Tag: Italy

Italians Have a “Crabs” Problem

Relax!  This is not going to be some dissertation on the problems with those little parasites that like to inhabit the hairy regions of a human’s body.

But a dissertation will follow the news…

Italy is sending in eight-armed reinforcements against a crab that won’t quit. In the Adriatic, scientists have released about 130,000 lab-bred baby octopuses in a bid to curb exploding numbers of Atlantic blue crabs that are wrecking fishing gear and wiping out lucrative clam and mussel beds—damage that farm group Coldiretti pegs at more than $230 million so far, the Telegraph reports. The “Octo-Blu” project, led by Bologna University and the Emilia-Romagna regional government, is banking on a simple food-chain fix: once grown, each octopus could devour up to four crabs a day.

The plan is far from a sure thing. The tiny “paralarvae” face a mortality rate of more than 99%, though researchers have sunk artificial dens to boost their odds. Still, even a single crab eaten can matter, notes project scientist Oliviero Mordenti, who points out that one female crab can produce up to 2 million eggs. Blue crabs have already forced some aquaculture businesses to shut and have been found 100 miles up the Po River, suggesting they’re spreading to avoid overcrowding, which leads to cannibalism.

“We chose the octopus because, in the wild, it is a formidable predator of crustaceans,” says Antonio Casalini, a University of Bologna aquaculture expert. “We are not introducing a new species but working on strengthening the population of a native species already naturally present in the Adriatic,” Casalini says, per Scientific American. Italy is also pushing a culinary counterattack, stocking blue crab in shops and on menus, but diners so far haven’t been able to eat their way out of the problem.

Now for my thoughts….

First maybe if they would stop killing thousands of octopus daily to satisfy their ‘culinary delights’ they might not be have such a problem.

Second, they eat urchins, snails, offal meat and such but not crabs…..that seems crazy….ask anyone down here on the Gulf Coast and they will tell you that blue crab is some of the best crab meat around.

Third, if they cannot bring themselves to eat the crab then fishermen could make a killing catching them and sending them to the Southern states…..Southerns will gladly eat them if a smile….and it would drive the price of local crabs down….another positive side effect.  The problem here is that it could damage local crab industry and put a strain on it.

Fourth someone needs to start a new Italian tradition with the crabs….try them you’ll like them….after all monk fish was not eaten in the past and look at the popularity today.

After I wrote this draft on Monday more to this saga has been reported…..it looks like they will try #3 on my list….

Italian fishermen for two years incinerated most of the invasive Atlantic blue crabs caught in the Po River Delta south of Venice. Few Italians had an appetite for the alien predator blamed for decimating their prized Manila clams.

While experiments in containment continue, including the release of tens of thousands of octopus predators, the industry’s response has been shifting to find new markets for the crustaceans. The strategy is already salvaging the livelihood of some fishermen and, some hope, may even rehabilitate the much-maligned crab’s image in Italy.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/science/articles/italians-enter-uneasy-truce-invasive-040730509.html

May I suggest exporting them to the UK they seem to be fish-centric and they might enjoy the crab meat.

That does it for me for this week…..I hope has a great weekend….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

 

ICE For The Winter Olympics

We are less than a month away from the winter Olympics in Italy and as usual Donny has a plan to try and fuck up the gathering….

Trump fielded calls on Sunday from Republicans including Sen. Lindsey Graham warning him that the White House’s immigration agenda was at risk because of the grim TV images, and that Trump needed to make moves quickly, reports the Wall Street Journal. Getting rid of Bovino was an easy first step, per Axios. “He’s a cowboy, and it was a mess,” a source familiar with the president’s thinking tells the outlet. “It was only escalation, and no one was going to back down. Homan going in is a good thing. Someone needed to step in.”

Trump also adopted a much friendlier tone toward Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz after the two spoke by phone on Monday. The Journal reports on part of a deal they struck: Trump would pull some federal agents out of the city if Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey provided more cooperation to the remaining agents who are trying to arrest people in the US illegally. The first agents are expected to leave on Tuesday. House Democrats, meanwhile, plan to open an investigation into Noem next week as part of a push to impeach her, reports the Washington Post.

(apnews.com)

What part of the Olympics should be a concern for ICE?

What is Donny lame ass game?

With this stupid announcement Italy has responded to Donny’s plan….

Milan’s leader says ICE agents aren’t welcome in the city following reports that they’ll have a role in US security at the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics kicking off next week. The Department of Homeland Security confirmed the reports Tuesday, per CNN, saying ICE would have a “security role” but would not conduct immigration enforcement operations. ICE said its Homeland Security Investigations division would support the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service and the “host nation” to consider risks from “transnational” criminal groups, while conceding that “all security operations remain under Italian authority,” per CBS News.

HSI has helped with security at various international events, including Olympic Games, per the AP. But there’s intense backlash to the plan this year given the international uproar over ICE operations and the killings of US citizens, including Alex Pretti and Renee Good. Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala on Tuesday blasted the alleged plan, calling ICE “a militia that kills” in an interview with Italian media. He accused the agency of entering homes on its own authority and said there was no guarantee of adherence to Italy’s “democratic security management methods.” “It’s clear that they’re not welcome in Milan,” he said. “We can take care of their security ourselves.”

Veteran Italian lawmaker Carlo Calenda warned the “out-of-control militia … must not set foot in Italy,” per CNN, while former Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte urged officials to stop “bowing” to the US. Despite his criticism, Sala acknowledged the diplomatic realities of challenging Washington, asking rhetorically, “Could we ever say no to Trump?” But the answer may be yes. According to the BBC, Italy’s interior ministry insisted Monday that “ICE will certainly not operate on Italian national territory.” The backlash, including several public petitions, intensified after Italian state TV aired footage from Minneapolis that showed ICE agents threatening to smash the windows of a vehicle carrying its crew.

It is sad that Donny creates the chaos on our cities now he wants to do the same internationally.

WTF?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–27Sep22

Move over Orban!

There is a new fascist leader in Europe…..and it is from a country that has a fascist past….Italy…..

The results aren’t official, but it’s a certainty that the far-right Brothers of Italy party has won the most votes in Italy’s election on Sunday, reports the AP. That means party leader Giorgia Meloni is now the favorite to become the next prime minister, which is notable on two fronts. She would be Italy’s first female prime minister, and she would lead the nation’s “farthest-right government” since Mussolini, per the Washington Post. It could be weeks before any new government takes over, however, and much political horse-trading will take place in the interim. Coverage:

  • About her: The BBC has a profile of the 45-year-old Meloni, who grew up in working-class Rome and was raised by a single mother. As a politician, her motto of “God, homeland, and family” speaks volumes. While women in Italy like the idea of a shattered glass ceiling, they also fear that Meloni’s conservative views on issues such as abortion will actually hurt women’s rights overall. She also opposes LGBT polices and is a staunch opponent of immigration. Her views are strongly nationalist.
  • Fascism: Her party “descended from the remnants of fascism,” writes Jason Horowitz in the New York Times. And the BBC story notes that Brothers of Italy, founded a decade ago, “has its political roots in the Italian Social Movement (MSI), which rose from the ashes of Mussolini’s fascism.” However, Meloni (who famously praised Mussolini as a politician years ago) today adamantly rejects the connection. “The Italian right has handed fascism over to history for decades now, unambiguously condemning the suppression of democracy and the ignominious anti-Jewish laws,” she said in a campaign video.
  • But that logo: Her party uses a tricolor logo of a flame, which the BBC notes is “often perceived as the fire burning on Mussolini’s tomb.” It’s the same one used by Giorgio Almirante, Mussolini’s last chief of staff, when he launched the above-mentioned MSI in 1946, per the AP. “You can make whatever you want out of a flame, but everybody understood that Almirante was making a deeply emotional appeal to keep the spirit of fascism alive,” says Rutgers University professor T. Corey Brennan.
  • Logo, II: Another political scientist, Gianluca Passarelli of Rome’s Sapienza University, tells the BBC that Meloni won’t drop the symbol because it’s too deeply connected to her own youth. But “her party is not fascist,” he says. “Fascism means to get power and destroy the system. She won’t do that and she couldn’t. But there are wings in the party linked to the neo-fascist movement. She has always played somehow in-between.”
  • Ukraine: Unlike leaders of other right-wing parties in Italy, Meloni has been a strong advocate of Ukraine and a critic of Vladimir Putin’s invasion. Still, she might face internal pressure on the subject once in power, and a big concern in Europe is whether Italy might eventually become the “weak link” in the EU’s unified opposition to Russia, per the Times.
  • Governing: The Local looks at the specifics of what a Meloni government might actually do. Think slashed taxes, strong anti-immigrant policies, less support for LGBT policies, etc.

Is this a trend for coming elections in Europe?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Money Well Spent

Closing Thought–10Dec20

I am always going on and on about the money that government pisses away….and sadly the US government is not the only waster of taxpayer cash…..

This story about Venice……that is in Italy not Florida…..

St. Mark’s Square in Venice was submerged on Tuesday, and an incorrect forecast may be to blame. The city has since October had an experimental system of inflatable barriers in place to prevent flooding. Thing is, the $8 billion system is activated when high tides are expected to reach a minimum of 4 feet, 4 inches. On Tuesday, the waters were predicted to hit just 4 feet, 1 inch, below the activation threshold. But they reached just over 4 feet, 6 inches, flooding shops and restaurants. Stronger-than-expected winds are apparently to blame for the elevated tides. “Unfortunately, the weather is freer than us. It does what it wants,” said Venice Mayor Luigi Brugnaro. The AFP notes the city’s lowest point is St. Mark’s Square, which sits roughly three feet above sea level.

The AP reports Venice suffered its worst flooding in half a century a year ago, when high tides hit 6.5 feet. The barriers—78 moveable ones—can safeguard the city from tides of up to 10 feet and is designed to be readied in just 30 minutes. But the Guardian explains that by the time the water reached the lagoon Tuesday morning, it was too late to get the system up and running. That system is known as MOSE (that’s (MOdulo Sperimentale Elettromeccanico, or Experimental Electromechanical Module), a nod to the Biblical figure Moses, who parted the waters of the Red Sea. Brugnaro commented on the learnings from Tuesday’s flooding, “To activate MOSE a bigger forecast is necessary. We will have to review the rules of the command post.”

Good to know that it seems to be a human trait no matter which side of the pond they are on.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

History For A Sunday: Kasserine Pass

Another Sunday and I want to share a little personal stuff…..nothing to personal just a thought or two…..and a little history (is that an eye roll?)

First, how many know what Kasserine Pass is?

My favorite uncle was in the US Army in World War Two…..1st Army Division….he was there when America invaded North Africa and fought his way across Africa then onto Sicily and up the nation of Italy where he was wounded and taken prisoner at Casino…..

He use to tell me about the fighting as forces tried to enter the German stronghold in Tunisia….the worse fighting was for the Kasserine Pass in May of 1943……

It all went very wrong.

Beware a Desert Fox when he’s cornered.

It was North Africa, in the winter of 1943, and American soldiers were feeling cocky as they prepared for their first ground battle against the Germans in World War II. So far, it hadn’t been a bad war for the U.S. Army. The GIs were well fed, well paid and well equipped, especially compared to their threadbare and envious British allies. Even better, their baptism by fire had been to splash ashore in Algeria and Morocco in November 1942, where the defenders had been unmotivated Vichy French soldiers who soon capitulated.

Maybe defeating Hitler wouldn’t be so hard, after all.

https://nationalinterest.org/blog/kasserine-pass-americas-most-humiliating-defeat-world-war-ii-19574

https://www.thoughtco.com/battle-of-kasserine-pass-2361495

Just what did the green troops learn from the battle for Kasserine Pass?

The February 1943 Battle of the Kasserine Pass marked the first serious confrontation between America’s amateur army and Germany’s professional Wehrmacht— specifically the elite Afrika Korps— so it should come as no surprise the Allies got beat. But what is surprising is that everybody from General Dwight Eisenhower down to platoon leaders made so many mistakes that defeat was inevitable.

Least guilty of incompetence were the draftees. As war correspondent Ernie Pyle wrote: “There is nothing wrong with the common American soldier.…The deeper he gets into a fight, the more of a fighting man he becomes.” Unfortunately, Maj. Gen. Lloyd Fredendall and his unit commanders stuck the American fighting man so deep into this scrap there was no way out.

https://www.historynet.com/learned-kasserine-pass.htm

My uncle would only talk to me after Vietnam about his time in North Africa and Italy…..we had some very similar experiences……

This battle is not one historians like to teach or even talk about because it was such a fiasco in the beginning.

That is it for me for the day……hope everyone is having a good weekend and I will be back in force tomorrow…..peace out!

Sicilian Fasci Movement

This will be your final history lesson for the week…..enjoy.

About here some person will read the title and immediately set off schooling me about the Godwin Law because they will assume that I am aiming this at the their fearless leader in DC.

As usual they would be WRONG!

This post is not about Mussolini or even his patron Hitler…nope….it is about a movement in Sicily in the late 19th century.

During the 1860s and 1870s, workers in Sicily supported each other through mutual aid societies, which claimed the right to strike and to lobby for wage increases. This precedent of organized labor, along with a recent history of peasant uprisings against feudal aristocracy and the spread of socialist ideology, set the stage for the Fasci Siciliani movement. A trade war affecting the main components of Sicily’s economy (fruit, wine, and sulfur) led the Sicilian elite to institute higher rents and taxes, transferring the economic hardship to the working class. Fasci, meaning “bundle” in Italian, were associations of laborers that advocated for workers’ rights constituted Sicily’s first social movement.

Source: Sicilian Fasci movement, 1893-4

For those that like history and politics it is always a joy to find out about how the world looked at society back in the day.

I hope that you, my reader, enjoyed your small slice of history for the day…..

Class Dismissed!

Creative Policy Making

I am always bitching that there is NO creativity in our policy makers….they seem to go to old stand by solutions that have NO footing in reality……so whenever I see a creative approach to policy making I am usually mildly impressed…….

Italy has done just that recently….mildly impressed me in the policy sector that is…….

Surprisingly enough, this idea didn’t come from Silvio Berlusconi: Italy plans to include things like illegal drug sales, prostitution, and cigarette smuggling in its GDP figures for the first time, immediately giving the size of the economy a big boost, Bloomberg reports. Prime Minister Mario Renzi has pledged to cut the country’s deficit to 2.6% of GDP, a target that will be a lot easier to hit when illegal sectors of the economy are included.

The European Union’s statistical agency has provided guidelines for estimating the contribution of illegal activities to the economy, and the move is expected to add up to 2% to Italy’s GDP, ANSA reports. (As for Berlusconi, he’s doing community service at a hospice after being convicted of tax fraud.)

Cool!  finally, people that can think outside of the box (as it were)……….any thoughts?

Should Predictions Have Consequences?

The weekend and time to lighten up the posts from the drudgery of politics and the 2012 election……

I have heard a lot of stuff that is illegal in other countries….like women driving or spitting in public or……..you get the idea….but I recently heard one that even I thought was moronic……

(Newser) – An Italian court has convicted six scientists for failing to predict a deadly earthquake, which, congratulations, puts it in the running for “dumbest court in the world,” reads the headline to a post by Elie Mystal at the Above the Law blog. Prosecutors blamed the six for providing “inaccurate, incomplete, and contradictory information” prior to the quake. “No, you freaking idiots, THE EARTH provided inaccurate, incomplete, and contradictory information about whether or not she was going to destroy your insignificant human settlement,” writes Mystal. “The scientists were just trying to make a guess.” He draws a comparison to the persecution of Galileo, which is a common refrain:

  • Dan Murphy, Christian Science Monitor: “Rarely since a Catholic inquisition in Rome condemned Galileo Galilei to spend the remainder of his days under house arrest for the heresy of teaching that the Earth revolves around the sun, has an Italian court been so wrong about science.”
  • Lord Robert May: “The verdict might have been understandable in the Dark Ages, standing alongside the persecution of Galileo, but in today’s world it simply is an embarrassment to the Italian government and anyone associated with it,” the Oxford professor tells AFP.
  • Buzz Skyline, PhysicsCentral: “If the convictions stand, it will mean it’s dangerous for scientists to advise on science matters in Italy. Then all they will have left is tea leaves, Tarot cards, and psychics. What a way to waste the Renaissance.”

Now after I thought about it maybe we could use this as a template for global warming……thoughts?

Italy Has A Ben Franklin

We have all heard the stories of the sex prowess of one of our Founding Fathers…..one Benjamin Franklin….some a true but most or myths that have sprung up around the enigmatic individual…..stories like his propensity to seek out women….his air baths in front of an open window in the nude……his being thrown out of the France court because he could not leave the ladies be and conduct the business he was sent there to do……like I said stories…most of which are myths or are they?

Enough about Ben…..across the pond there is another person that is giving Ben a run for his money….only this time they are not so mythic but rather more like reality……his name?  Berlusconi the head dude of Italy….he is NO stranger to accusations of sexual impropriety, but this time he may have been better off leaving his “johnson” where it belonged…in his pants……

Silvio Berlusconi‘s political career is once again in jeopardy after prosecutors today accused him of paying a “significant” number of women to have sex with him at parties he hosted last year.

Investigators also claim to have “ample investigative evidence” that Berlusconi provided flats for the women in return for sex at a Milan housing complex he built in the 1970s before entering politics.

He is already under investigation on suspicion of paying for sex with one of his guests, Karima el-Mahroug, a Moroccan belly dancer known as Ruby Rubacuori, when she was 17 – an offence under Italian law. He is also suspected of pressuring police into freeing her from custody after she was arrested on suspicion of theft last May.

Topless women dressed in nurse and police costumes stripped for the prime minister and his friends in his palatial residence outside Milan, which was described by one participant as “a whorehouse”, according to phone calls intercepted by investigators.

You have to give him his props……at 74 he is doing a lot better than I am….I guess it is true…..money talks and bullshit walks…….but you cannot buy love……that is true….but you can rent enough to keep you smiling for a long time……and Berlusconi has GOT to be smiling his ass off!

Damn! The Thought Police!

Have you read 1984?  It has been quoted and referenced since it was published….it has been the poster child of what is NOT in the democratic ideal…or maybe you will recall a movie with Tom Cruise (the name escapes me) where the police arrest people before they commit the crime…another case for the thought police….

Of course….all this imagination is just that…..fiction from the minds of the artistic types…right?

Not so fast!  Newser has a real life case of the thought police…..

An Italian couple has been awarded the legal right to annul their marriage for adultery; not because the wife slept with other men, but simply because she thought about it—then discussed it with her husband. Following a lower court decision and a ruling by the Catholic Church’s Ecclesiastical Court, the highest court in Italy decided that voicing the desire to have sex with another partner is just as bad as the act itself, reports CNN.
That Guardian gives some background: Apparently, the wife had spoken with her husband about the idea of having an open relationship before their wedding. She had “theorized” that sexual fidelity did not have to be a cornerstone of their marriage, but the court found “there was no evidence of the woman frequenting other men.” Remarkably, not only can the husband end the marriage because his wife had spoken of having an open relationship, but he won’t be required to pay alimony.

Italy, huh?  Yep the same Italy that in some areas is trying to enforce a dress code on the people of a town….No thongs….no belly shirts…..no mini-skirts……no Daisy Duke’s…….if this catches on…..most of us will scratch Italy off the itinerary of our European vacation……and this from a country whose leader spends a lot of time trying to explain away his sexual accusations….is Italy becoming more conservative?