Luca Venturini’s Blog

On google video people can browse the “top 100″ of the most viewed videos, divided by country. In the Italian top 100, the most viewed video is a documentary that was transmitted by BBC in October 2006. The title is “Sex Crimes and Vatican” and is about priest and sexual abuse.

I’m not a lawyer, but the Vatican here says that the sexual assault of priests to minors under 18 years old should be reported to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and that, for these kinds of crimes, there exists what’s known as the pontifical secret. The document is dated May 18, 2001 and signed by Josephus Cardinal Ratzinger.

Ratzinger was named as a defendant in a civil lawsuit: he was accused of conspiring with the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston to cover up some abuse in the district court of Harris County, Houston, Texas (in mid ‘90). The Pope is considered a head of state and automatically has diplomatic immunity. (more here, here and here)

Ok, maybe 38 minutes is a lot, but instead of watching TV this evening, let’s surf here.

Here is the BBC page on the documentary.

Photo credit: Franz

Update: The video is now split into four parts: one, two, three, four.

If, in this image, you see only a fountain, then this post is for you.

Blogs contain news that change quickly. How can you follow the contains of a blog? If you browse the blog web site every day just to see if something has changed, you’ll waste a lot of time. It would be beautiful to have a method of being informed only when something on the blog changes. Still better would be to read only the news, always in the same format.

This method exists.

Some programs called aggregators, or news feed readers, enable you to follow blogs and other news sources. I use Akregator. Others use Firefox’s live bookmark, and still others prefer Google Reader. Even with little differences, the main point is that those tools permit the reader to be informed only when I change something; then you don’t need to waste your time to click on my blog only to see if I posted something. A list of aggregators can be found following this orange symbol here on the right. Be prepared to see that symbol everywhere because, where it is, there is a news source.

Trust me, using an aggregator is mandatory. Your possibilities will be multiplied more than with any other tool. Today 1 out of 3 of the visits to the most important blogs are through news feed readers.

But all this can still sound difficult to some people. Then, with the help of Feedburner, you can subscribe to this blog even via email. Just insert your email address in the box here at the right. You will receive a confirmation request from emaildefuego. By accepting, you will be subscribed and will receive all my posts in your mailbox. It’s really easy.

Photo credit: Orin Optiglot, Padday

San Francisco

Wherever I go in San Francisco, I find an average of 10 open networks. Two or three of them are free, and not encrypted. If I prefer, I can go in a Cafe’ as a Bedouin and work there. There I can call for free everywhere in the world. If you have grown up with the Italian telephonic fares, with the local calls time-based (TUT), then you see this as heaven.

Two years ago Gavin Newsom, mayor of San Francisco, said: “We will not stop until every San Franciscan has access to free wireless Internet service”. From 2008, there will be a big, free wireless network that will be open and free for everyone.

Rome

In Italy, a little bastard law says that everyone should have the copy of the ID of the people that are surfing the web with his network. This way the Italians close their wi-fi networks.

Sometimes, one of the Italian crazy politicians says something good. Then you can hear Walter Veltroni, mayor of Rome, telling us that, in the center of Rome, there is wi-fi connection free for everyone. Great. Then guess what? It is limited to one hour a day. Guess why? “Because people can illegally download music from the net“.

Palermo

I want to rush it, but then I find another news from Palermo. Diego Cammarata, mayor of Palermo, meets a lot of people with Silvio Berlusconi. Can you guess what he said? That “In five years everyone in Palermo will have water at home 24/7“.

Photo credit: vkdir