March 15, 1939

The crisis

I lost somewhere the dock-to-USB cable that I use for my nano and because that model does not allow me to use the old dock-to-Firewire cable that I have, I made a trip to the fnac to get a new one. Unpacking the box, I realized that the crisis had really arrived:

My Own Private Lightshow

I was leaving the lab quite late today and therefore, I was almost alone in the train. It has never appeared to me, but to work as a pilot of these trains must be truly spectacular. As the train was lunging through the tunnel at a very high speed, the myriads of electric sparks illuminated the darkness. Such a breathtaking trip.

Cover arts

Hand In Glove

William, It Was Really Nothing

Danielle 1988

The fourth episode of LOST brought together two characters that I wouldn't expect to meet again. Jin, presumably dead, was found by a group of hot French scientists during a heavy storm that sunk their ship. The pregnant member of the crew later introduced herself as Danielle Rousseau! That means that Jin was also trapped in the time travelling journey, together with the rest of 815ers. They made three time jumps: first to 2004, when the hatch exploded and Claire gave birth, witnessed by Sawyer; then to an unidentified time in the future, when they were attacked by a group of mysterious people and when the time started to shift again, Sawyer yelled to the sky: "Thank you, Lord!"; and finally to 1988, ending in the storm that destroyed the French ship and Sawyer commented: "I'll take that back!". I love this season so far!

Hypocrites

Michael Phelps, one of the greatest athletes of all time, is 23 year old, smoked pot at some party and some idiot provided the tabloids with the photo. He was out of the training season. If he was holding a bottle of vodka, nothing would have happened. In this judgmental society though, Michael Phelps was suspended from the team for three months and has lost his Kellogg's endorsement because he was "no longer consistent" with the image of the company. Fucking hypocrites!
Seems that Seth Meyers agrees:

Time machine

Today after the swimming, I used for the first time some lotion that I bought on Saturday. In a blink of an eye, the smell sent me to the West Blaine Street, crossing the railway track on a bike and watching Mt. Baldy covered with snow. The smell of orange blossoms.

D&G Fall 2009

My favourite four looks:

Ms. Eloise Hawking

Another brilliant episode of Lost this week, almost touching the greatness of The Constant. Fortunately, we haven't seen the Oceanic 6 at all, as the plot was entirely focused on two of my most loved characters, Daniel Faraday and Desmond Hume. Faraday was sent in the last time jump to the 1950's and it seems he actually met his mother, an Other. What is the most amazing about this TV show is the consistency, running for five seasons, with characters written off, others given more screen time, there is not a single contradictory element and the viewer feels like assembling a gigantic puzzle! Well done, indeed.
PS. Desmond, oh Desmond... so stylish, the colour combination is lovely...

Cândido Godói

Pretty mysterious.

The Camp is not gone

It hasn't been built yet. The fifth season of one of the best TV series is back. The first two episodes of LOST were broadcasted on Wednesday and they were amazing, mainly the first one. When Ben moved the island in the last episode of the fourth season, I kept wondering what has happened to the people on it and well, now we know. They are continuously tortured by time jumps similar to a music from a broken record, as my favourite character Daniel Faraday said. During one of these jumps, Daniel talks to his constant, Desmond Hume, who is still in charge of the Hatch!

Daniel tells him to go to Oxford to see his mother. In the LOST universe, she may as well be Ms. Hawking, who was seen in the second part talking to Ben and giving him 70 hours to fix the mess.

Yes, You Should

Yeah, things sure will be different...

Entropa

by David Černý. More here, including the clarification pdf.

UPDATE: It all turned out to be a big joke. Nevertheless, I still like the Polish design a lot, Catholic priests raising a gay flag? Priceless.

Snail

I don't like shopping for food on Saturday mornings. The store is always full of people, which is kind of annoying. Yesterday, I wanted to get my fruits and vegetables for the weekend there but, probably due to the heavy snow, I found the shelves almost empty. Today, waiting in the long queue in the cosmetics aisle, I have spotted a box with a nice picture of a garden snail, saying: crema facial con extractos de caracol. I found it ridiculously disgusting and funny at the same time.

Snow in Cantoblanco

Incredible! Photos courtesy of Marta de 317.

The FORWARD directive

Romper el cristal para acceder al martillo rompecristales. Who are the brains behind this gem?

El golpe más fantástico

DH S05E11

The pulse and a facial hair. Hilarious.

Bird nest

Stephen Sackur discussed with other four BBC correspondents what was ahead for us in the coming year. He predicts a big theme for 2009: the era of hubris is over, a new age of humility and realism is upon us. As an example, he uses the 900-meter tall skyscraper in Dubai, hoping that nobody will care about this monster anymore and the abandoned tower will serve as a nest for the desert birds.
Me too.
An extreme, neo-luddite view on the same thing:
In the world I see - you are stalking elk through the damp canyon forests around the ruins of Rockefeller Center. You'll wear leather clothes that will last you the rest of your life. You'll climb the wrist-thick kudzu vines that wrap the Sears Tower. And when you look down, you'll see tiny figures pounding corn, laying strips of venison on the empty car pool lane of some abandoned superhighway. Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club.

Janáček

Sinfonietta (V. Andante con moto)