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A relaxing weekend in San Casciano dei Bagni, tuscany, Italy
I’ve spent two wonderful and relaxing days in San Casciano dei Bagni, tuscany, Italy, where they offer warm thermal baths. Aaahhh.
Media flickr plugin for Wordpress 2.5
I’m testing media Flickr plugin for Wordpress 2.5.
It allows you to easily add your flickr photos into blog posts. It seems nice.
Here’s an example (this is me):
Lovely!
State of the blog!
Today, may 3rd 2008, my blog has 20 feed readers, 3 technorati reactions…
…and my twitter account is followed by 60 people (and I’m following 102).
I’d like to make this blog more popular, and my goal for the end of the month is:
20 100 feed readers;
3 10 technorati reactions;
60 100 followers on twitter.
Let’s see if I’m able to do that.
If you love me, spread the word about this blog, tell your friends, and if you use a feed reader, subscribe to my feed!
Also, I’d appreciate your comments on this blog, what you like, what you don’t!
Thanks a lot!
The new Renaissance of Assisi
Today I went at the presentation of a special book, “Il nuovo rinascimento di Assisi” (the new Renaissance of Assisi), which is about the last ten years of reconstruction (after the 1997 earthquake), and development.
I contributed a lot to this book, dedicating hours and hours of my free time to it.
Giorgio Bartolini, former Mayor of Assisi, thanked me in a very nice way, with a copy signed by him.
This is a picture I’ve taken at the event (here a bigger one on flickr.com), at the Lyrick Theatre of Assisi, where more than 600 people gathered.
I’m proud of having been a part of this book.
Why guys buy sport cars
While I was writing my previous post, I found a Gazelle picture, but I had to look for an Antelope instead… and while doing it, I discovered that, sooner or later, I HAVE TO VISIT ANTELOPE CANYON IN ARIZONA, USA! :-)
Enjoy this pic of Antelope Canyon, before reading the post!
Cars are a big passion for italians, and for “first world” guys in general (poors cannot afford cars), since they’re kids.
I, for example, have a huge passion for Lotuses, and the recent Lotus Elise drives me quite crazy!
Only very recently, though, I really understood WHY GUYS BUY SPORT CARS, or expensive cars in general.
Bear with me.
Amotz Zahavi, a now retired jewish professor and biologist, is quite famous for his (hypothesis of the) Handicap Principle, proposed in 1975.
I’ll explain it with an example (antelopes and gazelles are interchangeable here).
An antelope, name is John, sees a Lion, rapidly approaching to eat him: he decides to jump two or three times in the air before starting to run (it is called stotting). The lion understands that John has very good fitness, and decides to save energy for a slower antelope.
Another antelope, name is Fred, sees a Lion, rapidly approaching to eat him: he jump a couple of times, like John, but the Lion decides to pursue him anyway. Fred is not well fit, and the lion catches him, and then eats him.
Fred, therefore, can’t reproduce, and that’s why “cheaters” like Fred quite doesn’t exist in nature, because their behavior would be too fatal.
This brings an interesting concept, summarized in the Handicap Principle: well fit individuals can “stot” to show predators their “braveness” and energy, in an attempt to avoid an energy-consuming chase (for both).
Remember this sentence: animals stot to show they’re superior to other peers (dear lion, chase someone else).
Remember the second sentence: animals are not likely to cheat, because in many cases, cheating means a very low chance of survival.
Remove the “… means a very low chance of survival”, substitute antelopes with humans, and you have… Tah-Dah: the reason WHY GUYS BUY SPORT CARS.
So, why? They’re simply stotting to chicks.
They’re trying to say: “I can afford a sport car (not only expensive to buy, but expensive to mantain), so it means that I have money to waste; I can therefore take care of you and our future babies”. Bingo. Bed. :-)
This can extend, in general, to luxury items.
They’re all stots (this word doesn’t quite exist… yet!), performed by humans.
Of course, luxuries and sport cars are also a way to show other male peers that “we’re cool”, “we’re good”. But that’s another story.
Potlatch can be a variation on the theme, another way to show people that “you can afford that”.
Aposematism (and Unkenreflex) are somewhat related to the Handicap Principle.
Well, next time you see an antelope like this one below, think about it.
You may also enjoy reading this article on Discover Magazine about Zahavi.
What do you think?
Agree?
Disagree?
Livemocha, social language learning
I’m using Livemocha.com to learn French (and, soon enough, German).
The concept is easy: language lessons on one side, real users on the other. The community isn’t big, but seems nice and friendly.
If you’re on Livemocha, add me as a friend! I’m Simone Brunozzi, of course!
My new blog!
It’s April 26th, 2008, and this is the first post on my brand new blog!
You probably don’t know anything about me (yet), in this case I suggest you to visit my About page.
If you want, bookmark this blog, or add my RSS feed to your reader, so you can stay up to date with my thoughts and rumblings.
Take care, and see you soon!
