Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Odiemos todos a Ricardo Arjona...

Bugman escribió:
Grasa o mersa en Argentina, naco en México, hortera en España, ordinario en cualquier país, eso es lo que pienso de Ricardo Arjona. Me parece un individuo tan pringoso, que si por casualidad se diera una ducha provocaría una catástrofe ecológica que ríase del Exxon Valdez. No me gusta como canta, sus melodías no tienen ni siquiera la simplicidad y la alegría que permita ser motivo de solaz en casamientos y fiestas de cumpleaños. Cuando desgraciadamente su excesiva difusión me expone a sus balidos me siento cubierto por una sustancia cochambrosa y dulzona, como si fuera un candidato a la presidencia obligado por la exigencias de la campaña a besar niños atiborrados de manzanas cubiertas de caramelo.
Beto M responde:
Bugman: te me adelantaste! yo planeaba redactar un post sobre lo ridículamente naco que son las letras de las canciones de Arjona, con metáforas pseudoprofundoas y dizque inteligentes que le funcionan con la gran masa, pero que en realidad son insultos a la inteligencia común.
Y yo estoy al punto de decir que "metáforas pseudoprofundas" es todo un elogio inmerecido para el artista... En sus canciones prácticamente NUNCA aparece una metáfora, sus letras son más bien: similes pseudoprofundos salpicados con metáforas ordinarias y a lo sumo burdas ó toscas... Mantengo firmemente mis siguientes opiniones:
  • Arjona representa el borde superior de la mediocridad, de una manera casi espeluznante, tanto líricamente como musicalmente esta al borde de lo apenas soportable
  • la popularidad del artista demuestra tan solo la pobreza intelectual de la masa
  • el individuo escribe sus canciones con un diccionario o la lista de sinónimos de Word
  • existe la posibilidad de que la múscia/letras de Ricardo Arjona son secretamente producidas por el primer sistema de inteligencia artificial capaz de burlar al ser humano y verdaderamente es un testimonio a las capacidades de lo que ha alcanzado la ciencia computacional (a pesar de que le falte tanto para verdaderamente acercarse al verdadero potencial humano)

Monday, October 22, 2007

Can you hear the cries of rationalized hate!

World-renowned geneticist draws fire for claims that Africans are intellectually inferior: Sciam Observations
Nothing like stirring the pot--not to mention selling books--with an incendiary claim, in this case that one race is intellectually superior to another. Dr. Watson, we presume? Bingo. World-renowned geneticist James Watson, 79, who shared the 1962 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for his role in helping break the DNA code, is being widely criticized after telling The Sunday Times of London that he's "inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa" because "all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours--whereas all the testing says not really." He went on, reports the newspaper, to say that "people who have to deal with black employees find...it is not true" that all humans are equal.

The Independent reports today that Watson is currently on a swing through Britain to publicize his latest book Avoid Boring People: Lessons from a Life in Science due out next week in which he apparently makes similar such claims. "There is no firm reason to anticipate that the intellectual capacities of peoples geographically separated in their evolution should prove to have evolved identically," the London newspaper quotes from the upcoming book. "Our wanting to reserve equal powers of reason as some universal heritage of humanity will not be enough to make it so."


Opinions? Beware the Cyber Communists Plotting Red Revolt...
Update:

As you can see with the Home DNA test kit soon to be out, the last thing humanity needs is to fuel fascism...

Then again, doing an actual study and concluding once and for all, race does not determine intelligence would be very useful! Just as studies point out that race does not determine height... I mean science should not be scared of taboos, in my opinion scientists, or science in general, has a very delicate subject in its hands...

From a comment to the apology article:

When scientists are influenced by the fear of being labeled as racist, politically incorrect, socially inappropriate, or any of a multitude of other labels an often overly sensitive public is poised to slap onto them at first sign of error, they stop being scientists and start being 'yes men' to political correctness. Whatever Watson's intent in making the statements he was quoted as making, the net effect of those statements will be for all scientists to check their scientific results against what they perceive the public wants to hear. To me, this is just a feeding frenzy on scientific opinion at the expense of an open scientific forum. Given Watson's peer group's inclination towards political correctness over scientific pursuit, maybe he should have devoted his life to comedy instead. Obviously his peer group's priority is whether Watson can make them feel good as opposed to Watson's contribution to the mundane, such as genetics.

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

lol!4

As you may know... MS bribed countries to enter ISO and vote for their format... read ahead:
"Microsoft's OOXML did not get enough votes to be approved the first time around in ISO/IEC — notwithstanding the fact that many countries joined the Document Format and Languages committee in the months before voting closed, almost all of them voting to approve OOXML. Unfortunately, many of these countries also traded up to 'P' level membership at the last minute to gain more influence. Now the collateral damage is setting in. At least 50% of P members must vote (up, down, or abstain) on every standard at each ballot — and none of the new members are bothering to vote, despite repeated pleas from the committee chair. Not a single ballot has passed since the OOXML vote closed. In the chairman's words, the committee has 'ground to a halt.' Sad to say, there's no end in sight for this (formerly) very busy and influential standards committee."

Very Interesting Study! (religious)

Living in an extremely religious society I have been confronted by people who believe atheist people are evil, uncivilized, odd and plain wrong. Its always been strange having to prove myself a moral and functional individual considering the serious deficiencies in my belief system...

Its a good thing to actually find a study that presents moral/ethical behavior as something independent (under obvious restrictions, you Muslim terrorist haters you.. although that simply discard someone as their peer and falls into another type of study...) of religion.

It seems a both religious and secular (plain civic responsibility) primers are just as effective at raising benevolence for both theist and atheist individuals. Curiously enough the religious primer only works for fresh atheists; apparently old atheists no longer associate the words God, spirit, or Jesus as reference to fairness, benevolence or justice.

Read the link if you are interested in further reading...

...You must be kidding me...

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Starlings Flocking in England

There is a comment at the video's youtube page about the hand of god at work, another that says god can make anyone do anything.. I think the explanations proposed in complexity theory and the articles pointed out by Mrs. Dalcanton are all of more engaging, useful and beautiful than a mysterious hand that works in mysterious ways. Something that resembles a rhetoric cop out to justify ignorance.

Religion, Taoism, mental laziness are all well, and have their place; but truth and faith are dangerous at the tango.

Still: "They behave in a way that should be impossible"...


PS: sorry I made this into a religious debate. Enjoy the beauty of nature and marvel at what it means to be part of life however you see it. (A mystic hand, a dynamo of ever-changing, ever-dancing, entropy-balancing complex system within complex system, a dream, or 42)

Tuesday, October 09, 2007

Los Muertos

De Poemas de Lunes:

Los Muertos
No son los muertos los que en dulce calma
La paz reposan de la tumba fría.
Muertos son los que tienen muerta el alma
Y viven todavía.

No son los muertos, no, los que reciben
Rayos de luz en sus despojos yertos.
Los que mueren con honra son los vivos,
Los que viven sin honra son los muertos.

La vida no es la vida que vivimos
La vida es el honor, es el recuerdo.
Por eso hay muertos que en el mundo viven
Y hombres que viven en el mundo, muertos.

Ricardo Palma (ver articulo original)

Friday, October 05, 2007

God Says we can own Hatians as slaves...

I am often amused by people who bide by God's Law

Some things are just too weird for me.


Yesterday I was talking with a group of friends about religion an such. Good Quotes from the conversation (in no particular order):

  • Rodolfo: "I do have faith, i believe God doesn't exist, I believe humanity will find a loop-hole for the second law of thermodynamics, I believe humanity as a whole will someday be able to do without religions"
  • Carlitos: "Apparently, when you are growing up, regarding religion you either just let it be and ignore it or continue reading, and asking yourself about it. Members of the former seem to be the only ones still believing in God by the age of 20."
  • Rodolfo: "He is just too scientific, he does not like things that need to be believed. He would rather stick to the things he can test"

In any case, regarding the link above; I specially enjoyed this line:

Most of my male friends get their hair trimmed, including the hair around their temples, even though this is expressly forbidden by Lev. 19:27. How should they die?

Finally. For the head fake:

This man's remark (while knowing his eminent death) about death bed conversions is: 'I must confess, I have converted... I bought a mac' ... and yet.. (the 'head fake' is no that obvious, like the kids, but, think about it...)

Ráptame

Ven, escápate conmigo! Por hoy, llévame donde quieras; pero hoy; regalame tu día Invitame a tus antojos Brindame tu sonrisa y Mírame a ...