h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The Italians are contradictory to the core of their being. And yet there is clearly something of a national character that is quite distinct from that of other nations. There is also a great joy in living, and in living well. Thin-crust pizza, and salad with oil and vinegar. The simplest way to feed oneself, yet so deeply satisfying. You can make a meal of sliced tomatoes and chunks of mozzarella cheese. Elegance isn't supposed to be so simple, but the Italians pull it off. And then there the operas and the fountains and the museums full of paintings. Or,you can go up on to the top of one of the hill towns and look down on other hill towns while century upon century of history comes alive as the tour guide tells you that the *new* wall was built in 1300, while the *old* one was built in 300. Then there's architecture. Tim Parks mentions an out of the way town on the heel of Italy's boot. It must have 70 or 80 churches, all of them gorgeous and well worth seeing. Then you go inside one of them and realize that there is a personnel shortage: the church authorities have had to fall back on recordings for the prayer services.

Speaking of human history: One of my sister's went back to our common roots and stayed in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, for five years. After learning how big Africa really is (look at a globe, NOT a Mercator map!) and how we were all Africans in the beginning I'm thinking of following her example. Another good reason would be that my daughter may be studying in Kenya for a long'ish period in a few months.

http://io9.com/5774949/how-did-humans-really-evolve

http://io9.com/8-incredible-facts-you-may-not-know-about-human-evoluti-1465273693?utm_campaign=socialflow_io9_facebook&utm_source=io9_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow

I remember reading about an election in the States, where the two candidates were a corrupt criminal and a Ku Klux Klan member who hadn't been convicted of any crimes. The criminal's election slogan was "Vote for the Criminal - It's Important".

The lesser of two evils. Just like you should always choose cholera if the only other options is the plague

Frankk Loesser the songwriter had a brother who was better at almost everything than he was. Frank called himself the evil of two Loessers.

That is interesting about the meat in Italian dishes - I had a meal in an Italian restaurant this weekend, and I selected something described as pasta with tomato and chilli, but I didn't notice there was no (v) symbol next to it. When it turned up, I started eating and thought the tomatoes tasted funny and were strangely chewy, but then I looked more closely and realised prosciutto had been mixed into the dish The waiter apologised, though, and money was deducted from the bill to compensate.

I'll pay more attention to the menu next time...