About This Website
Does the Internet World really need my website? The answer is quite
straightforward, and I leave it to you... So, why? Don't we have already
enough garbage on the Net? Again, the question here is rethorical...
However, I don't care and I decided to bother all the world with
another unuseful website.
Well, the main reason leading me to waste my time in this way is that
I want to learn just a little bit of PhP and Html and, therefore, I
thought this was the best way to do it.
Anyway, I don't want my home page turning into a really useless space
on the web. Better, I'm going to illude myself that it might become
interesting... at least to someone, I hope.
So, I will include informations about my scientific research and, hopeful,
about some topics which can be interesting according to me, even if I
don't actually work on them.
The idea is also to post news (of whatever nature) which, I think, are
either relevant or not enough highlighted on the most popular
news-sources.
I don't know how often I will be able to update it, however I will make a
lot of efforts to avoid that it becomes one more dead webpage.
Latest News:
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28-Sep-08
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World - Corruption perception.
The Transparency International CPI measures the perceived levels of public-sector corruption in a given country and is a
composite index, drawing on different expert and business surveys. The 2008 CPI scores 180 countries (the same number as
the 2007 CPI) on a scale from zero (highly corrupt) to ten (highly clean). Denmark, New Zealand and Sweden share the
highest score at 9.3, followed immediately by Singapore at 9.2. Bringing up the rear is Somalia at 1.0, slightly
trailing Iraq and Myanmar at 1.3 and Haiti at 1.4. While score changes in the Index are not rapid, statistically
significant changes are evident in certain countries from the high to the low end of the CPI. Looking at source surveys
included in both the 2007 and 2008 Index, significant declines can be seen in the scores of Bulgaria, Burundi, Maldives,
Norway and the United Kingdom. Similarly, statistically significant improvements over the last year can be identified in
Albania, Cyprus, Georgia, Mauritius, Nigeria, Oman, Qatar, South Korea, Tonga and Turkey.
(From the Transparancy International website)
It interesting to notice the position of Italy in the
list: 55th,
with an index of 4.8 and in a range of 4.0-5.5. It's highly under sufficiency if one
thinks
that the scale is out of 10 and completely unaccettable for a country which is considered developed. Moreover,
in the 2007 list, Italy was 14 position higher. Nothing to say, a really big improvement.
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27-Sep-08
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Banana Republic - Ammazzateci tutti (Kill all of us). In 2005, after
the vice-president of Calabria Regional Council Francesco Fortugno has been murdered by
'ndrangheta, young people in
Locri and nearby areas founded a movement
Ammazzateci Tutti (Kill all of us)
against all the types of mafia and with the aim of promoting legality. This movement is not
circumscribed only to Calabria, it went out from Calabria borders and spread in the other
regions of Italy. They are promoting a bill according to which anyone who has been elected and
found in agreement with mafia members should loose his political position. On 14 March 2006, the
movement organized a Legality Presidium with more than 500 people at the restaurant
''Al Valantain'' in Villa San Giovanni
This restaurant had to close after several attacks, extortion attempts and threats of death which led
the owners emigrate abroad and start a new life from scratch.
Over these years these young people organized several events with the intention of spreading
an anti-silence and anti-criminality culture as well as trying to lead the state to give justice to the victims
of the mafias.
The movement made the courageous choice not to be bound nor to any polician neither to any company, and
everything has been organized by taking fundings from their own pocket. These corageous young people
need and deserve some help from all of us. They would like to change our sick world and should not be left alone.
Right now, they can be helped through an economical contribution (click
here). However, I would like
to emphasize that this is only a first step. Most if Italians have been sleeping so far. We need to help
this movement and its ideas to stay alive (Se la gioventù le negherà il consenso, anche l'onnipotente e
misteriosa mafia svanirà come un incubo,
Paolo Borsellino -
If youth doen't give it its consensus, even the almighty and misterious mafia will vanish like a nightmare).
Italians need to wake up and stop to be colluded with mafia. Mafia is not only a criminal organization, but a way of
thinking. (See the movement webpage: Ammazzateci Tutti )
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05-Mar-08
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Science - 5-year WMAP data. The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe
(WMAP) has just released its 5-year data. Tomorrow
March 06, Perimeter Institute's workshop
Novel Theories of the Early Universe
(March 6 - 8) will be opened by Eiichiro Komatsu, a member of WMAP collaboration. The live
broadcast of Komatsu's talk will be avalaible on March 6 on
Perimeter Institute's website. The title of the talk is WMAP 5-year Results: Implications for Inflation.
(More)
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27-Feb-08
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Banana Republic & Science - Particle Physics and politics.
Recently, Luciano Maiani has been appointed as director of CNR, the Italian
National Agency for Research. In a first moment, Italian Senate froze his nomination because
of the opposition of some members of the Senate. According to Senator Asciutti, Maiani would
have
been incompatible with a balanced and laic attitude. The reason? Maiani, together with other
66 professors at ``La Sapienza'' University of Rome, pointed out to the President of the
University that the invitation to Pope Benedict XVI to give a magistralis lecture during
the institutional celebration of the academic year opening was incongruous. Senator Sterpa
(who has been convicted for illegal financing (Enimont - sentenced to 6 months)) quited
the dibate as a protest against intolerance. MP Gabriella Carlucci (who was a TV anchorwoman
until
1994, when she joined Berlusconi's party) wrote a letter to Prime Minister Romano Prodi and
University and Research Minister Fabio Mussi, stating that Maiani was not suitable as
CNR director because of his poor scientific competence. According to her, it was a luck for
Maiani to work with Sheldon
Glashow (Nobel prize laureate) and produce his single valuable paper (again, according to
her). Again, according to
her, Maiani did not understand that work and, because of that, Glashow opposed to his
appointment at CERN. She also invited the members of the comittee, who decided to give him
the appointment at CNR, to get better information before judging.
Luckily, somebody decided to reply her. This ``somebody'' was Glashow himself and, later
Iliopoulos, the other author of the paper
Mrs Carlucci mentioned. Glashow said that Carlucci's slanderous letter
falsely claims that he ever questioned the scientific competence of Maiani and
he closed his letter sayng In the eyes of a foreign scholar, if there is anything that can damage the image of your country's scientific institutions, it is the vulgarity and deception of this slanderous attempt at denigration of some of your nation's most distinguished scientists.
Unfortunately, ignorant's mother is always pregnant and Mrs Carlucci, without any shame,
replied defending her statements, citing not well specified articles in Nature and
Lettere dal Nuovo Cimento and wondering a simple question: If Maiani and his friends are, as
you say, stellar luminaries highly esteemed throughout the world, why did they never win a Nobel
prize ?. Moreover, her last stentence in the letter was: do not tell lies: I could
surprise you. Probably she didn't realize that she was not selling mattresses but rather
arguing with an amazing scientist who can indeed judge Maiani's competence better than her.
One would aspect such a reply from a four-years-old kid, not from a MP, but this is what Italian
politics offers.
I have to mention that she provided a note of Enzo Boschi, professor at University of Bologna, as evidence of her arguments. Unfortunately, that
note is not better written than her letter. It starts and ends saying that at beginning
of his own career as physicist, he was working in the same area of Maiani (maybe he thought
that this would have given him more credit...). Furthermore, according to him Maiani
and his collaborator's incompetence led them not to recognize an important phenomenon, now known
as ``asymptotic freedom'' which led Gross, Politzer and Wilczek to the Nobel Prize.
Iliopoulos' letter to Claudio
Coriano' of Lecce University re-established the truth.
Going back to the epistolar exchange between Glashow and Mrs Carlucci, Glashow, with huge
patience, wrote her again pointing out that I have never questioned Prof.
Maiani's stature as a superb and accomplished researcher. I am outraged that you have tarnished
my own reputation by such a false and invidious allegation. It is true that several Italian
theorists (including Maiani) are deserving of Nobel Prizes, but there are far more such
candidates than Prizes. Recall that world-renowned physics luminaries such as Edward Witten,
Stephen Hawking, Yoichiro Nambu, among many others, are not Nobel Laureates.
Right now, this is the last episode of this tragicomedy, but I am not sure it will be the
very last. You can enjoy it on A Quantum Diaries Survivor (in
English) and Senbee's Blog (in Italian).
Common sense would tell her to publically apologize, immediately resign her position and
avoid a new candidature in the elections in April. Unfortunately, common sense is not that
common and in Italy politics is a really particular ``affaire''. I am curious to see in April
the new parliament of ``friends of friends'', convicted, Big Brothers and Big Sisters.
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28-Oct-07
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World - Rebuilding Iraq with a Lonely Planet guide book.
Former American ambassador Barbara Bodine, who was given the job of helping to reconsruct
Iraq, said: "It is a great guide book, but it should not be the basis of an occupation."
Ms Bodine was one of 170 officials sent to rebuild Iraq after the UK and US invasion toppled
Saddam Hussein's regime in 2003. But in a BBC investigation shown tonight, Ms Bodine reveals how the team of
diplomats was given no information about how they should go about it. So they consulted the
1994 Middle East edition of the Lonely Planet for information on the economy, the Government
and addresses of important buildings and embassies.
(Read the whole article
by Nick Owens on Sunday Mirror).
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28-Oct-07
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Banana Republic - Investigators and Suspects.
Mastella (Italian Minister of Justice) is being investigated by judge
De Magistris for abuse of office, illicit financing of the parties,
collaborating in fraud in relation to European and national financing. As
soon as he discovers it he asks for his transfer. He doesn't succeed. De
Magistris becomes the one under investigation. Someone leaks reserved
information to the Catanzaro Prosecutor. De Magistris receives an envelope
containing bullets. He continues all the same. Mastella threatens to send
Prodi (Italian Prime Minister) home in the Spring. The investigation is
immediately removed from De Magistris. (Read the whole article on
Beppe Grillo's blog).
Let me summarize some particular features of Clemente Mastella, our Justice Minister. He
was originally a journalist. In the 70's he was hired in Naples section
of RAI (RAI is the Italian public television network) because of pressure
by De Mita, a really powerful politician of Christian Democracy party. As a
consequential protest, RAI local section journalists stroke for three days. He worked
for 1 year and 32 days, until he was elected as
member of Parliament in 1976. He is still in the Parliament since then:
31 years. However, once he was elected, he didn't resign his post. Since
2000, the journalist Mastella is a pensioner, even if he worked as
journalist only for 397 days
[1].
He was stricly related with former mafia member
Francesco
Campanella (together with Salvatore Cuffaro, they were the best men at Campanella's wedding), who was
in Villabate city council which was absolved in 1999 because of conviction
with mafia. In 2000 Campanella became national coordinator of the young
members of UDEUR, Mastella's party. In 2001 Campanella helped
Bernardo
Provenzano, one of most powerful mafia bosses, to falsify his ID card,
allowing him to go to France for a surgery. Beside being Italian Minister of
Justice, Mastella is also mayor of Ceppaloni. This implies that
he gets double salary as well as double privileges. As Minister of Justice,
Mastella promoted a general amnesty in 2006 which brought to a considerable
increase of crime rates in Italy. To this respect, one has also to point out
that all of parliament members, but the members of
Italia dei Valori party only, voted for this general amnesty, in
order to save from judgment and conviction some of themselves and their
friends.
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28-Oct-07
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Banana Republic - A geriatric assault on Italy's bloggers.
Italy's leaders barely understand word processors, let alone the web. Now
they've turned against the country's bloggers. By G8 standards,
Italy is a strange country. Put simply, it is a nation of octogenarian
lawmakers elected by 70-year-old pensioners. Everyone else is
inconsequential.
[...] 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. 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 website.
[...] If it is ratified - and at the moment it
looks frighteningly likely - the Ministry of Communications would decide
who must register with the state.
(Read the whole article by Bernhard Warner on
Times on line)
The energetic old Levi isn't giving up. He has in fact modified article 7 of
the Levi-Prodi with an additional point instead of deleting the article.
Here's the extra bit: Excluded from the obligation to register with ROC
are those who use the Internet or who operate on the Internet in forms and
with products, like personal websites or websites for collective use that
are not for an entrepreneurial work organisation. What is meant by
entrepreneurial work organisation?
(Read the whole article on
Beppe Grillo's blog)
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11-Aug-07
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World - Media Silence About the Carnage in Iraq. Killing
10,000 Iraqis Every Month. A state-of-the-art research study
published in October 12, 2006 issue of The Lancet (the most prestigious
British medical journal) concluded that - as of a year ago - 600,000 Iraqis
had died violently due to the war in Iraq. That is, the Iraqi death rate for
the first 39 months of the war was just about 15,000 per month. That wasn't
the worst of it, because the death rate was increasing precipitously, and
during the first half of 2006 the monthly rate was approximately 30,000 per
month, a rate that no doubt has increased further during the ferocious
fighting associated with the current American surge. The U.S. and British
governments quickly dismissed these results as "methodologically flawed,"
even though the researchers used standard procedures for measuring mortality
in war and disaster zones.[...]
The reasons for this rejection were, however, clear enough: the results were
simply too devastating for the culpable governments to acknowledge.
(Secretly the British government later admitted that it was "a tried and
tested way to measuring mortality in conflict zones"; but it has never
publicly admitted its validity).[...]
These shocking statistics are made all the more horrific when we realize
that among the 600,000 or so victims of Iraqi war violence, the largest
portion have been killed by the American military, not by carbombings or
death squads, or violent criminals--or even all these groups combined.
(Read the whole
article by Michael Schwartz on
Counter Punch -
Italian article on
Come Don Chisciotte).
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08-Aug-07
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World - Democracy and Justice III. If before
September the 11th 2001 dealing with US customs was unpleasent and after
that date it was painful, starting 2008 it will become a real nightmare.
Our dear Mr Bush just decided to introduce new "antiterrorism" laws to
rule the flow of people entering US. First of all, whoever wants to go
to USA must have a biometric passport, apply for a visa even if one is
citizen of one of the countries considered as friend of US (until now,
this class of people didn't need a visa if the trip was supposed to last
less than 90 days), and, it doesn't matter if it is a business or a tourist
trip, must register their detailed travel route at least two
days before the departure date on a dedicated website. If one doesn't
provide such informations or just on the basis of them, US goverment can
decide that some people are suspicious or dangerous and prevent them to
travel to USA. Wonderful, isn't it?
Obviously, this is not the end of the story. The fun part is coming now:
US government can intercept each single phone call toward and from abroad,
without any previous request to a judge. What a nice situation! With the
excuse of "security reasons", US government is violating all the possible
people freedom. I guess I will think more than twice before travelling
to the country of democracy and freedom...
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06-Aug-07
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Science - Upcoming Event: Summer School on Particle
Physics, Cosmology and Strings. The Summer School on Particle
Physics, Cosmology and Strings is the 5th in an ongoing series offered by
Perimeter Institute and PIMS. The summer school is targeted at 40 advanced
graduate students in high energy physics with interests in at least one of
the research areas of particle physics, cosmology and/or string theory.
(More)
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