the quantified body

Whenever I hear or read about the ↑quantified self—a lifestyle obviously deeply influenced by the heritage of ↵cybernetics—I am reminded of conversations I led and overheard while I still was visiting the gym regularly, three times a week. Already when just eavesdropping I was amazed by the topics the real bodybuilders talked about. The weights lifted almost aren’t a topic at all—with the exception when they spot somebody they care about using too heavy weights. This not only has negative training effects but greatly heightens the risk of injuries, too. Then, somewhat related to the former, there is the topic … Continue reading

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angelo dundee

Last Wednesday, 01 February 2012, ↑Angelo Dundee died age 90. He was the famous trainer of world’s greatest, ↑Muhammad Ali, who just recently ↵turned 70.     When I heard the news of Dundee’s passing away, immediately pictures from a comic book filled my mind. As a kid I for the first time heard of Dundee via the album ‘Superman vs. Muhammad Ali’ (O’Neill & Adams 1978). The above is a part of page 32. O’NEILL, DENNIS AND NEAL ADAMS. 1978. ‘Superman vs. Muhammad Ali’ [comic book]. New York: DC Comics. … Continue reading

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shell of ghosts

Here is a snippet from the recent ↑interview with William Gibson, which Bryan Alexander (who ↵pointed me to it) ↵liked especially: It’s harder to imagine the past that went away than it is to imagine the future. What we were prior to our latest batch of technology is, in a way, unknowable. It would be harder to accurately imagine what New York City was like the day before the advent of broadcast television than to imagine what it will be like after life-size broadcast holography comes online. But actually the New York without the television is more mysterious, because we’ve … Continue reading

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life and live

In a way ‘↑Second Life‘ (SL) is the online analogon to a social club of sorts—“↑Quake Live“ (QL) in turn emulates a boxing gym, or any other sports club centred around a competitive pastime. In the end both of course are social institutions, but differ in terms of qualities, differ in culture. … Continue reading

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Favorite martyr fuller

a sports-journalist’s biased commentary Last night 100-metres-men Olympic champion Merton Fuller was belatedly disqualified because of the results of a “doping test” done within the hour after his triumph. Inside one of the joints of his prosthetic augmentation a silicon-based “banned lubricant” was discovered. The tragedy of the case lies in the fact that none of the lubricant’s ingredients is to be found on the list of banned substances. Neither is the composition of the lubricant illegal. This is little wonder as there is no list of banned substances since 01 January 2020. So, what happened yesterday evening?     … Continue reading

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speed runs

Tomi Salo has run through the complete Max Payne 2 (MP2) game in 33 minutes and 30 seconds! Speed Demos Archive carries a collection of video-evidence of so called ‘speed runs’: “A speed run is a video of a player striving to complete a video game in as fast a time as they can manage. Sound easy? It’s not! A large number of tricks are usually used, possibly skipping whole areas of a game in the process, and there will always be mistakes.” Among goodies like a Half Life 2 (HL2) run by David ‘marshmallow’ Gibbons in 2:14:58, and several … Continue reading

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