Musharaf is at times highly articulate and reasonable and at other times, like when he says that the Berlin wall came down because of the policies of Pakistan he seems simply out of focus. Then when he draws a distinction between terrorism and extremism he seems very reasonable. By the way there´s a very good article on him at the Safe Democracy web site.

If you can´t see the video, please try here

For non Americans, United States is a difficult country to understand. Sometimes great, sometimes let´s say, not that great. For me today, witnessing President Clinton, a man who I greatly admire, lavishing praise on Laura Bush, the First Lady of a presidency I mostly disagree with, with was a real shock. I guess that in a way that is what´s great about America, that rivals can also collaborate on basic issues such as improving conditions in Africa. But as I heard the Opening Plenary in which Clinton did not have a single word of criticism towards his follower who many of us believe did a lot of harm to global relations I could not help to be quite uncomfortable with his speech and closeness to the Bush Administration.

If you can´t see the video, please try here

I am at the Clinton Global Initiative Conference, where Laura Bush just gave a speech about all these wonderful things that the Bush Administration is doing around the world (please feel free to read wonderful in whatever tone you feel comfortable with). As she spoke different pictures were shown. This one showing the Bush Family and Bono caught my eye.

Follow the conference live by clicking here. I am presently attending this conference and there will be more posts related to it coming out soon.

I was thinking about the countries in the world that are the best and the worst governed and I elaborated this very personal list. I did it quickly, as a kind of a game, and I may have forgotten certain countries, but the idea was to make a personal ranking that reflected my vision of the world.

I could spend a lot of time explaining why I put certain countries in certain places. I could also change my opinion. This is the same kind of thing as when you meet someone and ask them about their favorite movies, music, books, and places. All of this information only helps you to know a person better.

So here is my ranking, from best to worst
Read More

Foreign Policy magazine´s cover shows a surprising headline this week.
Read More

In March I announced that my foundation, along with the Argentinean Association of Astronomy, would grant the Carlos M. Varsavsky Prize to the best doctoral thesis on astronomy. Carlos Varsavsky was my father, a Harvard trained astrophysicist who was the head of the Instituto Argentino de Radioastronomia and who had to leave his native country because of political prosecution by the Argentine military Junta.

It is for me a great pleasure to be able to announce that the committee designated by the Argentinean Association of Astronomy has chosen a winning work. The author of the work is Doctor Andrea Veronica Ahumada, whose thesis was dedicated to the Integrated Spectral Evolution of Cumulous Galactic Stars and the Small Cloud of Magellan.

Apart from receiving a commemorative medal and diploma, the winner will also be awarded a grant to attend an international conference in her specialty in the year immediately following acceptance of the prize, with all expenses paid by the Varsavsky Foundation.

You can read a brief summary of the Thesis on the following file.

Download file

El País, Spain’s leading newspaper, has an interesting article today that tells the story of how the largest fashion show in Spain, Pasarela Cibeles, is not allowing extremely thin models on the cat walk.

In Spain, as in many other countries, there is a concern that very thin models and their look are responsible for many women of average weight becoming anorexic. So what the managers of Pasarela Cibeles did is hire a group of nutrition experts who recommended that models whose body mass index is lower than 18 cannot go on the runway. Body mass index is your weight in kilos divided by the square of your height in meters.