Brainwave voting?

Tired of endless political campaigns? The long, big talks, the attacks and blows candidates deliver at each other, the surface-ish debates, the marketing, the brainwashing... In short, the whole image competition that drives deep thinking and real issues down the farthest layer in the ground?

Wouldn't it be nice to just say "Hey, THAT's how I want my country to be, now please make it so" in a matter of seconds, and then be done with it? Yeah ok, I may be dreaming a bit to colorfully here...

Still, we may not be that far from such kind of possibility. Actually, a study, conducted by David Amodio (psychologist from New York University), demonstrated that brains of people with a "progressive" tendency show themselves to be more flexible in their thinking, whereas self-pretended "conservatives" are more prone to react quickly, spending a bit less time on thought.

While this conclusion is a wee bit simplistic, some critics have developped the matter more thoroughfully, comparing other studies with Amodio's and, amongst other things, linking Liberals' thinking with neurotics, and Conservatives' with antisocials. Wheew. Aren't we getting a bit worked up here?

In response to the many critics that reacted upon his study, Amodio has provided answers of his own to many of the interrogations that he were faced with. In short, he explains that his study has been quite "misconstrued and sensationalized in the media, as well as among science bloggers", so that people may believe that their conclusion is as simple and direct as "liberals are this and conservatives are that". In fact, they merely reported a correlation, but never did they pretend to interpret its implications or denied that there most certainly are third factors to political views. In other word, don't give this study more credit and importance than it dares give itself.

I'm quite reassured by those answers, because that would actually have been my point. Great, this study contributes in understanding the many inner workings of political views, but in no fashion can it be complete, and neither can a brain scan, restricted to the studied subject, replace actual decision-making by voters.

Hell, I claim myself more "progressive", yet I did vote for the Conservative Party in the last Canadian Federal elections. My point being, oftentimes our voting decisions may go somewhat against our inner beliefs, but for the sake of what position the country or state is currently in; what needs to be done, etc.

In conclusion, we're far from replacing good ol' voting. But still, we may be one step closer to comprehending the many differences among people's political views and beliefs. Good thing, isn't it?

(Images are from Cyberpresse and The Neurocritic blogger)

Les gens pas fiables, ça me purge.

Et cette fois-ci, j'ai bien envie de lâcher un "tabarnak".

Mon coloc actuel part à la fin du mois (lire, ce dimanche) et j'avais trouvé un nouveau coloc pour le remplacer; un français venant tout juste d'arriver au pays dont mon offre accomodait bien. Il m'avait laissé 100$ de dépôt, ce que je considérais comme une garantie suffisante qu'il n'allait pas changer d'idée à la dernière minute.

How wrong I was. Ce français m'a salopé pas plus tard qu'hier soir. Il a trouvé un autre appart qui lui convient apparemment mieux. Il a même eu le culot, sur le coup, de réclamer son 100$ de dépôt sous prétexte qu'il avait rien signé et que, si je ne lui rendais pas, c'était un vol. Oui oui, il me faisait même des leçons de morale! Belle crédibilité.

Ceci dit, il a fini par se raviser en me disant que c'était bien parce que ça me mettait dans la merde, tout en me laissant savoir qu'il espérait que je ne lui mentais pas en lui disant que c'était le cas. BEN NON VOYONS, c'est pas de jeter près de la totalité d'une paye par la fenêtre qui va me mettre dans la marde! À quoi tu penses!

Oh well. Je suis dans la merde. Ah et, je cherche un nouveau coloc de façon urgente.

Merci.

Currencies Rollercoaster

Now, now. The Canadian Dollar is at nanometers of reaching parity with Uncle Sam's Green Bill.

Heck, the Euro is even further beyond that; it's almost half higher in value now.

Wow. Means Europe and even our beloved country's economy are doing good. Exporting and stuff. But isn't having a higher currency supposed to be bad for our exportations, since it becomes more costly for our client neighbors? Still, we seem to be doing good... to an extent.

Since we're not the only ones going up (ref. Euro), it mainly means that U.S. Economy is falling lower and lower. Since a couple of years, but it seems it won't turn back before long. Is it the whole war thing? Is it other countries getting more independent? Possible.

Still, gets me thinking what would the world look like if say, in a couple of years or decades, the U.S. weren't the most powerful economy anymore. Who would it be? China? I don't know. Maybe it's simply going to be a bit more widespread accross the rich countries (G8 and stuff). But it does feel odd thinking about it.

Why do we still have all those currencies anyway? With the economy becoming so global now, wouldn't it be more convenient to have one goddamn global currency, and the hell with change rates?

I mean, we've already tried with languages before, but that issue's a bit more touchy since there's all the cultural background matter to which any language is so much attached to.

But currencies don't have such barriers, do they? They all say "Business is Business" and crap like that, and it's always about profit. Do currency stuff really make business life easier, more profitable or whatever? I hardly see why.

Then again, i'm no economist. But I still think it's stupid to keep so many of them.

Oh well, let's at least rejoice that our loonie's so high now. Or maybe we shouldn't. Oh, crap. I never know how to feel, either side it goes.

Take care of your bills, whatever they are. And don't spend it too much (unless it's for grabbing me a beer or something).

It's aliiiiive~~

Hey hey, (re) bonjour à tous!

Ce blog a maintenant 2 ans. Mais on dirait que mes seuls posts sont pendant quelques temps en automne, où l'on dirait qu'il faut irrémédiablement que je m'ennuie pendant la job.

Ça fait 3 ans que je travaille à temps plein, et malgré mes nombreux efforts, on dirait que j'ai pas le choix; il faut qu'à l'automne ma job soit rendue plate. J'espère juste que cette fois-ci, la situation aura le temps de se redresser avant de me faire écoeurer avec ça.

Parce que j'aurais beau vouloir être le bourreau de travail modèle, c'est plutôt difficile quand tes supérieurs peinent à te trouver des trucs à faire. Et là, pour être sûr que ça ne me tombe pas sur le dos, je suis résolument dépourvu de toute subtilité lorsque j'en parle sur place. Mes répliques passent du "Ouain, c'est tranquille ces temps-ci..." aux "Mais je m'emmerde! J'ai RIEN à foutre!". En tous cas, y peuvent pas dire qu'ils sont pas au courant. Que je les voie me reprocher quoi que ce soit!

Oh well. Au moins, l'automne amène quand même son lot de changements, faisant en sorte qu'en dehors du travail ma vie continue de brasser pas mal; un sideline comme commis (service aux chambres) dans un hôtel, un nouveau programme d'entraînement au gym, une nouvelle discipline (le Parkour) à étudier, ainsi que la planification de mes projets à long terme (études temps plein l'an prochain)... Sans compter que mon coloc s'en va, et qu'un nouveau va venir s'installer dans le proche avenir.

Ah et, je continue sur ma lancée d'entraînement intensif amorcée en avril/mai dernier (depuis la fin de mes semaines de ~60-70h) qui m'a énormément profitée pour mon dernier test de ceinture, suivi de mon trek de 160km dans les montagnes du Pérou... maintenant, c'est dans le but d'être prospect de ceinture noire. Mon prof a dit qu'il pourrait les annoncer très bientôt... et je n'ai pas l'intention de passer à côté!

Bon, ben même si ça redevient intéressant au travail, je vais tenter, une bonne fois pour toutes, de garder ce blog actif... Web2.0 oblige, non? :P

Ciao à tous~