Homo Deus

Homo Deus: A History of Tomorrow by Yuval Noah Harari
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Homo Deus - means Man God.
I found it quite interesting - the author of the book declares himself an atheist and many times mentions that God does not exist.
So what about Man God - does he/she exist only in half?
The book reflects quite well this incompatibility of ideas used in the title.
Firstly the author tries to summarize all dimensions of human being in few hormones and DNA connections. They all can be easily controlled and ensure eternal biological life in total happiness.
Basically it exhausts the subject of the book so it could have been finished after the first chapter.
For some reason author continues the story for another 10 chapters and comes to a conclusion - there is no reason for further existence of humans.
Quite logical - if the is no God then there is no space for Homo Deus.


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The Mother

The Mother by Jane Caro
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I admired Jane's Caro books about Queen Elisabeth I, so this book was bit of a shock.
From the very beginning I did not feel comfortable in the company of characters presented in the book. 

Firstly - childhood of Miriam, then her constant concern with her own feelings and behaviour. Even her marriage to Pete looked a bit unclear to me.
Then marriage of Ally and Nick. Firstly I could not visualize how they met each other, he was a vet working all days in a small town far away from Sydney. Then - duality of Nick's character.
I got impression that the author was building artificial characters just to satisfy the scenario she prepared for them.
I stopped reading when I found the story going into cruelty, horror and too many legal details.

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Cafe Scheherezada

Cafe Scheherazade by Arnold Zable
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Actually my rating is 3.5.

Stories of people from Poland and Ukraine who tried to escape the German war machine. Many of them expected  a rescue in the Soviet Union, but it appeared to be not a better option.

Eventually they travelled around the world and ended in Australia.

There are 2 dimensions of my reflection about this book.
Firstly I have great respect for people whose stories are told in this book and I acknowledge skills of the author.
Secondly however, as a reader, I had trouble of sorting out all the facts of few parallel, extremely complicated, life stories.
I found a couple of links with facts about The Scheherazade in Acland St in Melbourne:

Link 1 
Link2


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Recitatif

Recitatif: A Story by Toni Morrison
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I noticed this book in a Large Print section of my local library and picked it up because it was short.
I skipped the Introduction, read it and my first impression was: where is the story?
Luckily it was pretty short, 51 pages in Large Print, so I could not complain about wasted time.
To fill the saved time I looked into the Introduction - lxiii pages of it, which translates to 63.
Now I understood that there are 2 crucial aspects of this book:
- firstly, it is the only short story of this author.
So what???
- secondly, one of the girls admitted to the orphanage - Twyla - makes a comment that the other girl was of different race and that she smelled funny.
So what???
Zadie Smith, the author of the Introduction, explained - one of them was BLACK!.
On Goodreads page I noticed that on the front pages of some editions there are images of white and black faces.
Probably it is right because otherwise I would not remember the initial mention that girls were of different races because in the book, the girls meet each other 4 times, in different circumstances and there is no hint that anybody noticed their race nor that it affected in any way their life, their family or career.
And that is as it should be.
So - what is all that fuss about?

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Bila Yarrudhanggalanghuray

Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray by Anita Heiss
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

A very sad book about disoriented and misplaced people.
It managed also to confuse me a lot.

It starts with father and daughter watching white people building homes.
Daughter observes: "...they are making their own homes like ours but they will not be moved on, not like us..."

Homes like ours - unfortunately the book does not say a word about living conditions of Aborigines, about their homes. They mostly sleep under a clear sky, there is one or two mentions about collecting tree bark to build some shelter.

The book also does not say much about homes of white people, but they look messy.
When the flood comes and the family has to escape to the attic, it appears that the entrance is over a dining table and there is no ladder at home.

Warning - the following text is a spoiler!

The main character - Wagadhaany - is a young Aboriginal girl working as a servant for family of Bradleys. They are Catholics which maybe suggests an Irish origin.
How come she became a servant?
It looks like most of her tribe, her whole family, are living freely on the outskirts of Gundagai. She misses them awfully. She is allowed to visit them quite often, but still, most of the time she is longing for them and for their lifestyle.

1852 floods destroy the town.
Half of Bradleys family drowned, two brothers James and David and Wagadhaany survived.
We learn that Bradley's home is one of only three which were not destroyed.

New character appears - Louise Spencer - young lady, who lost all her family, including young husband, in the flood.
Fortunately she comes from quite affluent family so without much trouble she got her home rebuilt and arrives in a carriage on the horseracing track.
Most important thing we learn about her is, that she is a devoted Quacker, a person with very strong conviction about equality of all people and the duty of love and care for your neighbour.

At the racecourse Luise meets James Bradley and from the first moment she feel a very strong attraction to him.

Few months passed and they are married.
Many questions.
There is no mentions about any connection of Louise to any relatives, family friends, Quacker community. She is totally independent, totally alone - was it possible?
Questions:
- James Bradley presents himself as a very primitive and rather brutal person.
For Louise, physical attraction obscures these faults, but is there nobody around her to open her eyes?
- financial settlement?
She is probably better situated than James Bradley and what? she gives all her resources to him?

Next many pages describe how much Wagadhaany is missing her tribe and how important for her is time spent with her people.
Unfortunately the reader will not learn anything about any events, ceremonies, practical issues of daily life of her tribe. They just live happily.

In first chapters of the book, David Bradley seems to play significant role. He is attracted physically to Wagadhaany and this attractions got some dangerous shades.
Luckily, very quickly he just disappears from the story. Why was he there at all?

Bradley family moves to Wagga Wagga.
Wagadhaany moved with with them, agaists her will, mostly because David Bradley insists.
Why?

As we do not know anything about life of Wagadhaany tribe, similarly we do not learn anything about Bradley family.
We learn that they employ a number of stockmen, Whites and Aborigines, so sometimes Louisa and Wagadhaany are more busy with preparing meals. The reader does not know what is the rhythm of life of this household
We know that James Bradley is preoccupied with ambition to become a mayor of Wagga Wagga so he has to spend lots of time drinking with influential neighbours. There is no mention of any social life, any mention about developent of the town.

Luckily Wagadhaany got in touch with the local Aboriginal tribe which in many ways make her life bearable.
She manages to create her own family and eventually to reunite with her original tribe.
Happy ending?
I am too much confused to confirm.

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Empuzjon

Empuzjon by Olga Tokarczuk
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Young student of engineering comes to a tuberculosis sanatorium in Gorbersdorf.
Year 1913.
Similarity with The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann is obvious.
For me it was a disadvantage for the book.
Hans Castorp comes to Davos for 3 weeks, to visit his cousin. After few days he gets so enchanted with the athmosphere on the mountain, that he stays there 7 years.
It justifies the title - The Magic Mountain.
Mieczysław Wojnicz comes to Gorbersdorf for a short, 3 months, stay and everything goes according to the plan.
So, where is the story?
It requires some magic, nasty female demons - empusa - to add some nerve and tension.
Otherwise there would be no story.
The story as it is told left me with distaste.


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Machines behaving badly

Machines Behaving Badly: The Morality of AI by Toby Walsh
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was quite suspicious about the title of this book.
Are machines really behaving? Can they be judged by human standards?
In my opinion, the author very early gives a negative answers to these questions.
Machines behave as they were programmed by the people.
Here is the heart of the matter.
What people stand behind the machines?
Author introduces them as geeks from the Crazy Valley.
Here most phantastic ideas are conceived, some of them are noticed.
Noticed by whom?
The answer is even more disturbing than for the first question - biggest and most influential companies in the world - Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Facebook.
Each of them has a long record of tax avoidance and abuse of privacy.
Do we have any other option, any choice?
Answer is No.
One important point - author mentions some basic human behaviours and reactions , the most obvious is pain.
The point is that pain is biology and chemistry while the machines react only to physics. Therefor the logical conclusion is that AI should be translated as ALIEN Intelligence - fully agree.

From this point the book contains a long list of problems we can encounter when using SI and many attempts of National and International organisations to set up some uniform rules and standards. Looks like all of them are destinied for failure.

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SAPIENS

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

3 stars = I liked it.
What I liked?
Firstly, it was an audiobook from Audible and I liked the narrator - Derek Perkins.
Secondly, I liked author's sense of humour.
As for contents, I have mixed feelings.
I have to admit that as long as the author presented his interpretation of events the knowledge of which is very limited - An Animal of No Significance - I liked it.
As the events were getting closer to our times and knowledge about them grew and grew, I got serious doubts regarding authors selection of facts and their interpretation.
So, I liked chapter - The Agricultural Revolution although it is also classified as History's Biggest Fraud.
Agricultural revolution meant bonding people to one place, limiting variety of activities (and variety of food) and a need for protection of goods.
It led to all the others benefits and failures of civilisation and to the final chapter - The End of Homo Sapiens.
I agree that with progress of knowledge and entrance of AI there comes the END, on the other hand I have to admit that I cherished the fruits of art and culture and consider that they justified the price.
As for my reservations regarding interpretation of facts I mention just one -
Author mentions that till year 1500 there were many civilisations and empires which were equal to each other. And then - Discovery of Ignorance - and out of sudden Europe takes an unimaginable lead and absolutely dominates the civilisation of whole World.
Author shows absolutely no interest in explaining this phenomenon although it decided about everything we know.
For me it is impossible not to relate it to the fact that Europe was dominated by Christianity.
I read somewhere an explanation that Christianity promoted idea of individual responsible for his fate while other religions put more emphasis on Destiny or meditation.
Interestingly, following the path of Christianity, we can see a clear economic difference between countries which grew under Catholic influence (Spain, Italy, South America) and Protestant ones (Germany, Netherlands, England, USA).
Author did not notice it.


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Swimming in the Dark

Swimming in the Dark by Tomasz Jedrowski
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The book is dominated by description of feelings of a young man attracted to another young man.
I have to admit that initially I received it as extremally self-centred approach and lost most of interest - there are over 7 billion individuals on this planet so how to bother about all od them.
Eventually I continued the book and managed to discover some sympathy to the main character, mainly because he presented his experiences and feelings in quite gentle way.
What disappointed me was strong exaggeration of bad sides of Communism in Poland.
Author mentions falsifying Polish history.
I attended Polish schools in Communist times and I think there was only one important historical fact missing - the Katyn massacre.
Similarly - books and censorship.
After year 1956 practically each book recognised in Western literature was available. The only exception was Orwell's 1984.

Sometimes it takes a funny turn.

There is a scene where the main character finds his host bleeding strongly. Instead of ringing for an ambulance or at least doctor's home visit, he joins a queue in a medical centre and when eventually reaches the doctor, is shocked when doctor expects to see the patient.

Very important part of the story are references to J. Baldwin's book - Giovanni's Room.
Again, there is impression that it was a forbidden book.
I doubt if authorities were aware of such a book... and by the way - main character reads it in year 1980. I strongly doubt that at that time it has been translated to Polish and the main character at his time didn't know English.

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The Death of Jesus

The Death of Jesus by J.M. Coetzee
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Actually I read a full trilogy - The Childhood of Jesus, The Schooldays of Jesus and The Death of Jesus.
Very disappointing reading.
I suppose I was lured by the name Jesus in the title, I read trying to find some connection with the central figure of Christian religion. I found none. In some way I consider using this name as a fraud.
What is book about?
Refugees from unknown country land in another unknown country where they are treated in a benevolent but politically correct an unemotional way.
They are treated as a family, which they are not and the boy - David - mentions it on every occasion.
David does not fit into a school environment, he prefers some experimental ballet or playing soccer with orphanage kids.
At some stage I got a hint that the author might have been inspired by apocrypha written by apostle Thomas named also Didimus (Twin).
In this apocrypha Tomas claims that he is a twin brother of Jesus and mentions some miracles , some of them quite ungodly, performed by young Jesus.
Still I do not see any connection with a book.
Sad

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USA 1982 Washington

 It was all night peaceful drive, we arrived in Washington around 5 a.m.

After having some snack and drink we went to the luggage office, produced our tickets.
- Is it your luggage?

- Yes.
- It is impossible, the bus with your luggage will arrive in 2 hours. How come you are already here?
Suspicion sounded in the last question.
There was nothing to do but wait. We felt on us suspicious eyes from the luggage area all the time.

On the other hand we got our own suspicions.
It looked like many of people in the waiting room were homeless or misplaced.
Every few minutes a taxi arrived, quite smartly dressed gentleman got out. He cruised around the waiting room, sometimes sat down for a while and after few minutes was picked up by another taxi.
It was even worse in the male toilet.
From time to time a security man armed with something like a baseball bat entered the toilet with great noise. He ran around the cabins and if the door was not locked, he bang into it with the bat and only then looked carefully inside.

I was not feeling very comfortably. I got some doubts whether it will be safe to board taxi in such a place, but forgot my worries when a bus with our luggage arrived.

We got our luggage, but not without presenting our id documents first and  safely reached our hotel.

Next few days was a kaleidoscope of various exciting places and events.
We noticed a poster that El Greco paintings exhibition is held in the National Gallery of Art.
Too great to miss.
Luckily our children were also impressed.
And there was a reward. At lunchtime we visited the canteen and there some meat was served with rich servings of boiled potatoes and cabbage.
- Like in Poland - said Michael.
- More? - asked the attendant.
- More - confirmed Michael.
Few spoons more and the attendant hesitated...
- More - commanded Michael.
The attendant looked questioningly into our eyes.
- More - was the answer.

Exhibition of dinosaurs, another enjoyable experience...

Then we planned a visit to Smithsonian Institute, but Michael got more sublime preferences.
- What about going again to the El Greco exhibition?

We were surprised and impressed with artistic interest of our children so happily agreed.
Lunch was as satisfactory as the previous day.

Arlington Cemetery...

 Capitol Hill, finally the White House.
We were very touched when we found a statue of Polish national hero - T. Kosciuszko - there.
He was considered one of four most distingueshed generals of the American Independence War...

T. Kosciuszko at the end of his service was awarded massive rural properties. When he was leaving US  going back to Poland, he returned them back to the American government with one condition - free all the slaves employed there.

The irony of current, better informed times, is that during June 2020 riots this statue was vandalized.

Luckily in 1982 we did not look so far in the future, our next step was to travel North, hopefully to Niagara Falls.
I visited the Hertz office to hire a car. they took me to the airport, I found a suitable vehicle and proceeded to the office.
- You will pay by a credit card?

- No, I do not have one, I pay cash.
I noticed confusion on the faces of the clerks.
- But sir, we are not taking cash, it must be a credit card or bank transfer.
- What a joke, you drove me all the way to the airport to tell me this?

Some officials were called in, they took copies of my passport and plane tickets and eventually the transaction was finalised.
Strange,

Previous Post - Florida - Click                  Next Post - Niagara Falls - Click

USA 1982 - Florida

 We flew to Jacksonville with Delta Airlines.
I was very impressed by flexibility of the staff.
The nice person, who checked our tickets and handled our luggage appeared to be also the pilot of the plane.
During the flight he was so friendly that he invited the kids to visit the cockpit..
To great regret of Michael, I did not let him go.
Maybe it was an influence of strict security rules in Poland, but I considered socialising with pilots who perform at that time very responsible duties as quite improper.

Anyway, 2 hours later we landed.
Ken waited for us in the airport and drove us to his family holiday house somewhere in the middle of dense bush.

The place and surrounding exceeded our expectation - dense bush, succulent green vegetation, lake. 
Of course there was a boat which we could paddle around. 

There was however a warning - beware of crocodiles.

As for frequent rains, there were no big trouble - it came always as a relief from humidity, freshened the air for some time. We did not bother to hide from it or to change wet clothes,

After few days Gail brought up a new idea - you can take our car (a small, handy, yellow Renault, and visit Disney World and some other attractions around.
Like St Augustine - added Ken.

It was a great idea.
Orlando - Disney World - great...

We spent 2 days there and enjoyed every minute.
Then Sea World - another great experience.

To return to reality we visited Cape Canaveral and the Kennedy Space Centre there.
For me it was a great experience - touching satellites which were operated by Walter Schirra, whom I remembered for his intervention when automatic control systems failed - CLICK.

Children did not share my enthusiasm.
- There are no buttons we could press.
- Nothing moves, shakes, makes noises.

Well, I could see they did not measure up to space programs.

St Augustine, total change of climate, first encounter with America's history and past times.

On our way I noticed a sign - Daytona Beach.
I associated it with a car race, we were no fans of noisy cars, but beach - yes.
Now I realize it was my only physical contact with Atlantic Ocean.

We returned to Ken's and Gail hospitable home full of memories and with sharpened appetites - time to hit the road.

Bob S. my American friend from Kuwait insisted that we must not miss Washington.
There was an easy connection - direct bus from Jacksonville.

Ken drove us to the Greyhound station, I noticed some concern on his face.
- This is not Greyhound I remember - he said - sorry, I cannot stay with you much longer, but please - keep sharp eye on your luggage.
We did not see much reasons to worry, anyway we will dispatch our luggage in few minutes.

We went to the ticket office - four tickets to Washington.
The teller issued tickets.
- What time is the bus? From which platform?
- Please check on a schedule display.
- And here is our luggage.
- Please take it to the luggage office.

We went to luggage office, they just glimpsed on our tickets and took the luggage.
Now we looked at the schedule.
There was no bus to Washington displayed.
Panic, panic!
I asked some passerby.
- Washington, it must be somewhere on the route to Toronto or New York. Ask the driver.

Sounded very strange, but just some bus arrived - Toronto.
I asked the driver and showed him our tickets.
He nodded with acceptance.

Previous post - USA 1982                             Next post - USA 1982 - Washington.

Judging by the look

 This morning, entering a supermarket, I noticed such announcement...

25?
I was sure that the legal age to buy drinks is 18.
I felt a wave of anger.
Later this year, two of our grandchildren will reach age of 18.
And what?
They will not be allowed to buy a bottle of cognac for their Grandpa?!

I stormed the shop and inquired about the rules.
-The rules did not change, 18 years as before. The reason beyond this notice is that many people under 18 look much older now - answered shop assistant.

Wow... young people are looking 6-8 years older than their actual age.
What a great achievement of medicine, cosmetics and food industries plus freedom in social media.

- And what age I am looking as? - I asked.
- 26 - answered shop assistant after a closer look.
Wisdom and gentleness of Salomon.

USA, summer 1982

 Since January 1981, we - my wife Sylwia, our children Ania (11) and Michael (7) lived in Kuwait...

where I (Lech) worked in Kuwait University Computer Centre...

Summer 1982 was coming and we were faced with a serious problem - where will we spend summer holidays ?

Our native Poland was beyond the question, few months earlier a martial law was introduced by Polish (Communist) government.
Europe?
This looked as an only answer, trouble was, that it was very expensive.
What to do?
Staying in Kuwait all summer was difficult to imagine.

Since June, the favourite place for spending weekends (Thursday and Friday) was Getty Beach.
I do not know why, it was some 80 km car ride, absolute desert. Maybe these were sufficient attractions.

Probably all visitors on the beach were foreign professionals working in Kuwait, maybe it was also a significant factor.
One of those professionals was Ken R. a professor of marine Biology at Kuwait University.
Ken impressed everybody with his sailboarding skills.
Sometimes he brought some fishnets and tried to throw them to the see from the shore. I do not remember any catch.
Anyway, he was always welcome in our small Polish community.
We exchanged visits with Ken and his family - wife Gail and daughter Lara - similar age as our Ania.
Of course we shared with him our dilemma about summer holidays and he came out with surprizing proposal - we have a summer home in Florida, you can come and spend with us some time, it will cost you nothing. I have to warn you - Florida in summer is not a very attractive place - it is hot, very humid and with very frequent rains, but you are welcome.

Humid, rainy and surrounded by a dense green bush - looked quite attractive.
I started preparations.
My contract with Kuwait University provided a free return flight for holidays to the home country or to any place reachable by Kuwait Airways.
US visa...
I submitted an application and mentioned our plans to Bob S. an American, my workmate in the computer centre. He was in regular contact with US Embassy in Kuwait - playing soft ball each weekend.
Few days later he came to me, looked quite worried.
You know, my friend from US Consulate told me  that now, due to martial law in Poland, there are many cases of Poles overstaying their US travel visas. Many of them just disappear without any track.
My friend was instructed to reject tourist visa application by Poles. He will be held personally responsible for any case of overstaying visa issued by him.
- Well, Bob, what can I say?
We are mature people with family used to safe and peaceful life. I cannot imagine spending next few years hiding from authorities, resigning from my secure job, not being sure if our children can attend a good school.
But what sort of guarantee can I give?

Couple of weeks later I got a notification about a visa interview
To our surprize the "interview" was organized in a large room crowded by dozens people.
We all could watch the processing of people waiting in a queue.
Here is a notable case...
Young girl comes to the counter.
- Where from are you? - asked the interviewer.
- From Bangladesh, sir.
- What type of job you have in Kuwait?
- I work as a servant, sir.
- Is it common among Bangladeshi servants to spend holidays in US?
- I don't understand, sir. I got 2 months leave every 3 years so I wanted to visit some nice place.
- Do you have any family in US?
- Yes, sir. I got an uncle in New York, he...
The interviewer looked at the girl a second and then - BANG - he stamped her passport.
- Thank you, sir. Thank you - the girl was speechless with joy.
- This is a stamp of visa refusal - explained the interviewer.
- Refusal? But why, sir?
- Because your family will organize life for you in US and we will never kick you out fro there.
- But, sir... but...

- Next, please!

We were the next.
Visa was stamped without any question.

Our first stop was New York.
Joe, an American of Polish origin, who we met in Kuwai,t booked for us a 2 nights accommodation in a motel, 

Just enough time to get over the jetlag. 
2 days later we landed in Jacksonville.

Next part - Florida - CLICK

MS Walk 2022

 Last Sunday of May, as usual, Australian MS Society organised MS Walk - a beautiful walk (or run) around Albert Lake.
I joined this action some dozen years ago...

So last Sunday..
No, I did not feel fit for it.

Doesn't matter but more important issue was fundraising.
In my best years  managed to raise over $1,000.
During last 2 years, due to Covid there was no event in Albert Park so my fundraising relied on my own contribution plus donations from 3 close friends.
Last year 2 of them died.

So?
I felt shy to advertise my action in wider circle of friends as I am aware that many of them are involved in help to people of Ukraine.

And then an opportunity came... from a BANK.

We had a small fixed term deposit.
Few days before the maturity date a notification came to check options available otherwise deposit will be reinvested on the current terms.
I tried to check, but each time I was getting message - check closer to maturity date.
Day before maturity it was the same.
On the maturity date I got notification that term deposit has been reinvested on previous terms.
Still I tried to see what were the options before that.
This time the button worked, it displayed a message - this deposit cannot be managed online, please visit the nearest branch.

I visited, but it really did not matter, you know what interest rates our banks are offering.
But what about my frustration and wasted time?

The bank was quite conciliatory, we agreed on $100.
I added few bucks and here we are...

Here is a confirmation of my last effort...

Many faces of Westpac Bank

 Once upon a time I tried to contact my bank by phone.
Not just a bank, Westpac Bank!!!

On their webpage I found a phone number...

It shows - 1300 655 505 .

I dialled the number, the person on the other side of the line welcomed me to the bank - Westpac Bank - and asked about my credentials: Account Id and 3-digit code.
Luckily I did not remember this code so I hang up and went to my drawer to find it.

Luckily?

Yes, because when I looked on my phone, on the list of dialled numbers, I found...

Injectable Institute of Australia!!!

I checked on Internet, this is a skin care clinic - what a multidisciplinary bank!
They specialise in dermal fillers, isn't it wonderful?
I suppose they will fill your wrinkles and empty your account.

So I did not ring and did not tell them my 3-digit code.
I prefer to keep my wrinkles safe.

Solar energy in action

 Last Saturday I made a walk around the neighbourhood...

Autumn tree and a roof covered by solar panels.
This house is not connected to the electricity grid, the tree also not.
Both depend on the smile of the sun, but the nature does it so beautifully.

Mój kraj nad Wisłą

Mój kraj nad Wisłą by Jadwiga Śmigiera
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Osobista relacja z wizyt w ponad 60 miejscowościach Polski, niekoniecznie nad Wisłą.
Osobista, oznacza w tym przypadku nie tylko fakt, że autorka odwiedziła opisywaną miejscowość (czasem wielokrotnie), ale że pozostawiła tam odrobinę, a może więcej swojego serca.
Przede wszystkim jest to jednak bardzo solidnie opracowana skarbnica wiadomości, a również legend, o każdej odwiedzonej miejscowości.
Recenzentka - Ewa Radomska - pisze, że książkę można czytać na dwa sposoby - albo połknąć natychmiast całą, albo - dozować rozdział po rozdziale, odnajdywać piękno powoli i układać je w swoim sercu.
Wyznam, że te trudno mi było te dwa sposoby od siebie oddzielić.
Po spojrzeniu na listę rozdziałów, czułem potrzebę natychmiastowego przeczytania wszystkich, po przeczytaniu może tuzina, nie mogłem się oprzeć i musiałem wrócić do niektórych miejsc.


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Nellie

Nellie, the life and loves of Dame Nellie Melba by Robert Wainwright
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Nellie Melba was at her time probably the best known Australian.
Still it does not make an interesting story.
I think, that life of popular performers are not necessarily good material for a book.
It may be easier with writers, composers, painters as their creations involve many aspects of history and culture. In the case of performers the main thing remaining are headlines in newspapers - successes, falls, scandals.
Having this in mind I acknowledge, competence and good taste of the author of the biography.
In the case of Lady Melba, there was basically one personal factor influencing her life - ill-matched marriage with Charlie Armstrong. It put long shadow on her life - especially the struggle for control over future of their son.
The other strong theme was her relation with Philippe, Duc d'Orleans - pretendent to the French throne.
This story I classify to the category of gossip, but I understand author's temptation to expand this theme.

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Women's Day

 8 of March.

I remember it quite well from a primary school in Communist Poland.
Day before the celebrations, our class teacher dictated:
In 1910, at an international conference of socialist women, Klara Zetkin and Eugenia Cotton proposed to celebrate International Women's Day ...

Above Klara Zetkin with Rosa Luxemburg.
By Unknown author - Public Domain, Link

The first Women's Day celebrations took place on February 28, 1909, in New York, on the initiative of the Socialist Party of America, at the request of a certain Teresa Malkiel - KLIK.

Socialist Party of America - I sighed appreciatively and clicked to find out something about Mrs. Teresa.
"Ukrainian born American activist".

Ukraine in 1910?
Actually Teresa Malkiel was born in a Polish part of Ukraine, which at the time of her birth was administered by Austria.
Somehow I found these connection quite significant.

No wonder I got quite excited when I learned that my local library organized a Women's Day Trivia Night.
I joined and connected to zoom.

The evening was hosted by Mrs. Tracy Bartram, apparently a very popular presenter of radio programs, comedian, singer.

Her behavior confirmed that she was a professional comedian, because before she said something, she was already laughing, when she started talking, she was choking with laughter every now and then, and when she finished speaking, she laughed until the last person in the audience stopped laughing.

Very quickly she moved to the actual women's issues.
Firstly, memories of sufferings women had to endure while using diafragm as anticonception.
Then the double edge of menopause.

At this time I got a hint - men-o-pause .
As I was the only men connected to the session I paused - switched off 

The Happiest Man on Earth

The Happiest Man on Earth by Eddie Jaku
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I feel very uncomfortable.
A book written by a very honest and good person. A book describing how to turn each bad experience into something good. A book with lots of wise advice.
How can a sensible person say anything critical about such a book?
I do not pretend to be a very sensible person so I will mention some disappointments.
Eddie Jaku was born in Germany, in a Jewish family, which felt completely assimilated into German society.
So it was a terrible shock to them, that in 1933, after A. Hitler won the election, everyone around turned against Jews.
Father arranged false identity documents for his son and sent him to a good technical school away from home.
5 years passed - in the book there is absolutely no mention what happened in these 5 years. Just click and Eddie lands in concentration camp in Buchenwald.
Next 5 years are filled with numerous arrests and escapes until landing in Auschwitz where he managed to survive till the end of the war.
I read number of relations of Auschwitz survivors, I met few personally, but I never read or heard so dispassionate relation.
I do not know whether it was matter of age (Eddie was 99 when he started to work on this book) or time passed since things happened or a deliberate move to put more emphasis on the positive side of the experience, but for me it deprived story of any emotions.
Then, about a quarter of the book is filled with a lecture how much better it is to be good.
I agree with Eddie and with his message. I have great respect for his character and achievements, but my reception of this book was lukewarm.

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7 1/2

7 1/2 by Christos Tsiolkas
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

The book starts with quite long explanation what it will not be about.
On page 31 there is an important statement - "...the novel is masturbation".
From this point the author does just that...
He shares abundantly his excitement with smell of masculine sweat, with taste of secretions from female genitals, with taste of semen, feeling of dried sperm on underbelly, experience of chasing schoolboys in a public toilet. He promises to introduce us to world of pornographic movies and sex for money.
I reached page 75 - it means 10 times 7 1/2.
Ten times too many.
I put the book aside.

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Roboty malują

Niezawodne Google powiadomiło mnie jakiś czas temu, że w Melbourne pojawiła się pani Agnieszka Piłat z trójką robotów aby zademonstrować ich możliwości malarskie.

Jeśli  malarstwo to National Gallery of Victoria - NGV.
Zacząłem googlować:  NGV pila... - google podpowiedziało - NGV pilates.
Wystarczyło żeby rozproszyć moją uwagę, poszedłem tym tropem - rezultaty:
- klasa pilates (ćwiczenia gimnastyczne) na dachu galerii,
- Contrology - rzeżba deski z nogami i płetwą wykonującej ćwiczenia pilates (uwaga - Contrology - takiej właśnie nazwy używał Joseph Pilates gdy wymyślał swoją technikę ćwiczeń.)
- Sen żony Piłata - grawerunek z 1874 r.

STOP!
Pora zastosować Contrology - zapanować nad Google - piszę: Agnieszka Pilat NGV
Mam Ją!

Pani Agnieszka z robotami Basią i Bunny.

Spoglądam na kalendarz - niedziela - właśnie dzisiaj można zobaczyć roboty w akcji i co ciekawsze, można posłuchać wywiadu z panią Agnieszką.

Godzina 3, samo centrum miasta - tłok, ruch, chaos, zamieszanie.
Przed stacją kolejową, na betonie, śpi beztrosko jakaś bezdomna.
Kilka kroków dalej i jestem w samym środku niedzielnego tłumu.
Wyznam, że to już było dla mnie trochę za dużo, do przejścia miałem może 150m ale po kilku krokach miałem dosyć.

Przed galerią otuchy dodaje mi dłoń z kciukiem skierowanym w górę...

W środku galerii też spory ruch, wstęp bezpłatny, różne wystawy, w tym również dla dzieci.
Jakiś spokój wprowadziły dopiero rzeźby dwójki proletariuszy, w obiektywie zmieścił się tylko jeden..

Wywiad z panią Agnieszką odbędzie się w ogromnej sali, z przodu ustawiono kilka rzędów krzeseł, dalej przypadkowo ustawione krzesła, stołki, lada barowa, lekkie zamieszanie

Siadam w 2. rzędzie krzeseł, tuż przede mną siedzi szczupła blondynka, zauważam jeszcze żółte buty, te same co na zdjęciu na początku wpisu...

- Czy pani Agnieszka? - pytam.
Spore zaskoczenie, ale pani Agnieszka wita się ze mna sympatycznie, rozmawiamy chwilę po polsku, ale przerzucam się na angielski żeby nie separować się od otoczenia.
Już po chwili podchodzi do nas mocno utytułowana pani prowadząca wywiad, czas na scenę...

Tu niestety rozczarowanie.
Po pierwsze, w sali jest sporo hałasu, po drugie - rozmowa przez mikrofony, w sali ogromny pogłos, trudno mi to dosłyszeć i zrozumieć. Rozmowa jest tłumaczona na język migowy, myślę, że osoby głuche "usłyszały" więcej.
Po trzecie i najważniejsze, ta rozmowa nie ma dla mnie wiele sensu :(
Tutaj jakieś przybliżenie jej zawartości - KLIK.
Nie mam już szansy na rozmowę w panią Agnieszką idę więc zobaczyć roboty w akcji...

Wizja statyczna...

Roboty teraz nie malują tylko kręcą się po dwóch salkach połączonych przejściem ze schodkami. Z tego wnioskuję, że mają wzrok, ale chyba nie słyszą bo odzywam się do nich po polsku i angielsku i żadnego śladu reakcji.

 Wizja dynamiczna  - KLIK.

Tu podzielę się więc pytaniami, które mnie nurtowały:
- na jakie czynności roboty są zaprogramowane a jakie wykonują same z siebie - jeśli w ogóle coś sama z siebie wykonują.
Konkretnie - włączamy robota i co?
Czy ono się w ogóle ruszy? Dlaczego?
Na jakiej zasadzie zmienia kierunek ruchu, kiwa głową, zatrzymuje się, przechodzi z sali do sali???
Maluje?

Dygresja -
Dwa lata temu przeczytałem książkę australijskiego naukowca, Toby Walsh'a - Machines behaving badly - The Morality of AI.

Jeśli chodzi o moralność to sprawa jest dość prosta - pełna kontrola kilku potężnych koncernów - Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook - to chba rozwiewa wszelkie złudzenia/
Moją uwagę zwróciła inna sprawa poruszona przez autora - czy maszyna może odczuwać ból?
Nie może, ból to domena biologii i chemii podczas gdy maszyny to fizyka.
To samo dotyczy wszystkiego co ludzkie - głód, pragnienie, nasycenie, smutek, obrzydzenie, zachwyt, radość, nienawiść, miłość, potrzeba śpiewu czy malowania.
Sztuczna Inteligencja może dostarczyć maszynie informacji statystycznych na każdy z tych tematów, ale czy może z tego coś sensownego wyniknąć?

Tu dygresja do dygresji -

"..wtedy to Pan Bóg ulepił człowieka z prochu ziemi i tchnął w jego nozdrza tchnienie życia, wskutek czego stał się człowiek istotą żywą." - Księga Rodzaju - 2:7.

A więc człowiek stworzony przez Boga nie był istotą biologiczną!
W tym miejscu pojawia się tak wielkie pole do rozważań, że tulę uszy po sobie i milknę.

Pani Agnieszka podczas wywiadu wspomniała, że ludzkość powinna poważnie zastanowić się jakie chcemy mieć relacje z robotami, kto będzie arystokracją przyszłości, czy technologia dojrzeje do etapu stworzenia religii?

Religia stworzona przez AI?
To doskonale komponuje się z cytatem z Biblii.

Drugi raz tulę uszy po sobie i kieruję się do wyjścia.
Żegna mnie fontanna płomieni...

Informacja w Wikipedii - KLIK.
Informacja o wystawie - KLIK
Strona pani Agnieszki - KLIK.
Machines behaving badly - Wywiad z autorem - KLIK.

Oscar Wilde and the Ring of Death

Oscar Wilde and the Ring of Death by Gyles Brandreth
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

"... I noted down the wines in my journal especially: with the fish, an extraordinarily silky white Burgundy; with the beef, an 1888 Margaux so mellow...".
This part of the book interested me most - menus and wine lists.
Impressive!
Also a lifestyle of these rich and famous in 1892 London - meeting friends in cafes and restaurants. Visiting libraries, theatres, sometimes even spending night in own home.
Children's governess asking whether mother and her guest would join children for a lunch.
I had a full trust that the author very accurately pictured a week in a life of Oscar Wilde and his friends.
As for the main topic - the ring of death - I found the idea quite bizarre and disgusting, but I assume it let the author to put some nerve in otherwise very decadent life of main characters. It allowed also to present great detective talent of Oscar Wilde.
Summarising - thoroughly investigated and perfectly presented story about nothing.


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