Lonely Blogosphere

Autumn, not fall, fool!

2006-06-25T14:39:00.000-07:00

I'm a foreigner here in London. Yeah, sure, that's like half the rest of its population, but it's fun discovering little things that can prove I haven't been around here for long. Like saying "Since last fall..."

Then comes the moment when the pretty British real estate agent O. replies "Huh! You say fall??" like it's the funniest word she's heard and you realize British people have their own way for saying such a simple thing and that you have to sound funny to learn some things. "Oh sorry I should say autumn, right?"

I wonder how many times it's going to happen to me...

We can only hope. And try.

2006-06-19T17:01:00.000-07:00

The terrible dilemma of our lives. Whatever happens, it is evil beyond compare.
Why struggle, then? Why choose? If all alternatives are the same…
Evidently we go on, as we always have. From day to day. At this moment, we work to defeat the police. But we cannot do it all at once; it is a sequence. An unfolding process. We can only control the end by making a choice at each step.
He thought. We can only hope. And try.
On some other world, possibly it is different. Better, There are good and evil alternatives. Not these obscure admixtures, these blends, with no proper tool by which to untangle the components.
We do not have he ideal world, such as we would like, where morality is easy because cognition is easy. Where one can do right with no effort because he can detect the obvious.

Philip K Dick - The Man In The High Castle

Istanbul

2006-03-06T10:57:00.000-08:00

Ολες (σχεδόν) οι ωραίες πόλεις έχουν κι ένα ποτάμι. Στην Αθήνα βέβαια, που είμαστε πιο μάγκες από τους άλλους το μπαζώσουμε για να έχει το Αλτερ θεαματικότητα όταν βρέχει. Αλλά εδώ στην Κωνσταντινούπολη, όχι απλά ποτάμι, ποτάμια, κόλποι, γέφυρες, δύο ήπειροι ενώνονται: είναι θαύμα. Αξιζαν τον κόπο τα χιλιόμετρα που περπάτησα.

Commentaries, DVDs and directors' voices.

2006-02-25T08:44:00.000-08:00

Now that I'm listening to the voice of an artist I admire as much as anyone, it ocurred to me once again, how beneficial for movie-lovers the DVD have been, for multiple reasons. I thought about that because Coppola is an ideal example: he's as gifted a director as anyone, but he's not any kind of celebrity giving various interviews about himself and his movies. He doesn't make movies often and he talks about them even less.

Movies he has made, like The Godfather and Apocalypse Now (which I like even more) are real masterpieces, and every time I watch them I'm left with the desire to learn as much as possible about them. I google them, I check message boards, hold discussions about them, but nothing's like hearing their creator's voice explaining you his own perspective of his own masterpiece. In the era of videotape I wouldn't have even imagined this wonderful possibility. Today, I'll be listening to F.F. Coppola for (at least) three hours, two weeks after I watched Se7en again, while hearing David Fincher's voice commenting on his movie together with Brad Pitt.

I love my laptop..

2006-02-25T07:59:00.000-08:00

..and my wireless connection, as well, of course.

I'm watching the Godfather Part II for yet another time, but this time, listening to Francis Ford Coppola's commentary, which I just discovered that is contained in the Godfather DVD collection.

And, since it's well over the tenth time I'm watching the movie, I need not pay much attention to it, so I have no problem having the company of my brand new laptop with me so that at the same time I can blog, use my MSN Messenger, surf and read things like the very very interesting Francis Fukuyama article in last week's New York Times Magazine, titled "After Neoconservatism". Here's an excerpt:

"Radical Islamism is a byproduct of modernization itself, arising from the loss of identity that accompanies the transition to a modern, pluralist society. It is no accident that so many recent terrorists, from Sept. 11's Mohamed Atta to the murderer of the Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh to the London subway bombers, were radicalized in democratic Europe and intimately familiar with all of democracy's blessings. More democracy will mean more alienation, radicalization and — yes, unfortunately — terrorism."

Movies coming: One more

2006-02-22T04:32:00.000-08:00

Lest we forget: The Black Dahlia, directed by Brian de Palma. According to imdb it's going to be released in October in the United States. Not a clue for Europe.

Anxious, anxious, anxious

2006-02-15T07:32:00.000-08:00

My first job interview is coming tomorrow. Let's try not to be panicked, ok?

Quote of the Day

2006-02-08T13:35:00.000-08:00

From Dan Savage's interview at the Onion's AV CLUB:

AVC: You joke about people getting your advice and then killing themselves, but do you have any actual anxiety about the effect your column may have on people?

DS: No. I feel like I'm a compassionate guy, but I also feel if somebody's grip on life or sanity is so tenuous that a joke in an advice column that usually is nothing but jokes pushes them over the edge, then if not me, it would have been a leaf blowing past them that did it, or something else. You almost have to feel that way, doing this. And also, I'm not a big anti-suicide guy. I don't regard suicide necessarily as this huge unspeakable act of selfishness or tragedy. Some people take themselves out for completely legit reasons. Hopefully they'll get help, hopefully they'll think about it, but if they want to check out, I feel like they have a right to do that. I hope that nobody checks out because I made a joke at their expense, but anybody who's so weak that they could check out because of some stranger in the newspaper, in the anonymous treatment of their letter, is gonna bleed to death in a rainstorm if their skin is that thin. You can't really obsess about it.

Movies seen, movies coming

2006-02-07T10:53:00.000-08:00

Here's a list with the year's movies I'm most excitedly expecting, or for that matter, these that I already saw. For these three, the excitement isn't over, I found them all great and I'm even eager to see them again. But with a look at the rest of the list, you can see that there seem to be so interesting months ahead, that there'll be no need for reseeing so recent movies. There's going to be plenty of new stuff to watch, enjoy and talk about..

The sad fact is that I'm able to know the release date for almost none of them here in Greece, except of course of the likes of The Da Vinci Code, with its international premiere in May. So there's patience required to be added to excitement. Not an easy thing.

Good Night and Good Luck
Jarhead
Munich

SYRIANA
V for Vendetta
The Da Vinci Code
A SCANNER DARKLY
The Good Shepherd
ZODIAC

The world's shortest horror story

2006-01-28T14:42:00.000-08:00

Knock
by Fredrick Brown

The last man on Earth sat alone in a room. There was a knock on the door…

Twenty pictures are worth two words.

2006-01-28T10:42:00.000-08:00

Democracy and dictatorship.
That's what happens when Google is Being Evil™:
The first page is what anyone in the world would get by searching "tiananmen" on Google and then clicking on Images. The second one is what a Chinese user would get, by the exact same process, using their newly launched google.cn website.
What's next?

Via Johan Norberg, who points to Peter J Olsson (in Swedish).

Iraqis against Zarqawi, again!

2006-01-28T07:09:00.000-08:00

From Omar, the blogger who is arguably the best news source from Iraq, quoting from Dar al-Hayat (his translation):

The Anbar tribes’ campaign to rid the province of Zarqawi’s terror organization, al-Qaeda in Iraq is in its 2nd day and so far, 270 Arab and foreign intruders have been arrested.
[…]
Usama Jad’aan, the leader of Karabila tribes in Qaim told al-Hayat that “the operation will continue to eliminate terror elements according to a quality plan” and added “270 Arab and foreign intruders have been arrested, in addition to some Iraqis who were providing them shelter”.

Sheikh Jad’aan added “the operation is conducted in coordination between the tribes and the minister of defense Sa’doun al-Dulaimi and since we arrested hundreds of terrorists, I don’t expect the operation to take a lot of time”.

The best news for Iraq and the world. I wonder if someone could wish for this to happen some months ago, or even imagine it...

Steven Spielberg on Munich

2006-01-27T05:45:00.000-08:00

SPIEGEL: Your opponents say that you "humanize" terror.

Spielberg: Do these critics really mean that terrorists are not human beings? I try not to demonize them. Again, this has absolutely nothing to with relativizing their acts or sympathizing with them. But I do believe that it sullies the memory of the victims if we do not ask questions about the reasons, about the roots of terror. My film is not supposed to be a pamphlet, not a caricature, not a one-dimensional view of things. I refuse to give simple answers to complicated questions.

Link.

All you want is in. All I want is out.

2006-01-23T13:29:00.000-08:00

Jarhead

Local insurgents against Al-Qaida in Iraq

2006-01-17T07:00:00.000-08:00

What it means:

Second, it means in the not very long run that the so-called insurgency can be politically isolated and militarily defeated. It already operates within a minority of a minority and is largely directed by unpopular outsiders. Politically, it is the Khmer Rouge plus the Mafia—not the Viet Cong. And unlike the Khmer Rouge, it has no chance at all of taking the major cities. Nor, apart from the relatively weak Syrian regime, does it have a hinterland or a friendly neutral territory to use for resupply. And its zealots are now being killed by nationalist and secular, as well as clerical, guerrillas. (In Kurdistan, the Zarqawi riffraff don't even try; there is a real people's army there, and it has a short way with fascists. It also fights on the coalition side.) In counterinsurgency terms, this is curtains for al-Qaida.

Which is my third point. If all goes even reasonably well, and if a combination of elections and prosperity is enough to draw more mainstream Sunnis into politics and away from Baathist nostalgia, it will have been proved that Bin-Ladenism can be taken on—and openly defeated—in a major Middle Eastern country. And not just defeated
but discredited. Humiliated. Is there anyone who does not think that this is a historic prize worth having? Worth fighting for, in fact?

Christopher Hitchens, in Slate magazine.

Afghanistan, yet again

2006-01-15T02:51:00.000-08:00

What the Afghan "resistance" is:

KABUL, Afghanistan, Jan. 14 (AP) - Two gunmen on a motorcycle killed a former Taliban leader on Saturday outside his home in Kandahar, police officials said.
The victim, Mullah Abdul Samad Khaksar, was a deputy interior minister under the Taliban government in Afghanistan. He switched loyalties and supported Afghanistan's American-backed government after the Taliban militia was ousted in late 2001.
The Kandahar police chief, Gen. Abdul Wahid, said Mullah Khaksar was shot in the heart and head as he was walking with two of his children.

From the New York Times, today

Χρστόδουλος-Χομεϊνί κοινός αγώνας

2006-01-14T02:48:00.000-08:00

Τώρα ο Αγιατολάχ Αθηνών εκφράζει τους εκβιασμούς του δημοσίως: Αν μας πληρώνει το κράτος τους παπάδες, θα σας επιτρέψουμε να καίτε τους νεκρούς σας. Πάλι καλά που πήραμε την άδειά του δηλαδή..

Quote of the Day

2006-01-14T02:33:00.000-08:00

"Europeans should be less hypocritical and not turn a blind eye. There are those who do the dirty work abroad but there are also those who know when they should close their eyes when that dirty work is being done."

Dick Marty, the Swiss senator probing the CIA's secret prison system in Europe claims for the Council of Europe.
Link: BBC NEWS
Ελληνικά εδώ:in.gr

Οι γονείς μου σε blog;

2006-01-13T02:19:00.000-08:00

Οτι οι γονείς μου θα αναφέρονται σε blogs δεν το είχα φανταστεί ως τώρα. Πρόσφατα, ανακάλυψα ότι στο εν λόγω ματς Πραγματικότητα-Φαντασία το σκορ είναι εδώ και μήνες στο 1-0 με ένα πολύ ωραίο γκολ από μεριάς πραγματικότητας δια χειρός μιας... μαγείρισας ονόματι Magica de Spell:

Την περασμένη Παρασκευή, ήμουν προσκεκλημένη σε ένα υπέροχο δείπνο. Η αφορμή της συνάντησης, ήταν η επέτειος πριν μερικές μέρες των 80 χρόνων από την γέννηση του Μάνου Χατζιδάκι. Στο σπίτι που φιλοξενούσε την συνάντηση, δεν υπήρχε φωτογραφία του ζευγαριού, αλλά η φωτογραφία του Μάνου, δέσποζε σε κεντρικό σημείο της βιβλιοθήκης. Το μουσικό κομμάτι της βραδιάς, ήταν επιμελημένο από ένα γνωστό κιθαρίστα, ο οποίος είχε ετοιμάσει ένα πρόγραμμα διάρκειας μιας ώρας με τραγούδια του Μάνου, που τραγουδήσαμε όλοι μαζί.

Το μαγειρικό κομμάτι που επιμελήθηκε η οικοδέσποινα, ήταν εξαιρετικό και περιέλαβε ξιφία α λα σιτσιλιάνα, σαρδέλλες ψητές με πιπεριές φλωρίνης και μαϊντανό, τάρτα με σολωμό και σπανάκι και δυο υπέροχες σαλάτες. Εγώ σκέφτηκα να πάω το γλυκό και η πρώτη μου σκέψη ήταν να φτιάξω μια τάρτα λεμονιού

Ευκαιρία να χαλάσω αυτή την υπέροχη εικόνα, σημειώνοντας ότι οι γονείς μου έχουν και μια δική τους φωτογραφία στη βιβλιοθήκη. Πλάκα έχει πάντως, μπορεί να μην κατάφερα να είμαι εκείνη τη βραδιά στο σπίτι λόγω κακής συνεννόησης και να χάσω τη συγκέντρωση, αλλά μπορώ από ένα blog να μάθω τι συνέβη σπίτι μου..

Ideas: The Economics of Vice and Virtue

2006-01-12T13:03:00.000-08:00

Ideas: The Economics of Vice and Virtue

Booming voices et al.

2006-01-11T14:50:00.000-08:00

I wasn't sure what to think of Alex Tabarrok, especially since he had defined my favourite economist, Paul Krugman, as an "illiberal demagogue" over the latter's doubts about how good for the United States a chinese acquisition of UNOCAL would be.

Professor Tabarrok doesn't blog as often as Tyler Cowen at Marginal Revolution, not even close, so I haven't really read much from him. But now he wrote this:

"If a booming voice told me to sacrifice my son, I'd tell him to go to hell. My failure to see the virtue in Abraham's more faithful actions lets me reject three religions in one go. Convenient."

so he deserves my eternal admiration :)

Blogger Νίκος Δήμου

2006-01-11T05:51:00.000-08:00

Το καλύτερο νέο για την ελληνόφωνη blogosphere: http://nikosdimou.blogspot.com/
Τα "Επίκαιρα" που οι φαν του διαβάζαμε χρόνια στο www.ndimou.gr τώρα πλέον παίρνουν και επίσημα τη μορφή του blog.

Δε νομίζω ότι πρωτοτυπώ λέγοντας ότι ο Νίκος Δήμου είναι από τις πιο σημαντικές ελληνικές παρουσίες στο Διαδίκτυο. Δεν παίζει τόσο πολύ ρόλο στην άποψή μου αυτή ότι συμφωνώ στο 99.9% με όσα λέει, όσο το γεγονός από μόνο του ότι τα λέει, πώς τα λέει και γενικότερα η όλη του παρουσία είναι άξια συγχαρητηρίων. Εκτός του ότι δε θα δεις πολλούς να παραιτούνται δέκα φορές από μεγαλοεφημερίδες, ή να έχουν τέτοια στάση απέναντι στα τηλεοπτικά παράθυρα, για μένα υπάρχουν και πολλά ακόμη σημαντικά στοιχεία: Οντας 20κάτι χρονών, δεν είχα την ευκαιρία να τον μάθω από παλιά, ούτε να γνωρίζω τη δουλειά του. Η παρουσία του όμως στο Internet είναι υποδειγματική. Λιτή, αλλά πλούσια και ταυτόχρονα έντονη και προσωπική. Πόσοι άλλοι έχουν ανεβασμένα βιβλία τους online εξάλλου;

Παρακολουθούσα με πολύ ενδιαφέον τα "Επίκαιρα", τόσο που προ ημερών έστειλα
ένα e-mail στον κ.Δήμου προτείνοντάς του να εγκαταστήσει ένα rss feed στο site του ώστε να τα διαβάζουμε όσο το δυνατόν αμεσότερα. Ετσι, όπως είναι εμφανές, με μεγάλη μου χαρά προσέθεσα σήμερα το μεσημέρι στο rss reader μου το feed που εγκατέστησε στο blog του. Καλή ανάγνωση!

Intellectually lazy polemic against Richard Dawkins

2006-01-08T01:49:00.000-08:00

One of the Guardian's most silly articles, ever, written by Madeleine Banding. I wish I'll find the time later to deal with arguments like "the problem when people don't believe in God is not that they believe nothing, it is that they believe anything" or the notion that we shouldn't be troubled over the fact that religion is cause of numerous wars and conflicts all over Earth, because there are wars caused by other things too, like nationalism. Or, the stupidest argument of them all, this time in favour of religious education of children, because "religion can also provide children with a deep sense of confidence from the teaching that they are each precious in the eyes of God".

Not much analysis needed, anyway. If these are the arguments against Professor Dawkins views, then I'm sorry about mrs Bunting, but it seems like atheists shouldn't be angry at all, because the opposition is terribly weak.

The horror

2006-01-05T01:52:00.000-08:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/05/international/asia/05afghan.html
Interesting reading for anyone who still has doubts on whether the war on Afghanistan was worth fighting.

Εμπρός στο δρόμο που χάραξε το Alter

2006-01-03T16:27:00.000-08:00

Σε ένα άρθρο στο οποίο η είδηση αναφέρει ότι

"Περίπου το 22% πιστεύει επίσης ότι ο Σαντάμ «συνεισέφερε στον σχεδιασμό και την υποστήριξη των τρομοκρατικών επιθέσεων από αέρος κατά των ΗΠΑ στις 11 Σεπτεμβρίου του 2001» ενώ το 24% σκέπτεται ότι «πολλοί εκ των τρομοκρατών - αεροπειρατών ήταν Ιρακινοί»."

είναι ή δεν είναι παραπλανητικό να βάζει κανείς τίτλο "Οι Αμερικανοί πιστεύουν ακόμη ότι ο Σαντάμ κρυβόταν πίσω από τις επιθέσεις της 11/9", με υπότιτλο το εξυπνακίστικο "Οι αντιλήψεις δεν αλλάζουν...", τη στιγμή που το ίδιο του το άρθρο επισημαίνει τις μεταστροφές της αμερικανικής κοινής γνώμης στα εν λόγω ζητήματα;

Αυτό ήταν το κείμενο που έστειλα στο in.gr διαβάζοντας αυτή την είδηση. Μόλις πάτησα "αποστολή" και αναρωτήθηκα αν πρόκειται να ασχοληθεί κανείς, έκανα μια πολύ σοφότερη σκέψη: "γιατί να μην το ανεβάσω στο blog μου;". Όντως, γιατί όχι;