Spain

I never really considered it until today when I was listening to MacVoices, a podcast by Chuck Joiner (who incidentally is soon to be featured on the Mac 20 Questions Podcast) A guest of his was talking about screen sharing and telling of the many benefits. I thought I must give that a try.

I can see that if my Mom gets a Mac, and she has said that she is looking into it. I would be able to help her out with using screen sharing even when she is in England and I am here in Spain. Also I have some applications on my iMac that I might want to control from the Macbook either because I am too lazy to get off the sofa or if I am away somewhere else.
I will have to set the iMac to wake up when I contact it for the screenshare. Those applications would be the ones that I have bought for the iMac but are only licensed to work on one machine. I don't like those licenses. If I have bought software I should be able to use on which ever of my computers, it can even be set so that they can't be used on two computers at the same time. I have not yet worked out how to be in two places at the same time, so no worries there.

I suppose though that using screen sharing will be like being in two places at the same time allowing me to use an iMac paid application from my MacBook. Then when the iPad comes I could use an application on there to do the same. Now that makes the iPad even more useful.

Title: Architecture 2009
Date of Issue: 9 September 2009
Country: Spain
Denominations: 0,32 € x 6

The Architecture series is made up of six stamps devoted to the Puente de Los Tilos in the island of La Palma, the Canal de Castilla and some other four ones making up the souvenir sheet depicting the four towers of a new business centre near the Paseo de la Castellana in Madrid, amongst which the two known as Cristal and Espacio.
The Puente de los Tilos, is a bridge built by engineers Santiago Pérez-Fadón Martinez and José Emilio Herrero Beneítez and their team near San Andrés y Sauces in the island of La Palma (Canary Islands). It was inaugurated on the 18th December 2004 and it consists of a 255m span arch. The arch and spandrel piers are made of high resistance concrete. The length of the bridge is 357 m and stands more than 150m high over the del Agua gully. With this bridge, the authors broke the span record in the building of concrete arches in Spain.

The Canal de Castilla is one of the most important civil engineering constructions in Spain. It was built as a means of communication for the region of Tierra de Campos so that agricultural produce could be transported along the canal to the northern sea ports. It was finished by 1849 and has an inverted Y shape with a total length of 270 km running through the provinces of Palencia, Burgos and Valladolid. With the arrival of the train, the canal lost its purpose as a means of communication and became an irrigation channel in 1909. Since 1972 the Hydrographic Confederation of the Duero River is in charge of its management and maintenance.

The four towers standing out in the skyline of Madrid are built over the grounds of the old centre of the Ciudad Deportiva Real Madrid (Real Madrid Sports City) which is now a business park. There are buildings such as the one designed by Norman Foster resembling a shelf and measuring 250m, the highest building in Spain. The Torre de Cristal is 249 m high and is the work of Argentinean architect César Pelli; the third one is a triangular tower 236m high covered in glass and designed by Carlos Rubio Carvajal and Enrique Alvarez-Sala Walter; lastly, Torre Espacio measures 223m, is quadrangular shaped and is the work of the Mew York studio of Pei, Cobb Freed & Partners.

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1. Bridges of Taiwan
2. FAROS 2009 – Spain
3. ARCHITECTURE 2008 – Spain

Title: Christmas 2009
Date of Issue: 31 October 2009
Country: Spain
Denominations: 0,32, 0,62 € 2,47 €

Spain issued four stamps featuring Maternity, Coming of three wise men and Adoración al niño to celebrate Christmas this year

The first stamp called Maternity is a composition from an original painting in oil and pencil depicting a young mother embracing her baby.

The second stamp called Llegan los Reyes Magos, (The coming of the Three Wise Men) has elements allusive to the visit of the three kings form the East. At the top of the painting there is a paper note standing out from the background. This mark is characteristic of the work of J. Carrero and in this painting the paper refers to the letter children send the Three Wise Men asking for their Christmas presents. Beneath the letter there are some children’s shoes and toys (a doll in a sailor’s outfit and a tin motorbike). There also features an Arab ceramic tile which is another characteristic and recurrent element in the paintings by J. Carrero.

The other two stamps that make up this issue are in a souvenir sheet format in a mixed composition called Adoración al niño a y paisaje con mujer en rojo depicting a photographic reproduction of an old wood carving from the Italian school and a painting by J.Carrero featuring a woman gazing at a landscape. In this mixed composition, resulting from the use of heterogenic materials, there is a perfect correlation and synchrony between modern and classic elements. The innovative contributions J. Carrero makes in this souvenir sheet and stamps result in an accurate balance of the composition.

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1. Christmas 2009
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Title: Princess Margarita Teresa
Date of Issue: 22 October 2009
Country: Spain
Denominations: 0,62, 0,78 €

Painting is the theme chosen by Spain and Austria for their joint issue depicting Velazquez’s princess Margarita Teresa, a common figure that historically linked both countries. The souvenir sheet issued by Correos is made up of two stamps one depicting a portrait of Infanta Margarita Teresa in a Blue Dress and the other depicting this same princess featuring as the central figure in Velázquez’s masterpiece Las Meninas.

Princess Margarita Teresa was born in Madrid in 1651 and was the daughter of king Philip IV of Spain and Marianna of Austria. She became Empress of the Holy Roman Empire by her arranged marriage to her maternal uncle, Leopold I. There are other pictures of her, also painted by Velázquez at various stages of her childhood, These portraits were usually sent by King Philip IV to the court of Vienna in order to keep Leopold apprised of how young Margarita Teresa looked and how she was doing at the distant Spanish court. Margarita Teresa of Austria died in childbirth in Vienna in 1673 at the early age of 22, when delivering her daughter Anna of Austria.

The second stamp that makes up this joint issue depicts the Infanta Margarita Teresa in a Blue Dress painted in 1659, a year before Velazquez’s death. It is a court portrait featuring an eight year old princess, in a dark blue and silver dress, with gold braids and a golden band. The girl has a pale, solemn countenance and blond hair enhanced by the dark background. This oil on canvas painting belongs to the Museum of Art History of Vienna (Kunsthistorisches Museum), whilst Las Meninas, painted by Velázquez in 1656 belongs to the Prado Museum in Madrid. In this painting, princess Margarita appears surrounded by different characters, including the painter, who are being watched by Philip IV and Marianna of Austria reflected on a mirror. The princess was five years old at the time and is dressed in a farthingale and cream and grey skirt.

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In a perfect world scientific researchers should be able to freely pursue new objective truth. It is useless to say research ought to be without politics. It is an inescapable reality that research is funded, and the money must come from somewhere. But money is often given with political ties implicit.

According to Haviv Rettig Gur ADL blasts Madrid for excluding Ariel U. from solar competition in the Jerusalem Post, Spain and allegedly the European Union have taken political interference in research to a new destructive level. They have disqualified the Ariel University Center of Samaria's Solar house team from an innovative competition to raise public awareness, the Solar Decathon.

the Spanish Foreign Ministry said the decision was based on the "position of the international community" on Israeli settlements and the fact that "the European Union has repeatedly declared that settlements are illegal under international law and constitute an obstacle to peace."

Thus the Ariel University team, mere researchers and innovators, who would wish of all things not to be involved in politics, are penalised because of the politics of some people in the European Union (EU) policy area think “settlements” are an obstacle to peace.

Firstly there is no war. There was a war in Gaza. That is over. There is a war in Afghanistan. The EU members involved might target that area lacking of peace.

Title: Centenary Football Federation
Date of Issue: 14 October 2009
Country: Spain
Denominations: 0,32 €

The Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) was founded in 1909 under the denomination of Federación Española de Clubs de Footbol. Other federations of similar nature were created at the same time until in 1913, on commission of King Alfonso XIII, they were all united in one body on June 30 1913, in San Sebastian. The resulting organization was created under the name of Real Federación Española de Fútbol.

Amongst the issues discussed in the constituent assembly were the legal bases of the Spanish Championship and the institutionalization of the championships organized by the regional federations as a previous phase of the Copa del Rey. In 1914, the RFEF joined the FIFA and in 1920 built up a national team to take part in the Olympic Games in Antwerp that same year.

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