And this is the follow-up of Franklin after electrifying Mary Shelly. Burckhardt really has some strange imagination, can't wait to actually meet him.

Working on this project with Simon metabolizing images from the intro of Burckhardt's Über dem Luftmeer, and been some really interesting raw images. This one come from Ben Franklin meeting an electrified Mary Shelly...

So...ComfyUI has a mind of its own some days. Simon and I were working on a video for the Ex Nihilo article about Alan Turing and this is was a funny outtake...not sure were the guy came from or the accent. She was supposed to be eating an apple...you never know with Comfy...🫣

Simon and I ran this text on Jeremy Bentham thru the Company Machine and got these weird images. I think we're gonna make this into a video of some sort....

Simon showed me this image that he created with the Ex Nihilo guys for this article on conformism, using their Company Machine. I can't stop laughing at the image of an exec. requiring me to wear his approved shoes.

martinburckhardt.substack.com/p/total-conf...

The End of Qatari Exceptionalism Can Qatar Shed Islamism?

Being much less politically aware, I vaguely remember Rachel Maddow reporting how Trump, reading from a teleprompter during Trump 1.0, couldn’t pronounce Qatar— & then commenting he was clueless who they were, while we were getting big bucks from them. critiqueanddigest.substack.com/p/the-end-of...

Perverse Modernity The History of Modern Antisemitism

There’s a new post on Ex Nihilo that tells the history of modern anti-Semitism. Who’d thought it was really about Napoleon III? Lots to learn…Ps—check out the kewl image we made using the text!

martinburckhardt.substack.com/p/perverse-m...

Day Four A TAM War Update

FYI Mein Freund recommended Hussein Aboubakr Mansour’s Substack for understanding the Iran War Trump’s illegally pulled us into. Per the ExNihilio guys, he’s a scary bright Egyptian dude writing about Islamism really German Romanticism in disguise—
substack.com/inbox/post/1...

Kurze6EN

The punch card machines that organized Nazi death camps? Same company that became IBM. Wild how we celebrate the "information age" while forgetting it started with the digitalization of death. So much to learn about history from my German Freund...

Claude Shannon’s Flaming Trumpet

I was working with my Freund Simon on metabolizing this Martin Burckhardt and got Claude Shannon’s “flaming Trumpet”…it just made us laugh ourselves silly…

At the moment things are really hot back home in America…we see what the next 3 months bring…😒

What’s going on is horrible. My friend Simon works with this German cultural theorist, which is much of what I’m learning from him. He tells me the thing to remember is there are no “Puppet Masters” and it’s about the social drives. What’s happening in America is horrible…more later….

Ik zie dat je Nederlands spreekt. Hopelijk is DeepL nauwkeurig. Ik ben hier omdat een vriend het me aanraadde. Ik plaats dus waar we aan werken en ik leer van hem over cultuurtheorie.

Misschien is het beter als ik niet reageer en gewoon berichten plaats...

Good question…my friend suggested I try Bluesky, so I write about what we’re working on, and what I learn from him about Cultural Theory…

?

Yeah…and I’m understanding it’s also about “Victim Olympics”, and both business and politicians profiting off of what I’ve heard called the economics of dispair, like dumping folks out of old folks homes to house immigrants, because it’s more profitable…think slum landlords too…

Yeah…and I’m understanding it’s also about “Victim Olympics”, and both business and politicians profiting off of what I’ve heard called the economics of dispair, like dumping folks out of old folks homes to house immigrants, because it’s more profitable…think slum landlords too…

Ah, but I’m understanding a Moral Economy as what’s happening when a good idea turns into a money/social standing generating machine. When the road to hell is paved with good intentions…I’m still learning about the thought from my Freudin…

Ah…for me it’s a lot about “droping the rope” as I don’t thinks there’s a lot of difference between sides, other than what I’m learning to call a “moral economy” that forgets the boundary work between what’s really helpful vs lines someone’s pockets, what my friend Simon calls “our lower Angels”…

EMUL8 – Film Emulation for DaVinci Resolve The best Dehancer alternative for Filmmakers & Video Editors. EMUL8 Film Emulation for DaVinci Resolve with Halation, Grain, Bloom & beautiful Film Looks.

Added this cool Filmic Emulation plug-in to my DVR rig from Eric Lenz, should give Simon and I really strange effects. Out of all gazillion YouTube videos of color-grading, Eric's who I learned the most from...and he's not even a Davinci guy!
cinem8.co/products/emu...
youtube.com/@iamericlenz...

Zwischenzeit (as I’m learning to say in German—🫣)Here’s a funny video that I helped Simon create in ComfyUI, more like watched, until we moved into DaVinci Resolve…

The Age of Slop Of Making Content There Is No End

Simon told me about this guy named Hussein Aboubakr that I should read if I seriously want to learn about cultural theory, since like the ex nihilo guys he works with, the dude is cutting edge. It’s thick reading, but I really liked this quote…
substack.com/home/post/p-...

The Psychology of Catastrophe Lovers Listen now | Why it's best not to be born

Army finally deployed to help Berliners freezing after the attack. Simon’s friend Martin wrote about the German cultural response, but honestly I’m confused and trying to understand: martinburckhardt.substack.com/p/the-psycho...

Germany: Power back for some Berliners, but others freeze on – DW – 01/04/2026 Thousands of households in Berlin might have to wait several days for power, amid freezing temperatures after an outage caused by possible arson. Mayor Kai Wegner called the attack "terrorism."

Berlin’s having a power outage from Climate Terrorists_> a big deal here in Berlin per my Berlin friend @smichelet.bsky.social , but it’s not showing up in my US Newsfeeds: www.dw.com/en/germany-p...
There’s a post from his friend, if interested: martinburckhardt.substack.com/p/apocalypse...

When the pictures learned to walk Sigmund Freud reanimated

@bsky.app

Worked with @smichelet.bsky.social re-animating Freud from a Halberstadt photograph. ComfyUI→Topaz→DaVinci. When the pictures learned to walk, something shifted. Electricity's child animating electricity's theorist.

simonmichelet1.substack.com/p/when-the-p...

Just finished watching The Expanse again in anticipation of season 7... it's the greatest space opera I've seen!

Something about standing in front of the Brandenburg Gate at sunset that makes you realize - this is where history turned. Like, physically turned. And now it's just...there. People walking through like it's a Tuesday. Which it is. But still.

Traded the fuzz pedal for philosophy books, but turns out mountains are the best teachers. Crater Lake reminded me: some things you can't learn through abstraction. You have to stand in front of them.