November 2008 Archives

An interesting analysis on the Guardian web site by Amy Lawrence, "Serie A on the b-list," describes the decline of Italian football.

Lawrence writes that Italian football has been damaged by corruption, hooliganism, outmoded tactics, and the ready availability of good soccer on pay-per-view television.

Amy Lawrence, "Serie A on the b-list," Guardian.co.uk, 23 November 2008.

From today's Penn State Newswire --

Penn State ranks 12th among study abroad programs

Penn State's University Park campus was ranked 12th among U.S. doctorate-granting universities with the most students studying abroad in 2006-07, according to the 2008 Open Doors report published annually by the Institute of International Education. According to the report released Monday (Nov. 17), 1,830 Penn State students attending University Park were studying abroad. However, for the first time, the report listed separate figures for Penn State students at other locations, therefore the total for the entire University stands at 2,183 students studying abroad, slightly ahead of the 2,168 total in last year's report.

Read the full story on Live: http://live.psu.edu/story/36050/nw4

Thanks to Sarah Benson for pointing us to this story on the BBC about Google Earth's new project that gives 3-D views of ancient Rome. You can find the BBC story here.

You can download Google Earth free here.

In today's New York Times, Steven Erlanger reports on the European response to the election of Barack Obama. He writes, of the Italian response,

In Italy, Jean-Léonard Touadi, the only black member of the Italian Parliament, sees the Obama victory similarly. It is "a great and concrete provocation to European society and European politics," said Mr. Touadi, born in the Congo Republic. Mr. Obama gives hope, he said, that "one day" there can be a similar outcome in Europe.

But not soon. Hossain Moazzem, a Bangladeshi waiter at L'Insalata Ricca restaurant, said he hoped Mr. Obama's victory would foster "change all over the world." But Italy, he said, had a "long, long" way to go.

Steven Erlanger, "After U.S. Breakthrough, Europe Looks in Mirror," New York Times, 12 November 2008.

thanks to Rick Ruth for finding this today.

Italian Prime Minister Sylvio Berlusconi said in a Moscow news conference, after a meeting with Russian President Medvedev that the newly elected American president Barack Obama is "young, handsome, and even tanned." Berlusconi has a history of making crude jokes. This one reverberated around the world.

Here is the Los Angeles Times report:

Berlusconi, who has a history of controversial remarks, said the relative youth of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, and Obama should make it easier for Moscow and Washington to work together.

Then, smiling, he said through an interpreter, "I told the president that he [Obama] has everything needed in order to reach deals with him: He's young, handsome and even tanned."

Medvedev did not visibly react.

Berlusconi, 72, later defended the remark, calling it "a great compliment. . . . If they have the vice of not having a sense of humor, worse for them," the ANSA news agency reported.

Berlusconi said the remark was meant to be "cute" and he lashed out at those who disagreed, calling them "imbeciles, of which there are too many."

Italy's only black lawmaker, Jean-Leonard Touadi, called the comment embarrassing.

Carla Bruni, wife of French Prime Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, was born an Italian citizen and became a French citizen when she married Sarkozy earlier this year. When she learned of Berlusconi's comments, she said that she was glad she had become French.

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Los Angeles Times, "Foreign chiefs have funny way of offering congrats; Berlusconi says Obama is 'handsome and even tanned.' Ahmadinejad slams U.S. policies," 7 November 2008.

See also

Alexander Stille, Letter from Rome, "Girls! Girls! Girls! The P.M.'s Sex Follies," The New Yorker, 3 November 2008, 70-76.