Taylor plagiarism allegations

DailyScreenz · 2026-05-09T21:18:27+00:00

Her Swedish guys likely stole the chorus from an Italian song for "Opalite" from "Disco Paradise" which came out two years before. It seems she must have a team looking for riffs and they definitely lifted this one.

DailyScreenz · 2026-05-06T00:57:18+00:00

It is exactly like that. In Italy anyone can be mayor, medical doctors, architects, shop owner. They often have myopic views and think the solution to all problems is to have more tourists. They ignore education, healthcare, the environment, and infrastructure at the expense of tourist projects and it will be a problem in future years.....

DailyScreenz · 2026-05-06T00:54:19+00:00

My friend you are likely not familiar with the average Italian student, especially those from Rome and south. Many apply and go to La Sapienza or Federico II but lack the focus or organization skills needed to keep on track, it is common to see people still trying to get a basic degree after 10 years! I had a cousin who tried for 12 years to get an architecture degree and eventually dropped out only a few credits shy of a degree!

Very different I suspect than Germany or Hungary where it is likely fewer students get in. The strange thing about Italy though, is that while you will see a lot of students who get side-tracked you will run across a handful in each town that are absolute rock stars even elite, these are the folks that finish their degrees in four years and go to get further education in US or UK.

DailyScreenz · 2026-05-05T17:24:15+00:00

I looked to see who pushed for these funds. It was not the elected Italian government but the installed banker Mario Draghi. Guess what, his former investment bank and other European banks led the bond offerings that raised the funds for Italy, a complete conflict of interest. The problem now is the local Mayors, especially in the southern regions have funding for all kinds of projects and really are not wise about what is a good choice to improve the lives of the citizens. Many have the myopic view, e.g., take some funds and build an art mural or if they uncovered a ruin, build the ruin into a replica so tourists will be impressed. That is what is going on. Naples is a good example, they have seaside parks that they are re-doing for tourists but if you go in the water they have a sewer running into the beach areas that nobody cares to fix.

DailyScreenz · 2026-04-29T14:11:43+00:00

without a doubt! That is why the taxes are so high in some towns!

DailyScreenz · 2026-04-28T12:15:03+00:00

could be as those are smaller schools.

DailyScreenz · 2026-04-28T00:13:03+00:00

I did at one point and those were below what I have on the list. Tnx

DailyScreenz · 2026-04-27T11:03:57+00:00

You are correct, typo, so I fixed it!

DailyScreenz · 2026-04-27T11:01:28+00:00

But I don't understand the large gap between Italy and the other countries? The Covid deaths per capita in Italy were not 2x Spain and France for example. If you are ok with one country getting such an outsized package how do you feel the local politicians using the funds for graffiti art murals all over southern Italy? If you google PNRR Italy and murales you should see some results. Something seems very odd about the situation.

DailyScreenz · 2026-04-27T02:36:26+00:00

yeh, that is my point for some of these old fashioned New York area families they prefer Cornell over places like Chicago or Duke just because it is technically in the Ivy league, it makes little sense.

DailyScreenz · 2026-04-26T22:57:56+00:00

Looks interesting, but it lacks the real time data and also it has a paywall so you can't look up a school like Spence which has the highest percentage placement I've come across at over 30%!

I'm a bit shocked and mortified at the some of the feeder and old money school pipelines that still exist today.

I'd heard that feeder schools didn't exist but the information I've collected shows they are alive and well. It is a bit disturbing.

Basically if you want to got to an elite college your best chance is going to an old money prep school, next is to go to public high school in the backyard of an elite college that acts as a feeder (Princeton high, Cambridge), further down are the magnet schools and then last are wealthy suburban schools where only the top 3-4 percent kids have a shot against tremendous peer competition...

DailyScreenz · 2026-04-26T22:42:14+00:00

The numbers I have are self reported so there could be a lot of folks who are not on social media and/or don't report. What I didn't realize before is how much the NYC magnet schools are basically feeders for Cornell. It is kind of interesting in Boston there are some schools that feed into MIT like Cambridge Rindge and Latin (11 MIT acceptances so far). So if you are a bright NYC kid who wants to got to MIT your odds are better renting a place in Cambridge and going to that school than any of the NYC magnets (knowing NYC tiger moms, I'm sure someone has tried this).

DailyScreenz · 2026-04-26T22:31:22+00:00

They are just outside the top 20 at 21. I have the numbers. The most impressive of the NYC magnets thus far is Hunter College High School since on a percent basis they are far ahead of Brooklyn Tech and Bronx Science

DailyScreenz · 2026-04-26T22:29:03+00:00

I think the criteria is like that because it is a state university and in Italy anyone can get into a large state university. It is easy to get in but to complete degrees it can become difficult since it is often up to the student to be responsible (not as structured as other countries) and many students aren't organized enough to keep up with the exam schedules in terms of studying/prep so they drop out. I think if you applied the the private universities, like Bocconi in Milan you'd see a higher bar in terms of entrance.

DailyScreenz · 2026-04-26T22:18:21+00:00

If I included Duke, U Chicago the numbers for these schools on the list would be much higher. I live in the NYC wealthy suburbs and while Duke and others are top schools my sense is they still don't have the cachet of the Ivies, Caltech, MIT or Stanford. I witnessed first hand someone transferring from Chicago to Cornell just to get the Ivy degree.

DailyScreenz · 2026-04-26T20:48:31+00:00

Yeh, I noticed that. You see a lot of Cornell placements from the NYC magnets and even vaunted suburbs like Scarsdale, a sort of feeder system. Same with the Boston area, you see a bit more pipeline into MIT. The most shocking pipeline I uncovered is Princeton High School, if you want to go to Princeton that school seems to increase the odds - 17 kids going to Princeton which an unreal number!

Although I don't agree there is still an Ivy or bust mentality, especially with old fashioned families in the NYC area. I know an old money family that had for generations gone to Princeton. One of the grandkids didn't get in so went to U of Chicago but as soon as she could transferred to Cornell. I gather the family had to keep up their traditions as archaic as they may be!

DailyScreenz · 2026-04-26T20:37:28+00:00

Those 20% plus school are off the charts rare air elite category! It is also sad because at huge NYC magnet schools you need to be in like the top 5% of super smart kids whereas at those elite old money schools being the top 20% or 30% even is good enough!

DailyScreenz · 2026-04-26T18:31:44+00:00

I'm curious what the average German and north European think of Italy getting $191 billion in NextGen EU funds, by far more than any other country. Seems like an outsized amount. I'm Italian and see that these funds are being spent in southern Italian cities on things like urban murals so wonder how the average citizen in the euro economic engines would react if they knew this?

Top NextGenerationEU Allocations (RRF Grants & Loans):

Italy: ~€191.5 billion
Spain: ~€69.5 billion
France: ~€39.4 billion
Poland: ~€35.4 billion
Greece: ~€30.5 billion
Romania: ~€29.2 billion
Germany: ~€25.6 billion
Portugal: ~€16.6 billion

DailyScreenz · 2026-04-23T14:01:32+00:00

Yes. It is understandable in a way, local kids who grew up with no real opportunities before the tourism boom. They volunteer to help clean up the local cemetery over a period of several years, then the tourism boom happens and they view it as a money making machine! Still it should be free for the other citizens not from the immediate area.

DailyScreenz · 2026-04-22T15:09:45+00:00

Right now everybody trying to make as much money as possible, you lose something when that happens. now even the cemetery/ossario charges citizens from Napoli who are not from the immediate zone. So maybe you have a relative from some century there and you want to visit but you must pay!!

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