PRI’s The World has some great reports from Spain that you can listen to over the net. I particularly liked these short reports on: El Gordo Lottery, Flamenco (in Boston!), Electric cars in Cordoba, and, my favourite, human castle madness (photos here).
Thanks got to Beth for letting me know about these. Remember, if you know about any interesting material on Spain, please contact me and hopefully I can spread the word on the blog.
The Guardian has an interesting article on the repercussions of the March 11th bombings two years ago. I wish we had been podcasting then. We were living 100 m from Atocha station when the bombs went off, without doubt the most shocking few days of my life… and I was just an unaffected bystander…
‘Pirates’ (Two Hungarian men and one American woman) were arrested this weekend for salvaging buried treasure off the South coast of Spain. Whereas in many countries it is legitimate to retrieve buried treasure from the sea floor, in Spain, where an estimated 1.5 billion dollars worth of loot lies amongst the sunken galleons, it is an arrestable offense.
But piracy? Well, according to the Guardian, apart from a few 17th century canon balls and Roman anchors, they did have five M-16s and a shotgun on board…
p.s. I picked this story up on a very interesting new news site called Newsvine. It’s still in private beta phase, but if anyone wants an invite, just e-mail me.
… of the old guy who ran over the girl playing in the road in Seville? His killer was the girl’s father. He has just been apprehended on the Portuguese border. He had been drunk at the time. The girl survived with light injuries.
Expatica picks up on this interesting list – the 20 most powerful people in Spain – only 3 women I’m afraid, and suprisingly, a football club president and a racing driver!
Want to read more in Spanish and like your tech? Check out El Blog de Enrique Dans. Thanks Matt for the link. If anyone else has any cool Spain/Spanish/anything related links do send them in to NFS.
This blog has been filled with nothing but podcast show notes for the whole of this month, but stay tuned, I’m going to be posting other bits and pieces more regularly again.
3 big stories from this weekend, all amazing in their own right:
1 – General Jose Mena was placed under house arrest after insinuating that, under the terms of the Constitution, the army would have to intervene if Catalan’s are granted greater autonomy. Shades of the attempted 23-F military coup in 1981?
2 – A man was shot dead in Seville, receiving nine bullets to the head, after hitting a girl with his car. The girl, a member of a gypsy family, survived with only minor injuries. The 64 year old got out of his car to help as soon as he hit the child, but several members of her family jumped out of vans parked nearby and began shooting. Four people have been arrested so far, but no-one has been formally accused of the crime.
3 – 176 people died on Spain’s roads this Christmas, from December 23rd to January 8th, 39 more than last year’s total for the same period. The CEA (European Automobile Commission) has blamed a soft approach to road safety advertising, black-spots on minor roads, and a lack of regard for the dangers of drink driving.
Technorati Tags: driving, accidents, roads, spain, shooting, Catalan, gypsy, news
On January 5th every year the Madrid Metro fills with parents holding their children in one hand, and a step ladder in the other. How else are the kids going to see over the heads of all those greedy adults, that also come down for the thousands of free sweets tossed from the floats in the passing ‘Cabalgata’ procession? Led by the ‘Reyes Magos’, or three kings, this traditional parade of open-bed lorries and tractor trailers heralds the end of the exhausting Christmas marathon, a succession of ever-more important family feasts, endured every year on the 24th, 25th, 31st, 1st, and ending at last, today, on January 6th.
Today is ‘Reyes‘, when Christmas presents are traditionally exchanged all over Spain, and the whole country has the day off. An uncharacteristic calm has settled on the rainy city. The shopping is over, there’s a park-anywhere rule as relatives pour in from the provinces and stick their cars down the centre lines of the streets, on pavements – no towing or tickets today. And there’s a palpable sense of relief. At last, with all the celebrations under our belt, perhaps we can get back to our run-of-the-mill, hectic city life.
David Meca has just completed a 110 kilometre, 25 hour swim from Javea in the province of Alicante to San Antonio in Ibiza. The 25 kilometre open water world champion arrived with mild hypothermia, exhaustion, and a dislocated shoulder. The worst moments came during the 14 hour night, when he suffered jellyfish stings, an extreme drop in temperatures, and the spotlight on his support boat failed.
Notes from Spain by Ben Curtis 