As visões da Maria

Let England Shake, PJ Harvey

2011-06-18T18:47:00.001-01:00

Terra

2011-06-18T18:41:00.002-01:00

Pale Blue Dot - Animation from Ehdubya on Vimeo.

candeeiros

2011-03-18T19:05:00.001-01:00

Alabama Song, by Bowie

2011-02-24T09:42:00.001-01:00

Western Spaghetti

2011-02-24T09:28:00.001-01:00

teclopolis

2011-02-24T09:12:00.004-01:00

grande

2011-01-18T19:12:00.001-01:00

Fausto

2010-08-04T13:49:00.003-01:00

Ain't Got No...I've Got Life

2010-07-31T16:57:00.002-01:00

Juana Molina

2010-07-31T16:54:00.003-01:00

David Harvey

2010-07-31T16:48:00.002-01:00

criptopórtico

2010-07-31T16:39:00.009-01:00

Mike Teavee

2010-07-20T22:15:00.001-01:00

The most important thing we've learned,
So far as children are concerned,
Is never, NEVER, NEVER let
Them near your television set --
Or better still, just don't install
The idiotic thing at all.
In almost every house we've been,
We've watched them gaping at the screen.
They loll and slop and lounge about,
And stare until their eyes pop out.
(Last week in someone's place we saw
A dozen eyeballs on the floor.)
They sit and stare and stare and sit
Until they're hypnotised by it,
Until they're absolutely drunk
With all that shocking ghastly junk.
Oh yes, we know it keeps them still,
They don't climb out the window sill,
They never fight or kick or punch,
They leave you free to cook the lunch
And wash the dishes in the sink --
But did you ever stop to think,
To wonder just exactly what
This does to your beloved tot?
IT ROTS THE SENSE IN THE HEAD!
IT KILLS IMAGINATION DEAD!
IT CLOGS AND CLUTTERS UP THE MIND!
IT MAKES A CHILD SO DULL AND BLIND
HE CAN NO LONGER UNDERSTAND
A FANTASY, A FAIRYLAND!
HIS BRAIN BECOMES AS SOFT AS CHEESE!
HIS POWERS OF THINKING RUST AND FREEZE!
HE CANNOT THINK -- HE ONLY SEES!
'All right!' you'll cry. 'All right!' you'll say,
'But if we take the set away,
What shall we do to entertain
Our darling children? Please explain!'
We'll answer this by asking you,
'What used the darling ones to do?
'How used they keep themselves contented
Before this monster was invented?'
Have you forgotten? Don't you know?
We'll say it very loud and slow:
THEY ... USED ... TO ... READ! They'd READ and READ,
AND READ and READ, and then proceed
To READ some more. Great Scott! Gadzooks!
One half their lives was reading books!
The nursery shelves held books galore!
Books cluttered up the nursery floor!
And in the bedroom, by the bed,
More books were waiting to be read!
Such wondrous, fine, fantastic tales
Of dragons, gypsies, queens, and whales
And treasure isles, and distant shores
Where smugglers rowed with muffled oars,
And pirates wearing purple pants,
And sailing ships and elephants,
And cannibals crouching 'round the pot,
Stirring away at something hot.
(It smells so good, what can it be?
Good gracious, it's Penelope.)
The younger ones had Beatrix Potter
With Mr. Tod, the dirty rotter,
And Squirrel Nutkin, Pigling Bland,
And Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle and-
Just How The Camel Got His Hump,
And How the Monkey Lost His Rump,
And Mr. Toad, and bless my soul,
There's Mr. Rat and Mr. Mole-
Oh, books, what books they used to know,
Those children living long ago!
So please, oh please, we beg, we pray,
Go throw your TV set away,
And in its place you can install
A lovely bookshelf on the wall.
Then fill the shelves with lots of books,
Ignoring all the dirty looks,
The screams and yells, the bites and kicks,
And children hitting you with sticks-
Fear not, because we promise you
That, in about a week or two
Of having nothing else to do,
They'll now begin to feel the need
Of having something to read.
And once they start -- oh boy, oh boy!
You watch the slowly growing joy
That fills their hearts. They'll grow so keen
They'll wonder what they'd ever seen
In that ridiculous machine,
That nauseating, foul, unclean,
Repulsive television screen!
And later, each and every kid
Will love you more for what you did.

in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Roald Dahl

Gulf Oil Tracker

2010-07-10T14:39:00.004-01:00

Na sombra Cleópatra jaz morta...

2010-06-24T16:55:00.002-01:00

mirror mirror on the wall

2010-06-02T09:11:00.007-01:00

que nojo

2010-05-31T10:42:00.000-01:00

Frasco de 150ml

Cara e mãos

O creme de Baba de Caracol não é igual aos cremes que já experimentou no passado!

A base do creme de Baba de Caracol é apenas um único ingrediente, a proteína de caracol (helix aspersa), que com as suas propriedades regeneradoras, permite a este creme performances fantásticas. A proteína de caracol é uma secreção 100% natural que apresenta propriedades de reparação de células e regeneração dos processos de rejuvenescimento da pele humana.

Estudos das mais respeitadas universidades indicam que a proteína de caracol ajuda a hidratar, melhoram a aparência da pele com sinais de envelhecimento, reduz estrias e marcas, elimina celulite e quelóide, tornando a pele macia, sedosa e jovem.

A proteína de caracol (helix aspersa) estimula a formação de colagénio (essencial para a regeneração de células), elastina (para a elasticidade da pele) e componentes dérmicos que reparam o envelhecimento da pele.

surreal

2010-05-28T17:38:00.001-01:00

Esta e outras aqui

estranho, muito estranho

2010-05-28T17:35:00.001-01:00

uma espécie de regresso

2010-05-28T17:28:00.002-01:00

coolness

2010-05-10T21:57:00.000-01:00

Can You Dig It?
Some Reflections on the Sociological Problems Associated with Being Uncool
David Beer
University of York

Coolness is an elusive concept. This research note seeks to understand its place in the life of the sociologist. Reflecting on the recent experiences of the author, this piece focuses on the problems of studying music cultures where the interested researcher has become uncool. It begins by tracking this problem, with particular regard to the problems of identifying and studying the very aspects of culture that the researcher wishes to investigate, before suggesting how we might react where we think our uncoolness is a problem in our research. The note concludes with a discussion of the implications of these issues for sociology more generally.

Key Words: changing lifecourse • changing mediascapes • cool • cultural sociology • future of sociology • hipness • music culture

Sociology, Vol. 43, No. 6, 1151-1162 (2009)

... humans need fantasy to be humans, to be the place where the falling angel meets the rising ape...

2010-04-01T23:15:00.006-01:00

Terry Pratchett HogFather

...

2010-03-06T11:32:00.000-01:00

They are back!

Mike Patton

2010-03-06T09:24:00.005-01:00

... não consigo parar...

Red Queen Effect

2010-02-06T10:33:00.003-01:00

"It takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place" (Lewis Carroll)

questões que me angustiam todos os dias...

2010-01-31T21:58:00.000-01:00

Caro(a) colega

Que fazer quando o TOC se vê impossibilitado de cumprir prazos legais devido a doença ou parto? Por que motivo os revisores oficiais de contas têm a figura de “ROC suplente” e os técnicos de contas não?

Em que condições concretas pode a administração fiscal reverter para o TOC a responsabilidade prevista no artigo 24.º da LGT? A quem interessa a ambiguidade da lei?

Como pode um TOC obter formação de que está a necessitar com urgência sobre um tema específico? Passar um dia inteiro a ouvir um formador falar é uma formação eficaz, ou serve essencialmente para cumprir a obrigação de créditos?

Por que motivo são apagadas do fórum no site da Internet da OTOC mensagens que se referem a questões incómodas para a actual direcção da OTOC?

Sabe quanto vai ser investido na “Casa TOC” e quantos dos 80.000 profissionais poderão vir a usufruir dela?

Estas e outras questões foram consideradas na elaboração do programa eleitoral da LISTA C, concorrente às próximas eleições para os órgãos da Ordem dos Técnicos Oficiais de Contas. Acreditamos que a LISTA C é portadora de respostas e propostas sérias e credíveis para a melhoria e desenvolvimento sustentado da profissão, propostas que vão ao encontro das dificuldades e expectativas de todos os profissionais.

Convidamo-lo a verificar isso mesmo consultando o programa, notícias e diversos outros textos informativos nos sites da candidatura:

www.alternativadefuturo.com
www.alternativadefuturo.blogspot.com

É importante que o(a) colega exerça o seu direito de voto, intervindo dessa forma na evolução da profissão de Técnico Oficial de Contas.

Lista C – Alternativa de Futuro

Pela Profissão e com todos os Profissionais

If real life was like Facebook

2010-01-17T09:10:00.000-01:00

light graffiti

2010-01-15T09:58:00.003-01:00

so sad... so early

2010-01-04T23:37:00.001-01:00

there we go again...

2010-01-04T02:33:00.001-01:00

Paradox

2010-01-02T10:43:00.000-01:00

http://images.alibris.com/

Gideon Obarzanek’s Digital Moves

2009-12-29T11:34:00.001-01:00

Gideon Obarzanek’s Digital Moves from PopTech on Vimeo.

árvores

2009-12-29T10:36:00.004-01:00

Classic Television Commercials 1948

2009-12-29T10:35:00.000-01:00

all and more in the Internet Archive

Stand up for research

2009-12-14T09:46:00.002-01:00

Statement

The latest proposal by the higher education funding councils is for 25% of the new Research Excellence Framework (REF) to be assessed according to 'economic and social impact'. As academics, researchers and higher education professionals we believe that it is counterproductive to make funding for the best research conditional on its perceived economic and social benefits.

The REF proposals are founded on a lack of understanding of how knowledge advances. It is often difficult to predict which research will create the greatest practical impact. History shows us that in many instances it is curiosity-driven research that has led to major scientific and cultural advances.

If implemented, these proposals risk undermining support for basic research across all disciplines and may well lead to an academic brain drain to countries such as the United States that continue to value fundamental research.

Universities must continue to be spaces in which the spirit of adventure thrives and where researchers enjoy academic freedom to push back the boundaries of knowledge in their disciplines.

We, therefore, call on the UK funding councils to withdraw the current REF proposals and to work with academics and researchers on creating a funding regime which supports and fosters basic research in our universities and colleges rather than discourages it.

Discoveries that would not survive the REF (.pdf) [213kb]

Emancipação

2009-12-08T18:53:00.006-01:00

Porque vale a pena: sem nada

A testosterona reduz a generosidade

2009-12-03T22:03:00.001-01:00

The Chronicle of Philanthropy
3 Dezembro

Hormone Inhibits Giving in Men, Study Finds

Scientists have found that giving to others triggers a warm glow, similar to the endorphin-induced highs that people have after sex, a good meal, or indulging in opiates. Now a new study finds another link between sex and charity — or, rather, the lack of charity.

The researchers, two California economists, studied the effects of the sex hormone testosterone on the generosity of male university students. Higher levels of testosterone, they found, made the students both more reluctant to give to others and more demanding that others give to them...

Belissimo artista

2009-11-24T10:17:00.000-01:00

Installations, videos and projects in public space
by Oliver Ressler

belissima ideia

2009-11-05T23:30:00.002-01:00

e as outras também do prémio The Fun Theory

the paradox of choice

2009-10-26T21:22:00.001-01:00

economics is a social science after all

2009-10-25T06:16:00.002-01:00

The Financial Crisis: How Economists Went Astray

Two Nobel Laureates and over 2000 Signatories Uphold that Economists have Mistaken Mathematical Beauty for Economic Truth

On 2nd September 2009, Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman wrote in the New York Times that in the run-up to the 2008 financial crash “the economics profession went astray because economists, as a group, mistook beauty, clad in impressive-looking mathematics, for truth.”

An online declaration in support of a fuller extract from Krugman’s article (see the text below) has received over 2000 signatures in little over a month. This is already higher than all earlier appeals for the reform of economics, since and including the June 2000 petition by students at the École Normale Supérieure (France's premier institution of higher learning) protesting against the excessive mathematical formalisation of their curriculum and its neglect of economic realities. This petition received 1545 signatures and prompted the French Minister of Education to set up formal enquiry.

Krugman joins a line of Nobel Laureates, including Ronald Coase, Wassily Leontief and Milton Friedman, who have argued that economists has become largely transformed into a branch of applied mathematics, with inadequate contact with the real world. On the online website, Krugman’s words are supported by Nobel Laureate Douglass North.

The narrow training of economists – which concentrates on mathematical techniques and the building of empirically uncontrolled formal models – has been a major reason for the failure of the economics profession to appreciate market vulnerability and warn of the serious risks in the financial system. In their pursuit of tractable models, economists have made over-simplified and misguided assumptions concerning of human agents, markets and other institutions, rather than engaging adequately with the complexities of the real world.

Mathematics is very important and useful, but it should be a servant to economics, and not its master. Real-world substance should prevail over mathematical technique. To help avoid further failings, governments in the USA, Europe and elsewhere should look into the state of economics and the way economics is taught.

Of the 2000-plus signatories of the current online appeal, 62% have PhDs, 20% are from the USA, and 10% from the UK.

As well as Nobel Laureate Douglass North, other prominent signatories include leading international academics and researchers such as Masahiko Aoki, Tony Aspromourgos, Michael Bernstein, Margaret Blair, Mark Blaug, Daniel Bromley, John Cantwell, Ha-Joon Chang, Victoria Chick, Keith Cowling, Kurt Dopfer, Gregory Dow, Ronald Dore, Giovani Dosi, Jean-Pierre Dupuy, Peter Earl, Jan Fagerberg, Olivier Favereau, Duncan Foley, John Foster, Geoffrey Harcourt, Arnold Heertje, Joseph Henrich, Stuart Holland, Will Hutton, Peter Kellner, Arjo Klamer, Mark Lavoie, Richard Lipsey, Brian Loasby, Mark Lutz, Ronald Martin, William McKelvey, Deirdre McCloskey, Stanley Metcalfe, Julie Nelson, Richard Norgaard, Luigi Pasinetti, Peter Richerson, Erik Reinert, Barkley Rosser, Kurt Rothschild, Bridget Rosewell, Robert Rowthorn, Malcolm Rutherford, Paolo Saviotti, Malcolm Sawyer, Esther-Mirjam Sent, Mark Setterfield, Gerald Silverberg, Laurence Shute, Robert Skidelsky, Peter Skott, Ronald Stanfield, Arthur Stinchcombe, Thomas Weisskopf, Sidney Winter and Stefano Zamagni.

All 2000-plus signatories endorse the following words by Paul Krugman:

"Few economists saw our current crisis coming, but this predictive failure was the least of the field’s problems. More important was the profession’s blindness to the very possibility of catastrophic failures in a market economy ... the economics profession went astray because economists, as a group, mistook beauty, clad in impressive-looking mathematics, for truth ... economists fell back in love with the old, idealized vision of an economy in which rational individuals interact in perfect markets, this time gussied up with fancy equations ... Unfortunately, this romanticized and sanitized vision of the economy led most economists to ignore all the things that can go wrong. They turned a blind eye to the limitations of human rationality that often lead to bubbles and busts; to the problems of institutions that run amok; to the imperfections of markets – especially financial markets – that can cause the economy’s operating system to undergo sudden, unpredictable crashes; and to the dangers created when regulators don’t believe in regulation. ... When it comes to the all-too-human problem of recessions and depressions, economists need to abandon the neat but wrong solution of assuming that everyone is rational and markets work perfectly." (New York Times, September 2nd, 2009.)

Additional supporters can sign the petition on
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/revitalizing_economics?e

(If you do not wish to make a contribution, then exist immediately when the web page changes.)

Ken Robinson

2009-10-17T14:35:00.001-01:00

Canção

2009-10-12T20:50:00.001-01:00

Porque é que o pão cai sempre com a manteiga para baixo

2009-10-12T20:44:00.001-01:00

escapou-se-me

2009-10-06T22:30:00.002-01:00

Cáritas vai dar vales de refeição a quem enfrenta "pobreza envergonhada"
06.10.2009 - 07h17 António Marujo, Público
A Cáritas Portuguesa irá iniciar a distribuição de vales de refeição com o objectivo de combater o fenómeno da pobreza envergonhada. Através de um protocolo que será assinado, no próximo dia 14, com a Ticket Restaurant, a Cáritas irá facultar talões de refeição com valores de cinco, dez ou 15 euros, para pessoas que vivem situações de privação e que nem sequer conseguem pedir ajuda a instituições de solidariedade.

Portanto, para evitar a humilhação dos novos pobres as pessoas vão ao supermercado comprar produtos com tickets, como todos nós aliás!!! E para que seja tudo bem discreto, toca a publicitar a notícia nas primeiras páginas dos jornais e telejornais.
Que vergonha que eu tenho de um país que deixa que isto aconteça!!!

Play, Samuel Beckett

2009-10-04T06:49:00.003-01:00

Directed by Anthony Minghella

Beckett's text

Militant Research

2009-10-03T21:15:00.001-01:00

Militant research is a concept-tool that works on the premise that all interpretation of the world is linked to some kind of action. Related to practices of co-research and institutional analysis, militant research proposes that all new knowledge production affects and modifies the bodies and subjectivities of those who have participated. Rather than use research as a tool to categorise and separate knowledge from practice, militant research operates transversally, becoming part of the process that organises relationships between bodies, knowledge, social practices and fields of action.

Marta Malo de Molina:
Common notions, part 1: workers-inquiry, co-research, consciousness-raising
Common Notions, Part 2: Institutional Analysis, Participatory Action-Research, Militant Research

Stéphanie, 11 de Setembro, 23ª

2009-09-30T12:05:00.001-01:00

Paris Match

Michel D., 13 de Julho

2009-09-29T16:00:00.001-01:00

Merci de diffuser
cette lettre à mes collègues de travail
et aux délégués du personnel

Je me suicide à cause de mon travail à France Télécom. C’est la seule cause. Urgence permanente, surcharge de travail, absence de formation, désorganisation totale de l’entreprise. Management par la terreur !

Cela m’a totalement désorganisé et perturbé. Je suis devenu une épave, il vaut mieux en finir. (...) J’insiste là-dessus, c’est bien le travail qui a provoqué ça et donc c’est France Télécom qui est responsable de mon suicide.

Michel D.*

PS : Je sais que beaucoup de personnes vont dire qu’il y a d’autres causes que le travail (je suis seul, non marié, sans enfant, etc.). Certains sous-entendent aussi que je n’acceptais pas de vieillir. Mais non, avec tout ça je me suis toujours bien débrouillé. C’est bien le travail l’unique cause.

La Provence

canal

2009-09-25T22:24:00.015-01:00

Waterways Code

Margarita com chili e gengibre

2009-09-25T22:10:00.002-01:00

1 1/2 oz chili tequila
1/2 oz triple sec
1 oz lime or lemon juice
slice of ginger

Rub glass rim with citrus juice and then dip in fine granulated salt.

Place all ingredients in a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake 30 seconds and pour into glasses.

failure

2009-09-25T07:51:00.000-01:00

All of old. Nothing else ever. Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.

Samuel Becket, Worstward Ho

Kafka's good

2009-09-20T21:16:00.001-01:00

Reading Kafka 'enhances cognitive mechanisms', claims study
Alison Flood
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 17 September 2009

Subjects who had just read Kafka's The Country Doctor were better at recognising patterns in grammar test, psychologists found

Forget Sudokus and crosswords: if you want to sharpen up your thinking, immerse yourself in Kafka's stories of the surreal.
Research from psychologists at the University of California in Santa Barbara and the University of British Columbia claims to show that exposure to surrealism enhances the cognitive mechanisms which oversee implicit learning functions. The psychologists showed a group of subjects Kafka's story The Country Doctor, a disturbing and surreal tale in which a doctor travels by "unearthly horses" to an ill patient, only to climb into bed naked with him and then escape through the window "naked, exposed to the frost of this most unhappy of ages"...

2009-09-15T18:00:00.005-01:00

Crise

2009-09-15T15:02:00.002-01:00

Britishness

2009-09-15T14:57:00.005-01:00

Skye

2009-09-12T13:32:00.004-01:00

Right Where it Belongs, NIN

2009-09-11T09:54:00.003-01:00

See the animal in it's cage that you built
Are you sure what side you're on?
Better not look him too closely in the eye
Are you sure what side of the glass you are on?
See the safety of the life you have built
Everything where it belongs
Feel the hollowness inside of your heart
And it's all
Right where it belongs

What if everything around you
Isn't quite as it seems?
What if all the world you think you know
Is an elaborate dream?
And if you look at your reflection
Is it all you wanted to be?
What if you could look right through the cracks?
Would you find yourself
Find yourself afraid to see?

What if all the world's inside of your head
Just creations of your own?
Your devils and your gods
All the living and the dead
And you really are alone
You can live in this illusion
You can choose to believe
You keep looking but you can't find the woods
While you're hiding in the trees

What if everything around you
Isn't quite as it seems?
What if all the world you used to know
Is an elaborate dream?
And if you look at your reflection
Is it all you wanted to be?
What if you could look right through the cracks
Would you find yourself
Find yourself afraid to see?

Subtitles

2009-09-10T15:59:00.000-01:00

A Mula da Cooperativa, Max, 1959

2009-09-10T15:19:00.002-01:00

Portugal foi assim.

oui, luv

2009-08-31T12:10:00.004-01:00

Tory controlled borough of Barnet adopts budget airline model

2009-08-28T15:46:00.002-01:00

in The Guardian
by Robert Booth
27/08/09

A leading Conservative council is using the business model of budget airlines, Ryanair and easyJet, to inspire a radical reform of public service provision which is being seen as a blueprint for Tory government.

The practices of the no-frills airlines, who charge customers extra for services which were once considered part of the standard fare, are being emulated by the London borough of Barnet as it embarks on "a relentless drive for efficiency". A spokesman for the council has unofficially dubbed the project "easyCouncil".

Barnet wants householders to pay extra to jump the queue for planning consents, in the way budget airlines charge extra for priority boarding. And as budget airline passengers choose to spend their budget on either flying at peaktime or having an in-flight meal, recipients of adult social care in Barnet will choose to spend a limited budget on whether to have a cleaner or a respite carer or even a holiday to Eastbourne. Other examples of proposed reforms include reducing the size of waste bins to minimise the cost of council rubbish collections...

A letter from a victim of jounal reviewers

2009-08-28T06:42:00.003-01:00

Journal of Systems and Software, Volume 54, Issue 1, 30 September 2000, Page 1.

*Editor’s Note:* It seems appropriate, in this issue of JSS containing the findings of our annual Top Scholars/Institutions study, to pay tribute to the persistent authors who make a journal like this, and a study like that, possible. In their honor, we dedicate the following humorous, anonymously-authored, letter!

Dear Sir, Madame, or Other:

Enclosed is our latest version of Ms. #1996-02-22-RRRRR, that is the re-re-re-revised revision of our paper. Choke on it. We have again rewritten the entire manuscript from start to finish. We even changed the g-d-running head! Hopefully, we have suffered enough now to satisfy even you and the bloodthirsty reviewers.

I shall skip the usual point-by-point description of every single change we made in response to the critiques. After all, it is fairly clear that your anonymous reviewers are less interested in the details of scientific procedure than in working out their personality problems and sexual frustrations by seeking some kind of demented glee in the sadistic and arbitrary exercise of tyrannical power over hapless authors like ourselves who happen to fall into their clutches. We do understand that, in view of the misanthropic psychopaths you have on your editorial board, you need to keep sending them papers, for if they were not reviewing manuscripts they would probably be out mugging little old ladies or clubbing baby seals to death. Still, from this batch of reviewers, C was clearly the most hostile, and we request that you not ask him to review this revision. Indeed, we have mailed letter bombs to four or five people we suspected of being reviewer C, so if you send the manuscript back to them, the review process could be unduly delayed.

Some of the reviewers’ comments we could not do anything about. For example, if (as C suggested) several of my recent ancestors were indeed drawn from other species, it is too late to change that. Other suggestions were implemented, however, and the paper has been improved and benefited. Plus, you suggested that we shorten the manuscript by five pages, and we were able to accomplish this very effectively by altering the margins and printing the paper in a different font with a smaller typeface. We agree with you that the paper is much better this way.

One perplexing problem was dealing with suggestions 13–28 by reviewer B. As you may recall (that is, if you even bother reading the reviews before sending your decision letter), that reviewer listed 16 works that he/she felt we should cite in this paper. These were on a variety of different topics, none of which had any relevance to our work that we could see. Indeed, one was an essay on the Spanish–American war from a high school literary magazine. The only common thread was that all 16 were by the same author, presumably someone whom reviewer B greatly admires and feels should be more widely cited. To handle this, we have modified the Introduction and added, after the review of the relevant literature, a subsection entitled “Review of Irrelevant Literature” that discusses these articles and also duly addresses some of the more asinine suggestions from other reviewers.

We hope you will be pleased with this revision and will finally recognize how urgently deserving of publication this work is. If not, then you are an unscrupulous, depraved monster with no shred of human decency. You ought to be in a cage. May whatever heritage you come from be the butt of the next round of ethnic jokes. If you do accept it, however, we wish to thank you for your patience and wisdom throughout this process, and to express our appreciation for your scholarly insights. To repay you, we would be happy to review some manuscripts for you; please send us the next manuscript that any of these reviewers submits to this journal.

Assuming you accept this paper, we would also like to add a footnote acknowledging your help with this manuscript and to point out that we liked the paper much better the way we originally submitted it, but you held the editorial shotgun to our heads and forced us to chop, reshuffle, hedge, expand, shorten, and in general convert a meaty paper into stir-fried vegetables. We could not – or would not – have done it without your input.

Shame IKEA

2009-08-27T07:15:00.003-01:00

...In 2004, the last year that the INGKA Holding group filed accounts, the company reported profits of €1.4 billion on sales of €12.8 billion, a margin of nearly 11 percent. Because INGKA Holding is owned by the nonprofit INGKA Foundation, none of this profit is taxed. The foundation's nonprofit status also means that the Kamprad family cannot reap these profits directly, but the Kamprads do collect a portion of IKEA sales profits through the franchising relationship between INGKA Holding and Inter IKEA Systems.

Inter IKEA Systems collected €631 million of franchise fees in 2004, but reported pre-tax profits of only €225 million in 2004. One of the major pre-tax expenses that Inter IKEA systems reported was €590 million of “other operating charges.” IKEA has refused to explain these charges, but Inter IKEA Systems appears to make large payments to I.I. Holding, another Luxembourg-registered group that, according to The Economist, “is almost certain to be controlled by the Kamprad family.” I.I. Holding made a profit of €328 million in 2004.

In 2004, the Inter IKEA group of companies and I.I. Holding reported combined profits of €553m and paid €19m in taxes, or approximately 3.5 percent.[22]

The Berne Declaration, a non-profit organization in Switzerland that promotes corporate responsibility, has formally criticized IKEA for its tax avoidance strategies. In 2007, the Berne Declaration nominated IKEA for one of its Public Eye “awards,” which highlight corporate irresponsibility and are announced during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland...

in Wikipedia

Ubuntu

2009-08-26T10:21:00.004-01:00

Conceito africano que significa:

Human generosity, interconnectedness, community, bringing people together to work together on issues of common interest, toward a higher good. People, objects and events are all connected.
Everything is in an ongoing state of relatedness. Dynamics of cooperation support system. The interconnected web holds and honors all equally. Everything affects everything else. If I shortchange you, I shortchange myself.

(citação de um post de email mas desenvolvido aqui)

Enfim, teoria dos sistemas...

muito bem dito

2009-08-26T10:17:00.002-01:00

... Num país de gente normal, os avisos de "perigo" deveriam bastar para que qualquer pessoa se afastasse com segurança da sombra das falésias (sendo que é de facto muito difícil estimar o grau de iminência de perigo nestes casos). Pessoas responsáveis não diriam (como disse numa entrevista um veraneante encostado à sombra de uma falésia sinalizada como perigosa, já após o acidente da Praia Maria Luisa) que a culpa era do Estado, que não o impedia fisicamente de se sentar na sombra tentadora das falésias, no areal junto ao mar.

Mana Lisa

2009-08-25T20:41:00.002-01:00

Uma das recentes aquisições do MOBA

community

2009-08-25T20:30:00.001-01:00

Excerto de entrevista
com ajuda do Wordle

crise

2009-08-25T20:11:00.001-01:00

Intervenção do Primeiro-Ministro no debate sobre o Estado da Nação em 2009-07-02
parte "Responder à crise"
a partir do Wordle

posse

2009-08-25T20:01:00.000-01:00

Ainda o Bernardo Soares, mas desta vez com o Wordle

Cheat Neutral

2009-08-24T21:46:00.001-01:00

What is Cheat Offsetting?

When you cheat on your partner you add to the heartbreak, pain and jealousy in the atmosphere.

Cheatneutral offsets your cheating by funding someone else to be faithful and NOT cheat. This neutralises the pain and unhappy emotion and leaves you with a clear conscience.
Can I offset all my cheating?

First you should look at ways of reducing your cheating. Once you've done this you can use Cheatneutral to offset the remaining, unavoidable cheating

o paradoxo do amor

2009-08-19T23:42:00.003-01:00

Nós não podemos amar, filho. O amor é a mais carnal das ilusões. Amar é possuir, escuta. E o que possui quem ama? O corpo? Para o possuir seria preciso tornar nossa a sua matéria, comê-lo, incluí-lo em nós... E essa impossibilidade seria temporária, porque o nosso próprio corpo passa e se transforma, porque nós não possuímos o nosso corpo (possuímos apenas a nossa sensação dele), e porque, uma vez possuído esse corpo amado, tornar-se-ia nosso, deixaria de ser outro, e o amor, por isso, com o desaparecimento do outro ente, desapareceria...

Possuímos a alma? — ouve-me em silêncio — Nós não a possuímos. Nem a nossa alma é nossa sequer. Como, de resto, possuir uma alma? Entre alma e alma há o abismo de serem almas.

Que possuímos? Que possuímos? Que nos leva a amar? A beleza? E nós possuímo-la amando? A mais feroz e dominadora posse de um corpo o que possui dele? Nem o corpo, nem a alma, nem a beleza sequer. A posse de um corpo lindo não abraça a beleza, abraça a carne celulada e gordurosa; o beijo não toca na beleza da boca, mas na carne húmida dos lábios perecíveis em mucosas; a própria cópula é um contacto apenas, um contacto esfregado e próximo, mas não uma penetração real, sequer, de um corpo por outro corpo... que possuímos nós? Que possuímos?

As nossas sensações, ao menos? Ao menos o amor é um meio de nos possuirmos, a nós, nas nossas sensações? e, ao menos, um modo de sonharmos nitidamente, e mais gloriosamente portanto, o sonho de existirmos? e, ao menos, desaparecida a sensação, fica a memória dela connosco sempre, e assim, realmente possuímos...

Desenganemos até disto. Nós nem as nossas sensações possuímos. Não fales. A memória, afinal, é a sensação do passado... E toda a sensação é uma ilusão...

— Escuta-me, escuta-me sempre. Escuta-me e não olhes pela janela aberta a plana outra margem do rio, nem o crepúsculo (...), nem esse silvo de um comboio que corta o longe vago (...) — Escuta-me em silêncio...

Nós não possuímos as nossas sensações... Nós não nos possuímos nelas.

in Bernardo Soares, Livro do Desassossego

autopoiese

2009-08-19T23:29:00.006-01:00

Nunca amamos alguém. Amamos, tão-somente, a ideia que fazemos de alguém. É a um conceito nosso - em suma, é a nós mesmos - que amamos.

Isto é verdade em toda a escala do amor. No amor sexual buscamos um prazer nosso por intermédio de um corpo estranho. No amor diferente do sexual, buscamos um prazer nosso dado por intermédio de uma ideia nossa. O onanista é objecto, mas, em exacta verdade, o onanista é a perfeita expressão lógica do amoroso. É o único que não disfarça nem se engana.

As relações entre uma alma e outra, através de coisas tão incertas e divergentes como as palavras comuns e os gestos que se empreendem, são matéria de estranha complexidade. No próprio ato em que nos conhecemos, nos desconhecemos. Dizem os dois «amo-te» ou pensam-no e sentem-no por troca, e cada um quer dizer uma ideia diferente, uma vida diferente, até, porventura, uma cor ou um aroma diferente, na soma abstracta de impressões que constitui a actividade da alma.

in Bernardo Soares, O Livro do Desassossego.

sem nada

2009-08-19T18:06:00.000-01:00

Sempre geniais

2009-08-19T17:23:00.001-01:00

Congress Deadlocked Over How To Not Provide Health Care

WASHINGTON—After months of committee meetings and hundreds of hours of heated debate, the United States Congress remained deadlocked this week over the best possible way to deny Americans health care.

"Both parties understand that the current system is broken," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters Monday. "But what we can't seem to agree upon is how to best keep it broken, while still ensuring that no elected official takes any political risk whatsoever. It’s a very complicated issue."

"Ultimately, though, it's our responsibility as lawmakers to put these differences aside and focus on refusing Americans the health care they deserve," Pelosi added.

The legislative stalemate largely stems from competing ideologies deeply rooted along party lines. Democrats want to create a government-run system for not providing health care, while Republicans say coverage is best denied by allowing private insurers to make it unaffordable for as many citizens as possible.

"We have over 40 million people without insurance in this country today, and that is unacceptable," Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) said. "If we would just quit squabbling so much, we could get that number up to 50 or even 100 million. Why, there's no reason we can't work together to deny health care to everyone but the richest 1 percent of the population."

"That's what America is all about," he added...

OMG!!!

2009-08-16T15:15:00.006-01:00

Esta é a campanha dos Conservadores, extrema direita e sabe-se lá mais quem contra a proposta do sistema de saúde nos EUA. Nem é preciso ir ao Dennys.

The Waves

2009-08-16T02:41:00.000-01:00

What should I do with you, waves, you who can never decide
whether you’re the first or the last?
You think you can define the coast with your constant wish-wash,
grind it down with your coming and going.
And yet no one knows how long the coastline really is,
where land stops, where land begins, and you’re forever changing
the line, length, lay, with the moon and unpredictable.

Consistent alone is your inconsistency.

Ultimately victorious since, as so often evoked, this wears away
the stones, grinds the sand down as fine as needed for
hourglasses and egg-timers, as required for calibrating time,
for telling the difference between hard and soft.

Victorious also because, never tiring, you win the contest who of us
will be the first to fall asleep, or you, being the ocean still,
because you never sleep.

Although colourless yourself, you seem blue
when the sky is gently mirrored on your surface, the ideal course
for being strolled upon by the carpenter’s son, the most changeable element.

And inversely, when you are wild and loud and your breakers thunder,
I listen between the peaks of your rollers, and from the highest waves,
from breaking spume, a thousand voices break away, mine,
yesterday’s ones that I didn’t know, that otherwise just whisper,
and all the others too, and in their midst the Nazarene.
Over and over again those stupendous five final words:
Why have you left me?

I hold my own, shout at each single wave:
Are you staying?
Are you staying?
Are you staying, or what?

Die Wellen (The Waves) , Einsturzende Neubauten

Mankind is no Island

2009-08-16T02:38:00.000-01:00

Alentejo

2009-08-12T16:11:00.015-01:00

outro tempo e espaço

praia da Zambujeira

no monte é que eu estou bem

formação

fora do mapa

terra seca

vale de Odesseixe

praia do carvalhal

por mim pode ficar tudo como está

havia um pessegueiro na ilha

sair da paisagem

comida

a beleza industrial de S.Torpes

Beauty

2009-08-11T23:43:00.000-01:00

You see half the moon, its crescent, and one of the planets, maybe Saturn, maybe Jupiter, in the early night sky over Berlin, through the windows of a taxicab, near Potsdamer Platz.
You think: Beauty

No, this is not beauty, maybe not, maybe, this is the rest of it, maybe not, maybe, the rest of beauty, maybe not, maybe, what remains of beauty, maybe not, maybe, what is visible, certainly, uncertain.
Your arms would not be able to strech as far as necessary to form an adequate gesture for beauty (You know that, don't you?)
So, beauty remains in the impossibilities of the body.

"Beauty", Einsturzende Neubauten

2009-08-11T18:05:00.001-01:00

Obama Drastically Scales Back Goals For America After Visiting Denny's

2009-08-11T17:58:00.001-01:00

Liechtenstein Successfully Tests Teeny Tiny Nuclear Bomb

2009-08-11T17:54:00.001-01:00

Police Still Searching For Missing Productive, Obedient Woman

2009-08-11T17:49:00.001-01:00

U.S. Government Stages Fake Coup To Wipe Out National Debt

nham

2009-07-22T08:20:00.001-01:00

disgusting

2009-07-22T08:05:00.004-01:00

Quantum walk

2009-07-21T17:13:00.000-01:00

Quantum walks were first proposed by physicist Richard Feynman and are, in terms of probability, the opposite of a random walk. A random walk might be modeled by a person flipping a coin, and for each flip he steps left for heads and right for tails. In this case, his most probable location is the center, with the probability distribution tapering off in either direction. A quantum walk involves the use of internal states and superpositions, and results in the hypothetical person "exploring" every possible position simultaneously.

When a quantum walker flips a coin, it directs him to move one way, but he maintains an "internal state" that moves the other way, making him a superposition of both directions of movement. During a quantum walk, as the quantum object takes more steps, it becomes "delocalized" over all available positions, as if its presence is blurred.

A second feature of quantum walking is matter-wave interference, as when the person flips heads and next flips tails. The second step makes the new superposition overlap the old one, and the new superposition can either amplify the old position or remove it. After all this occurs and the desired number of steps have been taken, an attempted observation will collapse the superposition and "resolve" the object to a single position.

As previously mentioned, a random walk's probability distribution has a single peak tapering off in either direction. A quantum walk's probability distribution generally has two peaks placed evenly on either side of the starting position. However, this distribution can vary depending on the initial internal state of the particle doing the walking, which can cause the final position to strongly favor one side or the other.

in Ars Technica

Miseries of Scholars

2009-07-21T16:22:00.002-01:00

Now because they are commonly subject to such hazards and inconveniences as dotage, madness, simplicity, &c. Jo. Voschius would have good scholars to be highly rewarded, and had in some extraordinary respect above other men, "to have greater [2000]privileges than the rest, that adventure themselves and abbreviate their lives for the public good." But our patrons of learning are so far nowadays from respecting the muses, and giving that honour to scholars, or reward which they deserve, and are allowed by those indulgent privileges of many noble princes, that after all their pains taken in the universities, cost and charge, expenses, irksome hours, laborious tasks, wearisome days, dangers, hazards, (barred interim from all pleasures which other men have, mewed up like hawks all their lives) if they chance to wade through them, they shall in the end be rejected, contemned, and which is their greatest misery, driven to their shifts, exposed to want, poverty, and beggary. Their familiar attendants are,

[2001]Pallentes morbi, luctus, curaeque laborque
Et metus, et malesuada fames, et turpis egestas,
Terribiles visu formae———

Grief, labour, care, pale sickness, miseries,
Fear, filthy poverty, hunger that cries,
Terrible monsters to be seen with eyes.

If there were nothing else to trouble them, the conceit of this alone were enough to make them all melancholy. Most other trades and professions, after some seven years' apprenticeship, are enabled by their craft to live of themselves. A merchant adventures his goods at sea, and though his hazard be great, yet if one ship return of four, he likely makes a saving voyage. An husbandman's gains are almost certain; quibus ipse Jupiter nocere non potest (whom Jove himself can't harm) ('tis [2002]Cato's hyperbole, a great husband himself); only scholars methinks are most uncertain, unrespected, subject to all casualties, and hazards. For first, not one of a many proves to be a scholar, all are not capable and docile, [2003]ex omniligno non fit Mercurius: we can make majors and officers every year, but not scholars: kings can invest knights and barons, as Sigismund the emperor confessed; universities can give degrees; and Tu quod es, e populo quilibet esse potest; but he nor they, nor all the world, can give learning, make philosophers, artists, orators, poets; we can soon say, as Seneca well notes, O virum bonum, o divitem, point at a rich man, a good, a happy man, a prosperous man, sumptuose vestitum, Calamistratum, bene olentem, magno temporis impendio constat haec laudatio, o virum literarum, but 'tis not so easily performed to find out a learned man. Learning is not so quickly got, though they may be willing to take pains, to that end sufficiently informed, and liberally maintained by their patrons and parents, yet few can compass it. Or if they be docile, yet all men's wills are not answerable to their wits, they can apprehend, but will not take pains; they are either seduced by bad companions, vel in puellam impingunt, vel in poculum (they fall in with women or wine) and so spend their time to their friends' grief and their own undoings. Or put case they be studious, industrious, of ripe wits, and perhaps good capacities, then how many diseases of body and mind must they encounter? No labour in the world like unto study. It may be, their temperature will not endure it, but striving to be excellent to know all, they lose health, wealth, wit, life and all.

excerpt from The Anatomy of Melancholy, by Robert Burton, (first edition 1621).
full book in the Project Gutenberg Library

30

2009-07-16T06:30:00.001-01:00

thirty are better than one

Reclamação

2009-07-14T17:58:00.003-01:00

Ideia genial. Agora a companhia anda atrás dele para lhe pagar. E a música... fantástica!...

future

2009-07-14T14:42:00.002-01:00

Projects for the future becoming projects for projecting the future.

1 futures toolkit

The Great American Bubble Machine

2009-07-10T11:20:00.004-01:00

The Great American Bubble Machine
Matt Taibbi on how Goldman Sachs has engineered every major market manipulation since the Great Depression
MATT TAIBBI
in Rolling Stone
Posted Jul 02, 2009 8:38 Am

In Rolling Stone Issue 1082-83, Matt Taibbi takes on "the Wall Street Bubble Mafia" — investment bank Goldman Sachs. The piece has generated controversy, with Goldman Sachs firing back that Taibbi's piece is "an hysterical compilation of conspiracy theories" and a spokesman adding, "We reject the assertion that we are inflators of bubbles and profiteers in busts, and we are painfully conscious of the importance in being a force for good." Taibbi shot back: "Goldman has its alumni pushing its views from the pulpit of the U.S. Treasury, the NYSE, the World Bank, and numerous other important posts; it also has former players fronting major TV shows. They have the ear of the president if they want it." Here, now, are excerpts from Matt Taibbi's piece and video of Taibbi exploring the key issues.

ele mandou

2009-07-05T16:25:00.005-01:00

"I ain't proud of anything except being alive."

2009-07-03T12:58:00.002-01:00

receita para o sucesso

2009-07-03T09:26:00.002-01:00

Self study
A little self-promotion goes a long way
Marc Abrahams
The Guardian, Tuesday 30 June 2009

Scientists who struggle to get their reports published, or to get anyone to pay attention to them, might consider the path blazed by Dr Mohamed El Naschie. El Naschie found an appreciative science journal editor. The editor subsequently published hundreds of El Naschie's studies, and also made El Naschie a glamorous figure - featuring him in lavish photo-spreads in the company of famous scientists and powerful world leaders.

The science journal is called Chaos, Solitons & Fractals. Its founding editor-in-chief is Dr Mohamed El Naschie.

A 19-page pictorial in the August 2005 issue shows El Naschie in the company of numerous Nobel laureates, and also of many medals, plaques, certificates and floral arrangements....

2009-07-01T23:20:00.002-01:00

2009-07-01T23:12:00.001-01:00

au revoir et merci

2009-07-01T23:08:00.001-01:00

Transparência II

2009-06-30T14:04:00.001-01:00

Transparência na AP

Site da Associação Nacional para o Software Livre (ANSOL) para apoiar a transparência na administração pública portuguesa.

Foi desenvolvido para resolver as muitas dificuldades com a pesquisa e navegação no sítio oficial Base - Contratos Públicos Online. A informação aqui presente é uma cópia da informação oficial actualizada periodicamente e disponibilizada através de um interface que facilita e incentiva a procura. De momento apenas pesquisa pelo objecto e nomes das entidades envolvidas nos Ajustes Directos lá publicados.
Tecnologias utilizadas

Na sua elaboração foram utilizados os programas Apache httpd (web server), WordPress (gestor de conteúdos) e a base de dados MySQL; todos são Software Livre.
Custos

Estes foram os custos de implementação deste sítio (unidades: euros e tempo-homem, para uma pessoa que nunca programou em PHP antes):

1. Registo do domínio: 18€
2. Configuração do webserver, BD do sítio e instalação do WordPress: 3min
3. Escolher um tema gráfico: 15min
4. Ajustes de configuração: 30min
5. Imagens de instituições públicas: 15min
6. Ajustes de conteúdos: 27min
7. Motor de pesquisa: 10h45min

Custo total: 18€ + 12h15 min

Foi ainda doado a este serviço:

* 6 horas de stress testing

Transparência I

2009-06-30T13:40:00.002-01:00

Portal da transparência adjudicado sem concurso

A Microsoft ganhou a adjudicação de um serviço do Estado em que foi consultora, sem concurso público. O mais curioso é que o serviço tinha por objectivo a transparência.

O portal Base – Contratos Públicos On Line é uma iniciativa levada a cabo pelo Instituto da Construção e Imobiliário (ICI), que tem por objectivo a publicação dos ajustes directos e derrapagens de contratos celebrados entre o Estado e respectivos fornecedores.

Segundo notícia do Público, o ICI não tardou muito a incorrer nas falas que pretendia contrariar, ao adjudicar à Microsoft a produção do portal sem concurso e numa altura (a 27 de Junho de 2008) em que as portarias que regulamentam a criação do Base ainda não tinham sido publicadas.

O Público refere mesmo que a Microsoft, que presta serviços de consultoria para o Ministério das Obras Públicas, Transportes e Comunicações (a tutela do ICI), terá começado a trabalhar no Base ainda antes de ter celebrado o contrato.

A urgência em terminar o portal terá determinado a celebração de um contrato que, alegadamente, não seguiu todos os trâmites legais.

Há ainda a suspeita de atrasos no lançamento de ferramentas, dificuldade de inserção de funcionalidades de pesquisa ou a duplicação de facturação relativa aos serviços prestados pela Microsoft durante a produção do Base.

A Microsoft nega qualquer atraso no serviço, apesar de admitir que o projecto se mantém em curso. A companhia não fornece quaisquer detalhes sobre o contrato.
in Exame Informática