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Broadcasting ignorance

By: psr, 2010-04-03

This week, TV broadcasts in Spain ceased to be analogue, and DVB-T is the only method used now. For a short period of time, the State authority managing TV broadcasts (Ministry of Industry) will be displaying a message, on the old analogue UHF channels, to remind audiences that they need to switch to DVB-T in order to continue watching TV programs.

The message says: “La programación de TV Analógica ha dejado de emitirse por este canal. Puede seguir visualizando este programa por TDT.“, which translates to: “Analogue TV programming broadcasts have ceased on this channel. You may continue to visualize this program on DVB-T.”

The text is incorrect and this is very serious, as lots of people learn to use …

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2010-04-03 | Braindead - Spain | Trackback | No Comments »

Weak democracies

By: psr, 2009-08-25

Scotland freed one of the Lockerbie bombing terrorists a couple of days ago, on ‘humanitarian’ grounds. The Scottish authorities are dumb. If the guy was jailed for killing over 200 people, he wasn’t very ‘humanitarian’ to others, was he?. Then, why free him on ‘humanitarian’ grounds? Why treat humanely someone who showed no humanity? Healthy or ill, the criminal is a criminal, and if he was senteced to life in jail, it is wrong to release him just because he is ill.

This is just another sign of the weakness of modern democracies.

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2009-08-25 | Braindead - Rights - World | Trackback | No Comments »

Language choice in Galicia

By: psr, 2009-06-28

The regional government of Galicia distributed a questionnaire among parents of schooled children. The goal is to find out parents’ preferences about which language (Spanish or Galician, or a mix) to use for teaching in school, to later design the “future language policies for elementary and secondary education in Galicia.”

The questionnaire had to reach parents directly, but a group called “galician coalition of linguistic normalization and dynamization” (CGENDL in Galician) has attached a letter (in Galician) to the questionnaire to mold responses in favor of one option (Galician). While this is bad enough (the questionnaire was supposed to be neutral), the letter rests on ludicrous claims:

1) “Galician is Galicia’s own language; it belongs to us all and we cannot play with its future”

This is irrelevant: …

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2009-06-28 | Braindead - Rights - Spain | Trackback | 5 Comments »

13-week monsters

By: psr, 2009-05-20

In the context of the abortion debate, agitated by the government of Rodríguez Zapatero with its new “Law of Reproductive and Sexual Health and of Voluntary Interruption of Pregnancies”, the Minister of Equality (yes… we have such a idiotic Ministry in Spain), Bibiana Aído, has marked the age limit for the human fetus to be considered human or not.

That is, the socialist government has turned itself into official philosopher and dictates who is human and who is not. This government must really have magical properties, because despite all absurdity they utter, they manage to keep considerable popular support.

What’s that about a 13-week fetus not being human? Is a one week fetus something other than human? What else is it? Possibly up until 13 weeks …

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2009-05-20 | Braindead - Rights - Spain | Trackback | No Comments »

Encouraging drug use – or so it seems

By: psr, 2009-02-02

The “Foundation for help against drug addiction” (“Fundación de Ayuda contra la Drogadicción”, or FAD in Spanish) puts out an advertisement campaign every so often in Spain to raise awareness about the problems that drug addiction can bring. At least that’s what they say.

Their latest campaign consists of images depicting cocaine and Ecstasy as attractive products, alongside very small (comparatively) messages that supposedly should make people realize that drugs are harmful. The messages state that cocaine will bring “60% more suffering for your couple per gram”, or claim that by consuming Ecstasy you “enter a daily draw for a car accident”. (see below)

First and foremost, advertisement (of drugs or anything else) is effective with attractive visual presentations, not thanks …

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2009-02-02 | Braindead - Spain | Trackback | No Comments »

Embarrassing European Union

By: psr, 2008-12-14

Ireland and a few other European countries decided to ask their citizens in referendum to ratify (or not) the EU Lisbon Treaty. Other countries simply voted in parliament.

In June 2008 the majority of Irish said “no” to this treaty, while the rest of Europe voted yes. The single “no” vote meant, in theory, that the treaty was not accepted (officially all 27 EU member states had to vote “yes” for the treaty to be approved).

So… what to do when the vote is not what you want it to be? Just make people vote again, and see if you get the result you want this time! That’s exactly what the European Union proposed Ireland to do, and it seems Ireland has agreed to …

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2008-12-14 | Braindead - Europe - General - Rights | Trackback | No Comments »

Spain: DVB-T for nothing

By: psr, 2008-11-01

Mass media is the nicest toy for a politician. No better tool exists for mass control of people, regardless of the type of content: news, documentaries, sports, arts, or anything else. Almost any of it can be sprinkled with political messages, and it’s in the interest of politicians to control the mass media market, as much as they can, to convey the political messages and ideologies they want to impose on people.

Some leaders manage to assert complete control minimizing market freedom (only state-owned TV or radio channels exist at a state-wide scale), while others maneuver around market freedom by constraining the reach of given channels to certain areas of territory.

In Spain, the advent of DVB-T (Digital Video Broadcasting – Terrestrial, or TDT by its Spanish name) failed to …

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2008-11-01 | Braindead - Rights - Spain | Trackback | 3 Comments »

Oil prices, carriers and the Spanish government

By: psr, 2008-06-14

ï»¿The recent increase in oil prices affects all transport. Air, ground and sea transportation, passenger and cargo alike, have seen their costs rising in the last few months.

Analysts have provided several theories on the causes behind the oil price hike. Some put the blame on the credit crisis in the USA, others blame oil producers, others point at the US Federal Reserve, and others remind us of the significant increase in energy demand. I am not going to analyze the reasons here.

This week Spain saw a strike by some truck drivers (apparently about 20% of them), demanding Government intervention to help their activity, after fuel price increases are rendering their business a loss-making operation. Their strike blocked major communication roads around the main …

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2008-06-14 | Braindead - Economy - Europe - Spain | Trackback | No Comments »

Spain’s dreadful judicial system

By: psr, 2008-04-09

On January 2008 a little girl went missing in Huelva, a southern town of Spain. Last month (March), after her body had been found, Spain was shocked with the news that the suspect killer (in custody) had been convicted of sexual harassment to his own daughter years ago, but he never went to prison. Had he been in prison, everyone says, the latest death in Huelva would not have occurred.

An investigation was launched, and then we learned that the judge who did not send the killer to jail had been fined in the past for failing to implement the jail sentence of another criminal.

Although the death of this poor girl is the fault of the killer, the blatant failures and fiasco of the Spanish judicial system …

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2008-04-09 | Braindead - Spain | Trackback | 1 Comment »

Who you are, what you are

By: psr, 2008-03-13

Geraldine Ferraro, campaign adviser to Hillary Clinton, has resigned in the face of accusations of racism from the other democratic candidate, Barak Obama.

Ferraro’s comment in dispute was that part of the support that Obama has is due to the fact he is black.

This is not racism. This is a fact. It is entirely true that many people do base their vote on issues absolutely unrelated to the political program of the candidate they are voting. If the candidate is too short, too fat or too bald, he/she will be at a disadvantage over a candidate who is taller, slimmer and has hair. The same goes for other factors, such as the sex or race of the candidate.

If someone is voted because …

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2008-03-13 | Braindead - General - World | Trackback | No Comments »

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Archive for the 'Braindead' Category

Broadcasting ignorance

Weak democracies

Language choice in Galicia

13-week monsters

Encouraging drug use – or so it seems

Embarrassing European Union

Spain: DVB-T for nothing

Oil prices, carriers and the Spanish government

Spain’s dreadful judicial system

Who you are, what you are

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