Luis M. Rocha @lmrocha@qoto.org

A praia de #Carcavelos está cheia de manchas de óleo além da espuma que a assola há vários dias. Não sei se a origem é a lavagem ilegal de depósitos de barcos na barra, ou o rio que ainda desagua na praia a céu aberto quando chove?

@tiago I see your point. But to be clear I am not telling anybody to not criticize the USA. I am saying two things: 1) Avoid misrepresenting or exaggerating American views, especially from what one gathers from media and social media; 2) Avoid overinflating American issues when there is so much at home to worry about too. Regarding point 2) Europe is very hegemonic as well, especially Germany. Things like Dieselgate have had enormous impact on a global scale---so do European megacorps like Siemens, BP, Shell, LVMH, Philips, etc. A corollary of 2) that I am trying to express is that the focus on American issues has served to deflect a lot of harm European companies and governments do. Finally, who am I to tell you what to say? Everybody is entitled to comment, of course :) But American citizens (like everybody else) are also entitled to criticize the criticisms they receive, including by pointing to blind spots at their critics' homes.

@tiago I have no idea why you brought up the Holocaust since we were talking about modern day hypocrisy. I'm glad you clarified what you meant by "everybody." You and I don't actually know how people feel about FBI and Twitter in the USA. Most people are not on Twitter, and given how they vote, I disagree with your assessment of what most people think stateside. My larger point is that perhaps people should be focusing more on their local politics---thus my bringing up Dieselgate which directly affects the health and lifespan of people in European cities----than what Musk, Kanye, Hillary or anyone else in the USA thinks or does.

#BestOf2022 #music that made my radar. Top 40 Albums, Top 100 Tracks, Top 20 Remixes/Edits (from E-Trash's #DJ sets): https://bit.ly/CityZen22. The top tracks and remixes are assembled in a Spotify List as well: https://spoti.fi/3PSimS6.

2022 was a hardworking year, though full of fun travel and reconnection with friends and family---thank you vaccines! I was particularly delighted to get back to DJing to full clubs again. Every year is a great year for music, with such amazing tracks, even if perhaps fewer great albums. I am sure I missed really excellent stuff.

@tiago You are bringing a lot of side points. You said "Everyone in the US goes bananas for..." I was responding to that. Scholars, journalists, are part of everybody too. Moreover, I also disagree with your characterization of "everybody" in the US beyond those groups. I bring up Europe because I know it very well (I am dual citizen)---also very familiar with southern Africa as I was born and raised Angolan (I let that citizenship expire due to disagreement with such a corrupt, non-democratic government). After living (and attending university) in three European countries, I don't find the US population far more ignorant than the European population at all---as should also be clear by similar proportions of people on both sides voting for authoritarian parties, among many other similar choices.

I also disagree with you about Germany and other European countries when it comes to hypocrisy and corruption---though hypocrisy was the original focus. When European journalists and scholars uncover as much of their own demonstrable corruption as American journalists and scholars do about the US, then we can perhaps compare better. Otherwise it is just the usual game of using US self-scrutiny/reflection against it, without doing the housework first.

Re: Germany. Dieselgate, for one, has been an absolute disaster for the environment and population health. The amount of diesel in the air of European cities is a disgrace. I bet you most Germans and Europeans are not aware of the lying and corruption behind this scandal and still believe their car's "green-eco-diesel" engine logos. And this is just one example of the type of corporate/government complex that rules Germany and Europe in general. But Europeans (and everyone else for that matter) know a lot more---and talk a lot more---about Kanye West and Trump than about Martin Winterkorn or Schroeder :)

@tiago people have all sorts of reasons to be dismissive of the Twitter files, including knowing full well that the FBI does that and much worse. As for the self-reflection point, I disagree with you. No other country produces the amount of investigative journalism, scholarship, documentaries, movies, tv that are so self-critical. I wonder what proportion of Germans really grasp the amount of corruption their government engages in, from Gazprom to dieselgate to Uighur slave products? Or how much swedes know that Olof Palme used his disarmament meetings with Gandhi to press India to purchase arms? The Spanish and British monarchy sells favors to gulf nepocracies, etc, etc. Most european journalists and commentators just copy the news from the US, rarely investigating their own scandals---dieselgate and FIFAgate were uncovered stateside, for instance. Why is this? Because they are lazy or their governments don't let them?

@tiago the main media actors are not "everyone." You may want to calibrate what you mean by the latter. Most people in America very well know that the US government is actively involved in changing opinion abroad and internally. You just need to watch Hollywood to know about this---e.g. countless movies, shows and journalism pieces about FBI and CIA influence internally and externally. Also, these actions are not unique to the US among democracies. But I am convinced that the American democracy is more self-reflective about this than other democracies. I can tell you that Portugal very rarely debates how our government manipulates public opinion. I can think of many situations in countries like Sweden, Germany, France, UK, Switzerland, Netherlands that go much more unchecked than the debates, journalism, and art you see in the US. Finally, knowing this does not mean people should just accept to be manipulated by foreign powers, especially those who squash internal criticism much more.

Quem a festa do avante não convida são as @pussyrrriot. Aliás, seria excelente algum outro festival @NOS_Alive, @sbsr @Primavera_Sound ou outros convidassem. #PunkRock #protestsong
https://youtu.be/W4IsdnlbOr8

@melaniemitchell looking forward to the new chapters :)

@franciscorodrigues

I could not agree more! In our PhD program the introductory course I teach, students have to solve a black-box problem that use open-ended, without a single obvious solution. The only way you approach it is 1) collectively, 2) creatively, and 3) by making mistakes. After decades trained to passively receive knowledge and being told what the correct solution is, many students really have a hard time coping. I wish students at much earlier grades were allowed to engage in more open-ended, learn by mistake, creative and constructive knowledge contributions (not knowledge reception) .

@franciscorodrigues tell that to the crowd that wants to maximize time spent in schools where students have to sit at desks, passively receiving "knowledge" for hours on end...

@hirokisayama suggestions:

A new circle for ML, data and computational science

The evolution circle could be become a circle for theoretical and systems biology (could also need be called biological complexity or biomedical complexity). It would get some topics currently in other circles.

The circles could overlap, but it can easily get multidimensional ;)

Somewhere in the bio/evolution areas, there could be such topics as origin of information and codes, canalization, network medicine, connectomics and systems neuroscience, epidemic modelling (maybe also in computational science).

Just suggestions :)

@BLMG eles também têm muita resistência à vacinação por parte dos idosos. Não vai ser bom para o mundo inteiro uma onda assim tão grande lá.