Welcome! Don’t forget to click the headings in brown to show the article inside! I‘m also experimenting with side scrolling, to make reading (purportedly) easier on desktop PCs & laptops. Let me know how you find it!
DECEMBER 2023
New Year! Welp! An entire year has elapsed. I won’t deny that the last two months have been, um, challenging, but I knew it in advance, no surprises there. Now it’s back to the grind & hustle! I pray the Lord my new goals and projects pan out well. Happy New Year, dear readers! 🥳
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Autistic Took a couple of quick online tests, and found out I’m comfortably above the threshold for autism! I wonder how can I take over four decades for me to realize it. It’s a lot easier to understand many things about myself!
The obsessiveness, the stubbornness, my being opinionated, my reluctance to go along with all the covid nonsense… My difficulty working in institutions will a lot of rules… My unwillingness to follow a trodden path… It all becomes clear now!
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Finally, USB Linux with persistence I tried it first back in 2009 with Damn Small Linux and Pen Drive Linux. I remember getting them to boot, but I had no idea what I was doing, I barely could install Ubuntu with a CD Canonical generously sent me! Years later I tried with Puppy and Ubuntu variants but somehow never could get persistence to work.
Now I tried Slax & Kanotix but neither could I get persistence to work! 😠 Finally I tried MiniOS and it worked perfectly, no need to set up anything to get persistence, “it just works.” Burned it into a USB with Rufus, no need to set up space for persistence, you will use the whole thumb drive.
Enter the BIOS and disable Secure boot and enable first boot from USB, and you’ll be good to go.
If you have many laying around, it might be good to first test your thumb drives’ speeds. There are many utilities for this. A faster USB will improve your experience noticeably! Usually reading speeds are double or triple writing speeds.
With reading speeds of ~20 MB/s & writing speeds of ~10 MB/s you’ll get an acceptable experience, similar to hard disks and Windows Vista, ha-ha. Slower writing speeds will test your patience a little more.
Then it's just a matter of installing the software you need and personalize your Linux! I recommend the "Standard" MiniOS edition, it recognized everything in hardware and presents a more polished experience. XFCE strikes the right balance between polish, lightness and usability. “Minimal” editions used even less memory, but I could’t get the laptop’s screen brightness keys to work, so I simply used the Standard edition.
Beware that you can login and install and remove software without entering any password! Yes, that includes sudo commands. So that's a risk of course; don't have any sensitive information in that thumb drive! Also bear in mind that every once in a while these drives perform seppuku and just stop working without any warning, so backup your data. Mind any open sessions you leave in the browser! Anyone with the thumb drive can potentially read your emails etc.
NOVEMBER 2023
Back to square one I was made redundant. Again. “Everything happens for a reason. Sometimes the reason is you're stupid and make bad decisions.” ~Marion Harmon. Time for changes! Lost not only a job, but a love, too (mostly unrequited) and also my daily routine. “A lot of nothing to do” and a total change of circumstances. Oh, well. No surprises if one feels the blues. Time to grow I guess.
I like to think that I’ve taken some time to do my PhD, ha ha. Time to study, to read, to write, to catch up in movies until I get back on my feet again.
Now back to The One in Which I Psychoanalyze Myself as a Writer Again. I seem to be the kind of person who just can’t keep a cohesive schedule for long. If you think my writing is inconsistent, honey, you should see the rest of my life … There was something about turning thirty this year that made my haphazardness feel indefensible. With every opportunity and most privileges, with so many gifts and mentors, after thirty years on this planet I have approximately fuck all to show for my efforts. I’m not particularly successful at anything … I have a lot of thoughts. I’ve done a lot of learning. I’ve learned a lot of things and written them down.
There’s something comforting in seeing your own neurosis reflected in other writer’s. There’s safety in numbers!
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Don’t eat your cake before you have it When making plans, often you just see in your mind’s eye, your ideas working. That sensation is exhilarating, but one must be wary of not letting the rush of dopamine become its own reward! That is, you feel “accomplished” just for having thought the idea—instead of its execution—so you potentially could find your motivation to act, reduced. Mind is tricky!
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Parliament of fowls A writer on Medium [V.] argues his case for leaving social media. He does pose a solid and well written argument, the usual fare, though a little snobbishly —oh, those deplorables who won’t adhere to the liberal consensus!—but I want to focus on something else:
I was talking with my daughter about a poem she’s reading in her Chaucer class at college, called Parliament of Fowls. The story is about this guy who is reading a book by Cicero concerning concept called “common profit,” which is basically a cross between Hayek’s “catallaxy” (where the free market arrives at the ideal solution) and Hegelian synthesis. If everyone argues their point of view in a marketplace of ideas, they will arrive at the common good. But then the guy falls asleep and has a dream where he ends up at this giant gathering of birds — a parliament of fowls — who are having a big argument about which boy eagle a particular girl eagle should choose to marry.
And they’re all just arguing for their own self-interest. It’s like one big Twitter of birds. It’s all just twitter. Musk may have changed the name to X, but it remains this twitter of birds, of people not engaging in good will to reach a common understanding at all. In Chaucer’s story, Nature finally steps in and asks the girl who she wants to marry, and she says she’ll come back next year and choose. Instead of the finalized, definite ending, we get this sustained uncertainty … We celebrate the unresolved, the in-between, the ambivalence that keeps us alive. That keeps us coming back.
… it frees you to express your doubt, to share where you’re at, and to talk about the difficult, ambiguous, in-between nature of real problems. I know many people don’t use it that way, but that, for me, was always the point. If I’ve written a book and you’ve got the book in your hands and you’re going to read it, I’ve already won that part. So now I can be open and vulnerable and ambivalent about things, and actually walk people through the experience of doubt.
That’s something nice, no?, being able to think aloud, to ask questions to the void, without the need of arriving at the conclusion… Issues are so complex nowadays, and as I’ve said before, they oftentimes are “solved” simply by choosing one side of a dilemma (you can argue in eternity for one solution or the opposite).
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“You suck” in print There’s been a few authors in my reading life that have had the uncanny ability to make me feel, not only that they know me, but like they’re watching me in that moment! (judgmentally, of course.) The first was Luis A. Martinez—his character Salvador was a harbinger of many of my own tribulations—, around the same time (late teens) was Carlos Cuauhtémoc (his depictions of a dysfunctional family made me wonder, was this guy in my house, looking from behind a curtain?!), later came Jordan Peterson —“people who refuse to commit become unmoored”—and lastly, Paul Rosenberg. Oh, boy. He has some devastating stuff. I hope I have the fortitude to go through it in these lines.
OCTOBER 2023
Puppy love Jason Pargin says in his most excellent Substack: “Sometimes we can love a thing or person so much that we don’t know what to do with ourselves. It’s too much, we don’t know how to express it, or even feel it. So, the love bursts out of us in ways that are irrational to outsiders.” 😭 Made me shed a tear, that hit too close home!
He continued: “if my signature brings some longtime reader a little bit of extra happiness then that’s fucking incredible. You’re talking about a guy who makes a new friend about once every other decade. I subtract happiness from every room I’m in. My dog doesn’t even like me that much. I’m fortunate beyond words that people want anything to do with me.” Haha I cracked up! That one hit too close home, as well…
Mantra A mantra that I find useful when I notice the presence of intrusive thoughts, is this: “It is not my place to, with my hands, take a life—even my own—or, um, spill my seed.”
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Unavoidable plague Social media is here to stay, despite its malignant effects. But I’ve found we can minimize those if you: 1) uninstall all social media apps from your phone. If you must, use them through the browser. 2) Disable all notifications from social media, even from the browser. Trust me, nothing important happens there. 3) Get rid of all parasocial relationships. Apart from a few graphic artists—for their art—get rid of all influencers, singers, actors, etc. Only follow people who know you. Hey, why stop there? Why follow acquaintances you haven’t seen in over a decade? Unfollow them mercilessly! Why are you following family as well? Aunt Mary will upload the photos to the Whatsapp group anyway, so unfollow relatives! What, your account is almost entirely empty? Why not delete it once and for all?! Sorry, got a little carried away haha!
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Deep end Anarchism will push you to the deep end, let’s be honest. It will drive a wedge between you and not only the rest of society, but mainly friends and family. You'll become something of an outcast, a pariah that holds these strange ideas and can’t function properly like the rest of society.
Of course there’s no alternative to embracing your weirdness. We hold anarchist ideas as moral imperatives; we can’t think in any other manner.
So let’s hold a thought for our anarchist forefathers, who surely experienced similar challenges, and keep a stiff upper lip. This is what we know; we can’t think differently!
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No thanks These blogs I’ve been keeping for over two decades now are my contribution to humanity. It is undeniably sobering that the world at large does not recognize or value my contribution in any capacity. But just as a bird with a song within its heart can’t help but sing, as long as I have ideas in my noggin, I have to communicate them.
Even if no one reads them. Even if no one values them. I brought these ideas to life, I have to share them! Somehow they’ll permeate into the global consciousness by the mere act of publishing, and improve the world.
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Characters gotta suffer “You have to remember that every story starts with a hero and a tree. The deal is to get that hero up to the tip-top of that tree and then start chucking rocks at him. Make it hard for him to climb down. Give him some honest-to-god conflict. Make it something personal, something that he can’t just walk away from. Then, by the time your pitching arm gets tired from chucking rocks, let your hero climb down out of that tree and write “The End”. Every story starts that way. Every story is about a character dealing with a problem.” [V.] Ah! The pros make it look so easy!
This contrasts with an email Tom Woods recently sent (being an email, can’t give you a link):
Old movies are terrible … The acting is completely wooden and unconvincing. Not for a second do I believe any of these people are really their characters. They sound like they're repeating memorized lines, not having natural dialogue.
And the plots. The plots! No twists, no turns. Maybe 1963's Charade. I've watched courtroom dramas in which the defendant surely looks guilty. You think: okay, they're obviously not going to show me this whole movie in which the defendant appears to be guilty, and then end the movie with the guy being convicted and that's that. What's the twist? I can't wait!
No twist. Guilty. End of movie.
That cracked me up! 😂
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We’re plotless “I distrust plot for two reasons: first, because our lives are largely plotless, even when you add in all our reasonable precautions and careful planning; and second, because I believe plotting and the spontaneity of real creation aren’t compatible.” ~Stephen King in On Writing.
There you go. Don't tell me it doesn't take some weight off your shoulders, to know that even after all your troubles, your life will remain essentially plotless!
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SEPTEMBER 2023
Magnesium Can’t recommend enough magnesium supplements. I take some before sleep; I have rich dreams and often wake up before the alarm goes off! It’s supposedly convenient for many body processes.
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You never win and then you die Long quote ahead! [V.]
When does the hero realize he brought all his ordeals upon himself, but try as he might, he can’t seem to get out of them?
What I mean is, how does the hero’s journey end if our hero fails to be heroic?
I set out on my quest with the best of intentions. All I wanted was to learn life-changing truths and write them down, in the hopes that sharing all I learned might change other lives, too. For two years of wandering, I plumbed the spiritual and emotional depths of reality and wrote heady, unreadable manifestos on Taoism and antifragility. A series of chance encounters led me to exactly the kind of empowered, autonomous political work I’d never known existed and a group of co-conspirators to try and change the world with.
I’ve been grasping fruitlessly for purpose all my life. I’ve always believed I had one, always felt that deep call to adventure, but the path was never much of a path. It was more an open field where no one needs a thing from me or cares where I end up.
Looking back at thirty years of life here on this magnificent rock, what I see looks like a case of arrested development. There was a flow and a course and a path that somehow got muddied. The energy got stuck. I’m not moving like I should and I’m wasting time. I don’t know my purpose, my path, my passion. Every time I’ve tried to pin it down, it blows up in my hands like a miniature grenade. It used to just jump away from me when it went, but now I’m old and tired and the endings all leave scars.
There’s something about turning thirty that makes it way less cool to have no clue what you’re doing. I feel a backwards call these days, not a call to adventure, but a call to wrap up the adventure and do something more. I’m tired of the abyss. I’m ashamed of it.
But I’ve started learning from my own unfinished heroes. I’m learning that it’s only out in the abyss that they do their deep and earnest thinking. All that wandering in the desert is not wasted time. Each faux pas and failure is a curve in a sacred character arc.
Eventually, the path leads them back home — to a home they can never really return to but must revisit all the same. Just as they cannot go back to their ordinary life, they cannot stay out in the unknown forever. For all my protagonists, their job is to make the unknown known. They bridge the gap between the worlds, a psychopomp to either side, like Mercury.
Me, I’m not much of a hero, but I’ve done a lot of wandering and learning. Now, I’m coming home, wherever that is, to do something with what I have learned. I don’t expect I’ll save the day. The day isn’t what needs to be saved, anyway. I just want to write down everything that changed my life in the hopes it might change yours too.
We like to see ourselves reflected in someone else’s writing. There’s safety in numbers! Seeing your problem shared by many makes you feel less weird. Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning should be bedside book for postmodern people, always floundering between La Nausée and L’Être et le Néant.
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Livin’ the dream “When I was younger, it was always my dream to become a professional reader. I wanted my entire day job to be reading books, thinking critically about what was good, what was bad, and what I would change, and then sharing my thoughts with other people. I really expected this to be a full-time job.” [V.] Oh, the possibility of living the dream…!
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Twist that plot “As writers and content creators, we are really in the game of interrupting patterns. ‘When patterns are broken, new worlds emerge.’ ―Tuli Kupferberg. … In simple terms, high-concept writing is about introducing one, overarching idea or lesson, and packaging it in a three-part story structure: 1) Hook (grab attention), 2) Build (increase tension), 3) Payoff (deliver the climax). All good posts follow this structure — even a listicle.” [V.]
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Data must be interpreted A news article [V.] mentioned that the provinces of Pichincha and Azuay, commonly reputed as more prosperous than Guayas or Esmeraldas, have significantly higher rates of child malnutrition. The same was also observed among the most affluent families as well. What gives?
Simply, race, or as more tastefully put nowadays, ethnicity. As malnutrition rates are determined by simply measuring kids’ height & weight, it can reasonably be expected that an ethnicity commonly associated with lower height—for example, indigenous peoples— would probably result in more “false positives” for child malnutrition rates, and viceversa. Since indigenous peoples are more prevalent in the highland provinces rather than the coastal ones, that could be a useful hypothesis.
So remember kids, always #interpret-data!
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At 40 It might be true that “life begins at 40.” I miss hardly anything from my youth: more obsessiveness bordering on OCD, poverty, ignorance… The only advantage of youth was more easily abundant romantic love.
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“I stopped writing. For several years, I didn’t pick up a pen again. I was disgusted, drained. I promised myself: never again.
Then I came back, why ? I don’t even know.
Writing seems to be this ghost that never lets go. You can change house, career, environment. The ghost remains somewhere close to you. Whispering to you to pick up a pen. Sometimes, its whispers stop. You manage to shut him up. But… it always comes back.
When my specter reappeared, my big idea was to start writing in English.” [V.] Haha it sounds familiar! Been there, done that.
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“I write because there is a story inside of me that nobody has ever heard and it’s my job to tell it.” [V.]
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I feel, ergo I live Infatuation seems to be a recurring theme in these musings. In the past I would have lamented: here we go again in this much trodden path of heartbreak and unrequited love!, but now much older and (hopefully!) wiser, I find solace in the fact that I feel, therefore I must still be alive, and also I feel, I ache, so that cry of pain is at least my revolutionary act of rebellion against the void that preceded me and in which I will ultimately be dissolved!
The last part is for dramatic value only, for I am a Transcendentalist. The religions bequeathed by our forefathers don’t provide enough answers for the modern mind anymore, so search we must for what our minds yearn to know!
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“You must believe you have what it takes to write your books and essays. You must believe that every piece of writing you write is worth it. Even if it doesn’t bring you the results you (your ego) want, you will get the results you (your writer soul) need.“ [V.] I do believe I have uncovered a few truths in my writing; but the lack of readership poses a challenge to my ego, haha. Nevertheless I must be trusting that the results please my soul (?) for I keep writing and publishing into the void.
If no one responds, did you write at all? If your voice makes no echo, did it sound at all? Nonetheless that inner voice of ours won’t be silenced and demands expression.
AUGUST 2023
Damaged people who write
Anna Mercury on Medium has helped us understand ourselves a little better:
Looking back at thirty years of life here on this magnificent rock, what I see looks like a case of arrested development. There was a flow and a course and a path that somehow got muddied. The energy got stuck. I’m not moving like I should and I’m wasting time. I don’t know my purpose, my path, my passion. Every time I’ve tried to pin it down, it blows up in my hands like a miniature grenade. It used to just jump away from me when it went, but now I’m old and tired and the endings all leave scars.
I’m stacking up eternally-unfinished novels to tell my eternally-unfinished story, the threads of my fate fraying, reaching for the ripcord of a clear sense of direction in an endless, shoreless sea.
In all my unfinished stories, the hero has to leave the world behind and run away out into the deep abyss. They all went where the road ended, deep into the forest, far into the stars, to the spaces in between any sense of ground or familiarity. Their quests were not towards something, but away from it. They never really knew where they were going, only that they had to get out to somewhere radically different from this.
For each of them, it was only when they were all the way out, somewhere alien and unfathomable to the life they lived before, that they could start to see the truth. It was only once they saw the truth that they could go back home.
There’s something about turning thirty that makes it way less cool to have no clue what you’re doing. I feel a backwards call these days, not a call to adventure, but a call to wrap up the adventure and do something more. I’m tired of the abyss. I’m ashamed of it.
The reason I keep not finishing novels is that I never know quite how they should end. I can get my heroes far out of the ordinary world, far away from normalcy, all the way up to the learning of the Truth (capital T), but then, what do they do with it? How do they go home, knowing what they know? What does the return even mean?
Every novel I’ve tried to write has told the same story: yes, it’s the hero’s journey, but it’s a particular one. It’s always a story of disillusionment and anger, of learning truths and unraveling conditioning, then of trying to use all these new truths to change the world back home. It’s my story.
I don’t know how it ends.
But I’ve started learning from my own unfinished heroes. I’m learning that it’s only out in the abyss that they do their deep and earnest thinking. All that wandering in the desert is not wasted time. Each faux pas and failure is a curve in a sacred character arc.
Eventually, the path leads them back home — to a home they can never really return to but must revisit all the same. Just as they cannot go back to their ordinary life, they cannot stay out in the unknown forever. For all my protagonists, their job is to make the unknown known. They bridge the gap between the worlds, a psychopomp to either side, like Mercury.
It's like we can't refrain ourselves to sacrifice our own lives in the search of some truth that we have to know. It could be that we need to gape at the abyss in order to lose a fear. Or to feel alive.
Pacino's character in Two for the Money (2005) puts it best. While in an Gamblers Anonymous meeting:
I've listened to thousands of sob stories by people
like Leon
here, and I gotta say, Leon -- if I learned one thing
it's that
gambling is not your problem. Not even close. You're a lemon. Like a bad car,
there's something
inherently defective in you. And you. And me! All of
us here
-- we're lemons! Big, juicy, acidic, ice-tea flavoring
lemons!
We look like everyone else but we're defective because
when
most people make a bet they want to win, while we, the
degenerate
gamblers of the world, we're subconsciously playing to
lose.
All humans like going to the edge of the abyss, but
what makes
us different is we go all the way and hurl ourselves
off into
the void! And we like doing it so much we do it time
after time
after time! Me? I always felt most alive when they
were raking
away the chips, and every one here knows what I'm
talking about.
People like us, even when we win, it's just a matter
of time
before we give it all back. But when we lose, and I
mean the
kind of loss that makes your asshole pucker to the size
of a
decimal point, there's a moment when you're standing
there and
you've just recreated the worst possible nightmare this
side
of malignant cancer for the 20th goddamn time and you
suddenly
realize -- hey, I'm still here, I'm still breathing,
I'm still
alive! In order to really live you have to be aware of
your
own mortality -- and a losing bet of a certain size is
one of
the best ways I know of getting that feeling. When you win, you defy
death,
but when you lose,
you survive it, and that's remarkable!
Us lemons, we fuck shit up on purpose! We need to
constantly
remind ourselves
that we're alive! Gambling's not the problem, Leon,
your fucked
up need to feel something, to convince yourself you
exist, to
test what's really real, that's the problem!
So, might it be that we need to feel strongly in order to feel alive? Who knows! But these are interesting hypothesis as to why we need to fuck shit up, starting from our own lives. We are masochists and want to suffer!#damaged-people-who-write
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To the virtual catacombs Continuing from last post, I see inevitable that dissident thought will move away from centralized platforms such as X, Facebook or Youtube, to traditional websites with paid hosting, and traditional static websites such as these in Neocities. Social media will become a sort of gateway to "the good stuff" in one's own site; it inevitably would hurt engagement, but it's a necessary compromise.
I know centralized platforms must make money and more, um, extreme ideas hurt advertising business; I don't totally blame the platforms, they have a business to run. I don't even blame the Zuck or Jack directly: I believe that when your site becomes massively popular, not only you have a business to run and payroll to make (so you just have to keep advertisers happy!), you also get visited by glowies brandishing carrots and sticks… "See, Mr. Zuck, you can get all sort of subsidies, if you just allow us access to your databases, and inject this… innocuous code, and establish lines of communication with us to now and then, um, trim the weeds that may sprout, and delete bad actors' accounts, specially around elections… You wouldn't want to get on the govt's bad side now, would you? Of course not… You don't want to become an accomplice to disinformation, do you? That's what I thought."
Right now you can have a stable presence in mainstream social media for your milquetoast opinions. No problem there (though many will block you if you stray away from "the 3x5 card of allowable opinion," as Tom Woods used to say!) If you become vocal and noticeable, you'll become a target for deplatforming; just ask Milo, Stefan Molyneux, Vox Day and many others… But even they have been able to stay online, if only with limited reach: Molyneux has his website, Freedomain; Milo is on Telegram, Vox Day still has his blog… I wonder if more intellectually highbrow sites such as Medium, Substack etc. would be more open-minded. There's always Gab or your fringe Mastodon community.
You'll probably lose your online livelihood (Youtube checks, for instance) but you'll always be able to have an online presence. Just find some gainful employment irl to pay the bills and sustain yourself.
If all else fails, well, there's always Freenet! :p So the future is not so hopeless, after all. #virtual-catacombs
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Thinking by sounding off ideas
Dakara, a philosopher in Twitter, has an interesting take about the thinking process that reflects what I do here. Allow me to quote from their Substack:
The process of any thought is a private affair … The mind can not process what is correct in isolation without simultaneous contemplation of what is wrong. It is a necessary process for understanding and reasoning to perceive all things including those that may be disturbing. We can not orient ourselves toward that which is positive without comprehending what things might be destructive for which we should not participate. Stated simply, we can not always work out what we should do if we are unable to work out what we should not.
The process of thinking does not exist completely within the walls of our minds. We also think by extension of what we write and communicate. We often bring order and resolution to a set of thoughts by simply writing them down. This then serves as a feedback loop in which we further refine our thoughts and continue the process.
Then she (for some reason, I see Dakara as a "she") adds a picture where we see the "thought origination, organization and evolution" process: first private thoughts, then they become semiprivate as we share the ideas with our circle of friends and receive feedback and we refine those ideas; then we share them with the world, the greatest audience, in blogs and social media.
She continues:
We also do something similar when we engage with others. Communication is a method of processing our thoughts. It is a cycle of testing concepts and receiving feedback that allows us to continue to refine and improve our thought processes. When we do this, we cross one barrier of privacy being our own minds and allow access typically to a limited audience receptive to considering what we have to say.
Ultimately, we are in control of this process. We choose our own thoughts for contemplation and we choose who and what to share as we refine our thoughts. In this model, we own our own thoughts and have agency over our own lives.
Without privacy over your own thoughts, you are no longer in control of your own mind. Knowing your thoughts are being observed constricts and shuts down the free flow of ideas and may also lead to other dysfunctions of the mind such as paranoia.
“The loss of privacy is currently one of the most devastating impacts of AI. The existence of a free society as well as your sanity hinges on privacy. When you lose privacy you lose ownership over your own thoughts. You lose agency over the direction of your own life.”
The last part actually gave me the chills. It's true that many thoughts/ideas will probable never be ready to be shared with the general public, or in polite company; but they are a necessary part of our thinking process. If AI were to become able to "read minds" inferring from 24/7 face surveillance, movements, eavesdropping with phones always listening, sites visited etc., that surely would have a "chilling effect"; 1984's wrongthink would have become a reality.
Dakara described perfectly my though process: half-baked ideas come to me, then I sound them off with a close friend and a couple of cousins —God bless their patience!— who aren't near me in the political spectrum; and if they can't provide adequate refutations, I know I'm onto something solid. As we say in Spanish —"consultar con la almohada"— I like to sleep on it to refine the ideas a little further and in case I find weak spots, and then finally write & publish them on X or in this blog.
Curiously, that's why I'm not too concerned anymore about becoming popular or viral on social media: ideas have their own ways to enter into this world and catch on; we are but mere vessels or channels to them. As soon as they enter this world through our minds, and we communicate them, they take a life of their own. #sounding-off-ideas
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No wage gap Back in 2019 the nominal wage gap inverted: women with "adequate employment" earned a little more than men, $530.60 vs. $528.94, while working less hours (42.6 vs 45.7 men). Men in "underemployment" earned a little more than women after adjusting for worked hours per week, but women in "other inadequate employment" earned a little more than men after adjusting!
Now the last aggregate data (all working people, June 2023) we can see that, while men nominally earn more than women ($477.90 vs $405.10), after adjusting for worked hours, we see that men work 19% more hours than women, but earn only 18% more; so there is a little over 1% wage gap that favors women in aggregate.
Differences so small shouldn't matter much in reality, but in an article that parrots the same idées reçues[V.], a simple division would have shown that there is really no meaningful gap, and if there is, it is in woman's favour! #no-wage-gap
Killed the dog, rabies is cured It's no wonder that animal rights activists oppose putting stray dogs to sleep massively [V.]; but it's intellectually dishonest to dismiss it perfunctorily saying "it's been proved that it doesn't reduce overpopulation." Meanwhile, whatever method is being used to control stray dog population (that is, none whatsoever) has not prevented stray dog population to multiply FIVEFOLD in the last eight years! (from around 160k strays in the capital [V.] to around 770k! [V.]) It's absurd to capture those dogs, neuter them and release them; after capture they should be put to sleep.
They are too many. They won't ever be adopted. Most have been born feral. They are a safety and sanitation risk. They should be euthanised massively. There is no other solution. And stray cats, too!
Some proposed measures [V.] try to "assign an owner" of stray dogs that are usually fed by people in a neighbourhood. This will predictably dissuade people from looking after strays, so as not to assume further responsibilities. O the curse of unintended consequences from well-intended policies!
Social media is an obstacle to self-actualization. There, I said it. It's like getting distracted by thousands of side quests, abandoning the main storyline in a videogame. And the main storyline is your very own life!
I'm gonna try minimizing FOMO not by going cold turkey, but by using social media only in the computer. I've found it less addictive there. Not fumbling with the phone (tablet) constantly makes withdrawal easier: tablet will be for reading mostly.
“Those who are not willing to suffer remain intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually stunted." [V.]
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Blockchain blues Blockchain “is a technology of great promise. There are a number of ways it is being used successfully, but blockchain just struggles. Its hand held high to answer the question only to be ignored by the teacher. Blockchain always has the answer, but the teacher wants someone else to answer the question this time.” Haha! [V.] It adds into the theme that new technologies lately come with boastful promises of revolutionizing the world, but fail to deliver: 3D printers, blockchain, maybe IA itself? They will find their niches and use cases, but so far they've failed to become "the next big thing" like "teh Internet," smartphones and social media did in their times.
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Enshittification “Here is how platforms die: first, they are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers; finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves. Then, they die. I call this enshittification” [V.] Very cogent essay. That's the paradox of money: whenever money is involved, it changes the dynamics; but money is required to live & keep services afloat. One can only count on entropy to return things to the néant from which everything was fashioned. (Also, monospace text on white is a nice touch!)
Enshittification was evident in Tiktok from the start, so it wasn't difficult to keep it at arm's lenght. Some other platforms dig their roots into our minds when we were young and more impressionable, and will require more effort to uproot.
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Madhouse “If, as Zuckerberg claimed, the goal with Threads is to create a “town square with more than 1 billion people,” the center of that square will have to contain news. And news, I can tell you from very personal experience, is the front door to a household full of humans screaming at each other.” Haha! [V.] I'm trying to read more, so I'll try to wean myself off from Twitter. Let's see how do I do!
Somewhere else [V.] the same author said: “you can “hang out” on some random subreddit, or get into endless flame wars with 12 other idiots on Twitter, or join an Instagram Live with a few hundred other voyeurs, but…that’s certainly not “everyone hanging out together on the Internet.” The very idea is ridiculous. We’re not built to “hang out with everyone,” and we never will be. Many of us, me included, are built to hang out with about six people at a time. And they change depending on context.” I couldn't agree more. We have to take our attention spans back!
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No easy way out The other day my cousin was deploring the current government and its lack of any achievements. I assured him that, though I agreed with him, our contry's problems are structural, not circumstantial; and unless a government decides to implement serious changes, they all would suffer the same fate.
Making some back-of-the-envelope calculations (billions):
Income
======
Revenue from taxes: 17.1
Revenue from oil: 2.4 Total revenue: 19.5
Expenses
========
Bureaucracy: 10
Gas subsidies: 4.5
Social s. subsidy: 1.5
Army s.s. subsidy: 1
Debt payments: 5
EBT-like payment: 1.5
Province & cities: 2.2
Bills to pay: 1.5 Total proj.expens.:27.2
Surplus (deficit):(7.7)
There is simply no way to pay 27.2 when you only get 19.5 and you have no access to credit (our sovereign risk right now is one of the worst in the world!). You will inevitably miss many payments. Budget deficit is nearly 7% GDP, but I contend that it should be measured against the total government budget, or even better, against projected revenues: government plans to spend almost 40% more than it takes in, and that is just in mandatory outlays; that's before tackling the lack of resources in hospitals etc.! It is impossible, unfeasible, and we as a society should treat it as such, and agree in the inevitable budget cuts.
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embed.tube allows you to make embeds from Odysee videos. I wonder why they disabled that.
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For your eyes only Very well written blog post: “The Blessing Of Writing An Unsalable Book: Your first book goes in a drawer.”[V.] Ms. Notaras really has a way with words! She takes an extremely sensitive topic for every writer and wraps rejection with so much love and understanding that you simply can't argue with her.
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On book burnings
We all deplore book burnings, specially the most conspicuous ones, the Nazi book burnings. But would our perception of the “evilness” of these acts change, the more context we add to it?
First, bear in mind that every year millions of unsold books are destroyed, and no one bats an eye. Surely among those there must have been hidden gems, that no one will ever know about; but destroyed they were.
(Conversely, anyone who has experience with old books knows that many ancient books have scarcely any value today; religious books for example. Surely in the famous library of Alexandria there were many books that, apart from the mere curiosity, would hardly have any value for modern men.)
Many unsaleable books are not recycled, either; sometimes it’s not economically viable, so they are simply tossed in landfills [V.]. Even if that isn’t properly book burning, it is very similar!, but once again it draws no attention from anybody.
One of those Nazi book burnings, was that of the library of Dr. Hirschfeld’s institute of sexology. Before continuing, search for images of “phalloplasty” and “vaginoplasty,” and bear in mind that those abominations are being perpetrated on the youth today. That amounts to mutilation of the young & vulnerable. It is understandable that a community would rather do away with this kind of content that is encouraged and foisted upon impressionable youth today!
That kind of content was found in Dr. Hirschfeld’s library, and produced by his institute. So, what is the real objection? To the burning of private property, to the lack of recycling of book pulp, or to the elimination of such content? Bear in mind we’re talking about child mutilation at large!
I posited the question to a progressive friend: “If the Nazis, instead of barging in and burning the books, did expropriate them first, paid their fair price, and then recycled the pulp, would your moral judgement change?” This works as “solving an equation by clearing fractions” of sorts, since we eliminate some of the other odious aspects: the "waste of resources" and the destruction of someone else's property.
My friend refused to dignify my question with an answer, since it was a dilemma: answering in the negative would entail admitting agreement with the contents of those books (child mutilation); and if he answered affirmatively, he would admit to a less principled position: that destroying books was OK as long as we compensated their owners adequately!
(Bear in mind, I have no answer myself; I'm just asking some difficult questions.)
Moreover, let's add even more complexity to an already complex issue. We admitted that millions of books are destroyed (not recycled) every year and we couldn't care less. We also admitted that some objectionable content (the promotion of child mutilation) couldn't possibly merit a more passionate defense than those millions of books that nobody will shed a tear over.
Now head over to Wikipedia and learn that book burnings are sadly a common occurrence in human history, even today! (not only of those millions of unsold books.) The Left, the Right, the Jews, the Indigenous peoples, the Fascists, the Antifascists, the Allies, the Catholics, the Protestants, the Communists, they all burned books… The Chinese every few centuries go crazy and destroy most of their knowledge!
Are we, the destroyers of the most number of books, more enlightened than other book burners? Just a few weeks ago Black & Brown people rioted in France and targeted specifically public libraries—a certain one was just recently inaugurated—and burned them to the ground! Are they any better, or worse, than the Nazis, for not discriminating against specific content, just burning everything?
Add to all those, the inherent ephemeral quality of content in the internet; many interesting and useful pages that have been lost forever, links that don't work anymore and weren't saved opportunely, deleted blog posts, websites that were lost because domain names weren't renewed…
Also add all those who have had years of content deleted from Twitter, Facebook, YouTube after being "canceled" for going against the bienpensants… Many cheered when the ideas and work of years disappeared from the internet forever (hardly anyone makes backups of stuff we publish on social media). Are they not book burners? Are they more righteous when destroying someone else's content?
A few weeks ago activists in Sweden—known for their fervent defense of free speech—burned a Quran (of their own property, I'm inclined to assume) in front of a Mosque. Being law abiding citizens, they first obtained permission from police authorities for what was to be construed a performance in favor of free speech. Muslim activists planned to do the same to a copy of the Torah in front of a synagogue. They desisted later, but questions (and passionate condemnations, too!) arose: am I allowed to burn my books, or not? Can I burn my books to express my contempt and hatred of the ideas contained therein? Or are books—and, presumably, the ideas they contain—sacred, totems & taboo, that are to be respected always and in every case? Wouldn't that be tantamount to fetishizing them? Are Nazi books "fair game" for the flames? What about communist books? And other ideologies?
Difficult questions indeed! Too many questions, too few answers, but I hope to have cracked some of dear reader's certainties!
JULY 2023
Argue politics with family and friends! Strangers won’t humor you and won't have a modicum of intellectual honesty or integrity, but (hopefully) your family and friends will! Surely there's a relative as ornery as you, always willing to shoot the shit with you. (keyword: willing!) That's how one makes intellectual progress! Actually most of the content from this blog comes from discussions and arguments with a friend and a cousin. I thank them for it.
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No words, no thought. It came to my attention that there is no word for “entitlement” in Spanish! If you don’t have an equivalent word, you can’t notice entitlement in yourself or others, you can't denounce it! Maybe that's why there is so much entitlement in Latin America, and it's going to grate locals wherever we immigrate. Americans for example have more of a self-reliant, pull-yourself-by-your-bootstraps attitude. It can contrast with the fatalistic, resigned attitude more prevalent in the Third World.
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Cheap deodorant After running a few tests, I can confirm coconut oil makes for a good deodorant! A dab or two in your armpits, move the arm so it spreads and you're good to go. Mix with a litte baking soda for extra strength and maybe some cornstarch if you want it less runny.
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A community is needed. A community for writing, like Medium or Neocities, is more convenient for writing, rather than having your solo blog drifting in a sea of indifference. You can expect your blog show up in the “Activity” section ―or in someone's email in the case of Medium― and that way someone eventually will visit it!
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Ad-blocking DNSes: Check Libredns.gr, blahdns.com (be a good guy and toss them a few bucks every now and then!) and the classic AdGuard public DNS. Remember to disable them if you use a VPN, otherwise you risk leaking your IP address… or something, I really don’t know what I'm talking about :v
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I was taught in typing lessons to put two spaces after a period ending a sentence inside a paragraph. Unfortunately modern web standards & customs tend to disagree. I resorted to configure Vim to replace two keystrokes of the space bar, with the html entity for an “em-space,” and that worked, until I started favoring monospace text… It didn’t show double space again! So I now use a simple space and a non-breaking space.
UPDATE: two "en-space" entities together actually perform better.
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Neocities is really cool. I can edit this file in Vim and then upload it with a single command. Uploads instantly. Much more easily than updating a website through traditional web hosting. Looking forward to write & update much more frequently!
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Bank consolidation, CBDC, panopticon
A Youtube video [V.] talks about Colombia’s biggest bank and its new app, that allows the user to incorporate information from any other accounts, including rival banks, so as to “help” the user have a clearer picture of his finances.
Methinks it’s a sign of banking consolidation. Under the New World Order―made possible by technology and the “dry run” that was the Plandemic―banks will be but mere branches of the Central Bank. The Central Bank will be the one holding accounts and providing credit with newly created CBDC. Banks will do fine, they’ll get their cut anyway and transfer all risk to the central bank. The government will get to monitor every expense; AI will be able to quickly identify those, um, unruly citizens who spend too much, or too little, in what the elites want. They can also freeze your e-wallet with ease, until you comply with the wishes of your betters (remember Canadian truckers?) See, it’s win-win for the elites!
I suspect this will de-naturalize even more savings & credit. Before, credit was based in savings; savers were paid interest based in the adequate allocation of loans to profitable projects by bankers, who were rewarded by their prudence & acumen. With CBDC & bank consolidation, credit will be provided by creating new CBDC units; interest paid to savers will have the same origin. No need to bother with projects, profitable or not, thank you.
This of course will be inflationary. It can give a “second wind” to this secular bear market in interest rates, helping keep them artificially lower.
This sits well with my prediction of the “government going supernova” before its demise Will I get it right? Guess we’ll see in two decades; this blog has been going for two decades now so far!
Colombia also has a bank transfer/withdrawal tax, 4‰ (four per mille). Movements under US$4,000 are exempt; that’s the annual income for many poorer Colombian workers, but the middle class and the affluent surely are going to pay. It was supposed to be a temporary tax, but you know what they say about temporary government measures…
I figure that’s going to be the main source of revenue for governments in the years to come: they help themselves to “your” digital currency, from the wallets they custody. We have to brace ourselves for a future of uncharted waters!
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Time to try going back to our origins: simple, static webpages hosted this time in Neocities. Let’s see if I can make it work in a single webpage! A few years back it would have been too heavy, but now CMS routinely serve more megabytes than the whole bible for a simple entry in a blog, so I figure it wouldn't be a problem.
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Observations on the original web vs modern
“As the price of Internet access decreased so did the average socioeconomic status of users, and so building tools that made content easy to create and easy to consume suddenly became profitable. There simply is no alternate timeline where the web could have stayed the way it was, except perhaps one with a very abrupt ending to Moore's Law.” … “the same old story: early adopters/creatives did stuff, said stuff became accessible to the masses, and as a result the overall quality decreased.” … “all of the "hobbyists" with homepages at that time were unusually well educated and specifically knowledgeable about the internet and that's not true anymore. So, instead of the web being written almost exclusively by people with substantial college (or simply very well read and self-educated) and very similar nerdy interests, parts of it are now written by people with other backgrounds and interests.” … “One thing I disliked in blogs, which made me migrate back to an old-school website, was the low bar of writing on a blog, and I ended up writing a lot of impulsive rants. Publishing on your own site makes you think twice and work the opinions before writing” … “The blog also did something else.. give non technical users a voice. Do we celebrate that or mourn for a web full of people just like us?” Very good points in news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17470426.
“Instead of deliberately creating and editing content for static sites, people were now empowered to quickly and easily vomit their passing thoughts out to the world.” TheWebIsFucked.com Haha as someone who has repeatedly vomited his passing thoughts―on Twitter and in static sites, as well―I can only look sideways uncomfortably… 👀😄
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“The goal of living was never to create a divine beauty in the world, to find a meaning to life that is as profound as it is simple. The goal is to appreciate the beauty that already exists. And the Web is that — a beautiful, beautiful place, hidden in places that so few people get to explore.” [V.]
The preceding sentence is also good: “The world is as confusing as it is beautiful. To dive deep into the Web, where there still exists pockets of innocent people who are aware of the harsh realities of it, and yet choose to ignore it to make a softer world, shows that even in the midst of chaos, there is the certainty that, on the whole, life gets a little bit better every day.”
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Perhaps I should go back to writing this blog in English. It is, after all, the language of the Internet: easy to read and understand.
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“When governments have the power to control something, they do. Whether it makes sense or not. Whether they improve things or not.” [V.]
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El viernes la ciudad se inundó en bajamar, ¡y fuera de la estación lluviosa! Solía ocurrir sólo en pleamar. Se viene feo El Niño.
La conciencia común universal desea probarse la eutanasia libre
La humanidad, como una joven que se prueba ropa frente al espejo, desea ver “cómo se ve” con eutanasia libre.
Hoy uno dice: cómo podemos negarle derecho a una muerte digna e indolora a un familiar querido, a uno mismo; entonces, por extensión, a todos. Así que no dudo que se aprobará en las legislaciones.
Mas esto es algo inédito en la historia de la humanidad; el suicidio sólo era considerado “derecho” por los más audaces opinadores. Es muy temprano para ver sus consecuencias a mediano o largo plazo; los excesos no se ven sino en retrospectiva. 🤷
Quizá luego de unas décadas, como la misma joven recordando su “fase emo”, se avergonzará ante los excesos que difícilmente podemos prever: «¿En qué diablos estábamos pensando?!».
A un amigo que le compartía mis aprensiones, cuando me preguntó: ―No tengo claras tus objeciones―, le respondí: ―Yo tampoco, más allá de la prudencia conservadora ante ímpetu revolucionario zurdo.
Como recordaba Vittorio Messori en Leyendas negras de la iglesial, la humanidad en general no consideraba a la vida como “el mayor valor”; muchas otras cosas y causas se consideraban más dignas de ofrecerles la vida, propia o ajena. Asimismo la pena de muerte se aplicaba con generosidad (tengo la hipótesis que ayudó a pacificar la humanidad, al extinguir linajes violentos).
Eso de que “la vida humana es sagrada” es reciente, de cuño cristiano ―pues le pertenece a Dios, que la da y la quita― y no deja de ser algo hipócrita el mainstream progre al considerar sagrada la vida de delincuentes al abolir la pena de muerte, pero defender como derechos el aborto y eutanasia/suicidio asistido sin límites de los más vulnerables.
Por lo pronto unos ejemplos que parecen excesos: que en Canadá se ofrece el suicidio asistido como salida fácil y barata para ahorrarse el sistema de salud de proveer servicios, y asimismo se lo ofrece como tratamiento ―en vez de ser “la última alternativa”― ante cualquier dolencia física o mental, aun a menores de edad, en vez de cuidados paliativos. “Muerto el perro, se acabó la rabia”; no deja de ser un poco siniestro.
¿Quién puede resistirse al mainstream que arrastra todo a su paso? Sólo queda el “derecho al pataleo” y escribir en blogs.
Caray, uno mismo quizá tarde o temprano desee tomar la decisión de partir antes de este mundo, por dolores atroces. “De esta agua no beberé…”. #try-eutanasia
Jóvenes citadinos y pueblerinos
Antes había diferencia notable entre jóvenes citadinos ―más sofisticados, con más “mundo”― y los “de pueblo”, más “municipales y espesos”. Mas ahora tengo impresión que con masificación de internet y redes sociales, el mundo juvenil se ha, um, aplanado (adecuado verbo: igualar hacia abajo): desde el pueblo más remoto, un joven puede ver los mismos tiktoks, oír la misma música, seguir las mismas celebridades que cualquier joven de ciudad grande; e incluso intentar su salto a la fama, como hemos visto en varias cuentas que muestran la vida rural.
Jugan los mismos juegos con jóvenes de todo el mundo (Roblox, free fire), siguen a los mismos youtubers ―que les muestran estilos de vida de todo el mundo, sin salir de casa―… Y pueden ser tan ignorantes unos como otros: pues nadie lee, todos son intelectualmente “sarcófagos tristes” como dice Ángel de luz de Juan Fernando Velasco.
Desde hace unos pocos años el joven más excéntrico del pueblo más pequeño puede hallar su “tribu” en línea.
Así que mundo plano con posibilidad de menos diferencias de clase.
Walled gardens venidos a menos
Me he decepcionado de redes sociales proprietary closed source como Tuírer y demás. No sólo por sus propensión a la censura y quema de libros ―¡libros enteros de ideas potencialmente valiosas se destruyen cuando le eliminan la cuenta a alguien!― sino también por las limitaciones del algoritmo y el API (?): el algoritmo no es auditable ni siquiera entendible, y el API (?) no te permite acceder fácilmente a tu propio contenido de hace más de unos pocos meses, no se diga el de los demás.
A lo dicho, añádasele mi incapacidad de hacer crecer mi cuenta aun luego de nueve años, jeje.
Así que por eso le he dado más énfasis a este microblog, y para hacerlo más incensurable, lo voy a subir a Tor con Onionshare y Freenet.
Para ello he de rediseñarlo para que funcione sin PHP y minimizar asimismo uso de javascript (sólo para fines cosméticos). Asimismo consideraré uso de flat file que tenga todo incluido, incluyendo el CSS.
¡En unos días espero subir un artículo con el nuevo CMS simplificado!
JUNIO 2023
El sacrificio del occidente blanco y cristiano
En círculos más marginales y um, menos bien vistos, suele hablarse de la conspiración del great replacement: que las élites globalistas fomentan la inmigración indiscriminada de países del tercer mundo a Europa y EEUU, como forma un poco sádica de “reconstruir” la sociedad, diluyendo la raza blanca y la cultura occidental de cuño cristiano.
Sin entrar a juzgar el fondo del asunto ―si la conspiración sea real o mera teoría―, me temo que debo opinar que es inevitable y necesario.
¿A qué me refiero? Así como el sacrificio de Roma a manos de las invasiones bárbaras fue necesario para que, dialécticamente, la sociedad occidental evolucione, así el sacrificio, saqueo, etc. de “la nueva Roma” ―Occidente― es necesario para dar el siguiente salto evolucionario, en el proceso de the ascent of man, el ascenso de la humanidad.
No, nunca es agradable. Hordas de hombres de menor coeficiente intelectual, de notable rusticidad, en edad militar, ingresando en sociedades muy distintas donde no hablan el idioma, ni hallan trabajo ni pareja, ni pueden adquirir propiedad…, sometidos a incesante propaganda donde les dicen que son víctimas, que merecen todo, que su mala suerte es culpa de otros…, es de esperarse innumerables roces, problemas y delitos.
Peor aún cuando vienen muchos a malvivir del estado de bienestar, no a trabajar; y cuando odian a la sociedad que los acoge. De todo se ve. Además que migraciones humanas a gran escala son indetenibles; la única forma de pararlos sería un genocidio a gran escala, inaceptable; así que sólo queda el “derecho al pataleo”.
Siendo entonces el proceso migratorio indetenible, el sacrificio de occidente será acaso necesario para que el islam y África den el siguiente salto evolucionario, y aumente así el nivel de vida de la humanidad.
Roma desapareció, pero unos cuantos siglos después emergió Europa reloaded en El Renacimiento. ¿Quizá ocurra ahora otro tanto?
El estado de bienestar será víctima colateral de la migración masiva; es imposible sostener beneficios ilimitados para un número indefinido de personas que no han cotizado por ellos. Me parece bien; el estado de bienestar “gratuito pagado con altos impuestos” es un mal sueño boomer que ha durado demasiado ya.
Zurdos vs hermanitos
Los “hermanitos” (cristianos evangélicos) siempre han puesto en jaque a los zurdos, quienes generalmente no se les enfrentan, por unas cuantas razones:
1. No tienen un líder central qué atacar, como el papa;
2. No tienen una masa de gente de mala reputación como los católicos (puedes acusar a los no practicantes de todo vicio; los hermanitos a menudo expulsan a los miembros que no cejan en sus pecados);
3. No los puedes acusar de vicios pasados porque ellos mismos son los primeros en confesarlos públicamente ("era drogadicto, mujeriego, delincuente, etc pero Dios me salvó");
4. Hay tantas denominaciones que no hay un "corpus" teológico unitario qué atacar (como decía un profesor, «puedes hacer que la biblia diga cualquier mensaje», en sus 600k palabras);
5. En su creencia fanatizada, muchos hermanitos no dejan de verse un poco infantiles; de ahí el apelativo diminutivo. Hasta pena daría atacarles. En cambio los católicos están curtidos en la violencia (dada y recibida), y son por lo tanto fair game.
Materia y espíritu: ¿dualismo?
A lo largo de toda la historia de la filosofía siempre se ha contrapuesto el espíritu a la materia; a esta última siempre se la ha visto como limitada, pesada, sucia, “anclada”… En contraposición, el espíritu es libre de toda cadena, no sujeto al espacio o tiempo, no limitado por el envejecimiento, dolor, etc.
La teología de las diversas religiones también hicieron eco de dicha cosmovisión: el espíritu sería “puro”, más perfecto; la materia o cuerpo “pecaminosa” e imperfecta.
Bastante malo es crecer con complejos de nuestras limitaciones “de fábrica”, que nos condenan a ser lo que somos, sin elección alguna de nuestra parte… Algunos con baja estatura, de menor inteligencia, de poca belleza…, ¡y encima ontológicamente seríamos “inferiores” a seres angélicos!
Mas a la luz de la física cuántica (de sillón nomás, por supuesto), sabemos que en realidad no existe la materia, todo es energía; las partículas subatómicas se deshacen en energía pura, sujetas al principio de indeterminación, a veces onda, a veces partícula; la materia observada es casi 100% vacío… ¿Ves a dónde voy?
¡La materia no es sino “energía” condensada!, y en ese sentido, ¡el cuerpo es “espíritu condensado”! Con las particularidades propias de ser “otro estado del espíritu” (que ya no de la materia), pero espíritu al fin.
Somos polvo de estrellas… ¡y de ángeles! No somos inferiores a ellos, somos… más intensos que ellos, jeje.
Los doctores de la fe decían con no poca carga poética, que los ángeles envidiaban a los hombres, porque no sólo Dios se hizo uno de nosotros, sino que también murió por nosotros, y no por los ángeles.
Antes, como los conocimientos humanos —la ciencia— eran muy limitados, parecía muy posible que un solo individuo sabio pudiera hacer la defensa y apología de nuestra Santa Fe.
Hoy, con la extensión y la intensidad de la ciencia moderna, es preciso que los apologistas se dividan el trabajo para defender en todos los terrenos científicamente a la Iglesia.
—Tú... no te puedes desentender de esta obligación.
En efecto, el conocimiento humano es demasiado amplio ya; es imposible el "hombre renacentista" que dominaba todo campo del conocimiento… Un Voltaire (con fama que nunca perdía una discusión) es imposible hoy. ¡Hay tanta información…!
Mas precisamente gracias a que la hay, todos podemos crear y dominar nuestro nicho, y ser cuasi-invencibles en él; 💪 y mezclando nuestro nicho con el mainstream, podemos producir ideas novedosas y útiles para la sociedad.
Aunque sea una labor tan humilde como la divulgación, ya es valiosa: ¡recordar tantas ideas útiles en medio de un mar de “sarcófagos tristes”, mentes que sólo son alimentadas con tiktoks!
Las ideas viajan en el éter
Asimov narraba varios casos de investigadores en distintos lugares del mundo, sin contacto entre sí, que lograban el mismo descubrimiento casi al mismo tiempo.
Yo humildemente lo he visto en los deportes que practicaba de joven ―y siendo dominio, no de adultos profesionales, sino de muchachos imberbes―: se creía que era imposible "saltar" en la patineta, hasta que un quinceañero lo logró el famoso “Ollie” en 1978.
Luego se creía que era imposible hacer el "wheelie" ("caballito", andar en la bici en una sola rueda) de pie, sin estar sentado en la bici, más que unos cuantos segundos; hasta que a mediados-fines de los '90 unos muchachos lo lograron durante largos trechos y hasta en el barrio los pibes lo hacían (yo nunca pude, snif).
Así que las ideas se transmiten en el éter, por algún mecanismo que desconocemos; basta publicarlas… Aunque en este blog que nadie lee… Aunque sea en el chat familiar exasperando parientes…
Así hemos de mejor nuestro karma, aumentando el conocimiento de El Gran Espíritu jeje.
Dos ideas anti-zurdos
La primera es el concepto de “terrorismo intelectual”, acuñado por Jean Sévillia en un libro homónimo. Las ideas de los zurdos a menudo son irracionales, o monstruosamente antiéticas; refutarlas requiere primero una bofetada emocional, de ahí la conveniencia de arrojarles la acusación de perpetrar terrorismo intelectual.
“Terrorismo intelectual” consiste en «demonizar al adversario, asignarle el rol de El Mal. Como después de 1945, la figura de El Mal era Hitler, entonces se trata a los adversarios de nazis. El principio del terrorismo intelectual es deslegitimizar a tu adversario político, privándole del derecho a la palabra y asignándole todo tipo de etiquetas … El terrorismo intelectual evoluciona en función de la ideología dominante en ese momento. El mecanismo es idéntico: demonizar al adversario para privarle del derecho a la palabra». [V.]
La segunda idea se encuentra en una farragosa monografía del zurdo abolicionista penal Raúl Zaffaroni: El crimen de estado como objeto de la criminología[V.]. Tiene la ventaja adicional que no hay mejor cuña que la del mismo palo”; nada mejor que usar contra los zurdos, conceptos acuñados por los propios zurdos.
Ya vimos anteriormente un ejemplo, cuando se descubrió que el inventor del término “influjo psíquico” con el que se condenó a Correa como autor intelectual de una estructura criminal (y que los correístas querían desvirtuar, volviéndolo “hombre de paja”), ¡fue el propio Zaffaroni![V.].
MAYO 2023
De materia, espíritu/energía y dualismos
La dicotomía materia/espíritu (o energía), quizá tan antigua como la civilización, ¿no ha sido ya resuelta por la física cuántica?
Efectivamente, si todo al fin y al cabo es energía, si la materia no existe como tal ―según el modelo del átomo, casi todo es vacío, y las partículas subatómicas son en el fondo energía―, si todo es energía, ¿los seres… físicos (en comparación con los seres “espirituales”) no somos algo así como “energía solidificada, comprimida”? Puestas así las cosas, ¿no tendríamos alguna ventaja sobre seres “energía pura” angélicos que han existido en toda civilización?
Recuerda lo que hemos dicho otras veces: no hay diferencia esencial entre los conceptos de espíritu/alma, y energía; ambas no ocupan espacio ni tiempo, no tienen peso, no tienen límites…
La ciencia sí habla de energía; ¿llegará quizá el día en que hable de alma y espíritu?
MARZO 2023
La pena de muerte vuelve a ser necesaria
La redacción original del catecismo de la iglesia católica de 1992 sobre la pena de muerte era bastante ecuánime y racional:
«2266. La preservación del bien común de la sociedad exige colocar al agresor en estado de no poder causar perjuicio. Por este motivo la enseñanza tradicional de la Iglesia ha reconocido el justo fundamento del derecho y deber de la legítima autoridad pública para aplicar penas proporcionadas a la gravedad del delito, sin excluir, en casos de extrema gravedad, el recurso a la pena de muerte. Por motivos análogos quienes poseen la autoridad tienen el derecho de rechazar por medio de las armas a los agresores de la sociedad que tienen a su cargo.
»Las penas tienen como primer efecto el de compensar el desorden introducido por la falta. Cuando la pena es aceptada voluntariamente por el culpable, tiene un valor de expiación. La pena tiene como efecto, además, preservar el orden público y la seguridad de las personas. Finalmente, tiene también un valor medicinal, puesto que debe, en la medida de lo posible, contribuir a la enmienda del culpable.
»2267. Si los medios incruentos bastan para defender las vidas humanas contra el agresor y para proteger de él el orden público y la seguridad de las personas, en tal caso la autoridad se limitará a emplear sólo esos medios, porque ellos corresponden mejor a las condiciones concretas del bien común y son más conformes con la dignidad de la persona humana».
Años después todos nos volvimos progres bleeding hearts y nos horroriza la pena de muerte; y se corrigió la redacción en estos términos:
2267. Durante mucho tiempo el recurso a la pena de muerte por parte de la autoridad legítima, después de un debido proceso, fue considerado una respuesta apropiada a la gravedad de algunos delitos y un medio admisible, aunque extremo, para la tutela del bien común.
Hoy está cada vez más viva la conciencia de que la dignidad de la persona no se pierde ni siquiera después de haber cometido crímenes muy graves. Además, se ha extendido una nueva comprensión acerca del sentido de las sanciones penales por parte del Estado. En fin, se han implementado sistemas de detención más eficaces, que garantizan la necesaria defensa de los ciudadanos, pero que, al mismo tiempo, no le quitan al reo la posibilidad de redimirse definitivamente.
Por tanto la Iglesia enseña, a la luz del Evangelio, que «la pena de muerte es inadmisible, porque atenta contra la inviolabilidad y la dignidad de la persona» (Discurso del Santo Padre Francisco con motivo del XXV Aniversario del Catecismo de la Iglesia Católica, 11 de octubre de 2017), y se compromete con determinación a su abolición en todo el mundo.
Por supuesto que citamos estos textos en cuanto a su valor por las ideas que contienen en sí mismas, por su utilidad para una sociedad laica. Hoy que el progresismo ha llegado a extremos abolicionistas en materia penal, y que la ultraviolencia de narcos y bandas criminales vuelve a repuntar en varios países, hemos de considerar la conveniencia de, um, adelantar el juicio con Diosito para algunos: “mátenlos a todos, Dios reconocerá a los suyos”. Indudablemente estamos llegando a un “caso de extrema gravedad”; máxime cuando hay evidencia que el punitivismo funciona para reducir el crimen, como comentaremos mañana.
FEBRERO 2023
Reseña de La sociedad del mito, por Icare consultores
Cuando supe de su publicación y que los autores se dedican a la consultoría política [V.], picó mi interés: “¡Genial, pensé, conoceré algunas de las herramientas que usan en comunicación política!”. La entusiasta recomendación del mediático abogado Felipe Rodríguez [V.] terminó de decidirme.
Gran decepción. Pagué $20 por propaganda de los servicios que presta Icare. No hay ningún insight peculiar sobre el proceso electoral, sobre cómo influir en el electorado. Nada de herramientas, ni estudios de caso, ¡ni ejemplos, ni anécdotas!
El libro adolece de la farragosa redacción posmoderna común en “ciencias” sociales. Los autores construyen castillos verbales en el aire, con sólo una tenue conexión con la realidad; son “cientistas de sillón”: como si les dieran la misión de escribir mil palabras sobre un prompt, y ¡zas!, dale que dale a la manivela que produce palabras. Son palabras generando palabras. Un ChatGPT criollo y de mala calidad. Me temo que su excusa para escribir y publicar este bodrio, es poder citarse a sí mismos más adelante.
De ahí la profusión de adjetivos, y el “debe”: “la comunicación debe ser clara, directa, sencilla; porque si no, será ambigua, indirecta, compleja…”. Lugares comunes de sentido común, una wishlist de ideas biempensantes, una lista de compras política. Como escribirle a papá Noel una carta un niño que se dejara llevar, y lo pidiera todo.
Había pensado poner mi ejemplar a la venta en el mercado de segunda mano; pero no puedo hacerle ese daño al lector. Nadie merece ser torturado un par de horas leyendo esta monserga totalmente desprovista de condumio. Icare debería pagar por poner propaganda de los servicios que presta, no cobrar por ella.
Ojo: nomás aporreo este libraco; para nada me refiero a la calidad de los servicios que presta Icare, que desconozco.
Veredicto: 👎
ENERO 2023
Reseña de Todas las pruebas del fraude, de Juan Esteban Guarderas
Todas las pruebas del fraude, por Juan Esteban Guarderas, editado por El Comercio, octubre 2021.
Admiro la valentía con la que Guarderas dice los nombres de funcionarios y candidatos corruptos y que toleraban la corrupción. Afortunadamente para el autor, la poca cultura lectora hará que no corra mayor riesgo; dudo que los aludidos se hayan enterado, y si se enteran, no se han de molestar demasiado, por la misma razón: nadie lee nada, y los que leen, no tienen poder.
El libro reconoce pesimista que la corrupción es estructural, y que va más allá de las personas que en busca de trabajo están más que dispuestas a volverse “engranajes” de maquinarias corruptas.
Otro baldón para los burócratas: abjuran de su conciencia moral ―¡aquello que precisamente los vuelve humanos!― a cambio de un “sueldito”, una chambita burocrática.
Como sospechábamos, la “franquicia” del socialismo del siglo XXI incluye la “tecnología para ganar elecciones” del apagón informático, como cuenta en el prólogo un candidato de Bolivia. Asimismo la destrucción inmediata de la evidencia: urnas y votos, ¡zas!, convenientemente desaparecen, imposible probar el fraude y revertir los resultados.
Desalienta ver cómo la política se basa en los fait accompli pese al descarado fraude. Queda la esperanza que el karma se encargue de aquellos que privan al pueblo de su voluntad; tarde o temprano el elástico acabará rompiéndose o reaccionando al otro extremo, si se lo sigue tensando.
Dada la fragilidad de la memoria en estos lares, sí es importante que queden testimonios del fraude sistémico, aunque no sirva sino para ejercer el “derecho al pataleo”. Se los narra con lenguaje ágil, coloquial y ameno. Por ahí se han colado algunos gazapos.
Luego de la lectura, ha de concluirse con sobriedad que es imposible construir un sistema a prueba de gente inmoral. Por más que se añadan “checks and balances”, siempre los corruptos pueden, si no coludir expresamente, sí converger en hacerse de la vista gorda en la protección de sus intereses: los políticos, en garantizarse la impunidad; los funcionarios, en conservar “su puestito”; la autoridad de control, en no controlar nada, pues a nadie le interesa rock the boat.
Se indigna el autor por estar las instituciones llenas, no sólo de gente mala, sino peor aún de gente mediocre. Es menester aceptar que gente de poco talento e inteligencia, que lograron esos puestos por “palancas”, serán incapaces de mantener el sistema funcional, y ―de esto no tengo pruebas, pero tampoco dudas― son más propensos a la corrupción: si gente de bajo IQ de por sí ya tienen dificultades en entender abstracciones, relaciones causa-efecto etc., también tendrán dificultades para hacer juicios morales. En otras palabras: son corruptos sin ser conscientes de ello, el sistema está lleno de gente así, y es imposible diseñar un sistema a prueba de gente bruta: “you can’t fix stupid.”
No se puede sino concluir que el sistema no es salvable. Es irrecuperable. Necesariamente la democracia derivará en demagogia, sin stakeholders con skin in the game; ¿entendemos ahora por qué nuestros antepasados, más sabios, exigían pruebas de alfabetismo, un mínimo capital (que demuestre capacidad de ganarse la vida, y de pagar impuestos) y familia (que demuestra interés por conservar y proteger la sociedad, en vez de delirios revolucionarios)?
Hubiera apreciado más scoop de insiders en el CNE sobre el fraude informático de 2017. Muchos lo experimentamos de primera mano; apenas Cedatos anunció su exit poll, “convenientemente” el sistema “se cayó” hasta una hora después, apareciendo como ganador Lenin. Eso se ve reflejado en las innumerables quejas ese día en Twitter, y por el hecho que el propio CNE no subía a redes resultados parciales, sino hasta después de las 6pm. Por supuesto, nunca se auditó el sistema.
Y como siempre es recomendable terminar proponiendo algo constructivo, la solución será vaciar de poder al poder. Será desarrollado en un ensayo aparte, pero sin mayor problema podemos deshacernos de casi todas las estructuras estatales que hay, reemplazándolas con las municipales existentes: darles a alcaldes representación en una suerte de “asamblea nacional de alcaldes”, y ea, deshagámonos de CNE, la asamblea actual, prefectos, etc.
Lo mencionado ya se hizo con los concejos provinciales, que antes se elegían y ahora lo conforma una asamblea de alcaldes. Lo mismo ha de hacerse a una escala mayor.
Y como pueblo hemos de entender que no necesitamos ni de mesías ni de taumaturgos; es más, ni siquiera existen; sólo necesitamos ―y sólo podemos tener― un administrador que mantenga limpias las calles y funcionando los servicios públicos; todo lo demás depende de nosotros, y si pretendemos irracionalmente conjurar la escasez delegando estas tareas a políticos, sólo conseguiremos que tipos dark triad cuya única habilidad particular consiste en ganar elecciones, nos parasiten. ¡He dicho!
Veredicto: 👍👍👍
Otra prueba de existencia de Dios
…o por lo menos, de un “más allá”. Tim Pool [V.] dice que si crees que la "conciencia" no es sino un mero “epifenómeno” de los “impulsos eléctricos” que están en tu cavidad craneal, pues sabiendo que ellos no son sino una fracción infinitesimal de los "impulsos eléctricos" que existen en todo el universo, ¿no crees que esos “impulsos eléctricos” serían capaces de generar una conciencia ―o muchas conciencias― mucho mayores a la tuya ―hablamos de diferencias de magnitud de ameba a humano, y mucho más― y, ¿por qué no serían esas conciencias superiores capaces de crear cosas mucho más formidables que las maravillas que ha creado la conciencia humana? 🤯
DICIEMBRE 2022
Abundancia ilimitada, fin de la pobreza
Rondaba en mi cabeza ―por haberla leído por ahí un par de veces― la idea que el petróleo no se acabará, sino que se generaría constantemente en el manto terrestre por las condiciones peculiares que hay ahí. Es decir, no sería tanto “zumo de dinosaurio” como lo llaman en Visualpolitik, biomasa, sino fruto de procesos químicos naturales. Ya me parecía raro que tanto petróleo extraído proviniera de biomasa prehistórica.
Luego de la googleada de rigueur, hallo que ¡ya en 1995! [V.] geoquímicos ven que los depósitos de alguna manera “se llenan” a tasas similares a las que consumimos el hidrocarburo. Son capaces de medir “la edad” del petróleo que extraen: parte es joven, de tan sólo dos millones de años, pero otro proviene ¡de más de 150 millones de años atrás!
Personalmente me considero bien informado, pero ¿por qué recién oigo de esto, 27 años después?! Siempre he sido escéptico del alarmismo “verde”, no sólo por sus fallidas predicciones apocalípticas, sino porque la “solución” siempre es “darle más poder a políticos, burócratas y activistas”, gente demostradamente inútil. Pero datos como estos ―que quizá nunca lleguemos al “peak oil”― deberían difundirse más.
También con la tecnología que avanza seguro hallaremos formas más eficaces y económicas de explotar el creciente petróleo. ¡Y a eso añadámosle la fisión nuclear y/o alguna otra forma de energía masiva y barata, y el futuro se ve muy promisorio! Probablemente sea factible proporcionar recursos baratos a las masas para salir de la pobreza.
One format to transcode it all
Hoy en día cualquier celular graba vídeo en 1080p, que como vimos es la resolución usada en la pantalla grande. Asimismo monitores de alta calidad tienen esa resolución. Es de esperarse que usemos esa resolución para filmar los recuerdos familiares y los vídeos que subiermos a Youtube y demás plataformas.
Hasta ahora el mejor formato para almacenar vídeo es el h265, también denominado HEVC. Es sumamente rápido para hacer el transcoding como su predecesor el h264-AVC ―que el próximo año cumplirá 20, así que ya iba siendo hora de relevarlo― y logra archivos con la mitad del tamaño sin pérdida notable de calidad. Pero su problema de licencias onerosas ha impedido que sea adoptado por los navegadores; sólo podrás ver vídeo grabado en formato h265-HEVC con programas como mpv, y VLC.
El siguiente formato, VP9, lograba similares tasas de compresión, pero si bien tenía la ventaja de ser de código abierto y adopción por la mayoría de navegadores (salvo Apple Safari), su principal problema era que demoraba demasiado, y tenía demasiadas “moving parts” que complicaban su uso óptimo.
El sucesor de VP9, el formato AV1, ¡demoraba aún más tiempo!, en torno a a cien veces más que la duración del vídeo original ―en comparación, a h264-AVC frecuentemente le tomaba menos tiempo el transcoding que la duración del vídeo original― volviéndolo casi inútil por poco práctico. Una lástima, pues sí había sido adoptado por los navegadores (salvo el “único y diferente“ Safari).
Pero he aquí que con ciertos ajustes se logra velocidades similares a VP9 (tomará alrededor de 8 veces más que la duración del vídeo original) mientras nos podemos beneficiar de su mejorada capacidad de compresión: ffmpeg -i video-original.mp4 -c:v libaom-av1 -cpu-used 5 -row-mt 1 -tiles 4x4 -crf 30 -movflags +faststart -c:a libopus -b:a 64k video-resultante.mp4
Los parámetros -cpu-used 5 -row-mt 1 -tiles 4x4 permiten utilizar mejor la capacidad del procesador. Si te sale algún error, reduce los parámetros.
Si deseas aún más velocidad, añádele la opcíon -usage realtime y ahí sí lograrás probablemente que el transcoding tome menos tiempo que la duración del vídeo original. La compresión sin embargo será menos óptima y el archivo un 50% más grande.
El -crf 30 permite un sano compromiso entre calidad y compresión, logrando archivos pequeños sin apenas distorsión visible (artifacts) Si deseas mejor calidad, redúcelo; si deseas archivos aún más pequeños, auméntalo. Hasta 35 no se encuentra mayor diferencia en pérdida de calidad respecto a un vídeo x264.
Si tu vídeo tiene sólo voz, los parámetros -c:a libopus -b:a 64k serán suficientes, la voz se oirá nítida y ocupará menos espacio (¡hasta 32k puedes bajar sin mayor problema!). Si tienes música y no deseas perder calidad, probablemente convenga aumentarla a 96k o 128k.
También es importante que el vídeo origen no esté grabado con demasiada calidad! Sí, hay algo así como “demasiada calidad”. Si filmas con un bitrate demasiado alto ―digamos, 720p con 10Mbps o más― y con la configuración de la app eliminando suavizar el vídeo ―por ejemplo, filmando de noche vídeo grainy―, al encoder le resultará difícil reducir mucho el tamaño. Por eso, para vídeo en 1080p filma en 6Mbps; para 720p, 3Mbps, y luego de la edición, al comprimirlo probablemente puedas reducir su tamaño a casi la mitad.
Todo lo dicho aplica para los vídeos familiares filmados con celulares gama baja que uno usa 😅 Si tienes un celular de gama alta, o usas una cámara profesional, probablemente necesites mayor bitrate.
Todas las regiones son iguales, pero unas más iguales que otras.
Según El Comercio[V.] en la costa hay 22% más electores que la sierra. Me pregunto si eso se reflejará en la representación de la asamblea… Ya hemos de ver.
WTF happened in 2022?
No, el blog no está cerrado, ni tampoco se me secaron las ideas en el magín. De hecho estuve bastante activo, produciendo algunos vídeos sobre la cobí y otros temas que puedes ver en mi canal de Rumble.
Me di cuenta que ¡producir vídeos requiere bastante trabajo! También tuve algunas ideas sueltas compartidas ya en Tuírer y en chats familiares, que iré subiendo a este microblog.
Desperdicio de resolución y ancho de banda.
La mayoría de películas se proyecta en cines a alrededor de 1080p, y a menos que estés muy cerca de la pantalla, no verás los píxeles. ¿Por qué entonces la gente filma sus vídeos para Youtube a 4k? Si tienes una televisión tan grande como para que pueda mostrar esa resolución, de todas formas deberás sentarte lo suficientemente lejos de ella, y eso defeats the purpose. 1080p es el non plus ultra, la humanidad no necesita más. He dicho.
¿Cambio en el “chip” del votante ecuatoriano?
Rafael Correa terminó con una aceptación de su mandato de ~66%, pero sabía que perdería las elecciones venideras, pese a esa aceptación; en cambio presidentes como Lenin y Lasso, que tienen aceptación baja, sin embargo pueden mantenerse en el cargo, pues esa baja aceptación no significa que el pueblo esté dispuesto a derrocarlos con violencia, menos aún a la inestabilidad subsiguiente.
Prueba irrefutable que mayoría del pueblo no apoya la violencia política indígena, es que a diferencia de otras ocasiones, la clase media quiteña no salió a las calles a derrocar al presidente, ni a Lenin ni a Lasso. Si hubieran salido, necesariamente habrían caído los presidentes; pero más bien la clase media estaba encerrada, estupefacta ante tanta violencia irracional dirigida en su contra.
Ésa fue una línea roja que, ebria de entusiasmo, la extrema izquierda y la dirigencia indígena cruzaron dos veces. No es legítimo atacar a la población civil con fines políticos; ni siquiera en tiempo de guerra se acepta eso. Esos dirigentes irresponsables han creado hondas fisuras en la sociedad.
Eso también se nota en la aceptación a las preguntas de la consulta que quiere hacer Lasso: las preguntas teóricamente muestran el doble de aceptación que el propio presidente; lo cual indicaría que, por primera vez, el pueblo está en condiciones de analizar fríamente las cuestiones, en vez de dejarse llevar por el “UNGA BUNGA VOTA TODO NO PARA MOSTRAR RECHAZO” que ha demorado varias décadas ―recordemos la consulta de Sixto― tomar las decisiones necesarias.
Indios vs indios
En el último número de la Revista Diners, hay un buen artículo [V.] sobre el indígena Rodrigo Llambo, fundador de la cooperativa Chibuleo, y de donde podemos sacar algunas ideas para contextualizar más la cuestión indígena.
Cuenta: «mi padre nunca ha sido dirigente. Por eso es que nosotros no tuvimos ese respaldo o esa representatividad dentro de la comunidad, cosa que sí tenían los hijos de los líderes». Vemos que indígenas al interior de sus propias comunidades tienen estructuras de clase; ¿no deberían dirigir su militancia internamente primero, para demolerlas? Ah, a los dirigentes indígenas no les interesaría perder su ascendiente y poder.
«De hecho, cuando llegó el momento en que Rodrigo debió pasar a la secundaria, su padre se enfrentó a su comunidad. “Eso de estudiar es de vagos”. “Los verdaderos hombres no estudian, trabajan la tierra”. Eso y más tuvo que escuchar Hilario Llambo». Sin comentarios… Bueno, sí: soy partidario que cada quien estudie hasta el límite de su capacidad y deseos, pero esa actitud ―no sé si la conservarán aún, lo dudo― indudablemente es un ancla para esas comunidades, e imputable a nadie más que a ellos mismos.
Dice Llambo: «mi padre no escuchó las críticas de las personas de la comunidad y nos dio estudio … No conseguí trabajo y me tocó bajar a Ambato a vender periódico, porque mi padre ya no pudo pagar la universidad … tuve que aguantar la burla de la misma comunidad. Decían: “Elé, el Hilario hizo estudiar a sus hijos para que vayan a vender el periódico. Era mejor que les deje trabajando en el campo, porque cualquiera puede vender periódico“». Queda clara la actitud atrasapueblos imperante en las comunidades indígenas hace 20 años; seguro quedan resabios de ello en las generaciones mayores.
Pregunta la entrevistadora: «¿Continuaba en la dirigencia [estudiantil]?», y responde: «Sí, y ayudé a conseguir siete becas universitarias, pero se repartieron entre los hijos de los líderes y yo no pude aspirar a ninguna. Ahí me di cuenta que estaba en el lugar equivocado». Vemos claramente cómo la dirigencia indígena es con razón implacablemente criticada, como freno al desarrollo de su propio pueblo y como institución extractiva, parasitaria para sus propias comunidades.
Del resto del artículo nada qué objetar, admirable cómo pueblos que tienden a la acción colectivista-comunitaria son capaces a través de ella de lograr sus metas, y no tratando de extraer recursos a otros. Tienen la ventaja que tienden a una visión más a largo plazo que sociedades más individualistas, asimismo han de ser más resilientes…
En comparación, la sociedad típicamente occidental se muestra cortoplacista y más vulnerable a socavamiento.
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