Nintenband

In the US, is worth going to watch live sport -it doesn't matter if it is football, basketball or baseball- just to see the half-time shows, they are amazing. When I lived in Texas I went to see a NBA, a NFL and a MLB games, and the half time shows were very entertaining, but nothing like the video I want to share today. This is something else. Is the UC band playing a tribute to the most important games of Nintendo's history.

So everything makes more sense, keep in mind that the camera recording it is on the other side of field, the band looks at the opposite side, so you have to imagine it as being upside-down. This means the top of the figures is at the bottom of the screen.

And now the explanation of the figures for all the people not as nerd as me. It starts with the recreation of Pong, the first video game, then moves to Tetris, to Mortal Kombat, to Pokemon, to the Legend of Zelda (the arrow by the triforce is the sword), to Mario Bros. 3 1st stage, to Super Mario Bros. Boos stage, to Mario Bros. 3 end of stage. Amazing.

London City Airport

Next Monday I'm going to London to have some days of holidays. I have already been to London once, but I flew there via Stansted airport. This time I'm going to one of the most curious airports I know of, the London City Airport. The weird thing of it is that it is right in the middle of the city, but not because the city has grown around it but because it was build there on porpoise. It is located by the Thames river and it is surrounded by water as you can see on the aerial picture provided. In addition to that, the runway is so short that only small planes are allowed to operate. Plus flights only run during the day to allow the neighbors of the surroundings to sleep calmly. I am looking forward to see it.


Mostra un mapa més gran

Goodbye mr. Clarke

Today, with 90 years of age, one of the most famous science-fiction drivers of all time has died. Together with Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke made a literary genre I love more popular and helped to introduce it to the popular culture. Of course his job wouldn't have been as successful without Stanley's Kubrick help, but even though his work has been vital to the history of Science-Fiction. His "2001: an space odyssey", both the film and the books are famous world wide and still a recurrent conversation theme. His personal live presents some shadows, like when he was accused of being a paedophile, but it was never really proved.

An one think not many people know is that he invented the concept of the geostationary artificial satellites and its uses to telecomunications. His paper "Extra-Terrestrial Realys— Can Rocket Stations Give Worldwide Radio Coverage?" published in Wireless World in 1945.

In any case, goodbye Mr. Clarke.

Figure-8 Racing

This afternoon I was watching a newly discovered channel, Men and Motors, and I watched the most crazy car race I had ever seen. It is called Figure-8 racing, and it consists on turning hundreds of times (the race I saw finished with around 450 turns done) around an eight shaped short track with powerful cars. The image on the right is a diagram of the track, with the crossing section highlighted. The crazy thing about this is that the crossing between the two directions is not made by a bridge but at the same level. As you may be thinking right know crashes are quite common.

Even though I didn't know the names of any of the racers the race was quite amusing and I enjoyed it. There was some serious driving skills and it is the first race I had ever seen where the pilots have to look around in an intersection in order to complete the turn.

By the way, as you may have already imagined the races are held in the USA, where else could people do this kind of racing...


I have added a video so you can see some Figure-8 Racing action:

I wish Vermeer, Dalí or Durero where alive

Nowadays artists have a range of creative possibilities greater than ever before in history, and not only because of the bigger individual liberties, but because of the growing range of techniques available. I keep thinking that if the greatest painters of history where alive today they would be able to do even more amazing things than when they were alive. It's a pity they have already kicked the bucket, because I'm sure they would freak us out with their creations. Anyway, nowadays there magicians of the Photoshop, the Fash or even the Paint(!) who will amuse us with their creations, and thanks to computing they can record their creative process to our enjoyment.

I cannot avoid showing three of my favourite paintings of all time, the geographer of Vermeer, the Christ of Dalí (which I happily admired when I went to Glasgow)and the Rhino of Durero:

An here comes the techno-artits, in this order, a master of the Photoshop which shows us how to draw Spiderman 3, a master of Flash which animates a Scene from the movie 300 and a master of Paint that draws a Subaru Impreza:

Easter in Spain

The week before Easter in celebrated in many parts of the world as the Holy Week. In Catalonia, I have to admit, the celebrations are not as picturesque as in other parts of the Iberian Peninsula. They tend to be very solemn and quiet, and quite spartan as well. Catalonia is not famous for its Holy Week Processions, but it has other attractions like the Passion of Olesa, Esparraguera or Cervera, which are huge theatrical representations of the deadth of Jesus in the cross with hundreds of actors involved or the armats, manaies and estaferms which consist in parades of people dressed as Romans.

In southern Spain instead the Processions are very pompous and dramatic, and they are the most important event of the Holy Week. On the other hand, in northern Spain the Processions still are a fundamental part of the Holy Week but are more formal. But all rule has its exception. In the northern Spanish town of Avilés there is a Procession known for its eccentricity. They do what they do to because they carry St. John, the youngest disciple of Jesus, and they represent his energy by doing this (the music is just to have fun):

Catalan Grandma

One of the most viewed Catalan videos on the web is of a grandmother laughing out loud when she sees herself deformed on the webcam. It is quite hard to watch it without laughing, her laugh is so contagious! She has become a celebrity with appearances on the national Catalan TV, on the radio and in national newspapers. So simple and so fun.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Spain, here to ignore you

When a person lives in his home country, the ministry of foreign affairs is only useful to declare wars, sign treaties or visit other countries to tighten bounds, so it is not awfully useful.

Since a lot of money is spent in this ministry, one thinks that the service given to the citizens living abroad should at least be correct. But the Spanish one it isn't, it must be one of the crappiest services of the world. Let's start with the electoral services for example. One of the main duties of embassies and consulates is to allow the citizens living abroad to vote in the elections held back home. When I lived in Catalonia each time there was an election in Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela or other countries people where allowed to vote in the consulate of Barcelona. Spain does not allow to do so, you are forced to vote by mail. This means that to vote you have to do a long and complicated process which starts over a month before the elcetion is held and that involves to go at least twice to the consulate (or embassy) and send the vote by mail. A pain in the ass altogether.

But that is not the worse thing about the Spanish consulates and embassies, the most horrible thing is that the service they prove sucks, its horrible, in fact it could be said that they do not any serviced at all. If you have a problem of any sort they will say: "It is none of our business" or "the consulate is not here to help you in that issue", but the problem is that never is of their business so they never help you.

Let's start with Spanish Consulate of Edinburgh, because is the one I know best. When I came here I had some legal problems and the web page of the consate said that they could help me with that. When I asked for aid their answer was: "it has nothing to do with us", great. A friend's credit card became demagnetised and she went to the consulate to see if they could help her calling to the bank to see how it could be sorted out, they didn't give any help and didn't allow her to use the phone to call to a free(!) number, awesome. In fact nobody that has used the consulate here that I know of, has received any help at all from them.

But the problem is not Edinburgh's consulate, everywhere is the same. I've heard similar situations from Germany, from Manchester, from London, from Paris, and from Rio de Janeiro, where they won't be able to vote because the ballot papers have not been sent yet. All together a shame that moves all Catalans abroad towards willing to be independent from a state that is non-functional.

On the other hand, here in the UK there are commercials on TV from the British Ministry of Foreign Affairs Embassies with the slogan, "we are here to help". What a difference. If Spain was to do the same the slogan could be "we are here to ignore you"

P.S. The picture is from our "great" minister of foreign affairs, mr. Angel Moratinos. An example of "intelligence" and "savoir-faire".

Paris traffic

To come to Edinburgh I drove all the way from Catalonia. I am frequently asked if it isn't hard for me to drive on the other side of the road with a "continental" car. The truth is that is not hard, after a couple of days with scary moments one becomes used to it and drives happily around. The only problem is to pass other cars in standard roads and to pay in tolls, parkings or drive thrus. For all that a co-pilot is highly appreciated.

The thing is, that on the way up I drove thru Paris to have a quick glance of the city. With the help of my GPS device everything went fine, I drove in front the Eiffel Tower, around the Louvre or along the Champs Elisees. The problem came when I headed towards the Arc de Triomphe, there you can find one of the most dangerous roundabouts I've ever seen. As you can see in the map provided below, twelve (!) avenues meet at the same point. It is just insane.

There are no road signs and everybody thinks the roundabout of their property. For the non 'Parisien' is one of the most extreme driving experiences one can have, every five seconds you suffer a near crash. In fact, there is a non written agreement by which if there is a wreck each vehicle affected pays its own bill, no insurance companies are involved.



I even made a video of the Place de l'Etoile experience:

Catalan traditions: Castellers

Catalonia has tons of traditions, but unfortunately they are not well know outside of it. Most traditions from Spain which are famous world-wide come from southern Spain (Andalusia) or from Castile (the central part of the Iberian peninsula). Who hasn't heard of flamenco dance, bullfighting or paella? But unfortunately Spain doesn't consider Catalan traditions important enough to become more than a marginal part of their tourist guides, brochures or commercials, perhaps because Catalonia is only good to Spain to pay taxes, perhaps because not even the Spaniards believe Catalonia is a part of Spain.

Anyway, Catalonia has tons of curious traditions. Maybe the most spectacular one are castellers or human towers. The idea is very easy, to put people one on top of the other to see how high they can get and then come back down. A castell is considered a success when it is properly assembled and dismantled, that is, when everyone has climbed into place, the enxaneta (the last one) climbs up to the top, raises one hand (with four fingers erect, said to symbolize the stripes of the Catalan flag), climbs down the other side of the castell, and then everyone else comes down safely. Even though it is a simple concept the organisation, skills, strength and will required to complete the task are humongous.

This tradition originated in the southern part of Catalonia at the end of the 18th century. More specifically in Valls, near the city of Tarragona. The tradition later spread to other regions of Catalonia and even Mallorca, and has become very popular. However, the best and most skilled castellers are still found near Tarragona.

It may seem a very dangerous tradition/sport, but in 150 years only two people have been killed while practising it. The last unfortunate victim was a girl who died about three years ago and this has lead to the use of helmets to protect the children. The reason why it is safe is because people gather around the tower and act as a cushion in the event of a fall. A very good example can be seen here, the biggest castell ever built: