From tilted posts to trees completely gone, after hurricane Sandy there were many signs of destruction around New York. I had to stay at Stepahnie`s apartment (thank you again!) until Monday, because my building remained without power. And even after the power returned, the telephone and internet took two more days. Some people were not so lucky, with all hotels fully booked, and had to stay at home for days without power or water.

Continue reading

I`m still stuck in Baltimore, but it seems I will be able to return to NY late tonight, arriving tomorrow morning afternoon, the day after Halloween (which reaches amazing levels, like Barbie special edition dolls). So, instead of going to the Village Halloween parade (which has been cancelled for the first time in 39 years), or any of the Halloween parties I was invited to (the New Museum and Cara`s parties have also been cancelled), and wear the cool and simple MineCraft Creeper costume Cory Doctorow twitted (from Comic Con NY):

Continue reading

On Thursday I went to 319 Scholes to attend the art opening of “Collect the WWWorld: The Artist as Archivist in the Internet Age”. Beyond the anecdotal post/pre hispter crowd, the exhibition itself is a sad celebration of noise. Which, in itself is as valid, or invalid, as any other starting point in the endless debate about art (more so in regards with contemporary, electronic, net, etc). But it is its legitimization attempt, with research project, curator, catalogue, and international tour, which brings the debate to a whole different level.

Continue reading

Lying on the carpet, poetry book and pencil in hand, U2 in the background. October October And the trees are stripped bare Of all they wear What do I care October And kingdoms rise And kingdoms fall But you go on…and on… So many literal meanings: the fear of wearing-out (The Edge was considering leaving the band like his brother did before they were even called U2), the false sense of security arising from self-defeat (“What do I care”), moving on after a loss (both Bono and Larry had just lost their mothers), the high hopes and expectations arising from new democracies in Eastern Europe only to become despair and dissapointment, and eventually resilience, surviving, going on…

Continue reading

September 5th (I know, I have really fallen behind my posts; bear with me, there is just too much going on to keep up) I attended a very interesting and enlightening round table at the New York City Bar Association titled “How Will Recent Developments in the Law Influence the 2012 Elections”? Moderated by Nan Aron (lecturer, author, and President of Alliance for Justice), the panel consisted of: Angelo Falcón: President and Founder of the National Institute for Latino Policy Keesha Gaskins: Senior Counsel in the Brennan Center`s Democracy Program Lawrence Lessig: Professor of Law at Harvard University (and much more) John Samples: Director of the Cato Institute Center for Representative Government The discussion was quite interesting.

Continue reading

Author's picture

Jorge Cortell

My blog in English

Senior Advisor, Health and Life Sciences at Harvard University Innovation Laboratories - Advisor at NLC

Cambridge, MA (USA)