The business of fear

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

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

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

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

"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