mbf tod@y

Smoking Ban in France... at last!

"What is more notable is that the French have lagged in the West’s antismoking fight. America is at war against cigarettes. Ireland and Norway banished them in public spaces in 2004. They were soon followed by Italy, Spain, Sweden and Britain. But things are changing [in France]. Last year, the government decided to act. Prohibiting smoking in public places shows resolve to the voters, after all, a majority of whom favor banning cigarettes altogether. [...] Our Italian neighbors are also very punctilious about respecting their antismoking legislation, which went into effect in January 2005. When he goes to Italy, the French writer Michel Houellebecq, an inveterate smoker, is obliged to meet with journalists in his hotel room. Cigarette in hand, he is now persona non grata in the lobby, at the bar, in the restaurant." (Corinne Maier, The New York Times)

The smoking ban that was enforced in Italy in 2005 is possibly the only positive thing that happened to this troubled country in the last three years. My sincere admiration goes to the legislators that made it possible and the people who support it.

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Very promising indeed

"In what sounds like a dream for millions of tired coffee drinkers, Darpa-funded scientists might have found a drug that will eliminate sleepiness. A nasal spray containing a naturally occurring brain hormone called orexin A reversed the effects of sleep deprivation in monkeys, allowing them to perform like well-rested monkeys on cognitive tests. The discovery's first application will probably be in treatment of the severe sleep disorder narcolepsy. " (Alexis Madrigal, Wired)

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Starbucks in Italy - the ongoing drama

"The Starbucks diaspora reached six more countries this year, including Russia and Egypt, bringing the total to 43. Among those countries where the chain is not: Djibouti, Mongolia, Italy. (I originally wrote "Jordan", but it turns out Starbucks is there.) Italians, as everyone knows, are fixated on their caffeine: the breakfast of champions is an espresso inhaled while standing up. It seems incomprehensible that Starbucks has not felt able to launch lattes in Livorno, or flog frappuccinos in Florence. Could 2008 be the year?" (Adrian Michaels, The Financial Times)

On The Financial Times, Adrian Michaels write that Starbucks bows to Italy's baristi, that is, the Seattle company does not dare to launch there because the cult of caffeine is an established dogma. More likely, Starbucks is just terrified of Italian bureaucracy, the worst economic conditions in Europe, and local - sigh - so-called traditions. As Michaels himself notes, "foreign multinationals have historically had a hard time navigating planning laws in Italy to build a network quickly and with enough scale.". I don't blame Starbucks at all...

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I want a gamestore that looks like an Apple store

"Apple now derives 20 percent of its revenue from its physical stores. And the number is growing. In the fourth quarter in 2007, which ended Sept. 30, Apple reported that the retail stores accounted for $1.25 billion of Apple’s $6.2 billion in revenues, a 42 percent increase over the fourth quarter in 2006.  Apple stores generate sales at the rate of about $4,000 per square foot a year, according to a report last year by Sanford C. Bernstein analysts. As other electronics makers like Dell, Nokia and Sony still struggle to find the right retail formula, Apple seems to have perfected it. (Katie Hafner, The New York Times)

I think the last time I bough a videogame in a physical store was 1997. Videogame stores are ugly knock-offs of Blockbuster centers, which are uber-ugly in the first place. Can somebody please design a gamestore that looks like an Apple store?

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SimCity Societies and product placement

"I was thinking -- and this is sort of evil -- but why couldn't you have a Target in SimCity Societies as the store? Like a Target or a Loew's or a Cineplex or something?
RB: It's an interesting question. I know that a lot of people came to EA and said, "We'd really like to get into your game," and do something like that. We had a lot of chances to do it, and we said, "No," because at the time, we felt like we don't want to take people out of the fantasy that they're creating.
Would those real-world things mar them out of that? We don't want to take a chance. What I find interesting -- and we'll find out more as more people get their hands on the game as it goes retail -- is I found a lot of people say, "Hey, that could be really fun, and I'd love to see what happens to my McDonald's when my city goes to one million." (Rachel Bernstein talks to Christian Nutt, Brandon Sheffield, Gamasutra)

Er... What about BP, Rachel?

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Beware of books

"In an 1806 diagnosis, a British doctor hypothesized that the “excess of stimulus” produced by reading novels “affects the organs of the body and relaxes the tone of the nerves.” Reading at the table interfered with your digestion, reading before lunch with your morals. Another expert, in 1867, warned that “to read when in bed ... is to injure your eyes, your brain, your nervous system, your intellect.” Cue to the other in-bed activity that makes you go blind. Like masturbation, reading was too pleasurable for its own good; like masturbation, it threatened to upstage real human contact (messy, tedious, disappointing) with virtual pleasures. [...] Reading was for girls what gaming is for boys: absorption shading into addiction. And like the Xbox or the potato chip, the pleasure it gave in the moment was proportionate to its dangers in the long term" (Leah Price, The New York Times)

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Technology in 2008

The Economist predicts that, in 2008,

- surfing will be slow

- surfing will detach

- surfing will open

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Sorrentino's 'The Diva'

"Hot Italo helmer Paolo Sorrentino will shoot "Il Divo," a portrait of controversial Italian politician Giulio Andreotti, the country's seven-time former prime minister, tried for Mafia ties and subsequently acquitted. The young Sorrentino, whose loanshark drama "The Family Friend" unspooled in Cannes last year, has titled his potentially explosive pic after Andreotti's moniker, "Divo Giulio" — the same appellative Julius Caesar was known by. A devout Catholic with close Vatican ties, Andreotti, 88, has been Italy's most powerful postwar pol, who has personally known most American presidents and is a senator for life. Besides his Mafia trial, Andreotti has also been tried for the murder of an Italian journalist in a separate case, in which he was also acquitted." (Nick Vivarelli, Variety)

I forgot to mention Sorrentino's new movie in my list of the most eagerly awaited films of 2008.

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Related

Firm quits Sicily to spurn Mafia

"Italcementi says its subsidiary Calcestruzzi is closing "as a sign of a refusal to submit to, or to show any compliance with" the Mafia. [...] The implications are huge, he says, as this is first time a leading Italian industrial group has publicly thrown down the gauntlet and said no to Mafia intimidation. [..] The Italian employers' federation Confindustria welcomed Italcementi's decision. The federation's Sicilian head, Yvan Lo Bello, is already under police protection and local offices have been ransacked in an attack blamed on the Mafia." (BBC News)

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First Starbucks spotted in Italy? NOPE!

I have received an intriguing comment from a reader called Mike Crosby. It simply says

"Check out the Malpensa Airport in Italy. Starbucks."

Can anyone confirm this? I don't see any Starbucks listed on the official website of the Airport. Ditto for Starbucks' website. ("No stores found in Italy"). The recurring urban legend? Sadly, it's not true. I have received another post from a reader called Dedioste, that says:

"Been today at Malpensa. Starbucks was nowhere to be found. I think it's, sadly, a hoax..."

However, it would make perfect sense for the coffee shop chain to launch in local airports first.

At any rate, Starbucks is indeed opening in Italy in 2008: finally, some positive news after an annus horribilis. Especially for Alitalia and Malpensa, one of the most inefficient airports in Europe - it perfectly mirrors the idiocy of most contemporary Italian design. Here's an interesting comment:

"Malpensa really is an irritating place to spend any amount of time. It’s certainly not the worst airport ever, but I fly between Milan and Newark or Boston at least three times a year, and it never ceases to amaze me that you can buy a variety of extremely expensive fashion items, but when it comes to books (particularly in English), it’s either “Shopaholic Annoys & Enervates” or the latest lawyer thriller. I appreciate that we’re in the land of “moda,” but honestly — a €500 scarf or a miniature Ferrari? Not going to be nearly as useful to me during a ten-hour trip.

And the dungeon departure gates? Once you get down there, you’re left with NO bathrooms, NO vendors and only about 40 seats total for three or four gates, each of which boards a 300- to 600-person plane. And no Internet-access terminals in the departure wing. In fact, nearly all the vaguely useful services (post office, pharmacy, business center) are in the arrivals wing, which makes no sense to me. Who hangs around in the arrivals area other than people coming for pick-ups?" (Kate)

The only confirmation coming from Starbucks is the planned expansion in Bulgaria and Portugal:

"Starbucks Coffee EMEA recently extended its joint venture agreement with the Marinopoulos Group to open stores in Bulgaria; the first will open in the capital city of Sofia in 2008. It also broadened its agreement with Spanish joint venture partner Grupo VIPS to open stores in Portugal. The first store is expected to open in Lisbon sometime next year."

It seems like Italy will be the last country in Europe to capitulate.

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