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28 settembre 2007

Stars and blood

The presence of heavier chemical elements (as Calcium, Iron, etc.) is not explained just as result of plain, boring nuclear fusion that makes stars burn. This is why Hydrogen and Helium are so abundant. The only way to form heavier elements is during a supernova explosion.

So, Calcium in your bones and Iron in your blood are nothing but pieces of dead stars.
This fact never cease to amaze me.

Astronomy Online - Modeling Supernova

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21 settembre 2007

Happens in Italy

A former Transport Minister was caught last sunday driving against the traffic on a freeway. Actually, in Italy neither freeways are *free*, so WTF?
There comes a cop: the Driver shows an ID Card (expired) proving he is a Parliament Member. And [therefore] he isn't fined.

There are two kind of people, those who believe police is here to protect, and those who believe police is here to vex. I am definitely in the first group, but this news give the police a bad name, leaving an overall sense of unfairness.

Next: former Health Minister smoking dope - stay tuned.

Burlando contromano in autostrada "Sono deputato", niente multa - cronaca - Repubblica.it

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Update: the former Minister asked to be fined to the maximum extent of law: 1 year without drive license, 3 month without his car, a fine of 3.508 EUR for driving against the traffic + 72 EUR for driving w/out drive license.

Ok, maybe he did it to dodge the scandal, but nevertheless is a ginormous step beyond.

13 settembre 2007

Today my weight is greater (and yours, too).

The hi-tech cylinder of Platinum-Iridium stored in Sevres, near Paris (F), lost 50 micrograms since 1889. While scientists are worrying why The Kilogram has lost weight, I just performed a simple calculation:

50 micrograms are 0.00000005 kg

In this picture, a 100 kg person now weights 100.000005 kg, a whopping 5 mg more. Maybe is to blame the ice cream I ate yesterday? :-)

Kilogram has lost the weight of a fingerprint - Boing Boing

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09 settembre 2007

Noise and plain

Often who is against disco noise says: who haven't a thing to say loves to stay in the noise. I completely agree.

Again: somewhere, maybe in "The Teachings of Don Juan, A Yaqui way of Knowledge" by Carlos Castaneda (repeat: maybe), is stated that native americans were quite negative about skyscrapers. They believed white man build them to try and fill the void between earth and sky. But this void can be filled only with what is inside of you.

Likewise, several people I know feels a little nervous when in plain. Sure, such a vastness is likely to pull out what is inside of you; if there are just ugly things, which can you feel shameful or anxious, no surprise you hate plains.

Silence is but a sort auditive flat country: either you feel comfortable in it, or you have something that doesn't work.


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08 settembre 2007

V-Day



Beppe Grillo (his blog is currently 12th on Technorati) launched today the so-called "Vaffanculo day" (namely: fuck off day), to collect a minimum of 50,000 signatures. With those signatures he will mainly promote a popular law to forbid convict politicians to run for the Parliament (and no, there is no such a law in Italy yet. Really.)

Here you will find a list of convict politicians who are currently members of Italian Parliament (actually they are 24, the english page has not been recently updated).

Since almost every mainstream media gave no hype to this event (demonstrating that every reference to V for Vendetta is correct). Hello? This is Italy, not North Corea, in case you were wondering.

More than 300,000 signatures were collected today.

Beppe Grillo's Blog: V-day: Instructions




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03 settembre 2007

Ocean Moon



I don't think it's photoshopped: breathtaking anyway, isn't it?
Link to the larger version after the jump.

Flickr Photo Download: Reflejo - Reflection

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