tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9068633250101025716.comments2023-09-29T11:23:38.668+02:00For what we are... they will beMajuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12369840391933337204noreply@blogger.comBlogger1063125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9068633250101025716.post-8568559553287860532019-04-24T16:47:13.637+02:002019-04-24T16:47:13.637+02:00I don't understand: I write in English and you...I don't understand: I write in English and you edit it and post it? I still do nearly all the job! What's so good about your plan? Am I missing something?Majuhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12369840391933337204noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9068633250101025716.post-67301980310539552192019-04-24T16:44:59.272+02:002019-04-24T16:44:59.272+02:00If you send me stuff in English, I can do some sim...If you send me stuff in English, I can do some simple editing and post it for the elucidation of your readers in English. I just saw your new blog this morning about the upcoming elections in Spain and thought your insights and news selection would be helpful, inmho. Thanks and God Bless! Happy Easter!Tancredhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16015531337154301560noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9068633250101025716.post-34384095867778019662018-04-07T12:57:29.291+02:002018-04-07T12:57:29.291+02:00When you dig a bit in Spanish history you realize ...When you dig a bit in Spanish history you realize that this period is nothing but the Spanish normality, that it has always been like that because, heh, Inquisition, feudal oligarchy and militaristic attitude. It's only normal that Spanish "bizarro" (brave, manly) became English "bizarre" (weird, freaky) because what (many) Spaniards perceive as "good" the rest of the universe correctly perceives as mad. It's only normal that the most beloved book of Spanish literature is "El Lazarillo", the adventures of a cynic con man whose life goal is none but to gain some coin and social position no matter what, stepping over anyone else and resorting to all kind of mischief, hilarious maybe but evil nonetheless. It's a country of sociopaths and idiots. I strongly suspect it is so because it never ceased to be a Roman colony in any meaningful way and also because it never experienced a successful revolution. Until it goes through one it'll be the same over and over. <br /><br />The situation in America, not just in the USA (Brazil, Argentina, Chile, etc. are also in very bad situations) is totally comparable. Some of these countries did undergo revolutions of some sort but to a very limited extent, they still need a goo shake over. The USA is a particularly interesting situation because it manages to stay as the big international bully but it is a position that is clearly dwindling and meanwhile the workers in the metropolis are also suffering a lot and democracy is nowhere to be seen, almost as bad as in Spain.<br /><br />My opinion is that there will be major revolutions in the next decade or two and that the aforementioned countries are prime candidates to be the ones experiencing them, because the situation can hardly be worse and the oligarchs have no serious plan to keep society cohesive and working. If there are no revolutions, it'll be even worse. Majuhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12369840391933337204noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9068633250101025716.post-70043713673588541242018-04-07T11:04:41.816+02:002018-04-07T11:04:41.816+02:00I fear what Spain has become under the corrupt pol...I fear what Spain has become under the corrupt political party of M. Rajoy which has greatly infected the European Commission. All of this could have been averted through dialogue instead of using political influences of the Spanish courts to repress Catalan laws, democracy, and human rights. We are facing the scourge of fascism in America as well. I'm not Democrat or Republican, but I'm very much against the politics we are seeing today. Authoritarians are in power now.YeomanDroidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01611121652703582669noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9068633250101025716.post-64722134014472237872018-04-01T07:01:36.633+02:002018-04-01T07:01:36.633+02:00You and your Moroccan king's bootlicker paper ...You and your Moroccan king's bootlicker paper may have a point but who am I to get involved with the political position of an actor, who is not even a political leader and is probably already risking his career to some extent by supporting several democratic causas such as that of West Sahara. <br /><br />There is a more notorious case, that of actor Willy Toledo who has been much more radical in his stands, even criticizing Podemos (where he briefly docked) for their mindless reformism, who is adamant supporter of the Cuban Revolution and who has indeed stood in support of Catalans (not "Catalonians"), and who is, as result basically in persistent unemployment. <br /><br />I'm not judging "society" because there's no such thing under Capitalist individualist atomization (Thatcher dixit) and many many Spaniards, growingly so on light of repression and in spite of brutal media manipulation of the facts and bombardment of lies, are taking the side of Catalonia. By doing so they are risking their jobs and maybe even their lives, because Spain has turned to be a dictatorship, or more precisely: an extremely authoritarian and corrupt regime, much like Morocco and Turkey.<br /><br />The real issue is Spanish nationalism implicit in the Spanish left (most of it, there're always exceptions and growingly so), an issue that ETA's leader Argala already mentioned in one of his few public articles as a major barrier for internationalist cooperation. The problem does not lay or mostly not in the separatist left but in the lack national humilty by the "left" of the imperialist nation. These left-imperialists, who hide themselves behind vague claims of "internationalism" and of "worker class unity", would be scolded by most classical communists, in the anarchist or in the Marxist camps, including Lenin, who imposed the right to self-determination in the USSR's constitution and defended such right to be exerted even within bourgeois parameters (and thus the original Russian Soviet Federative Republic did not intervene in Finland, nor in the Baltic states and went to war with Poland only in defense of Ukraine and Belarus). Majuhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12369840391933337204noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9068633250101025716.post-31140450760040682422018-03-31T22:17:42.468+02:002018-03-31T22:17:42.468+02:00Very lucid assessment.
I noticed that you did not...Very lucid assessment.<br /><br />I noticed that you did not touch upon the hypocrisy within the society regarding this moral question: Segments of Spanish society are known to loudly support the independence of the "Western Sahara" from Morocco but somehow also fall silent about occupied nations (Catalonia) within their own country. Javier Bardem is one of the faces of this hypocrisy: https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2014/05/130227/javier-bardem-on-western-sahara-and-catalan-independence-duplicity-or-ignorance/Shoshenqhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15074386298821034384noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9068633250101025716.post-88298927313481060682017-10-07T12:59:51.253+02:002017-10-07T12:59:51.253+02:00I don't know enough about Baudrillard. General...I don't know enough about Baudrillard. Generally speaking I find post-modernists quite empty. But of course they were intelligent people so they might have some interesting points. Also he is classified within post-strutcturalism, where some people I do admire (Deleuze & Guattari) also fall in. Maybe you can tell me more.<br /><br />I would say that Marx had very good points for his time and that in many aspects they stand as valid or quasi-valid even today. However he must be "updated" in several aspects: a critical one is expanding the idea of work-value not just to human work (which is still crucial) but o Nature's and maybe also to machines (especially as they become more intelligent, more human-like). Marx' "materialism" is actually "social-realism": he is not materialist like empiricists would be but he always refers to society as the measure of all things. This is true to some extent, particularly in economy and politics, but not scientific enough when we're discussing things like value, work, etc. And it also impedes the access to an ecologically enriched viewpoint.<br /><br />Dialectics may have been vanguard 150 years ago but today it's again not scientific enough: we would need to incorporate Chaos Theory, which can be somewhat likened to dialectics or rather "multilectics" in order to better understand socio-historical processes the way Marx tried to. For what I could find the one that better approached this, from an intuitive viewpoint, was Bakunin, who did not consider himself "anarchist" but "revolutionary socialist". However he did use the notion of "anarchy" as that moment of chaos in which everything is possible, what fits well with how the Theory of Chaos (vide "butterfly effect" and such) approaches social stability and change (or that of any complex system).<br /><br />In brief: we would need a serious "upgrade" of Marxism, without renouncing to the many truths or near-truths that exist in that school. Something more in agreement with our modern scientific knowledge but that is not just a mere destructive criticism of Marx and others but an improved tool for social advance.Majuhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12369840391933337204noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9068633250101025716.post-290357154638849922017-10-06T21:55:32.149+02:002017-10-06T21:55:32.149+02:00Did not Baudrillard try to extend Marx's criti...Did not Baudrillard try to extend Marx's critique of exchange value to use value and wind up criticizing Marx as a productionist?aspie62https://www.blogger.com/profile/09907481146190262215noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9068633250101025716.post-45923594643534445672017-09-27T16:05:40.696+02:002017-09-27T16:05:40.696+02:00No creo. Estoy super-líado y lo que más me interes...No creo. Estoy super-líado y lo que más me interesa ahora son las revoluciones catalana y kurda, así como lo que podamos hacer en Euskal Herria. Las naciones subdesarrolladas del "a por ellos oé" no me interesan nada: hay que pensar en positivo.Majuhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12369840391933337204noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9068633250101025716.post-33255108799154142092017-09-25T21:47:23.696+02:002017-09-25T21:47:23.696+02:00Hola de nuevo. ¿Comentarás las elecciones alemanas...Hola de nuevo. ¿Comentarás las elecciones alemanas?Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02044304464773027869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9068633250101025716.post-45540353801178751612017-09-21T22:02:45.785+02:002017-09-21T22:02:45.785+02:00No, la verdad. Una vez que tomo decisiones no suel...No, la verdad. Una vez que tomo decisiones no suelo mirar atrás. Además ya tengo mucha actividad en la vida real, que no me quiero morir sin que cambien mucho las cosas. Para la vida virtual ya tengo Facebook (sí, yo también he caído, pero al menos ahí puedo bloquear a todos los nazis y cuñadanos a gusto). Majuhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12369840391933337204noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9068633250101025716.post-62782545227054721452017-09-21T19:44:52.041+02:002017-09-21T19:44:52.041+02:00Hola maju, estas pensando en volver a Electomania?...Hola maju, estas pensando en volver a Electomania?<br />Saludos.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02044304464773027869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9068633250101025716.post-31605387643753231012017-04-25T17:01:15.944+02:002017-04-25T17:01:15.944+02:00Maybe I was too severe with Poland? Probably but i...Maybe I was too severe with Poland? Probably but it gets me really angry how they are central to so many disgraceful things, notably the fascist dawning in Ukraine and even in Poland itself. <br /><br />If you ask me which countries I intuitively dislike the most in Europe, those would be Poland, Hungary and Sweden, even before Germany, although possibly after Turkey (assuming this one is considered to be in Europe). I have nothing against both former Czechoslovakia countries: haven't visited but generally I think I respect you guys, if nothing else because I was born the very night Prague Spring was smashed, and I do respect Prague Spring A LOT. Majuhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12369840391933337204noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9068633250101025716.post-34674137552669709922017-04-25T12:00:50.661+02:002017-04-25T12:00:50.661+02:00Please do not break a stick over us all :-).
We kn...Please do not break a stick over us all :-).<br />We know, that we are primarily cheap labour for "EU" corporations. Secondary "we are" ultracapitalist movement. I am from Czech republic ;-).<br />But somebody from us are searching wey out of this. I am regular reader of your blogs Maju, lets sey for two or three years.<br /><br />Please, for example, look at essays of very inspirative hungarian filosopher Gaspár Miklós Tamás. I can not find, what is english wersion of wery inpirative esey translated to czech as: "Kapitalismus v čisté podobě" (literally Capitalism in pure form).<br /><br /><br />Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08075322727315317574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9068633250101025716.post-33456799115055148002017-03-17T10:25:48.717+01:002017-03-17T10:25:48.717+01:00Bleh, my comment failed to post1 :(
"The use...Bleh, my comment failed to post1 :(<br /><br />"The use of fertilizers increases the concentration of uranium in the ground (fertilizers include phosphate and phosphate has quite a big concentration of uranium, check my previous point when I told that fertilizers had 2,000-5,000 Bq/kg)."<br /><br />Wow! I didn't know that. More reason to avoid as much as possible agro-industrial products. <br /><br />And that should also apply to tobacco, however with the laws we suffer, we just don't have a choice.<br /><br />"No, I'm not saying that "radiation is good for you". Neither are Japanese authorities saying it."<br /><br />You may not have said that but some Japanese authorities have in the past indeed, what was an insult to intelligence and very especially to the victims. <br /><br />Anyway: Chernobyl children, who have a horrible health because of radiation in their growth, were not raised in the exclusion zone (obviously), but in other "low contamination" areas. The same applies to Japan. Majuhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12369840391933337204noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9068633250101025716.post-12351844595596953832017-03-15T19:39:19.890+01:002017-03-15T19:39:19.890+01:00Yes, there's few natural polonium because it d...Yes, there's few natural polonium because it decays quickly.<br />But, because it decays quickly, it's extremely radioactive.<br />So, tiny amounts of Polonium, although undetectable chemically, can be detected because of the radiation they produce.<br /><br />The Polonium in the tobacco comes from the uranium in the ground. The use of fertilizers increases the concentration of uranium in the ground (fertilizers include phosphate and phosphate has quite a big concentration of uranium, check my previous point when I told that fertilizers had 2,000-5,000 Bq/kg). That's the reason why fertilizer plants of Huelva and Flix have radiation contamination.<br /><br />Yes, as I've told, smokers receive quite a lot of radiation for tobacco. It certainly increases the cancer risk, specially for lung cancer. It's not fresh news and I've seen public campaings listing Po-210 as a cancer generator.<br /><br />No, I'm not saying that "radiation is good for you". Neither are Japanese authorities saying it. You're commiting the strawman fallacy. What I've tried to explain is that the 20 mSv/year that Japan has set as the limit for the evacuation zone is not far above the 10 mSv/year that some zones of the Earth have naturally.<br /><br />GreetingsPedrohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12322272666357513262noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9068633250101025716.post-44629450715195012332017-03-15T13:58:34.909+01:002017-03-15T13:58:34.909+01:00For what I read there is indeed some "concern...For what I read there is indeed some "concern" about the possible radioactive dangers of some granites, particularly those variants that include some uranium and thorium (New Hampshire granite), although these vary a lot and most should not be considered radioactive beyond the usual and unavoidable background levels. <br /><br />The polonium thing is still clearly anti-natural and MUST be the byproduct of persistent nuclear industry contamination: there's practically no natural polonium because it decays quickly. However you may be explaining why tobacco is bad for health and may cause lung and other cancers.<br /><br />You're basically espousing the "radiation is good for you" kamikaze argument of the Japanese authorities. If you can't fight against it, then join it, right? Well, not a good idea in the case of such a destructor force, really. Majuhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12369840391933337204noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9068633250101025716.post-77060526420722762252017-03-15T11:41:55.763+01:002017-03-15T11:41:55.763+01:00"if you more than double this figure in the e..."if you more than double this figure in the environment (which means the air you breath, the water you drink and quite probably the food you eat), the effects grow exponentially"<br /><br />Scientific community adopts the LNT hypothesis as the most reasonable (both by pleausibility and principle of precaution) approach to predict the health effects of radiation. LNT means Linear No Threshold. Linear, not "exponential". And all the antinuclear NGOs accept it.<br /><br />I have to repeat. Please, check:<br />---the micro Sv/h that provides Prof. Hayakawa.<br />---compare it with natural background radiation (exclusion zone is set for up 20 mSv/year, while Erath's average is 2 mSv/year altohugh there are places with 10 mSv/year as Helsinki and Castilla y León with no more cancer incidences observed).<br />---do the math with LNT.<br /><br />The calculation of internal exposures is not very difficult. And isn't has high as you think.<br /><br />I also have to insist:<br />Is granite "nuclear waste"? Because it has 10 times more radiation than the treshold for classifying it as nuclear waste. Do you consider than permit children living in a granite environment "it's extremely evil, and if you force others to do it, it's also criminally evil"?<br /><br />Finally, the Polonium detected in coffee isn't excepctional. Tobacco has also quite a high rate of Polonium (the radiation absorved by a smoker is surprisingly high).Pedrohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12322272666357513262noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9068633250101025716.post-47393284553113804942017-03-15T00:37:01.403+01:002017-03-15T00:37:01.403+01:00Back to coffee's alleged polonium: "Polon...Back to coffee's alleged polonium: "Polonium is a very rare element in nature because of the short half-life of all its isotopes" (Wikipedia). It's obvious that the crops studied in that paper must have been somehow polluted. IRL polonium is almost always a product of uranium decay and therefore of the nuclear industry, it is NOT natural. Majuhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12369840391933337204noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9068633250101025716.post-88300493592992939192017-03-15T00:29:23.763+01:002017-03-15T00:29:23.763+01:00Also notice the mention to "hotspots": t...Also notice the mention to "hotspots": the average is not the only things that matter. We are talking of the dangerous presence of materials at even 100x the nuclear waste level. Majuhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12369840391933337204noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9068633250101025716.post-12192052796353843092017-03-15T00:26:25.997+01:002017-03-15T00:26:25.997+01:00Your opinion is too benevolent, based not on facts...Your opinion is too benevolent, based not on facts nor the principle of precaution but on the propaganda of the nuclear industry. <br /><br />"You yourself have a 70 Bq/kg."<br /><br />Based on the content of potassium in the body, which has a radioactivity of c. 31 Bq/g. <br />Fair enough. However if you more than double this figure in the environment (which means the air you breath, the water you drink and quite probably the food you eat), the effects grow exponentially. And that's why "low-level" nuclear waste is tolerable only if your exposure to it is minimized. <br /><br />Remember that children particularly incorporate much more materials to their growing body than adults, so their risk is maximal. And we all love our kids, even most of the time other peoples' kids, right? We don't want them to face the nefarious destiny of Chernobyl's children (search for a documentary on them: it's absolutely depressing!) This is not about adult workers semi-voluntarily specialized in the nuclear industry, this is about the children first and foremost. You should never raise children in a nuclear waste yard, as is half of Japan today. If you do that willingly, it's extremely evil, and if you force others to do it, it's also criminally evil. <br /><br />"Coffee has 1,000 Bq/kg."<br /><br />I presume you're referring to this pay-per-view "study": http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10967-012-2101-7<br /><br />I'm utterly surprised and suspicious of their findings of such a most rare element as Polonium in coffee, my bet is that they have surveyed only some very specific plantation which is contaminated, otherwise there should be no polonium. Sadly I can't afford to pay to read the paper and therefore analyze critically the "materials and methods" section. <br /><br />"The 100 Bq/kg limit is an extremely conservative figure for considering something as "nuclear waste" and ONLY applies to nuclear industry and nuclear medicine."<br /><br />We're talking nuclear industry here: it is the nuclear industry which has contaminated the play yards of the children of Japan, their water sources, their rice fields. Or are specialist nuclear workers owed greater protection than innocent children? Who are you trying to fool?Majuhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12369840391933337204noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9068633250101025716.post-71987828305290060992017-03-14T23:58:18.135+01:002017-03-14T23:58:18.135+01:00You're mskign serveral mistakes:
---Overlookin...You're mskign serveral mistakes:<br />---Overlooking the real interesting map (the micro Sv/h that provides Prof. Hayakawa), compare it with natural radiation and make predictions on human health using the LNT hypothesis.<br />---Compare Bq/m2 with Bq/m3. Some calculations are to be made before converting them into Sv/year (go back to the previous point).<br />---You don't mind to figure what the 100 Bq/kg really means. By comparison:<br />* You yourself have a 70 Bq/kg.<br />* "Low level waste" starts at 100 Bq/kg.<br />* Coffee has 1,000 Bq/kg.<br />* Fertilizer has 2,000-5,000 Bq/kg.<br />* "Low level waste" can be up to 1,000,000 Bq/kg.<br />* Uranium is 25,000,000 Bq/kg.<br />* High level nuclear waste (50 years old) is 10,000,000,000,000 Bq/kg.<br />The 100 Bq/kg limit is an extremely conservative figure for considering something as "nuclear waste" and ONLY applies to nuclear industry and nuclear medicine. For all the other human activities no limit is set, with the sole exception of radon in houses. Per example, if the limit was applied to coal, its ash would be considered as "nuclear waste".<br />Greetings<br /><br /><br /><br />---<br />Pedrohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12322272666357513262noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9068633250101025716.post-60719045739580408262017-03-06T17:48:36.726+01:002017-03-06T17:48:36.726+01:00Absolutely, the Gladio network was never really di...Absolutely, the Gladio network was never really dismantled anywhere, and only partly investigated in Italy and Belgium. In Spain for instance the investigation was cut right away by firing the journalist who was into it and also the director of the magazine who rejected to cooperate with such outrageous attack against investigative journalism. Even more recently I know of a public library worker who was fired for "using her work time" to investigate this issue and blog about it. <br /><br />The Gladio network is the secret backbone of NATO and Poland is the battering ram of NATO against Russia. <br /><br />"I suspect that the rollback doctrine and the eastern expansionism of the EU will come back to roost very soon."<br /><br />Actually it's already been, for decades, part of the problem. Eastern Europe's states outside the Eurozone "enjoy privileges" (inflationary policies) that other Europeans do not have, so they have become the cheap labor manufacturers of the EU, "the Mexico of the EU". One can perfectly say that the crisis in Spain is because of Poland, or that the crisis in Greece is because of Romania. But for NATO anti-Russian policies this unequal (supposedly "provisional" but in fact permanent) arrangement works well, and so it does for Germany's "postmodern IV Reich" imperialism. One way or another this same unequal arrangement has been going on since the 80s. Majuhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12369840391933337204noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9068633250101025716.post-35512158267643506622017-03-06T12:25:36.677+01:002017-03-06T12:25:36.677+01:00With some of those eastern EU members one is remin...With some of those eastern EU members one is reminded of the infamous stay-behind networks in the Cold War era, where even the most unsavoury figures where deemed good enough as long as they could prove useful against the Soviets. I suspect that the rollback doctrine and the eastern expansionism of the EU will come back to roost very soon.Markohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13528332333708536220noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9068633250101025716.post-68981180901646963842016-12-17T10:36:25.793+01:002016-12-17T10:36:25.793+01:00So you know that I have (only today) read this and...So you know that I have (only today) read this and other of your comments and decided not to publish the rest. Neither I nor my readers need your fascist junk. Get lost, Trumpland is big enough, it has at least one hotel room. Majuhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12369840391933337204noreply@blogger.com