Problems!

26/12/2004 12:29 | Categories: General | 0 Comments 

Looks like my old provider decided to close down without notice so I lost my blog and all my (200+!!!) posts... Damn it. Thanks to a friend of mine and to this blogging software we can easily share a single installation so looks like I'll be here for some time My old design is also gone but that will be back as soon as a I have the time... And in the meantime, have a look at the 10 Ads The US Won't See. Gucci's one is "nice" but Smith's Beer, "no nonsense", is my favourite

Motion Induced Blindness

25/12/2004 21:29 | Categories: General | 0 Comments 

Amazing. No comments

Pictures from Mars

25/12/2004 21:29 | Categories: General | 0 Comments 

The latest NASA mission to Mars is already sending amazing images. Check them out in the images archive.

Yeah, yeah...

25/12/2004 20:29 | Categories: General | 0 Comments 

...another change in the layout and the design of this page! For some reason I was already bored with the old one (and it looked like crap in IE!) and I found one site that inspired me... and... well, I got working on it on Friday and it was ready today. Hope you like it and hope it looks fine across all browsers (I'll soon be able to test in Safari as well! I also promise that I'll try to keep this one for a while... or at least, I swear I'll keep it until I find one that I like more, ok?

In the meantime, did you know that something as mundane as taping your favourite program from TV with your VCR had to be fought in courts? 20 years ago, Sony won a legal battle against Universal Studios and Disney, concerning the right for consumers to use the use of the VCR to tape broadcasts... I didn't know!

The choice of a country

25/12/2004 20:29 | Categories: General | 0 Comments 

One could feel that the country was tired. Tired of the abuse, tired of being ignored when 90% of the country was against of the war, tired of the contempt for the regional nationalisms in Spain (catalan, basque), tired of the political and electoral use given to something as bloody as the 11-M blasts and tired of information being hidden from us. And yesterday, Mr. Aznar's former governing party (PP, Partido Popular - Popular Party) collected the fruits that they had been growing during the last four years: they lost the government.
People decided that it was the right time for a change, a change which involves a turn to the left personalized in the socialist party and their leader, Mr. Zapatero. That is not to say that they're going to be any better than what we had so far -time will tell- but at least we hope they will bring new ideas and they will at least listen to what the country has to say.
In a way, it's not that PSOE (Partido Socialista Obrero EspaÒol - Spanish Socialist Working Party) won the elections. They merely watched as PP lost them, specially due to the way in which for example, they dealt with the recent bombings, hiding information and by thinking that voters are stupid. Also, Mr. Aznar's successor, Mr. Rajoy didn't have as much charisma as Mr. Aznar had (well, at least he was charismatic amongst his voters) but the left-side offer wasn't much better as Mr. Zapatero has been at times qualified as dull and boring. This is to prove that people didn't choose a name this time, but a complete change.
As an example that Mr. Aznar's political strategy of abuse didn't work at all, a sample. In the catalan elections held last February (if I recall correctly), it was agreed that the three left wing parties there would join and rule for the next 4 years. One of those parties is a left wing party (ERC, Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya - Republican Left-side of Catalonia) and the major "selling points" of their program have always been the independence of Catalonia and turning spain into a republic, without a king. You can guess that they are not liked very much in many of the most traditionally Spanish places and they have always been demonized by the fascist hosts of Mr. Aznar and his buddies, because it goes against the "Una, Grande y Libre" ("One, Great and Free" ) motto of theirs. But one would say that this was their political choice and long as they use legal methods, they have the right to defend them. But apparently Mr. Aznar believes that he has to abide by no law... The leader of this catalan left wing party secretly held a meeting with some ETA leader shortly after they started governing in Catalonia. The intention was good, though, but the outcome wasn't. Mr. Aznar decided to use the Spanish secret services to spy on them and received information about the meeting. Unsurprisingly, he decided to leak that information to some of the media which are closer to the government. Of course the media wrote what the government wanted and put ERC at the same level as ETA, not to mention that an anti-nationalist campaign started, driven from Madrid and primarily targetted at destroying the newly-formed catalan government (in which for a change, catalan section of PP had been badly left out) They were even called "terrorists" and "assassins" by some of the ministers... Things got really out of hand there because of this.
After the background, this proves the point: ERC had only achieved enough votes in the 2000 elections to get 1 member of the parliarment. Yesterday, they got 7 and became the fourth political Spanish party! People weren't only unhappy with the last 4 years of PP ruling, but also made them pay for it.
But this is just the beginning so let's see how it fares for the new Spanish government for the next four years...
UPDATE: A couple of articles in foreign media about this:
†"New PM promises realignment in Europe" (Guardian UK)
"Anger Over Attack Put Spain's Socialists in Power" (Reuters)
"Spanish government admits defeat" (BBC News)
"Socialists Declare Victory in Spanish Elections" (FOXNews)
"Spain: Poll triumph for Socialists" (CNN.com)

Pick your nose and eat it... it's healthy!

25/12/2004 20:29 | Categories: General | 0 Comments 

Who would've thought, eh? After all, our parents were wrong! An Austrian doctor has said that picking your nose and eating it, is "one of the best ways to stay healthy".

Cool