Some reflections

Perhaps what makes ABCs successful is their ability to focus on an artificial goal that is set in front of them and pursue it with great focus and drive. Even if that goal doesn't turn out to be particularly useful, having some direction is better than flailing around.

Success doesn't bring them any particular joy or happiness. The unlucky ones, After realizing that the goal is not what they want,  take it to mean that it has all been in vain and are set adrift. The lucky ones are able to switch the goal with some other.

Walking on light

Operación Masacre

"The city (like the country) can be loved as long as the light is fading and there aren’t any people in the view..."


- Operation Massacre

Betrayal (Sorcerer Theme)

GRAVITY, Soyuz & Shenzhou

It is interesting if you think about why the Soyuz and the Shenzhou would be similar: consumer electronics differ greatly between manufacturers, and cars and planes do, too. But there's enormous value to actually simplifying and unifying the control schemes for these spaceships. One can interpret the comment that the two are similar as a testament to the impressive engineering that goes into spaceflight. That we have these totally distinct bespoke creations, but that the creators expended enormous effort to unify their control mechanisms as a result of an actual, practical need. And that this practical need is precisely what we see in this movie.

Even if Shenzhou were an exact copy of Soyuz, the control schemes are actually unlikely to be similar without a lot of effort involved. These control schemes were so precisely thought out that a pilot with familiarity with only one of them could pilot both, even when the pilot could not understand either language. This is one area where this movie excelled. It entertained complexity.

Further reading: GE Apollo D-2 vs Soyuz vs Shenzhou
GE Apollo D-2 vs Soyuz vs Shenzhou (cached link)

Rent seeking

"No one believes [The big French, German and British energy companies who sell Britons their gas and electricity] compete with each other: the test of that is that they are unable to demonstrate, in a way anyone can understand, that they do. They are more like farmers who have acquired land on which to grow crops in perpetuity... the land they own is us, their customers, and the crop is our bills."

Energy Tax

Presumed Music

The White Queen

Wars of the Roses 

Richard the Third

Bauklötze

Tiny Times

I'm somewhat removed from Chinese popular culture, and from popular culture in general. But I was intrigued by this movie. Partly because the critics' voices were so boisterous, their farts so loud, that I can't help but feel that I need to find out what the stink is all about. Well, I watched the movie and thought that it was not bad.

From the vantage point of a viewer living in a society of abundance, the movie doesn't seem extraordinary. The shots are glossy, but nobody would mistake the set for the level of luxury that one would find in places without so much fanfare in the U.S.

But there is a very simple premise from the movie: Chinese people want what everybody else want, mainly love and money. Is this too much to ask? Would it be so out of place to suggest that the pursue of wealth and prosperity should be the governing mission of mankind?

I find that this normality, this baseline familiarity, may itself be significant. I once thought to myself that the day when movies coming out of China are no longer considered exotic or 'auteur', only then would China truly have arrived in the international stage in a more significant sense, because it would then have arrived culturally. I think those days may be starting.

This movie is in many ways limited, but I think it would be a mistake to wait for a more grant debut to realize what is happening. Ultimately, to have Chinese culture walk out of the alley of history and speak more about the universal present, to have an entirely different society with the critical mass to ponder the expanding possibilities of reality: that would be exciting. That would be electrifying.


The movie will be remembered as a signifier of the continuing normalization of China. I am happy to see such signs, because what Chinese culture has come to mean to me is the continued improvement and actualization of a people. It has, in some ways, come to meant progress itself.

The Politics of Relationships

V
So I ran across a photo album of a girl I knew at college
She got fat

me
oh?

V
Yeah
Got fat
Well, I think I know why, too
My theory is that... 

me
that she ate too much?


V
Well...

Awkward conversations

FT: The Great Pornwall of Britain


Sit back and take a moment to imagine what the future might sound like.

“Hello, you’re through to BT. This call may be recorded for training purposes. How may I help you, Mr Smith?”

“Uhhh, I, errr… filters… ummm…”

“Would you like to view adult content, Mr Smith?”

“Oh uh, no! I mean, I think it’s blocking some educational material, you see I…”

“Sure, Mr Smith. Do you have the approval of the other account holder, Mrs Smith?”

Click!

Photos of Texas in the 1970s

Texas in the 1970s

The Legend of Korra Book 2

Really excited.

The reason? Because the previous shows were so good: "The show's internal consistency, long story arcs, and inventiveness with its basic premise illustrate a lot of love and care on the part of its creators. They cared enough to pay this kind of attention to detail."

Efficiency at the wrong end

V
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6051041

me
so, what do you make of it?

V
It's great link bait for the HN crowd
It's a tough choice, though
On the one hand, you can be a robot, working 12 and 14 hour days at your iBanking job, slaving away at the system making a 250k$ pittance
Or you can be one of the free thinkers, working your part-time Starbucks job for 10$/hr between house parties, oh, and, by the way, no health insurance

V
The speech is actually quite self-aggrandising
It hints at all these truths we know but won't admit
Like how the slackers who lived a better life probably are mostly losers and only 1% hidden geniuses

me
I think the original intent was to question the industrial process of education

V
But clearly the industrial process reflects an industrial thinking about society
This is the thinking that the people who will love this speech will also espouse
The utilitarian approach

me
it may be questioning the efficacy of this process, after all, there's only one valedictorian
the industrial education process may or may not be dehumanizing, but the larger problem is that it is actually incredibly inefficient

V
How do we improve efficiency?

me
I don't know, but I think that is where a lot of the angst is really coming from

V
But the HN appeal seems to show that the angst is at efficiency at the wrong end
Who cares if the gifted & talented are underserved by the system?
They'll probably succeed anyway
The slightly gifted may be left behind
But they're really not as special as they want us to think
But at the other end, you have direr situation, and there seems to be less focus or interest on what to do about them

The desperate and the dissembling

V
See, this open letter is fantastic:

me
 that seems to be missing the point.
 isn't the point that the capability exists to forego these legal formalities and access confidential data by executive fiat with little or no proper oversight?
the fact that such executive power is declared "legal" by a legislative body like Congress does nothing to dampen its menace and abusive potential
if Google is serious about privacy, then it would take action to strengthen end-to-end protection of data
unless I'm missing something I'm entirely unsure why this piece of spin is fantastic
it seems desperate and dissembling

V
 I think that desperation is good
 In fact, I think it's excellent.

me
 I think the pleading tone belies the fact that it is always groveling to certain powers
 why does't it go ahead and make a grand gesture and pull out of business operations in the U.S. indignantly? Oh wait, because it can't afford to

V
 Well, I think an even better part of it is that it pulled out of overseas operations on proof of malfeasance.
 This is not the same. This is the company suffering for an appearance of overeager complicity with a programme that is, itself, of unclear legality.
 This is better, though. It really doesn't matter if the charges are true or false. It matters that the appearance or implication that the charges are true is enough to make the company squirm. And I think that it is wrong to say that the situations are identical. 
What is an organisation overseas that has equivalent political influence? The same lobbying structures don't really exist, as I understand.
 So they withdraw and take the hit
 Here, the lobbying structures are very advanced
 Twitter apparently refused to participate in this programme. I think it's a positive thing if the organisations who agreed to participate are penalised in the market for the mere implication.
 If this intensifies, which I hope it does, then I think the only way to fight this implication is to prove noncompliance, which means doing what they should have done from the start and allow end-to-end encryption.

me
 I guess the company is now in a position in which it will have to say something, anything, and make some gesture, any gesture - however empty (and hoping that the reader doesn't notice), to get away from the implication

A corridor of power

The US Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of New York

Those who serve power, and those who are served by it.

Children's books. French children's books.

I was going to write about a wedding scene in a movie I liked, but the embed option for the movie clip was disabled, so I guess I'll just have to blog about children's books.

Voilà

Two modern fairy tales

Tale 1
Tale 2

Each left her own world for his.

I'm upset

8:30 PM me: just found out x is getting married 

9:20 PM me: I wonder if she is happy 
but more to the point, I feel quite upset 

11:09 PM V: Why upset?

me: for her getting married, but not to me 

V: Why do you want to marry a girl you don't even know? 

11:34 PM me: Yes, you do have a point 
but I'm still upset

But that's a sadder story

"And the mystery knight should defeat all challengers and name the wolf maid the queen of love and beauty."  

"She was," said Meera. "But that's a sadder story."

Will we ever get a proper review of ASoIaF?

A promising review turned massive spoiler

Checking in

‘Who really spoke? Is it really he and not someone else? With what authenticity or originality? And what part of his deepest self did he express in his discourse?’

An Entire Order Converted into What It Was Intended to End

The Decline of Italy

"In 1992-94 Italy was widely held to have been reborn. The parties that had long ruled – latterly misruled – the country were all but wiped out, after their corruption had been exposed by a fearless group of magistrates, in an election under a new and, so it was felt, more functional system, even if the government that emerged from the polls was a surprise to many who celebrated the end of the old regime. The country could now make a fresh start, in its way comparable to that of 1945."

Return to Algiers

First there was the Battle of Algiers:



"La France doit-elle rester en Algèrie?"

"Si vous rèpondez encore oui, vous devez en accepter toutes les consèquences nècessaires."


30 years later:

Some translations

A well translated poem looks something like this. I take as an example the foreword to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms by Luo Guanzhong, as translated from the Chinese by Moss Roberts:

滚滚长江东逝水，浪花淘尽英雄。是非成败转头空。
青山依旧在，几度夕阳红。
白发渔樵江渚上，惯看秋月春风。一壶浊酒喜相逢。
古今多少事，都付笑谈中。
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　——调寄《临江仙》

On and on the Great River rolls, racing east.
Of proud and gallant heroes its white-tops leave no trace,
As right and wrong, pride and fall turn all at once unreal.
Yet ever the green hills stay
To blaze in the west-waning day.

Fishers and woodsmen comb the river isles.
White-crowned, they've seen enough of spring and autumn tide
To make good company over the wine jar,
Where many a famed event
Provides their merriment.

                                                         - From ershiwu shi tanci

Moss attributes the authorship of the poem to a collection of works "ershiwu shi tanci" (二十五史弹词??)  rather than specifically to 调寄《临江仙》.It is interesting in that this provides a wider context for people unfamiliar the genre (or the language).

A search into "ershiwu shi tanci" reveals that it is "a collection of popular songs on historical themes compiled during the Ming dynasty by Yang Shen (d. 1559)". Personally I had to look up what 调寄 means.

Alas, poor Simone

"Drama of my affections, pathos of life . . . . Indeed, I have a more complicated, more nuanced sensibility than his and a more exhausting power of love. Those problems that he lives in his mind, I live them with my arms and my legs. Has he ever known months when all the days were only tears? I do not want to lose all that . . . . Only I must make myself stronger in order to walk on despite my burden. Two cowardly attitudes: keep the burden and sit down - (this is very cowardly) - throw off the burden and walk on. One good one: keep the burden and walk on. I will walk on."