A random historical fact about Venice

I came back from a short vacation in Venice and Trieste the other week and took a lot of photos ~500) that I have just started to go through. Some can be found on my Flickr account. This completely random one shows a Truth Mouth or Lion's Mouth, which I thought was quite a funny concept.



There were a number of these spread out over Venice, before Napoleon came and removed them along with the old judicial system. They were used for denouncing other citizens by placing a signed note inside reporting a committed crime. Behind is a kind of mail box emptied by officials. The case would then be tried and if the accused was found guilty, the reporter would be rewarded. If found not guilty, the reporter would be punished instead, with the same punishment as the accused would have gotten. This special Lion's mouth (without the lion motive) inside the Doge's Palace was to be used against corruption or tax evasion amongst politicians or officials of the Republic.

The text apparently says: "Put down here your Secrets, against those who oppressed you, freely and officially. Have faith, for those who hide the truth will answer for it."

Saker det är dags för

1) Dags för den första snön i Bergen. Annars upplevde jag vinterns första redan i slutet av augusti på Svalbard.

2) Mer än dags för att skriva nytt blog-inlägg, vilket är just vad jag gör. Ju.

3) Tydligen är det dags för nytt OS från Apple. Jag tyckte att Snow Leopard, som för övrigt måste vara världens i särklass coolaste kattdjur, kom ut alldeles nyss, men nu är det alltså Lion som gäller. Det ska ta den fantastiska funktionaliteten från iPhone, iPod, iPad och alla andra iPrylar till riktiga datamaskiner. Med tanke på hur min iPod Touch funkar så undrar jag om det inte vore bättre tvärtom, men jag måste nog läsa på lite mer.

4) Dags för Bergen Internationella FilmFestival, eller BIFF. Ikväll är det dags för en film om legenden och profeten Bill Hicks liv. Ett liv som tyvärr blev alldeles för kort. Han dog i exakt den ålder jag är nu; 33. Den filmen ska jag se. Se trailern och gå och se den du med, om du kan.

English translation:

The time has come for a lot of stuff:
1) The first snow over Bergen
2) For me to write a blog post
3) For a new OS from Apple. This time called OSX Lion - bringing the fantastic functionality of the iPod to your laptop. Hmm.
4) For Bergen International Film Festival, tonight featuring a film on Bill Hicks, the legend, prophet and all around really funny guy who died much too young in 1994. It should not be missed.

Cheers,
Anders

Cuisine Norvegienne

As explained by Black Debbath: http://open.spotify.com/track/26uSPrLQFLdpTz2biEa0Hv (requires Spotify).

As examplified by a recipe: http://www.vg.no/mat-og-drikke/oppskrift/oppskrift.php?id=3040