Passei pela sala de aula e ouvi...

Prof.: - O que estás a fazer?
Criança: - Um desenho.
Prof.: - Estás a desenhar o quê?
Criança: - Estou a desenhar Deus.
Prof.: - Mas ninguém sabe como Deus é!
Criança: - Em 1 minuto vão saber.

Destruição criativa

Speaking of job destruction, will the current downturn hurt or encourage entrepreneurship? There will certainly be more people forced to work for themselves because they lose their jobs and can’t find other employers. But a downturn can also be a good time to start a business. Established firms tend to cut back on their growth investments during a downturn, to focus on defending their established core activities. In a recent speech, Steve Vassallo, of Foundation Capital, a venture capital firm, listed an impressive group of companies that were founded in downturns, including Disney, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Oracle and Cisco. It will be no surprise if some of the talented people now unable to find work in an investment bank or other big company are to direct their energies towards creating a new generation of successful start-ups.

É a vida!

"O que acontece na vida não é o que nela acontece mas a quantidade de nós que acontece nesse acontecer", do livro que folheio há uns tempos.

Antes da última nota em público

Alfred Brendel piano

Joseph Haydn Variations in f, Hob. XVII:6

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Piano sonata, KV 533

Ludwig van Beethoven Piano sonata no. 13, op. 27/1, "quasi una fantasia"

Franz Schubert Piano sonata, D 960

After 60 years of an outstanding career, Alfred Brendel is leaving the concert stage for good with his beloved Viennese classics and his legendary panache. His farewell tour, naturally, includes Brussels [e Lisboa]. More than just an exceptional concert, this promises to be a historic moment, for, to quote Le Monde, "Brendel is more than Brendel: poet of the keyboard, writer of sounds, musician with a capital M of extraordinary musical perfection."

"Security Council delays Congo troops decision as soldiers step up attacks"

No new United Nations peacekeeping troops will be sent to eastern Congo for at least a month after the Security Council failed to reach a decision on reinforcing its mission there.

Diplomats said there was broad agreement on the need to bolster the 17,000-strong force but scepticism from some quarters delayed a formal decision, which is now unlikely to come before the end of November.

Talks wrapped up amid reports of renewed chaos north of Goma, where hundreds of Congolese government soldiers rampaged through villages, raping women and children and looting homes as they pulled back ahead of an expected advance by rebel troops.

"Aliens Cause Global Warming"

I want to pause here and talk about this notion of consensus, and the rise of what has been called consensus science. I regard consensus science as an extremely pernicious development that ought to be stopped cold in its tracks. Historically, the claim of consensus has been the first refuge of scoundrels; it is a way to avoid debate by claiming that the matter is already settled. Whenever you hear the consensus of scientists agrees on something or other, reach for your wallet, because you're being had.

Let's be clear: the work of science has nothing whatever to do with consensus. Consensus is the business of politics. Science, on the contrary, requires only one investigator who happens to be right, which means that he or she has results that are verifiable by reference to the real world. In science consensus is irrelevant. What is relevant is reproducible results. The greatest scientists in history are great precisely because they broke with the consensus.

There is no such thing as consensus science. If it's consensus, it isn't science. If it's science, it isn't consensus. Period.

O texto completo de Michael Crichton pode ser lido aqui. Vão ver que vai valer a pena.

Remembrance

"War is not glorious. But those who have died so that others may live in freedom and peace will always deserve what Mr Binyon called their country's “proud thanksgiving”. Ninety years hence we will still remember them."

Lamentável só lamentar

Never again?!

Human rights groups say that some 250,000 people have been driven from their homes by the recent violence in the region, where rebel forces have been battling the Congolese Army and militias since August.

"My No 1 job as First Lady is to be First Mom"

Não é todos os dias que se ouvem estas palavras.

Well, well, well, my Michelle.

Changes

O anti-americanismo deu lugar à esperança, excepto naqueles que acham que o problema é da cadeira e não de quem a ocupa. Por pouco tempo. Obama vai ser muito melhor do que eles pensam. Conhecemos o Obama pré-candidato, o candidato e o presidente eleito. Os discursos foram mudando ("change we need"). Para melhor. Outros em breve também mudarão. Para pior. E a culpa será da cadeira. Ou da coca-cola.

Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes

(Turn and face the strain)

Ch-ch-Changes

Don't want to be a richer man

Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes

(Turn and face the strain)

Ch-ch-Changes

Just gonna have to be a different man

Time may change me

But I can't trace time

(David Bowie)