Kid taboo are parents. They are true, nobody can criticize them, or it will finish with kicks and punches. Parents are Gods.
Teenager taboo is sex. Teenagers live for and die for sex. They fight, they imitate, they violate, they love… and also have fun. Most of them. Sex is God.
Young adult taboo is job. Whatever long studies can be, job is the first step for future indipendence. Missing jobs, bad jobs, good jobs: long lasting frustrations for short happiness. Job is God.
Middle aged adult taboo are kids. Some love kids, some ignore kids, some hate kids. God is with you when you have kids, mum and daddy too. Parents, Sex, Kids: the circle closes. Job or missing job helps it. Try saying you do not like kids at such age and be ready to be banned from society.
Old people taboo is health. Old people fight and live and die for health. And pray God for having it.
So, tell me your taboo and I will guess your true age.
PS
Is taboo a synonim for God? Ta-boooo, ta-poooo, ka-pooo …
New plans for 2012: going to work by bike. Uphill and downhill for half an hour to go, the same to come back home. Was it possible with my 21 year old bike? No.
Therefore I bought this jewel. Tonight, while admiring my new steel (aluminium?) horse, I came to the conclusion that bikes comprises some of the best human inventions so far, spanning several ten thousand years of human research.
1. The wheel, being probably the oldest. Thank you, oh Mesopotamian engineers!
2. Metal casting, not only for swords – again from Babylon times I suppose.
3. The chain, the first was for slave or for gold necklaces?
4. The lever: genius Archimedes!
5. Cog wheels! Again, thanks Archimedes!
6. The dynamo, where electric and magnetic fields come together. Thank you Mr. Faraday!
7. The light bulb, well, now the L.E.D. – developed in Marconi‘s lab and by Oleg Vladimirovich Losev!
8. Disk brakes, at least for my super duper bike, firstly made by Sir Lanchester!
9. The tire, from natural rubber to modern ones, thanks Mr. Dunlop!
Well, thinking about all of them will never make me feeling alone while biking
I have been quite a nerd in the last month, playing compulsively with “The Witcher“. I was so in it that once my wife asked me for fruits after dinner I replied “… good idea, I have to drag the cow to Dagon” …
Better than a passive movie, better than an active book, the Witcher game surprised me with its script style. Choices made during the game will dramatically affect the events. It is difficult to have the same experience with books or films. Well, now I am ready for The Witcher 2, which incidentally came out just last year.
For a 500€ rental by Europcar Italy, I had to pay an extra 700€ fee just 3 months after I returned the car. If you oddly still want to rent one of their cars (do you work for them?), I would suggest you:
- Never accept a Europcar Italy car already damaged: they will easily find a way to charge you the damage somebody previously did
- Never give back a Europcar Italy car without having somebody inspecting it in front of you, or they will easily charge you whatever damage they will find (any damage happening in their parking slot between the time you parked the car and they inspect it is at your charge)
- Always double check a Europcar Italy contract: Europcar service must sign it too, or the contract will have no value later.
I had to pay 700€ for a scratch (!) I never did and I’ve never seen (!) on a FIAT Punto: the sum was calculated by adding around 500€ of hand work, 100€ of materials and 100€ of logistic expenses. It seems not only Europcar Italy likes to rob its (ex)clients ..
Many of you still probably know that evolution merely acts on our genome sequences. Mutagens have the ability to change the sequence of our genes, resulting in defective proteins which can either lead to disasters like cancer or to positive features like … blond hairs
That’s why you trust GATTACA-like movies or cheap companies sequencing your DNA for 1,000$ – but the story is much more complicated and goes beyond DNA sequences.
It is already known from a few decades that genes can be switched on or off like light bulbs, without the need of altering their sequences. The “switch” is operated by special proteins which clamp DNA and pack it, so that they are physically off or on. But that’s not all, yet.
It’s brand new story that even prions are evolution engines. Yes, prions, those packed fiber-like proteins which, for example, make you crazy like a cow. What was found is that also very-important-proteins, which regulate every protein translation, i.e. control every read out of our genome, have also the ability to “get prionified” and therefore inactivated under some stress conditions.
It’s like if traffic lights got inactivated in rush hours: chaos would rise, but also new ways to reach home. This is exactly what was observed in yeast cells with such prionified very-important-proteins: death, but also very quick new ways of adapatation to stress conditions.
Interesting, isn’t it? Newly discovered fast and randomized adaptation changes that are driven by… prions! In the picture: cadavers of yeast which did not develop fast enough to survive baking stress
- waking up early enough in the morning the be the first on the slope
- giving lunch time the smallest time possible
- covering every slope possible
- being the last on the slope going home
… then you will appreciate the skiing map of this post
We had another ’round -10°C day today in Zurich. In Italy you say “it’s so cold penguins come through the windows”. In Switzerland, they just take a walk down to the zoo Click HERE for the full reportage.
Posted by loranablog 
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