Category: unkategorisch

It seems that the BALLOT OATH sheet that you might find with your mail by vote Ballot is one that you only need to fill out if you indeed FAX your ballot.

Better check the rest of the Internet to figure out if this is true.

Writing it here, since the paper that says BALLOT OATH and LARC20210001 INST MILOS E starts the explanation with:

In choosing to return your ballot by fax or mail, …

The “or mail” made me believe that even if I mail in the bail I would need to fill it out. While the instructions that came with the ballot did not mention that form to be included.

But, as I said: better check the rest of the Internet for better and more substantial information on this. Why the form is non-conclusive? Well. Lawyers. Not enough of them… [joke].

That Apple eventually will buy Headspace is pretty much a given. Of course I have no insight knowledge. But those two line will converge is pretty clear: Headspace is in the business of being good to its users. They benefit from their users making progress. Real progress. Not some fake Instagram like jolt to some addictive pattern. They seem to invest into content. Branching out into different areas. Sure you can easily obtain background noises to create an ambiance that matches your state by other means. But if you have an app that you trust, then they are your goto destination. We carry computers with us all the time. They do not serve us as well as they could. They know how we move, sleep, eat (indirectly, but easy enough) etc etc. There is tremendously potential in utilizing these devices for our good. Not just to drain usage (eyeball hours) out of us.

For every dollar Mr Zuckerberg makes he creates human suffering. Google is the same. Yes both companies also provide services to their users that have a positive effect. But in terms of net sum human impact FB is horrible. Google has search, which provides tremendous value. And it keeps getting better. But they also steer the Internet in general not into the best direction: Adwords and Youtube incentivizes content creates alike in not the best of all directions. Millions of people get paid by google to create content that is ‘juicy’. Well to consume so that eyeballs no longer go to Insta or Tiktok or whatever grows in those nucks and crannies below the floorboards of decency. A true race to the bottom. Grinding up the minds of generations of people, for the mere objective of maintaining your shareholder value. Nothing Sergey and Larry set out to do. But in the end that is what became their business.

Apple never was able to swim in that pond. Whether by intention, or just because they missed the boat: They can not harvest money out of the users like others can. So they are stuck. Stuck in a good place. They can care about the data of their users. They sell phones. If people look less at them but be happier for it it is actually good for them.

For a couple of days my Samsung A10 nudged me into enabling “find my device”. Nudge is an understatement. It was highly annoying, since I could not find a clear way to disable the constant and random reminders. I am otherwise fine with my luddite device. Having 2 SIM cards for instance saves me schlepping 2 Apple devices around. But those couple of days of messages make me hate Samsung. Enough that my blood, although no longer boiling, raises its perceived temperature coming to think about this. My solution would have been to buy Apple phones. They are not perfect. But they will respect me. Much like if I am booking a 5 star hotel I know that it will be quite quiet at the pool. If am at the Tropicana in Palm Springs I don’t have that expectation.

Apple can not really make content. And if they do, it is really really expensive. They know that. Headspace can make content. And they know how to fill that niche. Disney can not produce a meditation tape. They could, but it would be expensive too. And not that good. And they lack the mindset of Headspace: One that looks around and tries to look for things that will be good for people.

There is a H U G E market there. Not squeezing people like lemons, but rather help them to be good. Good and Happy people are a value that is M A S S I V E if you would try to express it in money.

Headspace + Apple makes allot sense in that view.

… touch Earth each day. Only eight of them touched another planet as well: Buzz Aldrin, David Scott, Charles Duke and Harrison Schmitt are still among us.

Zooming into the right eye reveals that ‘restaurations’ took place at some point:

Still a nice picture. I also like Jenny Boot‘s version:

Expectations were low. Not only by means of the comical performance of 45. But also since Mr Biden is not exactly the poster child of vigor.

But whoever wrote his inauguration speech did really well. Also since it fit him. He was able to deliver it in coherence with his perceived persona. A President is a focus point of ideas. Of course it never matches the reality of a human being. An inherent schism that exists as long as the concept of leader does.

Boiling things down 45 had “America First” as the message, while 46 has “America Together”.

Overall the inauguration went really well. It was a fitting event for the transition from 45 to 46.

Lets hope that Richmond, Virginia stays peaceful. As of 1:14 PDT it seems to be. What happens today (or does not) will probably be instructive about what will happen on Wednesday.

Orange stains are hard to expunge. But worth the extra work, care and diligent effort …

EDIT: seems it all was peaceful. Which makes me think that January 6th will remain the first and last event of its kind. Which is good. For everybody.

He came down the escalator, then they ran up the stairs of the Capitol. That’s it. Over done. Page turned. Sure we still have lunacy running amok. Plenty off. But it no longer coalesces around an old man tweeting nonsense. Weird things will continue to pop up. But only up to the level of Birtherism. And Fox and the GOP might have learned a lesson in terms of what type of horse they put ahead of their cart. Engagement is all good and well, until it ends up in Jan 6th. Still need a name for that day. Save America Disaster? SAD? I am not good with that kind of thing. Obviously.

Corporate BS seems to have no limit. A pipeline vows to have zero Emissions. The purpose of said pipeline is it to get fossil fuels to where they get burned. In this case it is tar sands. As far as fossil fuels go tar sands are the most harmful Co2 offenders you could find. There is natural gas, which has more H to burn than Oil, and then there are tar sands who have a carbon foot print that is heinous.

This press release is the equivalent as hanging a motivational poster in the hallway of the colosseum that people passed on the way to their final stage.

The sad thing is that people don’t notice how ridiculous this pledge is.

In einer Krise der öffentlichen Gesundheit, wie zum Beispiel in einer viralen Pandemie, ist die Erzeugung von belastbaren Daten von hohem Wert.

Seit einem Jahr beschäftigt uns SARS-nCov-2 nun schon. Das Robert Koch Institut gibt es schon länger. Infektionszahlen geniessen darüber hinaus hohe Aufmerksamkeit in der Öffentlichkeit. Ver- oder Mißtrauen haben erhebliche Auswirkungen in der Akzeptanz.

In diesem Licht ist die derzeitige Qualität der Meldekette lächerlich:

Gestern gab es demnach 2 positive Tests in Rheinland Pfalz. Bei null könnte man ja denken dass das Faxpapier alle war. Aber 2?

Fish is the food that rather should not smell when you eat it. Which is a matter of timing depending on temperature those marine animal cadavers are kept in. I wonder if there will be dead fish around Downing Street. Probably not: The UK CCTV network is pretty dense. Easy to send the responsible parties the staggering clean up bill.

What used to describe fears of New Yorker partygoers last century describes today a random and odd coincidence: While Trump was President Apple Laptops were so shitty, that they featured a pointless touchbar and totally gave up on the idea ,that power cable should be unable to yank your device into the abyss when somebody stumbles over it.

There are signs that both Touchbar and Trump are history soon.