Porém, chegado ao blogue decidi ver como andava de visitas. Na minha inocência, esperava encontrar as 70/80 visitas diárias do costume - acredito que grande parte delas acidentais.

Porém, para meu espanto, reparei que na quinta-feira tinha tido mais de 500 visitas num só dia.

Fiquei pasmado a interrogar-me sobre se o erro não seria do wordpress. Mas, não. As visitas eram reais e vinham todas encaminhadas por lúcidas pesquisa no Google: "Carolina Salgado pornografia" ou "Carolina Salgado nua" ou, a mais erudita, "Carolina Salgado em poses pornográficas".

Nunca escrevi nenhum texto sobre a ex-namorada de Pinto da Costa, nem sequer entrei muito na trama do "Eu, Carolina".

Muito menos, dei qualquer destaque a poses da senhora em trajes menores ou inexistentes, apesar de ter ficado algo curioso depois de perceber que essas fotos devem mesmo existir.

Se alguém as descobrir, deixe o link.

Assim que puder, volto a dedicar-me a coisas mais sérias.

O Benfica derrotou o Nápoles e apurou-se para a fase de grupos da Taça Uefa. A vitória, por 2-0, foi confirmada com os golos de Reyes e Nuno Gomes.

Foi um momento histórico, uma vez que o Benfica nunca tinha eliminado um clube italiano depois de perder a primeira-mão da eliminatória.

Também foi histórico mas por outro motivo: foi a primeira transmissão do canal Benfica TV. E, ao que tudo indica, foi um enorme sucesso com cerca de 100 mil espectadores.

Uma noite em grande para o Benfica e para os benfiquistas e onde assisti em primeira-mão ao renascer do Inferno da Luz e às grandes noites europeias do Glorioso.

Ficam os golos e os comentários de José Carlos Soares.

Decifrando os Crop Circles -  Parte II

Sarah Palin’s Debate Debut: Neptune’s Film Star Glamour Factor or Oh, Those Sexy Librarian Glasses

I watched the news last night and after seeing all the promos on television about the debate between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin. I have seldom seen this much anticipation for a television event and never for anything that involved politics.
With Neptune on her Sun, Mars, and Saturn and Biden’s South Node, it brings the film star glamour to the debates. For sheer coverage, they rival the Super bowl promos and I fully expect to see ads running with hot wing recipe suggestions for the big event. I won’t be surprised if there are even some multi-million-dollar quickly made ads to run during the commercials and I’m sure Saturday Night Live’s Tina Fey is already sharpening her impression. I’m guessing the debate will make a few more comedians famous this weekend. The comedy material will no doubt buy several new homes with the revenue from jokes, which given the current economic climate,will definitely make them part of the wealthy class.

How the Eclipse and Neptune helped Sarah Palin Find Fame and Fortune

I admit I am usually a democrat but this year if the Republican candidate was stronger I would have considered it. Thankfully, for reasons of simplicity, the republican’s candidates are not serious considerations for me due to their positions, so it won’t be a problem. It’s not that I don’t like Obama, and I absolutely love Michelle, but I think Obama is a little green (inexperienced), or I did until Sarah Palin entered the race. It gives me a new appreciation of just how relative perspective can be.

With democratic Vice Presidential candidate Joe Biden’s reputation for being an experienced and savvy debater it puts VP republican candidate Sarah Palin’s at an obvious disadvantage. Since she was thrown in the ring at the last minute by McCain, seemingly on a whim, it is working against her both in my opinion and in the polls. This could be a bloodbath that calls to mind Rome’s past entertainment practice of throwing the Christians to the lions, except that both parties are Christian and for that matter, both lions.

Palin may look even more like a deer (or moose) in the headlights than she has in the Katy Couric interviews, if that’s possible. The question of how could she have gotten herself into all this, especially with all the problems she’s having back in Alaska, comes when we take a look at what the last eclipse and Neptune are doing in her chart.

There is a reason ancient wisdom was terrified of eclipses, and her life may be one of the best examples we’ve had for a while. I am not saying I feel sorry for her, but even I can identify to the level of overnight expectations that she blasted into when McCain threw her into the fray.

Neptune Joins Palin’s Sun, Mars, and Saturn

The problem with Neptune is that you can’t tell what is illusion and what is reality and the eclipse happened almost exactly on Sarah Palin’s Sun in her seventh house. Even a die-hard democrat like me can see that there are forces are at work in her life that have propelled her into this situation.

Palin’s Birth Chart and Her Odds During the Debate

Sarah Palin’s birthday is reported to be February 11, 1964, at 4:40 p.m. in Sandhill, Idaho. The time supposedly came directly from her. Her Aquarian sun, Mars, and Saturn close together make her a formidable and aggressive opponent, but with Neptune on them, an effective attack is unlikely, although charm may come more easily, since Neptune will tend to confuse the issue. When she debates Biden, she will have her hands full keeping things straight. She has been toughened up by the interviews with Katy Couric, but even so, she was thrown into the whirlwind very fast and has not yet appeared to get her bearings.

The Advantage to Palin from the Retrograde Mercury

Retrograde Mercury may work for her as it is making an excellent aspect to her Sun. Her style is to be comfortable and folksy and take a conservative position and here it may all come back on her and she may just look hopelessly lost, and to fight that, she may turn to a personal attack strategy. She may use her down home charm to talk to her voters and bring her basic conservative value system to those who share it. Like most Aquarians, she marches to her own drummer and can’t figure out why everyone thinks she’s odd. She can be dogmatic and at the same time, inconsistent in her dogma. Since her planets sit on Biden’s South Node, she may hit below the belt in her attacks and use her feminine charm to position herself so he will appear vicious if he attacks her. But her odds of hitting him where it hurts are pretty high, especially considering her weak position.

Her sun is receiving the rays of Neptune, a whimsical planet that can make you feel like the most wonderful fortune has come to you and almost immediately show you how fast that can turn to nothing in your hands. When the eclipse changed her life, it threw her into the public eye and a foreign relations venue, ready or not. It also is bringing her scandals and confusion and at the same time, making her a subject of fascination and alternately ridicule in the eyes of the public. If she isn’t careful, it can involve her in Washington deceptions and bring on depression and a sense of unreality where she may find herself daydreaming and having trouble focusing. But it also accounts for her movie star mannerisms and film star popularity.

Joe Biden – Tonight’s Moon Position Gives Him the Advantage in the Debates

Joe Biden’s birthday is Nov 20, 1942, at 8:30 a.m. in Scranton, PA. Since the Moon is in Biden’s sun sign of Scorpio, he will have the advantage in the debate tonight. He appears to be all charm and an easy talker, but with the Sun, Venus, and Mercury in Scorpio in the 12^th house, below the charm, is a shrewd person who is more astute and far more hidden than he appears. He may very well suffer from his association with Sarah Palin. With her aggressive planets on his South Node, he may find himself in a difficult situation. The South Node is considered in Western astrology, an unfortunate area in everyone’s chart, and a point of loss. The Hindu astrologers consider it the point of true spiritual evolution, so it may advance him in more subtle ways. Biden, with three planets in Scorpio in the 12^th house is deadly serious but appears pleasant and laid back. He is an excellent researcher and keeps a lot of private information that others give him. If I have the correct time for them both, he will dominate her naturally, effortlessly. But she may cause him serious problems and major headaches. His debate style is a take-it-to-the-wall approach. Hers will be more charming and she will make a more personal appeal, as her Mercury is with her Moon in early Aquarius and makes an excellent aspect to her Venus in Aries. Marilyn Monroe also had Venus in Aries and both women can turn up the heat on their sex appeal if they want to.

Mercury Retrograde and it’s Influence on What the Pundits are Saying

The pundits are saying that Biden has to use great care not to appear aggressive with Palin and not to appear to attack. She on the other hand, supposedly will sound great if she says anything intelligent at all, since she’s had difficulty getting her bearings and sounding confidant in her interviews. With the current Mercury retrograde there will probably be confusion and disagreement on who wins the debate. Since its in Libra there will probably be a lot of discussion about what is fair and each candidate may try to appear well behaved. Later there will probably be great disagreement about how the debate went or who gained and lost ground. The first George W. Bush election took place during a Mercury retrograde. We are still paying for it and still trying to sort out the confusion. Many people in the country still believe the election was stolen and there may be again a lot of confusion and passionate disagreement about what really was accomplished.

Será a primeira vez que assistirei a uma partida europeia do Glorioso. E, para adversário, dificilmente se encontrava equipa com mais história: o Nápoles de Diego Armando Maradona.

Naturalmente, Diego Maradona não vai jogar mas o seu nome encontra-se para sempre associado ao clube napolitano. Aliás, o nome de Maradona é superior em tudo ao do Nápoles... o homem até tem uma Igreja!

Bem, mas "Maradonas" à parte, logo é noite de jogo e é altura de o Benfica de Quique mostrar que a vitória sobre o Sporting não foi apenas um feliz acaso. Pelo menos, assim espero.

E, às 20h15, lá estarei eu na Luz. SLB!

Rain and cold winter nights invite indoor activities for most Malibu residents, but there were some good reasons to be outdoors in the last week of the old year. The season of high tides was upon us, coinciding with winter storm, and, in the night sky, an eclipse cycle joined with planetary intrigues, all starring the full moon.

For those who got outside and watched the ocean’s comings and goings, the rewards were many. The morning high tides of the last few days of the old year brought waves crashing against the cliffs of Point Dume and up and over the sand cliffs built in winter storm cycles on the local beaches.

During the winter, storm-powered waved scoop out the sand and build steep mini-cliffs along familiar beaches.  When the season’s highest tides come along, they lift the surf over the tops, sending lacey patterns of froth into the air and marking high tide lines far up along the shore.

In the same cycle, the lowest tides later pull the ocean far back from shore and expose the reefs for safe tide pool meandering. Walking along these expanses in the lovely late afternoon light, it is hard to believe all of this was submerged under eight feet of water only six hours before.

The queen of all this activity is the moon, augmented by her celestial partner, the sun, for these two bodies rule the seas. To imagine this effect, consider that the Earth is really enveloped in its oceans, and the oceans are forever moving or bulging in the directions commanded by the gravitational pull of the moon and the far lesser gravitational pull of the sun.

The turning Earth is really sloshing phenomenon.  If you could pick the earth up in your hand, your hand would be wet. Watching from the shore, we invent the proud illusion that the sea comes and goes from us, but we are really humble creatures inhabiting islands in the middle of a great system of currents—a system that utterly controls our weather and thus our fate.

All of our attempts to tame the seas are ludicrous, and when the big tides come with the wind-driven big waves, we get a glimpse of the power contained in all these forces. These tides almost always occur at new and full moon when the line-up of the sun, Earth and moon tops off the moon’s force and creates the extra oomph of the big tides.

Eclipses occur when these line-ups are exact. On a solar eclipse (new moon), the sun and the moon are exactly aligned on one side of the Earth, so that in certain parts of the world the moon crosses directly in front of the sun. On a lunar eclipse, the shadow of the Earth passes over the full moon.

In the early hours of December 30, the very edge of the Earth’s shadow glanced off the moon, probably only noticeable to the alerted astronomy buffs. What was more dramatic, however, and remains a signpost in the sky, was the close conjunction between the planet Jupiter and the full moon.

All these extremes are simply natural cycles at endless play, but we humble creatures are given the opportunity to make them symbols of something else—anything else. It is our unique gift to play with meaning as we interact with the endless rounds of natural events. In the winter season, there is a lot of energy to play with just outside the cozy comfort of your living room.

Elizabeth Whitney

Published January 3, 2002

Na verdade, trata-se da divulgação de um vídeo de Sarah Palin em pleno ritual religioso de condenação de Satanás.

Suponho que seria pior se fosse ao contrário, ou seja, com a bondosa Governadora a louvar Lúcifer, mas este episódio não deixa de estar num assinalável nível de caricato.

Para ver, ouvir e ler aqui.

Buffet, o segundo homem mais rico da América, comprou as acções através da sua companhia, a "Berkshire Hathaway, Inc".

Eu também, se tivesse 5 mil milhões de dólares à mão, acabado de perder a liderança na lista dos mais ricos (orgulho, o orgulho a falar) e visse que o mercado estava sedento de capital - o que pode significar ganhos futuros - fazia o mesmo que o bom do Buffet.

Aliás, com uma tirada apenas, Warren Buffet "justificou" o seu investimento: "Eu prefiro comprar coisas. Caso contrário, é um pouco como guardar o sexo para os anos de velhice".

E, quem fala assim, é multimilionário.

Mais aqui.

Depois da primeira vitória no campeonato, a carreira do Benfica ficará imparável. Prevejo que, após os três pontos conquistados em Paços de Ferreira, a equipa da Luz vença os jogos todos no campeonato, marcando em média 15 golos por partida, sofrendo 13 - enquanto o Quim for titular da Selecção.

E, o melhor marcador será o Nuno Gomes que pulverizará todos os recordes, chegando a marcar 50 golos numa temporada, ganhando a bota de Ouro e roubando a Bola de Ouro a Ronaldo.

Ou isto, ou ficamos em 3º a alguns pontos do primeiro e para o ano começa tudo de novo. Até lá, fiquemos com um alegre espectáculo de futebol e dois belos golos do Benfica - primeiro e último.

Aos 65 anos, morreu Richard Wright. O teclista dos Pink Floyd faleceu de cancro esta segunda-feira. Agora, Wright pode voltar a tocar com Syd Barrett, mas desta vez no mais celestial dos palcos.

Perdeu-se, de todo, qualquer esperança de o alinhamento mais popular do grupo voltar a pisar os palcos mundiais - Watersm Gilmour, Mason e Wright. Agora, Pink Floyd, só nos céus, The Great Gig in the Sky.

"I'm not afraid of dying, there's no reason for it you've got to go sometime".

Certains des ces événements sont très rares (transit de Vénus), et autres beaucoup plus fréquents (Élongation Mercure).

De tout temps les éclipses, de Lune et surtout de Soleil ont beaucoup impressionné. Parmi les différentes interprétations anciennes du phénomène, on en retrouve souvent une l'attribuant à un dragon céleste qui essayerait de dévorer la Lune ou le Soleil.

Bien sur une éclipse n'a rien à voir avec toutes ces mythologies. Il s'agit en fait d'un jeu d'ombre et de lumière. Par le plus grand des hasards, la Lune, qui est 400 fois plus petite que le Soleil, est aussi 400 fois plus proche que lui de la Terre, et de ce fait les 2 astres ont la même taille apparentes. Et de cette coïncidence étonnante et du mouvement des corps célestes découlent les éclipses.

Les éclipses se produisent à proximité des nœuds lunaires car ce n'est qu'en ces points que la Terre, la Lune et le Soleil peuvent s'aligner. En effet l'orbite de la Lune a une inclinaison de 5º1 sur le plan de l'écliptique et de ce fait les seuls moments propices pour une éclipse sont lorsque les astres se trouvent tous à l'intersection de l'orbite de la Lune et de l'écliptique (donc les nœuds)

Dans la mesure où le cône d'ombre de la Terre est assez important et le cône de pénombre encore plus, une éclipse partielle de Lune et possible quand le Soleil ou la Lune sont près des nœuds sans pour autant coïncider parfaitement.

Les chaldéens avaient découvert que les éclipses se répètent à l'identique tous les 18 ans et 11 jours.. Cette période : le Saros est fondamentale pour prévoir ces phénomènes.

Os Video Music Awards da MTV já foram na madrugada de segunda-feira, mas a introdução de Russel Brand continua a correr o Mundo.

O comediante/actor/cantor britânico foi o apresentador da edição de 2008 da festa que - surpreendentemente? - apadrinhou o regresso de Britney Spears às grandes conquistas.

Bem, mas para além das estatuetas ganhas por Britney - julgava que ela apenas tinha andado na reabilitação este ano - as considerações de Brand sobre a política americana e, em particular, sobre o actual presidente Bush fizeram furor e feriram susceptibilidades.

Brand referiu-se a Bush como o "vaqueiro atrasado mental" que é presidente há oito anos e ainda alongou-se em afirmações sobre a candidata a vice-presidente Sarah Palin e a gravidez da sua filha.

Engraçado, pode não ser. Mas que é crude, cáustico e visceral, lá isso é.

Sweet home Alabama Braga, where the skies are so blue, Sweet home Alabama Braga, Lord I'm coming home to you.

Esta semana, a "Sábado" traz um apanhado sobre alguns dos maiores salários praticados em Portugal. Não faz uma contabilidade do valor patrimonial de cada indivíduo, ou seja, quanto vale efectivamente cada um deles, mas lá fiquei a saber quanto ganha o patrão - não ganha muito mais do que eu - e que o Nuno Gomes tem mesmo salário de capitão - quanto é que não me deverão nos Coxos?

A peça está bastante boa e deixa perceber que, pelo menos, algumas pessoas fazem bom dinheiro em Portugal. Em breve, conto juntar-me a elas - já comecei a operação de charme aqui no canal.

E, hoje, soube-se que ganhou. O Estado não ficou obrigado a pagar os 600 mil euros que Pedroso exigia - será esse o preço do seu bom-nome? - mas antes 100 mil. O Ministério Público já fez saber que vai recorrer da decisão.

O juiz considerou a detenção preventiva de Pedroso durante cinco meses um "erro grosseiro" e condenou o Estado. Este achando que não tem nada que pagar, vai recorrer.

Seja qual for o desfecho, esta é já uma decisão sem paralelo em Portugal. E, pode abrir lugar à moda do processo ao Estado.

Agora, resta-nos ficar a ver em quanto vai ficar a indemnização a Pedroso e quem vem a seguir na fila, exigindo que o Estado 'pague' pelos seus erros.

A mim, parece-me bem. Errou, prejudicou, paga.