How to get rid of 500 million grapes in only 12 seconds?

Just come to Spain on December 31st. Everybody will have 12 grapes in their hands waiting for the 12 gongs that announce the comming of a new year.

So 500.000.000 grapes will be eated in a lapse of 12 seconds.

Happy 2005

I don't know your opinion about the year that is about to finish, but I find I has been a bad year. I hope 2005 doesn't bring us any of these:

- Earthquakes like those in Iran and South east Asia
- Floodings and revolts in places like Haiti
- Invasions of sovereign countries (aka Iraq)
- Genocides we have almost no news about (aka Congo)
- Reelection of politicians that have rendered to put the rest of the World under a great risk (there's no need to say who am I talking about)
- Terrorist attacks that kill hundreds of innocents (remember Beslan, Madrid, asablanca, ...)
- State terrorist attacks that kill hundreds of people (remember Fallujah, Colombia, Palestine, ...)

I could continue with the list, but I don't want to be sad in a day that should be happy for everybody.

Best wishes for all of you, specially for those that are far from home and helping others as only you can do.

The torture of snow in Spain

Yes, we had another white Christmas day here in Spain. It snowed almost one meter in the town where I live, but the problem is that, although it hasn't snowed again since December 26th, most of the streets are still unpracticable.

I guess the next WRC champion will be Spanish next year as we are getting quite used to drive over twenty centimeters thick ice.

When help is needed but... what can I do?

The destruction the earthquakes and tsunamis caused all around the Indian Ocean cannot be compared with anything caused by the hands of men, though I'm pretty sure some governments would love to develop a weapon with such a destructive power as this tsunamis. A friend's sister who lives in Tanzania just told me that the big waves already got to the Tanzanian coast killing a dozen of people. Nothing compared to the thousands of victims in Indonesia or Thailand but the distance between the South Eastern Asia and Tanzania can give us an idea of the power of the quake.

As always, these catastrofic events also take the best from ourselves. Several emergency crews and firemen rescue teams that left their homes worldwide a few hours after the quake to provide some help. Pedro and Mikel are two firemen friends that headed to Sri Lanka (I wish you the best of the lucks as that woill mean that you help has been useful). The international communit has bega to send humanitarian shipments and funds for the local authorities to buy first need goods in their home markets

If you want more information about the desaster or want to help and don't know how, take a look at the SEA-EAT blog and here you have a compilation of some NGOs that are currently helping and need support.

How would you feel if...
your elected representants in your country's parliament didn't get up to go to work because they had a Christmas dinner the night before? I bet most of them were under the shower trying to bypass the hangover.

I would feel ashamed if I were one of these (all of them from right wing parties by the way) lazy public workers but I know none of them will as they are used to act in this irrespectful way.

Full report: here - in Spanish only, sorry

Ps: I wonder if I can demand them so they are forced to return today's salary to the public funds as they didn't earn the money.

[Escuchando: Con La Camisa Rota - Marea - 28000 Punaladas (4:46)]

Thumbs up for Morocco

In the same line as Chile did a few days ago, Morocco is holding the hearings of 200 victims of institutional tortures during the rule of Hassan II. They are going to be aired live.

I wonder if any of these or these will ever have their opportunity to have the abuses they suffered recognized.

Full report: Morocco Times
Also published in: Spitting-Image

[Escuchando: si tu quisieras - pedro guerra - bolsillos (2:27)]

1.801.800.000 euros



That's the reason why almost every Spanish will keep an ear on the radio while they are at work today. Everybody spends some money in the Spanish Christmas Lottery (around 63 euros per Spanish), a special lottery that takes place each December 22nd and that's 193 years old.

It'd be great to get some of that 390.000.000 euros main prize, wouldn't it? Good luck to all the players.

Walking on the red light


Antwerp or Amsterdam, same lightning, same content.

[Escuchando: Trae Pa'k Esa Yerba Buena - - Trae Pa'k Esa Yerba Buena - (219secs)]

Time to pay? At least time for history books to remember him as a mass killer.

[Escuchando: Resident.Evil.Apocalypse.DVDScr.KiNEPOLiS - - Resident.Evil.Apocalypse.DVDScr.KiNEPOLiS - (1:33:36)]

Google loves Blogger

It's well known that spammers and some link-whores do whatever is in their hands to get listed in a good place in search engines. They began using keyword lists created with keyword generators, some of them specially designed to get more revenue with Google's Adsense service, spammed usenet newsgroups, forums, guestbooks and mail lists with links to their site, used wiki boards to link to their website, spammed weblog comments and now they are creating blogs like this one whose only purpose is to make the spammers web get high ranked when people do a search in Google. I have come across several weblogs like this one this past week.

I thought Google no longer updated pagerank, but I might be wrong.

[Escuchando: Lecho De Rosas - Revolver - Mestizo (4:23)]

Rain, or the proof that humans are stupid when wet
Studies have proofed that the suicide rates increase during rainy days, but I would go further. Rain affects people i some way that it makes them definitely stupid.

I have asumed that going out without getting fed up at people is impossible. If you use your car to move around the town you soon realize that drivers seem to have forgotten how to drive. They slow down, step the break unexpectedly when there's no need to do so and the time drivers take to speed up in traffic lights increases a hundred per cent. Things are not better if you take a walk under the rainfall as the coordination between the hand that holds the umbrella and the rest of the body of the person that carries it, this can be even dangerous as sometimes the umbrellas seem to come directly to hit your face.

I wonder what the reason for this behaviour can be, maybe, like some machines, men are not supposed to run in high humidity environements? I don't know.

[Escuchando: Amarga Habitacion - Reincidentes - Acustico (3:11)]

MSN steps on the weblogging wagon

At least thats what their new, at least for me, service MSN Spaces seems to be. I've been browsing some of these, most of them newborn, and I must say that, although I find that integrating all MSN services (email, groups, messenger, search engine, news and weblog) related under one account it's as extremely slow as some other MSN services like Hotmail.

At first sight each space includes a weblog with comment feature, photoblog, Rss 2.0 syndication, music list (links to msn music store) and a 'list' section that allows users to create custom lists.

I personally don't like it very much, so I won't sign up, but I will keep an eye on it to see how it evolves.

[Escuchando: Han Caido Los Dos - Mikel Erentxun - Arde La Calle Un Tributo A Rad (5:10)]

World AIDS Day


Today we can see red ribbons eveywhere, TV and radio stations are talking about it but, don't you think it would be better if media talked a bit about HIV daily instead of talking a whole day about it?

Although some people believe that HIV/AIDS is quite controlled in western countries and treatment has transformed it from a deadly disease to a chronic one, it is still spreading specially in some countries, so we must be responsible and try to minimize the risks of being infected/infect others with the virus.

You can visit the National AIDS Trust or AIDS.org to learn more about this XX-XXI century plague. To find ways to support the fight against AIDS, visit the World AIDS Day to see the initiatives and events that are taking place worldwide todayto show your support for World AIDS day or take this test to check your knowlegde about AIDS.

On the other hand, if you want to get disinformed read what the Vatican says about condoms and AIDS. I wonder if they know the harm they are doing to thousands of believers worldwide with this. Fortunately there are lots of priests and misionaries that disdain these stupid statements and try to extend the use of condoms in their communities.

Post also published in Spitting-Image

[Escuchando: Deltoya - Extremoduro - Grandes Exitos Y Fracasos (Epi (5:32)]