Anti-americanism?

(Photo Credit: Arthur Williamson)

From http://lvb.net/item/2805

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Inspiring

My friend Paula da Silva sent me this link to an inspiring video about an inspiring man, Steve Mccurry, National Geographic photographer, and author of *that* cover that everyone remembers, of the girl with deep green eyes...
Best of all... can you guess where he is explaining the things in the video? Yeah, that's right :-)

Where has the coke Callipo gone? :-(

And now for amazing Portuguese TV!

No, I'm not kidding, these were actually pretty amazing!



"Duarte e Cª"



"O tal canal"



"TV rural" - for those who understand Portuguese, you can see that not much has changed since back then... :-)



I think that everyone in Europe can remember these! "Jogos sem Fronteiras"

Some more songs from our childhood

"As aventuras do Bocas"



"She-ra (He-man's twin sister :-) )"



"Transformers" (I actually thought this one was pretty annoying)

Songs from our childhood

For all of those who lived their childhood in Portugal, back in the times when we could go outside and play, there were no computer games (well, there were, but you had to go to a cousin's or neighbor's house since they weren't for everyone), and cartoons were amazing:



("Abelha Maia")



("Calimero")



("Tom Sawyer", one of my favorites)



("Pica Pau" - Woody woodpecker in English)



("Fábulas da Floresta Verde", one of my favourites as well)



("Panda Tao Tao", or "Cute overload", like Twine usually says :-) )



("A Corrida mais Louca do Mundo", "Wacky races" in English)



("A formiga atómica", "Atom ant" in English)



("Homem-elástico, "Plastic Man" in English)

... there are many more, I'll post them when I get the time. Enjoy!

Pilobolus - Amazing!

At the Oscars:



At Conan O'Brien:



Definitely one of the most creative things I've seen in dancing!

Portugal is good for vacation

This is a sentence I hear a lot among Portuguese people who are working abroad: "Portugal is good [but only] for vacation". 

Well, where else are you going to find places such as these. For all of you, Portuguese and non-Portuguese who are looking to know more of this country (it's really worth it, trust me), go and take a look at the site wonderfulland.com.

The critical situation of critical life support in Portugal

Now this is the real thing:



The things that happen in this country are simply amazing. You'd think this is a parody, but it's not. It's a person calling 112 (991 for those in the USA), requesting help, and the subsequent dialogues among firemen and medical emergency corporations... Some only have one person on duty and thus can't leave with an ambulance, some have a very bad telephone connection and can't hear, and it's a complete mess. Total time for all the calls, in a critical case: 15 minutes.



The second videoclip is a parody made by "Gato Fedorento", probably our best comedian team in Portugal, and when I first saw this I thought that it was just a parody because the government had shut down tons of medical emergency units, and thus they couldn't operate well. Well, the similarities are amazing.

I'm filing this under "bad" and "comics" labels because what else are you going to do... !!!! I have no words.

On how to become famous by accident

3M Carjacks the Post-It Note Jaguar

Is all research bullsh*t?

I swear this guy reads our thoughts!
(from PhdComics.com)

Post 9/11 Comedy Central...

http://ccinsider.comedycentral.com/cc_insider/2008/09/the-daily-sho-1.html

And I think he's right.
I can't believe it was 7 years ago already...

oh ... my ... god.

I have no words. This is the best that they could come up with? I'd be ashamed and switch to Mac, or Linux. Oh wait, I already use both.

vs... The things we don't take for granted :-)

(from indexed)

The things we take for granted!

(from phdcomics.com)

Is google making us stupid?

This article speculates on the theory that the responsible for our diminishing attention span is Google. Maybe they're actually right!

Mini-burn :-)

Now you can have a fireplace anywhere with the Apollo Tabletop Fireplace. Seems cozy and techy!

Face transformer!!!

An amazing tool to have some fun... just submit a photo and see how you'd be if you were...


East-Asian!
A Mango character!
Mucha painting!
Afro-Caribbean!
West-Asian...

and many more!

The most famous unicorn in the universe

Yes... I can still remember the first day I watched this. Me and my roomie, Rui, were in Boston watching random youtube videos - the things you do when you get depressed abroad... - and... we were just so... surprised. The next day we made a trip to Wallmart in Quincy (well, like 30km from Boston), we caught the red line, we didn't really know where Wallmart was, and many people in Quincy didn't either, we just kept going on, and, well, saying "Charlieeeeeeeeeee" pretty much the whole way. Funny memories. At least for me :)

How to create an unique show - Cavalia

mmmmMmmmm...

Can you believe this is a caramel apple??! Only in New York! For more on this, go to the New York Times Article by OLIVER SCHWANER-ALBRIGHT, the photography is by Rebecca McAlpin.

CERN Rap!!!!

A computer model to save lives in hurricanes

A Model for Hurricane Evacuation - Software developed at MIT could save lives and money by improving hurricane planning (from The Technology Review)

Knowing a lot about nothing

(from PhdComics.com)

Died in a blogging accident!

notice that no horseback riding is mentioned there :-)
(from xkcd.com)

The daily nightmares of a PhD student

(from xkcd.com)

(from PhDComics.com)

Criminality in Portugal: let's look at the trailer

Again... Brazil is a good preview of what Portugal is becoming.
Let's see...

1. Disappearance of the middle class; larger difference between the rich and the poor every day that goes by;
   
2. Chaotic (nonexistent?) Education;
3. "True" criminality (and everyday, all the time...);
4. Corruption...

Haven't we seen this movie before? And we're just looking at the trailers...

This chronicle by Ricardo Araújo Pereira, in Visão, August 2008, is an amazing critic of point (3). Unfortunately it's also very true...

What are they going to invent next...

This article from dvice describes the new hype thing in fashion: contact lens jewelry for your eyeballs. Basically the jewelery is attached to a contact lens through a medical wire...
I don't know about you but... OWTCH OWTCH OWTCH!!!!!!!
(Photo credit: Eric Klarenbeek, via Dezeen)

The future of education in Portugal

No comments. Actually, just a comment. But WHY? It seems that Brazil has been a "preview" of what is going to happen to this country: first the increasing differentiation between the rich and the poor, then the criminality, then the education. I know they descend from our genes, but where is it going to stop?



For those who can't speak Portuguese, it is the enumeration of political changes that led to an education where kids can't make simple addition operations, write and even read. Among those, is one that is being implemented here: making it easier to pass the year and almost impossible to fail. Kids just don't have an incentive to learn, and they just continue until the basic flaws are just too important and widespread to be able to learn. The result is that parents are making pressure on the schools for them to fail their kids!!!

Another highly stressful process: cleaning the sensor of your camera!

.... but here is a nice article for that:

Clean Sweep

The highly stressing and joyful process of purchasing a new camera

Like my friend and mentor Paula da Silva says, we women like to dream about, wonder, dissect everything about purchasing a new thing. Well, this time I'm wondering about a high-quality compact camera mainly for street photography and random stuff (as always) to keep with me.

Some of the candidates are:

1. Panasonic Lumix LX3
   
2. Canon Powershot G9 (or G10 if that happens)

... or even some of the older models to save some cash, since cameras that you always keep with you, well, are prone to getting mugged :-(

Anyway, I'll post my never ending quest for the perfect compact and noisy camera here.

Here is the first interesting review on Panasonic Lumix LX3. Apparently it is highly recommended there. Some other reviews and news are here and here, but not in such a level of detail that I can make a decision on. I guess I'll have to wait to go to my favorite store (that is, BH Photo Video in NY)... next year. *sigh*.

Photography gadgets

Only a photographer with that much experience can think of such an amazingly useful gadget:

JustRite Camera Bracket

Worth to watch, for photographers! Something to add to my wishlist :-)

Indexed's humbling

So here is an image that illustrates the frustration of many PhD students, and that absolutely deserves recognition, being printed and placed on every lab's wall.
The link to the original post - "Humbling".
(Comic credit: Jessica Hagy)

Going back to photography (underwater this time)

Being such a passionate photographer, it is highly difficult not to go back to photography. Here is an inspiring story by an MBA who became an underwater photographer:

Pascal Kobeh: Into the Oceans

Saudade

So, I started this (extra) blog for posting interesting news and events, materialistic stuff, etc. Stuff that is not necessarily related to photography.
Really, random walks on life. Other people, other places, and even materialistic stuff that crosses my path.

Curiously I shall start with a non-materialistic post. I hope that the author doesn't mind. I couldn't find her address but this one is from "Nubbie and the Nuts", who posted in an MIT list where they announce job openings and interesting events. Enough of that already. The text is this:

"I recently learned this great new word: saudade. It's a Portuguese word that doesn't really exist in any other language. It's an expression of fond remembrance of something: a lost lover, a time in one's life, a certain set of feelings, coupled with a sad longing for the thing's return, a hope, albeit slim, that you will be reunited sometime in the future and the bittersweet joy that comes with the recognition and acceptance of fate and life's uncertainty... All that sentiment in one word--how cool is that?"

Yes... How cool is that? :-)