DECEPTIVE BEAUTY

DECEPTIVE BEAUTY

Jan 19, 2025 | ENVIRONMENT

Deceptive and dangerous is the beauty of the intense pink-orange and red sunsets that close the short winter days.

If you often witness these visual ‘spectacles’ it may be that you live in a wretchedly polluted area like mine. 

You must think I’m obsessed if I even associate sunsets with my periodic returns on the subject. 

Actually, these sunsets conceal a massive presence of nitrogen dioxide in the atmosphere.

ISPRA Istituto Superiore per la Protezione e Ricerca Ambientale  explains nitrogen dioxide (NO2):
a reddish-brown gas, poorly soluble in water, toxic, with a strong, pungent odour and strong irritating power. It is a pollutant with a predominantly secondary component, as it is the product of the oxidation of nitrogen monoxide (NO).

Nitrogen dioxide is a widespread pollutant that has negative effects on human health and, together with nitrogen monoxide, contributes to photochemical smog.

Photochemical smog i.e. the formation of secondary pollutants is conditioned by the presence of light radiation in the ultraviolet region.

We grow up learning that the sky is blue, did you as a child ever have the ‘why?’ period?

Why the sky is blue is explained to us by Rayleigh’s Scattering. 

To summarise the concept in a small format, a bit like espresso 🙂 the scattering of light reflecting off small particles.

I would also point you to an interesting publication reporting on a study of sunsets in paintings, and at this point I cannot fail to mention William Turner. 

Title of the article published by EGU European Geoscinces Union:
Further evidence of the important environmental information content in the relationships between red and green depicted in the paintings of the great masters.

Assumption: We examine sunsets painted by famous artists as information for the optical depth of particles after large volcanic eruptions. Images derived from precision colour protocols applied to the paintings were compared with online images and found to provide accurate information.

We can imagine what changed in the atmosphere after volcanic eruptions, but there are no volcanoes here, so what happens?

When nitrogen dioxide particles are present in the air, it is as if a kind of geometry is created that obstructs the sun’s rays.

In these cases the red light through an interplay of different frequencies and wavelengths somehow manages to prevail.

Deceptive beauty.

That is why we see sunsets of intense, bewitching colours and allow ourselves to be enchanted by what is invisible to the eyes …

MY BAR, FAMILY, HEALTH

MY BAR, FAMILY, HEALTH

Nov 30, 2024 | A COFFEE WITH, WOMEN, ITALY, ITALY, WORK, A COFFEE WITH, WOMEN, WORK

My bar, family, health … this is the recipe that Anna Possi gives us as an example of a centenarian.

Yes: tireless Anna in front of the espresso machine at the Bar Centrale in Nebbiuno on the occasion of her 100th birthday declared:

I don’t want anything, I already have everything. My bar, my family, my health, my brain is fine… What counts is being among people, loneliness hurts.

What can I say! First of all, many many good wishes also from Keep Calm & Drink Coffee and then sincere congratulations for the message that is certainly worth sharing.

Being among people. 

Do you agree with Anna?

Do you also think that being among people is what counts?

Or do you love solitude? 

My bar.

Can loving your job, or being able to turn your passion into a business, really be the essential component?

Health.

One more secret to longevity for Anna is to eat little.

I think I can say that we all agree, on the theory, of course on the practice … do you know how to moderate your meals? 

Between ‘my bar’ and ‘health’: family.

Il mio bar, la famiglia, la salute

Family:  a word that in a broad sense encompasses a universe, so varied and multifaceted that it cannot fit into a specific description.

It is no coincidence that countless quotations are striking in this regard:

I do think that families are the most beautiful things in all the world!
Louisa May Alcott

A happy family is, but an earlier heaven.
George Bernard Shaw

The family will last as long as man. It is the cradle of humanity.
Giuseppe Mazzini

Rejoice with your family in the beautiful land of life.
Albert Einstein

In family life, love is the oil that eases friction, the cement that binds closer together, and the music that brings harmony.
Friedrich Nietzsche

And in your opinion?

SILENT DEATHS

SILENT DEATHS

Jan 23, 2021 | ENVIRONMENT

I have already talked about PM2.5 because frankly it is a topic that is very close to my heart and I find it absolutely important, despite continuing to pass more or less in silence.

The effects on health are hidden and manifest over time, there are no obvious infections or symptoms, but when the disease is noticed in many cases it is late.

The death tolls are terrible and yet they are rarely mentioned.

I find the latest publication from The Lancet Planetary Health absolutely frightening which indicates Brescia and Bergamo in first and second place among the European cities for mortality rate due to these damned particles.

And not only that: they are followed by Vicenza in fourth place and Saronno in eighth, meaning that out of ten cities, four are Italian, concentrated in the northern area, mainly in Lombardy.

But many other inhabited centers also have chilling levels of pollutants, available here. 

As if that were not enough, it should also be considered that despite everything there is also a hidden share: air pollution is a leading environmental cause of mortality around the world. Cities are generally hot spots for air pollution and disease. However, the exact extent of the health effects of city-wide air pollution is still largely unknown.

I have the hope of shaking some conscience, in the small, so that this theme is given an adequate echo, even if my voice falls into the same silence of all voices dull in the suffering among the indifference of most.

#WORLDPASTADAY WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE RECIPE?

#WORLDPASTADAY WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE RECIPE?

Oct 25, 2020 | ITALY, WHO CARES

In addition to coffee, of course we are regular consumers of pasta, so why not celebrate it today too?

What’s your favorite pasta?
And how do you like to cook it?

In recent days there is a lot of talk about Senatore Cappelli wheat following the complaint of all the farmers’ associations against the SIS Società Italiana Sementi which was fined by the antitrust for the unjustified increase in the price and above all for the constraint of the supply chain.

Because? What’s special about it?

It is a stronger and more suitable wheat for the production of pasta selected over 100 years ago by Nazareno Strampelli, a famous geneticist agronomist, who dedicated the discovery to Senator Raffaele Cappelli, promoter of agrarian reform in the early 1900s.

It is a durum wheat that has fought hunger in times of war, and over time its purity has been protected by preventing contamination and keeping the supply chain controlled and certified.

But this time, rather than antitrust, I would like to talk about health: pasta produced with Senatore Cappelli wheat, thanks to its better properties and nutritional value, can bring benefits to those suffering from gastrointestinal problems.

The Report transmission broadcast an interview with Dr. Maria Cristina Mele of the Digestive System Disease Center Gemelli Catholic University of the Sacred Heart who stated how much follows:

We gave Senatore Cappelli pasta for four weeks, then we did another litmus test, that is, we made a cross. Those who initially ate Senatore Cappelli pasta, after two weeks of abstention, again followed a gluten-free diet, because we had to clean up any symptoms: we crossed the types of pasta.
Symptoms have greatly reduced.
When we say that it is a statistically significant result, it means that the reduction of symptoms in this case is not related to chance, that is, it is not a coincidence.
We were impressed because we didn’t honestly expect it. And all of them have had benefits.
All those who ate Senatore Cappelli pasta compared to patients who ate the other type of pasta, had a benefit during the Senatore Cappelli course.
We can say that this event took place, but it is clear, we need to confirm the data to enlarge the population.

So we decided to try to eat Senatore Cappelli pasta for a period after which we can tell if we felt any difference.

Maybe you can participate by recommending some delicious and possibly easy recipes since I’m not a great cook laughing what do you think?

VOLTAIRE USED TO DRINK 40 CUPS OF COFFEE A DAY

VOLTAIRE USED TO DRINK 40 CUPS OF COFFEE A DAY

Aug 29, 2020 | WHO CARES

Voltaire used to drink 40 cups of coffee a day.

And it seems that in response to those who contested the abuse he declared: “I drink 40 coffees a day to be well awake and think about how to keep tyrants and imbeciles at bay” then adding “yes, it is a remarkably slow poison. I have been drinking it every day for more than seventy years and, so far, I have never experienced its sad effects on my health … “
Given the current trend … was he right?
Considering also the fact that his coffees were a kind of blend with chocolate … I miss a lot of them …

 

 

 

 

 

 

Archives

Pin It on Pinterest