Five Things: Apocalypse, Israeli Intelligence, Netflix, Sales, Russian Spies
Hello and welcome back to Five Things! Happy New Year!
I hope you had wonderful holidays and enjoyed some days off. Like most other people, I will be back at work on Monday and our kids have to go back to school. Our oldest daughter is flying back to Sweden on Monday as well, to finish up her semester at university in Uppsala. It was so amazing to have her back here for a few weeks, fully knowing that her time at our home will be less and less in the next years. Which is also good, don’t get me wrong. It’s just something to get used to.
We even had some snow, but not for Christmas, instead just this Friday and Saturday. Just enough to cause some traffic issues when the snow melted and then froze again. I want real winters back.
I did manage to sleep more in the last two weeks, but I really didn’t get around to reading the books I wanted to read. Sleep is also a good idea and my Oura ring keeps telling me that I’m doing the right thing. Let’s see how that changes next week when we are all back on the school schedule.
I hope you like my selection of these five articles. I didn’t pick any articles with predictions for 2025, mostly because I don’t want to read about all the moronic stuff Trump wants to do when in office. Tariffs are such a stupid idea, and I don’t even want to get started about the planned deportations. Meanwhile, Elon Musk is courting the right-wing German party AfD and wrote an op-ed in a once respected conservative newspaper arguing that only they can save Germany. Our federal elections will be in 6 weeks and we really don’t need any meddling from a billionaire who thinks he can just buy the politicians he needs to increase his fortune.
Apocalypse, Constantly
“This element of self-accusation is what makes an apocalypse story distinctively modern. When human beings imagined that the world would end as a result of a divine decree or a celestial collision, they might rend their garments and tear their hair, but they could do nothing about it. When we imagine the end of the world in a nuclear war or an AI takeover, we are not just the victims but also the culprits.” - I’d rather not have an apocalypse anytime soon, thanks.
Behind the Dismantling of Hezbollah: Decades of Israeli Intelligence
Explosives in pagers and walkie-talkie changed the political map of the Mideast. It was a very clever move by the Israeli intelligence community to attack Hezbollah like this.
Casual Viewing
“Netflix has created a pyramid scheme of attention, with no end in sight. And yet if the streamer admitted how little impact its movies make, it would undermine its long-running pitch to audiences, Hollywood talent, and their business representatives that the company is a grand star-making enterprise that produces great cinema with commercial appeal.” - Netflix really is a weird place. There’s so much stuff that is just pure and utter crap - and then again there are good shows like “Black Doves”, which we just watched and really enjoyed.
Smells Like American Spirit
A little more than 10 years ago I worked as a freelance consultant and I really don’t recall how I ended up working with a telemarketing company that needed some consulting for a digital product they were developing. Let me put it this way: it was an interesting two weeks I worked with them, but the cultural differences were huge and I don’t even want to mention how much crap their product was that they wanted to sell to small business owners. I was younger and needed the money, I guess.
The Global Hunt for Putin’s ‘Sleeper Agents’
What a great spy story. Unfortunately, this is not fictional.
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That’s it. Have a great Sunday!
— Nico
Gesch?ftsführer der KSBUnIT Corp
1 个月Nun ja bedenkt Mann das sich die Bauweise jetzt endgültig bew?hrt hat, denke Ich das was den Cyber angeht nie wieder etwas Normal sein wird. ??
Cognitive Rehabilitation, Designer and manufacturer Cognitive Rehabilitation games
1 个月If people read the Bible, the Torah, the Psalms and the Quran, they will realize that the basis of all religions is only love and goodness. In the past, there was no such thing as the United Nations and international law, religion was an evil controller. Alas, every geography with its own ancient culture has destroyed religions. True Islam strongly opposes hatred and in many of its verses it clearly states that humans are worthy of respect, regardless of their religion. It is possible that the Quran was also written by humans and has errors. But most Muslims do not accept it. God is against killing. Is the God of Jesus, Moses, Abraham and Muhammad different? Never. And we are all born from a man and a woman. Why do they fight each other? I do not understand. I do not understand money and power. I never liked it.
Cognitive Rehabilitation, Designer and manufacturer Cognitive Rehabilitation games
1 个月The only way to save the Middle East is an intellectual renaissance. I am surprised that Europe, Canada, America value immigrants from Arab countries and Afghanistan so much. They give them many benefits and even a life that they could not even dream of in their own country, and yet they are seeking to spread their Islamist thinking and if this ideology and management were good, why don't they return to their country? Whenever people learn that the God of all religions is one and the only thing that is important to God is humanity, the Middle East will see the color of peace. The ideology that the father of Iran, Cyrus the Great, upheld. Good thinking, good behavior and good speech. This should be the basis of life. Today I see this thinking more in the people of Europe.