BEAVERS

BEAVERS

Mar 24, 2025 | ENVIRONMENT, WORLD

Beavers live where there is enough water to dive, they build the entrance to their burrows underwater for greater safety, then if the water level is not sufficient, they build a dam.

We learnt the ‘beaver – dam’ association of thought from an early age, do you remember any cartoons in particular?

I mention cartoons because the beavers I want to talk about are definitely characters.

The beavers I want to talk about live in Brdy in the Czech Republic.

The name of this area: Brdy comes from brdo meaning hill, precisely because it is a hilly/mountainous and wooded area.

The presence of a military zone in this area meant that the area was not affected by any urbanisation, thus preserving the naturalistic aspect: flora and fauna.

Having become an environmentally protected landscape for Brdy, it had become necessary to repair a drainage canal built by the army and restore the wetlands.

Huge and extremely expensive works, the plans for which had run aground under the weight of bureaucracy and waiting for appropriations.

But the beavers magically solved the issue by building a dam!

Zero cost and a great lesson to be learned.

Nature teaches us about life in harmonious balance.

‘Beavers always know what is best. The places where they build dams are always chosen in the right way, better than when we design them on paper,’ these words are from Jaroslav Obermajer, head of the Central Bohemia office of the Czech Agency for the Protection of Nature and Landscape (AOPK). 

What can I say?

I would use the words of Jules Verne:
Nature’s creative power is far beyond man’s instinct of destruction.

Do you know another similar case?

THE HOUSE OF SILENCES

THE HOUSE OF SILENCES

Jan 25, 2025 | BOOKS

Have you ever read Donato Carrisi? As usual, I work in reverse and started with the last book that came out: The House of Silences.

This book was a gift, and it was also the ‘container’ for a further gift, so you can imagine how happy I was to receive it.

The House of Silences is the fourth volume in what is so far a quadrilogy and comes to bookshops after the previous books The House of Voices, The House without Memories and The House of Lights.

Do you know any of these books?

Pietro Gerber, the protagonist, is a hypnotist specialising in paediatric therapy.

On the subject of hypnosis, I would love to know Quarc‘s opinion:  in his All true Alessandro Depegi recounts his own direct experiences.

Regarding silence instead, would you like to tell me something?

In the meantime, I would like to quote two sentences from the book that struck me:

Sad people cannot hurt anyone precisely because they know pain well.

Every person has an indelible dream. A dream of which he keeps the memory for the rest of his life. Often there is not even a particular reason for this, often they are not memorable dreams at all.

By now you know that I have a particular weakness for dreams but as I am not normal, I cannot remember an indelible dream unfortunately.

I can, however, speak of a recurring element: water. 

What about you?

COFFEE CITY

COFFEE CITY

Feb 17, 2024 | WORLD, WHO CARES, WHO CARES, WORLD

Coffee City is a lakeside community located on a peninsula jutting into Lake Palestine in East Texas.

With three sides of the city bordered by water,  this is a popular location for fishing, boating and other water sports.

As soon as I saw the picture with the sign I couldn’t believe my eyes, so imagine what a surprise when I understood it is real!

Looking for information, I fell in love with this kind of metaphor: the history of this location can fit in a pecan shell.

Coffee City in fact only materialised in the 1960s after the construction of Lake Palestine.

Yes: construction, because Lake Palestine is an artificial lake created by the Blackburn Dam.

This reservoir spans portions of four counties in the state of Texas: Anderson, Smith, Henderson and Cherokee.

I smile because for us Anderson and Henderson tend to sound the same, and Smith … well it’s kind of like the equivalent of our idea of top common name …

Back to Coffee City, which is apparently home to a residential community with no history but a recent unfortunate news: it seems that there were 250 inhabitants and 50 policemen in … what can we say?

Perhaps it is better to focus on the Coffee City Fire Department: firefighters in the US are an institution par excellence.

In Coffee City there is also the Bella Italian Café! 

I couldn’t find any particular connection to Italy, but it’s still a tribute, how about that?

While we think about it I’ll let you admire this view … 

COFFEE DISPENSERS

COFFEE DISPENSERS

Mar 11, 2023 | WHO CARES

For more than 30 years I worked in a company where there was no coffee dispenser.

I know: it sounds unbelievable, yet it is true.

My colleagues, however, organized themselves with a mocha and made coffee mid-morning and in the afternoon.

As soon as the coffee was ready they used to call me.

Nice.

My contribute was for to the expenses and for the chat 🙂

So I never really witnessed situations of the kind represented by the famous sitcom Camera Café for instance.

How about you instead?

I guess anyone can tell several anecdotes, do you have any?

I think it is also possible to group characters into categories, such as the profiteers … that is, those who never have any coin, or do we want to call them by a slightly more slang appellation?

Perhaps a form of suspended coffee should be created for distributors as well.

Speaking of inventing … do you know who is the author of the first device to distribute automatically?

Heron! 

His dispenser however was for holy water, and thinking about it … I get a big smile 😉 I would very much need it …

Joking aside, the idea came because Heron noticed a waste of water outside the temple.

Through Heron’s mechanism, a coin struck a lever that dispensed a given amount of water for each person.

What to say. I love brilliant minds.

What kind of dispenser would you like?

So, it’s ok if we take this week’s coffee at the dispenser?

GENOA JEANS

GENOA JEANS

Sep 2, 2021 | ENVIRONMENT, FASHION, ITALY

I would like to point out the event that will be held from today until September 6: Genoa Jeans, a multifaceted and ambitious project that inaugurates the street of jeans.

Such an initiative could only take place in Genoa, the city that gave the name and origin to the most widespread and universal garment of all.

Genes blue.

Since we don’t pay attention to De Nimes, right? And not to bring out the usual rivalry with cousins from beyond the Alps … 

Curious to know what this “street of jeans” which is defined as the future Genoese Carnaby Street consists of, I found myself thinking about how jeans have changed from the first pair worn as a child to today.

So I tried to retrace the transformation of the models:
50s, Marylin, a myth

60s: B. B. embodies freedom

the symbolic image of the 70s is unquestionably represented by the flared jeans

that in the 80s tighten at the bottom and here there is not the slightest doubt: King Giorgio‘s high-waisted jeans. 
But I, who couldn’t afford them, loved the curled balloon version or alternatively with the basque.

ups and then downs? In the 90s the must was wide and long up to trample them …

in the 2000s life was lowered … until it almost disappeared

2010s we go back but the centimeters recovered disappear in width: skinny version

And now? Would you go on with quoting?
How many pairs do you own? How often do you wear jeans? Do you find that they can be suitable for all occasions?

Does your job include the possibility of wearing a pair of jeans or do you have a dress code? I think, for example, of when they were banned by Bush for White House collaborators.

Can you find them totally personal? I ask this because I find it singular even just the fact that there is a debate reported by the New York Times  according to which base FBI investigation on the uniqueness of the denim fabric worn by suspected criminals, since each pair has a unique wear pattern impossible to replicate in a completely identical way.

By the way, this is where the 501 was presented to us in a stone washed version.

But too much water has passed under the bridge so today the trend is directed towards those who instead promote eco-friendely behaviors such as Howies, Monkee Genes or even Mud Jeans which rents them for a monthly leasing fee that can last 12 months after which jeans are yours.

What do you think about?

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