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October 29, 2010

Answered Questions X – Ora et labora

Pray and Work. Working dignifies your spirit. Or so they say. It is not bad as a mantra, but a review of this postulate does not seem inappropriate. If I ask, What do you work for? "For the money, of course” Many will say. Others, more fortunate ones, will add: “for personal fulfillment, to be useful to society, by vocation, to contribute to progress and so and so”. Well, let's take a look at the guts of such claims.

If we understand that contribution to progress, society, researching vocations, teaching, studying, are things that in any case you could do equally and without any further obligation, for free, then the only reason left to work for is necessarily... for the money. Let's be honest. It should be no shame. True, if you are also rewarded in other ways the better, more interesting and enriching will the hours you invest. But those who say they do their work only by their willingness to serve (like many politicians), what foolishness! So is everyone else, in our work, we have no desire to give service? Some serve a community, others to a company and its shareholders and customers, but we all do it at the end of the day for a fee. The difference in any case is who we choose to serve. Of course, willingly to do it well.

October 22, 2010

Transmeme XXIX

The most practiced moral rule, since there is moral is: "I do it because I can".

October 20, 2010

Answered Questions IX - Without words

I wanted to use for this post the example of the many ways that the Eskimos have to refer to snow, but it seems that it would not be true. Still, I think it is right to say that people use to have greater wealth of words for what they are most familiar with. For example, there will be far fewer words for sea conditions in those countries without coast line, and even fewer words for pork products in countries with Muslim tradition.

This brings us to the wonderful world of metaphor. If it appears that we have never had a sophisticated sense of taste (perhaps because our history is characterized mainly by the great famines), when we go to value the infinite nuances of a wine aroma, we have to use terms such as "notes", "velvet" "almond", "honey," "moss" and many more, although the wine does not have an inch of them. This is how we communicate on the new or the unknown: by analogy.

Image: Salvatore Vuono / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

October 19, 2010

Transmeme XXVIII

Funny: a small city with the most thoughtful people would have the same flaws and problems as the ones you're in.

October 15, 2010

Answered Questions VIII - The formula for happiness is a differential equation

Hey, crispy news! I found the (true) formula for happiness!

What, don’t you believe me? Let's see, if Eduardo Punset can propose a formula, why can I not? I know that to compare myself with him is pretentious at least, (hence my respects to so enjoyed thinker and communicator). Let me instead mimic those studies from some universities that do not want to give up any of the funds that have been granted, and make up the strangest questions to keep their places of research. So, if someone can answer why people who walk 1.3 miles a day and eat chocolate have a 50% higher probability of skipping a traffic light in their life, I can give myself the true formula for happiness. This much for the heading. Well, now in print:

I must say that I have not really invented the formula, but I've improved it.

October 06, 2010

Transmeme XXVII

Don't be pessimistic: it's only that politics/legislation/democracy/moral/religion do not progress so fast as technology.

October 04, 2010

Odious Comparisons X – Dubbed version

Sometimes I find myself in the circumstance of having to choose between going to the cinema to watch a movie in original version, and another dubbed film. My choice is easy. The dubbed version. Always.
It seems not to be chic, or more trendy not wanting to see the movie in its original soundtrack, hearing the actors with their real voices. However I want to relax in the movies. I do not pay a ticket to work. To me it is a completely unnecessary focus effort. I can not watch what the actors say (do not misunderstand me, I speak English, but still an effort for me that prevents me from enjoying the film), if there are subtitles. I'm inevitably looking at them (and often I have little time to read) and I miss the images, gestures. It's almost like reading a script.


Some will say then, that the version I see is not genuine. I deny it categorically. Fortunately, we have in this country some superb translators (although criticized in a previous post) and dubbing actors and actresses, in my view, that do not let the final product miss a touch of drama. It is different, you claim? Well, different from what? Different from the version that the director had in mind? The editor’s version? Or maybe the Studios final version? Perhaps the dubbing changes it somehow, but I see no harm to the result, which ultimately is the result of a large group of people with creative talents.

From here my emphatic salute to the dubbing actors and actresses in the country and their wonderful work.

October 01, 2010

Transmeme XXVI

Many times I'm tempted to use other's quotes.
 
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Phototraps by Iván Cosos J.N.S.P.S. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.