Brilliant, brave, funny and fiercely committed. In a recent talk, Naomi Klein analyzes why we as a society are addicted to risk, and why this is creating so much destruction all around us.

Click on screenshot above to see video. Link here also.

Some joys

Wine Tasting May Be An Art, But There Is Science In The Swirl (Worldcrunch)

 Il giro del mondo in 30 colazioni (dissapore) – photo series - breakfast anyone?

Indottrinamento al cioccolato: esegue Gianluca Franzoni di Domori (dissapore)

Some things political, economic…

Is Germany’s future still European? (Eurozine)

The curious case of German leadership (Centre For European Reform)

Jean Pisani-Ferry video interview on eurobonds (Bruegel TV)

Jacques Delors interview: Euro would still be strong if it had been built to my plan (The Telegraph) – interview with architect of the eurozone

In Translation: Ahmed al-Sawy on the elections – “This isn’t the final bout” (The Arabist)

Some of the thinkers…

Umberto Eco: ‘People are tired of simple things. They want to be challenged’ (Guardian)

‘We’re blind to our blindness. We have very little idea of how little we know. We’re not designed to’ (Independent) – Nobel Prize winner for Economics analyzes how we make decisions — I’m going to buy his book.

What does seven billion look like? (Fathom) -  – graphic illustration (saw this on fastcodesign.com)

Good to know

Attempted Malvertising on KrebsOnSecurity.com (KrebsOnSecurity)

One of the heroes

A Video Message from Carlo Petrini (Slow Food) – Italian w/English subtitles – click on screenshot below to see video

It is a brilliant stroke by Romano Prodi in an interview yesterday with Spiegel Online International when he parries a challenge from the interviewer by asking bluntly “Is Germany better off with the euro or without it?”

The interviewer has just referred to German PM Angela Merkel’s stated opposition to eurobonds, and to Germans’ fear that it is primarily Germany that will carry the financial burden for the bonds. Excerpt:

SPIEGEL: …By now, Chancellor Angela Merkel appears to be completely isolated, with all partners exerting huge pressure on her. Will that be effective?

Prodi: That is the way politics works. But let’s be rational. Is Germany better off with the euro or without it?

SPIEGEL: With the euro.

In a later section of the interview, the subject of a “two-speed” Europe comes up. Here also, Prodi offers an interesting perspective. And he goes on to talk about a major criticism that he says he hears increasingly voiced about Europe’s power globally.

You can read the full Q&A here, which also includes some discussion of the current and past state of things in Italy.

I do wish Prodi hadn’t retired from Italian politics (and I’m not the only one).

Some joys of life

Is my dog barking? (The Independent)

Born To Smile: New Evidence That Laughing And Smiling Begin In The Womb (Worldcrunch) - photo above

Some of the hard stuff

At Durban, the big emitters will no doubt fail us again on climate change (Guardian)

Why Ms Merkel will blink (Social Europe Journal)

Three examples of disaster capitalism in action (Antony Loewenstein blog)

We Speak on PBS Newshour About Why No Bank Executives Have Gone to Jail (Naked Capitalism) – Yves Smith’s Naked Capitalism blog is one of the most informative there is — she speaks at 4:20 and 10:45 on the video.

Some of the heroes

Van Jones and Democratic Party Operatives: You Do Not Represent the Occupy Movement (october2011.org)

The shocking truth about the crackdown on Occupy (Guardian)

Some news of Italy

Italy’s women look to more equal future after fall of Berlusconi (Guardian)

While Rome was burning: Berlusconi and the politics of Italy’s patronage (openDemocracy)

Paghiamo le picconate tedesche (Epistemes.org) – Italian only

Germany’s Central Bank against the World (Spiegel Online International)

Journalists and the European Project (Huffington Post)

“We teach life, sir” – Palestinian Rafeef Ziadah (Antony Loewenstein blog) – video

Paramilitary Policing From Seattle to Occupy Wall Street (The Nation) – call for police reform from former Seattle Chief of Police

Neutrinos still faster than light in latest version of experiment (Guardian)

From Hemingway to Twitterature: The Short and Shorter of It (Journal of Electronic Publishing, JEP) – highly recommend the section on Twitterature.

Noel Fielding: The Scribblings of a Madcap Shambleton (Guardian) – audio slide show, click on screenshot below

Monti seeks to build new Italian government (Aljazeera) – short news video

The Eurozone Crisis and the Silence of Social Democracy (Social Europe Journal) – excerpt below:

Throughout the 20th century social democrats across Europe had won concessions at national level for workers and citizens. It was here that they forced compromises on business and secured social gains on pensions, wages, health and welfare provisions. It was a settlement that mainstream Christian Democracy accepted after World War Two.  Globalisation has broken that hinge economically, while Thatcherism and neo-liberalism more generally have led the political assault. Currently, across Europe, they have turned a crisis caused by reckless financial globalisation into a crisis of government revenues and demanded a policy of austerity. The European Left has stood open-mouthed and paralysed in response.

“Così ho regalato il web al mondo” (la Repubblica) – interview published today with Tim Berners-Lee in Rome (Italian only)

Wired releases images via Creative Commons, but reopens a debate on what “noncommercial” means (Nieman Journalism Lab)

News24: Sydney papers work round the clock (editorsweblog.org) – a newspaper decides to embrace the pace of the web

Stefanie Posavec On Her Handmade Charts Of Famous Novels (Fast Company’s CoDesign) – data visualisation by hand!?

Dogs, scientists, men: Who needs the leash? (ohmidog!)

La ricetta perfetta: Carbonara (dissapore) – buon appetito! – click on screenshot below for recipe (Italian only)

Surely I’m not the only one to take notice that the bulk of the doomsday talk these days about the imminent fall of the euro is coming either from outside Europe or from eurosceptics.

An underlying assumption of this dire talk, perhaps, may be the idea that eurozone citizens are so discontented that they are demanding return to national currencies. But where is there evidence of this?  Even most Greeks, supposedly mad as hell at EU leadership, reportedly want to stay with the euro (see here, for example).

And, although it’s admittedly an anecdotal report, I can say I’ve not heard or seen either a peep or a scribble of any such San Pietro! let’s return to the lira talk here in Italy either. That is, except for the usual disgruntled voices of the northern far right who, more or less, want to exit everything including the southern half of their own country.

And then this just now in the UK Guardian‘s live blog on the eurozone crisis:

1.47pm: Almost four out of five Germans believe the 17-nation single currency will survive, according to poll for ZDF television. Some 78% of people asked said the euro would survive despite its problems while 56% felt chancellor Angela Merkel was doing a good job of managing the crisis. That’s an improvement on a similar poll in October which had her approval rating at 45%.

How much of a role does the European public play in the rise or fall of the euro? I have no idea really, given the murky fog that constitutes most financial reporting, and the politicians’ backroom political jockeying. But if eurozone voters’ support is needed to drive the currency into collapse, seems to me that’s a non-starter.

Bill Black on the Real News Network on His Three Big, Simple Demands (Naked Capitalism) – another link from Yves Smith’s Naked Capitalism, one of the most informative websites about finance and current events.

Ma SuperMario non basta (epistemes.org) – commentary about new ECB chief Mario Draghi (in Italian only).

Laurie Penny: A woman’s opinion is the mini-skirt of the internet (The Independent)

Lindblad Expeditions: Day 12 (Carl Safina blog)

The best of our graphic short story prize (Guardian) – if you like cartoonists, this is a feast.

“United”  (Playing For Change/United Nations Population Fund) – click on screenshot below for music video.

This morning while reading a couple of analyses about the great Greek referendum brouhaha, the shade of John Lennon floated past murmuring “Democracy is what happens while politicians are busy making other plans.”

Might that be the case if the Greeks are allowed to vote on the EU’s latest proposal to rescue/doom them into penury for years to come? Wouldn’t that be nice (shades of the Beach Boys just now floated by). Messy? Maybe yes, but maybe not.

The two informative commentaries mentioned above are “Time to resign Mr Papandreou” by Greek economics professor Yanis Varoufakis (here), and “Papandreou shows no regret as he faces a grilling from Sarkozy and Merkel” by the Guardian‘s Helena Smith (here). They offer differing perspectives on the Greek PM. Varoufakis scorns his government leader’s latest referendum maneuver as political ploy only. Smith, in contrast, casts Papandreou more admirably, as in this quote from an unidentified “adviser”:

He is not afraid to upset others if he firmly believes it is in the interests of his country. And as a committed socialist George really does believe in the value of participatory democracy.

Well, notwithstanding that Varoufakis makes powerful argument to the contrary, we can hope that Smith’s featured adviser may prove to be auspicious. That whether mere political operator or democracy’s champion, Papandreou will by hook or crook give the people a voice. That would be true democratic process, wouldn’t it?

Imagine.

No details, flimsy numbers: Varoufakis (ABC TV – Australia) — Greek economics professor Yanis Varoufakis interviewed about EU’s latest rescue plan for his country and the eurozone — not exactly a rave review. Video — click on screenshot above.

How Germany Became Europe’s Green Leader: A Look at Four Decades of Sustainable Policymaking (The Solutions Journal)

CONVEGNO: “UN’EUROPA. MOLTE LINGUE. NUOVE OPPORTUNITÀ” (Mediapolitika) — saw this thanks to Ivan Turatti — interesting Umberto Eco quote, “The language of Europe is translation.”

Looks like Congress has declared war on the internet (GigaOM)

Celebrate with us on December 10…  TerraMadre Day (Slow Food)

In Honor of Bella – Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee Slideshow (The Elephant Sanctuary) – Bella died this week. Click on screenshot below to see slide show of Bella and her boon companion Tarra.