Yes. We are used to low cost airlines. Let’s remember a funny ad in which Valentino says -more or less- I will go back to Italy. I do only have to pay the taxes!. Ok. I stop now with the jokes I will go to the facts!

This summer I was traveling to Paris. Back in Spain I talked with a friend who was going to travel by train to Paris. Well. I asked him about the price. And he told me 19EUR TTC. That means 19EUR all taxes included. What are you telling me, man?¿

The answer is idgtv. That’s how to reach Paris -or other- in the low cost manner. Yes, bad timetables. But remember 19EUR! and you travel in TGV. Just the same. Stopping in the same stations.

Surfing the net I reach to Unsual Hotels of the World site. They say

Two friends, who had spent many years visiting & promoting destinations all over the world both personally and for corporate activities decided to create a definitive guide for the many hotels around the world that offer their guests something unusual about their stay. Be it that guests stay underground, inside an igloo, up a tree or even underwater, Unusual Hotels of the World has set out to be the online location for travellers from around the globe to access information and subsequently book rooms at unusual hotels.

Let’s give you an example.

Really nice guide!

Low Cost companies were a revolution. They changed most of the models that said that flying should be extremely expensive due a large number of reasons.

New all Biz Class companies will also become a revolution. It will be smaller as far as the target itself is.

Today I read about SilverJet that will start soon in the All Bizz discount market. Flat beds, good meals, fast security controls, airports closed to the cities,… and about three times cheaper than the traditional companies in the Biz fare, probably offering less.

Nice to see.

Last week the A380 test flight landed in London Heathrow. The BBC broadcasted it, and what’s more important, they came into the plane.

Inside it we can see no seat, but dozens of computers and gadgets.

If you think Jumbo is incredibly huge, the A380 is a bit more.

What to do?. Good question.

What happened in Somalia with the U.S. and also with France arose a strong lobby against any intervention in countries in which the national interests weren’t related to the internal strives. A criteria (not always fullfilled) for intervention in third countries was then established on the same basis in many countries.

Intervention is something against logic and international relations but when genocide and ethnic cleansing is a daily activity intervention should be a must.

We must listen to other countries and cultures and acept them but there are a few limits nobody should pull down.

An international comunity is strong when establishes priorities, not based on priorities of the veto countries but on a rigid few international laws.

Darfur is one urgent reason more for a U.N. reform

E.T.A. declares permanent cease fire. The decision will be effective next friday.

Links to main news about the topic

BBC

International Herald Tribune

New York Times

The Guardian

USA Today

The Times

Al Jazeera

CNN

ABC News

The New Zeland Herald

Kenya Broadcasting Corporation

Khaleej Times

Bloomberg

Cnews Canada

Swiss Info

Las Vegas Sun 

Hindustan Times

MSNBC

Australia Broadcasting Corporation

Mail Guardian South Africa

I read in the Guardian that the students of the only-women colleague of Oxford University have voted in favour of men student admissions, but only the St. Hilda government body could change this.

Which are the advantages of an only women college?

I don’t see any…

Meeting with Negroponte, the promoter and charismatic leader of the OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) project and prominent member of the MIT (Massachussets Institute of Technology), is already something that someone would hardly everforget… but doing it in a private JET with Martin Varsavsky (and the beautyful German Christiane zu Salm) is just unbelivable.

Martin, appart from him business life, is a very enthusiastic man and is very keen on culture, design, music, art, politics etc. Negroponte is an authority in his fields as well as a very well educated american man, and Christiane is simply so intelligent and has such a delightful conversation; shee always seems to have something interesting to ask or offer.

He was waiting for us at Johan Strauss airport in Munich. He was sitting in the lobby with an IBM laptop and trying to unsuccessfuly connect to a WiFi signal: “They are all locked” he said when he spotted us, “I hope FON can change this someday!”. That got us.

The flight was so interesting: I really felt sorry to be a little out of my place because the conversation was about big business, the Davos conference, the UNO… international politics, humanness and business. But I was delighted.

Martin and I were very interested both in a professional but even more in a personal way on the olpc project. The project is all about producing fully functional and featured laptops (with WiFi, hard drive, meshing, imaging soft, etc.) for 100$:

• Isn’t 100$ way to low? Is it really possible?

That’s a question a lot of people make. It’s a simbolic number: what’s the difference between 100$ and 130$ for example? The price will vary. The thing is to be on that frame and to have a very cheap yet useful laptop.

• Why did you start all this?

Because I love Internet. And I think Internet can REALLY (I really believe this) help the so called Third World to develop.

This is some of the hundreds of thinks we talked about. He later that day, after a meeting (this time at ground level :-D), showed us a model of the OLPC laptop.

We also talked about FON; we wanted to know about his impressions regarding our project. We were happy because he knew about us before Martin and him could arrange the meeting. Actually his knowing about FON was what really triggered this meeting that, in their words, had been uncomprehensively delayed for years.

“I think FON is gonna do it”

or

“You guys really have it in your hands”

are just some of the remarkable elogiums he gave us.

The impression I got from him is that he was an intellectual, coming from a good and stablished american family who had had a very good education and made an impecable career and undoubtfuly made the most of what he had in it’s hands everytime.

The fancy thing? I was often distracted with his joker-like smile. I have this trend to usually pay attention at little unimportant details

Have your ever noticed? I just once. Coke that I supposed had the same flavour all over the world, hasn’t!.

I didn’t notice all over Europe but I did in Tunisia. I think there is a reason and two simple ways of changing the flavours. The reason is the local tastes (easy!) and the ways I think are two.

1. Water. I do think water from one place to another can change the flavour of Coke somehow.
2. Amount of sugar. You just add more sugar and you get something different.

In Tunisia it had more sugar (my hypothesis) and the result was: ‘Is this Coke?’ (Ok. I’ve exaggerated a little but not too much). Yes it was and after having talked with other people they told me that in other continents it seems to happen almost the same.

We are not always conscious of how life changed since the automated calculus machines appeared. Charles Babbage proposed the first model in the 19th century and since then, science took a new path… Human calculations were error prone and the automation would mean a great step towards precission. But not only science was affected: technology, music, art, design, architecture, writing, human relations (that’s a more recent change) and even cooking has changed significantly since.

Now Lego has taken one of the designs by Babbage and made a game out of it…