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Cyberpunk of Altered Carbon

In almost all Cyberpunk masterpieces in literature, comics, movies, games or whatever media exposure we think of when it comes to this genre, the settings is familiar. Dark atmosphere in both social and technological aspect of the story with dystopian surroundings and thin distinguished line between all characters within, no matter whether they are good or bad. I can't tell exactly why, but despite all the prosaic backgrounds and used stereotypes, I actually like this literary movement, perhaps because of the fact that people can't be really divided into good and bad per se. We all are combination of all possible adjectives out there and their summary is what makes us what we are. Actually, this is more accurate and closer to the truth compared to the "normal" or "usual" fiction with its ordinary hero-villain relations and idealized characters. Of course, like in any other genre, there are many poor and unmentionable works but also couple of those masterpiec...

FM or TV?

This year and especially during the next one is one major anniversary - 70 years after the second worldwide war ended. In the second part of 1944, third Reich ultimately started to collapse and German soldiers with their allies began to withdraw from occupied territories, toward the last days in April back in 1945 when Hitler committed suicide and toward officially surrender of German army week later. In the aftermath, couple of months after May 8th, the War finally ended with devastating and completely unnecessary dropping of two nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Nuclear weapon test at Bikini Atoll, Micronesia, on 25 July 1946. Looking to it from this distance, these very two bombs, immediately after the war, initiated the race between major developed countries in fast developing technology in both military and civil environments within various sciences. Especially within military. If we look into the history of wars and even before 20th century, the winner of any war w...

Dave Allen

There is a debate about origin of the famous "heaven and hell" quote dating way back in 19th century and after little research maybe republican Benjamin Wade formulated it best: "I think, from all I can learn, that heaven has the better climate, but hell has the better company." There are similar sayings by others like Mark Twain and Peter Pan's father, James M. Barrie but if you research it deeper all the credits actually belong to Niccoló Machiavelli who said on the topic exactly this: "I desire to go to Hell, not to Heaven. In Hell I shall enjoy the company of popes, kings and princes, but in Heaven are only beggars, monks, hermits and apostles". Maybe to understand better roman catholic church and its influence in dark ages where both Niccoló Machiavelli and Leonardo da Vinci shared one of the best place to live for free thinkers in 15th century Republic of Florence, the best is to start watching the great TV show called "Da Vinci's Demon...

Science Fiction

Do you remember Sony's first cassette-based Walkman that was remarkably playing stereo audio magnetic tapes back in 80s? Yes, everybody had it at the time hanged on the belt with pair of shiny wires playing music directly to both ears in awesome stereo. Comparing to 21st century, who doesn't like the iPod, right? Well, not me. I never liked it and I always thought everybody was staring at me the moment I stepped out the house. Even today I am not using any mp3 players or iPods or smartphones for listening music on the go. I simply want to think while walking, it relaxes me and it's a great brain exercise. But let me get back to the Walkman of the 80s. I had couple of those as well, but on occasions when I carried one from home to school I wasn't listening the pop music. I had that one audio cassette with complete audio track from the movie "Star Wars" and I am not talking about sound track accompanies the movies - it was the audio of the complete film, ...