Beautiful, smart, proud and not reluctant to shed her Italian skin in the name of humanistic principles, Carla Bruni represents the hope for Italy. She is an atypical Italian; something this country desperately needs in order to meet the challenges of the 21st century.

The things she said and the way she said them made me take a deep breath of unexpected relief. I salute you madam and I hereby declare myself a fan.

A friend reported to me he was having this issue. A PHP generated HTML page that displayed properly on Internet Explorer would not display at all on Firefox - instead the browser would offer to download the page as if it was a zip or something.

Both platforms are strong, well supported and functional. However when it comes to both

Nutrient content of the same type of cheese can vary widely depending on the ingredients used (e.g. cow's milk based ricotta versus goat's milk based ricotta) and the specific manufacturing process used which tends to differ from country to country.

Various online stores located in Italy, with a focus to electronics:

8 years ago:

Watch this little video if you want to know the answer:

This is bit like the twilight zone, but spookier cuz it happens to be true!

If you live in Italy and decide to order something online from a non EU country, besides the absurdly high taxes that you will have to pay,  you will have to wait for months before you see your package. Yup, you got that right! Months!

One has to wonder, is that just another failure of the Italian public sector or is it clandestine protectionism? Whatever the case, think twice before you order outside the EU.

A letter to a proud modern Greek

The Greeks are dead. They gave a lot to this world but they ceased existing a long time ago. Their culture and their beliefs were very diverse than those of present day Greece. Why don't you claim as yours something that is truly yours. Something that you helped create. I understand that a country that only started existing 150 years ago, at a place where there was nothing much to start with may be at a disadvantage but that is no reason to retreat into metaphysics and mythology. Be a man and face reality.

So, Obama becomes president and all leaders of the civilized world (at least what is considered as such) make comments that are at the very least respectful. All leaders except one: Berlusconi, Italy's leader, who basically said that Obama is handsome and has a nice tan (see links below). Most of the media (but not all) saw this as a gaffe, implying that it was simply another innocent mistake that gaffe-prone Berlusconi made.