If you are an old time geek like me, you might remember the series "Bits & Bytes" (broadcasted in Brazil by TV Cultura I believe). Check these out:
The Difference Between Apple ][ and TRS-80
Bits & Bytes - Home Accounting
Bits & Bytes - ROM and RAM
Bits & Bytes - The Computer's Speed
BONUS: Billy Learns French on the Atari 800
The good old days :-)
Chomsky is right. Life in the Empire is definitely not easy. Here are some examples of the oppression we suffer in our everyday lives:
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The Benford's law of controversy:
Passion is inversely proportional to the amount of real information available.
Godwin's Law:
As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one.
Hanlon's razor (very useful)
Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.
And my own (still unnamed) little contribution:
Generalizations are the best way to run away from a serious debate.
:-)
There are some of my favorites from places we visited recently (click for bigger version):
Cannon Beach, OR
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I am very, very tired. So all I can give you are some pictures and links. You can imagine what I would write about them. Maybe you can even comment about it and people won’t even notice I haven’t actually written a post.
Think of me as your favorite middle man.
Introduction to Oil and Natural Gas
Free Cloclô
U.S. divorce rate falls to lowest level since 1970
“I have discovered that all human evil comes from this, man's being unable to sit still in a room.”
Blaise Pascal
I like Scott Adams: he’s funny, smart, and unpredictable. I read his blog almost daily.
Unfortunately, he is a determinist. Worst of all, Scott believes in the most absurd type of determinism: Biological determinism (we are nothing but moist robots as he calls it).
Now, I don’t want to go into a philosophical/semantic discussion here. Of course I believe the environment, your genes, your friends and your education affect the way you behave at some level. Human beings are social creatures that can be influenced, and are ultimately (at least at this point) genetically flawed. The problem is when one believes that one or some of these factors actually determine with complete precision all your actions during your whole lifetime. Just like software determines all the possible actions of a computer.
One of the reasons why people can get away with such absurd theory is the fact that we are very complex organisms. At this point we do not fully understand how our genes work, how our environment influence us and how this all match together.
However, to try to simplify all of this by believing that we are nothing but a collection of instincts and reflexes goes against every single evidence we have about our world around us. It is worth remembering that we do have a lot of organisms in this planet that behave in such way. And to say that we are no different than them, just “smarter”, is basically to say that we are NOT as they are.
More uncompressible to me is the notion that free will is somehow “easier to accept” that it’s deterministic counter parts. Human beings long for security and predictability. All kinds of studies show that.
If there was such a deterministic force behind our existence, be it our genes our social environment or even a supernatural entity, it would be much easier to just make us ignore free will than to believe it is there.
Free will is a great destabilizing force. It is unpredictable by definition. How could any force account for people changing behaviors during a life time? How could “human progress” be accounted for? And how about all the uncountable combinations and permutations of how each one of us affect and change the other?
In my opinion determinism is nothing but a cheap cop-out. No matter what you do, nothing is your fault. Don’t worry about improving yourself or the world: things will always be the way they are. Nothing matters.
It is probably one of the more destructive philosophical propositions ever.
Earlier this week when I was searching through the archives for the link of the In a parallel universe called 'what if.' column, I started to remember why I created this blog more than four years ago.
I never wanted to make this a preaching pulpit. Long email discussions never went anywhere and I had my share of lost friends due to the unavoidable build up these conversations always lead to.
My idea was just to list recent news/articles I’ve read for later reference. Another goal was to share those with whoever was interested. But that was it.
A lot of things happened since I started this thing. My family grew, my job became much more time consuming, and now I find myself not so much having fun with it but trying to find time to update it. Almost like a second job (a very low paying one for that matter).
So I am trying to find a way to improve this situation. Here is what I came up with:
- Turn off comments: Most of the posts are not a question (for posts that are indeed questions I will enable it). I do try to find alternative point of views for all matters, but I noticed that the (few) people who actually respond a blog post are not interested in debate. They are interested in proving you wrong. That is a huge waste of time. More on that in a later post.
- Write posts in English: I know this will alienate most of the people who come here, but at this point it seems like a good trade-off. I waste enormous amounts of time revising and “acentuando”.
- Get less involved in other blog’s discussions: This is basically point 1 applied to other people’s sites.
So that’s it. Let’s see what happens.
Certas pessoas perderiam bem menos tempo se entendessem como nós ISTJs funcionamos. Não que eu ache o mbti perfeito, mas de um modo geral, it's pretty accurate.
Especialmente essas partes:
"The ISTJ will work for long periods of time and put tremendous amounts of energy into doing any task which they see as important to fulfilling a goal. However, they will resist putting energy into things which don't make sense to them, or for which they can't see a practical application.
The ISTJ has little use for theory or abstract thinking, unless the practical application is clear.
ISTJs have tremendous respect for facts. They hold a tremendous store of facts within themselves, which they have gathered through their Sensing preference. They may have difficulty understanding a theory or idea which is different from their own perspective. However, if they are shown the importance or relevance of the idea to someone who they respect or care about, the idea becomes a fact, which the ISTJ will internalize and support. Once the ISTJ supports a cause or idea, he or she will stop at no lengths to ensure that they are doing their duty of giving support where support is needed."
Resumindo: Don't waste your time folks.
Dizem que Darwin mantinha uma lista aonde ele anotava os argumentos contra as suas teorias, uma espécie de "reality check" para que ele não se perdesse na vontade de acreditar que estava sempre certo.
Eu não mantenho uma lista, mas tento fazer minha parte: Assisto todos os filmes/documentários/propagandas anti-EUA que eu vejo pela frente, sempre em busca de algo que me pareca uma crítica justa.
Esse fim de semana foram mais dois: Why we fight e Syriana.
Syriana é confuso, mas debaixo das cobertas a premissa é simples. A velha história de que o Middle East não se desenvolve porque forcas externas (i.e. Inglaterra, EUA) se beneficiam do atraso e do petroleo deles. Da para ver que eles não estavam interessados numa crítica séria pela forma como eles mostram o recrutamento dos terroristas. Todo aquele clima de "somos bonzinhos e no fim das contas nem percebemos que viramos loucos suicidas" é um absurdo. Assim como é absurdo o maniqueísmo entre o príncipe bonzinho e instruído que quer livrar o país dos americanos e o outro burro, corrupto e pró-ocidente. Enfim, nada de novo.
Já o Why we fight poderia ter sido bom. Os primeiros 45 minutos são relativamente balanceados. Eles deveriam ter explicado o porquê dos EUA terem criado o tal "military complex" que eles citam a cada 5 minutos, e o porquê do Eisenhower (eles mostram o discurso de despedida dele umas 10 vezes) ter reclamado desse aumento de gastos com o exercito MAS não ter feito nada para diminui-lo (eles nem citam como a guerra da Coréia começou ou "terminou"). Se o filme fosse realmente justo, teria que ter iniciado sua narrativa pelo menos em 1939, e explicado como era a situação do exército americano naquela época. Mas de qualquer forma, o ponto dessa primeira hora de que os conchavos entre os políticos e os executivos da indústria de defesa pode levar a decisões erradas sobre paz e guerra é válido.
Infelizmente, a segunda hora do filme é um desastre que poderia ter saído de um fakomentary do Michael Moore.
Um festival de lugares comuns e teorias absurdas sobre como os americanos são na verdade loucos facínoras. Na melhor delas, um dos sempre presentes disgruntled CIA officers explica porque o "imperialismo" americano é diferente: Ele diz que os americanos não querem território, e sim impor o free-market ao mundo para que as empresas americanas façam mais dinheiro. Pobres iraquianos, consigo até ver como serão obrigados a só comer MacDonalds e tomar coca-cola really soon.
Mas pior de tudo foi quando disseram que a imprensa foi boazinha demais durante a guerra do Iraque. Até o coitado do Dan Rather faz um discurdo loony no finalzinho. Só faltou a Cindy Sheehan.
Uma bela decepção.
"Perhaps the best description I’ve ever seen of how wise people act comes from the amazing folks at Palo Alto’s Institute for the Future. A couple years ago, I was talking the Institute’s Bob Johansen about wisdom, and he explained that – to deal with an uncertain future and still move forward – they advise people to have “strong opinions, which are weakly held.” They've been giving this advice for years, and I understand that it was first developed by Instituite Director Paul Saffo. Bob explained that weak opinions are problematic because people aren’t inspired to develop the best arguments possible for them, or to put forth the energy required to test them. Bob explained that it was just as important, however, to not be too attached to what you believe because, otherwise, it undermines your ability to “see” and “hear” evidence that clashes with your opinions. This is what psychologists sometimes call the problem of “confirmation bias.”
Bob Sutton via Marginal Revolution.
Essa review do A Scanner Darkly está muito boa.
O filme não decepcionou. É provavelmente a melhor adaptação de livro para cinema que eu já vi. Diria que ficou até melhor que o livro.
Não deixem de conferir (especialmente os pró-descriminação das drogas).
Alguns posts interessantes de um blog novo na minha lista: Half Sigma
- More intelligent people are more libertarian on economic issues
- Liberals smarter than conservatives, Republicans smarter than Democrats
- Democrats may now be the more intelligent party
- High IQ may cause LOWER income
60 milhões em ação
Ando sem muito tempo para o blog. O que não deve importar nada, principalmente se você é chegado num blog chinês.
Slave to the grind
O motivo para a minha falta de tempo é meu emprego. E para desespero geral dos malemolentes, procrastinadores e bon-vivants em geral, tenho que dizer que estou adorando.
Qual a diferença do meu emprego atual para os anteriores? Não é o salário, status, ou qualquer outro tipo de benefício material. Muito menos alguma afinidade especial com as pessoas ou com a filosofia da empresa.
A diferença é o tamanho do desafio.
Só mais uma prova empírica de que dinheiro sozinho não traz felicidade.
Uribe
Nem toda a AL esta indo para o lixo. Apesar dos pesares (não é chato ter que escrever isso sempre?) a lista de sucessos do Uribe não é pequena:
- Homicídios caíram de 36 mil por ano em 2002 para pouco mais de 17 mil em 2005 (24% menos do que em 2004).
- Seqüestros caíram de 3 mil para menos de mil anuais no mesmo período uma queda de 72% em relação a 2003.
- O país cresceu no ano passado 5,2% e duplicou as exportações em quatro anos, para US$ 24 bilhões. Ainda em 2005, o crescimento dos investimentos privados atingiu 15%.
- Desempego caiu para 11,8%, enquanto a taxa de pobreza caiu de 60% a 49%
Todos esses números são os melhores dos últimos 20 anos.
Everything hurts, and what doesn't hurt doesn't work...
You fell like the morning after, and you didn't go anywhere the night before...
Your knees buckle and your belt won't...
You can only burn the midnight oil until 9 o'clock...
The twinkle in your eyes is the sun hitting your bifocals...
Your back goes out more often than you do...
And another sure-fire way to know you're getting older is when...
Cards like this start showing up on your birthday!
Estava pronto para escreer um post sobre a carta do presidente mujadinho alguma coisa para o Bush, quando lembrei da minha cena preferida de Barton Fink. É quando o agente (Garland) está falando sobre a proposta de Hollywood, e o Fink começa a discursar sobre como o trabalho dele é sobre o 'homem comum', e que ele queria criar um teatro do povo para o povo, etc, etc. De acordo com o imdb, o resto do dialogo é assim:
Garland: The common man will still be here when you get back. Who knows, there may even be one or two of them in Hollywood.
Barton: That's a rationalization, Garland.
Garland: Barton, it was a joke.
Se você não toma cuidado, começa a levar tudo à sério demais.
- If Jack Bauer was in a room with Hitler, Stalin, and Nina Mayers, and he had a gun with 2 bullets, he'd shoot Nina twice.
- 1.6 billion Chinese are angry with Jack Bauer. Sounds like a fair fight.
- Jack Bauer once forgot where he put his keys. He then spent the next half-hour torturing himself until he gave up the location of the keys.
- Jack and Jill went up the hill. Only Jack came down. Jill was a fucking terrorist.
- Killing Jack Bauer doesn't make him dead. It just makes him angry.
- Jack Bauer sleeps with a gun under the pillow. But he could kill you with the pillow.
- Jack Bauer has no friends, because as a child when he would play cops and robbers, the robbers would all be interogated and killed.
- Nostradamus once predicted in his journal: "In the century 21st, the one known as Jacques will be the savior of the world... five seasons in a row." Moments later, Jack Bauer knocked down the door, shot Nostradamus in the kneecaps, and yelled "WHO ARE YOU WORKING FOR?!"
- When life hands Jack Bauer Lemons, he kills Terrorists. Jack Bauer fuckin' hates lemonade.
- On Jack Bauers Tax Returns, he has to claim the entire world as his dependants.
- It took God six days to get His job done; Jack has 24 hours.
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