Year: 2011

Chinese overseas aid for Spain?

Victor Mallet has a good piece on Spain’s damagingly mistaken claim that Zapatero had successfully begged $9 billion from China. Chinese state media seems now to be hinting that, while some bucks may be on offer, Spain needs to present some bang asap – usufruct of the Balearics as latter-day Deshimas, proposes a mischievous voice.…

The end of boredom and the last adult

Capitalism gave people time to be bored and then net-borne infantilism came along and cured them. Lots of problems with that–ennui, the lack of a particular signifier doesn’t mean the signified didn’t exist, the decline starting before the web takes off, etc etc–but it’s a nice idea. Does anyone still go to bars because they…
Boredom against time, 1800 to 2008, <a href=on Google Ngram Viewer" title="Boredom against time, 1800 to 2008, on Google Ngram Viewer" />

Free English-language Iberian climate atlas

Authored by the Spanish and Portuguese state meteorology services, an 80-page PDF with a good range of temperature and precipitation data for the Iberian peninsular from 1971 to 2000 is downloadable here. This is a most welcome initiative at a time when national budgets are under severe pressure and Spain is additionally beset by regionalism…

More Guardian crap about Spain

The Guardian content mill has been pointed at Spain this week, Julian Glover was pointed at immigration in Olot, and he (or perhaps an El País bod on the ground) found that “Olot’s striking diversity is a mark of Spain’s tolerence [sic] of migrants“, and that Olot is, like, better than Vic and Perpignan. Massive…

heron

Since someone asked, here’s what I can remember. Walking time probably 2.5 hours. Your money back if you die of hunger or are eaten by wolves. Head to Roquetes more or less via Via Julia metro (couple of excellent bars in the pedestrian street le…