a free will or not? Is it to distinguish us from all the ”lower” creatures in this world, that is all other living species except homo sapiens sapiens (the religious point of view)? Is it about responsibility for our actions (the legal point of view)?

While Atle is pondering about this he suddenly realizes that his running feet has brought him back home. Soaking wet! Time for a cold shower. His head feels overheated. The cold shower in the tropics, however, is not really cold.

More about free will on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_will

”Meteorogrammet fremover: Vind, vind, vind – og regn”

Måtte bare ta en titt for å se om det kunne være aktuelt med flyging til helgen. Det er nok bare å glemme, ja.

”Thinking about paramotoring – but no!”

These days the morning inversion kills the wind. Just after sunrise, however, the wind descends, making havoc of scant plans about flying,

The meteorogram shows winds of 30-40 knots from 900 millibar and upwards to 500 millibar.

Better stay grounded!

”Om problemarter i norsk natur”

 Det opereres med en svartliste som er laget av Artsdatabanken - http://www.artsdatabanken.no/frontpageAlt.aspx?m=2

Atle mener at Artsdatabanken må ha oversett eller glemt noe vesentlig og vedlegger her et bilde av et eksemplar av den arten som burde toppet svartlisten. Eksemplaret vinker muntert i solbrilleglasset og vet nok ikke helt hvor farlig han er…

”Not of This World?”

was the question that popped up in my mind while sitting on the Sky Train in Bangkok, Krung Thep, or the City of Angels.

They looked like zombies. And there were lots of them. I got this weird feeling. For what I knew they could be addicts. But what kind of drugs – heroin, cannabis, alcohol?

What were they doing? Then I saw. They were caressing some small digital devices with their finger tips. I-phones or sometning similar? Stroking them as you stroke a small pet, a cat or whatever.

”Sykle om kapp med skyene”

er ikke lett når de beveger seg med 40-50 km i timen. Samme farten i går da noen PG-piloter forsøkte å narre meg til å dra til Khao Sadao. Men greit med en sykkeltur selv om jeg tapte mot skyene i dag.

”Strong wind and turbulent at Khao Sadao”

in the weekend. I got two short interesting flights on Saturday. Sometimes my ground speed was negative. In addition the wind direction was very much along the hillside when you got some meters up. Not very much lift when the wind is blowing along the hang.

During the first flight I suddenly got the option of top landing. Which I did.

The second flight was very much up and down. 5 meter and more a second down. A moment later it went up more than 5 meter a second. The wing was nervous at the wing tips and you could not relax very much (and that’s what I like to do when flying).

Top landing was difficult. On the way down quite close to the ground the ground speed was positive and negative. Pressing the speed bar as far out as possible and still not very much penetration I decided to go for the small main landing. Quite a lot of wind down there, too. More than I expected.

We slept on top of the mountain after eating sitting by the fire. For some reason in Norway you cannot make a fire in summertime as you could do some fifty years ago. Here in Thailand it is up to you if you take care. Nice sitting by the fire listening to the cicadas. Temperature 25 to 30 degrees and a smooth breeze makes you feel veeeery comfortable.

”Khao Sadao again”

The weatherforecast is promising so we leave for Khao Sadao tomorrow morning. The rainy season has started but I hope the heavy thunderstorms take a break in the weekend.