Eric Schmidt's MacTaggart lecture. Part I.

“¿Quién, si yo gritara, me oiría desde las jerarquías de los ángeles?...Todo ángel es terrible. Y por esto yo me contengo y ahogo el grito de reclamo de un oscuro sollozo.” Evito interpretar con precisión qué sea eso de ser un ángel en esta cita de Rilke que abre sus Elegías de Duíno, algo sumamente complejo y que no creo que aportara mucho al business de este artículo. Sin embargo, renunciar a conocer su esencia no nos impide saber qué hace o de qué va. En los versos citados, el ángel puede escuchar, digamos que escucha, y también asusta ―es terrible―, por eso Rilke prefiere no gritar, porque hay muchas posibilidades de que responda y no es plan; es como estar en apuros, pedir socorro y  en lugar del poli bueno te aparezca el matón del que hasta ese momento estabas escabullido.

A mí este grito de Rilke me recuerda mucho a la pregunta-grito escéptica: ¿estaré sólo?, ¿lo que veo no son sino autómatas con capas y sombreros o son otros como yo? La duda cartesiana de si las capas y sombreros que veía por la ventan eran algo más que autómatas se resolvería si me dirigiera a ellos, como al ángel de Rilke: depende de si me contestaran o no podría saber si estoy solo, si hay otras mentes, pero sobre todo podría saber si yo también soy otra mente. En su respuesta sabría que soy un ser para otro, que no sólo me confirmo sumergido en el interior de mi subjetividad, sino también desde la objetividad, reconocido por otro que yo -el cogito ergo sum vale como criterio de verdad, pero te deja inquieto. Exigir esta doble confirmación es algo así como elevar a Descartes al cuadrado, cosa que ya hizo Hegel con su famoso reconocimiento. Por cierto, el asunto del reconocimiento es una de las notas más ateas de Hegel, algo que Cavel observa con acierto. Así como el que no quiere la cosa hizo recaer en el otro, en otra autoconciencia, lo que antes dependía de dios y de su coro de ángeles.

Y es que no teníamos que haber matado a dios, ahí Kant se pasó un poco -Nietzsche no fue más que un vocero en ese asunto-, nos hubiéramos ahorrado todas estas filigranas intelectuales para saber que hay otras mentes, para saber que yo también soy una mente. Esta es una de las grandes diferencias entre el inicio de la modernidad con Descartes y sus desarrollos posteriores. Al poner a un dios bueno en la base de todo, el genio de la estufa se ahorró cuatrocientos años de darle vueltas al caletre sobre el mundo externo, todo un fenómeno. Para un cristiano de a pie, si dios existe no está solo, aunque  hasta la camarera lo ignore cuando le pide una de calamares y una Mahou. Dios siempre está ahí, lo conoce, habla con él, y sabe que incluso cuando hace algo mal es un buen tipo...sabe que en realidad quería otra cosa pero todo se torció, y si le queda alguna duda ya se la explicará cuando la diñe y lo vea allí arriba. Al menos así era antes las cosas.

Pero como posilustrados no tenemos dios al que agarrarnos y volvemos a donde empezamos el artículo, a gritar y a ver si alguien nos responde y nos confirma que no estamos solos; sobre todo que me confirme que soy una sigularidad reconocida en la esfera del Ser, algo que ha sido percibido según la forma que me dan mis notas características, no como cualquier cosa que se acojona existencialmente y grita. Podemos plantear todo esto de la siguiente forma: ¿si alguien supiera mis gustos, mis temores, mis deseos, cómo soy realmente…podría decirse que me conoce? ¿Y si alguien me conoce de esa forma, tan precisa, como lo hacía dios antes de que nos lo cargáramos, si me contestara según soy yo, en mi particularidad e intimidad y no como a otro cualquiera, me sentiría reconocido o asustado?

Miro a mi alrededor y pregunto a lo que tengo al alcance si me conoce en mi peculiaridad, si me reconoce intimamente para que yo me asegure de mí mismo no sólo a través de mí, a través de la debilidad de mis reflexiones internas, sino obteniendo la confirmación con la fuerza de lo que nos entra por los sentidos, desde fuera. Pregunto figuradamente a la pared, a la ventana, al modem, al pájaro de mirada estúpida que picotea por el jardín: no me reconocen, algo que ya esperaba. Pregunto también figuradamente a mis amigos y a mi familia: tampoco, yo no me reconozco en la idea que tienen de mí, yo no soy eso que piensan de mí, no me conocen en absoluto (esta sensación la tenemos todos, es inevitable). Entonces estoy solo, nadie me conoce,  no me siento reconocido y por lo tanto la duda planea sobre mí de forma inquietante. Si lo que conocen o reconocen es algo a lo que yo no asiento, a lo que no doy mi conformidad, entonces el objeto de reconocimiento no soy yo, es la idea equivocada de mí que tienen lo que reconocen. La conclusión entonces  es un tanto siniestra: puede ser que  muera, que abandone este mundo y nadie me haya conocido-percdibido-reconocido realmente, es como si no hubiera existido nunca.

Continuará.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/interactive/2011/aug/26/eric-schmidt-mactaggart-lecture-full-text

To Make a World: George Ault and 1940s America

                                          George Ault, Daylight at Russell's Corner

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En breve se clausurará la exposición sobre George Ault, llevada a cabo por el Smithsonian American Art Museum y comisionada por Alexander Nemerov, actualmente profesor Vincent Scully en el departamento de Historia del Arte en la universidad de Yale. La exhibición se centra en cinco cuadros que Ault hizo sobre un cruce de caminos cerca de su casa de Woodstock, the Russell’s Corner. Los cuadros con este cruce de caminos de fondo enlazan con una colección de casas de campo que tienen como característica ofrecer dos sensaciones equívocas al mismo tiempo, por una lado la de estar frente a algo pleno, minucioso, completo…y  sin embargo no podemos alejar la sospecha de que es irreal o abstracto .

                                         Black Night at Russell's Corner.

Cuatro de ellos son visiones nocturnas, iluminadas sólo por una simple y solitaria bombilla que proporciona un brillo eléctrico pero insuficiente para disipar la oscuridad que impregna los mejores trabajos de Ault. Los cuadros fueron realizados durante y justo después de la segunda guerra mundial, y aunque parezca que no tienen nada que ver con la carnicería que se estaba llevando a cabo a miles de millas de distancia, Nemerov está convencido de que son imágenes de guerra. Ignoro si la proposición: “esto es una pintura de guerra”, pronunciada mientras se señala, por ejemplo, su famoso Bright Light at Russell’s Corner, se puede dar por verdadera. Parece dudoso que lo sea, pero sí que es verdad que la tranquilidad que ofrecen sus cuadros es sólo aparente. En realidad, cualquier situación de reposo no es sino un equilibrio de fuerzas, pero fuerzas al fin y al cabo, no hay nada en la naturaleza que esté exento de ellas; pensemos en la cantidad de fuerzas que soportan los cimientos de un edificio, y sin embargo nos parece que nada está pasando cuando los contemplamos.  

                                         Bright Light at Rusell's Corner.

Los trabajos de Ault nos parecen irreales porque parece que todo pueda estallar en cualquier momento, como cuando en las películas de pruebas nucleares vemos como una primera onda desfigura levemente las casas para saltar por los aires completamente con la llegada de la segunda. Esa sensación de tensión acumulada es lo que logra Ault con las pequeñas irregularidades que introduce en el orden minucioso restante: si observamos bien veremos ventanas contraídas, desplazadas, líneas de puertas o ventanas con pendientes distintas, casas combadas sobre sí… La casa de la izquierda en Bright Light es un claro ejemplo de lo que estamos diciendo. Esos desajustes parecen el preciso instante inicial en el que todo puede empezar a explotar.

English text http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/to-make-a-world-as-glimpsed-by-painter-george-ault-/2011/03/11/ABqBXsV_singlePage.html

House in Abiko

                                         Exterior

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Casa en Abiko

Esta casa compuesta por tres tubos de hormigón interconectados es el último proyecto de casa privada de Shigeru Fuse's. Una de las indicaciones que dieron sus propietarios al  al arquitecto fue la de que pareciera una galería en la que pudieran exponer su colección de muebles de diseño.

                                         Espacio central con la cocina a la izquierda

Sin embargo, la forma característica de la casa es el resultado de consideraciones prácticas por parte del arquitecto. “La casa se halla situada entre dos valles sobre suelo poco firme, por lo tanto fueron necesarios unos cimientos muy profundos”, explica Fuse. “Para reducir su presencia, se realizó la estructura superior con forma de voladizo”.

                                         Salón.

En su poliédrico interior, el uso de la luz hace la función de los tradicionales muros al dividir el espacio central. “La reflexión y la refracción de la luz natural sobre las superficies inclinadas producen una secuencia de lugares que dan lugar a la percepción de las divisiones del interior, pese a estar todo unido”, continua Fuse.

Artículo completo en: http://jump.dexigner.com/directory/7228

Stockholm bans advertisements for street art show

                                         Anuncios prohibidos. Banned posters.

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Prohibido anunciar graffitis con graffitis.

El ayuntamiento de Estocolmo ha sido criticado por prohibir anuncios sobre una exposición de street art que reproducían graffitis.

Por supuesto los organizadores del evento calificaron este hecho como “censura”, y su respuesta fue alquilar una avioneta para pasear un cartel gigante en el que se puede leer “no podréis parar el graffiti”.

Aunque el año pasado sí que se permitieron anuncios del estilo art street y éste no, la cifra de visitantes ha aumentado hasta casi el doble, alcanzando los 5.900 visitantes.

Original text: http://www.theartnewspaper.com/articles/Stockholm-bans-advertisements-for-street-art-show/24421

Humbleness and junk in the space.

                                         Foto de la nave Juno



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Humildad y basura en el espacio.

El pasado mes de Julio se lanzó al espacio la nave espacial Juno por el Southwest Research Institute, con base en San Antonio (Texas). El equipo de investigación que dirige el proyecto Juno está dirigido por el doctor Scott Bolton, quien reveló los objetivos prioritarios de la misión: saber si hay un núcleo sólido en el interior de Jupiter, medir la profundidad de la gran mancha roja de la atmósfera de Jupiter, así como la de otras irregularidades características, cuánta agua contiene el planeta y de dónde vino. Cuando en 2016 la nave llegue a Jupiter dará treinta vueltas alrededor del planeta para averiguar todas estas cuestiones.

La idea de la misión Juno empezó a tomar forma cuando la sonda Cassini en misión hacia Saturno pasó por Jupiter y se utilizó la antena de microondas para hacer un mapa de los cinturones del gigante gaseoso. Las radiaciones que emiten los anillos en la magnetoesfera sirven para medir la cantidad de agua que hay, y saber este dato ayuda a comprender cómo se originó el planeta; y como Jupiter es uno de los primeros que se formó, con eso podremos saber más sobre el origen de nuestro sistema solar. En ciencia cuando se empieza es un no parar.

Esta facultad humana, la de la inferencia, es la clave del aumento exponencial de nuestro conocimiento: sabemos cosas que no vemos a través de cosas que sí vemos. La cantidad de agua por sí misma no tiene mucho interés, pero midiendo sus niveles, los del amoniaco y los campos de gravedad de Júpiter, se pueden obtener evidencias de si el planeta tiene un núcleo de elementos sólidos. “La historia de las partículas volátiles, incluido el oxígeno, a través de nuestro sistema solar es muy importante para la información sobre la tierra y sobre la vida misma”, dijo Bolton. “No sabemos de dónde vienen los elementos que formaron la tierra. Como Júpiter se formó primero y adquirió la mayoría de las sobras del Sol después de que éste se formara, descubriendo cómo sucedió todo eso revelaremos una de las claves de la historia de nuestro sistema.

Llamaron Juno a la nave, no porque fuera la mujer de Júpiter en la mitología romana, que lo es, sino porque Juno reveló lo que ocultaba su marido tras una nube; esa facultad, la de revelar lo que esconden las nubes, es lo que da nombre a la nave. De momento lo que nos ha revelado, lo que nos ha puesto delante de los ojos, es lo insignificantes que somos. Ya lo sabíamos, por supuesto, ya lo habíamos visto otras veces, pero quizás no de forma tan clara. Tenía razón Al Gore al inicio de su documental Una verdad incómoda, cuando dice que todo lo loable y horrible de la historia de la humanidad ha sucedido “aquí”, y aparecía nuestro planeta en la pantalla.

Foto de la Tierra y la Luna desde la nave Juno.

Miremos a la foto que nos proporciona la nave Juno, uno no puede más que sentirse humilde. Todas nuestras guerras, hazañas, odios, deseos, virtudes, pasiones, creencias, descubrimientos, etc., han sucedido en ese punto luminoso -bueno, algo sucedió también en el otro más pequeño: alguna frase célebre y algún paseo lunar .


Hace poco tuve unos amigos para cenar, y como la noche era clara y hacía una temperatura agradable terminamos sacando el telescopio para mirar precisamente a Júpiter. Mi amigo me preguntó ―“¿qué se ve?”. Yo le contesté todo espirituoso ―“más de lo que esperas ver”. Cuando enfoqué el planeta y de forma emocionada di paso a mi amigo para que mirara por el telescopio pensé que en él se iba a reproducir la misma emoción que yo contenía, sin embargo dijo ―“no veo nada”. Miré otra vez por la lente para ver si ya se había desplazado todo el conjunto, pero vi que aún seguía ahí el planeta y sus satélites. Sin salir de mi asombro le dije ―“¡pero si está todo ahí!”―, a lo que él comentó― “Ah, ¿son esos puntitos?”. La cosa se arregló un poco cuando saqué unas notas sobre Galileo y sus observaciones. El hecho de saber que ver esos puntitos significó en su día pasar de un universo ordenado con un solo centro de gravedad a uno que contiene una infinidad de ellos, y por lo tanto sumamente complicado y desfigurado, ayudó a crear una atmósfera más solemne alrededor de la performance astronómica que estaba intentando llevar a cabo.

Lo que dijo mi amigo podríamos decirlo nosotros mismo al ver la foto ―”ah, ¿somos ese puntito?”. Pues sí, eso y un montón más de chatarra que ya hemos desperdigado por ahí ―algo de lo que trataremos enseguida―, pero básicamente somos ese puntito. Por mucho que hiciéramos, por muy grandes que nos parezcan nuestras producciones, por muy imponente que nos parezcan nuestras pretensiones, no somos más que ese pequeño punto. A nivel cósmico no somos nada, y está bien que alguien nos recuerde nuestra humilde condición de vez en cuando, aunque sea una nave con el nombre de una diosa muy mala.

                                         Foto de la basura espacial

Ahora observemos esta otra foto, la que nos proporciona hoy la NASA, y nos daremos cuenta de lo abominable de nuestra condición, algo que hay que añadir a nuestra humildad pasajera. Apenas llevamos unos cuantos años de era espacial y ya hemos llenado de porquería toda nuestra periferia. Nuestra especie me recuerda a un gusano que todos los años me fastidia la floración de algunas plantas del jardín. Nunca veo a los gusanos, pero veo las flores marchitas y podridas por las heces que van expulsando mientras arrasan con todo lo que ven. Si veo sus excrementos sé que el gusano anda cerca, aunque no lo vea. Con los humanos pasa algo parecido.

Ver textos originales en:

http://www.swri.org/9what/releases/2011/juno.htm

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/sep/01/space-junk-rising-exponentially-earth

Space Station May Be Evacuated by Late Fall

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Al mirar hacia cualquier punto del cielo estrellado cualquier noche y a cualquier hora, la presencia del ser humano en el medio aéreo se hace patente, decenas de aviones cruzan el campo de visión. Sólo raras veces es posible ver la ISS, produciendo una mezcla de sensaciones encontradas. Sentimos la admiración que nos produce el logro tecnológico de haber creado un espacio habitable permanente en el espacio, pero también el temor ante la posibilidad de exportar lo peor de la raza humana más allá de este sufrido planeta. Si alguna vez ves pasar un punto del tamaño de Júpiter muy brillante que cruza el cielo de parte a parte a una velocidad considerable, eso es la ISS.

Todo aquello que enviamos más allá de la atmósfera terrestre es una especie de broma pesada que le gastamos a la naturaleza. Violar la fuerza de la atracción terrestre para llenar el espacio con nuestros artefactos es algo difícil de aceptar para la Tierra, cada accidente de la era espacial es una especie de muestra de su disgusto. La insistencia del ser humano en romper el rígigo tejido de leyes que nos mantiene pegados al suelo y dentro de la atmósfera sólo cobra sentido por una especie de hybris imposible de remediar en nuestro carácter; nos orgullecemos de que incluso más allá de donde nos había situado naturaleza haya también humanos. Desde hace una década podíamos siempre contar con varios representantes de nuestra equívoca especie en el espacio, no está mal para haber aparecido en la cadena de la evolución hace sólo dos millones y medio de años en nuestra versión homo. Desde el Neolítico hemos estado sembrados. Comparémonos con los mosquitos que llevan desde el Devónico aquí y no han sido capaces ni de mutar en una especie en la que no sean detectables por su sonido para evitar los manotazos que les soltamos.

Pero el logro evolutivo tan audaz de ser la especie terrestre que cuenta con habitantes permanentes en el espacio puede terminar pronto por los problemas que ha experimentado el lanzamiento de la última nave Soyuz con rumbo hacia la ISS. EE.UU abandonó el programa de los transbordadores espaciales, y la agencia europea sólo envía cargueros no tripulados con mercancía, de forma que sólo el programa Soyuz proporciona vehículos de transporte para producir el relevo de las tripulaciones de la ISS. Mientras no se estudie a fondo el problema con la última Soyuz Rusia no va a enviar más naves, por lo que los tripulantes de la estación espacial podrían utilizar las naves salvavidas de las que disponen para regresar a la tierra en los plazos previstos y dejar la ISS vacía. Por primera vez en varios lustros no habrá ningún representante de nuestra especie en el espacio.

Ver más en   http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/space-station-may-be-evacuated-by-late-fall/442866.html

 http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2011/08/29/ciencia/1314629164.html

Hay numerosa información disponible en entradas anteriores de este blog sobre diversos programas espaciales y la ISS.

Facing death with the spice of life

HACIENDO FRENTE A LA MUERTE CON LA SAL DE LA VIDA.

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Motoi Yamamoto estaba en tercer curso en el Kanazawa College of Art en 1996 cuando su hermana menor murió a la edad de 24 años ―dos años después de serle diagnosticado un tumor cerebral. Para calmar su pena y aportar algo de sentido a los distintos asuntos alrededor de la muerte de su hermana ―tales como el retraso en Japón para la aprobación de los medicamentos que tratan el cáncer y la dificultad para optar a una muerte asistida― empezó a trabajar en una serie de instalaciones utilizando estos temas como motivos.

Fue asumiendo tales presupuestos cómo le vino la idea de usar sal en sus trabajos. La sal tiene un lugar especial en los rituales mortuorios en Japón, siendo entregada a la gente habitualmente al final del funeral para que se la tiren por encima y así mantener alejados a los espíritus malignos.
Desde 2001 ha estado creando laberínticas instalaciones en el suelo rellenando una botella con sal que utiliza como pincel.

Ver texto completo en http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fa20110825a2.html

Berkeley's Scientists discover an "Instant Cosmic Classic" Supernova.

CIENTÍFICOS DE BERKELEY DESCUBREN UNA NUEVA SUPERNOVA.

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El 24 de agosto un grupo de científicos de Berkeley descubrieron una supernova a una distancia de 21 millones de años luz, una distancia relativamente corta cuando hablamos en términos astronómicos. Sólo el hecho de que la supernova esté situada tan cerca ya es motivo suficiente para la excitación general dentro de todos los equipos de investigación astronómica, pero a esta excitación inicial hay que añadir un plus por el motivo de que el fenómeno ha sido observado a las pocas horas de su inicio. La detección tan rápida va a permitir estudiar todo el proceso de formación y ocaso de una supernova.

Joshua Bloom, profesor asistente de la Universidad de California, Berkeley, la ha denominado como “la supernova de una generación”, y teniendo en cuenta el gran número de equipos de investigación que han dirigido hacia ella el telescopio desde que se observó por primera vez, sin duda será la supernova más estudiada de la historia.

En Occidente, el primer estudio detallado de una supernova del que disponemos es el de Tycho Brahe, el último de los grandes astrónomos anteriores a la época de los telescopios. En 1572 observó una supernova en la constelación de Casiopea tan brillante que era visible incluso de día. Según la teoría vigente de la época, en el cielo no era posible que aparecieran astros nuevos, de forma que siempre que ocurría un fenómeno visual parecido, como la aparición de un cometa, se les concedía el estatus de presagios o augurios. Tycho Brahe dio el nombre de stella nuova a la supernova y la trató como un fenómeno astronómico que aportaba una concepción nueva del universo; se pasó de vivir en un universo aristotélico, inalterable o inmutable, a uno en constante cambio. Sin embargo, el registro más antiguo que poseemos de una supernova se halla en la cultura china, realizado por astrónomos de esa zona en el año 185 a.c.

Las supernovas siguen siendo un fenómeno ampliamente deseado en la comunidad astronómica porque sirven para medir distancias en el universo, o la velocidad de expansión de éste, las utilizamos como faros o balizas que raramente aparecen, aunque gracias a los medios de hoy en día se detecta cada vez un mayor número de ellas.

Ver artículo completo en http://newscenter.lbl.gov/feature-stories/2011/08/25/supernova/

Reina Sofía aims for private funding after change in legal status

EL REINA SOFÍA QUIERE ATRAER LA INVERSIÓN PRIVADA.


Durante el pasado mes de mayo el museo adquirió un nuevo estatus legal que le permite obtener fondos de financiación privada con mayor agilidad que en el pasado, limitado por sus características de institución pública.

A pesar de la crisis existente, el museo ha adquirido este año 115 nuevos trabajos de 42 artistas por un coste de 5 millones de euros. Entre ellos se pueden encontrar obras de Antoni Tàpies, Elena Asins, Ibon Aranberri y Joan Miró.

Ver noticia completa en (English text in) http://www.theartnewspaper.com/articles/Reina-Sofía-aims-for-private-funding-after-change-in-legal-status/24433

Abhay Ashtekar, físico: antes del Big Bang hubo otro universo

MADRID, 20 May. (EUROPA PRESS) -

Se contrajo, rebotó y formó el actual

El físico Abhay Ashtekar ha afirmado que antes del Big Bang hubo otro universo que se contrajo, rebotó y formó el actual, durante la celebración de unas conferencias sobre el origen del cosmos que se están celebrando en la Fundación BBVA.

Ashtekar, que es director del Instituto para Física Gravitacional y Geometría de la Universidad del Estado de Pensilvania (EE.UU.), ha defendido que la teoría de la Gravedad Cuántica de los Lazos es "la única bien desarrollada en la que todo, la materia y el espacio-tiempo, son cuánticos desde su nacimiento".

Así, el autor del trabajo que abrió la puerta a la Gravedad Cuántica de Lazos en 1986 ha señalado que esta teoría "funciona allí donde la relatividad general falla, lo que es algo muy, muy difícil de lograr". Esta teoría, según añade la fundación BBVA, se ha asociado a un modelo en el que el Big Bang es precedido por una o varias fases previas de colapso y expansión, en una especie de rebote o 'big bounce'.

En el modelo clásico del Big Bang, al retroceder en el tiempo se acaba llegando a lo que los físicos llaman una 'singularidad', un punto en donde la densidad de la materia y la curvatura del espacio tiempo se vuelven infinitas y en el que, por tanto, las ecuaciones de la relatividad general no funcionan. Según Ashtekar, con esta teoría "esto no ocurre". "La singularidad, y por consiguiente el Big Bang, es sustituida por el 'big bounce'", ha afirmado.

Ashtekar se encuentra en Madrid junto a su colaborador Carlo Rovelli, de la Universidad del Mediterráneo (Francia), para participar en el Congreso Internacional LOOP's 11, que se celebra del 23 al 28 de mayo en Madrid y que cuenta con la colaboración de la Fundación BBVA. Rovelli ha también ha defendido esta teoría y ha asegurado que "es la mejor que los físicos tienen actualmente para combinar la mecánica cuántica y la relatividad general".

De hecho, Rovelli defiende que con esta teoría "se pueden hacer cálculos y computar lo que puede haber pasado, mientras que la región del Big Bang es inaccesible para la física convencional". Asimismo, ha reconocido que esta teoría y la llamada 'teoría de cuerdas' mantiene un debate que "a veces es demasiado vivo". La teoría de cuerdas es su competidora en el intento de unificación la mecánica cuántica y la relatividad general.

La Gravedad Cuántica de Lazos predice que a escalas muy pequeñas --en concreto, a la llamada 'distancia de Planck', muy inferior a la billonésima parte del diámetro de un átomo-- el espacio-tiempo aparece formado por una red de lazos entretejidos en una especie de espuma. Uno de los principales retos a los que se enfrenta la comunidad científica es la comprobación de sus predicciones mediante observaciones.

Stephen Hawking: 'There is no heaven; it's a fairy story'In

Exclusive interview with the Guardian, the cosmologist shares his thoughts on death, M-theory, human purpose and our chance existence

Ian Sample, science correspondent guardian.co.uk, Sunday 15 May 2011 22.00 BST larger | smaller Article history

Stephen Hawking dismisses belief in God in an exclusive interview with the Guardian. Photograph: Solar & Heliospheric Observatory/Discovery Channel
A belief that heaven or an afterlife awaits us is a "fairy story" for people afraid of death, Stephen Hawking has said.

In a dismissal that underlines his firm rejection of religious comforts, Britain's most eminent scientist said there was nothing beyond the moment when the brain flickers for the final time.

Hawking, who was diagnosed with motor neurone disease at the age of 21, shares his thoughts on death, human purpose and our chance existence in an exclusive interview with the Guardian today.

The incurable illness was expected to kill Hawking within a few years of its symptoms arising, an outlook that turned the young scientist to Wagner, but ultimately led him to enjoy life more, he has said, despite the cloud hanging over his future.

"I have lived with the prospect of an early death for the last 49 years. I'm not afraid of death, but I'm in no hurry to die. I have so much I want to do first," he said.

"I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark," he added.

Hawking's latest comments go beyond those laid out in his 2010 book, The Grand Design, in which he asserted that there is no need for a creator to explain the existence of the universe. The book provoked a backlash from some religious leaders, including the chief rabbi, Lord Sacks, who accused Hawking of committing an "elementary fallacy" of logic.

The 69-year-old physicist fell seriously ill after a lecture tour in the US in 2009 and was taken to Addenbrookes hospital in an episode that sparked grave concerns for his health. He has since returned to his Cambridge department as director of research.

The physicist's remarks draw a stark line between the use of God as a metaphor and the belief in an omniscient creator whose hands guide the workings of the cosmos.

In his bestselling 1988 book, A Brief History of Time, Hawking drew on the device so beloved of Einstein, when he described what it would mean for scientists to develop a "theory of everything" – a set of equations that described every particle and force in the entire universe. "It would be the ultimate triumph of human reason – for then we should know the mind of God," he wrote.

The book sold a reported 9 million copies and propelled the physicist to instant stardom. His fame has led to guest roles in The Simpsons, Star Trek: The Next Generation and Red Dwarf. One of his greatest achievements in physics is a theory that describes how black holes emit radiation.

In the interview, Hawking rejected the notion of life beyond death and emphasised the need to fulfil our potential on Earth by making good use of our lives. In answer to a question on how we should live, he said, simply: "We should seek the greatest value of our action."

In answering another, he wrote of the beauty of science, such as the exquisite double helix of DNA in biology, or the fundamental equations of physics.

Hawking responded to questions posed by the Guardian and a reader in advance of a lecture tomorrow at the Google Zeitgeist meeting in London, in which he will address the question: "Why are we here?"

In the talk, he will argue that tiny quantum fluctuations in the very early universe became the seeds from which galaxies, stars, and ultimately human life emerged. "Science predicts that many different kinds of universe will be spontaneously created out of nothing. It is a matter of chance which we are in," he said.

Hawking suggests that with modern space-based instruments, such as the European Space Agency's Planck mission, it may be possible to spot ancient fingerprints in the light left over from the earliest moments of the universe and work out how our own place in space came to be.

His talk will focus on M-theory, a broad mathematical framework that encompasses string theory, which is regarded by many physicists as the best hope yet of developing a theory of everything.

M-theory demands a universe with 11 dimensions, including a dimension of time and the three familiar spatial dimensions. The rest are curled up too small for us to see.

Evidence in support of M-theory might also come from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at Cern, the European particle physics laboratory near Geneva.

One possibility predicted by M-theory is supersymmetry, an idea that says fundamental particles have heavy – and as yet undiscovered – twins, with curious names such as selectrons and squarks.

Confirmation of supersymmetry would be a shot in the arm for M-theory and help physicists explain how each forces at work in the universe arose from one super-force at the dawn of time.

Another potential discovery at the LHC, that of the elusive Higgs boson, which is thought to give mass to elementary particles, might be less welcome to Hawking, who has a long-standing bet that the long-sought entity will never be found at the laboratory.

Hawking will join other speakers at the London event, including the chancellor, George Osborne, and the Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz.



Science, truth and beauty: Hawking's answers

What is the value in knowing "Why are we here?"

The universe is governed by science. But science tells us that we can't solve the equations, directly in the abstract. We need to use the effective theory of Darwinian natural selection of those societies most likely to survive. We assign them higher value.


You've said there is no reason to invoke God to light the blue touchpaper. Is our existence all down to luck?

Science predicts that many different kinds of universe will be spontaneously created out of nothing. It is a matter of chance which we are in.


So here we are. What should we do?

We should seek the greatest value of our action.


You had a health scare and spent time in hospital in 2009. What, if anything, do you fear about death?

I have lived with the prospect of an early death for the last 49 years. I'm not afraid of death, but I'm in no hurry to die. I have so much I want to do first. I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark.


What are the things you find most beautiful in science?

Science is beautiful when it makes simple explanations of phenomena or connections between different observations. Examples include the double helix in biology, and the fundamental equations of physics."

Casio's F-91W watch: the design favourite of hipsters ... and al-Qaida

The built-in longevity of this humble 1991 timepiece makes it the weapon of choice for both the retro and the righteous

Justin McGuirk guardian.co.uk, Thursday 28 April 2011 14.40 BST larger | smaller Article history

Big time ... Casio's F-91W – the preferred choice of wristwatch everywhere from Shoreditch to al-Qaida training camps. Photograph: Roger Tooth
There is one accessory de rigueur with both skinny jeans on the streets of Shoreditch and an orange jumpsuit and black hood in the searing heat of Guantánamo Bay. The latest WikiLeaks dump has revealed that a disproportionate number of terrorism suspects in America's most notorious prison were apprehended wearing a Casio F-91W, a plastic digital watch you can buy for £8.99 from Argos. Beloved of hipsters and jihadis alike, the model has a rare and divergent customer loyalty that suggests we are in the realm of great design. But are these latest revelations the kiss of death for Casio or marketing gold?

The Casio F-91W was launched in 1991 and remains unchanged 20 years later. Since the 1974 launch of its first wristwatch, the Casiotron, this Japanese calculator maker has come to dominate the digital watch market, rebranding the conventional timepiece as an "information device for the wrist". Casios famously include not only stopwatches and alarm clocks but calculators and calendars. Their calculator versions, with fiendishly small buttons, epitomised the Japanese passion for miniaturisation. But the F-91W was a simpler model, stripped back both in its form and its multifunctionality.

That simple form no doubt accounts for its enduring popularity. In an age when the technological convergence of the "information device" has migrated to the smartphone, the watch is something of an anachronism, worn as much as a fashion statement or status symbol as for its time-telling properties.

The F-91W features the classic seven-segment numerical display on a grey LCD screen. It's a trusty timepiece: water-resistant, extremely durable and accurate to within 30 seconds a month. And while it is possible to buy luxury watches at 10,000 times the price that tick with atomic accuracy, doing so for precision reasons is functionalist logic taken to its absurd extreme.

By contrast, the F-91W's popularity with the young, cool set follows a converse logic that is no less a form of snobbery. On the one hand, the model is consistent with a diehard 80s revivalism, the wrist-based equivalent of a pair of Ray–Bans and a taste for Kraftwerk – and, yes, there is even the requisite touch of irony in sporting a 20-year-old digital watch alongside an iPhone 4. But it's more than that: unlike supplicants in the temple of the luxury Swiss watch, hipsters treat their ability to pull off cheapness as a mark of sartorial confidence.

What, then, do terrorists see in this watch? With 28 inmates of Guantánamo found to have had one in their possession, the F-91W and its metallic twin, the A168WA, were described earlier this week as "the sign of al-Qaida". According to testimony given by one prisoner, the model was useful because it was water-resistant: Muslims wash their arms up to their elbows before prayers. Another, more hapless inmate cited the built-in compass that enabled him to pray towards Mecca. His interrogators will have smelled a rat: there is no compass in an F-91W.

In fact, the model is al-Qaida's equipment of choice as the timing device for improvised exploding devices (IEDs). They're handed out in terrorist training camps, where junior jihadis learn how to wire them up to a circuit board, a couple of 9V batteries and a wodge of plastic explosive. This nasty package is concealed in a standard electrical outlet box, with the F-91W a macabre calling card – programmable up to 23 hours, 59 minutes and 59 seconds, it allows the bombers to put ample distance between themselves and their targets. In truth any cheap, reliable digital watch would do, and it may be an accident of fate that led to the F-91W gaining notoriety: some flunky gets packed off to an electronics shop in Peshawar to bulk-buy cheap digital watches, likes the blue rim around the face of that Casio number and lumps a donkey-load of them over the Afghan border.

When I approached Casio's PR team for some information about their bestselling model, I got a curt email response saying: "Casio is not making any further comment on the F-91W watch at this point in time." Is this a case of too much negative publicity? Is the fact that Osama Bin Laden himself wears an F-91W bad for the brand's street cred? Yes and no. Arguably, it is a ringing endorsement of the product's lethal reliability. Many brands would embrace that cult status.

All of this is a colourful distraction from what is truly remarkable about the F-91W – the fact that it is a digital product that has remained unchanged for 20 years. How many other devices can we say that of, apart from the even more anachronistic calculator? Casio's mainstay comes from a parallel world where designed obsolescence – the sales strategy that has cursed everything from our lightbulbs to our computers – doesn't exist. We desire no improvements or embellishments: it just works. In that first flush of affordable consumer electronics, I'm sure no one dreamed that in two decades the F-91W would still be popular and still relevant – just as in the 1990s, when futurists thought videophones were just around the corner, no one imagined a technology as archaic as texting would take off. We are intoxicated by technological potential, but it's the primitive devices we reward with longevity.

Should we – in solidarity with those Guantánamo inmates who are innocent, and in the spirit of resistance to an illegal detention centre – flock to Argos to buy Casios and flood the obtuse immigration counters of American airports with our F-91W-appointed wrists in an "I am digi-Spartacus" moment? No thanks – life looks a lot better through a pair of retro Ray-Bans than it does through a black hood.

New Evidence on Origin of Supernovas

ScienceDaily (Apr. 27, 2011) — Astronomers may now know the cause of an historic supernova explosion that is an important type of object for investigating dark energy in the universe. The discovery, made using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, also provides strong evidence that a star can survive the explosive impact generated when a companion star goes supernova.

The new study examined the remnant of a supernova observed by the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe in 1572. The object, dubbed Tycho for short, was formed by a Type Ia supernova, a category of stellar explosion useful in measuring astronomical distances because of their reliable brightness. Type Ia supernovas have been used to determine that the universe is expanding at an accelerating rate, an effect attributed to the prevalence of an invisible, repulsive force throughout space called dark energy.

A team of researchers analyzed a deep Chandra observation of Tycho and found an arc of X-ray emission in the supernova remnant. Evidence supports the conclusion that a shock wave created the arc when a white dwarf exploded and blew material off the surface of a nearby companion star.

"There has been a long-standing question about what causes Type Ia supernovas," said Fangjun Lu of the Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing. "Because they are used as steady beacons of light across vast distances, it is critical to understand what triggers them."

One popular scenario for Type Ia supernovas involves the merger of two white dwarfs. In this case, no companion star or evidence for material blasted off a companion should exist. In the other main competing theory, a white dwarf pulls material from a "normal," or sun-like, companion star until a thermonuclear explosion occurs. Both scenarios may actually occur under different conditions, but the latest Chandra result from Tycho supports the latter one.

In addition, the Tycho study seems to show the remarkable resiliency of stars, as the supernova explosion appears to have blasted very little material off the companion star. Previously, studies with optical telescopes have revealed a star within the remnant that is moving much more quickly than its neighbors, hinting that it could be the missing companion.

"It looks like this companion star was right next to an extremely powerful explosion and it survived relatively unscathed," said Q. Daniel Wang of the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. "Presumably it was also given a kick when the explosion occurred. Together with the orbital velocity, this kick makes the companion now travel rapidly across space."

Using the properties of the X-ray arc and the candidate stellar companion, the team determined the orbital period and separation between the two stars in the binary system before the explosion. The period was estimated to be about 5 days, and the separation was only about a millionth of a light year, or less than a tenth the distance between the Sun and Earth. In comparison, the remnant itself is about 20 light years across.

Other details of the arc support the idea that it was blasted away from the companion star. For example, the X-ray emission of the remnant shows an apparent "shadow" next to the arc, consistent with the blocking of debris from the explosion by the expanding cone of material stripped from the companion.

"This stripped stellar material was the missing piece of the puzzle for arguing that Tycho's supernova was triggered in a binary with a normal stellar companion," said Lu. "We now seem to have found this piece."

The shape of the arc is different from any other feature seen in the remnant. Other features in the interior of the remnant include recently announced stripes, which have a different shape and are thought to be features in the outer blast wave caused by cosmic ray acceleration.

These results will appear in the May 1st issue of The Astrophysical Journal. The other authors of the paper include M.Y. Ge, J.L. Qu, S.J. Zheng and Y. Chen from the Institute of High Energy Physics, and X.J. Yang from Xiangtan University. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages the Chandra program for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

Neurorobotics Reveals Brain Mechanisms of Self-Consciousness

ScienceDaily (Apr. 27, 2011) — A new study uses creative engineering to unravel brain mechanisms associated with one of the most fundamental subjective human feelings: self-consciousness. The research, published in the April 28 issue of the journal Neuron, identifies a brain region called the temporo-parietal junction (TPJ) as being critical for the feeling of being an entity localized at a particular position in space and for perceiving the world from this position and perspective.

Recent theories of self-consciousness highlight the importance of integrating many different sensory and motor signals, but it is not clear how this type of integration induces subjective states such as self-location ("Where am I in space?") and the first-person perspective ("From where do I perceive the world?"). Studies of neurological patients reporting out-of-body experiences have provided some evidence that brain damage interfering with the integration of multisensory body information may lead to pathological changes of the first-person perspective and self-location. However, it is still not known how to examine brain mechanisms associated with self-consciousness.

"Recent behavioral and physiological work, using video-projection and various visuo-tactile conflicts showed that self-location can be manipulated in healthy participants," explains senior study author, Dr. Olaf Blanke, from the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland. "However, so far these experimental findings and techniques do not allow for the induction of changes in the first-person perspective and have not been integrated with neuroimaging, probably because the experimental set-ups require participants to sit, stand, or move. This makes it very difficult to apply and film the visuo-tactile conflicts on the participant's body during standard brain imaging techniques."

Making use of inventive neuroimaging-compatible robotic technology that was developed by Dr. Gassert's group at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Dr. Blanke and colleagues studied healthy subjects and employed specific bodily conflicts that induced changes in self-location and first-person perspective while simultaneously monitoring brain activity with functional magnetic resonance imaging. They observed that TPJ activity reflected experimental changes in self-location and first-person perspective. The researchers also completed a large study of neurological patients with out-of-body experiences and found that brain damage was localized to the TPJ.

"Our results illustrate the power of merging technologies from engineering with those of neuroimaging and cognitive science for the understanding of the nature of one of the greatest mysteries of the human mind: self-consciousness and its neural mechanisms," concludes Dr. Blanke. "Our findings on experimentally and pathologically induced altered states of self-consciousness present a powerful new research technology and reveal that TPJ activity reflects one of the most fundamental subjective feelings of humans: the feeling that 'I' am an entity that is localized at a position in space and that 'I' perceive the world from here."

Sony: Credit data at risk in PlayStation hacking

Network shut down; info on 77 million users said compromised. The Japan Times.

LOS ANGELES — Sony Corp. said Tuesday that the credit card data of PlayStation users around the world may have been stolen in a hack that forced it to shut down its PlayStation Network for the past week, disconnecting 77 million user accounts.

Some players brushed off the breach as a common hazard of operating in a connected world, and Sony said some services would be restored in a week. But industry experts said the scale of the breach was staggering and could cost the company billions of dollars.

"Simply put, one of the worst breaches we've seen in several years," said Josh Shaul, chief technology officer for Application Security Inc., a New York-based company that is one of the country's largest database security software makers.

Sony said it has no direct evidence credit card information was taken, but said, "we cannot rule out the possibility."

It said the intrusion was "malicious" and the company had hired an outside security firm to investigate. It has taken steps to rebuild its system to provide greater protection for personal information and warned users to contact credit agencies and set up fraud alerts.

"Our teams are working around the clock on this, and services will be restored as soon as possible," it said in a blog post Tuesday.

The company shut down the network last Wednesday after it said account information, including names, birth dates, e-mail addresses and log-in information was compromised for certain players in the days prior.

Sony says people in 59 nations use the PlayStation network. Of the 77 million user accounts, about 36 million are in the U.S. and elsewhere in the Americas, 32 million in Europe and 9 million in Asia, mostly in Japan.

Purchase history and credit card billing address information may also have been stolen, but the intruder did not obtain the three-digit security code on the back of cards, Sony said. Spokesman Satoshi Fukuoka said the company has not received any reports yet of credit card fraud or abuse resulting from the breach.

Shaul said that not having direct proof of credit card information theft should not instill a sense of security, and could mean Sony just didn't know what files were touched.

"They indicated that they're worried about it, which is probably a very strong indication that everything was stolen," he said.

If the intruder successfully stole credit card data, the heist would rank among the biggest known thefts of financial data.

Recent major hacks included some 130 million card numbers stolen from payment processor Heartland Payment Systems. As many as 100 million accounts were lifted in a break-in at TJX Cos., the chain that owns discount retailers T.J. Maxx and Marshalls, and some 4.2 million card numbers were stolen from East Coast grocery chain Hannaford Bros. Those attacks allegedly involved a single person: Albert Gonzalez, a Miami hacker who was sentenced last year to 20 years in prison for the attacks.

The Ponemon Institute, a data-security research firm, estimated that the cost of a data breach involving a malicious or criminal act averaged $318 per compromised record in 2010, up 48 percent from the year earlier.

That could pin the potential cost of the PlayStation breach at more than $24 billion.

Alan Paller, director of research for the SANS Institute, a security training organization, said that even if credit numbers weren't stolen, knowing someone's name, e-mail address and which games he or she likes can lead to expertly crafted scam e-mails. Knowing billing histories can be even more harmful, since they can identify big spenders.

Jobs Tries to Calm iPhone Imbroglio .

By YUKARI IWATANI KANE And JENNIFER VALENTINO-DEVRIES. The Wall Street Journal.

Apple Inc. is scaling back how much information its iPhones store about where they have been and said it will stop collecting such data when consumers request it, as the company tries to quell concerns it was tracking iPhone owners.

But Apple's statements, after a week of silence on the growing controversy, raised new questions and criticism about its data-handling practices. Rep. Joe Barton (R., Texas) said Apple apparently "lied" to him and another lawmaker last year when it said its phones don't collect and transmit location-based data when location services such as mapping are turned off.

Apple defended the process it uses to gather location information via the iPhone and unveiled a software update to scale back such practices.
.Apple said Wednesday it would fix software "bugs" that let each phone build a database of locations stretching back months, even when related services are disabled by the user.

Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs, who is on medical leave, was unapologetic in his defense of his company's actions. "Your precise location is never transmitted to Apple," he said in an interview.

Rather, Mr. Jobs said, Apple gathers information from the phone about nearby cellphone towers and local wireless, or Wi-Fi, networks. Apple uses that information to supplement the Global Positioning System already employed on most phones.

Apple and Google Inc., which makes the key software for Android phones, are facing scrutiny from lawmakers and consumers for the way they gather and handle data on the location of smartphones.

WSJ.com Senior Technology Editor Julia Angwin reports Apple's iPhone and Google's Android regularly transmit user location data back to those companies, based on data analyzed by The Wall Street Journal.
.Researchers last week said Apple's iPhones store unencrypted databases containing months of location information. Tests conducted by the Journal and independent researcher Samy Kamkar found these databases were updated—and some information sent to Apple—even when the location services were turned off.

That contradicts what Apple told Rep. Barton in a letter last July. "When a member of Congress asks a straightforward question, reputable members of the business community should give a straightforward answer," Mr. Barton said in an interview. "Apparently, they lied to us."

In the interview, Mr. Jobs said Apple in recent days had discovered software "bugs" in how the phones capture and store data. "We were surprised by them and it took us a few days to figure out what was going on," he said.

Beyond the information stored on the phone, the Journal has reported that iPhones, Android phones and some personal computers regularly transmit information about their locations to Apple and Google. Apple said Wednesday an individual can't be located using the Wi-Fi and tower data and that the data are anonymous. It said it discloses the collection practices in privacy policies.

The company said it would release software in coming weeks that would reduce how much location data are stored on the phone to about seven days. The new software will delete the data when location services are turned off. In the next major release of its mobile operating system, the database would also be encrypted, Apple said.

Mr. Jobs said Apple planned to testify at an upcoming congressional hearing. Google said it would testify at a hearing set for May 10.

Other lawmakers said they weren't satisfied with Apple's response. Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) said he still has questions about what Apple was doing and what it told users.

"This has raised larger questions of how the locations of mobile devices are tracked and shared by companies like Apple and Google, and whether federal laws provide adequate protection as technology has advanced," Mr. Franken said.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) expressed concern in a separate letter, saying it was essential to have "full and accurate information about the privacy risks" as Congress considers updates to federal privacy laws.

Among other makers of cellphone software queried by Congress, Nokia Corp. and Microsoft Corp. have said they only enable location services with a user's consent. Officials at Research In Motion Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co. didn't respond.

A Google spokesman said it collects information anonymously and provides "users with notice and control over the collection, sharing and use of location" on Android phones.

In a press release, Apple said the cellphone towers it uses to establish a phone's location could be more than 100 miles from a user's phone. But tests conducted for the Journal by Mr. Kamkar, the researcher, found the addresses of nearby Wi-Fi networks can easily be used to establish a phone's location within 100 feet.

Apple Inc. announced plans Wednesday morning to launch its long-delayed white iPhone 4. Dan Gallagher and Marcelo Prince discuss with Simon Constable on digits.
Apple disclosed Wednesday it is using the information to build a "traffic database" that within a few years will offer traffic-congestion information to iPhone users. Google already uses location data, which Android phones collect every few seconds, to provide such a service.

Other applications routinely use—and share—location data. The Journal reported in December that some of the most popular apps widely share location data and other personal information with outside companies. Twenty-six of 51 popular iPhone apps tested by the Journal shared their location with outsiders.

Scott Forstall, Apple senior vice president of iPhone software, said the company doesn't allow apps, including its own, to use location data without the user's consent.

He said the company allows users to turn location features on and off by app and shows them which ones have used location in the last 24 hours. "We are vigilant about making our location use completely transparent," he said.

Apple acknowledged it was partly responsible for users' concerns because it has not provided enough education about these issues. "We're going to start thinking about that right away and the time to do it is when it's on people's minds," said Mr. Jobs. He added other phone makers needed to make those efforts too.

Write to Yukari Iwatani Kane at yukari.iwatani@wsj.com

Uncensored Picture of Dorian Gray published

Over 120 years after it was condemned as 'vulgar' and 'unclean', an uncensored version of Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray is published by Harvard University Press

Alison Flood guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 27 April 2011 16.46 BST larger | smaller Article history

'Objectionable' material cut from Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray has finally been restored in a new uncensored version. Photograph: Corbis
Revised after it was condemned in the British press over 130 years ago as "vulgar", "unclean", "poisonous" and "discreditable", an uncensored version of Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray has finally been published.

Tell us what you think: Star-rate and review this bookWilde's editor JM Stoddart had already deleted a host of "objectionable" text from the novel before it made its first appearance in Lippincott's Monthly Magazine in June 1890, cutting out material which made more explicit the homoerotic nature of artist Basil Hallward's feelings for Dorian Gray and which accentuated elements of homosexuality in Gray himself.

Deciding that the novel as it stood contained "a number of things which an innocent woman would make an exception to", and assuring his employer Craige Lippincott that he would make the book "acceptable to the most fastidious taste", Stoddart also removed references to Gray's female lovers as his "mistresses". He went on to cut "many passages that smacked of decadence more generally," said Nicholas Frankel, editor of the new edition, for Harvard University Press.

The public outcry which followed the novel's appearance – "it is a tale spawned from the leprous literature of the French Decadents – a poisonous book, the atmosphere of which is heavy with the mephitic odours of moral and spiritual putrefaction," wrote the Daily Chronicle – forced Wilde to revise the novel still further before it appeared in book form in 1891.

"It is quite true I have worshipped you with far more romance of feeling than a man should ever give to a friend. Somehow I have never loved a woman," Hallward tells Dorian, in one passage which was changed. The censored version read: "From the moment I met you, your personality had the most extraordinary influence over me".

Frankel, associate professor of English at Virginia Commonwealth University said "the time is ripe for the publication of Wilde's novel in its uncensored form … It is the version of the novel that Wilde, I believe, would want us to be reading in the 21st century … I'm bringing it out of the closet a little more."

Harvard University Press said the differences between Wilde's original text and the published version of the novel "have until now been evident to only the handful of scholars who have examined Wilde's typescript".

Among other restored passages, Hallward describes the feelings which had driven his portrait of Gray. "There was love in every line, and in every touch there was passion". Another restored line describes Gray walking the street at night; "A man with curious eyes had suddenly peered into his face, and then dogged him with stealthy footsteps, passing and repassing him many times." Gray also reflects on Hallward's feelings for him. "There was something infinitely tragic in a romance that was at once so passionate and sterile".

In another instance, the question; "Is Sybil Vane your mistress ?" was altered to "What are your relations with Sibyl Vane ?" – one of three references to Gray's "mistresses" that were cut by the editor.

But critics and academics in the US have not been universal in their praise of the uncensored version. Reviewing the new edition, author and columnist Brooke Allen wrote on the Barnes and Noble website that "whether the original text is actually 'better' than the book version published in 1891 is a moot point".

"Some of Wilde's original material may have been lost in the latter … but much was gained, too," she wrote. "This annotated version, though a treasure for scholars and for anyone with a serious interest in Wilde, the 1890s, and Aestheticism, should serve as a supplement to the standard text rather than a replacement."

Arte efímero en lugar insospechado

Triunfan los 'speed shows', fugaces eventos creativos para tiempos convulsos
ROBERTA BOSCO - Barcelona - 28/04/2011

Vota Resultado 6 votos . .Los grandes retratos en blanco y negro cuelgan como si fueran ropa de las galerías de un viejo palacio de Roma, célebre por haber sido escenario de diversas películas neorrealistas. La exposición, organizada por la galería Mondrian Suite, dura solo una noche, lo cual incrementa la curiosidad e interés de la gente. Se trata del estreno de CorpusTrip, un proyecto del fotógrafo Luca Donnini, que ha decidido reunir 65 retratos realizados entre 2007 y 2010 en una serie de muestras itinerantes y extemporáneas. Con su furgoneta llena de imágenes, recorrerá unos 10.000 kilómetros a través de Europa durante dos meses, montando exposiciones de una noche, siempre en espacios no expositivos, en las 20 ciudades donde previamente realizó los retratos. Tras pasar por Barcelona y Madrid, continuará por Burdeos, París, Londres, Maastricht, Ámsterdam, Praga y Ljubljana, entre otras.

Luca Donnini está recorriendo Europa para mostrar sus retratos unas horas
Para estar al tanto de las fechas y lugares habrá que seguir la web (http://corpustrip.com) y el blog, donde se relatará la aventura en tiempo real. "En museos y galerías las obras están esperando a que alguien entre y las mire y el espectador ya sabe lo que se va a encontrar. Yo quiero crear situaciones inesperadas, quiero que la gente se encuentre con las piezas también por casualidad", explica Donnini. "Queremos que la gente nos ayude a encontrar los sitios, que se implique con esta muestra-happening, que nunca durará más de una noche. Luego las obras se abandonarán a su destino", añade el fotógrafo, que trabaja con una Rolleiflex analógica. No es la primera vez que Donnini deja el desmontaje de sus muestras al público. De hecho sus piezas tienen una doble vida: las imágenes impresas en el cuarto oscuro o pintadas a mano por el autor son destinadas al mercado del arte, mientras que las copias blueback se utilizan para proyectos como CorpusTrip, que el cineasta Alessio Maximilian Schroder documentará y convertirá en una película.

Los speed shows, exposiciones relámpagos, se multiplican. Domenico Quaranta, que fue comisario de la sección de arte digital de la última edición de la feria ArcoMadrid, acaba de celebrar uno en un cibercafé de Barcelona, en el marco del festival "de guerrilla de la comunicación" Influencers.

Para la rapidísima exposición Raise your flag, que ha durado tan solo un par de horas, Quaranta ha alquilado todos los ordenadores del cibercafé y en sus pantallas ha reunido obras creadas para Internet, "un entorno radical, donde realizar proyectos y experimentos imposibles en otros soportes, basados en la creación de relaciones, donde el arte se convierte en diálogo, intercambio, manipulación colectiva de imágenes, datos, archivos y mitos", indica el comisario.

La fórmula fue creada por el artista alemán Aram Bartholl, autor del Speed Show Manifiesto, donde explica que concibió este formato con la idea "de revisitar el fenómeno del Net.art ahora que las redes sociales han desplegado todo su poder y se han convertido en parte de la vida de cientos de millones de personas".

A pesar de que nacieron con y para las obras online -incluso performance y obras en vivo, siempre que se retransmitan a través de programas de comunicación preinstalados como la teleconferencia o el videochat- las muestras relámpago se han difundido rápidamente desde los países del norte de Europa por todo el mundo, encontrando partidarios entre artistas de diversas disciplinas y en diferentes versiones: desde los que abren su taller para una noche hasta los que modifican y contaminan los espacios públicos con obras que pasan como meteoritos.

Deutsche Börse prize for photography goes to chronicler of displaced people

Jim Goldberg - part of a photo from Democratic Republic of Congo. Photograph: Jim Goldberg/Magnum

Magnum photographer Jim Goldberg has documented refugees and immigrants in across the world since 1983

O'Hagan guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 26 April 2011 20.14 BST larger | smaller Article history

Jim Goldberg has won this year's £30,000 Deutsche Börse prize for photography, in a ceremony hosted by the Photographers' Gallery in London.

The Magnum photographer, who has documented the experiences of refugees, immigrants and displaced people from Africa, the Middle East and eastern Europe since 1983 in a project titled Open See, triumphed over a shortlist that included fine art photographer Thomas Demand, whom many insiders considered the favourite. Goldberg, who lives in San Francisco, and won the 2007 Cartier- Bresson Prize for an earlier version of the same project, describes himself as a documentary storyteller.

Open See was shown to great acclaim at the Photographers' Gallery last year. It features polaroids, video stills, found images and hand-written text often using the words of his subjects.

The chair of the jury, Brett Rogers, praised Goldberg's "timely and inventive approach to documentary practice … allowing these individuals to tell their own stories."

The "Guggenheim dilemma"

Thomas Hirschhorn and Paul Pfeiffer ruffled feathers during a panel discussion at the opening of the Daskalopoulos collection at the Guggenheim Bilbao earlier this month by voicing concern over construction workers' conditions at the museum's Abu Dhabi branch, which is being built on Saadiyat Island. Speaking of a petition he had signed calling on artists to boycott the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, Hirschhorn described the predicament as his "Guggenheim dilemma", adding: "My signature only makes sense if I have a price to pay for it." Daskalopoulos was quick to defend the institution in front of a packed auditorium that included Guggenheim director Richard Armstrong, saying: "If we have a dilemma, we are on the same side. The Guggenheim is not the perpetrator, we are the agents of change."

Published online 21 Apr 11. The Art Newspaper.