Within a Sky Full of Earth

Did you ever saw any of these videos about making pop-corn with a mobile phone? Well, they seem to be true. Do you believe them? Try it yourself and you'll see what happens.
Growing concerns about the use of these devices, relayed on recent scientific studies, are disturbing all users around the world. Does your cell phone affects your brain, putting your health in danger? Probably yes. You can read it on the fresh issue of Best Life magazine. They put the finger on all the keys flowing down through these matters.
Did you ever heard about Specific Absorption Rate, commonly known as SAR number? It's another SAR different from the one you are used to, nothing to do with special regions. This is the rate that measures the absorbed radiation by the human body. And some phones are more danger than others, iPhones, for instance, are on the middle range on this. Maybe you believe that for the hours you've already spend on a cell phone probably you wouldn't be here reading this and you don't care much. Perhaps this is not truly scientific confirmed yet but for your own sake you should take a look about it. First rule: don't let your kids use it! Second rule: always use a wired headset (even the Bluetooth devices can be harmful with long time use).

The truth about the cell-phone–cancer link and what it means for you and your kids

When Vini Khurana, PhD, an Australian (and Mayo Clinic–trained) neurosurgeon, announced that the link between cell-phone use and cancer was irrefutable—the result of his analysis of more than 100 studies—it set off alarm bells around the world. Use a cell phone, he said, and you increase your risk of developing a malignant brain tumor by two to four times. Until recently, the majority of research indicated little or no link between cell phones and cancer (the World Health Organization and the American Cancer Society maintain that cell phones pose no threat), but several new long-term studies have cast doubt about their safety. Given that cell phones and PDAs serve as lifelines for so many people—24 percent of 10- and 11-year-olds carry them—it raises urgent questions. To find out what precautions you should take when using your cell phone, we dialed the nation's leading experts.

Do cell phones cause cancer?
Maybe…with extended use. Mobile-phone users are twice as likely to develop malignant, difficult-to-treat brain tumors called gilomas, according to a first-of-its-kind study that analyzed the effects of cell-phone use over 10 years or more and was published last year in the journal Occupational Environmental Medicine. The Bioinitiative Working Group, an international coalition of scientists and public-health experts, recently published a hefty report detailing the link between the nonionizing radiation caused by a cell phone's electromagnetic fields (EMFs) and cancer, DNA damage, Alzheimer's, and other diseases. "The cells in the body react to EMFs in cell phones just like they do to other environmental toxins, including heavy metals and chemicals," says Martin Blank, PhD, a professor in bioelectromagnetics at Columbia University and one of the report's authors. The study found that risk from cell-phone use starts at 260 lifetime hours.

Do cell phones emit radiation only when you are talking?
No. "Cell phones give off radiation any time they're turned on so that they can communicate with base stations," says Lou Bloomfield, PhD, professor of physics at the University of Virginia and author of How Everything Works: Making Physics Out of the Ordinary. "The radiation emitted, however, is stronger and more frequent when you're talking or messaging." Also, the greater distance you are from a base station, the more radiation your phone must emit in order to get a signal, which is why your phone feels hot when you have low reception. That heat you feel is radiation. The Bioinitiative study found that adverse effects to DNA can also occur before the phone heats up. To reduce your exposure, make calls only when you have strong reception, hang up before your phone heats up, and store your phone away from your body when it's not in use.

What is the range of the radiation?
Exposure to radiation from your cell phone drops off slowly for the first three to four inches from your body, and then it falls dramatically, says Bloomfield. To reduce your exposure, invest in a hands-free headset and limit the amount of time you spend talking on the phone. Khurana recommends using the speaker mode and holding the phone about eight inches away from you. Also, limit your use of Bluetooth devices. While it's true that they emit the least amount of radiation (one study found they can operate as low as 0.001 watts per kilogram), even that can add up fast.

Is it risky to carry a cell phone in your pants pocket?
Maybe. One 2006 study found no link to testicular cancer, but other researchers suspect a link to male infertility. Ashok Agarwal, PhD, director of the Center for Reproductive Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic, recently completed a study in which cell phones were set down for one hour in talk mode, next to sperm samples in test tubes. He found that the sperm's motility and viability were significantly reduced, and levels of harmful free radicals increased after exposure. Agarwal suggests storing the phone in your jacket pocket to reduce exposure to cell-phone radiation. Pregnant women need to take precautions too, because a recent study found that cell-phone use while pregnant is linked to behavioral problems in children.
[Julie A. Evans on BEST LIFE MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER ISSUE • FOLLOW IT HERE OR BUY IT AT BLOOM YELLOW TODAY OR TOMORROW]

RELATED LINKS: WIKIPEDIA • TRUTHOUT • THE NEW YORK TIMES

If you come to BLOOM YELLOW today the first thing you notice is that the magazines are epidemic and are crawling through every space available. As we got many different titles they spread around and we're running out of place for all of them, which in a way is good because we have a good offer.
One of the last arrivals is Foreign Affairs, the preeminent journal of foreign policy and international affairs, who provides to government and business leaders, students, and the general public with insightful, thought-provoking analysis on world events for over 80 years. Before it becomes policy, it's all there, in Foreign Affairs.
Founded in 1921, the Council on Foreign Relations is a non-profit and nonpartisan membership organization dedicated to improving the understanding of U.S. foreign policy and international affairs through the free exchange of ideas. Its 3,400 members include nearly all past and present Presidents, Secretaries of State, Defense and Treasury, other senior U.S. government officials, renowned scholars, and major leaders of business, media, human rights, and other non-governmental groups. Each year the Council sponsors several hundred meetings including televised debates and other media events, and publishes Foreign Affairs, the preeminent journal in the field, as well as dozens of other reports and books by noted experts.
Since 1922, the Council has published Foreign Affairs, America's most influential publication on international affairs and foreign policy. It is more than a magazine — it is the international forum of choice for the most important new ideas, analysis, and debate on the most significant issues in the world. Inevitably, articles published in Foreign Affairs shape the political dialogue for months and years to come.
On this issue [September/October 2008, Vol 87, Number 5] you can read about the Dauting Agenda of the next U. S. President, who will inherit a more difficult set of international challenges than any predecessor since World War II, an essay by Richard Holbrooke. Along you can follow the Bush Era in perspective. Read also articles by Christopher Hitchens and Antonio Guterres, former Prime-minister of Portugal and UN High Comissioner for Refugees. Look for A Strategic Economic Engagement, the right way to engage China, an essay by Henry Paulson, the US Treasury Secretary.
Plenty of readings to start your weekend and to boost the coming month.
[FOREIGN AFFAIRS WEBSITE]

And yes, we are back in town!

José Tavares, vice-presidente do Instituto de Desporto de Macau, entrevistado pela Tribuna de Macau, responde assim à seguinte questão:

-Em termos económicos, que benefícios é que Macau teve?
-Ficámos a ganhar, porque hoje em dia, para fazer as mesmas infra-estruturas, era o dobro ou o triplo do preço. Antecipou-se a construção dessas instalações, que devia ter acontecido em 15 ou 20 anos, e o Governo poupou muito dinheiro, porque as matérias primas e a mão-de-obra eram mais baratas.

Mas e se tivessem acontecido há 15 ou 20 anos não teriam poupado muito mais? Logo o Governo perdeu rios de dinheiro. Mas por esta lógica estamos todos contentes. O Governo por ter feito a ponte Nobre de Carvalho em 1974 e não agora. O Stanley Ho por ter terminado a Torre de Macau em 1999 e o David Chow também deve estar contentíssimo por ter feito a Doca dos Pescadores há uns anos e não em 2008. Estão todos com os cofres cheios por causa disso. Imaginem se o Homem se punha a inventar o Fogo agora, o dinheirão que isso não custaria.

Mensagem para as novas gerações?
Puta que os pariu!
[ENTREVISTA DE JOÃO PAULO COTRIM A LUIZ PACHECO, REVISTA LER, 1995, COMPILADAS NO LIVRO 'O CROCODILO QUE VOA' - EDIÇÃO TINTA DA CHINA]

From the Southeast Asia bay to the heart of Europe it takes half a day if you ride a jet plane. Imagine what it would be if you get any other means of transport. Would take a hell of a ride. The distance is about 9600 kilometers. We departed at night and as we flew away towards the West the speed of daylight was chasing us from the start and by the time we arrived the bloom of dawn was just touching our tail. Long time waiting in a cabin of a plane nowhere in the world it's like being mad without knowing. A limbo of endless short memories that we recall under sleepless periods or on the short breath of a dream. Human beings that commute with each other, breathing the same air, side by side, just to get to another life that waits on a new promising land. Returning home or be faraway from it are the predicts of this tedious road on the sky. But as people say, "the sky has no limits". No end. And when you arrive your whole senses are opened to any new discovery waiting for the marvelous of the uncommon chance. The unknown future taking place on the other side of the planet. Yourself but in a way different.

In the small place of Odemira, Alentejo, Portugal, 20 minutes from the Atlantic Coast, stands a new holiday destination, where Bloom is planting a little seed. Visit Quinta do Chocalhinho.

Bloom Red and Bloom Yellow are open. Part of the team is on holidays and will return soon to the moonbase. Keep enjoying all the books you can have.

Não sei se me faço entender, embora entenda com tanta facilidade o que acabei de escrever.

Telefonaram-me para casa e perguntaram-me se estava em casa.
Foi então que deram pelo facto de que realmente eu tinha morrido havia já dezassete dias.
Por vezes as perguntas estúpidas são de extrema utilidade.
Adaptação local de Contos de Gin-Tónico, de Mário Henrique Leiria

Qualquer coisa?

No fundo fazíamo-nos companhia, mesmo quando passavam dias em que não dizíamos palavra.
Um corpo precisa de ver outro para saber o que é.
Amor Portátil, de Pedro Paixão
[DISPONÍVEL NA BLOOM]

sei.
claro que sei.
seria desonesta se dissesse que não sabia.

mas sim, sei.
e hoje fizeste questão de fazer com que soubesse.
e soube o que já sabia.

que sei.
claro que sei.
serei honesta ao dizer que sei.
[* Pelo teu amor]

dos meus sonhos,
sonhos, que me esqueci
e me permiti "reinventar", mantenho em brasa a meia metade percorrida da
outra metade de um sonho
por sonhar,
os meus sonhos,
alimentados de palavras meio adormecidas, que hoje valem por
si.

Provoco,
na imediata constatação,
o meu reencontro contra a luz,
despindo da alma
o próprio peso do corpo.

Desse processo,
onde as horas passam - por mim -
Transformadas em vírgulas, no interior da cessação de movimento, ganham vida e circulam palavras,
como forma de inocente salvação expiada.

More and more people are moving into towns and cities to live and work, which is altering the urban/rural balance of countries worldwide. For the first time in the history of humanity, more than half of the earth’s population is living in urban areas. THE ENDLESS CITY is an unparalleled study of the growth of six of the world's international cities (New York, Shanghai, London, Mexico City, Johannesburg, and Berlin), exploring key structural, social, and economic factors. This book was overseen by the London School of Economics, and features extensive research and coherent texts by world-renowned professionals in the field of urban planning and development. The information is presented in a comprehensive and visually compelling sequence, enabling quick and efficient reference as well as offering material that is exciting to study. Each city is examined individually in its own chapter as well as being analyzed comparatively in an observational chapter. THE ENDLESS CITY is authoritatively edited by Ricky Burdett and Deyan Sudjic in collaboration with the London School of Economics and the Urban Age Project - an international organization seeking a new urban agenda for global cities. Extensive research and coherent text are presented in a comprehensive and visually compelling sequence, making this an essential reference tool for anyone interested in urbanism and development.
[CHECK THE FEATURED WEBSITE HERE and ORDER IT FROM US]

The Endless City, by Ricky Burdett (Editor), Deyan Sudjic (Editor)
PHAIDON PRESS • HARDCOVER • 512 PAGES • MARCH 2008

      The only nation
                                       I ever gave
allegiance to
          was
                     hibernation.
[BY MARTIN C. - The best writer of Macau]

Yesterday we had a full house. It is an amazing book, China: Portrait of a Country, and just to look at the pictures we can talk about them for ages. It was really a pleasure to have Liu Heung Shing and once again Karen Smith with us. We would like to thank to everybody who came to this and to the other events. We will soon post some pictures of all the sessions and we'll return with more in September. This was our first try to revive a lovely area in Macau. We want to do it like the beat of the city's art! Hope you can enjoy it as we do.

OUR BIGGEST THANKS TO PETER SUART, XU XI, KUNG CHI SING, KAREN SMITH, LIU HEUNG SHING, PHILIP TSANG, MARJORIE YAU, MARY CHAN, SHEILA LO, JOSEPHINE MA, ALICE WU, CATHERINE CHENG, LIZ LAM, GLENN TIMMERMANS, ANDREW MOODY, JORGE MESQUITA AND VICENZO. TASCHEN, HONG KONG UNIVERSITY PRESS, HAVEN BOOKS, CHAMELEON PRESS, TIMEZONE 8, ASIA PUBLISHER SERVICES, FOREIGN PRESS DISTRIBUTORS, BAMBU SOCIEDADE DE ARTES LIMITADA, SANTA CASA DA MISERICÓRDIA DE MACAU, CASA DE PORTUGAL EM MACAU, JORNAL HOJE MACAU, MACAU CLOSER MAGAZINE AND TO ALL THE ONES WHO KNOW THAT THIS WOULDN'T BE POSSIBLE WITHOUT THEM!

O grande mistério não é termos sido lançados aqui ao acaso, entre a profusão da matéria e das estrelas: é que, da nossa própria prisão, de dentro de nós mesmos, conseguimos extrair imagens suficientemente poderosas para negar a nossa insignificância.
André Malraux, in A Condição Humana, 1933

[...] Liu Heung Shing got the idea for the book shortly after China won its bid to host the Olympics. “I began to wonder what people in 2008 would understand about the journey that Chinese people have undergone from 1949 till today. When people get off at the airport they’ll be surrounded by luxury – villas, fast trains, cars, stadiums – but will not necessarily appreciate or understand the road that has lead to today.”

The photographer says he wanted to present as balanced a portrait of the country as possible. In Western media, he notes, “China is either too backward or it’s flooding the West with all these goods and is a threat to its neighbours… at what point does conversation turn into demonisation?” At the other end of the spectrum, Chinese media tend to see “China through a viewing glass that is not always propagandistic, but the Chinese have a tendency to put the best face forward.”

The book takes a panoramic, decade-by-decade look at the nation’s development, from the founding of the People’s Republic, to the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, to the Opening and Reform and Tiananmen, right up to its ongoing economic miracle. Even China’s most recent heartrending national tragedy, the Sichuan earthquake, makes an appearance. Liu has spent the last four years pouring over archives, travelling the country meeting photographers and gaining access to negatives. “Surprisingly when I started calling the photographers, I had a very warm welcome.” Many of them already knew Liu’s 1983 work, China After Mao, which was circulated ‘unofficially’ in China.

Between 25 and 30 per cent of the works in the new book have never been published, including one of Madame Jiang Qing, purported to be the last photograph taken of her before she was arrested that same evening. Another shows Chairman Mao with more than a dozen of his personal staff, an image Liu says “would have been impossible to publish during Mao’s lifetime.” Another photo depicts one of Mao’s ‘railway attendants’ in fashionable dress. Elsewhere, we see original images alongside official photographs, such as the Gang of Four at Mao’s funeral, placed beside the official photograph in which the four were airbrushed out. [...]
[STACEY DUFF in TIME OUT HONG KONG]

You can occupy my every sigh,
You can rent a space inside my mind
At least untill the price becomes too high.

Pistas para a sua identificação

- O cinéfilo tem sempre tempo para ir ao cinema.
- É muito chato e refere repetidamente aos amigos, e outras vítimas, cenas preferidas, actores, filmes, bandas sonoras e alguma trivia.
- Sabe a data de nascimento da Asta Nielsen.
- Não viu, inexplicavelmente, alguns filmes que toda a gente viu, como Música no Coração ou Os Canhões de Navarone.
- Viu filmes que mais ninguém viu, como La Petite Fée de Solbaken, e é especialista em géneros obscuros, como Bergfilms germânicos.
- Sabe nomes de directores de fotografia e as características gerais do seu trabalho.
- Desvaloriza Sundance em favor do Festival de Cinema de Telluride.
- Sorri, iluminado, quando alguém sai do cinema a dizer que o filme tem uma grande fotografia.
- Sabe de cor bocados de filmes obscuros, como O Coronel Wolodyjowski, e encontra meios de incluir nas conversas, mesmo a despropósito, referências a esses filmes.
- Vai ao cinema sozinho.
- Consegue lançar numa conversa, com uma certeza imune ao mais leve pestanejar, nomes difíceis, como Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, ou mesmo, prova máxima, nomes de realizadores coreanos.
- Sabe que o último filme do Wong Kar Wai é uma merda.
- Usou gabardina e, a dada altura, cachecol à nouvelle vague.
- Vai às sessões das 14:00 e recorda que a certa altura havia sessões às 11 da manhã.
- Lembra, saudoso, ciclos de cinema a que assistiu há mais de 20 anos, e onde, invariavelmente, se passaram episódios inesquecíveis.
- Tem opiniões firmes sobre o cinema mudo dinamarquês.
- Sabe de cor títulos de filmes na língua original, preferindo dizer Neokonchenaya Piesa dlya Mekhanicheskogo Pianino a Peça Inacabada para Piano Mecânico.
- Também sabe títulos de filmes em bengali, ladaque, azeri, além de japonês ou russo.
- Por vezes finge não saber a tradução de títulos de alguns filmes.
- Teve/tem paixões fortes por actores ou actrizes. Uma vez jantou num restaurante em Carcassone onde estava, a 18 mesas de distância, a Catherine Deneuve.
- Odeia militantemente alguns géneros (como o musical – exemplo : Les Parapluies de Cherburg), alguns actores (Anthony Quinn), ou alguns filmes (Il Postino).
- Detestava, até à altura em que passou apenas a responder com um sorriso trocista, que alguém que não considera um “gajo do cinema“ lhe sugerisse ver este ou aquele filme, vivendo no terror de ouvir a frase : “ó pá, se és meu amigo tens de ir ver isto”.
- Passou horas em bichas para comprar bilhetes para ciclos, onde fez amizades para a vida. Conclui lembrando que: “ainda tenho lá em casa os bilhetes de...”.
- Abusa de frases superlativas começadas por Nunca, como: “nunca a Garbo esteve tão sublime como em...”, que faz acompanhar de um gesto de mão, abrangente e nostálgico.
- Vê filmes sem legendas em línguas que não domina.
- Insiste que os filmes do Syberberg: “até se vêem bem, é uma questão de entrar neles“.
- Só em casos excepcionais vê filmes dobrados, quando não há outra cópia de um filme dificílimo de encontrar, e envolvendo uma língua que não entende, como por exemplo um filme em dinamarquês dobrado para italiano.
[POR BOI LUXO em Luz de Inverno, no Hoje Macau da passada Terça-feira]

Due to the very hot weather and mostly because Dan Waters is 88 years old, Bloom and MCCM Creations decided to postpone the presentation of One Couple Two Cultures, event scheduled to this Saturday, 2nd of August, to another date, on a cooler time, to be announced soon.

To everybody our sincere apologies and to Dan our most deep regards.