Un viejo mirlo encontró una miga de pan y salió volando con ella. Al verlo, los pájaros más jóvenes corrieron a atacarlo.
Frente al inminente combate, el mirlo tiró la miga de pan a la boca de una serpiente, pensando:

-“Cuando se es viejo, se ve la vida de otra forma: perdí mi alimento, es verdad, pero puedo encontrar otra miga de pan mañana.
Sin embargo, si hubiera insistido en cargar con ella, habría desatado una guerra en el cielo; el vencedor despertaría envidia, los otros se armarían para combatirlo, el odio llenaría el corazón de los pájaros, y tal situación podría durar mucho tiempo.

La sabiduría de la belleza consiste en saber cambiar las victorias inmediatas por las conquistas duraderas.”
PAULO COELHO

Somos muchos los que no podíamos imaginar un Mac sin QuickSIlver. Desde que apareció Snow Leopard no se ha podido encontrar un versión que funcione perfectamente, y de hacerlo, reconoce los nombres de los programas en ingles.

Reshef ha publicado en el Foro un programa que junto con Spotlight hará que no se note tanto la ausencia de QuickSilver. Para que entendáis su funcionamiento dejo un video:

Para más información y descargar aquí.

salu2

New desktop layout Installed CoverSutra, Sapiens, FastIcns.
The application circle is activated by moving the mouse in a circle

Can’t find a compatible version of a program that would remove the finder bar

Medj nagenjoy ako sa pagsurf sa pimpmymac

Gregory Colbert

]]> http://marcin50.wordpress.com/2009/11/03/mysli-pogubione22/ Tue, 03 Nov 2009 21:14:08 +0000 Marcin Jodlowski http://marcin50.wordpress.com/2009/11/03/mysli-pogubione22/ http://neandertalsinfronteras.wordpress.com/2009/11/01/%c2%bftuvieron-sexo-los-neandertales-y-los-sapiens/ Sun, 01 Nov 2009 20:32:16 +0000 federicol http://neandertalsinfronteras.wordpress.com/2009/11/01/%c2%bftuvieron-sexo-los-neandertales-y-los-sapiens/ http://allegremanontrompa.wordpress.com/2009/11/01/la-vida-en-4-envases/ Sun, 01 Nov 2009 12:14:06 +0000 cormoya http://allegremanontrompa.wordpress.com/2009/11/01/la-vida-en-4-envases/

“En la vida todos tenemos un secreto inconfesable, un arrepentimiento irreversible, un sueño inalcanzable y un amor inolvidable.”

Diego Marchi

Lamentable porque no pasó.

Lamentable porque no debía pasar.

Paulus dixit

Teimosa Primavera

Saramar Mendes de Souza, setembro de 2009

As Flores da Primavera. Arthur Hacker - 1858-1919. Óleo s/tela

Importa que nasça a flor
e sobre ela,
outras vidas,
em asas de dança,
encenem a colorida valsa
que, sapiens,
esquecemos de trançar.

Importa que venha a chuva,
e viajem as águas
sobre o rumo que traçam
a cada líquido passo.

Importa ainda o amor
e suas flores, suas águas
seus ridículos e rosas e doces tecidos
que teimam em ser,
queimando o ser
a cada primavera.

“…Siempre fuiste mi espejo,
quiero decir que para verme tenía que mirarte.”

Julio Cortázar

Sapien Games

It turns out that whenever I tell people the name of my blog it gives them no idea about what it is I tend to blog about.  This has not sat well with me.  While, I actually rather liked my original name “Good Tithings” (if for no other reason than it’s a silly play on words), it never conveyed an accurate picture of what you would find if you read the posts here.

The content of this blog has evolved quite a bit since it’s early, and more noble, inception.  I still harbor the same values, but the blog is no longer (and hasn’t been for quite some time) simply an adjunct to my artistic and business endeavors.

It has become something all its own, and reflects a much broader scope of my interests–specifically those that are related to science, politics, and economics.  As such, I feel like after nearly 4 years of blogging under the name Good Tithings, it is time for a change.

I’ve gone with the name Sapien Games for a few reasons.  First, just like with its predecessor, it sounds cool!  Nothin’ wrong with that.

Second,  it reflects a closer connection with the underlying point of the blog as it is today, and my own research interests as a graduate student.  “Sapien”, (or more correctly, “Sapiens”) is the present participle of the Latin “Sapere”, “to know” or “to think”.  So, “Sapien” means “knowing”, or “thinking”.  And the word “Games” refers to the fact that I am a Game Theorist.  My studies are focused in applications of Game theory in Evolutionary Biology and Economics.

Of course, I could have called the blog Homo Games, as that roughly mean the “Games played by Man.”  It would have been even more accurate and direct.  But, for obvious reasons that name isn’t going to work!

“Sapien” explicitly refers to the idea of a thinker (or more broadly, a philosopher or scientist), but implicitly it evokes us “humans” via its most common usage in the term “Homo Sapiens” the “Knowing Man”.  In fact, it is rarely used without the word “Homo” in front of it at all.

As a Game Theorist I can’t help but view Humans as simply another animal obeying many of the same Laws of Biology that every other animal on the planet is restricted to.  This view influences greatly my thoughts on Economics and Politics.  And reading my articles on those subjects with this view in mind might clear up a few confusions.  I have a very strong belief that Evolutionary biology and Human Sociology (specifically Economics and Politics) are powerfully linked.  In a word, I’m a Sociobiologist.  My posts here reflect that, and so should the name.

The name change also reflects my interest in deepening the level and number of science related posts, while still keeping it a truly readable and fun blog.  I’ve got a bohemian tendency that isn’t going away anytime soon, but my science-blogger tendencies are creeping up with increasing frequency.  I may as well go with them.

Finally, I understand that change can be annoying.  In my personal life (though, not in my politics) I am a remarkably conservative person.  I don’t have the “grass is always greener on the other side” syndrome.  If anything, I have the “grass is always browner on the other side” syndrome!  But, sometimes change is good.  And I hope that the new title of my blog will better inform potential readers of what it is their getting into, without being too literal.

NOTE:  For those who have linked here using the URL www.goodtithings.com, this link will still work.  I will hold onto that domain and continue forwarding it here.

-¿Cuál es el camino más corto entre dos puntos?

-La línea recta que los une.

-No.

-El camino que mejor conoces.

-No.

-El camino que ofrece menor resistencia.

-No, ¡el camino más corto entre dos puntos es el camino más bello!

Alejandro Jodorowsky

“Para que las ramas de un árbol lleguen al cielo,

sus raíces deben llegar al infierno”.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. Uneducated, low-brow guy – the kind who goes hunting and fishing and drinks warm Natty Lite – is walking along like he owns the place. Then, out of nowhere, BAM! The new guy, who is physically unimpressive and intellectually superior, hits him in the chest with a new kind of weapon. Tall, dork and hairy crawls off into a bush to die alone, and the brainiac inherits the earth. Ok, so it’s basically the storyline of every movie that screened between 1975 and 1991. But it’s also, apparently, how our species kicked the shit out of the predecessors and got the girl.

Now, I’ve seen Walking with Prehistoric Beasts. That Neandertal guy took a crotch shot from a woolly rhino, got up, and went home to fuck his cousin. Their thick hair, broad noses, and red flannel shirts over wifebeaters helped them to survive in colder air temperatures. They ate anything they could get their hands on, raw. And they put the bone to the manliest, ugliest, filthiest fat bitches with unibrows and bad teeth in the history of the universe. These bastards were not built like brick shithouses. Brick shithouses are built like them.

In contrast, homo sapiens is the Rick Moranis of the bipedal species. Skinny, pasty, well-groomed gents who devised the two most popular uses for fire: broiling steaks and burning soy candles. The caves they inhabited still hold drawings of their feelings and the new fall fashions. They invented the projectile, probably while standing on a chair and yelling “Shoo!” at a spider. Which brings us to our conflict.

Who is going to fuck a ninety-pound weakling when Andre the Giant is swinging his 4-foot shlong down the street and you know he won’t want to snuggle afterward? Human beings were destined to graduate college and make something of themselves. But they would always be in the shadow of the Neandertals, with their Nascar collectibles, sports bars and Tijuana mammoth shows. We’re talking worldwide apartheid.

New scientific evidence tells us that our forebears finally got pissed off and shot their enemies with sticks. This particular specimen died a few weeks later of complications. And who wouldn’t know that? It’s not like the Neandertals had doctors, and no way was he getting treatment from a sapiens. No insurance.

So there we have it. Proof that brains do triumph over brawn. The climate changed and Neandertal man was unable to migrate because his goddamned truck wouldn’t run, but you can’t just leave it there. He couldn’t adapt. Fuck, he couldn’t even spell ‘adapt.’ And modern man had developed a taste for his flesh… Dr. Lecter with a limp handshake. It was only a matter of time before the broad-chested domestic abusers vanished from our world, relegated to myth, mystery and the Southern states. The end.

Finalmente se encontraron los eslabones perdidos que se crean imaginarios durante tanto tiempo.

Aparentemente la evolución se dio de distinta manera con variables dependiendo de las zonas geográficas, donde el clima, el entorno y otros factores contribuyó  a la diversidad. Abajo dejo un cuadro para que comprendan un poco de lo que hablo.

di Fabio Deotto – www.wired.it

L’Homo Sapiens è l’animale più incline a sviluppare tumori. Il suo parente più prossimo, lo scimpanzé, che con noi condivide la bellezza di 98 geni su 100, manifesta invece un’insorgenza di tumori quasi insignificante.

Come mai?
È davvero tutta colpa di uno stile di vita poco sano? Certo, ingozzarsi di patatine fritte, fumare, stressarsi ogni giorno attraversando città trincerate nello smog sono attività che incidono sicuramente sullo sviluppo di neoplasie. Ma dati sperimentali suggeriscono che questa predisposizione ha anche radici genetiche.

La ricerca che il biologo John McDonald ha recentemente pubblicato sulla rivista Medical Hypotheses, ad esempio, indica che una maggiore propensione alla formazione di tumori sarebbe il prezzo evolutivo che l’uomo ha pagato per l’acquisizione un’intelligenza superiore. L’ipotesi elaborata da McDonald e dalla squadra del Georgia Institute of Technology, parte dalla considerazione che le aumentate capacità cognitive dell’uomo possano essere spiegate, almeno in parte, dal fatto che le cellule del cervello umano “muoiono di meno” rispetto a quelle degli scimpanzé, e quindi riescono a proliferare in un organo più complesso e sviluppato.

Il processo tramite il quale una cellula va incontro a morte ‘volontaria’ è conosciuto come apoptosi, o anche ‘morte cellulare programmata’, ed è un fenomeno comune e diffuso negli organismi viventi. Inoltre, a differenza di quanto si possa pensare, è un processo utile, che porta più benefici che danni. Si ha apoptosi durante lo sviluppo embrionale, quando le cellule delle membrane interdigitali degli abbozzi palmati si ’sacrificano’ per permettere il differenziamento delle singole dita. Ma la morte cellulare programmata è fondamentale anche in caso di infezioni virali, di danni cellulari irreversibili oltre che, e questo è il nostro caso, per mantenere omogeneo il numero di cellule nei vari tessuti. Ogni giorno nel nostro organismo muoiono per apoptosi quasi 70 miliardi di cellule. Quando in un tessuto questo processo viene per qualche motivo ostacolato, le cellule proliferano senza controllo dando origine ai tumori.

Confrontando i geni espressi nel cervello di uomo e scimpanzé, il team di Atlanta ha calcolato un 34% di differenze nell’espressione genica. Su 37 geni che vengono espressi diversamente tra uomo e scimmia, 21 sono risultati essere induttori dell’apoptosi e 16 fra questi sono soppressi nell’uomo.
Gli altri 16 sono invece repressori e 9 di questi sono espressi maggiormente nell’uomo. Una condizione simile è stata riscontrata anche in altri tessuti come il fegato e i testicoli.

Insomma, questi dati confermano che gli umani sono meno capaci delle scimmie di attivare l’apoptosi cellulare, ma questo non equivale a dire che la soppressione dell’apoptosi sia la chiave per un’intelligenza superiore.

Quella di McDonald rimane comunque per ora l’ipotesi la più convincente (e affascinante) che riesca a spiegare per quale motivo la selezione naturale abbia premiato la limitazione di un meccanismo così utile e funzionale come la morte cellulare programmata.

English version

Version Française

Cred ca daca extraterestrii ne-ar supraveghea mai atent nu ar avea niciun motiv sa ne invadeze. Vedeti mai jos cum un tip inventeaza un dans care imediat devine o referinta.

Todos estamos mancos en el mundo; la mayoría de los seres humanos no se dan cuenta; la mayoría de quienes se dan cuenta son incapaces de aceptarlo.

El enigma de la vida no es lo acabado, lo consumado, lo pleno, sino lo imperfecto. Malhaya quien se obstina en perseguir la perfección, pues la vida le escapa, la vida y su enigma. No tiene doble fondo porque no tiene fondo.

Imágenes persiguen a imágenes que persiguen a imágenes. El espesor de las pantallas de televisión disminuye constantemente, su brillo y superficie aumentan, el prisionero olvida que alguna vez deseó escapar. No tiene doble fondo porque no tiene fondo.

Es asunto de preferencias y de expectativas, me diréis. Es asunto de vida que se debate en un tremedal de hidrocarburos, en una imparcialidad de quirófano, en un interminable chapaleo hertziano, creo que os contestaría. Todos estarnos mancos en el mundo, pero ninguna herida puede resumirse a conocimiento categorizable.

En poesía no se puede ni hablar por hablar, ni hablar por el placer de escucharse a sí mismo. El breve tiempo y la demasiada muerte nos vedan tales frivolidades. El soliloquio me parece esencialmente no poético: en poesía todo se extrema hacia el tú.

Todo ocupa un lugar: también la palabra prescindible. Para ocupar el suyo, la palabra prescindible ha desplazado o bien a la palabra sustancial, o bien al silencio. Eso es intolerable.

No estoy hablando de buenos sentimientos. Estoy hablando de las caderas de la mujer que no dejaba de estornudar en pleno verano, o del paso del hombre frágil que cuando cruzaba la calle iba exponiéndose en cada movimiento.

La lumbre del despertar, para quien no persigue el cristal helado cuya absoluta transparencia hechiza. Para éste la sal del sudor, la dulzura del pan compartido y la sumergida incandescencia de la sangre.

‘teste’