Answered Questions I – Watches and iPhones

Wristwatches are something that I am very curious about. As a concept, not themselves. I'm not a big user of watches, nor collect them either. In fact, for years I have been using promotion watches until they have fallen apart and have even been without any for long periods. Of course, when I see someone with a beautiful and elegant watch, it takes my attention and I like to congratulate him or her on good taste.

Image: Foto Gratis

Well as I said, what attracts me is the concept of the watch itself: at a time, this was one of the most complex pieces of technology in the hands of the general public and has gone through different stages of evolution: string, automatic, batteries, atomic, digital, submersibles, with a calculator and stopwatch, or a real jewelry inlaid in a mechanism that tells the time.

Like a pair of glasses, it was a sophisticated device that served a purpose and over time has acquired an aesthetic and social status, to become almost a fashion accessory. But unlike glasses, it has lost all its usefulness. Today, with a simple phone, or in front of a computer, the time is practically available to everyone. But people keep wearing them, some in pairs, and are still pieces of design and social relevance. A good watch stands out the same as an iPhone.

Is the watch close to see the end of his days? Perhaps, but what is clear is that we find it hard to abandon certain habits. I will not talk about its future, though, but something far more banal.

Transmeme III

Stupidity is weightless, therefore it will never reach critical mass.

Odious Comparisons III - The major reform

The time is coming... The time of cure, the time when the great reform, the labor reform will take place and solve all our problems. Will be employers and unions, will be the government, will be the International Monetary Fund and the European Community, or the general strike, the ones with the honor of articulating such a tremendous turnaround in the economy of Spain?

As I mentioned in a previous post, an economic crisis is complex, and pretending to have the key solutions seems naive, but something must be done, even if it is just running in the halls up and down screaming uncontrollably. It would be good, though, to remember the story from the beginning (and summarised, in a way I can understand). Please correct me if I'm totally wrong:

 Image: Foto Gratis

Once upon a time, there was a financial system, very little regulated one and eager to grow, as dictated by the laws of good practice. Thanks to the feverish and constructive minds of some of its members and with the connivance of those that relax during good times, such as some governments, insurers and risk rating companies, they found a good balloon to pump on growth.

Answered Questions

By me. And by you, if you want. For all questions about human affairs are answered. All of them. However none of the answers is the only truth, so everyone is free to speak.

If you say A, and I say B, we have lots of options: perhaps to convince me about A, or you're going with A on your way and I stay with B, or we decide AB together, excited, or decide to turn around and opt for C (and forget our previous assumptions). Who knows?

Transmeme II

Skillsets to become elected and skillsets to rule a country diverge.

Odious Comparisons II – Even Whiter

Can we do even whiter? Since I have the use of reason, and since I started watching television and advertising, many years ago, I follow with interest the progress of whiteness.

Often creativity of some advertisements is criticised, especially that of some detergent ads. In my childish imagination I thought at first that advertising should tell us about products and give us rational arguments for us to value whether or not to buy them. I soon discovered that ads do much more, they tell us (or we pretend to tell) who we are, who we like to be, and even more, why we are who we are. How pretentious!

But the advertisement of the detergent which washes whiter than the rest was neither one nor the other. On the one hand, we are mainly talking about the properties of a product, i.e. a detergent soap which washed cloth whiter, but at the same time we plunged into a maze of illogic and irrationality that transcends generations.

Transmeme I

I've discovered a magic liquid to lose some weight! It's 100% natural and it is called: sweat...

Odious Comparisons I - The exact end of economic crisis in Spain

The current economic crisis greatly concerns the most of us. That's why it seems that every day signs of recovery are searched for, no matter where, as if we expected the desired discharge from a nasty disease.

The root causes and its consequences are no doubt complex, making it very difficult for us to know what measures will relieve us from it, and if they do, when  will that happen. Nevertheless, the urgency is great, and this urgency forces us to seek signs of change under the stones.

Exciting data emerged a few days ago in Spain, which were given considerable publicity, namely that the Spanish GDP quarterly change had become positive (one quarter GDP had grown compared to the previous quarter by an estimated 0.1%, instead of decreasing). With this in mind, we could claim being technically out of recession (a period in which economic activity declines in a country).