thegeepee

@RodDMartin If spending could win this war the US would have ended it a long time ago. This is just a penis measurement scale. In that note, if Russia could win the war so easily they would have a while ago as well. None of this is solvable with barroom logic.

Just to be clear, the Europeans aren’t gonna do jack.

@stats_feed @JianAzmir Ha… Tarifs and taxes may cut a hole in your profits.

⛽️ Gasoline prices (liter, U.S. Dollar): 🇮🇷 Iran: $0.029 🇱🇾 Libya: $0.031 🇻🇪 Venezuela: $0.035 🇪🇬 Egypt: $0.337 🇩🇿 Algeria: $0.339 🇰🇼 Kuwait: $0.340 🇰🇿 Kazakhstan: $0.483 🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia: $0.621 🇷🇺 Russia: $0.629 🇦🇪 UAE: $0.716 🇮🇩 Indonesia: $0.783 🇳🇬 Nigeria: $0.788 🇺🇸 USA: $0.917 🇵🇰 Pakistan: $0.922 🇧🇷 Brazil: $0.944 🇸🇻 El Salvador: $1.035 🇧🇩 Bangladesh: $1.037 🇦🇺 Australia: $1.070 🇨🇳 China: $1.142 🇦🇷 Argentina: $1.148 🇮🇳 India: $1.164 🇿🇦 South Africa: $1.191 🇯🇵 Japan: $1.211 🇲🇽 Mexico: $1.243 🇨🇦 Canada: $1.273 🇹🇷 Turkey: $1.287 🇰🇷 South Korea: $1.317 🇨🇱 Chile: $1.355 🇺🇦 Ukraine: $1.406 🇨🇿 Czechia: $1.507 🇵🇱 Poland: $1.554 🇷🇴 Romania: $1.568 🇸🇪 Sweden: $1.574 🇪🇸 Spain: $1.619 🇬🇧 UK: $1.729 🇫🇮 Finland: $1.765 🇩🇪 Germany: $1.817 🇫🇷 France: $1.827 🇮🇪 Ireland: $1.875 🇮🇹 Italy: $1.894 🇨🇭 Switzerland: $1.938 🇳🇴 Norway: $1.958 🇲🇨 Monaco: $1.989 🇳🇱 Netherlands: $2.037 🇩🇰 Denmark: $2.110 🇭🇰 Hong Kong: $3.393 The average price of gasoline around the world is 1.25 U.S. Dollar per liter. Note: According to Global Petrol Prices, Octane-95, 10-Feb-2025

Serra. "Art for the most part, is about concentration, solitude and determination. It's really not about other people's needs and assumptions. I'm not interested in the notion that art serves something. Art is useless, not useful." One of the greatest artists of our generation passed away, and I have seen an endless stream of posts about his art and his importance. That is cool and all, but it does make me question what we value in the NFT space as art. If so many people recognize the value propositions of Serra's art and acknowledge the importance of doing art at that level of commitment and, most of all, with a profound understanding of the history of art and how to propose something within that context, then why don't we hold all the art in the NFT space to those same standards and values? We argue fu** the institutions but yet we all know the importance institutions had in Serra's construction of an artistic voice. Seems confusing and, most of all, discouraging for artists dedicated to art at the highest levels when looking at what is being promoted as the best art of the digital era and not seeing any consideration for the values they hold their art to. In order to build a solid movement within the NFT space we need to move away from commercial values and move towards the acknowledgment of the importance of a set of values that have centuries of examples and visible and documented progressions. We should all try to implement just a tiny bit of those values and we actually have a chance of making artistic propositions based on the art and not on the chains, the tools and the shiny objects they make (with or without the collectors), or the floors of the works. For NFTs to become a thing and not just an echo chamber of commercial transactions, we all need to bring the values that the other 90% of the art world considers as important for art to be art. Yes, let's leave out the dirty mechanics of the traditional art world (but assume we are not saints in the NFT space), and let's actually build something based on the ART. ART that builds value because of the importance of the ART and how the subject matter, the conceptual propositions are challenging our understanding of ART. This might make us the revolutionary space we all want this space to be. This is absolutely doable.

In a happier note, a friend told me that the students who were gluing themselves to the street in Berlin have stopped. Being broke and a criminal has disadvantages apparently. Some are going into politics. Weee!

@halecar2 This is an engaging statement. As the devils advocate, I must ask how we deal with the temporary nature of challenging aesthetics. Ugly is seen as such until we get used to it, like death in the circus of Rome. There are also topics that last forever, like love.

A Plea for Difficult Images (A small rant about what I think art is today) Why does the contemporary art world embrace the ugly, the every day, the absurd, the nonsensical, and the visually and conceptually challenging? Why is that? You know this is the case because, 5 out 10 times, you come out of a contemporary art museum asking: What just happened!? What the f*** is this? Why is this art? Well, it is a long story, but let's start with something basic, like, pretty, beautiful images have been done ad infinitum up until the 20th century. Every pretty sunset, cityscape, landscape, still life, and portrait has been done before to perfection. You just need to open up a history of art book, and you will find hundreds of examples of pretty images. The challenge for artists after the invention of the photographic camera, which rendered things so perfectly, was to see other things. The challenge for artists today is to see the world differently: ugly, weird, absurd, unrecognizable. The artist´s mission suddenly became to ask questions and to think and represent differently: art is the place where we can have no certainty; where it is ok to make no sense and just present questions. Beautiful things still get made. Cute is still a thing in 21st-century art, But for completely different reasons. Beauty is not done for beauty's sake, but to challenge why we would, after thousands of years, still want to see beautiful images. Abstract art was once a f*** you to the establishment. But ever since the world tamed it, abstract art has become decorative at best. The last moment or revival of this form was called "Zombie Formalism" for it´s complacent visuals with "modernist and expressionistic styles,” which worked perfectly to please collectors interested in flipping works of art they did not understand from emerging artists who essentially crafted hundreds of generic images indistinguishable from one another. Contemporary art has moved into a space where artists tend to challenge art and beauty. They´ve become philosophers of the image, and in doing so, they have left many viewers perplexed and confused as to what exactly it is that they are witnessing or supposed to connect with. It seems that art today asks viewers and collectors to go on the same trip that the artist has gone through: understand thousands of years of art, read all the books that questioned why that was all made, and experiment with them in what can be considered art today. For those curious about art and collecting, they usually come to art with a blank slate and arrive at pretty pictures and, as many viewers for thousands of years, enjoy what they are looking at. The creators of those pretty pictures call themselves artists, and so it seems the system works. But when those pretty pictures escape the niche they are produced in and try to mingle with the contemporary art world, rarely do they become accepted, because, the museums, the informed collectors and the contemporary art market ask the questions of why pretty pictures again? Why today? How is this advancing our understanding of art? How is this commenting on all we know about art? What are these poster-looking, perfectly designed illustrations proposing to the art world that we have not considered before? And so those questions need to be answered for pretty images to be seen as art. And pretty is not only an aesthetic concept, but it is also about the intentions and the way the artist is capable of expressing his artistic intent. You can have “pretty intentions,” and that, too will be challenged. Simple themes, simple concepts without historical and conceptual rigor, are torn down and debunked because why do we need pretty artistic intentions anymore? Why do we need to see images based on explorations of color or form, self-portraits as an exploration of self, the line between reality and fiction, and the list goes on... These ideas have already been explored to the depths of their possibilities and those explorations became movement in the past. To go down that path again is a matter of practicing or studying to be an artist, but the contemporary art world rarely could see this as a proposal to move forward the world of art. So, you see, a plea for difficult images is a plea to be committed, respectful, thoughtful, and innovative. We cannot move forward, as in all practices that thrive on “the new,” without committing to understanding and challenging what came before. Science asks this of us, technology asks this, literature asks this, and cinema, too. We need pretty images, but they should only be a path to something way more profound. To do and understand art takes time, vulnerability, and a willingness to change… not everyone is willing to take that path. (Healed by @JessMacAI)

@davidleavitt @elonmusk Does this apply to every person who owns anything bought with a loan? Like a house, car, education, etc… this type of argument is hollow at best. If you are going to criticize, use something that works as a critique.

@elonmusk you bought this but didn’t pay for it yet because of the loans you took

𝕏 is the only platform you can trust for honest information. All the others are bought and paid for.

@elonmusk “Truth” is an abstract idea, because it is always based on our context. X offers the chance to formulate, challenge and debate any idea that the speaker feels is true. The debate part is key. We need it to understand what our common “truth” is. That is cultural freedom.

A great American poet and seer of life’s hidden mysteries has passed. This picture, taken by my father Gerd, hung on the entrance to dads private viewing room. My family and Larry‘s family have been close for 37 years. Farewell Lulu. Larry Fink (1941-2023)

If every human on earth currently had 500 sq. meters of land, the total land area required would be about 3,950,000 sq. km. The livable land surface of the Earth is approximately 105,009,000 sq. km, this allocation would use ~3.76% of the Earth's livable surface. - ChatGPT

In our search for optimization we must be aware of the constraints. The industrial ideal has a limit. We are close to reaching it. Things have meaning because of what it cost us to get them. The highest form of currency here is personal engagement.

That was @artcologne_km 2023 with the @galeriesander including #AugustSander #Chargesheimer #AdolfLazi #PeterKeetman #RosalindFoxSolomon #Wols and #GerardFieret

@HumansNoContext Assuming we are talking about Jesus of the Bible, I would take the money. Jesus said all the laws are fulfilled with one commandment. Live your neighbor as yourself. We are not here to be told what to do, but to use what we have wisely.

You can only choose one.

@HumansNoContext R

What is missing?

@NoContextHumans 30, assuming the 11s are rendered with a carriage return.

@cb_doge Introduce term limits for congress

If Elon Musk became the president, what would be the first thing he should do?

@stats_feed Leaders are important, but they do not represent society in the manner required in this scenario. So the question is moot. (I win the car;)

if aliens landed on the earth tomorrow, and you had to pick one person to represent humanity, it would be: 1. Elon Musk 2. Bill Gates 3. Jeff Bezos 4. Mark Zuckerberg