José M. Guardia

Posts

January 27, 02:13 PM

RICARDO GALLI cree que lo de la censura de Twitter no es para tanto.

ACTUALIZACIÓN. Eduardo Arcos también.

January 27, 08:45 AM
January 27, 04:23 AM
January 27, 04:05 AM

TOMA CONSENSO: dieciséis prominentes científicos se posicionan frente a la ecohisteria. No hay que sucumbir al pánico por el calentamiento global, afirman en una carta abierta:

A candidate for public office in any contemporary democracy may have to consider what, if anything, to do about "global warming." Candidates should understand that the oft-repeated claim that nearly all scientists demand that something dramatic be done to stop global warming is not true. In fact, a large and growing number of distinguished scientists and engineers do not agree that drastic actions on global warming are needed.

In September, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Ivar Giaever, a supporter of President Obama in the last election, publicly resigned from the American Physical Society (APS) with a letter that begins: "I did not renew [my membership] because I cannot live with the [APS policy] statement: 'The evidence is incontrovertible: Global warming is occurring. If no mitigating actions are taken, significant disruptions in the Earth's physical and ecological systems, social systems, security and human health are likely to occur. We must reduce emissions of greenhouse gases beginning now.' In the APS it is OK to discuss whether the mass of the proton changes over time and how a multi-universe behaves, but the evidence of global warming is incontrovertible?"

In spite of a multidecade international campaign to enforce the message that increasing amounts of the "pollutant" carbon dioxide will destroy civilization, large numbers of scientists, many very prominent, share the opinions of Dr. Giaever. And the number of scientific "heretics" is growing with each passing year. The reason is a collection of stubborn scientific facts.

Leedlo entero. Sin falta.

January 26, 11:41 AM

MARÍA CORINA MACHADO: "Chávez me tiene miedo". Y no es para menos: es una mujer de armas tomar, en el mejor de los sentidos.

January 26, 03:07 PM

[Actualizado] VAYA METEDURA DE PATA la del Polifemo de El País.

ACTUALIZACIÓN. En Público han caído exactamente en lo mismo. ¿Pero dónde enseñan a leer en las escuelas de periodismo? Eso es para que nos fiemos de la capacidad analítica y contextual de los piriodistas de kalidá...

January 26, 10:44 AM

EL MARAVILLOSO MUNDO de la justicia palestina.

January 26, 10:24 AM

EL LADO OSCURO DE APPLE: así es como fabrica en China esos cacharritos tan queridos por los indignados y la gente cool.

January 26, 09:33 AM

LA INCREÍBLE hipocresía de Julian Assange:

How foolish of me it was to question whether Wikileaks founder Julian Assange really had a deal to distribute his new talk show to hundreds of millions of viewers. It turns out he does: with Russia Today, the English-language news network launched by the Russian government to massage its international image.

That’s right: Assange, self-styled foe of government secrets and conspiracies of the powerful, is going to be a star on a TV network backed by the Kremlin. The same Kremlin that has done suspiciously little to investigate or prevent the killings and beatings of journalists that have plagued Russia for more than a decade. The same Kremlin accused of blatant fraud in December’s parliamentary elections. The same Kremlin whose control of the country’s broadcast media allowed it to suppress coverage of the massive protests mounted in response to that fraud. The same Kremlin whose embrace of corruption led to Russia being named “the world’s most corrupt major economy” by Transparency International in 2011.

January 26, 07:47 AM

VAYA, resulta que el peligro que siempre me acecha es real: se puede morir al intentar escapar de cinco mujeres que te intentan besar. No sé si la solución es intentar escapar mejor o sucumbir...

January 26, 07:39 AM
January 26, 07:35 AM

GRANDES MOMENTOS de las páginas de opinión del New York Times:

Last week, Nicholas Kristof wrote a column about Americans losing faith in free markets and the financial industry. He described how he was startled during a visit to Swarthmore College, where a student asked him whether it was immoral to seek banking jobs. Using the student as a foil, Kristof worried that “America’s grasping capitalists are turning young Americans into socialists.” He advised liberals to “be wary of self-selecting” out of jobs in the financial industry, and cautioned students not to “mock their classmates who choose Citigroup over CARE.”

I’m the student who asked Kristof the question. He’s wrong.

January 26, 05:03 AM

LA REFORMA FINANCIERA ya tiene fecha: el 3 de febrero.

January 26, 05:01 AM

INTERESANTE Pérez-Reverte sobre Schettino y el Costa Concordia.

January 26, 04:37 AM

MEGA-MAN: la trepidante, fabulosa y fraudulenta vida de Kim Dotcom, 'patronsito' de Megaupload. Lectura recomendada.

(via)

January 26, 03:54 AM

LA SEXTA no puede con la Fórmula 1, y la ofrece a todos los operadores cuando falta poco para el principio de la temporada. Qué mal deben de estar las cosas.

January 26, 03:46 AM

AVISO para bloggers y periodistas: cuidadín con las noticias sobre estudios y encuestas. Las carga el diablo.

January 26, 03:38 AM

NADA MENOS que Hispalinux en contra de Megaupload:

Si para ti copiar obras protegidas con derecho de autor es la función principal de la red y que puedas acceder a ellas como quien enciende un televisor, no te puedes llamar hacker.  Esto no es un televisor y aquí ese no es un derecho. En cualquier caso nosotros no queremos ser tu canal, porque nos haces daño.

Quien sostenga que el cierre de Megaupload es un atentado contra la libertad de expresión, está cayendo en el populismo. Megaupload servía principalmente para distribuir obras creadas por terceros y protegidos por sus derecho de autor. Compartir esos archivos no está cubierto por el concepto de libertad de expresión.

Quien sostenga que el cierre de Megaupload ha causado mucho daño colateral y que perjudica a los usuarios legítimos. Sí, sin duda, pero también existiría daño colateral si, alguna propiedad física estuviera en las inmediaciones de un crimen y cayese dentro del cordón policial. Es tremendamente desafortunado, y puede que no tardases en volver a ver tu propiedad, pero la dependencia de un tercer proveedor tienen esas cosas. El doctor Stallman e Hispalinux ha advertido repetidamente sobre el peligro de confiar tus cosas a la nube y si hubieras investigado un poco sobre quién estaba detrás del Megaupload, ¿de veras creerías que tus archivos estaban seguros?

Muy de acuerdo; leed el resto.

January 25, 01:20 PM

POR QUÉ no son las agencias de rating las que tienen la culpa.

January 25, 12:00 PM

LAS HEMEROTECAS son unas cabronas, ya lo he dicho mil veces.

January 25, 11:54 AM

POR QUÉ no se crea empleo en España.

January 25, 10:43 AM

PUES MUY MAL: Facebook hará obligatorio el horrible Timeline para todos sus usuarios dentro de una semana.

January 25, 09:19 AM

IMPRESIONANTES números de Apple. Entre otras cosas: la empresa ahora vale más que Grecia.

ACTUALIZACIÓN. Más, en español, aquí.

January 25, 07:32 AM

Y MIENTRAS TANTO, en Japón:

Se trata, por supuesto, de una opinión estrictamente personal pero creo que, entre la vorágine de reformas locales y de predicciones foráneas, ha pasado demasiado desapercibido un dato de enorme trascendencia económica conocido ayer. De acuerdo con la información manejada por el WSJ esta madrugada Japón habrá anunciado su primer déficit comercial anual desde 1980 (que se confirma: 24.500 millones de euros fruto de una caída de las ventas del 8% y un aumento de las importaciones del 8,1% en 2011, de acuerdo con el interesante first take de Marketwatch). No solo eso, los expertos consultados por el diario de Murdoch advierten que, de mantenerse la debilidad del comercio internacional y la fortaleza del yen, la excepción puede convertirse en norma en los años venideros. Algo a lo que contribuiría, estructuralmente, su progresiva transformación de "superpotencia exportadora a nación de pensionistas", con el consecuente impacto en la iniciativa y competitividad empresarial, y, circunstancialmente, los mayores costes de aprovisionamiento derivados del parón nuclear tras el tsunami de marzo del año pasado. Sea como fuere, de confirmarse el cambio de signo, supondría una auténtica bomba en la línea de flotación de las precarias finanzas niponas, fenómeno capaz de hacer girar el foco desde la quebradiza Europa hacia el país del Sol Naciente e incrementar de este modo, más si cabe, la elevada inestabilidad mundial. Lo que nos faltaba.

¿Por qué es tan relevante?

Seguid leyendo.

January 25, 06:46 AM

PILAR RAHOLA:

Un influyente socialista, apasionado seguidor de Carme Chacón, me decía que la ex ministra es la oportunidad histórica de que el PSOE sea gobernado por una mujer y catalana. Es decir, cambio histórico, apuesta catalana, las mujeres al poder y el resto de la retórica previsible. Todo tan bonito que sería, si fuera verdad. Pero sinceramente no creo que Chacón sea el cambio de nada, sino la continuidad, en versión femenina, del zapaterismo vacío e insulso que ha gobernado el partido los últimos años. Sobra decir que Rubalcaba tampoco es ninguna novedad, sino al contrario, pero entre el malo y la peor, Rubalcaba muestra una solvencia política e intelectual fuera de duda y, sobre todo, fuera del alcance de la insigne "Mande firmes". Y como ya hemos superado los tiempos en los que ser mujer era un valor político intrínseco, lo que queda no es un candidato con faldas, sino una opción posmoderna nacida bajo el cobijo de la enorme frivolidad ideológica que significó el buenismo zapateril. Chacón es una surfera de las ideas, tan vistosa y efectista, como vacía de contenido. De hecho, es la versión más precisa del pensamiento débil. De manera que ya se lo montarán los socialistas, pero tienen un problema entre ambas opciones: uno es la pesadez de las esencias del pasado, y la otra es la futilidad del presente. Es decir, o submarinismo hasta las cuevas jurásicas o surfing por las olas de la Barceloneta. No parece una maravilla de horizonte.

Posts

January 27, 07:30 AM

SOME CONSENSUS, HUH? Sixteen prominent scientists say in an open letter that there's no need to panic over global warming:

A candidate for public office in any contemporary democracy may have to consider what, if anything, to do about "global warming." Candidates should understand that the oft-repeated claim that nearly all scientists demand that something dramatic be done to stop global warming is not true. In fact, a large and growing number of distinguished scientists and engineers do not agree that drastic actions on global warming are needed.

In September, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Ivar Giaever, a supporter of President Obama in the last election, publicly resigned from the American Physical Society (APS) with a letter that begins: "I did not renew [my membership] because I cannot live with the [APS policy] statement: 'The evidence is incontrovertible: Global warming is occurring. If no mitigating actions are taken, significant disruptions in the Earth's physical and ecological systems, social systems, security and human health are likely to occur. We must reduce emissions of greenhouse gases beginning now.' In the APS it is OK to discuss whether the mass of the proton changes over time and how a multi-universe behaves, but the evidence of global warming is incontrovertible?"

In spite of a multidecade international campaign to enforce the message that increasing amounts of the "pollutant" carbon dioxide will destroy civilization, large numbers of scientists, many very prominent, share the opinions of Dr. Giaever. And the number of scientific "heretics" is growing with each passing year. The reason is a collection of stubborn scientific facts.

Don't miss the rest.

January 26, 11:33 AM

PAIN NOT OVER:

Spain’s unemployment rate has jumped to nearly 24 percent in the fourth quarter, Finance Minister Cristobal Montoro said Thursday, confirming that the country is still in the throes of a long and painful economic crisis.

Montoro told a parliamentary commission Thursday that official figures due out Friday will show 5.4 million people were out of work at the end of December, up from 4.9 million in the third quarter, when the jobless rate was 21.5 percent.

January 26, 10:23 AM

APPLE'S DARK SIDE: this is how it manufactures its stuff in China.

January 26, 09:33 AM

THE BREATHTAKING hypocrisy Julian Assange:

How foolish of me it was to question whether Wikileaks founder Julian Assange really had a deal to distribute his new talk show to hundreds of millions of viewers. It turns out he does: with Russia Today, the English-language news network launched by the Russian government to massage its international image.

That’s right: Assange, self-styled foe of government secrets and conspiracies of the powerful, is going to be a star on a TV network backed by the Kremlin. The same Kremlin that has done suspiciously little to investigate or prevent the killings and beatings of journalists that have plagued Russia for more than a decade. The same Kremlin accused of blatant fraud in December’s parliamentary elections. The same Kremlin whose control of the country’s broadcast media allowed it to suppress coverage of the massive protests mounted in response to that fraud. The same Kremlin whose embrace of corruption led to Russia being named “the world’s most corrupt major economy” by Transparency International in 2011.

January 26, 09:00 AM

DAMN, it seems the danger I'm always in is real: you can really die trying to escape from five women trying to kiss you. However, unsure if the solution is to escape better or just accept your fate. I'll keep you posted...

January 26, 08:30 AM
January 26, 08:30 AM

GREAT MOMENTS in American newspaper's opinion pages:

Last week, Nicholas Kristof wrote a column about Americans losing faith in free markets and the financial industry. He described how he was startled during a visit to Swarthmore College, where a student asked him whether it was immoral to seek banking jobs. Using the student as a foil, Kristof worried that “America’s grasping capitalists are turning young Americans into socialists.” He advised liberals to “be wary of self-selecting” out of jobs in the financial industry, and cautioned students not to “mock their classmates who choose Citigroup over CARE.”

I’m the student who asked Kristof the question. He’s wrong.

January 26, 07:44 AM

DAN KAUFMAN at the New York Times:

Yet Judge Garzón is now himself under legal attack for confronting Spain’s own dark history. He is on trial this week before the Spanish Supreme Court for daring to investigate crimes committed during the Spanish Civil War and the nearly four-decade dictatorship of Gen. Francisco Franco. The case against him is fueled by domestic political vendettas rather than substantive legal arguments and it could dramatically set back international efforts to hold human-rights violators accountable for their crimes.

Wrong. Wrong. Oh, and wrong.

January 24, 08:30 AM

IS FRENCH PARENTING really superior?

January 24, 08:00 AM

AGAIN, in the coverage of the trials against judge Garzon in the English-language media (for example) we see an amazing display of distortion, if not ignorance.

He's was not tried last week for going against a corruption network, or this week for going after Franco's crimes, or soon for something related to both cases. No; on the first two cases he's being tried for abuse of power, and on the third for allegedly taking bribes, no less. So as not to repeat myself, let me redirect you to two posts I wrote some about this some time ago: one, two.

January 24, 07:30 AM

AND YET more Photoshop disasters...

January 23, 01:48 PM

EUROPEAN BANKS prepare for worst, hoard cash

January 23, 09:01 AM

IS the 'Proustian phenomenon' (smells triggering evocative memories) true? Maybe not, according to a study.

(via)

January 23, 08:00 AM

WHY labor is what's killing Spain economy: the divide between insiders (with fix long-term contracts) and outsiders (with temporary contracts). I agree except with one thing: introducing a single open-ended contract only for new hires, as the post suggests, does resolve the problem albeit too slow -- the country wouldn't have a single labor contract, in practice for its whole workforce, until all current insiders are retired. This will take years, and the country can't afford it. Somehow it needs the new regulation affecting everyone, both new and old contracts, already. Yes, this will mean some sacrifice from current workers with a fix contract but, after all, isn't everyone saying that to solve the crisis it's necessary that the haves give something to the have-nots in the name of solidarity? Or is that only for the financial haves?

January 20, 07:30 AM

"OUR PLAN for reviving Spain": Spain's minister of economy and competitiveness Luis de Guindos explains it at the WSJ.

January 19, 09:00 AM

ALWAYS-CONTRARIAN Jaron Lanier distances himself from the anti-SOPA-fest:

The legislation has indeed included draconian remedies in various drafts, so I join my colleagues in criticizing the bills. But our opposition has become so extreme that we are doing more harm than good to our own cause. Those rare tech companies that have come out in support of SOPA are not merely criticized but barred from industry events and subject to boycotts. We, the keepers of the flame of free speech, are banishing people for their speech. The result is a chilling atmosphere, with people afraid to speak their minds.


Our melodrama is driven by a vision of an open Internet that has already been distorted, though not by the old industries that fear piracy.

January 19, 08:30 AM

WIKILEAKS AND ASSANGE'S 15 minutes of fame seem to be running off, writes Jack Shafer:

In late October, a deflated Julian Assange called a press conference in London to announce he may have to mothball WikiLeaks. The reason, he said, was money. Visa, MasterCard, Western Union and Paypal were preventing supporters from donating to the organization, Assange explained. He warned that unless the bankers’ blockade was lifted at once, the cash-strapped organization would soon die.
 

By then, however, the biggest problem WikiLeaks faced wasn’t financial. After all, the group had always operated on a shoestring, its leader famously sleeping somewhere other than at home or in a hotel most nights. The main concern was productivity: WikiLeaks and Assange, its 40-year-old provocateur, were out of scoops.
 

And oh, what a string of scoops it had run off in the previous 18 months. WikiLeaks’ 2010 posting of a classified video showing civilian casualties during an Apache helicopter attack in Baghdad, which Assange titled “Collateral Murder,” drew debate and viewers around the world. Then came its distribution of classified documents from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Guantánamo Bay prison camp files, and the classified U.S. State Department diplomatic cables to the Guardian, the New York Times, Der Spiegel, and other news outlets.
 

But after the diplomatic cable stories petered out in September, so too did WikiLeaks. Its slide into irrelevance after months of dominating the headlines should have been enough to humble even Assange. His five-year-old supranational group, with its hardened computer infrastructure and sophisticated encryption algorithms, was supposedly immune to government crackdowns and corporate retaliation. But instead of flourishing, as Assange had predicted, WikiLeaks all but vaporized in its 16th minute of fame: Its auteur was shackled with a security bracelet, fighting extradition to Sweden, where authorities want to question him regarding charges of sexual assault; WikiLeaks members and allies, alienated by the dictatorial Assange, had abandoned him; and leakers were no longer making their substantial deposits in WikiLeaks computers.

Keep reading.

January 19, 08:00 AM

ANOTHER great Star Wars-themed Volkswagen ad. Enjoy:

January 19, 07:30 AM

A PHOTO GALLERY of famous literary drunks and addicts, at LIFE magazine.

January 18, 11:28 AM
January 17, 07:30 AM

THE MILKY WAY seen from the desert. It's from a Spanish blog, but the amazing pictures speak for themselves.

January 16, 11:04 AM
January 16, 09:56 AM

ET TU, RON?

Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul has been spending large amounts on airfare as a congressman, flying first class on dozens of taxpayer-funded flights to his home state. The practice conflicts with the image that Paul portrays as the only presidential candidate serious about cutting federal spending.

Paul flew first class on at least 31 round-trip flights and 12 one-way flights since May 2009 when he was traveling between Washington and his district in Texas, according to a review by The Associated Press of his congressional office expenses. Four other round-trip tickets and two other one-way tickets purchased during the period were eligible for upgrades to first-class after they were bought, but those upgrades would not be documented in the expense records.

Paul, whose distrust of big government is the centerpiece of his presidential campaign, trusts the more expensive government rate for Continental Airlines when buying his tickets. Paul chose not to buy the cheaper economy tickets at a fraction of the price because they aren't refundable or as flexible for scheduling, his congressional staff said.

"We always get him full refundable tickets since the congressional schedule sometimes changes quickly," said Jeff Deist, Paul's chief of staff. Paul might have to pay out of his own pocket for canceled flights in some cases if he didn't buy refundable tickets, Deist said.

But records show that most of the flights for Paul were purchased well in advance and few schedule changes were necessary. Nearly two-thirds of the 49 tickets were purchased at least two weeks in advance, and 42 percent were bought at least three weeks in advance, the AP's review found.

Aquí es donde están los detalles actualizados de cómo localizarme en cada momento. También es un agregador de la información básica sobre mí y los principales proyectos en los que estoy involucrado.

This is where you can find always-updated contact info and what I'm up to, or where I am. It's also an aggregator of my basic info and the main projects I'm involved in.

Short bio: José Miguel Guardia has a two-decade experience in online media, technology, and internet businesses as executive, consultant, and entrepreneur. He's the founder of Austin, Texas-based TMR Productions LLC. Until November 2008, Jose was Supervising Editor for Los Angeles-based PJ Media (formerly known as Pajamas Media). Throughout his career he has worked, advised, invested, and consulted for a wide range of organizations of all sizes.

For the last decade, he's also written and commented on political, economic, technologic, and cultural topics on his widely-read blog, Barcepundit,  with editions in both English and Spanish.

He has written, contributed, been interviewed, or quoted on both the tech and news fields at The New York Times, Wired, The Industry Standard, PriceWaterhouseCoopers' Creating Wealth magazine, Bloomberg TV, Baquía.com, Actualidad Económica, La Vanguardia, El Periódico de Catalunya, Avui, as well in several other print, online, and audiovisual media in the U.S., Spain, and internationally.

José Guardia is a J.D. from Barcelona University, and has studied several post-graduate courses on marketing, finance and management. He now has Barcelona as his home base, though it might be more accurate to say that he spends most of his time in cyberspace...

Email: jm -at- guardia -dot- name

Direct Phone - Los Angeles: (+1) 213-814-0717

Direct Phone - Barcelona: (+34) 93-393-8153

AIM: jmguardia

Skype: jmguardia

Blog (in Spanish): barcepundit.blogspot.com

Blog (in English): barcepundit-english.blogspot.com

My Facebook Profile

My Facebook Mini-Feed

My LinkedIn Profile

My Twitter Feed

My Old, Still-Under-Construction Website (with article links)

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