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Name Marco von Ballmoos
Member since
Email [hidden]
Home page https://earthli.com/users/marco
Description

The (only) developer at earthli.com.

Contents

3209 Articles
111 Comments

4 months Ago

A good habit indeed

Published on in Quotes

“A habit of basing convictions upon evidence, and of giving to them only that degree of certainty which the evidence warrants.”
Bertrand Russell

Why you so exercised? This is why.

Published on in Quotes

“Justice will not come until those who are not injured are as outraged as those who are.”
Solon in 560 BC

A state has no conscience, no sense of justice

Published on in Quotes

“Precisely at the point when you begin to develop a conscience you must find yourself at war with your society.”
James Baldwin

Links and Notes for November 24th, 2023

Published on in Notes

Below are links to articles, highlighted passages[1], and occasional annotations[2] for the week ending on the date in the title, enriching the raw data from Instapaper Likes and Twitter. They are intentionally succinct, else they’d be articles and probably end up in the gigantic backlog of unpublished drafts. YMMV.

[1] Emphases are added, unless otherwise noted.
[2] Annotations are only lightly edited and are largely contemporaneous.

Table of Contents

If the elites like it, it’s a scam and a distraction

Published on in Philosophy

This interview is from September 28th, a little over a week before Norman Finkelstein burst onto the scene for his commentary on October 7th and the aftermath. The interview is on a completely different topic. It is excellent.

Is Ibram X Kendi's 'Anti-Racism' a SCAM? (w/ Norm Finkelstein) by Bad Faith (YouTube)

I’ve included a partial transcript with the parts I found particularly interesting below.

At 00:02:00, he discusses the drift in capability of students over the last few decades.

Norm: If you go back as far as I do, the fact of the matter is, that what they teach now... [More]”

“Developer experience” is rarely a requirement

Published on in Programming

The article Some notes on Local-First Development by Kyle Matthews (Bricolage) focuses on a very good trend in app development, but focuses a bit too much on what he calls DX, or developer experience.

“I see “local-first” as shifting reads and writes to an embedded database in each client via“sync engines” that facilitate data exchange between clients and servers. […] The benefits are multiple:”
  • Simplified state management for developers.
  • Built-in support for real-time sync, offline usage, and multiplayer... [More]

Destroying democracy in order to save it

Published on in Public Policy & Politics

A while back, I read the article Colorado Lawsuit’s Strategy for Keeping Trump Off Ballot Is Starting to Spread by Marjorie Cohn (Scheer Post), which is about subverting democracy in exactly the ways that the author fears that Trump would.

These people are rudderless, adrift. They have no sense or irony, no morality, and no self-awareness. It makes them so stupid. This mess is just embarrassing for everyone involved.

This gleeful horseshit where people are delighted that they’ve found some old clause of some document... [More]

SBB was having a bad day

Published on in Fun

Today was not a great day for the SBB.

I took three trains to get where I was going and each of them was 3-4 minutes late. The Swiss pack their schedules pretty tightly, so 4 minutes late at the end meant that the SBB had eaten up the two-minute buffer between the train’s arrival in Dietikon and the departure of the 301 bus I was meant to catch.

It was only a 1km walk, so no big deal, but it might have sucked more had it been raining even harder than it was—or had it been as windy as it has... [More]

Indoctrinated citizens of empire can still be innocent

Published on in Public Policy & Politics

A while back, I took the following notes from the article ‘Innocent Israelis’ by Patrick Lawrence (Scheer Post). These comments are from an ordinarily lucid reporter writing on October 11th. We didn’t know then what we know now, but we did know that collective punishment is wrong, and that there is most certainly such a thing as the concept of a innocence. Lawrence in this article seems to be arguing for a pretty strict restriction of the definition of that word, as illustrated below.

“To assume the responsibilities that... [More]”

Cool celebrity photos

Published on in Fun

The post What’s a picture of a celebrity that lives rent free in your mind? I’ll start…. by N_Ywasneverthesame (Reddit) gives us this image of Mads Mikkelsen.

 A young Mads Mikkelsson

The foreground objects make this a bit of an odd photo, but he looks cool.

 Bernadette Peters

I think this is from The Jerk. I was a big fan growing up. She’s hilarious.

 Daniel Radcliffe with like 26 dogs

Big DILLIGAF energy.

 Captain America Truckstop Hooker

This was an actual photo shoot that Chris Evans did. No-one should let him forget it.

 Jude Law and Ewan McGregor

These two fools also did a photo shoot.

 Keanu Reeves has always been dedicated to the craft

So did John Wick, way back in his Private Idaho days.... [More]

Links and Notes for November 17th, 2023

Published on in Notes

Below are links to articles, highlighted passages[1], and occasional annotations[2] for the week ending on the date in the title, enriching the raw data from Instapaper Likes and Twitter. They are intentionally succinct, else they’d be articles and probably end up in the gigantic backlog of unpublished drafts. YMMV.

[1] Emphases are added, unless otherwise noted.
[2] Annotations are only lightly edited and are largely contemporaneous.

Table of Contents

C-Beams

Published on in Quotes

“I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe… Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion… I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain… Time to die.”

Blade Runner − Final scene, 'Tears in Rain' Monologue (HD) (YouTube)

The Wikipedia article describes the origin of these few, sparse lines.

“[…] the original script, before Hauer’s rewrite, was:”
“I’ve seen things… seen things you little people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion bright as... [More]”

Norman Finkelstein is shit-posting tragedy

Published on in Public Policy & Politics

Normal Finkelstein has woken from a slumber, finally being interviewed and questioned about his deep knowledge of Palestine, Israel and their shared history. I’ve written relatively extensively about him recently, in Norman Finkelstein is on a tear, but also in many Links & Notes stretching back over 10 years (with several from the last six weeks), from when I reviewed the film Lemon Tree in 2016 or when I reviewed the film Defamation in 2013.

He’s usually absolutely strictly no-nonsense, but... [More]

Moar unhinged commentary

Published on in Public Policy & Politics

Man, I saw the title of the article Murder And Rape For The Cause by Scott H. Greenfield (Simple Justice) and my heart sank. I wrote about why in Some commentators are still MIA, where the author featured prominently.[1]

I don’t even have anything to cite from this article because it’s so insipid. I just wanted to keep in my notes that, once again, an ordinarily useful writer and thinker simply cannot keep his shit together or think of justice when his team’s been attacked.

Greenfield is Jewish. He loves Israel. He cannot stand to... [More]

For whom is “the economy doing well”?

Published on in Finance & Economy

 BidenomicsThe article Should People be Happy About the Biden Economy? by Dean Baker (CounterPunch) answers its own question with “yes.” I’m not so convinced, as I explain in my responses below. Baker’s analysis and my critique of it is several weeks old at this point, but it’s still applicable.

More recently, Paul Krugman has jumped on the bandwagon, accusing anyone who thinks that the economy sucks—only because it seems to suck for themselves personally—off supporting Putin. Baker doesn’t go that far, but he does swerve a lot... [More]

Fortinet restart message

Published on in Design

The other day, Fortinet decided that it wanted to restart my computer. Fortinet is a commercial-grade, Fortune-500-level VPN solution built by a company that writes “Global Leader of Cybersecurity Solutions and Services” right in the title of its web page. It’s on the S&P 500. Their VPN client is their flagship product. It is a product that huge, important companies use to ensure the security of their data and communications.

This is what its restart dialog box looks like:

 Fortinet restart message

My goodness, what a... [More]

Conspiracy theorist accuses conspiracy...eorist of being a conspiracy theorist

Published on in Miscellaneous

The article The Russel Brand Conspiracy by Tony McKenna (CounterPunch) writes the following about the allegations against Russell Brand,

“The allegations made against him by the Panorama program seem highly credible. They range from sexual harassment to rape. One victim alleged that Brand raped her against a wall of his house. This allegation pertains to 2012. The evidence to support the allegation consists of a text message she sent him telling him following the assault just how frightened she’d been, that ‘no means... [More]”

Osama bin Laden wrote an online rant

Published on in Public Policy & Politics

The article TikTok teens aren’t stanning Osama bin Laden by Ryan Broderick (Garbage Day) discusses a recent flare-up in the mainstream, western (mostly U.S.) media and governing bodies whereby there were several calls to ban TikTok because it’s radicalizing the youth.

At issue, of course, if the failure to indoctrinate them properly to be able to ignore war crimes and still sleep at night. So, what you need to do is to make a lot of noise about a world-girdling social network—😱 RUN BY CHINAMEN 😱 YELLOW PERIL ALERT... [More]

5 months Ago

Links and Notes for November 10th, 2023

Published on in Notes

Below are links to articles, highlighted passages[1], and occasional annotations[2] for the week ending on the date in the title, enriching the raw data from Instapaper Likes and Twitter. They are intentionally succinct, else they’d be articles and probably end up in the gigantic backlog of unpublished drafts. YMMV.

[1] Emphases are added, unless otherwise noted.
[2] Annotations are only lightly edited and are largely contemporaneous.

Table of Contents

From their mouths to God’s ear

Published on in Public Policy & Politics

This 20-minute video from 2017 features a series of person-in-the-street interviews with Jerusalem residents, expressing their opinion of the living situation in the West Bank, for themselves and the Palestinians.

Israelis Speak Candidly to Abby Martin About Palestinians by Empire Files (YouTube)

Abby Martin Interviews people of various ages, at least half are English, but a few are in Hebrew or a mix of Hebrew and English. They express pretty strong opinions about the reality, advantages, and disadvantages of various racial characteristics and their relation to viability... [More]

Jesse Singal talks about science

Published on in Public Policy & Politics

I found the following talk is quite illuminating, especially the first 35 minutes or so, where Singal reads a prepared speech. He chooses his words very carefully, expressing what I think is an eminently rational and empathetic view. He’s not denying anyone’s existence.

If only people were capable of understanding words and sentences instead of imbuing and overlaying them with their own thoughts immediately. Instead of hearing what other people are saying, they end up hearing what they thought... [More]

Patience is a virtue

Published on in Technology

A friend with whom I’ve discussed AI several times—among other topics—recommended the podcast So You Want to Be a Sorcerer in the Age of Mythic Powers… (The AI Episode) by Joshua Michael Schrei (The Emerald). I liked it very much. The entire episode is good; my notes and transcript start at just over an hour in.

The presenter’s voice is soothing, even if his cadence seems, at times, a bit forced. Overall, the effect is good. It was kind of ironic when he said that perhaps, in the future, people wouldn’t be able to tell... [More]

On Žižek’s Ukraine position

Published on in Philosophy

In the following interview, Žižek seems to have recovered somewhat from the baleful hole wherein he found himself in 2022. I still think he’s incapable of reasoning clearly about Ukraine, but at least he seems to have realized that he needs to formulate his arguments better—because they’re not as obvious and logical as he seems to think they are. A year ago, he was just yelling incoherently.

Our World Is Coming To An End | Aaron Bastani Meets Slavoj Žižek | Downstream by Novara Media (YouTube)

At 00:02:35. he explains why he’s never gotten drunk,

“You know why? Because I’m really a... [More]”

Republican Debates are WWE Kayfabe

Published on in Public Policy & Politics

The following video makes the point of the title of this article quite concisely; I’ve included a transcript underneath the video.

'You're just scum' — Haley blasts Ramaswamy over his attack on her daughter's TikTok by CNBC Television (YouTube)

If you don’t want to watch the video, here’s a faithful transcription of that train-wreck of human interaction and elocution.

 Ramaswamy: I wanna laugh at why Nikki Haley didn’t answer your question, which is about looking families in the eye. [sic] In the last debate, she made fun of me for actually joining TikTok. Well, her own daughter was actually using the... [More]

Links and Notes for November 3rd, 2023

Published on in Notes

Below are links to articles, highlighted passages[1], and occasional annotations[2] for the week ending on the date in the title, enriching the raw data from Instapaper Likes and Twitter. They are intentionally succinct, else they’d be articles and probably end up in the gigantic backlog of unpublished drafts. YMMV.

[1] Emphases are added, unless otherwise noted.
[2] Annotations are only lightly edited and are largely contemporaneous.

Table of Contents

Their oligarchs vs. our visionaries

Published on in Public Policy & Politics

The interview Adam Curtis Talks to Jacobin About Russia, Oligarchs, and the Fall of the USSR by Taylor C. Noakes (Jacobin) is interesting and thought-provoking—as Adam Curtis often is. Of course, I had notes, which I’ve interspersed with citations from the article.

“As one Russian journalist said to me, London now does feel a bit like Moscow in 1988. My primary goal was to tell the story, but I also wanted to convey that disenchantment with democracy can have its roots in corruption. And there’s quite a lot of... [More]”

None of them ever had the moral high ground

Published on in Public Policy & Politics

The article Israel Has Permanently Lost The Argument by Caitlin Johnstone (Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix) writes,

“I cannot adequately express the immensity of my respect for the many, many, many Jewish voices I’ve seen taking a firm and forceful stand against the Gaza massacre. I’m just over here getting yelled at by strangers online and I find it pretty intense; you’re having much harder arguments with family, with friends, with people you’ve known your whole lives, about something that probably feels a lot more personal for you.... [More]”

Amira Hass is on a tear

Published on in Public Policy & Politics

 Amira Hass is a leading journalist (with Gideon Levy) at Ha’aretz. “Amira Hass is the only Israeli journalist who has lived in the West Bank for 30 years and has a deep understanding of the Palestinian experience.” The article Amira Hass Speaks on Gaza Slaughter by Jewish Voice for Labour (Scheer Post) includes an embedded video that is age-restricted.[1]

I hadn’t seen the video, but I found it highly unlikely that there was really age-restricted content there. It seemed much more likely that YouTube’s algorithms saw Amira’s name... [More]

Norman Finkelstein is on a tear

Published on in Public Policy & Politics

After years of lying quietly in his Brooklyn apartment, having given up on his 40-year career of tilting at the windmills of the Israeli occupation, the anger is back. He’s back on the scene, providing valuable insight as the world’s leading expert on the occupation.

The following interview was excellent (but the podcast linked below is even better).

Gaza Update with Norman Finkelstein by Useful Idiots (YouTube)

As for the first hospital bombing of this latest round of war, Finkelstein says that

  1. Israel always bombs hospitals (he directed us to his... [More]

DALL-E output is not amazing yet

Published on in Technology

The post Now add a walrus: Prompt engineering in DALL-E 3 by Simon Willison is a story about someone gaslighting himself into believing that LLMs work better than they do.

Case study: pelicans and walruses

Willison prompts “A super posh pelican with a monocle watching the Monaco F1” and gets the following ideas.

So far, so good. It’s really wonderful that you can get something that’s not completely random garbage. However, the bird is only watching the race in the top-right picture. In the first and fourth,... [More]