tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23751111278784351132008-09-03T12:25:40.331+02:00This blog is mainly some kind of personal log which will help me record my thoughts along the day. It is not aimed to create opinion or pass knowledge, but if anyone would like to read it, be welcome.Llucía Ritortnoreply@blogger.comBlogger17125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2375111127878435113.post-40944970490024224822008-02-18T13:58:00.002+01:002008-02-18T14:12:24.003+01:00

One day you wake up naked in the middle of the jungle and you are taken by a tiger before a court presided by an owl, with a snake acting as prosecutor and a loyal Labrador dog as your attorney. You may think it's not worth the fuss, that the charges against you (or the humankind you represent) are not that important, or that going back and repair the damage done is easy, but after you listen to

Llucía Ritortnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2375111127878435113.post-61221980382873720572008-02-04T14:10:00.000+01:002008-02-05T14:33:32.515+01:00

We are in 1996. The world has not yet changed due to the 9/11 attack on the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York. The Bush and Bin Laden families are hand in glove and their businesses are thriving. The population of the Western countries does not reckon international terrorism as their first issue and José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has not yet drafted his Alliance of Civilizations.

Llucía Ritortnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2375111127878435113.post-39799421561480300202008-01-31T19:15:00.000+01:002008-01-31T19:24:26.071+01:00

Via ALT1040 I see the story about the Venezuelan police making an important mistake. The story is in Menéame (the Spanish Digg) if you want to push it up. Citing the source: Pericles José Ortiz Calles, 35, system engineer looking for a job in Caracas was murdered yesterday by the police, [...] in Venezuela, professedly mistaken for a dangerous murderer.Justice for everyone.

Llucía Ritortnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2375111127878435113.post-90220615117915691132008-01-30T11:53:00.000+01:002008-01-30T12:00:18.435+01:00

TeBebo.com, the reference website about tea in Spanish, has updated its contents with a new article: "Chado or the Way of Tea". In this article an interesting introduction is offered to the terms WA, KEI, SEI, and JAKU which preside the Japanese tea ceremony and which summarize an attitude, a whole philosophy of life, behind the simple act of sharing a cup of tea.

Llucía Ritortnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2375111127878435113.post-55905797656085476232008-01-29T18:26:00.000+01:002008-01-29T18:35:50.488+01:00

Insects tend to go unnoticed, but they still are part of our native fauna. The guys at Fauna Iberica try to remember this and from time to time they offer a button of the everlasting reserve of insects and arachnoids from our land. The last acquisition has been the pandoriana, a beautiful butterfly not so easy to spot.

Llucía Ritortnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2375111127878435113.post-2377411598599659922008-01-17T16:35:00.000+01:002008-01-17T16:42:35.035+01:00

This morning the nightingale is singing. Its chirps compete with the robin's shy whistle, winter inhabitant of my garden. This winter, the nightingale sings. And its song feels sad to me.

Llucía Ritortnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2375111127878435113.post-22400019073381898102008-01-11T10:57:00.001+01:002008-02-18T14:17:04.253+01:00

DTT disappoints me. Once again the resources are there, the technology is there, but we do not use them or we even despise them. I have always said that TVE, as the Spanish public television that it is and therefore paid by all of us (and very well paid; maybe some other day I will write about that too), should offer more public service and less guts (no matter how they pose it in their annual

Llucía Ritortnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2375111127878435113.post-8438998435052106602008-01-04T09:26:00.000+01:002008-01-04T12:17:48.514+01:00

I have been resisting for four whole days, but I have to say it. The idiots that thin, everything is much funnier when noisy have to be extinguished. New Year's Eve, at least in Spain, has become a nightmare of explosions for many people and other beings. Those who have a dog have to suffer it every year: the poor animal frightened and nervous, not knowing where to hide. My dog was not afraid of

Llucía Ritortnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2375111127878435113.post-80816048910775015442007-12-27T19:14:00.000+01:002007-12-27T19:26:29.866+01:00

TeBebo.com, information website devoted to the world of tea, has been updated with a new article: The Japanese Tea House (in Spanish). Following the line of its latest updates related to the tea ceremony, this new article describes the place where chanoyu takes place. TeBebo.com is an information service for tea lovers in all its varieties. Its content is highly recommended for tea aficionados:

Llucía Ritortnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2375111127878435113.post-53209144710598277192007-12-21T10:37:00.000+01:002007-12-21T11:15:35.226+01:00

I am sorry I have to come back to the smoking issue, but I sometimes read things and my blood boils. Bernat Soria, the Spanish Minister of Health, has recently made some statements about the smoking law in Spain (link in Spanish): "In Madrid even the taxi drivers smoke, which is shocking. I do not want to poke them, but to smoke inside a car is like smoking in an elevator, something I have not

Llucía Ritortnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2375111127878435113.post-15659673145476225192007-12-19T12:22:00.000+01:002007-12-19T12:44:18.684+01:00

Last Monday the website Fauna Ibérica (in Spanish) was updated with a new species: the smut lizard, an endemism in Canary Islands. Fauna Ibérica is one of the most old-timer websites about fauna in Spain. Since 1999 it has been offering information about the animal species that populate the Iberian Peninsula and the Spanish islands. Its reputation is solid; in fact it appears among the

Llucía Ritortnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2375111127878435113.post-62128205433357053362007-12-17T14:13:00.000+01:002007-12-17T14:27:59.155+01:00

I wrote last Friday about healt effects of smoking; well, after writing it I was thinking on a research study I had read some months ago in the hard version of the Scientific American magazine about the effect of the new smoking regulations in Italy. I was shocked to learn that the hospital admissions of non-smokers (i.e., secondhand smokers) due to myocardial infarction had gone down by 11%

Llucía Ritortnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2375111127878435113.post-71819395922065348782007-12-14T17:07:00.000+01:002007-12-14T17:47:16.489+01:00

I would like to echo the interesting post in Science Facts about smoking and its effect on our health. Among other information, it gives some milestones from the moment a person quits smoking: Amount of time after you quit: 8 hours: Oxygen levels in body would return to normal. 48 hours: All nicotine has left your body. 2 weeks: Circulation will increase, energy will return to normal. 1 year:

Llucía Ritortnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2375111127878435113.post-67799011720586761122007-12-13T17:03:00.000+01:002007-12-13T17:08:56.097+01:00

She has eight grandchildren and an auto-imposed task: to denounce corruption on behalf of those who cannot do it. Le Hien Duc, 76, is a venerable vietnamese grandma who since 1984 is devoted to sending complaints for corrupted officials from citizens that cannot or do not know how to do it. That is why Transparency International has chosen her for this year Integrity Award. Lest some learn.

Llucía Ritortnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2375111127878435113.post-40241989751812060732007-12-12T17:39:00.000+01:002007-12-13T11:14:57.462+01:00

Bad news for the free market and the promotion of reading: Amazon, the long-run bookshop (among other things) via Internet, has been fined by a French court for breaking a 1981 law which forbids to offer a free service before selling a book. As usual, here we go, restricting entreprenurial spirit by defending spurious interests. The fact that Amazon makes the shipping for free and offers gift

Llucía Ritortnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2375111127878435113.post-30653933700550599902007-12-12T14:01:00.000+01:002007-12-14T10:07:26.536+01:00

Enrique Dans publishes in his blog "Adiós, canon, adiós" the awsome news about the political support to the elimination of the digital/technology tax in one year term. The voting has taken place in the Spanish Senate and has to be passed on to the Congress. We will see, but at least the popular feeling has been politically debated. For those who do not know the particulars of this Spanish

Llucía Ritortnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2375111127878435113.post-6250916653322898142007-12-12T13:51:00.000+01:002007-12-12T14:01:40.792+01:00

Well, at last I stopped procrastinating and have created a blog. Some information about it. There are times during the day when I need to comment news I read or things I do. My colleagues are normally concentrated in what they are doing and their breaks not always are at the same time as mine, so I will simply put here what comes to my mind and those who want to read it can do it. The updating

Llucía Ritortnoreply@blogger.com