MPJ

"It is unwise from some interstellar species to give us technology to leave the Earth - chances that we would use it for star wars are bigger than we would go the next level and use it for peaceful exploration of solar system and beyond." - What is Intelligent Life? As promised in my last post story about one grim political view of the last forgettable year , please behold another glimpse to the humanity from another angle. Let's move today from raw reality to the reality-inspired fiction and make a little peek into three science-fiction masterpieces. Two of them, product of current almost expired year, that if you ask me, are making this forgettable year, well, little less forgettable. But before Daniel Abraham's and Ty Franck's "Babylon's Ashes", sixth book of The Expanse and "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story", Star Wars sequel, I think this is a perfect moment for me to start the review with another classic, in the most genuine meaning of ...

Some years are more memorable than others and there's no doubt that this is one of those subjective feelings if we are looking to the past solar cycle from individual point of view. Some are forgettable and disappointing by using the same perspective. If I had to judge about 2016, I would say its one of those forgettable ones. Perhaps not really because of what happened badly or poorly during past twelve months but rather of what didn't happen again. Perhaps it was me, who once again made a mistake and had higher expectation from the humanity and ended in sort of letdown once more. Obama & Medvedev at Ray's Hell Burger in 2010 Actually if we want to get into disappointment fast, it's easy, the only thing we need to do is to have a glimpse or two to the worldwide politics and worldwide affairs. But it wasn't always like that. Every now and again we got ourselves into illusion that things can be perfect, or better to say the least. Ever since Barack Obama...

Do you like stories or movies with dystopian premise in the background? I do. It's simple. They feel extremely real and believable and reflect the very possible future of nowadays societies throughout the world. In some of those worldwide cultures this is reality now. Just check the news feed from the middle east or glimpse couple of images from devastated cities ruled by unknown people with covered faces and guns in their arms and you will understand what I am trying to say. Anyway, generally and even though I maintain post-apocalyptic thread on the blog, I don't really like all those stories with zombies or vampires or pandemic virus strains capable of turning the entire human race into horror. They don't seem plausible to me for many reasons I tried to explain before*. However, believable dystopia is another thing entirely and the story that perfectly represents it on multiple levels is Dan Haight's "Pac Fish" series with first book I recently read, called...

It's simple really. Nothing is wrong with it. Society, like anything else created by our social behavior, is following human evolution ever since we started living together within small and functionally organized communities. In the beginning there was a simple need for this - it was impossible for just one man to hunt down one, for example, mammoth or to defend a family from the herd of prehistoric saber-tooth tigers and the only solution was to get together and organize a little for the mutual benefit. Not to mention everlasting need for prolonging the species which also required, sort of, well, socializing with a member of opposite gender. Mammoth hunt and prehistoric society* We can only wish that things are as simple as it was millenniums before. If we disregard the fact that socializing in order to save the species didn't change much from the times where humans shared the habitat with mammoths, all other aspects of one human society, due to the thousands of years...

Have you ever been in situation to answer somebody's question with 'Yes and No'? Well, it is definitely one of those answers they are teaching politicians to answer every time they need to use some evasive maneuvers in order to avoid discussions they don't want to get into. But in this case, the answer to the question from the title, or expanded a little with: "Are you really behind the wheel of your body?" is really 'Yes and No'. And nothing could be closer to the truth. The keyword is of course Parasitology, a very complex scientific research that is trying to understand properly all the macro and micro organisms who can't live without other living beings and usually do that without their consent and rather use them to live their entire or partial life which in most cases leads to host's malfunction, to use raw mechanical word. They only leave hosts in case of their death or if the host's environment is exploited to the level of uselessne...

I read a little while ago an article by one of the pretty well-known Serbian filmmaker, which was also known by couple of rewards from Cannes and other European movie festivals from the past. His article was titled with "How's gonna start the third world war" and even though I hinted what it might be inside I started reading it expecting something rational and smart. To be honest, I couldn't read it to the end due to the feeling that my intelligence was started being insulted not too far away from the intriguing title. You can find the link below if you are really eager to read it, but in the nutshell, this is one of those stories made by the guys who lost their compass on the way and think they know everything better than the others. In the article, when he started accusing Hollywood industry in general for taking the role of new cold war propaganda machinery, I couldn't get rid of the image from the past when he was wearing a tuxedo on several occasions eagerly ...

Do you ever wonder why we work like we work? Why working time lasts those eight hours and why takes the best part of the day? Who made it this way? And why? It all started with industrial revolution in early 19th century which culminated into real nightmare for most of workers, especially in large factories, where long working hours were mandatory and kept people outside their homes all day long. The working day was 10 to 16 hours, six days a week and not only for adults. Use of children was cheap and preferable. Deaths and illnesses from exhaustion were common and it was cruel and inhuman. Eventually, the nightmare spread from workers toward capitalists as well, in form of rise of social movement with Robert Owen's famous slogan " Eight hours labour, eight hours recreation, eight hours rest ". Well, today, almost two centuries later, we now live, more or less, in Owen's vision, work around eight hours per day and enjoy our lives during the work or after. Or bot...

The most memorable part of my life is of course the childhood, especially the part from the point when I learned to read until the middle teen years - for me it was the period of life when empty bucket in my head rapidly started to fill itself with every information it stumbled everywhere possible. When I look to that period from today's point of view what comes to mind first is that it was technology free time. The state of the art technology of the time was color TV set with only two programs with broadcasting ending around 9pm. Radio stations were at the peak of their popularity with small handheld AM receivers and only few owned a FM receiver with crystal clear sound - that is if you don't move quickly to avoid noise. Communication device of the time was heavy pulse telephone set that required a hard table with special place in the house. But I don't connect my childhood with technology gadgets of the time. Not at all, what it pops to my mind now is a big cherry ...