Troy (official and very lame website, this toon is not from there :-P)
Mensagens
Programmers once could sit tight in cubicles in Silicon Valley and wait for work to arrive. Now the industry has discovered India ... So, meet the pissed-off programmer. If you've picked up a newspaper in the last six months, watched CNN, or even glanced at Slashdot , you've already heard his anguished cry:
The New Face of the Silicon Age
Raging Against the Machine
In its '1984' commercial [viewable here ], Apple suggested that its computers would smash Big Brother. But technology gave him more control.
By Theodore Roszak, professor emeritus of history at California State University, Hayward.
Who played in the Super Bowl in 1984? Not many people can remember ? fewer, I'll bet, than remember the woman who came sprinting across the television screen at halftime to toss a great big hammer at a glowering Big Brother. Talk about coming on strong. That was how Apple Computer announced the first Macintosh: a 60-second Orwellian mini-drama directed by Ridley Scott that was destined to become perhaps the most famous commercial ever made.
It's 20 years later, and Apple has "repurposed" the ad to help sell iPods as Super Bowl XXXVIII rolls around. Once again you can see an insurgent little company advertising itself as the hope of the human race. Brash as it was, that commercial embodied the Uto...
And The Godfather ? (obvious) What other kind of movie memories would they have on the tips of their thick tongues? The Horse Whisperer? The Bridges of Madison County? And the truth is that every American, of Italian extraction or not, knows the Godfather films by heart; and most of the rest of us do, too. And I, Claudius ? (dubious) The emperors were living in a blood-bath, and so are this bunch. Insightful review on the TLS
Produtor português arrecada prémio no Festival Sundance
"Dig!" é o título do mais recente filme sensação de Sundance e foi co-produzido por Vasco Lucas Nunes . A película conseguiu ganhar o prestigiado Grande Prémio do Júri de Documentário (por sinal um dos mais 'apetecidos' do certame) do Festival de Sundance , em Park City, nos Estados Unidos.
A produção partilhada por três profissionais (Ondi e David Timoner fundadores da Interloper em 1992), de entre os quais se destaca o português Vasco Lucas Nunes . O filme em causa - "Dig!" - foi um projecto pensado ao longo de sete longos anos, um traballho desenvolvido e registado em 1.500 horas de gravações. Agora, o mérito e o reconhecimento chegou de um dos mais prestigiados festivais de cinema independente de todo o mundo. O filme conta a história de duas bandas lideradas por Courtney Taylor (dos The Dandy Warhols ) e Anton Newcombe (dos The Brain Jonestown Massacre).
Vasco Lucas Nunes é lisboeta e c...
Vitriol
Can't write? don't write
by David Sexton, Literary Editor, Evening Standard
No other book is quite so completely and utterly worthless as a mediocre novel. A mediocre guide to trees or to cheese can have its uses for those who don't have anything better on the subject to hand. A history book or biography, however dull, contains some facts that may prove handy to somebody one day. Atlases, dictionaries, anthologies and instruction manuals, however uninspired, all have some little utility. But a lifeless novel has no value whatsoever.
Worse than worthless, it's positively a menace - for any time spent in reading dim, failed novels is so much time lost, time subtracted from life. In fact, a blank book is more desirable than a book defaced with such redundant type. At least blank pages can be used for shopping lists or doodles.
Yet duff novels continue to pour from the presses. Iain Duncan Smith's novel has been much ridiculed. We have just learned t...
Work
Andy was a Catholic, the ethic ran through his bones
He lived alone with his mother, collecting gossip and toys
Every Sunday when he went to Church
He'd kneel in his pew and say, "It's just work,
all that matters is work."
He was a lot of things, what I remember most
He'd say, "I've got to bring home the bacon, someone's got to bring home the roast."
He'd get to the factory early
If you'd ask him he'd tell you straight out
It's just work, the most important thing is work
No matter what I did it never seemed enough
He said I was lazy, I said I was young
He said, "How many songs did you write?"
I'd written zero, I'd lied and said, "Ten."
"You won't be young forever
You should have written fifteen"
It's work, the most important thing is work
It's work, the most important thing is work
"You ought to make things big
People like it that way
And the s...
Where once was light
Now darkness falls
Where once was love
Love is no more
Don't say goodbye
Don't say I didn't try
These tears we cry
Are falling rain
For all the lies you told us
The hurt, the blame!
And we will weep to be so alone
We are lost
We can never go home
So in the end
I'll be what I will be
No loyal friend
Was ever there for me
Now we say goodbye
We say you didn't try
Dear Reader: It is with great pleasure that I have gained the consent of Dorothy Bryant to publish her work-in-progress, " Literary Lynching ," in serial fashion at Holt uncensored . Below you'll see what is available so far. You can start with the Introduction, but feel free to read the chapters out of order as they are compiled.
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION
What is a Literary Lynching?
CREATOR OF TERRORISTS?:
Ivan Turgenev and Fathers and Sons
JUDE THE OBSCENE:
Thomas Hardy and Jude the Obscure
A MISSING LINK:
Kate Chopin and The Awakening
THAT QUIET, LEVEL VOICE:
George Orwell and Homage to Catalonia
BANALITY, JUSTICE, AND TRUTH:
Hannah Arendt and Eichmann in Jerusalem
LITERARY JIM CROW:
William Styron and The Confessions of Nat Turner
IN FRONT OF OUR NOSES:
Dorothy Bryant and A Day in San Francisco
(I'm starting by this one)
Bad Day?
1. The average cost of rehabilitating a seal, after the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska was $80,000. At a special ceremony, two of the most expensively saved animals were released back into the wild amid cheers and applause from onlookers. A minute later, in full view, a killer whale ate them both.
2. A psychology student in New York rented out her spare room to a carpenter in order to nag him constantly and study his reactions. After weeks of needling, he snapped and beat her repeatedly with an axe leaving her mentally retarded.
3. In 1992, Frank Perkins of Los Angeles made an attempt on the world flagpole sitting record. Suffering from the flu he came down eight hours short of the 400 day record, his sponsor had gone bust, his girlfriend had left him and his phone and electricity had been cut off.
4. A woman came home to find her husband in the kitchen, shaking frantically with what looked like a wire running from his waist towards the electric kettle. Intend...
Daniel Pennac's
The Reader's Bill of Rights
1. The right not to read.
2. The right to skip pages.
3. The right to not finish.
4. The right to reread.
5. The right to read anything.
6.The right to escapism.
7.The right to read anywhere.
8. The right to browse.
9. The right to read out loud.
10. The right to not defend your tastes.
Deep Impact
Better looking in the printable certificate, and what is more, uncorrupted!! :-)
DEEP IMPACT MISSION
First Look Inside a Comet
Participation Certificate
Presented to
Susana Serrão
On January 22, 2004
Thank you for your participation in the Deep Impact Discovery Mission to Comet Tempel 1. A compact disc bearing your name will be mounted on the impactor spacecraft that will collide with Tempel 1 making this the first mission ever to look deep inside a comet.
You are now part of the future discovery of clues about the beginning of our solar system as your name makes a Deep Impact!
Dr. Edward J. Weiler
Associate Administrator
NASA Office of Space Science Michael F. A'Hearn
Principal Investigator
Deep Impact Mission
University of Maryland
Certificate No. 496329
Listen to ALL Don Quijote de la Mancha.
Voz: Camilo García Casar
Here's the first chapter...
"Que trata de la condición y ejercicio del famoso y valiente hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha
En un lugar de la Mancha, de cuyo nombre no quiero acordarme, no ha mucho tiempo que vivía un hidalgo de los de lanza en astillero, adarga antigua, rocín flaco y galgo corredor. Una olla de algo más vaca que carnero, salpicón las más noches, duelos y quebrantos los sábados, lantejas los viernes, algún palomino de añadidura los domingos, consumían las tres partes de su hacienda. El resto della concluían sayo de velarte, calzas de velludo para las fiestas, con sus pantuflos de lo mesmo, y los días de entresemana se honraba con su vellorí de lo más fino. Tenía en su casa una ama que pasaba de los cuarenta y una sobrina que no llegaba a los veinte, y un mozo de campo y plaza que así ensillaba el rocín como tomaba la podadera. Frisaba la edad de nuestro hidalgo con los cin...
Mi Idela
Si como yo te quiero, me quisieras,
atracción de mi espiritu, alma mía,
y aun muerto el sol de mi postrero día
fidelidad para mi amor tuvieras,
conmigo en un idilio, compartieras
mi vino, donde hierve la alegría;
mis sueños, donde flota la poesía;
mi hogar, lleno de dichas placenteras.
Dividieras la suerte que me ampara:
mi mesa, reluciente como un ara;
mi lecho, en que la gloria se divisa.
Para cantar, partiéramos el canto;
para llorar, partiéramos el llanto;
para reír, partiéramos la risa.
Salvador Rueda
(1857-1933)
The spotted hawk swoops by and accuses me, he complains
of my gab and my loitering.
I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable ,
I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world.
The last scud of day holds back for me,
It flings my likeness after the rest and true as any on the
shadow'd wilds,
It coaxes me to the vapor and the dusk.
I depart as air, I shake my white locks at the runaway sun,
I effuse my flesh in eddies, and drift it in lacy jags.
I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love,
If you want me again look for me under your boot-soles.
W.W.
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived ... I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it too its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world...
(...) inside there was this perfect little bedroom. Very plush, with soft Persian rugs and comfortable chairs, paintings on the walls, incense burning on the table, and a bed with silk pillows and a red satin comforter. I called you over, and the minute you stepped inside, I threw my arms around yoou and started kissing you on the mouth. I was completely hot. All sexed up and raring to go.
And me?
You had the biggest hard-on of your life.
Keep this up and you'll give me an even bigger one now.
We took off our clothes and started rolling around on the bed, all sweaty and hungry for each other. It was delicious. We both came once, and then, without pausing for breath, we started in again, going at each other like two animals.
It sounds like a porno movie.
It was wild.
Oracle Night , Paul Auster
Somewhere beyond the sea
Somewhere waiting for me
My lover stands on golden sands
And watches the ships that go sailing
Somewhere beyond the sea
She's there watching for me
If I could fly like birds on high
Then straight to her arms
I'd go sailing
It's far beyond the stars
It's near beyond the moon
I know beyond a doubt
My heart will lead me there soon
We'll meet beyond the shore
We'll kiss just as before
Happy we'll be beyond the sea
And never again I'll go sailing
I know beyond a doubt
My heart will lead me there soon
We'll meet beyond the shore
We'll kiss just as before
Happy we'll be beyond the sea
And never again I'll go sailing
No more sailing
So long sailing
Bye bye sailing
Reviewed in the TLS : Weather is one of the shortest entries, yet it displays all the authors? characteristic strengths: range (from the origins of the Met Office to the significance of weather in everyday conversation), an instinct for what is significant, an interest in ?national identity? (what makes things English and/or British).
This is a sample of what Les Luthiers do. They usually speak about a ficticious composer, Johann Sebastian Mastropiero. They explain his life and play his "works". The following one is funny. Remember that they are Argentinians so they probably use "vos" instead of "tu" (pretty much like the Brazillian)
“Il sitio di Castilla” está inspirada en un hecho histórico, recogido por leyendas populares, que luego cantaron los famosos tenori castrati, que tienen su origen en el medioevo. De allí tomaron el argumento los cómicos de la legua y fue representada en distintas versiones por los cultores de la commedia dell'arte hasta que Ferruccio Portimiglia lo convirtió en poema épico bajo el título de “Ma come, una altra volta?” Todos los ejemplares de “Ma come, una altra volta?” se perdieron en la inundación de Florencia de 1712, menos uno, que milagrosamente rescatado... se perdió en la de 1713. Afortunadamente, dicha pérdida pudo ser reparada gracias a un...
Cool
Slang comes and goes, but cool has been a constant for half a century. What accounts for the term's longevity?
Now and then the words "nifty" or "groovy" might drop into a conversation, instantly identifying the speaker as an old fogy or, worse, an old hippie.
But the word cool doesn't do that. Cool is constant. As a modifier, as the modified, as a noun and as a verb, cool has withstood the fleeting nature of most slang.
What is the reason for cool 's longevity? That's an easy question for Keith Covington, jazz expert and owner of the New Haven Lounge in Baltimore. As long as Miles Davis' classic 1949 work, "Birth of the Cool," remains the bestselling jazz album of all time, cool will stay cool, he says.
Cool still "carries the same weight and definition that it did 50 years ago," Covington says. "Jazz musicians and jazz aficionados still refer to great works as 'cool.' "
Cool ...
Endless Film Credits
They are known as closing credits, but the other day at a movie theater in Times Square, after three and a half epic hours of " The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King ," the credits did not seem to want to close.
It took five minutes for the names of all the actors, producers, editors, gaffers, grips, best boys, dialect coaches, wig makers and steelworkers to crawl by. Next came the less familiar show-business occupations like stable foreman, horse makeup artist, horseshoer and the two guys in charge of the chain mail.
At eight minutes, the moviegoers still in the theater were watching a scroll of completely inscrutable titles like "wrangler manager" and "compositing inferno artist." Of course, the caterer had to be immortalized, too.
Finally, 9 minutes and 33 seconds after they began, the closing credits came to a close.
John Rodriguez, a subway track worker, was the only person left in the theater. (The clea...
The Diary of Samuel Pepys
THE DIARY OF SAMUEL PEPYS M.A. F.R.S.
CLERK OF THE ACTS AND SECRETARY TO THE ADMIRALTY
TRANSCRIBED FROM THE SHORTHAND MANUSCRIPT IN THE PEPYSIAN LIBRARY
MAGDALENE COLLEGE CAMBRIDGE BY THE REV. MYNORS BRIGHT M.A. LATE FELLOW
AND PRESIDENT OF THE COLLEGE
(Unabridged)
WITH LORD BRAYBROOKE’S NOTES
EDITED WITH ADDITIONS BY
HENRY B. WHEATLEY F.S.A.
LONDON
GEORGE BELL & SONS YORK ST. COVENT GARDEN
CAMBRIDGE DEIGHTON BELL & CO.
1893
Saturday 12 January 1660/61
With Colonel Slingsby and a friend of his, Major Waters (a deaf and most amorous melancholy gentleman, who is under a despayr in love, as the Colonel told me, which makes him bad company, though a most good- natured man), by water to Redriffe, and so on foot to Deptford (our servants by water), where we fell to choosing four captains to command the guards, and choosing the places where to keep them, and other things in order thereunto. We dined at the Globe, ...
Paul Auster's Oracle Night
A Portuguese publisher has made an offer on your last two novels.
Portugal?
Self-Portrait was published in Spain while you were in the hospital. You know that, I told you. The reviews were very good. Now the Portuguese are interested.
That's nice. I suppose they're offering something like three hundred dollars.
Four hundred for each book. But I can easily get them up to five.
Go for it, Mary. After you deduct the agents' fees and foreign taxes, I'll wind up with about forty cents.
True. But at least you'll be published in Portugal. What's wrong with that?
Nothing. Pessoa is one of my favourite writers. They've kicked out Salazar and have a decent government now. The Lisbon earthquake inspired Voltaire to write Candide . And Portugal helped get thousands of Jews out of Europe during the war. It's a terrific country. I've never been there, of course, but that's where I live now, whether I like it or not. Por...
Special Treat (you know who you are :-)
When the universe is expanding it can make you late for work
By Woody Allen
I am greatly relieved that the universe is finally explainable. I was beginning to think it was me. As it turns out, physics, like a grating relative, has all the answers. The big bang, black holes, and the primordial soup turn up every Tuesday in the Science section of The New York Times, and as a result my grasp of general relativity and quantum mechanics now equals Einstein's - Einstein Moomjy, that is, the rug seller.
How could I not have known that there are little things the size of "Planck length" in the universe, which are a millionth of a billionth of a billionth of a billionth of a centimetre? Imagine if you dropped one in a dark theatre how hard it would be to find. And how does gravity work? And if it were to cease suddenly would certain restaurants still require a jacket?
What I do know about physics is that to a man standing on the s...
Later than usual one summer morning in 1984, Zoyd Wheeler drifted awake in sunlight through a creeping fig that hung in the window, with a squadron of blue jays stomping around on the roof. In his dream these had been carrier pigeons from someplace far across the ocean, landing and taking off again one by one, each bearing a message for him, but none of whom, light pulsing in their wings, he could ever quite get to in time.
(Thomas Pynchon. Vineland. p.3)
Michael Crichton (yet again, I know :-) in a speech before the American Association for the Advancement of Science
If I were magically put in charge of improving the status and image of science, I would take several steps. I recognize they are difficult steps, because they involve changing the prevailing culture of science. But I'll run them past you anyway.
(...) there's a problem about the number of Americans drawn to technical and scientific careers. We are a technological society that can't fulfill its own needs?Silicon Valley imports foreign nationals with software skills .
