Venice Gets a Grip on a Star Architect’s Slippery Bridge
The city will replace the glass on Santiago Calatrava’s footbridge across the Grand Canal with stone after too many pedestrians fell.
By Emma Bubola
Jan. 2, 2022
VENICE — As tourists wandered obliviously on the glass floor of the footbridge, locals proceeded with caution. Venetians made sure to walk on the narrow stone strip at the center, some lifting fogged glasses to keep their eyes on the ground. When a visitor tripped, they barely lifted their gaze.
“That is not a bridge,” said Angelo Xalle, 71, a retired port worker who recalled helping people with broken chins or foreheads get up from its sleek floor. “It’s a trap.”
The bridge, Ponte della Costituzione, by the star architect Santiago Calatrava, is a multimillion-dollar work of glass and steel that opened in 2008. Its smooth curve above the Grand Canal, near Venice’s train station, was meant to symbolize the city’s embrace of modernity, but it has become better known as a stage for ruinous tumbles and dangerous slips.
Now, after years of protests and problems, the city has decided to replace the translucent glass with less slippery — and less glamorous — trachyte stone.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/02/worl ... ridge.html
Italy
- RTH10260
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Italy
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Re: Italy
Italy elections: Giorgia Meloni hails ‘night of pride’ as exit polls point to far-right coalition victory
The leader of the Brothers of Italy party appears set to become country’s first female PM
Angela Giuffrida in Rome
Mon 26 Sep 2022 04.15 BST
Giorgia Meloni has claimed victory in Italy’s elections and promised to govern for all Italians, after exit polls gave her rightwing coalition a clear majority, putting her on course to create the most rightwing government since the end of the second world war.
With full results due on Monday, the Brothers of Italy leader is set to become Italy’s first female prime minister – and a model for nationalist parties across Europe as she heads one of the EU’s six original member states.
The poll, for Italian broadcaster Rai, gave the rightwing coalition 41%-45% against 25.5%-29.5% for the leftwing bloc. The populist Five Star Movement was on 13.5%-17.5%.
Meloni’s party, which has neofascist origins, is also set to scoop by far the biggest share of the votes within the coalition, which includes the far-right League, led by Matteo Salvini, and Forza Italia, headed by Silvio Berlusconi.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/ ... gia-meloni?
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Re: Italy
“Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.” —John Adams
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Re: Italy
All she's missing is a gaudy uniform with as sash and truckload of medals on it....
"He sewed his eyes shut because he is afraid to see, He tries to tell me what I put inside of me
He's got the answers to ease my curiosity, He dreamed a god up and called it Christianity"
Trent Reznor
He's got the answers to ease my curiosity, He dreamed a god up and called it Christianity"
Trent Reznor
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Re: Italy
Mark Joseph Stern @mjs_DC wrote: Incoming Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni wants to ban same-sex couples from adopting children, and possibly dissolve same-sex couples' legal parentage over the children they've already adopted. Gay parents are considering fleeing the country.Meloni's party sought to ban a cartoon featuring a bear with two mothers, arguing that kids should not see same-sex adoption as “natural” or “normal, because it’s not.”nytimes.com wrote: ‘They are not happy with how we love each other’: Gay parents fear a Meloni victory.
In her election campaign, Giorgia Meloni pledged to oppose surrogacy and adoption by gay couples.
Meloni also wants to ban gay Italians from traveling elsewhere for IVF and surrogacy.
When American conservatives cheer Meloni, this is what they're celebrating: a leader who will ban same-sex couples from adopting children, and terrify same-sex parents with thinly veiled threats about taking away their kids. Because that's what American conservatives want here.
“Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.” —John Adams
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Re: Italy
As long as Italy remains in the EU she will have to follow some basic legal rights. Also too the country has signed the European Human Rights treaty, she will get into deep
if she tries games along that line.
![Shit :shit:](./images/smilies/shiznit.gif)
Re: Italy
Hungary: see Orban.
"Choose your leaders with wisdom and forethought. To be led by a coward is to be controlled by all that the coward fears… To be led by a liar is to ask to be told lies." -Octavia E. Butler
Re: Italy
That's true. Also, it's almost exactly 100 years since Mussolini gained power, and his party never really went completely away.RTH10260 wrote: ↑Tue Sep 27, 2022 5:14 pmIMHO not comparable. Hungary is a late adopter, originating out of the communist east European country group. Italy is core of European history and has been member of the EU and its predecessors from the start.
"Choose your leaders with wisdom and forethought. To be led by a coward is to be controlled by all that the coward fears… To be led by a liar is to ask to be told lies." -Octavia E. Butler
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Re: Italy
Rula Jebreal @rulajebreal wrote: Italy’s new PM: “Thanks to Assad, Russia’s Putin, Iran & the lebanese Hezbollah militias, Christians in Syria feel safe & can celebrate Christmas.”
Meloni’s foreign policy credentials? She defends the forces that literally committed genocide in Syria.
“Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.” —John Adams
Re: Italy
"Wants" is doing a hell of a lot of work there. She can "want" all she wants, but there is a legal framework the is meshed into such as the EU. the italian constitution and so on. Not to mention the diffriculty of getting laws through the Italian p[arliment to do stuff.raison de arizona wrote: ↑Tue Sep 27, 2022 3:29 pmMark Joseph Stern @mjs_DC wrote: Incoming Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni wants to ban same-sex couples
Those tweets are pretty much clickbait. Without analyzing whether or not she has a chance of doing all that stuff and how she is going to do it, and whether she has actually proposed that as a policy, it's as meaningful as Fox News yelling about how Democrats "want" to take your guns.
Hic sunt dracones
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Re: Italy
Well that’s good to hear!Suranis wrote: ↑Wed Sep 28, 2022 7:11 am"Wants" is doing a hell of a lot of work there. She can "want" all she wants, but there is a legal framework the is meshed into such as the EU. the italian constitution and so on. Not to mention the diffriculty of getting laws through the Italian p[arliment to do stuff.raison de arizona wrote: ↑Tue Sep 27, 2022 3:29 pmMark Joseph Stern @mjs_DC wrote: Incoming Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni wants to ban same-sex couples
Those tweets are pretty much clickbait. Without analyzing whether or not she has a chance of doing all that stuff and how she is going to do it, and whether she has actually proposed that as a policy, it's as meaningful as Fox News yelling about how Democrats "want" to take your guns.
“Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.” —John Adams
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Re: Italy
Not a Macron fan.
“Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.” —John Adams
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Re: Italy
Alan MacLeod @AlanRMacLeod wrote: New Italian PM Giorgia Meloni's first action is to withdraw a €500 subsidy for Italy's poorest people - a lifeline for millions.
These are not the actions of a "populist" - they're the actions of an elitist class warrior and a member of the Aspen Institute, which she is.
“Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.” —John Adams
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Re: Italy
Hey that's what Suranis said.
Kreately.in @KreatelyMedia wrote: Matteo Renzi: ex Italian PM, a liberal yet shuts up CNN, who cried Mussolini at her!
"Personally I was against Giorgia Meloni, I’m not her best friend, we are rivals but she is not a danger to democracy, the idea there is a risk of fascism in Italy is absolutely fake news"
“Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.” —John Adams
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Re: Italy
Huh. Sounds an awful lot like tfg. At least that one ended well.
Simon Whitten @Simon_Whitten wrote: British newspaper columnists in unison: If Meloni is such a fascist why do I agree with her about everything?
“Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.” —John Adams
Italy
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/20 ... oni-italy/
ROME — Giorgia Meloni has received a green light from Italian President Sergio Mattarella to form Italy’s most right-wing government since the end of World War II.
Meloni will be sworn in as Italy’s first female prime minister on Saturday at 10 a.m. local time, along with the rest of her government. Her cabinet will be approved in a parliamentary confidence vote expected early next week.
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But most days recently — amid chauvinistic insults and leaked pro-Russian audio tape — it’s been hard to tell if her far-right coalition is coming together or unraveling.
When the coalition ran away with an election victory a month ago, its recipe for popularity — brandishing culture war issues while pledging stability in Europe — looked set to inspire other far-right movements. Now, the bigger question is whether its members can get beyond infighting, which has deepened a sense of anxiety and unpredictability about Italy’s political direction.
Much of the turmoil has been sparked by four-time prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, the 86-year-old billionaire tycoon who now heads Forza Italia, a junior party in the presumed ruling group.
"Choose your leaders with wisdom and forethought. To be led by a coward is to be controlled by all that the coward fears… To be led by a liar is to ask to be told lies." -Octavia E. Butler
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Italy
Why does WaPo have a Telegram channel, and even advertise for it? That place is a cesspool. I rarely wade in there anymore.AndyinPA wrote: ↑Fri Oct 21, 2022 1:13 pm https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/20 ... oni-italy/
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“Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.” —John Adams
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Italy
Death toll mounts in Italy’s worst flooding for 100 years
Older and disabled people trapped in homes as rescuers battle harsh conditions in Emilia-Romagna region
Angela Giuffrida in Rome
Thu 18 May 2023 16.28 BST
Older and disabled people were trapped in their homes as rescuers worked under pounding rain throughout the night to save people in what has been described as the most severe flooding to affect Italy in 100 years.
The floods in the northern Emilia-Romagna region have claimed 13 lives as of Thursday evening. An estimated 20,000 have been left homeless in a disaster that caused 23 rivers to burst their banks and 280 landslides, engulfing 41 cities and towns.
Roads remained blocked, including the A1, after a landslide in Sasso Marconi on Thursday afternoon, and trains were cancelled or disrupted.
Among the dead were an elderly couple trapped inside their home in Cava, a hamlet in the province of Forlì-Cesena. “We heard their cries for help,” a neighbour told Il Messaggero newspaper. “We tried to get them out, but it was useless.”
An 80-year-old man drowned in his cellar after going to retrieve belongings, and a couple, identified as Sauro Manuzzi and Marinella Maraldi, who owned a company that produces herbs, were hit by the floods in the field opposite their home. The body of Maraldi, 70, was swept 12 miles down a river before being found on a beach along the Adriatic coast. A 76-year-old man was killed after being hit by a landslide in his garden, while another man, aged 43, died after falling into a well while trying to pump water away from his property.
Firefighters have carried out 2,000 rescue operations across the region and in parts of central Marche that were also affected by the floods.
Forty elderly people were saved from a care home overnight as police were inundated with calls seeking help. A caller in Faenza, among the worst-hit towns, told police: “My neighbours are elderly. One has Alzheimer’s. They’re unable to leave by themselves. Somebody must come. There’s too much mud.”
Elderly people who sought refuge on rooftops were saved by helicopters, as were entire families. Volunteers described carrying people out of their homes. Paolo Meoni, a volunteer working in Cesena, told La Nazione newspaper: “We worked all night in the pouring rain. In some cases, we carried the elderly and disabled in our arms and brought them on a dinghy to rescuers, who in turn transported them to shelters.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/ ... ia-romagna
Italy
Sheel Mohnot
@pitdesi
Italy raided factories & found that Armani and Dior bags are made by illegal Chinese workers in Italy who sleep in the workshop and make €2-3/hr. Both companies have been placed under Italian court administration.
Dior paid a supplier $57 to assemble* a handbag that sells for $2,780
Armani bags that were sold to consumers for €1,800 cost €93* to make.
(These don’t include raw materials costs)
People often wrongly conflate higher prices for higher ethical standards.
Hic sunt dracones