I read on The Sun: "A SCHOOL headmaster was branded a killjoy yesterday after he ordered pupils to stop HUGGING each other."

The headmaster, Steven Kenning, says that "This is very serious not only for the victim but for anyone accused of acting inappropriately."

First of all I'd like to analyze the role of the victim of the hug... so are we considering a hug as an attack? That’s weird! I know that Spanish and British culture are different, and that here we have way more assumed the physical contact, but I think that's a bit too extremist... I can't understand how guys like this can be headmaster of a school.

In addition, he should know that if you ban something to a bunch of kids the only thing that will happen is that they’ll keep doing what you're banning, more often of course.

So I'm not worried about this kids stop hugging or anything, but I just think you can't ban affective signals between people, that's just WRONG, we need relation with others, we're "social animals", so we just NEED IT, it's part of us.

Anyway, as someone said to the newspaper reporters “I don’t see anything wrong with hugging — it’s better than fighting.” Still some sensible people around...

And if you are ever victim of a hug, just shove the other person away and fight him/her... fight is not banned!

Bé senyors i senyores, ja es veia a venir fa temps que la llei antitabac seria un cachondeo i, poc a poc, ens han ant donant la raó als més escèptics davant la famosa normativa.

Llegeixo a la web de El Mundo que ara resulta que a la comunitat de Madrid han plantejat un decret per “ajustar” la llei del ministeri de sanitat, per tal de que els fumadors no es sentin “perseguits coaccionats o discriminats”.

Bàsicament el que diu aquest petit “ajust” de la llei, es que es podrà fumar a les cafeteries de les oficines, a les terrasses, a les bodes i altres "actes commemoratius” i (ara ve la part bona) que no caldrà fer obres als bars per separar la zona de fumadors i no fumadors, només caldrà un separador… hem passat de la “necesidad de barreras físicas infranqueables” a un trist “bastará con un biombo.”

Totes aquestes modificacions es justifiquen amb l’argument, entre d’altres, de que “el tabaquismo, al contrario que el alcoholismo, jamás ha planteado problemas de orden público o social"... tot i que això es discutible, perquè si jo vaig a un restaurant, pago 20€ per dinar i m’asseuen al costat d’un biombo amb un tio fumant puros a l’altre costat... bé, llavors tindríem un “problema de orden público” degut al tabaquisme.

De fet, en general, trobo bastant malament que una comunitat autònoma pugui crear un decret que serveixi per passar-se (subtilment) pel forro una llei estatal. Evidentment la versió oficial és que els ajustos respecten la llei de l’Executiu central, pro al meu parer sembla prou evident que no.

I jo des de la meva ignorància em pregunto: això ho poden fer totes les comunitats i amb qualsevol llei? Aquesta decisió de la senyoreta Aguirre crearà un precedent de cara a la modificació d’altres lleis? Reflexionem-hi.

The Oslo Natural History Museum opened an exhibition some weeks ago entitled “Against Nature?". The exhibition shows pictures and models of different species of animals having homosexual relationships.

In the exposition they say that homosexuality has been observed among 1,500 species, and that in 500 of those is well documented. "We hope to reject the all too well known argument that homosexual behavior is a crime against nature".

The organizer of the exposition, the biologist Geir Soeli said in an interview that, amongst animals, the percentage of homosexuality goes from 2 to 15%, depending on the species.

He also clarifies that homosexuality between animals is not the same as the one between humans, but it’s similar. In humans feeling are involved too, so we have to be careful when making comparisons.

The exposition (amongst many other interesting thing) also claims that sometimes two birds of the same sex can take care of eggs “donated” by another female. In the case of flamingos, "two males can hold a much larger territory than a regular flamingo pair, thus more chicks can grow up".

You can see the entire interview in Spanish in the ADN website, and a whole article on the BCC site

I think this idea is just great. It’s good that someone made an exposition about something unknown to the general public, at least I didn’t know that homosexuality amongst animals was so extended…

Of course many people will freak out and think that these Oslo guys will go to hell… but at least I hope they think twice before saying that gay people go “against nature”.