Frejat

In 1985, Frejat, then guitarist for Barão Vermelho, hit the stage wearing green and yellow clothes. It was January 15th, the day in which Tancredo Neves was named president of Brazil. Cazuza sang ―Pro Dia Nascer Feliz‖ with lots of enthusiasm.

Frejat returns to the festival this year for a solo performance on October 1st.

Fonte: Disponível em: TAM. TAM nas nuvens. São Paulo: New Content Editora, set/2011.

TEXTO

NUMBER 34, RED

Several years ago, an elderty man walked into a gambling house in a Westem city, sat dowm at the roulette table and placed a few chips on number 34. The whee! spun, slowed down and stopped.

“Number 34, red. There you are, sir”, said the croupler.

The old man left his chips on 34. The wheel spun again, and again stopped on 34. The croupier looked questioningly at the okd man, but he remained silent, his head down, his finger pointing to 34.

“Number 34, red”, said the croupier monotonousiy when the wheel stopped at 34 for the third time.

By this time a crowd had gathered — whispering in amazement at the old man's growing stack of chips. And now, for five consecutive times, the finger continued to point at the winning number 34. Then the croupler announced:

“Sorry, ladies and gentiemen, but there will be no further play at this table.” Tuming to the old man, he added: “You have broken the bank, sir. Please collect your - ." He halted in wide-eyed astonishment.

Onty then did he realize why the old man had neither moved nor spoken since the first spin of the wheel. A dead man had broken the bank!

TEXTO:

A climate of agreement

In the not-too-distant past, the tobacco industry
funded scientists who raised the shadow of a doubt that
the shadows on people’s lungs were cancers caused by
smoking. There were other causes, they said. And many
[5] people who wanted to believe them did so, kept smoking,
and died. Today those who don’t want to believe that
climate change is caused by human activities keep
saying there’s no consensus among scientists. Well,
that’s just not true. It’s been proven again and again that
[10] a great majority of scientists have concluded there is a
casual connection between human activity and global
warming. Now the journal Environmental Research
Letters has published a careful new study of thousands
of peer-reviewed papers showing that when scientists
[15] take a position on the issue, a full 97 percent blame
human causes. This is important because press reports
that cite doubters representing “the other side of the
question,” without saying how minuscule the proportion,
have convinced the public there’s an even split. There
[20] are many issues on which scientists really do disagree,
like the specific link, or lack of it, between global warming
and killer tornados. But about the general cause of the
warming itself, there’s barely any dissent at all.
DICKEY, Christopher. A climate of agreement.In Around the world in five ideas, Newsweek, Jun 3, 2013, p.9

Man With Severed Spinal Cord Walks Again After Cell Transplant

A man paralyzed for two years is now walking again, albeit with a frame, after a transplant to his spine.

In 2010, Darek Fidyka was repeatedly stabbed, rendering him paralyzed from the chest down. Fortunately, however, his nose was unscathed.

Olfactory ensheathing glia (OEGs) surround olfactory axons, the nerve fibers that conduct electrical charges from the nose to the brain to allow us to smell. What makes them of interest to spinal patients is that OEGs maintain their capacity to promote new neurons into adulthood.

This capacity for regrowth has inspired spinal researchers frustrated by the fact that the mammalian central nervous system does not regenerate axons. The idea is that if OEGs are transplanted into the spinal cord at the point of injury, damaged axons will start to restore themselves.

After the attack Fidyka was put on an intensive exercise and physiotherapy program, without success. After two years, he was selected as the subject for the OEG transplant trial. Cells from one of his olfactory bulbs were cultured for two weeks before being transplanted through 100 microinjections around the scar site.

BBC TV program Panorama was invited to film his response to the treatment. At first, despite five hours of exercise, five times a week, Fidyka showed no response, but at the three month mark he noticed that his left thigh was putting on muscle. After six months he was able to take faltering steps with the assistance of leg braces and parallel bars.

As the program prepares to go to air, Fidyka is able to walk on his own with the help of a walking frame. Some bladder, bowel and sexual function has also returned. Progress continues, and Fidyka told the BBC, "I think it's realistic that one day I will become independent."

Brainy, Yes, but Far From Handy

STANFORD, Calif. — In factories and warehouses, robots routinely outdo humans in strength and precision. Artificial intelligence software can drive cars, beat grandmasters at chess and leave “Jeopardy!” champions in the dust.

But machines still lack a critical element that will keep them from eclipsing most human capabilities anytime soon: a well-developed sense of touch.

Consider Dr. Nikolas Blevins, a head and neck surgeon at Stanford Health Care who routinely performs ear operations requiring that he shave away bone deftly enough to leave an inner surface as thin as the membrane in an eggshell.

Dr. Blevins is collaborating with the roboticists J. Kenneth Salisbury and Sonny Chan on designing software that will make it possible to rehearse these operations before performing them. The program blends X-ray and magnetic resonance imaging data to create a vivid three-dimensional model of the inner ear, allowing the surgeon to practice drilling away bone, to take a visual tour of the patient’s skull and to virtually “feel” subtle differences in cartilage, bone and soft tissue. Yet no matter how thorough or refined, the software provides only the roughest approximation of Dr. Blevins’s sensitive touch.