The Procrastinator (some) Times Sunday 30th of March Edition

EDITORIAL

Last week Taiwan joined the wave of students protests around the world, as Venezuela enters the 8th continuous week of protests after facing another devaluation of its currency -while violence and repression stand still. These is what constitutes our News section. In Culture & Entertainment, the best sentences in fiction and non-fiction compiled by the editors at The American Scholar magazine; in Design, Business & Innovation, Facebook splurging billions to buy Oculus Rift made the headlines, as well as the success of the online language learning app Duolingo; In Dog We Trust share with us a way to watch, talk and play with your pet from your smartphone; and finally, in Our Weekly Procrastination, we have some photos from our visit to the Henri Cartier-Bresson exhibition at the Centre Pompidou, absolutely recommended!

Happy Sunday and happy reading!


NEWS

Photos via Quartz.

Last Sunday, Reuters reported the student's protests in Taiwan: "Hundreds of demonstrators occupied part of Taiwan's government headquarters on Sunday night in protest against a controversial trade pact with mainland China. President Ma Ying-jeou says the pact with Taiwan's main export market is essential for the island's prosperity. However, the main opposition party says it could hurt small service companies, and many others are reluctant to let China expand its influence over a fiercely independent and democratic territory that China still sees as a renegade province." And Quartz published an interesting article about how to mainland China, Taiwan’s student protests prove that democracy doesn’t work. Read full article here. E.T.P. 3'

Venezuela's situation keeps going nowhere but down. This past week there was an 'undercover' devaluation. An article in Bloomberg describe it this way: "Venezuela allowed the bolivar to weaken 88 percent on a new currency market after loosening controls, a move to increase dollar supplies needed to alleviate a record shortage of imports including medicine, food and toilet paper. The bolivar was sold for an average 51.86 bolivars per dollar yesterday on the new system, the central bank said on its website. The government’s official exchange rate used to import medicine and food is 6.3 bolivars per dollar and a secondary dollar auction system last sold greenbacks at 10.8 bolivars." Read another article in Reuters.

Also Tal Cual, a Venezuelan newspaper published a very interesting article called "Gobierno Malandro" (Thug Government) compiling several intersting comments in international media that contest the 'official' government version about what is happening in Venezuela. Is absolutely worth reading, and if you don't read Spanish, these are the articles quoted by Tal Cual:

Financial Times: Venezuela, the 'malandro' nation.

The Economist: Venezuela's Protests: Inside the barrios.

Wall Street Journal: Who is killing in Venezuela?


Vice also offers a good summary of some of the things that happened last week: "Ever since anti-government protesters started pouring into Venezuela’s streets almost two months ago, President Nicolas Maduro has accused them of trying incite a US-backed coup like the one in 2002 that briefly deposed his predecessor, Hugo Chavez. He’s been doing so with such regularity, you’d think he was inviting the prospect. Well, it appears he’s finally gotten his wish. The Venezuelan government has arrested three air force generals it accuses of planning to oust Maduro with the help of opposition leaders. The alleged plot was reportedly discovered after concerned officers alerted authorities to the “conspiracy.” The generals have not yet been named, nor has any evidence been presented to the public." Read full article in VICE.

Other articles:

Este reportaje en español de el diario El País vale una leída:
"Cuba recibe por cada cooperante que envía a ‪#‎Venezuela‬ más de 8.000 euros al mes. Al trabajador solo le llegan unos 200." "Los médicos cubanos son enviados en carácter de esclavitud moderna”, dice la ONG Solidaridad Sin Fronteras.


***Updates:

AlJazeera: Violent Protests in Venezuela Continue:  Protesters fought with police in the Venezuelan capital Caracas in the latest round of clashes since anti-government protests began in February. The demonstrators, who included many students, were angry at a supreme court decision to remove congresswoman, Maria Corina Machado, from office. Many protesters were detained during the violence, which saw police fire tear gas and rubber bullets. Al Jazeera's Mariana Sanchez reports from Caracas. (Added Apr, 03)

Informe de Amnistía Internacional sobre Venezuela: Los derechos humanos en riesgo en medio de protestas, documenta denuncias de violaciones y abusos a los derechos humanos cometidos en el contexto de las masivas manifestaciones que tuvieron lugar desde comienzos de febrero. Hasta el momento, 37 personas han perdido la vida y más de 550 han resultado heridas, al menos 120 tras el uso de armas de fuego. Según datos publicados por la Fiscalía General el 27 de Marzo, 2,157 personas fueron detenidas durante las protestas. De acuerdo a información recibida por Amnistía Internacional, las fuerzas de seguridad del país han recurrido al uso de fuerza excesiva, incluyendo armas de fuego, y hasta han torturado a manifestantes.  El informe también documenta abusos a los derechos humanos cometidos por grupos progubernamentales, manifestantes e individuos no identificados. Descargar aquí. (Added Apr, 01)

SCIENCE

Photo via The Atlantic.

"Don Quixote famously—infamously—tilted at windmills. Were his story set today, though, Cervantes might have to change things up a bit: the monsters the self-styled knight battles might be set in the sky. Soon, in the airs above Fairbanks, Alaska, a wind turbine will be launched. It will use helium to hover above the ground, obviating the need for poles—and, for that matter, for land. The massive balloon will be, Gizmodo reports, the world's first floating commercial wind turbine." Read full article in The Atlantic. E.T.P. 5'

DESIGN, BUSINESS & INNOVATION

Photo via Mashable.

Todd Wasserman in Mashable: "Will your wrist be the next billboard? With new entries from Sony, Samsung and Motorola hitting the market, plus rumored interest from Apple, smartwatches appear to be the next emerging category in computing. Some 15% of consumers are currently using wearable technology, a category that includes fitness bands and smartwatches, according to a recent study by Nielsen." Read full article in Mashable. E.T.P. 5'

Photo via Fast Company.

According to Fast Company Duolingo is reinventing how to learn a language, and I have to say that I agree, I'm learning French et je suis très heureuse! (This is not a sponsored post, by the way, I wish it was haha!) "Duolingo, the free language learning app, is rapidly expanding by embracing crowdsourcing as a way to provide more language courses to its 12 million users. The company launched with six core languages--French, Spanish, Italian, German, Portuguese, and English--providing free language instruction using a simple graphic interface similar to Rosetta Stone, to users who can't afford the hefty price tag of language learning software programs. Although they wanted to add every single language on Earth, hiring experts for each new language wasn't a viable option. Since its launch in 2012, Duolingo has received requests for over 500 languages, including fictional ones like Klingon." Read full article in Fast Company. E.T.P. 5'

Photo via The Guardian.

Steven Poole cleverly writes in The Guardian: "The news that Facebook has splurged $2bn (£1.2bn) on buying Oculus Rift, the world's first really viable virtual reality headset, has set off waves of plaintive snark in the world of videogames. Virtual reality headsets were supposed to be about totally immersive space battles or sword fighting simulations, not about peer-through simulacra of distant relatives' new kitchen windows. I mean, it's bad enough when Facebook friends have children and instantly change their profile picture to a baby photo, as though having regressed to mewling and puking infancy themselves. Imagine seeing that appalling phenomenon in the future Faceworld." Read full article in The Guardian. E.T.P. 5'

CULTURE & ENTERTAINMENT

Photo Emmanuelle Devos via The Paris Review.

“If you saw American Hustle with your parents, as I did last Christmas, you will have noticed something that set it apart from pretty much every Hollywood movie of the last few years. I refer to the sex appeal of Amy Adams. Her hotness was a blast from the past, and not just because of the disco décolleté. For some reason, Hollywood doesn’t really do sexy these days, at least not in female roles—and certainly not compared to the French.” Intrigued? Have a look at this week’s staff picks readings in The Paris Review. E.T.P. 5'

 

Photo via NPR.

"Have you ever had a sentence stop you in your tracks? Editors at The American Scholar magazine have put out their list of the "" in fiction and nonfiction. Associate editor Margaret Foster says the inspiration came from water cooler talk around the office." Read full article in NPR. E.T.P. 3'

Still of the short via Slate.

The new Muppets movie centers around a showdown between Kermit and his evil doppelganger, and so of course there was one place the comedy was destined to go: the Mirror Routine. Muppets Most Wanted is only the latest in more than a century of movies to include the gag, in which two characters stand on opposite sides of an empty mirror frame and one pretends to be the other’s reflection. Almost every great comedian, from Charlie Chaplin to the Marx Brothers to Adam Sandler to Bugs Bunny, has at some point in their career performed their own variation of the bit. Watch a nice super cut of the evolution of the Mirror Routine in Slate Magazine. E.T.P. 2' 30''

IN DOG WE TRUST

Photo: Barkley the pom via his Instagram.

Hello dog lover! Hope you're having a lovely day!

Here are some links to explore:

Petcube. Watch, talk and play with your pet from your smartphone. 

Graffiti Dogs Project

Incredible: Dogs miraculously survives deadly landslide in Washington

Athletic Jerseys for Little Champs

This is what happens when you ask people to kiss their dogs in front of a camera

Video of the week: Dog alarm clocks are the best alarm clocks

 

Enjoy your Sunday! And follow Barkley on Instagram

OUR WEEKLY PROCRASTINATION

“Henri,” according to American photographer Willard Van Dike,“who was not only an intellectual but a maverick, used to go down to Wall Street so he could find a Rolls-Royce or a Cadillac to spit on.”  

(Taken from this Financial Times article).

This week we visited the Henri Cartier-Bresson exhibition at the Pompidou Center in Paris. The expo covers over 70 years of Cartier-Bresson life, and features over 500 early and recent drawings, black and white photographs, archives, paintings, the films he worked in with Jean Renoir and the ones he directed.

I've read an article by Sean O'Hagan in The Guardian saying that this exhibition was amazing as it revealed some aspects little known of his work, such as his strong political commitment with communism and his surrealistic explorations. I would add that the way the exhibit is curated emphasizes the recurrent themes that Cartier-Bresson was always curious about, and how because of his persistence (as well as his already well-known amazing eye), he managed to create an incredible rich body of work that the spectators have the pleasure to witness in detail at the Pompidou Centre.

If you happen to be in Paris, or if you are coming before the 9th of April, don't miss it, it's totally worth it!

The Procrastinator (some) Times Sunday 23rd of March Edition

EDITORIAL

This week's edition is quite compact, as we are talking a post-dissertation break(-ish). Venezuela and Turkey are in our news section. In our Science section, climate section is the topic. Cloak, the most anti-social app is featured in our Design, Business & Innovation section, as well as the favorite books of 50 famous designers. In our Culture and Entertainment section there is a nice video about Wes Anderson carefully symmetric composition and an interesting article about the future of reading. In Dog We Trust shares Charlie's adoption story and introduce us to the incredible Riley. And finally our friend and fellow procrastinator/collaborator Marie, invite us to draw a dream.

Happy Sunday and happy reading!


NEWS

Image via Gigaom.

"Some users trying to open the twitter.com website are apparently being redirected to a statement by Turkey's telecommunications regulator.It cites a court order to apply "protection measures" on the website. This comes after PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed to "wipe out Twitter" following damaging allegations of corruption in his inner circle. The BBC's James Reynolds in Istanbul reports that he is unable to access Twitter. "I don't care what the international community says at all. Everyone will see the power of the Turkish Republic," Mr Erdogan said earlier on Thursday." Read full article in BBC (E.T.P. 2') and a more complete summary in Gigaom (E.T.P. 7').

Mashable: Turkey Tightens Twitter Ban, Blocks Access to Servers. (Added Monday 24th)

Photo via Al Jazeera.

This past 21 of March, María Corina Machado, a prominent Venezuelan opposition lawmaker, was schedule to participate in an Organization of America States session. She was accredited by Panama to its delegation so she could speak about the situation in Venezuela where 31 people (then, and 33 people by the time I'm writing this) have been killed anti-government protests since February 4. A student representative, an union leader and the mother of one of the students that have died in the past month (when the National Guards shot rubber bullets at her face) accompanied Machado.

There were high expectations about this session. It was going to be the first time to really share the other side of the story to the press gathered, to the diplomatic representatives of all America, to the world. But when it was the turn to discuss Venezuela's situation, with 22 votes in favor, 11 against and one abstention the OAS decided to close to the session to the press, and the world, as my friend and fellow journalist Leila said, couldn't listen the side of the story that belongs to the opposition, the unions, the students, and the victims.

Soon after the session was over, in social networks it started to circulate a copy of the video that María Corina Machado was prepared to show in the OAS session. This keeps being our only way to tell our story to the world I would really recommend you to see it and share it.

Meanwhile, according to the Foro Penal Venezolano, from February 4th until the March 22nd, 8pm, there's been 1823 students arrested. 


Here more articles:


DW: Opinion: Venezuela Trapped in Violent Stalemate  (Added Monday 24)

Reuters: Venezuela protest death toll rises to 33   "Two Venezuelans died from gunshot wounds during protests against socialist President Nicolas Maduro, witnesses and local media said on Saturday, pushing the death toll from almost two months of anti-government demonstrations to 33."

The Economist: Venezuela's protests: Inside the barrios. "For the past six weeks Venezuela has been gripped by unrest that has left around 30 people dead. In most cities the violence and the barricades have been focused on middle-class districts. "This is an upside-down country,' says Kelvin Maldonado, a chavista activist. "The rich are protesting and the poor are content." The contentment, however, is more apparent than real."


The Star: Venezuela unending tale of murder and sorrow. "Think of Mexico, a country notorious for its drug-fuelled carnage — 80,000 dead in just seven years — then multiply the Mexican murder rate by four. That’s Venezuela."

Al Jazeera: Venezuela: the end of a revolution? "The Bolivarian project has failed to provide for Venezuelan citizens on the political, social and economic fronts."

Español:

DW: Venezuela ha caido en una trampa. (Añadido Lunes 24)

Caracas Chronicles: “Ese sentimiento, que me puedo imaginar, que siente alguien que va a ser asesinado y se ve acorralado.” (Añadido Lunes 24)

El Club de Madrid: El Club de Madrid se adhiere a la Declaración sobre Venezuela de sus Miembros Arias, Cardoso, Lagos y Toledo (Añadido Lunes 24)

Últimas Noticias: Video: Especial Bombas Lacrimógenas  (Añadido Lunes 24)

BBC Mundo: Venezuela: Más protestas  y más muertos.

CNN en Español: Video: María Corina Machado en la OEA. 

El País: La cesión del asiento a la Nicaragua Sandinista, un precedente en la OEA.

El País: Video: ¿Acabará Maduro con los líderes opositores?.

Français:

The Huffington Post: La tragique solitude des étudiants vénézuélienes. (Added Monday 24)


Liberation: Venezuela portraits masqués (Added Monday 24)

SCIENCE

Photo: NASA via PolicyMic.

"Civilization was pretty great while it lasted, wasn't it? Too bad it's not going to for much longer. According to a new study sponsored by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, we only have a few decades left before everything we know and hold dear collapses.
The report, written by applied mathematician Safa Motesharrei of the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center along with a team of natural and social scientists, explains that modern civilization is doomed. And there's not just one particular group to blame, but the entire fundamental structure and nature of our society". Read full article in PolicyMic. E.T.P 6'

Image via Fast Company.

"The question of who has accelerated climate change the most isn't that complicated. It was just a few dozen companies that extracted the majority of our oil, gas, and coal over the last 150 years, allowing the fuel to be burned, and the emissions to cause havoc in the atmosphere.
A recent paper by Richard Heede, from the Climate Accountability Institute, in Colorado, shows that just 90 companies produced two-thirds of the fossil fuels burned in the industrial era. That includes 50 investor-owned companies like Chevron and Exxon, 31 state-owned companies like Mexico's Pemex, and nine government-run entities from the ex-Soviet Union, China and other countries." E.T.P. 6'

DESIGN, BUSINESS & INNOVATION

Photo via Mashable.

Cloak is definitely the best app I've heard of in a lot of time. This is how is described in Mashable: A new app claims to be the social network for the anti-social. While most social media apps focus on helping you get closer to your friends, Cloak uses location data to make it easier for you to avoid your connections. The app pulls in location information from your social networks to show you where friends are so you can avoid accidentally bumping into people you don't want to see. Read full article in Mashable. E.T.P. 3'

Photo via Fast Company.

John Pavlus writes in Fast Company: "Ever wondered what George Lois, Daniel Libeskind, and Margaret McCurry have on their nightstands? Wonder no more, thanks to Pentagram's new website.
Some people think I treat Pentagram too fawningly around here. Well, can I help it if they keep doing great pieces of work? Here's another: Designers & Books, a spare, handsome website that lets you glance over the shoulder of your favorite A-list designers and see what books inspire them. With 50 designers, 678 books, and a few other bits and bobs to choose from, there's definitely something here for everybody." Read full article in Fast Company. E.T.P. 7'

CULTURE & ENTERTAINMENT

Photo via Fast Company.

The future of reading. "On March 8, the New York Times unveiled a new app called NYT Now that signals a major shift in how publishers package the news. For $8 a month, NYT Now will offer users access to a limited number of stories, and those stories will be presented in a totally new way (for the Times, that is): as a series of cards, one per story, with an image and, at most, two bullet points summing up the news. "It's not a news summary app," is the first thing Cliff Levy, the two-time Pulitzer Prize winner tapped to lead the NYT Now team, told me in a phone interview. I got a detailed description of how it works, how it looks, and what its aims are, and here's my takeaway: NYT Now is a news summary app. But thanks to its design, it may actually work as intended--and what's intended is to be as native to mobile as the newest version of NYTimes.com is to the web". Full article in Fast Company. E.T.P 9'

Kogonada is a South Korean filmmaker and regular contributor to Sight & Sound whose projects have been featured on NPR, The Atlantic, Canal+ and Der Spiegel, and have screened internationally. The pays a little homage to Wes Anderson and his beloved symmetry in this short: Wes Anderson // Centered. Have a look in his Vimeo. E.T.P. 2'30''

IN DOG WE TRUST

Photo Riley via his Instagram.

Hello dog lover! Hope you're having a fabulous Sunday!

Here are some links for you:

7 Dos and Don`ts for making a lost dog flyer

IMPORTANT: Dog walkers warned of electrocution risk from stray voltage as snow melts

Emotional reunion between retired soldier and military dog

The worst ad ever. Ready to cry?

Shaggy hobo dog gets haircut to be transformed into cute pedigree pup. Amazing

Video of the week: Pedigree Adoption Drive. Charlie's story

Enjoy your Sunday! And follow Riley on Instagram

-

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

TO DO (OR NOT TO DO) LIST

Our friend and fellow procrastinator Marie, is organizing a beautiful experience in Regent State and wants to invite you all to be part of it.

Find below here invitation and you can also read the post in GOOD.

Invitation: Draw a dream for a better neighborhood

Dear Procrastinators

We are currently encouraging the kids from Regent Estate, a neighborhood in East-London, to express their dreams for their neighborhood in drawings. On March 28th and 29th, we'll be exhibiting all the dreams drawn on a clothesline across the neighborhood. And we would like to make a surprise to the kids, asking artists and creatives to make a drawing of one of the dreams expressed by the kids, that we'll show to them on the day of the exhibition. If you want to help to realize this, please get in touch by email by March 26th at regentdreamsdrawingfactory@gmail.com and we'll send you the complete dreams list! So far we have a zoo, a café for superheroes, a tree house, a park for disabled people, a pool with sharks and dolphins... 

And if you are in London, come to visit the exhibition of the dreams on March 28th and 29th 3-6PM at Workshop 44, 44 Marlborough Avenue, London E8 4JR United-Kingdom

Thank you for your help !

The Procrastinator (some) Times Sunday 16th of March

EDITORIAL

Two events this week demonstrate how terms like democracy, elections and freedom keep being pushed into becoming a farce. The first one is North Korea elections and the second one Crimea's referendum. To the black and white world that some people like to live in, these two elections held at gun point should serve as two examples to reflect upon, that definitely call for a revision of some distorted, simplistic, reductionist definitions of that wasted term. In North Korea there is a unique candidate and voting against him is considered treason to the Supreme People's Party (Yes. Supreme). In Crimea, pro-Russian forces firmly in control of Crimea politically and militarily; Ukraine opposition has been harassed, called Nazis and fascists and Ukrainian TV stations replaced by Russian ones previous to the elections. But hey! They are voting!

The news section finishes with articles about Venezuela that one month after the protest began is now facing a lot more censorship, repression, torture and death. Alongside the 'normal' problems that still don't go away like the shortages of EVERYTHING and extreme violence. As usual you have a selection of articles in English and Spanish and the very eloquent YouTube videos.

In our Science section a recent study claims fat could cloud your cognitive activities, and psychedelic research continues. In Design, Business and Innovation, now you can 3D-print a life-size version of yourself, it that's what you're into. In Culture & Entertainment, Monoskop share McLuhan correspondence with nice people, how much McLuhan is too much McLuhan anyway? Photoautomat presents the third and last post about Tim Hetherington and In Dog We Trust features the sniffing video everybody wants to see.

Happy Sunday and happy reading!


NEWS

Photo via BBC.

Last week North Korea celebrated elections to approve members of the rubber-stamp parliament, the Supreme People's Assembly. I appreciated the contextualization added by journalist Lucy Williamson: "The North Korean vote is a ritual, the result of which has already been largely determined. The Supreme People's Assembly meets rarely and has very little power but you would not know it from the official turnout. There is only one candidate for each district, and one name on each ballot paper. The democratic duty for the electorate is simply to write "Yes" beside it. Writing anything else might be seen as treachery, rather than democracy." Because North Korea IS A DEMOCRACY. They vote. Don't you see? Read BBC's article about the latest North Korean elections in BBC. E.T.P. 5'

This week's KAL's cartoon http://econ.st/1iJl8XB via The Economist.

Photo via @GraniTweet

Other wonderful example of democracy (because they are voting) is the referendum that will be held in Crimea today. There are Russian tanks surrounding the city. Ukraine and the West have dismissed the referendum as illegal and one that will be held at gunpoint, but Russia supports it.
"Ukrainian citizens registered in Crimea are "free to discuss the referendum questions" and to campaign in public, according to the rules. But campaigning has been almost entirely pro-Russian, often featuring swastikas to portray the authorities in Kiev as neo-Nazis. Shortly after the referendum was called, Ukrainian TV channels were removed from both terrestrial broadcasts and cable networks in Crimea. Some of them were replaced with Russian stations. There have also been reports of violence against pro-Ukrainian activists." So, as the BBC asks, is Crimea's referendum legal? E.T.P. 7'

AFP: Strongman Putin is playing a 'short game on Ukraine'.

The Atlantic: The view from Kiev: Coping with Ukraine's unfinished revolution. (Added March 19th)

Reuters: Crimeans vote over 90 percent to quit Ukraine for Russia. (Added March 18th).

Euromaidan PR: Over 123% of Sevastopol residents vote to join Russia!. (Added March 18th).

New Republic: Putin just recognize Crimea's independence. The next couple of days will determine what that means. (Added March 18th).

Photo via The Economist.

Finally, The Economist published an article titled: Another day, more bodies. That's Venezuela's new normality. "Thicknclouds of teargas hung in the air over the north gate of the Central University (UCV) in Caracas on March 12th. A police helicopter clattered overhead; on campus, plain-clothes gunmen on motorcycles, some bearing the initials of the national guard, harassed student demonstrators. . . A month after the government crack-down on protesters began, Venezuela’s crisis is deepening. This was the bloodiest single day since three people were killed in Caracas on March 12th. Eighteen injuries were reported at the UCV, after a previously peaceful student march to demand the resignation of the Venezuelan government ombudsman was halted on the orders of President Nicolás Maduro. . .  While he wields a baton in one hand, Mr Maduro releases doves from the other." Read full article in The Economist. E.T.P. 5'

Another article in The New York Times. In Venezuela conciliatory talk but combative tactics. "Acting on the orders of President Nicolás Maduro, riot police officers and soldiers this week blocked a march of thousands of student protesters, doused them with pepper spray, blasted them with water cannons and bombarded them with tear gas.
A few hours later, Mr. Maduro invited the student protest leaders to sit down to peace talks, promising to listen and chat “with respect and affection.”  E.T.P. 6'

In related news Roberto Ferdman describes in Quartz the tense and maybe soon to be over relation between the Venezuelan government and the commercial airlines working in the country asVenezuela is holding $3.7 billion in foreign airlines’ cash hostage "Anything goes when a country is running out of money. The Venezuelan government has received a warning from The International Air Transport Association (link in Spanish) (IATA) which represents over 80% of global air traffic, signaling that a handful of international airlines are considering ending their flights to and from the country. Why the sudden scuffle? Well, foreign airlines have just about had it with Venezuela’s dodgy financial ways." The airlines are not the only ones absolutely fed up with the government dodgy financial ways, as the protests demonstrate, but this is a specific case useful to understand the magnitude of the crisis. Read full article in Quartz. E.T.P 4'

More articles:

FiveThirtyEight: Why only half of Venezuelans are on the streets. (Added March 19th).

The Washington Post: Venezuela president pushes back using bellicose words and brute force. (Added March 19th).

AFP: Venezuelan forces take opposition protest plaza. (Added March 18th).

Quartz: Venezuela just invented the world's creepiest supermarket loyalty card. (Added March 18th).

Sun Sentinel: Photos: The hidden faces of Venezuelan protesters. (Added March 18th).

AFP: Venezuela cracks down as protests rage on.

VICE NEWS: Venezuela Rising. Dispatch 6.

You Tube: Students detained in Altamira Square (watch until the end).

Facebook: Photos: Student protests in photos by Elyxandro Cegarra Gómez.

Spanish:

El Nacional: Colectivos amenazan a los que toman la calle en Catia. Identifican a los manifestantes y los visitan para que se mantengan callados.

El País: Fotos: Violencia en Venezuela.

El País: El régimen venezolano estrecha el cerco sobre Internet.

French:

AFP Blog: Répression à moto au Venezuela. (Added March 18th).


YouTube:

This is how Maduro refers to the opposition leader (spoiler: he calls him a fag), this is basically the tone of every public address, and the he calls for a "peace dialogue". Link in Spanish.


To see the past posts about Venezuela follow the hashtag #SOSVenezuela

SCIENCE

Photo via NPR: A volunteer participates in LSD research in Viejas, Calif., in 1966.

The sixties are gone, but psychedelic research treatment continue. "In 1966, psychedelic drug advocate and former Harvard professor Timothy Leary appeared on the Merv Griffin Show. "I'm in the unfortunate situation of being about 20 years ahead of my time," Leary said. When asked how many times he'd taken LSD, he answered 311. The audience gasped.
Leary was fired for experimenting with psychedelics on undergraduates, and before long, LSD was classified as a Schedule I drug, meaning it had "no known medical use." Research on the medical uses of LSD and other psychedelics came to a halt. Today, psychedelic drug research is coming back, and scientists are picking up where Leary and other researchers left off, conducting experiments on therapeutic uses of these drugs. But the research still faces stigma, and funding is hard to get." Listen to this interesting program in NPR Website. E.T.P. 12'

 

Image via FastCoExist.

Your fat is why you're not as bright as you could be. Obesity doesn't make you less intelligent, but it might cloud your cognitive abilities. In a recent study, conducted by researchers at Georgia Regents University, the blood of obese mice had especially high levels of a chemical called interleukin 1, a substance born from fat cells that can cause inflammation. When the researchers later examined the obese mice brains, they found that interleukin 1 had passed the blood-brain barrier--something that normally should not be possible. The substance had seeped into the hippocampus, an area responsible for memory and learning. Read full article in Fast Company. E.T.P. 3'

DESIGN, BUSINESS & INNOVATION

Image via The Creators Project.

"If you've got that extra dough burning a hole in your pocket, you probably can afford the flight to China necessary for you to visit one of Pinla3D's offices. There, you are scanned in a process that takes about three minutes before getting sent back home to wait for Pinla3D to finish printing the new you. A full, 1:1 scale model of yourself and/or your loved ones, down to the crinkles in your favorite shirt and the sauce you forgot to wipe from your face as you stepped into the scanning chamber—a remarkable feat considering most 3D-printed objects you see these days don't have the resolution to match your average Xbox game." Read full article in The Creators Project. E.T.P. 4'

Photo via INC.

Barbara Ortutay in her article in INC asks: Why the Creep Quotient Is Still High With Google Glass? "With its $1,500 price tag, the device is far from having mass appeal. At the South By Southwest Interactive tech jamboree in Austin this week, I counted fewer than a dozen people wearing it". Read full article in INC. E.T.P. 5'

CULTURE & ENTERTAINMENT

Photo Marshall McLuhan via e-comunicación.

I just handed in my dissertation this past Friday, but you can never have too much McLuhan I guess. This is why I share this post from Monoskop. "McLuhan corresponded with a vast number of people, including Duke Ellington, Woody Allen, Jacques Maritain, Rollo May, Susan Sontag, Eugene Ionesco, Wyndham Lewis, Ezra Pound, Bob Newhart, Hubert Humphrey and Jimmy Carter.
These letters have been selected from a large collection, now in the Public Archives of Canada, and offer a valuable commentary on McLuhan’s work and, in some instances, the most lucid and detailed explanation of his ideas available." You can read the full article and download the letters in this new website I've just discovered: Monoskop. E.T.P. 3'
(The download page looks really suspicious, but I had no problem. Click the smaller "download" button though, the big red one is spam).

Photo via Dazed Digital.

"If you've been anywhere near your laptop or phone in the last 36 hours, you've almost definitely seen people talking about First Kiss, the video that features 20 improbably attractive strangers make out with each other for the first time. As with most feel-good viral videos, not all is as it seems: the short film by rookie director Tatia Plleva is actually from Wren, a clothing brand based in New York. But by racking up 24 million views – and counting – since it was put on YouTube at around 2 PM Monday, some people are already deeming First Kiss to be an "unprecedented achievement" for a fashion film. In fact, it just might be the most successful fashion film ever made".  Read full article in Dazed Digital. E.T.P. (including video): 8'.

PHOTOAUTOMAT

Tim Hetherington. (5 December 1970 – 20 April 2011).

British-American photojournalist, filmmaker. 

If you've been following this past two week's Photoautomat you've probably already have a clear idea of Tim Hetherington's stand of war photography; about his urge to look further and add humanity and that day-to-day feeling to conflict. Maybe becuase that is exactly what conflict take away from us... it takes away our humanity and it takes away the sense, the possibility of doing anything aside from being in conflict.

Third Part.

Inner Light: Portraits of the Blind, Sierra Leone 1999- 2003

The civil war in Sierra Leone left many people with serious medical conditions. In 2004, Hetherington wrote that in addition to amputations, “the fighters of the Revolutionary Front (RUF) also terrorized people by cutting their eyes out. Others lost their eyes to shrapnel or as a result of being caught up in combat. Many simply lost their eyesight because they did not have access to a doctor and therefore a simple medical condition developed and went untreated.”

Born in 1970 in Liverpool, Tim Hetherington graduated from Oxford University and later studied at Cardiff University. A contributing photographer at Vanity Fair, Tim received numerous awards including a Fellowship from the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (2000 – 2004), a Hasselblad Foundation Grant (2002), the 2007 World Press Photo of the Year, the Rory Peck Award for Features (2008), an Alfred I. DuPont Columbia Award (2009), as well as an Academy Award nomination and the Leadership in Entertainment Award by Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America for the film Restrepo(2011). Hetherington’s photographs are held in several museum collections, including Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO. After his death, the largest town square in Ajdabiya, Libya was renamed Tim Hetherington Square by anti-Qaddafi rebels.

Hetherington and fellow photographer Chris Hondros were killed while covering the conflict in Misrata, Libya on April 20, 2011.

This is the lik to his Trust: http://www.timhetheringtontrust.org/

An interesting arcticle in American Photo Magazine. Another one in The Guardian.

Trailer for documentary: "Which way is the front line from here?"

Trailer for "Restrepo".

Have a look at the previous posts on Hetherington here: Part I and Part II

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