Per gli auguri di buon anno pensavo a postare qualcosa col "timed publish" alle 00.01 ma dopo aver letto questo post di Greenwich Village, ho cambiato idea. :)
Assolutamente esilarante e in perfetto stile "preparativi per capodanno". Godetevelo.
Ho appena finito di leggere "Mattatoio n.5 o La Crociata bei bambini" di Kurt Vonnegut.
Assolutamente consigliato... mi e' piaciuto veramente molto e contemporaneamente dispiaciuto di aver scoperto questo autore all'alba dei 28 anni. Ora sto cominciando con "Le sirene titano".
Riporto un estratto che a mio avviso da' una bel ritratto dell'autore, utile per chiunque non lo conoscesse.
This news has something incredible... The World Trade Organization (WTO) ruled that Antigua and Barbuda will be allowed to infringe US copyrights and trademarks for the next years for a total value of 21 millions USD per year.
In 2006 US passed a law that made illegal the internet gambling runned by non-US companies; few weeks after the law, banks and credit card companies blocked every transactions from foreign gambling sites. Problem was that the internet gambling was one of the biggest business in the Caribbean. So, Antigua and Barbuda started a litigation about this case in front of the WTO asking for 3,4 billions USD as award.
The WTO took a decision on 21 December 2007: the US law has been considered "illegal" (well, take a look at the links for more explanatory informations, let alone my english).
The WTO ruled that Antigua will be allowed to infringe US copyrights, trademarks, industrial designs and patents (see paragraph 5.6 of the PDF) for a total value of 21 mln USD per year(see paragraph 6.1 of the PDF).
I don't really know how laws are working in the US (and even in the WTO) but it sounds me really strange that if a judge (WTO) decides that one party (US) commited an "illegal act" (declaring illegal online gambling for non-US companies) against a second party (Antigua and others), the award allowed by judge could be the permission to perpetrate crimes (infringe copyrights).
Normally by us (Italy), the second party would be awarded with a money reparation.
Then, conclusions: they continue to tell us that piracy is "one of the worst crime" you can perpetrate against intellectual properties, but somehow it turns out that copyrights infringements are tradable/negotiable.
Well, I don't know how it sounds to you but I call this kind of things "dirty".
Motoblog, that I read daily, found this commercial by Kawasaki Thailand.... enjoy!
Ok, ok... it seems that the commercial isn' official at all but... who cares?
Via BoingBoing I found this interesting gallery...
Do you find anything wrong in this picture? Ehy, there are many that are way more disgusting than Hulk Hogan here! :)
Beh, in realtà eravamo sull'1 a 2... Mi riferisco alla vicenda di Apple che denuncia i bloggers per alcune indiscrezioni sui propri prodotti lanciati sul web anzitempo: l'inizio della partita, l'1 a 0 per Apple e, infine, il raddoppio di inet che porta il risultato sull' 1 a 2.
Ora purtroppo tocca ad Apple ribaltare il risultato: dopo le minacce legali, ThinkSecret ha chiuso.
Sob.
I wrote already about "A Dirty Job" by Christopher Moore. In that post I wrote also that I was going to watch a TV Serie named "Reaper" that - I thought - was based to the book from Moore. It's not: the story is different but with some points in common (like... collecting souls for the devil! :). Check out the story on the link below.
I already watched the first 3 episodes of "Reaper" and I've to say that's really hilarious. :) . Filed under "suggested". :)
I always said that it is not worth to buy a PC just for gaming. You have to spend a bunch of money and you can bet that in just 6 months will be obsolete.
Well, someone wanted to see what kind of hardware do you need to run at the best (setting the graphic level and details to "I-want-to-see-the-hair-in-your-ass") one of the latest PC game on the market: Crysis.
The people at PcGamesHardware spent more than 1800$ (just for the video cardS) for a kicking-ass system: in the picture you can notice 3 (T-H-R-E-E) Nvidia SLI Cards and a huge 1200 Watt PSU.
The result: playing with Crysis at "Very High" detail, the system barely gets 38 frames per second, when normally 60 FPS is the desired level for a smooth gaming.
Did you ever think about buying a game console ??
[Here the complete report in german from PcGamesHardware and here a brief abstract in english]
From StrangeMaps I found this interesting picture (the original uploader is Isak Asgeirsson as pointed out by strangemaps).
Here is a "satellite" view (directly from WarGames :) by night of the Korean Peninsula.
A couple of numbers: in spite of the huge difference in night-time illumination, the total population of the two countries is 50 millions for South Korea and 27 millions for North Korea.
A joke for my korean friends Julie and Jae Ho: I guess that most of the 50 millions are named "Kim".... :P
I just finished to read "A Dirty Job" by Christopher Moore (here the cover of the italian version). If you're in a hurry: it's strongly suggested! :)
This is first book from Moore that I read and I've to admit that I bought this book just for the cover and for a couple of comments on the backside. Something like "the best of Stephen King together with the best Monty Python" or "Charlie Asher [the main character] has been recruited for a new job, an unpleasant but utterly necessary one: Death. It's a dirty job. But hey, somebody's gotta do it". The last thing that made me buy the book was the whole story was set in San Francisco... :)
Well, I really like this book and I'd like to suggest you to give it a try.
Last week, then, speaking with G, I found that _maybe_ a new TV Series called "Reaper" is somehow based on this story; I already bought on iTunes (AH! :)the first 10 episodes. During the holydays I'll take a look and give you notice!
That's a good story: the Babyshambles leader Pete Doherty has been somehow involved in a street fight (well, this is what our beloved "La Repubblica" wrote, but the Telegraph writes about an illness) and could not not show up at the concert in London.
So, the bassist and the drummer asked the fans if someone knew band's songs and could play the guitar. "Here! I can do that!" answered a fan and... bum! He was on the stage, playing his beloved songs!
Am I wrong or the expression "screw someone" means (or could mean, but as you'll notice there is no doubt here) "fuck"?? and, as far as I know, isn't the more polite way to say it.
2 minutes ago I took a look at the newspaper site "La Repubblica". I found the news that a pornostar will sell her silicon breasts implants trough ebay to raise money for fair (for a charity sale).
Nothing's odd here... but I'm pervert and I began to browse the gallery, hosted and provided by "La Repubblica", finding this picture [here my screenshot, then here the link to the original picture on their website and here the complete gallery]
Do you think that it's normal to find kinda pictures on a newspaper site?? I'm not speaking about the butt...ehm, the picture but just about the sentence.
I'm not prude but I've the terrible feeling they didn't know the meaning of the sentence here and they just inserted the picture in the gallery...
Come molti miei amici sanno, mi sono deciso a cambiare moto e sono molto indeciso.
Premetto che io uso la moto esclusivamente per fare fuoco e fiamme (anche se sono un fermone) il fine settimana e che non la uso per viaggi lunghi nè per andare a lavoro in città (mi capiterà una volta il mese, neanche, forse) e che quindi l'utilizzo deve essere necessariamente per il... FOHO!
Insomma, dicevo che sono indeciso, ma in realtà prima non lo ero: avevo provato la Tuono e sbavato come poche volte. Ok che sono 12000 euro di moto ma... per dio, ci sarà un vantaggio a vivere con i propri genitori? :)
Scherzi a parte, vista la spesa in gioco (ma si trova anche sui 10k), volevo anche una moto versatile: con la Tuono tutti dicono che è perfetta per vari usi. Foho, pista, viaggi/viaggetti, città. La ciclistica è ottima, la potenza spaventosa (139 cv, bicilindrico), il feeling ottimo e, imho, la linea è pure bella (magari si potrebbe fare qualcosa sul cupolino...).
Poi, qualche settimana fa, ho provato la Ducati Hypermotard. AH! Aaargh.
Cazzo... è incredibile. E' incredibile quanto non sia versatile, quanto non si presti a viaggi e viaggetti, incredibile quanto sia stupido spendere 12k euri per una moto dall'utilizzo così unico... FOHO! Mi son preso una sbandata notevole... è troppo divertente. E' troppo da delinquente.
Sta di fatto che ora sono indeciso. Mi riserverei di riprovare sia la ducati che la tuono (anche se quest'ultima l'ho già provata in condizioni ottimali: estate, caldo, asciutto e strada da gran foho), ma non so.
Consigli?
The UK based Project "No more landmines - Dangerous Ground" tries to sensitize people taking a walk in London (the track is 1km long and around a 50.000 square meters area) without even touching the ground.
