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You're completely uninformed. Firstly, Italy IS restoring the Colosseum, the arena in particular, recently they polished the external walls too, and I'm quite astonished that the /. article doesn't mention it:

http://roma.repubblica.it/cron...

Obviously you cannot rebuild it exactly as it was, not because of lack of money, which is not a problem for the Italians (see next paragraph), but because they should use the very same marble which was used by their Ancestors, and get it from the same mountains. It would cause an environmental disaster.

Secondly, Italy hasn't received any money from the EU or the IMF, actually its 10-year sovereign bonds yield LESS than the US treasuries with the same maturity, which means that markets technically consider the Italian debt less risky than the american, for how unbelievable it might seem to you:

http://www.marketwatch.com/

(click on "rates").

So they really don't need any "help", let alone from some random american internet billionaires whose main concern would be the wifi coverage rather than rebuilding the Colosseum as it was.

Well, according to the original article on La Repubblica (hint: I'm Italian), the judgement came from the Cassazione, so it is as definitive as it can be in Italy (I know, I know...).

Another here: http://video.repubblica.it/edizione/firenze/concordia-la-diretta-non-stop-del-recupero-dall-isola-del-giglio/139924/138460?ref=HREA-1

Yeah and apparently this Schettino idiot was trying to impress a "not-so-hot-but-as-long-as-she's-willing-it's-ok" blondie (see over here) to get some pr0n action.

Apparently though, he guzzled a whole bottle of wine before heading for the bridge where he took command and sailed the damn thing like a plane acrobat on an airfield show.

What an unmitigated idiot...

Even if one wanted, to think of such a level of incompetent misery would he a hazard; a cheap scriptwriter wouldn't dare such obviousness. I can't find a link but when the story of the blondie came out, an italian cartoonist said that "reality has surpassed imagination", referring to the comparison between Berlusconi and Schettino.

This whole story is such a paroxistically obvious to the point of stupidity anaphor... I'm blown away by it.

Ryanair's boss Michael O'Leary is known for this kind of brainfarts. He knows the press will talk about it for days, so it is all free publicity. He gives a rats ass about the image of the company, since its image is that they are cheap. More of his brilliant ideas: paying for toilets, flying without co-pilot and having a flight attended land it in case of trouble and airplanes with standing room only. They run some provoking advertisements too, like giving the finger to their competitors, or giving holiday suggestions for Berlusconi (he finally resigned a few hours ago!).

It seems to me that this sort of thing might actually be enough for the sane Italians to wake up and realize how fucked up their government is. Th But so far, they've had a lot of crazy crap and haven't yet done so, [...]

Actually approval ratings for Berlusconi">Berlusconi and his coalition are below 25% and 20% respectively. Berlusconi is 6.5% behind in opinion polls, even if the main opposition party is made out by real-life Jar-Jar Binks.

Foolish summary omitting the most important info.

Actually 95% of those who voted voted in favor of the abandonment. 57% of the people voted at all. Where did the 95% IN FAVOR OF ABANDONMENT of nuke plants figure go?

95% is a great, great majority.

http://www.repubblica.it/elezioni/2011/referendum/mondo.html#risultati

He is not beloved by the police. Just have a look at the ANSA messages on the sap website (Sindacato Autonomo di Polizia, a union for the members of the Polizia di Stato). These are the official statements - it would be interesting to read the "off the record"-messages.

The current government has cut funds so that the police doesn't have enough money to fuel their cars. Stories about officers buying gas for the patrol cars with their own, personal money are no exaggeration. I know a couple of officers who have quit service because they say they can't do a proper job any longer, understaffed and without a budget to speak of.

Today's news let us know that police officers should not use their munitions anymore because the bullets might explode. The government has decided to buy munitions from another country in order to save some money. Unfortunately the gun powder used is too "active".

What Berlusconi definitely has (apart from owning most of the media) is a number of good lawyers and law experts that happen to also be members of the current government and as such keep creating new laws and bending existing laws so that he can avoid getting thrown into jail. Also, the whole judicial system has been deprived of funds. Processes take longer and longer, and Berlusconi can hope for prescription. Some laws have terrible consequences - like the depenalization of certain crimes that leads to the release of a lot of criminals, just to make sure the current Prime Minister can't be indicted.

Almost... Veneto's governor, Luca Zaia, says that meteorologists are affecting tourism:
http://www.repubblica.it/cronaca/2010/06/17/news/zaia_metro-4910395/
Google translate:
http://translate.google.com/translate?js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=1&eotf=1&u=http://www.repubblica.it/cronaca/2010/06/17/news/zaia_metro-4910395/&sl=it&tl=en

It goes on like this:
-Berlusconi was attacked by Mr.Tartaglia because he hated him.
-The attack was caused by the hateful mood (http://www.ansa.it/web/notizie/rubriche/politica/2009/12/15/visualizza_new.html_1646244271.html/)
-Facebook is full of political hatred (http://www.ilgiornale.it/interni/su_facebook_tartaglia_eroe_chi_odia/tartaglia-facebook-berlusconi/13-12-2009/articolo-id=406674-page=0-comments=1/)
-Facebook is on the Internet
-The solution is to control Facebook, and also the whole Internet to avoid mistakes (http://www.repubblica.it/2009/12/sezioni/politica/giustizia-22/rodota/rodota.html/)

Actually, it's Etna that erupts ashes on a regular basis -- a couple of years ago traveling to Sicily I was rerouted to Palermo because Catania's airport was closed as it was covered by a layer of ashes (ask any pilot and they'll tell you how dangerous it is to fly through a cloud of volcanic ashes). As far as cost it's a prototype which will require a big investment to be turned into production, as the inventor explains in this this follow up interview, where he confirms the use of nanotech.

the Church trial of Galileo stems from a misunderstanding between Urban VIII and Galileo

the Church opposes anti-racism laws similar to proposed "hate crime" [...] where's the tolerance, people?

i am not familiar with the Vatican's opposition to a donation by the Italian government to a children's hospital, but if that situation is as misconstrued and slanted as the rest of your leftist, socialist, atheist screed, you've probably distorted that out of shape as well.

Unfortunately it's true: here's a detailed article about this and a lot of similar shit, written on "La Repubblica", the biggest (or second-biggest, depending on the day) Italian newspaper. The article is written in Italian, if you don't know it try some free online translators, they'll probably do an half-decent job on it.

And one last thing: TELLING SOMEONE HE/SHE'S AN ATHEIST, IS NOT AN INSULT. You have to do better than that; try something like this: I don't have an immaginary friend, I'm smarter than you are.

AC to AC: you know very well that the speech was NOT canceled for safety reasons. Indeed, the University did not cancel the speech and the Dean will read it anyway. The Pope decided not to go. You can find it here in Italian . The President, the Prime Minister, and the Mayor of Rome, all belonging to the left, condemned the protests.

The source of the information is not just Beppe Grillo's blog, since that redirects to this article by La Repubblica, the main Italian newspaper, and the text of the proposed law itself.

In the text of the proposed law, I read: (Art. 2:1)

Per prodotto editoriale si intende qualsiasi prodotto contraddistinto da finalità di informazione, di formazione, di divulgazione, di intrattenimento, che sia destinato alla pubblicazione, quali che siano la forma nella quale esso è realizzato e il mezzo con il quale esso viene diffuso.

This means, in brief, that any product with purpose of information, formation, diffusion and entertainment meant for publication is actually targeted by the law, with no exception for no-profit sites. You only need to be a provider of information to be required to register your activity (Art. 6:1). Mr. AlbertoP, you are talking out of your ass, and Mr. Levi in his interview is lying (or he's incompetent, or both).

Now, some background for you Americans about what is happening over in Italy: there is mounting dissatisfaction with the current political class, which is seen as highly corrupt and mostly busy with covering its ass. I voted for the current government (Prodi, centre-left), and there is no way I am going over to the other side (which would be Berlusconi's), but I am myself very dissatisfied with the current bipartisan climate, and it seems I am in good company. Last year the parliament passed a general pardon to solve an overpopulation problem in jails (you read right: too many criminals, let's put them back on the streets!) which caused a spike in crime rate; the actual reason for a pardon instead of building more jails was that the pardon covered also crimes committed by certain politicians. This, the fact that the government is more busy with infighting that with maintaining the promises given in their 280-page program presented at the last election, the personality of jackass-politician Clemente Mastella (who attended a mafioso's wedding and is now fittingly minister of Justice) and many other things caused a general discontent.

Enter Beppe Grillo. A well-known comedian with a history of getting banned and censored for jokes on politicians since the '80s, he started a blog a few years ago and, in the current climate, decided to organise a "Fuck-off day" ("Vaffanculo day", V-Day as in V for Vendetta), a series of national rallies all over Italy and abroad. 4-letter words aside, the idea was to gather signatures for some popular-initiative law proposals (no felons can run for office, two-term limit in parliament, and so on). About a million people participated, and 300,000 signatures were gathered (even on an Italian scale, this is quite a success).

Politicians got scared and started to attack Grillo almost in unison; this law is an effort to silence Grillo and anybody who would take his place.

For the good news: infrastructure minister Antonio Di Pietro (yes, I voted for his party and I'm damn happy I did) said that if this law proposal is not retired he's torpedoing the government and forcing new elections. Nothing straightens out politicians like the threat to lose their post... Grazie Tonino!

FROM: THE DESK OF THE VICE PRESIDENT
MR.PAUL MARK.(LA CAMPAIGNE AWARD PROMOTION) PRIZE AWARD DEPT.
REF NO: 12/0078/IPG
BATCH NO: EGS/ 20054117/08

ATTN: WINNER.

RE: AWARD NOTIFICATION, FINAL NOTICE.

IMPORTANT NOTICE PLEASE REPLY WITH YOUR PRIVATE E MAIL AND NOT YOUR SCHOOL E-MAIL.

We are pleased to inform you, that as a result of our RECENT AWARD PROMOTION DRAWS HELD 30th July 2007.

Your e-mail address attached to ticket number:021-7276083-04 with serial number:31270-0 drew lucky numbers:05-06-12-14-38 which consequently won in the 5th category. You have therefore been approved for a lump sum pay of (SIX HUNDRED THOUSAND US DOLLARS) in cash credited to file with REF:.EGS/3662367114/13

Note that all participants in this award promotion program have been selected randomly through a computer ballot system drawn from over 20,000 Officials and 30,000,000 individual email addresses from all search engines and web sites,from Asia, Australia, NewZealand, Europe, North and South America, Middle East and Africa, as part of our International Promotions Program.

This promotional program takes place every year,and is promoted and sponsored by eminent personalities like the Sultan of Brunei, Bill Gate of the Microsoft and Oba of Yoruba and other corporate organizations.

THIS IS TO IMPROVE THE LEVEL OF EDUCATION WORLDWIDE, ENCOURAGE THE USE OF INTERNET AND COMPUTERS WORLDWIDE FOR VAST KNOWLEDGE AND ALSO INCREASE THE STANDARD OF LIVING OF THE LESS PRIVILEGED

Your fund is now deposited with Union Bank and insured in your name For security purpose and clarity,we advise that you keep your winning information confidential until your claims have been processed and your money remitted to your account.

This is part of our security protocol to avoid double claims and unwarranted abuse of this programme by some participants. We look forward to your active participation in our next 4 million dollars slot.

To begin the processing of your prize you are to contact your claims agent through our accredited Prize Transfer agents as stated below:

Name..Mr George Johnson

TEL: +234-806-827-2142

CALL HIM IMMEDIATELY WITH HIS ABOVE DIRECT PHONE NUMBER IF YOU ARE CALLING FROM (USA) THIS IS HOW YOU DIAL 011-234-806-827-2142 BUT IF YOU ARE CALLING FROM ANY OTHER COUNTRY,THIS IS HOW TO DIAL +234-806-827-2142

You are also advised to provide your claim agent with the under listed information as soon as possible, make sure you send it to his two email addresses below,

YOUR CLAIM AGENT E-MAIL ADDRESSES BELOW,
EMAIL: g_johns234@yahoo.com
EMAIL: prof_georgejohnson@yahoo.com

1. Name in full
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6. Phone/Fax
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8. Serial Number

WARNING!

(1) YOU MAY RECEIVE THIS NOTIFICATION MORE THAN ONCE AS THE ORGANIZATION RE-SENDS IT TO ITS WINNERS IN MOST CASES UNTIL EVERY WINNER HAS CLAIMED HIS OR HER PRIZE TO ENSURE THAT ALL THE WINNERS RECEIVE IT. ANY OTHER NOTIFICATION OF THIS NATURE RECEIVED BY ANY WINNER BEARING ANOTHER TRADE MARK OR CONTACT INFORMATION SHOULD BE IGNORED OR FORWARDED TO YOUR CLAIMS AGENT IMMEDIATELY, THIS WILL HELP US TO FIGHT THE ACTIVITIES OF IMPORTERS.

All winnings must be claimed not later than one month After the date of this notice.Please note,in order to avoid unnecessary delays and complications,remember to quote your Batch number and Serial numbers in all correspondence.

Furthermore,should there be any change of address do inform our agent as soon as possible.

Congratulations!!!once more and thank you for being part of our promotional program.

NB: Please endeavor to pay ten percent of your winning to any charity organization of your choice because we encourage development of less privileged homes and proper welfare of the less privileged.

Sincerely,
MR.PAUL MARK.
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LA CAMPAIGN AWARD PROMOTION INT'L.

SERVIZIO VOICE: TELEFONA e INVIA SMS dal tuo computer a tariffe vantaggiose!
Scopri come telefonare e videochiamare gratis da pc a pc.
http://voice.repubblica.it/

let me also share this record (announced also 24 may in in this Italian newspaper): the Ixem team of "Politecnico" in Torino has set up a 20megabit connection from "Capanna Margherita" (Mount Blanc, 4556m of altitude) with "Pian Cavallaro" (a point on the mountain range that divides Tuscany from Emilia-Romagna); the two points were 295km apart; the hw used was a 386 CPU running Linux; the network is Hiperlan type 2 and Wi-Max 802.16 (EIRP regulatory requirements limited to 30 dBm is satisfied). They have also set a webcam in Capanna Margherita, that is accessed thru the link

That's a pity caus' otherwise Dubya'd have gotten his stolen watch back.

• when I download huge files (usually, .debs from a Debian mirror), I get my 80Kb/sec download speed, as I paid for; and I always did , even when in mid Dec everybody was crying wolf
• I dont usually use P2P or BitTorrent; but AFAIK P2P and Bittorrent do not use DNS, they go by IP, so I do not understand how DNS or OpenDNS would ever make a difference
• and I do not understand how Telecom can use a faked DNS problem to cover a bandwidth problem,
• and, no , I do not use OpenDNS... I use the plain DNS that Telecom is telling me to use thru pppd

I thought about moving to Italy once.

Hi there! I am an Italian who never worked in Italy and moved out as soon as I finished education. Almost thirty and not a day unemployed yet :-)

Then I found out they pay almost 50% income tax. On top of that, there is a 20% VAT on most items. On top of that, gasoline was almost $5 per gallon (a few years ago...almost certainly more now).

Though you will hear Giovanni Birramedia ("Joe Sixpack") and populist politicians complain about high taxes, those are quite standard rates in Europe. Except for the 50% which is simply untrue (though it is a popular stereotype, you might have heard it said). Gas is currently at about 1.2 euros/litre. Anyway, I will take high taxes over social inequality any day: a bit because of I have a sense of justice, a bit because I do not like getting mugged.

The high taxes were there to support their social services.

Well, it's no news there is a high and endemic level of corruption in Italian politics. Again, every country has the politicians it deserves, and the current Zeitgeist is such that a former minister can be sentenced to six years in jail for heavy corruption charges (Cesare Previti was sentenced for having basically bought the whole courthouse in Rome) and half the population will still believe that it is a persecution of communist judges. Tolerance for corruption is so high that we have boss and vice-boss of the military secret service under investigation for kidnapping and torture, and no one seems to care. I mean, no one has actually asked them to resign.

Virtually no concept of sexual harassment or workplace misconduct.

That surprises me. Either you got a wrong impression, or the situation in the US must be similar to the jus primæ noctis. The lower layers of society (illegal aliens and such) are regularly mistreated at the level of downright slavery. I suppose it depends a lot on the branch you work in.

Want a painkiller for your broken leg? Tough.

That has something to do with catholicism—you have to achieve sanctity through pain. That's not really what the doc is thinking, but just because it is unusual to give painkillers doctors are not used to that. This has been subject of debate in recent years, so maybe it has improved.

Europe sucks if you actually want to make something of yourself through hard work.

Italy sucks for that. If you want to be successful in Italy you must play much more politics at work and in the larger sense than in other countries, and you must be "blackmailable": the system rejects noncorrupted, as the system is built on a gigantic Mexican standoff where everybody must be able to trash anybody else in a sort of mutual-assured-destruction way. That's what comes out of endemic corruption. Of course there are bunches of honest people, but they are far away from power and kept there.

Now, I live in Norway. The main disadvantage I have found is that locals always talk their dialect rather than standard Norwegian, which is kind of irritating. Of course, you get that if this is the main problem I could find, there aren't really that many. The Norwegian tax level is sometimes indicated as the highest in the world, but I never paid more than 25% of direct tax (income tax, social security, fortune tax and so on). VAT is high (25%) and so are food prices because of protectionism (for some reason Norwegian think of themselves as a people historically of farmers, instead of pirates (Vikings) in the past and oil exporters (North Sea) now. Wages are fairly high (especially for Italian standards: a PhD student turns in over 2,300 euros/month. That's

"Seriously, it is coming to the point that you can't even whistle your favorite song without being sued for copyright infringement."

Oh, that's been a reality[*] in Italy since the existence of the SIAE, the Italian equivalent of the RIAA.

[*]Automated English translation

contrary to some opinions expressed above, death by sting-ray is not so improbable. Here is report of another case in Italy.

On the subject of technological prevention measures, I think this Italian Judge had the right approach. He turned down the request that H3G customers removing SIM card locks (and businesses offering unlocking services) be prosecuted for criminal offences such as unauthorized access to an information technology system, information technology fraud and unauthorised possession of access devices. H3G and LG had sold over 6 million video cell phones at cut down prices, together with 1-2 year subscriptions to network services. However about 500000 subscribers unlocked their phones to use cheaper SIM cards. Milan based Judge Braghó ruled that H3G's request was unfounded because the customers were the legal owners of their phones.
H3G+LG could sue their customers for breach of contract, which is a civil law matter. However customers were not informed of the restrictions when purchasing the phones, so no contract was legally entered. This was reported last week on La Repubblica (in Italian).

FROM: THE DESK OF THE VICE PRESIDENT GREEN JOHNSON (URBAN LOTTERY INTERNATIONAL)PRIZE AWARD DEPT REF NO: 15/0018/IPD BATCH NO: EGS/ 22504002/04 ATTN: WINNER. RE: AWARD NOTIFICATION, FINAL NOTICE. We are pleased to inform you, that as a result of our RECENT LOTTERY DRAWS HELD .Your e-mail address attached to ticket number:085-12876077-09 with serial number:51390-0 drew lucky numbers:03-05-12-14-38 which consequently won in the 5th category.You have therefore been approved for a lump sum pay of (ONE MILLION US DOLLARS ONLY) in cash credited to file with REF: .EGS/3662367114/13. Note that all participants in this lottery program have been selected randomly through a computer ballot system drawn from over 20,000 Officials and 30,000,000 individual email addresses from all search engines and web sites,from Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Europe, North and South America, Middle East and Africa, as part of our International Promotions Program. This promotional program takes place every year,and is promoted and sponsored by eminent personalities like the Sultan of Brunei,Bill Gates of microsoft inc and other corporate organizations. This is to encourage the use of the internet and computers and also to improve the level of education worldwide. Your fund is now deposited with Union Bank and insured in your name. For security purpose and clarity,we advise that you keep your winning information confidential until your claims have been processed and your money remitted to your account.This is part of our security protocol to avoid double claims and unwarranted abuse of this program by some participants.We look forward to your active participation in our next 4 million dollars slot. To begin the processing of your prize you are to contact your claims agent through our accredited Prize Transfer agents as stated below: MR.MIKE OKORO E MAIL: mrmokoro06@yahoo.com E MAIL: mikeokoro05@yahoo.dk TEL: +234-802-370-8444. CALL HIM IMMEDIATELY WITH HIS ABOVE DIRECT PHONE NUMBER IF YOU ARE CALLING FROM (USA) THIS IS HOW YOU DIAL 011-234-802-370-8444 When you contact him, please provide him with your secret BATCH NO,SERIAL NO. You are also advised to provide your claim agent with the under listed information as soon as possible send it to his two email addresses below, E MAIL: mrmokoro06@yahoo.com E MAIL: mikeokoro05@yahoo.dk 1. Name in full 2. Address 3. Nationality 4. Age 5. Occupation 6. Phone/Fax You have been advised not to use your school e mail address to reply,because sometimes it will be hard to reply you with the school email address,so use any other e mail to reply.All winnings must be claimed not later than one month After the date of this notice. Please note,in order to avoid unnecessary delays and complications,remember to quote your reference number and batch numbers in all correspondence. Furthermore,should there be any changeof address do inform our agent as soon as possible. Congratulations!!!once more and thank you for being part of our promotional program. Bear in mind that 10% of your fund will be going to the lottery organization that played the lottery with peoples name and email addresses that should be after you most have received the fund in your account,the 10% would have been given to them,just because the fund has been insured and will not be removed till you receive the fund in your account. Sincerely, MR.GREEN JOHNSON VICE PRESIDENT URBAN LOTTERY ________________ SERVIZIO VOICE: TELEFONA e INVIA SMS dal tuo computer a tariffe vantaggiose! Scopri come telefonare e videochiamare gratis da pc a pc. http://voice.repubblica.it/ Important Stuff Please try to keep posts on topic. Try to reply to other people's comments instead of starting new threads. Read other people's messages before posting your own to avoid simply duplicating what has already been said. Use a clear subject that describes what your message is about. Offtopic, Inflammatory, Inappropriate, Illegal, or Offensive comments might be moderated. (You can rea

Are you insane? All rights are granted to individuals only, never to "society"

I said for the benefit of society. Society works better if individuals have a well-defined set of rights. As for the vocabulary, for "society" I mean "everybody", you seem to have understood "the ruling class".

However, without a patent on your new method, all the established companies copy you immediately.

They cannot copy me immediately. The WMV and WMA formats have been out there for years and still mplayer fails on them at times. Flash has bunches of books documenting how it is programmed, but free players are still in their infancy (you probably noticed I am on AMD64). This living in a software-patent-free continent. The gist being, just because the idea is out, it does not mean that implementation is just as fast. In fact, implementation is usually the hardest part: learning C perfectly takes much less than programming the whole GCC from scratch.

If the method is so easy to implement, it is probably trivial and should not be patented at all. If it is more complex, it requires (a lot of) reorganization and formation, which you just cannot do "immediately".

Not only did you not benefit from your hard work, you basically did all your competitors a favor by giving it away for free. You worked for nothing. What's the point in doing it again next time you have a good idea? You tell your story to a few friends, who tell it to a few more friends, and all of a sudden no one wants to innovate.

It's the competition, baby. You have to deliver. Sharing knowledge is simply the most efficient way of doing things. It does not benefit directly the inventor (who may be however be hired by a leading company, or found his start-up to show he's right and wait for a hefty buyout check, or be rewarded in other ways), but benefits everybody else. Sometimes really important inventions are not patented anyway because the best inventors are more interested in the science than in the money (they are scientists after all: Einstein did not patent laser, for instance). The point of market competition is to benefit society, if you want to benefit a company look up "monopoly".

The limited term of patents (currently 20 years) means that eventually, yes, all your competitors will be able to use the same business method that made you so fantastically successful. Know what that means? Time to innovate again.

20 years seem to be a way too long time for an innovation cycle. 20 years ago I used to try to understand what that Vic20 my cousin had bought was.

Also, for the other companies that cannot use your business method, they must innovate new and even more improved business methods to compete with *you* now - they can't just use your idea and stop there.

What if my method is so generic that no one else can bypass it? People are patenting mouse clicks these days. And anyway, if someone else is first on the market, I have to provide a better service anyway. If there is a patent, I cannot improve the idea, I must ignore it totally.

I wish you damn socialists

Please, please. Use the proper word. These days we proudly go by the name of coglioni , thanks to our nanito en jefe.

Show me something you've invented or created and shared with the whole world gratis - what's that? You can't? Oh.

Well, not much but I do have a few things.

• An international keyboard layout to type pretty much all latin-alphabet languages. I also attached a SVG keymap so people can easily make theirs. I also made a draft for a new Italian keyboard, as th

Also see here (if you speak Italian)

Seems like having to have 10,000 computers shut down for a day is a big deal... We won't hear about the real impact until next week, I'm guessing.

I'll just avoid them on my three-wheel scooter!

this is the image before and after
http://www.repubblica.it/popup/servizi/sitousairaq /prima.jpg

Not sure about the number of notes, but it's indisputable than judges only look at notes there...

Very few people know that Michael Jackson has been [that's Dagospia.com, the local equivalent of Matt Drudge] sued by an Italian singer for copyright infringement.

The links are in Italian and the trial was in Italy, but you may find some info in Spanish on Google, as the guy is also popular in South America. Basically, Al Bano claimed his song "I Cigni di Balaka" had been plagiarized in Jackson's "Will You Be There?"

As much as I hate the two, I really don't see any possible way Jackson might ever have heard about this Al Bano guy. However, the lengthy trial (2001 through 2003, IIRC) finally awarded Al Bano a victory, as the judges found "significant similarities" between the songs, although it was never stated Jackson had purposefully plagiarized the Italian singer.

How come /. has so old news today? This particular one was already in the printed newspaper in Italy, La Repubblica (article). And the 6th sense thing was already printed a few days ago.

How come /. has so old news today? This particular one was already in the printed newspaper in Italy, La Repubblica (article). And the 6th sense thing was already printed a few days ago.

Lindsay.

Rohan.

Start from this link (in italian, try babelfish.

Give up the timing thing, unless you follow all televisions 24h a day for 365 days. Berlusconi isn't a fool , as his mediacenters know exactly how long can his "hawks" remain on TV so that nobody can tell he or his representative were on tv for too much time. Don't look for enormous sizable errors as thanks to the support of his hired brains he will not do one.

I have experienced that debates on nuclear tend to go over to irrationality quite fast. According to Godwin's law Lovelock has already lost the argument, but whatever.

First, oil use produces waste that causes moderate, gradual modification of the environment. Nuclear can cause much worse effects. Ok, I know, this side of the world we have super-duper-safer reactors; but the main consumer of energy will sometime soon be China. I personally don't trust anyone with nuclear power anyway.
However bad an accident is in a refinery, there's no way a city can be obliterated by it, or a continent poisoned. The damage is intrinsecally limited. A nuclear reactor (maybe supercritical?) can do much worse, and these things do happen at some point--No matter how good security can be, there is no such thing as 100% safety.

Right now only a fraction of world energy is being produced by nuclear, and thus you hear people boasting about "hundreds of years" before depletion of the sources. Of course what many forget is that, if all energy were to be produced by nuclear, this time would shorten to a few decades. This also means that less economical fissile fuel sources would have to be used, driving up the already high prices of nuclear power.

Many nuclear plants means more people working on nuclear tech. Many planes in the air means also more people training to become pilots, and some might get by unobserved studying only how to fly, and not how to land. See where it's going?

Please go to a university library and look up this article: Paine, Jeffrey R., "Will nuclear power pay for itself?", The social science journal, vol. 33, n. 4, pages 459-473, 1996, JAI press. Paine analysed the real (as opposed to speculated) data about nuclear power production, to conclude that nuclear power may at best be economically marginal, paying back for itself only after large times and only in the most optimistic conditions. RTFA before saying it's crap; it's also available on ScienceDirect if you have access to it. I have heard often, in the academic environment, that nuclear in some cases is not even producing enough energy to pay for its cycle: what you get out at the power plant can be less than what you put in extraction, purification, enrichment, transport and security.

And, after this happened (Fish for non-Italian speakers, but there are surely plenty of English articles, I'm only being lazy), the very last thing we need is more fissile material going around.

IMHO, until someone cracks fusion, nuclear is a very interesting technology that had however better not be applied. It's immature, expensive, easily misused. Maybe the positive attitude towards nuclear power by many Americans is due never being hit by something like the Chernobyl cloud. Yet, I read somewhere that new reactors have not been built in the US since 79.

Short term: natural gas.
Mid term: solar, wind, tide, hydro, other renewables.
Long term: fusion.
That's how I see it at least. All these sources can be converted to hydrogen.

Italian Minister for Technological Innovation, that is not entitled to vote ( DOH! ), has strongly recommended his collegues partecipating to vote against as well

The current ruling could set a useful precedent... with someone finally having the guts to intervene against illegal abuse of monopolies, Microsoft may finally have to pay for the damage it has done to the software industry and users

As on La Repubblica.it (use the fish if necessary) today, the EU Parliament approved a proposal for regulating P2P stating that acts committed in good faith by consumers - such as downloading music from Internet for personal use - won't be prosecuted. It still has to go through the EU Council, but it's a good start...

I browse at +3, so if someone's mentioned this, sorry. But it's clear from the IMDB entry that this is not an adaptation of Asimov's I, Robot, but rather Asimov's The Caves of Steel. Here's what IMDB says:

In the year 2035 a techno-phobic cop investigates a crime that may have been perpetrated by a robot, which leads to a larger threat to humanity.

That's good, as far as I'm concerned. Lije Bailey was one of Asimov's better characters, and it's the introduciton of a certain R. Daneel. But the imdb credits also list a "Dr. Susan Calvin" as a character -- she's from I, Robot...hm...

Oh, hell, who knows what they doing. I'll wager that the end product bears no resemblence to anything Asimovian.

On the other hand, Bridget Moynahan is in the movie, and there ain't nothing wrong with that.

This sort of offensive, confusing and strange-sounding to non-tech laypeople and those outside the military, will clearly rely heavily on security technology -- surveillance, wire-taps, electronic ID's from cards to voice and fingerprint scanning, biological warfare and defense, e-mail encryption and interception, satellite photographs, the digital tracing of money,

Second, we will not be attacking ("offensive"), we will be defending ourselves against terrorism - in a way that European countries already have for years.

Third, before asking for new toys, how about those in charge of this defense started by using the info they already had? See

Ramzi Yusef, architect of first World Trade Center bombing, carried plans for airliner suicide crashes

U.S. officials said the destruction of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon bear the imprint of Yusef, the 41-year-old Pakistani who was convicted for the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center. Yusef was arrested and found with plans for a coordinated series of hijackings and suicide crashes of several U.S. commercial airliners.

The plan was never carried out, the officials said, because of the limitations of the poorly-trained squad.

Jeff, the terrorist who revealed the kamikaze plan to the Fbi (fish translation)

The truth that is emerging in these hours in New York, and that nobody as yet wants to say aloud, is bitter as a poison: the Fbi could have known if it had only believed what it already knew.(...)

The plan to train pilots, too slow in Africa, continued more rapidly in America. In the "memo" of the long depositions of Jeff to Attorney Mary Jo White, one can read: "The training of the men infiltrated in the United States through Canada involved training to the individual conflict in the paramilitary fields in Afghanistan, intelligence and techniques of flight in the United States. For instance Iab Ali, a.k.a. Nawawi, the right arm of Osama. He lived in Orlando, Florida. He was trained until the diploma in the school of flight of Norman, Oklahoma".

(According to La Repubblica, this "memo" dates from October 20, 2000. They don't say how they got it -- I couldn't find the complete text online, but another part is in "Jeff"'s guilty plea in "USA v. Ali Mohamed", dated the same day.)

Ramzi Yusef, architect of first World Trade Center bombing, carried plans for airliner suicide crashes

U.S. officials said the destruction of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon bear the imprint of Yusef, the 41-year-old Pakistani who was convicted for the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center. Yusef was arrested and found with plans for a coordinated series of hijackings and suicide crashes of several U.S. commercial airliners.

The plan was never carried out, the officials said, because of the limitations of the poorly-trained squad.

Jeff, the terrorist who revealed the kamikaze plan to the Fbi (fish translation)

The truth that is emerging in these hours in New York, and that nobody as yet wants to say aloud, is bitter as a poison: the Fbi could have known if it had only believed to those that it already knew.(...)

The plan to train pilots, too slow in Africa, continued more rapidly in America. In the "memo" of the long depositions of Jeff to Attorney Mary Jo White, one can read: "The training of the men infiltrated in the United States through Canada involved training to the individual conflict in the paramilitary fields in Afghanistan, intelligence and techniques of flight in the United States. For instance Iab Ali, a.k.a. Nawawi, the right arm of Osama. He lived in Orlando, Florida. He was trained until the diploma in the school of flight of Norman, Oklahoma".

According to La Repubblica, this "memo" dates from October 20, 2000. They don't say how they got it -- I couldn't find the complete text online, but another part is in "Jeff"'s guilty plea in "USA v. Ali Mohamed", dated the same day.

Ramzi Yusef, architect of first World Trade Center bombing, carried plans for airliner suicide crashes

U.S. officials said the destruction of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon bear the imprint of Yusef, the 41-year-old Pakistani who was convicted for the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center. Yusef was arrested and found with plans for a coordinated series of hijackings and suicide crashes of several U.S. commercial airliners.

The plan was never carried out, the officials said, because of the limitations of the poorly-trained squad.

Jeff, the terrorist who revealed the kamikaze plan to the Fbi (fish translation)

The truth that is emerging in these hours in New York, and that nobody as yet wants to say aloud, is bitter as a poison: the Fbi could have known if it had only believed to those that it already knew.(...)

The plan to train pilots, too slow in Africa, continued more rapidly in America. In the "memo" of the long depositions of Jeff to Attorney Mary Jo White, one can read: "The training of the men infiltrated in the United States through Canada involved training to the individual conflict in the paramilitary fields in Afghanistan, intelligence and techniques of flight in the United States. For instance Iab Ali, a.k.a. Nawawi, the right arm of Osama. He lived in Orlando, Florida. He was trained until the diploma in the school of flight of Norman, Oklahoma".

According to La Repubblica, this "memo" dates from October 20, 2000. They don't say how they got it -- I couldn't find the complete text online, but another part is in "Jeff"'s guilty plea in "USA v. Ali Mohamed", dated the same day.