Friday, December 19, 2008
Saturday, December 06, 2008
What I'm listening to
Powerful, pleasant, truthful quality pop.
"No One" has probably already played too much, but it's still good. But the rest of the songs also display a sort of Motown-esque smoothness you won't find in other RnB divas of the day (Rihanna, Mary J Blige, etc).
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Monday, November 10, 2008
Power on Sergio, at Colbert
I've been watching a lot of Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart recently - not yet to the point in which they are my most reliable newssource (as it is for some people), but still, they're fun and informative.
And sometimes you have good thought as well. For instance, here's an interview from a great scholar (and close Obama adviser), who's written a book about one of the greatest Brazilians ever.
By the way last month's Esquire magazine had a fun (though slightly cheesy) profile of Ms Power, focusing on their wedding to a fellow prominent scholar to create what the author called "the Brangelina of academics".
And sometimes you have good thought as well. For instance, here's an interview from a great scholar (and close Obama adviser), who's written a book about one of the greatest Brazilians ever.
By the way last month's Esquire magazine had a fun (though slightly cheesy) profile of Ms Power, focusing on their wedding to a fellow prominent scholar to create what the author called "the Brangelina of academics".
Friday, October 24, 2008
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Local Sports Franchise Pandering
I've been watching Daily Show over the internet every day, sometimes twice a day.
Like this snippet. "Et tu Messiah?" - brilliant, brilliant.
Like this snippet. "Et tu Messiah?" - brilliant, brilliant.
Sunday, October 19, 2008
A day at El Bulli
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global/video/2008/oct/16/el-bulli-ferran-adria
One can only imagine what happens inside El Bulli.... this video tries to explain it, but then they can't film inside and we're left with descriptions.
The sight of Jay Rayner and his friend leaving the restaurant was a bit like someone having looked into Pandora's box. Or the chick from Blair Witch returning from the forest and realizing they were all doomed anyway.
One can only imagine what happens inside El Bulli.... this video tries to explain it, but then they can't film inside and we're left with descriptions.
The sight of Jay Rayner and his friend leaving the restaurant was a bit like someone having looked into Pandora's box. Or the chick from Blair Witch returning from the forest and realizing they were all doomed anyway.
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Nightclubs are hell (??)
This is not recent, but very good writing and food for thought. I share some of the guy's points - how many times haven't I felt out of place in a night club? who hasn't? - but I must say that, overall, I've had more good experiences than bad ones in night clubs. Three things are the norm though - 1) it sucks if you're not with friends 2) it sucks if you're not with money 3) 1 and 2 are invalid if you pull.
Anyway, enjoy.
Nightclubs are hell. What's cool or fun about a thumping, sweaty dungeon full of posing idiots?
Charlie Brooker
The Guardian, Monday August 13 2007
I went to a fashionable London nightclub on Saturday. Not the sort of sentence I get to write very often, because I enjoy nightclubs less than I enjoy eating wool. But a glamorous friend of mine was there to "do a PA", and she'd invited me and some curious friends along because we wanted to see precisely what "doing a PA" consists of. Turns out doing a public appearance largely entails sitting around drinking free champagne and generally just "being there".
Obviously, at 36, I was more than a decade older than almost everyone else, and subsequently may as well have been smeared head to toe with pus. People regarded me with a combination of pity and disgust. To complete the circuit, I spent the night wearing the expression of a man waking up to Christmas in a prison cell.
"I'm too old to enjoy this," I thought. And then remembered I've always felt this way about clubs. And I mean all clubs - from the cheesiest downmarket sickbucket to the coolest cutting-edge hark-at-us poncehole. I hated them when I was 19 and I hate them today. I just don't have to pretend any more.
I'm convinced no one actually likes clubs. It's a conspiracy. We've been told they're cool and fun; that only "saddoes" dislike them. And no one in our pathetic little pre-apocalyptic timebubble wants to be labelled "sad" - it's like being officially declared worthless by the state. So we muster a grin and go out on the town in our millions.
Clubs are despicable. Cramped, overpriced furnaces with sticky walls and the latest idiot theme tunes thumping through the humid air so loud you can't hold a conversation, just bellow inanities at megaphone-level. And since the smoking ban, the masking aroma of cigarette smoke has been replaced by the overbearing stench of crotch sweat and hair wax.
Clubs are such insufferable dungeons of misery, the inmates have to take mood-altering substances to make their ordeal seem halfway tolerable. This leads them to believe they "enjoy" clubbing. They don't. No one does. They just enjoy drugs.
Drugs render location meaningless. Neck enough ketamine and you could have the best night of your life squatting in a shed rolling corks across the floor. And no one's going to search you on the way in. Why bother with clubs?
"Because you might get a shag," is the usual response. Really? If that's the only way you can find a partner - preening and jigging about like a desperate animal - you shouldn't be attempting to breed in the first place. What's your next trick? Inventing fire? People like you are going to spin civilisation into reverse. You're a moron, and so is that haircut you're trying to impress. Any offspring you eventually blast out should be drowned in a pan before they can do any harm. Or open any more nightclubs.
Even if you somehow avoid reproducing, isn't it a lot of hard work for very little reward? Seven hours hopping about in a hellish, reverberating bunker in exchange for sharing 64 febrile, panting pelvic thrusts with someone who'll snore and dribble into your pillow till 11 o'clock in the morning, before waking up beside you with their hair in a mess, blinking like a dizzy cat and smelling vaguely like a ham baguette? Really, why bother? Why not just stay at home punching yourself in the face? Invite a few friends round and make a night of it. It'll be more fun than a club.
Anyway, back to Saturday night, and apart from the age gap, two other things stuck me. Firstly, everyone had clearly spent far too long perfecting their appearance. I used to feel intimidated by people like this; now I see them as walking insecurity beacons, slaves to the perceived judgment of others, trapped within a self- perpetuating circle of crushing status anxiety. I'd still secretly like to be them, of course, but at least these days I can temporarily erect a veneer of defensive, sneering superiority. I've progressed that far.
The second thing that struck me was frightening. They were all photographing themselves. In fact, that's all they seemed to be doing. Standing around in expensive clothes, snapping away with phones and cameras. One pose after another, as though they needed to prove their own existence, right there, in the moment. Crucially, this seemed to be the reason they were there in the first place. There was very little dancing. Just pouting and flashbulbs.
Surely this is a new development. Clubs have always been vapid and awful and boring and blah - but I can't remember clubbers documenting their every moment before. Not to this demented extent. It's not enough to pretend you're having fun in the club any more - you've got to pretend you're having fun in your Flickr gallery, and your friends' Flickr galleries. An unending exhibition in which a million terrified, try-too-hard imbeciles attempt to out-cool each other.
Mind you, since in about 20 years' time these same people will be standing waist-deep in skeletons, in an arid post-nuclear wasteland, clubbing each other to death in a fight for the last remaining glass of water, perhaps they're wise to enjoy these carefree moments while they last. Even if they're only pretending.
Anyway, enjoy.
Nightclubs are hell. What's cool or fun about a thumping, sweaty dungeon full of posing idiots?
Charlie Brooker
The Guardian, Monday August 13 2007
I went to a fashionable London nightclub on Saturday. Not the sort of sentence I get to write very often, because I enjoy nightclubs less than I enjoy eating wool. But a glamorous friend of mine was there to "do a PA", and she'd invited me and some curious friends along because we wanted to see precisely what "doing a PA" consists of. Turns out doing a public appearance largely entails sitting around drinking free champagne and generally just "being there".
Obviously, at 36, I was more than a decade older than almost everyone else, and subsequently may as well have been smeared head to toe with pus. People regarded me with a combination of pity and disgust. To complete the circuit, I spent the night wearing the expression of a man waking up to Christmas in a prison cell.
"I'm too old to enjoy this," I thought. And then remembered I've always felt this way about clubs. And I mean all clubs - from the cheesiest downmarket sickbucket to the coolest cutting-edge hark-at-us poncehole. I hated them when I was 19 and I hate them today. I just don't have to pretend any more.
I'm convinced no one actually likes clubs. It's a conspiracy. We've been told they're cool and fun; that only "saddoes" dislike them. And no one in our pathetic little pre-apocalyptic timebubble wants to be labelled "sad" - it's like being officially declared worthless by the state. So we muster a grin and go out on the town in our millions.
Clubs are despicable. Cramped, overpriced furnaces with sticky walls and the latest idiot theme tunes thumping through the humid air so loud you can't hold a conversation, just bellow inanities at megaphone-level. And since the smoking ban, the masking aroma of cigarette smoke has been replaced by the overbearing stench of crotch sweat and hair wax.
Clubs are such insufferable dungeons of misery, the inmates have to take mood-altering substances to make their ordeal seem halfway tolerable. This leads them to believe they "enjoy" clubbing. They don't. No one does. They just enjoy drugs.
Drugs render location meaningless. Neck enough ketamine and you could have the best night of your life squatting in a shed rolling corks across the floor. And no one's going to search you on the way in. Why bother with clubs?
"Because you might get a shag," is the usual response. Really? If that's the only way you can find a partner - preening and jigging about like a desperate animal - you shouldn't be attempting to breed in the first place. What's your next trick? Inventing fire? People like you are going to spin civilisation into reverse. You're a moron, and so is that haircut you're trying to impress. Any offspring you eventually blast out should be drowned in a pan before they can do any harm. Or open any more nightclubs.
Even if you somehow avoid reproducing, isn't it a lot of hard work for very little reward? Seven hours hopping about in a hellish, reverberating bunker in exchange for sharing 64 febrile, panting pelvic thrusts with someone who'll snore and dribble into your pillow till 11 o'clock in the morning, before waking up beside you with their hair in a mess, blinking like a dizzy cat and smelling vaguely like a ham baguette? Really, why bother? Why not just stay at home punching yourself in the face? Invite a few friends round and make a night of it. It'll be more fun than a club.
Anyway, back to Saturday night, and apart from the age gap, two other things stuck me. Firstly, everyone had clearly spent far too long perfecting their appearance. I used to feel intimidated by people like this; now I see them as walking insecurity beacons, slaves to the perceived judgment of others, trapped within a self- perpetuating circle of crushing status anxiety. I'd still secretly like to be them, of course, but at least these days I can temporarily erect a veneer of defensive, sneering superiority. I've progressed that far.
The second thing that struck me was frightening. They were all photographing themselves. In fact, that's all they seemed to be doing. Standing around in expensive clothes, snapping away with phones and cameras. One pose after another, as though they needed to prove their own existence, right there, in the moment. Crucially, this seemed to be the reason they were there in the first place. There was very little dancing. Just pouting and flashbulbs.
Surely this is a new development. Clubs have always been vapid and awful and boring and blah - but I can't remember clubbers documenting their every moment before. Not to this demented extent. It's not enough to pretend you're having fun in the club any more - you've got to pretend you're having fun in your Flickr gallery, and your friends' Flickr galleries. An unending exhibition in which a million terrified, try-too-hard imbeciles attempt to out-cool each other.
Mind you, since in about 20 years' time these same people will be standing waist-deep in skeletons, in an arid post-nuclear wasteland, clubbing each other to death in a fight for the last remaining glass of water, perhaps they're wise to enjoy these carefree moments while they last. Even if they're only pretending.
Sunday, October 05, 2008
Monday, September 22, 2008
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Monday, September 08, 2008
My new bookshelf
Still work in progress. But becoming cool. Especially with Super Homer.
Furniture by my dad.
Furniture by my dad.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Big Cup takes
I followed today the draw for the group stage. As the song says, 'shivers down my back bone'.
Groups A and B are simple bets. Chelsea and Roma, Inter and Bremen to go through.
Group C is ridiculous for Barcelona, and I see Shakhtar (with all their second-rate Brasileirão rejects) pipping Sporting to the second place.
Group D is tough, but exciting. October 22 - Liverpool x Atlético, Torres's return to Vicente Calderon, is the most anticipated match for me. I think they'll both qualify, anyway.
Group E looks like certain that will fall in to the hands of Man United and Villareal. Celtic did scrape through last year, when they also were in United's group. I wouldn't put money on them repeating the feat with such a well-round Villareal side here.
Group F looks the toughest to me, and I think the matches will be the hardest-fought, but I don't realistically see Fiorentina or Steaua qualifying.
Group G may come as a surprise to Arsenal. Fener are the same team from the quarterfinals last year, less Kezman, plus Guiza - i.e. a better side imo. I fancy them to go through first with Arsenal second.
Group H looks awesome - three very hungry teams with a point to prove. And poor BATE debuting against their neighbors in a local derby from Soviet times. My take? Real first and Zenit second.
Btw, the new uefa.com site is quite good. Looking forward to Fantasy Football.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
What I'm listening to
Men señara
Bebe
El aire se retira
Huele a tierra moja
Mi perro duerme a mis pies
Él cuida de mi hogar
El tiempo se para aqui
Mi amor está a punto de llegar
El tiempo se para aqui
Aqui encuentro la paz
Las curvas de la carretera
Me invitan a viajar
Hay tanto por recorrer,
Tanto por conocer
El mapa se hace pequeño
mi alma pide más
Mi amor llega en la tortuga
El me lo enseñará
Me enseñará
La voz del mar
Me enseñará
A no llorar
Me enseñará reconocer
Que hay daños que te enseñan a crescer
Me enseñará a ver sus ojos
Aunque él no esté
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
South Ossetia isn't Kosovo
I must confess I still haven't finished reading God Is Not Great (stuck at around 2/3 of the book after almost a year), but, alas, I just love Christopher Hitchens's prose.
He excels again at this forceful article about the ongoing conflict in the Caucasus. In it, 'Hitch' offers us, yet again, what he does best: combining his vast knowledge of international affairs with his exquisite writing and wit, to come up with fact-based analyses that uncomplicate the complicated.
He excels again at this forceful article about the ongoing conflict in the Caucasus. In it, 'Hitch' offers us, yet again, what he does best: combining his vast knowledge of international affairs with his exquisite writing and wit, to come up with fact-based analyses that uncomplicate the complicated.
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Friday, August 15, 2008
Premiership Punditry
So following my amazingly precise Euro prediction (which I sadly failed to capitalize monetarily) I am about to produce my punditry on my favorite championship of all - that's right, English Premier League.
How apt that I should start writing this while in the UK, albeit very briefly. The day I start this post (July 29) is the day Liverpool has announced Robbie Keane, therefore renouncing on Gareth Barry and possibly shaping our tactical strategy for the season.
That was also the day I caught up with my pal Ken, the cab driver, the avid Wycombe Wanderers fan. He's really upbeat about his team's chances in League Two (fourth division), perhaps they will finally climb to League One and face mighty (and Nasty) Leeds.
Honestly, I wish I could make as bold a prediction as last year, when I tipped the Reds to the title, but I do not feel I can. If anything, to set expectations low. And last week's match against Standard, at the amazing Liege stadium I visited last year my my friend Jan, was no exciter either.
If Rafa sticks to my preferred line-up of
---------------Reina-----------------
Arbeloa-Carragher-Agger-Fabio Aurelio
--Kuyt--Mascherano---Gerrard-Babel---
-----------Torres--Keane-------------
, at home games, we will probably win precious points instead of the turgid draws last year against the likes of Birmingham. Switching to a 4-2-3-1 with Alonso in the middle for away games would also be shrewd.
Problem is, it is not too different from last year, is it? And especially given Chelsea adds a guy like Deco to its already preposterously strong midfield. I don't see this Chelsea playing so badly at Anfield as last year. I totally see Chelsea a cut above United now they have a top class coach.
My next favorite teams are Spurs. Their arguably best starting XI is salivating even for Arsenal/Liverpool standards:
----------------Gomes----------------
-A. Hutton-Woodgate--L. King-G. Bale-
--------Huddlestone - Jenas----------
Bentley - Modric - Giovani dos Santos
--------------Berbatov---------------
Elsewhere, I see good things coming from Villa, Portsmouth, and Sunderland (again! last year I though Keane would be better) and not so much from Everton, Man City and Blackburn.
Anyway. No blogging punditry would be complete without a final table. Following last season's tradition (), here goes my list.
1. Chelsea
2. Liverpool
3. Manchester United
4. Tottenham Hotspur
5. Arsenal
6. Aston Villa
7. Portsmouth
8. Everton
9. Sunderland
10. West Ham
11. Manchester City
12. Newcastle
13. Blackburn
14. Middlesbrough
15. Fulham
16. West Brom
17. Wigan
18. Bolton
19. Stoke
20. Hull
FA Cup final: Man united x Aston Villa
League Cup: Chelsea (I mean, their reserve side is better than almost all other teams)
Champions League final: Chelsea x Inter Milan
Uefa Cup: Tottenham x Atletico Madrid (seriously, Atleti will fall from CL, now or later)
How apt that I should start writing this while in the UK, albeit very briefly. The day I start this post (July 29) is the day Liverpool has announced Robbie Keane, therefore renouncing on Gareth Barry and possibly shaping our tactical strategy for the season.
That was also the day I caught up with my pal Ken, the cab driver, the avid Wycombe Wanderers fan. He's really upbeat about his team's chances in League Two (fourth division), perhaps they will finally climb to League One and face mighty (and Nasty) Leeds.
Honestly, I wish I could make as bold a prediction as last year, when I tipped the Reds to the title, but I do not feel I can. If anything, to set expectations low. And last week's match against Standard, at the amazing Liege stadium I visited last year my my friend Jan, was no exciter either.
If Rafa sticks to my preferred line-up of
---------------Reina-----------------
Arbeloa-Carragher-Agger-Fabio Aurelio
--Kuyt--Mascherano---Gerrard-Babel---
-----------Torres--Keane-------------
, at home games, we will probably win precious points instead of the turgid draws last year against the likes of Birmingham. Switching to a 4-2-3-1 with Alonso in the middle for away games would also be shrewd.
Problem is, it is not too different from last year, is it? And especially given Chelsea adds a guy like Deco to its already preposterously strong midfield. I don't see this Chelsea playing so badly at Anfield as last year. I totally see Chelsea a cut above United now they have a top class coach.
My next favorite teams are Spurs. Their arguably best starting XI is salivating even for Arsenal/Liverpool standards:
----------------Gomes----------------
-A. Hutton-Woodgate--L. King-G. Bale-
--------Huddlestone - Jenas----------
Bentley - Modric - Giovani dos Santos
--------------Berbatov---------------
Elsewhere, I see good things coming from Villa, Portsmouth, and Sunderland (again! last year I though Keane would be better) and not so much from Everton, Man City and Blackburn.
Anyway. No blogging punditry would be complete without a final table. Following last season's tradition (), here goes my list.
1. Chelsea
2. Liverpool
3. Manchester United
4. Tottenham Hotspur
5. Arsenal
6. Aston Villa
7. Portsmouth
8. Everton
9. Sunderland
10. West Ham
11. Manchester City
12. Newcastle
13. Blackburn
14. Middlesbrough
15. Fulham
16. West Brom
17. Wigan
18. Bolton
19. Stoke
20. Hull
FA Cup final: Man united x Aston Villa
League Cup: Chelsea (I mean, their reserve side is better than almost all other teams)
Champions League final: Chelsea x Inter Milan
Uefa Cup: Tottenham x Atletico Madrid (seriously, Atleti will fall from CL, now or later)
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Blame game
Right. Weeks of unprecedentedly toiling work prevented me from posting here, but that doesn't mean I've been oblivious to what's going on. Especially when I figured how to embed this video down here:
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Being hip
There's an interetsing interview-cum-profile of CSS (Cansei de Ser Sexy) at today's Observer.
Not only does it shed some light into the minds of terminally hip musicians, it also gives a glimpse of how it was like to grow up in São Paulo in the nineties (ie my generation).
Plus, they're so cool. I definitely recommend.
Not only does it shed some light into the minds of terminally hip musicians, it also gives a glimpse of how it was like to grow up in São Paulo in the nineties (ie my generation).
Plus, they're so cool. I definitely recommend.
Monday, June 09, 2008
Renewable sources
Brilliant, from "The World is Flat"'s Tom Friedman in the NY Times.
Visiting Israel sounds cool.
People vs. Dinosaurs By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Tefen Industrial Park, Israel
Question: What do America’s premier investor, Warren Buffett, and Iran’s toxic president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, have in common? Answer: They’ve both made a bet about Israel’s future.
Ahmadinejad declared on Monday that Israel “has reached its final phase and will soon be wiped out from the geographic scene.”
By coincidence, I heard the Iranian leader’s statement on Israel Radio just as I was leaving the headquarters of Iscar, Israel’s famous precision tool company, headquartered in the Western Galilee, near the Lebanon border. Iscar is known for many things, most of all for being the first enterprise that Buffett bought overseas for his holding company, Berkshire Hathaway.
Buffett paid $4 billion for 80 percent of Iscar and the deal just happened to close a few days before Hezbollah, a key part of Iran’s holding company, attacked Israel in July 2006, triggering a monthlong war. I asked Iscar’s chairman, Eitan Wertheimer, what was Buffett’s reaction when he found out that he had just paid $4 billion for an Israeli company and a few days later Hezbollah rockets were landing outside its parking lot.
Buffett just brushed it off with a wave, recalled Wertheimer: “He said, ‘I’m not interested in the next quarter. I’m interested in the next 20 years.’ ” Wertheimer repaid that confidence by telling half his employees to stay home during the war and using the other half to keep the factory from not missing a day of work and setting a production record for the month. It helps when many of your “employees” are robots that move around the buildings, beeping humans out of the way.
So who would you put your money on? Buffett or Ahmadinejad? I’d short Ahmadinejad and go long Warren Buffett.
Why? From outside, Israel looks as if it’s in turmoil, largely because the entire political leadership seems to be under investigation. But Israel is a weak state with a strong civil society. The economy is exploding from the bottom up. Israel’s currency, the shekel, has appreciated nearly 30 percent against the dollar since the start of 2007.
The reason? Israel is a country that is hard-wired to compete in a flat world. It has a population drawn from 100 different countries, speaking 100 different languages, with a business culture that strongly encourages individual imagination and adaptation and where being a nonconformist is the norm. While you were sleeping, Israel has gone from oranges to software, or as they say around here, from Jaffa to Java.
The day I visited the Iscar campus, one of its theaters was filled with industrialists from the Czech Republic, who were getting a lecture — in Czech — from Iscar experts. The Czechs came all the way to the Israel-Lebanon border region to learn about the latest innovations in precision tool-making. Wertheimer is famous for staying close to his customers and the latest technologies. “If you sleep on the floor,” he likes to say, “you never have to worry about falling out of bed.”
That kind of hunger explains why, in the first quarter of 2008, the top four economies after America in attracting venture capital for start-ups were: Europe $1.53 billion, China $719 million, Israel $572 million and India $99 million, according to Dow Jones VentureSource. Israel, with 7 million people, attracted almost as much as China, with 1.3 billion.
Boaz Golany, who heads engineering at the Technion, Israel’s M.I.T., told me: “In the last eight months, we have had delegations from I.B.M., General Motors, Procter & Gamble and Wal-Mart visiting our campus. They are all looking to develop R & D centers in Israel.”
Ahmadinejad professes not to care about such things. He was — to put it in American baseball terms — born on third base and thinks he hit a triple. Because oil prices have gone up to nearly $140 a barrel, he feels relaxed predicting that Israel will disappear, while Iran maintains a welfare state — with more than 10 percent unemployment.
Iran has invented nothing of importance since the Islamic Revolution, which is a shame. Historically, Iranians have been a dynamic and inventive people — one only need look at the richness of Persian civilization to see that. But the Islamic regime there today does not trust its people and will not empower them as individuals.
Of course, oil wealth can buy all the software and nuclear technology you want, or can’t develop yourself. This is not an argument that we shouldn’t worry about Iran. Ahmadinejad should, though.
Iran’s economic and military clout today is largely dependent on extracting oil from the ground. Israel’s economic and military power today is entirely dependent on extracting intelligence from its people. Israel’s economic power is endlessly renewable. Iran’s is a dwindling resource based on fossil fuels made from dead dinosaurs.
So who will be here in 20 years? I’m with Buffett: I’ll bet on the people who bet on their people — not the people who bet on dead dinosaurs.
Visiting Israel sounds cool.
People vs. Dinosaurs By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Tefen Industrial Park, Israel
Question: What do America’s premier investor, Warren Buffett, and Iran’s toxic president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, have in common? Answer: They’ve both made a bet about Israel’s future.
Ahmadinejad declared on Monday that Israel “has reached its final phase and will soon be wiped out from the geographic scene.”
By coincidence, I heard the Iranian leader’s statement on Israel Radio just as I was leaving the headquarters of Iscar, Israel’s famous precision tool company, headquartered in the Western Galilee, near the Lebanon border. Iscar is known for many things, most of all for being the first enterprise that Buffett bought overseas for his holding company, Berkshire Hathaway.
Buffett paid $4 billion for 80 percent of Iscar and the deal just happened to close a few days before Hezbollah, a key part of Iran’s holding company, attacked Israel in July 2006, triggering a monthlong war. I asked Iscar’s chairman, Eitan Wertheimer, what was Buffett’s reaction when he found out that he had just paid $4 billion for an Israeli company and a few days later Hezbollah rockets were landing outside its parking lot.
Buffett just brushed it off with a wave, recalled Wertheimer: “He said, ‘I’m not interested in the next quarter. I’m interested in the next 20 years.’ ” Wertheimer repaid that confidence by telling half his employees to stay home during the war and using the other half to keep the factory from not missing a day of work and setting a production record for the month. It helps when many of your “employees” are robots that move around the buildings, beeping humans out of the way.
So who would you put your money on? Buffett or Ahmadinejad? I’d short Ahmadinejad and go long Warren Buffett.
Why? From outside, Israel looks as if it’s in turmoil, largely because the entire political leadership seems to be under investigation. But Israel is a weak state with a strong civil society. The economy is exploding from the bottom up. Israel’s currency, the shekel, has appreciated nearly 30 percent against the dollar since the start of 2007.
The reason? Israel is a country that is hard-wired to compete in a flat world. It has a population drawn from 100 different countries, speaking 100 different languages, with a business culture that strongly encourages individual imagination and adaptation and where being a nonconformist is the norm. While you were sleeping, Israel has gone from oranges to software, or as they say around here, from Jaffa to Java.
The day I visited the Iscar campus, one of its theaters was filled with industrialists from the Czech Republic, who were getting a lecture — in Czech — from Iscar experts. The Czechs came all the way to the Israel-Lebanon border region to learn about the latest innovations in precision tool-making. Wertheimer is famous for staying close to his customers and the latest technologies. “If you sleep on the floor,” he likes to say, “you never have to worry about falling out of bed.”
That kind of hunger explains why, in the first quarter of 2008, the top four economies after America in attracting venture capital for start-ups were: Europe $1.53 billion, China $719 million, Israel $572 million and India $99 million, according to Dow Jones VentureSource. Israel, with 7 million people, attracted almost as much as China, with 1.3 billion.
Boaz Golany, who heads engineering at the Technion, Israel’s M.I.T., told me: “In the last eight months, we have had delegations from I.B.M., General Motors, Procter & Gamble and Wal-Mart visiting our campus. They are all looking to develop R & D centers in Israel.”
Ahmadinejad professes not to care about such things. He was — to put it in American baseball terms — born on third base and thinks he hit a triple. Because oil prices have gone up to nearly $140 a barrel, he feels relaxed predicting that Israel will disappear, while Iran maintains a welfare state — with more than 10 percent unemployment.
Iran has invented nothing of importance since the Islamic Revolution, which is a shame. Historically, Iranians have been a dynamic and inventive people — one only need look at the richness of Persian civilization to see that. But the Islamic regime there today does not trust its people and will not empower them as individuals.
Of course, oil wealth can buy all the software and nuclear technology you want, or can’t develop yourself. This is not an argument that we shouldn’t worry about Iran. Ahmadinejad should, though.
Iran’s economic and military clout today is largely dependent on extracting oil from the ground. Israel’s economic and military power today is entirely dependent on extracting intelligence from its people. Israel’s economic power is endlessly renewable. Iran’s is a dwindling resource based on fossil fuels made from dead dinosaurs.
So who will be here in 20 years? I’m with Buffett: I’ll bet on the people who bet on their people — not the people who bet on dead dinosaurs.
Friday, May 30, 2008
Euro punditry
If only I had put some money on Man United winning the Champions League by the time I predicted it, I would've struck gold. Alas my Premier League punditry was not precise but not so far either - I missed the point at Liverpool, Spurs and Wigan, got it right for Everton, West Ham, Sunderland.
Anyway. Now let's turn the page for a different tournament. It's Euro time.
This is not the most relaxed of times for me (loads of work) so I'll be brief:
Out of Group A: Portugal, Czech
Out of Group B: Germany, Croatia
Out of Group C: Italy, France
Out of Group D: Spain, Russia
1/4 finals: Portugal def Croatia, Germany def Czech, Russia def Italy, Spain def France
Semi finals: Germany def Portugal, Spain def Russia
Finals: Spain def Germany
Spain champions
(yeah, I know that's bold, even more with them defeating the French... anyway that's my guess)
Anyway. Now let's turn the page for a different tournament. It's Euro time.
This is not the most relaxed of times for me (loads of work) so I'll be brief:
Out of Group A: Portugal, Czech
Out of Group B: Germany, Croatia
Out of Group C: Italy, France
Out of Group D: Spain, Russia
1/4 finals: Portugal def Croatia, Germany def Czech, Russia def Italy, Spain def France
Semi finals: Germany def Portugal, Spain def Russia
Finals: Spain def Germany
Spain champions
(yeah, I know that's bold, even more with them defeating the French... anyway that's my guess)
Monday, May 26, 2008
It's my city and I just love it
This great São Paulo tourism ad is showing every now and then at CNN int'l.
It's great and reflects how amazing my city is.
It's great and reflects how amazing my city is.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Now this is a well-designed website
I think Uefa has struck gold with the new website for Euro 2008. It encapsulates many good things seen in other trend-setting news sites (my personal favorites The Guardian, Slate Magazine, NY Times, Ig standing out) - large hi-res photos; crisp interactive features; clean background; various layouts in each session; extra bits (team buses design is great) and so on.
I definitely see myself browsing it a lot in the next weeks.
I definitely see myself browsing it a lot in the next weeks.
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
Only in America
I don't know what strikes me most in this report from Huffington Post - if it's the American craze about number crunching in elections, or the fact that people would do such a thing as vote for Clinton, being a McCain supporter, just to mess up the Democratic race.
Actually, neither comes as such a surprise to me.
Exit Polls: Limbaugh Effect Seems To Rear Its Head
Did Rush Limbaugh actually impact the Democratic primary?
The loud-mouthed radio talk show host has been encouraging Republicans to vote for Sen. Hillary Clinton to continue the "chaos" in the Democratic race. And a sampling of some key exit poll information suggests he may, to a certain extent, be having an effect.
Thirty-six percent of primary voters said that Clinton does not share their values. And yet, among that total, one out of every five (20 percent) nevertheless voted for her in the Indiana election. Moreover, of the 10 percent of Hoosiers who said "neither candidate" shared their values, 75 percent cast their ballots for Clinton.
These are not small numbers. By comparison, of the 33 percent of voters who said Sen. Barack Obama does not share their values, only seven percent cast their ballots in his favor. Basically, more people who don't relate to Clinton are, for one reason or another, still voting for her. These are not likely to be loyal supporters.
On a broader level, among the 17 percent of primary goers who said they would choose Sen. John McCain over Hillary Clinton in a hypothetical general election match-up, 41 percent of that group came from Clinton's own camp. In essence, roughly seven percent of Clinton support in Indiana (40 percent of 17 percent) said they would defect to the Republican should she end up the nominee. That would be a difficult punch to stomach in November. In 2004, nearly 1 million Indianans voted for John Kerry. A seven percent defection rate would have meant 70,000 less votes.
By contrast, if the general election is between Obama and McCain, 19 percent of the Indiana Democratic primary goers said they would support the Republican. But only 12 percent of that group (2.28 percent) would come from Obama's camp.
The numbers suggest one of three things: A) Clinton's support in Indiana, while clearly there, is not entirely solid; B) a large swath of Indiana primary goers simply didn't like the nominees and thought of Clinton as the lesser of two evils; or C) Limbaugh's hatchet plan could be having political ripples.
Perhaps it's a mix of all three.
Actually, neither comes as such a surprise to me.
Exit Polls: Limbaugh Effect Seems To Rear Its Head
Did Rush Limbaugh actually impact the Democratic primary?
The loud-mouthed radio talk show host has been encouraging Republicans to vote for Sen. Hillary Clinton to continue the "chaos" in the Democratic race. And a sampling of some key exit poll information suggests he may, to a certain extent, be having an effect.
Thirty-six percent of primary voters said that Clinton does not share their values. And yet, among that total, one out of every five (20 percent) nevertheless voted for her in the Indiana election. Moreover, of the 10 percent of Hoosiers who said "neither candidate" shared their values, 75 percent cast their ballots for Clinton.
These are not small numbers. By comparison, of the 33 percent of voters who said Sen. Barack Obama does not share their values, only seven percent cast their ballots in his favor. Basically, more people who don't relate to Clinton are, for one reason or another, still voting for her. These are not likely to be loyal supporters.
On a broader level, among the 17 percent of primary goers who said they would choose Sen. John McCain over Hillary Clinton in a hypothetical general election match-up, 41 percent of that group came from Clinton's own camp. In essence, roughly seven percent of Clinton support in Indiana (40 percent of 17 percent) said they would defect to the Republican should she end up the nominee. That would be a difficult punch to stomach in November. In 2004, nearly 1 million Indianans voted for John Kerry. A seven percent defection rate would have meant 70,000 less votes.
By contrast, if the general election is between Obama and McCain, 19 percent of the Indiana Democratic primary goers said they would support the Republican. But only 12 percent of that group (2.28 percent) would come from Obama's camp.
The numbers suggest one of three things: A) Clinton's support in Indiana, while clearly there, is not entirely solid; B) a large swath of Indiana primary goers simply didn't like the nominees and thought of Clinton as the lesser of two evils; or C) Limbaugh's hatchet plan could be having political ripples.
Perhaps it's a mix of all three.
Monday, May 05, 2008
Orwellian musings
Great text from the very interesting Slate online magazine.
Obama and Orwell
What the master Brit can teach Democrats about elitism.
By Jeff Greenfield
Obama and Orwell
What the master Brit can teach Democrats about elitism.
By Jeff Greenfield
Friday, April 25, 2008
The right biofuel
This op-ed article on yesterday's NY Times is so thoroughly good that I couldn't bring myself to copy-paste quotes of it - all passages are excellent. A must-read.
"Bring On The Right Biofuels" by Roger Cohen
Also excellent, and somewhat related, is this slideshow from the Financial Times on Amazon deforestation.
"Bring On The Right Biofuels" by Roger Cohen
Also excellent, and somewhat related, is this slideshow from the Financial Times on Amazon deforestation.
Saturday, April 19, 2008
What I'm listening to
Fantástica gravação ao vivo de 1965 - Nara Leão, Edu Lobo e Tamba Trio.
Pontos altos, pra mim, são o sambinha "O trem atrasou", os clássicos de João do Vale "Carcará" e "Minha História" e versões as instrumentais altamente jazzísticas (oito minutos cada) para "Consolação" e "O Morro não tem vez" de Tom e Vinícius.
Ou seja, Sambas, Baiões e Bossa Nova com arranjos caprichados de Jazz. Não dá pra ser melhor, sério.
Monday, April 14, 2008
Food? What food?
Another rich, fact-based discussion from the Guardian. This one has really kept me thinking.
Credit crunch? The real crisis is global hunger. And if you care, eat less meat
A food recession is under way. Biofuels are a crime against humanity, but - take it from a flesh eater - flesh eating is worse
First two comments from readers are great, too. One links to this appaling video about pig-farming. I could not watch until the end (might have puked) and am seriously considering bypassing bacon from now on.
Oh. me, vegan? No way.
Credit crunch? The real crisis is global hunger. And if you care, eat less meat
A food recession is under way. Biofuels are a crime against humanity, but - take it from a flesh eater - flesh eating is worse
First two comments from readers are great, too. One links to this appaling video about pig-farming. I could not watch until the end (might have puked) and am seriously considering bypassing bacon from now on.
Oh. me, vegan? No way.
Thursday, April 03, 2008
What I'm listening to
Excellent compilation from the always excellent compiler Gilles Peterson. I can buy his stuff without even having heard of it before, because it's certain to be great and picked up carefully.
Disc 1 is a compilation of modern soul-jazz that winds up into house music and back. A bit too much dancefloor-oriented for me, although tracks 1-5 and the last one (the most jazzy parts of the disc) are velvet-smooth. The sticky but groovy chorus of Track 1 ("Don't Take it Personal" by Wahoo) stands out, as does track 5 ("Wishing You Were Here" by Blaze with Joey Negro remix).
Disc 2 is the highlight for me - 70's funk and soul that does not sound like whisky-soaked late stages of a wedding party. Many, many highlights here -
- "Could Heaven Ever Be Like This" by Idris Muhhamad (starts corny but ends up in an uplifting metals solo)
- "Let Your Feelings Show" by Earth Wind and Fire (a familiar voice, a familiar beat, but with a novelty feeling)
- "Circles" by Rufus and Chaka Khan (powerful vocals invite with a more serious tone than the rest of the tracks)
though my favorite song is probably "Boogie Oogie Oogie" by A Taste of Honey, which just makes me feel like getting on up on the floor and boogie-oogie-oogieing till-I-just-can't-boogie-no-more.
Disc 3 is a raw drum-and-bass compilation which is not the reason why I purchased this album. My verdict is, even if only for Disc 2 and half of Disc 1, listening to this is a trip into dancehalls and jazzbars that is well worth.
Disc 1 is a compilation of modern soul-jazz that winds up into house music and back. A bit too much dancefloor-oriented for me, although tracks 1-5 and the last one (the most jazzy parts of the disc) are velvet-smooth. The sticky but groovy chorus of Track 1 ("Don't Take it Personal" by Wahoo) stands out, as does track 5 ("Wishing You Were Here" by Blaze with Joey Negro remix).
Disc 2 is the highlight for me - 70's funk and soul that does not sound like whisky-soaked late stages of a wedding party. Many, many highlights here -
- "Could Heaven Ever Be Like This" by Idris Muhhamad (starts corny but ends up in an uplifting metals solo)
- "Let Your Feelings Show" by Earth Wind and Fire (a familiar voice, a familiar beat, but with a novelty feeling)
- "Circles" by Rufus and Chaka Khan (powerful vocals invite with a more serious tone than the rest of the tracks)
though my favorite song is probably "Boogie Oogie Oogie" by A Taste of Honey, which just makes me feel like getting on up on the floor and boogie-oogie-oogieing till-I-just-can't-boogie-no-more.
Disc 3 is a raw drum-and-bass compilation which is not the reason why I purchased this album. My verdict is, even if only for Disc 2 and half of Disc 1, listening to this is a trip into dancehalls and jazzbars that is well worth.
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