Response 418

  • Oppenheimer. Portrait of an Enigma, Jeremy Bernstein (ISBN 978-1-56663-569-1, Ivan R. Dee)

    The third Oppenheimer biography I have read. Compared to the other 2 this is a very brief one. Jeremy Bernstein is a physicist turned science writer who wrote many biographies for The New Yorker. In the introduction of the book he writes he never got around to writing a biography of Oppenheimer for The New Yorker and sees his book as this piece he never wrote. As such it is more a long article than a full length book biography. Bernstein takes a personal angle to his subject as he did some atomic weapons research himself and spent some time…

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    Oppenheimer. Portrait of an Enigma, Jeremy Bernstein (ISBN 978-1-56663-569-1, Ivan R. Dee)

  • Review of Atomic Blonde: Graphic Novel Adaptation

    Watched Atomic Blonde yesterday on Apple tv enjoying an evening alone at home. I had vaguely heard about it but wasn’t prepared for the graphic violence. Only after watching the movie did I read that it is an adaptation of a graphic novel. That explains the style and why there is more John Wick than suspense in the movie. I did like some of the movie but overall I found it a bit unbalanced. It is obviously quite over the top but not as well done in that respect as John Wick in my opinion. Charlize Theron in the lead…

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    Review of Atomic Blonde: Graphic Novel Adaptation

  • Dining at Wabi Sabi Leuven

    Last week we went for dinner at Wabi Sabi in Leuven. We have mostly gone to Wabi Sabi in Bonheiden because it is nearby. This time we decided to combine a trip to Leuven with dinner at Wabi Sabi in Leuven. Quality in Leuven is similar. We like Wabi Sabi over some other sushi restaurants because the sushi is not too sweet and they also don’t have cheese in the sushi like at some other places. If you are a connaisseur or a sushi purist then this class of sushi restaurant is probably not for you but if you are…

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  • The Last Samurai

    The Last Samurai is a movie with Tom Cruise from 2003. He plays a disillusioned US army captain that tries forget the atrocities he committed in whiskey. He is hired to train the Japanese army in modern warfare. Although his role is that of an adviser he ends up in battle and is wounded and captured by the samurai fighting agains the government. During his capture Cruise learns to appreciate the way of his captors. When his employers make a treacherous assassination attempt he finally switches allegiance and joins the samurai in their battle. The movie is basically split in…

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    The Last Samurai

  • Arsenals of Folly, Richard Rhodes (ISBN 978-0-375-71394-1, Vintage Books)

    The third book in the series on atomic weapons after ‘The making of the atomic bomb’ and ‘Dark Sun’. Chronologically it also covers the period after these 2 books and covers the nuclear arms race and the negotiations between Gorbatchev and Reagan that finally lead to several treaties that finally lead to a reduction in nuclear weapons. Compared to ‘Dark Sun’ this book had a more engaging story arc in my opinion and because it partly deals with more recent history after I was born it has a more direct link to personal experience. The book begins with the Chernobyl…

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    Arsenals of Folly, Richard Rhodes (ISBN 978-0-375-71394-1, Vintage Books)

  • The noble lie

    ‘God has created three kinds of men, made respectively of gold: the rulers, silver: the soldiers, and base metals: the common man .‘― Plato

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  • Platonic Misogeny

    ‘Those of the men first created who led a life of cowardice and injustice were suitably reborn as women in the second generation, and this is why it was at this particular juncture that the gods contrived the lust for copulation.‘― Plato

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  • The Mystique of Mathematical Formulae

    ‘One cannot escape the feeling that these mathematical formulae have an independent existence and an intelligence of their own, that they are wiser than we are, wiser even than their discoverers, that we get more out of them than was originally put into them.‘― Heinrich Herz

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  • Tribute to Talk Talk Concert

    This week we went to a Talk Talk tribute concert called ‘In the SPIRIT of TALK TALK‘ by a few Belgian musicians in 30cc in Leuven. Stefanie Callebaut, Lennert Coorevits, Ruben Block, Isolde Lasoen, Ewen Vernal, Geoffrey Burton, Joachim Badenhorst and David Poltrock played the iconic Talk Talk album Spirit of Eden, followed by a number of the greatest Talk Talk hits like Life’s what you make it and It’s my life. I had not listened to Spirit of Eden before and only knew the Talk Talk hits so this concert was a surprise for me. I knew most of the musicians and this was the…

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    Tribute to Talk Talk Concert

  • Snobbery

    ‘That Plato’s republic should have been admired, on its political side, by decent people, is perhaps the most astonishing example of literary snobbery in all history.‘― Bertrand Russell

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