I found a online auction site which I think deserve mentioning as it is probably the best/smartest moneymaking idea I have ever seen. I do not know if this is normal for online auctions, but it is such a good idea.
The site is called Smokoo and what they do is this:
There is a countdown clock. You pay 5 South African Rand for a bid option. Every time you bid the price goes up 1 cent or 5 cents and a few seconds is added to the clock. When the clock runs out the item is sold and you "win" the bid.
Now what happens is that each product is sold really cheaply. For example an Ipad 64 gig was sold for R510.25, which is amazing. But behind the scenes each bid brought in R5 for the action house and therefore R 51 025, 00 !!! for an R11 000 Ipad.
Therefore Capitalism is awesome!
About Me
- Barend Lutz
- Cape Town, South Africa
- I am currently employed as a political risk analyst and digital media manager at the British public company, red24, a leading global crisis management assistance company. In 2013 I graduated cum laude from the University of Stellenbosch with a master’s degree in International Studies. During my studies, I was a member of the MIH Media Lab, measuring public sentiment on democracy through Twitter. As part of my university studies, I took part in academic exchanges to the Sciences-Po grande école in Paris and the University of Hong Kong. Prior to my master’s degree, I finished my bachelor’s degree in Value and Policy Studies in 2010. I see myself as a global citizen.
Friday, November 19, 2010
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
A Dream whithin a dream
Part 1:
Part 2:
Man easily becomes stuck in a habitual world of normality and similarity. Without realising we are trapped in a box, a train, a lifestyle or an exquisitely constructed giant metal apparatus. This is an experimental film inspired by the philosophy of Epicurus and Edgar Allan Poe’s poem, “A Dream Within A Dream”.
Edgar Allan Poe writes in his “A Dream Within A Dream” poem that his life is as a dream within a dream. There is nothing real that he can hold onto. And when he enters his dreams he feels as if it is more real than his life. He asks:
“Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?”
In the film I used this dream within a dream idea as a basis for examining the philosophy of Epicurus. I propose that the ancient philosophy of the Greek can pull one from this perpetual dream. Epicurus therefore, with his philosophy of happiness provides us with a cure for the lifeless dream world that Poe explains.
In the film we have a man whose life is also like a dream. He his stuck in “utter reality”. Now we launch a thought experiment and the narrator tells us that the philosophy of happiness of Epicurus will be injected into the man’s dreams. So we enter his dreams.
The philosophy of Epicurus is quite simple. It consists of prescriptive guidelines to a happy life. He believed in a world where pleasure equals happiness and pain equals unhappiness. You gain pleasure mainly in three ways. Firstly, through freedom of thought and personal reflection on your own life. Secondly, through friendship. He believed that you should always surround yourself with good friends. Thirdly, through freedom of person. This is when one can be free to do what one likes and is not bounded by factors such as the state, police, etc. The greatest challenge to these steps towards happiness, is advertisements, according to Epicurus. Advertisements lead one to believe that one can gain the 3 requirements by buying something. This he believes is a false sense of happiness and will soon fade.
This film aims to show, with the help of existential philosophy, a route to escape the normality of life and to gain a sense of person and happiness. At the end of the film the man wakes up again into the “real” world. He now knows that he has had an important dream, but he simply cannot remember what it was about. I believe that many people live their lives like this. The solution to a happier life has been given almost 2400 years ago already. This might not be the full and final answer to happiness, but it should at least be a step towards it.
It was exiting, but challenging to make my first short film. As the film making progressed I realised the errors I have made and learned from them. For example, filming in a mall in Hong Kong, without permission was not the smartest idea. The security chased me from floor to floor. The whole process is much more intricate than I imagined beforehand. In order to get everything to happen on the right time and at the right place was quite difficult. Still it was an immensely pleasurable experience and I am definitely looking forward to make some more movies soon.
Part 2:
Man easily becomes stuck in a habitual world of normality and similarity. Without realising we are trapped in a box, a train, a lifestyle or an exquisitely constructed giant metal apparatus. This is an experimental film inspired by the philosophy of Epicurus and Edgar Allan Poe’s poem, “A Dream Within A Dream”.
Edgar Allan Poe writes in his “A Dream Within A Dream” poem that his life is as a dream within a dream. There is nothing real that he can hold onto. And when he enters his dreams he feels as if it is more real than his life. He asks:
“Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?”
In the film I used this dream within a dream idea as a basis for examining the philosophy of Epicurus. I propose that the ancient philosophy of the Greek can pull one from this perpetual dream. Epicurus therefore, with his philosophy of happiness provides us with a cure for the lifeless dream world that Poe explains.
In the film we have a man whose life is also like a dream. He his stuck in “utter reality”. Now we launch a thought experiment and the narrator tells us that the philosophy of happiness of Epicurus will be injected into the man’s dreams. So we enter his dreams.
The philosophy of Epicurus is quite simple. It consists of prescriptive guidelines to a happy life. He believed in a world where pleasure equals happiness and pain equals unhappiness. You gain pleasure mainly in three ways. Firstly, through freedom of thought and personal reflection on your own life. Secondly, through friendship. He believed that you should always surround yourself with good friends. Thirdly, through freedom of person. This is when one can be free to do what one likes and is not bounded by factors such as the state, police, etc. The greatest challenge to these steps towards happiness, is advertisements, according to Epicurus. Advertisements lead one to believe that one can gain the 3 requirements by buying something. This he believes is a false sense of happiness and will soon fade.
This film aims to show, with the help of existential philosophy, a route to escape the normality of life and to gain a sense of person and happiness. At the end of the film the man wakes up again into the “real” world. He now knows that he has had an important dream, but he simply cannot remember what it was about. I believe that many people live their lives like this. The solution to a happier life has been given almost 2400 years ago already. This might not be the full and final answer to happiness, but it should at least be a step towards it.
It was exiting, but challenging to make my first short film. As the film making progressed I realised the errors I have made and learned from them. For example, filming in a mall in Hong Kong, without permission was not the smartest idea. The security chased me from floor to floor. The whole process is much more intricate than I imagined beforehand. In order to get everything to happen on the right time and at the right place was quite difficult. Still it was an immensely pleasurable experience and I am definitely looking forward to make some more movies soon.
Thursday, July 29, 2010
border="0" alt="48 Hour Filmmaker: Johannesburg 2010">Monday, July 19, 2010
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
LutZefness
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
A Free Education!
Bored of doing nothing? Do you want to learn something new from some of the best educators on earth? Then Read on.
Growing tired of the hours upon hours of monotonous stuffing of information into my already bursting frontal lobe I decided to do something fun. Jumping from one youtube video to the next, I found this weird Atlantis video you see below. I also found an amazing channel that offers you a world class education for free.
The Yale University Courses Channel is what I found. This channel provides full seminars recorded in actual classes. I was elated at this discovery.
Classes like these on the internet will probably not mean the end of university, but I find it quite amazing that you can get this level of education for free!
I am still looking for more of these channels, so if you find some, post the link in comments please. I will also keep searching.
Monday, May 31, 2010
Friday, May 21, 2010
It's the end of the world as we know it.
The world has been ushered into a new epoch of synthetic biology. From the people that brought us the first unraveled DNA sequence in 1995 comes the all new Creation of Life. As man strive to reach the pinnacle of its existence and tries to crawl closer to the image of God, along the way the creation of life was inevitable. Some would argue that this reduces the wonder of creation, but I feel that this shows the exact opposite in revealing the great potential bestowed onto man.
The awesome part about this is that in the future, if 2012 does not happen :), man will be able to create customized life forms. And with this power think of the possibilities...
There are fears that computer virus like entities might arise with the power to self replicate. Others fear that new super weaponised animals will change the face of war forever. The future will show weather this advance will bring forth new nightmares of the human consciousness or help us realize our greatest dreams. I for one cant wait to create my very own Pokemans!
If you want to know more:
And Man Made Life
Genesis redux
The awesome part about this is that in the future, if 2012 does not happen :), man will be able to create customized life forms. And with this power think of the possibilities...
There are fears that computer virus like entities might arise with the power to self replicate. Others fear that new super weaponised animals will change the face of war forever. The future will show weather this advance will bring forth new nightmares of the human consciousness or help us realize our greatest dreams. I for one cant wait to create my very own Pokemans!
If you want to know more:
And Man Made Life
Genesis redux
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Friday, April 30, 2010
Somali Pirates, Seacom Cables, Angolan Oil Pipelines and Stellenbosch University
Now the most inquisitive among you have probably, just by reading the heading of this bog entry, already figured out the correlation between these words and will soon get back to saving the world, sex with models or whatever important things you do. Still I am going to indulge myself and continue to explain the obvious. But enough Meta text let us get down to the facts.
As if Angola does not have enough problems the local marine life has decided to launch a violent coup against the oil pipelines. The fish must have noticed that these pipes are slowly desolating and de-fouling their precious Atlantic aquatic existence. Some marlins have decided that the sword is mightier than the pen and viciously launched themselves against the pipes, penetrating them with their sword like appendages and sacrificing their lives for the cause.
Noble as this might sound the ramifications of this revolution has surly affected, not only Angola, but also the rest of Africa. At the University of Stellenbosch new undersea fibre optic cables (Seacom cables) have recently helped to upgrade the overall internet connection. Unfortunately, this week the connection was disturbed, causing wide spread panic and a malfunction in “THE INTERWEB”.
Allegedly the East coast sword fish have decided to join their underwater brethren and attack the monstrous cables that are invading their habitat. Witnesses have claimed that they saw militarised groups of swordfish all along the east coast of Africa in the past weeks. Gashes and various marks have been found by Seacom workers on some of their cables, but it has not yet been confirmed that the swordfish are responsible for this.
The situation has been enflamed even further by malicious groups of Somali Pirates who are enraged by the aquatic revolt. They claim that their cause is legitimate and that these new militant groups of fish are pulling attention away from the real problems. Undercover journalists in the ranks of the pirates have confirmed that the pirates will temporarily stop attacking ships and focus their rage on the marine life.
The question on all lips now is what Angola will do to fix this horrific situation that they have clearly ushered Africa into. A delegation of Students from the University of Stellenbosch will be sent to Cambinda to host negotiations between the Angolan government and the Cabindan Forum for Dialogue and Peace. It is believed that both these factions will be needed to find a solution for the problem.
As if Angola does not have enough problems the local marine life has decided to launch a violent coup against the oil pipelines. The fish must have noticed that these pipes are slowly desolating and de-fouling their precious Atlantic aquatic existence. Some marlins have decided that the sword is mightier than the pen and viciously launched themselves against the pipes, penetrating them with their sword like appendages and sacrificing their lives for the cause.
Noble as this might sound the ramifications of this revolution has surly affected, not only Angola, but also the rest of Africa. At the University of Stellenbosch new undersea fibre optic cables (Seacom cables) have recently helped to upgrade the overall internet connection. Unfortunately, this week the connection was disturbed, causing wide spread panic and a malfunction in “THE INTERWEB”.
Allegedly the East coast sword fish have decided to join their underwater brethren and attack the monstrous cables that are invading their habitat. Witnesses have claimed that they saw militarised groups of swordfish all along the east coast of Africa in the past weeks. Gashes and various marks have been found by Seacom workers on some of their cables, but it has not yet been confirmed that the swordfish are responsible for this.
The situation has been enflamed even further by malicious groups of Somali Pirates who are enraged by the aquatic revolt. They claim that their cause is legitimate and that these new militant groups of fish are pulling attention away from the real problems. Undercover journalists in the ranks of the pirates have confirmed that the pirates will temporarily stop attacking ships and focus their rage on the marine life.
The question on all lips now is what Angola will do to fix this horrific situation that they have clearly ushered Africa into. A delegation of Students from the University of Stellenbosch will be sent to Cambinda to host negotiations between the Angolan government and the Cabindan Forum for Dialogue and Peace. It is believed that both these factions will be needed to find a solution for the problem.
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Evidence of Aliens?
Soon I will folow in the footsteps of the magnanimous and heroic Wikus van der Merwe. Embarkin on the journy of a fast paced transformation into a awesome, but terrifying alien. I hope I will get cool guns as well!
Stranger things happen in China, but here I offer you official proof of Aliens in China. This is directly from the embassy website.
"In accordance with the "Law of the People's Republic of China on Entry and Exit of Aliens" and other relevant regulations, the aliens who apply for Chinese visas are required to fulfill the following procedures"
SO there..
Alieeeens ooooh
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Could carbon nonotubes be as dangerous as asbestos?
Nanotubes of DEATH
We have all heard stories of past generations dying of asbestoses and getting cancer from prolonged exposure to it. Billions of dollars has been spent on asbestos lawsuits. Mass amounts of money is also spent on building sites to minimise asbestos risks. Most of us have also heard of carbon nanotubes, the new wonder of science that will enable human kind to reach new levels of greatness and literally new heights (Michio Kaku's space elevator).
The billion dollar question now is whether carbon nanotubes could pose a similar threat as asbestos does? This is the question scientists such as Doctor Andrew Maynard at the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars in Washington are investigating. He says that further studies are a definite necessity. If longer strands of nanotube fibre becomes airborne (in manufacturing or destruction for example) it could pose similar risks as asbestos, said Ken Donaldson, professor at the University of Edinburgh. These long strands could become ensnared in the mesothelium, which is soft tissue that surrounds many of our organs. If this happens it could eventually lead to malignant tumors, which you do not want for it can lead to death within six to eighteen months.
There have been some studies in the UK on this subject in recent years. The studies support the potential threat of the carbon nanotubes. Still no conclusive evidence has been found to halter our dreams of visiting space in our super high tech, next level, space elevators.
Picture: top nanotubes, bottom asbestos from:
Read More:
IMF is optimistic and Asia Kicks Ass
IMF is optimistic and Asia Kicks Ass
Read this if you want to know more:
Earth Day
Man must feel the earth to know him
and recognize his values.
God made life simple.
It is man who complicates it.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
The Strong Rand
As the earnings in the US and other first world countries are again rising, investors are motivated to invest in riskier options. South Africa, being a quite risky investment area, has benefited from increased foreign direct and portfolio investment in the last couple of months. This has helped the Rand to become stronger. This is but one influence in explaining the strong Rand though. The Soccer World Cup and many other factors also comes into play. It should also be noted that the strength of the Rand has now only returned too levels seen before the global financial crisis.
Monday, April 19, 2010
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Saturday, April 17, 2010
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Today I received a new Chinese name
From my friend in Hong Kong, Kit Tang:
盧柏倫is much better than the old one 巴煙肉...
盧：your surname 'Lutz'
柏：cypress, the symbol of 'long live' in Chinese culture
倫：'in order', 'well-organized', 'moral' in Confucian sense
It's a proper Chinese name that not many 'gui lo' have the privilege to get. Enjoy!
You pronounce it Lo Pak Lun.
The old name was Ba Yin Yuk which means Baconman and sounds a bit like Barend. Lo Pak Lun sounds much cooler and I think will be a bit more fitting than Baconman, though it would be cool to have the powers of BACONMAAN...Mmm!
So hi, I am 盧柏倫
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