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August 27, 2006
New pictures in The Big Trip
My picture gallery "The Big Trip" sports a few notable additions of this summer's trips: famous buildings and infamous girls of Rome, the skyscrapers and back-alleys of New York City, the temples of Thailand, bridges and birds in Sydney and Vancouver, Gliding action from Yorkshire and the faces of the Edinburgh Festival 2006. Check it out!
Posted by dr at 10:52 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
August 22, 2006
So long, free world.
The clash of civilizations may happen, but it won't change the outcome. The free world has already lost the battle - at least according to Mark Steyn, who has been publishing a few opinion pieces worth reading.
Population in the western world diminishes day by day, Steyn says. Women are emancipated (a good thing - dr), people enjoy their lives and go on vacation to far-away places (a good thing - dr), couples get to know each other before committing (a good thing - dr). All of this translates to an average of one child per couple in free societies, both in the West and in high-tech Australasia.
Meanwhile, Mohammed and Ali procreate happily. The evolution of religions and ways-of-life will take its toll. In Steyn's words, it's "breeding obvious": "The design flaw of the secular social-democratic state is that it requires a religious-society birthrate to sustain it."
Of course, this doesn't have to be a terrible thing. The sharia in place - commit adultery, get stoned (if you're a woman). Finally, morals in an Allah-fearing society. This may sound single-minded and naive, but for those who need a study, they can get one from Freedom House, whose 2005 ranking resulting from a survey of personal liberty and democracy, only three of the 46 Muslim majority nations in the world were considered free, according to Steyn. And it's not just the radical Islam that could be considered detrimental to freedom. Is the Christian Right in the U.S. working on building a freer America, a freer world? Borrowing from comedian Doug Stanhope, have you ever seen a headline that read: "Atheist militants detonate bomb in city café" -?
Historically, short periods of freedom have mostly been ended by a new dark age. We might consider ourselves lucky to live in the right place, at the right time.
Posted by dr at 8:13 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
August 19, 2006
Clerks II by Kevin Smith / Rosario I love you!
If you expect to see American comedy, you'll be disappointed. This is witty, completely non-p.c., full of no-no words that the average Christian American considers taboo. I love it!
The new picture by "bad child" US film-maker Kevin Smith (Dogma, Chasing Amy) "Clerks II" consists mostly of impolite dialogue and a little bit of movie around it. In fact, Smith seized every opportunity to cram more dialogue into the script, as he said during yesterday's UK premiere in Edinburgh.
Clerks II is about two guys who just can't get away from their sad working lives. 12 years Quick Mart, and now they're at a second-class fast food restaurant. Thank God there's a love story built in, with one of Hollywood's hottest young faces, Rosario Dawson. Smith gave her a lot of credit at the premiere. "We were like... this isn't going to work", Smith said, "a Rosario would never fuck a guy like Brian O'Halloran. But the way she comes across... you think: hey, could be!".
The making of the movie has received quite a bit of attention, since Smith posted out-takes and video reports on a blog. Smith is not just a great (ex-)indie filmmaker, but also a smart underground marketer. Viral marketing works. Like, I'm blogging about him.
Posted by dr at 10:09 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 12, 2006
Gliding, the real solo
At Inter-University Task Week 2006, glider pilots have been competing, going to defined places as fast as they can. Yes, you can fly that far in gliders, catching lift in various places to get as high as 20,000 feet (occasionally). (Photo by Rat Bates, risking his (its) life. Flying by Giant Ling.)
I managed to score some points for our team by converting to our club's single-seater "Snoopy", an ASK-8. For the first time, I managed to break a cable during the winch launch (a typical launch emergency for gliders).
In the late afternoon, it got a bit sunny and, to my surprise, I caught a nice thermal (rising air) which took me about 2,000 feet higher. This 34-minute flight felt, in a way, much more like an "achievement", or at least, like a more satisfying experience than my first solo flight a while ago. (Staying up in hill lift at my home site Portmoak seems easy - I had little experience with thermals...)
By the way... Edinburgh University Gliding Club won the competition. Nottingham came in a close second, followed by six other teams.
Posted by dr at 5:08 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 5, 2006
It's not gonna get easier than it is now
Back in Edinburgh. I can confirm with some determination that our planet is round. I kept going East and ended up where I started, after about a month.
Too little time for too much distance covered. Next time I'd like to have 4 months instead, and this time, really really only one small suitcase. And maybe short flights, not like the Sydney-L.A. one. 14 hours, goddammit. For cattle transports, there are official regulations about the cow's comfort. Sitting in a 747 with no leg-room to spare, with a tall 14-year-old's knees in your back (why don't those seats have a hard shell?) and turbulences all over, I wonder if human rights conventions would apply to human cattle on a plane.
Yet, it's worth doing. I'm not 30 yet, and it never gets easier than now, as Rami Sethi, a young U.S. based entrepeneur rightfully points out. It's a good read - a lesson to learn for "can't do" people!
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August 3, 2006
Tate Modern, London
This is the Turbine Hall at the Tate Modern, London.
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August 2, 2006
How Asia changed my world
Dear Mom, you know I've been traveling latetly and my time in Asia has had an enormous impact on my life. Each scar on a pirate's face is a souvenir, a rough voice tells tales about Irish whisky. I'm sure you won't be surprised to see that I have changed a bit. I'll never know whether it was that funky chicken I ate from a street vendor or the monsoon downpour over my head. I'll always be your son!
 Before | 
After |
(Image on the right courtesy of the Perception Lab, Psychology, St. Andrews University, Scotland)
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