jorge.cortell.net

One of the friends having dinner with us yesterday was a lawyer that used to be a Public Defender in NY. Of all the many interesting stories she had to tell, one struck me as the perfect example of all that is wrong with The System.

Once she had to defend a homeless man who was accused of stealing a candy bar from a drugstore. Since he had breached a non-trespass order from a previous similar incident, the prosecutor was asking for a 3 year prison sentence. Regardless of the fact that the accused was mentally ill AND a diabetic who could not afford medication and was trying to control sugar levels with candy intake.

At the same time there was a another trial going on: a “white-collar” criminal who had raided a pension fund, leaving thousands of people with nothing to live on after they retired. All the prosecution was asking for was a large (but not to him) fine.

All this in an age when socioeconomic inequality is sharply rising.

In Spain, where political and white-collar corruption is sadly rampant even as unemployment rises above 27%, we have had our share of those extremely unfair cases (from Roldan to Rato).

While knee-jerk reactions to unusual exceptions are not a good way to conduct politics, we owe it to ourselves to make sure The System never becomes an excuse and mechanism for injustice. Specially social injustice.

A few weeks ago, as part of an unusual birthday gift, my fiancé and I signed up to get our genetic test.

So we ordered the test kit online, and when we entered the state (NY), a big warning told us that according to state laws, we could not produce or mail the samples back to their labs from New York. WTF?! OK, whatever. As if a nonsensical law did not have many ways around it. Bring it on!

So a few days later the kits came, with very detailed instructions and easy to follow procedure (if you consider producing gallons of spit “easy”).

But being cautious as I am, I decided to research online, from reputable sources, the whole legal status of genetic sample and shipment in New York. Both, a genealogist with a law degree, and a couple of scholars, wrote posts about it with enough detail and information to make me reconsider my “who-cares” attitude.

What was my only way out? To cross the border to produce and send the samples back. And that’s what I did. I took the train in Grand Central Station, rode to New Jersey, delivered to FedEx, and rode back. One hour later I had accomplished my mission of both getting what I wanted and abiding with the law. Annoying and stupid. But it’s the law. 

In 5 weeks we’ll have the results. I’m sure it will be worth it, no only for the information coming back, but also for the very altruistic reason of contributing to research and a deeper understanding of our genes.

In the TV show Britain’s Got Talent, Hungarian shadow-theatre company Attraction shows with beauty the horror of war.

Carna botnet offers us this amazing 24 hour visualization of relative IPv4 utilization observed using ICMP Ping requests.

Look at the data, just look at it! Don’t you see people’s sleeping patterns, internet usage patterns, eating schedule habit, cultural differences, urban influence, regional inequalities…?

Business took me again to Panama on Monday, for a quick trip (two days).

Tin roofed huts with satellite TV next to high rise office buildings, riding on an official (with sirens) tinted window SUV with driver and no license plates, and staying in a nice hotel that was not extraordinary but had all and everything that I look for in a hotel (except indoors swimming pool). But it belongs to the friend (former Treasury Secretary) of a friend.

Back on the Tucuman airport I had to endure the double security screening (at the entrance of airport boarding gates, and again at my boarding gate). Why? Because someone in the USA (perhaps a company participated by the Carlyle Group?) has “convinced” US officials that they have to pressure (or should I say “bully”) other airports into incorporating their own US-made scanners and metal detectors. Why? Money. Not security (because the airport’s security was much better than the US-gadget gate security). After all, it’s about the perception of security, security by obfuscation, business, money, profit… who cares about passengers rights?

Day 4 started with a corporate presentation (we got to choose, and I attended the one by Pfizer) at 7:30am, in which Pfizer’s Senior Vice President of Research and Development talked about the rapidly shifting way in which big pharma is working, and mentioned an unacceptable fact that should make us all reflect on how much the patent system is broken:

Pfizer has 98,000 employees… and 31,000 lawyers!

The rest of the day I attended classes by Catherine Tucker, Brian Halligan, and a speech by Dean David Schmittlein.

Talking with MIT Sloan School of Management dean D. Schmittlein about support for #openacess #opendata MITx OCW

— Jorge Cortell (@jorgecortell) January 30, 2013

 I asked the Dean what was MIT’s position regarding open access, in the wake of Aaron Swartz suicide. The response was half satisfactory: although he started with the typical excuse for restrictive protectionist and monopolistic position (“research is expensive”), he ended up talking about OCW, MITx, and the need of support for open access. 

Listening to Ed Roberts (Chair of the MIT Center for Entrepreneurship) talk about the first entrepreneurial research, 1963 #MITEDP

— Jorge Cortell (@jorgecortell) January 31, 2013

In the evening we had a reception and dinner with guest speaker Ed Roberts, and Joi Ito, flying straight from Davos to tell us about the evolution of technology, and personal anecdotes.

Joi Ito, Dir. of MIT MediaLab, talking about the 1st commercial ISP in Japan, run from his toilet in 1991 #MITEDP twitter.com/jorgecortell/s…

— Jorge Cortell (@jorgecortell) January 31, 2013

The day ended, after a lot of sushi and a great dinner, with the required group photo.

Today is my first day as a student of “the most important university in the world” (according to this article): MIT.

I am here to take the MIT Sloan Executive Education EDP (Entrepreneurship Development Program).

Faculty: William Aulet, Elaine Chen, Scott Keating, Paul Maeder, Matt Marx, John McEleney, Fiona Murray, Katie Rae, Edward Roberts, Antoinette Schoar, Scott Stern, Catherine Tucker

Getting up at 4 am and braving the flu outbreak in Boston and the cold weather including a frozen Charles River (not like it is less cold in NY anyway), I arrived from NY this morning in an early flight, and after checking in at the Marriot, I went to a luncheon at the Towne Stove and Spirits restaurant sponsored by Ken Morse.

The rest of the day has been registering, introductions, organization (with a DJ and nice catering service with sweets, open bar, vegetarian sushi and Middle Eastern food), competition, and team formation. People from 36 countries, fully packed week ahead. MIT, here we go!

Interviewed by Aurora Muñoz for Zoom News about the Mega case.

December 2nd I flew to Montevideo. I stayed at the Radisson Hotel, Plaza de la Independencia. Very conveniently located with some impressive views from the top floor. Good thing it had a pool, because it is not easy to keep my exercise regime when traveling so much.

Besides very productive meetings with IBM (very nice, professional, and friendly executives, by the way) and presentation to several hospital groups (one of the meetings at the Presidential Building, another one at the country’s largest hospital, and a presentation at the Solis Theater), I enjoyed the promenade by the river which seems like a sea, the old town, and a weird Ice Bar.

December 6th I flew to Lima for a day trip of intense meetings and negotiations. My friend Jose Carlos made an extra effort to make sure I ate some Peruvian food and fruit juices, which I really like, even though the trip was really short on time. Thanks!

The odd episode was in the airport: although I did have a boarding pass, since the machine did not scan it (later on I saw it was broken, but of course the idiot operating it kept saying it was not a machine problem), I had to get a new boarding pass and pay airport tax! No time to argue, had to catch a flight, and I did.

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. I heard of a woman who paid over $400 for a night in a room at the Gramercy Hotel, even though they did not have power or water either, just because she was too sacred of being at home alone for so long without electricity.

So, when Stephanie went to her office, I also went to work: to help others by helping handing out food and water in one of the “soup kitchens” (the one at 27th street). Signs of reconstruction were everywhere. And that’s when the real “American Spirit” shines its brightest light (not with flags or elections): when everybody comes together, in a fairly self-organized way, to wholeheartedly help.

[Note: images on this post, except those of the gallery above, have not been taken, or downloaded, or hosted by me; for full attribution follow the source]

Many people tried to help as they could. From great efforts, to little gestures. It all helped.

And just when things seemed to slowly be returning more or less back to normal, winter storm Athena reminded us that it can always get worse, and “Winter is coming”. Thousands of flights cancelled again, snow everywhere… pretty but cold!