Lavengro in Spain

Big Brother strikes again

Once it was an outfit called SpamCop. Now it’s another bunch of fascists called Spamhaus who are playing silly buggers with my email.

I am not a robot but …

Security checks to post blog entries on Facebook are one thing but this is something different.

A family photo

This is the photo of the meeting on Libya held yesterday in London. The British Foreign Minister William Hague is in the centre of the front row with his Spanish counterpart Trinidad Jiménez looking over his left shoulder. But who is the man in the Roman collar at the top right of the picture?

Happy Christmas

Happy Christmas – Feliz Navidad – Bon Nadal – Buon Natale – Joyeux Noël – Frohe Weihnachten – Nadolig Llawen

Places to avoid

Number two in an occasional series of bars I have not been into. This is in Elche, southern Spain.

Spot the difference

Ken Livingstone in the Guardian:

There are some countries whose reality is distorted by sections of the media. And some about which straightforward lies are written. My first trip to Caracas revealed Venezuela to be firmly in the second category. … millions of people have been given access to a new free healthcare system, including dentistry. Illiteracy has been eliminated to Unesco standards. Further education is being rapidly expanded. … A top priority now is to transform the basic infrastructure throughout the city. … A remarkable programme of expansion of tube and rail lines in poor areas has begun. Alongside this it is necessary to tackle congestion, improve bus services, develop community policing, tackle waste and environmental protection.

 

Socialist International Mission to Venezuela:

… the authorities tolerate certain areas of freedom, reduced in number and reach, and above all limited to sectors that do not affect the public at large, the popular masses, or the poorest sectors of society. …

Whilst the activities of civil society and the political opposition are not formally banned, they are controlled and limited, in particular as the result of a form of self-censorship that exists under the permanent threat of verbal attacks from the President and representatives of the authorities, and physical attacks from paramilitary groups. Some of these groups are  plainly under orders from the authorities, whilst others outflank the President ‘on his left’ and are beyond his immediate control. The violence to which the Central University of Venezuela and other universities are regularly subjected whilst attempting to uphold both their mission to provide high-level professional education and a spirit of critical thought amongst younger generations, are in this respect representative of the climate of insecurity and fear which reigns in the country.

As expressed in a manual for workers’ education published by an official trade union, “violence is the means for the implementation of modern societies (according to Marx)”. Violence, threats, intimidation, insecurity, uncertainty and instability of laws and procedures constitute the current framework of society. … The result is that, in effect, an arbitrary and often incompetent centralised management has had disastrous results on an economic level, with serious social repercussions, in particular for the poorest individuals.

La trampa del Grupo PRISA

El País me ha tendido una trampa y, tonto que soy, he caído en ella.

Primero, recibo este email:

Con el fin de que EDICIONES EL PAÍS pueda ofrecerle los mejores contenidos, productos y servicios, y si usted no se opone en el plazo de 30 días, sus datos podrán ser compartidos con el resto de empresas del Grupo PRISA.

Si usted lo desea, podrá recibir ofertas y promociones especialmente seleccionadas, del sector de la música, televisión, cine, radio, comunicación, formación y educación, hotelero, financiero, distribución, deportivo, viajes, seguros, ONG, editorial, automoción, empleo, inmobiliario, meteorología venta a distancia, energía, textil, salud, ocio, administración, electrónico y de telecomunicaciones.

Si desea solicitar estas ventajas, por favor, haga clic aquí.

Y, como se ve, hay la contradicción -propia de los tipos de márquetin, dicho sea- de ‘si usted no se opone’ y Si usted lo desea. No deseo nada de todo esto, hago ‘clic aquí’, y desmarco todas las casillas. Hago clic otra vez. Resulto que he aceptado todo el spam que el grupo PRISA quiera lanzar sobre mí. OK, soy tonto. Hago clic otra vez para cambiar mi selección. La gracia del grupo PRISA es que: ‘No se puede cambiar el usuario otra vez’. O sea, te hemos captado y no vas a escaparte de nosotros.

He informado el servicio de atención al cliente de El País de este mensaje. Por supuesto colgaré aquí la respuesta que reciba.

Bad Ads by Google

It is obvious that publishers of web pages have no control over the advertisements that accompany them, but it is rather unfortunate that my FeedDemon presentation of Ben Goldacre’s Bad Science article is followed by an ad from Google asking: ‘Who were you in your previous life?’

The clue in the mirror

In February a man was killed in a hit-and-run accident in L’Hospitalet, a town that borders Barcelona. The only clue the municipal police had was a rear-view mirror. They found that it was from a Nissan so they took it to a dealer. He found a serial number on it. That led the police to Nissan In England. After a lot of work, for which the police are very grateful, they found that 110 vehicles with that serial number had been exported to Spain. It turned out that 26 of them were plausibly were in roughly the right area. Eventually the police narrowed it down to one. They interviewed the owner and found that the side of the car that had collided with the victim had recently been replaced. At the time of the accident the car was not driven by the owner; he had lent it to young Colombian woman, who had in turn lent it to a 21-year-old Colombian man who had a Colombian licence but not a Spanish one. The police will not bring charges of reckless driving, which was presumably why the driver did not stop, but he will be charged with leaving the scene of an accident.

El País, 23-4-10

In a bar

I went out for a beer this evening. As I was sitting at the bar the bandit spewed out money. The lucky punter brought over 400 euros to the bar to be changed for notes. He said that he had spent more than that. He bought me a drink because I was next to him at the bar at the time, and one for a man at a nearby table, and left the rest as a tip behind the bar. A woman at another table declined his offer because she wouldn't buy him one when he lost.
The man wanted to try out his English. Where was I from? Liverpool. Ahh, what team you support -- Leeberpol or Aibertonn? Then it was the woman's turn: Ahh, thee Beatels. As it happens, I am not in the habit of giving free English classes in bars in the evenings. Especially to people who haven't noticed that Liverpool was a European Capital of Culture 2009.
As I left, the woman was hunched over her table, which was covered with small pieces of paper, each packed with tiny handwriting.