It's kind of like that fiber optic pavement you might have seen at an amusement park in the past, only on a larger scale. The whole system can be programmed to change colors and patterns in sequence. [Arch Daily via notcot Images via Duccio Malagamba]

There's a whole bunch of greedy "artists"—represented by the SGAE, the Spanish version of the RIAA, and some cinema associations—who most of the times are used by the Spanish socialist government to support their political agenda. I say greedy because, in Spain, there's an "artist tax" on everything that can be used to record something. You buy a CD to do data backup at work? Doesn't matter, the government's friends assume you are a thief copying stuff, and charge you an extra for it. Maybe you want a new camera to record your newborn baby? Well, that's more expensive too because of the "artistic" tax. Want an iPod? Pay extra. A DVD-R unit? Give them more money.

Their argument for that tax was that, since people were pirating music and movies using the internet, the artistic associations should get a cut of all media and gadgets that could be used to copy music and movies. I can argue that I don't give a rat's ass about the mostly lousy music produced in Spain, not to talk about their craptastic movies, but it's ok. Let's say that I accept that premise and gladly pay the extra, even while it destroys the presumption of innocence. P2P was legal in Spain—and still is—and everyone was happy.

Everyone but them. They wanted more, and they got it as an obvious favor, returned by the socialist government now in power. After passing the law hidden in another law, the artist associations can now close any web site they want, without a court order. They only have to argue that the site may be used to share media, and the Minister of Culture will have to the power to close the site without any judge giving the go ahead, a true "Cultural Police." Goodbye democracy, hello National Socialism. What's more, they also want to be able to close the Internet connection of any user who uses the internet for P2P sharing, also without any due process.

This leaves everyone without any defense. The artists associations and the Minister of Culture can shut down a business that can be perfectly legal, without having to answer to anyone. Just because they say so. Or they can close the internet connection of someone who wasn't doing anything wrong. All without confronting any judge with any solid evidence. This means that the business or user would have to go to court to defend themselves after the damage is done, something that requires money.

In other words, no due process, no presumption of innocence, just shutting down web sites because someone with no judicial power says so.

They want to get their money from the artist tax and destroy P2P at the same time, demolishing some Spanish Constitutional rights in the process. Needless to say, this has originated a huge response by Internet users, Human Rights activists, journalists, and bloggers, who have signed a manifesto against it. Also needless to say, nobody in the government will do anything about it, which is one of the reasons why I don't live in my home country anymore. [MuyComputer—Google Translation]

Of course, given the ambiguous language of the post (or my poor Spanish comprehension), they could be jerking everyone around a little bit, promoting the opening of pre-orders as actual availability. That they explicitly tout their release as earlier than the previous May 5th date, though, seems to indicate that they'll actually start shipping today. Happy crazy Android surprise day, Spain!

Update: Our resident Spaniard has confirmed that the post implies it'll ship today from the online store, but that brick-and-mortar stores will have to wait until next week. [Phandroid —Thanks, Rob!]

According to the Guardian and the Independent, experts are hard at work collecting over 10,000 inscriptions that nobody has translated in over 500 years since Ferdinand and Isabel evicted the Moors from their mighty fortress. Using the high-tech gear, they've managed to translate about half of the job so far, and have compiled over 3,000 in a DVD. The work continues, and an updated DVD, possibly complete, will come out in 2010. Too bad nobody bothered to show the 3D laser scanner itself in action, because I assume it's a pretty cool—if painstaking—process. I've been all over the Alhambra myself—it'd be a pretty amazing place to "work."

What do the inscriptions say? Mostly the Nasrid motto: "There is no victor but Allah." But in accordance with that particularly fruitful time in Arabic culture, there are an awful lot of other things written on the walls, from poetry to aphorisms, such as "Be sparing with words and you will go in peace." Funny since that's one bit of advice the artists didn't heed themselves. [Guardian; Independent - Thanks James!]

The move comes as part of a campaign that orders people to "Identify yourself!", just like when Franco was a dictator. They want pre-paid phones to be associated with the user's personal information, including name, address, and national ID numbers (the equivalent to the Social Security number in the US). The new law also requires operators to register every single call made and hold the information for a year.

The reasoning of the European Union and the retarded Spanish government is that, by doing this, they can avoid bomb attacks like the ones that happened in Madrid's train stations in March 11, 2004, where terrorist triggered bombs using cellphones, killing 191 people and wounding 1,800. As if the terrorists couldn't forge identification data.

But does this make sense? Yes, bombs can be triggered with cellphones, but what difference does this make? They can be triggered by suicide bombers too, clocks, radio control, and by any other method you can think about. The fact is that there were bombs in Spain—and everywhere else—being triggered by a variety of methods before cellphones arrived. Cellphones are just one of them.

Does these irrational fears justify a campaign to control the communication of private citizens, specially when the bad guys can avoid the controls and use alternative methods to wreak havoc in society?

Paraphrasing Churchill: Do you want to die free and standing up, or live under fear and control, like in a fascist state? [El Mundo]

Translation: "Movistar brings you the magic of the iPhone. Would you like to know when? There are already 29 impatient people."

The 3G iPhone will be available for sale in Spain at the June 18 grand opening of Telefónica's megastore—an Apple Store-like shop located in the company's landmark building in Madrid's Gran Vía—with nationwide availability the next day or after a few hours. The shop is now getting its final touches. [Apple Weblog—in Spanish, gracias Paquito]

Ironically, a huge amount of trees were probably mowed down to get this thing up and running, but local agencies insist that "high environmental criteria" were maintained in the construction of the plant. Plus, they built it in Jumilla, a wine-producing region. That land could have been used to get me drunk. Damn you, solar power! [Technology For Life via Treehugger]

By soldering two additional light sensors inside the CD player, and then using software, the researchers were able to control how the device "played" a disk. The substance to be analyzed (in this case, the team was trying to detect traces of three different pesticides in various samples) was then placed on a normal compact disc, and inserted into the machine.

While the first light sensor identified where the sample was on the disc, using black marks on the edge of the disc, the second analyzed the sample itself, measuring the amount of laser light that was able to pass through the disk. Normally, discs reflect around 30 percent of the laser beam onto the reading head, while the rest passes through.

The sample, half a millimeter in size, was treated to produce dye or silver that was inversely proportional to the amount of pesticide in the sample. Using the modded CD player, they could detect pesticide levels as low as 0.02 micrograms per liter just by seeing how much laser light passed through the disc to the second sensor.

While it may not be as accurate as genuine lab sensors, which can cost between $42,000 and $85,000, the hacked CD player is accurate enough for many laboratory tasks &mdash some experts think the cheap and cheerful device would work wonders in developing countries, helping the fight against malaria, for instance. And the shorter wavelength lasers of Blu-ray and HD DVD technology will make the process even easier. [New Scientist]

Perched atop a 2,400-meter peak on the island, the GCT's 34-ft wide mirror is made up of 36 separate mirrors, and its all-seeing eye will be trained on the skies in the hope of finding planets similar to ours, as well recording the birth of new stars and studying black holes.

Project manager is Pedro Alvarez. "The GCT will observe things that are so small, or so very far off, that only a small amount of light reaches us," he said. "It will also see closer objects that either do not emit their own light or emit very little light. You need the biggest possible light-collecting surface to be able to see them."

[GCT via Guardian Unlimited]

The Graffiti Research Lab has been to Spain for its holidays. Packing their Mobile Broadcast Unit—nice, isn't it?—the crew headed off to Barcelona for OFFF, the International Festival for Post-Digital Creation Culture, and this is what they did, Art Terrorists that they are.

It seems they need to get right up close to their targets—while it works at MACBA, the city's modern art gallery, their assault on El Corte Ingles was diluted somewhat, as they were parked on the other side of Plaza Catalunya to the megalithic department store (the ugliest building in the city, IMHO).

Beats, Breaks and Good Times were had by all until the arrival of a bunch of short, fat men in uniform—sadly, not a squadron of catalonian stripograms—put paid to their fun. See how the GRL get their revenge at the end of the vid. – Ad Dugdale

Bombing @ El Corte Ingles [You Tube]

The 600 mirrors beam sunlight at the tower, which converts the solar energy into steam. The steam is stored in tanks and used to drive turbines, and before you know it you're powering 6,000 homes. Overall, this is super cool and one lucky BBC reporter even got a tour of the tower. Check out the link, it's worth the read. – Louis Ramirez

Power Station Harnesses Sun's Rays [BBC via Gadget Lab]

I am a Honda driver, but a little space in my heart is usually reserved for VW, until now. This is just ridiculous, but luckily the campaign is only happening in Spain. –Travis Hudson

Product Page (Spanish) [Via Gadget Lab]

Despite having lots of features, the phone's still tailored for kids. The GPRS triangulation, for example, can tell parents exactly where the user is, and the front face still has pre-set buttons that limit who your child can call. The phone should ship sometime in early summer on the Spanish carrier Movistar. – Jason Chen

Imaginarium readies kids' phone with camera, music [Electronista]