Americans’ exposure to economics is limited to a 15-week course in school, focused on US-centric, outdated free-market principles. The curriculum neglects behavioral economics, socialism vs communism, global trade, and… tariffs. +
Yet another Coordination Problem example, Aslice — a music revenue-sharing platform launched in 2022 — closed. It encouraged DJs to report setlists and pay a % of their fee to the artists they played (à la GEMA-Vermutung). Top-paid DJ refused to participate +
Ever wondered about the heart-rate accuracy of the cheapest Apple Watch compared to a medical-grade ECG chest strap? I did — and to find out, I wrote a Python script that compares heart-rate data from an Apple Watch SE (logged via WorkOutdoors.app on WatchOS) with +
I wonder how Peterson used to work as a clinical psychologist with his patients back in the day? Imagine a 15-minute session with Elon Musk: Ah, doc, I have this sort of crisis of… Peterson: It’s the prior axiomatic interpretive structure you have. Then you have the chaotic potential +
Have you ever put on a sock inside-out? How about “lost 10 kg just by thinking about it”? That’s how Apple’s Foundation’s Black Hole Jump Drive™ feels to someone who understands physics: “black hole” is a spur-of-the moment, unfortunate misnomer of John Archibald Wheeler +
Among other things, we probably have just avoided French cinema industry annihilation. Had the far-right RN party secured an absolute majority in the French parliament, their agenda would have limited government funding exclusively to “patriotic films”. Eerily similar to what has already happened to the +
“Civil War” is a must-watch, especially for the fellow Americans. Even the normal ones. Not exclusively the A24 investment finance type of Americans with seed money from Guggenheim Partners, Bank of America, J.P. Morgan and SunTrust. I wish my dad would have given me a +
Dune — the book, the films… especially the latest ones — are about violence as the only virtue. On a real planet with a real war in a real Europe, killing and maiming real people as you read this, dismembering civilians and mercenaries alike in the most horrific ways… People watch +
We acknowledge there are many different truths. I’m certain that the truth exists for you and probably for the person sitting next to you. But this may not be the same truth. This is because many people merge facts about the world with our beliefs +
Our current economic system does not serve humans well. As a community (fighting cruel wars in XXI centuries) or as the individual (born to compete against others, running through kindergarten to nursing home on SSRIs, painkillers and Ritalin) +
Have I missed something? Is it now normal for white, post-doc women to elbow-kick their love interest and colleague in the solar plexus? And a black male one at that? In a jaw-dropping scene of a Netflix series viewed worldwide? And the man passively folds in half, choking, +
Hats off to the colleagues at Haut et Court for pooling in an impressive amount of resources and talent to shoot the “Constellation” series for Apple+. However, the end result turned out as a pseudo sci-fi light-horror semi-drama that toys with quantum mechanics in low Earth orbit +
Wear the same outfit for a month to notice that no one notices. If it’s clean — no one cares. Even if your jeans got holes. Even if you’re a woman, certain that you need a new dress and a matching handbag every day. People +
Yann Le Cunn, a Chief AI Scientist at Meta, writes that only a few book authors make significant money from book sales, so most books should be freely available for download. The lost revenue for authors would be small, and the benefits to society large by comparison. +
We’ve had opposite extremes — capitalists & communists, Adam Smithians & Karl Marxists — completely miss the obvious. Humans are not rational, deterministic “utility functions” optimizing for individual or collective “good”. Free markets’ invisible hand will correct? +
Woha! Very unexpected reversal. Figma and Adobe have abandoned their proposed merger, after facing regulatory hurdles in Europe and the UK in particular, where the Competition and Markets Authority rightly determined the deal “would harm the design software market” +
Have you received “the call” from COP28′s final plenary assembly to “transition away from fossil fuels in a just, orderly and equitable manner”? No? Why not? By the way, the UNFCC gives us a 67% chance of limiting global temperature rise to 2°C, if global +
The Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival will be reducing the number of programs in its competitions. The National selection will go from 12 to 10 programs, and the International from 14 to 12. The second-largest French film festival, in terms of number of spectators +
Even online, the French struggle with “customer service”. A retailer of running shoes, i-Run, has been sending me monthly e-mails warning that the €8.29 credit I had after buying from them will expire today, if I do not re-order immediately. They’ve just sent me a +
“I’m a consumer, what’s wrong with that?” The way you consume? The quantity? The fact that luck gave you an opportunity to NOT be an animal, to use that neocortex to create a better world, maybe? +
As of 13 September 2023, UNESCO has verified damage to 289 cultural sites in Ukraine: 120 religious buildings, 27 museums, 109 buildings of historical and/or artistic interest, 19 monuments, 13 libraries… In Odessa alone, a city near and dear to me from childhood +
Today, “Generative AI by Getty Images” launched on an NVIDIA Edify / Picasso framework, trained on Getty’s own stock of photographs. Same as previously done by Adobe. And Shutterstock. And… Send me an e-mail when you need a one-of-a-kind, human-made +
Fascinating how the film “Limitless” by Neil Burger starring Bradley Cooper paints a dreamy picture of a struggling artist with an external solution to everything — a pill, stolen by the artist — to be used by the artist to pursue: 1) money 2) sex 3) power… and his art? +
What would a trilingual like myself do with a ChatGPT? Torture it with correspondence tests, of course. Here’s the result: 🤪 ChatGPT: If we were to use English proficiency as a base and attribute a numerical score of 100 to it, I would rank my +
Oh, now Twitter asks me to pay 100 USD per month to read and backup my own tweets on my server. Since early July 2023, I can no longer GET my own posts, sort them into 3 distinct languages and store them in my own +
When I saw a “person missing” announcement in my Facebook feed, I somehow didn’t quite understand… “What’s going on? How so?” The usual, the so commonly trivial was going on — the death of an interesting person who did so much for Russian culture. +
ChatGPT. It’s a chat. Not AI. It’s not Intelligent. It’s not even a knowledge base of Humanity, like Wikipedia or PubMed. It’s a collection of statistical models of knowledge. Some licensed, some stolen*. Oh, and no one understands how the inside works. The chat predicts +
You know what? Russians still living in Russia, the remaining 140 million of them, don’t care about the war. Nor do they care about their rulers or the Western sanctions. Or the Western companies having left or banned. Russia is stuck in yet another historical +
Everybody thought: first AI would do physical labor, then some cognitive labor, then the really hard cognitive labor, like programming… And then, last of all, but maybe never, because it’s magical and human… was creativity +
Искусство Кино — published since 1931 and thus, together with “Sight & Sound” and “Cahiers du Cinéma” one of the earliest magazines to cover the film industry, art and theory — has printed its last issue. Yes, my work has been featured in it. But +
Elon Musk just said on CNBC something I’d been thinking about a lot: “If we do get to this sort of magic genie situation, where you can ask the AI for anything. And let’s say, even if it’s a benign scenario… How do we actually +
My conversation about human happiness with ChatGPT took 5 minutes. Question: According to what is currently known to science, what 50 factors, listed from most influential to least, influence a human (male, with an IQ above 100) self-reported feeling of happiness +
Social media, especially Instagram, has succeeded to complete the Global Harmonized Standard of Women™, an industrialized process started by the female magazines (Vogue, ELLE…) It’s all pretty… scary. We now have a draft proposal for ISO review. +
The Match Group withdraws from Russia. Tinder, OKcupid, Hinge… will all vanish from Russian social space by June 30. Meanwhile, The Russian Government™ is planning — finally, again, for real this time — to launch RuTube… and close access to YouTube. +
Only thoughtless people do crazy things, publish emotional photos, record damming TikToks, break up “forever”… relying on the “Delete Chat” and “Block” buttons of messengers and social apps. Those unable to think ahead imagine they will never face the consequences. Our digital footprint describes our +
Wow. The Match Group did indeed introduce chat-assist to Tinder. Just look at their suggestions to start a dialogue after a match: 😱 • Hiiii Jane! Getting into anything fun this week? • Hello Jane. How’s it going? • Hi there! Getting into anything fun +
52% of American women were unmarried or separated in 2021. The rising share of single women households has been driven entirely by women who have never married. Over 80% of women under 30 have never tied the knot in 2021… Despite all the readily-available research +
As a civilization, we’d known about our impact on climate since the 1950-60s. We’ve also continued to fail to agree on anything that would have prevented its negative impact… since the 1970s. 50 years later, the IPCC reports, again, that nothing’s changed. We will not +
Yoga tools are almost limitless. But if I’m short on time, I do the following Best Of of Hatha Yoga™. Every day, before pranayama, running, meditation, filming and everything else. Warm up head rotation pull the head with our hands due to the force of +
The “argument by fuzzy concept” fallacy is second only to ad hominem… An argument of intellectual indoctrination, laziness and dullness which, if pressed, degenerates into circular reasoning, requiring, at best, a definition by negation (“not hate, not lust, not friendship, not nⁿ…”) Got a World +
Are we really free? Are we free to be who we really are? The answer is no, we are not free. True freedom has to do with the human spirit — it is the freedom to be who we really are. Who stops us from +
“America is a kind, generous place… if you have money. It’s a rapacious, violent place if you don’t have money. To be wealthy in America is to be loved. People find you interesting, they want to know you. You have a broader selection of mates. +
“I run every single morning. That’s because that’s the one thing I hate to do more than anything in the world” — David Goggins, an ultramarathon runner and triathlete. I wonder whether people who worship him realize the all-too-common pattern of self-abuse and hate in +
A review of Nick Lane’s “The Vital Question” is easy to write: just re-arrange a dozen of his own passages. The book itself, though, is not easy to read. Unless… you understand at least the main principles of physics, chemistry and Latin. However interesting the +
A truly “Pro” notebook computer would feature: • an ortholinear, split & probably concave keyboard optimized for touch-typing • an Apple Pencil compactible screen • a 21:9 screen ratio / form factor But hey, who’s thinking about pros these days, eh? Economies of scale rule… +
Where does this voguish idea of everyone becoming a glamorous and fun entrepreneur come from? Sorry, but: 1) most people are not born with the DNA required to run a business; 2) while being an entrepreneur adds a lot of positive nouns to your life, +
“Off the Clock” – Feel Less Busy While Getting More Done… by Laura Vanderkam. Oh, wow. Such a promising title. Again. Bless those who helped increase my reading speed! Because this book is 1% trite time management advice and 99% memory recalls of various mothers +
Over 50% of Americans haven’t read a book in 2022. Nearly 25% of adults have not read a book in 1-2 years. 11% haven’t read a book in 3-5 years. And 10% of US adults haven’t read at least 1 full book in the past +
Life is short. You might have heard that one before. And uncertain. You can die at any moment, making it even shorter. So think hard about what you do with your gift of life right now, not after you “get funded” or “feel inspired” or +
An interesting take on why Russians have been stuck in a submissive / aggressive loop for centuries by Robert Sapolsky, who privileges the nurture (culture) component rather than the nature (DNA) factor. I’d disagree somewhat: the negative selection pressure has expunged the country of its +
A well-researched, superbly edited, humorous video explaining why every American, especially a senior, needs an AR-15 gun. In all seriousness. Or how to build the perfect straw man with a bit of a circular thing goin’. His logic: US civilians need the same firearms as +
“Cheap Sex” is a great book by sociologist Mark Regnerus to compliment David Buss’ “Evolution of Desire”. It describes the current personal and interpersonal sexuality / gender relations state of affairs in the US. The local trends and stats which do or will impact the +
A good day to die. The world is heading toward ~3°C of global warming, triggering multiple irreversible climate tipping points, including, but not limited to: Gulf Stream weakening; permafrost abrupt thaw; Amazon rainforest dieback; northern forests dieback; ice sheet collapse (Greenland, Antarctic); Want to continue +
“How Emotions Are Made“ is yet another weird book with a promising title, written for someone without any knowledge of science, its methods and branches. Possibly for those of us who skipped biology classes in school and haven’t read anything about neuroscience ever since? The +
We model the galaxies as a sort of fluid of stars, where the interactions are not electromagnetic, but gravitational. So, galaxies are fluids of stars, which themselves are made of plasmas of hydrogen made of frozen nuggets of quark matter. Yet again, there are no +
What is an Express Delivery by a European company, within the EU (no customs)? Ordered: Thursday 14:00, courier picked up on Friday, delivered next week on Wednesday 18:00. 🙄 Similar service name by an American company, also in the EU: picked up same day 20:00, +
In the US state of Nebraska, a 17-year-old girl got pregnant, decided to abort but couldn’t because of local laws, received help from her mother to buy and administer mifepristone and misoprostol, miscarried, buried the fetus… and discussed the details on Facebook Messenger… The private +
The observable universe is a sphere of 93 billion light years in diameter. Our Universe contains 200 billion trillion stars (with their planets). And yet, people are against a “World Government” for a puny rock that you can fly around under 45 hours in a +
Impressive to watch such a hysterical Descent of Man. Despite decades of his “studies” of Russian literature and totalitarianism, Jordan Peterson completely misunderstands what’s going on in Russia, NATO, rouble (un)currency, global economy, and uses a real war killing real people to talk about a +
Bizarre Google Reviews of European logistics centers, such as Dachser, Geodis, Kuehne+Nagel… 4-5 stars from truckers — hauling the semi-trailer 1-2 stars from end-customers — businesses and consumers unable to schedule a pick-up or delivery 🤷🏻♂️ Truck drivers commenting the tidy toilets and lacking space +
Finally got to watch “For All Mankind” season 1… well, Ronald Moore sure is consistent with his regular soap opera vibe. Or rather, alcohol+tobacco opera — the amount of drinking and smoking easily surpasses the amount of RP-1 burning and space flying. It ticks all +
“The End of the World is Just the Beginning” is a weird book by Peter Zeihan — self-described as an “optimist, green, internationalist, and democrat” — who retells us a mix-mash of history, geography, economy and chemistry lessons taught in school, then declares that the +
How to choose your running shoes or sandals after you’ve done your homework and narrowed the choice to 3-4 pairs? run in each pair — which one gives you the childish sensation of flight? reduce to 2 pairs — put a different shoe on each +
Car-centric urban planning in North America creates nations of stay-at-home-gamers “under adequate supervision” that fail to acquire social interaction skills till the age of 16 (when they can get a driver’s license)… So their 20′s and 30′s are spent being a teenager, “discovering the world +
Disappointed by Carlo Rovelli’s “Order of Time”. Reads more like a physicist’s hobby project in creative writing (though quite a poetic one)… rather than a container of eye-opening, bleeding-edge information. Main ideas: time is quantized, entropy increases with time, time is local and relative, we +
I wonder how much time architects spend writing instead of designing? The typical text that describes a random contemporary house is something else… “Architecture, specifically the house, is an act of enabling shelter, a vessel through which in turn enables habitation and the ongoing experience +
I’ve been wondering about indirect IQ measurements. One of them, is… smoking. Yes, people still smoke tobacco in 2022. A lot of people. 🤢 Cigarette smokers have lower IQs than non-smokers, and the more a person smokes, the lower their IQ. For example, this study +
You know what’s “special” about “an operation”? It’s when it CREATES something new. A piece of art: a film, a book, a soundtrack. A scientific discovery. A technological breakthrough. A medical procedure that allows us to walk hours after appendectomy. A business that transforms us +
They: don’t go to a “studio” — they practice at home / office / traveling… daily, wearing whatever or semi-naked (no “yoga” apparel) sit in siddhasana / padmasana casually “because it’s comfy” while talking / eating / typing — optimize for meditation, not circus acrobatics +
I’ve always wondered: how does it feel to be an Apple macOS developer? You can’t isolate yourself from the ‘official’ bug reports, or the ‘unofficial’, but very vocal and public grudges on Twitter, about the character / emojis palette random misbehavior since, when, 2014? Or +
“Neurotypicality is a pervasive developmental condition, probably present since birth, in which the affected person sees the world in a very strange manner. It is a puzzle; a enigma that traps those so affected in a lifelong struggle for social status and recognition. Neurotypical individuals +
Do you know how the aviation industry improved to become the safest mode of transportation? Debriefings of incidents and accidents. Do we debrief our failed relationships? No. Do we improve? No. We get into the same cockpit of a 1970′s McDonnell Douglas DC-10 saying “oh, +
Annoyed by Apple’s Books.app quoting, trimming and appending an “Excerpt From” when copying a small passage from an ePub? Did you know ePubs are a collection of HTML files? 🤓 Open the folder containing the books. If you use iCloud, type open ~/Library/Mobile\ Documents/iCloud~com~apple~iBooks/Documents/ in +
We, humans, have a physical body problem. And it’s not a postmodern “obese body positivity” problem. It’s a “people are either over-clothed (men), or under-dressed (women)” problem. +
“The Art of Impossible” by Steven Kotler is a perfect example of a book by a journalist who does punchy write-ups of other books written by other punchy journalists who cite popular self-hack writers (like Tim Ferriss, whose advice is retold several times), who talk +
“When things get tough with that rewrite, and you’re starting to see this whole dream fall apart… who are the ones that actually stay in for the long haul? Often it’s narcissists. Often it’s people with big egos. It’s people who really think they’re interesting. +
These days, you can super-quickly gauge a person by inquiring about their opinion on: Covid-19 vaccines climate change religion (especially Islam) UBI (Universal Basic Income) equality of outcome (especially gender issues) body fat over 30% Superb predictive power, eh? +
7,8 billion people currently live on our planet. Only 114 million have been confirmed as infected by Covid-19. That’s less than 2%. The virus will keep eating through the remaining 98% for years. As most governments… or, more accurately, we don’t care enough about others +
Why would you want to improve yourself, others and the world? — To experience less pain and suffering… especially when you interact with reality. If all is great in your life and you’re content with everything, then don’t improve, stay the same. But even the greatest, +
Instagram is a great tool to get to know people. Open a profile and: Scroll through their posts — sample their taste (or lack thereof), attention to detail (feet cut off, random branches in the frame, etc.) Pay attention to the number of selfies — +
There’s this idea that only women “test” their men. Nah. Men test their women as well. And it’s OK to test early, test often. Even testing to failure. Like we do in engineering. But what’s really important is the quality of those tests. Because the +
If you’re struggling to find your “to buy” lists on eBay… because your “Watchlist” button on top shows empty. hover the “My eBay” button on top left … but don’t click it select the “Watchlist” item in this hovered menu and click that you’ll arrive +
“For me, it was like getting addicted to crack / meth / heroin / LSD” … says yet another person who’d never used any of those, and who’d never been addicted to anything worse than caffeine or chocolate. I mean, come on, people, choose your +
Strong is an active capacity to interact, rebound and grow in adversity (emotional, intellectual, physical). Strong is seeking out adventure and challenge, people that disagree with you, mentors that pinpoint your fallacies, nature that humbles your invincibility. Strong is giving your best to build new +
It’s real simple. The brain is an organ which, like any other organ in the body, maintains an acceptable state of balance to remain alive. Your consciousness is a (small) part of this organ’s activity. To keep the brain in balance, the consciousness creates stories +
Thanks to HBO’s Chernobyl, fewer people worldwide will rejoice at the officially low stats of Covid-19 deaths in Russia. Causes change. Cultures remain. +
“I wanted to feel safe. So I went to a safe college, my parents told me it’s for my job security. I didn’t go alpine climbing. I didn’t travel to India. I never rode in a helicopter. I never sailed offshore on a sail yacht. +
Just to be clear. As a civilisation, we knew about the current viral pandemic, the 2008 crisis, terrorist attacks beforehand… and we know perfectly well about the next climate-change related disasters. Have we done anything to avert “the situation”? Nah, not really. Very similar to +
The people most alarmed about the coronavirus seem to be people accustomed to thinking exponentially — people in tech, finance, and science. People least alarmed are those used to thinking about problems linearly. The problem isn’t the virus itself. It’s the under-provisioned healthcare systems and +
Work? 35 hours a week, with counselling and coaching. Travel? Only to pre-approved and reviewed AirBnBs. Sex? Only with inclusive, body-positive people who’ll repeat how gorgeous you are. Not too physical, though. Heart rate below 90 BPM. Drugs? Only comfortable to use, safe to buy, +
The French art the vivre? Sure. For yourself. Not your clients. That’s one the main reasons why so many American companies win in Europe. Amazon, Netflix, Apple, 3M, Starbucks, Tesla, UPS… bust their asses to serve. +
Judging by the popularity of movie / series franchises, humanity is stuck in the middle ages. Swords, magic, religious sects… Marvel’s super-heroes with gems, hammers, bows and arrows; Star Wars / Mandalorian; Harry Potter; Game of Thrones; The Witcher; Lord of the Rings. The futuresque +
The UK General Election shows us, yet again, and unlike in the EU Referendum, without any remaining doubt, that the populations most at risk vote for their own masochistic downfall. The people who stand to lose the most from the complete dismantlement of government health +
A team at the University of Virginia’s Department of Psychology meta-analysed 11 studies, and “found that participants typically did not enjoy spending 6 to 15 minutes in a room by themselves with nothing to do but think, that they enjoyed doing mundane external activities much +
We view death countless times on screens, daily. People exploding, shot, bleeding-out, run-over, cut to pieces in so many “creative” ways. And yet, how many of us think about the inescapable fact that at some point in the future, possibly very near future, we’ll be +
Fake food. Sugar and salt and glutamates. Fake faces. Make-up, lighting and Photoshop. Fake breasts. Silicone-gel. Fake diplomas. For the rich. Fake furniture. Veneered particle boards. Fake vacations. Staged and edited for Instagram. Fake feelings. Benzodiazepines and SSRIs. Fake songs. Auto-tuned studio and live recordings. +
Apple really, really doesn’t give a shit about its bugs. For years! Appalling. Apple Mac OS Address Book entries with “son” or “daughter” will cancel the entire sync of contacts data to iPhone. (not talking iCloud sync here) Workaround: change all fields “Son” or “Daughter” +
People who claim that an art form is defined by its consumption method continue to amaze (aggravate?) me. According to them, next time you buy a painting to hang on your wall, remember that outside the museum, it won’t be a piece of art anymore. +
We could cut recycling costs significantly if we taught and encouraged kids to disassemble stuff. DIY and engineering hands-on education as as bonus. Girls and boys. Requires better collection points, but otherwise, nothing fancy. +
People love cyclic and regenerating universes — reincarnation, royal / superhero families of father to son, extreme quantum fluctuation initiating a new Big Bang, etc. — because they appeal to our sense of narrative. They also appeal to our intuition for causality seen in most phenomena +
Maybe the only method to “upgrade” the human civilization is to implement mandatory annual reasoning, understanding and culture tests… worldwide? Each year, your understanding of the standard physics model, basic math, logic, chemistry, biology, psychology and economics are tested. With terrible, terrible consequences if you +
While money can buy you time, time is the opposite of capital. Capital is self-reproducing and durable. Time is self-annihilating and fleeting. Capital is limitless, although constrained. Time is limited to ≈80 years. Don’t waste your time. Waste capital instead. +
“The emergency shutdown system at Chernobyl had a fatal flaw. At 01:23:40, Akimov engages AZ-5, or SCRAM. The fully withdrawn control rods begin moving back into the reactor. These rods are made of boron, which reduces reactivity… but not the tips. The tips are made +
Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are platforms run by multi-billion-dollar companies with near infinite resources, best research and development teams, top neuroscientists and unscrupulous user interface designers. Huge companies working to make your experience on social media as sticky and addictive as possible. To take over +
Blessed are those whose purpose and enjoyment is to repair and restore, rebuild and recover, for everything in this Universe decays and crumbles. +
Artists with a large and diverse network of contacts are most likely to be famous, regardless of how creative their art is. Specifically, the greatest predictor of fame for an artist is to have a network of contacts from various countries. https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-artists-famous-friends-originality-work +
Apple: Would you like to install iOS updates automatically? Me: No. Apple: There’s a major 1.0 update of iOS, would you like to install it now? Me: No. Apple: Enter your passcode and we’ll install an update of iOS overnight. Me: Cancel that! I said +
Energy is what constitutes and organizes matter (and antimatter ? ). Prana is an Earth-local, Vedic special interpretation of it. Money is an Earth-local, economic interpretation of it. Follow the money and you’ll follow the energy that constitutes and organizes matter. If you really want +
Nobody will remember if your film / book / design was late and over-budget… But everyone will remember if it was bad. Finance for the long term. Yeah, despite the capitalist preference for the short-term quarterly reports. ? Harder? Sure. But worth it in the +
For all practical purposes, we, as a species, already possess all the information needed for health, beauty, self-realization, spiritual growth, social harmony… And yet, how many of us are healthy / happy / grown-up / self-realized? Less than 0,05%? Why? Is it lack of access +
I remember when Red Hat was still a startup… and me installing our own custom Red Hat Linux 7 Servers in… uhmm… 2001. Now it’s a 34 billion USD purchase by IBM. +
“Humans have this remarkable ability to know and not to know at the same time. Or more correctly, they can know something when they really think about it, but most of the time they don’t think about it, so they don’t know it. If you +
People rely on celebrities for personality templates, which is why celebrity deaths hit them so hard. +
The redundancy required by human language-based communication is so inelegant and inefficient. Take attribution for example. The requirements to state “I think that” for each sentence that expresses the opinion of the orator… of course most of the statements are personal opinions, don’t you think? +
Speaking of film market imbalance… The 2018 Cannes film festival and market has seen 12 411 participants from 114 countries, of which: 980 — festival programmers 1 743 — buyers 3 858 — producers +
Saw the premiere in Cannes… A rather weird alternative rendition of an (imagined?) fleeting romance of legendary Russian pop-rock singer Viktor Tsoi in the 1980s Saint Petersburg. Hipsterish B&W, “It Never Happened” announcements, 4th wall pokes, awkward handwriting notes on the screen… I much prefer +
Remember the “married people are happier on average than singles” stat? Well, it could be that the direction of causation is actually reversed: happiness _causes_ marriage. Higher levels of serotonin, dopamine and oxytocin bring about and maintain a marriage. ;) +
Projection quality in most cinemas today is, alas, quite bad. If you think seeing a movie on a “big screen” is “the best cinematic experience”… well, sorry to disappoint you. On average, what you see in theaters worldwide, including in supposedly top-notch multiplexes in world +
So… I’m debugging someone else’s JavaScript code… and remembered this quote from somewhere: “Document my code? Why do you think it’s called ‘code’?” Argh… I always document my own code. Cause, even several projects later, which can be as little as 1 month… I can’t +
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men evolved differently, that they are born with certain mutable characteristics, and that among these are life and the pursuit of pleasure.” — the American Declaration of Independence translated into biological terms +
La Prière / The prayer at the Berlin Film Festival is a classically, solidly, well-told story about a French heroin addict who joins a Christian Catholic community of former addicts who live isolated in the Alps mountains and use manual work and prayer as a +
A premiere of “Dovlatov” film at the Berlin Film Festival. 6 days in the 70s life of a Soviet writer Sergei Dovlatov – Сергей Довлатов, an unknown to almost anyone in the USSR until it fell in 1991. And still largely unknown globally. Unfortunately, not +
If you care about my opinion about the Berlin Film Festival line-up and awards — except the very, very worthy La Prière — it’s a perfect image of the mentally sick asylum which is our current, past and future global society. I chose to quit +
Sitting down, closing your eyes and focusing on your breath is… relaxation. Which is fine. The point of meditation is to move beyond the confines of the illusory separate self into a stabilized state of maximum awareness (and eventually enlightenment) where you experience the cessation +
That “live in the present moment” thing? Well, you know what, it’ll become a “dead in the past forever” thing in 100 years max. Ignore human-scale time at your own risk. Oh, and the “God only knows the Plan” thing… that’s so you follow someone +
The night sky represents the myriad of opportunities you’ll never realize, trillions of galaxies, each containing millions of stars and dozens of places to go and see. A stark reminder of our limits. Speed of light vs speed of life. +
Have finally watched Manchester By The Sea… Not a really wise choice given the recent death in my own family. An extremely sad drama with an almost complete collection of human dysfunctions in American context. Cinema aspects: excellent, stunning acting, just amazing, touches even through +
Success in art is predicated on tolerance: tolerance to stress, tolerance to the unknown, tolerance to failure, tolerance to social pressure. Some of it is built-in, hard-coded with your DNA. Some can be modified and improved with discipline training, emotional awareness / control / sublimation, +
“Not only did the Berlin violin students spend most of their time with other music students, but they also tended to date music students or at least others who would appreciate their passion for music and understand their need to prioritize their practice.” Anders Ericsson +
Here’s how to pursue your passion. First, choose the passion. If you don’t know what it is, then skip to the next step. Second: go to school. If you had a passion, the teachers will most probably beat the crap out of you, intellectually, and +
On Monday, July 26, 1971, Diane Arbus wrote the words “Last Supper” in her diary. She placed the appointment book on the stairs leading to the bathroom. She swallowed a large dose of barbiturates and, still in her clothes, laid down inside the tub. Then, +
So, IRL work-related meetings with me? Sure. Sometimes. But within those parameters, please: silence — no one talking except those involved in the conversation clean air — no smoke, smog, strong perfume, flu viruses… privacy — no one staring at us / me with a +
Well, I’ve waited about a week before saying it… but the whole Brexit thing is a pathetic show of stupidity, hypocrisy, xenophobia and egotism. The good thing is that around half of real-life UKers are OKers (and that includes my friends on the island). So +
Well, I think Ken Loach’s “I, Daniel Blake” Palme at Cannes 2016 is well-deserved. One of his best, with “Riff Raff”. But, typically Loachy. Social, touching… but nothing exceptional, nothing surprising. More of a documentary, a light on a problem that needs to be shined +
“Recent research finds that most people approach their work in one of 3 ways: 1) a job 2) a career 3) a calling If you see your work as a job, you do it only for the money, you look at the clock frequently, while +
All the dates, specs, numbers and other production details of my longest feature film so far, Kvadrat Gear. +
What better way to rest from all the hard shooting and editing of my first feature film, Kvadrat, than to shoot and edit a second feature film? Especially if it’s the exact opposite of the first one? A classical documentary with dialogue, voice-over, still photos and archival footage? +
My own thoughts about my Kvadrat film. The reasons to get into cinema, film a documentary, decide on a feature instead of a short, choose a weird techno musical genre… The goals, the themes, the ideas, the style, the execution, the difficulties and other details. +
The original synopsis of my Kvadrat documentary feature film I wrote in April 2011. How does it compare with the end-result? +
Having kids is a weak argument for dropping the ball artistically & professionally. Kids would prefer parents they admire past their teens. Oh, and if you’re projecting your lifelong dreams onto your kids… that’s a big no-no. They won’t be correcting your own life’s mistakes. +
Curious about my latest film’s production dates, budget, team and gear? Check out some vital stats of this extreme production. +
My revelation: art was invented by pre-agricultural humans as a way to do something with all the spare thinking time. Life was much more physical back then, a lot of time to think and dream and imagine. +
Beware of the current “being in the present” obsession of self-help books. The human brain evolved to model the past and future. It’s what makes us human. Don’t deny it. Embrace all 3 tenses and learn to hop around the timeline at will. +
So, what the hell have I been doing for the past 2,5 years? Where are the new posts and photos? Well, other than fast-touring through a rather painful peritonitis on my Bike Friday PRP en route to Zurich… I was shooting a feature film. As a director, DP and editor. +
My go fast, go far device. Rides as good as a high-end road bike. Folds as small as a standard suitcase. Enjoys long distances and short corridors. +
The Schwalbe Stelvio is no more. The super fast slick tire available in the 16 inch / ETRTO 349 size is now replaced by a slightly more docile but grippier Schwalbe Kojak. I’ve been riding the Kojak on my Brompton since November 2008. +
Why travel by bike? Why choose a folding bike for touring? Which folder is best for long rides? What clothes, tools and camping gear to select? Take a look at my lightweight, go fast, go far bike touring gear list for inspiration. +
I’d like to learn tai chi. For relaxation and defense. I’m ready to invest substantial amounts of effort and time. Who would you recommend as a mentor to me? +
Twitter has quickly made my news from the major outdoor and cycling trade shows of 2009 unsearchable and unavailable. I’ve solved the problem so you can read my tweets from these events again. +
How does the smaller, lighter, touchscreen Garmin Dakota GPS compare to its older brother, Garmin Oregon? What about screen readability, Oregon’s main issue? Which one should you choose? Find out in my belated but detailed review. +
Garmin’s latest and greatest GPS units for intensive outdoor use: the touchscreen Oregon and the wheels and buttons Colorado. How do they perform in the real world, and which one is better? +
I use a bogus birth date on web social apps. Facebook, MySpace, Plaxo and others show February 15, 1980. A nice, round figure. But it’s only part bogus. +
A selected project from my recent photography work. Slowly changing my workflow so you’re updated on the stuff I’ve been working on. +
A compact 1,3 L (44 fl oz) lightweight titanium pot that’s perfect for snow melting during solo fast and light winter backpacking trips. +
When I write about gear or services, I may publish a preview or a review. I might even start with a preview and later add a review. Allow me to compare and clarify. +
For this year’s edition of European OutDoor in Friedrichshafen, I’ve added Twitter to my arsenal and have divided my writing efforts in 2 categories. +
My nighttime, handheld photography of Zurich urbanism… shot with an Apple iPhone 3Gs using the default Camera app. +
I tweet. Do you? Let me explain how Twitter compliments my web site and why you might find Twitter useful. +
A bit of my recent photography. I’m sorry. I’m late, very late. More to come, of course. For now, please +
Presented to the public for the first time at the Friedrichshafen Outdoor 2008 show, the new Garmin Oregon GPS switches from buttons and thumbwheels to a touchscreen user interface. +
An ultralight, ultratough, ultracompact, do-it-yourself backpack that carries a folded Brompton bike anywhere or rides under its frame. +
When it comes to 16-inch folding bikes, 2 models stand out: the Brompton and the Bike Friday Tikit. Both cost almost the same. Both position themselves in the high-quality range. Which one to choose? +
Bikes come unglued. Parts go loose. Brakes need adjustment. Tires puncture. To hush a minor rattle or fix a major showstopper while on the road, you’ll need a set of tools. OK, but which bike tools to choose for the not-so-standard Brompton folder? +
Lightweight waterproof bike panniers from… Pacific Outdoor! The makers of sleeping pads and other backpacking items introduce a whole new line of bike-specific products. The LTW Front Fender achieves an impressive weight to volume ratio. +
Human-made global warming kills. The mankind, the animals, the planet. Josh HARRIS, Tim GODSALL and the Ogilvy agency reach out to the passers-by in a striking, effective, minimal, symbolical way. And they suggest solutions. Actions. +
Actually, these are tents, not bivies. A couple of super rare, bombproof, compact, single-wall shelters using the very breathable eVENT fabric. Optimized for high-altitude winds, snow and cold. +
A rare, half-zipped, lightweight, eVENT rain pant from Rab. A crucial item for serious rain, mud and wind. +
Very light, full-featured rain jacket made of the eVENT waterproof / breathable fabric: the new Rab Momentum answers the needs of lightweight backpackers still contemplating the leap into minimalism. +
My personal transportation device. A modified Brompton P3L folding bike. Customized for speed. Optimized for intermodal transport and cramped storage spaces. Day and night. Sun and rain. +
An intermediately sized, 1,3 L (44 fl oz) lightweight titanium pot that might be just perfect for snow melting during fast and light winter backpacking trips. +
Exactly the same as the BackpackingLight.com’s FireLite Titanium Esbit Wing Stove, the Esbit Titanium Solid Fuel Stove will be distributed by Esbit starting January 2009. OK, there is a difference: the logo. +
Esbit, the renowned producer of hexamine solid fuel tablets, readies a 720 ml solo titanium pot with a lid for the ultralight backpacking chefs that apply the “cook in a cup” haute cuisine methods. Available beginning 2009. +
Scheduled for spring 2009: a rare, ultralight windshirt made of Pertex Quantum. The Montane Slipstream will continue to brave the wind and the common misunderstanding of the product’s use. +
For spring 2009, Cascade Designs renames their 3-season lightweight Therm-a-Rest, the current “ProLite 3” self-inflating sleeping pad, to just “Prolite”, and updates the mattress to reduce its weight. +
Against all common backpacking wisdom, Therm-a-Rest creates an air mattress without foam or high-loft insulation. The new sleeping pad achieves an R-value of 2,5, a very light weight and a super compact roll. +
The outdoor sports industry has its own trade shows. These events gather manufacturers, retailers and press (me included) to have a look at new gear and discuss new trends. I list and briefly describe and compare the major trade fairs. +
Built around the 1,5 L (48 oz) Nalgene water reservoir that’s got a clever magnetic bite valve, this running-specific backpack hugs the upper torso with a sternum-centered harness and geeks out with a remote-controlled wire compression system. +
A super-minimal, ultralight, wind-resistant vest for outdoor runners. If you like to run fast, stay cool and remain dry, this surprising piece from The North Face may be just for you. Reduce to the bare essentials. +
Bike parts determine the choice of bike tools. Before assembling my Brompton take-along tool kit, I had measured almost every component of this folding bike. +
It is my pleasure to unveil the version 3 of my web site. A major overhaul, version 3 presents my research in visual arts, writing and design since 1994. For an overview of the site’s sections, as well as to find out what’s new and what’s unchanged, +
I would really appreciate your feedback: it will help to improve my web site and hopefully make it more enjoyable for you. Please express your opinions about features, as well as report typos, errors, abnormalities and bugs: +
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