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If there is something that I love to bring to this blog are examples of human ingenuity. And what else bursts of creativity as much as these ads?

PS: Make your own here.

Warren Buffett, the Oracle of Omaha, is giving away his fortune. To those who never RTFA, he is a self made man who became second richest in the world with hard work and cunning investments.

The estimated amount earmarked to be given away? A mere $37 billion. And since the shares he plans to dispose of are tied to futures, the figures can even be higher in the end. It is simply the largest philanthropic gift in history.

My friend Paulo, seen here enjoying the innocent pleasure of radio controlled toys. And as the video proves, a cameraman’s life is a dangerous affair, be it on the roads of the Somali capital, Mogadishu, or in the quiet indoors of gentle Halmstad.

No te amo como si fueras rosa de sal, topacio
o flecha de claveles que propagan el fuego:
te amo como se aman ciertas cosas oscuras,
secretamente, entre la sombra y el alma.

Te amo como la planta que no florece y lleva
dentro de sí, escondida, la luz de aquellas flores,
y gracias a tu amor vive oscuro en mi cuerpo
el apretado aroma que ascendió de la tierra.

Te amo sin saber cómo, ni cuándo, ni de dónde,
te amo directamente sin problemas ni orgullo:
así te amo porque no sé amar de otra manera,

sino así de este modo en que no soy ni eres,
tan cerca que tu mano sobre mi pecho es mía,
tan cerca que se cierran tus ojos con mi sueño.

(Pablo Neruda, 1959)

Plenty (120 at the last count) of TV channels online for you enjoy here. Quality doesn’t seem overwhelming for most channels, but for news and similar content it is wholly acceptable.

This oil on canvas, called Children Playing, is one of the earliest paintings from Austrian Oskar Kokoschka. Like his other work, this one also courted controversy when it was exhibited in 1909. Children at the time were always depicted as pretty and content. Yet he didn’t want to see just the bright side of things, and would end up refusing all the conventions of his time.

Was re-re-re-watching David Lynch’s movie, The Elephant Man . I always feel touched deep down by the end of the movie: Samuel Barber’s Adagio For Strings playing in the background, John’s mother reciting a little piece from an Alfred Lord Tennyson’s poem, and John going to sleep like a “normal person”, dying because of it.

Never, oh! Never, nothing will
die; the stream flows,
the wind blows, the cloud fleets, the
heart beats…
Nothing will die.

The role of Serendipity in science and research is sometimes relegated to second fiddle in the constant pursuit for knowledge. But accidental discovery has been a key to more human accomplishments than we sometimes care to realize, as this, this and this article show.

Já viajámos de ilhas em ilhas
já mordemos fruta ao relento
repartindo esperanças e mágoas
por tudo o que é vento.

Já ansiámos corpos ausentes
como um rio anseia p´la foz
já fizemos tanto e tão pouco
que há-de ser de nós?

Que há-de ser do mais longo beijo
que nos fez trocar de morada
dissipar-se-á como tudo em nada?

Que há-de ser, só nós o sabemos
pondo o fogo e a chuva na voz
repartindo ao vento pedaços
que hão-de ser de nós.

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