Blog – Nina's Homepage

April 25, 2025April 25, 2025

It’s Not a Bug, It’s a Feature — or: Listening in — or: the (Non)-Smart Home — or: Never Assume

Woman in kitchen holding mobile phone looking at devices with drawn blue highlighted connectors towards her phone — (Image licensed via Adobe CC)

In this world of digital devices and internet connections, faster every day, basically, the so-called IoT, the Internet of Things, for some time now has made a sad appearance and fashion of sorts: The devices connecting to the internet through integrated hardware, such as your Smart-TV, your ‘smart mobile’ — or simply the Smart Home devices such as Siri or Alexa, listen in…

Indeed, it’s a fact: If not switched off deliberately, such devices will record and transfer spoken words, in many cases. Just like that…

What is particularly interesting, is the ‘eavesdroppers’ paradise: People who for the sake of curiosity — or simply to gather information — listen and start assuming…

I have seen it time and again: People observe or hear certain words or situations – and start assuming… Based on a few facts — and a lot of ‘reasoning’, which in fact is just your basic assumption.

These assumptions can be wrong. A nice example is the clip below from the movie “Desk Set”, with Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy. It makes it clear too, how easily we can be wrong when trying to interpret.

I always think, should you overhear somebody in anger, swearing, letting off steam, as it were — and would assume general views of that person, you might come to sadly wrong conclusions…

I’d like to create more awareness of these things: It’s sooo easy to be mistaken. And can lead to such sad results, depending on the situations…

In other words: Never assume.

April 21, 2025

A Great Soul, a True Visionary and Fine Human Being Dies: Pope Francis — Rest in Peace

Image of Pope Francis in Prato — Pope Francis in Prato — Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons, date: 10th November 2015

Pope Francis was a thinker and a man of the people. The ‘pope of the hearts’ he has been called. A great soul has died today, after a long period of ill health and sickness.

When he became pope I felt for the first time for many years that there was still hope for the Catholic church. I was raised a Catholic and since have widened my ideas.
But the actual basis to my mind, the gospel and thus the idea of neighbourly love are some of the most fundamental truths and ideas to carry us through life, and indeed hard times that you can find.

Pope Francis knew this — and lived by it more than many of his predecessors, the respective pope of the Catholic church in the course of the past one hundred years.

Billions of people live by this creed, Christianity and Catholic confirmation. The Vatican statistics of 2024 state that across the globe the number of Catholics actually increased.

Whatever your respective confirmation or creed may be, Pope Francis deserves a special attention and mention as well as high respect for his achievements.

He “brought the church back to Earth” — the well-deserved tributes paid him are perhaps comprised this way best.

Rest in peace — requiescat in pace — a great soul, human being, and true visionary.

April 18, 2025

A Fool’s Stage: USA — ‘What Bitter Tears and Hollow Laughter…’

Drawing of a clown's mask — (Image by NoPixelZone from Pixabay)

Power and money — not necessarily in this order — are at the heart of any US politics under a president such as the present one. It’s almost funny to see and hear and read about journalists actually wondering about his sanity…

Sane or not? Does it matter, really?

He is — together with all those other greedy, low-life scum that are his followers and supporters — in power. In office. He will stay there as long as no one will stand up and fight his office, his holding it, by legal means.

The impeachment already had been imminent. Several actions in courts of law against him for fraud, bribery and molestation had been on their way. He is a criminal, already convicted too. And then a supreme court ruling — lo and behold, how could that happen…? — rendered them void.

The US-American society and nation’s future as a democracy are in severe danger. This may even cause a civil war.

But, no this sadly limited brain of a greedy dictator is not above doing it: He bullies and threatens all and sundry into subservience. So far it’s a relieve to also hear about Harvard University standing its ground: They will not be bullied into scientific obedience and dependency.

The US academic system is dependent on private as well as government funds. That makes it vulnerable. But in such times also hardened against withdrawal of government funds. Because there are other donors, yet.

What a sorry excuse for a man the Republican heap of drooling and greedy entities of existence — that you could hardly call human — have made their figurehead — any human action or reaction long since being deadened by heaps of money they cannot have enough of.

It’s a shame.

The ‘fool’ in former times was a figure at courts like a clown; meant to remind a king or potentate of his limitations as a human being. At the same time ‘fool’ is also the term for a figure that is ridiculous and hollow where proper thinking is concerned.

Someone like the present president has little to no formal education of a wise kind. Raised in a military school that calls itself academy and coming from a family whose main value was to be rich — and famous — what can you expect?

Actually, I would expect someone with his connections and background to be aware enough to better himself. Insane and downright sick people should be taken pity on — not exception.

But he is not to be pitied. It’s his own, ‘sane’ doing.

April 12, 2025

‘No Dice’: It’s a Machine – Natural vs Artificial Intelligence

Image of a robot hand and a human hand touching their index fingers — (Image licensed via Adobe CC)

Machines do not feel. They do not have emotions. They do not digest food.

“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.” (Genesis 1, King James version)

I quote the bible’s text on the creation of the earth. A creative act, described by humans.
It’s a mystical text and beautiful in its rhythm and simplicity. I heard it often when still growing up and visiting Roman catholic church regularly.

I was raised not only on Christianity, but on enlightenment too, and the idea that humans should be social for a very obvious reason: They are social beings.

That’s one thing differentiating humans from machines:
Humans are social.
They also have emotions, feelings – often passionate ones.

Machines do not feel.

The most striking difference between humans and machines is the fact that the thoughts and ideas a human can have are without limit, literally.

Machines, called ‘artificial intelligence’ still are machines, calculating.
They use algorithms and routines of combined algorithms built on statistical probability. They use huge amounts of data and calculate fast, because of the hardware involved – and the power supply.

That speed makes them in some ways superior to humans in the matter of speed – but: Nothing else.

They cannot use unknown, new data, if no human does provide it. They cannot combine things other than the ways programmed into their algorithms.

What can provide an impression of an actual person talking is the fact that language is used to create ‘answers’ after a fashion. But that is all.
Language follows patterns, just as algorithms do.
Such as: “How are you?” – “Fine.”

Machines can combine the data and the patterns in likely manners, based on their algorithms’ routines, that is the programming. Not in actual new ways that humans can or could.

If ever anyone tries to sell you the idea that ‘artificial intelligence’ is more than a machine, remember: They are selling it…

😉

April 6, 2025

The Apple and the Pear: Words – and Colours – Life’s Varieties

Image of fresh apples and pears looking almost the same — Original image by wirestock on Freepik, resized

“Dark yellow? Orange?” Words matter. Images in the mind are directly connected with them. That makes them so powerful. And so difficult to control:

Because that’s what can happen: People talk apparently about the same thing but it is only partly the same – as in ‘dark yellow’ or ‘orange’. You cannot always know what others understand of your words, your speech, or your message.

Equally difficult can be to really know what others might mean, even though you seem to be using the same words. Why that happens? Because we all grow up and make experiences in certain cultures and surroundings.

That way the associations, the images, that crop up in our individual minds can be different – even if slightly.

At times they can make understanding each other challenging, at least.

Of course, there’s the situation that people are well-meaning but make more of their own skills or their expertise than is actually true. And others even expect it from them. In interviews for job applications, for example.

When you then meet the exception from the rule, it can make it even more challenging and also interesting: To expect someone to be ‘telling tall tales’ and then find out that they hadn’t…

March 29, 2025March 29, 2025

Sons or Daughters… Rudyard Kipling: “If: A Father’s Advice to His Son”

Photo of a vertically shaped red rock before a blue sky — Image free license freepik.com

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise

If you can dream – and not make dreams your master;
If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings – nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And – which is more – you’ll be a Man, my son!

Holds true for daughters too…

Rudyard Kipling is not only author of ‘The Jungle Books’, that story of the ‘man cub’ Mowgli that is known across generations of children. He also was a memorable poet and writer, who wrote poems that are to the point and rhythm, as it were…as well as prose that is full of imagery and imagination.

His political views are rather doubtful and informed by the times he grew up in, but otherwise: Highly recommended. 🙃

March 23, 2025March 23, 2025

“The Silent Majority” – The 100-People-Rule

Image of many figures like pieces in the blue dark, one of them in red and highlighted standing out. — (Image licensed freepik.com)

In former times it seemed to be a matter of course to talk about the ‘silent majority’. And it also seemed to be debatable: Did it exist?

These days we know: It does!

The statistics you get from business departments such as support, online and offline, confirm:

For any person letting a company, an organization, or platform know about their issues or problems or worries, there are around 100 silent ones who do not speak up. Some are too lazy. Some are too busy. Some are just too self-conscious, don’t dare to draw attention to themselves.

Whatever the reasons may be: I also know from actual experience how often people in everyday life underestimate the universal facts of human life:

Emotions, feelings, worries and also joy so often are felt very similarly. Yet, very often also people don’t know about that and therefore feel disconnected.

Sharing helps: Experience, emotions, and thoughts. And my blog is one place where I like to share for exactly that reason. To help and to spread perhaps a (little) light of understanding.

March 10, 2025March 10, 2025

The Miracle of Human Understanding

group of people and coloured arrows showing speech direction

Most of us past teenage years have seen and experienced misunderstandings. Some can be tragic, some can seem funny even, looking back, some are funny – and some are rather mundane, really.

What can make it difficult can be situations such as the following, a nice example I came across the other day, paraphrased here:

A group of people were scheduled for a training of communication. Everybody arrived in time, wore casual clothing as per agenda and was quite relaxed, chatting and waiting for the training to begin. A little while into the day’s itinerary, a young man who everybody had been wondering about, arrived far too late. He was very quiet, wore a business suit that obviously had been expensive and showed a rather withdrawn behaviour.

The group decided that he seemed rather arrogant and they felt annoyed and treated with a lack of basic politeness.

It took a while to find out that he had been to a funeral, unexpectedly and of a close person and barely had found time to arrive at all…

This little anecdote makes it clear nicely how easily unrelated events can be made into a chain of misunderstanding.

Keeping an open mind and realizing that our interpretations can be wrong in spite of appearances can be the first step towards real understanding.

March 3, 2025March 9, 2025

Inexplicably Close? – The Trump-Putin Axis Explained

Image of a stack of coins and a rising business chart before it — Money, more money, profits… (Image licensed via Adobe CC)

All of you who are wondering and perhaps even seem to be challenged in believing it: Trump and Putin actually and truly are close.

Why?

How can it possibly be that a fiend such as Putin is close to someone like Trump, after all the president of the leading nation of the ‘free world’?

It’s basically three principles that apply:

- “Cui bono?” – The Latin phrase is age old and describes what you would look for in most questions of business and politics to get a clear picture: “Who benefits?”
- There’s history to rely on for similar examples: The Roman Empire especially and its several emperors in its later stages; corruption was common then.
- Trump as well as Putin are very much alike in terms of personality: They crave attention and power, to different degrees. They need money and more money to achieve that.
  - That’s their basic common denominator or ground.

One proof was presented at the time (2016 US-presidential elections) by two newspapers, one of which cannot be trusted these days anymore because it was acquired by amazon’s founder. The proof was confirmed by the Pulitzer Prize committee (among others).
The New York Times still stands like a beacon, as yet.

Also please take into account that war especially in modern times is a means to an end. Cruel, but just that. Just as Netanyahu first aggravated and then used the conflict about Gaza to cover up the fact that the numbers of his votes were decreasing fast at the time – and the support for his internal politics declining.

For all of my readers who feel discouraged in the face of adversity and the abyss of human depravity, do not despair:

We are not the only ones worrying! The state of the world has been better – but it also has been worse, in the course of history!

Just think what the 30 Years’ War meant to Europe at the time!

Remember: Remind your democratically elected representatives of their tasks – and of what you really want.

Keep at it – and don’t forget about the breaks!

Update March 9th 2025: The New York Times has published a fine news analysis on March 7th here, confirming facts and this view on them – regarding Trump’s view on Putin.
ℹ️ Article should be paywall-free here, from my own subscription, to be purchased with a subscription for that newspaper usually:
Trump’s Affinity for Putin Grows More Consequential Than Ever
(URL taken and pasted at March 9th 2025, UTC+1, 01:03 p.m.)

For a comprehensive and concise view on Mr Trump’s biography and background that helps explain, confer to award-winning documentary producer and director Michael Kirk’s FRONTLINE-video on PBS, from 2017, in context of the 2016 elections, available from select locations:
President Trump