Dors Venabili, The Living Automaton

So these Russian bombers have been flying close to the UK yesterday and the RAF sent up some Eurofighter Typhoons to 'escort' them away.

I like the Eurofighter Typhoon a lot; they're very fast, quite manoeuvrable, have an excellent range. A work of art, really.

I suppose one might point out that of course, the Russians were not flying in anything other than international airspace - but that won't affect the way the general media covers this particular item. Even so there is no doubt the flights are a flip to the United Kingdom and NATO about the fiasco in Debaltsova, where a bunch of mercenaries have been captured by the Russians. (90% of the Ukraine army has been able to retreat/withdraw - according to the Kiev government).

This testing/probing/war-game style of messing around is all very well but it is a grave mistake to believe we are in an era in which hot conflict between these very large powers can be 'won' by any particular side, or that they will unfold in quite the same ways that past wars have.

My own personal outlook is that modern society has lost its respect for all of human beings generally because we think we already know so much about everyone 'else.' And familiarity has bred contempt and boredom and the thirst for individual power, rather than the desire to learn about others and culture in general.

Unlike the Merchant Magistrates of Venice, we, know already too much about 'the Forbidden Kingdom' and - there are no new horizons.

Dors Venabili was just a fictional character in an Asimov story, and there are no alien worlds or alien people we in any short time are going to encounter, or thrill over.

There is, however, the 2015 Geneva Motor Show coming up in just a few days (5 March) in which we will see for the first time the new Aston Martin Vulcan, another extremely limited edition (yawn) exercise.

Trust Bertone!

And for me over the next few weeks there is a series of the greatest sprint races that I have seen - in terms of strength of the fields engaged - in the Australian horse racing calendar. 

I will be able to be entertained. 

And shortly, I will relate to you, the Greek myth of Lycaon... But not yet.

Chautauqua Wins Again!

In my post of Friday, 17 November 2014, I mentioned what I considered the two best sprinters in Australasian Horse Racing at the moment - one of which was the considerably talented 'Chautauqua.'

There it is - Chautauqua.

Chautauqua, the bay-grey (a rare coloration for a racehorse) won again this afternoon at Caulfield in Melbourne, first up for this season - coming from last at the top of the straight to win with a dominant performance in its first race back from a spell.

Chautauqua is a nerve-wracking horse to bet money on because it comes from behind and has to make up ground without getting blocked - however it must be a very exciting and satisfying horse to own, because it wins a lot and wins big money races!

Parable Of Zarathustra

Am I the first?

Of all of the reviews and discussions about - I'll not say 'critiques' (no one can do that) - of Eyes Wide Shut, there are none as yet, I believe, that have made reference to Kubrick's interest in Strauss's Also sprach Zarathustra as the actual basis of the movie.

No doubt you will recall the beginning of 2001 A Space Odyssey, which completely relies on the fanfare beginning of Strauss's tone poem (Also sprach Zarathustra), and of course Kubrick himself noted the significance of Nietzsche's great work about the (his) character of Zarathustra, who rushes into a public place seeking god with a lantern, only to be derided by the crowd and deemed a fool or a madman.

Nietzsche by Eduard Munch

Although everyone seems to hold that the movie Eyes Wide Shut is a filmed version of the story The Nightmare by Arthur Schnitzler, this is only a bare 'clothes horse' and in fact it is Kubrick's working of the ideas and philosophy of Nietzsche's Parable Of Zarathustra that is the real story and the intention.

The movie itself cannot be understood merely from the perspective that it is Schnitzler's story, simply because of the symbological discussion that Kubrick makes to go on within the scenes; and these ideas expressed in symbols are calls back to Kubrick's past attention to Nietzsche. There are no such ideas and symbols in Schnitzler's work.

Tom Cruise pointed out that 'Kubrick does not make mistakes, and everything is in the movie on purpose.' I suppose it is a radical perspective of mine to even go so far as to say that very likely Kubrick himself desired both the actors themselves and other directors to finish the film - because that is exactly how Nietzsche concludes the body of his work dealing with the fictional philosopher 'Zarathustra.' And I am sure no one has realised this yet about this particular movie.

A nerd, a genius, and Nicole.

Yes, a lot of people have said that the (this particular) movie occupies an important place in modern literary work, but I'm not sure they know why.

In fact, it is intended that this movie be re-made by future people... That is the whole point of Zarathustra's philosophy.

Virtual Reality Gordon Gekko

The VR Gordon Gekko website

Here's something new - this is the Virtual Reality Gordon Gekko development website:

http://interqward1.wix.com/digitalsyntheticmind

This is the 'Enhanced Recall' program website -
like the movie 'Total Recall,' only this is real.

http://interqward1.wix.com/enhanced-recall

Hey there's a lot more to this than can be shown for free on an open access website, and, as far as the actual prototype hardware goes, right now we're up to a small fortune in development costs so that won't be out there for free any time soon!!

Virtual money? Nope, real money. If you go to - I think - the fourth page or the contact page, you'll see.

Risky, dangerous, illegal money - nope. Just picked up a few dollars from an 'adult content' Oculus Rift developer from the Deep Web!

Money Always Moves

A lot of - well probably most of - tax dodging and money laundering proceeds from an entirely incorrect premise.

Van Gogh's Irises

Firstly, you will encounter this idea and attitude that 'oh, well, if I only just didn't have to pay this tax, I'll then have enough and be satisfied and have the money that I want to have...'

And once again this is the same kind of flawed thinking that even people like Ben Bernanke indulged in when he was Chairman of the US Federal Reserve - namely, that money is static.

Money is always moving.

There is no such thing as having the money you want to have - there is only possession of the continuous real capacity to buy the broadest variety of things.

Secondly, there is an attitude of resolving the past; 'if I can but avoid what in essence is already fixed as a fact as owed - then I will be happy and satisfied and have enough.'

So the incorrect premise is that of attempting 'to fix' a past static fact.

We are witnessing in the recent press, stories concerning several banks' involvement with money laundering and tax dodging for cocaine dealers and criminals and celebrities and all kinds of people. And the mechanisms were said to have involved 'secret accounts.' Of course it is clear now that the banks had no such a thing as a truly 'secret' set of client accounts.

People, and corporations are regularly disenfranchised by the regular competing interests in human power - namely, political sources, psychologically impaired administrators and officials, other people seeking power, wives, mistresses, and Lagerfeld's famous 'expensive' friends!

Society is not co-operative. That is why banks cannot be trusted to remain secretive about their clients. Banks will co-operate with the immediate most important 'client,' rather than the counterparty to any past agreement.

Real money laundering and tax dodging are automatic processes not involving retained counterparties.

Here is a scene in the French Charente:

You should note it in respect to the picture in the immediate previous blog entry in which I showed a picture of an old French stone building in the Cognac district of the Charente.

Now, you can see all over the internet, experts' opinions and reviews of Cognac, great and ordinary, and even the industry itself's discussion about the differences between descriptions - VSOP, OP, XO, and so on.

But this is what you must know about Cognac, if you are to know it in truth - a great Cognac, like a great woman, ought not to be attempted to be opened in anything under um thirty, even thirty-five years. And you cannot, if you are one of these modern day marketeers and commercial operators, make money from waiting around for thirty-five years!

Consequently, you are unlikely to have ever encountered an actual Cognac in the style of the Napoleonic Era - regardless of how much you paid, what the brand name is, or any other thing.

You... are unlikely... to have ever tasted a proper Cognac. Full Stop. (Or period, as the Americans say).

Now here is a picture of the Irises, but it is not the same as the painting hanging in the Getty Gallery:

The Irises

But people want to see what they want to see, rather than what is real. And that is why fools still use banks like HSBC and UBS and so on.

Do not be a fool yourself.

Tax dodging and money laundering are not about the money you think is there, or was there - it is about things which have not happened yet.

What has not happened yet, however, is more real than what has already happened and has drifted into the past - but this is not something readily explained to ordinary people.

Money never changes. But the banking system and banks do, and so do governments and even government systems. I suppose the most amazing thing about money is that when it comes to guarantees, the future is more guarantee-able than the past. Again, not an idea that has currency among those who just lost several billions hoping that HSBC knew what they were doing! And you know what, still they will not get it.

While idiot governments and criminals pretending to be watchers over our safety and security hug closely the money they believe is in their grasp, the world of money itself, has wandered away...