Savor the pun. Let it melt on your tongue: “Behind Bars of Chocolate”. Yes, it is fully loaded.

This video reminds me of a documentary that I watched a couple months ago about the global economy. I strongly recommend it – “Let’s Make Money”.

http://sploid.gizmodo.com/cocoa-farmers-trying-chocolate-for-the-first-time-is-a-1612726978?utm_campaign=socialflow_gizmodo_facebook&utm_source=gizmodo_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow

Israel routinely references the Holocaust as a reason for the way it acts and feels, but I wonder how victims of the Holocaust would feel if they could see what Israel is doing today.

If we could go back and conduct interviews in concentrations camps and ghettos, and describe the inhumane and vengeful treatment of the people in Gaza I wonder what opinions we would hear.

If Israel and its supporters conducted this simple exercise, whatever came out of their mouths next would reveal their true character.

See the article below:

The reality is that for this very reason, heads of state and heads of large companies do not travel together. World leading specialists should consider taking these measures to avoid such a massive blow to initiatives of this magnitude. The coordination, while inconvenient on the individual scale, and more tedious to manage, may very well need to be considered by organizing bodies. This undoubtedly extends to subject matter experts in business and other arenas, where decades if not centuries of collective and specialized knowledge have been amassed in one space. The related guiding principle may take the form of simple questions: How can this aggregated knowledge be replaced? By whom? By when? The guidance should not be dictated by probability, but by consequence.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/18/aids-conference-says-100-researchers-may-have-been-on-board-crashed-plane

As many as 100 of the world’s leading HIV/Aids researchers and advocates may have been on the Malaysia Airlines flight that crashed in Ukraine, in what has been described as a “devastating” blow to efforts to tackle the virus.

Delegates to a plenary session held ahead of the Aids 2014 conference were told that email exchanges showed about 100 attendees were booked on the MH17 flight. The plane was downed in eastern Ukraine by what the US and Australian governments have described as a surface-to-air missile.

There was no official confirmation of the number of researchers on board.

There were no survivors among the 298 people on the flight, which was bound for Kuala Lumpur from Amsterdam. The Aids 2014 conference, due to start on Sunday, is being held in Melbourne.

“There’s a huge feeling of sadness here, people are in floods of tears in the corridors,” Clive Aspin, a veteran HIV researcher who attended the pre-conference plenary session in Sydney, told Guardian Australia. “These people were the best and the brightest, the ones who had dedicated their whole careers to fighting this terrible virus. It’s devastating.”

Prof. Richard Boyd, director of the Monash Immunology and Stem Cell Laboratories, told Guardian Australia he was “gutted” by the losses.

“There were some serious HIV leaders on that plane,” he said. “This will have ramifications globally because whenever you lose a leader in any field, it has an impact. That knowledge is irreplaceable.

“We’ve lost global leaders and also some bright young people who were coming through. It’s a gut-wrenching loss. I was involved in the aftermath of 9/11 in New York and it brings back that level of catastrophe.

“But the Aids community is very close-knit, like a family. They will unite and this will galvanise people to strive harder to find a breakthrough. Let’s hope that, out of this madness, there will be new hope for the world.”

Trevor Stratton, an HIV/Aids consultant, told the ABC: “The cure for AIDS may have been on that plane, we just don’t know. You can’t just help but wonder about the kind of expertise on that plane.”

A number of leading scientists, including a former president of the International AIDS Society (IAS) who has led HIV research efforts since 1983, are believed to be among the dead.

Organisers of Aids 2014, which is set to welcome about 14,000 delegates from around the world, said they were unable to officially confirm the number of people on MH17 who were due to attend the conference. The organisation said in a statement: “The IAS is hearing unconfirmed reports that some of our friends and colleagues were on board the flight and if that is the case this is truly a sad day.”

The president of the IAS, Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, told a prearranged event in Canberra that the deaths “will be a great loss to the HIV/Aids communities. If confirmed, it would be a terrible loss for all of us. I have no words really to try to express my sadness; I feel totally devastated if it is confirmed.”

IAS said the conference would go ahead as scheduled. Former US president Bill Clinton and activist Bob Geldof are due to speak.

The executive director of the Australian Federation of Aids Organisations, Rob Lake, said: “This morning’s news is absolutely tragic and will be felt throughout the conference and worldwide.

“The people we have lost have played critical roles in the global fight against HIV.”

This needs no introduction, description or analysis from me. Watch. Listen. Think. Feel.

I have had so much to say in the last weeks that ironically I’ve said none of it. I spent two weeks in Europe: Paris, Luxembourg, Berlin, Munich, Zurich, Geneva.. I learned a lot, saw tons, met people and took many pictures. I’ll post them at some point. The art on the Berlin Wall was certainly one of highlights.

Among the things I learned: The French unions enjoy going on strike. I also had my 132 day streak of Spanish on Duolingo snapped, not because I didn’t do it, but because the cafe outside the train station had spotty service and the app let me continue with the exercise and told me I was done with it. It didn’t register the completion though, so just like that… it was time.

Yesterday was the first day that I did no Spanish since the last week of January. I have been doing French instead. For a few days prior, I had been doing both. I’ll continue with daily language exercises for the foreseeable future.

Also learned: Switzerland is expensive. So much so that a return to NYC felt like a small town visit rife with discounted fare. $30 hamburgers at the bar are obscene, and the one I had was about as bland as could be. Disappointing on all counts. Other than that Switzerland was enjoyable in many ways. I met good and interesting people who I’m sure I’ll continue to be in touch with and see as we are able.

I realized that for each of the last two world cups I was in Europe for at least a part. I enjoy being around people who appreciate the game and have investment in their teams and countries.

I had an extremely information conversation with a Fortune 200 CEO who was kind enough to engage me about my career. Her advice was poignant, but like any workout, I was exhausted by the end. Figurative and emotional sweat. More work to do..

I painted today for the first time in a long while..

That’s it for now. I had a good weekend, in case you wanted to know..