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Friday, November 20, 2009

Socialism

"Socialism is a great idea until you run out of other people's money"

Saturday, November 14, 2009

What is a journalist?

He is like a cook.
Here are the raw materials: onions, garlic, oil, tomatoes, meat and so on.
My mother was a great cook.
I do not know if she was a good journalist, but I am sure as a gossiper she was the best.
She was gossiper number one in all neighborhood.
She was good in finding the hilarious side of everyone and every situation.
She was not malicious, she was funny.
People didn’t hate her; they liked and laughed about what she said.
She would have been a great columnist in a local newspaper hadn’t she been born when there were no columns and a very few local papers.
This is my point: give two people the same material and you will have very different results.
Writing news is elaborating the raw material finding the interesting in it and when failing to find the interesting in it, being able to present it as if it was actually very interesting.
Saying and omitting, using certain words and other meanings, making invisible parallels and being able to see the human side in all what you are talking about.
Putting a little bit of this spice and less of the other, making a special taste out of plain basic materials.
Writing is an art, and humor is a part of it.
But humor is in the beholder’s eyes.
Either you have it or you don’t.
It is like a Midas touch.
When you can write, then you can transform everything.
Just like when you can paint or you can sing.
The voice makes the song.
The artist makes the color.
The journalist makes the news.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Talking about Venice´s bridges

The Rialto bridge was completed in 1591.
The work took 3 years. It’s a combination of beauty and functionality.
The last bridge built in Venice should have cost two million Euro, but the cost has reached 14 millions.
Seven years to build it, the same time required to build an average pyramid.
With the difference that this bridge doesn´t even look nice.
Construction in Italy is a business. It’s no longer a necessity. A speculation whose beneficiaries are the property groups and the banks.
And regarding architecture (as design very often) the last think they think about is building something useful.
It is no longer architecture, but simply industrial design.
The important is to create a "scenario", what should be inside or what this scenario is created for doesn´t matter.
If people were water or clouds or dwarfs or whatever, certain buildings or certain tools would be perfect.
Straight is not fashionable anymore.
Everything must be twisted or upside dow.
The roof is not a roof because it has to look like a floor.
And may be, why not?
A building pinched in the middle.
Once you tried to save space and use it at its best.
Now they save nothing and use the space at its worst.
It has to look "different" because different is "new" and "trendy".
One example of this is the Olympic Stadium in Peking. Forty thousand tons of pure steel. Six thousand tons would normally be enough to build a stadium. Is this total waste of energy at all worthwhile? Is it really so beautiful?
The buildings are becoming more and more unbalanced and they land up costing four or five times as much.
That is because technology would allow us to make things "perfect".
We use it instead to make "s..ts"

Wednesday, November 04, 2009

Treni Italia

The trains in Mussolini´s time arrived on time and were used to move around.
In our times they arrive when they can and they are used to feed the Mafia.
In Sicily there are still the fascist trains, with nine hours of train ride from Palermo to Ragusa. Italian commuters travel as cattle.
It saves energy to warm the wagons in winter, but in summer the windows to cool down are not enough, also because the speed is what it is.
To make up for that we’ll have the TAV {high speed train} in the Susa Valley for the European corridor and the Messina Bridge. Great works for Great Contractors.
“Italy is a country that is sick and suffering from individualism and ‘I-couldn’t-care-less-ism’. It’s a country where a collective national project is missing”.
The railways are an abandoned collective national project and they symbolize a way of doing, a managerial culture, a way of being that is typical of Italy.
Let´s take as an example the high speed.
The project should have been finished by December 1999 and of course should have costed half of what it did.
Ten years later we are still talking and no end.
But the right locomotions were available since 1995, what was lacking was the right infrastructure.
They were underused for 15 years and now, when we will finally have the right binaries, they will be too old for them...
Without even talking about the environment damages and pollution...
They are not even able to provide clean carriages, or trains that arrive in time...
Well, a real disaster, but without responsibles...

The best money investment is spending it, it never lets you down

An Englishman is a person who does things because they have been done before. An American is a person who does things because they haven't been done before.
That is why when it comes to Golf Americans are always looking for new experiences and new locations.
Have you ever come to know or tried Golf Myrtle Beach?
If you are a real American and you are looking for something new and special this offers exactly what you are looking for.
Arnold Palmer created one of the most exciting and challenging courses in America, which features some of the most dramatic and unique holes in all of golf, such as "The Gambler" or the "Bull's-Eye".
And what about Myrtle Beach Golf Vacations?
What about nightlife and several attractions?
For example : Alligator Adventure, Family Kingdom Amusement Park & Water Park, Alabama Theatre, Medieval Times and many, many more...
If you think you deserve a vacation by yourself or with the family, relaxing and in the meantime exciting you cannot ask for anything better.
You can choose among many Myrtle Beach Golf Packages the one that better suits you an your wallet of course.
And remember: the best money investment is the one you enjoy.
Try Myrtle Beach Golf.

Tuesday, November 03, 2009

Freedom

"All efforts at controlling the mind are subject to this myth of scarcity. Try to control education and smart kids learn to reject you. Try to control the Internet and Chinese people learn just how precious a sip of freedom is, while the rest of us get bored by the firehose.
Freedom is the answer to tyranny because freedom creates abundance, or discovers the abundance that is in fact all around us.
To all those who feel oppressed, no matter their cause, I hope this brings some comfort. In the end, freedom will win out. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, maybe not even in your lifetime, but it will.
Freedom, knowledge, and truth are all plastic, all powerful, and all unlimited.
The universe, whether we're talking about your mind, this planet, or the stars themselves, is far more infinite than you or I can possibly know.
And the only way to get a taste of it is to open your mind, as scientists do, and prepare always to have it changed."

This is definitely very pretty wording.

The unlimited freedom has a taste of license.
Freedom is not in the abundance but in the understanding of scarcity.
Freedom is being able to appreciate your limits and respecting the others'.
Freedom will never win, because men will never change.
We will always have the weak and the strong, and the first will always be oppressed by the second.
History repeats itself and teaches us that there is no perfect life or world because there is no such a thing as a perfect man.
Believing in the victory of freedom is nice and warming the heart, but it is an illusion.

Create a perfect world and it will slowly change in an imperfect one.

Monday, November 02, 2009

Enough is enough

There are times in which one wonders if politic has something to do with leadership or nothing at all, but a lot with grabbing and stealing and saving what they can as much as they can.
After me the flood!
Never like today these words were so actual.
Flood in every sense, including the literary one.
After destroying the earth they managed to destroy people’s life and now even the hopes for a new future.
When will people understand that enough is enough?

Is there a defense against thieves?

Yes, now a day there is a good way to prevent certain thefts, for example protecting your car.
It is not enough to own a garage, thieves always know better.
And it is also not enough to have the newest type of electronic car key, thieves know better...
Ever heard about the "Polish key"?
In Dresden they have recently upgraded the number of policemen just for that reason: the thefts of cars (100 in one day) thanks to a very clever device the Polish thieves invented.
They spy you when you park your car, usually an expensive one of course (but also the cheap are not safe) and with a wireless device register the code of key and alarm system, which they are able to reproduce in a few minutes.
And your car is gone!...
So what to do?
Now there is a very safe and clever way to trace your car (and of course the thieves).
It is called GPS Vehicle Tracking Device , and works this way: The GPS tracking unit uses the Global Positioning System to relay information about the location of the vehicle attached to that GPS vehicle tracking device.
But there are other five benefits and reasons topurchase this device.
You can reduce fuel costs, keep an eye on staff, planning for more efficient routes when driving, discounts on insurance and of course tracking your car when stolen, mileage claims and time sheet reporting.
For a guide to buying vehicle tracking just follow my links, and believe ma, you won’t regret it, there is always a first time, also to loose a car....
 
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