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.

An article about pseudo-random numbers and their uses. I've been interested by randomness in physics and mathematics for years...

I'm in Rio for the month. I'm happy.

Another installment of Salgado's 'Genesis' series of photographs. Now, Congo.

From BoingBoing, a piece of web zen: bad English assembly instructions, weird signposts, old-school instruction films and such jewels.

An article about the new exhibit at Tate Modern, with works by troubled teenagers.

Do you think you get too much spam? Me too. But it could be worse -- Bill Gates receives 4 million emails a day.

On China's first youth culture, linglei.

An obituary of Yasser Arafat.

The insurgency in Iraq is as strong as it's ever been, and now the U.S. election is over, marines are getting ready to take Fallujah in what's likely to be a bloodbath.

With the reelection of Bush, the U.S. is getting ready to launch weapons in space, thus violating yet another international treaty.

A talk about how the main problems in analytical philosophy during the last 60 years are represented in the works of Monty Pithon.

Dois surfistas brasileiros com um inglês meio ruim estavam pegando um avião nos Estados Unidos. Quando passaram no controle de segurança e as malas estavam sendo abertas, um deles disse ´Tem uma bomba de sucção nessa mala´, só que traduziu bomba de sucção como ´bomb´ ao invés de ´pump´. Resultado: foram presos e correm o risco de pegar até 5 anos de prisão, ou U$250000 de multa.

Saturn's moon Titan is receiving a visit -- the Huyghens, a robot launched from the Cassini probe. It's going to go down into Titan's atmosphere, recording data as it descends, but scientists do not know whether it'll land with a thud, a splash or a squelch.

A critical view of AMD's 'popular computer' black-box. I wonder if that's the system Brazil is adopting, it may be a mistake.

An itemized account of what the next 4 years will be like for the U.S. and the rest of the world.

Changing subject: more comment about the Man of Flores.

Pode haver cristaos fundamentalistas perigosos em alguns paises, mas alguns deles sao inofensivos.

Another dangerous monkey.

Monkeys in a temple in India are attacking children, which apparently hasn't happened before. Are they also in a foul mood?

Today is shaping up as a dark day for the world. I don't think I feel like commenting on it. Let's cheer up.
About 20% of the Arctic ice cap has already melted, and the rest should have melted by 2070. Of course this insalubrious event could be partially reversed in the case of a nuclear (or 'nucular' , perhaps I should say) winter, which suddenly looks like a not unlikely possibility.

Around 100 000 civilians have died in Iraq, as a result of the American-led invasion.

Nature magazine has lots of info about the new-found hominid bones - the Flores man.

More on the 'hobbit' hominids. It turns out the natives of the islands where the bones were found have tales of small, hairy men and women -- there's even a possibility that some surviving specimens exist. This would overturn dramatically our self perception of the ruling species on Earth, think of the consequences for ethics and religion for example.

Fossils were found of a new Homo species that coexisted with modern humans about 18000 years ago. They were 1m tall, and are being nicknamed 'the hobbits'.

One of my first posts in this weblog was about Wikipedia, the open-source collaborative online encyclopedia. It already has more than 1 000 000 entries. More about it.

A video of a cat in zero-g, actually on a plane following a parabolic flight path.

The winners and runners-up of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2004 competition.

A nice website about mosaics.

This woman is hacking the hardware and software of Aibo and similar robot dogs to implement pack behavior.

'Canto de Ossanha' tocada por Baden Powell me lembra o segundo movimento da 7a sinfonia de Beethoven.

An article giving a user's view of the new endeavour of Google, Desktop search. It basically indexes and searches your files using some of the same algorithms that Google uses, as fast as Google does, and seamlessly puts the two together whenever you do a search. For people with many files and extensive email correspondence, it will enable you to find stuff you'd never thought you'd see again.

A German TV channel is planning something similar to the Truman Show.

A small sample of cultured rat's brain cells has been interfaced with a computer, and 'programmed' to control a simulated fighter plane. Sounds like science fiction, but it's real.

The James Bond-like escape a Soviet spy did from a British prison, as reported by the Guardian in 1966.

O governo brasileiro tem um projeto de computador popular, que deve ser comercializado ate dezembro. Custara R$1000, e podera ser financiado por R$50,00 por mes. A ideia e' vender 5 milhoes de computadores a esses precos subsidiados, que incluem 20h/mes de acesso a internet.

A weird corporate blackmail plot in France, involving 2000 credit cards straped to road signs.

On the different forms of vote suppression or plain fraud during the U.S. presidential elections of 2000.

On the disenfranchisement of black voters in the U.S. .

A tourist trip to see the Chernobyl nuclear accident site.

The Guardian has asked its readers in the U.K. to write to undecided voters in the U.S., to try and influence their vote. Check out some of the feedback: some of it is hate mail!link

Ex-workers from Guantanamo Bay describe the types of torture they witnessed there.

When you buy diamonds, think about where they're coming from.

Um artigo descrevendo como os físicos estão diversificando suas atividades de pesquisa, e atacando problemas em biologia, sociologia, etc.

A look at the violence in Colombia.

On the balance of the latest invasion of Gaza by Israel: 100 Palestinians dead, among them 20 children under 16.

A list of 12 places and ecosystems on Earth which will suffer most immediately with global warming.

The whole world is sitting powerlessly watching the U.S. presidential election race, which should affect us all immensely. Unfortunately, only U.S. citizens get to vote. Well, the Guardian newspaper in the U.K. has assembled a little manual on how to influence American voters from abroad, by donating money to the campaign, writing personally to an unaffiliated voter in a swing state, or manifesting your ideas on talk-show radio programs.

Hands to arms, fellow world citizens!

On the true story of St. Bernard's dogs being used by avalanche rescue teams.

U.S. seizes webservers from independent media sites.

On the totalitarian dictatorship in Turkmenistan, with details of a cult of personality comparable to that of Mao Tse Tung and Kim Jong Il.

An interview with primatologist Jane Goodall.

The future dictionary of America, a politically-charged initiative that saw many writers (re-)define the meaning of expressions such as 'axis of evil', 'condoleesy', 'environment'. Check an extract.

Bush seems to have been wired during the second presidential campaign debate. A bulge was seen on his back (suggesting an electronic device), and recently, during D-day celebrations in France, a voice was captured by CNN saying exactly what the president would say a few moments later. Article in The Guardian.

Ariel Sharon's chief aide speaks out, saying the U.S. openly supports Israel and is against a Palestinian state:

"Effectively, this whole package called the Palestinian state, with all that it entails, has been removed indefinitely from our agenda. And all this with authority and permission. All with a presidential blessing and the ratification of both houses of Congress."

Gameshow arrests real criminals -- see quote below. The disquieting thing is that the TV channel involved wants to turn this into a real show.

"Hampshire police invited 150 people to the Great Big Giveaway Show in Portsmouth and offered them a chance to win big prizes.

However, the invitees were wanted for traffic and bail offences, non-payment of fines, common assault, criminal damage and drink-driving and the police used the pretext of the gameshow to entice them out of their homes.

The "guests" were frisked as they arrived and had their identities checked by a police officer dressed in a dinner suit."

Hand-drawn holograms, and related do-it-yourself optical stuff.

Stop Press! the IgNobel Prizes are out. By the way, today there'll be a couple of Nobel prize laureates here in my institute. And the prime minister.

A review of the first 25 years of the literary magazine Granta, one of my favourites.

Martin Amis writes about Diego Maradona.

Essa é boa: Lars von Trier já produziu 3 filmes pornô, e está produzindo o quarto, agora um filme gay. Ele tem até um manifesto, uma espécie de 'dogma pornô'!

An Observer profile of Bono.

Many security analysts and retired Generals of the U.S. army agree: what's going on in Iraq is even less justified, and well-planned, than the campaign against Vietnam.

For linux geeks: how to install linux on a dead badger.

An interview with Wong Kar-Wai, in which he describes the troubled genesis of his new film, 2046.

On the increasing use of blogging by academics.

An interview with Stephen King, who has just finished the 7-book series for which he hopes to be remembered in the future.

The short-list for the Man Booker prize. The only author I've read is David Mitchell (number9dream and Ghostwritten), and I quite recommend him.

An article about why the whole world should vote in the U.S. presidential elections. It's a bit of a joke, but there are some good points in the argument, after all we're all afected by the outcome. It also has some statistics of Bush's approval rate in Europe: Kerry would outvote Bush 6 to 1 !

It has finally happened: the president of the main hotel and catering trade association in France has acknowledged the legendary surliness of French, and specially Parisian, waiters. Quote from the Guardian article:

["Customers are right to complain of a poor or non-existent welcome, an excessively long wait and a lack of basic courtesy and reactivity," said André Dugoin.]

An article in the Guardian about the continuing popularity of the Brazilian president Lula.

More about the underground cinema fanatics in Paris.

On a follow-up to the article by a Russian journalist, a second one has been drugged upon arrival in Beslan. Apparently someone very powerful is very bothered by the journalism coverage of the massacre.

Sebastião Salgado, the great Brazilian photographer, is starting a new epic project: over the next eight years he'll be photographing some of the most pristine areas of the world, as a token of hope that we won't completely destroy our planet. Link to an interview, link to an on-line gallery.

On how used bookshops in England are taking advantage of the web.

An article by a Russian journalist describing how the Russian press is servile to the government.

The diary of a white-collar criminal who was incarcerated in one hell of a prison (for American standards, of course).

Police have found a clandestine cinema and restaurant in the catacombs of Paris. Me faz lembrar o Cine-buraco no Rio...

The Science Museum is opening its archive of 170000 objects to public guided tours.

An interview with a woman who had a 'bionic ear' implanted. She went from complete deafness to hearing things other people can't.

The strange story of a guy who posted himself home.

A list of embarassments Microsoft has suffered because of ignorance of geography and cultural misunderstandings.

I'm in Cambridge, U.K., today is the end of the workshop that brought me here, happening at the Newton Institute. It's been fun and quite productive! With this my summer travelling season ends.

A review of Roger Penrose's new book. I had the pleasure to help him with some references on quantum information!

Reading groups are a phenomenon in England. An atypical one has won a prize -- all male, they meet in a pub and have quite lively (OK, swearing) literary discussions. What one member says:

"Despite the brickbats from workmates - 'I know people who haven't read a book since primary school' - Owen has no regrets: 'It's an excuse to drink with male colleagues. It was this or a morris dancing troupe.' "

An article about Nigerian musician Fela Kuti, whose music I like a lot.

A Guardian review of Ruy Castro's book on Garrincha.

On a book debunking the myths surrounding the original Olimpic games.

A controversial essay on drug use in sports.

I'm on holidays in Rio de Janeiro, hence the silence here. Fittingly, here's an apology of idleness.

A democrat is investigating unexplained withdrawals by the U.S. from the fund which should be accumulating Iraq's oil money for reconstruction work. As if profiting from destroying the country and then again from reconstructing it wasn't enough for Bush's mates, they seem to be taking money directly from the source.

An article on how it is like to have been born with no sense of smell.

Slavery shame blights Brazilian interior.

About short short stories (a la Scliar).

An article in The Guardian about the myth of Ernesto Che Guevara, my namesake.

The life-story of a Pulitzer prize winning author who was once homeless and now, at 53, published his first novel to great acclaim.

An article about the British and French honours system (Knighthoods and the like). O Brasil também tem, mas é muito menos conhecido do público. Aliás, existe até uma Academia Brasileira de Ciências...

De volta ao Canada, depois de duas semanas em Paris.

Ate 2020, poluicao em Sao Paulo deve custar aos cofres publicos R$5 bilhoes, para tratamento de doencas causadas ou agravadas pela poluicao. Para se ter uma ideia do problema, isso corresponde a 9 vezes o orcamento de Saude de SP.

An exhibition put together by Israeli soldiers shows pictures and interviews with soldiers in the Palestinian city of Hebron. The army confiscated the damning testimonies.

At least 92 Russians were killed in militant attacks in the Russian republic of Ingushetia, which is risking becoming a new Chechnya.

A collection of links about the summer solstice (today!).

A Pulitzer prize-winning jornalist exposes Israel's strategy to support Kurdish separatists.

An article in the magazine "Philosophy Now" about the unease with which many scientists view philosophy.

An extract of the new book by Germaine Greer, "Whitefella Jump Up: The Shortest Way To Nationhood", on the unresolved tension between white and aboriginal identities in modern Australia.

If everything goes according to plan, this next Monday, June 21st, there will happen the first commercial launch of a recoverable manned spacecraft. It belongs to a company intending to bag the X Prize, to be given to the first private company to take three people to a suborbital flight (min 100Km of altitude) and repeat the feat with the same spaceship within two weeks.

Mongolians have traditionally used only first names for a long time. Now the government needs them to pick family names, only they are all going for 'Borjigin', which was Genghis Khan's tribe name...

I also have problems with countries whose phone books have low entropy. Try, as I have, finding a particular paper on quantum physics by an author called Wang!

A profile of Ikea.

A concerned U.S. parent failed to make his daughter's school exclude the line 'one nation, under **god**' from their daily pledge of alliance. He argued that this violated the separation between state and religion, but (unfortunately, in my opinion) the process was dismissed on a technicality.

Tem gente que reclama que o meu blog é impessoal... acho que em parte é porque costumo escrever textos acadêmicos de física -- difícil encontrar um registro mais impessoal e objetivo do que esse. Além disso, pelo que vejo pela internet, blogs de auto-contemplação tendem a ser chatíssimos!

Escrevo as notinhas deste blog em inglês porque é a língua dos textos que comento, e da maior parte das minhas conversas e leituras desde que fui morar fora do Brasil. Infelizmente eu quase não tenho chance de falar português aqui no Canadá. A exceção é minha boca suja quando estou jogando sinuca com o pessoal do Instituto. Agora de vez em quando meus parceiros de sinuca exclamam ´Carrraio!´ ou ´putaquiparriuu!´ com sotaque fortíssimo, sempre me pegam de surpresa e isso me diverte.

Meteorito atinge casa na Nova Zelandia. Do artigo:

["Estava na cozinha preparando o café da manhã quando escutei uma explosão", disse Brenda.
Seu marido se deu conta que havia uma pedra embaixo do computador, que estava quente e que antes havia arrebentado o sofá da sala.]
Imagina o susto!

An article on the network of prisons around the world where the U.S. government sends prisoners (from Al-Qaeda and Iraq) to be tortured for information. This includes a well-known case of a Syrian-born Canadian who was captured in a flight stop-over in New York and sent to be tortured in Syria.

VIP clubbers in Barcelona now can have a computer chip implanted in their arms. They can buy drinks and with a quick scan their accounts are debited accordingly.

D-day probably wouldn't have been possible if it weren't for the huge Red Army offensive on the eastern front. This article details the scale and significance of the Soviet attack, which is not being recalled and celebrated as much as D-day. Quote:

"It does not disparage the brave men who died in the North African desert or the cold forests around Bastogne to recall that 70% of the Wehrmacht is buried not in French fields but on the Russian steppes. In the struggle against Nazism, approximately 40 "Ivans" died for every "Private Ryan". Scholars now believe that as many as 27 million Soviet soldiers and citizens perished in the second world war."

An article about the Bilderberg group, a secretive society of very influential people who meet anually.

The U.S. is now one of a handful of countries demanding a special visa for foreign journalists. A Guardian journalist was not aware of that, and in spite of being married to a U.S. citizen and having an american son, was detained for 26 hours and deported back to the U.K. .

For the first time a German chancellor will be alongside Allied leaders in D-day commemorations. The resentment with Czech republic and Russia still remains -- not enough time to thaw since 1989.

On the murder of a 12-year old by a class-mate inside their school. In 2002 the age for criminal responsibility in Japan was decreased from 16 to 14. Looks like Battle Royale, doesn't it?

Another article about the mea culpa of the New York Times, about bad reporting in the run-up to the Iraq conflict. The NYT was just one out of a number of players who should have known better than blindly supporting the drive to war based on lies.

Some time ago I reported on a conference in Cuba, to remember and discuss the Cuban missile crisis 40 years after it happened. This is another report of a close shave with nuclear war, prompted by a deffective Russian radar system. People tend to overestimate the competence and common-sense of civil and military leaders, while sub-estimating the risk of accidental, or purposeful, nuclear war.

A thoughtful article by Susan Sontag on Bush's government stance on, and the public acceptance of, violence and torture.

This small island off the coast of Japan used to house a thriving community of coal miners. In 1974 the coal ran out and the island was abandoned. This site has two photo galleries, of the island during its downfall in 1974 and another from the abandoned island. The latter pictures show a desolate scenario where Man seems to have gone extinct.

This photo gallery reminded me of my last visit to Venice, when I saw a strange fortress-like island off the main one. Later I found it to be Venice's San Michele island, the city's cemetery since 1810.

The story behind an amateur nerd and his gargantuous project of a computer-generated movie, and how it is now being finished as a big production. I wonder if, and when, it will become practical to create a whole film single-handedly using a personal computer.

A cool fun/educational kit which enables you to build a fuel-cell model car.

The essay referred to below is available on-line here.

A chilling reminder of the dangers of U.S. military power - an extract from an article in the Guardian:
"In 1992, General Colin Powell, chairman of the joint chiefs, awarded the prize for his strategy essay competition at the National Defence University to Lieutenant Colonel Charles Dunlap for The Origins of the American Military Coup of 2012. His cautionary tale imagined an incapable civilian government creating a vacuum that drew a competent military into a coup disastrous for democracy. The military, of course, is bound to uphold the constitution. But Dunlap wrote: "The catastrophe that occurred on our watch took place because we failed to speak out against policies we knew were wrong. It's too late for me to do any more. But it's not for you."

The Origins of the American Military Coup of 2012 is today circulating among top US military strategists. "

An article about the genius of Nabokov and his novel Pnin. He's one of my favourite writers, and coincidentally I'm just awaiting delivery of this novel...

An interview with Pedro Almodovar, in which he speaks about his new film, elections in Spain, and his maturing as a film-maker.

I've just re-watched the film 'Chungking Express' by Wong Kar Wai. It is very good, it seems a bit of a Hong Kong take on the French Nouvelle Vague. It actually tells two stories, I like the second much better. His later 'In the mood for love' is a much bigger production with great atmosphere and sound-track of Argentinian tangos.

An European patent which can be described well as the Doomsday Device of Dr. Strangelove.

Um blog de um grupo de artistas de Viena: monochrom. This video was found there, it shows an unfortunate encounter between a deep-sea robot and a crab.

A dispatch from within Falluja, describing the situation there.

Who would guess, Mickey Mouse once spent a week trying to kill himself.

A website called 'Insultingly stupid movie physics', which delivers what it promises. Worth a look!
By the way, I found this website by browsing a nice blog on technological/cultural trends, see boingboing.

An extract from O: The Intimate History of the Orgasm by Jonathan Margolis

At least half of the 700 or so Iraqis killed by allied troops in Falluja were women or children. So much for the American claims that "95% of the killed were insurgents".

18 years ago, an Israeli scientist was imprisoned for letting the world know about Israel's nuclear weapons. He is about to be released now, this is a Guardian profile of him.

Today I read an article on Philosophy Now magazine, describing points of contact between existencialism and Peanuts, the comic strip. Existentialist angst similar to that appearing in Peanuts also shows up in Douglas Coupland's writing, notably in Life After God. Keeping more or less on this track, a tongue-in-cheek article on How to achieve happiness.

Walter Salles Jr writing about great South-American films.

A long profile of painter Lucian Freud, whose recent work is in an exhibition in London.

"Found Magazine" publishes notes, photographs and other personal objects found in parks, streets, libraries... the idea is intriguing, and the magazine has enjoyed a fair amount of success.

An article by a biographer of Edward Teller, father of the H bomb. The article is titled: Meet the real Dr. Strangelove.

An article about wikis, webpages that anyone can edit at will. I browsed, and even contributed to wikipedia, it's an interesting idea on "open source" content.

Israel's supreme court is close to deciding whether state-sponsored assassinations are war crimes or not.

This sounds like science fiction, but it's fact. Some researchers have developed a plant that turn its leaves red to signal it's growing over a land mine.

A week spent with refugees in England. See also the film 'Dirty Pretty Things'.

An article about ideas of terraforming Mars.

An interesting peek at Stanley Kubrick's archive.

Marco Evaristti, a Danish artist, has just dyed an iceberg red. He's the one with the golden-fish-in-blender fame.

An interesting article about traditional Chinese medicine, and how western medicine is catching up with it, identifying the active compounds in some of the extracts used.

Bush had approved a plan to attack the Taliban before September 11th, it transpires.

On a curious film I saw recently, whose star is a dwarf: The Station Agent.

A few reviews of Mel Gibson's 'Passion of Christ' film: one by David Mamet, and one by Julia Neuberger, a rabbi.

An article by Andrew Jarecki, director of the film 'Capturing the Friedmans', a very good, if disturbing, documentary I've seen recently.

The Coca Cola company has another PR disaster in their hands. In the U.K., they're withdrawing their Dasani water make from the market, because it contains unacceptable levels of a cancer-causing substance. On top of that, it was revealed that they were just adding some minerals to water from the tap, and contaminating it in the process (as well as increasing the price from 0.03 to 95 pence per bottle). What a shame! This reminds me of their launch, and subsequent withdrawal, of their Fruitopia juice drink in Brazil, which failed spectacularly as we have much better, cheaper, fresh juice in any corner shop...

A bizarre website, with no apparent goal other than befuddle the visitor. It works.

A well-humoured account of a climb of the Kilimanjaro. It reminded me of a 12-hour long ordeal I went through with some friends (?) up a mountain in the Spanish Pirenees...

An interview with the British prisoners recently released from Guantanamo.

A comment on the use of torture by US officials in Guantanamo.

How to behave in a public bath-house, or sento, in Japan.

An article about how Rio funk may find its way into the U.K.'s music scene.

An article on the popular success of contemporary documentary cinema. And a link to the work of Edward Burtynsky, a photographer whose exhibition at Art Gallery of Ontario I have just visited today. While we're at art, check out a peculiar journal, Strange Attractor.

A profile of John Kerry, probable democrat candidate to the white house.

A profile of Wladimir Putin, now he's running for a certain new term as Russian president.

An article on Christiania, the world's best known commune.

The account of a professor of cinema and his two-decade long obsession with finding the original print of John Cassavetes' first film, 'Shadows'. It resulted in a book. This reminds me of other Quixotic film quests, like the fictional one described in Paul Auster's 'The book of illusions'. In William Gibson's latest, 'Pattern recognition', there also is a cult of film snippets being distributed anonymously on the web.

Some of the Britons detained at Guantanamo are going to be released. This is an article describing the conditions they, and other 650 or so, have been held in.

Shark bites more than it can chew. An Australian had to swim to shore and drive away to get help to detach a shark from his leg.

An article about the nuclear bombing of Paris in 2009. You read it right.

An article on a group of Israeli women who go to military checkpoints to try to stop soldiers harassing Palestinians.

The first of a series of articles on ethical living.

An extract from the new book by George Soros, who is taking it upon himself to campaign to avoid having Bush re-elected.

An article by Naomi Klein, on the clashes in Iraq resulting from the popular demand for direct elections.

On the debate raging in Japan over sending troops to Iraq, or more generally over re-militarization.

An article in the Guardian about how homosexuality came to be viewed with naturality in the U.K., in part thanks to reality shows. The same thing happens in Brazil with controversial issues and minorities, but this time due to the novelas, soap operas.

Iraq phase 3: civil war. An article in the Guardian about the situation in Iraq.

Religions always seem to find a way of crossing each other. Now the Russian orthodox church is upset with the Mormons, who are buying records of dead Russians in order to baptize their dead souls in the Mormon religion.

A list of 40 good and promissing film directors. Some I don't like (Todd Haynes and his terrible 'Safe'), some I admire (Almodovar, Wong Kar Wai, , Takeshi Kitano, etc etc,), overall an interesting list.

An article about Israel's secret prison.

Two billionaires in the U.S. (one of them is Soros) are paying up to $5 million of their own money to fund anti-Bush advertisements.

An article by George Monbiot on how the U.S. and the U.K. did everything to avoid a peaceful solution to the Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts.

Um artigo do The Guardian sobre uma nova novela da Globo, ambientada numa favela.

An article by Naomi Klein on why the Iraq privatization of firms is against the rules of the U.S. army, the Geneva and the Hague conventions.

Have a look at the size of the bite of this shark...

An article about the poor in the U.S..

An article by Tariq Ali, the 'Baghdad Blogger', entitled "Resistance is the first step towards Iraqi independence". Strongly opinionated, good reading for those who still believe the talk of Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz about how well the Iraqi occupation is going.

Two articles on the current situation in North Korea.

A review of the Brazilian film 'Estacao Carandiru' in The Guardian, UK.

An article on the Three Gorges dam in China.

On a tiff between Fox News and an episode of the Simpsons.

Wolfowitz gets too close for comfort to the reality of the continuing Iraq conflict.

On some detainees the U.S. still keeps, from the Reagan-government invasion of Grenada. The way they were judged by a make-shift military tribunal, and incarcerated since, seems to have been a rehearsal for what the U.S. is doing in Guantanamo these days.

A very interesting article on some debate happening in Germany today, on the Allied fire bombing of civilian targets towards the end of World War II.

A review of the comic/graphic novel Maus, which I read a couple of years ago and which impressed me much.

An article about how the U.S. is augmenting its military presence around the Caspian, with a view to explore the rich oil resources of the region, at the expense of friction with the regional powers Russia and China.

About the coersion/torture used in the interrogation of suspected Al-Qaeda members.

The second part of the Gilberto Gil article.

An article in the Guardian about Gilberto Gil, written by a reporter who spent a week with him. The title? The Minister of Cool!

On how the U.S. is determined to suppress the independent Arab media.

An interview with Michael Moore.

A curious article/interview with Shiff, a pianist tackling Bach's Goldberg's variations. It's a glimpse into a world alien to me, all these subtleties and different interpretations for a piece of music.

An article explaining the current situation of the Sagrada Familia Cathedral in Barcelona. I saw noticeable advance between my two visits there, in 1999 and 2002.

On some new evidence of who was actually behind the putch attempt in Russia in 1993.

On an almost off-the-record interview with Wladimir Putin on Chechnya and democracy.

An article on Oxford viewed by a tourist.

An article about the recent court victory of the Metis people in Canada.

An article on Paul Krugman's ideas on Bush's government and his influence as a New York Times columnist.

The U.S. has vetoed a UN resolution demanding that Israel neither kill nor expel Arafat.

An article on this years' Man Booker prize shortlist.

An article on Sweeden's reasons to say 'no' to joining the Euro.

An article in The Guardian commenting on the Project for a New American Century, drafted by U.S. conservatives now in power much before September 11, and whose predictions and guidelines suggest the war on terror is an excuse to extend American power in the world.

An article on the Patriot Act and other surveillance activities in the U.S.

A bodyguard of Allende in Chile talks about the other September 11 -- Pinochet's coup.

An article by George Monbiot drawing similarities between today's inequality and the state in pre-revolutionary France, discussing the role on the WTO in this.

An article on how the French are dealing with the deluge of English terms entering their language.

An interesting article by a former Trade Minister from the UK, about Cuba.

The top U.S. official in Iraq admits the obvious: that rebuilding Iraq will cost much more than destroying it. This is not much of a concern for the U.S. government, as both endeavours enriched, or will enrich, the corporations that brought it to power. It's payback time.

Some entries in the diary of a man who recovered sight after a lifetime of total blindness. It makes for interesting reading.

On religious fundamentalism in the U.S. .

Clare Short's evaluation on what the Hutton inquiry has found so far, regarding Britain's reasons for going to war against Iraq.

An article on what happens when Wall-Mart comes to a small village in the U.S.

An article on new research about mental and emotional states of animals, and the rights they should have.

On the use of the word 'love' or even 'lover' in Bristol, as a treatment pronoun even to strangers.

US study concludes that conservatism is rooted psychologically in "fear and aggression and the intolerance of ambiguity". This kind of study is dubious, but the reactions to it are interesting.

Dr. Strangeloves meet to plan new nuclear era. US government scientists and Pentagon officials will gather today behind tight security at a Nebraska air force base to discuss the development of a modernised arsenal of small, specialised nuclear weapons which critics believe could mark the dawn of a new era in proliferation.

A good-humored take on how the British always end up as villains in Hollywood films, and the Americans as heroes.

A good-humored take on how the British always end up as villains in Hollywood films, and the Americans as heroes.

A good-humored take on how the British always end up as villains in Hollywood films, and the Americans as heroes.

Um artigo sobre a criacao do maior recife artificial do hemisferio sul, em Rio das Ostras, RJ.

Agora brasileiros que fazem conexao aerea em aeroportos americanos vao precisar de visto. Isso vai me afetar...

Mel Gibson had already impressed me (negatively) through the roles he's been chosing to play, including many Patriots (that's actually the title of one of his films), and some chillingly fascist types. Now he's at the center of a row with both Jewish and Christian academics, over a film he co-directed with his own money, and which he claims was the work of the Holy Ghost, with him as a mere instrument. Article on the controversy.