Kafka In Amadora

Bárbara Reis no Público (2018) conta como Hilda Solis, primeira mulher hispânica do Senado da Califórnia e filha de pais emigrantes da Nicarágua e do México foi picada pelo mosquito do politicamente correcto ao ser a autora da moção apresentada ao comité de supervisores do condado de Los Angeles que substituiu o Dia de Cristóvão Colombo por Dia dos Povos Indígenas, o que resultou no derrube da estátua de Colombo que estava na Baixa da cidade. Solis disse: “A estátua de Cristóvão Colombo reescreve um capítulo manchado da História que romantiza a expansão dos impérios europeus e a exploração de recursos naturais e seres humanos. Minimizar ou ignorar a dor dos habitantes originais de Los Angeles é prestar um mau serviço à verdade. A remoção da estátua de Colombo é um acto de reparação da justiça que honra e reconhece o espírito resiliente dos habitantes originais do nosso condado. Com a remoção, começamos um novo capítulo da nossa História, em que aprendemos com os erros do passado.” Bár

On 2019, Nobel laureate and discoverer of the double-helix DNA structure James Watson was stripped of all his academic titles. This reprisal was undertaken by his former colleagues at Cold Spring Harbour Laboratory and came as a reaction to his latest remarks on the possible genetic connection between race and IQ. Dr. Watson’s opinions came to light again in a recent PBS documentary entitled American Masters: Decoding Watson. In the documentary he is asked whether his views about the relationship between race and intelligence have changed. “No,’’ Dr. Watson said. “Not at all. I would like for them to have changed, that there be new knowledge that says that your nurture is much more important than nature. But I haven’t seen any knowledge. And there’s a difference on the average between blacks and whites on IQ tests. I would say the difference is, it’s genetic.’’ This is not the first time Watson has made headlines for his views. In 2007 he gave an interview with the Sunday Times in whic

We and our animal cousins are quickly alerted to signs of opportunities to mate or to feed, and advertisers design billboards accordingly. [Daniel Kahneman (2011), Thinking, Fast and Slow, Penguin Books]

Ouroboros is a snake-like animal that, contorted in a circle, devours its own tail. This ancient symbol tells us about the circularity of time. The idea of eternal return has existed in various forms since antiquity. Put simply, it's the theory that existence recurs in an infinite cycle as energy and matter transform over time. In ancient Greece, the Stoics believed that the universe went through repeating stages of transformation similar to those found in the "wheel of time" of Hinduism and Buddhism. One of Nietzsche's most famous ideas is also that of eternal recurrence, which appears in his book The Gay Science, Aphorism 341 :  "What, if some day or night a demon were to steal after you into your loneliest loneliness and say to you: 'This life as you now live it and have lived it, you will have to live once more and innumerable times more; and there will be nothing new in it, but every pain and every joy and every thought and sigh and everything unutterab