TET.Life (The Extraordinary Tourist Life)

Bukirk Glamping, Clare Valley, South Australia.  One of my favorite getaways in South Australia is Bukirk Glamping in the Clare Valley. So much so that this visit was the second time my partner, Enigma, has gifted us a stay there on my birthday, and our third stay overall. We both love it and always leave wishing we could stay longer. Despite the planet having a 'Mostly Closed' sign on it for most of 2020 and 2021 it doesn't seem to have slowed business owner and host, Alison 'Chook' Meany down much at all. All her plans for expansion since we were last there in 2018 have all been realised and then some. If you're not familiar with 'glamping' think of it as kind of like camping for people who don't like the inconveniences of camping, particularly having limited access to power points and a proper bathroom.  Inside the Wyandotte Tent. Thoughtful details like this 'Welcome Back' by Alison really help make us feel like we're coming home, m

After all the hype for this movie, and the huge success of Spider-man No Way Home , which featured Doctor Strange, everybody's expectations of Doctor Strange in The Multiverse of Madness are likely much higher than what it actually delivers. So much so that I feel it's one of those installments in the MCU that will probably get better over time, with rewatches, and a better understanding of how it fits into the bigger MCU story in hindsight. Somewhere along the lines of an Ironman 2 , Thor The Dark World , or even the first Doctor Strange , none of which are bad movies, they're just not doing much to push the bigger MCU story forward. I did enjoy The Multiverse of Madness. There's lots of great action, some nice cameos that lasted longer than I was led to believe, and plenty of multiverse building in terms of what kinds of alternate universes are possible (apparently animated is possible - Avengers/Space Jam style movie... anyone?). The trouble is, while this movie tra

Still from Animation, Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order by Ray Dalio When you hear the term 'The New World Order' which is somewhat interchangeable these days with 'The Great Reset' your mind may tend to wander to global conspiracy theories and The World Economic Forum (who I've previously established as so evil they don't even hide what they're doing). While I don't put much stock in what people think the WEF is doing (as opposed to what it actually is doing) there is such a thing as 'The New World Order' that can be demonstrated as a reoccurring construct of change throughout history. Ray Dalio , the founder, co-Chief Investment Officer and co-Chairman of Bridgewater Associates , which is a global macro investment firm and is the world’s largest hedge fund, is also  connected to the WEF (so must be up to no good), has written a book,  Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order  (Amazon Affiliate Link), in which he

Julie Bishop, Member of Parliament of Australia during the Session "Opening Plenary: Globalization 4.0" at the World Economic Forum, Annual Meeting of the Global Future Councils 2018. Copyright by World Economic Forum / Benedikt von Loebell Did you know that you can join The World Economic Forum ? True. You don't have to be a billionaire, CEO of a corporation, or even a high level member of your government. You can sign up for free on the WEF website and be kept up to date with what this mega evil, mustache twirling, elite organization is doing. If you want to keep an even closer eye, and maybe even have some input into what the WEF is doing in your part of the world, they have some very affordable paid subscriptions (which you can even trial, free for 30 days - imagine... a whole month free of keeping your beady little eye on this very shady organization that wants to control what toilet paper you buy... probably? #notsponsored). While much of the high level partner/mem

As fascinating and exciting as the world of robotics is companies like Boston Dynamics , Disney Imagineering , and Engineered Arts (which I wrote about their very human-like robot, Ameca , in my previous post ), have demonstrated it's very possible to create human like robots. That is, something along the lines of C3-PO from Star Wars , or Sonny from iRobot . Arguably, what isn't possible at this time, is creating a sentient robot i.e. something that can think for itself, develop its own ideas, and even have emotions.  I say 'arguably' because being 'sentient' is a somewhat relative term. If we're talking the equivalent of human sentience then current robots and artificial intelligences (A.I.) are a long way off. However, we can create robots that are capable of learning on their own.  You could, conceivably create a robot that starts out following its programming then, over time, learns behaviors and problem solving in ways never conceived by its creator

Engineered Arts, Ameca Robot. I mean, it doesn't look out of place in an apocalyptic wasteland, right? It's been a while since I checked in to see how our robot overlords are coming along. While Engineered Arts Ameca Robot is not new by this point I haven't yet written about it in the context of what happens once they attach laser guns to it and teach it to say "Dead or Alive, you're coming with me." While Ameca may look the part in photos, fortunately it can't actually walk... yet. However from the waste up it has very natural, human like movement, most impressively with its extremely natural human face. See it in action in the video below. Ameca is built as an Artificial Intelligence, Human/Robot learning platform and, while it does contain 'intelligent' systems to control its various functional body parts, it doesn't contain any kind of true A.I. that would make it sentient. Engineered Arts are leaving it up to Universities and other A.I.