La pensée du vendredi

Pensiero della sera

2011-12-19T22:44:00.005+01:00

“Se non si ha passione, temperamento nelle cose uno non vive ma semplicemente esiste” Rudolf Nureyev

"...Io danzo il mio essere con la ricchezza che so di avere e che mi seguirà ovunque: quella di aver dato a me stesso la possibilità di esistere al di sopra della fatica e di aver imparato che se si prova stanchezza e fatica ballando, e se ci si siede per lo sforzo, se compatiamo i nostri piedi sanguinanti, se rincorriamo solo la meta e non comprendiamo il pieno ed unico piacere di muoverci, non comprendiamo la profonda essenza della vita, dove il significato è nel suo divenire e non nell’apparire. Ogni uomo dovrebbe danzare, per tutta la vita. Non essere ballerino, ma danzare.
Chi non conoscerà mai il piacere di entrare in una sala con delle sbarre di legno e degli specchi, chi smette perché non ottiene risultati, chi ha sempre bisogno di stimoli per amare o vivere, non è entrato nella profondità della vita, ed abbandonerà ogni qualvolta la vita non gli regalerà ciò che lui desidera. È la legge dell’amore: si ama perché si sente il bisogno di farlo, non per ottenere qualcosa od essere ricambiati, altrimenti si è destinati all’infelicità. Io sto morendo, e ringrazio Dio per avermi dato un corpo per danzare cosicché io non sprecassi neanche un attimo del meraviglioso dono della vita…“ Rudolf Nureyev

A cena con Obama. At dinner with Obama. Un dîner avec Obama. Obama to no yūshoku-kai de

2011-12-11T00:42:00.004+01:00

Potrebbe mai succedere con un politico europeo?
Could it ever happen with a European politician?
Pourrait-il jamais arriver avec un politicien européen?
Sore wa yōroppa no seijika de okoru made ka?
Buonanotte,
Nic

24 Novembre... 2010 - The Visionary (?)

2011-11-24T01:17:00.002+01:00

Nigel Farage about Europe... exactly one year ago!

La Cina, la cina...

2011-11-14T23:24:00.002+01:00

Alle 11:11:11 del 11/11/11... un'altra volta!

2011-11-11T12:13:00.003+01:00

... e questo è quello ufficiale per il mondo intero!

Alle 11:11:11 del 11/11/11

2011-11-11T11:18:00.003+01:00

Bello a vedersi, ma nulla cambia.
Jolie à voir, mais rien ne change pas.
Nice to look at, but nothing changes.
Mitame ga utsukushī ga, nani mo henkō.

Life in a Day

2011-11-03T23:14:00.007+01:00

Un film davvero interessante. Devo ancora finire di vederlo!
Un film très intéressant. Je dois toujours terminer de le voir!
A very interesting film. I still have to finish watching it!
Ciao,
Nic

«Stay hungry, stay foolish»

2011-10-07T16:46:00.002+02:00

I found by accident this very inspiring speech by Steve Jobs. Enjoy the reading!

«Stay hungry, stay foolish» - 2005 Stanford commencement address delivered by Steve Jobs

This is a prepared text of the Commencement address delivered by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, on June 12, 2005.

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.
The first story is about connecting the dots.
I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?
It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.
And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.
It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:
Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.
None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, it's likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.
Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.
My second story is about love and loss.
I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.
I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.
I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.
During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.
I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.
My third story is about death.
When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.
Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.
I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.
This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope it's the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept: No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share.
No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.
Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.
Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off.
Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.
Thank you all very much.

Occupy Wall Street

2011-09-21T22:57:00.004+02:00

While the Italian TV news only talk of gossips and folkloristic stuff, some Americans really take action and show their disappointment for the current events.
Their goal is to peacefully occupy Liberty Plaza, in front of Wall Street, and some were arrested with no apparent reason.
Ciao,
Nic

The Economist: Special Report about ITALY

2011-06-19T13:30:00.008+02:00

Dear friends,
a couple of days ago I happened to buy The Economist at Catania Airport and found this very interesting Special Report about Italy.
As it nearly took me longer to properly scan than to read it, I really hope that my effort wasn't worthless and that somebody will really download and enjoy it!
Have a nice reading and a nice sunday,
Nic

p.s. PDF is 13mb, so it may take a little to download ;-)

Mid-Atlantic English

2011-05-18T10:01:00.002+02:00

Hilarious videos from Philadelphia!
Ciao,
Nic

Qualche chiarimento su Fukushima

2011-04-01T20:38:00.001+02:00

Live Postcard from Paris

2011-02-22T16:35:00.001+01:00

Enjoy !
Nic

VINTAGE: La pensée du lundi (one of my best ever) - Slide makers

2010-12-15T19:10:00.004+01:00

Today I was nicely surprised by my friend Tom Zuziak, who wrote me these words about an old post that I had deleted for political correctness:

"Nic,
Yesterday I was visiting a dealer in Kentucky with a Sales Manager and we took time out to listen to a “webinar” that launched the Powerstar Tractor in North America. The host of the webinar was the great Brad Moore. Within the presentation was some of your great masterpiece slides even two years later. You wondered in your blog how it is that some people get to be remembered. For you my friend it will be your masterpiece powerpoint creations!
The tractor was well received and represents a very good chance to gain back some of the market share we have destroyed over the years. Thanks for your help."

So this is what I was writing back on December 16th 2008, exactly two years ago, and you will say if meanwhile something has changed (personally, I'm not making so many slides anymore):

"The world economy is down this year, but one thing is still continuing to grow: the number of PowerPoint slides per head created every day. I don't have official data, but I am sure they are billions and growing anyway.
Now, before going on we need a little note for the lucky ones who don't know what PowerPoint is: the growth in the number of slides will not help by any means to reverse the downturn of economy and, at worst, will even delay an eventual revival. Why? Because nowadays more and more time at public companies is spent making the slides beautiful, even if the average employee is certainly not supposed to have any artistic skills. This meaning that if you have to say your company is going bankrupt tomorrow, it will take you three weeks to draw the most beautiful miniature to make happy the CEO. And you can imagine the consequences.
And then it comes to me that, lead by my very comfortable recklessness, take advantage of this to make something really beautiful for the sake of art and to float over the unreality of office work. By the way, this stuff is procuring me some real success.
Actually I also think that sooner or later some modern art museum will open a contest for slide makers, we artisans of the 21st century, and I let you judge which prize I'll win with these two I made these days (see below).

Take care my friends and, if some beggar will ask you just to make a slide or two for him, pretend you don't speak his or her language!"

Time flies

2010-12-14T11:27:00.006+01:00

Time flies - Alessandra Sanguinetti 2005

This is how I found this photo: months ago my brother Alberto took part to a cooking course. Then I put him in touch with Simplicity restaurant in London and he spent there one day on trial. Today he forwarded me an article on a blog where they were talking of the upcoming fashion star James Hillman who was also working with him at Simplicity on that day. Then I read that this designer studied at Central Saint Martins College, I entered their internet site and found out that they also hold photography courses. Into this section there was a little tag called "career prospects", I clicked and found that the graduate Justina Burnett became assistant of Alessandra Sanguinetti, which I didn't know at all. But I was made curious by her Italian name and the fact that she was described as member of Magnum Photos, while I didn't remember of any Italian lady being a member. Finally I looked for her and found this photograph which in my opinion is sad, but still tells a lot about time and the use we make of it.
I hope it will make you think for a while...
p.s. Grazie Alberto!
Ciao,
Nic

Your name carved - on a kitchen door

2010-11-26T12:00:00.004+01:00

Last week I was driving along the British countryside with Tom, an English guy who works with me. I was a bit hungry so I asked him if he knew any typical place where to eat something, and this is how I ended up at the Three Compasses pub on Lower Stock Road in Essex.
We had very nice fish and chips with an ale beer, and then before leaving my attention was hit by the kitchen door and this woodden plate with the full list of the pub innkeepers since its foundation in 1738.
This left me just a bit puzzled about the meaning of what we do, and how it is affecting future generations. Not many people are remembered for so a long time thanks to what they've done, while usually (and rightly) the most noticeable ones are those who really excelled in their fields or did something unique, like crossing the Atlantic first. Few or no one at all are remembered for having been a postman, a good employee, a car dealer or a barman.
But the people who run this pub decided that keeping it alive is enough for having one's name recorded forever, for enchantment of the visitors of the present and of the future like us.

Winter quilt: Italy vs China

2010-11-15T11:17:00.005+01:00

Last week it started being a bit cool at home, so I went out in search of a quilt. I made a quick search on the yellow pages, but as Ikea was on the way home I stopped there while coming back from work.
Usually I always tried to avoid Ikea and the idea of "one same home for all", so I entered the shop suspiciously while telling myself: I swear that I won't get out of here with a Chinese quilt, even if it would mean to go get an Italian one at 300€ in a proper shop!
But then I had a look at each single quilt and found out that while the synthetic ones were made in East Europe, all the feather ones (which we wanted) were coming from duck eating China. So you may well think that I turned back and walked out of Ikea.
But... not quite, because then price stepped in: a double bed feather quilt was 35€ only!!!
So what did I do?
I'm sure you already know.
The battle against China is every day harder.
Sleep sweet dreams,
Nic

Sleeping in the Camera Obscura

2010-07-30T22:33:00.002+02:00

Many, if not everyone, at least one time will have heard of the camera obscura.
Few, nearly no one, have ever woke up in such a magic thing.
But this is what happened to Sara and me just a couple of days ago, when we opened our yes in the morning and noticed a coloured shadow on the wall. So we stood up and checked with our eyes that the coloured spot was actually the building in front of ours but, as you know, turned upside down.
With the whole room in the darkness, all the light was just passing through a little hole at the top of the shutters and it was so unexpected that really looked magic.
We were so amazed by this thing that we'd have liked to stay for hours to watch this, but the day was calling and we had to move on.
Anyhow now we know that we're sleeping in the Camera Obscura, and every sunny day this beautiful show will be on air again.

Holes in shutters for everybody!

Nic & Sara

Collateral murder

2010-05-02T15:47:00.002+02:00

Another shocking video from Iraq war.

The story of stuff

2010-04-15T12:22:00.003+02:00

Here we go again.
This time I've found another video about the lifecycle of things that looks interesting. It lasts 20 minutes but I still didn't watch it, so I'm recommending to try something without having experienced it yet!
You can log to the Story of stuff internet site here and play the interactive video or you can download the film here.

Have fun,

Nic

Logorama

2010-03-07T22:16:00.002+01:00

Cari amici, probabilmente solo alcuni riusciranno a capire ogni singola parola senza i sottotitoli, ma questo cortometraggio è grandioso! Fa veramente pensare a quanto schiavi dei marchi siamo diventati. Vale la pena trovare un quarto d'ora di tempo per guardarlo fino in fondo. E mille grazie a Silvio, che me lo ha fatto scoprire!
Ciao, buona settimana a tutti,
Nic

My friends, this short movie is great! It really makes me think how logo-slaves we have become! It's really worth watching until the end. And many thanks to Silvio, who made me discover it!
Ciao, have a good week,
Nic

www.nicolaprincipato.com

2010-02-14T14:09:00.010+01:00

Hi all,
the day after my poor car was given to the flames by some very insensitive people I tried to think of something else by putting online again my internet site www.nicolaprincipato.com
I hope you all will enjoy its new stories!
Nic

Blackwater Criminals Inc.

2010-02-01T22:12:00.003+01:00

Sometime ago I was wondering if everyone should know what Blackwater is.
Then I started wondering how many do know it among the people I know, especially because in Italy you can hardly hear of it in the news.
And then, as it often happens, I ended up with no answer.

New York Crossing - Trailer

2010-01-24T19:36:00.005+01:00

This is a short film I made in New York.
It lasts about 38 minutes and I've already given it as a gift on DVD for Christmas to some (very lucky!) friends.
Now I'd like to check if this is supposed to remain just a friend-to-friend video or if somebody else may be interested in it.
If you want to help me to find a distributor or simply to organize some showings I'll be happy.
Take care, state bene,
Nic

Please don't send Season's Greetings cards !

2009-11-24T15:21:00.005+01:00

If there's something that I don't really like in this time of the year, that's Season's Greetings.
I discovered this kind of wording when I was living in U.K. in 2006 at my friend John's place. As Christmas was approaching, a number of Season's Greetings cards started dropping in our mailbox, and at first I was quite puzzled as in Italy you always and only say Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, and you never wish just Whatever you like in the winter season.
Then I understood that there may be several possible reasons behind this wording (and that I wasn't the only literary geek as usual) going from being religiously correct towards the ones don't share your creed to just selling more greeting cards to corporates.
Nevertheless, as usual my conclusion is that I didn't change my mind, and that I still dislike Season's Greetings, because if it wasn't Christmas, we'd hardly wish anything at all.
So please don't send any Season's Greetings card, or at least do not send it to me!
I hope you're still in time...

The battle against advertising

2009-11-16T18:04:00.001+01:00

I hate advertising invasion. My personal battle will be about mocking it.
Period.
(click on picture to enlarge)

The plutonomy report that broke the umbrella

2009-10-31T01:36:00.002+01:00

My father and me are just back home from cinema after watching "Capitalism: a love story" by Michael Moore.
While we're suggesting everyone of you to go watch it, let me quote down a paragraph I've found on a report that is named in the movie (and that you can open by clicking on the links below).

"Oil and the Consumer: We have heard constantly that oil will slow consumption down as it eats into disposable income. But it remains a conundrum to many that consumption has remained robust, despite oil prices remaining high. What’s going on? We don’t see a conundrum. [...] In the "plutonomy" countries, the rich are such a massive part of the economy, that their relative insensitivity to rising oil prices makes US$60 oil something of an irrelevance. For the poorest in society, high gas and petrol prices are a problem. But while they are many in number, they are few in spending power, and their economic influence is just not important enough to offset the economic confidence, well-being and spending of the rich."

In 2004 the top 10% of Americans got 43% of total income and were holding 57% of total wealth (2.5 million dollars a head on average); the bottom 40% of Americans were getting 10% of total income and held 9% of total wealth (on average 97,000 dollars a head). This huge disparity that is so widespread in the Anglo-Saxon world and its consequences over economy, society and politics are said to be arguably called plutonomy.

Citigroup Oct 16, 2005 Plutonomy Report Part 1
Citigroup Mar 5 2006 Plutonomy Report Part 2

How to delete your facebook account

2009-10-20T11:14:00.006+02:00

Here we are.
After I never actively used facebook but simply accepted sporadic friendship invitations, finally I've found the way to delete permanently my account and my extremely valuable piece of information: name, last name, date of birth.
Now I feel muuuch safer.

If you want to do the same, just follow the instructions HERE and then go on enjoying the real life!

The Prize to the intentions

2009-10-12T15:29:00.003+02:00

The Nobel Prize 2009 was recently presented to Barack Obama "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples".
Frankly speaking, I like this guy, but I believe that a prize like this should only be awarded at the end of a long and effective career, rather than on the basis of many good intentions and speeches only.
And how not to consider that the U.S. are still at war?

Nobel Prize 2009

Cubicles - 1

2009-10-01T15:08:00.004+02:00

If you want to have an idea of how American cubicles look like...

Mambo

2009-09-24T16:12:00.013+02:00

I'm a little dog with no name.
Nor I have a house or an owner to take care of.
I live in the streets, do not eat regularly and do not have anybody who brings me around for a walk and talks to me.

I'm alone.

Tonight it's warm, and as usual I'm hungry and wandering about in search of food.
A bit far from me I see some young persons, but I go on walking and do not care. Now I'm passing in front of their feet and...
Ehi, ehi, why are you lifting me? I don't know who you are! Put me down, let me go!
Damn, you don't understand my language?
Ehi, ehi, what's this smell? Ehi, stop soaking me with that stinking junk, I'm cold! Ehi, wait, wait... what's that little light? ...
AAAAHHHHH AHII AHIIII CAIIIIIII ! ! ! IT BURNS, I AM BURNNIINGGG! ! ! AHHIIIIAAAAA CAAIIICAIIIII... RUN RUN FAST ROLL AND RUN AGAIN, IT BURNSSS IT DOESN'T STOP BURNIIING ! ! ! AHIII AHIIII I'M CRYINNGG GNNNN GNNNN AHHHIIII AHHIIII I'M CRYING.. .. . .

_________________________________________________

This is the story of Mambo, a little lovely dog who was burned "for fun" by two bastards in Espira-de-l'Agly (French Pyrenees).
Mambo risked to die, but luckily he was helped in time by a passer-by.
Later the two were arrested, one went immediately to trial and now will spend some time in prison. The other is underage and will be prosecuted at a juvenile court in December.

Personally, I deeply hate them.

But I love Mambo and wish him all the best!

To read his full story:
Original article on Corriere.it in Italian
Original article on Corriere.it translated in English

Odio i lunedì

2009-06-18T16:02:00.001+02:00

Dedicated to the ones who hate mondays.
by Banksy

The business of fear

2009-06-09T16:59:00.000+02:00

Two interesting articles on the Economist tell how firearm sales were never so good in the US.

http://www.economist.com/world/unitedstates/displayStory.cfm?story_id=13788623&source=most_commented

http://www.economist.com/world/unitedstates/displayStory.cfm?story_id=13788631&source=hptextfeature

Don't follow your dreams

2009-06-08T23:45:00.000+02:00

I didn't know TED nor Mike Rowe until few minutes ago.
A very nice discovery, indeed.
Enjoy watching this interesting speech.
Take care,
Nic

Silence

2009-05-06T15:10:00.000+02:00

In the latest weeks I've had zero inspiration, so I decided not to write instead of writing for the sake of writing.
I don't know what it is, if it's the spring, or the months that run so fast, or more probably this town, or simply different priorities that reverberate in my head.
And one of these priorities is the urge of change, and I know it's only me the one who can make this change happen.
I know, this is a common feeling and would like to ask out "BUT HOW?", but for sure there's no answer outside. Then...

Tocca a te

2009-03-13T15:20:00.000+01:00

Non mi sembra vero, it doesn't sound true!
For the ones who still didn't see the advertisement on the newspapers I want to tell about this new initiative by Telecom Italia also if to be fully honest I never liked this company, the former SIP, just because it used to be the telephone giant that for decades didn't let us have any choice in the supply of phone services.

But this time I'm really happy for the "Tocca a te", and I urge everyone of you to have a look at it and to propose some ideas.

Okay, one step back: what is it all about?
After only 10 years we Italians realized not to have any important internet company. Certainly there are a number of reasons, but in my opinion the main one is about the higher difficulty, comparing with America, of translating a good idea into a good company. So Telecom Italia hoped that the problem is not the lack of ideas (I guess they are right!) and decided to make lots of resources available to all the people who will be able to submit a convincing business plan for a 2.0 internet company.

Come on, don't waste this chance!

www.workingcapital.telecomitalia.it

9 years before I was born

2009-03-09T18:01:00.000+01:00

"Too much and for too long, we seemed to have surrendered personal excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things. Our Gross National Product, now, is over $800 billion dollars a year, but that Gross National Product counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage.
It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for the people who break them.
It counts the destruction of the redwood and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl.
It counts napalm and counts nuclear warheads and armored cars for the police to fight the riots in our cities.
It counts Whitman's rifle and Speck's knife, and the television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children.
Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials.
It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country, it measures everything in short, except that which makes life worthwhile."

Robert Kennedy - Speech given at the Kansas University on March 18th 1968

Italianish, a business language for the new century

2009-02-06T14:04:00.000+01:00

This writing is dedicated to three intersecting groups of people:
- the ones who do not live in Italy
- the ones who are not familiar with the Italian language
- the ones who don't know how people speak in the Italian offices of an international company.

My apologizes for those lucky or unlucky ones who do not belong to any of these groups, but the world needs to know what I'm about to say.

An interesting phenomenon that is happening in Italy, and what I very rarely hear talking about, is a shift of the Italian language towards the top global English.
Disgusting enough for any language purist this is not even a linear shift, but a shift with a curl at the end, not surprisingly if you mind our unique Italian sensitivity for arts and beauty.

Let me explain...

Fact 1: if you are in an international business you will spend a good deal of time speaking bizEnglish, and if you are not an English mother-tongue you will certainly need to make an effort to keep your mother-dictionary up to date.
I mean, if you start talking of brand, assets, advertising, positioning, training, pollution, low cost, value for money, "think out of the box", brainstorming, social media, etc. these English words will pop in your mind much faster than their Italian equivalent also when you will be speaking Italian.

Consequence of fact 1) When the above happens you basically have a double choice:
Choice 1.1) You make an extra mental effort not to use any English word and always stay stuck to Italian using the correct equivalent word (which I think is best)
Choice 1.2) Your become a victim of your laziness and surrender to the temptation of using the English words into the Italian talk.

Consequence of choice 1.1) You feel good and nowadays even a bit proud of yourself.
Consequence of choice 1.2) You try to redeem yourself by Italianizing the English words adding the Italian curl at the end, or -are, -ere and -ire (the standard endings for every Italian verb).

One example is clearer than a thousand words:

The English "clean" in Italian is "pulire", but in Italianish it becomes "cleanare".
The English "deliver" in Italian is "consegnare", but in Italianish it becomes "deliverare".
The English "split" in Italian is "dividere", but in the new Italianish is "splittare", and so on with other monsters like
screenare
matchare
trainizzare
smsare
customizzare
budgettare
linkare
schedulare
drivare
mailare
matchare
and the arrogantly creative STARTARE.

Happy new century, my ol' Italian tongue!

The jam boy

2009-01-20T10:49:00.000+01:00

My latest discovery is a very happy one: Fraser Doherty, the 19 years old from Edimburgh.

At the age of 14 the boy received a jam recipe from his grand mother and then pushed by his passion started making jam for selling to his neighbors and shortly after to the local markets.

His popularity grew quickly, but then he realized that there was an emerging demand for healthier spreads and so he switched the production to so called super fruits like cranberries and blueberries and decided to replace sugar with grape juice.

Then one day he met a buyer from Waitrose and the rocket left the launch pad: a serious production site was found, designers made a beautiful label and the contract to supply hundreds of shops was signed.

Finally, thanks to the internet and blogging a new community is raising around the jam jar, recently with old lady knitters making covers for the children of the third world.

:-) What an inspiring example of YOUNG SOCIAL BUSINESS...

www.superjam.co.uk

Some simple thoughts about photography

2009-01-07T22:09:00.000+01:00

Somewhere in Austria near Innsbruck with Sara and Gioia, January 3rd 2009

Photography consists in reproducing the instant of a live and tridimensional scene in a permanent manner on a physical support or temporary on some sort of screen.

Taking a picture is only one of the many possibilities to tell a place, an event, a person, and I think that while doing so one should also remember the alternatives: using voice, writing, drawing, filming.

There are a number of techniques that can be used to photograph, but the question that interests me the most is: why do we do it?
I think that the answer is not a unique one, but that it depends on people and moments.

Once upon a time photography was complex and costly, and its most frequent usage was for portraiture. It is also said that many bad painters of the time converted themselves to photography. Then, as cameras evolved, exterior and faster shooting grew easier, and so photography started to be used to record events of public interest.
Shortly after a further simplification and economization of the processes left room for the real demochratization of the photographic tool, and so the importance of the events to record shifted from collective to individual again.

Today, thanks to the gratuitousness and immediacy of the digital shot, we probably got to the point where we don't ask ourselves anymore why to photograph. Every tremor, every minimal sign is sufficient to make us press the button, and so our lives get clogged up with always more useless images, as if the higher number of photographs would testify our greater amusement.

I don't want to pass any judgments but rather think that everyone is free to do what he wants, and also think that by stopping for a while everyone would be able to look into his heart and understand the reason for each single photo of his.

It took me a loot of time to understand these reasons, and I will not tell you the whole truth. I will limit myself to say that the reasons behind the vast majority of the photographs I take when I'm alone are:
- showing the situation to someone who isn't there
- creating an intriguig image that I'd like to put on a wall as an ornament
- illuding myself to be able to bring home a little piece of the place I visited
- help myself to remember

Also, it's a little while that I became convinced that photography must be only one of the possible tools, and not a toy to kill time or give oneself a task.

But I say it once again: this is not the whole truth, also because part of it is still elusive to myself.

And I leave you with a promise: I'm working on my new internet site where more than a single media will be used and categories will be replaced by stories.

Happy new year,

Nic

Street View

2008-12-13T16:15:00.000+01:00

I can't believe it. This is the coolest thing I've seen in years.
I don't know when it started, but I only discovered it today: Street View by Google.
Basically you use Google Maps and place a little orange man in the spot you want. Then the window changes from the top view to a 360° degrees live picture of the place you selected. Unbelievable.
Enjoy yourself!
Nic
http://maps.google.it

Clay pigeons shooting

2008-11-22T23:40:00.000+01:00

First time shooting.
3 clay rabbits + 6 clay pigeons shot out of a total of 50.
"Not bad for a first timer" my master Kenny said.

Un micio per il mio micio

2008-11-22T18:21:00.000+01:00

MAAAOOOWWWW - Philadelphia, 10 Novembre 2008

Pucciolina, Kenny e Flash

2008-11-22T06:47:00.001+01:00

Casa, Rimini - 31 Ottobre 2008

Over the Atlantic

2008-11-22T06:24:00.000+01:00

US AIRWAYS, flight 716 - 30 Ottobre 2008

Yellow, Giallo

2008-11-22T06:17:00.001+01:00

Longwood Gardens, Kennet Square, PA 19348 - 8 Novembre 2008

Lenny

2008-11-22T06:05:00.000+01:00

Palace Hotel, Union City, NJ - 29 Ottobre 2008

Why not me?

2008-11-22T05:19:00.000+01:00

In my opinion this is a great piece of art, the most contemporary expression of photography.

Think this: in the past photography was above all a social medium, like in the World War II and with the photojournalism wave that followed from the '50s to the '70s, in a time of great cooperation and organization between private citizens.
Then TV superseded magazines, like Life, which basically disappeared together with photojournalism. Those were also the times where individualism grew up steep, up until today, where life is mostly car-work-internet-tv.
So in my opinion this guy taking one picture a day for 6 years of his face all alone blends in one moment: individualism by pointing the camera toward himself, the power of tv over photography mounting the pictures into a sequence with beautiful music, and finally gets his 15 minutes of celebrity thanks to the internet where almost 12 million people have already watched him.
Is this a genius?

www.noahkalina.com

My friends, take care of yourselves and greetings from Leola PA,
Nic