DENISE HO

DENISE HO

Denise Ho, or HOCC as her fans prefer, was arrested on December 29 in Hong Kong

I already told you about Hong Kong and the Umbrellas Revolution

Unfortunately the situation is only getting worse, Denise announced with a tweet that she was released, a bit like what happened for Agnes Chow, but the arrest also involved the staff of Stand News, Hong Kong’s pro-democracy website accused of “seditious publication.”

Any act of rebellion, hostility, excitement to subvert institutions that is concretely capable of producing an event that is dangerous to public order is considered seditious.

Hong Kong, a former British colony, returned to Chinese rule in 1997 with the promise that its freedoms, including freedom of the press, would be protected.

Amnesty International asked for the immediate release of all intelligence workers arrested only for having carried out their legitimate work journalistic.

In June, the director of the Apple Daily newspaper: Jimmy Lai announced the closure, again following a series of arrests.

In this tweet there is a letter written in his hand after the sentencing for the commemoration of Tiananmen.

“Systemic erasing of history.”

So Denise Ho’s speech and voices like hers are extremely important

Denise was born in Hong Kong but raised in Montreal Quebec. However, she decided to return to launch her career in Cantopop.

Did you know Cantopop?

Not me, and I found an interesting explanation for it here

Among other things, I also discovered Caffeine Tears by Dear Jane! Now I absolutely have to understand the origin of the name of this band which is called Chinese acoustic rock.

Becoming the song is instead the docufilm that describes Denise’s journey from pop star to human rights activist.

Definitely to follow, don’t you agree?

WAR OF THE WORLDS

WAR OF THE WORLDS

What time is the end of the world?
No, let’s start from the beginning: The War of the Worlds is a novel written by H. G. Wells, one of the forerunners of the science fiction genre, originally published in installments in 1897 on the Pearson’s Magazine in London.
First curious anecdote: HG Wells took in part inspiration from Giovanni Schiaparelli’s theories about Mars (and if you always read me remember our save the date 🙂 )
The astronomer and director of the Brera Astronomical Observatory in Milan observed some lines on the surface of the red planet, and hypothesized that they could be natural channels for the transport of water as they changed from one observation to another.
At this point there is another beautiful smile because what is one of the painful keys for all of us Italians? Knowledge of English!
Why do I say this? Because its natural channels were translated with the wrong term that distorted the theory by transforming them into artificial canals. Hence the assumption that they had been excavated by … Martians, precisely.
These famous “Martians” who populated the fantasies of many, embodying the most varied forms and descriptions, before being replaced by the most universal aliens.
These famous “Martians” who inspired Wells first and then Welles, Orson Welles.
Curious also this coincidence, one e above all and a patented invention separates them, another curious fact, always in 1897, always in London, and always by an Italian: Guglielmo Marconi.
Why do I switch to radio? Because in the meantime we arrive in 1938, and the radio is still the fledgling mass media and, exactly as it works today for the internet, it is seen as a form of potentially dangerous communication. It is seen as a vehicle of social mutation, for the rapid diffusion to the easy reach of a large number of people, and above all harmful to the publishing giants, worried about losing their income.
And precisely at CBS Orson Welles conducts The Mercury Theater on the Air: a program consisting of the narration of the great classics of literature, for the truth poorly paid and not much followed.
But Orson, at that time a Shakespearean actor, expresses his genius by using the program also to deal a blow to the system, deciding to cut the news in real time, and in view of the imminent Halloween, structures the Martian invasion described in the book like a real-time radio commentary.
It is in fact on October 30, 1938 when the reading of the opening words of The War of the Worlds is on air, interspersed with musical broadcasts, as usual, until an announcement interrupts the music and transposes the text setting it in the United States. With the help of screenwriter Howard Koch, completed with mock interviews with experts, imitations of press releases from the authorities, and sound effects to which Orson Welles pays special attention.
At the beginning and during the transmission it is clearly stated that it is the transposition of the novel, but many tune in at different times and the illusion effect created artfully succeeds perfectly.
It is said that a man called the New York Times to ask “what time is the end of the world?” to which the famous song written by Michael stipe of R.E.M. is inspired.
There is a chorus that supports the exaggeration of the estimates that count people running in the street, panic scenes, or hysteria, and I honestly don’t intend to dwell on the numbers, since, especially in this period, we everyday hear tragic counts.
In fact, in Grover’s Mills, New Jersey, there is a commemorative plaque with the following inscription:
On the evening of October 30, 1938 Orson Welles and The Mercury Theatre presented a dramatization of H.G. Wells The war of the worlds as adapted by Howard Koch. This was to become a landmark in broadcast history, provoking continuing thought about media responsibility, social psychology and civil defense. For a brief time as many as one million people throughout the country believed that Martians had invaded the earth, beginning with Grover’s Mill, New Jersey.
The important thing that Orson Welles has more or less voluntarily shown us is that people are led to believe rather unconditionally what is communicated to them by the mainstream mass media.
How many times have we heard “TV said it?”
How many care to check the news?
This time I went beyond coffee time, but today we can also indulge in chocolate, what do you say?
Now I conclude with the last strange coincidence: in The War of the Worlds the Martians are defeated by a virus.

IS THE FROG BOILING?

IS THE FROG BOILING?

In these days in which we are under the centrifuges of information shot at accelerated speed, we find ourselves thinking also about how many rights enshrined in our Constitution have been suspended by decrees with that initials so far unusual: DPCM.
Our Constitution actually does not provide for the declaration of the state of emergency, and simply refers to the Civil Protection Code, in fact this Code is referred to in the now infamous publication in the Official Journal of January 31.
Our constituent fathers did not consider appropriate to insert emergency clauses, considering that the eventual conferral of full powers to a specific body, or the legitimization of the limitation, or even the suspension of citizens’ rights, could have represented a danger in the event of possible risks of dictatorship.
Emergency is, by definition an unforeseen circumstance, a concept therefore that in fact refers to a critical moment, to a particular condition that requires immediate intervention.
Undoubtedly what we are experiencing is a series of completely incomparable events, and it would be appropriate to try to keep focused on the fixed points: that is, the certain data.
It costs just a few seconds to go and read from official sources.
What is real and correct, helps anyone to make their own reflections, in the shelter of the bass drum of some media that feed panic and consequent misplaced behaviors and, on the other hand, helps to answer the title question.
The boiling frog is Noam Chomsky’s infamous metaphorical principle that if
“Imagine a pot full of cold water in which a frog swims quietly.
The fire is lit under the pot, the water heats up slowly. Soon it becomes lukewarm. The frog finds it rather pleasant and continues to swim.
The temperature rises. Now the water is hot. A little more than the frog does not appreciate. It gets tired a little, but it does not get scared.
The frog finds it very unpleasant, but it is weakened, it does not have the strength to react. Then it endures and does nothing. Meanwhile, the temperature still rises, until the moment when the frog ends – simply – boiled dead.
If the same frog had been immersed directly in the water at 50° it would have given a strong paw and would have jumped out of the pot immediately.”
However, this pot has a further disturbing characteristic: its size. It involves the whole world.
But “Being boiled” also has a slang meaning, at least we can remedy that.

TV YIN OR TV YANG?

TV YIN OR TV YANG?

According to the idea that we always should separate into two opposing factions, in Italy it seems to be back to the times of Guelfi and Ghibellini. If you are not on one side, it must mean that you are on the other, (and I wonder WHY), also TV’s are apparently dividing the roles … yes, I know, I’m talking about “dated” devices for the current average duration, even if in reality they aren’t that old.
So at home for example on a TV Mediaset channels are still visible but no longer La7 and others, and vice versa.
From 1st January 2020 DTT channels (digital terrestrial) are going to abandon the current MPEG-2 encoding standard to switch to MPEG-4 which is currently provided by HD channels i.e. in high definition.
But this will only be the first phase: the final transition will end by 2022 and involves the passage to new transmission technologies such as HEVC “High efficiency video coding” which offers better data compression, or DVB-T2 “Digital Video Broadcasting Terrestrial Second Generation ”or regulated to bring the HDTV signal on digital terrestrial.
Why all this?
Because the frequencies which we are using at present must be left free for the 5G network, therefore for mobile communication, ensuring a high connection speed for mobile phones.
What about disabled TVs? We will need a decoder. Again
At this point the question: does television still offer a useful and adequate service?
The programs that do not take sides neither with the Guelphs nor with the Ghibellines to be clear, the serious programs, the programs that make culture or even entertainment that is not the famous “copy of a thousand summaries” are perhaps used on the fingers of one hand .
Considering we already have to pay a tenancy tax by continuing to call it a fee, which is stuck in electricity bills, is it really worth spending more money?
The way we are used to advertise, and I’m not just talking about advertising, honestly, doesn’t it have to be them paying us?

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