Oscar Pistorius - a quick note.

I have to say that I am quite confused. I clicked on "new post" and in that same moment I knew it woud be hard to try to write down something with a sense.
Oscar Pistorius has always been one of my heroes and I am speechless.
I really want to believe that he's innocent.
It's tragedy for all the sports world.

Happy St. Valentine's Day!

Just a short post to wish a happy St. Valentine's Day to everyone out there!

Have a nice day with your loved ones!

Paperman!

I am going definitely offtopic with this post, but as I am still confined indoors recovering from the flu I feel authorized to post it.

Disney Pictures has published on Youtube the full version of "Paperman", the short film that arrived in the cinemas last November together with "Wreck-it Ralph".

Do not miss the opportunity to watch it:

It's incredible that even in cartoons sometimes the minimalist approach leads to the greatest results.

In an era of digital animations and 3D a plain black-and-white animation can be so inspiring.

Goran Bregovich and the Nordic World Ski Championships.

In less than a month we are going to have the Nordic World Ski Championships, I am really excited about it as it's only one hour from where I live so I will have the chance of feeling the vibe of the competition.
The organization of the NWS Championships decided to pay 84.000 euros (yes, you are reading it correctly, 84.000 euros) to the Balkanic musician Goran Bregovic to compose the official song of the event.
Well, first of all I can't understand why choosing balkanic etnomusic for an event that is based on the Alps between Italy and Austria. There are a lot of composers and musicians in the area that would have been very happy to compose the official song for the NWS Championships.
Ok, let's skip on this. Maybe having a "big name" like Goran Bregovich may be a good choice. But the big problem now is that it seems that the official song of the event sounds a bit too similar to a previous composition of Goran Bregovic composed in 1984 with his former band, Bijelo Dugme.
Is Goran Bregovic self-plagiarizing?
Is he just reusing some patterns rearranging the whole song?
Let's make a comparison.
This is the official NWSC song:


And this is "Haidemo u Planine" by Bijelo Dugme (1984):

What do you think?

Lance Armstrong and Oprah Winfrey.

Today the famous interview of Oprah Winfrey to Lance Armstrong has been broadcasted in my country too.
I haven't seen all the interview, I think I have lost the first twenty minutes or so.
Well, first of all I want to say that I do not condone at all Lance Armstrong first of all because he cheated on his fan.
But what really got my attention in his words was the fact that he has been banned forever from all the sports competitions. I would say that I agree with this decision, but I almost changed my mind when he said that he would like to celebrate his 50th birthday running the Chicago marathon but he already knows that he would not be admitted.
I mean, this is going a bit too far.
It's ok to ban him from racing, it's ok that all sponsors are leaving him. It's ok also that all the sports world is against him at the moment.
But banning him forever from every sport event, even a popular and not-so-competitive thing like the Chicago marathon is a bit too much in my opinion. It means depriving a man of his dreams and even of his humblest ambitions.
Just my two (euro)cents.

Mariangela Melato.

Please forgive me if I go totally off topic with today's post, but I've just heard from the news that Mariangela Melato, one of the most famous and most appreciated Italian actresses, just passed away.
It's very sad for me and for many people of my generation: she was extremely popular for their movies during the 70s and the 80s, then she worked a lot for the Italian tv.
Rest in peace.

Alex Zanardi: athlete of the year!

According the Italian newspaper "La Stampa" there are no doubts: Alex Zanardi is the athlete of the year 2012, and obviously I couldn't agree more.
After the excellent performances of the London paralympics games and the great human qualities he demonstrated to have during both his careers in the sports world (the first as a car racer and now as a handbiker), I think he could be nominated as athlete of the decade too.
Everyone knows his success of the last summer in London, but maybe you haven't seen this video from the Venice Marathon (October 28 2012) when he helped another racer:
The other habdbiker lost a wheel, in this video you can see better what happened:
Now this is what I call an athlete!
Go Alex! I wish you all the best for 2013!

Happy New Year's Eve!

I wish all of you a happy New Year's Eve!
Have fun, stay safe.
Just a quick note to anyone out there who loves animals: please consider not using firecrackers. They do a lot of damage to our non-human friends. Dogs and cats go in panic mode, wildlife and birds may die of heartattack.
If you love animals, don't use firecrackers.

Youtube's most viewed videos of 2012.

I heard on the radio today that Gangnam Style is the most viewed videos of 2012.
So I got curious and checked the list of the most viewd videos of this year and I found the top ten.
The big part of the list is music videos and a parody of the Barack Obama - Mitt Romney debates.
Nothing strange in all this list.
The strange part in my opinion is that in the top ten there aren't videos on sports event.
Well, there is one that can barely considered a sport video... Felix Baumgartner's crazy freefall:
I am really surprised that other sports videos did not make it to the top ten. I mean, it has been a good year for sports with the football Eurocup, London Olympic Games and then the Paralympics. Lots of video exposure for sports with lots of emotionally intense moments.
It's strange to me that people are not more interested in this kind of big events.
Ok, I'll live with that :-)

Snow & Ice.

The last weekend was the first ine with a real wintry weather, with a lot of snow and strong cold winds.
This morning the weather looked a bit more bland, with a pale sun and less wind, the snow melted but then the water froze.
This is how the street looked when I got out from work for lunchtime:

No need to say how slippery it was.
I really love winter time and I enjoy the snow: I like also to go out with the snow for some training, but I really hate it when it comes to ice, and it's a quite common condition here where I live due to the strong winds.
It always makes me smile the odd perception that people from abroad have of the Italian climate.
The cliche wants Italy to be all sunny and warm. That may be true for the southern part of Italy where there is a classic mediterranean climate, but the northern part has all the peculiarities of the continental Europe weather. Winters here are long and cold, some areas are very foggy and dank, others are windy with a lot of snow.

On digital cameras and batteries.

I tend to be very reluctant when it comes to buying electronic gadgets. I always have the perception that I am spending money for something that is way more sophisticated than what I really need. Everything seems to have too many functions, so I feel like I am throwing away money for something that I don't need. Fact is that it's not very easy to find a cellphone that is only a cellphone, a TV decoder that is only a TV decoder, as everything has everything inside.
So after a few days of postponing I decided to go to a shop and buy a new digital camera. My old one is still functioning but has some condensation in the lenses, all pictures seem to be taken in conditions of severe fog.
I asked to the shop assistant for the most basic and cheap digital cam available to avoid the usual multifunction craziness. The shop assistant shows me a 70 euros model, way too sophisticated for me but it was ok if there was nothing more basic. When I was at the point of buying it, luckily I had the mental lucidity to ask about the batteries (I tend to choose everything on the same type of batteries, the old good AA, as it's easy to have always a few of them around and recharging them is very convenient).
The shop assistant proudly told me that there is a lithium rechargeable battery inside, so I don't need to worry about changing and recharging the AAs.
WHAT?
I don't have to worry... are you telling me that a lithium battery lasts forever?
No, it does not. It needs to be recharged, obviously.
But now, what's the point of having an internal battery that can be recharged using a USB connector instead of a couple of AA batteries? AA batteries can be recharged exactly like the internal lithium ones, plus you can keep a pack of them with you in case your lithium internal futility dies.
Know what? The shop assistant showed me a model running on AA batteries, but it had a lot more functions that I will never use and it costed almost 100 euros more than the cheap one.
I decided to buy it anyways.
Sometimes to have the basic you have to spend more.
What a crazy world.

One Life - the movie.

I'm not a big fan of going to the cinema as there are not many movies that really got my attention, but in about 4 days I'll have the chance to finally watch "One Life".
I've read reviews online that claim it as one of the best documovies of all time. It's directed by wellknown tv producers Michael Gunton and Martha Holmes. The original version is narrated by Daniel Craig.
It has been released mostly anywhere except here in my country, so I think that many of you already know what I'm talking about.
Here's the movie trailer:

Looks great, doesn't it'?
Can't wait for it, going to prepare some olive oil popcorn to bring to the cinema! (usually the popcorn packs that you find at the local cinema contain butter too, so that's not a choice).

Hurricane Sandy.

First of all, I want to say that my thoughts go out to the victims of the hurricane and their families.
I'm watching some videos online of the storm hitting New York City and the coast of New Jersey.
It's incredible how often we tend to forget the incredible power of nature.
What got my attention was people trying to fish while the hurricane was hitting the coasts, have a look at 0.18:

People seem to enjoy damaging animals and the environment always, even during a hurricane.
Sounds incredible but that's it.

Happy Halloween!

Just a quick message to say happy Halloween to everyone!
Halloween is not part of the tradition of the place where I live but it's becoming more and more popular in the latest years.
I like the gloomy and spooky atmospheres, so Halloween is very welcome.
The main difference between Halloween here in Europe and in US is that, from what I know, in United States it's more a kid-oriented night with trick-or-threads type of things, while here it's more a party night for young adults with lots of heavy-drinking involved.
Well, I'm not into wild partying anymore, but as long as no one gets hurt, I wish a happy Halloween night to everyone.

Fitness motivational videos?

This is a rant post, so if you are not in the mood for rants do not continue reading.
I really can't understand the big success of motivational videos and of the whole motivational approach to fitness.
I mean, doctors and dietologists say it all the time: every human being has to move her/his body to stay healthy, and the calories intake should never exceed the daily need of energy. Obviously the more you move your body, the more you need calories. It's just plain maths.
If you eat too much and do not move your body enough, you'll become fat, and being fat leads to a poor life quality and diseases.
So if you want to stay healthy you should move your body (it does not need to be "sports", just making your heart pump is enough) and avoid an excessive calories intake.
Otherwise, you'll loose your health.
Sounds simple, doesn't it?
So now, why do people need to be motivated to move? Preserving health and a full functional body isn't enough motivational?
Do you really need a video with bombastic movie quotes?
Do you really need a television star telling you to go out for a walk?
Don't get me wrong, there are some motivational videos on youtube that are very good, this one for example is great:
But actually, why people need to be pushed to stay healthy?
For every living creature survival is the absolute priority, and when you know that moving your body equals to survive (or to live longer or better) you shouldn't need more.
Maybe the reason is that most people consider exercise like a punishment.
Well, there are many levels of training. Top athletes (or people that just want to always improve their performance for the sake of it like myself and lots more) train hard many times a week.
But if you want just to stay healthy you don't need that, just go out for a long walk with your dog, go to the court to play basketball or to the park for some frisbee or badminton, use a bike to commute... there are so many enjoyable things you can do to stay healthy.
Do you really need a Rocky-Balboa-style speech for it?

Oh love me do!

So today we are celebrating 50 years of "Love me do" and of Beatles, right? Cool.
I think that when I was a child my parents used to listen to a lot of Beatles, as I feel their music is in some way in my DNA even if I have never been an active listener of the Fab Four.
As in fitness-related fields, we see that also in music the simple things work better. I mean, Love me do! is maybe one of the simplest yet most enjoyable musical pieces.
It can be played also with a minimal set up mantaining the same vibe, have a look:
It's not the equipment that makes success, it's the way you use what you have!

Alex Zanardi and the New York City Marathon.

Alex Zanardi in London.

Yesterday Alex Zanardi was in Padua for the opening of ExpoBici 2012.
After the big success of the London Paralympics, he was ready for the New York City Marathon.
Fact is, he cannot partecipate. His entry has been refused.
Why? Because he's too fast!
I know it sounds unbelievable, but it seems that there are some new rules that can leave out of the competition the athletes that are too fast.
Incredible!
I think I'll write an email to the New York City Runners to ask why they took this decision.
If you want to do the same, you can find the mail address here.

Second Gold for Alex Zanardi!

Looks like it's the year of Alex Zanardi, once again! Some time ago he was a top car racer, now he seems to be the stronger handbiker of the world!
He won another gold medal at the London Paralympics, this time in the 64Km race!
Here's a video with an interview after the first gold medal, just two days ago:
Once again, congratulations to Alex Zanardi, the Unstoppable!

Do you remember my post on Alex Zanardi racing with handbikes and partecipating at the Paralympics?
Looks like it has been a huge success, doesn'it it?

A gold medal, that's it!
Congratulations Alex, we are all very proud of you!

R.I.P. Michael Clarke Duncan.

A great actor, and an excellent example of compassionate living.

He decided to go vegetarian three years ago, click here for an interview on this matter.