Thursday, October 02, 2008
Friday, September 26, 2008
Kiva
I've been lending to Kiva for almost two years now, and the second loan I made has just been repaid: I helped Ndella Taye from Senegal to buy supplies to feed her cattle, which she sold to not only repay her loan, but to start a savings account with her husband.
This is her 12th microfinanced loan, and her ambitions to diversify her business are high. The total amount lent this time was $1,050.00. I contributed a measly $25, which I got back in exactly the timeframe promised (6 months).
In all truth, I can't say I did much, I didn't even spend any money, and yet it feels nice. Feels even nicer to see that I'm having a hard time reloaning the $25 to someone else, 'cause all loans requested on kiva.org are fully funded at this point! A big step up since the site got started...
Oh look, three new loans just popped up! Here's twenty-five bucks headed Mrs. Rojas' way!Good luck in your business...!
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
guns don't kill people
"...stupid motherfuckers with guns kill people"
according to the Small Arms Survey 2007 by the Geneva-based Graduate Institute of International Studies, there's one gun for every seven people worldwide. given that even the crappiest handgun packs at least six bullets, the math makes sense. what doesn't is that I'm one of the six getting shot :P
so what do you think, should I get a gun? should we all get a gun and finally have peace, in a coldwar-madman-tactics kind of logic? or should we take the gun from that other guy? I'm not sure I want to be the first in line for that one though...
and what is the connection between guns and highschool shootings in the connection-less world? Mr. Moore argues that the US right wing is the child-killer for allowing guns to spread among citizens. but he set out to prove that from the start, due to his own personal political bias - and you can prove anything you want if you set your mind to it from the beginning: blame it on God, the Devil, Allah or Canada. or the butterfly flapping its wings 30000km away. or the planets. so today in finland there was another shooting. and finland isn't the US, this is a civilized european country here. with low pollution and high income. with good jobs and salaries, and a high cultural level. so what are your conclusions now? (mr. moore's are probably something along the lines of 'bowling for helsinky' and how much revenue that'll generate - kudos for finding such a profitable niche) agreed, finland is the 3rd most heavily armed country in the world, just behind the US - but that's pretty obvious: no gun, no shooting. but is it so irrelevant to understand why this urge to kill emerges? seems to me we're having a really hard time adjusting to modern western life... and it's been a while!
according to the Small Arms Survey 2007 by the Geneva-based Graduate Institute of International Studies, there's one gun for every seven people worldwide. given that even the crappiest handgun packs at least six bullets, the math makes sense. what doesn't is that I'm one of the six getting shot :P
so what do you think, should I get a gun? should we all get a gun and finally have peace, in a coldwar-madman-tactics kind of logic? or should we take the gun from that other guy? I'm not sure I want to be the first in line for that one though...
and what is the connection between guns and highschool shootings in the connection-less world? Mr. Moore argues that the US right wing is the child-killer for allowing guns to spread among citizens. but he set out to prove that from the start, due to his own personal political bias - and you can prove anything you want if you set your mind to it from the beginning: blame it on God, the Devil, Allah or Canada. or the butterfly flapping its wings 30000km away. or the planets. so today in finland there was another shooting. and finland isn't the US, this is a civilized european country here. with low pollution and high income. with good jobs and salaries, and a high cultural level. so what are your conclusions now? (mr. moore's are probably something along the lines of 'bowling for helsinky' and how much revenue that'll generate - kudos for finding such a profitable niche) agreed, finland is the 3rd most heavily armed country in the world, just behind the US - but that's pretty obvious: no gun, no shooting. but is it so irrelevant to understand why this urge to kill emerges? seems to me we're having a really hard time adjusting to modern western life... and it's been a while!
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Thursday, September 04, 2008
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Choke Point, Prague airport
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Monday, August 11, 2008
Saturday, August 09, 2008
Wednesday, August 06, 2008
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Monday, July 21, 2008
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Wednesday, July 09, 2008
Friday, June 27, 2008
Nyktos
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Monday, June 23, 2008
George Carlin is no more
“The most unfair thing about life is the way it ends. I mean, life is tough. It takes up a lot of your time. What do you get at the end of it? A Death! What's that, a bonus? I think the life cycle is all backwards. You should die first, get it out of the way. Then you live in an old age home. You get kicked out when you're too young, you get a gold watch, you go to work. You work forty years until you're young enough to enjoy your retirement. You do drugs, alcohol, you party, you get ready for high school. You go to grade school, you become a kid, you play, you have no responsibilities, you become a little baby, you go back into the womb, you spend your last nine months floating...
...and you finish off as an orgasm.”
George Carlin, 12/05/1937 - 22/06/2008, RIP
Blogged with the Flock Browser
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
"You can change your government without having to leave your house"
My new house in 2020, in the People's Democratic Republic of My Dick! 
Blogged with the Flock Browser
Wednesday, April 09, 2008
xkcd
xkcd - A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language - By Randall Munroe
digg :Real programmers set the universal constants at the start such that the universe evolves to contain the disk with the data they want.
Blogged with the Flock Browser
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Thursday, December 06, 2007
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Men in Black control the world!
Police swoop on 'hacker of the year' - Security - Technology - smh.com.au
This stuff seems straight out of a Chris Carter show.. it's just lacking the aliens... or is it?
This stuff seems straight out of a Chris Carter show.. it's just lacking the aliens... or is it?
Blogged with Flock
Friday, September 28, 2007
now there's a good place for religion-freaks...
...OUTER SPACE!
they'll b so busy doing the math maybe they'll actually start THINKING for a change...
they'll b so busy doing the math maybe they'll actually start THINKING for a change...
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
pacifism is unconstitutional!
violence is human
Judge Richard A. Posner of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit:
“Violence has always been and remains a central interest of humankind and a recurrent, even obsessive theme of culture both high and low,” he wrote. “It engages the interest of children from an early age, as anyone familiar with the classic fairy tales collected by Grimm, Andersen, and Perrault are aware. To shield children right up to the age of 18 from exposure to violent descriptions and images would not only be quixotic, but deforming; it would leave them unequipped to cope with the world as we know it.”
Judge Richard A. Posner of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit:
“Violence has always been and remains a central interest of humankind and a recurrent, even obsessive theme of culture both high and low,” he wrote. “It engages the interest of children from an early age, as anyone familiar with the classic fairy tales collected by Grimm, Andersen, and Perrault are aware. To shield children right up to the age of 18 from exposure to violent descriptions and images would not only be quixotic, but deforming; it would leave them unequipped to cope with the world as we know it.”
Friday, April 06, 2007
Monday, February 19, 2007
Tuesday, February 06, 2007
Thursday, January 11, 2007
Better dead than poor!
A recent poll reveals the Portuguese population is all for clean energy... as long as they don't have to pay a cent for it! 67% of the surveyed population is not willing to see the electric bill go up to sustain green energy projects, and only 21% admits paying an additional 5%. A meager 3% would accept increase in costs of 6%-10%. (poll conducted by Eurobarometro)
5% increase in costs is about 1 Eur to 2 Eur on the final bill, less than the price of a packet of cigarettes. But apparentely that's too much just to help diminish the greenhouse effect of conventional energy production facilities... So the next time you hear that the Oil industry is protected by "Big Interests" or "Hidden Agendas", you'll know what they mean: EVERYONE'S interests and agendas. Hypocrisy is the law of the land.
Blogged with Flock
Tuesday, December 19, 2006
Thursday, December 07, 2006
It's fun to stay in Iran!
BREITBART.COM - Follow God or vanish, Ahmadinejad tells West
Now where have I heard this before?
UN 'sanctions' will probably involve being quite annoyed at Iran and not inviting them over for tea anymore. Except this time I don't think anyone'll step up to invade them or something silly like that. Nope. Just no tea. For one year!
(I'll be in my nuclear fallout shelter catching up on my Koran - always good for a laugh - if anyone needs me. Assuming anyone survives! Muhahahahaa!!)
Anyway I wonder if this Mahmoud Ahmhmsmnhfhhgidejad fella really said that stuff, or if it's just a translation error - I mean, he has such a friendly smile! And doesn't he look just a bit gay to you? Always talking about enriching youranus and stuff...
Blogged with Flock
Wednesday, December 06, 2006
Saturday, September 16, 2006
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
WaR
- War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.
Blogged with Flock
Monday, August 21, 2006
Friday, July 21, 2006
Tuesday, June 13, 2006
a truth known for more than 40 years!!??
- At least two-thirds of our miseries spring from human stupidity, human malice and those great motivators and justifiers of malice and stupidity: idealism, dogmatism and proselytizing zeal on behalf of religous or political ideas.
Blogged with Flock
Wednesday, June 07, 2006
We will bury them
Iran Focus-Iran's women barred from soccer games - Women - News
- check this out, Iranian women won't be allowed to watch their team be humiliated in the world cup after all... Although it's shameful to see my country's name side by side with the name of this pathetic excuse of a society. Shouldn't FIFA simply ban these backwater countries completely until they learn some manners and at least act as if they know what civilization is? I wonder what the justification is... "We can't let women in football games 'cause they're being used for peaceful nuclear energy research". "Bullshit! I think you're the kind o'guy who'd fuck a person in the ass and not extend the common courtesy of giving him a reach-around! I'll be watching you!".
- check this out, Iranian women won't be allowed to watch their team be humiliated in the world cup after all... Although it's shameful to see my country's name side by side with the name of this pathetic excuse of a society. Shouldn't FIFA simply ban these backwater countries completely until they learn some manners and at least act as if they know what civilization is? I wonder what the justification is... "We can't let women in football games 'cause they're being used for peaceful nuclear energy research". "Bullshit! I think you're the kind o'guy who'd fuck a person in the ass and not extend the common courtesy of giving him a reach-around! I'll be watching you!".
Blogged with Flock
Monday, May 29, 2006
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
Monday, May 08, 2006
Wednesday, May 03, 2006
Sunday, April 23, 2006
Thursday, March 30, 2006
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
Wednesday, March 08, 2006
hello dolly
CNN.com - New animal resembles furry lobster - Mar 8, 2006
Blonde lobster -- should be much easier to catch... you can just tell her that boilling herself is good for the skin.
Friday, March 03, 2006
Monday, February 27, 2006
ESP EX350 still on sale
I'm selling my ESP EX350 guitar for 500 Eur. I had a good few years with her, and I'll miss her spiked shining black body, but I've decided to acquire a new one (another ESP - I'm really into their guitars, check'em out at www.espguitars.com). It's got a floyd rose, 22 frets, two EMG-HZ pickups, and built-in straplocks (I'll give away the strap with the corresponding set of locks - as well as a gig bag). I'm asking a measly 500 eur for it, so drop me an email fast before someone else does.. ;) I can send more pictures if required. 
technorati tags: listing
Friday, February 17, 2006
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
Thursday, January 26, 2006
chucky lives!
Sesame Street's Elmo has new book, Potty Time with Elmo.
But the book is scaring some toddlers, and their parents. The book has
a computer chip that spices-up the story with comments from the beloved
muppet. Elmo is supposed to say: "Uh-oh! Who has to go?" But instead, a
lot of people are hearing: "Uh-oh! Who wants to die?" The book's
producer blames a cheap computer chip. I say Elmo has seen too many Chucky movies... I'll just have my kid rip off his head like any well behaved generation x-er of my day would do...
Friday, January 13, 2006
behold... we have created purest green!
biotech has finally produced what humanity has strived for since the dawn of time: glowing green pigs! you'll never be able to live without them again...
Thursday, January 12, 2006
Monty Python anyone?
CNN.com - Hajj stampede kills hundreds - Jan 12, 2006
This reminds of Monty Python's 'Life of Brian' - the classic stoning scene... except these people seem even dumber than those folks in the movie... But they seem to be on a (slow) path toward evolution... less and less of them are dying each year. Although the inbred ameba culture of the subartic seems to be beyond the simple knowledge that if you tend to die each time you go to a specific spot, then you should *stop* going there. And they don't waste time stoning *stone* pillars. I mean seriously people, you bunch of jackoffs are travelling from all over the world to walk around in circles and throw stones at inanimate objects, trampling one another, and you expect the rest of the world to respect you? Get real.
convictions are truth's greatest enemy
January 12, 2006 · Scientists in Germany
have made a startling discovery: Plants produce methane, one of the
greenhouse gases that warm the earth. The finding could change the way
scientists view global climate.
Just a small example showing that you can't have absolute faith in anything... what we perceive as knowledge is prone to constant change, and to deny that, is to deny entrance to truth. It's best to start decreasing affection towards your personal convictions, 'cause sooner or later you'll either have to leave them behind, or die in oblivion with them.
Tuesday, January 10, 2006
Monday, January 09, 2006
FlickR
I finally gave in to flickr... it really is cool. Check out my most recent photos on the sidebar, from where you can link directly to my flickr area.
Thursday, January 05, 2006
Monday, January 02, 2006
bookmarks
check out my selection of websites at del.icio.us
...and if you don't have a del.icio.us account yet, what are you waiting for? it is THE way to keep your bookmarks organized, updated, and always accessible... (there are a few alternatives around now of course, but once you start using Flock as your standard web browser, you won't be able to use anything else - for now ;)
web 2.0 translator
AJAX Translator - useful little tool for quick translation (best used for single-word translation, as does not account for differing gramatical structures across languages)
Friday, December 30, 2005
e-commerce history
goddamn... I know everybody's blogging stuff about this, but isn't the net a bizarre creation of humanity? especially when combined with the mad mad world of 21st century lightening-fast business...
for those of you who don't know it yet, the creator of the aforementioned website made a cool million bucks in four months with that little webpage... damn his smart-ass. and praise the dollar.
Friday, December 23, 2005
introducing the portuguese system
recent events in portugal, depicting the present state of affairs in public administration:
A 50-day old baby girl went into a coma after being submitted to a city hospital for the fourth time, showing signs of severe physical punishment, apparently inflicted by her own parents. The 22-year old father had been charged previously on 3 counts of sexual abuse of minors, and 1 count theft. The 20-year old mother shows signs of mental insufficiency. After the first occurence, the hospital witheld custody of the child, given the clear evidence of harmful family environment, but was later forced to release her given that the local institution responsible for child protection issued a release order, stating the the case was under observation, and that it was safe, and appropriate, to return the baby to her family. At the final occurence resulting in the coma, police authorities were informed, and the parents arrested pending investigation. The president of the aforementioned child 'care' institution was questioned on the issue, and stated that "the system has worked".
thank heavens. imagined if it didn't. he might actually have been given a reprimand for it (I was going to say 'fired', but then I remembered that's impossible).
this is my country: the state can get away with murder, rape, torture, theft and overall sheer lack of respect for the people. all that'll happen is the first name of the politicians will change (but seldom shall the last) - for a while. that's the way it's been since there was a so-called peaceful revolution. I know now that a peaceful revolution is hardly a revolution at all.
hey mr bush, when you're pulling your sorry ass out of iraq, do us all a favour and drop a few nukes over here on the way back. the world will hardly notice and I'd be grateful if you sunk this lump of thrash into the atlantic ocean. a few good people would be gone, and it's a pity to ruin such a nice landscape, but humanity would be rid of quite a big bunch of cunts.
bad wikipedia... bad bad wikipedia.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2005-11-29-wikipedia-edit_x.htm
seems to me that this problem existed way before wikipedia came along... except before only a chosen few had the power to control the propaganda being spread, and now just about anyone can do it. bring on the chaos! let the fires of anarchy burn down society! I'll be warming my hands and roasting a nice piece of PIG on it. Muahahahahahha!!!
Wednesday, December 14, 2005
let the killing continue!
ToTheGame - Screenshots of Unreal Tournament 2007 (PCCDROM)
...too bad the killing is looking so sexy it'll probably require a planet-class computer to run.
Monday, December 12, 2005
Festivus is upon us!!!
'tis the season to be spiteful! December 23rd is almost here, and thusly, so is Festivus! If you're an infidel, get cultured and seek redemption here!
...and a Festivus for the rest of us!
Saturday, December 10, 2005
It's time to change gods then...
Nietzsche said that mankind would limp on through the twentieth century “on the mere pittance” of the old decaying God-based moral codes. But then, in the twenty-first, would come a period more dreadful than the great wars, a time of “the total eclipse of all values” (in The Will To Power). This would be a frantic period of “revaluation,” in which people would try to find new systems of values to replace the osteoporotic skeletons of the old. But you will fail, he warned, because you cannot believe in moral codes without simultaneously believing in a god who points at you with his fearsome forefinger and says “Thou shalt” or “Thou shalt not.”
—Tom Wolfe, “Sorry, but Your Soul Just Died,” Hooking Up (2000, p. 99)
Wednesday, November 30, 2005
Monday, November 28, 2005
Monday, November 14, 2005
boycott sony
sony distributed 20 new cd releases with an abusive anti-piracy system, that collects private data silently, and installs a rootkit on your pc, rendering it vulnerable to serious security breaches, all under the guise of preventing piracy. this is untolerable behaviour by the corporation, and due punishment is yet to be served. in the meantime, they deserve a total boycott. do it now, or suffer the consequence later.
Thursday, November 10, 2005
essential
check out http://del.icio.us it's one of those small revolutions in websurfing... feel free to check out my public bookmarks at http://del.icio.us/joao.lx
Thursday, October 27, 2005
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
Monday, October 24, 2005
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