Fog in the valley, (some) snow on the mountains. Sometimes, the Carintian landscape I was skiing in reminded me of Hiroshi Senju’s beautifull pictures that I had seen in Japan in summer.

NSFW (Nikolaus’ Song for the Week)

This week’s song is the newest single of Florian Paul & Die Kapelle der letzten Hoffnung. The song fits very well into the ball/carneval season that all of us go through at the moment (not only politically).

I like, in particular, Magdalena Wawra’s vocal contribution.

“Geheimnis” on YouTube is just another example of a zero budget production: two people in the Berlin (?) underground first and dancing in a club later, filmed with something that has the image quality of a 2003 smartphone:

There’s another song from the band that I really like for quite some time now

The dancing rhythm and the female voice in “Geheimnis” remind me of another great song - Amado Mio - performed by Pink Martini. Spotify:

It’s on YouTube in (at least) two versions: one with Storm Lange.

and one with China Forbes

Both have their merits.

And then there is the version with Grace Jones from 1989 that has so terribly bad playback, and is so much Italian and 80-ies like that it’s somehow funny again.

Retrospect

AIA Commentaries

The book I had the privilege to write with Dr. Lukas Feiler received a positive review.

A perfect opportunity to meet Lukas, but also the editors of the two other books (commentary and primer) on the matter I worked on, Prof. Ceyhun Pehlivan und Prof. Peggy Valcke, is approaching quickly - on February 28:

The programme is really nice, Ceyhun, Lukas and Peggy will be on panels, together with lots of other high level people, registration is free, only parts will be streamed.

AIA Guidelines

The European Comission published guidelines on AI system definition with a small letter “g” in “guidelines”), just one day after the “Guidelines on prohibited artificial intelligence (AI) practices” (wit a capital “G” in “Guidelines”). I wrote, again, a short but very critical post on LinkedIn that got some attention.

While lots of text is produced here, other text disappears again: The Commission withdrew the proposal for an AI Liability Directive (with very short and very general reasoning).

Parody and Die Tagespresse

Due to a recent Austrian Supreme Court decision, Dr. Thomas Höhne joined me in a holiday edition of #arsboni.

Höhne was, interestingly, less critical than me - and politer.

The “studio” was the ski hut’s living room and a funny mixture of kitchenware with several pots, cans and cables.

© Lina Reiter

The Linkedin post on the lightstand I used was - far more - popular than any ‘serious’ content related contribution I made anywhere this week.

Prospect

#Job Offer

We have a very nice job to offer. Please, spread the news and/or consider applying. We would love to hear from you.

Here’s a small promotion video on this vacancy that I shot in the beautiful main building of UNIVIE:

This is 100 % self made with my DJI Pocket II in, over all, about 30 minutes. I (still) like the idea, the acceptable sound quality and the input/output ratio, but I am very much out in the dark whether this is attractive for (young) potential candidates. I would appreciate any feedback you have.

DJI (which is a Chinese company, very much into drones) is, interestingly, still seen as a security threat by Android. Installing the software on a phone feels like breaking into a bank. Reddit has some stuff on this.

#ars boni

Four sessions are waiting next week.

On Monday, February 17, at 12.00 I will speak, as announced last week, with Prof. Dr. Björn Steinrötter.

Also on Monday, at 17.00 CET, we will discuss AI in cancer research and treatment.

This event is closely related to one of our research projects, the CD Laboratory for Machine Learning Driven Precision Imaging.

On Tuesday, February 18th, at 10.00 am, I will discuss with Dr. Veronika Hofinger (University of Innsbruck) internet access and digitalisation in (Austrian) prisons.

Last, not least, Austria’s Chief Digital Officer, Wolfgang Ebner, will join me on Friday, February 21st, at 14.00 CET.

I have some personal background in governance of digitalisation, including the “Initiative Bessere Verwaltung", this paper, and my membership in the AI advisory board, so that I am very much looking forward to this.

Look and Feel

Hiroshi Senju

Due to the mountains and the fog and the blue and grey skys that reminded me of Hiroshi Senju, while skiing, I started to search a little more about him, also on the internet. I found a YouTube channel named after him (his channel?) with 39 subscribers (I am nr. 39) and less than 2500 views in 11 years of existence.

Here’s a nice short video explaining why he started using colours after the pandemic from this channel.

And here’s a detail from the Kongobuji Temple where he works (sometimes) that I visited in August. The weather was just perfect that day and Mount Koya was the highlight of the whole trip, as I know now, six months later, even better than then.

Daisy

is not impressed by the over all (political) situation.

© Birgit Forgó-Feldner

Have a wonderful week!

Kind regards

Nikolaus (Forgó)