Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Nihon-koku: The people
In this second post, I will tell you my impressionsabout the people in Japan!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!!!
Monday, July 28, 2008
Nihon-koku: first impressions
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.
Friday, July 25, 2008
Peddler's Village
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...
Monday, July 21, 2008
Holy smoke!
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.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Klein bottles of Heineken
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!
Monday, June 23, 2008
Hairy moments for bald youngsters
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?
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Brfxxccxxmnpcccclllmmnprxvclmnckssqlbb 11116
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?
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Life is.. a cosmic symphony
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...
Sunday, June 08, 2008
Wednesday, June 04, 2008
Mooninglight sonata
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.
Friday, May 23, 2008
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Homeopathy can kill
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.
Sunday, May 11, 2008
's-Gravenhage: het grootste dorp van Europa
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.
Thursday, May 08, 2008
The New Italian Government
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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.
Saturday, May 03, 2008
Amsterdam: Hoofdstad van Nederland
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)
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
The future of the language
Well, as authors of a blog, I guess that we have to ask ourselves few questions.This whole subject has been treated and re-treated in a lot of places (lately in the Science journal) and by a lot of people (not last my uncle), but is worth giving an extra analysis (and who's better than me, anyway?).
The main point is that internet gives the right to anyone to publish his thoughts and to let them read by a lot of other people. This implies that people who doesn't have a culture, doesn't have any writing skills, and probaly doesn't have much to say either are just filling the minds of other people with crap. Is it right? Is it a global achievement, or it's a bad result of a waste society?
There are people that are making a job out of this. For example, skellie is a journalist that has published a blog on "how to write a blog", and can even write it for you. In the article I liked, it says that writing skill actually don't matter for having a good blog result. The reason is that in internet, the form doesn't count, but only the facts are important, only the substance. And words are only a mere "medium" to transmit the concepts.
But then, why humans invented and developed a language in first place? Dogs and animals can communicate their basic need quite properly, and they don't have a language (to be honest, they don't have a blog either). I think that we need the language to express "better" what we want to say. Very often, in my experience of learning new languages, I run into the situation of wanting to express a particular feeling, that could be said like "I'm angry" but was not quite that. I knew how to express it in Italian, but I couldn't think of any word that could mean the same in another language. Of course, there are. I just didn't know them. So, if I want to write in my blog that I'm angry because Berlusconi won the elections and that I feel that Italians are a bunch of jerks, I could say it like this, or trying to express it with a more explicative language. I think that the reader should be able to see the difference and appreciate when an article, although written in a blog, and published on internet, is well written or very poor.
So, in conclusion, I think that is a good thing that internet allows everybody to write and to express their opinion, but I think that the development of our society and of the human being in itself is such that we should follow the way of the development of the language, that has to be good enough to express any little detail of our mind. Of course, I also think that not all human being has the same amount of details in their brain, which explains a lack of need of evoluted language. Nevertheless, I am hoping in a "natural selection" of blogging and bloggers, such as good journalism and, why not, even literature, could come out of it. So, the problem, as always, is not the medium (internet) but is people that make use of it, that, alas, is not easy to stop...
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Bicycling for (crash test) dummies
As most of the people that tried to ride a car in a Dutch city know, driving a car in The Netherparts is something definitely not comfortable.
In spite of the fact that the traffic is not so heavy (compared to other European cities), that people usually drives neatly and following the rules, and that the streets are very well maintained, you have to pay a lot of attention to a series of obstructions and barriers (chicane or asverschuiving, verkeersplateau, or the bastard bussluis, that you can see also here).
But soon driving a car will will also embarrass yourself: your car will soon wear a nice external airbag like this.
In fact the national cyclist association claimed that this method would save at least 60 life per year in The Netherlands.
An accurate study has been made by the TNO (Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research) over a sample of 12000 simulated bike-car accident. The results show that cyclists in most of the collisions touch the windshield with their head, whereas pedestrians do not reach generally that height.
The reason for the research was the fact that while the total number victims in street accidents decreased steadily the previous years, the number of cyclists that perished by accidents remained constant. In 2006, 216 cyclists died on the street, of which 106 for collisions with cars.
The cyclist association says the number of badly injured cyclists can decrease with installing windshield airbags on cars.
Moreover the association pleads for discouraging the use of cars with a high hood, such as SUV's.
So the questions are:
1. What about the other 110 wounded cyclists? How did they die? Did they fell in the canals?
2. What about the pedestrians that do not reach the airbags? Minced meat for bitterballen?
(BTW I agree with this solution, it was just funny to me.)
Monday, April 21, 2008
Milk this Cow!
Let's try to move on.
Last week, while we were struggling with ourselves, also the Dutch had their own political storm.
It came out (from de Volkskrant) that almost the 25% of the country’s 5,481 university professors are directly or indirectly paid for by outside sources. Which is not a big issue by itself: private sponsorship for Universities and research group is one of the reason why research here works better than in some Cisalpine Countries.
But of course it can lead to some conflicts of interest. Let's take as an absurd example the case of a public TV showman saying that one politician is better than another just because the first is his publisher.
You would like to know it, wouldn't you?
(This is another good reason, as Marco pointed out, to do particle physics: there in no risk that someone gives a shit of what your talking about.)
The educational minister, Ronald Plasterk, declared that the situation it's tricky. Private grants is not a problem but more clarity is needed.
Consequently Dutch universities from now on must set up a public register listing any outside jobs held by their professors.
Can you guess how all this dutch revolution began? From milk, of course!
Last year a visiting professor at Wageningen gave a widely-reported speech praising the "essential foodstuffs found in milk". It turned out the professor in question, Toon van Hooijdonk, was not only funded by the Dutch dairy lobby organisation but is a director of dairy firm Campina.
Can you see the distress? We are not even sure about milk!!!
(Well, now we are, thanks to the minister.)
"Milk is for babies. When you grow up you have to drink beer."
Arnold Schwarzenegger (1975)
"Aspirin is for babies. When you are hungover you have to drink milk."
Gordon Lim (2007)
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Well, such a plebiscite cannot hide behind any excuse. That the Italian population has been brain-washed or that the power of the media is so huge that can drive the results in any direction. This time the Italian population doesn't have any excuse. They just got exactly what they wanted. They simply chose the people who are more violent, more criminal, more against the order and the law. They are shouting against the small criminals like some immigrants and small thieves. And then, they just vote as a unique force to the people that define one of the biggest mafia murderer a hero. A hero because didn't confess his connection with them. They vote for them because they don't want to pay taxes. They don't want a social state. They don't want to follow the laws, or to be judged by a court. They want anarchy, populism, the stronger that kills the weaker.
There is no excuse for this. I don't believe in any excuse. I don't believe in the territorial strength, like Ilvo Diamanti suggests, or any other political interpretation of the vote. I just think that most of the italians just don't like order, don't like honesty and prefer to overtake the weaker, for their own good. Of course, this is a very stupid behavior. Only a person with a very undeveloped brain can really think that a country can be based in such a society, especially in modern epoch. So, these people are so stupid, that they don't realize that they are the weaker. They dream of being the Rambo that kills everybody in front of him, they dream a sort of revenge over the immigrants, over the judges, they dream to be able to take advantage of the people who pay taxes, not to pay it themselves, but they don't realize that Berlusconi is exactly like them. But he's thousand times more powerful. And he's taking advantage of them, to avoid paying taxes, to get rid of his trials, to earn even more money, to avoid paying for his crimes. He's using them, and he cannot care less of their happiness. Of course, if they want to have their personal revenge, they can try doing it, thanks to the laws Berlusconi implements for himself and his friends. But these laws are just savage laws. The Berlusconi society is just a savage society, and in such a condition there is no justice. There is no revenge. There is only the stronger prevailing on the weaker. And the young people who vote for the PdL, the workers, the women, the small shop holders, they are weak. They need a society behind them. They need a retirement, they need hospitals, they need the police, they need schools, they need offices and jobs. So, with their vote they just renounce to all this things, because without the taxes these services cannot be provided. They are against the crimes committed by the immigrants, but in a country in which the prime minister is encouraging the population to commit crimes, how can you expect the immigrants not to do it? If you voted for the PdL, you voted for a society that has no justice. Has no moral.
I hope that one day Italy will be again one of the country with the highest culture in the world, like it was once. Now, we are just showing to the rest of the world what are the darkest and worst sides of the human being.
Monday, April 14, 2008
Surrounded by...
So...
Let's pretend nothing happened today.
Let's pretend there was no election in Italy today.
Let's pretend we are not just a nation of assholes and that we did understand that guy does not give a shit of our welfare, our health, our safety (both social and economical).
Let's pretend we did understand that two governments of his were enough and that we did not give him the chance to rule our life for the next 5 years again.
Then what?
In this new and naive state of mind of ours we would find peculiar how today the trend of an Italian TV group (Mediaset) at the Milan Stock Exchange has been strictly related to the news coming out from the elections.
In the morning it was, confiding in the election results, the only positive share on the main list; then right after the first "not so favorable to the right side" exit-poll it went way down (here and here) ; finally up again after the results started to get out.
So while I was despairing he was gaining money.
OK, let's get drunk.
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