Tuesday, April 29, 2008
The future of the language
Well, as authors of a blog, I guess that we have to ask ourselves few questions.This whole subject has been treated and re-treated in a lot of places (lately in the Science journal) and by a lot of people (not last my uncle), but is worth giving an extra analysis (and who's better than me, anyway?).
The main point is that internet gives the right to anyone to publish his thoughts and to let them read by a lot of other people. This implies that people who doesn't have a culture, doesn't have any writing skills, and probaly doesn't have much to say either are just filling the minds of other people with crap. Is it right? Is it a global achievement, or it's a bad result of a waste society?
There are people that are making a job out of this. For example, skellie is a journalist that has published a blog on "how to write a blog", and can even write it for you. In the article I liked, it says that writing skill actually don't matter for having a good blog result. The reason is that in internet, the form doesn't count, but only the facts are important, only the substance. And words are only a mere "medium" to transmit the concepts.
But then, why humans invented and developed a language in first place? Dogs and animals can communicate their basic need quite properly, and they don't have a language (to be honest, they don't have a blog either). I think that we need the language to express "better" what we want to say. Very often, in my experience of learning new languages, I run into the situation of wanting to express a particular feeling, that could be said like "I'm angry" but was not quite that. I knew how to express it in Italian, but I couldn't think of any word that could mean the same in another language. Of course, there are. I just didn't know them. So, if I want to write in my blog that I'm angry because Berlusconi won the elections and that I feel that Italians are a bunch of jerks, I could say it like this, or trying to express it with a more explicative language. I think that the reader should be able to see the difference and appreciate when an article, although written in a blog, and published on internet, is well written or very poor.
So, in conclusion, I think that is a good thing that internet allows everybody to write and to express their opinion, but I think that the development of our society and of the human being in itself is such that we should follow the way of the development of the language, that has to be good enough to express any little detail of our mind. Of course, I also think that not all human being has the same amount of details in their brain, which explains a lack of need of evoluted language. Nevertheless, I am hoping in a "natural selection" of blogging and bloggers, such as good journalism and, why not, even literature, could come out of it. So, the problem, as always, is not the medium (internet) but is people that make use of it, that, alas, is not easy to stop...
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Bicycling for (crash test) dummies
As most of the people that tried to ride a car in a Dutch city know, driving a car in The Netherparts is something definitely not comfortable.
In spite of the fact that the traffic is not so heavy (compared to other European cities), that people usually drives neatly and following the rules, and that the streets are very well maintained, you have to pay a lot of attention to a series of obstructions and barriers (chicane or asverschuiving, verkeersplateau, or the bastard bussluis, that you can see also here).
But soon driving a car will will also embarrass yourself: your car will soon wear a nice external airbag like this.
In fact the national cyclist association claimed that this method would save at least 60 life per year in The Netherlands.
An accurate study has been made by the TNO (Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research) over a sample of 12000 simulated bike-car accident. The results show that cyclists in most of the collisions touch the windshield with their head, whereas pedestrians do not reach generally that height.
The reason for the research was the fact that while the total number victims in street accidents decreased steadily the previous years, the number of cyclists that perished by accidents remained constant. In 2006, 216 cyclists died on the street, of which 106 for collisions with cars.
The cyclist association says the number of badly injured cyclists can decrease with installing windshield airbags on cars.
Moreover the association pleads for discouraging the use of cars with a high hood, such as SUV's.
So the questions are:
1. What about the other 110 wounded cyclists? How did they die? Did they fell in the canals?
2. What about the pedestrians that do not reach the airbags? Minced meat for bitterballen?
(BTW I agree with this solution, it was just funny to me.)
Monday, April 21, 2008
Milk this Cow!
Let's try to move on.
Last week, while we were struggling with ourselves, also the Dutch had their own political storm.
It came out (from de Volkskrant) that almost the 25% of the country’s 5,481 university professors are directly or indirectly paid for by outside sources. Which is not a big issue by itself: private sponsorship for Universities and research group is one of the reason why research here works better than in some Cisalpine Countries.
But of course it can lead to some conflicts of interest. Let's take as an absurd example the case of a public TV showman saying that one politician is better than another just because the first is his publisher.
You would like to know it, wouldn't you?
(This is another good reason, as Marco pointed out, to do particle physics: there in no risk that someone gives a shit of what your talking about.)
The educational minister, Ronald Plasterk, declared that the situation it's tricky. Private grants is not a problem but more clarity is needed.
Consequently Dutch universities from now on must set up a public register listing any outside jobs held by their professors.
Can you guess how all this dutch revolution began? From milk, of course!
Last year a visiting professor at Wageningen gave a widely-reported speech praising the "essential foodstuffs found in milk". It turned out the professor in question, Toon van Hooijdonk, was not only funded by the Dutch dairy lobby organisation but is a director of dairy firm Campina.
Can you see the distress? We are not even sure about milk!!!
(Well, now we are, thanks to the minister.)
"Milk is for babies. When you grow up you have to drink beer."
Arnold Schwarzenegger (1975)
"Aspirin is for babies. When you are hungover you have to drink milk."
Gordon Lim (2007)
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Well, such a plebiscite cannot hide behind any excuse. That the Italian population has been brain-washed or that the power of the media is so huge that can drive the results in any direction. This time the Italian population doesn't have any excuse. They just got exactly what they wanted. They simply chose the people who are more violent, more criminal, more against the order and the law. They are shouting against the small criminals like some immigrants and small thieves. And then, they just vote as a unique force to the people that define one of the biggest mafia murderer a hero. A hero because didn't confess his connection with them. They vote for them because they don't want to pay taxes. They don't want a social state. They don't want to follow the laws, or to be judged by a court. They want anarchy, populism, the stronger that kills the weaker.
There is no excuse for this. I don't believe in any excuse. I don't believe in the territorial strength, like Ilvo Diamanti suggests, or any other political interpretation of the vote. I just think that most of the italians just don't like order, don't like honesty and prefer to overtake the weaker, for their own good. Of course, this is a very stupid behavior. Only a person with a very undeveloped brain can really think that a country can be based in such a society, especially in modern epoch. So, these people are so stupid, that they don't realize that they are the weaker. They dream of being the Rambo that kills everybody in front of him, they dream a sort of revenge over the immigrants, over the judges, they dream to be able to take advantage of the people who pay taxes, not to pay it themselves, but they don't realize that Berlusconi is exactly like them. But he's thousand times more powerful. And he's taking advantage of them, to avoid paying taxes, to get rid of his trials, to earn even more money, to avoid paying for his crimes. He's using them, and he cannot care less of their happiness. Of course, if they want to have their personal revenge, they can try doing it, thanks to the laws Berlusconi implements for himself and his friends. But these laws are just savage laws. The Berlusconi society is just a savage society, and in such a condition there is no justice. There is no revenge. There is only the stronger prevailing on the weaker. And the young people who vote for the PdL, the workers, the women, the small shop holders, they are weak. They need a society behind them. They need a retirement, they need hospitals, they need the police, they need schools, they need offices and jobs. So, with their vote they just renounce to all this things, because without the taxes these services cannot be provided. They are against the crimes committed by the immigrants, but in a country in which the prime minister is encouraging the population to commit crimes, how can you expect the immigrants not to do it? If you voted for the PdL, you voted for a society that has no justice. Has no moral.
I hope that one day Italy will be again one of the country with the highest culture in the world, like it was once. Now, we are just showing to the rest of the world what are the darkest and worst sides of the human being.
Monday, April 14, 2008
Surrounded by...
So...
Let's pretend nothing happened today.
Let's pretend there was no election in Italy today.
Let's pretend we are not just a nation of assholes and that we did understand that guy does not give a shit of our welfare, our health, our safety (both social and economical).
Let's pretend we did understand that two governments of his were enough and that we did not give him the chance to rule our life for the next 5 years again.
Then what?
In this new and naive state of mind of ours we would find peculiar how today the trend of an Italian TV group (Mediaset) at the Milan Stock Exchange has been strictly related to the news coming out from the elections.
In the morning it was, confiding in the election results, the only positive share on the main list; then right after the first "not so favorable to the right side" exit-poll it went way down (here and here) ; finally up again after the results started to get out.
So while I was despairing he was gaining money.
OK, let's get drunk.
Friday, April 11, 2008
Burgomasters & Burgermasters
The polls are open!
I'm still a bit dazed in seeing as Italians think to Silvio B. as a normal and legitimate candidate. But I'm starting to be sadly used to it (to Italian thinking, not to Silvio being) so this time I promise I'll try to stay fairly calm.
(But we all know on Monday afternoon I'll be tearing my clothes off in Vaalserberg.)
In the meantime I'll be killing time following the elections of the mayor in the city of Rotterdam.
In The Netherparts the mayor (burgemeester) is not elected by the people, but he's appointed by the government (actually de jure by the Queen) after being suggested by the city Council, which is in fact elected by the folk.
Now the burgemeester of Rotterdam, Ivo Opstelten, has been chosen as chairman of his party, the Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie (VVD, People's Party for Freedom and Democracy... is this a sign?), so he has to leave the office.
The problem is that now the city Council is not able to nominate a new candidate because of a weak majority of the left wing Partij van de Arbeid (PvdA, Labour Party... is this another sign?) which used to rule the city for ages before the rise of populism.
The way out would be having a consulting referendum between the inhabitants in order to help the Coucil to decide. Unfortunately this was already tried in the past in other cities (Leiden, Utrecht, Eindhoven, ...) without any success: the referenda failed to attract enough voters to be binding and were widely regarded as a failure.
So what did the Dutch, smart of them!, decide?
Rotterdam city council chose to poll its residents about whether or not they want to hold a referendum on the city’s next mayor!!!
This is democracy!
(I may sound ironic but I'm not.. Heerlijk!)
Wednesday, April 09, 2008
Economia Italiana Un confronto tra CSX e CDX
Giusto prima delle elezioni, un piccolo aiuto per scegliere con qualche base più seria. Questa presentazione è stata fatta da un gruppo di studenti della London School of Economics. E' molto semplice da seguire, ma non per questo poco seria. Anzi, secondo me mette a luce alcuni punti che sembrano essere lapalissiani, ma che dalla maggioranza della popolazione italiana vengono bellamente ignorati. In questa presentazione viene spiegato benissimo cosa vuol dire alza e abbassare le tasse e, soprattutto, spiegano cosa è effettivamente successo dei soldi di noi contribuenti (anzi, voi contribuenti... :) ) negli ultimi 10 anni... Per chi vuole votare il centro destra perché gli abbassano le tasse, ecco una spiegazione perché non è saggio farlo, nemmeno se siete dei negozianti che hanno evaso finora...
Saturday, April 05, 2008
Dutch for Dummies: Women in The Netherlands
Dear All,
I just come from a discovery that explain very much about why the Dutch Society is so open and developed: the Dutch women can pee standing, exactly like the men. This is clearly the first step toward the complete emancipation, expecially during Queen's Day or any concert. This also means that women can finally participate to the moto-camp meeting and so on and so on... This is only of course the beginnning.
So, the reason for this is the invention of the Plastuit or P-mate in English. Apparently this device is spreadly used in the Netherlands (at least according to Gordon) and makes of course the happiness of many women. The inventor of this object is of course a woman, called Moon Zijp, originally named Simone Zijp. In 1988 she had a trip in Indonesia and in that occasion she noticed that she had always to face difficult situations in order to pee. So, coming back to Holland, in the Art Academy of Amsterdam she has first developed the Plastuit, and shown its efficiency in severals public demonstrations that has clearly attracted the attention of many people. This invention has been so revolutionary that Moon was the winner of the National Millennium Award 2000.
This discovery had consequences in many other ways, and for example the first women's urinal is put into use at Pinkpop 2000 in the Netherlands.
Well, hopefully your life will be changed and improved after this discovery....
Friday, April 04, 2008
Het Land van (Lange Frans & Baas B)
Few days ago my never-asleep interest in rap pseudo-subculture introduced me to these two guys, Lange Frans (Tall Frans) and Baas B (Boss B), and their hit "Het Land van" (The Country of).
In this song the two dutch rappers look through the main clichés (both positive and negative) of The Netherlands; so this can be a nice brief account of the life in this Country (from the point of view of a less-than-two-years immigrant or, which "strangely" looks the same, of a native rap group).
Here you can find the lyrics in dutch; the translation is:
The Country of
I'm from the country of Pim Fortuyn and Volkert van der Graaf [victim and murderer of the 2002 political assassination]
The country of Theo van Gogh and Mohammed Bouyeri [victim and murderer of the 2004 assassination]
I'm from the land of croquets and frikandels
Which you can order up to the Spanish coast [as we tested in Mallorca]
I'm from the country where Air Max will never go out of fashion
Where they crush you the moment you're getting successful
I'm from the country of "red-white-blue" [the colours of the Dutch flag] and the "golden lion" [a symbol of the Netherlands]
We plundered the world and called it the Golden Age
I'm from the country of cannabis plantations and fietsvierdaagses [bicycle events that last 4 days]
The country where you can ask a junkie for a bike
The country that became [European soccer] champion in 1988
The country of eating herring, dikes and canals
I'm from the country of... the country of Lil' Lange Frans
In this country I come home after a vacation trip
I'm from the country where I was born in 1982
Where I lost my guldens [former Dutch currency] to the euro
The country that joined the war in Iraq
'Cause uncle Bush has Balkenende [Dutch Prime Minister] in his pocket
The country of being cheap, it's too expensive to buy your friends a drink
You can get greasy snacks from "the wall" at FEBO's
The country of riots between Ajax and Feyenoord
But when "Orange" [the national soccer team] plays, everybody gathers
The country of Johan Cruijff and Abe Lenstra [two famous soccer players]
The "legion" [fans of the national soccer team] never makes the "lion" [the Netherlands] look bad
The country where we hope for better weather every day
I don't trust Piet Paulusma [a controversial weatherman] anymore
The land that's free since 1945
The country where I will stay, I love it here... honestly
I'm from the country that you can pass through by car in just 3 hours
With a different dialect every 10 minutes
I'm from the country where, theoretically, there is room for everybody
And ecstasy is our number 1 export
I'm from the country where in 100 years André Hazes [recently deceased popular folk singer] will still rule every bar
I'm from the country where Peter, Gert-Jan, Raymond, Jutten, Frans, Bart and Ali run the game
I'm from the country where hip hop is a 30 years old child
And you can imagine how cool that is
The country where the rich pay a lot of taxes
So much that you start to question the use of earning money
The country where prostitution and using soft drugs are allowed
The country of Sinterklaas and Koninginnedag [Queen's day]
This is the country where I have lost, have been betrayed
I'm from the country where I was born and raised
I'm from the country with most cultures per square metre
Though people are afraid to have dinner with their neighbours [of the dinner, not of the neighbours, of course]
And integration is a beautiful word
But shit, it's fucking bitter when it isn't noticed by anyone
I share my country with Turks and Moroccans, Antillians, Moluccans and Surinamese
The country where we tend to pent-up rage
And we are internationally represented by Harry Potter [nickname of the Dutch Prime Minister]
The country where apartheid is the most known word in the world from the language
I'm from the country that ticks like a bomb
The country that has dinner at exactly 6 o'clock and always arrives on time
This is the country where I shall eventually succeed
When you will sing along in the Arena [Amsterdam stadium for sports and concerts]
And until then I shall shine, I've devoted my heart
This is for the Netherlands, Baas B, Lange Frans
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