The invention of lying

Today I saw “The invention of lying” and found to be really interesting as it makes us think about a lot of things (more than this trailer suggests…), from the obvious truth vs.lie, until religion and morality. For me the first 15 minutes were the most interesting because we always found lying a bad thing, but this portrait of an “all truthful world” is surely not very inviting… I won’t tell more because I don’t want to ruin your movie view. But I leave you with a question: would we really want to hear the all truth all the time?

Nothing Gold Can Stay by Robert Lee Frost

NOTHING GOLD CAN STAY

Nature's first green is gold,

Her hardest hue to hold.

Her early leaf's a flower;

But only so an hour.

Then leaf subsides to leaf.

So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down to day.

Nothing gold can stay.



Robert Lee Frost

THE SALARY OF AN MBA- IF YOU'RE A WOMAN!

I read this interesting article in Harvard Business Review and want to share it.  Apparently,  a woman's  MBA is worth less than a man's. These amazing statistics seem to be linked to the salary on the first job. But please read the full article which is quite surprising. At least at this level. The mind boggles. What are women doing wrong?

http://blogs.hbr.org/research/2010/04/the-pay-gap-and-delusions-of-p.html

TRAFFIC JAM

Traffic jam in Lisbon. Pedro M Cruz is doing his PhD in this area and got some awesome visualizations. Just have a look at:


Traffic in Lisbon – emphasis on sluggish areas from Pedro M Cruz on Vimeo.

CHANTAL CHAMBERLAND

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8cj-lAfdgg&feature=related

Chantal Chamberland: "On the street where you live".

A silent struggle

Some say it’s too much love, some say it’s madness, but domestic violence has been a problem for years… It was not by chance that love was mentioned in the first sentence, it still exists this “urban legend” that the men/women who enroll in violent acts with their partner do it in the same proportion of the love he/she has for the one she/he mistreats. That violence comes from jealousy that comes from love, some say. But the reality is that love shouldn’t hurt this much and that being violent usually means there are unresolved issues… And, as we usually say “it takes two to tango” so when we struggle, someone has to take the first step to get a different perspective and try to understand what is going on underneath it. It takes courage for sure.

Let’s shop 'till we drop

There is something mysterious about quickly satisfying what seems at the moment a big need. We go out, we don’t know why but we see something, either clothes or shoes, or books, or technology, and we have to have it and have to have it now! In this instance we convince ourselves it’s a great need, or that it is the right moment to buy it, or that we shouldn’t but we deserve it… and for a moment we are glad, happy, in a good mood. But then we arrive home, and reality comes crashing, we shouldn’t have bought it, we don’t needed it, we didn’t think enough about it, we could use the money… and then, the happiness gives its place to remorse and a deeper sadness, more profound than the quick sense of happiness. And there is no way to explain that great sadness that suddenly arises from a wrong spending.

What happens is that probably that sadness was already there, it was the subtle voice inside that wanted so much to buy something, it was the voice of emptiness, asking to be “filled” with something. But usually, that emptiness is not solvable with material things… and builds up when confronted with that unfulfillment and frustration… and it’s sadness all over again.

Now with the rising economical crisis, it becomes more and more difficult to be able to spend money randomly – and the anxiety builds up. So finding the right solution to this problem becomes very important to those who suffer.

Developmental psychology

Developmental psychology is a subfield within psychology which focuses on the study of age-based behavioral changes. Historically, the term has been used specifically to refer to the behavioral development of children, but developmental psychologists actually study people of all ages, looking at behavior from the womb until death. Researchers in this field can apply their skills to the treatment of children with psychological disorders, the analysis of psychological issues which pertain to criminal cases, education, elder care, and a number of other situations.

Researchers in this field primarily gather evidence through observation, with each study adding to the overall body of material in developmental psychology. Experimentation under controlled circumstances may be used by some researchers, but most focus on watching humans in natural environments and learning about the ways in which development can be influenced or altered. Since many experiments involving the manipulation of environment could involve unethical methods such as subjecting children to sensory deprivation or malnourishing infants to determine the role of diet in infant development, observation is often the only way to gather data.

Developmental psychologists are interested in the emotional, intellectual, and moral development of people throughout their lifespan, looking at everything from the age infants first respond to specific stimuli to the behavioral changes which occur in the elderly. Developmental psychology is also concerned with physical and social development, such as the age at which boys and girls start differentiating between each other, or the dynamics of middle aged adults. They also study humans in the womb, especially in the later phases of pregnancy when the fetus appears to be engaging in conscious actions.

The study of developmental psychology is critical to understanding how humans mature, and to identifying issues with human maturation. Developmental psychologists, for example, can set basic milestones which can be used to determine whether or not a child is developing normally. Lagging behind normal development or failing to meet development targets by a specific age can be an early sign that a child is experiencing problems which need to be addressed.

Research in developmental psychology can also be used to explore the developmental differences between different populations, and the reasons why some groups seem to develop more quickly than others. This research can be valuable when people are deciding how to allocate funding and which social and educational issues need the most attention, as developmental psychology has illustrated that people need sound developmental building blocks to grow into healthy, well-adjusted adults.

MORE BUNKERS - THE SHAME

A frien of mine sent me these two pictures of bunkers in Normandy. The previous ones I posted were not grafittized like these are. The shame remains the same - with decoration or not. Hitler had the bunkers built 70 years ago to prevent the landing by the Allies. He didn't succeed but millions died here and in many other places across the planet.
What we call Europe, EU, etc,  is such a fragile construction. We have to be careful not to let it fall down. Think of that.

A SENSE FOR THE TRUTH

http://www.psychoanalysis.org.uk/audiovisualgenerations.htm

MUSIC: I SAW HER STANDING THERE

FRUITY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZN5PoW7_kdA


The annoying orange

Too many people, too many space

We call agoraphobia that almost indescribable sensation of fear in an open space or crowded environment. It’s a really curious – and haunting – sensation that comes almost as a fear for future situations: we don’t need at that moment to leave that place or to be rescued, but the thought of that need, and the idea that it could be difficult to be reached in that crowded place, makes one so anxious that can lead to a panic attack. And then… as it turns out difficult to abandon some of those irrational thoughts, one starts to avoid some places, avoid some places that were usually pleasant because of that fear. So it turns out to be scarier avoiding the fearful situation, missing so much of our life, then to deal with it – or at least we hope so...

Children Emotional Problems

Like adults children have many different ways to react to their emotional problems. Nevertheless, unlike adults they are unable to tell us they have an emotional problem and need help.

It is our work as responsible and loving adults to be alert to their signals and help them understand their needs providing, if necessary, the specialized and technical help available in the society.

Many times we tend to rapidly criticize and think that this or that child has no manners, knows no rules and respects no one when so many times those are the only ways that small person has learned to express her or his difficulties and or emotional problems.

POETRY: OSCAR WILDE

THE BALLAD OF READING GAOL


(excerpt from the poem by Oscar Wilde)



Yet each man kills the thing he loves,

Some do it with a bitter look,

Some with a flattering word,

The coward does it with a kiss,

The brave man with a sword!



Some kill their love when they are young,

And some when they are old;

Some strangle with the hands of Lust,

Some with the hands of Gold:

The kindest use a knife, because

The dead so soon grow cold.



Some love too little, some too long,

Some sell, and others buy;

Some do the deed with many tears,

And some without a sigh:

For each man kills the thing he loves.

Simple words

"(...) So the words you could not say

I'll sing them for you

And the love we would have made

I'll make it for two

For every single memory

Has become a part of me (...)"

(Part of the song "Jesus to a Child" by George Michael)

Act

To jump from a situation to another, to escape, is to act instead of feeling and thinking.

(Old professor, in old times)

DEPRESSION

Depression is about loss. Loss of someone or something, or the love of it, that makes you fear for another loss... and another...and another... for all your life.
It's as if you are encapsulated in time: better said, in the past. The present is unbearable, there's no future. This may be more than depression, it can be melancholia, a Greek word meaning black bile. The Greeks knew it had to do with humour and Aristotle thought it could help creativity. Great thinkers, poets and artists, he used to say, are usually prone to melancholia bouts.
Some say that melancholic people have an ideal within themselves so strong that their ego cannot ever reach that perfect model and keeps punishing itself.
The thing is: how can there be such a strong omnipotent and tyrannical ideal that makes you crawl whenever you feel you are not corresponding to its demands? Think about it and the extraordinary power you might have given to someone or something.

The photo is quite a depressing one. It's a bunker from WWII part of the so-called Atlantic Wall that the nazis built on the Atlantic shore. Many of these huge and ugly constructions can  still be seen there. Paul Virilio published a book on them (http://www.infoamerica.org/teoria/virilio1.htm).

Carnival - a "population" of emotions

I know Carnival was a few days ago, but in this sunny day I came across this fotos and couldn't help to stop for a minute and appreciate. Those are from the famous Brasilian Carnival, and I select those particular photos because I found them reveiling of a great emotion. Isn't it amazing how in a cultural event like this, tradition can bring such sense of belonging, such respect for representing a particular school, or a town...? Have you noticed the photo where one of the actrices is praying before entering the avenue...?

Who are we?

We are the story we most say about ourselfs.

(Old saying)

JAZZ: DAVE BRUBECK

I just love this music. The video is from the 60s. Enjoy.

Disney's desperate housewives

We need some humor sometimes...

Hallelujha to help Haiti

Clara's previous post remembered me that an old song from Leonard Cohen "Hallelujha", that have already many versions, from Jon Bon jovi to Jeff Buckley (my favorite), has been interpreted by Justin Timberlake and Matt Morris, in a more "peaceful" version...

LEONARD COHEN: THERE'S A CRACK IN EVERYTHING

Interviewer: In other song you also say"There's a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in". It is not a very happy thought to believe that something will always have to break, to open a crack, in order to the light gets in...

Leonard Cohen: It is a happy thought if we enjoy the truth. There is always something that will have to break. Usually it is our personal proud.
A Buddhist thinker said that disappointment is a great way to illumination. Other masters said: "from the broken débris of my heart I will erect an altar to the Lord".
The idea that there is a staircase of gold and marble, which leads to knowledge is seductive, but seems to me that the idea of something needing to get broken before we can learn anything is a more true idea. It is my experience, maybe you can escape it, but I doubt it. Unless the heart breaks, we will never know anything about love. As long as our objective universe don't collapse, we'll never know anything about the world.
We think that we know the mechanism, but only when it falls we understand how intricate and mysterious is the operation. So, it is true, "there's a crack in everything", all human activity is imperfect and unfinished. Only that way we can have the notion that there's something inside us that can only be located through disillusion, bad luck and defeat. Unfortunately, that seems to be the case.
(excerpt of an interview with Leonard Cohen conducted by João Lisboa for Expresso 1994)

A crack

"There is a crack in everything - that's how the light goes in"

(Alex Rider)

What does this quote sugest to you...?

POETRY FOR A WINTER DAY: ROBERT FROST

Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village, though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it's queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there's some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

Robert Lee Frost

(thanks to poemhunter.com)

CONGO: THE SLAUGHTERHOUSE

Some regions of the world seem to be mysteriously forgotten by the media. As if they were behind some dark and opressive curtain of silence while awful, unspeakable atrocities are committed.
Nicholas Kristoff, who writes for the New York Times, is an exception. He has been consistently writing about the war that's taking place in Congo which took around 7 million lives in the last ten years. What he writes is hard to believe: militias that cut pieces of  flesh from living victims and make them eat them. Young girls who are raped repeatedly for months and years to the point their internal are completely destroyed (if they survive, of course). People who are esventratewd in front of their families.
Enough of it.
The causes behind this war are multiple: etnical hatred, greed (minerium), violence coming from Rwanda, etc, etc. 
One reads all this and has to wonder: what else is man capable of? What can we do?

Night

The night, when the light goes and the darkness comes. I remember seing a documentary about all the diferent reactions that the darkness of night brings.. the "gosts" that come along, the sadness due to lack of sunlight, and even a sense of less space in the room. We often associate the feer of darkness to children, but it's far from a child problem, more adults than we think have some kind of difficulty when the sunlight goes to sleep...
Do monsters live under the bed, or right in our mind...? Is the light only brigtness or a doorway to everyting outside...? Should we turn the light on...?

BRIGHT STAR (KEATS)

Bright Star

Bright star, would I were steadfast as thou art –
Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night
And watching, with eternal lids apart,
Like nature's patient, sleepless Eremite,
The moving waters at their priestlike task
Of pure ablution round earth's human shores,
Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask
Of snow upon the mountains and the moors –
No – yet still steadfast, still unchangeable,
Pillow'd upon my fair love's ripening breast,
To feel for ever its soft fall and swell,
Awake for ever in a sweet unrest,
Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,
And so live ever – or else swoon to death.

John Keats

TO HIS COY MISTRESS (MARVELL)

To his Coy Mistress

Had we but world enough, and time,
This coyness, lady, were no crime.
We would sit down and think which way
To walk, and pass our long love's day;
Thou by the Indian Ganges' side
Shouldst rubies find; I by the tide
Of Humber would complain. I would
Love you ten years before the Flood;
And you should, if you please, refuse
Till the conversion of the Jews.
My vegetable love should grow
Vaster than empires, and more slow.
An hundred years should go to praise
Thine eyes, and on thy forehead gaze;
Two hundred to adore each breast,
But thirty thousand to the rest;
An age at least to every part,
And the last age should show your heart.
For, lady, you deserve this state,
Nor would I love at lower rate.

But at my back I always hear
Time's winged chariot hurrying near;
And yonder all before us lie
Deserts of vast eternity.
Thy beauty shall no more be found,
Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound
My echoing song; then worms shall try
That long preserv'd virginity,
And your quaint honour turn to dust,
And into ashes all my lust.
The grave's a fine and private place,
But none I think do there embrace.

Now therefore, while the youthful hue
Sits on thy skin like morning dew,
And while thy willing soul transpires
At every pore with instant fires,
Now let us sport us while we may;
And now, like am'rous birds of prey,
Rather at once our time devour,
Than languish in his slow-chapp'd power.
Let us roll all our strength, and all
Our sweetness, up into one ball;
And tear our pleasures with rough strife
Through the iron gates of life.
Thus, though we cannot make our sun
Stand still, yet we will make him run.

Andrew Marvell

CAN LOVE POETRY MAKE YOU BLUSH?

Apparently, yes. Scientists used thermal imaging cameras "to investigate whether love poems can really ignite 'instant fires' in every pore", as the Guardian explains.
What's is the emotional and physical impact of tender love, asked the researchers who conducted the experiment for Aberystwyth University .

"With around five terabytes of thermal data to evaluate, a complete scientific explanation is going to take some time, but the idea does have a grounding in literary theory. The Romantic poets believed their inspiration came to them as a burst of heat that gradually dissipated during the writing process. When someone reads a poem, they were thought to experience some of that original heat themselves. Keats described passionate verse as creating "a burning forehead" and "a parched tongue" in the lovestruck reader", says the Guardian.
The experimenters asked six volunteers from each department to silently read 12 love poems, while a less amorous text about thermal imaging served as a control. As the participants read the poems, thermal cameras monitored their faces for any change in temperature.

And which poems did the researchers used? Ha, that's the important question. A good choice they made. Those are two of the most beautiful poems ever written: Bright Star by John Keats and To His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell
I'll post them in the 2 next posts.

Whatever Works

Have you seen "Whatever Works" from Woody Allen? Please do! It has a good balance between humor and an often negative prespective of life. Not that I'm in favor of a negative vision, but sometimes we need to go there, to that dark perspective do get out, to give it a menning and go tru it. Sunshine in the next page, we hope! ;)

Hauted Home - David Fonseca

"You want to drink my soul
'Till your heart is full
What happens when it's full and it splashes?
You've built all these rooftops
And painted them all in blue
If all this set just burns up will you paint the ashes?

Do you really want to see?
Because I'll let you in
With me

You shiver when the wind blows
Through doors that lost their keys
There's too little to rescue, too little to hang on to
I thought that maybe we could try to
Clear and rebuild this haunted home
I'll be glad to help you just tell me what to do

Why don't you tell me what to do?
Maybe you're scared too
I've been here before
Next thing you'll see
You'll feel
So small

I willdisappoint you
And I don't care if I do
I belong to those who got shattered, battered
Bruises and scars that I've hidden and you could never heal
This grey house where I come from
Some great love will tear it down
If you no longer love me why should it matter?

Tell me why should it matter?
I can't ask you to stay
I can't find the words to say
Why don't you just leave?

Just leave"

I think this is a very stong music and lyric. And has I listened to how David talked about her it all made sense...

Life

"Action is eloquence"

W. Shakespeare

A movie: Das Weisse Band (The White Ribbon)

Just before the I WW, a small village in the North of Germany. Disturbing  events start taking place. Terrible punishments, strange accidents. Is there something called Evil? maybe not and it's all in our mind.
The White Ribbon is the title in English and the director is Michael Haneke, the sdame who directed La Pianiste (with Isabelle Huppert).
A film to be seen absolutely. It's on several cinemas in Lisbon. I saw it at King, near Av. Roma. Brace yourselves for human moral misery.

BULLYING

This is such a serious issue that it certainly deserves we spend more time thinking it over. Psicronos, a Portuguese clinic I also work with organized last week end with Câmara Municipal de Portimão (Algarve) a seminar about bullyting, non-violence and education.
I had the pleasure of being one of the lecturers and spoke about group violence. My emphasis was on what we call group mentality and the dynamics behind it it. Adolescents are specially prone to adhere to a violent mode of group mentality and a great effort is needed to help them to think by themselves and not by the mind of some violent leader. I also focused on Hitler Youth to show the point.
From the University of Murcia, Spain, came Prof. Bartolomé Blor to speak about the attitudes about violence in the educational context.

Goals

If to give a big step forward one needs to give two small steps backward – so let’s give them!

(Popular knowledge)

Clair de Lune

Some time ago I saw a documentary about “Clair de Lune” Debussy’s well known music and found out that the music meant to sound as the waves of the sea: 7 waves, first little ones, followed by big ones!

EGAR ALLAN POE (1809-1849)

ANNABEL LEE

It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of ANNABEL LEE;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.

I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea;
But we loved with a love that was more than love-
I and my Annabel Lee;
With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven
Coveted her and me.

And this was the reason that, long ago,
In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
My beautiful Annabel Lee;
So that her highborn kinsman came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre
In this kingdom by the sea.

The angels, not half so happy in heaven,
Went envying her and me-
Yes!- that was the reason (as all men know,
In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.

But our love it was stronger by far than the love
Of those who were older than we-
Of many far wiser than we-
And neither the angels in heaven above,
Nor the demons down under the sea,
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee.

For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling- my darling- my life and my bride,
In the sepulchre there by the sea,
In her tomb by the sounding sea.

Edgar Allan Poe 

The poet was born on the 19th January 1809. According to The Guardian, last Wednesday was the first time in 60 years that his faithful admirer didn't show up to put three roses and a half bottle of Cognac on his grave. Maybe he's dead himself, who knows?
Poe's poetry, however, stays with us. Forever.

Happy Birthday Mr. Poe!

DEATH AND BURIAL RITES

Photo by Viacheslav Smilyk




http://www.bravenewtraveler.com/2008/06/25/10-extraordinary-burial-ceremonies-from-around-the-world/

A most interesting article that overviews different burial rites around the world

WOMEN AND THE WORKFORCE

According to The Economist, women make up already 50% of the workforce in the USA. In Scandinavia, this % is even higher.
Quoting The Economist:
"The change is dramatic(...). A generation ago working women performed menial jobs and were routinely subjected to casual sexism—as “Mad Men”, a television drama about advertising executives in the early 1960s, demonstrates brilliantly".
 This mass movement began during WW II when women had to get to grips with the jobs men did before.
Rosie the Riveter (pictured above by Norman Rockwell in the Saturday Evening Post) was an icon for this new woman.
But things are not yet as they should be: women still earn tipically less than men and a very small % of them are running big companies. In sum, lots to do yet.
You can read the whole article at:
http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15174418

Note that the Wikipedia insists that the picture of the woman The Economist has published was mistaken for Rosie. This one:

Well, the two of them are along the same lines. If you are interested, take a look at:
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosie_the_Riveter

FROM LA 64º

http://www.davidlynch.com/dailyreport/index.html

From LA, David Lynch wishing us a good 2010. Enjoy.

LHASA DE SELA (1972-2010)

CULTURAL AND ECONOMIC DIFFERENCES

Reading today the The Economist I found lots of interesting information about the ways we use mobile phones around the world. For instance:

The words used for those small and convenient machines reflect the priorities of a society. The American call them cellulars (emphasis on the technological aspect), the English mobiles, as in Portugal, Spain, etc (usually societies that once had an empire and were used to move around). The Germans, pratical as always call them Handy and the Chinese sho ji (hand machine).

Some talk, some text. The Japanese consider it rude to have a conversation that everybody can hear text a lot (as Indonesians, maybe for different reasons).
The Spanish talk a lot and don't activate voice mail that much. Americans and Puerto Ricans talk more than they text.
Whwre ant the way people use their mobiles also tells a lot about thwe way they see the town a a collective space. parisians tend to talk or text on pavements even in the street, Londoners prefer to gather at the entrances of tube stations.
In Portugal, as everybody who live here well knows, we like to share our private lives with lots of people so we tend to shout during conversations in buses, restaurants, cafés, everywhere (Brasilians are great at that too).
Coverage is also important too. For instance the Finns choose operators that work in tunnels (for good reasons, specially in Winter).
You can read all this and much more at:
http://www.economist.com/displayStory.cfm?story_id=15172850&source=features_box_main

UTE LEMPER

A great singer and a great music: Ute Lemper in Paris

LUCKY TO HABE BEEN WHERE I'VE BEEN

CHRISTMAS AND THE IN-LAWS

Problems with in-laws specially during X-Mas? You're not alone.
The following chronicle from the NYT is quite interesting.
Oddly enough, I couldn't find any photo or picture to go with it.

http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/23/disliking-your-in-laws/

ABOUT RELIGION

 (photo: The Economist)

http://www.economist.com/books/displayStory.cfm?story_id=15124974&sa_camapaign=twitter

This article from The Economist reviews Nicholas Wade's: "The faith instinct. How religion evolved and why it endures".
Is religion an human instinct or a form of adaptability that has been useful for human societies for centuries?
Mr. Wade is a Darwinian  evolutionist and his book makes interesting reading.

WOMEN AND MEN SHOPPING

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/6720150/Shopping-styles-of-men-and-women-all-down-to-evolution-claim-scientists.html

The article is about the different shopping styles. Apparently, it has to do with evolution. Men went hunting and with some luck they did. Women had to choose carefully among the food available (seeds, fruits,meat, etc).

Says Prof Kruger: "Women gained the skills of how to get the best quality food in cave man times because if they chose the wrong berry or nut it could kill". Women often did that with young children, while men were out hunting.

According to scientists, "the reason why women love to spend hours in shops while men prefer to be in and out of the high street in minutes is down to their hunter-gathering past".

Hmm... Food for thought.

(photo by rock_leonine)

 

 

THE KNOWN UNIVERSE

An awesome video by AMNH!