Sprrrring!

First lunch outside, first ballgame in the park, first time the Sun actually warms me up. First nap on the grass, Spring is here.

it gives us those nice bright colours
it gives us the greens of summers
Makes you think all the world's a sunny day, Oh yeah
I got a Nikon camera
I love to take a photograph
So mama don't take my Kodachrome away!

In other news, lots of talking to my boss, mixing maths and biology, playing with wacky ideas. To get back on earth, I am sent to Long Island, to a certain Cold Spring Harbor, to practice surgery on frog embryos for 10 days, 12 hours a day. I will leave on friday; if no post appears here before sunday, assume I was overthrown by the frog mob, and remember me fondly.

Cynthia dixit

"Americans do recreation. They don't do leisure." By my wise roommate Cindy.

New York style

New York style
Originally uploaded by pmdcsb.

New York weekend trip. Find all the excitement here: the chinese dellies, the israeli soap & cream, the indian skater, the United Nations Security Council where I lost my wallet, some great Tugas and so much more...

Busy weekends

Cooking onions, I find (using wikipedia, of course) that onions have been eaten for millenia, (but not more, so presumably the cookers controlled fired and cooked them. Otherwise, poor things, they'ld do like the peasants in northeastern portugal and eat them raw for breakfast, with a glass of wine). They exist everywhere in the world (but were introduced in the islands-continents by europeans). I don't know of a single portuguese meal which doesn't include onions. They are grossly underrated. Long live the onion!

Coming back to my title, I've been having busy weekends:

#1 boston
#2 chicago
#3 san francisco
#4 new york
#5 and #6 cold spring harbor
#7 boston

running running after work, fun and play. Ars longa, vita brevis.

San Francisco pics

Cover
Originally uploaded by pmdcsb.

Estao aqui. E mais virao, quando tiver tempo para escrever. Mas como diz o Lourenco, tempus fugit!

San Francisco

First impressions:

political chat with kiosk lady (she likes Tony Blair)
is that microsoft windows in your pocket?
couples, wanna try new birth control? have fun AND contribute to research!
smells of the sea
sounds of the sea
flores azedas
sair a noite de camisa, e estamos em Marco, e ...

loads of peace and love.

Autocríticas

Os portugueses acham que são os campeões da autocrítica. Olhem que não! Ci dessous, o editorial arrasador do Le Monde:

"En un mot, la France réussit la prouesse de cumuler un niveau de prélèvements et de dépenses comparable à celui des pays scandinaves tout en procurant un bien-être social à peine supérieur, à bien des égards, à celui qu'on trouve aux Etats-Unis et au Royaume-Uni. Aux yeux de ses partenaires européens, elle est en passe de devenir un contre-modèle aussi bien fiscal que social."

Os ingleses dizem o mesmo em relação à política social, os alemães o mesmo em relação à política económica, os nórdicos em relação à imigração, os espanhois..., bem, esses só enchem o papo. A diferença é que em Portugal dá para criticar todas as políticas ao mesmo tempo! Pois, se calhar até somos campeões, à la fin...

Eureka

I knew something was missing in my life... something I had in Europe. It turned out it was... Nutella!

PhD in Harvard

O autor dos PhD comics esta' hoje em Harvard, a assinar livros and ... giving away free food. Of course. Eu ia ve-lo mas estava no spa, so I procrastinated some more e fiquei a cozer no spa. He'd be proud. Ontem dei de caras com o facho-mor Tommy Hillfiger a dar uma talk sobre leadership na Memorial chapel, em pleno Harvard yard. O tipo que disse 'a Oprah, live, que nao suportava que os pretos e os judeus usassem roupa dele! Surpreendente ele vir falar aqui, mesmo sendo grande filantropo (desde que nao para pretos e judeus, presume-se), e com uma miuda preta 'a porta a distribuir o programa. De facto, surpreendente!

O que e' bom aqui e' que toda a gente vem ca'. Toda a gente quer uma audiencia harvardiana, e' como ir falar ao papa. E no's, os locais, recostamo-nos e ouvimos condescendentes, e quando nos fartamos, basamos e vamos jantar a um japones. Ok, let's go.

Boston, o degelo.

Boston defrost
Originally uploaded by pmdcsb.

Encore les caricatures

André Glucksmann, dans Le Monde:

"(...) Une pensée totalitaire ne supporte pas d'être contestée. Dogmatique, elle affirme en brandissant le petit livre rouge, noir ou vert. Obscurantiste, elle fusionne politique et religion. Au contraire, les pensées antitotalitaires tiennent les faits pour des faits et reconnaissent même les plus hideux, ceux-là mêmes que par angoisse ou commodité on préférerait occulter. La mise en lumière du goulag a permis la critique et le rejet du "socialisme réel". La considération des abominations nazies et l'ouverture très réelle des camps d'extermination ont converti l'Européen à la démocratie après 1945. En revanche, le refus de l'histoire dans ses vérités les plus cruelles annonce le retour des cruautés. N'en déplaise aux islamistes - qui sont loin de représenter les musulmans -, il n'y a pas de commune mesure entre la négation de faits avérés comme tels et la critique verbale ou dessinée des multiples croyances que chaque Européen a le droit de cultiver ou de moquer.

Depuis des siècles, Jupiter ou le Christ, Jehovah et Allah ont essuyé force plaisanteries et marques d'irrespect. A ce jeu, du reste, les juifs sont les meilleurs critiques de Yaveh - ils en ont même fait une spécialité. Cela n'empêche pas le vrai croyant de toute confession de croire et de consentir à laisser vivre ceux qui ne croient pas comme lui. La paix religieuse s'instaure à ce prix. Par contre, plaisanter des chambres à gaz, s'amuser des femmes violées et des bébés éventrés, sanctifier les décollations télévisées et les bombes humaines annonce un avenir insupportable.

Il est grand temps que les démocrates retrouvent leur esprit et les Etats de droit leurs principes ; il faut qu'ils rappellent solennellement et solidairement qu'il n'est pas question qu'une, deux, trois religions, quatre ou cinq idéologies décident ce que le citoyen est en droit de dire ou de penser. Il n'en va pas seulement de la liberté de la presse, mais de la permission de nommer un chat un chat et une chambre à gaz un fait abominable, abominable quelles que soient nos croyances et nos fois. Il en va du principe de toute morale : sur cette Terre, le respect dû à chaque individu commence par la mise en évidence universelle et le rejet commun des plus flagrants exemples d'inhumanité."

O frio que vem de dentro

Partly Cloudy, -12°C
Feels Like -21°C

O frio e o vento aguentam-se bem na pele, poem-se casacos e barretes, etc, mas respirar gela os pulmoes. Por isso, a partir de agora deixo a bicicleta em casa se estiver menos de -10 graus celsius.

Anyway, according to Winnie the pooh, ou o nosso groundhog Philly, so' temos mais 2 semanas de inverno!

Harvard beauties

Widener
Originally uploaded by pmdcsb.

The libraries, there are 99 of them. The grandiose are the Widener (a rich alumnus who went down with the Titanic) and the Law school library (nice furniture). The loveliest ones include the Natural History Museum, which looks taken out of Indiana Jones. Most of them are small, have few copies of each book, so one has to go there to read them... on the other hand many are open 24hrs a day, and never empty.

The Law school has a luxurious new common building, lounge/bar/restaurant with... a private ice skating rink. Where one can skate at ease (unlike the clockwise sloshing herds at the commons), alone till the cold wee hours.

Definitely, harvard's not bad. I hear the Business school is even better... they have a sushi chef!