20220206
I watched this fantastic Japanese children’s show Pui Pui Molcar which is stop motion animation about guinea pig cars. Super short and super recommended.
I also watched Joel Coen’s The Tragedy of Macbeth. Stylistically it was incredible. I think they were trying to emulate the experience of watching a play, but portrayed on film. The sets were very simple and the use of lighting is reminiscent of what is seen in a theater (with the sound effects of old style lights turning on and off). I haven’t read or seen any other Macbeth adaptations so I would like to do so before placing judgement, but I enjoyed watching it. Shakespearean dialogue is always a blast:
“Your face, my thane, is as a book where men
May read strange matters. To beguile the time,
Look like the time; bear welcome in your eye,
Your hand, your tongue: look like the innocent flower,
But be the serpent under ‘t.”
Figuring out more things of the Spitfire. It’s great fun to fly. Flew around San Francisco today with some friends and then all the way to Yosemite before landing at a nearby airport. Would be quite a sight to see one of these flying today.
Spent some time talking with a friend about the lack of imagination that people have in home automation. Most of it is just dumb ways of connecting lights to devices or setting up cameras to alert about intruders. Is that really the most interesting things we can do? Why not have something that automatically operates your space as a thermal battery to save on energy use and costs? Why not have a system that can detect your mood and do subtle things to help adjust that behavior? We were more imaginative in the 60s when Chitty Chitty Bang Bang had an automatic breakfast machine (as a side note this scene has always stuck with me and I credit for instilling me with a want to be an engineer - read the comments to see that I’m not alone)! Wallace and Gromit too for that matter.
I don’t really understand why we’ve settled for really inane automations and not any serious ones that help us in more meaningful ways. I think it would be worthwhile to try and make the ones that I think would be useful for me and presumably others. For example something to help remind me of my priorities for the week and nudge me when I’m not progressing towards them. Various software things could come to mind like reminders or action trackers that nudge me when it detects me doing unrelated things, but that could be difficult to implement properly, and moreover software notifications are extremely easy to ignore. So I think there needs to be some physical aspect of it, but I don’t really have a great idea of what that should be. Worth musing and writing about some more though. I make a yogurt meal for lunch everyday, perhaps I could take a cue from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and automate that 🤔.
Daily Listening
Daily Reading
Ford’s plan to mass produce the B24 was at odds with the war effort in which the military constantly wanted to update the bomber based on what they learned in the field. Since the production line couldn’t be retooled as quickly as needed this was significant cause for concern and of many delays in production. All until they figured out that Ford could build them to a certain standard and then they would be sent to another facility to undergo modifications to make them fit for service. Essentially just another step in the production process that could have been eliminated had they the technology and knowledge to do lean manufacturing. In any case it was sufficient for the war effort and the significant number of B24s played a crucial role in ending the U boat menace as they could be purposed as long range surveillance planes to detect and alert merchant ships of the submarines (which were apparently now choosing to stay at the surface instead of getting sunk while underwater!).