Are Males needed? The Komodo Dragon and Parthenogenesis

At Chester Zoo, a Komodo dragon named Flora awaits the birth of eight babies, and another four dragons have already hatched at London Zoo — each and every one the product of a virgin conception.The miraculous births, which are all males, could be a product of keeping this threatened species in captivity, say researchers, and could have implications for the continued health of zoo-bound populations.Parthenogenesis — reproduction without the need for fertilization by a male — is rare in vertebrates. Some animals, including several lizard species, are known to be capable of it. But Komodo dragons have never been seen to breed like this before.Yet in the space of 8 months, two of the three Komodo dragons in the UK have reproduced parthenogenetically.Zoo keepers knew something strange was happening because the female dragons had not been around any males within the period during which they must have become pregnant. To confirm the dragons' parentage, a team led by Phillip Watts at the University of Liverpool used genetic fingerprinting.The dragon sons are not direct clones of their mothers, but that the babies' DNA contains half as much variation as is present in the mother's genes, indicating that it represents a doubling up of one set of mother's chromosomes. The results show that no other Komodo dragon could have been involved in their conception.

A Komodo mother's eggs each contains half of her genetic information, and has attached to it a 'polar body' — a smaller version of the main egg, containing a copy of the same genetic information. Normally, the polar body would wither away and sperm would make up the full set of chromosomes required for the embryo; in parthenogenesis the polar body is reabsorbed into the egg.In dragons, the female carries two different sex chromosomes (ZW), while males are homozygous ZZ. As WW is not a viable combination, all surviving offspring created by doubling up half of the female's genes must be males.Reproducing this way means that there is no mixing of genetic information from different animals as occurs in sexual breeding. That carries with it the risk of decreased fitness, because the effects of detrimental genes cannot be masked by normal copies. "Inbreeding is not a positive thing in the long term," says Richard Gibson, the Zoological Society of London's curator of herpetology and a co-author on the paper.So why do they do it? "Imagine you're a Komodo dragon and you're living in an archipelago of tiny islands, and a female gets caught in a storm and swept out to sea, ending up on an island with no other dragons," says Gibson. "After two or three years of waiting with no-one to breed with, she spontaneously reproduces parthenogenetically."

The same reproductive trick has been seen in other species that find themselves in isolated situations — a parthenogenetic group of damselflies, for example, was found living in the Azores, reproducing quite happily without a single male in the population. But it had not occurred to anyone that the same thing might happen in Komodo dragons. Now they think it might be more common in nature than thought.Most zoos keep only female dragons, bringing in males occasionally for mating. Maybe this isn't enough to convince the females that a mate will be around one day, prompting her to opt for the male-free alternative.

Burgled in the middle of the night

Last Wednesday morning Marta woke up and found the kitchen window open. Suddenly, she head to wake up Joan who was still very much asleep, and then we realised, our laptops were gone. Indeed, in the middle of the night , whilst sleeping in London , some bastard managed to get into our kitchen and took the two laptops we had for work . Joan had one month files in there , Marta had less important stuff. There were no emotional reactions, at the end of the day there were no more than objects, valuable but objects.

The frightening thing is that some can get in and violate you intimacy just like that. London will never be a safe city anymore for us. It true that living in a garden flat makes things easier for burglars, but honestly they had to just quite impressively (Joan cooked supper the night before and Marta who is quite sensitive to smells opened left the small window open, the bastard managed to stretch his hand inside through the small window through the large one and got in just like that).

We try to understand what has happened and why . Our response is that we were not cautious enough. But even if we were, should be all beware in a civilised world of our things else other people steal them? (Yes, the civil project is still at its infancy) Are human being that bad? (Hobbes was partially right) Does really private property exist? )yes but not always respected) Does police services prevent crime really? (clearly not enough) Are there people that desperate or simply lazy bastards watching you all the time? (It seems that’s the case)The day after Joan had a seminar on mental health and we watched the movie “ Truman Capote” last night too. It reminds you of the need of correcting inequalities, of enhancing social inclusion, on dealing with mental conditions all not for altruistic reasons but to allow civilisation to work.

A star is born : "Rauxa", living in Joan's parents place

Reflexions from a late September English lesson

Haven’t I ever before heard about Mr David Attenbourough, in the last seven days the scientist-journalist has appeared in my daily conversations in several occasions. It makes me wonder. Is it just casualty or is it something else?

Let me explain in more detail about my encounters with the scientist. It was first during my Wednesday English lesson, while working on an article in the Evening Standard. Pete Clark, one of the newspaper columnists, reported on the death of Australian naturalist Steve Irwin and compared his style to the more ‘traditional’ approach in Attenbourough’s documentaries. I had never heard before about Mr Attenbourough so I didn’t understand the comparison until Margaret, my tutor, explained.

Hadn’t paid special attention to the name, I remembered though when it was mentioned again as part of a Sunday evening pub conversation with my friend Marc. Clearly Irwin’s death has provoked widespread debate, not only because of his popularity but also because his unfortunate accident with a stingray that was captured on film as part of a new series. And due to this current awarness I came across Mr Attenbourough for the second time. Marc started the conversation as ‘have you heard about…?’ (Irwin’s news). And then, as he had also read the Evening Standard article he also referred to Attenbourough. My first reaction when the name came up was, yep!, now I know this person. So I was confident with it – even felt well-informed about giving a sensible opinion. Not to mention how proud I was about the usefulness of my English lessons.

Not having heard enough, my relationship with this now familiar BBC scientist has continued. The third time I was looking at some data on levels of trust across Europe. I nearly screamed in front of my computer when I saw that the most trusted person in the UK, according to a Reader’s Digest survey is, guess whom, yes, in actual fact it is…Mr Attenbourough! Unbelievable. I’ve been in this country for four years now, and it’s not I watch lots of television but I know who Paxman is, or Jonathan Ross. But never saw any of Attenbourough’s programmes and he seems to be even more a celebrity than Kate Moss.

Why? I repeat to myself thinking it is absolutely urgent that I manage to watch one of these out of this world documentaries. It has even become personal. Is somebody telling me that life is miserable without Attenbourough’s being part of it?

After a couple of weeks, I’m trying to look at this story from another perspective. Trying to rationalise. It seems clear that the media agenda determines to a high extent our conversations and interests. So, hadn’t Steve Irwin not died, would I ever have heard about Attenbourough? Probably yes, yet in another context. Which makes me wonder even more because it means that my opinion about this person now has been formed as a comparison to another and not by his own achievements. In spite of this, what really makes me feel a bit annoyed, and definitely very repressed, is how randomly we get to know about things. In a world of liberties, we like to think we are always in control. Yet our choices appear to come up in rather unexpected ways.

Copenhaguen with "laponsieltremosa",....

August Paellas at home,....early in the evening,...

Feminism, Women and Happiness ( from the Observer)

Fay Weldon gives short shrift to the views for which feminists have fought so bitterly over the years. In her latest book, she not only warns high-flying women that they should expect to end up single, she also suggests that sexual pleasure may be incompatible with high-powered careers and that women should simply accept they are less capable of being happy than men.

'If you are happy and generous-minded, you will fake it and then leap out of bed and pour him champagne, telling him, "You are so clever" or however you express enthusiasm,' she says. 'Faking is kind to male partners ... Otherwise they too may become anxious and so less able to perform. Do yourself and him a favour, sister: fake it.'

According to Weldon, sensible members of the sisterhood should, therefore, follow the example so graphically set by the actor Meg Ryan in the 1989 movie When Harry Met Sally, and fake orgasms whenever necessary.

'If you are happy and generous-minded, you will fake it and then leap out of bed and pour him champagne, telling him, "You are so clever" or however you express enthusiasm,' she says. 'Faking is kind to male partners ... Otherwise they too may become anxious and so less able to perform. Do yourself and him a favour, sister: fake it.'

In fact, Weldon's views are surprisingly similar to those of Michael Noer, the news editor of Forbes.com, who caused his own furore last week by advising male readers to steer clear of ambitious women or face a lifetime of misery and discord. 'Marry pretty women or ugly ones, short ones or tall ones, blondes or brunettes, just, whatever you do, don't marry a woman with a career,' he wrote in an article that sparked outrage on both sides of the Atlantic.

Weldon, however, goes even further that Noer. She does not restrict herself to comments on how women should conduct their sex and careers. Instead, her book covers eating, social life, the family and shopping. The latter receives high praise: 'The urge to acquire is in your genes,' she writes. 'Don't beat yourself up about it. Just remember, 12 pairs of shoes is fine but 24 pairs is pushing it.' Overall, very few things make women happy - and even fewer of them, suggests Weldon, are matters of substance. 'Ask a woman what makes her happy and she comes up with a list: sex, food, friends, family, shopping, chocolate. "Love" tends not to get a look-in. "Being in love" sometimes makes an appearance. "Men" seem to surface as a source of aggravation,' she writes.

Why women in a long term relationship are less interested in sex?

Researchers from Germany found that four years into a relationship, less than half of 30-year-old women wanted regular sex. Conversely, the team found a man's libido remained the same regardless of how long he had been in a relationship. Writing in the journal Human Nature, the scientists said the differences resulted from how humans had evolved. For men, a good reason their sexual motivation to remain constant would be to guard against being cuckolded by another male

Dr Dietrich Klusmann, lead author of the study and a psychologist from Hamburg-Eppendorf University, believed the differences were down to human evolution. He said: "For men, a good reason their sexual motivation to remain constant would be to guard against being cuckolded by another male." But women, he said, have evolved to have a high sex drive when they are initially in a relationship in order to form a "pair bond" with their partner.
But, once this bond is sealed a woman's sexual appetite declines, he added. He said animal behaviour studies suggest this could be because females may be diverting their sexual interest towards other men, in order to secure the best combinations of genetic material for their offspring. Or, he said, this could be because limiting sex may boost their partner's interest in it.

Cuba Libre & Tourist Extravagance

Nobody can imagine how far individuals could go in doing tourism; we did quite that after visiting Cuba. Cuba is a museum for “alternative tourists” that do not mind” or “are expecting to ” seeing the disaster of a communist planed system whilst having a mojito or a piña colada somewhere between “la floridita” ( favourite Hemmingway daiquiri place) and “la bodeguita del medio” ( favourite Hemmingway mojito place). The country beaches are incredible, exciting places for diving such as Maria la Gorda or Cayo Levisa close to Cayo Paraiso where again Hemingway had his personal fishing resort.

The country is a prison for cubans, who are condemned to live in misery with no choice. So people - within the legalconstrains- do their best to steal from tourists any money they can. Examples of this were a guy in Havana asking us for euros to pray to his “Afro-American saints” or, the women at the City Hall Museum asking us either for euros or for us to exchange them into local currency. Another anecdote from Trinidad, was these two guys who appear to be extreme catholics and one night we were little pist one of them attempted to sell us an outragous image of “ Saint Terese of Jesus” (despite his devotion and after telling us that a Spanish offered him already 5000 €). Marta sent him to hell, and Joan recognised he is not a mainstream catholic to the guy.

That the country resembles a prison there is little doubt when the news papers ( e.g., Granma) is literally "three pages" and one is fully devoted to sports, whilst the front page talked about a meeting between Belarusian and Cuban authorities. Everyone that wants something has to rely on tourism, such as the guy running our B&B in Havana who literally asked us to send him ( to his "private address"), all the music we could find from an old fashion Spanish band "Olé Olé" . Another curios anecdote was a female singer in the famous “Rincon de la Trova” in Trinidad who got to know us and after paying a couple of drinks, started asking us for dresses and money, in exchange when she sang a song she mentioned her “ Catalan friends”, in front of a group of “Ralph Lauret” type Spanish. That’s was a moment to remember.

Some say that Cubans are nice people, as if they would be a "special ethnic group", but we think they are simply as everyone else, just that they live in total fear of exclusion or reclusion. Waiters are probably a bit less nice than elsewhere else given that as we were told, they don’t keep the tips, all go to a cancer fund roughly. Interesting experience was being stopped whilst driving in the sole motorway that crosses the country . Poeple try to sell you anything or get into you car to drive them somewhere and in the meantime they kep begging you or they might even steal anything they find handy. The best one was a guy who we picked up for car stop, and told us in a total brain washing response that "the commandant(Fidel)would improve the roads, and that he was very fortunate to be able to where he was: working for free in a local schol in Cienfuegos". Food is totally seasonal, we happened to be able to eat lobster and prawns but there was no salad at all, meat was scarce as well among other things. It was like going back one hundred years, where fridges would not exist and people would confine their menus to the uncertainty of local agriculture.

On a different order of things we spend some time trying to find the Catalan Centre with no success, the only Catalan remaining are the Bacardi building and some surnames such as Canals, Balaguer and Vinyals among other.We discovered the secret of Cuban cocktails: not to add too much rum in the drink, may be use agostura if you have any. And we enjoyed Havana very much walking all the way east and west the Malecon, and listening to music in the Jazz Café or having supper in the Paladar la Guarida where Fresa & Chocolate was filmed. Nice rest, rich experience but lets leave current Cuba for Cubans (if they want it to stay as it is), may be if it changes will be one of the places to be besides London and Barcelona.

New photographs of lavileielcosta

Marriage: "an institution of the past" by Rosa Montero in El Pais

La vida plena y democrática, y la ampliación de las libertades sociales, pasa porque cada cual pueda ser lo que quiera, en tanto en cuanto no violente la libertad de los demás. Y así, conseguir que dos hombres o dos mujeres puedan casarse es sin duda un progreso. Además, habrá que repetir que ser homosexual no te convierte en una persona diferente. Por eso entre los gays, como entre los heteros, hay gentes de todas las ideologías. Dicho esto, debo reconocer que, para mí, el matrimonio es, en efecto, algo más bien retrógrado. Por eso nunca entendí el guirigay de la derechona contra las bodas homo, porque suponen una reivindicación y un ennoblecimiento del valor del matrimonio en momentos de decadencia de la institución. Yo provengo de una generación reacia a las bodas y me enorgullece no haberme casado. Es verdad que antes el matrimonio era peor, más tradicional y asfixiante, pero incluso ahora sigue arrastrando una carga de convencionalidad que en ocasiones pesa demasiado. Leo que el primer matrimonio homosexual ya ha pedido el divorcio. Se casaron en octubre y en junio dieron su unión por acabada. Pero lo más triste es que estaban viviendo juntos desde 1993. He aquí una pareja que presumiblemente se llevaba bien y sobre la que el matrimonio cayó como un rayo. Este efecto devastador del vínculo es bastante común. La conyugalidad, reconozcámoslo, puede crear vicios; hay personas que, tras la boda, se creen demasiado seguras del otro y le descuidan. La rutina engorda, la individualidad se resiente, familiares y amigos empiezan a hablarte en un plural perpetuo. El amor es demasiado frágil y la convivencia demasiado difícil como para sumarle la complicada ortopedia de un matrimonio.

Are "masculine" men ideal partners?

A study published in the Proceedings of Biological Sciences suggests interesting resuts of women's preferences for male faces. Interestingly, preferences for feminine faces and no effect of masculinity–femininity on male facial attractiveness. Women's preferences for masculine male faces are positively related to ratings of the masculinity of their actual partner and their ideal partner.

Correlations with partner masculinity were independent of real and ideal partner age, which were not associated with facial masculinity preference. Collectively, these findings suggest that variability among studies in their findings for women's masculinity preferences reflects individual differences in attraction to masculinity rather than differences in the methods used to manufacture stimuli, and are important for the interpretation of previous and future studies of facial masculinity.

Why praying from someone make him/her worst off?

La investigación, publicada en la prestigiosa revista de cardiología The American Heart Journal, fue llevada a cabo en seis hospitales estadounidenses por un amplio grupo de prestigiosos cardiólogos, encabezado por Herbert Benson, profesor de la Universidad de Harvard. Los resultados muestran que de los 1.802 participantes, el 59% de los pacientes que fueron informados, antes de la intervención quirúrgica, de que las congregaciones rezarían por ellos padecieron complicaciones serias, como ataques de corazón, apoplejías o infecciones. Por el contrario, sólo el 52% de los enfermos que fueron, sin saberlo, objeto de plegarias, y el 51% por los que no se dijeron oraciones, experimentaron complicaciones posoperatorias. Los expertos han llegado a la conclusión de que mientras los rezos a espaldas del doliente son inocuos, rezar por un enfermo que ha sido previamente avisado de las oraciones es, estadísticamente al menos, perjudicial para su salud.

Pese a la posibilidad de que rezos bien intencionados puedan dañar sin querer a pacientes bajo ciertas circunstancias, estoy seguro de que este aviso de la ciencia no va a impedir que las personas religiosas sigan orando por sus semejantes desafortunados. Hoy sabemos que los frutos de las prácticas solidarias revierten a quienes las ejercen. Por ejemplo, en el caso del voluntariado, está demostrado que las personas que se involucran en actividades que tienen un impacto positivo en la vida de otros, disfrutan de una autoestima más alta, sufren menos de ansiedad, duermen mejor, abusan menos del alcohol o las drogas y persisten con más tesón ante los reveses cotidianos, que quienes rehúyen estas tareas altruistas. El Las personas que se sienten parte de un grupo solidario superan las adversidades mucho mejor que quienes carecen de una red social de soporte emocional. Todos o casi todos, en momentos penosos buscamos aliento de nuestros seres queridos o promesas de alivio de expertos del dolor que nos aqueja. Con todo, para la mayoría de las personas que se enfrentan a las calamidades de la vida, los mensajes más reconfortantes proceden de sus propias voces internas, de su dimensión espiritual.

Si bien todavía nos queda mucho por aprender sobre los mecanismos que intervienen en la conexión espiritualidad-salud, numerosas investigaciones en Europa y Estados Unidos revelan que los sentimientos espirituales ayudan a superan mejor las enfermedades graves. Estos sentimientos pueden alimentarse de creencias religiosas; de causas como el amor, la libertad o la justicia social; o de alguna faceta del Universo, como la puesta del sol o la brisa del mar. El elemento terapéutico principal de cualquier tipo de espiritualidad es la esperanza, porque la confianza en que ocurrirá lo que deseamos nos protege del fatalismo y la indefensión.

En mis años de práctica he comprobado que, para ser eficaz, la espiritualidad no debe socavar el sentimiento de que el rumbo de nuestro barco está en nuestras manos. La conciencia de que ocupamos el asiento del conductor, aunque tenga una dosis de fantasía, nos motiva a vencer situaciones de riesgo. Si creemos que mandamos sobre nuestras decisiones y que nuestras acciones cuentan, tendemos a transformar nuestros anhelos en desafíos y a luchar con más fuerza contra los males que nos afligen, que cuando sentimos que la solución no depende de nosotros o "nada que yo haga importa".

Por todo esto, es comprensible que resulte contraproducente comunicar a un enfermo grave que terceras personas piadosas rezarán por él. El motivo no es el temor que pueda provocar esta noticia -"¿tan mal estoy para que tengan que implorar a Dios por mi recuperación?"- sino el peligro de que el doliente decida eludir su responsabilidad personal de combatir la enfermedad y opte por delegar a otros su salvación. Todos nacemos con dos nacionalidades: la del país de la vitalidad y la del estado de la invalidez. Aunque preferimos habitar en el país de la salud, tarde o temprano casi todos nos vemos obligados a vivir en el reino de la enfermedad. Llegado ese momento, pienso que si almas caritativas nos ofrecen plegarias a Dios para que sanemos lo más prudente es decirles, ¡no, gracias!

by L. RojasMarcos

When do words make sense?

People for Mediterranean (“Med”) countries are well known for being very passionate, expressive. Surprisingly some northern Europeans admire this, until they come to a southern European country and discover that those stereotypes are untrue. People work much harder that what they are thought to, are much less passionate that would be expected to be,.....stereotypes are not applicable in a chinging world.This can well be simply the effect of globalisation,…may be,…but an interesting thing remains,..Spanish people ( and less so Catalans but still) would often conclude email and phone conversation wishing you “warm hugs”, “hugs” and especially with opposite sex with “kisses” even though they might not know each other,….Yes, it is likely that these are meaningless words, faked stuff from psychological biases. The consequence though is that those words become devaluated and meaningless, other words might have to be figured out. A tentative alternative : use other language greeting words .

Some American Humour for a Change

A feeling of Barcelona by Simon

Here attached is a feeling of Barcelona gently provided by Simon Tarry. Amazing photographs, that really make us think that thanks God, Marta's bag got stolen rather than Simon's camera,...here there are some photgraphs for it is for any potential guests,...take care! Clickhere to have a feeling of the view

Here and in Lima

These last days have been strange and active. some consultancy work got comission to Joan in Lima for the World Bank just before a weekend in Barcelona. Weekend was busy, we experienced with having six friends of us from London, and was fun. The only incovenient was that Marta's bag with all her things got stolen whilst having a drink in Irati (a restuarant in the city centre , pretty nice). We could repot the crime on the internet, and we managed to replaced every thing ina few hours, the initial shock went off it is just a new story to tell. At the end of the day ,they only steal a replaceable object (although when the bag is Marta's, then the bg is probably more expensive than the content. Finally, the day after, someone discovered Marta's wallet and agenda in a bin nearby carrer del carme at the other sid eof Las ramblas, so the stroy ended up well. Anyhow, that night we were saved by Marta's sister Anna and Javier that went to Marta's parent to get another copy of Marta's car as we were supposed to drive all back home. That night Joan had no sleep as got the flight to Perú at 5 am, a KLM flight Barcelona-Amsterdam-Bonaire ( Dutch Antilles)- Lima, that took about 22 hours . Once in Lima, got cheated by the taxi driver , it is not corruption nor it is smuggling, simply that they don’t give back the right change and you assume people are honest. Food was excellent. Peru as the culinary capital of Latin America, even at the World Bank (WB) offices they eat properly.

WB Work was in group. Four or us headed by Monique Mrazek followed by Jorge Carichio from Chile and Oscar Humar an Argentinean from Slovenian origine. The Peruvian experience demostrates that “free” market means that a both local and international corporations are more free ad less tight to respct human and economic rights. Free means in developing countries lack of order, deregulation, no rules . As a result 20% of drugs are sold in the black market and nothing can be done, that despite the state regulates the market, there is no way to enforce the law, that 70% of pople cannot pay for basic health care needs. Some treatements cost twice the household monthly salary and there is no help whatsoever from the "free state".
In other words, it is a savage civilization despite all its modernity, it shoudl be the shame of US political influence. Shame on all of us for accepting the system like this. The country is in hand of few elites normally white that determine government priorities whilst the vast majority of the population has no real influence (middle classes and the poor). Salaries are really bad ( 70 £ a month in a city like Lima) and prices for certain essential products such as drugs are even higher that those of developed world. Average salary in Lima is approximately the same price as a room in our hotel which belongs to the American chain Marriot. The country's public servants all look totally captured by some interest groups with close links with the industry, they need to make thier life they say, bastards! The same aplied to doctors, with the exception of only few young doctors that still beleive in the hypocratic principles ruling doctors profession. The Pharmacy General director was a women ( such as the Minstry of Health) that we informally called ”la ministra”, a 1.40 m tall lady with corrupt face that cultivates bonsais as a main job actitivty. She is literally queen of the deparment and treated all the rest literally as "sheet". Next was the time to visit some labs and distributors called “doguerias”. The industry is divided into confronted local and foregin companies, but when needed they collude .

Security is not guaranteed by the state and Joan had trouble in a vist to a drugstore. After knocking the main building door , a guy at the other side of a black window asked for the passport ( and kept it for a long while) and inspect the taxi that was driving me (and waiting for me later to dive me back to downtown). Then literally a group a paramilitary carrying weapons escorted him to the operating offices and once there a bunch of gagster-type guys asked in a very strong and rude way: - “what do you want!”. Happyly, nothing happened, just another experience that might come out in the nest nightmare.

Peruvians are interesting, they are overall slim as food despite being excellent. Hardly anyone smokes ( and its clearly a symbol of low social position to smoke), people do not drink that much either. Typical beers are 'cristal' and a sort of pilsner not especially bad, but after the secondthey all look at you as an alcoholic.

We dont have time, not even to write a short note for our blog

Shall we stop the time? shall we change our routines? Are we happy with the current speed of live? Do we control our life? We dont even have time to have a thought about it.

Is money our goal? Is it worth it?

Money is for some a needed good to achieve what some most desire whilst for other is simply a dirty stuff, that is to accumulate money only cannot be the desire of one’s life. This sort of extrinsic goal does not make people happy and it has been demonstrated that does not even make people efficient.

Possibly the problem with money is that all want to have it. Money is what some economists call a “numeraire” for us to keep track of the value of things. For instance, to say that something is expensive, we would all refer to how much money will imply buying it. The problem is that not everything can be that easily translated into money, there are lots of thing we value and that we can even be able to sacrifice and to pay for (both in money and in time) that we value as much as money.

Another problem is that there are far too many things to keep track of what each single coin or note imply and cost. Those that have a salary often we forget the value of money and what can be done with it, until they really need money to meet the essentials. We might psychologically compare amounts of this good with more tangible things such as nice dinners, bright clothes and cozy weekends. In any case it is not easy to have an account of what money buys and, whatever it does it is not possible to have a precise idea of what could have alternatively been bought had we invested our funds in other sources.

Money in any case is or should be important if we are to accept and live, regardless of being or not a capitalistic society ( else we should need another numeraire). It is indeed important for ethical reasons as well as for othermore practical ones, though it is insuficient just to search for money alone. We individuals might have a natural inclination to selfishness, but we do care about our environment, our motivations and in general our meanings. Money has no acceptable meaning, we all need to be something but consumption organisms. We are social animals, and we need to experience individual pleasure and shared goals as members of wider groups and comunities.

Problem is that money is not totally deserved, is not the result of greater effort, and neither it comes form being better person but often from luck, innate talents and intergenerational transfers in addition to some limited effort. Hence, the ethics of money should lead us to be efficient after all, to invest in whatever is worth the effort, to beware of its value and the need to pursuit each individual’s selfish and collective goals.

Tourist are cool, sometimes too much! (notice what is written on the wall)

The stress of marriage shortens combined life by aprox a year

New research reveals that while wedlock helps men to live longer, it shortens a woman's life by more than a year. Marriage helps husbands to an extra 1.7 years, but it knocks 1.4 years off the average wife's lifespan, according to the study of more than 100,000 people across Europe.

The stress of leading dual roles as working women and homekeepers is thought to be tne of the key elements that is killing off female spouses earlier than their single sisters. Another factor revealed by the research team of Professor Stefan Felder of Magdeburg University, Germany, is a tendency for women to ape the behaviour of their spouse. Their findings came as the Office of National Statistics released figures showing that life expectancy rose by 5.1 years for British men between 1981 and 2002 but by just 3.7 years for women. http://www.med.uni-magdeburg.de/fme/institute/ism/Gesoek/gesund.htm

What can be sacrified for yor having a Job in Italy?

Italian voters were facing that conundrum today after the prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, promised to be chaste until the country's general election, due to be held on April 9.
Mr Berlusconi, Italy's richest man and a father-of-five, told a TV preacher that he would " try not to let you down" as he made the pledge. In return he was thanked by Massimiliano Pusceddu, not least because the PM also took the opportunity to restate his opposition to same-sex marriage.The coming weeks will tell whether Mr Berlusconi, who once told international financiers that the beauty of Italian secretaries was good reason to invest in the country and has mused about legalising brothels, has now successfully moved to tap the celibate vote. Election strategists take note!

Our Admiration to those Making People Laugh, especially Pepe Rubianes

There are some people in life that turn out to be extremely important though often involuntarily forgotten. These are those making other people laugh and thus improving their happiness, our hapiness. Such as most Catalan baby boomers as ourselves, we grow up listening to Eugenio “saben aquel que diu”,…and Pepe Rubianes mimicking the sound of a “discreet fart”. The first one, Eugenio passed away few years ago but he is not forgotten. In fact, just yesterday we listened to a few jokes he explained in 1999 at the famous club “Luz de Gas”. We were in our place with Dario and Issa ( our Mexican friends) and we could not refrain to talk about the man, how he was and how important he was. Mariona and Marc were there as well, patient to Eugenio’s recorded voice, and laughing as we always do regardless of havibg listended him many times. We still laugh at the same jokes once and again, must be a sort of disease. Other explanantion point towards some sign of respect, as well as emorional loyalty to the memory of Eugenio’s sense of humour, just thinking of “saben aquell,…”- mixing both Catalan and Spanish languages at a time-, its extremely funny to us, difficult to fully explain.

Besides Eugenio, another reference to us is Pepe Rubianes. He has managed to maintain a play named “ Rubianes solamente” for about ten years now (aprox),....he loves using slang, taking the piss out of Spanish rightwingers, and let face itm thanks to him, we have realised that insults in general feel stronguer in Spanish compared to other languages including Catalan( one reason more to maintain the language besides Latinamerica and the Basque Country). Just thinking of Rubianes saying " hijos de la grandísima puta" is a worthwhile spectacle ( if you click to the upward link you will be able to hear his voice in site) .Yesterday, he received a famous award, an award in the memory of Preich ( a former Catalan artist) that he deserves this by far! But as often is the case, its difficult to be loved and not hated. The Spanish francoist bastards of the PP party and the nationalistic association called “Fundación para la Defensa de la Nación Española” have initiated a personal campaign against him, without thinking for aminute that this equals a campaign against ourselves, our memory and our view of life. Pepe is in our thoughts as if the nationslistic Spanish bastards would attempt to attack us. In the meantime, one way through is to repeat what he said in the program el club of the Catalan TV referring to the Spanish francoist :

"Que es fotin Espanya al puto cul a veure si els exploten els ous"; "se'n vagi a la merda la puta Espanya" o "se'n vagin a prendre pel cul aquests espanyols". "No pot venir un paio de Conca cagant-se en l'Estatut perquè aquí hi viu mig Conca".

As some Argentinians use to say we love you Pepe, Maaaestro!

Going public and getting used to it.

Some scientists argue that anxiety and stress people have are likely to result from the inexcusable need of planning ahead, inextricably associated with modern societal life. No question about it. Off course coffee might well exacerbate the effects, but planning is not always possible, despite people´s attemps. Anxious individuals are said to be those that already live their future in their present time, which inhibits them from "feeling the pleasures of present life" as much as one might be expected to . Interestingly, the last two weeks have been quite the opposite. Unexpected things have happened in many fronts, especially to Joan and as a result to Marta, new area and new experiences were not the only thing. For instance, last week Friday 5 .30 pm Joan was called to speak in the program Europe Today (BBC world radio) on the uprising attempt by the infamous general Mena, so-called “ Aguafiestas”. The experience was good, he could well have had an influence on the opinion brits have on the Spanish state structure. On the other hand, it was a good opportunity to express the view some Catalans have on a controversial issue, at least to contest strongly biased views of their usual comentator who happens to be an MP of the PP party and "diplomat & son of francoist diplomat" Gustavo de Aristegui. Overall, the speech Joan gave was fine and English was fluid enough, still needs sharpening though,..... However, Marta thinks Joan was not radical enough -to put it some way, as he should have voiced his independentist views of Catalonia more clear. Indeed, she was listening from her work with her mates. On the other hand, Joan thinks that the fact he was not too radical might allow him to be more clear-cut about the Catalan case the next time anyway, they got the details now... a matter of strategy at the end of the day.

But this is not the end, yesterday Joan gave a talk to some members of the Catalan Community in London on the Economics (and politics) of Catalonian’s Sovereignty Fundacio Empresa Oberta . The talk was fine despite no power point projector was available. Lots of interesting people were there including the head of the department of Hispanic languages at Eton College, people who work at the BBC, the London office of Banc de Sabadell, COPCA, the Spanish Embassy and of course businessman, academics, PhD students and other people that are job hunting in town. Our Friend Toni “ the priest” (that happens to be the vicary of the Gaudi's Sagrada Familia) joint us and even participated in our discssusion. Previously, he had been some days with us, literally our first guest in Kentish Town- apparently the sofa is not that bad he quotes. After the speech an interesting discussion took place, especially with Eduard Vallory on the process towards independence, though no clear-cut conclusion was drawn after all.He argued aginst the us of the term "soverighty" and "nationalism" though Joan strongly thinks that he came along fundamentally to show off a little . In fact, a simple search on the literature shows that soverightly is till an up to date concept and that nationalism despite being a stigmatised concept is the right term to ladell a self-determinantion process. Tentative conclusion is that most of the analysis is at the early stage and more research needs to be done.

So see, this week was quite a busy one in social terms, no time for planning, life goes faster than our capacioty to plan ahead, need time to stop the word and reflect, silence no more discussion. Definetely, during last two weeks we have "gone public" , though the frightening bit is that we seem to get used to it.

Back in track, Christmas is gone,…. for good?!

(Photograph taken by Marta with her oldish camera in Chelsea bridge in London, at 5 pm on a sunday we reckon! )



Christmas (Xmas), that is the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, has become one of the most incredibly celebrated festivities. It is a needed break in the middle of winter, else some might comit suicide. Had Christmas not exist, something on the same lines (even more comercial) would have been invented, so lets leave it as it is, no reason for change. Christmas time reminds us ( or shoud) that we all have a family (and that we have a past that will condition our future, for good). It tells us that we should not forget our beloved. Friends matter and family as well. Interestingly, Joan got inquired by some family members during Boxing day about why his family is not more cohesion (but the reason why is a long stoy that you don't want to know). Meanwhile, Marta had fun with daddy’s family: each Vilella is quite special, no doubt are all nice chaps (as say here in LDN!).

Yet, we should recognise that Xmas its is stressfull as well. As previous years and unlike most couples we spend Christmas as a separated couple during meals!, each one with its own family ( and God in each single one as they say at home). Either grandpa or grandma are still alive & we don’t want to upset them. Joan’s grandma still organises the boxing day dinner in a “poshy” restaurant in Barcelona (this year was “ el Mirador del Palau de la Musica”), very fashion like, not Joan's cup of tea though, may be more Mart's style. Besides family affairs, we had some time for some friends, not all though and most were Marta’s pal's. However, unavoidingly, when visiting friends at home we feel like physitians visiting families : we first sit in their sofas, talk for a while on how the world has changed since last visit and then we end up leaving halving their drinks and empting their fridges. No doubt, Marta had stomachake after eating for once during the fatteing christmas lunches. New years eve was quite familiar, catching up with some frinds, no mistery about whatsoever.

Without even noticing, January the first was the day to go back to London - we did not even notice we had to enjoy our time in BCN. But something had to happen before we left, it could not be that simple! In fact it became the most stressful time of the whole Christmas. All was the result of carrying two convertible bikes (absolutely perfect for London streets). However, after driving all the way from Premià to the airport (trains do not reach the airport due to operating works untile summer) we found out , already in the airport, that Easyjet does not accept bikes without being adequately packed ( this is the difference with travelling easyjet, a guy from Arifrance said they do accept them anyway!!). It was a surprise, but not a huge worry had every thing else been working. The problem was that in New Year's day, Barcelona is totally dead, nothing is open, not even the airport post office where we could have bought boxes in a normal day. Whilst Marta searched for solutions ( ended up calling her Dad to come and pick the bikes up). Joan drove the car to Joan’s parents flat in Barcelona and expected to stop a taxi to go back to the airport . Yet, once he was in Barcelona, sreets were totally empty . Then he called radiotaxi (supposedly the best taxi company in town) and despite they said after a phone call they would send a taxi in 10 min, they did not & after half hour waiting they literally reponded that no taxis were available in the area, bastards!. Joan panicked a little and ended up calling Marta’s dad to come and pick him up ( else he would have missed the flight), but after two minutes miraculously a taxi stopped and by change he got to the airport just on time.

Marta, once all is over says had her dad come, we would still had missed the flight, who knows. But it is true that whilst easyjet often is delayed, that day it even left Barcelona early. So honestly, if you can: avoid travelling onJanuary 1st. Joan has already put a query to the Spanish Consumer Association and to the radiotaxi company. We got to London and all was quiet (see photograph a attached from a week before Christmas), feels safe and civilised. Christmas is gone, thanks God.

Hypatia of Alexandria a reference for women and men

Hypatia was the daughter of Theon of Alexandria who was a teacher of mathematics with the Museum of Alexandria in Egypt. A center of Greek intellectual and cultural life, the Museum included many independent schools and the great library of Alexandria.
Hypatia studied with her father, and with many others including Plutarch the Younger. She herself taught at the Neoplatonist school of philosophy. She became the salaried director of this school in 400. She probably wrote on mathematics, astronomy and philosophy, including about the motions of the planets, about number theory and about conic sections.
Hypatia corresponded with and hosted scholars from others cities. Synesius, Bishop of Ptolemais, was one of her correspondents and he visited her frequently. Hypatia was a popular lecturer, drawing students from many parts of the empire.
From the little historical information about Hypatia that survives, it appears that she invented the plane astrolabe, the graduated brass hydrometer and the hydroscope, with Synesius of Greece, who was her student and later colleague.
Hypatia dressed in the clothing of a scholar or teacher, rather than in women's clothing. She moved about freely, driving her own chariot, contrary to the norm for women's public behavior. She exerted considerable political influence in the city.
Orestes, the governor of Alexandria, like Hypatia, was a pagan (non-Christian). Orestes was an adversary of the new Christian bishop, Cyril, a future saint. Orestes, according to the contemporary accounts, objected to Cyril expelling the Jews from the city, and was murdered by Christian monks for his opposition.

Cyril probably objected to Hypatia on a number of counts: She represented heretical teachings, including experimental science and pagan religion. She was an associate of Orestes. And she was a woman who didn't know her place. Cyril's preaching against Hypatia is said to have been what incited a mob led by fanatical Christian monks in 415 to attack Hypatia as she drove her chariot through Alexandria. They dragged her from her chariot and, according to accounts from that time, stripped her, killed her, stripped her flesh from her bones, scattered her body parts through the streets, and burned some remaining parts of her body in the library of Caesareum.
Hypatia's students fled to Athens, where the study of mathematics flourished after that. The Neoplatonic school she headed continued in Alexandria until the Arabs invaded in 642.
When the library of Alexandria was burned by the Arab conquerors, used as fuel for baths, the works of Hypatia were destroyed. We know her writings today through the works of others who quoted her -- even if unfavorably -- and a few letters written to her by contemporaries.

Should we feel ashame of our English accent?

After living for a while ( 3 years Marta-5 years Joan) in the UK we seem to have improved slightly our English, step by step. It is relatively easy to reach a point that you make your self understood, but to go step forward is a different story, far more ambitious and not always succesfull at the end. Achiving a level of foreign language profiency can become an obesssion until one recognises that will never get rid of the original accent, and that it is not that bad, every one has an indentity and ours is not English. The best we can do is to improve some proninciation by smoothing some fonetics but after 5 minutes or before, our origin is discovered. Happily some think we are Dutch, other Italian and a some few regard us as Spanish ( here is what pisses Joan off). One can reduce the number of mistakes and learn more vocabulary and that's about it really. Yet, recently, we have heard that apparently regional accents are much worse for business that "overseas" accent see the news that came out yesterday in the BBC:

"Among the English accents tainted with business failure are Scouse, Brummie, Cockney, Geordie and the West Country. The Aziz Corporation found that Home Counties, American, Scots, European, Indian or Asian were prized accents. "If you sound like Vera Duckworth you will face prejudice in business," said Khalid Aziz, its chairman. Mr Aziz added: "Although it may not be politically correct to believe that accents matter nowadays, it is very apparent from our research that popular prejudices still exist"

"If you want to get ahead in business and don't speak the Queen's English, it is better to sound as if you are from America, Europe, India or indeed Scotland than from any English region
Khalid Aziz, The Aziz Corporation. The survey found 77% of business people thought a Home Counties accent was a sign of success in business followed by 73% favouring an American accent, 63% a Scottish accent, 52% continental European and 25% believing Indian or Asian accents were successful. However 64% of business people regarded those with a Liverpudlian accent unsuccessful, closely followed by a Birmingham or West Midlands accent, 63%, Cockney, 52% and Geordie or West Country 48%. It also found that businessmen who speak with an Indian or Asian accent were considered to be hardworking and reliable by 69% of their peers, a higher rating than any other accent. Those with US accents were considered to be diligent by 66% of their peers, followed by 61% favouring a Scottish accent and 50% preferring a Home Counties accent. However, only 24% of executives consider those with a Scouse accent to be hardworking.
"Albert Einstein Said Mr Aziz: "If you want to get ahead in business and don't speak the Queen's English, it is better to sound as if you are from America, Europe, India or indeed Scotland than from any English region. "Accents can speak louder than words. Even if you think like Albert Einstein, the reality is that if you sound like Vera Duckworth you will face prejudices in the business world. "In the light of these results we would advise individuals to consider softening rather than changing broad accents. He added: "Experience shows that the key is to avoid using localised vocabulary, which others may not recognise." But Mick Ord who coordinated the BBC's Voices Project said: "I would have thought what is more important is how intelligent or how efficient you are." He said surveys about accents tended to be very subjective and superficial.
"It's a bit like saying who is your favourite band?"