**
First thing.
G. is awaiting my comment on the events of the so-called Movimiento 15 de Marzo, camping in Puerta del Sol. It is an illegal settlement and police -depending on Domestic Affairs, as Madrid does not have regional police- is not enforcing the law. A second, fundamental element, is that photographs are restricted. And, you know, don't understand this very well... . What does it mean? How is the act of taking photographs being restricted? The matter is very serious.
I was cooking dinner and listening to the news this evening and I feel -I guess- like listening to a war report, socked as I was. The contents are the typical 50-year old crap, nonsense, old-fashion anti-system propaganda in a post-Communism era. Intellectually speaking, the proposal are dishonest, at best, but truly a joke with no humor whatsoever.
The developments are scary, that's all I can say. I am not worry too much about what or who is behind, not about the topics; it is a predictable crap. My concern is about how highly unrecognizable democracy is in Spain, how dead and putrefied the Constitution of 1978, how corrupted its institutions and spirits, how caged its rights and liberties. The beasts behind the Movement are dangerous; their stupid grandparents -ideologically speaking, as the biological ones belonged to ruler and bourgeois classes, in most cases- led the country to a bloody Civil War in the 30s. What can you expect now?
It is a very scary scenario. I already mentioned it: was like listening to a war report. A nation hit right at its heart... Oh, the scarlet breach, the bleeding... .
**
Muriel Sparks' Miss Jean Brodie used to speak to the set of girls of the Marcia Blaine Academy, la creme de la creme, ten years or so before the World War II, about many prosaic topics, all of them defiant and in open contradiction with the standards of the elitist School. Among the stories and episodes Miss Brodie brew out of her prime I read that of Dante contemplating Beatrice in Ponte Vecchio and falling in love with her at once, struck to the bone. "A sublime moment in a sublime love", that's true!
Centuries later, it can be found in many places the tale of Germans and Americans in phone conversation to save intact the bridge in the midst of devastation. The story of Nazis and Allies, if true, sparing the bridge by mutual agreement in one of the bloodiest conflagrations of humankind history has nothing exemplary nor anything to be proud of. It plainly states the fact that poetry, mysticism, beauty and sacrality are a common ground for all flowers and weeds on this planet, including, of course, the gruesome flowers of evil.
(Is there any sense of sacrality left in the animals behind the Movement of Puerta del Sol? Things can always worsen up).
Nevertheless, the story of Dante is sweet and tender. I read he concealed his love for Beatrice by pretending to be interested in another woman. Oh!... Who has not done that? I have. In contrast to an Universe full of caprice, Dante's obduracy at Ponte Vecchio is a testimony of true love... Or true madness, or sickness or just an unabridged deployment of fluids and hormones, as you prefer... .
Where, oh, God, is this world now? Where are its inhabitants?
I've learned later that Pulteney Bridge is, along Vecchio Bridge, one of the few built historically with shops into it. The Pulteney Bridge crosses the Avon River in Bath, Somerset, England. I was there recently... .
**
I wrote a comment on the arrest of Strauss-Khan a few days ago in the hope of posting it and catch up a little. It is off-date now. All I can say is that this criminal is out of prison under house arrest after plunging $1M. I think it is a shame. This man should stay in prison, no bail whatsoever. Hey, US, kind of disappointment, hm? What happened in the last days to grant him a release for the next 2 weeks?
**
On Wednesday I spent the morning, under request, in a Seminar of scientists talking about challenges of device design for medical applications. I did only find a couple of 20-minute talks meaningful and proper. The rest was horrible, boring, unprofessional, should be unacceptable. Curiously, both talkers were not employees of Universities -mainly UCL-, but somehow experienced consultants, related to hospitals in London and somewhere in the US.
I like the message conveyed by one of them at the end of his presentation: the end user as a designer. Look at this picture:
These utensils have survived for thousands of years and are praised as prodigies; their forms and features shed light about the knowledge and technological status of prehistorical man as well as information about their hand anatomy. On the contrary, mouse devices for computers, phones, objects of many kinds change each month, all of them with advantages and disadvantages, different targets... . For sure, those stones were fully user-oriented, user-designed.
I like the idea of users and operators being key participants in designing, rather than passive elements to accept the design and be trained to use it.
**
Ok, go to bed now. Go to bed.
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