Italian Table at Stella Caffe in Seattle on March 4th

I’m proud to announce that I’ll be hosting Seattle’s first Italian Table at Stella Caffè!:

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Location:

Stella Caffè
1224 1st Avenue
Seattle, WA 98101
(206) 624-1299

Map:

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Date/Time:

Thursday, March 4th from 6:30-8:30PM

Event Description:

We’ve been starved of speaking Italian for far too long!

Come and join us for an evening of buona conversazione at the very cozy Stella Caffè, downtown Seattle’s only traditional Italian bar/café. Recount stories of your time in Italy with a diverse group of global-minded, inclusive people. If you can converse in Italian and would like to practice and learn, we would love to have you. Bring a friend or two!

Co-sponsors: World Affairs Council – YPIN, Stella Caffè.

Phone Home

If you can identify what Chiara is holding above her head, you get two points.

London’s Hyde Park – 1926

If you’ve been to London’s Hyde Park, you’ll see from this short film taken in 1926 that almost nothing has changed about it (save for the motorcoaches that drive through it):

Britain in Colour c.1926 – ACL

Greekthink

“As he sat in a cafe with friends in the chic Kolonaki area on a recent afternoon, Antonis, 33, who disclosed only his first name, proudly announced that he refused to pay taxes.

“Why should I pay?” he asked with a grin. “I don’t care about my government; I don’t care about my country,” he added. He conceded, however, that he did care about soccer and women.”

Greece Struggles to Stay Afloat as Debts Pile On – New York Times

Like Check-in at an Italian airport

“In Manhattan real estate, there are no rules; it’s like check-in at an Italian airport.”

-Jack Donaghy

Meet The Ferrari 458 Italia

The engine features direct fuel injection and the best hp/cylinder output of any Ferrari; it makes a total of 562 horsepower and 398 pound-feet of torque, yet offers improved fuel consumption and lower emissions than the F430’s 483-horsepower V-8.

It’ll hit 60 in under 3.4 seconds, and sport a curb weight of around 3,200 pounds. Top speed will exceed 200 miles an hour.

Via NYTimes.

KAMMERONYN

Get your own.

Silvio Berlusconi, Hero to Families Everywhere

If it wasn’t already clear to you that Silvio Berlusconi is the devil (or your new hero, depending on how you look at it), here’s something to chew on:

Yet again, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s wife has written a public letter rebuking her 72-year-old husband for consorting with young and chesty women who are not her. Among them is a business associate’s daughter who has posed in underwear revealing most of her bottom and whose 18th birthday party Mr. Berlusconi recently attended in Naples.

“This surprised me,” Veronica Lario, 52, Mr. Berlusconi’s wife said tuesday “because he never attended the 18th birthday parties of his children, even if he was invited.”

Awesome.

Premier’s Roving Eye Enrages Wife, but Not His Public – NYTimes

NBA Europe

The first thing you think of when you see this photo is “Wow, Michelle Obama could easily dunk on the Duke of Edinburgh in one-on-one hoops.”

She makes him look like a midget.

Jahres

Germans, it turns out, are absolutely nuts about board games. More are sold per capita in Germany than anywhere else on earth. The country’s mainstream newspapers review board games alongside movies and books, and the annual Spiel board game convention in Essen draws more than 150,000 fans from all walks of life.

[...]

German-style games, on the other hand, avoid direct conflict. Violence in particular is taboo in Germany’s gaming culture, a holdover from decades of post-World War II soul-searching. In fact, when Parker Brothers tried to introduce Risk there in 1982, the government threatened to ban it on the grounds that it might encourage imperialist and militaristic impulses in the nation’s youth. (The German rules for Risk were hastily rewritten so players could “liberate” their opponents’ territories, and censors let it slide.)

Perfect German Board Game Redefines Genre – Wired News

Election in Sochi

The mayoral race in Sochi (future site of the 2014 Olympic Games) includes an ex-KGB officer and an international fugitive wanted for the murder of Alexander Litvinenko. Why am I not surprised?

Russian election takes Olympian turn – LATimes

Putin and Reagan

Vladimir Putin (left), then a KGB agent, posing as a tourist for Ronald Reagan’s 1988 visit:

Picture: Putin Pretending To Be Tourist During Reagan’s 1988 Visit To Moscow – TheHotJoints

Progress

Toda la historia del progreso humano se puede reducir a la lucha de la Ciencia contra la superstición.

The history of human progress is simply the battle between science and superstition.

-Gregorio Marañón

Via Microsiervos.

Cafe con leche

King Alfonso XIII visited Las Hurdes [a backwards region full of destitute hillbillies] in 1922 in order to display the concern of the crown. The king and his retinue lived in military tents planted near the town of Casares de las Hurdes. During the king’s visit, a strange incident took place: A local village chief, concerned that the king was drinking only black coffee (a consequence of the king’s aides distrusting the quality of the local milk owing to unsanitary conditions in the area) served the king a small jug of milk saying, “Your Majesty rest assured that this milk is totally trustworthy,” which turned out to be milk from his wife who had recently given birth. The king became aware of this fact only after having had his café con leche.

Germany’s Solar Penetration

Germany, something of a model citizen in solar-energy due to its long-standing subsidies, “has about five times as many photovoltaic panels installed as the United States,” which produce only 0.5 percent of Germany’s electricity.

Europe’s Way of Encouraging Solar Power Arrives in the U.S. – NYT