dimarts, 31 de desembre del 2013

Cursa nº 17. Cursa dels nassos 2013 Barcelona

Participants classificats: 9668
Dones: 2341
Homes: 7327

Temps
: 45:20
Posició general: 2537
Posició sexe: 2415

Aparcament en el pàrking “natural” a la banda oest de Selva de Mar a sobre del cinturó. En la ment el record del temps que vaig trigar en sortir l’any passat per la qual cosa oriento bé el cotxe ben a prop de la sortida.

Temps força bo. Passejo per la zona de sortida prenent nota dels arcs inflables i considerant que, amb aquestes tanques, els calaixos seran escrupolosament respectats, error que comprovaré més tard.

Com que em penso recompensar amb un parell de donuts de xocolata, començo una recerca dels mateixos. Trobo un Mercadona però no toquen el tema. A un “paqui” que m’ofereix “donetes” intento explicar-li que no és el mateix. Finalment, en un barri modern, desangelat i sense l’estructura mediterrània  (a pocs metres del mar...) he d’acabar en el Alcampo del Centre Comercial de torn (que sols entrar ja m’entren les picors). Amb l’objectiu aconseguit torno al cotxe a deixar-los i a inventar algun sistema per lligar la clau-ou del Citroën al pantaló. Deuria aconseguir alguna samarreta amb butxaca perquè qualsevol dia tindré un disgust (de moment ja he perdut, en cursa, un DNI). Ho resolc lligant amb tres nusos (que es desfaran de forma misteriosa) i ficant-la dins una bosseta lligada am un imperdible a la butxaca del pantaló.

Un hora abans ja hi ha gent escalfant. Com sempre tinc la sensació que fan més distància en l’escalfament que en la mateixa cursa. Jo em reservo deu minutets abans d’entrar als calaixos amb el meu “trote cochinero” i algun estirament que sempre em va bé.

Vaig cap la meva banderola groga i veig que hi gent que estan separant les tanques i entrant. No ho acabo d’entendre però vaig a cercar la banderola amb la noia de seguretat i entro. Em fico pel mig del meu calaix i veig, que –ara per l’altra banda- estan fent el mateix. La gent entra a “borbotones” (ho trobo més descriptiu que “a dojo”). Em comencen a entrar ganes de no repetir en cap cursa amb tanta gentada i recordo que encara em queda Corte Inglés. La de Bombers, cal reconèixer-ho, es més seriosa en aquest aspecte.

No ens fem mala sang que hem vingut a passar-ho bé. Comença puntualment la cursa que faig en un punt molt més avançat que l’any passat. No veig la llebre de 45 però sembla que un cop passada la línia de sortida la cosa tira. Girem pel litoral i em poso com a primer referent l’edifici de Gas Natural on l’any passat ja estava una mica cansat. Tinc davant una bona estona un senyor amb un cul de plàstic i ben aviat un Light Buzz o similar. A prop del cementiri no se si cal anar per la banda mar o tirar recte. Un munt de gent comencen a retallar per la gespa, senyal inequívoca que no es per allí. Segueixo pel asfalt fins la rotonda tocant el cementiri. Sols un noi l’envolta. Em quedo despistat –literalment- i l’agafo per la part interior amb la sospita d’un mini-retall –però res a veure amb el maxi-retall del 99% restant.

Arribem a l’edifici de Gas Natural i les sensacions són infinitament millors que l’any passat. Passem per davant del masteler en homenatge al General Moragues.  Pugem per la Plaça Pau Vila i girem cap a Marques de l’Argentera amb els retalladors en estat pur. Estació de França. Un senyor d’aspecte indi amb una maleta al cap està estorat plantejant-se com  s’ho farà per arribar a l’Estació. Tot seguit Passeig de Picasso. L’acudit d’un dels que puja avisant als que ja baixen que “vais al revés!!” està ja molt escoltat però, a aquestes alçades qualsevol cosa fa gràcia.

Tot hom ho pensa però algú ho diu “on es gira?”. Al final fem el gir i. Ho faig bastant obert i no percebo cap canvi de ritme. Veig la llebre del 45 pujant quan jo ja baixo. Encara faré un bon temps. Ara s’ha de vigilar amb les separacions pels ciclistes però tot hom va per la part dreta a la banda del zoo. En el km 5, en el crono, una estretor considerable procura un cert embussament.

El gir a Marina és una nova ocasió d’or pels retalladors. El km 7 apareix tot seguit i el ritme està força bé. A partir d’aquest moment comencen alguns moments de pujada i baixada que acaben en la Diagonal.  

Es fa llarga, però evidentment res a veure amb el que ja vam fer en la Cursa de la Guàrdia Urbana. Cercant el km 8 veig l’avi 1714 -que feia curses que no veia-. Motiva per moltes raons, entre elles que efectivament el 8 ja està superat i no falta molt. Seria interessant algun tipus de lluminós que ens marqués el gir. Finalment, com sempre, tot arriba i girem per Selva de Mar i ja es veu el crono a banda d’un munt d’inflables que no havia vist al sortir. La meva referència per esprintar és l’arc de la Diputació i així ho faig.

45: 20 Llàstima, no ho acabo d’entendre i veig una llebre. No pot ser!. Ah, és la de 40 però, en aquell moment me n’adono que la llebre del 45 probablement ha sortit bastant més tard que jo. En qualsevol cas, 20 segons, a aquestes alçades, no té gaire importància. Evidentment és un ritme que no podré aplicar en la mitja però els 10 ja comencen a ser vells coneguts.

Recordant el show de l’any passat en el pàrking, no recullo la beguda –he vist que hi havia coca-cola i em fa molt de fàstic- i d’aigua ja tinc al cotxe. Faig un petit trot cap a l’aparcament i percebo una sensació estranya de rebot en les cames. Vaig més a poc a poc, aconsegueixo sortir ràpid del aparcament, encaro la ronda, una mica d’aigua i... els donuts de xocolata!!!

Negatiu:
Desori en els calaixos
Retalladors habituals.
Estretor en el km 5.
El volum de gent no seria un problema si no fos pel desori en els calaixos i els que tenen la virtut de córrer en paral·lel fent barrera com en el parchís.
Samarreta sense cap referència al 2013, es a dir, intemporal.
Obsequis (?): Per mi, descomptes per consumicions superiors a 40€ ja se’ls poden quedar.
Pocs llocs per llençar les ampolles d’aigua. Com sempre preocupació pels que van descalçats (alguns hi havia)
En algun sector, com just abans del Cementiri, no quedava clar quin era el camí.
Caldria afegir cintes per evitar les retallades.

Positiu:
Recollida del dorsal i samarreta perfecta.
Ambient festiu.
Marcatge dels kilòmetres.

Recorregut conegut però amb alguns trams a millorar sobre tot el Passeig de Circumval·lació.

diumenge, 29 de desembre del 2013

José Luís Sampedro en Singulars de TV3

Feia temps que el volia veure i avui ha estat el dia. Cal destacar aquest bonic pensament:
Las leyes son expresión de la voluntad del poder.

Igualment queda apuntat "Hace falta un muchacho" de Artur Cuyàs Armengol:
http://www.casadellibro.com/libro-hace-falta-un-muchacho/9789700774510/1998659



dissabte, 28 de desembre del 2013

Bukowski's choice

In an unpublished letter to Carl Weissner, dated "sometime nov. 1969," Bukowski explains that "I have one of two choices--stay in the postoffice and go crazy...or stay out here and play at writer and starve. I have decided to starve."
http://web.archive.org/web/20090326130949/http://www.jaydougherty.com/bukowski/index.html

dimarts, 24 de desembre del 2013

Afegir un disc dur. Diferència entre IDE i SATA

Quan no tens ni idea d'informàtica, com és el meu cas, però has estat anomenat el cap de sistemes de la familia, un dels casos més freqüents pot ser aprofitar un disc dur d'un ordinador vell per passar-ho a un altre.

La cosa es bastant simple. Si el PC sols té un disc dur de tipus IDE, afegeixes el nou treient-li el jumper. Al treure-li el jumper el configures com a esclau. Connectes els dos cables (la cinta i el connector de 4 pins) i ja està.

Un parell de temes:

IDE o ATA versus SATA

El IDE o ATA o fins i tot PATA és el més típic, més vell i més barat.
El SATA és millor, més poc freqüent i més car.

Aquesta bonica imatge deixa clar quin és quin:


Pel que fa al jumper, parlant del tipus IDE, és una peça de plàstic que es pot canviar de posició en el sector amb 4 parells de pins que hi ha entre la cinta de 40 pins (de fet 39, perquè al mig falta un) i la connexió de cables multicolors. El mateix disc indica com convertir-ho en esclau (estem considerant que és el segon disc i que hi ha un principal, amb el sistema operatiu anomenat "mestre).

Aquesta és la disposició típica, on per fer-ho esclau cal treure el jumper de plàstic.

diumenge, 15 de desembre del 2013

Cursa nº 16 Sagrera XXXVI edició

Participants classificats: 1068
Dones: 175
Homes: 893

Temps: 44:33
Posició general: 380
Posició sexe: 365
Posició categoria: 106/261

Ja pràcticament net del refredat i desprès d'intentar infructuosament trobar aparcament en els llocs indicats per l'organització trobo un bonic forat en el Passatge Bofarull. Un cop enllestida la maniobra me n'adono que està prohibit aparcar just per la cursa. Amb tot de respecte, cap el parking de pagament... (evidentment, quan vam passar durant la cursa, en el lloc que jo havia respectat hi havia cotxes aparcats)

Em quedo una estoneta al cotxe perquè el termòmetre marca 5 graus i, a les 09:00 surto al carrer. Començo a tremolar i me n'adono que he oblidat el buff. La única solució es començar a trotar més per superar el fred que per escalfar. En un plis m'uneixo a tot una corrua de senyors i senyores amb indumentàries llampants que, com si fossin hare-krishnes, comencem a fer una mena de processó al voltant d'una plaça.

Sembla que començo a reaccionar i cap a les 09:20 busco el calaix groc amb poc èxit. Barreja considerable. Tant això com l'apinyament m'han deixat de sorprendre. Sigui com sigui estic bastant a prop de la línia de sortida.

Disparen i sortim. Casi em mato en els primers 10 metres però aconsegueixo no entrebancar. Suau baixada i al agafar la Sagrera "cataplonc". Ha caigut una valla amb un soroll bastant escandalós. Tot seguit es comencen a sentir crits de "cuidaduuu" i similars agressions a la llengua però molt eficients. El ritme -dels altres- és molt fort. Com és habitual em començo a deprimir i em dedico a fixar-me en l'arquitectura. Cal dir que alguns edificis són espectaculars. D'altres em recorden els anys de primer de carrera on junt amb alguns companys que vivien al barri vam fer el treball d'antropologia. Entre aquests pensaments i els continus viratges en un no res estem al km 5. El temps sembla molt millor del que esperava. Donat que ja conec el 50 per cent del recorregut i estic bé de forces cal augmentar la velocitat en la segona part. Fidel a la tradició rebutjo educadament l'aigua i esprinto per evitar els que sí que en volen.

Dit i fet, estic a punt d'arribar a la meta i com es habitual, veure un slogan de "corrent fem barça" em motiva per esprintar -cada dia suporto menys qualsevol referència al futbol professional- Torno a estar en el grup sub45. Aigua, pera i mandarina i cap a casa.

Negatiu:
Desori en els calaixos
Retalladors en Passatge Bofarull. Al ser tants els que retallaven, al girar en 90 graus, els organitzadors m'indicaven el camí com si m'hagués perdut. Cal dir que, en la segona volta, hi ha hagut tot un seguit de corredors que m'han seguit respectant el traçat sense retallar.
En el Carrer Pacífic, ha hagut algun moment amb una mica de perill per l'estretor.

Positiu:
Cursa relativament "familiar" pel volum de participants
Molt agradable al tenir continus viratges
Organització molt agradable
Un bon detall de que hi hagués samarretes per emprovar.
Bon marcatge dels km tant a terra com en vertical.

dimarts, 10 de desembre del 2013

Pulp Fiction. Mia's joke catch up

Phrasal verb: catch up

Mia: Vincent! You still wanna hear my 'Fox Force Five' joke?

Vincent: Sure, but I think I’m still a little too petrified to laugh.

Mia: Uh-huh. You won't laugh, because it’s not funny. But if you still wanna hear it, I’ll tell it.

Vincent: I can’t wait.

Mia: Okay. Three tomatoes are walking down the street, a poppa tomato, a momma tomato, and a little baby tomato. The baby tomato is lagging behind the poppa and momma tomato. The poppa tomato gets mad, goes over to the baby tomato and stamps on him -

(stamps the ground)

… and says: 'catch up.'

They both smile, but neither laughs.

Mia: See ya 'round, Vince.


Pulp Fiction. Quentin Tarantino. Faber and Faber. London-Boston. pag. 83

dilluns, 9 de desembre del 2013

TED Sir Ken Robinson. Schools kill creativity


Good morning. How are you? It's been great, hasn't it? I've been blown away [impress] by the whole thing. In fact, I'm leaving. (Laughter) There have been three themes, haven't there, running through the conference, which are relevant to what I want to talk about. One is the extraordinary evidence of human creativity in all of the presentations that we've had and in all of the people here. Just the variety of it and the range [limits] of it. The second is that it's put us in a place where we have no idea what's going to happen, in terms of the future. No idea how this may play out [how it will go]

I have an interest in education -- actually, what I find is everybody has an interest in education. Don't you? I find this very interesting. If you're at a dinner party, and you say you work in education -- actually, you're not often at dinner parties, frankly, if you work in education. (Laughter) You're not asked. And you're never asked back [invite], curiously. That's strange to me. But if you are, and you say to somebody, you know, they say, "What do you do?" and you say you work in education, you can see the blood run from their face. They're like, "Oh my God," you know, "Why me? My one night out all week." (Laughter) But if you ask about their education, they pin you to the wall. Because it's one of those things that goes deep with people, am I right? Like religion, and money and other things. I have a big interest in education, and I think we all do. We have a huge vested interest in it, partly because it's education that's meant to take us into this future that we can't grasp [grip firmly]. If you think of it, children starting school this year will be retiring in 2065. Nobody has a clue --despite all the expertise that's been on parade [march of troops] for the past four days -- what the world will look like in five years' time. And yet [still] we're meant to be educating them for it. So the unpredictability, I think, is extraordinary.

And the third part of this is that we've all agreed, nonetheless, [despite that] on the really extraordinary capacities that children have -- their capacities for innovation. I mean, Sirena last night was a marvel, wasn't she? Just seeing what she could do. And she's exceptional, but I think she's not, so to speak, exceptional in the whole of childhood. What you have there is a person of extraordinary dedication who found a talent. And my contention is, all kids have tremendous talents. And we squander [to spend wastefully or extravagantly] them, pretty ruthlessly. [feeling or showing no mercy] So I want to talk about education and I want to talk about creativity. My contention [a point asserted in argument] is that creativity now is as important in education as literacy, and we should treat it with the same status. (Applause) Thank you. That was it, by the way. Thank you very much. (Laughter) So, 15 minutes left. Well, I was born ... no. (Laughter)

I heard a great story recently -I love telling it- of a little girl who was in a drawing lesson. She was six and she was at the back, drawing, and the teacher said this little girl hardly ever paid attention, and in this drawing lesson she did. The teacher was fascinated and she went over to her and she said, "What are you drawing?" And the girl said, "I'm drawing a picture of God." And the teacher said, "But nobody knows what God looks like." And the girl said, "They will in a minute." (Laughter)

When my son was four in England -actually he was four everywhere, to be honest- (Laughter) if we're being strict about it, wherever he went, he was four that year. He was in the Nativity play. Do you remember the story? No, it was big. It was a big story. Mel Gibson did the sequel. You may have seen it: "Nativity II." But James got the part of Joseph, which we were thrilled [a sudden sensation of excitement and pleasure] about. We considered this to be one of the lead parts. We had the place crammed [fill completely, stuff] full of agents in T-shirts: "James Robinson IS Joseph!" (Laughter) He didn't have to speak, but you know the bit where the three kings come in. They come in bearing gifts, and they bring gold, frankincense and myrrh. This really happened. We were sitting there and I think they just went out of sequence, because we talked to the little boy afterward and we said, "You OK with that?" And he said, "Yeah, why? Was that wrong?" They just switched, that was it. Anyway, the three boys came in -four-year-olds with tea towels on their heads- and they put these boxes down, and the first boy said, "I bring you gold." And the second boy said, "I bring you myrrh." And the third boy said, "Frank sent this." (Laughter) [The kid confused frankincense with “Frank sent this”.]

What these things have in common is that kids will take a chance. If they don't know, they'll have a go. Am I right? They're not frightened of being wrong. Now, I don't mean to say that being wrong is the same thing as being creative. What we do know is, if you're not prepared to be wrong, you'll never come up with anything original -if you're not prepared to be wrong-. And by the time they get to be adults, most kids have lost that capacity. They have become frightened of being wrong. And we run our companies like this, by the way. We stigmatize mistakes. And we're now running national education systems where mistakes are the worst thing you can make. And the result is that we are educating people out of their creative capacities. Picasso once said this -- he said that all children are born artists. The problem is to remain an artist as we grow up. I believe this passionately, that we don't grow into creativity, we grow out of it. Or rather, we get educated out if it. So why is this?

I lived in Stratford-on-Avon until about five years ago. In fact, we moved from Stratford to Los Angeles. So you can imagine what a seamless [continuous] transition that was. (Laughter) Actually, we lived in a place called Snitterfield, just outside Stratford, which is where Shakespeare's father was born. Are you struck by a new thought? I was. You don't think of Shakespeare having a father, do you? Do you? Because you don't think of Shakespeare being a child, do you? Shakespeare being seven? I never thought of it. I mean, he was seven at some point. He was in somebody's English class, wasn't he? How annoying [displease] would that be? (Laughter) "Must try harder." Being sent to bed by his dad, you know, to Shakespeare, "Go to bed, now," to William Shakespeare, "and put the pencil down. And stop speaking like that. It's confusing everybody." (Laughter)

Anyway, we moved from Stratford to Los Angeles, and I just want to say a word about the transition, actually. My son didn't want to come. I've got two kids. He's 21 now; my daughter's 16. He didn't want to come to Los Angeles. He loved it, but he had a girlfriend in England. This was the love of his life, Sarah. He'd known her for a month. Mind you, they'd had their fourth anniversary, because it's a long time when you're 16. Anyway, he was really upset on the plane, and he said, "I'll never find another girl like Sarah." And we were rather pleased about that, frankly, because she was the main reason we were leaving the country.(Laughter)

But something strikes you when you move to America and when you travel around the world: Every education system on earth has the same hierarchy of subjects. Every one. Doesn't matter where you go. You'd think it would be otherwise, but it isn't. At the top are mathematics and languages, then the humanities, and the bottom are the arts. Everywhere on Earth. And in pretty much every system too, there's a hierarchy within the arts. Art and music are normally given a higher status in schools than drama and dance. There isn't an education system on the planet that teaches dance everyday to children the way we teach them mathematics. Why? Why not? I think this is rather important. I think math is very important, but so is dance. Children dance all the time if they're allowed to, we all do. We all have bodies, don't we? Did I miss a meeting? (Laughter) Truthfully,[telling or expressing the truth] what happens is, as children grow up, we start to educate them progressively from the waist up.[ the middle part of the human body, in this case, the upper] And then we focus on their heads. And slightly [in small measure or degree ]to one side.

If you were to visit education, as an alien, and say "What's it for, public education?" I think you'd have to conclude -- if you look at the output, who really succeeds by this, who does everything that they should, who gets all the brownie points, [approval you get from your teacher or boss by doing extra work or special favours ]who are the winners -- I think you'd have to conclude the whole purpose of public education throughout the world is to produce university professors. Isn't it? They're the people who come out the top. And I used to be one, so there. (Laughter) And I like university professors, but you know, we shouldn't hold them up as the high-water mark of all human achievement.[something that has been accomplished] They're just a form of life, another form of life. But they're rather curious, and I say this out of affection for them. There's something curious about professors in my experience -- not all of them, but typically -- they live in their heads. They live up there, and slightly to one side. They're disembodied, you know, in a kind of literal way. They look upon their body as a form of transport for their heads, don't they? (Laughter) It's a way of getting their head to meetings. If you want real evidence of out-of-body experiences, by the way, get yourself along to a residential conference of senior academics, and pop into the discotheque on the final night. (Laughter) And there you will see it -- grown men and women writhing [to twist] uncontrollably, off the beat, waiting until it ends so they can go home and write a paper about it.

Now our education system is predicated on the idea of academic ability. And there's a reason. The whole system was invented -- around the world, there were no public systems of education, really, before the 19th century. They all came into being to meet the needs of industrialism. So the hierarchy is rooted on two ideas. Number one, that the most useful subjects for work are at the top. So you were probably steered [to direct the course of (a vehicle or vessel) with a steering wheel, rudder, etc] benignly away from things at school when you were a kid, things you liked, on the grounds that you would never get a job doing that. Is that right? Don't do music, you're not going to be a musician; don't do art, you won't be an artist. Benign advice -- now, profoundly mistaken. The whole world is engulfed [to immerse] in a revolution. And the second is academic ability, which has really come to dominate our view of intelligence, because the universities designed the system in their image. If you think of it, the whole system of public education around the world is a protracted [to extend in time] process of university entrance. And the consequence is that many highly talented, brilliant, creative people think they're not, because the thing they were good at school wasn't valued, or was actually stigmatized. And I think we can't afford [to be able to do or spare something, esp without incurring financial difficulties or without risk of undesirable consequences] to go on that way.

In the next 30 years, according to UNESCO, more people worldwide will be graduating through education than since the beginning of history. More people, and it's the combination of all the things we've talked about -- technology and its transformation effect on work, and demography and the huge explosion in population. Suddenly, degrees aren't worth [to have a value] anything. Isn't that true? When I was a student, if you had a degree, you had a job. If you didn't have a job it's because you didn't want one. And I didn't want one, frankly. (Laughter) But now kids with degrees are often heading home to carry on playing video games, because you need an MA where the previous job required a BA, and now you need a PhD for the other. It's a process of academic inflation. And it indicates the whole structure of education is shifting beneath our feet. We need to radically rethink our view of intelligence.

We know three things about intelligence. One, it's diverse. We think about the world in all the ways that we experience it. We think visually, we think in sound, we think kinesthetically. We think in abstract terms, we think in movement. Secondly, intelligence is dynamic. If you look at the interactions of a human brain, as we heard yesterday from a number of presentations, intelligence is wonderfully interactive. The brain isn't divided into compartments. In fact, creativity -- which I define as the process of having original ideas that have value -- more often than not comes about through the interaction of different disciplinary ways of seeing things.

The brain is intentionally -- by the way, there's a shaft of nerves that joins the two halves [plural of half] of the brain called the corpus callosum. It's thicker [dense] in women. Following off from Helen yesterday, I think this is probably why women are better at multi-tasking. Because you are, aren't you? There's a raft of research, but I know it from my personal life. If my wife is cooking a meal at home -- which is not often, thankfully. (Laughter) But you know, she's doing -- no, she's good at some things -- but if she's cooking, you know, she's dealing with people on the phone, she's talking to the kids, she's painting the ceiling, she's doing open-heart surgery over here. If I'm cooking, the door is shut, the kids are out, the phone's on the hook 
, if she comes in I get annoyed [irritate]. I say, "Terry, please, I'm trying to fry an egg in here. Give me a break." (Laughter) Actually, you know that old philosophical thing, if a tree falls in a forest and nobody hears it, did it happen? Remember that old chestnut?[ an old or stale joke] I saw a great t-shirt really recently which said, "If a man speaks his mind in a forest, and no woman hears him, is he still wrong?" (Laughter)

And the third thing about intelligence is, it's distinct. I'm doing a new book at the moment called "Epiphany," which is based on a series of interviews with people about how they discovered their talent. I'm fascinated by how people got to be there. It's really prompted [refresh the memory] by a conversation I had with a wonderful woman who maybe most people have never heard of; she's called Gillian Lynne -- have you heard of her? Some have. She's a choreographer and everybody knows her work. She did "Cats" and "Phantom of the Opera." She's wonderful. I used to be on the board of the Royal Ballet in England, as you can see. Anyway, Gillian and I had lunch one day and I said, "Gillian, how'd you get to be a dancer?" And she said it was interesting; when she was at school, she was really hopeless. [without skill or ability] And the school, in the '30s, wrote to her parents and said, "We think Gillian has a learning disorder." She couldn't concentrate; she was fidgeting.
I think now they'd say she had ADHD. Wouldn't you? But this was the 1930s, and ADHD hadn't been invented at this point. It wasn't an available condition. (Laughter) People weren't aware they could have that.

Anyway, she went to see this specialist. So, this oak-paneled room, and she was there with her mother, and she was led and sat on this chair at the end, and she sat on her hands for 20 minutes while this man talked to her mother about all the problems Gillian was having at school. And at the end of it -- because she was disturbing people; her homework was always late; and so on, little kid of eight -- in the end, the doctor went and sat next to Gillian and said, "Gillian, I've listened to all these things that your mother's told me, and I need to speak to her privately." He said, "Wait here. We'll be back; we won't be very long," and they went and left her. But as they went out the room, he turned on the radio that was sitting on his desk. And when they got out the room, he said to her mother, "Just stand and watch her." And the minute they left the room, she said, she was on her feet, moving to the music. And they watched for a few minutes and he turned to her mother and said, "Mrs. Lynne, Gillian isn't sick; she's a dancer. Take her to a dance school."

I said, "What happened?" She said, "She did. I can't tell you how wonderful it was. We walked in this room and it was full of people like me. People who couldn't sit still. People who had to move to think." Who had to move to think. They did ballet; they did tap; they did jazz; they did modern; they did contemporary. She was eventually auditioned for the Royal Ballet School; she became a soloist; she had a wonderful career at the Royal Ballet. She eventually graduated from the Royal Ballet School and founded her own company -- the Gillian Lynne Dance Company -- met Andrew Lloyd Weber. She's been responsible for some of the most successful musical theatre productions in history; she's given pleasure to millions; and she's a multi-millionaire. Somebody else might have put her on medication and told her to calm down.

Now, I think ... (Applause) What I think it comes to is this: Al Gore spoke the other night about ecology and the revolution that was triggered by Rachel Carson. I believe our only hope for the future is to adopt a new conception of human ecology, one in which we start to reconstitute our conception of the richness of human capacity. Our education system has mined our minds in the way that we strip-mine [to take or pull (the covering, clothes, etc) off (oneself, another person, or thing)] the earth: for a particular commodity. And for the future, it won't serve us. We have to rethink the fundamental principles on which we're educating our children. There was a wonderful quote by Jonas Salk, who said, "If all the insects were to disappear from the earth, within 50 years all life on Earth would end. If all human beings disappeared from the earth, within 50 years all forms of life would flourish."And he's right.


What TED celebrates is the gift of the human imagination. We have to be careful now that we use this gift wisely [prudently] and that we avert [prevent from occurring] some of the scenarios that we've talked about. And the only way we'll do it is by seeing our creative capacities for the richness they are and seeing our children for the hope that they are. And our task is to educate their whole being, so they can face this future. By the way -- we may not see this future, but they will. And our job is to help them make something of it. Thank you very much.

http://www.lavanguardia.com/lacontra/20101103/54063818455/la-creatividad-se-aprende-igual-que-se-aprende-a-leer.html

diumenge, 8 de desembre del 2013

Montaigne, precursor dels runners

Avui, desprès d'un molt agradable entrenament al sol del migdia, tot escoltant el recomanable "Ofici de viure" de Catalunya Ràdio (amb Eva Ferrer i Marta Centellas -que participarà en la mitja marató de Barcelona-  http://www.catradio.cat/audio/775915/Beneficis-psicologics-de-correr ) dedicat als beneficis de córrer m'he trobat, llegint a Montaigne, amb aquesta bonica cita:

"No lo emprendo [el camino] para volver, ni para terminarlo; empréndolo sólo para moverme mientras me plazca el movimiento. Y paséome por pasearme. Aquellos que corren tras un beneficio o una liebre no corren; corren aquellos que corren vallas y para ejercitarse en la carrera."

Càpitol IX. De la vanidad. pàgina 223 Ensayos III Edició María Dolores Picazo Ed. Cátedra 8º ed.

i ja, parlant de llibres, m'apunto per llegir més endavant el de Eva Ferrer Vidal-Barraquer "Canvia de vida, posa't a córrer" que sembla bastant interessant i disponible a Laie per 17 €

ISBN - 978-84-15695-21-9
editorial: ANGLE EDITORIAL
año de edición: 2013
formato: RÚSTICA
páginas: 240
preu: 17 €

"Avui en dia córrer està de moda: s´ha convertit en hàbit per a uns, en teràpia per a uns altres o simplement en un plaer per a la majoria. Moltes persones hi dediquen bona part del seu temps lliure. Però, ho fem de la manera més adequada? Córrer, és convenient per a mi? Com puc millorar la meva tècnica? Quina importància tenen la roba, les vambes i els altres accessoris? Quina distancia i quin ritme he d´assolir? Quins beneficis físics i psicològics aporta a la meva salut? Aquest llibre dóna resposta a aquestes i moltes altres preguntes. Mitjançant explicacions pràctiques i senzilles, la doctora Eva Ferrer Vidal-Barraquer, especialista en medicina esportiva, et guiarà perquè aprenguis a córrer bé, milloraràs la teva tècnica i sabràs escoltar el teu cos perquè amb el running milloris la teva qualitat de vida. 
El llibre més complet sobre running escrit per una especialista en medicina esportiva, amb pautes d´entrenament per a tothom: principiants i iniciats.
Córrer està de moda: fes-ho bé per la teva salut."


diumenge, 1 de desembre del 2013

Córrer seriosament (10) Novembre 2013

266 Km al novembre

Novament el número esfènic 266, el mateix que al juny 2013.

En cartera pel mes de desembre la 36ª Cursa de La Sagrera i la Cursa dels Nassos.

1925 km acumulats des del maig i 1556 en les Mizuno. Per tant, em falten 5 Km per -sortint des de Plaça Catalunya- arribar al primer poble de Polonia: Slubice.