Category Archives: Blogs' Archive

It was a lovely, relaxing day, which is  just the way we planned it.  We got a bit  of  a late start, but we were up touristing by about 9:30, and started with the marketplace in this picturesque city of Mostar.  Lots of beautiful stuff on display, but other than some baklava and Turkish coffee, made no purchases.  It probably took us an hour to get down to the bridge, which is sort of the spiritual center and biggest tourist draw in town. (Mostar is named after the original inhabitants, the Mostari, defenders of the bridge)

People dive off it, which is  a show for  tourists, and it  sure looks scary as hell, because the stream is very  narrow and so you might think it’s not very deep but right below the bridge I guess it is.  Wandered around the other side a bit, saw some buildings which  still bore the scars of the war (93-95. After gaining their independence from  Serbia, the Christians and Muslims turned on each  other) and the  High School which is supposed to be a way  of bringing the two communities together, a lovely  example of  Islamic architecture.  (I think Islam is a dumb religion, even among religions, which I  think are all a bit ridiculous, but I am a fan  of their architecture and their cuisine)
After that, we took  a  trip  up  to Kavica Falls.  I had no  idea what to expect, hadn’t even  seen  any pictures.    It’s actually  several falls, a wall of water plummeting over the edge and forming a sizable pool at the bottom.  Which was seriously, almost painfully cold.  I got in and  swam for a bit, Isabel did too but never put her head completely under, Helena dabbled her toes, and Sam stayed out entirely.
Had a truly excellent meal at an outdoor cafe afterwards, and tomorrow we’re off to  Dubrovnik.

After kind of a frantic morning (I couldn’t find my glasses  after we’d already packed up and were on the road, so we took a sight seeing tour of Zagreb to try and find a drugstore) and a long drive, we have arrived in  Mostar.  In contrast to last night’s experience, our room here has a door that is easy to lock, and a hostess who was here to meet us and give us some hints on what to see in town, and she lives downstairs.
I’m not going to dwell  on that.  I’m actually keeping a separate travel diary, which may be something to pass the time in the car, or I  may try and write it up later, I don’t know.
Anyway, by the time  we checked in and started out to get some dinner, it was starting to get dark, so we will do more sight seeing tomorrow.  That, plus there are some waterfalls near hear so we’ll get in some swimming and hiking.

There was a wide choice of eateries, and we settled for some cevabcice, pronounce che-vab-chee-tzee, which are small, beef, sausages.  They were delicious, the price was reasonable, the waiter was friendly, and it was in all respects a  different experience  from last night.
One thing I didn’t realize about Mostar before I arrived here is the significant Muslim presence.  There are several mosques and you can  hear them belting out the call  to  prayer at regular intervals.  On the other hand, it’s the kind of southern European town where hirsute and overweight gentlemen of middle age obviously feel very comfortable walking around shirtless, and there are plenty of young couples out wandering about together, dressed to party.
So, East meets West.

All’s well  that ends well.  After a bit of  a  detour from the Hungarian/Croatian border  which forced us to backtrack and go through Slovenia, and a total failure to contact our  Air B and B host, we are now ensconced snugly in our little Zagreb apartment for one night, and all is right with  the world.
At the border, the problem was that I’m traveling with an American passport and did not bring along my Czech permanent residency booklet (which looks a lot  like a passport) and because we were entering a non-Schengen country from a  Schengen country and they had no way of ascertaining how long I’d been in the  Schengen zone, we had to turn around.  The guards at the  Slovenian/Croatian border raised the same issue, and  we thought we were looking at a vacation in  Slovenia, which wouldn’t be horrible, but it  wasn’t our plan.  Eventually they relented and made us promise that on  the way back we’d at least have a photocopy of the permanent residency permit, which we can do.
Then, we got to  Zagreb and started looking for our Air B and B, and things got very  confusing.  It’s on a very  busy  street, with a tram line, so  we wound up parking several  blocks away  and walking back  to  it.  But, our host wasn’t answering our calls.  We eventually located the apartment but there was nobody there. The door, however, was open.  In fact, we couldn’t figure out anyway to lock  it.  First, since nobody was there to meet us and we couldn’t contact them, we felt sort of  as if we were squatting,  or  even trespassing.   Then, we didn’t feel secure  leaving anything there, and were planning to  leave a suitcase in front of the door when  we did sleep.  ‘A short walk from the center ‘ didn’t sound like such a great selling point any  more.
So, we went and got the car and parked it here, but didn’t  move anything in. We went out for dinner.  But every place we went turned  out  to be drinks only, except the  kebab stand and they wouldn’t take a credit card.  So, we went to the grocery  store, came back  here  and  made sandwiches.
We eventually  did find  a message  from our  host  online confirming that  we  were in the right flat and  telling us how to  lock  the door.  It was that kind of thing where it’s easy  once it’s explained but you  never would have  guessed  it.

It has often been said, and is undoubtedly true, that once AIs cross that line, once they pass the Turing test, once their mind actually becomes better than our own, that their progress from that point forward will be extremely rapid, whereas we humans will remain stagnant, because you can’t just evolve a higher intelligence overnight, and we don’t seem to be headed in that direction anyway.
But, it gets worse.  Intelligence is not the only thing that made man the dominant species of the planet, capable of making tools, changing the environment, and developing a technological society.  It’s our opposable thumbs.  Of course, we share this with all the other apes and monkeys, but it’s that plus intelligence that has elevated humankind to the position it holds today.
Of course, the robots will surpass us there, too.   Opposable thumbs?  They can build them with ten independently operated arms, a couple of which will have hands, with fingers and thumbs, and at least one will have a wide array of scissors, knives, tweezers and screwdrivers, one or two might be extendable, to save people on the 4th floor from fires, and the rest will be various sex toys.
They can already run, jump, and get back up again after some stupid Boston Dynamics robot-overseer has just kicked them over – again.  Soon they will be able to dance, slalom, and of course do martial arts.  Remember, robo-cop was still a human being.  These will be merciless.
And the progress will continue.  They will have eyes that see in infrared and ultraviolet, as well as having eyes in the back of their head, and all around.  They will have ears that are better than dogs, and can overhear distant conversations and turn up the volume at will.
They will have motion sensors in their feet, to predict earthquakes, and hordes of stampeding buffalo, and they will have radar like bats.
They will walk the Earth unimpeded.  The age of man is ended.

The idea of allowing people to phone it in during the Iowa and Nevada primaries is like the worst idea ever, and they’re probably going to get away with it.
First, it’s changing the rules after the game has started, which is almost always dirty pool.  You just shouldn’t do that, it’s not sportsmanlike.
Second, it changes the character of the precinct caucuses, their basic value.  The whole idea is for one night out of their godforsaken lives, people should get up out of their chairs and go meet with people in a public place and hash it out.  Phoning it in diminishes the value of it.  It’s no longer a face to face, in person meeting.  It not only change the tenor of the meeting itself, it adds a whole new group into the mix.  People who don’t really care that much about politics, but are willing to make a phone call.  Like maybe because somebody promised them $10, or a couple bottles of wine.  Also, it puts a lot of vote tabulating power in the hands of the one who’s receiving the phone calls, like maybe the county chairman, who is more likely than the average voter to be an establishment Democrat.
On the one hand, it’s encouraging.  They are so scared of an unstoppable Bernie juggernaut that they are prepared to use blatant, strong are tactics as early as Iowa, as early as now, in fact.  They will implode.  They will crash and burn.  The people will not stand for it.

On the other hand, it’s very disconcerting.  Because they probably will get away with it.