AEROPLANE TO AEROPLANO

This my contribution to Earth Day. It's a translation of an article from a newsletter I receive from the Italian Bruno Leoni Institute, or IBL.  http://www.brunoleoni.it/    The Institute is a Libertarian think tank which promotes the ideas of the free market, in the sense of the free unfettered interaction among free individuals. It's a good piece. I hope I did it justice and I hope you will enjoy it. Your comments will be greatly appreciated. Thank you, L. Pavese Why we don't celebrate Earth Day. By Carlo Stagnaro . (Translated and edited by Leonardo Pavese).  On April 22nd 2012, being a Sunday a lot of middle class people probably spent Earth Day complaining, while they were unwrapping their sweets, about other people’s carelessness toward the environment, about the evils of capitalism, which destroys everything, and about the tomatoes, which don’t taste like they used to. At the same time, more than 1.3 billion human beings spent their...

The Clock of Palazzo Vecchio and the Florentine Detective. By Roberto Vacca. To everyone he was VP, not as in Vice President, but as in Vice Padrino. He was very self-confident. He was feared from Vegas to Miami, from Como to Capo Passero. Everyone obeyed him. He said: “Special agent Patrick O’Cuillenain followed me all the way here to Italy. That Irish son-of-a-bitch is going around saying he’s here just as a tourist. But he’s really sticking his nose where he’s not supposed to. I am gonna waste him myself.” His cousin objected: “VP, no. Do not expose yourself. We can send one of the boys.” “No, I’m gonna do it myself. This is personal.” Agent O’Cuillenain was pleased with his escort. Jack Ryan was an old friend. He was also Irish and spoke Italian well. O’Cuillenain had also hit it off with the Italian Florentine Carabinier Carlo Guarducci. He had sized the Italian up right away as smart, confident and reliable. The three of them had eaten in a very good resta...

Tanto per sdrammatizzare un po' (dopo guerre e maomettani), parliamo di automobili, design e marketing. O meglio, lasciamo parlare Eric Peters , che lo fa di professione, ed è più al corrente di me, per quel che riguarda il mercato dell'auto. Per quanto mi riguarda, è solo un'occasione per guardare vecchie foto e belle illustrazioni, ma spero che il pezzo che ho tradotto vi interesserà. I vostri commenti saranno molto graditi. Grazie, L. Pavese The Beetle as a Speedster. di Eric Peters. (Tradotto da Leonardo Pavese) Negli Stati Uniti, la Volkswagen ha cambiato di nuovo il nome del Maggiolino, da New Beetle a semplicemente Beetle. Ma un appellativo molto più adatto sarebbe stato Speedster. ( In Italia si direbbe Spider, da speeder, se non volesse ormai dire decapottabile; anche se, io ho una mia teoria, qualche sapientone lo ha mutato in spyder credendo che fosse scritto male ndt ) . Magari anche New Speedster . Ma non Beetle , per piacere, che sia nu...

The most important part of this July 16 article (while the war in Gaza is raging), which I translated from the Italian on-line defense magazine Analisi Difesa , are the last two lines. They reveal what should be clear to anyone who can count, and possesses a little knowledge of military technology; that is, the fact that the terrorist organization Hamas, that controls Gaza (hopefully not for long), actually has a certain strategic advantage over Israel. Hamas is capable of producing large quantities of inexpensive low-technology rocket projectiles (or modifying existing ones), and now also simple unmanned aircraft, that can be launched into Israeli territory. The Israeli military is forced to respond to the threat by developing and fielding anti-missiles systems (like Iron Dome and Patriot), which are much more expensive, and can be "saturated," for example by salvos of multiple rockets, fired simultaneously. A system like Iron Dome won't be able to follow and ...