The Procrastinator (some) Times Sunday 26th of January Edition

EDITORIAL

There are some themes that we shouldn't stop talking about like repression in Putin's Russia, and others that I'm not quite sure if we should talk at all, like French presidents love affairs. This edition of the Procrastinator have them both, feel free to let us know what you think about it. The Mac is now 30 years old, but still an icon of innovation, you can read about it in our Design section. We share some photos of our latest outing around the Capital Ring in Our Weekly Procrastination, and La Guía del Perro's In Dog We Trust share with us an awesome DIY special edition.

Hope you enjoy this edition and make sure you find time for some meaningful procrastination as is the last Sunday of January ;)

Happy Sunday and happy reading!

NEWS

Photo via The Independent.

The latest news in the whole Hollande-Trierweiler-Gayet issue is that Valérie Trierweiler lost her First Lady status as President Holland confirms the separation. Is not that as if I've been closely following the news, quite the opposite perhaps, but since every update keeps appearing everywhere I am quite intrigued about your opinion in this whole love/political affair. I mean, do you care at all? I'll give you a topic: Should private lives of big political leaders shadow the 'real' news. Please dicusss. And if you want to read The Independent article, here it is. Warning: no meaningful procrastination guaranteed.  

A little bit more interesting is in Anne Penketh and Kim Willsher in The Guardian. As rumours about François Hollande's alleged affair swirl, they argue the women of France admit they don't live up to their chic image. "Shock news from across the Channel: French women do get fat, they have brattish, fussy-eater children, chipped nails, they sometimes sleep on their own wearing big cotton knickers and they do mind if their husband is enjoying cinq-à-sept trysts with his mistress". Read full article here. E.T.P 8'

Via The Atlantic.

In the spring of 2002, US government's researchers began tracking a group of roughly 15,000 high school sophomores—most of whom would be roughly age 27 today—with the intention of following them through early adulthood. Like Jordan Weissmann, who writes this article for The Atlantic, many of those students graduated college in 2008, just in time to grab a front-row seat for the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the economic gore fest that ensued. Two years ago, the government’s researchers handed their subjects an enormous survey about their lives in the real world and the main insights are that this group of 27 year olds are as highly educated as they are highly indebted. See more interesting charts illustrating the life of young-adults in the wake of the Great Recession in The Atlantic. E.T.P. 8'

Photo: The Procrastinator (some) Times.

Finally, our friend Luis sent us this article published in Nautilus called "Why we procrastinate?", is not recent, but it's quite interesting, in it Alisa Opar analyzes the research of the British philosopher Derek Parfit espoused in his seminal book, Reasons and Persons. "We humans, Parfit argued, are not a consistent identity moving through time, but a chain of successive selves, each tangentially linked to, and yet distinct from, the previous and subsequent ones. The boy who begins to smoke despite knowing that he may suffer from the habit decades later should not be judged harshly: “This boy does not identify with his future self,” Parfit wrote. It is a weird notion, but Emily Bronin, reach more or less the same conclusion back in 2008. We think of our future selves, says Pronin, like we think of others: in the third person. Read full article in Nautilus. E.T.P. 6'

SCIENCE

Image via Science News

Gabriel Popkin reports in Science News: "All of the universe’s matter, cosmologists believe, forms a web of dark matter and gas that was spun shortly after the Big Bang and has been stretching out ever since. Now astronomers say they have glimpsed a brightly lit strand of this web". Read full article in Science News. E.T.P. 5'

Fast Company shares some unexpected ways technology will change the world by 2020. From health care, financial inclusion and educational models, to the creative boom, "what bloggers did to mass media will have its parallel in what amateurs will do to the Sonys and Toyotas of the world.". Six years isn't that long, but the rapid pace of innovation means everything could look a lot different by then. Have a look at this intersting article in Fast Company. E.T.P. 6'

Photo via NPR.

Maria Godoy writes in NPR: "Moms-to-be are often reminded that they're eating for two. It's tempting to take this as an excuse to go for that extra scoop of the ice cream. (Believe me, I've been there.)
But a convincing body of research suggests that expectant mothers should be walking away with the opposite message: Pregnancy should be a time to double-down on healthful eating if you want to avoid setting up your unborn child for a lifetime of wrestling with obesity.
Now, published this week offers tantalizing clues from mice of one way that a poor maternal diet may be laying the groundwork for obesity: by rewiring a part of the brain that's critical to regulating appetite. And these changes appear to happen in the third trimester of pregnancy, suggest the findings, which appear in the journal Cell." Read or listen to the full article in NPR. E.T.P. 4'30''

DESIGN, BUSINESS & INNOVATION

Photo: Steves Jobs and the Mac in 1984, via NPR.

This week was the 30th birthday of the Mac computer (yes, we are all old!). Steve Hen in NPR's All Tech Considered affirms that even now the original Mac is still an archetype of innovation. Read (or listen) full article in NPR. E.T.P 4'

You can also have a look a this lost conversation between Steven Levy, then a freelance journalist for Rolling Stone and Steve Jobs, on a late-November day in 1983, in Cupertino California, via The New York Times. E.T.P. 8'

And watch Apple's 30 Years video here. E.T.P. 2'20''

Photo: The Procrastinator (some) Times.

Greg Satel's article in Ideas Lab, called 2014: The Year of the Open Ecosystem, emphasizes that the age of the stand-alone brand is dead, right now whether you are connected, or you are dead. Read full article in Ideas Lab. E.T.P 7'

The most salient aspect of technology is its power to disrupt.  The important innovations are the ones that change our world so profoundly that the previous order becomes not only untenable, but unthinkable.
Yet the true impact begins not with invention, but adoption.  That’s when the second and third-order effects kick in.
- See more at: http://www.ideaslaboratory.com/2014/01/08/2014-year-of-the-open-ecosystem/#sthash.EPFnB9VR.dpuf

What’s becoming clear is that the age of the stand-alone brand is over. You’re either connected or you’re dead. - See more at: http://www.ideaslaboratory.com/2014/01/08/2014-year-of-the-open-ecosystem/#sthash.EPFnB9VR.dpuf

The most salient aspect of technology is its power to disrupt.  The important innovations are the ones that change our world so profoundly that the previous order becomes not only untenable, but unthinkable.
Yet the true impact begins not with invention, but adoption.  That’s when the second and third-order effects kick in.
- See more at: http://www.ideaslaboratory.com/2014/01/08/2014-year-of-the-open-ecosystem/#sthash.EPFnB9VR.dpuf

The most salient aspect of technology is its power to disrupt.  The important innovations are the ones that change our world so profoundly that the previous order becomes not only untenable, but unthinkable.
Yet the true impact begins not with invention, but adoption.  That’s when the second and third-order effects kick in.
- See more at: http://www.ideaslaboratory.com/2014/01/08/2014-year-of-the-open-ecosystem/#sthash.EPFnB9VR.dpuf

The most salient aspect of technology is its power to disrupt.  The important innovations are the ones that change our world so profoundly that the previous order becomes not only untenable, but unthinkable.
Yet the true impact begins not with invention, but adoption.  That’s when the second and third-order effects kick in.
- See more at: http://www.ideaslaboratory.com/2014/01/08/2014-year-of-the-open-ecosystem/#sthash.EPFnB9VR.dpuf

What’s becoming clear is that the age of the stand-alone brand is over. You’re either connected or you’re dead.

- See more at: http://www.ideaslaboratory.com/2014/01/08/2014-year-of-the-open-ecosystem/#sthash.EPFnB9VR.dpuf

What’s becoming clear is that the age of the stand-alone brand is over. You’re either connected or you’re dead.

- See more at: http://www.ideaslaboratory.com/2014/01/08/2014-year-of-the-open-ecosystem/#sthash.EPFnB9VR.dpuf

CULTURE & ENTERTAINMENT

Photo: Joseph Gordon-Levitt via The New Yorker.

This is how Tim Wu's article in The New Yorker starts: The variety show “HitRECord on T.V.,” which débuted at the Sundance Film Festival, begins with the host and producer Joseph Gordon-Levitt running onto a stage, clutching a stick with an attached video camera. He wields it like a sceptre, symbolizing the show’s premise: while you’re watching him, well, he’s taping you. Gordon-Levitt calls the show “ ‘Sesame Street’ for adults,” and the segments—cartoons, films, and songs—are created with contributions from the show’s fans. In other words, the show borrows crowdsourcing techniques from the Web to make a TV show. And, in case that setup is not confusing enough, the show runs on a cable channel (Pivot) that was just launched by a film studio (Participant), and the show premièred at a film festival, except for the first episode, which is available on YouTube. Got it? Read full article in The New Yorker. E.T.P. 8'

Still from the film Pussy Riot – A Punk Prayer via The Guardian.

"Back in February 2012, when Pussy Riot staged Punk Prayer – a musical protest at Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in which they appealed to the Holy Virgin to "chase Putin out" – a two-year jail sentence for a 40-second peaceful protest would have seemed unimaginable", writes Masha Gesse, the journalist that corresponded with Nadya and Maria of Pussy Riot while they were  in prison, and now examines how their trial became the first battle in Putin's 'war on modernity' – and a dark moment in Russian history. This is a very insightful and detailed article of a story that, maybe is just starting, read the complete article in The Guardian. E.T.P. 16'

Also this is Masha's book: Words Will Break Cement. (I certainly hope!)

IN DOG WE TRUST

Photo: Panda via Pupcakes!

Hello dog lover! Hope you're having a good weekend.

If you are a DIY lover, today is your lucky day. Here are some great projects you have to try:

A bed that does NOT look like a pillow nor need a vintage suitcase

A studded collar

A really practical food station

A wall-mounted pet organizer

Cupcakes for dogs a.k.a. Pupcakes

Video of the week: The Ultimate Dog Shaming: Cute Dog Maymo

Enjoy your Sunday! And follow Maymo on Instagram ...and Twitter!



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

OUR WEEKLY PROCRASTINATION

If you live in London and you don't know the Capital Ring yet, you're definitely missing out. These are photos from two weeks ago when we walked the 6th section, known for being maybe the most beautiful one, from Wimbledon Park to Richmond.

In Richmond Park we got to see some stags and everything, but the whole unlocking my phone and open the camera app dynamic was too slow to capture them, specially because the encounter was fairly brief as we were in a Fenton moment. Yes, that happens in real life.

You can have a look at the photos from section 3 here, and if you decide to start walking the Capital Ring, please share your photos with us!

Estimated Time of Procrastination (E.T.P.) from Wimbledon Park Station to the first beer in the first pub in Richmond: 5 hours and a half.

The Procrastinator (some) Times Sunday 19th of January Edition

EDITORIAL

In this edition of the Procrastinator we have interesting articles about writers, the old drunk kind and fictional on-screen writers discovering themselves kind. Obama's announcement of NSA reforms and Putin's campaign agains "gay propaganda" made it to the News section (below). In the Science world a biologist tries to find out if "evolution evolves under pressure", and Maria Konikkova explains the science of sleep. Andreína introduce us to the work of Francesca Woodman in Photoautomat. And finally we welcome back Carola, Obi & and their lovely In Dog We Trust section.

Happy Sunday and happy reading!


NEWS

 

Photo via The New Yorker.

Ryan Lizza reflects upon Obama's N.S.A.'s telephone-metadata program reforms announcement on Friday and points out that is clear these "are simply cosmetic changes meant to short-circuit the pressure for substantive reform. For example, Obama made it clear that he wanted the “capability” of the telephone metadata “preserved.” But Obama’s speech was undoubtedly a victory for the reform side of this debate. He not only adopted the critique of those who are most troubled by the metadata program—he also adopted their central policy recommendation. The N.S.A.’s bulk collection of telephone metadata is dead, or it will be soon". Read full article in The New Yorker. E.T.P. 7'

Image via The Huffington Post.

Charlotte Meredith shares in The Huffington Post the details of the new Russian attack against the EU for promoting an “alien view of homosexuality and same-sex marriages as a norm of life.” Criticism of “the aggressive propaganda of homosexual love” is found in the new report on human rights in the EU published last Tuesday by the Russian Foreign Ministry. Additionally, a law signed by President Vladimir Putin gives the Russian government the right to detain gay or “pro-gay” foreigners up to 14 days before facing expulsion from the country, which of course is a major concern for gay athletes and supporters at Russia’s 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Games. Read full article in The Huffington Post. E.T.P 4'

Barbara Ellen also discuss the topic in The Guardian, read her article Putin, the Winter Olympics and why there is two kinds of homophobia here. E.T.P. 7'

SCIENCE

Image Eiko Ojala via The New York Times.

The science of sleep. "In a series of new studies, published this fall in the journal Science, the Nedergaard lab may at last be shedding light on just what it is that would be important enough. Sleep, it turns out, may play a crucial role in our brain’s physiological maintenance. As your body sleeps, your brain is quite actively playing the part of mental janitor: It’s clearing out all of the junk that has accumulated as a result of your daily thinking." Read this insighful article by Maria Konnikova in The New York Times. E.T.P. 7'

Illustration Beatrice the biologist, via Wired.

Does evolution evolves under pressure? Biologist Susan Rosenberg hopes to resolve a major debate that had rocked biology in different incarnations for more than 100 years. Were organisms capable of altering themselves to meet the needs of their environment, as Jean Baptiste Lamarck had proposed in the early 1800s? Or did mutations occur randomly, creating a mixture of harmful, harmless or beneficial outcomes, which in turn fueled the trial-and-error process of natural selection, as Charles Darwin proposed in “On the Origin of Species”? Read full article in Wired. E.T.P. 12'

DESIGN, BUSINESS & INNOVATION

Illustration via The Economist.

The Economist in its print edition focus its attention to the new GE: Google, everywhere. Highlighting how after a string of deals (that includes purchasing the robotic firm Boston Dynamics and more recently Nest Labs, a maker of sophisticated thermostats and smoke detectors), the Internet giant has positioned itself to become a big inventor, and reinventor of hardware. Read full article in The Economist. E.T.P. 7'

Photo: Björk in her lovely swan dress via Fast Company.

Drake Baer explains in his Fast Company article the reason why genius and madness are basically best friends. Clue: cognitive disinhibition. The potential outputs: gorgeous paintings, masterful novels, or  "disruptive" business. Intrigued? Read full article for some useful explanations that might or might not include Bob Squarepants and bananas. E.T.P. 4'

Artwork: Freegums, Celestial Plane, 2010. Via HBR Blog.

One of our personal favorite creativity gurus, Teresa Amabile, writes with Colin M. Fisher, and Julianna Pillemer an interesting piece titled: IDEO's Culture of Helping: "Few things leaders can do are more important than encouraging helping behavior within their organizations. In the top-performing companies it is a norm that colleagues support one another’s efforts to do the best work possible. That has always been true for pragmatic reasons: If companies were to operate at peak efficiency without what organizational scholars call “citizenship behavior,” tasks would have to be optimally assigned 100% of the time, projects could not take any unexpected turns, and no part of any project could go faster or slower than anticipated. But mutual helping is even more vital in an era of knowledge work, when positive business outcomes depend on creativity in often very complex projects. Beyond simple workload sharing, collaborative help comes to the fore—lending perspective, experience, and expertise that improve the quality and execution of ideas." Read an extract of the full article in Harvard Business Review Blog. E.T.P. 9'

CULTURE & ENTERTAINMENT

Photo: Evening Standard/Getty via The New Yorker

Adam Gopnik reflects in the New Yorker how it seems impossible to revision the literary history of America, or even the very magazine he writes for "without being reminded of how inextricable the drinking life and the writing life—or, to put it more bluntly, alcoholism and art—once were. From St. Clair McKelway to Dorothy Parker and James Thurber, and from Ernest Hemingway to F. Scott Fitzgerald to Sinclair Lewis and beyond, it was not long ago that if you wrote you drank, and if you weren’t drinking it was because you were drying out." Drinking used to be regarded as a complement to the act of authorship writes Gopnik. Read Writers and Rum in The New Yorker. E.T.P. 8'

Photo: Still from the 2nd Episode of HBO Girls, via The New Yorker.

Speaking of writers, also in The New Yorker, Sasha Weiss analyses the evolution of Lena Duhnam's character, Hannah, in the first two episodes of the new season of HBO Girls. Weiss highlights how the show dramatizes the formation of a writer's consciousness, in this case, Hannah's. An interesting reading, if you are a fan of Girls of course, pointless otherwise. Read full article in The New Yorker. E.T.P. 6' (Spoilers alert).

Image via The Telegraph.

 And to close this section: Oscar nominations! This past Thrusday the movies, documentaries and shorts nominated for the 86th Academy Awards were announced: "12 Years a Slave," "American Hustle," "Captain Phillips," "Dallas Buyers Club," "Gravity," "Her," "Nebraska," "Philomena" and "The Wolf of Wall Street" received top honors as the nominees for Best Picture.

Lovely Cate Blanchett will be competing with Amy Adams, Judy Dench, Meryl Streep (of course) and Sandra Bullock in the Lead Actress category, while Christian Bale, Bruce Dern, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Leonardo DiCaprio will compete against a surprising performance of Matthew McConaughey in Dallas Buyers Club, if you haven't seen this one, go ahead and book your ticket. Another surprise, Jennifer Lawrence receives her 3rd Oscar nomination. Really? I mean... really? Hope the Academy does (unsual) justice and recognises the superior performance of Lupita Nyong'o. Anyway, read full list of nominees in the LA Times. E.T.P. 5'.

PHOTOAUTOMAT

Francesca Woodman (April 3, 1958 – January 19, 1981) 

Was an american photographer born in a family of artists, she started taking pictures at the sweet age of 11, enrolled in the Rhode Island School of Design and lived in Italy for a year where she became hugely inspired. She returned to live in NYC, where she worked as an assistant to fashion photographers, while continuing to develop her personal and prolific body of work. 

Even though she tragically decided to end her life at the age of 22 (exactly 33 years ago this week), she left behind a very mature and insightful photographic legacy. Her most notable pieces are her self-portraits.

The first time I came in direct contact with Francesca Woodman's work, it was at the exhibit at the Guggenheim, a couple of years ago. These beautiful huge blueprints were my absolute favorite in the whole show, in them you can see the influence of the Italian renaissance art had on her.

“Caryatid” (1980). Credit: Courtesy George and Betty Woodman

 

The thing I like the most about her work is how mature it was for her age. Her photographs had a certain naive yet bold character that made them unique and absolutely personal. They are a reflection of that time in life, between childhood and adult life. That brief period when you are for the first time in real contact with true yourself, discovering who you are, and exploring your limits.

If you want to know and see more of her work, here the article in The New York Times and about the Guggenheim exhibit that I was lucky to visit; the official Guggenheim video about the exhibit called Through the Lens of Francesca Woodman that examines the relation between the still and moving image in Francesca Woodman's and other artists' production during the 1970s, particularly as associated with Post-Minimalism, performance, and video; and finally the  trailer of a documentary about her family entitled The Woodmans, describe as  an inspiring portrait of one family's fall and redemption in the often brutal world of art.

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The PhotoAutomat section is edited by the Brooklyn-based photographer Andreína Restrepo.    

 

IN DOG WE TRUST

Photo: Sickan the beagle, via his Instagram (;

Happy New Year dog lover! Hope 2014 is the best year ever for you and your dog(s).

I'm so glad to be back. Here are some links you might enjoy:

Febrero. A documentary film about the reality of Greyhounds in Spain.

Do you know that dogs are sensitive to small variations of the Earth's magnetic field?

According Animals Dignity. Interesting read.

FYI: We're Pit Bull people

Tips for cleaning dog beds

Video of the week: Blaze loves his kennel

Enjoy your Sunday! And follow Sickan on Instagram



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

The Procrastinator (some) Times Sunday 12th of January Edition

EDITORIAL

Hello dear readers, happy 2014! We are back from some long deserved holidays with just one firm resolution: make the Procrastinator grow beautiful and strong. That's why we start with this open invitation to collaborate with us. Share with us that thing/activity/mania/vice that is your favorite to procrastinate! TV, films, music, science exhibitions, hack projects, books, knitting, cooking, drawing, walking around your neighborhood, making playlists, anything goes. Together we can make 2014 an awesome year for meaningful, insightful, inspiring procrastination, let's make it happen!

Happy Sunday and happy reading.


NEWS

Photo via The New York Times

Michael Shulman writes a very interesting piece in The New York times about bisexuality, a label with layers: “Of course I still fancy girls.” Those six little words, tossed off like a request to please hold the mustard, were among the most deconstructed in Tom Daley’s YouTube video last month, in which the 19-year-old British Olympic diver announced that he was dating a man . . . Mr. Daley’s disclosure reignited a fraught conversation within the L.G.B.T. community, having to do with its third letter. Bisexuality, like chronic fatigue syndrome, is often assumed to be imaginary by those on the outside. The stereotypes abound: bisexuals are promiscuous, lying or in denial. They are gay men who can’t yet admit that they are gay, or “lesbians until graduation,” sowing wild oats before they find husbands. Read full article in The New York Times.

Photo via The Independent.

This is why we love pastafarians so much: "Pastafarian minister Christopher Schaeffer was sworn into the Pomfret New York Town Council this week with a colander on his head throughout the ceremony to represent his unique religious beliefs. Mr Schaeffer, a minister for the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster (FSM) took his oath of office before the board's recreational meeting on Thursday afternoon." Read full article in The Independent. E.T.P 3'. Read more about the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster here.

Photo via The Independent.

According to a research made by the US-based Coalition Against Drug Abuse New Year’s goals relating to marijuana were over 71 per cent more popular in 2014 than in the previous year. "To find these results, Joseph Rearick of the Coalition analysed around 1 million tweets posted across the world in the run up to and the days following New Year’s." I still really don't know how reliable to prove resolute intention a tweet is, but you can read the full article in The Independent. E.T.P. 3'


Did you make any new year's resolution? Share them with us!

SCIENCE

Photo via The New Yorker.

You've probably heard about the polar vortex already. Unless you have taken your holidays more seriously than me, and I doubt that. What you've may lost is The Borowitz Report about it. Worry not, here it is: "The so-called polar vortex caused hundreds of injuries across the Midwest today, as people who said “so much for global warming” and similar comments were punched in the face." Read more in The New Yorker.

Photo: David Salafia/flickr via The Atlantic.

Charles Montgomery explores in The Atlantic, why we are sometimes kind without reason? "The eminent sociologist Erving Goffman suggested that life is a series of performances, in which we are all continually managing the impression we give other people. If this is so, then public spaces function like a stage in the same way that our own homes and living rooms do. Architecture, landscaping, the dimensions of the stage, and the other actors around us all offer cues about how we should perform and how we should treat one another.

A man might urinate in a graffiti-covered alleyway, but he would not dream of doing so in the manicured mews outside an old folks’ home. He would be more likely to offer a kindness in an environment where he felt he was among family or friends, or being watched, than in some greasy back alley. In Goffman’s world, these are conscious, calculated responses to the stage setting. But recently we have learned that some of our social responses occur even without conscious consideration. Like other animals, we have evolved to assess risks and rewards in the landscapes around us unconsciously." This is a really interesting article, read the rest of it in The Atlantic. E.T.P. 12'

DESIGN, BUSINESS & INNOVATION

Photos Thomas Alleman via Fast Company.

"In his series, The American Apparel, Alleman documents the clothing line’s ads as he finds them in East Los Angeles, one of the city's poorer areas. And just like that, the ads start to look downright preposterous. “My mission is neither to validate nor vilify,” Thomas Alleman says of the series. He doesn’t have to. There’s a not-so-subtle absurdity to a model in a wet T-shirt posing above two weary older women, waiting for a city bus, or a girl doing the splits while locals walk by with grocery bags." Read full article in Fast Company. E.T.P. 4' And have a look at more work by Alleman here.

Photo: Simon Signs by Alex Poon, signs "Candy"via Fast Company.

The near future wearable technology can teach you sign language, prevent pilots from falling asleep, keep your dog close to you with a digital leash, or deliver kitten photos when you most need it (yes, that's right, the world knows that you need kitten photos to soothe your anxiety). Read more in this article by Fast Company about their findings in the Consumer Technology Show held in Las Vegas early this year. E.T.P 6'

Illustration by Rob Donnelly via Slate.

Writer and illustrator Jessica Olien writes an insightful article about that one thing that allegedly everyone likes, but not really: creativity. "In the United States we are raised to appreciate the accomplishments of inventors and thinkers—creative people whose ideas have transformed our world. We celebrate the famously imaginative, the greatest artists and innovators from Van Gogh to Steve Jobs. Viewing the world creatively is supposed to be an asset, even a virtue. Online job boards burst with ads recruiting “idea people” and “out of the box” thinkers. We are taught that our own creativity will be celebrated as well, and that if we have good ideas, we will succeed. It’s all a lie." Read full article in Slate. E.T.P. 8'

CULTURE & ENTERTAINMENT

"Her" movie still via The New Yorker.

The Samantha Test. Brian Christian in The New Yorker writes about “Her,” the new film by Spike Jonze. A movie situated in the “slight future"—a world just at the change point when artificial intelligence has become capable of interacting with humans more or less seamlessly. Something that reminds him -and us- of Joseph Weizenbaum, a professor of computer science at M.I.T., that in 1966 wrote a computer program called Eliza, "which was designed to engage in casual conversation with anybody who sat down to type with it". Read this super interesting article in The New Yorker. E.T.P. 7'

You can also read Who is 'Her'? James Franco's review in VICE. E.T.P. 7'

Illustration by Matthew Roberts via Slate.

Rebecca Schuman in Slate review two books that attempt to capture the 'gaunt specter of modernism and make him talk' in The Ghosts of Kafka Present, this is how its starts: "Franz Kafka has been dead for nearly 90 years, which I suppose has given him ample time to get very good at haunting people. Such as, for example, Susan Bernofsky, author of a fastidious new translation of The Metamorphosis, and Jay Cantor, whose provocative story collection Forgiving the Angel dedicates itself to the gaunt specter of modernism. The books express their authors’ continuing fascination with Kafka from nominally opposite sides of the literary spectrum. And yet both of these books want desperately to bring a dead man back to life, so that he can explain himself, so that he can (metaphorically) finish novels that break off midsentence, so that he can solve the mystery of his own existence. That they cannot succeed is not only no mark against these two fascinating books but works to underscore exactly what drove both authors to chase his ghost in the first place." Read full article in Slate, totally recommended. E.T.P. 9'

Woody's Other Family Tree (fragment) via The New York Times.

The New York Times presents a very peculiar Woody Allen's alternative family tree that includes his influences, muses, heirs, and 'adopted kids'. The infographic includes some well known characters always associated with Allen like Groucho Marx, Sigmund Freud, Diane Keaton and Noah Baumbach; and also some less obvious ones like Joan Rivers, Chris Rock and The Simpsons. The map it's fun to watch, although I feel that they overindulged Lena Duhnam by saying that she is the new Woody Allen. I like her, don't get me wrong, but she is not the new Woody Allen. Luckily the new Woody Allen is still Woody Allen.  Have a look at full map in The New York Times. E.T.P 10'.

PHOTOAUTOMAT

 

"The capacity for delight is the gift of paying attention" Julia Margaret Cameron
British photographer, born in Calcuta India in 1838.

Cameron started her career as a photographer very late in her life after her daughter gave her a camera as a present. Even tho it only lasted over a decade she developed a style that is being imitated even know, specially her amazing soft portraits. She was consider part of the photographic movement called Pictorialism, under the influence of the Pre-Raphaelite but her work wasn’t recognized until she was already gone.

“It was this boldness of interpretation and confidence in treating a difficult subject which made Cameron not merely derivative as an artist. She created a style in which she could work out her cultural conflicts visually, and so offer imaginative solutions to moral and religious questions.”

She came from a very aristocratic family, and her great-niece was the writer Virginia Woolf.

Woolf's mother: Julia Jackson.

You can read more about her work in this article of Masters of Photography, and a very complete biography in this article in The Guardian.


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The PhotoAutomat section is curated by the Brooklyn-based photographer Andreína Restrepo.