The Consequences of Being Late

Romans are not known for their promptness. In many cases, tardiness is even expected - if you want to have dinner at 9pm, for example, make sure to tell your guests 7. Being late has its consequences too, particularly for Italy's ruling party.

The People of Freedom Party (PDL), Prime Minister Berlisconi's party, will not be fielding candidates in Lazio's regional elections at the end of this month: an official missed the deadline for submitting the list of candidates by two hours. Berlusconi, understandably, is not pleased with the situation. Lazio is the region in central Italy that includes Rome, and it's one of Italy's most crucial regions.

Tough luck, Mr. Prime Minister - last week a Milan appeals court rejected attempts to register candidates late. Take this as a lesson to be learned: unfortunately for you, time can't be bought.

Buzzwords of 2009

TIME Magazine's last edition for 2009 includes various lists and quotes looking back over the year - person of the year, notable people who died, various statistics. I won't reproduce all of that here, but I thought some of you would get a kick out of TIME's Buzzwords of 2009:

Sexting n. - sending lewd messages or photos via cell phone

"Because sexting cases are so new, local communities across the country very greatly in their handling, from filing child pornography charges against the teenagers involved to alerting parents and letting them deal with it." - New York Times, March 25 2009

...really? Somebody's... filing charges again teenagers for... what, exactly? Sending dirty text messages?

Birthers n. - conspiracy theorists who deny Barack Obama was born in the US

"The birther movement may be premised on a fictitional belief, but it is savvy: birthers now wear the term as a badge of honor, as if they were a persecuted minority." - Atlantic, July 21 2009

*shakes head* Scot Adams once said, "The most dangerous thing in the world is a resourceful idiot." I think we have a few too many of those...

Death panel n. - a fictitional group alleged to be in charge of rationing care in health care reform proposals

"The America I know and love is not one in which my parents of my baby with Down syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama's 'death panel' so his bureaucrats can decide... whether they are worthy of health care." - Sarah Palin, Aug. 7, 2009

Really, Sarah?

Here are a few other tidbits:

• 31.1 million people watched Michael Jackson's memorial on TV; 33.3 million watched Princess Di's funeral
• 200 million people joined Facebook
• 13,505 e-mails, on average, were received per person
• 17 US citizens were arrested or convicted on terrorism charges
• 1 in 7 Germans want to restore the Berlin Wall
• 139 US newspapers folded
• 2,705 miles sq of Brazilian rain forest were cut down (74% less than 2004)

Oh, and Berlusconi managed to make the issue, too - twice. Once for his comment to the homeless after the Abruzzo quake - "They should see it like a weekend of camping" - and he also made #1 on the 'breakups' list (his wife filed for divorce).

That's all for now, folks!