Forces of nature against corruption

What does corruption, the pollution of urban rivers and the not-so-recent shark attacks on swimmers in Recife have in common? - Everything.

Let's start by sharks - before the construction of the port of Suape we had no record of these attacks in the waters of the reef, so the most logical thing would be to blame the situation created by the arrival of the port and its environmental impacts, but that does not seem to be the determining factor.

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In the documentary "Shark Rebellion," presented on the Discovery Channel, Lawrence Wahba investigates the attacks and identifies the culprit species, the Bull Shark (Carcharhinus leucas). Wabba dive with these sharks in Cuba and they seem to be extremely quiet, the biologist gets really surprised by the peacefulness of the animals in Cuba.

The Carcharhinus leucas has a pattern of eating rather passive, they seek their food that arise in abundance in coral reefs and they hardly spend energy on attacks to feed. This seems contradictory to what happens in Recife, for devouring men requires a great deal of energy in the attack.

Why does then the Sharks attack the beachgoers?

In the same documentary Wabba realized that the beaches in Cuba, with clear waters has an abundance of small fish, carcasses and other passive food for sharks. But in Recife, the pollution dumped on beaches by polluted rivers, made murky the waters, and decimated much the presence of fish and other passive food for the Carcharhinus leucas. The scarcity of this food has taken the animal out of his comfort zone to attack swimmers. That became the only option.

 

Carcharhinus leucas "Bull Shark" Swimming on polluted waters of Recife - Brazil

To pollute rivers of big cities is undoubtedly the least intelligent practice that the public administration and the private sector can do. You could say that whomever does it not differ from the one who defecates by the door of his own home.

Worse yet, to compromise the already scarce reserves of fresh water on the planet, man creates himself the additional problem of water shortages and to threaten hydropower generation (see the problem that affects Cantareira water supply system in the State of São Paulo).

Why then do we continue to make that mistake that bad?

Simply because investing public money in sanitation does not generates votes. Added to this corruption at all levels of administration, which undertakes these works that are very expensive and too slow to be completed. The amount of disease caused because of this lack of sanitation is huge and ultimately affects education because sicker children miss classes.

The child with the education deficit becomes the adult with deficiency in environmental perception, and this cycle tends to continue until something more dramatic happens.

It's a shame that most politicians do not surf in Recife, since the shark attack to one of them, would be the best way to close this cycle, and who knows, the commotion caused by the tragedy, would lead to a review of their concepts, and could end the bad Brazilian habit of polluting rivers in almost all urban centers.

 

Bruzundanga Heroes Saga, #2 - Brazilian Hero 'Assum Preto' a sensitive and violent 'cangaceiro' tired of being deceived catches a corrupt politician by the collar - He decides to take justice into his own hands.

While a Brazilian beast does not revenge the so worn class (corrupt politicians), ‘The Bruzundanga saga’ hero, Assum Preto, a sensitive and violent 'cangaceiro' seems to be the only option of solace for Brazilian people, lol.

The rise of Primatological Fitness

Luiz Pagano working out Primatological Fitness, inspired by monkeys and Ranxerox

Since we, Humans share a common ancestor with modern African apes, we sometimes envy our simian cousins because of their strength, dexterity and lightness. The way they swing from branch to branch, among the trees, as talented as Olympic gymnasts. We envy them because they find great pleasure in such activities and the mere act of imitating his gestures bring us great pleasure and fun.

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With this in mind I created during the 1980s the bases of Primatological Gymnastics, Ape Fit, Monkey Fitness, Ape Academy, or any other name of the same effect.

I remember when I was a high school student, just to have fun, running back home, racing with friends using the gestures of chimpanzees, doing monkey movements or mimicking an ape. During the eighties, we were reading the graphic novels such as Ranxerox, a science fiction about a robotic monster, Frankenstein type, punk, futuristic, created by Italian artists Stefano Tamburini and Tanino Liberatore. In escape situations, Ranx used to run mimicking the gestures of a monkey and reached enormous speed, I remember of getting mesmerized with that.

Here comes the Primatological Fitness

The (late) emergence of Primatological Fitness (or APE FIT) was simply inevitable. Sooner or later, someone would create such a series of movements and would study its dynamics and its beneficial effects to humans.

 

Comparative Anatomy - of apes and man, it's incredible how we work the the most unusual muscles during those sessions of 'Primatological Fitness'

We have many similarities with apes; we do some instinctive movements very much like they make, especially when we are babies.

Who better than a Brazilian fitness aficionado, to study apes (self-bullying - lol).

Ad of the "New APE FIT RUNNER X2 - best way to discover nature" -(both brand APE FIT and the APE FIT RUNNER X2 handset are fictitious, were created by Luiz Pagano just to illustrate this article)

The mere reflex to grab the finger of the father is one of many innate acts of a baby. Put your finger on the palm of a baby, he will instinctively tighten with their small and powerful fingers. Is worth mentioning that, the handgrip of a newborn is so strong that it can easily support its own weight for a while.

Why do babies do this? Because it is an instinctive practice related to the survival of primates.

Luiz Pagano - creator of Primatological Fitness (Ape Fit)

Watch a mother monkey in nature; soon after birth little monkeys cling to the fur of the mother monkey who goes from side to side, taking her young. The babies who do not cling to mothers get loose on the lawn, and become easy victims of predators.

Base exercises - Construction of strength in the hands

The flow of Primatological Fitness follows the following order:

Primates must first increase their strength on the hands and paws (fits), then forearms and calves and ultimately the connections between members with the torso. This dynamic had to be corrected to make sense in the human race.

 

Ab workouts upside down - perfect to oxygenate the brain and provide a different angle to observe nature.

Since evolutionary changes drew off the prensil feature of the human’s feet, we must compensate for this loss with strong exercises for the feet and calves.

In this logic we know that the muscles located in forearms control the fingers. The forearm flexor muscles control the closing of the hand, while the opening of the hand is controlled by the extensors of the forearm. The exercises should be designed to control both movements.

When you build your hand strength you also build and thickens these muscles, giving the forearms a strong and powerful appearance.

 

If you do not have the appropriate arms extenders, you can do these exercises on stairs supporting your body on the handrails between a leap and another

Doctors theorize that the hands operate as great supporters the the work of the heart - when we exercise our hands, we pumped the blood from the extremities and improve our blood circulation.

The principal form of strengthen the hands is through exercises like chin-ups and the 'pulley'. Designed to stiffen up the huge and strong back muscles, these exercises fully trust the movements of the large muscles in the mere ability of your hands to hold such weight.

 

these arms extenders were based on the hand-piece used by British actor Andy Serkis during the footage of King Kong

Another way to increase strength of the hands would be to use Crushing Grip, COC (Captain of Crush). These exercises are not recommended for Primatological series of Fitness because it does not bring fun.

The Primatological Gymnastics is a serie of exercises for mind and body. Important part of the exercise is to have fun with the movements, if the series does not bring you any pleasure, then you are doing something wrong.

Monkey see, monkey do

To make the move 'swing between branches' correctly, it is very important that the loose arm make a move of a full circle, and act as a pendulum - thus propels the body forward - it takes a lot of strength and confidence in the hand to make this move.

The most fun part of this movement is to swing the body with the goal of putting the heels on the front bar

Brazilian Positivism - Where are the ‘order’ and ‘progress’?

Brazilian Positivism

In 2014 Brazilian republic will be 125 years old, and the ideas of prosperity that guided our hopes were simply forgotten, Auguste Comte is occasionally mentioned in schools, the works of French philosopher are rarely published in Brazil, the few issues when found in used bookstores, or are part of a collection of thinkers of the early 1970s. 

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Perhaps the surge of hope caused by the belief in the powers of science to make Brazil a highly advanced nation had been an exaggeration, or perhaps the ideas with scientific and moral implications were contrary to the selfish corruption desire of our political class. 

As Comte said “In order to secure the true employment of material power we must at once begin by respecting it generally, save in exceptional instances of fraud”. 

The philosophy of positivism became a secular religion in Brazil and even churches were created, two of them exists to this date 2014, one in Porto Alegre and other in Rio de Janeiro (it is noteworthy that the temple of Porto Alegre, has been suffering with the evasion of adherents and now has just over thirty followers throughout the state). The philosophy of positivism was instrumental in the propaganda to replace Dom Pedro II.
 Positivism postulates the possibility of systematization and explanation of all phenomena, mathematical or social stipulating constant laws based on observation.

Auguste Comte Positivism

Jean-Jacques Rousseau is often touted as the philosopher of the French Revolution.  Robespierre took the idea of sovereignty and radical virtue as the rally cry for the revolution. But it was in Brazil, in a radically different way, that the revolution from empire to republic, with the positivism of Auguste Comte seemed to have the potential to lead us to a privileged position among all other countries in the world.

The "Order and Progress" inscription, always green, is an abbreviated of Comte positivism political motto: Love in principle and Order as base; the progress ultimately ("L'amour pour principe et l'ordre pour base; le progrès pour but").

Euclides da Cunha, a student of Benjamin Constant, said: "The motto of our flag is a wonderful synthesis of what is highest in politics"

“Live for others in order to live again in others and by others” with these words Comte pretty much sums his philosophy by stating that as more and better you do for your system, the more you will be remembered, and thus, your memory will live longer in society.

Positivist church worships the adoration to the ‘positivist trinity’, which consists of:

-       Nouveau Grand-Être Suprême (New Supreme Great Being, collective, real and abstract entity, formed by the set of convergent human beings of the past, the future and the present, that have contributed to the progress of civilization);

-       The Grand Fétish (the Earth with all its constituent elements: plants, animals, water, land etc.);

-       The Grand Milieu (Cosmic Space, stars and universe).

Correspondence between the stars and the units of the federation

Everything in our symbols was based on logical aspects and with well defined purposes, including the stars on our flag. Each celestial body represents the different personalities of the states of the federation:

- The stars of constellation of Crux constellation represent the top five states then: São Paulo, Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro, Bahia and Espirito Santo;

- The Espiga star, only one located above the white band represents the state of Para, perhaps because Belém, the state capital, were the most northern of the country, or because the state of Pará had been the last state to join the federation Independence;

- The Federal District has always been represented by sigma star in the constellation of Octant, also called Polaris Australis or Southern Polaris; Sigma Octantis have a unique position in the southern sky, because every other star appear to rotate around it.

Positivist Church in Porto Alegre and Rio de Janeiro

The Post-Positivism - ignored by Brazilians

 After World War II the entire world was terrified by the might and power that were given to people in government who, from the misuse of their representative offices, took advantage of the legality offered by positivism to install governments of oppression and discrimination.

 It was impossible to continue with a legal discourse that preached a rigid, inflexible, and highly coercive burden devoid of moral law, a merely mechanical Judiciary and Legislature with complete freedom to "manufacture" of that type of standard.

 When the Brazilian people realized that the forces that formed their republic falling out of favor, simply preferred to deny positivism in all its essence, instead of accepting only the good values ​​of doctrine, or to adopt what was called post-positivism.
 For Karl Popper, one of the founders of the philosophical movement of post-positivism, the purpose of science is not to obtain absolutely certain enunciations. The achievement of absolute truth, in his view, is unattainable.

 This is how we, Brazilians, should review the forces that led us to the republic. The scientific method applied to public administration should be a quest for a constant approximation to the truth.