Thursday, September 18, 2014

Infinite subject

Well this is very interesting video. How muslim organisations connected with terrorist groups? They support their agenda. And this is a very good point in conversation when they bring thing about good and bad islamists. Here is apparent contradiction, at one point person says that we represent good islam (so we against terrorism), but at the same time support terrorist organisations. My feeling that reason for those two opposite points of view existing in one head is basic antisemitism.

This girl, in the video, will never condemn Hamas not because she likes terrorism and kill infidels  (I would guess she's pretty liberal person), but she'll never do that because she doesn't like Israel and jews in particular, and Hamas fights them. So Hamas doing a good thing.



Sunday, June 1, 2014

Lab Printer

Apart from the fact that majority of printers (my personal opinion, all) have shity drivers, when it comes to lab printers human factor adds up. 

Typical case is that there is no paper in printer, so whenever you try to print something it gives you message "No paper". After that you must perform a certain ritual. Put a draft paper in the machine and return to your computer. Firstly, you have to deal with drivers (it does not update it's status very quickly), so even though paper is in printer it's still shows "No paper" or something like "assistance required". In that case disconnect internet on your computer and connect it again. It will force drivers to check printer's status immediately.

This was software's factor. Now about lab people's involvement. Remember draft paper at the beginning? As long as printer gets paper and you hit start button it will never, NEVER, print your stuff first. I don't remember a case when I put paper in the printer and it prints my stuff right away. Sometimes, if you put enough paper, it can print couple of forgotten and abandoned journal articles. So, you need couple of draft sheets to see what it will print first. But usually it's only a few pages (you know, those which have only header and page number). I guess, usually people put just enough paper to print important stuff but still hit "print all". Or realize at the end that they miss one or two pages, but after certain consideration (laziness) decide that they don't need them after all and these ghost pages continue to dwell in printer until somebody release them. 

So, after you print ghost page (or pages) hit cancel button to kill all remaining ghost pages in printer (you never know how many; if first printed page has title on it, it is a bad sign). Then you have to repeat ritual with disconnecting internet (only if printer will show "no paper" status, and it definitely will). After that, when status is "Ready" and you killed all ghost pages you can put good paper in it to print your stuff, but just enough to print only your stuff (because you don't want suffer alone). 

ENJOY!

P.S. Sometimes you can find personal information of your lab mates on those lost ghost pages. In that case you might want to add more draft paper in the machine. So you can be aware not only about professional interests of your colleagues. To clear your consciousness consider it as team building initiative.


Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Monday, May 5, 2014

Toronto Year


Considering past and upcoming events year 2014 certainly deserves to be declared as year of Toronto. To be honest I really start to get in love with the city, though still staying a big Ottawa enthusiast.


Thursday, May 1, 2014

Birthday

Accidently closed all opened tabs. Now Chrome opens with blank page and mailbox. Some tabs were there for few years. Some I never open, some use quite often.
I guess I have the same feeling now, like if I would quit my job, moved to a new place and started a new life. On a bright side this is, probably, what you have to feel on your birthday.

Monday, April 28, 2014

Children 404


ДЕТИ 404 трейлер | CHILDREN 404 trailer from Children 404 on Vimeo.

People who were at premier of this movie, week ago in Moscow, were locked in theatre by the police. Outside, the building was surrounded by aggressive religious/conservative/fascist* activists. All of them were looking for kids in audience (all who below 18). Because now, if they find some, they can legally charge those who in charge of show in "gay propaganda to minors".

I never was myself kid 404, but surprisingly this movie become a little more personal to me. Pasha who tells all those "nice" stories about bullying, all of them happened in the same High school I was attending before getting into undergrad. More of it, one of my classmates from undergrad years she now become a teacher in that school. When I first read article in TheNewTimes about this guy and realized that all these happened in my school I immediately showed her this article and asked about her thoughts. To be short, her reply was that she against bullying**, but all what happened was Pasha's fault, he shouldn't have been showing off. "Show off" in that case meant that he came out and everybody knew he was gay, and that he was involved in extracurricular LGBT rights protection activities.

This "don't show off" basically motto of majority of russian gays, not just general public. People say to gays "Just don't show off and nobody will touch you. You can do whatever you want in bed or gay club". Most of LGBT's agree, "Yes, we don't need prides, we have everything we need, nobody discriminates us because we gay. Just don't show that you're gay". Year after year I hear this from many russian gays, be silent and everything will be fine. But year after year it's getting worse and worse.

World premier is April 28th in Toronto during HotDocs festival.

*There is pretty much no difference in attitude within these three.
**Important remark. There is no direct translation to word "bullying" in Russian. Concept of "school bullying" is not comprehended yet. And it concerns bullying in general, not only toward LGBT teens. 
So, in my actual conversation there was no word bullying, there was just empty space, sometimes filled with descriptive sentences. 

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Heart feelings

Your heart is responsible for your emotions and empathy. So, feeling with your heart apparently turned to be quite literal.

This is a nice poster describing the work.

Couto B, Salles A, Sedeño L, Peradejordi M, Barttfeld P, Canales-Johnson A, Dos Santos YV, Huepe D, Bekinschtein T, Sigman M, Favaloro R, Manes F, Ibanez A.
The man who feels two hearts: the different pathways of interoception.
Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2013


Thursday, April 17, 2014

Looking for age category

After we checked several episodes, one thing which continuously irritate us is ridiculously childish behaviour of characters. They behave as they were 20 years old guys, with all their luck of social experience and tons of complexes. 
So, question is why authors decided to put guys, who by they behaviour, look like they just graduated from college in to the skin of  after-30 age category people?

So I and Greg speculated a few ideas. These are few, in my opinion, equally plausible ones.
1. Originally script was written about guys who in their 20es. So some of them young, just graduated and found job in gaming industry and some already reached 30 but still couldn't find themselves and he continues to work as waiter. 
But one nice morning, after script was done and ready to roll, say, producer came and said that now show must aim to older age category, so we need to make characters older. And they just did.
Maybe, in general, it is a good idea, to aim for after-30-age, though I have no clue why. But in that case you just need to write a new script. 

2. From another perspective everything was done as it was planed in the beginning. In that case all characters were dumbed down. I think it's pretty usual trick used in TV melodramas and soap operas. Purpose is simple, viewers should feel themselves smarter than tv characters. 
So you making show for people after 30, but putting all character's behaviour as if they were socially less experienced, what makes everyone feel a bit better. Problem here is that average level of viewers is pretty low, that's why sometimes deeds of characters in the show look more like some what of a school kid.

3. Or maybe I'm just misanthropic snob.

Friday, January 10, 2014

Peter Boghossian

Don't use unreliable processes
Don't use unreliable processes
Don't use unreliable processes

Saturday, January 4, 2014

Habana

Ну в общем съездили мы на Кубу на рождество, но вдохновения писать особого нет, поэтому тезисно и обрывисто

Первое это конечно Совок. Не то чтобы совсем в отрицательном смысле, скорей ностальгическом и забавном. По сравнению с тем, что я знаю он тут довольно вегетарианский. Хотя конечно радости коммунисты никому не приносят, все терпеливо ожидают когда же это все кончится.

Люди в целом тут хорошие, контактные. Отношение к иностранцам особенно хорошее. В том смысле, что иностранцы тут главный источник денег, поэтому их в общем не обижают. То есть по сравнению с грабежом есть более простые, "сравнительно честные способы отъема денег"(с). Для примера, при том что средняя зарплата тут в районе 20 долларов, эту сумму можно тупо на попрошайничать за день. Но этим мало кто занимается, в основном предлагают различные услуги.
Ну а так, по уровню открытости и доброжелательности местные дадут фору и канадцам и русским. Поскольку канадцам не хватает открытости, а русским доброжелательности. Впечатление очень приятное и это при том, что оно было бы еще лучше знай я испанский.


Плохо со связью, особенно с интернетом. Для местных домашний телефон до сих пор роскошь, а интернета дома ни у кого нет. Вру, местные тут поделились инсайдом, что кубинское правительство уже много лет укрывает тетку которая бежала из Штатов, потому что там ее преследуют за то, что она очень активно состояла в Черных Пантерах. Так вот, у нее дома интернет есть, правда говорят уж очень медленный. А для остальных сеть только у юр лиц, университетов, гос учреждений и специальных публичных интернет кафе.  Поэтому было забавно наблюдать как народ ходит с компами к месту с интернетом, чтоб чего-нибудь загрузить. То есть мероприятие на уровне сходить в магазин.


Первым пунктом нашей программы был город-курорт Варадэро. Не то, чтобы занимательное место, отели да пляжи. При том, что если пляжи хорошие, то отели типические советские гостиницы. Обшарпанные, с запахом плесени и столовкой. По общим впечатлениям место не очень бодрое. Главным образом для унылого офисного планктона, коего тут скапливается огромное количество.  Короче, народ тут перемещает свои телеса от отеля на пляж и обратно, а вечером в кабак, и так неделю. Если вам нравится такой формат отдыха, лучше места не найти. Наши гиды правда говорили, что культурная жизнь в Варадэро иногда бывает интересной. Врать не буду не знаю, всего один день и тот не полный.



Вторым пунктом у нас была Гавана. Самое первое впечатление это то, что евростандарт на выхлоп это отличная вещь. В городе, из-за всех этих старых машин, безумно воняет смогом. А в дополнение ко всему еще и куревом. Курят везде. Это кстати первый запах, который бьет в нос сразу после выхода из аэропорта. И не стоит думать, что это будет запах благородных сигар. Курят тут обычные вонючие сигареты, ничем от московских не отличающихся, та же сера в бумажке. Сигары тут курят только туристы и пожилые люди.

Дома это конечно отдельная тема, в следующий раз напишу. Но просто в качестве иллюстрации мне нравится фото внизу. Часто, если заглянуть в открытую дверь, можно увидеть не убранство дома в привычном понимании, а как бы маленький дворик, в который выходи множество дверных проемов и арок.

Сказали, что это памятник св. Франциску и тому как крестил индейцев. Но первое, что пришло в мой развращенный ум когда я увидел эту статую, это скандалы по развращению несовершеннолетних католическими священниками. О времена, о нравы.

А это местный аналог Царь-пушки. Тоже говорят никогда не стреляла.

Ну и просто виды Гаваны.





Продолжение следует. Напишу про Касы и отели, деревню, общение с местными и природу.