Hella Heaven

Wordless Monday on rain

2012-01-30T06:01:00.000-02:00

The latest gadget

2012-01-29T06:05:00.001-02:00

Have a great Sunday!

The Book of Thel by William Blake

2012-01-28T14:06:00.003-02:00

At the Harvard University Library there is an online copy of The Book of Thel by William Blake.
Everything was done by Blake who was a poet, an illustrator and was responsible for the publication.

Richard Dover explains The Book of Thel:

"Dated 1789, but probably engraved between 1788 and 1791, The Book of Thel is an intriguing allegorical counterpart to the Songs of Innocence.

Here Thel, a mythological figure associated with the daugher of Venus (Desire), is a young virginal figure, intrigued by the world of sex and experience, but she is frightened by the prospect.

In the course of the 'Book' she confronts various forms of created life - the Lilly, the Cloud, the Worm, the Clod of Clay - and asks them about the mysteries of mortal life: what is it like to be mortal, to live and to experience, but also to have to face the prospect of disillusionment, depair and death.

At the end of the 'Book' Thel almost summons the courage to enter the world of the Real, but at the last minute her nerve gives way, and she runs shrieking back to the sanctuary of immortality. In allegorical terms The Book of Thel presents the State of Innocence, confronted by the world of Experience.

Thel is, in one sense, a virginal goddess, pure and untouched by material reality, about to embark on the passage from childhood to adult maturity. Yet she is also, in metaphorical and archetypal form, a symbol of a state of mind or, better still, "State of Soul", a platonic essence intrigued by, but apprehensive of the realities of experience.

Through mythological personification Blake is able to express, in symbolic terms, aspects of innocence and experience which are difficult to express in other terms. Thel's final failure of nerve is, the poem suggests, to be pitied rather than applauded: 'Innocence' may well be an idyllic state but, "Without Contraries there is no Progression".

The Book of Thel can, therefore, be read on a number of levels, from being a literal exploration of various forms of innocence and hesitance (the child's reluctance to grow up), to more abstract and metaphorical levels, an allegorical exploration of the relationship between Thought and Action, or between the Immortality of the Idea or Image, and the mortality of lived experience."

UN peacekeepers atrocities unpunished

2012-01-27T15:05:00.001-02:00

I'm sorry to bring a subject that is not happy and may shock some people.

But you can do as many: close the page and search for a game or even look at the beautiful pictures at this blog.

In 1997 William Norman Grigg rite the article Beasts in Blue Berets about the atrocities committed by UN peacekeeping forces.

About the picture above:

"First published in the United States on the cover of the June 24th issue of the left-wing weekly Village Voice, the photograph depicts two Belgian paladins of the new world order giddily holding a Somali child over an open flame.

Other series of photographs depict UN soldiers kicking and stabbing a Somali, and another soldier apparently urinating on the Somali’s dead body; yet another shows a Somali child being forced to drink salt water, vomit, and worms. A second group of photos published in the July 15th Village Voice shows the dead bodies of bound Somalis — what appears to be the work of a death squad.

One atrocity not caught on camera involved the "punishment" of a Somali child by placing him in a metal container and withholding water from him for two days; predictably, the relentless African heat killed the child. One Belgian UN soldier testified that it was a regular practice to use metal boxes as prison cells, and that other Somalis probably died similarly gruesome deaths."

Read the entire article here.

Angry heart

2012-01-27T09:32:00.002-02:00

...yes angry...
As a bug destroyed the posts I'll have to reformat an average of 800 posts that lost their paragraphs, the worse since it became very hard to read them, and all the formatting that took me time and patience to do will have to be redone.

Google Plus? Why on earth another social network? I have one already... blah blah... I think many people think the same.

NO! No walking for you today...

A friend got inspiration from my work three times and didn't say anything... ok... no problems. This should make this person angry not me... (surely this person will never see)

Why do I keep blogging?

WW3? The world is a concentration camp? Nazi ideas are back or it was me who didn't notice that they were always around?

grrrrr...

Stop all activities...
I don' like talking about myself. I'm just like all regular people and there is nothing special in my life to tell. That's one of the reasons there is fiction and art otherwise we would read and watch nothing but biographies and portraits and never surpass the mediocrity of our existence.
Humans are not defined by their profession. Whether a politician, a doctor, blue or white collar, rich, millionaire, middle class or poor it is all the same paradigm. It is a question of degree.
Creation, creativity, inventions and thoughts define humans.

I think it is funny when people want to hide their lives in a way that others would presume that they do incredible things. Some even insinuate an activity by saying a sentence without finishing:
"When I met Mr. Fitzgerald I real..." "Yesterday I went to dine wi..."
No, they don't know Mr Fitzgerald and surely dined pasta watching TV.

What about the rich or millionaires? Hallucinating they are superior to make it more credible they need others badly and use their power to make of others slaves. What a sophisticated prison they build to themselves.

Too much information... bye.. angry... angryyrywr hfGHUqebgflkdnvdnvodihg kahflahlkshg vh\adhagh

Urgent: Avoid loosing all blogspot's pictures by not deleting Google plus albums

2012-01-26T10:53:00.001-02:00

The left image is the replacement you'll have if you delete your Google+ album.

I have already seen two blogs that had all their pictures removed so I decided to search the reason to protect myself.

When I visited my profile at Google+ I had the surprise of finding all my blog's pictures, including those who are in draft, in an album.
I felt a little invaded cause I didn't add them but as all we do over the internet is not private I recovered from the shock without even needing to go to a therapist.

I thought about deleting but... I don't use Google+ because I have a Facebook account and, oh! please!, start building it up all over again? I closed the window after setting them not to be visible for others.

The important is: DON'T DELETE PICTURES AT GOOGLE+ because they will be deleted from your blog permanently.
There is a good post about it at Blogger Sentral.

Coloring through optical illusion

2012-01-25T13:54:00.000-02:00

1 stare at the red star on the girl’s nose for 30 seconds;
2 look at the white rectangle;
3 tell me what you see.

Source: Moiillusions

Neuroscientist: the only profession in a near future

2012-01-25T10:51:00.000-02:00

"We are our brains and our souls and minds are what our brain is" is already considered as true.

It leads to no other conclusion: Neuroscience has reached the uppermost of the human knowledge and is studying humanities and sciences with excellence and accuracy.

In a near future there will be only one possible profession: neuroscientist.

(some people wonder why people who have mental problems are not healed but it is a detail)

I just received my diploma and I'm very proud.

Get yours too or it will be impossible to find any kind of job. Here.

Akirakirai's emotions and universe

2012-01-24T09:28:00.000-02:00

I have published some works "exposed" at DeviantArt and this time I was browsing and found Akirakirai's profile.

Having others sources to find those who are creative but are not on the market is one of the benefits of internet that also grant us with the possibility of finding a piece of a master that is not on books, the only source we had.

I did chose these two works by Akirakirai, whose mangas have a style of her own created in a universe quite unique, but only browsing her profile we can fully capture her art.
Left: A Fallen Angel
Right: Creation

Art: by akirakirai

Chromatic Typewriter: Paint instead of letters by Terry Callahan

2012-01-23T12:30:00.000-02:00

The painter and poet artist Terry Callahan changed the letters and other keys of a typewriter with colors. According to Terry:

"The little Chromatic Typewriter, a conceptual art piece, is out in the world and the feedback has been great. Although it does not paint, I've decided I can at least re-type my artist statement with the thing, so long as I can limit it to a paragraph. It ought to be equally decipherable as any other artist statement I've read lately."

It is with this piece that Terry is running the 2012 West Collects "West Prize Competition" that is voted here only over iPhone, iPad or Ipod. How ironic that a great creation that brings back typewriters can only be voted this way.

Anastassia Elias's invitations to dream

2012-01-22T13:54:00.001-02:00

The first post I did about Anastassia Elias's work was about her collages at toilet paper rolls. I thought about publishing more of these collages but I came across with this photo-montage she did in 2005.

"Sous le pavés, la plage." / "Under the paving, the beach." is the caption Anastassia wrote giving the first of many stories told by this image.

The flip-flop with the drops of water splashed around it, at the left page, gives the impression that someone came out of the water. If h/she is still around, gone or never existed is up to us to decide.

Eugène Grasset: the master of the posters

2012-01-21T12:12:00.003-02:00

Eugène Grasset is most known because of his posters in his name is part of the Maîtres de L'Affiche (Masters of the Posters)

256 color lithographic plates used to create a very significant art publication during the Belle Époque in Paris, France. The collection, reproduced from the original works of ninety-seven artists in a smaller 11 x 15 inch format, was put together by Jules Chéret, the father of poster art.
Enormously successful, today the Maîtres de l'Affiche works are as rare as the original large format images and much in demand by collectors from around the world. (Wikipedia)

But Eugene also painted, did sculptures did all kind of graphic designer's work, designed tapestries, ceramic, jewelry postcards and all he could experience including stain-glasses that has a lot to do with his posters.

He went to Egypt and was influenced by Egyptian art and was also influenced by Japanese style that was introduced in Europe in the nineteen century.
There is a beautiful collection of twelve of his litographies for a calendar at this site where you can see his work in big reproductions.
Click at the images to enlarge.

Is the glass half empty of half full?

2012-01-20T06:42:00.000-02:00

It seems some people don't think of it as the real issue.

Saint Augustine by Caravaggio discovered in a private collection

2012-01-19T10:34:00.001-02:00

Hidden on a private collection where it was considered as an anonymous this Saint Augustine painted by Caravaggio was discovered on April, 2011:

"A leading scholar, Sebastian Schütze, professor of art history at the University of Vienna and one of the book's co-authors, called the work a significant discovery.

He said: "It has never been published. What looked like an anonymous 17th-century painting revealed its artistic qualities after restoration."
The painting fits in to Caravaggio's oeuvre around 1600, when his style was sculptural and monumental, with powerful movement and emotional expression." (read whole article by The Guardian)"

This is a great discovery and I cannot help thinking about some masterpieces that are in private collections when they should be considered human heritage.

Wordless Wednesday: Wolves

2012-01-18T07:35:00.000-02:00

Photography by Jeff Vanuga

Violence against woman by husbands: the grass is always greener at the other side

2012-01-17T16:25:00.001-02:00

The right woman is Connie Culp who had her face destroyed in 2004 when her former husband shot her.
She did a transplant in 2008. Details can be found at this article by Amy Oliver. The transplant is the reason her story is still being reported.

"'It's the way I keep going,' she said. 'I don't want people to feel sorry for me. I want to be treated the same as I was my whole life, before the shooting."
Connie Culp

The woman in the left is Bibi Aisha photographed by Jodi Biebir who won the World Press Photo of the Year and had the picture shot as cover of Time magazine.

""It is not often one sees such a significant change in the person you have photographed—and a change in own's own life too. It also gives me great joy to see how this photograph has moved and impacted so many people throughout the world.""
Jodi Biebir

Who is who- strategy to memorize names

2012-01-17T07:43:00.004-02:00

by Ana
Adapted from the Brazilian writer Luis Fernando Verissimo.

The idea is using two people whose names are similar of have anything in common:

Manet is that one of “Luncheon on the grass” and “Olympia”, Monet the one of "nympheas" and that painting that was used to name the group impressionists. Both wore beards.

Francis Bacon was the Irish painter, but there was another Francis Bacon, English, that was a philosopher, statesman, scientist, lawyer, jurist author and pioneer of the scientific method born in the sixteenth century but he did not paint.

Billy Wilder is that one of the "Some Like it Hot" and "The Apartment", William Wyler is that one of “Ben-Hur” and “Roman Holyday". Gene Wilder has nothing to do with any of them.

Robin Willians is that one of "Mrs Doubtfire" and "Good Morning, Vietnam" and Robbie Willians the English singer-songwriter the one of "Angels" and "Feel".

Jean Renoir, filmmaker of the “Grand Illusion”, was son of the painter Renoir.

Calvin Klein is the one of clothes, Kevin Kline is the actor.

Wait, wait a moment. Calvin Kline is the actor, Kevin Klein is the one of the clothes. Nope. Kevin Kline is the actor, Calvin Klein is the o...

Or would it be the contrary? I'm no longer sure about anything.

Do the following: forget everything that is written above.

Jerry Lewis, Sinclair Lewis and Lewis Carol sounds familiar but I no longer know who they are.

Charge: Amarildo.

Advice: Some posts of the blog lost format

2012-01-16T11:08:00.001-02:00

I just discovered that numerous posts of the blog changed the format it took me some time and work to do.

The paragraphs are missing and it became a little strange.

I'll try to correct it. I do not understand since I write the posts on the Blogger editor to avoid that the HTML of another editor doesn't match Bloggers.
I'm having problems with both editors: the new one dos things that the old one doe not.

I use both but lately I'm having problem to access the old editor and even the Settings.

Not a great day in blogging.
I'll do other stuffs and later I'll take a look if the first page of the blog is still the same, or it has changed or disintegrated.

grrr

Update: January, 23, 2012
Due to these problems I had to change to the new version of the new Blogger interface and I'm using it's Editor.
I have problems arranging the images and I don't understand why by default the uploaded pictures go to the center.
I'll get used to it little by little but I still will have to search for the posts who were changed ant do it again.
Since it will take a lot of time I'm not sure if I'll do it.

How to get rid of the fleas and why sometimes they never leave

2012-01-16T07:15:00.005-02:00

For the first time I had an infestation of fleas in my apartment that cost me two months of research and experiences.

The others, including two ticks infestation, were very easy to handle and I only did the procedures that all of those who have dogs know or should know.

What was different this time?
The street I live must have one flea in every centimeter. It is summer and this is a factor that creates the conditions for proliferation of fleas and ticks but what is not understandable is why the same measures that were always effective were not helping?
What I end up doing: stop walking the dog. I already avoided crossing the street because of the ticks. They are at one part of the garden and one dog died because of tick disease.

I talked to people from other districts and some are having the same problem: although they obsessionally cleaned their houses using the vacuum cleaner, spread some of the sprays - be careful when doing it because the dog cannot smell it -, used anti-flea talcum powder on the dog and on fabrics s/he sleeps and have washed and cleaned everything that could be a nest to fleas they didn't go away...

I asked if they were walking their dogs and yes was the answer. I decided to stop walking my dog.

It worked. Finally she is flea-free and her skin is coming back to normal. I could not stand see her scratching that way and I believe if things kept that way it would start to affect her emotionally as some vets claim it does and I felt that she was already feeling tired.

Facts to help preventing and fighting the fleas and ticks:

- fleas don't like light;
- when infected your dog will have dark specks like pepper on the skin surface. When you brush they fall. These are the fesses of the flea; yuk!
- use white sheets and a white or light fabric when you brush your dog to detect the first signs and to see what falls from the body of your dog when you brush her/him;
- the eggs will be on the dog and at the environment;
- eggs do hide in dark and using the vacuum cleaner on the floor, whether carpet of not, during the infestation is the weapon against the eggs of the flea, or ticks;
- flea-zone on your dog: lower back around the tail and genitals, always check if this zone is healthy and clean;
- ticks climb walls and furniture and they make nests that depending on your house can be easily found, I was lucky to find one in the couch and another one.. in one of my shorts, can you believe that?

The lesson is: the primary source of flea of tick must be discovered and avoided in my case the street but to other people there must be others. I live in an apartment so I don' know what are the problems of a house with a backyard.
I truly believe that this is one of the reasons why some people claim that even thou they did everything they could their houses are still infected.

I just fount this site and there is very good information.

I hope it helps and if you have any good tip those who have pets will love. Thank you

Some Americans are "All Gone to look for America"

2012-01-15T17:06:00.000-02:00

America (click one second)

by Paul Simon

"Let us be lovers, we'll marry our fortunes together
I've got some real estate here in my bag"

So we bought a pack of cigarettes and Mrs. Wagner pies
And we walked off to look for America

"Kathy," I said as we boarded a Greyhound in Pittsburgh
"Michigan seems like a dream to me now."
It took me four days to hitchhike from Saginaw
I've gone to look for America

Laughing on the bus
Playing games with the faces
She said the man in the gabardine suit was a spy
I said "Be careful, his bowtie is really a camera"

"Toss me a cigarette, I think there's one in my raincoat."
"We smoked the last one an hour ago."
So I looked at the scenery, she read her magazine
And the moon rose over an open field

"Kathy, I'm lost" I said, though I knew she was sleeping
"I'm empty and aching and I don't know why..."
Counting the cars on the New Jersey turnpike
They've all gone to look for America

All gone to look for America
All gone to look for America

In the city of Saginaw, where the song was written, the street artist Eric Shantz started to spray-paint lyrics of the song America by Simon and Garfunkel in vacant buildings and some people joined him.
This is a very special song and each phrase written in such a simple way touches numerous aspects of our individuality and our relation with our city and country.

I listened yesterday this song and I remembered the feeling I had when I was a teenager. It still have the same power but at least "the man in the gabardine suit", that was the constant surveillance of dictatorship, is gone.
Other types of spying are being done but that is the way it is. I'm dedicating this post to all the Americans who are trying hard to look for America.

Wordless Saturday: Deer's dance

2012-01-14T12:31:00.002-02:00

Image: Brian Bauer

Kitty in panic

2012-01-13T06:14:00.003-02:00

Extreme reaction caused by stress, a dysfunctional family, bad mood,...?
(Funny but this is how I behave sometimes.)

Holodomor: the Ukrainian genocide denied

2012-01-12T09:20:00.009-02:00

It was when finding the site of the artist Natasha Sazonova that I became aware of the Ukrainian genocide 1932-1933. If you don't want to know about another genocide that is denied visit her site to see how great her art is and the thoughts she writes but you'll find it in one page. The right picture is one of her paintings.

Holodomor= "death by hunger" but what happened was not lack of food. It was another of those artificial famines that the most rich countries impose to their "colonies" when they want a ethnic cleansing of just need to kill civilians that are on their way.

Arthur Koestler, the famous British novelist, journalist, and critic spent about three months in the Ukrainian, city of Kharkiv, during the Famine. He wrote about his experiences in "The God That Failed", a 1949 book which collects together six essays with the testimonies of a number of famous ex-Communists, who were writers and journalists.

"I saw ravages of the famine of 1932-1933 in Ukraine - hordes of families in rags begging at the railway stations, the women lifting up to the compartment windows their starving brats, which, with drumstick limbs, big cadaverous heads and puffed bellies, looked like embryos out of alcohol bottles."

Arthur Koestler, The God That Failed p. 68

There are sites covering the what have really happened and trying to help awareness about the genocide. I copied the following from this page: "Ukrainians are dying at the rate of 25,000 a day, more than half were children. In the end, up to 10 million starve to death. Stalin denies to the world that there is any famine in Ukraine, and prevents international aid from entering the country."

Corpses of Famine Victims on the streets.

Uncovering the Truth:

“Any report of a famine in Russia is today an exaggeration or malignant propaganda. There is no actual starvation or deaths from starvation but there is widespread mortality from diseases due to malnutrition.” (as reported by the New York Times correspondent and Pulitzer-prize winner Walter Duranty)

Denial of the famine by Soviet authorities was echoed at the time of the famine by some prominent Western journalists, like Walter Duranty. It was the official policy of the Soviet Union to deny the existence of a famine and thus to refuse any outside assistance. Anyone claiming that there was in fact a famine was accused of spreading anti-Soviet propaganda. Inside the Soviet Union, a person could be arrested for even using the word ‘famine’ or ‘hunger’ or ‘starvation’ in a sentence.

Outside the Soviet Union, governments of the West adopted a passive attitude toward the famine, although most of them had become aware of the true suffering in Ukraine through confidential diplomatic channels. In November 1933, the United States, under its new president, Franklin D. Roosevelt, even chose to formally recognized Stalin’s Communist government and also negotiated a sweeping new trade agreement. The following year, the pattern of denial in the West culminated with the admission of the Soviet Union into the League of Nations. Stalin’s Five Year Plan for the modernization of the Soviet Union depended largely on the purchase of massive amounts of manufactured goods and technology from Western nations. Those nations were unwilling to disrupt lucrative trade agreements with the Soviet Union in order to pursue the matter of the famine.

It was kept out of official history until 1991, when the country of 47 million finally won its independence. Today it is recognized as genocide by less than two dozen countries out of 196. The famine is now the focus of books, exhibitions and documentaries marking the 75th anniversary of the tragedy.

On November 28th 2006, the Verkhovna Rada (Parliament of Ukraine) had passed a Law defining the Holodomor as a deliberate Act of Genocide. Ukraine’s government is asking the United Nations to recognize the disaster as an act of genocide, worsening already frosty relations with Russia, which says the famine resulted from drought*. Russian nationalists vandalized an exhibit at the Ukrainian embassy in Moscow in November. While the Russian government didn’t condone the attack, it called Ukraine’s depiction of the famine a “one-sided falsification of history.’’

In recent years Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko had ordered the release of old KGB records on the Famine. With this information it has become very apparent that this Famine was a deliberate act of Genocide, a method to ethnically cleanse Ukrainians from the territories of Ukraine and parts of Russia. At first only several thousand documents were released. Recently another batch of 25,000 documents is being declassified. As more documents are released this event in Ukrainian history has taken on a very ominous tone. On November 28th 2006, the Verkhovna Rada (Parliament of Ukraine) had passed a decree defining the Holodomor as a deliberate Act of Genocide(emphasis added).

The Four Dogs

2012-01-11T15:32:00.005-02:00

Fifteenth of The Four Dog series.

What is happening to these puppies? They look so disappointed as if they already have gone through a lot in this world, or, have they just lost a dear one?

They can also be saying:

"we are not easily impressed"; "not a good time for pictures"; "for how long do you want us to stay at this table?";

"we could bet it would be sunny today but look at the weather!";

This is the first time that The Four Dog series show this expression.

But soon they'll learn that it's part of living and will be running and playing with each other.

Maybe they just woke up.

Fail: good intentions, bad arguments

2012-01-10T14:02:00.005-02:00

One has to be careful when angry. Avoid writing about passionate

subjects when your reason is not in control because lack of logic is fatal.

Is happiness the meaning of life?

2012-01-09T17:04:00.005-02:00

“Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence” Aristotle

I Object! What about you?

Image: by Henrik Plenge Jakobsen

The Collector's Studio by Theodore Gerard

2012-01-09T06:12:00.002-02:00

Theodore Gerard, 1829-1895, was a Belgian painter of genre scenes. In this extra sized image we can browse around the room and take a look at the collector's items in an, let's say, interactive way.
Have a great week!

Jorge Luis Borges on fame, writing, and doomsday

2012-01-08T13:54:00.009-02:00

I cannot get enough of reading Jorge Luis Borges in interviews. He is funny and tells real stories of his life that are amazing and, of course it is all wrapped with great thoughts about all the topics you can imagine.

If you don't know Jorge Luis Borges you have too! Literature deals with all the fields of human knowledge and never stops asking questions. This is one of the reasons totalitarian regimes hate art: even in contact with the most simple form of good art our universe changes.

WB: Do you care about literary recognition? Do you want fame?

JLB: No. No! Those things are non-existent. At the same time, when it comes to me, and it may have come to me, I feel that I should be grateful. I mean if people take me seriously, I think, well, they are wrong. At the same time I should be thankful to them
.

WB: I wanted to ask you do you live for the next poem, story, or essay or conversation?

JLB: Yes. Yes, I do

WBI: It seems to me that you're a lucky man to have unending obsessions to create and to record. Do you know why you had that destiny of being a writer? That destiny or that obsession?

JLB: The only thing I know is that I need those obsessions. Because if not, why sould I go on living? Of course, I wouldn't commit suicide. But I should feel very unjustified. Because if I don't write something and keep on being obsessed by it, than I have to write it and be rid of it.

WB: Do you believe private justice exists? How do you consider morality and doomsday?

JLB. At the very moment of our lives we know whether we're acting the right way or the wrong way. We might say that doomsday is going on all the time, that every moment of our lives we're acting wrongly or rightly.

Doomsday is not something that comes at the end. It's going on all the time. And we know, through some instinct, when we have acted rightly or wrongly. p. 179

From: "Thirteen questions: a dialogue with Jorge Luis Borges." Willis Barnstone at the book: "Jorge Luis Borges: conversations" edited by Richard Burgin, 1998.

This dialogue is available online here. For a good biography of the Argentine writer, essayist and poet you can go here.

Sleepy Sunday morning

2012-01-08T08:16:00.007-02:00

Most people know Sleepy, left picture, from teh Snwo White Disyne mivoe but fwe

the letf done by Zzz... by rongs1234 at DeviantArt.

I'll put teh lnik lrtea after a snpa.

Update:

Link added...Zzzzzz... be bcak soon...

Obama: the Nobel Peace prize wanted to be impeached

2012-01-07T06:12:00.009-02:00

Right: Obama singing the NDAA, December, 31, 2011

Left: Obama receiving the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize

The Nobel Foundation has already destroyed part of it's credibility because of some of their laureates and has changed the Alfred Nobel's, the man who made his fortune by patenting dynamite and 355 inventions, ideal of a peace prize for those who did "greatest benefits on mankind":

"Alfred said that this prize should be awarded to the person who in the following year has done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses." (emphasis added)

Obama took the prize, the money but not even in 2009 fraternity between nations, abolition or reduction of standing armies and promotion of peace was at his agenda.

What some US citizens and many people around the world wishes for 2012 is Obama impeachment. Obama signed the "National Defense Authorization Act" - NDAA, that imposes Martial law in US, in the still of the night of December, 31, 2011 when American citizens was celebrating the dawn of the new year.

A clear display of refinement and distinction of a Nobel Peace prize laureate.

Andy Warhol's Myths series

2012-01-06T02:40:00.000-02:00

In 1981 Andy Warhol printed ten myths using diamond dust in 38 x 38 size.
Among them was "Shadow", the top left that shows his own shadow at the wall, "Mammy", and "The Star" that is Greta Garbo as Marta Hari.

The other iconic mythical figures in the portfolio are Santa Claus, Mickey Mouse, Wicked Witch of the West, Howdy Doody, Dracula, Superman, The Shadow and Uncle Sam.

It is very interesting that he did choose icons that are known or must be known by those who look at the twenty century in all his work and at this series especially Americans from movies or TV and imagination that are in the mind of many for a long time.
The last picture, bottom right, was done in 1983 "Ingrid Bergman with a hat".

Jane Elliott: How does it feel to be treated like a "nigga" for a lifetime?

2012-01-05T09:43:00.002-02:00

"When am I gonna quit? When racism quits. Do I have a job for a lifetime?
I'm afraid so."

Jane Elliott

Last month I published this post about Daryl Davis, the black musician man that persuaded twelve members of Ku Klux Klan to leave the organization. He wrote a book about it "Klan-destine relationships: a black man's odyssey in the Ku Klux Klan”.

I was amazed when I did read about Daryl achievement and the same happened when I watched at the TV Jane Elliott doing one of her workshops.
She exposes the weapons of racism by making people feel in their skin how discrimination, segregation, being stereotyped and mistreated have a terrible impact on the minds of the individuals who are part of a minority group and for this reason are mistreated in this case having a black skin.

I always asked myself why behavior experiments always aims evil. Stanford Prison and Stanley Milgram experiments were both done by psychologists trying to verify how people can be controlled or behave according to what they are told individually or in a group as a whole.
The ethical aspects of both experiments were questioned and the scientific methodology, especially in Stanford Prison, is questionable.

I never saw any of these psychologists doing experiments and, once again, I ask myself why they are done behind closed doors since they have to do with human beings emotions and behavior what is of interest of everybody.
It became an unquestionable fact that psychological experiments have to be done away from the public and one explanation is that it is necessary so that interferences from the outside don’t jeopardize the results. I’ll pretend it is true.

Jane Elliott’s workshops received some critics but what she does is not related to a scientific experiment and Jane payed a high price for her activism, fighting racism, and all her family was affected.
The workshops last two hours and I would love to be part of one of them especially to be at the blue side, the minority group.
Two groups are divided: blue eyes and brown eyes and this is the explanation that is at her site:

About
“Jane Elliott is an internationally renowned teacher, lecturer, and diversity trainer who presented this Seminar in the City Campus Union. She is famous for her classroom experiment, “Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes.”

In response to the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. over thirty years ago, Jane Elliott devised the controversial and startling, "Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes" exercise. This, now famous, exercise labels participants as inferior or superior based solely upon the color of their eyes and exposes them to the experience of being a minority. Everyone who is exposed to Jane Elliott's work, be it through a lecture, workshop, or video, is dramatically affected by it.”

I watched twice one of her workshops at the TV and it is true that people are highly affected because Jane is really good in creating the “prejudice arena” that some people are confined because... exactly. Why?

There are some good learning materials at Jane’s site. In a very simple and easy way she puts in evidence what is hidden in some of the phrases and statements we use. I truly believe that in same cases we only learn when we face the problem ourselves and Jane’s work is perfect to make us see how dis-empowering being part of a minority is.

Visit Jane’s site to meet a great woman and learn more on how the dungeons of prejudice work and understand what the blue eyes/brown eyes workshop purpose is.

This is the work of a lifetime.

Hella Heaven: You are here series

2012-01-04T16:29:00.001-02:00

Second of the "You are here series."

Abstraction symphony by Cea

2012-01-03T07:55:00.008-02:00

It's hard to believe it is not a painting. I asked Cea if it is a puddle of clean water or a pond maybe with a bit of oil because I have already seem some reflections like this.

It seems to be raining.

I love the different textures created by the reflections of the blue sky, the tree and the water that blurred it all and is a unique pattern in some areas.

Had the photography be taken in a different time it would be another symphony.

I'll have to rewrite in case it is not a puddle but I bet that there is water involved.

Picture byCea.'s photostream.

Logic is a many-splendored thing

2012-01-02T12:49:00.000-02:00

It sounds like a good idea!

US officially a Police State as Obama signed the “National Defense Authorization Act "

2012-01-02T12:25:00.000-02:00

What was only conspiracy theory, idea of anti-Americans or domestic terrorist is now a reality: Americans are under Martial Law, under a police state.

It means that the constitution is no longer respected and citizenship has lost it`s meaning.

The reason? to protect the country from terrorists, Al Qaeda and... whatever.

Any American can arbitrarily be imprisoned under the suspicion that s/he is an enemy, a domestic terrorist. for any time, even indefinitely.

The NDAA inaugurates the totalitarian America something that many people think would be impossible. A once inconceivable idea is happening and it reminds the Acts that was imposed to South Americans countries in the seventies.

For Brazilians is just like seeing the Institutional Act Number 5 - AI5 happening again. The US was one of the responsible and now they are inflicting the same to their own citizen. There were arrests, torture, murders... and the scars are still on the mind of those who lived fearing, lost loved ones and are survivors.

Funny, AI-5 and NDAA were both instituted in December.

I'm appalled.

Image: Surveillance 2010 by Will Varner.

Sweet Charity: the adventures of a girl who wanted to be loved starring Shirley Maclaine

2012-01-01T05:50:00.019-02:00

Sweet Charity: the adventures of a girl who wanted to be loved, 1969, starring Shiley MacLaine directed and awarded choreographed by Bob Fosse, the Cabaret's filmmaker, is the great movie I did chose to start the year.

It was originally a 1966 Broadway production also directed by Bob Fosse that was inspired by a
What amazes is that it is timeless whether you consider the story or the choreography, the costumes, music and sounds arrengements and it was the first movie Bob Fosse worked as a filmmaker as well as a choreographer starting a very successful career.

The movie has many fans and still astonishes the young generation that was born in the clip era and inevitably compares it to some of today's clips. There are some elements that are in fashion today in clothes, make-up, Charity having a tattoo and the environment they create.

The most important aspect I did choose is Charity optimism always ready for the next adventure that might break her heart again but "living hopefully ever after." is her fate that is already inscribed in her name Charity Hope Valentine.

Shirley MacLaine is perfect for the role with her kind off girlish movements and innocence.
The three videos are the most known ant the two that have been receiving new interpretations are "Big Spender" and "The Aloof". There are some at YouTube like The Pussycat Dolls, this version of some Canadian girls for "Big Spender".

I tried to publish the videos that only shows the dancing but they are not available. You can skip the first minute and go straight to the dancing part. The music "Big Spender" is a little catchy and you may find yourself singing "Hey, big spender!" or "Do you wanna have fun, fun fun?..." but it I assure it will go away.

Great movie, great performances, great choreography that inaugurated some trends and is still new. Some of the scenes of Prince's "Get Off" and "Kiss" clips reminded of it.

Happy New Year 2012: Dream

2011-12-31T03:09:00.001-02:00

I wish us all a little touch of magic, imagination, dreaming, enchantment, strolls in fantastic places even if the use of spells is necessary.
Relearning to dream this is my new year's resolution.
Come with me.

Happy New Year!

Wordless Friday: Banksy

2011-12-30T15:17:00.006-02:00

By Banksy. Click the image to enlarge.

Top 2011 news in Cartoon: Geneva convention interpreted by US and its allies

2011-12-29T10:59:00.011-02:00

2011 top news: State of Palestine is UNESCO's member

2011-12-28T10:34:00.000-02:00

The vote of Unesco’s full membership was 107 to 14, with 52 abstentions.

Palestine became the 195th Unesco member.

No: Australia, Canada, Czech Republic, Germany, Israel, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Palau, Panama, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Sweden, US, Vanuatu.

Abstentions*: Albania, Andorra, Bahamas, Barbados, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Colombia, Cook Islands, Ivory Coast, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Fiji, Georgia, Haiti, Hungary, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Kiribati, Latvia, Liberia, Mexico, Monaco, Montenegro, Nauru, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Poland, Portugal, South Korea, Moldova, Romania, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, San Marino, Singapore, Slovakia, Switzerland, Thailand, Macedonia, Togo, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tuvalu, Uganda, Ukraine, UK, Zambia. Yes: Afghanistan, Algeria, Angola, Argentina, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Chad, Chile, China, Congo, Costa Rica, Cuba, Cyprus, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Finland, France, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Honduras, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Lebanon, Lesotho, Libya, Luxembourg, Malawi, Malaysia, Mali, Malta, Mauritania, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Qatar, Russian Federation, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Seychelles, Slovenia, Somalia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Tanzania, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Vietnam, Yemen, Zimbabwe.

Absent* (includes states that lost right to vote because membership fees were not paid): Antigua and Barbuda, Central African Republic, Comoros, Dominica, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Madagascar, Maldives, Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Mongolia, Niue, Sao Tome and Principe, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Swaziland, Tajikistan, East Timor, Turkmenistan.

Read here some of the consequences of having Palestine in UNESCO. Not recognizing Palestine as a state is something beyond me. It is time for inclusion and learning to cope with differences.

Brand new moon

2011-12-28T09:28:00.006-02:00

"She sets free a brand new moon

in the dawn so few could see.

A day goes by and when night falls

moonlights meet chaste soil, sand, salt... sea."

by Ana
Picture: unknow

Almost Wordless Wednesday

2011-12-28T02:13:00.002-02:00

Work by Banksy.

Van Gogh's Bedroom: Painting's reproductions in danger

2011-12-27T08:26:00.013-02:00

These details of Van Gogh's bedroom, and the Bible of his "L'Arlesienne, this post, are great examples of the way reproductions by internet could give a more accurate notion of how a painting is seen in reality.

Unfortunately these are rare even thou now people go to museums with cameras but they prefer taking a picture of themselves next to their favorite or most famous paintings they find.

When only paper was available and a single picture of a painting was published in different books there was always a great disappointment in front of the real canvas. I felt fulled.

When I saw this version of Van Gogh's bedroom for the first time I questioned everything I knew about all the artists I had never saw at least five original works.

I could never imagine that the brushstrokes were that sick and he used impasto.

I could not take my eyes from the pillows and, sorry conservation team, I touched the left pillow because I simply could not restrain this impulse.

What I'm witnessing now is a degradation of images of paintings.

There are several sites selling famous masterpieces by repainting them and they are found at search engineers as the first answers if one looks for an artist.

People are publishing these paintings as originals over blogs because they rush to publish the first picture without reading they are fake and has little to do with the original. Usually the colors are different or brighten to make it more appealing giving that plastic flower effect on the table instead of the real one.

It is getting harder and harder to find a good reproduction over the www.

Most museums, I thought they would promote their masterpieces through the web, are not helping publishing good images and are more interested in using interactive experiences that only change angles in a suspicious 3D environments, or other kind of interaction.

In same cases, they don't publish 10% of what they have and are always inviting us to go to their next exhibition even though we are at the other side of the ocean.

For the moment I'll watch these two Bedroom's details: look that, as he said in a letter to Theo, he uses green at the pillows and a little bit of white.

Strange sign next to Eurodisney

2011-12-26T06:11:00.005-02:00

Photography by Alice McNutt Miller

Time Person of the year 2011: Correction

2011-12-25T16:07:00.008-02:00

"The Baby Songbook" by Tom Seidmann Freud

2011-12-25T10:47:00.010-02:00

Thought about Sigmund Freud, yes, it is his niece. The name is Martha but changed to Tom due to some of her views and beliefs.

The illustrations above are from the child's book "The Baby Songbook" that has many beautiful images.

At her site there are information about her and copies of her great illustrations:

"As an adult, she was noted for her eccentricities as well as her artistic talent, in particular, her decisions to adopt a man's first name and to wear men's clothing. A long history of emotional instability preceded a major breakdown after the failure of her husband's publishing venture and his suicide in 1929; she took her own life the following year. Seidmann-Freud has been characterized as a member of the Jugendstil (German Art Nouveau) movement. Her artwork often featured people and objects simply but precisely rendered in ink, their outlines carefully filled in with watercolors using the pochoir (stencil and layering) technique.

It is sad that she took her life but the silence, the taboo that surrounds the topic suicide must be broken because it is part of human condition and every ten minutes someone commits suicide.

But today is Christmas... exactly. Christmas is not a happy occasion for many and suicide is high during this period of the year.

I'll be doing some posts about suicide in 2012. Don't worry. Death is part of life and before dying people do a lot of amazing things just like Martha, or, Tom Freud did.

Another woman that dressed like man is George Sand, the French novelist, born Aurore that changed to George when she became a writer. She had a relatioship with the composer Chopin and was friend of Frederic Liszt, Delacroix and other artists.

Merry Christmas, and if you are not happy I can assure you that the club has many members.

NORAD tracking Santa Claus: call them toll-free

2011-12-24T19:05:00.018-02:00

Till the moment the mainstream media claims that this year NORAD is receiving numerous phone calls, e-mails and the tracking is a success in Facebook and Twitter.

I just took a look at Google Earth and did these pictures and learned that it all started in 1955 and they are keeping the tradition.

This is something very strange for me but if you want you can call toll-free to know where is Santa or when will he be at your town.

Remember that if you didn't behave... no gifts for you!

As explained at this post NORAD stands for "North American Aerospace Defense Command. Military" and having both Santa Claus and NORAD at the same phrase is weird but that's the way it is.

You can also call NORAD for the latest news of Santa’s flight. The NORAD Tracks Santa Operations Center will be open from 6 a.m. today to 5 a.m. on Christmas. Call 1-877-HI-NORAD (1-877-446-6723) toll-free

Merry Christmas!

NORAD Tracks Santa relies on corporate sponsorship, and is financed by neither American nor Canadian taxpayers

Séraphine, the cleaning lady that was a painter, movie by Martin Provost

2011-12-24T14:13:00.004-02:00

I watched the movie Séraphine by Martin Provost and loved it. It is the story of Séraphine de Senlis a cleaning lady that painted.

What I liked the most about the movie is that the story unfolds without any drama and not emphasizing any aspect of Séraphine biography, it is a true story, with the talent of Yolande Moreau interpreting Séraphine.

Maybe in the hands of another filmmaker her madness, she was locked at an asylum where she spent the rest of her days, her poverty or weirdness, she talked to trees, to angels and Virgin Marie would be depicted in a heavy way making the artist disappear as it was done with many artists.

This is the opposite and Séraphine's paintings are the most important and by watching the movie we get in touch with her style, her flowers that are quite unusual, almost unique and get in touch with the great collection of work she left.
This would be a great movie for Christmas since Séraphine had a catholic education and talked to Virgin Marie.

I'll not write too much because this movie should be seen by those who like art and for those who love nature or wants to reach the sublime, a rare occasion in today's filmography.

The movie, there are English captions, speaks for itself and focus on the woman, not the lunatic that painted. Maybe this is one of the reasons it was awarded.

Séraphine de Louis is currently exhibited in the Musée Maillol in Paris, the Musée d'art de Senlis, the Musée d'art naïf in Nice, and the Musée d'Art moderne Lille Métropole in Villeneuve-d'Ascq.

I just found this video where Martin Provost speak about the film and I'm glad that he says he didn't want to make Séraphine's biography. I'll translate what he says and publish another post about this movie and the artist. There is a biographic book but I don't want to know details of her life. It doesn't help me
SEEING.

Wordless morning

2011-12-24T05:46:00.001-02:00

Problem with size: I'll try to fix it today

2011-12-24T04:34:00.008-02:00

I took out one badge and the template has changed it's size. Everything is tiny and I can't fix it now.

Be back later I'm sorry. It is only happening when I use Google Chrome. I don't know how to fix it and if it is only happening to me. I'll try to fix it later. Please if you're using Google Chrome tell me if you seeing it clearly of images and texts are tiny. Thank you in advance! Update: December, 24 SOLUTION Just found it: If it happens to you just click at the wrench icon and put the "Zoom" to 100 %.

Santa Claus will visit few homes in US: NORAD failed

2011-12-23T15:47:00.004-02:00

In this video, made by an amateur on December, 22, Santa Claus was rehearsing because he feared the possibility of a terrorist attack and wanted to find a safe way to go to Americans homes.

Santa was caught by an anti-missile system hidden in a Christmas tree.
Unfortunately the North American Aerospace Defense Command "NORAD" will only work on December 24:

“PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. -- The North American Aerospace Defense Command is ready to track Santa, and media are invited to participate in a variety of ways, to include conducting live interviews with senior NORAD officers on Dec. 24.
“NORAD stands the watch protecting the skies of North America 365 days a year, but on Christmas Eve the children of the world look to NORAD, and our trusted partners, to make sure that Santa is able to complete his mission safely,” said General Charles H. Jacoby, Jr., NORAD Commander." read article here.

We received a Skype-call from Santa where he claims that 87% of presents to American children were destroyed and he will not have time to make it all over again.
"How can it be that they only watch over me on December 24? By this time this NORAD organization should know I always rehearse." said Santa in a very indignant intonation.

This is a very sad news but the security of their citizens is the top priority of US government what should be taken into consideration by Santa whose behavior could also put in danger American citizens.

Unforgettable gift and Happy Xmas

2011-12-22T06:08:00.005-02:00

I'm going very slowly and not doing controversial posts because I'm quieting my mind and trying to produce this effect on the four readers of this blog, thank you mom, dad, my friend Neil and nephew.

What was the present you received that you liked the most or you'll never forget?
Xmas is arriving and let's face it: we say a little prayer and and only think about the presents.
Your unforgettable present is not necessarily one that you received in Xmas.

I’ll never forgetr when someone gave me a Fort Apache by accident. I was a girl but I don't know why I was given this boy toy very famous in the 70ies. You can see here a boy who remembers when he was given it for Xmas.

I loved it. I remember sitting on the floor opening the box and start assembling the fort, putting the soldiers, horses, indigenous and some other pieces at their places. I just don’t have the recollection of fights among the soldiers and indigenous which is the aim of the game.

Merry Christmas!

The Four Dogs

2011-12-22T03:36:00.002-02:00

Fourteenth of The Four Dog series.

"Here comes the sun, little darling, and I say, it is all right."

Have a great Thursday!

Reading experience: e-books, reading glasses and pencils

2011-12-21T11:07:00.003-02:00

When reading the mind is in a different state than in the oral register.
The words are combined according to other rules, instigate the imagination in many different levels and make abstractions a little more tangible.

How will e-books and other gadgets affect reading is still in debate but I hope that the capacity of almost touching the unthinkable while capturing a paragraph remains even if other medias are added to the reading experience. I wonder if the young generation will have another relation with silent words once they know that a video is about to come or photos and other visual resources that are still in project.

As know how the invention of the printing press caused a change not only in literary genres but in education, how information is acquired just to name a few. For the e-books I can only be sure that reading glasses will no longer be necessary and it is quite an achievement, better, no more pencil at the right hand to highlight.

Pictures: I found them in a site without attribution.

Russel Patterson's work: cartoonist, designer helped promoting the flappers

2011-12-20T10:21:00.001-02:00

You know who the flappers are: Wikipedia:

Flapper in the 1920s was a term applied to a "new breed" of young Western women who wore short skirts, bobbed their hair, listened to jazz, and flaunted their disdain for what was then considered acceptable behavior. Flappers were seen as brash for wearing excessive makeup, drinking, treating sex in a casual manner, smoking, driving automobiles and otherwise flouting social and sexual norms.[1]
Flappers had their origins in the period of Liberalism, social and political turbulence and increased transatlantic cultural exchange that followed the end of World War I, as well as the export of American jazz culture to Europe.

There is more description at the Wikipedia article and it seems to me I would be a candidate to be a flapper with some restrictions. What about you?

The right cover with women holding headlines telling the way women are abused is amazing, unfortunately still true.

Matthew Cooper and Johnny Kelly's gifs animated estravaganza

2011-12-19T08:04:00.003-02:00

I just came across with this project done in 2010:

"Matthew Cooper and Johnny Kelly were commissioned by agency Soon In Tokyo to create 56 animated gifs for a new campaign advertising the Barcelona-based design college Elisava. Using these 56 animations, the agency created an interactive website, where visitors can add their own gifs to the website by either uploading their own files or creating a gif using their webcam."

I loved most of the animations I saw but unfortunately only few are available and the site is not working as originally projected. I wanted to see all of them.

Facebook you versus real you

2011-12-18T06:22:00.004-02:00

Have a great Sunday!

US stimulating illegal drug trade is unreported

2011-12-17T19:41:00.009-02:00

The money that US government, and other countries, make with the illegal drug traffic is unknown and the support given to the trade is covered up.

"Here we have the biggest drug story of the day. Imagine the screaming headlines: "U.S. Government The World's Leading Drug Peddler." It would surely sell papers. But the story passed virtually unreported, and with not a hint of the obvious conclusions.

Another aspect of the drug problem, which also received little attention, is the leading role of the US government in stimulating drug trafficking since World War II. This happened in part when the US began its postwar task of undermining the anti-fascist resistance and the labor movement became an important target." Noam Chomsky - What Uncle Sam Really Wants”

Do you really believe that they would leave all the money of the traffic in the hands of others?

I'm writing this post because there are many Brazilians who live in slums that have a terrible life because they work for the drug traffic and they die at a very early age.

US, it is getting harder and harder to be insensitive to all the harms you are doing to people.
Image: These are the poorest Brazilian people and what they have is not crack. It is a drug made of the most deadly and cheap materials. There are more images here . They are black. The vast majority of drug dealers at slums are black.

Mostly insane obvious signs

2011-12-17T07:49:00.007-02:00

Have a great weekend! Fun: Draw a stickman and watch it gaining life. Update:

It just occurred to me that there must be some sense in the sign in certain occasions:

- it can be telling to someone that if when trying to open the door it doesn't open it's because something is happening so the person must not use the key to open the door: - if it is a commercial place... still thinking about it...

Audrey Hepburn's son forbids mom to smoke and medicines harms

2011-12-16T10:33:00.000-02:00

This stamp belongs to a series that featured movie stars in 2001 and the others were Marilyn Monroe, Charles Chaplin and Greta Garbo. Hepburn's son Sean Ferrer did not like the cigarette holder and refused to grant the copyright which sent 14 millions of the infamous stamps burn in a German incinerator. Some of them had already been sent from the Finance Ministry for approval and thirty of the stamps were used by an unknown employee that had sent them in letters to Berlin.

The five remain copies of the stamp are being auctioned and Sean said that he expected this money to be used in cancer research or anti-smoking campaigns because her mother died of cancer. This is not a wise way to use this money since there is no need for anti-smoking indoctrination and Sean forgets that it is not profitable for the pharmaceutical industry to heal cancer. I did this comment at Blogorama and decided to copy it because it has to do with these issues: "I smoke, always have (since 15 years-old, and always will. The indoctrination about the harms of tobacco worked and made of those who smoke amoral, immoral or whatever. At the drugstores there are medicines prescribed by physicians, some are payed to prescribe, that kill, this is not a metaphor, causes violent behavior like the antidepressants SSRIs -Prozac-like - that trigger suicide ideation that has nothing to do with depression.and violent behavior that can make you kill someone. These drugs are highly expensive cause pharmaceutical company don't care about health neither does FDA and governments. The air we breath is polluted and the food we eat is GMO and many other unhealthy threats are related to food. Many people are unaware of these harms and some even thou are alerted don't search.

It is easier to turn to someone and say "Please, your cigarette is killing me!" and reason with arguments of the mainstream media. It is not known for sure, not proven, that cholesterol is responsible for what and the level of cholesterol was downsized from 125 to 110 to make it possible to sell to more people.They have to sell the expensive statins. My best friend is taking them and the propaganda is so efficient that I told her and gave her sites claiming that statins don't work and are even harmful but she trust her doctor. The third cause of hospitalization in US is iatrogenesis. Smoking is not good, for sure, but it is not responsible for all they claim. I'll light one right now cause I love smoking and I don't want to take a drug to help quit smoking that can lead me to a mental institution in a manic crisis caused by it. Champix can make people go maniac, depressed or other changes in personality."

In the case of Audrey Hepburn is there any evidence that the cancer was caused because of the cigarette? I have never seen "cancer caused by smoking" as cause of death.

I'll keep on living in this filthy, sinful, criminal and immoral way: I'll keep smoking.

A Black Man's Odyssey in the Ku Klux Klan

2011-12-16T06:24:00.006-02:00

I did this post in 2006 when I had a blog in Portuguese. and publish it again at my blog justAna posted on August, 7, 2008,
I want to share it here because this is a great achievement: a KKK member giving up his beliefs after meeting a black man.

As I think that racism is something out of the planet I try to show people how strange, to say the least, it is to hate people based on single attribute of a person.
I'll write about a great woman, Jane Elliot, who helps fighting racism doing "Blue Eyes Black Eyes" exercises workshops.

I had a blog in Portuguese and talked about many different things.
This is one of the post I wrote about Daryl Davis:
Son of a diplomat Daryl Davis at the age of 15 have decided to be a pianist against the expectations of his father who wanted that he had followed his career.
Ironically it was as a pianist where he found the way to achieve results where diplomacy not always can reach.

When with the age of 10 he returned to USA, after living in Russia, Ethiopia and others African countries he came across with racism. After been jeered, attacked with stones pieces of glass, listening that he should go back to Africa, and, after being attacked by a racist policeman he started to ask himself about the reason why people hated him because of the color of his skin, in other words, what is the fundament the ideology of racism hate.

He started his research and read about the White Power movement after meeting a classroomate who claimed to be a neo-Nazi and found out that these racists groups fight among themselves. One of them want to separate USA in five: some states for Arian, others for black people and some for other races. The solutions for "race problem" are multiples.

In a bar where he played piano Daryl got in touch with a white man who told him "-This is the first time that I sit to drink with a black man." Daryl asked him the reason "- Because I'm a Ku Klux Klan."

The diplomacy he saw when he was a child and the fact that he is a musician "-Music unite people." helped this black pianist, always compared to Jerry Lee Lewis, to get the address of a Ku Klux Klan Grand Dragon, Roger Kelly, who have agree to be interviewed. What should have been a quick meeting have turned out to be a two and a half talking.

"While you are actively learning about someone else, you are passively teaching them about you" is Daryl motto who made friendship with Roger Kelly, and for Daryl surprise, gave him the Ku Klux Klan clothes and all the paraphernalia used in Ku Ku Klax rituals including the burning black people's homes whose names fall in misfortune next to members of the sect. Elevens kukluskamen followed Kelly's example.
He also got in touch with neonazi that are waiting anxiously for the 4º Reich. But they even considered the black man a nice person.

One of the results of his work was the book published in 1997: "Klan-Destine Relationships: A Black Man's Odyssey in the Ku Klux Klan".
A lesson of action and efficiency when someone wants to make a difference in a case although he is criticized by black and white people.
Of course, some of his friends think that he is crazy. After all Ku Klux Klan have more than a million members.

Here you will find a game to punch Ku Klux Klan members if this is your case.
I just want do not know if Klu Klux Klan, neonazis and other sects have sense of humor or the guts to make a little game to kill blacks or no matter what race they hate. It is openly offensive and they prefer to do it in real life. As always it is hard to find the most adequate tact: the Luther King or the Black Panthers late days way.

I wrote a e-mail to Daryl and he was kind enough to answer me:
Dear Ana,

"Please call me Daryl. First, I must tell you how happy I am to hear from you and your interest in my work. I must also tell you that Brazil is one of my favorite countries in the world. I have visited 49 countries. I LOVE Brazil. I visited Bahia, Rio, Sao Paulo, Recife and Brazilia. Each city was very different and I love them all.

Yes, you are correct; I am very fond of Martin Luther King and his work. The original Black Panthers with Huey Newton was a good group and did a lot of good for the Black community when they had no one else to help them. They encouraged education and they made sure children in the community always had food to eat. Unfortunately, as is the case with many groups, someone goes astray and causes problems and ruins the reputation of the group with whom they are associated. Naturally, when they were pushed illegally by racist law enforcement, they would stand up for themselves even if it meant the use of violence.

There are about 3 groups today using the name Black Panthers. None of these groups are associated with the original group and I'm sure any of the original members who are still alive, would have nothing to do with these new groups. I know a couple of these new groups and they advocate violence. I am not a big fan of violence unless I am under attack and must defend myself or my loved ones.

Yes, Roger Kelly is now out of the Klan. He no longer believes in the principles of hating people because of their race. When his first child was born, I was her godfather. But he received a lot of criticism over that, so I told him, to let someone else do it. You must take things one step at a time. I don't care what anyone's race is. I respect all people and only judge them based upon how they treat others and how they treat me. But when you grow up in a family and environment filled with hate, it will take others a while to accept the changes you chosen to make in your life, if they ever accept it.

What have I achieved with my book? I would say my biggest achievement was a complete surprise to me. I never set out to cause people to quit the KKK. I simply wanted to interview them and get information for my book. But during the time of interviewing many of them, we saw that we all were human beings and friendships started to evolve. Eventually, many of these people began questioning their own beliefs and many eventually quit the Klan. We are still good friends today. So it has given me hope that we can change for the better and all is not lost. But, more people in my country need to take the step to get to know each other and sit down and talk. We fear each other too much for no reason. Just because of the color of someone's skin.

It bothers me when I hear my fellow Americans call this country the greatest nation on Earth. Yes, we have achieved many things that other countries have not achieved. We have the ability to put a man on the moon. While that man is walking around on the moon, we can talk to him live via satellite radio phone. You have a cell phone and you have email. You and I can communicate all the way from Brazil to the USA. So my question is: If we can communicate with someone walking around on the moon instantly and we can communicate with people on another continent, WHY can't we communicate with the person who lives right next door, just because he/she is a different skin color, religion, nationality, ethnicity or whatever????? So before my country can talk about how great we are, our ideology needs to catch up with our technology. I am doing my part to try to get my fellow Americans to come into the 21st century and I hope they will do their part.

Please keep in touch.

Obrigada,

Daryl

Almost wordless Wednesday: on friendship

2011-12-14T16:29:00.000-02:00

Wordless Wednesday: Blind Man's Meal by Picasso

2011-12-14T10:00:00.004-02:00

Blind man's meal, 1903

Rainbow in Zimbabwe by Calvin Jones

2011-12-13T12:24:00.008-02:00

This is a two Rainbows event - look at the darker left side to see one of them - in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe photography by by Calvin Jones.

When all information we have at the mainstream media about Zimbabwe are torture and pain and even if you want to go to the country as a tourist the travel guides spread nothing but fear about your trip it is difficult to remember that there is a country and even people who lives at peace.

The cruelest word

2011-12-13T04:50:00.007-02:00

Yesterday, for the second time, this word was said to me to identify the tumors my dog has.

Again the time stopped and I got confused as if it was impossible, the lab made a mistake, and many excuses to get rid of this word.

Back in 2008 she had her mammals removed because of the effects of this word: other words like "metastases"... enough.

I'm scared and when I look at her... many thoughts come to my mind and another terrible word is... "when"?

Words are powerful tools.

Coat fur discussion: what do you think about it?

2011-12-12T07:10:00.011-02:00

Fur coats are not only a fashion issue and many topics were raised about them.

Focus on those issues you care the most.

Some trigger topics for discussion if you don't have anything in mind:

Would you wear this coat? It is warm since it is done of wolf's fur. The hunter wears it. Maybe it is appropriate when hunting in cold weather.

I'm puzzled:

"I rather go naked than wear fur."... but "I do nothing to stop the massacre of human beings".

What do you think about fur coats? What about the prices?

Would you wear faux fur? Wold you buy this one that costs $9,995.00 but is on sale for $4,995.00?

Do you think that if the animal is not in extinction it is ok to kill animals to make fur coats?

Leather has a different ethics than fur?

Shoes made of leather is acceptable since the synthetic leather has improved and can adapt to the feet just like real leather?

What about bags made of leather?

Please, feel free to ad your own issues about fur coats. There are lost of questions involved.

Thank you!

Hella Heaven: You are here series

2011-12-12T03:54:00.007-02:00

First of the "You are here series".

Have a great week!

Renoir: the philosophical eye and it's parallaxes

2011-12-11T09:27:00.008-02:00

When I was in my twenties I had a friend that was studying philosophy and knew a lot about Nietzsche, maybe the most admired, quoted, and half-understood of the philosopher, and was very familiar with Deleuze and Foucault's work.

Following his mentor's steps, whose some extra-curricular classes I attended but was not attracted by the way he spoke, my friend started giving classes for a group of people who were interested in the three philosophers.

I was very interested in Foucault after reading, skipping and not understanding everything, "Les mots et les choses", 1966, "The Order of Things" in English.

It was nice meeting friends and after the explanations we had a lot of fun playing pictionary, guessing movies or doing acting exercises proposed by Augusto Boal, the Brazilian theater director.

One day I witnessed a discussion about Renoir. A girl that had recently joined the group said she liked Renoir's painting but my friend said terrible things about Renoir and the girl got not only angry but she couldn't understand the reasoning my friend was giving.

I know that if someone like these three thinkers and can only see with "philosophical eyes" Renoir is not "correct" but Francis Bacon is correct.

I refused to close my eyes to paintings based on philosophical or any other doctrine. One big mistake is done by those who do not understand that their admired philosopher did chose a certain artist or work of art as a way to illustrate or make a point clear and in doing so there is not a condemnation of artists that do another kind of work.
It was a great choice because when I was in Paris I went to a Renoir exhibition and was amazed by his paintings especially by the way he paints the color white. Ironically I attended some of Deleuze's classes at Paris VIII, a course about movie he did and he talked about Jean Renoir, the filmmaker, August Renoir's son.

Recently I was taking a look at the book "The Necessity of Art" by Ernest Fisher.

A literature teacher used the first chapter of this book, without saying it was a Marxist approach because we were under dictatorship, and I didn't notice at that time

I was amazed by the way the impressionism and some artists are put in the same bag especially in the session about "dehumanization" where it is said that

"In the impressionism the human being is solved in light and color, treated like a natural phenomenon (...) and disappear of landscapes, streets of the cities that become a desert."

This is not what I see in impressionists and have many examples but let's stay with Renoir who painted the people united celebrating a Sunday.

I understand and even agree with some of the Marxists concerns such as "alienation" and dehumanization but I believe that it is very difficult to apply these concepts to art and once again I have problems with the philosophical eye, that one that prescribe one art and condemn another.

James Joyce's "Finnegan's Wake" is proscribed because... "when creating a new language that was no more the human language but something that evoques water and wind it is the human being treated like an object."

It is very hard for me to see these analyses as true. I rather enjoy art using other tools and I even find it funny that some of the contemporary art is so attached to the need of philosophy and critics to make clear what the artist wanted to convey or achieve.

The post below has connection with this one and note that Foucault talks about how the Borges's taxonomy made him realize something and how the analysis of Las Meninas makes us see what he wants to explain. This is another way of using art in the philosophical context and is harmless.

Image: Barnes Foundation.

Michel Foucault quotes Jorge Luis Borges in famous preface

2011-12-11T09:22:00.010-02:00

This is the preface of "The Order of Things" by Michel Foucault and I remember quite clearly the effects of reading it for the first time:

"This book first arose out of a passage in Borges, out of the laughter that shattered, as I read the passage, all the familiar landmarks of my thought - our thought, the thought that bears the stamp of our age and our geography - breaking up all the ordered surfaces and all the planes with which we are accustomed to tame the wild profusion of existing things, and continuing long afterwards to disturb and threaten with collapse our age-old distinction between the Same and the Other. This passage quotes a ‘certain Chinese encyclopedia’ in which it is written that ‘animals are divided into: (a) belonging to the Emperor, (b) embalmed, (c) tame, (d) sucking pigs, (e) sirens, (f) fabulous, (g) stray dogs, (h) included in the present classification, (i) frenzied, (j) innumerable, (k) drawn with a very fine camelhair brush, (1) et cetera, (m) having just broken the water pitcher, (n) that from a long way off look like flies’. In the wonderment of this taxonomy, the thing we apprehend in one great leap, the thing that, by means of the fable, is demonstrated as the exotic charm of another system of thought, is the limitation of our own, the stark impossibility of thinking that." (emphasis added)

I was also impressed by the famous first chapter where Foucault analyzes Diego Velazques's "Las Meninas" to explain what he understand by "episteme".

A great philosopher quoting a great writer and analyzing a great painter is a good way to start the week.

International Human Rights Day - a struggle for citizens

2011-12-10T17:01:00.011-02:00

The Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation is the organization I did choose as a symbol for today, Human Rights Day.

There is a lot of work to be done and the most known institutions are far from doing an unbiased promotion of human rights.

Another symbol is the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal that after four days of hearings condemned Bush and Blair for war crimes.

Unfortunately what is being done in advocacy and jurisprudence for human rights is nothing and there is more hypocrisy than accountability from many who claim to be working for human rights sake.

Human rights is a struggle for citizens without logos.

Image: Torment by Carne Griffiths

Blogspot: What people should know before starting a Blogger's blog

2011-12-10T12:15:00.005-02:00

It always amazes me how easy it is to start a blogpost and how Blogger invites every citizen of the world to have a blog without giving any previous information of the problems ahead.

Such demand makes spam-blogs proliferate, they steal content of blogs just to pretend they are bloggers and put the advertisements at the pages, and give false hopes of an easy way to make money through blogs.

Some people only start a blog thinking that it will easily become a source of extra-income and get frustrated not only because it doesn't happen but also because they realize that they have no skills to blog.

Others start because having a Google account grants a blog, but, lose the account means "goodbye blog!".

More blogs, more problems and those who are working for years receive the same help of a beginner that has four posts. The work of four years can be deleted the same way as the work of someone who created a blogspot last Monday.

In both cases no help will be provided when something serious happens what can be checked just by visiting any page of the Blogger's help forum: bloggers are treated with harsh words when in trouble and answers are not given to the vast majority of the requests for help.

I read this post at The Real Blogger Status:

"The discussion about Blogger account and blog access recovery, and authentication requirements, never ends. It is not at all a simple issue. Occasionally, we see the extreme cases, and the frustration."

I had both my blogs shut last April, "unusual activity detected" and it was a terrible experience.

I did recover both, it costed me numerous visits to the help forum and blogs of those who work helping bloggers, but I learned that it is very hard to receive any kind of help from Blogger.

Why they keep asking people to start a blog is a mystery for me and I believe that as the blogosphere is new and it will take time and work to make people understand that blog is a big universe and there are blogs of many kinds maybe more attention should be focused on educating people to respect bloggers, some people still don't see even journalistic bloggers as serious.

Creating a way that facilitates finding good content that are being created by many bloggers is necessary.

It would also be great if those who are blogging for a certain period of time could have their work protected of being easily deleted.

If you are considering starting a blog pay attention to all information you give, make backups weekly and welcome to the bloggerhood.

2011 top news in cartoon

2011-12-09T11:39:00.011-02:00

These are two cartoons by Giacomo Cardelli that I did choose to start the series of posts about 2011 top news. The first one was a good news but we have witnessed some events that show how barbarian, brutal, irrational and cruel the system that rules this world is.

The right cartoon... bloodshed in north Africa had Libya as the most documented by independent journalist and it was a demonstration of brutality with the help of the mainstream media making fictitious stories to explain the need of crimes against humanity (here, here and here).

Reports of famine in Somalia, caused by drought - lie, lie, lie - were announced but forgotten. Africa is going backwards but the same is happening in America.

Left: Wow! United Nations! Nothing changed. The assemblies are held, nothing changes and in the end the security council, five permanent member China, France, Russia, UK and US decide what to do and if you do the maths(?) three is the exact number of nations that really decide.

If you follow this blog you might have noticed that I stopped posting about politics as I explained in a prior post and I pretend keep this way for a while because looking closely to what is being done requires a lot of cold blood.

I don't have it and a lot of physical and mental energy is consumed by watching and reading barbaric attitudes. Some people like blood but I can't hardly see mine because I feel like fainting.

The possibility of the WW3 is on the horizon and I never thought I would witness one in this lifetime.

On the contrary, I thought some of the images I saw when I was a teenager would be banished but... no. It didn't happen.

The fall's light effects on colors

2011-12-09T04:24:00.005-02:00

I came across with this picture and felt like sharing because it has some colors that are at this Mari's shot and it seems the pictures are sisters.

I love the light of spring and fall. Great colors too.

I'm trying to fine who took it but I don't think it will be easy. If it is you, please, inform me.

Hmm... You'll have to prove! :)

Suggestion to improve Windows

2011-12-08T05:42:00.010-02:00

I was not offered this option when Windows stopped working last week and a new operating system had to be installed. Something must be done!

Wine would help forget the money those who work at home lose when Windows fails.

Amur tiger lurking me in Siberia

2011-12-07T04:18:00.019-02:00

The Siberian or Amur tiger, the largest of all cats, avoid humans and are rarely seen in the wild. I watched a documentary about them this week and I was amazed by Siberians' life. It is another time, another integration with the environment and nature, other rituals like thanking a tree after colecting some material to make fire because we are all part of the universe.

The Siberian tiger is lurking and observing without ever being seen what could be fearful since they are like a "killing machine" according to a biologist who researches bears and tigers.

But the tigers avoid humans and never approach, we are not in danger.

Maybe they are observing those who are responsible for the destruction of their habitat in the name of urbanization and the killing of some tigers in China to make medicines.

The majority of the world’s Siberian tigers lives in a small area of taiga and boreal forests in the Far East corner of southern Russia. Some also exist in China and North Korea.

It was in Siberia, a place I know nothing but learned their way of living and learned to get used to the white everywhere, that I felt the eyes of the tiger that could be on me without wanting to do me harm, just observing me for an unknown reason that I gave up understanding as time went by.

I also don't feel anymore every fiber of my body... the documentary is over and I'm back to the tropics, again, petting my dog.

Carne Griffiths's tea painted creatures

2011-12-06T05:00:00.007-02:00

Carne Griffiths's drawings, using ink and tea, were exposed in London last month. Carne has already painted with whiskey, vodka. brandy, and even nobles materials such as calligraphy ink, graphite but for the moment he is exploring tea to paint his creatures.

In an interview he explains this choice:

DA: How did you first get into the use of liquids such as tea in your work?

CG: “I have drawn with fountain pen for many years, often with plain water washes. When I decided to leave my post of creative director at an embroidery firm to pursue a love of drawing I experimented with liquids such as brandy.

“I liked the effect this had on the inks I was using but decided that an alternative that wasn’t such a wasteful crime would be a better option so I started experimenting with different types of tea.”

DA: What does using such materials enable you to do that conventional painting techniques alone do not?

CG: “Colour is a difficult area for me and something that I have become more confident with in recent works. My confidence in using different materials is growing but the benefit of working with a medium such as tea is that it creates a naturally harmonious palette.

“I can introduce vibrant colours but the tea does the job of mixing with these to create a balance in the work. I know this could have been achieved with a reduced palette of colours but there is something about the whole process of brewing the tea and working with a colour that becomes more intense or darker in tone as the work progresses.” (keep reading the interview here)

Interesting that he is an English mans. It would not be more difficult to keep on using this technique if good and diverse qualities of tea were difficult to find.

Homage to Alexei von Jawlensky by Rhonda Heisler

2011-12-04T13:42:00.000-02:00

Alexei von Jawlensky was a Russian that after working for the tsarists army started to study painting.

He moved to Germany in 1896 where he met Kandinsky and other artists. He received the influence of the Fauves and also contributed by creating his own style.

This is a piece done by Rhonda Heisler, who recreates some famous masterpieces in mosaics such as this one inspired by a 1913 Jawlensky's painting "The Meditating Woman".

I really liked this homage.

"Only one click away is too far" or "shortest way between two points equals pleasure"

2011-12-03T15:23:00.013-02:00

The catchy phrase "only one click away" might not facilitate things as well as the scientific truth that "the shortest way between two points is a straight line" might not help when we are planning our routes.

It came to my mind because all my documents are in a file and I just have to open the window where it is and click at the file to get my pictures, texts and everything.

I didn't do it yet and I don't feel like doing.

One of the reasons is that this road looks so long! Please don't laugh at me because I'm sure you gave up doing a search because you didn't want to open another window to your favorite search engineer... because it was too far.

I believe that we have a kind of distance measurement, a kind of space relation when we are using computers but I still don't know how to express it or if it's only me who feels it

- any input would be highly appreciated.

What I know is that when I'm planning my routes, walking since I don't drive, to go somewhere the shortest distance is only important when I'm in a hurry.

Other factors are more important to consider such as a nice and not crowded street, a place I like that is on the way, nice people I might know and many others that gives me pleasure.

There is a street I don't like to cross next to my house and I discovered that it is because three of the buildings are huge and as I walk I feel it will take years to reach the end. I'm sure if there were regular buildings and commerce I would not avoid this street.

Doe it make any sense to you?

Ok, I will open the file, tomorrow, or, on Monday.

My computer was broken :(

2011-12-02T15:29:00.003-02:00

I just had it repaired and I'll have to install all the softwares and everything again.

Bush and Blair guilty by War Crimes Tribunal and Blair Foundation's petition

2011-11-29T17:30:00.009-02:00

The result of what was reported at this post was guilty as charged for former US president George W. Bush and former Prime Minister Toni Blair.

"The accused are found guilty,” read an official media statement from Perdana Global Peace Foundation, organisers of the tribunal.

“War criminals have to be dealt with, convict Bush and Blair as charged. A guilty verdict will serve as a notice to the world that war criminals may run but can never ultimately hide from truth and justice,” the statement read."

Now the Blair Foundation asks us to sign a petition:

BWCF – THE BLAIR WAR CRIMES FOUNDATION

It is necessary to make leaders hesitate before indulging in “the paramount war crime” to quote the judges of Nuremberg, of “unprovoked aggression against a defenceless country”. Unless leaders fear that they might be tried for their war crimes, we will live in an increasingly violent world, where The Geneva Conventions are treated as a joke, the UN is of no account, and death, destruction, torture, and repressive policing are commonplace. At the moment such leaders enjoy more and more trappings of power, and retire with vast sums of money, houses, medals and lucrative contracts. A group of UK Citizens have therefore set up an organisation, “The Blair War Crimes Foundation”, to initially bring one such leader to justice as an example.

Petition on line at http://www.petitiononline.com/BWCF/petition.html .

John Pilger, David Halpin, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, Ken Loach, Noam Chomsky, Richard Dawkins, Lindsey German, Ben Griffin, Dr Nawal Saadawi, Haifa Zangana, Mark Steel, Dr Kamil Mahdi, Bruce Kent, and other citizens of Spain, Argentine, USA, and UK, support a Blair War Crimes Foundation to seek signatures for a petition to the United Nations General Assembly and the UK Attorney General, to uphold the UN Charter, the Geneva and Hague Conventions, and International Law, and to indict Tony Blair for war crimes.

It is time for justice. The death of one 1.400 millions Iraqis and the pain of those who suffered torture, physical mutilations and many heinous crimes cannot remain unpunished. Do what you can and sign the petition.

It is about time that we, citizens of the world, take help creating a fair world.

Update: December, 2

Please sign the petition and if you're a blogger do a little post about it. It is very important to all of us.

I'll create a little text with the link to the petition so that people can copy and paste at blogs.

We are responsible and we have to demand accountability!

Serious discussion at Facebook, or, The power of Social Networks

2011-11-28T13:41:00.015-02:00

Seventy people commented not the joke but the real problem this picture raises.

We are discussing at comments:

Balqis left her opinion: "Looks like a good debate. Equal on both sides. :)"

My Facebook guess: ""A" equals seven years of bad luck."

And Mazhah... OMG! She doesn't have a Facebook account.

Missy reveals truth: ""The simplest things are entertaining lol." :)"

Help! I need to change my dog's diet to homemade. Anyone already did that?

2011-11-28T09:04:00.005-02:00

I'm feeling stupid and blaming myself for giving nothing more than processed food to my dog as the vet who was her owner told me to do ten and a half years ago. I bought the most expensive and was sure that it was the best I could do for her.
Wrong! She is with a liver problem and this are the scary numbers:

ALT = 282,00 > normal range of 5.00 - 82,00 (UI/L)
Alkaline phosphatase = 704,00 > normal range 20,00 to 150,00 (UI/L)

The ultrasound test is not better and the worse is that she has a severe hepatomegaly (liver gets larger).

She is fine and asymptomatic and is only sleeping more profoundly and for more time. She is not coming quickly as she used to do.
But she is already an old lady so I believe that changes will be happening and it is normal.
I have started to change her diet by adding rice to the processed food and I'm planning to little by little take stop giving her the poison that Royal Canin is producing and we pay crazy amount of money.
I talked to a biologist that lives next to me and she told me that these processed foods are poisons.
I did some research and found some sites.
I just don't know what am I going to give her. I don't wanna go to any vet because I simply don't trust any and had a very bad experience with this one and two others that I described at this post.
I'm giving her a little bit of my own food.
Yesterday I did put the processed food without the rice and she didn't eat. She loves rice, always did and how I wish I had talked to my friend earlier but physicians are those we talk about health, isn't it?
Vets are receiving money to prescribe the processed food just like those human physicians receive from the labs.
I'll search and ask some advises to those who have animals but are smarter than me and give homemade food to their dogs.
I cannot take the $Royal Canin$ cold turkey because she'll have a serious diarrhea and even bleed as it happened once when she was fed with another of these processed food.
If you have any advise I would love to listen.

I just found this site and these the list of side effects of one of the ingredients of Dog's Processed Food:

"Although you won't see it on the label, since it is often added at the rendering plant and not by the manufacturer, ethoxyquin (EQ) is used to preserve most dry dog food. EQ is the most powerful of all preservatives and may be the most toxic.

Rendering plant workers that have been exposed to it denoted side effects similar to those of Agent Orange:

* A dramatic rise in liver or kidney damage
* Cancerous skin lesions
* Hair loss
* Blindness
* Leukemia
* Fetal abnormalities
* Chronic diarrhea

In animals, EQ has been linked to:

* Immune deficiency syndrome
* Spleen, stomach, and liver cancers
* And a host of allergies

Stop feeding your dog or cat with poison. Don't do what I did.
This is another great article:

"“We are seeing disease conditions in animals that we did not see years ago. Many of these may be traced to nutrition as the source…” Don E. Lundholm, DVM
Dr. Kollath, of the Karolinska Hospital in Stockholm, headed a study done on animals. When young animals were fed cooked and processed foods they initially appeared to be healthy. However, as the animals reached adulthood, they began to age more quickly than normal and also developed chronic degenerative disease symptoms. (...)" (emphasis added)

Update: January, 2, 2012
I noticed that the first link has some items to sell. I didn't buy them and do no intend to and used this link because of the list of the diseases. I was nervous and didn't check if there were advertisements.
I don't buy any food to my dog now. It is all homemade.

Turnpike road definition

2011-11-27T09:50:00.009-02:00

This is for those who don't have English as mother tongue or don't live in America or UK.

I had to look for the term "turnpike road" because of the post below since Jane Austen's character says that it was one of the advantages of the "nice old-fashioned place" she describes.

Wikipedia:

"A toll road (also tollway, turnpike, toll highway, or express toll route) is a privately or publicly built road for which a driver pays a toll (a fee) for use. Structures for which tolls are charged include toll bridges and toll tunnels. Non-toll roads are financed using other sources of revenue, most typically fuel tax or general tax funds."

The painting ia a painting of Carl Rakeman that depicts:

"The privately built Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpike Road was the first important turnpike and the first long-distance broken-stone and gravel surface built in America according to formal plans and specifications. The road's construction marked the beginning of organized road improvement after the long period of economic confusion following the American Revolution." (...)The Spread Eagle Tavern is shown as it appeared in 1795.

Source; here.
Now we know!

I hope more turnpike roads appear in the book to make me feel proud I have a fully understanding of what it's meaning. Usually we pretend we already knew it when we are in our twenties and, from time to time, this artifice is necessary if the person we are talking to is very full of themselves and put in disbelief those who are bold enough to say: "I don't know what it is."

Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility

2011-11-27T07:40:00.006-02:00

"Delaford is a nice place I can tell you; exactly what I call a nice, old-fashioned place, full of comforts, quite shut in with great garden-walls that are covered with fruit-trees, and such a mulberry-tree in the corner. Then there is a dovecote, some delightful fish-ponds, and a very pretty canal, and everything, in short, that one could wish for; and moreover it's close to the church and only a quarter of a mile from the turnpike road." —Sense and Sensibility

I wonder what would be her description of "nice old-fashioned place" if she lived today. What about yours?

Source: The Project Gutenberg.

Keep it fresh to please Google algorithms

2011-11-26T17:48:00.012-02:00

Worried about number of hits, links and Google algorithms...

I just found this tip from Kevin Ryan but... NO!

I publish without having any idea if it will make more numbers or not.

I don't understand how this blog got some unexpected number results and have no idea what topic my next post will approach.

I'm terrible with numbers and the only relation I have with marketing is hating advertisements especially when watching something I like at the TV.

The thing became so insane lately that I'm not watching some channels anymore.

Unfortunately one of them is the channel of "The Big Bang Theory": five minutes of advertisements. Can you believe that? I blocked the channel. Advertisements make so much noise that if you don't pay attention you can start getting irritated without knowing the reason.

I muted the TV once and people calmed down.

I digressed. The post is about pleasing Google and this is the tip:

"It's not about freshness as much as it is the appearance of freshness. One of the core goals of search results has always been to provide timely information but not even Google's founders could have predicted the insanely high frequency that would be required to keep it "fresh.""

I laughed a lot when read it because I cannot stand the numerous times they publish, broadcast or analyze the same news, picture or event with this "fresh" artifice. For me it doesn't work. But it seems to work for the vast majority.

Open some mainstream media sites and the lesson is everywhere.

Funny that I fount the paragraph Kevin Ryan wrote in another site copied and pasted the next day of Kevin's post. The author didn't learn how to make it fresh.

Keep it fresh and stupid. If someone or a group of people works to be on the top of the pages using this rule we are in a very bad situation.

I believe it is not only algorithms that matters. Mainstream media first and the rest... well I really have no idea how they choose but if the way Google deals with these algorithms needs 500 changes a year it seems that other issues are behind these numbers.

I'm guessing. I really don't know anything and I'll check now what "algorithms" really are.

But remember: Keep is fresh!

If you're asking why I end up writing about it: I was searching for what happened to a directory and came across with Kevin's post. When I read the paragraph I quoted I felt like doing it.

I hope Google take into consideration that I'm doing a post about the algorithms in a very fresh way. It will be on top!

Update:

Scroll-down this post a little slowly with your eyes in the picture and you'll see it rolling. Just found it out.

How fresh it is!?

Wordless Saturday on the true owners of the world

2011-11-26T07:25:00.003-02:00

Almost wordless Friday on growing up

2011-11-25T08:23:00.004-02:00

Dirty Fucking Hippies were Right! transcription and song

2011-11-24T05:43:00.018-02:00

This video appeared and nobody knows who did the rant, the edition, the melody... nothing. Still it tells some truth. Worthy listening since...

"Peace is never discussed. Peace has somehow become a pejorative..." The Big Pharma and their fake concern wit health selling medicines that kill...

Update:

I just found the transcription at Daily Kos:

But something puzzles me. How can a revolution forgets to manifest culturally? Is it possible to revolutionize talking about economy, politics and ranting but without creating not even a tiny symbol that communicates what is the desire of people?

This song(?) is the result of the lack of a anti-establishment culture in US and in the whole world.

A song that raises the issues enumerating them but incapable of reaching hearts and minds and with no cultural print.

Appealing to the hippies was the way out but I doubt that people is willing not to wash their hair or behave the old hippie way and it is sad that this soapbox song refers to them the way they are called by those who hate their message.

Again it seems that creativity is way out of reach and without it, without art, literature, music, and all the "humanities" a crucial part of human beings vanishes.

When the imagination is not exercised, exited, and capable of creating, analyzing, and criticizing it is easier to control the thoughts and desires of the population, not people because they don't see people, they see numbers.

Fighting for education that is not financed and dictate by the corporations is also part of this revolution.

The alleged counter-establishment group "Anonymous" took a mask from a movie.

Have you noticed that in this movie, "V de Vendetta", there are books, paintings, sculptures, a whole iconography of the weapons that revolutionaries use to express their ideas?

"Bullets don't kill an ideal."

Take a good look at the black and white photography above and tell us what you see.

________________________________

The Dirty Fucking Hippies were Right!

"Flag planting on Iwo Jima. Tug-of-war with dollar sign. Headline: U.S. economy worsens. Chart heading sharply down “Class Is Now in Recession”.

“There’s a black granite wall in Washington DC that bears 58,260 names on it. All of those whose names that are carved on that wall are dead. For what? Freedom?.

“If this country had listened when kids were screaming to stop that slaughter, that wall would have been one hell of a lot shorter.

“Yet we as a nation still wage wars of choice. Wars encouraged by plutocrats who never have to fight them.

“Peace is never discussed. Peace has somehow become a perjorative.

“Peace is no perjorative. Peace is essential to the survival of the human race. And those who advocate for war are a dangerous and fearful group who should be marginalized and disavowed.

“War is always the last choice. The dirty fucking hippies … were right.

“Now the oceans have been rising. The polar ice is melting at alarming rates. The climate is changing in irreversible ways. Our survival as a species on this planet is on a precipice.

“The science on this is clear. Humans are now in trouble. Because of our reckless stewardship of what we dominated, we have polluted this fragile jewel that hangs in space – our only home.

“We’ve elected sociopath after sociopath for the last 30 years, to every level of government. – many of them slaves to corporate parasites that gorge themselves at the public trough, while the most vulnerable people in our society – the sick, the young, and the elderly – go wanting.

“The food we buy is contaminated. The toys we give our children as presents for Christmas are tainted with poisons. The water we drink is rife with carcinogens. The fish in our seas, lakes and rivers are so full of mercury that it’s only recommended that we eat them once per week.

“We have now come face to face with our own extinction.

“I hate to say ‘I told you so,’ but the dirty fucking hippies … were right.

“Billions of dollars of profits are being snitched up at the expense and suffering of our neighbors by the jackals that comprise our pharmaceutical companies and insurance companies. Both of which pipe their diagnostic wisdom and their fake concern right into our homes via TV and radio commercials.

“These legal drug dealers now sell their wares with impunity. And the insurance gamblers perform a slick game of three-card monte right in our living rooms.

“Most of these drugs have a list of caveats that would make even the most dishonest used car salesman blush. And the insurance hustlers change the rules of the game just when it’s time to pay up – profiting from the suffering and pain and others, profiting from human frailty.

“Universal healthcare? ‘It’s too expensive,’ we’re told. Gasbags talking heads on TV and radio have been complicit in this deception, while being handsomely compensated for their assistance.

“I’ll say it again: the dirty fucking hippies … were right.

“Big box discount stores descend upon small towns in America like alien ships, filled with cheap products bought at low prices from countries that pay their workers slave wages. Plutocrats love this business model!

“Mom and Pop shops can’t compete with prices set by these huge corporate parasites and, to no one’s surprise, many small businesses in these tiny hamlets fail, leaving small towns filled with empty storefronts and even, in some cases, forcing these same small business operators to go to work for the very people that ruined their livelihoods.

“Small-town America is subsequently decimated by this invasion. Often helpless in stopping it.

“Wall Street has cannibalized itself. Still hungry, feeling the pangs of their greed, they’ve now come to the government for their daily meal. And still, without a hint of irony, a spokesman for this ravenous tribe mounts his soapbox and has the temerity to rail against the ‘evils of Socialism’.

“Turns out the Socialism is for them. The Capitalism is for us.

“Abbie Hoffman once baited these banksters by throwing cash onto the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. To no one’s astonishment, they demonstrated their insatiable greed. The gluttons couldn’t help themselves – they stopped trading, got on their knees, and swept up the free loot.

“Wall Street should have been reined in long ago.

“I’ll say it again: The dirty fucking hippies … were right!”

British Empire's map in 1898 by McVitie and Price

2011-11-23T11:06:00.003-02:00

Wow! It has not been that long ago, still what a difference 113 years make and, ironically, how history repeats itself.

For detailed information of the British Empire look at this map.

The Four Dogs

2011-11-23T04:11:00.002-02:00

Thirteenth of the The Four Dogs series.

Disclaimer: the presence of more than four dogs in "The Four Dogs series" does not imply any endorsement of the owner of this blog of those dogs who appeared as supporting actors.

Should citizens of the world help ICC find a prosecutor to be the successor of Luis Moreno-Ocampo?

2011-11-22T13:07:00.008-02:00

ICC is a mockery of laws, jurisprudence and dignity.

Luis Moreno Ocampo term will expire in June, 2012 and the ICC is asking for people to candidate or nominate:

"Interested candidates or those wishing to recommend the names (of prosecutors) of qualified individuals are requested to contact the Search Committee through the Secretariat of the Assembly of States Parties:

Secretariat of the Assembly of States Parties
International Criminal Court
Maanweg 174
2516 AB The Hague
The Netherlands
Fax: +31 70 515 8376
Email: rene.holbach@icc-cpi.int"

With the legacy that Luis Moreno-Ocampo left and the work of the ICC that did nothing since 2002 when it was created no serious candidate will be willing to occupy this place.

But there are plenty of hypocrites to do this job.

If there was any decency left this court should end or at least explain why their budgets are so high for so little work.

David Morrison reported the hypocrisy of referring Libya to the ICC.

Joshua Rosenberg, in 2008, has demonstrated why he thinks Luis Moreno-Ocampo should resign.

Many citizens of the world are expressing in social networks of in comments in sites that ICC is another US weapon of character destruction.

Again: ICC does not have jurisdiction over Libya, still, ICC has indicted Seif al-Islam of crimes against humanity.

If this is a serious institution we are the world became a hospice and they forgot to send the memo to it's inhabitants.

A new prosecutor? To do what? Pretend they are working on African countries? To propagate that someone is morally condemned?

Who will be Ocampo's successor? Would you nominate anybody? If yes, don't forget to follow the ICC's rules.

ICC is a mockery of international laws and jurisprudence. It is a joke that will cost €117.73 million in 2012 as exposed here.

Arthur Koestler a passionate life and work

2011-11-22T09:17:00.004-02:00

Arthur Koestler's, Hungarian journalist, political philosopher, critic and novelist, work and life is fascinating because he was touched by all the events that were of high importance at his time and is still in our daily lives. A Zionist who lived in Palestine for a while and tried to convince Menachem Beguin in 1944 to accept the two states solution after the war but said:

"When the meeting was over, I realised how naïve I had been to imagine that my arguments would have even the slightest influence."

Joined the Communist Party in 1931 and resigned in 1938 because of the crimes committed by Stalin. In 1940 he published "The Darkness of Noon" a novel that exposes the totalitarian atrocities. In "The God That Failed", a 1949 book collects together six essays with the testimonies of a number of famous ex-Communists, who were writers and journalists he depicts the Ukrainian genocide that killed up to 10 millions of death: "Holodomor" equals "death by hunger" in Ukrainian a genocide denied by Stalin who said the deaths were due to drought*. He killed himself in an act that can be considered as euthanasia since he did it because he could not cope with the Alzheimer disease anymore as he explained in his "suicide" note:

"My reasons for deciding to put an end to my life are simple and compelling: Parkinson's Disease and the slow-killing variety of leukaemia (CCI). I kept the latter a secret even from intimate friends to save them distress. After a more or less steady physical decline over the last years, the process has now reached an acute state with added complications which make it advisable to seek self-deliverance now, before I become incapable of making the necessary arrangements."

That is already a lot to discuss but there is more and I'll write about him in another post. Quotations from "The God that Failed": "..., we conclude that if on the one hand oversensitivity to social injustice and obsessional craving for Utopia are signs of neurotic maladjustment, society may, on the other hand, reach a state of decay where the neurotic rebel causes more joy in heaven than the sane executive who orders pigs to be drowned under the eyes of starving men. This in fact was the state of our civilization when, in December, 1931, at the age of twenty-six, I joined the Communist Party of Germany. "

"..., I developed a strong dislike of the obviously rich; not because they could afford to buy things (envy plays a much smaller part in social conflict than is generally assumed) but because they were able to do so without a guilty conscience."

"I saw the ravages of the famine of 1932-33 in the Ukraine: hordes of families in rags begging at the railway stations, the women lifting up to the compartment window their starving brats which—with drumstick limbs, big cadaverous heads, puffed bellies—looked like embryos out of alcohol bottles; the old men with frost-bitten toes sticking out of torn slippers. I was told that these were the kulaks who had resisted the collectivization of the land and accepted the explanation; they were enemies of the people who preferred begging to work. The maid in the Hotel Regina in Kharkov fainted from hunger while doing my room: the manager explained that she was fresh from the countryside and through a technical glitch had not yet been issued her ration cards; I accepted the technical hitch."

'I not only accepted the famine as inevitable, but also the ban on foreign travel, foreign newspapers and books, and the dissemination of a grotesquely distorted picture of life in the capitalist world…Propaganda was indispensable for the survival of the Soviet Union surrounded by a hostile world. The necessary lie, the necessary slander; the necessary intimidation of the masses to preserve them from shortsighted errors; the necessary liquidation of oppositional groups and classes; the necessary sacrifice of a whole generation in the interest of the next—it may all sound monstrous and yet it was so easy to accept while rolling along the track of faith….[This] mental world…is difficult to explain to the outsider who has never entered the magic circle and played Wonderland croquet with himself. * The same excuse given this year by US for the starvation in Somalia and other African countries.

Image by John Minnion at Lebrecht Photo Library.

How to upload .gif animated to blogspot

2011-11-22T04:48:00.006-02:00

At "Settings" go to the "Basic" tag and check "Updated editor" when an image .gif animated (those images that moves) is being uploaded.

If the "Old Editor is checked the image will freeze in only one picture and will not work.

It is easy as that and still it took me years to solve it. I hope it helps.