Thursday, April 26, 2012

World Intellectual Property Day

Behind every great innovation, either artistic or technological, is a human story – a tale in which new pathways open as a result of the curiosity, insight or determination of individuals.
The Wright Brothers’ boyhood fascination with flight leads to a flying machine and travel by air. Louis Pasteur’s inquisitive mind advances the science of disease prevention. Tu Youyou’s dogged analysis of herbal remedies results in a malaria treatment that saves millions of lives. Steve Jobs’ ambition to make digital technology simple and accessible to everyone gives rise to personal computing and – three decades on – a new paradigm for the delivery of entertainment.
The list of visionary innovators is long. It is a catalogue of human ingenuity and creativity. It includes the many artists, writers and musicians who changed the way we see and hear things: Rembrandt and Turner, Picasso and Kandinski, each reshaping our perceptions of light, shape and form; Chekhov and Tagore, Neruda and Mafouz, their writing giving new insights into the human experience; Charlie Parker and Miles Davis, Hendrix and Rostropovich – musicians who challenge the status-quo, and endure.
http://www.wipo.int/ip-outreach/en/ipday/2012/
http://www.youtube.com/user/wipo?ob=0&feature=results_main
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Intellectual_Property_Day
http://www.futureofcopyright.com/home/blog-post/2012/04/26/today-world-intellectual-property-day-2012-celebrates-visionary-innovators.html

Monday, April 23, 2012

World Book Day

La Diada de Sant Jordi (Catalan pronunciation: [ɫə ðiˈaðə ðə ˈsaɲ ˈʒɔrði], Saint George's Day), also known as El dia de la Rosa (The Day of the Rose) or El dia del Llibre (The Day of the Book) is a Catalan holiday held on 23 April, with similarities to Valentine's Day and some unique twists that reflect the antiquity of the celebrations. The main event is the exchange of gifts between sweethearts, loved ones and colleagues. Historically, men gave women roses, and women gave men a book to celebrate the occasion—"a rose for love and a book forever." In modern times, the mutual exchange of books is also customary. Roses have been associated with this day since medieval times, but the giving of books is a more recent tradition originating in 1923, when a bookseller started to promote the holiday as a way to commemorate the nearly simultaneous deaths of Miguel Cervantes and William Shakespeare on 23 April 1616. Barcelona is the publishing capital of both Catalan and Spanish languages and the combination of love and literacy was quickly adopted.
http://www.barcelonareview.com/cat/temps.htm
http://www.worldbookday.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_George%27s_Day
http://www.un.org/en/events/bookday/

Sunday, April 22, 2012

EARTH DAY 2012

Our planet, our home is being neglected. Climate change continues unabated. It seems there's a new ecological disaster happening almost daily. This Earth Day it's time to mobilize the planet from the ground up to send a message that the Earth won't wait!
http://www.earthday.org/
http://clubpenguin.wikia.com/wiki/Earth_Day_2012
http://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/world/earth-day

Friday, April 20, 2012

What Happened the Year YOU WERE BORN?

http://whathappenedinmybirthyear.com/
(Type your birthday and wait for a great deal of information to appear on your computer screen).
As an example. Were you born in 1992? Read what happened:
In 1992, the world was a different place. There was no Google yet. Or Yahoo.
In 1992, the year of your birth, the top selling movie was Aladdin. People buying the popcorn in the cinema lobby had glazing eyes when looking at the poster. (...)

The 1990s were indeed a special decade. The Nineties saw the beginnings of the World Wide Web, originating at CERN. Email becomes popular. The Soviet Union dissolved. Living standards in East Asia and Europe generally improved. The Cold War ends. Iraqi forces invade Kuwait. A UN coalition force led by the US was sent to the Persian Gulf, and aerial bombing of Iraq began. The Kosovo War took place. The Ethiopian Civil War ends. Dolly, a sheep, is cloned. The Global Positioning System GPS becomes fully operational. Genetically engineered crops are developed for commercial use. Intel develops the Pentium processor. The Java programming language is created. Microsoft released Windows 95. In Los Angeles, riots occur after the police brutality case involving Rodney King. Great Britain hands sovereignty of Hong Kong to China. East Timor breaks away from Indonesian control. US president Bill Clinton was involved in the Lewinsky scandal. Dogme 95 becomes an important artistic movement in European film. Teen soap Beverly Hills 90210 has its long run. Baywatch becomes the most watched show in history. On MTV, reality television makes its beginning. Nelson Mandela is elected president of South Africa. Germany was reunified. The prediction of computer bug Y2K spreads fear.  (...)       

Thursday, April 12, 2012

PURITY RING - MEG MYERS

http://soundcloud.com/purity-ring

Purity Ring are so buzzy and bloggy that Pitchfork, the home of blog buzz and buzzy blogging, has already named them Best New Band of CMJ 2011 and Best New Band of 2011 and featured them in lists of SXSW 2012's Must-Sees and 2012's Most Anticipated LPs. (...)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/apr/05/new-band-purity-ring

Meg Myers: She's not quite goth. We're not sure what she is, which is a good sign, because we spend all day, every day trying to come up with pigeonholes for musicians and this time we're flummoxed. We were almost fooled by the pretty features and long flowing hair into assuming she'd be a winsome Laurel Canyon throwback, but she's not quite that, either. (...)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/apr/04/new-band-meg-myers