Wow! Birds have grammar

Chavez consolidating control of Venezuelan (and world) oil

What can I say?

A reggaeton track that goes "Wiki Wiki".

Life is complete.

Apparently Google are rolling out map info for several European countries.

That means my friends in Granada can now find themselves.

My guess is that Chris Pirillo's Airplane Safety Instructional Video is going to be a massive hit over the next few days.

Tree Blogging

Forest
Originally uploaded by interstar.

Doh!

I went to the Atlantic Forest, but I don't seem to have got many pictures of trees.

Here's something, at least a little bit foresty.

Big spider
Originally uploaded by interstar.

There's a very big spider that lives under the house where the owners and the building workers are living (Serra Bonita is under construction).

Everyone calls her Rosa.

This isn't Rosa, but one of her (slightly) smaller sisters. (About 7 or 8 inches in diameter.)

Humming Birds
Originally uploaded by interstar.

Every afternoon, the humming birds come to be fed. They've got so tame that they'll land on your hand. This, however, is definitely the most dramatic photo I got.

See that grey in the background? This is cloud forest and the clouds roll right up the valley and engulf the research centre.

Moonrise 2
Originally uploaded by interstar.

Just got back from the Serra Bonita eco-reserve - a mountain in the Atlantic Forest, southern Bahia.

Beautiful place, and an ambitious project created by a very impressive couple in their sixties. I want to say a lot about this, but no time now. More pics soon.

Jonathan Schwartz (the new head of Sun) was in Brasilia a couple of weeks ago.

Cool! One of my students from last semester did a pretty good, simple Windows drawing program which exports WMF files for his Programação Avancada coursework. Now he's put code up on the net.

I'm back from travelling. Pics, blog posts, more stuff soon ...

Cool! An alt.money blog from a Brazilian living in Uraguay.

Legal! Um blog de dinheiro alternativo (economia solidária) escrevendo pela um brasiliero morando em Uraguay.

An interesting comment to a piece by James Kunstler

When folks discuss hybrids, they might as well consider combining the airship with the train somehow. Trains do use a lot of energy (far less than your jalopy, but still) - because they're HEAVY. Subtract some of the weight by adding something blimp-like (if this necessiates putting up guardrails on either side of the track, so be it) - and you'll have the most energy-efficient vehicle in history.

BBC NEWS | Political row hits Brazil shares

BBC NEWS | Brazilian finance minister quits

The story going round here is that the guy was sleeping with the wife of one of his underlings and the underling shopped him. Who knows?

New Statesman - The new globalisation guru?

Anyone wants to know why they haven't heard from me recently? I'm snowed under with marking. Everything else is just a displacement activity.

Will surface soon ...

John Robb: The Window of Controlled Chaos is Now Closed

Why aren't I reading Ben Hyde more regularly?