Eta Carinae

Extraído daqui

Eta Carinae está no fim da vida. Com cerca de 2,5 milhões de anos, restam a ela no máximo 500 mil anos. O problema é que a morte da estrela nesse estágio poderá causar um grande impacto na vida da Terra. Estrelas com essa massa morrem como hipernovas, brilhando como todas as estrelas do Universo juntas (100 bilhões de vezes 100 bilhões de sóis). Esse ''flash'' inimaginável emitiria uma rajada de raios gama capaz de abrir um rombo na camada de ozônio que protege a Terra dos raios ultravioleta do Sol. Em questão de horas, regiões inteiras do planeta seriam torradas. Como a estrela já está expelindo átomos pesados, essa explosão pode acontecer, literalmente, a qualquer momento.

Resenha do showzinho... assim que voltarmos dos comerciais!

Criticism capsules

The best we can do as critics is to know our history and know ourselves, and to try and see the redeeming qualities in the mediocre and the timeless qualities in the great. And then to try and explain the opinion that results, and brace for the reaction—which can be the toughest part nowadays.

(Noel Murray in "The Shirk Of The New")

Para brilhar na primavera cultural carioca...

Segue o link para uma obra de autoria de Renato Alarcão e Alex Koti. Trata-se de um gerador instantâneo de frases cult/cool para serem ditas após aquele filme de 8 horas contando a inefável saga dos pentelhos de um velho armênio (ref. Baleiro e Ramalho in Bienal).

http://www.alexkoti.com/crap

obs: CRAP = Critical Response to the Art Product

10 anos de OK Computer

Fica aqui a lembrança da década do lançamento deste impactante álbum britânico. Confesso que tive uma adolescência meio descolada dos modismos culturais, mas o Radiohead conseguiu impressionar mesmo alguém que não tinha nenhum motivo pra gostar da banda. O clipe de Paranoid Android foi o estopim, não entendia necas, mas tinha cara de ser interessante.

It Was 40 10 Years Ago Today: 18 Reasons 1997 Might Be The Next 1967
By Andy Battaglia, Jason Heller, Michaelangelo Matos, Josh Modell, Sean O'Neal, Keith Phipps, Nathan Rabin, Kyle Ryan
September 17th, 2007
1. Radiohead, OK Computer

1967 is rightfully—though overly, especially during its 40th anniversary—revered as a watershed year for pop music: It saw the release of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Songs Of Leonard Cohen, Are You Experienced?, The Velvet Underground & Nico, Forever Changes, and many other incredible and/or important albums. 1997, though lacking the benefit of as much hindsight, packed a pretty earth-shaking musical punch, too, clearly led by Radiohead's already-canonized OK Computer. Enough ink has been spilled about the album's dystopian outlook and overall concept, sometimes to the point of ignoring the most important element: Every track, from pure pop in wolf's clothing ("Paranoid Android") to experimental animosity ("Fitter Happier") feels exactly right. Everything in its right place, indeed.

Leia o resto da matéria aqui

Merriam-Webster's Word of the day

The Word of the Day for January 13 is:


bluestocking \BLOO-stah-king\ noun

: a woman having intellectual or literary interests

Example sentence:
Now that Aunt Sarah has retired from teaching college English, she fulfills the role of bluestocking by holding literary teas for students at her home.

Did you know?
In mid-18th century England, a group of ladies decided to replace evenings of card playing and idle chatter with "conversation parties," inviting illustrious men of letters to discuss literary and intellectual topics with them. One regular guest was scholar-botanist Benjamin Stillingfleet. His hostesses willingly overlooked his cheap blue worsted stockings (a type disdained by the elite) in order to have the benefit of his lively conversation. Those who considered it inappropriate for women to aspire to learning derisively called the group the "Blue Stocking Society." The women who were the original bluestockings rose above the attempted put-down and adopted the epithet as a name for members of their society.

Do-it yourself Borat

Esse link aqui tem a versão traduzida automaticamente do blog. Putz eu sei que é meio gimmick esse lance de tradução instantânea e também já evoluimos bastante desde as priscas eras do BabelFish e tradutor do AltaVista, mas enfim, é divertido... e ainda dá para ler com uma voz a la Borat pra aumentar a farra!

Diminuindo um pouco a futilidade, uma anedota que o meu professor de CompSci da Berkner costumava contar...

[extraído do site http://www.kryogenix.org/code/vodka]

Adventures in machine translation

Remember all those old jokes about using computers to translate text into one language and then back into the original? So that you started with “The spirit is strong, but the flesh is weak”, and translated it into and back out of Russian again to be left with “The vodka is good, but the meat is rotten”?