Saturday, October 17, 2020
The world’s largest trompe-l’oeil display; the final Airbus 380 built; hottest temperature sicne 1913; ‘cabin fever’; and winter like a Norwegian.
Esoterica
The Greatest Change of All
Unless there is a nuclear world war or a pandemic deadlier than COVID-19 sometime this century, advances in technology will allow humanity this century to achieve the greatest change in history: the end of scarcity. Scarcity has existed since since before humans existed. Scarce food. Scarce fresh water. Scarce shelter. Scarce money once currency replaced barter. Although 900 million humans have risen out of poverty during the past 30 years, 700 million, a tenth of humanity, still find food, fresh water, shelter, and income of even the equivalent of a dollar per day, scarce. And even though most of the other 6 billion humans might still consider many of those things to be relatively scarce, the concept of a world soon without hunger, homelessness, or a want for basic necessities isn’t a dream, fantasy, or science fiction anymore. Scarcity has existed since since before humans existed. Scarce food. Scarce fresh water. Scarce shelter. Scarce money once currency replaced barter. Although 900 million humans have risen out of poverty during the past 30 years, 700 million, a tenth of humanity, still find food, fresh water, shelter, and income of even the equivalent of a dollar per day, scarce. And even though most of the other 6 billion humans might still consider many of those things to be relatively scarce, the concept of a world soon without hunger, homelessness, or a want for basic necessities isn’t a dream, fantasy, or science fiction anymore. James Burke, tells you why. In a 28-minute radio broadcast on the British Broadcasting Corporation during New Year’s Day 2018, the British author, television producer, and historian of science historian describes what will soon become the biggest change to humanity in 10,000 years. And how the economics of abundance will disrupt civilization. If you don’t have time to listen to Burke explain it all by voice, you can read what he says here.
Why It Seems Like Half of All Diseases Originate Within this Circle
Half of everything that occurs to people occurs inside this simple circle, because half of humanity lives within this simple 4,000-kilometre circle.
Dear Believers in Conspiracy Theories about the Press
Finally unveiled: the ‘Deep State’ plot by the press, who are against Trump!
Social Media Distancing
The Dunning-Kruger Effect has changed Social Media: those who know not opine and those who know know better.
Comment of Real Expertise
For nearly 15 years, a loose confederation of New Media pundits who I’ll call ‘techno-utopians’ claimed that because average people can now express themselves online, free of moderation by media companies, the quality of public discussions would improve and the best ideas rise to acclaim. Yet the reality has been quite different than that. he reason why it’s different is the results of what psychologists term the Dunning-Kruger Effect in which too many average people believe their cognitive ability and wisdom is as great, and often greater, than experts about the topic being discussed. A truly intelligent average person will defer to established expertise because it is almost always arduously gained from first-hand knowledge and deep experience. By contrast, the less intelligent a person, the more dumb and unaware he is of what actual expertise entails. He will too often believe that his own opinions about the topic discussed are equal, or even superior, to those of experts’. (The very worst cases of this moreover can be motivated or reinforced by resentment he might feel against experts or other classes of people who’ve achieved more in their careers than he has his.) The overall result is that the participation of so many of the dumber and unaware average people in online public discussions has not just lowered the levels of discourse but too often spewed smogs of miasmic discord and disinformation into those discussions. Unwitting Techno-utopians be damned! As the American biochemist and author Isaac Asimov remarked during 1980, “The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that ‘my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.’ ” His remark was about his own nation, but is no less true throughout the online world 40 years later. In social media, I am becoming apocalyptically weary of American plumbers who can expertly unclog a drain but who also purport to have expertise about the macro-economic impact on the EU of BREXIT; of used beer wholesalers who profess Constitutional law expertise; of used car salesmen, who though themselves untraveled, offer insights into the comparative structures of national healthcare systems here and abroad. Et. al. I’ll willingly accept their respective expertise about pipe water flow capacities, about alcohol-by-volume levels of brews, or about the suspension systems of 2003 Toyotas, but not about topics about which they don’t have any actual expertise. What […]
Rooftops on a Cloudy Day in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
Aerial drone panorama of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria on a cloudy day.
‘Kesari’
Thanks to streaming video websites such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, and the Criterion Channel, I’m enjoying many of the best films in the world, not just those few available at my local ‘art house’ cinema. Last night’s was Kesari (‘Saffron’), this year’s Bollywood film about the 1897 Battle of Saragarhi, in which 21 Sikhs fighting for the British Raj held off 10,000 to 12,000 Afghan warrior attacking their small fort. As an American, I wasn’t aware of that battle, for which all 21 Sikhs were posthumously award the Indian Order of Merit, that nation’s equivalent of the British Victoria Cross or American Medal of Honor. Kesari, is one of this year’s top ten box office films in India, is reminiscent of other ‘hopelessly outnumbered’ war films, such as the 1964 film Zulu (starring Michael Caine in his first major role) about the 1879 Battle of Rorke’s Drift (150 British soldiers vs. 4,000 Zulu warriors) or the 1962 film The 300 Spartans or 2007 film 300, both of which were about the ancient Battle of Thermopylae (in reality a few thousand Spartans against 70,000 to 100,000 Persian warriors). Good war film, yet with a minor romantic subplot. (And being a Bollywood film, at some point in the 21 Sikhs must dance and sing!) Starring the Canadian Akshay Kumar, India’s highest-paid actor, the fourth highest-paid in the world. Available on Netflix, in Hindi with English-subtitles.
Comic Book Films [2010s] Versus Class Action Films [1950’s]: Part Three
[Viewing this on a smartphone? If you don’t see the video referenced, here is its hyperlink: https://youtu.be/jGc-K7giqKM ] Finally, here’s a third video comparing the comic book superhero action movies of today against action movies of the past. Again, I’m using Akira Kurosaw films the 1950s to contrast with current movies.
Comic Book Films [2010s] Versus Class Action Films [1950’s]: Part Two
[Viewing this on a smartphone? If you don’t see the video referenced, here is its hyperlink: https://youtu.be/jZSRxp-dJ-Q ] Here’s a second video comparing the comic book superhero action movies of today against action movies of the past. Again, I’m using Japanese films from the 1950s. In this case, films from director Akira Kurosawa. Hear how the narrator of this video, a different narrator and writer than from my last example , contrasts action films of today versus then.
Comic Book Films (2010’s) versus Classic Action Films (1950’s). The Winner Is …
[Viewing this on a smartphone? If you don’t see the video referenced, here is its hyperlink: https://youtu.be/jZSRxp-dJ-Q ] No, sorry! My young friends, the films about Marvel or DC comic book superheroes or the past five ‘Star Wars’ films aren’t — unlike what some of my under age-30 (or even some under age-40) friends tell — me “the greatest action movies ever made!” I’ve given up watching those films, with their leaden plots, chaotic actions sequences, and think characterizations. And because approximately eight out of the ten top box office hits last year were sequels of those films, this means I no longer go to the cinema as much as I had for decades. You want great actions films, go online and look to the past. Here is the first of three blog posts I’m posting that compare today’s comic book superhero or ‘Star Wars’ films with better actions films of the past. Because the ‘Star Wars’ films themselves are based upon 1950’s Japanese samurai films (known as Jidaigeki films in Japanese, a term borrowed in ‘Star Wars’ as “Jedi”), let’s start there. Compare how the master director Akira Kurosawa directed action in Seven Samurai (1954), considered by most serious critics as the best action film ever made. The narrator of the YouTube video above is himself a little dull, but his points aren’t when comparing the direction of today’s comic book superhero or ‘Star Wars’ films with that of this Japanese classic action film.