The 18th- and 19th-century cultural landscape of Dresden Elbe Valley extends some 18 km along the river from Übigau Palace and Ostragehege fields in the north-west to the Pillnitz Palace and the Elbe River Island in the south-east. It features low meadows, and is crowned by the Pillnitz Palace and the centre of Dresden with its numerous monuments and parks from the 16th to 20th centuries. The landscape also features 19th- and 20th-century suburban villas and gardens and valuable natural features. Some terraced slopes along the river are still used for viticulture and some old villages have retained their historic structure and elements from the industrial revolution, notably the 147-m Blue Wonder steel bridge (1891–93), the single-rail suspension cable railway (1898–1901), and the funicular (1894–95). The passenger steamships (the oldest from 1879) and shipyard (c. 1900) are still in use.
Justification for Inscription
Criterion (ii): The Dresden Elbe Valley has been the crossroads in Europe, in culture, science and technology. Its art collections, architecture, gardens, and landscape features have been an important reference for Central European developments in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Criterion (iii): The Dresden Elbe Valley contains exceptional testimonies of court architecture and festivities, as well as renowned examples of middle-class architecture and industrial heritage representing European urban development into the modern industrial era.
Criterion (iv): The Dresden Elbe Valley is an outstanding cultural landscape, an ensemble that integrates the celebrated baroque setting and suburban garden city into an artistic whole within the river valley.
Criterion (v): The Dresden Elbe Valley is an outstanding example of land use, representing an exceptional development of a major Central-European city. The value of this cultural landscape has long been recognized, but it is now under new pressures for change.
By far my most favourite post-apocalyptic novel, Emergence was written in 1981 and follows the life of Candidia Maria Smith-Foster, an eleven-year-old girl, who is unaware that she’s a Homo post hominem, mankind’s next evolutionary step. Hominems have higher IQs, they’re stronger, faster, more resistant to illness and trauma, and have quicker reflexes. Their eyesight, hearing, and sense of smell are superior as well.
By the time the narrative opens, Candy has acquired a high school education, some college, and learned karate, having achieved her Fifth Degree Black Belt from her neighbor, 73-year-old Soo Kim McDivott, who she is led to believe is merely a retired schoolteacher. McDivott, whom she calls “Teacher”, is actually the discoverer of the H. post hominem species, and has identified and continues to mentor and lead a group of them, the AAs. As part of her karate training, she has learned to release her hysterical strength, which permits brief bursts of nearly superhuman activity.
Emergence relies on epistolary retelling, unrealistically detailed at times, and pronoun/article deficient (shorthand). The style might annoy some readers, but you get used to it, and, actually, that cut away fat provides an ideal landing pad for Candy’s punchlines. Simple language = comedy gold.
Sentence structure throughout will have English teachers spinning in graves (those fortunate to have one)… English 60 percent flab, null symbols, waste. Suspect massive inefficiency stems from subconsciously recognized need to stall, give inferior intellects chance to collect thoughts into semblance of coherence (usually without success)… (p. 3).
Also, like good Hard SF, Palmer thinks of everything. Everything! And he manages the technical information in intense bursts, keeping it interesting without sacrificing character, and I loved the fact that the girl was really pro-active about her situation and did not dilly-dally about her surroundings like Ish from Earth Abides.
Started to go on way; stopped—had thought. Returned, bled air tanks as had seen Big Olly do. Had explained: Compression, expansion of air in tanks “made water” through condensation; accumulation bad for equipment. Found was starting to think terms of preserving everything potentially useful against future need. (Hope doesn’t develop into full-blown neurosis; maintaining whole world could cramp schedule.) (p. 29.)
Most Heinleinian is the way Emergence embraces controversy that sometimes feels disgusting, especially when the plucky eleven-year-old girl is regularly propositioned for sex. (Who are these men who can’t seem to keep it in their pants around a little girl just a few months after the apocalypse?) But more often, the controversy is subtle, insidious, until the end, when you realize you are essentially rooting for the extinction of humanity.
The book continues with Candy’s search for other humans, a potential mate that she could be with and when she finds a boy, she is happy but also put off by his insistence to be with her as man and woman. She does like him though, and he is a mechanical genius who is able to convert her car into a train/car in order to use the train tracks to travel as the roads would more than likely be closed off with cars.
Candy and her parrot develop a sort of a telepathic link which is awesome, considering that she goes missing shortly after getting a message of a space base. The rest of the super smarties are gathered together to build a rocket that will go into space to destroy a Russian bomb which is set to go off if no Russian agent enters the code. Having most of the Earth de-populated by the killer virus, there are no agents left and the bomb is slowly descending into the Earth’s atmosphere set to kill the Americans. (Yey!)
Candy gets to them in time and volunteers to be a pilot as she is small enough to fit in the bomb’s cokpit and de-activate it. As a surprise turn of events, one of their co-pilots was a Russian double-agent and he manages to almost destroy their mission. Candy is brave, Candy is a martial arts expert, Candy is a ruthless killer. I loved the ending and I was left wanting for more.
I was happy today when I found out that a sequel to Emergence, Tracking, was serialized in three parts, beginning in the July/August 2008 issue of Analog. Tracking was continued in the September issue and concluded in the October issue of the magazine.
Back to the Future Trailer – Directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Michael J. Fox Christopher Lloyd Lea Thompson Crispin Glover and Thomas F. Wilson Eighties teenager Marty McFly is accidentally sent back in time to 1955, inadvertently disrupting his parents’ first meeting and attracting his mother’s romantic interest. Marty must repair the damage to history by rekindling his parents’ romance and – with the help of his eccentric inventor friend Doc Brown – returning to 1985.
Since my Samsung laptop, which was released in 2018, recently broke down, I’ve had to do without a computer for the last few weeks. I’m someone who takes good care of his belongings. I’ve never had a computer crash before. But it appears that the motherboard of my Notebook 7 Spin has ceased to function. So, while I’m waiting for a replacement motherboard to arrive in the mail, I have to adjust to life without my trusty laptop. I took out my old Acer Aspire 5750 laptop, which was released back in 2011. This laptop may be old but it still functions. There’s nothing stored on it, but at least I can use the internet on it. Because this laptop is a decade old, and because I used to use it every day, it wasn’t exactly in tip top shape. I had to open it up and clean the motherboard, the fan, and some of the other boards with alcohol. When I was using this laptop regularly I once accidentally spilled coffee with milk and sugar on it. This happened years ago, and back then I didn’t fix my electronic devices or clean the insides. Despite of this, the laptop continued to work. This time, however, I wiped away the dried coffee and all of the dust that appeared on the inside. I had to fix the DVD drive, which ceased to open. Fortunately, the DVD drive didn’t have to be replaced. The keyboard, however, has to be replaced because a few of the keys don’t work anymore. I ordered a replacement keyboard on Amazon, but it hasn’t arrived yet. Fortunately, I have an external keyboard and mouse. Other than these minor problems, my old and inexpensive Acer laptop still works fine, and it has been my most reliable laptop. It has only 4GB of RAM and it lacks bluetooth technology. So, I probably won’t be playing any games on it. All of my saved game files are on my broken Notebook 7 Spin. But even the Notebook 7 Spin isn’t exactly a beast. It has 8GB of RAM. In other words, it can play games from the PlayStation 3 generation just fine, but it can’t play games from the PlayStation 4 generation well at all. This is one of the reasons why I don’t play or post reviews of games from the eighth generation of video game consoles. I also don’t own a PS4. Still, I don’t feel like I’m missing out. In my opinion, few great video games got released after the PS3 was discontinued. I’d like to play Bloodborne, but I’m not going to lose sleep over the fact that I haven’t played this game yet. I’ve already played Dark Souls. This happened in the middle of 2021. It would have been most convenient if I had been able to play Dark Souls on my laptop, but my laptop isn’t powerful enough to play the version that’s available for purchase on Steam (Dark Souls: Remastered). Therefore, I had to use my PlayStation 3 Super Slim in order to play this game. Among gamers, many of whom are young men that don’t have a good education, this game is known for being hard. Is this the case? This depends on how you play Dark Souls. As in most other video games, you have the option of leveling up your character in Dark Souls. If you do this, instead of rushing into battles without gaining experience points, you will have a much easier time playing this game. The only problem is that leveling up in this game is more time consuming than in almost all other games. And even if you do make your character stronger by leveling up and finding better equipment, you still can’t blindly rush into most battles. Even low level enemies can do some serious damage to your character if you’re not careful. Therefore, you also have to get used to this game’s combat. The combat in this game consists mostly of conserving your stamina while fighting, blocking with your shield, and striking an enemy when the enemy isn’t blocking your attacks. This approach to combat doesn’t always work, however. In a few cases, different approaches are needed. As great and as memorable as Dark Souls is, I don’t think that the director, Hidetaka Miyazaki, is some genius. I think that Dark Souls was heavily influenced by the Diablo games. The big difference is that Diablo games feature an overhead viewpoint, but Dark Souls features a first-person viewpoint. In my opinion, the world of Dark Souls, the gameplay, the monsters, and the weapons are similar to those in the Diablo games. Still, I can easily say that Dark Souls is one of the best and most memorable games that I’ve ever played. It’s quite an experience.
Dark Souls II, the sequel to Dark Souls, can be a polarizing game. On the one hand, it retained most of the gameplay formula of the original, but it also introduced changes that can put off some fans of the original. First of all, in almost every aspect, Dark Souls II is a slight step down from Dark Souls. For example, the graphics aren’t as polished. This can seem like a turn off at the beginning of the game but it becomes insignificant as your progress in the game because many of the designs are still impressive. The combat is slightly different. I think that Dark Souls II is overall an easier game than Dark Souls. The world isn’t interconnected, like in Dark Souls. The game developers remedied this by giving players the ability to easily travel between bonfires even at the beginning of the game. The voice acting, however, is just as good as in Dark Souls. I also like the music, and the theme for Majula is one of my favorites. The more I played Dark Souls II, the more I liked it. It’s a very good game, and people simply have to remember that it’s not a copy of Dark Souls. Therefore, players have to adapt to the gameplay changes in Dark Souls II. I was still playing Dark Souls II when my laptop crashed. By then, I completed the main quest, but I had just started playing the Lost Crowns DLC. Therefore, my completion of the game hasn’t reached 100% yet. By the way, Dark Souls II can easily be purchased on Steam, and it plays just fine on a PC. I didn’t use a keyboard and mouse as controls. I used a bluetooth controller instead. Although I post reviews of the games that I’m playing or of the games that I’ve played, my blog hasn’t exactly been a gaming diary. Persona 5, a game that I finished playing a few months ago, is worth reviewing. After I finished playing Persona 4, which has become one of my favorite games, I naturally got the urge to play the other Persona games. Persona 5 became my first choice, and I began playing it on my PS3, having bought it before the PlayStation Store went out of service. Persona 5 can seem like an improvement over Persona 4 to some players, but this isn’t the case with me. I’ll admit that there’s more to do in Persona 5, and it certainly seems like a bigger game than Persona 4, but a few things prevent me from liking it as much as Persona 4. For the most part, Persona 5 features superb graphics and art, though its art style doesn’t appeal to me as much as the art style of Persona 4. The anime cutscenes that are featured in the game are not of a good quality at all, and they actually look somewhat worse than the anime cutscenes in Persona 4. The anime cutscenes in a game like Xenogears, which was released 18 years earlier, look better than the ones in Persona 5. The characters in Persona 5 also don’t appeal to me as much as the characters in Persona 4. For the most part, they’re somewhat modified copies of the characters from Persona 4. In Persona 4, I liked all of the characters in the protagonist’s group. In Persona 5, I liked only Haru and Makoto. In fact, some of the characters outside of the protagonist’s group, like Goro Akechi, Sadayo Kawakami, and Chihaya Mifune, are more appealing and interesting than the ones in the protagonist’s group. So, I would say that when it comes to story and characters, Persona 5 is slightly worse than Persona 4. When it comes to graphics, music, and features, Persona 5 is slightly better. Still, Persona 5 is a superb video game that’s definitely worth playing. It’s just not as great or as appealing as Persona 4, which is easily one of the greatest video games ever.
After looking at some of my earlier blog posts, I realized that I haven’t given my opinion about the Halo games. Sure, I’ve posted reviews about these games, but I haven’t provided my take on them. So far, I’ve played the first three Halo games. This happened in 2020 and in 2021. I was able to play the Halo games, at least the first three, because I purchased an Xbox 360 console at a pawn shop. The model that I bought is the original white premium one. It’s the one that has become famous because of its high failure rate. Still, the console that I have hasn’t broken down yet. However, I ran into a problem soon after I bought it. The DVD drive had ceased to open. For some time, I didn’t know what to do. I’m not the kind of person who likes to return things after buying them. If something of mine stops working, I either fix it or, if it can’t be fixed, I sell it for parts. I certainly don’t just throw things away. Finding a solution to the problem on the internet wasn’t easy in this case. Finally, after some searching, I did find a helpful video on YouTube. It turned out that the gears of the DVD drive required cleaning because they had become dirty. I cleaned the gears by using a cotton swab dipped in alcohol. As for the Halo games, I can say that I don’t regret playing them. Well, this is obvious because they’re great games. The first game, which was released in 2001, features entertaining combat and some impressive visuals, at least for its time. The story isn’t bad either. In fact, the story has become one of the most appealing aspects of the Halo franchise. Even novels have been published in order to grow the lore of the Halo world. The two sequels to Halo didn’t disappoint. They feature improved graphics, more character development, and the same entertaining combat. Halo 3, which was released in 2007, naturally has the best graphics, and it also features the best visuals. Some people consider it to be the best Halo game. After playing the first three Halo games, I’ve become somewhat of a fan of the Halo franchise. I do have Halo 4 in my collection, but I haven’t played it yet. Shooters aren’t my favorite genre in video games. The first shooter that I played after buying a console for the first time is Resident Evil 4. This happened about a decade ago or even more than a decade ago. Getting used to the gameplay of this game wasn’t easy for me, and this game is known for being somewhat hard. It took several tries for me before I cleared that first village of Ganados, and I did this by slowly luring them to the village gate and by throwing grenades at groups of them and not only by shooting them with a pistol and a shotgun. Ammunition in this game is scarce. When I was finally able to get past that village, my spirits certainly got raised. But even after that I continued to be careful because, as I’ve mentioned, Resident Evil 4 isn’t an easy game. I’m not the kind of player who plays fast, who runs around, and who charges into fights. I prefer to move slowly, to check everything around me, and to spend time on leveling up in order to have an easier time playing. Anyway, Resident Evil 4 is one of those games that makes you have respect for video games because it’s well made. The story, the gameplay, the music, and the designs are all terrific. Its “over-the-shoulder” third-person view is my favorite viewpoint in shooters. I wish that there were more such shooters.
Since I’m a follower of certain blogs, I am aware of Martin Scorsese’s criticism of superhero movies, particularly of films by Marvel Studios, at the end of 2019. Scorsese’s statement made for some amusing news and debates. Well, since it can be fun to argue about films, I think that I will provide my opinion as well. In general, I think that Scorsese is right. The most successful films in Hollywood now, the films that make the most money, can be compared to theme park rides, but I wouldn’t place the blame for this on Marvel or on superhero movies. Companies like the Walt Disney Company want to make as much money as possible. This is why they make films that are meant to appeal to as many people as possible. This is why they also screen their films in other countries, particularly in China, where there is a large capitalist market. These films can’t have much violence or nudity in order to be suitable for children. They have to contain some action and some spectacle. They have to contain at least a little humor. They usually feature appealing and famous movie stars like Dwayne Johnson. Most importantly, they have to be entertaining. These films also feature propaganda from the establishment, like most other films. Because these big budget films have to have all of these and other elements, they end up being formulaic and not very memorable. They are meant to entertain, to get people into cinemas, to make as much money as possible, and nothing more. This routine has actually existed for many decades already in the West, but, because it has become wearisome in the last decade or two, even major newspapers are now printing articles about it. It’s unlikely that people will see these big budget films more than once because they’re not very well made now and because there isn’t much substance to them. But I think that Marvel isn’t to blame for this. And superhero movies in general aren’t to blame for this. Formulaic big budget films have existed before Disney got into the habit of releasing several such films through its studios every year. I think that they existed even before the 1970s, when Steven Spielberg made the blockbuster Jaws (1975) and when George Lucas made the blockbuster Star Wars (1977). It’s just that they used to be a lot better and more memorable. I think that there’s nothing wrong with making entertaining, action-packed movies. There should be variety in cinema. Not every film has to be a drama film. Before big budget science-fiction movies, or big budget action movies, or big budget superhero movies, or even big budget animated movies became the norm in Hollywood, Hollywood studios made big budget Westerns, big budget historical epics, and big budget adventure films. Examples include King Kong (1933), Mutiny on the Bounty (1935), The Sign of the Cross (1932), Duel in the Sun (1946), Unconquered (1947), The Robe (1953), 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954), The Ten Commandments (1956), Ben-Hur (1959), How the West Was Won (1962), Cleopatra (1963), or Lawrence of Arabia (1962). Since then, genres like the Western and the Historical Epic have lost their popularity. These films were also meant to entertain and to get as many people as possible into cinemas. Therefore, I think that the problem now isn’t with the fact that Western studios are trying to make as many big budget blockbusters or as many superhero movies as possible but with the fact that such films are worse and more formulaic than they used to be. Disney is simply the most obvious offender in this respect because of its size and success. Not only big budget blockbusters have been getting worse in the last decade or two. Drama films, comedy films, horror films, romantic films, and all the other films have been getting worse too. The reason why people pick on Marvel is because of Marvel’s popularity and success. Marvel follows the same formula, or at least a similar formula, as the other studios. What makes Marvel different is that it does this better. Films by Marvel Studios, with Kevin Feige at the head, end up being better than films by other studios. I think that this is the reason why Marvel has become successful. Marvel has even created its own cinematic universe that has mass appeal. Sure, Marvel films aren’t masterpieces of filmmaking, but almost all of them are still good, entertaining films, and this is the reason why people go to see them. Frankly, I’d rather see a Marvel film than another dull Hollywood drama film or another dull Hollywood horror film. I can bring up a film like Godzilla (2014) as an example. I went to see this film at a cinema right after it was released. Back then, I was younger and I didn’t know as much as I do now. I also paid attention to the opinions of film critics. Now I know that most Western critics are bought and paid for, and they praise films that they get pressured to praise. Anyway, because Godzilla got praised by many critics when it was released, I was somewhat excited to see it, although even then I was beginning to realize that almost all of the films that are being made are dull and have no replay value. Godzilla turned out to be a bad film, with characters that aren’t at all interesting, with a monster that rarely appears, with a bland music score, with poor direction, and with all the other problems that are characteristic of modern films. It became a memorable viewing experience for me because this film simply bored me. I couldn’t wait for it to end. But I stayed until the end of the film because I like to finish watching a film once I begin watching it. Looking back, I now realize why many (controlled) people praised this film while also criticizing and denigrating the 1998 Godzilla film, which is much better and more entertaining. The film from 1998 features criticism of the military, and the film from 2014 promotes the military. The main character, played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson, is a navy lieutenant. In other words, the film from 2014 features propaganda that the establishment approves of, and this is why this bad film gets lionized by the bought and paid for film critics. Anyway, I now realize that studios in the West just can’t make good films anymore. Sure, they sometimes release fine or passable films. For example, I enjoyed seeing Free Birds (2013), Men in Black 3 (2012), Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010), Kick-Ass (2010), Horrible Bosses (2011), X-Men: First Class (2011), Pitch Perfect (2012), or Rise of the Guardians (2012). But such films are uncommon now, and great films are almost non-existent. This problem doesn’t apply only to the movie industry in the West. It applies to all of the other industries as well. Western people simply can’t make great things anymore. They make dull and bad-looking cars. They make bad music that isn’t memorable or enjoyable. They write dull, simple, and boring books. They make simple and bad-looking art. They build bland buildings that sometimes contain structural problems. They make food that often isn’t cooked well or food that is dull even if it’s supposed to be fancy. Western fashion trends are boring and not memorable. Do I have to go on? I can of course use words like “sucks” or “stinks” when it comes to some of the things that get made in the West now, but I prefer to be polite. Anyway, this is my take on the state of cinema in the West. In the last few years, I have rarely gone to see new films in theaters. Of course, one of the big reasons why this is so is because you now have to have a vaccine pass in order to get into a cinema. But the biggest reason is because I now realize that almost all of the films that get released aren’t worth my time because of their bad quality. I’m not in my late teens or early twenties anymore, and I would rather spend my time on doing something that I think is worthwhile. On a more positive note, I have finished watching the third and fourth seasons of Cobra Kai. I’ve already made a post in which I pointed out that I like this show, though I don’t think that it’s as good as some people claim. For me, it’s certainly not better than The Karate Kid (1984), which is one of the best teen movies of the 1980s. I don’t really like The Karate Kid Part II (1986) because I think that the new characters aren’t that interesting and because the setting (Okinawa) is boring, at least in this film. The Karate Kid Part III (1989), however, is more than a guilty pleasure for me. It’s a film that I really like. It’s silly but entertaining. It features some good fight scenes, just like the first film. The score by Bill Conti is used to good effect. And the new villain, played well by Thomas Ian Griffith, is absurd and memorable at the same time. Anyway, while Cobra Kai is certainly nothing special when it comes to filmmaking, it continues to be entertaining. I think that the acting of some of the actors in the main cast has improved. And Thomas Ian Griffith delivered the goods yet again in his role as Terry Silver. I think that except for William Zabka, Thomas Ian Griffith is the best actor in the cast. By the way, why has a third season of The Boys not been released yet? The Boys is another show that I enjoyed watching in 2019 and in 2020. Oh well. I guess that I’ll have to watch Lost in Space (2018) instead.
