I saw this amazing, high quality art display online. It was Renaissance era stuff, but with interesting themes. Like boobs, extreme violence and trippy allegory and effects. This is a selection of pieces I found interesting, but they all are. There is art online, but this curated gallery has eye-watering high resolution shots. Some of these paintings you can fully get lost in. For example, this is a painting depicted man’s expulsion from heaven. From order into disorder. I’ve always felt that the painting would be reversed, from disorder (apes) into order (apes with toilets). That is, people emerge from jungle into orderly circle land. Or perhaps it’s all a loop. Or a metaphor. I digress.

In 2015 Google debuted Intelligent Ants (IA). IA were a set of biologically engineered ants which, following Google’s mantra of ‘Don’t Be Evil’, were finally helpful around the house. Par example: After eating some sausages I left the plate on the counter. In the morning it was swept clean. From there it goes direct into the low-power dishwasher, giving it a perfunctory soap and rinse. I think the sausage ends up in the compost, any errant plastic ends up in the sort, and the ants take 2% for themselves. It’s like AdSense for ants. AntSense. The ants are bred in some intense phenomenal breeding camp in Africa and they arrive here in a gradually edible tin. They eat it across the middle passage and if you just leave it out the thing disappears in a week. Just in time I suppose. You empty them out, they’re African so local ants stay clear, and then they go to work.

In the latest WikiLeaks document dump is the story of two Iraqi men who were killed by a guncraft while appearing to surrender. A military lawyer said “they cannot surrender to aircraft, and are still valid targets.” The difference in the American version of war is that they have lawyers and documents to excuse torture and murder, and courts and media to actually pore through it later. On the whole, however, the American misadventures in Iraq and Afghanistan are a much greater tragedy than even the war in Sri Lanka. By many accounts, over 100,000 civilians have been killed in Iraq alone, not directly by the military but also by the carnage the US occupation unleashed.

Last night’s improv theatre was the best yet. Act Before You Think has been running a theatre competition for three weeks now. The first two weeks were often mediocre and cringe worthy – though entertaining. I think that’s a part of improv theatre. Last night’s show – with teams led by Sirraj Abdul Hamid and Dominic Keller – was actually excellent. The night was marred only by slightly insane judging, almost randomly putting Sirraj’s team down, a bummer that they had to work through. On the whole, however, wholly entertaining.

Along Darley Road there are rows of men that flag down cars, get inside and fix car problems while overcharging horrendously. Over time, one of these operations has grown into a large garage which still has the same basic operating procedure. This is Mag City. Mag City has a car elevator, a few floors, modern machinery, etc. The people there, however, are still driven by commission and thus customers pay to drive. The trouble is that sometimes you have to go to Darley Road cause you just don’t know any better. Or at least I don’t. Ignorance plus desperation, however, is a terribly combination, ripe for exploitation.

The UNP has started something called the Movement Against Dictatorial Insanity. Let’s break that down. Dictatorial means controlling and not letting go. Insanity is the crucial world here. Insanity loosely means crazy, which I don’t think President Mahinda is. Crazy like a fox maybe. I think the more relevant definition of the word is that “insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results.” By this token, who is insane? The guy who took control by being different from everyone before, or the guy who’s trying to take control by doing the same thing over and over again? The only movement the UNP should be mounting is one to dismount the insane dictator that is their leader, Ranil.

If you get to know anyone, closely, you realize that the public persona is very different from the person. Myself included. We acted shocked when celebrities have break-ups, affairs, commit crimes and get drunk but it’s really a game of childish peek-a-boo. Of course we know that people do these things. We do them ourselves. We have enough drama within our own social circles. It is as if there is this illusion we must sustain in language to keep the horrifying reality at bay. I am constantly struck by the benign hypocrisy of humanity. We say what we want to be and are what are. When the illusion is broken we somehow consider it newsworthy, like a child surprised at a face it saw two seconds ago.

Sri Lankan University students regularly protest and the police regularly beat them up. This is so regular than most people here have forgotten the underlying issues and think that students do nothing but protest. I don’t agree with most of the solutions the students call for (restricting privatization, guaranteeing government jobs), but I do agree with the grievance. The education system is a social contract we have with our youth. Work hard, go to uni, you’ll get a job. This is not necessarily a guarantee, but it should at least be a probability. In Sri Lanka university graduates actually have a higher unemployment rate than people that don’t get a higher education. So something is deeply, deeply wrong. The social contract has been broken, and I understand why they’re occupying the Ministry of Higher Education. For more on what this contract is and why it matters, have a look at this awesomely illustrated talk by Sir Ken Robinson.

I emerged from a large corporate space ship today. On the way there I changed out of my rubber slippers in the trishaw, what to satisfy the corporate temple gods. It’s a weird place, slightly horrifying in the uniform cheer, CCTV cameras, security checks, employee surveys and obvious management, but strangely comforting as well. It’s a machine, but the machine seems to work. I’ve been in corporate machines that seem to grind for fun, so it’s actually nice to see one that grinds for a reason. It’s easy to say that middle management is like a flabby midriff, but it may actually have its place. A recent study tested if management consulting made a difference in a bunch of Indian companies. It did: ” The consultants boosted productivity by around 10 percent by improving quality, managing inventory, and speeding up production (Slate)”.

I was at Arpico (supermarket) when I saw Mangala Samaraweera, former Foreign Minister and Svengali, in the other line. He was buying light bulbs, pet food, and tinned fish. Then it hit me. This is why Ranil doesn’t want to give up power. As Opposition Leader, Ranil Wickremesinghe gets all the perks of a government Minister. He also has power both locally and internationally. Unfortunately, he can’t actually do his job as Opposition Leader (winning elections occasionally) but he does collect the perks. But it’s not just that. I see former President Bandaranaike out randomly and no one pays any attention. She’s a former President but no one cares. Come from a place where you could be five hours late and people would wait, that must suck. In Sri Lankan politics there is no exit strategy. You’re either dead or dead to the world. Perhaps that’s why Ranil clings onto his post for dear life.