April 4th

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self­evident, that all men are created equal."

Early morning, April four
Shot rings out in the Memphis sky.
Free at last, they took your life
They could not take your pride.

In the name of love
What more in the name of love.
In the name of love
What more in the name of love.

...because the only way I think it it worth living is in the name of love. And Martin knew that.

pace

quando sai che l'unica reazione possibile e' sputargli in un occhio

supervisor: 'yes, we need to accelerate the pace'

...e guarda un po', io c'ho ancora bisogno di dormire la notte, strano essere vivente che sono

change

...I do not beleive in hope without endeavour...

...working together is what changes our world...

...we cannot wait for the other guy, we have to do it ourselves....

un paese civile

...la liberta' e l'ugugaglianza...

Primo

"Devo dire che l'esperienza di Auschwitz è stata tale per me da spazzare qualsiasi resto di educazione religiosa che pure ho avuto. C'è Auschwitz, dunque non può esserci Dio. Non trovo una soluzione al dilemma. La cerco, ma non la trovo."

Voi che vivete sicuri
nelle vostre tiepide case,
voi che trovate tornando a sera
il cibo caldo e visi amici:
Considerate se questo è un uomo
che lavora nel fango
che non conosce pace
che lotta per mezzo pane
che muore per un si o per un no.
Considerate se questa è una donna,
senza capelli e senza nome
senza più forza di ricordare
vuoti gli occhi e freddo il grembo
come una rana d'inverno.
Meditate che questo è stato:
vi comando queste parole.
Scolpitele nel vostro cuore
stando in casa andando per via,
coricandovi, alzandovi.
Ripetetele ai vostri figli.
O vi si sfaccia la casa,
la malattia vi impedisca,
i vostri nati torcano il viso da voi.

superheroes

today I met a super-man

how can a man live?

The Gospel of Matthew says that, after Jesus' arrest by the Roman authorities (but before his execution), the guilt-ridden Judas returned the bribe to the priests and committed suicide by hanging himself.

How can a man live after having killed God's son? Could you live after knowing that you have killed Mahatma Gandhi? or Francis of Assisi?

e Giuda non si e' mai capito bene
se quel bacio fu un tradimento o la piu' grande fedelta'

and as concerns Judas, it was never clear

if that kiss was a betrayal or the deepest faithfulness

I claim

I claim to be no more than an average man with less than average abilities. I have not the shadow of a doubt that any man or woman can achieve what I have, if he or she would make the same effort and cultivate the same hope and faith.

Mahatma Gandhi

proud of carrying his name

Most high, all powerfull, all good Lord 
All praise is yours, all glory, all honour 
and all blessing. 
To you alone, Most High, do they belong and no human being is worthy to pronounce your name. 
Praised be You, my Lord,through all that you have made, 
and first my lord brother Sun, 
who brings the day and light you give us through him; 
How beautiful is he, how radiant in all his splendour: 
of you, Most High, he bears the likeness. 
Praised be You, my Lord,through sister Moon and Stars;in the heaven you have made them, bright, and precious and fair. 
Praised be You, my Lord,through brother Wind, 
and air and stormy and fair in all weather moods, 
by which You cherish all that you have made. 
Praised be You, my Lord,through sister Water, 
so useful, humble, precious 
and pure. 
Praised be You, my Lord, through brother Fire, 
through whom You light the night; 
and he is beautiful and playful and robust and strong. 
Praised be You, my Lord,through our sister mother Earth, 
who sustains and governs us, 
producing varied fruits with coloured flowers and herbs. 
Praised be You, my Lord,through those who grant pardon 
for love of You, 
and bear sickness and trial; 
blessed are those who endure in peace, 
by You, most High, they will be crowned. 
Praised be You, ...

the scream

"I was out walking with two friends.

The sun began to set.

Suddenly the sky turned blood-red.

I paused, feeling exhausted, and leaned on a fence.

There was blood and tongues of fire above the blue-black fjord and the city.

My friends walked on, and there I still stood, trembling with fear.

And I sensed an endless scream passing through nature."

Edvard Munch

"And finally I twist my heart round again, so that the bad is on the outside and the good is on the inside, and keep on trying to find a way of becoming what I would so like to be, and could be, if there weren't any other people living in the world."

Anne Frank

"I don't believe that the big men, the politicians and the capitalists alone are guilty of the war. Oh, no, the little man is just as keen, otherwise the people of the world would have risen in revolt long ago! There is an urge and rage in people to destroy, to kill, to murder, and until all mankind, without exception, undergoes a great change, wars will be waged, everything that has been built up, cultivated and grown, will be destroyed and disfigured, after which mankind will have to begin all over again."

Anne Frank

how to be satisfied :)

only a PhD student can be happy of meeting a professor, about 60 years old, who is famous thanks to Riemann solver and entropy fix stuff :) 

people who changed the world and nobody will never know that!

unhappiness comes knocking on our door

I read in a reportage on the earthquake in Italy that the survivors, desperate and powerless, were wondering why fate had chosen them and their land as a place for the terrible disaster. It 's a question that will never receive an answer, but that we cannot avoid to ask when unhappiness comes knocking on our door, as if somewhere in the universe there were an entity responsible of the bad things that occur. Very often we have only the time to see death in front of us, or maybe not even this, when a bomb explodes ten steps from us, when a vessel is reduced into pieces shortly before reaching the coast, when a flood carries away houses and bridges as if they were insignificant barriers, when an avalanche or a landslide bury entire populations. We wonder why to us, why to me, and there is no answer. Even Jacques Brel had asked: "Porquoi moi? Porquoi maintenant?". And he died. That's fate, and in destiny the word resurrection is not written. It 's good to know. In reality, the world does not exist in order to then have resurrections. It's enough what there is here.

José Saramago

EiAiEiEi

I've been here this week http://www.aiaa.org/content.cfm?pageid=230&lumeetingid=1811

And that's where you meet working on your same stuff. And that's where you realize how wonderful science can be. And that's when you remember why you chose to do what you are doing :)

2009: magnolia's odyssey http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prjWY0rwM_U&feature=related

The day the Earth stood still...

If the Earth dies, you die. If you die, the Earth survives.

And remember that human beings are so astonishing because they have the faculty to change, evolve...

Gregariousness

Yesterday I was watching this interview to Rita Levi Montalcini, nobel prize for medicine (studiying human brain), almost one hundred years old. She's also an honorary member of italian Parliament. She is a Jew, born in Turin.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8peqvI-E4Q&eurl=http://dinovoisrock.blogspot.com/2008/11/rita-levi-montalcini-tempo-che-fa.html

She answered this question (free translation):
Interviewer: "As regards the tragedies of this century, you wrote "Man is not evil, he is obedient""
Montalcini: "Man is gregarious. This goes back to the begin of life of Australopithecus. Man is a fossil which takes with him the memory of the past. The origin of the evolution of man, derived from when man was emotively guided, was gregarious. There was not the gene of evilness, there was the gene of gregariousness-compliancy. Man was not born with the need to commit evil deeds. He commits evil deeds because he is gregarious, he passively accepts - we know this from totalitarian regimes - the order of the so-called boss"