1908 NEW YORK PARIS

In a few hours it will be Olympic Opening Ceremony. It would be nice to see the Dalai Lama get a Last minute invitation. In some Culture the invitation can have different weight depending if “I come to you” or “you come to me” . Similarly it is different if you “have to come see me on the hill” or a higher position. It means keeping a position and not really meeting half way on the same level. We are all passengers on Earth, we are all Astronauts. Where is half way on a round shape? May Sport and 2008 Olympic help to see one day an African Olympic maybe. A proper re enactment of the 1908 New York - Paris if supported could help or do its bit. Unesco received a fax, Crossed fingers. Enjoy.

Condolences

admin — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 16:04:43 +0000

On this sad day our Condolences go to Senator Sergio Pininfarina for the sudden death of His Son. “L’amore non muore mai”. Love never dies.

A Tribute on the Centennial of Cesare Pavese, translator with soul. “We don’t remember days; we remember moments.” (28.7.1940)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cesare_Pavese

Posts will resume after 23:59 Italian time in sign of respect.

Philosophical Math and Forgiveness

admin — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 03:12:20 +0000

One of the feelings I had reading Antonio Scarfoglio’s book in Italian was, is, the capability of observing “strangers”, Cultures, Habits and asking genuinely trying to understand. He sure had learned a lot first hand. The hard way. It was early 1900 and he could not know what would have happened in the future 50 years but he went through it up to the time of Man going to the Moon. The “Round the World in a Motor - Car” book is an unfiltered diary of a true Italian observing things from his perspective. Italians have their defects or peculiarities as much as anyone. He did not go for writing a triumphant tone book. He was an independent journalist as much as we do not see many today. Low cost flights were still far to come and Corporate Managers were moving in person. The 1908 New York - Paris was just an episode to his fascinating Life. He was modern and curious at Heart, as we say. Exploring new solutions and Ideas. He went to Germany to learn about new machines. “Le Rotative” or as someone called this technique “Rotogravure” so that newspapers could be printed more easily. He went, learned and introduced them to Italy. The smell of lead typos, ink, paper are peculiar and fascinating. If anyone has ever been in an old fashioned typography probably he/she will know what it is about. The Ambiance. Neither he had a mobile phone as an emergency tool. If he had seen the modern mobile Geo positioning 3D software, able to track a mobile position in its exact point, street, number and even floor I am sure he would have… avoided it for his privacy and used it along the Race. Actually our privacy is a tad at risk under this point of view. If you have your mobile with you your whereabouts are not private at all. Unless you remove the battery. Pros and Cons of Technology? Alan Parsons was singing “Eye in the Sky” as per at http://roadkill.com/APP/lyrics/Eye.In.The.Sky.html The title of this post refers to same concept in two different subjects. Math and Philosophy. “Tends to…” to say it is getting closer and closer to. It could be a number or to a concept such as “good” or “bad”. A choice anyone of us must perform. Capabilities to take a position, say “yes” or “no”, go ahead or stop. Throwing a bridge between Math and Philosophy (and Art?) is not easy but it can be done. There are still so many mysteries even about our own perfect machine (the body) and spirit (the soul). The most interesting question I happened to hear in years was the one posed at Larry King Live: “Can we use more of our brain?”. We are interconnected, you do not need a mobile or a text message to send love or energy. Or just have a thought. In fact some People understand each other “at a glance” as they say.

A tribute goes on the same day to two different cultures. Not always Cars and Airplanes were used for good tasks. On this day a White Rose, according to that Culture able to say things with flowers, goes to Japan. “Enola Gay” dropping “Little Boy” was a grandson of “Flyer” (the airplane) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enola_Gay. A Red Rose goes to Russia for Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleksandr_Solzhenitsyn seen he had lived difficult times and warned about exasperated materialism.

The World in 2001 came to a sudden halt and many elderly more experienced Humans recognized the risk of a retaliation of global proportion. We need to rewind at least to 1908,a modern time, about Ethic, fairplay and co operation and I am sure the book of Antonio Scarfoglio can help. It is not politically correct as we would say today or, better said, he says things as they appear. He went through a “youtube” video of six month without soundtrack but seeing People, hearing them, taking decision to stick to the rules although unsupervised. In a way it was good he came second because he put even more feelings in the book. Sporty attitude. In a way Mr Schuster, the winner who got the prize only in 1968, should have been happy about it because they saved the money for him despite the Great Depression http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Depression of 1929 where he could have lost it. There is always something good even in bad news. Hopefully we will not have another Great Depression even if more and more People get depressed. Around 1982 serving my Coast Guard duty, I was used to go home hitchhiking many times. On one particular day I was given a lift and the person driving who wished somebody to talk with, suddenly asked me “You see this car? how many kilometers you think it can make with one liter of petrol?” I answered something around 15. He went shacking his head and said “Nope.Much More”.”This car can make 100 Km with 1 liter of petrol”. I was puzzled and he explained he was drive testing a car from the Research Office of a Car Maker Brand. He went on… “Don’t you think it would be positive? to have a car like this?” and on “You know what? They did not allow us to produce it, no necessary papers” and on “It is too early”. Well now I would say it starts to be too late. Earth is sending very strong signals if you can read it. Until yesterday it was Competitive while Co operation it should be the keyword from today. New Ideas are needed not just nice packagings of old ones. If you leave somebody out negative feelings come. It seems even our body can, as a computer, have some BIOS countermeasures if we exagerate. Create an Illness to stop you if necessary. Count how many smiles you see in the Tube or on a bus and you will get the feeling of how much Humans are Happy. Today I read two local newspapers (sorry professor, you taught me to always buy at least three and crosscheck) and apart some “silly” project of bottled public water and logo problem (???) I discovered that editorials or opinions are more than the straight facts without comments, position of the same article can vary underlining or not the same fact, in this case a “pro Africa” scandal that someone minimized some other put in the front page. After reading this article I had an inner question. If Nobel came from scruples about the invention of dynamite, I wonder in what that money was later invested to generate such a long standing tradition. Fair businesses? Area and type of Trade? in which Countries? Just curiosity…

There is a lot of talks about China and problems, the Olympics. Even China has of course its problems we wish will be solved and the Good things. I would recommend reading, about journalism, news and so on something about the famous Chinese Ink, a long standing tradition: http://www.asia-art.net/chinese_ink_s.html and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ideogram.

Next post will be about the number “8″ and the typical Italian “8″ Castle: Castel del Monte, The Aedificium of “The name of the Rose”. Did you know it has links with space? See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castel_del_Monte_%28Apulia%29 and http://www.songsouponsea.com/Promenade/GnosisG.html

About the rest, the visual language, we have the illusion of having mastered Time. If you fly West you might have an incredible long day. Reality is different. The Heartbeat is measuring our personal time. Every one will never be again.

Nexus Poll

admin — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 13:08:32 +0000

From a non scientific poll in Italy, this is what came as a result if you make some names. Tony Curtis for example (please note also a Sir 007).

Back to the Future. This is what they would like to see next maybe. Find the video on Youtube to see the comments.

Zust. You can Trust