Wednesday, December 31

Saying goodbye to 2014: welcoming 2015 with "Immigrant Song" by Led Zeppeling


We come from the land of the ice and snow,
From the midnight sun where the hot springs flow.
The hammer of the gods will drive our ships to new lands,
To fight the horde, singing and crying: Valhalla, I am coming!

On we sweep with threshing oar, Our only goal will be the western shore.

Ah, ah,
We come from the land of the ice and snow,
From the midnight sun where the hot springs blow.
How soft your fields so green, can whisper tales of gore,
Of how we calmed the tides of war. We are your overlords.

On we sweep with threshing oar, Our only goal will be the western shore.

So now you'd better stop and rebuild all your ruins,
For peace and trust can win the day despite of all your losing.

This is the song I did choose to say goodbye to 2014. The video is extremely edited creating an effect that people who were in the audience is part of a whole energy with the band.
"Peace and trust" for 2015 despite "them" all.



Tuesday, December 30

Tribute to Joe Cocker/ RIP Joe!


I was listening to music in YouTube and this video appeared on the right side. I clicked and when I was listening I did read a comment that Joe Cocker had passed away.

Yes, he died last week.
I don't know what to say...
RIP Joe Cocker
Whoever you meet you'll be received with open arms.

Every
time someone I admire dies I feel that a little piece of me, maybe a tiny light, goes away or is turned off. These people even thou I only know their songs, paintings, novels, thoughts,... are part of who I am. They have helped me to be what I am. I feel sad but when I remember that I have their work to enjoy I calm down.
Staring the nothingness is the only possible thing to do for a while till I gain back my energy.


Monday, December 29

Legend Online/Wartune: people wasting time and money in addictive game







I spent fourteen days playing this game. I survived!
Am I loosing my mind?
I met people who spent the whole day playing this game and they do nothing else. Yes, you did read it correctly: people spend the day playing the game and nothing else.

This is not the only game that is addictive and I wonder why people are not paying attention to this problem.

The game is extremely boring and you do nothing but collecting stones, cards and numerous stuffs to get power and raise the level.

I don't know what is being done to treat this addiction but there are families being destroyed because a family member is hypnotized looking at the screen collecting the items and repeating the same combats over and over again. Where is the pleasure? I don't know. And the whole thing is tricky making people search on YouTube how to solve a situation.

Some people pay a lot of money to get things quickly, I really mean "a lot" of money.
This is sad. Parents must pay attention to what their kids are doing but it is not only children who are addicted.

I just found a Korean company that developed subliminal messages to make addicts want to take a break. I don't know if it helps. The Telegraph has an article about the problem here.

Unfortunately games are not being used as a tool for education. In this game I played they created a very bizarre iconography. Nothing makes sense.

I also question why people has to have so many social networks accounts.
Missing Tic-Tac-Toe? Could you play it the whole day? (sarcasm off)

Level up!


Aww! Baby owls!

Have a great week



Sunday, December 21

Neuroscience is using functional magnetic resonance imaging as phrenologists (repost)




I have been watching the use of functional magnetic resonance (fMRI) in numerous movies, documentaries and non fiction series at the TV. I'm not a scientists but whenever I watch it or read an article claiming that X zone turned on in Z circumstance I say to myself: "So what?" and I start laughing.
I starting comparing these kind of studies the same as a phrenologist.
Today I decided to search what the experts have to say and found out that they do they same comparison.
Here are some examples:

The Brain Is Not Modular: What fMRI Really Tells Us
Metaphors, modules and brain-scan pseudoscience
Apr 21, 2008 |By Michael Shermer

"The atom is like a solar system, with electrons whirling around the nucleus like planets orbiting a star. No, actually, it isn't. But as a first approximation to help us visualize something that is so invisible, that image works as a metaphor.

Science traffics in metaphors because our brains evolved to grasp intuitively a world far simpler than the counterintuitive world that science has only recently revealed. The functional activity of the brain, for example, is nearly as invisible to us as the atom, and so we employ metaphors. Over the centuries the brain has been compared to a hydraulic ma­chine (18th century), a mechanical calculator (19th century) and an electronic computer (20th century). Today a popular metaphor is that the brain is like a Swiss Army knife, with specialized modules for vision, language, facial recognition, cheating detection, risk taking, spi­rit­uality and even God. (emphasis added)

Modularity metaphors have been fueled by a new brain-scanning technology called functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We have all seen scans with highlighted (usually in red) areas where your brain “lights up” when thinking about X (money, sex, God, and so on). This new modularity metaphor is so seductive that I have employed it myself in several books on the evolution of religion (belief modules), morality (moral modules) and economics (money modules). There is a skeptical movement afoot to curtail abuses of the metaphor, however, and it is being driven by neuroscientists themselves. The November 11, 2007, edition of the New York Times, for example, published an opinion piece entitled “This Is Your Brain on Politics,” by neuroscientist Marco Iacoboni of the University of California, Los Angeles, and his colleagues. The writers presented the results of their brain scans on swing voters. “When we showed subjects the words ‘Democrat,’ ‘Republican’ and ‘independent,’ they exhibited high levels of activity in the part of the brain called the amygdala, indicating anxiety,” the authors note. “The two areas in the brain associated with anxiety and disgust—the amygdala and the insula—were especially active when men viewed ‘Republican.’ But all three labels also elicited some activity in the brain area associated with reward, the ventral striatum, as well as other regions related to desire and feeling connected.” So the word “Republican” elicits anxiety and disgust, except for when it triggers feelings of desire and connectedness. The rest of the conclusions are similarly obfuscating. (emphasis added)

In a response befitting the self-correcting nature of science, Iacoboni’s U.C.L.A. colleague Russell Poldrack and 16 other neuroscientists from labs around the world published a response three days later in the Times, explaining: “As cognitive neuroscientists who use the same brain imaging technology, we know that it is not possible to definitively determine whether a person is anxious or feeling connected simply by looking at activity in a particular brain region. This is so because brain regions are typically en­gaged by many mental states, and thus a one-to-one mapping between a brain region and a mental state is not possible.” For example, the amygdala is activated by arousal and positive emotions as well, so the key to interpreting such scans is careful experimental design that allows comparison between brain states. (emphasys added)

Additional skepticism arises from knowing that fMRI measures blood-flow change, not neuronal activity, that the colors are artificially added in order to see the blood-flow differences and that those images are not any one person’s brain but are instead a statistical compilation of many subjects’ brains in the experiment. “Some of the claims made by neuroscientists sound like astrology,” Poldrack told me in an interview. “It’s not the science itself that is the problem. It’s taking a little bit of science and going way beyond it.” For example, there is the problem of reversing the causal inference, “where people see some activity in a brain area and then conclude that this part of the brain is where X happens. We can show that if I put you into a state of fear, your amygdala lights up, but that doesn’t mean that every time your amygdala lights up you are experiencing fear. Every brain area lights up under lots of different states. We just don’t have the data to tell us how selectively active an area is.”" (emphasis added)

you can find more at the site below

MRI's: The new phrenology?
What can brain scans really tell us about ourselves?
Published on February 1, 2011 by Susan Krauss Whitbourne, Ph.D. in Fulfillment at Any Age

and the book:
The New Phrenology
The Limits of Localizing Cognitive Processes in the Brain
By William R. Uttal

Overview
"William Uttal is concerned that in an effort to prove itself a hard science, psychology may have thrown away one of its most important methodological tools—a critical analysis of the fundamental assumptions that underlie day-to-day empirical research. In this book Uttal addresses the question of localization: whether psychological processes can be defined and isolated in a way that permits them to be associated with particular brain regions.

New, noninvasive imaging technologies allow us to observe the brain while it is actively engaged in mental activities. Uttal cautions, however, that the excitement of these new research tools can lead to a neuroreductionist wild goose chase. With more and more cognitive neuroscientific data forthcoming, it becomes critical to question their limitations as well as their potential. Uttal reviews the history of localization theory, presents the difficulties of defining cognitive processes, and examines the conceptual and technical difficulties that should make us cautious about falling victim to what may be a "neo-phrenological" fad."

There are other sites if you google.

Friday, December 19

Christmas: huge scale of emotions





Christmas again which means a period that affects our emotions in a sad or happy way.
It is not easy to balance all these emotions. We'll survive.
I would love to be in Paris!

(click ti images to enlarge)


Tuesday, December 16

Whirlpool company: behind "EveryDayCare"'s demagogie


















I have already written about a problem I'm having after paying for a washing machine in Brazilian's Whirlpool online shop. No, they didn't give my money back and it seems that it will take a lot of time.

I visied the company's Facebook page and among numerous pictures of children - appealing to children is a sign of how demagogic this company is - I found American costumers asking for help because in US for the costumer service over the phone doesn't work or their complaints are not answered,

I have already searched in other site and there are numerous Americans asking for their rights.
I wonder how is it possible that 2011 Whirlpool Latin American Report portrays how the company should work instead of how it really does.

Reading on page 18 Mr Oswaldo Borelli story brings tears to my eyes as you can check in the image below.
Unfortunately the company forgot the lesson they claim they have learned.



Sunday, December 14

Crazy cat lady starter kit


I just found this image in Facebook so I decided to check if it was an original idea. 
Nope. I came across with other kits like this one. I don't know why the crazy cat lady became part of American culture even thou  she is all over the world but in US she is noticed.
The first one I saw was in the Simpsons. 
Merry Xmas Crazy cat ladies!


Friday, December 12

Whirlpool company exporting it's greed to the world





The company Whirlpool is in many countries making costumers pay for products of bad quality and imposing the greedy way of commerce during the whole process of acquiring an appliance.

In Brazil the site Compra Certa is the one Whirlpool made partnership.
I did a purchase in the site and I'm facing a lot of problems that I have never had before.

I wonder when will they give my money back.




Happy Xmas Mr Enrico Zito!
Update:

"This only touches a small edge of the corruption. Whirlpool also receives Subsidies and Millions a year to hire Military Veteran's and that only encompasses 1 % of their workforce. But the receive millions each year for hiring less than 500 people, so the government is still paying these salaries for Whirlpool and they still make out with a profit. There are no veteran's in the management sector of Whirlpool. Whirlpool advertises and receives grants from the Department of Labor and Veteran's Administration to hire Veteran's, but they fudge the books, but keeping a majority on a Temporary Employment Basis"
(a comment from YouTube)

Whirlpool still didn't give my money back.


Saturday, November 29

Black Friday in Brazil: once again fraud




This is the fourth year that Brazil had it's version of Black Friday and the same thing happened: no discounts.
Forbe's magazine has already written about the Brazilian way of selling on the event.

What is new this year is that the social networks had numerous jokes about the date.

It is becoming known as Black Fraud and people are quite aware that the discounts are not for real.

The right picture is about one of the strategies of phony discounts: they claim the real prize is the double and by cutting it in half on Black Friday the good is sold without discount.

It was said that practices like this one would not happen again but we know how companies are: no ethics whatsoever and poor regulation.

When stores promises discounts upwards of 70% something wrong is being done.

Movie of the day: Black Friday, 1940.


Thursday, November 27

5 Health Benefits of Smoking by Christopher Wanjek










5 Health Benefits of Smoking
Christopher Wanjek
LiveScience's Bad Medicine Columnist
July 19, 2011


Who says smoking cigarettes is so bad ... well, aside from the World Health Organization, Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and every medical board and association on the face of the Earth?

But should smokers be fortunate enough to dodge all that cancer, heart disease, emphysema and the like, they will be uniquely protected — for reasons unexplained by science — against a handful of diseases and afflictions.

Call it a silver lining in their otherwise blackened lungs. Although long-term smoking is largely a ticket to early death, here are (gulp) five possible benefits from smoking. Breathe deep.

1. Smoking lowers risk of knee-replacement surgery

While smokers might go broke buying a pack of cigarettes, they can at least save money by avoiding knee-replacement surgery. Surprising results from a new study have revealed that men who smoke had less risk of undergoing total joint replacement surgery than those who never smoked.

The study, from the University of Adelaide in Australia, appears in the July issue of the journal Arthritis & Rheumatism. What could be the connection? Knee-replacement surgery was more common among joggers and the obese; smokers rarely jog, and they are less likely to be morbidly obese.

After controlling for age, weight and exercise, the researchers were at a loss to explain the apparent, albeit slight protective effects of smoking for osteoporosis. It could be that the nicotine in tobacco helps prevent cartilage and joint deterioration.

2. Smoking lowers risk of Parkinson's disease

Numerous studies have identified the uncanny inverse relationship between smoking and Parkinson's disease. Long-term smokers are somehow protected against Parkinson's, and it's not because smokers die of other things earlier. [10 Easy Paths to Self-Destruction]

The most recent, well-conducted study was published in a March 2010 issue of the journal Neurology. Far from determining a cause for the protective effect, these researchers found that the number of years spent smoking, more so than the number of cigarettes smoked daily, mattered more for a stronger protective effect.

Harvard researchers were among the first to provide convincing evidence that smokers were less likely to develop Parkinson's. In a study published in Neurology in March 2007, these researchers found the protective effect wanes after smokers quit. And they concluded, in their special scientific way, that they didn't have a clue as to why.

3. Smoking lowers risk of obesity

Smoking — and, in particular, the nicotine in tobacco smoke — is an appetite suppressant. This has been known for centuries, dating back to indigenous cultures in America in the pre-Columbus era. Tobacco companies caught on by the 1920s and began targeting women with the lure that smoking would make them thinner.

A study published in the July 2011 issue of the journal Physiology & Behavior, in fact, is one of many stating that the inevitable weight gain upon quitting smoking is a major barrier in getting people to stop, second only to addiction.

The relationship between smoking and weight control is complex: Nicotine itself acts as both a stimulant and appetite suppressant; and the act of smoking triggers behavior modification that prompts smokers to snack less. Smoking also might make food less tasty for some smokers, further curbing appetite. As an appetite suppressant, nicotine appears to act on a part of the brain called the hypothalamus, at least in mice, as revealed in a study by Yale researchers published in the June 10, 2011, issue of the journal Science.

No respectable doctor would recommend smoking for weight control, given the toxic baggage accompanying cigarettes. This recent Yale study, however, does offer an inkling of hope for a safe diet drug to help obese people control their appetites.

4. Smoking lowers risk of death after some heart attacks

Compared with non-smokers, smokers who have had heart attacks seem to have lower mortality rates and more favorable responses to two kinds of therapy to remove plaque from their arteries: fibrinolytic therapy, which is basically medication; and angioplasty, which removes the plaque by inserting balloons or stents into the arteries.

There's a catch, though. The reason why smokers have heart attacks is that smoke scars the arteries, allowing fat and plaque to build up in the first place. So, one theory as to why smokers do better than non-smokers after such therapies is that they are younger, experiencing their first heart attack approximately 10 years before the non-smoker.

A study published in an August 2005 issue of the American Heart Journal, however, states that age alone is not enough to fully explain the survival differences and that "the smoker's paradox is alive and well."  No alternative theories have been put forth since.

5. Smoking helps the heart drug clopidogrel work better

Clopidogrel is a drug used to inhibit blood clots for those patients suffering from coronary artery disease and other circulatory diseases leading to strokes and heart attacks. Smoking seems to help clopidogrel do its job better.

A study by Korean researchers in the October 2010 issue of the journal Thrombosis Research builds upon work by Harvard researchers published in 2009 that demonstrates the benefit of smoking at least 10 cigarettes a day. It seems that something in cigarette smoke activates certain proteins called cytochromes, which convert clopidogrel into a more active state.

Again, no respectable doctor is encouraging patients to start smoking to get the most out of clopidogrel. But this and the other four "benefits" of smoking reveal how tobacco — perhaps not unlike other potentially toxic plants — might contain certain chemicals of real therapeutic value.

Christopher Wanjek is the author of the books "Bad Medicine" and "Food At Work." His column, Bad Medicine, appears regularly on LiveScience.


Wednesday, November 26

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: Nigerian novelist speaks about the danger of a "single story"



Our lives, our cultures, are composed of many overlapping stories. Novelist Chimamanda Adichie tells the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice — and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding. (Recorded at TEDGlobal, July 2009, Oxford, UK. Duration: 18:49)

"That's how we create a single story: Show a people as one thing, as only one thing over and over again and that's what they become."
Chimamanda Ngozi

I watched the video and found a woman who is not only a great thinker but also a fighter without losing sense of humor.
But be prepared to get angry if you're emphatetic cause biased stories about nations is not easy to stand.

"Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was born on 15 September 1977 in Enugu, Nigeria, the fifth of six children to Igbo parents, Grace Ifeoma and James Nwoye Adichie. While the family's ancestral hometown is Abba in Anambra State, Chimamanda grew up in Nsukka, in the house formerly occupied by Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe. Chimamanda's father, who is now retired, worked at the University of Nigeria, located in Nsukka. He was Nigeria's first professor of statistics, and later became Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University. Her mother was the first female registrar at the same institution.

Chimamanda completed her secondary education at the University's school, receiving several academic prizes. She went on to study medicine and pharmacy at the University of Nigeria for a year and a half. During this period, she edited The Compass, a magazine run by the University's Catholic medical students.

At the age of nineteen, Chimamanda left for the United States. She gained a scholarship to study communication at Drexel University in Philadelphia for two years, and she went on to pursue a degree in communication and political science at Eastern Connecticut State University. While in Connecticut, she stayed with her sister Ijeoma, who runs a medical practice close to the university."

(read more about Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie here)




Saturday, November 22

Information and knowledge are not enough

creativity, understandment, wisdom... there are many aspects of humanity that are being forgotten especially those related to human sciences.


Friday, November 21

Geniuses are not peer-reviewed


Do you know the feeling during a discussion when after explaining something that is not common sense someone asks:
"Is there any peer reviewed article about all these nonsense you're saying?"
I dedicate this post to them.
Geniuses and those who dare to dissent have no peers.

Is Peer-Review a Requirement of Good Science?
Idea
Excerpts

Good Science without Peer-Review
Some of the most important and groundbreaking work in the history of science first appeared in published form not in peer-reviewed scientific journal articles but in scientific books. That includes Copernicus' De Revolutionibus and Newton's Principia. Einstein's original paper on relativity was published in a scientific journal (Annalen der Physik), but did not undergo formal peer-review.1 Indeed, Darwin's own theory of evolution was first published in a book for a general and scientific audience -- his Origin of Species -- not in a peer-reviewed paper. 

Moreover, important scientific work has not uncommonly been initially rejected by peer-reviewed journals. As a 2001 article in Science observed, "Mention 'peer review' and almost every scientist will regale you with stories about referees submitting nasty comments, sitting on a manuscript forever, or rejecting a paper only to repeat the study and steal the glory."2 Indeed, an article in the journal Science Communication by Juan Miguel Campanario notes that top journals such as "Science and Nature have also sometimes rejected significant papers," and in fact "Nature has even rejected work that eventually earned the Nobel Prize."3 In an amusing letter titled "Not in our Nature," Campanario reminds the journal of four examples where it rejected significant papers:
(1) In 1981, Nature rejected a paper by the British biochemist Robert H. Michell on signalling reaction by hormones. This paper has since been cited more than 1,800 times.

(2) In June 1937, Nature rejected Hans Krebs's letter describing the citric acid cycle. Krebs won the 953 Nobel prize in physiology or medicine for this discovery.

(3) Nature initially rejected a paper on work for which Harmut Michel won the 1988 Nobel prize for chemistry; it has been identified by the Institute of Scientific Information as a core document and widely cited.

(4) A paper by Michael J. Berridge, rejected in 1983 by Nature, ranks at number 275 in a list of the most-cited papers of all time. It has been cited more than 1,900 times.4
Elsewhere, Campanario lists "instances in which 36 future Nobel Laureates encountered resistance on the part of scientific journal editors or referees to manuscripts that dealt with discoveries that on later dates would assure them the Nobel Prize."5 Likewise, Tulane University physicist Frank Tipler offers the following anecdotes:

  • "Another example is Günter Blobel, who in a news conference given just after he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine, said that the main problem one encounters in one's research is 'when your grants and papers are rejected because some stupid reviewer rejected them for dogmatic adherence to old ideas.' According to the New York Times, these comments 'drew thunderous applause from the hundreds of sympathetic colleagues and younger scientists in the auditorium.'"


  • "[W]hen [Stephen] Hawking submitted to Nature what is generally regarded as his most important paper, the paper on black hole evaporation, the paper was initially rejected. I have heard from colleagues who must remain nameless that when Hawking submitted to Physical Review what I personally regard as his most important paper, his paper showing that a most fundamental law of physics called 'unitarity' would be violated in black hole evaporation, it, too, was initially rejected."


  • "Today it is known that the Hawaiian Islands were formed sequentially as the Pacific plate moved over a hot spot deep inside the Earth. The theory was first developed in the paper by an eminent Princeton geophysicist, Tuzo Wilson: 'I ... sent [my paper] to the Journal of Geophysical Research. They turned it down.... They said my paper had no mathematics in it, no new data, and that it didn't agree with the current views. Therefore, it must be no good.'"


  • "On the Nobel Prize web page one can read the autobiographies of recent laureates. Quite a few complain that they had great difficulty publishing the ideas that won them the Prize."6
  • In light of these kinds of examples, Campanario concludes:
    Something is wrong with the peer review system when an expert considers that a manuscript is not of enough interest and it later becomes a classic in its discipline (or, even worse, when the work reported in a rejected paper earns the Nobel Prize). ... Contrary to reports by the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the National Academy of Sciences, publication in a peer-reviewed journal is not necessarily the best means of identifying valid research.7 (read the article)


    Thursday, November 20

    Gotan Project: Tango Milonga de Amor and Julio Cortázar



    Santa Maria (Del Buen Ayre)

    Hay milonga de amor
    hay temblor de gotán
    este tango es para vos
    Hay milonga de amor
    hay temblor de gotán
    Hay milonga de amor
    Este tango es para vos
    Hay milonga de amor
    hay temblor de gotán
    este tango es para vos.

    Image: Bitacora Coral.

    Please visit the biography of The Gotan Project for references but first of all... enjoy.



    Left: Tango with lyrics done with excerpts of Julio Cortazár's Rayuela.
    Right: Julio Cortazár reading Rayuela's chapter 7 and excerpts.

    Rayuela
    Chapter 7

    Me miras, de cerca me miras, cada vez más de cerca y entonces jugamos al cíclope, nos miramos cada vez más de cerca y los ojos se agrandan, se acercan entre sí, se superponen y los cíclopes se miran, respirando confundidos...
    ... textos escritos y publicados hace años...
    ... con cronopios o sin ellos...
    ... en torno a su mundo de juego, a esa grave ocupación que es jugar cuando se buscan otras puertas.

    Un, dos, tres, cuatro: ¡Tierra, Cielo! Cinco, seis: ¡Paraíso, Infierno! Siete, ocho, nueve, diez: Hay que saber mover los pies. En la rayuela, o en la vida vos podes elegir un día. ¿Por que costado, de que lado saltarás?

    ...otros accesos a lo no cotidiano simplemente para embellecer lo cotidiano, para iluminarlo bruscamente de otra manera. Sacarlo de sus casillas, definirlo, de nuevo, y mejor.
    ...me basta cerrar los ojos para deshacerlo todo y recomenzar.
    ...exactamente con tu boca que sonríe por debajo de la que mi mano te dibuja.

    Un, dos, tres, cuatro: ¡Tierra, Cielo! Cinco, seis: ¡Paraíso, Infierno! Siete, ocho, nueve, diez: Hay que saber mover los pies. En la rayuela, o en la vida vos podes elegir un día. ¿Por que costado, de que lado saltarás

    ... yo te siento temblar contra mí como una luna en el agua.


    Tuesday, November 18

    Sunday, November 16

    Meet Tootsie, the vegan artist, dancer and music therapist

    "Tootsie is a vegan who used to live in New York. She runs drum therapy work shops to try and increase the power of women through expressive dance. She does a lot of voluntary work with the homeless and has a small apartment which doubles as a gallery for her own art work"

    Isn't she lovely? I just found her at Mademoiselle Blythe's blog by Fanny Zara. It is a post about doll's hair made of alpaca and mohair.
    Tootsie is a creation of Abgail and you can see more of her work in her Flickr's page.


    Tuesday, November 11

    Once there was a world


    ... and now it's bleeding. I'm overwhelmed, appalled and perplex when I think about it.
    That's why I'm not posting lately.
    What about the future? I don't know.


    Sunday, October 26

    Brazilian Elections 2014! Dilma Rousseff is reelected

    Dilma Rousseff reelected.
    I'm too emotional to say anything.
    I'll do it later.
    Democracy, Brazilian sovereignty and Latin America wins with her.


    Thursday, October 23

    Brazilian Presidential Elections 2014: Brazil under CIA Pressure by Nil Nikandrov

    Brazil under CIA Pressure
    Nil NIKANDROV 21.10.2014 00:00
    Strategic Culture Foundation

    Over two thousand Brazilian political activists, intellectuals, people of art and culture signed a manifest on October 26 highlighting the hostile actions of Washington aimed at prevention of Dilma Rousseff election victory. The document is posted to social nets. It says the coming to power of Aécio Neves of the Brazilian Social Democracy Party (Partido da Social Democracia Brasileira - PSDB), who serves the interests of tycoons, will inflict irreparable damage to the country and take away all the snags on the way of US direct interference into the Brazilian internal affairs. Neves is to play the role of obedient tool in the hands of US administration. Washington goes to any length to achieve its goal and bring the desired candidate to power – some things are done covertly, some tricks are resorted to in a clandestine way.

    All CIA information and propaganda resources are used to support Neves. Around 80 million Brazilians have access to Internet, 150 million are cell phone users. The US special services have perfect command of destabilization techniques. The recent protests and social unrest in Brazil threatened the World Cup proving that the forces are ready to react as the «color revolution» scenario to be implemented at any time.

    The activities of non-government organizations are not restricted in any way; their members have close ties with US embassy and consulate staff, as well as ISAID workers. The human intelligence is used to discredit the policy of the Dilma Rousseff government. The lies about its ineffectiveness are spread around by all available means. «Experts» forecast collapse in case the President wins another term. They disseminate dubious results of «rating polls» that complicate the vision of reality.

    Propaganda publications devoted to forecasts often use the term «technical draw» which provides many opportunities for CIA to manipulate, falsify and juggle with facts as a way to bolster the chances of the presidential hopeful the US wants to win the race. Some years ago the same thing took place in Mexico. Enrique Peña Nieto, the US-supported candidate ran against Lopez Obrador, a populist and a supporter of Hugo Chavez. The manipulations and rigging to make Peña win were widespread, many Mexicans still doubt his victory, but Washington said the election was transparent and honest.

    Rubens Antônio Barbosa, the senior adviser of Aécio Neves on international affairs and a candidate for the position of Minister of Foreign affairs. The Rousseff supporters believe him to be the leading CIA’s agent of influence. He has been US ambassador to London. Now he heads the Superior Council of Foreign Trade of Federation of Industries of the State of São Paulo. In accordance with his pro-US orientation, he calls for «depoliticization of foreign policy» and the «reconsideration of US strategic priorities in relation to the United States and China».

    After the spying scandal, when the fact of taping the phone of Dilma Rousseff, members of cabinet, military leadership and top leaders of special services by the CIA surfaced, followed by the refusal by President Obama to apologize, Brazil strengthened the relationship with China – the leading trade partner since the tenure of former President Lula da Silva. Now Barbosa says that in case Neves wins the United States will occupy a proper (meaning predominant) place in the Brazil’s foreign policy priorities.

    There is a phrase said by Barbosa which provides a clue to what the would-be foreign policy of Brazil will be like. He said that the protection of national interests will no more be that passive. Bolivia has expropriated two oil refineries of Petrobraz and the government has done nothing to protect the interests of Brazil. Neves and Barbosa promise to provide access to US oil companies to oil extraction in the Brazilian continental shelf. The Neves staff says the policy will be «more pragmatic» and completely devoid of ideological approach typical for the Workers’ Party. The stand on such issues as relationship with Mercosur (the Southern Common Market, a sub-regional bloc), BRICS and other international groups will be corrected.

    Washington has gone through thorough preparation for the election race in Brazil; it is at the final stage now. The US State Department and special services have sent to the country dozens of seasoned operatives with rich experience of being involved in similar operations conducted across the world. For instance, Liliana Ayalde, the current US ambassador to Brazil, has done good job in Paraguay doing her best to contain the spread of «populist ideology». Brazil is next. There leading actors involved in the conspiracy against Dilma are the officers of the US embassy and consulate in Brazil: Alexis Ludwig (political counsellor), Paloma Gonsalez (political economic section officer), Samantha Carl-Yoder (chief of consular section), Kathryn Hoffman (political officer, the US Consulate General in São Paulo), and Amy Radetsky (political and economic chief, U.S. Consulate Rio de Janeiro).

    It’s enough to look at the Radetsky’s career record to understand that Washington has prepared for a «non-standard situation in Brazil. In the State Department she has been responsible for monitoring the events in Brazil to see how they affect the bilateral relations and working out the policy towards this country. She was the one to see all the messages going out of the US embassy in the Brazilian capital. A bit later she headed a special State Department team monitoring the emergence and development of crisis situations in the region and preparing situation reports for State Secretary John Kerry. Now she was urgently sent to Rio! What crisis situation makes Radetsky go to Brazil?

    Political scholar for Venezuela Eleazar Díaz Rangel calls a possible defeat of Dilma a «disaster». The governments of Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff have made life better for dozens of millions in Brazil who had not even had electricity before. The Workers Party has initiated drastic positive changes on the South American continent. According to Rangel, the Obama administration has mobilized all the opposition forces in Brazil and other Latin America countries, all the potential of media and information agencies to prevent the re-election of Dilma. There are funds allocated for providing support to Neves in the presidential race. Influential US financial and economic circles are involved to help Neves win.

    Will Brazilians mobilize themselves and avoid the disaster predicted by Eleazar Díaz Rangel? We’ll know in a week.


    Wednesday, October 22

    Lindsay Lohan supporting Brazilian candidate Aécio Neves? Is she addicted to cocaine?







    Lindsay Lohan My Presidential Candidate Has a Chopper Filled with Coke!

    10/22/2014 12:50 AM PDT BY TMZ STAFF

    Lindsay Lohan says she has a good reason for supporting a presidential candidate in Brazil ... she says her "Brazilian contacts" like the guy -- a guy whose company owned a chopper filled with tons of coke.

    Lindsay tweeted, "I support @aecioNeves, for presidential candidature.  His platform brings positive changes in Brazil."

    Lindsay took a beating for getting involved in anyone's politics for obvious reasons.  But a source connected with LiLo tells TMZ, she's supporting the guy because "she has plenty of contacts there and has several business trips to the country."  The source also says she has a "good contact" in Brazil who likes Neves a lot.

    Here's what Lindsay's 8.5 million followers need to know.  Neves owns a company that owns a helicopter that was seized by the federal police ... seized because it was carrying 4.5 TONS* of cocaine. (emphasis added)

    It's unclear if Lindsay supports Neves because he's a good guy or just throws a good party.

    Source: TMZ.

    UPDATE:
    *The amount of cocaine is not 4.5 tons: it is 450 kg.


    Tuesday, October 21

    Palestinian girl demands Israeli soldiers to leave



    Just watch!







    Sunday, October 19

    Brazilian president candidate Aécio Neves tied with drug scandal



    This is one of the numerous crimes committed by Aécio Neves the candidate that is supported by Washington and George Soros.
    This is another coup that Brazil will suffer in case Aécio Neves is elected. The mainstream media is covering up all his crimes and inventing fictitious data about Dilma Rousself's government.


    Update: The video was published in Telesurf where there is an article with more details.



    Wednesday, October 15

    Vision test: Marilyn Monroe and Einstein




    Edelweiss: "Bless my homeland forever"


    I was a child when I watched "The Sound of Music" so I was confused about what was the real threat but it was clear to me that forces beyond people's power were causing a lot of sufferance.
    In my homeland we were under dictatorship, I'm Brazilian.

    I feel sad when I listen to this song and now because history is about to repeat itself.
    This is an election month and fascists forces have a candidate that is being backed by mainstream media, US, George Soros, CIA all of those institutions and corporations that profit at the expenses of the people.

    In the movie the song "Edelweiss" is sang by the Captain when they sing in a festival so that they could flee from Austria.

    Edelweiss also refers to 'Edelweiss Pirates' a loose protest group against the Nazis, made up of youths that suffered persecution. (history here).

    The word "homeland" is for me the right one to express how important it is to our identities the place we were born whether we want it or not. I'm sure I would be different If I was born elsewhere in this planet.
    It is is time or troubles, when we fear our homeland is being put in the wrong direction we remember we need to take good care of it always for it is our home land.

    BLESS MY HOMELAND FOREVER




    Monday, October 13

    Evo Morales elected president: "Es el triunfo de la Liberación y el antiimperialismo"














    An example to South American countries that has been facing imperialist intervention as Equatorian president alerted:

    "El presidente ecuatoriano Rafael denunció este domingo que existen fuerzas que se oponen a la Revolución y que han tenido varios intentos de conspiración incluso dentro de los cuarteles del país suramericano.

    “Tratan de armar frentes en los gobiernos locales, eso es lo que buscan las fuerzas que se oponen a la Revolución. Tenemos permanentes intentos de conspiración que incluso han llegado a los cuarteles con pasquines llenos de mentiras. Hay grupos que si pudieran pegarnos un tiro nos matarían”, dijo el mandatario durante una entrevista en la televisión pública ecuatoriana." (read entire article)



    Friday, October 10

    Brazilian elections 2014: US coup d'état through manipulation and lies



    In the right picture George Soros with Armínio Fraga the adviser of the Washington's candidate Aécio Neves.
    Next Sunday, 26, Brazilians will vote in the second round of presidential elections.
    This country has been suffering intervention since August 2013 when CIA and George Soros's strategists led people to protest all over the big cities creating chaos with the help of black blocs and all their knowledge to destabilize a country.

    I'm overwhelmed and extremely sad and feeling humiliated.
    For the first time there was a chance to Brazil to choose it's way but Washington's intervention is not through a military coup like in 1964.
    Brazilian mainstream media is helping with all the power it has, the social networks are crowded of people putting citizens from the north of Brazil against those in the south and... I'm sorry... I'm too emotional.
    I'll recover but Dilma Rousseff's defeat will represent a problem not only to Brazil but for Latin America.

    I'm sorry I can't give more details for the moment. I have to calm down because it is not easy to watch your country on the verge of being put in the hands of other people's interests.
    And we didn't had a bloodshed. I cannot imagine the sufferance of those in Iraq, Libya Syria, Gaza...
    Whenever I see an American flag it is not the American people that appears in my mind: it is Washington and allies.

    The video is Egberto Gismonti's "Clown" that I posted to remember with the laugh of the children that they will be there to fight for Brazilian's sovereignty.


    Sunday, September 28

    The raise of Islamophobia in America: orchestrated xenophobia



    I have been watching some videos and reading some articles that are shocking me because it is very clear that they are all propaganda to spread islamophobia.
    It is very difficult for me to understand how people cannot distinguish propaganda material from serious and true information for I lived under dictatorship - backed by US - and at a very early age I knew I could not trust what was reported in the mainstream media.

    It helped but even without this experience some people can watch and analyse what they are being told. YouTube videos are easier to analyse since it is possible to stop at any second and take a good look at the images and study them but most people don't do it.
    What is causing islamophobia in US?

    "That is primarily due to a well organized, well funded islamphobia network."
    Dawud Walid

    There is a good article: Fear, Inc.: America's Islamophobia Network published in Nation of Change that explains some crucial points.

    Excerpt:
    "And it all starts with the money flowing from a select group of foundations. A small group of foundations and wealthy donors are the lifeblood of the Islamophobia network in America, providing critical funding to a clutch of right-wing think tanks that peddle hate and fear of Muslims and Islam—in the form of books, reports, websites, blogs, and carefully crafted talking points that anti-Islam grassroots organizations and some right-wing religious groups use as propaganda for their constituency.

    Some of these foundations and wealthy donors also provide direct funding to anti-Islam grassroots groups. According to our extensive analysis, here are the top seven contributors to promoting Islamophobia in our country:

    - Donors Capital Fund
    - Richard Mellon Scaife foundations
    - Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation
    - Newton D. & Rochelle F. Becker foundations and charitable trust
    - Russell Berrie Foundation
    - Anchorage Charitable Fund and William Rosenwald Family Fund
    - Fairbrook Foundation

    Altogether, these seven charitable groups provided $42.6 million to Islamophobia think tanks between 2001 and 2009—funding that supports the scholars and experts that are the subject of our next chapter as well as some of the grassroots groups that are the subject of Chapter 3 of our report.

    And what does this money fund? Well, here’s one of many cases in point: Last July, former Speaker of the House of Representatives Newt Gingrich warned a conservative audience at the American Enterprise Institute that the Islamic practice of Sharia was “a mortal threat to the survival of freedom in the United States and in the world as we know it.” Gingrich went on to claim that “Sharia in its natural form has principles and punishments totally abhorrent to the Western world.”

    Sharia, or Muslim religious code, includes practices such as charitable giving, prayer, and honoring one’s parents—precepts virtually identical to those of Christianity and Judaism. But Gingrich and other conservatives promote alarmist notions about a nearly 1,500-year-old religion for a variety of sinister political, financial, and ideological motives. In his remarks that day, Gingrich mimicked the language of conservative analyst Andrew McCarthy, who co-wrote a report calling Sharia “the preeminent totalitarian threat of our time.” Such similarities in language are no accident. Look no further than the organization that released McCarthy’s anti-Sharia report: the aforementioned Center for Security Policy, which is a central hub of the anti-Muslim network and an active promoter of anti- Sharia messaging and anti-Muslim rhetoric.

    In fact, CSP is a key source for right-wing politicians, pundits, and grassroots organizations, providing them with a steady stream of reports mischaracterizing Islam and warnings about the dangers of Islam and American Muslims. Operating under the leadership of Frank Gaffney, the organization is funded by a small number of foundations and donors with a deep understanding of how to influence U.S. politics by promoting highly alarming threats to our national security. CSP is joined by other anti-Muslim organizations in this lucrative business, such as Stop Islamization of America and the Society of Americans for National Existence. Many of the leaders of these organizations are well-schooled in the art of getting attention in the press, particularly Fox News, The Wall Street Journal editorial pages, The Washington Times, and a variety of right-wing websites and radio outlets.

    Misinformation experts such as Gaffney consult and work with such right-wing grassroots organizations as ACT! for America and the Eagle Forum, as well as religious right groups such as the Faith and Freedom Coalition and American Family Association, to spread their message. Speaking at their conferences, writing on their websites, and appearing on their radio shows, these experts rail against Islam and cast suspicion on American Muslims. Much of their propaganda gets churned into fundraising appeals by grassroots and religious right groups. The money they raise then enters the political process and helps fund ads supporting politicians who echo alarmist warnings and sponsor anti-Muslim attacks.

    These efforts recall some of the darkest episodes in American history, in which religious, ethnic, and racial minorities were discriminated against and persecuted. From Catholics, Mormons, Japanese Americans, European immigrants, Jews, and African Americans, the story of America is one of struggle to achieve in practice our founding ideals. Unfortunately, American Muslims and Islam are the latest chapter in a long American struggle against scapegoating based on religion, race, or creed. (read the whole article)


    The same is happening in Europe.


    Friday, September 19

    Brazilian products are no good: I need a blender!







    To make a long story short: you need a vacuum cleaner and you search and search and end up buying something that will last three months or even not work when you try it for the first time.
    I bought one after searching for six months. It is not what I want but there is nothing better.
    Now I need a blender and a food processor. Same problem: there are only three or four brands and the quality is so terrible that it is better not to buy.
    There are numerous complains in sites all over the internet. I don't know what to do.
    Do you think these items are cheap? No. They are extremely expensive.

    Oh Lord won't you buy me things that work...


    Thursday, September 18

    CIA-Supported Candidate Runs for Presidency in Brazil


    by Nil Nikandrov
    12.09.2014

    Marina Silva is a presidential hopeful running on the Socialist Party ticket. Her personality attracted the attention of CIA in the mid-1980s when she was attending the Federal University of Acre. Back then she was taking great interest in the theory of Marxism and became a member of clandestine Revolutionary Communist Party. Soon her infatuation with leftist views was over as she switched to fighting for environment protection in the Amazon region. The US special services have always been interested in this part of the continent hoping to control it in case of geopolitical emergency.

    Thus, the Brazilian environmental activist was noted by the CIA and some smiling guys established contact with her. It was not an occasion that in 1985 she joined the Workers’ Party (PT - Partido dos Trabalhadores) that opened new prospects for her political rise. In 1994 Marina Silva was elected to the federal Senate with the reputation of ardent environment protection activist. That’s when the information on her ties with the CIA started to go around. In 1996 she received the Goldman Environmental Prize. She has got other prestigious decorations for environment protection as well. CIA curators did their best to raise her rating. For five years she served as a member of cabinet under Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva changing her party allegiance. In 2009 Silva announced her switch from the Workers’ Party to the Green Party primarily in protest against the environmental policies endorsed by the PT. Ms. Silva really shook up Brazilian politics by announcing her intention after nearly three decades. She had polled nearly 20 million votes in the 2010 election as a Green Party candidate and accepted a role as Campos’ vice-presidential candidate when attempts to found her own Sustainability Network party foundered. Dilma Rousseff, the PT candidate, wanted to continue independent policies practiced by her predecessor Lula da Silva. It did not suit Washington.

    The US relationship with Brazil has wosened recently as a result of eavesdropping scandal. The US National Security Agency (NSA) spied on Dilma Rousseff and the members of her cabinet. The Brazilian President has even suspended her official visit to the United States as a sign of protest. She never got apologies or promises to stop spying activities. So she started to act. The President has condemned the NSA and CIA activities in Latin America and taken steps to enhance communications safety and tighten control over US representatives working in the country. It provoked exasperation on the part of Barack Obama.

    The presidential election in Brazil is slated for October 5. Washington wants to make Dilma Rousseff a one term president. US special services launched a campaign aimed at getting rid of the current Brazilian leader. At first they provoked allegedly spontaneous street protests calling for changes and leaving the «old policies» behind. There were youth groups raising voices against political parties’ propaganda and symbols, especially the Workers’ Party.

    Marina Silva formed the Sustainability Network Party. It is still a mystery where she got funds from. The new organization was to take the place of the old parties that allegedly became relics and over the hill. The 2014 presidential election is supposed to make Marina and her Network Party become a wisp of fresh air shaking the political landscape of Brazil and removing «archaic» political forces. Having come third with 19 million votes in the last election, she was initially denied another opportunity to run on the top of presidential ticket after failing to get the signatures needed to get her Sustainability Network party on the ballot. But the tragedy that killed Campos and six others near São Paulo last month gave Silva an unexpected second chance to fulfill her presidential ambitions. To become the country’s first black President, she will have to defeat the first female President, Rousseff of the Workers’ Party (PT), as well as the pro-business Aécio Neves of the Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB), who is now running in third place. The White House is frustrated. Campos had no chances, but he was adamant to stay in race no matter the Brazilian media accused him of involvement in corruption schemes. Dilma Rousseff and her team went under strong attacks too.
    On August 13 the Brazil’s presidential election campaign was thrown into uncertainty when a private jet carrying the socialist party candidate Eduardo Campos crashed into a residential area near São Paulo. Campos and the six other crew and passengers were killed in the accident, which occurred in bad weather as the Cessna plane was preparing to land. The deaths prompted a wave of mourning across the country, which is likely to be followed by speculation about the effect on the presidential vote on 5 October. President Dilma Rousseff declared three days of official mourning for Campos who she served alongside in the Lula government. The aircraft had gone through regular technical service with no glitches ever found. The Cessna recorder in the cabin happened to be out of order. It raises questions. It had worked smoothly before but failed to record the conversations on the day of the tragedy. The plane used to often change owners (US and Brazilian businessmen representing companies with dubious reputation). Some Brazilian commentators believe that it was an assassination. Before the tragedy the aircraft had been used by the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). People sent by former owners could get access to the plane under different pretexts. It makes one wonder. Could the United States be behind the tragedy? Who exactly did it?

    The aircraft took off in Rio de Janeiro where a CIA station functions on the territory of US consulate. No doubt the office is used by the Agency. Perhaps the Brazilian special services should pay attention on those who speedily left the country right after the plane crash in Santos. The death of Eduardo Campos spurred the Silva’s rating as she was running on the Socialist Party’s ballot. If Campos never gathered more than 9-10% she scored 34-35% in the first round. The predictions say the support is to increase in the run-off election.

    Marina Silva is painted as a staunch fighter against corruption and a person who could assuage internal confrontations. She promises to work with everyone: all groups, parties and coalitions, no matter the existing differences. It’s hard to say what her real intentions are. It’s always hard to say something definite when talking about the people supported by the United States. Too often Silva switched sides. For instance, joining Campos she supported the idea of keeping the ideas of Chavez (Hugo Chavez – late President of Venezuela known for his socialist convictions and left wing policy) away from Brazil. Today she says the President Lula’s team that she worked with was too much Chavista (pro-Chavez). Now what about her proclaimed readiness to work with everyone? No doubt the Brazilian Workers’ Party enjoys wide support but it can hardly be compared with the ruling party in Venezuela. Perhaps the Central Intelligence Agency wants to use Silva for the implementation of its old plan to create an «alternative left wing belt» in Latin America to oppose the authoritarian, populist and archaic regimes in Venezuela and Cuba.

    Silva is becoming more neo-liberal as the campaign proceeds. She says there is no need to make BRICS another «center of power» and speed up the implementation of the bloc’s recent decisions to establish a development bank, a reserve fund etc. Silva has doubts about the South American Defense Council. In half-muted voice she calls for paying less attention to MERCOSUR (from Spanish Mercado Común del Sur, a sub-regional bloc comprising Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela) and UNASUR (The Union of South American Nations, Spanish: Unión de Naciones Suramericanas, an intergovernmental union integrating two existing customs unions – Mercosur and the Andean Community of Nations – as part of a continuing process of South American integration). According to her, the development of bilateral relations should be given a priority. These views run counter to the process of Latin America integration.

    How will Brazilians react to neoliberal turn in the country’s policy in case she wins? There is a big chance it will end up in social unrest. They have become accustomed to social progress in the country. The people are listened to, reforms are brought into life, and the country is stable and making progress. If Silva becomes President (George Soros, an American business magnate, investor and philanthropist, provided her campaign with significant funds) there will be a great possibility of having many social and economic programs suspended to evoke wide discontent. To achieve this goal  the American offices in Brazil are being filled with special agents tasked to spur civil protests.

    Source: Strategic Culture Foundation.

    BRAZIL BY BRAZILIANS!