Category: unkategorisch

historic perspective

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4090 years ago: the fist Chinese dynasty gets established

2200 years ago: the first Chinese dynasty unifies the entire country

280 years ago: Ansons gun ships show up in Guangzhou

162 years ago: China looses the second Opium War. Forcing the country to let the UK sell opium in their country

Yesterday: China sends a barge with a sign, saying that the new security law is awesome for Hong Kong

In 29 years: China will be a ‘fully developed nation’. Also happens to be the 100 year anniversary of the founding of the Peoples Republic

Given the growth of China during the last decades they better slow down, since they might reach that goal ahead of time. Having a goal is very motivating for people. Eventually, people will realize that they are not happy either. Much like every ‘fully developed nation’ did so before. The dystopian surveillance system might have been matured so much by then, that people don’t even realize that they are not happy.

it’s your – no it’s yours

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China and USA throw the virus at each other. Helps nobody. Officially China had 83,553 infections in total. Of course their numbers are fake. But they would not be able to hide things if infections and deaths were on the scale of the US. Which has close to 3 million infected people now. A case load that is 155 higher per capita than the official number of China. Even if they had lied by 300% the US would still be 50 times higher!

I will miss her

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The 747 was always decidedly female for me. And I liked her. No not in a weird way. I really appreciated the distinctive shape. It had a grace and communicated size very pleasantly. I can still remember the first time: From Munich to Hannover. Messe. It was the 80s, so Lufthansas solution for lots of people wanting to fly that route that morning was simply to put the largest bird they had at the end of the gangway. Expecting a 737 it is a strange surprise to end up in a 747. After that I spent allot of time in that plane model. Never on a short trip like that though.

The A380 was without a doubt always the better ride, much calmer than even the latest -8 variant of Seattles product. But from the outside it had a significant problem. Current events would have grounded it regardless of its ill fated looks. However I am convinced that the A380 would have had better success if she would have sported a somewhat more acceptable appearance. Reaching the grace of the 747 would have been hard. That bird simply looked great in all angles and variations, regardless if it was the shortened -SP or any variation of top deck length: She stood alone during her reign of the civilian slice of the stratosphere. She will be missed.

Hotel Rooms

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Very interesting design idea. If reality is as nice as the Internet presentation is a different question. My experience to chase down tight presentations in reality has been mixed to say the least. Nevertheless I still hope that the “Screen Hotel” is still in business should I happen to be in Kyoto.

Vitra and VitrA

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Of course I knew about Vitra (vitra.com) – the furniture maker in Weil am Rhein. VitrA I had not heard about. I actually first liked the design of this, well, toilet. Turns out VitrA (vitraglobal.com) is a Turkish company. I have no idea why, but bathrooms in Turkey are on the highest levels I encountered. Up there with Switzerland. And, yes, I travelled quiet a bit, back when, we, well, were able to do so. And, yes, my body continued to do what it does when I was traveling.

A while ago Vitra cracked down on non licensed Eames products in Europe pretty hard. Luckily Modernica in LA seemednot to get impacted by it.

Usually confusion of brands with similar names is a big deal. Specially when the brand equity is as design heavy as it is without a doubt with Vitra. Even though they have considerable amounts of my money Vitra never lost the villain aspect completely with me. Probably not really justified. But I must admit to be happy about the fact, that the Vitra lawyers did not manage to stop VitrA from selling toilets under exactly that name.

Depicted here is a Vitra Memoria Vitraflush

Let’s get schwifty

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Teleprompters are hard. All those words – and they keep on coming. The real art lies in how you recover once your genius lost briefly control over your vocal cords.

Or maybe he just heard those looming heads above him say:

Show us what you got

Rick and Morty Season 2 Episode 5, original air date August 23, 2015

Dumm wie Harry Glawe

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Ich schlage vor eine Einheit für Dummheit einzuführen. Einen Namen hätten wir schon einmal dafür: Glawe. Abgekürzt Glw.

Wieviele Glw es genau sind die in undurchdachtem Unsinn wie

Wenn das Infektionsgeschehen so gering bleibt, 
sehe ich keinen Grund, 
länger an der Maskenpflicht im Handel festzuhalten

nun stecken ist aber eher zweitrangig. Das Mecklenpommern eine Wirstschaft hat wurde schon häufiger gemutmasst. Einen Wirstschaftsminister leistet sich das Küstenland jedenfalls. Und was für einen. Was er der Welt laut Tagesschau erzählte ist wirklich unglaublicher Unsinn.

Ja, Masken sind ein bisschen nervig. Aber sie funktionieren, und seine Wirtschaft leidet nicht wirklich unter der Maskenpflicht. Im Gegenteil: Viele Konsumenten konsumieren gerade weil sie sich sicherer fühlen wenn alle eine Maske tragen. Freiwilliges Maskentragen funktioniert nicht. Die 1000 Tönnies Covid-19 Mitarbeiter hätten zumeist keine Masken in Güterslohs Supermärkten getragen. Das die Rheumapatientin eine auf hat hilft ihr dann leider auch nicht. Das hätte sie dann bis heute in die Sterbestatistik eingereiht.

Also Harry hat hier einen echten Mega Glawen hingelegt. Zum Glück kann ich mir vorstellen das Manuela Schwesig ihm nun schnellstmöglich und energisch ins Gewissen reden wird. Oder um es im lokalkolorit auszudrücken:

Glawe muß weg

Nein. Das nicht. Diese Formulierung ist wirklich schlimm. Man darf so etwas nicht auf Leitplanken mit Filzstift schmieren. Egal wie dumm sich jemand auch verhält. Weg muss nie jemand. Da kann man sich einigen. Vielleicht sollte manche Leute ihren Mund halten. Oder sich einfach der Grenzen ihrer Kompetenzen bewußt sein.

“brotherly friendship”

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Good old propaganda is still around. Here it seems that the message 

China ❤ Ghana & Ghana ❤ China

should be conveyed. Just like in state propaganda before the language is wonderfully wooden and hollow.

The stark realities probably are not: Africa has been a prize in all global struggles ever since ships could carry large canons, slaves and other good. This time around it will be no different.

Colorado to Sardinia

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And back.

Gloomberg

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A piece from today that points to the lack of guidance from companies in the last 3 months:

If you ask me it makes sense. But I am waiting for a significant correction for quiet some while now. Like the broken analog watch shows the right time twice a day, my crash predictions will eventually come true as well. OK, this time its real. I could bore you with the arguments for that outcome. But maybe just remember that by the end of 2020 stocks will be much much much lower than they are right now.