Nick Weisser

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  • Sleep Now in the Fire

    Sleep Now in the Fire

    The recording of this music video by one of my favorite bands of the 90s forced the New York Stock Exchange to close in 2000. It’s been almost 19 years since Rage Against The Machine teamed up with documentarian and political activist Michael Moore for this video.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w211KOQ5BMI

    The band – Zack de la Rocha, Tom Morello, Tim Commerford and Brad Wilk – all climb the steps of Federal Hall National Memorial and begin to play.

    There’s a man walking around with a ‘Donald Trump For President 2000’ placard. Who, in their right mind, would elect him into office?

    Scene from the Rage Against the Machine music video

    The «funny» thing is that in 2000 also the Simpsons «predicted» Trump as president.

    The Simpsons Episode from the year 2000

    But back to Michael Moore: His latest political documentary  released in September 2018 is about the 2016 United States presidential election and the subsequent presidency of Donald Trump. The film had its world premiere at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival.

    Have you seen it? What do you think?

    (Main picture courtesy of Andreas Horstmann)

  • Building Block(chain)s for a Better Planet

    Building Block(chain)s for a Better Planet

    There has been a lot of hype about blockchain technology – in particular, its potential to transform how humans transact, which could fundamentally redefine how business, governments and society operate. Despite this hype, it is still a nascent technology with considerable challenges that need to be overcome. As the technology matures and is applied across a wider set of sectors and systems, there is both a challenge and an opportunity to realize blockchain’s potential – not just for finance or industry, but for people and the planet.

    This report outlines how blockchain could disrupt the way the world manages environmental resources and help drive sustainable growth and value creation. It identifies more than 65 use-cases where blockchain can be applied to the world’s most-pressing environmental systems challenges, along with eight ‘game changers’ where the technology could fundamentally disrupt current systems and approaches. To date, these opportunities remain largely untapped by developers, investors, and governments, yet they represent an opportunity to unlock and monetize value that is currently embedded in environmental systems.

    World Economic Forum Davos Switzerland

    The report also highlights many of the current challenges that need to be addressed, outlines a set of principles for developing blockchain applications for the environment, and identifies the need for global platforms to incubate a responsible blockchain ecosystem.

    This post was first published on weforum.org, where you can also download the 37 page report as PDF. Pictures in this post are courtesy of pexels.com and bitcoinmagazine.com.

  • Atypical

    Atypical

    I recently finished watching the first 2 seasons of this amazing story about a family with a neuro-atypical or autistic kid and have to admit that I absolutely love it.

    I hadn‘t read any reviews before watching it, but this show definitely calls for at least 2 Oscars: one for Robia Rashid who came up with the story and one for Keir Gilchrist for playing Sam Gardner.

    Robia was asked by Maria Elena Fernandez what her inspiration for the story was. Here’s part of her reply:

    After working in network TV for a while, I just wanted to do something for myself. I was very aware that more people were being diagnosed with autism, and it was interesting to me that a whole generation of kids were growing up knowing that they were on the spectrum and wanting independence. That point of view seemed so interesting to me — and such a cool way to tell a dating story. You’ve seen the story of somebody looking for independence and looking for love before, but not from that specific point of view. I really was drawn to that. I was a little annoyed because it sounded really hard! I had to do a lot of research…

    I also love Nik Donani’s role as Sam’s best friend, Zahid, he is absolutely hilarious and wise beyond his years. Sam’s little sister and his parents are also doing a great job. Michael Rapaport was on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert just last week.

    If you want to learn something about autism in an entertaining way, this is a good start.

    • Sam with his noise cancelling head phones
    • Casey and Sam under the counter
    • Zahih, Sam and family