Here's the proof I've been waiting for my entire life.

From Science magazine, Is Rice Domestication to Blame for Red-Faced Asians? FINALLY!!

January 1944

We all know about the Facists of Italy in WWII. The right-wing government of Mussolini was allied with the Germans to form the first "Axis of Evil." Those who are up on the WWII history know that in 1943, the Italians switched sides and abandoned the Axis and joined the Allies. However, the issue became the German military, formerly welcomed into the country, now being enemy occupants of Italy. In an effort to oust and defeat the Germans, the Allied forces (read American Air Force) bombed cities and towns up and down the Italian peninsula. One of those was Viterbo and it was bombed in 1944 because the Germans had an artillery depot here. A memorial/commemoration of that event is ongoing here town. There are pictures of bombed locations that I walk by everyday. I've included those photos as well as ones of those locations as they look today.

Paying Back my Good Karma

Long time readers of the blog will know I have had TWO great stories of my losing something of value to have it come back to my due to the generosity of others to do the work to get my items back to me. The first was the time when I got my camera back from Panama and the second time was in the summer of 2008 when the kind employees of American Eagle returned my untagged bag to me in Texas.

So what happened this time where I was the good guy? When my hiking group was riding in the van from the desert back to Marrakech, one of the guys I was with found a very expensive photo storage unit/viewer under his seat. Since the settings were in Italian, we deduced that the viewer's owner was an Italian and I would take it with me back to Italy. Meanwhile, my friend John from Norway contacted Epson and confirmed that the viewer was registered to a man in Italy, but due to security issues the name was unable to be released. I then downloaded a few photos and sent them to John who using his magic found an electronic signature which allowed him to find the website of the photographer here in Italy. I then had a friend who speaks Italian call the owner and a match was made. Today, he came up from Rome and picked up his viewer. Case closed. I'm still one in debt karmawise, but I'm at least half way to being even with the world.