3 stories

Over the last few days, I've run into these 3 stories - of variable lengths yet memorable arguments - and I'd like to share them with you:

• here's a simplified animated woman-presented story of the cycle of consumption;
• here's the 4min film on the occasion of Amnesty International's 2008 Report (almost 60 years after the UDHR);
• last but definitely not least: here's a peek into my most recent interest - international drug policy & its impact on human rights, in the form of a Human Rights Watch policy paper. (a topic on which I might dwell a bit longer...)
  

La multi ani, Corin! :)

Lis Day 63

location: home, under covers
working on: getting myself back on my feet - getting rid of the sore throat & co.

fuel: vitamin C, hot lemon tea & honey

on my mind: comparative law in practice - my first ELDD project
on the back burner: still haven't figured out the paperwork of my legal status here, over & above the permitted 90 Schengen days

Lis Day 50

As opposite to what large parts of the world are going through over the last weeks (including China's disastruous earthquake), in my little corner of the earth 'time flew as I was having fun'. That is not to say that the recent natural disasters spurred no intrinsc reactions on my part, but rather that, powerless as I currently am to do anything in their regard, I continued to do the only thing that I could possibly do at the time, namely to feel good about being here: I've been browsing through memories and photos of our recent visits to Belém, with its Tower and Monastery; to Sintra's intricately designed Quinta da Regaleira and its centuries-old Moorish Castle; and to Cabo da Roca's astonishingly simple natural beauty.
And then, last Saturday, on the occasion of J.'s birthday, fresher outlooks welcomed my eyes in Sesimbra and Cabo Espichel.
...
I think I've been as much of a tourist as I could, over the last 3 weeks. And that was good. I was looking forward to such holidays for a long while and, with some help from you, guys, I got them!
... but a series of email exchanges now says that I need to get back to working life. Which is also good, given that I can't fit a tourist's clothing for too long. So this is where I'm Now: looking forward to tomorrow, trying to figure out a source of income during what has been announced to be an unpaid internship and still dreaming about that Portuguese course.
I hope to make my future updates much more exciting, just as I hope to not have to put up another monologue over here! I'm kinda fed up with sending messages in bottles that remain unanswered (which IS mostly about my intensive round of emailing having occured recently and to whom almost no one bothered to reply...), meaning that any sort of writing initiatives on the part of whomever still reads this blog will be welcome. Obrigado! :)

the dysphoria of scientific methods...

... is mainly due to their post-factum character:

Climate scientists have begun to debate whether global warming is producing more powerful storms, after Nargis smashed into Myanmar -- brutally changing gear from a Category One to a Category Four cyclone just before it made landfall.

Nagris wasn't an isolated incident: Hurricane Katrina laid waste to parts of the U.S. Gulf Coast in 2005. And in 2007, the Arabian peninsula was hit by a super-cyclone, Gonu. Are these events -- massively costly in lives and treasure -- all linked? [...]

That's a question that causes fierce jousting among climate scientists. Experts agree that a single weather event cannot be pinned to climate change, which is part of a long-term pattern spanning decades or centuries. [...]

taken from the Discovery News.

another one hits the media

I came across this short doc as part of a brief exploration of online journalism; the authors are the Bombay Flying Club -

a new breed of online storytelling sites

[according to Mark Hamilton]. The style is somber, black & white photography and not claiming to be flashy by any means. Yet the impact of the story... I'm still afraid to assess.

Here's what I'm writing about: Bucharest Below Ground.

'Appy 'Day!

On your birthday, just try to relax!... [attached picture is exemplifying the final result to be achieved] :)
La Multi Ani, Alex! :)