ELLYON17

Rubrica del Lunedì special edition: da Appunti Digitali

2009-02-06T19:22:00.001+01:00

Ecco il post di oggi...

http://www.appuntidigitali.it/3213/ma-lenergia-pulita-e-veramente-pulita/

Commenti e critiche ben graditi

Rubrica del Lunedi`: Da Appunti Digitali

2009-02-02T10:32:00.002+01:00

Rispolveriamo questo blog, che Ermes sta trascurando con la scusa del lavoro (tanto non gli crede nessuno) con un link esterno....
Per chi e` interessato potete leggere un mio intervento sul blog Appunti Digitali a
questo indirizzo:
http://www.appuntidigitali.it/3170/qual-e-il-vero-allarme-energia-o-ambiente/

Cevapcici western

2008-12-27T23:20:00.003+01:00

There was a land
A land of champions
A land called Yugoslavia
And it's been the ruin of many a poor boys
And god I know I'm one

Oh mother, tell your children
Not to do what I have done
I've lost my soul, on glory alleluyah
Down in Yugoslavia

Land of Champions, Magnifico

Merry Xmas!

2008-12-24T12:55:00.001+01:00

Sinterklaas, episode III: Revenge of de Sint

2008-12-20T14:28:00.004+01:00

So this is Christmas.
And it's then normal ending for this esalogy of Sinterklaas to see what went wrong when Sinterklaas crossed the Ocean and went to America.

In fact the figure of the Santa Claus is heavily based on the character of Saint Nicholas, and especially in his Dutch version Sinterklaas.
History say that when they went to America, Dutch conquerors and settlers brought with them their traditions and habits, and within them, Sinterklaas.
Then, during the American War of Independence, the inhabitants of New York City, the former Dutch colony of New Amsterdam, reinvented their Sinterklaas tradition, as Saint Nicholas was a symbol of the city's non-English past.
The name itself of Santa Claus is supposedly derived from the old Dutch form Sinte Klaas.

Despite the fact that this historical reconstruction is not supported by all the experts, it is supported by me (and many others).

But of course also the traditionally Christian Saint Nicholas, or Sinterklaas, is in turn a clone (as all he Christian characters I may say).
The features of Saint Nicholas, a greek bishop pretty popular in Germanic Countries, is in fact molded from the casting of Wotan, the Germanic version of the chief god in Norse paganism Odin.
Odin, as his alter ego Sinterklaas, is often depicted as a old man, with a long beard, a hat and a stick in the hand.
He's ridings his eight-legged white horse Sleipnir, a grand-grandfather of het wit paard van Sinterklaas.
Also the character of Zwarte Piet, Sinterklaas' helper, in the Medioeval traditios was bearing a lot of similarities in role with Odin's ravens Hugin and Munin.

Finally, late Roman historians, such as Tacitus, used to refer to Odin by using the name of Mercury since they shared features and roles.
Ergo: Ermes is Santa Claus.
(This could explain my childish confusion in understanding the meaning of Santa Claus.)

Sinterklaas, episode II: The attack of the Piets

2008-12-19T10:53:00.004+01:00

As I said in the previous post of mine, the description of Zwarte Piet, the companion of Sinterklaas, as a moorish slave from Spain freed by the Saint is very shaky. And even more shaky is the more politically correct portray of Sinterklaas' helper as a chimneysweep from a Southern Country that decided to follow the Sint because of gratitude.

The truth is that, according to myths from the 18th century, Saint Nicholas operates in the companionship of a devil. It is said in fact that on Saint Nicholas Eve the Saint fought the devil and triumphed over it (him?), and eventually enslaved it.
In Holland the figure of the devil was softened into less strong appearances of a moorish kid. But in other Countries in Europe, where Saint Nicholas is also warshipped, some features of the devilish nature of the Saint's helper still remain.
Saint Nicholas is celebrated mainly in the Lower Countries, but it is also very important in most of Central Europe, as well as his dark companions.

In the North of Germany, Sinterklaas helper is called Knecht Ruprecht, or servant Ruprecht. As in Holland they look like black or moorish people and they gave up their devilish appearances.
But in the South of Germany, as well as in Austra, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia and even in the north mountainous part of our region in Italy, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Sinterklaas helper are much like devilish incubi figures, called Krampus. In those areas, young men dress up as the Krampus in the first two weeks of December and roam the streets frightening children and young ladies with rusty chains and bells.
Krampus usually wear wooden masks with huge horns, and sheep skin.
(Present idea: I'd really like to receive a Krampus mask, so if someone needs ideas for a Christmas present for me, just consider this.)

Similar to Krampus are the Bavarian and Styrian Klaubauf, while Pelzebock are more human like, as well as the Pelznickel, Belzeniggl, the American Belsnickel, the Swiss Schmutzli, Rumpelklas, Bellzebub, Hans Muff, Drapp or Buzebergt, and the France Hanstrapp and Le Père Fouettard.

Women in the Netherlands - what they think

2008-12-17T15:10:00.003+01:00

After my old (and very succesful) post about the women in the Nederlands, and more specificaly, on the marvellous invention of the plastuit, here I am again, after a Women Lunch, a good occasion to see and to hear about the reality of women in the Netherlands (and actually, all over Europe and beyond).
The idea started by two women researchers in our institute that wanted to share their experience with the younger girls in the same field and have some feedback on how life's going. I am always been very committed to these kind of subjects, as on one side I don't understand how it is possible that among all the discriminations that the human being has done during history, the one on women is the most prolonged and fundamental one, that has held strongly along centuries, that exists in every culture, north and south, east and west, no matter which religion, no matter in which time it is, the discrimination on women has always been present. On the other hand, it is also clear that it is the discrimination that has been most accepted by the victim herself. Many women not only accept it, but are actually proud of being not considered at the same level as men. Well, the discussion of today was much more practical (being Dutch, we may say :-) ) and it was focused mostly on how the society helps women with a family and how it is accepted to have women in high position in a company or in science. Well, I heard a lot of complaints indeed! When I said that surely The Netherlands is not the top, but is not so bad either, I have been answered that statistics shows that women in the Netherlands works less than in the rest of Europe. So I have checked on internet, and what I found is that here 75% of the women are working part time, against the 31% of the European average. Well, it is true that probably the tradition is such that women are more likely than men to stay at home to take care of the children and the house, but if you look more carefully, also the percentage of men having a part time job in The Netherlands is way bigger then the European average. In practice, people work less, because a part time salary is very often enough to have a nice life. Well, one can argue that is often not a choice because there is a lack of childcare, and that's true, but is also true that having a part time job is not a bad thing by definition. Also because part time is not defined. Some people work at 50%, some people at 90% of the full time. The average is around 80%. And often it is for a nice and managerial kind of job. Also, I think that the main reason why in Holland you see so many women discriminations or related problems, it is because women are free to talk about it, they want to express it. I think the number of housewives in Italy is just scary, and of course all these women staying at home, claiming that taking care of the house is just as any other job, and chit-chatting with ladies friends agains men and their housband is not the right mood to fight against male chauvinism. Actually it is just a good reason to become even more chauvinist. At the end The Netherlands is a country that has chosen as main value the eguality among people, and is one of the main supporters of the CEDAW ( Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women) so I think that it may look a bit paradoxal, but the fact we can complain so much about the situation of women in the Netherlands is actually a sign of a better position of the women here then in other places. It is nevertheless true that everywhere, we are very very far from reaching the same rights and the same treatment then our male collegues, and even if it may be not very useful, it is always good to talk about that and let people reflect about this.

Sinterklaas, episode I: The Zwarte Piet menace

2008-12-17T11:07:00.004+01:00

Traditions in Holland say Sinterklaas comes from Spain, and they are supported by facts: every year a dutch TV troupe films the departure of Sinterklaas and his helper Zwarte Piet from Spain (as you can see in the picture Eleonora took in Madrid two yers ago) and after a couple of weeks his arrival in Amsterdam by steamboat is greeted by many dutchmen.
Traditions today say that when in Spain, Sinterklaas freed a young moor slave sentenced to death and after that he became his little helper. A even more politically correct view teach that the dark skin of Piet comes from his job as a chimneysweep. This is supported by his clothes which remind the Italian chimneysweep's costume.
But of course the origin is another: in Christian traditions Saint Nicholas was in fact said to work with the devil himself (he's said to have enslaved the devil), and how's the devil looking?
Well, dark skinned of course.
And when this XIX century picture became too racist Zwarte Piet became "just a young slave from a non better specified South, freed by the Sint".

He's supposed to help Sinterklaas to bring presents to the good children, and to punish the bad ones.
Parents use to tell their children that if they have been good, Zwarte Piet will bring them gifts and sweets, but if they have been bad, Piet will catch them, stuff them in his huge dufflebag and send them away to Spain as punishment.
This is sort of funny: what kind of menace is to being send to Spain???
It's even more ironic if you think that Spain is nowadays the main holiday country for dutch people!

But this is something that often sounds weird to me.
The way dutch children are punished if they were bad is pretty different from what we're used to in Italy.
Another typical punishment is to force them to eat spruitjes, Brussels sprouts. This is understandable (even if I love Brussels sprouts), but the funny thing is that if they were good they will be allowed, as reward, to eat spinaches!
There is in fact a way of saying here to incourage kids, which is:

En je zult spinazie eten

whic translates as: "[if you are good] you'll eat spinaches".
This doesn't have much to do with Sinterklaas, but I like it because it's a sort of parody of another saying: "if you keep going fine, you'll become like Spinoza".
Spinoza and spinache in Dutch sound more or less the same, so they just switched to the funny version.

Have I been heavy enough? Good...

Sinterklaas, episode VI: The return of De Sint

2008-12-15T17:21:00.006+01:00

One of the recent hit from the dutch band Bløf sings Oktober is de wreedste maand, October is the cruelest month.
Despite this, Autumn is actually one of the best season in Holland.
"It is in Autumn that Amsterdam feels like at home" as one of the main critic of our modern society had to say.
The proof of this is that the only remarkable festivity in the Dutch tradition is Sinterklaas, at the apogee of Autumn.
Moreover this is the only period in which The Netherlands offer some good stuff to eat (or some eatable stuff for good), mainly candies and sweets.
There are in fact a lot of typical Autumn sweets sold only in this period and they make the athmosphere pretty warm and Christmas-like. So yes, this is definitely the best period to visit Holland (this, and the Koninginnedag, of course).

The main sweet of the Sinterklaas period are the Chocoladeletteres: thick alphabeth letters made of chocolate. Every kid gets usually the first letter of his name, or a neutral S (for Sinterklaas) or P (for Zwarte Piet). In smaller letters, such as Js or Is, the thickness of the chocolate layer is larger, so to compensate the amount of choc-ness with bigger letters such as Ms.
Then there all kind of other candies and biscuits:
- speculaas, baked cookies with a cinnamon flavour, with some figures stamped on the rectangular front side;
- kruidnoten, small round cookies made from the same dough as the speculaas, they exist also with a chocolate shell;
- pepernooten, not to confuse with pepernoten, they are instead made of rye. They are traditionally scatterd around to children together with coins or candies;
- marzipan! This is of course my favourite! And after last year's 2kg marzipan pig-head Eleonora bought me, this year this became a tradition and I got another one (but bigger, tastier and marzipaner)!

Eet smakelijk!

Sinterklaas, episode V: De Sint strikes back

2008-12-12T16:53:00.005+01:00

The main aspect of the Pakjesavond, the evening of December 5th when Sinterklaas brings presents to Dutch children, is of course receiving presents.
Usually the kids find their presents the morning after, left by Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet.
The presents are accompainied by a simple poem, called Sinterklaasgedicht, that says something about the behaviour of the child during the past year and it gives some hints to the nature of the present.

When children grow older and they quit believing in Sinterklaas, the tradition of the Pakjesavond resists and it becomes a party within friends where everybody brings a present for another person.
Usually people draw a lottery (lootje) and they pick the name of the person they will but a small present.
They also write a poem to accompain to present. Usually these poems are more ironic and teasing to the person who receives the present.

In this last case, gifts are usually creatively wrapped in weird shaped boxes the "children" have to make by themselves. Funny situations usually come out also from the un-wrapping procedure, since all kind of tricks and jokes may be used.
Sticky situations may arise: common ingredients for the filling of the gift-box may be saw dust, syrup, hair gel and cotton balls, news paper and peanut butter...
Someone told me that's also traditional to "wrap" the present within a sticky dough made of gingerbread and water and that's what I've done this year for the present I made.

So yes, we had our Sinterklaas dinner with presents, poems and all the other things and it was pretty funny (it was my first Sinterklaas in Holland, since the last two years I was defrosting in the US).

(Even if you know I'm kind of annoying about traditions.)

Sinterklaas

2008-12-06T17:08:00.007+01:00

Yesterday morning I woke up a bit late (even compared to average Saturdays standards).
The reason for that was the happening of the previous evening: sinterklaasavond.
Sinterklaasavond, or pakjesavond which tranlates as "presents' evening", is the main festivity in the dutch calendar and it's celebrated every year on December 5th, Saint Nicholas' eve.

Saint Nicholas, or Sinterklaas in dutch, was a Greek bishop, patron saint of children. He's celebrated in mostly all the Countries in central and eastern Europe, as well as in the most extreme eastern outposts of Italy: Trieste and Monfalcone.
He's an old guy dressed like a bishop and, in the dutch tradition, he's supposingly coming from Spain every year, riding a white horse (het Paard van Sinterklaas) and followed by his personal helper Zwarte Piet, or Black Peter, a Moorish kid that stories tell Sinterklaas resqued from prison and now, in sign of gratitude, helps him in delivering presents to children.

Sinterklaasavond in The Netherlands is a holiday especially for children, and at this time they are supposed to get presents if they were good in the past year. It's in fact Sinterklaas that brings presents in The Netherlands, not Santa Claus, la Befana (which I discover just now it's a peculiar character of Italy only), the Three Kings, any kind of italian Madonna or Child Jesus (as my grandmother used to tell me. I have to admit this separations of roles confused me a bit when I was young).

There are a lot of cooking traditions, funny ways of wrapping the presents and to write the cards, but I will talk about this later on.
(Or you can check on Wikipedia.)

Smoke under the water

2008-11-28T18:29:00.006+01:00

There is an urban legend in Holland saying that Dutch people don't like bans, and the only way to let them follow a certain rule is to explain them its social utility.
I'm not sure if this is true, or if this is the case, but the smoking ban active in The Netherlands is definitely facing some comportamental problems.

It all started on July, 1th 2008, when also The Netherlands, one of the last Country in Europe to decide so, started to ban smoking tobacco from public closed places such as bar or restaurants.
In the Country of free Marijuana this sounded a bit weird (even if this is actually one of the few places where you could create some legal smoking rooms for almost all kind of smokers) and protests started as soon as the law was enforced.

On July, 15th dutch Café owners started to join a new religious movement called One and Universal Smokers Church of God whose worshippers are said to believe in the trinity of smoke, fire and ash and honour their god by smoking.
Dozens of bars owners asserted the Dutch constitution and European rules give it legitimacy under the right to freedom of religion.

But the government went on and the police started to give fines to those bars that let their costumers smoke inside.
Unfortunately the fine was not so high (300€ for the owner, nothing for the costumer) and it wasn't enough to persuade the bar owners.
What happened is that in many places owners put next to the door some collecting box, where costumers can throw some coins, to help pay for the potential fine.

In response, Health Minister Ab Klink decided to get tough.
In the future, he proposed, violations of the ban have to be treated as economic offences which would allow the authorities to impose fines as high as 16000€.
A lot of owners of cafes then started to strike, especially in the South.
Groups of cafe owners in cities such as Groningen, Tilburg and Breda have already agreed informally to ignore the ban.
Last weekend, cafe and bar owners in Den Bosch decided en masse to ignore it.

The war has started.
29 bars were sanctioned last weekend only in Den Bosch, while the minister announced that cafes which continue to defy the ban will be closed down for breaking competition laws (because they compete unfairly with cafes which are not breaking the law).

We'll see who'll win.

Voyage au centre de la Pizza (9): Pizza romana

2008-11-26T22:05:00.003+01:00

This week-end we've been visiting Rome, so it's finally time to update my brief compendium about pizza.
And finally, after two episodes (I, II) talking about not Italian pizzas, I can finally talk about a real one!

So...
Pizza in Rome is pretty different from the usual Napoletan pizza.
Its round pie is very thin and crusty, much more than its sister from Naples.
The dough is made by wheat flour, water, yeast, olive oil and salt (so not other American crap such as vegetable oil or high proteinic content flour) mixed together to give a very hard and steady dough.
One of the most tipical kind of pizza you can find in Rome is the so called pizza Napoli, guarnished with tomato, mozzarella and anchovies. The funny thing is that this kind of pizza is called pizza romana elsewhere in Italy, but not in Rome.

Then of course you can find all kind of toppings on you pizza.

Honourable mention the pizza al taglio.
This is pizza cooked in rectangular metal pans and sold in square slices.
The dough of this kind of pizza is usually more watery so to resist longer and not to become dry, and to be also re-warmed up without loosing any taste.
The pizza al taglio is actually sold all over around Italy (and nosonly) but in Rome it's very particular.
It's in fact prepared with the usual crunchy roman dough that makes it very tasty, with a thin ciabatta-like shape.
It's then usually sold by weight and not by slice.

So then, after two years in Holland I really enjoyed a (couple of) real good pizza.
And the pizza in Rome was pretty good indeed, even if I probably preferred the one al taglio.

15 Miljoen Mensen (Fluitsma & Van Tijn)

2008-11-17T15:57:00.010+01:00

After the two versions of the song Het Land van (by Lange Frans & Baas B and Salah Edin) I posted a couple of months ago, here it is another dutch song telling about this Country.
This time it's a non-rap song from 1996. Here you can find the lyrics in dutch and this is the translation:

15 million people

Country of 1000 opinions
The Country of matter-of-factness
All of us on the beach
Rusk for breakfast
The country were nobody goes full out
Except when we win [in football]
Then we have an instant bout of passion
And nobody stayed inside
The country that hates finicking
No uniform is sacred
A son who calls his daddy Pete
A bike is nowhere safe

　 15 million people
　 on that little piece of Earth
　 You don't tell them what to do
　 You just respect them
　 15 million people
　 on that little piece of Erath
　 You don't put them in a straightjacket
　 You just respect them

The country full of protest groups
No manager who's really a boss
Where curtains are never drawn
And lunch is a bun with cheese
The country full of tolerance
Except for the neighbour
The biggest question will always remain
Where he gets the money for his rent from?
The country that cares for everyone
Not even a dog eats from the gutter
With snacks from the wall [FEBO]
And nobody who eats dry bread [nobody who is poor]

Waterschapsverkiezingen 2008

2008-11-16T17:37:00.005+01:00

It's been already two and a half years since when I became part of the (second) Italian diaspora.
And since a while I started to think if it was morally right for me to start being interested in Dutch politics rather than keep voting at my homeland elections.
The pragmatic me suggests that Italy needs more help than Holland, by looking how things were going on during the last 14 years; the idealistic me (which I tend to follow most of the times) claims instead that it's unfair to leave a Country in search of better opportunities abroad, but still wishing to interfere with its politics.
Moreover the pain-in-the-ass me states that technically I'm due to be represented here in The Netherlands since I'm paying taxes for this Country since a while.

So the metamorphosis started.

And the opportunity came by post.
We in fact just received an envelop with the ballots and the list of candidates to partecipate at the elections for the Waterschap.

The waterschappen (Dutch for water boards) are regional governament bodies in the Low Countries.
They are charged with defending The Netherlands from water by maintaining the integrity of the water defenses around the polders, managing water barriers (dunes, dikes, quays and levees), waterways, water levels and the water quality in their regions.
Having to do with water, you can easily feel the importance of these institutions (25% of the Country is below sea level, and three main rivers cut the land in many wet slices). In fact they are among the oldest forms of local government in the Netherlands, some of them having been founded in the 13th century.

Waterschappen hold separate elections, levy taxes and function independently from other government bodies.
There are 27 waterschappen in The Netherlands covering the whole territory. The Hoogheemraadschap Amstel, Gooi en Vecht is the waterschap governing Amsterdam region and it's this the one we're going to vote for.
The general structure of these institutions consist in a general administrative body (elected by people), an executive board (elected by the administrative body) and a chairperson (appointed by the government), also called dijkgraaf, the Count of the dikes (cool, isn't it?).

Actually, asking around to some friends of mine it turned out that among common people nobody really cares about these elections and that it's just "another political charge".
Nevertheless I'll try to find out the differences between the candidates and start being interested in dutch politics.
Maybe also here there is someone that believes that Obama is tanned.

The Abilene paradox

2008-11-12T17:26:00.003+01:00

On a hot afternoon visiting in Coleman, Texas, the family is comfortably playing dominoes on a porch, until the father-in-law suggests that they take a trip to Abilene (53 miles north) for dinner. The wife says, "Sounds like a great idea." The husband, despite having reservations because the drive is long and hot, thinks that his preferences must be out-of-step with the group and says, "Sounds good to me. I just hope your mother wants to go." The mother-in-law then says, "Of course I want to go. I haven't been to Abilene in a long time."

The drive is hot, dusty, and long. When they arrive at the cafeteria, the food is as bad as the drive. They arrive back home four hours later, exhausted.

One of them dishonestly says, "It was a great trip, wasn't it." The mother-in-law says that, actually, she would rather have stayed home, but went along since the other three were so enthusiastic. The husband says, "I wasn't delighted to be doing what we were doing. I only went to satisfy the rest of you." The wife says, "I just went along to keep you happy. I would have had to be crazy to want to go out in the heat like that." The father-in-law then says that he only suggested it because he thought the others might be bored.

The group sits back, perplexed that they together decided to take a trip which none of them wanted. They each would have preferred to sit comfortably, but did not admit to it when they still had time to enjoy the afternoon.

More on Prostitutes

2008-11-07T17:37:00.009+01:00

Since I know the importance of being earnest, I'm coming back on this topic to bring some evidencies in favour and (mainly) against my position.

Eight years ago prostitution became legal in The Netherlands. The idea of dutch politicians was to disassociate bad activities such as coercion, violence, deseases, by regulating the sex trade with the help of the state.
In the same period another European Country took a different approach to solve the problem: from 1999 Sweden began to consider prostitution, and all related activities, illigals, and to persecute (also through "naming and shaming") all the people involved.
All the other European Countries watched carefully the two opposite experiments to see which one would have worked better; and four years ago Norwegian government wrote a report on this.

Results are that none of the method is really solving the problem; nevertheless many Countries (and Norway too) are taking now the Swedish way.

In Amsterdam the link between prostitution and organized crime has proved to be durable, against the hopes of the politicians.
Some of the ladies posing at the Red Light Distric's windows, more than half of which are there against their will, are owned (also via tatoos) by a bunch of barons, that force them to work too much and sometimes to undergo to breast implants.

In Sweden centre-left administration's (sic) policy decreased the number of street prostitutes by 40%. But, on the other side, detractors claim this move just send Swedes in other nearby Countries or even in Thailand.
Moreover prostitutes associations complain that life for prostitutes (that still exist) has become very dangerous in Sweden because of the fact they are not pretected by the law or the State anymore, so they often fell in the hands of pimps.
Also, under-age prostitution is increasing beacuse of fear of the clients to report those "anomalies".

So it seems there are no easy way out.
But there are two other interesting Countries with their own way.

In 2003 New Zealand decriminalize the sex trade, even more than in Holland: sex workers can do their trade more or less freely, wherever they want.
The result is that prostitutes are feeling very safe (i.e. they can easily reject clients) and only 4% said thet've been pushed to do this job. Also, a group of British old ladies agrees with this.
Of course New Zealand has a facilitation: it's an island down there, and there is not so much immigration, especially from poorer Countries. Moreover legal and social systems is very solid.

Finally, the Italian way!
In Italy people exchanging sexual services are very much protected by the government. And from time to time they can also reach very high positions in the society, as a member of the Italian government had the chance to reveil this week.

Are Americans better then Italians?

2008-11-06T10:55:00.005+01:00

Well, from a first glance, it would look like yes, they are. But maybe Obama is so good that he can even explain us that maybe it is not true. He said, just after being elected:
"Today the American people have made their voices heard, and they have said, 'Things are finally as terrible as we're willing to tolerate, to elect a black man, in this country, and at this time—these last eight years must have really broken you."

Yes, probably he is right. The situation in the U.S. is now much worse then in Italy, even considering Berlusconi and his mafia/massonic connections. At least, americans are much poorer then we are. Not because of our great way of doing economy, hell no, but because we have Europe to save our ass. God Save Europe. And we don't even realize that.... but this is another story. The point is that I am very happy of this election result, and I am very happy for my american friends, they can rely on the fact that they are not surrounded by completely helpless people, but it is still possible to change things. Nevertheless, I would like to strike a blow in favour of the Italians, and say that we are very far of having such an alternative and vote for somebody like Obama. Maybe if we could, we would also do it. Maybe.
Anyway, I am not sure that he will really change things as much as we europeans are expecting him to do.... but hope is last to die, so let's see if he can astonish us and change the western world in a different way of the one is happening now (the decline of America and the rise of the East, hopefully, but unfortunately unlikely, with the hand of Europe).
For the moment my main hope is that Europe will keep a look of what happened in the U.S. in the last 10 years and learn the lesson, and stop voting for right wing populistic non-political people.....

BTW, last glance to who has led U.S. in such a disastrous situation:
In a press conference held this morning on the White House lawn, President Bush formally asked the assembled press corps and members of his own administration if, in light of today's election, he could stop being the president now. "So it's over, right? Can I stop being president now?" Bush said after striding to the podium in a Texas Rangers cap and flannel shirt, carrying a fully packed suitcase. "Let's just say I'm done as of now. Presidency over." When informed by Washington Post reporter David Broder that his presidency would continue through early January, Bush stared at him quizzically, sighed, and shuffled silently back into the White House.

Poor him, would you please leave this poor guy alone, to run behind the cows and stop forcing him (hopelessly) to think???????

Vouwfietsen

2008-11-03T12:18:00.004+01:00

This week I gain one more point on my Dutchness score.
After the aardappelstamper (a potato masher ment to be used to prepare the stamppot), the eiersnijder (an egg slicer) and the legendary kaasschaaf (a cheese slicer), now I'm proud to announce that I'm finally in possession of an awesome Vouwfiets!

Which is, as the picture shows, a foldable bike (I've got it as a birthday present: thanks!).
Here in Holland this kind of bike is often used by commuters like me: people that live in one city (Amsterdam) and has to go to work to another city (Utrecht).
So instead of having a bike in each city and leave them in the train station to wait (which is what I was doing before: home -> Amsterdam train station by bike, Amsterdam -> Utrecht by train, Utrecht train station -> University by a second bike) now I can easily fold up my bike and put in on the train.
Cool, isn't it?

The bike works amazingly!
Despite the fact that the wheels are small, the gear system is smartly done and pushing on the pedals is very easy and definitely not hard.
And the bike itself is not heavier than 11 kg, so it's handy to bring it around in a folded configuration.

A last thing I discovered googling around.
The word commuting ("fare il pendolare" in Italian) is translated as "forensisme" in Dutch. Which originates from the Latin word forenses (= of the forum, the Latin market) and apparently was used to refer peasant coming to the city market from Germany to sell their goods. Then it was taken over to name in general people from the countryside that use to work in Amsterdam.

Gelli Beans

2008-10-29T13:28:00.009+01:00

Once upon a time there was a pseudo democratic Country called Italy.
It was located at the very border of the Free Western Empire and because of that it was very much subject to the risks coming from the bordering Evil Red Empire.
Since the inhabitants of this Country didn't completely agree on which side to support, the ruling Free Western Empire had to spent a huge effort (both in economical and political help) to keep the Country under its influence sphere.
As a consequence the political life of the Country stayed for 50 years frozen in the hands of the Christian Democracy party, while safety and stability where assured by precise and harsh actions led by some governament guided right-wing paramilitary groups.
This worked for a while, but later it became clear that it was more easy, in order to keep the power over the Country, to fill all the society spheres with trusted men rather than facing the Evil Empire with direct brutal force.

In this Country was living a Venerable Master.
He was a peculiar character: during the last war he used to play for both fascist and anti-fascist sides (even if he preferred the first one), while right after the war he started collaborating with the Free Western Empire intelligence service, and then ended up being at the intelligence service of his own Country.

Someone claims it was this Venerable Master that helped the Empire in building a thick control net over the Italian society, using his acquaintances in the Freemansonry world.
His covert lodge was very powerful and it included very important state officers, politicians (also ministers and deputies), military officers.
The aim of the network was to subvert the political order in Italy and lead eventually to an authoritarian turning by steps: creation of two big parties, gain control over the media and judges, ask for constitutional reforms, bench reform, abolition of provinces and study qualifications.
"Unfortunately" the network was discovered after five years and the lists of associates were made public.

Notably, the then future Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi was on the list.
A couple of times the Master had something nice to say about him: "The real power lays in the hands of who control the Media", "All is becoming a reality little by little, piece by piece. To be truthful, I should have had the copyright to it. Justice, TV, public order. I wrote about this thirty years ago..." or "Berlusconi is an extraordinary man, a man of action. This is what Italy needs: not a man of words, but a man of action."

Today, after 25 years, our Venerable Master has been asked to go public and to run a TV program, Venerable Italy, where he's going to teach Italian history, from the Fascism to these days.
Special guests for the first episode will be controversial former Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti, and the co-leader of Berlusconi's Forza Italia party, Marcello Dell'Utri, convicted for collusion with the Mafia (pending appeal).
Together, they are going to explain us their version of Italian history.

Is this good or bad?
Is this a chance for enlighten people to see the real connections between present and past powers in Italy, or it's a sign that by now in this Country you can say whatever you want and full as many people as you can, telling them your own truth?
I'm not sure actually.
Personally I'm pretty interested in listen on what he has to say. It's more or less like to listen to the devil's teaching. He definitely knows a lot of our Country's dirty secrets and he's probably going to play with them.
I think the interesting thing will be to see who he's going to address his stories to.
Normal folk or non-disinterested politicians?

Anyways... they all lived happily ever after.

Francesco Cossiga on Democracy in Italy

2008-10-28T11:18:00.003+01:00

On Thursday, October 23rd, commenting over S.Berlusconi's intimidation (denied righ after by he himself) to use police force against university demontrators in Italy, former President of the Italian Republic (and currently lifetime senator) Francesco Cossiga stated the following on an interview (here the original text):

President Cossiga, do you think that Berlusconi has gone too far in threatening the use of State force against the students?
That depends, if he believes he is the Prime Minister of a strong State then no, he was right. But as Italy is a weak State, as the opposition is no longer the rock-like PCI (Italian Communist Party, which changed name and broke up in 1991) but the evanescent PD (Democratic Party, led by Walter Veltroni, formed in 2007 from the remains of the old PCI together with other centre-left forces), I'm afraid that his words will not be followed by action and that Berlusconi will just end up with egg on his face.
What should happen now?
At this point, Maroni (Roberto Maroni (Lega Nord), current Home Minister) should do what I did when I was Home Secretary.
What's that?
Firstly, forget the high-school students... can you imagine what would happen if a 10-year-old kid got killed or seriously injured...
Instead, the university students?
Let them get on with it. Withdraw the police from the streets and the universities, infiltrate the movement with agents provocateurs ready for anything, and allow the demonstrators to run loose for a week or so, devastating shops, setting cars on fire and causing havoc in the streets.
Then what? Then, with public opinion on your side, the sound of ambulance sirens should drown out the sirens of police and carabinieri cars.
In the sense that...
In the sense that the forces of law and order should massacre the demonstrators without pity and send them all to hospital. Not arrest them - the magistrates would set them free straight away in any event... beat them bloody and beat the teachers storring them up bloody too.
The teachers, too?
The teacher above all. Not the older ones, of course... the young girls. Have you any idea of the seriousness of what's happening? There are teachers indoctrinating children and encouraging them to demonstrate - that's criminal behaviour!
But you realise what they would say in Europe after something like you suggest? "Fascism returns to Italy", they'd say.
Rubbish, it's the democratic way - put out the flame before the fire spreads.
What fire?
I'm not exaggerating when I say I truly believe that terrorism will return to bloody the streets of this country. And I wouldn't want people to forget that the Red Brigades (BR) were not born in the factories but in the universities. And that the slogans they used were used before them by the Student Movement and the trade union left.
So you think it is possible that history will repeat itself?
It's not possible, it's probable. That's why I'm saying: let's not forget that the BR were born because the flame was not put out in time.
Veltroni's PD is on the side of the demonstrators.
Look, I can't in all honesty see Veltroni taking to the streets and risk getting a cracked skull. You're more likely to see him in some exclusive club in Chicago, applauding Obama.
He won't take to the streets with a stick in his hands, sure, but politically...
Politically, he's making the same mistake that the PCI made when the troubles (The widespread progressive protest movement which began in the late 1960s) started: it backed the movement, deluding itself that it could control it, but when it too became a target, as was bound to happen, it soon changed its mind. The so-called hard-line adopted by Andreotti, Zaccagnini and me was suggested by Berlinguer (Leader of the PCI from 1972 to 1984)... But today we've got the PD, an ectoplasm led by another ectoplasm. And that's another good reason for Berlusconi to be more prudent.

Vedea ceffi di birro in ogni volto.

2008-10-24T18:00:00.007+02:00

Yesterday the American Freedom Alliance, a right-wing US think tank, announced they were going to give an award to Geert Wilders, the Dutch anti-immigration politician sadly famous for his short film Fitna.
In the note it is said that the Freedom Award is given to individuals or organisations which defend world freedoms.

All this sounded to me pretty odd: you actually call Freedom to be against human rights?
I would say no, but it turns out that this word (freedom) is often used for right oriented political groups generally against basic freedoms.
There are six political parties in Europe recalling Freedom in their name; in most (but not all) of the case they mean individual freedom in economics, liberalism, but in all the case they are populist parties. This probably tells us that the word freedom is a bit abused in order to touch easy emotions of people by calling simple principles on which everybody has to believe.
The funny thing of this is in fact that all this so called freedom parties have in their declared intents the will of fighting freedom.

These are the parties:
1. Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs (FPÖ, Freedom Party of Austria): the populist and nationalist party held until 2005 by Jörg Haider, against asylum system, against EU policy in Austria, pro restriction in Austrian citizenship law, against Turkey in EU;
2. Frihedspartiet (FP, Danish Freedom Party): founded by the former pastor of Faderhuset evangelical church, Eivind Fønssagainst, against freedom of abortion;
3. Il Popolo della Libertà (PdL, Italian People of Freedom): the party by and with Silvio Berlusconi, against the freedom of being clever and Italian at the same time;
4. Partij voor de Vrijheid (PVV, Dutch Party for Freedom): led by the already mentioned Geert Wilders, it's against Europe, Turkey (or anyway them both together), double citizenship, immigrants in The Netherlands;
5. Freiheits-Partei der Schweiz (FPS, Freedom Party of Switzerland): against immigrants (especially black people), for a "law and order" approach to crime and drugs;
6. Freedom Party (FP, English): very smll populist anti immigration party.

We could notice that all of these parties are actually pretty small and they refer to a very small, radical and extremistic, part of the population.
All but the Italian one which just took 37.4% of the votes (and it was not the only populist party).
What does this mean? That our populism is better than the others? Or that we are more populist than others? (If so, who's fault is this?)

But for one thing we, as Italian, can be proud: despite the fact that Freedom House consider Italy as the 34th of the Countries ranked by Democracy Index, and consider ours a Flawed Democracy, we can claim to be the freest in the world, since most of the people in Italy apparently believes in Freedom and in its champion, Silvio Berlusconi, that for all his life tried to fight for (his) freedom.

The Little or the Big Planet?

2008-10-21T16:24:00.009+02:00

How will you make the planet if you could do it? Maybe with a lot of sackboys and sackgirls hanging around. Well, if you have a PS3, now you can do it. Well, not really now, but in a couple of weeks. Not now because Sony decided to postpone the launch on the market of its new game, Little Big Planet, because of some text contained in the soudtrack. This game is a real revolution and it is supposed to be the killer app for the PS3 console, revolutioning the game experience and expecially the share and multiplayer gaming. The plot is very simple. You are a small sackboy that goes around the world, not differently then Mario used to do. But, you are not alone. Other sackboys and sackgirs are going around with you, and you have to cohoperate in order to succeed the level (video. Also, and this is the big news, you can build your own world. Not with an editor, but during the game (video). After, you can share your world with others, online, and let them play it, while you are playing theirs. Check on youtube what people managed to do, it's really impressive. The point is that one betatester noticed that in one song there are some quotes from the Coran, and he pointed it out in the sony forum. Immediately, Sony decided to stop the release of the game, already printed in blue ray and delivered to many stores, recall all the beta copies and postpone the release date with a patched version that will not contain the song. Many discussions about this event has grown in the web, and many hypothesis about why this really happened popped out. Some people think that muslim reaction was exagerated, as at the end it's only a game and there were only few sentences. Some people think that Sony didn't stop the production because of the Coran itself but because of the meaning of these sentences :"Every soul shall have the taste of death" and "All that is on earth will perish" that may have affected the "family" sticker on the game (with consequences on the number of sold copies...). Some people think that it only a fast way to get some advertisement (I wouldn't say cheap, anyway). The composer of the music is a muslim musician, and he claimed that: "It's quite normal to play music and be inspired by the words of the Prophet Mohammed. It's my way to attract and inspire people towards Islam", which I think make sense. Nevertheless he got a fast reply from the islamic community: "Muslims believe the Qur'an to be the actual word of god and give it utmost respect. Therefore if it were to be used with the accompaniment of music or if it were to be used in a game or a commercial - that would upset and cause offense and hurt to many, many Muslims." . This, applied to christians, will end with forbidding most of Chrismas songs and cartoons... Is it the belief of the most or just of the few who like to speak and to be center of the attention? I agree that respect must be given to all belief and traditions, but all this mess for a game and not even the game itself, but only a very tiny part of a song? By the way, here you can listen to the song that creates this hype... What do you think?

Kleptocrats and pornocracy

2008-10-17T17:07:00.006+02:00

The biggest argument against democracy is a five minute discussion with the average voter.
W. Churchill

Since I've been hit by the stone thrown by Eleonora in the previous post, I'm here going say what I think about voting right in Democracies.
In a few occasions during the last couple of years, I found myself thinking that a very easy general-culture test taken by the voters just before expressing their vote, would have avoided irrational decisions.
Smart politicians are often good in move and manipulate stupid hordes of people by frightening them with populistic arguments. Sometimes people just vote against something or someone they fear without knowing what they're signing for.
So I use to think a couple of random and very basic questions (such as: "Who's the current President of this Country?" Think that the question "How many regions are there in this Country?" would have cut S. Berlusconi's vote out!) before the vote could be used to weight the political influence of every person.

Of course the matter is not an easy one.
We would like to be very careful in chosing the questions in order not to discriminate people from their wealth (rich people tend to be more cultured of course), race or sex.
Then that would become easily a strong weapon in the hands of the current politicians that will try to have a profit out of it so we'd need strong rules for that.
For example sometimes in the past, the right to vote has been limited to people who had achieved a certain level of education or passed a certain "literacy tests" in some states of the US.
In practice, the composition and application of these tests were frequently manipulated so as to functionally limit the electorate on the basis of other characteristics like wealth or race.

This tells me that a culture test would not work for what I said before: a poor woman of the south of Italy may don't care about litterature and economics but, if she shows interest, she still deserve the right to be represented in the parliament, doesn't she?

But it would be not easy to convince people to weight their vote.
To me the argumentation would be: when you go for a surgery you let discuss and decide all the procedure to the medical staff. In the same way it would be way better if poeple that knows something more about a specific subject had more decision-power.

But on the other hand this would be not a democracy anymore: democracy is giving the power to the folk that elects its representatives to deal with hard topics in their place.
If people are stupid on average (and they are), they will vote for inept politicians.
And they want to keep doing it.

Scripta Manent

2008-10-15T13:41:00.003+02:00

After a very long silent, mainly due to lazyness, here a new post about something I already treated several time here: the language in the web. Although I am interested to it, it is not such a useless subject, infact many groups are thinking and studying it. For example google. Google just released a new web application you can use in your gmail account that forbids you to send mail that you will regret after few seconds (tipically, in the very moment you press "send"). This application, available on the google labs, is called Mail Goggles, and obliges you to solve some small mathemathical problems, in a short time, before you can actually send the message. If you don't succeed solving these problems, than the mail is archived and is not sent. Many people don't think much before talking and, as the web provides a very fast way to communicate, almost as fast as speaking, people tend not to think before sending stuff in the web. But, unfortunately, sending stuff on the web is not at all the same as speaking. If you send a mail or post a video or a entry in your blog or whatever, it stays there. And even if you delete it later, it is probably going to be too late. This google service should help the impulsive employee not to lose his job sending a angry mail to his boss. Or it can save love stories and friendship. It is indeed very useful. The only thing that it does it to give you some extra time to think about what you are doing. It is surprising that in a service like the email you need that, because normally you should have all the time in the world. But facts reveals that people act before thinking, so what google offers ir a real precious service.

Talking of this, just in conclusion, I just throw a stone about a similar subject.... wouldn't it be better to add a similar test, maybe on general culture, before allowing people to vote? Make a test and then weight the votes depending on the results?

The Maverick and the MILF

2008-09-27T22:43:00.012+02:00

I would like to spend some words on Sarah Palin, mother of five children, governor of the lonely and cold Alaska, and Republican Vice Presidential candidate for the 2008 Presidential Elections.

On August 29, 2008, Republican Presidential candidate Senator John McCain announced that he had chosen Sarah Palin from Alaska as his running mate. The reaction of many was: "Who's that?!?"
At that time I thought he actually made a smart choice. Not that she was minimally able to handle with any of the incoming problems of the US, that's clear, but she was the best choice in order to move away from the Republican electorate most of the concerns about McCain candidacy.
If one of the fear was that he's in fact old (both in age and mentality) she then appeared as his young and fizzy counterpart.
If there was the risk to look at the Republican as those old sexist and racist military guys against the fresh wind coming from the Democrats that nominated an Afro-American as President, they then decided to choose a woman as VP! Something that nether the Democrats managed to do!

Then of course she's not really a model of liberalism, but this kind of helps for the Republican electorate.
She's in fact belongs to the Pentecostal church and strongly believes in its precepts: teaching creationism in public schools, supporting an amendment to deny state health benefits to same-sex couples, fighting abortion in all cases (including rape and incest). She's then a member of Feminist for Life and supports sex education in public schools that encourages abstinence (as McCain) but also discusses birth control (what a liberal!).
On the "other" side, Sarah is a lifetime member of the National Rifle Association (she advocated gun safety education for youngsters), promoted further oil and natural gas resource exploration in Alaska, and initiated a lawsuit over the federal listing of the polar bear and some weird specie of beluga whale as endangered species.

Anyways...
I thought that was sort of a good choice for McCain, but latterly it turns out that the risks given by her extreme incompetence on every political matters are for the Republicans larger than her appeal as a strong mother from the deep north.
Now McCain entourage decided to shut her up and doesn't let her have a public press conference. She's also the only candidate that was not allowed to comment over yesterday's debate between Obama and McCain.

Moreover, a couple of days ago she gave an interview at the CBS embarrassing the whole Republican base, so that some right-wing intellectuals are starting to call her out the race before it's too late.

Another very funny video is this from Bill Maher.

So at the end the choice done by McCain turns out to be way more risky than he thought.
Many people here are starting now to question: what if the old McCain will pass away after being elected? Is that silly woman really going to lead us?

Please flush when finished

2008-09-25T02:49:00.005+02:00

It's Friday night.
I just finished to watch the first Presidential debate between John McCain and Barack Obama (yes, I'm again in New York). Topic: foreign policy and national security (or: when the Americans look really Americans).

It was my first time to watch Obama speaking in a debate and I have to admit I expected him to be worse: more an idealist daydreamer or a easy-minded yuppie.
Instead tonight he appeared as a pretty relaxed guy with some clear ideas in mind. I kind of liked him.

On the other side there was John "I'll tell ya" McCain.
He's a real old American marine-like man. He likes war, he lived for that and he still thinks that the best way the USA has to bring peace to the galaxy.
During the debate he used several times expressions like "when I was prisoner", "when I came out of that Vietnamese jail", "once the mother of an American soldier that died in Iraq asked me to keep going on this war", "when I was in Vietnam" and so on...
To me he looked kind of pathetic and a pretty old minded guy. Anyway I think being old (or having "old" ideas) is not really his weak point. In fact his choice of the young and unprejudiced, but at the same time beautiful mother and woman with deep religious values, Sarah Palin as his Vice President candidate prevents him to be considered just an old fashioned man.

The curious think was to see how Americans think about the rest of the world. For them it's just a big play yard where some of their friends (France, England, Georgia, Ukraine,...) are fighting with nasty guys (Iran, Pakistan, Russia) and somehow they (the Americans) have to get involve into the play to help their friend and to bring democracy to the underdeveloped Countries.

At the end of the debate, Obama ended with a passionate "all the kids in the world are watching at us as a model and we cannot disappoint them", while McCain started with "When I came from prison...".

Smokey, this is not 'Nam. This is bowling. There are rules.
(Walter Sobchak)

Het Land Van (Salah Edin)

2008-09-22T10:00:00.006+02:00

Few months ago I posted the translation of a dutch rap song, Het Land Van, by Lange Frans and Baas B, two native dutch white HH-ers, grew up around Amsterdam.
Soon after another rapper, Salah Edin, mimed this song by writing a new one, with the same title, which shows another view on the dutch society, this time by a Moroccan-Dutch, son of immigrants but born in Holland.
This shows a quite more negative point of view. The lyrics in Dutch are here. This is the translation.

The Country of

The country of 1 million people with no job
The country where they do not adopt you because of your name
The country of preconceptions
The country where they force you to making problems
The country of so many laws
The country where they film you constantly for safety
The country that you'll save your ass just for convenience
The country of illegal immigrants, television scoops, politicians trying to get money out of your pockets
The country that's exposing you
The country with open borders
Full is full [C.D. anti-immigration slogan] for sure for poor people
The country of commerce
The country where people live in another dimension
The country where "tomorrow" is a trouble
The country where beautiful dreams have been spoiled
Look carefully around you because there are consequences
The country of the highest percentage of Muslim-haters
The country that has been built by our fathers
The country which considers us as danger and terror
Country of beautiful dreams, disappoints me
The country of capitalism, subcutaneous racism, materialism the country that runs on prostitution
The country of terrorism
The country of extremists
The country where you cannot spit your opinion for any reason
The country of prosperity
The country of Bakellende [literally "container of misery", it's a joke with Dutch Prime Minister's name Balkenende], the country of democracy which does not apply everywhere
The country of tolerance, meaninglessly violence, importance comes only when it's about rough money
The country of food banks, refugee camps
The country which has nothing to look for in our own Countries
The country where freedom is a mask on the face
The country of rights but what they decide is compulsory

The country of drug addicted nowadays nomads
The country that arose on the back of the slaves
The country divided in crazy districts, as they do in France to solve the problems
we call that fight, just like you do all the time
The country of colonization and now of liberalization
well, can you that compare?
The country that look for problems but then wants to avoid them
The country of schijnheilen [appearance features]
The country where everything turns around fucking oil price
The country of receivers
The country where the news has nothing to offer but lies
The country of hypocrites
Country of parasites
The country that loves to wins but gives up at losses
The country where the lion [Dutch symbol] never leave alone their shirts
The country where the woman is sold behind the window
The country where I am born and where I come from
The country that labelled me as kutmarokkaan [very bad pejorative for Moroccans]

Serious social alarm

2008-09-19T15:14:00.005+02:00

There are two things in the speech of our Minister for Equal Opportunity (about the new law against prostitution) that made me laugh.

Prostitution is disgusting, I don't understand who sell his body for money

she said. Then, asked by a reporter if this new law would be really worth, she replied that

what is important to this government is the street prostitution [and not to forbid prostitution in general, n.d.E.] because it causes social alarm.

So if I understand correctly the main point, the declared goal, is not to fight prostitution, but just to hide it so that the good citizens can keep walking around the Country without being emotionally shocked by seeing a prostitute.
Better: the point of this government is not solving the many problems of Italy, but hide them and make people think they don't exist anymore.
What the eye sees not, the heart rues not

The war against situations of serious social alarm ("grave allarme sociale") is one of the most stressed point by this government. Right after Berlusconi became prime minister, an urgent emergency decree “Declaration of the state of emergency in relation to settlements of the nomad communities in Campania, Lazio and Lombardia” was released on 21 May 2008. The decree declared a state of emergency in the three regions until 31 May 2009, against Roma people ("Rom" in Italian) whose presence is defined as resulting in situations of an “extreme critical nature” and of “serious social alarm”.
A couple of days after, commenting on an amendment of this decree, Berlusconi declared (via a letter to the Senate):

Dear President,
as you may know this morning senators Berselli and Vizzini presented an amendment to the so called "security decree" in order to establish priority criteria for treatment of the most urgent trials and of those that create special social alarm.
I want to underline that the trials I'm involved in are not urgent, nor they create any social alarm.

Of course.
So they (Berlusconi government) are telling us (stupid Italians) that they are going to make us happy and peaceful, removing all the sources of social alarm so that we don't have to worry anymore. They will not solve the problems, but they will work hard so that we will not see them. If we want then to have a walk with our children we will not be disturbed by the presence of the prostitutes (they'll be somewhere else hidden doing their job) or by some Roma people (no one cares if their situation is better or not, but as long they stay hidden...).
And if we want to visit Naples we will enjoy the clean streets and the fresh air of the city center (the garbage is still being produced, but it has been moved from the center to the suburbs, to Lombardy and to Germany, where it doesn't cause serious social alarm).

The problems are not solved, but everybody is living happy and gaily as long as they don't have to think at the problems.

The funny thing is that they are explaining us what are they going to do (hide problems), but we don't understand!
Or we like it...

Legalize?

2008-09-17T13:53:00.004+02:00

As apparently many people are interested in the subject, I will write few words about the legalization of prostitution.
First, I would only like to point out that I will here explain my own personal point of view, so Ermes may disagree and he will in case explain his point of view.
The discussion I guess born because of the new law made by the italian minister (check out the previous post) that apparently condemn to jail the prostitute and the guest. This is actually not true, in Italy, after this law, nothing will change for both the prostitute and the guest, so actually there is nothing to talk about. But, as people somehow tends to believe what the italian government says (only this government, maybe because it looks so commited) I will spend few words about it.
So, do we like prostitution? No. I guess that the point everywhere is to find a solution to this, not to incentivate it. I will start from this assumption, if people like prostitution, well, there is not much to say, right? The approaches that the various governments did are all aimed to take out prostitution from the road. Like our minister said, it is not nice to see, and look at her, where she's now, paying attention not to stay on the street. The actual reason why the other countries wants to put it out from the streets is because together with prostituition normally you get for free also a good quantity of drugs, wepons and human traffic. So, having some places to put the prostitutes may help to keep in control these problems. Does it work? Well, no.
In Amsterdam, 80% of prostitutes are foreigners, and 70% have no immigration papers, suggesting that they were trafficked.
The Netherlands is a primary country of destination for victims of human trafficking. Many of these are led to believe by organized criminals that they are being offered work in hotels or restaurants or in child care and are forced into prostitution with the threat or actual use of violence. Estimates of the number of victims vary from 1000 to 7000 on a yearly basis.Most police investigations on human trafficking concern legal sex businesses. All sectors of prostitution are well represented in these investigations, but particularly the window brothels are overrepresented.
With this, also drugs trafficking is still strictly connected with the sex market.
Apparently, only the 7% of the prostitutes in the Netherlands are HIV positive, but most of these checking are not completely significants as health and social services are readily available, but people who work in the sex industry are not required to register or undergo mandatory health checks.
Windows prostitution is not the only form in the Netherlands. Only the 20% are actually working in this form. The 15% in escort services, 5% on the streets and 5% in their own homes. An estimated 10% works in other types of prostitution, and 45% works in sex clubs and private houses.
Several cities have even instituted a so-called tippelzones for street prostitution, as even here was impossible to take prostitutes away from the streets. Anyway, for example the one of Amsterdam has been closed in 2003 because of an uncontrolled deal of weapons and drug and exploitation of illegal foreigners.

Ok, is making prostitution completely illegal a better choice?
No.
Legalizing it allow anyway a major control from the state, both from health and social point of view, guarantee an income in form of taxes that are regularly paid by the prostitutes and the room holder. It is clearly impossible to put into jail all the prostitutes and the guests, as they will fill alone all the jails, not leaving any more space for more serious crimes. It is also a very difficult crime to prove.

So, what to do?
Well, my idea is to educate people. We should start to think that even though it is quite natural on a biological level for males and females to host desires and have intimate relations with many partners, it would probably be a very unproductive line of reasoning when considering the legalization of prostitution. Humankind no longer succumbs to animal behavior and has built infrastructures that depend on us expunging primitive mannerisms. Unlike the animal kingdom, we deal with sexuality without force.
In Holland only the 5% of prostitutes are male. And they only have homosexual guests. That means that in the Netherlands no women feel the need to pay for sex. I am pretty sure that similar statistics may apply to all the other countries. So, I would say that prostitution has clearly nothing to do with the physical needs of men (or women), but is only a manifestation of the different social positions of men and women in the modern (and old) society.
For me the solution is to educate people, both men and women about respecting each other, and in case they don't learn fast, starting sending the pictures of the couple prostitute-guest, directly to the family of the men. This solution was proposed and to me was the only serious one.

Nosonly a flag of a country (bas an universal message of freedom ev democracy)

2008-09-16T15:13:00.005+02:00

Wait, wait, wait!
It looks that when I was in Japan I missed something else about our mutual friend, Silvio B.
Apparently, in preparation for the last G8 meeting in Japan, the American reporters that were traveling with the US president George Bush, had been provided with a thick "press kit" with some basic information about the world leaders attending the meeting.
This is what the pamphlet said about our prime minister.

Silvio Berlusconi

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi (born 1936) is one of the most controversial leaders in the history of a country known for governmental corruption and vice. Primarily a businessman with massive holdings and influence in international media, he is regarded by many as a political dilettante who gained his high office only through use of his considerable influence on the national media.

Hated by many but respected by all at least for his bella figura (personal style) and the sheer force of his will, Berlusconi has parlayed his business acumen and influence into a personal empire that has resulted in Italy’s longest–running government ever and in his becoming the country’s wealthiest man. Bursting onto the scene with no political experience in 1993, he campaigned—using his vast network of media holdings—on a promise to purge the notoriously lackadaisical Italian government of corruption. He won appointment to the office of prime minister in 1994. However, he and his fellow Forza Italia Party leaders soon found themselves accused of the very corruption he had vowed to eradicate. Charges of bribery, extortion, and other abuses of power trailed the leader until he was forced to resign later in 1994. Despite convictions on a number of corruption charges that were later overturned, the suave Berlusconi was again elected prime minister in 2001, and remained in that post as of late 2004. He is owner of one of the world’s most valuable soccer franchises, the country’s biggest private television network, a publishing conglomerate, assorted department stores and insurance companies, a newspaper, a magazine, and a bank. His personal monetary worth is estimated at U.S. $10 billion.

Entrepreneurial Streak Apparent Early On Berlusconi was born on September 29, 1936, in Milan, Italy, the first of two sons of a middle–class bank clerk and a housewife. His precocious interest in business matters was matched by his passion for making money, and even as a boy he was already earning an income by organizing puppet shows for which he would then charge admission. While studying law at the University of Milan, Berlusconi sold vacuum cleaners, worked as a singer on a cruise ship, took portrait photographs, and did other students’ homework for a fee. He also formed an important friendship with Bettino Craxi, who would later become Italian prime minister. His graduation thesis from law school was titled, “The Newspaper Advertising Contract.”

As soon as he left school, Berlusconi began working in real estate because he sensed the development boom that was coming in response to the post–war prosperity of the 1960s. Declining his father’s offer of a job at his bank, the young man managed to put together enough loans to found two real estate and development companies: Cantieri Reuniti Milanesi in 1962 and Edilnord in 1963. Edilnord won the contract for the development of Milano Two, an attractive suburb north of Milan for the upper class, in 1969, and in 1974 Berlusconi entered the world of media when he decided to install a cable television network (through his new Telemilano company) to service the fashionable bedroom community. Edilnord developed the chic Milano 3 suburb in 1976, having become the top developer of residential and commercial properties by that point.

Became Media Mogul in 1970s and 1980s

Following the Constitutional Court’s 1976 ruling that the Radio Televisone Italiana (RAI) conglomerate could no longer extend to the local level its legal monopoly over national broadcasting, Berlusconi launched a massive effort to capitalize on the legitimization of “pirate” television station operators. He founded a holding company, Fininvest, to manage his expanding portfolio of interests as 700 commercial stations mushroomed virtually overnight. Berlusconi worked quickly to create a major library of films, and then rented them out to the new stations in exchange for their advertising on his new Pubitalia publishing subsidiary. By 1980, he was the dominant force in a skyrocketing television market that over the next five years increased its share of national advertising from 15 to 50 percent.

In the meantime, Berlusconi began stringing together a nationwide communications network, Canale Five, in 1977 and completed it in 1980. He created the illusion of a single channel that people could tune into by sending the same film by courier to many of the independent television stations. The pirate stations would then transmit the show simultaneously to their viewers. Unabashedly appealing to the mass market, he stockpiled foreign game shows, soap operas, and popular movies to lure viewers away from the stodgy government–run channels. Berlusconi’s position as a media baron was strengthened when the courts reversed their earlier decision and legalized private national networks as long as anti–trust provisions were observed. He bought out two of his closest competitors in 1982 and 1984, cementing his domination of the country’s commercial television market.

Meanwhile, the reach of Berlusconi’s media empire had extended to commercial television in France, where he created La Cinq in 1986; in Germany, where he founded Telefunf in 1987; and in Spain, where he established Telecinco in 1989.

When the courts ruled later in 1984 that Canele Five had usurped RAI’s state–sanctioned right to broadcast a national service simultaneously, Berlusconi summoned his old friend Craxi, who had since become prime minister, to reverse the order. Thus benefiting from a general move toward deregulation, Berlusconi was permitted to maintain a virtual duopoly with RAI over the nation’s television market. For the remainder of the 1980s, he continued to acquire more and more media holdings.

One of Berlusconi’s key purchases during this period was of the Milan AC Soccer Club in 1986. A passionate soccer fan, he poured money into the club until it soon became the most successful Italian soccer team ever. (With him as chairperson, the team has since won the Champion’s League title four times, the National League title seven times, and the World Cup Championship twice). He also bought the popular Standa department store chain in 1988 and, after a gigantic legal tussle, the Arnoldo Mondadori Editore S.P.A. magazine, book, and newspaper publishing group in 1990. The latter purchase gave Berlusconi instant control over 20 percent of the Italian publishing market. His relentless acquisitions also exponentially increased Fininvest’s debt load to dangerous levels, but Berlusconi had already become a billionaire.

Launched Political Career

At this point, Berlusconi found himself increasingly hounded by demands from all quarters that he break up his media empire for violating virtually every anti–trust law in the books. As these pressures increased through the first part of the 1990s, he made a decision that some saw as foolish but that others perceived as an effort to grab the power of the very forces opposed to him: he announced that he would run for prime minister. In typical aggressive fashion, Berlusconi handed over to close friends all his positions at Fininvest and other companies to avoid political conflicts of interest and immediately organized a political coalition named Forza Italia (after the ubiquitous soccer chant meaning “Go Italy”). He appointed himself as its leader.

Allying the new grouping with a federalist party and the remains of a disbanded neo–fascist group, he geared up his media companies to begin a television and print blitz to advertise his candidacy. Several editors of his press concerns resigned in protest at being told whom to endorse in the typically free–for–all run–up to elections. Berlusconi pressed on, portraying himself as honest and in touch with the concerns of young Italians while pledging to eradicate corruption, lower taxes, increase personal choice, and promote free–market economics. In 1992, a national poll revealed that Italian teenagers ranked Berlusconi ahead of Jesus Christ and the Italian president when asked about the ten people they admired most. However, disaster struck when the leader of the fascist group praised deceased Italian dictator Benito Mussolini as the century’s finest statesman. It was a testament to the power of Berlusconi’s personality that he was quickly able to smooth over the outrage that instantly arose over the comment about the hated leader.

Berlusconi held up his lack of political experience as a virtue to voters, telling them that his success as a businessman was excellent preparation for him to transform the bloated, inefficient Italian government into a lean, streamlined machine that would work for the people and provide a fresh start for all, with sweeping tax cuts and millions of new jobs. The media (much of which he ran, of course) quickly dubbed Berlusconi “the Knight.” Support for him built rapidly despite virulent attacks by his detractors. The media and Berlusconi’s own personal flair prevailed, and the Freedom Pole won 43 percent of the popular vote in March 1994 elections—enough to enable him to form a government of which he was appointed prime minister.

However, despite his precautions, allegations of conflicts of interest arose quickly, fueled by the fact that Berlusconi and his family had retained 51 percent of Fininvest’s interests. Coupled with these suspicions, when one of the coalition’s parties bailed out of the union, Berlusconi’s government collapsed after only nine months in power. In the meantime, his carefully cultivated image as a politician who was above the nation’s traditional corruption began to crumble when it was revealed that Berlusconi had in 1978 joined the sinister Propaganda Two group. This was a secret Masonic lodge that had created a powerful state within a state with strong influence on the secret police, banks, the government, and the military.

Undaunted by these obstacles, Berlusconi began selling off more and more of his shares in his wide array of holdings, and in 1996—just two days before the April general election—he officially declared that he no longer had a majority control in any business. His past continued to haunt him, however, with further allegations of corruption and misdeeds, and although he succeeded in being elected as a member of Parliament representing his right–wing coalition, he was forced to abandon his bid for the premiership.

Appointed Premier Again Despite Lingering Charges

As charges of misdeeds continued to pile up, Berlusconi alleged that left–wing politicians had mounted a plot against him. He was convicted of several financial crimes related to accounting and illegal political funding in 1997 and 1998. He managed to have these overturned on appeal, but those charges were followed by allegations of bribery and other misdeeds in 1999. Nevertheless, he was reelected as a member of the European Union Parliament in 1999 and remained opposition leader in his own country’s Parliament until 2001, when he was once again appointed prime minister on May 13. Berlusconi and his House of Freedoms coalition had won the popular vote by 18.5 million votes, propelled once again by his image as a forceful, self–made man who would at last straighten out the Italian government. Nevertheless, plenty of people were outraged by Berlusconi’s second rise to power, and in 2002 hundreds of thousands of them staged a massive protest to drive home their point—that his heavy involvement in the world of business made him incapable of being an impartial and fair national leader.

The government was shaken to its core later in 2002 when a mammoth corruption scandal came to light that involved some 6,000 politicians and business leaders, including Berlusconi’s brother Paolo and his friend Craxi, and billions of dollars in graft. Meanwhile, Berlusconi himself served as foreign minister in addition to his role as prime minister for ten months in 2002.

Berlusconi got a reprieve from the courts in 2003 when Parliament passed a controversial law making the government’s top officials, including the prime minister, immune from prosecution. It looked for a while like the legal challenges to his leadership were behind him, but the Constitutional Court soon overturned the law. Meanwhile, Berlusconi’s firm decision to stand as an ally with the United States in the war in Iraq had become extremely unpopular, and by 2003, a full 75 percent of Italians were opposed to his decision. In July 2003, Berlusconi assumed the rotating six–month presidency of the European Union, using that position to urge other European countries to support the United States in the war.

By 2004, Berlusconi and his government had enacted numerous bills and laws aimed at reforming the nation’s school and labor systems, reduced taxes and other financial burdens on citizens, increased government support of the unemployed, elderly, and disabled, and, not surprisingly, loosened regulations on limits of private ownership of media. However, critics from both Italy and elsewhere warned that Berlusconi’s liberal spending could soon have major negative impacts on the country’s long–term economic outlook. Nevertheless, the prime minister now had the honor of heading Italy’s longest–running government ever.

In 2004, Forbes magazine ranked Berlusconi as the 30th wealthiest man in the world, up from 45th in 2002, and estimated his personal fortune at $10 billion. He has been married twice, first to Carla Dall’Ogglio, with whom he had two children, and then to actress Veronica Lario, with whom he has three children. He released a CD in 2003 of Neopolitan love songs. The prime minister prefers to spend his spare time at his 70–room villa in Sardinia named “Arcore,” whose amenities include a private park, a movie theater, and walls of large–screen televisions.

OK, there are a couple of errors, but it's cool, isn't it?
They should have distribute this also to all the Italians, just to show how our American friends look at us.

Lassù nel Montana tra mandrie e cowboy...

2008-09-11T23:36:00.003+02:00

Since tomorrow Eleonora will be back from her "conference" in Conca Specchiulla (LE), this is my last chance to be independently veeeeery heavy on this blog, so I'll do my best.

Let's see, this week I told about boring and useless Dutch and Italian laws, bible related stuff and some tiresome experiences of mine riding around in Amsterdam... so what am I missing? Well... geography!

So here we go with an awesome post about one of the most stupid geographical question: why the (bloody) hell some American States are rectangular?

In fact as you all noticed (don't you?) there are two States in the USA that are rectangular (actually they are rectangles on a curved surface, so they are trapezoidal): Colorado and Wyoming (Colorado stretches from 37°N to 41°N latitude and from 102° 3'W to 109° 3'W longitude; Wyoming stretches from 41°N to 45°N latitude and from 104° 3'W to 111° 3'W longitude).
The motivation of this is clear: the borders were decided and drawn table top and at that time no one really cared of drawing more geographical borders between grasslands.

But the "funny thing" is that they are actually not perfectly rectangular (or trapezoids)!
In fact when the surveyors mapped the boundaries of these two States (using transit, compass, chronometer, astronomical readings, data from previous surveys and interviews with residents of the affected areas) they made some mistakes in marking them from milepost to milepost over distances stretching hundreds of miles.
So for example in mapping Colorado they ended up being 1 mile further they expected to be because of some irregularities. So the borders of Colorado (as well as for Wyoming) are not strictly rectangular but they present some kinks.

So even if the written description of the borders says they are rectangular, the official definition is on the ground since at that time both the Countries involved accepted it.
So for example Colorado's legal border "is a polygon formed by a series of line segments that run between physical monuments that were put in place by . . . survey parties".

The workers' city, far below the surface of the earth.

2008-09-08T22:14:00.003+02:00

It is a dark time for the Rebellion.
Signs of an upcoming fascism are said to be seen all about Europe (not only in Italy) and this morning I had to face it. And just for a great luck I avoided my fate.

As every morning, I was gaily biking to the Centraal Station and, as every morning, I was going to park my bike on the racks behind the station that, as every morning, are already full of bikes in every position at 8:00AM.
After a couple of hopeless checks I decided to wedge my bike between two "official" spots already occupied and to lock it there (as half of the bikes in the rack).

It was then that I heard the grim noise of a circular saw on my back.
Suddenly three imperial clones from the municipal police came out and started to cut off all the padlocks from the bikes parked out of the racks and to throw them (the bikes) on a truck.
I then thought it was better to find a real parking spot, and so I did, leaving the clones collecting all the outlaw bikes (some 50 of them) and chopping the padlocks with that bloody saw of their.

When I came back from work tonight just a few bikes were still there (the ones in the right parking spots) and all around there were groups of astonished dutch; desperate people trying to figure out what happened to their bikes and throwing themselves like mad in the water. (OK, this can be a bit romanticized.)

I then took my bike and went back home, gaily, even if I almost got caught by some policemen because my front light was not working (since 2 days).
Fortunately they were busy screaming to a guy to drive his scooter (with the yellow plate!! Not with the blue one! But this is another story) on the bicycle lane.

De Bijbelgordel

2008-09-03T12:09:00.002+02:00

Since I've been pointed out by a (the) reader that here in The Netherlands there is a so called Bible Belt, I made my homework and I tried to inquire about this.

So there is indeed a bible belt also here in The Netherparts (in dutch it's de bijbelgordel) and it's basically a strip of villages inhabited mainly by conservative Protestants.
The Belt can be identify by looking at those towns where the SGP (Staatkundig Gereformeerde Partij, Political Reformed Party) is getting most of its votes.
The SGP is an orthodox Protestant party whose ideology is pretty much based on the principles of the Christian Reformed Churches and the Reformed Congregations (known colloquially as zwarte-kousenkerken, “black stockings churches"): government based on the bible, against feminism and female suffrage, in favour of the re-introduction of the death penalty, and other nice ideas like these.

The origin of this Belt is not clear, but I think it's a mix of geographic isolation (those villages are located in reclaimed lands, polders, along the depressions at the outlets of the big rivers) and proximity to the border with the Catholic part of the Country.
After Flanders and Brabant were conquered by the Spaniards (Eighty Years' war) the Protestants inhabitants of those areas were forced to emigrate north of the border (the rivers) and there they reclaimed stronger and more orthodox positions from the Dutch Reformed Church in order to protect their beliefs.
This led to a schism in 1832 (nadere reformatie: further reformation) that created more conservative congregations along the border with the Catholic communities, such as those that now are followed in the Bible Belt.

Moreover I think they are still there nowadays because they feel themselves as a sort of contrast with the very liberal general politics of the Country (they are of course against gay rights, abortion, euthanasia, cannabis, &c).

What do they do?
They wear traditional clothes, they have large families and they emphasise traditional values (such as not working during holy-days). Most of them are also against "interfering with the design of God about health" so they don't vaccinate their children (this caused a few epidemics of polio and parotitis in the last decades, very localized in those areas) and they tend not to have any health insurances.

What do the city dwellers think about them?
Some of the people I asked just say "I don't really care, they're not annoying anybody" (meaning that there are other religious group that actually annoy?).
Some other instead look at them as some weird remainders from the past that are leaving out of the big cities, in the countryside (is this why Holland an The Netherlands are almost synonyms?).

What about me?
Well... I'm trying hard to convince Ele to have a instructive tour of De Bijbelgordel of course!!
I have already a couple of pa(l)pable destinations.
The only thing I have to keep in mind is not to go there on Sunday because I've been told the inhabitants don't like to see people driving in their villages during Sundays.

He deered to kill a king's dare!

2008-09-01T10:41:00.003+02:00

In the previous post I was showing a nice tricky way to avoid the tobacco-ban law in dutch coffee-shops.
But who knows how to avoid taxes and laws better than us, as Italians?
This is of course helped by the fact that most of the Italian laws are particularly baroque; for example I will explain here what I discovered, living in Holland, about the passport stamp (tassa di concessione governativa) we - as Italians - have to attach to our passport to make it valid.

In principle, to be allowed to expatriate, we have to attach to our Italian passport a stamp of 40.29€, valid one year (actually up to one year, since the "fiscal year" is based on the release date of the passport: if your passport has been released on 13/04/2005 and you buy a stamp on 10/04/2007, your passport is valid for just two days, until 12/04/2007).

Fortunately since November 2000 (law) we don't need to pay this stamp if we travel through European Union Countries and the funny thing is that we don't need our passport to have the stamp if we travel between any two Countries which are not Italy! (the only authorities allowed to check and validate/invalidate this tax are the Italian policemen.)

So if you want to travel from Amsterdam (EU) to New York (extra EU) and you own an Italian passport you don't need the stamp.
Also for traveling from Italy to any other European Union Country you don't need the stamp as well (moreover: you can anyway use your ID card).
This means that if you travel from Rome to New York directly you need the stamp, but if you travel first to Paris (or London, or whatever) and then to NY you don't need it anymore! Cool, isn't it?

Traveling by car is even easier because you can cross the borders with your ID card and then use you passport without the stamp.

In conclusion you need the stamp only if you travel by plane from Italy to outside EU without touching any other EU Country in between, or if you sail to Tunisia...
(Actually most of the times to go to Tunisia or Croatia the local authorities do accept just the Italian ID card.)

... with supreme visions of lonely tunes

2008-08-25T11:45:00.004+02:00

Since July, 1st also here in The Netherlands smoking is banned in public places such as restaurants, cafés, bars, &c.
This is done in order to prevent employees to work "in an environment were they are constantly exposed to the harmful effects of smoking", as prime minister Balkenende said.

The obvious question that come to mind is: "Holland? Smoking ban??? And what about Coffee shops???"

Exactly.
This ban works far all places, included coffee shops. "Coffee shops will be treated in the same manner as other catering businesses. They will be smoke-free".
But... of course there is a but because we're in Holland.
But coffee shop owners argued that the ban only applies to tobacco, and just for it!
This means that you're still not allowed to smoke tobacco, not even in coffee shops, but you can still smoke cigarettes containing only cannabis!

"The Dutch ban, which prohibits tobacco smoking in all public places of employment to protect workers’ health, is only for tobacco and makes no change to marijuana policy" said Saskia Hommes, a spokeswoman for Dutch Health Minister. "The government will have to see if the law is enforceable" she said.

To me this does not make so much sense.
I mean: coffee shops are places built for let people smoke inside freely. And the owners or the employees know that if they go to work for a coffee shop they're going to sniff all others' smoke.
If you decide that smoking and to sell marijuana is legal, than you should also allow places where people can smoke freely, no?

But anyway selling marijuana is not legal in The Netherlands, it's just not punishable. Really.
Is this hypocrisy or just a pragmatical way of trying to solve an unsolvable problem?

Again on piracy...

2008-08-22T11:16:00.004+02:00

Well, after my previous post, some things has happened, so I thought you ALL be interested in some updated opinions of mine.
Mainly two things in this last week attracted my attention. One is that in U.K. three big Gaming Companies have sued a number of people for having downloaded their games illigally (Main of which, pinball!!! But who is downloading pinball anyway?!? ). So, I thought, I should be happy, as I just said that I was against copying software. Well, I'm not. The reason I am not is that this is a completely useless move, these poor people will have to pay a lot of money and all the rest of the world will keep downloading unnoticed. I think the solution is to allow downloading and to let it pay a small amount of money for it. If someone wants a physical support, such the dvd or the blue ray, he will pay more. If the guy's happy with a downloaded version, then he could pay much less. This, in my opinion would decrease very much piracy.
So, why these companies keep getting some random money sueing people instead of taking a effective act? The answer has been clearly given by David Reeves, responsable of Sony Computer Entertainment, for the exact same country, UK:
"We know about it (game piracy, ndr), we certainly know how it's done. It sometimes fuels the growth of hardware sales, but on balance we are not happy about it."
....
How to say, we will not allow it officially, but if you keep doing it, for us is ok....
Then, when asked what they are planning to do about the fact that games in the PAL region (Europe) are always coming much later then in the NTSC region (U.S. and Japan) he answers:
"We are a PAL market and we are going to do it in PAL and we are going to do it properly, you can wait for it and you can have it in good quality, you know you can get the stuff from Bittorrent if you want to and download PSP games, it's up to you."

So, now it's clear why company don't do something serious about it... and who am I to be against them?

Nihon-koku: The religion

2008-08-18T18:07:00.005+02:00

Besides the food, there is another important aspect that characterize the society of a country, both in good and in bad things, and that is the religion. All the traditions, both for family and big scale society are somehow connected, or at least originated, by their religious belief.
This, is of course true also for Japan.
Nevertheless, the religion there is lived in a complete different way then we do, also because the religion itself it is very different. First of all, they don't have a unique religion, but there are 2 completely different religions that somehow cohexist. The oldest one is the Shinto.
Shintō originated in prehistoric times, as a religion with respect for nature and in particular certain sacred sites. Each worshipped element was associated with a deity, so Shinto is a complex polytheistic religion. The deities in Shintō are known as kami, and the word Shinto means the way of the gods. Worship of Shinto is done at shrines. Especially important is the act of purification before visiting these shrines. Shinto shrines can be distiguished by the typical Japanese gate (torii) made of two uprights and two crossbars.
The other religion professed in Japan is the Buddhism. Buddhism in Japan is more recent, as it arrived in the VI century from South Korea. The main kind of Buddhism that arrived in Japan is called Mahayana and is originated from India. Is much more personal then the other currents, so I think that found a good environment to grow among the Shinto beliefs. The buddhist religion is much more complex and has so many different aspect and currents that is really beyond my skills to describe it in few lines. I can only say that in Japan Buddhism followed more or less the Capitals. So, it mainly started in Nara, where still now there are many temples, and also where the Shingon form of Buddhism, more esotheric, spread for the first time in the country.
Around the 1100 the era of the Shogun begun (sorry for the rhyme...) and also Buddhism developed. The capital has been moved to Kamakura and there new form of Buddhism arrived. The most famous is the Zen, but this is only one example. Visiting the temple complexes it is clear the importance of synergy with nature. Many other places are very important for religion like Nikko, Koya-san and of course the whole city of Kyoto. Nevertheless, these two capitals show somehow the developement of Buddhism in Japan.
So, these two religions are the most important in Japan. How to distinguish one from the other? Hard to believe, but in Japan the difference is not always so clear. They are very well merged together, and each of them take care of some special aspect of the life of the people. For example, Shinto doesn't have any real answer for life after death, so the funerals and all the death concerning rituals and belief are normally left to Buddhism. Shinto, on the other hand, is much better in solving everyday problems, like passing exams or being succesful in life, so for these kind of needs people often go to Shrines. Most of the Temples and the Shrines have many aspect from both the religions. This is possible because in Japan religion is not very important in every day life. It is more something parallel, that is always there, but doesn't affect your life. So, almost everybody will have some kind of shrine at home, or will bring the new born baby to a Shinto Shrine or will have a Buddhist funeral, but is more a matter of tradition then real faith. Every aspect of life is connected with a different ritual and, nowadays, christian weddings are becoming more and more popolar due to the beauty of the white dress and the grandeur of the decorations. Often they are performed in Wedding Halls and not in Churces though.
Festivals are very common, and can be related to nature and agriculure aspects, so more from Shinto origin, and they are called matsuri, or they can be more related to the time of the year, so they are have more Buddhist origin and are called nenjyuu gyouji. An example is the New Year day.
What I really liked about religion in Japan is that is not punishing the people for being people, but is really human-oriented. We are like we are, we are part of the Earth and the Nature, so we have to cohexist with it and respect it. We must find our way to be happy, and this can be achived with equilibrium and order, but we shouldn't be afraid of punishment. There are very wise and illuminated people, but there is not a God with a flash light, thundering around for sinners. The concept of sin and suffer is much different from ours, their religion has on the very center of interest life, our has death. That is the main difference I found. This is why I prefear so much more their point of view. It is so amazing that such old beliefs, like the Shinto religion, are still followed in one of the most modern countries of the world. I think the reason is that they live religion in much a more relaxed way then us, it is more something for the free time, to ask what you need, more then paying a everyday price to survive life and reach the eternal life (after death...). In Japan religion gives just the basic necessary answer to not be afraid too much about the future, but leaves people free to pursue their happiness, and this is such a more succesful way to go for a religion. The moral there is very strong, but is more given by traditions then the fear of a punishment. This is more effective, because you behave in a certain way because you, and you only, believe it is a good way to go, not because you hope that behaving this way God will assure you a nice afterlife. Of course, the drawback is that these beliefs are harder to estirpate, because people is really convinced about it, they are not only afraid. If we don't steal only because we are afraid that we will be punished, if we know there is nobody to punish us, we will start to steal. But if we strongly believe that to have a working society we shouldn't steal, then we will never do that. This unfortunately, can be applied also to the rights of women or other more "extreme" traditions, but that's a bit the price to pay I guess.
Anyway, just to be on the safe side, I bought an hamulet of long life....

Philosophical and moral consideration over the freedom of internet

2008-08-14T11:01:00.002+02:00

My dears,
It is some time that I have been thinking about it (indeed, you can see some hints in a old post), and now a new event made me think about it again. Italy has patetically tried to censor the website "pirate bay", a searching engine of torrent files. The government has obliged the ISPs to forbit the access to this server by address and IP number. Of course, there are just hundreds of ways to reach the website anyway. Several of them are explained directly in the blog of the Pirate Bay. In this blog, exactly as in most of the newspapers that show this news, this fact has been described as an expression of a fascist regime. The freedom of speech and the freedom of internet in in great risk, they say. Well, to me it is a very delicate matter. I mean, I believe that it is absolutely against the human rights and the rights of speech to censor a website where people express their opinion. Like, for example, this. Every newspaper, as well as every blog or website should be able to publish thir ideas in the same way. What leave a bit in doubt is the fact that people download software and movies and so on from internet. It is a difficult matter. I cannot deny that it is very tempting to do that. Nevertheless, I think that we should find a way to make it legal, and to pay a bit for it. Because, people are working for that software. Why we are willing to pay 200€ for a cool graphic card, but we want to download a software for free? The work behind, the value of the good, is the same. Maybe even more for some piece of software. Why we think that paying 200€ for a copy of Windows Vista is not worthy? I think that software should be paid, the problem is that companies agrees in some share of piracy, as long as other big companies buy the original version.
Also for music and movies, there is quite some work behind, that somehow should be repaid. The problem is that in Italy most of the money goes to the SIAE, a system that exist ONLY in Italy and it is completely beyond any reason. This should be completely closed. And, there should be the choice of buying the products both of physical support and on internet. Of course, the price should be very different.
Here in Holland a brand new Blue Ray movie, the newest movie, il maximum 29€. It's easy to find BR discs for 20€. DVDs are maximum 20€ and often you can buy 5 movies for 5€. Then, the price of downloading should be in proportion. I cannot pay more then 10€ for a high definition movie for which I don't get a physical support. I'm a great fan of the idea of paying, say, 50 euros per month, and being able to download everything you want. This money should be then distributed to the producers. This is my solution to piracy.
Regarding the event happened in Italy, to me looks more patethic then fascist. There is a bit of abuse of the words fascist and comunist and so on... we should pay maybe more respect to people who really fighted against these dictatures, and realise we are mainly trying to fight againt stupidity. This is anyway a very difficult fight, as, like Einstein said, the most commond elements in the Universe are hydrogen and stupidity, but there are still doubts about the first one. People wants security, wants to get the fingerprints of the romenian kids, but wants to be free to surf on internet, maybe also on porn websites or pedophiles websites. People wants the law to be strict, but wants to be "more equal then the others". Internet is a great mean of comunication, is a great invention and has a great potential. I'm totally against censorship but like everything, must be used with intelligence. Also nuclear power is a great invention, also dynamite, but can have terrible aspects. For sure, downloading music is not as terrible as that, but pedophily it may definitively be, and must be controlled. Also internet, as everything else, should be free when used with coscience. It is very hard to judge, or expecially to find a judge, for what is allowd and what is not, that is why it is so important that in every government there is an equilibrium of different forces, and that the power is not concentrated in only few hands. Here the problem of Italy must be solved.

Voyage au centre de la Pizza (2): New Haven-style apizza

2008-08-13T11:05:00.006+02:00

Two weeks ago I was fighting boredom watching growing little turkeys out of my window at the BNL dorm. After getting acquainted with a couple of them I decided my life needed something more.
So I contacted Ji, a Chinese friend of mine working in Massachusetts, and we decided to meet somewhere in between his place and Long Island.
After a quick check on Wikipedia I found the perfect meeting point: New Haven, Connecticut.

Besides being the city of the Yale University, this small city is also the home of the "best pizza out of Italy": the New Haven-style apizza.
This pizza is served by a series of small restaurants in the town's Little Italy, most of them owned by the descendant of an Italian immigrant, Frank Pepe, that in 1925 brought his Naples-style pizza in Connecticut.
A funny thing is that this geographically limited style of pizza is known as apizza, obviously coming from the dialectal form a pizz.
So we went there (pics are here) and we tried the famous white pie and the Mozzarella pie from Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana.
New Haven-style apizza is different from the other "pizzas" you can have in the States.
Firts it's not perfectly round but it has a more usual (in Italy) irregular rounded form.
It is traditionally baked in a coal- or wood-fired brick oven and it presents a thin crust with a dark, “scorched” crisp crust (more Italian like).
It is typically sold whole rather than by the slice.

At the end the New Haven apizza is technically pretty similar to the pizza we're used to in Italy, the only problem remaining the ingredients: the flour for the dough is still to much Amerikan style and they drown the pizza with a load of vegetable oil which makes it very heavy and it ruins the taste of an otherwise pretty good dish.

Voyage au centre de la Pizza (1): New York-style pizza

2008-08-10T11:49:00.004+02:00

According to a relevant number of physicists, pizza is the best dish in the world.
Moreover it's the pillar on which our marriage is based; so I decided to start a series of posts about it.
Yes, I know that the only real pizza is the one from Naples but as you should know every journey to the center of something starts with one step from far far away, that's why I started from NY (even because last week I was there and I was deadly bored so I needed to find a reason for life).

So... of course pizza is pretty popular in the U.S. due to the wide influence of Italian immigrants in American culture and they (the Americans) developed (shall we call this development?) a large number of regional forms of pizza, some of them scarcely resembling the real one.

One of the most famous un-real American pizzas is the New York-style pizza.
It differs from the Italian one in both shape and ingredients.
The shape is typically perfectly round due to the fact they cook it in a wide (round) pan. To me this makes it loose a lot of its lovable rough appearance, but ok, they are perfect so they have to cook a perfect shaped pizza.
It is also huge and usually served in slices.
The other main difference are the ingredients of the dough (what they call crust). American pizza has vegetable oil or shortening mixed into the dough; moreover it is made with a very high-gluten flour (13–14% protein content).
This allows the dough to be stretched rather thinly and the pizza becomes not so thick even without using a wood stove (which is btw never used).
But of course this make the pizza very fatty and tasting like a bagel rather than a real pizza.

About the toppings: the typical New York-style pizza is the pepperoni pizza which does not mean it's made with bell peppers (peperoni in Italian) but with a spicy salame (salamino piccante in Italian) and some loads of vegetable oil.

At the end it's not the worse pizza-like snack I tasted out of Italy (and this says a lot), but of course it's not pizza.

PS: I'd like to stress that I'm strongly convinced that Naples' pizza is the only real one. But since I'm from the north of Italy my judgments could be biased (my reference point is the epic and heartily missed Pizzeria da Ciccio in Monfalcone). So if someone feels to object on some bullshit I said, please feel free to do it. The world will be thankful.

Nihon-koku: the food

2008-08-04T17:34:00.003+02:00

Here I am with one of the most important aspects of every culture: the food.
As in Italy and in many other countries, the food in Japan is not only something you eat to survive, but has a social and cultural meaning. This is expressed in two main aspects: the efford and the skill to prepare the food, and the way it is consumed. Exactly as we are used to, also for them cooking needs preparation and skills, and is for certain aspect a real art. The art of cooking is particularly difficult because it involves several human senses, like smell, taste and view. As in other countries, also in Japan they try to satisfy all these senses.
Indeed, also the Japanese food was for me matter of prejudice, before leaving. I thought that they only eat raw fish and similar simple stuff. It is absolutely not true. They have a various and elaborated kitchen, that includes not only fish but also meat and vegetables, although meat is a sort of "new entry", because in the past was a really expensive good.
One aspect that I think is very important in japanese cuisine is the freshness of the food and the neatness of the kitchen area. This is often very visible, due to the fact that many dishes can be prepared directly on the table by the diners or the cooker is actually working in the main room of the restaurant, so everybody can see what he's doing and how. This is very useful also because facilitate very much the personal interactions among fellow diners and cooker. This also make it clear that eating is a social moment and may take quite a long period of time.
I had the feeling (but who's more expert then me can surely correct me) that fish is the simplest dish for them, is more like a "snack" or something you eat for a fast lunch or break. Fancy restaurants often serve meat.
Mainly, you can have nice meals composed with rice, or with various quality of noodles, that can be served dry or in a sort of buillon. Then there are fried dishes, the most famous one called tempura, that is a mixture of deep fried stuff, like fish, meat and vegetables. There is also an entire category of food cooked in the griddle, that usually have the suffix "yaki". Also, they have few dishes with a direct chinese origin, like the gyōza or the ramen (noodle soup, but made generally with chinese noodles instead of the japanese ones).
In general the composition of the meal is quite similar to what we have in Italy. There is a sort of main dish, based on rice or noodles (soba or udon), some soup ("brodo di cottura") and some side dishes, generally two or three, based on meat, fish, vegetables and tofu.
I'm describing some very general aspects, because it's really easy to write books about japanese cuisine! Also, every region has its specialities, and food habits can differ quite a lot from one place to the other.
Desserts are more rare and less elaborated then in our culture, maybe because they lacked of some ingredients (like chocolate....). Nevertheless, they managed to make some very nice sweet from what they have, mainly based on rice and sweet beans. Of course on this matter they have been quite open to the western experience, and now is very easy to find very nice french bakery or patisserie. Apparently they have been very fast and good learners, and they produce quite good products.
The cerimony of eating is different from ours, starting by the fact that they use always chopsticks and "normal" cutlery doesn't exist. In general, though, most of the etiquette rules are quite basic and don't differ to much from our habits. For example, it is common to do a toast before drinking and nobody should pour his own drink, but be ready to pour someone else drink when the glass in empty.
From social point of view, going out eating together is the easiest way to entratain a relation, and very often collegues go for dinner together and friends meet up at dinner time. Going eating out it is very common, probably more then what it is in our society, so it can happen to see people eating alone. For this reason, it is common to eat seating next to the cooking area, so it is possible to chat with the cooker or the barmen.
The eating aspect of the society was surely the one that made me feel more at home, and I really enjoy their wanderful menus!

Nihon-koku: The people

2008-07-30T14:53:00.008+02:00

In this second post, I will tell you my impressionsabout the people in Japan!

As I already mentioned before, there everybody is very polite and nice. We noticed it before arriving in Japan, while sitting in the plane. In fact, next to us was sitting a old japanese lady, that couldn't speak a word of English (or any other language rather then japanese). Nevertheless she was very keen in speaking with us, and when we managed to tell her that we were going in honeymoon, she was extremely happy. She started to look for presents to give us, and at the end she gave us some euro coins she had left, one yen coin of each size, and she bought a klm keyring for us... unstoppable!!! Similar situations happened several time during our trip, and saying we were in honeymoon we get a japanese fan, a bottle of champagne, a note book, a hair clip, several pictures and many compliments.... Despite the language difficulties, it is very easy to start a conversation when you enter in a bar or restaurant, or simply walking in the street.
From my point of view, this simple fact make it much easier to appreciate the country.
As some people there have pointed out, it is maybe difficult to distinguish when they are nice because they actually like you, or only because they are very polite and they have to do it. I didn't have the impression that they were waiting you to turn the back in order to make something bad. On the contrary, I had the feeling that the main reason why they are so nice is because they trust very much the others, so they are suspicious or worry about other people, but willing to talk and be friend. They can do that, mainly because the total lack of criminality. It is amazing, and after few days it is very easy to get used to this security. And is an extremely nice feeling, just to feel safe and to be able to trust people. I don't know exactly how can it be possible that they don't have criminality, but I think it is because of their attachment to honor and tradition. They rely very much in the society, in the services and the support they can have from it, and they are all working to make it work properly. Maybe I'm only saying nonsense, but I really had the feeling that their view is much more for the community then what we are used to, so they don't mind working a bit more or being a bit more patient or polite if this can help the community, because they trust that soon or later they are going to make use of it themselves. Which of course makes completely sense, but for us is difficult to apply.
They put people around the city in every corner just to help finding the way or crossing the street, in most of the restaurant you can see the cook making your dinner, and most likely you will exchange some words with him, it is normal. Even in Tokyo, I had the feeling that everybody could always find a moment to listen to you, to tell you a word or helping you out. Maybe they only feel obliged to do that, but I ca tell you, after you profit of it a little bit, you feel obliged to be nice as well, because it is so easy to see the advantages of such a behaviour.
The first Saturday we have been in a bbq party near Tokyo, and it has been very explicative of such a behaviour. We didn't know anybody, apart from one of the organizer, and there were more then hundred people, only few of them speaking English. Nevertheless, it has never been easier to make friends and enjoy the company! Everybody talked to us, asked us question, they put effords in making us feeling at ease within the company. It has been a great party time!!! Same thing with Sandro and his japanese friends, and with most of the people we met and we had occasion to talk with!
It can be that they are just curious about us, that's possible, but for me it is really wanting to find a defect in a nice way of doing! So, they are just very nice people!!!

Nihon-koku: first impressions

2008-07-28T13:59:00.004+02:00

Well, it's quite hard now to write about the first impressions, as I also have some second and third impressions... Nevertheless, I'll try to make some nice description about it. (trying to ignore that the only option that has been voted in the poll was one I didn't put, and didn't get much votes either...)
So, before the first impressions, is important to know that most of us has some prejudices about Japan. For example, I thought that Tokyo is a super chaotic city, that the Japanese society is very maschilist, that they don't have any free time and their culture, although interesting, is so much different from ours that is very difficult to appreciate.
Well, in most of the points, I realised very early I was wrong. Some points, I still don't have a clear idea about. So, for example, I immediately realised that Tokyo is indeed an extremely vast and busy city, but is not at all chaotic. On the contrary, is amazingly ordered and clean. People are very polite and trustful (I will come back on this later). The metro and train system is really as efficient as we think it is, but it surprised me also about how clean it is. (I even saw some cleaners cleaning the spaces between the tiles...) So, finally, although with more people, Tokyo gave me the impression to be much easier to live in then Paris or London (I will try to avoid comparisons with any u.s. city or place or piece of culture, as it would be not a fair comparison, better stay among countries with a history, some culture and some will of living without having necessarily a car). About maschilisim, it appear to me to be a very difficult judgement. There are mainly two aspects to take into account. One is that Japanese deeply rely on their traditions, so a woman not taking care of children and do the same job of men is sort of incomprehensible for them. On the other hand, they are very kind people, so women cannot be treated badly. We met quite several girls that work and proceed in the career, but they don't have children. I honestly don't know how long this thing will go on. The general impression I had was quite optimistic though, and I think that every gain japanese women will have, it will be a true one, not like us that we can enter into politics, but only by means of blow jobs.... so I have the feeling it is a very difficult matter to judge.
As for free time... well, at the end it is not so diffent then us. They stay many hours in the office, but not working 100%, so at the end is very similar to what happens in big companies here, where you cannot leave early, but you can check your email from time to time.... Is very interesting the social enviroment they form during work. I like it, at least in young age, because very often, if you move in a city only for work, the office is really the place where you meet more people. Of course, it can become too much when men cannot go home with their wives because they have to go for dinner with the boss....
Same things for the kids... we have this idea that japanese students have a hard time in school, because of the competition and the "afternoon" activities.... well, this can be actually be compared to u.s., and there is certanly worse, because the society is extremely more capitalistic, so only money counts. What you get is that the football quarterback enters in harvard and the black guy don't... in Japan the society is more meritocratic, maybe severe, but not different from many university campus we have in Europe.
Last but not least... the culture. That was the thing that amezed me most. For those of you who read the Gattopardo, is a bit a reinterpretation of the famous sentence. "If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change."
In this case the interpretation is that human being can grow in very different enviroments and in very different backgrounds, but if you let them develope by themselves for enough time, you get a very similar conclusion. I would be very curious to know if we would have let the native americans or the africans grow by their own, if this theory would be confirmed or not. For now, I think the asiatic culture is our only mean of comparison. Well, I have to say that is really amazing to see how their habits are so similat to ours, although they express it in a such different way. For example, the food. They go out eating together, they give importance to the meal as we (italians) do, and they are very skilled cookers. The difference is of course in the kind of food, in the tradition of eating, of dinking tea, of sitting at the table. But, as soon as you accept these different way of doing things, you feel immediately at home. As I mentioned before, the kindness and the politeness of the people really helps in these matters. But this is not the only example. Also religion, festivities, country festivals, theatre, literature, poetry, everything seems a real parallel to our colture. Everything we are used to, there it exists also, it only looks different. To me this is really great, because you can discover so many new things, always keeping your habits there.

Ok, well, I just mentioned a little bit some first impressions, to give you a hint about how enthusiastic I've been of this trip. In the next post I will be more precise about some aspect of the country impressed me more.

Peddler's Village

2008-07-25T02:42:00.002+02:00

While the world is waiting for a post about our Japanese honeymoon and a smaller world is trilled hoping that Fassino is good guy (even if the solidarity given to him by Berlusconi does not help so much) I decided to face the jet-leg and to try to catch a flight to New York.

I managed to do it at the second try since my KLM flight of yesterday got canceled because of some secret problems to the aircraft.
This time I didn't got rich (as last time when KLM overbooked my flight) but they still gave me some 95€ which "is not cookies".
(And KLM is still my favourite company)

So I flew today to Newark and I had to take a train to go to New York.
This allowed me to make acquaintance with Peddler's Village (thanks to an adv on the train) which wikipedia shows as

a 42 acre 18th century style gathering place in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. It has shopping, dining, lodging, festivals, craft competitions and an antique carousel. The complex is also used for weddings, holiday parties, reunions, retirement parties, picnics, and corporate meetings. Special events and seasonal festivals draw nearly 3 million visitors to Peddler's Village each year.

The complex is located in Lahaska, Pennsylvania near Doylestown and New Hope.

Yearly events include a watermelon fest, scarecrow competition, apple festival, gingerbread house competition, Christmas festival, quilt competition. The Peddler's Village Strawberry Festival is held on the first weekend in May since 1969.

We could go there for honeymoon instead of Japan!
What a pity...

Holy smoke!

2008-07-21T13:54:00.003+02:00

Here we are after our Japanese honeymoon.

I'll leave to Ele to explain all the nice things we saw in Japan (it was really awesome!) because we need to set finally up the winner of the Euro 2008 ugly bets, which is....

.... Giovanni (van Bronkhorst)!!!
Unperishing glory for him and may he live in eternity lying in the gardens where there are rivers of milk of which the taste never changes, rivers of wine, a joy to those who drink, and rivers of honey pure and clear.
(Still I'm not sure I'd like to swim in rivers of honey...)

In the meantime, while we where honeymooning in Japan and Giovanni was mooning over honey rivers, the Dutch founded a new Church, the One and Universal Smokers Church of God, after the new law banned smoking in the Dutch bars since July 1st (Good morning Holland!).

People who join the church get a membership card entitling them to smoke inside the building. Worshippers believe in the trinity of smoke, fire and ash and honour their god by smoking.
Dozens of bars have joined the movement which claims the Dutch constitution and European rules give it legitimacy under the right to freedom of religion.

Good mooning, Holland.

Klein bottles of Heineken

2008-06-25T14:49:00.006+02:00

What does it happen when you give a lot of money (with respect to an average Italian PhD salary) to a high and very specific educated youngster that uses to spend his/her life thinking about nonsense?

He/Her will start spending all this money (and a bit more) in buying the stupidest and most useless thing traceable on internet.
Last thing I bought from California is in fact an original Klein Bottle made of glass (actually it's a 3D immersion of a real 4D Klein Bottle)!! Cool, isn't it?
I didn't find a use for it yet, but - come on! - I had to buy a zero volume bottle!
(And I am not even high educated yet!)

But now let's be serious. There is a drama going on.
The Chinese authorities have banned the import of traditional Dutch deep fried rissoles known as bitterballen during the Olympics (the Telegraaf reported yesterday)!!!
The bitterballen were destined for the Heineken House ("a Dutch-style cafe for fans and athletes") but it come out they contain Brazilian meat, which is banned in China.

But don't despair!
Producer Van Dobben is now considering to set up a temporary production line just for China. So stay tuned: if we're lucky the world will be safe!

Hairy moments for bald youngsters

2008-06-23T15:03:00.005+02:00

Here we are.
Back in the low (and cold) Holland after this disastrous football week-end.

I was hoping to watch another Holland-Italy in front of bowl of bitterballen and at the end I find myself here waiting for Russia-Spain...
So my plan to see what would have been going on here with the Oranje winning the Championship is gone.
I will not see crazy Dutch jumping into the canals, deep-frying orange scarfs, kissing each other... and maybe even step down from the bike!

All of this is gone forever... like teardrops (of sweat) in the rain...

But never mind!
I'll be traveling on Sunday to Japan so no final anyway.
Moreover the Dutch decided (according to a poll made over a sample of 1 drunk Dutch) to support Russia now. And I'll go back supporting Denmark again.

Also the government decided to rise some of the 80km/hour speed limits around Amsterdam and Utrecht and if it's meant for cars (and not for bikes) it's cool.
Does this have something to do with the results of the Championship?

Brfxxccxxmnpcccclllmmnprxvclmnckssqlbb 11116

2008-06-19T16:32:00.003+02:00

This week we're in Paris (or Parijs in dutch).
Eleonora is here for work and I decided to follow the happy group and to piss away the remains of my holidays. Yes, I know: it's June and I've already used all my free days...

Fortunately for you I discovered I can reach the Sorbonne wireless connection from my hotel room so I've been able to update the Euro 2008 standings.
Unfortunately for you I discovered I can reach the Sorbonne wireless connection from my hotel room, so when it rains I can waste time surfing around the web and make discoveries.

For example there is a couple in Sweden that tried to give their son the name of Brfxxccxxmnpcccclllmmnprxvclmnckssqlbb11116 (check here).
And then I'm complaining about my name....

Then I found out that the official name of Bangkok is actually Krung-dēvamahānagara amararatanakosindra mahindrayudhyā mahātilakabhava navaratanarājadhānī purīramya utamarājanivēsana mahāsthāna amaravimāna avatārasthitya shakrasdattiya vishnukarmaprasiddhi and that there are two villages called Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysilio- gogogoch (in Wales) and Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukaka- pikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu (in New Zealand).

Cool, isn't it?

Life is.. a cosmic symphony

2008-06-11T20:56:00.004+02:00

Hello,
from now on the ranking over the (ugly) bets for Euro 2008 will stay on the right side of the blog (can you see it?) so that we will be able to post some other bullshit here.

So, to inaugurate the bull's year, here there is a new advertisement for the dutch beer Bavaria.

Life is...

EURO 2008 ugly bets

2008-06-08T16:18:00.008+02:00

This is after the first 8 matches.

Mooninglight sonata

2008-06-04T15:04:00.002+02:00

Last week we were busy getting married so we didn't update our blog.
Still there is a Country that never sleeps!

Thanks to my friend Patrick that pointed out this to me.
I report it directly from the AP.

Dutch man injures posterior in mooning accident

UTRECHT, Netherlands (AP) -- Utrecht police say a 21-year-old Dutch man is recovering after a "mooning" that went horribly wrong.
A police statement says the man and two others had run down a street in Utrecht with their pants pulled down in the back "for a joke."
It says that at one point the 21-year-old "pushed his behind against the window of a restaurant" that broke and resulted in "deep wounds to his derriere."
The statement released Tuesday says police detained the three men after the incident Sunday morning. But the cafe owner decided not to press charges after the men agreed to pay for the broken window.
The injured man was treated for his injuries at a nearby hospital.

Patrick's comment on this was: "What is wrong with this nation!?"

PS: I swear it wasn't me. I have a strong alibi: I was getting married.

Bora wedding

2008-05-23T12:47:00.001+02:00

Homeopathy can kill

2008-05-14T11:36:00.004+02:00

Yesterday, in Italy, Florence, one 16 years old girl has died because of homeopathy.
She has been diagnosed diabetes, so to have a normal life she had to take insulin regularly.
Her parents were sad, ofcourse, about her illness, and they hoped to be able to cure her completely. This is of course not yet possible, although there have been many steps toward the cure. The parents have then been disappointed to hear from the doctors that their child couldn't be cured and, as so many people does, they blamed the Medicine of their misfortune. This is a very common behavior that leads people to seek for new cures, more effective cures, outside science. This is what these partents did. They went to a homeopathic "doctor" who claimed that insuline will never be helpful for diabetes, and she should have rather taken some vitamines. The parents, may because of their ignorance, hopefully, or maybe just because of the resentment for the traditional medicine, they decided to follow this advice, and take out the insuline to the girl. Of course, after few days the girl went into a bad coma, and after few hours died.
Now the italian newspapers are protecting these parents, saying that they have been deceived by this doctor, who wasn't a real doctor (obviously, no?) and who was not even subscribed to the homeopathy register.
First, I didn't even know there was a homeopathy register. So I checked. Well, it's not a real register, is more a list of people who followed a school (in Italy at least) detached from the University and the faculty of Medicine, but that is recognised from the FNOMCeO (the Italian Federation of Physician and Surgeons). So, this doctor didn't followed the school of Homeopathy, where they teach you properly how much water to put in a substance. And, I guess, they also teach you when the time for jokes is over, and you have to send the person to the real hospital. Well, this guy didn't recognised the moment. But of course, the mistake is easily understood, as the Italian Association of Doctors recognise the homeopathy, so why we shouldn't trust it?
Well, some reasons not to trust it exist. For example, the fact that claims for efficacy of homeopathic treatment beyond the placebo effect are unsupported by scientific and clinical studies.Homeopathy is scientifically implausible and claims for pharmacological effect at many common homeopathic dilutions violate fundamental principles of mainstream science: for instance, above about 12C or 24X potencies, the level of dilution is greater than the number of molecules present in the original tincture. Claims that these could still have a pharmacological effect greater than placebo violate, among other things, the Law of Mass Action, a fundamental principle of chemistry. This is globally accepted. Most of the homeopaths claim that their methods go beyond science. Of course, apart from few exceptions, homeopathy is harmless, as it's mainly restricted to drink water. Nevertheless, cases like this, of lack of cure, can be very dangerous. I think that the society shouldn't react accusing a single homeopath for what has happen, but should point out to the community the danger of refusing a scientific cure. Then, if people wants to die, I believe it's their choice. But if our society is fighting so hard for the euthanasia, and the will of interrupt therapeutic persistence, they should also be considering this problem.
I have the impression that most of the people believe that our body doesn't follow the normal scientific rules, but behaves more "on the feeling". Well, we should have learn by now that this is not true. I strongly believe that the duty of our society, in particular the Association of Doctors, should start a very strong informational campaign to tell the people what is science, what is not, why some things work and why some things don't. After this, people is free to do whatever they want (not on a minor, anyway, only on themselves) but at least the doctors should take a clear position over it.

's-Gravenhage: het grootste dorp van Europa

2008-05-11T17:31:00.000+02:00

In the last post (of mine) I was showing the weird way the Dutch had in defining their Capital (even if I discovered that many Capitals, not least Rome, for long time have had not constitutional status of being a Capital. But still you'd agree that putting the Government, the Queen's house or at least the Court of Justice in the Capital city would have helped in identifying it).

But I discovered something more about the "non capital" of The Netherlands.
This is 's-Gravenhage (literally: the Count's Hedge), nicknamed Den Haag with grateful permissiveness.
In the last post I was showing that the old capital of the richest province of Holland had to give up the title of Capital of The Netherlands, in favor of Amsterdam, because of concerns and envy from the other province's capitals.
But this was not the only curse of this city.
In fact: Den Haag is not and never was a city!

I know this can sound silly, so let me explain.
Den Haag originated around 1230 when Floris IV, Count of Holland, chose that spot to make it his personal hunting residence.
Later the counts of Holland used Den Haag as their administrative center and residence and when the Dukes of Burgundy gained control over the counties of Holland and Zeeland they appointed a stadtholder to rule for them the States of Holland.
And so on and so on...

The problem was that at the beginning the other cities in Holland were afraid that Den Haag (the pet's teacher: the favorite of the Counts) would have gain too much power and take over the "district governing board" and rule them all.
So how could they set Den Haag apart of the council of cities?
Easy: not giving it the city right!

So for centuries (until 1798 when the city rights quit existing in the Lower Countries) Den Haag had a lot of civic privileges (such as having citizens, an urban governing board, a city guard and an annual fair) but never had the right to be called a city.

That's why it's still today called the largest village in Europe: het grootste dorp van Europa.

The New Italian Government

2008-05-08T09:46:00.004+02:00

Well, well, well... Berlusconi is a non-stop surprise! He is so cool, that has been the fasted prime minister in the history of Italy to form the government... and what government!!
The lady in the picture you can see here, is for example one of the new mininster of Italy. But don't be mistaken by the appearence, she is a home-and-church girl, she was indeed candidate to become the minister of the family. As you can see, she can probably feed several babies, so she knows what she's talking about. She had a very strong program for that: “Le mie priorità sono chiarissime: difesa del diritto alla vita. Difesa del ruolo della famiglia, delle tradizioni. Attenzione ai problemi delle giovani donne. Aiuto alle categorie in difficoltà: per esempio, le ragazze madri”. (Her priority are very clear - of course, you just need to see the picture - protect the right to life - in "italian" is another way to say she's against the abortion - protect the rule of the family - in italian is another way to say she's against gay people - Protect the traditions - in italian is another way to say she's agains muslims - Pay attention to the problems of young girls - probably she wants to distribute free diet bars to everybody - Help to the category who has difficulties: for example the young single mothers - again, another way to say she's against the abortion, in this case even for girls <18)
But then, you know, life is hard, so she had to renounce to the ministry of the family, but she got a different one... the ministry of the "same opportunity", that is a ministry to defend people from any kind of discrimination, first of which the sexual discrimination.
That is really driving me crazy... In the country in which women have less leading positions, in which some women had even gave up to look for a job, because they have to pay the fee for the kindergarden but even working they would earn less then the fee, in which anyway there are not enough kindergarden, in the country where there are more violence on women within the home walls, we have now a prime minister that says "Yeah, but right-wing women are hotter then left-wing women" and just to prove it, here we have the new minister. And she should take care that the Italian women have their rights? That italian women could become the leader of a company without sleeping with somebody? The idea of the italian macho that thinks about women only for sex, and has any kind of respect, intellectual or professional, will be surely fighted by this whore.

Well, my friends, I think I will stay glued to The Netherland (or, actually any other country that is NOT Italy) for a loooooong loooong time....

You wanted them... you got them.

Amsterdam: Hoofdstad van Nederland

2008-05-03T12:32:00.004+02:00

Koninginnedag is gone and I'm starting to recollect "bits of my body and mind".
Few days ago, when I was still struggling with my pieces a question came to my mind: what makes of Amsterdam the capital of The Netherlands?
(Well, you know I'm a geographical-geek, so it's pretty normal for me to think this kind of things when I'm dizzy.)

In normal Countries (which this is of course not the case) the capital city is the place where the Parliament and the President/King stay, but here they both reside in Den Haag. Nevertheless if you ask a dutch guy which is his Capital he would say "of course Amsterdam!" even without knowing why.

So the answer is obvious: let's have a look in the constitution! And indeed there you can find (art. 32)

Nadat de Koning de uitoefening van het koninklijk gezag heeft aangevangen, wordt hij zodra mogelijk beëdigd en ingehuldigd in de hoofdstad Amsterdam in een openbare verenigde vergadering van de Staten-Generaal.

meaning that the king is sworn in Amsterdam, meant as the Capital.
The funny thing is that this article dates back only at the 1983. Before that year no mention at all was to be found in the Constitution, even if every Dutchman knew for sure Amsterdam was the Capital.

So what happened? Even if Amsterdam has been since the XVI century the most populous and economically important city in the Low Countries, Den Haag was always the historical Capital of the richest province (County at first) of Holland (where actually also Amsterdam was included) within the confederation of the United Provinces. But during the Napoleonic Era his son Luis Napoleon Bonaparte "King of Holland" decided to move the Capital and the Seat of the Government to Amsterdam "because I like so".
Once in 1813 this area gained back independence and became The Kingdom of The Netherlands the Seat of the Government was moved back to Den Haag but Amsterdam was kept as Capital (probably because the other Provinces didn't want to be officially ruled by Holland and its Capital, Den Haag).
So between 1814 and 1815 the Constitution was stating that the King has to be sworn in Amsterdam, as the Capital. Unfortunately when they modified the Constitution in 1815 (and then again in 1848 and 1917) the part "as the Capital" was taken off and the status of the Capital of The Netherlands was constitutionally not clear until (as we saw) 1983 with article 32.

But they are Dutch so this was normal...
(and this is why I like them)

The future of the language

2008-04-29T14:58:00.003+02:00

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...

Bicycling for (crash test) dummies

2008-04-23T15:11:00.005+02:00

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.)

Milk this Cow!

2008-04-21T12:18:00.003+02:00

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)

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

2008-04-15T09:35:00.007+02:00

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.

Surrounded by...

2008-04-14T22:05:00.009+02:00

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.

Burgomasters & Burgermasters

2008-04-11T12:08:00.007+02:00

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!)

Economia Italiana Un confronto tra CSX e CDX

2008-04-09T10:28:00.003+02:00

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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...

Dutch for Dummies: Women in The Netherlands

2008-04-05T11:57:00.004+02:00

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....

Het Land van (Lange Frans & Baas B)

2008-04-04T11:17:00.003+02:00

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

Rain man

2008-03-26T12:46:00.005+01:00

OK, I support this "changing language every 6 months" stuff.
Even because I got enough negative comments (i.e. one more than mine) about my writing style, said to be too heavy, so it's time to use a (to me) less known parlance.

Speaking about people who talk with languages they don't know about Countries they don't belong to (but still willing to bug) at my arrival back in Amsterdam I received in my mailbox all the necessary for voting for the elections at the European electoral district.

I therefore discovered that we Italians in Europe have the privilege (just for us) to vote for the sabaudo movement Values and Future ("Valori e Futuro") held by that handsome guy of Emanuele Filiberto.

First, some of the candidates (as they appear on the electoral list) are DI SAVOIA EMANUELE FILIBERTO, detto EMANUELE FILIBERTO (he he), BARRESI LUCIO (involved in the Italian scandal Vallettopoli) and BENNARDO FRANCO, detto ZIO FRANK (???); while one of the partners in this project is Enrico Giuliano, one of the Italians in the black list of people having a bank account in Liechtenstein and under investigation for fraud ("Truffa ai danni dello Stato").
Then, some quotes from the program:

Nel 2003 ho finalmente avuto la possibilità di rientrare in Italia: è stato per me un momento di immensa gioia! Dopo alcuni anni trascorsi a scoprire la mia Patria, e ad ascoltare i miei concittadini, mi sono reso conto che gli italiani vivono in una situazione di grave crisi economica e sociale. [...] In questo momento di estrema difficoltà per la mia amata Patria ho sentito forte il dovere di impegnarmi in prima persona per portare avanti questo mio progetto che si fonda sui miei forti ideali, tramandati in Casa Savoia per mille anni e, su un approfondito studio.
Per questo mi candido alla Camera dei Deputati.
Lo farò dalla Circoscrizione Estera Europa perché sono ancora residente in Svizzera e perché per più di trent’anni sono stato costretto ad essere un italiano all’estero. Conosco quindi le problematiche che i nostri concittadini residente fuori dalla Patria devono affrontare ed ho preparato un programma apposito che si inserisce nel più generale progetto che Valori e Futuro ha per l’Italia.

Really touching...

Double Dutch: Dutch lessons for buitenlanders. Les 1

2008-03-23T19:56:00.004+01:00

I will write in English. I'm not saying that the new official language is English, because it isn't, but that I'm just going to write in English.
As a first lesson I will only give you an introduction on its history, because can give a hint of what you may face if you want to learn Dutch…
Dutch is a germanic language spoken by around 24 million people. Which is not that bad. The trick is that these people are mainly only in the Netherlands, Belgium or Suriname. You can still find some Dutch speaking person somewhere in the ex colonies. If you can speak Dutch, you can probably understand and being understood by people of South Africa or Namibia, where the Afrikaans is spoken. The majority of the dialect spoken in Belgium are referred as Flemish, and this term is often used in contradistinction to Hollander. This contradistinction has been very important for a while regarding the orthograph…
You may think that the Dutch pronunciation is difficult... but that's only because you have no clue how to spell the words. Because in fact, the spelling is more difficult then the pronunciation. The main reason for that is that once you know the pronunciation rules, you can read practically everything. On the other hand, there is no a unique way to spell a single sound, but you can write in different ways the same pronounced sound.
It was only with the strenght of the revolutionary ideas of the French Revolutions that, while all the other countries were fighting for thei freedom, in the Netherlands Matthijs Siegenbeek, a professor at Leiden was officially asked in 1801 to draw up a uniform spelling. It's thanks to this smart one that now we are stucked with the ij (called lange ij (long y) as distinct from the identically pronounced ei, called korte ei (short ei)). Maybe is because of this that Siegenbeek's spelling never achieved real popularity. In particular the poet Willem Bilderdijk fought against it, largely out of personal spite.
After a while, they decided that writing a dictionary may have been a nice idea (the first Italian Dictionary has been published in 1612), but they couldn't really find a uniform decision about the spelling. In 1863 Te Winkel managed to find a new spelling, and published the results in De grondbeginselen der Nederlandsche spelling. Ontwerp der spelling voor het aanstaande Nederlandsch Woordenboek (The foundations of Dutch spelling. Project for the spelling of the forthcoming Dutch Dictionary). You can say everything, but not that the Dutch are not optimists…
Nevertheless, there was not much satisfaction, and in 1891 R.A. Kollewijn produced an article Onze lastige spelling. Een voorstel tot vereenvoudiging (Our awkward spelling: a proposal for simplification). In 1916 a Dutch commission looked into the possibility of a compromise. This gradually led to adaptations: on 1 September 1934 the minister for Education, Marchant, accepted most of Kollewijn’s proposals. But at that point the Netherlands and Belgium had still a different spelling, so a Flemish-Dutch committee compiled a vocabulary which was published in 1954 in a green volume entitled “Woordenlijst van de Nederlandse taal” (Vocabulary of the Dutch language), which became known as “het Groene Boekje” (the Green Booklet).
In the 1980 the Nederlandse Taalunie has been formed and in the 1994 issued a new spelling decree. They also decided that the spelling should be revised every ten years (???), so the 15th October 2005 this revision has been applied and new spelling rules decided.

My main goal will be in few years from now to convince the Dutch to spell the Dutch with Italian rules....

Hermes Psychopompos e la libertà di parola

2008-03-16T13:49:00.011+01:00

(ovvero: il dio greco delle seghe mentali oggi affronta la spinosa questione della libertà d'espressione.)
Ultimamente sentivo delle voci nella mia testa (tipo questionario dei 3 giorni) che mi chiedevano: "oh Ermes, perché non rendi partecipe il mondo delle tue impressioni sull'affare Wilders?". Detto fatto!
(E le voci nella testa: "Eravamo ironiche!")

Il fatto: da un paio di mesi quel bell'ometto di Geert Wilders, deputato nederlandese del partito di destra del PVV (Partij voor de Vrijheid, il Partito della Libertà, sic), già deputato per il VVD (Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie, il Partito del Popolo della Libertà e della Democrazia, sic2), sta minacciando la pubblicazione di un fantomatico documentario dal titolo Fitna che mostrerebbe come alcuni precetti "estremi" del Corano vengano tutt'oggi applicati nel mondo. Il suo scopo dichiarato è quello di cavalcare l'onda del razzismo crescente verso gli arabi per arrivare a bandire il Corano dalle librerie olandesi in quanto "anticostituzionale" (la stessa sorte riguarda oggi solo il Mein Kampf. Ebbene si: qui se non sei uno storico teoricamente non puoi possedere il libro di Hitler).
Ovviemante le reazioni del mondo islamico a questa provocazione non si sono fatte attendere e il governo è abbastanza preoccupato di possibili ripercussioni e violenze contro cittadini nederlandesi.

Il commento: l'olanda viene considerata, a volte in maniera stereotipata ma spesso a ragione (nel bene e nel male), il paese della libertà di parola e d'azione, il paese dove tutti (omosessuali, anziani, studenti, pedofili, italiani o una combinazione lineare dei precedenti) possono dire la loro. Questo atteggiamento di dialogo estremo viene spinto dalla società stessa (come citavo da Nooteboom ieri: "In Olanda abbiamo una tradizione di fortissimo contrasto polemico, che molti hanno difficoltà a capire. Van Gogh, poi, era un provocatore a oltranza. Anche Fortuyn era un uomo molto teatrale.") e a volte non viene compreso e assimilato nel resto del mondo.

C'è un bell'articolo di Claudio Magris in cui egli racconta di una Fiera della Tolleranza a cui ha assistito nel 2001 a L'Aia, una sorta di Hyde Park olandese dove tutti esprimevano il loro credo e le loro idee. La prima impressione è stata una "sensazione esaltante di tolleranza e libertà" che poi ha lasciato spazio ad un inquietante sensazione di oppressione e asfissia (e se, "accanto agli stand degli antirazzisti, spuntassero quelli dei nazisti o dei fan di Mengele?").

Alla grande frase di Voltaire, che diceva di essere pronto a battersi fino alla morte per garantire la libertà di manifestare anche le opinioni contro cui egli si batteva a morte, faveca eco...quella battuta che parla di un tale così passionalmente tollerante da essere pronto a mettere al muro tutti gli intolleranti.

Come si risolve?
Forse, come dice Ele, accettando le idee e la parola di tutti fintanto che queste non causano danno al prossimo.
E forse, di fronte ad un mondo non pronto al dialogo assoluto, gli olandesi potrebbero mettere qualche volta da parte la loro vena polemica, specie quando l'oggetto di questa supera i confini nazionali.

Corso di Nederlandse keuken per Italiani. Parte terza: lo spuntino di mezzanotte (1).

2008-03-14T10:15:00.006+01:00

Passiamo ora a scoprire cosa si gusta nelle Parti Basse di notte.
Una specialità molto diffusa tra gli abitanti di Amsterdam è la bittere pil, traducibile in italiano come boccone amaro. Piatto povero, tipico delle tradizioni culinarie dei paesi mediterranei (le cui popolazioni, una volta trasferitesi in Olanda, trovano difficoltà ad adattarsi alle kroketten e vivono una celata resistenza da parte degli autoctoni), la bittere pil viene servita lungo tutte le strade della periferia, ma a volte si può trovare inaspettatamente anche nel centro o nei quartieri residenziali.
Particolarmente leccardi di bittere pillen sono gli stranieri (turisti o residenti riconoscibili facilmente dalle targhe non gialle dell'automobile), in particolare tedeschi a causa della proverbiale incompatibilità e insofferenza tra i due popoli.

Errore tipico di questi foresti è considerare la cucina fusion-nederlandese affidabile e priva di sorprese. Invece, accanto ad un'apparenza frugale e di apertura verso nuovi sapori e colori, la Nederlandse keuken si rivela (al pari delle altre cucine, del resto) molto conservatrice e tradizionalista (da cui l'impressione di amarezza dovuta ad un'eccessiva fiducia iniziale). Questo ha generato, specie negli ultimi anni, una maggior rigidità nei rapporti eno-gastronomici tra indigeni e immigrati che porta questi ultimi a trovare una difficile integrazione nella società. Tale situazione spesso degenera in un'insofferenza, a volte vandalica, verso cucine di più nuova importazione.

Per digerire le bittere pillen è possibile far ricorso a uno dei numerosi specialisti che abbondano da queste parti proprio in relazione al diffondersi delle pillen stesse.

Cmq Cees Nooteboom risponde così a chi gli chiede se sia l'Olanda il paradiso perduto di cui scrive:

Non direi. Se mai è stata un Paradiso, lo è ancora. Continuiamo ad avere buone leggi d’avanguardia, e anche i più conservatori non intendono certo perderle. E non sono la caricatura che se ne fa talvolta all’estero: l’eutanasia, per esempio, non è certo una passeggiata, lo stesso vale per l’aborto. Siamo un piccolo Paese molto popolato, senza la “campagna profonda”, il ventre molle. Siamo come una grande concentrazione metropolitana, il che vuol dire dinamismo, libertà, idee avanzate.

Apokolokyntosis (dehydrated)

2008-03-06T15:22:00.008+01:00

Previously on Apokolokyntosis (I, II & III):
risvegliatasi su un'isola deserta l'ex soubrette di Buona Domenica scopre di aver acquisito un superpotere: la capacità di parlare di cose che non conosce. Ma una potenza oscura si rivela controllarne i movimenti e muoverne la bocca, inducendola ad un carteggio funambolico con un premio Nobel in fisica allo scopo di sovvertire l'ordine nella galassia (e nel Modello Standard).

Episodio 4: Dehydrated
OK, quattro giorni fa ho finalmente capito cosa cercava di farfugliare la Carlucci sotto l'effetto della droga dei Boschi. E l'altro ieri lei stessa ha cercato di spiegarlo con parole (e grammatica) sue con un nuovo post.
(Da notare che ho decifrato quello che la Gabry voleva dire 2 giorni prima di lei, il che mi pone ben avanti nella scala evolutiva, no?)

Comunque sia, nel penultimo post la nostra (e sua) eroina analizzava approfonditamente ("Praticamente il Prof. Maiani ha confuso una cosa che pesa 3 e non ha carica elettrica con una che pesa 30 e ha carica elettrica!") un articolo del 20 Novembre 1974 dal titolo "Is the 3104MeV Vector Meson the psi - Charm or the W0?" in cui gli autori (Altarelli, Cabibbo, Petronzio, Maiani e Parisi) espongono le loro ragioni (fenomenologicamente corrette) nel ritenere che la nuova particella appena scoperta 9 giorni prima (a cui verrà dato nome J/ψ) venga meglio descritta come mediatore neutro delle correnti deboli neutre che non come stato legato di due quarks charm. Il post della Carlucci è molto divertente e commovente nella sua stupidità; consiglio di guardare anche le parti sottolineate a mo' di lettera anonima nell'articolo.

Il j'accuse della Carluccia è quindi: com'è che Maiani, che nel '70 assieme a Glashow e Iliopoulos aveva previsto l'esistenza del quarto quark charm (meccanismo G.I.M.), quando se lo trova di fronte 4 anni dopo (sottoforma di stato legato charm-anticharm) non lo riconosce a vista salutandolo da buon amico, e invece lo scambia per un altro?

La soubrette risponde che non aveva capito la sua teoria ed essendo inoltre un ateo comunista non merita il CNR, la fisica dice che per descrivere la J/ψ (la particella piú fastidiosa della storia, vista la sua anomala vita media: 1000 volte maggiore del previsto) subito dopo la scoperta sono stati prodotti 8 articoli con 8 spiegazioni differenti (2 di questi scritti da altrettanti premi Nobel), 7 delle quali saranno ovviamente sbagliate.

Capita.

Non paga però la Gabry attacca di nuovo Maiani ("Di fronte abbiamo Maiani, un gran figlio di una ballerina che fa la scienza.") e incensa la Moratti e Zichichi.
Le risponde Giorgio Parisi in maniera molto simpatica:

RITORNO AL FUTURO IV.
Un’articolo del 1974 avrebbe impedito a Zichichi di aver avuto i finanziamenti nel 1972 (o forse anche prima)! Saremmo stati quasi bravi come Boschi, che nel 1971 decise di fare il geofisico a causa del terremoto dell’Irpinia del 1980.
IL MISTERO DEL MANOSCRITTO SCOMPARSO.
L’articolo del 1974 non e’ mai scomparso dai data base digitali in quanto non è mai stato inserito: nel 1974 i data base digitali non esistevano! Ovviamente l’articolo si trova citato con il titolo e gli autori su Google Scholar, quindi non è un grande scoop cercarlo nelle biblioteche.
VERBALI, VERBALI, VERBALI
Ripeto ad nauseam. Come comitato di consulenza non abbiamo fatto verbali formali per l’ottima ragione che non serviva farli essendo un comitato informale. Solo un masochista produrrebbe verbali senza necessità. In ogni caso penso che il comitato di consulenza fosse abbastanza esperto per scrivere verbali resistenti ad un ricorso al TAR.
BALLERINE E BALLERINI
Io non ci vedo niente di male a fare la ballerina.
Io per esempio faccio parte di un gruppo di danze greche, Kenneth Wilson è un appassionato di danze etniche, Feynmann suonava per un gruppo di samba per il carnevale di Rio. (Loro hanno preso il Nobel, io no, peccato!)

Vinici e theremins

2008-03-03T11:57:00.006+01:00

(aka "prevedo che stiamo per riempirci la casa con una nuova scovaza")

Lo scorso mercoledì siamo finiti ad un concerto del sempre ottimo Vinicio Capossela ad Amsterdam. Sala piccolina, atmosfera da jazz club, 2 ore di ottima musica. Tutto perfetto. Ma sopratutto...

Ma sopratutto tra la sua band era presente tale Vincenzo Vasi (in foto), polistrumentista sardo (e belluomo) che tra le altre robe suonava il theremin. Colpo di fulmine!
Il theremin è stato il primo strumento completamente elettronico. Inventato nel 1919 dal fisico e inventore russo Léon Theremin lo strumento consta di due antenne radio appoggiate perpendicolarmente su un contenitore che ne contiene l'elettronica. Senza dilungarmi troppo sul funzionamento fisico dell'aggeggio (più che altro per non venir sbrumato da donna Carlucci, e che cmq si può leggere qui), lo scopo è fondamentalmente quello di mudulare con le mani la frequenza delle onde elettromagnetiche tra le antenne ed emettere suoni per battimento.

L'effetto è un suono vibrato, glissato e tremolante, spesso associato in TV all'apparizione di alieni (Mars Attacks!) o fantasmi (Scooby Doo).
La cosa affascinante è che il musicista sembra suonare muovendo le mani nell'aria, dirigendo con i movimenti delle mani il suono dello strumento (Clara Rockmore, la prima suonatrice di theremin, e Lydia Kavina).
Secondo me la grazia con cui si suona questo strumento è commovente.

E visto che per ogni bel momento della vita c'è sempre una pubblicità olandese di una birra a siglarlo, ecco qua questo capolavoro del cinema con sottofondo di theremin (vale veramente la pena).

Apokolokyntosis (cheerleaded)

2008-02-29T11:16:00.007+01:00

Previously on Apokolokyntosis (I & II):
risvegliatasi su un'isola deserta l'ex soubrette di Buona Domenica scopre di aver acquisito un superpotere: la capacità di parlare di cose che non conosce. Inizia così un carteggio funambolico con un premio Nobel in fisica con l'intento di screditare un professore a lei ignoto, spinta da una forza oscura che non sa controllare e che ne domina pensieri e movimenti.

Episodio 3: Cheerleaded
Nell'ultimo post sono stato un po' stolto nel credere che la querelle si risolvesse ad essere un battibecco tra donna Carlucci e la Fisica.
Invece in calce alla sua (al momento) ultima risposta a Sheldon Glashow appare un simpatico post scriptum

P.S. Enzo Boschi per difendermi dai suoi insulti ha scritto una nota sull’argomento. Mi faccia avere i suoi commenti

che a prima vista suona come un piagnucolante "e io lo dico alla maestra" ma che in realtà rivela chi ci sia dietro a questa polemica. La "nota sull'argomento" si può leggere qui ed è firmata da Enzo Boschi, discepolo di Antonino Zichichi, che infatti viene nominato 19 volte nella lettera, a volte in maniera commovente, come ad esempio:

Mi sono laureato nel 1968 e sono stato il primo studente dell’Università di Bologna a laurearsi con il professore Antonino Zichichi che mi ha dato per tema della tesi il problema delle “correnti neutre” quando nessuno ne parlava. [...] Ebbi il privilegio di conoscere personalmente il professore Salam essendo Zichichi e Salam molto amici. [...] Nelle lezioni del professore Zichichi c’erano delle ore dedicate alle frontiere della fisica di quei tempi. [...] Su questi temi il professor Glashow tenne in quegli anni diverse lezioni nella Scuola di Fisica Subnucleare più prestigiosa del mondo fondata e diretta dal mio maestro professore Zichichi. [...] Le due più grandi scoperte della seconda metà del XX secolo avrebbero potuto essere realizzate a Frascati se fosse stato approvato il progetto di Zichichi. [...] I fatti hanno però dimostrato che queste farfalle (le idee di Zichichi come le definirono i critici, NdE) avrebbero prodotto due Premi Nobel non a Ting-Richter e a Perl ma ad Antonino Zichichi. [...] Colui che ha fatto rinascere l’INFN non è Maiani ma il professore Antonino Zichichi. [...] Due parole conclusive: se non fosse stato per il terremoto dell’Irpinia la mia carriera scientifica si sarebbe svolta nel campo della stessa fisica in cui ha lavorato Maiani. E infatti fu da quel terremoto che la mia carriera ha subito una svolta, grazie a Zichichi e Pertini. Ma questa è un’altra avventura scientifica.

Questa appassionata lettera d'amore (che consiglio caldamente di leggere qui, e che viene smentita qui) suona effettivamente un po' eccessiva tanto che qualcuno ha malignamente insinuato che a scriverla (così come ad essere l'ispiratore delle lettere della Carlucci) sia stato proprio il fisico creazionista.
Ad avvallare l'ipotesi, a parte una certa sintonia in stile e contenuti con gli scritti del maestro, ci sarebbe una conoscenza molto dettagliata della sua biografia scientifica a discapito di grosse imprecisioni su quella del presunto autore Boschi ("che dichiara di aver avuto l'opportunita' di passare alla geofisica in seguito al terremoto dell'Irpinia; ma il terremoto dell'Irpinia e' del 1980 e la carriera in geofisica di Boschi inizio' nei primi anni '70.").
Non solo! Vien fuori infatti che "l'approssimativo documento appare redatto da Fiorella Ruggiu, collaboratrice di Zichichi al Centro Ettore Majorana di Erice, utilizzando una copia di Word registrata presso Forza Italia".

Ottimo! Ora la situazione appare più chiara?

Apokolokyntosis (reiterated)

2008-02-28T11:30:00.005+01:00

Ritorno sulla querelle Gabriella Carlucci vs. la fisica che in queste settimane si è fatta più calda dopo la lettera aperta della suddetta Carluccia a Prodi e a Mussi.
Nella lettera la soubrette offerta alla politica se la prendeva con Luciano Maiani, ex direttore del CERN e candidato alla presidenza del CNR, trombato dopo aver osato sottoscrivere la lettera di sfiducia alla lectio magistralis del papa a La Sapienza (post precedente).

Dopo aver letto alcuni passi particolarmente comici (sic), come

Maiani nel 1969 ha avuto la fortuna di lavorare per un semestre ad Harvard con Sheldon Glashow (Premio Nobel per la Fisica nel 1979) con i quale pubblicò l’unico suo lavoro degno di interesse.
Lavoro che firmò ma che chiaramente non capì visto che nel 1974 lo rinnegò pubblicando un altro lavoro (nota bene: insieme a Cabibbo, Parisi e Petronzio) dove confusero particelle elementari di proprietà fisiche diverse

il premio Nobel Sheldon Glasgow, convinto di aver a che fare con un paese normale, si è degnato di rispondere alla nostra soubrette per difendere il collega italiano.

[...] In the eyes of a foreign scholar, if there is anything that can damage the image of your country’s scientific institutions, it is the vulgarity and deception of this slanderous attempt at denigration of some of your nation’s most distinguished scientists. [...]

Galvanizzata dal fatto che un premio Nobel la caghi la "nostra" prende coraggio (come me che rubo l'ultima minestra di pollo a Gerard 't Hooft in mensa ad Utrecht) e gli risponde:

Caro Prof. Glashow,
Lei ha scritto al Presidente Prodi insultandomi brutalmente senza però andare alla sostanza delle cose. [...] Le scrivo solo ora per porLe una semplice domanda: se Maiani e i suoi amici sono, come Lei dice, luminari stellari stimatissimi in tutto il mondo, perché non hanno mai vinto il premio Nobel ? Eppure la Fisica della Particella italiana (e, in particolare, quella romana) è in percentuale e in valore assoluto fra le meglio finanziate al mondo.
Sperò mi risponderà senza insultarmi. E non dica bugie: potrei sorprenderLa.
Cordiali saluti.
Gabriella Carlucci

A questo punto Glashow, evidentemente impaurito ("potrei sorprenderLa") dalla preparazione scientifica della Carluccia, per non venir umiliato le risponde con una lettera che può venir parafrasata (la traduzione libera è mia) così:

"Ma vaffanculo, va!"

Per una migliore descrizione dell'accaduto vi consiglio di dare un'occhiata a questo blog, molto carino, oppure a questo, in inglese.

Statistiche stitiche

2008-02-27T16:03:00.004+01:00

A un giorno dalla chiusura del sondaggio "Per chi voterai alle prossime elezioni?", dopo aver raggiunto un campione ragguardevole (15 voti, pari al 0.00003% degli aventi dirito al voto) possiamo a ragione tirare le prime conclusioni e previsioni per le prossime elezioni.

Salvo ripensamenti delle ultime settimane il Partito Democratico dovrebbe farla da padrone, beccandosi il 61% dei voti, mentre il Popolo della Libertà (condizionata) si fermerebbe al 7.7%. Il che sarebbe simpatico perché essendo esso in coalizione con la Lega e il Movimento per le Autonomie si troverebbe fuori dalla Camera in quanto lo sbarramento previsto dal Porcellum per le coalizioni è del 10% (al Senato è su base regionale per cui non si sa al momento). Stesso risultato per La Destra di Storace che non essendo in coalizione riuscirebbe però a superare la soglia di sbarramento per lista del 4%.

Per cui al momento si profila un parlamento di (pochi) fasci e (molti) cattocomunisti, che detta così non sembra tanto diverso dal solito ma in realtà ci permette di liberarci di Silvio B.
Tutto questo in realtà dipende da cosa decideranno di votare quel 23.1% di indecisi (tra cui il sottoscritto) che possono smuovere le acque e stravolgere le statistiche (tipo far ritornare il PdL in parlamento).
Quindi il futuro di Silvio dipende anche da me!

...

Infine l'angolo dell'orgoglio: l'immagine mostra i paesi del FVG che hanno votato a maggioranza a destra o a sinistra nelle ultime elezioni politiche (2006).
Come risulta chiaro, a parte alcuni sparuti paesetti di montagna, la nostra simpatica regione guarda con convinzione a destra (4 capoluoghi su 4). Ultimo e unico baluardo la Bisiacaria (ok, anche la zona di Cervignano) e alcuni paesetti limitrofi che ne godono dell'influenza culturale (?).
Vediamo cosa succede quest'anno...

Resistere!

Corso di Nederlandse keuken per Italiani. Parte seconda: il borrel (3).

2008-02-25T17:38:00.005+01:00

OK, ora parliamo di fave secche.

Le mollebonen, fave secche arrostite e speziate, sono una leccornia (ned: lekkernij) di Groningen che spopola (si fa per dire) ai borrellen.
Sono considerate le antenate delle celebri borrelnoten e vengono servite assieme ad altri mangimi durante il borrel con l'unico scopo di aiutare la gente a bere più birra ("l'amore è una fava secca tra le parole birra e un'altra birra").
Le mollebonen hanno molti simpatici amici, come il japanese mix, le wokkels, le palle di formaggio fritte, i grani di mais secchi, o altre semenze e cibi per volatili.

La simpatia delle mollebonen è tale che anche gli abitanti di Groningen vengono scherzosamente chiamati con questo nome, probabilmente per l'antica usanza di votare, ad esempio nei consigli comunali, usando le loro fave secche.

Con questo credo non ci sia più molto altro da dire riguardo alle tradizioni culinarie dell borrel, probabilmente il "pasto" a cui gli olandesi danno più importanza e sicuramente quello più importante dal punto di vista sociale.

Auto da fé

2008-02-20T14:28:00.006+01:00

La campagna elettorale è iniziata e le varie liste hanno iniziato a contendersi i voti degli indecisi, degli ignavi e di quelli che "si inventeranno qualcosa". Vista la mia appartenenza a tutte e tre le schiere mi sento tirato in ballo e cerco di guardarmi attorno.

Ti scopro così un ANSA di qualche giorno fa che riporta un'intervista di Belpietro in cui quel bell'uomo di Giuliano Ferrara (parole sue: "Mi ritengo un uomo leale, intelligente, spiritoso, malizioso e piuttosto belloccio.") cerca di ingraziarsi il restante 50% dell'elettorato femminile, che ancora non vota per lui nonostante il suo fascino straripante, con le seguenti parole concilianti:

"Mi sottoporrò alle analisi del sangue perché penso di avere la sindrome di Klinefelter". Lo ha detto il direttore de Il Foglio Giuliano Ferrara, intervistato da Maurizio Belpietro su mattina 5, facendo riferimento alla donna che ha abortito nei giorni scorsi al Policlinico di Napoli alla quale era stato diagnosticata una malformazione del feto legata alla sindrome di Klinefelter. Questa sindrome , ha spiegato Ferrara, è dovuta a un difetto dei cromosomi che determina tra l'altro un'alterazione degli organi sessuali; "e siccome ho testicoli piccoli e grandi mammelle - ha aggiunto - farò le analisi". Parlando della sua lista per la vita Ferrara ha ricordato che l'iniziativa "ha indotto molti a ripensarci sulle tematiche affrontate". "Vado da solo e solamente al Senato". Quanto ai finanziamenti per la lista, Ferrara ha detto : "parto con un mio assegno di 250 mila euro la cui foto verrà pubblicata, così come la foto dei miei testicoli".

A parte che non capisco questa linea di pensiero del compagno Giuliano per cui sembra che le persone favorevoli all'aborto necessariamente lo considerino una cosa piacevole da fare spensieratamente (tipo: "Ah cavolo, abbiamo finito i preservativi!" "Bon, fa niente, possiamo sempre abortire...")

...voglio che la cultura del mio tempo non la inganni (la donna incinta, NdE) e non le proponga la soluzione comoda dell’aborto come un mezzo di contraccezione moralmente indifferente..

ma poi: uno come fa a dire cose del genere?

Cmq per chi fosse interessato alla lista contro l'aborto di Ferrara (effettivamente detto così il nome della lista potrebbe risultare fuorviante), nel caso decidesse di correre da solo (gouh!), il logo è questo.

Corso di Nederlandse keuken per Italiani. Parte seconda: il borrel (2).

2008-02-18T15:07:00.008+01:00

Eccoci.
La parte fondamentale del borrel (alla quale perfino le scoppiettanti borrelnoten sono funzionali) è la birra.
La birra che gli olandesi bevono a fiumi (e che leggenda vuole costi meno dell'acqua) è fondamentalmente una lager slavata e insapore; e il mercato si divide tra Heineken (che produce anche la Amstel), Bavaria e Grolsch.

(Domanda da 1M€: com'è che gli olandesi pur vivendo tra crucchi e belgi non son stati capaci a produrre una birra decente? O a sintetizzare una minima cucina di base?)

Per spezzare una lancia in testa agli olandesi, a dispetto del fatto che le birre nederlandesi sono sciape, gli autoctoni hanno un sistema socialmente simpatico per berle al bar: quando si esce la sera, ogni membro della compagnia infatti "offre" a turno un giro a tutti con l'effetto che a fine serata ognuno beve tante birre quante persone sono uscite quella sera (o un multiplo intero di esse).

Ecco infine un breve compendio delle pubblicità (di birre) olandesi che io trovo più divertenti (e che danno un'idea di quanto siano scemi e divertenti i dutch): quelle della Bavaria, della Amstel e infine la perla della pubblicità natalizia sempre della Amstel.
Non so veramente decidere quale mi fa ridere di più, si dovrebbe organizzare un sondaggio...

Corso di Nederlandse keuken per Italiani. Parte seconda: il borrel (1).

2008-02-15T10:45:00.003+01:00

Il borrel è una parte fondamentale della vita lavorativa e sociale ("e questa tu la chiami vita?") degli olandesi, decisamente più importante del pranzo.
Il borrel, originariamente definizione per un bicchierino di Jenever, è un meeting informale con colleghi di lavoro, parenti o amici. Generalmente ha un tema, un argomento, e serve a concludere (spesso con un discorso) un incontro di lavoro, inaugurare un anno accademico (con o senza papa), celebrare l'apertura dei regali natalizi (kerstborrel).
Molte compagnie ed aziende organizzano dei borrellen ogni mese per favorire i rapporti sociali (e l'alcolismo) tra i dipendenti.

Al Nikhef questa necessità è particolarmente sentita.

Mi rendo conto ora che molti "piatti" della sezione pranzo di questo Corso di Nederlandse keuken per Italiani sarebbero potuti entrare più giustamente in questa nuova sezione, in particolare bitterballen e aringhe crude.

Ciononostante il mangime essenziale durante un borrel sono le borrelnootje.
Letteralmente noccioline da borrel, le borrelnootjes sono degli arachidi ricoperti da un guscio croccante, generalemte piccante e speziato a caso.
Oltre all versione semplice (bianca con guscio all'aglio), storicamente conosciuta come sjanghainootje, esistono poi le tijgernoten (con guscio di diversi colori e aromi) e le Japanese borrelnoten (dolciastre, generalmente verdi al wasabi).

Apokolokyntosis

2008-02-12T16:37:00.009+01:00

Devo dir che ero ancora un po' rintronato dal jet-lag dopo il mio ritorno dall'India quando Alex mi ha fatto notare l'articolo che pubblico in seguito e che mi ha fatto risvegliare.
E` una lettera scritta dall'Onorevole Gabriella Carlucci (che forse alcuni di voi ricorderanno per alcune sue apparizioni come soubrette a Buona Domenica) di Forza Italia al presidente del consiglio dei ministri Prodi e al ministro Mussi.

Nella lettera la nostra cerca di dimostrare che la scelta di proporre il fisico Luciano Maiani (il link porta alla pagina di Wikipedia in inglese che casualmente è più fornita di quella italiana) alla direzione del Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche è sbagliata visto che Maiani è fondamentalmente un incompetente.
(In realtà la sua nomina è già stata bloccata dopo che lui ha osato aderire alla lettera di protesta all'apertura dell'anno accademico de La Sapienza da parte del papa.)

Per dimostrarlo l'ottima Gabriella Carlucci (il link porta alla pagina di Wikipedia in italiano visto che quella inglese casualmente non esiste) tira in ballo le presunte incompetenze di altri due fisici italiani, Nicola Cabibbo e Giorgio Parisi, guarda caso anch'essi rei di essersi opposti al papa.

Maiani nel 1969 ha avuto la fortuna di lavorare per un semestre ad Harvard con Sheldon Glashow (Premio Nobel per la Fisica nel 1979) con i quale pubblicò l’unico suo lavoro degno di interesse.
Lavoro che firmò ma che chiaramente non capì visto che nel 1974 lo rinnegò pubblicando un altro lavoro (nota bene: insieme a Cabibbo, Parisi e Petronzio) dove confusero particelle elementari di proprietà fisiche diverse.

Ammetto che la comicità del passo (e della lettera in generale) può non essere subito evidente a chi è esterno all'ambiente della fisica, ma basti pensare che Cabibbo, Parisi e Maiani sono probabilmente i tre fisici italiani attualmente più noti nel mondo.
La lettera suona più o meno come il piagnisteo di un bambino che si arrabbia per qualcosa che non capisce e cerca di spiegarselo con parole sue.
Particolarmente commovente il passo in cui la Carlucci spiega come solo grazie all'intervento dell'allora ministro Letizia Moratti si sia potuta scongiurare un'enorme crisi al CERN scatenata da una scellerata gestione di Maiani.

La perla si può leggere qui

Mi chiedo come faccio a resistere a non ritornare in Italia.

A passage to India: day 14

2008-02-10T04:51:00.000+01:00

Ultimo giorno in India.
Ieri sono riuscito a convincere alcuni miei amici indiani a fare un giro per il mercato di Jaipur (per non essere depredato troppo dalla casta dei negozianti) ed è stata un'esperienza molto interessante (e conveniente).

Poi ieri sera c'è stata la cena sociale, niente di troppo diverso dagli altri giorni, a parte gli elefanti...
Comunque sono un fallimente perché non son riuscito a convincere la guardia a farmi salire sull'elefante...
Ma oggi ci riprovo: ho visto sulla cartina di Jaipur che esiste un luogo chiamato elephant owner area e nelle 4 ore libere che mi restano tra la fine della conferenza e il taxi per l'aeroporto punto a fare una visita da quelle parti.
Mi aspetto un mega parcheggio multipiano di elefanti tutti stivati come polli.

Fffigo...

Le foto di ieri sono sempre qua e forse saranno le ultime (a meno che non trovo questo fantomatico parcheggio per elefanti).

Ci si vede in Olanda!

A passage to India: day 12

2008-02-08T06:55:00.000+01:00

Rieccomi.
Ieri era prevista la giornata libera alla conferenza ed avevano organizzato dei tour t(o)uristici nei dintorni di Jaipur; per cui per un giorno non mi son sentito in colpa ad andare in giro.

Comunque ho scelto di andare a visitare il forte dell'antica capitale del Rajasthan: Amber, fiorita attorno all'anno 1000.
La cittadella è molto carina anche se per arrivarci la nostra (maledetta) guida turistica doveva accompagnarci anche in altri posti nei dintorni ed in centro a Jaipur.
Invece il tour si è rivelato un gran bidone: passaggio veloce in bus (senza sosta) di fronte i templi e i monumenti di Jaipur, sosta di un'ora e mezza nel ristorante che aveva accordi con la guida per il pranzo (nonostante le rimostranze di praticamente tutti i partecipanti), ripartenza e passaggio veloce di fronte al Jal Mahal, sosta onesta all'Amber Fort, tappa finale nel negozio con souvenir per turisti, anch'esso d'accordo con la guida.

A questo punto c'è stato l'ammutinamento e prima io e Naomi abbiamo saltato il negozio (ebbene sì: non ho comperato una statua di marmo di Ganesha alta un metro e 50cm) per avere delle foto migliori del Jal Mahal, poi grazie all'iniziativa di un crucco (con quello che sarà ricordato come il putsch di Jaipur) siamo saltati dal pullman in corsa (o quasi) nel centro di Jaipur e abbiamo trovato la libertà.

Al che mi son fatto un bel giro del centro che è molto interessante, con tutti questi negozietti di stoffe, spezie, dolci, verdure, pentole, &c &c.

OK, per il resto la conferenza qui sta per finire, e con lei anche il mio passaggio in India...

Le foto di ieri sono qua. L'album ha finalmente la sua copertina ufficiale (anche se 'sti alberi stanno iniziando a starmi sulle palle, dovrò pensarci) e ci sono foto simpe di animali vari (scimmie, cammelli, elefanti, maiali e cobra).

A passage to India: day 10

2008-02-06T07:29:00.000+01:00

Riepilogo degli album fotografici:
1. Mumbai: album completo
2. Jaipur: album non completo (ci aggiungerò altre foto e la copertina non è definitiva!! Però ho aggiunto delle foto con elefanti e cammelli)
3. Agra: album completo (con le foto di ieri del Fatehpur Sikri e del Taj Mahal)

2008-02-05T01:20:00.000+01:00

Ci sono anch'io.....

:-)

A passage to India: day 8

2008-02-04T07:29:00.001+01:00

Rieccomi dopo un giorno di viaggio.
Ieri mi son mosso da Mumbai per volare alla volta di Jaipur, nel Rajasthan, 1000km più a nord.
La città, chiamata the pink city a causa del colore di molti suoi edifici, sembra molto carina anche se non ho avuto molto tempo di guardarmi attorno.
Comunque è molto meno caotica di Mumbai e sembra un po' più pulita.

La differenza fondamentale è che qui per strada (a parte automobili, rickshaw a motore e a pedali e pedoni) non ci sono solo mucche e cani ma anche CAMMELLI ed ELEFANTI!!!

figata...

Gli elefanti sembrano essere usati specialmente per i matrimoni che qui si svolgono in enormi spazi aperti, grandi quanto un campo da calcio, addobbati a mo' di sagra paesana, con stands di cibo e bevande, bande e concerti, e soprattutto elefanti!

Per ora l'album di Jaipur è ancora provvisorio, ma a breve aggiungerò altre foto, per cui guardate qui anche nei prossimi giorni.
PS: purtroppo non ci sono foto di elefanti perché li ho visto solo ieri sera dal taxi e le foto non son venute bene, ma prometto che andrò a caccia di elefanti.

A passage to India: day 6

2008-02-02T16:04:00.000+01:00

Oggi sono stato in un posto fighissimo: Elephanta Island (o Gharapuri in Hindi).
E` un'isola poco distante da Mumbai diventata Patrimonio dell'Umanita` del'UNESCO grazie a delle grotte scavate circa 1300 anni fa da dei seguaci di Shiva e scolpite con le 9 raffigurazioni del dio.
OK, sull'isola non dico altro anche se ci sarebbe molto da dire (vi lascio farvi un'idea dalle foto); invece vi allieterò con una storiella che mi ha raccontato la guida, sull'origine dell'aspetto di Ganesha (secondogenito di Shiva e Parvati).

Dunque: Ganesha è (tra le altre robe) il dio della prosperità ed è raffigurato come un uomo con la testa di elefante. Tuttavia egli non è sempre stato così, infatti la leggenda (quella più seguita) vuole che egli fosse un uomo in tutto e per tutto.
Un giorno Parvati, sua mamma, decise di farsi un bagno nell'olio e gli chiese di far la guardi alla casa e di non lasciare entrare nessuno.
Ganesha si mette lì e ad un certo punto ritorna a casa suo padre Shiva che desidera giustamente entrare in casa.
Ganesha però, magna cum astutia, non lascia entrare il padre ("perché me l'ha detto la mamma") che s'incazza e gli stacca la testa col suo tridente.
Quando Parvati lo scopre va su tutte le furie e minaccia di distruggere il mondo se Shiva non risolve il danno creato.
Tra l'altro figo essere un dio perché se ti girano puoi minacciare di DISTRUGGERE IL MONDO, altrochè "ti faccio dormire sul divano". Del resto anche Shiva l'aveva combinata grossa, non ha semplicemente lasciato incautamente la tavoletta del bagno alzata...
Comunque sia, Shiva non può accettare che Parvati distrugga il mondo perché il distruttore sarebbe lui (e tra l'altro lei lo aveva già umiliato battendolo ai dadi) per cui acconsente all'ordine della moglie di andare a prendere la testa del primo animale che incontra e di metterla al figlio decapitato.
Shiva va e chi t'incontra? Un cucciolo di elefante. Lo decapita e appiccica la testa dell'elefantino sul collo di Ganesha.
Al che Parvati non sembra convinta della scelta del marito (d'altro canto a Ganesha poteva andare peggio: poteva avere la faccia di un topo) e costringe il marito a rendere benedetto il figlio.
Shiva accetta e Ganesha diventa da quel giorno il dio più amato in India.

Ottimo, no?

A passage to India: day 5

2008-02-01T04:32:00.000+01:00

Finalmente sono stato nella vera Mumbai!
Dal mio "albergo" nella periferica Powai ci ho messo 2 ore per raggiungere il centro, non perché sia veramente taaanto distante, piuttosto perché il traffico era veramente incredibile.

Comunque ne è valsa la pena anche se il tour era veramene super turistico (con tanto di pausa acquisti nel negozio degli amici della guida).
Tuttavia siamo riusciti a vedere parecchie cose carine, come Dhobi Ghat: la lavanderia pubblica di Mumbai dove la gente che non ha acqua corrente a "casa" (!) porta a lavare i propri panni.

O come il Gateway of India, l'"ingresso all'India" costruito nel 1911 per accogliere gli inglesi.

L'impressione generale che Mumbai mi ha dato è comunque molto migliore rispetto alla caotica e polverosa periferia dove abito. La città è effettivamente una città e non un enorme e polveroso parchetto da rione popolare abbandonato da 10 anni e colonizzato da cani ed indigenti. Non so se l'immagine rende, ma a me ricorda questo (anche se ammetto che potrebbe benissimo essere anche la descrizione di un accampamento rifiu).

(A proposito: sembra che rifiu sia una parola usata solo in Bisiacaria visto che i link che da google a riguardo sono dei commenti fasco-leghisti tipo "merda su rifiu e terroni" su bisiacaria.com (merda su bisiacaria.com tra l'altro).)

OK, la mia merenda piccante di mezza mattina mi aspetta, per cui alla prossima!

AH: le foto sono finalmente qui!

A passage to India: day 3

2008-01-30T09:52:00.000+01:00

OK, ho scoperto dove mi trovo!
Sono a Powai, polveroso (ma residenziale) sobborgo di Mumbai, nella periferia nord.
Questo mi consola un pelin e rivitalizza un po' le mie speranze nei confronti dell'India e di Mumbai.
Cmq per domani ho prenotato un giro turistico della citta` vecchia ("ma non dovresti lavorare?") per cui mi faro` un'idea piu` completa del tutto.

Invece stamattina mi son fatto la mia sazia colazione indiana che corrisponde in:
- the all'indiana (o all'inglese): col latte dentro
- frittata indiana
- tramezzino agli spinaci
- patate e piselli in salsa curry; piccantissimi!!!
- crostino piccante di patate e carne in salsa curry

Il che pone delle difficolta` a distinguere la colazione dal pranzo.
La cena invece e` un discorso a parte: piatto tipico di Mumbai sembra essere il pesce, per cui finora gli organizzatori ci hanno preparato solo cene di pesce, che fondamentalmente sono involtini piccanti di pesce, gamberi in salsa piccante, polpette di pesce piccanti, pesce in salsa curry.

Ho gia detto la parola "piccante"?

Invece i moscerini sono tremendi: stanotte uno e` riuscito a pungermi dopo aver superato la mia contraerea missilistica: spry anti insetti, zampironi, pastiglia di antizanzare nella presa, strato untulento di autan protezione 50%.
Maledetti...

A passage to India: day 2

2008-01-29T05:28:00.001+01:00

OK, vediamo da dove cominciare...
Ieri mattina alle 6 sono atterrato qui a Mumbai, dopo un comodo scalo nel Bahrain grazie alla KLM che aveva sovraprenotato il mio volo (cmq grazie KLM per essersi fatta perdonare a suon di euro).
Come prima impressione Mumbai sembra molto... indiana!
Molto incasinata e mooolto polverosa, e brulicante di persone di qualsiasi condizione e classe (casta?) sociale.

Le strade.
Le strade sono delle distese di catrame, terra e polvere su cui si muovono (guidando sulla sinistra, entro i limiti imposti dal traffico) tutti gli esseri viventi dell'India: le vacche sacre razzolano placide tra i rickshaw a motore, le persone si muovono schivando i camion e gli autobus stracolmi di gente.
Il tutto avviene molto lentamente e automezzi e persone (e animali) sembrano appoggiarsi l'uno all'altro mentre procedono a spallate sulla strada.
E poi ci sono i clackson.
TUTTI usano il clackson SEMPRE, spesso solo per avvisare la loro presenza sulla carreggiata.
Tanto che molti veicoli portano dipinta sul paraurti posteriore la scritta horn OK please per invitare chi segue a suonare per far presenza.

Geniale.

Il cibo.
Il cibo è ottimo e al momento non mi ha dato problemi (facendo gli scongiuri) anche se non ho ben colto la differenza tra pranzo, cena e colazione.

ok, prometto che a breve metterò le foto su internet.

alla prossima

Coming soon

2008-01-23T01:04:00.001+01:00

The Italian Job

2008-01-21T13:46:00.000+01:00

La recessione e` alle porte.
Le economie mondiali sono nel panico dopo la delusione per il piano di sgravi anti-crisi anticipato da Bush. Ma nei giorni scorsi un'avvisaglia c'e` stata, ed e` arrivata dall'Italia; a svelarla e` stata la BBC:

La produzione di mozzarella di bufala potrebbe subire un duro colpo a causa di un'infezione che si sta diffondendo (anche grazie alle condizioni della falda acquifera attorno a Napoli, in questo momento non proprio al massimo) tra le greggi (di bufale appunto) al pascolo sotto il Vesuvio.
Tale infezione (che ormai sta colpendo il 30% dei capi e sta costando allo Stato 66 milioni di Euro) sembra sia stata individuata gia` dieci anni fa, ma tenuta nascosa grazie a controlli un po' troppo "sotto controllo".

La notiziona e` rimbalzata subito anche nei giornali olandesi per la legge del contrappasso che impone all'Olanda (paese che appare nella stampa italiana solo quando si parla di droga e prostituzione) di parlare dell'Italia solo a suon di mozzarelle e immondizia (a proposito: qui e` passata la leggenda che tutto il casino dell'immondizia a Napoli sia nato a causa di uno sciopero degli operatori ecologici).
Si prevedono grosse perdite, almeno qui, per i produttori di mozzarella.

Per cui un consiglio: in questo periodo di insicurezze finanziarie NON investite in mozzarelle!!!

(a meno che non ci sia stato un errore di traduzione e si e` preso Mozzarella per Mastella)

La capitale des singes

2008-01-16T21:32:00.000+01:00

Devo dir che le ultime dinamiche nella teo-politica italiana mi lasciano un po' basito.

Il tutto si puo` riassumere con una perla della sig.ra Sandra Lonardo, in arte: la moglie di Mastella. Dopo esser stata messa ai domiciliari (provvedimenti per altri 23 membri dell'Udeur, tra cui il marito che si ritrova contestato di SETTE reati: concorso esterno in associazione per delinquere, due episodi di concorso in concussione e uno di tentata concussione, un concorso in abuso d'ufficio e due concorsi in falso), Donna Mastella dichiara:

«Credo che anche questo sia l'amaro prezzo che, insieme a mio marito, stiamo pagando per la difesa dei valori cattolici in politica, dei principi di moderazione e tolleranza contro ogni fanatismo ed estremismo. Affronto tranquilla anche questa battaglia. Basta vedere quello che è successo al Papa per capire cosa sta succedendo ai cattolici. Ne vogliamo parlare?».

Ora. Nell'era geologica in cui si assiste ovunque all'avanzata del Vaticano su quasi tutti i temi etici del momento (moratoria contro pena di morte a aborto, morale sessuale, politiche sulla famiglia, bioetica, guerra, &c) il papa decide di non affrontare un gruppo di "contestatori" e preferisce far la vittima aspettando il "domenica tutti a S.Pietro a consolare Joseph" di Ruini mentre TUTTO il mondo politico (a parte Boselli) gli offre sostegno morale; non mi sembra tanto male per i poveri e perseguitati cattolici, no?

Poi mi fa sclerare (o s-clerare) come i giornali abbiamo trasformato il motivo della protesta dei professori (la perplessita` che l'anno accademico di un'universita` pubblica -bada ben: NON ERA UNA CONFERENZA APERTA LIBERAMENTE AL PUBBLICO INTERESSATO- di uno stato tecnicamente laico sia presentato dall'uomo con le mani piu` in pasta del momento) in una censura a tutto campo nei confronti della Chiesa e ad una "Santa Inquisizione" (sic).
Col papa che dopo il gran rifiuto fa sapere (con questa faccia) che il suo era un messaggio di pace e che avrebbe parlato bene della scienza e accolto le eventuali pecorelle smarrite "senza voler imporre la fede a nessuno".
Bravissimo. E commovente.

Basta vedere quello che è successo al Papa per capire cosa sta succedendo ai cattolici.

Maledetti...

Corso di Nederlandse keuken per Italiani. Parte prima: il pranzo (8).

2008-01-15T10:54:00.000+01:00

Anno nuovo, vita nuova (benche` l'anno sia bisesto, quindi malsesto): finalmente qualcosa di commestibile sul tavolo da pranzo: de pannenkoek!

Il pannenkoek come mostra la figura e` la versione nederlandese della crêpe (anche se Eleonora avra` da ridire a riguardo), vagamente piu` spessa e soffice.
Si puo` mangiare salata o dolce, e in tal caso i pannenkoeken vengono fatti generalmente piu` sottili, come ci mostra qui l'amico Rasmus Klump (Petzi in italiano, anche se in realta` lui e` danese e non olandese).
Nella versione salata il pannenkoek viene cucinato con qualsiasi tipo di verdure e cicciosita` all'interno (formaggio, prosciutto, cipolla, salamino, uova, peperoni, patate, carne, bacon, &c).

Il pannenkoek ha poi due piccoli amici:
- Poffertjes: versione piu` piccola del pannekoek che vengono preparate con apposite padelle e mangiate con burro fuso, zucchero a velo e cioccolata.
- Flensje: fondamentalmente dei pannenkoeken piu` sottili che generalemente si mangiano arrotolati.

TRIVIA: la riforma ortografica del 1996 (?) che fondamentalmente si e` accanita contro le "N" (abbiamo gia` visto che Frikandel ora si puo` anche dire piu` comodamente Frikadel) ha deciso che e` corretta anche la grafia Pannekoek per il Pannenkoek.
Sebbene questa decisione abbia portato gran sollievo in molti, ci sono tuttoggi delle sacche di resistenza e tradizionalismo dove i piu` riottosi disconoscono questi modernismi e continuano a mangiare panneNkoeken e frikaNdellen.
Non solo! Usano anche la parola pannekoek in senso spregiativo per definire l'uso spregiudicato dei modernismi nella lingua nederlandese. Quindi come noi abbiamo il latino maccheronico, i dutch hanno il Pannekoeken Nederlands.

CONTROTRIVIA: non ti scopro su etimo.it che la parola RIOTTOSO deriva dall'olandese RAVOTTEN (=scuotersi qua e la` in modo violento e feroce)?

Tulip Inn

2007-12-31T00:01:00.000+01:00

E mentre tutto il mondo sta pensando ai cenoni e ai pranzoni di Natale e di Capodanno i Dutch hanno altro per la testa...
(Del resto per organizzare un pranzo di Natale a crocchette e bitterballen non serve tutto 'sto sforzo.)
Comunque tale Joop Atsma, parlamentare del partito cristiano democratico (CDA), lo scorso novembre ha proposto di costruire un'isola a forma di tulipano al largo delle coste dell'olanda del sud per difenderci dall'innalzamento del livello del mare.

Geniale!

Quanto simpi mi stanno sti olandesi?
Speriamo mi interpellino per scegliere il nome della nuova provincia di Tulipia.

Nota a margine: come tutti voi avrete notato la produzione di post durante il periodo natalizio ha subito una drastica diminuzione (soprattutto per colpa di Ele che non scrive dei piatti di Sinterklas). Il che mostra inequivocabilmente come il cazzeggio sia maggiore durante i periodi di lavoro e cala nei periodi di cazzeggio ("paradosso del cazzeggio").

The Empire State 3.3

2007-12-13T00:51:00.000+01:00

I stand as on some mighty eagle's beak,
Eastward the sea absorbing, viewing,
(nothing but sea and sky,)
The tossing waves, the foam, the ships in the distance,
The wild unrest, the snowy, curling caps--
that inbound urge and urge of waves,
Seeking the shores forever.
Walt Whitman, From Montauk Point

Ebbene, questo week end, che per me era l'ultimo in quel di New York, si e` deciso di noleggiare una macchina (classe di noleggio: "utilitarie", la minore e piu` economica. Che qui in Amerika vuol dire Ford Mondeo 5 porte) e di fare un giro per la ridente Long Island (foto).
La parte migliore della giornata e` stata la visita a Montauk Point, la punta orientale di Long Island, dove il faro divide il Long Island Sound dall'Atlantico.
Qui, nel posto che gli indiani Algonquin chiamavano "terra collinosa" (Montauk appunto), si incontrano i venti atlantici e canadesi e le nuvole assumono sempre una simpatica forma allungata, in direzione del mare.
Sempre a Montauk si trova inoltre un vecchio cimitero indiano, raggiungibile in macchina percorrendo la Pocahontas Lane...

Per il resto la giornata e` andata via tranquilla, tra vigneti e ville dei VIPs che sembrano preferir vivere in mezzo al nulla, a 2 ore da New York.

Nota di colore (ma quando si dice nota di colore si intende "nota colorita", quindi interessante, oppure "nota nera", per cui brutta? cmq la mia e` entrambe): ho preso la mia prima multa amerikana.
35$ per parcheggio sul lato sbagliato della carreggiata . Il simpatico sceriffo pero` non sapeva l'ammontare per cui mi ha notificato la multa specificando che dovevo presentarmi il 28 Dicembre alla corte di giustizia del tal paese.
Ottimo!
Per fortuna il tutto si e` risolto con un pagamento via posta...

Ok, ci si vede in Olanda!

The Empire State 3.2

2007-12-06T02:41:00.000+01:00

Finalmente, dopo mesi passati tra Upton, NY, e New York City, son riuscito ad organizzare una visita turistica Upstate, piu` precisamente a Syracuse, NY.
Ridente cittadina (150000 abitanti) nella regione dei finger lakes, Syracuse e` un bell'esempio di cosa siano gli Stati Uniti al di fuori di New York, cioe` di cosa siano gli Stati Uniti.
Citta` fantasma da un secolo (come molte altre citta` Upstate New York che hanno vissuto le glorie e la decadenza dell'Erie Canal) Syracuse vede la sua vita socio-culturale muoversi attorno al Campus universitario, riunito in un simil-villaggio a se` stante, molto carino, abbastanza vivo, molto campus.
Tutto il resto lascia un po' basiti.

Prima impressione: FREDDO!!!
Neve costante per tre giorni di fila e -10 gradi di giorno (ma Riccardo, prima di andar a tagliar la legna per il caminetto, mi assicura che in febbraio e` peggio).

Cmq devo ammettere che me la sono passata bene (anche perche` ho vissuto tra studenti, nella zona universitaria).
Inoltre ho provato l'ebbrezza di muovermi in giro per l'Amerika in corriera.
Sei ore di corriera da New York a Syracuse con una sosta in mezzo.
Che cmq per me vuol dire: mezzora di taxi per raggiungere la stazione piu` vicina al labortorio + un'ora e mezza di treno per raggiungere NY + corriera.

Awesome!

Corso di Nederlandse keuken per Italiani. Parte prima: il pranzo (7).

2007-12-03T19:48:00.000+01:00

Pensavate che il pranzo fosse finito? E INVECE NO!
C'è ancora una parte interessante, ovvero il pranzo del venerdì!
Come ben sapete, il 48% della popolazione olandese si dichiara non religiosa e circa il 6% è musulmana, eppure, per qualche strana ragione, il venerdì non si mangia carne, ma in mensa si trova solo pesce. Ebbene, si, ecco un altro tipico cibo olandese, il pesce. Il pesce qui viene generalmente consumato in due forme: fritto o l'aringa cruda.
Incominciamo con la cosa più tipica in assoluto: l'aringa. L'aringa viene venduta solitamente per strada in simpatici gabbiotti, magari con un venditore caratteristico. L'aringa viene pescata, conservata in simpatici barili pieni di acquiccia nera, e servita. Va mangiata, ovviamente, freschissima, ma qui non è un problema. Di solito si mangia accompagnata da un po' di cipolla tritata e delle rotelle di cetrioli sottaceto, eccola qui. In alternativa, non possono mancare i broodje, con un'aringa intera dentro e la solita cipolla e cetriolo! Il metodo puramente olandese per gustarla, però, è prenderla per la coda, infilarla in bocca, e mordere! Proprio come fanno i colletti bianchi della foto. Essendo un piatto molto nutriente e salutare, ovviamente è somministrato anche ai bambini!
Per chi non prediligesse troppo il pesce crudo, vi è anche la versione marinata. Questa si chiama zure haring, e in genere è fatta ad involtino. Devo dire che non è niente male.
Al nikhef viene organizzato una volta all'anno l'"haring dag", cioè il giorno dell'aringa, in cui i più prodigiosi si sfidano a mangiare 6 o 7 aringhe intere di fila... e non è facile!!
Come dicevo, il venerdì in mensa c'è un bel vassoio di aringhe, di cui ci si può servire.
Il secondo tipo di pesce presente in mensa, e in ogni pescheria/gastronomia, è il pesce fritto. Non si sa come, gli olandesi friggono qualsiasi tipo di pesce e alla fine hai un pesce, a forma di pesce, completamente pulito! Questo piatto viene comunemente chiamato Lekkerbekjes. In alternativa è possibile averlo sotto forma di nuggets. In genere gli olandesi prendono le nuggets e le affondano in qualche salsa di dubbio colore.
Non presente in mensa, ma disponibile in quasi tutti i baracchini, ristoranti, pescherie, è l'anguilla. Nei baracchini si può mangiarla in un panino, mentre nei ristoranti la cucinano in diversi modi a tranci, si può mangiarla fritta, in padella, alla piastra..... Si può addirittura metterla nella minestra!
Insomma, diciamo, che questi olandesi, con il pesce si salvano!! :)

The Empire State 3.1

2007-11-27T02:28:00.000+01:00

Il fine settimana appena passato (oltre ad essere l'ultimo week-end prima delle collisioni per il mio esperimento => molto lavoro da fare) e` stato il week-end lungo del Ringraziamento e io me ne sono allegramente andato per 4 giorni a New York City ("Where the hell is that lazy Italian guy now that we need him!? Goddamnit!").

La parte piu` interessante della 4-giorni di shopping pre-natalizio e` stato il Giovedi` (il giorno del Ringraziamento) quando c'era la Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.
Macy's e` una catena di grandi magazzini amerikana di enorme successo, specie a New York, e ogni anno organizza una parata di carri, maschere e soprattutto palloni giganti che scivolano lungo Broadway fino ad arrivare alla sede principale di Macy's a Herald Square, il negozio piu` grande del mondo.

La parata e` stata molto impressionante e molto seguita (le foto sono sempre qui), specie questi palloni di elio alti 15 piani.
Quello che mi ha lasciato un po' perplesso e` l'effetto che ha sui bambini. Fondamentalmente funziona cosi`: tutta la parata e` un'esaltazione esasperata di questa catena di negozi con tanto di cheerleaders che scandiscono il nome M.A.C.Y.S. e bande che suonano la canzoncina caramellata degli acquisti da Macy's. I personaggi dei cartoni animati piu` popolari sfilano tra i grattacieli e i bambini urlano tutti contenti inneggiando esaltati al nome di chi ha reso possibile tutto cio`: Macy's! E alla fine si finisce tutti a far compere nel "Negozio piu` grande del Mondo": Macy's! I grandi magazzini che realizzano i vostri sogni!
Devo dir che mi ha messo un po' angoscia: mi sembrava una via di mezzo tra la Fabbrica del Cioccolato di Charlie e Mama di Futurama.
Ma anche questa e` liberta` (per il popolo della liberta`).

Ah, ho scoperto un nuovo modo per ingrassare: egg nog, una specie di zabaglione piu` liquido.

Corso di Nederlandse keuken per Italiani. Parte prima: il pranzo (6).

2007-11-21T14:07:00.000+01:00

Visto che Ermes ormai è dall'altra parte del globo, continuo io con la consueta rubrica culinaria. Ormai la parte relativa al pranzo comincia ad essere alquanto corposa, ed è ormai giunto il momento di aggiungere quello che è fondamentalmente l'unico pasto caldo di cui gli olandesi fanno uso: la zuppa.
La zuppa è senz'altro il piatto più comune, infatti ogni eetcafé che si rispetti propone sempre la zuppa del giorno (soep van de dag), in mensa c'è sempre una scelta tra almeno 2 tipi di zuppe, e sparsi per città si trovano spesso dei fastfood di sole zuppe. Inoltre il gadget immancabile per ogni olandese è la tazza da zuppa (Koek en zopie), possibilmente vinta con le confezioni di Cup-a-soup, una marca di zuppe istantanee (cui torneremo in seguito,ma sono sicura ha già colto l'interesse del pubblico maschile di questo blog).
La zuppa più tipica in assoluto è la zuppa di piselli (Erwtensoep), la cui ricetta viene tramandata da madre in figlia ed è un segreto familiare di estrema importanza. Questa zuppa, in realtà, fa da sola da pranzo completo (e diciamo anche colazione e cena), è una crema di piselli con varie verdure invernali come sedano, patate, porro e simili, con un'aggiunta sostanziosa di pancetta e salsiccie in pezzi (generalmente abbastanza grossi). Per valutare la bontà della zuppa si dovrebbe vedere come il cucchiaio non affondi se appoggiato sulla superficie. Nelle sere invernali (o pomeriggi...) è possibile comprarne una tazza ai bordi dei canali ghiacciati.
Esistono però moltissimi tipi di zuppe, tra cui:
Eiersoep met gember (zuppa all'uovo con ginger),Prei-kerrysoep met worst (zuppa al porro e curry con salsiccia), Linzensoep (zuppa di lenticchie), Amelander mosterdsoep (zuppa di senape dell'Ameland), Oud Hollandse tomatensoep (Antica zuppa olandese al pomodoro), Aardappelsoep met spekjes (zuppa di patate con pancetta), Zuurkoolsoep met kaas (zuppa di verza con formaggio), Tesselse vissoep (zuppa di pesce di Tessel), Groente soep (zuppa di verdure miste), kippensoep (zuppa di pollo)... e queste sono solo quelle classiche, perché poi ci sono tutte le zuppe indonesiane e asiatiche in genere... potrei continuare fino a domani!
Ma come dicevo, solo le famiglie più classiche si cucinano la zuppa in casa, e la maggior parte degli olandesi predilige il pasto pronto. Per questo la Unox (nota marca di salsicce) ha deciso di aprire una filiale, Cup-a-soup appunto, che fornisce una lunga lista di zuppe istantanee. Come vedete dall'immagine in alto, questa è una marca molto amata... Sono disponibili in formati da 3 e da 10 porzioni, e sono suddivise in normali, brodi, e speciali. La novità è che ora per le aziende o gli uffici è possibile anche acquistare un automaat, cioè un distributore automatico di zuppe!E noi che eravamo contenti della macchina del caffè.....

The Empire State 3.0

2007-11-18T20:10:00.000+01:00

Rieccomi nel "paese degli uomini liberi, patria dei coraggiosi" (da non confondere col Popolo della Liberta`) dove le Macchine e i tacchini regnano sovrani.
Questa volta non ho fatto nemmeno in tempo a riprendermi dal jet lag che ho DOVUTO partecipare ad una cena per il Thanksgiving qui al BNL, in anticipo di 5 giorni rispetto alla data ufficiale (quando tutti gli amerikans saranno coi parenti) per far partecipare piu` gente possibile.

A parte la compagnia infelice di fisici "colle toppe sotto i gomiti" e l'orario alieno (inizio cena: 17:30; fine cena: 19:00; tutti a casa: 21:13) la cena e` andata molto bene e il menu` era come da tradizione:
- Tacchino ripieno con stuffing
- Turducken
- Gravy
- Mashed Potatoes
- Salsa di Cranberry (anche se a me avevano insegnato che la N non va mai prima della B)
- Apple Pie
- Pecan Pie
- Pumpkin Pie

Menzione d'onore per il Turducken (a sinistra nella foto, l'altro e` il tacchino):
il Turducken (Turkey + duck + chicken) e` un tacchino parzialmente disossato, riempito con un'anatra disossata, riempita a sua volta con un piccolo pollo disossato. Tipico degli stati del Sud, e` diventato nell'ultimo decennio un piatto quasi-tipico del ringraziamento.

Sono andato in un centro di allevamento di cinghiali in Lunigiana e ti ho comprato un cinghialino, l'ho arrostito e l'ho riempito con un tacchino di terra cotta ripieno di un piccione vivo con il verme in bocca, ho arrostito tutto insieme te l'ho portato; oh non l'hai mangiato, eri immersa in una vasca di catalogna ... non si fa cosi'
Elio e le Storie Tese, Catalogna

Sazio.