Category: Quickies

UPDATE: 283 ΜΕΡΕΣ ΧΩΡΙΣ ΣΑΜΠΟΥΑΝ

Οσο οι 283 μερες έχουν φτάσει κοντά στα 4 χρόνια και βλέπω ότι πολλοί και πολλές φτάνουν στο μπλογκ μου ψάχνοντας πώς να φροντίζουν τα μαλλιά τους χωρίς σαμπουάν, έκανα μια μικρή ανανέωση στο πρωτότυπο ποστ απ’ το 2012 με την τωρινή κατάσταση των μαλλιών μου και τι χρησιμοποιώ τώρα.

CONGRATULATIONS

status_update

This popped up on my FB feed today.

I played with the idea of simply posting “congratulations” as a comment under this update. I didn’t. I figured that if I’m not interested in this information, I should simply unfriend this person, not post a sarcastic comment.  But if I’m not interested in being friends with this person, what is it, I wonder, that is keeping me from expressing my disdain?

Something about Facebook makes it very hard to criticise people who are using Facebook as intended, i.e. for carefully constructing a small shrine in their name open to the public. It only allows for a very limited range of types of interaction. Your options are: 1) liking, 2) commenting, and 3) ignoring, and this is starting to reflect on real-life interactions, with the “we’re all such good friends!” taking the cake. Ever heard of “if you have nothing nice to say, better say nothing at all?” It’s an axiom way older than Facebook itself, sure, but its validity today is constantly being reinforced by the congratulatory nature of social media. Your circle exists to feed your ego, not challenge it, and if there is ever some kind of challenge placed, it’s in the passive-aggressive form of Facebook envy, that is comparing your backstage to other people’s highlight reel, as they say, which, by the way, never ever leads to any positive feelings at all.

What if I told you that whenever you post something on Facebook to show off and make others notice you, some of them secretly hate you for it because they envy you and can’t be like you? What if I told you that that number is probably the majority of your precious friends?

What the fuck went wrong?

Winter Solstice 2013

winter_solstice 2013

This unusual and artistic image, made using a technique known as “solargraphy” in which a pinhole camera captures the movement of the Sun in the sky over many months, was taken from the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) telescope on the plateau of Chajnantor. The plateau is also where ESO, together with international partners, is building the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). The solar trails in the image were recorded over half a year and clearly show the quality of the 5000-metre altitude site, high in the Chilean Andes, for astronomical observations.

Caught from Wikipedia.

Last Chance To Evacuate Planet Earth Before It Is Recycled

Another Earth Just 12 Light-Years Away?

*Tau Ceti is the system where Anarres and Urras are located in Ursula K. LeGuin’s novel The Dispossessed.