The 1970’s were so horny they supplied emergency rations with every car. Why is life so boring today?!
The 1970’s were so horny they supplied emergency rations with every car. Why is life so boring today?!
Power usually makes us males more attractive. One method to get power is the sword, but it’s literally a bloody affair to catch some females this way.
The pen- or better say the arts seem a much better way. Less stress, less killings, less danger …
Sure, not everybody is a great artist, but there is also the simple option of starting a business and working hard to raise your social status for pussy catching.
So it works! Congratulations NASA – finally some good news. But I guess America has currently more important projects than to use these news rockets to fly to the moon and establish a base.
Click image for more Schwabing.
I lived near St. Ursula for almost twenty years myself and I swear it never looked that vibrant … to me!
Damn you Kandinsky for seeing the world like no one else – and thanks for your great art.
When you clone yourself only some of your genes will live on, but these have nothing to do with your personality or achievements.
You will simply die as everybody else no matter how many kids you produce.
Click image for a bigger snap.
We humans really eat anything, it doesn’t matter how poisonous, dangerous, tiny or big the animal is. We have already eaten or better say extinct several species.
But our appetite for "normal" (like domesticated animals like chicken, pigs & cows) as well as exotic species is unsustainable.
In the end we eat ourselves or at least destroy our host that is feeding us.
What an outstanding movie – one of the rare ones that actually captures the "fight & violence" aspect of being a male without being too pathetic or macho about it.
And it perfectly portrays madness as well.
I think Fight Club is the Office Slaves perfect dream of breaking out and finally releasing his anger of his own conformity and the stupidity of modern life.
But consuming Fight Club is one again mental masturbation: you only watch it, you are not doing it.
Facing violence and actually fighting someone else can’t be consumed. There is no substitute for pain, angst, triumph, excitement and fury.
A movie can go only so far – and Fight Club does a great job of pushing the male identity question down the throats of it’s audience …
Well done, Sir!
More? Fight Club @ Wikipedia
Each new version of the Mac OS/X or Windows creates a frenzy in Nerdistan. Microsoft finally released it’s newest shiny toy to eager consumers this week – and boy it’s all over the place.
I also did my little "Installfest". Windows 7 is great, it simply works … but I downgraded to XP a couple of hours later.
Why? Simple – there is nothing I really new or better I need. So why change working setup? The Operating System is not doing my work – I am. And Photoshop or Word or Firefox are almost the same – no mater which OS I am using – even running them on a Mac or PC makes hardly a difference. This also applies to my Mac which came with Leopard – and I won’t update to Snow Leopard either …
I am only switching to a new system or version when …
I always happily trailing several versions behind the Glamour Nerd Flock. I still would be using Office 2000, but too many good add-ons are working with it, so I only switched to Office 2002 – not any newer version. Photoshop CS3 is good enough for me. Apple forces me to constantly update iTunes, otherwise I can’t access my music properly. Also Firefox is a tool I keep updated for security reasons.
Hysteria back then, hysteria today.
Software companies love upgrades, because it makes them money. But I don’t need the newest toy in town to get my work done.
And it’s often smarter to wait and let the In crowd do all the testing and develop work-arounds …
I have to test and explore so many new apps and sites for my job anyway, so I am more than happy to keep my setup simply working.
Someday I’ll join the party and update my Operating System … maybe when Windows 8 is coming.
It basically turned from a 1970’s brown box to an expensive pebble. And Apple still pretends it’s only a single button mouse – keeping up that old idiotic paradigm of fake simplicity.
Some “instruments” have a certain complexity to them: a computer keyboard needs all keys to work. And the Mac OS has been supporting right-clicks for a long time – but Apple still wants users to perceive the Mac as especially “simple” to use.
But it’s new multitouch mouse isn’t simple at all. It takes some training to get it right.
Humanity has always been lazy, but Segway makes many people extraordinarily lazy.
A nice walk to enjoy nature actually should include some damn "walking" or at least put some effort into riding a bike …
Damn City Slickers!
We need more bizarre and surreal short movies like this. Thanks to YouTube and Vimeo more and more talented movie makers find an audience and inspire each other.
Make sure to watch it in HD on YouTube – if your internet connection is up to it.
Click image for an amazing view.
Yes, sometimes an image says more than a thousand words and can make a situation perfectly clear.
Great shot! Great idea to seize the moment!
| 1. Click player below to start the music. 2. Click the image to dive into the art. 3. Study for three and a half minutes this painting. |
Another great work of Art by Maestro Draper and once again a highly romantic and loving moment. Two lover who can only share two short moments each day when they pass each other …
His words are once again painfully true –and complements my recent rant on Europe not defending it’s own values.
There was a big public outrage when the British BNP won two seats in the European Parliament in the last election.
The "good" British Public tried to ignore the "problem", but yesterday the BBC had invited the Parties Leader Nick Griffin on Question Time.
Question Time is a big institution in Britain – it’s a long running public forum, where voters and officials can debate and discuss issues.
Many people were angry at the BBC, because they think the Beep gives the BNP a big stage to spew it’s poison.
Obviously this edition of Question Time turned out to be a one sided bashing affair – Nick Griffin had to take a lot of criticism, mostly he had to eat his own words …
It is easy to "beat up" that right wing nutter and his whites-only-party.
But the sad reality is that Britain had racial tensions brewing for a long time. The recent population explosion (the biggest in the UK’s history) is mostly down to mostly "brown" immigrants having way more babies than Brits.
There also another factor: since most European societies are also aging rapidly it is becoming more conservative and protective. Suddenly grey Europeans see only "brown" people having babies – and it’s true: the Muslims / Immigrants birth rate is much higher than the "native" European one.
First of all this is a statistic reality. In same city areas there are more brown, than white people. Especially in harsh economic times this aggravates many people. This kind of Xenophobia is pretty normal and happens not just in Britain. Plus the old argument of "why do we allow immigration, when we have such a huge unemployment rate" always adds fuel to the fire.
Britain – as well as the rest of Europe – hasn’t really faced the reality of a strong and fast growing Muslim part of the population.
Especially Britain has allowed many extreme Muslim activist as well as radical preachers / Imans (often financed by Saudi Arabia) into the country. Often angry Muslims demonstrated violently against British politics. Plus many Muslims call for the introduction of Sharia Law in Britain. The terrorist attacks on London didn’t help either …
There is a Anti-Secular, Anti-Democracy and intolerant movement inside the British Muslim community, which can’t be ignored either. The racism is not strictly a white affair and some Muslims really do believe in conquering Europe via their wombs.
So this shift in population and basically reintroduction of strong influences of religion into public life and politics. Many people react negative to these new influences, the reactions range from frustration to outright anger. "So many people feel shutout in their own country." (Quote from Nick Griffin)
Britain’s immigration politics has been a failure in many areas. It has allowed more immigrants than the British Public actually could stomach.
So the BNP simply reflects the fringe racists as well as people who are simply angry about the failed immigration policy. So some of their anger and concern are legit.
As much as many leftist often turn a blind eye to religious fundamentalism and Muslim racism – the right also sticks to their ignorant doctrines as well.
Like I said before: Europe has not really faced it’s identity crises in face of a new religious pressure (which happens to be Islam). Based on the tragic events of racism and genocide during WWII plus the guilt from Colonialism has created a fake openness to other cultures.
It is not just Britain, but almost all European countries haven’t succeeded in integrating immigrants. The beloved idea of a multiethnic society proves harder to form than idealists hoped it would be. But also European politicians and citizens have forgotten to foster and evolve their own culture and historic values. So it’s no surprise that many people feel left alone and even abandoned in face of a new, strong and often aggressive "foreign" culture.
As a final part of the story one has to mention to new lower class and poverty in Europe that adds to that problem. The economic development in the last twenty years – thanks to the Free Market ideas Margaret Thatcher and constant pandering to big business – has eroded the middle class Europe. Poverty is on the rise and a new lower class has been created when the working class disappeared – thanks to the shift of factories to the east and Asia.
Underprivileged people in poverty are rarely tolerant or willing to share. And their anger of being left behind finds an easy target in foreigners, especially when they have to share public purse for social support with big waves of immigrants – as it happened in Britain in recent years.
So booing Nick Griffin on Question Time is so politically correct, but doesn’t solve the problem of racism nor the real concerns of immigration and poverty.
Casting Shows are made to ridicule you and other contenders – so the producers make loads of money. These shows are not interested in making you famous or “give you a chance to become successful”.
This great old Maestro Brassaï has an unmistakable style. His images always feature an harsh realism and show people as they are. But it is an “friendly” realism, even when he shoots poor people or embarrassing situations he keeps a friendly attitude.
He was a great observer.
Rock’n'Roll also invented the teenager as a consumer and so called youth culture. Suddenly there was a different music and stars for youngsters.
After the dreadful WWII the new middle class could afford to give some money for teenagers, who were eager to spend their allowance. The teenager therefore is a product of modern rich society – a luxury item of you will …
While kids can be pleased with toys, teenagers are eager to define themselves with style and suitable products. So music became the a tool for identification (or better say product?). Depending on your teenage tribe (and personal "style") you listened to a specific kind of music. Subcultures proved to be goldmines. Anyone who could define a new "style" or own certain artists could literally print money …
The first King of Global Record sales and Teenage Manias.
Plus mass production allowed cheap records, radios, record players and TVs. Most of all the new medium television needed to be feed constantly with new acts, personalities and stories.
Stars and celebrities were nothing new at that time. Already the Roman Coliseum knew the celebrities and famous athletes. But it was in the roaring 1920’s when the true Star Cult was born – mostly thanks to Hollywood. Charlie Chaplin and Mary Pickford were the first global stars. But apart from movies in the theatres, cigarette and chocolate cards there was little to consume for the masses.
The real celebrity based merchandising frenzy and consumerism started with the 1950’s and the invention of the teenager …
Click ad for more Apple Newton.
Lang before Smartphones computer vendors tried to sell us Personal Digital Assistants. The vision was there, but the hardware was too big and too slow to make it work.
Apple’s Newton was a brave experiment hardly anyone know anymore. I owned two Newtons, because I though the technology was fantastic. But for daily use it was crap.
Only a black & green display – but already with funky special effects. You could expand the Newton with special cards …
For text input you had to learn to write special characters so Newton could understand what you were trying to say. Apple scrapped that feature completely with the touch screen keyboard in the iPhone. You always needed that special pen to operate all these PDAs, which was pretty stupid. Although I am not a big fan of today’s touch screens, but they are much better than those pens.
The Newton died a quick and miserable dead. Apple didn’t try very hard to make it work.
Graffiti Gestures – bit odd at first, but it really worked after some training.
The Palm Pilot a few years later made the PDA market really fly. This was in a time, when cell phones were too stupid to be used to remember addresses, appointments or be synched with Outlook.
Some of the apps for the Palm (and Newton) were really great! The iPhone still hasn’t the same amount of good office applications and synchronization tools the Newton and the Palm offered. That is why I still consider the iPhone a lifestyle product and not a true mobile business tool.
I owned also a Handspring Edge – a small, but brilliant Palm clone. You could attack a pretty good portable keyboard to it – something the iPhone completely lacks as well.
In the end the Palm died as well. Better cell phones supplanted the address book and time management for which the Palm was mostly used.
And they offered eMail and Internet access the Palm struggled with for a long time. Plus cheap notebooks finally became lighter and affordable, so a bastard device like the PDA no longer made sense: there is no real middle ground between a good cell phone and notebook/netbook.
Click image for more intestines.
The Kitty-fication of our society continues with on "open" Kitty. Cute toys have cute organs – of course!
Thank the Digital Gods for iPods, hard drives and flash memory. Tapes were a great and cheap medium. Remember when we taped Top of Pops from radio or made great mix tapes for our beloved girlfriends?
But tape sucked: finding the right track was hard by winding it all forward and backward. All that winding drained your Walkmans batteries and wasted precious time. Some weaker Walkmans couldn’t "pull" long C120 tapes …
The sound of tapes wasn’t that bad – because radio and records weren’t that great either. But when the CD appeared you could hear the difference, which sucked.
And tapes could simply tear or the cheap plastic parts inside could brake. So you had to know how to repair a precious tapes.
Good bye tape – you won’t be missed … ever!
Oh, the pain! Oh, the drama! We are uncovering all the lies in your relationship …
| Definition Social Porn: Watching other peoples’ relationships without really having a relationship with them – and mentally participating in their dramas. |
Since the early 80’s there has been a Tsunami of afternoon talk shows filled with social drama and pain.
And we are loving it!
It is amazing how the Queens and Kings of "honesty" and "self righteousness" are police, judge and executioner in one person. Oprah made Billions of Dollars with her tears, Jeremy Kyle currently tries to do the same in the UK.
But the real question is: Why do we frenetically watch and love Social Porn?
Every tear is worth a million dollars …
It all comes down to us being social animals. When you look at many fellow mammals they have social hierarchies like us with different ranks. Everybody knows what an alpha-male or alpha-female is.
But one essential feature of social networking (the real thing, not the simulation on Facebook) is watching other "animals" in the tribe. Watching the "others" allows us to spot opportunities to climb the social ladder, make new friends, know who our enemies are and our enemies’ enemies are.
The most important part of watching others is to learn where you stand in the tribe’s hierarchy and your chances to climb higher or fail …
Yeah, you might be bigger, but my social ranking is higher …
For some animals this is much easier: dogs sniff other dogs arse or even sample their urine or poo – and can analyse from this the status and current health of the fellow canine.
We primates have developed the face as the main social interFACE. Compared to most other animals the primates’ face has the more muscles and expressions than anyone else on this planet. Ape and human faces have an incredible range of "gestures" – which work even across species.
Our faces tell complete stories without words. We can socialize simply by looking at each other. You usually can see in an instant if someone looking at you likes you or hates you; if there is a chance for a better social contact or if that other person might even attack you …
So by watching and gossiping with others about others we learn what’s going on in the group, what the other members strengths and weaknesses are, and which tactics are successful or devastating.
I’ll scratch your back, if you …
Being successful in climbing the social ladder increases our chances of mating and spreading our genes. Yes, Ladies & Gentleman, it all comes down to mating once again …
And watching social porn on TV confirms this: it’s mostly about sex and cheating.
When we watch these dramas, we learn how to "protect" our own social involvement and genetic "investment". Of course we want partners, who are safe for our offspring and support them. We don’t want cheats that are a danger to our sperm or egg investment – and therefore perpetuation of our "selfish gene".
Social Porn on TV is a highly valuable lesson to "spot" cheaters and avoid failures in reproduction.
Wait a minute! Is that critter really mine?!
So watching social porn on TV and gossiping about relationships has an important biological benefit. We learn how to be successful animals and mating mates …
But there is also a strong social and moral component to it. We humans have transformed many "biological mechanisms" into social rules like married people do not engage in sex with strangers. Based on these social rules we have created moral and religious restrictions as well.
"You shall not covet your neighbour’s wife (or husband)." is simply a biological need (protecting your sperm & eggs from invaders) turned into a social and moral rule.
So Social Porn also enforces these "morals" when cheaters and liars get booed by the audience and judged by the presenter. That is why the Ladies in the audience hiss, when a boyfriend cheated on his bitch – it’s a violation of the biological contract of only breeding exclusively together.
This social pressure is once again there to protect our biological investments.
We love watching Alpha-Couples, especially when they are media whores and on twitter.
The biological background also explains why we love watching alpha-animals of the global tribe and their relationships. Like good herd animals we learn from watching the strongest and fittest of our flock.
That is why so many people know more about the life’s of celebrities and their relationships than their neighbours living in the same house. Our biological desire is to swim ahead in the genetic pool and score the most adorable eggs or sperm available. That is why some ladies fantasize about sleeping with Bruce Willies, while Guy virtually impregnate Megan Fox.
That’s Social Porn in it’s most basic form and desire. Women and men do it equally.
All our Gadgets currently rely on lithium-ion-batteries. But it’s not only the gadgets industry that relies heavily on Lithium, also the Electro-Cars need this material in HUGE quantities.
The only problem is that Lithium is a very rare element and the worlds reserves are pretty limited. China is emerging as the biggest producer and is seriously considering limiting the export of this precious material.
So either we have to find a substitute or a new way to produce huge amounts of Lithium.
Yes, Nerds can make music … all they needs is some gadgets to get rappin’. Brett Domino and his crew are brilliant. Make sure to visit his website or his YouTube channel.
Uh, all this nerdy excitement and brilliance makes me giggle like a little girl!
Ah, the Wonders of digital consumerism! The figure will react to your voice or simply act randomly. I need one asap – get yours here.
Warning: This video might be unsuitable for people who still believe in the good of human nature.
Actually I am doing this all the time in my cellar with my "Hello Kitty" collectables, but please don’t tell anyone …
PS: You can’t "unsee" this video, it will be stuck in your mind forever.
Just go and watch the Battle For Milkquarious. If you are not killed by laughter, the sheer brilliance of it’s cheesiness will end your life or your sanity.
Enjoy!
New York Times: How Nonsense Sharpens the Intellect
The article above confirms my personal observations: it’s not always an advantage to think "straight" or be normal.
Paradoxes and "weird stuff" are good for your mind. It helps to brain to find new approaches and brings inspiration.
So crazy humour is as good as zen koans or mad art to get you "thinking" in new ways. Our minds need to be rattles once in a while to get out of it’s usually patterns and look for new ones …
Go to the website, download, unpack the game and get addicted. It’s a "simple" platform game, but with that charming 1988 sound and visuals. The action is brilliant!
It once again shows that a good game and attention to detail is all that is needed – not fancy graphics and sounds.
Star Guard puts many new games to shame …
I have high hopes for Postbox a new eMail client, which is based on Mozilla’s Thunderbird. I never understood why Thunderbird has so many obvious flaws that makes it hard to use (and adopt for any user or company – although the software itself is free).
Postbox is basically Thunderbird done right. And that’s even worth paying for it – and available for Mac & PC. The recently released first version is very good, albeit not perfect. But the Postbox team has shown it understands what users need and how to improve the workflow (check the big feature list and great interface here). Excellent!
I am looking forward to the next versions – I am not jumping ship yet. Unless either Thunderbird or Postbox or any other client really combines the feature set of Outlook (especially tasks, calendar, address book and notes) into one package I am not switching. There is a reason why in the corporate world Outlook in combination with Exchange rules supreme – it’s simply a feature set the modern Office slave needs.
If Postbox succeeds in integrating all these features (a lot of work) PLUS a working Google Services integration (GMail, calendar, address book and Reader) than they have a killer. Because GMail clients too focused just on Google and Microsofts hates opening up.
So my dear Postbox team – if you can combine both worlds you deserve all my praise and some money. Such a products is much needed …
Most musicians use samplers to sample other people’s performances or bits of their songs. For them a sampler in combination with a sequencer is just a rigid "LEGO" music system. They are unable to adapt and really make free flowing music with this exciting technology …
Tim Exile is a Master of Music and Technology. He not only knows how to sample, but how to make music from his own samples. He is an instrument, performer and composer in a brilliant package.
As usual this old pulp cover is full of ridicules moments: helmets like light bulbs, the perfect line between blaster and the monsters eye, the women wears a miniskirt in space (of course) …
The design of science fiction has become much better since the 1920’s (?), but most scifi movies storylines are still as stupid as this cover …
You make mistakes, I make mistakes. Mistakes are essential for learning and especially curious or laborious people make many of them.
But how to handle mistakes – especially those in a public situation?
The first question what this mistake means to yourself: did you repeat an old mistake or indulge a bad habit? In that case the usual reaction is anger or frustration with yourself. This is of course the wrong way: you should rather ask yourself what is the "motivation" behind the "repeat". Unless you know what drives you to do the same mistakes over and over again than you can’t change …
Was the mistake unpredictable? Than have a laugh and try again.
But what if it was predictable and you just didn’t care enough to be cautions or too lazy to prepare yourself properly. Once again don’t use the "excuse" anger to punish yourself – and again ask yourself what was the motivation for your carelessness.
Social connection are usually "chains" of personal commitments of loyalty, association and love.
So if you "fail" in public you yank that "chain" – and all people connected to it will be connected.
Isn’t it strange that we are suddenly part of a failure or the blame game although we didn’t do anything?
And why does a mistake make the presence of observers, friends and enemies it even worse? Why do we gloat? Why do we feel Schadenfreude? Why do other people’s failure fill us rather with glee and happiness instead of compassion?
Watch this video and be honest about your first reaction:
Now you have been the observer, but what if that crash had happened to you?
It really depends on your independence from the crowd and self-confidence if you can shrug of the mistakes.
To feel embarrassed by your or other people’s mistake it an "emotional decision" – unlike the emotion fear it is not hardwired into our brains to protect us.
Sure – there is "stress" that is generated by a mistake – falling down will flush you with hormones and race your pulse. But still there is no need to feel embarrassed.
The same is true for anger after a mistake. Often people (mostly guys) are angry and get aggressive towards others and objects when they "fail":
Once again this reaction to a mistake could be handled differently. Because having such a lack of emotional intelligence is another social failure and can only lead to more stress.
So when a mistake happens and there is no further "danger" take a step back and a deep breath. Calm yourself if you feel stressed … take some more deep breaths in case you are flooded with stress. Give your body and your mind time to handle what happened.
Try to understand what just happened and improve the situation. Keep your composure or laugh about it.
Nevermind the German dialogue – this is hardcore Kitsch. But like all pain it has to be shared to be truly effective …
Click image for a larger version.
Click image for a larger version.
The great Australian Dust Storm – some more great pictures here at the Boston Big Picture and Wired.
People love fluffy pets – it’s only a matter of time till the toy, pet and genetic industry team up and create some cuddly abomination.
Like glowing fish nature will be perverted for the sake of consumerism. Poor animals.
BBC News: China’s 60 years of Communism
A billion fellow humans are under the thumb of totalitarian regime that is brutal and aggressive. The Communists love to parade "their" work for China and how they pushed the country ahead.
All a big lie! The Great Leap Forward killed millions of Chinese. Bad policies and suppression killed some more.
The progress came AFTER China allowed the old enemy Capitalism to take root. It was never Communism that caused progress …
Some jokes are simply too obvious, but still worth posting because they will attract all the wrong people to my blog …
I like President Obama, but giving him the Nobel Peace prize seems almost cynical. What has he achieved so far?
Giving him the prize will only fuel the American Right Wing Hate Machine (remember when Al Gore got it?).
It’s not Obama’s fault that he got it – the Nobel Prize Committee is to blame big time.
There have been many other great candidates for that prize.