An essay by Harold Bloom on how American literature can help understand the trajectory of his country.

Naomi Klein commenting on the history of the use of torture by the U.S. .

The publishers Penguin now have podcasts available, I should check them out. By the way, I got this through the Guardian's nice CultureVulture blog.

On the first winner of The Guardian's Book Award: "Stuart, a life backwards" by Alexander Masters, a Cambridge-based writer (by the way, he has a BA in physics and PhD in Maths).

Have a look at a 2m-wide, 200Kg jellyfish. They are infesting Japanese waters - fortunately, they're edible.

A list of relatively cheap Christmas presents for the technologically-driven DIY'ers, from Make Magazine.

The first-ever comic strip in Nature magazine: Adventures in Synthetic Biology.

A student sold space on his website by the pixel - U$1 a piece. He's already sold about U$600 000 worth of it- with minimal cost.

Enquanto no Brasil algumas cidades experimentam fechar os bares mais cedo para diminuir a criminalidade, a Inglaterra vai no caminho contrário: a partir de hoje milhares de pubs e outros estabelecimentos tiveram as horas de funcionamento prolongadas.

Engineers from Leeds teach us how to make a perfect paper plane.

This service allows you to send yourself an email - to be delivered at any date in the future! a kind of homemade time capsule. It would be interesting to send a huge attachment with all of your mail, for example, if one weren't concerned about confidentiality. So I just sent a small note to myself. What would, or will, you say to yourself in the future? or to others?

There have been claims that one can create a state of the hydrogen atom which has a closer orbit than the ground state's, yielding much energy in the process. I'm highly skeptical, but curious, nevertheless. An article in The Guardian about the controversy, the website of Black Light Power, the company making the claim.

An interview with Noam Chomsky in The Guardian.

An article by George Dyson in The Edge about the developtment of computers, from von Neumann's early design to Google, Inc.

Down-to-earth maths: an article proving that a wobbly tables can be fixed just by rotating it (modulo some assumptions).

An insightful article about whether we should consider computer games as works of culture.

A set of articles and interviews in Forbes magazine about communications and language.

Today I read about Philo Farnsworth, teenage american inventor of the TV. It reminded me that the inventor in Futurama is also named Farnsworth, probably not a coincidence...
I like Futurama, it has very smart references and in-jokes for scientists. Check out this webpage and links inside for some of that. Dave Bacon also points out to a reference to a near-failure of Fermat's theorem in a Simpson's episode.

The 2005 Ig Nobel prizes are out!

"The Game" is a book about a secret society of men who share tips on infallible ways of picking up women in bars.

As the name suggests, the Internet Archive is a non-governmental organization that charts the web and preserves records of its growth for studies and for the future.

An article in The Guardian about bailes funk (the music/social phenomenon arising from shanty towns in Rio).

An extract of an unfinished book by Janna Levin, provocatively (at least for me) called "A MADMAN DREAMS OF TURING MACHINES".

A compulsive blogger has summarized the best entries each month for the last five years of the blog BoingBoing.

An article in The Guardian piecing together what happened during the Uzbek demonstrations, when hundreds or thousands of people got killed.

An article in New Scientist describing a parasitic worm that infects land-living grasshoppers and somehow makes them jump in the water to die, so that the worms can leave their host and live in the water. Isn't science better than science fiction?

Jonathan Freedland on the vulnerability of the U.S., as evidenced by Katrina.

An article by Richard Dawkins and Jerry Coyne demolishing intelligent design.

"Teaching Turing", a fun and well-designed website which teaches about Turing machines by allowing you to program one.

In the last few weeks I've moved from Canada back to Rio de Janeiro and prepared for a job interview, which help explain my silence. I should be back to posting here regularly from now on...

A pack of "Scientist trading cards", like the baseball cards of yore.

The Russian space program is getting ready to offer a tourist trip to orbit the Moon. How much's the ticket? 100 million dollars.

Photos from an abandoned castle in Ireland.

Genetically modified crops have been shown to transfer genes to a weed, creating a pesticide-resistant super-weed.

On a program that generates random (bogus) scientific papers. There are also videos of the programmers delivering some papers in a mock seminar.

Last week I visited some pyramids in Teotihuacan, Mexico. Here's the website of a retired carpenter testing out some simple techniques that could have been used to build those. Here's a video about his project of building his own 'Stonehenge' that way.

Life in Canada: check out the tricks used to specify the ingredients of this product in English and French using the least number of words.

Keeping on the subject of tough "sports": an article about the Pakistani version of Polo. It says:

"Some regulations were introduced about five years ago to cut down on fights. Now bashing an opponent in the face or hacking his horse's legs are illegal, said the touch judge, Yaqub Masroof. "But only if it is intentional."
The best players have a strong horse, a wrench-like wrist and a backside of rubber. Still, injuries are common. Legs are broken, skulls cracked, and one player died from a heart attack mid-match."

The Pamplona bull runs of this year start today!

Two of my favourite museums, the conjoined Pitt Rivers and Natural History Museums in Oxford have won a prize as the most 'family friendly' museums in the U.K. They're really worth a visit if you happen to visit Oxford, I think of the Pitt Rivers as Indiana Jones' ware-house, and you'll understand why if you go there.

Human footprints dated 40000 years old were found in Mexico. This strengthens the hypothesis that humans arrived in the Americas much before what most researchers believed. Aqui um artigo mais antigo em português sobre o problema.

Uma entrevista com o ministro da Saúde Humberto Costa, explicando como foi a decisão de quebrar a patente internacional de um remédio anti-HIV.

Seen last winter, not far from here... this is homemade, but check out this artist's site.

An article by historian Eric Hobsbawm analyzing the American neo-conservative drive for world supremacy.

On a lighter note: some tips on how to be a good movie villain.

A conversation about Godel and the nature of mathematical truth.

A page with pictures of abandoned buildings in the ex-Soviet Union.

Artists are tax-exempt in Ireland!

Here's a 3 minute video of the Solvay conference in 1927. This is the meeting where some of the most important features of quantum mechanics were first discussed, barely 5 years after its invention. There were 29 participants, 17 of which had got or were to get Nobel prizes. I'd have loved to eavesdrop on this...

Um artigo no The Guardian sobre a transposição das águas do rio São Francisco.

On retreats and the different things they may mean to different people.

An article about the roots of the revolt in Bolivia.

An article on online independent media hubs.

On a project aiming at creating a self-replicating rapid prototyper.

Extinct cave bear DNA sequenced. The researchers responsible for that are now talking about doing it to Neanderthals.

Computers can now be used to grade university essays.

I've been away for a while, in Vienna, Cambridge and Oxford. Here's an article about a painting of Klimt's that decorates the hall in Vienna University where I spent most of last week.

An article about the history of suicide missions (early Christians' martyrdom, Kamikazes, bombers in Iraq, ...).

Bloody April in Iraq: 135 car-bombings in last month alone, 67 of which were suicide attacks.

An interesting debate in the online forum Edge about gender and science: Elizabeth Spelker vs Steven Pinker.

40 reasons do dislike Star Wars.

Bush's EUA gives money for Aids programmes abroad, but with strings attached: there must be policies of no abortion, no birth control, no prostitution and abstinence-based sex education. Brazil has resisted the pressure, turning down the money. Brazil has a very good AIDS programme of its own and can afford to do that, unfortunately the situation is much different in most of the developing world.

Tate Modern is about to turn 5! one of my favourite places to visit in London.

An article about recent research showing that acupuncture really works.

An interesting article about a reporter who visits the most exotic (and sometimes dangerous) destinations in the world: Somaliland, Transnistria, Nagorno-Karabakh,...

Some haunting testimonials about the Chernobyl accident, 19 years later. This woman goes for motorcycle rides around Chernobyl, and has written a website about it, with plenty of pictures [obrigado Tatiana!].

An interview with the man who saved a million lives. He's the British medical statistician who proved that smoking causes lung cancer.

On the current state of Artificial Intelligence research.

An article in Le Monde Diplomatique on the rise of religious politicians (especially evangelicals) in Brazil.

On the recent wave of anti-Japanese popular protests in China.

The Webby awards, the 'leading international award honoring excellence in Web design, creativity, usability and functionality'.

Aye-Ayes are ugly little mammals.

On Russian aircraft with unusual design. I think the design derives from Ekranoplans, which I commented on before in this blog.

Remote controlled headless zombie flies.

Terry Jones (a Monty Pithon) on the baffling increase of child malnutrition in Iraq after the war.

Some commentary on the short-list of popular science books for the Aventis prize.

If you're Brazilian and have had contact with other Romance languages, you'll know that with a little experience it's possible to understand and be understood by Italians, French and Spanish people. This partial learning of other languages of the same family is much faster than learning a different language in the usual way, and deserves further study. This article is about some projects studying this.

A profile of Wolfowitz, the new director of the World Bank.

Scientists have implanted human brain cells into mice fetuses, creating a chimera -- a mixture of different species. Many similar experiments are being planned, but much more thought must go into looking at the consequences of such research. Other chimeras have already been created, one had the head of a goat and the body of a sheep.

O prefeito de Londres, Ken Livingstone, chamou Ariel Sharon de criminoso de guerra. Gostei de ver!

On plans to increase free online access to academic journals.

Mumbai is razing its slums, without first offering a viable housing alternative to its poor. More than half of its inhabitants live in slums.

Electrodes have been implanted in patients' brains, to stimulate parts of it and alleviate depression.

A profile of Dyson, the British inventor of hoover fame.

A spacecraft powered by a solar sail is going to be launched soon.

Remember Dr. Strangelove's unwanted nazi salutes? there is a genuine neurological condition just like that, called 'anarchic hand'. [via monochrom]

On how to destroy a planet. In style, this reminds me of 'The Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy'.

An article about a.

About how the U.K. came to be involved in the Iraq war. Quote:
[The full picture of how the government manipulated the legal justification for war, and political pressure placed on its most senior law officer, is revealed in the Guardian today.]

A web site with easy-to-make science toys. (via BoingBoing)

Two reporters from The Guardian explain why the threat of nuclear strikes is greater now than it was during the cold war. The general public is completely oblivious to that, which is dangerous.

An interview with Kazuo Ishiguro, who talks about his most recent book ('Never let me go'), his life measured in 5-year-long stretches dedicated to each novel, and mortality.

An article on recently released documents about the torture being practiced by the U.S. army, and about two new books on the same subject. Disgusting, revolting, not unexpected at all.

I have posted here about the R$1000 popular computer project being considered in Brazil. Here's an article about a more ambitious project, of a U$100 laptop for developing countries.

A participant in a reality show in the U.S. has killed himself. Apparently this is the second such case, a Swedish participant killed himself after being voted off the show.

Death Star? looks like it, but it's Mimas, one of Saturn's moons.

Death Star? looks like it, but it's Mimas, one of Saturn's moons.

An interview with an autistic savant -- he does complex mathematical calculations in his head, but unlike others he can talk about it. This may help scientists understand the condition, and how 'normal' brains work.

The Guardian asked many leading scientists what the next big scientific revolution will be. Here are the answers.

An article on the strategic importance of the region surrounding the Black Sea.

Over two months after the Indian Ocean tsunami, about two thirds of the relief money promised to the U.N. has not yet been delivered. Judging by previous disasters, it may never be.

An article arguing that Bush has to face up to a rising power, the United States of Europe.

A book on Mumbai (old Bombay) in India. I wouldn't mind getting to know it, to compare with other chaotic and interesting cities such as Rio and Naples.

A crime thriller which is a mathematical thriller as well. It is also set in Oxford, where I studied. I'm curious now...

An article with estimates about how long it would probably be between the first signs of a new dangerous flu virus and a pandemic.

A strand of avian flu is being transmitted from human to human in Vietnam. It seems to be lethal in the majority of cases. There is the scary possibility of a pandemic.

Faz 20 anos que o MST comecou suas atividades. Veja aqui uma materia a respeito que saiu no Globo.

This sculpture studio in the Netherlands makes 3-d models out of classic paintings and cartoons. (Via boingboing)

Simon Baron-Cohen on the differences between the sexes, following a controversial address by Harvard's president.

Here's a list of 10 good books about science, from The Guardian. This list blurs the distinction between science and literature -- it includes writes such as Primo Levi and Norman Mailer, and all books have withstood the test of time, well, they were all written more than 10 years ago. I've read two of them: 'The diversity of life' by Edward O. Wilson and 'The language instinct' by Stephen Pinker, and really recommend those.

An extract of an unfinished work by one of my favorite writers, W. G. Sebald.

A little history of alternative keyboard designs, and a contemporary challenger to the QWERTY keyboard: abKey.

Gary Yonge on Bush's hypocritical 'quest to end tyranny'. He lists some of the repressive regimes supported by the U.S.. He also argues that Bush's perceived mission is not in the direction of bringing Cuba to the standards of freedom of the U.S., it's more like bringing all the world to the standards of freedom of a little part of Cuba - Guantanamo Bay.

A little (edited) part of Bush's inauguration address, from Yonge's article:

"America will not pretend that jailed dissidents prefer their chains [apart from in Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo Bay], or that women welcome humiliation and servitude [apart from in Saudi Arabia] or that any human being aspires to live at the mercy of bullies [apart from Uzbekistan and Israel]."

An article in The Guardian about Ed Witten, the most famous string theorist in the world.

A computer program has been used successfully in the music industry to predict pop hits.

The Huygens spaceprobe has landed successfully in Saturn's moon Titan, revealing a very interesting world completely new to science. An article about it, some pictures of Titan's surface.

Eric Hobsbawm on the important heritage of Marxist historians (such as himself).

I'm back in Canada!
An investigative article in The Guardian about the controversies surrounding the discovery of the Flores Man.