Simiocracia

El año pasado Aleix Saló se hizo famoso, de la noche a la mañana, con el video promocional de su cómic 'Españistán, este país se va a la mierda', con más de dos millones de visitas en una semana. Y ahora presenta su nuevo trabajo "Simiocracia, Crónica de la Gran Resaca Económica" (DeBolsillo), en el que revela "la ineptitud de los mandatarios patrios frente a la crisis económica"...

Tenía dudas sobre si poner el post de Simiocracia o no, y resulta que el otro día recibo un mail de un alumno con el link del video. Ha sido top-trending estas semanas pasadas al subirlo a la www y hacerlo público y ya son 1.361.884 las visitas solo en Youtube, además Aleix tiene su propio Facebook por lo que quizás pueda tratarse de bastantes mas... El freno a subirlo al blog venía por el lenguaje malsonante y directo del video, pero en definitiva la pregunta que importa sería ¿nos indignamos por mensaje o nos indignamos por lenguaje?.


Hoy aquí recolocamos el clásico "Españistán, Este país se va a la mierda". Crítica feroz a la burbuja inmobiliaria. Y tras él, su actual "Simiocracia, Crónica de la Gran Resaca Económica". En la línea de dar cera y sacar brillo a las vergüenzas más públicas. ¿Quizás esto mañana sea terrorismo?, ¿Quién sabe?.

Open hardware technology. Just a clever idea !!!

Related to the Primary Sector there are surprising things happening nowadays. This is a wonderfull discovery able to be spreaded away elsewhere. A good idea digging deeper into "free right of use" instead off  the narrow economical view obsesed with profit always locking doors of knownledge and copyrighting everything.

Using wikis and digital fabrication tools, TED Fellow Marcin Jakubowski is open-sourcing the blueprints for 50 farm machines, allowing anyone to build their own tractor or harvester from scratch.

SCRIPT:

Hi, my name is Marcin -- farmer, technologist. I was born in Poland, now in the U.S. I started a group called Open Source Ecology. We've identified the 50 most important machines that we think it takes for modern life to exist -- things from tractors, bread ovens, circuit makers. Then we set out to create an open source, DIY, do it yourself version that anyone can build and maintain at a fraction of the cost. We call this the Global Village Construction Set.

So let me tell you a story. So I finished my 20s with a Ph.D. in fusion energy, and I discovered I was useless. I had no practical skills. The world presented me with options, and I took them. I guess you can call it the consumer lifestyle. So I started a farm in Missouri and learned about the economics of farming. I bought a tractor -- then it broke. I paid to get it repaired -- then it broke again. Then pretty soon, I was broke too.

I realized that the truly appropriate, low-cost tools that I needed to start a sustainable farm and settlement just didn't exist yet. I needed tools that were robust, modular, highly efficient and optimized, low-cost, made from local and recycled materials that would last a lifetime, not designed for obsolescence. I found that I would have to build them myself. So I did just that. And I tested them. And I found that industrial productivity can be achieved on a small scale.

So then I published the 3D designs, schematics, instructional videos and budgets on a wiki. Then contributors from all over the world began showing up, prototyping new machines during dedicated project visits. So far, we have prototyped eight of the 50 machines. And now the project is beginning to grow on its own.

We know that open source has succeeded with tools for managing knowledge and creativity. And the same is starting to happen with hardware too. We're focusing on hardware because it is hardware that can change people's lives in such tangible material ways. If we can lower the barriers to farming, building, manufacturing, then we can unleash just massive amounts of human potential.

That's not only in the developing world. Our tools are being made for the American farmer, builder, entrepreneur, maker. We've seen lots of excitement from these people, who can now start a construction business, parts manufacturing, organic CSA or just selling power back to the grid. Our goal is a repository of published designs so clear, so complete, that a single burned DVD is effectively a civilization starter kit.

I've planted a hundred trees in a day. I've pressed 5,000 bricks in one day from the dirt beneath my feet and built a tractor in six days. From what I've seen, this is only the beginning.

If this idea is truly sound, then the implications are significant. A greater distribution of the means of production, environmentally sound supply chains, and a newly relevant DIY maker culture can hope to transcend artificial scarcity. We're exploring the limits of what we all can do to make a better world with open hardware technology.

Thank you.

(Applause)

Los vientos que soplan...

Es curioso pero cada vez más como profesor y como trabajador veo cambiar la realidad del sistema docente y no a mejor sino a peor... Preguntándome porque, la respuesta es obvia: no hay interés en sostener un sistema docente o lo que es lo mismo; el estado se retrae de su responsabilidad y obligación de garantizar una enseñanza pública de calidad.

En este sentido cabría preguntarse ¿es que no hay dinero para educación?, también cabría preguntarse ¿gastamos demasiado dinero en cuestiones secundarias, no tan importantes como la educación?, ¿podemos recortar de otro lado?, ¿cuáles son las consecuencias del deterioro del sistema educativo? porque de eso se trata y no de otros cuentos chinos.

A considerar en la ecuación también tenemos que ser conscientes de que la educación se transforma rápidamente en esto que venimos llamando "capital humano" es decir el potencial emprendedor, formacional y de cualificación de una nación o país. Así de sencillo. Es decir se trata de hablar del potencial y futuro de nuestra economía y prosperidad en el día de mañana, todo lo demás es involucion, pérdida de competitividad y aumento de nuestra dependencia.

Y qué hay de la igualdad de oportunidades, le disguste a quién le disguste el Estado es el valedor de las posibilidades de promoción educativa de toda la ciudadanía y compensa lo que la realidad económica no puede satisfacer con dinero. El Estado dota de un marco de oportunidad a todos sus ciudadanos ofreciendo estudios de calidad a quienes no pueden pagar educación privada de alto estanding. O eso debería, pues si no es así, tenemos una evidente segregación de las posibilidades en función de la capacidad economía de cada familia.

Despues del duro palo que Bologna supuso a la formación superior universitaria, haciendo cada vez mas cara y dificil la formación superior a decenas de miles de estudiantes ahora le llega el turno al primer nivel y basamento de la educación general; primaria y secundaria. Para aquellos que lo quieran ver mas claro aquí os dejo un video corto, resumen de la situación en nuestro país vecino y siempre hasta hoy responsable y eficiente en cuanto a educación se refiere....

Baram bim Baram buum, that´s exactly what ...

Not as we saw in cinemas a few years ago, on april 14th, at 11:40 pm. the star ship of the White Star Company struck an iceberg in North Atlantic Ocean cold waters ...

That´s how scientifics with computers recreate the truth on how Titanic sank.



And there is more about Titanic, the most amazyng history I ever heard is the story of Futility, or the Wreck of the Titan, it is an 1898 novella written by Morgan Robertson. The story features the ocean liner Titan, which sinks in the North Atlantic after striking an iceberg. The Titan and its sinking have been noted to be very similar to the real-life passenger ship RMS Titanic, which sank fourteen years later. Following the wreck the novel was reissued with some changes, particularly in the ship's gross tonnage, to make it closer to the Titanic.

The first half of Futility introduces the hero, John Rowland. Rowland is a disgraced former US Navy officer, who is now an alcoholic and has fallen to the lowest levels of society. Dismissed from the Navy, he is working as a deckhand on the Titan. The ship hits the iceberg, capsizing and sinking somewhat before the halfway point of the novel. The second half follows Rowland, as he saves the young daughter of a former lover by jumping onto the iceberg with her. After a number of adventures, in which he fights a polar bear (suffering permanent physical disability due to wounds sustained in the fight) and finds a lifeboat washed up on the iceberg, he is eventually rescued by a passing ship, overcomes his addiction and, over several years, works his way up to a lucrative Government job restoring his former income and position in society. In the closing lines of the story he receives a message from his former lover, pleading for him to visit her and her daughter.

Although the novel was written before the Olympic-class Titanic had even been designed, there are some remarkable similarities between the fictional and real-life counterparts. Like the Titanic, the fictional ship sank in April in the North Atlantic, and there were not enough lifeboats for the passengers. There are also similarities between the size (800 ft long for Titan versus 882 ft 9 in long for the Titanic[2]), speed (25 knots for Titan, 22.5 knots for Titanic[3]) and life-saving equipment.

Beyond the name, the similarities between the Titanic and the fictional Titan include:

Described as "unsinkable"
The Titanic was the world's largest luxury liner (882 feet, displacing 63,000 long tons), and was once described as being practically "unsinkable".
The Titan was the largest craft afloat and the greatest of the works of men (800 feet, displacing 75,000 tons, up from 45,000 in the 1898 edition), and was considered "unsinkable".

Shortage of lifeboats
The Titanic carried only 16 lifeboats, plus 4 Engelhardt folding lifeboats,[4] less than half the number required for her passenger capacity of 3000.
The Titan carried "as few as the law allowed", 24 lifeboats, less than half needed for her 3000 capacity.

Struck an iceberg
Moving too fast at 22½ knots,[citation needed] the Titanic struck an iceberg on the starboard side on the night of April 14, 1912 in the North Atlantic 400 miles away from Newfoundland.
Also on an April night, in the North Atlantic 400 miles from Newfoundland (Terranova), the Titan hit an iceberg while traveling at 25 knots, also on the starboard side.

Sinking
The unsinkable Titanic sank, and more than half of her 2200 passengers died.
The indestructible Titan also sank, more than half of her 2500 passengers drowning.