Anne Osterlund

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Rademacher is Hot Guy Of The Day

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Yoga and Don't be an Asshole

This is an old teaching philosophy from several years ago. I've used the mantra "don't be an asshole" a few times lately, when I felt particularly annoyed by certain behaviors from my students. I thought I'd dig this back up.

Writing this statement was inspired by a conversation I had recently with an undergraduate who was preparing for a career in cooking instruction. “What advice do you have for an aspiring teacher?” he asked me. Given our very different fields, it was clearly important to think beyond the strictly sociological (“always teach theory and methods as one”), and even beyond the arts & sciences (“bravely embrace seemingly new traditions”). What could I tell this young person about teaching that would apply as well to him—a chef who teaches others how to cook—as it does to myself as a teacher of sociology?

“Do yoga,” I told him. We were sitting outside of our classroom, before an 8:40am class, having both arrived very early. I had just come from a 6:30am yoga class, and my gym bag was sitting next to my course materials. I took up yoga during my first year as a professor and have found it to be indispensable for classroom preparation. First of all, on days when I have an early class, going to yoga first means that I’m not starting my day by facing 50 undergraduates. Students are a generally amicable group, but each day presents new challenges for them and for me, and I don’t want to face these challenges straight out of bed. I need time to get centered. Yoga also prepares me for the physical demands of teaching. My muscles get stretched, my spine comes into alignment, my neck and shoulders relax and my breathing becomes deep and intentional. As a consequence, I am both calm and authoritative in the classroom. My posture is powerful and I have the energy I need to move about the classroom and engage all of my students. Finally, the closing postures of my yoga class prepare me spiritually for the day. “Experience the effect,” my yoga teacher says. “Visualize yourselves having a wonderful day. Think of one positive thing that will happen today and carry that with you.” I frequently imagine a classroom of engaged learners at that point (though my intentions are also directed at friends, lovers, family members, and world peace), and later I do my part to make this intention a reality.

“Do yoga.” My student seemed both amused and disappointed. “Anything else?” “Yes,” I replied. “Don’t be an asshole.” The philosophical principle of not being an asshole is more complicated than it sounds; which is to say that being an asshole comes scandalously easy. Given the power that teachers wield in their classrooms and in the lives of their students, the opportunities for assholery are ample.

At minimum, “don’t be an asshole” is a mantra. I repeat it in the back of my head during pedagogical moments (teaching, holding office hours, answering emails from students) and roll it to the front of my head at key times. “My paper is finished but the printer in the student lab is busted. Can I email it to you after class?” Well, I have a no late paper policy. And you, the student, are solely responsible for ensuring that you are able to complete and submit your assignments by the deadline. But then, don’t be an asshole. “Okay,” I say. “Make sure you send it by 4:30, so that I can print it before going home.” (I recognize that for some teachers, in some classes, and in some contexts, the above circumstance could have produced very different results without the teacher earning the label of asshole. But for me, for this course, and in this circumstance, not being an asshole meant recognizing that it was easy enough for me to print this short paper later in the day, and that my students have widely variant access to personal printers, and that sometimes the printers in the labs really do go haywire.) The mantra saves me from making justifiable but needlessly mean decisions that only serve to alienate students from the curriculum.

But “don’t be an asshole” is more than mere mantra. It’s also a pedagogical theory that implies a host of policies and practices, several of which I summarize below.

Om 1: Respect the Material

The curriculum is what draws the teacher and students together, whether the course is required or an elective. An instructor who seeks coolness by labeling portions of the material as bogus will only inspire students to treat the course as bogus. But this can be tempting for those of use who teach courses in which part or all of the subject matter is in fields where our expertise is limited. To combat this, we need to embrace the opportunity to gain new expertise.

Conveniently, this puts us in the position of being students alongside of our students—learning a new area together. In my first semester of teaching, I was assigned two sections of a course on ethnicity, a subject I had never actually studied. Though daunting and difficult, I read several books to prepare myself and selected as the primary textbook a history of ethnicity in America. This allowed me to study the important historical components alongside my students, while my lectures provided the sociological elements with which I was more comfortable. The point is that the knowledge produced by a course can transform the lives of students by exposing them to new ideas and giving them new skills—and as such, that knowledge should never be degraded or belittled. When students say the readings are difficult, the concepts complex, the papers time-consuming, and the tests hard, the appropriate response is a hardy “Amen!”

Om 2: Hold High Expectations of the Students

Students may sign up for a course because they think it’s a gut, but proving them right produces neither good course evaluations nor engaged learning. Students are capable of reading at a high level, so long as they are set up to be good readers. (We do this by anticipating challenging vocabulary, making links across readings and lectures, and contextualizing the ideas.) Students are capable of high level discussions. When I pose an open-ended question and a student responds with a reply that misses the mark, I don’t pretend otherwise. I just say “Nope, that’s not what I’m looking for,” and I help him to see why. I also ask him to help me in posing the question better. Students are capable of writing high-level papers, although they will need some preparation for writing within the discipline—preparation that makes clear what standards the teacher is using. I grade papers more on argument than mechanics, but spelling, grammar and syntax are important both in their own right and for their capacity to clarify meaning. So I comment a lot on these word-level and sentence-level issues because I expect students to write excellent papers. These writing standards are explained on my syllabi and reinforced with in-class writing workshops. I consistently find that by using high standards for student writing, the quality of writing consistently improves across the semester (usually from a C average on the first paper to a B average on the last paper). When students are not challenged—when expectations are low—they tend to conclude that the teacher is an asshole. And I tend to agree.

Om 3: Everyone is an Intellectual.

This is a claim I borrow from several sources—Antonio Gramsci, Henry Giroux, bell hooks, and Patricia Hill Collins. The premise is that humans are by nature intellectual creatures (a rare biological universal that I will concede). We all become experts at something, whether it’s academics, family life, sports, popular culture, auto mechanics, electronics, or any of a number of possibilities. As it happens, I am a sociological intellectual. Some of my students share this expertise with me—and I treat them all as amateur sociologists—others are experts at other things. But the classroom is filled to the brim with intellectuals and each member should be engaged as such.

Om 4: Respect Time and Money

Though class participants share huge reserves of intellect, we do not all have the same access to time and money. I try to acknowledge this with careful and responsible course planning. I won’t select a textbook if I don’t anticipate using at least 80% of the text. Textbooks are expensive, for reasons that I think are beyond the control of publishers. But out students should never pay that price needlessly. Required texts should be thoroughly incorporated into the curriculum and alternatives such as web postings should be used whenever possible and appropriate.

Respecting time demands a thoughtful consideration of the curriculum and assignments. I list on my syllabus—under the heading ‘Responsibilities of the Professor’—an expectation that I will provide fruitful information and skills. For my graduate students, this means that they will not write course papers, but instead will submit the first draft of a scholarly article. I then work with them in submitting these papers to conferences and preparing them for publication. As a midterm assignment, I ask them to submit either a publishable annotated bibliography or a lecture outline for use in an undergraduate course.

For my undergraduate students, respecting time means that each of my test questions is held accountable to a larger sense of the big picture. Before finalizing the test, I re-examine each question and ask myself “why does knowing this information matter?” If I cannot answer that question for a given item, it has to go.

Respecting students’ time also means attention to small details like showing up for class on time, never holding students after the scheduled end-time, making sure that I’m prepared, not abusing the opportunity to send emails, and confirming that classroom technology works (still a big struggle for me). But here’s a small detail that has become a big issue for me—I promise to return all papers within one week of receipt. I do this to respect student anxiety about their work and to capitalize on the opportunity for students to learn from returned assignments. Sometimes it is incredibly difficult, and I must admit that I have broken the promise. The first time I broke the promise, I baked a batch of chocolate-chip cookies, as a sort of apology (I also apologized verbally in class). The second time that I broke the promise, I gave my students a lengthier window for paper revisions. (As a policy, I don’t apologize in a way that compromises the material, say by giving an extra credit point or dropping a reading.) These apologetic concessions help to affirm to myself and my students that the basic principle—respecting time and returning assignments promptly—is very important, even as I accept that I am human and cannot live up to every standard.

I also expect students to respect my time. I state on the syllabus it is the students’ responsibility to show up for all classes on time, and to be on time for all scheduled meetings outside of class. Further, I state an expectation that they will be prepared for all classes and that they will ensure their ability to submit all assignments on time. In practice, I am flexible with many student circumstances—unexpected difficulties arise and I don’t want to be an asshole—but I also don’t tolerate asshole treatment from my students.

Om 5: Don’t Obscure the Information

In this age of anxiety about grade inflation (perhaps I should say this age of grade inflation, but I think the jury’s still out on that), it can be tempting to ‘fix’ grades by making the questions obscure—two steps away from what the students found in the readings and heard in lectures or discussions. It seems to me that this is a really sad mistake that misses our basic calling to educate students. I try to present the information in the clearest possible terms, and to make it seem real through the use of life-based examples. I give my students a review sheet for tests that comes darn close to directly stating the test questions. But this is not spoon-feeding. We deal in difficult and complex concepts. The material is sufficiently challenging when presented in a straight-forward manner. I feel far more comfortable with being a demanding grader because I know that I have presented this material as clearly as possible. The difficulty of the material has, thus far, prevented any situation in which I might be deemed a grade inflater, and yet students do not accuse me of being unfair either.

Om 6: Diffuse Unearned Power and Seek Earned Strength

This concept comes from Peggy McIntosh’s investigation of white privilege, in which she suggests that white people, like all people, should feel empowered in their everyday lives. But their empowerment should be derived from earned strength—their skills and training—and not from unearned power, specifically their race. She lists the many ways that whites benefit from their race on a daily basis—ways that they are often oblivious to. The concept applies broadly to a number of areas. In the classroom, I want to be a powerful and authoritative teacher, but I want that authority to come from my knowledge of the material, my skills as a teacher, and my commitment to my students. I don’t want authority to come from a title in front of my name or a particular classroom demeanor. I am proud of my doctorate—I worked hard for it—but I didn’t earn it from my students. So I don’t ask them to call me Dr. Kidd. They call me Dustin, just as everyone else in my life calls me Dustin, and I call them by their first names as well. I also don’t particularly dress up for class. I dress professionally, but still somewhat casually (trousers, yes, but no tie or jacket). I’m not trying to be ‘cool’ or act like I’m one of the students. I am the professor, but I earn that authority through professing the wisdom of my field, not through a title or a tie. And I actively discuss this distinction between unearned power and earned strength in the classroom, so that my students are very aware of why they are calling me Dustin and why I wear no suit.

Om 7: Be Kind to Yourself

By ‘yourself’ I mean myself. I do not abuse myself in my role as a teacher. I work hard, but not too hard. I make sure that I am actively engaged in my relationships, my research, my personal and physical needs, and my spirituality—never sacrificing these areas of my life to the demands of teaching. Frankly, that would just make me a worse teacher. I am sure that I would be an asshole then. I design my syllabi carefully to fit the ebb and flow of my own life. I try to avoid collecting assignments in more than one class on the same week. If I have to break my promise of returning papers within one week of receipt, in order to stay sane, I do so—and I simply explain my difficulties to my students and apologize for letting them down (I find that students are happy to forgive, if given the opportunity). In being kind to myself, of course, I also ask that my students be kind to me. I think this reasonable, and I return the favor by trying to respect the ebb and flow of their lives—avoiding major assignments around holiday periods, respecting the ways that their own religious beliefs conflict with the academic calendar, and so forth.

Om 8: Admit to Mistakes

I am a big believer in the power of apologies and forgiveness. Clearly, I have already alluded to this belief earlier in this statement. I experienced this most powerfully when I was still a graduate student and serving as an adjunct faculty at the University of Virginia. I had a class scheduled to meet early on the morning of September 12th, 2001. I have never been so profoundly aware of my own lack of wisdom as I was that week. In my sadness and confusion after the morning events of September 11th, I decided that I would still hold class the next day. It was a terrible class. I had a lecture that was well-prepared, but I just wasn’t present in it. Attendance was low as well. I didn’t even acknowledge the events of the previous day. I think there could have been lots of good reasons for holding class that day, but I didn’t lay claim to any of them. My reasons—stubbornness and confusion—were wrong. On the last day of class that semester, I finally got up the nerve to apologize. On my final evaluations, in addition to some comments indicating that students were actually glad to be in class that day—were other comments thanking me for the apology and outright forgiving me for the mistake. As teachers, we often feel that our students want us to be perfect, but we only feel that way because we invest so much into making them think we really are flawless. As I said earlier, students have deep wells of forgiveness that we draw on too rarely—not because we don’t make mistakes, but because we don’t admit to mistakes.

Om 9: Make the Changes that Need to be Made

We don’t inherit perfect disciplines or perfect curricula. To me, this is most clear in the ways that our material is dominated by men, economic elites, whites, heterosexuals, and the nondisabled. As a teacher, I can either reproduce these discriminations, or I can transform them. I never studied queer theory, but when I was first assigned to teach social theory I knew that queer theory had to be included. So it was up to me to survey the field and to present it to my students. When I was a student, my classical social theory classes never included works by women. But women have obviously long held innovative ideas about society, so it was up to me to find and teach these theorists and theories to my students. I am a terrible candidate for this kind of transformative work, but as the teacher in my classes, I am the only candidate.

Om 10: Communicate

Assholes don’t communicate. Teachers need to communicate. Communication comes in many forms, from a comprehensive statement of course policies in the syllabus to thorough feedback on assignments. Good communication begins with a clearly stated course purpose and a list of course goals. These should be presented in class and listed on the syllabus. Such transparency allows students to make the best decision about whether the course is appropriate for their own goals and purposes. One of the most important ways that I communicate with my students regards the participation component of my courses. This aspect of the course is very important to me, and it is crucial for student understanding of the material. Students are often intimated by this grade, and I suspect it often seems like something that is just made up at the end of the semester. To avoid this concern, I give my students a midterm participation feedback form. On the form, I list the many expectations that I hold for student participation. The form provides them with an estimation of their grade so far, and it indicates which of the expectations they should focus on in order to improve the grade.

I also use evaluations as a form of communication. I hold an evaluation about a third or halfway into the semester. The evaluation questions are simple—what helps you learn in this class, what hinders your learning, and what suggestions do you have. The feedback from these forms is typed up, and quantified in various ways. Quantifying the results helps me to put it in perspective. I might feel very upset about a particular comment, but the quantification reveals that it was an isolated concern. The results are shared with class, including a strategy for how I will respond to the feedback, and a request for how I want them to respond. In addition, I provide my own evaluation of how the course is going so far.

The issues of cheating and plagiarism raise some important questions about communication. On the one hand, I don’t want my students to cheat by accident because they don’t realize that a particular action constitutes cheating. On the other hand, I don’t want my students to miss a good learning opportunity—such as sharing their papers with each other—because they are afraid that it might be construed as cheating. The best way to avoid these dilemmas that I have found is to state a clear policy of what constitutes cheating on each assignment. This gets beyond the vagaries of the generic code of conduct and clarifies which actions are encouraged and which are forbidden.

Finally, I state clear communication policies on my syllabi, indicating how and when to email me, when to expect a response, when it is okay to call me at home, and how often I expect students to check their email.

Om

These ten Oms should not be confused for being a teaching philosophy. They are rather, a teaching philosophy statement; a lengthy introduction to a short teaching philosophy: do yoga and don’t be an asshole. My philosophy is premised upon these two commands. The second is like the first. Not being an asshole is, in many ways, the root of yogic philosophy. Kind people everywhere are yogis in my eyes—whether they exhibit this kindness by feeding the poor or by conducting thoughtful, careful research into issues that matter. To my readers, my students, and kind people the world over, I close simply...

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¿Son las ventanas enemigas de los pájaros?

La primavera llegó al hemisferio norte, el sol brilla y los pájaros emigran de climas más cálidos. Pero, ¿se enfrentan a un enemigo mortal a su regreso?

Las cifras divulgadas de choques de aves contra ventanas son sorprendentes. Se suele decir que entre 100 millones y 1.000 millones de aves mueren cada año de esa manera en Estados Unidos.

Esos números aparecen en artículos de prensa, guías de aves y en el sitio web de la American Bird Conservancy.

En Reino Unido, el British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) estimó hace unos años que cada año se producen 100 millones de impactos de aves, un tercio de los cuales son mortales.

La metodologíaPero, ¿son precisas las cifras?

Se podría esperar que se hubiera realizado un estudio cuantitativo a gran escala, con la participación de un equipo de ornitólogos, utilizando una metodología científica rigurosa para acumular gran cantidad de datos. No es así.

Las cifras estadounidenses se originan en un artículo de 1990 escrito por el biólogo Daniel Klem en el Journal of Field Ornithology. Allí afirmó que no había datos disponibles sobre el tema y que era difícil hacer un estudio exhaustivo, por lo que se dispuso a hacer una conjetura.

Hay una gran cantidad de edificios en EE.UU., razonó, y la mayoría de ellos tienen ventanas. Por lo tanto, usando datos del censo, primero calculó el número de edificaciones en el país.

Asumió que en un año entre uno y diez pájaros mueren al golpearse con una ventana en cada edificio del país, y multiplicó el número de construcciones por uno y por diez.

Dio con un rango de entre 97,6 millones y 975,6 millones.

Esas cifras, redondeadas, siguen siendo citadas al día de hoy.

"No creo que alguien deba tomar esas cifras como un hecho", dice Klem.

Pero añade: "No fue completamente especulativo. Se basó en los datos recopilados a lo largo de al menos 10 años en edificios que iban desde un ave muerta al año a varios cientos en una hora".

"Pero está claro que ningún estudio cuantitativo se realizó de manera estratificada para mirar las diferentes amenazas en edificios de distinto tamaño, y el área de la ventana y así sucesivamente. Así que había una base cuantitativa detrás, pero no estaba al nivel para considerar esas cifras como hechos".

Y tienen un propósito útil, dice."Fueron diseñadas para informar a quien le importara, que este tema de pájaros estrellándose contra ventanas era serio", agrega.

En 1990 calculó que, tras la temporada de cría anual, había 20.000 millones de aves en EE.UU. (sin incluir Hawái ni Alaska), por lo que su cálculo más elevado representaría el 5% de esa población.

Por tanto, la pregunta que surge es si las ventanas causan un declive de la población de las aves.

"Bien puede ser correcta, pero no tenemos evidencia que confirme que la disminución se esté produciendo (...) Probablemente sea creíble, pero no creo que ninguna persona razonable deba usar esas cifras como hechos hasta que tengamos evidencia más sólida", afirma Klem.

También ha habido estudios sobre otras causas de muerte de las aves generadas indirectamente por el hombre. Científicos divulgaron recientemente un informe según el cual los gatos matan a entre 1.400 millones y 3.700 millones de aves en EE.UU. cada año.

El mismo equipo espera publicar próximamente un estudio más amplio sobre los accidentes que tienen las aves.

El estado de conservaciónTambién es difícil encontrar cifras en Reino Unido.

En 2004, el British Trust for Ornithology dijo que hasta 100 millones de pájaros al año se estrellaban contra ventanas en el país. Y que un tercio morían, un cálculo basado en el número de aves muertas halladas próximas a ventanas.

"Estos fueron los cálculos iniciales", dice Mike Toms, director de ecología de jardín en el BTO.

"Si uno dice que esos son hechos, eso no es considerar el contexto completo", agrega.

"Cuando se comunica la ciencia, hay tensión en el trabajo en revistas académicas, que es revisado por colegas, uno tiene numerados los matices y las advertencias, pero cuando se presenta la información a una audiencia más amplia, realmente están interesados en las cifras finales".

Toms dijo en 2004 que las tres principales causas de la muerte de pájaros eran: "Gatos, colisiones con vehículos y colisiones con ventanas hacia los jardines".

Por el contrario, la Real Sociedad para la Protección de los Pájaros (RSPB, por sus siglas en inglés), la mayor organización benéfica de aves de Reino Unido, no ve a los cristales como una gran amenaza.

"Aunque hay algunas especies, como la perdiz, que parecen ser propensas a estrellarse contra las ventanas, hay poca evidencia de que el problema afecte el estado de conservación de cualquier especie", dice un portavoz de la RSPB.

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Las curiosas exigencias alimenticias de algunos famosos, antes de su actuación.

El fotógrafo Henry Hargreaves tiene un gran talento para retratar a las personas y sus personalidades a través de objetos y alimentos. Recientemente, el fotógrafo con sede en Brooklyn creó esta serie, titulada Riders Band . Un "rider" es un acuerdo establecido entre un músico y un lugar, que resume las peticiones del artista intérprete o ejecutante específicos, incluyendo cómo configurar el equipo en el escenario, la forma de organizar el vestuario, y qué tipo de comida y bebida para proporcionarle en el backstage.

En la siguiente galería se puede apreciar las curiosas demandas de algunos famosos:

Frank Sinatra: Una botella de: Absolute, Jack Daniels, Chivas Regal, Courvoisier, Beefeater Gin, vino blanco, vino tinto. Veinticuatro camarones jumbo refrigerados, Life Savers, pastillas para la tos.

Axl Rose: Wonder Bread Fresh (blanco), Dom Perignon

Beyoncé: suculento pollo al horno, muy condimentado con: ajo, sal marina, pimienta negra, y pimienta de cayena. Beyoncé sólo puede beber productos de Pepsi.

Busta Rhymes: Veinticuatro piezas de pollo frito, condones Rough Rider, Guinness.

Billy Idol: Una copa de mantequilla, y galletas de chocolate suave.

Lady Gaga: Pequeño plato de queso (nonsmelly, nonsweaty), en hielo.

Nine Inch Nails: Dos cajas de almidón de maíz.

Britney Spears: Chips de pescado, hamburguesas con queso de McDonald sin los bollos, 100 ciruelas e higos, una foto enmarcada de la Princesa Diana.

Foo Fighters: Salchichas

Mariah Carey: Champagne Cristal, con una pajita para beberlo.

Marilyn Manson: Ositos gominola.

New Kids On The Block: helado Häagen-Dazs, y galletas Oreo.

Prince: Café, té, incluida la miel, el limón, el azúcar, la crema, la raíz de jengibre fresco. La jeringa se utiliza para administrar una inyección de B-12.

Van Halen: Arenques en crema, tubo grande de la jalea KY, M & M (Advertencia: jamás los marrones).

Rihanna: Huevos duros, tocino de pavo, salchicha de pavo, en cualquier momento durante el día.

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¿Por qué nos gusta besar?

Los besos no sólo aportan placer: también información sobre la salud y aptitud para el apareamiento de la otra persona.

Los besos son una forma cultural del cariño, del afecto y del deseo. Besamos por las razones más extrañas –para hacerle saber al otro que lo queremos, que queremos tener sexo, o simplemente porque es divertido. Pero el acto de besar puede encerrar algunas claves de nuestra evolución como especie a través del cuidado que nuestras madres nos dan cuando nacemos, además de proveer información valiosa sobre nuestro estado de salud y nuestra aptitud para el apareamiento.

Los besos se sienten bien. Un buen beso quema entre 2 y 3 calorías por minuto, descargando epinefrina y noreprinefina haciendo que tu corazón lata más rápido, además de estar relacionado con la disminución del llamado “colesterol malo” y con una disminución de la percepción del estrés. Pero el beso no es solamente lo que ocurre durante el beso, sino también lo que el beso produce y comunica a pesar de nosotros mismos.

Los psicólogos evolucionistas han llegado a la conclusión de que lo que hoy conocemos como “beso” fue en algún momento una forma de alimentación, que consiste en masticar la comida y pasarla a otra boca, de los hijos, por ejemplo —muy parecida a la que vemos en los pájaros y algunos primates aún hoy en día. Algunos primates a.k.a. Alicia Silverstone:

Pero esta forma de alimentación no era extraña hace no mucho tiempo: antes de los alimentos procesados para bebés y las licuadoras, las madres podían ahorrar tiempo y alimentar de boca a boca a sus hijos, transmitiendo además una dosis extra de zinc, hierro y carbohidratos a través de la saliva.

Además, la saliva del adulto puede transferir generadores de anticuerpos, sumado a que la comida predigerida puede ser absorbida más fácilmente por los bebés. Los rostros, además, son el primer contacto que tienen los seres humanos con el mundo, pues durante los primeros meses no pueden enfocar a una distancia mayor de 25 cm., más o menos la distancia entre el rostro del infante y el de su madre durante la lactancia. 

La saliva además es una especie de huella digital: transfiere información a la otra persona sobre tu estado de salud, y los receptores de mucosa en nuestras bocas son sensibles a hormonas, como la testosterona. De hecho, un buen beso podría ser indicador del tipo de pareja potencial que el otro podría ser para ti –todo a nivel hormonal, recordemos.

Pero no todas las culturas utilizan el beso como “muestra gratis” o atisbo de una pareja potencial. Algunas investigaciones creen que los besos pudieron haber sido favorecidos evolutivamente con recompensas para nuestro cuerpo como mecanismo para lidiar con la incertidumbre y la elección. Por decirlo así, la naturaleza nos fuerza a probar y descartar, de modo que encontremos una pareja apta para el apareamiento.

Y si todas estas explicaciones no bastaran, la más simple sigue siendo la más convincente: besar se siente bien.

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Las mejores tapas de revistas del 2012 en EEUU.

La Sociedad Americana de Editores de Revistas (American Society of Magazine Editors) eligió las mejores portadas de revistas.

La foto de Manhattan a media luz luego de huracán Sandy con la que la revista New York ilustro su portada de noviembre le valió el premio a la mejor portada del año.

Repasa en la galería las mejores y las más creativas tapas durante el 2012.

New York y su foto de la ciudad tras el huracán Sandy

Hay una categoría “Obama”, el primer lugar fue para el envejecimiento digital del presidente hecho por Bloomberg Businessweek. 

Las hermanas Venus y Serena Wiliams en la categoría Deportes.

En “Moda y Belleza” la revista Bazar fue la portada elegida. 

La fusión de Continental y United ganó en la categoría “Negocios y tecnología”

Una ironíca  portada de  Bloomberg Buisnessweek le valió el premio a la más creativa. 

En la categoría “Más deliciosa”.

Sexo para el apartado “Estilo de vida”

En la categoría “Servicios” The Rotarian  y su reportaje sobre el agua fueron los ganadores

Jerry Seinfeld en la portada The New York Times magazine ganó en la categoría “Entretenimiento y famosos”

 

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La mujer con el brazo de serpiente.

Con su cabello color rojo encendido, su silueta de Marilyn Monroe y una serpiente verde enrollada despreocupadamente en su brazo, Jo-Jo Cranfield parece una verdadera musa salida de una pintura de Salvador Dalí.

Es imposible no mirar la pitón color neón que lleva en su muñeca izquierda. Pero si observas con detenimiento, descubrirás que el reptil se desliza dentro y fuera de la piel, como un hilo psicodélico enhebrado.

Cranfield nació sin un antebrazo. Su fantástico brazo —que ha sido descrito con toda clase de adjetivos, desde genial, pasando por escalofriante, hasta erótico— es la obra de una diseñadora londinense que reinventó la forma en la que vemos las extremidades prostéticas.

Con sus piernas con un equipo de sonido integrado y sus brazos de plumas, el Proyecto de Extremidades Alternativas de Sophie de Oliveira Barata llega al reino del arte surrealista mientras cumple con una función muy importante: “Está llamando la atención sobre su discapacidad de forma positiva”, dijo De Oliveira Barata.

“En vez de que la gente note lo que falta, notan lo que tienen".

SobrehumanoLa obra de De Oliveira Barata recibió atención internacional cuando la modelo y cantante Viktoria Modesta usó su pierna de cristal de Swarovski durante la ceremonia de clausura de los Juegos Paralímpicos de Londres en 2012.

“La idea predominante es que una extremidad nueva debe ser lo más parecida posible a la extremidad previa”, dijo De Oliveira.

“Sin embargo, hasta que la tecnología llegue al punto en el que puedas obtener una extremidad de apariencia realista en cuanto al movimiento y a la estética, siempre existirá este misterioso término medio”.

“En este caso estoy haciendo exactamente lo opuesto y creo que captura esa imaginación infantil: es como ser un superhéroe con superpoderes”, agregó.

Estruendosa y orgullosaModesta nació en Letonia y le amputaron la pierna izquierda por debajo de la rodilla cuando era adolescente. Para ella, las extremidades alternativas son una forma de expresarse, igual que la ropa que usa.

“Soy una fashionista declarada. Las cosas que me gustan suelen cambiar todo el tiempo y, al igual que con la mayoría de las prendas clave de mi guardarropa, solo las uso cierta cantidad de veces”, dijo.

“La primera vez que usé una extremidad que era evidentemente biónica tuve una sensación absoluta de singularidad y me sentí como una humana mutante en la mejor forma posible”.

De igual forma, Cranfield, quien suele usar su brazo de serpiente cuando sale con sus amigos por las noches, dice que la hace sentir poderosa y sexy.

“Quería que la gente se asombrara y tuviera que mirarme dos veces”, dijo Cranfield, quien es oradora motivacional y paratriatleta.

“Prefiero que la gente me pregunte directamente cómo perdí el brazo. Esto es tan evidente —como si quisiera que me miraras— que hace que la gente se sienta cómoda haciéndome preguntas”.

Un efecto especial
Después de aprender a crear prótesis para efectos especiales de cine y televisión, De Oliveira Barata trabajó para una empresa de prótesis realistas durante ocho años y siguió experimentando con las extremidades artísticas en sus ratos libres.

En 2009 se unió con Modesta para crear una novedosa pierna con forma de aparato de sonido con altavoces y con zapato de tacón alto.

El prototipo fue un éxito y ahora, la gama de clientes de De Oliveira Barata abarca desde exmilitares que buscan una pierna de ciencia ficción hasta niños que quieren un compartimento secreto para guardar sus lápices.

Las extremidades a la medida cuestan entre 4.600 y 21.000 dólares, según el material y diseño.

Avanzando con los tiempos
De Oliveira no solo está haciendo innovaciones estéticas, sino que también trabaja en una nueva serie de extremidades con funciones alternas.

Como parte de un proyecto con unos estudiantes de efectos especiales de la Universidad de Hertforshire, Inglaterra, ha estado trabajando en algunos diseños futuristas, como navajas del ejército suizo con herramientas desplegables, piernas para salir a bailar que se iluminan con la música y brazos para cocinar con accesorios para colocar aparatos de cocina.

El proyecto tiene algo innegablemente lúdico.

“Provoca algunas reacciones extrañas”, reconoció Cranfield. “Pero nunca he querido encajar simplemente… Siempre he querido ser diferente”.

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