Archives for Miscellanea
COVID-19: Winning the War, but Losing All the Battles
It's been more than two months since I wanted to write a follow-up to my previous comments on this pandemic, and I never got beyond the title. I finally decided to put a few things there,…
Language Learning Apps, Revisited: 34 Products + Bonus Links
More than three years ago, I discussed a few apps meant to help you learn a foreign language; while I still believe the best way to learn a language is to use printed manuals with audio…
The Last Sleep of the Civilization Part II
In the first part of this series, it was about COVID-19. But the symptoms of the impending death of our civilizations include another one, which was visible for quite some time—but the political correctness managed to…
The Last Sleep of the Civilization Part I
I'm breaking the radio silence out of rage. So much stupidity while living “in the best of times” is unbearable. Given that I gave up any social media presence, here I am, ranting on my personal…
Le Twitter des cons
I've given up Facebook long ago; now I have the proof that Twitter isn't any better anymore. A little social experiment proved to be "the last straw" (so to speak). Even as I have little motivation…
In omaggio a John Peter Sloan (1969-2020)
Sono nato inglese ma morirò italiano, said five years ago the most famous language teacher in Italy. Nobody thought though that this would happen so soon. Here's a text I wrote more than one year ago,…
Mon héros, le Pr Didier Raoult
Entretien exclusif accordé à Apolline de Malherbe, sur BFMTV, diffusé le soir du 30 avril. On y trouve énormément de bon sens, et également du savoir. On en apprend beaucoup. Vers la fin, le professeur nous…
End of World Diary N°4: Le monde est tellement con, yet the future is interesting
I hesitated quite some time before starting this post—more than three weeks, actually. The world seems so stupid—in some regards, even more stupid than it was in the Middle Ages—that it's simply pointless for me to…
End of World Diary N°3: China Just Won
These days 99% of everything seems to be about Covid-19; when it isn't, it's even worse: staying of home has revealed our weaknesses, and our expression in the social media is now a mix of poor…
I really don’t have what to do at home
That is, not counting the thousands of e-books, the thousands of scanned comic books, the thousands of movies (MKV/MP4/AVI), of music (MP3), etc. Tens of thousands of each. Oh, and most of my books are in…
Beyond the Point of No Return: We’re Losing the Battle
Not only it's "not just a flu," but we're going to lose the battle: instead of taking stronger measures than China, we're babbling here in the "civilized" West. It's not just Italy, and Spain, and Germany,…
2020: The Year The World Ended
Friday 13 sounds like the best day for expressing some thoughts regarding the state of the world in the times of the COVID-19 outbreak. (And yes, I know: there is a book with the title "1914:…
24-Hour Shifts: A Planet of Fools
Since I already posted today on an issue involving both logic and common sense, here's another one, in the context of a human tragedy in Romania where it has been revealed that the emergency services operators…
Choosing the right poison
About one week ago I had exactly 50 types of tea at home. By tea, I don't only understand black-oolong-green-white tea, but also the various plant infusions that are actually tisanes, being them with or without…
The day the Chinese puzzles took over
I'm really furious when people don't bother to look for the original source of whatever they're posting on the Internet (I feel I have a duty). I'm also angry at how many people are using reddit…
Should you live with no sense of smell…
...you'd be missing quite a lot. I happen to be a person to whom the olfactory and the tactile senses are crucial—not that I could imagine myself blind or deaf, but I have a strong memory…
Carracci—what else?
I failed to update the blog with the coffees I've tried since the last post on this topic. I'll only tell you what I settled for: Carracci. Despite the fact that they don't ship to Germany…
Until further notice…
...let's consider the contents of the previous posts as outdated. For the time being I have no motivation to correct or update them, nor to add new posts.
Learning a language in 200 hours?
German is an impossible language. Right after I got the Zertifikat Deutsch B1, I forgot half of what I've learned. This is in part because all the methods and textbooks are stupid--but I'm not going to…
The coffee saga goes on—Summer Edition
My post on Nespresso-compatible capsules has become unmanageable because of its too many updates. I myself cannot use it as a guide anymore! As I've discovered some more capsules, it's time for a separate addendum. Even…