Istambul May 2009

Cesc ( my nephew), a new family member. Next generation has already arrived

Today, "we go feminist"

Margaret Thatcher used to say "In politics, if you want anything said, ask a man; if you want anything done, ask a woman."

Marta thinks this applies to everything in life, of course Joan disagrees, and argues :

"if you want say a paper done, don't ask Marta, by the time she okeys it (its perfect to her) the deadline will be gone"

Marta responds:

"if you want to have the clothes clean, the house tidy, a booking for theatre, a plan on anything, a freezer bought, a leak in the roof sorted, an appointment with the hairdresser, any help that is not related to mum, and on and on and on...never ask Joan"

Joan, reflects on this and recalls crowding out theories, by saying:

" of course Marta is clearly more house centered, she always thinks in this stuff before me, and crowdsout my action. Clearly preempting house work does not allow Joan to express how much he careas about housework too,....je,je...convincing right? "

Bansky, a normal guy, called Robert Gunningham

April Snow in London ( snap shot of our back yard)

Testosterone, money and risk taking

Money doesn't make the world go round: it's testosterone. The more that traders have, the richer they'll become - up to a point.

John Coates, who used to manage a trading floor at Deutsche Bank on Wall Street but is now at the Judge Business School at Cambridge University, and Professor Joe Herbert, a neuroscientist, set out to study the brains of City traders to discover what makes them tick.
They measured levels of testosterone and cortisol (a stress hormone) in 17 traders at a City of London bank for eight consecutive business days. They found that those traders with higher testosterone levels in the morning were most likely to make money on the day's trading. One trader hit a six-day "winning streak" during which he made more than double his daily profit. During that time his testosterone levels went up 74%. The team also found that cortisol levels among the traders increased when their takings became more volatile and the market generally was less stable. The results were published yesterday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Testosterone is produced mainly by the testes in men and the ovaries in women, as well as by the adrenal gland. Levels in women are much lower. It is an anabolic steroid that is responsible for the male growth spurt at puberty and for maintaining muscle mass and strength. Testosterone also influences adam's apple growth and body hair growth during puberty.
The testosterone levels that foetuses experience appear to have a strong influence on their personality. High levels lead to slower social development in children. As an adult, higher testosterone levels are associated with higher libido, aggression and baldness. But levels decline with age and lower levels in older men seem to make them more at risk of developing Alzheimer's disease.

Lost land, makes you drink. At least that's what absolut thought in Mexico.

Here goes a recomendation: The Guardian cartoons

Oxitacine, the science for Love

In a recent interveiw in La Vanguardia, a scientist (Albert Figueres) argues to have discovered the scientific explanation for love. Apparently, when we love each other, or we make people feel well and we remain positive and optimistic we seem to poduce a substance called "oxitacine". I guess sounds quite resonable, so go and have lots of sex, stimulating converations and always see people you care for and avoid when posisble those who you do not feel good with.

Read below: http://www.lavanguardia.es/lacontra/lacontra.html

Mexico-lindo (III)

Mexico, Mexico lindo (II)

We have been in lovely Mexico roughly two weeks. Mexico is one of the culturally hybrid countries that results from the random mixture of a variety of cultures, including a handful number of ethnic groups, imigrants from all over the world, especially descendants of the Spaniards - in broad sense, including the Catalans and Basque- that progressively went down there in search for a new life. Their culture seems to be 60% influenced by the US (with which they have a love-hate relationship) and 40% by Europe, mainly Spain. Although they like Spanish tacky siguers such as Miquel Bosé - even more than in Spain, and they love Spanish gossip, Mexico its pretty innovative in arts and cinema. They have lots to offer, the cuisine, needs sophistication and a couple of worldwide known chefs, but that's it. I can imagine ravioli made form the a parasite that grows in the Maize crops, or excellent mezcal (alcholic beverage) served in an empty cucumber.

Besides its need to progress economically, and their struggle to find the right economic and social model to fight poverty and political instability, the country has its strong indentity (despite the 30 m Mexican flags everywhere). Very few poeple know that Mexico has a set of multinational companies (BIMBO) and knows how to do make money out of tourists without emptying their pockets. They host the richest man in the world, a libanesse mexican who really got it right with business.

Socially and politically, the country lacks a middle class willing to substitute current political elites. This makes the political system a sort of unsuccessful mechansism to portray social demands. Unfortunately, policy is somewhat similar irrespectively of who runs the country, there is clear-cut evidence of "path dependency" and "inertia". PAN seems no different that PRI in most of the relevant fronts.

The country needs to strenghten the public eduction system (not only that for the elites), pay better to middle managers so as to develop a middle class that will set up a socialdemocrat party different form the PRD (whose ideiology seems outdated), and keep being innovative, do not copy the US, and stop drinking coke, it will make the country fat, and will bring serious health problems later on (chronic illnesses).

For Catalans, Mexico is the foreign country in Latinamerica with the stronguest emotional ties, and for us personally, it it clearly is like that. We have had a phantastic time with our friends Dario&Maria, Issa &Kengi as well as Edu . We got to know more things about the country, and really tried all the food we wished including insects, different types of tecquila, beers and nopales along with a set of of traditional dishes. Visited museums, etc. It has been great fun indeed. We will come back for sure!!

Some anecdotes worth mentioning were the following. Below you can see a photograph of a police car breaking the law by overtaking other cars despite the clear countinuous line in pavement. We found lots of wierd trafic signals announcing to "respect trafic signals" (but one wonders, people that do not respect them,would not repect this one either!?), and finally we saw funny adverts in old shops that went like that: "quality and hygine since 1995", so that one wonders : ¿how was the shop before 1995 ?.

Mexico, Mexico lindo (I)

Villalonga and his "advice for life"

A general advice for life publicised by Jose Luís de Villalonga, who passed away yesterday:

"Streghten your vices, be prideful and administer and exhault your defects. It is the key to success. ¿Isn't it true that nobody has never told you this? This is becuase the wish of everybody else is to weaken whoever does something. Yet, you will be told to "be a good person", so that they can live out of your goodness. To be modest, to avoid you overshadowing them. To cultivate your virtues, fearing you will cultivate your vices. For all this, be prideful and, obove all, listen carefullty what an old man says: spread hatred. Hatred, provides the person hated with life".

José Luis de Villalonga (1920-2007).
"Cartas de París a mis paisanos los iberos, 1998"

LSE Health away day 2007~Joan's work colleagues

Not married, no kids yet, but a shared mortgage

After roughly two years of living in Kentish Town we have finally decided that we want to live in the neighbourhood. We have both long term work contracts in London so we've gone ahead. Now we have started the process of buying a flat by putting an offer. The process is quite tuff, in fact we werew told it can take something like 6-8 months to buy. Transaction costs are quite sizeable, 2000£ solicitors plys 10,000 stamp duty. Besides this, there are thousands of little thing we need to have compleated, and each one of these things implies wasted time in inerviews and bureaucracy.

We seem to have the impression that all has gone a little quicker in out case, solicitor Jane L. and a mortgage advisor are prettu efficient. See how it ends, if its ends well we will have a two bedroom flat in Prince of Wales Road, nice top flat with wooden floors and high ceilings. Clearly ourideal place to start seting up a family.

2007 Wimbledon with vile's brother & Visit to Barcelona

Sarita & Nikos Wedding Provença last June

Vile's sister wedding in Ampúries,...sometime mid May

Last Easter in New York

when winter comes,.it was four months time