25 giugno 2009

Italian politics stink

It's not a case that I never met a foreigner that loves Berlusconi. Therefore I am starting to believe that there should be some sort of blindness among the Italians, and they are unable to see what is going on and re-elect the Little Dwarf (as the opposition calls him).

Recently there has been a sex scandal involving "our" President. Some goodlooking ladies from the South declared they were paid to attend Berlusconi's dinner in an institutional building. They said they flew from Puglia to Rome to sit at the table with Mr. B., that there were about 30 ladies all dressed in black, and that Mr. B. entertained himself with them.
They saw the main moments of Mr. B.'s political career, like him meeting important people, all accompanied with the hymn of Mr. B's parties "Meno male che Silvio c'è" (Luckily Silvio is here). The ladies all moved their arms with the music, and Mr. B. gave them precious little gifts such as bracelets, pendants, necklaces,...

As you know, Mr. B. is sort of Murdoch in Italy: he owns most of the TV channel, of the magazines and newspapers. As he is in charge as the political leader of Italy, he now holds control even of the public televisions (other 3 channels).
All of his TV channels never reported about the sex scandal, and of all the 3 main public channel, only RaiTre talked about it during the News.

The Vatican is coming strictly at him, so Berlusconi said (to one of his magazines, of course) that these girls are paid from his opponents and that he has never ever paid a woman, because "it would be no fun".

I happened on a page on facebook against the very-righty newspaper "Libero", of Berlusconi's camerade.

In red "Sex in the ballot boxes"
in big "We are all Berlusconis"
in Italics "Not to lose these last elections, the Left Party focus on the bed affairs. But Italy is tolerant. Anyway, only a few can cast the first stone."

...

In the meantime one of the girls involved in the scandal was burglared of all her clothes (anybody remembers Monica Lewinsky?) and another one's car took fire last night.

23 giugno 2009

We're one but we're not the same - Nokia N97 comparison price

After just a few weeks from the Nokia N97 release I compared the various prices of this piece of technology&design.
Prices are taken from Nokia Online Stores.

Nokia Online Store US €503 ($699)

Nokia online store UK € 590
Nokia online store DE € 649
Nokia online store FR € 699
Nokia online store IT € 599

note: the Freanch version includes a bluetooth earphone.

08 giugno 2009

Yummy blogs: BAKERELLA

I discovered this blog a while ago, looking for luscious recipes.
It features a lot of pretty and yummy recipes, all sweets, mainly chocolate based (could you blame the author?) but certainly good looking more then the average cake.

The author is a great cooker and she's pretty good at photographing, too. This blog is really a pleasure to watch and taste!

BAKERELLA's blog


another blog from the same author: LOVELY LITTLE CAKES

12 marzo 2009

Where in Europe?


Neatorama says in Europe we have this wonderful ideas...of course not in Italy. Anyone has ever seen such thing? If so, where?

[source]

12 febbraio 2009

Make your life greener



source: http://www.inhabitat.com/2009/01/19/moss-carpet-by-nguyen-la-chanh/

19 gennaio 2009

Raisin muffins

I found a better recipe for my muffins on this Italian website. They are softer and yummier, so since now on I will bake muffin with this recipe.
I find really comfortable to put my favourite recipes on my blog. This way, whenever I need to cook them I just have to search on my blog the "ricette" (recipes), and they are available anywhere I can get an internet connection.

Today I had some spare time and tried to bake muffins. I hope my friends from the US won't be disappointed I posted an American recipe. I am awaiting for your suggestions!

Muffins
(recipe for 12 muffins)

time: 15 mins to prepare + 20 mins to bake
pros: no kitchen appliance required except a oven, no special cooking tools, just a spoon and, of course, muffin tins.

380 g of white flour
1 sachet of baking powder (approx. 2 teaspoons or 160 g)
200 g sugar
a pinch of salt
2 eggs
250 ml of milk
180 g of butter
1 sachet of vanillin (approx. a scarce teaspoon)
2 ml of lemon flavour or a grated lemon rind


Preheat oven to 356 degrees F (180°C) and grease 10 muffin tins.

This recipe is very simple to do. Take two bowls: in one you are going to mix the dry ingredients, i.e. flour + baking powder (sift), sugar, vanillin and salt. In the other bowl, mix the wet ingredients. Lighty beat the eggs and the milk, then add the lemon (whatever form it is) and the melt butter.
You can use a simple spoon to do so, as lumps are not a problems.
Now put the wet mixed ingredients into the dry ones, stirring with a spoon.

When you get a smooth mix, pour it into the tins and then let's bake it for 20 mins.
As usual, the baking time depends on the kind of oven you have. The newer the faster. As a general rule use a wooden stick to check if the muffins are completely baked. Stick it into a muffin: if it comes out clean, then the muffin is fully cooked. If not, bake a little longer until the stick comes out clean.

VARIANTS: of course, muffins come in all flavors of this world, so you can add cocoa, chocolate, raisins, apples, raspberries,... In this case the baking time will increase.
For apple muffins and raisin muffins it takes me an additional 15' to bake them.
In any case, apply the wooden stick rule.


28 dicembre 2008

DVD protection & Sony VAIO

One thing I hate is putting boundaries to culture. As some of you might know, DVDs from around the world can only be played in certain zone, as they have restricted use across the globe.
There are 6 areas: North America (region 1), Europe (region 2), Australia (region 4),... and so on.

The restriction is a mere software thing such as you cannot play a DVD unless its region matches the region of your DVD player. I have bought loads of DVDs in my travels and some I bought over the internet as they were cheaper.

With my new notebook, a Sony Vaio FW21E, there was no software to play my DVDs from various regions, nor I found a firmware to replace the original locked one. The computer kept asking me if I wanted to switch region and that I had fewer and fewer region switches left.

By chance, I came across a way to play any DVD on my VAIO, regardless of its region.
I downloaded DVDFab, a software to copy DVDs. It has a preview mode for each video track of the DVD, just pick the longest one which is the movie itself. The shorter ones are the various titles, trailers, promos, extras,...

Double click on the preview windows to go full size. use the right button of your mouse to select different languages or subtitles.