Driving in Switzerland

When you move to Switzerland and you are a European driver with a car registered in Europe, before one year you’ll have to: 1) Swap your European driving license for a Swiss one. To do this, you’ve to pay a visit to the optic (50 CHF). Then give back to Swiss police your European driving license with the required formulary, pay 150 CHF and wait 4 days for your Swiss driving license. 2) Forget your European insurance.

Alfonso Cuarón

Alfonso Cuarón was smoking something good. Suddenly, he thought how sad our Planet would have been without kids. Actually, Alfonso was stressed by his girlfriend who wanted to have kids, and he was feeling guilty for his “egoism” in enjoying life as is. To make some money, thus to go on holiday with his girlfriend and forget about kids for a while, he decided to direct the movie “Children of men”. He put the fate of the world in the hands of 1) pacifists of the late 80′s 2) black and gipsy women 3) ganja heavy smokers (all of them politically correct).

Doctor needed (quick!)

Two of the most famous American women of the last years, Britney Spears and Paris Hilton, cannot avoid showing their genitals to journalists when sitting on their cars (click 1 and 2 if you really need proves). Those two women suffer of exhibitionism. In psychiatry, exhibitionism is considered a paraphilia, as the practice begins to interfere with the quality of life or the normal functioning capacity of the individual. In the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, exhibitionism shares the same gravity grade with sexual aversion disorder, female orgasmic disorder and gender identity disorder. I hope some doctor will take care of those two poor women ASAP!

On bees and flowers

Would you trust a transgenic plant told to be able to detect landmines, before running on a mine camp? Would you feel safe if, instead of x-ray scanners, honey bees would detect explosives at the airport? I don’t think so, neither do I. Living creatures are not robots, even if transgenic or trained. Who can assure me that every transgenic Arabidopsis is becoming red just and only when it is growing on explosives? And what if it stays green instead? Who can assure me that the honeybee is not attracted by an ice cream, instead of an explosive belt?  How much money is wasted in those types of researches?  We are not able to produce a proper vaccine each time winter comes, how can we think to have such a total control on more complex living beings?

Noi balliamo da soli (talvolta)

Balliamo sul mondo: va bene qualsiasi musica. Cadremo ballando, sul mondo lo sai si scivola. Facciamo un fandango: la’ sotto qualcuno ridera’… balliamo sul… mondo!Non ti offro grandi cose pero’ quelle li’ le avrai. Niente case ne’ futuro ne’ certezze, forse guai. Ma se dall’Atlantide all’Everest non c’e’ posto per noi, guido io in questo tango ci facciamo posto dai. Balliamo sul mondo!!! E voi, vi divertite a ballare ogni tanto?

(da “Balliamo sul mondo”  di L. Ligabue)

Borat: a new Hitler or a fine psychologist?

I am sure Borat knew to produce a dangerous film, but anyway he did it. A 16+ limit is not sufficient: you can be racists and idiot even at 50, but it is not possible to select people in this way at the cinema entrance. So, I can understand why in some countries the film was censored. Here follow some examples to explain my point of view on Borat. When a polite old couple of Jews are thought by Borat to transmute into cockroaches by night 1) if you are racist you laugh for those Jews represented like parasites 2) if you’re not racists you laugh at Borat silly trying to save his soul giving money to insects.

Maria Burani Procaccini

Per la rubrica “l’ ignorante del giorno”, oggi ci fregiamo delle parole della parlamentare di Forza Italia Maria Burani Procaccini, in precedenza a capo della Commissione bicamerale per l’infanzia. Non ci chiediamo come suddetta persona sia riuscita ad ottenere un simile incarico, ma non e’ questa nostra responsabilita’. Dopo i video scandalo pubblicati su Youtube o Google negli ultimi tempi, codesta persona propone una legge per “il divieto assoluto ai motori di ricerca ed ai server di divulgare immagini inviate da infraquattordicenni e con la clausola del permesso genitoriale per quelli inviati da adolescenti della fascia fra 14 e 17 anni”.

Polyball 2006: Die Stadt never sleeps

After we left the main path behind us, a huge pink dragon suddenly appeared. His eyes burning in the dark, his body strolled over the square at guard of the main entrance of the palace. Long queues of elegant pilgrims were waiting at the lateral doors in the cold night to get something to eat. We had no choice but to walk towards the huge beast. We passed it, apparently not observed, and we reached the Polyball guards in front of the heavy main door. They checked out our cards and we quickly passed through. After the two crystal doors opened inside, we realized we did it. A dim blue light changed to pale purple, then dazzling around to illuminate the huge hall.

Back to the roots (of wheat)

Wheat strains are selected by farmers from the last 10,000 years.  What farmers unwillingly did, and what was discovered now, is that the wheat ecotypes we use today for making pasta and bread have lower concentration of proteins, zinc and iron if compared to wild type wheat (that means, not domesticated). Researchers then crossed wild type with “farmer-selected” wheat strains and got back a highly nutrient crop. Interestingly, they found that domesticated wheat strains lack a gene involved in the senescence process of the plants. In other words: domesticated wheat stays longer young in comparison to its ancestor, thus nutrients are not properly accumulated in the seeds before the plant is harvested. Old wheat (chicken) makes better bread (soup).

Sex at work

You know, I will have to start smoking again. I cannot read anymore newspapers online when I take a break during my working day. If I open Corriere della Sera or Repubblica, they are so full of tits and/or asses (calendars, naked traffic signals, fashion shows, erotic shows, Chinese hardcore censure, body painting, erotic gossips, naked manifestations and so on) that my colleagues usually think I am reading a porno magazine. The image-patchwork of this post (it is small so that your boss does not think you’re reading a porno blog) is made with pictures from the front pages of those two “newspapers”. I mean, nice girls, I agree, but if it’s true that 54% of men think about sex one or several times per day, having also this visual bombardment does not help concentration at work J