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Day: 30 March 2011

Web Moves in Mysterious Ways

Credit: Pills Place blog

And the biggest mystery is always this: who is there on the other end? Is it one person or a group of people? If there is a case of impersonation, then does the person impersonated knows about it? If yes, do they try to stop it, or let it go as long as the impersonator does not conjure a potentially illegal tale?

The question of identity on the Web has been raised and discussed many times, but it is only now probably that it will start being taken more and more seriously. Here is the reason.

Imagine me. Imagine knowing quite a few things about me: where I live, the plan of my house, my interests. Since I upload photos to the web, you know what I look like, and you can even use my photo. Then, if you spend enough time talking to me, you will know the words and expressions I use most often (like, “absolutely”). And then your imagination runs wilder and wilder. Before long “I” may even have a virtual relationship with someone, without me actually knowing about it. And when I find out I will be gobsmacked: things you are putting into my mouth do sound familiar, they do sound like something I could have written.The only reason I know they are not true is because I know what is really happening in my life. But people who perceive my virtual “self” may never know the difference.

Amazing. WTF.

Obviously, after we had had a Twitter application back in 2009 spitting out the witticisms of the long dead celebrities, it is absolutely no wonder that a living celebrity and just about anybody can be impersonated by someone who craves  their share of limelight. Ask me, why? I dunno. Maybe they like me too much and try to step into my shoes, if only virtually. Or maybe they have a reason to hate me, or a reason to cause harm to me or people close to me. Imagine if you found a web profile of your other half that is managed by his ex, in which “he” tells about things that are not true? I guess if it was possible to get into the heads of people who impersonate others, we’d learn to prevent these fancies. Instead we have to deal with the fact that this is something that can happen, so one has to be vigilant if they want to have their freedom in either real or virtual space.

Moscow Churches: St Sophia At Dusk

The church of St Sophia the Holy Wisdom of God was first built around 1480 by the migrants from Novgorod the Great. The choice of the saint commemorated the famous cathedral of St Sophia in Novgorod. The present church that you can see in the photos is tucked between the Detsky Mir (Children’s World), a celebrated kids megastore, and the notorious KGB. Considering that Sophia means “wisdom” in Greek, to have such a church sitting behind the building of the Russian secret service is no small territorial coincidence for a big city. The present building of the church dates back to 1650. The bell tower was built in 1816.

Too Much Heaven on Their Minds

I think I’ve never yet told you that Jesus Christ Superstar was one of my all-time favourite rock operas. I first heard it in the 1990s on an audiotape; then I watched the film on the videotape; and in 1999 I went to the Mossovet Theatre in Moscow where the Russian version has been running for over 20 years now.

Jesus Christ Superstar was filmed in 1973 in Advat, the Dead Sea, and the Bell Caverns in Israel, and now and again I can’t stop marvelling at the gift of not only Andrew Lloyd Webber, but also Tim Rice. This Judas’s aria alone is a perfect example; and the interpretation by the late Carl Anderson is just inimitable and, in my opinion, is still unsurpassed.

“Too much heaven on their minds” is a genuine line, and it is in direct relation to Marx’s statement that proletarians “have nothing to lose but their chains”. Be it Heaven, figuratively speaking, or the bright future, the faith leads people to great achievements, including a revolution. These days we wonder how could someone possibly believe in this better life in Heaven or in the Communist future. The rub is here, to quote Paul Arden: you cannot have faith in what you can prove. If you can prove it, then you can’t have faith in it. Jesus himself had not had proof for his vision, and perhaps this is the reason his faith was so contagious. The same explanation underpins the Revolution in Russia where people had for years been living in poverty and slavery.

Last but not least, Judas’s aria also supports what I recently read somewhere: don’t think that someone may really want to stop you from doing your thing. Usually people are waiting for someone mad to start doing something so they can follow him. Be it Jesus or Marx, the world is really waiting for the visionaries, the odd, the mad.

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