Archives for January 2011
ваша очередь спать с Диккенсом
22 January 2011 | Literature | No Comments
если же говорить[1] о Симмонсовом “Друде”, то по окончании налицо вдруг удивительно смешанные чувства: то ли просто очень много справочного материала в какой-то момент времени оказалось у автора под рукой, либо сделало черное дело неудержимое желание и дальше эксплуатировать викторианскую изнанку (и бедный сэр Джон Франклин постоянно мелькает где-то на заднем плане), то ли самая настоящая ревность по отношению к “Вратам Aнубиса” Тимоти Пауэрса двигала остро заточенное перо — но как бы там ни было, однако роман о зависти получился наполенным завистью сверх всякой меры, и ничего больше там внутри не нашлось[2].
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[1] — удивительно, насколько вообще часто я вспоминаю этого автора (при всем моем к нему равнодушии — за исключением единственного романа).
[2] — зато нашелся прекрасный twitter.
радуга
22 January 2011 | Cinematograph | No Comments
фильм Ника Лава, “The Firm”, о котором я писал раньше, если и не перепрыгнул оригинал, не оправдал каких-то моих внутренних надежд, оказался, тем не менее, идеальным примером того, как надо работать с цветом, и как, в любой, даже в самой невыносимо серой обстановке, можно найти столь выразительное сверкание.
наблюдение
22 January 2011 | Design, Software | No Comments
все время, что существует Twitter мне постоянно хватало обычного web-интерфейса. однако, создав #NewTwitter, команде разработчиков наконец-то удалось невозможное — и мне пришлось выбрать стороннюю программу[1].
отлично, парни, так держать!
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[1] — для Mac OS X рекоммендую YoruFukoru, лучше все равно ничего нет.
легализация еще
22 January 2011 | Biology, Crime | No Comments
и опять к слову о наркотиках:
But nearly a decade later, there’s evidence that Portugal’s great drug experiment not only didn’t blow up in its face; it may have actually worked. More addicts are in treatment. Drug use among youths has declined in recent years. Life in Casal Ventoso, Lisbon’s troubled neighborhood, has improved. And new research, published in the British Journal of Criminology, documents just how much things have changed in Portugal. Coauthors Caitlin Elizabeth Hughes and Alex Stevens report a 63 percent increase in the number of Portuguese drug users in treatment and, shortly after the reforms took hold, a 499 percent increase in the amount of drugs seized — indications, the authors argue, that police officers, freed up from focusing on small-time possession, have been able to target big-time traffickers while drug addicts, no longer in danger of going to prison, have been able to get the help they need.
ноктюрн сыграть могли бы?
22 January 2011 | Geography, Music instruments | 1 Comment
труба, как музыкальный инструмент:
Alexander Chen’s “Conductor” recreates the New York subway map as a musical instrument, with subway lines as pluckable strings. It’s based on Vignelli’s 1972 subway map, which makes sense for this kind of project. It’s a work in progress, and we can’t play with it yet, but he’s got a couple of videos.
пассивная монополия
21 January 2011 | Apple, Hardware | No Comments
еще о конкурентах:
MacWorld: Can you comment on how you’re currently viewing the competitive tablet landscape?]
Tim Cook: If you look at what’s shipping today, there’s not much out there, as you know. Generally speaking, there’s two kind of groups that are on the market today. The ones that are using Windows-based operating system are generally fairly big and heavy and expensive, they have very weak battery life, they require a keyboard or a stylus as an input device. And from our point of view and what we’ve seen, customers are frankly not interested in them.
Then you have the Android tablets, and the variety that are out shipping today, the operating system wasn’t really designed for a tablet, and Google has said this. This is not just an Apple view by any means. And so you wind up having a size of tablet that is less than what we believe is reasonable or even one that would provide what we feel is a “real tablet experience.” So basically you wind up with a scaled-up smartphone, which is a bizarre product, in our view.
So those are the two that are shipping today, and frankly speaking, it’s hard for me to understand, if somebody does a side-by-side with an iPad, I think some enormous percentage of people are going to select an iPad there. Those are not tablets that we have any concern on.
ровно так и есть, прошел год, а ничего сопоставимого до сих пор все нет.
армия зомби
21 January 2011 | Lifeform, Politics, Religion | No Comments
замечательная инициатива:
Для российских старшеклассников оставят только три обязательных урока: ОБЖ, физкультуру и новый предмет: «Россия в мире». Остальные дисциплины сформированы в 6 предметных областей, из которых подростки смогут выбрать только семь предметов для обучения. Обычный школьный день дополнят усиленным патриотическим воспитанием.
больше и подробнее у Миши 
tiphareth Вербицкого.
ребрендинг
20 January 2011 | Literature | No Comments
по следам неудавшегося разговора с 
petro_gulak вышел на прекрасное:
Alberto López Aroca wrote “El problema de la pequeña cliente”, a short story included in the book Nadie lo sabrá nunca (2004), where Sherlock Holmes meets Mary Poppins.
и хоть там, в целом, подобного навалом, однако с настоящей интертекстуальностью оно, конечно, не пересекается и вовсе. а жаль.
atlas shrugged
19 January 2011 | Lifeform | No Comments
Once, while jogging on a treadmill on the top floor of a Sao Paulo hotel, I tried to count the many helicopters buzzing by. The city has the highest rate of private helicopter use in the world — a literal sign of what heights people will go to in order to avoid the realities of the world below.
на что хором откликается другая цитата:
You’re born, you take shit. You get out in the world, you take more shit. You climb a little higher, you take less shit. Till one day you’re up in the rarefied atmosphere and you’ve forgotten what shit even looks like. Welcome to the layer cake son.
так все и есть.
if IBM had ever bothered to actually possess a physical country
19 January 2011 | Economics, Lifeform, Politics, Technology | 4 Comments
говоря же о городах, процесс развития и в самом деле теперь уже не остановить:
<...> cities rather than states are becoming the islands of governance on which the future world order will be built. This new world is not — and will not be — one global village, so much as a network of different ones.
как тысячу лет назад, в период зарождения межнациональных экономических отношений, так и сейчас глобализация уверенно помогает городам не только выбраться из-под опеки государства, но и, наоборот, заниять лидирующие позиции:
Now as then, cities are the real magnets of economies, the innovators of politics, and, increasingly, the drivers of diplomacy. Those that aren’t capitals act like they are. Foreign policy seems to take place even among cities within the same country, whether it’s New York and Washington feuding over financial regulation or Dubai and Abu Dhabi vying for leadership of the United Arab Emirates. This new world of cities won’t obey the same rules as the old compact of nations; they will write their own opportunistic codes of conduct, animated by the need for efficiency, connectivity, and security above all else.
<...>
Look for them to use sovereign wealth funds to acquire the latest technology from the West, buy up tracts of agricultural land in Africa to grow their food, and protect their investments through private armies and intelligence services.
так стираются национальные границы, так исчезают за горизонтом ненужные больше далекие географии — все на месте и все сразу. и как можно больше:
Look at a satellite image of the Earth at night: It will reveal the shimmering lights of cities flickering below, but also an ominous pattern. Cities are spreading like a cancer on the planet’s body. Zoom in and you can see good cells and bad cells at war for control.
чистый Мурашовник, не иначе. и недалек тот день, когда вместе они установят новые правила:
Taken together, the advent of global hubs and megacities forces us to rethink whether state sovereignty or economic might is the new prerequisite for participating in global diplomacy.
<...>
Many will try to emulate Hong Kong, which though once again a Chinese city rather than a British protectorate, still largely defines itself through its differences with the mainland. What if all China’s supercities start acting that way? Or what if other areas of the country begin to demand the same privileges as Dalian, the northeastern tech center that has become among China’s most liberal enclaves? Will Beijing really run China then?
потому что этот рост не остановить (да и надо ли?):
The estimated 300 new cities that China alone has planned are a huge market opportunity for green developers like Gale International, which leads the Songdo project, to deploy ecofriendly city plans.
<...>
Cities are where we are most actively experimenting with efforts to save the planet from ourselves.
ровно об этом же пишет Гибсон в свежем отчете из Сингапура:
Because Singapore is one happening place, biz-wise. I mean, the future here is so bright…. What other country is preparing to clone itself, calving like some high-tech socioeconomic iceberg? Yes, here it is, the first modern city-state to fully take advantage of the concept of franchise operations Mini-Singapores! Many!
тоже хороший.