This and that are the same cut. Very same images. Feels a bit different. Somehow the first one appears as if somebody has scraped away a very very thin layer of happiness that had hastingly been applied over something truly horrifying. It is called the happiest place on earth. I am sure for some it still is. Disney runs deep in peoples minds. Not surprising since it is the iconography signifying ‘you are happy’ from earliest ages onwards.
It seems that the general public has discovered code and how people call things in there. Now we no longer can create master and slave processes, and have to call them director and performer instead.
Reflecting on how culture is using words is a worthwhile process.
This however is BS. A process is master, another is a slave. That analogy from ancient history makes perfect sense and the concept clear. If I find somewhere a reference to a performer I am not looking right away for a director. And what about ‘agent’, is that one related?
This change is well intended, but will backfire: If somebody uses classical nomenclature in code, does that now signal secret admiration for white supremacy?
Also: mainstream culture please stay out of our code. Your very absence is the reason why that darn stuff eventually works in the very end. Meetings have never solved anything …
Next stop: stop calling physical connectors male and female.
I stop reading books frequently. Just fall out of love while turning pages. Usually they go on the shelve. Maybe one day … Recently I started to abandon them. Makes more sense to me now: Very rarely have I seen something come around. Cases where the first quarter sucked, but then my life got altered in even the slightest way are far in between. They go into a box now. Which is probably not right either: Why should I clutter the world with bad things? Eventually somebody will find some books. And there they are: The good ones and the bad ones. All alike. But throwing a book in the trash is a weird thing that needs some getting used to.
At great resource is the site Covid Act Now. Looks like Arizona is at capacity with ICU beds. Hopefully Texas can avoid that fate. People were afraid of the winter, and thought that in the summer the epidemic would take a break. The epidemic does not seem to care about what people think. My explanation for the southern most states being so affected right now is that people congregate too close in public rooms that are cooled by AC. Arizona in July is pretty much indoor living like Minnesota is in January. Seeing all those red colored states is sad. There needs to be more green …
Annie Duke is a professional poker player. And she wrote a book with the complete title: “Thinking in Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When You Don’t Have All the Facts”. I enjoyed it a great deal. Yes, at times it feels a bit redundant. But I don’t mind: She points out important flaws in our reasoning. Hearing things more than once is OK with me. It’s not that I would live already what she points out. I had the good fortune to read “Lucky or Smart” by Bo Peabody 15 years ago. It is a great little book, and I really am thankful that I got to read it before I happened to have what people would call success.
“Thinking in Bets” has a broader scope. It looks at decision making and where we really and generally suck at it. She also points out what we can do about it. I like it. I hope to remember what I have learned.
For me the trouble with great books like this one is that I listen to it, understand most of it. Agree with it. Spend a couple of times to implement some things. And then next thing comes along. And the work leaves vestiges at best. I should probably listen to books again instead of jumping on new ones. But they are all so interesting …
Finished Dark. Glad we didn’t binge it. Glad we watched it. Glad I could watch it together with somebody who matters to me. Not sure if I would recommend it to somebody who is not with somebody. Glad we spent the money on a decent 4K OLED. At 77″ it is – with decently lensed content like this – actually on the small size. Glad that we got our telco to switch us away from the DSL sub station that we were on before. With the 15Mbit they sent us from there 4K didn’t fly. With H266 it eventually will as we have learned this week. But today it would not be enough.
Daᴙk is really worth watching I think. Jantje Friese and Baran bo Odar did an outstanding job in writing and directing it. Also in assembling an awesome cast and talented production designers, composers and all the other crafts one need to make such a tight piece. It is refreshing to watch something and not to know if I am just stupid and don’t get it, or if it is not known yet why something happens. I am looking forward to watching it again. There are still things that don’t make sense to me. Interesting to find out why I still don’t understand some aspects.
That Netflix makes large bets like this one is great. Lots of other, actually rather crappy, stuff they make as well. But then again, there is no Sendeplatz that it would take away from content like Daᴙk.
A deadline clip from 1998. Now hat we know the outcome it appears to be a rather strange piece. Back then it was not.
I oscillated between being worried and being totally calm in respect of my job. After I had set the date forward on the machines in question and they still worked I was not worried. There was a patch one could install so that one utility that nobody had ever heard of would continue to run. Somehow I ended being in charge for a specific slither of computer systems in next larger entity that owned us. I wasn’t very much liked, probably also since I was an arrogant a*hole, that even was right some of the time. So when I asked for a budget of zero peoples reaction were telling: They were convinced that come January 1st 2000 I would finally be a problem of the past. Didn’t happen for a while.
But when the road to our house was blocked for non residents January 31st I started to worry again: It eventually ended up at a drinking water reservoir. Where the authorities worried about drinking water for 16 million people? Actually not: They just didn’t want people to go up there for the fireworks. It came – it went. And sold lots of computers.
Of course January 19 2038 will be whole different matter.
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 recent changes as well: Durings its almost 1500 year long history the building has been eastern orthodox, roman christian, eastern orthodox again, muslim and secularized. It has survived iconoclasts, crusaders ( still not clear why exactly they sacked a Christian city at the Bosporus when they set out to liberate the holy land from muslims, but hey, middle ages make as little sense as times do today ) and muslim conquerers. Funny that Wikipedia titles it as the ‘fall of constantinople’ it was still there, just was run by different people. The walls of Constantinople did actually fall. Enough for things to have this outcome. But as far as walls are concerned they had a pretty darn good run.
In 17 years Hagia Sophia will be exactly 1500 years old. Erdogan will be a chapter in history books. Not one that many people will be proud off. The building, it will not care.
Since we have not been careful with our attention this is what we ended up with: Two presidential candidates. One from the Republican, the other from the Birthday Party (Not a joke by me). As Plastic Jesus says:
STOP
MAKING
STUPID
PEOPLE
FAMOUS