hmm…den først grønne, så røde bjælke under dig, forsvandt lige…
kunne du også se det?
grøn blev rød!
Tag: feature
Today October 12th-2007 is the day of the cultural event of the year in Copenhagen, “The Night of Culture” or Kulturnatten, and I’ve just finished “shopping” for events.
You can build a custom program on the web-site, unfortunately it doesn’t have a URL or a feed so that I can share it directly with you.
This year it seems like my theme will be Passion, Science and Christianity. Below is a list of events that I’ll try to mange to attend – it will be tough, and I’ll let the “Instincts be my shepherd” and stay for long in the places where I feel good vibes, and I’m very confident in my instincts.
It does look like my fix-points this year will be Kastellet, Botanisk Have, Humanistisk Fakultet, Glyptoteket and Marmorkirken. The previous years I had an extensive program as well, but I ended up spending hours at the Copenhagen HQ of The Danish Refugee Council, but since they’re not open this year, I might manage more.
Really there’s only ONE event I’m not going to miss, and that is Ars Nova singing English renaissance music in Marmorkirken – last year they were spectacular, and this year they’re issuing a new CD on the Kulturnat, I’ll be first in line to get a copy.
From the previous years I’ll HIGHLY recommend the Exhibition at Thorvaldsen’s Museum, the lights are turned off, and the statues are illuminated, it’s just fantastic, for me it’s been there done that this year however.
Rundetaarn is always too crowded, and the midnight concert this year is just too mainstream for my taste, but I loved it two years ago, and the storage room above the church is just wonderful.
So I wish you all a great Kulturnat, you just have to love Copenhagen for having the energy to set up such a massive event. And strange things happen on the Kulturnat, if you just let your senses guide you, and while you wait for my next blogpost, you can read about my experiences of the last two years here:
- Kulturnatten 2006: Is that a FireWire cable in your pocket or are you just happy to see me
- Kulturnatten 2005
Events I hope to cover in 2007 – prioritised order – but my full intended program is 4 pages long:
- Shantysang i Kanonkælderen – I missed that last year, but that only let to the very strange story that involved a FireWire cable and the Architect School that you can read above, only goes to show that you should just let your senses guide you!
- Opstigning i Mastekranen på Nyholm
- Længslernes Nat
- ZEITGEIST
- Kulturnatten i Kastellet
- Botaniske Have ved nat
- Skriv med fjerpen og blæk
- Monstre og dæmoner i oldtidens Ægypten
- Kolbøttemand, lysshow og rundvisninger!
- Natmusik i Kastelskirken
- Gudstjeneste om tro og viden
- Linné på Botanisk Museum
- Katedralernes mystik og det gotiske
- Dans i Natten
- Lyd og Lys i natten
- Andagt med musik og lys
- B-samfundet – et alternativ til 8-16 samfundet
I’m so envious my dear brother, this day October 4th – your birthday – seems to coincide with one of the most important days in modern civilisation, a day that has importance for exploration of space, as well as important steps in the history of human thought and the move towards true democracy.
Today, October 4th 2007, it’s 50 years since the first man made satellite, Sputnik 1, was launched, and the world was changed almost overnight. 12 years later man had already walked on the moon
The first stage of the race towards space, has to be one of the single most impressive feats of human kind in history, really on a par with the building of the Pyramids.
Building of Pyramids was, like the space program, put on hold – it was just not efficient, even though the monument still stand, in the form of immense launch facilities at Kennedy Space Centre, it was only really a demonstration of power, and funding had to be cut, or else it could have ruined the economy, like continued pyramid building could have done to Egypt
Flash forward 47 years, three years ago, the era of real space exploration of space was ushered in, with the successful flight of SpaceShipOne, the first commercially developed vehicle, capable of reaching space.
So happy birthday to you all, and humanity for giving us the inspiration to do the impossible, which is escaping this cosy spaceship we’re all living in, or should I say on, the spaceship called Earth.
ps. I also found out that today marks the 23rd anniversary of establishment of The Free Software Foundation (FSF) by Richard Stallman. FSF and the thoughts behind it is slowly changing the mindset of people, and is the foundation of the current explosion in true knowledge sharing. Today also marks the 14 anniversary of the failed attempt by the Soviet military to stop the move towards democracy – October 4th truly is a historic day.
pps. If I had the energy to do so, I’d love to have made a picture showing the faces of Sergei Korolev, Burt Rutan, Paul Allen, Richard Branson, Richard Stallman, Boris Yeltsin and my brother René, to accompany this article – sorry but you have to make that – mentally – yourself.
Instead I’m showing one of the most important pictures of mankind, the “Earthrise” picture taken by Apollo 8, just a little over 11 years after the Sputnik 1 launch.
“We close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas, and God bless all of you — all of you on the good Earth.”
So you thought you could build an economy on other peoples work, and even have the audacity to charge them (that is us) for it!!!
Well! You have your “Pyramid” – and it’s beautiful – unfortunately for you we‘ve just invented the “Arch”.
So Google will remain a fantastic monument, but we‘re building the Aqueducts, Viaducts and last but not least the beautiful temples.
And how come Google and all the other search engines, seems to ignore the copyright all together? No let’s boycott Google, and ask to be delisted, or have them block commericals.
So let’s put Google and all the SEO “creeps” out of business, and get rid of the commercial search engine, “itsy bitsy spider, walk along the web” – it’s not that hard to build a better google than google. Where we’re going we don’t need Google.
Civilisation has just gone out of beta!
Today marks the first aniversary of my final post on “this subject”. One month later I suddenly found my self “not being in Kansas anymore“. MOVING ON – or VIDERE (hat tip to my former boss)!!!
Here’s what I wrote on “the subject” (newest first!)
- Am I doing what I’m doing because of 911?
- The Church doesn’t have Wi-Fi
- History 101 (or 911): Connections!
- America Supports You
- 911 – En Dag Ikke Som De Andre
Moving on in a jiffy (RUF) – will we make it?
The human mind works in mysterious ways, and it’s what makes people build houses in the shadow of “Mount” Vesuvius which you just have to love.
Humanity will prevail, because we have such irrational minds and short memories/lifespans – but we’re also waking up – will we make it?
Right now I’m positive – the immense prosperity we’re experiencing – despite being at war – means that we have the time to think further than the next meal, and in places like Denmark – which is such a wealthy country – the environment is beginning to show signs that it’s recovering from the exploitation of the industrial revolution. A sign of the times is that the Danish Railroads (DSB) just announced, that they’ll get most of their electric from renewable sources (wind and hydro) – it’s quite amazing – now let’s get rid of the car, as we know it, in a jiffy (Danish RUF – pun intended). It’s so STUPID and DESTRUCTIVE to the environment to pack your own power-plant – and ALL talk about a car-bridge crossing the Kattegat Sea must cease, a high speed railroad OTOH – start building NOW!
Another sign of the times is that you can go for a swim in the inner Copenhagen harbour (“as long as”, in the eternal words of a harbour biologist, “you don’t take a bite from the bottom”), and that McDonalds now sells Fair Trade coffee!!!
Go humanity! I’m your number one fan!
Just listening to “Release”, the first album by “Natasja“ (+ 24-June-2007 R.I.P) – it’s actually MUCH stonger and MUCH more experimental than I remembered – will go down as a classic! – especially the tracks “Bonfire” and “Restless” are OUTSTANDING.
The picture was taken at the R*A*W 2004 event at Islands Brygge – the last time I saw Natasja alive…
Lille T det er dit navn og himlen er din havn
Lille T: Thank you for the wonderful memories, especially when you were performing with “No Name Requested”, probably the best Danish Hip-Hop EVER, and at R*A*W in August of 2004, just before your big break – it was so so great, and really the day I discovered NEW dancehall, and the celebration of life that dancehall represents!
Honour the memory of “Little T” and donate to the Red Cross’ fight against AIDS. AIDS is destroying the hope of Africa. Below is a quote from Natasja’s MySpace page.
Friends and colleagues of Natasja have been wishing to start collections for Natasja’s mom and others already did collect on the day that Natasja died, like it happened at Rub’a’Dub club last Sunday. Anyone wishing to relief Natasja’s moms situation can do so by donating money on the bank account below which is set up as a trust fund with the sole purpose of paying for transportation of Natasja’s remains and to pay for her funeral. Any excess funds from the collection will be donated to The Red Cross effort to fight AIDS in Africa. The last cause has always been one of Natasja’s greatest wishes to support.
Bank info:
Account number (incl. reg. no.): 3121 3121656760
Swift code: dabadkkk
IBAN: dk4030003121656760
And my prayers go out to the women and children of Africa!
“The real party starts when Africa is liberated”.
“The Creator” must be “sleeping”: PLEASE, PLEASE PLEASE, I’m on my knees here: send more angels, like my friend Louise that is currently working at a hospital in Africa. Tasha can you “pull some strings”?
ÆRET VÆRE NATASJAS MINDE! LIGHT A TORCH FOR NATASJA SO THAT SHE CAN FIND HER WAY HOME!!!
Just watched the Rabobank press-conference from the Tour de France 2007, featuring Michael Rasmussen – the man behind the amazing Tour hat-trick yesterday. Congratulations to Michael, you look sharp in “Jaune”. The result yesterday was impressive, and it almost brought a tear to my eye, I was loudly cheering him on.
But after the initial euphoria, I’m sitting here, beginning to feel queasy.
I WANT TO BELIEVE
At the press-conference, somewhat to my surprise, at least a few journalists dared to ask “the question”: “can we trust you”? “are you “clean””?
Rasmussen looked very confident when he confirmed: that we can “trust him: he’s not using illegal means to get his results” – I want to believe him – but even if the means aren’t exactly illegal, they could be “questionable”.
So: I want to believe Rasmussen, not least because I LOVE professional cycling.
It’s possible we can trust him, even likely, but he’s positively using ALL the legal means – and likely some that are “pushing” it – that money can buy to get his results, as all the top riders have to.
It has, for instance, been unveiled that Michael Rasmussen does “height training”, well he sort of has to – but one of the side effects of training in the high mountains, is that it is, in some ways, the “natural” way of achieving results similar to “blood doping”. Rasmussen also confirmed that he’s using wind-tunnels and I suppose that he might also be using “height chambers”, but that is on my own account. These things aren’t cheating, it’s simply using technology to improve your results. Illegal? No! Questionable? Maybe!
Rasmussen has also been quoted with calling the UCI “Men in Black” – he joked about that today, saying that he thought that the MiB was “Will Smith and this other guy, that run around shooting aliens”. Rasmussen now, cleverly, thinks that the UCI are “just doing their job”.
But…I’d stongly question if it hasn’t gone too far, when you need to consult a staff of medical doctors daily, I thought you only needed to do that a few times yearly, unless you suffer from a “serious condition”. Being engaged in professional sports obviously is akin to having a “serious condition”.
The “Men in Black” can’t gain access, because they would have to fight off the “Men in White” first.
Give Bjarne Riis some love – Sir Bjarne would be nice
A related note:
For 10 years now the sports journalists has been conducting a witch-hunt against Bjarne Riis, the man behind the greatest sports-result in history by a Dane in an individual discipline, constantly pondering the bleeding obvious: “was Bjarne Riis using illegal means while he was engaged in professional cycling“?. Of course he was, he even indirectly admitted it in 1998, by saying that he had never “been tested positive”. And that’s where it should have stopped. It’s well know that all of the top riders in the 90ies were using illicit means to get the results. So when he finally, bravely, admitted to using EPO it was not even news-worthy, albeit wise and commendable.
Bjarne Riis still deserves to be recognised as a role-model:
He broke the typical Danish attitude of self-depreciation; showed that you can set a goal and achieve it – doing EXACTLY what it took. After ending his active career, he’s managed to take a third rate cycling team, and make it the best in the world, like he said he would.
I’d say he deserves a Knighthood as much as Michael Laudrup. Sir Bjarne – I like the way that sounds.
“Put up or shut up”
The journalists should stop the which-hunt – get real – engaging in professional sports has, as mentioned earlier, been akin to a “serious condition” since ancient times – if you don’t like it, stop covering it!
And finally: “Grill” the “Chicken” like you do the “Eagle” – or shut up!
En god veninde spurgte mig om nogle pæne måde at sige nej til et job-tilbud.
Hun spurgte mig, af ALLE personer?
Selv er jeg nemlig DÅRLIG til at sige nej…MEGA dårlig…
Det der sker er at jeg siger “Ja” eller “Måske”, og undlader så ofte at udføre det jeg har sagt “Ja” til, hvis jeg af den eller anden grund ikke gider.
Det er, forståeligt nok, noget der altid har irriteret mine venner, og det resulterer naturligvis også i at jeg bliver stresset. Det er noget jeg vil arbejde på at blive bedre til at håndtere.
På trods af denne mangel på en vigtig social egenskab, så kom jeg nu alligevel med at par forslag:
- “Tak for tilbudet, jeg evaluerer for tiden hvordan min karriere skal udvikle sig, og jeg ser mig derfor nødsaget til at takke nej”
- “Tak for tilbudet, jeg vil takke nej fordi jeg ikke mener at det er det rigtige for mig”
- “Tak for tilbudet, jeg vil takke nej fordi jeg ikke mener det er det rigtige for Dem”
- “Tak for tilbudet, men jeg mener ikke at deres arbejdsplads søger efter en med min profil”.
Kan i komme på nogle flere?
PS. Jeg kan godt li’ når der bliver sagt PÆN, men der menes måske “høflig måde” i stedet for “pæn måde”…
PPS. Ved nærmere eftertanke sagde jeg faktisk “nej” til noget i efteråret, men det var især fordi jeg sagde “ja” til noget andet, men det var en del “i familie” med det første.
2 years ago I had this crazy idea: “How do we get rid of phones” – I thought hard about it, asked friends for ideas, but I concluded that it was just too early – or maybe I didn’t have the vision at that time. People that know me would agree that my vision was somewhat blurred 2 years ago (understatement).
Synchronised “swimming” – because a-synchronous has failed
Synchronous one-on-one tele-communications, i.e. using phones and instant messengering (IM) is, in many ways, a terrible invention, it’s so stressful, at least to me, when people expect immediate answers.
To top it off, it is so rare that you really need to establish “synchronous contact” with anyone far away. “Asynchronous contact” is so much better.
Unfortunately the current batch of asynchronous communication technologies (i.e. e-mail) has failed, mostly due to lousy implementation.
- You can’t rest assured that your e-mail is received
- You can’t rest assured that your e-mail is opened
- It breaks if more people are involved, endlessly forwarding revisions of documents
- Unsolicited e-mails (spam) are filling our mailboxes, and has undermined our trust in e-mail
- People write too long e-mails
- People expect immediate answers
- If you don’t provide an immediate answer, the e-mail might disappear “out of scope”, due to the constant flow of new e-mails
- There’s no concept of body-language, and smilies doesn’t cut it 🙁
Community service for “Big Brother”
Thanks to recent technologies, I believe that it is almost possible to do away with the phone and IM.
So what recent technologies shows this promise:
I believe that it’s the so-called “presence services” like Jaiku and Twitter that are paving the road towards asynchronous Nirvana.
If you inform people, about your whereabouts and what you’re “up to”, and make it possible for them to “pull” that information on demand, they don’t really need to call or TEXT you.
What they do instead is check the log (“pulling” information), usually by subscribing to it in some way (having information “pushed”), so that they’re automatically updated, this means that they rarely have the need to call, TEXT or IM you.
I know that there are problems with the presence services. The biggest problem is that the majority of the world, isn’t ready to volunteer personal information to the public. It’s a bit like doing community service for “Big Brother”.
Another issue that many people will have, is that you, by telling the world,that you’re not at home, also are providing would-be thieves with the same information.
Finally you run the risk of becoming too personal in your presence, because you believe that you’re engaged in a conversation with friends, not realising that the entire world could be listening in.
How I stopped worrying, and learned how to love “presence”
Currently I use the presence services like a public notebook, and it’s so convenient that you can update the log simply by TEXTing the server, most of my presence messages on Jaiku can only be understood by yours truly and, sometimes, people that know me well.
The rest of the world might gain some insight later, because I tend to use the presence messages, as a stepping stone to a blog-post, like the one you’re currently reading, or it might serve as an inspiration for posting some pictures. The positing of a presence message, can also act as an inspiration for what pictures I actually take.
Think of my Jaiku presence stream as a (public) brainstorm.
Here’s my presence messages (“Jaikus”) for yesterday (the 14th of June 2007):
- “Hello! My name is Richard”
- Mindbender – Stringtronic
- Synkronsvømning er “So 80ies”
As you can see the last of these messages, resulted in this blog-post – strangely enough, I got the inspiration from an IM session!
The other two are somewhat cryptic, the first one can’t be understood by anyone but my colleges at work, the second is the name of a group and an album, that was being played at “Kaffe & Vinyl” in Skydebanegade, Copenhagen, when I was there yesterday. Both messages will likely result in blog-posts and the second one, a music purchase.
I predict that the “presence services” will migrate into mainstream business applications, like e-mail and IM has already done. These implementations will likely address, and solve, the privacy issues.
A-synchronous “swimming” revisited
Synchronised “swimming” is SO 80’ies. Welcome to the Nirvana of a-synchronous “swimming”, where the majority of synchronised “swimming” will be performed in the same “swimming-pool”, the “swimming-pool” called IRL.
Now why didn’t I come up with that idea two years ago?
Photo from Wikipedia (Image:Synchronized swimming – Russian team.jpg – originally uploaded to Flickr by Jesus de Blas and released under a Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.0 license)
As you might remember, I just found a surprising winner in the contest to find the device best suited for basic Internet access – like Jaiku presence checking – at a public hotspot: the Nintendo DS, with the Opera browser. Since all my “computers” have “names” – a practice I learned from Jerry Pournelle @ Chaos Manor – my DS is now officially baptised “Tölva”.
For the last week I’ve been carrying my “weapon of choice”,”Tölva”, around town, and I’ll be maintaining a list of “Tölva” friendly hotspots on my web-site (most likely the wiki).
Copenhagen:
- High Q (WEP encrypted, ask for WEP keyphrase in the bar. I am considering talking them into joining FON – which shouldn’t prove too daunting a task ;-))
- K-I-B – Kulturhus Islands Brygge (open)
- Drop Inn (open)
- Pegasus (open)
- The Laundromat Nørrebro (open – strange generic SSID though – Belkin I believe it is)
- Den Brune Kødby – Bygning 55 (open)
I’m still amazed at the battery-life of the Nintendo DS. I hope to be able to compare it to other highly mobile Wi-Fi capable devices like the Nokia N95, in the future.