Excellent Video about Twitter and how it works. Very well done and easy to understand for even twentysomethings or my clients …

Don’t miss the other brilliant videos from commoncraft as well.

You can only get as smart as the programs you decide to watch on the telly. Most people chose crap - so they stay stupid. But also most so called educational broadcasters like Discovery or History Channel are pretty dumb. Fancy computer graphics are no substitute for excellent researchers and writers.

Sometimes Sink-or-Swim is not the best way "to get your feet wet". Harsh and unforeseen "learning moments" are often unavoidable, but they should be avoided.

But sometimes "fear" needs  to be overcome as well, so a little push is oke … but not an emotional execution!

This is how we do science in Europe - those religious nuts don’t know what they are missing!

This video is part of the Marie Curie Actions - a program designed to promote research and obviously science.

And you know how Madame Curie was - dontacha?

Just brilliant and simple. But I am afraid it won’t reach those minds in their mental war zones and bunkers that need it the most.

Watching fertile bimbos playing with rubber swords and acting to bad scripts doesn’t give you any real insights into antiquity.

Shows like Xena and the related Hercules - and many Hollywood and Walt Disney movies have totally twisted our understanding of the good old heroic days. I would consider “Life of Brian” almost as historically accurate as these sins.

All these script writers, directors and most of all producers should be properly crucified for these sins!

Greece and Roman history offer many amazing and breathtaking stories. Also the myths are brilliant. There is no need to spice these stories up - there is loads of blood, sex and drama in them.

As a big SciFi fan I always wanted to have a robot as a kid. I also wanted to have a giant space gorilla who could launch missiles and teleport me to mars.

Modern parents are already using machines to babysit their offspring: they are called TVs and PlayStations. These are semi-intelligent entertainment robots to keep your kids busy.

But do we really want even more complex machines to educate, relate and raise our kids? I don’t think so. Raising humans should be a human job. People should rely less on machines and get proper nannies or tutors to get their kids a better start.

Even animals will do a better job teaching little humans about (organic) life. No matter how intelligent Robots will be some day, they are not organic beings, they are not the perfect example how to grow up and what it means to deal with the human condition.

General it’s a shame that most parents no longer care or have the time to play with their kids - they themselves are either too busy working or entertaining themselves. So in some way, we are getting addicted and distracted by digital slaves providing easy leisure …

We yourselves dehumanize our societies by being perfect consumers or too cocooned individuals.

Just two years ago I discovered Bob Ross show ‘The Joy of Painting‘ although it’s pretty old. You might not like his style, but he is fun to watch. It’s the most peaceful art show I have ever seen - he is more like a monk preaching happiness then a art teacher. I love it - and I might even learn a trick of two.

He died over ten year ago 1995 - a sad loss, since there are not many TV art shows around. I would swap ten big brothers for one decent show about architecture or sculpting. I would even dump some of these techno fetish documentaries (Monster Trucks, Monster Buildings, Monster Anything) from the History Channel for some more art education.

We already have way too much crap on TV.

More? Bob Ross on YouTube

If you society only imports technology it lacks the experience of reinventing the wheel and the progress of adapting this new idea.

Many inventors were far ahead of their societies, but because nor the public or the elite could understand the invention and it’s glory they got forgotten.

Improving society by invention is also about communication, education and integration. That is why progress takes time - ideas, change and technology needs time to take roots.

So the wheel has to be reinvented again and again, so we understand the process, learn from it and appreciate it.

Zee Voild is foll of nasions fidh peeplz!

Call me old fashioned - but I still believe that any adult in a rich country should have some knowledge about this planet. The word ‘Allgemeinbildung‘ reflects this perfectly in German.

This video certainly pokes fun at Americans - but I think it reflects the interest and level of education in many countries. Knowledge and good education are no longer considered important and ‘cool’?! Too bad that cool stupidity and ignorance seems the new mantra of western kids - most new role models have apart from beauty and fame nothing to offer?

This only increases my Weltschmerz!

An excellent movie about America’s lust for weapons and power. Watch the trailer online or simply the whole movie.

This movie makes an excellent addition to the ‘Fog of War‘, but not so intellectual and focus on a single person (Robert McNamara) - and it gives you a much better oversight how it all developed.

Watch this animation sponsored by American scientists to explain why any mini-nukes are pretty useless against the Iranian research facilities. Sometimes firepower doesn’t solve everything.

Bernie’s Better Beginner’s Guide to Photography is exactly what it says - and not a bad one! Highly recommended if you want to know a bit more about making good snaps and buying the right camera. Although his tutorial focuses on SLR cameras, most stuff applies also to small snappers like the one above.

After the second world war many western nations became more socialist then many people would have admitted at the time. The social welfare of their citizens was very important to European countries - especially in fear of another working class uprising like in the Soviet Union, but also to keep another Hitler from happening.

But in search of social consensus many countries overdid it. Instead of building social societies they build nanny states that would infiltrate people’s life instead allowing them to make a living. In the attempt to bring social peace and equality they took out the vitality of the society itself and strangled any innovation and development within.

Hardly forty years later the welfare states ran out of money - countries like Britain, Sweden and Germany started to cut down on social budgets. Suddenly social welfare became a war against social parasites. Profit was more interesting then social consensus and support.

Welcome to the new old world of total capitalism - with it’s new saints Ronald Reagan and Maggie Thatcher.

Working together - to survive.

In the search of efficiency and ever tighter budgets the main victims of this new spirit were the kids and the educational system. It is a harsh joke that child poverty is on the rise in many western countries. The educational systems in many countries are failing or under siege as well.

Plus the real income of white and blue collar workers in industrialized countries actually has declined in many countries for the last 30 years. The middle class is thinning out in many countries. A new lower class has developed in highly sophisticated countries.

Education is a human right and should be free. The same should be true for health care. A smart, healthy and educated citizen is the most valuable investment for any countriy. It’s not a question of money, but dedication, moral and priority within a society.

I use Wikipedia on a daily basis - so I donated €50 today to keep this brilliant source of shared knowledge working. I think this is one of the few web projects that appeals to everyone - so I ask you humbly to donate some of your hard earned cash to keep it running as well.

Wikipedia is an open and very international effort with a huge infrastructure behind it (servers that eat a lot of bandwidth). Although many companies support Wikipedia as well - it’s still down to us mere mortals to keep the torch of knowledge burning, either by participation or donation.

Bitte donate some of your money as well! 

Vielen Dank my friends.

Love art? Go and knock yourself out: www.artdaily.org. But bring some time with you - this website has some depth!

Don’t you love blame games?

Remember poor Lyndie England. Is she a great scapegoat, a brave soldier or just a mislead soul in a unjust war?

Since I am a sort of draft dodger I can’t relate to people who go to the military. Plus I don’t know how I would behave in a situation like Iraq, Vietnam or Afghanistan.

I once read that old British military tradition tried to evoke ‘presence of mind’ in their soldiers. This presence of mind seems clearly missing in this case and many others we read about during the War on Terror.

But I wonder, how anyone can stay present with death, torture, mayhem and human chaos around them? Isn’t that the perfect situation to close down anything left human inside of you and go robotic? Just following orders?

Soldiers should never be left alone, human should never be left alone. We are social animals and we need others to guide us in difficult situations … one sane mind can stop an insane crowd … sometimes …

We still consider babies and little kids as symbols of innocence and purity. But can a ‘blank’ mind in training be considered innocent unless it has developed it’s full potential?

What I find even more odd is the overall desire to be ‘good’ and be ‘clean’ - without any spots on your soul/mind. To accept your own power and potential in an ‘unfair’ and ‘uneven’ universe you have to get ‘your hands dirty’. The desire to stay clean sounds rather like cowardice not to get involved.

But what’s the point of having a mind and not using it to get involved? What’s the point of being alive, if you don’t muddle with your own existence and power?

Ed sent me this great link: BBC Global Dimming (from 2005). A great documentation about the complexity and effects of climate change. This one concentrates less on CO2 and Methane (the usual suspects) but simply on dirt & dust in the atmosphere.

Here is a more scientific Wikipedia link for some more background information. As usual with BBC stuff: highly recommended.

Thanks Ed!