Wonders, in one text message: #1

Morire come le allodole assetate
sul miraggio

O come la quaglia
passato il mare
nei primi cespugli
perché di volare
non ha più voglia

Ma non vivere di lamento
come un cardellino accecato

Giuseppe Ungaretti - 1917

What a goof...

According to the Olympic committee in Beijing, and to the official guide they have prepared, people suffering from disabilities are "isolated, unsocial, and introspective. They can be stubborn and controlling, ...defensive and have a strong sense of inferiority".
Mmmmhhhh, mister Liu Qi, think carefully, who's going to be isolated, maybe defensive, and for sure suffering from a sense of inferiority in the next few days?
Superb one ;), Mr Qi...

Six, seven, eight...

Alright mates...
I think I can't stash this... ;)

Won't you help my soul to grow?
To heal, its all that I know...

Stronger, but just a tiny bit...

Fourth estates: just close to a breath-taking sea view...

I am not a Sardinia resident, so I do not honestly know how Renato Soru is behaving as a Governor of that region, within a centre-left coalition. I personally think he's a very good manager, he's the owner of Tiscali group, one of the very few ICT international companies based in Italy. It looks like he's just bought l'Unità, the once communist-alleged newspaper in Italy. Owner of both a telecommunication company and a big newspaper, and governor of a region pretty much as big as e.g. Massachusetts... Have ever heard of the term "conflict of interest"? Or does it only rhyme with Mr. Unfit?

45.55 s

Oscar, now it's your time to post that time!
Plus, we finally found a good reason why there's a ninth lane in the olympic stadium in Rome ;)

Study Revives Olympic Prospects For Amputee Sprinter

ScienceDaily (May 16, 2008) - Based on Rice and MIT findings, the Court of Arbitration for Sports in Lausanne, Switzerland, has ruled that Pistorius is eligible to participate in International Association of Athletics Federations sanctioned competitions. If he qualifies for the 2008 Beijing games, Pistorius would be the first disabled athlete ever to run against able-bodied athletes in an Olympic event.
A world-renowned team of experts in biomechanics and physiology from six universities, led by Professor Hugh Herr of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab, refute scientific claims that the prostheses worn by Oscar Pistorius, a 21-year-old South African bilateral amputee track athlete, provide him with an unfair advantage in the 400-meter race. Their conclusions were based on data collected at the Rice University Locomotion Laboratory, under the direction of Professor Peter Weyand. Pistorius hopes to run in the 400-meter race at the Beijing Olympics this summer.
Based on the team's findings, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne, Switzerland, has ruled that Pistorius is eligible to participate in International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) sanctioned competitions. If he qualifies for the 2008 Beijing games, Pistorius would be the first disabled athlete ever to run against able-bodied athletes in an Olympic event.
The team's findings were presented to the CAS April 29-30 by Herr and Professor Rodger Kram of the University of Colorado at Boulder, and provided the foundation for Pistorius' appeal to overturn the IAAF decision that previously banned him from running against able-bodied athletes in races that are governed by IAAF rules. The team's findings were presented at the CAS, where Pistorius was represented by the international law firm of Dewey & LeBoeuf on a pro-bono basis.
In addition to Herr, Weyand and Kram, the panel of experts included Professor Matthew Bundle from the University of Wyoming, an expert in the energetics and mechanics of sprinting performance; Craig McGowan, from the University of Texas at Austin, a leading authority on muscle, tendon and joint mechanics;
Alena Grabowski, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, an expert in human locomotor energetics and biomechanics; and Jean-Benoît Morin from the University of Saint-Etienne, an expert in the mechanics of human running performance.
None received compensation for their research or participation in the hearing. The authors plan to submit the study to a peer-reviewed journal now that the legal case has been settled.
The scientific team was asked to evaluate the IAAF's initial claim that the Cheetah Flex-Foot prostheses (J-shaped, high-performance prostheses used for running) worn by Pistorius give him an advantage over able-bodied runners. The team concluded that the scientific evidence put forth by the IAAF investigation to ban Pistorius was fundamentally flawed. "While an athlete's performance in sprints of very short duration is determined almost entirely by mechanical factors, in races of longer duration, such as the 400m, performance depends on both mechanical and metabolic factors," said Herr, a bilateral amputee who heads the MIT Media Lab's Biomechatronics research group.
Based on this performance link, the scientists refuted the IAAF findings on two major points: the speed-duration relationship and rates of metabolic energy expenditure.
Specifically, the scientists concluded that:
* Pistorius' ability to maintain speed over the course of longer sprints--his speed-duration relationship--is essentially identical to that of able-bodied runners, indicating that he fatigues in the same manner as able-bodied sprinters.
* Pistorius' rates of metabolic energy expenditure do not differ from elite non-amputee runners. In particular, he has nearly the same running economy, or rate of oxygen consumption at submaximal speeds, and a similar maximal rate of oxygen consumption as elite non-amputee runners.
"Based on the data collected at Rice, the blades do not confer an enhanced ability to hold speed over a 400m race," Weyand said. "Nor does our research support the IAAF's claims of how the blades provide some sort of mechanical advantage for sprinting."
"The study commissioned by the IAAF claimed that Pistorius has a 25 percent energetic advantage at 400m race speeds. That claim is specious because anaerobic energy supply cannot be quantified," Kram said.
In summary, the team of experts unanimously concluded that the IAAF allegations were not scientifically valid.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/05/080516103833.htm

English Lesson - disappointing...

There's been a little bit of discussion on how to deal with violence surrounding football matches in Italy: both the government and the sports officers have been been more than criticized both internally and in UK, mainly for being too soft and ultimately unable to implement a model that is claimed to be working in UK. In a nutshell Italy hasn't learned the English Lesson yet. I'm not so sure, though, that this model is as effective as it is perceived: if nothing happens within the stadia, the violence could pretty much exacerbate just in their surroundings, as it actually did last night in Manchester. I'm under the impression that the sole difference is that the "show" can go on, no matter what happens less than a mile away behind the scenes... I think this has something to deal with media perception, and does not really solve the problem.

Just a 2% chance...

It won't happen, but if it did... ;)
This is in Italian, and it's definitely what I've thought of on Sunday.

Sette giorni.
Lunedì, oggi, due giri del raccordo anulare, palinsesto delle radio alla mano per sentire tutte le trasmissioni possibili, sorrisi soli in macchina al semaforo, cantate inni della Roma se lo dice un conduttore qualunque, suonate di clacson in mezzo al deserto. Domenica è ancora così lontana e così vicina. La sera appuntamento su Teleroma56 per "Lazialità in tv", trovare teneri i gol di Rocchi e Pandev e pensare che per loro Genova non è niente. Ma poi ascetismo, solitudine, soliloqui, domande escatologiche tipo: "Totti recupererà per domenica?". Oppure altre minori, tipo: che sta succedendo nel resto del mondo?
A mezzanotte sai che è Martedì: un giorno in meno, un pensiero in più. Quel pensiero stupendo. Comprati tutti i quotidiani. Sulla Gazzetta, Zenga: "Inter, te lo faccio vincere io". Sul Corsport, Cuper: "Inter, te lo faccio perdere io". Su Tuttosport scambio De Rossi e soldi per Legrottaglie. Su Liberola notizia che gli interisti in ritiro sono a tavola in 13; in settimana sarà svelato anche il codice da Vinci: il 4-2-3-1 di Luciano Spalletti. Sui diarietti delle elementari: "Lotta con il cuore vinci il tricolore".
Il grande Mercoledì è arrivato: sarà “un giorno lungo senza parole, sarà un giorno incerto di nuvole e sole”. Arriverà soltanto una risposta, la notizia che Totti sarà a Catania con la squadra. Ma in campo.
Giovedì gnocchi, un omaggio alla Barilla. Obrigado Parma? Quel jingle che faceva do-re-mi-fasol-la-sol... e il ragazzino con la sciarpetta della Roma che entra allo stadio e vede quella cosa. Riscoprire di essere ancora tu. Tornare all’improvviso buoni, fioretti a iosa: dire “ti voglio bene” a chi non l’avete mai detto, ma avreste voluto dirlo; fate gli auguri di compleanno che vi vergognate di fare perché quella persona è veramente speciale, scrivete lettere d’amore, sentite Il testamento di Tito di De Andrè ché porta gli atei in Paradiso prima di una visita alla Mecca per Kharja (cantava una volta il punk: "Allah è grande e Houssine è il suo profeta").
Venerdì cena con gli amici veri, cioè quelli che vedi sempre o quelli che vedi per certe occasioni per sempre: queste. Ricordi di trasferte passate, visione rigorosamente in vhs di Roma-Dundee. Un sospiro di sollievo quando Milne sbaglia sullo 0-0. Pruzzo-Pruzzo-Di Bartolomei. Agostino.
Sabato a casa da solo. Al massimo un giro in macchina, sempre sul raccordo anulare, solo per vedere quant’è bella Roma. Rispolverare vecchi album delle figurine con quelli della Lazio scarabocchiati o appiccicati all’ingiù; il primo abbonamento, l’ultimo biglietto, se ce la fate la visione di Febbre a 90, un bacio all’amore, a letto con la sciarpa addosso anche se è estate, giù in cantina o dietro l’armadio della camera da letto a riprendere la bandiera cucita dalla nonna nel 1983, o da mamma o papà e pensare a chi non c’è più ed è stato lì con te. Un pensiero a chi è stato romanista, che ha sentito questa passione, che ha vissuto questa settimana senza mai sapere cosa l’aspettasse la domenica.
Domenica, dimmi cos’è.

Careful with that wii, Eugene...

I am a definite wii fan, I'm under the impression that it is going to boost physical activity among all ages, and i think this is going to be much more useful than MDs recommendations on active growing, active aging, and calories signs on the menus. Still, we just need to halt every now and then...

168 years, so close

De Toqueville, 1840

There is, indeed, a most dangerous passage in the history of a democratic people. When the taste for physical gratifications among them has grown more rapidly than their education and their experience of free institutions, the time will come when men are carried away and lose all self-restraint at the sight of the new possessions they are about to obtain. In their intense and exclusive anxiety to make a fortune they lose sight of the close connection that exists between the private fortune of each and the prosperity of all. It is not necessary to do violence to such a people in order to strip them of the rights they enjoy; they themselves willingly loosen their hold. The discharge of political duties appears to them to be a troublesome impediment which diverts them from their occupations and business. If they are required to elect representatives, to support the government by personal service, to meet on public business, they think they have no time, they cannot waste their precious hours in useless engagements; such idle amusements are unsuited to serious men who are engaged with the more important interests of life. These people think they are following the principle of self-interest, but the idea they entertain of that principle is a very crude one; and the better to look after what they call their own business, they neglect their chief business, which is to remain their own masters.

Communion: take 1, with wife # 3...

I just can't be silent over this.
It looks like Benedict let the three-married pro-chooser take communion. I don't really care about Rudy and his views on this, after all it's his life, but I am really upset for the kiss up - kick down behaviour of my pope. My dear Benedict, weren't you reported as a pretty upright guy? What's the story with this, don't know if it's really in line with e.g. this one...

Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his disciples,saying, "The scribes and the Pharisees have taken their seat on the chair of Moses. Therefore, do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you, but do not follow their example. For they preach but they do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens (hard to carry) and lay them on people's shoulders, but they will not lift a finger to move them. All their works are performed to be seen. They widen their phylacteries and lengthen their tassels.They love places of honor at banquets, seats of honor in synagogues, greetings in marketplaces, and the salutation 'Rabbi.'
... Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You lock the kingdom of heaven before human beings. You do not enter yourselves, nor do you allow entrance to those trying to enter. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You traverse sea and land to make one convert, and when that happens you make him a child of Gehenna twice as much as yourselves. Woe to you, blind guides, who say, 'If one swears by the temple, it means nothing, but if one swears by the gold of the temple, one is obligated.'

Political compass: the italian one...

This looks a little more biased, ne ways u can give it a go...

It's one (and) the other: #1

Robert Francis Kennedy, 1968

The gross national product includes air pollution and advertising for cigarettes and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and jails for the people who break them. GNP includes the destruction of the redwoods and the death of Lake Superior. It grows with the production of napalm, and missiles and nuclear warheads... it does not allow for the health of our families, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It is indifferent to the decency of our factories and the safety of our streets alike. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, or the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile.

Luca Carboni, 1987

oh no i soldi lo so che non danno la felicita', immagina pero', come puo' stare chi non li ha...

Adelantamiento prohibido

It looks like The Guardian has got a crush on Spain these last weeks, saying that Spain is taking over Italy, and that Rome is being caught up with because of its conservatism.



I really disagree with that, I like the auditorium in Rome much better than the palau de les arts in Valencia, and after all, the Bernabeu in Madrid looked a little oldish with those youngster italian furias (amarillas y) rojas last Tuesday.

Largo factotum...

History repeating...

February 6, 2001 - February 6, 2008.
Nothing new in Italy, except role swapping between Gnutella and Walter... ;)

Italy...

(Un)Visitability?

It looks like Rome is experiencing some problems with visits of big religious shots these days...
The would-be historic visit of the imam of Rome's mosque, Ala Eldin Mohammed Ismail al-Ghobashy, to the Rome synagogue has been cancelled (well, I'm actually hoping "postponed"), after the Dean of the al-Azhar University in Cairo has told him not to get into that place.
I'm under the impression that the faculties are giving clerics a hard time, no matter where they come from: but weren't they supposed to focus on science?

One to go...

Tom was just OK this time, so he needed to ask Laurence for a big favpur...
And it definitely worked...
 

Sapienza/Knowledge

It turned out that the pope has decided not to give the speech at the Sapienza University in Rome, after the protests a bunch of professors (namely, 63 out of approx. thirty-five hundreds) angry at one of his speeches in the nineties, when he apparently said that the roman catholic church at Galileo's age was more rational than Galileo himself, set a fire within the students community.
I will leave my thoughts on the so-called "bad teachers"/"cattivi maestri" apart. At the same time, I am gonna attach a new testament abstract, i think it would fit to the 63...



From the Letter of James

Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you realize that we will be judged more strictly, for we all fall short in many respects. If anyone does not fall short in speech, he is a perfect man, able to bridle his whole body also. If we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we also guide their whole bodies. It is the same with ships: even though they are so large and driven by fierce winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot's inclination wishes. In the same way the tongue is a small member and yet has great pretensions. Consider how small a fire can set a huge forest ablaze. The tongue is also a fire. … With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. … And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace for those who cultivate peace.

On the issues...

If you are going to participate to the primaries in US, this may be useful, and if you want to see what would be your pick based on these issues, just click here.

Political compass

..i didn't know that political leanings can be represented on to a 2-dimension graph. This is what Political compass does, based on a number of simple questions. Well, I tried, and it turned out that I'm pretty far from the positions of most of the possible candidates for US elections. And I also found it interesting that politicians are not much sparse, but tend to gather on a diagonal line: do we want to have a look at the first eigenvector for this?
Anyway, if you want to give it a go, just click on the image...

Tear the curtain down...

It's actually not the end, but quite an event...
Schengen zone now adds some 9 countries from the eastern Europe. This wounded and frail grampa has still something to say to the world... ;)
Read more here...

Lupercale

I've always been one of the angry romans yielling at the absence of a decent subway, and putting the blame on the bureaucrap and stuff like that.




But then, when it happens that if you start digging, you may find this, well, ehhrrr, next time I'll count to ten, and I'll just keep walking.

¿Por qué no te callas?

Who's the unrespectful one?

Nils Liedholm (1922-2007)

I will never forget this very yellow and red anorak being pulled everywhere by the fans, my first scudetto, it was May 8, 1983.

Adding banners, changing colors...

Champions, again!

Nice close, Jon...

Rome is blushing...

... and, to be honest, the effect is not that bad...
I definitely like this neo-futurist action, moreover since marbles can't be put in danger by aniline...
Not sure if there's another FTM out there in 2007, but anyway, it was a nice try...

Dress in red!

Today, Friday, September 28, there's one reason more to wear red stuff. Just read here.

White Light

Starsailor – White Light

There's a white light that carries me home
Helps me focus when I am alone
Keeps on teaching me how to be loved
And to love
And to love

Onwards to forever
Our minds belong together

She's the good light that carries me on
Helps me focus on where I've gone wrong
Now you've reached me
Its time to forgive and forget
And forget

Onwards to forever
Our minds belong together
Onwards to forever
Our minds belong together
...
Onwards to forever
Our minds belong together
Onwards to forever
Our minds belong together
...
Won't you help my soul to grow?
To heal, its all that I know

Diaframma

Va figlio, va...
Hai scalato montagne
di roccia dura fino al mare
e moltitudini di guai,
l'hai fatto per noia
e a te bastava vivere,
va figlio, va...
La mia mano lo sai
era pronta per sorreggerti ovunque
e per seguirti
se solo tu l'avessi voluto
ma tutto questo adesso
conta poco piu' di niente,
va figlio, va...

Va figlia, va,
inconfutabile prova dell'esistenza di dio
per dormire hai scelto
stazioni e squats
e calore di persone lontane
che mai ho conosciuto
e mai conoscero'.
La tua stanza nell'ombra
vive i ricordi piu' dolci
di cartoline colorate
che penso tanto non leggerai,
ma tutto questo adesso
conta poco piu' di niente
va figlia, va...

Questa sera in veranda
insieme con vostra madre
sto a pensare che in fondo
non mi e' riuscito mai
nel mio orgoglio a spianare
una strada che portasse dritto
portasse a voi.
Nel mio orgoglio feroce
una strada di luce
che sapesse dove il cuore conduce
per confonderlo con il mio,
ma stasera basta solo una cosa
che sappiate che piu' forte vi amo
e vi amero'.
Ma stasera basta solo una cosa
che sappiate che piu' forte vi amo
e vi amero'.

Coral beach peacemonger...

Winning a Nobel Prize?
Just not enough, if employees of a 5-star hotel are able to
mistake you for a street vendor...


;

The ghosts are coming...

It's been a while since i last posted on this. And this one's just to keep in mind it's a long way to late september :-S...

Checciai da fa' cco' ccinzia?!

dedicated to all of us 'seccos'...

...back to the start...

Come up to meet you, tell you I'm sorry,
You don't know how lovely you are,
I had to find you, tell you I need ya,
And tell you I set you apart,
Tell me your secrets, and ask me your questions,
Oh lets go back to the start,
Running in circles, coming in tails,
Heads on a science apart,

Nobody said it was easy,
It's such a shame for us to part,
Nobody said it was easy,
No one ever said it would be this hard,
Oh take me back to the start

I was just guessing at numbers and figures,
Pulling the puzzles apart,
Questions of science, science and progress,
Do not speak as loud as my heart,
And tell me you love me, come back and haunt me,
Oh and I rush to the start,
Running in circles, chasing tails,
Coming back as we are

Nobody said it was easy,
Oh it's such a shame for us to part,
Nobody said it was easy,
No one ever said it would be so hard,
I'm going back to the start

CIT-GO!!

I guess you have a point when you say this is not the sexiest sign for a city, and Boston would deserve much more than that. But signs come pretty unexpected, and who could have imagined that a stylized tetrahedron coming from a venezuelan oil company would have become the compass of the most elitist US city...
Is that all? Nope, since after the apocalyptic speech Venezuela's President recently made at UN, there's someone that wants it to go, and to be replaced by the american flag.

But in this case, what will we be going to say? Let's meet under the US flag near Fenway? not that specific... ;) Just keep the citgo sign, it's awfully needed for those few hundred thousand aliens in Boston...

Globalization

this is just hilarious...
tks Shyamal!

Sacks and Packs...

Well, i don't like Hutch Owen, but these are funny, and not that different if published in other countries...

Getting hot...

Well, there's something going on on this: the governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, has just signed into law a global-warming initiative that imposes US first cap on greenhouse-gas emissions; Vladimir Putin named the new Shell energy project in Sakhalin peninsula "a barbaric activity". If also these two "oldish green party activists" are moving, don't think we should be happy, maybe it's better to be concerned...

Diablos...

...to listen to the 'lecture' click on the logo, the session is open for discussion.

: -/ A dash and a slash...

...and the land is ours, Morrissey might say in these days of pc addiction. Oh, but don't mention love No - no, don't mention love!

David and Goliath...

...but his name's is Stephon (or Starbury, if you will), he plays for NY knicks. He's selling his own shoes, @ 15 dollars. That's no joke, he's presented his own shoe line, na majors, at a ridiculous price (LeBron's ones are @ not less than 300$, Jordan Carmelo @ around 120$), saying he will wear them the whole season (....aaahhh, that's the reason why they're so cheap... ;) ), and he's supposedly not being paid for that.


good catch, na?

Three Imaginary Boys

ok, sorry for the privacy stuff...

Short memory..

In italy the Centre-left coalition won the elections in April, and the new PM, Romano Prodi, has appointed the former leader of the once-called Italian Communist Party, Massimo D'Alema, Secretary of State. Less than 4 months have passed since he sat on that chair, and he's now facing with a word that would remind him of what happened when he was PM in italy, in 1999: the war.
In 1999, he received lots of criticisms for his acting on Kosovo, mainly because, by making Italy enter in war against former Yugoslavia, he would have not respected the italian constitution letter, namely in the article that cites "Italy repudiates war as an instrument offending the liberty of the peoples and as a means for settling international disputes", since he was going to enter a war without UN consensus.
Now, putting apart the stuff regarding the ethical considerations, there's something unclear to me on the amount of criticisms he suffered (and that he's most likely going to suffer again, with Italian troops in Lebanon): the vast majority of these criticisms came (and i'll bet they will come) from people who, not more than 30 years ago, were in groups theorizing violence/war as a necessary mean to solve class conflicts:

Nessuno o tutti, o tutto o niente, e solo insieme che dobbiamo lottare, i fucili o le catene: questa è la scelta che ci resta da fare. Compagni, avanti per il Partito, contro lo Stato lotta armata sarà (anthem of Potere Operaio)

E’ necessario prepararsi e preparare il movimento a uno scontro generalizzato, con un programma politico che ha come avversario lo stato e che ha come strumento l’esercizio della violenza rivoluzionaria, di massa e di avanguardia (document of the Lotta Continua group).

Paolo Cento, Marco Rizzo, Marco Boato, Francesco Pardi, don't you guys feel like ex-hardsmokers blaming a smoker for his conduct?

{T,C}ow Bells

Imagine the most famous mountain place, and imagine several tourists (let's say, two millions a year) infesting the peaceful lands where some thousands of cows are used to graze. I've always thought that if there's a 'victim' in the relation, those should be the cows. No way!! A hotel manager has requested a shepherd to remove the cow bells 'cause they make tourists run away...
I'm now waiting for divers asking fishers to remove sea curls or clams, or hunters removing trees (otherwise it's difficult to hit birds..). But is that a farsighted way?

Elastic Loaf...

The current Iranian PM has recently banned foreign names commonly used in farsi language. From now on, once we'll have to organize to go eat some "elastic loevs", we'd better have a "Short talk" on the messenger, and if it will be difficult to reach the center by car, we'd better use the "rotary wings". It reminds me of the italians in the late 30's playing "ponte" instead of bridge...
Here the press report...

Jamaica Plain

15, Perkins sq, Apt #3, Jamaica Plain MA 02130. And this one's the humble place where I live. A potpourri of different people. I mean, not that bad...

Rain in July...

Someone's told me I'm a little bit lazy on this. I oughta have the time to write more on Boston and whatsoever, in the meantime, please see this video from a south-american (!?!) france fan in the finals at the city hall.
how sweet is it...

Campioni del mondo!!

Questa e' in italiano!
Che spettacolo, c'e' poco da dire...
Un abbraccio a tutti, qui come si e' festeggiato anche a North End...