Some November 9ths

11/9/1914

Wittgenstein generally anxious—affairs going badly. Russians quickly advancing on Krakow. The entire population must evacuate.

11/9/1999

A prediction: Computer programs will have their own OS, programs will be specially designed for specific purposes, then disposed of. The one-program-does-all will disappear.

[11/9/1999@25: Essentially what apps are now in the cloud. Most apps eventually wither from disuse and are disposed of].

11/9/2000

Meticulous recount of Florida votes. Gore trailing by only 300 votes. Lawsuits being filed claiming voter fraud. (The ballots were confusing—you could easily punch the wrong hole and vote for the Socialist Party. What they should do is abolish the electoral college now, along with the other anachronistic laws in America.

{11/9/2024: Huh…]

11/9/2009

20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. In many ways, the breaking or crumbling of boundaries is an emergent property (or teleological condition) of its symbology but also assumes that even if the physical barriers are removed, the semiotics endure. "For many years after reunification, there still was talk in Germany of cultural differences between East and West Germans (colloquially Ossis and Wessis), sometimes described as Mauer im Kopf (The wall in the head)."

[11/9/2024: The 20th@15. “In a modern world we should draw no lines, but our lives are framed in fear. In a peaceful world, there can be no war, but the enemies are always near.”] It's a Perfect World...

They're restoring the WWI memorial in Scoville Park, and when the protective sheaths blow over the sculpture it clings in interesting ways. Also interesting how the ropes are bound at the ankles.

11/9/2020

November is C Lydian month. (Painting is Course of Empire (Destruction) by Thomas Cole (1830).