Back to writing?

I am back in the process of "writing, writing, writing" and, just like it happened to me when I was trying to write the dissertation, I am pretty much out of practice.

My cousin Bruno recently asked me if I was still writing on my blog. It is easy to see that I haven't touched it in over a year. Back then I was focused on posting interesting stuff and commenting on it -- I guess I was trying to accumulate some internet traffic. Maybe I have dreams of becoming a cool internet curator. In any case, there are so many other places where it is easier to reach people for that (read facebook and twitter).

In coming back to my blog I am trying to regain some writing practice. I see that all its formatting is gone and I only have spam comments offering short-term loans and the like. Spammers gotta spam :). I don't care. I will just write whatever comes to mind and leave it to float in the cyberspace.

One predecessor of the iPod

That was an old radio transmitter... :)

(lost the source, sorry :-( it may have been the WSJ)

Hunger Strikes

What happens to your body when you go into a hunger strike.

(original via Maria Popova @brainpicker)

How common is your birthday?

(via swissmiss)

A.A. - vaquera

Mi prima con su hija de 3 años:

Source: thegirlwhokeepsdreaming.tumblr.com via Kathy on Pinterest 

Me dice mi hija: "mami, jugamos a que yo era una vaquera y tú una PELOTA!!!!"  

Plop!!!!!!! Qué me quiso decir????

¡Ni idea!

A.A. - El Lórax

Mi prima con su hija de 3 años el 25 de Abril de 2012. El bosque La Primavera está incendiándose estos días.

Al abrir la puerta de la casa esta mañana había una gran cantidad de ceniza, entonces mi pequeña me pregunta: 

-Mami, porqué hay tanta ceniza?Y yo con un dolor en el corazón tuve que decirle a mi pequeña como si le estuviera hablando de un ser querido que se nos fue: 

-Mi amor, cerca de aquí hay un gran bosque que se llama La Primavera, y se está quemando... Muchos árboles se están quemando y muchos animalitos se están quedando sin casa... 

Mi pequeñita de tres años me voltea a ver con esos ojos grandes llenos de lágrimas y me dice:-Mami, el Lórax está sufriendo...

 * El Lórax es un personaje basado en un cuento de Dr Seuss que defiende a los árboles de la avaricia industrial.

How to Find Your Purpose and Do What You Love

Maria Popova, curator of brainpickings, had this article published back in February. She lists seven insights from philosophers that should help you make the choice of looking for and do what you love. Very appropriate for graduation season.

These are my favourites from the full list. It's very well worth it to go to the webpage and take a deeper look.

• Ditch prestige - it's a powerful magnet that causes you to work not on what you like, but what you'd like to like. [Paul Graham]

• It's perhaps easier than ever to feel carrier anxiety. We think we know what success is. We should make sure we own our ideas and we are the true authors of our own ambitions.  [Alain de Botton - his TED Talk]

• "The best way to get approval is not to need it." [Hugh Macleod]

• You will be working a great deal of your life. Make sure you are satisfied with it. If you aren't, keep looking. [Steve Jobs]

I loved the first point, maybe because I feel too sympathetic. The next two bullet points are sound echoes of the same idea. As Alain Botton said: 

"Because it’s bad enough not getting what you want, but it’s even worse to have an idea of what it is you want and find out at the end of the journey that it isn’t, in fact, what you wanted all along."

You can even find pop references to this. I like more and more what Alfred tells Batman in "Batman Begins":

Why do we fall sir? 

So we might learn to pick ourselves up.

We can't find what we want, what we love, if we don't dare to fail in the process. Failure is good. If we learn how to learn from it. And the earlier we fall, the earlier we learn how to get up. The earlier we learn to let go of fear. The earlier we find our true selves.

#embracefailure

"Pues mayo, todo en flor..."

“Pues mayo, todo en flor…”

Pues mayo, todo en flor, a los prados nos llama,
¡ven! y que sin cesar se mezclen con tu alma
la campiña, los bosques, las mágicas umbrías
y los claros de luna junto al agua dormida;
la senda en cuyo fin da el camino comienzo,
la primavera, el aire y el horizonte inmenso,
horizonte que el mundo toca humilde y alegre
como un labio la orla del ropaje celeste.
¡Ven! y que la mirada de las castas estrellas,
que a través de mil velos se derrama en la tierra,
y el árbol impregnado de perfumes y cantos,
y el aliento que abrasa, alta la luz, los campos,
y la sombra y el sol, las aguas, la verdura,
la irradiación, en fin, de la entera Natura
haga abrirse a la luz, como una doble flor,
la belleza en tu frente y en tu pecho el amor.




PUISQUE MAI TOUT EN FLEURS …


Puisque mai tout en fleurs dans les prés nous réclame,
Viens ! ne te lasse pas de mêler à ton âme
La campagne, les bois, les ombrages charmants,
Les larges clairs de lune au bord des flots dormants,
Le sentier qui finit où le chemin commence,
Et l’air et le printemps et l’horizon immense,
L’horizon que ce monde attache humble et joyeux
Comme une lèvre au bas de la robe des cieux !
Viens ! et que le regard des pudiques étoiles
Qui tombe sur la terre à travers tant de voiles,
Que l’arbre pénétré de parfums et de chants,
Que le souffle embrasé de midi dans les champs,
Et l’ombre et le soleil et l’onde et la verdure,
Et le rayonnement de toute la nature
Fassent épanouir, comme une double fleur,
La beauté sur ton front et l’amour dans ton coeur !




VICTOR HUGO ~ versión de AURELIO ASIAIN

No soy muy de poesía (de hecho, nada), pero me encontré esto por aquí y me gustó :)

Notes and Neurons

Bobby McFerrin and the power of pentatonic scale at the 2009 World Science Festival. 


#mademesmile :)


(via swissmiss)

Old New York

Did you see the pictures that were recently published from New York from about 100 years ago?

I found them in the website of Corriere della Sera. There are some that are truly beautiful...

Update: My friend Rodrigo just posted this link from The Atlantic in which they have many more pics of the same collection. I particularly those that show when they were constructing the bridges that link Manhattan to Brooklyn and Queens. It still amazes me! I could see them over and over... :)

A.A. - lista del súper

Mi prima con su hija de 3 años:

En el super... Va mi hija con su carrito y yo con el mío y me dice mi chiquita con gran preocupación: Mami, hacen falta cervezas!!!

 

A.A. - 2 princesas

Mi prima con su hija de 3 años (13 de Abril):

Source: tumblrphotographyxox.tumblr.com via Robyn on Pinterest

Jugando con mi hija en la alberca con las Barbies sirenas: 

Ella: tu eres mi príncipe y yo soy tu princesa! 

Yo: No, mejor que las dos éramos princesas solteras, sin príncipes... 

Se me queda viendo mi hija con una cara de indignación y con un tono de señora molesta por el precio de las cosas, me contesta: NO Mami!!!! Todas debemos de tener un príncipeeee!!!! 

Yo: A si? Y quién es tu príncipe mi amor? 

Ella: Mi PAPITOOOO!!!!!!

¡¡Lo máximo!!

How to focus in the age of distraction

A friend posted this on facebook today.

Isn't it awesome ? It's all the good advice I've read/received here and there in a nice diagram :))

You can check out more cool diagrams and mindmaps at Learning Fundamentals, an Aussie webpage that publish cool techniques that help students learn in an enjoyable way. Rad!

How exercise could make you smarter

According to an article in the NYT, after running experiments with mice for months studies have concluded that physical exercise could give humans brainpower that thinking does not. Why?

Source: letsmakeahealthiertomorrow.tumblr.com via j jump jennifer on Pinterest

The brain, like all muscles and organs, is a tissue, and its function declines with underuse and age. Beginning in our late 20s, most of us will lose about 1 percent annually of the volume of the hippocampus, a key portion of the brain related to memory and certain types of learning.
Exercise though seems to slow or reverse the brain’s physical decay, much as it does with muscles. [...]

Even more heartening, scientists found that exercise jump-starts neurogenesis. Mice and rats that ran for a few weeks generally had about twice as many new neurons in their hippocampi as sedentary animals. Their brains, like other muscles, were bulking up.

But here is where it gets interesting: the brain cells that are a product of exercise are nimbler than those created by cognitive tasks. In other words, it is true that if you learn new things (say a new language), you reverse the aging process of your brain, but those neurons are fired only when you practice that language. Instead, the neurons you get from exercise can multitask (at least for mice)!

I wonder if this applies only to aerobic exercise; the article mentions that which type of exercise is the one is  "another intriguing issue". It is prove, though, that it does not have to be exhausting; research shoes that going out for long walks regularly has worked for the elderly (I can include my grandma as a personal observation here).

And I was thinking of skipping the gym today... hmm...

Humans of New York

Brandon Staton studied History at the University of Georgia. After losing his trading job, he moved to New York City and started taking pictures of strangers. He has taken pictures of over 3,000 people and written 50 stories. He put all this together on his website Humans of New York.

Here is a very small sample. The website is worth a periodic visit!

Would you dare to take pictures of strangers in the street? I would love to, but I am too shy...

 

Philosophical Theories in Basic Shapes

London based graphic designer Genis Carrera has created a series of posters that depict philosophical theories with basic shapes. Just. Beautiful.

(via swissmiss)

 

A 14 años de la muerte de Octavio Paz

Un amigo puso este poema de Octavio Paz en el facebook.

Entre lo que veo y digo,entre lo que digo y callo,entre lo que callo y sueño,entre lo que sueño y olvido,la poesía.Se deslizaentre el sí y el no:dicelo que callo,callalo que digo,sueñalo que olvido.No es un decir:es un hacer.Es un hacerque es un decir.La poesíase dice y se oye:es real.Y apenas digoes real,se disipa.¿Así es más real?

No soy fan de la poesía, o a lo mejor sólo tengo que darle otra oportunidad...  

bits by bits

I learned today about littleBits, a start up that encourages creating with electronics as easy as playing with lego. In their own words:

littleBits is an opensource library of electronic modules that snap together with tiny magnets for prototyping and play

Founder Ayah Bdeir gives a quick fun demo during her 6min TedTalk last February 27 (pretty new stuff!).

A rad way to bring electronics into our DIY creative projects!

P.S. I don't wanna lego!

Hug!

Source: vi.sualize.us via Natalie on Pinterest

Cracked me up :)

Ballet in slow motion

When you go to see ballet, have you ever wished you could see at least some of the movements in slow motion? This video of ballet dancers Marina Kanno and Giacomo Bevilaqua from Staatsballet Berlin achieves just that. At 1000 frames per second it's the perfect eye candy.

(via swissmiss, who in turn reposted from my oh-so-left-into-oblivion-kottke)