Hidden Danger

The inhabitants of Sintra appear to have won a significant victory. The unsightly overhead high-tension electric cables will now be buried as they cross the council.

Unfortunately, this will likely turn out to be a poisoned victory. Studies done in larger countries, with more money to spend on medical research, show clear correlation between proximity to high-tension overhead wires and childhood leucemia and other diseases. Of course the pylons are unsightly, but at least in plain view and a reasonable distance from the ground.

The strength of electric fields depends on proximity to the cable that carries the current. So burying the cable two or three metres below the surface of roads, passing homes, schools and other public buildings hardly seems to be an intelligent alternative, at least from a public health standpoint. Of course, by the time the health problems come to light, none of the Directors of REN nor the politicians that achieved this victory will be in office, so who cares...

Telecontagem

EDP is going to give us all new electricity meters that communicate their readings to a central computer, thus eliminating the need for costly and unreliable human readings!

Actually, they are going to sell us the meters, which we will pay for over the next twenty years.

It's a good job there is competition in the Portuguese electricity sector, otherwise this cavalier behaviour may lead us to deduce the the company is abusing its monopoly position!

A Fórmula de Deus

I've just finished reading another of my presents from last Christmas - only 3 more to go!

Following on from O Codex 632, José Rodrigues dos Santos sends Tomás Noronha off to Tehran and Lhasa this time, in search of the answer to "God's Formula", written by Albert Einstein as his proof of God's existence.

Unfortunately, this novel doesn't work for me as well as Codex 632, partly because I find the proof rather self-fulfilling and partly because, having a reasonable knowledge of physics, I got tired of the repetition of theoretical explanations: first one of the characters explains the theory to Tomás, then he goes off and confirms his understanding with another. I could have got as much out of a book 100 pages shorter, but I'm sure many readers wouldn't.

Not a book that I will take time to re-read, but as JRS and his team produce books faster than I have time to read them, I expect I'll be a fan for some time yet.

Skills for the Future

I have posted before about the mismatch between graduates and the skills that their employers need. So I was rather pleased that learned research from Accenture backs up my comments, showing that countries with high R&D spending and investment on training in science and technology makes countries more competitive.

This was presented to students and teaching staff at my post-graduate course award ceremony last night. I'm glad to have got through that experience with a rather better grade than my original degree. Don't know if I'll be going back for the Masters though. Enough of hard (academic) work for now.

CD of the Month (7)

J.S. Bach Violin Concertos / Gidon Kremer / Academy of St. Martin in the Fields (1983)

This CD of the Bach Violin Concertos was one of my early acquisitions back in 1984, when CDs were a novelty. It reflects the "best practice" of the time, which didn't run to period instruments, more to chamber orchestras of modern instruments, such as the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. Nowadays they don't do things that way, but I think this recording is quite acceptable.

My only gripe is having Gidon Kremer playing both violin solos on the Double Concerto for two violins - they tend to merge into each other rather than standing out as two separate virtuosi, as you might expect.

Anyway, it's a long standing favourite of mine.

Political Theatre

Tuesday's "debate" on the 2008 State budget was a fine piece of theatre. José Sócrates did a fine job of making a lot of noise about very little. Santana Lopes embarrassed himself with a poor reply. Jerónimo de Sousa, Paulo Portas and Francisco Louçã presented their pre-prepared insults in a predictable fashion, which is to say that the first was boring and the others clever.

In fact, I thought PP's reference to "Canal Memória" and FL's request for a refund on his ticket to the show were rather good. Shame that old Santana Lopes couldn't find anything inspired to say.

And so the democracy show rolls on with the Government coming out unscathed, as usual. Yawn...

False Friends

For those of you who have never learned a foreign language, false friends are those words that two languages have in common, but do not have the same meaning in each language. There are many of these, leading to confusion and embarrassment. For English/Portuguese there is a big list of them here.

After 17 years I Portugal, I was caught out by one this week: Commitment is simultaneously empenho (adjective) and compromisso (noun). I referred to my young, ambitious colleagues as comprometidos. Oops. Everybody understood that I meant committed, but it came out as compromised! Actually, I have got compromised colleagues, but they are not the ones I was referring to...

Back to school I guess.

Journalists' Rights Day

Apparently today is Journalists' Rights Day. Now I'm all for "rights" in general, but this is a profession that, in my limited experience, doesn't make good use of the rights that they have.

Take UK journalism. The best way to sell newspapers, apparently, is to make up scandals. Any journalist who fabricates a story just to create sensation, or sets a trap for a celebrity, loses his entitlement to any rights.

Then we have the blatently biased reporters, both in the UK and in Portugal. They record interviews when they have already defined their personal objectives for the resulting article. That's hardly the best way to ensure that their rights are respected.

As for the journalists who write and present articles that they have no technical competence for..... Need I continue?

Admittedly, journalists rights are threatened in many countries, even in Portugal from time to time (particularly in Madeira), but perhaps the journalists should reflect more on the way those rights are wielded.

Gridlock

Well thank you very much Mr Putin. I enjoyed reading the whole of Global while sitting in the queue for the bridge this morning.

Actually, as far as I can tell, it wasn't his fault! How does the Portuguese police cordon off a motorway? Block it where the slip road meets the highway, of course. So cars queue back down the slip road, and block everyone else behind.

Of course, it would be more efficient to block from the start of all roads leading to the motorway, obliging drivers to choose other routes while they still had a choice, but that would require more manpower. So f**k the economic considerations, let the drivers wait!

Salão Imobiliário de Lisboa

I went to the opening day of the Lisbon Real Estate Fair yesterday. As usual, a mixture of good and awful exhibitors and stands, with some very interesting development on display. In the interesting category I would include (in alphabetical order):















http://www.troiaresort.pt

Out of Time

Thins I haven't had time to blog about recently:

• Police concert - great, thanks Barclays
• Sócrates afraid of what - criticism so it appears, and doesn't care about civil rights
• Chief public prosecutor - another prominent figure who can't keep his mouth shut when he should
• Power cut - difficult to blog when the power is out. Good job Portugal is no longer a 3rd world country!
• Jardim Gonçalves - tough break, but what's 15 million to him?

What I've been up to:

• work
• more work
• photography
• did I mention I've been busy at work?

More later, perhaps...

Mordida de Cherne

Durão Barroso on the prospect of meeting Robert Mugabe at a summit that Gordon Brown is planning to boycott:

"Very often we have to sit in international meetings with people my mother would not like me to sit with."

Take that!

Slow Food

There are only two possible reasons for me continuing to frequent the McDonald's at Seixal service area - I'm more charitable than I would appear to the readers of this blog, or I'm an idiot.

The service is chronically slow, the prices higher than normal, the staff disinterested and often not all products are available. But still I stopped there today, thinking that we could save five minutes over going into Rio Sul shopping centre for the same meal. Wrong!

There were no burgers ready and the "Too Bacon" special was not available. As for the "Too Cheese", avoid it at all costs. For me it was "Too (much) Mayonnaise" - yuck.

So if you're on the A2, looking for a quick lunch, get off at Fogueteiro and go to Rio Sul, for better service and a wider choice.

CD of the Month (6)

Well it's four months since the last CD plug, and I think this disc has been in the car all that time.

Music Box is the classic Mariah Carey album, from the young and innocent days before the marriage, implants, ventures into rap and experiments in screeching rather than singing. The best part is there are no tracks that make you want to hit the skip button. It also includes a cover of the classic track "Without You".

Green Governance, or just Hot Air?

José Sócrates proudly proclaimed to the press last week that Portugal will surpass its objectives under the Kyoto agreement - reducing carbon emissions more than planned. So the Government can be praised for having a green country and taking initiatives such as obliging builders to incorporate energy-saving measures into all new buildings.

What he doesn't publicise is the tax administration's response to that change in the building code: the existence of these energy-saving measures has been added as another coefficient that increases the tax valuation of your house, used to define how much is paid annually in municipal property tax and sewage charges! Surely they should use the opposite approach and reduce the value of houses without such features. Add to this ridiculous measure the pitiful tax incentives given for individuals to install such measures and we can only conclude that the Government is only paying lip service to green measures.

As for beating the Kyoto objectives, we have to presume that they were under-ambitious if the Government can get away with this.

Barcelona Stinks

Anyone who pays attention to my Flickr badge (in the sidebar) will notice that I took a trip to Barcelona. I doubt I'll bother going back.

Perhaps it was the fact that I spent more of the trip working in the hotel than seeing the sights, but I was unimpressed. Though nobody else seems to share that opinion, I think that a long weekend would be enough to exhaust all that the city has to offer a tourist.

I return with two overwhelming impressions - the smog which hung over the city all the time I was there, and the unpleasant smells at every turn: sulphur from the chemical plant, rotting rubbish, drains everywhere except the highest points, polluted mud blowing in from the sea. Yuck! Perhaps in the rainy season both these problems disappear...

Lost his Head, Lost his Job

After the second miserable performance in a row, both from the Portuguese football team and tactically from the coach, Felipão comes to blows with a Serbian player. What an idiot! There is really only one course of action available to the FPF - to fire him on the spot. Of course, they probably haven't got the balls for that, though they applauded such a stance from Scolari himself in dropping João Vieira Pinto after the World Cup punching incident. They may like to take into account the recent awful performances by the team, who apparently don't know how to defend any more - shame that sitting on one goal leads seems to be the cornerstone of Scolari's strategy.

What does Luis Filipe Scolari think he was doing? There's really one conclusion - he was presenting his resignation!

Six years on

I never imagined writing about the happenings of September 11, 2001, but six years on, it's still on everybody's mind - it was the topic of discussion at lunch, exactly the time of the attacks.

It was the last day of my 2001 summer holidays that for some reason ended on a Tuesday. I took the kids to school, played 18 holes of golf, drove home, grabbed a beer and collapsed exhausted on a kitchen chair in front of the TV. To my amazement, the first tower was burning, and shortly I saw the second plane hit the south tower, live on CNN. I stayed glued to the TV for the next two hours.

Six years later, I have personally only been affected by the travel restrictions, mostly when travelling from the UK. I never had great interest in travelling to the US anyway. I can sympathise with the Islamic fundamentalists' view of US foreign policy and particularly of the Bush administration and the great leader himself. But obviously, their tactics have to be condemned.

So where does that leave us? There's no way of stopping the terrorist psychopaths - there are just too many potential targets to defend. The US and particularly its troops will continue to pay for meddling where they should have stayed away. And people on both sides will gradually forget both the events and the arguments, just as they did with Vietnam, until some future leader, probably in pre-school right now, thinks that war is a good solution for some other imagined threat.

Porn Flickr

It's well known that if you give somebody a tool, they will frequently use it in a way not originally intended. That is particularly true with software - I have users at work who word-process in Excel and Powerpoint, and present long complicated calculations, worked through by had and typed into Word.

Now, to me Flickr is for photo sharing, which means that I post photos of my own that I want people to see and, when I find other people's images interesting, link to them on my Flickr favorites page. I think that's what Flickr intended too.

But zapping round some of the collections, just clicking on pics I like and who posted them and their favourites, I find a huge proportion of people who appear never to have taken a photo, just using Flickr as a photo store, often for their porn collections. Porn will conquer all, as is well known on the internet. So Flickr's censorship campaign was pointless. But I understand their frustration in seeing their wonderful photo sharing site being used like that...

Wrong training

I could never be professional politician, obliged when in opposition to use everything that comes to hand to take shots at the party in power.

Last weekend, the Orange Dwarf (Luís Marques Mendes) appeared to harangue the government about the high level of unemployment among new graduates. Let's analyse this in more detail...

Graduate unemployment is the result of universities producing students whose skills do not match those required by the market. Portuguese universities produce huge numbers of graduates whose skills, either in subject matter studied or depth of knowledge acquired, do not satisfy potential employers. Is that the government's fault? It depends how much freedom the universities have in defining their degree subjects.

Then we have to consider which government is to blame. A graduate degree takes three or four years. This PS government has been in power for two! So surely the government that is to blame for these particular unemployed graduate was the previous PSD administration. Perhaps Mr MM should stick to more recent problems, or just save us and not say anything at all.

Groundfarce (2)

I have complained before about baggage reclaim at Lisbon airport. Now the situation appears a little clearer:

• ANA airports is a State-owned company that has to get as fat as possible before its privatisation.
• As such it has no performance objectives (just like PT and EDP before their sale, and Galp to this day).
• ANA put its handling out to contract, choosing the cheapest proposal regardless of any evaluation of quality of service.
• The winning bid, by Groundforce, is based on exploiting its workforce to the maximum.
• The workers have finally grown tired of the conditions offered by Groundforce and have gone on strike.

ANA washes its hands of the matter, saying proudly that despite the strike no flights have been cancelled. Groundforce explains that operations have not been significantly hit by the strike.

Of course operations have not been significantly hit. With an average baggage delivery time of 45 minutes without a strike, what's an extra 15-30 minutes to your long-suffering passenger? And what about the other statistic aired this weekend: "Within Europe, TAP is second only to British Airways in the number of lost bags." I hope that's a percentage measure, not an absolute figure. Imagine if TAP managed to lose as many bags as BA, which is immeasureably larger! Of course, the lost bags are TAP's fault, not ANA or Groundforce. I think not.

State-owned monopolies. Don't you just love them? Looks like we'll have to suffer. At least we can make a quick buck on the shares when the privatisation goes through.

Nestled Away

I have frequently criticised marketing campaigns for their stupidity. Now for a first - criticising a major brand for failing to advertise.

As a family, we tend to eat too many ice creams in the summer - bought by the box to keep in the freezer. My current favourite is Nestlé Brownies, which puts Magnums in the shade. So where's the publicity? How do they expect to sell a product if nobody knows it exists?

Hidden away on the Nestlé website is a very unattractive description of the product. But that is consistent with the unattractive presentation of the whole site! To get to that page, you have to guess whether the product is food (alimentação) or impulsive (impulso). Is ice cream ever bought for its food value? If you're "impulsive", you reach a different product page, with no picture of the product.

Anyway, it's very good. Buy it: Nestlé Brownies

Exibição Desleixada

Leixões 1 - Benfica 1

Oops!

Who's to Blame?

According to SIC news last night, the Sunday Times published a survey where 70% of people surveyed in the UK believe that the McCanns are to blame for Madeleine's abduction. While I can't find any reference to such a poll in the on-line editions of the Sunday papers, I couldn't agree more with that conclusion.

Leaving children of that age alone is illegal in Portugal and the UK, but everyone seems to have forgotten that, with the extremist UK press concentrating on the incompetence of the Portuguese authorities and the Portuguese press understandably on the defensive.

The only reason that I doubt the parents active involvement in the disappearance is their decision to stay all this time in the Algarve. If they had anything to hide, they would have left the apartment to be occupied by other tourists, who would obscure any evidence that may be recovered.

Most press reports only serve to reinforce my suspicion that they were involved. And ever since someone landed on my blog using the Google search "Madeleine McCann scam", it seems I'm not alone (Those words appear in the blog, but not in the same post). Let's hope the story is over soon, though I expect the worst.

English Nationality

It's typical of the Brits to complicate matters for historical reasons, and quite usual in other countries such as Spain, but the difference between England, Britain and the United Kingdom a constant source of aggravation for an expatriate such as me.

For instance, the SEF (immigration authorities) know the difference, as do the notaries. But the Portuguese National Elections Council only allow "English" when you register to vote. Can't see many Scots registering if they find that out!

Even Miguel Portas, Portuguese Euro-MP for the Bloco da Esquerda, didn't know the difference when interviewed prior to the last elections for the European parliament. He blamed the English for blocking a particular resolution. Despite his ignorance, he got elected anyway - that's the advantage of the crony system for defining lists of candidates.

The other night, the Portuguese version of Trivial Pursuit Family Edition came up with "What was the nationality of the writer William Golding?" Answer: "English". My younger son duly informed me that my answer "British" was not worth a piece of pie!

Interestingly, the Portuguese Wikipedia article on William Golding refers to him as an English writer, while the English article states "Nationality: British "! I give up!

The Simpsons Movie

What are holidays for, if not to take the kids to the movies. They chose The Simpsons Movie, which they loved, I hated.

It was all rather serious stuff, with its conservationist message, shortage of slapstick humour and unfamiliar characters. For instance, Homer didn't once say "Doh!". Nor did Bart come out with "Cowabunga" or "Eat My Shorts". None of the usual supporting characters were involved, except soppy Ned Flanders. Bart's lines in detention were "I will not make illegal copies of this movie". Yawn.

There were a few laughs, admittedly, but none worth reporting here. My recommendation: Watch the trailers and cinema channel reviews. Then you'll get to see all the funny stuff without trawling through the rest. Or better still, go to something else.

Unfair Practice

Once again, TV Cabo appears to be abusing its near monopoly position.

Eurosport is showing the Shanghai classic snooker tournament - hardly a mainstream Portuguese sport. During the interval between frames, Eurosport showed just enough adverts. Then a flash of snooker and a new, low-definition logo saying "Eurosport - publicidade". Then a long advert for Sport TV, the logo again, and back to the snooker mid-frame.

Who are the TV Cabo directors trying to kid? It was an amateurish stunt, surely without Eurosport's knowledge, pulled by someone who thinks they are untouchable. Totally unacceptable, in my view, but TV Cabo is the only TV supplier available to me...

No surprise then that one of Henrique Grenadeiro's dirty tricks during the PT takeover battle was to strip TV Cabo out of PTM. No point handing such power over to Sonae, is there.

0-0, End of First Part

When the BCP General Meeting was announced some weeks back, I voted in the Jornal de Negócios on-line poll, suggesting that nobody's cause would win at the meeting. It wasn't a very popular choice. So I'd just like to say "Ha ha" to all the hawks and doves out there.

Admittedly, there will eventually be a winner. And with Paulo Teixeira Pinto in retreat even before the meeting started, it's not difficult to guess who will win. But yesterday only brought one casualty - the poor misguided IT manager whose system couldn't cope with registering all those shareholders.

And so the saga continues, leaving the second largest bank in Portugal paralysed when it comes to dealing with its larger customers. Fortunately the Board are not worried about profitability for now, with the record results announced for the first half. But it's not much fun being on the outside, waiting for the storm to blow over.

Diário Côr de Rosa

A Direcção do jornal Record anunciou hoje, "em honra das recentes prestações e novo equipamento do Sport Lisboa e Benfica", uma nova orientação editorial. A nova capa usará tons parecidos com o novo equipamento do Glorioso, para fácil identificação pelos leitores.

"Face à popularidade inegável das revistas 'côr de rosa' como Lux, Olá! e Caras, a quais falam extensivamente da vida privada, social e até profissional dos maiores jogadores de futebol, consideramos haver espaço nas bancas para o primeiro diário 'social'". Quanto ao conteúdo, "Haverá inclusivé alguns artigos sobre o campeonato e outras competições secundárias como a Liga dos Campeõs, mas sobre tudo tratará de notícias sobre os nossos jogadores VIP's".

Questionado sobre a capacidade de encher as páginas com notícias adequadas diariamente, "Temos contratos com os maiores jornais populares britânicos e alemães, conhecidos pela criatividade e alcance das suas pesquisas nesta área. Não teremos problemas..."

The Saga of the Exiles

As I kid, I devoured books. From Arthur C. Clark to Thomas Hardy, from Ellery Queen to Alexander Solzhenitzyn. I worked my way through all the science fiction at our local library, and on to science fantasy.

Recently, my parents have been unloading my books, bringing them over for me to re-read. So instead of reading the books I received for Christmas, or the texts from my course, I've been ploughing through the four volumes of the Saga of the Exiles by Julian May, a superb story of time travel and psychic powers, written in a very readable style, not too convoluted in its plot, with credible use of technology and believable characters.

Following that came the two volumes of Mordant's Need, by Stephen Donaldson. Awful stuff. I know why I bought them - I remember their predecessors The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant as being very good. But these are rubbish! The main character is a woman who has doubts about her own existence, the "technology" is questionable and the literary style revolves around the correct use of punctuation in conversation - you know: speech with no closing commas continues in the next paragraph. But if the arguments are convoluted and the speech goes on for pages a a time, it's hopeless.

So now I'll get on with the more recent purchases - hopefully a more fruitful, inspiring read. In between, I may even blog more often, who knows...

Turn of the Century

Reading a recent newspaper about urban redevelopment, I found the writer referring to "Turn of the Century" housing and thought, "That's too recent to need redevelopment".

A few seconds later, it dawned on me: housing from c. 1900! It's dismaying to find myself in a different century to someone else, though I do it all the time too, often referring to things that happened five or six years ago as having been in 1991 or 1992.

I suppose it's just a sign of old age.

Banking Secrecy

Portuguese tax law states that all companies must have at least one bank account used exclusively for their business activity. This is to avoid the old habit of sole traders mixing up their personal and company money, usually with the result that all personal expenses are paid with company funds.

How can that be enforced? It's difficult. The latest underhand trick is that if you want to present any alteration to a company's tax status, it is now obligatory to fill in the "bank account for tax refund" section of the form. I have a problem with that. For the tax man to find out the number of a company's bank account, he has otherwise to ask a judge. Armed with that number, provided voluntarily by the tax payer, snooping is much easier. And let's dispel the myth that there is banking secrecy without a warrant.

What do I base this conspiracy theory on?

The tax office is now emailing tax payers, both companies and individuals, pressuring them to register the number of their bank account in order to receive any tax refunds that may be due. My email states that my bank account details are "unconfirmed", when I have been receiving my refunds for ten years, always by transfer to the same account. I know of a company that has a VAT exempt status, where the email states "unless you register your bank account, you will be unable to receive your VAT refunds".

Who are they trying to kid?

The tax authorities have been given excessive powers and insufficient resources to correct any mistakes made, which are frequent. This is just another example, so if you are an individual and receive the email, my advice is to forget it. If they don't have your bank details, they will send you a cheque.

Nothing Doing

José Sá Fernandes yesterday went to the Feira das Galinheiras to meet the voters and complain how, in six years of PSD administration in Lisbon, nothing has been done in the area. The press went with him, to report on the stagnation in Lumiar - it's a shame he was actually in Ameixoeira.

In fact, the Feira has suffered from the construction of the Eixo Norte-Sul roundabout - a State highway project - and most of its patrons are probably from Loures anyway. The Lisbon side of the Feira has seen all the shanty housing demolished and the residents re-housed to a housing project that won this year's INH prize. There is renovation everywhere.

So what the hell was he talking about? Maybe it's that he, the great "embargador" has been unable to find anything to criticise in the Alta de Lisboa area during his time in office. So it's just sour grapes. More likely, it's just political opportunism of the worst kind, as we've come to expect from the man who cost the City 4 million euros just to get his name in the papers. We can but hope that he doesn't get elected, as looks likely from the latest polls...

24 - 48 - 72

No film reviews recently, mostly from lack of time due to studying, but also because the films have been put on one side while I plough through the boxed sets of 24.

Three series down so far, all with their good and bad points. Series 3 started so badly, I almost gave up. In fact, the rest of the family did move on to series 4, leaving me suffering in their wake. The whole of Joaquim Almeida's involvement was contrived and wooden, and not just from him. To make up for that, the final episodes are as good as anything from the first series, and the fighter jets blowing up the escape helicopter is great TV, even if other parts of the same sequence do not tie in.

As ever, nothing is likely to be as good as series 1, when everyone was fresh and inspired.

Looking at it from a technical viewpoint, the behind-the-scenes footage shows how little action actually goes on. The director's vision and the film editor's work are what make the series. Just in appreciation of that work, I will soldier on to the end. Film reviews will have to wait a while longer.

What price a toothbrush?

At 10.30 p.m. last night when picking up an antibiotic prescription for my son from the local night pharmacy, the next in line was a pair of elderly ladies who had driven three miles from the next village to buy a toothbrush.

What was so urgent that they needed to go out, at that time of night, to a relatively insecure area that they did not know? Surely they could have survived with furry teeth for just one night, getting up and going to their local shop at 9 a.m. this morning.

As for the price - 6 euros! That's 4.50€ for the brush, including its protective cap(!) and 1.50€ night pharmacy fee. Daylight robbery, I thought. They could have gone to the local supermarket, which closes at 11 p.m., and bought a three-pack for that price, in relative security and closer to home.

There's nowt so weird as folk, as we used to say back home.

Pie or not 2 pi?

Anybody who knows me or my family of mathematicians will know of our recurring quandary - what do you get when you divide a pie (or cake)? Four slices (for instance) each of roughly pi/2, since 360º is 2pi in radians.

So imagine my glee when this morning, over breakfast, The Adventures of Billy and Mandy on Cartoon Network came up with the same problem. We are not the only weirdos on the planet. I went off to work with a little grin - badly misjudging the day ahead...


(this post dedicated to my godfather - another mathematician, I'm afraid)

The Whither Blair Project

Apparently the EU and the US are having another competition - what to do with Tony Blair.

There are forces within the EU that want him as the first president under the new EU constitution (better not say that too loud - the French and the Dutch might get upset). Just a minor problem - the French (again) and the Germans are pissed at him because of the Iraq war. Fortunately it's not a pressing issue, as that post will only be ready for occupation in 2009. They can hang on till then with mostly-harmless Barroso heading up the EU.

Meanwhile, the US wants Blair as a special envoy to the Middle East, also quite an amusing concept. After all, he has recently waged war against a major Arab state, so you would expect him to get a good reception. Who has it in for him, I wonder?

Not that I can see a better job for an ex-PM. Why not just let him disappear from sight, and do us all a favour.

CD of the Month (5)

Another easy-listening CD - Secrets by Toni Braxton. A very calming influence when facing hellish traffic.

Apart from a number of rather explicit, seductive tracks, there is the classic grammatical screw-up: Un-Break My Heart. The confusion lies in the word unbroken. Anything, once broken, cannot be un-broken, it can only be repaired. Something that is unbroken, has never been broken.

Of course, Toni can claim to be at the vanguard of development of the English language. The word is intuitive - nobody has any doubt what it means, but it's wrong (gets out panda outfit, goes on a shooting spree...).

Enough of that, just listen to the music and relax.

Tudo ou Nada?

Às vezes a net leva-nos a sítios estranhos. Procurava uma lista normalizada de distritos, conselhos e freguesias porque nem o sistema contabilístico de 500€ que utilizo, nem o de 130,000€, a inclui. Pensei, "Tem a ver com a organização do país." e fui procurar no sítio do governo. Pela ligação "ministérios" cheguei ao sítio do MAOTDR. O que é que faz este ministério?

É o Ministério do Ambiente, Organização do Território e Desenvolvimento Regional. O sítio é muito fraço, talvez reflexo das prioridades do governo. É confortante saber que o edifício do próprio ministério foi alvo de uma auditoria ambiental! Ainda há sinais no site de actividades de desenvolvimento regional, mas de organização do território - nada.

Chega de pensar! Vamos ao mais simples. O Google dá resultados imediatos, claro! STAPE tem as tabelas, embora não no formato mais útil. Só um pequeno senão - STAPE foi abolido por fusão, de acordo com a página de entrada. Infelizmente não se explica com que entidade fundiu! Mas isso é um pormenor...

Strange Democracy (2)

The other strange democratic happening of the last few weeks has been the collapse of Lisbon City Council. How is it possible that the PSD sees fit to paralise the largest City in Portugal because its (independent) mayor was asked by the public prosecutor to make declarations about a matter that clearly is not his fault nor responsability.

So now, rather than working to manage a complicated city and clear the backlog of payments, planning decisions, etc., the politicians have six weeks to make fatuous declarations, slander each other, and generally waste everybody's time.

First off the line was Helena Roseta, with her indignant insistence that the City's accounts should be published on its website for all to see. Brilliant! How many voters could actually make sense of such accounts? Is the treasury problem the fault of Carmona Rodrigues (doubt it), or Santana Lopes (probably) or even João Soares? What will she come up with next?

My principal hope is that voters send a message to the PSD, pushing them into 4th place behind the two independents. Not that the party would take much notice - the important party representatives are almost guaranteed to be elected with this party list system: proportional representation, for the benefit of the powerful, not the voter.

A Travessia do Deserto

Just where do they get these ministers from? Don't they know that anything that they say while in office is on the record?

Mário Lino is a shabby, awkward-looking fellow who has done a fairly good job of keeping his mouth shut up to now, but really blew that record with "South of the Tagus River is a desert". On that basis he would never build the new airport there.

Hang on a minute. What does a new airport need? A lot of empty space close to a major city. So shouldn't the "desert" criterion argue in favour of siting the airport there. No! Better to cram the airport between an escarpment and the river, right in the middle of residential and industrial properties.

Looks like another otário to me!

Freedom of Religion

As part of RTP1's coverage of the Madeleine Macann case, the reporter said that there will be a mass, when viewers are invited to pray for the girl's safe return, next Tuesday evening.

"For those who are not Catholic, two minutes' silence should be observed."

So if you are religious, but not Catholic, shut up! Don't even think of praying.

Obviously that is not the intention, but who is the small-minded idiot who wrote the copy that the reporter read out?

HP Touchsmart IQ770 Desktop PC

Back in the old days, when technology advanced at a pace that an amateur could keep up with, I had a clear preference for each type of device: desktops and servers were Compaq; printers were HP, portables were Toshiba and Mac's were strange but beautiful objects that wouldn't run any of the software I needed.

I did experiment with other equipment - Compaq portables were not robust enough, HP desktops were chronically slow, other printer brands were slower and less reliable.

How things have changed! HP killed off the Compaq brand unceremoniously, doing away with the website in a matter of weeks and never really getting up to speed on supporting Compaq's huge installed user base. (I never again bought Compaq/HP desktops or servers - unbranded are fine). Mac's now run Windows! Toshiba continues to rule to roost for me in portables though.

So here is a challenge from HP. A media centre PC which looks good enough to challenge the Mac's, has a 320MB disc, 19" touch screen, cordless mouse and keyboard. It's a shame it doesn't seem to be available in Portugal.

CD of the month (4)

Gustav Holst is considered one of the key members of the renaissance in British classical music in the early 20th century. His most famous work is the Planets suite, written between 1914 and 1916.

I've uploaded the first track - Mars, the Bringer of War. This is not good driving music, you risk driving through the car in front.

Curiously my friend JMMG also wrote a post about this back in September.

Strange Democracy

There were two news events this week that showed unusual angles on democracy.

The first was the rioting in France after the election of Sarkozy as president. There's no doubt that he is a right-wing tough guy, hated for his role in putting down last year's riots, but there was no question of electoral fraud. As for the result, it wasn't even close.


So were the rioters just protesting because they dislike him, or more justifiably, because they are unable to register to vote? I wouldn't put it past the Interior Ministry to exclude the disenchanted youth from the electoral roll. Who would benefit but the now president-elect.

But that couldn't possibly be the case. What am I thinking of?

Shania Twain - Up!

Our CD collection is well over 200 discs now, but nowadaysrecent additions are usually bought by other family members. Recently I came across this one. Now it doesn't get a recommendation as "CD of the week/month", but it is worth a mention as an interesting academic exercise.

The double album contains the same tracks on both CD's, the first having an "electric/rock" mix and the second a "groove/rhythmic" feel. Apparently there are also country and western mixes on her website, but I'm not that curious. Of course there are tracks that work well in both mixes, some work well only with one mix, and others that could have been left out completely.

Anyway, I found the album an interesting exercise, as a music boffin (or snob, if you like). Even so, I'm not going to put a track on the blog, so if you want to hear one try launch.yahoo.com, or similar music sites.

Unfit to Govern?

The death of Boris Yeltsin was in most news round-ups yesterday morning: the man who forcibly took power in the USSR from Mikhael Gorbatchov, dissolved the Union, used the army against dissenters in parliament and put and end to the cold war.

His fondness for alcohol and inability to behave properly in public were referred to as major failings that marred his public image and were an embarrassment to the Russian Federation. That came to an end when he handed power over to Vladimir Putin in 1999.

The next piece on the bulletin I saw returned to domestic politics - Alberto João Jardim threatening to declare independence if the mainland continues to interfere in Madeiran affairs. Personally, if he doesn't want to be part of the country, I would cut off his funding and eliminate all subsidies for six months to see how he survives as resident dictator in an independent state. Anyway, that report was accompanied by film of Alberto João's recent public appearances, singing and dancing in an inebriated fashion at a public event, rather similar to the embarrassing footage of Yeltsin a few moment earlier.

Was the juxtaposition of these reports a coincidence - probably, as the Portuguese press is not known for its will to speak out against Alberto João. It did bring home that fact the fitness to govern is a very subjective matter.

Paulo Portas' Party

So PP has once again taken the reins of his party. When he wants time off to freelance on TV, he steps down. Some poor misguided fool will always come forward and imagine that the party can be run without PP. Then, when PP wants to get back into the saddle, he invents an excuse for leadership elections and gets re-elected. They should really add a letter to the name: PPP - Paulo Portas' Party (or Partido Pouco Popular).

The governing party must surely thank him too, for diverting media attention from other matters for a few weeks.

Who wouldn't like to have a job like that!

MoGo Bluetooth Mouse

For laptop users, this looks like an excellent gadget - a Bluetooth mouse so small that it fits into a PCMCIA slot for transport and charging. When you need to use it, remove it from the slot and it turns into a Bluetooth optical mouse.

Might be one for my toy collection.

Salazar Rules!

I know that I am a little (maybe 40 years) late on this one, but I couldn't pass up the choice of António Oliveira Salazar as the greatest Portuguese of all times.

There were, of course many factors in his favour:

• The average age of the TV viewer who is likely to watch such programs is unrepresentatively high.
• The inevitable, and clearly justified, protest vote against the modern generation of politicians and specifically against the current government's policies, which are particularly hard for that age group.
• The polarisation of the second round, with many voters surely voting against the unbearable Odete Santos.

I never lived under Salazar, but from an academic (financial) viewpoint have heard much praise of the financial and administrative structures that he created from the 1930's onwards. As with many who wield absolute power, his regime turned to dictatorship after doing much good.

In honour of this public recognition, that places Salazar on the international stage alongside Churchill, de Gaulle and Washington, I propose that they replace the iconic letters on his greatest landmark - Ponte Salazar! That would surely make the taxi drivers happier.

CD of the Month (3)

Josef Haydn is the recognised master of the symphony, having written at least 104. The best known is number 104 itself - the "London" symphony, so called because it was written in London (along with eleven others). Despite having had to study it at school, I still never tire of listening to it, which is how it has come to supersede Lighthouse Family.

My recording of it is probably considered rather dated now - Christopher Hogwood conducting the Academy of Ancient Music, which were really the first to make a serious attempt to play period music in a period style on period instruments - a 1980's obsession. Nevertheless, I think that this CD sounds better than my other recording (Colin Davis and the Concertgebouw Orchestra). I'm only going to upload one of them though, so you'll have to take my word for it.

From easy listening to popular classics, we're on a slippery slope now...

Out of the Box

After years of resistance, I finally gave in to temptation and joined the "more money than sense" community of TV Cabo powerbox users this weekend. The girl in the TV Cabo shop was very efficient, but I was appalled to see her copying personal data off a computer screen onto a pre-printed triplicate form so that physically sign it and then take away the duplicate copy. The form would then have to be input to the system, so why not let her do that part up front and then just print one off for me to sign? PT Group, don't you just love it!

I rushed the box home and set it up in time to see England beat the Welsh at rugby (hurrah), but from there onwards it's not been a good weekend. Porto's feeble effort in losing to SCP, failure to stay awake to watch the Grand Prix and then a dismal match between Aston Villa and Liverpool left me wondering if the 24 euros per month for the next 12 months will be a good investment. At least the Ferrari that won the GP was not driven by Schumacher. Looks like it will be a good season there at least.

Preço Verde?

FNAC's Preços Verdes are supposedly a guarantee that their price is the lowest for the item in question. What's the guarantee, apparently none!

Yesterday, to use up a credit left over from exchanging Christmas gifts, we went to Toys R Us and bought a 32MB memory card for the PS2. Now Toys R Us is known not to be cheap, even when they give a 10% rebate to loyalty card holders. So for the rest of our shopping we went to Fnac.

At Fnac, the same memory card was 15 euros (43%!) more expensive. And the GBA that we ended up buying was 2 euros more expensive, but I wasn't going to walk all the way back to Toys R Us for two euros. Both items had Preço Verde stickers. So I pointed out the price discrepancy to the cashier - met with total indifference. He had no idea what I was talking about, nor why! Now Fnac is also not cheap. You pay for their huge product range and supposedly for their knowledgeable service. In that case, they should really be more careful with their "Best Prices".

Spring is Sprung

It just crept up on me. One minute I had my head buried in accounts, textbooks and the like, the next everything in the garden is budding, sprouting, flowering away, like the ornamental cherry tree here, the weeping willow, the bulbs I planted only last month.

The downside is the huge quantities of yellow dust given off by the pines, covering everything and getting into our lungs. 10 cm of growth in a week on the lawn is a daunting prospect too. We could do with some rain to settle the dust. Strangely, only last week I was saying "I'm sick of all this rain" - not something you would expect to hear from an Englishman in Portugal.

And the days are getting longer - more light for golfing! Now all I need is some time off work (fat chance) to make the most of this beautiful time of year.

Red Nose Day

Anna Pickard has suggested that bloggers and their public should join an initiative to publish a book of funny blog quotes, with the profits going to Comic Relief.

I think it's a good idea. Not that I would expect any (either) of my faithful readers to submit anything I have ever written, since I'm only good at one-liners that generally owe their funniness to the circumstances of a specific moment, but if you happen across any side-splitting posts, submit them for publishing - it's in a good cause.

Volvo C30

I went to see the new Volvo C30 yesterday, at Volvo in Sacavém. The decision was easy - choose something else!

The plastics are hard and cheap-looking, the boot is tiny, the boot cover is a rag cheaper than a beach towel and the price is ridiculous. The only positive thing I can say is that it will sit four adults.

The salesman didn't help. We went at lunchtime, and he obviously hadn't eaten. He was surly and uncommunicative. "What are the competitors to this car?", I asked. "Audi A3 and BMW series 1." came the reply. I managed to stifle a laugh. There is absolutely nothing in common between an Audi A3 and this feeble effort, except the price. He has to be joking.

So don't buy it, that's my recommendation. Worse! Don't even bother to go and look.

Love in the Time of Cholera

Not surprising that there's no time/incentive to blog when I'm given books this good for Christmas.

Initially I thought, "Not my kind of book", until I read the first chapter (60 pages). Then I realised it's one of those books you just can't put down. Superb, captivating writing that stays in your head long after putting the book down. The characters are developed gradually, letting us get to know them through their actions, rather than being forced down our throats like other "great" novelists. The story is funny at times, erotic at others, the best book I have read for years.

Credit is due, of course, to the quality of the translation. It's a shame I cannot read the Spanish original.

Spanish Drivers?

In the old days, the only inconvenience caused by Spanish drivers in Portugal was their flooding the roads during holiday periods and forming caravans in the middle lane on the motorway. But recently they are found overtaking aggressively on the right, double parking, driving excessively fast in urban areas, just like the locals!

Could it be that the quality of Spanish driving is plunging? More likely is that Chico Esperto Português has discovered that cars are cheaper in Spain and it's precisely that type of clever dick that likes to drive badly, encouraged by the authorities' difficulty in tracing the car to send it a ticket. Of course, he also has to manage to avoid being caught with the car in the country for more than six months, but what are the chances of that? I've heard that in the Alentejo the traffic police are alert to this loophole, but I can't see it happening in Lisbon.

Perhaps nuestros hermanos should think twice before selling to the Tugas - their reputation is at stake...

Bored

What to do when nothing inspires you? There are so many possible distractions, most of which arrived at Christmas - films to watch, books to read, games to play. And so many chores that are on the procrastination list. Even golf is uninspiring on a course waterlogged from so much rain.

At least the busy season at work is coming to an end and the days are getting lighter. Chin up! Things can only get better...

Accident & Emergency

What's the difference between private and public healthcare? As I understood it up to today, with private healthcare you're paying for a more timely and better presented service. Some private hospitals even offer an emergency walk-in-off-the-street service, which must surely be better than braving the conditions in Portuguese public hospitals.

That's what I thought until I took my wife to CUF Infante Santo this afternoon, in a state where her dizzy spells had reached the point where she could no longer stand, barely sit. I got her a wheelchair, checked her in and sat with her for an hour and a half in the waiting room without being seen. Everyone who was there when we arrived had been seen and had left. There were the queue jumpers, the "emergency consultations by appointment" slipped in front of us, and the usual State excuse: "One of the doctors didn't come in, so we only have one"! So what the hell was I paying for? We would have been better off at our local health centre!

The staff were shocked when we gave up and left. After all that time the dizziness had worn off. They even came after us into the car park: "The doctor will see you now". I don't suppose the 90€ emergency fee that they lost made any difference to them. After all, we were the strange ones, running away like that. I suppose I should have complained earlier, but it shouldn't be necessary.

It looks like José de Mello Saúde needs some competition, and then some doctors who take some pride in customer service, to set them apart from the public hospitals. You certainly won't find me setting foot there again.

Madison Who's Who

I had a merry half hour on the phone with a high pressure salesman from this organisation this afternoon. They claim to run an international directory of top professionals and try to get you to sign up for a full listing for 750€ (or only 989€ for lifetime membership!).

I was caught by an apparently identical organisation some years back: the International Who's Who Historical Society. The directory did eventually arrive, filled with the names of international professionals. The web site and contacts system also worked, for a while, until it suddenly stopped sending out the appeals for help, mostly from young Asians who had clearly been conned out of their life savings.

These guys are very good. They called my direct line, with my previous resumé in front of them, and made small talk about my business and the economy in an intelligent and informed fashion. Then, just as those years ago, they told me I had "passed" the interview, that I am clearly the kind of informed intelligent professional that would most benefit from signing up, and got round to talking about money.

Once bitten, twice shy, as they say. My advice is to keep away as you will not be able to confirm their authenticity. Note that a Google search brings up a number of identical positive references on the same hosting server and only one worried third-party query.

Oh, and on the basis that the FBI reads everything that is posted in the internet, I have a name and phone number if you would like to go after them for wire fraud!

Watch this!

I have always had a weakness for watches. My first paycheck from my first real job was spent on a watch which I still use more than any of the more recent acquisitions.

Swiss watchmaker Hublot is investing very heavily on advertising its "Bigger Bang" model, on the right, usually the red gold version, which I couldn't find a picture of. It's superb, with the mechanism all on display, made from gold, ceramic, kevlar and rubber. Strangely, I couldn't find this model on the manufacturer's site, perhaps because they have already sold the 18 limited edition pieces. For more details try The Watch Quote.

As for the price of the "Bigger Bang", if you need to ask, you can't afford it. The more practical and still stunning "Big Bang" is priced between 12,000€ and 16,000€. Maybe if I sell one of the cars...

CD of the Month (2)

I have to admit that I have not taken the time to find out anything about Lighthouse Family since my sister gave me this CD for Christmas (2003?), and according to Wikipedia, there's not really much to know.

Anyway, it's one of the great easy-listening albums and has been helping me endure my commute for the last month, so here it is.

Shoot the Publicist

The December issue of the SAP magazine had a full page advert from Hyfas (see the panel at the bottom of their homepage). What conclusions can we draw from that advert?

1. They do not speak English - "Be right!". This may be a problem when implementing SAP.
2. They don't know how to shoot an arrow, nor even how to hold a bow! What exactly are they expecting us to consult them about and how far will they take it?

The site is equally awful, with trite pseudo-English sound-bites in abundance. I hope their consultants are better than their publicists.

Telepac Stinks!

Coloquei o seguinte comentário no "feedback form" de apoio a clientes de Telepac esta manhã:

1. A resposta (ao pedido de assistência) foi "É favor voltar a ligar mais tarde porque estamos sem sistema". Assim o serviço ao cliente NÃO FUNCIONA!
2. Respondi "não" a perguntas 3 e 5. Uma vez que a página não aceita carácteres Portugueses (nem nas respostas pré-definidas pela Telepac), o impresso não pode ser entregue! Espero que Paulo Azevedo consegue dar a volta à incompetência sistemática demonstrada!!

Reacção do sistema: "A resposta à pergunta nº9 não pode ultrapassar 255 carácteres"!

Que idiotas!

Double Standards

It seems that my complaints about justice are always football related, but once again it's time to speak out about the ridiculous sentences handed out to footballers.

Twenty other drivers were caught in the police checks the other night, but none of them got off so lightly as Luisão. Why should he get special treatment? He wasn't just a little over the alcohol limit, he was so drunk that he was arrested on the spot! Imagine the court's treatment of any other Brazilian immigrant in these circumstances, or a person who drives for a living. An immediate ban would be automatically handed out.

Worse than the lack of punishment is the example given by Luisão himself. Footballers are the idols of the young. How is it possible that he sets such a poor example? The only professional footballer I have contact with is shadowed everywhere by an assistant/manager. Surely Luisão (or Benfica) has the money to hire a driver for nights out if he wants to drink.

Once again we see an example of what keeps this warm and welcoming country firmly in the past. Justice. For whom?

New Year, No Resolutions

Long time since my last post - simultaneously a sign of being busy and even having some other distractions; there is life beyond the net after all.

So I hope all(!) my faithful readers don't mind my wishing them a belated Merry Christmas (or equivalent) and a Happy New Year (if you happen to be using the same calendar as I do). Here's to a better 2007 than 2006.

High point of 2006: breaking 100 at golf for the first time. Low point: Grampy's abrupt demise. What will 2007 have in store? No resolutions, that's for sure, keep on flying by the seat of my pants for the moment.

As for the faithful, that's Jorge, Bev, Eme and sundry lurkers from Faro and Alhos Vedros (Telepac) or Carnaxide (Optimus), I hope I can find something minimally interesting to write about. Had plenty of ideas over the holiday season, but too much to do to sit at the computer and write. We'll see...