Month: November 2020

Fabulous artworks in the Kunstkammer Wien

From the late Middle Ages to the Baroque, Habsburg emperors and archdukes collected exotic and uncommon materials, to which they often ascribed magical powers, such as precious stones, ostrich eggs, coral and shark’s teeth, which were considered to be dragon’s tongues. From these natural products, artists created virtuoso works of art.

How Media Spins News to Support the State

Mainstream media’s strategy is to limit protests of national importance to local media. This gives the fake impression that state-subservient media is reporting as is their responsibility. Another strategy is to spin each story in a way that humiliates protestors and reduces the numbers attending to give a false impression that they are a fringe minority.

Masks and the Facebook Gag

Social media can’t be allowed to suppress scientific discourse, critics said after Facebook so-called and much-scorned ‘fact-checkers’ flagged as ‘false’ an Oxford professor’s report citing a Danish study on the effectiveness of masks against Covid-19.

Dumb Phones have Killed Culture

Once, while at the Royal Spanish Academy in Rome, I tried to give lectures, but one woman constantly blinded me with a camera flash, which prevented me from concentrating on my notes. I said that while I was working, they should stop working, because of the division of labour. The woman turned off her camera but clearly felt pained.