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blosxom.com_gerikson.com.rss.xml - sfeed_tests - sfeed tests and RSS and Atom files |
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git clone git://git.codemadness.org/sfeed_tests (git://git.codemadness.org) |
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Log |
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Files |
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Refs |
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README |
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LICENSE |
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--- |
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blosxom.com_gerikson.com.rss.xml (27455B) |
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--- |
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1 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> |
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2 <rss version="2.0"> |
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3 <channel> |
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4 <title>The occasional scrivener</title> |
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5 <link>https://gerikson.com/blog/</link> |
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6 <description>Gustaf Erikson's weblog.</description> |
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7 <language>en</language> |
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8 <docs>http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss</docs> |
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9 <generator>blosxom/2.1.2</generator> |
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10 |
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11 <item> |
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12 <title>Why Gemini is not my favorite internet protocol</title> |
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13 <pubDate>Fri, 11 Jun 2021 12:16:00 +0000</pubDate> |
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14 <link>https://gerikson.com/blog/2021/06/11#Why-u-no-gemini</link> |
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15 <category>/comm</category> |
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16 <guid isPermaLink="false">https://gerikson.com/blog/comm/Why-u-no-gemini</guid> |
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17 <description><p>TL;DR: the Gemini protocol removes too much functionality for it to |
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18 interesting to me.</p> |
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19 |
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20 <h3>What is Gemini?</h3> |
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21 |
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22 <p><a href="https://gemini.circumlunar.space/">Gemini</a> is a simple web publishing protocol. It can be seen as a |
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23 descendant, successor of Gopher. Gemini primarily emphasizes developer |
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24 simplicity, and secondarily user privacy.</p> |
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25 |
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26 <p>This comes with significant trade-offs for the author, |
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27 however. Compared to standard vanilla HTML4, there are no inline |
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28 links, no provision for media other than text on a page, and the |
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29 styling of the content is left to the client.</p> |
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30 |
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31 <p>My background in web publishing - I&#8217;ve been fascinated by <em>publishing</em> |
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32 since I was a kid and I&#8217;ve been involved in printing zines and in |
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33 student newspapers etc through the years. The idea that I can publish |
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34 what I want, when I want, at whatever lengths I want, for effectively |
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35 free, is still mind-blowing to me, almost 30 years since I copied some |
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36 <abbr title="Hyper Text Markup Language">HTML</abbr> code and made it mine.</p> |
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37 |
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38 <p>Here&#8217;s where Gemini falls down for me.</p> |
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39 |
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40 <p>First, there&#8217;s no official client. The fact that it&#8217;s so easy to |
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41 implement a client means there&#8217;s a Cambrian explosion going on, and |
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42 the filtering die-back has not yet occurred. This might change in the |
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43 medium future.</p> |
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44 |
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45 <p>Second, the styling limitations are crippling. I can probably survive |
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46 without having images etc. on the same page, but the lack of inline |
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47 links (each link has to be on its own line) leads to stilted, |
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48 quasi-academic jargony text like this:</p> |
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49 |
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50 <blockquote> |
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51 <p>Check out my cool blog[1]! It&#8217;s full of cats! </p> |
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52 |
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53 <p>[1] <a href="https://gerikson.com/blog">https://gerikson.com/blog</a></p> |
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54 </blockquote> |
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55 |
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56 <p>I&#8217;m not going to abandon three decades of hypertext authoring habits |
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57 to make a developer&#8217;s life slightly easier.</p> |
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58 |
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59 <p>Third, Gemini puts the cart before the horse when it comes to |
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60 privacy. The solution to widespread tracking and user surveillance |
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61 isn&#8217;t a bespoke hairshirt protocol that no-one is going to use. The |
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62 solution is widespread legislation that makes using people&#8217;s personal |
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63 data for targeted advertising illegal or very expensive. (This is not |
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64 limited to Gemini. A great many influential Internet people are |
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65 convinced politics is utterly broken, so &#8220;technical solutions&#8221; are all |
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66 that&#8217;s left).</p> |
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67 |
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68 <p>Gemini, to me, is part of the nostalgia for a past that never really |
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69 was - the halcyon days of the Internet, before <a href="https://gerikson.com/cgi-bin/eternal.cgi">the Eternal |
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70 September</a>. But time is the |
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71 great filter. What has survived from that era is not the spam, the |
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72 pointless Usenet arguments, the shitposting, but finely polished |
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73 nuggets. If you weren&#8217;t there, it might have seemed a paradise, but I |
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74 was, and it wasn&#8217;t. It was today&#8217;s internet, but text-only and with |
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75 proportionally even more white dudes.</p> |
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76 </description> |
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77 </item> |
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78 <item> |
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79 <title>Death of a channel</title> |
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80 <pubDate>Sat, 05 Jun 2021 14:32:00 +0000</pubDate> |
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81 <link>https://gerikson.com/blog/2021/06/05#Death-of-a-channel</link> |
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82 <category>/comm</category> |
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83 <guid isPermaLink="false">https://gerikson.com/blog/comm/Death-of-a-channel</guid> |
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84 <description><p>This is a short write-up of how a channel on Freenode was hijacked by |
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85 staff, and how it was effectively deleted.</p> |
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86 |
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87 <h3>Background</h3> |
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88 |
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89 <p>The channel #photography was founded on Freenode in 2001, as a channel |
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90 to discuss photography. Its single-hash status was challenged by |
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91 Freenode staffer lilo, and it was changed to #photogeeks to comply |
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92 with the requirement for single-hash channels to be associated with a |
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93 project.</p> |
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94 |
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95 <p>In 2006, the channel #photo was registered to discuss photography per |
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96 se, and not gear. Quite soon the channel became social in nature, and |
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97 it was hidden and a password set.</p> |
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98 |
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99 <p>Over the years, about a dozen people used this channel as a social |
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100 space to discuss everything under the sun.</p> |
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101 |
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102 <h2>Hijack</h2> |
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103 |
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104 <p>When the takeover of Freenode by Andrew Lee occurred, the channel was |
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105 registered on Libera.chat, and on 2021-05-21, the topic was updated to |
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106 say</p> |
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107 |
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108 <pre><code>09:07 -!- gustaf changed the topic of #photo to: this channel is now up and running on Libera.chat (same pwd), but this place is still the primary! | Discord bolthole - https://discord.gg/XXXX |
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109 </code></pre> |
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110 |
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111 <p>On 2021-05-26, the channel was hijacked:</p> |
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112 |
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113 <pre><code>05:02 -!- freenodecom &lt;~com@freenode/staff&gt; has joined #photo |
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114 05:02 -!- mode/#photo (+o freenodecom) by freenodecom |
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115 05:02 -!- freenodecom changed the topic of #photo to: This channel has moved to ##photo. The topic is in violation of freenode policy: https://freenode.net/policies |
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116 05:02 &lt;@freenodecom&gt; This channel has been reopened with respect to the communities and new users. The topic is in violation of freenode policy: https://freenode.net/policies |
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117 05:02 -!- mode/#photo (+o freenodecom) by OperServ |
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118 05:02 &lt;@freenodecom&gt; The new channel is ##photo |
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119 05:02 -!- mode/#photo (-s+t) by ChanServ |
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120 05:02 -!- mode/#photo (+spimf ##photo) by freenodecom |
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121 05:02 -!- freenodecom &lt;~com@freenode/staff&gt; has left #photo () |
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122 05:02 -!- mode/#photo (+f ##photo) by freenodecom |
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123 07:37 &lt; gustaf&gt; &lt;abbr title="what the fsck"&gt;wtf&lt;/abbr&gt; |
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124 07:37 -!- #photo Cannot send to nick/channel |
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125 </code></pre> |
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126 |
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127 <p>(all times are in CEST).</p> |
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128 |
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129 <p>A few hours later, Andrew Lee (rasengan) sent a network-wide wallop |
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130 informing users that an attempt to enforce newly instituted rules |
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131 against advertising other IRC networks had been overly broad and |
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132 targeted more channels than intended.</p> |
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133 |
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134 <p>It&#8217;s clear that our channel was included in this.</p> |
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135 |
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136 <p>Users were encouraged to submit a request to Freenode staff to get |
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137 their channels back.</p> |
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138 |
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139 <h2>Aftermath</h2> |
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140 |
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141 <p>The &#8220;regulars&#8221; of the channel were contacted via PM and informed that |
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142 the Freenode channel was now closed. Most moved over to Libera. A few |
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143 mentioned that they were permanently leaving Freenode.</p> |
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144 |
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145 <p>As a good faith effort, prompted by Freenode promoters, I attempted to |
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146 regain control of the channel at Freenode, but was informed that |
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147 having a single-hash channel was not according to policy. The request |
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148 was denied.</p> |
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149 |
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150 <h2>Discussion</h2> |
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151 |
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152 <p>I&#8217;ve written this post to present my side of the story. Over the last |
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153 weeks, I&#8217;ve been told on Freenode that the widespread channel |
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154 hijacking of 26 May 2021 (some reports say that 700+ channels were |
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155 affected) was either not as widespread as reported, or &#8220;justified&#8221; to |
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156 stem the flow of users to Libera.</p> |
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157 |
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158 <p>I&#8217;m also a member of the channel #lobsters, which suffered the same |
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159 fate. However, in that case, <a href="https://lobste.rs/s/1z77ly/libera_chat#c_vwmpgx">the project <em>had</em> officially moved, and |
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160 the Freenode channel was |
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161 locked</a>. Based on |
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162 Lee&#8217;s rationale, I actually find the hijack justified, as there were |
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163 presumably people who would prefer to remain on Freenode and discuss |
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164 the site there. However, note that there very little warning before |
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165 this happened. There was no attempt to contact the project to present |
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166 Freenode&#8217;s case as a better IRC host than Libera. Freenode instead |
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167 unilaterally decided they knew better than the project&#8217;s themselves.</p> |
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168 |
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169 <p>When Libera was announced, I did not feel that the urgency presented |
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170 by the staff there was entirely justified. Never would I imagine that |
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171 Andrew Lee would, within a week, exceed those warnings by a wide |
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172 margin.</p> |
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173 |
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174 <p>He and the current Freenode staff have proven that they cannot be |
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175 trusted to be stewards of communities, by hijacking channels and |
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176 disrupting them. They have proven to be incompetent, by affecting more |
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177 channels than intended. They have proven to be discourteous, by |
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178 requiring channel owners affected by their incompetence to apply, hat |
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179 in hand and papers in order, for their channels to be reinstated. And |
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180 finally, they&#8217;ve proven to be bad business people, by alienating |
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181 their future customers and torching their future income stream.</p> |
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182 |
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183 <h2>Future</h2> |
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184 |
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185 <p>I&#8217;m nostalgic for my almost 17 year old Freenode account. But the more |
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186 time passes, the more bitter I become. I&#8217;m going to hang around in |
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187 some channels to see how things work out. I&#8217;m open to a more humble |
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188 approach from Freenode staff and boosters. But if I feel I can&#8217;t be a |
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189 part of a network that treats its users as peons to be exploited, I&#8217;m |
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190 out.</p> |
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191 </description> |
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192 </item> |
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193 <item> |
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194 <title>May</title> |
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195 <pubDate>Mon, 31 May 2021 23:23:00 +0000</pubDate> |
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196 <link>https://gerikson.com/blog/2021/05/31#2021-05</link> |
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197 <category>/photo</category> |
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198 <guid isPermaLink="false">https://gerikson.com/blog/photo/2021-05</guid> |
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199 <description><p><a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/gerikson/51192839579/in/dateposted/" title="Sergels torg"><img src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51192839579_c0a455be91_z.jpg" width="512" height="640" alt="Sergels torg"></a><script async src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p> |
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200 |
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201 <p><a href="http://gerikson.com/blog/photo/2020-05.html">May 2020</a> | |
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202 <a href="http://gerikson.com/blog/photo/2019-05.html">May 2019</a> | |
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203 <a href="http://gerikson.com/blog/photo/2018-05.html">May 2018</a> | |
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204 <a href="http://gerikson.com/blog/photo/2017-05.html">May 2017</a> | |
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205 <a href="http://gerikson.com/blog/photo/2016-05.html">May 2016</a> | |
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206 <a href="http://gerikson.com/blog/photo/2015-05.html">May 2015</a> | |
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207 <a href="http://gerikson.com/blog/photo/2014-05.html">May 2014</a> | |
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208 <a href="http://gerikson.com/blog/photo/May-2013.html">May 2013</a> | |
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209 <a href="http://gerikson.com/blog/photo/2012-05.html">May 2012</a> | |
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210 <a href="http://gerikson.com/blog/alt/Copenhagen-2011.html">May 2011</a> | |
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211 <a href="http://gerikson.com/blog/photo/2010-05-02.html">May 2010</a> | |
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212 <a href="http://gerikson.com/blog/photo/Sicklasjon.html">May 2009</a> | |
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213 <a href="http://gerikson.com/blog/photo/Goin-pro.html">May 2008</a></p> |
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214 </description> |
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215 </item> |
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216 <item> |
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217 <title><em>Agency</em> by William Gibson</title> |
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218 <pubDate>Wed, 26 May 2021 19:02:00 +0000</pubDate> |
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219 <link>https://gerikson.com/blog/2021/05/26#Agency</link> |
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220 <category>/books/read</category> |
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221 <guid isPermaLink="false">https://gerikson.com/blog/books/read/Agency</guid> |
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222 <description><p>This is Gibson&#8217;s worst novel. Not recommended.</p> |
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223 |
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224 <p>It&#8217;s in the same (multi)verse as <em>The Peripheral</em>.</p> |
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225 |
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226 <p>While that novel had engaging characters, this one doesn&#8217;t. The |
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227 Jackpot protagonist, Wilf, shows us the horrifying prospect of the |
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228 repressed Englishman surviving global collapse and an 80% die-off of |
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229 humanity. The present-day character has no inner life to speak of. I |
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230 have no clue how she managed to get in a relationship with her world&#8217;s |
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231 Elon Musk analog. We&#8217;re supposed to believe that Eunice, the AI that |
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232 the Jackpot side uses to try to avert nuclear war, is this |
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233 fantastically engaging personality everyone loves, but in the end |
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234 she&#8217;s basically sassy Magic Negro. The novel has entire chapters |
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235 describing drives through the Bay Area.</p> |
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236 |
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237 <p>In the end it reads as therapy for Gibson to cope with the Trump years.</p> |
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238 </description> |
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239 </item> |
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240 <item> |
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241 <title><em>The Mirror and the Light</em> by Hilary Mantel</title> |
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242 <pubDate>Thu, 20 May 2021 18:51:00 +0000</pubDate> |
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243 <link>https://gerikson.com/blog/2021/05/20#The-Mirror-and-the-Light</link> |
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244 <category>/books/read</category> |
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245 <guid isPermaLink="false">https://gerikson.com/blog/books/read/The-Mirror-and-the-Light</guid> |
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246 <description><p>Mantel concludes the trilogy about Thomas Cromwell as he reaches the pinnacle of power and then plummets precipitously.</p> |
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247 |
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248 <p>As I&#8217;ve mentioned before about this trilogy, this is great historical fiction. Mantel deserves every ounce of praise for these. </p> |
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249 </description> |
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250 </item> |
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251 <item> |
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252 <title>April</title> |
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253 <pubDate>Fri, 30 Apr 2021 23:23:00 +0000</pubDate> |
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254 <link>https://gerikson.com/blog/2021/04/30#2021-04</link> |
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255 <category>/photo</category> |
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256 <guid isPermaLink="false">https://gerikson.com/blog/photo/2021-04</guid> |
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257 <description><p><a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/gerikson/51127796049/in/photostream/" title="Chasing the frame | Sakura 2021"><img src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51127796049_eda8e4ec00_z.jpg" width="428" height="640" alt="Chasing the frame | Sakura 2021"></a><script async src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p> |
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258 |
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259 <p><a href="http://gerikson.com/blog/photo/2020-04.html">Apr 2020</a> | |
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260 <a href="http://gerikson.com/blog/photo/2019-04.html">Apr 2019</a> | |
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261 <a href="http://gerikson.com/blog/photo/2018-04.html">Apr 2018</a> | |
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262 <a href="http://gerikson.com/blog/photo/2017-04.html">Apr 2017</a> | |
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263 <a href="http://gerikson.com/blog/photo/2016-04.html">Apr 2016</a> | |
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264 <a href="http://gerikson.com/blog/photo/2015-04.html">Apr 2015</a> | |
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265 <a href="http://gerikson.com/blog/photo/2014-04.html">Apr 2014</a> | |
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266 <a href="http://gerikson.com/blog/photo/April-2013.html">Apr 2013</a> | |
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267 <a href="http://gerikson.com/blog/photo/2012-04.html">Apr 2012</a> | |
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268 <a href="http://gerikson.com/blog/photo/2011-04.html">Apr 2011</a> | |
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269 <a href="http://gerikson.com/blog/photo/2010-04.html">Apr 2010</a> | |
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270 <a href="http://gerikson.com/blog/photo/Cherry-blossoms.html">Apr 2009</a> </p> |
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271 </description> |
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272 </item> |
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273 <item> |
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274 <title>14,000 dead in Sweden</title> |
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275 <pubDate>Sat, 24 Apr 2021 12:28:00 +0000</pubDate> |
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276 <link>https://gerikson.com/blog/2021/04/24#Corona-14000-dead</link> |
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277 <category>/alt/corona2020</category> |
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278 <guid isPermaLink="false">https://gerikson.com/blog/alt/corona2020/Corona-14000-dead</guid> |
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279 <description> |
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280 </description> |
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281 </item> |
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282 <item> |
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283 <title><em>The Pacific War Trilogy</em> by Ian W. Toll</title> |
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284 <pubDate>Tue, 13 Apr 2021 19:44:00 +0000</pubDate> |
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285 <link>https://gerikson.com/blog/2021/04/13#Pacific-War-Trilogy</link> |
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286 <category>/books/read</category> |
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287 <guid isPermaLink="false">https://gerikson.com/blog/books/read/Pacific-War-Trilogy</guid> |
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288 <description><ul> |
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289 <li>Pacific Crucible: War at Sea in the Pacific, 1941–1942</li> |
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290 <li>The Conquering Tide: War in the Pacific Islands, 1942–1944</li> |
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291 <li>Twilight of the Gods: War in the Western Pacific, 1944–1945</li> |
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292 </ul> |
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293 |
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294 <p>An excellent and readable account of the (US) war in the Pacific |
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295 against Japan in World War 2. Highly recommended.</p> |
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296 </description> |
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297 </item> |
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298 <item> |
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299 <title>March</title> |
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300 <pubDate>Wed, 31 Mar 2021 23:23:00 +0000</pubDate> |
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301 <link>https://gerikson.com/blog/2021/03/31#2021-03</link> |
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302 <category>/photo</category> |
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303 <guid isPermaLink="false">https://gerikson.com/blog/photo/2021-03</guid> |
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304 <description><p><a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/gerikson/51009915462/in/dateposted/" title="Vasagatan"><img src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51009915462_2e09e5c194_z.jpg" width="640" height="512" alt="Vasagatan"></a><script async src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p> |
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305 |
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306 <p><a href="http://gerikson.com/blog/photo/2020-03.html">Mar 2020</a> | |
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307 <a href="http://gerikson.com/blog/photo/2019-03.html">Mar 2019</a> | |
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308 <a href="http://gerikson.com/blog/photo/2018-03.html">Mar 2018</a> | |
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309 <a href="http://gerikson.com/blog/photo/2017-03.html">Mar 2017</a> | |
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310 <a href="http://gerikson.com/blog/photo/2016-03.html">Mar 2016</a> | |
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311 <a href="http://gerikson.com/blog/photo/2015-03.html">Mar 2015</a> | |
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312 <a href="http://gerikson.com/blog/photo/2014-03.html">Mar 2014</a> | |
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313 <a href="http://gerikson.com/blog/photo/March-2013.html">Mar 2013</a> | |
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314 Mar 2012 | |
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315 <a href="http://gerikson.com/blog/photo/March-2011.html">Mar 2011</a> | |
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316 Mar 2010 | |
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317 <a href="http://gerikson.com/blog/photo/Last-day-of-winter.html">Mar 2009</a></p> |
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318 </description> |
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319 </item> |
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320 <item> |
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321 <title><em>Confessions of a Long-Distance Sailor</em> by Paul Lutus</title> |
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322 <pubDate>Sat, 27 Mar 2021 22:11:00 +0000</pubDate> |
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323 <link>https://gerikson.com/blog/2021/03/27#Confessions-of-a-Long-Distance-Sailor</link> |
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324 <category>/books/read</category> |
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325 <guid isPermaLink="false">https://gerikson.com/blog/books/read/Confessions-of-a-Long-Distance-Sailor</guid> |
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326 <description><p>A self-published book <a href="https://www.arachnoid.com/sailbook/index.html">available online</a> recounting the author&#8217;s solo round the world sail.</p> |
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327 |
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328 <p>A worthy entry in the long roster of such accounts.</p> |
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329 </description> |
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330 </item> |
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331 <item> |
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332 <title>One year since WFH started</title> |
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333 <pubDate>Wed, 17 Mar 2021 05:55:00 +0000</pubDate> |
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334 <link>https://gerikson.com/blog/2021/03/17#One-year-of-WFM</link> |
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335 <category>/alt/corona2020</category> |
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336 <guid isPermaLink="false">https://gerikson.com/blog/alt/corona2020/One-year-of-WFM</guid> |
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337 <description> |
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338 </description> |
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339 </item> |
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340 <item> |
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341 <title>One year since WHO declared a pandemic</title> |
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342 <pubDate>Thu, 11 Mar 2021 05:54:00 +0000</pubDate> |
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343 <link>https://gerikson.com/blog/2021/03/11#Pandemic-1yr-anniversary</link> |
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344 <category>/alt/corona2020</category> |
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345 <guid isPermaLink="false">https://gerikson.com/blog/alt/corona2020/Pandemic-1yr-anniversary</guid> |
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346 <description> |
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347 </description> |
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348 </item> |
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349 <item> |
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350 <title><em>Libra Shrugged: How Facebook’s dream of controlling the world&#8217;s money crashed and burned</em> by David Gerard</title> |
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351 <pubDate>Wed, 10 Mar 2021 19:09:00 +0000</pubDate> |
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352 <link>https://gerikson.com/blog/2021/03/10#Libra-Shrugged</link> |
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353 <category>/books/read</category> |
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354 <guid isPermaLink="false">https://gerikson.com/blog/books/read/Libra-Shrugged</guid> |
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355 <description><p>A short account of how Bitcoiners tried to create a Facebook currency and how the rest of the world reacted. </p> |
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356 </description> |
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357 </item> |
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358 <item> |
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359 <title><em>The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte</em> by Karl Marx</title> |
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360 <pubDate>Wed, 10 Mar 2021 10:41:00 +0000</pubDate> |
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361 <link>https://gerikson.com/blog/2021/03/10#18th-Brumaire</link> |
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362 <category>/books/read</category> |
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363 <guid isPermaLink="false">https://gerikson.com/blog/books/read/18th-Brumaire</guid> |
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364 <description><p><a href="https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1852/18th-brumaire/index.htm">Available online |
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365 here</a>.</p> |
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366 |
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367 <p>Come for the class analysis, stay for the <em>bon mots</em>.</p> |
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368 |
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369 <p>It&#8217;s probably fitting that the only way obscure French politicians are |
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370 remembered today is through their skewering in this piece.</p> |
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371 |
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372 <blockquote> |
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373 <p>Hegel remarks somewhere that all great world-historic facts and |
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374 personages appear, so to speak, twice. He forgot to add: the first |
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375 time as tragedy, the second time as |
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376 farce. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Caussidi%C3%A8re">Caussidière</a> |
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377 for Danton, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Blanc">Louis Blanc</a> |
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378 for Robespierre, the Montagne of 1848 to 1851 for the Montagne of |
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379 1793 to 1795, the nephew for the uncle. And the same caricature |
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380 occurs in the circumstances of the second edition of the Eighteenth |
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381 Brumaire.</p> |
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382 |
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383 <p>The period that we have before us comprises the most motley mixture |
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384 of crying contradictions: constitutionalists who conspire openly |
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385 against the constitution; revolutionists who are confessedly |
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386 constitutional; a National Assembly that wants to be omnipotent and |
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387 always remains parliamentary; a Montagne that finds its vocation in |
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388 patience and counters its present defeats by prophesying future |
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389 victories; royalists who form the <em>patres conscripti</em> of the |
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390 republic and are forced by the situation to keep the hostile royal |
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391 houses they adhere to abroad, and the republic, which they hate, in |
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392 France; an executive power that finds its strength in its very |
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393 weakness and its respectability in the contempt that it calls forth; |
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394 a republic that is nothing but the combined infamy of two |
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395 monarchies, the Restoration and the July Monarchy, with an imperial |
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396 label – alliances whose first proviso is separation; struggles whose |
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397 first law is indecision; wild, inane agitation in the name of |
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398 tranquillity, most solemn preaching of tranquillity in the name of |
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399 revolution – passions without truth, truths without passion; heroes |
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400 without heroic deeds, history without events; development, whose |
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401 sole driving force seems to be the calendar, wearying with constant |
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402 repetition of the same tensions and relaxations; antagonisms that |
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403 periodically seem to work themselves up to a climax only to lose |
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404 their sharpness and fall away without being able to resolve |
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405 themselves; pretentiously paraded exertions and philistine terror at |
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406 the danger of the world’s coming to an end, and at the same time the |
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407 pettiest intrigues and court comedies played by the world redeemers, |
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408 who in their <em>laisser aller</em> remind us less of the Day of Judgment |
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409 than of the times of the Fronde – the official collective genius of |
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410 France brought to naught by the artful stupidity of a single |
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411 individual; the collective will of the nation, as often as it speaks |
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412 through universal suffrage, seeking its appropriate expression |
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413 through the inveterate enemies of the interests of the masses, until |
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414 at length it finds it in the self-will of a filibuster. If any |
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415 section of history has been painted gray on gray, it is this. Men |
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416 and events appear as reverse |
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417 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Schlemihl">Schlemihls</a>, as |
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418 shadows that have lost their bodies. The revolution itself paralyzes |
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419 its own bearers and endows only its adversaries with passionate |
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420 forcefulness. When the “red specter,” continually conjured up and |
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421 exercised by the counterrevolutionaries finally appears, it appears |
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422 not with the Phrygian cap of anarchy on its head, but in the uniform |
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423 of order, in <em>red breeches</em>.</p> |
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424 |
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425 <p>The coup d&#8217;etat was ever the fixed idea of Bonaparte. With this idea |
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426 he had again set foot on French soil. He was so obsessed by it that |
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427 he continually betrayed it and blurted it out. He was so weak that, |
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428 just as continually, he gave it up again.</p> |
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429 |
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430 <p>The army itself is no longer the flower of the peasant youth; it is |
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431 the swamp flower of the peasant lumpen proletariat. It consists |
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432 largely of replacements, of substitutes, just as the second |
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433 Bonaparte is himself only a replacement, the substitute for |
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434 Napoleon. It now performs its deeds of valor by hounding the |
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435 peasants in masses like chamois, by doing gendarme duty; and if the |
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436 natural contradictions of his system chase the Chief of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Band_of_the_10th_of_December">the Society |
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437 of December |
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438 10</a> |
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439 across the French border, his army, after some acts of brigandage, |
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440 will reap, not laurels, but thrashings.</p> |
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441 </blockquote> |
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442 </description> |
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443 </item> |
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444 <item> |
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445 <title>On the dates</title> |
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446 <pubDate>Mon, 01 Mar 2021 17:09:00 +0000</pubDate> |
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447 <link>https://gerikson.com/blog/2021/03/01#On-Dates</link> |
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448 <category>/alt/corona2020</category> |
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449 <guid isPermaLink="false">https://gerikson.com/blog/alt/corona2020/On-Dates</guid> |
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450 <description><p>When I started recording the dates when Sweden&#8217;s death toll from COVID-19 exceeded round thousands, I did not foresee the project continuing into the next year. But here we are.</p> |
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451 |
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452 <p>I used to set the dates when I noticed Swedish media report them, but I&#8217;ve now gone to <a href="https://www.folkhalsomyndigheten.se/smittskydd-beredskap/utbrott/aktuella-utbrott/covid-19/statistik-och-analyser/bekraftade-fall-i-sverige/">FHM&#8217;s stats page</a> and got them from there.</p> |
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453 |
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454 <p>This has led to some reshuffling - especially on <a href="https://gerikson.com/blog/alt/corona2020/Corona-10347-dead.html">Jan 6 2021</a> which now has its own tally.</p> |
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455 |
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456 <p><a href="https://gerikson.com/blog/alt/corona2020/Corona-11000-dead.html">This table</a> has also been updated. </p> |
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457 </description> |
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458 </item> |
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459 </channel> |
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460 </rss> |
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