Monthly Archives: November 2007

en español

Cómo seguir perdiendo el tiempo

Entre este blog post y esta polémica barata de tercera, no me cabe la menor duda que nos encanta tirarnos al suelo y perder el tiempo en babosadas pseudonacionalistas.  En lugar de pensar que "es que nos discriminan, y nos tratan mal", "todo es la culpa de la conquista", o incluso síntomas de una falta de autoestima brutal como "nos insultan diciendo que somos feos".

El momento en que empecemos a ver hacia el futuro y hacia el exterior de una forma constructiva, en lugar de hacia el pasado y hacia dentro de una manera simplista y francamente irreal, es cuando realmente empezaremos a hacer algo por nosotros y por nuestro país.  Ya basta de echarle la culpa a otros y de quejarnos, si no nos ponemos a actuar seguiremos en las mismas.

Tal vez es lo que queremos, a final de cuentas.

in english

Anime Music Video

You may have heard of mashups before.  An anime music video is a special version, wherein Anime (or other kind of animation) is edited to be co-ordinated with a specific song (or other, completely unrelated audio source).  I discovered them while looking for something else, and have to admit that I was surprised by the artistry and results of many of them.  Judge the results below.

Jihaku. Foo Fighters-Best of You
Sleeping Beauty- Sepultura
Ursula la del Barrio

I guess we will have to start rethinking copyright, for example.

in english

Talent Suomi & foreigners

Talent Suomi is the Finnish version of America's Got Talent, an American programme whose Flemish interpretation I had already seen in Belgium in the spring.

The interesting thing, which was highlighted in a TV news report I just saw, is that there is a lot of "people with foreign backgrounds" (ulkomaantaustaiset) as contestants in the show (and a couple of them are crowd favourites), bringing us to living rooms accross Finland when we are normally not so visible, and tend to have a not so great reputation.  Any change for the better is welcome.

I suppose that it might be a natural development after Ourvision, which was not that mainstream.

in english

Genomics for the masses.

Basically, by giving a sample of your DNA you can get answers about what is your real risk for heart disease or where did your ancestors come from, for example.  I'm just reading an article in Wired, where they explain how these genetic analysis are available for consumers for 1,000 USD a piece.  Whereas I would definitely like to know this information the consequences of it being available are enormous.  Gattaca anyone?

in english

About honesty

You may have heard already that Finland is a country rather free of corruption in general.  I have one anecdote that can support the view that it starts from society itself, and it all happened on Friday.

My wife dropped her mobile at the bus stop by mistake, and a person picked it up.  The founder called me (being the last person she had called) and eventually he returned me the device.  I actually tried to arrange the delivery by text message but the person never checked them, explaining that he wouldn't even open them as it was somebody else's mobile.  I know for a fact that he never used it for anything else but calling me and and another person as I didn't answer his first call, and he would have been horrified if I had tried to offer him a reward for it.

I'm sure this wouldn't have happened in many places I know, and the fact that I know plenty of people who would have acted in the same way makes me feel more convinced to say that the fact there is little perceived corruption in this society because the people so demand.

When will we make other places change?

in english

Last.fm Open Mind Index

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User Tomektore created a very interesting web app to measure how open mided a specific last.fm user is.  His Open Mind Index is calculated from the number of different tags the music that a user listens to has.  I checked it out and my results are quite obvious: if I listen to Arabic electronica, Japanese punk, Finnish melodic rock, Mexican indie and some other stuff in between it's kind of obvious that I'm more or less open minded.

in english

The Planetary Society

One of the passions of my youth was space.  I still own a telescope that is occasionally used, and recently renewed my membership in the Planetary Society.  Founded by Carl Sagan, it is an organisation that tries to impulse space knowledge and exploration, with members in 125 countries around the world.

They are the guys behind different projects such as Seti at home, Red Rover, Red Rover and S.O.S. Save our Science. With them my name, together with that of the other members of the society at the time, landed on Mars with the Mars Pathfinder, and they have continued their activities for over 25 years.

As troubled as our world is, and as unrealistic as it may sound, I believe that the kickstart of a new age of exploration is what humanity needs.  Just by watching the news every day, I guess we're not that many who think that.

en español

Libro recomendado: El regreso del idiota

Como alguna vez he comentado, me considero liberal tanto en lo económico como en lo social.  Hace diez años, leí un libro que en mi adolescencia influyó en gran manera en mi pensamiento político y social: El manual del perfecto idiota latinoamericano.  Aunque no comulgo con el uso de este adjetivo (des)calificativo, en muchas de sus ideas no pude dejar de estar de acuerdo.

Una década después, en vista del clima político y social reinante en América Latina, los autores sacaron una segunda parte, El regreso del idiota (muy bien comentado aquí).  Aunque no me parecen algunas cosas que expresan, en general son detalles mínimos en comparación con la importancia de sus ideas centrales: simplemente que si nuestros países quieren progresar tiene que haber tanto libertades económicas como libertades políticas.  El "socialismo bolivariano del siglo XXI", por dar un ejemplo, tiene mucho de socialismo y poco de siglo veintiuno, especialmente si tenemos en cuenta que incluso las economías de los países ¿socialistas? están creciendo justo ahora que han adoptado políticas de libre mercado.

Somos pobres, la culpa no es de ellos.  Hasta que nos demos cuenta de eso y veamos hacia Chile, Corea o incluso China (económica, mas no políticamente), y no hacia Cuba o Camerún seguiremos en las mismas.  Y que conste que yo también me considero un miembro más de la izquierda vegetariana, de esa que en el país en el que puedo votar prácticamente brilla por su ausencia.

Una cosa es que el sistema económico mal llamado neoliberal no funcione en nuestros países porque de liberal tiene muy poco (simplemente se cambiaron monopolios estatales por monopolios privados, pero no se creó ni por aproximación un mercado libre con reglas claras, ni siquiera a nivel interno) y otra muy distinta que la aplicación de recetas que colapsaron a la Unión Soviética y de las que los chinos están huyendo tenga un resultado distinto en nuestros países.  Si queremos dejar de sentir que nuestra historia va en círculos en lugar de líneas ascendentes tenemos que actuar a conciencia.