On June 25th 2009, CULTUREINSIDE.COM and GALERIE CLAIREFONTAINE will inaugurate an art exhibition entitled "ROOTED". The show will consist of works by artists chosen competitively by a curatorial committee. The theme of the exhibition is an investigation, a visualization, a materialization or conceptualization of the term "Rooted". What is formative, grounding, or sustaining, for us as women, men, artists or citizens? What are, Where are, How are we rooted in the world? Philosophically, phenomenologically, psychologically or spiritually, it is a thorny and complex issue. We are sure these questions can be addressed by artists in novel and interesting ways. The curators do not want to particularize the theme or parse it beyond a basic statement. We believe that the less said on the topic the better. Artists can identify or define it as they see fit.
1.AVANZINI Guy, THIEL Marie-Jo.- Eduquer à la beauté, éduquer aux valeurs.Editions Don Bosco.
2.FELDMAN Jacqueline et CANTER KOHN Ruth.- L’éthique dans la pratique des sciences humaines : dilemmes. L’Harmattan.
3.IMBERT Francis.- La question de l’éthique dans le champ éducatif. Pour une praxis pédagogique. Editions Matrice. Collection « Pratique institutionnelle », septembre 1987.
4.SOLERE-QUEVAL Sylvie.- Les valeurs au risque de l’école. Presses Universitaires du Septentrion, Collection « Education et didactiques ». Villeneuve d’Ascq, 1999.
5.ONFRAY Michel.- La Sagesse tragique. Du bon usage de Nietzsche. Le Livre de Poche. Biblio / Essais (inédit) n° 4388.
6.ROHART Jean-Daniel.- Action éducative et éthique. L’Harmattan, 2001.
7.ROHART Jean-Daniel.- Carl Ransom Rogers. L’éthique et la relation éducative. Voir Actes du Colloque de St Gervais organisé par REVEIL.http://assoreveil.org/
8.MIDAL Fabrice.- L’Esprit de la chevalerie. Des atouts pour l’homme moderne. Presses de la Renaissance, 2005.
9.DUFOUR Dany-Robert.- Folie et démocratie. Essai sur la forme unaire. Editions Gallimard / Le Débat.
10.DHÔTEL André.- Rimbaud et la révolte moderne. La Petite Vermillon. La Table Ronde.
11.NATANSON J. et M.- Risquer la transmission. Desclée de Brouwer.
12.BUBER Martin.- Sur l’éducation. Editions Parole Et Silence, 2001.
13.BUBER Martin.- Je et tu. Editions Aubier, 1992.
14.DE SOLEMME Marie, MISRAHI Robert.- Enthousiasme et la joie (L’). Au temps de l’exaspération. Editions Dervy.
15. THEVENOT Xavier et JONCHERAY J.- Pour une éthique de la pratique éducative. Editions Desclee.
16. XYPAS C. (sous la direction de).- Education et valeurs. Approches plurielles. Editions Anthropos, 1996.
XII – Ecole et littérature.
1.BEGAUDEAU François.- Entre les murs (roman). Editions Gallimard, 2006. Verticales / phase deux.
2.SATTOUF Riad.- Retour au collège (BD). Hachette / Littérature.
3.JUNGER Ernst.- Trois chemins d’écolier. Christian Bourgois, éditeur, 2005.
Fotógrafo oficial da III Bienal de Arte Contemporânea de Sevilha expõe no Porto 04-Mar-2009
Com a água como elemento básico e qual alquimista, o fotógrafo consegue transformar a realidade visual num mundo mágico. Formas surrealistas, reais e irrepetíveis onde a poesia da cor, a magia da luz e o poder do movimento transformam a realidade, produzindo curtos-circuitos criativos surgidos da necessidade de dar às formas a emoção de uma experiência concreta. Giuseppe Martino apresenta-nos os lugares e os títulos das suas obras desde uma perspectiva totalmente nova e pessoal. Os seus "sguardi indiscreti" têm algo de paisagem, não numa escala panorâmica, mas na sua condição de espaço esgotado e pensado. O artista apresenta uma visão fugitiva, um dado visual retido no fundo da memória. A força poética das suas obras deve-se à presença da pureza da luz que o acompanha ao longo da vida, desde a sua terra natal, no sul de Itália, até à sua chegada a Sevilha, onde vive desde 2007. O que define a suas imagens é a cor. Cor que inventa formas novas, que nos fazem esquecer as imagens dos espaços onde as captou, levando-nos para um mundo de formas primitivas, básicas e intemporais, que nos lembram as obras de Klee. Nelas, pouco a pouco abandonamos a referência figurativa e narrativa, concentrando o interesse na cor e na pureza da forma.
Estudos sobre Peter Sloterdijk II- Modernidade e mobilização social: critica da razão cinética em Peter Sloterdijk
O filósofo alemão Peter Sloterdijk, fiel ao seu estilo “polêmico” de escrita que prescinde de afirmações politicamente corretas e refuta debates pasteurizados, apaziguadores das consciências ilustradas que fingem debater os rumos do mundo em colóquios intermináveis, escreveu, em 1989, o livro Eurotaoismus: Zur Kritik der politischen Kinetik (ainda sem tradução para o português). A obra, segundo o filósofo alemão, é um compêndio de “exercícios subversivos contra o absolutismo da História e da socialização (Vergesellschaftung)”, deixando entrever assim que Sloterdijk não poupa críticas às teorias da História que a encaram como uma escalada cumulativa de episódios cujo telos é encarnado na palavra progresso.
Num contexto alemão de efervescência política que precedeu a queda do famigerado Muro de Berlim, o autor ousou insurgir-se contra uma das categorias já tornadas clássicas no pensamento filosófico europeu do pós-guerra, e que se alastrou como jargão amplamente utilizado em praticamente todas as ações políticas dos mais diversos matizes, sejam elas partidárias, institucionais, oriundas da sociedade civil ou de iniciativas individuais: o conceito de mobilização.
O que Sloterdijk enseja em seu livro é uma crítica da mobilização planetária tomada como uma revolução permanente que, no seu entender, é falsa. O que há, segundo o autor, é uma “mistificação cinética do mundo” que estabelece como impensável das ações políticas o fator “velocidade”. O que ou quem determina a velocidade de nosso agir cotidiano, de nossas organizações e de nossos modos de gestão do tempo? Porque parece que no processo civilizatório atual as pessoas vêem suas vidas ora como “vítimas” de uma mobilização exterior a elas, e por isso mesmo digna de suspeita, ora como “promotoras” de uma mobilização interior fundamentada na busca de uma essência de si pelas vias místicas (religiosas, por exemplo) ou técnicas (as diversas formas de exploração racional de si através das psicoterapias)? Fazendo eco à indagação de Sloterdijk, é mesmo a cinética o destino de tudo?
Sloterdijk afirma que o projeto da modernidade constitui uma utopia cinética, na qual o total movimento do mundo deve se tornar a realização de nossos projetos para ele. Isso tem a ver com a nossa pretensão de mudar o curso da História com ações racionalmente organizadas, e assim, “fazer história” com o objetivo final de “fazer natureza”. No espírito de um mundo que se auto-intensifica em prol de uma mobilização dos contingentes humanos, descobrir que esta é a nossa natureza primordial, nosso processo primitivo de acumulação e desdobramento concreto de subjetividade. Daí, num processo de simbiose entre verdade e História, Natureza e técnica, passamos a achar que o processo civilizatório é uma “catástrofe natural” e que os sujeitos não têm alternativa a não ser participarem passivamente do processo de sincronização do stress das sociedades modernas, curvando-se ante a “cronolatria” que é característica das mesmas.
Para o filósofo, a cinética se tornou a ética da modernidade. Foi ela que lançou as bases de uma “física da liberdade”, que reduziu a idéia de liberdade à idéia de liberdade de movimentos e de uma “cinética da iniciativa moral”, da qual se depreende que as atitudes dos sujeitos devem forçosamente “mobilizar” e arrebanhar outros sujeitos sob o signo do “esclarecimento” e do “progresso”, este último entendido como um “conceito-movimento” (Bewegungsbegriff) no qual a voz da autoconsciência “ético-cinética” da modernidade “se faz ouvir” e se dissimula. A modernidade é, em suma, ontologicamente puro “ser-para-o-movimento” (Sein-zur-Bewegung), cujos conceitos de “progresso” e “mobilização” são os melhores representantes.
O autor argumenta que “o que existem hoje são atos de mobilização”, seja num contexto dramático de um mundo à beira de uma catástrofe ecológica (e os correspondentes atos de mobilização de uma consciência planetária), de iminência do retorno do messias ( e os atos de mobilização santa das religiões cristãs), de premência das reivindicações por direitos sociais( e todo o cabedal de práticas políticas militantes e mobilizatórias) ou ainda num panorama de indiferença e dessensibilização das pessoas recorrentes nos discursos sobre a “pós-modernidade”( que devem ser combatidas com práticas de “re-encantamento do mundo” e das próprias potencialidades). Em todos os casos, o que há é o pressuposto implícito de que somente o “movimento em direção a mais capacidade de movimento de si e dos outros” é “transformadora” e promotora de uma “evolução histórica”.
Para Sloterdijk, tanto marxistas quanto as “almas cultas” e os burgueses pragmáticos estão lado a lado na “grande coalizão da mobilização” que caracteriza a modernidade. A confusão não é entre discursos, como já apontava o pensador italiano Antonio Negri, mas entre práticas: as práticas mobilizadoras dos movimentos sociais ditos “de esquerda” têm algo do imitatio Christi dos movimentos cristãos e dos movimentos “verdes”. Na aliança entre cinética e técnicas semióticas reside o manancial gerativo das ações de mobilização política dos grupos humanos.
Ora, na perspectiva de uma infinidade de discursos e de práticas que encarnam o impensável político da “mobilização acima de tudo” (Mobilmachungsüberhaupt) cabem as perguntas: quem mobiliza quem e com quais objetivos explícitos e implícitos? Qual o papel efetivo dos “profissionais do socius”, em especial os “profissionais psi” ante as demandas institucionais de mobilização comunitária? Quais técnicas nós utilizamos para este fim, e qual a pertinência deste processo para os atores envolvidos? Existem outras perspectivas para nós que não o da iluminação, da pesquisa e da onipotência? Que projeto está oculto sob a proposição de “conscientização” do povo?
Sloterdijk alerta ainda para o surgimento dos “supersujeitos”( Supersubjekten), que aparecem reiteradamente nestes contextos mobilizatórios e que falam ao mesmo tempo “para mim” e “para nós”. Neste espectro encontramos desde os “políticos profissionais” aos “líderes comunitários”, passando pelos coordenadores de grupos religiosos e profissionais que trabalham em instituições sociais, todos tomados como “containeres emocionais” da vontade coletiva. Que tipo de sujeito está sendo “cultivado” em nossas práticas mobilizadoras?
Criar alternativas que ultrapassem a visão “pedagocatastrófica” dos movimentos sociais, o impulso eleático da empreitada neometafísica que prega a “imobilidade” como caminho para a essência de uma pretensa verdade eterna e o chafurdar depressivo na ladinha pós-moderna da indiferença e que coloquem à luz da critica a mistificação cinética da existência do mundo. É a isso a que nos “mobiliza” esta impressionante obra do filósofo alemão Peter Sloterdijk.
Bibliografia utilizada: SLOTERDIJK, Peter. Eurotaoismus: Zur Kritik der politischen Kinetik. Suhrkamp Verlag: Frankfurt am Main, 1989.
Neste ensaio, a interpretação do presente está baseada em uma cinética filosófica originada por três axiomas. Primeiro , que estamos nos movendo em um mundo que se move ele mesmo; segundo , que os auto-movimentos do mundo incluem nossos próprios auto-movimentos e os afetam; e terceiro , os auto-movimentos do mundo têm como origem nossos auto-movimentos, que são cumulativamente adicionados ao mundo-movimento. A partir destes axiomas, é possível desenvolver mais ou menos inteiramente um relacionamento entre um mundo antigo, um mundo moderno, e um mundo pós-moderno . http://arredores.posterous.com/tag/cin%C3%A9tica
Le philosophe - Le grand négateur par Peter Sloterdijk Le grand auteur allemand de « Critique de la raison cynique » et de « Sphères » évoque le génie de « l’Etre et le Néant » par Peter Sloterdijk (Nouvel Observateur, Semaine du jeudi 3 mars 2005 - n°2104 - Livres)
Il est aujourd’hui courant, dans les milieux de la presse et de l’édition, de mesurer la signification d’un penseur à ce qu’il est parvenu à introduire un mot de son vocabulaire dans le langage courant, ou bien à ce que l’une de ses phrases est devenue proverbiale. On pourrait ainsi déceler la réussite de Hegel dans le fait que n’importe quel concierge d’Allemagne utilise la formule du « en soi et pour soi ». Le succès de Nietzsche tiendrait à ce que son surhomme, devenu un personnage de bande dessinée, hante la culture de masse américanisée. A cette aune, Sartre prend lui aussi sa place dans le cercle élitaire de ceux qui ont acquis les droits d’auteur d’un cliché. Sa devise « on a raison de se révolter » a fait le tour du monde pour devenir finalement un label de marque global de la culture dissidente. Depuis les années 1950, on l’a rencontrée partout où le mythe de la modernité, l’interprétation du sujet comme source de résistance au donné, a marqué la mentalité de ces populations individualistes qui constituent la « société du marché ». L’esprit du temps avait à l’époque passé la chemise de la critique. Il la portait depuis comme une seconde peau. Ce n’est cependant pas la mode qui décide au bout du compte de la signification d’un penseur, mais la position qu’il occupe dans l’histoire des créations de concepts. Un penseur doit d’abord être devenu inactuel avant que son effet à distance puisse devenir visible. Son texte doit s’être débarrassé de la complicité avec les névroses et les illusions de son époque avant qu’une nouvelle lecture ne dévoile la braise logique qui couve sous les cendres.
La meilleure manière de rendre justice aux résultats obtenus par le penseur est de le situer dans un tableau présentant le déploiement de la négativité dans l’évolution des cultures européennes de la théorie et de la politique. La première phase de ce processus a été ouverte par les ontologies holistes de l’Antiquité. Leur apparition était censée annoncer la naissance de l’empire bimillénaire des métaphysiques de la substance. Parménide et Spinoza l’ont exposé de manière exemplaire : dans cet univers, le destin de la réflexion et de la négativité qui lui est liée, c’est l’inéluctable exigence de se dissoudre en tant que non-étant. Pour la liberté humaine, il en résulte un devoir de s’éteindre en tant que simple reflet trompeur. Si l’homme est libre, c’est seulement pour se soumettre. L’honneur de la substance exige que le« surplus » sauvage, qui se manifeste sous forme d’erreur possible, se noie dans l’objectivité. Avec l’émergence de la « société » bourgeoise, polytechnique, prométhéenne, l’image change du tout au tout : à partir de la Renaissance s’impose progressivement l’idée que l’essence de la substance est le travail et, plus généralement, la pratique humaine. Le travail, dans cette acception, ne désigne plus la soumission à l’Etant et à sa détresse éternelle, mais la négation concrète des circonstances et du matériau. Depuis que l’homme, comme travailleur, nie consciemment ce qui menace de le nier, la négativité ne peut que se positionner au centre de l’anthropologie. L’homme producteur se transforme potentiellement en pur et simple adversaire de l’Etre et du passé. Il devient le prophète de son propre avenir, un second créateur qui ne supporte plus aucun monde qu’il n’ait lui-même aménagé.
Il pourrait aller de soi que l’intervention de Sartre incarne le point de maturité de la révolte contre la substance : chez lui, la négativité se positive, au-delà de tous les travaux et de tous les combats, pour devenir une antithèse de l’Etre en général ; elle se transforme alors pour passer du rien antique négatif au néant actif de la modernité. La conscience pure, source spontanée et toujours claire de la négativité, est le trou qui se prostitue à tous les objets. En même temps, elle sort intacte de tous les remplissages. L’honneur du sujet est désormais de s’arracher en permanence à tout pouvoir comme à toute nature. Le moindre gramme de matière est une maîtresse obscène qui ne peut que susciter notre révolte. Quand en revanche on veut franchir la ligne, aller vers les substances et se mêler aux choses, on est un déserteur, un traître à la condition humaine. Car bien que l’homme soit condamné à la résistance contre l’Etre, le salaud, ce singe de l’essence, veut que l’Etant le prenne par-derrière.
Sartre était le maître-penseur d’une gnose sadique illuminée par la conviction qu’il n’existe rien entre le ciel et la terre qui ne mérite d’être nié. A la lumière de ce diagnostic, on comprend pourquoi la pensée contemporaine ne peut tout simplement plus progresser sur le chemin de Sartre. On a ouvert un nouveau chapitre dans le roman de la négativité. Sur ses premières pages, on rencontre des concepts sur lesquels le grand professeur de la liberté n’avait pas grand-chose à dire : écosystèmes, réseaux, multitudes, atmosphères, mécanismes cybernétiques. Les termes cardinaux de l’ère postsartrienne sont non pas révolution, mais émergence, non pas refus, mais rattachement et transformation. La science actuelle a rompu avec l’idéologie sartrienne du monde muet et absurde. Nous savons à présent que tout parle et nous pouvons l’entendre dès que nous interrompons le monologue du sujet autiste. La conscience pure a fusionné avec le scintillement tranquille des écrans à cristaux liquides. Les choses et les hommes forment de nouvelles communautés, au-delà de la bourgeoisie et du prolétariat. Il y a longtemps que la société du vécu a ôté à la critique le mot de la bouche. Mieux : la consommation elle-même est devenue la critique et l’anéantissement des choses. La seule à ne pas être encore au chômage, c’est la nausée.
Traduit de l’allemand par Olivier Mannoni
(Agé de 56 ans, Peter Sloterdijk enseigne à l’Ecole des Beaux-Arts de Karlsruhe (Allemagne). Son dernier ouvrage, « Ecumes. Sphères III », vient de paraître chez Maren Sell Editeurs.)
eteorite impacts are getting plenty of respect these days. The public regards them as the established destroyer of dinosaurs and the possible destroyer of civilization. Increasing numbers of geoscientists are coming to appreciate the importance of meteorite impact events and the extent of their influence on the geological and biological history of Earth. However, despite the growing importance of meteorite impact phenomena in terrestrial geology, the topic is still not widely addressed in general geoscience textbooks and references. This author attempts to fill this gap and provide for geoscientists a detailed introduction and overview of impact processes, crater formation, and shock metamorphism. The book is not aimed primarily at specialists actually working in impact geology. It is intended for geoscientists of all kinds: students who want to learn about the importance of meteorite impact; professors who want to add impact information to their geoscience courses; and professional geologists who may unexpectedly encounter an impact structure in the next field area or in the next drill core. Traces of Catastrophe is intended to serve as a combination of sourcebook, laboratory manual, and reference for working geologists. The chapters are designed to be read independently, depending on the background and needs of the reader. Literature references are included to help readers explore the field further.
Traces of Catastrophe is available on line in PDF format. PDF files posted on the LPI's Web Site require the use of Adobe Acrobat Reader version 3.0 or higher. Click here if you need to upgrade.
IT IS midnight on 22 September 2012 and the skies above Manhattan are filled with a flickering curtain of colourful light. Few New Yorkers have seen the aurora this far south but their fascination is short-lived. Within a few seconds, electric bulbs dim and flicker, then become unusually bright for a fleeting moment. Then all the lights in the state go out. Within 90 seconds, the entire eastern half of the US is without power.
A year later and millions of Americans are dead and the nation's infrastructure lies in tatters. The World Bank declares America a developing nation. Europe, Scandinavia, China and Japan are also struggling to recover from the same fateful event - a violent storm, 150 million kilometres away on the surface of the sun.
It sounds ridiculous. Surely the sun couldn't create so profound a disaster on Earth. Yet an extraordinary report funded by NASA and issued by the US National Academy of Sciences (NAS) in January this year claims it could do just that.
Over the last few decades, western civilisations have busily sown the seeds of their own destruction. Our modern way of life, with its reliance on technology, has unwittingly exposed us to an extraordinary danger: plasma balls spewed from the surface of the sun could wipe out our power grids, with catastrophic consequences.
The projections of just how catastrophic make chilling reading. "We're moving closer and closer to the edge of a possible disaster," says Daniel Baker, a space weather expert based at the University of Colorado in Boulder, and chair of the NAS committee responsible for the report.
It is hard to conceive of the sun wiping out a large amount of our hard-earned progress. Nevertheless, it is possible. The surface of the sun is a roiling mass of plasma - charged high-energy particles - some of which escape the surface and travel through space as the solar wind. From time to time, that wind carries a billion-tonne glob of plasma, a fireball known as a coronal mass ejection (see "When hell comes to Earth"). If one should hit the Earth's magnetic shield, the result could be truly devastating.
The incursion of the plasma into our atmosphere causes rapid changes in the configuration of Earth's magnetic field which, in turn, induce currents in the long wires of the power grids. The grids were not built to handle this sort of direct current electricity. The greatest danger is at the step-up and step-down transformers used to convert power from its transport voltage to domestically useful voltage. The increased DC current creates strong magnetic fields that saturate a transformer's magnetic core. The result is runaway current in the transformer's copper wiring, which rapidly heats up and melts. This is exactly what happened in the Canadian province of Quebec in March 1989, and six million people spent 9 hours without electricity. But things could get much, much worse than that.
Worse than Katrina
The most serious space weather event in history happened in 1859. It is known as the Carrington event, after the British amateur astronomer Richard Carrington, who was the first to note its cause: "two patches of intensely bright and white light" emanating from a large group of sunspots. The Carrington event comprised eight days of severe space weather.
There were eyewitness accounts of stunning auroras, even at equatorial latitudes. The world's telegraph networks experienced severe disruptions, and Victorian magnetometers were driven off the scale.
Though a solar outburst could conceivably be more powerful, "we haven't found an example of anything worse than a Carrington event", says James Green, head of NASA's planetary division and an expert on the events of 1859. "From a scientific perspective, that would be the one that we'd want to survive." However, the prognosis from the NAS analysis is that, thanks to our technological prowess, many of us may not.
There are two problems to face. The first is the modern electricity grid, which is designed to operate at ever higher voltages over ever larger areas. Though this provides a more efficient way to run the electricity networks, minimising power losses and wastage through overproduction, it has made them much more vulnerable to space weather. The high-power grids act as particularly efficient antennas, channelling enormous direct currents into the power transformers.
The second problem is the grid's interdependence with the systems that support our lives: water and sewage treatment, supermarket delivery infrastructures, power station controls, financial markets and many others all rely on electricity. Put the two together, and it is clear that a repeat of the Carrington event could produce a catastrophe the likes of which the world has never seen. "It's just the opposite of how we usually think of natural disasters," says John Kappenman, a power industry analyst with the Metatech Corporation of Goleta, California, and an advisor to the NAS committee that produced the report. "Usually the less developed regions of the world are most vulnerable, not the highly sophisticated technological regions."
According to the NAS report, a severe space weather event in the US could induce ground currents that would knock out 300 key transformers within about 90 seconds, cutting off the power for more than 130 million people (see map). From that moment, the clock is ticking for America.
First to go - immediately for some people - is drinkable water. Anyone living in a high-rise apartment, where water has to be pumped to reach them, would be cut off straight away. For the rest, drinking water will still come through the taps for maybe half a day. With no electricity to pump water from reservoirs, there is no more after that.
There is simply no electrically powered transport: no trains, underground or overground. Our just-in-time culture for delivery networks may represent the pinnacle of efficiency, but it means that supermarket shelves would empty very quickly - delivery trucks could only keep running until their tanks ran out of fuel, and there is no electricity to pump any more from the underground tanks at filling stations.
Back-up generators would run at pivotal sites - but only until their fuel ran out. For hospitals, that would mean about 72 hours of running a bare-bones, essential care only, service. After that, no more modern healthcare.
72 hours of healthcare remaining
The truly shocking finding is that this whole situation would not improve for months, maybe years: melted transformer hubs cannot be repaired, only replaced. "From the surveys I've done, you might have a few spare transformers around, but installing a new one takes a well-trained crew a week or more," says Kappenman. "A major electrical utility might have one suitably trained crew, maybe two."
Within a month, then, the handful of spare transformers would be used up. The rest will have to be built to order, something that can take up to 12 months.
Even when some systems are capable of receiving power again, there is no guarantee there will be any to deliver. Almost all natural gas and fuel pipelines require electricity to operate. Coal-fired power stations usually keep reserves to last 30 days, but with no transport systems running to bring more fuel, there will be no electricity in the second month.
30 days of coal left
Nuclear power stations wouldn't fare much better. They are programmed to shut down in the event of serious grid problems and are not allowed to restart until the power grid is up and running.
With no power for heating, cooling or refrigeration systems, people could begin to die within days. There is immediate danger for those who rely on medication. Lose power to New Jersey, for instance, and you have lost a major centre of production of pharmaceuticals for the entire US. Perishable medications such as insulin will soon be in short supply. "In the US alone there are a million people with diabetes," Kappenman says. "Shut down production, distribution and storage and you put all those lives at risk in very short order."
Help is not coming any time soon, either. If it is dark from the eastern seaboard to Chicago, some affected areas are hundreds, maybe thousands of miles away from anyone who might help. And those willing to help are likely to be ill-equipped to deal with the sheer scale of the disaster. "If a Carrington event happened now, it would be like a hurricane Katrina, but 10 times worse," says Paul Kintner, a plasma physicist at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.
In reality, it would be much worse than that. Hurricane Katrina's societal and economic impact has been measured at $81 billion to $125 billion. According to the NAS report, the impact of what it terms a "severe geomagnetic storm scenario" could be as high as $2 trillion. And that's just the first year after the storm. The NAS puts the recovery time at four to 10 years. It is questionable whether the US would ever bounce back.
4-10 years to recover
"I don't think the NAS report is scaremongering," says Mike Hapgood, who chairs the European Space Agency's space weather team. Green agrees. "Scientists are conservative by nature and this group is really thoughtful," he says. "This is a fair and balanced report."
Such nightmare scenarios are not restricted to North America. High latitude nations such as Sweden and Norway have been aware for a while that, while regular views of the aurora are pretty, they are also reminders of an ever-present threat to their electricity grids. However, the trend towards installing extremely high voltage grids means that lower latitude countries are also at risk. For example, China is on the way to implementing a 1000-kilovolt electrical grid, twice the voltage of the US grid. This would be a superb conduit for space weather-induced disaster because the grid's efficiency to act as an antenna rises as the voltage between the grid and the ground increases. "China is going to discover at some point that they have a problem," Kappenman says.
Neither is Europe sufficiently prepared. Responsibility for dealing with space weather issues is "very fragmented" in Europe, says Hapgood.
Europe's electricity grids, on the other hand, are highly interconnected and extremely vulnerable to cascading failures. In 2006, the routine switch-off of a small part of Germany's grid - to let a ship pass safely under high-voltage cables - caused a cascade power failure across western Europe. In France alone, five million people were left without electricity for two hours. "These systems are so complicated we don't fully understand the effects of twiddling at one place," Hapgood says. "Most of the time it's alright, but occasionally it will get you."
The good news is that, given enough warning, the utility companies can take precautions, such as adjusting voltages and loads, and restricting transfers of energy so that sudden spikes in current don't cause cascade failures. There is still more bad news, however. Our early warning system is becoming more unreliable by the day.
By far the most important indicator of incoming space weather is NASA's Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE). The probe, launched in 1997, has a solar orbit that keeps it directly between the sun and Earth. Its uninterrupted view of the sun means it gives us continuous reports on the direction and velocity of the solar wind and other streams of charged particles that flow past its sensors. ACE can provide between 15 and 45 minutes' warning of any incoming geomagnetic storms. The power companies need about 15 minutes to prepare their systems for a critical event, so that would seem passable.
15 minutes' warning
However, observations of the sun and magnetometer readings during the Carrington event shows that the coronal mass ejection was travelling so fast it took less than 15 minutes to get from where ACE is positioned to Earth. "It arrived faster than we can do anything," Hapgood says.
There is another problem. ACE is 11 years old, and operating well beyond its planned lifespan. The onboard detectors are not as sensitive as they used to be, and there is no telling when they will finally give up the ghost. Furthermore, its sensors become saturated in the event of a really powerful solar flare. "It was built to look at average conditions rather than extremes," Baker says.
He was part of a space weather commission that three years ago warned about the problems of relying on ACE. "It's been on my mind for a long time," he says. "To not have a spare, or a strategy to replace it if and when it should fail, is rather foolish."
There is no replacement for ACE due any time soon. Other solar observation satellites, such as the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) can provide some warning, but with less detailed information and - crucially - much later. "It's quite hard to assess what the impact of losing ACE will be," Hapgood says. "We will largely lose the early warning capability."
The world will, most probably, yawn at the prospect of a devastating solar storm until it happens. Kintner says his students show a "deep indifference" when he lectures on the impact of space weather. But if policy-makers show a similar indifference in the face of the latest NAS report, it could cost tens of millions of lives, Kappenman reckons. "It could conceivably be the worst natural disaster possible," he says.
The report outlines the worst case scenario for the US. The "perfect storm" is most likely on a spring or autumn night in a year of heightened solar activity - something like 2012. Around the equinoxes, the orientation of the Earth's field to the sun makes us particularly vulnerable to a plasma strike.
What's more, at these times of year, electricity demand is relatively low because no one needs too much heating or air conditioning. With only a handful of the US grid's power stations running, the system relies on computer algorithms shunting large amounts of power around the grid and this leaves the network highly vulnerable to sudden spikes.
If ACE has failed by then, or a plasma ball flies at us too fast for any warning from ACE to reach us, the consequences could be staggering. "A really large storm could be a planetary disaster," Kappenman says.
So what should be done? No one knows yet - the report is meant to spark that conversation. Baker is worried, though, that the odds are stacked against that conversation really getting started. As the NAS report notes, it is terribly difficult to inspire people to prepare for a potential crisis that has never happened before and may not happen for decades to come. "It takes a lot of effort to educate policy-makers, and that is especially true with these low-frequency events," he says.
We should learn the lessons of hurricane Katrina, though, and realise that "unlikely" doesn't mean "won't happen". Especially when the stakes are so high. The fact is, it could come in the next three or four years - and with devastating effects. "The Carrington event happened during a mediocre, ho-hum solar cycle," Kintner says. "It came out of nowhere, so we just don't know when something like that is going to happen again."
Severe space weather events often coincide with the appearance of sunspots, which are indicators of particularly intense magnetic fields at the sun's surface.
The chaotic motion of charged particles in the upper atmosphere of the sun creates magnetic fields that writhe, twist and turn, and occasionally snap and reconfigure themselves in what is known as a "reconnection". These reconnection events are violent, and can fling out billions of tonness of plasma in a "coronal mass ejection" (CME).
If flung towards the Earth, the plasma ball will accelerate as it travels through space and its intense magnetic field will soon interact with the planet's magnetic field, the magnetosphere. Depending on the relative orientation of the two fields, several things can happen. If the fields are oriented in the same direction, they slip round one another. In the worst case scenario, though, when the field of a particularly energetic CME opposes the Earth's field, things get much more dramatic. "The Earth can't cope with the plasma," says James Green, head of NASA's planetary division. "The CME just opens up the magnetosphere like a can-opener, and matter squirts in."
The sun's activity waxes and wanes every 11 years or so, with the appearance of sunspots following the same cycle. This period isn't consistent, however. Sometimes the interval between sunspot maxima is as short as nine years, other times as long as 14 years. At the moment the sun appears calm. "We're in the equivalent of an idyllic summer's day. The sun is quiet and benign, the quietest it has been for 100 years," says Mike Hapgood, who chairs the European Space Agency's space weather team, "but it could turn the other way." The next solar maximum is expected in 2012.
Michael Brooks's latest book is 13 Things That Don't Make Sense (Profile, 2008).
In this keynote at Handheld Learning 2008 in London, David Puttnam addresses some of the institutional-structural challenges that face technology and education.
Puttnam's big picture is useful, even if somewhat familiar to those of us already in the choir. Recently, there was a thread on the Writing Program Admins list about what it would mean to envision FYC as a "born-digital" enterprise. That is, what would FYC look like if we thought of it as digital?
Clearly FYC is not and cannot be born-digital; it will have to be an immigrant. That said, I think the question must go beyond the traditional mechanism of what the individual instructor does in his/her classroom. What Puttnam points out is that the kind of shift we are looking at requires collaboration between business and education. We can build whole new technologies and applications to pursue digital composition, but we can't do that on an individual level. Despite that, this also may not function best through a top-down, institutional strategy. Large-scale collaboration of teachers, researchers, programmers, designers, students and others is also necessary. But I don't think that we can continue to foreground the atavism of the traditional classroom. We need to recognize what is truly valuable about FTF and integrate it into wherever we are going.
Puttnam also moves into a discussion of Ken Robinson and the issue of creativity. This is key as well. Because technological-educational reform isn't really about getting technology to help us better achieve the goals we have established. Instead it's about gaining a better understanding of creativity (including, but also beyond traditional artistic notions), understanding the role of emerging technology in how creativity will be developed and communicated, and building pedagogy from there.
. SATO, Michèle; PASSOS, Luiz A. Versos e reversos da diversidade. In: SIMPÓSIO SUL BRASILEIRO DE EDUCAÇÃO AMBIENTAL & II SIMPÓSIO GAÚCHO DE EDUCAÇÃO AMBIENTAL, Anais... (Conferência de abertura). Erechim: URI, 2002, p. 115-126. http://www.hortaviva.com.br/midiateca/bg_polenizando/msg_ler.asp?ID_MSG=121
A exposição apresenta obras de pintura em que a temática da paisagem vai de encontro ao contemporâneo, a representação dá lugar à evocação. Para Rita Carreiro “as viagens frequentes para conhecer e experimentar, levam a uma eventual produção artística, onde se vai encontrar e exprimir a interpretação pessoal da paisagem em si".
Paisagens conceptuais que se tornam vivas através de linhas criadoras de um forte movimento. Segundo a artista são paisagens em aberto, são “Ilhas, montanhas, horizontes, caminhos… representações de elementos que surgem como sinais, símbolos, referencias pessoais e idiossincráticas para um lugar idealizado e reflectido. O natural passa a artificial, ou fabricado, ao metamorfosear-se em registos mentais da paisagem que se materializam em representações plásticas que compõem um novo espaço. O lugar criado e intrinsecamente limitado, resulta de um processo contínuo de construção e reconstrução, mimético da constante mutação da paisagem em si.
Elementos de estruturas lineares e planos assentes numa linguagem de formas e ritmos coordenados e sobrepostos originam um espaço de paisagem simulada, de "não real", de onde emergem elementos icónicos que transportam
Ring-Around, 1999 Weißer Zement/white cement 170 x 82 x 70 cm Besitz des Künstlers/possession of the artist
Paul Wallach (b.1960 in New York), who lives in Paris, is largely known for small abstract sculptures made from fragile materials such as plaster, rusty metal or driftwood, which are never placed free-standing in open spaces, but against walls or in places rarely used to display works of art, such as the corners of rooms. The sculpture and its location creates an "interspace" - and together they form a coherent entity. This always creates a delicate mutual relationship, which the viewer is drawn into as a partner for further dialogue. In this way the basic Minimalism of the sculptures takes on a human dimension.
Paul Wallach was born in New York in 1960. After his undergraduate studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, he entered the Masters Program in Artisanry at Boston University. After two years in Florence, Italy, he returned to the United States, where he worked as Artist-in-Residence at the studio of American sculptor Mark Di Suvero. In 1987, he received an Individual Fellowship in the Visual Arts from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, and held his first solo exhibition at the Denise Cadé Gallery, New York in 1990. Since 1994, he has lived and worked in Paris.
Wallach’s sculptures incorporate their very surroundings, whether by projecting from the wall into the viewer’s space, or by using reflected color on the wall as an integral part of the work itself. His understated media – wood (often raw), paint, paper, metal – lend the work a simplicity that allows us to concentrate on their basic forms, relations between elements, textures, colors, and light, direct or reflected. They are contemplative works, subtle in their intricacy, yet profound in their impact.
“E se as histórias para crianças fossem de leitura obrigatória para os adultos?
Seríamos realmente capazes de aprender aquilo que há tanto tempo ensinamos?”
José Saramago
O Herói da Flor
Era uma vez um rapazinho que não sabia ler nem escrever… Vivia numa ilha encantada, tinha alegria e casas por todo o lado! Mas não havia escola, por isso tinha de arranjar alguma coisa que gostasse de fazer. Este menino chamava-se José Saramago. De facto, era conhecido como o “Letras”, pois naquela ilha era o único com imaginação para quase tudo! Uma vez, preocupado por não ter imaginação, foi até aos confins da ilha sem se preocupar com mais nada… Foi tão longe que, quando se lembrou de que estava sozinho, seguiu para onde o destino o levasse… Se já ninguém sabia dele, podia continuar a sua viagem perdida! Pelo caminho, encontrou uma flor. Era estranha, mas o mais engraçado é que chamava muito a sua atenção. Ficou um longo tempo a olhar para a pequena flor murcha e, logo depois, lembrou-se de ir buscar água ao rio. Foi um longo caminho, mas voltou para ao pé da flor num instante! Sem imaginar que poderia acontecer uma coisa tão fascinante, a flor subiu, subiu e subiu cada vez mais… A flor, naquele estado, parecia do tamanho do mundo! O sono, de repente, chegou aos olhos do pequeno rapaz, o “Letras”. A flor, para lhe agradecer, decidiu dar uma das suas pétalas para servir de cobertor durante algum tempo… Entretanto, os pais do rapaz já estavam preocupados. Deram a volta à ilha encantada, mas nada… De repente, uma porta, vinda do nada, abriu-se… Os pais, com algumas esperanças, atravessaram a porta e um pouco mais à frente encontraram o José… Finalmente em casa, José Saramago foi até ao centro da ilha ver a grande flor. Com um sorriso na cara, as pessoas que lá viviam deram um abraço ao “Letras” e todas juntas disseram: - Este é o nosso herói! Tentei cumprir a promessa de escrever esta história com outras palavras. Espero que esteja bem contada, para mais tarde escrever as minhas próprias histórias!
On June 25th 2009, CULTUREINSIDE.COM and GALERIE CLAIREFONTAINE will inaugurate an art exhibition entitled "ROOTED". The show will consist of works by artists chosen competitively by a curatorial committee. The theme of the exhibition is an investigation, a visualization, a materialization or conceptualization of the term "Rooted". What is formative, grounding, or sustaining, for us as women, men, artists or citizens? What are, Where are, How are we rooted in the world? Philosophically, phenomenologically, psychologically or spiritually, it is a thorny and complex issue. We are sure these questions can be addressed by artists in novel and interesting ways. The curators do not want to particularize the theme or parse it beyond a basic statement. We believe that the less said on the topic the better. Artists can identify or define it as they see fit. 
![[Traces of Catastrophe]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_vEX3pnVLfjduyY2w4Pz6_GP5gBi1etAjzIKauNEjGAA7h29CetatEvcO3QgfN12Qj9DkjsN4BVjd5eWPyicLUCsxMSo-9-D7QJpTUViVO1qdX5xdbIVdnF4h_-jBnTN6l25A=s0-d)
eteorite impacts are getting plenty of respect these days. The public regards them as the established destroyer of dinosaurs and the possible destroyer of civilization. Increasing numbers of geoscientists are coming to appreciate the importance of meteorite impact events and the extent of their influence on the geological and biological history of Earth. However, despite the growing importance of meteorite impact phenomena in terrestrial geology, the topic is still not widely addressed in general geoscience textbooks and references. This author attempts to fill this gap and provide for geoscientists a detailed introduction and overview of impact processes, crater formation, and shock metamorphism. The book is not aimed primarily at specialists actually working in impact geology. It is intended for geoscientists of all kinds: students who want to learn about the importance of meteorite impact; professors who want to add impact information to their geoscience courses; and professional geologists who may unexpectedly encounter an impact structure in the next field area or in the next drill core. Traces of Catastrophe is intended to serve as a combination of sourcebook, laboratory manual, and reference for working geologists. The chapters are designed to be read independently, depending on the background and needs of the reader. Literature references are included to help readers explore the field further. 
![[] Eduardo Kac](http://images.google.pt/imgres?imgurl=http://www.viewingspace.com/genetics_culture/pages_genetics_culture/gc_w03/kac_webarchive/gfp_bunny_page/albagreen.jpeg&imgrefurl=http://www.viewingspace.com/genetics_culture/pages_genetics_culture/gc_w03/kac_webarchive/gfp_bunny_page/gfp_bunny.htm&usg=__P5bQ2hQouNV7f8FkDSRxvgfiQWY=&h=357&w=432&sz=31&hl=pt-PT&start=1&sig2=Rf99g2rwIUp4dGaGW3QV1Q&um=1&tbnid=kB6iIQRufA1LXM:&tbnh=104&tbnw=126&prev=/images%3Fq%3Deduardo%2BKac%26hl%3Dpt-PT%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26channel%3Ds%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:pt-PT:official%26sa%3DX%26um%3D1&ei=iGjaSbCXIYaQ_Qax-LXwDA){kind=link}
![[] Pieter Brughel . Queda de Ícaro](http://images.google.pt/imgres?imgurl=http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_va89eTF6-EE/SLnB4SPnc9I/AAAAAAAAAQU/zftsl2Ht-ps/s320/Carlo%2BSaraceni.jpg&imgrefurl=http://lula-gigante.blogspot.com/2008/08/as-quedas-de-caro-anlise-de-quatro_5442.html&usg=___tBtaHa0yw1MyjrD6j_uzbTuhWU=&h=246&w=320&sz=20&hl=pt-PT&start=43&sig2=setWLx8Y8TFR4H3kwCA-rA&tbnid=w6AWGvjCfqxS1M:&tbnh=91&tbnw=118&prev=/images%3Fq%3DBrughel%2Be%2Ba%2Bqueda%2Bde%2Bicaro%26gbv%3D2%26ndsp%3D21%26hl%3Dpt-PT%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:pt-PT:official%26sa%3DN%26start%3D42&ei=qMxNSpK-Ms6D-Qapken-Aw){kind=link}