To my four readers (Catón dixit).
Can you please help me select the best picture in this set?
24 hours of Flickr was an event in which Flickrites from all over the world documented their day in pictures. The best picture from that day is to be added to a pool, whose pictures will be printed in a book.
Given that my day was mostly spent indoors, and frankly I'm not that great as a photographer, I'm not sure which one is really the best. Can you, dear reader, give me a hand?
More Finns married foreigners (mostly men marrying foreign women), but there were less marriages and divorces overall in Finland in 2006 compared to the previous year.
In other news, there is less foreigners taking Finnish citizenship (mostly people of Russian, Iraqi and Somalian origin).
Doesn't help that years with non-permanent status don't count (as was my case, even though I lived there 6 years).
Uno de esos pequeños detalles que detesto es cuando alguien (generalmente españoles o del Cono Sur) escribe México con jota: Méjico, dada que tal es su pronunciación.
Aunque hasta hace poco la Real Academia de la Lengua Española aceptaba ambas grafías, en el 2005 por fin decidieron recomendar que se empezara a disminuir el uso de las grafías con jota (digo, ya era hora si el 25% de los hispanoparlantes en el mundo son mexicanos, con equis).
Lo que sí es impresentable es que hablando en español lo pronuncien como /ks/ o hablen de "Mexico City" cuando es la Ciudad de México.
Todo esto, porque en un evento de la Unión Europea se los comenté en un programa que tenían y por poco y ponen el grito en el cielo.
I guess some of my four readers (Catón dixit) may have heard that people in Spain tend to have very poor skills in languages other than English (and in the west of the country maybe French). Although I have some Spanish friends who do have a good command of the language, I guess this story shows that the reality is even more extreme than I thought:
So remember, learn some basic Spanish before you venture there.
Via Gwyn's Blog.
Me mandaron este link, sobre un vendedor de droga en Barcelona, que empezó a poner volantes en su área de operación. Eso es lo que yo llamo ser caradura.
No cabe duda que no sólo tenía problemas para escribir…
I found this great article at Foreign policy magazine about the return of leftist governments in Latin America.
It briefly touches on an issue that has bothered me ever since I moved to Europe: Why is it that almost everybody who is interested in Latin America would like to implement policies there that they wouldn't like for their countries?
That's something I'll never understand…
34 students of a total of 411 at Duke's business school were found guilty of cheating. I wonder whether they learned their lesson.
I guess that's not the kind of business leaders we're looking for, is it?
Via Lee Iwan's blog.
There is a pop band that is famous all over the American continent. It has filled venues in Brazil, Argentina, the United States, Colombia and Mexico.
Their name is RBD, and they're a marketing offshoot of a very popular opera by Televisa, "Rebelde".
Their music is rather plastic (as is the "band"), but they are a money-making machine. They have been involved in a series of scandals, such as when 3 people died in an autograph-signing session in Sao Paulo in 2005, and when one of their singers confessed to being gay a few months ago.
Why do I talk about them, if their music (and the overall concept) seems to me rather bad? Because, firstly, I believe they're a perfect example of the power of telenovelas and the marketing around them as a mostly Latin American phenomenon with an expanding reach. Furthermore, I wouldn't be surprised they would cross-over to the English-language worldwide market, as was the case with Shakira and Ricky Martin.
I came accross this article at Gwyn's blog. As a foreigner, I am not surprised that many overseas visitors are very afraid of U.S. Border Officials.
Even though I have a U.S. tourist visa, I haven't been there since 2001. Why? Because I haven't needed to. Most of the time since I moved to Europe my trips to the other side of the Atlantic have been to Mexico, and I haven't needed to make a stopover in the US on my way there in a very long time.
I may have wanted to go there on holiday again (I'm still missing Washington, D.C. and the Southwest), but given that there is only a limited amount of holidays you have, I'd rather spend it with my family. Maybe if they go somewhere there in the summer, we might decide to meet there instead. I wonder how has the place changed?
Chivas lost against Jaguares in Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas in the last game of the regular season, but qualified to the playoffs as 1st in its group and second in the general standings.
Omar Bravo made history as the first Mexican top goalscorer in the league since 2001, and also broke a long-standing curse, since the last Chivas top scorer was Salvador Reyes in 1961.
In other league news, Santos avoided relegation, but Querétaro went down (the team with the lowest ratio of points won vs. matches played during the last 3 years goes to Primera A). The playoffs will start as soon as the wildcard matches are played this week.