Divertindo-me com Graça

Acontece que o entendimento geral em Portugal é o de não se poder confiar em José Sócrates e no PS. É um tópico que, por absolutamente evidente e notório, não carece de qualquer desenvolvimento, nem de demonstração e prova.
16 Setembro

O resultado das legislativas não se limita a traduzir a profunda estupidez com que o eleitorado nacional se comportou. Levará o País aceleradamente na pior das sendas.
Hoje

Para relaxar

Ele voltou!

ELE ESTÀ A BIR!
É ele!

aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Campanha agnóstica na Inglaterra

Provavelmente deus não existe. Agora pára de te preocupar e goza a vida.


Reacção:
Perhaps I’m simply not aware of the argumentative power of urban transit, but I find bus ads particularly unlikely to be compelling on matters of such importance. Is it really likely that some nice believer taking a walk, to brunch perhaps, or the park, will see the BHA ads lumbering by, with its grimy city smell and its noisy engine racket, and suddenly think: "Oh dear, oh dear. All that fluffy stuff about heaven is probably nonsense, isn’t it?" Whoosh! The bus roars by and the person’s faith disintegrates in a cloud of engine exhaust.

Talvez eu não esteja bem a ver o poder argumentativo do tráfego urbano, mas eu acho os anúncios, e particularmente aqueles em autocarros, desprovidos de apelo em assuntos de tal importância. Qual é a probabilidade de um simpático crente a descer a rua no seu caminho para o café ou para o jardim, ver o anúncio da Associação Humanista Britânica a passar, envolvido no cheiro sujo da cidade e no barulho do trânsito, e subitamente pensar: "Ai a minha vida! Toda aquela história melada sobre o paraíso é provavelmente um disparate!" Vrummm! O autocarro passa num ronco e a fé da pessoa desintegra-se numa nuvem de fumo de escape.


Ha ha ha ha ha
Os anglo-saxónicos são os mais engraçados a dissentir.
Não me parece que o objetivo do anúncio seja a conversão, mas acho piada imaginar o "Oh dear, Oh dear", estilo Miss Marple.

Russia: Again Savior of Peace and Life

(...)
At approximately 11:30 p.m. Moscow time Georgians opened fire with heavy artillery from the side of the Georgian villages of Ergneti and Nikozi against the city of Tskhinval, the Defense Ministry of South Ossetia announced on Thursday. Georgian troops attempted to storm the city much as Hitler’s Panzer divisions blazed through Europe. Also noteworthy is the fact that Georgian tanks and infantry were being aided by Israeli advisors, a true indicator that this conflict was instigated by outside forces.
(...)
The only possible and reasonable way out of this situation is the complete withdrawal of Georgian troops to their initial positions and the immediate signing of a legally binding agreement on the non-use of force. Only after this measure has been taken will it be possible to talk about further measures to de-escalate tensions. And so protecting LIFE is the honorable duty of the Russian military. Much as it was during the Great Patriotic War, when the Red Army hoisted the hammer and sickle flag on the Reichstag building, signifying the defeat of fascism.

Kosh-o-meter

Telemóveis: uma crítica fundamentada e ilustrada

de Deligne

Tá demais

Só em Luanda.

ah ah ah aha ha aha

Retratos do trabalho na São Caetano à Lapa

Disneylândia

Before Adam and Eve were expelled from paradise, museum visitors are told, all of the dinosaurs were peaceable plant-eaters. The evidence is found in Genesis 1:30, where God gives "green herb" to every creature to eat. There were no predators. T-Rex had such big teeth, the museum explains, so it could open coconuts. Only after Adam and Eve sinned and were cast out of paradise did the dinosaurs start to eat flesh. And Adam's sin is a key component of the belief system, for in the eyes of many creationists, in order for Jesus' death to be meaningful it had to atone for Adam's first sin.

Anedotas do Leste

Num comboio viajavam Stalin, Khrushchov, Brejnev e Gorbatchov. A certa altura o comboio pára e assim fica. Após algum tempo Stalin impacienta-se e estrebucha: "Deviamos fuzilar o maquinista!". "Niet, basta reabilitá-lo." - diz Khrushchov. "Fechemos as cortinas e façamos de conta que ainda estamos a andar" - interpoe Brejnev. "Olhem. E se saíssemos e empurrássemos?" - propoe Gorbatchov.

Na Roménia dois homens estao numa bicha para comprar pao. Após horas um deles impacienta-se: "Estou farto disto, deste sistema! Vou matar Ceausescu!". E vai-se embora. Duas horas depois retorna. "Entao? ". "A bicha lá ainda é mais comprida que esta."

- Alembradas de um documentário sobre o humor no leste europeu.

O humor de Sasha Baron Cohen

[...] Of course, far from being retarded, the character Ali G possesses an abundance of street smarts and cunning. His mind, however, appears to have been entirely untouched by any trace of education, setting up a cultural divide that always proves unbridgeable and usually leaves his guests sputtering.

Interviewing the former American astronaut Buzz Aldrin, for example, Ali introduces him as the man who walked on the moon with “Louie Armstrong,” asks Aldrin whether he is not “upset that Michael Jackson got all the credit for inventing the moonwalk,” and inquires whether people will ever walk on the sun. “No, it’s too hot,” replies Aldrin. “I mean in winter,” corrects Ali patiently.

Another American guest, a representative of the Drug Enforcement Agency, warns youngsters of the dangers of substance abuse. Speaking of hashish, he explains that it “slows your ability to learn . . . your brain just really slows down.” Ali: “And are there any negative effects?” When the agent remarks that drugs seized by the agency are incinerated, Ali is perplexed: “Why aren’t they given to charity?” [...]

The instant success of Borat no doubt owed something to the assistance unintentionally supplied by the government of Kazakhstan. Just before its release, the president of that country arrived in Washington for a state visit with the man whom Borat invariably refers to as “Premier Bush,” and was reported to be planning to voice his displeasure at Baron Cohen’s antics. For its part, the Kazakh embassy called a press conference to refute what it was sure would be the movie’s misrepresentations; with presumably the same end in view, a four-page ad was taken out in the New York Times to extol the country’s modernity.

Baron Cohen seized upon all this to call a press conference of his own, in which, in his persona as Borat, he accused the Kazakh embassy spokesman of being an “Uzbek imposter” and denounced the ad in the Times for its “disgusting fabrications” that women and minorities enjoy equality in Kazakhstan. If Uzbekistan did not cease such provocations, he warned, Kazakhstan would attack “with our catapults.”[...]

It is the world represented by Borat himself, which is not really Kazakhstan but the third world in general and the excruciatingly respectful attitude that our own world, represented by the Americans whom Borat encounters, maintains toward it.

As the movie makes wholly explicit, the differences between those two worlds are in fact all too real. They consist not only in disparities of wealth but also in something less readily mentioned: namely, the respective quality of social norms, especially as these are evidenced in the treatment of Borat’s two favorite topics, women and minorities.

As if to confirm the accuracy of Baron Cohen’s darts in this direction, two Kazakh doctoral candidates currently studying at U.S. universities gave an interview to the Chicago Tribune in an effort to correct the false impressions of their homeland conveyed by the movie. Asked whether Kazakhs do sometimes kidnap brides, a feat Borat attempts with Pamela Anderson, one replied: “Yes, it still happens occasionally in our country—[but] mostly in the south, never in the north.” Besides, he added, it only happens “if a boy likes a girl and he and his family do not have enough money to pay the bride price.” Oh, well, in that case . . .

This raises another subject of concern to the critics. In ridiculing such sensibilities and practices, Baron Cohen makes relentless use of the rhetoric of anti-Semitism.[...]

Given that Baron Cohen is himself a Jew, and is reported to maintain some degree of religious observance, this has become the most controversial motif of his film. A statement by the Anti–Defamation League expressed concern that “the audience may not always be sophisticated enough to get the joke, and some may even find it reinforcing their bigotry.” By contrast, others have applauded Baron Cohen for delivering what they see as an effective slap at anti-Semites or, indeed, as laying bare the anti-Semitism that may be lying just beneath the surface of ordinary American life.[...]

At first I thought the ADL’s complaint absurd. Anyone who fails to realize the satiric purpose of Borat’s Jew-baiting must be as retarded as I once took Ali G to be. On second thought I am not so sure. It does seem possible that the license Baron Cohen has claimed for himself could open space for other comics to make jokes in which it is less clear who exactly is the butt, the anti-Semite or the Jew.

On the other hand, the argument that Borat strikes a blow against an already existing anti-Semitism among Americans leaves me cold. Today’s anti-Semitism is rooted in hatred of Israel and in contempt for Diaspora Jews who support Israel. The old, superstitious belief that Jews sprout horns or poison wells—the focus of Baron Cohen’s satire—no longer cuts deep, and certainly not in this country.[...]

In any case, the preoccupation with Borat’s preoccupation with the Jews has obscured another aspect of Baron Cohen’s routine. While American Christians are the best friends of the Jews, the Muslim world is rife with hostility toward them. “Ali,” as in Ali G, is a Muslim name. Kazakhstan is historically a Muslim country, although Soviet policies of Russification reduced the percentage of Muslims to no more than half. We live in a time when throwing Jews, or the Jewish state of Israel, “down the well” has gained the status of official Islamist policy. Is it wise for a Jewish comic to be tiptoeing so close to mockery of Muslim characters? [...]

Joshua Muravchik

Fazer é comprar

Discordo. Passei uns breves dias na mae-nave e parece-me que em Portugal fazer é comprar. Ler é simplesmente esquisito. Uma sociopatia manienta. A nao ser que seja algo do Rodrigues dos Santos.

P.S.: dos que leem no wc pareceu-me coerente que lessem o expresso. Contudo, a minha amostra nao é de forma alguma exaustiva e inclui-me, o que limita enormemente conclusoes definitivas.

Brüno

Sacha Baron Cohen é o actor que faz de Borat. Outra das suas personagens é Bruno (ou Brüno), um jornalista de moda austríaco e muito obviamente gay. Parece que o próximo filme é com Brüno e começam a sair pela net conselhos para que ninguém se veja na desfortuna de se encontrar num filme em que se faça papel de asno.

Os conselhos sao:

1. Mantenha uma fotografia do Brüno sempre consigo.
2. Se alguém lhe pedir para assinar uma declaraçao dando permissao para entrar num filme, pense.
3. Por exemplo, pense em dizer nao.
4. Nao se embebede com estranhos.
5. Se for racista, homofóbico ou sexista tente mante-lo só pra si.

Ha ha ha ha ha...

Ide ver

P.S.: uma amiga disse-me que a polícia foi chamada 91 vezes durante a feitura deste filme. Esta dúvida andava a rondar-me.

Um adeus a Rumsfeld

Consensus: science is friggin' hard

Oh random, para ti:

The National Science Foundation's annual symposium concluded Monday, with the 1,500 scientists in attendance reaching the consensus that science is hard.

"For centuries, we have embraced the pursuit of scientific knowledge as one of the noblest and worthiest of human endeavors, one leading to the enrichment of mankind both today and for future generations," said keynote speaker and NSF chairman Louis Farian. "However, a breakthrough discovery is challenging our long-held perceptions about our discipline—the discovery that science is really, really hard."

"My area of expertise is the totally impossible science of particle physics," Farian continued, "but, indeed, this newly discovered 'Law of Difficulty' holds true for all branches of science, from astronomy to molecular biology and everything in between."

The science-is-hard theorem, first posited by a team of MIT professors in 1990, was slow to gain acceptance within the science community. It gathered momentum following the 1997 publication of physicist Stephen Hawking's breakthrough paper, "Lorentz Variation And Gravitation Is Just About The Hardest Friggin' Thing In The Known Universe."

This weekend's conference, featuring symposia on how hard the Earth sciences are, how confusing medical science is, and how ridiculously un-gettable quantum physics is, represented a major step forward for the science-is-hard theorem.

"We now believe that the theorem is 99.999% likely to be true, after applying these incredibly complex statistical techniques that gave me a splitting headache," Farian said. "A theorem is like a theory, but, I don't know, it's different."

Members of the scientific establishment were quick to affirm the NSF discovery.

"To be a scientist, you have to learn all this weird stuff, like how many molecules are in a proton," University of Chicago physicist Dr. Erno Heidegger said. "While it is true that I have become an acclaimed physicist and reaped great rewards from my career, one must not lose sight of the fact that these blessings came only after studying all of this completely impossible, egghead stuff for years."

Dr. Ahmed Zewail, a Caltech chemist whose spectroscopic studies of the transition states of chemical reactions earned him the Nobel Prize in 1999, explained in layman's terms just how hard the discipline of chemistry is, using the periodic table of the elements as a model.

"Take the element of tungsten and work to memorize its place in the periodic table, its atomic symbol, its atomic number and weight, what it looks like, where it's found, and its uses to humanity, if any," Zewail said. "Now, imagine memorizing the other 100-plus elements making up the periodic table. You'd have to be, like, some kind of total brain to do that."

As hard as chemistry and other traditional sciences may be, scientists say such newer disciplines as quantum physics are even more difficult.

"Quantum physics has always been a particularly tough branch of science," UCLA physicist Dr. Hideki Watanabe said. "But in addition to being some of the smartest Einstein-y stuff around, it is undeniably a really stupid, pointless thing to study, something you could never actually use in the real world. This paradoxical dual state may one day lead to a new understanding of physics as a way to confuse and bore people."

"I guess there's cool stuff about science," Watanabe continued, "like space travel and bombs. But that stuff is so hard, it's honestly not even worth the effort."

P.S.: penso que desisti de assassinar este blogue. So' se eu simplesmente deixar de vir ver o que o resto da malta escreve. Uma despedida tao linda... {que vergonha... suspiro}

Entre o arrepio e o riso

O arrojo no Gloria Facil.

always look on the bright side of football

:-) um video para espairecer.

Aaltra

Penso que em toda a minha vida só vi três filmes belgas, mas todos eles eram de humor negro. Não sei se é coincidência, se é só o que sai para fora, mas um dia destes ainda me apanham a dizer que sentido de humor, do bom, do que eu gosto é o belga. Qual humor inglês! Foi chão que deu uvas.

Aaltra é um road movie em cadeiras de rodas. Imaginem bem o que pode acontecer numa viagem destas. Parem. Não conseguem. Não vão conseguir imaginar como passo a passo, correcção, rodadela em rodadela, dois imobilizados andam à boleia pelas estradas do norte da Europa, metendo-se e provocando situações politicamente incorrectas. É a cadeira motorizada que roubam a um casal velhinho para depois andarem em corridas na rotunda da terra ou as vezes em que os que resolvem ajudá-los acabam por os abandonar em maldições à beira de alguma estrada.

Não há aqui nenhuma comiseração, não há alegria ou tristeza sem remissão. Não há pinturas emocionais ou maniqueísmos, não há sequer cor. Há simplesmente um espelho que mostra o mundo dos outros direito quando parece distorcido. Ou vice-versa, que cada um veja o filme e o julgue. Não perde tempo.