http://arts.independent.co.uk/film/features/article2864617.ece
The Independent
Hey Dude: The Lebowski Festival
Thousands of fans will congregate in Edinburgh next week to celebrate the Coen brothers' cult anti-hero, the Dude. Lebowski Festival organiser Will Russell explains why we all love a loser
Published: 15 August 2007
Later this month in Edinburgh, legions of people will don their bathrobes, drink White Russians and go ten-pin bowling to pay homage to a man who calls himself "the Dude". In spite of how this might sound, the Dude is not a crazed cult leader; in fact, he's not even real. He is the central character in the 1998 Coen brothers' comedy The Big Lebowski.
If you have never heard of this movie, you are not alone. The film bombed at the box office and was dismissed by critics and most of the movie-going public as a forgettable mess. This mess, however, is well on its way to becoming the first cult film of the internet era. In the past five years alone, The Big Lebowski has spawned a legion of fans, a travelling festival that has packed bowling alleys across the US, and a book that has been published in multiple countries.
The movie is set in Los Angeles in the early 1990s. The Dude, played flawlessly by Jeff Bridges, is an unemployed, ageing hippie and former political activist whose only ambition now seems to be to have enough change to buy a fresh carton of milk for his White Russians. In the midst of America's consumer culture, the Dude finds his happiness in simple pleasures like bowling with his buddies. By most accounts, his slacker lifestyle would put him in the loser category. Yet thousands consider the Dude to be a heroic figure. In a time of war and strife, much of which can be attributed to the unchecked greed and power of world leaders, the Dude is a breath of fresh air.
In The Big Lebowski, the Coen brothers offer an inspired twist on noir films such as The Big Sleep by replacing the sure-footed, hard-nosed detective with a fumbling, lovable stoner. The plot boils down to the Dude, whose real name is Jeffrey Lebowski, being mistaken for a millionaire who shares his name. Madness ensues when two thugs come to collect a debt from the rich Lebowski and proceed to pee on the Dude's rug. The Dude's hot-headed buddy, Walter (John Goodman), comes up with the idea of approaching the millionaire Lebowski to ask for compensation for the soiled rug.
The Dude then finds himself caught up in a series of events that involves him mixing with (or fleeing from) kidnappers, nihilists, trophy wives, hired heavies, avant-garde artists, hard-assed cops and his bowling nemesis. All the while drinking White Russians and smoking weed. But the plot is, as Joel Coen said in a rare interview with indieWIRE, "ultimately unimportant". It is merely the backdrop to what some say is the most quotable dialogue in film history.
Joel and Ethan Coen have been making films for more than 20 years. While trying to secure distribution for their first film, Blood Simple, in 1984, the Coens befriended indie film champion Jeff Dowd. Dowd, who was a political activist in the Seventies, actually calls himself "the Dude" and is one of the inspirations for the film.
While all of the minor performances are brilliant in their own way – Goodman as the Vietnam vet Walter, Steve Buscemi as the Dude's put-upon friend Donny, Julianne Moore as the Dude's love interest (of sorts), and John Turturro as the flamboyant pederast who calls himself "the Jesus" – the standout performance comes from Bridges. Despite his four Oscar nominations, including for his first performance in a leading role in The Last Picture Show in 1971, the Dude may be Bridges' most memorable role.
The Dude represents the counter-culture of America. His refusal to kowtow to the rich Lebowski is a refusal to kowtow to the entire power structure of corporate conglomerates and diabolically corrupt politicians. Fans admire The Dude's conviction and ability to remain true to himself no matter who he's dealing with. As one character puts it, "It's good knowin' he's out there, the Dude, takin' 'it easy for all us sinners."
In the same way, the film's failure at the box office is a big part of its appeal. Danny Peary, author of the 1981 book Cult Movies, explains: "Cult films are born in controversy... Cultists believe they are among the blessed few who have discovered something in particular films that the average moviegoer and critic have missed – the something that makes the pictures extraordinary."
The Big Lebowski was released in the midst of the dotcom boom of the late Nineties when internet usage was becoming more prevalent. Suddenly, people who would otherwise have never met could connect with the click of a mouse. This instant connectivity has been the main catalyst for the growth of the cult of Lebowski. The number one comment submitted through LebowskiFest. com is: "I'm so happy to find others like me!"
This delight at not being alone is how Lebowski Fest was born. My friend, Scott Shuffitt, and I were bored out of our minds selling T-shirts at a tattoo convention and quoting Lebowski lines to pass the time. Suddenly, a voice that did not belong to us joined in and started quoting the sacred script. In the middle of a barrage of Lebowski quotes, inspiration struck. If they could hold this ridiculous tattoo convention, why couldn't we hold a ridiculous Big Lebowski convention? We rented the cheapest bowling alley we could find in our hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, gathered some dusty bowling trophies and set out to have a party for what we thought would be 20 or so of our friends. More than 150 people showed up.
LebowskiFest.com was created later that year in December 2002. Word of mouth in the form of emails and posts on discussion forums began to spread the news that there was a place to celebrate a love of all things Lebowski. In 2003, SPIN magazine listed Lebowski Fest as one of the summer's must-attend events and the festival was no longer Kentucky's little secret. Some 1,200 fans from 35 US states flocked to Louisville that July to bowl in the name of Lebowski and meet the inspiration for the film's main character, Jeff Dowd. He was worried that it was going to be some nerdy convention but was pleasantly surprised to meet a great group of people who are, as he says, "better drinkers than they are bowlers". Lebowski Fest has since held sold-out events all across the United States, and is now heading to the UK for the first time.
People of all ages and backgrounds attend Lebowski Fests: lawyers and doctors, teachers and parents, slackers and stoners, Vietnam vets and judges, college kids and nerds. Everyone getting along, bowling and quoting lines. These are people who are smart enough to appreciate the Coen brothers' sense of irony, but silly enough to enjoy their absurdist humor. The film screenings at Lebowski Fest are not your typical night out at the movies. Thousands of fans get together, drink White Russians, laugh, and shout out their favorite dialogue. After the screening, it's on to the tenpin bowling alley. Many people dress up as characters from the film – the Dude in his bathrobe, Walter in his sharp-shooter glasses, Maude in her Valkyrie outfit and the Jesus in his purple jumpsuit and hairnet. Nihilists run amok from one end of the bowling alley to another. The Stranger can be seen ambling through the crowd with his ten-gallon hat leading the way.
Many people ask why, of all the films that have been made, The Big Lebowski has its own travelling festival. Well, Citizen Kane is often hailed as the greatest film of all time, but I don't imagine that a Kane Fest would be any fun at all. The Big Lebowski has a good deal of tenpin bowling in it and tenpin bowling is fun. Not to mention the therapeutic value of having a few White Russians. Much like the rug in the Dude's apartment, tenpin bowling really ties the Fest together. Hope to see you out on the lanes.
Will Russell is co-author of 'I'm a Lebowski, You're a Lebowski', Canongate Books, £12.99; Lebowski Fest is coming to Edinburgh on 24 August and London on 30 August (http://lebowskifest.com)
Friday 31 August 2007
Thursday 30 August 2007
Ejercicio de fisica
El rocco piensa que seria entretenidisimo para un domingo en la manana el ir a una megacomer y sentar a uno de los cerillitos en un carro del super y aventarlo con toda fuerza por un largo pasillo al final de este se encuentre contra una altisima y ordenada montana de latas de frijoles la sierra que acomodo algun escrupuloso empleado. El carrito colapsandose contra la montana de latas a toda velocidad. Latas y cerillo volando, senoras gritando, tetrapacks de leche derramandose por el piso, botellas de alcohol estrellandose y enturbiando el ambiente, hileras de frutas desparramandose, respetables padres de familia manoteando. Mientras apreciamos todo el desenlace sentados en cajas de lala bebiendo gatorades color azul de plastico.
Carritos de supermercado
Una actividad inutil pero buena para pasar el tiempo mientras esperas ser atendido en la caja del super es mirar lo que los demas llevan en sus carritos. O mientras tomas tu caja de cornfleis favorita y descansas tu mirada en las compras que pretende realizar la gordita de junto que lee el contenido nutricional de las zucaritas. Cada quien tiene sus productos fetiche. Hay quienes compran la misma marca todo el tiempo, como los hay los que prueban todos los productos nuevos que les ha prometido la tele. Ultimamente todo el carnaval de colores y anuncios del super me marea, trato de llevar una lista y apegarme a ella. Buscando la ruta mas corta entre los productos congelados, lacteos y salchichoneria. Los encargados me ven con desconfianza al verme pasar de largo las ofertas del 2x1. Pero ya con las compras listas y a punto de dirigirme a la caja a pagar suelo detenerme ante algun producto que con magia barata me deslumbra como liebre ante lampara eveready. Maldita mercadotecnia. Lo peor es llegar a la casa y preguntarte para que chingaos compraste las camisetas rinbros en oferta si ni siquiera las usas.
Los grandes almacenes tipo costco son llanamente de mal gusto. Salvo que tengas un negocio o una familia demasiado grande, para que necesitas comprar paquetes de papel de banio de 36 rollos? Para que no te falte nunca tal vez, es lo que te estan vendiendo, la idea de que no vas a necesitar comprar papel en muchisimo tiempo y ademas al comprar 36 en lugar de los 4 que generalmente compras has ahorrado dinero al comprar grandes volumenes, lo que te da una satisfaccion parecida al haber hecho una inversion ganadora en la bolsa de valores. Cuando en realidad lo que tienes es un ahorro de tres pesos y un chingo de rollos que no sabes donde guardar, y papel, papel para limpiar tu trasero (por mas acolchonado que sea).
***
Siempre habra alguien que lleva aquel refresco o mayonesa que imaginaste nadie nunca podria comprar.
***
Alguna vez fuimos cazadores y teniamos que salir temprano en grupos y esperar que algun mamuth se apendejara y lograr matarlo sin tener muchas bajas. Ahora puedes echarte un jocho gigante para calmar tu apetito feroz (relacion mental con el mamuth) que tan merecidamente te has ganado despues de cazar y recolectar por los peligrosos pasillos de una trasnacional.
Los grandes almacenes tipo costco son llanamente de mal gusto. Salvo que tengas un negocio o una familia demasiado grande, para que necesitas comprar paquetes de papel de banio de 36 rollos? Para que no te falte nunca tal vez, es lo que te estan vendiendo, la idea de que no vas a necesitar comprar papel en muchisimo tiempo y ademas al comprar 36 en lugar de los 4 que generalmente compras has ahorrado dinero al comprar grandes volumenes, lo que te da una satisfaccion parecida al haber hecho una inversion ganadora en la bolsa de valores. Cuando en realidad lo que tienes es un ahorro de tres pesos y un chingo de rollos que no sabes donde guardar, y papel, papel para limpiar tu trasero (por mas acolchonado que sea).
***
Siempre habra alguien que lleva aquel refresco o mayonesa que imaginaste nadie nunca podria comprar.
***
Alguna vez fuimos cazadores y teniamos que salir temprano en grupos y esperar que algun mamuth se apendejara y lograr matarlo sin tener muchas bajas. Ahora puedes echarte un jocho gigante para calmar tu apetito feroz (relacion mental con el mamuth) que tan merecidamente te has ganado despues de cazar y recolectar por los peligrosos pasillos de una trasnacional.
Wednesday 29 August 2007
El grafiti de Banksy
Nadie sabe su verdadera identidad, incluso se asegura que sus padres creen que es un pintor y decorador. Se le ha llamado Robert Banks y se dice que se le ha visto continuamente en el nicho artístico de Hoxton, en el Este de Londres. Pero últimamente le ha dado por llamarse Robin Banks. Banksy; este misterioso grafitero acaba de embolsarse hace apenas hace unas meses 58,000 libras por su versión de la Monalisa con pintura de spray rodando de sus ojos. Desde que Banksy introdujo una rata muerta al Museo de Historia Natural y la montó como una exposición tras una vitrina de cristal, su fama por sus actos rebeldes ha sido apenas alcanzada por los altos precios que adquieren sus obras. Las impresiones de retratos de la modelo Kate Moss realizados en la vena de la serie de Marilyn Monroe que realizó Andy Warhol, se vendieron por 50, 000 libras cuando apenas hace un año en su bodega del Oeste de Londres una edición de los impresos de Moss podia adquirirse por 1,500 libras.
Saturday 25 August 2007
Es sabrosa
Neta, que buena es la cerveza
En este momento
Con fines mas cientificos que etilicos
vacio el contenido de una helada Guiness http://www.guinness.com/gb_en/
en un vaso de pinta
todo sea para
dilucidar
el tiempo exacto
que debo procurar
para escribir en este blog
que intuyo
es lo que tarda
en asentarse la espesa corona de
una muy oscura guiness irlandesa
esos breves segundos
que se extienden por el universo
especialmente si estas sediento,
ese debe ser el tiempo designado
para escribir sinsentidos en un blog
bueno la cerveza ya se asento;
asi que vacio el resto del contenido de la lata
que resulta ser justamente el necesario
para terminar de llenar el vaso
y me dispongo a beberla
brillantemente bruna con una densa cabellera blanca
helada contra mi mano
y a dejar de escribir en el blog.
En este momento
Con fines mas cientificos que etilicos
vacio el contenido de una helada Guiness http://www.guinness.com/gb_en/
en un vaso de pinta
todo sea para
dilucidar
el tiempo exacto
que debo procurar
para escribir en este blog
que intuyo
es lo que tarda
en asentarse la espesa corona de
una muy oscura guiness irlandesa
esos breves segundos
que se extienden por el universo
especialmente si estas sediento,
ese debe ser el tiempo designado
para escribir sinsentidos en un blog
bueno la cerveza ya se asento;
asi que vacio el resto del contenido de la lata
que resulta ser justamente el necesario
para terminar de llenar el vaso
y me dispongo a beberla
brillantemente bruna con una densa cabellera blanca
helada contra mi mano
y a dejar de escribir en el blog.
Circo pirata
Lleve sus chors didasa, llevelos son de a peso, son de moda, son de noveda
Sobre lo clonverse y lo dlce & grabana, el buen David manda un link a este blog http://pincheschinos.blogspot.com/
Muy acertado.
Sobre lo clonverse y lo dlce & grabana, el buen David manda un link a este blog http://pincheschinos.blogspot.com/
Muy acertado.
Nota de The Guardian
How three Swedish geeks became Hollywood's Number One enemy
Bobbie Johnson, technology correspondent
Guardian Unlimited
Saturday August 25 2007
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/aug/25/piratebay
Operating under the sign of a Jolly Roger, The Pirate Bay website hopes to evoke a buccaneer spirit: swashbuckling swordsmen, or perhaps the pirate radio stations of the 1960s. But as the internet's number one destination for illegal downloads, it has raised the hackles of the entertainment industry and elevated its founders to the top of Hollywood's most wanted list.
With more than two million visitors every day, The Pirate Bay has become one of the sharpest thorns in the side of the media business. Its controversial success has caused havoc in the music, TV and film industries.
Current top downloads include The Bourne Ultimatum, Die Hard 4.0 and Knocked Up — all showing in British cinemas, but available to watch on a computer screen for those willing to take the risk.
The three-year campaign to bring down the website is almost an epic of Hollywood proportions, sprinkled with high-flying lawyers and accusations of political extremism. And yet, so far, the chase has failed to bring the pirates down.
Despite their high profile, however, the men behind The Pirate Bay are not part of an organised crime syndicate. Instead, they are an unlikely trio of Swedish computer geeks who began their war with the media from a small room in Stockholm.
The group, who spoke exclusively to the Guardian, live like students in the suburbs of Sweden's major cities. They wake late and work into the night. The closest thing they have to an official headquarters is a desk on the suburban outskirts of Malmo — and that is simply because it has a working fax machine.
But as the most hated men in Hollywood, they said they have become used to the attention. "We get legal threats every day, or we used to," said Peter Sunde, 28, one of the site's main workers. "But we don't have a problem with them — we're just a search engine."
Fredrik Neij, a 29-year-old IT consultant, has a more prosaic view: "It's nice to be noticed," he smiled.
Chief among those angered by The Pirate Bay's popularity is the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), which represents the US film studios. It is waging war against the site, which it claims is costing billions in lost sales.
John Malcolm, executive vice-president of the MPAA, has railed against the trio, accusing them of cashing in on illegal activity. "The bottom line is that the operators of The Pirate Bay, and others like them, are criminals who profit handsomely by facilitating the distribution of millions of copyrighted creative works," he said.
Mr Sunde insists the site does not profit its founders, and money raised from advertising is used to cover expenses. Instead, he says, the team make their money from a variety of side projects and day jobs.
Filesharing and illegal downloading has been a big issue for media companies since the late 1990s. But while pioneering services such as Napster and Kazaa were closed down by the courts, the campaign against The Pirate Bay has failed to make a breakthrough.
The crux of the defence is that The Pirate Bay operates like any internet search engine: it points to downloads, rather than hosting any illegal content itself. Under Swedish law this has so far made it immune to prosecution.
"I don't like the word untouchable, but we feel pretty safe," said Mr Sunde. He thinks that European enmity towards the Bush administration has bolstered support. "The US government is losing popularity every day in Europe, and people don't want to see us give in to them."
Their apparent invulnerability to prosecution has made them heroes of the internet piracy movement, but not everybody feels the same way.
"I certainly don't see them as romantic pirates: it's out and out theft," says John Kennedy, chief executive of the international music industry body IFPI. "It's pure, ruthless greed — or total naivety."
But the group's supporters around the world say they are vexed with what they see as the "corruption" of the media industry.
"This is already happening — you cannot stop it," says Magnus Eriksson of Piratbyran, the Swedish thinktank which helped start the website in 2003. "But the thing is that the people who download the most are also the ones who spend the most on buying media. Media companies already know that they have to change."
The pirates suspect the campaign against them is gathering pace. Last year police raided the site and held Gottfried Svartholm, the third member of the group, for questioning. No charges resulted, but the site was offline for two days.
Lately critics have focused on potential political links, including one German failed attempt to link the organisation with far-right extremists.
More recently Swedish police said they were considering blocking the website because of a tip-off that some pages linked to images of child abuse. This, says Mr Sunde, was just an attempt to smear The Pirate Bay's reputation. "There were three files in question, but it turned out that none of them contained child porn," he said.
The group is adamant it is just a search engine, but Mr Kennedy rejects any analogy with traditional internet businesses. "When I sit down with Google they are prepared to talk about copyright issues," he says. "If I thought The Pirate Bay guys were doing something really new and clever, then we'd look at it — but there's no evidence of that."
Mr Sunde remains unmoved. He says piracy is a way of life on the internet. "I started off copying disks on my computer when I was eight or nine," he said. "You should never tell people where they can't go or what they can't do."
Bobbie Johnson, technology correspondent
Guardian Unlimited
Saturday August 25 2007
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/aug/25/piratebay
Operating under the sign of a Jolly Roger, The Pirate Bay website hopes to evoke a buccaneer spirit: swashbuckling swordsmen, or perhaps the pirate radio stations of the 1960s. But as the internet's number one destination for illegal downloads, it has raised the hackles of the entertainment industry and elevated its founders to the top of Hollywood's most wanted list.
With more than two million visitors every day, The Pirate Bay has become one of the sharpest thorns in the side of the media business. Its controversial success has caused havoc in the music, TV and film industries.
Current top downloads include The Bourne Ultimatum, Die Hard 4.0 and Knocked Up — all showing in British cinemas, but available to watch on a computer screen for those willing to take the risk.
The three-year campaign to bring down the website is almost an epic of Hollywood proportions, sprinkled with high-flying lawyers and accusations of political extremism. And yet, so far, the chase has failed to bring the pirates down.
Despite their high profile, however, the men behind The Pirate Bay are not part of an organised crime syndicate. Instead, they are an unlikely trio of Swedish computer geeks who began their war with the media from a small room in Stockholm.
The group, who spoke exclusively to the Guardian, live like students in the suburbs of Sweden's major cities. They wake late and work into the night. The closest thing they have to an official headquarters is a desk on the suburban outskirts of Malmo — and that is simply because it has a working fax machine.
But as the most hated men in Hollywood, they said they have become used to the attention. "We get legal threats every day, or we used to," said Peter Sunde, 28, one of the site's main workers. "But we don't have a problem with them — we're just a search engine."
Fredrik Neij, a 29-year-old IT consultant, has a more prosaic view: "It's nice to be noticed," he smiled.
Chief among those angered by The Pirate Bay's popularity is the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), which represents the US film studios. It is waging war against the site, which it claims is costing billions in lost sales.
John Malcolm, executive vice-president of the MPAA, has railed against the trio, accusing them of cashing in on illegal activity. "The bottom line is that the operators of The Pirate Bay, and others like them, are criminals who profit handsomely by facilitating the distribution of millions of copyrighted creative works," he said.
Mr Sunde insists the site does not profit its founders, and money raised from advertising is used to cover expenses. Instead, he says, the team make their money from a variety of side projects and day jobs.
Filesharing and illegal downloading has been a big issue for media companies since the late 1990s. But while pioneering services such as Napster and Kazaa were closed down by the courts, the campaign against The Pirate Bay has failed to make a breakthrough.
The crux of the defence is that The Pirate Bay operates like any internet search engine: it points to downloads, rather than hosting any illegal content itself. Under Swedish law this has so far made it immune to prosecution.
"I don't like the word untouchable, but we feel pretty safe," said Mr Sunde. He thinks that European enmity towards the Bush administration has bolstered support. "The US government is losing popularity every day in Europe, and people don't want to see us give in to them."
Their apparent invulnerability to prosecution has made them heroes of the internet piracy movement, but not everybody feels the same way.
"I certainly don't see them as romantic pirates: it's out and out theft," says John Kennedy, chief executive of the international music industry body IFPI. "It's pure, ruthless greed — or total naivety."
But the group's supporters around the world say they are vexed with what they see as the "corruption" of the media industry.
"This is already happening — you cannot stop it," says Magnus Eriksson of Piratbyran, the Swedish thinktank which helped start the website in 2003. "But the thing is that the people who download the most are also the ones who spend the most on buying media. Media companies already know that they have to change."
The pirates suspect the campaign against them is gathering pace. Last year police raided the site and held Gottfried Svartholm, the third member of the group, for questioning. No charges resulted, but the site was offline for two days.
Lately critics have focused on potential political links, including one German failed attempt to link the organisation with far-right extremists.
More recently Swedish police said they were considering blocking the website because of a tip-off that some pages linked to images of child abuse. This, says Mr Sunde, was just an attempt to smear The Pirate Bay's reputation. "There were three files in question, but it turned out that none of them contained child porn," he said.
The group is adamant it is just a search engine, but Mr Kennedy rejects any analogy with traditional internet businesses. "When I sit down with Google they are prepared to talk about copyright issues," he says. "If I thought The Pirate Bay guys were doing something really new and clever, then we'd look at it — but there's no evidence of that."
Mr Sunde remains unmoved. He says piracy is a way of life on the internet. "I started off copying disks on my computer when I was eight or nine," he said. "You should never tell people where they can't go or what they can't do."
Friday 24 August 2007
Feria
En este puesto, por solo diez pesos te puedes ganar un regalo de tres y la satisfaccion de sentirte un experto en el lanzamiento de aros.
***
Noka, Dlce & Grabana, Chnel
Nke, Adids, Clonverse?
Revis, Roca-Comla
y la porqueria que te comes en
el MDnlds
y las gorditas que hace la senora
de la esquina
Krft, Nstle
Strabucks
***
Noka, Dlce & Grabana, Chnel
Nke, Adids, Clonverse?
Revis, Roca-Comla
y la porqueria que te comes en
el MDnlds
y las gorditas que hace la senora
de la esquina
Krft, Nstle
Strabucks
Superman lives
4real, couple names baby Superman
August 10, 2007 11:40am
Article from: Reuters
A NEW Zealand couple is looking to call their newborn son Superman - but only because their chosen name of 4Real has been rejected by the government registry.Pat and Sheena Wheaton say they will get around the decision by the Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages by officially naming their son Superman but referring to him as 4Real, the New Zealand Herald newspaper has reported. The Wheatons decided on the name after seeing the baby for the first time in an ultrasound scan and realising their baby was "for real." They decided 4Real was the best way to write it, but the name was rejected because the registrar said a name had to be a sequence of characters. Pat Wheaton said he was considering appealing against the decision through the courts, but whatever happens he won't be budged on his choice.
August 10, 2007 11:40am
Article from: Reuters
A NEW Zealand couple is looking to call their newborn son Superman - but only because their chosen name of 4Real has been rejected by the government registry.Pat and Sheena Wheaton say they will get around the decision by the Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages by officially naming their son Superman but referring to him as 4Real, the New Zealand Herald newspaper has reported. The Wheatons decided on the name after seeing the baby for the first time in an ultrasound scan and realising their baby was "for real." They decided 4Real was the best way to write it, but the name was rejected because the registrar said a name had to be a sequence of characters. Pat Wheaton said he was considering appealing against the decision through the courts, but whatever happens he won't be budged on his choice.
Superman ha muerto
Y no es que esto se refiera a la obra de Nietzche, sino a Superman, el hombre de acero, el sobreviviente de Kripton, Kal-El. Desde el Superman #75 de 1993, cuando para espectaculo de los metropolitanos Superman se trenzo a madrazos con un muy encabronado Doomsday, ambos sucumbiendo sangrantes y dramaticos.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Death_of_Superman
Despues de eso, cualquier intento por revivirlo ha sido en vano. Cualquier empenio por resucitarlo ha traido una version mala. En television ni Lois & Klark, ni Smallville. Algo se rompio.
Los habitantes de Metropolis, Illinois tienen como atraccion en su pueblo un superman de fibra de vidrio de siete pies de alto que porta un mensaje a sus pies: Truth-Justice-The American Way. http://www.roadsideamerica.com/attract/ILMETsuper.html
Le hubieran podido anadir Fast food-JLo-American Idol y el mensaje seria el mismo. Superman peleo siempre por defender el neoliberalismo y la globalizacion. Esto no es descubrir el hilo negro. Superman nunca ayudo a llevar alimentos a Africa, ni ayudo en inundaciones, el estaba mas bien protegiendo un estilo de vida. Lo suyo no era la angustia como Batman, ni el peso de llevar una gran responsabilidad por tener un gran poder como Spidey. Lo suyo era la lana y el showbusiness.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Death_of_Superman
Despues de eso, cualquier intento por revivirlo ha sido en vano. Cualquier empenio por resucitarlo ha traido una version mala. En television ni Lois & Klark, ni Smallville. Algo se rompio.
Los habitantes de Metropolis, Illinois tienen como atraccion en su pueblo un superman de fibra de vidrio de siete pies de alto que porta un mensaje a sus pies: Truth-Justice-The American Way. http://www.roadsideamerica.com/attract/ILMETsuper.html
Le hubieran podido anadir Fast food-JLo-American Idol y el mensaje seria el mismo. Superman peleo siempre por defender el neoliberalismo y la globalizacion. Esto no es descubrir el hilo negro. Superman nunca ayudo a llevar alimentos a Africa, ni ayudo en inundaciones, el estaba mas bien protegiendo un estilo de vida. Lo suyo no era la angustia como Batman, ni el peso de llevar una gran responsabilidad por tener un gran poder como Spidey. Lo suyo era la lana y el showbusiness.
Thursday 23 August 2007
Mer cu rio Venus Tierraa Maarte
Me comenta mi amiga Lorenia
que dando una clase
a ninios de primaria
recitaba los nombres de los planetas
para que los infantes
con un poco de gracia
los absorvieran para siempre
en sus pequenas cabecillas.
Pero despues de rematar con Pluton,
los muy avispados infantes
espetaron,
me lo imagino
de la siguiente forma:
No miss, Pluton ya no existe
a lo que Lorenia penso
a chinga! que le paso???exploto???
y ademas ya no iba a funcionar la dinamica
de la cancion de burbujas porque
sin pluton
ya no hay rima.
Senores astronomos
rectifiquen por favor.
que dando una clase
a ninios de primaria
recitaba los nombres de los planetas
para que los infantes
con un poco de gracia
los absorvieran para siempre
en sus pequenas cabecillas.
Pero despues de rematar con Pluton,
los muy avispados infantes
espetaron,
me lo imagino
de la siguiente forma:
No miss, Pluton ya no existe
a lo que Lorenia penso
a chinga! que le paso???exploto???
y ademas ya no iba a funcionar la dinamica
de la cancion de burbujas porque
sin pluton
ya no hay rima.
Senores astronomos
rectifiquen por favor.
Nota de The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/aug/23/guardianweeklytechnologysection.security
Monster hit by 'worst ever' trojan
Fake toolbar cripples jobseekers' PCs and steals personal data. Michael Pollitt reports
The Guardian
Thursday August 23 2007
Tom is a copywriter living in Los Angeles. He's desperately looking for a new job, so he signed up to Monster - the online careers and recruitment resource for employers and jobseekers. An email he believed was from Monster arrived, inviting him to download the new "Monster Job Seeker Tool". But Tom soon discovered that it was no such thing. Instead, he had fallen victim to the "worst ever" ransomware trojan that encrypted all his files and stole information.
"Hundreds of files, if not over 1,000, were encrypted," says Tom. He found messages in his folders from the Glamorous Team demanding $300 (£150) to decrypt his files and threatening to share his private information. A few days later, a friend pointed him towards Prevx, a UK-based internet security company which had written a free decryption tool.
File encryption
"Unfortunately, it seems my files were encrypted a few times over, so the tool didn't work for me. I never considered paying up. I would never run a program from these crooks on my machine - who knows what it would be. My big concern is their threat to share my personal info with the world," says Tom who, thanks to good backups, only lost recent family photographs.
Mike, a management consultant from Arizona, had been let go from his job, and was moving files from his company laptop so he could return it. "I noticed the "read_me.txt" files [with the ransom demand] on my 80GB external hard drive, and of course knew there was a problem. Thinking I was doing the right thing, I deleted all of the .txt files and copied my good files to DVDs. When I tried to read the DVD to make sure the files would open, my heart sank as I discovered that everything was trashed," says Mike.
"Of the 80GB of data, I would estimate that I permanently lost about half."
"This is the worst attack I've ever seen," says Jacques Erasmus, Prevx's director of malware research and a former hacker who has proved a worthy opponent for the Glamorous Team. He's spent days trying to help victims like Tom and Mike recover their files.
"We received a first sighting of this around eight hours after it was released via spearphished emails to a targeted audience of people looking for work using the monster.com website," says Erasmus. The attack may have used an email list stolen from Monster or a similar job-seeking service.
"[Normally] to get an uptake of 1,000 machines, you'd need to send the email to around 75,000 people. However, because this email was highly targeted, the conversion ratio would be much better. Therefore I believe it was sent to around 10,000 email addresses," says Erasmus. A secondary wave of infection involved pornography and a malicious website in Panama. Only people in the USA were affected, except for one person in Saudi Arabia.
The software was a password-stealer trojan with a new ransomware feature and three functions: encrypting files on the victim's hard disk; stealing browser data and silently sending out stolen information to a website on a shared Yahoo server. No documents were taken - just data from browser sessions - although panicked users who deleted the read_me.txt messages with the randomly generated encryption key lost their files forever.
A key component was an http sniffer, which captures user data from browser sessions by bypassing the SSL encryption - the lock icon - normally relied on for secure internet transactions. Every 60 seconds, stolen data was encrypted by the trojan and sent to a dump site created only days beforehand.
"It took us about six hours to reverse-engineer the [encryption] algorithm including testing," says Erasmus. "We made two tools, one to decrypt the stolen data and one to decrypt the files for users."
Helped by access to the dump site (possibly an oversight by the ransomware creators), Erasmus found that around 1,000 PCs had been infected. Apart from individuals at home, the victims included US government departments and multinationals including Hewlett-Packard. He found 257MB of stolen data and contacted the FBI and a dozen seriously affected companies.
The data proved startling in its detail. An employee of General Dynamics Corporation, working inside the US Department of Transportation, was monitored making his online passport application to the US Department of State. A woman working for Booz Allen Hamilton, a global consulting group, was seen applying for a job directly to the CIA. Although both were using secure browser connections, they now face identity theft from organised criminals.
"There was an entire biometric profile of a government contractor in the stolen data - details such as eye colour, hair colour, exact measurements and weight," says Erasmus. "What worried us more was the level of data that was compromised from large US corporations and government contractors. Logins to critical systems, databases and intranet logins were captured. This could be devastating."
Stolen data
The Guardian has seen 5.6m lines of stolen data including credit card and bank account numbers, home addresses, social security numbers, logins, passwords, job applications and even emails with sexual content. We quickly found logins for Mike in Arizona and Bill in Oregon. Using Bill's details, we logged into his email account and left a message. His view of the ransomware trojan now? "Very malicious, and dangerous, and very scary."
We sent Mike his login details for his Fuse.net email and Paypal accounts, discovering even more about the trojan's capabilities. "My first reaction, to put it bluntly, is holy shit!" says Mike.
It's even worse for other people. Stolen banking information, almost certainly sold on by the Glamorous Team, will delight cash-seeking criminals. "We believe that Glamorous Team are Russian and part of a bigger crime network," says Erasmus. Only Prevx (prevx.com) users were protected as its software works by stopping any suspicious behaviour rather than reacting to previously detected files.
Are we going to see such a well-targeted attack here in the UK? It's very likely, although the criminals are probably now lying low. "For what they have achieved, I'd need to give them high marks. They've got into the government, major defence contractors and major corporates in the USA," says Erasmus.
As a former hacker, Erasmus admires the criminals' technical skills and he urges people not to be fooled by odd-looking emails that could be phishing attacks.
The ransom note
Hello, your files are encrypted with RSA-4096 algorithm (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSA). You will need at least few years to decrypt these files without our software. All your private information for last 3 months were collected and sent to us. To decrypt your files you need to buy our software. The price is $300. To buy our software please contact us at: [email address] and provide us your personal code [personal code]. After successful purchase we will send your decrypting tool, and your private information will be deleted from our system. If you will not contact us until 07/15/2007 your private information will be shared and you will lost all your data.
Monster hit by 'worst ever' trojan
Fake toolbar cripples jobseekers' PCs and steals personal data. Michael Pollitt reports
The Guardian
Thursday August 23 2007
Tom is a copywriter living in Los Angeles. He's desperately looking for a new job, so he signed up to Monster - the online careers and recruitment resource for employers and jobseekers. An email he believed was from Monster arrived, inviting him to download the new "Monster Job Seeker Tool". But Tom soon discovered that it was no such thing. Instead, he had fallen victim to the "worst ever" ransomware trojan that encrypted all his files and stole information.
"Hundreds of files, if not over 1,000, were encrypted," says Tom. He found messages in his folders from the Glamorous Team demanding $300 (£150) to decrypt his files and threatening to share his private information. A few days later, a friend pointed him towards Prevx, a UK-based internet security company which had written a free decryption tool.
File encryption
"Unfortunately, it seems my files were encrypted a few times over, so the tool didn't work for me. I never considered paying up. I would never run a program from these crooks on my machine - who knows what it would be. My big concern is their threat to share my personal info with the world," says Tom who, thanks to good backups, only lost recent family photographs.
Mike, a management consultant from Arizona, had been let go from his job, and was moving files from his company laptop so he could return it. "I noticed the "read_me.txt" files [with the ransom demand] on my 80GB external hard drive, and of course knew there was a problem. Thinking I was doing the right thing, I deleted all of the .txt files and copied my good files to DVDs. When I tried to read the DVD to make sure the files would open, my heart sank as I discovered that everything was trashed," says Mike.
"Of the 80GB of data, I would estimate that I permanently lost about half."
"This is the worst attack I've ever seen," says Jacques Erasmus, Prevx's director of malware research and a former hacker who has proved a worthy opponent for the Glamorous Team. He's spent days trying to help victims like Tom and Mike recover their files.
"We received a first sighting of this around eight hours after it was released via spearphished emails to a targeted audience of people looking for work using the monster.com website," says Erasmus. The attack may have used an email list stolen from Monster or a similar job-seeking service.
"[Normally] to get an uptake of 1,000 machines, you'd need to send the email to around 75,000 people. However, because this email was highly targeted, the conversion ratio would be much better. Therefore I believe it was sent to around 10,000 email addresses," says Erasmus. A secondary wave of infection involved pornography and a malicious website in Panama. Only people in the USA were affected, except for one person in Saudi Arabia.
The software was a password-stealer trojan with a new ransomware feature and three functions: encrypting files on the victim's hard disk; stealing browser data and silently sending out stolen information to a website on a shared Yahoo server. No documents were taken - just data from browser sessions - although panicked users who deleted the read_me.txt messages with the randomly generated encryption key lost their files forever.
A key component was an http sniffer, which captures user data from browser sessions by bypassing the SSL encryption - the lock icon - normally relied on for secure internet transactions. Every 60 seconds, stolen data was encrypted by the trojan and sent to a dump site created only days beforehand.
"It took us about six hours to reverse-engineer the [encryption] algorithm including testing," says Erasmus. "We made two tools, one to decrypt the stolen data and one to decrypt the files for users."
Helped by access to the dump site (possibly an oversight by the ransomware creators), Erasmus found that around 1,000 PCs had been infected. Apart from individuals at home, the victims included US government departments and multinationals including Hewlett-Packard. He found 257MB of stolen data and contacted the FBI and a dozen seriously affected companies.
The data proved startling in its detail. An employee of General Dynamics Corporation, working inside the US Department of Transportation, was monitored making his online passport application to the US Department of State. A woman working for Booz Allen Hamilton, a global consulting group, was seen applying for a job directly to the CIA. Although both were using secure browser connections, they now face identity theft from organised criminals.
"There was an entire biometric profile of a government contractor in the stolen data - details such as eye colour, hair colour, exact measurements and weight," says Erasmus. "What worried us more was the level of data that was compromised from large US corporations and government contractors. Logins to critical systems, databases and intranet logins were captured. This could be devastating."
Stolen data
The Guardian has seen 5.6m lines of stolen data including credit card and bank account numbers, home addresses, social security numbers, logins, passwords, job applications and even emails with sexual content. We quickly found logins for Mike in Arizona and Bill in Oregon. Using Bill's details, we logged into his email account and left a message. His view of the ransomware trojan now? "Very malicious, and dangerous, and very scary."
We sent Mike his login details for his Fuse.net email and Paypal accounts, discovering even more about the trojan's capabilities. "My first reaction, to put it bluntly, is holy shit!" says Mike.
It's even worse for other people. Stolen banking information, almost certainly sold on by the Glamorous Team, will delight cash-seeking criminals. "We believe that Glamorous Team are Russian and part of a bigger crime network," says Erasmus. Only Prevx (prevx.com) users were protected as its software works by stopping any suspicious behaviour rather than reacting to previously detected files.
Are we going to see such a well-targeted attack here in the UK? It's very likely, although the criminals are probably now lying low. "For what they have achieved, I'd need to give them high marks. They've got into the government, major defence contractors and major corporates in the USA," says Erasmus.
As a former hacker, Erasmus admires the criminals' technical skills and he urges people not to be fooled by odd-looking emails that could be phishing attacks.
The ransom note
Hello, your files are encrypted with RSA-4096 algorithm (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSA). You will need at least few years to decrypt these files without our software. All your private information for last 3 months were collected and sent to us. To decrypt your files you need to buy our software. The price is $300. To buy our software please contact us at: [email address] and provide us your personal code [personal code]. After successful purchase we will send your decrypting tool, and your private information will be deleted from our system. If you will not contact us until 07/15/2007 your private information will be shared and you will lost all your data.
Wednesday 22 August 2007
Acentos y Enies
No, nada de ellos.
Y si, lo he de aceptar; por huevon.
Huevon, asi sin acento.
Porque el teclado de este tipo
de programas britanicos de
computadora
no los reconoce,
que mal pedo.
Y en el trabajo estan a punto de correrme
porque me la he pasado los ultimos dias
posteando pendejadas
para este su muy humilde blog, je je
Asi que lo que quiero es seguir trabajando
como simio programando y
metiendo informacion (suena mas erotico de lo que es)
para ganar unos pounds para
sobrevivir
en este mundo gandalla
comedia
mal gusto
apocaliptico
espiralidoso
entonces no tengo tiempo
para escribir, aparentar que trabajo
y ademas cuidar la
gramatica.
Asi que
que me perdone Garcia Marquez
hay si, pus pobre
y la real academia de la lengua espanola
si, espanola
porque no puedo
escribir las pinches enies.
Y las mayusculas
y las casinadanusculas
me perdonen,
y el maestro Cuevas de
tercero de primaria
que aventaba borradores
y sus clases de espanol.
Y si quieren
y si no,
pus no me lean.
Y si, lo he de aceptar; por huevon.
Huevon, asi sin acento.
Porque el teclado de este tipo
de programas britanicos de
computadora
no los reconoce,
que mal pedo.
Y en el trabajo estan a punto de correrme
porque me la he pasado los ultimos dias
posteando pendejadas
para este su muy humilde blog, je je
Asi que lo que quiero es seguir trabajando
como simio programando y
metiendo informacion (suena mas erotico de lo que es)
para ganar unos pounds para
sobrevivir
en este mundo gandalla
comedia
mal gusto
apocaliptico
espiralidoso
entonces no tengo tiempo
para escribir, aparentar que trabajo
y ademas cuidar la
gramatica.
Asi que
que me perdone Garcia Marquez
hay si, pus pobre
y la real academia de la lengua espanola
si, espanola
porque no puedo
escribir las pinches enies.
Y las mayusculas
y las casinadanusculas
me perdonen,
y el maestro Cuevas de
tercero de primaria
que aventaba borradores
y sus clases de espanol.
Y si quieren
y si no,
pus no me lean.
Maquetas y Mobiles Planetarios
La comunidad cientifica sin tomar en cuenta la futura confusion para elaborar las maquetas planetarias que por generaciones han sido requisito para pasar de anio en la primaria ni a las miscelaneas que proveen de bolas de unicel y cartulinas de papel cascaron ha decidido que Pluton no es merecedor del lujo de ser llamado planeta de nuestro sistema solar. No creo que a Pluton le importe. Lo que me resulta comico es la imagen de unos expertos en batas blancas debatiendo en Praga la definicion de planeta basada en la orbita, como diminutas hormigas que se reunen a discutir sobre la supuesta deidad del refrigerador across que esta en la cocina donde habitan.
En 1930 Pluton adquiere su estatus de planeta y ahora como burdo concurso de popularidad se proclama a Xena que tambien orbita alrededor del sol y se encuentra nomas atracito, como posible planeta. Tantos anios de luchar por ser aceptado como planeta para que vengan a dudar de ti, chingao. A mi me preocupan los maestros de primaria inflexibles que imbuidos de modernidad obliguen a sus alumnos a dejar la pequena bolita de unicel del anillo mas lejano fuera de la maqueta. Y que hay de todos nosotros que nos aprendimos los nombres de los planetas recitandolos, no es lo mismo respirar profundo y soltarnos Sol (hay maestras quisquillosas que insisten en empezar el conteo con el sol) Mercurio, Venus, Tierra... y terminarlo con un certero y definitivo... y pluton, imaginandotelo como un planeta mas bien chiquito que queda hasta la chingada y donde hace un buen de frio, que empezar; Mercurio, Venus... y Xena, no es lo mismo, suena a serie chafa de television.
Sin embargo, el buen Tom Gehrels de la Universidad de Arizona que ha de ser un viejito alivianado, propone una campana para mantener los 75 anios de popularidad de Pluton como el noveno en el gran mobil planetario.
En 1930 Pluton adquiere su estatus de planeta y ahora como burdo concurso de popularidad se proclama a Xena que tambien orbita alrededor del sol y se encuentra nomas atracito, como posible planeta. Tantos anios de luchar por ser aceptado como planeta para que vengan a dudar de ti, chingao. A mi me preocupan los maestros de primaria inflexibles que imbuidos de modernidad obliguen a sus alumnos a dejar la pequena bolita de unicel del anillo mas lejano fuera de la maqueta. Y que hay de todos nosotros que nos aprendimos los nombres de los planetas recitandolos, no es lo mismo respirar profundo y soltarnos Sol (hay maestras quisquillosas que insisten en empezar el conteo con el sol) Mercurio, Venus, Tierra... y terminarlo con un certero y definitivo... y pluton, imaginandotelo como un planeta mas bien chiquito que queda hasta la chingada y donde hace un buen de frio, que empezar; Mercurio, Venus... y Xena, no es lo mismo, suena a serie chafa de television.
Sin embargo, el buen Tom Gehrels de la Universidad de Arizona que ha de ser un viejito alivianado, propone una campana para mantener los 75 anios de popularidad de Pluton como el noveno en el gran mobil planetario.
Nota de Milenio
http://milenio.com/suplementos/noseolvida/nota.asp?id=541054
Política cero - Jairo Calixto Albarrán
Ya no nos queda ni Plutón
21-Agosto-07 (16:27)
El incierto destino de Plutón, cuya naturaleza espacial había sido puesta mucho más en duda que la calidad moral del IFE y la eficiencia del TEPJF, finalmente ha sido desentrañado. Por una extraña razón a los astrónomos más avezados les dio por poner en duda la consistencia científica del que había sido un venerable miembro del sistema solar con la misma empecinada necedad con la que muchos histéricos atisban el próximo arribo del armagedón el 16 de septiembre, sin saber que son la ocasión de lo mismo que culpáis. O sea, a estos acuciosos observadores del universo que, por si fuera poco, es ancho y desconocido, valiéndoles gorro la crispación exhibicionista y fetichista de nuestra crisis poselectoral, les importó más dedicar su tiempo libre a deliberar sobre si Plutón es o no un planeta con toda la barba, a descubrir qué pasará, qué misterio habrá si en México, de pronto, nos despertamos con la dicha inicua de tener dos presidentes, un camino.Esto después de que el López Obrador comentara a Le Monde que “el 17 de septiembre podría haber dos nuevos presidentes”. Por supuesto don Burrén Aguilar respondió, con la enorme gracia que le caracteriza, que el tabasqueño es “fantasioso” mientras invitaba a los convencionistas a la ceremonia del Grito. ¿No podría el vocero seguir el ejemplo de Luis Fernando Tena que, en un acto de autocrítca, declaró a La Afición que le daba pena que el América jugara tan mal?Como quiera que sea, es interesante que a quienes se dedican a escanearle las entrañas a la bóveda celeste no les haya atraído el estudio del posible rompimiento de una ley científica aparentemente intocable (dos objetos no pueden ocupar el mismo lugar al mismo tiempo) en el caso de que El Peje y Jelipillo ocupen y ejerzan la misma función presidencial al unísono, al ritmo de tú y yo somos uno mismo. ¡Uuuoooh, uuuooh!Eso sí, el poder de Jelipillo Calderón es tal que, además de conseguir que Fox lo declarara su dios huichol, y que un altísimo porcentaje de nuestros más distinguidos líderes de opinión —abducidos por su encanto sin igual— traigan su retratito en su cartera, ha logrado que la Unión Astronómica Internacional, luego de encontrar que Plutón comparte como el candidato panista su órbita de influencia con otros objetos (Espino y Diego, por ejemplo) degradara a Plutón de planeta a planeta enano… peloncito, gordito, de lentes.
Jairo Calixto Albarrán - 105
Política cero - Jairo Calixto Albarrán
Ya no nos queda ni Plutón
21-Agosto-07 (16:27)
El incierto destino de Plutón, cuya naturaleza espacial había sido puesta mucho más en duda que la calidad moral del IFE y la eficiencia del TEPJF, finalmente ha sido desentrañado. Por una extraña razón a los astrónomos más avezados les dio por poner en duda la consistencia científica del que había sido un venerable miembro del sistema solar con la misma empecinada necedad con la que muchos histéricos atisban el próximo arribo del armagedón el 16 de septiembre, sin saber que son la ocasión de lo mismo que culpáis. O sea, a estos acuciosos observadores del universo que, por si fuera poco, es ancho y desconocido, valiéndoles gorro la crispación exhibicionista y fetichista de nuestra crisis poselectoral, les importó más dedicar su tiempo libre a deliberar sobre si Plutón es o no un planeta con toda la barba, a descubrir qué pasará, qué misterio habrá si en México, de pronto, nos despertamos con la dicha inicua de tener dos presidentes, un camino.Esto después de que el López Obrador comentara a Le Monde que “el 17 de septiembre podría haber dos nuevos presidentes”. Por supuesto don Burrén Aguilar respondió, con la enorme gracia que le caracteriza, que el tabasqueño es “fantasioso” mientras invitaba a los convencionistas a la ceremonia del Grito. ¿No podría el vocero seguir el ejemplo de Luis Fernando Tena que, en un acto de autocrítca, declaró a La Afición que le daba pena que el América jugara tan mal?Como quiera que sea, es interesante que a quienes se dedican a escanearle las entrañas a la bóveda celeste no les haya atraído el estudio del posible rompimiento de una ley científica aparentemente intocable (dos objetos no pueden ocupar el mismo lugar al mismo tiempo) en el caso de que El Peje y Jelipillo ocupen y ejerzan la misma función presidencial al unísono, al ritmo de tú y yo somos uno mismo. ¡Uuuoooh, uuuooh!Eso sí, el poder de Jelipillo Calderón es tal que, además de conseguir que Fox lo declarara su dios huichol, y que un altísimo porcentaje de nuestros más distinguidos líderes de opinión —abducidos por su encanto sin igual— traigan su retratito en su cartera, ha logrado que la Unión Astronómica Internacional, luego de encontrar que Plutón comparte como el candidato panista su órbita de influencia con otros objetos (Espino y Diego, por ejemplo) degradara a Plutón de planeta a planeta enano… peloncito, gordito, de lentes.
Jairo Calixto Albarrán - 105
Nota de The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/aug/22/1
Charts retuned as web decides what's No 1
Music industry magazine to list Last.fm listeners' habits alongside traditional sales
Jemima Kiss and Esther Addley
The Guardian
Wednesday August 22 2007
It is the site, say aficionados, that discovered Arctic Monkeys long before their much discussed emergence on MySpace. It noted the popularity of Gnarls Barkley's Crazy, the bestselling single of 2006, weeks before it became the first ever number one based solely on download sales.
Now its influence on the music industry has been officially acknowledged. Music Week, the influential trade title, will this week publish a chart based on the internet listening habits of the social networking site Last.fm, the first time the magazine has included data from an online supplier.
The move is an indication of the increasing influence of online social networks on the charts, and an acknowledgement of the ability of a group of musical tastemakers to predict future stars.
Last.fm has become something of a cult among music obsessives since it was founded five years ago. Users download a desktop program that tracks every song played through their computer's music player. They can then build their own customised "radio stations" based on tracks they like, and link to similar artists recommended by others.
To music industry watchers, however, it's the data generated by the site's 20 million enthusiasts that is priceless. Last.fm's weekly charts, the site claims, are much more significant for the industry than reviews or even sales data, which cannot trace how often tracks are listened to once they have been bought. In addition, they say, they are less subject to huge marketing spends and targeted buying which critics say can distort the traditional charts.
"Our users are on street level and they pick up music as it happens," said Last.fm spokesman Christian Ward. Referring to the early popularity on the site of Gnarls Barkley, he said: "That's the kind of thing these charts reflect and that's priceless to the industry. It's beyond our control what happens in these charts, and artists can't be artificially 'bumped up' the chart."
Music Week's acting online editor Adam Benzine said Last.fm's data is important because the magazine needs to show "the most relevant, influential voices" in the industry.
The magazine's adoption of the online chart is the latest sign of an "old media" publisher or broadcaster embracing new-media techniques and data. In May, it was announced that Channel 4 radio is to broadcast a weekly show based on the listening habits of Last.fm users. The show will be based on Last.fm's international charts. In addition, the site wants to explore possible US partners for its chart data (despite its name, the site is not a traditional radio station - rather its domain name was registered in Micronesia).
In the same month, the site was bought by CBS Interactive for £140m, the largest European purchase to date of a web 2.0 site - one whose content is to a large extent generated by its users.
The website will supply three charts to Music Week, a spokesman said yesterday: the overall most listened-to artist, the most listened-to artist in Britain compared to elsewhere, and the "hype list" of artists whose popularity has risen most in the past month. While the magazine, for the moment, will publish the first of the three, it may be the third that will become of the most interest to chart watchers. This week's hype list includes Robyn with Kleerup, the Ghost Frequency, Newton Faulkner and Blaqk Audio.
Critics of the site, however, note that not all its charts are cutting edge: the consistent presence of the Beatles in the top artists listing, for instance, reflects the site's demographic rather than their imminent re-emergence as chart toppers.
HMV spokesman Gennaro Castaldo said that the data from Last.fm is useful, but only as one of several different measurements. "The days of the definitive music chart, the sole reference point, are over," he said. "The national charts are just one part of the picture and Last.fm comes under that canopy."
Looking for new music? Here's what Last.fm recommends
Like Lily Allen, Madonna and MIA?
Try Robyn.
Amy Winehouse and Regina Spektor?
Try Florence & the Machine.
Simian Mobile Disco and Klaxons?
Try Crystal Castles.
Rufus Wainwright and Tom Waits?
Try Julian Velard.
Kraftwerk and Prince?
Try Fujiya & Miyagi File
Charts retuned as web decides what's No 1
Music industry magazine to list Last.fm listeners' habits alongside traditional sales
Jemima Kiss and Esther Addley
The Guardian
Wednesday August 22 2007
It is the site, say aficionados, that discovered Arctic Monkeys long before their much discussed emergence on MySpace. It noted the popularity of Gnarls Barkley's Crazy, the bestselling single of 2006, weeks before it became the first ever number one based solely on download sales.
Now its influence on the music industry has been officially acknowledged. Music Week, the influential trade title, will this week publish a chart based on the internet listening habits of the social networking site Last.fm, the first time the magazine has included data from an online supplier.
The move is an indication of the increasing influence of online social networks on the charts, and an acknowledgement of the ability of a group of musical tastemakers to predict future stars.
Last.fm has become something of a cult among music obsessives since it was founded five years ago. Users download a desktop program that tracks every song played through their computer's music player. They can then build their own customised "radio stations" based on tracks they like, and link to similar artists recommended by others.
To music industry watchers, however, it's the data generated by the site's 20 million enthusiasts that is priceless. Last.fm's weekly charts, the site claims, are much more significant for the industry than reviews or even sales data, which cannot trace how often tracks are listened to once they have been bought. In addition, they say, they are less subject to huge marketing spends and targeted buying which critics say can distort the traditional charts.
"Our users are on street level and they pick up music as it happens," said Last.fm spokesman Christian Ward. Referring to the early popularity on the site of Gnarls Barkley, he said: "That's the kind of thing these charts reflect and that's priceless to the industry. It's beyond our control what happens in these charts, and artists can't be artificially 'bumped up' the chart."
Music Week's acting online editor Adam Benzine said Last.fm's data is important because the magazine needs to show "the most relevant, influential voices" in the industry.
The magazine's adoption of the online chart is the latest sign of an "old media" publisher or broadcaster embracing new-media techniques and data. In May, it was announced that Channel 4 radio is to broadcast a weekly show based on the listening habits of Last.fm users. The show will be based on Last.fm's international charts. In addition, the site wants to explore possible US partners for its chart data (despite its name, the site is not a traditional radio station - rather its domain name was registered in Micronesia).
In the same month, the site was bought by CBS Interactive for £140m, the largest European purchase to date of a web 2.0 site - one whose content is to a large extent generated by its users.
The website will supply three charts to Music Week, a spokesman said yesterday: the overall most listened-to artist, the most listened-to artist in Britain compared to elsewhere, and the "hype list" of artists whose popularity has risen most in the past month. While the magazine, for the moment, will publish the first of the three, it may be the third that will become of the most interest to chart watchers. This week's hype list includes Robyn with Kleerup, the Ghost Frequency, Newton Faulkner and Blaqk Audio.
Critics of the site, however, note that not all its charts are cutting edge: the consistent presence of the Beatles in the top artists listing, for instance, reflects the site's demographic rather than their imminent re-emergence as chart toppers.
HMV spokesman Gennaro Castaldo said that the data from Last.fm is useful, but only as one of several different measurements. "The days of the definitive music chart, the sole reference point, are over," he said. "The national charts are just one part of the picture and Last.fm comes under that canopy."
Looking for new music? Here's what Last.fm recommends
Like Lily Allen, Madonna and MIA?
Try Robyn.
Amy Winehouse and Regina Spektor?
Try Florence & the Machine.
Simian Mobile Disco and Klaxons?
Try Crystal Castles.
Rufus Wainwright and Tom Waits?
Try Julian Velard.
Kraftwerk and Prince?
Try Fujiya & Miyagi File
Tuesday 21 August 2007
Dave Egger's Short Short Story
You know how to spell Elijah
Dave Eggers
Saturday June 5, 2004 The Guardian
http://books.guardian.co.uk/shortshortstories/story/0,,1230654,00.html
You are at the airport, airless, sitting in a black faux-leather chair near your departure gate. There is a girl, about 12, sitting in a similar chair, across the wide, immaculate aisle, and she wants to know how to spell Elijah. She is working on a crossword in Teen magazine, and is squinting at it, chewing her inner mouth. She is flanked by her parents, and soon appeals to them for help. Her father is burly and bearded, her mother tall and thin. Her mother, who reminds you of a praying mantis, answers her daughter's question this way: "It's easy, Dakota: E-L-I-S-H-A." And though you have your own things to do, your own Boating Week to read and your bagel to eat, you can no longer concentrate on anything but this young girl's crossword puzzle, quickly being polluted by the advice of these people she calls her parents. (And the young girl is working not in pencil - fool! - but in pen.) You are burning to tell her the truth about the young actor's name-spelling, but fear you would embarrass or undermine her mother, which you don't want to do. Besides, you think, the girl's father will surely correct the mother; isn't that the beauty of the two-parent system? Indeed it is, for here he is now, leaning over, inspecting the crossword. And now he is putting on his glasses even, and finally he says, "No, Sharon. I'm pretty sure it's A-L-I-G-A." Fucking christ! You let out a quick, desperate cough. These people cannot be serious. This poor girl, stuck for ever in a dim, ill-spelling world, nowhere to turn. She'll never know the spelling of Elijah, or Enrique, or even Justin or JC. Should you intervene? Isn't it your duty? Don't those who know the truth have a responsibility to stop the dissemination of untruths? You must step in. You can do so good-naturedly. You can do so without upsetting the family unit, the sanctity thereof. But you're 18ft away, making it impossible without implying that you were paying far more attention to the girl's crossword than would seem casual or proper. They'll assume you have an unhealthy interest in Teen magazine and its cover boys. And really now, what were you doing, listening in to her spelling request? Isn't your own life complicated enough? Is your own existence so free of mistakes that you need to seek them out in strangers, inserting yourself into the life of a 12-year-old with a crush on a hobbit-playing actor? No wonder you're on your way to a spa in Palm Desert. You damn well need the rest.
Dave Eggers
Saturday June 5, 2004 The Guardian
http://books.guardian.co.uk/shortshortstories/story/0,,1230654,00.html
You are at the airport, airless, sitting in a black faux-leather chair near your departure gate. There is a girl, about 12, sitting in a similar chair, across the wide, immaculate aisle, and she wants to know how to spell Elijah. She is working on a crossword in Teen magazine, and is squinting at it, chewing her inner mouth. She is flanked by her parents, and soon appeals to them for help. Her father is burly and bearded, her mother tall and thin. Her mother, who reminds you of a praying mantis, answers her daughter's question this way: "It's easy, Dakota: E-L-I-S-H-A." And though you have your own things to do, your own Boating Week to read and your bagel to eat, you can no longer concentrate on anything but this young girl's crossword puzzle, quickly being polluted by the advice of these people she calls her parents. (And the young girl is working not in pencil - fool! - but in pen.) You are burning to tell her the truth about the young actor's name-spelling, but fear you would embarrass or undermine her mother, which you don't want to do. Besides, you think, the girl's father will surely correct the mother; isn't that the beauty of the two-parent system? Indeed it is, for here he is now, leaning over, inspecting the crossword. And now he is putting on his glasses even, and finally he says, "No, Sharon. I'm pretty sure it's A-L-I-G-A." Fucking christ! You let out a quick, desperate cough. These people cannot be serious. This poor girl, stuck for ever in a dim, ill-spelling world, nowhere to turn. She'll never know the spelling of Elijah, or Enrique, or even Justin or JC. Should you intervene? Isn't it your duty? Don't those who know the truth have a responsibility to stop the dissemination of untruths? You must step in. You can do so good-naturedly. You can do so without upsetting the family unit, the sanctity thereof. But you're 18ft away, making it impossible without implying that you were paying far more attention to the girl's crossword than would seem casual or proper. They'll assume you have an unhealthy interest in Teen magazine and its cover boys. And really now, what were you doing, listening in to her spelling request? Isn't your own life complicated enough? Is your own existence so free of mistakes that you need to seek them out in strangers, inserting yourself into the life of a 12-year-old with a crush on a hobbit-playing actor? No wonder you're on your way to a spa in Palm Desert. You damn well need the rest.
La Expectativa
Anoche mientras los vientos del huracan Dean se empezaban a sentir en Felipe Carrillo Puerto, Quintana Roo, debio sentirse una espera como un escalofrio prolongado. Sabiendo que se acercaba Godzilla despues de pisotear Jamaica y en el Caribe. Mientras dibujaban equis y cruces con cinta adhesiva sobre los cristales de las ventanas a forma de iconografia religiosa que pueda proteger. Entre tanto la familia guardaba la ropa en bolsas negras de basura y elegia con desapego forzado lo mas valioso para ser rescatado. Cuando ya tarde reforzaban el techo de lamina con clavos. Despues de que te los vecinos te han rechazado dentro de su casa de material porque son ya muchos y la choza que habitas se empieza a tambalear. Corriendo por los pasillos del super empujando para hacerse de latas con comida y botellas de agua. Porque muchos no piensan dejar sus hogares por un albergue. No; sabiendo que hay otros monstruos, a la puerta, listos para saquear sus pertenencias.
Un hilito de frio por la espalda.
Un hilito de frio por la espalda.
Hurricanes
http://environment.independent.co.uk/climate_change/article2881385.ece
The Big Question: Are there more hurricanes, and are they the result of global warming?
By Michael Mccarthy, Environment Editor
Published: 21 August 2007
Why are we asking this now?
Because hurricanes like the one which has careered across the Caribbean and was last night striking Mexico are only formed when the surface temperature of the ocean exceeds a specific point, which is 26C.
As the oceans warm globally with climate change, much larger areas of water will exceed the threshold, and more energy will be available to power a given storm. On the face of it, therefore, the connection might seem a reasonable, even a natural one.
So is it happening already?
Some scientists have put forward fairly dramatic evidence that it may be, and this has been seized on by the environmental community as another piece of the global warming jigsaw, to impress on governments the need to act to cut back on the carbon emissions causing the climate to heat up. But other scientists resolutely dispute the proposition, and say it cannot be proved.
What is the dramatic evidence?
It came in two peer-reviewed scientific papers published within a short time of each other in the summer of 2005. They kicked off the whole hurricane-global warming argument. In fact, they caused a sensation. The first, in the journal Nature, was by Kerry Emanuel of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, one of the world's leading hurricane researchers. Dr Emmanuel devised a new way of measuring hurricane intensity which he called the power dissipation index, and he said he could detect an increase in this which could be related to increases in sea surface temperatures over recent decades.
The second paper was by Greg Holland of the National Centre for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, and Peter Webster of the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta (published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society). Holland and Webster said they had discovered a rise in the number of Atlantic hurricanes that tracked the increase in sea surface temperature related to climate change over the last century, and taking the conventional measure of hurricane strength, the Saffir-Simpson scale, they said that the number of storms that were reaching the top categories of 4 and 5 had doubled in recent decades.
And these papers caused a sensation?
They sure did. A worldwide one.
Not least because they were published in 2005, in the middle of the worst season of Atlantic hurricanes on record, which culminated in the disaster of Hurricane Katrina which hammered New Orleans so terribly in August. The 2005 season included a record 26 named storms, of which 13 grew big enough to be classified as hurricanes (so many that for the first time since 1953, when scientists started give tropical Atlantic storms names, letters of the Greek alphabet had to be used, as meteorologists had run through the original list of 21 alphabetically-ordered names. The final 2005 tropical storm was christened Epsilon.) For the environmental community the two papers were yet another devastating indictment of the lack of action on climate change, especially by the US government of George W Bush.
So is the connection proved?
Not at all. It is hotly disputed. The difficulty lies in how we use and interpret the database of records of previous storms. Before the late-Sixties and early-Seventies, there was no global satellite coverage and measurement of tropical cyclones (which is the generic term for circular tropical storms - they're hurricanes in the Atlantic, typhoons in the west Pacific and cyclones in the Indian Ocean). So the strength of some early recorded storms may have been misinterpreted - they may actually have been much stronger than we think, and thus a general increase in intensity may be an illusion. Some storms may well have not been observed at all.
Furthermore, an increase may be part of a natural cycle, rather than being caused by human activities. The leading proponent of the no-link theory, Christopher Landsea, a senior American hurricane researcher and forecaster based at the National Hurricane Centre in Miami, has published research contending that the historical hurricane database simply cannot support the claims made by Emanuel, and by Holland and Webster, in their respective papers.
Has the argument become politicised?
'Fraid so. For example, the Bush administration put forward Landsea to assert that there was no connection between Hurricane Katrina and climate change, and he is often attacked by environmentalists. But he is a serious and respected scientist and he is by no means alone in his concern that the record does not show an increase in hurricane power and strength.
One of Britain's leading experts on tropical cyclones, Julian Heming of the UK Met Office, says: "I am of the view that this issue of the historical database is a significant one, and I think we need to be cautious about deriving too many definitive conclusion from the historical records."
Is there no consensus?
Well, there is much more of a consensus between scientists about what is likely to happen in future, than about what has happened in the past or what is happening now. The supercomputer models used for climate change prediction tend to show an increase in future hurricane wind speed and rainfall if the climate continues to warm (though not in hurricane frequency). This is not generally disputed. However, it is a smaller increase than that which the two papers from 2005 claim to have detected already.
Where is the argument now?
We can give you chapter and verse on that. Last November, the World Meteorological Organisation held an International Workshop on Tropical Cyclones in Costa Rica, and at its conclusion, it issued a one-page document entitled "Summary Statement on Tropical Cyclones and Climate Change". Its first paragraph states: "Though there is evidence both for and against the existence of a detectable anthropogenic signal [signs of a human cause such as man-made global warming] in the tropical cyclone climate record to date, no firm conclusion can be made on this point."
So the jury's out?
Not quite. The fourth assessment report of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, published in February this year, gives a table showing recent climatic trends. It suggests that intense tropical cyclone activity has probably increased in some regions since 1970, and under the heading "Likelihood of a human contribution to observed trend" it observes succinctly: "More likely than not."
So is climate change to blame?
Yes...
* The historical database shows a definite increase in frequency and intensity (one view)
* Supercomputer climate models unanimously predict that climate change will make hurricanes worse
* Warmer oceans contain more energy for storms
No...
* The historical database cannot be trusted to prove an increase in frequency and intensity (the other view)
* Any increase may be part of a natural cycle
* Even in a warming world, various climatic mechanisms may act to reduce increases
The Big Question: Are there more hurricanes, and are they the result of global warming?
By Michael Mccarthy, Environment Editor
Published: 21 August 2007
Why are we asking this now?
Because hurricanes like the one which has careered across the Caribbean and was last night striking Mexico are only formed when the surface temperature of the ocean exceeds a specific point, which is 26C.
As the oceans warm globally with climate change, much larger areas of water will exceed the threshold, and more energy will be available to power a given storm. On the face of it, therefore, the connection might seem a reasonable, even a natural one.
So is it happening already?
Some scientists have put forward fairly dramatic evidence that it may be, and this has been seized on by the environmental community as another piece of the global warming jigsaw, to impress on governments the need to act to cut back on the carbon emissions causing the climate to heat up. But other scientists resolutely dispute the proposition, and say it cannot be proved.
What is the dramatic evidence?
It came in two peer-reviewed scientific papers published within a short time of each other in the summer of 2005. They kicked off the whole hurricane-global warming argument. In fact, they caused a sensation. The first, in the journal Nature, was by Kerry Emanuel of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, one of the world's leading hurricane researchers. Dr Emmanuel devised a new way of measuring hurricane intensity which he called the power dissipation index, and he said he could detect an increase in this which could be related to increases in sea surface temperatures over recent decades.
The second paper was by Greg Holland of the National Centre for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, and Peter Webster of the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta (published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society). Holland and Webster said they had discovered a rise in the number of Atlantic hurricanes that tracked the increase in sea surface temperature related to climate change over the last century, and taking the conventional measure of hurricane strength, the Saffir-Simpson scale, they said that the number of storms that were reaching the top categories of 4 and 5 had doubled in recent decades.
And these papers caused a sensation?
They sure did. A worldwide one.
Not least because they were published in 2005, in the middle of the worst season of Atlantic hurricanes on record, which culminated in the disaster of Hurricane Katrina which hammered New Orleans so terribly in August. The 2005 season included a record 26 named storms, of which 13 grew big enough to be classified as hurricanes (so many that for the first time since 1953, when scientists started give tropical Atlantic storms names, letters of the Greek alphabet had to be used, as meteorologists had run through the original list of 21 alphabetically-ordered names. The final 2005 tropical storm was christened Epsilon.) For the environmental community the two papers were yet another devastating indictment of the lack of action on climate change, especially by the US government of George W Bush.
So is the connection proved?
Not at all. It is hotly disputed. The difficulty lies in how we use and interpret the database of records of previous storms. Before the late-Sixties and early-Seventies, there was no global satellite coverage and measurement of tropical cyclones (which is the generic term for circular tropical storms - they're hurricanes in the Atlantic, typhoons in the west Pacific and cyclones in the Indian Ocean). So the strength of some early recorded storms may have been misinterpreted - they may actually have been much stronger than we think, and thus a general increase in intensity may be an illusion. Some storms may well have not been observed at all.
Furthermore, an increase may be part of a natural cycle, rather than being caused by human activities. The leading proponent of the no-link theory, Christopher Landsea, a senior American hurricane researcher and forecaster based at the National Hurricane Centre in Miami, has published research contending that the historical hurricane database simply cannot support the claims made by Emanuel, and by Holland and Webster, in their respective papers.
Has the argument become politicised?
'Fraid so. For example, the Bush administration put forward Landsea to assert that there was no connection between Hurricane Katrina and climate change, and he is often attacked by environmentalists. But he is a serious and respected scientist and he is by no means alone in his concern that the record does not show an increase in hurricane power and strength.
One of Britain's leading experts on tropical cyclones, Julian Heming of the UK Met Office, says: "I am of the view that this issue of the historical database is a significant one, and I think we need to be cautious about deriving too many definitive conclusion from the historical records."
Is there no consensus?
Well, there is much more of a consensus between scientists about what is likely to happen in future, than about what has happened in the past or what is happening now. The supercomputer models used for climate change prediction tend to show an increase in future hurricane wind speed and rainfall if the climate continues to warm (though not in hurricane frequency). This is not generally disputed. However, it is a smaller increase than that which the two papers from 2005 claim to have detected already.
Where is the argument now?
We can give you chapter and verse on that. Last November, the World Meteorological Organisation held an International Workshop on Tropical Cyclones in Costa Rica, and at its conclusion, it issued a one-page document entitled "Summary Statement on Tropical Cyclones and Climate Change". Its first paragraph states: "Though there is evidence both for and against the existence of a detectable anthropogenic signal [signs of a human cause such as man-made global warming] in the tropical cyclone climate record to date, no firm conclusion can be made on this point."
So the jury's out?
Not quite. The fourth assessment report of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, published in February this year, gives a table showing recent climatic trends. It suggests that intense tropical cyclone activity has probably increased in some regions since 1970, and under the heading "Likelihood of a human contribution to observed trend" it observes succinctly: "More likely than not."
So is climate change to blame?
Yes...
* The historical database shows a definite increase in frequency and intensity (one view)
* Supercomputer climate models unanimously predict that climate change will make hurricanes worse
* Warmer oceans contain more energy for storms
No...
* The historical database cannot be trusted to prove an increase in frequency and intensity (the other view)
* Any increase may be part of a natural cycle
* Even in a warming world, various climatic mechanisms may act to reduce increases
Monday 20 August 2007
Y Te Crees En Lo Cierto
Nada más molesto que mientras esperas el camión , mientras comes tu sandwich, mientras hojeas el periódico y quieres ser dejado en paz algún individuo llegue a querer imponer sus ideas. Como si fueras un indefenso mequetrefe incapaz de pensar y portaras un letrero pidiendo ayuda. Los temas pueden ser de lo más variados, partiendo de la religión, política, futbol, calentamiento global o lo que sea. ¿Acaso fui yo el que se acerco a tí a que me iluminaras y me vendieras uno de esos libritos olorosos para adoctrinarme? No, verdad. Pero lo que yo piense no te importa ni las opiniones que te pueda debatir, por más brillantes que sean. Ni siquiera escuchas. Piensas que tus ideales son los únicos verdaderos y al expresarlos y proyectarlos buscas confirmar tu ego y tu valía. Buscas ser políticamente correcto con quien no coincida contigo al usar expresiones como respeto tu opinion pero…, lo que dices es interesante pero…
que solamente son formas de ser condecendiente porque en el fondo sigues queriendo creer y convencer.
Las ideologías lejos de ayudar han enredado todo en un hilado a punto de asfixiarnos, pero no me creas, yo no busco convencerte de nada. De hecho, sinceramente, no me importa lo que tu pienses, con tal de que no vengas a querer hacer fanfarrias de tu avanzado conocimiento o iluminación. En una peda puede ser insufrible el necio que se empeñe en forzar un tema entre un grupo de parroquianos que lo único que desean es intoxicarse en paz. Habrá quien considere necesario defenderse en cada ocasión de los metiches-ideológicos-parasitosos, delimitar su postura desde el flanco verdadero y digno de su valiosísimo punto de vista y lo que se logra es provocar, hacer arder la llama, que más da lo que pienses tú o lo que piense yo, son únicamente ideas, utopías.
que solamente son formas de ser condecendiente porque en el fondo sigues queriendo creer y convencer.
Las ideologías lejos de ayudar han enredado todo en un hilado a punto de asfixiarnos, pero no me creas, yo no busco convencerte de nada. De hecho, sinceramente, no me importa lo que tu pienses, con tal de que no vengas a querer hacer fanfarrias de tu avanzado conocimiento o iluminación. En una peda puede ser insufrible el necio que se empeñe en forzar un tema entre un grupo de parroquianos que lo único que desean es intoxicarse en paz. Habrá quien considere necesario defenderse en cada ocasión de los metiches-ideológicos-parasitosos, delimitar su postura desde el flanco verdadero y digno de su valiosísimo punto de vista y lo que se logra es provocar, hacer arder la llama, que más da lo que pienses tú o lo que piense yo, son únicamente ideas, utopías.
Sunday 19 August 2007
Sobre Groucho Marx
De la jornada virtual del domingo 19 de agosto del 2007
“Jamás pertenecería a un club que admitiese de socio a alguien como yo”, decía Groucho el hombre que convirtió a Marx en un apellido chistoso
El cómico fue elegido uno de los 50 actores más influyentes de la historia
DPA
Los Angeles, agosto 18. “Perdonen que no me levante”, fue lo que quiso que pusieran en su tumba. No le hicieron caso, pero para Groucho Marx una frase genial, irónica, sarcástica, nunca estaba de más. Eso y muchas otras líneas de humor inteligente engrandecieron su leyenda. Mañana se cumplen 30 años de su muerte.
Su inmenso talento lo convirtió casi en un personaje de dibujos animados, por su falso bigote y sus enormes cejas, su caminar desgarbado y sus gestos exagerados, imagen característica de la meca del cine junto a las faldas de Marilyn Monroe o el bombín de Charles Chaplin.
Pero detrás de la aparición circense se escondía un genio del humor, un pensador que llegaba mucho mas allá con sus sarcasmos, un talento único como el de Picasso, según dijo Woody Allen de él en alguna ocasión.
Sus célebres frases, que marcaron más de una docena de películas con sus hermanos, siguen siendo citas habituales, y de ser un cómico que rayaba en lo ridículo, se convirtió en un fenómeno de culto para muchos fans de la gran pantalla.
Pese a eso, su muerte, un 19 de agosto de 1977, recibió mucha menos atención de la esperada, ya que tres días antes Elvis Presley había sido la causa de una conmoción nacional por su fallecimiento sorpresivo a los 42 años.
Quedaron pocas lágrimas para Groucho, que sin embargo fue elegido dentro de la lista de los 50 actores más influyentes de la historia por el Instituto Americano de Cine.
Hijo de inmigrantes alemanes judíos, Julios Henry Marx nació en Nueva Cork en 1890, en una familia de cinco hermanos que años más tarde se harían famosos por sus actuaciones cómicas.
Curiosamente Groucho, el tercero de los hermanos, era el introvertido y callado de la familia, el niño que no recibió la atención de los mayores (Harpo y Chico) ni de los dos pequeños, Zeppo y Gummo, por lo que logró desarrollar con los años una personalidad cortante para lograr atención.
Comenzó con vodeviles durante dos décadas hasta que Broadway le abrió las puertas a él y a sus cuatro hermanos en I’ll Say She Is, en 1924. De ahí saltaron al éxito de Cocoanuts y su posterior paso por estudios de cine como la Paramount Pictures y la Metro Goldwyn Meyer que los hicieron verdaderamente famosos en Hollywood.
Groucho lideraba las cintas con personajes de nombres estrambóticos, suplantando a médicos, doctores o directores de hotel, a los que siempre acompañaban Harpo y Chico con su endiablada habilidad para tocar el arpa y el piano, respectivamente.
Títulos como Una noche en la ópera, Un día en la carreras o Sopa de ganso están en los registros de mejores comedias de la historia, con escenas como la aglomeración en el camarote de los hermanos o la persecución en un tren en el lejano oeste al grito de “¡Más madera, es la guerra!”
Y después está el recuerdo de sus frases míticas como: “partiendo de la nada hemos alcanzado las más altas cotas de miseria” o “jamás pertenecería a un club que admitiese de socio a alguien como yo”, que lo encumbraron como gran humorista.
Pese a su éxito en la gran pantalla, Groucho logró más reconocimiento y fama que nunca con su programa de televisión Apueste su vida, pues una gran parte del publico estadunidense desconocía sus películas y su trabajo en el teatro.
Además de todo lo anterior, de Groucho dicen que tenía buenos amigos, que conoció a Charles Chaplin de sus días teatrales, que tenía insomnio y que cuando le daba, llamaba por teléfono a gente para insultarlos. Y mantuvo correspondencia constante con escritores de la talla de T.S. Eliot y Carl Sandburg.
Un personaje admirable, que a pesar de que sus padres apostaron por la escuela de medicina, al escasear los recursos en casa tuvo que acudir al canto. Aunque fue en realidad la improvisación lo que le llevó al estrellato. Habilidad que desarrollo de su amor por los libros.
Dicha pasión inspiró su mítica frase: “Me parece que la televisión es muy educativa. Cada vez que alguien la enciende, yo me voy a otra habitación a leer un buen libro”.
Nunca quiso ser un cómico grotesco usando chistes sexuales y se mantuvo siempre cerca de sus hermanos. Sobrevivió a tres de ellos. Incluyendo al menor, Gummo, que falleció cuatro meses antes que Groucho.
Tuvo tres hijos y estuvo casado tres veces, aunque para una mayoría su única mujer fue la incorruptible Margaret Dumont, su compañera de reparto en infinidad de títulos, la viuda millonaria con la que siempre se explayaba, cigarro en mano y avasallándola con frases fugaces y devastadoras.
Groucho era siempre así.
“Jamás pertenecería a un club que admitiese de socio a alguien como yo”, decía Groucho el hombre que convirtió a Marx en un apellido chistoso
El cómico fue elegido uno de los 50 actores más influyentes de la historia
DPA
Los Angeles, agosto 18. “Perdonen que no me levante”, fue lo que quiso que pusieran en su tumba. No le hicieron caso, pero para Groucho Marx una frase genial, irónica, sarcástica, nunca estaba de más. Eso y muchas otras líneas de humor inteligente engrandecieron su leyenda. Mañana se cumplen 30 años de su muerte.
Su inmenso talento lo convirtió casi en un personaje de dibujos animados, por su falso bigote y sus enormes cejas, su caminar desgarbado y sus gestos exagerados, imagen característica de la meca del cine junto a las faldas de Marilyn Monroe o el bombín de Charles Chaplin.
Pero detrás de la aparición circense se escondía un genio del humor, un pensador que llegaba mucho mas allá con sus sarcasmos, un talento único como el de Picasso, según dijo Woody Allen de él en alguna ocasión.
Sus célebres frases, que marcaron más de una docena de películas con sus hermanos, siguen siendo citas habituales, y de ser un cómico que rayaba en lo ridículo, se convirtió en un fenómeno de culto para muchos fans de la gran pantalla.
Pese a eso, su muerte, un 19 de agosto de 1977, recibió mucha menos atención de la esperada, ya que tres días antes Elvis Presley había sido la causa de una conmoción nacional por su fallecimiento sorpresivo a los 42 años.
Quedaron pocas lágrimas para Groucho, que sin embargo fue elegido dentro de la lista de los 50 actores más influyentes de la historia por el Instituto Americano de Cine.
Hijo de inmigrantes alemanes judíos, Julios Henry Marx nació en Nueva Cork en 1890, en una familia de cinco hermanos que años más tarde se harían famosos por sus actuaciones cómicas.
Curiosamente Groucho, el tercero de los hermanos, era el introvertido y callado de la familia, el niño que no recibió la atención de los mayores (Harpo y Chico) ni de los dos pequeños, Zeppo y Gummo, por lo que logró desarrollar con los años una personalidad cortante para lograr atención.
Comenzó con vodeviles durante dos décadas hasta que Broadway le abrió las puertas a él y a sus cuatro hermanos en I’ll Say She Is, en 1924. De ahí saltaron al éxito de Cocoanuts y su posterior paso por estudios de cine como la Paramount Pictures y la Metro Goldwyn Meyer que los hicieron verdaderamente famosos en Hollywood.
Groucho lideraba las cintas con personajes de nombres estrambóticos, suplantando a médicos, doctores o directores de hotel, a los que siempre acompañaban Harpo y Chico con su endiablada habilidad para tocar el arpa y el piano, respectivamente.
Títulos como Una noche en la ópera, Un día en la carreras o Sopa de ganso están en los registros de mejores comedias de la historia, con escenas como la aglomeración en el camarote de los hermanos o la persecución en un tren en el lejano oeste al grito de “¡Más madera, es la guerra!”
Y después está el recuerdo de sus frases míticas como: “partiendo de la nada hemos alcanzado las más altas cotas de miseria” o “jamás pertenecería a un club que admitiese de socio a alguien como yo”, que lo encumbraron como gran humorista.
Pese a su éxito en la gran pantalla, Groucho logró más reconocimiento y fama que nunca con su programa de televisión Apueste su vida, pues una gran parte del publico estadunidense desconocía sus películas y su trabajo en el teatro.
Además de todo lo anterior, de Groucho dicen que tenía buenos amigos, que conoció a Charles Chaplin de sus días teatrales, que tenía insomnio y que cuando le daba, llamaba por teléfono a gente para insultarlos. Y mantuvo correspondencia constante con escritores de la talla de T.S. Eliot y Carl Sandburg.
Un personaje admirable, que a pesar de que sus padres apostaron por la escuela de medicina, al escasear los recursos en casa tuvo que acudir al canto. Aunque fue en realidad la improvisación lo que le llevó al estrellato. Habilidad que desarrollo de su amor por los libros.
Dicha pasión inspiró su mítica frase: “Me parece que la televisión es muy educativa. Cada vez que alguien la enciende, yo me voy a otra habitación a leer un buen libro”.
Nunca quiso ser un cómico grotesco usando chistes sexuales y se mantuvo siempre cerca de sus hermanos. Sobrevivió a tres de ellos. Incluyendo al menor, Gummo, que falleció cuatro meses antes que Groucho.
Tuvo tres hijos y estuvo casado tres veces, aunque para una mayoría su única mujer fue la incorruptible Margaret Dumont, su compañera de reparto en infinidad de títulos, la viuda millonaria con la que siempre se explayaba, cigarro en mano y avasallándola con frases fugaces y devastadoras.
Groucho era siempre así.
Richard Ashcroft
The Verve
Space And Time
There ain't no space and timeTo keep our love aliveWe have existence and it's all we shareThere ain't no real truthThere ain't no real liesKeep on pushin' 'cause I know it's thereOh, can you just tell meIt's all right (It's all right)Let me sleep tonightOh, can you comfort meTonight (It's all right)Make it all seem fineI just can't make it aloneOh, no, noI just can't make it aloneOh, no, noThere'll be no lullabiesThere'll be no tears criedWe feel numb 'cause we don't seeThat if we really careAnd we really lovedThink of all the joy we'd feelOh, can you just tell meIt's all right (It's all right)Let me sleep tonightOh, can you comfort meTonight (It's all right)Make it all seem fineI just can't make it aloneOh, no, noI just can't make it aloneOh, no, noI just can't make it aloneOh, no, noI just can't make it aloneOh, no, noAin't got no lullaby, no, noAin't got no lullaby, oh, noThere is no space and timeOh lordThere is no space and timeOh lordWe have existence and it's all we shareWe have existence and it's all we shareWe have existence and it's all we shareWe have existence and it's all we shareWe have existence and it's all we shareKeep on pushing 'cause I know it's thereKeep on pushing 'cause I know it's thereKeep on pushing 'cause I know it's thereKeep on pushing 'cause I know it's there
The Verve
Space And Time
There ain't no space and timeTo keep our love aliveWe have existence and it's all we shareThere ain't no real truthThere ain't no real liesKeep on pushin' 'cause I know it's thereOh, can you just tell meIt's all right (It's all right)Let me sleep tonightOh, can you comfort meTonight (It's all right)Make it all seem fineI just can't make it aloneOh, no, noI just can't make it aloneOh, no, noThere'll be no lullabiesThere'll be no tears criedWe feel numb 'cause we don't seeThat if we really careAnd we really lovedThink of all the joy we'd feelOh, can you just tell meIt's all right (It's all right)Let me sleep tonightOh, can you comfort meTonight (It's all right)Make it all seem fineI just can't make it aloneOh, no, noI just can't make it aloneOh, no, noI just can't make it aloneOh, no, noI just can't make it aloneOh, no, noAin't got no lullaby, no, noAin't got no lullaby, oh, noThere is no space and timeOh lordThere is no space and timeOh lordWe have existence and it's all we shareWe have existence and it's all we shareWe have existence and it's all we shareWe have existence and it's all we shareWe have existence and it's all we shareKeep on pushing 'cause I know it's thereKeep on pushing 'cause I know it's thereKeep on pushing 'cause I know it's thereKeep on pushing 'cause I know it's there
Friday 17 August 2007
Dicen de Paul Auster
-Me cuenta David Ruiz
que alguien le dijo
que alguna vez
Paul Auster estaba escribiendo
un cuento sensacional,
se sentía tan satisfecho,
un genio,
en eso,
salio al jardín
y se encontró con su hija
que lo llevó de la mano
para enseñarle
la enorme cagada
que se había hecho apenas
en el jardín.-
Sabias palabras.
Tú como yo, también cagas.
Y con las manos en las rodillas
con el culo al aire
de aguilita
o en la tierra
también te desprendes
un poco de tí mismo
devuelves al origen
tus pretenciones de alto vuelo
y tu ego,
tus deseos y tus miedos.
Y aunque no lo quieras
existe tu foto tomada
por las cctv cámaras
o por algún pinche ocioso
y un día de verano
cuando más seguro te sientas
sera transmitida
a nivel planetario
en los sueños del mundo
para que todos la reconozcan;
tu cagada.
que alguien le dijo
que alguna vez
Paul Auster estaba escribiendo
un cuento sensacional,
se sentía tan satisfecho,
un genio,
en eso,
salio al jardín
y se encontró con su hija
que lo llevó de la mano
para enseñarle
la enorme cagada
que se había hecho apenas
en el jardín.-
Sabias palabras.
Tú como yo, también cagas.
Y con las manos en las rodillas
con el culo al aire
de aguilita
o en la tierra
también te desprendes
un poco de tí mismo
devuelves al origen
tus pretenciones de alto vuelo
y tu ego,
tus deseos y tus miedos.
Y aunque no lo quieras
existe tu foto tomada
por las cctv cámaras
o por algún pinche ocioso
y un día de verano
cuando más seguro te sientas
sera transmitida
a nivel planetario
en los sueños del mundo
para que todos la reconozcan;
tu cagada.
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