New Soundtrack

If you haven't seen the film Into The Wild, you should at least take a look at the soundtrack signed by Eddie Vedder. It is simply amazing! And the film itself is as inspiring as the soundtrack -- it explores important topics like life style, human relationships, self-knowledge, and the strength and fragility of human life.

Go for it, it's always good to look at things that challenge your values and principles!

Pets - Interactive!

The last post brought up interesting memories of unusual pet names (like little Mischa above), and I got curious to know of other ones that might be out there! So.. I've done some thinking.

First, nowadays it seems to be common to find dogs named in the categories of alcoholic beverages, like Tequila or Whisky, or traditional American nicknames, like Bill, Billy, or Bobby. However, more creative names that I've heard are inspired by famous "theorists", like Sig (after Sigmund Freud) and Nietzsche (I would be scared of a dog called Nietzsche, wouldn't you?).  But I have to tell you that my favourite (and quite funny) pet names are those that represent the opposite of their characteristics -- for example, my brother once had a turtle which he called "flecha" (the portuguese for Flash)! 

... So, go ahead, search your childhood memories and tell me of any embarrassing, funny or exotic names of any pets you ever had!! :)

The post of change

Today's post reflects my extreme change of working environment: from computer science departments to the one of biological sciences! The highlight of my first day at work was having the chance to touch an owl. I confess that it was a bit scary because the owls looked really frightening with their big black eyes! For you to have an idea, based on a very amateur analysis from my part, I found the picture above that resembles the owl  (I must say that I'm not responsible for any nightmares that you might have after seeing it!)  ;)

I'm probably making a big fuss of it, which can be easily explained by a combination of me being a city girl + a computer scientist. But I wasn't always like this. I actually grew up on small towns on the country side, and I even had a sheep as a pet once -- she was called Misha, and, according to my mother, she was named after the famous mascot of the Moscow Olympic Games!

Harald Bluetooth

I was watching a documentary about the Viking era the other day and the name Harald Bluetooth called my attention. Harald (or Harald Blåtand in Danish) was a tenth-century King of Denmark and Norway.  So I wondered if his name had something to do with our famous wireless protocol... 

It turns out that it does! According to wikipedia and other sources, Bluetooth (the protocol) was named after Harald Bluetooth, King of Denmark and Norway. Apparently, the reason was that King Harald was known for his unification of previously warring tribes from Denmark and Norway and, likewise, Bluetooth was intended to unify different technologies. Voilà!

Btw, the nice viking on top is a souvenir from Norway ;)

The Brain Quiz

Fellow girls, what should you say when someone (probably a man) pops out the assertive that men's brains are larger than women's brains? After all, that's true according to some review by the National Institute of Mental Health...

Well, you should say that this is fortunate, since it makes our (female) brains similar to Albert Einstein's brain -- it was slightly smaller than the average male brain! ;)

(It is all on National Geographic!)

Ars amatoria

Some half-useful culture that came to my knowledge this week:

Publius Ovidius Naso was a Roman poet known as the medieval magister amoris ("master of love"). He wrote Ars amatoria ('Art of Love') in which, according to Wikipedia, he provides teaching in three areas of general preoccupation: how and where to find girls (and husbands) in Rome, how to seduce them, and how to prevent others from stealing them.
Although such books were written around year 1 AD, some of Ovidius' Roman wisdom are still valid for today's love birds. By quickly scanning parts of the text, some pieces of advice called my attention, like these ones below *for girls*

Book III Part IX: Be Seen Around
"...Lovely girls, the crowd is useful to you. Often lift your feet above the threshold. So too a lovely woman must let the people see her: and perhaps there’ll be one among them she attracts. Chance rules everywhere: always dangle your bait: the fish will lurk in the least likely pool."

Book III Part X: Beware of False Lovers
"Avoid those men who profess to looks and culture, who keep their hair carefully in place. What they tell you they’ve told a thousand girls: their love wanders and lingers in no one place."

Other parts, however, are actually quite funny to try to picture in a night out these days!

Book III Part V: Conceal Your Defects
"... If you’re short sit down, lest, standing, you seem to sit: and commit your smallness to your couch: there also, so your measure can’t be taken, let a shawl drop over your feet to hide them. (...) Those with thick fingers and bitten nails, make sparing use of gestures whenever you speak."

.. I'm glad that times are different now!

The Art of Coffee

For the coffee appreciators, two of the best coffee bars I've ever been to: Caffé Vergnano 1882 in London, and Press Café in Porto Alegre (Brazil).  Simply delicious! ... and if you try the cappuccino by Press Café you get cute drawings on top of your coffee as a bonus, like the one in the picture above. Not bad right?  .. and you can also get an apple, a flower, a leaf, or even an Easter bunny on your coffee!

The side effect is that you'll get more selective on the coffee shops you start going to. But well.. as (almost) everything evolves.. so does your taste!