In the wonderful “Ship of dreams” I read that 10 people that survived the Titanic died by their own hand later in life. I instantly explained this to me that the tragic event must have tarnished their life.
Turns out that the overall rate of suicide compared to other reasons of death is 1.4%. Since 705 people survived the disaster the statistics would predict exactly that amount of people.
Anne Haeming schreibt in der Taz über Luc Besson’s “Der Profi”, und – Überraschung – in den letzten 26 Jahren hat sich vieles geändert. Die “Kritik” is brav mit #Me too verhashtagt. Aber wirklich neues fördert Frau Heaming nicht hevor. Man wird das Gefühl nicht los das der Film jetzt irgendwie schlimm sein soll. Die Autorin endet mit:
Leute, diesen Film anschauen, einfach so: Das geht längst nicht mehr.
Aha. Nun wissen wir das also. Also was machen? Umerziehen nach dem (versehentlichen) betrachten? Schwarze Balken? Schauspieler per KI ins der jetzigen Kultur entsprechenden Alter setzen? Das ganze Werk gleich in den Giftschrank. Neben Riefenstahl ist noch Platz.
Das Problem dieser Kritik ist, das sie schreibt als gäbe es irgendwo einen objektiven Maßstab von dem was geht, und was nicht geht. Den gibt es natürlich auch: Wenn etwas Leiden verursacht dann ist es bedenkenswert. Sollte meistens vermieden werden.
Ob nun jeder die Brutalitäten dieses Films sehen muß ist vielleicht fraglich. Aber diesen Film jetzt pauschal via ist-me-too zu verurteilen ist lächerlich. Und eine Indikation der Zeit. In nochmal 26 Jahren wird diese Kritik selbst in der kritischen Betrachtung stehen. Der Film wird dann als Zeitzeugnis bewertet werden. Nicht mehr. Nicht weniger. Bis dahin gucke ich ihn dann einfach an. Einfach so.
The Iranian city of Natanz is in the news again. The original stuxnet is still a marvel of technology and creativity. That a Siemens controller was the victim back than does not surprise at all.
Sky News actually wonders if there is a larger pattern of things blowing up in Iran during recent weeks.
Chuck Close turns 80. Good for him. I am not a fan. There are lots of artist that bore me more, yes. His painterly pixelations are pleasing and highly repetitive. It used to be a goal for people to sit for him.
In the beginning his way of showing people was interesting. He did not really develop from there. But that is sometimes exactly what you need to be successful as an artist: Not to confuse the market with different things you might care about. If Chuck ever did is not clear.
Among the more than a million people that died last week were Milton Glaser and Charles Webb. Each of which created single works that grew into cultural icons of American culture in the late 60s. Bookending a time by the novel of a 24 year old and the logo made by a 48 year old that emerged 14 years apart, shows that structuring the past into numerical decades has its inherent problems. 60s is more like a label than a match for a digit column on the calendar.
Looking at the lives of both creators is interesting in itself. Seeing how the works ‘that they are known for’ influenced them is also also worth studying.
There is this romantic notion of the artist and the work forming a unity. One that really gets stretched once a work falls into the amplification black hole at the very center of public culture. The work explodes in its importance. Once it is in everybody’s head it creates its own references and connections. Robert Altman decided to open his more than watchable 1992 movie “The Player” opens with a pitch of a Graduate sequel.
Likewise I❤NY is a staple of every T Shirt shop, not only in the five boroughs.
It is a very specific challenge for the people who made works that got this much attention. As Webb and Glaser showed it can be approached in many different ways.
Much like not just a few among the million dead had specific interpretations and memories of the movie and the emblem. All of which are gone now.
The first realistic rendering of a human in a computer I even laid eyes on got created by Chris Jones in Australia. If Intel would have any sense then they would give him everything he needs so that he can make a super bowl spot.
It is much easier for a director to dial in some emotions on an “Eckman board” rather than trying to coax them out of a drugged up little twat being full of itself. CAA better get their sh*t and required legislation together.
It will take a little while, but this WILL be a big deal: Completely artificial movies that just look like reality.
4 months after I moved I connected the BluRay player. Turns out it was worth it: “Save the Tiger” is worth watching.
wanting watch sar run in a terminal in linux indefinitely one can start it with
sar 1 0
The first number indicates the sampling time in seconds. The second number is usually the number of samples you like ot see.
If this number is 0 then sar will not stop. And as another bonus will look at how large the terminal is and will display a new header
accordingly.
Command line can be user friendly. I really like those little gems that show up in all software: People spending their time to make something better. It is like a little gift to the world. With software the value of even a little detail can potentially be significant. Which is an awesome thing.
For all we know it might very well be that the feature described here will please people in a hundred years from now.
I don’t think that mankind will manage to drop unix at this point. Neither can it give up on the use of steel. Yes there might be new systems, much like there have been new materials.
The new gets all the attention. But in many cases the new will not replace the old entirely. Only journalists tend to think that way. In reality the findings of Mr Newton help Boeing and Airbus today to build tubes with wings that shuttle people around the globe close to the sound of speed.
Watching “Fight Club” again today is a strange and very interesting experience.
So much has changed since the book / film came out. It is clearly set in a different epoch.
Its character ‘Tyler Durden’ says:
God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables; slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need. … We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off.
It seemed fitting at the time. What happened since then?
Many of those jobs are gone. People in that slice of society
make less money today. Sometimes even in absolute dollars.
Certainly corrected for inflation. In the same time the share
of the upper sliver of society on the other end of the wealth
distribution has nothing but exploded.
So why seems the portrayed unrest even further removed
from reality than less than a score years ago?
The answer might lie in the proliferation of computer games and the Internet
during that time.
Both soak up all that extra male testosterone and time that would
otherwise find not much constructive application in the world of 2013.
Oh, and it looked absolutely awesome. I miss movies shot on film.
It is time that we start taxing sugar. R. Lustig and C. Brindis published a very compelling opinion piece in the current issue of Nature. (Vol 482)
It is ALSO high time that Nature stops paywalling ALL articles. Op pieces like this one SHOULD be public on the net.
Science and Nature are both on this idiot pay-wall trip. They need to get over that.
The should be ways so that they have their content online for all and still give extra for people that pay now for the content.