Since this hasn’t probably got outside of Italy all the attention it deserves, here’s the story: ten days ago Unione Nazionale Consumatori (UNC) that is one of the biggest consumers associations of Italy, announced that YouTube has shutdown their official channel on YouTube.com (unioneconsumatori) for copyright violation. As you can see from the snapshot here, as of July 2, 2011, 1520 GMT, that account is still blocked.
From what UNC says, the only “violation” is that they had put on YouTube (among many completely original videos) short excerpts of… interviews to UNC representatives aired from the Mediaset and R.
miscellanea
- In general, I agree that humans aren’t ready for total transparency yet and that what is called the “space to think” in the article I quote below is necessary. But I also think we need an equilibrium betwen that and the de-facto total lack of transparency we have today, and I’m pretty sure that many average EU citizens think the same. However, if we are to judge from some recent news, EU governments seem to think that they’ll take such demands seriously… and then just merrily walk around them.
- Cement, the powderized mix that is a basic ingredient of concrete, is devouring Italy, said a report published in April by italian green organization Legambiente. That statement summarizes the fact that 10.000 hectares of italian surface are covered by buildings every year: it’s like we built a new Milan every four months. Were that cement used to restructure and make safe existing buildings it wouldn’t be bad, but it mostly isn’t.
- A few weeks ago Catharine Smith published her weekly Top Tweets list at Huffington Post. Personally, I found the first one, shown here, a bit depressing: “first tweet from the top of the world, thanks to the awesome XYZ handset!”. I know perfectly well that to practice mountaineering (or any other activity, really) at that level, full time, you need sponsors and you need (within certain limits) to make them happy.
- The Free Technology Academy (FTA) is an advanced virtual campus with various course modules, which can be followed entirely on-line and seeks to educate and promote the adoption of Free Software and other Free Technologies. I explained in detail what the FTA is last year. This week the Association of Greek Users and Friends of Free/Open Source Software has joined the FTA’s International Associate Partner Network. Constantine Mousafiris, Special Registar of GREEKLUG, explained that:
- I just found by chance an article about JPII Beatification Controversy that says something interesting, I think, about a general, huge problem. Just like the author of that article (a USA Catholic Priest), I have to say “priest abuse scandal… is such a huge topic that I cannot handle it all here”. I just want to quote one paragraph: I am now a young priest who is not allowed to ever be alone with a minor, must have a window on every door that I sit behind, and know that if anybody ever got angry at me for any reason, all that they would have to do is make and allegation and I would be removed.
- I just found (2011/05/01 09:20am italian time zone) in my RSS reader these two titles from the two biggest Italian newspapers: Corriere della Sera: one million people in Rome for Wojtyla beatification Repubblica: 200 thousands people for Wojtyla, Rome invaded by pilgrims [](/images/wojtyla_cifre.png) they link at the articles you see in this screenshot. Reading them, it seems that Repubblica refers to the people who participated in the all-night prayer vigil and then moved to S.
Poverty reduction in the Third World has been tremendous, and more is yet to come. Besides, many goods and services are less expensive than they would without globalization. However, global capitalism isn’t working for the middle class in the USA: they are struggling to find or keeps (poorly paid) jobs, while the benefits are mostly being enjoyed by the C-suite.
- Mother Earth law in Bolivia would give nature legal rights, specifically the rights to life and regeneration, biodiversity, water, clean air, balance, and restoration, mandating a fundamental ecological reorientation of Bolivia’s economy and society, as in: moving to renewable energy development of new economic indicators that assess the ecological impact of all economic activity. Goodbye GDP! ecological audits of all private and state companies regulation and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions development of policies of food and renewable energy sovereignty research and investment of resources in energy efficiency, ecological practices, and organic agriculture requiring that all companies and individuals be accountable for environmental contamination with a duty to restore damaged environments.
- Hendryx is a national expert on coal’s real-world impacts. Unlike the front group operatives that the coal industry underwrites to move its claims in the court of public opinion, it’s reasonable to assume that he doesn’t make any more money if his research finds that coal’s arguments bear out in the real world - or not. That means his conclusions are worth repeating: coal’s “clean” claims are absurd coal spokespeople claiming it’s an abundant fuel supply are “simply lying”