#DR Trieste Line

[dragonrajaphoto]

Hmm...

[orbemnews]

The truth about cruise ships in Venice On March 31, the Italian government issued a decree that would see cruise ships and large commercial vessels banned from the Venetian lagoon, and calling for tenders to be sought to construct a new port outside the lagoon. Yet just 15 days later, MSC Cruises announced that the MSC Orchestra would be heading up the Giudecca Canal, gliding past St Mark’s Square and docking in the city-center port on June 5. MSC’s two ships for this season will be joined by one from Costa Cruises. The Costa Deliziosa will use Venice as its homeport from June 26. So what exactly is going on? Stories have been swirling for several years about the possibility of cruise ships being banned from the historic center of Venice. As things stand, their approach to the current cruise port — located on the edge of the city center — sees the ships sailing past the UNESCO World Heritage site of St Mark’s Square. They then continue along the Giudecca Canal, a body of water separating Venice “center” from the island of Giudecca, which sits opposite the central district of Dorsoduro. The wide canal is already a major thoroughfare for ferry and water taxi traffic. At the moment, ships sail along the Giudecca Canal. MIGUEL MEDINA/AFP/Getty Images Cruise ships sail up the 4 kilometer (2.5 mile) canal, before turning right to dock at the “Marittima” port on the western edge of Venice’s historic center. Opponents of cruise ships say that the ships aren’t just an ugly addition to the unique cityscape. They also say that the presence of ships in the lagoon is negatively changing the ecosystem, and damaging the notoriously fragile city with the movement of water they cause. They also point to accidents such as the one in June 2019, when the MSC Opera nicked the city shoreline on its way towards the cruise terminal, ramming a smaller boat and scraping the sidewalk. But supporters of the industry point to the number of local jobs that cruises create — around 4,200 related to the cruise industry, according to figures provided to CNN from the port, with over 1,700 working directly with passengers. “Cruises are extremely important for us,” says Andrea Tomaello, deputy mayor of Venice. “The port generates income for our city, and it’s a quality income — cruise passengers spend, and stay longer in town.” Figures for 2018 — the last year of normal cruising, since in 2019 Venice was hit by devastating floods — show that 1.8 million passengers moved through Venice, spending an estimated €55 million ($67 million), he says. Venice is Italy’s second busiest port, and the fifth busiest in the Mediterranean. Most importantly, he says, it’s Italy’s biggest homeport — meaning that passengers are more likely to stay in the city before or after their cruise, and fly into the local airport. “The cruise sector is estimated to represent 3.2% of the local gross domestic product, so lots of workers rely on it,” he says. A political stalemate Despite — or perhaps because of — the polarities of the two viewpoints, no progress has been made in recent years, although plenty of stakeholders have pushed for a decision. But there’s also the problem that there’s no clear compromise solution. What’s more, the ultimate decisions are being taken in Rome — 330 miles south. “The problem is that the politicians in Rome who have the power to make these decisions are out of touch with the reality and complexity of Venice’s relationship to the lagoon,” says anti-cruise ship campaigner and environmental scientist Jane da Mosto. “In the meantime, Venice is crumbling.” As things stand, there are three — or, really, four — suggestions on the table. One is to allow the ships to continue as they are, sailing up the Giudecca Canal — which is one of the few routes where the lagoon, which can be just centimeters-shallow in places, is deep enough to take vessels of that size. Another is to move the cruise port to Porto Marghera, squaring off against Venice on the Italian mainland. The commercial port is already located here, on the edge of the industrial center of Marghera. To get to Marghera, boats don’t use the Giudecca Canal. Instead, they enter the lagoon at the southern end of the Lido (the long sandbar island that divides the lagoon and the Adriatic Sea) — specifically, by the village of Malamocco, squeezing between the Lido and neighboring island Pellestrina. From there, they bypass the city and head to the mainland, past the ferry terminal of Fusina and the factories of Marghera, to dock at the commercial port nearby. One option, which appears to have been discounted for now, is to route the ships along the commercial route to Marghera, but not dock there. Instead they’d turn right, along the disused Vittorio Emanuele III Canal connecting Marghera to Marittima, and dock at the current cruise port. Or, finally, there’s the option to build a brand new port somewhere outside the lagoon. This would avoid any environmental impact from the giant ships in the shallow lagoon. However, any of the new options on the table would need time to build new infrastructure — meaning that for now, any ship coming in must take the current route. An industry getting weary Anti-cruise protestors have become a frequent sight in Venice. MIGUEL MEDINA/AFP/Getty Images Speak to anyone in the cruise industry, and you’ll get a sense of frustration that they’re constantly portrayed as the ones swaggering up the Giudecca Canal unbidden, when in fact it’s the decision of the local and national authorities where ships should go. Francesco Galietti, who represents the industry as director of trade body Cruise Lines International Association Italy (CLIA), says that cruise lines “have supported the relocation of cruise ships from the Giudecca Canal since 2012.” “CLIA has been working with authorities in Rome and Venice to alleviate traffic in Venice and take big ships off the Giudecca. We are aware that the transit of cruise ships is controversial and have always tried to be part of the solution,” he says. And when MSC announced its return to the city, a weary spokesperson told CNN: “Exactly from which terminal our ships will serve Venice (and how they will get there) now and over the longer term, will be determined by the local and national authorities and we will follow their instructions as we always have.” It seems that nobody is in favor of the Giudecca Canal anymore. “Everyone is in agreement that the ships shouldn’t go in front of St Mark’s,” says Tomaello. But until an alternative is found, they must continue to take that route. What are the options? So where do the authorities want them to go? That’s the problem. It was immediately hailed as a step forward by some, but Marghera is within the lagoon, albeit on the mainland. If the mere presence of ships in the lagoon is bad for the ecosystem, docking at Marghera or the Marittima becomes a moot point. The move wasn’t to last, anyway. The government fell shortly afterward, and the plans were shelved. Fast forward to December 2020, when a committee of government and local representatives — the Comitatone — reinstated that 2019 ruling. The port authority swiftly set up a tender process to construct a new cruise terminal at Marghera. It was nearing its end when the latest government decree was handed down on March 31 — making a Marghera cruise port out of the question. Since then, those in power locally have reaffirmed their commitment to a new terminal at Marghera — but they have been repeatedly rebuffed by the national parliament, which wants to construct a brand new port outside the lagoon. “We already have a port in Marghera, and we have 20,000 people working there,” says Tomaello. “Enormous commercial ships go there, so I don’t understand. “The most important thing for us is we want to give certainty to the workers.” Jane da Mosto agrees on the need for certainty. “The longer people have to make their living on the basis of a certain situation, the harder it is to change that situation,” she says. “This is a situation that should have changed after the Costa Concordia accident [in 2012].” An industry exodus Trieste, two hours east, is emerging as a rival port to Venice. Courtesy Anna DeVincentis The confusion has already cost the city money. Royal Caribbean cruise line has left Venice — for now at least — moving port for 2021 to Ravenna, around 2.5 hours south, below the lagoon, which ends at the fishing port of Chioggia. Its website currently advertises cruises from “Venice (Ravenna).” Last year it was reported to have written to clients about the move, citing concerns around future access for its decision. Royal Caribbean did not respond to a request for comment. Meanwhile, although Costa Cruises is using Venice as its homeport this year for the Costa Deliziosa, it is also deploying another ship from Trieste, two hours east of Venice. That’s not new — Costa has been docking at Trieste since 2006, says a spokesperson — but in 2020, the company made 10 calls at Trieste, and just one in Venice. Tomaello is worried that the uncertainty will drive more cruise companies away. “If they don’t have certainty, it’s possible that they’ll leave Venice,” he says. The science of the lagoon Venice’s saltmarshes are disappearing at an alarming rate. Julia Buckley So what exactly happens when the cruise ships enter the Venice lagoon? According to Dr Fantina Madricardo, a specialist in underwater acoustics and geophysics from Venice’s ISMAR (Institute of Marine Sciences), ships produce “depression wakes” when going through the lagoon. Her colleagues studied 600 wake events from commercial ships going through the central lagoon, from Malamocco to Marghera. “These generate a sort of wave that propagates over the shores, and the propagation of a big wave resuspends the sediments and erodes the shores and salt marshes close to the channel,” she says. “We’ve also mapped the sea floor in high resolution, and found there are erosive processes related to the passage of ships in the Malamocco channel. “We found they erode the shore close to the Marittima (cruise port) and there are big “scours” that correspond to the place where they anchor. “This means that the passage of big ships — not just cruise but commercial ships too — erodes part of the central lagoon, and this is a problem because it changes the morphology of the lagoon.” Other scientific studies have shown that the complex system of channels and creeks that the central lagoon used to have, is being lost. The water has got deeper, currents have changed, and saltmarshes are retreating at a rate of 2-7 meters (6.5-23 feet) per year. That’s not just a problem for the birds that live on them; saltmarshes also reduce lagoon erosion and are “incredible for absorbing carbon dioxide,” says Madricardo. Yet in Venice, they have reduced by more than 50% in the last century. The shallowness of the lagoon is the reason for its fragility, says Madricardo — outside the navigation channels, the average depth is just 1 meter (3 feet) in this area. So while depression wakes are “negligible” in the sea beyond the Lido, they cause notable damage inside the lagoon. But is it better or worse if the ships go through the Giudecca Canal? After all, that’s already a major shipping lane, with large car ferries going through it as well as smaller public transportation vehicles. Madricardo hasn’t studied it, but says it all depends on the speed of the ships — if they go slower through the city, it’d cause less of a wake effect. Da Mosto — who’s an environmental scientist as well as a campaigner for We Are Here Venice — reckons that sailing through the city has a different, but also deleterious, effect. The city waterways, like the Giudecca Canal, are bordered with stone, so there’s no threat of erosion as there is in the open lagoon, she says. But she adds that waves “weaken the urban fabric because they take away the mortar holding the stone.” This isn’t limited to cruise ships — all traffic does it — but the bigger the ship, the bigger the wave crashing onto the stone. A port in the Adriatic Sea The Italian government’s current position is that a new port must be constructed outside the lagoon. UNESCO — whose World Heritage Committee is monitoring the situation — says it’s been campaigning for this since 2014. “Sometimes weighing up to 40,000 tons, these vessels [cruise ships and oil tankers] significantly weaken the lagoon and damage its ecological balance,” it wrote in a statement provided to CNN. A good compromise, outsiders might say — but not so fast. In fact, plans for a port outside the lagoon, at Cavallino-Treporti — a peninsula curling round from the mainland, acting as a barrier between the Adriatic and the north lagoon — has already been mooted and, in turn, rejected. Known as the Duferco-De Piccoli project, it planned to have space for four cruise ships. But it was turned down in 2015, with the local mayor warning that it would negatively impact the local area, while bringing no money or jobs into the community, since tourists would go straight off to Venice. What’s more, cruise insiders mumble, the inconvenience — it’s nearly an hour’s drive from Cavallino-Treporti to Venice via the mainland — could make logistics difficult. The risk? Venice might lose its status as a homeport, and the money that that brings. CLIA’s Francesco Galietti goes further: “Our guests tell us that the presence of Venice is a determining factor in the decision to cruise in the Adriatic,” he says. If there was no Venice, does that mean that the overall attraction of an Adriatic cruise would pall? The Marghera option would put an end to the ships sailing close to the city. Dan Kitwood/Getty Images Europe/Getty Images Some locals worry that shuttling guests back and forth between an external port and the city on multiple smaller boats might cause as much damage as the current system. Madricardo, though, says that’s not necessarily true. “It would depend how many boats, how big they were and what speed they were traveling. If they were small, they wouldn’t create the wake effect — that’s down to the size and velocity. But there might be other problems. It’s very hard to say.” Either way, the local authorities are not in favor. “I think it’d be difficult to realize, because it would need a long time, and a lot of money,” says Tomaello. “In my opinion, an offshore port ‘island’ could be good for container ships, but not ones with passengers. Offloading thousands of passengers on an island in the middle of the sea isn’t ideal.” The mainland Marghera option Instead, the local and regional authorities are set on sticking with the plan that was in place before March 31: a new cruise terminal inside the lagoon, at Porto Marghera. “We propose a permanent terminal near the temporary one for the biggest ships, and to have the smaller ones go where they go now, but taking a different route,” he says. “We’re in favor of this because it could give stability and certainty to workers and operators.” In the meantime, he says that the first temporary mooring at Marghera will be ready within a couple of months, with the second to follow — and suggests that by August 2021, cruise ships will no longer be sailing up the Giudecca Canal. However, it’s not just the government that isn’t happy with this plan. UNESCO, too, says that Marghera should “only be a temporary solution.” And other inhabitants of Marghera aren’t happy, either. Michele Valentini, secretary for the Venice area of the Fiom trade union of steelworkers, is based at Marghera — and he is firmly opposed to cruise ships sharing his port. “Porto Marghera should remain an area of industrial activity,” he tells CNN. “It used to be one of the largest in Europe, and we want to relaunch this industrial infrastructure.” His union fears that if cruise ships arrive in the port, potential investors in industry “could speculate on the area, instead of designating it for industry.” “Tourism and industry are two completely different activities, and the canal where they want to put the cruise ships is currently used by important firms here,” he says. “And the quays are adapted for industrial use. If you hand over the quays and docks to the cruise ships, they’d take precedence — to the detriment of commercial ships. “Then you end up talking about closures. It’s an enormous danger for us.” Dredging a route to the city? Venice is the fifth busiest port in the Mediterranean. Chris Jackson/Getty Images Europe/Getty Images Another option that’s been mooted in the past? Bringing the ships in via Malamocco and Marghera, to avoid the Giudecca Canal, but instead of docking at Marghera, hanging a right and continuing to the current Marittima port. There’s just one problem with that — the 4 kilometer canal that would connect Marghera with Marittima, the Vittorio Emanuele III, isn’t deep enough, and would need dredging. “The risk of the Vittorio Emanuele is that around the industrial area, below the first meters of sediment it’s very polluted, and when they start dredging, they might dredge very polluted sediment,” says Dr Madricardo. “It could release substances whose toxicity we don’t know… and could enter the lagoon and be contaminating.” The lesser evil So what’s the best solution? For Tomaello and his mayor, Luigi Brugnaro — who ran for office in 2015 with “yes to ships, and 5,000 jobs” as one of his slogans — it’s clear: they want a permanent cruise terminal built at Marghera. Tomaello points to their 55% majority in last year’s local elections as proof the area is behind them. The municipality of Venice encompasses not just the historic center, but also the surrounding mainland, which has fewer fervent anti-cruisers. And he says that the return of MSC and Costa this summer are “a sign of getting going again — that they believe in Venice, and that work will start again.” Francesco Galietti of CLIA says the industry just wants clarity. “The cruise industry needs a definitive decision and the implementation of a solution by the Italian authorities on the future of cruising in Venice so that they can respond effectively and deliver a sustainable solution that is good for our passengers and the residents of Venice,” he says. “We are aware that the transit of cruise ships is controversial and have always tried to be part of the solution. “CLIA has been working with authorities in Rome and Venice to alleviate traffic in Venice and take big ships off the Giudecca. While we await indications as to the future of our business in Venice, our commitment has always been two-fold: on the one hand we kept providing full support to the government and to the local stakeholders by supplying technical information, studies, and assessments in addition to simulations, in order to ensure that the decisions made are informed, sustainable and forward looking. “On the other hand, we are equally committed to investing in advanced technology, design and ‘zero-impact’ solutions to make minimize our footprint.” UNESCO says the lagoon must be preserved. Julia Buckley Jane da Mosto is opposed to cruises in general, and says that her research suggests that by turning Venice into a center for eco-friendly water transportation would generate almost as much annual revenue as the cruise sector currently provides. “If you consider that most of the revenue from cruises goes to the cruise companies, it’s a no-brainer what the future economy of Venice should depend on,” she says. UNESCO has reiterated its preference for a port outside the lagoon, in line with the government’s current plans. And Dr Madricardo won’t be drawn, saying that each option needs a study commissioned before it’s possible to judge. But she emphasizes that “from the environmental point of view, it’d be good if there was a system in harmony with nature.” She says that in its days as a republic, Venice was good at this. “They modified the environment strongly by deviating rivers — we wouldn’t be here in the lagoon if they hadn’t, it’s an artificial environment. “But they always found a way so that their solutions were working with the environment. “If they were dredging, they would just dredge a part, and then wait to see if the currents continued to dredge it. They tried to operate in a way that, after some time, there would be equilibrium.” Today, equilibrium — whether environmental or political — looks to be some way off. Source link Orbem News #cruise #ships #truth #Venice

[immanuelfruhmann]

The Barattolo is a great pizzeria ristorante in the center of Trieste, right next to the famous Canal Grande, where also the James Joyce statue is on one of the bridges crossing the canal, reminding of the famous Irish novelist, who spent some time in Trieste. The interior is quite big, seperated in two wings. Right in between the wings and at the entry there is the corner. In our wing there was nice art on the wall and the staff is nice as well. And we had all kinds of delicious food such as spaghetti with mussels, calamari in tomato sauce, and a sort of calzone with minced meat, parmesan, vegetables, as well a gilthead seabream with steamed potatoes, and for dessert a tiramisu, finished by a delicious grappa.

But see for yourself:

The art on the wall

The sort of calzone with minced meat, parmesan and vegetables

The spaghetti with mussels

The calamari in tomato sauce

The gilthead seabream with steamed potatoes

The tiramisu

The grappa

And here is the famous slide show:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The Bottom Line: Al Barattolo is a nice authentic pizzeria ristorante in the heart of Trieste, right at the famous Canal Grande with great Italian food.

From Trieste with Love! Dr. Dr. Immanuel Fruhmann

  Al Barattolo – A Great Pizzeria and Restaurant Next to the Famous Canal Grande and the James Joyce Statue The Barattolo is a great pizzeria ristorante in the center of Trieste, right next to the famous Canal Grande, where also the James Joyce statue is on one of the bridges crossing the canal, reminding of the famous Irish novelist, who spent some time in Trieste.

[journeydb]

April 14 2018 Boulder

I’m grateful to have been cleared this week by my surgeon, the handsome and dashing Dr. Winfield Hartley of Boulder Plastic Surgery, to drive, so that the day before yesterday I was  able to go to the Conference on World Affairs (pictured below in previous years) on the CU campus, and attend two sessions, one called “Win-Win Solutions to Climate Change” and the other “Festivals as Catalysts for Change.  They were both fascinating.  This year marked the 70th anniversary of the conference and people came from all over the world to attend.

According to Wikipedia:

The Conference on World Affairs (CWA) is an annual conference, open to the public, featuring panel discussions among experts in international affairs and other areas, hosted since 1948 by the University of Colorado Boulder in Boulder, Colorado.

The Conference was founded in 1948 by Howard Higman, a professor of Sociology at the University. He ran the conference until he retired, shortly before his death in 1995.  The Conference resumed in 1996, and was directed for 16 years by Professor James Palmer,  currently by John Griffin.

The conference started out as a forum on international affairs, but, under Higman, morphed into a discussion on a multitude of topics. The core of the conference consists of panel discussions, usually with 3-6 panelists, on topics such as music, art, literature, environmental activism, business, science, journalism, diplomacy, technology, spirituality, the film industry, pop culture, visual arts, politics, medicine, and human rights. Half of a panel typically consists of experts on that panel's subject, and half with people having no professional connection to the topic, who offer fresh perspectives and insight. Only a one-line topic for the panel is announced two or three weeks before the conference. The panelists are given no other direction or guidance about what they should say.

Each year the conference hosts over 100 panelists, and conducts over 200 sessions. All sessions are free and open to the public and are held in rooms varying in capacity according to anticipated popularity, from 50 seats to 2000. 

Yesterday I took Aimey to lunch but before that we went shopping for baby clothes and it was SO much fun! Even though I  have other grand nephews and grand nieces, whom I adore, I feel almost like a grandmother  to this newest addition to our family and can’t wait to meet him or her.

Tonight Bruce and I went to dinner at Arcana with our dear friend Luisa, and Italian-American cardiologist who lives in both Boulder and Trieste,  Italy, and practices medicine in both places.  Here she works at CU Health Sciences where she is a teaching doctor and leads a research team trying to find the causes of a rare heart disease that mostly affects young athletes.

Luisa and her husband, Orfeo, who is an engineer and a professor at the university in Trieste, have two sons they adopted from India when they were toddlers, Ordheno and Santheno. Ordheno was Hobie’s best friend in middle school and that’s how our families became friends.

The Pearl Street Mall was  so lovely when Bruce and I walked along on the way to dinner with Luisa, with the daffodils blooming everywhere,  The stone animals that the children climb on and play on  looked very inviting, indeed!

I’ve always loved this sculpture of a girl and her little brother (at least that’s my interpretation) just off the Mall on 13th Street,  so I asked Bruce to snap me sitting next to it.  It reminded me of how I cared for all my younger brothers and sisters for so many years and how important they are to me.

[ladystylestores]

A Popular QAnon Twitter Account That Claims To Have Explosive DC Dirt Is Really Just A Random Italian Guy

BuzzFeed News / 2001: A Space Odyssey, courtesy of Everett Collection

Near the end of her May 26 briefing, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany called on Chanel Rion, the chief White House correspondent for pro-Trump cable outlet One America News Network.

Rion began her question by making the explosive — and false — claim that “new information” had revealed that former president Barack Obama had used a foreign intelligence service to surveil two floors of Trump Tower during the 2016 campaign. “So to what extent was [former CIA director] John Brennan behind that?” she asked.

People in the briefing room may have been scratching their heads, but a hyperactive Twitter user with a photo of one of the astronauts from 2001: A Space Odyssey as its avatar was elated. “Great job!” tweeted @GregRubini at Rion, claiming she had “asked a spicy question from my book.”

It was another coup for the pseudonymous account with more than 120,000 followers. He has injected himself into major news events, in part by claiming to have sources in the FBI, Trump Tower, and within government and intelligence circles. This week, as protests swept through the US, @GregRubini tweeted that antifa is “controlled by the CIA.” New York mayor “De Blasio is ANTIFA,” he also wrote, in a post that was retweeted thousands of times.

But the Rubini account’s claims of insider intel and “high placed” sources appear to be some of its author’s litany of fabrications — which include his online identity.

His viral Twitter threads helped his conspiracy-filled self-published book, The Spy Operations on Trump, climb Amazon bestseller lists after its May 22 release. He was among the first to tweet the name of the alleged Ukraine whistleblower. His tweets claiming that Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country’s top infectious disease official, “made” the novel coronavirus went viral and helped launch that baseless rumor into the mainstream. And thanks to national reporters like Rion who follow his path of conspiratorial thinking, he even has a line to the White House itself.

But the Rubini account’s claims of insider intel and “high placed” sources appear to be some of its author’s litany of fabrications — which include his online identity. The man behind @GregRubini is Gregorio Palusa, a 61-year-old Italian sound engineer and marketer with no national security or intelligence credentials. His background includes a pattern of unverified claims about his business relationships and expertise, and a brief spell as a groupie for a Pink Floyd tribute band.

Palusa did not respond to multiple emails and phone calls.

The Rubini account first attracted national attention late last year when it tweeted the name of the alleged whistleblower more than 20 times, according to the Washington Post. Since then it’s become a mainstay of far-right conspiracy thinking.

May’s White House briefing was the second time Rion brought one of Rubini’s false claims to prominence. In mid-March, OAN aired an outlandish report from Rion that suggested a link between the novel coronavirus in Wuhan and a lab in North Carolina.

Rion, who has spread conspiracy theories and false information in the past, credited Rubini for the information, describing him as “a citizen investigator and monitored source amongst a certain set in the DC intelligence community.” Rion did not respond to a request for comment.

Rion’s story sparked a firestorm of criticism and caused the Daily Mail to dig into her background, exposing that she had changed her name, made misleading claims about her past, and had little journalism experience.

But her source escaped a similar level of scrutiny. Until now.

The bio of @GregRubini currently describes him as a “Strategy Advisor at /classified/.” It gives no account of who he really is, other than, presumably, that his name actually is Greg Rubini.

But that wasn’t always true. In 2018, the account’s Twitter biography contained a link to the site vertygoteam.com, a site that is registered to Palusa, who commonly goes by “Greg” in online profiles, including one he maintains on Blogger.

Palusa was born on Jan. 4, 1959, in Trieste, a seaport in the northeast of Italy, according to a consulting contract that Palusa signed with an Italian book publisher in 2012. Two former business partners said Palusa had spent years in the US and in London, and spoke English very well.

He was living in Trieste at the end of the 1990s and in the first decade of the 2000s, a former business who requested anonymity told BuzzFeed News. His mother still lives in Trieste, but in a phone call told BuzzFeed News he was no longer living with her. She said she didn’t know where her son currently was and wasn’t sure whether she could get in touch with him.

Around 2010, Palusa moved to Tuscany, listing an address in Pienza, a small town near Siena, and lived there until at least 2015, according to domain registration records. Several music and film festivals held in the Siena area between 2013 and 2018 included Palusa’s name in promotional materials.

An artist from Trieste told BuzzFeed News that he had ended a business partnership relating to several collaborative creative and design projects with Palusa more than a decade ago. The artist said he had not been in contact with Palusa for at least 10 years.

“I never wanted to deal with this person again.”

“He started to have delusions of greatness, claimed to ask millions of dollars from companies, boasted about having assignments with companies with which he had had no relationship,” said the artist, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

He also said Palusa became more difficult to deal with over time, eventually forcing him to hire a lawyer to end their partnership. “I never wanted to deal with this person again,” he said, “because of his growing megalomania that can seriously endanger those who work honestly.”

These days, Palusa claims to be employed in marketing. His LinkedIn profile lists him as the London-based director of international relations of marketing firm Vertygo Team, although on other sites he claimed his title was director of communications.

Palusa has also used “Greg Rubini” as an alias in the past, according to a Facebook post in March 2016 from an Italian book publisher that specializes in books about spirituality, ancient astronauts, and religious history. In the post, the publisher claimed a WordPress blog authored by “Gregorio Palusa aka Greg Rubini on social media” had defamed the publisher by pushing false and “delirious” information, that Palusa had stolen thousands of euros from the company, and had wasted a year of its time after pretending to represent a nonexistent marketing company.

Uno Editori CEO Prabhat Eusebio told BuzzFeed News that Palusa, who lived in Tuscany at the time, had contacted his company in 2012, promising to bring one of its authors to the US. “He claimed to have contacts with large American publishers,” said Eusebio.

“We realized the fraud after a loss of about 6,000 euros,” Eusebio alleged. “He seemed like an expert in publishing, but it all ended up in a soap bubble.”

The Uno Editori CEO claimed that Palusa became increasingly uncompromising as it seemed more clear he was unlikely to deliver on his promises. “After repeated requests to meet, and questions about how things were going in the search for publishers and agents, his position became more and more intransigent — and he blackmailed us when we stopped paying his fee.” Eusebio said Palusa threatened to not return revised texts, and to sue and go after the publisher in public if he wasn’t paid. “He also asked for an exorbitant amount — €137,000 — outside the scope of the contract as compensation for his time, arbitrarily counting hours worked without providing any evidence.”

Eusebio said the company paid some of those fees, but started legal proceedings, after which Palusa created a WordPress blog to attack the company. The publisher said he had to abandon proceedings because it had become too costly.

Palusa also appears to have worked as an audio engineer.

His Blogger profile includes the claim that he worked with Deutsche Grammophon engineer Klaus Hiemann, whom the Rubini account has tweeted about. (Deutsche Grammophon didn’t respond to a request for comment.)

Italian organist Marco Lo Muscio said Palusa was a sound engineer on his 2009 album, Dark and Light. Palusa’s YouTube account showcases musical performances that he claims to have filmed and edited, many of which have to do with the rock band Pink Floyd. At an Italian festival held in Tuscany in 2013, Palusa presented a multimedia exhibition called Pink Floyd: Odyssey in Space in conjunction with a performance by tribute band Pink Noise.

Carmelo J., a member of the band, said they fell out of touch after Palusa began offering the unsolicited feedback about its work.

“Greg Palusa liked us very much as a band, he followed us for a bit,” Carmelo J. told BuzzFeed News in a Facebook message. “Then he disappeared (I don’t remember why, probably some small squabble) and we have no more news of him.”

Asked if he could recall what the argument was about, Carmelo J. replied: “I just remember that at a certain point his stylistic ‘advice’ about us became ‘critical,’ expressed even in an inelegant way.”

Palusa also said he’s worked with several prominent companies, a claim which could not be independently verified.

Many of the companies that Palusa listed on his Blogger profile as having worked with told BuzzFeed News they had never heard of him. He claims to have worked with London marketing agency AKQA, Angels Costumes, Ferrari, Apple, and music label EMI.

The managing director of AKQA, who’s been there for 13 years, told BuzzFeed News that Palusa’s name did not appear in any records and he didn’t recognize him. Angels Costumes of London said the same. A spokesperson for Apple said the company has never employed Palusa and had no record of working with Vertygo Team. EMI did not respond to requests for comment.

Ferrari declined to comment, but Palusa’s claim that he had worked for the company made its way into a 2011 lawsuit filed by the Ford Motor Company against Ferrari. In the suit, filed in Michigan, Ford alleged that Ferrari had infringed on Ford’s F-150 trademark. Ford’s complaint described Palusa’s company, Vertygo Team, as “Ferrari’s outside marketing consultant” and quoted from an article he published on his website about Ferrari’s marketing strategy. The suit was dismissed less than a month later after the parties came to a settlement.

Palusa claims on his LinkedIn profile that his article about Apple’s marketing strategy was being studied by companies including Nokia, Microsoft, Sony, and Goldman Sachs. Backlink data from SEMrush showed the vast majority of links to the post came from spammy online coupon sites.

As @GregRubini, Palusa claims to have sources inside the US government with knowledge of intelligence, judicial, and White House matters. For example, in May of 2019, he said his “well placed source inside the FBI” had seen indictments for former CIA director John Brennan and former FBI director James Comey. Neither has been indicted.

He has also tweeted that people should stop asking him who these supposed insiders are: “my sources are confidential. I always honor my commitment to confidentiality, so: don’t even ask who my sources are.”

He threatened to block anyone who asked about his sources.

“My sources are confidential. I always honor my commitment to confidentiality, so: don’t even ask who my sources are.” 

The @GregRubini account was created in 2014, but it took until January of 2019 for it to join the firmament of followers of the QAnon conspiracy theory and supporters of President Donald Trump.

That month, Palusa claimed the Twitter accounts of former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, former CIA director John Brennan, and former national security adviser Susan Rice had been taken over by military intelligence as part of a supposedly secret prosecution. Core to the QAnon conspiracy is the unfounded idea that these so-called deep state operatives have been or will be arrested and tried for treason and other offenses in secret.

That same month, Palusa claimed Obama’s Twitter account had also been taken over, and that a recent photo shared in a tweet was a signal “to tell us – Patriots – that OUR GUYS have Hussein in custody in Gitmo.” He also said former FBI agents Peter Strzok and Andrew McCabe, and former Department of Justice lawyer Sally Yates were “under prosecution at the Military Tribunals secret trials.”

“My sources told me that at least 80 (possibly up to 140) congressmen will be prosecuted and brought to jail,” Palusa said.

Amazon

The cover of Rubini’s self-published book.

None of these things happened, of course. But Palusa kept adding new followers. On May 22, he published a book in which he alleges a broad deep state conspiracy against Trump. In its appendix, he includes a screenshot showing that in February of this year his tweets generated 53.8 million views.

His book is filled with references to supposedly high-placed sources, including the false claim that Rion cited in the White House.

In the book, Palusa also offers a document he claims is a memo from the head of the British communications intelligence agency to then–foreign minister Boris Johnson outlining the Trump surveillance operation. Palusa’s attempts to verify the memo and its implications occupy close to half of the book. He writes that the most likely conclusion is the “document is 100% authentic.”

In fact, according to responses from the UK government as well as outlets who examined it, it is a sloppy forgery that doesn’t hold up to the slightest scrutiny.

Palusa also cites a March 2017 claim from Fox News commentator Andrew Napolitano that the UK spied on the Trump campaign at Obama’s request, an allegation that has been widely discredited. When that surfaced, the usually tight-lipped GCHQ called it “nonsense” and “utterly ridiculous.” A spokesperson for then–British prime minister Teresa May said the claim was “ridiculous and should have been ignored.” The US government agreed to not repeat it. Even Donald Trump — the person who benefits most if the claim is true — has declined to repeat it.

But none of that is mentioned in the book. Instead, Palusa writes that three “high placed confidential sources have confirmed to the author of this book, Greg Rubini, that the GCHQ Top Secret document is authentic.” ●

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from World Wide News https://ift.tt/372PwrL

[lifelastingcouples]

Ann Clare Boothe and Henry Luce

Ann Clare Boothe was born in New York City on March 10, 1903. Her parents were not married and would separate in 1912. Her father, a sophisticated man and a brilliant violinist, instilled in his daughter a love of literature but had trouble holding a job and spent years as a travelling salesman. Her ambitious mother's initial plan for her was to become an actress.

After a tour of Europe with her mother and stepfather, Dr. Albert E. Austin, whom Ann Boothe married in 1919, she became interested in the women's suffrage movement, and she was hired by Alva Belmont to work for the National Woman's Party in Washington, D.C. and Seneca Falls, New York.

Highly intelligent, ambitious, and blessed with a deceptively fragile blonde beauty, the young Clare soon abandoned ideological feminism to pursue other interests. She wed George Tuttle Brokaw, millionaire heir to a New York clothing fortune, on August 10, 1923, at the age of 20. They had one daughter. According to Boothe, Brokaw was a hopeless alcoholic, and the marriage ended in divorce in 1929.

At this stage Clare Boothe Brokaw clearly placed immense value on being known for her style. Her dining room, which overlooked the city, Lerman remembered, “was covered with silver tea paper painted over with a panorama of the New York skyline in Matisse colors.” The table, which seated twenty, was smoky mirror glass, reflecting the mural of New York and Clare’s own skyscraper ambitions. Her living room was also very much à la mode, a study in Chinese red, black, and white. Clare had the money and nerve to prop up her ambitions; she met Condé Nast at a party and demanded a job. When he said no, she showed up anyway—she just sat down at a desk at Vogue and wrote captions until he relented. She was quickly moved to Vanity Fair, a man’s world editorially and more her style than the frivolous world of Vogue in 1930. In those days Vanity Fair was quartered in three semi-partitioned rooms between the elevators and the airy, scented suites of Vogue. Clare started off writing captions for the Hall of Fame. One of her first was about Henry Luce, the founder of Time Inc.

On November 23, 1935, Ann Clare married Henry Luce, who was publisher of Time, Life, and Fortune magazines. And the cornerstone of what is known today as Time-Warner.

Henry Robinson Luce was born in Dengzhou, China, in April 1898, Henry Luce traveled extensively throughout his life and was comfortable anywhere in the world.

The marriage between Clare and Henry was difficult. Henry was by any standard extremely successful, but his physical awkwardness, lack of humor, and newsman's discomfort with any conversation that was not strictly factual put him in awe of his beautiful wife's social poise, wit, and fertile imagination. Clare's years as managing editor of Vanity Fair left her with an avid interest in journalism (she suggested the idea of Life magazine to her husband before it was developed internally). Henry himself was generous in encouraging her to write for Life, but the question of how much coverage she should be accorded in Time, as she grew more famous, was always a careful balancing act for Henry since he did not want to be accused of nepotism.

In 1942, Ann Clare won a Republican seat in the United States House of Representatives representing Fairfield County, Connecticut, the 4th Congressional District. She based her platform on three goals: "One, to win the war. Two, to prosecute that war as loyally and effectively as we can as Republicans. Three, to bring about a better world and a durable peace, with special attention to post-war security and employment here at home." During her second term at office, Luce was instrumental in the creation of the Atomic Energy Commission.

On January 11, 1944, her only daughter from her former marriage with George Tuttle Brokaw died at age 19 in an automobile accident. As a result of the tragedy, Luce explored psychotherapy and religion She was received into the Roman Catholic Church in 1946. She became an ardent essayist and lecturer in celebration of her faith, and she was ultimately honored by being named a Dame of Malta. As a memorial to her daughter, beginning in 1949 she funded the construction of a Catholic church in Palo Alto for use by the Stanford campus ministry.

Ann Clare returned to politics during the 1952 presidential election and she campaigned on behalf of Republican candidate Dwight Eisenhower. For her contributions Luce was rewarded with an appointment as Ambassador to Italy, a post that oversaw 1150 employees, 8 consulates, and 9 information centers. She was no stranger to Pope Pius XII, who welcomed her as a friend and faithful acolyte. Her principal achievement as ambassador was to play a vital role in negotiating a peaceful solution to the Trieste Crisis of 1953–1954.

Their marriage was sexually open. Clare Luce's lovers included Ambassador Joseph P. Kennedy, Randolph Churchill, General Lucian K. Truscott, Jr. and General Charles Willoughby.

The Luces stayed together until Henry's death from a heart attack in 1967. As one of the great "power couples" in American history, they were bonded by their mutual interests and complementary, if contrasting, characters. They treated each other with unfailing respect in public, never more so than when he willingly acted as his wife's consort during her years as Ambassador to Italy. Ann Clare was never able to convert Henry to Catholicism (he was the son of a Presbyterian missionary) but he did not question the sincerity of her faith, often attended Mass with her, and defended her when she was criticized by his fellow Protestants.

In the early years of her widowhood, she retired to the luxurious beach house that she and her husband had planned in Honolulu, but boredom with life in what she called "this fur-lined rut" brought her back to Washington, D.C. for increasingly long periods. She made her final home there in 1983.

Clare and Henry Luce at the Premier of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. 1935. Henry R. Luce Papers, MS 3014, New-York Historical Society.

[michaelfallcon]

Heavy On Coffee Consumption, Slovenia Takes To Specialty

Slovenians are among the most enthusiastic coffee drinkers in Europe, and they may even be the champions in terms of caffeine consumption. According to Caffeine Informer, Slovenia consumes the fourth-most coffee by weight in the world (6.1 kg per capita) and their preferred preparation of coffee is Turkish. Not the thimble-sized portions you might be imagining, but rather giant, tar-rich mugs—full, several times a day, spiked with sugar and milk—lots of both. The world’s top three coffee consumers (Finland, Norway, and The Netherlands) tend to prefer filter roast (according to Nordic Coffee Culture, it’s the choice of 94% of Finns). Caffeine Informer estimates around 120 mg of caffeine per 12 fl. oz cup of filter coffee, but Slovenians will often take a 12 fl. oz mug of Turkish coffee for breakfast and another after lunch, each one bursting with an estimated 300 mg of caffeine. 86% of the 8,800 tons of coffee per year sold in Slovenia is ground coffee sold for Turkish preparation, with the former Yugoslav brand, Barcaffe, owning three-quarters of the market, as it has for decades.

This was once the only game in town. Prior to Slovenia’s independence in 1991 and subsequent entry into the EU, Barcaffe was among the precious few options available when it came to coffee (to buy other brands, Slovenes had to drive to Italy or Austria). There’s a bit of patriotic pride to drinking it, since it was a nationalized brand during the socialist period, but nowadays, with innumerable options available, it’s become a matter of habit. Slovenians drink espresso when out at bars, inspired by their Italian neighbors (Trieste, the home of Illy, is just across the border, and until World War I, was the largest city in Slovenia, before it was ceded to Italy), but it’s dark-roasted Turkish at the breakfast table. When visiting friends, bringing a bag of Barcaffe is standard practice as a thank-you-for-hosting-me gift. So, for a nation that was raised, for generations, on “boil three times” Turkish coffee prepared at home—introducing specialty coffee has been an uphill battle.

With a population of just two million, and a minuscule mass of culturati based almost exclusively in the capital, Ljubljana (population 300,000), Slovenia’s coffee landscape is occupied by very few players. When I asked Aleš Turšič, a founder of Stow Coffee Roasters in the charming mountain town of Kamnik, about the specialty coffee scene in Slovenia, he could list its protagonists on one and a half hands. The first in Ljubljana was Tine Čokl, founder of Čokl, a miniature coffee bar in the shadow of Ljubljana Castle. In Maribor, Slovenia’s second-largest city, he named Grega Blažič. On a nationwide (but still boutique) scale stand Omar and Katja Escobar.

Omar and Katja Escobar

From Honduras, With Love

Katja Escobar hails from Vrhnika, a town just southwest of Ljubljana with a cultural association with coffee. Slovenia’s most famous prose writer, Ivan Cankar (1876-1918), published a short story, “Skodelica Kave” (A Cup of Coffee), in which he evokes a Proustian moment and asks his mother to bring him a cup of coffee, while writing in his room in Vrhnika. The Escobars first met while both working on a cruise ship—Omar moved from his native Honduras to Katja’s  town, where they began a modest coffee roastery—Escobar Roastery—in their garage. They often travel back to visit family in Honduras, or explore other coffee countries, meet farmers, and arrange to ship green coffee to Slovenia to roast and sell there.

The Escobars are the most successful boutique roasters in Slovenia because they’ve found a sort of halfway sweet spot to convince Slovenians to drink better coffee. They produce single-origin roasts and sell them in bags with one-way degassing valves, but they grind for Turkish preparation (careful to include instructions not to boil the coffee, especially not three times). Not long ago, every Slovenian home had a hand mill for grinding coffee beans, but these days folks want speed at the sacrifice of quality and prefer pre-ground offerings. It is a harder revolution to muster, to get Slovenians to shift away from their mugs of Turkish coffee, and so the better part of valor was to offer them a better coffee to prepare the way they’re used to.

Escobar Roastery also appeals to the traditional home drinker’s market by offering very popular (though, they are aware, uncool among coffee crusaders) flavored options, like salted caramel (guilty as charged: I love this and enjoy drinking it as a sort of dessert). If they had their druthers, the Escobars would encourage the public to shift to other preparations and focus on cuppings and flavor profiles (and to stop flooding the mugs with milk and sugar), but the national atmosphere and habits still feel a long way from that. And so, they’ve devised a midway option that has allowed them to become the best-selling specialty roaster in the country.

Aleš Turšič

The Genius Loci of Slovenian Roasting

If you’re looking for a pro to roast coffee in Slovenia, Aleš Turšič is the go-to specialist. He learned the trade from the back forwards, one might say—his father-in-law was one of the few and first technicians specialized in repairing espresso machines in Yugoslavia, and Turšič worked alongside him. His interest in roasting grew from a visit to Coffee Source in Prague, where he learned the basics from Tomaš Hudec. He also trained with Damian Burghes from Vergnano SCA Academy and Patrick O’Malley of IBCA Coffee Academy. Stow Coffee Roasters, established in the former premises of the Stol (pronounced “stow”) chair factory, is ground zero in Slovenia for experimental roasting, cuppings, workshops for amateurs and professionals, and more. Yet, it’s basically a four-person operation, with Turšič roasting, and colleagues Peter Shevich running workshops and demos, and Damir Jusovic on marketing (with Turšič’s wife, Tanja Turšič, handling the bureaucracy).

Aleš Turšič is still searching for the best business model to bring Slovenians into specialty coffee modernity. He estimates that there are probably just a few hundred hardcore regulars, converts we might say, who go out of their way to try specialty coffees roasted to bring out the best of a coffee’s terroir. “It takes time and patience to sell consumers the story of great coffee,” he says, for them to understand that it will differ from the cliché coffee taste they’re used to. It may be the same beans, but a totally alternative experience, one more akin to tea or fine wines, exploring earthy, floral, or fruit notes. “There’s no need to explain this to those already in the fold,” he says, “but for newcomers, it takes a sales pitch. Slovenians who are willing to try inevitably like it, but they disassociate it with coffee. It would almost be easier if it were called something else entirely.” Still, they may opt for it when out at a hip cafe, but when preparing something at home, aside from those few hundred converts, people still want to make their morning cup in a Turkish copper džezve.

Alexander Nino Ruiz. Photo by Primoz Korosec.

The Best Colombian Coffee in Ljubljana

Telling a story behind each cup is painstaking work, but it is undertaken with enthusiasm by Alexander Niño Ruiz, a charismatic Colombian architect who moved to Poland, fell in love with a Slovenian there, and now runs Črno Zrno (Black Bean), an espresso-cup-sized coffee bar in the medieval heart of Ljubljana. It is regularly packed (which, admittedly, isn’t hard to do, since it’s probably about two meters wide and five meters deep) with locals, but also a steady stream of tourists. It was the only cafe recommended in a New York Times feature on Ljubljana, and this has resulted in its position as the primary target for coffee-hungry travelers.

The coffee is beautiful, with Ruiz sourcing from remote farms in his native Colombia, but he himself is really the star of the operation. People come in to chat with him… and to drink good coffee, but in that order. He’s been told by many customers that if they ever spotted someone else behind the bar, they probably wouldn’t come in. The result of Črno Zrno’s unique layout is that Ruiz speaks, one on one, with each customer, sounds them out about what they’d like to drink, introduces them to new roasts that he’s excited about, and otherwise presents them with a story, not just a list of coffees that most drinkers haven’t heard of. He is the selling point, and those who visit will try anything he recommends.

Crno Zrno Cafe. Photo by Primoz Korosec.

Converting Slovenians One Story at a Time

This story-first approach is slow, with the biggest headway in introducing specialty coffee to Slovenia and Croatia made through tastings at coffee festivals. The Escobars have introduced an annual coffee festival in their hometown of Vrhnika, drawing lines of customers eager not just to buy good coffee, but to buy it specifically from Katja and Omar, to chat with them about it, and get tips on preparing it. Ruiz has his own line of coffees that Turšič roasts for him, and they are experimenting with subscription mail-order beans or ground coffee business models—anything to make the transition to specialty coffee as easy as possible for stuck-in-their-ways customers.

For now, Slovenia remains a country with a love for coffee of a certain type, and it is upon the shoulders of the specialty coffee revolutionaries to woo the drinkers and bring them into the fold, one cup—and one story—at a time.

Dr. Noah Charney is a Pulitzer finalist and best-selling author and professor of Art History based in Slovenia. This is Noah Charney’s first feature for Sprudge. 

Photos by Primoz Korosec.

The post Heavy On Coffee Consumption, Slovenia Takes To Specialty appeared first on Sprudge.

Heavy On Coffee Consumption, Slovenia Takes To Specialty published first on https://medium.com/@LinLinCoffee

[shebreathesslowly]

Heavy On Coffee Consumption, Slovenia Takes To Specialty

Slovenians are among the most enthusiastic coffee drinkers in Europe, and they may even be the champions in terms of caffeine consumption. According to Caffeine Informer, Slovenia consumes the fourth-most coffee by weight in the world (6.1 kg per capita) and their preferred preparation of coffee is Turkish. Not the thimble-sized portions you might be imagining, but rather giant, tar-rich mugs—full, several times a day, spiked with sugar and milk—lots of both. The world’s top three coffee consumers (Finland, Norway, and The Netherlands) tend to prefer filter roast (according to Nordic Coffee Culture, it’s the choice of 94% of Finns). Caffeine Informer estimates around 120 mg of caffeine per 12 fl. oz cup of filter coffee, but Slovenians will often take a 12 fl. oz mug of Turkish coffee for breakfast and another after lunch, each one bursting with an estimated 300 mg of caffeine. 86% of the 8,800 tons of coffee per year sold in Slovenia is ground coffee sold for Turkish preparation, with the former Yugoslav brand, Barcaffe, owning three-quarters of the market, as it has for decades.

This was once the only game in town. Prior to Slovenia’s independence in 1991 and subsequent entry into the EU, Barcaffe was among the precious few options available when it came to coffee (to buy other brands, Slovenes had to drive to Italy or Austria). There’s a bit of patriotic pride to drinking it, since it was a nationalized brand during the socialist period, but nowadays, with innumerable options available, it’s become a matter of habit. Slovenians drink espresso when out at bars, inspired by their Italian neighbors (Trieste, the home of Illy, is just across the border, and until World War I, was the largest city in Slovenia, before it was ceded to Italy), but it’s dark-roasted Turkish at the breakfast table. When visiting friends, bringing a bag of Barcaffe is standard practice as a thank-you-for-hosting-me gift. So, for a nation that was raised, for generations, on “boil three times” Turkish coffee prepared at home—introducing specialty coffee has been an uphill battle.

With a population of just two million, and a minuscule mass of culturati based almost exclusively in the capital, Ljubljana (population 300,000), Slovenia’s coffee landscape is occupied by very few players. When I asked Aleš Turšič, a founder of Stow Coffee Roasters in the charming mountain town of Kamnik, about the specialty coffee scene in Slovenia, he could list its protagonists on one and a half hands. The first in Ljubljana was Tine Čokl, founder of Čokl, a miniature coffee bar in the shadow of Ljubljana Castle. In Maribor, Slovenia’s second-largest city, he named Grega Blažič. On a nationwide (but still boutique) scale stand Omar and Katja Escobar.

Omar and Katja Escobar

From Honduras, With Love

Katja Escobar hails from Vrhnika, a town just southwest of Ljubljana with a cultural association with coffee. Slovenia’s most famous prose writer, Ivan Cankar (1876-1918), published a short story, “Skodelica Kave” (A Cup of Coffee), in which he evokes a Proustian moment and asks his mother to bring him a cup of coffee, while writing in his room in Vrhnika. The Escobars first met while both working on a cruise ship—Omar moved from his native Honduras to Katja’s  town, where they began a modest coffee roastery—Escobar Roastery—in their garage. They often travel back to visit family in Honduras, or explore other coffee countries, meet farmers, and arrange to ship green coffee to Slovenia to roast and sell there.

The Escobars are the most successful boutique roasters in Slovenia because they’ve found a sort of halfway sweet spot to convince Slovenians to drink better coffee. They produce single-origin roasts and sell them in bags with one-way degassing valves, but they grind for Turkish preparation (careful to include instructions not to boil the coffee, especially not three times). Not long ago, every Slovenian home had a hand mill for grinding coffee beans, but these days folks want speed at the sacrifice of quality and prefer pre-ground offerings. It is a harder revolution to muster, to get Slovenians to shift away from their mugs of Turkish coffee, and so the better part of valor was to offer them a better coffee to prepare the way they’re used to.

Escobar Roastery also appeals to the traditional home drinker’s market by offering very popular (though, they are aware, uncool among coffee crusaders) flavored options, like salted caramel (guilty as charged: I love this and enjoy drinking it as a sort of dessert). If they had their druthers, the Escobars would encourage the public to shift to other preparations and focus on cuppings and flavor profiles (and to stop flooding the mugs with milk and sugar), but the national atmosphere and habits still feel a long way from that. And so, they’ve devised a midway option that has allowed them to become the best-selling specialty roaster in the country.

Aleš Turšič

The Genius Loci of Slovenian Roasting

If you’re looking for a pro to roast coffee in Slovenia, Aleš Turšič is the go-to specialist. He learned the trade from the back forwards, one might say—his father-in-law was one of the few and first technicians specialized in repairing espresso machines in Yugoslavia, and Turšič worked alongside him. His interest in roasting grew from a visit to Coffee Source in Prague, where he learned the basics from Tomaš Hudec. He also trained with Damian Burghes from Vergnano SCA Academy and Patrick O’Malley of IBCA Coffee Academy. Stow Coffee Roasters, established in the former premises of the Stol (pronounced “stow”) chair factory, is ground zero in Slovenia for experimental roasting, cuppings, workshops for amateurs and professionals, and more. Yet, it’s basically a four-person operation, with Turšič roasting, and colleagues Peter Shevich running workshops and demos, and Damir Jusovic on marketing (with Turšič’s wife, Tanja Turšič, handling the bureaucracy).

Aleš Turšič is still searching for the best business model to bring Slovenians into specialty coffee modernity. He estimates that there are probably just a few hundred hardcore regulars, converts we might say, who go out of their way to try specialty coffees roasted to bring out the best of a coffee’s terroir. “It takes time and patience to sell consumers the story of great coffee,” he says, for them to understand that it will differ from the cliché coffee taste they’re used to. It may be the same beans, but a totally alternative experience, one more akin to tea or fine wines, exploring earthy, floral, or fruit notes. “There’s no need to explain this to those already in the fold,” he says, “but for newcomers, it takes a sales pitch. Slovenians who are willing to try inevitably like it, but they disassociate it with coffee. It would almost be easier if it were called something else entirely.” Still, they may opt for it when out at a hip cafe, but when preparing something at home, aside from those few hundred converts, people still want to make their morning cup in a Turkish copper džezve.

Alexander Nino Ruiz. Photo by Primoz Korosec.

The Best Colombian Coffee in Ljubljana

Telling a story behind each cup is painstaking work, but it is undertaken with enthusiasm by Alexander Niño Ruiz, a charismatic Colombian architect who moved to Poland, fell in love with a Slovenian there, and now runs Črno Zrno (Black Bean), an espresso-cup-sized coffee bar in the medieval heart of Ljubljana. It is regularly packed (which, admittedly, isn’t hard to do, since it’s probably about two meters wide and five meters deep) with locals, but also a steady stream of tourists. It was the only cafe recommended in a New York Times feature on Ljubljana, and this has resulted in its position as the primary target for coffee-hungry travelers.

The coffee is beautiful, with Ruiz sourcing from remote farms in his native Colombia, but he himself is really the star of the operation. People come in to chat with him… and to drink good coffee, but in that order. He’s been told by many customers that if they ever spotted someone else behind the bar, they probably wouldn’t come in. The result of Črno Zrno’s unique layout is that Ruiz speaks, one on one, with each customer, sounds them out about what they’d like to drink, introduces them to new roasts that he’s excited about, and otherwise presents them with a story, not just a list of coffees that most drinkers haven’t heard of. He is the selling point, and those who visit will try anything he recommends.

Crno Zrno Cafe. Photo by Primoz Korosec.

Converting Slovenians One Story at a Time

This story-first approach is slow, with the biggest headway in introducing specialty coffee to Slovenia and Croatia made through tastings at coffee festivals. The Escobars have introduced an annual coffee festival in their hometown of Vrhnika, drawing lines of customers eager not just to buy good coffee, but to buy it specifically from Katja and Omar, to chat with them about it, and get tips on preparing it. Ruiz has his own line of coffees that Turšič roasts for him, and they are experimenting with subscription mail-order beans or ground coffee business models—anything to make the transition to specialty coffee as easy as possible for stuck-in-their-ways customers.

For now, Slovenia remains a country with a love for coffee of a certain type, and it is upon the shoulders of the specialty coffee revolutionaries to woo the drinkers and bring them into the fold, one cup—and one story—at a time.

Dr. Noah Charney is a Pulitzer finalist and best-selling author and professor of Art History based in Slovenia. This is Noah Charney’s first feature for Sprudge. 

Photos by Primoz Korosec.

The post Heavy On Coffee Consumption, Slovenia Takes To Specialty appeared first on Sprudge.

from Sprudge https://ift.tt/2NNYVdM

[wikiplanetblog-blog]

Postojna Cave in Southwestern Slovenia is the most beautiful cave in Europe. More than 2 million years old and the length of the cave is more than 27 kilometers (27,000 m long). Through the creek, underground water reservoir inside the cave for 5 kilometers within the cave has stalactites and stalagmites in various colors and colors. As creature to see the strange of human fish. It is the second-longest cave system in the country as well as one of its top tourism sites. The caves were created by the Pivka River.

The first railway in an underground cave setting up as a show cave in 1819, a suitable solution that would make the arduous and long cave tour by torchlight easier for visitors was sought for decades. As early as 1853, Schmidl was surprised that there were no riding animals in the cave, no donkeys or ponies to ride on.

On March 11 in 1857, when the Southern Railway Vienna – Trieste was launched, sedan chairs were set up for the imperial couple Franz Joseph and Elizabeth, who visited the Postojna Cave at the time.

Postojna Cave is a horizontal cave, which made it possible to set up the first documented railway in an underground cave (official opening being June 16 in 1872). From 1872 to 1923 was becoming a tourist attraction. The development of tourism was began when the district governor Dr Anton Globočnik von Sorodolski took over as the Chairman of the Cave Commission. Footpaths around the cave were set up and so was the railway foundation. The work on laying tracks, which were 1,534 metres in length and had a track gauge of 620 mm, started in March 1872, was supervised by the road master Gregor Oblak and took three months to complete.

On 16 June 1872, the first railway started running from the speleothem called Prižnica (Pulpit) in the Great Dome to the foot of the Great Mountain. This would have been impossible to do if the cave was not almost horizontal. After World War I, Postojna Cave became a territory within the Kingdom of Italy. A lot of attention was devoted to its development and so in 1923 the railway line was completely renovated and extended. Visitors were now moving around the cave by a gasoline – powered locomotive. The first one was called Montania 803. It was a mine locomotive and was built to pull 20 passengers.

  Postojna Cave in Postojna, Slovenia Information Postojna Cave in Southwestern Slovenia is the most beautiful cave in Europe. More than 2 million years old and the length of the cave is more than 27 kilometers (27,000 m long).

[3ezentrum3-blog]

The Cancer Crime Committed by Doctors

Read this painstakingly in case you're the sort of individual that thinks "elective medication" is misrepresentation and there's extremely no intrigue to squelch it.

Italian specialist, Giuseppe Nacci won't be permitted to rehearse solution for 4 months. Reacting to the "request of specialists," the likeness our AMA, he stated, "The Order of Doctors does not acknowledge my course of treatment."

This is the disciplinary endorse settled on by the "Request of Doctors of Trieste" against specialist Giuseppe Nacci. The endorse was marked by active president Mauro Melato. The choice was taken by the Commissione Centrale per gli Esercenti e le Professioni Sanitarie (Central Commission for Tradespeople and Health Professions) in Rome.

The Order of Doctors debate his "non-traditional" therapeutic medications, which they consider "off base." (Which essentially signifies, "not endorsed by them."

Dr. Nacci keeps up that "he treats malignancies by empowering the insusceptible reaction, along these lines maintaining a strategic distance from chemotherapy". His metabolic treatment utilizes vitamins and influences patients to take after a right eating regimen. Proposing this sort of treatment, Dr. Nacci expressed "Thousand Plants against Cancer without Chemo-Therapy."

He distributed on a few American Web destinations, similar to the National Health Federation. Dr. Nacci additionally distributed the book "Diventa Medico di Te Stesso" ("Become your own specialist"), getting a few prizes and honors in acknowledgment of his scholarly movement. The official honor occurred in the Council Hall in November 2007, yet was scrutinized by the "Request of Doctors," which educated the then Minister of Health, Livia Turco.

Be that as it may, he doesn't give in. "I'm stressed over the patients I'm treating. What will transpire now?"

He sent a letter to every one of his patients keeping in mind the end goal to illuminate them: "In view of the authorize forced, I am compelled to abandon you". The letter sent to the patients is additionally joined by the sentence of the Italian Supreme Court, with respect to the guideline of specialists' flexibility in picking the medicinal treatment.

The just about 40 patients Dr. Nacci is alluding to, incorporate two patients experiencing cerebrum tumor, ten from bosom growth, three from lung disease.

The Order of Doctors of Trieste, who does not have any desire to issue any remark, but rather just affirms that the specialist was suspended, as appeared by the choice warning sent to every single pertinent establishment.

Dr. Nacci is one of excessively couple of good specialists who cannot, making it impossible to propagate the lies of the "restorative foundation."

It's the method for this world to call what is "great," "fiendishness" and what is "malicious" "great."

The general population that have gotten every one of the awards for restorative accomplishments are the individuals who "go along" with the huge pharmaceutical and therapeutic apparatus. The individuals who have really discovered demonstrated ways, are deprecatingly mislabeled "elective drug," specialists or researchers.

Yet, for the individuals who have utilized and profit by the "elective pharmaceutical" learning, recapturing their lives once again from the "jaws of death," are everlastingly appreciative for the monsters who have remained against the wantonness, insatiability and lies of present day drug.

Dr. Cassie, Dr. Overflowing, Dr. Hulda Clark and numerous others are the genuine legends of "present day medication." The mistreatment of these dear and minding individuals is just equaled by the through and through murder to quietness the individuals who stand up against any foul play.

The falsehoods keep on being executed on the world and the American open on the grounds that the purposeful publicity and "blinding numbness" of individuals is so across the board.

Keeping up the therapeutic misrepresentation, that they, and only they have the most ideal way and the main viable approach to deal with any medical problem. Also, the tremendous continuous battle to scorn and taunt, any elective treatment for ailment or medical problems, as "inadequate" and an exercise in futility.

Steve is a naturopath, scientist, creator and wellbeing expert in Florida. He shares his insight into herbs, vitamins and supplements, helping numerous individuals who were not ready to discover alleviation from "customary" pharmaceutical treatment. http://common fixes remedies.com

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/master/Steve_A_Berchtold/431401

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/3242427

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Sebastian Kaulitzki/Shutterstock

We are all more or less aware of the incredible endurance of the female body. From enduring labor pains to its uncanny ability to remember small details, its power and resourcefulness are undeniable.

However, there are many facts about the female body that are less apparent and may surprise you. For instance, did you know that a woman’s body is more durable over time than a man’s? Did you know men and women’s brains are different sizes?

Today, we bring you a list of facts that you may not have known about the female body. Read, enjoy, and learn something new!

1. Women are wired differently. According to a study conducted out of the University of Pennsylvania, maps of neural circuitry showed that on average, women’s brains were highly connected across the left and right hemispheres. The study, which was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, also showed that in contrast, men’s brains have a stronger connection between the front and back regions. This means that generally, men’s brains are wired more for perception and co-ordinated actions, while women’s brains are wired more for social skills and memory, making them better able to multitask.

Shutterstock | sdecoret

2. Women outlive men. According to Steven Austad, chair of the biology department at the University of Alabama and an international expert on aging: ‘Pretty much at every age, women seem to survive better than men.’ Austad describes women as being more ‘robust.’ Scientists have yet to determine why, but they do know that this isn’t something that occurs with age. A male and female newborn who are given the same level of care don’t have the same survival rate – males are at a 10% greater risk of death. This same durability carries on later in life for females. Kathryn Sandberg, director of the Centre for the Study of Sex Differences in Health, Aging and Disease at Georgetown University, says, ‘Cardiovascular disease occurs much earlier in men than women. The age of onset of hypertension [high blood pressure] also occurs much earlier in men than women. And there’s a sex difference in the rate of progression of disease.’

Shutterstock | SNeG17

3. Women see things differently. A study led by Brooklyn College psychology professor Israel Abramov found that ‘across most of the visible spectrum males require a slightly longer wavelength than do females in order to experience the same hue.’ Longer wavelengths are associated with warmer colors, so an orange may appear more red to a man than to a woman. Moreover, grass almost always appears greener to women than to men, who see verdant objects as more yellow. 

Shutterstock | Lifestyle discover

4. The purpose of oxytocin is different for women. Oxytocin, sometimes known as the ‘cuddle hormone’ or ‘love hormone’ because it is released when people are physically close or bonding socially, has a different effect on women than men. Oxytocin, a powerful hormone that acts as a neurotransmitter in the brain, is particularly important in women given its vital role in nursing and bonding with their newborn. It also causes uterine contractions during labor and is responsible for shrinking the uterus after delivery.    

Shutterstock | Robert Kneschke

5. Women have different brains than men. A team of researchers led by psychologist Stuart Ritchie, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Edinburgh, found that on average, women tend to have much larger cortices (the outer layer of the cerebrum that plays an important role in consciousness) than men. Thicker cortices have been associated with higher scores on an array of cognitive and general intelligence tests. Men, on the other hand, showed higher brain volumes than women in every subcortical region the study looked at. However, when researchers adjusted the numbers to observe the subcortical regions in relation to overall brain size, the comparisons became more similar. That is, there were only 14 regions where men had a higher brain volume and 10 where women did.

Shutterstock | Anetlanda

6. Women get drunk quicker. Getting drunk happens because your body cannot break down and digest alcohol before it circulates in your blood and makes its way to your brain. The key to breaking down alcohol in your system is an enzyme in your stomach known as alcohol dehydrogenase which breaks down the alcohol before it enters the bloodstream. Researchers from the University School of Medicine in Trieste, Italy and the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in the Bronx found that women’s stomach lining produces less of this enzyme than the stomach lining of men. This can cause women to get drunk more easily than men if they’re less able to digest the alcohol before it reaches their bloodstream.

Shutterstock | Kookong

7. Women are more likely to suffer from neck pain. A study conducted by Dr. Meda Raghavendra and Dr. Joseph Holtman of Loyola University Medical Center reported that women suffer more from neck pain than men as a result of cervical disc degeneration. Cervical degenerative disc disease is a common cause of neck pain, and symptoms include a stiff or inflexible neck, burning, tingling, or numbness. The resulting pain is more frequent when the individual is standing or moving their head.

Shutterstock | Siriluk ok

8. Women are more likely to have a sleeping disorder. Researchers at SleepGP – a medical education provider that offers specialized sleep medicine training to general practitioners in Coolangatta, Australia – found that women were more likely to have sleeping disorders associated with daytime sleepiness (49% for women versus 36.9% for men). Women were also more likely to report an increased burden of symptoms related to sleepiness. Furthermore, the study showed that women are more likely to feel excessive fatigue or depression, have trouble with concentration and memory, and have difficulty sleeping at night.

Shutterstock | Supawadee56

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What if I Didn’t

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The Caffeteria del Borgo is right in the city center of Trieste, next to the Piazza della Borsa (Bourse Square) and Piazza Vecchia (Old Square), and the Teatro Romano (Old Roman theater) is also not far from here and so is the main square of Trieste Piazza dell’Unità d’Italia and therefore the seaside. This Caffeteria is quite vintage in the interior and has this special flair of old town Trieste, with stone wall and kind of medieval decoration such as shields and authentic wooden benches. It has the atmosphere of a little castle, which is quite fascinating. The staff is friendly and our food was delicious. We had all kinds of hors d’oeuvre, these little appetizers. But see for yourself:

The art on the wall

The shield

The authentic wooden bench

Upstairs it’s quite elegant

The patio

The facade

And here you have the famous slide show:

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The Bottom Line: The Caffeteria del Borgo, in the Via Malcanton, 6, 34121 Trieste, is a nice rustic authentic and medievalish place in the city center of Trieste with great food and atmosphere.

From Trieste with Love! Dr. Dr. Immanuel Fruhmann

La Caffeteria del Borgo – An Atmospheric Place Like a Medieval Castle in the City Center The Caffeteria del Borgo is right in the city center of Trieste, next to the Piazza della Borsa (Bourse Square) and Piazza Vecchia (Old Square), and the Teatro Romano (Old Roman theater) is also not far from here and so is the main square of Trieste Piazza dell'Unità d'Italia and therefore the seaside.