This is a post in the Belgian beer review series.
Chocolate caramel colour. Bouquet of blueberry toffee. Creamy but not mushy head. Intial taste of bitter trappist, later becomes softer, gitst of saaristoleipä initially, then notes of blueberry, cream and honey. Awesome experience, great beer. No wonder it is regarded as the best beer in Belgium and probably the world.
Robert J. Sawyer, one of my favourite sci-fi authors (moderately famous now that his novel Flashforward has been adapted as a TV series of the same name) scored another coup with his latest novel. I won’t spoil it for you, but it touches upon how it is to live with blindness, Chinese censorship of the WWW and emerging consciousness. The good news is that it’s the first of a trilogy to be completed in the next couple of years, so I’ll be gladly waiting for more.
Chances are if you were born after1980 like countless others (including yours truly) you are marveled, intrigued and annoyed by the way older people see you, your habits and your value systems. You understand (but don’t always sympathize with) the way your elders understand technology and the web… or don’t. You are used to have the TV on at the same time as your music player while you read a book, browse the web and have friends coming over. For you video games are as much a social experience as a way to relax and pass away time, and there is no way you would look at them as “The Big Satan”. If you’re already working, you might have a hard time adjusting to hierarchies, but are a diligent team worker and require honesty from the company that employs you.
If you want to get a broader perspective of why these characteristics set you apart from your elder peers, or if on the other hand you are looking inside these brats’ fenced garden see how it all came to this 😉 this is the book you want to read.
Finally had a chance to start watching Battlestar Galactica after having only seen the miniseries and I have to say it is some of the best TV and Sci-fi I have ever seen. The character depth, the plot and the number and seriousness of the issues tackled are simply astounding, and production is also very glossy and visually appealing.
Without spoiling much of the plot, one of the many themes tackled throughout the series is the desire of artificial constructs to become human (and acting “more Catholic than the Pope” in the process) so they can assimilate into human communities. There’s a link to the relationship between immigrants and their host societies there somewhere… 😉
You’ve probably seen the ads if you watch the Beeb or CNN: a dreary-postindustrialised world in CGI that is thoroughly transformed into a tree-hugger paradise when Sean Connery pronounces the magic words “Back to common sense, it’s time for green banking” in that lovely Scottish accent of his.
I’m terribly sorry to say this but if you don’t explain to me properly why would I believe you as a bank stand for sustainable development and a reduced carbon footprint, even if I have no chance of becoming your retail customer I’d say you’re full of it (and quite some people agree). These are the kinds of campaigns that give marketing a bad name, really.
Found this Salitos pseudo-Mexican beer in the shelves of my local supermarket. After a little bit of googling found out it is produced in Germany by a company that has nothing to do with Latin America at all. This is the kind of marketing that I absolutely abhor: when companies find a market niche they try to fill by being something they’re not. This kind of misleading advertising worked before people had access to information, now with the net everybody can see if the emperor has no clothes.
Spent a few days in Turkey for work so didn’t have that much time to visit the city. I was able to take a couple of good shots, though.
chat roulette from Casey Neistat on Vimeo.
The video above (via alt1040) explains Chatroulette better than I would. My experience with it has been mixed, but it reminds me a lot of the old BBS/ICQ free-for-all 10 years ago. I’ve read metaphors comparing it to TV zapping with people, but I think it’s more akin a people player in shuffle mode. Some of the nice people I’ve found (after nexting all the flying male body parts) included:
Serendipituous, yes. Extreme, sometimes (but you can also next them or even better report them, jerks!). An interesting study of the human condition, absolutely.
Continuing with the theme of the previous post, RTVE published a documentary where they interviewed 12 Spanish families resident in Germany, Poland and Finland and asked them of their experiences in what has been described as the coldest winter in northern Europe in years. Funnily enough, one of the families they chose are good friends of mine.
You can watch it (in Spanish) in their website here.
