Mexican home remedy against the common cold

I'll share with you my family's own home remedy against the common cold. Hope it is useful also for you. This recipe is for one person.

Ingredients
1 peeled raw garlic clove
2 tablespoons of honey
3 tablespoons of lime/green lemon juice

Cut the garlic in small pieces (crushing might be better). Mix with honey and lime juice. Drink immediately. Turn face away from loved ones.

Some people I know also have a small shot of tequila added to the mix (or on its own) under the premise "Si no se te quita, se te olvida" (if it doesn't cure you, it'll make you forget it).

Mexican genome study results released

Mexican media report today that the results of a gene mapping study of the Mexican population have been released. As expected, we are a mix of different ethnic groups (around 35) and in average about 65% of our genes are not of European, Asian or African origin (i.e. they are Native American), but the results tend to vary, with the highest incidence of European genes in the northern state of Sonora (58%) and the highest of African genes in the southern state of Guerrero (22%).

So, is science helping us answer the question of who are we, or not yet? ;-)

So where the bloody hell are you?

An advertising campaing that shows that cultural differences are certainly not restricted to speakers of different languages, or languages other than English, "So where the bloody hell are you?" was a very controversial Tourism Australia campaign. Even though I like the ad, I find it really funny.



The worst part is that it seems to not have impacted the amount of visitors to Australia very much where it was aired.

A mis lectores hispanoparlantes: Es como si hicieran un comercial turístico de Venezuela y la Miss Universo al final le preguntara a la audiencia "¿Y dónde coño estás?".

What is the West?

That is somethingI have come accross with a couple of times during my time here, the definition of what comprises the Western world varies widely depending on who you ask: some people will say that it's only Anglo-Saxon North America and Western Europe, some people will include Eastern Europe, some will include Australasia, some Latin America and some all of the above.

Once, when having this discussion about East and West I asked a colleague at work regarding my belonging to said construct, and this person answered "Maybe you are, but I wouldn't say that everyone in your country is". Further expanding that thought, I started wondering what it is. If a country that follows Christendom to the extent of being the second largest Catholic country in the world, is also a heir to the Roman legal tradition and has the second largest amount of speakers of a Latin-based language in the world is not Western given that it also has a strong Native Amarican component, then I don't know what the West it is.

Frankly, I think there is a confusion between the concepts of western, northern and developed countries, but that's just me.

Song for the flu

"I wonder how, I wonder why, yesterday I told you about the blue, blue sky, and all that I can see is just another lemon tea."

The Space Elevator

We know that the world financial markets are still reeling from the China effect, but let's think a little bit longer term.

The first time I read about the concept of space elevators was in Kim Stanley Robinson's excellent and highly recommended Mars trilogy. I found them again while playing Civilization IV. So the question is, what is a space elevator and why do I mention it in this blog along the rest of my musings and ruminations?

A space elevator, as this article from Space.com might make clearer, is exactly what its name denotes: a lift between the surface of our planet (or any planet) and outer space. The physics of it are rather simple, as they follow similar patters as such for geosynchronous satellites. Technologically speaking it doesn't require the development of completely unknown technologies, but rather of areas currently on the works. Why does it matter? Simply because it makes the transport of payloads to space much more cost-effective (and furthermore, enjoys economies of scale), which basically means that once the huge initial invesment is made, space exploration (and potentially exploitation, such as asteroid mining) becomes cheap enough to be performed on a larger scale than currently.

Given that it can be argued that exploration ages spur economic growth, as was the case with the discovery of the Americas by European explorers in the 16th century, this project could be the key for humanity to regain theinitiative in its own development.

Daydreaming? Maybe. But so were the internet, automobiles and many, many other things that we now take for granted.

TV series: Heroes

Yesterday I had to stay at home doing a project for my marketing class instead of going to my French lesson, and since I finished early I turned on the TV.

Luckily for me, they had the season's beginning of Heroes, a TV series with a super hero premise straight out of the comic book tradition. As corny as it may sound, the plot is quite engrossing and the quality of the series is really good.

Pity that it is on Mondays at the same time as my French class. I'll have to get the DVDs when they're out.

Sé que debería dejarlo pasar...

Y por eso lo escribo. El primer fin de semana de diciembre salí con un par de amigos a tomarnos un par de cervezas. En el bar escuché a un grupo de hispanoparlantes, uno de los cuales estaba absolutamente seguro de que era del sur de la Ciudad de México. Como se veían más o menos jóvenes (treintañeros), decidí acercármeles, y con ellos pasamos juntos la velada hablando de política y cosas peores de una manera amena.

Pueden imaginarse mi sorpresa cuando me voy encontrando el blog de uno de ellos, en el cual echaba pestes de mí y de mis acompañantes. Aunque la indignación fue momentánea (al fin y al cabo, qué importa), francamente no me esperaba ese tipo de actitudes infantiles de una persona adulta y supuestamente de amplios horizontes.

Uno no es monedita de oro para caerle bien a todo mundo, pero me voy dando cuenta que en todos lados se cuecen habas. Qué lástima.

8th Matchday: Chivas 2-0 Querétaro

The Guadalajara team finally won a Mexican league match at home, beating relegation candidates Querétaro 2-0. The White Roosters (Gallos Blancos) actually didn't play such a bad match, but Tepa Solís (on loan from Chivas) conceded a penalty by handballing in the box which Omar Bravo duly scored, and Ramoncito Morales sealed the scoresheet with a flawless free kick. Chivas now leads the table. The goals below.