The Cies Islands (in front of Vigo, my hometown):
The
"Cathedral Beach" (Praia das Catedrais):
The
canyon of river Sil:
The
Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela:
This page is devoted to some non-economic stuff. It is just a collection of some of the things that I find interesting.
I've scheduled it into five "categories"
Books Music Sudoku Galicia
BOOKS: I always liked Science Fiction books and I've made a list of some authors and books I particularly enjoyed. Just a clarification, I mean Science Fiction, not Fantasy Fiction (like Lord of the Rings, for instance). It is not that I don't like fantasy books, but I find very interesting to read what some people predict that the future may look like.
Orson Scott-Card: The book Ender's Game is one of my favourites. It is the story of how, in a distant future in which humanity is threatened by aliens, the world government selects a group of small children to train them in "the arts of war". The book focuses on the story of Ender Wiggin, the best among those "future heroes". This book won two of the most important awards for science-fiction books (the Hugo and the Nebula awards). It is also the starting point of a saga of books about Ender (Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, Children of the Mind...)
Olaf Stapledon: He is a British philosopher from the first half of the 20th century who wrote some very interesting science fiction novels, full of philosophical content. I enjoyed particularly two: Sirius, that is the story of a scientific experiment that creates a dog with the brain and intelligence of a human, raised and educated in a human family. I know the plot may sound a bit simple but the book is really great!, it describes the dilemmas and problems faced by Sirius in a really credible and interesting way.
My other favourite Stapledon's novel is Star Maker that describes the entire history of life in the universe. It tackles philosophical themes such as the essence of life or the relationship between creation and creator. It is a book full of tremendous imagination in which Stapledon creates all sorts of worlds, always being able to describe a logical pattern of evolution for the societies that live in them. It is a strange book (not really a novel, probably) but it is really worthwhile.Arthur C. Clarke: Despite this author is worldwide known by the book "2001: A Space Odyssey", there is another book I like more, it is called Childhood's End. It is a story about the evolution of humanity in which there are some characters (aliens named The Overlords) that, maybe it is just a "profesional bias", but remind me of what we do in Economic Theory (I don't want to spoil the book, but I think the role these Overlords play is that of a "benevolent social planner" or "regulator" or whatever name we give to the "Benevolent Dictator" we use in many papers).
Isaac Asimov: I have read and enjoyed many science-fiction novels by Isaac Asimov, who also was a fantastic writer of popular-science books. Probably his master-piece is the Foundation saga, but I have a personal weakness for the short-stories book I, Robot.
Ray Bradbury: I guess no science-fiction list of writers is complete without Ray Bradbury. His books The Martian Chronicles and Fahrenheit 451 are among all-time classics. Despite as Bradbury himself wrote, The Martian Chronicles are not science fiction, but fantasy. Anyway, it is a great book!
Aldous Huxley: I have only read one book by this author A Brave New World. It is a novel that anticipates how developments in reproductive technology may change society. In the novel humanity is peaceful, healthy, and technologically advanced but, in exchange all children are created from embryos grown in factories, and each individual's destiny is determined long before they are "born".
MUSIC: It is always difficult to select and write the music you like best. At least for me, this depends a lot on my mood. However, there are some groups or artists to whom I've remained I quite "loyal" throughout the years:
Pearl Jam: To me it was the best group from the Grunge movement. They are still active doing some very interesting records, though I think their best album is still the first one "Ten". They are also really good live-players. If someone does not know them and is curious this is a list of some of the songs that I prefer: Jeremy, Black, Daughter, Better Man, Dissident, Given to Fly... In 2011 they will be celebrating their 20th anniversary with a live album and a film (documentary).
Red Hot Chili Peppers: What can I say? The album Blood, Sugar, Sex Magik is still one of my favourites records. It contains 17 songs and balances the power of: My Lovely Man, Suck my Kiss or The Greeting Song with ballads like the famous Under the Bridge or others like Breaking the Girl or, my favourite I Could Have Lied.
Dire Straits: I know this does not fit well with Pearl Jam or the Red Hot Chili Peppers, but I've liked this band since I was 13 or 14 and now it is too late to change my mind!
ORIGAMI: This is a hobby I have had for a long time. There are some really nice and simple figures that can be created just folding a square piece of paper (it is the usual starting point). There are, of course, extremely sophisticated figures that require real expertise (that obviously I don't have!!). If you want to know a bit more and obtain some diagrams that guide through the folding process of different figures, you can visit the following pages:
http://www.origami.com/ It has a good collection of diagrams scheduled in three different levels of complexity.
- http://www.origami.as/home.html This is the page of Joseph Wu, it has a huge database of origami diagrams. It is has some really incredible figures.
SUDOKU: You probably know the addictive japanese game of placing numbers in a 9x9 matrix. The idea is to fill the matrix with numbers from 1 to 9 such that in any row, column and 3x3 sub-matrix there is never a number that is repeated. If you want to spend some time solving these puzzles, here you have a some web pages that offer Sudokus:
http://www.websudoku.com/ Offers you on-line Sudokus that range from easy to "evil".
http://www.opensky.ca/~jdhildeb/software/sudokugen/ It provides an on-line Sudoku generator.
http://www.easton.me.uk/tcl/sudoku/index.php#download David Easton provides a downloadable Sudoku generator (only for personal use).
GALICIA: Despite I currently live in Seville, I am originally from Galicia, a region in the North-West corner of Spain. It is a region with a green landscape that has some pre-Roman Celtic origins. This can be seen, for instance, in the traditional music (in which bag-pipes are very important) and folklore that is connected with that of Brittany or Ireland.
I just wanted here to show some nice pictures of Galicia, just in case you are curious to know how it looks like (if you click on the small picture, you'll see a larger one)
The Cies Islands (in front of Vigo, my hometown):
