for the rationale: "nonzero, the logic of human destiny" by robert wright.
"the more the universe seems comprehensible, the more it also seems pointless." – steven weinberg.
while tony blair got inspired by thornton wilder's book "the bridge of san luis rey" (and the guardian explains why), i was thinking about another of wilder's plays, "the skin of our teeth" (dt. "wir sind noch einmal davongekommen").
therein, wilder "depicted five thousand years in the lives of george and maggie antrobus, a suburban new jersey couple, who, with their children gladys and henry and their maid sabina, struggle through flood, famine, ice, and war only to begin the series all over again" (quoted from pegasos).
on the one hand, this illustrates how knee-deep mankind had and has to wade through the morass of history's desasters as well as of self-inflicted odds and ends; fighting merciless struggles for bare existence in a world of the unknown. on the other hand, the plot certainly arouses hope for every human being that no matter what will come, there still remains a view and a path to the future – at least for the species as a whole...
"it's when you're safe at home that you wish you were having an adventure. when you're having an adventure you wish you were safe at home." -- thornton wilder, 1897–1975.
thttpd is a simple, small, portable, fast, and secure http server.
Q33NY, yeah, yeah... "towers" – or what do you call these sheets of paper again, used to store writing?
however, this way i found out that google can find street maps (at least in the us of a).
telepolis: "vom kommenden jahr an sollen deutschlands raucher nämlich pro zigarette etwa vier pfennig mehr zahlen. ein betrag, der dann komplett und millionenfach dem schutz unseres landes vor terroristischen angriffen zufließt".
interesting connections also in the accompanying picture. i was not aware of the oriental motif on that very cigarette package...
"the top sample sources list ranks the most popular movies, tv-series and other similar kinds of sample sources based on how frequently spoken lines from these sources have been sampled and used in some sort of musical context".
vskm: der richtige titel für jede gelegenheit.
about.com: "the plane that crashed into the empire state building" (via the cardhouse).
history revisited.
yesterday i watched tv while the cleaned floor was drying (cleaning-up is always a good way to distract myself). two stations showed "saving private ryan" and "platoon". was this just by chance or was it by moral purpose, to deter the retiliation fanatics from war with so-called anti-war movies? another channel broadcast the not less gory voodoo thriller angel heart and i switched through many action movies with a lot of shooting and high "bodycount" (as the lethal poets say). could be that this was and is just the normal tv programme, i am no tv junkie at all (but don't take my word for it). however, to me it appeared as incredible contrast to the grief marathon of the last six days.
peter stettner: "anmerkungen zu dem problem eines antikriegsfilms".
the interview i gave last wednesday is availble as mp3 et. al. at fm4. gosh, just speaking about technical circumstances... but it's edited very nicely.
there is also a pointer to chuck d's weblog: "i was talking to my assistant a couple of months back, and while we were talking about the obvious differences in men and women, i had to give up and say that men couldn't handle the period cycle that women go through. she countered and told me men do have periods... they're called 'wars'".