Italy

When your town is home to Ferrari and Maserati (oh, and Lamborghini has a factory there too), perhaps you might not be in the most comfortable position to suggest people swear off their technological toys.

Unless you're Monsignor Benito Cocchi, the Archbishop of Modena, Italy. Monsignor Cocchi has got together with other Italian archbishops to suggest that believers give up texting, Facebook, iPhones and computer games.

Oh, this isn't just on Fridays during Lent. No, he wants his flock to give up these heinous gizmos for as many days as possibly until the Second Coming. (No, not the … Read more

A criminal trial starting Tuesday that could mean jail time for three Google employees and the company's former chief financial officer was postponed until Feb. 18, Google said Tuesday.

Tracey Bentley, who's monitoring the trial for the International Association for Privacy Professionals, also reported that the municipality of Milan has added a new charge against the company itself. Bentley In addition, Bentley quoted a former Italian prosecutor as saying procedural delays are common in such cases.

The case involves a video of teenager with Down syndrome being taunted by classmates in a Turin school that had been posted … Read more

Correction at 11:24 a.m. PST: This post initially misstated the length of the cell phone video at the center of the lawsuit. It was a 191-second video.

Four executives from Google are about to face criminal charges in Italy regarding alleged privacy violations.

The lawsuit, noted by The New York Times' Saul Hansell and the International Association of Privacy Professionals, revolves around a 191-second cell phone video in 2006. In the video, four high school kids tease a boy with Down Syndrome. The video was uploaded to Google's Italian site and quickly removed from the site after … Read more

Facebook pulled several Italian neo-Nazi pages from its Web site following a public outcry and complaints from European regulators that the pages promoted violence against gypsies.

Seven different group pages, all based in Italy, had been created on the site with titles that incited violence against gypsies, according to a Reuters report. The European Parliament filed a complaint with Facebook, and the pages were promptly removed. Facebook told Reuters that the pages violated its terms of use.

"Facebook supports the free flow of information, and groups provide a forum for discussing important issues. However, Facebook will remove any groups … Read more

Several times throughout today's show, The 404 almost causes the universe to implode. Our Earth-shaking collection of topics today include a story about Viagra missiles, iPhone flaws and young love, divinely drunk intervention, and more Ryan Gosling/Ryan Reynolds confusion...which witch is which?!

One of the more ridiculous stories on today's show is about a man that somehow managed to smuggle a fake, but extremely realistic looking missile into New York with a sticker on the side that proudly read "VIVA VIAGRA." After driving around New York, making stops at Times Square and the Trump Tower, the man ended up in front of the Pfizer corporate building where the company promptly slapped a restraining order and a cease and desist warning on his man-made missile. The craziest part about this story is the fact that one man somehow drove through the Midtown tunnel and several New York police officers with a missile attached to his truck.

Is that all it takes? The man claims that ""New York City cops are smart. They know the difference between a mock-up and the real thing," and that's all well and good, but what about scaring the sh*t out of thousands of New Yorkers? Mass chaos isn't so fun. Do you think The 404 should pull a stunt like this? Clearly it'd be pretty easy to set in motion, and you know we need the publicity! Any suggestions? Leave us a comment and and let us know!

Google faces criminal charges because of a video posted on the company's Italian Web site showing a teenager with Down syndrome being taunted by classmates in a Turin school.

The United Kingdom's TimesOnline reports that the clip, which lasts for 191 seconds, "showed the youths making fun of the teenager before hitting him over the head with a box of tissues."

The video got posted in 2006 but was subsequently removed after its existence become known.

A representative for Google Italy said the company was disappointed with the decision, which follows a two-year investigation by Italian … Read more

A report out of Italy Monday suggests that Apple is planning to revamp its business model with the launch of the iPhone in that country.

It's always tough to correctly interpret translations, but check out the report from La Repubblica and read it for yourself. In short, the report claims that Apple is getting ready to launch a 3G iPhone in Italy with Telecom Italy, and that the carrier will not have to pay Apple a share of the data revenue earned from iPhone users, nor will it have an ongoing exclusive. As a result, the iPhone will be … Read more

As we in the U.S. prepare to stuff ourselves silly with turkey and fixin's on Thanksgiving, here's a neat view of another famous meal from the past: Leonardo da Vinci's painting The Last Supper. The map approach allows you to zoom in to tremendous detail and pan around, so close can you get in fact that cracks in the paint appear like roads in a landscape. View it here.

Tetramine Day! All Tetris lovers should get over to Bologna Italy for this giant meetup September 30. The catch? All you have to do is bring a tetramino made out of 60x60x60-centimeter squares, like the one you see here to the left. Designers, i think this means you can get creative on it, and decorate your tetramino as you wish... Still baffled as to how to make a giant tetris piece? Check out the video!

… Read more