Friday, June 30, 2006

ONWARD PORTUGAL



is playing today against 'pérfida Albion’ or Perfidious Albion, those traitors that have sold out Portugal again and again.
Acreditem na equipa diz Scolari
This creates in us a special emotion, a special feeling about our country. Remember, the Portuguese team is full of players with big hearts, that are built when we are far from what we love.
England has to be very, very strong mentally to beat a Portuguese team full of pride, full of desire, full of self-belief.
I never run away. I would like my beloved country to keep the incredible happiness that we are feeling and smelling in every corner at the moment. I know you can accept that, because you also love your great country and you understand the feelings people have for their country says Jose Mourinho. It's going to be tough and noone is calling for an all out winner

Destes 10 mil kilometros, Boa Sorte PORTUGAL

What to think of Brett Myers who beat his wife in public and was not denounced by the team coach. Great role model for kids. American sports have gotten way too violent outside of their range of play. These testosterone pumped men, almosrt freaks of nature, carry on in civil society as if the rulles don't apply to them. They murder, they beat, they rape and they get away with it.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali is coming to the United States, in part because of the treatment she is getting from her country of asylum, the Netherlands. I have kept track of Ms. Ali's situation in this blog, and it is shameful that the Netherlands, apparently so tolerant a people, have managed to drive this great woman away. The governement has fallen in part because of this situation. Ms. Ali is coming to the United States where pragmatism reigns and people like her are not ostracized. She is coming to the conservative American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, where I hope she will continue to fight for Muslim women's rights.
"a rabbi-leaves-wife-for-ex-nun-but-blames-the-shrimp-and-not-the-sexual-attraction story " in Jewlicious is frankly delicious if not a tad sad.
Here is a contradiction in terms or an oxymoron. A Muslim man explaining on You Tube why women talk before thinking and men think befor speaking. He's all female, apparently, albeit a very hairy one.
A list of anti antonyms, that is words that have opposing meanings such as bolt, quantum and impregnable.
On the beauty premium, or why beautiful people get better wages than the rest of us.
Colorado legislators are coming back to work, I take it, to try to deal with illegal immigration. It makes no sense trying to legislate on something they have no information about namely, money spent by the state on illegal immigrants...oh it so smells of demagoguery...
Dialogues on the situation of the working poor. How Wal Mart effectively reversed Ford's pioneering policy of wages paying wages that would enable the workers to afford the merchandise, in this case, cars. Wal Mart is out pricing itself out of the class it depends on. Bad sign for them but also for a great number of Americans. Barbara Einhrich as usual goes to the point , efficiently.
Neat little snipet of Robin William's take on the Viagra Rush Limbaud story....fun fun fun
And finally Portugal-Englang is about 24 hours away. Yikes!!!

Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Heavenly music and earthly infernos

Cat's paw nebula
LIstening to The Bulgarian Women's Choir Angelite at 5 in the AM...
I really dislike the new lay out of Slate but still like to read it. On working women, as if most of us had a choice not to!
Blogging the Bible continues...interesting as ever

I take Ruth Marcus' opinions very seriously and when she questions the alleged victim's consistence and history, I naturally read with much attention. Nevertheless, inthis case, it would seem to me that she is basing her assertions on the defense's information. Now these lawyers were contracted to do the job that they are acheiving magnificently: that of having a media trial where the desacreditation of the woman is total.

The whoring from which doctors, as human beings are not exempt, is revealed in this N.Y. Times article on the promiscuity between bio technology companies and doctors/"researchers". For when the dethroning of doctors as demi gods. And how that affect us all...detrimentally, I must add...

Hooters against animal euthanasia??WTF...bikini babe contest for animal shelter fund raising.. with government support...only in LALALand... they dropped the idea...

I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."-Voltaire
"We disapprove of what you say," the censors tell him, "and we will suppress your right to say it, even long after your death."
Fanaticism or Mahomed the Prophet, a Tragedy by Voltaire. I know there is an english edition but it sure is hard to find....I suppose I can read it in french

Subway gropers, beware - next time you cop a feel, you might be feeling a cop.

Local (Denver) gossip: Fake New world smusingly described in Westword
I didn't even know there was a "real" one!!!

Blogger suicide and the vitriol some blogs seem to attract.

And Israel is all over the Newspapers again...

And in World Cup new...France is in...and the quarter finals should gives good football/soccer. Portugal vs England saturday morning and I think Germany will win the Cup. And that they go to the finals with Brazil..

Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Natural Deselection by Tim Simpson: I absolutely loved this idea - three plants compete to reach the light that feeds and nourishes them. The first one to succeed survives. The other two are automatically cut down in their prime:

I absolute love this. (via Kokkte as is the next link): You tube Videos: watch the Miami Vice short. Fabulous...not dated at all, unlike the show itself, that I well remember being part of a friday night party ritual for a lot of people.

A nice profile on Yoko Ono.

This thing Warren Buffet is doing is pretty damn cool.

Oh And Brasil Won and saturday is getting closer.

Sunday, June 25, 2006

Nice picture I thought, although dated.

Sebastian Mallaby has a good column on loneliness and loss of friends, but ends it with a much too ironic twist. He is right though. Real physical friendships have suffered greatly in the age of instantant messaging, cell phones and internet in general. It is more instantly conforting to talk to someone you don't know and will probably never meet than the real fleash and bones neighbor next door. Intimacy is disappearing, not sexual intimacy, but personal psychological intimacy.
East Timor is on the news again and not for good reasons. Ah the petroleum in the Sea of Timor has caused so much suffering. Anyway, it seems the prime minister has resigned and maybe Xanana Gusmao will be able to reign in the crisis....
A book on Eichmann and his trial, as well as a refutation of Ann Arendt's position on the question of genocide and what drives human beings to participate and even promote it. I personally think that most people when threatened with loss of life and fortune will do what is necessary to keep it. But I'm a pessimist.
One painting a day is a neat art blog.

PORTUGAL WON



PORTUGAL WON !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A rough violent game but one that nevertheless showed the spirit of this team. And where is the famous dutch tolerance. Not a bit on its players. The Netherlands were as a team extremely aggressive and sore loosers. Let'em go home!!!!

Next round England

Beckam vs Cristiano Ronaldo, who actually play in the same team, Manchester United. WoW

Foi um grande pequeno jogo. Pena que Deco tenha sido expulso. Pena que lesionassem o Criatiano Ronaldo. Mas estamos nos quartos de final e isso e muito fixe!!!!Como gostaria de estar a menos de 10,000 dessa euforia...enfim!!! Haja futebol!!!!

Friday, June 23, 2006

It's not offensive, it's just barbaric, and representative of English fottball mind set. So what?
A bit on the lazy side lately. Too much work, too much stress and all around exhaustion have taken their toll and this blog is among the first to have that reflected. But getting on, some goodies I've gotten to lately:
On soccer/football Monty Python's version.
An analysis of the Language log by the N.Y. Times.
One of the strangest stories I have read in quite some time: Bug chasers, the bareback phenomenon taken one step further. Bug chasers are not entomologists chasing after lady bugs. Oh! no! they are younguish gay men chasing after the HIV virus to be able to become part of the "fraternity".
A link to Noam Chomsky's talk at West Point which I inicially saw on c-span. Very impressive for both sides!
Robin Givhan, in her WasPost piece goes after Britney Spears' outfit in a Date Line interview. Apparently the journalist is not aware of the singer's target audience. Wasn't she dubbed (and I relunctanly use this insulting term) the queen of white trash? The girl to whom every trailer park dweller could relate to? The description given by Givhan makes me believe that the girl still has her targeted audience in mind when appearing on tv. And if that is the audience that gave her gazillions, well, no point on becoming a Fifth Avenue sophisticate. They wouldn't buy it anyway.
Krauthammer's piece on Australia begins humourously enough but slides into bizarre demagoguery on behalf of a country full of contradictions, of European cultural prdominance, but on the other side of the world, with the weight a a few billion people of radically different cultural backgrounds at its heels. It is perfectly feasable for a country with its number of inhabitants to be able to easily get in touch with high governement officials. It's wonderful that it stand up to Muslim extremists what with being neighbor to the world's most populous Muslim country. And it is sufficiently isolated to have the need to cuddle up to the major superpower in the world. Yes, it's a survival strategy, of a country that has quite a bloody history with the Aboriginal population and with siding with Ali Alatas in the Indonesian/Timor conflict.
It's wonderful that Tattered Cover Bookstore is moving into my neighborhood. It's terrible because in a couple of years I will no longer be able to afford to live her for that same reason. But hopefully by then I'll be living in the mountains.
The homeless and the Internet; Wired does an interesting story on it. I didn't know any of that.
It is Greek Festival Weekend. I have become through my professional contacts, enchanted with everything greek. Great people, great food (except the feta cheese) and beautiful islands. Plus their golden past. Anyway all good reasons to get there.

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

In Portuguese with no accents


Em honra do jogo de amanha e considerando que me encontro a mais de 10,000 km de Portugal escrevo esta entrada em portugues. Forca Portugal, Forca equipa da quinas. Rodeada de Mexicanos e colega de trabalho de alguns, torna esta competicao mais interessante. Que o melhor ganhe. Que seja Portugal !

Sunday, June 18, 2006

a new week


The new way to see storms
Dan Gilbert's
formula for happiness:
odds of gain x value of gain=expected happiness
In other words, how good a decision is depends on the risk (odds) and the size of the pay-off (value). The problem is people are quite bad at estimating both odds and value and the reasons for this are tied to how we make sense of (perceive) the world around us.
How not to buy happiness
Context and perception are everything!!!
Good to know they're around The Consumerist; the consumer fights back
Action girl's guide to living

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

eugenics and other stuff

Joe Apology, the web version of the confessionary booth. Kind of like the post a secret blog, I guess.
International Dialects of English Archives good for linguists actors and teachers.
Flying Dude. Wow!!
A review, pretty negative I might add of a Timothy Leary, the man who manged to infuriate the government, women and the left by defying the first, mistreating the second and selling down the river the third.
The eugenics debate revisited XXI st century version...Aldous Huxley Senior had a lot to say about it. People cannot distinguist between plausible association and clear cut causal relation. The gene discussion is on the plausible association level and should so remain. To quote Emerson "The element running through entire nature, which we popularly call Fate, is known to us as limitation. Whatever limits us, we call Fate" from The Contingency Table a blog on genetics.
And Emerson's take on statistics is brilliant:'One more fagot of these adamantine bandages, is, the new science of Statistics. It is a rule, that the most casual and extraordinary events -- if the basis of population is broad enough -- become matter of fixed calculation. It would not be safe to say when a captain like Bonaparte, a singer like Jenny Lind, or a navigator like Bowditch, would be born in Boston: but, on a population of twenty or two hundred millions, something like accuracy may be had."
This breast feed or else article on the Times is simply creepy!So women should behave as if they were potentially pregnat all the time ...as I 've seen advocated. This shit is as bad as anything the Taliban can come up with.
The rash of overdose deaths in the Midwest are being attributed to the drug Fentanyl, a very powerful short duration analgesic used in many medical procedures. What makes it attractive to heroin users is its intensity. The short duration problem is overcome with the heroin cut which has a longer lasting effect. The intensity of the "rush" is why a junkie, never one to worry about such insignificant factors as death or paralisys, seeks it out . The stronger the drug the better the buzz is the working formula here, not the stronger the dose the likelier it is to kill you. Many junkies are reluctant to use narcan or naloxone on a fellow tripper because it brings on very intense withdrawal symptoms along with its life saving properties. And a violent and instant withdrawal is a junkie's worst nightmare, worse than death, 'cuase death they don't know what it feels like but withdrawal they do and it's horrible.
The continuation of Blogging the Bible

Monday, June 12, 2006

world cup obsession

Eugene Robinson hits it on the mouch in his WasPost editorial. As usual, by the way. I have brought up the question of America's reluctance to take up football/soccer as a major league sport. And would FIFA like that! Anyway tomorrow my guess for the games is a win for Togo, France and of course Brazil. I got Monday's winners right. Let's see how I average out.
Soccer is for intelectuals says Slate. An excerpt from The True Story of American Soccer by Dave Eggers.

Sunday, June 11, 2006

Joga Bonito


Portugal won!!

So did Mexico and the Netherlands. Tomorrow the Czech Republic will probably win over the USA, Australia over Japan and of course Italy over Ghana. We'll see

A bookshelf (will there be bookshelves?) in a future concieved by Wired

Please watch this short film called "the powers of ten". The endless possibilities of zeroes!! It is too awsome for words!!!
The rethinking of the "kleitoris", or little hill in Greek, which apparently and according to recent research is more like a mountain. But read on!
Rebecca's summer list of reading lists!!!
Solon's life by Plutarch. Thanks, Sanzu and keep it up!!I'm with you remember! Go to that f*cking gym if you have to drag yourself there.
A different more optimistic take on the immigrant debate, backed by solid statistics, on the WasPost.
The break down of earwax:For a more detailed analysis of the chemical composition of ear wax, one can do a little chromatography. About half of the dry weight of ear wax is lipid, and it consists of:
Cholesterol and cholesterol esters: 32.5%
Fatty acids: 22.7%
Ceramides: 18.6%
Squalene: 6.4%
Triacylglycerols: 3.0%
If you want to know more go to Pharyngula

Saturday, June 10, 2006

boa sorte Portugal


With Figo, Pauleta e Cristiano Ronaldo Portugal should win this match... So should Mexico against Iran, but this is a special case of politics and sports. Who would the bigots in America defend if they watched football/soccer, I wonder! The Netherlands are no longer the mechanical orange of yonder years but they should also have no trouble with a victory!

World Cup controversy. Again in Germany...again the Holocaust...again the denial...the obsession...again Iran...
But I'm rooting for Portugal...

Wednesday, June 07, 2006

world cup day 1

Fellow country man Cristiano Ronaldo
According to this story in the Independent, in Iraq, if you don't like what a woman is doing, just murder her. When is violence against women going to carry serious consequences for the prepertrators? When will people realize that to oppress women is to oppress, their children, the future of any nation. Look around the world. What is wrong with religious fundamentalists the world over. What do they gain with the oppression of women? With the oppression of their mothers, sisters, wives, friends. Are men just plain evil?

The precursor to hip hop? Watch this weird Disney black version of Snow white. Mighty strange!
Robot wisdom I wouldn't say is anti semitic, but the site sure has a lot of links to one sided opinions on the Israeli-Paslestinian problem. And always against Israel.

Boing Boing is anti sports and Kottke is calling them on it, referring them to a site that well, I don't get it. Mike Monteiro must be Kottkle's friend. I figure he's at least of portuguese ascendency as I am but it still doesn't make much sense. To watch Pele, Maradona, Rosa Mota, Nadia Komanechi and the endless list of sports genius is to watch something that goes beyond the human body's effort. The will, endurence, creativity and pure genius of great athletles is not just a sport but an art form. You don't even have to go political, although there , sports has done much to advance great causes. And yeah, its fun! And one does not have to be a stupid moron to like to watch sport matches.

I will be all yeys and ears on the World Cup!
A link to the WasPost's take on the World Cup. Why has it not become very popular in America? It has few goals, it is very fast paced, with few allotments for commercials, little violence and an air of European snobishness to it. But above all, I believe is its incompatability with television transmission in America with the constant interruptions for commercials. Soccer is too much of a fluid game for such a medium.
A tutorial on soccer balls and their performance in the Rocky Mountain News

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

another day after Armaggedon

The World Bank's analysis of the World Cup!
A guy who has gone on a diet of monkey chow and his on line journal.
Mr. Red Clip has traded his Kiss snow globe for a part in a Hollywood movie...

Denver's "housing first" policy to deal with homelessness gets first page coverage in the New York Times as a good practices example. Only the stupid fanatics who would have everyone in strait jackets think this is a bad idea. It's a harm reduction pragmatist and well researched program that has shown good results.

And the world did not end yesterday.

Sunday, June 04, 2006

monday

A profile of Oriana Fallaci in the New Yorker. Here is she at her best in a 1979 interview with Khomeini: ...Fallaci saw an opening, and charged in. If you do not like Islamic dress you are not obliged to wear it. Because Islamic dress is for good and proper young women“That’s very kind of you, Imam. And since you said so, I’m going to take off this stupid, medieval rag right now.” She yanked off her chador.
... And, as Fallaci sees it, the “art of invading and conquering and subjugating” is “the only art at which the sons of Allah have always excelled.”
Fallaci sees the threat of Islamic fundamentalism as a revival of the Fascism that she and her sisters grew up fighting.
She might ave become a somewhat senile and hysteric old woman, but she speaks her mind with out fear of consequences. And against Islamic fundamentalism, she joins a small rank of women who seem to be the only ones to have the courage to do so. maybe because they know how much we all would have to loose, under the Caliphat as dreamed up by Islamic expansionists. Critice America for being agressive. Look at the long history of IslamHenry Kissinger on football/soccer:
Soccer at its highest level is a game of complicated simplicity. As he well mentions one never looses the bond established in childhood with our team. It is said that you can change country, change spouse but never change your team. It's a fun anddelighteful piece.

and tomorrow is the day of the beast 666 =www?
...

Saturday, June 03, 2006

Rocky mountain beauty
THis Waspost article brings to light the European struggle with the destitute from Africa trying to get into the land of milk and honey. And doubt not, Europefor all its secular humanism will put up a fortress and use every means at its disposal to protect itself. It has done so in the past and will continue to do so. It has been fighting back the "peaceful " Islamic troups that have over and over wanted to convert that space that is Europe by force. Again, I wonder why is it that the Islamic wealthy nations are not opening their arms to their god forsaken brethen. But in true honesty, intellectual honesty, this drive northward of the miserable and oppressed has its reasoning behind it. There are no easy solutions, but solutions have to come forth at one point or another. And it is not easy to disaentangle the complex web that is globalization. Globalization is not a one way street...
The New York Times covers the very ugly face of racism in the major league soccer clubs. Aagin globalization at work...
Kottke has a link that lists the dates and populations of cities through out history. Baghdad was the first city with a population of 1 ,illion and this was in 775. Amazing the turns the world takes.
I so miss the old megnut blog. It had what I thought was the best design of any blog around. I loved it and lived in envious jealousy of such a beautiful site. NOw I don't get it! It's about food and the lay out is nothing compared to the old one.
The bare numbers of AIDS victims in Africa in the next decade. 100 million. It is their black plague. Although the plague decimated over 1/3 of the European population in the 1400's and radically changed the economic reality in that continent, at the time there was no treatment for it. Now we have ways to impede its dissemination and we have the medications that make a life possible. Why? more millions must die. Botswana, the country with the highest rate of infection at one point was in danger of disappearing as a nation. This is truly tragic! Do we wonder why people want to leave those lands? Wouln't we?
My friend Sanzu and his mission to become a better man. You go bro' ! Don't you give up!
GPS art! I love it!
Don't forget the people's fair in downtown Denver this week-end!

Thursday, June 01, 2006

drugs, football and other items

Buy your own modern day medieval castle in Southern Portugal. Reminds me of the sign in Virginia "antique tables made everyday".

The WasPost will be doing a year long series on the condition of the black man in America.
On the same edition Robin Givhan goes ballistic on that perennial summer staple, flip-flops, and head towels for men. Every year the same story pops up. Flip-flops are not adequate, flip-flops make a mockery of formality. Perhaps so, but they also make a mockery of the ridiculous Manolo Blanick $500 shoes popularized by Carrie Bradshaw of Sex and the City fame. Is it because flip-flops are cheap and an affront to the fashion industry that would have women spending every last cent of their income to keep up with its impossible and oppressive standarts?
Charles Krauthammer in his friday op-ed in the Post amazingly defends the unorthodox, even illegal use of substances in the professional and art worlds and sports arenas. Questioning public outcry over baseball's Barry Bond's alleged use of steroids to break a record held by Babe Ruth, he mentions signs held up by fans claiming that Ruth made on beer, not a drug, one would think, just a refreshing baseball ritual. He mentions that doctors use ritalin to stay awake, performers and surgeons use beta blockers, and I could add that models use coke to stay professionally thin, rock musicians use opiates to overcome the sheer boredom of playing the same songs night after night, cancer patients use marijuana to beat the pain and nausea..etc. So if it's ok for Mr. Bonds to use drugs to enhance his performance in Mr. Krauthammer's perspective it should also be o.k. for other substance use. In other words, he is defending the use of illegal drugs or their use in a non prescribed context. That's pretty good for a neo-con!

A description of a new video game from the apocalyptic Left Behind series: Wage a war of apocalyptic proportions in LEFT BEHIND: Eternal Forces - a real-time strategy game based upon the best-selling LEFT BEHIND book series created by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins. Of course it all takes place in the new Sodom and Gomorrah, New Yor city.

Portugal's parliament has decided to make June 23th a holiday. On the day Portugal faces Mexico in the World cup and either gets eliminated or goes on to the next phase. I say that Portugal will win. By the way, Ukraine followed suit and did the same thing. Ah! Futebol fever!!! Here's a link to the blog dedicated to the portuguese team.

A scientist has claimed that he has reproduced Mona Lisa's voice with 90% accuracy. I would have to go back to my phonetics classes' appointments, but I seem to recall that it takes more than the shape of the mouth and surrounding bone structure to make the peculiar sound atributable to every person. The size of the chest cavity, another resonance box, and the length and strength of the vocal cords will also influence the sound emanating from someone. Hell, even the tilt of the head influences the way our voice sounds. Probably someone riding the DaVici code fest.

Paintings by a blind man, name Esref Armagan . Pretty amazing, especially the portrait of Clinton. WOW!

Fabulously funny commercial (via Swissmiss)
What Kind of Blogger Are You?