Bull fights: Death in the Afternoon

Death in the Afternoon
by Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway loved Spain, and he loved bullfighting as well. In fact, he has dedicated an entire book to bullfighting, which ranges between an interesting narrative and anthropological field work. He is fascinated with many aspects of the bullfights, who of which I have here:

I am afraid however due to the danger of death it involves it would never have much success among the amateur sportsmen of America and England who play games. We, in games, are not fascinated by death, its nearness and its avoidance. We are fascinated by victory and we replace the avoidance of death by the avoidance of defeat. It is a very nice symbolism but it takes more cojones to be a sportsman when death is a closer party to the game. The bull in the capeas is rarely killed. This should appeal to sportsmen who are lovers of animals.

...but most often as amateurs, purely for sport, for the immediate excitement, and it is very great excitement; and for the retrospective pleasure, of having shown their contempt for death on a hot day in their own town square. Many go in from pride, hoping that they will be brave. Many find they are not brave at all; but at least they went in. There is absolutely nothing for them to gain except the inner satisfaction of having been in the ring with a bull; itself a thing that any one who has done it will always remember. It is a strange feeling to have an animal come toward you consciously seeking to kill you, his eyes open looking at you, and see the oncoming of the lowered horn that he intends to kill you with. It gives enough of a sensation so that there are always men willing to go into the capeas for the pride of having experienced it and the pleasure of having tried some bullfighting manoeuvre with a real bull although the actual pleasure at the time may not be great.

Unique language of Basque: A Short History of Spain

A Short History of Spain
by Mary Platt Parmele

The world is rich with unique languages, though the relatively recent increase in cultures mixing has led to plenty of languages with shared histories. One place where this has been well documented is in Europea and one of the more unique languages is Basque.

The language of the Basques bears no resemblance to any of the Indo-European, nor indeed to any known tongue. It is so difficult, so intricate in construction, that only those who learn it in infancy can ever master it.

It should be mentioned that some words in Spanish like "izquierdo" (left) are seemingly out of place in Spanish but are indeed, borrowed from Basque. 

Dog Watching TV?: Critical flicker-fusion frequency

The Economist

Article: How animals perceive time: Slow-mo mojo

In a curious article about how other animals perceive time, the Economist had an interesting passage regarding some of the deeper science of our vision in comparison to our canine friends. 

It is called the critical flicker-fusion frequency, or CFF, and it is the lowest frequency at which a flickering light appears to be a constant source of illumination. It measures, in other words, how fast an animal’s eyes can refresh an image and thus process information. For people, the average CFF is 60 hertz (ie, 60 times a second). This is why the refresh-rate on a television screen is usually set at that value. Dogs have a CFF of 80Hz, which is probably why they do not seem to like watching television. To a dog a TV programme looks like a series of rapidly changing stills.

I have recently been told there is an entire channel dedicated to dogs (can someone confirm or deny this?) and I personally know a pet owner that leaves the TV on for his dog. Unless the CFF rate is adjusted, their dog is unfortunately likely sitting their with a goldfish brain look, mesmerized by the moving stills.