thegoodfellas/blogset-br huggingface dataset:
o preco do petroleo caiu. E a Petrobras nao deu a minima bola para o combustivel, apesar de eu ter procurado a empresa muitas vezes. Na verdade, eles nunca deram realmente valor, nao enxergaram.ABr - E o projeto morreu, entao...Parente - E, mas em 1991 a Alemanha e a Austria ressuscitaram a ideia. E ai a Europa passou a produzir o biodesel.ABr - Com a sua patente?Parente - Era o mesmo processo. No entanto, a minha patente caducou em 1991, no ano em que eles comecaram. Eu nem estava sabendo. Na verdade, eu ja tinha mudado o foco, quando eu vi que a ideia do biodiesel tinha sido frustrada em 84.Naquela epoca, o Nordeste enfrentava um periodo de seca que ja durava cinco anos, com o povo morrendo de fome no interior. Entao mudei o foco: por que, em vez de pensar em combustivel para maquina, eu nao vou pensar num combustivel para gente, que e o alimento? Ai eu passei a me interessar pelo leite de soja.Um fato que me inspirou foi que nessa epoca eu adotei uma menina. Eu so tinha filho homem, entao adotei uma menina, a Livia, que tinha um ano e meio. Ela tinha sido abandonada pelos pais na epoca da seca e estava morrendo de fome. E foi por causa dela que eu me voltei para o problema. E eu comecei a pensar na solucao.ABr - E encontrou?Parente - Eu desenvolvi uma maquina para fazer leite de soja que eu chamei de vaca mecanica. Ja existia uma na Universidade de Campinas (SP). Nos apresentamos um modelo aperfeicoado, que fazia nao so leite de soja, mas sopas e sucos de qualquer materia-prima alimenticia. Eu fiz essa maquina e nos viajamos pelo interior. Eu tirei ferias e fomos ate os Inhamuns, que era a capital da fome. A gente saiu levando a maquina a reboque no carro. Nao era muito grande, media 2,2m por 0,8m. E se chamava Amelia, "a mulher de verdade", que alimentava gente.Usavamos um quilo de soja para fazer oito litros de leite. Dava pra fazer leite para 1.500 pessoas num dia. Nos fomos ate Picos, no Piaui. O problema e que, quando nos chegamos la, estava todo mundo esperando, o prefeito tinha anunciado. Tinha 30 mil pessoas para ver a maquina. E so tinha leite pra 3 mil pessoas. Ai invadiram o recinto, quebraram a maquina e a gente acabou virando assunto de uma reportagem do Gervasio de Paulo, com o titulo "Amelia no Pais da Fome".ABr - Foi o fim da Amelia?Parente - Nao. Franco Montoro, que era governador de Sao Paulo, na epoca, me convidou para implantar o projeto, para a merenda escolar. Eu transferi a tecnologia para uma metalurgica, a Ceil, do Ceara, que passou a produzir esse equipamento. Eles faziam 30 equipamentos por mes. Ai o projeto se espalhou pelo Brasil. Nos produzimos cerca de 700 maquinas. E exportamos umas 50. So em Sao Paulo, segundo nosso controle, chegaram a tomar leite de soja cotidianamente 3 milhoes de criancas. Eu posso dizer que nos introduzimos o leite de soja no
habito alimentar brasileiro.ABr - E o que aconteceu depois?Parente - Depois eu fui para o Piaui, a convite do governador Alberto Silva. La, nos montamos uma fabrica de alimentos que fazia cerca de 700 mil merendas escolares por dia. A gente fazia oito tipos de produtos que compunham a merenda: macarrao, sopas desidratadas. Foi uma grande experiencia, que infelizmente acabou quando terminou o governo do Alberto Silva.ABr - A velha questao da descontinuidade das politicas publicas...Parente - Esse foi o grande problema da vaca mecanica. E e o que sempre acontece. Os governos que se sucedem abortam os projetos do governo anterior. E um grave erro da administracao brasileira, e voce pode denunciar isso. Mas felizmente esta servindo de exemplo para um projeto que nos estamos introduzindo no Brasil, que e o Biodiesel Municipal.21/09/2005
The passing of Buckminster Fuller and Herman Kahn deprived us, within one month, of two remarkable minds, communicators, and technological optimists. They came from very different backgrounds: Fuller the fifth generation of his New England family to go to Harvard, Kahn the son of East European immigrants living in Bayonne, New Jersey. Fuller became an influential inventor, architect, futurist, and poet; Kahn a physicist, systems analyst, and futurist. Fuller gave forecasters the concept of energy slaves, Kahn offered the multifold trend. Both saw technology as the means to bring wealth and a good life to every future inhabitant of spaceship Earth. And both had the rare ability to stimulate and inspireand this will be most sorely missed.I had the great pleasure of knowing Herman Kahn personally and was invariably astounded by his incredibly fast and brilliant mind. I always felt his tongue had difficulty keeping pace with his brain. He tried to talk rapidly to close the gapthe result was that the uninitiated often found him hard to understand.Herman was at the RAND Corporation in its days of glorythe strategic weapons analyst par excellence. He was once labeled the Mort Sahl of national strategy. By 1960, he was blossoming into a global futurist and formed his own think tankthe Hudson Institute. Herman on the Hudson grew a beard and assumed the appearance of an ancient prophet (or at least the Ancient Mariner). Paradoxically, he appealed to the establishment elders (government and industry) with his espousal of nuclear strength and economic growth, while the patrician Fuller attracted the antiestablishment types (hippies in the 1960s, environmentalists in the 1970s) with his Dymaxion map and geodesic dome.Kahns first book, On Thermonuclear War, did not make him appear to many as an optimist. But it did bring him to international prominence. James R. Newman, an editor of the Scientific American, called it a moral tract on mass murder. Here is an excerpt from Newmans memorable review:Is there really a Herman Kahn? It is hard to believe: Doubts cross ones mind almost from the first page of this deplorable book: no one could write like this; no one could think like this. Perhaps the whole thing is a staff hoax in bad taste. . . . This evil and tenebrous book, with its loose-lipped pieties and its hayfoot-strawfoot logic, is permeated with a blood-thirsty irrationality such as I have not seen in my years of reading.Even within RAND there was strong reaction. Richard Bellman was impelled to write to the Washington Post that I myself do not have these troglodytic, apocalyptic visions of Kahn. Twenty-two years later, Herman produced The Coming Boom; it does not refer to a nuclear holocaust but to Americas economic rebirth.1 He leaves us with a vision of a happy future:Unless my prognostications are disastrously wrong, a revitalized Americarevitalized in terms of traditional values, of world-wide status and influence, and of citizenship and morale, as well as of economic improvementseems to me very probable, and with sensible social and economic policies, a near certainty.Economist Herbert Stein, in his review of this work, concludes:Kahns
purpose goes beyond objective, value-free analysis and prediction. His purpose is also inspiration and prescription. He wants the world to come out the way he describes {wealthier, better, and happier}. He believes, certainly correctly, that the probability will be greater if certain policies are followed. . . . He is in the position of the Redskins coach trying to inspire his players to believe that they can win, as well as instructing them on how to do it. Moreover, this inspiration can work. . . . [Fortune, October 4, 1982].Kahns favorite analysis tool after leaving RAND seemed to be list-making. Alternative futures, new social classes, and ideologies were described with machine-gun like bursts of words and phrases, i.e., checklists. Another tool he used with devastating effect was his wit. He could announce to a Congressional Subcommittee that man has been on the earth a million years, and Ive studied every one of them. He could talk about cloning Herman Kahn and admit that his wife did not think the world could stand two Hermans. He had a gift for the clever word or phraseeducated incapacity, thinking the unthinkable, C4I2 systems, the Japanese century, etc.Woe to him who would attempt to argue with the master after one of his presentations! No one could best Herman in debate. Like John F. Kennedy, he loved to perform in front of an audience, confident of his superior oneupmanship. In matching wits, he was intensely democratic, willing to take on college students as well as corporate leaders, liberally giving of his time to all.He has enriched and nettled us, he has challenged and entertained us. He could be outrageous, but his shtick was never, ever dull.Herman, we salute you with a list:H. Kahndazzling intellectfearless iconoclastfascinating showmananti-new class establishmentarianmiddle class with traditional valuestrue democratnuclear use theoristTalmudist manquehave 300 slides, will travelfriend HAROLD A. LINSTONE Senior Editor In: TECHNOLOGICAL FORECASTING AND SOCIAL CHANGE 24, 181-182 (1983)
Now a film, Knocking on Heavens Door, by George Carey, and a book, The Russian Cosmists: The Esoteric Futurism of Nikolai Fedorov and His Followers, by George M. Young, make Russian Cosmism much more accessible to a Western audience.The Russian Cosmist scientific, philosophical, and spiritual movement of the late 19th and early 20th century, was not well known in the West until recently. Most Cosmist writings are not available in other languages, and many aspects of Cosmist thinking were frowned upon in the Soviet era before 1991. Though Russian Cosmism is one of my main inspirations and one of the foundations of my own worldview, I am unable to read the original texts because I dont speak Russian. Fortunately, there are more and more popular and scholarly works dedicated to Russian Cosmism. Now a film, Knocking on Heavens Door, [Carey 2011] by George Carey, and a book, The Russian Cosmists: The Esoteric Futurism of Nikolai Fedorov and His Followers, [Young 2012] by George M. Young, make Cosmism much more accessible to a Western audience.I recommend watching George Careys film Knocking on Heavens Door, aired by the BBC on the 50th Yuris Night, 50 years after Yuri Gagarins pioneering flight to space, to all those who are interested in space, the history of the Russian space program, the amazing beautiful philosophy known as Russian Cosmism, our place and future in the universe, technological immortality, and resurrection.The film captures the popular enthusiasm for space in the Soviet Union of the 60s. We had the same enthusiasm in the West at the time, and God knows we could use it now, all over the planet.I think we can look, again, at the Cosmist philosophy to renew our enthusiasm and drive with beautiful and energizing cosmic visions, and to remember that wonderful adventures are waiting for us in outer space. Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, the founding father of astronautics, was a brilliant scientist and engineer, but his motivation and drive came from his philosophical convictions, his belief in humanitys destiny to leave the Earth and colonize the universe, and his vision of a deep unity between man and the cosmos.Today, following the Cosmist tradition, Russia has a lively transhumanist community and Singularity scene, with the only operational cryonics facility not in the U.S., and the Global Futures 2045 conferences dedicated to immortality and mind uploading.Careys film features Gagarin, Russian scientists and space engineers, Tsiolkovsky and many other Cosmist thinkers, but the real protagonist is Tsiolkovskys mentor, the Cosmist mystic Nikolai Fedorov. He was one of the first modern thinkers who dared to suggest that, some day, science and technology may be able to resurrect the dead and bring back to life every person who ever lived.Fedorov suggested that science was a tool given to us by God to enable us to resurrect the dead and, as promised, enjoy immortal life. He added that because the Earth could not sustain a population that never died, we must first learn to conquer space. His ideas about human evolution, and in particular the idea that humans should take control of the
the world, when humanity directs it on a course which reason and moral feeling determine, when man takes, so to say, the wheel of evolution into his own hands .... Man, for actively evolutionary thinkers, is a being in transition, in the process of growing, far from complete, but also consciously creative, called upon to overcome not only the outer world but also his own inner nature.Active evolution, taking the future of our species in our hands and steering it toward cosmic transcendence, is also the core idea of transhumanism, of which the Russian Cosmists must be considered as direct precursors. Critics say that active evolution is against Gods will, but the Cosmist insight is that, on the contrary, radical active evolution IS Gods will. One of Fedorovs favorite Bible passages was: Truly, truly I say to you, he who believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than those will he do. (John 14:12, RSV). Young refers to Fedorovs active, forceful, masculine Christianity a Christianity of action, to become more like God.ReferencesCarey, George (2011). Knocking on Heavens Door Space Race. Storyville. BBC. Web. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0109ccb>.Fedorov, N. F., Elisabeth Koutaissoff, and Marilyn Minto (1990). What Was Man Created For?: The Philosophy of the Common Task : Selected Works. London: Honeyglen, 1990.Young, George M. (2012). The Russian Cosmists: The Esoteric Futurism of Nikolai Fedorov and His Followers. New York: Oxford UP, 2012.Perry, R. Michael (2000). Forever for All: Moral Philosophy, Cryonics, and the Scientific Prospects for Immortality. Universal Publishers, 2000.Tipler, Frank J. (1994). The Physics of Immortality. New York: Random House, 1994.Source: http://turingchurch.com/2014/01/01/the-russian-cosmists/See also on Urania: http://urania-josegalisifilho.blogspot.de/2013/04/the-orbital-suprematist-machine-all.htmlMy interview with the Russian cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev: http://urania-josegalisifilho.blogspot.de/2013/04/the-orbital-suprematist-machine-all.htmlSee also:Russian Cosmism: Modern and Contemporary Art Exhibition and Auction at Erarta Galleries LondonInterview with Maxim Boxer, curator of the exhibitionin London: http://www.studiointernational.com/index.php/maxim-boxer-interview
There on a pedestal "as wide as a wall and as tall as a man," he sees the stone head of a woman - with the word HEL engraved on the pedestal of the statuette. Below HEL, he reads: BORN FOR MY HAPPINESS AND MANKIND'S BLESSING, LOST TO JOH FREDERSEN. DIED GIVING BIRTH TO FREDER, JOH FREDERSEN'S SON. "For me, she is not dead, Joh Fredersen, - for me, she lives -- !"Isn't it worth the loss of a hand to have created the man of the future, the Machine - Man - ? ! Give me another 24 hours - and no one, Joh Fredersen, no one will be able to tell a Machine-Man from a mortal - - ! The woman is mine, Joh Fredersen! The son of Hel was yours!Rotwang, Metropolis, Fritz Lang (1927) Ost min, kyss mikMy love, kiss meHvemskal synge megWho shall sing mei daudsvevna slynge meg-into the death-sleep sling menar eg pa Helvegen garWhen I walk on the Path of Deathog dei spora eg trar er kalda, sa kalda-and the tracks I tread are cold, socoldEg songane skte-I sought the songsEg songane sendeI sent the songsda den djupaste brunniwhen the deepest wellgav meg draper sa ramme--gave me the drops so touchedav Valfaders pant-of Death-fathers wagerAlt veit eg, Odin--I know it all, Odinvar du gjmde ditt augewhere you hid your eyeHvem skal synge megWho shall sing mei daudsvevna slynge meg-into the death-sleep sling menar eg pa Helvegen garWhen I walk on the Path of Deathog dei spora eg trar er kalda, sa kalda-and the tracks I tread are cold, socold Arle ell i dagars hell-early in the days endenn veit ravnen om eg fell--still the raven knows if I fallNar du ved Helgrindi star When you stand by the Gate of Deathog nar du laus deg ma riva-And you have to tear freeskal eg fylgje deg--I shall follow youover Gjallarbrua med min song--across the Resounding Bridge with my songDu blir lyst fra banda som bind deg!--You will be free from the bonds thatbind you!Du er lyst fra banda som batt deg!--You are free from the bonds that boundthat you!*Quote from Havamal -- The High Ones Speech, Poetic EddaDyr fe, dyr frender-Cattle die, kinsmen dieDyr sjlv det sama--You yourself will also diemen ordet om deg aldreg dyrbut the word about you will never dievinn du et gjetord gjevt--if you win a good reputationDyr fe, dyr frender --Cattle die, kinsmen dieDyr sjlv det sama-You yourself will also dieEg veit et som aldreg dyrI know one that never diesdom om daudan kvar-the reputation of those who diedRemember me,I remember you.Love me,I love you. Pandora's BoxAdam Curtis, 19925. Black PowerPANDORA'S BOXGHANA, WEST AFRICAThirty-five years ago, oneman set out to turn this country into a modern industrial utopia. He was KwameNkrumah, the first leader of a newly-independent black African state. His aimwas to transform Ghana into a society shaped and driven by the power ofscience.[Audio from a recording of a speech given by Kwame Nkrumah] "And I see and hear springing up [the] cities of Ghana, becomingthe metropolis[es?] of science, learning,scientific agriculture
the first black African country to be free.[Kojo Botsio] The promise of independence was not [] going to be just [of] freedom but that peoplewill see it in their lives... the promise that we're going toindustrialise the country as a means of generating growth, economic growth; and industrialisation meansthat we must have power. And, therefore, the first thing was that all of us should harness allour resources to[ward] getting the power established.It was a glorious moment forGhana; and for Nkrumah. But, in private, he knew that many of the promises onwhich he had been swept to power might prove dangerously hollow if the dam werenot built. It was the key to his vision of leading Africainto a shining tomorrow.But then, four-thousandmiles away, a simple twist of fate brought the Volta scheme back to life.AMERICA, LATER THAT YEAR...At the end of 1957,Nkrumah's finance minister Komla Gbedemah went to America on a private visit.Komla Gbedemah, Minister of Finance 19571961 I was invited to Maryland State College to give atalk on the newly-independent Ghana; and, as I was driving there from New York, I felt like having adrink of orange juice or [] water at a roadside restaurant [a] Howard Johnson's restuarant in Delaware. My secretary, who was American a black American told me: "Minister, I thinkthis is one of the states where they are very "sticky" about colour." I said: "What..?" I asked for two glasses of orange juice. The girllooked at us [and] said: "No, sir, you can't." [I said:] "What..?" "You can't." Then she turned away, went in and told themanager to come and speak to us. So, the manager came and said:"Gentlemen, I'm sorry; because of your colour, you can't drink in here." I said to him: "Look, there are people here who are [of] lower social status than I am, but they can drink and I can't..? Okay, you can keep the orange juice and thechange, but you haven't heard the last of this..!" Next morning, it was [] news all over theworld. [Gbedemah was then invited to breakfast with thethen US President, Eisenhower] During breakfast, he [Eisenhower] asked me what [I was] doing in the United States.I said: "I've come here to talk about the Volta project." "How is that project?" he asked. [I said:] "Well, we've put it incold storage because we can't find the moneyimmediately." "Have you talkedto the State Department?" he said. "No, we haven't." "Dick... Richard [Nixon, Eisenhower'svice-president], will you take care of that..?" Andthat was how the Volta project came back to life so soon.Nkrumah seized theopportunity. He wrote to Eisenhower asking for help in building the dam.Eisenhower invited him to visitAmerica. At their meeting in March 1958, he told Nkrumah that the best way toget the scheme started again wouldbe to involve American industry.Eisenhower contacted EdgarKaiser. He was head of one of the largest aluminium corporations in the world.Kaiser was based in Oakland, California. It had mines and smelting plantsthroughout the world. It promoted aluminium as the shininglightweight metal of the future.At Eisenhower's request,Edgar Kaiser flew from California to meet Nkrumah in New
York.[James Moxon] We were staying at the Waldorf Towers; and Edgar camein and he and Nkrumah stood and looked at each other... and some kind of magneticquality passed between them. It was quite remarkable; they took to each other at once. And Idoubt if that... electricity ever evaporated throughout their experience although they had many"set-to"s in one way or another.At the end of 1958, a teamof Kaiser executives and engineers flew to Accra [Ghana's capital] to look at the plans forthe scheme. Nkrumah offered the Kaiser team a deal. If they agreed to build analuminium smelter in Ghana, then his government woudl be able to raise themoney for the dam. In return, the dam would supply the large quantities of electricityneeded by the plant. The rest would go to power the future industries of thenew Ghana.To the Kaiser team, Ghanaseemed an attractive prospect.Ron Sullivan, Kasier lawyer on Volta Project 19591979 It was wealthy I think they had four hundredmillion dollars in the bank [and] very highly educated; every driver was reading the newspaper... Imean, they were very literate people and... it was as good a place to try in Africa as youcould go to.Kwame Kwateng, Principal Secretary, Ministry of Finance19601964 They were aggressive. There was one young lawyer whoimpressed me we became great friends Ron Sullivan. He was very aggressive... andthey were... a little [..?..] to understand what they were doing; that was their nature. Unlikethe British, who were very... gentlemanly, the Americans were straight to the point and... no frillsor wrapping-up; they called a spade a spade and a shovel a shovel.[Ron Sullivan] They wanted the dam. And we were the means to get it,because we were the way that the dam was being financed.It had always been assumedby the Ghanaians that, as with the British scheme, the smelter would use thevast reserves of their own bauxite and so create an important new industry. Butin the middle of the negotiations, the Kaiser team made it clear they had nointention of using Ghana's bauxite for the time being. Instead, they would import the raw materials needed by thesmelter from America. The decision shocked the Ghanaian negotiating team.Ron Sullivan, Kasier lawyer on Volta Project They might've been disappointed, but you have torealise that wasn't that high a grade of bauxite. It was high-thirties or a low-forties [percentage ofretrievable aluminium]; and the bauxite, for example, over in Guinea was fifty-five percent.Makes a lot of difference in costs. We just... It just wasn't possible at that time.[James Moxon] This seemed to be totally wrong to Nkrumah. He wasintensely upset. He could never believe that Ghana's bauxite couldn't be converted by a series ofprocesses into pots and pans and roofing sheets.What the Kaiser executivesdidn't tell the Ghanaians was that there was another reason why they didn'twant to use the local bauxite.Lloyd Cutler, Kasier lawyer on Volta Project We were greatly concerned that if we located withinGhana all of the bauxite and power necessary to have an integrated aluminum operation, [] someday our project if itwere profitable might be nationalised by the government and taken away fromus.The