Save the bear May 23, 2006
Posted by dorigo in news, science.2 comments
One of Italy's rare brown bears living in the Alps - a three year old animal - is threatened to get killed by german authorities. The bear, one of the few elements of a repopulation project sponsored by the European Community, has wandered to Germany, probably in search of food, and is considered a threat - he already took a few sheep, and some chicken from the cage of a farmer, the fat criminal.
Usually in similar cases rubber bullets are used, to condition it into going back to wilderness. If that fails, the animal should be caught alive, and only if it becomes a threat to the population would killing it be considered. But the bear is not dangerous to the population, according to researchers of the INFS (a national institute for wild animals).
Shooting the young bear, that would be the crime. If Germany kills the innocent animal, I am going to boycott german products for a year.
17 convicted and serving as congressmen May 23, 2006
Posted by dorigo in internet, italian blogs, news, politics.add a comment
Beppe Grillo is an italian comedian who likes to speak the truth ("If you are going to tell people the truth, be funny or they'll kill you" - Mel Brooks), and has risen to fame with his witty stand-up monologues, but has stayed there thanks to intelligent civil actions. He has a very high frequentation blog, where he discusses and denounces italian scandals, misdemeanors, shameful practices, pollution and the like.
Visit him here: www.beppegrillo.it
Anyway. Today, he published in his blog a list of the 17 congressmen in the italian parliament who have been convicted with a definitive judgement. We are down to that number from the 24 of the past legislature, but still 17 is some 2% that should really not be there.
Lo and behold, most of them are members of the center-right parties, particularly Berlusconi's Forza Italia. Here is the list:
Berruti Massimo Maria (FI)
Biondi Alfredo (FI)
Bonsignore Vito (UDC)
Bossi Umberto (LN)
Cantoni Giampiero (FI)
Carra Enzo (DL)
Cirino Pomicino Paolo (NDC)
Dell'Utri Marcello (FI)
De Michelis Gianni (NPSI)
Jannuzzi Lino (FI)
La Malfa Giorgio (PRI)
Maroni Roberto (LN)
Previti Cesare (FI)
Sterpa Egidio (FI)
Tomassini Antonio (FI)
Visco Vincenzo (DS)
Vito Alfredo (FI)
FI = Forza Italia, Berlusconi's party, counts 9 of them.
LN = Lega Nord, counts 2.
Other parties from the center-right coalition (UDC, NDC, NPSI, PRI) make up 4 more.
Two are from the center-left governing coalition (DS,DL). The center-right wins 15 to 2.
A side note is necessary here. Not all of these people have committed real crimes or misdemeanors. Some of them are, I am sure, honest and respectable people (not all though, as will be evident by going through the list and stopping at the name of that lawyer who corrupted judges by bringing them bags full of cash). But I really think they should not have been accepted as candidates for civil office.
Another observing night May 23, 2006
Posted by dorigo in astronomy, personal.add a comment
I thought I would post a few pictures describing how my nights are going these days… Yesterday I "only" observed from 9PM to midnight, and had fun with a digital camera trying to capture what I was seeing at the eyepiece.
Of course, using a camera hand-held in front of the eyepiece, with focusing done ball-parking around the infinity sign, and with no motor tracking, one can hardly expect anything on a subject so hard as planets. But I am not ashamed to post them nonetheless…
This is Jupiter…
And this is Saturn…
And this is me.
