Great US History Crash Course: Natives and Spaniards

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Do we exercise freedom?

According to Wikipedia, free will is the ability of agents to make choices unconstrained by certain factors. Factors of historical concern have included metaphysical constraints (for example, logical, nomological, or theological determinism), physical constraints (for example, chains or imprisonment), social constraints (for example, threat of punishment or censure, or structural constraints), and mental constraints (for example, compulsions or phobias, neurological disorders, or genetic predispositions).

We can say in general terms that our societies have freedom of action, freedom to do things and freedom of will, freedom to like things, freedom to have phobias, freedom to be whatever we want to be and feel what we want. But how many of us exercise this freedom completely? How many of us take time to think who we are/what we do/the repercusion of our actions and ask ourselves if we like what we see? If we don't do this last step where we can analize what we are and change what we don't like, are we really exercising freedom?

by Genis Carreras

Some will say "yes, you choose not to do something, that is exercising your freedom", I agree but how many of us make this decision in a conscious way? And how many just go with the flow and complain about our lifes and victimize ourselves?

I am not talking about succeding, just asking ourselves how we can be better, trying to change what we want to modify and therefore exercising the ultimate freedom of will, even if we fail on the attemp. Also about beeing responsable for what we do and who we are, but I guess that is another topic :-)

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Where is the chocolate?

Yesterday I wanted to make one of my favourite desserts ever: toasted bread, olive oil, salt and chocolate on top. I went to the store I was expecting to find a huge variety of chocolates, but to my surprise there were only 3 kinds of chocolate bars!

• Lindt 70% 
• Hersheys
• Symphony bar

Should I complain? 

No, they had 1 variety of dark chocolate and 1 variety of milk chocolate and a thing they can no longer call chocolate but that it resembles the taste aka Hershey. So there was enough to make everybody happy. No reason to complain.

Loosing the essence

What made me sad was to see that the rest of the products that occupied a space of around 3mx2m where products with chocolate in them like goji berries coated with dark chocolate, chocolate bars, chocolate cups, chocolate balls, rice in chocolate and other chocolate variations, but as far as pure chocolate they only had 3 that took probably 1% of the shelf space.


It made me sad because I thought that we are forgetting the essence of things and because probably nobody buys chocolate bars anymore, we prefer the products that make the mix for us and sell us the total experience instead of letting us combine the chocolate with other things and letting us imagine/play with one of the most delicious things that exist.

Here's the recipie for Bread with chocolate and Olive oil, :-D

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Yoko en la Akashi Gallery (Barcelona)

La Yoko ens convida a la seva propera exposició "Els Habitants del Bosc" que tindrà lloc @ Akashi Gallery (c/Rosselló 197, Barcelona T93.125.08.77) i que romandrà oberta del 21 del maig fins el 9 de juny.

Akashi Gallery és un espai molt bonic i cómode d'estil japonés on, entre altres coses podeu gaudir de té japones de qualitat. És un lloc ideal per estar tranquil al cor de la ciutat.

El dimarts 21 de maig serà l'inauguració:

a les 19h Inauguració de l'exposició i lectura de poesia de Kenji Miyazawa (gratuït) 

a les 21h Sopar Menú del Bosc, a carrec de Toshie Nagashima

Cuina Macrobiotica apta per a vegetarians, la meva amiga japonesa prepararà el sopar amb collita del seu hort ecològic, sentireu l'aire net del bosc per dins. Places limitades, cal fer reserva prèvia (20 euros per persona).

Hi ha +info actualitzada amb més detalls @ la web oficial: http://elshabitantsdelbosc.carbonmade.com

I també al facebook: http://www.facebook.com/events/152407854931944/

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Yoko nos invita a su próxima exposición "Los Habitantes del Bosque" que tendrá lugar @ Akashi Gallery (c/ Rosselló 197, Barcelona T93.125.08.77) y que estarà abierta a partir del 21 de mayo y hasta el 9 de junio.

Akashi Gallery es un espacio muy bonito y cómodo de estilo japonés donde, entre otras cosas podreis disfrutar de té japones de primera calidad. Es un lugar ideal para estar tranquilo en el corazón de la ciudad.

El martes 21 de mayo van a hacer la inauguración:

a las 19h Inauguración de la exposición y lectura de poesía de Kenji Miyazawa (gratuito)

a las 21h Cena Menú del Bosque, a cargo de Toshie Nagashima

Cocina macrobiótica apta para vegetarianos, mi amiga japonesa preparará la cena con cosecha de su huerto ecológico, podreis sentir el aire limpio del bosque por dentro. Plazas limitadas, se necesita reserva previa (20 euros por persona).

Hay + info actualizada con más detalles @ la web oficial: http://elshabitantsdelbosc.carbonmade.com

Y también en facebook: http://www.facebook.com/events/152407854931944

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For information in English, please visit Yoko's blog: http://koko-yoko.blogspot.com

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