Locus Free + Vector free maps: BEST off-line Android navigation – Top App!

I never found a free wi-fi spot when I needed a map on my Android phone. So I was map less for quite a while. Something I never experienced with Nokia and its OVI Maps.

There is a way to make your Android phone really smart without paying a cent. Install Locus Free  and save the vector maps you need in \Locus\mapsVector on your external card.

Never again without maps! Additionally, vector maps are very small (142 MB for whole Switzerland), detailed, updated and fast to download on your desktop!

“The Truth is in my hands and you should welcome it”

I have heard this sentence several times in my life. The Truth, not just the truth, was always in other hands.

First time was the priest of a Christian Catholic Church. All Catholic believers share the only, eternal Truth and therefore should gift it to others. Somehow his words did not convince me enough to start making proselytes.

Second time were Jehovah’s Witnesses. They asked me if I wanted to become friend of Jesus Christ the Savior, as He is the only Truth. They gifted me with books on Jesus’ life to learn about him … and I thought the New Testament was the only book about Him.

Third time was a Muslim guy. He clearly explained me that only Islam is the Truth and that my only salvation on Earth and in afterlife is to convert to Islam, otherwise death or slavery or eternal perdition will be my fate. I hope he is wrong.

Fourth time was a German atheist. He showed me that the Truth is science, or at maximum a flying spaghetti monster. I told that I feel less psycho eating spaghetti with meat balls and praying a super being than vice versa

Fifth time were Christian Orthodox. They told me about the Orthodox Truth, they suggested me conversion to the only true religion and finally talked about miracles to all who converted to it. I am scared I will miss some miracles in my life.

I believe the Truth is (still) out there.

USSR propaganda vs USA propaganda

USA propaganda is well-known in Western countries. Every war movie, comedy drama, family sitcom, serial and even cartoon is ambassador to USA way of life.

We cried for American soldiers giving their life for world freedom, like Ryan’s friends. Who didn’t share the same feelings of the many losers who fought and won, like Rocky? What about USA baby-sitters, cops, farmers, drivers, journalists, porn-stars who showed us the wonderful American dream? Not to mention the army of doctors, nurses, cosmonauts, dancers, oil drillers, bartenders, librarians and comic superheroes fighting for the good against the evil … and always succeeding in it!

We are so used to such propaganda that we do not consider it propaganda any more: this is the lifestyle we (almost) all dream of, oh yeah!

Probably USSR lost the Cold War because Russian Hollywood productions were not as popular. What would have happened to Western Europeans if they could give a look to USSR propaganda, of course pro Soviet lifestyle?

What about this “White sun of the desert” (English subs), where a single Red Army soldier fights for the freedom of Muslim women “in name of the working class“? Or what about “An office romance” (English subs), grounder of many office sitcoms still popular nowadays ? Or “Winnie Pooh“, the Russian version? And all the war movies USSR produced to glorify the 20 millions Russians, women included, who died in the second world war against Nazis?

Sartori, Beppe Grillo, gli immigrati e il modello Svizzero

Bravo Beppe Grillo che ha rimesso in gioco il problema della cittadinanza ai figli “italiani” degli immigrati, che in altre nazione “invase”, come ricorda Sartori, fanno molti piu’ danni che opere di bene, specie le seconde/terze generazioni che non si sono proprio preoccupate di integrarsi.

Pero’ il concetto di cittadinanza a tempo di Sartori ha un grosso problema, in Italia come in Svizzera.

In Italia la giustizia e la polizia dovrebbero funzionare per potere acchiappare e spedire a casa chi si comporta contro la legge.

In Svizzera fuzionano anche troppo e il razzismo contro l’immigrato e la sua progenie permea la maggioranza della societa’ … e cosi’ probabilmente in ogni nazione.

Infine: chi stabilisce la gravita’ e la responsabilita’ dell’atto illegale compiuto dall’immigrato italianizzato per il quale scatta l’espulsione?

Terza via Sartori, meritocratica in teoria, ardua in realta’. L’immigrato e la sua famiglia devono gia’ affrontare tanti problemi dati dalla popolazione autoctona, ci manca la spada di Damocle dell’espulsione automatica! Per non parlare del problema dei nuclei famigliari spaccati dalle responsabilita’ di singoli.

No, preferisco la via loranablog : una cittadinanza permanente ma meritata.

PS notare che ora siamo tutti a parlare di una questione secondaria mentre l’economia va a fondo …

We should think about our Planet with more gravity

At least depending on where we live. I find this new gravity point of view on our Planet very intriguing. Cold areas: low gravity pull; hot areas: high gravity pull. All measured with a orbiting satellite. Pity no scale is present.

Now some time for science fiction based on this study. Considering that more is the mass in a specific area, higher is gravity, what is that low gravity hole below India? A huge depression in the crust thickness due to a metheorite impact? Or a change in its composition? Do places with vulcanic activites cause more gravity? Or does more gravity promotes vulcano? Do we sense planetary gravity changes with our bodies? Were ancient humans following gravity and therefore crossing Bering towards Americas? Whatever, I like this animation a lot.

Esperti nucleari dell’Enel a Viadana nel 2008, epicentro del terremoto del 25 gennaio 2012!

Il terremoto di oggi ha avuto il suo epicentro in Suzzara e Viadana. Da Suzzara veniva la mia maestra delle elementari. A Viadana gli espertoni nucleari dell’Enel avevano effettuato sopralluoghi nel 2008 per stabilire proprio li’ la costruzione di una nuova centrale nucleare.

Esperti nucleari dell’Enel? Ah aha ha aah, di scuola schettiniana, oserei dire  :D

L’esperto dichiaro’ : “una centrale nucleare ha bisogno di un’ampia zona di rispetto disabitata” – beh, se la costruisci su una zona sismica, poi diventa tutta disabitata. Geniale  :D

 

Commemorate the Jews … and the Gypsies too

Almost every year of my life I commemorated the Shoah. At school, aged not more than 10, and later again, at 17, we went to a theatre drama on Auschwitz. I remember Italian presidents, from Pertini on, celebrating this day. We read Anne Frank’s diary at school and at home. And we cried on it. We know everything about Shoah: numbers, people, movies, from good ones like “Schindler’s list” to crap like “The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas”.

When I was 19, i.e. almost 19 years after I knew about Shoah, a friend showed me a movie called Train de vie. And so I got to know about Porajmos, from a movie on Shoah, actually. Did you know anything about it before reading this post?

How lazy can be a life with a cat …

Let’s tell the truth, since the greencat entered our lives, our week ends turned very lazy.

I mean, outside it is rainy, wet, cold and windy. That’s why greencat likes to find a shelter by us, especially on freshly ironed trousers. Who are we to deny how cosy is a warm flat in winter ?

When more is less: Iphone4 digital “camera”

I am glad flickr.com is flooded with Iphone4 pictures, being now Iphone4 the most used digital camera. For any semi-professional and professional photographer, Iphone picture quality should be just something to laugh at. More pictures, less quality, more visibility to peaks (and half-peaks) of excellence.

At least as long as “quality” will be required in the photography market.

The best camera is NOT the one you have with you, but the one you are willing to carry with you.

Better single mothers than wives?

The friend panorama around us recently changed quite dramatically . It is long that reproduction took the lead and some friends already reached the second or even the third heir. At a smaller pace, some couples with kids broke down.

Nobody knows what’s going on between husband and wife. Nevertheless, quite constantly the wife left the husband (and took the kid with) because not in love any more / tired of her couple life. Unfaithful, violent husbands? Not that I know.

Women who chose such direction are economically independent. I ask myself what then really happened in the past, when the only job of a woman was taking care of the family. Was it really love between our grandparents, or just negated freedom? And if it was so, what are families for nowadays? Do kids really need “mother” and “father” or one parent is more than enough in most of the cases? Really society is “based on the family”, like the never married, catholic priests like to mantra?