Sunday, 25 May 2014

The Procrastinator (some) Times Sunday 25th of May Edition



EDITORIAL

This week's edition features two articles about the victory of of Hindu nationalist Nadendra Modi in India's elections via The Economist and Forbes. Postal services suspended indefinitely and more airlines fleeing Venezuela. In our Science & Technology section Le nouvel Observateur asks if we are living a detox overdose, and Wired shares the story of Oculus Rift. Baratunde Thruston asks if brands will stop trying to 'join the conversation' and actually make products worth talking about in our Design, Business & Innovation section where you can also have a look at some of the Kickstarter projects in NYCxDesign at MoMA. While in Culture & Entertainment, Dazed Digital asks what was really on that famous Pulp Fiction briefcase. La Guía del Perro share with us articles about shelter dogs helping bullied kids and the wonderful Phoenix in In Dog We Trust. And finally Germán is back with a new Sunday (some) Times wishing you all a happy Towel Day!

Happy Sunday, happy reading!


NEWS

Photo via The Independent.

While The Economist appears to be 'economically content' with the election of Narendra Modi as India Prime Minister and dedicate its last cover to him saying that "now, for the first time ever, India has a strong government whose priority is growth. Narendra Modi, who leads the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has won a tremendous victory on the strength of promising to make India’s economy work." They clarify that they do not endorse him, but 'looking at the big picture' wish him success anyway: "because we believe that he has not atoned sufficiently for the massacre of Muslims that took place in Gujarat while he was chief minister, we wish him every success: an Indian growth miracle would be a great thing not just for Indians, but also for the world." Read full article in The Independent. E.T.P. 7'

Forbes assumed a much more critical position and questioned if Narenda will be a Prime Minister of all Indians: "Unfortunatly India’s presumptive prime minister, Narendra Modi, was implicated in one of the country’s worst episodes of sectarian violence.  In 2002 in the state of Gujarat, in which Modi served as chief minister, Hindu rioters killed more than 1200 people, mostly Muslims, and forced 150,000 people from their homes.  Eventually the Indian military and national police restored order.  Critics charged Modi with both encouraging the violence and failing to stop it.  Investigations and court cases went on for years." Read full article in Forbes. E.T.P. 8'


Photo: The Procrastinator (some) Times.

And in Venezuelan news, the postal service (that was extraordinarily bad already) has been suspended international mail deliveries. "Employees at the state-run company Ipostel told local media that the service had fallen victim to an ongoing dispute with international airlines over currency controls.
According to El Universal, postal workers said tonnes of undelivered international mail had accumulated at Ipostel sorting offices after deliveries to at least 29 countries were suspended.
"The company is practically bankrupt, not only with its international deliveries but also its basic services because we have no materials or equipment," said Jose Gallardo, of a labour union in the eastern state of Anzoategui."

The same article in the Guardian explains that basically international deliveries are impossible because of a dispute between Venezuela and international airlines as at least three major carriers have stopped or reduced flights to Venezuela: Air Canada, Lufthansa and Alitalia. t has claimed more than 40 lives in three months. "According to the International Air Transport Association, Venezuela owes around $4bn to international carriers." Read full article in The Guardian. E.T.P. 4'

The Venezuelan government also owes US$4bn to the local pharmaceutical industry, and this is traduced in a major scarcity of medicines and treatments. Here is the article in El Universal (link in Spanish). E.T.P. 2'

No money, no food, no medicines, no airlines, no postal service, no security, no human rights, no freedom of expression. Viva la revolución.

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY


Photo via Wired.

Peter Rubin writes a very interesting piece in Wired sharing the inside story of Oculus Rift and how virtual reality became simply: reality. It is a long read, but it is really worth it. This is how it starts: "As he flew from Orange County to Seattle in September 2013, Brendan Iribe, the CEO of Oculus, couldn’t envision what the next six months would bring. The rhapsodic crowds at the Consumer Electronics Show. The around-the-block lines at South by Southwest. Most of all, the $2 billion purchase by Facebook. That fall Oculus was still just an ambitious startup chasing virtual reality, a dream that had foiled countless entrepreneurs and technologists for two decades. Oculus’ flagship product, the Rift, was widely seen as the most promising VR device in years, enveloping users in an all-encompassing simulacrum that felt like something out of Snow Crash or Star Trek. But it faced the same problem that had bedeviled would-be pioneers like eMagin, Vuzix, even Nintendo: It made people want to throw up." Read full story in Wired. E.T.P. 27'

And in the same subject, Samsung is now building an Oculus Rift competitor. Read about it in Mashable. E.T.P. 7'

Photo via L'Observateur.


Detox Overdose. The word is everywhere. Liquid diets, magic creams that help you expel toxins and take control of your body. But is it just a marketing strategy? Why is the word detox suddenly so popular, and more importantly, does it work? Read full article (in French) in Le nouvel Observateur. E.T.P. 7'



Europe will let its citizens edit Google search results for their names. "Google and other search engines routinely field takedown requests to remove material from results that violates copyright, defamation, and other laws. But a ruling  by the European Union’s highest court will now require them to consider takedown requests for material that is merely embarrassing or inconvenient, rather than illegal. " Read full article in Quartz. E.T.P. 4'

DESIGN, BUSINESS & INNOVATION


(Great) Illustration by Brock Davis via Fast Company.

Baratunde Thruston writes a very provocative piece in Fast Company in which he poses the question: What if brands stop trying to join the conversation and make products worth talking about? I personally think that both things are not mutually exclusive, social media not always is an attempt to compensate for bad, outdated or boring products, but hey, for a lot of brands out there do think that, so he has a very good point: "Brands are so desperate "to join the conversation" on social media that most only get as far as "I gotta do the social media!" and don't have a thoughtful way to determine what to do on the social media. They ask, "What's our Snapchat strategy?" without ever considering if they need one.

Can social media promotion work? Sure. I've employed it for myself and my clients. But we've reached a point in marketing where we seem to have forgotten our best "engagement strategy": the product itself. The actual thing you're trying to promote is itself its own vehicle for promotion. Whoa." Read full article in Fast Company. E.T.P. 6'




As we share a couple of weeks ago, "the MoMA Design Store in New York City collaborated with the crowdfunding site to sell Kickstarter-successful products in stores and online, from May 13 to June 16. It's a part of NYCxDESIGN, a city-wide celebration of all things design." Have a look at some of the projects in Mashable. E.T.P. 9'

Photo: Flickr user Eli Christman via Fast Company.

Himanshu Saxena propose three new job titles that can companies to deal with two of the main issues that seem to be severely afflicting corporations today: how to survive gracefully in this uncongenial business environment and how to sustain leadership amidst growing competition and disenchanted customers. Are you willing to hire a Chief Reimagination Officer, and Chief Paradigm Officer and a Chief Paradox Officer? Read full article in Fast Company. E.T.P. 4'

CULTURE & ENTERTAINMENT


Photo via Dazed Magazine.

In the 20th anniversary of Pulp Fiction, Dazed Magazine asks: what was really in the briefcase?
In honour of the cult classic's 20th anniversary, they look at the top theories of what that faint golden glow could be. Read article in Dazed Magazine. E.T.P. 7' 


Photo via Mashable.


Leila Hatami, Iranian actress and mmber of the jury at Cannes Film Festival, is facing increasing blacklash in her country, including a call for public flogging — all for a kiss on the cheek. Hatami sparked outrage amongst conservatives in Iran for giving Gilles Jacob, the president of the Cannes Film Festival, a peck on the cheek on the festival's red carpet last week, where she is a member of the jury.Read full article in Mashable. E.T.P. 5'

Photo via The Independent.

Featured in The Independent a short and fun 30'' clip of Morgan Freeman on helium announcing an upcoming documentary about the mysteries of the universe called Through the Wormhole. Great idea as everyone wants to see Morgan Freeman in helium, right? Watch the clip via The Independent. E.T.P 31''

IN DOG WE TRUST


Photo: the cute Idefix Phoenix via his Instagram.




Video of the week: The sausage thief!

Enjoy your Sunday! And follow Phoenix on Instagram


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In Dog We Trust is edited by: Carola Melguizo from La Guía del Perro. 

SUNDAY (SOME) TIMES

Click to enlarge.


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Sunday (some) Times is created by our star illustrator Germán Herrera.
More monos by Germán here.

Sunday, 18 May 2014

The Procrastinator (some) Times Sunday 18th of May Edition



EDITORIAL

Morning everyone, I hope the weekend it's been good so far. In today's edition of the Procrastinator (some) Times we have our usual share of Venezuelan news and an interesting article about Boko Haram and the lack of strategy in the Nigerian government. In the Science section, the collapse of the Western Antarctic Ice Sheet and its consequences via The Independent. In Design, Business and Innovation, news about the dead of the homepage (long live the homepage), a nice interview to Tony Gaitatzis, an expert in wearable technology in Dezeen, and sunglasses to see life through an Instagram filter ALWAYS. In Culture & Entertainment, a review about Frank, this curious movie based in a newspaper article and The Guardian To See List of movies from Cannes Festival. And finally reading In Dog We Trust by La Guía del Perro, you will meet the Barkhaus and Finn, Amanda Seyfried's super handsome dog.

Happy Sunday and happy reading!


NEWS

Illustration via The New Yorker.


Alexis Okeowo writes an interesting comment in The New Yorker about the Boko Haram situation in Nigeria. "Yakubu Kabu, a Nigerian civil servant and the father of one of the more than three hundred girls abducted from a school in the village of Chibok, was struck by the fact that the first real news of his daughter came from the Boko Haram terrorists who had taken her, and not from the government. To many, it was emblematic of the general mishandling of the case . . . The government has shown a notable lack of resolve throughout the four years that it has battled Boko Haram, and the fate of the Chibok girls has become a symbol of Nigeria’s weaknesses and divisions." Read full article in The New Yorker. E.T.P. 6'


Photo by Carlos Becerra via Amnesty International.

Photo via AFP.

This past Wednesday, police in Venezuela detained at least 80 demonstrators who were demanding the release of those arrested in recent anti-government protests. According to BBC: "Wednesday's march was called by university students to demand the release of more than 200 people who were detained after security forces broke up protest camps last week. The government said the camps were being used as bases to launch "violent attacks" and to hide "drugs, weapons, explosives and mortars". 'No proof.' But a university student at the march, Alex Gomez, rejected the accusations, saying "there was never a problem due to drugs, weapons, or alcohol". "We are demanding that they show us the reasons why they arrested them," he told the Associated Press news agency". Read full article in the BBC.

Here's what the AFP says about the incident: "The students, who were marching to demand the release of protesters arrested in recent days, massed in the east of the capital but the demonstration quickly became violent when they targeted the Tourism Ministry and riot police intervened. They detained around 80 people, Manuel Quevedo, commander of the National Guard regiment in Caracas, told AFP. Last week more than 200 people were arrested in police raids on encampments of protesters in Caracas. Most have since been freed. "Fewer and fewer people are heeding protest calls. Intimidation has succeeded," one of the young marchers told AFP Wednesday, requesting anonymity after a previous arrest.

This is the report of Amnesty International about what happened the 14th of May in Caracas: On 14 May security forces in Caracas detained at least 100 people involved in ongoing anti-government demonstrations. They are at risk of torture or other ill-treatment and their right to due process is at risk. Read full report (in English, Spanish or French) in Amnesty International, and have a look at the photos in their Facebook profile here.

Finally here you can have a look at the propaganda in official texts books distributed by the Ministery of Education, aimed to be used by high-school students, promoting key figures of the government, among them Hugo Chávez "Supreme Commander" or "Eternal President", cultural icons of chavism and government projects. Have a look at the photos (including the cover with the word "English" with a massive accent in the "i") in El Universal (link in Spanish).

SCIENCE



Photo via The Independent.


The collapse of the Western Antarctic Ice Sheet, which holds enough water to raise global sea levels by several metres, has already begun and is ‘unstoppable’, say two new reports. . .  They estimated that the fast-moving Thwaites Glacier will probably collapse into the sea somewhere in the next 200 to 1,000 years, raising sea levels by two feet. This glacier acts as a dam for the rest of the western ice sheet and its disappearance could precipitate the collapse of a frozen mass large enough to raise sea levels by three to four metres. Read full article in The Independent. E.T.P. 5'30''

DESIGN, BUSINESS & INNOVATION


Image via Quartz.

The homepage is dead, and the social web has won—even at the New York Times. Zachary M. Seward in Quartz writes about how social media and mobile technology made push media replace pull media. "Traffic to the New York Times homepage fell by half in the last two years, according to the newspaper’s internal review of its digital strategy. That’s not necessarily a reflection of any problems at the Times but the reality of how news is now distributed on the internet. Homepage traffic is declining at most news sites as readers increasingly find links to news articles from social media, email, and other sources". Read full article, that includes a link to The New York Times leaked strategy report via BuzzFeed, in Quartz. E.T.P. 3'



Photo via Dezeen.

"Data collected via Google Glass could soon be used to deliver advertising tailored to the wearer's taste, mood, and location, according to Tony Gaitatzis, a leading figure in the wearable technology sector. "The potential is incredible and hyper-targeted to the point where it is no longer advertising," said Gaitatzis, who is chief technology officer at PND, a company developing wearable technology that monitors the human brain. PND is developing PND Wearable - a "personal neuro device" that gathers information on the wearer's moods, emotions and health. This data could be used by advertisers to target wearers of Google Glass head-mounted computers." Read full Ross Bryant interview to Tony Gaitatzis in Dezeen. E.T.P. 14'



La vie en Instagram. Another type of glasses for those who truly believe everything looks better in Instagram, well now with Tens Tinded Sunglasses, they can look at life through an Instagram-like filter and probably, look better and have more fun (?). Read full article in Fubiz. E.T.P. 3'

CULTURE & ENTERTAINMENT




Photo via Dazed Digital.

"Michael Fassbender is one of the most in-demand actors working today, but although he plays the eponymous character in Frank, he spends most of the film in disguise. Quite a departure from his member-swinging days in Shame. Cast as an avant-garde rock musician – inspired by comedian-musician Chris Sievey's alter ego, Frank Sidebottom, Fassbender's famous mug is hidden under a papier-mâché head for almost all of Lenny Abrahamson's offbeat dark comedy. The film gives the 12 Years A Slave star his craziest role to date. We talked to him about Frank the character and being scared shitless by the Shakespeare play that actors dare not name." Read full Article in Dazed Digital. E.T.P. 6'


Photo: Lost River via The Guardian.

So many movies, so little time! The Guardian shared his list of key Cannes 2014 films to look out for. "The 67th Cannes film festival opens on Wednesday with new movies from Mike Leigh, Ken Loach, Ryan Gosling, David Cronenberg, Abel Ferrera and more." Have a look at this top 25 in The Guardian. E.T.P. 8'

IN DOG WE TRUST



Photo: the incredibly handsome Finn via Amanda Seyfried's Instagram.


Hello dog lover!

Hope you're up to something fun this weekend! Here are some interesting links for you:


Every dog has its data. Interesting.






Video of the week: Le Sauvetage (The Rescue)

Enjoy your sunday! And follow Finn on Instagram


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In Dog We Trust is edited by: Carola Melguizo from La Guía del Perro.  

Sunday, 11 May 2014

The Procrastinator (some) Times Sunday 11th of May Edition


EDITORIAL

This been another one of those weeks. Just when the international press started to forget about Venezuela, the government give them reasons not to. We feature news from The Economist, Mashable and El Universal, among others, and you can find the link to the Human Rights Watch report called "Punished for Protesting: Rights violations in Venezuela's Streets, Detention Centers and Justice System". The latest news about Boko Haram and the kidnapping of around 300 school girls in Nigeria can also be found in this section.

In our Science section, an interesting article about having or not having sex with robots, that is the question. Celebrities in ads, a great language exchange program and plans of building a train between China and America in our Design, Business & Innovation. In the Culture & Entertainment section the Topless Pulp Fiction Appreciation Society takes off, Paul McInnes writes in The Guardian about Studio Ghibli after The Wind Rises and Semi Chellas interview Matthew Wiener for The Paris Review. Finally, In Dog We Trust shares interesting links about bullying and happy dogs in Australia.

Also, today is Mother's Day in Venezuela and I want to send a big kiss to my mum, my granny, and to all my lovely friends with kids in Venezuela (and I think in the US too!). Hope you have an amazing Sunday.

To everyone else, happy Sunday and happy reading.


NEWS



This week the world kept demanding the freedom of around 300 school girls abducted by the extremist Islamic group Boko Haram, that is fighting to overthrown Nigerian government to impose an Islamic state. This are the latest news.

According to The Guardian: "Nigerian security forces were aware that an armed convoy of Boko Haram militants was approaching the town of Chibok almost four hours before the extremists kidnapped 300 girls from a school in the town, Amnesty International said on Friday. The human rights group claimed the military was warned an attack was imminent but did not send reinforcements because of a lack of resources and an unwillingness to engage with well-armed insurgents. Read full article in The Guardian. E.T.P. 7'

Al Jazeera reports: "Nigeria's president has said that his country will win its "war on terror", despite another attack by Boko Haram fighters in the northeast that reportedly killed hundreds. Read full reportage in Al Jazeera. E.T.P. 6'

And finally The Independent adds: "Intelligence sources believe girls kidnapped from a school in Nigeria may have been split into four groups after they were taken by militant Islamist group Boko Haram, making finding them an increasingly difficult task." Read full article in The Independent. E.T.P. 8'


Photo: Carlos García Rawlins (Reuters) via Newsweek.

Earlier this week The Economist published an article about Human Rights violations in Venezuela that highlighting the findings of the Human Rights Watch (HRW) report called "Punished for Protesting: Rights violations in Venezuela's Streets, Detention Centers and Justice System". The Economist article describe how late President Hugo Chávez's revolution took off the "pretty revolution" mask and started revealing its (at least to the world, we've always know) real face.

"Since Chávez’s death last year from cancer, the pretty revolution’s make-up has begun to peel. His successor, Nicolás Maduro, has none of the comandante’s famous charisma, and growth in oil income has stalled. Anger over food shortages and uncontrolled violent crime spilled over in February into nationwide protests. The government’s response has been a harsh crack-down that has seen over 2,500 people detained so far. Human-rights groups say excessive use of force, beatings and denial of due process have been routine.

In the first detailed report on the subject by an international body, released on May 5th, HRW accuses police and national-guard members of “routinely” using unlawful force against armed protesters . . .  with the complicity of prosecutors and judges, who both “turned a blind eye’ to human-rights violations and deliberately hindered detainees’ access to their families and lawyers."



Photo: Jorge Silva (Reuters) via El Universal.

Almost to prove HRW right, the Venezuelan government, just days after another round of violent attacks to some Venezuelan universities like the UCAB in Caracas and the Fermín Toro in Lara (link in Spanish), in a extreme (but not surprising) act of cowardice and abuse of power, sent its security forces to dismantle four student camps across Caracas, as Mashable says "in the wee hours of Thursday in coordinated raids that ended with the arrest of 243 students. It's one of the government's biggest crackdowns on the student protests that have been sweeping the country for more than two months."

Some people believe that the amount of students jailed in that operation is bigger. And while the government congratulate its security forces for putting in jail more than 200 students whose only "crime" was protesting, there has been already 4860 people murdered in the first four months of the year (link in Spanish), that is around 40 people everyday. To stop insecurity and violence State's security forces are far less efficient, or maybe they had not even been instructed to do so.


Chart via CATO.org (click to enlarge).

Finally, to finish with the Venezuelan news of the week, the CATO Foundation published the Misery Index ranking of 2013, "the misery index concept can be applied to any country where suitable data exist. A misery index — a simple sum of inflation, lending rates, and unemployment rates, minus year-on-year per capita GDP growth — is used to construct a ranking for 89 countries." Venezuela, of course, holds the Top Spot with an index value of 79. 4. Although, Steve H. Hanke, the author of the article in Cato.org adds: "I estimate that Venezuela’s annual implied inflation rate at the end of last year was 278%. That rate is almost five times higher than the official inflation rate. If the annual implied inflation rate of 278% is used to calculate Venezuela’s misery index, the index jumps from 79. 4 to 301, indicating that Venezuela is in much worse shape than suggested by the official data." "The accompanying chart confirms Friedman’s observation. In Venezuela, 28% of basic products are not available."


Read more:

UN News Centre: UN concerned at renewed violence, reported excessive use of force

El Universal: Protests and repression after police dismantled students camps in Caracas


Mashable: Venezuela Arrests 243 Students in Biggest Protests Crackdown

The Guardian: Venezuelan Police Break Up Four Protests Camps

Prodavinci: ¿Qué fue lo que pasó en los campamentos de libertad de Chacao y Las Mercedes?




SCIENCE

Photo via The Independent.

Lucy Hunter Johnston in The Independent: "Fear of a robot taking over your job is growing. A One Poll survey just out says that 31 per cent of us suffer from this anxiety. Then again, it’s not all bad news when it comes to man and machine: 17 per cent of us would also happily hop into bed with them. It’s a statistic that raises a number of questions. Is sex with a robot cheating? Would there be an age of consent? But perhaps the least obvious is: what do the other 83% have against the idea?" Interesting, huh? Read full article in The Independent. E.T.P. 8'


Photo: The Procrastinator (some) Times.


ELECTRONIC cigarettes made their American debut seven years ago. People have bickered about them ever since. Some praise e-cigarettes—which deliver a vapour with nicotine, but no tobacco—for helping traditional smokers to quit. Others fret that they will promote nicotine addiction and reduce the stigma of smoking, which in America now ranks somewhere between theft and public indecency.
On April 24th American regulators stepped in (as the European Parliament did in February). The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) proposed rules for e-cigarettes. These would, among other things, ban sales to children and require firms to list ingredients, include warnings that nicotine is addictive and register new products with the agency. The FDA did not propose banning flavours or advertising, but may do so in future. It will accept comments on its plan until July 9th. Even after it finalises this set of rules, it may later issue further restrictions. The Economist. E.T.P. 4'

DESIGN, BUSINESS & INNOVATION


Photo via AdWeek.

"What do Bob Dylan, Ellen DeGeneres, Stephen Colbert, the Muppets, U2 and the cast of the '90s sitcom Full House have in common? They all starred in Super Bowl commercials this year, and none of them came anywhere close to the top of the list when it came to sharing of the ads online". Read this interesting article by Tim Nudd in AdWeek. E.T.P. 6'


Photo via Quartz.

"China already has the world’s longest high-speed rail network. And the country aims to more than double the amount of high-speed railway by 2015. Officials want to build everything from an undersea railway tunnel from the Chinese shore to Taiwan—twice the length of the Channel Tunnel between France and Britain. In that context, it almost seems feasible that China would be considering a recently discussed project—13,000 km of high-speed railway that crosses from China to Russia and North America that includes a 200-km tunnel under the Bering strait. A railway expert at the Chinese Academy of Engineering told the Beijing Times that officials are having discussions about the project." Read Lily Kuo's full article in Quartz. E.T.P. 4'




Photo via AdWeek.

"It's such a great, simple idea: Young Brazilians want to learn English. Elderly Americans living in retirement homes just want someone to talk to. Why not connect them?
FCB Brazil did just that with its "Speaking Exchange" project for CNA language schools. As seen in the touching case study below, the young Brazilians and older Americans connect via Web chats, and they not only begin to share a language—they develop relationships that enrich both sides culturally and emotionally." Read full article and watch the project's video in AdWeek. E.T.P. 7'

CULTURE & ENTERTAINMENT



Image via The Guardian.

Hayao Miyazaki: his final bow. The much-loved animator's Studio Ghibli has become part of the aesthetic fabric of Japan. But The Wind Rises will be Miyazaki's swansong as director. What happens next? Paul McInnes writes in The Guardian: "Studio Ghibli is the animation studio founded by Miyazaki and his partner Isao Takahata in Tokyo in 1985. Over the 29 years that followed they have released 19 full-length feature films, eight of them directed by Miyazaki. Of these, 2001's Spirited Away is the biggest film of all-time in Japan and was the first to gross $200m worldwide. When Japanese consumers are polled as to their favourite brands, they often put Ghibli top, ahead of Toyota and Sony. But Ghibli's importance in its home country goes beyond financial success; in a way it has helped to define a sense of national character, creating new fables for the country such as the environmental parable Princess Mononoke. Ghibli has come to stand for both an aesthetic and moral code, continuing the practice of hand-drawn animation as everything else turns digital and creating stories for children that offer a more complex morality – and have a more vivid imagination – than its peers." E.T.P. 18'


Image via The Independent.

Semi Chellas interviews Matthew Weiner in The Paris Review: "Born in 1965, Matthew Weiner is barely old enough to remember the period with which his television series Mad Men has now become almost synonymous. His office is exactly what one might hope for the creator of Don Draper: a stylish mixture of midcentury modern furniture, with a cabinet full of top-shelf liquor. But it turns out that the furniture came with the building, which was designed in 1955, and the liquor, mostly gifts, is wasted on Weiner, who hardly drinks at all." Read The Art of Screenwriting No. 4 in The Paris Review. E.T.P. 33'

Photo via The Topless Pulp Fiction Appreciation Society.

Topless Pulp Fiction Appreciation Society takes off. Allison Flood comments about this peculiar society in The Guardian's Blook Blog: "I'm not a member of a book club – perhaps it is rooted in the days of my education, but I just feel that I'd hate having to read something by a certain time. However, I am loving this week's slew of articles about New York's Outdoor Co-ed Topless Pulp Fiction Appreciation Society, a book group which loves "good books and sunny days and enjoying both as nearly in the altogether as the law allows". Read full article in The Guardian. E.T.P. 4'

IN DOG WE TRUST


Photo: Riley via his Instagram.

Hello dog lover! Hope you are having a fantastic weekend.


Here are some links for you:




Dog walking attitudes: Stoop to scoop the poop?



Video of the week: Happy dogs in Australia

Enjoy your Sunday! And follow Riley on Instagram




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In Dog We Trust is edited by: Carola Melguizo from La Guía del Perro.  

Sunday, 4 May 2014

The Procrastinator (some) Times Sunday 04th of May Edition



EDITORIAL



Today is May the 4th, hope all my Star Wars fan friends have an excellent Sunday. This edition goes like this: in our News section we share the AFP's Annual Report of 2013 along with some news from Ukraine and Venezuela. In our Science section, Stephen Hawkins and other prominent scientists denounced the dangers of Artificial Intelligence, while others are more intrigued by kale. Good news for independent designers that use crowd-sourcing to finance their projects, read about it in our Design, Business and Innovation section. In Culture and Entertainment, the most loved book written in French in the past century, Antoine de Saint-Exúpery's The Little Prince via The New Yorker, and Fast Company about Canadian skate culture. Finally a short video about Eleanor Ambos via Nowness and our friend Carledonia in Our Weekly Procrastination.
Happy Sunday and happy reading.
NEWS

Image: Screenshot of the AFP Report Website.

The AFP published its report on the year 2013, this is how Emmanuel Hoog, CEO and President of Agence France Presse introduce it in his editorial: "As you read our annual report (online version available on afp.com), you will discover what 2013 was like for us day to day – how our committed, well-organised teams handled the most critical, most intense news stories." It is definitely an interesting reading. Have a look at the report in the AFP website. E.T.P. 90'
Photo via The Guardian.
The Guardian affirms that Ukraine moves towards civil war as Kiev hits back at pro-Russian activists: "Two days of chaos and violence in east and south-east Ukraine appeared on Saturday to be pushing the country ever closer to civil war, as the death toll rose to 42 following a military counter-offensive launched by authorities in Kiev against pro-Russia rebels." Read full article in The Guardian. E.T.P. 7'


Photo: Carlos Rawlins via Reuters.

These past week there was very few news about Venezuela in the international press. But the panorama is as follows: students protested about the sentence of the Constitutional Court that criminalized the right to protest in a pacific way; several foreigners were arrested under suspicion of conspiracy against the government, one of many conspiracy theories that as usual they claim without any real proof, but, who cares, they own the courts anyway; and one of the biggest food companies of the country stopped operations. Read more in the following links:

The Huffington Post: Venezuela's biggest food company is halting work at one of its facilities because of government delays in allotting it dollars to buy wheat from foreign suppliers.
Independent: President Nicolas Maduro is introducing a controversial shopping card intended to combat Venezuela's food shortages but decried by critics as a Cuban-style policy illustrating the failure of his socialist policies.
Reuters: Venezuela said on Friday that 58 foreigners had been arrested on suspicion of inciting anti-government protests and violence that have rocked the South American for the last three months.
La Patilla (link in Spanish): Law students reject the sentence of the Constitutional Court about the right to peaceful demonstration.