Rare snowfall in Rome: Feb 4, 2012
Man walking his dog in the snow
We don’t often get snow in our neck of the woods here near Rome, and when we do it’s usually no more than a three-minute wonder. But recent weather forecasts predicting arrival of the beautiful white stuff were raising my hopes.
So yesterday, I loitered near our front windows watching the steady fall of the rain, hoping for the magical transformation into winter wonderland. Finally ’round midnight, my vigil was rewarded. I would say at least five inches fell — and it’s still here!
Boat with orange stripes and its reflection at Lago Albano
I’ve often wanted to take a photo like this. With the perfect light we had here yesterday, my wish came true.
Links you may have missed (Dec 23, 2011)
Fun stuff and good news
Il giro in bici più pericoloso del mondo (la Repubblica) – video — I wouldn’t even be brave enough to walk this.
Solar-powered boat sails around the world (Aljazeera) – video
How to draw… dragons (Guardian) – absolutely brilliant! (click on thumbnail below to see photo series)
Europe
Germany in Europe: Christmas Presents from Merkozy (Social Europe Journal)
Can Italy survive the Financial Storm? (Social Europe Journal)
Egypt
Alaa al-Aswany: ‘Overthrowing Mubarak was too good to be true’ (Independent)
Underneath (Rantings of a Sandmonkey) – very discouraged local blogger. (Saw this link on Antony Loewenstein’s blog)
Planet earth
Major victory as Russia bans trade in harp seal skins (International Fund for Animal Welfare)
Odds and Ends
The Meme that Refuses to Die: Government Debt Must Be Paid Back (Angry Bear) (Saw link on Naked Capitalism)
Some Facts About Carrier IQ (Electronic Frontier Foundation) – lots of info here
And just because she’s so beautiful – my dog Amica (photo by Tarcisio Arzuffi)
Romano Prodi calls out Germany
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).
Links you may have missed (Nov 26, 2011)
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)
Links you may have missed (Nov 20, 2011)
Italy’s ‘lost generation’ (Aljazeera) – video
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
Links you may have missed (Nov 14, 2011)
From the Failure of Europe to Possible Growth in the Real Economy (Social Europe Journal) – an Italian view of the state of things.
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)
Stopping by Rome’s MAXXI on a September afternoon
Popped into Rome this afternoon to have our first look at the MAXXI museum which opened only last year. Full name: MAXXI – National Museum of the 21st Century Arts.
As the name reveals, the MAXXI’s official mission is to celebrate modern art and architecture (see website here). The museum was designed by renowned architect Zaha Hadid.
I liked the reflection of the blue sky, white clouds and nearby buildings in the museum’s big window high above, so I snapped a few photos, as you see.
The Guardian has a slide show here, if you want to see more.
Tax rate for Italians one of world’s highest
One of the key events on which the United States is founded is the historical act of citizens refusing to pay their taxes – celebrated by patriots as the Boston Tea Party. So it puzzles me a bit when I hear some of the descendants of these same brave revolutionaries routinely jeer at Italy as a place where people don’t pay their taxes.
One, the blanket condemnation isn’t true. Many Italians do pay their taxes. But for those who don’t, a chart published in the Globe and Mail last Friday offers some justification for the tax-dodging. It shows Italians being taxed at the third highest rate in the developed world (“Tax revenue as a percentage of GDP in the developed world” July 29, 2011).
Tax rates in the US, in contrast, are among the lowest, according to the chart, with the country ranking third from the bottom.
See chart here. (Saw link to this article on Informed Comment here).
A little help holding up the leaning tower of Pisa
Creating special effects with their snapshots is especially popular when tourists visit Pisa and its famous leaning tower. On a trip there last May, photographer Tarcisio Arzuffi also found the temptation irresistible. With a little help from his friend Andrew, he framed a fun optical illusion.
Explaining how and why he created the photo, Tarcisio wrote:
Last May I spent a couple of days in Savona (Liguria) for a meeting. The weather was okay but a little cloudy and cold. I was hoping for better weather on the long six-hour trip back home to Rome. When I left with my friends Andrew and Walter it was just a gorgeous day.
We decided to take the coastal highway. Along the way, after passing the beautiful white marble caves of Massa Carrara, we saw the exit sign to Pisa, and since no one of us had ever seen the famous leaning tower we decided to take a detour.
The cathedral with the leaning tower is really worth seeing. We walked the whole “Campo dei miracoli,” the square around the cathedral, and then… I saw the photo: the light was great (6 p.m. I think the light is at its best, right where you want it). I only had to work a little on the composition with the help of Andrew so that his hands are in the right place and his feet also, so that it looks like he is really pushing the tower. I also found the right balance between the height of the tower and that of Andrew, and then the right zoom.
We rewarded ourselves with some awesome cones of gelato artigianale, the famous Italian ice cream, almost as famous as the leaning tower!
I hope this advice can be useful for those who will be coming to Italy and are planning a visit to the Tuscany region.
