@ribo

Today, it is International Women’s Day. A day of celebration of what we have achieved in women’s rights, but also a day to put the spotlight on the injustices that women still suffer all around the world: unequal salary and work conditions in the developed world, limited rights in some Muslim countries, exploitation in many developing countries…

The victims of these injustices are not only women, but all. A world that is unjust for some, it is actually unjust for most of us except the minority that takes advantages of the injustice. Thus, all of us should be activists in removing from our planet the stigma of being a woman.

I’d like to quote a sentence that I read today on Francisco Polo’s blog:

To be a girl is so powerful that we had to educate everyone not to be one.

Like

Unlike

Sending thunders far
bringing sculptures of the sea
shaping my life
as it is dying in me

Clouds is what I see
storms is what I bring
beasts is what I create
it ain’t what I wish…ed

Walking on dark tiles
dragging waves in dreams
sinking in me
drowning what remains

Closed eyes
still body
senseless soul
end is here

telling me to go

Like

Unlike

I know nothing about neurology. I probably know less about art. But I know much about creating unfounded, a bit crazy, theories. There it goes one.

Why does art give us pleasure? Or at least, why does it give it to some?

Imagine yourself in front of this Kandinsky painting. For some, this might be an ugly doodle. But for many it is a very appealing piece of art. Why? I think it is in part because of learning. When we look at this painting our brains start to imagine and construct its meaning, they try to find links between its different elements (e.g. shapes, colours, positions, structure, textures…). These links can be old (learned) or new. While watching we learn the new ones as part of the “possible world”, thus new neuronal connections are created linking “things” never linked before. We are learning. This creates a mental pleasure, that in fact, represents the actual building of physical connections between our neurons.

Like

Unlike

Another genius strip from xkcd

Like

Unlike

Naturally, most newspapers’ front pages are dominated by Monday’s Haiti’s earthquake. Watching Euronews this morning, I was especially struck by the headlines of three outlets: The Independent (UK), Libération (France) and La Stampa (Italy). The three of them used explicitly Christian terms. ‘Hell in Haiti’ on The Independent, ‘Terre maudite’ says the Libération and ‘Haiti, il giorno dell’Apocalisse’ on the front page of La Stampa: hell, apocalypse and damnation.

Why did it strike me? Because they give the idea that what happened in Haiti is mostly the fault of God, of forces beyond our control. And this, I reckon, is not entirely true.

keep reading »

Like

Unlike

Ismael Peña López has shared in his blog the notes on Pekka Himanen’s lecture on The Hacker Ethic in the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya / Internet Interdisciplinary Institute on November 9, 2009. They are quite thorough and include the Q&A session.

Like

Unlike

Today, on the day I am turning 35 I am opening my new blog (slash) personal page to replace my previous personal, boring and empty-of-content personal page (on the same domain aribo.eu) and the blog I’ve been writing for more than 2 1/2 years, blogofchange.com. The concept of this new online space is quite simple, I want to use it to put my work and my thoughts in a structured, dynamic and simple way. The topics are divided in three: politics, information and technology. As myself, they are both independent and converging. There is a section called “Lifestream” updated with my Delicious bookmarks and Twitter posts, and another with my current location and future trips called “Where is Alejandro?”. On the sidebar, there is a brief presentation of myself (with my picture), links to my current projects, and my tweets.

Like

Unlike