magari ci hanno preso

doomed (we'd better be)/32

Pet rocks spread all over the US during the 70's. The idea was to give everybody a cheap, loyal, undemanding, ever-lasting companion. A rock perfectly served the purpose. This is version 2.0, upgraded with a real USB-port. Here.

doomed (honoris causa)

C'è una che visto che il ragazzo abita a due ore di macchina cucina assai. E ha una passione smisurata per la riproduzione domestica di prodotti di marca. Chi non avrebbe sempre voluto pezzottare i Ringo™, i Togo™, gli Yo-yo™, 'a fettallatt'™, i Sofficini™? Sara de "il dolce mondo di Sara" sa come si fa.

and I eat lots of fruit, too

Last November, Piero Marrazzo, former president of Lazio, admitted he took cocaine during his meetings with Natalie, his trans friend.
Some 20 days ago, Marco Castoldi (aka Morgan), the frontman of Bluvertigo, declared he used to smoke cocaine as an antidepressant - following Freud's suggestion of therapy. Not especially surprising, considering that the title of their first album was "acidi e basi", and it had only partly to do with the little chemist.
Few days ago, the results of a drug test involving 232 voluntary Italian parliamentarians have been published (here). One of the volunteers (obviously the brightest of the crowd) tested positive for cocaine.

I don't think anybody would say these people are drug addicts. They lead their lives in a "normal" and "productive" way, they can probably do perfectly fine without drugs, they are not socially dangerous. Just like at least half of our former schoolmates, and quite a few teachers, parents, janitors, etc. Do you remember Titta di Girolamo in "le conseguenze dell'amore"? What's the ratio between the total of people you know have taken drugs and the number of those who have suffered any kind of negative consequences? I'm not saying drugs aren't bad for you. And I won't go into discussing why alcohol and tobacco are perfectly legal, or the differences between hard and soft drugs. I'm just noticing that the common reaction when this kind of news comes up is a "public health" one. Drugs provoke addiction. Drugs are dangerous. Drugs are bad. Make sure you say it loud and clear in TV, when apologizing.

My main concern is that drugs are one of the pillars (if not the main one) of the economy of criminal organizations. They are one of their main sources of revenue, they give those organizations the means to rule over their territory as well as a decisive competitive advantage when entering the formal economy. They are the fundamental means of financial control of many societies worldwide, what allows such organizations to direct, slow down, or paralyze their development. Drugs basically allow them to be the kind of powerful entities they are, both on the Italian scene and in the international one, with all the consequences this power implies.

In some kind of more or less tortuous way, the cocaine Marrazzo, Morgan, and Mr Smart bought must have been produced and provided by a multinational criminal supply-chain, and their purchases have fueled a continuum of violations of human rights, concentration of wealth, economic inequality, underdevelopment, all the way from the farmer to the pusher. This is the something I don't really understand in the kind of engagé, socially active person who just seems not to be able to give up smoking pot. And it's something I don't really understand in our legislation, which, as far as I know, does not differentiate between the marijuana you grow in your garden and the cocaine you buy directly from some camorra employee.

Are we really sure the direct negative effects of drugs on consumers are worse than the systemic consequences of drug trafficking on our society as a whole? Isn't there a risk that these slightly bigot, prude reactions don't end up hiding a bigger, more urgent problem?

Sì, sì, sì, sìììììììììììììììììììììì

Il principe, il biscazziere e quell'altro sono stati ripescati. Non so chi abbia detto a quello basso di smettere di nascondersi dietro al pianoforte, a quello alto di smettere di fare gesti inconsulti, e a 4 X-squinzie coi capelli degli omarini della LEGO di mettersi a fare gargarismi sullo sfondo. Ma ha funzionato.
Il titolo della serata era "quando la musica diventa leggenda".
Secondo me siamo già ben oltre.

noblesse oblige, neh?

Nino D’Angelo: "La canzone del Principe è proprio `na chiavica". Qui.

UPDATE - e tiene sempre più raggione

doomed (we'd better be)/31

Make your glass easy to recognize with the leopard print platform coasters. And with style! Here.

obligé, neh?

Dal mio dorato ritiro elvetico avrei potuto sicuramente evitarla, e invece, proprio per non essere troppo supponente, mi sono pure fidato di sentirla. Non fosse altro che per la chitarrina a presagire l'abisso, Pupo che finge di essere un Tom Waits, la nazionalpopolare presenza del tenore, il lalalalala che plagia (stabbene, cita) "over the rainbow", la rima "Dio/Italia amore mio", e per gli immortali versi "tu non potevi ritornare/pur non avendo fatto niente/ma mai ti sei paragonato/a chi ha sofferto veramente" che il medesimo Pupo (uno che meriterebbe l'esilio per meriti artistici) rivolge a sua squallida altezza, essa fa (non so bene come dire) veramente cacare il cesso. Punto. E' bello avere delle certezze nella vita. Solo, mi fa strano metterci la tag "music", ma le categorie sono comunque dei compromessi. Evvabbé.

one more thing

Since there has been some discussion about cooking cats, let's see what happens with this one. What's exactly the problem with live feeding predators in zoos and parks?

doomed (we'd better be)/30

Ave Maria's and Gloria Patri's absorb you so much that you can't focus on how many you still have to go through to earn eternal salvation? Today it's finally easy to pray all by yourself with the electronic rosary. Both versions, PREX (with loudspeaker) and LUX (with headphones), support memory cards for multilingual praying. For the trendy faithful, there's even an Italian Air Force limited edition, with a holy-ghost track: "the Aviator's prayer". 2 AA batteries not included. Here.

nel frattempo, in Italia

- dal 24 febbraio i giocatori di calcio sorpresi a bestemmiare saranno squalificati per X giornate. posto che (giustamente) non è accettabile l'offesa ad arbitri/avversari/tifosi und loro familiari, morti, stramuorti ed altri antenati, cosa c'è di così deprecabile nel labiale di tale Buffon Gianluigi che se la prende (per il tramite divino) contro sé stesso per una cazzata invero indegna del portiere della nazionale?

- l'ottimo Bigazzi Beppe è stato cacciato con infamia da "La prova del cuoco" per aver aver spiegato come si cucina(va) il gatto. vibranti proteste del mondo animalista. tacendo il fatto che gatti e conigli sono stati (e magari sono tuttora) considerati fungibili in numerose macellerie, c'è qualche fondata ragione per cui indignarsi per il domestico felino e non per il nobile cavallo, l'elegante tonno, l'utile asino, l'esotico canguro, la mastodontica balena, la mimetica beccaccia o il tenero capretto?

Tonari no Woody

This is a frame from the "Toy Story 3" trailer. Look who's back there!

parole in musica/2

doomed (we'd better be)/29

I don't know if any mentally healthy person can ever decide to wake up every morning to an explosion sound (clue - it's a Japanese invention). If you do, I'm sure the DangerBomb alarm clock will make you lose in a couple of days whatever sanity you were still maintaining. The explosion will only stop if you disconnect the right wire. Or, more probably, if you physically destroy the clock. Here.

today

DIY, here.

doomed (we'd better be)/28

Finally! Not only will your pet have its delicate feet stylishly protected in 7 different colors - you will even be able to throw away its boots away after use. Here.

papà

Exactly one year ago, after a legal struggle lasted more than a decade, Beppino Englaro interrupted the artificial feeding that was keeping his daughter alive. Eluana had been in vegetative state for 17 years following a car accident; his right to have the artificial feeding suspended had never been recognized before and he had waited for a definitive decision from the competent court, which was finally pronounced on July 9, 2008.

To prevent the father from actually interrupting the feeding, Berlusconi issued an executive order to overturn the Court of Cassation sentence. The President of the Republic refused to sign the order (that would have caused a clear institutional conflic), and Eluana was stopped from being fed.

Today, Italian newspapers open with Berlusconi's letter to the nuns who were taking care of Eluana, in which he writes to be extremely sorry for not having been able to avoid her death. 


Not a single line to the father. 

I don't know how dark a father's pain has to be to lead him to such a decision. I don't know how deep it has to be to crush any hope, any doubt that the man could have had in a decade. I don't think there's any ideology, any principle, any rational superstructure that can stand the possible joy of seeing your daughter alive and happy again. I think Beppino is the only person who can actually measure his own despair. The only person that could possibly have something to state, the only person worth listening to. 

The rest is just realpolitik small-talk. So depressing.

darfurisdying

A game to have an idea what the life of a refugee in Darfur looks like. Here.

doomed (we'd better be)/27

Time for your computer to get laid? Buy either of these USB humping dogs and have a free USB port to turn it on. Like any average male, it will be way too focused on its task to be able to do anything else. Here.

le sorprendenti implicazioni del codice penale

doomed (we'd better be)/26

(Fake) money is filthy. Why not become an archetypic capitalist with the simple touch of a button - and a couple AAA batteries? Monopoly e-banking edition. Here.

parole in musica

doomed (we'd better be)/25

Bacon bandages. All the healing power of meat. Here.

ooops, they did it again

quando o carnaval chegar

O Sambódromo, where the big Rio carnival parade takes place, is definitely one of my favourite places in town. Niemeyer just took a 700m road, in peace times called Marquês de Sapucaí, and added the arquibancadas that hold up to 100,000 people, and the double arc of Praça da Apoteose. For about 300 days a year, you can still pretend it was just a normal street. But even if you just rush through it to catch a bus, or drive by it on your way home, or stumble upon it while exploring that part of the town, you can't avoid to raise an eyebrow and think all that concrete is only waiting for this:

The page with all the Escolas de Samba do Grupo Especial (the Premier League of the Rio Carnival), with their 2010 sambas de enredo. Here.

doomed (we'd better be)/24

iJoy Ride. Only the joys of a horse. Here.

doomed (we'd better be)/23

Drying your nail varnish has never been so easy. Just press the plate of bananas, and the two AAA batteries powering the brown primate will do the rest. It's the evolution, stupid. Here.

5, 3 (e 5, 3, 5)

Nel frattempo, a Roma, "PD" è diventato una bestemmia.

(I solutori più abili preferiscono "PDL").