lix blog

«As long as humans act upon personal responsibility, injustice will not be nurtured»

World March for Peace and Nonviolence

Roland Wagner is the new world record holder in 50 meters freestyle with a spectaculous time of 00:00:00 ! Congratulations, Mr. Wagner!

Links:
Roland Wagner
Cabaret Voltaire
Tagesanzeiger

Losar Tashi Delek (happy new year) to all tibetan people, lots of success, good health and happiness!

Link: New Year Message of H.H. the Dalai Lama to the Tibetan People

Tibetan National Emblem

I recently tested some of the new “features” that the lately released “iLife ’09” software of Apple is offering to their users. The new iPhoto ’09 for example offers Geo-tagging of your images, so that one can see when and where photos have been taken. This further leads to the assumption, that some tracker could abuse this data. If it’s Google or any other “big brother” who is watching you, we have to admit, that we’re living in the age of George Orwells “1984”.

Kind of funny was though messing around with the “face recognition” feature. I assorted some of my images in iPhoto and tagged the recognized faces with names, when suddenly iPhoto offered me the following proposal: (see picture).

The picture shows Mark Shuttleworth (Ubuntu) and Georg Greve
(FSF Europe) at the Linux Tag in Wiesbaden 2006. iLife ’09 suggests to tag the detected face of Georg Greve as “Richard Stallman”, which is kind of funny. 😉

I think personally think, that a machine, based on a binary structure, will never achieve the possibility of suggesting truly diversified ambiguities because it only may answer “yes” or “no” such as “1” and “0”. We’ll have to wait for Quantum-electronics that such things may happen…

(read more on “informative binarity and lifeworld-philosophical androgyny“)

[update: there is a youtube clip that shows the iPhoto feature.]

Lyrics of “Scatterlkings of Africa”:

Copper sun sinking low
Scatterlings and fugitives
Hooded eyes and weary brows
Seek refuge in the night

Chorus
They are the scatterlings of Africa
Each uprooted one
On the road to Phelamanga
Where the world began
I love the scatterlings of Africa
Each and every one
In their hearts a burning hunger
Beneath the copper sun

Ancient bones from Olduvai
Echoes of the very first cry
“Who made me here and why
Beneath the copper sun?”
African idea
African idea
Make the future clear
Make the future clear

Chorus

And we are the scatterlings of Africa
Both you and I
We are on the road to Phelamanga
Beneath a copper sky
And we are the scatterlings of Africa
On a journey to the stars
Far below, we leave forever
Dreams of what we were

Everyone has seen the “preslude of farewell” of W:

     حذاء القدس
     يشـاء الله لا ما قـد تشـاء    ***  وفرعـون ٌ يركّعه الحـذاءُ
     أمنتظر الزبيدي أنت فحـلٌ ***  تـجاذبك الأذلاّء الغثــاءُ
     فوا خجـلاً لأجناد ٍ تحلّـوا ***  بضبط النفس إذ ْ وقع العداءُ
     حذاء القدس والأقصى إمامٌ ***  وأحذية الطهـارة لا تُسـاءُ
     وإن قُذفت بوجه النذل يوماً ***  فيكفيها الشـجاعة والإبـاءُ
     أأسـلحة تُكدّس في بـلادي ***  رموزُ مذلةٍ شـبعت صداءُ
     فإن حُبس السلاحُ فكـان نِداً    ***  وأصبحت الجيوش لها مواءُ
     ونافـقت المشايخ لابن لُكْع ***  ولم تعد السيوفُ لها مَضاءُ
     إذا غُزيت حواضرنا فهُنـّا  ***  ولم تغلي بـأوداج ٍ دمـاءُ
     إذا كُشـفت حرائرُنا وبيعت ***  ولم يعد الرجال بهم حيـاءُ
     فـلا يبقـى أمـام الحرّ إلاّ ***  مقال الحـق يتبعه الحـذاءُ
     فكلب الروم يُخسأ لا يُمارى ***  ليركع للحذاء كمـا نشـاءُ
     وويـلٌ للأعادي إن ظهرنا  ***  وكان النصر وارتفع اللّواءُ
     سـيعلم يومها الظـلاّم ُ أنّا ***  أُولُو بأس ٍ إذا حكم القضاءُ

🙂

Wishing you “mubarak aid”, merry christmas and a happy new year.

Meanwhile the “financial chrisis” that remains a fiction for “common humans” and just seems to hit oligarchs and other gambling rich guys, I am asking myself: “In what a world are we living in?”