levy

being a cape verdean in these times, now that'd be something. what a great source of pride it is for their country. they're pulling off historic things.

when we see a broken cup, the same thought crosses most of our minds: it won't be the same as before anymore. more often than not, we even toss it in the trash and replace it with a new one. yet in japanese culture there's an art called kintsugi, one that's lived on for centuries, that gives breaking an entirely different meaning. in this traditional repair technique, which emerged about six hundred years ago, the pieces of broken ceramic are joined back together with a natural resin called urushi, and the cracks are made prominent with gold, silver, or platinum dust. kintsugi, which means "to join with gold," isn't just a method of repair but also a deep life philosophy that changes the way a person looks at life.

the most striking thing about kintsugi is that it doesn't try to hide the breaks. on the contrary, it makes them visible. because those cracks are an inseparable part of the journey the object has been through and the experiences it has lived. the broken ceramic isn't what it was before; but for that very reason it's more special. each line of gold lives on as a quiet reminder of a life lived.

this understanding is quite different from the perspective of the modern world, which is used to exalting perfection. these days, while most people try to hide their flaws, cover up their mistakes, and make their broken parts invisible, kintsugi says the exact opposite: what makes you valuable isn't that you've never broken; it's that you can get back on your feet after breaking.

this idea doesn't apply only to ceramics. a person, too, breaks many times over the course of their life. a breakup, a loss, an illness, disappointments, failures, or moments when trust is shaken leave invisible cracks in our souls. most of the time we try to hide these marks. we think that looking strong means not showing the pain. yet a person's character is shaped not by how skillfully they hide their wounds, but by how they learn to live with them. the marks life leaves behind are one of the most important parts of who we are.

psychology, too, speaks of important concepts that support this idea. one of them is called "post-traumatic growth." research shows that difficult life events don't affect everyone the same way. some people, after living through great pain, begin to look at life with different eyes, to build their relationships more consciously, and to feel the value of life more deeply. of course, the pain itself isn't valuable. but the relationship a person builds with that pain can transform them into an entirely different person. just like a broken piece of ceramic coming back to life with gold, a person, too, sometimes goes through their greatest transformation after their hardest periods.

a scientist who, with every one of his studies, is bound to inspire both admiration and astonishment, in my opinion. i wanted to share one of his studies that surprised me the most. he was the first person to put forth the concept of "the wisdom of the crowd."

in 1906, galton came across an interesting kind of contest at a livestock fair. in this contest, whoever correctly guessed an ox's weight won the prize. about 800 people gave their guesses, and galton noted them all down. but the thing is, not one of them actually came close to the right answer. among these 800 people there were folks like butchers and farmers who could easily estimate an ox's weight, but right alongside them were people who had no clue about the subject.

the ox turned out to weigh about 543 kilograms. the person who made the closest guess took the prize. then galton decided to take the average of all the guesses and compare the result. the average came out to around 542 kilograms. the diverse crowd was smarter than even the best expert's guess.

galton published his findings in a paper, and as a result, the wisdom of crowds was born. these observations helped develop the concepts of the mean and variation, and they led him to formulate the fundamental statistical concept of standard deviation.

known by those who don't know mythology as the father of hercules...

brazil only has the name. with 35-year-old danilo and 33-year-old santos at fullback, a casemiro who's turned to mush in midfield, and a mediocre paqueta, this is about as far as it goes. even if they get through the round, it's impossible for them to advance.

some people don't want to lose you, but at the same time they don't want to choose you either. and this stems not from their being confused but from the fact that choosing you brings effort, consistency, and responsibility. they don't want to give those. they don't want you to go on your own way, and they don't take a step themselves either. they don't want to see you with someone else, but they don't offer you clarity either. they want closeness without commitment. they want the comfort of knowing you're there, but they don't want the responsibility of you actually being present. and the truth is, they don't want to look like the bad guy. they find excuses that will ease their own conscience, and they want to preserve this clean, clear-conscience image. but at some point you mustn't confuse attention with intention.

you can't jump from "it can imitate consciousness" to "therefore it can't actually be conscious."

ai takes in data from its environment, processes it, and changes its output accordingly. it has the capacity to learn.

more importantly, the fact that biological and electronic processes run differently is not an argument on its own. planes don't flap their wings like birds, but they still fly. different mechanisms can produce the same function.

the point that really gets overlooked is this: right now we don't have even one accepted mechanism for consciousness. does it arise only from certain types of neurons? from a certain complexity of information processing? from the capacity to interpret? or does it rest on some completely different principle we haven't discovered yet? we don't know.

so saying "current ai is not conscious" is one thing, and saying "an electronic system can never become conscious" is a completely different claim. we have no basis, experimental or theoretical, to back up the second one.

what's ironic is that the human brain itself, at some point in evolution, went from unconscious neural networks to what it is today. if the thing we call consciousness is an emergent property, we have no grounds at all to say it could never emerge in a system that isn't biological, given enough complexity and the right architecture.

in short, it might become conscious or it might not. but don't speak with total certainty, in a way that talks down to people, about the limits of a mechanism you don't even understand. because sooner or later someone asks, "can you show me the agreed model that explains how human consciousness forms?" and that whole condescending post of yours just disappears.

let me take it one step further. as far as we know, there is no living creature that has the capacity to think and learn (and no, i don't mean adapting genetically) without also having consciousness. by the logic above, that's an even stronger argument.

the only thing we can do is admit what we don't know and discuss the possible theories. for now, it's neither an inevitable outcome nor an evolution that will never happen.

teams like norway are teams created to reach the quarterfinals and get knocked out. it wouldn't be haaland, even if it were odin, loki, and thor, this situation wouldn't change.

a modern medical-shamanism variant in which the dark-age urban human, in order to save the digestive system they've devastated with industrial foods, has begun worshipping acidic bacteria grown in jars. when we examined the kitchen remains from that era in our laboratory, we determined that the members of the tribe felt like molecular biology experts while consuming vinegar-smelling primitive liquids called probiotics, ferments, or kombucha tea. that these creatures, who cared about the comfort of the bacteria in their own intestines more than the peace of their close friends within the tribe, fed themselves according to bacterial data logs is one of the funniest biological paranoias in the history of anthropology.

if you want to figure out where you went wrong on something, pay attention to the parts you skip over when you are explaining it to someone else.

this show is by far my favorite show. i don't know how many times i'm watching it now. on this watch i noticed that this show doesn't have a single dead scene or a single toxic character. in most shows there are scenes that add nothing to the overall story that i always want to fast-forward (and even skip outright if i'm watching alone), like unnecessary family or romance scenes thrown in to fill out the runtime (i watched the daredevil born again episodes 15 minutes at a time), or there's a toxic character whose every scene i skip (e.g. the flash -> iris). while watching person of interest it never even crosses my mind to skip a single scene, and there isn't even one main character who makes you hate them (the only one that bugged me was van gogh in the final season, but that one was pretty much a side character).

the best player in the history of world cups. when the world cup comes around, neither messi, nor c. ronaldo, nor fat ronaldo, nor pele, nor maradona can reach this guy's level. the guy switches on goat mode.

some interesting statistics i gathered and pulled together from here and there, based on the finalized 26-man squads (1248 players in total):

clubs represented by the most players in the tournament (based on footballers whose contracts are still active as of the end of june 2026):

manchester city (19)
bayern munich (17)
paris saint-germain (16)
arsenal, fc barcelona (15)
crystal palace, manchester united, al hilal, atletico madrid (12)
galatasaray, liverpool fc, borussia dortmund (11)
fenerbahçe, slavia prague, ac milan, psv eindhoven, real madrid, sunderland (10)

leagues sending the most players to the cup:

english leagues: 205 players, 42 of them in the lower leagues. additionally, 184 players are in the national team squads of other countries. in fact, a player named tommy smith was called up to the new zealand national team despite being in this federation's 5th-tier league.

german leagues: 108 players, 8 of them in the lower leagues. additionally, 89 players are in other countries' national teams. again, josue duverger, who plays in the 5th-tier league, is in the haiti national team squad.

french leagues: 86 players, 7 of them in the lower leagues. additionally, 78 players are in other countries' national teams.

spanish league: 86 players, 5 of them in the lower leagues. additionally, 59 players are in other countries' national teams.

italian leagues: 71 players, 5 of them in the lower leagues. all 71 of these players are, of course, in other countries' national teams.

saudi arabian leagues: 49 players. 24 of them are in other countries' national teams.

usa leagues: 48 players, 41 players in other countries' national teams.

turkish leagues: 45 players. 30 players playing in our leagues are in other countries' national teams. in fact, while leandro bacuna from iğdır fk, which is in the tff 1st league, takes part in the tournament as the captain of the curaçao national team, ryan mendes, also from iğdır fk, will take the field as the captain of the cape verde national team.

dutch leagues: 38 players, 36 of them in other countries' national teams.

brazilian league: 32 players, 25 of them in other countries' national teams.

portuguese leagues: 32 players, 27 of them in other countries' national teams.

belgian leagues: 29 players, 26 of them in other countries' national teams.

the list goes on like this. when all the squads are reviewed, some interesting notes emerge.

it turns out there's no national team whose entire 26-man squad plays in its own domestic leagues. the national teams closest to this are qatar and saudi arabia, with 25 players each.
as the exact opposite of the above situation, none of the players in the curaçao, cape verde, democratic republic of congo, uruguay, ivory coast, and senegal national teams play in their own countries' leagues. in fact, apart from uruguay (1 player), not a single player from the other countries' leagues is in any other country's national team either.

participant countries' populations as a share of world population:
participant countries with the highest populations: usa 340 million, brazil 315 million, and mexico 130 million.

participant countries with the lowest populations are curaçao at 195 thousand and cape verde at 570 thousand.

the total population of the participant countries is roughly 2,200,000,000. if we divide it by the current world population (8,300,000,000), this ratio comes out to 26.5%.
for the 2022 qatar world cup: 1,600,000,000 / 8,000,000,000 = 20%

for the 2018 russia world cup: 1,650,000,000 / 7,700,000,000 = 21.4%
as can be seen, even though the number of teams in the tournament was increased by 50%, the rate of increase in the participant countries' populations stayed at around 25%.

confederations' representation rates:

the number of players playing at clubs registered with uefa is 855 (68%). the number of countries participating from uefa is 16. the quota ratio is 16/48 = 33%.

following this federation most closely is the afc (asia) (15%). this confederation's quota is 9. the quota ratio is 9/48 = 18%.

caf (africa), meanwhile, got a 21% country quota with a 4 percent player quota. fine, let's say that's tolerable. after all, some of the countries participating from uefa have players of african origin.

representation of players of african origin in the national teams of uefa member countries:
france – 21
england – 15
netherlands – 14
switzerland – 11
belgium – 9
germany – 9
sweden – 6
portugal – 4
austria – 4
norway – 2
spain – 2
scotland – 1
czechia – 1
croatia – 0
bosnia and herzegovina – 0
turkey – 0

most senior player: craig gordon (43 years 160 days) - scotland
youngest player: gilberto mora (17 years 235 days) - mexico

managers:

countries sending the most coaches:

argentina (6): lionel scaloni (argentina), gustavo alfaro (paraguay), sebastian beccacece (ecuador), marcelo bielsa (uruguay), nestor lorenzo (colombia), mauricio pochettino (usa)

france (5): didier deschamps (france), sebastien desabre (democratic republic of congo), sabri lamouchi (tunisia), rudi garcia (belgium), sebastien migne (haiti)

spain (4): luis de la fuente (spain), thomas christiansen (panama), julen lopetegui (qatar), roberto martinez (portugal)

germany (3): julian nagelsmann (germany), ralf rangnick (austria), thomas tuchel (england)

italy, meanwhile, despite not taking part in the tournament, is again represented by 3 coaches: vincenzo montella (turkey), carlo ancelotti (brazil), fabio cannavaro (uzbekistan)

with the arena set up for the ufc match to be held on the white house lawn, image idiocracy can now be considered a prophecy. mike judge foresaw the future. his predictions came true 480 years early. the picture image that best describes the usa today might be this one. a fight with budlight ads is being organized on the white house lawn. it's hard to wrap your head around.

this entry contains spoilers:

--spoiler--
this is how you do comedy. i should say up front that, unlike what's been written here, i thoroughly love this show from its very first moment to its last second. in my opinion every single scene from start to finish, "the final joke" included, is perfectly attuned to the spirit of the whole thing and extremely creative, funny, and clever. the pace dips here and there, and it may look like it's departing from earlier seasons by its very nature, but in an ongoing organism, especially in something as merciless as comedy, there are ups and downs, that's normal; you can't please the viewer any other way, they'd get bored.

also, and this hasn't really been dwelt on, but i think the secret to its success comes from the traditionalism of its characters, their incredible knack for adapting despite being behind the times and naive, their que-sera attitude with the world going one way and the minaret the other, and the coolness they never lose despite their absurd monotony. and to pull this off, i adore the subtle, not-immediately-obvious details they pull off so masterfully: out of all the vampires we watch, main characters included, only laszlo shouts "bat!" to turn into a bat; colin robinson, who never misses a chance to feed off the tension in the room and thinks himself so sharp, cunning, and tremendously boring, is actually a low-level nerd, a modern-day renaissance man with knowledge on nearly every subject; nadja, who is essentially extremely good-natured, accommodating, and forward-thinking, gets treated like a naive little prude by the 4 men she shares her life with on so many matters, guillermo included, and she shrugs all of it off with patience and the kind of nonchalance you show children; nandor, who in any given situation is more of a simpleton and a bumbling fool than nearly everyone around him, yet again comes out of any situation victorious nearly every time, without lifting a finger, thanks to a bit of luck but mostly his surprising charisma... in the moments in question, even though nandor is actually the buffoon of the room himself, i'm also crazy about how he piles the blame onto someone else with that "fucking guy/gal!" exclamation he so often lets out at the end, and how the viewer ends up siding with him too. guillermo turning out to be van helsing is, i think, the most perfect plot twist in the history of the black screen. with its music choices, its collages, the comedy it injects straight into your veins before the story has even begun, the intro is also indisputably among the best in television history.

i could swear a turk who also knows the musical canon well consulted on this show, but i can't prove it. those interested in the subject will catch, as they keep watching, that "kapıldım gidiyorum" isn't the only work/reference used from turkish culture and history. also, take my dear nandor, with that look of his, and stick him in high school history textbooks as a janissary, a vizier, i don't know, a sultan. if a single soul comes out and questions "what's this guy doing here?!" then i don't know anything either.

there's a lot more to be said about it, but let's leave the rest to the perception capacity of whoever's watching. because this production, like i wrote in the entry at the link i gave at the start, is a work stuffed to the brim with countless subtle nods and references. even though it sometimes manages to make you laugh twice as hard, giving you a stomachache and cramping up your facial muscles, like someone else mentioned above, if your english is good enough i absolutely recommend watching this absurd comedy, which constitutes a tremendous supply to the reaction that has taken bodily form in our lands as random laughter, in its original language.

let me end with my favorite line from the show: "guillermo, is there something you haven't been telling us?" to be said with nandor's accent. bat!
--spoiler--