"Italian ESA"?
We have bought the European Space Agency, and nobody told me?
Posts by Emilio Desalvo
90 publicly visible posts • joined 18 Mar 2009
POO-bomber space station 'nauts swap orbiter for rural Kazakhstan
Assemblers were once people: My aunt did it for NASA
Beat the UK's incoming smut filter: Pre-censor your grumble flicks
Green German gov battles to keep fossil powerplants running
Mystery object falls from sky, area sealed off by military: 'Weather balloon', say officials
UN to call for 'pre-emptive' ban on soulless robot bomber assassins
'Liberator': Proof that you can't make a working gun in a 3D printer
Elon Musk's 'Grasshopper' hover rocket scores another test success
Strategic SIEGE ROBOTS defeated by 'heavily intoxicated' man, 62
British games company says it owns the idea of space marines
Climate sceptic? You're probably a 'Birther', don't vaccinate your kids
Low sunspot activity linked to rivers freezing: Mini Ice Age on way?
MoD to become even more top-heavy as a result of personnel cuts
Friday 24th August 2012 10:46 GMT 
Pilot training
The training of a pilot officer in the Italian Air Force costs about 2 million SaversOfTheGermanEconomy (Euros) from my (taxpayer) pocket.
When said pilot reaches the rank of Lt.Colonel he is more or less prevented from flying, even if he is physically and mentally still able, unless he is on the track for a squadron command.
So a lot of pilots leave the AMI just after the promotion to Lt.Col just to keep flying, even if they are piloting a tour bus for an airline.
And I have paid two million SaversOfTheGermanEconomy...
First full landing site and colour pictures back from Mars
ROBOTS battle bunker-buster bank blast blaggers
Olympic athletes compete in RAYGUN SHOOTING for the first time
Android Firefox: Screaming, awesome, you'll go blind etc
SpaceX Dragon chokes at the last second
North Korean GPS blocking sparks cyber war fears
Third European supply podule blasts off en route to space station
Apple Italy throws up ruling on its store site
GAGA prepares to inhale some grass
UK's first stealth jumpjet rolls off line – but we don't want it
Thursday 24th November 2011 20:36 GMT 
Christmas is coming!
They can always wrap them in nice paper, and give them to the Italian Navy.
Even if Fincantieri is in deep troubles, as the unions blocked their plan to halve the yards and the workers, and sooner or later the government will have to do something to give something to do said yards and workers, and three conventional carriers would do the trick nicely...
New iPhone and Android mobes secure enough for spooks
Wednesday 16th November 2011 16:58 GMT 
More likely...
Felix Leiter, Jack Wade, Damian Falco and Giacinta Johnson are going to get them, and not James Bond...
From Casino Royale:
Felix Leiter: I'll stake you. I'm saying I'll give you the money to keep going. Just one thing: you pull it off, the CIA bring him in.
James Bond: What about the winnings?
Felix Leiter: Does it look like we need the money?
Israeli air raid vs Iran nukes boardgame out in time for Xmas
Living, biological raygun produced in lab
Unique imagery of Shuttle docked to ISS released
Mummy, mummy, there's a nuclear monster!
Blighty's official Space Agency starts up on 1 April
Gabrielle Giffords may wave Endeavour off
German 'minister for cut'n'paste' resigns over PhD plagiarism
US Secret Service tabletop training toytown goes virtual
Galileo euro-satnav 'driven by French military', says sacked CEO
Wednesday 19th January 2011 10:48 GMT
Ah, the Italians...
You seem to forget that if The Great War ended on the Western Front on November 11th, 1918 it was only because Italy had obtained with the rest of the armistice the use of the Austrian railways to move the Italian Army to the Austro-German border, and was preparing to invade Germany.
That's why in Italy the end of World War One is celebrated on November 4th...
Comando Supremo, 4 novembre 1918, ore 12
La guerra contro l'Austria-Ungheria che, sotto l'alta guida di S.M. il Re, duce supremo, l'Esercito Italiano, inferiore per numero e per mezzi, iniziò il 24 maggio 1915 e con fede incrollabile e tenace valore condusse ininterrotta ed asprissima per 41 mesi, è vinta.
La gigantesca battaglia ingaggiata il 24 dello scorso ottobre ed alla quale prendevano parte cinquantuno divisioni italiane, tre britanniche, due francesi, una cecoslovacca ed un reggimento americano, contro settantatré divisioni austroungariche, è finita.
La fulminea e arditissima avanzata del XXIX Corpo d'Armata su Trento, sbarrando le vie della ritirata alle armate nemiche del Trentino, travolte ad occidente dalle truppe della VII armata e ad oriente da quelle della I, VI e IV, ha determinato ieri lo sfacelo totale della fronte avversaria. Dal Brenta al Torre l'irresistibile slancio della XII, della VIII, della X armata e delle divisioni di cavalleria, ricaccia sempre più indietro il nemico fuggente.
Nella pianura, S.A.R. il Duca d'Aosta avanza rapidamente alla testa della sua invitta III armata, anelante di ritornare sulle posizioni da essa già vittoriosamente conquistate, che mai aveva perdute.
L'Esercito Austro-Ungarico è annientato: esso ha subito perdite gravissime nell'accanita resistenza dei primi giorni e nell'inseguimento ha perduto quantità ingentissime di materiale di ogni sorta e pressoché per intero i suoi magazzini e i depositi. Ha lasciato finora nelle nostre mani circa trecentomila prigionieri con interi stati maggiori e non meno di cinquemila cannoni.
I resti di quello che fu uno dei più potenti eserciti del mondo risalgono in disordine e senza speranza le valli che avevano disceso con orgogliosa sicurezza.
Il capo di stato maggiore dell'esercito, il generale Diaz
PARIS concocts commemorative cocktail
Crash grounds RAF Eurofighters - for Battle of Britain Day!
Wednesday 22nd September 2010 09:40 GMT
The Blue Skies Of Italy...
... where in the meantime defended by a batch of de-mothballed, modernised F-16A, offered from the DOD sometimes in the '00s, when the Tornado F3s provided by the UK to cover the hole created by the EFA delays proved to be a load of crap...
The ITAF was HAPPY to see the F3s go, as the were worse of the F-104 Starfighters they where taking the place of, and we are talking about planes designed in the '50s...
Boffins baffled by mysterious Martian crater
US colonel blasts PowerPoint bureaucracy in Afghan HQ
Monday 30th August 2010 07:08 GMT
Mix in the Italian Armed forces...
Well, the Italian Army since the '90 has moved from a bloated draft service, where you could recognise senior NonCom from their pear shape, to a voluntary service with a much better efficency.
But if you mix them in the Star Game, it gets so much better interesting. Every servicemen service, from Private/Seaman/Airman/Carabiniere to General/Admiral/General/General has a fabric star sewn on the collar, as that star says that he is in the Service of the State.
A friend, then a Major of the ITAF, was an NATO instructor at Sheppard Air Force Base, in Texas. He tells me that it was quite funny, when he met a lot of USAF personnel which met him, saw that star, an started saluting and after a second stopped it in mid-air, as they decided that he was too young to be a general. He retired as LtCol. as ITAF say that LtCols, Colonels and generals do not fly as drivers, unless they are in command of a squadron, and squadrons a rarer than Colonels. At the time the instruction of a flight officer cost more than two billion liras of taxpayers money. Alitalia Ringrazia Sentitamente.
But it gets REALLY interesting when you mix in the Italian Army and Carabinieri.
There, a bronze star (silver for the Carabinieri) means that you are a Second Lieutenant! A First Lieutenant gets two stars, and a Captain three stars.
When you get promoted to superior officer, you lose a few stars, but you get a beautiful tower, as a Major has a tower and a star, he gains again a star when promoted to Lt.Col, a full colonel gets a tower and three stars.
Then you get promoted to be a general officer, you lose again a couple of stars and the tower, but as a shiny new Brigadier General you get a silver greek fret and a shiny silver star, as a Division General you get another star, and, if you are promoted to Army Corp General you get a third star. The fourth star is only for the Chief of Staff of the Italian Army, with red border, or for the Chief of Staff of the whole Italian Armed forces, without the red border, when he is not an Admiral or an Air Force General.
So, Italy has stars everywhere, and it can get REALLY interesting in NATO contests...
MOON SHRINKING FAST - shock NASA discovery
PARIS pumps up a Mk 2 release mechanism
El Reg PARIS team fires up the GPS tracker
Are you a 'supertasker'? Probably not
Vast 'Cloud 9' sky-wedding balloon destroyed in Vegas prang
Wednesday 7th April 2010 19:41 GMT
Un-Petting zoo...
A few years ago in my town was one of those small fry circuses travelling all over Europe.
I met their advertising van, with the usual loud-horn at full blast: "... an in our zoo you will be able to see lions, elephants, rhinos, zebras and llamas, from both Peru and Tibet".
For the first time a zoo could be a religious experience...
Sidenote: in Italian Llama and Lama are written the same way, with a single L...
Biting the hand that feeds IT
