I've already reported a first visit up to the Sanremo ancient area in a previous post. I was recently back there and up the hill to enjoy its particular atmosphere and take a closer look to the huge fig trees that thrust their roots into the crevices of that rocky ground.
The Ficus macrophilla, commonly known as the Moreton Bay fig is a large evergreen banyan tree of the Moraceae family, subsection of the Malvantherae.
Its specific epithet macrophylla is derived from the ancient Greekmakro (large) and phyllon (leaf) and refers to the size of the leaves.
The characteristic "melting" appearance of the Ficus macrophylla is due to its habit of dropping aerial roots from its branches which on reaching the ground thicken into supplementary trunks which help to support the great weight of its crown.
The trunk can be massive, with thick, prominent structure and a rough grey-brown bark.Some trees can reach heights of 60 m.
Currently the tallest Moreton Bay Fig (49 m) is found near Egg Rock, in Queensland, Australia, but even Europe exhibits some sizeable naturalized specimen. ___ (More on >Wikipedia).
The Nephila komaci can be found in Madagascar and South Africa. They can be up to three feet (one meter) wide and are a member of the orbweaving spiders' group.
"In the PLoS ONE paper, Kuntner and Coddington described Nephila komaci as a new species, now the largest web-spinning species known, and placed it on the evolutionary tree of Nephila".(EurekAlert)
(Photos M. Kuntner) 1) a giant golden orb-web exceeding 1 meter in diameter: Nephila inaurata, Rodrigues, Indian Ocean. 2) extreme sexual size dimorphism in Nephila spiders: Small male and large female, Nephila pilipes, Singapore. ____
Jumping now to another site, EarthTouch, for a beautiful video, taken early in the morning, when the sun rays make the web's threads shine like gold, which explains the spider's name.
Golden orb-web spider - Moremi Game Reserve, Okavango Delta, Botswana.
EuroTopics> Federico Rampini, 10 articles cited in the European Press Review.
At Harry Kreisler's "Conversations with history".
(UCtelevision)
Born in Genoa in 1956, Federico Rampini has been a student of the liberal French sociologist Raymond Aron at Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, in Paris and of the economist Mario Monti at the Bocconi University in Milan. As a journalist, he first worked for "Città Futura" in 1977, the weekly magazine of the FGEI, when the general secretary was Massimo D'Alema and for weekly "Rinascita" in 1979, the PCI weekly of Enrico Berlinguer. Federico Rampini is a columnist, correspondent and editor for European affairs of La Repubblica, since 1997. He is a consultant at Institut Français des Relations internationales, member of the Scientific board of the journal Critique Internationale, published in Paris by the Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques and member the Italian magazine of geopolitics Limes. He also contributed as a columnist to Le Figaro, L'Express, Politique étrangère, in France. (more). ____ Bibliography...
Tens of thousands of climate change activists have been out in force all over the world to raise awareness of the dangers of global warming.
As many as 4,000 protests have been taking place in 170 countries around the globe to mark World Climate Day.
The coordinated campaign was designed to highlight ecological concerns in the run-up to the international climate conference to be held in Copenhagen next month.
GRAFFITI TODAY The Fondation Cartier has asked ten artists from different countries to create works and ephemeral installations specifically for the exhibition. Chosen for the singularity of their approach and the force of their artistic vision, Basco Vazko, Cripta, JonOne, Olivier Kosta, Théfaine, Barry McGee, Nug, Evan Roth, Boris Tellegen-Delta, Vitché and Gérard Zlotykamien present their work within the Fondation Cartier’s gallery spaces as well as on its glass façade. In collaboration with the Association le M.U.R., the Fondation Cartier has also invited artists to create large-scale posters, in the presence of the public, every first weekend of the month. These posters are exhibited at the Fondation Cartier for one month before being moved to the billboard of the association, located at the intersection of the Saint-Maur and Oberkampf streets in Paris. The artists participating in the project include Alexöne, the Collectif 1980, Fancie, Jean Faucheur and WK Interact, Honet, NP 77, Poch, RCF 1, Sun7 and Tom Tom. In addition, L’Atlas, DTagno and Yseult have been invited to create unique and temporary works for the garden of the Fondation Cartier. From São Paulo to Amsterdam, San Francisco to Paris, graffiti today continues to evolve, adopting new forms and modes of expression. ______________________ Born in the Streets - GRAFFITI from July/7 to Nov/29, 2009
La vicenda ruota attorno alla redazione della RAI siciliana. Il suo direttore, Michele Caruso, tralascia di dare la notizia dell’avviso di garanzia a Manlio Caputo, figlio del leader della sinistra siciliana, accusato dell’omicidio della sua fidanzata, Amalia Sacerdote, anche lei un cognome importante perché suo padre è il segretario generale dell’Assemblea Regionale Siciliana.
La ragazza è stata trovata morta a casa sua con il cranio fracassato da un pesante portacenere e quel cadavere crea non pochi problemi per le rivalità politiche dei genitori dei due giovani e per le evidenti connessioni con i poteri economico, giudiziario, giornalistico e politico dell’isola - una rete solida quanto un rizzaglio. Publisher: Sellerio (La memoria, 795) Pub date: Oct, 2009
La Rizzagliata, oggi in libreria, ha una storia curiosa : arriva in Italia, nell’inconfondibile impasto linguistico, un anno dopo l’uscita in Spagna. Il primo problema è già nel titolo, che contiene un riferimento al «rizzaglio», una rete in cui restano impigliati «i pesci cchiù stùpiti o i cchiù lenti, pirchì quelli cchiù sperti, videnno le reti calare, si scansano ‘n tempo». Come renderlo in spagnolo ? L’editore Rba, e il traduttore Juan Carlos Gentile Vitale, hanno aggirato l’ostacolo, titolando con un meno immaginifico "La muerte de Amalia Sacerdote".
In recent years the success of Andrea Camilleri has crossed the oceans, raising it to the world's most beloved Italian writer. The shelves are now filled with hundreds of editions in all major languages, but how to make effective such an original style, so highly seasoned with Sicilian spices ? Working on a Camilleri's novel means accepting a fascinating but dangerous challenge. Some of the best translators have taken up this challenge. "They say I'm a writer easy to understand, even if they have trouble understanding how I write..." [Andrea Camilleri]. In generale, è il modo di trasporre il «Vigatese» che crea difficoltà, come ben sanno i traduttori che giorni fa hanno confessato i loro tormenti nel convegno* «La sfida di Camilleri» che si è tenuto a Milano, promosso dalla Fondazione Mondadori.
* "La Sfida di Camilleri" > "Come si traduce il Vigatese" Convegno internazionale dedicato a uno degli autori italiani più tradotti. Mauro Novelli ha animato il confronto tra alcuni traduttori dello scrittore siciliano, come Serge Quadruppani [France], Moshe Kahn [Germany], Barbro Andersson [Swedish] e Stephen Sartarelli [USA]. (8 ottobre, Salone d’Onore della Triennale di Milano, viale Alemagna, 6) ___
AND here is the wise man's opinion on what he calls the "Berlusconi anomaly" (sorry, it's in Italian)... [by 884C25]
"La Corte costituzionale, giudicando sulle questioni di legittimità costituzionale poste con le ordinanze n. 397/08 e n. 398/08 del Tribunale di Milano e n. 9/09 del GIP del Tribunale di Roma, ha dichiarato l'illegittimità costituzionale dell'art 1 della legge 23 luglio 2008, n. 124 per violazione degli articoli 3 e 138 della Costituzione. Ha altresì dichiarato inammissibili le questioni di legittimità costituzionale della stessa disposizione proposte dal GIP del Tribunale di Roma".
La Repubblica - (it) - La Consulta: lodo Alfano illegittimo - Berlusconi: "Vado avanti, giudici di sinistra". Times on Line - (en) - Silvio Berlusconi faces fight for career as top Italian court strips PM of immunity. Le Monde - (fr) - La Cour constitutionnelle italienne invalide la loi d'immunité protégeant Berlusconi.
(ItalianSpot)
Lodo Alfano > Wikipedia.it, Lodo's Text (it) pdf > __________
