Wikimedia Foundation

A couple of reasons to donate:

– I bet you have already used Wikipedia. More than once.
– Isn’t it good to be able to find what you want, whenever you want, without having to pay anything or with adds everywhere?
– We should support the people that are just trying to make the world a better place. No agenda.

 Help to keep knowledge free and accessible for all.

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Is internet making us socially dumber?

Here’s a nice article about this fact, with which I very much agree. Internet is an easy way not to feel lonely and, at the same time, self-preserving. But it all comes with a cost, and in my opinion, this cost is too high. Having online relationships instead of real ones sounds a lot easier. You can answer that message whenever you feel like it (if you ever do), it’s easier to be polite when you really don’t want to, and you don’t have to deal with your friend’s problems unless he states it explicitly in written terms. But nothing substitutes a personal contact. Looking at the persons eyes and hearing the tone one uses to say something is all part of the communication, and it gives you much more information than any set of words can in a written message. I am afraid that, since people are transferring more and more their relationships to virtual ones, we’ll all loose the ability to read the signs when we speak with each other personally.

For the sake of the future, please watch your kids and how much time they spend on this virtual lives. It should never *ever* replace the real one.

Social responsability

There is only one Brazilian channel on the cable TV here in Vienna. It is not the best one (actually, it’s very very bad), but I was missing listening some Portuguese and tired of listening to news about Syria and Libya all day long. So I watched for a few minutes and saw this part when they help really poor people. There was this lady with four kids and all she wanted was a hot dog kart, so she could stop working as a cleaning lady and start a hot dog business. Not a car, not a house, not a TV set or computer… a hot dog kart. I was astonished. First of all, it was a very smart attitude to ask for something that could give her some profit. Second, I felt really sad about it… really. I think it’s because I realized that some people need so little to be happy, and sometimes I think I could do something to help… but I do nothing. =(
Something’s gotta change.

Male, female or X

I just saw this on the news this morning. I really don’t know what to think about it… On one hand, everyone should have equal rights, this is true. And being harassed while traveling because your passport gender does not match your face must be really annoying. On the other hand, this whole sex changing thing is really creepy for me (call me old-fashioned, I don’t care… I can accept the homosexuals and all, but changing your body seems too much). And besides, I cannot decide which is worse: you see a person whose gender on the passport does not match the appearances (although most of the time you can tell without the need of a document) or you get a passport and the stated gender is X.

Women

I don’t get why people are so worried about the lack of women in Computer Science and Engineering majors… I mean, I find it very cool, but if most of the girls don’t, just leave them. Everyone should just do what they like, and if this means more boys in Computer Science and more girls in Psychology, what’s the big deal?

A cool music with an even cooler video: