tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-104419392024-03-13T06:25:44.667+01:00Il Sette Bello"Hic sunt leones"
("Here be lions.")Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger454125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10441939.post-81073931090440240142016-06-08T18:18:00.000+02:002016-06-08T18:18:26.102+02:00The rise and rise of small wines<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">I wrote this story for Wanted In Rome some years ago. They no longer have the link live on their website. So here it is in full.</span></i></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"> </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">By Bernhard Warner</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJlqCGP3RMNIfBeDhRUjnUxVqTnRrMs_dytUJ0BE99k_dTkW3gd_-DvOy-96CJSBybYwx1tJClkbNie9ueJLzMtS9xDXGD1PaxAsgug-bygetOcgeKIFGRe1sZnohRCxMldq8New/s1600/14072007016.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJlqCGP3RMNIfBeDhRUjnUxVqTnRrMs_dytUJ0BE99k_dTkW3gd_-DvOy-96CJSBybYwx1tJClkbNie9ueJLzMtS9xDXGD1PaxAsgug-bygetOcgeKIFGRe1sZnohRCxMldq8New/s320/14072007016.jpg" width="240" /></a><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">The mid-1980s was a promising period in
Italy. The <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Azzurri</i> were champions of
the soccer world. A dip in oil prices triggered a brief economic recovery. And,
in the sleepy villages just outside the Marchigiana port city of Ancona, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">i contadini</i> could pick up jugs of the
local wine for next to nothing.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsmd4dCfrmktCAR-Gq2X51BI88BVS_2UIxamB883P6mICBs2FMxKQIH-u6_fcaGE2IoaCNjsn_LqxLgADMrhPBDMWxyHegpHrofidpW_-ExdHaStHXVbdBBBFEQooI3Apd4LraKw/s1600/14072007017.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsmd4dCfrmktCAR-Gq2X51BI88BVS_2UIxamB883P6mICBs2FMxKQIH-u6_fcaGE2IoaCNjsn_LqxLgADMrhPBDMWxyHegpHrofidpW_-ExdHaStHXVbdBBBFEQooI3Apd4LraKw/s320/14072007017.jpg" width="320" /></a><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Today, of course, Italy is the defending
champs, but that’s about all. The sputtering economy dominates dinner
conversations, and, in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">piccolo </i>Morro
d’Alba region north of Ancona, the old-timers have seen their beloved local
wine – the Lacrima di Morro d’Alba – creep ever upward in price once the little
known varietal earned a DOC - </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">denominazione di origine controllata - </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">designation in 1985. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">From that day, the contadini’s secret was
out. Wine lovers took notice of this little grape with a name that’s a
mouth-full.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">“The external market is big for us today. We
get requests from importers in America, Germany and Switzerland,” says
Piergiovanni Giusti (pictured at left), a third-generation winemaker who this year expects to
produce about 45,000 bottles of Lacrima di Morro d’Alba. <a href="http://www.lacrimagiusti.it/pagina.php?idpagina=5" target="_blank">Giusti</a> will export
three full-bodied reds and a </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">rosé</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">For the uninitiated, the grapes pack a
distinctive taste – there is little in common with the region’s most productive
grape, the sangiovese. The Lacrima di Morro d’Alba has a pronounced, fruity
perfume but is light enough to serve with fish dishes, a necessity as this is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">stoccafisso</i> country.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Giusti calculates 40 per cent of his yield
this year will be exported outside of Italy, to New York, California and across
Europe. This is a big change from just a decade ago when he and his father,
Luigi, were making wine that was almost exclusively imbibed in the hill towns
surrounding Ancona. “The change has come in the past decade,” he remarks. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">A similar phenomenon is happening across
Italy. Italy is unique. It has over 300 indigenous grape varieties, says
Terenzio Medri, president of Associazione Italiana Sommeliers. “There are at
least five or ten grape varieties specific to a particular region. And each is
distinct. The taste of Tuscany is different from the taste of Piedmont. It’s
different from the taste of Friuli and the taste of Emilia Romagna. The
distinctions can be observed from hill to hill, terrain to terrain,” Medri
says.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">“Indigenous wines,” he continues, “are very
important to the future of Italy’s wine market.” It used to be that when a
diner scanned a wine list at a restaurant in Tokyo, London or New York, the
choice was limited to some well-known sangiovese or Montepulciano blends from
Tuscany or Barolos or Barbarescos from Piedmont. “This is how the international
market viewed Italian wines, primarily from these larger regions. But now if
you want wine from a particular territory, you can find it. This is very
important.”</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">To be sure, it’s a gradual education. Many
indigenous wines simply don’t have the distribution clout of a Brunello di
Montalcino or a Barolo. And that’s probably okay – for now. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">With a forecast of 550,000 bottles this year,
the total output of Lacrima di Morro d’Alba still limits the export potential.
So, the six communities that produce Lacrima di Morro d’Alba, named for the
quaint hill town Morro d’Alba, have little choice but to concentrate on quality
over quantity, investing each year in upgrading the production process. They
scored a DOC rating a decade ago and figure the wine quality is good enough to
put them in the running for the coveted DOCG designation, Italy’s most
prestigious wine rating.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">That this obscure vintage is finally getting
noticed by wine <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">appassionati</i> should
come as no surprise. It’s an ancient varietal that, legend has it, was a
favourite of Federico Barbarossa’s court. But in the ensuing centuries, the
grape has fallen into obscurity as Central Italy developed its love affair with
heartier grape varieties, namely, the ubiquitous sangiovese and montepulciano.
As Federico I’s favoured wine makes its comeback, the biggest confusion may be
in the curious name. “People see ‘Alba’ and think the wine is produced in
Piedmont,” says Giusti.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">“Lacrime,” or tears, is a reference to the
grape itself. At the time of harvest the grape is brimming with juices, until
one day a ruby teardrop appears on the skin. “That’s the signal,” Giusti says.
“It’s ready for harvesting.”</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">About 100 km south, near the Marche-Abruzzo
border, the hilly terrain tumbles dramatically as it nears the sea. It must be
hell to manoeuvre a tractor up these slopes, but it’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">terra ideale</i> for the vines. They are in the perfect position to
catch the sea mist in the morning and they have prolonged exposure to the sun
in the afternoon. This is pecorino country, another local grape that is winning
over the critics and wine lovers alike, even if the name sounds a bit, well,
cheesy.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">“Certainly there’s a bit of confusion, but
it’s limited exclusively to the occasional drinker,” says Simone Capecci, a
Marchigiano winemaker whose family, at <a href="http://www.sansavino.com/" target="_blank">Poderi Capecci</a>, specialises in vino
pecorino. Its “Ciprea” pecorino, a flavourful white with a crisp, golden hue
and citrusy bouquet, is now sold in Denmark, Japan, Germany, America, France
and Belgium. About 40 per cent a year of the yield is sold outside of Italy,
says Capecci.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">“Pecorino is a wine that’s in fashion now,”
says Medri, echoing a familiar refrain from sommeliers contacted for this
article. Like the Lacrima di Morro, the Pecorino has been rediscovered in the
past decade by discerning wine lovers, thanks to the work of a few family-run
vineyards in the Offida region of Le Marche and just over the border in
Abruzzo. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">The grape is an ancient one, first cultivated
by the ancient Romans, primarily on the eastern slopes of the Apennines. The
grape is a bit delicate – it’s generally grown between other varieties for
protective purposes – but it seems to be thriving today on its hilly perch. And
it’s becoming a conversation piece at Manhattan cocktail parties, or so another
journalist informed me recently.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">The contadini’s loss is New Yorkers gain,
evidently.</span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10441939.post-13298816160264608202015-10-09T11:03:00.000+02:002015-10-09T11:03:00.837+02:00New documentary film on DRC's child miners to debut this month<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgStqerXZDaVtDjBfND5qtjdYsFv5PyGYnrmcSvevkqoG_FVmS3T4nFkurOCOp3w09B5RLjnx8mRWAZYlYLiVc4MfMqITKdly628kxF4vasoghKHRjmk_XVwYKIv0viTPbexiIHYw/s1600/Congo+school.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="195" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgStqerXZDaVtDjBfND5qtjdYsFv5PyGYnrmcSvevkqoG_FVmS3T4nFkurOCOp3w09B5RLjnx8mRWAZYlYLiVc4MfMqITKdly628kxF4vasoghKHRjmk_XVwYKIv0viTPbexiIHYw/s320/Congo+school.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
We’re about to debut our work on a special project, an important documentary film, <em>Maisha: A New Life Outside the Mines. </em>It
takes you inside the copper and cobalt mines of Democratic Republic of
the Congo, the first rung of the global supply chain of “digital
minerals” that is trapping millions in poverty.<br />
<br />
The film will make its debut in Rome on 29 October at 4:00 p.m. at <a href="https://www.google.it/maps/place/Piazza+Pia,+3,+00193+Roma/@41.9030993,12.4641115,17z/data=!4m7!1m4!3m3!1s0x132f605c53ea0af3:0xfe387b36dba6baff!2sPiazza+Pia,+3,+00193+Roma!3b1!3m1!1s0x132f605c53ea0af3:0xfe387b36dba6baff" target="_blank">Radio Vaticana, Sala Marconi, Piazza Pia 3</a>.<strong> </strong>It will be followed by an important round-table discussion on conflict minerals. Full details are <a href="http://www.fondazionebuonpastore.org/news/our-new-documentary-film-about-dangers-congos-mining-industry-be-screened-rome" target="_blank">here</a>. <br />
<strong></strong><br />
<strong><br /></strong>
Here are some images from our <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/44534705@N00/albums/72157653095204751" target="_blank">reporting trip</a> to the DRC<strong>.</strong><br />
<br />
<b>Background on the film: </b><br />
This spring, me and the Italian documentary filmmaker Luca Paradiso were granted unprecedented access to the
artisanal pit mines around Kolwezi, located in the DRC's mineral-rich
Katanga region. This little known part of the w<a href="http://www.fondazionebuonpastore.org//progetti/walking-sisters-deliver-results-impoverished-congolese-kolwezi">powerful grassroots project run by the Good Shepherd Sisters</a>
that is helping the most at-risk by building an alternative to the
mines - a school for ex-child miners, and a cooperative farm and a
budding clothing design enterprise for former miners.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOsq4swm5c-HaK5UEDDmlJRY7bwXa6AaUwuM_Q0oounLcu9Vfv00y3cDySh6Lz04olldatJowEtLDbpdxqhkX38yVlGynzdV5u9MTjNB9K9I_inya1ZKpBFLN11oP4ivkrJ_M-nA/s1600/FOTO+cobalt+2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOsq4swm5c-HaK5UEDDmlJRY7bwXa6AaUwuM_Q0oounLcu9Vfv00y3cDySh6Lz04olldatJowEtLDbpdxqhkX38yVlGynzdV5u9MTjNB9K9I_inya1ZKpBFLN11oP4ivkrJ_M-nA/s320/FOTO+cobalt+2.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
orld powers our digital
age, giving us the raw materials for mobile phones, computers and the
electric grid. We saw first-hand what human rights activists had been reporting indirectly: that there is an appalling level of human misery and
exploitation in the mines. We also reported on a <br />
<br />
The 30-minute film, sponsored by the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See,
offers a rare, up-close look inside the harsh -- and even lethal --
world of artisanal copper and cobalt mining. The film shares a hopeful
message as well, showing how an impoverished Congolese community is
beating the odds to to build a better, more sustainable tomorrow, and in
turn laying waste to the cycle of poverty, exploitation and abuse that
traps so many here.<br />
<br />
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10441939.post-86385956577272509332015-02-01T17:34:00.002+01:002015-02-03T10:32:49.895+01:00Big data meets Serial (sort of): our new podcast<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Podcast fans, we know you're mourning the end of Serial season 1. Why not try this new podcast (co-produced by moi and a small team of talented journalists)? It involves science, big data, technology and gripping tales. Some great music too! It's called <a href="http://www.ibm.com/smarterplanet/us/en/dispatches/wildducks/mars/about.html" target="_blank">Wild Ducks</a>. Let me know what you think!<br />
<br />
<iframe width="100%" height="450" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/users/134114719&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true"></iframe>
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10441939.post-25451687060662766772014-07-08T13:53:00.002+02:002014-07-08T13:53:22.664+02:00A geriatric attack on Italy's bloggers<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"></span><span lang="EN-GB"><i>This article originally ran in a <a href="http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,20411-2367336,00.html" target="_blank">October, 24, 2007 article</a>
in Times Online, back when I was a columnist there. Now that it's lost
behind a firewall I've resurrected the original, unedited version here.</i> </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">By Bernhard Warner</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">By G8 standards, Italy is a strange country
to define. To put it simply, it is a nation of octogenarian lawmakers elected
by slightly younger voters, 70-year-old pensioners. Everyone else is
inconsequential.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">The prime minister Romano Prodi is a spry 68,
knocking off 71-year-old Silvio Berlusconi in last year’s election. President
Giorgio Napolitano, 82, has six more years left on his term; his predecessor
was 86 when he called it quits. In the unlikely event Italy declares war, the
decision will come from a head of state that was a month shy of 20 when the
Germans surrendered in World War II.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">This creaky
perspective is a necessary introduction to any discussion about Italian
politics with outsiders, I find. If the Italian government seems unable to
adapt to the modern world, the explanation is quite simple. Your country would
operate like this too if your grandparents were in charge.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">Recently,
Italian lawmakers once again took aim at modern life, introducing an incredibly
broad law that would effectively require all bloggers, and even users of social
networks, to register with the state. Even a harmless blog about a favourite
football squad or a teenager grousing about life’s unfairness would be subject
to government oversight, and even taxation -- even if it’s not a commercial web
site. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">Outside
Italy, the legislation has generated sniggers from hardly sympathetic industry
observers. Boingboing cleverly <a href="http://www.boingboing.net/2007/10/22/italy-proposes-a-min.html" target="_blank">reports</a> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"></span><span lang="EN-GB">Italy is proposing a “Ministry of Blogging.” Out-law.com </span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.out-law.com/page-8570" target="_blank">plays it straighter</a>, calling the measure an “anti-blogger”
law.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">I understand
the lack of alarm in their tone. We’ve been down this road countless times.
Panicky government officials, whether they are in Harare, Beijing or Rome (yes,
this is the second time it’s been proposed here), pronounce a brand new muzzle
for the internet, and clever netizens simply find a way around it. Even that
agitated teen probably has a foolproof way of masking his IP address. And
besides, it could be easily argued that a Blogger or Typepad blog is hosted on
a server well outside the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">bel paese</i>,
making a stupid law virtually unenforceable. And finally this is Italy, a place
where plumbers and captains of industry alike are serial tax evaders. Don’t
sweat it, amico. Enjoy the sunshine, vino rosso and tagliatelle. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">Maybe it is
because of all these obvious points that the draft law is already going through
some revisions. If it is ratified – and at the moment it looks frighteningly
likely – the Ministry of Communications would decide who must register with the
state.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">This is
hardly comforting. The intent of this draft law, as it was written when it
breezed through the Council of Ministers on Oct. 12, would be to gag bloggers,
who, for those in power, have become a particularly problematic force of late.
They are lead by the crusading (some say “populist”) Beppe Grillo, a
comedian-turned-activist-turned-blogger. Grillo is one of the best-read
commentators on Italian life, both in and, thanks to his English-language blog
(</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">http://www.beppegrillo.it/english.php)</span><span lang="EN-GB">,
outside of the country. He agitates on behalf of the disenfranchised (code for:
Italian youth), campaigning for more transparent government and business. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">Grillo
believes the law is directed at him. Whether it is or not doesn’t really
matter. The law’s impact would turn all bloggers in Italy into potential
outlaws. This could be great for their traffic, I realise, but hell on the
business aspirations of an Italian web startup, not to mention any tech company
that wants to sell its blog publishing software in Italy, or open a social
network here. In addition to driving out potential tech jobs, the stifling of
free speech also can have a dramatic chilling effect on all forms of free
expression, the arts and scholarship. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">I am
thinking specifically here of my students. I teach an introductory journalism
course at John Cabot University in Rome. My students cover the city and
university affairs in an online blog-style newspaper called “<a href="http://thematthew.typepad.com/" target="_blank">The MatthewOnline</a>”</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"></span><span lang="EN-GB">. If
this law is to pass, we could not simply move the blog to an offshore server.
We’d be one of the few who would be forced to abide by this crazy law.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">Each
semester, I’d have to get 20 or so students registered with the Ministry of
Communications, a bureaucratic nightmare that no doubt would take more than a
semester to complete, and would turn a generation of idealistic journalists
away from the field forever, perhaps into something more rewarding like the
assault rifle lobby. So, instead of teaching aspiring journalists about news
reporting by having them do some actual news reporting, we could spend three
months doing lead-writing exercises from a textbook. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">And so I appeal
to Italy’s Communications Minister, Paolo Gentiloni, a former journalist
himself, and </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Ricardo Franco Levi, </span><span lang="EN-GB">the lawmaker
who conceived of this wrong-headed bill. Is silencing the youth of this country
really the best solution to dealing with a few squeaky wheels?</span></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10441939.post-71573275326172412722014-07-03T15:45:00.001+02:002014-07-03T15:46:34.161+02:00An interview with Jon Rafman, digital artist<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><i>This article first appeared in ContemporArt in January, 2013, in Italian. I have dug up the original draft, in English, and reposted it here following my interview with Rafman in November, 2012. I'm posting it here after getting a note that his latest <a href="http://camstl.org/exhibitions/front-room/jon-rafman-the-end-of-the-end-of-the-end/" target="_blank">exhibition opened</a> at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis. Hoping it comes to Rome, too!</i> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">It may be one of the most ambitious corporate projects of the Internet era: mapping the entire planet street-by-street, alley-by-alley. This has been the goal at Google since 2007 when it launched Google Street View for select cities in the United States. Today, a fleet of Street View cars equipped with a boom-like camera </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">circle the globe </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: line-through; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">capturing a 360-degree street-level perspective of even the streets you’d never dare venture down</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: line-through; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">. Their exploration will feed one of the most heavily used mobile apps on the planet: Google Maps. When the Street View drivers are finished circumnavigating the world, they will start all over again, driving around the entire planet, photographing as they go, street-by-street, alley-by-alley.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">It’s debatable whether Google will ever make a dime off such a time-consuming venture. No matter. It’s become a public good -- it keeps us from getting lost. It is also the inspiration for one of the digital art world’s best-traveled exhibitions in recent years: Jon Rafman’s “<a href="http://9-eyes.com/" target="_blank">9-Eyes</a>,” which rolled into Rome’s MACRO Testaccio this Fall after an extended stint at London’s Saatchi Gallery.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">To be sure, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Rafman’s 9-Eyes is as determined an effort as Google Street View. Fascinated by the idea Google would attempt to photograph and index every shop, house, and apartment block on the planet (and all the characters who live on the street below), Rafman started his own exploration</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, retracing their route</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">. Clicking through the world of Street View for hours and days on end, he went in search of the fascinating amid mundane shots of street life. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What he found has startled gallery-goers for more than two years. One screen-grab image (pictured above) he pulled from Street View shows a toddler who was abandoned outside a Gucci shop in Taipei crawling with determination and purpose, destination unknown. Another is a scene of sheer panic: neighbors rushing to the scene of a fire in a residential neighborhood in St. Catherine, Ontario. And then there is the oddly poignant</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">,</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: line-through; vertical-align: baseline;">,</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> like one shot that would move even the most hard-to-impress Roman: a completely desolate Altare della Patria save for a lone gladiator holding his helmet as if pondering his next battle.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">ContemporArt </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">spoke to the 30-year-old Rafman last month via Skype to discuss his inspiration behind the project and what he thought of the future of digital art. He was back in his hometown, Montreal. For a change. “I lived in Rome all summer. I did at residency at the MACRO, and became friends with the curators. That’s how 9-Eyes came to Rome. It was a last-minute addition,” he explained. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">There are only a few of Rafman’s prints at the MACRO. Luckily for those of us in </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Italy</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: line-through; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, they are many of the ones that have been discussed, debated and dissected on Internet discussion forums. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The reception to 9 Eyes has been as intense on <a href="http://www.reddit.com/search?q=jon+rafman&sort=comments" target="_blank">Reddit</a>, the popular online discussion forum favored by the Net’s cognoscenti, as it has in leading art publications and in down-market London tabloids who were obsessed with the voyeuristic element of it. “The tabloids treated the exhibition more like a sensational human interest story, while the more sophisticated publications treated it on a much more enlightened level,” he said, touching on the implications of what this means for the future of digital as an art form.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Rafman seemed genuinely impressed by the level of discourse from all sides. “I didn’t realize how much of a nerve this was to going to hit when I started the project. I knew, to myself, that there was something really special here, but I do have to say I’m surprised by the level of interest, and how varied it’s been.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Rafman got the idea for</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> 9 Eyes</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> in 2008</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: line-through; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> at the height of his interest in the Net.art movement that had him </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">previously </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">exploring, for example, some of the more fetishistic parts of Second Life, a virtual world where users adopt</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: line-through; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> super-sexual avatars and fantastic digital personae to represent them</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">selves</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">. “It was almost a space that was more real than </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">the </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">real world because it exhibited its own artificiality,” he said of the experience</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> there</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Second Life may be </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="st">passé</span></span> today, but the compulsive “Internet surf culture” that dominated this world is alive and well in what Rafman </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="st"> </span>tried to achieve with 9 Eyes -- a reference to the 9 camera lenses mounted to the top of the Google Street View car. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“And it’s snowballed from there</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">,” he said.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: line-through; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">2008, that’s a long time in Internet years.” </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">9 Eyes has been now shown across Europe, North America and Asia. It’s turned Rafman into a global traveler, enabling him to see in person the same streets of far-away cities that he had first explored from his desk in Google Street View. This is something truly unique to our shrunken Web 2.0 world, he says. “When you go to a place for the first time after you’ve already visited it, it creates a completely different aura to that place.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Another unique aspect of his work is the thorny issue of ownership. Technically, the images are all Google’s. Rafman just curates the best pieces. Google, he says, has kept its distance from 9 Eyes. The search engine giant does not try to put the brakes on Rafman’s ever evolving artistic treatment of its intellectual property. Rafman, for his part, says he is just paying homage to Google’s adventurous spirit and to the art it creates every day for Street View. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Never before in human history has anyone tried to photograph the entire world from a human experience,” Rafman remarks. “Not only once, but continuously. That is still inconceivable to me. That is the inspiration for me, the fact that it is an activity that is practically endless. Technically, 9 Eyes will never end.”</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10441939.post-16894717793004427452013-05-27T16:27:00.001+02:002013-05-27T16:27:21.214+02:00Pirates run aground at the polls: The early days of the Pirate Party<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span lang="EN-GB"><i>This article originally ran in a <a href="http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,20411-2367336,00.html" target="_blank">September, 20, 2006 article</a>
in Times Online, back when I was a columnist there. Now that it's lost
behind a firewall I've resurrected the original, unedited version here.</i> </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><b>By Bernhard Warner</b> </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">Was it naïve to think a populist movement galvanised
by a call of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">downloads for all!</i> could
sweep into political power? This rueful question is on the minds of many young
Swedes this week after national elections.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">The youth-dominated Piracy Party, founded
earlier this year in Sweden before spreading to 16 other countries including
Britain, failed in its first trip to the polls on Sunday. A party founded on
three basic principles – to reform commercial copyright, eradicate meddlesome
patent laws and stop the surveillance of file-sharers – proved to be less popular
with the voters than tax cuts and job growth, as promised by the victorious
right-leaning Moderate Party.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">While the official tally was still unavailable
as of press time, the Piracy Party was expected to amass in the area of one
percent of the popular vote. They had been hoping for four percent (or roughly
300,000 votes), a tally required to earn seats in Parliament and begin the
arduous task of convincing lawmakers of the need to rewrite legislation
governing copyright and patents and to strengthen privacy protections for all
netizens.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">The BitTorrent generation’s most organised
push yet for copyright reform, certainly the net’s most popular rallying cry,
will now be stalled for at least two more years – until after the 2009 European
Parliamentary elections, an election the Piracy Party has in its sights.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">“Obviously, we’re not happy we didn’t get
more of the vote,” <span style="color: black;">Balder Lingegard, a university
student from Gothenburg who serves as the Pirate Party secretary and ran for an
MP seat, told me </span>this week after a full day of classes<span style="color: black;">. “But if you think what we’ve accomplished for an
organisation with such financial limitations, the mood is still high.”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">When we spoke last week, on the eve of the
elections, he was upbeat and a bit anxious. The early poll results showed promise,
and it dawned on him that if successful, the 22-year-old would have to figure
out a way to juggle his quantum physics classes with his Parliamentary
obligations. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Kids these days!</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">But instead, as Mr. Lingegard dolefully
noted this week, it’s back to the books. He says the party’s primary focus now
is to get its 9,500 registered members more involved by organising into
regional groups to keep the message alive and tap into the next generation of would-be
voters, the 14- to 19-year-olds. Above all, he says, the party needs to clarify
its position: that it’s not a bunch of freeloaders, an image that dogged the
party throughout the campaign.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">“The largest problem we had was the party
was not considered a serious party. Most of the people we met considered us to
be some kind of joke. Some thought we had no serious platform, that we just
wanted stuff for free. We believe that this image is beginning to change,” he
says.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">The issue winning over the sceptical ones
is the spectre of increased surveillance. “No one wants a surveillance nation
like you have in Britain” he says. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Alluding to the movement’s appeal overseas,
Mr. Lingegard vowed the Piracy Party will remain an active voice in the digital
copyright debate. Perhaps the party’s rhetoric is already sinking in. Starting
with the campaign, some of the more prominent Swedish political candidates have
began to question for the first time publicly whether the criminalisation of
file-sharing ought to be addressed. Whether it’s a political stunt on their
parts to appeal to young voters remains to be seen.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">To be sure, whether the Piracy Party will
last to the 2009 European elections is, historically speaking, a long shot.
Political parties formed on a narrow set of issues – lest you forget, the
Piracy Party proudly takes no stance on such hotly debated issues as foreign
policy, the euro, taxation or the environment – often quickly fall out of
favour with the populace. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Even in the aftermath of defeat, the party
is not calling for any radical changes; crucially, it sees no need in adding to
its platform the concerns of let’s call it the analogue world: namely, clean
air, job security and the euro. The Party, says Mr. Lingegard, has attracted
members who were former anarchists, nationalists and communists. “If we were to
appeal more to the general public with these issues, the 9,500 members we have
today would leave.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">In my first conversation with Mr. Lingegard
in June,
I asked him how he would define the party using conventional political labels.
Is the Piracy Party centrist, I asked? Right or left? Could it be libertarian
or even communist? Certainly, elements of each would appeal to a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">sharing-is-good, keep-government-out</i>
platform. Mr. Lingegard responded there is no <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">–ist</i> that applies to the Piracy Party. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Perhaps that clinched the party’s downfall.
To quote one famous <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">–ist</i>, Vladimir
Ilyich Lenin: “Politics begin where the masses are, not where there are
thousands, but where there are millions. That is where serious politics begin.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">It’s a bitter lesson
learned for this young movement. Filesharers of the world, you are still not
united.</span>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10441939.post-85961237709119082742013-05-27T16:22:00.005+02:002013-05-27T16:22:58.249+02:00The Politics of Piracy: the origin of the Pirate Party Movement<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<i>This article originally ran in <a href="http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,20411-2216493,00.html" target="_blank">a June 8, 2006 article</a> in Times Online, back when I was a columnist there. Now that it's lost behind a firewall I've resurrected the original, unedited version here.</i><br />
<br />
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span lang="EN-GB">By Bernhard Warner</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">If file-sharing BitTorrent fanatics were to
form a political party what would it stand for? Would it adhere to a left-leaning
platform, prioritising social services? After all, “free” is their mantra. Or,
would it take a page from the political right, arguing for smaller government
and free market ideals? To be sure, your typical downloader’s biggest enemy is
government intervention.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Vast in numbers, highly educated, well
connected, downloaders are a political force. And yet it’s highly unlikely any
of the major political parties in the West would consider taking them under
their wing any time soon. For that reason, some 6,000 Swedes (and counting)
have formed their own political party: <a href="http://www2.piratpartiet.se/" target="_blank">The Pirate Party</a>.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">To be clear, the Pirate Party doesn’t just
represent all-you-can-eat downloaders, but downloading is the principal
activity this group -- ranging from their teens to late 50s -- seems to have in
common. “For a lot of members this is the first political party they’ve ever
joined,” says 21-year-old Balder Lingegard, an engineering student from
Gothenburg who serves as the Pirate Party secretary and is a Parliamentary
candidate in this September’s national election. “For some, they have felt
betrayed by the political system for a long time, feeling it did not represent
their interests. Others felt as if there was never an important enough issue
for them to take a political stand.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB">That “important
issue” occurred last week in the form of a raid by Swedish police on <a href="http://thepiratebay.org/" target="_blank">The PirateBay</a>, a community of over 1 million BitTorrent users who
use the popular technology to exchange all manner of files from copyrighted
movies, video games and music to open source software. Not surprisingly, Hollywood
executives and record labels have been trying to shut down the Pirate Bay for
over a year. On May 31, they <a href="http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=internetNews&storyID=2006-06-02T164338Z_01_L02412649_RTRUKOC_0_US-MEDIA-SWEDEN-PIRATES.xml" target="_blank">succeeded</a> – if only briefly.
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB">The uproar from
the take-down triggered something of a rarity in the West: political activism
among the Xbox Generation. An estimated 1,000 youths took to the streets of
Stockholm and Gothenburg on 3 June to protest the raid in rallies hastily
organised by The Pirate Party. While the Pirate Party is not affiliated with
the Pirate Bay, the party has used the controversy to pick up much-needed
support before the national elections three months away. The party tripled
membership in under week, putting it at over 6,000, and the publicity from the
raid is giving the party, formed in January, much needed exposure.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB">Now, the party is
thinking big. Its goal is nothing short of representation in Parliament,
meaning it will have to capture at least four percent of the popular vote in
September. It intends to put 140 candidates on the ballot vying for the 349
seats in Parliament. To appeal to the estimated 1.5 million active downloaders
in Sweden (a figure, it must be noted, supplied by the Party), the Pirate Party
has been fine-tuning its message to the masses. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">“We have three basic pillars to our
political platform: shared culture, free knowledge and a protected private
life,” says Lingegard. That means: 1) suspending copyright protections five
years after the creation of a particular work (shared culture), 2) the
abolition of patents (free knowledge) and 3) enhanced individual privacy that
would seek to eradicate pesky surveillance cameras (protected private life). </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">The fact that Sweden, a member of the EU
and WTO, is governed by international agreements that would make points 1 and 2
nearly impossible promises to fulfil is of little concern to Lingegard. “Sweden
is regulated by national treaties, we are aware of that. But still, this is a
good place to start,” he says confidently.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">But what about foreign policy, for example?
Where does the Pirate Party stand on the war in Iraq or the adoption of the
euro? “Our standpoint is simple: We take no standpoint on those issues,” he
says. Instead, the Pirate Party, if elected, plans to throw all its support
behind the top party as long as they, in turn, support the “shared culture,
free knowledge and a protected private life” platform of the Pirate Party. In
that way, says Lingegard, the Pirate Party will forever escape the convenient
labels of left, right or centrist.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">But to regard the Pirate Party members, and
downloaders in general, as opportunists would perhaps be selling short the
movement. Lingegard describes the core Party member as culturally aware,
concerned for the future and technologically sophisticated. They bank online,
shop online and, of course, share online, which would make them, to use traditional
political labels, consumerist <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">and</i>
communist chic. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Perhaps this is what Lingegard means when
he says the political establishment in Sweden just doesn’t understand this
constituency. But name for me an elected official anywhere who understands a voting
bloc that, as Lingegard says, is neither “left, nor centre nor right”. (We can
certainly disqualify any head of state who thinks it’s called “The Internets”).
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">We may be searching for years for a familiar
–<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ist</i> that could help define their
politics. But, thanks to Pirate Bay, we can rule out one. They are no longer
isolationists.</span></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10441939.post-19032376275581107122012-08-27T12:45:00.001+02:002012-08-27T12:45:43.690+02:00Wanted: your most vivid vacation memories<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Have you ever spent any time in the hills of Le Marche, underneath the commanding Monti Sibillini range, enjoying a fine glass of Verdicchio or Pecorino... at a place called <a href="http://www.sibillinislow.com/" target="_blank">Casa Chiocciola</a>? If you've ever been a guest at our lovely hilltop get-away, we'd be grateful if you could share a few words <a href="http://www.tripadvisor.com/VacationRentalReview-g1226846-d3254348-Casa_Chiocciola_Country_House_Amandola_Italy-Amandola_Province_of_Fermo_Marche.html" target="_blank">about your experience here</a> with others on TripAdvisor.<br />
<br />
Grazie</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10441939.post-64106646234039367092012-08-27T12:40:00.000+02:002012-08-27T12:40:25.195+02:00Why it's a good thing to stop and watch the fireflies<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
A few weeks back some guests who spent the week at <a href="http://www.sibillinislow.com/" target="_blank">Casa Chiocciola</a>, our place in Amandola, left us this sweet note. I thought I'd share it with you here:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<br />
My wife described our stay as magical; the house was great,
the views terrific and the wildlife stupendous. We have never seen so
many butterflies in one<span class="userContent"> place at one time and together with the
humming bird moths we spend many an hour trying to photograph them.
Unfortunately they moved so fast that many of the photos we took are
completely out of focus. We did manage to get a few though. However the
outstanding event was one night when there were myriads of fireflies. We have never seen them before and it was magical.</span></blockquote>
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10441939.post-88239619804312009812012-07-11T17:19:00.000+02:002012-08-27T12:46:43.543+02:00Summer time, and the living is easy<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgzMpRCLq4kaM1uOzSY8DDHWKixedqv3xTLFKDcftcyWRvgoh_jEdJGKJ7nb9FLGOH9-QsexTY-_5ez0YByNG_s78xWQAmhhI9F7x-VMoSRkWjBN-kM4yp6po899gGUUEaSa9EnA/s1600/olive+tree.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgzMpRCLq4kaM1uOzSY8DDHWKixedqv3xTLFKDcftcyWRvgoh_jEdJGKJ7nb9FLGOH9-QsexTY-_5ez0YByNG_s78xWQAmhhI9F7x-VMoSRkWjBN-kM4yp6po899gGUUEaSa9EnA/s320/olive+tree.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
We're in the middle of one of those Italian summer heat waves where life
in the city is pretty unbearable, sleep-deprived unbearable that is.
Thank goodness we're far away from that. We're in Sant'Ippolito at <a href="http://www.sibillinislow.com/" target="_blank">Casa Chiocciola</a>
for the next two weeks where there's a lovely breeze and the trees hang
low with fruit and where the girls can run around in their <i>mutande</i>,
trudging over the grass and splashing in an inflatable pool we've set
up underneath two shady oaks. It's a real paradise for them here and I
cannot help but smile as I see them shriek in delight as they chase
butterflies and throw stones off the bank into the roadway, and find
mischief that only two-year-olds can find in the countryside when
they're allowed to run free. To see two people love this place as much
as their dad fills me with tremendous pride. It will be theirs some day
(hopefully, <i>senza mutuo</i>), I guess.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtn7YfDfJLA4K1cfxW8ia9GZjwJrZVHqV949Z9fy5k_tNsY7bCjauS1moGcUjy_oUJFCrc1rqT-gGMjGf6305zTOPUs6vtoJQollFwVHx89EZUXtujpGaoHdVEMYfUwrdxUiXghA/s1600/raccolta+.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtn7YfDfJLA4K1cfxW8ia9GZjwJrZVHqV949Z9fy5k_tNsY7bCjauS1moGcUjy_oUJFCrc1rqT-gGMjGf6305zTOPUs6vtoJQollFwVHx89EZUXtujpGaoHdVEMYfUwrdxUiXghA/s320/raccolta+.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
2012 is something of a landmark year for me and for this place – it's our 10-year anniversary. Amazingly, I've been coming here for one-quarter of my life. In those early years I had no idea what would become of this place. I was living in another country, living on a journalist salary, with big debts to pay. My grasp of the language was tenuous. My confusion over Italian tax law and red tape was even more daunting. I had no roots here. I had no real claim to this land, this place, these people, their history. But a lot has happened in just a few years. Xtina and I have made Amandola a true second home, a second home that squeezes in even in-laws from time to time.<br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9tZbC16mXhfFJ5prFB4EDavbQT6ZJ4YVDL-JJQykmrvi9ZZb2izDdOuAfFbpbizCbY-D3ToLnfwrMI_UVhtPcULV9EzXSYzjJSJL-J6FGBhCa8LCJDJqvRiDWtnbJHBJVC8RoWQ/s1600/piscina.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9tZbC16mXhfFJ5prFB4EDavbQT6ZJ4YVDL-JJQykmrvi9ZZb2izDdOuAfFbpbizCbY-D3ToLnfwrMI_UVhtPcULV9EzXSYzjJSJL-J6FGBhCa8LCJDJqvRiDWtnbJHBJVC8RoWQ/s320/piscina.jpg" width="320" /></a>The girls seem to complete this harmonious picture. They enjoy this place as much as I enjoyed another hilltop house from my youth, my grandmother's house "in the country," up in rural Sussex County, NJ. It would be a stretch to draw parallels between Lake Neepaulin and Sant'Ippolito (though there is that lake thing going for both communities) and yet I still get these vivid flashbacks of that place when, for example, I'm here listening to the breeze rustle the trees or watching the tractors bail the hay, or the shepherds corralling flocks of sheep, or watching the girls race each other up and over the crest of the hill. I now understand that I can see and hear these things because I've managed to slip into Sant'Ippolito's tranquil rhythm. The Lake Neepaulin of my youth had it too. It's a rhythm I hope my girls too will come to appreciate when they hit 40 too. </div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10441939.post-39933531200487082992012-03-13T17:48:00.000+01:002012-11-25T18:18:01.860+01:00Social media and learning from the #FAIL-ings of others<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://socialmediainfluence.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/fail_cover1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://socialmediainfluence.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/fail_cover1.jpg" width="247" /></a></div>
Where have I been the past few months? Putting together a book, the first ever by our publishing outfit, SMI Publishing. The book is called <i><b>#FAIL: The 50 Greatest Social Media Screw-Ups and How to Avoid Being the Next One </b></i>and it's available on <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007FD0J56">Amazon</a> or as an epub download on <a href="http://www.lulu.com/product/ebook/%23fail-the-50-greatest-social-media-screw-ups-and-how-to-avoid-being-the-next-one/18922170">Lulu</a> for iPad, iPhone and Nook. iBookstore, Nook store and paperback coming soon.<br />
<br />
Here's a description:<br />
<br />
All corporate screw-ups are social. Don’t believe us? Pop onto
Twitter and type in the word “#Fail” or search the word “boycott” on
Facebook. Up pops the names of many of the world’s largest brands, and
the latest consumer grievances and organized pressure campaigns against
them.<br />
Our new SMI book – <i><b>#FAIL: The 50 Greatest Social Media Screw-Ups and How to Avoid Being the Next One</b></i>
chronicles another kind of digital pioneer, those brands that have made
iconic, early stumbles in social media that have resulted in
consequences well beyond a loss of a few “friends” or “followers.” From a
lock-picking geek’s take-down of Kryptonite in 2004 to Carnival Corp’s
tin-eared response to the Costa Concordia tragedy in January, 2012, the
blunders chronicled here cost companies millions, bruised well-honed
corporate reputations and sunk careers. There are plenty of mistakes to
learn from here – or at least chuckle at in disbelief.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10441939.post-24124157056963586372011-10-31T08:24:00.001+01:002011-10-31T08:24:28.623+01:00la_mia_vista's photostream<div style="padding: 0; overflow: hidden; margin: 0; width: 500px;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/44534705@N00/2628557462/in/photostream/" title="Frrrrbbtttt!, a retrospective" style="display: block; padding: 0 10px 10px 0; width: 75px; height: 75px; float: left;"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3026/2628557462_38f1dd94cd_s.jpg" alt="Frrrrbbtttt!, a retrospective" style="border:none; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 75px; height: 75px;"/></a><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/44534705@N00/1183963699/in/photostream/" title="Marche Italy, Sibillini National Park, from top of peak Tre Vescovi" style="display: block; padding: 0 10px 10px 0; width: 75px; height: 75px; float: left;"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1408/1183963699_90a3b89cbf_s.jpg" alt="Marche Italy, Sibillini National Park, from top of peak Tre Vescovi" style="border:none; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 75px; height: 75px;"/></a><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/44534705@N00/1183961763/in/photostream/" title="Amandola, Marche, Italy, Sibillini National Park" style="display: block; padding: 0 10px 10px 0; width: 75px; height: 75px; float: left;"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1017/1183961763_99f0106890_s.jpg" alt="Amandola, Marche, Italy, Sibillini National Park" style="border:none; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 75px; height: 75px;"/></a><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/44534705@N00/1184816788/in/photostream/" title="Lago di Fiastra, Marche, Italy" style="display: block; padding: 0 10px 10px 0; width: 75px; height: 75px; float: left;"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1255/1184816788_b190450f74_s.jpg" alt="Lago di Fiastra, Marche, Italy" style="border:none; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 75px; height: 75px;"/></a><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/44534705@N00/1184813536/in/photostream/" title="a sunflower ovation" style="display: block; padding: 0 10px 10px 0; width: 75px; height: 75px; float: left;"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1395/1184813536_5c7eae8c8b_s.jpg" alt="a sunflower ovation" style="border:none; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 75px; height: 75px;"/></a><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/44534705@N00/1184810818/in/photostream/" title="Lago di Fiastra" style="display: block; padding: 0 0 10px 0; width: 75px; height: 75px; float: left;"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1230/1184810818_d3f026e58d_s.jpg" alt="Lago di Fiastra" style="border:none; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 75px; height: 75px;"/></a><br clear="all"/><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/44534705@N00/377613510/in/photostream/" title="Sifnos" style="display: block; padding: 0 10px 10px 0; width: 75px; height: 75px; float: left;"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/138/377613510_fbd978bd45_s.jpg" alt="Sifnos" style="border:none; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 75px; height: 75px;"/></a><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/44534705@N00/377613504/in/photostream/" title="Sifnos" style="display: block; padding: 0 10px 10px 0; width: 75px; height: 75px; float: left;"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/173/377613504_b8f82f3dd0_s.jpg" alt="Sifnos" style="border:none; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 75px; height: 75px;"/></a><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/44534705@N00/377613496/in/photostream/" title="The isle of Sifnos" style="display: block; padding: 0 10px 10px 0; width: 75px; height: 75px; float: left;"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/178/377613496_6144f7ef55_s.jpg" alt="The isle of Sifnos" style="border:none; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 75px; height: 75px;"/></a><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/44534705@N00/377607082/in/photostream/" title="Which one would you eat? The cookie or the white truffle?" style="display: block; padding: 0 10px 10px 0; width: 75px; height: 75px; float: left;"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/183/377607082_b277f2e5f1_s.jpg" alt="Which one would you eat? The cookie or the white truffle?" style="border:none; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 75px; height: 75px;"/></a><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/44534705@N00/377607079/in/photostream/" title="High noon over the Summer Palace" style="display: block; padding: 0 10px 10px 0; width: 75px; height: 75px; float: left;"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/188/377607079_803ca74682_s.jpg" alt="High noon over the Summer Palace" style="border:none; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 75px; height: 75px;"/></a><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/44534705@N00/377607074/in/photostream/" title="High heels in the slush" style="display: block; padding: 0 0 10px 0; width: 75px; height: 75px; float: left;"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/172/377607074_35783158c4_s.jpg" alt="High heels in the slush" style="border:none; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 75px; height: 75px;"/></a><br clear="all"/><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/44534705@N00/377607072/in/photostream/" title="hiking Monte Sibilla" style="display: block; padding: 0 10px 10px 0; width: 75px; height: 75px; float: left;"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/170/377607072_f1540af6ce_s.jpg" alt="hiking Monte Sibilla" style="border:none; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 75px; height: 75px;"/></a><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/44534705@N00/377600857/in/photostream/" title="Testaccio pre-school sings the ABCs (Marco Briotti)" style="display: block; padding: 0 10px 10px 0; width: 75px; height: 75px; float: left;"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/150/377600857_baf3326d80_s.jpg" alt="Testaccio pre-school sings the ABCs (Marco Briotti)" style="border:none; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 75px; height: 75px;"/></a><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/44534705@N00/377600856/in/photostream/" title="Testaccio pre-school (photo courtesy of Marco Briotti)" style="display: block; padding: 0 10px 10px 0; width: 75px; height: 75px; float: left;"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/132/377600856_ab83f9b17b_s.jpg" alt="Testaccio pre-school (photo courtesy of Marco Briotti)" style="border:none; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 75px; height: 75px;"/></a><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/44534705@N00/377600853/in/photostream/" title="Pinnewala Elephant Orphanage" style="display: block; padding: 0 10px 10px 0; width: 75px; height: 75px; float: left;"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/149/377600853_99275b8b44_s.jpg" alt="Pinnewala Elephant Orphanage" style="border:none; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 75px; height: 75px;"/></a><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/44534705@N00/377600848/in/photostream/" title="Greek gramma swandive" style="display: block; padding: 0 10px 10px 0; width: 75px; height: 75px; float: left;"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/163/377600848_802f8bbb02_s.jpg" alt="Greek gramma swandive" style="border:none; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 75px; height: 75px;"/></a><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/44534705@N00/377600846/in/photostream/" title="Monti Sibillini at dusk" style="display: block; padding: 0 0 10px 0; width: 75px; height: 75px; float: left;"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/131/377600846_58a024de2f_s.jpg" alt="Monti Sibillini at dusk" style="border:none; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 75px; height: 75px;"/></a><br clear="all"/><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/44534705@N00/113386954/in/photostream/" title="Deep underground in France" style="display: block; padding: 0 10px 10px 0; width: 75px; height: 75px; float: left;"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/40/113386954_7a969ea185_s.jpg" alt="Deep underground in France" style="border:none; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 75px; height: 75px;"/></a><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/44534705@N00/113386952/in/photostream/" title="Costa Verde Spain" style="display: block; padding: 0 10px 10px 0; width: 75px; height: 75px; float: left;"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/47/113386952_47b310df99_s.jpg" alt="Costa Verde Spain" style="border:none; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 75px; height: 75px;"/></a><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/44534705@N00/113386951/in/photostream/" title="Bermeo Spain" style="display: block; padding: 0 10px 10px 0; width: 75px; height: 75px; float: left;"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/19/113386951_144a07b349_s.jpg" alt="Bermeo Spain" style="border:none; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 75px; height: 75px;"/></a><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/44534705@N00/113383069/in/photostream/" title="tug-o-war, Basque style" style="display: block; padding: 0 10px 10px 0; width: 75px; height: 75px; float: left;"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/35/113383069_c3888d1fa4_s.jpg" alt="tug-o-war, Basque style" style="border:none; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 75px; height: 75px;"/></a><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/44534705@N00/113383068/in/photostream/" title="pecados" style="display: block; padding: 0 10px 10px 0; width: 75px; height: 75px; float: left;"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/41/113383068_2406911dca_s.jpg" alt="pecados" style="border:none; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 75px; height: 75px;"/></a><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/44534705@N00/113383067/in/photostream/" title="Basque graffitti" style="display: block; padding: 0 0 10px 0; width: 75px; height: 75px; float: left;"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/34/113383067_2ccf26e768_s.jpg" alt="Basque graffitti" style="border:none; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 75px; height: 75px;"/></a><br clear="all"/></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 5px"><p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/44534705@N00/">la_mia_vista's photostream</a> on Flickr.</p></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10441939.post-85772796239884171552011-10-30T18:12:00.001+01:002012-08-27T12:46:18.412+02:00Amandola: a love affair turns 10<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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This month marks something of a milestone for me. It was exactly 10 years ago – October, 2001 – when I first visited a town in the heart of the Sibillini Mountains in the Central Italian region of Le Marche. I was so enamored with the place, I immediately thought:<i> I gotta ring my bank manager</i>. The place, as you know from this blog, is Amandola. I had a little money left in my bank account, just enough to make a down-payment on a stone house sitting on the top of a hill, one that overlooked a valley and the front ridge of the Sibillini Mountains. The sun was shining bright. I stood on a stony lane under an old oak. I was <strike>desperate</strike> curious to see the inside of the house, but Michael, who had the keys, insisted we first go take a walk, to look around the 'hood, to come to this spot and take in a view I'll never tire of: the midieval spa town, Sarnano, in the valley below, the mountains soaring above, the hilltop towns of Gualdo, San Ginesio sparkling in the sun just beyond.<br />
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It took a few months for the sale to close. I had the keys the following March. I was cutting the grass in April, and again in May and June. I was swimming in the sea in July and in the mountain lakes in August. I was discovering a new culture, improving my pigeon Italian and re-acquainting myself with the art of home repairs. I lived in London at the time and got out as often as I could, which, thanks to Ryanair, was fairly often. We threw big pizza bashes and barbeques and, later, we had some amazing Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's feasts. As the name suggests (in Italian, Amandola can be broken into "amando la," or loving her) I fell in love with the place. And <strike>I still am</strike> we still are. Amandola is now a wondrous playground for the Garba twins. Our summer get-away is now the highlight of the year.<br />
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Now, this is not a 10-year anniversary thing, but I do have a new site that explains a bit more about the house, and the region and the things about the place that we've discovered over the years. It's called <a href="http://www.sibillinislow.com/wordpress/">Sibillini Slow</a>. And, I've set up a <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sibillini-Slow/176271235743900?sk=wall">Facebook page</a> for it as well. Please check it out and follow us.<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10441939.post-47796659646635207712011-10-27T16:26:00.001+02:002011-10-27T16:33:04.431+02:00How to be UnGoogleable<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
One from my personal archives...<br />
<br />
By Bernhard Warner (May 28, 2008)<br />
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Recently, I received an odd plea for help. A former colleague emailed me to request that all references to her be expunged from the online news blog I coordinate for a university here in Rome. It was a legitimate request, I concluded. I went into the old posts and deleted the one in which her name appeared. (I should note here that the post was about an upcoming event on campus from over a year ago and had absolutely zero news value to readers today. So, I pulled it.)<br />
<br />
She was grateful for my quick response. A few minutes later though she was back in my in-box. This time, the tone was less gracious. She Googled her name and still the reference appeared. Clicking on the link brought you to a dead URL, but still there was enough of an article snippet visible on the Google search results page to clearly identify her with the university. She told me she’d prefer to remain at all costs “un-Google-able”.<br />
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At first I was startled by the statement. There is a whole industry dedicated to making you or your business appear top of the heap on Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc. Search engine optimisation experts, those whose job it is to find every soft spot in search algorithms, abound in every language. Visibility is big business. Why would you want to hide from the search engines?<br />
<br />
Of course, there are plenty of reasons. Some ordinary people, politicians, celebrities, companies or brands simply want pieces of their past concealed, or, ideally, wiped off the public record. It’s possible to achieve the former. But eliminating all signs of a person’s existence, once published online – i.e. achieving a state of “un-Google-able” – that’s another story entirely.<br />
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“Un-Google-able? I don’t think it’s possible,” says Nilhan Jayasinghe
the European Vice President and Head of Natural Search for <a href="http://www.icrossing.com/">iCrossing</a>, an online marketing firm that specializes in SEO and online reputation management for major brands like Toyota, Coca-Cola and LEGO. “The problem is you simply have no control over all the outlets that publish something about you”.<br />
<br />
If the published item is a one-time reference and it’s pulled offline relatively quickly, then there’s a chance you can escape the search engines’ reach. In the case of the post I mention above, the Google spiders swept the news blog about two weeks later and all traces of the original story (as far as I can tell) were eliminated. She was lucky.<br />
<br />
Had the story been picked up by just one blogger who then made mention of her on his blog, or had her name been posted on a social network site or in some community forum or newsgroup somewhere, forget about it. There’s virtually no way to get all the references taken down unless you track down each person responsible for publishing the details and plead your case to them. Or, had she been photographed with a group of ex-colleagues and had she been tagged in the caption there’s a good chance these days that that photo would end up on Flickr or another online photo-sharing site for the wired world to see. To be sure, monitoring your personal reputation in this Web 2.0 age is a real chore.<br />
<br />
For big brands it’s becoming a full-time occupation. “For a company with a reputation issue that’s being discussed online, all you can do is strengthen your own position,” Mr. Jayasinghe says. “The idea is to get your positive news out there more prominently online, and increase the prominence of others talking about you so as to bury the bad results”.<br />
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For major corporations, there’s a simple formula to keeping reputations intact these days, one that they may be surprising to hear. Like the old song goes -- you’ve got to accentuate the positive. The problem is corporate PRs and political spinmeisters have a long history of attacking the unsavoury version of a story. It’s the eliminate the negative school. But this approach doesn’t work any more. The more you attack the negative, the more visibility you give it, and the more prominence it gets when someone types in a search query.<br />
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Mr. Jayasinghe gives an example of how best to approach bad news that just won’t go away online. A pharmaceutical client was taking a beating from activists, bloggers and consumer watchdogs for some business decisions it had made in the past, he recalls, adding “and they thought the treatment was neither fair nor ethically right.”<br />
<br />
The prescription? iCrossing advised the client to begin publishing all the positive news it had about the situation, even enlisting the help of charitable organisations it worked with to bring to light a new side of the debate that had not been discussed. In publishing the positive news the company was able to defend its reputation and steal attention away from its critics.<br />
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“With many clients, we have been able to help them suppress it (the critical chatter) provided they have enough positive material they can use to build up their reputation,” Mr. Jayasinghe.<br />
<br />
That works fine for big brands. But what about private citizens, ones with no PR budget or brand-reputation specialists to call upon? You may succeed in getting your university friends to pull offline those embarrassing late-night-drinks-filled photo shoots before a prospective employer sees it, but otherwise, your reputation is in the hands of many. You have less control than you think. Sounding a bit like an overprotective parent, Mr. Jayasinghe advises, don’t do anything stupid that can later be republished online.<br />
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As for being “un-Google-able”, forget about it. The majority of us all will be easily indexed on Google (or worse, a wanton namesake will be) at some point in our lives. But even private citizens can bury the embarrassing bits. If you care to.<br />
<i> </i><br />
<i>I wrote this article back in 2008 when I had a column for The Times (of London). It's now hidden behind the <i>Times</i> paywall. The original article can be found <a href="http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/article4022374.ece">here</a>.</i></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10441939.post-73454296651264208382011-10-09T23:34:00.000+02:002011-10-09T23:34:18.520+02:00olives!<a href="http://goo.gl/photos/Y7zCqLDgak" imageanchor="1" style="clear:right;margin-bottom:1em;margin-left:1em"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-IFyxSYM1mhA/TkUAIOnxGuI/AAAAAAAACaE/-A-Sqn8RvLM/s512/olives2.JPG"></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10441939.post-77567478532610188952011-09-01T09:30:00.001+02:002011-09-01T16:59:18.890+02:00Vinofiles, the harvest season approaches. Fancy a trip to Italy?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="http://goo.gl/photos/MtOSJJokvX" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-kan00VT75JU/Tka02wmErqE/AAAAAAAAChI/wH4Abj1ykXs/s160-c/August132011.jpg" /></a> I'm back in Rome after a few blessed weeks in the hills of Amandola. It was the greenest August I can recall in the foothills of <a href="http://www.sibillinislow.com/">Sibillini National Park</a>. Not surprising after a wet July (as the photo album below can attest).
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That might not have been great news to travelers, but it had wine producers smiling. The uncharacteristic summer rains have winemakers optimistic that the 2011 vintage will be one of the finest in years. Of course, we'll all know in the coming days when the grape harvest starts, usually in mid-September. And that's kind of the point of this post.... it's a call to vinofiles curious about experiencing this magical time of year: the annual grape harvest when the locals' grins grow to even greater proportions. Marche is a rich wine-producing region for red, white, and rose'. It is the home to dozens of indigenous grapes, most famously the <a href="http://www.saveur.com/article/Wine-and-Drink/Back-in-Style-Verdicchio-Italian-Wine">Verdicchio</a>, but there are also very impressive lesser-known whites like the Pecorino and Passerina, and the fragrant red Lacrima di Moro d'Alba.
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From Amandola, it's easy to get to all these wine-producing regions. Let us know if you want to book <a href="http://sites.google.com/site/bwarner/">Casa Chiocciola</a>, our lovely stone house in the foothills of the soaring Monti Sibillini. We're offering a special discount on remaining dates in September and August. Drop me a line at <a href="mailto:Bwarner@gmail.com">Bwarner@gmail.com</a> for futher details.
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Buon gusto!
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10441939.post-70991954965436892912011-05-29T10:57:00.000+02:002011-05-29T10:58:39.233+02:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLHtHNnJI2wbeM9YunDuXfaG4a3quke9NPuOc8xX-0-R6pGPXKmBGtdfFw7IFjNodqTPL7aDh1t2lAyKIiqKqScEu9uAAfcdQVEPQuQvBa2VH_PDnGBPEFcR8Ba0iBh-UwJZ0cxQ/s1600/Me+at+work+San+Pietro+%2528small%2529.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 268px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLHtHNnJI2wbeM9YunDuXfaG4a3quke9NPuOc8xX-0-R6pGPXKmBGtdfFw7IFjNodqTPL7aDh1t2lAyKIiqKqScEu9uAAfcdQVEPQuQvBa2VH_PDnGBPEFcR8Ba0iBh-UwJZ0cxQ/s400/Me+at+work+San+Pietro+%2528small%2529.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5612059869617775186" /></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10441939.post-17103200749131236132011-05-29T10:51:00.004+02:002011-05-29T10:57:07.786+02:00A weekend in piazza: the Beatification of JP2This is a bit late in posting, but it's still worth it. A few weeks ago me and a young documentary filmmaker from Rome, Luca Paradiso, spent the better part of a weekend camped out in Piazza San Pietro to film the Beatification of John Paul II, a story told through the eyes of the weary pilgrims and faithful who made the journey from all over the world. We had a lot of fun doing it for one of my clients, <a href="http://www.operaromanapellegrinaggi.org/">Opera Romana Pellegrinaggi</a>.<br /><br />Here is their story:<br /><br /><iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/d34hTjLkaYE" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="300" width="480"></iframe>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10441939.post-59171406903916051542011-01-24T14:31:00.005+01:002011-01-30T12:41:24.899+01:00The Mamertine Prison, the Leavenworth of Ancient Rome<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMarOmV6cHTjelkJQ1DFlUCaP75SEPvd210kLL57Sh7Cf9-UzAz0NPlvMj7gv1m8QUeIGebwEBqxQ1iLnWjpooT3KvruFAqjMRPB6gYJXGDXL0Cs699NJdoVccRgAVJYeN3yDJhQ/s1600/2011-01-20+10.04.54.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMarOmV6cHTjelkJQ1DFlUCaP75SEPvd210kLL57Sh7Cf9-UzAz0NPlvMj7gv1m8QUeIGebwEBqxQ1iLnWjpooT3KvruFAqjMRPB6gYJXGDXL0Cs699NJdoVccRgAVJYeN3yDJhQ/s400/2011-01-20+10.04.54.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5565751032827496786" border="0" /></a><br />This year, I'd like to get back to blogging. Here. I've been a bit time-stretched with the launch last year of <a href="http://www.socialmediainfluence.com/">SMI</a> and, more recently, <a href="http://jospers.posterous.com/">Jospers</a>. But I hope this year to get some time to blog about life in Italy more. A few of you have long given up on me. I'm hoping to win you back… with stories like this one.<br /><br />First some background: On Thursday I co-organized a private tour of the <a href="http://www.orpnet.org/informazione/orp_news/dal_29_giugno_riapre_al_pubblico_il_carcere_mamertino"><span style="font-style: italic;">Carcere Mamertino</span></a> (or, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mamertine_Prison">Mamertine Prison</a>) just beside (and under) the Roman Forum for select bloggers and Rome-based journalists. It was on behalf of a fascinating new client, <a href="http://www.operaromanapellegrinaggi.org/Home/tabid/40/language/it-IT/Default.aspx">Opera Romana Pellegrinaggi</a>, part of the Vatican. ORP has one-of-a-kind access to many of the most important historic and cultural sites in and around Rome including guided tours of the Sistine Chapel at night, the Vatican Gardens, a Vatican Library exhibition, and the Carcere. (They also organize pilgrimages to the Holy Land, Lourdes, Santiago de Compostela, etc.) ORP works closely with some of Rome's most important historians and archaeologists on the preservation and upkeep of these sites. On Thursday, they arranged to have Patrizia Fortini, an archaeologist who was part of the excavation team for works on the jail a year ago and in 2000, give us a guided tour. A bit on the excavation that wound up last year: it was crucial work as it lent more evidence to a story that's been circulating around this city since Emperor Constantine's day - that saints Peter and Paul were both imprisoned here prior to their execution. It's a legend that gives this sacred place extra importance to Christians looking for insight into those turbulent early days of the Church. The conclusion: there is still no 100% proof Peter and Paul were incarcerated here, but it's very, very likely they were.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjX6UCvgB6S830ynO8x_DM-KcmXzxO5Nj4Cz0upVEjxHdeqBuD22BVCQYSaPPMwAQ1jxwiWA3jRAODrVjyj2Ti44rD-Jj1OOnPK3wlAlt8eoYpCbPeK0qw-tDTyHZUSS1hRVOXUMA/s1600/2011-01-20+10.06.14.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjX6UCvgB6S830ynO8x_DM-KcmXzxO5Nj4Cz0upVEjxHdeqBuD22BVCQYSaPPMwAQ1jxwiWA3jRAODrVjyj2Ti44rD-Jj1OOnPK3wlAlt8eoYpCbPeK0qw-tDTyHZUSS1hRVOXUMA/s400/2011-01-20+10.06.14.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5565751623771643730" border="0" /></a><br />Fortini explained to us that the Carcere had a dark and bloody past, also a sacred and spiritual one. First, the bloody part. As Rome grew into an conquering force it needed a proper maximum security prison to house its vanquished foes. The city fathers turned to what had been a pagan shrine, establishing it as<span style="font-style: italic;"> the</span> maximum security prison of the ancient world in the centuries before the birth of Christ. Here they imprisoned reviled enemies of the Kingdom/Republic. Why here? Location. Victorious armies could parade enemy combatants through the Foro Romano (cue cheering, baying throngs) and straight into the Carcere where they were executed (usually by public strangulation or stoning or something equally brutal) fairly soon after.<br /><br />To the early Romans, the Carcere was well known as a place not to be messed with, even before it became the Leavenworth of ancient Rome. It was known that a spring ran under the jail. To the deeply superstitious pagan people the subterranean waters were believed to be a conduit to the netherworld (Fortini says they looked for this underground river, but there's nothing). Killing someone here, the ancient belief went, would send them straight to Hell. The Romans trotted out this story as if it were fact that this jail was literally the gateway to Hell. Anyone who entered here never returned, but instead met an end of eternal damnation. Imagine then the state of mind of Peter and Paul upon entering this place, chained, beaten and condemned to eventual death. They had stronger convictions, as did their determined, early Christian followers. This of course made Peter and Paul even more dangerous to the State. Executing them here, the thinking may have gone, would silence these early Christians. This is an important point. Peter and Paul were indeed enemies of the State. Following the tradition of the day, they would have most certainly been imprisoned here in the baddest of all jails of the ancient world.<br /><br />Among the other things Fortini told us was the discovery of remains of three cadavers - a man (at about 180 cm tall, a very large one for this era), a woman and a 10-year-old child - during the most recent excavation. The fascinating detail came from radio carbon dating determined they were from the 8th Century BC, which gives us a bit further detail on just how old this place is. The official history is that the jail construction started at in the 6th Century BC, but this discovery would show that the foundations go back much further and that it served some major function for the city well before it became known as a prison.<br /><br />A tour of the jail (it's open to the public) is really one of those uniquely Roman experiences. It's rich in history and spirituality. Archaeologists have succeeded in piecing together vital bits that spell out just what kind of deadly consequences the founders of the Church would have been facing as they sought to build their flock. It's something to put on your itinerary if you are interested in early Church history and the life (and death) of the Church's founding patriarchs.<br /><br />If you are coming to Rome and want to book a tour, you can reserve tickets <a href="http://www.operaromanapellegrinaggi.org/Home/tabid/76/language/en-GB/Default.aspx">here</a>. In the off-season, it's possible to do a tour without booking ahead. Still, it's advisable to reserve a place.<br /><br />Where is the Mamertine Prison: located near the Arch of Septimius Severus in the Roman Forum. It is literally under <a title="San Giuseppe dei Falegnami" href="http://www.sanmarcoevangelista.it/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=68&Itemid=79" target="_blank">San Giuseppe dei Falegnami Church</a>, just off the via dei Fori Imperiali.<br /><br />For another review, check out Arlene Gibbs' reportage on <a href="http://www.nileguide.com/destination/blog/rome/2011/01/28/romes-maximum-security-prison-the-mamertine/">Nile Guide: Rome</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10441939.post-49822180046606340302010-12-27T11:06:00.010+01:002010-12-27T14:37:52.388+01:00The cult of Maria bambina explained<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEpJUPYlDcjspbZM4YuKZnX3eZVcJ9gU-juBgRc_1WnJ1ljPv82oKqVjU0ltcSqVn-319ck5Wopeqt7uttJDXt6j3Nk6OJ50fhlkZWwML2OgPqOXS6PgKMnjHeq5nIday6PZ0vqw/s1600/happy+holidays.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEpJUPYlDcjspbZM4YuKZnX3eZVcJ9gU-juBgRc_1WnJ1ljPv82oKqVjU0ltcSqVn-319ck5Wopeqt7uttJDXt6j3Nk6OJ50fhlkZWwML2OgPqOXS6PgKMnjHeq5nIday6PZ0vqw/s400/happy+holidays.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5555305543537901602" border="0" /></a><br /><br />We're in Umbria with the <span style="font-style: italic;">nonni</span> this holiday season. In these parts it's tradition on the feast day of Santo Stefano (Dec. 26), regardless of how nasty the weather, to feast in the afternoon (we had a favorite meal, stuffed pigeon) and then to walk it off, pushing baby carriages to the upper square of a random hilltop town. Here, you usually stumble upon an elaborate <span style="font-style: italic;">presepe</span> (Nativity scene) or even a <span style="font-style: italic;">presepe vivente</span> (a Christmas pageant that continue until the feast of Epiphany). Our chosen destination yesterday evening was <a href="http://www.google.com/images?q=corciano&hl=en&safe=off&client=firefox-a&hs=rrW&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&prmd=ivnsm&source=lnms&tbs=isch:1&ei=u3oYTfgyw-s5z6jF7Qg&sa=X&oi=mode_link&ct=mode&ved=0CAsQ_AU&biw=1280&bih=593">Corciano</a>, a lovely little hilltown that ticks all the boxes: quaint, frigid, <span style="font-style: italic;">presepe</span>, and more.<br /><br />Usually, the <span style="font-style: italic;">presepe</span> is situated in one part of the old town, in a quaintly derelict courtyard done up to look like a stable. In Corciano, all the lanes of the historic center were lined with life-sized presepe figures, including characters I don't remember from the gospels, like the town drunk sleeping one off on a stoop:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUMjr7P80-a3Et3DGYtd5U7Abjf9RTHCq4CuAr9Om4ziHE4bTBOKiYWFmVYOMd3A5gWBtt6Xo5yc_peIZ4gle9Sk92wydf0KH00FU-RFpDU4J7JUJfBUZTvIWkmotEcX6rLioAQg/s1600/sleep+it+off.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUMjr7P80-a3Et3DGYtd5U7Abjf9RTHCq4CuAr9Om4ziHE4bTBOKiYWFmVYOMd3A5gWBtt6Xo5yc_peIZ4gle9Sk92wydf0KH00FU-RFpDU4J7JUJfBUZTvIWkmotEcX6rLioAQg/s400/sleep+it+off.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5555305143126867650" border="0" /></a><br />When I incredulously asked Xtina who <span style="font-style: italic;">that guy</span> was, she informed me that I was missing the bigger picture. Artists had sculpted these figures, she responded. The implied message is that where I see a drunk, she sees artistic impression, a bit of logic I intend to use back on her some day (or evening).<br /><br />Where we were both in agreement was the town's big Christmas art exhibit: a fascinating, if not totally creepy collection of 19th Century ceramic and wooden cherubs depicting, of course, the baby Jesus and, naturally, Maria bambina (the baby Mary).<div><br /></div><div>I didn't really question all the limbless, taught cocoons that passed as the Christ child.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAxEKaOwDbOv9ct5Jw744BiPCc4T1wil6ThWy5eNkgYITJeW4gpNmcrH8rVf1HmLPXMRB6a0Cjo5CAONFbAZzOyyABQuIZ7X-6LQ92BjuHZOW2AHXIQv2FFvf8XXyafKfa1LfPOw/s1600/mummy+boys.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAxEKaOwDbOv9ct5Jw744BiPCc4T1wil6ThWy5eNkgYITJeW4gpNmcrH8rVf1HmLPXMRB6a0Cjo5CAONFbAZzOyyABQuIZ7X-6LQ92BjuHZOW2AHXIQv2FFvf8XXyafKfa1LfPOw/s400/mummy+boys.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5555309570461908578" border="0" /></a>I did have to pause though at the young, crowned Christ child seated on his throne in resplendent white robes.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic13Be61PbxhGE-ztDTr0NZF7Pm4dayjavml5vbmRQbXb83ksAooGI9fQYAKOjM5f2DWl1Gd-VDeUM9o-rN-NFzsv7viQhbdtUad8DXnKAtyQ6U8eljyCfNpRx59DcuUhtBM5JjQ/s1600/on+throne.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic13Be61PbxhGE-ztDTr0NZF7Pm4dayjavml5vbmRQbXb83ksAooGI9fQYAKOjM5f2DWl1Gd-VDeUM9o-rN-NFzsv7viQhbdtUad8DXnKAtyQ6U8eljyCfNpRx59DcuUhtBM5JjQ/s400/on+throne.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5555311233931102450" border="0" /></a>But even the Hasburgian Christ child couldn't compare to the Maria bambina figures, which looked like dolls that a young Diane Arbus might have collected.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSds-nYYM2Q-sP0Jh1q8lmBCmxNHe6ZP1ay-5xMtIwD3ZpKutonovWrh-B0mFB0mu1DSWHv0Xxh71X9WOvowZZ1KR70vIsmistSFUXyQ84YzB9UwM3I3GrcNKj81as3QtINQTVjw/s1600/bambina+maria.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSds-nYYM2Q-sP0Jh1q8lmBCmxNHe6ZP1ay-5xMtIwD3ZpKutonovWrh-B0mFB0mu1DSWHv0Xxh71X9WOvowZZ1KR70vIsmistSFUXyQ84YzB9UwM3I3GrcNKj81as3QtINQTVjw/s400/bambina+maria.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5555316998797092882" border="0" /></a>If you're not familiar with Maria bambina (the exhibit refers to it as the "culto" or cult of Maria Bambina) story, here's <a href="http://www.mariabambina.org/#History%20of%20Maria%20Bambina">the basics</a>: the Maria bambina has had her devotees for close to a 1,000 years with the veneration of these statuettes becoming a bigger deal from the mid-18th Century. There are stories of the bambina curing infirm nuns and helping couples conceive. Pilgrims still make the journey to the Motherhouse of the Sisters of Charity in Milan to pray to the miraculous wax image of the infant Mary.<br /><div><br /></div><div>Back to the Corciano exhibit now... where you could see several depictions of Maria bambina, mostly on loan from collections based in Northern Italy and Germany. As such, the baby Mary is a well-fed blonde with an unfortunate haircut, blue eyes and a glazed look, not unlike a young Meg Whitman after a bad perm job. That got rained on.</div><div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiazzsRP7TPiRg7p72-iPqEtiBwa7d7uFxDrv5j_GCq3Aj14FOx6xbtAJVQNa7clIkDjpnvscRMo-bEh7Xv5gE276m_aCIgXjhSEz39JDMVnEio_7WsBjWKLZxMtvHa9-PGZO4S6g/s1600/meg+whitman.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiazzsRP7TPiRg7p72-iPqEtiBwa7d7uFxDrv5j_GCq3Aj14FOx6xbtAJVQNa7clIkDjpnvscRMo-bEh7Xv5gE276m_aCIgXjhSEz39JDMVnEio_7WsBjWKLZxMtvHa9-PGZO4S6g/s400/meg+whitman.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5555323877198610434" border="0" /></a>Now you know the story of Maria bambina. </div><div> </div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10441939.post-35678577340856565942010-11-28T09:41:00.004+01:002010-11-28T15:20:05.693+01:00OK, who brought the monkey?It's not <span style="font-style: italic;">really</span> Thanksgiving tradition to bring a monkey to the festivities, but I can recall over the years sitting down to the table with a primate or two. Heck, I've brought a few myself to the family feast as dates, and it always ended reasonably well. No food being tossed at the other guests. Rarely a high-pitched shriek mid-conversation. And the kids seemed to enjoy their company.<br /><br />So when we got a call this week from Simo to ask if he could bring a guest – a well-behaved simian, Toto', he informed us – to what's become an annual Rome Thanksgiving meal, I figured, <span style="font-style: italic;">myeah, why not? </span>Xtina and I have become expert zoo keepers these days with our little duo. <span style="font-style: italic;">What could go wrong? </span><br /><br />Then I had second thoughts. What if Simo is not speaking metaphorically. What if it's an actual monkey. That kind of primate we've never had at a Thanksgiving meal. Not that I know of, anyhow.<br /><br />How'd it turn out? Judge for yourself.<br /><br /><object style="height: 390px; width: 520px;"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/VeVJRWG6BcQ?version=3"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/VeVJRWG6BcQ?version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" height="390" width="640"></embed></object><br /><br /><object style="height: 390px; width: 520px;"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/LEuhF455Zrk?version=3"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/LEuhF455Zrk?version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" height="390" width="640"></embed></object><br /><br />Right. Not the worst-behaved primate at the party. Toto', you're always welcome to join us at Thanksgiving.<br /><br />For those who are wondering: Toto' is a 6-month-old <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capuchin_monkey">capuchin</a> monkey.<br /><br />Btw... the turkey/stuffing combo once again rocked! The trick to tasty turkey, I'm convinced: pack it with as much pork product as you can find.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6gVNxMA8YYz8P9KmLMM8BXBqD9BGr5bSY2le1ZNPQy15xGOTB3Ao3_bfNQKioU8d7Ez4a5QRzWQJD0fHhhHggi2qTveEKOsXBNW-Hx4qO_tAAgdyvHrnuY6feKSXW0fopl4Mpmg/s1600/DSC02069.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 268px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6gVNxMA8YYz8P9KmLMM8BXBqD9BGr5bSY2le1ZNPQy15xGOTB3Ao3_bfNQKioU8d7Ez4a5QRzWQJD0fHhhHggi2qTveEKOsXBNW-Hx4qO_tAAgdyvHrnuY6feKSXW0fopl4Mpmg/s400/DSC02069.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5544602170920487378" border="0" /></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10441939.post-44543107892746756902010-11-15T16:21:00.007+01:002011-03-02T16:44:53.504+01:00What do Italian children eat?If you're thinking home-made pasta, meat balls and <span style="font-style: italic;">gelato</span>, guess again. Here's a <span style="font-style: italic;">public-safety-message-meets-modern-art-installation</span> that hangs in the entrance of the pediatric surgery ward at Bambino Gesu, the children's hospital here in Rome.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFrjN1omqyEOxQ70zphUeJEGYQ1VVBApn3tvvdxVNBuh1pGD1pQUR7_9H61hb_xvqVR9JVAP_tE7q7KaoMYaQyTC7ShdmALRSGVfccyj5OoIjJKzmN2W1-t-M93P1MfMhzez1xbw/s1600/Bambino+Gesu+II.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFrjN1omqyEOxQ70zphUeJEGYQ1VVBApn3tvvdxVNBuh1pGD1pQUR7_9H61hb_xvqVR9JVAP_tE7q7KaoMYaQyTC7ShdmALRSGVfccyj5OoIjJKzmN2W1-t-M93P1MfMhzez1xbw/s400/Bambino+Gesu+II.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5539797729655720066" border="0" /></a><br />These items were all fished out of the throats of Italian children after very delicate surgery. You can see for yourself that there's enough coins here to buy a nice dinner for two. But there's also:<br /><ul><li>several crucifixes and charms<br /></li><li>a rubber eraser<br /></li><li>pencils</li><li>the ink part of a ballpoint pen<br /></li><li>1 metal pencil sharpener (the same child also ingested a button cell battery)</li><li>a light bulb<br /></li><li>a monster fish hook (big enough to snag a sea bass, I'd guess)</li><li>a 2.5-inch wood screw</li><li>several clothes hooks</li><li>a pair (!) of keys, still on the key ring<br /></li><li>a plastic lid (the size was roughly equivalent to the cap of a container of 35-mm film)</li><li>a hollow metallic cylinder that looked a lot like a bullet casing<br /></li></ul>Here's a close-up of the fish hook (you can also see the eraser, light bulb, and, at top center-right that odd looking bullet casing thing), or as close as I could get with my crappy Blackberry:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixun6aTug4wowQdYALGQ4YK8scXBVzTA7D180ngPVJZD_7niGf7KXF6W8lgiTfMOVydjrfGsgvcbC0HIfZEFQQZ_QsvqTVgER3hgPq-dTqfSLDzrSLiGFSwlymBmxrG4qD3NJjOg/s1600/Bambino+Gesu+1.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixun6aTug4wowQdYALGQ4YK8scXBVzTA7D180ngPVJZD_7niGf7KXF6W8lgiTfMOVydjrfGsgvcbC0HIfZEFQQZ_QsvqTVgER3hgPq-dTqfSLDzrSLiGFSwlymBmxrG4qD3NJjOg/s400/Bambino+Gesu+1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5539800433989640098" border="0" /></a><br /><span jsid="text">If anyone else has access to the pediatric surgery ward in their area, I'd love to com<span class="text_exposed_hide"></span><span class="text_exposed_show">pare notes. </span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10441939.post-73289663431052518872010-11-07T21:09:00.005+01:002010-11-16T17:46:28.537+01:00Arrosto di maiale all'umbraWhat's this? An <span style="font-style: italic;">ISB</span> blog post? Call it a special occasion. I've charmed my mother-in-law into turning over her special pork roast recipe, a perfect autumn dish.<br /><br />Here it is:<br /><br /><br /><br />Ingredients:<br />Pork roast<br />1 red onion<br />3 apples<br />1 garlic clove<br />apple cider vinegar<br />olive oil<br />prosciutto<br /><br /><br />1) Dice up the apples and onions and place in a frying pan with a spot of vinegar, garlic clove and olive oil. Fry into a mash.<br />2) Make a 2-3 inch incision in the roast and stuff well with the fried apple/onion mash. (Really stuff it well so this sweet center remains intact later when you carve the pork roast.)<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKQAO3rU7apbwB33n1eRDSX1nHWWjZilVbJhuJk5Jj8v77cMHgGoHEpc7djf6spzDO_U8UIJRhs1D-ym6Q5Kw8tkbYx2Nk0LPlDFPwBjy79-E0WW3DEy_x5CEbGyYltwVAvI6kHA/s1600/arrosto+di+maiale.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKQAO3rU7apbwB33n1eRDSX1nHWWjZilVbJhuJk5Jj8v77cMHgGoHEpc7djf6spzDO_U8UIJRhs1D-ym6Q5Kw8tkbYx2Nk0LPlDFPwBjy79-E0WW3DEy_x5CEbGyYltwVAvI6kHA/s400/arrosto+di+maiale.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5536903622438603810" border="0" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;">Like this pic? Was playing with a new app (for me), PicSay.</span><br /><br />3) Place roast in a roast pan and brown it. After browning, cover roast with strips of prosciutto. Dump the rest of the mash in the pan (or keep it on the side if you don't want them to interfere with potatoes, etc). Soak roast with white wine, or vinegar. Leave under medium heat for 10-15 mins.<br />4) Place in oven at 180 C (360F) temp for 45 mins.<br /><br />Buon appetito!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10441939.post-88473519806707429262009-11-23T17:09:00.003+01:002012-11-10T12:26:50.173+01:00Thanksgiving turkey stuffing recipe<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
In the spirit of service journalism, I'm sharing our internationally acclaimed stuffing recipe from last year.<br />
<br />
For a 10 lb bird<br />
1 loaf of old, stale bread. A good loaf. Not Wonder.<br />
A good clump of fresh parsley.<br />
Celery<br />
Onions<br />
Carrots<br />
laurel leaf<br />
150 grams of sliced pancetta (or, even better, guanciale)<br />
600 grams of chestnuts<br />
1/2 kilo of "polpa di maiale e vitello" or minced pork & veal<br />
4-5 eggs<br />
a glug of milk<br />
12 teaspoons of Cognac (yes, this is the secret ingredient!). For those of you wondering, yes, Armagnac works just as well.<br />
<br />
1. Throw chestnuts into boiling water (30 mins). Afterwards, deshell and throw contents into a bowl. Chuck in the blender. Blend.<br />
2. Cut your stale bread into cubes. Crack open the eggs and add the milk. Mix together to get a mushy mash of old yellow bread. Add diced parsley. Add the diced onions. Add the diced celery. Add the diced carrots. Mix more.<br />
3. Throw the pancetta into a blender and whip up into a mash.<br />
4. In a big bowl, add your mushy bread, your pancetta mash, the chesnut mash and the minced pork. Mix well.<br />
5. Add your cognac.<br />
6. Let sit for half-hour.<br />
7. Turn your oven on.<br />
<br />
Now, prepare your bird. (it really should be sourced from your local butcher and not one of those plastic, tasteless, Butterball creations, but even if it is, we've got you covered.)<br />
1. Rub the outside of your turkey and in the cavity with a clove of garlic. Cover your bird with a few strips of pancetta/guanciale.<br />
2. Sprinkle salt on same. Add laurel.<br />
3. If you are feeling decadent, throw a tablespoon (or two) of the Cognac into the cavity as well.<br />
4. Fill your bird with the stuffing. Place in the oven.<br />
<br />
After 20 mins, drizzle a glass of white wine on the bird. Repeat after an hour. Keep covered (with aluminum foil or oven paper for duration of cooking.<br />
<br />
Enjoy!<br />
<br />
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Buon Ringraziamento!</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10441939.post-88480527436975679022009-10-31T10:27:00.005+01:002009-10-31T10:43:41.926+01:00Ao! 'Oppy 'olloween!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgURG5YaYA9u0Z8CludZNDNea0-_fybKoYlP3QF0aKRUow6f5MLR3X3nLzHl00d8dN1F0UjNXfL0OYvvBFTwhHjiYoxYur1QTxJ2I_rq0T1JhdlNnM4iS0Fsdg9q34SpCj_lwhBSw/s1600-h/DSC00743.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 268px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgURG5YaYA9u0Z8CludZNDNea0-_fybKoYlP3QF0aKRUow6f5MLR3X3nLzHl00d8dN1F0UjNXfL0OYvvBFTwhHjiYoxYur1QTxJ2I_rq0T1JhdlNnM4iS0Fsdg9q34SpCj_lwhBSw/s320/DSC00743.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5398696366355303730" border="0" /></a><br />That's how the locals say it here in Garbatella. No pesky "h" to slow them down. I'm really pleased the Romans have adopted Halloween, or at least a number of the shops have here in Garbatella. It's always been a favorite holiday of mine. When else could you dress as a pirate and not get funny looks? (speaking of which, have <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSLU482175">the Somalis</a> ruined that choice of costumes this year? Hope not.) Back in my London days (during the Bush Administration), the locals were hostile to Halloween. They saw it as some creepy American import and wanted no part of it. Sure, Halloween <span style="font-style: italic;">is</span> a creation of the all-powerful rubber mask lobby, but as a form of cultural imperialism, it's pretty benign. I'm sure the local bakery feels the same way.<br /><br />Why is Halloween so great? You get to carve up pumpkins. Lara, Stefano and I went to work on a real beauty after dinner last night. Here's our handiwork.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVFG6dk2Sf_sXu8YUQ4m8Md3AVlK9nFcAywB1e72nEx9DdOFJ2U6a71_ryxuhYz7dx8a9losN7aBy5pOY7hxzJUESAterIR_F6un_dxsjT27mO-NlobLxaewM6LXaFlSa3hf5TSw/s1600-h/DSC00744.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 268px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVFG6dk2Sf_sXu8YUQ4m8Md3AVlK9nFcAywB1e72nEx9DdOFJ2U6a71_ryxuhYz7dx8a9losN7aBy5pOY7hxzJUESAterIR_F6un_dxsjT27mO-NlobLxaewM6LXaFlSa3hf5TSw/s400/DSC00744.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5398696636167590242" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Boo!<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggMT50uKCls3d486xG5-aSw2tVOtPpnbs7fXhytoLSKIUEQb52ASMfTEuaPIeWletz87AxA_M4madHASjFP3A8505RMI0rq1I45kaGIOvmhKnplZgFCh90K-CyJ86DC4sqxJOFMw/s1600-h/DSC00745.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 268px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggMT50uKCls3d486xG5-aSw2tVOtPpnbs7fXhytoLSKIUEQb52ASMfTEuaPIeWletz87AxA_M4madHASjFP3A8505RMI0rq1I45kaGIOvmhKnplZgFCh90K-CyJ86DC4sqxJOFMw/s400/DSC00745.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5398697181842739602" border="0" /></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0