A DANGEROUS SORT OF LOVE

Joanna Driscoe writing about toxic love and commitment-phobes:

http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/style/living/Emotions/article663634.ece?CMP=EMCeb15

ART AND DESIGN

Beautiful wooden objects by Cha Jong-Rye

http://thisiscolossal.com/2011/06/the-woodwork-of-cha-jong-rye/

SAL BIGGER THAN GENGHIS?

Sal Khan, a young man graduated buy the MIT, specially gifted in terms of communicating, explaining and teaching, created the Khan Academy (www.khanacademy.org) where you can watch more than two thousand hors of classes about 40 different areas of knowledge.
Do have a look and see for yourself.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Many people would like to start their own business. This wish may be specially useful in the present (and I believe future) situation when jobs for life are part of the past.
We have to come to terms with the fact than the golden years that followed the II World War are past and gone. They lasted for almost sixty years (I'm speaking of course of Europe and the USA) and corresponded in a general way to the so-called baby boomers generation.
Nowadays young people have to be specially resortful in a global and competitive world where jobs are scarce. Entrepreneurship is something than can also be learnt although there are certain born with traits that may help. I already dealt with these issues in a previous post.
Creativity is no doubt a most important trait.
Someone recently told me about this site which is very helpful:

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/219709

BIOs AND RESUMÉs

Michael Margolis writes a very interesting article about writing bios.
In these hard times we're living it's important to distinguish yourself from the masses when you're competing for a position.
Have a read at:

http://the99percent.com/tips/7025/The-Resume-Is-Dead-The-Bio-Is-King?utm_source=Triggermail&utm_medium=email&utm_term=ALL&utm_campaign=MIH%20June%20%2711

I HAVE ONE TOO!

LONG LIVE SPRING

I'm currently preparing a long lecture and had not the oportunnity to go outside for the whole day. Then I realized the weather was very fine and flowers were blossoming eveywhere.
Spring is in full. As in this photo I took in another springtime:

DREAMS AND DREAMING

An interesting article about dreams and dreaming:

http://psychology.about.com/od/statesofconsciousness/tp/facts-about-dreams.htm

AUTHORITY WITHOUT RESPONSIBILITY?

No way, Seth says. And it makes perfect sense. Have a look at a post by one of the most interesting bloggers in the world.


http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2011/04/headroom.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+typepad%2Fsethsmainblog+%28Seth%27s+Blog%29

ARE BACTERIA IN COMMAND?

According to Scientific American, bacteria that inhabit our gut may shape the way we feel, think and behave.
Sounds creepy but please read:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-neuroscience-of-gut

MUSIC FOR THE WEEKEND: BILL CALLAHAN

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tEnAgKDF34&feature=youtube_gdata_player

(from the Apoclypse album)

CULTURE IS UNDER THREAT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_gmtO6JnRs&feature=youtube_gdata_player

SMARTPHONES AND GOOD MANNERS

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/fashion/17TEXT.html?_r=1

HUMOUR

There's a joke circulating amongst the banks:
"I'm feeling moody, standard and poor; Socrates is not fitch"

I'm always amazed (and marvel) at the capacity to make jokes even in desperate circumstances. They say it's a symptom of mental health.

Neil Gaiman: 10 Good Writing Practices

Neil Gaiman: 10 Good Writing Practices

STRESS AND COUNSELLING

Telomeres start shortening as we age. But stress helps too. Or rather, not manaing stress.
Read this article in The Economist about chromosomes, stress and the importance of couselling.

http://www.economist.com/node/18526881

WHAT IT TAKES TO BE AN ENTREPRENEUR

WHAT IT TAKES TO BE AN ENTREPRENEUR?

Nine out of ten startups fail. What does this say to us? That to be an entrepreneur, start and lead a business you need:

A.  Great and direccional motivation. It's not only about self-motivation but also about being able to persuade and motivate other people.
B.  Strong tolerance to frustation
C.  Resilience (the capacity to face adverse conditions with courage and determination).

But this is not enough. Prior to these skills there are other capabilities:

A.  Iniciative
B.  Creativity and an appetite for innovation
C.  Networking
D. Sense of oportunity (to acknowkedge what the market needs or may need
E. Being a risk-lover (vs a risk-averter)

An entrepreneur must be not only a manager but someone who can detect opportunities amongst the enormous amount of information that circulates around him or her. He or she must be able to take a risk and go for a well determined objective with stubborness and persistence.It's someone who doesn't take no for an answer. Most probably (s)he'll take it as maybe. (S)he's a visionary but at the same time someone quite realistic (in some cases it will help to have a partner who complements some of these traits, not easy to reunite in one person).
Many wonder if these skills are innate or can be acquired. I believe most of them, if not all, can be learnt and the soon the better. Frustration, for instance, is one of the first things a baby has to face when s(he) realizes that mother is not a hundred per cent available (this is so hard that some people never manage to deal with it, usually in collusion with their mothers).
Creativity can and must be cultivated.
Still, all this needs a lot of hard work.

Another issue comes to mind apart from these innate or acquired personality traits: external reality and circumstances. Depending on the activity or the economic area, the entrepreneur will need financing and ideally a context where resources (capital and knowledge) are available and free access to the markets.

MUSIC FOR THE WEEKEND: Iron & Wine

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGPzyGIaw0E&feature=youtube_gdata_player

THE JOYS OF READING

(illustration of Alice in the Wonderland, courtesy of Wikipedia)

This is one of my favourite books. As I child I clearly remember the moment I discovered books could mean a whole new world for me. I can even say that my first moment of autonomy and independence was when I realized that learning to read would allow me a freedom that my "real" life didn't.  It was not when I learned to eat by myself or to dress. It was when I realized I could find a meaning in those letters and that I would have so many travels ahead. Tarzan, cowboys, pirates.... Wonderful and strange worlds were opening up for me.
That was in the time of paper books, which appear to be a species approaching extinction (the fact is that I read quite a lot in my iPad). How will children learn that space for autonomy and freedom? Maybe learning how to use computers and have access to images and also reading. Times are changin', as Bob Dylan sang.

HAPPY WITH YOUR LIFE OR HAPPY IN YOUR LIFE?

Still about happiness, have a look at this wonderful Td Talk. Daniel Kahneman is a famous psychologist and Nobel laureate in Economics.
(satisfaction and happiness are different things)

http://www.ted.com/talks/daniel_kahneman_the_riddle_of_experience_vs_memory.html

CONTROL, PROGRESSSION, CONNECTION, BELONGING

From an article by Morgam Housel in The Motley Fool (www.fool.com):

"Money isn't the key to happiness. What really gives people meaning and happiness is a combination of four things: Control over what they're doing, progress in what they're pursuing, being connected with others, and being part of something they enjoy that's bigger than themselves".

Wonderfully put. Food for thought, isn'it?

AGING

Jenny Bowden: our attitude has an effect on our cells. Have a look at:

http://bigthink.com/series/50#!selected_item=4636

BIG THINK MAKES GREAT READING

Bigthink is a most remarkable journal/site (we never know what to call them these days). The articles are about various subbjects going from neurosciences to economy or psychology. The contributors are very very good. Do yourself a favour and subscribe to it.
You'll find it at:

http://bigthink.com/ideas/26676

The link above goes directly to an article about the common assumption that when we've known or been with someone for long we can guess each other's thoughts. It seems it's not quite like that.
Quoting, "Researchers tracked how people in couples read between the lines when listening to their partners, and compared that to how well they understood total strangers. Results: No difference.(...)
To communicate with a stranger, they [the authors] argue, we have to imagine the mind of the other person, and understand how things look in another's eyes. But with people close to us, we "let down our guard": We hope, or expect, or assume (or maybe feel entitled to believe, after all we've done over the years) that the other sees things exactly as we do."
Does it ring a bell?


It's a testimony to our profound similarity, and the power of language, that any one of us can, with a little effort, make herself understood to any other of us on planet Earth. We just have to accept that that kind of mind-reading is a human universal, so love has nothing to do with it.

MUSIC FOR THE WEEK-END

Amy Winehouse, Back to Black

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpuL7FpDeMA&feature=youtube_gdata_player

MOMENTS

Houses have sometimes eyes on you

(photo taken in the Czech Republic)

SUNSET (1)

Even in the middle of the city and surrounded by ugly buildings, a sunset is always a sunset.

SPRING IS COMING!

QUIZ: WHAT'S THIS?

A readerfriend asked me to post this photo for him

LOST IN THE CHAOS, THEY SAY

(photo taken in Lisbon, Av. República)

LISBON NOT HAPPY

(Belém, photo taken the week-end before)

MUSIC FOR THE WEEK-END

Nina Nastasia: Outlaster

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HcvZUFBcPI&feature=youtube_gdata_player

WAVING NOT DROWNING

I called this picture "Waving not drowning" because of one of my favourite poems which is:
  
Not Waving but Drowning

Nobody heard him, the dead man,
But still he lay moaning:
I was much further out than you thought
And not waving but drowning.

Poor chap, he always loved larking
And now he's dead
It must have been too cold for him his heart gave way,
They said.

Oh, no no no, it was too cold always
(Still the dead one lay moaning)
I was much too far out all my life
And not waving but drowning.
Stevie Smith
(via poem hunter http://www.poemhunter.com/)

COMMUNICATING

Being the first time I'm posting in this blog, I feel thrilled but at the same time a bit worried. Do I have interesting ideas or preferences that are worth mentioning? I guess this is a question a lot of us wonder everyday. Am I entitled to questioning? Do I even know what to say and what to say? Is anyone interested in what I think or say?

Ha, communicating. one of the most difficult things in the world.
Isn'it?

2045, THE YEAR COMPUTERS BECOME MORE INTELLIGENT THEN MEN

Read in TIME magazine:

Raymond Kurzweil believes that we're approaching a moment when computers will become intelligent, and not just intelligent but more intelligent than humans. When that happens, humanity — our bodies, our minds, our civilization — will be completely and irreversibly transformed. He believes that this moment is not only inevitable but imminent. According to his calculations, the end of human civilization as we know it is about 35 years away.

For more daring and challenging details, link to

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2048138,00.html

Toward a Science of Consciousness: Brain, Mind and Reality

 A conference with Sir Roger Penrose in Stockholm in May. It surely will be very, very interesting

 http://www.consciousness.arizona.edu/

DEPRESSION AND ITS EFFECTS ON OUR SENSES

http://discovermagazine.com/2010/dec/01-how-depression-dulls-the-world-literally?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+DiscoverMag+%28Discover+Magazine%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

This recent study shows how depression really dulls our senses. What a shame some people still think depression is just a "state of mind" that will just go away.

GREAT MUSIC

James Jackson Toth (Wooden Wand)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLAHOglsO94&feature=youtube_gdata_player

SOUL MUSIC: CHARLES BRADLEY

Joanna Newsom and her harp

SNOBBERY, ENVY AND MERITOCRACY

A brilliant tedtalk by Alain de Botton

http://www.ted.com/talks/alain_de_botton_a_kinder_gentler_philosophy_of_success.html

AGE and HAPPINESS

I read a most amazing article in the Economist a few days ago. Based on a research conducted by several institutions among which are America’s General Social Survey, Eurobarometer and Gallup, the conclusion is that the curve of happiness during a lifetime is an U-bend.
And that in advanced countries the nadir (eg the peak of unhappiness) is 46 years old.
How does this sound?
It seems that as people grow older they start appreciating things they didn't before and being less sensitive to other issues.
I quote:
"Enjoyment and happiness dip in middle age, then pick up; stress rises during the early 20s, then falls sharply; worry peaks in middle age, and falls sharply thereafter; anger declines throughout life; sadness rises slightly in middle age, and falls thereafter".
Listen also to what Dr. Laura Carstensen, professor of psychology at Stanford University,says:
"Because the old know they are closer to death (...) they grow better at living for the present. They come to focus on things that matter now—such as feelings—and less on long-term goals. When young people look at older people, they think how terrifying it must be to be nearing the end of your life. But older people know what matters most.”

The whole article is worth reading anyway. Go to: http://www.economist.com/node/17722567?Story_ID=17722567

Winter - Tori Amos

Winter

One of my favorite songs is called "Winter", by Tori Amos. I do like winter, but I notice not all do... Once I heard that the falling leaves were like falling hopes of sunny days... as the sun hides itself and there is rain and grey weather. Some take it as a good opportunity to a hot cup of coffee... And you? How do you see this beginning?

LIVING WITH THE PARENTS

I read in the Eurostat site a statistic about the pourcentage of young adults 25-34 years old who are still leaving with their parents. Portugal comes as one of. The first (or the last...) with an astonishing 47.6%. But there's worse, like Bulgaria (the champion. The Nordic countries and UK have the lowest numbers. The average for the EU is 32%.
I'm sure there are ponderous economic reasons. But one wonders about the culture that can make a 34 year-old live happily with mum and dad.

WHITE NOISE

White noise is an expression that designates a kind of noise that is confortable on one hand and one the other masks the other unpleasant noises and may take place in a bedroom, a conference room, etc. It' s sometime used in offices to guarantee some privacy to a phone talk for instance.
The concept is quite intrigring.
I've always about it but this summer, after searching on the internet, I decided to make my own white noise instead of buying a device for that problem(you can order it online). I had a very upsetting noise coming from the street and managed to overcome it by turning on my air conditioning system in the most silent program. Fortunately it worked. But made me wonder about the lack of respect that people show each other and The total impunity that goes with it.
Sometimes we also have to create our personal white noise in psycogical terms. Some people really interfere with our nervous system and we have to be able to muffle their sounds with some protecting inner noise we may produce.
You know what I mean?

BABIES' FACIAL EXPRESSIONS

Dr. Harriet Oster will be coming to Lisbon in October to lead a workshop on babies's facial expressions:

http://LisbonBabyFACS.blogspot.com/

MEMORIES IN MUSIC

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wo2Lof_5dy4&feature=youtube_gdata_player

MOUSE FOR THE MIND

 I'll run the risk of appearing to be advertising for someone else. But I have to tell you about this amazing device which allows disabled people or someone who has arm or shoulder problems to control a mouse with the brain.

Have  a look at:
http://www.lemonde.fr/technologies/article/2010/08/24/pour-george-lucas-la-guerre-des-clones-aura-bien-lieu_1402237_651865.html#xtor=EPR-32280229-[NL_Titresdujour]-20100824-[zoneb]

WHY DON'T THEY GROW UP?

Getting to adulthood is happening later than ever. The New York Times has published an interesting article on this topic. It can be read here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/22/magazine/22Adulthood-t.html?_r=3&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1282395630-wV7x29FxxAmVZAILVWjcrw&pagewanted=all

The phenomenon is taking place in developed countries: kids live with their parents longer and longer, they sometimes leave home and come back later, get financially independent much later than they did twenty years ago, have kids later...
The reasons are multiple and some of those that the NYT enumerates make good sense. Interestingly, if you'll read the article you'll find that once upon a time adolescence was not considered a period of life. The notion seems to be quite recent (XX century).
Times change. For me, however, the most striking issue is not that our children seem never to grow up. I believe The process is part of a much wider one: the infantilization of our societies. We are becoming less and less responsible and accountable as persons. And most worrying, this process seems to come with more depressions and very little motivation for the things of life in general.

COMUNICATING AND BLOGGING

Let's put it bluntly: I've been writing very little in this blog.
The culprit, however, has a name: it's my beloved iPhone.
Yes, since I bought it (well, it was a present. And what a present!) I just let my laptop rest in the sitting room, connected to the LCD screen. I only use it for academic works that demand more capabilities , like PowerPoint or a special text application.
Before, I used to carry my MAC in a trolley. Now, I just put my iPhone in the purse or in my trouser pocket.
I do everything with it: read and write e-mails, tweet, have a look at the Facebook, take and edit photos and videos, listen to music, read books (Amazon kindle store now has an APP for that) and even write short short stories, which are my current passion.
One thing, however, I'm not able to do: put a picture from the net on a post.
Upon reflecting, I decided it was more important to go on writing, with or without photos.
I'll be back soon with a commentary on the so called "emerging adulthood", a period of life that's getting longer and longer.