Se isto é verdade, a demissão de António Lamas é mesmo má

Quero, posso e mando. Chamo-me Soares. João Soares

Um testemunho sobre questões de decência, discriminação e racismo

Interessante: a experiência de um médico sikh no Reino Unido, e a sua reflexão quanto às questões do racismo. Leitura recomendada. Um excerto:

"I landed at Heathrow on 26th January 1991 with three pounds in my pocket and a turban on my head. In my head were Oxford spires, Bertie Wooster, Pink Floyd, Sir Humphrey Appleby from Yes, Minister and the Marylebone Cricket Club—as well as a firm conviction that I would feel at home. I was heading for Hounslow in west London to get some cash from a family friend before going to the General Medical Council (GMC) offices near Great Portland Street to register, and finally to Lincoln to start work as a junior doctor. At Heathrow, I asked an elderly lady how to get to Hounslow, admitting that I only had £3. “Don’t worry love, you will get there and still have change left for a drink.” Paradise: where women you have never met call you “love.”

The GMC office was tricky to find. Outside the tube station, I asked directions from a group of youngsters who snarled: “Fuck off.” Disheartened, I turned to a man rushing somewhere. He looked at my creased paper with the GMC address and phone number, rang the number on his brick-sized mobile phone to find out where it was and walked me to the front door.

Lincoln was trickier still. Flat, everyone white, and not a turban or dark skin in sight. Walking back the first evening from a corner shop, I was stopped by three young men. Tattooed and aggressive, they wanted to know if I was aware that their country and my country were at war. They thought I was Iraqi. They were in no mood for lessons in geography, religion or culture; my pleading that I was a Sikh from India was of no interest. As they started to push and shove me, a group of women across the road came over. They were nursing students and one of them had seen me earlier that day trying to find my way round the hospital accommodation. One of them shooed the guys off with language that would do a seasoned sailor proud. I was close to tears. She took me to her flat, made me the most welcoming cup of tea I have ever had, and said: “Don’t mind those dickheads, love.” Love, again

I was bewildered..."

Is Britain a racist country? | Prospect Magazine

Porque razão são os Russos tão bons no xadrez?

... "Because the Soviets subsidized the game. [...]"

Ler o resto da (interessante) história em How did Russians get so good at chess? - By Christopher Beam - Slate Magazine

Já ouviram falar de agnotologia?

Eu não tinha até ter-me deparado com a referência ao artigo da Wired referenciado abaixo.

Agnotologia é o estudo da construção (cultural) da ignorância: "the study of culturally constructed ignorance". A construção cultural da ignorância deverá ter sido um processo activo em todas as sociedades, mas tem afloramentos muito relevantes e contemporâneos como os associados ao criacionismo e ao aquecimento global - se não viram o vídeo, de que esta nota fala, sobre o modo como se construiu (culturalmente) uma opinião pública céptica sobre a responsabilidade humana no aquecimento global (ou sobre os efeitos nefastos do tabaco), façam-no agora!

Esta nota Agnotology The Big Picture faz a ponte para este artigo da Wired, How More Info Leads to Less Knowledge. Robert Proctor é o historiador de ciência responsável pela criação do conceito. Um excerto:

“When it comes to many contentious subjects, our usual relationship to information is reversed: Ignorance increases. [...]. Derived from the Greek root agnosis, [agnotology] it is “the study of culturally constructed ignorance.” As Proctor argues, when society doesn’t know something, it’s often because special interests work hard to create confusion. [...]

“People always assume that if someone doesn’t know something, it’s because they haven’t paid attention or haven’t yet figured it out,” Proctor says. “But ignorance also comes from people literally suppressing truth—or drowning it out—or trying to make it so confusing that people stop caring about what’s true and what’s not.” [...] an awesome definition: Agnotology: Culturally constructed ignorance, purposefully created by special interest groups working hard to create confusion and suppress the truth. [...] After years of celebrating the information revolution, we need to focus on the countervailing force: The disinformation revolution. [...] Even the financial meltdown was driven by ignorance. Credit-default swaps were designed not merely to dilute risk but to dilute knowledge; after they'd changed hands and been serially securitized, no one knew what they were worth. [...]

As Farhad Manjoo notes in True Enough: Learning to Live in a Post-Fact Society, if we argue about what a fact means, we're having a debate. If we argue about what the facts are, it's agnotological [...] Because the most important thing these days might just be knowing what we know."

Recomenda-se vivamente a leitura. Este é um conceito a utilizar muitas vezes.

Poderá ser aplicado, nomeadamente, à apreciação da prática política? Desconfio que sim!

Susan Blackmore: "Memes" (video) - TED

About this talk:

Susan Blackmore studies memes: ideas that replicate themselves from brain to brain like a virus. She makes a bold new argument: Humanity has spawned a new kind of meme, the teme, which spreads itself via technology -- and invents ways to keep itself alive.

Why you should listen to her:

Susan Blackmore is dedicated to understanding the scientific nature of consciousness. Her latest work centers on the existence of memes -- little bits of knowledge, lore, habit that seem to spread themselves using human brains as mere carriers. She's exploring the existence of a new class of meme, spread by human technology. It's temporarily named the "teme."She has written about memes, consciousness, and near-death experiences; has appeared on the British Big Brother to discuss the psychology of the participants; and writes for the Guardian UK.

- ver em TED Talks Susan Blackmore: Memes and "temes" (video). A conferencista termina a dizer que ela própria ficou assustada - também, foi nestas "conversas TED" a primeira vez que os aplausos levaram um segundo de demora para eclodirem.

Vídeos da TED

• Soberbo. Harvard Rheingold fala de cooperação, de acção colectiva, de interdependências complexas, de novas formas de produzir riqueza, à luz da história, da discussão do dilema do prisioneiro e da tragédia dos comuns - é uma conferência TED exemplar, num inglês totalmente perceptível e é portadora (optimista) de informação sobre características que bem podem enformar (em grande medida) o nosso futuro colectivo.

• Esta é outra para ver. Michael Pollan coloca a questão de saber as conclusões a que chegaremos se nos colocarmos na perspectiva das plantas e dos animais - nós somos instrumentalizados, de um ponto de vista darwiniano (coevolução) na disseminação de dadas plantas como, por exemplo, as abelhas o são; fala de como tudo isto desemboca na agricultura biológica (o exemplo que dá é muito impressivo).

• Conferência TED, de George Dyson, sobre o Projecto Orion, na década de 60 - construção de um foguetão tripulado, movido a energia nuclear, para ir a Júpiter e a Saturno, numa viagem de 5 anos - divertido, com informação curiosa, mas num inglês muito rápido.

• Pamela Kurtin toca o Theremin - o primeiro instrumento electrónico e aquele que não necessita de ser manipulado; fala da experiência e das dificuldades em dominar o instrumento.