Headsup: Disney's Hulu - mafia tool?! First warning already sent to the Knox series production team about the hoaxes and mafia connections. The Daily Beast's badly duped Grace Harrington calls it "the true story of Knox’s wrongful conviction of the murder of her roommate". Harrington should google "rocco sollecito" for why Italians hesitate to talk freely.
Category: The wider contexts
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Website-Only Seattle PI May Be Going To Make It
Posted by Peter Quennell
Click above for media commentator Peter Kafka’s analysis.
The Seattle PI website still carries some of the best US reporting from Perugia on the case, by Rome-based Andrea Vogt.
The home-based reporting, blogging and editorials have been rather more of a mixed bag.
Kafka thinks that the Seattle PI’s owner Hearst’s figures dont quite add up yet, but he would like to see things work out.
If the Seattle PI pulls it off, other US papers may follow this route.
Friday, May 15, 2009
Italy’s FIAT Saves US’s Chrysler: Italians Enjoying The Moment
Posted by Peter Quennell
Click above for the report. Our previous post on this here.
FIAT also owns Ferrari. Seems those pesky Italians really know how to make cars - and those pesky Americans really don’t.
Monday, May 04, 2009
Meredith Was A Part Of Several Very Big Trends
Posted by Peter Quennell
Click above for a new report on European education trends.
Many more European students are enrolled and graduating these days, especially women, and many more students are studying outside their own country.
It appears that the UK percentage (18.3%) of students that study abroad might be the highest in the world.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Good Ol’ Seattle - The Other Disjunction
Posted by Peter Quennell
Disjunction: a sharp cleavage…
We are certainly looking at a disjunction in Perugia, a pretty, gentle, and likable town which a lot of students and a lot of tourists make a beeline for. And where, despite some drugs, violence only happens about once every 10 blue moons.
Seattle is not so very different. It is a pretty, gentle and likable town which a lot of students and a lot of tourists make a beeline for. And where, despite some drugs, violence only happens about once every 10 blue moons.
Okay, maybe every five blue moons! But still, Seatle is a smart, safe town, with a high median IQ and a great university and some exceptional industries (Boeing and Microsoft). All in all, a very desirable place to live.
In both cities (twin cities, by the way) there is something of a pinch-me quality about the case we are following.
And now in the news? Seattle’s comparatively firm property values are reflecting this. It seems that people want to live in Seattle more than they do in many other places.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
US Carmaker To Be Saved By…. Italian Carmaker
Posted by Peter Quennell
It’s no secret that all of our posters and many of our readers have a passion for Italy and things Italian.
We have been saddened by the sliming of Italy as a “backward country” for the handling of this case, as sustained most recently (on steroids) by the CBS Network.
Nicki’s post on the true nature of the Italian justice system was an important part of our effort to share the real truth on a civilized and very humane country.
Now it is a matter of some joy and amusement that Italy’s FIAT is stepping in to stop the US’s Chrysler from going down the tubes.
In fact (click above for Bloomberg’s report) FIAT is so strong that it is probably one of the eight car companies predicted to be still around in the long term.
And Italy’s economy is not seeing a particularly bad economic slowdown. Though GDP shrinkage is forecast, Reuters reports that consumer morale is now at a 16-month high;
Consumers in Italy have remained surprisingly perky so far this year with the recession not producing large-scale job losses and lower inflation benefiting many families.
Unemployment is seen rising to 8.0 percent this year, according to a Reuters poll released earlier this month, but would still be lower than elsewhere in the euro zone. Spain reported last week that unemployment reached 17.4 percent in the first quarter.
ISAE said that workers’ fears of losing their jobs eased in April and their ‘view of Italy’s overall economy situation registered a strong improvement’.
It seems our Italian friends are doing something seriously right. Meredith chose well to like Italy.