guerras que não interessam nem ao menino Jesus

A única manifestação a favor da paz e do fim das hostilidades na Geórgia que vi até ao momento, exceptuando as de naturais de antigos países assinantes do Pacto de Varsóvia, é a de um vizinho meu que anda com uma cruz de São Jorge em forma de bandeira na bagageira do seu carro.

Case study: Bolívia

Esta vai direitinha para os anais do direito constitucional (Libertad Digital):

En un discurso pronunciado en Cochabamba durante un acto en el que anunció obras en un gasoducto que garantizará la provisión del carburante en esa región, el presidente de Bolivia, Evo Morales, admitió ha dado pasos ilegales para aplicar sus reformas pese a que recibe consejos jurídicos en sentido contrario, pero después pide a sus abogados que legalicen sus acciones.

Morales dijo que "cuando algún jurista me dice: 'Evo te estás equivocando jurídicamente, eso que estás haciendo es ilegal', bueno yo le meto por más que sea ilegal. Después les digo a los abogados: 'si es ilegal, legalicen ustedes, para qué han estudiado'".

Morales hizo esos comentarios después de afirmar que la nacionalización de la petrolera Transredes (ex filial de Ashmore y Shell), que se llevó a cabo en junio pasado, se retrasó dos años debido a la recomendación de técnicos que temían una parálisis de inversiones.

Case study: Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe inflation soars to 2.2m% (Guardian)

Zimbabwe's official rate of annual inflation has hit 2.2m%, the country's central bank said today – a 13-fold increase on the last official rate, in February. "Statistics provided by the CSO [Zimbabwe's central statistical office] indicate that [inflation] is now at 2.2m%," the AFP news agency quoted the bank's governor, Gideon Gono, as saying in a speech in Harare.

Inflation has spiralled wildly amid an almost complete collapse of the Zimbabwean economy in recent years, which has prompted around 3 million people to flee the country for South Africa. An estimated 80% of Zimbabwe's population live in poverty, and life expectancy is 37 for men and 34 for women, the world's lowest.

The official inflation rate takes into account goods subject to official price controls, which are almost impossible to obtain. Economists estimate that the real annual inflation rate for last month was around 9m%, which could rise to about 20m% in July. In November last year, the head of the CSO, Moffat Nyoni, told state radio it was in effect impossible to calculate the inflation rate properly due to "date gaps" caused by a lack of products in shops.

Today, Nyoni told AFP the new, 2.2m% rate was the best estimate possible. "The information was based on fewer observations than we would be confident with, due to scarcities," he said. "However, with the information we have managed to obtain, this is the rate of inflation." In May, the country's central bank tried to keep pace with galloping price rises by issuing a new Z$50bn bank note, currently worth about 30p.

Zimbabwe's opposition and outside critics say the country's president, Robert Mugabe, fatally undermined a once-thriving economy with a series of disastrous policies, notably the seizure of white-owned farms, many of which have fallen into ruin.

Adenda 10/10: Zimbabwe inflation hits 231 million per cent

running before time took our dreams away

Pink Floyd - High Hopes

Contradictio in terminus

No Global Notícias de segunda-feira vinha uma notícia curiosa. A Federação das Associações Ciganas de Portugal, através do seu dirigente Bruno Gonçalves, criticou a forma alegadamente tendenciosa como os confrontos da Quinta da Fonte em Loures foram tratados pelos jornalistas, estando mesmo a considerar apresentar uma queixa-crime ao Alto Comissariado para a Imigração e Diálogo Intercultural "contra os jornalistas" devido à forma pouco imparcial e discriminatória como foi tratada a comunidade cigana. Colocando de parte por breves instantes a forma tendenciosa em que o dirigente parece tratar os jornalistas, este não parece negar que houve elementos de etnia cigana envolvida no conflito e, inclusivamente, repudiou as acções dos ditos (a quem ironicamente chamou de "comunidade cigana [que] se defende dos tiros da outra facção" -- atenção, isto sim é um tratamento totalmente imparcial quando ainda ninguém entendeu quem atacava quem...). A crítica subjacente a esta queixa parece ser, portanto, ao acto de se tomar o comportamento demonstrado de uns poucos ciganos pelo comportamento não-demonstrado de toda a população cigana, supostamente implítico nas tais peças jornalísticas - ou seja uma generalização incorrecta. Como é possível que uma crítica desta índole possa ser proveniente de uma organização que aparentemente pretende representar a comunidade cigana (incluindo aqueles que não sabe se repudiar ou não) e cujos membros são capazes de fazer declarações totalmente génericas do género "as pessoas ciganas não têm agressividade" não é propriamente fácil de entender.

There is nothing wrong with your television. Do not attempt to adjust the picture.

Birthday party snub sparks debate

An eight-year-old boy has sparked an unlikely outcry in Sweden after failing to invite two of his classmates to his birthday party.

The boy's school says he has violated the children's rights and has complained to the Swedish Parliament. The school, in Lund, southern Sweden, argues that if invitations are handed out on school premises then it must ensure there is no discrimination. (...)

The boy handed out his birthday invitations during class-time and when the teacher spotted that two children had not received one the invitations were confiscated.

Review as expletive gets marks

The Times reported that Assessment and Qualifications Alliance chief examiner Peter Buckroyd gave a pupil two marks out of 27 for an English GCSE paper. He is quoted as saying the candidate had demonstrated more skills than one "who doesn't write anything at all". (...) The pupil is reported to have written "fuck off", and would have had another mark for adding an exclamation point.

Mr Buckroyd is quoted by the Times as saying: "It would be wicked to give it a zero because it does show some very basic skills we are looking for - like conveying some meaning and some spelling." (...)

"The example cited was unique in the experience of the senior examiner concerned and was used in a pre-training session to emphasise the importance of adhering to the mark scheme: i.e. if a candidate makes any sort of response to a question then it must be at least given consideration to be awarded a mark.

Dia da Raça

Irelande Douze Pointe

A solidariedade dos pescadores

Os pescadores estão incomodados com a subida do preço do petróleo nos mercados internacionais, sendo que muitos apontam como causa para esta escalada de preços a existência de especulação financeira, o que causa aumentos artificiais dos preços dos combustíveis. Pretendem que os governos se solidarizem com a situação e subsidiem os custos adicionais que este aumento representa na indústria do pescado. Para atingir este objectivo, muitos pescadores europeus optaram por fazer greve em simultâneo, gerando uma escassez artificial de peixe nos mercados europeus que está a ter como consequência o rápido aumento dos preços destes bens.

Daqui a uns dias talvez vejamos nos telejornais retalhistas e proprietários de restaurantes a ameaçar que entrarão em greve (aumentando necessariamente os preços das refeições para o consumidor final) caso os governos não sejam solidários para com as dificuldades destes comerciantes e subsidiem a compra de peixe. A parte mais bonita desta história é como os sectores comerciais de vários países se conseguem organizar espontaneamente para por fim à especulação financeira e fazer tantas demonstrações conjuntas de solidariedade para com os restantes elementos da sociedade que consumem os seus produtos.

Oh it's just a harmless little bunny, isn't it?

Tres años de cárcel para Wesley Snipes: El actor ha sido condenado por no declarar impuestos durante cinco años

Logarithmic Spirals

Image Credit: M101 - NASA, ESA, CFHT, NOAO; Typhoon Rammasun - MODIS, NASA
Comparison: Lawrence Anderson-Huang (Ritter Astrophysical Obs., Univ. Toledo)

Explanation: Uncomfortably close Typhoon Rammasun (right) and 25 million light-year distant galaxy M101 don't seem to have much in common. For starters, Rammasun was only a thousand kilometers or so across while M101 (aka the Pinwheel Galaxy) spans about 170,000 light-years, making them vastly dissimilar in scale, not to mention the different physical environments that control their formation and development. But they do look amazingly alike: each with arms exhibiting the shape of a simple and beautiful mathematical curve known as a logarithmic spiral, a spiral whose separation grows in a geometric way with increasing distance from the center. Also known as the equiangular spiral, growth spiral, and Bernoulli's spiral or spira mirabilis, this curve's rich properties have fascinated mathematicians since its discovery by 17th century philosopher Descartes. Intriguingly, this abstract shape is much more abundant in nature than suggested by the striking visual comparison above. For example, logarithmic spirals can also describe the tracks of subatomic particles in a bubble chamber, the arrangement of sunflower seeds and, of course, cauliflower.

(sub-repticiamente gamado ao António)

Citação do dia

"To be GOVERNED is to be watched, inspected, spied upon, directed, law-driven, numbered, regulated, enrolled, indoctrinated, preached at, controlled, checked, estimated, valued, censured, commanded, by creatures who have neither the right nor the wisdom nor the virtue to do so. To be GOVERNED is to be at every operation, at every transaction noted, registered, counted, taxed, stamped, measured, numbered, assessed, licensed, authorized, admonished, prevented, forbidden, reformed, corrected, punished. It is, under pretext of public utility, and in the name of the general interest, to be place[d] under contribution, drilled, fleeced, exploited, monopolized, extorted from, squeezed, hoaxed, robbed; then, at the slightest resistance, the first word of complaint, to be repressed, fined, vilified, harassed, hunted down, abused, clubbed, disarmed, bound, choked, imprisoned, judged, condemned, shot, deported, sacrificed, sold, betrayed; and to crown all, mocked, ridiculed, derided, outraged, dishonored. That is government; that is its justice; that is its morality."

Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, General Idea of the Revolution in the Nineteenth Century

Demand, Supply

we all have inner daemons, mate

Demons from Hellgate: London at a pub, drowning their sorrows. Intel-powered computers are making their lives miserable.

Pequena nota v4.0

Desde finais de Fevereiro, há, finalmente, telefone fixo e ADSL por aqui. Os problemas, contudo, não terminaram e alguns não estão ainda definitivamente resolvidos. Mais pormenores provavelmente em Junho, quando fizer um resumo alargado da odisseia - ou, com maior exactidão, doze trabalhos de Hércules - e do registo de sapos (de certa forma, literamente) engolidos.

Anteriores: pequena nota v1.0; pequena nota v2.0; pequenota nota v3.0