Electrician

— I haven’t brought the component I need. I’ll come back tomorrow, but I’ll bill you now for today. — But you haven’t done anything. — Sorry, company policy. — OK, give me the bad news. — Right, that’s 20€ travel and one hour’s labour @ 35€, 55€ plus VAT. — But you’ve only been…

“Among the first thing one notices, when looking at the contract price arrays, is that the distant months seem to trade at the same price as the nearby, at least in the same crop year”

One of the things that shocked me about the primitive exchange I came across in Binéfar four years ago was that, 300 years after the Japanese started using forward contracts for rice and 150 years after the spread of rail communications through the American West laid the basis for futures trading on the Chicago exchange,…

Adding value to Spanish olive oil

Charles Butler is doing some really interesting work down in Jaén. Check out the interview he did with an enterprising manufacturer called José Vico in Orcera. Orcera is a macho, conservative town that I once found to be distinctly scary, but Mr Vico is marketing a range of personal care products including a “lip balm,…

The Orotava Valley agricultural workers strike

Of no interest, except to Christian socialists, who may wonder if Mr Jesus was behind the distribution of supplies to strikers: OROTAVA, September 17 1934. (By telegraph.)- The Orotava Valley agricultural organisation continues the general strike begun August 31 past without an accord having been feasible thus far. The civil governor has kept the organisation’s…

Future of Galician

Cool cartoon, translated by Carlos, who has unfortunately decided that there is no future for him as a professional translator.

Context is king

Re the trials of Josh Bell (via FiE): what happens if you put a bad violinist in a penguin suit? (I have a couple, just in case you wondered.)

Spanish government rural internet service partners with online gambling business

Last autumn the US government, concerned at rising addiction, passed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. Whatever one thinks of the wisdom of that, it’s a journey to India and back away from the Spanish government, which is using its Telecentro programme to encourage country folk to sign up with an online gambling provider.