Nepenthe

Making It Count By hortense, 11:00 AM on Sun Sep 27 2009, 501 views [at 21:29, Lisbon time] [Lisbon, September 27. Image via Getty .] An woman casts her ballot at a polling station in central Lisbon, on 27 September, 2009. Portugal vote today to choose between ruling Socialists pledging a spending spree to create jobs and conservatives calling for belt-tightening to battle the economic crisis. AFP PHOTO / MIGUEL RIOPA (Photo credit should read MIGUEL RIOPA/AFP/Getty Images) COMMENTS so far: « Hmm. I thought Portugal was a fairly advanced nation, so I'm surprised to see that they still vote with folded slips of paper. » «To be fair, we certainly haven't been the poster child for super-accurate and fraud-proof electronic voting. Maybe there's something to be said for a folded slip of paper. ;)    » « That's how Germany votes too. it assures that people actually understand what they are doing and if you are just making one (or two) X it's more efficient...

NY Times obituary . A treasure trove of On Language columns, Safire's last one on Sep, 13.

Women think that the Kama Sutra is an Indian takeaway. We are just not fluent in body language. Nor do we have the gift of the grab. While men are ready, villain and able, a woman’s biggest fantasy in the bedroom involves discovering that her husband has picked his underpants up off the floor. On official Name/ Address/ Age forms, after it says Sex most women should write: Not if I can possibly help it .” I know this because the new owner of the relaunched Erotic Review , Kate Copstick, is loath to allow too many female authors to slip between her covers. In the press last weekend and on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme with me this week she stated that women seldom write well about sex because females “have an agenda, they complicate sex, they make layers, it’s conditional. And they lie as well.” Apparently, it would be like reading a meat-lover’s guide written by a vegetarian. So, what exactly is erotic fiction? I suppose the most reliable definition is a magazi...

You might be wondering what, exactly, a prostitute might have to say to you about men and relationships. Let’s put it this way: I have met men. Loads of men. In my work as a call girl, I have seen them at their most cocksure and at their most vulnerable. If you are after what to do (and, more important, what not to do) in the company of men, then read on. 1 Get un-messed-up already Seriously, if you are more riddled with self-doubt than the aristocracy are with pubic lice, then attraction is going to be a giant stumbling block for you. Men can smell the horror of an emotional mess a mile away — and, unlike women, they probably will not steer well clear, at least until they’ve got sex out of her first. Then they will vacate the premises at speed and with nary a fare-thee-well. There is a saying, attributed to Abraham Lincoln, that people are usually about as happy as they make up their minds to be. It is the truth. If there is a chemical, physiological reason why you are unhappy, th...

Há vida além do computador A nova animação de Miyazaki evita com total rigor o maniqueísmo da imensa maioria das histórias infantis e o cansaço da animação digital robotizada. "Ponyo à Beira-Mar", livremente inspirado em "A Pequena Sereia", de Hans Christian Andersen, é uma longa-metragem de animação assinada pelo nome prestigioso de Hayao Miyzaki, conhecido entre nós por dois enormes sucessos anteriores, "A Viagem de Chihiro" (2001) e "A Princesa Monokoke" (1997): Sosuke, um azougado rapaz que vive numa casa no topo de uma falésia com o pai, capitão de um navio, e a mãe, empregada num lar de idosos, encontra aprisionada uma criança-peixe vermelha, decidindo guardá-la num balde de praia verde. Fascinada pelo mundo dos humanos, a menina-peixe afronta o pai, poderoso feiticeiro, outrora humano, que a quer prender no fundo do mar, e regressa ao convívio do amigo, roubando o elixir da vida, e, com a ajuda da mãe, deusa das águas (uma espéc...

Moby-Dick by Herman Melville Ishmael, the narrator, finds himself sharing a bed at the whalers' inn with a Polynesian harpooneer whose face and body are covered with tattoos. These are the work of a "seer of his island" who has "written out on his body a complete theory of the heavens and the earth". Unfortunately, it is illegible to everyone, including Queequeg himself. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson When a mysterious sea captain arrives at the Admiral Benbow inn, his past, and the adventures to come, are signalled in the tattoos on his arm. "'Here's luck,' 'A fair wind,' and 'Billy Bones his fancy,' were very neatly and clearly executed on the forearm; and up near the shoulder there was a sketch of a gallows and a man hanging from it – done, as I thought, with great spirit". "Prophetic", says Dr Livesey, and indeed they are ... "The Red-Headed League" by Arthur Conan Doyle Mr Ja...

Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi delivered a rambling address to the United Nations in New York City on Wednesday morning, calling Barack Obama "our son" and railing against the U.N. Security Council. He spoke not in Arabic, Libya's official language, but a local Libyan dialect. Does the United Nations have an interpreter for every dialect in the world? No. Speakers at the United Nations are supposed to deliver their speeches in one of the organization's six official languages: English, French, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, and Chinese. U.N. interpreters then translate the lecture into the other five languages. If the speaker doesn't use an official language—either as a political statement or because he doesn't know one—the speaker has to bring along his own interpreter. That interpreter then translates into one of the official languages—usually English or French—and the other interpreters translate from that interpretation. (Qaddafi brought his own interpreter.) ...

Click to access the interactive timeline at Slate You could be forgiven for thinking we're in the midst of an unprecedented madness for vampires. "True Blood Season Premiere Looking to Capitalize Off of Vampire Craze," headlined the Associated Press in June. "CW joins vampire trend with 'Diaries'," announced the Philadelphia Inquirer last week. The Hartford Courant asks, "Why Vampires Now?" A better question might be, why vampires ever? Looking back, it's hard to think of a period when we weren't in the middle of a vampire craze. In the late 1970s, Anne Rice started raking in the money with Interview With the Vampire, and movies like Werner Herzog's Nosferatu the Vampyre and the comedy Love at First Bite were critical hits. Then came The Lost Boys, Near Dark, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Innocent Blood, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (the movie), four more Anne Rice books, and Interview With the Vampire (the movie)—which could all b...

Tuesday, July 28, 2009 Last week at Comic-Con, the big story wasn't comic books—it was vampires. Some 2,000 young women set up a tent city outside the San Diego Convention Center on Tuesday, sleeping rough so that they could attend the Thursday panel on New Moon , the upcoming sequel to vampire blockbuster Twilight . It's just another sign of the massive popularity of vampires. Yet, like many people who acquire mega-celebrity, the vampire has developed an eating disorder. Read the books. Watch the movies. You'll see vampires who manage nightclubs, build computer databases, work as private investigators, go to prep school, lobby Congress, chat with humans, live near humans, have sex with humans, and pine over humans, but the one thing you won't see them do is suck the blood of humans. No, bloodsucking is so yesterday. It's so 1994. It's so Anne Rice. Today's vampire is a good listener. He cares about our love lives and our problems, which is strange becau...

But my planet is making me. Tuesday was the Autumnal Equinox, one of two days out of the year when day and night are of equal length. For a moment, the earth's axis will not be tilted toward or away from the sun but rather level with it. Our daylight will grow shorter and our nights longer. When I lived in New England, the prospect of waning daylight depressed me for days. I wanted to either jump on a plane heading to the southern hemisphere for the beginning of their spring. Or hibernate waiting for the Vernal Equinox. But now I live in San Francisco where the sun waits patiently in the wings behind a curtain of coastal fog in July and August. Then springs to center stage in September. Our summer is just beginning. While the rest of the country is adding toasty sweaters and scarves to their wardrobe, we’re finally shedding ours. Roaming about in sleeveless tops, sandals and shorts. I will take my cues from the weather forecast of a high of 79 today and ignore the earth...

Eddie Izzard on Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh You've just completed the equivalent of your 38th marathon in 45 days... Feeling OK? I'm knackered. Very, very tired. The legs are like lead. The feet have a lot of blisters, and it's a case of constantly re-blistering them as the new skin comes through and breaks again. You're running around 30 miles a day for this, frankly insane, Sport Relief challenge – where is the energy coming from? It's the porridge I put into me in the morning and the potatoes I put into me at night. The rest of it is a wing and a prayer. Is it tough to get up in the mornings? My mornings are pretty regimented. Up at 6.30am and into a hot bath as quickly as possible, then stuff my face, have a massage and put cream all over my body, bandage my feet, and out by 9am. Then once I'm off I try and do 15 miles before I stop. At the start I always think, "Actually, I'm gonna get into this..." but aft...

por Tomás de Montemor A caretta do Mediterrâneo é uma espécie de tartaruga marinha com uma vida muito misteriosa para nós. É difícil seguir um réptil durante trinta anos que vive no mar e que só vem a terra para desovar (a fêmea, claro!). E a grande ameaça a esta espécie começa logo na desova, «programada» para as praias onde as mães nasceram e que hoje são locais turísticos apetecíveis. Já há organizações para defender as tartarugas e as suas «maternidades», mas muito se tem ainda de fazer para evitar que mais uma espécie desapareça da face do planeta. Sobretudo em termos de educação ambiental. Estou a flutuar sobre uma tartaruga que voa pacholamente sobre as cândidas areias da baía de Laganas, na ilha grega de Zakynthos. Acompanho com umas braçadas as breves e espaçadas batidelas das barbatanas anteriores do animal. Estou a nadar, mas só a palavra voar serve para descrever o que sinto naquele momento. Mais adiante, um indivíduo enorme está pousado no fundo, vira a cabeça m...