CULTURE & ENTERTAINMENT: Art with Drones

Photo via Tomas's Tumblr.

Ideas Tap interview Tomas Van Houtryve, winner of the World Press Photo award, about his recent photographic work with drones. This is a fragment of that interview: 

What made you decide to make art with drones?
I wanted to do something on America’s drone war. I felt like it was an important war, at the top of the US’s foreign policy agenda, there’s a lot of people being killed, and yet there are no images of it – no visual narrative for that war.
I was doing a National Geographic assignment about a mine in Peru. We were trying to get an aerial shot and the altitude was too high for a helicopter so eventually they sent an engineer down with a drone. In fact it didn’t work because of the altitude but when I saw them used, I put the two ideas in my head and said; what if I look for drone war-like situations, flying my own one?

Read full interview and have a look at Tomas' photos in Ideas Tap. E.T.P. 3'

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

Newsweek: Photos: Venezuelan Authorities Arrest Protesters, Dismantle Camps

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'

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.

SCIENCE

Photo: Trascendence still via Kurtzweilai.net

"Success in creating AI would be the biggest event in human history. Unfortunately, it might also be the last, unless we learn how to avoid the risks, says a group of leading scientists." Stephen Hawking, Stuart Russell, Max Tegmark and Frank Wilczek wrote an article in The Independent that starts like this: "With the Hollywood blockbuster Transcendence playing in cinemas, with Johnny Depp and Morgan Freeman showcasing clashing visions for the future of humanity, it's tempting to dismiss the notion of highly intelligent machines as mere science fiction. But this would be a mistake, and potentially our worst mistake in history." Read full article in The Independent. E.T.P. 5'

Image via Newsweek.

Anna Bernasek wonders in Newsweek: If scientists can make Doritos addictive, can’t they do the same for kale? "At stylish restaurants in California, leafy kale has replaced ordinary lettuce in the classic Caesar salad. In some parts of New York, kale smoothies are more common than bagels, while at Whole Foods supermarkets nationwide, kale chips have crept into the snack aisles." Read full article in Newsweek. E.T.P. 3'

DESIGN, BUSINESS & INNOVATION

Photo via PSFK.

Good news for independent designers! The MoMA Design Shop now will sell successfully crowdsourced projects. "Crowdfunding campaigns have led to numerous contributions in the arts, fashion, and technology, and when it comes to crowdfunding Kickstarter is king. Despite the numerous successful projects that come out of Kickstarter, many of these items are hard to find once the funding period comes to an end. MoMA Design Store, being made aware of this problem, has decided to sell several successful Kickstarter projects during this year’s NYCxDESIGN." Read full article in PSFK. E.T.P. 3'

Image via The Daily Dot.

"Dubious tweets may soon become a thing of the past. TweetCred is a Chrome extension that rates the credibility of tweets on a scale of 1-7. Users will see each tweet in their timeline accompanied by seven stars. The more blue stars, the more credible the tweet. Users can also give feedback, telling TweetCred—get it? like “street cred”—whether a given rating is too high or too low". Read full article in The Daily Dot. E.T.P. 3'

Image via Mashable.

Nice infographic in Mashable presenting a brief story of data storage. "When you think about player pianos, your thoughts probably gravitate toward creepy ghosts rather than data storage innovation.
But you're wrong. The machines "know" which keys to play by reading data stored in punch cards — pieces of stock paper with holes punched into them. In the late 19th century, American inventor Herman Hollerith invented an electronic means by which to tabulate the information stored on them. In doing so, he set in motion modern data storage." Have a look in Mashable. E.T.P. 6'

CULTURE & ENTERTAINMENT

Image via Le Petit Prince.

Adam Gopnik in The New Yorker: "Of all the books written in French over the past century, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s “Le Petit Prince” is surely the best loved in the most tongues. This is very strange, because the book’s meanings—its purpose and intent and moral—still seem far from transparent, even seventy-five-plus years after its first appearance. Indeed, the startling thing, looking again at the first reviews of the book, is that, far from being welcomed as a necessary and beautiful parable, it bewildered and puzzled its readers." Read full article in The New Yorker. E.T.P. 7'

Photo via 7Capas Tumblr.

Jeff Beer in FastCoCreate writes about society's change of perception of skate culture: "Thanks to Dogtown & Z-Boys, we all know that modern street skateboarding and its culture was born in California. But a new interactive project from the National Film Board of Canada reveals that a little known Canadian film was a pioneer in both skateboarding film and the development of Direct Cinema, a movement of the late '50s and early '60s that helped change the face of filmmaking." Read full article in Fast Company. E.T.P. 7'

OUR WEEKLY PROCRASTINATION

Image: Still of Eleanor Ambos: Interior World via Nowness.

Short video shared by our friend Carla about Eleanor Ambos, a lovely 'crazy' character that I didn't know before. It's called Eleanor Ambos: Interior World, it was directed by Michael Ellis and Nowness presents an extract of this documentary short that was an official selection at this year’s South by Southwest film festival. Watch the excerpt in Nowness. E.T.P. 3'25''

The Procrastinator (some) Times Sunday 27th of April Edition

EDITORIAL

Hello everyone, hope you're having a nice day. This is today's edition: the most recent court decision and a summary of the Venezuelan situation for the outsider's eye in our News section; in Science, we feature a great Spotlight by Lance Ulanoff (via Mashable) on the virtual reality renaissance; in our Design, Business & Innovation section everything you think you know about the Internet is wrong; Sadie Smith and the story of our beloved Moleskines in our Culture section; In Dog We Trust  shares interesting articles about adopted squirrels and introduce us to Cesar Frenchie; and in Our Weekly Procrastination section we invite you to visit the wonderful Chris Marker's exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery.

Happy Sunday and happy reading!

NEWS

Photo: Juan Barreto via AFP.

Firstly, the most important thing that happened in Venezuela this past week was that the Constitutional Court  determined that the right to peaceful demonstration, established on the Article 68 of the Venezuelan Constitution, "is not an absolute right" as guarantees to life and health. We kind of already knew that, but now, it's legal. Read resolution here (link in Spanish).

This is how people reacted, explained by AFP: "Several thousand people took to the streets of Caracas and other Venezuelan cities Saturday to protest education reform plans and restrictions on the right to demonstrate". Read full article here. 

Photo via The Objective / El Subjetivo.

And just in case any of the readers of this little procrastinator's newspaper still have any doubt of what type of government is the Venezuelan one, I translated a post wrote by Laureano Márquez in the blog The Objective (link in Spanish) because is a good attempt to explain Venezuela's situation to someone that doesn't live there or that hasn't been following the situation closely. Its oversimplified, but again, if someone wants more information I can gladly provide it or you can check the posts tagged #sosvenezuela and find loads of articles. Please excuse my imperfect English specially with technical/legal terms (any correction or suggestion will be appreciated), hope is useful for you to understand Venezuela a little bit more.

"To explain what happens in Venezuela to someone that has not live there the past 15 years is really complex, because, as the proverb goes: God is in the details. Formally, Venezuela is seen as a solid nation with a solid democratic system that contemplates periodic elections. That is appearance, of course, details tell a whole other story:

• The division of powers is non-existent. All are subdued to one, the executive, leaving the citizens in a state of legal defenselessness.
• Constant practice of political intolerance to dissenting; opposition members are qualified systematically as "traitors", "fascists", "conspirators" (without ever giving any proofs), which translates in political exclusion and limitations on the exercise of citizens' rights.
• Crackdown on peaceful protestors; violations to Human Rights, torture, prison, illegal dismissal of congressman and mayors rightfully elected, opposition leaders jailed, etc.
• Lack of a reliable electoral system, as 4 of the 5 counselors are openly pro-government. Absence of an auditable elections record, evident irregularities like double voters, intimidation of voters, electoral centers with results of 100% of votes in favor of the Government option, harassment of opposition election witnesses, and a more than evident opportunism in election campaigns with blatant and illegal use of the State's resources.

Also, there is an economic crisis of unpredictable consequences, due to politics like:

• Expropriations of companies that in state hands became corrupt and unproductive.
 • Exchange controls that prevent free access to foreign exchange. Governmental control in this area has generated a record corruption, the figure is close to US$ 30,000,000.
• High inflation. In the official figures, which some experts say are made ​​up, it is close to 57%.
• Shortage of basic goods and food, had force the Government to establish a ration card. Queues 5 and 6 hours to get oil, milk or corn flour have become every Venezuelan's reality.

All these led to the protests that started back in February and haven't stopped. The student movement has staged peaceful protests in reaction to the violence and insecurity in the country, that leaves thousands of deaths each year, kidnappings and robberies. The government reacted violently repressing the protesters and inciting paramilitary groups to act; more than 40 victims in two months and a total of tortured, arrested and processed students never seen in Venezuela since the most cruel of our dictatorships.

Venezuela's serious governance crisis, not only have roots in the economy, deficient health system (there are no medicines), education, food, but also in the alarming insecurity that situates Venezuela as the second most violent country in the world.

In this climate, a process of dialogue between government and sectors of the opposition was initiated. So far it has generated a lot of expectations, but no concrete results.

SCIENCE

Image via Mashable.

Great spotlight on the virtual reality renaissance by Lance Ulanoff in Mashable. This is how it starts: "I'm flapping my wings. Not hard, but slowly and smoothly. At 25 feet across, my wingspan is so great I don't need to exert much energy to achieve lift. In the distance, I see an island under an azure sky. This is my home. Off to my west, the sun is setting and the sky glows with warm, orange light.
Spotting movement in the ocean below, I bend my body slightly to the left and begin a gentle dive. As I approach the shore, I spot my prey splashing in the shallows. I lean back, keeping my wings fully extended so I can glide just above the water. I'm right over the fish. I pull in my wings, bend forward sharply and dive into the water. I emerge with a fish in my mouth. Success.
Better yet, I did all this without ever leaving the ground or getting wet." Read full article in Mashable. E.T.P.

DESIGN, BUSINESS & INNOVATION

Photo via TIME Magazine.

Tony Haile writes in TIME: "If you’re an average reader, I’ve got your attention for 15 seconds, so here goes: We are getting a lot wrong about the web these days. We confuse what people have clicked on for what they’ve read. We mistake sharing for reading. We race towards new trends like native advertising without fixing what was wrong with the old ones and make the same mistakes all over again." Not an average reader? Read full article in TIME. E.T.P. 12'

Photo via Fast Company.

The Truth About Google X: An Exclusive Look Behind The Secretive Lab's Closed Doors: Space elevators, teleportation, hoverboards, and driverless cars: The top-secret Google X innovation lab opens up about what it does--and how it thinks. Read the full article by Jon Gertner in Fast Company. E.T.P. 10'

CULTURE & ENTERTAINMENT

Zadie Smith, photo by Chris Boland via The Paris Review Facebook Page.

“Rome says: enjoy me. London: survive me. New York: gimme all you got.” Zadie Smith’s story Miss Adele Amidst the Corsets from The Paris Spring issue is now available in its entirety online, go ahead and have a lovely read. E.T.P. 28'

Image via The New Yorker.

Adrienne Raphel share in The New Yorker the story of the very famous Moleskine: "Maria Sebregondi, the founder of Moleskine, was born and raised in Italy. Her mother worked as an editor and a graphic designer. “I remember, when I was a child, having graphics around all the time,” she said. Sebregondi’s background is primarily in literature and publishing, but, she said, a “kind of visual sensibility was strong in my family.” Moleskine-style notebooks had been produced since the eighteen-fifties, by small French bookbinding companies, and distributed in Paris bookstores; they were used by Picasso, Hemingway, Van Gogh, and the like . . . But, in 1986, the last traditional moleskine manufacturer, a small stationer in Tours, France, closed down. Moleskines went extinct, driven out by cheaper, mass-produced notebooks." Read full story in The New Yorker. E.T.P. 9' 

IN DOG WE TRUST

Photo: Cesar Frenchi via his Instagram.

Hello dog lover! Hope you're having a beautiful weekend!

Here are some links for you:

Life with a dog: You meet people

New research on domestication raises more questions than it has answered

Alzheimer's disease is no match for man's best friend

Mariah Carey spends 28k pounds annually to groom dogs

Family dogs adopt orphaned baby squirrel

Video of the week: Dogs playing fetch by themselves

Enjoy your Sunday! And follow Ceezy Freezy on Instagram

 

 

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

 

OUR WEEKLY PROCRASTINATION

Photos: The Procrastinator (some) Times.

The past Sunday we visited Whitechapel Gallery to have a look at their wonderful exhibition co-curated by Christine van Assche and Chris Darke, Chris Marker: A Grin Without a Cat. "Visionary French filmmaker Chris Marker (1921–2012) created vivid film-essays that lace realism with science fiction and lyricism with politics. Changing his name, declining to be photographed or interviewed, Marker was both enigma and legend."

The exhibition is delightful and lets you discover Marker's photography; his Petites Planètes collection; or have another look to films like Statues Also Die (1953), Le Joli Mai (The Merry Month of May) (1962), A Grin Without a Cat (1977), Sans soleil (Sunless) (1982), Zapping Zone (Proposals for an Imaginary Television) (1990–94), in a big screen. You can spend hours inside Marker's universes, which is a way to challenge yourself to observe more, to ask more, to let go, to recognize, to love, to be curious, to be both overwhelmed and amazed at the same time, maybe all the time. It's very moving in every possible way of the word.

Chris Marker: A Grin Without a Cat is open at the Whitechapel Gallery until the 22nd of June and it's free. There is also an events program with symposiums, film exhibitions... JUST GO!

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As an extra for this post, serendipity brought to my eyes, also this past week, an article written by Chilean documentarist Patricio Guzmán named "Lo que le debo a Marker" (What I owe to Chris Marker), in which he tells the story of how he met Marker and how his life radically change because of that. If you speak Spanish, have a look here.

The Procrastinator (some) Times Sunday 20th of April Edition

EDITORIAL

Morning everyone! Hope you are enjoying your Easter holidays. In our news section we have one article about Narcissist in Chief, Valdimir Putin, and a couple of articles about Venezuela, mostly a  little follow-up from last week "dialogue", not very useful responses from the government, but well, that's no surprise. Among the articles though, there is an interesting piece of Moisés Naím, this time in the Financial Times about the under-reported influence/control of Cuba over Venezuela. In our Science section Adrianne Lafrance introduce us to Kepler-186f, Earth's closest cousin, and Maria Konnikova talks about the science of yawning. In our Business section, some accurate descriptions of media jobs, and the darknet of drugs and guns, disturbing! And of course our Culture Section is devote to one of our favorite Latin American writers of all times: Gabriel García Marquez, el Gabo. Finally, in our lovely section In Dog We Trust you get to meet Rio Blue that belongs to one of my favorite breed of dogs: the Boston Terrier!

Happy 04/20 people, good Sunday and good reading!


NEWS

Narcissist in Chief. Joseph Burgo writes in The Atlantic about Vladimir Putin's narcissistic behavior. Some insights obviously can be extended to other more tropical messianic leaders, if you ask me. Here's a fragment of Burgo's piece: "Is it accurate to describe Putin as a narcissist in the clinical sense of the word? Can an understanding of the psychological roots of narcissism help us to gain deeper insight into the man and how we should respond to his aggression, rather than using the label to deride him? Maybe." Read full article in The Atlantic. E.T.P. 11'

Photo via Voz de América.

Venezuela students add Easter twist to dwindling protests. Venezuelan students are marching barefoot, building crucifixes and planning to burn effigies of President Nicolas Maduro to try and breathe new life into their protest movement over Easter.
The religious-themed demonstrations are the latest tactics in anti-government protests since early February that have convulsed the South American OPEC nation and led to 41 deaths. Read full article in Reuters. E.T.P. 3'


Cuba fed a president's fears and took over Venezuela. The enormous influence that Cuba has gained in Venezuela is one of the most underreported geopolitical developments of recent times. It is also one of the most improbable. Venezuela is nine times bigger than Cuba, three times more populous, and its economy four times larger. The country boasts the world’s largest oil reserves. Yet critical functions of the Venezuelan state are either overseen or directly controlled by Cuban officials.Read full article by Moisés Naín in Financial Times. E.T.P. 6'

Venezuela's military admit excesses during deadly protests. The military in Venezuela has admitted it committed "some excesses" during weeks of political unrest that have left more than 40 people dead. The military's strategic command chief, Vladimir Padrino, said they were investigating 97 officers and police staff for "cruelty and torture". Read full article in BBC. E.T.P. 3'

Venezuela rejects amnesty for jailed protests leaders. The Venezuelan government has dismissed calls by the opposition for an amnesty for jailed protest leaders. Government and opposition representatives met for a second time on Tuesday to try to put an end to two months of anti-government protests.

Following the meeting, Ramon Aveledo of the opposition MUD coalition said his proposal for an amnesty law had been rejected.Read full article in BBC. E.T.P. 5'

SCIENCE

Photo via The New Yorker.

Maria Konnikova for The New Yorker: "In 1923, Sir Francis Walshe, a British neurologist, noticed something interesting while testing the reflexes of patients who were paralyzed on one side of their bodies. When they yawned, they would spontaneously regain their motor functions. In case after case, the same thing happened; it was as if, for the six or so seconds the yawn lasted, the patients were no longer paralyzed . . . Walshe concluded that yawning was activated by a primal center of the brain that fell outside conscious control.” Read full article to find out more about the surprising science of yawning in The New Yorker. E.T.P. 8'

Illustration: An artist's concept of Kepler-186f. (NASA Ames/SETI Institute/JPL-Caltech) via The Atlantic.

Adrienne Lafrance introduces us to Kepler-186f, Earth's closest couisin. "Right now, 500 light years away from Earth, there's a planet that looks a lot like our own. It is bathed in dim orangeish light, which at high noon is only as bright as the golden hour before sunset back home.
NASA scientists are calling the planet Kepler-186f, and it's unlike anything they've found. The big news: Kepler-186f is the closest relative to the Earth that researchers have discovered." Read full article in The Atlantic. E.T.P. 7'

DESIGN, BUSINESS & INNOVATION

Image via Dazed Digital.

As with most technology news this is as interesting as disturbing: "Google might be cracking down on drug sellers, but don't worry: the darknet has you covered for all your illicit search needs. A new search engine called Grams has popped up, and it promises to make it easier for you to find black market goods including drugs, guns, stolen credit card numbers and even fake £100 Tesco vouchers." Read full article in Dazed Digital. E.T.P. 5'

Image via Fast Company.

The jokesters at Someecards have created a series of brutally honest job titles to restore order to a world gone mad with euphemism. Each entry stares deep into the soul of a modern job title and reduces it down to the main task for which its bearer is responsible. "Head of IT," for instance, is now transformed into "Director of Turning Things Off and Back On," a tactic that even the least computer-savvy individuals have learned works most frequently. Read more brutally honest versions of job titles in Fast Company. E.T.P. 3'