Manifesto in Defense of Fundamental Rights on the Internet

Published on March 19, 2010 | No comments | 899 views

A group of journalists, bloggers, professionals and creators want to express their firm opposition to the inclusion in a Draft Law of some changes to Spanish laws restricting the freedoms of expression, information and access to culture on the Internet. They also declare that:

1. Copyright should not be placed above citizens’ fundamental rights to privacy, security, presumption of innocence, effective judicial protection and freedom of expression.

2. Suspension of fundamental rights is and must remain an exclusive competence of judges. This blueprint, contrary to the provisions of Article 20.5 of the Spanish Constitution, places in the hands of the executive the power to keep Spanish citizens from accessing certain websites.

3. The proposed laws would create legal uncertainty across Spanish IT companies, damaging one of the few areas of development and future of our economy, hindering the creation of startups, introducing barriers …

Depthscraper: The underground building against earthquakes

Published on March 3, 2010 | 1 Comment | 1,375 views

Japan is subject to earthquakes of distressing violence at times; and the concentration into small areas of increaing city populations invites great destruction. After the Tokio earthquake of 1923, unprecedented in magnitude of property loss as well as life, the best engineering brains of Japan tried to find out a solution of the problem of building earthquake-proof structures; and a clue was given by the interesting fact that tunels and subterranean structures suffer less in seismic tremors that edifices on the surface of the ground, where the vibration is unchecked.

In 1931 some engineers came up with the design of the enormus structure ilustrated below. The proposed “Depthscraper” -whose frame resembles that of a 35-story skycraper of the type familiar in American large cities- was design to be built in a mammoth excavation beneath the ground. Only a single story protrudes above the surface furnishing acess to the numerous elevators; housing …