This version has a mistake somewhere, but still worth seeing.

They remade the video:

It'll affect everyone.

Via Kottke.

Growing up, I always wanted to be in the heart of the city—a densely populated, well-connected place (which is why I moved to Singapore). But gradually, I’m starting to crave a quieter life… something more remote, peaceful, and slow-paced.

I’ve spent countless hours dreaming about living in a small town in the French Alps, a secluded village in Bali (away from the tourist spots), maybe on a boat, or nestled in a Norwegian fjord with a breathtaking view, perhaps a smaller town in French Brittany, or a tranquil town in New Zealand.

As romantic as the idea sounds, I’m not entirely sure I could actually go so far off the grid, away from airports and civilization. After all, our family is quite international, so we need to fly to visit—plus, my wife isn’t exactly on board with the idea right now 😅.

A few years ago, he read about imiquimod, a drug that, among other uses, is approved to fight one form of skin cancer and has shown promise against several more. Typically, imiquimod, which can help destroy tumors and usually comes in the form of a cream, is prescribed as a front-line drug as part of a broader cancer treatment plan, but Heman wondered if it could be made available more easily to people in the earliest stages of the disease. A bar of soap, he reckoned, might be just the delivery system for such a lifesaving drug, not just because it was simple, but because it would be a lot more affordable than the $40,000 it typically costs for skin-cancer treatment.

“What is one thing that is an internationally impactful idea, something that everyone can use, [regardless of] socioeconomic class?” Heman recalls thinking. “Almost everyone uses soap and water for cleaning. So soap would probably be the best option.”

Via: Kottke.

Q: Following the last few years I’m feeling empty and more cynical than ever. I’m losing faith in other people, and I’m scared to pass these feelings to my little son. Do you still believe in Us (human beings)?

A: [...] Unlike cynicism, hopefulness is hard-earned, makes demands upon us, and can often feel like the most indefensible and lonely place on Earth. Hopefulness is not a neutral position either. It is adversarial. It is the warrior emotion that can lay waste to cynicism. Each redemptive or loving act, as small as you like, Valerio, such as reading to your little boy, or showing him a thing you love, or singing him a song, or putting on his shoes, keeps the devil down in the hole. It says the world and its inhabitants have value and are worth defending. It says the world is worth believing in. In time, we come to find that it is so.

Via Kottke.

Source: Jom

Source: Kottke.

Seeing this makes me want to get one and keep it for Ila to play on when she's a bit older. I guess this is why every couple of months I go back to check Playdate and am tempted to get one (knowing very well I won't really play it much)...

Via Kottke.

Via Kottke.

Say what you want, but this doesn't look like a great place to live as humans...

Sand and rocks. Not the first thing I want in my garden, or to see on a daily basis across the entire planet... ;)

While spectacular to have these pictures, and we undoubtedly need to explore space -- we can't ignore our own home planet, Earth, and must do everything possible to stop and reverse what we're currently doing to it.

Via Kottke.

The pinnacle of running Doom on things™ ;)

Via Kottke.

Previously: Tattoo & the immune system

Just... Wow!

I’m sorry, but I don’t want to be an emperor. That’s not my business. I don’t want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone - if possible - Jew, Gentile - black man - white. We all want to help one another. Human beings are like that. We want to live by each other’s happiness - not by each other’s misery. We don’t want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone. And the good earth is rich and can provide for everyone. The way of life can be free and beautiful, but we have lost the way.

Greed has poisoned men’s souls, has barricaded the world with hate, has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed. We have developed speed, but we have shut ourselves in. Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical. Our cleverness, hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery we need humanity. More than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost…

The aeroplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in men - cries out for universal brotherhood - for the unity of us all. Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world - millions of despairing men, women, and little children - victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people.

To those who can hear me, I say - do not despair. The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed - the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress. The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people. And so long as men die, liberty will never perish…

Soldiers! don’t give yourselves to brutes - men who despise you - enslave you - who regiment your lives - tell you what to do - what to think and what to feel! Who drill you - diet you - treat you like cattle, use you as cannon fodder. Don’t give yourselves to these unnatural men - machine men with machine minds and machine hearts! You are not machines! You are not cattle! You are men! You have the love of humanity in your hearts! You don’t hate! Only the unloved hate - the unloved and the unnatural! Soldiers! Don’t fight for slavery! Fight for liberty!

In the 17th Chapter of St Luke it is written: “the Kingdom of God is within man” - not one man nor a group of men, but in all men! In you! You, the people have the power - the power to create machines. The power to create happiness! You, the people, have the power to make this life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure.

Then - in the name of democracy - let us use that power - let us all unite. Let us fight for a new world - a decent world that will give men a chance to work - that will give youth a future and old age a security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power. But they lie! They do not fulfil that promise. They never will!

Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people! Now let us fight to fulfil that promise! Let us fight to free the world - to do away with national barriers - to do away with greed, with hate and intolerance. Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men’s happiness. Soldiers! in the name of democracy, let us all unite!

Final speech from The Great Dictator Copyright © Roy Export S.A.S. All rights reserved

Previously: Animation vs Math

Source: Kottke

Grrr, I hate Shorts and videos in that aspect ratio.

Source: Daring Fireball

Via Kottke.

Via Kottke.

Fittingly, it’s almost been 10 years to the day I’ve posted about “Everything is a Remix”, and AI is no different.

Yes, it’ll affect us, yes, it’s learning from us, but we’re still the creators. And we’ve been doing the exact same.

Do you know the difference between ‘Best Before’ and ‘Sell By’? ‘Display Until’ and ‘Use By’?

Many of us don't, and it’s causing a whopping ten per cent of Europe’s food waste - 9,000,000 tonnes across Europe each year.

Source: TooGoodToGo

[...]

Shoots from the base of the tree are pruned so that the trunk stays straight.

[...]

The technique results in a harvest of straight logs without having to cut down the entire tree. Although originally a forestry management technique, daisugi has also found its way into Japanese gardens.

Daisugi

Not the most exciting narrators, but… Quite cool!

Would this scale and can we use this elsewhere to avoid cutting down trees?

Source

Having been fortunate enough to have seen quite a few parts of the world, and having been in Singapore for 6 years now -- I've been able to start comparing places and looking at the "where next" question.

With Ila on the way, both as a parent and if I were a kid still -- where would I want to grow up?

Growing up wasn't a fan of Grimbergen because it was quite dull (but then again, it was very close to Brussels, and easily connected to Antwerp): I wanted a city, and that's why I moved to Antwerp (and later Singapore).

Yet, now that I also value quality of life, Singapore is not very high on that list either. There's an insane pressure on kids to be top of class and to perform, limited to no safe outdoor activities unless you live in a place with a pool/tennis court (everything else feels fake, you can't get dirty as a kid), the lack of ownself transport methods (bike, skateboard, etc) to go to school/friends (public transport rocks, but that's never as convenient as a bike for short distances).

I'm currently having mixed feelings between the big house in a quiet neighbourhood (not Suburbia, but something more like Finland/Norway outside of cities, with a forest, next to your home) vs. being in a city like Copenhagen.

While I would love to being closer to nature, I'd probably miss the benefits of the city life (like being close to an airport -- we need to visit Belgium and Singapore after all, take-away food, quick and easy shopping, more friends/school options, a cinema, etc).

By the way, Johan has a good blog about living off-grid -- which is a bit too extreme for me.

A city like Amsterdam or Copenhagen is probably a safer choice: less green, but easy and safe to get around as a pedestrian/biker, while still being in relative distance of nature or an escape out of the city.

And no, I won't head back to Brussels; it's a terrible for kids. It's the wild west, where cars rule and the police won't act.

Ghent and Antwerp are investing in car-free zones and making it pedestrian friendly, but I hate Antwerp's lack of greenery (many beautiful trees are cut, everything is stone and concrete and feels like death. Moreover, it's one big traffic jam due to lack of a sustainable solution to keep the cars out).

Oh, and I got myself a Halfbike. So I'll definitely be looking at places with biking lanes. ;)

Had quite an interesting Career Growth training from LifeLabs Learning. One of the things that came up was the Trust Equation.

They go into more details for each part of the equation:

(Source)

The market for table saws is $200-400 million but they cause almost $4 billion in damage annually. Power tools companies aren’t liable for the damage, which is borne by individual users, workers comp, and the health system.

Kottke

The wondrous (tiny) world of plankton.

Phytoplankton (small plant-like cells) are producing half of all oxygen on earth by photosynthesis, like plants and trees do on land. Zooplankton are forming the base of the food chain of aquatic life. Plankton are also playing an important part in the global carbon cycle. The plankton are threatened by climate change, global warming and acidification of the oceans.

(Source)

Probably my favourite YouTube channel.

My poor parents sent me to a school outside the system, where people like me are put by worried parents to get any sort of degree. And there I had one teacher, an older lady, probably in her 60s, and my God I was afraid of her. I was 17 and ready to be a disturbance to everybody, and her method of teaching was basically to scream at you. She was teaching history, but she made stuff so interesting! And I distinctly remember sitting in her class being screamed at by her, and it hitting me: “Wow, this is so cool!”

It was like: “Hey, if you present stuff differently, it becomes fascinating!” And I hope with Kurzgesagt that I can create these moments for as many people as possible, this spark moment.

[...]

You had cancer at 32. How did that inform your interest in immunology?

It definitely strengthened it, because cancer is an immune-system failure, in a sense. It’s weird to say, but it was genuinely one of the most interesting experiences of my life. So, for example, the chemotherapy was working too well at some point and I basically didn’t have an immune system at all. Then I got some special drugs and my immune system bounced back so hard that I could have got cancer again. It was genuinely super-interesting.

A weird way of thinking about cancer, but love the curiosity. ;)

Do read the entire interview by The Guardian, and be sure to buy the book (getting it as a Christmas gift for myself).