Well, I kept reading about the penis enlargment pills thing, and (don't miss it!) it turns out that the
main ingredient of the pills is some plant called "Horny Goat Weed"... I can't help laughing either.
Here's some more literature:
"Horny Goat Weed was discovered centuries ago when Chinese goat
farmers noticed all their male goats, young and old, experienced a kind of sexual rejuvenation after
eating the Epimedium plant."
I am even thinking of ordering this thing, seriously, this guys rock :)

By the way, the quote in the previous post is from http://www.nudrivescience.tc/grx/?inks&veri
I don't want to be accused of high literature plagiarism.

So yes, I decide to click on one of this spam ads that comes through hotmail so often...
and I was struck by this sentence: "Penis enlargement as we know it will never be the same"
I am gonna start reading this emails more often... they are much more fun than some of the
emails from my friends :)

What about www.toblogornottoblog.com .... here's a thought
(again, nothing else to do :)

To blog or not to blog, that is the question
(sorry, I got nothing else to do)

Ah, and leaving London makes me think that I also say bye to super broadband access from campus... back to
good old dial up access... well, actually crappy dial up. I hope this blog doesn't suffer much from this change... :)

Tomorrow's the big day, or sort of. Actually, not a big deal. I am leaving London, the place from
which I started this blog, and in the last two months, a place of big happiness too... I never
thought I could miss London, but certainly I have to say that it's a great place.
I'm quite glad I changed my mind about London... you know, when I live in a place, I like
to leave it with some sort of melancholy and regret... otherwise, it would be like I wasted
my life this year...
So if you plan to go there, drop me a line and I'll tell you some places to go... Start with Covent
Garden, on a Saturday's evening, having a beer and watching people walk by... and the following
day, greet your eyes with some Regents Park, and the bookstores around.
Bye, London.

Lately, my eye's been hurting quite a lot, since I've spent long times before the computer.
Does anybody know how to get rid of that? I can't imagine working all day in front of
a computer if I'm to go with this pain forever...

I don't know about this terrorist market thing...
There's an article here by UC Berkeley information economist Hal Varian defending the Pentagon's project, something not easy given all the attacks it has received.
To me, it is just the proof of what some economists would like the world to be. They study a theory that says that markets converge to equilibrium eventually, and then there you have them wanting to set up markets everywhere. But there's a limit to what a price can tell. And there's information asymmetry as well.

I really like the pictures in Oates from Tanger photolog. I can't believe he can get such quality with such a small camera.
Check out this one, quite funny.

I just read an interview with Santiago Lario where he claims that there seems to be a gene responsible of love... (the interview's in Spanish, so you'd better get learning Spanish if you haven't done so before :)
It looks like recently there is an interest among scientists to explore issues traditionally left to poets and thinkers in general. Just yesterday, I read another interview where another scientist, Francisco J. Rubia, claimed that spirituality has its origins in some mechanism of the brain.
I welcome these approaches of science to the more human side of humans. While I do not completely agree with a radical rationalization of the sentimental, I think that science has interesting things to say here. At least, it opens new ways to explore such domains, ways that widen the metaphorical fields of literature as well. So, if it wasn't clear enough, I guess literature cannot ignore science anymore, and vice versa.
Some might say it's another proof of the post modern era that we are supposedly living in. I say it's a celebration of knowledge about the human, far more interesting to me that seeking to explain the movement of planets. As interesting as this is, I like to think of scientists that for a while stop to think about humans rather than rocks.
But let's not forget the words of Spanish poet Becquer, who once wrote "as long as there is a mistery for Men, there will be poetry". Nice verse. Will anybody try to explore the brain mechanisms responsible for the creation of beauty through words? I'm sure there is one, already.

I wrote that the other day, kind of like it, specially the last sentence:
"In the airports, there is a line where passengers have to separate from
their relatives, friends or
whoever went to say bye to them. "Acompañantes", we say in Spanish. I don't
know what's the word in English. There is a clerk there checking passports,
and many times the persons accompanying the passenger ask the clerk whether
they can continue a bit more, maybe until the boarding door. Systematically,
the clerk has to answer "no". Then, the passenger and their relatives, maybe
the significant other, hug and kiss and even cry, and pronounce these words
that are always pronounced in such moments. And they do as if they say
definitely bye, but then hug again and try to make the most of 30 seconds
more...
I wonder what the clerk thinks. I am sure he/she has to see the same scene
at least 20 times a day. I wonder whether they feel sad, or they don't feel
anything at all.
Yesterday, I looked at the clerk, and she seemed to say something to me with
her eyes. She seemed to say I have to see that everyday, and I don't like
it. She seemed to feel the same impotence I felt, the same "things are like
this, not that they are reasonable, they are just like this, and you, you or
me can't change anything at all."
A border, like a cementry, is a sad place to work at."

More from Wired Furthermore, this one really funny (with all my due respect for those involved in the story)
"08:29 AM Jul. 30, 2003 PT Vincent Canby, esteemed film critic for The New York Times, wrote a fine appreciation of comedian Bob Hope, who died the other day at 100. In it, he dutifully recounted Hope's long list of accomplishments and the salient moments of his long life. Of course, Canby must have written it a while ago, since he himself has been dead since October 2000. No doubt Canby, and the editors of the Times, expected the critic to outlive the comedian. Canby was a mere 76 when he departed this mortal coil. "

This is from Wired Furthermore, 31st July
"The highway to hell has just met its maker. That's right, New Mexico's Route 666, aka "Highway to Hell" or "Satan's Highway," was formally re-christened Route 491 on Wednesday. "After 77 years of concern and discontent we have finally removed any reference to the devil from this highway," said Gov. Bill Richardson. The infernal stretch of road runs through mountain valleys for just over 100 miles in the northwest part of the state, and has some of the highest fatalities per mile of any highway in New Mexico. Most of the 666 highway signs were stolen after the name change was announced in May. Officials blame thieves looking for souvenirs. Or was it the devil?"

Now there's this guy from New Zealand, Peter Lynds, who apparently has published
a paper as important as Einstein's 1905 one. Ah, and he only went to university
for six months. That's why some physicists wouldn't let him publish the paper because he
didn't have a degree. Really, I hate this academic world. There should be another way.