miércoles, 30 de enero de 2008

Talgo, the best spanish technology for trains



Maybe you have not heard about it, but if you take some time reading this short introduction and more in Talgo official webpage , http://www.talgo.com/htm/English/English.htm you will be surprised by the achievements of spanish engineering,


"On August the 21st 1941, a Spanish engineer, Alejandro Goicoechea, successfully carried out tests on a singular solution for railway vehicle axle guidance. This was a new wheel structure, constructed from a framework of modules formed by isosceles triangle shapes, the wheels being mounted on the bases and linked together so that the axles were naturally guided along the track, avoiding direct wheel friction on the outer rail of curves. This wheel structure designed by Goicoechea reached 75 kilometres per hour between Leganés and Villaverde (Spain).
Shortly afterwards, on the 28th of October 1942, Talgo Patents S.A. was established. Its objective was industrial and commercial development of this new system, one of the most innovative railway concepts in history.Nearly 60 years have passed since that great initial venture. Six decades during which the rate of innovation has been maintained and enabled Talgo to remain at the forefront of the railway technology producing Spain's most prestigious industrial product.Various decades in which attention to the service of Talgo users has resulted in trains with high levels of availability, reliability and safety."

viernes, 4 de enero de 2008

Spanish flu and conquistadores



Late in the spring of 1918 the Spanish wire service Agencia Fabra sent cables of an unusual nature to Reuter's news service headquarters in London. "A strange form of disease of epidemic character has appeared in Madrid," it said. "The epidemic is of a mild nature, no deaths having been reported." The illness began with a cough, then headache and backache, fatigue, high fever, racing heart, loss of appetite and labored breathing. It usually lasted about three days. Cases had cropped up over the spring and summer in other countries, too, from Norway to India, China to Costa Rica. But in Spain, suddenly 8 million people were down with the bug. And as the summer of 1918 turned to fall, the epidemic lost its mildness: people started to die.
The influenza commonly called "Spanish flu" killed more people than the guns of World War I. Estimates put the worldwide death toll at 21,642,274. Some one billion people were affected by the disease -- half of the total human population. It came at a time when 19 nations were at war and the disruption, stress, and privation of war certainly aided the flu's transmission. It killed people on every continent except Antarctica, with the most lives lost in Asia and the highest percentage of population killed in India. From August 1918, when cases of the flu started looking abnormally high, until the following July when they returned to about normal, 20 million Americans became sick and more than 500,000 died. In October, 1918, the flu reached its peak, killing about 195,000 Americans. About 57,000 American soldiers died from influenza while the U.S. was at war; about 53,500 died in battle.
There wasn't much doctors could do. In the course of the epidemic nearly every known therapy was tried -- quinine tablets, bleeding, castor oil, digitalis, morphine, enemas, aspirin, tobacco, hot baths, cold baths, iron tonics, and expectorants of pine tar. Little was known about the virus, except that it was contagious. After deaths from the disease began in earnest, many local governing bodies closed down theaters, churches, and other public gatherings. Ordinances made it illegal to spit, cough, or sneeze in public -- with threat of $500 fines in New York City. When people went out they wore gauze masks over their nose and mouth, often soaked in camphor or other medicinal substances.
After months of terrorizing people around the world, the "Spanish lady" (called "The Naples Soldier" in Spain, and a variety of other names around the world) seemed to withdraw. It had been the most dire epidemic since the Middle Ages, the third worst in recorded history. For all its destruction, it did not get much press at the time. War and then peace monopolized the front pages. And still little is known about the origin or nature of the killer virus. Many believe the modern "swine flu" virus is a descendant of the deadly 1918 flu. Some theorize that its stronger ancestor ganged up with a bacteria to wreak havoc on the human population. In recent years, vaccinations against various strains of influenza have been introduced.
The disease was first observed at Fort Riley, Kansas on March 4, 1918 and Queens on March 11, 1918. In August, 1918, a more virulent strain appeared simultaneously in Brest, France (you could link this one with the american troops fighting in Europe), in West Africa at Freetown, Sierra Leone and in the U.S. at Boston. The Allies countries of World War I came to call it the Spanish Flu, primarily because the pandemic received greater press attention after it moved from France to Spain in November, 1918. Spain was not involved in the war and had not imposed wartime censorship. As you can see saying the truth is dangerous for a country like Spain with so many historic enemies.
Scientists have used tissue samples from frozen victims to reproduce the virus for study. Given the strain's extreme virulence there has been controversy regarding the wisdom of such research. Among the conclusions of this research is that the virus kills via a cytokine storm, which explains its unusually severe nature and the unusual age profile of its victims (the virus caused an overreaction of the body's immune system - strong immune systems ravaged the body, while weaker ones did far less damage). So, as you have read, this disease had nothing to do with Spain in its origin, it started in the USA, and the only mistake of Spain was it did not use censorship, that Spain told the truth. Besides, would anybody blame the US troops of genocide for bringing this disease to Europe, then why are there people saying Spanish conquistadores were genocides when it is proved that most of the indians who died after the Spanish arrival in the new world were because of illnesses that did not exist in America?