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Las cosas que uno medita mucho o quiere que sean 'perfectas', generalmente nunca se empiezan a hacer...
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"Cada mañana, miles de personas reanudan la búsqueda inútil y desesperada de un trabajo. Son los excluidos, una categoría nueva que nos habla tanto de la explosión demográfica como de la incapacidad de esta economía para la que lo único que no cuenta es lo humano". (Ernesto Sábato, Antes del fin)
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jueves, 3 de agosto de 2017

Las 13 maldiciones más famosas de la historia


Diapositiva 1 de 12: In November 1922, English archaeologist Howard Carter discovered the tomb of 14th-century BC pharaoh Tutankhamun, an Egyptian treasure trove that had lain undisturbed for centuries. But, within months, a number of men connected to the excavation were to die in mysterious circumstances, such as fevers, blood poisonings, murder and suicide. Ancient mummies being rather spooky characters to mess with, rumours soon arose that the men had been struck down by the Curse of Tutankhamun. There's even a theory that a number of the more violent ends were masterminded by the British occultist Aleister Crowley, in revenge for disturbing the boy-king's tomb.So was it a mystical curse or rotten bad luck? Well, it's been pointed out that as there were 58 people present when the tomb and sarcophagus were opened, there were a large number who emerged unscathed from the experience - including Carter himself. And no doubt being an early 20th-century adventurer was a more high-risk career than most.Read on to discover 12 more of the world's most infamous curses.

  • Diapositiva 2 de 12: Timur was a 14th-century Turkic leader responsible for an estimated 17 million deaths - about 5% of the world's population. He also had a grisly predilection for building giant pyramids of human skulls. Safe to say he's not a man you want to mess with, even 500 years after his death. Never mind that his tomb was allegedly inscribed with the words, "when I rise from the dead, the world shall tremble."But in June 1941 Soviet anthropologist Mikhail Gerasimov excavated the warlord's tomb and even took old Timur's skull (though he didn't have enough to make a pyramid). Two days later, Germany invaded the USSR, leading to millions of Soviet deaths. Nice one, Gerasimov! Timur was re-buried with full Islamic ritual in November 1942, just before the

  • La maldición de Timur

  • Diapositiva 3 de 12: It's a difficult enough job being President of the United States of America without the added stress of a centuries-old Native American curse striking down holders of that office once every 20 years. It was in 1931 that Ripley's Believe It or Not first noted that presidents elected or re-elected in years divisible by 20 (or ending in a zero) had an unfortunate habit of dying in office. Abraham Lincoln, James A. Garfield and William McKinley were assassinated, William Harrison died of pneumonia and Warren Harding was carried off by a heart attack or stroke. And things didn't pick up after 1931 - Franklin D. Roosevelt and, most famously, JFK both conformed to the trend.So what's the origin of the curse? Well, Tecumseh (pictured) was the leader of the Shawnee tribe who did battle with men led by President Harrison at the battle of Tippecanoe in 1811 and his brother, known as the Prophet, was reputed to have laid the curse upon Harrison and all future occupants of the White House. A lesson there about playing fair when interacting with indigenous people.
  • Diapositiva 4 de 12: Like a political Osmonds, the toothy and multitudinous Kennedy clan are about the closest the US have got to a royal family. And yet for all their wealth, glamour and all-American good looks, the family have been plagued with tragedy. John F Kennedy (centre) and his brother Bobby (to the right of John) were both assassinated, Rosemary Kennedy suffered a failed lobotomy, Ted Kennedy (seated right) was responsible for an accident that killed his female passenger, and four family members were in plane crashes. Luckily, things have gone a little more smoothly for the family in recent years.
  • Diapositiva 5 de 12: Even Ol' Blue Eyes' rumoured mob connections couldn't pull off something like this: During the '00s at least six people were killed while singing 'My Way' in karaoke bars in the Philippines, to the point where many bars removed the song from their playbooks. Karaoke bars in the Philippines can often be very violent, with fights flaring up over poor singing. But why does My Way rub people the wrong way? "It’s so arrogant,” singing teacher Butch Albarracin told the New York Times in 2010. “The lyrics evoke feelings of pride and arrogance in the singer, as if you’re somebody when you’re really nobody".
  • Diapositiva 6 de 12: It's fair to say that the House of Romanov, the imperial dynasty that ruled over Russia from 1613 until the February Revolution of 1917, suffered an unusual amount of misfortune and tragedy over their three centuries of rule. Believers in a curse cite over 280 early deaths, accidents and illnesses that have befallen the family line - most notably the cruel massacre of Tsar Nicholas II and his family (pictured) by Bolsheviks in 1818. Alexei Nikolaevich (bottom left), Nicholas II's only son, was born with haemophilia - widespread among European royals at the time - and it's argued that the Tsar's family's closeness to 'healer' Grigori Rasputin (aka 'The Mad Monk' or 'Russia's Greatest Love Machine', depending on your sources) helped discredit the Romanovs and led to their downfall.

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