23 April 2009

Delusions of persecution

21 april 2009: Giovanni told us that earlier that morning he'd seen a RAI mobile unit outside with the beloved "farfalla" logo decal mounted in such a way that he couldn't even describe. All he knew was that it was wrong.

Later that day, heading back to the office, on via Alessandro Farnese at viale Giulio Cesare, right there...

No...take a good look...
It's...er, upside-down! An Italian state television mobile unit van tooling around with an upside-down logo.

But, wait!

23 april 2009: i'm in the "Rome office" and (like all creatives and windows) i'm looking out the window, and what do i see parked out front across the street...?

GAAAAAAAAAHHH!!! It can't be! Zoom in!

It's the RAI upside-down logo mobile unit van! What do they want from me???

Okay, paranoid fit over. Actually the more observant of you will notice that we're looking at (what's considered in Italy) the driver's side of the van. The van shot on the 21st is taken from the passenger side. In fact, this van is larger than the van photographed on the 21st.

This means that the RAI has more than one MU with RAI butterflies mounted upside-down.

22 April 2009

Interesting

Interview (supposed) with a Somali pirate (BBC).

And in unrelated news: sigla "Divieto d'accesso".

20 April 2009

Waterboarding

Waterboarding.

Sept. 11 planner Khalid Sheik Mohammed "waterboarded" by CIA interrogators 183 times (Reuters).

As of 25 January 2009, the United States of America has classified "waterboarding" as torture. Because, you know, before...well, it wasn't.

And regarding whom it was performed, i can hear some of you rationalizing.

06 April 2009

EARTHQUAKE!

At 3:30 am today, the cat, her ears standing up and her tail puffed out, woke up Roberta who in turn woke me up to discover the entire apartment swaying! I'd say roughly an oscillation per second judging by the one sliding door banging against the hanging brass oriental bowl. Ro immediately led us under the apartment's main archway and we stood there embraced for what seemed minutes but probably only lasted 30 seconds or so, certainly under a minute.

Afterwards, Ro insisted on seeing if the news was saying anything about it, and about five to ten minutes later the scroll on Sky TG24 was carrying news about the quake in L'Aquila, reaching 6.7 on the Richter scale.

L'Aquila is roughly 100Km from the center of Rome and the entire building shook. Frightening. Serious damage has been done there, with as of this writing more than 90 dead. My condolensces.

It took me an hour or so before i could fall back asleep, reading To Kill A Mockingbird. Today i'm perceiving other small tremors but they could be psychosomatic.

02 April 2009

(Some of) The Men Who Sold (Out) The World, Post Scriptum

Now that i think about it, isn't a broker's fee around 20%, possibly more. Then Mr Cassano's $300,000,000 seems awfully low, somewhere around 5%...?

Venezuela's GuantanaMANIA

Yesterday's Venezuelan love affair with Guantanamo Bay. This was #8 in the BBC's round-up "10 stories that could be April Fools' jokes but aren't."

Today, Venezuela's amour for the Guantanamo detainees.